Zach Welch – Punk Cowboy Troubadour from Texas
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There's something beautifully honest about a musician who admits he started learning guitar at seventeen, grew up boringly middle-class in a Dallas suburb, and then waited until adulthood to have what he calls his "wild ass awakening." Zach Welch doesn't pretend to be anything he isn't—and that's precisely what makes him compelling. The Forney, Texas-based singer-songwriter carries the kind of authenticity that can't be manufactured, the sort that only comes from living through your own contradictions and turning them into songs people actually want to hear.
When Zach describes himself as a "rock and roller who just happens to sound the way I do," he's being deliberately modest. What he actually does is blend riot folk—a term he borrowed from the DIY punk-country scene—with the storytelling traditions of classic country songwriters like Billy Joe Shaver, Waylon Jennings, and Chris Kristofferson. It's a potent combination: the rambling, beer-soaked confessions of an outlaw country balladeer filtered through the raw energy of someone who'd be equally comfortable at a punk show or a honky-tonk.
I'm just a rock and roller who just kind of sounds the way I do.
— Zach Welch
Welch's origin story reads like a lot of kids who grew up in lower-middle-class suburbs during the nineties and early 2000s—decent but bored, floating through childhood without much direction. What changed everything was poker. At fifteen, he met Ethan through a card game at a friend's house, and that's when the real education began. While shuffling through hands, Ethan's family would play Vern Gosdin, George Jones, the deep cuts of traditional country music. For Zach, who'd only ever half-listened to whatever the radio offered, it was a revelation. But the real pivot came when he discovered that Waylon Jennings—the guy he'd fallen in love with—didn't write his own hits. Billy Joe Shaver did. That realization cracked something open.
"I became insufferable about who the real songwriters were in the world," he admits with the kind of self-aware humor that defines him. Once he started digging deeper, he found the lineage he wanted to belong to: Shaver, Kristofferson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Townes Van Zandt. Not the polished guys in leather vests playing sold-out shows, but the other ones—the ones who looked homeless, who were just hanging out with their friends, doing whatever they wanted. That image of pure freedom, of art made for its own sake rather than for success, became his North Star.
If you give yourself a nickname it shouldn't stick.
— Zach Welch
What's striking about Welch's approach is how comfortable he seems with contradiction. He's a punk rocker who loves classic country, a self-described skeptic of the "book learning" who has clearly done his homework on American songwriting traditions. He plays poker, attends cards religiously, and uses the stories from those nights as material. He claims—at least twice every show, by his own admission—that "this song made my mama cry so it must be good." There's a Budweiser-soaked warmth to the way he operates, mixing hippie philosophy with cowboy practicality and punk rock restlessness.
The energy he brings comes from someone genuinely happy to be there, playing shows, telling stories, making friends at the bar long after the final song. It's not an act; it's a fundamental orientation toward life and art that values connection over credentials, community over commerce. In an era of carefully curated artist brands and algorithmic playlists, there's something radical about an artist who just wants to make people feel something—even if it means making his mama cry.
For anyone interested in where contemporary Americana is actually happening—not in the glossy mainstream but in the bars and venues where people still gather to listen to songs about heartbreak and self-loathing delivered with genuine joy—Zach Welch deserves your attention. He's exactly the kind of artist The Rugged Revival was created to champion: unpolished, uncompromising, and utterly real.
when you L and [Applause] learn Crash and [Music] Burn Hearts get broke tables turn you lose your love so this is a rugged Revival podcast that we are the home of the UK's country Americana and Roots Music Community I'm your host Terry TJ or as Ronnie called me on the last show the constipated yot he's not a very funny bloke is he um but Ronnie can't be with us uh this week unfortunately because he's undergoing press reduction surgery so please uh wish him a speedy recovery like we will uh but anyway on to the show today we've got Texas based singer songwriter Zack Welch um on previous shows uh and recent shows we've described Addy Levy as the queen of Appalachia and Jesse Williams as the Mountain Mama So Zach I feel feel like we need to have name for you dude what what could it be oh man um I don't know you know I I'm a strong believer and if you give yourself a nickname it shouldn't stick you know and don't leave it to me mate so uh yeah un unless you oh yeah we'll come up with one there mate so anyway welcome into the show I I I really appreciate you coming on um I've been looking forward to the this one so I I think a good place to start is in a roundabouts one sentence tell us who you are and how would you describe your music uh I'm Zach Welch um I come from forny Texas and I I coined the PHA or I stole the phrase Riot folk from uh from folk Punk musicians such as Tom Frampton and Andrew Jackson jod um but man I I think I'm just a rock and roller who just kind of sounds the way I do so it's contrary awesome I like that term man so we we'll use that and we're fun of a nickname for for s that fit set as well dude so I think a good place to start normally is just about your background so you're from fory Texas you know what was it like growing up there what sort of a kid were you uh man you know I was a I was I was a pretty decent kid uh I wasn't wasn't all that good at the book learning as they say but uh but I was I was a good kid you know I played baseball wasn't very good at that I was kind of just floating through uh forny was cool forny was fine it's gotten um they've started doing a lot of cool stuff in forny now that I'm gone which kind of feels personal uh but I get to be a part of a lot of that you know like we uh we play I played downtown forny at least once a year in some capacity for one of the events they do out there but um but you know really just uh pretty pretty bored throughout the majority of the time you know old man worked construction my mom she uh she went to nursing school when I was a teenager uh and that's it just you know good old lower middle class family in a lower middle class suburb hanging out sounds like my background too mate and uh we had a lot of time kind of uh left her own devices shall we say and and some of us uh stayed out of trouble and some of us didn't man so uh it's good that you you know you you were pretty much on a straight and narrow that's good at you yeah I avoided uh I avoided most of the trouble I avoided all the big trouble the little trouble you know what are you gonna do about that you know but uh but yeah no I never uh I never got to anything too crazy as a kid uh I waited till I was an adult to have my wild ass Awakening you know or at least a late teen major but uh yeah man it's just hanging out I didn't even start getting into music until I was 17 something like that and I started hearing a I played poker a lot still do I I love playing cards and U when I was 15 I met Ethan who you know 31 Productions um and his family played a lot of cards and so I went over there and that was when I really started listen listening to like not just what whatever was on the radio and um because we would we' go and play cards and they listen to you know Vern gden and George Jones and all that old country and I was like it was kind of sick and then I started listening to Wayan Jennings a lot and then I learned that Billy Joe Shaver wrote all those songs and then I just became insufferable about who the real songwriters were in the world yeah it's a shame Ronnie's not on this show he's the world biggest George Jones fan so you could have kind of geeked out together on on that particular subject man so uh you were listening to lot of the older stuff back then and that is that kind of what got you into wanting to write your your own stuff yeah I um I really once I figured out the Billy Joe Shaver wrote all of my favorite wh and Jennings songs I started looking into songwriters and I found Chris kristoferson and Jerry Jeff Walker Town's VanZant and all these guys and I was like that's cool like the the whand of the world you know they're cool they're wearing the leather vest and all that stuff and all the girls love them and they're playing soldout shows but these other guys are just hanging out with their homies they all look homeless you know they're all they're just doing whatever having a good time doing whatever the hell they want and I was like that's sick and I still had um you know I I listened to that old country stuff but then I also had started getting into like punk rock music and so like the the dead kennedies or the dead Milkman or all the dead bands you know and so I got into that and I was like well I don't have the voice to be George Jones hence can't sing like George Jones sparked a whole song and um but I was like some of these songwriter guys and these punk rock guys don't have a a necessarily you know beautiful singing voice and so it's like I could I could get into that yeah definitely mate and I've noticed when I've spoke to quite a few Texas based artists that they're into the old punk scene as well so is that quite prevalent from you know the scene that you're in where people are coming from that well you know when like we were talking about our upbringings you know I think I think just the the being kind of bored just being you know in the in the dayto day you know it's it's mundane if you will and so when whenever you're a kid and you start hearing these people like like these punk rock bands like the dead Milkman have a have a song called VFW and uh it's a Veterans of a [ __ ] up War world and that's the and it's just the whole it's just two and a half minutes of this dude bitching about being bored like it's like I'm not very good at school and I am pissed off and I think that a bunch of us found that kind of music you know in our little in our little deals when we were all realizing that we weren't going to go to college to play sports or we weren't gonna you know do whatever it's like well [ __ ] what am I going to do to get out of this town you know and a bunch of us became musicians and so we had the you know the old records that our grandparents listened to and all that stuff and then we had um you know the punk rock that our older cousins listen to or we had you know Blink 182 and some 41 and all that stuff that was around when we were kids and uh and it just kind of merged into this de and you know being in Texas the whole Red Dirt scene you had Cross Canadian Ragweed when I was a little kid and Pat Green was on the radio I still to this day I love Pat Green I hate that song Wave on Wave uh because the second it got above 80 degrees outside which is pretty quick in Texas uh that song would just come on the radio every 30 minutes until it went back below 80 degrees so really from April to December he just I got no Direction and um and so all that all that stuff just kind of I think it just merges into everybody and know you talk to people you find out you never had like a your own experience everybody else is like oh yeah know I remember that yeah definitely and I was listening to a lot of your your music today because I had a six-hour drive uh to to Wales funny enough and uh I thought it was a good uh chance to kind of sit down uninterrupted to kind of go through everything and man I I left quite early this morning and I I I wish I picked a different track to start with so I started with enough because that was the first one on your Spotify fuing that's a dark that's a dark song man yeah that'll kind of that'll kind of [ __ ] up the vibe set this home for my day but uh no it's an awesome song and um so I went from there and and then I started right at the beginning um with your your 254 days uh the acous kind of album that you started with so I suppose jumping ahead slightly mate um do you want to talk to us about you know what your kind of early releases and kind of work our way forwards yeah um 254 days started 2017 or something like that um I had I had graduated high school went to went to work in construction and uh I was I was really good friends with Ethan's older brother and he had gone off to college college and so their grandfather pulled me aside one day and he said hey watch out for Ethan just keep an eye on him make sure he doesn't become a [ __ ] unfortunately I failed miserably but he calls me he graduated high school a couple years later and went to Texas A&M in College Station and he calls me one day and he goes hey you're still playing music and stuff right because I had started right about the time that uh that I was getting out of high school I was like yeah I mean I'm playing I have these four bars that I just play on a rotation every weekend pretty much and he goes have you written anything yeah I've written a couple songs he goes well I've started uh making beats for SoundCloud rappers but I think I could I think I could record music and I was like all right cool and so he came up to Dallas we went to his brother's house and um he took his laptop and he plugged a remember rock band yeah video game so he had the the remote that went to the Wii and it had the little USB and he plugged that into his laptop and hit record and he held it right in my chest right above the guitar and below my face and I just sang all the songs that I had written which wasn't very many at the time and then um I did some cover songs and um a bunch of those song all that ended up on YouTube and SoundCloud and everything like that well then then um he started really getting into it and I was like this is kind of exciting so I started helping out and we would just buy you know we'd buy an interface we'd buy a microphone we'd buy this that and the other and um we had recorded all these songs now on better equipment than just the the rock band mic and um still not great equipment we had like $200 thrown into the project at this time but um but we uh we got all this stuff and re-recorded all the songs that I had written and uh and then Co hit and we got shut down because I was still playing bars all the time the same four bars that I've been playing um and they were like hey man we're closed I don't know what to tell you so after a couple weeks of that I realized how much of uh just going and playing music music and you know maybe having somebody be like hey good job was uh really holding me together as a person and uh I had I had gotten married and I'd gotten divorced in the course of 254 days that was from the wedding to the divorce finalization and so I was already not doing a whole lot of good and we had all these songs recorded and nobody had told me good job so I was spiraling and Ethan was like What if we put out a record and I was like that sounds like a good way for somebody to tell me good job yeah let's put out a record you know thinking it'd be the same people that I was playing in front of every weekend that would hear it and so we put it out and um we did like a Facebook live album release party at uh awesome man where we where we recorded a lot of it and my buddy's garage and um and so we had like 20 people watching and it it went and then you know it was like you have five monthly listeners it's like now you have 10 now you have 30 now you have a 100 and then it started getting contacted by people all over Texas and then it was you get an Instagram DM from somebody in Maine and then after a little while it was like started getting messages from the UK and you're like cool you know this is sick so now then it was like all right we gotta we got to start recording more stuff and all that and the bars opened back up and we were we were going and I started playing in College Station a lot and hanging out out there so yeah I I think like you say Co kind of hit a lot of people in different ways and it it completely kind of [ __ ] a lot of things up for for many but like you say for yourself there kind of good news stories and it kind of forces you into to other kind of perspectives or or areas that perhaps you would have put on the back foot you might eventually have done it anyway but it's interesting to everyone kind of went through that in different ways so yeah I suppose it's a good news story man that uh that came out of it eventually yeah it all worked out man I have I actually have a buddy who uh he uh he mostly plays like not cover shows because he writes his own stuff his name's Kenneth Waters great guy but he plays a lot of long shows he does a lot of private parties and stuff like that and oh my God he quit his real job right before Co hit and I was talking to him not too long ago because he uh because I still work a day job and we were talking about doing something together and I was out of town working and I was like man I'm be I'll be back in town this day and he goes are you are you finally going full-time music I said hell no I got I I'm I'm scared of it right now once once somebody confirms that I won't starve to death when I do that then sure and uh and I was like man I still think it's crazy that you quit your job and just started doing music when you did I was like because I mean the balls to just be like yeah I know the world shut down but like I'm betting on myself and he's like dude I'm G be honest I made more money in 2020 than I ever made any other year he's like I was getting called to go play shows for like four people in somebody's backyard and just getting paid a bunch of money it's like damn all right sounds like you made the right move people were just dying for it you know people just they needed to pretend they were at a bar they needed to be at a show even if it was like yeah no we can only have five people here and one guy standing in the corner of the backyard of acoustic guitar like we'll give you $600 to sit there and play Hank Williams junor songs for an hour yeah if it was I don't know if what it was like over in the US but um when covid hit here we had these weird Trends people going online like your family going on teams and zoom and whatever bloody thing that we discovered you know back then that we're now using every day and we were doing shitty quiz nights and stuff like that so we we definitely missed going out watching live music mus and just just getting out the fraking house and not yeah I I I cannot bear doing any more [ __ ] quiz nights with uh no doubt that's horrendous but um but no that's interesting you like to say he's got some balls man to to kind of give things up right at that moment and to make a success of it so good on it man that's uh that's awesome so yeah it's a not so funny name in terms of the kind of album name at that time and then I was listening to kind of some more more kind of recent stuff that you've done so Punchy shirts and broken hearts so talk talk us through that one man uh Punchy shirts broken hearts that uh I I'd started writing those songs when everything when I was getting divorced when I was having to move back home and and do all that stuff so like enough that's where that came from um and then I'd just been just been trying to write you know trying to write as much as I could and um I had met Parker Ryan who's an absolute sweetheart and a killer musician but I met him in COD station um with Ethan and my buddy Travis who is now Parker's tour manager um we met him at this bar that's not even there no more I can't remember the name of it but he was super cool super nice we were all super drunk and um I had these songs written well he had started recording stuff with Ethan and uh put out a couple EPS um and I'm not very good at guitar still not to this day so I had asked him if he wanted to play guitar on some of my stuff he's like sure so he basically played guitar on that whole record um and I just sang and he did some harmonies and stuff like that but that one was um The Punchy shirts and broken hearts doesn't have any real meaning to it uh I had never heard the term Punchy before in reference to shirts you know that's like cowboy [ __ ] and I'm not a cowboy at all never have been uh I just I like the hats I like the shoes but I don't I I've never roped a thing in my life uh but this I worked with this really Cowboy ass kid and uh he he bought a welding shirt that was too big for him and he was like man you want this shirt I was like I mean he's like dude I know it's a welding shirt but it's punchy as [ __ ] and I was like that's a cool word I'm gonna use that and so whenever we were coming up with a record name I was like Punchy shirts and broken hearts I love it and the picture we used for the for the record the cover art wasn't even that Punchy of a shirt it was just a [ __ ] flannel I had on that day I was really disappointed in that oh man yeah you should have picked a different shirt maybe but uh and then you've got Redux which um I love the intro and the outro to to that as well and that's a how how would we describe that so that's kind of a redo of two 254 days but with a full full band isn't it yeah that was that was basically the idea because there was a lot of those songs I had written with a band in mind that's why uh in like 254 days some of the instrumental breaks when I'm just playing acoustic guitar are long as [ __ ] because they were just going to be demos and I wanted guitar solos and everything on there and uh but I I had never played with the band I was terrified of playing with a band and also musicians need to get paid and I don't have that much money and so I was like one of these days we'll pay some musicians so we put out that one we we um we put a band together and we were playing um you know just little spots around Texas you know we played cheum street warehouse and Cooks garage and love and Golden Light amarill we were playing shows and U I'd saved up some money and it was time to put out a record and I said well I don't really have enough new songs for a record but we could re-record all these songs that we did that we're playing now live and uh and put out a record that is cool and is rock and roll and is kind of what we are on stage and so U I named it Redux because um on Netflix they had apocalypse now but then they had Apocalypse Now Redux redo what however you're supposed to say it but it was funnier it was funnier to me to say Redux so we called it Redux I had to Google it to be fair I was like what the [ __ ] does that mean but now now I understand but I think it takes it to a whole new level and you can obviously hear you know what what you're intended to put across in 254 days and then with Redux man it's uh you've got the full-blown band pumping you've got the face melting you know lead guitars going who who's playing the leads in in those songs man on those that was uh that was Colton Mattis I the setup on that I had um I was singing playing acoustic guitar Colton Mattis was playing lead guitar and piano and then uh Lawrence suler was on bass and Ethan Whitaker was on drums and then it was at a crystal clear sound in Dallas cool spot it's um it's quite funny when you listen to both um alongside each other like I did in the car today and 254 days it's quite self depreciating some of its quite quite sad songs you can call it can't it it's and then it just takes it to a whole new kind of spin with the full band and and the lead guitars and yeah it's it's just like a completely different album for me that's what it sounded like there's one one particular song I loved and it was family tree um which made me laugh my [ __ ] head off uh in the car because there's one lyric that you probably know is coming up and one of it was I guess your family trees are Cactus because they all seem like a bunch of Pricks to me I love that man that one uh I had a I had a who is uh he brought a a book of shitty jokes to work and uh and that was one of the shitty jokes in the book of shitty jokes and I wrote that song right there at the in the in the break room you know just I was like that's [ __ ] genius and and everybody there when I wrote that song I told him I was like I was like this one's going to be people are going to talk about this every time they see me for ever I was like because this is so [ __ ] funny and they were like that's the dumbest thing I just wasn't expecting it I was like man that is genius like you say it was so funny when that came up but uh but a lot of the lyrics I I was listening to today that made me laugh and uh they're just very interesting I think aah was one of them as well that I enjoyed yeah um so so who who typically does the songwriting is it all yourself or is a lot of it co-written I uh I write most everything by myself uh I think I have three co-writes um too drunk to try I wrote uh with a guy named Chris Cunningham and uh he grew up in for too I used to run around with him a lot back when I first started and he uh I was actually working in the middle of nowhere in South Texas and he sent me like the first verse to to drunk to try and was like heyy here's a song finish it and it's yours and so I finished it um and then the poet parking lot poet um Ethan actually wrote that and I just changed a couple of words and I was like what the hell is this he's like I wrote a song about you man I was like you're telling on me dude my boss is gonna hear this and it's like what are you doing at work [ __ ] off and then um and then pray it rains that uh that we put on the low and slow EP that I did with Marcus Delgato who's an absolute sweetheart and he's currently in Hawaii but um that one Kate Anson wrote and I I changed a couple words and I tried to write him a song back but he didn't like it so I just kept it and put it on this next album that's going to come out oh yeah why not man it's uh I mean I I suppose going back to my my long car Journey today uh and on the way back I put on the Texas to Tennessee podcast with our pal Soul gravy and TBO I love listening to those guys because they just get so many kind of different people on but I remember right at the beginning and I don't think they kind of explored it too much with you but uh I'm sure they said you know you try to embark on a comedy career early on is that is that right I did I'm gonna ask you about it yeah no I uh now man when I was I I've always wanted to be uh an attention horror I just haven't quite figured it out how to but um which way yeah when I was when I was a little kid I uh my dad had the the Blue Collar Comedy Tour DVD you know Ron White Jeff Foxworthy and those guys oh yeah and and I was like well this is cool you know and uh and it was like we weren't supposed to be watching it you know because I was little and and Ron White there Dr you know talking about whatever and so so I saw that and I was like that shit's cool and then we had a we had a talent show at the school and I was in like third grade and people told me that I was funny and I was like well you know what did dudes do when they're told they're funny they try to be a stand-up comic or start a p podcast I've done both know and uh and so I was like all right cool I'm gonna do standup comedy and I went and I told third grade shitty jokes and all the other third graders were like woo and all the parents were super nice and they were like hey you did great and I was like I'm a [ __ ] star and so then the next year America's Got Talent came to Dallas to um do auditions and I begged my mom it's like please you got this is our big break I'm G get us I'm G get us out the hood with this one M you got you gotta take me and she was like well no you know blah blah blah my Grandad who's very supportive and not all that smart about it was like why won't you take him to the deal heck he could be a star I was like thank you PA that's about damn time I get the respect I deserve around here so then my mom and my POA took me to the convention center in Dallas to go audition for America's Got Talent and I walked in and they had all them bright TV lights and everything shining on me and um I told a couple jokes and nobody even cracked a [Laughter] smile and they said uh yeah we'll uh we'll call you if you make show have a good one and I was like I didn't make the show did I mom she's like no you did not make the show I'm sorry to say and um yeah I kept I kept trying I did one more talent show I think before I hung it up you know didn't have the didn't have the same Pizzazz there's a Darkness to it I was I don't know if I dare ask but what what is the kind of what's your favorite joke or what uh what was the rudest one I suppose you couldn't tell many rude jokes on America Got could you could to keep it clean you know I really don't remember most of the jokes and I don't really remember any of the punch lines but there was a story and this is a true story um when I was a little kid I was obsessed with wrestling and uh my dad was in the Marines he was stationed in California and I was one of very few kids in his friend group so they would have two TVs in the living room and they'd have WWE Monday Night Raw and then WCW Nitro on the two TVs in the living room on Mondays when I was two and so I I was obsessed with it well then they did the Marine Corps ball in Vegas and I think my dad was 23 my mom was probably 21 at this point and I was three or so so my grandparents flew out to Vegas because they were going to you know watch a grandbaby and take turns and go gamble and everything because all my grandparents love Vegas too and um we're in the elevator and this older lady walks in the elevator and she sees me and I'm a little kid and at this point Vegas wasn't quite Disneyland yet so I was one of like four kids in the entire state of Nevada and um she asked me what my name is and I told her and then I asked her what her name was and she started to tell me and I said it doesn't matter what your name is and my grandparents still laugh about it to this day so I told that story The americ Scot Talent try out they didn't think it was funny apparently they didn't know who the rock was yeah it's lost if you don't know the context that one my kids were after that to be fair but uh yeah it explains because when when I put out the promo for you and uh we we got a few followers off it and of him was a a comedian friend of yours and then I I clicked on his profile and I think he did some things with kill Tony and some of my favorite comedians so uh so yeah what what who's your favorite Comics then like uh you talked about the older guys is on kind of from the new scene um I'm a I'm a big fan of Chris Porter uh he's from Kansas he's got some really good specials uh I like Bill Burr you know um Nate baratti is hilarious Dusty SLE is real good um but my favorite comedian ever is Mitch Hedberg oh yeah yeah that dude that dude kills me and my favorite joke of all time still to this day is I went to the store to get a candle holder but they were out so I bought a cake what the hell is this guy talking about it's his delivery isn't it there's nobody like Mitch Hedberg in a way he he deliver those jokes it's so good and I and I'll see people on like Tik Tok really trying for it and I'm like you're almost there buddy you just I don't know you just need to make an adjustment I can't tell you what it was because I wasn't my career as of stand up wouldn't wasn't all that promising but like you're so close but nobody's going to be mber no definitely not so we've established that your uh standup career failed miserably mate so uh condolences for that man but uh at least you're doing well at the music and that that's uh you know that's that's good man so oh yeah so we'll get back to that so tell us what the Texas Music Scene is like for you because we we've had a few guys on from Texas and we've got a lot more coming on and it's always interesting to kind of hear your perspective of what the scenes like how supportive it is to kind of Independent Artists and in my my opinion and I I found a lot of the artists that we've had on the show and and just listening in generally is from is it 95.9 to Ranch which I've called out constantly left some great great artists on there some from like smaller kind of listening backgrounds and it just seems like you've got a massive kind of scene there so many cool places like Billy Bobs that is on my bucket list to visit when I come to the states uh so what's your view on Texas like man man uh I love Texas I'll probably never live anywhere but Texas it is it's a good scene to be in it's a tough scene to be in you know because um there's there's so many artists and and more of them are coming every day from all over the place it's really it's almost like Nashville you know they back in the day you couldn't you couldn't get big in Nashville you had to get big somewhere else and then get invited to Nashville you know if you were if you wanted to get big in Nashville they said if you stop 30 minutes outside of town and get gas the dude pumping your gas if you can't pick better than him just turn around and go home because you're not going to make it and now nville has be kind of become like synonymous with not good which isn't fair because there are great artists in Nashville I mean some of the best musicians in the world are there they're just making pop music but there is really good independent country music coming out of Nashville but now it's like all right well we're not going to go to Nashville and make pop music we're going to go to Texas but uh but in Texas it it's like if you don't want to go to Nashville and make Florida Georgia Lon songs then you can come to Texas and make coel songs and that's cool that's well but there's just thousands of musicians and there's every town has a venue that you can go in and you can play you can get booked as a three-hour acoustic act and get up there and and pepper in some of your own songs but mostly just play whiskey Meyers and stuff like that and and you can plug away and make a living at it there's a bunch of people who do it but as far as making it it's tough because there's so much competition yeah and there's so many there's so many dudes that are that are well funded that uh that are well connected that are anything that like it's if you want to make it in Texas you really have to be willing to grind and um or you know kind of not necessarily sell out but maybe maybe pretend to like some people more than you actually do you know um and be a part of some things that you don't necessarily care to be a part of just for the sake of having that connection and um and I don't fault anybody at all for doing that because you know this I've I work a day job I've worked a day job my entire adult life and it sucks I understand completely that's like yeah this guy's kind of a douchebag but guy's a douchebag but he can get me in at Billy Bobs I go make shitload of money it's like hey that's cool and you know what I'll tell you this much there hasn't been somebody who I thought was a douchebag that asked me if I wanted to play Billy Bobs yet because if they did I'd probably be playing Philly BPS nobody's asked me so I can sit up on my moral high horse like I'm never selling out you know it's like well nobody's offered me but I have I have a good time playing and there's some there's some cool bars out there that uh that'll give you a chance if you can if you can build a little bit of a following and um really if you can if you can build a following and luck has the most to do with that you can do whatever you want you know you can if you can blow up on t talk then you can play wherever you feel like playing and um yeah and that's a blessing in a curse of its own you know but um yeah my my view of the Texas scene is it's it's packed you gota you got to just get in where you fit in and um and you can meet some cool people and then you can meet some people that are really cool to you and then now this bar that they like dude I I know these guys like they're going to love you and then you try to call them and they're like this line no longer exists oh so maybe that guy wasn't really my friend after all oh it's so hard but like you say I think it's a mixture of luck um if you're lucky enough to go viral with something ridiculous on Tik Tok and most of the time it's a shitty meme or just something that might not even be related to the music that you're putting out or um and like I'm same as you I refuseed to sell out um so I'll probably be doing this in my homemade bar forever because uh I'm not going to sell out man because you could be sat in your Mansion you know in your swimming pool you know I'm just Enis envisaging you doing that later on in life and people go oh Zach you know how did you get here how did you make you millions and be like I made a rap country album and it's like can you live with that uh and you know I have a I have dear friends of mine that are that are actual rappers that that do all that and always joke and uh I'm like yeah if I ever decide to make a rap album I'm just going to make a rap album and that's just going to be everybody else's problem it's not going to be because the masses want the mix the genres I'm not doing a country rap album I'm gonna do a [ __ ] drill rap record you know do whatever the hell I want you know that's a I played a bar one time and um and it it's I I love to bring it up because it was one of my proudest moments and standing up for myself but uh I played a bar and uh this lady asked me if I knew any Parker McCullum songs and I didn't I don't dislike Parker McCullum that first album his is great she said well do you know any Co Wetzel songs and I didn't and again no problem Co Wetzel got some really good songs and she goes what kind of Texas Red Dirt singer are you and and I saidwell I'm not a Texas Red Dirt singer I'mma sing whatever the [ __ ] I want singer and I stand by that to this day and I always will be I sing whatever the [ __ ] I want singer I should be your bio put that yeah no I'm I'm with you completely man it's uh you like I say you know sometimes you have an opinion and my opinion's changed on Nashville because I just thought it was all pop country stuff and I probably talk a lot of [ __ ] about it at the beginning but when the more people I'm talking to and let's say there's some fantastic writers singer songwriters over that way pop country is not my thing never will be but um you know the production over there is second to none there there's a reason why Nashville is Nashville so I'm I'm opening my horizons man to uh to learning more about it I think I think I should uh to be fair so like pop country gets gets thrown around as as the devil and like you know there's 959 the ranch right great radio station I believe they're out of Fort Worth I know that I live way east of them so I can only get them every once in a while when I'm in in town somewhere but then you have like 995 the wolf and that's the big radio station in Dallas and um the vast majority of the stuff that comes on there isn't my cup of tea because it's the pop country of today so it's like I'm I'm not a fan of today's pop country but I do get a kick out of people that are like pop country is terrible listen to real country music like George straight or Brooks and Dunn or Dwight Yokum or George Jones and I'm like these are the popular guys from from their time you know your grandkids are going to be a dick about whatever talking about y'all don't know real [ __ ] like Luke Brian you know it's just it's and I'm and I'm with it but I'm like man pop country isn't dog [ __ ] that's dog [ __ ] Nashville doesn't suck right now we suck because they're targeting us with this yes you know yeah absolutely man I mean the reason I started all this in the beginning way back well say way back last year um was because in the UK you know we don't have a massive country scene or or Roots like I kind of explained at the beginning and it it was trying to find well I thought if nobody's interviewing the people that I want to hear from or playing the music you know there's only one thing you can do and it's kind of do it yourself um yeah so so that was the intention you know cuz I mean we we went to see sturg Simpson over the weekend and that was probably the best gig I've ever been to but you you'll never hear sturl on radio here ever uh so that sucks but uh and even Tyler chers you know he he he's starting come on the kind of mainstream radio but you know his Beginnings are a very country and you know we we certainly didn't hear Tyler's stuff I was probably still don't much on the radio but it's all pop country based it's all quite kind of contained in the UK which is why we're trying to kind of Branch out and do our own thing man that's all you can do and uh like you say people probably [ __ ] about our stuff and say it's a load of shite but uh whatever each to their own man see I've I've been curious um and I'm I'm glad that I get to I get to be on this podcast with you because now I can finally ask somebody um I know of a lot of people over in the UK and just on that side of the world in general who really dig what's going on over here in in Texas and and Appalachia and you know all over all over this area and this kind of Indie country Americana situation that y'all don't really have over there and I'm curious because like you know here in in peel toown Texas where I'm right now um you know I'm very familiar with the Beatles And I dig oases and I think the Arctic Monkeys are one of the better bands of this Century but I don't know [ __ ] about y'all's like y'all's Indie scene or or anything like that like I don't know the English version of me you know who's running around you know whatever suburb of London and he's got 5,000 monthly list on Spotify I don't know that guy so I'm always curious because I'll I'll talk to you know buddies of Mind people that I know and and they'll say you know yeah I was um I did an interview with these guys in in England or I I did a interview with this guy in Spain or these people want to fly me out to Sweden and do a house show and like how the hell did they hear about you you know how do you how how do y'all get into this you know that and I I've just been so curious about it because it's cool you know it's it's dope I've gotten to uh I've gotten to make some some buddies all over the world because of [ __ ] like this but I'm always just like did y'all did did Tyler chers come up on your Spotify one time and you go now wait a [ __ ] second I'm going to get to the bottom of this like is that how it goes down it for me funny enough everyone's experience is going to be different but I I was really into flatland Calvary uh massive fans of those guys and I just went down a rabbit hole of you know on Spotify it's kind of a jewel thing isn't it it's great in some sense isn't and shitty probably for the artists in in the other sense but but for me it's great to go down a rabbit hole of finding other artists say if you like those you know check these guys out so then you've got Tyler you've got Sturgill you've got you you can kind of go around the scenes and when you click on each profile music then you go right to the bottom and there more and when I was finding more Independent Artists I was doing the same and I was like [ __ ] hell this just opens up a whole kind of pleora of music that I never knew existed because like you say it's not on the radio here particularly I was listening you know to Internet radio um for for the ranch and places that and even then it's still hard to find you know proper radio stations and I think somebody told me from Kentucky Josh Mitchum he said you know we like some of the K stations up there because that's what plays come more the traditional or the Bluegrass and and things like that so so I'm I'm still checking it out but going back to I suppose your earlier point in terms of what musicians that we have here uh Jack Browning's doing really well I don't know if you've heard of Jack so Jack was actually our first kind of podcast um guest and he's he's killing it in a minute so he's traditional country he's a bit of Blues bit of rock uh he's playing Laurel Cove this year so we don't tend to have many guys from the UK go out to to you we have a lot of you guys coming here and um more recently I don't know if you've seen for the love of appalaches so we had Lance Rogers Hunter Flynn and Daniel Kane come over recently and they did a UK tour that was really successful and they they're real Grassroots guys that supporting the independent seen such such nice guys but [ __ ] awesome musicians and I think that's paved an awesome kind of path for you know a bit of a bridge so more of you guys coming over here and vice versa so we can do a bit of a a bit of a tradeoff but um I still think there's there's a lot of work to be done around that and uh cat Deeds has done brilliant in terms of arranging it so I I can see big things happening in the next couple of years around that and if the rugged revival can get involved and you know start kind of pitching some things and ideas that we have uh I think it'd be great so I think it's a joining joining groups isn't it you know I think that's a great thing for us joining Facebook groups we set our own one up and it's trying to kind of connect with different artists that you wouldn't necessarily speak to um and it's not just us and UK we've got uh people from Australia uh there in the minute and uh there's some I think Jesse Daniels is out in Australia right now or or has been recently doing his tour out there yeah yeah that was cool and then you got Tori faai who's an Australian country singer who's going to Laurel Cove as well so I think it's happening man it's it's really you know kind of branching out and this is cool times I think to see that so have you been to the UK yet yourself I've I've never been no I did a during during Co I did a a show on Zoom for uh it was CES virtual shows and they were super were cool but uh it was like 12 people in the zoom call and uh I I played they're like yeah can you play like an hour I was like sure and they're like and if you want to you know play as long as you want but you know our time slot is an hour I was like cool and so I played I ended up bullshitting with them for damn near three hours you know just hanging out and talking and we were we were hanging out it was you know nighttime over there it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon where I'm at so like they were over there pouring drinks and I was like well hell I might as well you know I ain't got nothing else going on so I'm sitting in my living room drinking beer talking to you know a guy from a guy from Ireland a guy from Wales and couple couple Englishmen and then there's one dude from Spain checking in like it was it was really cool and then um there was this U this dad and his son and the son had special needs his name is Max he was cool as [ __ ] but they they warned me before I got into the zoom call and they said hey there's little boy his name's Max he has special needs and I was like yeah I mean that's cool I wasn't planning on getting on here and saying wild [ __ ] about people special needs the [ __ ] has happened on this show before but they were like no no he's cool he just really into musicals and he's going to ask you what your favorite musical is and if you don't have one just say Greece I was like well I could probably come up Musical and they're like if you can't just say Greece because we had a dude on here and he's like I'm not really into musicals and Max was pissed so I get about 45 minutes into playing and I'm and I'm talking and we're we're having a a big time and and the people who are hosting it were like Zack do you mind taking some questions and I was like as long as I can ask some back you know and uh so max jumps up to the screen and he goes yeah I've got a question and I was like what's up man he goes what's your favorite musical and was looking serious as hell that camera and I said uh probably Memphis and he looked at his dad he looked back at the camera and he looked at his dad again he goes he loves Memphis and and me and him just talked about Memphis for like 20 minutes and everybody else just in the zoom call just watching me and me and this kid just like yeah that [ __ ] everybody wants to be back on Saturday night we were we were boogying dude it's good time so like I it it's exciting to me to hear about these these cats from over there finally coming over here and and vice versa you know I'd love to I'd love to get over there and um and just do some shows and and just see some [ __ ] you know like we try do it in a way well I say me it's the people that have been doing it in a way that's kind of affordable because it's it's freaking expensive to you know not just fly yourself out here but accommodation and you know I know they've done a great job in in kind of mitigating a lot of the costs um so you can come over experience it enjoy it build up a fan base um so yeah definitely check out what those guys are doing because it's um I think it's really unique and and amazing uh and we'd love to kind of get involved in some way just to kind of help out and you you might see our interview with the guys that we we met up at at the Stafford gig and that that was a lot of fun we had a few beers by that point so the interview was a bit you know yeah yeah I wasn't on top form but they were to be fair it was just me so it's one it uh so yeah but anyway yeah we'll catch up after the show on that I think it'll be good to kind of bring you in on a few groups and um yeah get you involved in that dude we'd love to have you over this way um so moving on slightly dude um we've started a new playlist that's dedicated exclusive of kind of podcast guests and people that we meet up with in live meets and stuff like that and so far I've kind of added two tracks for everybody um but I've only you'll be the first person I actually asked to say well what two songs should we add for you that you think you know people jump on it it kind of reflect who you are and I'll get that added um I would say that my my two would probably be I'd say drunken rambling of a hopeless romantic and then uh let's see maybe a stranged low and slow those are that's probably my my two sides of the coin you know that's because drunk ramblings is is is loud and it's fast and it's and it's a bit and it's it's the closest thing to a love song I've ever written I wrote it uh for my fiance when we first started dating um during y'all weren't in Texas but in February of 2021 Texas froze over for a week and um and so we had started dating and November like Halloween was our is our anniversary so we went to go hang out with my parents and then it just froze so we were stuck at my parents house and um I was sitting there we were hanging out and we were pulling like a trash can lid as a sled down the road and having a big time you know being irresponsible and and uh she uh night came we had a fire going and she kind of dozed off and I was like this is [ __ ] sick you know this a good time this been a good couple of days why isn't every day like this and uh and I just had that I had that song kind of popped up in my mind it made me giggle and so I started writing it and U it was you know the the bit about if I was rich I'd buy a wrestling ring it's like that I've Googled it wrestling rings are $5,000 you can get one in your backyard for 5,000 USD that's quite reasonable that's kind of what I was thinking I was like hell imagine how much fun we would have with the rest in the backyard uh I've been vetoed on it multiple times but I'm still kicking you know about every Christmas I'm like what if instead of everybody buying presents we all just pulled in um but the just the kind of just of like I'm doing dumb [ __ ] and you're still hanging out you know you're still you're still with me you don't think any less of me because I have these these goofy ideas these these childish or irresponsible ideas that you know it's like what are you doing you know you're kind of you're telling me like hey calm down but you're also not like you know I'm not an idiot you just know that I'm idiotic sometimes it's like and I appreciate that because if left to my own devices I would have a wrestling ring in my backyard and me and my friends would be jumping off the ladders and [ __ ] each other up but I have you know I have my sweet little bride the fun police to be like no we're not getting a [ __ ] wrestler ring in the backyard and and no you don't get to try heroin on your 80th birthday I know you're old but you're just not allowed to and I'm like yeah well we'll see how it goes you know like man yeah it's it's but it's good because it keeps me alive and so it's like I've I've made a lot of bad decisions in my life and I made one good one and she just hangs out and keeps me from getting into too much trouble and and then so like that was that was it that was the one of the happier days that I lived that week of February early February 2021 was best time I'd had in a long time and um and then EST stranged is the other side of that coin that was written about the worst time I'd had in a long time and that was really the start of covid around that time is when when all that was coming to be but um yeah so you know those those would be my two both sides of the story no that's great it's uh I want to start asking people more rather than me just picking my favorites it's like what what what do you think reflects kind of you as a musician so that's awesome that'll be the first time we've done that mate I'll get that added and then going going forward slightly so people normally ask you know what what's your favorite ever album blah blah blah and that kind of stuff I like to ask you know what's the best album or maybe even just a single in the last 10 years uh for you and why oh man um let's see I'm trying to think in the 10year period um because there's been some there's been some really good ones you know like the vast majority of Tyler chers and stel has been in the past 10 years um there's been some really good stuff put out by friends of mine it's a tricky one it is a tricky one because like my my first instinct was uh swoony tunes by Payton matus is a good buddy of mine and I actually got to sing on one of the songs that we released as a single um and I love that record and then I love the Ry boys records that uh the Ry boys is actually my backing band now uh they're Killers um Drive By Truckers have put out a bunch of good albums in the past 10 years Old 97's put out some good records in the past 10 years and it's there's so many good ones I don't know you're going to have to let me think about it CU it's just going my going on insane yeah the same it's so hard to pick it's what's your favorite movie you got like millions of different types you know it's one of them but uh always interesting because I think 10 years is a a good time slot to kind of reflect back of what there has been and actually we're in good times with so many kind of quality artists at the minutum bands um so you you kind of touched on you know some of your buddies there you know and we always ask you know about emerging artists because the platform's about you know picking up on emerging or Independent Artists and who you think we should be following or the listeners should be listening to is there anyone that kind of stands out for you um I think the I think that pton matus is one of the better songwriters alive right now um I also think that uh really all of my buddies are so significantly more talented than me uh Tristan Sanchez great kind of uh kind of like almost em music at times but still country somehow he's got some really good stuff Jacob Ryan Marshall's country as hell um the band Ledo is about to drop a new single that'll be crazy uh the Ry boys they haven't put much out recently but they have a bunch of stuff that's ready to come out and I am advocating for it to come out uh and there's there's so many good ones you know it's um it's it's hard to keep up you really you really can't go wrong if you just if you go if you do what you did and go to the also like and you you can just go down that rabbit hole forever and good luck finding somebody who sucks you know like there there's so many it's it's ridiculous you know and that kind of goes back to what's the scene like in Texas it's [ __ ] scary because you want everybody to be successful but God damn why is so many of y'all like it's ridiculous um but yeah there's there's a whole bunch of them man they and they just keep they keep popping up you know we had a we had a guy bulk tongue just put out a his first single ever called the ho Town Saloon goofy song about a bar fight uh but it's sick and he's and he's great and I've gotten to see him play a couple times and he's [ __ ] an absolute killer you know Braden Stewart um lives right up the road from me he's a he's young he 19 maybe 20 but he's about to put out a new record and it's really good and and these These are kids that can't even like legally buy a beer in the great United States of America and they're just putting out [ __ ] nasty Tunes dude just it's tough but if I if you pass me the ax and told me to put on somebody that you might not have heard of before I would probably put on Payton matus or the Ry boys awesome man we will absolutely check those guys out um yeah it's it's something to add to our long list man it's ever grown let I say it's just scary how many people are there I've gone through like Spotify loads of times and then you find it AI [ __ ] things I don't know if you've ever that's weird I don't know what that's all about so I kind of ignore that stuff and then you get like confused with pop country sometimes so that's me um so I mean you talked about wrestling mate but uh outside of Music Mate what what kind of uh things are you passionate about um I I've gotten into reading recently I've been trying to I've been trying to do that I actually have my phone leaned up on a stack of books right now um I haven't read all those books but I got them um but I like really into wrestling me and my brother are really into that have been our whole lives uh I love bowling I don't get to do it near as much as I'd like to but I'm a big fan of Dallas Stars hockey Texas Rangers baseball y do much baseball over there no I mean we've got fans over here but um it's it's not a particularly big thing I think NFL's been getting quite big over the last few years um but we we're mainly football or soccer as you guys call it over there that's kind of our main thing or rugby which isn't my my bag but then uh over the last couple of years because it's been on the Telly we've been into darts I've got a dart board in my my bar so that's I got I got a darkart board right over there too I'm in my little storage room so uh and a face for radio kill it exactly yeah if you're listening ladies you know we're ones to to watch out for there you go um that's cool man so we we we talked about qu quite a lot of things here and I think maybe just the last couple of things to cover would be what what's what's kind of in store for the rest of the year Zach I'm planning on having a pretty busy year um I have I have some stuff going on non-music related that I'm GNA be busy doing for a few months but um we are I just finished doing vocal on the next album um and I'm thinking about calling it Redux part [Laughter] deal know uh because there is there's a couple songs that I wanted to record when we did Redux but you know Studio time's expensive and I ran out of money so we said [ __ ] it we'll do it later um so we got those and then there's a few new songs on there that I'm really excited for we're going to drop a single pretty soon finish gonna finish mixing it gonna take a picture for the album art and then just going to start dropping singles promoting the record and so that's going to be late spring early summer and then I want to put out at least one more project before the end of the year probably probably do one more this year and then start on the one for next year because I have ideas I have songs starting written I have a few finished and I'm working on some others for this steel but I want to put out an acoustic EP at the end of the year called a quick update from an old friend because you know I did I did the two acoustic records I did an acoustic EP um and then we started doing full band stuff and I love the full band stuff I really do and I love my band those are so some of my best friends in the world and I love making music with them and hanging out with them but I really do love just being with a guitar and and talking to people I feel like I get to get more out of people with that you know I feel like um you know when you play with the band it's like all right y'all have an hour and 15 minute set go up there and do it and squeeze whatever songs you can into there you know maybe crack a joke in between songs I'll go play like Saturday I'm playing that [ __ ] bowling alley it's going to be sick it's going to be so much fun uh if anybody listening is in Terrell Texas on Saturday come over to film alley come see me it'll be it'll be a [ __ ] hoot and I'll continue to play there um but I'm gonna go play for two hours I'm gonna play whatever I want and hopefully some people like it and if people like it historically I'll make friends you know we'll we'll sit and chat like I'll play from 7 to 9: and I'll leave whenever the place closes because I'll sit and [ __ ] with whoever wants to [ __ ] for as long as they want to talk to me you know um you get a little bit of a Saving Grace because that bowling alley is also a movie theater so sometimes you'll start chatting with somebody and then they're like after 30 minutes they're like oh [ __ ] my movie's about to start and you're like good deal I was running out of [ __ ] to say and thank God but um but I love the the intimacy of just playing acoustic music and um even though I'm not like a really pretty guitar player you know like I don't I don't finger pick hardly at all like not successfully I'll try but um and I don't really play a whole lot of [ __ ] that you grab a random group of people throw them at a bowling alley and they'll know it uh but if somebody makes a request I can find something almost close to it it's like well I'm basically the Spotify section of well if you like that maybe you like this too you know it's like do you know any I don't know I can I feel like I've picked on coel and park M Callum enough but whatever those guys and I'll be like how about Gary P nun the only true Texas country artist that sounds awesome man so so beyond kind of streaming music and kind of sharing how else can people support you what what could we do oh man well um you can you can find me on the Instagram and and Twitter Um Zack Welch music uh I'm on there Instagram it's usually just post show posters and then pictures of me and my lady wife and the dogs you know I'm not really all that active on the Instagram but I post the important [ __ ] there and then uh and then Twitter I'm on there yapping pretty regularly you know uh you can you can come and we can we can chat about whatever you feel like chatting about and it'll be great uh I'm not very active on Facebook I have a Facebook page but it's just linked to my Instagram so whenever I post something on Instagram it just goes to Facebook but yeah yeah yeah we we we do something similar but so X is a place to to kind of find you talk [ __ ] and uh have a good laugh it's a funny platform that for for musicians and you know for us we we have pondered kind of going over there but it it's just kind of like you get sucked into some strange conversations and get it gets a little hairy it get it gets a little it gets a little weird in there some times uh it used to it used to be a lot better I know a bunch of people say that I see that's like one of the main things that people say is that they they blame Elon and I'm not a fan of Elon but I did have to get his Wi-Fi because I live in bum [ __ ] nowhere so I can't talk too much [ __ ] about him publicly or he'll shut my Wi-Fi off but uh but you know [ __ ] that guy but uh but like people talk about X and they're like well it was better when it was Twitter and it's like well yeah but also you were a teenager at that point in time like it's it's a lot better when you're just on there talking to your homies but I've made a bunch of really good friends on Twitter um you know Matt Moran through Twitter Jason Harold who uh who plays fiddle for every single living soul on this world he's always doing something uh Mondo salus who uh who retired from music to be a family man which I admire but I do hate that I can't just listen to them or book show with them whatever um just really really cool dudes that I've all met via Twitter I've made a couple friends through Instagram but only like two everybody else has been on on the Twitter we uh we started doing a festival for a bunch of people and um that are all over all over the country we the sad by Southwest which is eventually going to get litigation pressed against it for ripping off South by Southwest but until then you know they don't call it in-law country to quote South Texas tweak um but we do it in in DFW every year this will be our third year and um Matt Moran um he's kind of the brainchild behind that he started the deal but we had uh him J.R Tully in the Dreamland band uh True Grit myself um whoever's just really just anybody that wants to come and and play you know we've had James geta came from Chicago um the whiskey Outlaws that changed their name and I'm so sorry if they hear this I can't remember their name off the top of my head I love them both dearly but I can't remember their new band name but uh they were supposed to come from Kansas and like we just get together and all these people just once a year just go to some bar and deal w we don't make [ __ ] for money because we're selling tickets and it's a bunch of dudes that nobody's ever heard of so we sell we'll sell as many tickets as artists we have on the show so it's like everybody gets a ticket and uh and we just we go out there and the first time we did it at a bar in Fort Worth called Lolas and uh we we just had a long day and then the second time we did it we did it over two days at a bar in uh deep Ellen Dallas called the wounded ostrich and um man we just had a [ __ ] hoot and and everybody had the same reaction when we when we tallied up all the tickets and we'll make t-shirts and [ __ ] and we'll s we tallied up the tickets and the merch and we're like all right everybody gets $25 and if you and if you had to fly in or you had to drive for a day then we'll give you some gas money too we'll divide it up like that but if you're sleeping in your bed tonight you only get $25 and everybody said the same thing cool it was a [ __ ] hoot you know it was a good time uh bar usually discounts some drinks if not just give them to us and so you know you just get to hang out with 20 of your closest friends that you only get to see once a year and listen to everybody's new [ __ ] and you know you laugh you cry because it's sad by Southwest you're pretty much obligated to go up there and play the saddest song you've ever written and you got a few man oh yeah I got a few um last year we had U Clayton Smith guitar player for me and the Ry boys and the ban Ledo he got up there and did a song Swap I believe with J.R Tully out of uh San Antonio by way of uh Baltimore but uh he played a song and everybody in the bar including him cried when he played it was the saddest goddamn song I've ever heard in my life it was so good and then like next thing you know we're all just having a huge time laughing drinking carrying on so it's like I look forward to that every year that's awesome these are the times man it's uh and long may it continue I've enjoyed shooting the [ __ ] with you Zack um appreciate you coming on and it's been great to get to know you and I think everyone should go head over to your socials give you a follow give you a like and uh go watch your your videos as well because you got stuff on YouTube to to have a look at and uh yeah thanks so much for coming on man I hope you've enjoyed it uh and I need a bit of a awesome man I need a bit of a bit of help now normally you know I have a beer with me me and Ronnie would kind of toast uh the end of the show but for some reason I don't know why I'm doing dry March uh so I've got non alcoholic b i a sad isn't it I'm getting old and my body doesn't like alcohol much more um but yeah if you got something to lift mate come and join me in uh raising a toast to the grip the grind and the Revival thanks everyone for listening cheers salud
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