Inauguration Day, Absurd Medal of Freedom Recipients and New Songwriters :: Try That in a Small Town Podcast
59:43 Share

This episode will air January 20th, which is a significant day. It is Inauguration Day. Tolly and I will be there in D.C. for the inauguration. We're doing one of the balls that night, which is going to be the grand ball.

Is it the grand ball? No. It should be called the grand ball. It might be called the grand ball. It will be grand. It will be. But we get to do this ball. It's pretty awesome, right? You guys get to go do that. It's amazing. Should we wear our Dumb and Dumber suits? I would love to. You know, you're not going to hit a smash every time you write a movie. Yeah. It's like writing a song. You're not going to write a smash every time. And he's on fire. But he's good. He's consistent and he's good. He's really good. He knows what he wants and he's...

Most of the time he writes a good one. You know what we should do? We should be pitching songs to Taylor Sheridan for his shows. But you know what? Hold on. You don't think we should be? No, we should be. Okay. How about Dan Campbell and the Lions?

You guys, everybody's got to be, you got to be a fan of that team, right? Yeah. Who is not a fan of Dan Campbell? You guys don't watch NFL, do you? Yes, absolutely. I don't watch that much. I watch football. But, I mean, we're college guys. The Lions, that's a good organization to root for. Yeah. To me. Yeah. I mean, that's... Anybody in the NFL can just...

Watch the team play and then go follow them into the locker room and see what's going on in the locker room. See what the vibe's like and see what the atmosphere and the air's like in the locker room. It's all you got to do in the NFL. The Try That in a Small Town podcast begins now. Try that in a small town.

Wow, yeah, bring us on. Here we are. We're back. Are we ready to roll, James? James, you look good. Do you have some eggnog this year? Really? You got any left over? You know what? My question to you guys. What happened to your voice? It got really high. Hey, listen. This is my broadcast voice. I'm learning from Jim. Hey, do y'all have any Evan Williams eggnog left over? I have a bottle left. Nope.

You do? Yeah. I have no bottles left. You have none? Yeah. Last bottle I had. I brought here, shared it with you guys, and that was the last one I had. Really? All right. I think I've got four bottles left, and my question was- Also, now I have a bottle left, right? Well, y'all are going to leave with a parting gift tonight. Okay. Ooh. Yeah. You can celebrate with eggnog all year long, especially- Hey, that sounds good right now. I would love a glass of that right now. You would, wouldn't you? Yeah, the spirit of the cold outside-

It's cold outside. Can we have some? Gotta go home. We have some. You know what? I'll have my little minion run downstairs and get you a glass. Let's wait for the break. Kamala Harris, all your accents. You never know what's going to come out of here. What is it? Kamala? No, it's Kamala.

it's kamala it is hey look look i got a question for y'all y'all get off the eggnog story i kind of get you before you get off the eggnog how long does it how long is the shelf life on evan williams eggnog that's my question i don't know i don't think it ever comes into play if you don't drink it before whatever there's got to be a shelf life if you don't till next year i don't know it's got some you know it's got a little bit of dairy in there so you have to if you open it i bet there's a

Bet it tells you to drink it within so many days. Really? Yeah. Because I can't find a date on it. It doesn't last that long anyway. I can't find a date on it. I wonder if people think we're drunks. No. It's a possible possibility. They don't. They don't. Hey, welcome back to the podcast, guys. Yeah, this is the Try That in a Small Town podcast. We are at the Patriot Mobile Studios, hopefully drinking some Evan Williams.

It does sound amazing right now. It always sounds amazing. I'll throw it out there again. No one's moving. Let's start at least by saying Happy New Year, Kurt. We're way past that. We did it. We did it. We're still in the month of January. So, right? Let's have this quick, very quick discussion. Oh, good. My cutoff date is a week. Five days, actually. Fifth. Five days. Everybody's got a cutoff date. When's yours?

We talked about this a little bit before coming on, but...

The music industry, we started back on the 6th, which was Monday. So I would take that all the way to Friday because we hadn't seen people since the holidays. So when we came in here tonight, if I didn't know that you'd get angry for me saying Happy New Year, I would have said, Happy New Year, buddy. That doesn't make sense, though. What if the first time you see somebody is in February? But it's not. It's the 7th. Like right now, it's the 7th. So you have a two-week grace period. Not necessarily. Okay.

Now, if I came back to work on the 2nd and the 2nd was a Monday, that Friday I'm done.

Let me ask you this. I go through that one work week when I hadn't seen anybody from the holidays, and that's where I would- Let me ask you this. Tully's birthday is April 13th. Very good. I know. Impressive, right? This is different. So Tully's birthday comes around. Happy birthday, Tully. Right, right. Maybe you see him the next day. You go, hey, happy birthday. I hope you had a good birthday. At what point do you stop saying-

if april 28th happy birthday tolly it's a legitimate point no it's different because no there's nothing different is so much smaller it's not doing a new year it's really not it's a new year for tolly i know but that's just one person this is the whole world well yeah right well here's here's the main problem do you have a response i mean this is all silly to me anyway because i'm gonna you get a week

Regardless, because you don't have to say happy new year to someone anyway. I agree. You don't have to say this. I never do. It's not in my nature to say it. If I see someone on the third getting coffee, someone I don't know, I might say happy new year because I feel it in the first week. But just if I see someone I know on the 12th or the 8th, I'm not saying it.

You don't have to say Happy New Year just because you know the person. You're right. I don't ever say it. I never return fire. Ever. I mean, if they say Happy New Year, I'll say Roll Tide or something like that. That's actually great. I thought it was Hot Tag. Yeah, that's right. Hot Tag. Hot Tag.

I don't say, I've never said Happy New Year back. I just don't, it feels, I don't, I feel uncomfortable saying it. I don't think, I don't know why. We don't really say it as much as we do. We text it. Happy New Year. We text it and email it. Get your shit together. Now the iPhones have noticed if you put Happy New Year in, pew,

I love it. Love the fireworks. Fantastic. You do? Yeah. You got to be careful, though. You can't put anything after the Happy New Year, or it won't give it to you. You got to be, it's Happy New Year. No exclamation points. It's Happy New Year. How do you even do that? I don't even know where to find that on my phone. How do you do that? Do you think people have turned this off yet? No, no, no. We're great. They love us. Hey, so let's go to this. This episode will air January 20th, which is a significant day. It is Inauguration Day.

Tully and I will be there in D.C. for the inauguration. We're doing one of the balls that night, which is going to be the grand ball.

Is it the grand ball? No. It should be called the grand ball. It might be called the grand ball. It will be grand. It will be. But we get to do this ball. It's pretty awesome, right? You guys get to go do that. It's amazing. Should we wear our Dumb and Dumber suits? I would love to. It is a black tie event. I don't really have a black tie. What are you going to wear? It's a black leather jacket event for me. My standard...

What do you guys think? It's like we're the band, but it is a black tie event. So what's the protocol? What are you supposed to do? We're wearing what we wear. I'll post pictures and give pictures to Jim the year that I did it. I got to perform at the Veterans Ball on Trump's first inauguration. That's right. So eight years ago. I looked like I was in the mafia. Yeah.

But it was fantastic. Why did you look like you were in the mafia? I had my hair all slicked back, and I was in black tux. Was that a phase you were going through, or was it just a special? No, no, no. I was trying to look as slick as I could look. Okay. Yeah. We're in front of all these veterans. It was fantastic. We played with Gary LaVox, me and Wyndham Wobbly. That had to be amazing. It was absolutely amazing.

That's incredible. I got to tell you, we're looking forward to it. It's going to be, it is like a once in a lifetime thing, right? It doesn't like, this is put aside politics, so you get to play for the presidential inaugural. It's pretty awesome. Absolutely. And quick backstory, this is cool. Tully knows this. My dad is a musician, was his whole life. 40 years ago to the day, 1984, he played Reagan's inaugural ball.

Wow. That's amazing. Yep. That's amazing. It's pretty amazing, right? Oh, it is so awesome. So 40 years later, I'm going to be doing it. And it's pretty cool that we'll be able to have that. I can't wait for the story when y'all get back. I can't wait to hear what you saw, what you heard, how it was.

It'd be great. Yeah. It's going to be a lot of fun. Do y'all have to wear tuxes? We'll see Cash. We'll see Cash out there. We'll see DC Drano out there. We'll see a lot of our friends. Y'all going to have to wear tuxes, right? No. I don't think we're wearing tuxes. I don't think so. No. They're artists. They'll build, wear what they wear. We get to wear our version of a tux, which is boots, jeans, tux.

Black t-shirt, black leather coat. You'll wear the version Aldean tells you to wear. That's the version we're wearing. He's not going to wear a tux. But will the leather be extra squeaky? Because it's going to be really tight after the holidays. It's super squeaky. It's really hard to do what we do up there in a tux, man. That stance you take. It's hard. The A-frame doesn't look as good. When you're playing the Hicktown riff and Aldean's saying you can see the neighbor's butt crack.

Tuxedo just doesn't really work. No, you're exactly right. But we will be... We're going to look good. There's no doubt about that. That's a given. Neil, when you were playing there, because Wade mentioned it earlier, and I remember it, at that event, didn't you have some really special...

Oh, you're talking about the dinner with the American Legion. Yeah. Yes. Can you tell me? Because I'm not sure if you've told that fully or not. I can't remember if I ever told that story on here. I don't think you remember much of any of it. And when you say special whiskey, are you alluding to the special whiskey? It must have been some real, real old pappy. Okay. Because we're sitting at this table and we're at Del Frisco's in the private room upstairs. And there's probably 50 people up there.

Give people a real quick thing what Pappy Van Winkle is. It's a high dollar, old, rare, hard to get whiskey. It's almost impossible to get. Real nice. Very expensive. They may call it bourbon. I call it whiskey. I don't know. But all you got to know is the word Pappy Van Winkle. So we're sitting there. We'd already had dinner and everybody already had drinks and everybody's full and we're laughing and we're talking and I'm at the end of the table drinking

talking to the i'm not at the end i'm on the like the longest side of the table but on the end talking to the head of the american legion who's sitting at the head of the table and everybody's already drank a little bit and but you know it's we're civilized and everything's good and everybody's happy and all of a sudden these two guys walk in with tuxedos speaking of tuxes but they had white gloves on and they're carrying these bottles

So for them to be wearing gloves, it must be really rare. Like white gloves? Yes. It must be expensive. Whatever bottle they're bringing in, it's got to be expensive. Okay. So they come in, and I'm not really paying attention. Everybody looks at them, blah, blah, blah. And they apparently pop them, pour a glass about this size, a regular-sized whiskey glass, and they pour it about half full and hand it to the guy at the end on the other end. And it makes its way around the—

This one glass makes its way around? Yeah, it makes its way around. Like they're going to let everybody sip on it. I mean, we're drinking. That's pre-COVID. Everybody's drinking after each other. And so it makes it to me. And apparently my wife is sitting on my left and she taps me on the shoulder. And I'm talking to the head over here. And she taps me and hands me this glass. And I just smoke it.

Where are you in line? Like, how many down? I didn't even think. Well, apparently nobody had drank any because the glass was still half full. Of course you did. I just took it. Like, I just grabbed it in mid-conversation and just smoked it. Boom. And I slammed it on the table and I went back to talking to her. Well, anyway. Yeah, well, anyway. And the room went quiet. And I kind of turned around real slow and I'm like, what?

What? And they go, dude. And I thought they were like, you know, they were looking at me because it was so expensive and I just smoked it. You know, I don't know how much that glass was worth. Yeah. You know, it's a $500 glass of whiskey or whatever it was. And I said, what? And then somebody, I don't remember who it was, they go, dude, that's 144 proof. And I went, yeah.

Well, no, that was. And I said, on top of everything else I'd had to drink that evening, I just said, well, we're fitting to find out what I'm made of. And the night went on and we're talking. Go ahead and get that. We got a little Latin music or something. No, it's probably the head of the American Legion. And I don't know, about 20 minutes later, I start.

I'm feeling like I'm not, but I start feeling like I'm sinking into the floor of the room and I'm going through my chair.

I'm not drunk. I'm just heavy. That's what he gives. He said that so many times. He goes, Kalo, and I wasn't even drunk. I was just heavy. I wasn't. And I looked over at Lander real slow, and I go, I feel so heavy. And I just kept going. And then about that time, the dinner was over, and everything was over, and I just kind of stood up, and I just peeled myself off. I wasn't stumbling or nothing. It was amazing how...

How awesome I am. That's how you remember it. No, no, no. I remember everything. I remember the walk out of the room. I remember the walk down the stairs. I remember walking through Del Frisco's and seeing some famous people and walking out in the street because the hotel was just across the street. I remember everything, but it felt like it took a year to get there. 144 proof? Yeah, you can light it up. You guys ever had absinthe?

I've had a sip of it. Got the snake in the bottom? We were overseas, you know, because I don't even think it's illegal here. Death adder? Yeah. Is that the stuff you're talking about? It's got the death adder in the bottom? It's intense. I've had that. Yeah. But that's not even drinkable. It's actually, it didn't seem like it was drinkable. You could...

Everything was pickable back then. But we did. But we did. Good gracious. But anyway, that's my first inauguration night. Was that an inauguration night the night before? That was the night of the, whatever night the veterans ball was. Okay. They had four, there was like four main balls. Yeah, there's a few. Yeah, that go on on inauguration night.

It's either, I can't remember if it was inauguration night or the night before. I'm pretty sure it was the night of. Okay. Hey, let's backtrack like a week or so ago. We hadn't really talked about this, but we had a guy on, did like a 10-minute short that we put out on our channel, Nick Bostic. And this was the guy that went in to the burning house, like he just saw it, and he had this instinct to go in.

It was late at night. He ended up saving, I hate that I don't remember, it was either four or five children. I think it was five. It was four or five counting the baby, I guess. Yeah, so five. And we just had him on, but we haven't talked about it actually since we had him on. Do you guys have any thoughts about that? It's a pretty amazing story, and it happened a couple years ago, but it just got brought to light again through Trump Jr. and D.C. Drano and all that. Well, that's why we started the podcast, to hear from people like that. Yeah.

you know, and, and that small town, get your back mentality. So I think that that's pretty much sums up why we started this. And Kayla, you had mentioned that, I think on that podcast, like that's, this is, you know, he's one of the reasons why we started it. Yeah. You know, anyway, I thought it was small town, American hero like that. He deserves, he deserved the medal of freedom in the, you know, in the medal of honor.

Yeah, is that what he got? He didn't get anything. It should have been the Medal of Freedom because I know that Drano posted that when Biden awarded some of the people that really, really didn't deserve the Medal of Freedom. Right, and that's what Trump did. And the Medal of Honor. And it's guys like Nick Bostic that deserve the Medal of Honor.

Small town citizens that don't think and run into burning buildings and not thinking of himself to save somebody else. They deserve those kind of medals. I wish those medals were reserved for people like him. Yeah. Amen. Yeah. Because it's so easy, like we're talking about with him, because he barely saw what he thought was a little bit of a flame, you know, and it wasn't even a roaring fire at the time.

but he kept looking in his rear view, you know, was that a fire? And then he goes back and everything, but it's not like he's in a restaurant and you see something happening right there and you're kind of forced to make a decision. You ask him to do something. This guy...

turned around slam those brakes and turned around you know to go back into a house in a neighborhood he's not familiar with and i say this all the time and i'm half joking it's like i'm not that good of a person you would do it i don't know i know you would you don't know until you're in that situation but you do it it's commendable that you know adversity shows character and in that moment yeah

That was his instinct. Yeah. And he didn't know, he didn't know if there was even anybody in that house. He didn't know if there were, if there were kids in there, then their parents weren't home. He didn't know. And he just reacted. Yeah. And a lot of people might've missed it. Not, not look, looking as, Oh, that house is on fire. I'm just going to drive on home. They might've looked in or not even seen it or just go by and say, Oh, maybe it's a campfire in the background, you know, backyard or whatever. But his, like you say, his instinct drove him back. And, you know, think about it. It's like, you're,

you're not breaking into a house, but you in essence are, you don't know what's, you don't know what's in the back door. You don't write. It's just, man, it's, it's amazing. It's an amazing story. And you guys were mentioning about the song is like, you know, sometimes a song gets a little bit of negative connotation to it. But that's really it. And, you know, there's a lot of defense in the song. Like, Hey, it's,

somebody's doing this you know hey we'll try that in small towns see what happens to you but this kind of act is like we're talking about hey try that in a small town

It's beautiful. What he did put so much of a bigger meaning on our song. 100%. And then what it really, within what it was originally. Well, that's where it began though. That's right. The whole idea came because we didn't like people, innocent people getting hit on the sidewalk for no apparent reason. Then the song became what it was. But that's where it started was we were irritated from the protect, you

the innocent people getting hurt for no reason and nobody would do anything about it, you know? So, but I think we should do this. Cause that's such a great story and good stories like that. Don't get covered enough.

Like if anybody, like if you're listening, you're watching, and you know of good stories like that in your town, send them to us. DM this, send it to us. Like we will bring those to light because those need to be brought to light. Absolutely. So please do that. If you're listening, get a hold of us. Jim, how do they get a hold of us, buddy? Try that in the smalltown.com.

Boy, it's that easy. Try that on smalltowngoc.com. More Henry Williams, please. More eggnog. Did it show up? We got to take a break first. I'll do it on the break. I want it now, obviously. Of course you do. Where's your tech? Did you not bring your tech with you? I'm talking about the shameless plug that we did. I don't think we made any headway. No headway.

It's kind of like the RV. I thought this was achievable. Can we get an RV stocked with Evan Williams? Are you kidding me? It is a seasonal drink. Hey, let's do this. I was asking in season. I know. Let's do this because you've got my palate going. Let's do that. Let's go take a break. Listen to these words from our sponsors. Like we told you before, hey, it's easy to hit the skip button. I've done it.

Just be with us here for 30 seconds. Give us a listen. We'll be back on the other side. We'll be right back.

Original Brands is starting a new era in American domestic premium beer. Launched on July 4th, 2023 with the mission of promoting patriotism, unity, and the celebration of the adventurous American spirit. Original Glory American Pilsner is the first in the OG line. It's a crisp, refreshing domestic beer. We also introduced OG Light under 90 calories and only two carbs. Join the movement at

DrinkOriginalBrands.com because freedom is worth drinking too. DrinkOriginalBrands.com My name is Glenn Story. I'm the founder and CEO of Patriot Mobile. And then we have four principles.

First Amendment, Second Amendment, right to life, military and first responders. If you have a place to go and put your money, you always want to put it with somebody that's like-minded. Of course. I think that's the beauty of Patriot Mobile. We're a conservative alternative. Don't get fooled by other providers pretending to share your values or have the same coverage. Go to patriotmobile.com forward slash smalltown to get a free month of service when you use the offer code smalltown or call 972-PATRIOT.

All right, guys. We're back at the Patriot Mobile Studios. This is the Try That in Small Town podcast. I don't know if we introduced ourselves, but we've got Neil. We've got Kelly. What are we doing with first names? This is Kurt. No, no, no. We have nicknames, and I like Captain. I like Captain for you. Nice. Thrash, K-Lo, TK. I'm Kurt.

We've got Evan here with us. Yeah. Did you bring Evan? I brought him because Tully wanted a shot. Yeah, it's really good. We're post-holidays, post-Christmas, but the eggnog is good all year long. Look at that bottle. I don't know if it's good all year long. It's always cupped.

I think he's getting more than a shot. Future of the Titans. Hey, he's going to kill you one day. He is going to kill me. He's going to kill you. Well. I hope they trade him quick. I don't think they're going to trade him. Nobody's going to trade for Will Evans. He's not. No, I wasn't. Well, they got a new, didn't they fire the GM or something? They did fire the GM. Now, what does that mean for us? Is that a good move? Well, it depends. I mean, it's subjective. Okay. Okay.

But he did draft Will Lindes. So I guess it's a good move they got rid of him. Hey, so the Titans do have the number one pick. Real quickly, are they or should they draft a QB? Are you kidding?

Is that a serious question? It is. You know that's, I mean. Are they going to draft a QB? Well, either a QB or a long snapper. But it's not an amazing QB class, right? Like next year will be better than this year. But that is true. Right? And so that's what people have been saying. People are saying the best player in the draft is Travis Hunter, who's the kid from Colorado who plays both ways. Yes.

I thought somebody would make a joke. It was all hanging through. I was waiting for somebody to make the joke. I'm cleaning up my act in 25. Go ahead. They need a QB. I think you got to. They got to draft. You have to. And sometimes a QB, you know, I mean, in my, you know, how I feel about drafting QBs, but you can find a good QB deep in the draft. You can. It's all, do they have the eyes there to find it?

Because they're in there. Look at a Brady, a Brock Purdy, those guys. I mean, it's all system related, but we need a QB to build around, at least the Titans do. I mean, it's been rough. Been too long. Yeah. Yeah. Been way too long. Have y'all heard the possibility maybe Aaron Rodgers for just a minute? I mean, I've heard people say that. I haven't heard anything that makes me think it's a real possibility. I just heard Brown Wings, which I don't know.

I would. It'd be fun. I would love it. It would be fun. You can say what you want to about Aaron Rodgers. It would set us back another five years. I don't know. He's a winner, though. Yeah, but wait. We're talking about drafting a young QB, bringing Rodgers in for one year to mentor. Yeah. Where's that money going to come from? You can take him on this trip. Where's that money going to come from? Costa Rica. Costa Rica. Hey, I'll say this. Have you guys seen the Netflix thing? Yes. Enigma? Yes.

You can say what you want about Aaron Rodgers. He's very unique. Yeah. He is his own man. But I was interested. I thought the thing was really interesting. I mean, I wanted a little more football. It's not that. And a little less of the, you know. But, hey, I love watching him play football. Even now, since he Achilles, I mean, he's not the same guy.

This is obvious to me. But he threw 500 touchdown passes now. He's an elite company. He throws the ball like very few people have ever thrown the ball. He flicks the ball. Would you guys want him on the podcast? Do you think we could get Aaron Rodgers on the podcast? I would. I mean, I had a chance to be around him for...

a little bit, a few times. And Neil, Neil and I, uh, both really through, uh, Brad Paisley's there, their buddies and, uh, got to smoke cigar with him, drink beer and listen to a lot of his stuff. We talked about a lot of things, you know, like UFOs and everything else is very interesting, but, uh, but he's, he's, to me, he was a really nice guy. Super normal. Uh, been to his house after a game, Monday night football, uh,

Really? That he played. We sipped whiskey, and he sat there, and he watched the entire game. We all watched it, and he commented on every play. He said, I should have done that here. Should have done that here. We just watched it. That's great. Oh, no, that's cool. We'll drink whiskey. It was really fun. That's like bucket list stuff. He did not – he wasn't sitting there getting hammered. Nobody was. He just kind of slow sipping, just watching. He goes, my God, look at this. I totally missed him. Or he'd say, that's how you run that play. It was just really cool. Just a –

To me, he was a fantastic guy. I would fan geek over that, actually, because that's cool. I love watching good quarterbacks like that, like the greats, the Rodgers, the Brady. Right now, I love watching Joe Burrow. Yeah. Joe Burrow is in that. He's got it. To me, he's that classic QB. You can have your scrambling QBs. Take them. Take your Jaden Daniels. I know. Take them to Mars. Because you know what? I'm so with you.

I'm with you. Boy, I'm going down in flames. No, I'm so with you on that one. Really? I am not a fan. I can't. It's just a matter. You don't think there's a way of the future? Well, I mean, maybe a way to a winning season. I don't know. It depends. And I'm not promoting it. I'm just asking. Let me ask you. Do you think Jalen Hurts and the Eagles can win a Super Bowl with Jalen Hurts at the helm? I'm not a...

I like Jalen Hurts as a leader. I don't think he's an amazing quarterback. And I don't think the coach is amazing either. I don't either. And thank you for saying that. He annoys the crap out of me. I haven't watched enough to know. You can just tell that the players, it just, me looking at it, like, it feels like they don't really respect them. The coach is a little weird. It's a little weird. It's not like, when you see Belichick coach, he's in charge. Yeah.

How about this? How about Dan Campbell and the Lions? You guys, everybody's got to be a fan of that team, right? Who is not a fan of Dan Campbell? You guys don't watch NFL, do you? Yes, absolutely. I don't watch that much. I watch football. I mean, we're college guys, but we do. The Lions, that's a good organization to root for, to me. I mean, that's a football team. Anybody in the NFL can just –

Watch the team play and then go follow them into the locker room and see what's going on in the locker room. See what the vibe's like and see what the atmosphere and the air is like in the locker room. It's all you got to do in the NFL. And now it's creeping its way into college like that too. But the NFL especially, just go to the locker room after a game or before a game. You can tell who's going to win. Wise words.

You know, I thought about something a couple weeks ago because we, I don't know, a few episodes ago you were talking about on the back of the helmets, things that annoyed you in the NFL, like the end racism and things like that. I thought about that and we talked about it and I wondered, you know, is it, is it just things that, that, that you pick up on or that other people pick up on that they don't like, but if it was something that you liked on the back of the helmet, would it be different? Like if it said,

Jesus saves. Would that be an issue? Because you're saying, hey, they're just putting that on everybody. I just wish they'd play ball. I'm just kind of curious about that. Can they have anything? You know what I mean? You remember this, though? You remember when Tebow came out and he would kneel and do a prayer after he scored? He got hammered for doing that. But he did it because that's who he was. You're right. And it's an interesting question, Kalo. It's like...

Are we annoyed because we don't necessarily subscribe to what they're saying? Yeah. And if it did say, hey, praise God, John 3, 16, or whatever. Yeah, and then we relate to it. Like if it says in racism, you think, I'm not a racist. That offends me because that makes me think that I am. But if it says something that I'm in line with,

Like, hey, go to church on Sundays. Or go Vols. Go Vols. Oh, yeah, that's great. So anyway, I was wondering about that. No, I would rather them, instead of keeping the division and the divisiveness going, because that's all that's doing. There's a difference with that. Whether they realize it or not, that's what's going on.

I would rather them put help Nick Bostic on the back of their helmet. But you wish other players would do, you know what I mean? Like do something like that. Like if you were playing, you might have that on the back of your helmet. It would be cool if you have players having different stuff on there, which they should. And if you're offended, so what? Yeah. Who cares? Go to your safe space if you're offended. Yeah.

Yeah, because Jesus saves on the back of somebody's helmet is going to offend somebody. Correct. That was my point. There's nothing more offensive in the world than that. That was my point. It's not going to offend you, but it will offend somebody. Absolutely. I'm just saying it's... I wonder, do some people think that's divisive?

Yes. Oh, absolutely. Sure. Absolutely. Yeah, I guess that's weird to me. Because to some people it's narrow-minded. You don't have to go there. You don't have to do that. Yeah. You don't have to. But things like what we had, Nick Bostic, things that matter, real-world stuff, things that are really happening, if you wanted to paint that in the end zone. Yeah. Let's do something about veterans' homelessness. Let's paint that in the end zone instead of end racism, something that is like –

so minute and so unrealistically. You know what I'm saying? It's not even going on. If it is, like I said on the last podcast or one of the podcasts, if it is going on, show us where it is and we'll, we've got your back, but that's yet to happen. You can paint Daniel Penny in the end zone.

Yeah. Speaking of a small town, big town. Yeah. The Marine. Bring up that story. Saved a lot of people. I mean, it's been, it's been a minute, but yeah, you know, uh, he's a Marine and, um, and you had a guy, you know, on the, on the subway who, who was, who was black, but he was saying things that like, I don't care if I don't care if I live today and thing, just crazy stuff, you know? And, uh,

And being violent toward other people. And so, you know, and again, I don't know it. It's been through court and everything. But Daniel, you know, subdued him, got him on the ground. Other people did too. Black and white helping just hold the guy down, you know, from hurting somebody or himself. Ends up going to court and all this stuff. And he could have went to jail.

you know, for a long time for just for helping people. And he, in interviews that are public, you know, he said, would you do that again? Knowing, you know, the legal trouble that you could have faced and did face. And he said, he's absolutely, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I thought he could injure somebody. And I was there to prevent him from injuring someone. And I didn't do anything. I don't absolutely do it again. And that's just another, another example of like what we try to do.

And what we're trying to highlight, that is it, right? Yes. Helping somebody in need. It might not be easy, but to him it was. That's his instinct. Yeah. Sorry, Caleb, but think about if your son or daughter or mom was on that subway. You'd want him there.

You'd want someone to do something. 100%. You know what I mean? And that's all he did. And the fact that people, even for a second, tried to second guess that was upsetting a little bit. Yeah. And obviously, I want to say while we're on, obviously unfortunate that the guy died. Of course. But you could just tell from everything that was not...

Daniel, that wasn't his intent is to kill the man. That was not his course. Everybody, everybody, it just happened in the course of it. And, you know, and you, and you hate, you hate that for that guy who obviously he needed help long before he got in that subway and he didn't have help. So, you know, it's just, it's just a really bad situation. But the good part of it is, is you had somebody, you know, trying actually to help the guy who ended up passing from hurting others, hurting himself, uh,

And, you know, and thankfully, you know, a jury of his peers, you know, saw that he was doing a good thing and didn't mean any ill intent. So to Daniel Penny. Well, we're fixing it. I think the whole temperature is going to change in the next four years.

You think? Yeah, it's already started. Seems like it has. He hasn't even been inaugurated and everything is starting to shift. Trudeau, look at that. That's so interesting, right? Gulf of America. There's a lot of things. The Gulf of America. That's pretty cool. We're going to attain Greenland. Greenland, Canada. I mean, it's amazing. But everybody's talking about it. I'm just hoping the NFL turns it around. I hope they change their tune. I really, really do.

I hope we don't have to stare down at all those lies anymore. You know, I don't think, honestly, that people even... I mean, I know it bugs you and it's... Yeah, I think most people are just watching the game. That's right. You know, why it's still there, I'm not sure. Seeing...

the end racism written in huge letters at the, I'm with you. Like there's people, people go there to forget about that stuff. They don't want to think about it. It's not existing. Exactly. You know, and it's, it's, I agree with you that it's, there's no reason to create tension. Yeah. I know. Cause it's, it doesn't,

I'm not seeing it. No. On a positive note, the Titans fans didn't have to look at it much. That's true. We didn't spend a lot of time in the end zone. That's true. That's true. Yeah, that's pretty good. I don't know what we're going to do now. There's a blessing in there somewhere. There's a blessing in there somewhere. Hey, so Jim just sent us a text saying,

And do you remember our friend, the amazing DV? Is that what his name is? Yeah, amazing DV. The amazing DV. My hater. Well, you know, I don't think he's your hater. No, he's not my hater. But I think he wants to come on. I think he wants to do like a 10-minute conversation with you. Really?

Okay. Does he want to talk to Neil? It might just be a one-on-one. I don't know. Have it out. I don't think he... I don't know. Be careful, amazing. Yeah, watch what you wish for. I'll break out some scripture on you, bro. What?

Be careful. No, I think that'd be fun. We may want to start that one remotely, though. I mean, I don't know if you bring him right in. He has said some pretty... Maybe we ought to bring Ed on with him. Yeah, to counterbalance. Yeah, to counterbalance it. Maybe he can be the narrator. It's funny. We'll just let that out. I like that. What else we got? Have we got anything fun? Landmen. Oh. Okay, this is good. This is good. Go ahead. Well, I don't know if I want to...

Okay. I was excited to start it. Yep. I was too. Because I'm hearing... Was. Gotta watch it. Gotta watch it. I love Billy Bob. Yep. Love Jon Hamm. Anyway, got three in. Eh, I'm out. Maybe it turns a corner. I don't know. I'm with you. It seemed like it was really trying so hard. I'm with you. I don't know. I think it was you that brought up the word campy, and that's pretty spot on. It's like...

The only way I could describe it is like Dallas for people that are pretty old. But I remember watching Dallas, though. If you re-watched Dallas. You're talking about JR? Yes, I am talking about JR. But it wasn't... What was that? 80, 45, 86? Yeah, I don't know. I mean... Long time ago. This felt like it was... I guess my point is it's kind of a soap opera. And if you watch soap operas, they're like...

Okay, that's not believable. Okay, this person isn't a good actor. Okay, this isn't. Yeah. There were so many things. I watch it for Billy Bob. I do too. And he has a couple monologues that are...

It's amazing. And there's a couple parts in the first couple episodes that I loved. Because I was like, okay, I'm going to keep going because there's bits in episodes that I really, like you said, there's monologue and there's a couple scenes like out of the oil rig when it explodes. Oh, yeah.

And the bit that he goes through, well, why we need oil, I don't know if you got to that episode. It's like a two or three minute thing he's explaining to one of the lawyers. Let's talk about what really makes it bad. Okay. At least for me.

is no daughter talks to their father that way. Well, no daughter of ours. It was so raunchy and so over the top. I actually disagree. I bet there are daughters that talk to their dads. I bet there are. If there are out there, I've never met them. I know it's not your daughters, but I bet...

I bet there are. I mean, I was just like, I can't listen to this. This is like, I don't know anybody that talks to their father that way or a father that actually takes it and just kind of shrugs it off. I'm like, what did she just say to him?

And like, like, like it's like they make it like that's the way the youth talks to their parents today. And I'm like, oh my God, it was awful. Yeah. I mean, I'd be horrified. I got totally turned off and it got so raunchy. And so it was just like, I couldn't take it anymore. Okay. What is the best show you're watching right now? Well, just finished a great one. Okay. Mayor of Kingstown.

So you've been telling us about this, which is, by the way, another Taylor. Yeah. And it's, and it's, and that's why I was disappointed with land man. Yeah. Because it's not even the same category. And I'm not just talking about, I know layman's a different show, but the writing and the, if you watch mayor Kingstown, it is so now it's, and obviously it's that's mayor Kingstown is more of the kind of show I like. It's gritty. Yeah. More crime elated. Yeah.

it's cool. It's, it's really good, but that's great. That's, that's a, I'll give Taylor Sheridan a pass because it's probably a lot like writing songs. You're not going to write, yeah, you know, uh, a standard every time you go in the room. What's your favorite Terry Taylor Sheridan show? The, well, he didn't direct it, but I think you wrote Sicario. Yeah. And you were talking about that before. Fantastic. It was fantastic. And I'm,

And I was a big fan of Yellowstone, too. It had its ya-ya moments. Yellowstone was a little soap opera-ish at times, too, but it was great. I'll treat him like I would writing songs. You're not going to hit a smash every time you write a movie. Yeah. Just like writing a song. You're not going to write a smash every time you do it. And he's on fire. But he's good. He's consistent and he's good. He's really good. He knows what he wants and his...

Most of the time, he writes a good one. You know what we should do? We should be pitching songs to Taylor Sheridan for his shows. But you know what? Hold on. You don't think we should be? No, we should be. Okay. But before I forget, what bugged me about Landman the most, before I want to make it clear, is that because there was some really great parts in it. Yeah. Why couldn't it just be all good? Yeah. Like...

Some was great. Some parts were great. But it's kind of like a song. You don't want every line of the song to be great. You don't know what the great ones are. They've got to stand out. You've got to write some average lines for the good ones to pop out.

I don't know. I'm still surprised that you didn't say Friends was your favorite. Okay. But as far as a throwback, though, we were talking about it earlier. I got my wife, Rachel, into watching Breaking Bad. She's never seen Breaking Bad. Anybody that's not seen Breaking Bad, start today. One of the greatest written storylines ever.

Start today. Start to finish. It's amazing. It is. And it actually got me into watching. That was the first series I'd ever watched, and that got me into watching series. Heisenberg. So did you guys watch Tully? Because I didn't know it at the time. Tully first turned me on to Breaking Bad because I didn't watch it when it was out. And then it went to Better Call Saul. Oh, yeah. Which I thought Better Call Saul was amazing as well. That's great.

so yeah that's fun uh so that's what you guys are watching breaking bad currently yeah all right we got a long way to go i'm gonna i'm gonna shift gears here okay uh i want to talk about some of the writers in town i don't really know how to get into this segment but well you're just wow okay but the other day um i was at bmg and i was over there with y'all and david lee murphy yeah i don't know what was a couple weeks ago or something i don't remember when it was but

finishing up a song, and we go out into the lobby, and we're all standing out there, and here come these new writers out of these writers' rooms. And it's been on my mind, guys, and I cannot shake it. I love that it has because it's amazing. Because I know where I was when I was a young writer, and I came to town. I know where my head was, and I knew stuff. These kids come over there, get their chest bowed out, and...

We're all sitting there talking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Music, rope, bullshit talk. They look at me and David Lee, mainly at David Lee, and they go, so what do y'all do? No. Yes, I was standing there. Hold on. I don't remember this. You weren't out there yet. You were probably still behind the computer. Yeah, yeah. It was quite a sight. Hold on. So Tully was there, and they're fawning over him because, of course. Well, he says, of course. They saw the hair, and they thought, okay, he does something. He put his face on the mural on the wall.

They just hiss on the huge mural on the wall. But they look at me and David Lee like, so what do y'all do? They did not ask that. Yes, they did. These are the new breed of country music songwriters in town, people. To our listeners out there, this is where their heads are. They don't know their history. They haven't done their research. But they want to come into town and take over town writing country music. And they look at David Lee Murphy and say, well, what do you do?

They didn't have a clue who he was. What did David say? And they're not supposed to know who I am. I haven't been out there, but you know, and when you introduce yourself and say your name and it still doesn't click? I think. And you want to be a country music songwriter? Wow. If my memory's right, I think David said something like, man,

I spent here a few weeks. Yeah. Oh yeah. Of course he did. And he started to just, you know, be as cool as he can, you know, I didn't even know that happened, bro. If you'd have been out there, you might've gone off, but everybody was kind of, and then Lee Miller and, and, and Brett James and they come walking out and they don't know who they are either. And I'm just like, they're in a room right with another artist over here somewhere. And, and, and,

These young writers don't know. When I came to town, I knew who Bob McDeal was. I knew who Harlan Howard was. I knew all the greats that came before us, like two generations worth. I knew who they were. Because I listened and learned. And before I got to Nashville, I just knew who the guys were that paved the way. These numb nuts that come to town now don't have a freaking clue who paved the way.

I think there's a little bit of a lack. I don't want to say it too harshly. I'm going to say lack of respect. I don't mean it that harshly. It's unintentional, though. It's unintentional, but there is a little bit of it. And I think the reason is, is I think streaming, and this goes for new artists, too. I think it's created a false reality for a young writer, young artist, where it makes them think they've achieved more than they really have.

Okay. And I'm not trying to sound harsh with this, but... Until they get their paycheck. I see it in young artists, especially young artists who may have had two or three songs streaming, and maybe they have a song streaming 500,000 a week. And to them, that means that they're making it or have made it. Well, and this is unfortunate, but I guess true, whether it's however you want to categorize it, but they write different songs and...

You guys were right in 20 years ago. I mean, I think we had this conversation on a podcast a long time ago. One of your best written songs. Do you think that would be a hit today? Maybe and maybe not because it's a different song that becomes a hit today. It's a little bit more of a jingle today.

I didn't bring this up to say these guys should know who we are. Not at all. I know. It's just they should be more interested in the field that they're getting into. A thousand percent. You know, they should want to know the history. These young kids should want to learn about the history of Nashville and the history of Music Row and the history of songwriting if this is what you're going to do. You should want that. And why the lack of desire to know that is not there, I don't know. Well, I mean—

Sorry, go ahead. No, finish your point. I didn't bring it up for that. I didn't bring it up because I'm pissed they don't know who I am. Yeah. Not at all. You're just talking about anybody that gets into a field should understand the history of that field. You can imagine the look on my face when that kid, I thought he was kidding at first. I thought it was a joke. He said, what do y'all do? Oh, it was classic. I know it was classic. You got the dust on the bottle standing right here, and I'm like, are you kidding?

oh shit, he's serious. This kid does not know. Well, it's kind of interesting because part of, there's a few things this for me, part of it is, is they don't know how hard it is yet.

they haven't been doing it for 10, 15, 20, 30 years and still making a living at writing songs, which is an act of God in itself, making money, writing songs. It's almost impossible. True. But somehow it's happening, right? Yeah. So they're still in that honeymoon phase of like, oh man, everything we write is going to get recorded. And they're really happy. I'm going to argue with you. But hang on, hang on. I can't wait to argue. I know. I know. It's going to happen really quick. But hang on, hang on. The other thing is, it is, uh, it's a different generational, you know, um,

We would look at it maybe, oh, it's a lack of respect. Just kind of the way younger people are now, they want to do it themselves. They don't want to write a hit song with older guys. They want to write it with their crew. Yeah, the thing about it is they don't want to learn how to write a great song. Well, they don't want your, no, well, or. That's the truth. I think they don't want their name on with a successful writer because it would be viewed as, oh, the, the, the.

veterans. They're piggybacking. But even at that, I think that's part of it, which there's nothing wrong with that. Even if they didn't want to write with anybody that's made it or been there and done that, even if they didn't, it seems to me that they would want to learn the craft a little bit better and learn the history of the craft a little bit better. But if they're getting songs recorded without it. This is the only new generation, this is the only generation that I've seen that is behaving this way.

I agree. I agree with that. It's the only generation. I agree. I agree with you. It's come along. It doesn't not give a shit who paved the way or how they got, or why you're even in that freaking room. But it's kind of working for them. You know what I mean? Like they're getting song. And they're getting on the radio. And it's working for them. So here's my, it's, this is what, when everything went sideways with COVID and we went to, remember the whole industry changed. We talked about what Tyler Farr, everything changed.

I'm with Neil. I see this new generation of artists and writers and artist-writers. They think putting a song out, we have all these platforms now. You can release music as much as you want. The labels sign everything.

labels are signing more acts than ever right and they're putting they in their mind this is how i feel about it they put songs out they stream they get to go to social media they get attention on tiktok instagram and in their mind they're successful okay they're they're famous in their mind they are doing it where in our in in you know just a few years ago okay you

He had a radio hit. He had a video. And it meant something to hear yourself on the radio. I see people all the time, young artists who had never been on the radio. I mean, you'd think they'd have 20 hits. I mean, the way they're acting. I think it's just social media driving it and streaming. They think they know how to do it.

It just, I see it on the road with new acts. I see it, new writers, can't tell them anything, you know? But still, I'll say it though, you know, if you're a new artist and you're streaming 500,000 a week and you're like, okay, well, I'm going to get a booking agent.

Go try to sell some hard tickets and find out what exactly that means because that's the other thing. What does that mean? So anyway, I'm not trying to sound like an old grumpy man. Well, we are. No. I would agree with Neil, though, Kayla. I feel like this new generation, I feel like they aren't even aware of how it was done.

They just think they know they got to figure it out. Well, Kayla and I have written with guys who, we've written with some of these young people that they got booked with us and still did not have a clue what was in the room.

Really? Yeah. Now, see, that's weird to me. Nope. Because their publisher set them up with us because the publisher knew. They didn't even do the homework? Didn't dawn on them. I will say it's interesting. Because we've been around for a while and been blessed, and we've had hits and stuff, and very thankful for it.

if I'm writing with a person tomorrow and I don't know their name and I don't know what they've done, I will Google them before I get that appointment. I want to know. Oh my gosh. So easy. That's the thing. What I'm telling you, and this is in agreeance, you know, with this, I will say there's not all, because there's a couple that are very respectful to me as a matter of big fan and things like that. But the majority, um,

They don't Google anybody. That blows my mind. I actually can't even believe that. So much so, it was about five years ago, but it's my favorite story. And I won't say who it was, but it was me and another guy. Now you have to. No, I can't. Let's go viral. No, don't do that. We got to go viral. But this is what's funny. This is what's funny. And we were writing with a guy, and these two guys were buddies, but the one buddy knew me and the other buddy, apparently they hadn't talked, and we're just talking about ideas, throwing around who's looking, stuff like that.

and the younger guy said, said, man said, so I think I've got a Brad Paisley hit. And I was thinking, you know, obviously, you know, and had a lot of Brad hits and, you know, we're buddies and everything. And he's, and I thought he was going to, you know, say, Hey Kelly, can you think you can get this idea to him? But he didn't say that. He said, uh,

He said, I've got a thing. I think it's a for sure Brad Paisley hit. I said, it's just like him. I said, I think he would say every word of it. He says, anybody know a way we can get to him? So do you think that that was like his way to just like not ask you blatantly? No, no, no. And his buddy said, dude,

You're kidding, right? Yeah. He goes, you know you're writing with it. Oh, really? He goes, oh, you know Brad. And at that point, I was like, yeah, I mean, I don't. Yeah, we lived, he's my next door neighbor and we had 10 number ones. But it was really funny and he was innocent. It wasn't disrespectful. He just didn't know. You know what I mean? Like, so it wasn't purpose. And that was my bother. It wasn't purposeful. I know, but that's my bothers. Like they moved to town without any knowledge, without any history, without any learning, without any research. Yeah.

And just jump right in the fray. That seems weird to me, though. If you're going into it right. But that was the one that really caught me. I went, wow. That's funny. I've said wow a lot in the last five years in this town. It's pretty funny. It's changed so much. See it every week. New artists come. And you can look a couple years ago, that new artists that were streaming, that are on social media, that are no longer hardly streaming. They're still on social media.

Trying to be an artist. Yeah. But they're not doing it. It takes so much more than just, okay, put a song out and, okay, you got 100,000 Instagram followers or TikTok or whatever you're doing. But to actually do it, it's still, there's a whole nother level to get to. There's such a small, yeah, there's such a small percentage of success in the writing world in Nashville. Wow. And,

There's even a smaller percentage of guys who are still doing it as long as we've been doing it. We're still hanging in there. For sure. I still like it. A young writer said something to me a couple months ago. She goes, yeah, I've got some stuff streaming. I've heard that radio pays a little bit more. No, you can't be that oblivious.

They are. And I said, yes, that's true. You know, how do I get to radio? I'm like, okay. I don't even know how to speak. What are you talking about? You know, anyway. Yeah. Yeah. I don't really know. Anybody got anything else?

It's a good, it was a good one. Kind of jumped all over. I like it. Yeah, that was fun. Did you get some eggnog, Tully? No, but I think he's going after. Yeah, I might. It's still cold. Evan Williams, if you're out there. Yeah. We still love your product. Yeah, yeah. Even after the holidays. We've been hitting you up, Evan. Where's the response? Yeah, come on, E-Dub. Another sad no-go on our, you know, no tattoo for Kurt.

No RV. No RV. No Evan Williams. We can't muster up five bottles of Evan Williams. We know it's seasonal, but I mean, heck, November's going to be here soon, Evan. It's a fact. Guys, we really appreciate you. Thank you for hanging out with us. For Neil. Well, first name. Kelly. For Tully. For Kurt. God.

Listen here, listeners. 25 is going to come alive. Neil, bring us out. You brought us in. Bring us out. It's going to come alive in 25. We have to thank our listeners. Come alive in 25? Yes. You just got a slogan. Let's put that on our shirt. It's happening. It's happening. And we want to thank our listeners for hanging with us. And keep hanging with us because it's going to get real interesting. Yeah, we got some great guests this year. We're thankful for where this journey has taken us.

Woo. Let's go. Let's do it. From the Patriot Mobile Studios, this is Try That in a Small Town Podcast. Make sure to follow along, subscribe, share, rate the show, and check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.