 Where are you, dude? In a fucking guitar closet? I'm in my studio, man. Oh, shit. Out at your crib? Yeah, dude. When we come, we play Nashville, you got to come out here. Oh, dude, we, you know what we got to do? We got to just record a tune one night. Yeah, we can definitely, yeah. Man, I miss you, dude. Miss you, man. How you been? Oh, you know, I'm like you. I'm just trying to make sense of the world, you know? Yeah. It's been kind of weird. Yeah, it's been weird, but it's been great. Also, it's weird. It's this weird juxtapose of like, oh, shit, the world's falling apart. But good things are happening for me. It's weird. It's good. I mean, I think all of us were able to make a positive out of a non. Yeah. Hell yeah, man. Hell yeah. So, you know, it's weird. I was sitting here today getting ready to interview. This is the third time I've had you on. I thought about all the years that I've known you and I went back through the records, man. And you know, if I put together a set list, you have to me some of the best songs I've heard in the last 20 years. It's unbelievable. I start with the debut, you know, I mean, the self-title, not the debut, the debut of Soul Insight, but self-title, Rita's gone, jealous man, the man you didn't know, ain't nothing wrong with that. This fucking record's a crusher. And then you go with the Carolina Confessions and you got where I'm headed, homesick, side door. It's insane. And then El Dorado, you know, fucking wildflowers and wine. One day she's gone, next she's, you know, it's just tune after tune after tune for me as I was going through it. And now the new record coming out is fucking Lila Lila is like a smasher, man. Thank you. Thanks, man. I mean, that means a lot. Thank you. Oh, I mean, it's wild to think about how much material you have out in the short of time that you've been out there, you know, this is what, the fifth album? Yeah, technically, the first three were with the band and these El Dorado and this one were solo records, as it were, just because it was different cats playing on it, you know. Right. Do you, like, what is the decision of if it's going to be a band record and a solo record? So it's more, it's more kind of to do with like the production. So Dan has a certain way he likes to work and with El Dorado, like, we cut the record in about three days time. And we were kind of going for that early Memphis sound in a lot of ways. So the best way to do that was to hire the Memphis boys. Everybody on that session for El Dorado was like 80 years old, man. Yeah, I remember. Billy Sanford, his second session in Nashville was Pretty Woman and he wrote that riff for Pretty Woman. So we had him and Gene Christman and Bobby Wood. Bobby Wood for sure, I know, played on Suspicious Minds. But so did Gene, Bubble Christman. So we had like all these guys that worked with Elvis Presley and Dan's eyes, he's like, these are the hitters. We had charts and we played the tunes and cut the record in three days. And, you know, when I told him my goal for this new record, Young Blood, he knew the cats that we needed right away. So I just kind of trust the production in that, in that way. It's interesting because when I, what made me fall in love with you is what I talked to you about that I love over the, you know, my years of love and music is a thing that is very rare. It comes around once in a while, which would be Soul Rock. And when I first got into you, say, the self titled record, it was very heavy Soul Rock. There's a big R&B flavor. But I know that you loved Rock because you guys would cover like Warpigs and stuff, you know. So and then here we are and you're finally going for a full blown kind of rock record, you know. Yeah, I think it's been a, over time it's been kind of a shipping away at the different elements of who I am musically. And there's started to become less of an amalgamation and I'm starting to focus a little bit more minutely into these certain aspects like El Dorado, we focused more on the balladeer kind of soul ballads and shit. And this record went kind of completely back to the roots. And I mean, it was a super dark time that I was living through. And this music is so ingrained in me that I don't think I would have been like capable really of cutting any other kind of record because this goes so deep for me. Now, I do know your ex lady had no idea a matter through you. It had no idea there was any kind of turmoil. The last time you and I sat down was a couple of days before COVID. We were in a hotel room. She was there. You were out riding tunes secretly for what would now become, you know, young blood. And no idea that there was any kind of turmoil. Was it like ongoing or was it just something that happened right away? I mean, you know, sometimes people have a hard time knowing when to call it quits. If there's good elements and you're codependent, I think people have a tendency to hold on to something that ain't any good for them. And I think we're both kind of doing that. She seems to be doing fine now. And I'm really happy. I've met a woman that I'm really in love with and will then be married next year. So I'm just over the moon happy. And, you know, when I saw you, the record I was writing was really like the record that I'm still working on. Wow. So I've already got 11 tunes in the can for that. And I'm going to Italy at the end of this month to finish it. So that was like a breakup record that I was writing while I was in a relationship. And then young blood was like kind of the end result. Right. What a low place you get in. Even if it was supposed to happen, you still get in a low place after a breakup, especially if you're codependent in nature like I am. And then you find these other substances that give you temporary love the same way you were receiving it before. So yeah, I don't know. I appreciate you asking about it. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, I understand the gears, the animal of it, the door opened up. It was a dark hotel room, looked like some party and was going on, you know, and that's exactly where I'd be when I was your age in Los Angeles writing tunes, working with Rick Rubin. I'm like, Oh yeah, this is the this is what you're supposed to be doing. And it's not really a cliche. There is there's always a great little road into the dark side to find the stuff, you know, as long as you get out. Yeah. I mean, I'm glad I happened sooner than later. You know, the heavy stuff anyway, I mean, I needed to kind of quit that. I know that's what I'm saying. I don't mind. I don't you know, I look back on my drug era and I'm like, those fucking, you know, it's I made it out. So it's great because you find things in those eras, you know. Yeah. I mean, they're creatively really good to me, you know, those dark periods. But I don't know, maybe I'm maybe I'm supposed to write some happy music at some point. Yeah. Yeah, I can do that. Yeah. One of the greatest lines on the new record is I gave a champagne, that's what's limousine. So fucking great because it's just like I want more. I want more. It's what a line man. I'm being held like that song kind of went for the throat. But I wrote most of that song while I was still in a relationship. During the pandemic, I wrote, it was originally called Heavy Metal Heart Attack. And you know, after the breakup, changed a few lyrics around and that's La La La now. But yeah, that one goes for the jugular a little bit more than I've ever before. But you know, it keeps me from talking shit about anybody now. Yeah. Yeah. I get the pen to the paper. I'm I'm I'm able to put it behind me. Yeah. Let me ask you about co-writing because I'm not quite sure on that on the two Marcus King band records. Were you writing all the stuff or has there always been some co-writers? What's going on there? I never did any co-writing until El Dorado. Right. You need true co-writing. Soul Inside, there was no co-writing at all. And the self titled I co-wrote guitar on my hands with a buddy of mine, Rocky Lindsay. And he just passed away not too long ago. So that's a shame. But Carolina Confessions, Dave Cobb, his production style is really adding to the the form of the song. But to my knowledge, he didn't contribute anything lyrically. And then El Dorado is when I really did my first true co-writing at Nashville with Dan. Do you enjoy the co-writing or is it kind of, you know, record company influenced where they're like, Hey, maybe get out there with some people. Because my thoughts were the Desmond Child co-writer hadn't heard his name since the 80s, of course, you know. And, you know, he's a hit master back then of Bon Jovi and all those guys, Aerosmith. So it was an interesting choice. I was like, wow. First of all, I was like, oh, he's still around, you know. Right. I mean, that's a great question, Dean. I mean, for me, co-writing, there's certain people that if they recommend someone, I know that I probably I'm not going to enjoy it. So I don't do it. Yeah. Like, if the labels pitching people to write with them like, no, probably not. But that's why I'm really thankful that I kind of built my career off of like, just let me do me. And I'll try to give you something good. And I've kind of built my career off of that. So I just find people that I enjoy writing with. And this is a great town for that. As far as Desmond, like, I didn't even know we were writing together until he showed up. And that was a an hour back thing. Dan, that's how Dan likes to work. Then he doesn't send me the schedule or anything. He's just like, we're writing at 11am, Tuesday. And I show up. And then Desmond showed up at like 1130. I didn't, I wasn't aware of Desmond's track record. I wasn't, I didn't know who he was. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What are you, 24? How are you going to know? Yeah. Well, I was at the top of the time. Yeah. I made the same difference. But I'm like, uh, good meeting you, sir. You know, and we wrote and he's so, uh, he's a character, man. Like he snatched my pen out of my hand. And I was clicking it. I get a little fidgety. Yeah. And I pitched the line and then he's like, nah, that's corny. And Dan nearly fell out of his seat because he called me corny. Well, I love the pieces. He's, he's really, it was a challenge, uh, because he's, he's got the most hits in the room. And when you're in a room with Dan, our back and someone's got more hits than him, you kind of got to tip your hat to the, uh, you know, natural hierarchy there. And that's kind of what co-writing is to me. I wouldn't say that I sacrifice any of my artistic whatever you want to call it, but it's different. You kind of open up different parts of your brain, but in doing so, I feel like you close other parts because I write songs that don't even rhyme. And like, I'll try to do that in like a standard Nashville co-write. They'd be like, you need a smokeless pot. I mean, I, you know, I, uh, I wrote probably 90% of my songs, 95, I would say. So I always wondered about the co-writing, what it, you know, what it's, what it's like. It's such a strange animal to me. You're in a room. Go. Yeah. Guys over there. Well, I was thinking about a little bit of this and a little bit of that. And then you're doing a little bit, and then you see what comes out of it. It's, uh, it's a wild ride. It is, man. You really got to let your guard down. And the only way I know to do that is like every right, especially on this last record, it's always like a first date when you're meeting people for the first time. You, you get, it's, didn't get to know them for me because this was a really personal record for me. So anybody contributing on it with me, I was like, we need to get to know each other a little bit. So we'd almost have 30 minute preamble conversation. And then we start writing from wherever I was that day when I was up here down here. And how do you do it? Is it you come in and say, well, is he helping with the lyrics or melody or, or chords or are you strumming? And he goes, Oh, how about trying, trying this bridge? How does that work with like a Desmond child type of person? Cause I always wondered that. Man, it's kind of a, it kind of depends on the rider. It's all kind of situationally based. Like Dan and I have a certain way that we write together, which is we guitars around the kitchen table, you know, just hanging pen to paper and we bring a third party in always and not always, but in this case we did. And we'll start strumming along and either I'll have an idea that's already kind of started or Dan will have like a melodic idea because there's always something banging around in there, you know, maybe even something will start derivative of something else. And then once the lyrics kind of fall into place, then it kind of becomes its own thing. There's really no set way to do it for me. It just kind of happens. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's how, that's how it does happen. You know, I was just talking to somebody last week about it where I said, you know, I don't know, man, the jokes just come out of nowhere. And he said, don't they all? And it was so true. They don't, they don't come from anywhere but out of nowhere, you know, and same with song lyrics. I talked to you about it before, but whenever I'm strumming a guitar, the chorus always seems to come out first. And then I'm fucked. I'm like, I got to live with this chorus. It came from nowhere and I got to figure out what the hell it means. Especially when it's just the melody. Yeah. But song lyrics are interesting. Like my fiance and I had a shared note. It was like a grocery list or something. And I think at some point I deleted all the groceries because I was going to get more. And then I forgot it was a shared note and I'm just writing lyric ideas in it. She's like, hey, I'm in that note still. She's like, what does any of this shit mean? The process. It doesn't make any sense right now. It'll get there. Yeah, that's great. Right. Bumblebee's hollering. You know, like, what is Bumblebee's hollering in the grocery notes? Yeah. So today she was like, what's that? What the fuck does that mean? A lot of, a lot of that's Paul on the videos. Was that on the record also? Yeah, it was. Man, I think I use that on damn near every track. With the exception of, you know, a couple of like 12 string overdubs. And my 345 was there, if anything, just for moral support, security blanket guitar. So I think that burst of dance the whole time. Oh, wow. And what was that as a custom shop or reissue or original? It's a $59. Let's pull on cover. And I was actually thinking about buying it at one point and Dan bought it the next day. And I put a down payment on my house. Yo, I remember that. It was the one you played. Was that the one you were playing with Billy Strings or something in the video? Maybe. I remember going over and looking at it because it was a pretty good deal for one. I was like, think about it. Talk to my business manager. And then in the next day, Dan sent me a photo of it. And I was like, shit. Damn. Is it all straight? It's all original. There's a couple funky things about it, which is why I think a collector like Dan likes it because me and Dan both kind of off the wall guitars, a little funky. I mean, it's pretty true to all original. It's just not as clean as a true vintage collector would want. And that's why I think it was a good deal. But I used that and I actually used an old Gibson amp for the whole record. Wow. So that's another ugly beast of a machinery. It's like an old GA-20. Somebody took out of the original chassis and put it in just like a plywood box kind of thing. And it's ugly as hell. And there's a rectifier tube missing, which makes it sound even better. I think it probably pushes like 20 watts at the most, but you know, it's beautiful. Oh, yeah, like a tweed the box. Yeah. So are you going to be playing Les Paul on the tour or on the road for this record or what's going on? Yeah, I've been playing a lot of Les Paul live. Really? What do you got? I got my 69 Black Beauty and I've got a kind of a burst clone with a big beyond that I love. And I've always bring my Strat and my 345 and my Telly's. Yeah, man. I got a pretty good collection that you'll be seeing soon. It's going to be interesting. You and I have talked about doing like a comedy tour for about four years. Yeah. And I remember we're in that hotel room right before the lockdown. We're like, yeah, we're going to do a comedy music tour and then boom, the lockdown. But here we are actually going to do it. It's going to be Neil Francis, myself and you and Ashlyn Kraft on some of it. It's going to be an interesting animal. How do you see it? You know, it's like, as I see it as a comedian, you know, we look at the old days, I was just talking to a legend of comedy Tom Dries and he opened for Frank Sinatra for years back in the day. You know, the Blues Brothers, you know, all these people open for bands in the 70s. It was just kind of easier to do and kind of a cool variety show vibe. But how do you see it, man? Yeah, I mean, it was definitely a lot more commonplace like Robert Klein and Steely Dan, that kind of stuff. And I think it's because you'd have these kind of shows like the Midnight Special where it was kind of commonplace to see a comedian and then a band. So people would take that on the road. I was even talking earlier about James Brown used to have a like a hype man kind of emcee that was more or less like a comedian that would Bobby Bird. It wasn't Bobby Bird. It was another cat. He was kind of more of a one-liner type of dude. Yeah, I mean you, I thought about first, like when we met, I was like, Dean's great comedian and he's a rock and roll singer. So he knows how to, he knows how to maneuver a rock and roll crowd. Yeah. You're the first guy that came to mind. Like having a more soft-spoken comedian would have been, it could have been a train wreck, but I think you know how to really, you know, wrangle him. Yeah. And also not sneaking it up on anybody. It's pretty clear on the poster and the ticket that there's comedy involved. So, I mean, we're going to see how it goes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, I know I've done it before and it's... Yeah, you did it with Queens of the Stone Age, right? I did it with Alice in Chains for two weeks. Okay. And then I just recently did it with Metallica, which was like fucking really hard. I bet. Because it was their 40-year anniversary. So I went out there ready with these jokes and then I realized, wait a minute, we got Ecuador in the house. We got Brazil. We have, you know, people from all around the world that aren't, they don't know comedy or, you know, local references or anything. I'm riffing on the burritos that we had fight over in San Francisco and they're like, what is this guy talking about? But... Neat San Francisco humor. Well, it was their 40-year and we were in San Fran. There was a special party for that. And I was just talking about like how people, you know, when it comes to Metallica, they just, they argue over Metallica like they do a burrito, like, oh, after Cliff Burton died, they're fucking done. And then the other guys would be like, after they cut their hair, they're fucking done. And after this, some kind of monster, you know, psychiatrists there are, they're done. And it's like, they've never been done. They've been doing arenas their entire lives, you fucking idiots, you know? So that was kind of the the gist of the bit. And, you know, I think as a comedian, you have to find it and have fun with it. I think if the rooms are seated, like the rhyming, it'll be fantastic because they're seated. And the ones where they're standing up, that's really where you got to figure it out because they're just walking around with their beers. Like, what's that roadie talking? You know, hoping we can maybe kind of, you know, limit the number of shows we have to do with standing. Yeah, there's some places you can't avoid it, but of course, it's gonna be great. I mean, I just saw a comedy. It was an outstanding lineup. Actually, Kid Rock's comedy thing. Oh, yeah. With my boy Chris Porter and Darno Rawlings and yeah, Shane Gillis was there and Big J. Ogison. Theo Vaughn dropped in and did a guest appearance. Chase Willey was there. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you're a big comedy fan, you know? So I love it. The way I see it, I think at the end of the night, the encore, we got to do one each night. Yeah. Now we've been talking about this. I mean, we got to think of something. Well, I think we go from earth, wind and fire one night to AC DC, to Prince, to fucking Skinner, whatever, you know? I mean, I'm down. We got a lot of miles between here and there to start drumming up some ideas. Yeah. You're riding on my bus, so that'll be even more fun. I can't even wait, dude. I mean, I really can't wait, dude. It's really, it was a really, really tough time of not working. At least you could make records, but comedians couldn't really do anything. And I truly thought that it was probably over for me, you know? Because I thought, well, are we ever going to get back to live comedy in a room with people? It just didn't seem like it for a long time. And it got really dark. And then to get the call from you guys, I was just kind of like, wow. And then, you know, to do the Bill Burrow rena tour, those two things are fucking life shit. They're like the greatest things ever to happen in my life, you know? It's like, wow, I'm doing a rock tour on a bus. I haven't been on a rock tour since 2006 when I played music. Right. You know? So I'm going back out on the bus with some young dudes that don't, they don't need sleep. Somebody said to me, they go, hey, you know, Marcus, it has been, they're young dudes. I go, yeah. And he goes, you remember when you were young on a bus? You didn't sleep. And I was like, oh, fuck. But yeah, I'm fired up for it, man. Man, I sleep with the best of them. So yeah, we kind of, that first week is going to be pretty restless. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then it just kind of eases in, you know, papers. But it's going to be such a fun tour, man. The band, like we were texting about it the other day, the band's really firing on all cylinders, man. It's going to be fun. That's so great. Now you're going out seven piece, right? Yeah. Seven piece. And you got a rhythm guy now, Drew. Yeah, Drew Smith. Yeah. Leatherines. That's so cool, man. And somebody hit me up. They knew him. They, oh, I know. Jaquir King. He's a producer in Nashville. Yeah. Big dude. Great. He did my record. He's one of my favorite humans ever. He worked with Tom Weitz and, you know, he did all those big Kings of Leon records. But he hit me and he's like, yeah, I guess his wife or whatever is her best friend. That's Drew's man. I don't know what it is, but he's like, wow, this is like a small world, you know? Yeah, it is a small word. I've heard Drew talk about Jaquir a lot, more good friends, but Drew's a great player. And it's just, you know, this tour is really a full circle one, too, because me and Drew have been talking about playing together for like four years, five years, like you and I. I mean, he's been a good buddy of mine for a long time. And he was in a group called Bishop Gunn. Oh, yeah. And they had a song called Shine. And that's, you know, this past weekend was Theo Vonis. This is Open and Track. So if you want to hear Drew, you know, check that podcast out. But he's such a great player and he's so gracious and humble and just, that's what we call him, Drusifer on the bus, because he's so nice. So it's like such a misnomer. But yeah, the rest of the band, we got the two horns. And there's a lot of like sneaky percussion on this record, the new one. So my sax player is an amazing Konga player. And my trumpet player is like a world class tambourine player. He doesn't Middle Eastern rhythms on the tambourine. It's outstanding. And so they're playing auxiliary percussion. And we got the we got the real Hammond organ and big fat drums. It's just sounds huge. Man, I can't even wait. Are you going out with the orange jams? Yeah, yeah. These custom cabs they built for me. Man, there's like eight, 10 inch speakers in them. And I got two of those. And then I got two 15s and a fender dual shulman head. So it's going to be massive. The whole stage setup is reminiscent of like, you know, the original Hammond Brothers lineup. Oh, big amps at the back of the risers. So everything's really big. And we want the amps to move a lot of the room. And, you know, like the Beacon Theater, a lot of these places are just perfect for this, the Fox in Atlanta. Well, we're at the tavern angle, but that's still, it's gonna be pretty. Yeah. I did the Fox in Atlanta with Burry recently. And all you think about is Skinner, you know, just pretty for Atlanta, you know, and, you know, what they told me was the building was going to get torn down. And Skinner said, look, we'll come in there and play like three nights and give you all the money, keep this building together. And they did. And then they put out one of the greatest fucking live records ever. That's a damn good live record, man. Come on, dude. And the way it opens, we're gonna welcome back some very old friends of ours, Leonard Scared. And then they just kicked into working for MCA. Come on, dude. It's outrageous. I mean, you're one of the only cats that clans to be a Skinner fan. I feel like a lot of people feel like it almost, it's like wearing a MAGA hat to be a Skinner fan. Well, that's, that's, that's ridiculous because, you know, to watch that Skinner doc and they just get up at like eight and go down to that fucking boiling hot shack and play for 10 hours a day because that's what they do. Almond brothers, same thing. You know, we play music. That's what we do. Yeah. It's, it's really one of those kind of documentaries where you want to get up and work. It's like, I'm kind of been working on something with Paul Riddle from the Marshall Tucker band. Oh, wow. He's another one. They always called it getting suited up and really going to work. Tommy Caldwell, the original bass player from that band, he passed away in 1980 in a car accident, but that was always his thing was, man, whatever day the week it is, it's a Tuesday night in Omaha. It's cold as hell. You want to go home, but that's somebody Saturday night out there and they saved their money up or whatever and spent money to come see you. So what a sack of shit you must be to go out there and give them a subpar show to go out there and give them their money's worth. That's true, man, because they paid for a babysitter, gas. Yeah. On a Tuesday, they've moved their week around to see you. So it's a selling out of, you know, middle of nowhere town in the middle of the week that always means so much more to me than selling out LA on a Saturday. Oh, yeah. You know what I say? Every night that I go on stage is like Christmas and a Saturday night. It's a dream come true every night. I never even, I never take it for granted. I'm like, I'm fucking going on stage again. I'm not swinging I'm not swinging a hammer at 7.30 in the morning. You know, it's a blessing, man. It really is. And that being said, you know, there's always moments that you don't enjoy long flights and missing your loved ones, missing birthdays. It's like that dewy cocks things like, hell, I'm gonna miss some births, period. I think I'm gonna be home every time you have a baby. They kind of nailed it with that. Let me ask you something a little bit about how the Rick Rubin thing came up. Does he approach you? And have you talked about him ever producing a record? Rick Rubin being my all time favorite in the history of the records that he put out and the diversity of it is just unreal. And his knowledge of music and his love of music is definitely a guy I would want to work with. And, you know, it's just insane. So does he find you and reach out to you one day? What happens here? Yeah, man. I just keep counting my lucky stars because everyone I've ever worked with, that's kind of how it's happened. That's kind of put my nose down to the grindstone and just keep working. And yeah, just one day I get a call out of the blue and, you know, there he is, Rick Rubin. And what's he say to you like, hey, man, you into Robin Trower? You know, because I know Rubin's gonna come at you like, what if we did a three piece cream style record? Or what? How does it happen? Well, he's just like, like you said, like you mentioned, he's such a fan of music and he has so much reverence for it. We started off talking because he saw me do my tune, Goodbye Carolina at the Randolph Opry. So he saw that and he was really taking with the video. So he called me. And at that time, I was kind of shopping a new publishing company. And I was kind of in between labels as well. So the timing was really serendipitous. He kind of scooped in. And we started working together right away, or we started hanging together. What were those hangs like? Man, they're so peaceful. Yeah, Rick's just like, such a laid back dude. And we hang and listen to music and no shoes. It's a very Zen place. Just really rad, dude. And we just talked at Shangri-La. Yeah, Shangri-La. So we just talked music for hours and listened to music, played them all my demos. And he liked all the demos. And then I went out there and just worked and wrote, just kind of locked myself up at Shangri-La and wrote for a couple of weeks. And you know, it ended up being that I saved those tunes. But so you won't hear any of those songs, unfortunately on the new record. But the one I'm currently working on, that's where you'll hear those songs. Is he going to produce that one? Well, I don't know what I'm supposed to say and not say, but I can say there's a record in the works. Yeah. I remember when you first told me that you were out there working with Reuben and we're in the hotel room. I was like, Marcus is living my dream right now. It's fucking great. It is awesome. There's no, to me, I remember I went to Reuben's house and played like five songs for him, you know, like towards the end of my music run. I was there. Somebody hooked up a meeting. I went to his house. It was like 10 at night. And it was right by the comedy store. And we were just looking down La Cienega and he was in this room. I could see these Dixie Chicks photos behind him and he just closed his eyes and said, let me hear a few. And I was just, dude, I'm playing acoustic guitar and singing to Rick Reuben, no one around in his like chill room. And he's like, that's real nice, man. Let's hear another one. You know, I played like five and put the guitar in the case and drove down the hill and never heard from him again. But I was like, well, I got to do that, you know, that's a hell of an experience. It's always really nerve wracking to play for him like that. And Rick's really, you know, he's a really chill dude. He'll just lay down and listen to it. I've never seen a person absorb a song quite the way that he does. Feels it's like he he pulls it in from every part of his body, his whole being, he's absorbing everything that you're offering. So I take his word like gold standard for me. He's, he's, he's a tough critic, but when he likes something, it really makes you feel like a million bucks. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. His track record is ridiculous. You know, yeah, that it is. And his and his the musky loves is impeccable, you know, and everything he's worked with, I don't care what you think it's like, you know, Dixie chicks fire, then you go, Oh, Beastie boy, you know, run DMC, then you then you go, you know, Johnny Cash, you're just all over the place. And it's all good. Yeah. So it's always good, man. I mean, he'll send me to like jam sessions like while I was out there, he sent me to this jam session to just hang out and play. And like Mike D was on the drums. Whoa, really? Just the kind of shit that you get yourself into out there. You're like, I don't know. It's mind boggling. There was a moment where you thought about moving to LA. Is that still in your head? I mean, man, I still love the South and the singing trees. But I think the goal now is to have a place out there. Yeah, have both, right? Yeah. I mean, that's the ambitious side of me. But maybe one day. Yeah, I'm the same way, man. I think, okay, LA and New York, six weeks here, six weeks there, back and forth. You know, I think you and I are similar. We have similar style and like architecture too. So a lot cheaper to get a Frank Lloyd Wright style house, you know, in South Carolina. You're right. You know what? You're so right, man. I mean, I follow that cheaper mid-century finds. Yeah, I always see you on there. Yeah. Yeah. And Instagram and I'm like, damn, look at that. You know, somebody told me something interesting there, Marcus. They said, look, you know, you move somewhere for the architecture. And he goes, and then I'll tell you this, after six months, the architecture wears off and you realize you live, you live in like, you know, someone like Fresno, you know, he said that to me. And it was kind of a nugget that I took and was like, you know, you're right, you know, it's, you gotta, once you're in your house, you got to love what's around you also, you know. Yeah. I mean, that was, that was what led me out in my neck of the woods. I was like, what's behind me is all trees. So I'm like, what's back there? Who owns that property? What is this? Because I don't want any condos sneaking up on me. Right. Well, I'm like bird sanctuary. Boom. Let's buy it. Yeah. Well, there's a bald eagle back there. As long as he's hanging out, I don't have to worry about condos. So that makes me happy. Bald eagle, bird sanctuary, total win, man. I know. Man, the bald eagle saves me again, baby. Yeah. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. Okay. So the record comes out. August what? August 26th. Oh my God. And then we start the tour September, I believe eighth or something. Yeah, that sounds right. Yeah. And then we go from like the October 28th or something, man. This is going to be great. Yeah, dude. And I've got some other gigs after that too. Yeah, where are you going? Well, I'm going out to, I'm actually going to New York. I don't know if I can say it yet. Maybe by the time this comes out, I'm going to go jam with Phil Lesh and the boys. Oh, fucking rad. Is that for the Halloween? Yeah. So you should just ride up to, you know, potentially. Oh, I'm doing that for sure, buddy. I ain't missing that, man. What's that venue called? The famous one they played for years? Capital Theater. Yeah, man. Come on, dude. I'm down with that. My buddy Shapiro, he owns it now since 2012. And he's the best guy to own it, man. He's killer, dude. That's so great. And then what do you got after that? Europe tour or anything? Oh, you just got back from Europe, right? Yeah, we did. We had some Europe dates in the works for November, December, but we ended up rescheduling that tour to the spring. And it just worked out better for routing over there. And November, I'm just going to be off. I'm going to spend a few weeks just getting right internally, doing a little self-check in. Be good. That's great. That's great. And then you're going to be married, man. Wild. I'm going to be a married man. That's going to be great. I love it. I came from a broken family, so I've always wanted to be a husband and a dad. I just want to... I mean, my dad is my best friend. He's going to be my best man, actually. Wow. But he was such a good parent. But there's some not-so-good ones out there. And I've always wanted to be a dad and a husband, so I'm excited about that. I've been there, man. I've been there. The bad upbringing, you know? Yeah. I mean, I think Dan Soder had a whole bit about coming from a shitty upbringing, alcoholic dad. It's like, you know, you don't think I'm up here because things went well. Yeah. That's the thing, man. I was telling someone recently, like, I've never met a successful comedian that was like family was incredible. Musicians. No, nobody's on that. Yeah. I mean, you know, it's a bumpy upbringing. I wouldn't trade for anything because everything... I got no regrets. Everything I've done has just been... You know, I just love it. You know? It's the drive. It is. It creates that drive. And I'm thankful for it, man. Thankful as hell. Because it's funny, like, in school, I knew kids who just, like, phenomenal pianists played, like, circles around everybody else. And he's like, I like running track. And I'm gonna go to school for law or become a doctor. Something more, you know, sustainable. I'm like, oh, yeah, your parents are great. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Yeah. And we do need doctors. So I'm like, good. Thank God we're not all lunatics. Can you imagine the entire earth of artists? Nothing would get done. Dude, I got rehearsal. But not a lot will get done. But I'm thankful. Yeah. I'm looking forward to the tour, man. I cannot wait and congrats on everything because, you know, I was talking to all of them, which is yesterday, Robbie. And, you know... Love them guys. Yeah. Your management, these guys and you, your work ethic and everything, you know, we're doing double nights everywhere. Double Rymans, double Tabernacles, you know, these are double Beacons. This is a, if we would have done the tour when we were first talking about it, we'd be troubadours across the US, which would have been fun. But this is going to be, like, pretty rad. I mean, they're pretty monumental venues. And some we're returning to for, and or some we're returning back to and some we're doing for the first time. So our management and our agency have really just created this whole plan of just, like, circling the states and circling the key. What's going on? We just adopted a kitten. A kitten just got here. Oh, let's see. All right. Yeah. Let's see a kid. Yeah. Which one is this? This is Fritter. This is Fritter. Fritter. Apple Fritter. And this is quality content. Yeah. Yeah. Cat, cat content. All right. That's great. Fritter. Hey, Fritter. Oh, zip. Oh, you got two. We got two kittens. Wow. Oh my God. They're already doing interviews. Hey, guys, they're already famous. Yeah, yeah. Get that Instagram going for them. That's cool. Yeah. No, man. I hope you're lovely on the road with us. I was thinking of bringing my gird at my dog, my French Bulldog. Oh, your Frenchie is so cool. I know. Right, Gertrude. It's a great name, too. I know. That's my grandma's name. Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, God, I love that name, Gertie. Trudy, baby. I love Trudy on the telephone. Well, hey, man, I'm really looking forward to it. And a shout out to our mutual buddy over there, the old banker guitars. Yeah. Yeah, I fucking love him, man. And I'm looking forward to, you know, it'll be fun to do comedy and live a little bit of the old rock and roll dream, you know, each night. Get up there and sing one something, you know, I'll put you to work, man. It's gonna be good. Oh, I'm fucking ready, dude. You don't even know. I'm fine. I got goosebumps right now. I'm fired up, man. Yeah, man, me too. It's gonna be fun. I love you, dude. And I love this record. This record is fantastic. It comes out here in a few weeks, everybody. There's some great videos on YouTube, four live videos of them playing the four of the songs that are out right now. And man, that lie, lie, lie, just killer to me, man. Oh, thank you, dude. Just a smoker. I'm telling you, man, you definitely you, the rival sons, hound mouth, these bands that's just these bands that I'm just completely in love with that, you know, are newer bands from the last 15 years. And they're just some of the best music I've heard in years. That's high praise to be compared to all them boys. There's a lot of good music out there. And thankful to folks like you who search it out and find it and share it. I've been shouting me out for five years, man. You know, you're like that buddy that everybody has that tells them about good music, but you do it on a larger scale. So we're all thankful to you for that. Oh, I love you, man. And you know that great, great, great times we've had. And I will see you in a month, man. I'll see you on the bus, bro. Be careful. I can't wait, man. I'll see you, buddy. All right, man. All right, thank you.