Paul Cauthen

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

Jingling under old neon's, she don't know he's barely hanging on. Last chance betting the whole damn farm on cracking his hand around a rigging. How old is Booger? Booger's 10, unfortunately.

Booger T. Washington? Yeah, look dead in that camera and say Booger T. Washington.

Booger T. Washington. Is that his name? Little Booger Bear.

I need to get like a whole I want to get a whole fleet of corgis. I got names already lined up for all of them. Jalapeno Cuz dude, a dog name it has to be Yeah, I have I have Priscilla Presley. I've got Hondo Gremlin Rodriguez.

Got Farrah Fawcett. Then I got Cash Money. What are all those What are they all different types? German Wirehaired Pointer and three Field Bred English Cockers.

Are they all in the house? All of them. Well, those Cockers don't really shed, do they? No.

My German don't really either. Really? She just gives me lip. Yeah, well, hey, you know.

I mean nine Trigger by the short hair. Hell yeah, dude. Well, thanks for doing this, man. Mhm.

Man, it's good to be here. Yeah, hell yeah. Is this good enough? Yeah.

to get tied in on this mic. No, it'll be totally good. In the Elvis green room? Yeah.

I can't imagine the things that happened in here. Yeah, I think they've renovated it. Probably had to get all the sperm out of here. How do you do that?

I don't know. Do you just paint over it? Hazmat suits. A lot of mops.

Elvis sperm? Elv- Yeah. Well, I to be honest, they probably should have just sold it. They could have made more.

Probably. You know, sold the walls or something. Yeah, I bet the ceilings have seen a lot. Still a little popcorny.

Asbestos. Asbestos. Asbestos, we not talk about that. Asbestos.

So, are we allowed to talk about your record? Uh, I'm not I'm not going to give any dates, but I do Yeah, I've got a record coming one in the can. And it's like Oh, it's done. Yeah.

Done. Mastered. And you shot it over in or you tracked it in uh Tracked it at some in Nashville. Then most of it in Tyler, Texas with Ryan Tyndell.

One of my dear friends. Yeah. Yeah. But has he produced much stuff for you before?

No. You Him and I were raised in the same church in Tyler and he moved back and we met back up. He'd been doing all the stuff for Eric Church forever. Oh.

And uh he moved back to Tyler. He wrote Springsteen and all those songs. So he got he did real well. So.

Hopefully some of these will go like that. No kidding. Well, I heard some of them they freaking rip. Well, thank you, brother.

Yeah, I'm all about it. Hell yeah. Well, where to start? Where to start?

I know it's actually interesting cuz there's a lot of stuff going on in the world. Lot of stuff going on in the industry. Oh, yeah. Especially on my side of the on my side of the equation.

Like in the cowboy world? Mhm. It's as popular as it's ever been. And so everybody's uh Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I get it. A lot of falsettos. A lot of falsettos.

Marty Robbins is back, baby. Well, sort of. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think what I like about the industry right now is that real songs are kind of getting nods again.

You know, real good country songs. You know, my old manager used to say, "Cotton, you got to earn your ballads. Got to earn your ballads." And now it's like, you know, it's not just about high BPM.

Who told you that? One of my old managers. You got to earn your ballads. Which in a way he's not wrong, you know, you go up there and sing sleepy ass songs all time, you're not going to have a crowd really pumped up.

So. Yeah, what was the transition between some like folkier uh stuff that you were doing and then things that I don't even necessarily know how to describe it, but it's definitely funk influenced. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, I enjoy James Brown just as much as I enjoyed George Jones, you know, so I try to you know.

My whole goal is that all people can jam out to my music, not just white country folk, you know, white, you know, not just that uh and I like all types of people in my shows. So, I've never tried to just pigeonhole and call myself a country artist. Yeah, I wear a cowboy hat, but don't mean I'm a cowboy or anything, but you know, uh I'm just trying to write songs that are honest and mean something to me, you know. And then, you know, whether that's a ballad or a banger, you never know.

Yeah, did you I went through a phase of uh when I started, obviously just writing songs alone on my acoustic guitar, it was very singer-songwriter driven. Yeah, I mean, that's kind of how you got to cut your teeth, you know. I think. And then anymore, it's like I just I just want to go into the studio with some dope players and just get a groove and get a vibe and like great tones and great sounds.

And I'm not that worried about writing something Yeah. lyrically. And like now if like the music just isn't that inspiring or it doesn't do anything for me, I'm a little bit uninterested in it. And which has been a Yeah, you know, you got to like tread through the trenches, I guess, to find what really kind of makes you tick.

And I believe that I mean, you have to feel it for it to be real to you and in order for, I guess, it to be real for the audience. Is that it's there's got to be a authenticity and honesty about it. For sure. and writing those three-chord songs and lyrically driven trying to say something, trying to make your voice heard.

In the beginning is the purest form of what you are, and that's kind of like with the record that I'm going to drop next, it's kind of what I come back to, you know, just full circle back to what songs just mean something to me, mean something about my upbringing. What I'm about rather than trying to sell something that works or you know, you get caught up in Once I had the big hit, Cocaine Country Dance, and everybody wanted that, you know, and so you can get caught up in just following what works. And it kind of puts the blinders on what the true you is, you know. Do you think there was noise around you at that point that was pushing say noise, but definitely people pitching what I should do, how I should do it, songs I should do, song, you know, vibes.

More people are pitching me songs to cut that's already written now that I you know, I don't really do. I did one on my new record that Jeff Hyde and Ryan Tyndell wrote, but uh you know, that's the only time I've really ever covered a song, you know, so I just believe it's got to be real and true and honest. And that's kind of how it works for me. I mean, even though there's a lot out there that's all prefabricated and you know, and is Morgan Wallen going to do a whole freaking record of ballads?

No. Is he going to do a Marty Robbins western kind of thing? No, cuz he knows what works. It's like Levi's jeans or Genko jeans, you know?

His is Levi's and you're going to stick to the Levi's, you know? And it's already built so big to a point where you can't you're kind of stuck in that. So, it's kind of like a double-edged sword, you know? Like he couldn't just go in there and have a gospel kind of choir and him acoustic broken down.

He could, but I don't know if that's what his fans came to that arena to see. It is weird what a double-edged sword cuz if you don't Once it once it hits, whatever breaks that, you know? People at a Bob Seger show wanted to hear Turn the Page. But what an example of somebody that really did some different sounding stuff.

Oh, yeah. That I mean, Bob Seger's freaking one of my favorites. Oh, he's my top three. Silver Bullet, dude.

I speculate too that he's when I say underrated, people just don't uh talk about him all that much for as successful as he is. And my theory is that because he owned most of his music. all his stuff and he didn't he didn't ever really care. And that's what I loved about it.

He's just knew that he had the genuine fans. He beat up the road. He did it the right way, which I did, you know? I'm lucky because I really don't need much help with any of it.

I don't need too much, you know? Big I don't need two 18-wheelers and a box trucks and four Prevosts. I can go get it done. A van if I need to and go take the money home, you know?

I've seen you play with multiple iterations in your band. Yeah. And every time it's so tight and grooves so hard. Yeah, it's just we My musical director Matt McDonald's been with me for over a decade and him and I have been through all the bands together and we just know exactly how we want it to sound at all times.

So, do you try to put when you get new guys in the mix, do you really try to push them and critique them or do you recordings of our old bands and stuff and so we'll be like these are the vibes we want at this level and then if anything we just make try to perfect it what we had. Every year it's just gets a little better. Whether it's not even about the musician, it's just about the music's evolving live and the parts are coming and the segues and it just all kind of snowballs into what the sound is. So, we just follow it.

Kind of like a lantern being lit in the dark, you just follow it. So, you are you don't get too wrapped up in making them exactly like the record. You allow them to No, no, dude. It's boring.

It just makes it no fun to me. I like, you know, some of the songs definitely call for that. You just stick to the record, stick to what how it's done, but I mean live it's the whole experience of a live show is to actually see something maybe you've never heard before, you know. To a degree.

To a degree. I mean, you don't just, you know, I don't just make still driving a freaking rap song all of a sudden. It's just like, you know, but to add a double time on the on the solos and have a big outro and have a jam section and different parts, it's fun. You know, and you only get to see that live.

And I will do a live record, but that'll be down the road. I've got a few in the bag, but uh they're all different. actually fascinating you've never done a live record. I have I have a live at Green Hall and I've got I've got a whole record that I did in Muscle Shoals and I've done got a bunch of different live stuff, but that'll come, you know.

And those bands were so great, you know, and everybody I always said, you know, I'll tip my hat to everybody that's been a part of my band or in my band from the beginning. They've helped make it to what it is now. They helped, you know, with the foundation and then they we got the walls and we got the sheet rock and now we're building the roof and like everybody's helped, you know, so and nobody we don't have bad blood. Nobody that's not in the band.

There's not any bad blood. So. Yeah, well, you've been pushing the ship forward and steering the ship for a long time just on your own. No doubt.

So it does create a different dynamic, I think. Yeah, for sure. At least with guys getting weird when they have to leave. Mhm.

Are you the type that like calls people and gets rid of them like straight up or Yeah, I'll just, you know, or they'll a lot of them will have chose to, you know, do other things and get off the road be more studio musicians and you know, there's just been a lot of different changes, but like I said, it's never been out of ill will or you know, they've a lot of them have seen me in some of my darkest times. A lot of I mean, there's a lot of regrets I have as a leader of a band that I've learned to be better at, but it's just all growing, you know. Nobody's perfect. No.

No. That's a no Including the boss, you know, so. Yeah. And been through a lot getting here, but now that I've arrived and can keep the lights on and keep you know, food on the plate I that's all I ever wanted to do, so I don't care how much big how much bigger it gets, you know, I've already arrived to the point where if I can't make a living doing what I'm doing at this point, I'm kind of a piece of [expletive] you know.

Go make get thousands and thousands of dollars to go play music for a living like figure it out. So. Yeah, it's a weird it's a wild time that we're living in. Yeah.

Uh but you started before social media really had its Yeah, I was I mean my first manager said, "Oh, we don't need to worry about that Facebook crud. Uh we radio. Radio. We're going to print CDs.

What year is it like around It's like freaking 2007. I was started on the road 07. So probably 10, 11 right around in there, right? Then Facebook was like right around there, too.

So. Oh, were you were you cranking it out on Facebook or No, we weren't cuz management was My space? Yeah, we went My space, all that stuff. Pretty archaic.

Been around been on the road a long time. So. Yeah, but now the built-in crowd is pretty well gone. Yeah, you know I had people tell me in the beginning very important, you know.

You got to win them over one handshake at a time. And in the beginning I stood by that merch booth and I shook everybody's hand, took every picture to the point where I don't have enough time to do it now, you know. So. I'm just thankful that it's built up to where it's at, you know.

I've had I've had some guys at a pretty high level tell me uh they never went out to the merch booth when they were starting out cuz they thought that they needed an element of mystery. But there's certain venues I play in that I just cannot. I would have to be a total douche to not go out there and shake hands or hang out. Man, it's whatever works.

You can mystery, you can read me like an open book. It's all in the papers. You know, [expletive] I've been every which way screwed up, upside down, ragged, all of it. You know what I mean?

Just finally kind of got I got stability right around COVID to where you know, I just felt good about where I was, you know, and newly married. Now I've got my wife's We got a baby boy on the way and just everything's in perspective. Just being thankful for the gig. Thankful for the even the agents, the talent buyers, the people that I have tried not to screw over.

Been intentional about doing right by. It's the reason why I can continue to do business. You know, when people pay me a bunch of money to go play a show, they sell a shitload of alcohol and they make a bunch of money. And that's why they ask me to come back.

Sure. So, it's like, you know, I'm just going to continue to keep my head down and try to keep the noise out and you know, work with people I believe in. On this uh new album I've worked with couple different artists that I believe are some of the best singers in country music that are young and some, you know, so I'm just always trying to use my platform now to help others and not just uh wave my own flag all the time, you know? It's exhausting, though.

It's such a self-serving business. And um you'll notice and I've noticed the people that weren't there that were all up on me one you know, needing some help and stuff. Then they caught a little flame here or there and you know, then they just don't even talk to you anymore. They big-time you.

You know, and I'm not a big-timer. I've never been that. You know, if you can't get real with me, I don't think you can get real because I mean, we just I just I'm kind of like an open book when it comes to just being honest, real, true. What I say is what I'm going to do.

You know, I've had to cancel gigs because of health and different all types of stuff like that, but I went back and I re-did the deals with those promoters and I made it right this whole past year. All the shows that I canceled I'm finished up and made it right. I don't like to Has there been some weirdness with people around you with what you've been going through health-wise? Have there been some people Yeah, I had a lot of I've fired a lot of people because of Because of their reaction to your of the way that I was treating myself.

The way that I wanted to do it. I've, you know, I had stage two papillary carcinoma cancer in the thyroid and doctor said that I need to go get it cut out and then I found out that you can go horse for life and lose your voice and there's a lot of different things that can happen. And I was like, "Well, I'm not going to definitely not going to be able to pay the mortgage if I lose my voice." So, I was like, "Well, let me look into a different route."

And I so I went a holistic route. I'm not saying this is for everybody. It's a personal choice. I'm not here to talk bad about somebody that does go get the surgery or not.

It's everybody's own journey in that situation and it's very serious, but I lost about 30 lb. I changed my diet up. I started taking Ivermectin and Fenbendazole and Methylene Blue and Vitamin D3 and fusions of Vitamin C and doing sonograms every two to three months and so far my tumor's calcified and it's shrunk back, you know, substantially. And when your tumor's calcified, it means your body's trying to rid it from your body.

So, your body's a strong son of a You know, so I just gave it a chance and I do a lot of sauna and infrared and just I've been doing all this stuff, you know, and You dropped a ton of weight, didn't you? Yeah. I was almost 290 lb. I've turned away from the big three and I was like, you know, My freaking my top button of my jeans is screaming uncle.

About to pop. Did it? Pop, yeah. My button's definitely popped.

This button could never stay, but it just If I breathe out, I could I could just open up, dude. I mean, it's not a terrible party trick, to be honest. Oh, I definitely still use that. I went to I was at the country club.

We drank too much wine the other night and the waitress comes up, "You need anything else?" And I just went And she went, "Oh my gosh, I'm surprised I didn't get rid of that." I was like, "Yep, I'm all that is man." With one breath?

One breath, just push. Yeah, you know, big boys, we got some tricks. We got some tricks. Yeah.

Yeah, you skinny guys have to jump around the shower to get wet. I just do I can't put it on. I just I cannot put I cannot put on weight, dude. Dude, come stay at my house.

My gosh. We'll feed Yeah, we got you. Feed you full of chicken fried. It's what it is.

Chicken fried Yeah, I don't eat any fried food. Well, there's a big reason why you're skinny. Meat and potatoes. Yeah, saw that.

You had a filet at breakfast. Jesus. Yeah, you had a uh a I'll have a rare filet with potatoes. I'm like, I'm having a pork ragout bolognese carbohydrate.

Yeah, which I don't like. "I'll be off all sleep." I was like, "Boy, this is fuel for me." Yeah, well, I find the I think the giant bowl of pasta is weirder than the steak.

Mhm. I loved it. Yep. And um you know, this whole the industry is funny.

You know, it's like they fixate on good deeds and then they do PR stunts on the good deeds and like and try to make people just look like just the best some good Samaritans all the time, which is great. But you know what? Says in the good book, you know, good deeds the ones that are behind closed doors. Yeah, like don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing.

Exactly. And like I like to try to help people along the way and I don't need accolades or awards or any I don't need to even talk about what I did or who I helped. And I try to just be as good of a man as I can and try to do good by my wife and my family and by my band and my crew and my team. Just without them I wouldn't be able to eat meat and potatoes or you know, big old bowl of pasta.

bowl of pasta. I get it. Do you think sometimes they're covering up for maybe like a dark past or dark secrets or something? Oh [expletive] I guess we all got skeletons in our closet, you know.

Uh one of my old buddies used to say, "Boy, if you ever find me dead, please clear my search history on my phone." We've all got it. Yeah, clear that search history on the phone. Don't let mom or grandma look at it.

Yeah, dude. I got you, you dirty pervert. I'll clear your history. So they do like full PR campaigns to Oh buddy, you just see it, you know.

I mean, how many I don't know. I you see it all over the place and I'm not I'm not going to ever say names anymore cuz every time I say names people just get their butts hurt. And I'm just going to you know, it'll all come out. You know, people that are you know, portrayed as being this or actually this, but that's tale as old as time, you know, but I try to I'm proud that of the fact that I can say that what you see is what you get musically, who I am as a person, you know, I'm a believer in God.

I've loved, you know, I live by faith and I live by uh knowing that I'm a sinner and that I can, you know, do all things through Christ who strengthens me and you know, I'm not really I try not to go to bed with worry or anxiety, you know, that's what kills you. And comparing yourself to anybody else's success is just envy, you know? And anybody we can all fall we all wish we're bigger and better and cooler than you know, John Wayne at times, but it's really about what who you are when you go into the little supermarket and how you treat the lady bagging your groceries, you know, right there when the camera lens isn't on. That's when I find out the most about people.

Yeah. You know, yes, ma'am, no, ma'am. Manners. That's what I love about Texas, you know?

Love these little kids, little Jagger Mooney, JB's boy. Yes, sir, no, sir. Just all good mannered kids, raised right. But that's what I want to do.

Huh? But wild. Wild as hell. Yeah.

And that's it's not going to change anything. And you I bet Jesus was wild. God, he was hanging out with the [expletive] and the tramps and the lepers and all the sh- you know, getting it was getting wild. Yeah, it's so easy to say that.

Pastors say it and stuff, but when you really think about like what did that He's the most accepting dude ever. What did that look like? Did he call people He'd call you out. Yeah, out.

You know. But he would accept Go and sin no more like Yeah, but he wouldn't point fingers. Yeah. Until, you know, it was time to for the reckoning.

Yeah. You know, so I uh I have this poem I've been always kind of live by. And it's by Walt Huntley. And uh let me see.

And I think it's everything. Uh it's called God's Hall of Fame. It goes, "This crowd on Earth they soon forget the heroes of the past. They cheer like mad until you fall, and that's how long you last.

But God does not forget, and in his Hall of Fame, but just believing in his son inscribed you'll find your name. I tell you, friends, I would not trade my name, however small, inscribed up there beyond the star in that celestial hall, for any famous name on Earth or glory that they share. I'd rather be an unknown here and have my name up there." So what Yeah, what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?

That's exactly right. So that's why I don't really get worked up in all this. I think it's all smoke and mirrors. It's all [expletive] I mean we can sing and play and entertain, but when you start thinking you're God or you got this extra power, you've got this anointing on you, you're a little bit bigger in your own head, it can get a little weird, I Real weird.

You know? And I think there's a lot of people out there that have that. Which is fine for them. But, not for me, you know?

I don't hang out with too many super famous people. And the one that I do hang out with are actually really good humans. I've noticed people at the very top are actually sometimes the most chill. It's the ones in the middle trying to just claw Dude, guys like I mean, Dierks Bentley, um Eric Church, Randy Houser, uh Lana Del Rey, even Post Malone.

These guys are Those people are great people. Martina McBride, LeAnn Womack, those are just real humans. You know? And I believe that now it's like you'll meet you'll hear this name and then when the lights are off, it's like it's almost bipolar.

It's like, "Who the hell is this? What did I just watch? And now who are you?" It's got like a sinister It's a self-loathing going for fame over going for spreading your gift.

It's I seems like a prison to me. That I would Yeah, you're having to play two roles. I mean, it's like Hollywood. You're having to act.

A lot of them A lot of people are acting. Which is fine. It's just And I'm not I'm not going to spend this whole time just saying that there's a lot of fake people out there cuz there's genuinely great people out there. I've said this multiple times now.

Somebody said to me the other day that the most authentic thing somebody can acknowledge is how inauthentic they really are. Cuz we're all just Every person is full of [expletive] to a to a degree. You can think that you're like so unique and eclectic and all this other [expletive] people think that I'm just racking up lines of cocaine in my bathtub every Well, and people think that I'm just freaking drunk and shit-faced every day. I was in my hotel room at 6:00 p.

m. last night. All my boys were out hammering it up, having a good time. I was talking to my wife and kicking back and knowing that I've got three shows in a row and I got to take care of myself and bring home some bacon or we're not going to have anything to eat for Christmas.

Yeah, not to mention the people that like buy tickets and they're there to see the show. Like I want to put it on. It's exactly what it is. So, you know, we're all we're all just granules of sand in the desert and when one shakes, then we can all tremble into a hole or if we sit there and we support each other, we can actually stick around for a while, you know.

I do find in the music industry that people actually are relatively supportive of each other. Yeah. More so than some other industries. Like the rodeo world in the horse world.

That's why I love it. pretty na- Well, it gets pretty nasty. To be honest. Oh, yeah, as far as the competitors?

Compet- Well, see that's the funny thing is like a lot of the competitors actually aren't that weird with each other. It's like the people around it. Like whether you're like a rodeo announcer, like a stock contractor, or like that stuff starts to They're all just wanting to keep their job. horse trainers.

I mean, they are freaking cutthroat. Cutthroat. Like the idea of uh my wife trains barrel horses. So, uh young like futurity horses.

And the idea of training a horse, the owner just yanks it out from underneath you, sends it to somebody else, they're successful with the horse, take all the credit of training the horse, like don't acknowledge you at all. It would be like co-writing a song with somebody or writing a song and somebody cuts it and you don't ever acknowledge them, give them no credit. That happens every day in the horse industry. Yeah.

Which is so weird. They just burn bridges and don't give credit and Everybody's after the dollar when it comes down to it. Yeah, so I can [expletive] on the music industry, but like by and large, like everybody's pretty I mean, there's a there's a dark side to it, but compared to some other industries, like think about if you were like a fine like on Wall Street or something. Yeah.

Like that would be Son of a [expletive] I'd hate that. I'd hate it. An HR nightmare for them. I don't ever want to have to say HR.

You're the guy that somebody comes and talks to your HR. Yeah, if they say, "Paul, we're going to talk to HR." Well, I'm going to be like, "Well, don't even have to talk to him cuz I did it." You I [expletive] up.

That's me. My bad. Did you Don't even need to talk to HR. Have you worked in like any sort Hell no.

I worked at freaking Discount Tire. You did? Busting down tires and I worked I surveyed land and I, you know, worked in the oil field a little bit doing some stuff here and there, but nothing worth a damn. I mowed yards.

I had a good landscaping little business going in high school, but man, I just picked up my guitar and at 18, 19 years old, I knew that was what I was going to do and going off to college, got kicked out. Moved to Colorado in a brown van and started writing songs. How long were you up there? 5 years.

Woah. Just write for some change. Brighton cut my teeth with a bunch of blue grassers and stuff. All right.

Up there and taking acid and frolicking with the hippies and the Wookies. Trading weed for turquoise. What did that do for you? Not the turquoise, but Uh writing up there and I mean, it was just being around a bunch of bad ass pickers.

It'll humble you humble you real quick, you know. Got to cut your teeth and get good. Hop on or jump off the train cuz this son [expletive] is moving. So, that would have been that would have been super.

You were like on the very front end of a lot Yeah, I turned 21 in Colorado. And that's before a lot of like the big American 20 in jail. 21 in Colorado. What did you go to jail for?

Weed. Just in Colorado? Texas. Oh.

I didn't like it much. Still don't. Still don't. Yeah, it's up to the cop's discretion.

I hope that the my cop, whoever he is when he pulls me over, got laid that morning. Or her get laid that morning. I hope they're in a good mood. I hope they had their coffee.

And I hope they're saying, "You know what, Mr. Cotham, we see that this isn't one bag and we believe that this is your personal." I'll be like, "Yep, it is." But, it smells like you're smuggling skunks in here and you don't need to be lighting it up on the road.

We're going to let you go. Ironically, Oklahoma is more conservative than Texas. Yeah, but they're making money on that weed, bud. True.

The monkeys need to make money on something out there. Casinos and [expletive] weed. You know. Nothing going on.

I mean, there's some good farming and ranching, but you know, my boy lives up in Sherman, Texas. My best buddy, Wyatt. He goes up to Oklahoma with his buddy and he comes back with his weed, boy, and he's got the fire. I got the fire from Mountain Dew Rant.

It is good. Dew Rant. Dew Rant. That's how you know they're from there.

Yeah, they are. Dew Rant. Dew Rant. Choctaw Casino.

No doubt. Yeah, he took me to I went to cockfights out in the Wilford Woods. Buddy. Where's Wilford Where's that by?

Like if I know, I'll never go back. I'll tell you that. Took my wife. Well, that's It was not good, dude.

No, well, I mean that's an automatic. If you go to a cockfight Sorry I went to a cockfight. Yeah. Pay it.

Serve me. I don't give a [expletive] Talk to my lawyer. He's very expensive, but he will take care of it. Had you been to one before?

Uh no, but uh I've not never been to one. my first one and it's my last. I'm good on that. Uh They blow air into their mouths and [expletive] and blow air into their [expletive] to try to keep these birds alive.

When they started doing that, I was like, "I need to get the [expletive] out of here." What do you mean to keep them alive? Dude. They'll keep them going.

They because they got money on the line. So, there'd be a rooster on the ground that's got shredded up by these freaking They got these hooks and stuff taped to their little legs. And they'll No, hook up and they'll flutter and you're like, "Ah, that's kind of [expletive] cool." And then one will get sliced to [expletive] and blood will start gushing out.

I'm like, "Well, this is a little bit exaggerated." And then all of a sudden all of a sudden, dude your freaking you know, there's a boy that looks is inbred as can be. Looks like the dueling banjos, like the na in Deliverance or whatever. Like that kid.

That's what it looked like. So, that kid comes in and he picks up that rooster that's [expletive] dead, dude. I'm like, "That rooster ain't got much left, you know." And picks that rooster up and grabs it blows air into its [expletive] and air into its [expletive] mouth.

And those sons of [expletive] will come back to life. Buddy I looked at my wife. I had my [expletive] . 45 in my pocket.

I had my . 45. I kept my damn gun with me. I didn't know what this place is about and I'm glad I had my gun.

These guys would go and then they the judge, dude come in there barefoot. You know? He had This is the nastiest [expletive] I've ever been to and I took my damn wife and I felt like I was like, "I'm like, what in the [expletive] have I done?" You know?

What have I done? You know, this is awful. This is bad. I'm going to hell for this.

So, we go and you know, they're blowing air into the [expletive] of the rooster and I'm just like, "Well, we've crossed the bridge of Babylon here and we're off into the gates of hell any minute. This is the beginning." It's like, "Whatever, this is the abyss." And some [expletive] comes back alive.

We fought. "COME ON, THERE'S MOLLY. COME ON, THERE'S MOLLY. Come on, you son [expletive] do it, rooster, do it, rooster."

Screaming at each other. Fetters going everywhere and then bam, lethal hit and they'll just drop it. Put it in a big old rooster pile of dead roosters and the little kids are rolling around from the rafters wearing no shoes. Like that was the biggest thing.

They're all like Walmart baby feet, you know? Like dirty ass kids. Even the judge. Even the judge.

So, the judge would leave for a while and I'm like, "Well, when's the next fight, you know?" I was like, "God damn, well, I'm just pounding whiskey just to get through this." Like it was like watching your sister give birth or something, you know? It's just something you don't ever see.

Seriously, something you don't ever want to see. Don't ever go. It is hell and I it should and I'm glad it's illegal. Glad it's illegal.

It should be. It's That needs to happen in the dark corners. And so, I'm like, "Where's the god damn lanky ass Gumby looking son [expletive] good judge that's drooling?" Well, that son [expletive] comes back and all right, he's like, "Yes."

And I'm like, "Aho." So, I look at my boy and my boy's like, "He's been rolling coal." And I was like, "What do you mean?" He said, "That son [expletive] is methed out."

I said, "Will you get the [expletive] out of here?" And so, we're like, "Hey, we're going to go get some beer out of the truck." And boy, did I Irish goodbye that son of a [expletive] We got out of there. So That's a That's something I have never told anybody.

I wasn't going to tell anybody. Now a lot of people are going to know that I went to a cockfight. But So that was too That was it. That's it for me.

I don't I'm not I'm not an advocate whatsoever. Don't go. Folks, do not go. Don't go.

It's a PSA. Here's some [expletive] There's a lot of going out there in Oklahoma. A lot of them, dude. They've got I mean they've got the gray rooster.

Man, I got money on that gray. I got money on that gray. I'll take the red one. All right, you want to go down?

So I was like I'll put 20 on it. They were like "Whoa, now we ain't doing that too much money." I was like 20 bucks. I was like [expletive] Do you get gaslit at the cockfight?

Yeah, like you can only bet five. I said I could So I mean we're going to kill 38 chickens tonight for 11 bucks. I mean what the [expletive] are y'all doing out here? I thought y'all were trying to gamble.

It's awful. I'll never go back. And then I hear Then I Then they're like "Hey, next week we got the dogs coming out." I said "Buddy, buddy, I only like Michael Vick on the football field."

Yeah, I know. I'm good. The dogs get way less funny. I'm not going to that.

I mean I could barely handle the damn rooster. You think I can handle two pit bulls chewing each other's throats out? No, dude. I'm good.

My wife was not too thrilled. We left that son of a [expletive] She said "What did I just see?" And I said "I'm sorry." I said "I didn't know."

I was like "I'm a virgin at this too, baby. But I swear to you this." And she said "What is it?" "We will never do that again."

You kept your promise. Oh, hell yeah. I won't go anywhere close to that. Cuz I was Well, I mean you still got I'd still like to go see those people if they were having like a you know eating cabrito or something like burying a goat or something, whatever the hell they eat.

They None of them looked like they ate in a while. I bet they eat [expletive] rooster. Cuz they had tons of that. I was wondering.

I was like on our way back, you know, from wherever the [expletive] in Oklahoma, we're driving back and I'm with my wife wearing her [expletive] Lexus. She's in a new freaking badass Lexus. I'm like, you know, I'm glad I got my . 45 cuz I feel like we're about to get ganked up in this son of a [expletive] And they're all just like, "Who are you?"

"Where you come from?" I'm like, "Fuck, dude." I said San Antonio. I just lied.

I'm not telling you where I'm from, bubs. Here's my personal address. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

Please come visit. Throw in your registrants. Tell your mama now. Yeah.

Out on rooster fights. So, that was last Tuesday. That was yesterday. That was yesterday.

Yeah. That was on the plane flight over. Buddy. It's a little different than soul plane.

It's That's just something that nobody needs to go see. And I'm I regret even telling anybody, but Like I said, I really don't give a [expletive] I will say that is 100% hands-down the hardest I've laughed on this podcast. Well, You don't want to get out there in them woods. In them Oklahoma woods.

I don't even want to say where it is again cuz I'm scared them sons of [expletive] are going to be like, God dang, dude. He blew our cover. You're so freaking funny, man. What a character.

We're going to get him. Wake up. You did You did say where it was at. Yeah.

I don't remember, though. Me, neither. It'll be on your podcast. I got my court reporter over there.

Yeah. All right. Sketching it out. He's having a hell of a time.

Drawing the picture. Yeah, it was something else. Were you Were you bigger-than-life performer like when you were a little kid? Were you just freaking Oh, yeah, dude.

Singing David Ball. Yes, I have me. I got a drinking problem. Yeah.

Yeah. That was my jam. Performing for the family? Performing for the family, dude.

Busting it out. We'd go to Church of Christ on Sunday mornings and we'd be Oh, scandalous. Johnny Cash in the evenings with the guitar. We bust the guitar out.

That's a big deal. Big deal. I got you know I took a guitar into a Church of Christ once. You can talk about turning into a pillar of salt.

Pretty much. I'm still gathering myself after that. All the deacons came out and gave me the get the hell out of this place with that. It was a thing.

What did you just walk in with it? Yeah, it was in actually just in the gymnasium. I'm not going to say which one. It was just one of them.

Uh but they know. Once they didn't watch this, they'll know who told me to get the hell out of there with the guitar. Cuz you know it's not allowed to have instruments in the church. Which is fine.

Uh but You can't even have an instrument in there? No, but it says in Revelations the you know Trumpets? The trumpets will sound and the dead shall rise. I mean it's like wow, I guess it's just When the Old Testament playing harps and like all angels playing Oh yeah.

I mean I mean I hope I hope my angels are playing Stranglehold by Ted Nugent when I come to heaven. Hope the Nuge is ripping when I get up into the gates. Ironically same song that was playing at the cockfight. Oh, they didn't have a speaker out there or Wi-Fi.

Yeah, if anything if anything yeah, I didn't hear one. I just heard screaming rednecks yelling about their roosters blowing air in roosters' asses and I was like this is happening. And then them kids you know were keeping them calm, boy. They had blood all over their mouth and [expletive] I was like well thanks for coming.

Want to give you a hug. I'm like stay the [expletive] back, bro. I'll tell you what, that's a way to build up your immune system. Go drop them off in the Williford woods.

100%. God bless them if y'all see this nothing against you. That's y'alls it's a that's your way. And you know, they have fun doing it, but you know.

I'm pro-life with roosters. Yeah. Yeah. I'D RATHER THAT YEAH.

hear that in the morning than nobody gets an alarm clock anymore around those woods. I'll tell you that. There is no I still think the most disturbing part is blowing the air into their ass. And their mouths.

They'll get that little gullet underneath their chin. And it's like an I still have nightmares. I can't even believe I even told you this. That's so funny.

Well, I mean [expletive] I've been to a lot of county fairs. Been a lot of you know. You know. A lot of shows, cattle auctions.

Been a lot of [expletive] I've seen a bunch of I've even seen animals breeding. Seen animals being born. You ain't seen [expletive] until you go to one of them rooster fights. Don't go.

Next, we can talk about something else. Good lord, we keep on coming back. Coming back to the rooster, dude. Here comes the rooster.

YEAH, WE AIN'T GOING TO DIE. WE AIN'T GOING TO DIE. NO. THEY are going to die.

Do you know that song? That song's about Reno. Yeah, it's about his dad. They his dad or the uncle was the they called him the rooster.

Yeah, he was like a helicopter pilot. Yeah, he was a badass. What a song. Crazy.

Man, those types of uh not to get too technical, but like those modal type songs that were in the grunge stuff melodically where they float in between that major and minor stuff. in the way. Oh, yeah. Yeah, exactly.

That's gone away for a while. Yeah. At least in rock, like you just don't hear that anymore. Yeah, attention span shorter.

If it ain't a 15 second Tik Tok clip, you're [expletive] Yeah, you ain't get they're not going to wait on that rooster drop. you know. They can't wait on the rooster. I ain't I mean you can wait Get out there to the Willard woods, you don't need to wait on no roosters either.

Them [expletive] are going to die. It's going to be it's going to make that song a farce. Yeah. Believe They are going to die.

They are going to die. Their farce are going to die. So they didn't do that at the Church of Christ. Nope.

No [expletive] fighting there, but um a lot of you know pulling on your soul. Which is good at it I'm thankful I was raised in the church cuz it allowed me to create a moral compass. You know, I think anybody who's radical any way or religion or type or politics, whatever it is. If you're radical and you believe this is the end all be all, I think you might need to check yourself.

Mhm. You know? So when you when you say I can't remember exactly what you said. You said create your own moral compass.

Is that what you said? No, you it helps align your moral compass. Okay. I mean you know, just love your neighbor as yourself, like do unto others as you'd want them to do unto you.

Just the certain things of kindness and you know being a humble servant of the Lord. You know, you thing about me is you know, there's even family members that are like, why do you cuss? Why do you do this? And I was like, cuz I'm a I'm a common man.

I'm not here to say that I'm Jesus. I'm not here to say that I'm holier than thou. I'm here to say that it's okay to be a struggling sinner and live with light in your heart. You know, I'm here to say that.

Well, then how So, what about grappling with the idea of the call to change? Like, it's not that the idea that you become sinless, but like the idea that you might sin less. Right? Can't like continue on doing the exact same things over and over and over.

Yeah, I mean, repeat offenders, you know, you don't learn from your mistakes. It's kind of you might be in a whole heap of trouble there, but Yeah. you know, just better yourself every day, but don't beat yourself up. Like, I have a I have a problem beating myself up.

My wife is like, I just wish you would just love yourself more. A lot. She's talked to me about it, and I struggle with it. In what In which way?

Yeah, because like what you just said, I think it's like a guilt, you know, to be better. But, to be like Jesus, you know? Mhm. And it's impossible.

It's a never-ending mountain that you're going to try to climb. So, being content and having a heart with servitude and uh I think that's the way. In my opinion, you know? How do you What's the best way you find contentment?

Is that an active thing or Uh it's yeah, it's a just an everyday battle, you know? Um as far as like business and all that, I'm content right now. I'm very content. But, content is I'm not content on what I am as a human before I bring a boy into this world with my wife.

I want to be a That's This is the biggest part of my whole journey right now that's about to happen. I'm about to turn 40 years old in April. And then right a month later I'm going to have my first son. And so, has that already flipped a switch for you?

Yeah, it's just, you know, I got to do. My boys are like, "Well, it's is last rodeo." So I was like, "Boy, there's a lot of last rodeos happening right now." Yeah, you know, but it's just, you know, I've got a I really am going to impression a soul, put an impression on a soul.

And I want him to be a God-fearing, loving, respectable human. And I want him to cherish a woman one day and lift her up and be better than me. And I believe if we did that with our kids, I think the generations wouldn't get worse, they'd get better. And it's our job to learn from our mistakes and instill into our children those let them know what those are and how they can learn from yours.

And so they don't have to go through that road of heartache or any of that, you know, so. And I've been through a lot, so I've got a lot to teach. But, you know, my nieces and nephews, they always confide in me. My two sisters, my older sister has four kids and my younger sister has five.

And so I've had I've been an uncle for a long time. My oldest My oldest nephew is at Texas A&M and you know, he's called me and confided in me and I believe that I've made an impression, but that's just being an uncle. And so now that I've got my son coming, it's just even more important to me. That's my new job.

It's not about hustling down country radio or hustling down a concert. Like I'm going to go and play those things because I've got my boy and my wife. So, you know, they come first. Yeah, do you find contentment is difficult to explain to people?

Because often times they take it out don't become stagnant. Right. Being content is to be still. And that doesn't you don't gain ground.

And build on your soul just being satisfied and thinking that you're just got everything figured out. Yeah, but I don't think that's what contentment is. What do you What do you think? I think it's just a humble appreciation for where you're at now.

Yeah. Definitely. Always mean that doesn't mean that you don't want to excel achieve anything else. Yeah, just being thankful for the moment now.

Yes, I believe that's very important. But to always push yourself to find that weak link the weak link in your character you know, just build as you go. What do you think? hard on yourself.

Too hard to where it Too hard. implodes into where you become depressed, which I fought. I'm That's one of my biggest struggles. Depression?

Yeah, just being beating myself up, you know. Why didn't I do this? Why didn't I do that? God, I should have done this.

Should have done that, you know. When Really, it's wasted emotion. So, is it is it a mental battle that you just fight through or is there something you do to snap yourself out of that mode? Well, my wife helped me get through it the most lately.

Um I It's definitely a mental battle. But and I think a lot of it has to do with some of the being indoctrinated in a certain belief in a very conservative upbringing, church upbringing. And coming from, you know, preachers and ministers. And, you know, just living with a little bit of guilt.

You know, burned it up one night too late with my boys. Next day, I feel bad about it, but we had the most belly laughs, had a good time. One of our boys talks about something he hadn't talked about in a while, got a bunch of stuff off his chest, and it really was like therapeutic, even though my head hurts this morning. But, you know, I think there's grace there to be had.

And then there's other times it does just get out of control. Yeah, you just I mean, and I've been there. I've been the tornado in the room, you know. But, I've And I still will be a tornado.

I won't change when it comes to that. I'm still going to choose pick and choose my battles, though. You know, in my 20s in this business, I was you know, I was tore up. Searching for me, searching for my sound, searching for my identity.

Now that I've found it, you know, who I am, I think now it's just to just be honest and give those people who paid money and traveled to come see me the best show I can every night, and to come home to my wife. What do you think your 20-year-old self would think about musically? How do you think if you were to show him like your record or like that new music that you just showed me? What do you think like when you started your 20-year-old self what he was going for at that time?

If you showed him some of those songs, what would he what would he say about them? Damn, your shit's badass. Yeah. He'd like it.

Hell yeah, he'd like Really? Oh, yeah. Now, you show me my 20-year-old self stuff, I'm like, "God, what was I doing there?" Cuz I was learning on who I was, you know.

That's when I kind of get the heebie-jeebies hear me? Okay. Growing into myself, you know? Let me ask you differently.

Well, you know, 10,000 cigarettes ago, Yeah. 500 bottles of whiskey or whatever, 5,000 bottles, you know? So, do you think he Do you think he would be surprised? No.

I don't think he'd be surprised. I think he'd be surprised with the success that I've had. Cuz all I wanted to do was really just I mean, I remember playing the Poodie's Hilltop type out on out towards Dripping Springs for 100 bucks, and a cheeseburger, and we thought we had it made, and there was a four-piece band, you know? Each get Each get 25 bucks and a cheeseburger, and get all the longnecks we wanted, have a little bit of money for breakfast the next day, and hopefully have another gig, you know?

It started there. Then right after that, you went to Colorado. No, that was after Colorado. Uh, Colorado I was broke [expletive] dude.

Yeah. Then you moved back home. Moved back home, started Sons of Fathers, that old band. Yeah.

And that started in like 2010, went to 2010 to '14. '14, I started my own solo career, Paul Cauthen, went with it, my full name. All your stuff seems to be just like 5 years ahead of what the major popular trends are. You know, I've been told that, but the thing about it is it's still there.

All the stuff that's hot right now, that sounds like my old records, people are hot hopping on them. So, I don't think of it like that. I try to think of it just I am who I am, and this is where I'm at. This is where I'm at.

Yeah, but does it ever feel a little bit lonely creatively? No. Being ahead of the trend? No, dude.

I don't like to I don't like Who likes to hop on a freaking wave of foam that's already hit the freaking shore? Well, no question. You It feels It's easier to be confident in what you're doing if everybody is around like going oh yeah this is it right? Yeah, I believe you know honestly after room 41 and that record and it popped off and uh my life changed and room 41 was one of the darkest moments of my life.

I was just had a bunch of demons and I needed to write myself out of a certain funk I was in. I'd just gone through biggest heartache of my life and I just wrote myself out of that. And that was the first time I realized I was like man me being unapologetically me is what works. You know, cuz there's only one me.

There's only one Jared. So it's like it's not about what all this noise is around. It's when you are totally getting through something as a human as a person and it actually helps you know it's going to help others. You know?

Where'd you write room 41? In room 41 at the Belmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas. My buddy Jordan Ford owned that hotel and I'm left a relationship and moved into a suite and he let me stay at the suite for almost 2 years. I lived out of a hotel.

Wildest times of my life. Should not be alive. Would I take it back? No.

But would I do it again? Hell no. You think it was necessary? Oh yeah.

God doesn't put anything in front of you that you can't you can't overcome with faith you know? In those darkest moments I always still had the Lord in my heart. And I was mindful of being in a bad place. And my prayer has always been Lord, I know I'm a vessel.

I know you've given me a gift. Just let me use it for your will. And whatever that might be, trigger my heart. Trigger the hearts of others that hear it.

And if there's just one person here tonight that I touch, I've done my job. Are there times that you've felt distant, though? What? From God.

Yeah, you know, but mindfully distant. Where I know, Paul, you know, you're off in the coals over here when you should probably find your true north again. So, do you feel like he does something to pull you back? Yeah, it's just what I call everybody's Jiminy Cricket.

That's what God is, you know. It's that inner pulling. You got to listen, though. Yeah.

Yeah, it's tough. So tough, dude. It's the struggle of man. Yeah, David.

Yeah, there's a whole laundry list of them. Yeah, and then you have people that just have hell hit them full time. Look at Job. Crazy.

Perseverance. Teach you a lot of things. And that's what it says. I mean, there's nothing that you can be that's put in front of you that you cannot get through with the Lord.

You can't You can make it. You can get through it. And there's always somebody else worse off, you know. There's all There's so many people that wish that they were talking to you right here.

So many people that wish that they could get paid to go play in front of some people or that some people would just listen. Mhm. You know. Doesn't it suck that thankfulness seems to be so directly tied to success?

What do you mean? Like it's tied being thankful like people that are thankful once they've made it to [expletive] load of money or something like that. Oh. Well, yeah, probably is a little bit easier.

Yeah, for sure. It's easier to say, "Oh, thank you." when you have nine Grammys and 55 buses and 48 18-wheelers. Yeah, it's easy to say, "Thank you.

Thank you, God." It's easy. I've always I've always thought it was weird when people said, "I'm so humbled." Like they get up there and get an award and they're making all kinds of money and they have all the attention and they go, "I'm just so humbled to get this."

That's never I'm like, "If anything, this is the opposite." This is just making you There ain't much you need to say in an award ceremony. I give this all to God. Yeah.

Thankful for the opportunity. Thankful for the fans. Thankful for my family. Be kind to one another.

God bless. Peace out. Well, I guess what I Where's the party at? What I was saying with thankfulness is uh you know, it's like being thankful for my parents.

Uh It's like the only way that I can be truly deeply thankful, just even sitting there and having dinner with them and talking with them or something, is to think about them being gone or not having them. Which I hate. Why can't I just be thankful in the isolation of thankfulness? I don't have to think about the negative.

So, in the same way, I'm thankful I freaking don't have to pour concrete or do manual labor to earn a living anymore. But, the only way that I'm being thankful is to think about how sh- how shitty it could be. Isn't that weird? It's like it's human nature.

It's just uh looking at different side the coin, you know? Looking at both sides. Where there's success, there's failure. Where there's rain, there's sunshine somewhere.

Where there's storm, there's you know, peace and beauty and sunshine. But, I guess when you don't have any money and you don't have any success, at least you have hope. So, I've noticed people Sometimes it's Sometimes it's like scary hope. You know?

Some people hope too much. You know, where hope is like just like almost to the point where they're delusional. You know? You remember met those kind of people that get up they get their arm think they're Garth Brooks and they totally suck and this person selling the [expletive] farm and all granddad's cattle to do it.

And they you're like, "Buddy, keep the [expletive] heifers." You know? There's a lot of that going out there, too. Yeah.

So, I mean, this business is a business of two 2%, you know? And I'm thankful that I'm within a percentage to be able to Like I said, gallon of gas, a meal, some electricity. You know? So.

You think some of it's just not quitting? Definitely. The mine I didn't make dollar one until about 11, 12 years in. I mean, sold tons of weed, man.

I was a weed dealer. That's how I did this. Straight up marijuana. Sold hundreds of thousands of pounds of weed.

Paid off radio promoters with payola. Cash money. Brother, I did not make this. I made it cuz of weed.

Put that in your [expletive] documentary. Straight up, dude. Dude, I wanted Okay, so I'm going to tell you how it went down. Okay?

I have not I have not really poured this out, but [expletive] it. So, I had buddies that were on college right? I went to jail. So, my went out to a Christian school and I got kicked out of there cuz you can't go to jail and school at the same time.

Come to find out. I asked. At the county jail, he's like, "Yeah, we They don't do online classes from the jail." So, um I got out and I was like, "Well, [expletive] I'm going to move to Colorado."

So, I got in with my weed guys up there, right? So, all my boys were in school with these big state schools, UT, freaking uh SMU, SFA, Texas Tech, Texas A&M, all UTSA, all of them, right? Well, I'd play the frat gigs, right? And the sorority parties with my boy Red riding behind me with about 10 lb of weed.

And we'd do weed deals and I'd go and do the circuit and I'd cover it up. I mean, playing acoustic gigs and we were just ped- I was just peddling weed the whole time. And so, every time I'd come back, I'd come back, pick up the money. And then I'd have my boy Red, he knows his name, I'm just going to call him Red.

He's going to laugh when I eat. And uh we'd re-up and get everybody I from 2009 9 to 2015, if you smoked weed in Texas at a college, it was our weed. And um 6 years. Oh, yeah, 6 years.

I was I [expletive] 150 grand cash on me, you know? And we're moving it. And so, I'd go up to Nashville and nobody'd play my [expletive] records. And I'd meet up with these radio promoters and I'd ask them out for lunch.

And they'd already turned down my record. They said it's [expletive] and everything, but boy, did they down 10,000 bucks in a brown paper sack. No. Record went up into top 15 next week.

I get gigs. I get a booking agent. I start [expletive] just putting all the money into PR. These PR people that I was paying, I was paying them [expletive] large cash, dude.

I got into this game just like god damn Biggie Smalls. Except I don't smoke I don't sell crack. So, that's how I made it. you did though, I mean you'd be good crack salesman.

If one of the best. I would. Never Super nice, too. My buddy smoked crack at a Phish show.

Told me it was pretty intense. Out of a light bulb. Of all things. Out of a light bulb?

He said at a Phish concert? Yeah. At a Phish concert. p h i s h One and only Phish.

Trey Anastasio. So, then he's up for 3 days after that? [expletive] if I know. All I know is that I think he stayed on Phish tour for the next 12 years until they broke up.

And he kicked back and went to you know, String Cheese or Widespread you know. Widespread Panic I can't think of probably the worst thing to be reverberating in my head days after I never smoked meth, but I can imagine the days after that. Man, we I think I've done meth a few times. We were thinking it was coke.

Once you do that, there ain't no going back. Dude. [expletive] that hit a little harder. Train is a rolling.

You ever remember coming out of Colorado one time with one of my buddies and he thought they got some coke or something after a party and I was like, "Man, I'll [expletive] why not?" And went and rum. Did a line of that [expletive] and my ears started just felt like they were bleeding and my eyes dilated and train ran through my blood and I was like, that is not cocaine. Buddy in the back said, "Oh [expletive] I thought y'all wanted crystal."

I said, "Well, [expletive] me, Billy Bob." Up for 3 days, watercoloring the goddamn ceiling fan. So, I never did that again. Yeah, dude.

It's just there's the stories don't end. The I got out of the weed game. You know, I still got all my big baller weed guys that uh send me text messages now that are all health and fitness guys. All the real weed guys that were before when weed was legal are now on like GNCs and [expletive] It's [expletive] thing and CBD companies.

Now they're all they'll help me out and they'll be like, "Hey fat ass, get up and move today. Get on the treadmill. You need 30 minutes. You're looking chunky in your in your in your face."

Do they get pretentious at the GNC? Oh yeah, you know, they're like, "Yeah, you taking the vitamins?" You know. Yeah, as much as I can.

Dude, watercoloring the ceiling fan. Buddy. Raking, dude. Raking dust in the baseboards.

Looking up for all the nooks and crannies. Dude. You had to have at some point people had to have told you to do stand-up. Oh man, I just can't stand up that long.

No. I mean, Yeah, I you know, I've thought about it, but I've just you know, I kind of like singing. Oh yeah, for sure. I like singing and then if that goes to [expletive] I'll probably I'll probably Ron White that [expletive] and then probably get then probably get sober, but I'm just not done yet.

People are like, "Oh, are you getting sober? Are you doing okay? How's your cancer?" Oh, it's tough, you know, "Oh, are you okay, Chuck?"

I'm like, "No, I'm just not done yet." Just not done yet. I like to have a good time. And I'm hard on myself for it, you know.

Doctor said my liver's good the other day. That's [expletive] awesome. Um numbers are looking good. I'm like, "Okay, don't say anything else."

I'm out. I'm going to dirty up the old filter here. No, but uh It's been a wild ass ride, dude. I've been arrested so many damn times.

And jail does not bother me whatsoever. I mean, I had me a little gospel Sunday singing group in jail. I did 86 days in Smith County. And Reverend Al, old school, Spider.

I miss those guys. Rose. All those cats. Man, we'd sit in there on Sundays and like uh we're just singing, "When we all get to heaven, all the day."

Yeah, I know. It's just It's good. Those moments you can't get rid of. Character building.

It's just Oh, it builds a character. Yeah. One time I found out that when I was in jail I got good with the I was in the county road and bridge department doing 3 days for one of my 180-day sentence. And That's a separate time?

No, this was my one of my big bigger stints. You know, when I say stint, I ain't like Jelly Roll where he did 11 years for robbing an old little old lady in a motorized cart or whatever he did back in the day, you know. No telling. But now he gives enough turkeys to all the penitentiary, so it works out.

But I'll tell you this. I became friends with the with the boss mans, the guys that were running the county road and bridge department. So, I got I knew how to drive a backhoe. So, they put me in that backhoe and I was busting down culverts in East Texas for free and they were making me operate for 8 hours and then we'd come back and do all the stuff and my friends would throw see me out there and you know, working pretty much like on a chain gang.

And my buddies would be backwoods and you know, back riding in their trucks and riding in the back literally throw beer cans at me and [expletive] Hey, Carlton, you know, whizzing beers at me. And you know, these I found out the next day that we're going to be behind Judge Bill Lemons uh County Precinct 2 on 150 County on 155 in Tyler, Texas. And uh we were going to be there the next day. So I called my mom uh from the jail and I said, "Mom, I said tomorrow I said, "We're going to be at Bill Lemons there that old building.

We're going to be clearing out that pasture in the back. I want you to go to Whataburger. And I want you to get 25 double cheeseburgers and french fries and I want you to put it behind Bill Lemons there. And get there about 9:00 cuz we're getting there at 10:00.

Do not let the Don't let the sheriffs or anybody see you do it." So my mom goes to Whataburger and smuggles in cheeseburger. I felt like Andy Dufresne in Shawshank Redemption giving my buddies a bottle of suds on the roof after tarring that son of a [expletive] So we get done with our work and I see those Whataburger bags and my buddy Todd was his name was the head boss man. And I was like, "Todd, I know that lunch is coming up."

And he said, "Yeah, I got to go all the way back to county to go pick y'all's baloney sandwiches up." And I said, "Well, I got a little something." And he said, "What? Carlton, what?"

And I said, "Well, I knew that we were coming here." And he said, "What did you do?" And I said, "Well, do you just want to You see those You those two bags of Whataburger? He said, "What the [expletive] is that?"

And I said, "My mom dropped those off. And I want to feed all these guys here all these inmates cheeseburgers from Whataburger. You don't have to go back to the back to the, you know, to the jail and pick us up baloney sandwiches. We can just eat these real quick.

Nobody will ever know." He said, "Cotton, you got Y'all got 10 minutes." So, I gave out cheeseburgers to 25 inmates that hadn't had a [expletive] cheeseburger in a while. I was the king of the cellblock, my friend.

We all ate cheeseburgers. She got the spicy ketchup and everything. We're eating off of the [expletive] bed of this truck. Merced Castaneda.

I'll never forget this Mexican dude with enough teardrops. He was in on state jail time doing two day-for-day, two years day-for-day. And uh He took a bite and he says, "Motherfucker." He looks at the heavens, dude.

And I'm like, "That's my worth my stay in jail right there. See, that man Thankfulness. Thankful. We're thankful.

And do good deeds. Whataburger cheeseburger. Do good deeds, you know? See, but Hell, dude.

So, I Yeah, I got out of that [expletive] and I was like, "Well, I'm [expletive] now, you know, I can't get back into school. You know, I can't get a job, so let's do this singing thing." "Well, how are we going to pay for it? Well, let's get back to selling weed."

So, I got some Colorado connections, some California connections. And we ended up really making a lot of money doing it. And uh that's how I backed my entire career in the beginning. But you got to have cash to do it.

I had to have cash to pay the band, go out on the road. This is during that $3. 80 $4 gallon gas days. You know, [expletive] was expensive back then.

After 08, 09, 10. Crazy. was Gas was so damn expensive. You know, and I mean out in California it was up six, seven, six a gallon, you know, at that time.

I remember we I'd pay in 20s, boy. I would rubber bands. Just cash money to all the guys. Cash money, dude.

Under the table. So, you never got popped for No, I never had the weed on me. That's for Red. My boy Red.

He'd drop it off. I was the I was the money man. And the muscle, too. We had to we had to bust out and do some crazy [expletive] little outlaw [expletive] there in the middle of it.

Definitely guns were drawn before, but On you? Both ways. Little standoffs. Some [expletive] like that's happened.

Buddy's got robbed by guns and got all our money stolen out in Lovett. Then one of our guys was a [expletive] con and he stole all our money and moved down to freaking Houston after Hurricane Harvey and went and stole everybody's money and insurance fraud and it just was a con. That son of a [expletive] is still on the run and he knows who he is. Um you know your It's T S.

Those are his initials. He knows. And everybody who sees this will know what I'm talking about. But, yeah, that guy came up with a bunch of [expletive] and got our stuff robbed.

He says he did. He just stole the weed and stole the money, but the thing about it is this, man. Now that I've been you know what you call it, legit you know, making real money and in the business all that was just character building. And I'm not scared of any one of these suits, any one of these big famous people anybody that tells you like you can do this, you can do that.

All smoke and mirrors and [expletive] dude. It's everywhere. It's in all businesses, too. You hear all these guys get liquored up at night and they get in these guys that have a bunch of money, my rancher buddies, and they got these drunk [expletive] in their ears telling them that they can get them this many head of cattle.

And you don't talk about that [expletive] at night. You don't talk about that [expletive] when you're liquored up. You're smart, you understand when it's time to talk business when it's time to be legit when it's time to get [expletive] up and party. And people don't recognize those times.

And you want to turn somebody off to do business with you, start talking business after hours, you know? You can take any aspiring female or male wants to do business one day, know that there's a time and a place to talk it. I told a young girl at like a songwriter event that I was at uh a few months ago. You were standing next to me, I think, Skeeter.

Super sweet gal. And she's actually really good. And uh we were just all there hanging out. And she tried to hand me the phone and have me and it's loud in there, you know.

She wanted me to like listen to one of her songs or whatever. And I just was like beating your ear up. I just go, "Hey, I'm not going to listen to that right now. And this is going to sound mean, but you just need to send it to me, I'll listen to it later.

But I'm going to tell you right now, don't" Can you snag another one of them? No, you don't need to. It's good. I'm a two-beer maximum.

It's one for each tire. Okay, good. Motorcycle. That's all that I was going to allow anyway, so it was a It's all I can have.

I got to play tonight. But I told her, "Don't do that to anybody else. I'm just telling you, for your I'm trying to help you. Like don't do that."

And then everybody in the Oh, and I've been Now, when it comes to showing people songs, I've been I'm totally guilty of Demo jail? Demo jailin' some people, but my demos are pretty [expletive] good. Oh. Yeah, I Usually Yeah, but it definitely depends on the scenario.

Again, if it's loud and there's [expletive] going on that No. Everybody thought But I've done it. I've done it and there's people out there that don't know. You've done that to me, you know, my producers and [expletive] Rap party and I'm like, "Dude, listen to this hook I got, you know."

Yeah, but those are people you know. Those are people you're working with, you know, to get a record done. Yeah, that's different. It's different, but Or like they're freaking sitting at the Red Door and somebody's like it when somebody's yelling in your ear because the music's loud and they don't understand.

You know? It's kind of like somebody talking with earbuds on. You know? In an airplane.

Man, this is [expletive] good. You're like This is good. Like you don't have to You just scream that the whole [expletive] plane knows it's good. Yeah.

So. Screaming song ideas at you? Oh, yeah. I had a guy come up to me once.

This is the worst song idea. And he'll know who I'm talking about, too. But uh he said, "Man, I've got a great idea." And he built it up and he's like, "I'm going to tell you when I see you."

I was like, "Okay. Tell me when you see me." So, finally man, I've got this great idea. I see him at Green Hall.

He comes up to me and he goes "Dude, how about this? Smoking a J and drinking an IPA." Good heavens. And I was like I said You owe me You owe me money for this.

you're I said you're [expletive] kidding, right?" First off, IPA's just like pop my ears. I can't drink that [expletive] Hop water, you know. You know.

And he's like, "Yeah, dude. He smoking a J, drinking an IPA." I said, "I'll get back to you, bud. I'm going to get back to you on that one.

Let me marinate. Let me let that one marinate." Well, and then they did he Did he do it when he when he when he tells you? Oh, yeah.

I thought it was about to be, you know, freaking god dang Yeah, you know, freaking Bridge over troubled water you know. I thought there was about to be amazing. Nope. No.

Smoking J and drinking IPA. Brutal. That song never hit the freaking I don't think it's been streamed. Definitely not.

Or written for [expletive] sake. I hope it hasn't been written. Definitely not. I pray it hasn't.

So yeah, cuz you're playing Zouk tonight, but then you're playing in Aspen. Are those shows in Aspen sold out? Yeah, we're playing Belly Up and then I'm playing a private event up at Same. Same Regis, you know.

Hopefully they pipe in a bunch of oxygen. Cuz my big ass will fall out. Like I see spots when I'm singing up there. also blow Do they also blow into your ass?

They will have to blow into my [expletive] and into my mouth to keep me alive up there, yes. Uh I just say to go to the Williford Woods and bring them sons of [expletive] out. Be sure y'all got some colonoscopy tubing. Cuz we're going to need some help.

That's how we do it right there. That's how we finish it, dog. That's how we do it. Oh, yeah.

You know, I'm sorry for saying the F word so much to all the kids, but I think it's one of the best words ever built. Uh it can mean a lot. Yeah. And it can infer a lot of emotion.

A lot of anger. A lot of happiness. A lot of O faces. Ooh.

Oh, that was a different Oh, yeah. Mine was Ooh. Mine was a Mine was a different one. Or you can just say You could do what uh Kirk Cousins does.

Freak. That one's always Freak. That's always actually a I think that's worse than saying [expletive] It's bothered me more. Yeah.

It's kind of like nails on a chalkboard to me. Yeah, and it feels like so much effort to say it. Yeah. Well, we're all sinners.

Drink up, have a good time. You only live once. Like this freaking booger here. Old booger bear.

Booger. Yeah. Come here. Come here, booger.

All right, y'all. Paul's a genius. much for having me, man. Absolutely gangster.

Yeah, dude, thanks for taking the time. I've been such a fan for so long, yeah. Thanks. I'm enjoying what I'm hearing from you and Thanks.

Yeah, what you're doing this podcast, it's just like I said, I don't really talk to too many people. I've talked to Troy Cartwright and you really. So. I'll talk to the some of those other guys one day, but who knows.

We've got to enjoy talking to somebody before I go talk to Yeah, for sure. You know, I get it. Well, that's actually funny. So, if we would have had lunch and you're like, this guy sucks.

You know, I'd probably figured out a way to say I have explosive diarrhea or something. I got to go to a cockfight. Yeah, but I'm going to this cockfight down there at the Bellagio. I'll be back in 5 days.

Down at the Bellagio. All right, cockfights pop up at the Bellagio. See you there. All right, see y'all.

Have a good day, y'all. Cock-a-doodle-doo. Mama always said there'd be days like this. Putting back the pieces.

She don't need him no more, no. Mama said these men ain't built right. Only good at leaving after one night. Yes, ma'am, they might seem polite, but those things run wild.

It's another jackpot living life like a heathen. Everybody knows ain't no rest for the wicked. She's doping his ass like a cell phone. Don't come home, kick rocks down the road.