M: Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to talk to me today and happy new year! Did you do anything fun for New Year's? 

 

A: We took a little family trip this year. Did some snowboarding, did a lot of hunting, and spent time with family.

 

M: Pretty chill this year?

 

A: I liked it that way. We were on the road all last year. It was nice to get away from people a little bit.

 

M: So no parties with Jelly Roll this year?

 

A: No. we are actually going to be with them (Jelly Roll, his wife Bunnie, and Jelly Rolls team) in Michigan during Rockfest. I'm going to have to prepare my liver for that in June!

 

M: That guy he’s such a party animal but I'm sure he's a lot of fun!

 

A: For sure. He's such a sweetheart!

 

M: Do you have any New Year's resolutions for 2024?

 

A: I didn't set anything necessarily for the new year. But I've had plans for a while and I think that this year we will see a lot of things that I've been working on from the last 2 or 3 years that will be coming out this year. I'm pretty excited to show folks all the new music I've been working on. Tonight's the first night of this year's tour for us so there's like 6 or 7 new songs on the set list and I think 5 of them are not even released yet so there's a lot of new music at the shows now that we're starting to get going which is fun and also interesting because you don't know if anyone's going to pay attention to it or sometimes if it's something they haven't heard before they don't know how to react. There might be a lot of that but we're going to figure it out. We have a lot of new folks on the crew right now. So learning that whole thing. Hell, I had to drive the bus here.

 

M: Gotta do what you gotta do.

 

A: Yeah. doing it all.

 

M: You know we should do a check-in at the end of this year and see how your resolutions went for the year!

 

A: Ok. Yeah, pretty much all the new stuff and I would say this year I'm trying to figure out how to be a dad too so that's a whole new thing.

 

M: Last time we talked I believe it was early October which feels like yesterday if I'm being honest. But you were just getting ready to go on tour with Dirty Honey at that time. How did that tour go? That was your first time touring with Dirty Honey right?

 

A: With those guys, yes. That was the longest consecutive tour I've ever done. We've done a month or 2 before with folks (other artists/bands) and whenever we got to do the ZZ Top tour the previous year that was about 3 months on and off but it wasn't consistent the entire time. We went home for a little bit went back out for a couple weeks at a time. We left (for the dirty honey tour) at the beginning of October and didn't come back home until right before Christmas. So that was pretty wild, I got to take my son to Canada and a bunch of different states which was pretty cool even though he won't remember that. We have all the photos of him. It was cool it was an interesting move for us because we have done some tours like it amphitheaters and those type of venues and then this tour that we did was like a club tour some large clubs some small clubs so it was really cool to get back to the intimate feeling of the crowd being right there and not having a bunch of seats and people standing up in the back. It was a lot of sweaty rock and roll shows. but at some point on that tour, we all looked at each other like I have no idea what day it is what time it is we've been doing the same thing every day for 3 months straight. It all runs together but you try to enjoy it along the way while also trying to survive which we all did successfully which is great.

 

M: I say this all the time, Dirty Honey are modern-day professional rockstars.

 

A: Oh yeah!

 

M: They put on a fantastic show. Was there anything you learned from the band or the tour itself that had an impact on you as a musician and a fairly new rockstar yourself?

 

A: They are all really amazing musicians so we definitely were doing our best to compete. It's a friendly competition when you go on tour with a band that's like that. You're like “Oh ya you guys do this well check this out” and then you kinda go back and forth and it was really cool to see the differences in the areas of the country. They have some really strong areas that they allowed us to open for at places we've never been. Such as the west coast we haven't done (toured) a lot of the west coast before so to show up to the west coast it was crazy they would have lines of folks waiting for them at the bus and stuff like that. It was kind of nice to come back regionally and have similar situations for us “See we're not nothing!” [laughs] There was a lot to learn on that tour as far as surviving a brutally rounded tour. It was very long drives between most of the shows and just to go for that long even 1 off day your traveling. You're working every day and you're playing shows Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and if you're not you're driving 12 hours so it was definitely a battle. We were talking about it on the way here we were like “I can't believe we made every show happen on that tour” and so did they (Dirty Honey) because on most tours when you go for that long something is bound to happen with that much travel and that much gear on the road. You don't really think about that when you come to see a show. You're like “hell yeah I'm going to have a great time tonight and these guys are here” but we have to do that every night for months at a time. And the level that we’re at currently everybody wears multiple hats so it's not like I don't have to worry about whether it be transportation or whatever. I have to worry about everything.

 

M: Right! I saw you before the interview a little bit taking equipment off the trailer and putting it on the stage and I was honestly surprised I thought you had your people that did that.

 

A: Well, we do sometimes. But I'm very hands-on with stuff, I own all of it and I really want to know where it's going. And if I'm not working I'm probably getting in trouble somewhere so I would rather be working.

 

M: Another amazing thing that happened last year was the release of “Blackout” and the success that song had in such a short amount of time was amazing. It was in the top 40 on rock radio, I know we played the heck out of that song. Did this at all surprise you?

 

A: A little bit. What surprised me the most is that it's still going! It broke the top 20 this week. It's my first top-20 single for radio. Which is amazing because it's the first song we sent to rock radio. I've done the regional country thing before and this was literally our first rock single. When we talked in October that was around the time it first started to go out to the radio stations. So I was just super excited that it made it to the top 40 and here we are in January, almost February and it's in the top 20. It just seems like a really long lifetime for a song in that type of industry. I'm surprised that it’s had such a long life. We actually just did a feature with it which is going to give it a little more life. I'm pretty excited about that. We have another version of Blackout coming out. Which we have a whole new record coming out. I'm not by any means betting my whole career on this 1 song but it's been a great stepping stone and I'm really excited that people are paying attention to it and they’re connecting with it and they like it. And it's opened up so many new fans to us. We have a new version of that song coming out probably within the next month with a singer that I've looked up to since high school.

 

M: That's so exciting! Hopefully, Rock 92/7 will be one of the first radio stations to play it here in Corpus!

 

A: Yeah, we will send it over for sure.

 

M: Since Blackout was the first rock single you released, were you nervous at all to break into the rock scene in general?

 

A: I've always wanted to have the opportunity to be in this scene (Rock scene) because I feel like that's where we've always belonged and I wasn't nervous. I was thankful for the chance and opportunity because I really felt like we were preparing for the opportunity for like 10 years. So to be able to send our first [rock single] out and have that response I was like “hell yeah” I knew we were headed in the right direction and we were on to something. This just really affirmed to go even harder in that direction and to be myself really. So that's what we've done with this new record we've been working on and the nervousness never really kicks in with that kind of stuff because there's so many layers to it. Yes, it is personal, sure somebody likes your song or not that could be personal but at some point, I'm 30 now I got bigger Shit to worry about now. If you don't like it then that's cool no worries I have so many other great things going on in my life. But if you like it and you want to come along for the ride then I'm always down to have new friends and I'm thankful for the people that stay by us.

 

M: I also wanted to say I love how candid you are on social media. You posted a picture of you and a throwback picture of Glen Frey from the Eagles. Oh yeah. Has Glen been an influence in your music or is he just your facial hair inspiration?

 

A: [laughs] The Eagles were always. Just the harmonies and everything if you notice I've stacked a lot of harmonies in the last 3 records and that's just because I would just go off and get lost in the harmonies of other great American bands like that (the Eagles) so there is definitely a huge influence on how many layers of vocals and just having fun with that. I also think there was a freeness in the way that whole era played guitar it was very feel-good, kind of strumming, it's hard to describe but in videos, you can totally see how they strummed the guitar in a different way and it kind of goes along with that whole attitude that that era of musicians had. At least looking back at it. We’re years and years past that but if I'm here in 2024 and im looking back at that era and what that genre of music was it was very carefree and just kind of sat back in the mix. And similar to what's happening now in the music scene there were so many different types of rock music. You had really heavy bands that these days wouldn't be considered very heavy at all but then you also had easy-listening rock and they all kind of intermingled and I think that sometime between there and the current time I think that there was segregation of genres and now everything's kind of melting back together it's all definitely a cycle.

 

M: The Eagles are my favorite band so I can talk about The Eagles all day long. But I love the lyrics right! Sometimes the lyrics are super simple like you know this song “I was standing on the corner of Winslow Arizona” 

 

A: Oh yeah, Take it Easy! Yes, the harmonies in that song are just amazing. The simplicity of lyrics that connect with people but really make them feel something. I really think that's where great songwriting lives. Because if you write something very complicated it can be very impactful to you personally but it could just go over someone's head and they don't really care about it. But if it's something that is relatable but feels specific to that listener then I think that is where the gold is found in songwriting and Tom Petty was very good at that. So finding those moments in songs and lyrics that's what eventually allows you to have a career.

 

M: And do you strive for that type of songwriting?

 

A: Yeah, I think I've always started with the song first. It's always been lyrically what can hurt me or hurt the listener the most in the fewest amount of words? Because I like to feel that shit and then I try to make that line after that even better.