Andrew Schulz's Flagrant with Akaash Singh - Jelly Roll on Adopting a Midget, Making Save Me, and why Taylor Swift is the GOAT
Episode Date: August 15, 2023What’s good people! Today we have long time friend friend Jelly Roll. He explains how he got Little Ron, what lead him to his biggest song ever “Save Me”, and why Taylor Swift is the Michael Ja...ckson of country. INDULGE! 00:00 Flagrant nearly ended Jelly Roll + “Open Er’ up” 04:49 Publicist quit after 72 hours 07:34 Jelly Roll = C0v1d’s dream + Mask Politics 08:34 Trajectory’s been insane + dealing with success 12:36 Jelly Roll’s criminal past 17:49 Trying to buy childhood home 18:55 Mom was special but troubled + power of music 20:43 Importance of the Rose 23:18 “Save Me” 32:25 Our favourite country singer = Lainey Wilson 35:18 Moment it took off 36:49 Success exposes you to yourself 37:56 Chase the cool not money 39:48 Bunnie Xo is a G + meeting for 1st time 50:35 Marrying Bunnie brought BENEFITS 55:52 Be fully open and honest about everything 59:11 Women know what they’re doing + fugged up credit 01:01:19 Taking everything seriously 01:06:27 Lil Ron adoption + lil people MEAT 01:16:56 Hard to fire people + Bunnie has her own bus 01:18:52 Scary Larry 01:21:25 Letting go creatively, insane venues & production 01:24:40 Taylor Swift is genuinely brilliant 01:31:46 Curating a Churchlike experience 01:33:58 Real connection with fans 01:37:22 Being lucky + dreaming BIG 01:40:51 Dreaming unrealistically 01:45:01 Dream collaborations + That Mexican OT 01:49:31 The Weeknd & maintaining mystery 01:53:25 Travis Scott + Lil Yachty are elite 01:57:37 Shrooms to create + constantly uncomfortable 02:00:55 Feeling like you’ve said everything 02:04:54 Time to decompress properly + cycle writing 02:09:41 Jelly Roll able to vocalise what we feel 02:10:14 Genius of Willie Nelson + creating authentically 02:14:05 Being rich makes you political 02:16:33 Jelly’s relationship with God & Church 02:22:16 The Church will die by weaponising Jesus 02:26:49 The feeling that DMX created 02:28:58 Abusing power + bringing people to God 02:34:47 All boats are floating 02:35:53 RAPID CITY BUY DEM TICKETS
Transcript
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What's up everybody, welcome to Flagrant.
Today, this episode is long overdue.
This guest is one of, I would say, the show's favorite people on the planet.
We almost ruined his career by doing a fun little song in Miami.
We feel absolutely horrible about it.
We started culture with this man.
We changed the name of Giant Titties to the Heavies with this man.
We got Jelly Roll and the motherfucking Bills.
Let's go, Jelly!
Yeah.
Jelly, tell us how we almost, I mean, you were on this, like, superstar trajectory that, yes, you have gotten to now,
but it almost came to a screeching halt after one day with us.
Tell us how it happened.
This is a true story.
I almost got canceled before I popped because just being your fucking friend, really.
Just fucking riding with the homies, just like whatever.
You know what I'm saying?
And the sad part is instead of getting canceled, I feel like we should have got an award.
We kind of single-handedly opened the country up.
I think so.
Like, literally.
I think so.
In the middle of time where people were spraying Lysol with boxes, we were having pool parties
and bragging about it on TV and trying to convince people it was the way to go.
That's it.
Simple as that.
Looking back, that was wild.
It was because we were in Florida, and no one in Florida took it seriously.
So we're like, all right, let's just write a country song about life here.
And I remember having even family from New York call me.
They're like, what's going on?
Yeah.
Like, what is happening?
Is everything okay?
Are you not taking this serious?
And for everybody that's watching right now, we wrote this song.
I think we were in Nashville.
I was doing shows in Nashville.
Yeah.
And you were in town and we had been, you know, DMing.
And I was like, yo, can we pull up on you?
Can we just hang?
And I'm like, what if we write a fucking country song?
Yeah.
And you organized like some legit country brilliant singers and composers.
Oh yeah.
And we sat down in your studio, which was in this like.
In the middle of Music Row, by the way,
in a house on Music Row, right in the middle of,
right next to Warner Brothers.
Yeah, that's right.
That's where we were that day.
Yeah, and we wrote Open Her Up.
Yeah.
And by we, I mean you guys wrote Open Her Up.
Yeah.
And we took all the credit.
We wrote it with your punchlines.
We wrote it with y'all's punchlines.
Some prominent people that we can't even say.
I told a story last night to some country radio guys backstage, and I can't say his name.
I wish I could.
But a multi-platinum guy was telling this same story because I was talking about doing this today, and the radio dude was a big fan of the show.
And I was like, you know Bubba Longstroke
that wrote that song is such and such?
And he was like, you're shitting me.
I was like, yeah, dude,
we drug that dude out of the house that day.
And by the end of the song, he was like,
I can't have my name on this.
And then I fucked up, because I love y'all so much,
I doubled down and put a rap verse on it.
Fire, fire verse.
I should have known something was up
when the other country dude in the room was like,
yo, I can't even have my name on the writer's sheet.
And I was like, let's shoot a video.
When a country artist is like,
yo, you're not taking COVID seriously enough,
that's crazy.
That's crazy.
Bubba Longstroke.
Bubba Longstroke.
Can we say who did it?
Garth Brooks.
Yeah.
Garth did it, man.
Shout out to Garth Brooks. Yeah. Garth did it, man.
Shout out to Garth, bro.
No, it is an incredibly successful country artist that shared his time with us. He did.
In between pig hunts.
He came in like full pig hunting.
He showed up with blood on his shoes.
It was fucking.
That he just was like threw on the ground like that.
Yeah.
It was like a real experience.
And then we wrote this and then you came down to Miami to film it.
Yeah, that's where I met you.
Yes, and we partied.
Bro, and I remember we were in the,
we were at the house.
My house had a pool in it.
And this was so funny.
Do you remember?
And then we had the two girls
that are now the heavy queens, right?
And we got you in a boat in the middle of the pool.
And then you were like, you were like.
I don't think we ever got me in the boat.
No, we did.
We got you in the boat.
I remember I ate shit.
It was a tough time.
It was a tough time.
But we did it.
I ate shit.
So many times for us to get in that boat, man.
Yeah, we had a couple of the Jaws lines.
Like, we're going to need a bigger boat.
Look at them.
But you got in the boat.
And this was the funniest thing. And you just go at one point there you go at one point you just go uh
all right all right i'm in the boat where the bitch is at the bitch is ready to go
he said it even more casual he's like i'll be here you put the two bitches right here
these are the directions my favorite part of that is I remember when I said it,
I looked, everybody else looked kind of like, what?
And the two girls were like, yeah, well, just sit right here.
And I was like, fucking.
You're like, bitches are here.
I said it in the most endearing way, though.
Like, you know, I say it, I fucking grew up in the 90s
and I talk like it, you know what I'm saying?
I was like, fuck.
And that wasn't what got me canceled.
So what happens?
Song comes out and then what happens?
I had a publicist for no shit, like 72 hours.
I'm not bullshitting.
I sent them the money and they were, I've never said the name.
Can I?
I think you have.
I'll say the fucking name.
You won't get in trouble.
So it was IDPR.
Yeah, you have said the name.
Which is like one of the biggest PR companies.
They represent Kevin Spacey, by the way.
Yeah, fucking wow.
I don't want to say that.
I've represented Kevin Spacey through the whole thing.
I want to put that out now for what you're about to say.
Go on.
You might need a publicist for that, by the way.
We sent them the money.
It's the first publicist I ever had, by the way.
So I'm all excited.
It's crazy expensive.
And we sent them the way. So I'm all excited that it's crazy expensive. And we sent them the money, and
three days later, they were like,
they sent an email over to Go's,
we need to speak
about this Andrew Schultz song.
And I was like, oh, fuck.
And the way it said, at first, I kind
of read it the other way, like, we need to speak about
this Andrew Schultz song.
See what I'm saying?
I was like, we're getting traction, baby what I'm saying? I was like,
we're getting traction
and baby,
it's happening.
I was like,
this is it.
So funny.
So you call it up
jolly.
It was good.
We did it.
We opened it up.
I was like,
you got morning TV
or something?
I was thinking,
this is it, dude.
And they were like,
we've turned around.
They literally sent me my money back, dropped me as a client that day.
They sent me my money back.
That's the best thing that ever happened.
You know how offended somebody has to be to give you your money back?
You know what I'm saying?
To say my money wasn't green?
God.
And they kept Kevin Spacey as a client. And I know that because an agent called me.
He goes, I can't fucking believe this.
He goes, one of my friends is a girl who works over there.
And she's rolling her eyes at this shit because they kept on Kevin Spacey while people were saying that he was murdering his rape accusers.
So not only did he have accusers, they were just dying randomly.
And IDP was like, I think we can work this out.
COVID doesn't even hurt kids.
That's it. Kids are completely safe with COVID. lying randomly and IDP was like, I think we can work this out. And COVID doesn't even hurt kids. You know what I mean?
That's it.
Kids are completely safe with COVID.
Look, I think it would have been one thing if I would have like done it with Bubba Longstroke.
That'd be crazy.
But like I did it with a comic.
I did it with a comedian and wrote it with a bunch of comedians and had a bunch of fucking
comedians in the video bunch of fucking comedians
in the video.
It was clearly in satire.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
But also 100% how we feel.
As comedy should be.
It's the way I prefer my comedy.
But it's like, and we ended up being right.
It's the wildest part.
That is the kind of- We stood the test of time through all this
shit.
You know what I mean?
If my fat ass was down there, not worried about it, I feel like that should have been a beacon of hope through all this shit. You know what I mean? If my fat ass was down there not worried about it,
I feel like that should have been a beacon of hope for the whole country.
That's a good-ass point.
You're putting your life on the line.
I'm like, yo, fucking let's go.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm COVID's dream.
You know what I mean?
I'm a honeypot.
I'm like, God, this is him.
He's on the way.
I can't believe we made him come to Miami.
Everything is open.
We loved it.
We went bar hopping.
But I remember you said, this is when I realized how divided the country is.
You were talking about being in Nashville, and you were like, yo, if you wear a mask in Nashville, people are going to think you have COVID and be more scared of you than someone who's not wearing a mask.
That's true.
Whereas in New York, dude, people would get off elevators.
It was crazy.
Yeah, well, if you wore a mask
in Nashville during that time,
we just assumed you were really sick.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And it wasn't even a,
like I was telling somebody about it.
It wasn't a political thing for me.
It was like just what I seen.
Yeah.
When I went to Boston that year
and they were like,
I got in trouble for walking down
the sidewalk without a mask
by a police officer.
That's crazy.
I was like, whoa, this is like a way different thing up here than it was down there.
You know what I mean?
Like it was, it never got presented to us like it was bad.
Okay, so I remember when we were last, when we last connected in Nashville, well, I guess
that's even before the video, but we connected in Nashville, you were kind of like breaking
down, you were bringing down the biz to me and how you managed
to maintain your independence
and then you had these songs
fucking explode
and then because of that,
there was all this success
and you were really
breaking down
music industry stuff.
From then,
it feels like you've
10X'd or something like that.
It's crazy, right?
Dude, I was telling them
and I had to quit
talking to them about it
because I wanted to make sure
we were all here on the pod.
I think that's the kinship we all feel with each other, too.
I think that's why y'all love me so much and I love y'all so much is that it's been the most unique thing to watch two groups of people that do totally different things that have somehow met three, four years ago and went on the exact same parallel trajectory.
Yeah.
on the exact same parallel trajectory. Like I'm looking last night as I'm coming off stage
in an amphitheater to see that you just sold one out
in fucking Australia.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like immediately I'm like how awesome is this?
You know what I'm saying?
To see this fucking like,
and it happened to like good people
that really worked and figured it out
and kind of did it however the fuck they wanted to do.
So before you pile the praises on me,
which I want to hear for sure. I'm here for them. Don't worry.
I just want to say that I think it's been a mutual thing to watch.
That is the exciting thing. It's another thing. There's Israel's stylebender Adesanya,
the UFC fighter. And he's another guy that he came on flagrant early when we were in a
tiny little recording studio with a TV propped up at the back.
And then we've seen him go on to become UFC champion and kind of felt both of ourselves kind of rising at the same time.
And I wonder if the kinship has developed not only mutual respect, but mutual experience.
You know that that person is also experiencing these weird things that you're experiencing that you can't really communicate to everybody at the same time.
I wonder if that, as you've gotten to this level of superstardom, have you dealt with,
I don't even know how to phrase it.
I was feeling it last night where it was just like, you ever see the venues perform and
you just laugh?
Yeah.
You're like, what the fuck is going on?
Like, how did you process that?
How do you process the ridiculousness
of thousands of people just watching you do?
I can't.
I'm still so like, it's like I feel comfortable here
because we're friends.
Yeah.
But to know that I'm coming here leaving Fox and Friends in the middle of a sold-out fucking amphitheater tour.
Like, I was just telling Dove, I don't know how to say this without it sounding like I'm bragging.
But, you know, does that make sense to you?
That's a new thing in life for me, too.
Your normal life feels like you're bragging.
That's why you don't want to tell anybody about it.
For sure.
It's like, you just keep, you're just like, I want to tell everybody.
That's why rich people just hang out with rich people.
They get the country club so they can talk about their problems. They seem like bragging everybody else. For sure. It's like you just keep, you're just like, I want to tell everybody. That's why rich people just hang out with rich people. They get the country clubs
so they can talk about their problems.
They seem like bragging
everybody else.
Yeah, for sure.
Like you can't say
I lost a million
to your friend who works at UPS.
Yeah, for sure.
100 if I hadn't bought him
a couple cars at the first time.
I think about,
we're going to play Pittsburgh.
I want to play it
right before this airs.
And we'll do 23,000 people on a Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
Holy shit.
23.
Holy shit, dude.
On a Tuesday, dude, in fucking Pittsburgh.
And it's not like that's the only market play.
We're playing Detroit three hours up the street.
We just played Virginia.
I mean, we're within the market space of it.
We're playing two spots in Ohio, Cleveland.
You know what I mean?
It's not like I had to get an entire region of the country to come to Pittsburgh.
And that's what's even crazier because that's the real inside baseball that we can talk about.
You can't talk about with most people, right?
It's like, you know, sometimes you'll have a show do really good because you strategically placed it in a place where you're like,
I think I can get this city to make the drive, this city to make the drive and I can make one big effort.
So you really pull three different cities into one place.
For sure.
But this tour- I'm hitting them all, dude.
I'm going about every 220 miles, dude.
We're stopping that fucking bus and playing the show, man.
So for the people that don't know you now that are listening to the pod for the first
time, I want them to get an understanding of kind of where you came from and why this is so insane.
Because what is it,
like 14 to 25 you're in jail?
Yes, sir.
Okay, first time you go to jail
for?
First time was like,
I was probably like 13 and
it was like weed or something.
I think I stole something.
Okay. And then at 14,
I caught a robbery case.
And that's where it went down.
Robbed, that's the big
poor weed. Yeah, it was a drug
deal gone bad. It was a drug deal gone bad.
It was a drug deal gone bad.
Wait, for the person you robbed?
For them, for sure.
Yeah, yeah. It ended up going.
What a great way to describe
a robbing drug dealer.
Drug deal gone great, actually.
So you planned to rob them?
Yeah, it went good for me
until I got arrested.
We all got screwed in the end,
you know?
Well, how do you get,
how do you get arrested
for robbing a drug dealer?
Because they can't go to the cops.
Well, they went to the cops for what they could.
It's like if Alex sticks me up right now and he takes my watch and my weed and my cocaine.
And then I'm just like, he took my watch.
You know what I'm saying?
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
And that's what happened.
That watch is nice.
Yeah, for sure.
I think I'm proud of it.
Tour announcement.
Australia, thank you.
Thank you, you crazy motherfuckers.
That was insane.
We got to add some shows.
Perth, we're adding another show.
That's going to be Monday the 13th, okay?
Sydney, we are adding another show.
This is going to be Friday the 17th.
Both of those are on sale right now.
You can go get tickets to those.
Thank you guys so much for blowing out this pre-sale.
This is unbelievable.
We're also gonna be in Adelaide, Melbourne, and Brisbane.
If there are any tickets left to those shows, go now, get them.
Again, thank you so much.
This has been unbelievable.
Also, Canada.
We're coming to Niagara Falls on the 22nd, and then we're coming to Windsor, Ontario on the 23rd.
If you couldn't get tickets to the Toronto shows at Scotiabank Arena, I would recommend
getting tickets to both of those places.
And no, we are not leaving you out Alberta.
Mark and I are gonna be coming to do the great outdoors fest, okay?
That's gonna be August 27th in Calgary, Calgary, Calgary.
Okay, pull up on us there.
And also Dublin, the Three Arena,
absolutely magnificent venue.
Very excited to start out
the European tour with you
freckled fucking gremlins.
I'm just joking.
I love you all.
I love you all Irish people. Let's go Ireland. I'm just joking. I love you all. I love you all, Irish people.
Let's go, Ireland.
I'm a quarter Irish.
Don't do that, huh?
No, I have an Irish friend.
Don't make that, come on.
Hey, I have an Irish friend.
You said what you said.
What, I did?
Yeah, dude.
But I'm Irish.
I'm a little Irish, so I can say what they look like.
You're not Irish.
No?
No.
Are you sure?
Yes.
All right, damn.
You fucking spotted banana-looking motherfuckers. Can we just? Okay, I'm blocking. No? No. Are you sure? Yes. All right, damn. You fucking spotted banana looking motherfuckers.
Can we just?
Okay, I'm walking.
I'm walking.
Listen, I love the Irish.
Look at all the art that came out of Ireland.
Okay.
Look at the poetry, the writing.
Brave?
Brave is Scottish, you fucking racist.
Damn it.
I'm tired.
I'm sorry.
I'm fucking tired.
Ireland, I'm so sorry.
I am tired of Americans
mixing up white people
from up there
from white people places
it's disgusting to me so I apologize
on behalf of them but Ireland
we're coming and we're gonna look right into
your fucking bloodshot skin
what?
what?
what?
we love you
we're gonna see you soon.
Okay?
Peace.
Now, are you like, you have a gun at the time?
Like, how are you robbing these people?
Yeah, we was arm robbing.
That's what made it.
And I never, you know, I never shy away from like, because I talk about it so lightheartedly.
For one reason, it was 20-something years ago, right?
Yeah.
But two, I never want to take away from it, Schultz. It was bad. It was wrong. As an adult
male, I look back and I've had guns in my face now. That was never the right way to approach
people. Even when I became a hustler later in life and quit robbing, I had more respect for
the hustlers and the robbers. You know what I mean? That's just not an avenue. There's no glory
in that. But yeah, it was an armed robbery case. And the part of the story that we don't tell publicly, but I'll tell on y'all shit is that
I caught another armed robbery case when I was 15. So I went and did like 16,
18 months and came home and got another robbery case.
Oh, shit. Same thing, drug deal gone right?
For sure. Same exact thing. Did you ever get in touch with the guy that you robbed dude i thought about reaching out to this guy recently just because you know my spirit
has changed so much and i was like i'm afraid this dude would shake me down right like i hate to say
it but i thought to myself like i like i go you know i'm surprised this dude hadn't sued me
anyways like i'm just waiting on his lawsuit to come in yeah because i'm sure if he still hates
me and doesn't want to accept
my apology,
he's like,
this fat fuck is profiting
from my pain.
You know what I mean?
It's like,
don't give him
no ideas right now.
It's like,
you know what,
that's my nightmare.
I mean,
the guy was a drug dealer,
so if you're going to talk
about profiting off a pain,
you don't have a lot of room.
We was all,
you know,
my dad used to say it this way,
like,
never be a snake
unless you're in a snake pit.
You know what I mean?
And that's how I felt
about the streets.
Like Omar shit.
Yeah.
And what led you to the streets?
What's happening at home?
So, you know,
just middle, lower class.
You know, I try to buy
my old childhood house
like every rapper on earth.
You know what I'm saying?
Right?
It's like...
You think a chain
is a bad investment.
That is what every person said.
Behind your trauma cabin.
The best part is they turned down my offer,
and I offered insane money for what this fucking shack was worth.
And they turned down my money, and my manager was finally like,
what was you going to do?
I was like, I don't know, go in there and cry, I guess.
Have a therapy session.
Go there and fucking play basketball by myself or something. I don't know. You know what I'm
thinking through. But I went to the house and it's like, it's so funny because I guess we grew
up poor, but I didn't feel like it because I never wanted. My father was a hustler. He booked
bets on the side. So if I want to choose, you know, it wasn't that thing. But then I go back
to the house that I grew up in that I felt like was a pretty big middle-class house.
I was like, oh no, this is like my garage.
You know what I'm saying?
It was insane.
I was like, this motherfucker is small.
You know what I'm saying?
And my mother was a woman who dealt with mental health
and drug addiction.
What was the drug?
She started with pills.
Just big pharma, you know, they'll give them to you so easy.
And she just, you know, she would, but she was like very reclusive.
She never left her room, like ever.
But when she would, I would watch the temperature of the house change.
In what way?
Like, oh, it would come alive.
Dude, when my mama came down them steps and sat at that table,
she'd turn a record on and light a cigarette.
And I'm not shitting you, dude.
I would watch neighbors flood into the house and she would hold fucking court. She would light cigarettes up and she'd
tell these old fucking wild stories and play these records and like just fucking, she would create
such a cool atmosphere. But this was something that would happen. I'm not shitting you twice a
year. You know what I mean? Like I can't remember a time I seen my
mother outside of a room. I didn't
see my mother outside of a nightgown until I
went to court when
I was getting tried as an adult when I was 17.
And she showed up to the court
in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt.
I've never seen her not in a nightgown in my life.
So she was afraid to leave the
house? Yeah. Agoraflora?
And I was like, fancy, fancy. I was like, yo, this bitch dressed up. Put of her. Yeah. And I was like, fancy, fancy.
I was like, yo, this bitch dressed up.
Put her nice sweatpants on.
You know what I'm saying?
I was like, yo, I might get out.
I was like, fucking somebody cares about me.
You know what I'm saying?
I was like, yeah.
She got her sweatpants on?
Yeah.
Her Vols sweatpants?
Let's go.
I was like, she's wearing house slippers still?
I was like, yo, we're in the money.
I didn't expect her to have two.
This was a step.
You remember the Might Be a Redneck books? Yes. You remember the lady in the muumuu with the cigarette? Yeah, yo, we're in the money. I didn't expect her to have a cigarette. This was a step. You remember the Might Be a Redneck books?
Yes.
You remember the lady in the muumuu with the cigarette?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I've spent years of my life thinking about calling Jeff Foxworthy and just going, where the fuck did you dream this bitch up?
Because I grew up with her.
You know what I'm saying?
I know exactly what that woman looks like.
It's my mom.
You know what I mean?
But I think that's where my love of music came from. Because what happened? It lit her up a bit? Dude, man, she looks like. It's my mom. You know what I mean? But I think that's where my love of music came from.
Because what happened?
It lit her up a bit?
Dude, man, she was like,
oh, and like,
she'd light up and dance
or she'd cry.
She'd play
Bette Midler, The Rose.
And dude,
I'd watch the whole house cry.
And we're all like,
in hindsight,
it's like kind of funny,
but it's like, you know,
we're all grouped around
like huddling around a radio
like it's fucking 1962
or something. You know what I mean? And we're all crying together listening touddling around a radio like it's fucking 1962 or something.
You know what I mean?
And we're all crying together listening to the Rose for the hundredth time.
Dude, it's weird when you're young and you have this like protective instinct over your parents because, you know, the roles are completely reversed.
But I remember as a kid, you know, my dad would deal with like depression a lot, you know, and he was kind of like open with it.
He'd be like, yeah, I'm just feeling a little depressed or whatever.
And I thought the way to fix him was making him laugh.
Wow.
So when I saw him like watch or listen to Eddie Murphy's delirious for the first time,
I saw him laughing uncontrollably.
I was like, oh, that's it.
That's the fix.
And I guarantee my appreciation of comedy, love of comedy probably comes from that,
that feeling of, wow,
maybe I could control this thing that my hero is dealing with. I used to bring him to the comedy cellar when I was a teenager when he would tell me he was depressed. I'd be like, well,
let's go to a comedy show, Dad. That'll make you feel better. And I wonder if that's like,
you saw the way that music affected your mom. It's making me tear up thinking hearing you tell that story. Yeah.
God, it's wild.
I think it's like probably the most similar story I've ever heard to mine.
Yeah.
Because I would come down with like raps because I didn't know I could sing, right?
Because like our family, when we sang as a group, had a real big white trash family.
We're like, where's white trash you expect us to be?
You would never be let down if you met my family. You'd instantly be like, that's what I thought
it was going to be, you know?
But I would come down
with these raps
because we'd all sing as a family
and we all sounded like
a bunch of drunk alley cats.
So I just assumed
I fucking sucked
like the rest of the family.
But I could understand hip hop
and it was the language
of the neighborhood too.
You know what I'm saying?
It was our culture.
So I would come down
with like raps or poems
or something.
You know what I mean?
Because I would translate that the music was like, and that's crazy.
I'm not even crying about my shit.
I cry about my shit all the time.
It's just crazy how similar that is for you that like, that you can even pinpoint.
It was the rose for me.
And I think that's why I write sad songs.
It was the what for you?
It was the rose.
It was Bette Miller's The Rose.
Like delirious for you, right?
Yep, yep.
It was the rose for me.
Because you saw her lit them up.
Is that why you have the rose? That's why I got the rose on my head too yep that's why in the song same
asshole i said a couple of crosses and a black rose yeah so it's crazy but that was the song so
it's like for you it was delirious for me it was like i've just to this day i tell people i'm
spent my whole life trying to write the rose and fire and. What's the closest you've gotten? Save Me. Yeah, I fucking...
Yeah.
So I hadn't heard your music when we met.
I played that.
No, actually, he played the opener before we met.
And then on the way home, I played Save Me.
There's not many songs I remember like a flashbulb memory.
You know what I mean?
Like, people remember exactly where they were in 9-11.
I remember exactly what I was doing when I heard Save Me.
Oh, wow.
That shit, I listened to it again on the way here.
I listened to your new album, Amazing. And then I was going through old shit, and I got emotional listening to Save Me.
Yeah.
What made you write that song?
Where'd it come from?
Dude, you know what's funny, man, is that I think, as fucked up as it sounds, probably just like a lifetime of pain.
You know what I mean?
And being not even just mine, like, I'm empathic by nature, so. So like what I felt from where I grew up, like
it wasn't until I was in my twenties that I realized that drug addiction was like,
not normal. Wow. You know what I mean? Does that make sense? Like, you know, like
I literally was in my twenties before I was like, hold on, people know people that aren't on drugs.
Like that's a concept in life that like, that blew my fucking mind that there was an entire,
you know what I mean?
I never seen nobody not do drugs.
I mean, I knew from a young, I mean, even-
Do you remember the moment?
Yeah, well, sort of.
I was in a program in jail and this lady was explaining,
like they kept hammering that kind of into us
in the program of like,
hey, there's a whole nother life out here
that y'all aren't even familiar with.
And I'm like, and I still didn't believe the concept. I'm like, Lainey, rich people do cocaine.
That's how we thought, because I sold rich people cocaine. You know what I mean? Because I sold a
bunch of rich people cocaine. So I was like, I know rich people do drugs. I sell it to them all
the time. I got to the point where later in my drug career, I targeted them. I went to the
hill and sent out the bar. Way safer. Way like you waiting to rob you.
They never had a scale to check and see if you were trying to get over.
They were happy with whatever you gave them.
You know what I'm saying?
It was fucking awesome.
You know, and she was, and I just, but it was like that concept and that program started to stick to me.
And I was like, damn.
And then you start meeting people and you like go to therapy and you start getting real things in your life.
You're like, oh yeah, no, this was kind of different.
You know what I mean?
Like, though extremely normal for us,
it was like extremely, extremely,
I don't know if that makes any sense,
but I don't think it even.
When you were younger,
did you have animosity towards rich people?
Did they frustrate you?
Were you angry about them?
No, no, because I had,
I was like one of them guys
that had a richer side of the family.
And I never, and yeah,
and some of my family members were a little more, but I never felt that way about them.
Plus, I never really realized how much, like, I'm trying to, my dad booked bets.
He was a hustler hustler.
So, like, he never didn't have a pocket full of money.
Like, you know what I mean? Like, we lived a poor life, but ultimately, there wasn't one person in that house.
If they wanted a pair of Jordans, dude, figure it out.
So even your rich side of the family was
doing drugs, doing whatever.
Yeah, I had a cousin over there that was a drug addict, too.
You know what I mean?
So even my best case, but the difference now
that I look back at it is, that side of the family
had one drug addict.
We had 12. You know what I mean?
You feel me? And that was the thing, but it's like
I just never even, you know, I just didn't process it.
But equally, we're doing this amphitheater tour right now.
I didn't realize you could see a concert indoors until I was 20.
We had an amphitheater right by my house, dude.
And we fucking get lawn tickets for like $12, $7.
I seen Lollapalooza 97 for like $8.
You know what I mean?
For real.
Tool. Snoop Dogg. Fucking know what I mean? For real.
Tool, Snoop Dogg, fucking Korn, Damian Marley, Prada.
Do you remember that?
Freed the press job.
I'll never forget that, dude. I'm like 14 on the line.
It cost us like eight bucks.
And in my 20s, my dad was like, we should go see Elton John.
He's playing in the arena.
And I was like, they do concerts at the arena?
You know what I'm saying?
I was like, whoa do concerts at the arena? You know what I'm saying? I was like,
whoa, this is crazy.
You know, I just thought you only did concerts fucking outdoors during three months
a year, you know? Fuck.
Interesting. Yeah, because we go to all the concerts and shit.
Y'all ever go to like amphitheater shows?
Like, I've seen. Sit up on the lawn
and party and fucking slide down the
hill when the rain was there. It was called Starwood Amphitheater.
My dream, listen y'all, this is my camera dove.
My dream is for somebody at Live Nation to see this podcast
and help me reopen Starwood for two nights next year.
What's Starwood?
It's the amphitheater I went to as a child.
They closed it down, but the ground is still there.
The grounds are there.
It's just overgrown.
And I'm like, I'm willing to lose the money if they'll let me clean it out and throw up a 750 stage for a fucking weekend and do the jelly fest there.
That'd be great.
Dude, it'd be like the greatest thing ever.
The only thing better than that for me would be playing Nissan Stadium where the Titans play.
You know what I mean?
Holy shit.
Is that the other dream? Oh, the Titans play. You know what I mean? Holy shit. Is that the other dream?
Oh, you know it.
You know what I'm doing so bad.
If I don't never play
another stadium on earth,
if I could just squeak
one out in the hometown.
Yeah, that'd be crazy.
And you know,
we're getting that new stadium
in 25.
But you want to get there
before you would rather do it.
Yeah, because they were like,
would you rather be
the last person?
It was like a hypothetical thing,
but they were like,
would you rather be
the last person
to play Nissan Stadium
or would you rather be the first person to play the new
stadium? I was like, that new stadium is gonna be there for 100 years.
At old stadiums- About 20.
Yeah, is that the turnaround on these things?
Seems like it, yeah. Okay, take me back to Save Me real quick.
What is it about, there's something so special about music, right? It's like one song can
catapult someone to superstardom. They might have all the talent in the world. They might've written a hundred songs before that, might write
200 after that, but there's something that happens where it's magic, right? And some people have one
hit. Some people have, you have many, you know, there's some people that can recreate it, but
that was a magical moment that touched people. Sometimes it's honestly hard for me to listen to.
Like when I turn it on, I have to be prepared for it.
I can't do it before going to the club.
Yeah.
Because I won't.
I'll just sit back at home and I'll watch fucking Chef's Table.
Yeah, for sure.
That song brings me to tears every time.
Bro, exactly.
So what is it?
It brings out my hair.
What is it?
And do you ever find yourself trying to recreate it?
Yeah.
Thank you, by the way, brother.
That means a lot coming from the homies.
I don't know.
I can't even describe.
That sounds really poetic, and I'm not an artsy-fartsy guy, but I do love the art.
Yeah.
But it's like I dreamed of the melody of somebody save me.
Yeah.
Every now and then
I get a melody stuck in my head,
but it was so stuck in my head
that I went to,
you know how you can
hum in your Shazam now?
To try to make sure,
like am I tripping?
There's no way God
just dropped one of these off on me.
Oh, you thought
that it existed already?
Yeah, you know,
in my mind I'm like,
because you know like,
nothing news under the sun.
We're all doing
a different version of something.
You know what I mean?
So it was like,
for me it was just like,
let me just make sure
I'm not jazzing this.
So when I called my homie,
I'm like,
this is all I got.
He's like,
I think that's all we need.
You know,
and it's like,
I'll never forget.
When he said that,
I said,
we're on to something.
I played it back that night.
I sent it to my wife.
She hit me back and said,
biggest song of your life.
There's a comment on the video.
If you look at the YouTube,
the top comment is from you. And it says, hey guys, trying's a comment on the video, if you look at the YouTube, the top comment is from
you, and it says, hey guys, trying something a little different, let me know if you think
we should put it on the album or not.
What?
Just look at the top comment.
That's crazy.
How insane.
The biggest song of your career so far.
Wait, which one, the music video?
The music video.
I was that insecure about that I warned my crowd.
Like, hey, different content
alert. You know what I'm saying?
That's crazy. I forgot that, dude.
Right there. Hey, I know this is a little
different for me, but I'm wondering
if this should make the album or not.
Y'all let me know below.
160 million views later.
Put it on the fucking album, Jelly.
It's going on the second album it's been on.
It's crazy.
Yeah, comment, no.
Wasn't feeling it, man.
I'm curious about the take.
When you actually recorded this, was it just one take?
Did it feel special?
Did you do it a few times?
Yeah, it felt special.
Inside baseball, we did a few takes of it until we found the one we liked to pick a take from.
But we knew it, man.
My wife is like my biggest critic because she's not into my kind of shit.
She's like a rock and roll bitch, so she is just not into the fucking, you know, the old jelly roll shit.
And she hit me back and was like, this song is going to change your life forever.
Wow.
That's amazing.
Like, I'll never forget that text right then.
She hit me back and was like, this song's going to change your life forever.
Wow. That's amazing.
Like, I'll never forget that text right then.
And I played it for some dudes that worked on my car the next day.
Because I'm like, I'm still like nerdy.
Y'all know this.
I played y'all songs.
Like, I'm still a high school kid.
Like, if you give me an auxiliary cable or a Bluetooth, I guess now, and fucking, I will immediately be like, can I play you something?
I'm that guy, you know?
Yeah.
And the way they reacted was like, I'll never forget. I seen the dude getting choked up, and he said, play it one more time.
Whoa.
And I was like.
Yeah, and I was like, that's my core.
Like, that's who I know I'm writing songs for.
Anybody else I get is a bonus.
Like, I have this picture of people I'm writing towards.
You know what I mean?
And it's like, when he heard it, I was like, man, this is fixing to be special.
But, dude, I mean, this song is,
it's my next,
it's going to officially be
my next single
for country radio.
I put Laney Wilson on it.
This song,
it did it for me,
man.
It turned everybody around.
That's Dump Truck.
Yeah,
yeah.
That's the country artist
with the ass.
That's the,
yeah.
She had the fucking wagon,
bro.
It was crazy,
man.
Yeah,
she went viral for that.
Listen,
Blackfield found out about her.
They're like,
yo,
let's check out this country shit.
My favorite comment ever.
Black people forgave Morgan Whalen after that.
My favorite comment.
That's why he said the N-word.
He looked at Laney like.
My favorite comment under that stuff when she first started going viral for it was when somebody said, I didn't know country music was coming like that.
Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a great feature. Started going viral for it was when somebody said I didn't know country music was coming like yeah She got the mrs. Incredible
I hear the music through the screen right now. Oh, that's fucking great man. My first time you ever see me get shy on here boy
That's my friend. I'm just watching. You can't comment.
I'm my homie.
You can't comment.
Somebody needs to see me from there.
All right, get it out.
I'm about to get diabetes.
She's the best sport about it, too.
Like, for that, like, she took it in stride and ran with it.
Like, her message is so pure.
She didn't run with it.
She's like, she's so country.
She's so country.
She said, Jelly, if my big old butt got them to hear the music, I'm okay with that.
Whatever gets you there.
Yeah, for sure.
And she's got the songs, too, so all she needed was somebody to look at them or hear them after they looked at hers.
In that order, it worked out for her.
She's on clean fucking fire now. Now, she's great on Sammy, too. out for her, dude. She's on clean fucking fire now.
Now she's great on Save Me, too.
She's great on Save Me.
Yeah, she's special.
She'd come on,
she'd do,
y'all need Ben.
Yeah, we need to get Lenny, man.
For real, Lenny'd come up here
and she's a hoot, dude.
She is a Louisiana firecracker.
She's country,
it's called Slaw, dog.
Listen,
she is a different kind
of country, dude.
Really?
Hell yeah, dude.
And her story's so amazing.
She lived in a camper
and wrote songs in Nashville for like seven years, like a KOA or some shit.
Like just, they called her Camper Girl.
They'd be like, you writing with Camper Girl today and shit like that?
And she's literally, you know, probably like the sixth or seventh arena act in country music women's history.
Wow.
What is she, deadlift?
She squats at least 600.
I fucking hate y'all.
Activate that.
Blues, lady, we love you.
We need you on the pod.
Okay, so what is it like?
What is it like?
Fucking hate you.
Hold on.
I need to know.
It was a mistake.
We love you, lady.
We love you.
Trust me.
Everybody's going to the Instagram page.
Okay. Boston always says, looking going to the Instagram page. Okay.
Boston always says, looking for the fats, not the flats.
Looking for the fats, not the flats.
That's fat.
Yeah, it's his slogan on tour.
Yeah, man.
Okay, so what is it like?
Do you remember the moment where you felt like the song was out of here?
Oh, fuck, immediately.
Escape velocity, right?
Where do you put that?
Is it on YouTube, is it on the radio?
Like at what point?
YouTube, YouTube's where I started.
So you gotta think, before I signed my record deal,
I'd already had a billion views on the channel.
Yeah. Right?
You know what I mean?
I'd already built a channel.
YouTube was my first love by a landslide.
YouTube was, hot take, the first place for an artist
to have music streamed,
maybe besides Pandora,
anywhere.
Like a place where you could
independently go hit the upload button
with just a fucking picture
or something and I could get my music
to people outside of like my space.
You know what I mean?
So it was, we started on YouTube early
and YouTube took it and just, man, it went. And it's kind of one of those things people outside of like my space. You know what I mean? So it was, we started on YouTube early
and YouTube took it and just, man, it went.
And it's kind of one of those things that was scary
because I felt like, how do you top this?
And that's why you were talking about that.
I try to write another one.
I immediately was like, get away.
I didn't try to write another acoustic song.
I was immediately like, go the complete other direction.
And then Son of a Sinner ended up being a big hit for me
and went number one at country radio and all that stuff happened. And then Son of a Sinner ended up being a big hit for me and went number one at Country Radio.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
All that stuff happened.
And then even then,
I was like,
you know,
what do you do?
Because you got to find,
you can't go back
to the same well.
Yep.
And then
Drop Need a Favor
is my first mid-tempo record
of my career.
And it's,
believe it or not,
probably the biggest hit
of my career right now.
Love.
Every night,
it's the moment in the set
where the crowd comes.
Really? Yeah, it's fucking it. Really? It's it, dude. It's the climax of the set. now. Love. Every night, it's the moment in the set where the crowd comes. Really?
Yeah, it's fucking it.
It's it, dude.
It's the climax of the set.
It's insane.
There's a,
yeah, I think there's a thing
that I think you find out
if you're more of an artist
or more of a attention whore
when you get success
and you either chase the thing
that got you the success or you chase the
art. Yes. And it's really difficult. I think a lot of times people end up doing this impression
of themselves and it's across all our forms. It can be in comedy, it can be music, whatever.
They're like, oh, this thing works. I'm going to keep replicating it. But sometimes the truest
thing is to continue to like challenge yourself, do something different, like find out what inside
is compelling you to continue to create.
And that's a tough decision because a lot of people don't have to make it
because they never got successful.
But it's hard when you buy a fucking $10 million house.
You know what I mean?
And you've got a fucking mortgage on it.
And it's like, oh, shit, that thing works.
Yeah.
We know what works.
It's so easy to try to go back to it.
Yeah, that's why I think it's great that you never do it.
Still to this day, something I learned even from working with y'all years back was y'all always adopted the philosophy I did because we worked together on that song.
So we got to see how each other do business, which was really cool for me.
And it's always chase the look, chase cool, chase culture, fuck money.
Fuck it.
Money will follow that eventually.
We probably still owe you money.
Yeah, no.
No, no, no.
No, no, no.
Y'all did.
Those three hours are not free.
No, no, no.
Y'all did incredible business.
Y'all were fun, fun to work with.
It's like, even then, it was like little decisions were made on that video set that was like,
do we spend the extra bread and make it look cool or not?
And everybody was like, make it look cool.
Yeah.
You don't worry about ROI.
You just worry about fucking like this. Like, I remember how big of a stretch it was was like, make it look cool. Yeah. You don't worry about ROI. You just worry about
fucking like this.
Like, I know how,
I remember how big of a stretch
it was when y'all built this place.
Yeah.
I'll never forget you
sitting on the couch
telling everybody you went broke
and your wife hated you.
You know what I'm saying?
You were like fucking,
you know what I mean?
It's like, you know.
But chase the art, man.
Chase the art.
Push the art.
Y'all deserve something
that looked fucking cool.
You know, it's like,
even with the show
we're doing now, man,
I mean, you know,
we still got a couple tickets available.
Jellyroll615.com for any Jellyroll needs you have.
Yo, get out to the show.
Get out to the show.
But the whole tour itself is like 90-something percent sold.
Wow.
And it's like, so I'm not even saying this to try to sell tickets, but I'd appreciate it if you bought some.
But I brought the production shows.
I did it fucking right.
You have to. You know what I mean? Like, i did it fucking right you have to you
know what i mean like i did it the way you're supposed to do it like you know i did it like
when y'all first went played them big rooms and you were like fucking blow it out dog like
i went and had a moment where i was like man how much shit can we fit on that stage yeah yeah you
know what i mean like i want to bring an arena show to these amphitheaters yeah you know what
i mean like that's the vibe I want to get off.
You were telling us before the pod,
you're performing four to five times a week on this tour.
I'm doing crazy.
Yep, four to five times a week.
Technically, four and a half.
I think it's 54 cities in 11 weeks.
Now, I know you work really hard on maintaining your voice.
With that many shows, what do you have to do in between
to rest, recover, all that?
Thursday's a day off for me.
Today was a day off, but I'll sleep the rest of the day,
and then Thursday I won't talk at all.
I won't say anything Thursday.
I'll just sleep, warm water, rest the vocals.
I know your wife loves Thursdays.
Yeah, yeah, it's fucking the day, son.
She just unloads.
Listen, I know.
Oh, bro, while I got you, motherfucker.
Oh, shit. Nah, I got you, motherfucker.
Oh, shit.
Nah, Bunny's cool, man.
She don't give a fuck about nothing, dude.
I got the coolest girl on earth.
Yo, you give her so much love, man. It's great seeing all these, like, there's so many, like, podcasts that you've been doing recently that have been going, these little moments going viral.
Obviously, the Rogan experience was great for you.
Oh, man.
But, you know, getting back into that relationship, I don't know.
It's something I
can also relate to. It's like getting somebody that is your partner and someone that you want
to build something with. I don't think it's a coincidence that my career has taken off.
I mean, obviously, there's a lot of other parts and these people deserve credit too,
all you guys. But having that person that's sturdy for you allows you to really focus.
Oh, for sure.
And also just quitting chasing tail.
Like just when you focus on one chick,
like my phone freed up so much space.
You know what I mean?
Of like all these little unnecessary,
just trying to drag along shits.
You know what I mean?
It's like, and man,
to have somebody that just really stands behind you.
Like Bunny is all about, she gets it.
Like, I sat down with her 18 months ago, and I'm like, look, there's a chance that if we do this right,
three years from now, we can look back and we can pave our own future forever.
But you just got to be patient with me and know that I'm fitting to be in the wind.
And, like, no hesitation.
She was like, I could have told her I was going to fucking Iraq.
And she'd have been like, like fucking see you when you get back
I trust it
like trust
like she's just like
that kind of support
that unwavering moment
where you're like
look you don't get to do this
you only get to do this
the first time
one time
that's it
if we come back around
God willing
I hope I come back around
but I'll be old news
we'll talk about
current events
next time I'm on this podcast
not the jelly roll story
right
did you
did you drop like a pickup line on her when you first met her?
Do you remember the first thing you said?
No, I was an asshole, man.
I looked at her and immediately assessed that it was fucking a problem.
You know what I'm saying?
I was just like, she had a dude at the time, and he was like super aggressive.
And just like it was a lot.
It was a lot of energy coming from that whole scenario.
This is, you met her in-
We met at a bar, dude, like fucking 1972.
It was awesome.
Old school, just at a bar.
I'm doing a soft ticket show on Fremont Street.
Nobody's there to see me.
I'm on stage with people.
People got their back turned to me having conversations.
It's one of those shows, right?
Fremont is downtown.
Old Vegas, yeah, downtown Vegas. Old Vegas. Yeah, old Vegas. And I just
immediately was attracted to her. Was she coming to see you or was she just going to the bar?
They were just at the bar. Yeah. Yeah, it was a total, it was just like, I guess,
maybe her dude at the time knew a dude that worked for me or something, but it wasn't like a,
we're coming to see Jelly Roll thing. It was like, yo, the homie's in town at a bar kind of thing. And that dude
ended up going to jail. And when he did,
she kind of reached out.
And I thought she was just being cool.
Just in general.
I was like, there's no way she's...
And then one night, she shot her shot.
And what'd she say?
She came into the room we were all in and just sat on my lap.
And we've been friends for like a year.
And I was like, yo, and you know
Bunny's got that goddamn thing on her
son.
Bubba, Bunny's got that thing on
her. So Bunny sits down and I'm
like, oh no, this ain't straight.
You know what I'm saying? I'm instantly like...
Did you get bricked? Well, she wouldn't have felt it
anyways.
I'm so fat, I could be fully
erect and standing up and nobody knows.
But she sat down and I was just like, man, there's no way this is happening.
I was like, this might be something.
And then we ended up at the little bar that night and had a couple of drinks and she kissed me.
And we went back to the house and, man, she tried to fuck me.
And I was like, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on.
I need to know what you're trying to do with your life
before I let you put that pussy on me
and fuck my life up.
What are you doing?
What are you?
You're the prize, Joe.
What are you trying to do?
Weren't you like homeless at the time?
Why are you judging, bro?
You homeless telling her?
Yes, and she picks on me about it to this day.
She said I asked her for her five-year plan.
I may have.
I was just like, I was intimidated, too.
Dude, this girl, like.
The balls on you.
This man living in a van.
The balls on you.
Living in a 96.
What do you want to do with your life?
I'm living in a van.
How dare you?
You got her resume?
Yo.
Where'd you graduate?
Were you at her house?
Yeah.
Well, I was sleeping on the couch.
And then I graduated to the bedroom. In her house? Yeah, in her house. sleeping on the couch, and then I graduated to the bedroom.
In her house?
Yeah, in her house.
So the first time she brings you—
She had a condom.
I'm extremely homeless, by the way.
Yeah, I understand.
If I couldn't sleep on her couch, I'd have slept in my van outside of her house.
And she had money money at this time, right?
She had real money, too.
I was intimidated, too.
I think maybe there was a side of me—it's embarrassing to admit this.
She's going to sit here and pick on me forever.
I was intimidated, too.
I think maybe there was a side of me that's embarrassing to admit that she's going to see this thing on me forever.
Maybe a side of me just stalled because she just walked in and I was like, this is wild.
You know what I mean?
I mean, like.
She was in lingerie or something?
No, she was completely naked.
She came out of the shower.
But just a woman that beautiful being into you. Just that beautiful.
Well, I've done okay for a big time.
God damn.
I have done.
That's how I fell on my wife.
That's what I did.
Don't put your shit on me. He's a rock star. He's a good have done. That's how I fell on my wife. That's what I did. Don't put your shit on him.
He's a rock star.
He's a good pussy, bro.
So what?
He sleeps on wheels.
Tell me I'm wrong.
Why'd he just did that?
Tell me I'm wrong.
Tell me I'm wrong.
You're wrong.
You're the fucking bitch.
Thank you.
I'm right-ish.
I will not let you take away from,
I will not be projected as the average fat person.
You was knocking him down, bro.
That was, oh, for sure.
You know what I'm saying?
My wife will tell you this.
Come on, man.
My wife will tell you this. I on, man. My wife will tell you this.
I was not hurting in the, you know,
I've done relatively well for myself
for what I have to offer.
In the pussy department.
For sure.
I believe that.
I've done extremely well
in every department, kind of.
I mean, you know, fuck,
I've done a lot with a lot, maybe.
In this weird way.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, yeah.
I've done a lot with a lot
holding me back.
There you go.
You know, but she just, it was something about her, too too that was like, man, I didn't, I knew immediately
as corny as it sounds that I didn't want to play that game.
Hold on.
So she comes in butt naked.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And kind of crawls up on me and I'm like, hold on now.
Regroup.
Timeout.
Timeout.
You know what I'm saying?
I'm like, let's chat about this.
I didn't see this escalate so quickly. you know what i'm saying i'm like let's let's chat about this i didn't see
this escalating so quickly we kind of went zero to a hundred okay i'm definitely a grower not a
shower second here to figure out what's happening i've been doing cocaine i'm fucking been drinking
it's like fucking let me give me a second here to figure this out okay what are we doing right now
she's probably never been rejected by a man ever in her life.
Yeah, for sure.
So what is going through her head in this moment?
What the fuck is wrong with you?
And she says that just like that.
And I'm like, what the fuck is wrong?
I'm just like, yo, like, are we just like fucking or what are we doing?
She was like, I really like you.
I was like, then cool.
What are we doing?
Like, what are you doing?
You know what I mean?
Like, what's our plan here?
Because, you know, don't, don't. I could tell this was entrapment. You know what are we doing? What are you doing? You know what I mean? What's our plan here? Because I could tell this was entrapment.
You know what I'm saying?
I was like, this is something different happening right here.
You thought she was a fed or something?
No, I just thought like, yo, don't have me out here looking silly.
You know what I mean?
Because we've been friends.
We were homies.
It was like-
You think she was going to try to steal your van?
Yeah.
She's going to, let's talk about
He's happy to be on my couch.
I'm just instantly getting snobby.
Like, hold on.
You fucking drink whole milk.
Okay, so you don't have sex that night?
No, we do.
Oh, you do?
Yeah, about 7 in the morning.
We talked for a while.
It kind of turned out being, she don't want to admit this part,
but it turned out kind of romantic, like in a really cool,
like we leveled with each other in a real way, and it was just like,
yo, I'm cool with us, just whatever,
but let's just not wake up tomorrow and have to deal with this.
What's up?
We've been friends a long time.
At this point, she's already helped me pick out a bed for my daughter,
and I'm trying to get custody of the kids.
She knows all these other factors.
She knows she's still in.
And I'm like, where are we?
You know where I'm at.
This ain't a serious thing.
That's cool, too.
Just where is this happening from?
You know what I mean?
Because you had feelings already.
I knew that I loved that girl.
I knew I loved her the night I met her at the bar.
Be real.
Were you stalling for the whiskey dick to wear?
For sure.
There was a lot of that. There was a lot of that.
59 AM.
He's like, oh yeah.
Showtime.
For sure.
I'm like, yo.
I just need a minute to breathe.
You've been feeding me alcohol and cocaine for seven hours.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like, golly.
Bum-ass city cities tour still going strong,
but first,
we do have tickets left
for one special taping
in Houston
at White Oak Music Hall
September 1st.
Hurry up and buy those tickets
before they sell out.
But bum-ass cities,
back to you.
Indianapolis,
I think it's called Nap Town.
I don't really know
to be honest with you.
I'm just trying to act
like I know things.
August 23rd,
I'm going to be there.
Louisville, Kentucky,
probably the only Indian there,
August 24th.
And then Poughkeepsie,
P-O-U-G-H-K-E-E-P-S-I-E.
I'm going to be there August 25th and 26th.
Those dates and more.
Oh, also Stress Factory, India.
When I say that, I mean New Jersey.
I need to see y'all at the Stress Factory.
I'm going to be there September 15th and 16th.
Get your tickets at akashsingh.com. Now let's get back to the show. Or maybe Mark's got some announcements.
Sorry. Just got off a call with Hollywood. Turns out we have a show in Virginia Beach.
That's right. This Thursday, August 17th, Virginia Beach, Virginia. Schultz's show is
sold out. You know whose show isn't sold out? Me and Derek Derek Post And that's where we're going to be
Virginia Beach, August 17th
And then in September
September 7th
We're at Vulcan Gas Company in Austin, Texas
Schultz, we're going down there
Guys, you know what you can do
Suck his penis after the show
Please don't
It's always an option
When we were in Brea, a lot of people tried to suck my penis
You're welcome I didn't like that one bit, all right? I didn't enjoy it.
But if you want to come out and maybe shake my hand or just say hello, Virginia Beach,
this Thursday, August 17th, and then Vulcan Gas Company, September 7th, Austin, Texas. I cannot
wait to see you guys. We're going to say hi to everyone afterwards. We're going to do a meet
and greet. I'm giving everyone a big hug. We're taking pictures with every single person that comes out.
Okay, this is inappropriate.
We can edit that part out.
I'll see you guys later.
You don't have to, though.
This is, my mom watches this.
Let's get back to the show.
The single best decision I've made in my whole life,
second to probably getting custody of Bailey, is Mary and Bunny.
And I always say Mary and Bunny was probably the biggest decision I ever made because I don't think I'd have got custody of my daughter without
her. And were you intimidated initially by her? She's successful. You know what I mean? Also,
like the line of work she's in initially is like, were you scared by that? Were you scared that you
were going to get like jealous? Were you scared that you were going to get your heart broken?
Like, no, whenever I was young. So when I made, I came out on bond at 17 where I got charged
in the door for the second robbery case.
And I immediately found a home in the local strip club.
And I had a couple ladies in there that I fancied and they fancied me.
So I kind of at early age age kind of just didn't care.
Like I understood the concept of these girls dance all night and then we go to fucking eat steak and shake and go home.
You know what I mean?
So like I always kind of separated that.
You were dating two girls at the same time from the same strip club?
Yeah.
It was a unique thing.
That was their name.
That was their name.
This motherfucker over here. Yeah, this is a true story. Unique thing, bro. Yeah, for sure. That was a unique thing. That was their name. That was their name. This motherfucker over here.
Yeah, this is a true story.
Unique thing, bro.
Yeah, for sure.
That was her name?
No, no, no, no, no.
Fetish and Cristal was their names.
Fetish?
That was their stage names.
I won't put their real names out there,
but they know who they are.
So both of them, were they friends with each other?
Yeah, they were-ish.
They kind of played, they played well together.
It wasn't like a, you know, I was messing with one girl and she knew I kind of messed with the other girl.
And the other girl worked multiple strip clubs.
But it was a, but.
Everybody was cool with it.
Yeah, the parallel was kind of, yeah.
Would you all kind of hook up together?
No, no, I never got that luxury at that moment.
Whose luxury is the third stripper?
No, Bunny brought the luxury, dude.
Bunny brought, the first two years me and Bunny were together,
man, she brought so many women
home. It was unreal.
Let's stop for a second. Could you imagine?
No, I'm imagining.
I'm imagining. I want you to
imagine there is a skinny dude
watching this right now with a six-pack
that has worked out every day of his life.
He has taken dating classes.
He's watched Hancock,
or which one was the Will Smith movie
about the dating thing?
He's watched Hitched a thousand times.
Yeah, he's Hancock.
And he's got to watch this podcast
and hear my fat ass talk about it three times.
You're like anti-Andrew Tate.
Yes!
Andrew Tate, you're,
okay, so she starts bringing girls in.
Does she tell you she's bringing girls home?
First thing, she was like, I knew that was something she was with for sure.
And then I didn't know how fast she would act on it.
First time, what happened?
Oh, Jesus.
You get the phone call or just she brings the pussy home?
No, we're just out with one of her friends.
And she just tells her friends, she's like, you should just come home with us.
It was crazy.
It was wild.
And I was like, at that moment, I was like, this could be my new normal.
And we did that for years. Did you get up immediately or did you
have to start a fucking seven? No, I didn't care about the other girl's five-year plan.
What's your five-minute plan? Our five-year plan involved this being a very short-term thing.
Now, did she have to like teach you how to have a threesome?
Yeah, sort of.
Bunny had to teach me a lot of stuff because I thought I was like, I'm still not, I'm still green as a pool table twice the square when it comes to sex in comparison to her.
Right.
You know what I mean?
Because the business she comes from, and that's something else that still intimidates me about Bunny, dude.
It's like, Bunny is like, you know, like, you ever heard of a such and such?
And I'll be like, never.
And she's like, it's a do-do-do, do-do-do.
And I'm like, it's the nastiest thing I've ever heard in my life.
You know, I'm like nothing.
I can't believe that arouses men.
You know, like she comes from that place.
You know, her story is the best story on earth.
She says the day that she got realized that it was different was this.
She was working at a strip club.
And I hope I tell the story right, Mama Bear.
She said that the girl came and the dude came and said, I'll give you $1,000 to kick me in the nuts right now.
Wow.
And she was like,
absolutely not.
So she goes and tells her homegirl,
that's fucking pervert
back here offering me $1,000
to kick him in the nuts.
Her homegirl goes,
follow me.
Walks over there and goes,
is this him?
He says, yes.
She walks up,
she goes, give me the money.
The dude hands the money
and the girl just kicks him
right in the nuts, right?
And then she looks at Bunny
and goes,
you better take that money
next time, girl.
And Bunny was like right then.
Do you know what I mean?
She's like fucking from,
I had some strip club stories, but not that.
You know what I'm saying?
For sure.
Holy shit.
Dude, we need to get Bunny on Flagrant.
Bunny's got the wildest stories on earth.
It is insane.
And you guys will talk about them?
You feel comfortable?
You're never like jealous
that she's telling old stories from the strip clubs?
Yeah, no, I'm not.
Jealousy is not a trait of mine.
How do you compartmentalize that?
Because that's the woman you love.
Yeah.
And then she's talking
about other guys.
Well, let me give you
this perspective, man,
was we're all homies here, right?
Yeah.
And I've watched y'all laugh
and talk about Lainey, right?
Like what dudes do
as a natural thing
is like we do dude stuff.
Then we'll call our wife our best friend.
We'll say none of that to her.
That's true.
You know what I'm saying?
So it's like-
I'll say it to her.
Yeah.
You got a fucking wagon.
Yeah, for sure.
But it's like where Bunny was like,
that was part of us being best friends was,
I think that's the charming part of our relationship
is that I can be like, yo, such and such is fucking fire.
Like, yo, I like I'll send Bunny Instagrams like, yo, you seen this girl?
You know what I mean?
Like Bunny's like it's never like an awkward thing with Bunny about stuff like that.
And I don't.
So in return.
And the problem is most dudes that have that relationship with their girl.
It's not the other way.
Like, but God forbid their girl
likes a dude's picture with his shirt off or something
and this same dude that gets possessive.
You're comfortable with that?
I'm super cool with that.
Really?
That don't bother me.
None of that stuff.
But man, that's my best friend, dude.
So if she was-
If Bunny really wanted to go fuck a dude,
it would be just like me and you being friends
and me being like,
yo, man, I kind of want to go fuck this girl.
Bunny would sit me down, look me in the eye and go, yo, I like really am attracted to this for whatever reason.
Like that's a big part of like we're best.
Like we're really we carry each other like this.
What do you mean?
And can I ask you if she's ever said that?
Has she ever been like I'm into she's ever said that? Has she ever been like, I'm into something? She's never actually, we had one time where me and her were in a rough patch and she was just like, yo,
if we don't figure this out, human nature is going to take over. You know what I mean?
And I respected that. You know what I mean? And I respected that, you know, that that was cool. And
that's just a part of our dynamic. I think it's what makes it, you know, communication, man,
just talking, being honest. This way we don't ever have to feel awkward. I never have to feel like I get caught on Instagram
when she's looking over my shoulder.
Also, there's no pretending with you guys
because she's seen you at your absolute lowest.
And I might have seen her with money,
but I've seen her at her lowest too.
Because that's something else, you know what I mean?
When like Bunny don't do no drugs now,
Bunny don't drink, I don't do cocaine no more.
Like we're relatively, you know.
I noticed your list is a lot less
restrictive than hers.
It's observation.
I definitely do more
drugs than her.
It's like Bunny just...
We met each other in that dark place and we would sit
out and talk about that five-year plan, dog.
I don't want to get emotional talking about it, but like...
Get emotional. We would dream
of this shit, bro.
We would be like, she's like, I'm going to start a podcast and I'm going to do this and this is how I'm going to get out of this and I'm going to do this and like I'm going to do this and I'd be like, cool, and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this.
And then we like fucking figured that shit out together.
You know what I'm saying?
Like it's fucking kind of the greatest American story ever told is how I feel about it.
You know what I mean? One of the best things to do, I think, with your partner is plan a future.
Dreamcast?
Dream.
What do you want to do?
What do you want to make?
Where do you want to go?
I don't care if it's a vacation.
I don't care if it's a house.
What would you want your house to look like?
And just set that vision.
And I think it's really, one, it's really comforting to know that that other person is like, hey, we're working towards this. But two, it's like, yeah, my life
is with you in the future. When I think about the future, it's with both of us.
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. It's awesome. I don't think you
should ever stop doing it. No.
I don't, if you're 70 years old, hey, where do you want to go on vacation next summer? Where do
you want to go on vacation when we're 80? Where do you want to retire?
That's it, dude.
As long as you're planning ahead.
That's it, dude, and that's what we're doing.
That's the shit we're talking about.
It's like, and that's the shit we talked about from day one.
She jokes that first night that I asked for a five-year plan,
that next morning we really did make a five-year plan
and knocked that motherfucker out the park.
Wow.
You know what I mean?
Like, we sat down, every year now,
we have a joke that every year we look at each other and go, we still into this?
And this year was the first year that she looked at me and was like, we still into this?
And I was like, buddy, I'm going to tell you the truth.
I'm making forever plans for us now.
Like, I'm not even in five years no more.
Like, the decisions I'm making for our family right now, where I'm putting my money and the investments I'm making on behalf of our family, even outside of the investments you're making, I'm planning on us doing this forever.
I'm thinking about Bailey's kids.
You know what I mean?
Like, that's where my thoughts are.
Like, I couldn't imagine being with nobody else but my wife.
Yeah.
You know?
And you could if you wanted to.
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, I mean, we're both on fire now.
Is that how they take it away from you a little bit?
Do like, they throw a bunch of pussy at you in the beginning, and then you go, I don't really need all that.
Yeah. And now you're fucking faithful for the rest of your life.
It's kind of a genius plan. It's really brilliant
for both parties. It works out really well.
You know what they're doing, these women, man.
No, they're fucking smart.
They know what they're doing.
They're definitely smarter than us.
Bunny still carries, I'd say, our whole
you know, I mean,
even down to like
the whole house, dude.
Like,
I don't know what's happening
with that house.
You know,
same.
How great is that?
Yeah,
it's fucking the best feeling
on earth.
Yeah.
It's like,
I'm so disconnected from it.
I know in 30 years,
me and you will both
be living in a van
while our wives
have houses.
But for now,
it's just awesome
to know that they're
figuring things out.
100%.
They're just texting each other
behind their back like,
these idiots don't even have it in their name.
I haven't had a phone in my name in seven years.
My phone's still in my mom's name.
My mom fucked my credit up putting my phone in her name,
Bell South, when I was seven or something.
I have a restaurant that failed in my name.
Did you?
Yeah.
We out here, yo.
We out here, bro. What's up?
Rebuild that credit score.
You got it.
I'll never forget the first time I looked into my credit
score and they were like, I guess you owe
Bell South, which was, I guess
18. That's how long ago it was, Bell South.
They said, which ended up getting picked up by a collection
agency for like 18 grand. I was like,
what year was this? It was like 97. I was like, what year was this?
It was like 97.
I was like, I was 12.
You know what I'm saying?
I was like, what the fuck is happening here?
Yeah, she burned all kind of stuff down to my credit.
Fuck.
Yeah.
That's crazy.
Yeah, white trashery at its finest.
I tell you what, man.
White trashery.
Was cutting out cocaine really difficult?
It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be because I had a buddy get a pack with some fentanyl in it and kill him.
Oh, fuck.
Shit.
Yeah, Cushy, he died earlier this year.
And I'd already quit doing it a lot, but I'd still, like, if I got really drunk, I'd follow my nose.
You know what I mean?
Yeah.
But the way I described it was there's probably four or five people on earth that I trust enough that they could open up a bag of cocaine
and I wouldn't think twice.
And he was one of those five people.
And it got him.
That's all it took for me to be like,
man, this is,
and we got tester strips and stuff.
Like, you know,
we try to do as much as we can
to be smart about it anyways.
But I just, right then,
I was like,
I'll never touch that shit again.
Y'all are going to be proud of me, dude.
I'm only drinking like
maybe three days a month now.
What?
Three days a month.
God bless, dude.
That's amazing.
Man, I'm taking this so serious, Schultz.
As much as we sit around and fuck around, dog, one thing I know about y'all and y'all know about me is like, man, when it's time not to—
I take it like—
Dog, I'm taking days of vocal rest.
I'm doing 30, 45-minute vocal warm-ups night. Vocal cool-downs after the show.
I brought a nutritionist on tour. I've lost 20-something
pounds.
Let's go.
I got a dude that worked with all the UFC guys.
He's one of George Lockhart's guys. Ian Larios.
He just did the Jamal Hill when he fought for the 205
title last year. He does all the
weight cuts and stuff. We're down like 20-something
pounds working out every day. I'm taking this
shit like... Is this the most sober you've ever been?
Yeah, it's definitely the most clear-headed
I've ever been.
Oh, wow.
And how does it feel?
Do you feel better day to day?
Is reality weighing on you?
How does it feel to feel?
It feels good.
It feels good.
I'm still smoking a lot of reefer.
And I'll still...
It'd be probably three days a month
I'll tie it on the way I tie it on.
When I drink,
I still drink the way I drink.
You know what I'm saying?
What y'all seen.
Save one of those three days
for us the next time.
It's a guarantee.
It's a fucking fix in stone.
It's a drunk I've been looking forward to forever.
Last time y'all took me out to get drunk, it was at a gay chicken shack.
Nobody ever told us that was a gay bar.
You know what I'm saying?
Which it didn't bother me.
That night it was.
That night it was a gay bar.
The squat and gobble is a gay bar?
Dude, what the fuck? Why did we take you there, dude night it was a gay bar. The squat and gobble's a gay bar? Dude, what the fuck?
Why did we take you there, dude?
It was awesome, though.
The squat and gobble.
That chicken was fire.
It was in Wynwood.
I don't actually remember the name of it.
Yeah.
The chicken was fire, though.
The chicken was fire.
You know, it's funny that you say that you stopped drinking.
I was telling Mark even this weekend, I was like, I think I might quit drinking.
And he's like, why?
And I was like, I've just seen people
that get to the position where I wanna get
and they're either sober or alcoholics.
There's very few that are in the middle.
And I think the way that you cope
is you either completely detach yourself
and that's just go crazy with the alcohol or
get to know your fucking self and handle that shit. So I think it's really smart, man,
to get ahead of it because sometimes the pressure is going to be there and the only way to handle
it is just to get a little fucking breath of fresh air. It's not even you love the alcohol,
it's just you like to detach for a second. Yeah.
Yeah, what a smart idea to get ahead of it.
Yeah, I'm doing it like roadie Fridays,
is what they call it on the road.
So all the roadies, like the guys who like load stuff.
And you know, 61 people on this tour.
We're eight, nine buses, 10 trucks.
I mean, it's a big tour, you know?
And those dudes will only drink if we have the next day off.
And we're doing five shows a week.
So what I'll do is about every other roadie Friday, I'll be like, all right, we got a next day off. And we're doing five shows a week, so what I'll do is about every other
roadie Friday, I'll be like, all right, we got a day
clean off tomorrow. I can get an IPB
and really relax, and
I'll go for it.
Like the other night, we played Bridgeport,
Connecticut, right up the street, and I came out
and I got smacked.
Smeigh was so
awesome. It was the first time on the whole tour
that I got drunk. Well, the tour that I got drunk well the first time
I got drunk on the tour
was the night
before tour started
we had all our stuff
set up at the first show
so we're like
I go to see the show
which was really cool for me
because I've been a lifelong
Jelly Roll fan
but never seen his show
so I got to go sit
I got to go sit out
in the front of house
and they did all the lights
and the band ran
the show through
so we're making
our final final notes and I'm getting to see it in the amphitheater, not like a closed space.
Yeah.
So I'm getting to really see what it is, and I was so excited by how the show looked that I came backstage with the band.
I was like, we should have a drink.
And in true Jelly fashion, at like 8 o'clock that next morning, my wife texts me and goes, you need to go to the bus.
I was sitting in the parking lot just getting smacked.
Just sitting in the parking lot of this amphitheater in Memphis.
It's fucking scorching hot.
And I'm just sitting out there cranking.
I guess we ended up breaking a bunch of bottles on a trailer truck or something.
It was like we're just old, drunk, you know, white, just rednecks really.
You know what I'm saying?
It was awesome.
I got another question.
I'm so sad.
I almost thought at least one of y'all would have a cross on your face today.
When I watched it, listen, y'all blew it.
When I seen the J. Dionne, and everybody had the do-rags, I see y'all do it.
I thought y'all were going to wear cowboy hats for that Mexican OT.
But I was like, we need one of them to come in with a cross on their face.
Can you tell me about Little Ron?
Yes.
Oh, dude, the midget we adopted.
This was so awesome, dude.
You never heard this story, Solstice?
No.
Oh, it's the best story ever.
So we're in West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia, of all places.
And we're at a casino on a day off.
So we're in West Virginia, Charleston, West Virginia, of all places.
We're at a casino on a day off.
And I get the casino to take the shuttle bus down to where this hibachi spot was in a strip mall connected to a Walmart.
That's where we are in America.
And I'm like next to the Walmart hibachi spot smoke store.
It's all like 25 of me and the crew.
I took us all out to eat.
We're coming out.
We've been joking for years that if we ever found a midget or a little person,
that we were going to hire him on the spot and make him our tour manager's assistant.
His name's Ron.
And we were going to call the midget Little Ron.
That was our plan, right?
We joked about this on the bus, smoking weed, eating edibles for years.
And Scary Larry, one of my friends since we were in Juvenile Hall together, who's on this tour with me right now,
walks over to the smoke shop
and he comes out smiling. He goes, he's fucking
in there. He's in there. He's in there. And I go,
what? He said, one of them is in there right now.
And I go, one of what?
And I look in and I go, holy shit,
it's Little Ron. And I come back to the
dudes and I'm like, yo, Little Ron is
in here, y'all. I was like, little Ron is in here, right?
So little Ron comes out of the smoke shop right then.
25 of us erupt.
We cheered, right?
And at that moment, it's kind of make or break, right?
He's either going to flip us off or just kind of walk off.
He throws his hands up.
He embraces it, right?
And then we start chanting, little Ron, little Ron, little Ron.
He gets all excited.
He comes over to us like a little puppy, just all tail wagging, just fucking, he's all fired up.
He's like, oh my God, dude, tail wagging.
He walks, he looks up at us, and I'm like, do you want to go on tour?
And he's like, yeah.
No hesitation, Alex.
No hesitation, dog.
He goes, yeah.
And I go, like right now, he's like, yeah.
He's wearing a Burger King shirt, and I was like, I'll pay you whatever Burger King pays you.
I'll pay you more than whatever Burger King pays you, and I'll give you a living, and when we're not on tour, I'll get you a Burger King shirt. And I was like, I'll pay you whatever Burger King pays you. I'll pay you more than whatever Burger King pays you
and I'll give you a living.
And when we're not on tour,
I'll get you a place in Nashville.
And he's like, yeah.
And I was like, do you need anything?
Do you want me to send you an OOP,
get you a car service to take you home to get your stuff?
He goes, no, I'm ready to go.
This is crazy.
This is crazy.
This is the truest story I've ever did.
He gets on the shuttle bus.
We go straight to the casino.
I give him $500 in chips to gamble with.
Take him straight to the crap table because I thought that's where I'd get the best bang for my buck because I got to watch him go.
Through the sky.
He looked like he was throwing grenades.
It was just...
We're having a ball
and he gets on the bus that night
to go to the next city with us
and for a year,
little Ron works for me on tour.
We carried little Ron with us
for a calendar year, dude.
He turned out to be
the tour manager's assistant.
I didn't know his real name
until he quit.
What was his real name? Chris.
So now we call him Big Chris.
Yeah.
That's the truth. He worked with us for a whole year.
He went back to Nashville. We got him outfits and
stuff, bought him a bunch of Titan gear. Why'd he quit?
Did he have to make toys for Santa?
He had
a girl that he was fancying up
and some ex-girlfriend came back in the picture, and I think they ended up having a kid.
Oh, beautiful.
So I know he's got like three, four kids now.
I don't know about that.
I should ask.
I will say this.
He always, there was this one girl that knew him that came to his show one night.
I'm haunted by this memory.
And you know how certain things happen.
You watch it, and you're like, I'll never forget that, and that sucks.
And this is it.
He goes, walks over to the girl, and she goes, and she's like, he's like, it's my ex-girlfriend.
He's drunk, by the way.
Lil Ron was a raging alcoholic.
And Lil Ron goes.
Just takes a shot.
And we'd make him carry the handles of liquor.
I love it.
I love it.
He looks at this girl, and he goes, am I still the biggest you ever had?
And she goes, yeah.
And I was like, are you telling me
little dude got a dick on him?
I was like, is that what I'm hearing?
Are their dicks regular size, like their heads?
Listen, I'm telling you, man.
He talked about it.
Because some of their body is regular,
like their heads are normal size,
but their dicks might also be normal size, right?
Right?
That's possible.
Listen, I know he talked about it like he was
working with something. That's for sure, dude.
He brought it up all the time. Black midget,
white midget. He was a little white guy.
Damn, Alex. Damn, bro. You didn't actually
see it? No. Y'all didn't look
at his dick, bro? I'm sure somebody
seen it, but I've been to jail, man.
I'm not big on pecker peepin'.
Ain't no fucking way. Ain't no fucking way. seen it, but I've been to jail, man. I'm not big on pecker peepers.
Ain't no fucking way.
Ain't no fucking way. That shit comes out of a submarine,
bro. There's no way that that is an actual...
So that's crazy.
Jesus fucking Christ.
That's.5.
Oh, dude.
Is that you, Mark?
Come on, man.
I'm not going to bother you.
That's not me, bro. That's Mark. That's Mark? No. Look at the bottom. You don't see the bottom. It's not me, bro.
That's Mark. That's Mark.
Oh, my God, Mark.
I did.
Take this off the screen.
You pack it, bro.
Take it off the screen.
Guys, it is.
Come on, man.
Christ, man.
Who's in charge of this?
Who's in charge of this?
Are you pulling this shit out?
Wait, I guess it is.
Oh, my God, dog.
Wow.
I never thought I'd come on the Flager broadcast and see a midget
cock. I can't
believe that you didn't look at, or at least
try to see. I'm disappointed.
Pecker peeping his frown down in jail, so
I stay away from the pecker peepers. Alright, fair enough.
I want to hear the story from his side
when he's like, yeah, these guys just kidnapped me
from my Burger King job.
We were going to go for a year.
Can we call Little Rock?
I wish I had his number.
I'd call him right now.
I tried to start a campaign
in the group chat
for tour the other day
to bring him back.
The night I got drunk
in Bridgeport,
I was like,
I miss Little Rock.
Was he good at his job?
I gotta pee.
They said he wasn't.
They said he wasn't.
They said he wasn't good
at his job.
I like that it's a conspiracy.
He's like,
they,
those other people.
I knew he was good.
Yeah,
I thought he was great.
But I can't judge people too much on their job because the guy he worked for was not impressed.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
But I thought he was killing it.
Every time I needed something from him, fucking it was awesome.
He was the best energy.
He was never sad.
You know what I'm saying?
He never made me sad.
I'm telling you, it was like a puppy.
It was like having a dog on tour.
Every time you see him, you just instantly smile.
You're like,
this is so cool.
It's the best decision
we've ever made.
Would you call him?
What would you?
I brought him on stage
to take shots all the time.
He was great.
Really?
Dude, he partied, man.
He was a lot of fun.
And I use the word midget
endearingly because,
like I use the word bitch
endearingly.
Yeah.
Because he said it.
He called himself a midget.
He used to joke about it
to people.
He'd be like, don't call me no fucking little person. Don't belittle me like that.
I'm a fucking midget. He was like,
I swear that's what he said. He said,
don't belittle me like that.
He said, I'm a fucking midget.
You ever heard that story about Daniel Tosh?
When he went into a meeting with Comedy Central, he was like, can I bring my
security? And they were like, yeah, that's fine.
And he walked in with two security guards,
sunglasses, suits, and they were both dwarves.
Oh, that's fucking awesome.
And they just stood behind him the whole time
and he never said anything about it.
Fuck.
So he sat there in the meeting
and the two midges were just behind him.
And he was like, just in case anything is out of control,
you know, I got my guy.
And they did the whole thing.
Straight face.
Straight face.
Unbelievable.
That's what you need, bro.
You need dwarf security.
Listen, I would hire another dwarf today
just to have him on tour.
That's so funny.
God forbid we find one that knows about road work
and can actually do something,
because you could almost get hired
just having that disability.
You know what I'm saying?
Because he was more getting by on his midgetness
than he was his skill set.
For sure, and his energy.
And his energy.
What would they be good at on tour?
Scurrying, they're really good scurrying.
Do you need that?
Did you see them rush to go get something?
They get it quick. What they try to do to this guy, and it was so petty, What would be the tour? Scurrying. They're really good scurrying. Do you need that? Did you see them rush to go get something?
They get it quick.
What they tried to do to this guy, and it was so petty,
the tour manager would make him carry the soundboard case every day.
Wow.
And it was like watching this poor guy drag a dead deer carcass.
It was like the soundboard was like he'd have to hold it.
It was so bad.
And I was like, y'all are evil, man.
One time they put a ladder.
They gave him the top buck one night, and they put a little ladder.
They were fucked up kind of when I think about it.
Damn, I would have thrown him out every night to fucking crowd surf.
Toss him from the fucking stage. Just midget toss him.
Like Wolf of Wall Street.
That would have been so great.
Is it hard to-
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slash flagrant. Now let's get back to the show. Is it hard to fire people? Your crew feels so
tight knit, but then there are people who are going to not do their job. Is that hard for you?
Man, it was, but I got out of the hiring and firing business last year.
So you have someone and then that's their job.
I have a manager now that I just completely just like, yo, man, I don't even.
So you get to be family with everybody. And then if someone fucks up,
the manager gets to handle that.
100%. Yeah. And it's like, cause I don't hire them either.
So it's like, that's what I learned with like the little Ron stuff is like,
when you get like, when the tour is that big, I'm disconnected from who is and isn't hire them either. So it's like, that's what I learned with like the little Ron stuff is like when you get, like when the tour is that big,
I'm disconnected from who is
and isn't doing their job.
So I just have to trust
the tour management
when they go,
hey man,
our production assistant's
not working,
he's got to go.
You know what I mean?
Because I might love the guy,
dude,
we might smoke a joint
every night after the show.
I think the dude's
the sweetest dude on earth,
but I don't know
that he's not carrying
his weight on that side.
I just got to trust him.
My bus is my bus.
That's most of my guys I've been with forever.
Y'all remember my big Samoan guy?
Yeah.
Like, my crew is still my crew.
Boston, all of them except for Don, who had a baby.
I remember I got a new camera guy because Don went on to get married and have a kid.
But, like, same crew.
So my bus is different.
I hire my bus.
But my bus is the homie bus.
Yeah.
And the wife has her own bus.
Oh, really?
Yeah, she brought her own bus out, dude.
Bunny is a boss bitch, dude. She is
different. She is just different, dude. She's
just like, I love you. Who's in her bus?
Her crew. Her little squad.
Wow. Yeah, she's got her own little crew.
Does she do the pod from the bus? Yeah, yeah.
She does the pod on the bus now, and she's doing
a genius, and she's doing
a, you know, she's a TikTok monster.
So Bunny's like, you know,
she follows the algorithm. She does like five
uploads a day from three to four pages.
She really, she's building something over there.
Oh, wow. Yeah, I'm famous on TikTok
and I don't know.
All the time, people are like, I've seen your
margarita thing. I was like, she posted that?
You know. What's the margarita thing?
Give me one margarita, I'm gonna open
my legs. You heard that shit? Give me two margaritas.
That would be as many.
I came in drunk dancing one night doing it.
Of the homie bus,
which one of the homies is the biggest liability?
All of them. Shit, there's so many of them.
Probably, fuck.
That's a far, I hate y'all.
These are all the get you in trouble
questions
probably
maybe scary Larry
probably just cause
you know
he's in charge
of the
miscellaneous
nefarious stuff
so by default
he's the backpack
I wouldn't want
to get searched
you know what I'm saying
if that makes sense
you know
so
go go I just want to know more about him what what I'm saying? If that makes sense, you know?
Go, go. I just want to know more about him. What's his backstory?
We met each other in Juvenile Hall.
What was he in there for? I forgot
what he was even in there for back then, but he
was a white dude
that had dreadlocks, and he was like a
juggalo, and I loved all the juggalos.
You know what I'm saying?
I'll never forget, we almost got in a fight because I was beating on my
cell door rapping, and one night he was like, just shut the fuck up.
And I was like, fuck that guy in cell 223
trying to talk shit to me.
You know what I'm saying?
It was like, just talking shit.
And the next day we became homies.
Oh wow.
And why is he called Scary Larry?
Because he's ugly as a motherfucker.
Scary Larry is so ugly, dude.
He's the ugliest friend I have by a lot.
But listen.
By a lot is unnecessary listen. By a lot.
It's not necessary.
It's not necessary.
Bring up Scary Larry right now.
God damn.
You're not going to get no satisfaction
because you got to see the new Scary Larry with the skullet.
The skullet?
Yeah, I talked him into getting a skullet.
What is that?
That's Scary Larry.
Oh, I remember him.
Yeah.
Scary's been around, dude.
Yeah, Scary Larry was hanging with us at the gay chicken spot.
Yeah, Scary Larry's the guy, dude.
Yeah, Scary Larry's the homie.
But now, you know, he's bald on top.
I talked him into growing in the skullet.
And it's fire.
The skullet's kind of fire, dude.
What do you mean, a skullet?
Yeah, what's that?
Yeah, it's like a mullet.
It's like if you just started growing your hair out and just the back fell.
You know what I'm saying? Like if were balled up here but you know you know
they have like the mullet with nothing on top it's the reverse it's the complete it's the polar
opposite of yeah fucking assaults wow that's amazing yep scary larry's been with us forever
the boston i mean they're all we're all still there. Yeah? Yeah. Still fucking,
same old shit, dog.
I just don't know
the other 52 people
off the board.
You know what I'm saying?
Well, I know them,
but I don't know them.
You know what I mean?
That's crazy.
That's the hardest thing for me,
letting go of
creative control.
And you do that a little bit
when you have 60 people
that are all putting together
that show.
Yeah, for sure.
That's tough.
Yeah, 100%. It's also like,
but I'll always be jealous of y'all, though, because
you don't, none of that shit
matters in your world. Like, y'all motherfuckers
flying with five of the homies
and fucking go, y'all don't even do a mic
check. You just trust that whoever's out
there has got it under control. Nah, bro, now we gotta
do that. You're going to do a line check
at least? Oh, yeah.
And you're playing in places now that are so big, even the line check's scary
because you're just hearing the reverberation of your voice.
That's our favorite part of the tour, when we go in and there's an echo.
And every single time the sound guy goes, when the people come in here,
there won't be any echo.
Yeah, they always tell you, they're like, you put some, I love when the sound,
the old roadies use the word blood bags.
They're called blood bags.
It's like you put a few thousand blood bags in here, it's going to sound great.
And I'm like, these are fucking people.
These are my fans.
It's like a blood bag.
I think that's been a big part of our success, though, man.
We have a firm belief that it's not a ticket stub, it's a story.
And when I started really looking at it that way, like this isn't a stub, because y'all know how the business is.
Sometimes you get so caught up looking at the numbers that you got to step back and go, man, that's 23,000 spirits.
That was the moment I had yesterday.
I even posted on the story, and I genuinely was not trying to brag.
I just couldn't believe that we were playing a venue where the Australian Open is.
And I was just sitting there laughing to myself.
My wife was even like, what are you laughing about?
And I was like, I don't even know.
Like, I was trying to find wording for it to explain it.
I still can't.
And this is in a different fucking country, dude.
The Top Open.
It's fucking, you're going.
The top of the venue goes like that.
This is Australia, right? Yeah. This is Australia. I's fucking, you're going. The top of the venue goes like that. And there's no sky.
This is Australia though, right?
Yeah.
This is Australia.
I'm like, what is going on?
So I'm just dying laughing at myself.
What an absurd, like it's absurd.
Especially, I couldn't even wrap my, I feel that way when it happens in Tennessee.
Yeah.
I couldn't imagine how you feel knowing that it's like 20 fucking hours by plane from right here.
Yeah.
I can drive to Los Angeles before you're going to get to fucking Australia.
You know what I'm saying?
Think about that.
If I got in the fucking Tahoe today and you got on a plane to fucking Australia,
we would get there close to the same fucking time.
You know what I'm saying?
That's insane.
Yeah.
You know, it's like that many motherfuckers are buying a ticket to come here.
You just talk shit about their country.
You just sit there and shit all over their country, man.
You sit there and you just go, what is going on right now?
Right?
I don't even know how to explain it even right now.
And then the logistics.
Y'all are taking production.
It's too big not to, right?
Yeah.
So you're having to outsource not to, right? Yeah, so we do the production.
So you're having to outsource the production over there?
Yeah, and then you have to buy all the things to make the space.
Because I want this to be the best show they've ever seen.
100%. And I think it's important when you, and you get this, you were explaining it earlier.
But when you go to a bigger venue, the show has to be bigger.
100%.
And they deserve it.
Because they're fucking spending their hard-earned money to come out to the show. So they deserve a
show that fits that space. So getting into the creative with that and hopefully finding
the people that are just as passionate as I am about comedy, about production for a show.
I saw a Taylor Swift show when I was out in LA with my wife.
You went to one of the SoFi shows? You went to one of the SoFi shows?
I went to one of the SoFi shows.
And I apologized to her live during the show.
I was like, I am sorry I have been so hacky in hating you.
It is hack to hate her without experiencing
what she does. And I get it.
You only see her at an award show or something like that,
like accept an award, and you're like, oh, this
might feel inauthentic, whatever. But then
you go watch her command 100,000 people
masterfully,
and you realize that not only
is she incredible
at what she's writing the fucking songs. That's another
thing. It's not like there's this team of 100 people.
She's written fucking hundreds of songs
by herself. Every song she's ever sang almost.
So it's like, and you're going,
oh, wow. And she has the songs
that we all know as comedians,
there's a joke you have where it's like,
it doesn't matter what the audience, it could be the worst audience
in the world, but you know you go to it,
and everybody's like, oh oh shit, it's on.
She just has a hundred of those.
And I'm watching this and I'm like, it's not only is she great, everybody else on the team is the Taylor Swift of lighting or video or whatever.
And it was one of those moments where I'm sitting back and I'm like, oh, that's what we need to do.
We need to find the person that's that dedicated to the fucking stage design.
Yes.
That's that dedicated to the video, the lighting, the video production.
And you're just watching it live.
It was really inspiring.
And I felt I felt bad.
I was like, I can't believe that I didn't give this brilliant talent a shot because she's brilliant.
Undeniable.
Even if you don't know if you find her personality, whatever, which I do.
You can't deny greatness.
And it's just flat out greatness.
So many songs slapped that you're like, oh, I love it. She's one of those artists that you think you know three songs.
Then halfway through your set, you're like, I know every song she's ever wrote.
You know what I mean?
It's like that kind of a moment.
We did that exact thing last week, I think, on this podcast.
Yeah.
So it was just really inspiring. And it makes you go, okay, wow. When you get this big, that's what it
needs to be. For sure. And she's also set a bar. People like her and Beyonce have adopted the
stadium era in a way that it's made, even Ed's new tour, Ed Sheeran's tour. You could tell that
he ramped up too. He was like, oh no, we're playing big league ball over there.
You know what I mean?
It was like, it's just, you feel the difference in all of it.
And I think that's also why more shows are selling more tickets now than ever.
And people are like, well, I think it's still some of the pandemic stuff.
I'm like, man, we're years removed from that.
I think that people have finally adopted the right philosophy in these venues.
And they're putting on the right shows.
Make your show fit the venue you're in. Exactly.
You can't take your theater show and then put it in a stadium and expect them to feel the
same intimacy. Right.
You have to curate that fucking intimacy. 100%.
And that's smart that you're going about it that way. And that's probably why you have
23,000 fucking people that are going to come out in Pittsburgh. Or it's they know, and I assume they know and feel appreciative of the effort that went into it.
I'm at this Taylor show, and I'm not even a fan.
And I'm seeing these women give everything to her.
They're so excited to see her up there.
And I'm so engaged by the show, and I felt grateful.
It was one of those things I was like, wow, like the effort that must have gone into this. And, yeah, it just made me feel like you've got to reinvest in the show and I felt grateful. It was one of the things I was like, wow, like the effort that must have gone into this. And yeah, it just made me feel like you got to reinvest in the show. You
have to, they deserve it. Yeah. Especially those, those kids, man, they're like, good point with
that. Given all that to Taylor is like, because Taylor's not singing her song, she's singing their
song. Well, she's superwoman to them.
Yeah.
In the moment I got it, I was like, she is the confidence that they all wish they had.
She is the kindness that they wish they had.
Bro, I don't even care if she's doing this in the show as a PR stunt.
I don't even care.
I don't think it is, but even if it wasn't fine, she's making moments to give it up for
the crew, give it up for new musicians that are on the tour they're like
giving the spotlight yeah and like even if she's doing that to like look nice she's still fucking
doing it right for sure and it feels authentic in in the moment and i was just like wow like
and you see these girls that are like she is what i I want to be. She says the things to her exes I wish I said to mine.
She leaves the guys that weren't good for her,
and I wish I had the confidence to do that.
And they get to show up there,
and they get to almost like live vicariously
through that, the music.
And yeah, it was really impressive to see.
It's special, man, it's spiritual.
It's a trip, it's also. I'm just kidding, I ain really impressive to see. It's special, man. It's spiritual. It's a trip.
It's also...
I'm just kidding.
I ain't going, bro.
No, there's no way.
There's no way.
You did not talk that ass, Willie, about Taylor Swift on a fucking fake...
I ain't going to that shit, bro.
Kanye for life.
I haven't seen the tour, but I felt like I have on TikTok.
I don't think there's much on the story.
I've never seen something go viral like a concert, like her fucking.
But, dude, we're in the golden era of this, right?
Like, we're all going to look back at this moment, not of just our careers,
and go, what a cool moment to have exploded.
There's more arena acts in comedy than there's ever been by a fucking country mile right
100 there's more stadium acts and music than there's ever been there's more arena acts and
music than there's ever been you're talking about how god bless me dude i came into country music
right on the tip of country music becoming the coolest genre on earth for the first time since
92 yeah you know what i mean? Like 30 fucking years
have passed where country music has been
treated like Nickelback.
You know what I mean?
Growing up, in New York
or LA, you would have people say
I like every music except
country. That was a common
thing that people would say.
And now I think that's done.
I think for a while there were people in New in New York and California that were like low-key country fans.
And now nobody's afraid to admit it.
Right.
It's almost like a badge of honor.
It's almost like now you're like being rebellious by being a coastal elite country fan.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's crazy, dude.
We were talking about country bars.
Who was it that was just out here talking about?
Was it Dove? Dove. Dove was just talking about country bars. Who was it that was just out here talking about? Was it Dove?
Dove was just talking about you went somewhere the other day.
I was in Toronto and L.A. in the same week in both cities.
The hottest new bar is a country bar.
Yeah.
I'm telling you.
But it's everyone.
It's everyone that would have been at a hip-hop bar or a house bar.
It's live music, country, and that's the theme of the bar.
Yeah.
Yeah, but you're talking talking about being in that era. Like, I just
came in right there on the
front side of country music exploding
into pop culture. You know what I mean? Like,
fucking hell. We gotta make sure we thank our
sponsors, Morgan & Morgan, the best injury
law firm in the game, because they are sending
two listeners to the UFC
event in Boston this week.
So, thank you, Morgan & Morgan. We appreciate what
you do. You know what to do if you get
injured.
For your shows,
do you feel a sense of community
at the live show?
Dude, it's church.
So that's something I noticed also
at Taylor, I'm curious,
how do you curate that?
Is that something that happens
authentically?
You hear about these iconic bands like Phish or-
Grateful Dead.
Grateful Dead.
That every show is like Burning Man.
Every show is this communal retreat where everybody gets to be this version of themselves
they might not get to be in the real world.
And I feel like that's how you create that impactful live experience where people need
to come back, where they're accessing something that they don't really get to access normally.
So are you seeing that at the shows?
Oh, God, dude.
This is like what we do is special in this way.
It's like a Sunday service in the South, right?
If you've never been to an old back row Baptist church, I hate to be judgy here, but don't look like any of y'all have, right?
You know what I'm saying?
Have you been to an old back row Baptist church?
But yeah. Yeah. A black Baptist church? Yeah. what I'm saying? Have you been to an old back row Baptist church? But yeah.
A black Baptist church? Yeah.
We went to the best one you could have went to.
You know what I mean? For sure. It's like, am I still
good on sound? I just fucking touched my microphone.
Okay.
We fucking...
It's this thing they do, Schultz,
right? Where they...
Like, the message on them
old back roads are like, they sing this music to kind of get you into it, right?
And then he goes into this sermon and it's like hellfire and brimstone, but with jokes and there's laughs here and there.
And then it's scary at moments and then it's like tearful, like emotional.
And then at the end of it, it's like you hear that organ hit a major chord, right?
And it's like, man, but there's hope.
And I was like, that's what I want my show to feel like.
You know what I mean?
I want to create that experience.
I want us to laugh.
I want us to dance.
I want us to cry.
And at the end of this thing, I want us to feel a little cleansed.
You know what I mean?
Like I want it to be like a little bit of a baptism.
I called this tour the Back Row Baptism Tour because it's like I wanted this to feel like.
So it's very leaned into
like a churchy theme
as far as like
how we presented
and the banter
between the songs.
That's emotionally nutritious.
Yeah.
You know?
It's good for the spirit, man.
Have you had moments with fans?
Because like your music
connects so deeply
on like a real primal level.
Have you had moments with fans
either this tour
or tours previously like real stories where people have touched you or that you've had connection
with people you're like, I didn't even know I could have this kind of moment with a stranger?
Dude, there was every night. I'm not even making that up. I'll give you the most recent one.
That's how often it happens. Virginia Beach, there was a woman who her and her husband had bought tickets to my show
and then he had overdosed
like six weeks ago
and died.
And she kept hitting me.
Like, I don't know what to do.
I'm feeling like led to go
for him.
You know, it's like, man, I'm sorry.
I'm not always this emotional.
It's just fucking my life's changing in weird ways., it's like, man, I'm sorry. I'm not always this emotional. It's just fucking my life's changing in weird ways.
But it's like, so I'm finally like, yo, I got to meet you.
You know what I mean?
Like, watch her come back and like tell me this story.
And like, her, his family's there.
So his mother's with her and the brother-in-law and like all these people that are, you know, that were really there for him.
Like the amount of like rest in peace shirts.
It's crazy, dude.
I had a dude holding a sign on the same show that said,
you helped me on life support when I overdosed.
So I brought him backstage and hear his story.
And his wife's like, yo, this dude was like,
I just played Save Me and Son of a Sinner
just on a looping repeat the entire time.
He was on literally intubated you
know what i mean this guy's like you can see the scar on his neck like his voice is raspy like
it's just crazy and that's every single and that what you know what hurts the most is i only get
to hear a few of those every night yeah there's 23 000 of them every night you know what i mean
like you know what i mean like this is i tell all the time, you didn't end up here because it's culturally
cool. That's not what a
Jelly Roll show is. It's not like, oh, the hip
thing to do is go to a Jelly Roll show.
These people know they're coming to purge.
We know that. It's a fair
exchange between each other. We know what's
happening tonight, y'all. We're purging.
Does it ever get heavy for you, though, because it being an
empath?
Man, a little bit, but I found more purpose in it.
So it's like as soon as it gets heavy, it's like I feel better because I'm like, man, what a gift that I'm making millions of fucking dollars.
Like a poor, poor kid making millions of dollars in and out of jail his whole life.
And I'm doing it by helping people,
like in a real way,
like I'm really like connecting
and like making a difference in their life.
Like I do this for fucking free.
I tell people all the time, man,
you can have this one.
I'll give this one to you.
My guitar player's mother gave it to me.
You don't pay me for that hour I'm on stage.
That's on the house, baby. I'll do that for you the rest of my life. Yep.'t pay me for that hour I'm on stage. That's on the house, baby.
I'll do that for the rest of my life.
You pay me for the 30 years it took to get to the stage,
and for the 23 hours today I wasn't on it.
But that hour I'm on that stage, that's on the crib, baby.
I'll do that free forever.
I'll never want to feel like I'm charging you for that hour.
I'm charging you because this venue made you open the door.
I have a rule in the music business. If everybody agrees to do it for free, I'll do it for free. I'll be one of the
few artists that's in. You'll watch a lot of people hightail and hit and all the suits are
leaving. But if the suits and the artists all agree, we're going to do this for free. I'm in.
I'm still putting, I'm putting out an album next year for sure. I'm touring for sure. You know?
So it's like, but then on top of that, like God puts you in a situation to change your life,
defy all these odds, make all this fucking money,
and fucking people are crying, like thanking me,
and I'm crying back to them, thanking them.
It's like, you know what I mean?
I mean, imagine how cathartic that is
for somebody who is relating to that song
specifically so much, and then being around 20,000 other people that are feeling the same way.
Like you've listened to it by yourself and cried.
And now you're surrounded by all these people and you're looking to your right and they're crying.
And you're looking to your left and they're crying.
And you're like, one, you go, wow, I'm not alone, which is a really fucking amazing feeling to have
when you're thinking of maybe leaving this world, right?
It's, yeah, it's beautiful.
Yeah, my mom would always say how lucky her and my dad were
that they made a living.
They would teach dance classes.
But it was like, we're really lucky that we make a living
doing something that makes people feel good. We're like so lucky. She's like, you really lucky that we make a living doing something that makes people feel good.
Right.
We're so lucky.
She's like, some people make a living telling people that they can't get any insurance money
after their house burned down.
That's their job.
And we make a living where this person might not have had the confidence to talk to another
human being all day.
And now he's dancing with somebody
else, or she's dancing with somebody else, and it makes you feel really good, fills you up.
I never forgot that with stand-up. I was like, how fucking lucky that for a living we get to
go out there, or even doing podcasts, we get to just make people laugh, make people think,
give somebody an emotionally nourishing experience. It's like, you should be crying.
You should be crying every day for how lucky. Right. So you should be crying. Yeah. Should be crying every day.
Yeah, I do.
For how lucky.
It's unreal.
We all should be.
Yeah. Imagine we went through
our whole lives, we never sat and
reflected about how lucky we were.
What a waste to give us
this opportunity.
You know something I learned from
y'all just last, a couple podcasts
ago, I guess, was the attitude of
gratitude of like, I'm grateful
that I'm able to work this hard.
Yeah. Like, y'all, I don't that I'm able to work this hard. Yeah.
Like, y'all, I don't remember what pod y'all said that on, but it's like, that shit stuck with me like deeply.
Like, I'd never heard it put that way.
And I was like, because sometimes you work hard and like any other job, you know, full disclosure.
Everybody works hard, though. Like, yo, man, this is fucking a little bit of a bit.
And then you're like, man, how awesome is it, though, that I'm in a situation that I can work this hard, though?
Yeah.
That I enjoy it to put this time in.
Because there's people working just as hard as us at a job they hate.
They hate.
And I'm loving it.
My dad, you know, the famous quote my daddy always said, everybody's daddy said is, do what you love for a living, you'll never work a day of your life.
Yeah.
You know, and that's why I still say that.
That hour and a half's free, man.
You think that makes it easier to not drink?
Because I think for me, I remember I worked a job I hated as
a comic, and I was like, oh, if I did this every day,
I'd be drunk Friday, Saturday, for sure.
Fucking question. But I don't feel the need
to decompress as much. Do you feel the same
now that you're climbing?
Yeah, for sure. And also, just, man, my consciousness
is just like,
man, I don't want to blow it. It's like
what he said about, like, I've seen so many
dudes get where I'm at and blow it.
I know so many dudes that had the summer I'm fixing to have
and end up doing bad in life in 10 years
where they wasn't financially responsible
or they went down the path of the bottle.
It's like, I want to make sure that Caleb Plant,
my homie from Nashville, the boxer,
always says that the dream wasn't to get money.
The dream was to keep it.
You know what I mean? And when he says that, dream was to keep it. You know what I mean?
And when he says that, it tickles my soul.
You know what I mean?
I'm like, yeah, that's kind of it.
Like getting money was, you know, it's also like through all this, I've been able to dream bigger now.
Like I don't know about y'all, but I didn't like dream.
Like I know your story, dude.
You were a fucking cop, right?
It's like your dream, I don't know if your dream was ever this big, but I would assume not. You know what I mean? Like my dream, what people like,
are you living your dream? I'm like, you think I was that confident to dream this would happen?
You are, you have really mistaken who you're talking to. You're like, there's no way I thought
this was good. Like when I was a 13 year old kid watching Lollapalooza at Starwood Amphitheater,
sitting up on the hill, right? You could have
never told me I was going to tour and headline those venues five nights a week. You know
what I mean?
Even dreaming big takes confidence.
Takes confidence.
It's really crazy. You've always had that. I feel like, yeah, that's not natural for
a lot of people.
I'm having to dream bigger now. Now I'm like, oh no, now I'm starting to dream like, I'm
trying to dream unrealistically. That's where I'm at now.
But that's what a dream is.
Yeah, exactly.
It's not realistic.
If your dreams are realistic, you're not dreaming big enough.
What's your most unrealistic dream you have?
Right now?
Yeah.
Hmm.
Hmm.
I can't share it because then I will reveal it.
So it's possible then.
Yeah.
So that's not your biggest one.
What's your biggest wildest one?
I don't think in ways it's not possible.
Really?
Yeah.
That's awesome.
But I always think it's like, now, it's hard work and it's luck.
But yeah, but the biggest dream, for sure, for sure.
I mean, there's a couple.
Some have nothing to do with entertainment at all.
The biggest ones have nothing to do with that.
But as far as entertainment goes,
yeah, there's something that I'm cooking up,
but I can't share it just yet.
People got to see it.
You know what I mean?
I love it.
I'm thinking the same way, dude. I was thinking about it. What's the biggest one? Can you share it? I don't share it just yet. People got to see it. You know what I mean? I love it. I'm thinking the same way, dude.
I'm thinking about it.
What's the biggest one?
Can you share it? I've been dreaming, though.
Man, I'm dreaming, dude.
I just, I've turned into a real dreamer, man.
Good.
I thought I was a dreamer, but I wasn't.
I'm a dreamer now.
I just sit in the back of the bus and just think about that shit, man.
You know what I mean?
I think we could take this motherfucker to the moon.
We weren't supposed to make it this far.
What's the quote? I didn't come this far
to come this fucking far.
Where else we gonna go with this?
It's like, what are you talking about?
Also, I always reference my father because he gave
me all these cool little one-liners in life, but
you can always go back. You can't
always go forward. Yeah. Just like
as a life philosophy, it's like, man, we're in a chance
right now. I'm going forward as long as I can.
I know I can go back. I know I can go back.
I know I can go back to playing theaters.
I know that.
You know what I mean?
Forward is the next thing up.
My hope for next year is to do an,
I wanna do an NBA arena tour, like a proper like.
Yeah, I've never, you know, it's like the next step, right?
You know what I mean?
It's like, that's the dream.
Yeah, that's the immediate mountain in front of me is like,
you know, I'm also still in that weird space where I'm like, before this all ends, we should try to knock as much stuff off.
Just in case the Flavoring 2 podcast gets damaged.
Again.
All right, guys, we're going to take a break for a second.
You already see the lighting.
You already know what time it is.
Back's getting blown out.
Blue chew, blue chew, blue chew.
Back's getting blown out, okay? Every blue chew, blue chew. Back's getting blown out,
okay? Every woman in your life deserves it, okay? Your mom deserves it. Not from you,
but from your dad. But he already knows what time it is. He's probably already chewing it up and chewing it out. But you could also give that as a nice gift to your mom for Mother's Day or your
dad for Father's Day. You really could do that. If you were a great son or daughter,
you could. You could give your mom the gift that keeps on giving. Give your dad the gift that keeps
on giving. I don't even care if they're divorced. Come back, run it back one more time. You know
what I'm saying? If they bring back the cast of friends, they could bring back your mom and dad.
Blast off, motel room, headboard smacking into the wall, right? Motel six inches in your mom.
My point is- Hell yeah.
Bluechew.com, you're gonna get the first month free. All you gotta do is pay $5 shipping.
Bluechew.com, use the promo code flagrant right now. Do it for your mom. Now let's get back to
the show. Who are some of your dream collabs?
It's crazy, man.
I think in the country world, I obviously want to work with Morgan Wallen.
He's a real good friend of mine, too.
I think it's inevitable that we will.
But, you know, legacy acts, man, I'd love to do something like Seeger or James Taylor, man.
You know what I mean?
That's like the dream for me is those like because in this weird way you talk about dreaming,
it's like, I think anybody who's around
my generation right now,
I think that if I keep working hard
and God's in my favor,
that I'll get to work with them anyways.
So my dreams are like, who are the legends
that I don't have a lot of time to do that with?
It's like Seeger, Taylor, Stevie Nicks.
These are like the unrealistic dream collabs for me.
You know what I mean? Because like he said, some other
stuff I could name I think is realistic.
It might sound crazy, but I think it
will pull it off eventually.
On the hip-hop side, I want to work with Drizzy.
We had a Mexican OT
on the pod yesterday.
Not yesterday, last week.
He's fantastic too.
Who was it that said, was it you?
Yeah, I clock y'all as like soul friends.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
Yes.
Miles called you a real American OT.
Yeah.
American out of Tennessee.
That's right.
No, dude, I feel that way too.
That's the first time you gave Miles credit for a joke.
It was actually my joke.
I was afraid he was going actually my joke. I was afraid
he was going to get mad.
I was afraid he was going to get mad and I wouldn't want him to take it out on me.
So I was trying to get it off.
But yeah, you guys are very
soulful.
Very authentic.
Pure authenticity.
Troubled lives gave you all these
feelings and emotions that you can tap into
that are deeper than the average person.
Not box into one genre.
And all, yeah, I don't know, and you're so musical, both of you.
You can tell from a young age that music seeped into your pores.
It's not something you learned when you're older.
And yeah, it was so interesting that you thought of that.
I was thinking of you as well during the interview in a lot of ways.
I don't know, that's a weird thing.
I wonder if that's annoying,
almost like some girl going up to a DJ,
say, play, pour some sugar on me.
When outsiders request collabs,
is that annoying?
No, I love it.
No, I love it.
I'd love to work with him too, man.
He had a record on the tape he just dropped.
I can't remember the name of the record right now.
Cowboy Killer?
Yeah, yeah.
Had a singing chorus,
and I was like, I wish I'd have did that.
Yeah.
I wish I'd have known him then.
He came to Nashville and did a show, but I was out of town.
Yeah.
But it's like, I've just, everything about watching his interviews has been my favorite part.
Yeah.
I love it when an artist gets in that position and they can back up the other side of it.
Yeah.
Like, that's my favorite.
And to like, be themselves.
Like, a lot of artists won't come sit on this couch because it's risky.
Yeah.
Right?
When I go on a Fox today, there's a publicist standing beside the dude, watching him and going, this is what we're not willing to talk about.
You know what I mean?
It's like when we come sitting here, my publicist is going to shit herself until this comes out next week.
And it takes some strength of personality to be able to hang.
Not a lot of people who are just musicians can do that.
Also, you can't fake the funk for two hours.
For five minutes, you can pretend to be the person
that maybe record labels have built you up to be,
but two hours on a podcast is going to expose
who you really are.
We were talking about this over the weekend, but
Rihanna is a superstar in her personality as much as she is in music, right?
Where it's just like, she's not pretending to be a version of herself.
Right. That's who she is.
Right. You see her on the street,
it's gonna be Rihanna, right?
And I think that we gravitate towards that. is. Right. Like you see her on the street and it's gonna be Rihanna. Yeah. Right?
And I think that we gravitate towards that.
And then I think there are certain artists who are kind of playing a character, but the
music might be fantastic and other things might work out.
And it kind of can almost trick the public, but you never see long interviews with them.
Yeah.
You never see, I mean- For sure.
And I think at the end of the day, there is a different connectivity between those. Yeah, 100%.
And admittedly, there's a need for both of them, right?
So it's like, because I love the mystery behind The Weeknd, especially his first tapes.
Yeah, dude.
The fact that I didn't hear that dude's voice until his fourth album.
Fifth album was like, I thought the sickest shit ever.
But equally, I love the Mexican OT, who I can't
quit watching his interviews. I watched y'all's pod with him last week. I watched him on bootleg
cam the other day. I just can't get old enough of this guy. That's a great point, man, about the
weekend is that he has maintained mystery at a time where everyone has access to every famous
person. For sure. Yeah, it's a rare thing.
It's rare, man.
I think it's special.
It's almost like Daft Punk-esque.
Exactly.
That's exactly what it is.
He is arguably,
I think right now his tour,
maybe him and Taylor,
are like the biggest tour
in the world right now.
Yeah.
And,
yeah, it's fucking crazy.
We don't know really
anything about it.
It's crazy.
I've only heard his voice maybe three times, four times ever. That know really anything about it. It's crazy.
I've only heard his voice maybe three times, four times ever.
That's like a throwback.
That's like a Marlon Brando old school Hollywood.
Like Hollywood back in the day where these famous people, you would see them in movies
and outside of that, they were hanging on some fucking island or it was in the South
Pacific and you're like, what is going on in their lives?
What's happening?
So there is that curiosity, but the curiosity is backed by an unfucking real voice.
Unreal.
The music's just so, the music was sculpted around the mystery, right?
So it all, but I think it's like, we needed a hymn for the me's, right?
Like they're like, that's just the balance of, and I know I always joke about you because
I know this is how you feel and I'm the opposite.
I love comparing two things that aren't the same to each other where you're like,
don't compare music to comedy. And I'm the polar opposite of that. I think it's the greatest
analogies ever. But it's like comedy needs Andrew Schultz. And because they need an Andrew Schultz
so bad, Dave Attell is necessary. Oh, 100%. Right. You know what I mean? It's necessary to
kind of have this
fucking dude with a flip phone
that everybody's like
real comedy fans
shit themselves
if they think
he's going to be somewhere.
Genius, genius.
Because you know what I mean?
It's like,
that's the comparison to me.
It's like,
that's me being,
I'm Schultz
and he's the weekend's
fucking Attell.
Yeah.
Right?
You know what I mean?
It's like,
and there's such a need
for both of them.
You know what I mean?
It is true.
And they compliment each other in the best fucking way you know which is
why i think bumping mics did so well yeah right because it's like you have ross who's just like
always out there the roast guy and everybody's face and a tail it's just like damn i would have
never you know what i mean yeah yeah the weekend needs to to like come out and speak in his real accent and have it be like, Asian.
Hi, everyone.
My name is Abel.
Like a Frenchman?
Super Canadian?
Abel.
Did you like my album, eh?
I think he's, I think, remember the first interview you ever seen of his?
The first time I ever listened to him speak.
This is like some hip hop shit.
This is cool.
It was Zane Lowe.
Oh, yeah.
The first time I heard anything, I heard his voice was when he did the Kiss Land promo,
a 30-second promo talking about the album.
But then he did the article with Rolling Stone when he took the cover,
when I Can't Feel Your Face and fucking the hills were taken over earth.
Yeah.
And then he did the Zane Lowe interview.
And I'll never forget, I've watched every Zane Lowe interview ever,
just like I've watched every Breakfast Club interview ever.
Like I obsess, like as a student, a lover of hip hop.
These are like things you have to watch.
And I'll never forget they were in a studio and the lights were dark.
And it was just, it was so,
the weekend made Zane Lowe meet the weekend,
at the weekend.
Yeah.
So like even when he's finally doing an interview,
he completely controlled everything
from the lighting to the way it was presented
and projected.
You know what I mean?
It was just so like, I was like,
this fucking guy's gonna be the biggest thing on earth.
He's gonna be our fucking prince.
You know what I mean?
Interesting.
Travis Scott's another one.
Yeah.
Travis Scott's another one that keeps that mystery.
But Travis Scott's kind of got that jelly roll thing going where, like, I mean, I'm like, most of my friends are comedians.
So by default, I end up on all these wild things talking about wild shit.
But I don't do social media great.
But Bunny does.
It's kind of easy for Travis not to have to do a lot
of social media when your chick, your baby
mother is one of the biggest influencers
on earth. You know what I'm saying?
You don't really have to do a lot of kicking and screaming
to get attention. You know what I mean?
She posts you in her story one time
and fucking that song's going.
You know what I mean? It's a totally different machine.
I also like, we were joking around this weekend,
but I like how he kind of does virgin rap.
Yeah.
Like, he don't really get laid in his music.
Yeah.
You know, like,
if you really listen to the songs,
like he goes,
I got two twin bitches on a jet ski.
It's like, well, are you fucking them?
They're like,
no, they're just jet skiing.
Very safe.
Yeah, everything.
It's all a safe flirt.
So it's kind of relatable, I think, to a lot of people without even realizing it.
They're like, oh, that's kind of my life.
I saw two girls on a jet-ski.
What did y'all think about Utopia?
I loved it.
I really liked it.
The first time I listened to it, I was like, I don't know.
And then after like third or fourth time, we were playing it the whole weekend.
Yeah.
Yeah, it was crazy.
Felt the same way?
I think he makes great.
I didn't hear it.
Oh, you didn't hear it. No, I think he's fantastic at making music. Like, he's crazy. I love it. I felt the same way. I think he makes great— I didn't hear it. Oh, you didn't hear it.
No, I think he's fantastic at making music.
Like, he's just great at it.
Yeah, I think so, too.
Yeah.
I feel the way they felt.
It was—it reminded me of Don FM from the weekend.
Like, the first time I heard it, I was like, I don't know, this is a little spacey.
And then you keep letting it go.
And then I was like, now let's rip that motherfucker one more time.
And then I was like, it's growing on me.
Yeah.
And then, you know, by the end of the weekend i was like no this is fucking fucks this dude took a risk and did something totally different
and it's fucking fire you gotta do it i mean yeah gotta do it once again it's like you said it was
the reach he chased the art he could have came back out with another birds and uh birds in the
trap scene mcknight right but it's like instead he was like no this is like you know his last
because his last three or four hits were in that vein, right?
Goosebumps, highest in the room, right?
Like his last few hits were all in that same kind of Travis Scott vibe that he knew that it was like, where do I go from here?
Dude, I saw him.
I was hanging out at Wiling Out after I wasn't on the show.
I just went to go say what's up to everybody.
We were both in LA.
And this was before he really cracked off.
And he was a guest.
But then he started doing soundcheck leading into his performance. Soundcheck was like
a show in and of itself. He's just like kind of singing in the microphone. And then I remember I
had somewhere to be, so I had to leave early. But as I'm leaving, I feel the entire building
where they're filming shaking from everybody jumping up and I've seen everybody perform on
that, on that show. Nobody said it off like Travis. It was fucking crazy.
He's special.
That's how I felt about Yachty's album.
Did you listen to his most recent one?
What was the name of it?
Lil Yachty's, I actually can't remember the name of it.
Came this year, though, right?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Super experimental, but awesome.
It's like Pink Floyd meets rap.
There are tracks on there that are unbelievable.
Yeah, no, I love the rock element in it too.
He,
he's a great writer.
Yeah.
That's his real skill set,
right?
It's like,
I don't know like
how much Yachty music,
his voice is very particular.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
But like,
I think that dude,
I think he's already
wrote a couple of big hits,
but I got a feeling
that dude will write
number ones for other people
as long as he wants to.
Oh yeah.
As long as he feels like
showing up to write songs for motherfuckers, I think he's just going to keep shitting hits.
It's really cool.
And again, I'm watching music from a distance.
It feels like now that I'm getting older.
But I remember him being a punchline early on.
And I think it's so fucking cool that now people are like, oh, shit.
I don't know if they'll acknowledge how wrong they were.
But now he's like an artist.
And I think that's so cool.
But isn't that how artists stand the test of time?
You look at any of the bands that have been around for 20 years
and they're constantly evolving.
I think about Queen.
And I love Queen.
And I put on a This Is Queen playlist
sometimes when I run
on Spotify.
And the songs are so fucking different.
There's like a country
song out of nowhere. This thing,
it's like, what are these British guys know about country music? There's all these random
things happening. And I think that the audience, once they know that your music is pure or whatever
your art is, is pure. They'll let you flow. They'll let you go. I never felt
Michael Jackson was out of pocket with a single song. Every song felt like a Michael Jackson song,
even though they were way different genres because it's pure.
So I love to see that. I love to see people pushing it, man.
Yeah. Are you still doing mushrooms?
Oh, as much as possible.
Really?
I got a big bag I'm on the bus. You need some?
I think I do, yo.
I'm serious, bro.
Do you have as much as to write or to produce or anything like that?
Yeah, for sure.
I'll take like a gram if I'm in the writer's room.
But normally if I'm really like taking a deep write, I normally drink instead.
Oh, really?
Did shrooms help you?
Because I know you said you had a hard time loving yourself.
I don't remember what pot it was.
Sun pot.
Did shrooms help you with that?
Yeah, for sure.
They kind of helped me understand, you know,
understand me.
That's something I've been working on the most
in therapy though, man,
is like trying to figure out,
because I thought that it was like
when the jelly roll thing,
if it ever worked,
that the Jason thing would just like
correct itself right then.
You know what I mean?
And then the jelly roll thing worked and it's
like i don't know i'm still fucking feel like shit about myself like this isn't you know what i mean
like you know so it's like but i'm working through it man i feel good i think i'm taking the right
steps and uh i think i think that's the uh somehow i think that's why a lot of times people who
achieve success especially in the arts that have that line of thinking, get more depressed with their success.
Because they're like, once I'm on top of the world, I'll feel good.
I'll love myself.
I'll be happy.
And then you're on top of the world.
You have everything you dreamed of and you don't.
And you're like, fuck, what's going to change it?
And then you go to alcohol, you go to drugs or whatever.
I think that's why a lot of musicians are killing themselves.
They're like, I have it.
I'm touring around the world.
I have everything that should make me happy.
But the only thing that's going to do it is doing that work, man.
And you've got to do that work, man.
And I've been doing that work.
And I'm also like a doomsday guy.
I just assume.
I got the number one song right now on country radio.
While I'm sitting on this couch, I got the number one song on country radio right this and it's like well, I am petrified of next week's chart
Wait, why?
Might be number one. I won't be number one next week and it's like can I do it again?
Do I have another one of those like, you know the critic? Yeah, the instant doomsday guy starts getting inside of me
you know what I mean, like
It's just like it's so crazy because i described to people it's
like the greatest feeling on earth is having a song work and the worst feeling on earth is watching
the song run its course yeah because then you're like and you know i thought about this i can
always go back and sing save me the rest of my life and once again the comparison but just hear
me out yeah you got to come up with something fresh every fucking year. Yep. And so when I start to get really scared, I think of you.
I think of my friends that are like Theo,
like my comedian friends that are like comedian comedians.
And I'm like, damn, this has got to be how they feel
the day their special comes out.
Like there has to be this moment of like,
you're watching the numbers.
You're like, we fucking did it.
The fucking special worked.
You know what I'm saying? It's fucking rolling.
God damn it, you're all high-fiving.
There's got to be a moment where you sit in a room by yourself
shortly after that and go, how do I do it again?
Oh, fuck, I got to figure that out again.
I feel that. I'm filming my special in
three weeks and already in the back of my mind, it's like, yo,
let's say this goes amazingly like I put
in the work for it to do. Am I out of
material? What's going to happen?
What am I going to do? I think I'm fresh out. So we'll see. Where are you filming it at?
Houston. Houston. I'm running it tonight. If you're not busy, come through.
Dope. I'm running it tonight in New York.
Yeah. I remember after the last special, I took a bunch of time off. I was like,
I don't want to rush this. I just want to come back to it naturally when I have something to say. I told the agents and of course they're like, Hey, we just had
time to book some shows. And I'm just like, we'll do it when it's ready.
And my first few times on stage, I got off stage and I was like, I think I've already said
everything. I don't have anything else to say. It was the weirdest feeling.
And I was terrified. I was like, holy shit. Cause I probably took maybe six months off
from standup. I didn't take six months off from standups for 17 years or 15 years,
however long I've been doing standup. I was like, fuck, if I said everything and
I kept going up and then it was like my brain reorganized itself back into standup.
Wow.
It's like six months.
It's almost like not working a muscle for, for, uh, six months.
It's going to start to atrophy a little bit.
Right.
But then you get up there, start working.
And like my brain just started making these comedy connections again.
Like it started working in terms of bits and then life presented itself and, you know,
inspiration came and then, yeah. What a way to say that life presented itself.
Yeah. Cause I was avoiding it. Like I was avoiding it, like looking at it in terms of standup. I was
looking at it in terms of podcasting and that kind of stuff, but I was avoiding like just kind of
what is frustrating you? What is, you know, I know, I was avoiding using standup for what I've always used it as, right?
This like my most expressive outlet, right?
Like the thing that I care about the most in terms of art, you know?
And then things started happening.
It started coming together and it started coming alive.
And I started to get really excited about it.
And it was an awesome experience.
And I, but I didn't book a single show. And I knew if I booked a show, I would chase what worked.
And I was like, I need months without a single fucking show to chase the art.
Right. And what I want to do that's new and what I want to do is different.
What is that in your world? What is chasing the art in that place mean? Are you like-
What I often don't really care about. Say what?
Are you popping up at clubs at that time then if you're not booking shows?
I'm popping up at clubs. And then once I felt like I had enough time, I would like, okay,
maybe I'll do like a club weekend. And it was just like slowly, but I'd get up at the New York
Comedy Club, I'd get up at the Comedy Cellar, and I'd try to get up 16 times a week.
And I'm like, what is there?
What am I focusing on?
What do I care about?
And not what will make me money.
If you have a podcast that you can live off of, and you aren't being as pure and authentic with your comedy as you can, you're wasting your time.
Because you can pay the bills here.
Right.
So this can be real.
Right.
You know what I mean?
Right.
I understand if you make your living on stand-up only, and you've got houses, and you've got
your kids, and private schools and stuff, and it's like, okay, you've got to get that
new hour ready, and this is how you pay the bills, and do what works, and have as much
fun as you possibly can in it. we're fucking so lucky right that we get to explore
and experiment and fail until we find something that is uniquely ours and uh i feel like i'd be
wasting the opportunity if i didn't do it but then coming together and like finding it like
working on it yeah it's just the best that is one thing i think that sometimes i get upset when i see there's certain creators that
i think that are like really artistic doesn't have to be even stand-up i feel like they're artists
and i think sometimes the the attention addiction gets a hold of them. And I think they sometimes give up the art for that attention thing.
And I wonder if they will regret that later on. I tell you what, man, I think it's a battle I'm
having now with management where I'm like, yo, when I come off the road in the middle of October,
I was like, I need six weeks of my life. Because since I got shot out of the cannon two years ago, I haven't had six weeks of life where I felt I had any autonomy.
And I was like, you got to let me have it.
And it's not that I need a break.
I do need a break.
Yeah.
But it's that I know my personality.
When you give me some downtime on day three, after I played Call of Duty for three days straight for 18 hours a day.
Yeah. I'm going to wake up on day four and go, three days straight for 18 hours a day. Yeah.
I'm going to wake up on day four and go, I'm going to pick up the guitar.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
I know me.
You know what I mean?
And I'm going to be like, and it's going to be like a kid again, like, ooh, I can write songs.
Yeah.
I can write songs.
That's great.
You know, and it's like, and I'm like you.
I mean, I'm like how you were with the six months in general.
I cycle write.
Yeah.
So like a lot of songwriters write year round
and I cycle write.
When I put an album out,
I finished the album in January.
I didn't write again until the end of July.
Wow.
I just took seven months.
Because you needed it.
I needed it.
It's like I needed to just,
man, I wrote everything my soul felt for that album
because you see the 13 songs that are on the album,
much like we see the hour
that's on the special.
You know what I mean?
What we don't see
is the 12 hours of shit
that sucked.
You know what I mean?
You don't see the 20 songs
that didn't make these 13.
Like, I'm tired.
Yeah.
You know what I mean?
And I'm not going to hear
write no puppy mill song
so it's like,
I just need some time
to just rethink
and think about
what the fuck I want to do.
Yeah.
I just had the most success I've ever had in my life.
You know what I mean?
Like, I need to sit on that for a second and-
Reflect on it.
Yeah, and reflect on it.
That's what you're going to talk about next.
Yeah, and think about these people, like the story from Virginia Beach.
Virginia Beach was literally two nights ago.
Think about that story and think, who is that person and what do they need?
Right?
Because like, now I'm not even writing for me no more.
I've told the Jelly Roll story a bunch.
It's like, what do you need?
Like, because I know now why you come to see me.
You know what I mean?
It's like, you know what I mean?
Like, I know why you're in my office.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like, what can I do for you?
Is where I'm at as a songwriter,
which is the coolest place on earth to be, you know?
Sometimes what you do for them is you're able to explain
feelings that they can't articulate.
It's like the big part of doing the work in therapy is when they make you say something, what are you thinking about that?
Well, articulate it.
And they say that really you need to hear it.
Like even though you hear it, you need to say it.
And it's like it's kind of that same concept of like we'll all heal together. The show too for me is about live shows,
and I don't know if y'all feel this way,
but there's some situations where you go,
man, I gotta take it to the room, right?
Like you just assess it and go,
I'm finna take it to the room.
What is taking it to the room?
Like just fucking balls to wall.
Like fucking I'm taking it to you.
Not aggressive, but I'm taking it to you.
And then there's moments where you need to bring the room to you. You know what I'm saying? Where you. Yeah. Not aggressive, but I'm taking it to you. And then there's moments where you need
to bring the room to you.
You know what I'm saying?
Where you need to take a step back
and you need to bring the room to you.
And a good show, they'll do one of the two good.
A great show, they'll do both good.
Yeah.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah.
It's like, and like Taylor's an example of a girl
who like, there was moments in her set
when she gets on the piano where you
watch 70,000 people feel as if they're sitting Indian style around that piano together. You know
what I'm saying? Like they're looking up to their big sister and it's fitting to just like whatever
big sister does, it's fitting to go. You know what I mean? Like it's Christmas day at the house. Like
that's such a skill set that few, like that is such a thing in our business of like knowing the difference
between when you take it to the room and when you bring the room to you.
And like a funny, we joked about them earlier,
but Garth Brooks taught me that like watching Garth Brooks live is of,
it's insane. I've went to see him 10, 12, 13 times.
And I've sat everywhere from section 304 up there by Jesus with my back to the roof.
And I've sat down on the floor. And every time there was so many moments in his set
where I felt like I was in his living room. You know what I mean? And then there was moments in
his set where I felt like I was at a fucking gym where he was working us out. You know what I mean?
Like that's another big part of it. Like there's moments in the set where it's like,
we're all going to blow our,
like, I strategically put songs in places to know
that we're going to need a break after these two songs.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Like, all of us as a group.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, we don't need to scream
and put our hands up for a song.
Yeah.
Like, all that's the fucking,
that's the art stuff that I get, like,
I stay up at night and obsess about
and romanticize with the set.
You know what I mean?
It's like, how do I create this Sunday service in the South?
Like, how do I bring you to,
I want you to feel like you were in a hundred person Baptist church on a
Sunday.
That's how I want you to feel when you leave my show.
I want you to feel like that's what you just experienced, you know?
And that's a big part of the heart.
Sorry.
You said something that made me realize why I think music transcends specifically your music.
You were talking about therapy.
I remember a therapist telling me one time,
all therapy is is just trying to figure out
how to take your feelings and put them into words.
What am I actually feeling and express them?
Your music does that for millions of people.
They have these deep, maybe dark, whatever feelings.
You put them so beautifully into words.
I think that's why people attach themselves to you and your music so strongly.
Thank you.
Like these things I feel that I can't express, this guy expresses them so profoundly.
And it's the Willie Nelson thing, right?
Y'all know much about Willie?
No Willie fans here?
I respect him.
I'll educate you on the God.
So Willie has this really cool thing where
like, you know,
if nothing else, you know the prestige of Willie. Like, you
think of Willie right now, you think bandana.
Do you know anything about Willie Alex? No, I don't.
I can tell you were the only one that was
genuinely looking at me like, I really don't know
what I'm talking about. He's got braids.
I was like, yeah, we know who Willie is.
Legend, legend. Yeah, it's like, he wears his bandana.
He has two long braids. He's 90 years old now. I just did a show with him. Still doing shows. Wow. Legend, legend. Yeah, it's like he wears his bandana. He has two long braids.
He's 90 years old now.
I just did a show with him.
Still doing shows.
Wow.
Still doing shows.
Let me tell you about that, too.
But his persona through the media all the years and all his Johnny Carson appearances was he's a very jovial guy, very funny.
He was like the most famous weed smoker in country music for fucking 50 years.
Like just stoner Texas dude, just always high.
They just joked on him.
He was Snoop Dogg of country music in every way he could be.
Except when he picked his guitar up
and all of a sudden the saddest song on earth would come out.
Like he would pick this guitar up.
Even he'd be on the Johnny Carson show
and they'd be laughing and telling jokes
and he picked that guitar up and just instantly, you know, my heroes have always been cowboys
and they still are today. Like it was just like, he had songs, blue eyes crying in the rain. And
my heroes are like these just dauntingly sad songs. You know what I mean? And they were like
his big hit records, but it was kind of like to
another degree, like the Robin Williams thing. You know what I mean? And I took so much of that
from Willie because I used to feel like, because I was a jovial person, even though I know I had
mental health issues, that I would try to write songs like from that perspective. And I was like,
but that's not what's really in me. You know what I mean? And then I made the mistake of writing the songs
that were in me, but dressing them up jovial.
Ah, yeah.
And I went through that phase
where I couldn't figure out what the disconnect was
because I'm a relatively frumpy fellow.
You know what I mean?
I'm kind of a happy-go-lucky guy.
And so I'd put these weird artworks
that looked real light-colored and stuff.
I love talking to y'all because
this is so inside fucking baseball shit. It's like I would have these songs that were just like
Save Me-ish, but with an album cover that was like a fucking joke cartoon with a title that was a
joke, like The Biggest Loser or something. You know what I mean? Because that's the defense
mechanism, right? That's the defense mechanism. Personality is, hey, I'm going to be jovial
because inside- I'm fucking dying. Exactly. Yeah.
It's like, and then I was like, man, I should just start dressing the music up the way it sounds.
You know what I mean? And then just be who I really am in every situation and let that figure
itself out. You know what I mean? Just, and that was when shit started shifting for me dramatically.
You know what I mean? You were creating authentically, man. Yeah. That's it. It takes
time to do that, man. Cause you got to develop the skills to do it.
We probably, in our everyday lives, develop skills to cope with that fucked up shit inside us.
So we're almost more fluent in the character that we develop than we are in who we are.
So training yourself to not do the character that works effectively.
It's hard to walk into a deli and be sad.
Yeah, yeah.
To walk into a deli and you're just like, hey, what's up?
Blah, blah, blah.
You're doing a thing.
That's great for everybody.
So, yeah, like leaning into that.
And then doing that with the skill of music, which you have to develop over fucking decades.
Right.
Yeah, eventually those kind of met. Yeah. And wow. Yeah, that's why I was the Van Wilder of music, which you have to develop over fucking decades. Right. Yeah, eventually those kind of met.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah, that's why I was the Van Wilder of music.
I'm fucking almost 40, dog.
You know what I mean?
Like, as a point of perspective,
like this shit, you know,
I didn't have money worth,
I just, we were joking about it outside of there.
I just figured, you know,
I didn't pay taxes until fucking 2020.
Fire.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, you know what I mean?
I didn't make enough money
to pay taxes.
You didn't make enough to pay taxes.
I ended up owing them
some money afterwards
and now I know about taxes.
He was joking about like
some other government's
French taxes
or what was he talking about?
European taxes.
And I was like,
well, I know about American taxes.
Yeah.
They're brutal.
You know what I'm saying?
It's a robbery, dog.
It's a complete heist.
It's the biggest criminal organization
I've ever seen.
And it's funny, man, because I never understood politics.
But I understand them now.
And I'll tell you what I understand about them is when I found out I got to give you all this money and then I don't even get a vote where it goes.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like, whoa.
Hold on now.
Man, I want at least a—that's a lot of fucking bread.
You know what I'm saying?
What are we doing with this?
If you could vote, would you?
Yeah, no, fuck no.
I don't think our vote counts.
That shit's a hock of crap, man.
They're fucking greatest scam in American history.
When they made a two-party system, we should have known they were fucking us.
Yeah, that's just—I mean, it's automatically.
How many times—that's how fights start.
You put one guy against another guy. You know what I'm saying? It's like fucking that's just, I mean, it's automatically. How many times, that's how fights start. You put one guy
against another guy.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like fucking,
you know what I mean?
That was fucking a no-brainer.
You know what I'm saying?
As soon as they started
labeling themselves something,
I was like,
oh, this is a gang.
They gave them colors.
You know what I'm saying?
Yeah, they gave them colors.
They gave them logos.
They fucking have signs.
You know what I'm saying?
It's wild.
It's fucking insane.
I was like, yeah,
this is a party destined for failure.
This is never going to work.
They're going to fight amongst themselves,
and we're going to take 50% of their money every single year no matter what.
Yeah, they're going to stick us up, fight amongst themselves, kill each other.
Yeah, for sure.
And all the tax problems everybody talks about never affects anybody.
You know what I mean?
Except for fucking, yeah, I mean, it just, nobody's ever like,
we're getting a tax cut.
I was like, I didn't fucking notice. You know what I'm saying? I don't know, but goddamn, how bad were they? You know what I mean? Except for fucking, yeah, I mean, it just, nobody's ever like, we're getting a tax cut. I was like, I didn't fucking notice.
You know what I'm saying?
I don't know, but goddamn, how bad were they?
You know what I'm saying?
That's kind of where I'm at.
Like, if this is the cut, we're fucked.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like, Jesus Christ.
Somebody's like, this country's going to end up being communist.
I was like, they're 50% away from being it anyway.
You know what I'm saying?
We halfway live.
What are you talking about?
You know what I'm saying? Y' live. What are you talking about? You know what I'm saying?
Y'all are fighting
the fucking inevitable, dude.
I bet taxes used to be 10%.
I bet there's some old dude
right now that if you told him
we're paying 43% or whatever
the fuck we're paying,
he'd be like,
there's no fucking way.
Why'd we fight the Germans?
Apparently they used to be
dumb high during wartime.
They were like 70%
or some crazy shit like that.
I think that was during Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt,
something like that.
For the super rich, he had some crazy
tax rate.
Can I transition?
I want to ask you about the new album,
which you said is a
reconciliation of your relationship with the church.
Yes.
What was it before? What is it after?
I'm very interested in your view on God and spirituality and faith.
Yeah, man.
That's why I hate this podcast.
It's like, we'll laugh.
Tell us something about God.
It's like, that's a good subject to get me in trouble.
Dude, it's like, when I was 14, I have time to tell this full story because I want to share it in its detail.
Hell yeah.
My daughter is just turned 15.
Okay.
Last year, she started going to this little church back in this little country road, a little bitty church.
In fact, it's a church that takes place in a school auditorium, and the school is kindergarten through 12th grade.
Right?
Little bitty church,
little country church. 20 of the hundred members are kids from her high school. And I was like,
this is last summer. And I'm like, when I was 14, the summer of that summer was the last year that
I ever attended a church. I got baptized that same summer and caught my first robbery case that same summer.
So
all these feelings are coming back up
in me as she's like pounding me
because you know what people do when they find a church.
You know, gotta come. You gotta come. It's like what they do
and I think that's cool. So I was like,
I should go. So I go because I'm
a father. You know what I mean? You support
your kid. And like I tell people, if the
kid wanted to play fucking cricket, gotta learn about cricket. You know what I mean? Like I'm in. You know what I mean? You support your kid. And like I tell people, if the kid wanted to play fucking cricket, got to learn about cricket. You know what I mean? Like I'm in, like, you know
what I mean? Like I would have read a book on soccer, soccer for dummies if the kid wanted to
play soccer. So I'm like, I'm going to church. And when I show up, I'm like, it was the first
time in a long time that I didn't, I wasn't mad at the church, you know, because like, there's so
much, like, there's just so much room for error and that whole belief system. I don't want to get too deep into that because I'll get in trouble,
but it's just, it's just weird. And I was just in there like, and I grew up a Christian kid.
I got a cross on my face. You know what I mean? And, but I was like, I started looking at it from
the people, not the preacher. And I was like, why are they here? And that changed my perspective of
the church that afternoon. I was like, man, these people's intention is pure, at least in this little building. They're coming in here
trying to cleanse something. They're trying to be better people. They're trying to set an example
for their children, core principles of life, moral compasses. They're not in here to create.
This is truly a safe space for these people. And it made me think about why did I go to church when I was
that age? What drew me to the church? And it was all my friends went. Why did I get baptized? And
what led me to... And then, of course, I spent 10 years after that in jail reading nothing but
religious material. I mean, I read about everything you can... I didn't get my GED till I was in my
mid-20s in jail. I'm a completely uneducated man. If you had to ask me what grade I completed,
I'd say like
seventh, I think was the last grade I actually graduated to the next grade. You know what I mean?
So I'm talking to Bailey about all this stuff. And when we leave that church that next day,
I'm like, yo, you won't believe this kid, but I used to go to a little church like this. And I
got baptized when I was your age. And I had a bunch of homies. And I went on.
I could have went one of two ways in life.
And I went the wild route.
And she kind of didn't believe me.
And I was like, no, I'm telling you, dude.
It's like the same church.
It was called Whitsitt Chapel Baptist Church.
It was on this little country road in the back ass between Antioch and Donaldson.
Sat across from the lake.
Finally, one day, I take her.
I'm like, I bet the building's still there.
But I pulled up.
The building hasn't changed at all.
I think they added a carport that I didn't put on the album cover.
Literally, a carport for some sweet old lady.
It's a 100-person church.
When I left there, I had wrote probably 100 songs at that point towards my debut country album.
wrote probably a hundred songs at that point towards my debut country album. And I realized that I wasn't writing in the spirit that I like to write in. I was looking for a hit. I just came
off a couple of hits, like real hits, like life-changing hits. And I was like, I was looking
for a hit. And when I was driving that day, I was kind of praying because I'm a man of prayer. And I
was like, I called my producer and I was like I called my producer
and I was like
I want to start from scratch
on this album
and I had a song called
Going to Church
and a song called
Hungover in a Church
that I wrote
through all those songs
and I was like
what if we make that
the first song
and the last song
and we tell a story
book open
book close
and we tell the story
of this album
and we call it
Going to Church
and he was like
what's the name of that church you went to?
I was like, Whitsitt Chapel.
He said, we need to call it Whitsitt Chapel, and you need to write that album.
And I wrote a concept album.
I scrapped all these songs.
The record label's called Mad at first.
They're like, yo, we'd already picked out singles.
We'd sent this to radio.
You got some hits.
And I was like, give them to whoever wants them, man.
I can't sing them with conviction.
You know what I mean? I was like, this is the whoever wants them, man. I can't sing them with conviction. You know what I mean?
I was like, this is the album.
And I'm in creative control, and they love me.
And they were like, we trust you.
Sight unheard.
I just turned the album in, and they listened.
And the head of the label, Jonathan Loeb, who changed my whole life, I love you, Loeb, calls me, and he's in tears.
He's like, yo, this is like, I'll never forget him saying this, because I hope he's right.
He said, you're going to get nominated for a Grammy for this album. He was like, this is special. This is like the he's like, I'll never forget him saying this because I hope he's right. He said, you're going to get nominated for a Grammy for this album.
Wow.
He was like, this is special.
This is like the president of BMG.
He's like, this is so the right thing to do.
And nobody questioned it.
And it was like, my reconciliation came from like, I still think what the church is doing, to answer your question directly, I still think what they're doing is wrong.
But I think that the spirit of which people go to these churches
is more,
and I try to judge things based on intent.
And I never seen the intent like I did
watching my daughter
and them go to that church.
Can I ask,
you don't have to put it in,
what do you think is wrong about the church?
You can put this in.
I just think that they're,
you know,
I think that you can't pander to people
that think that we're all stupid enough not to be free thinkers.
And I hate that this like Jesus and the church is going to die again.
Jesus is going to die all over again if they don't find a way to portray him the way he was historically known to be.
Not the version of which y'all let Constantine and all these people come together and figure
this out under the Constantine. I read the Constantine sword book about how this all
came together. It's like, when you look at that stuff, it's like, if you look at the history facts
of Jesus, which I think favor Christianity in this weird way, when you look at those,
that dude is not the dude y'all have turned him into. Like y'all have Americanized Jesus and
used him as a way of not only propaganda, but you've weaponized God. You have weaponized God.
You know what I mean? It's like, that was the opposite of who Jesus was. The same people that
you were, you were like criticizing and going against are the only people that Jesus had a
relationship with in the Bible.
You know what the first miracle was in the Bible? Pop quiz. The first miracle talked about in the
whole Bible. He turned water into wine for his mother at a wedding reception.
If we judge that alone, regardless of how you feel about Jesus, if you believe in it or not,
That alone, regardless of how you feel about Jesus, if you believe in it or not, to the side.
His mother comes up to him.
So she knows he can do crazy shit, right?
Because she walks up like, yo, I need a favor.
Right?
Imagine this, right?
You know, and Jesus is like, and he calls her woman.
He goes, what?
Woman in the Bible.
Shows me he's a little bit sassy.
Yeah.
Right?
You know what I mean?
And she goes, in so many words, can we, I need a party trick here.
Yeah.
Like fucking, this is like a really whack party.
She only talks to God when she needs a favor.
Yeah, she only talks to God when she needs a favor.
Yeah.
Right?
She's like, yo, can you like do something about this?
He says, it's not my time.
Which leads me to believe that she's probably seen him resurrect a squirrel or something.
I don't know.
You know what I mean?
She knows he can do something.
And she hits him with the please.
And just like any other good son who loves his mom,
she turns water into wine.
You're telling me this dude gives a fuck about gay people?
Like, you're telling me that's what his focus was in life at that era?
Like, that's something he'd be concerned with in this era of life?
This dude fucking, first thing he did was a party favor. And then if you look at his history,
he did nothing but protect town whores, prostitutes, people in jail, like the famous story of the throwing stones, let he who without sin cast his first stone. He was protecting a
prostitute. Pharisees come into the temple at
one point and they ask him about an adulterer, dude having an affair, right? And that's when he
does the, he says, he said in so many words, and I always, the Christians get so mad when I
fuck y'all anyways. And he's like, you know, he's like so many words words. He's like, hey, man, you know, what about this girl over here?
She's cheating on her husband.
He goes, y'all ain't never fucked around on your girl?
Literally, that's what he says in the Jesus way.
He's like, you ain't never cheated on your bitch ever?
And these dudes are like, well, he's like, then shut the fuck up.
He never looked up from the dirt.
It says in the scripture that he was drawing in the dirt.
Doodling is what that relays down to. He was just fucking around in the dirt with a stick. Never even looked up from the dirt. It says in the scripture that he was drawing in the dirt. Doodling is what it relays down to.
He was just fucking around in the dirt with a stick.
Never even looked up at the Pharisees.
He was just like, you motherfuckers, come on, dude.
You're cheating on your girl too.
Leave that girl alone.
It's crazy.
But then somebody like my wife's the first person I watch Christian women,
Christian, those kind of Christian women persecute.
It's like, man, that's the opposite of what that dude was doing.
So that's my problem with the church.
It's like, even if we just go by the four books
that y'all call the only four accounts of him,
this dude ran around with 12 thugs.
If he was here today, he'd be on a fucking Harley.
He'd be going to a bar.
You know what I'm saying?
It's like, I'll give you another one.
You ready for this?
He flipped a table over in the temple.
You remember this story?
And he said, don't make a merchant of my father's house. Yet every mega church in America sells CDs
and books and fucking coffee. There's Starbucks in these places. It's like, they're so picky and
choosy. The church is so like, well, hold on. It fits our agenda to really nail in on this one
thing that was said in Leviticus, right. But we're going to, you know,
it's like,
I thought we were focused on Jesus anyways.
That's like the focal point here.
I'm sorry.
No,
the reason I was asking you is if there's a,
this is a weird comparison,
but it feels like when you talk to God in your songs,
it reminds me of DMX when DMX would talk to God and his songs.
Right.
And maybe this is me projecting,
but there's like,
um,
like,
uh,
I don't know if I'm worthy. Like feeling I get from listening to it. Maybe that is me projecting, but there's like a, I don't know if I'm worthy feeling I get from listening to it.
Maybe that's me, again, projecting my own shit.
But I was curious listening to this and listening to Save Me and Only Talk to God When I Need a Favor.
Like, what is your relationship with God?
And I don't know if that's why it affects me so deeply.
Maybe I feel that deep down.
But I've listened to DMX as a kid.
Same thing I feel now.
I feel moved. Like, man, I feel that deep down, but I've listened to DMX as a kid. Same thing I feel now. I feel moved.
Man, I feel that way.
Yeah.
To me, I call it a sinner's prayer is what I'm doing.
My music has just come into terms with, as a part of my recovery from the stuff that was killing me,
which I don't talk about my recovery much because the recovering purists would say that I'm not sober and I shouldn't talk about it.
And I respect those people so much.
The people that really almost like they can't live that way.
But it's like for me, how I had to get off the codeine that was going to kill me,
like codeine was going to kill me for sure.
It took like me understanding the need for a higher power.
Like for me personally, and I know it's not for everybody,
but I needed to believe that there was something
because Jason
if he's solely in charge
I'm fucked
I'm in a lot of trouble here
Jason's
he's in a dark spot up here man
that dude
that dude get really
really sad
but it's like
believing in that
you know what I mean
and then looking at these people
and being like
yo do we not like
if what y'all are saying is God
what I'm reading
feels a little different
than like my prayer to God
is like yo
if you're who they say you are is there a spot for motherfuckers like us with you or no?
Because these people are sure making me feel like we're not, you know what I mean?
You felt rejected by it.
Yeah. Yeah. It's like, you know, so it's like, talk to me, God. Like, are we cool?
Yeah.
You know what's up with me. Like, you know my heart, but also the Bible also says that
there'll be plenty of people that he'll tell them, you think you know me, but you don't.
And there'll be people that, you know what I mean? It's like, so I always joke that a lot of these
pastors going to end up in hell and I'm going to have a big old mansion with a smoking section up
there. You know what I'm saying? I'll be the one with an open bar in that motherfucker. You know
what I'm saying? I think God going to do something big for me. I think that humans have a notoriously
horrible relationship with power. And when you put people in power,
usually shitty things happen
or the worst part of them comes out.
And I would think that a lot of times,
religion is used for nefarious intent.
And that doesn't mean that the ideals behind it
or the intent that you were talking about,
what those people are seeking in it,
that salvation, that humility, that inspiration,
like, wow, what if I could be just 10% more
like that Jesus guy?
What if I could be 15% more?
I don't gotta be him,
but if I could just increase my kindness a little bit,
if I could judge my neighbor a little bit less. And I think every time I've been in a church and I've felt that from the people in there, it was beautiful.
It oftentimes wasn't necessarily what the pastor was saying, but it was the people submitting themselves that I found so profound.
And I find that even when I go to concerts, as silly as that is, like seeing someone submit themselves to someone else who makes them
feel fantastic or feel sad or feel anything. So I understand your feeling about it. And maybe
if you had to talk with a pastor, he might be like, yo, you're onto something, bro.
Yeah, a few of them.
They might be frustrated with the same things you're frustrated with.
I'm telling you, I've had more pastors reach out since Witson Chapel and just speak out and go, hey, man, you might not.
Some of these Christian people might be against your message right now, but I think more people are hearing about God through your music than people have heard about God in a long time.
He's like, and I think you're talking to people about God who otherwise would have never heard about him at all.
So them hearing about him in any way is kind of.
Because they might feel immediately rejected, kind of like how you felt.
For sure.
You just automatically feel like, yeah, I don't fit that mold for that particular thing, you know?
And the problem I do have, as you say that, is that the people that are like, Jesus is the only way.
I get that.
Like, he's the way, the light.
I understand the scripture.
But, like, you just can't take away my free thought here.
Like, you just can't lead me to believe.
Like, Jesus is a piece of this puzzle. I had a lot of work I need thought here. You just can't lead me to believe.
Jesus is a piece of this puzzle.
I had a lot of work I need to do.
You know what I mean?
It's just irrational at times.
I always think about it as like a,
it's almost like a life hack.
Where it's just like, hey, if you kind of do the things
that that guy did, maybe you're experiencing heaven here.
Like if you're helping your neighbor,
you actually feel good.
Yeah.
And they probably figured that out over a few thousand years.
Yeah.
And anytime you're either helping somebody,
anytime you're lending a hand
or just lending an ear,
just listening,
lack of judgment.
Like I feel better
when somebody opens up to me.
I feel better.
Oh, yeah.
I don't know why the fuck that is. Yeah maybe the best way to communicate that to the people back in the day was, hey,
there's this guy and he lived this exact life and you should try to live a life like that because
he's the son of God. And all the while they're going, man, these people are going to really
feel better about themselves once they start living this life. So who knows what it is,
people are going to really feel better about themselves once they start living this life.
Yes.
So who knows what it is.
Right.
But yeah, I kind of look at it as life hacks for humanity. There's very few things that I see, and I'm talking about like the old school things.
I'm not talking about every single thing in the Bible.
I haven't read the Bible, so I can't tell you.
But in terms of like living a life like Jesus would live or Muhammad would live, right?
Or I don't know about Abraham, bro.
Right.
You know.
Look how dicey they are.
Some of the old school characters,
it gets crazy.
All that shit.
That's another thing though,
is that like,
I could bore you with this shit,
but like a lot of that shit
that's in the Old Testament,
how it even made it.
Yeah.
When I started getting into that,
I was like, yo, this is weird.
Like I'm uncomfortable.
Shit was weird back then.
Yeah, it was weird, dude.
It's crazy, kind of.
But shit was weird. That's what I'm trying to say.
If you look at 3,500 years ago,
shit was weird.
And we're really just guessing. Shit was
weird 80 years ago. We used to
put four-year-olds in a chimney.
Do you know what I mean?
There was a four-year-old walking
down the street in blackface because he had soot all over him from just going up and down the chimney.
That was a normal fucking thing.
My mom used to smoke cigarettes with the windows up in the car.
I think about that now.
You know what I'm saying?
20 years ago, yeah.
That gave you your raspy voice.
That was like crazy normal.
You know what I mean?
Like, I think about that now all the time when I'm like, I have a song called
I Hope Heaven Has
a Smoking Section
and I realize the older I get,
the more disconnected
that song's gonna become
to this generation
because it meant a lot to me
because I remember
when Shoney's had
a smoking section.
Why don't they just
vape in heaven?
It's like, what?
People smoke?
But it's just,
yeah,
fucking awesome, dude.
Brother,
thank you so much
for being here, man.
It's awesome to see what's happening with you.
It's awesome to see your success.
It's awesome to see you thriving in success.
Not everybody is built for success.
And it looks like you built for it, man.
It's so cool to see you taking your life seriously, your health seriously, and really pushing.
You're not wasting this opportunity that you've earned.
But also, I'm sure a humble guy like yourself would feel like you've been given it.
You know, so there's luck that goes into this shit as well.
So it's really awesome to see everything working out.
I can't wait to see you play where the Titans play, my boy.
We'll be at that one.
I love y'all boys.
Y'all got to come.
Yo, my dream in life was the we we both played our first amphitheater,
Sheddish venue at the same time down in Dallas, Texas, right?
Oh, that's right.
The Toyota Center.
You remember that?
The Toyota Center, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Y'all played it like a week before me and sold it out.
It was such a big, huge deal.
It was the first time I played one that big, too.
And I remember I came and y'all left a bottle of tequila with me.
The promoter was like, yo, you know Schultz's team?
I'm like, yeah.
He's like, yo, Schultz and them left you this tequila.
And my dream for all of us is in the next two years that we're on NBA arena tours.
Let's do it.
We're doing that for each other every fucking night.
Hell yeah.
You know what I mean?
Every night we're just grabbing the promoter like, yo, I see Jelly will be through here in like 30 days.
We got to leave pranks, bro.
Put this on.
He's got to fuck with you.
We'll just make a whole fucking thing about it.
I love y'all, man. I don't want to get off this pod without telling you how proud of y'all I am. It's been cool. You too, yeah. He's got a fucking thing. We'll just make a whole fucking thing about it. I love y'all, man.
I don't want to get off this pod without telling you how proud of y'all I am.
It's been cool.
You too, baby.
I've been seeing you do your thing thing.
I'm watching all y'all.
I almost caught the homie down in Nashville.
I miss him.
I tried to drag him to a Blink-182 show.
Did he tell you?
No, Blink-182.
I tried to take him to a Blink-182 show.
If I didn't have to come back for this, I would have been there with you.
Yeah, I hit him that Sunday.
I hate I missed the show last night.
I was like, but I got us backstage at Blink-182.
I'm coming to get you.
He's like, I just fucking laughed. Yeah. But, man, I just love y' show last night. I was like, but I got us backstage at Blink-182. I'm coming to get you. He's like, I just fucking laughed.
But, man, I just love y'all, man.
I've been watching from afar, dude.
It's just like fucking, you know, I stay in touch anyways.
But it's just all bows float, baby.
We're coming out, man.
We're coming out to a show.
We love you, dog.
Everybody go check out Jelly Live.
Go watch all his stuff on YouTube.
Listen to it everywhere.
Jellyroll615.com.
I think it's just Jellyroll on YouTube or the real Jellyroll.
I'm pretty much found, man.
You'll see me. Look me up, baby. Jellyroll615.com.
That's where the tickets are.
Get it.
Listen, if you fucking live in near
Rapid City, South Dakota,
this one show...
I'm sorry, y'all. Y'all shit is big.
Y'all shit is real big.
This is a big deal. If you live in Rapid City, South Dakota, I am pleading with you to not let this be the only show on this tour that don't sell out.
Please, y'all.
I'm begging.
I'm almost to the point of willing to import people to South Dakota.
Because it's like I'm going to sell out 43 cities in Rapid City, South Dakota.
You're fucking the whole fuck's way up in this store.
I need like 3,500
of you motherfuckers to go buy a ticket like today.
When's the show?
It's in like a month and a half. It's like September or something.
They got plenty of time. Like late September.
Like please, y'all. Rapid City,
South Dakota. Especially. Go buy a ticket
to anywhere, but I think we're gonna be
okay in most of these markets, but Rapid City,
every time I check the ticket count, I'm just like,
I know where I'm retiring.
You know what I'm saying?
Rapid City, get out there.
Jelly Roll, we love you, my brother.
God bless y'all.