Frankie Ballard is bringing a new message and it's more than Sunshine and Whiskey.
He blazed onto the Country Music scene with 3 consecutive #1 hits, 'Helluva Life', 'Sunshine and Whiskey', and 'Young and Crazy'.
His El Rio album was released to critical acclaim and Rolling Stone named it one of the best in Country Music.
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Now the movie Outlaws, he said, Frankie Ballard as a country
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Blues rocker, which is a right up my alley.
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If I was actually see, I got a lot of guitars here if I
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actually knew how to play them, I would try to play like, like
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he does. I'm a fan actually went to one
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of his concerts here recently, over the winter in the Detroit.
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Yeah, he released the album, El Rio to critical Acclaim in
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Rolling Stone named. It one of the best in country
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music is previous album. Had three consecutive hits.
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You probably remember Hell of a Life Sunshine, and Whiskey, and
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Young and Crazy. He's performed with Bob Seger
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Keith Urban Luke Bryan, Kenny Chesney, and others.
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And currently, I just think I follow my social media seems to
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be all over the place. Welcome.
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Frankie Ballard. Hey, thank you.
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Can I appreciate it? It's nice to be here.
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I'm glad I'm glad you took the time to appreciate it.
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Here's what I thought we'd do. Hopefully no one's done this
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before. I know you've done tons of
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interviews and they probably all kind of get to be the same.
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This is sort of like this is your life, except I changed it.
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Well, it's these are your quotes, So I, yeah.
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So there's this website ran across.
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I know if you've seen it before. Called brainy quotes and they
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must I mean they have quotes like people from like Einstein
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and all this kind of thing but they they must just pull quotes
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from interviews or something. You'll let me know if these are
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real quotes from yours but they actually had a Frankie Ballard
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page, a Frankie Ballard quotes. Yeah, so I'm going to will go
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through. I have no questions prepared
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other than things you've actually said and then you can
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respond to them. Wow, this is sort of a
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nerve-racking. A little bit anyway, it's not as
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bad as this is your life. I'm not going to pull any old
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elementary teachers out or anything like that.
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These are your quotes actually, I prepared a little riff so it's
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fine that there we are. These are your quote, I'm a
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Detroit, Tigers fan through and through Frankie Ballard.
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Yes that will never change, that will never change board and
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Battle Creek Michigan where Tony the Tiger was born also.
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So I went to the old Tiger Stadium, a few times, with my
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dad, back in the late 80s and early 90s and he was always a
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Detroit, Tigers fan. My dad actually went to 80 home
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games in 1968 when they won the championship.
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So he brought me up and brought me into the fold and even though
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I live in Nashville. Now even if there was a
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professional baseball team here, there's no way I could ever
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leave my allegiance to the that's right.
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This next quote actually goes along with that one.
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I probably would have never made it through college without
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baseball, so I'm thankful for that.
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I really am proud that I got to play at that level.
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Frankie desk. Yeah, I like you played college
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ball. I did, I went to Mott Community
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College for my first year in Flint, Michigan, and had a
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pretty good season, and then was recruited to Western Michigan
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and became a Bronco to finish my career.
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And I like to say that I went to college to play baseball on
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accidentally graduate. Yeah, what position did you
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play? I came in as a middle infielder,
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but I ended up playing a lot of right field and west.
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Turn because our middle infielders were future big
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Leaguers. One of them was Adam Rosales who
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ended up playing 10 years in the major leagues.
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So I ended up playing a lot of Outfield.
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A little bit of second base as well, kind of a utility player.
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What did you graduate in? Educationally speaking.
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Yeah, not many occasions. I I tried to take, I try to take
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a path that I knew I could be successful at, but it was all a
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means to an end, which was playing baseball.
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I just had to keep a 2.5 GPA in order to stay on the field, so
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my focus was never academic as much as it was athletic but I'm
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very, very grateful for the education.
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Now, I Feels, it feels great to know.
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I had that in the bank and there it is something.
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I started but baseball is really the reason why?
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Yeah, first place, all right, another quote moving on.
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I'm a huge Travis Tritt fan, and I'm a big southern rock guy.
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Had sounds like it was an old quote.
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I don't even know if these are real.
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So, that's something you would have said at some point, it
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might have, you know, I was starting off playing in
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Kalamazoo Michigan and Battle Creek, and sort of regionally
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playing in bars, in honky-tonks and That was one of my go to
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cover artists you know. I smell TR OU BL e.
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Yeah, here's a quarter quarter quarter.
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Yeah yeah. So I you songs used to use a lot
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of Travis Tritt songs in my Honky Tonk days.
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Did you play music at all? While you're been too busy, I
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was gonna say during college but you could've been doing the bar
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scene if you're probably busy with the baseball.
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Yeah, it's funny how that happened.
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You know, I certainly at some point realize my Sure was not
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going to be in the big leagues and that dream was coming to an
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end and at the same time I started to meet musicians in the
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area and go to some of the blues jams watch bands.
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And so in one dream sort of coming to an end this this other
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dream of playing music started to be born and I sort of let go
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of the baseball and put down my glove and picked up the guitar
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somewhere around. And 20 or 21, you know, I
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remember asking my coach, if I could bring a guitar out on the
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road, with us on the baseball bus and he said, no, and that
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was mostly because we had so much other gear to take care of.
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But, um, yeah, southern rock, you know, Leonard Skynyrd and a
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lot of the Allman Brothers music.
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I really fell in love with the guitar.
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Now you play it and but but the solo guitar tones of Duane
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Allman. And those guys really kind of
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took me to another place. Yeah.
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You're not just the, you know, porch drummer.
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I mean, there's videos on YouTube, where your, I think
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Keith Urban's trying to keep up with you and some awards of
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Satellite song. I shot
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How do you get to play at that level?
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Is that just from playing everyday?
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Or I think my my influence for, for being a lead guitar player
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was Stevie Ray Vaughan. I remember one time my mom had
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PBS on in the kitchen making dinner and Austin City Limits.
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Stevie Ray Vaughan performance came on and I was just
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mesmerized, I remember thinking I'd never seen anybody play like
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that before, Steve, you're a kind of opened up my mind to get
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there's a difference between a rhythm guitar player and a lead
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guitar player. You play, solos, individual
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notes, and Melodies ever. Since I saw him in his command,
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over the instrument, I've been trying to play like him, I'm
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still working on it, but yeah, I would just say it's yeah, time
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under tension trying to figure it out day after day.
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That guitar has been a companion of mine and I'm still trying to
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master it but I loved I loved the idea of being able to step
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out in front and place them. Melodies and say some things
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that maybe I couldn't sing or say with my voice, this was
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another instrument to use. And so I love the idea of
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exploring that. Alright, next quote, I don't
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really have any hobbies, Frankie Ballard, it's true.
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It's kind of remains True to this day.
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I have habits that's for sure. That one made me laugh.
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Yeah, the I probably should. It's probably a healthy practice
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to develop a hobby but it seems like every spare minute I have
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and especially now with the family.
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It's hard to pick up a golf club or something along those lines.
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You know, I always go back to the guitar if I have a spare
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moment seems like I'm always looking for the nearest Guitar
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because that's really my love and I hobby Maybe.
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Some somewhat of an exercise, you know, I've been trying to
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get into boxing a little bit, really, that's been kind of a
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hobby because I don't, I don't want to do that competitively,
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that's for sure. I don't, but I love hitting the
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heavy bag. Kind of learning about that
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sport, but exercise is a bit of a hobby, but again, that's more
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of a habit to their, I'm trying to create.
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So I don't know, I just don't have time for for any hobbies.
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I'd like to wrestle an alligator and it's like him fly a fighter
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jet. That sounds like a younger
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version of me thinking as well. Yeah, definitely the fighter jet
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one. I think had I not got the
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baseball scholarship and opportunity when I was 18, I
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might have ended up in the military and there was a
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definite Competition enough of the competition rule.
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That would have got me into a fighter jet.
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I actually went and talked to an Air Force, recruiter and a
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Marine Corps, recruiter about flight school because that was
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always something. I thought I could do and I still
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look up at the sky sometimes wonder what the wrestling.
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An alligator thing? I'm not sure what that, what
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that was all about. Maybe just me.
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It sounds cool knocking trash, as a younger man.
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I caught an alligator once by accident in Florida.
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Fishing. What have you?
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Well, I probably shouldn't say because the end of the story as
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he alligator died and it's illegal, at least it used to be
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to kill, alligators and Florida. But as I was with a probe, I
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worked in television down there and I was with a pro bass
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fisher, guy, we're fishing at this pain.
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But anyways, this I went down and ate my lure, swallowed it
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whole. And I'm like, let's cut the line
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where the guy says that's my favorite lure, so he can't.
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So he says this happens all the time to me, he lives in
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Tennessee. I don't know where he said, he
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lived in Tennessee, but he travels and he's like, I've had
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alligator problems before, he tells me what to do, it's real
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it in slow, but be careful. They run like 35 miles an hour,
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so he starts running zigzag so I know he's it had two legs up on
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the shore and Okay, I'm going to long in the story but basically
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he grabs a piece of wood and he says knock it on the head.
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Just to knock it out so that we can get the lure how hard he
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says. Well do you want it to wake up?
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So I gave it a good knock. So he flips it over because of
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it wakes up apparently there they can't really do much when
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they're upside down. And unfortunately he never woke
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up. So I'm kind of been on the lam
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for I don't know like 25 years or that incident but he did get
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his lower back. That's my didn't wrestle it But
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I think that's yeah, that's an animal that I really wouldn't
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want you Heather surprisingly fast.
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Hmm, I'm skipping a couple here. I see so many people living in a
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bubble. They want to be safe.
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They want the. Do you think these are just
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coming from old interviews? Like random.
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How's it going? Twitter, old Twitter.
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All Twitter cosima. I think I was saying these
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things are coming back to haunt you digital footprint.
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I see so many people living in a bubble.
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They want to be safe, they want their kids to be safe and they
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want their friends to be safe. And Get that.
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That's awesome and really admirable.
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For life is not about who gets out the cleanest at the end
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there. Who's the most well-preserved
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and healthiest, right? Nina.
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Yeah, well, I think that's true, that's true.
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And I would have to say now that, that wouldn't what that
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means to me more is It's where your faith comes in.
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You know, because the Bible says, we're all going to die
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someday. You know.
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It is appointed unto man once to die and then comes judgment.
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So if you're not a Believer, this is all there is, you know,
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life is Here. And now and once you die, that's
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it. The darkness washes over and
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you've gone out of existence. And so I see people trying to
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preserve that existence as long as they can and I guess that's a
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somewhat Noble Endeavor, but it's also a selfish Endeavor,
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you know, it's a difficult conversation to have, you know,
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getting older and technology has become so amazing that we can
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prolong our Adds to the to the absolute Max, it seems but at it
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also begs the question which is a more noble death, you know, to
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go out by grizzly bear or to, you know, sort of fade away and
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become a burden to your family. So, I think there's a There's
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also a different perspective though.
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Now, as a dad, you know, I look at my daughter and definitely
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want to keep her safe, keep her protected, but at the same time
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life just can't be about, trying to make it as far and wide as
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possible, you know. But what is it, what is your
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life mean? What have you done to You know,
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help others, not just help yourself, preserve saw.
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So I think that one's still Rings.
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Pretty true for me. And I was leading to those.
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I actually have some quotes that like, actually, this one's more
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current because it's your Instagram liner while I have a
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life to live. Thank you, King.
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Jesus, you friends. Me and I didn't earn it.
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What has brought you to this point in your faith?
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Is it recent, is it rekindled or what's your story there?
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I'm glad you asked. It's, it's definitely recent.
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It's more of a recent development, although it's been
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outgoing. I was born Catholic, you know,
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baptized as a little baby in the Catholic church and then, you
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know, found sort of the charismatic movement.
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In my early 20s but neither the Catholic Church nor the
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Charismatic Church really preaches.
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The true gospel and I would say, About two years ago during the
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end of the pandemic, you know, season I discovered reformed
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theology. And, you know, you can believe
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in God and you can believe In Jesus, but you need to believe
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the full truth before. I think that you're actually
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saved, and I'm not sure that I was saved.
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I had a heart for Christ and I had a longing for heaven, and I
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understood The Virtue in the stories about Jesus, but I'm not
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sure that before a couple of years ago, I really understood
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what the gospel was. and it's the gospel alone that can save
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us and So I understood it and then believed what I understood
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and I believe it's that truth that sets you free.
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So I really feel. It's a recent development at
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least my salvation is but it's been a journey.
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You know God has been bringing me through.
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And maybe. He needed me to understand some
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of the false systems before I could, you know, grab hold of
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what was true and that that statement, you know, I was
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cleansed and I didn't earn it, I think is where the gospel really
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needs to start, you know, I didn't really understand myself
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as a as a sinner as by Nature, an object of God's Wrath by
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Nature unwilling and unable. to search after God, you know, so,
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It's coming to the Cross knowing that there's no other way into
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heaven. It's coming to the cross and
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realizing I'm not worthy. I'm not going to be able to
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elevate myself to a place that's acceptable to a holy God.
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It's coming and getting on your knees.
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So, to speak and crying out. Like, the Publican beating his
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chest and saying God, be merciful to me, Sarah, because
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without Out that Mercy without my sin, my life being put on the
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cross. Being nailed to the cross.
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And without Christ's perfect life, being credited to my
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account, without that atonement without that transaction, that
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justification. I'm not going to get it, you
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know? So, That's the Amazing Grace
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that's the Amazing Grace that he would offer that to me.
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So I understood that I believe that and that's really changed
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my my life, you know. But how does that affect your
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career or at all? Does it affect your outlook or
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where you want your career, or music to go?
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Does it mix over to your writing and your thinking and your
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playing or is that kind of a separate?
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Staying in this is more private or can it not be really
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separated? Because it's who you are and
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your music is who you are? Or how does that play out in
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your head? Or is it still playing?
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Oh well, yeah, definitely. All the above can be sin ongoing
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process. But it can't be separated.
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There is a very true Sense that everything I've been doing.
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You know, since I was a boy, has been about me.
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It's been a selfish Pursuit has been an ambition of My Flesh.
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You know to whether it's about my baseball career or my music
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career you know I need hey Check this song out you really need to
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listen to this or this is important.
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You know watch this look at me that is all a very proud.
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It's a it's a manifestation of my own pride and I think when
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you come to the cross and realize That's all garbage that
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you can't bring past the cross and so I am thankful that I have
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a career and I'm thankful that I have a job that I absolutely
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love. But the music business and
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writing songs and putting out albums, you know, that comes
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with a message. So I ask myself now, what is
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your message? You know, is it eat drink and be
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merry because that's kind of what it was.
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You know, it's all Sunshine and Whiskey and it's a hell of a
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life. And you know, I'm young and
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crazy, all of these songs and things that Like I said, I
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really feel convicted. Now, you don't know what the
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time, you know, you think that you're just giving people an
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escape and here I am entertaining folks, and that's a
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good thing and it may be a good thing on a human level, but
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people don't need. Anything except the gospel, they
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need the gospel more than anything.
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I think that the greatest human need is forgiveness and that
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comes one way. So I've been really struggling
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with What to do from here and it what I when I understood the
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gospel and I believed it, I started thinking in a new way
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and I started writing some songs and I actually recorded an album
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and I want to put it out and it's lyrical.
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Content is very much a man wrestling grappling, with his
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faith. So I'm hoping to get that out
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soon, but where to go from here as far as popular country music
00:24:29
and what people Oh maybe would expect out of me is you know?
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I'm not sure I can go back to promoting the party and
00:24:38
promoting the lifestyle of rock star and trying to, you know, do
00:24:45
all that. So it's an it's a whole new
00:24:47
adventure, you know, but I wouldn't go back, you know, when
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I was a bunch of younger lad, I was in Nashville and I was, I
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had already had was 25 and I had probably 10 years of
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reinstalling radio, DJing television music, DJing, and
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primarily in the Christian music area music.
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And when I was in Nashville Country, Music Television, Add
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me and Q. CM T had just gotten started and
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they didn't have any host or shows yet.
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They were just flipping country music videos.
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Tienen was the big thing that the Nashville Network back in
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the day and I was in queue we were not to be the first CMT DJ
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wow. While I was doing, I was at Way
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FM in Nashville and if you're familiar that point seven, and
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during that time, I was, I don't know, maybe six months or a
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year, I was kind of in queue waiting for them to be ready and
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get a program together and I'm just like being like a lunchtime
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shift and then Saturday afternoon.
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But I was grappling with the like seeing things you're
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talking about because I was a but I was going from how you got
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in this to be doing like Ministry that in it to do
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Christian broadcasting and to be like a Dick Clark of a Christian
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genre, that was growing. Instead of just like churchy
00:26:23
music or Southern gospels, like it's done something like that.
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There was something new and emerging, and I wanted to help
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present that to the world is kind of my thing.
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But then I have country Television knocking at my door
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and then like, well there's a big break but it's not.
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I was going in the other direction like getting in my
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going to step out of this into that.
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Instead of my going to step where you're kind of bad, my
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going to step out of it over into here and I'll tell you, I
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made the choice to just leave and I went, but I'm in Michigan,
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I went back to Michigan. And I just starting with youth
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and churches and just kind of went in started my own little
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video business and just started teaching in churches, and I just
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left it all together. But then in retrospect, I always
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had in the back of my mind. What if I would have been on a
00:27:15
national network? introducing and talking and
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interviewing people like Frankie Ballard at the time, it would
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have been like Reba McEntire and Garth Brooks or whatever and I
00:27:28
wouldn't have been talking about my faith.
00:27:30
I would have been doing however the exposure For what my
00:27:36
personal life was, would have been so much wider?
00:27:41
No, no lie. I'm just throwing it out there
00:27:44
as you're contemplating. I'm contemplating with you, like
00:27:47
finals, had the Reverse regret or it's not a regret you go.
00:27:51
Where you think you need to go at the time?
00:27:53
The thing, what if I would have stayed?
00:27:55
And sure I would have been this popular music and good times and
00:28:01
Sunshine and Whiskey. However, Could have on my own
00:28:06
time. Spoken to thousands of people
00:28:08
that wanted to hear me speak and not speak about my faith and
00:28:11
private, or you think about the Alice, Cooper's found a way that
00:28:17
they're comfortable with, and that earlier was like, Charlie,
00:28:20
Daniels, strong faith, man. And he just altered a little bit
00:28:26
of his lyrics from his own smoking, weed days and he just
00:28:33
got going. And he kind of mixed the 22.
00:28:37
Instead of abandoning it. Yeah yeah it's my mom and offer
00:28:43
you advice. I'm just throwing out there
00:28:44
because those same thoughts in a similar way.
00:28:46
Had gone through you know my middle name I've seen other
00:28:50
people do it. I like sunshine in whiskey.
00:28:58
I like hell of a life. What then like to hear gospel
00:29:02
album to you know, from Frankie Ballard I have a tendency to
00:29:07
over correct. You know.
00:29:09
And I've come to this realization about what Christ is
00:29:13
really offering and what salvation really is.
00:29:17
And I'm thinking to myself, okay, I gotta get out and I got
00:29:22
to get in the church and, you know, and That's been the last
00:29:28
couple of years of navigating how to react, what are the
00:29:32
implications of this. And so I think that's Sound
00:29:38
Advice through telling me your own story.
00:29:41
Yeah. And and Frank, if you don't mind
00:29:43
me, just offering this conversation is, I mean, think
00:29:46
about what Christ himself did or where he went He wasn't in the
00:29:53
synagogues. Yeah.
00:29:56
He was with. The people who needed to hear
00:30:00
the message that would never hear in a church or even.
00:30:08
And I'm not trying to talk anything.
00:30:09
I'm just thrown thoughts out there.
00:30:10
That when I think of guys like Alice Cooper, it's even hard to
00:30:14
wrap my head around because it seems so extreme the darkness.
00:30:17
However, their closest to a light that they're ever going to
00:30:22
be. Just because who, that man is
00:30:27
That putting on a entertainment show and then they'll
00:30:31
accidentally run across them on YouTube lately, talking about
00:30:36
his faith in Christ. But if you went off and just
00:30:44
Started just hanging in a church.
00:30:49
In Alice Cooper disappeared and Vince whatever.
00:30:52
His real name is came back. All those millions of kids
00:30:58
wouldn't have access To what Alice Cooper now brings, you
00:31:04
know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.
00:31:08
I'm believe that there's going to be.
00:31:11
I can't look, I can't go back, you know her.
00:31:15
So either way the message is changing the the words between
00:31:21
the songs, the answers in questions, in interviews and
00:31:25
things moving forward, it's going to be true to my faith
00:31:29
because I'm changed. The realization of the thing I
00:31:35
have to kind of reckon is the culture is not going to like the
00:31:41
mainstream culture. It doesn't want to hear about
00:31:44
Christ, they don't want to hear about the Bible and that's okay
00:31:50
if my career gets marginalized and I'm pushed aside to a
00:31:56
smaller audience. So I can't grow into some
00:31:59
Superstar. That's okay.
00:32:03
I still love to do what. I know I was born to do and I'm
00:32:11
excited to see, you know, my wife, I think thinks of it in
00:32:15
the best way. She said, honey just imagine
00:32:18
it's a surprise party, you know, you stay faithful you stay true
00:32:22
to what God has called you to do and with the message he put in
00:32:26
your heart and then see what happens, you know?
00:32:30
So I don't want to run the other Other direction but I also don't
00:32:34
want to go back to where I was so I'm looking forward to
00:32:37
putting this new album out and being faithful to the message
00:32:42
and I believe God will put in front of me.
00:32:45
The people he needs. To hear that message and as long
00:32:51
as I'm faithful, I hope that the dots will connect.
00:32:53
But you know, you're not appreciate about you.
00:32:56
I appreciate about you. Frankie is what you're saying is
00:33:00
pretty common when somebody's career is done in there like 70
00:33:06
years old. meaning that they've lived it, they did it in the
00:33:12
back of their mind, they knew they need to get their life
00:33:14
straightened up or get right with God and this and that and
00:33:19
they live all the fun for some decades kind of like playing a
00:33:25
little Russian Roulette afflict, hoping they live long enough and
00:33:30
And then when the career is over and nobody's paying attention.
00:33:34
Anyway, there's not much in front of them, then they really
00:33:37
get their lives, right? And they settled down and they I
00:33:41
appreciate that really, you're in a prime and you're willing to
00:33:46
make that adjustment and that's, that's real faith.
00:33:52
To be able to go, thank you for for sure.
00:33:58
So I know, but every come up with come back on.
00:34:01
We'll go highlighting. Yeah.
00:34:03
I'm excited. It's a If nothing else the past
00:34:09
few years have taught me. That tomorrow's not promised and
00:34:16
you know, if we wake up tomorrow and are able to put our feet on
00:34:19
the ground, that's a gift from God.
00:34:23
God is giving you the day to make choices and have
00:34:28
conversations. And I just want to be faithful
00:34:31
with those moments that God gives me to help my family to
00:34:37
lift other people up to do, what I do to the fullest of my
00:34:42
Bility. And in a way that honors God and
00:34:45
honours Gracie's given. So I'm a happy man.
00:34:49
It's a it's a funny place to be in you know, you see. your
00:34:56
momentum from this dream and this career that you started you
00:35:01
see it waning and you see the young crop of tick-tock errs
00:35:06
taking over the place that you used to have in mainstream music
00:35:11
and you would think that and I be in despair but the truth is
00:35:16
is I'm happier than I've ever been and I'm just proud that I
00:35:23
still have, you know, a voice and I still have a guitar and I
00:35:29
still have a life to live Lord willing.
00:35:32
So I want to sing and play about the truest passion and write
00:35:38
songs about the truest passion in my heart and that's truly
00:35:43
God, you know, God has taken up residence in my spirit in my
00:35:49
soul and he's my greatest treasure.
00:35:53
Christ is my greatest treasure so I can't help but sing about
00:35:56
that and come with me, you know, we'll see what we'll see.
00:36:00
If certain people don't ever want to come and see me again
00:36:04
because they don't want anything But Sunshine and Whiskey.
00:36:08
Well, I don't know what to say because, you know, I'm a new man
00:36:14
and thank God. Yeah, yeah, it's, it's great
00:36:19
timing to for you, for your daughter, to grow up, and to
00:36:22
have a dad with that perspective.
00:36:26
Yeah. If I have to be gone, as much as
00:36:29
I certainly, will have to be gone to be a musician and play
00:36:33
Live make records. I don't want to have to answer
00:36:39
her question, which is inevitable when someday she
00:36:42
looks at me and says Dad, why were you gone so much?
00:36:46
I don't want to have to say, well because I was out there
00:36:49
shaking my tail feather and yeah, trying to get, you know,
00:36:54
attention from everybody. You know, I want to be able to
00:36:57
say because I had a message in my heart from God to give people
00:37:03
hope and give people People joy and share the gospel and share
00:37:09
my faith. And, you know, give give her an
00:37:13
answer that I can stand and be proud of.
00:37:16
So it's a whole new, it's a whole new ballgame but I'm just
00:37:20
happy to be in the game. Good.
00:37:23
Well, sounds like you're in a good place and I won't keep you.
00:37:25
Let you get back to her her and and your wife but you're welcome
00:37:29
back anytime sir. I'll keep a track on your
00:37:31
career, whichever whatever happens with it.
00:37:34
Well, I'm Gonna put that album out and I think you're going to
00:37:37
like it as a fellow believer. Yeah, I'll come back on and we
00:37:43
can talk about songs or see what you think.
00:37:45
I'd love to know your opinion. It's got some good guitar.
00:37:47
Playing on their I tell you that and you got it.
00:37:49
You're going to love. You're going to love the
00:37:51
production awesome. All right.
00:37:53
Thanks a lot Frankie. You got a cannon, God blessed
00:37:55
it.