For artists aspiring to make it big in the music industry, it’s important to always perform your best because you never know who’s listening or watching. Tyler Farr, joins this episode to share his journey as a testament to this. From the outdoor industry into the music scene, Tyler talks about the importance of taking proper lessons and the difference it can make in your career. He also gives a reminder on why you should always be on your best behavior and avoid burning bridges. Tyler then talks about the story behind his number single, Redneck Crazy, and gives away important life lessons that you can only learn through experience.
Listen to the podcast here:
You Never Know Who’s Watching – The Rich Redmond Show Ep 30 Feat Tyler Farr
What is up, friends, family and fans? I know you’re out there. I know you’re reading. Thanks so much. We appreciate it. Welcome to another episode of the show. As always, I’m joined with my co-host, Jim McCarthy. How are you?
I’m doing well.
JimMcCarthyVoiceovers.com. We went and got some Chinese food and some bubble tea. We’re feeling good going into the fall months here in Nashville. I’m going to tell you, the guys at our gym will yell at me. What is this podcast all about? This podcast is one of those shows where I talked to creative types. I’m talking about all things music, motivation and success. I’m interviewing musicians, producers, thought leaders, authors, comedians and actors. We learn something and hopefully I’m entertaining you. Jim, I’m excited because I’ve got a friend and he’s been tearing up the international airwaves, keeping country music safe, bringing it to a world audience. We’ve done two tours together. He’s got three number one songs, Mr. Tyler Farr. How are you doing?
Thanks for having me.
Jim noticed right away when you pulled up, you have a monster truck out there.
It’s big.
What is it?
It’s GMC 2500 Z81 diesel.
Does it come with that stock?
GMC makes them for guys like me, a redneck driving down the road. Isn’t that crazy? He sees this thing and is like, “I’ve got to have that,” even though I did not need it. Thanks to a little bit of success, you can do ignorant things like drive that truck.
You live on the outskirts of town like a farm, right?
I do. Mr. Aldean, he couldn’t get enough of me apparently after the two years I was on tour and people started thinking we may have been having relations. I don’t know. We didn’t go for year number three, but he lived down there by me. It’s down in just a small town in the outskirts called Chapel Hill. As you know it’s where a lot of these country artists live. It’s close to Luke Bryan. He’s about 25 minutes west of me. His farm is in Mount Pleasant. Jason, he’s building his fortress with some bowling alley in a giant park. It’s in Spring Hill fifteen minutes from me. Libra is about fifteen minutes north. All my friends live around me. I like to live out in the country up to about 200-acre farm now.
What years did we do the tours together? Was that ‘15 and ‘17? Were they back to back?
They were back to back.
It was ‘15 and ‘16 maybe.
I believe so, a few years ago.
That’s where you and Aldean really struck up a nice friendship that it goes on now. It led into this huge announcement, if people have had their head under a rock. You are the first artist signed to a joint venture label, Broken Bow Records and Night Train Records. It’s an imprint on Broken Bow and Jason Aldean is going to be producing your records, and is currently producing your record. His band, us, the Three Kings and a couple of guys were playing on your record. I don’t even know how many songs in the can. I think we have eight songs in the can. The way we do it in Nashville is we record somewhere between 10 and 15.
I think that Jason’s goal and my goal too is to record four more songs. I think a solid twelve for me would be ideal with two bonus tracks. You have ten, you have a couple, that’s how I’ve always done it. I record a little bit more than you’re probably going to put on a record. We’re probably going to put 10, maybe 11 at the most, or maybe 12, who knows? Jason’s the boss when it comes to that. We have eight songs, which is close to being there. The four of them we did as you know, because you played on them a few years ago.
It was shelved for a while. I forget what happened there.
When we did those, I was with Sony and we were experimenting. Jason wanted to produce me. Jason has always been interested in my career, which is a huge honor because I grew up in the honky-tonks when I was 21. I moved into town and grew up singing the songs you all played. I grew up singing. I remember singing in Tootsies when I was back in my felt cowboy hat days.
You were a bar back there.
I was a bouncer. I flipped burgers at Tootsies and I would get up and I’d be singing Hicktown and Amarillo Sky and stuff. Little did I know, it’s weird now because I had never met Jason. I didn’t know who he was and now, he’s just Jason.
You text each other. It’s crazy. If you stay in the game long enough, your heroes become your friends.
It’s weird how the industry works but it’s a cool thing. I’m excited, next year is going to be a big year.
On those two tours, you got to know your band well. You’ve always had surrounded yourself with great guys in the band and your drummer, Mark, is a beast, bodybuilder, musician.
I call my baby silverback gorilla.
He’s so great. I had to sub for him one time, I have some videos on YouTube of me playing with you and sweating my brains out and doing my best Mark Poiesz, just slinging tree bark back there.
I’ve threatened him before. I said, “We’re going to put the shield on you.”
Is it because the cymbals are bleeding into the mic?
You all play. I play many different setups and venues. You’re talking playing for the Blue Bird in Bloomington, Illinois with 300 people, 400 passed the fire code. You’re playing the dusty Armadillo where if you jumped, you get a concussion. You’re playing all of these places, and then you’re playing a big stadium with Blake Shelton and Justin Moore with 22,000 people there. You were playing anywhere from 200 seaters, 300 seaters to 20,000 people with a catwalk. You have to get used. Sometimes you have to go with the flow. You all play now that you are a huge success and you’re Jason’s superstar and you are all superstars. When you’re playing those small things, the drums, they tend to bleed back. I’ll watch Mark and I’ll have to adapt to that and my band has to adapt to that. As a singer, you have to adapt to it. If I can play music and keep making money, life is good.
Your guitar player, Gary, has the largest mohawk in the biz. Gary is still there, right?
Yeah, he is. He trimmed the backings off of it. It used to be about 4 feet.
Do you guys still have a massive appreciation for whiskey?
No, things have change. I’ve gotten older stuff. It hurts worse nowadays.
You moved to Nashville and you’re parking cars. You’re a cook. You’re landscaping. You’re singing on demos. We have two things in common. I did construction and I parked cars. I was a substitute teacher. Then you’re at Tootsies. How’s the burger? I’ve only had the burger at Roberts.
My burgers were good. I can’t speak for what they are now. I have no idea. I don’t think people go there for the cheeseburgers. I actually sneak back into Roberts to get a burger and have somebody play song, go scarf down a burger and come back because I was playing 4 or 5 nights a week for 4.5 hours for 1.5, 2 years, which is why my voice is a bit hoarse.
As a singer, you have to adapt, but if you can play music and keep making money, life is good.CLICK TO TWEET
Were you in the back room?
Back room, end and front.
I’ve never done the front because I’ve played every window on lower Broadway, even places that were taken down from the tornado in 1998. I never played that front window.
This one has smoking too. In a weird way, it made my voice take on up, put a little pepper on it.
I was reading and it said that you’re classically trained. You were in choirs.
I did All-State choir and I was part of the OAKE National Choir. It just came. As you know, you’re a professional musician, drumming I’m sure has always been something that you could just do. You have to practice obviously and hone in on your skill. Whether I was singing Boyz II Men, which I did, Keith Sweat, New Edition, to Andrea Bocelli to Michael Bolton to Tupac, whatever it was, I loved singing. Classical was the same way. When I was doing the choir stuff, I loved hearing overtones and being able to sing. I like the challenge of harmonizing and I had to fake my way through site reading, but I had a good enough ear that I fooled them.
Was this in college?
Yeah. I went to college on a Vocal Performance scholarship.
I didn’t know this about you.
In Missouri State. It was a short-lived college career.
That’s because you’re from a small town and on a farm.
It’s about 1,200 people. Our high school graduated about 53 students. The parking lot was gravel. The guy parked in the parking lot and walk into school after he’d do it in the morning. There was a gravel road, a lab farm and it was a very rural community. It was made up of 53 people, public school, kindergarten, one huge building, not that huge, but kindergarten through 12th grade, 350 kids in high school, graduated with 53 people. That was made up of six towns.
My graduating class in high school in 1988 was 400 people. That’s crazy. What was that party like, that high school graduation party? Does the whole town show up?
I feel like sometimes I’m the stereotypical redneck.
One thing I want to go back to that you had mentioned, the artists that you were singing along, list them Boyz II Men, Tupac. One of the mixes really stood out to me, Bocelli. Do you sing operatically? Is that something that you’ve done?
I can do it. I’ll do it sometimes when I’m taking a hot shower or whatever before a show to loosen things up. One thing that helped me singing that stuff through high school, because I sing operas too. I’d have to turn this switch on and turn this switch on. Just like if you’re playing country or you’re playing ACD, it’s a different one. It’s pretty broad. If you’re going to a jazz vibe, you’ve got to switch up the gears and that’s what it was me. I had to turn that off, play the Cass County opera or whatever, and go to these vocal competitions. My mother would get me in and I never want one of them like in shopping malls, and then go and sing in a choir. You would do a solo and they’d rate you on your intonation, dictation, vocal ability and all that stuff. The last person to make it at the All-State choir at my high school before me was my dad. It helped me when I started, when the number ones came in and stuff, and you’re flying by the seat of your pants and you’re holding on for dear life. This is awesome. I don’t even remember some of those years because it was just so much. Doing it, learning how to sing classical music and taking classical lessons since seventh grade and stuff, it helps you to know how to breathe from the diaphragm and how to sing properly and out of your head voice and how to go down. It helps preserve your voice.
Also extend the life of your career. It’s like learning how to play drums correctly because we’re basically taking a piece of wood and putting in our hands and beating it against plastic and metal. That can’t be good for you. How many times do I play a backbeat during the night with my left hand? Tens of thousands of times. Human beings put you in a box like, “You’re that guy?” I would have never thought that you’re classically trained because you wear it so well the role that you have in country music and your number ones. Your number ones were Redneck Crazy, Whiskey in my Water and A Guy Walks Into a Bar. I like that one. It’s got the little hoo chords.
That was probably one of my favorite number ones.
Let’s hear A Guy Walks Into a Bar. We’ll do an intro, verse, chorus.
“The joke’s on me and it ain’t funny. Everybody but me could see the punch line coming a mile away. I’ve heard it so many times I can tell it to the T. Believe me I could sell it all day. It goes, a guy walks into a bar, orders a drink, sees a girl that catches his eye, asks her if she wants another. They fall for each other and end up lovers. They laugh, cry, hold on tight, make it work for a little while. Then one night her taillights fade out into the dark, and a guy walks into a bar.”
That’s powerful. That was one of my favorites who wrote that?
Jonathan Singleton and Brad Tursi are the writers. I’m missing one writer.
How did you find them?
When I say that I’m like stereotypical in every way, I swear to God I am because it’s just how my career went. We’ll do a sequel podcast later and explain everything and you just let me ramble.
You can ramble right now.
I ramble with you. You ramble, I ramble, that’s why we love each other. The way I’m explaining the song is very stereotypical. I was with a buddy, Jim Catino, who is from Sony A&R with Sony Records in Nashville. He’s the one that found me early on through Rhett Akins, Dallas Davidson, Ben Hayslip, for all of you that don’t know, they’re huge songwriters. We were listening to songs. We do a thing called, to those of you in the industry know and those aren’t in the industry may or may not know, a pitch meeting. You hear a lot of songs that aren’t good for you. Sometimes you don’t know why they’re playing them for you. You have to dig through the dirt and stuff to find the diamond. You have to listen. I enjoy listening to songs. You’re not going to hear all great ones obviously. If anybody is able to do this, it will be easy.
It’s 8,000 songs pitched to him per record.
Since we’ve been with these songs, we went through, I can’t even tell you. He’s going through them. I’m going through them. That’s what we did. I went through and I was listening to songs with a buddy, Jim Catino. We went through a pitch meeting all day. I probably heard over 200 songs that day. We picked and had a couple of good ones and that we had on hold, and a couple we knew we were probably going to cut, but nothing that was like first single yet. You know when you have that first single. This was back in my heavily drinking days. It’s like when I could do it and wake up and do it again and not have an ache in my back.
I went to Winter’s, down on Midtown. I was there and I have to unwind, and I was having a drink, a whiskey. I was in a bar, stereotypical. I heard this voice from my own. I love his voice because he had a band. He was performing live in the Grove and he was in the writer’s round. They were playing songs I had written recently and it was just him, Jimmy Melton and another guy. I can’t remember who the other guy was. They were playing a guitar and him. I had heard A Guy Walks Into a Bar earlier that day and passed on it. Then I heard it acoustic. Sometimes where people mess up is that these demos get over-produced in my opinion. I’m a lyric man. I need to hear the story, the words. I turned around and as soon as it sings, “A guy walks into a bar,” I made a V line towards the stage. Alex, a publishing guy, who is a plugger sat there. I said, “Does anybody got this song?” He said, “No.” I said, “I want it on hold.” I said, “That’s going to be the first single.”
I bet Jonathan was happy about that.
I said, “I just found a song. That’s it. That’s what I’ve been looking for.” I got it for the first single off my second album. I’ve only had two albums out. Suffer in Peace, that was the first single.
The song was meant to find you.
It’s weird. It’s like we were talking about earlier, making friends and how things happen. It is my favorite song to play and it’s a cool model.
It’s cool that you feel that same way. I was like, “I wonder, because this is my favorite song.” I loved it. It’s a really good song.
What is that that you always say? Always bring you’re A-game when you’re playing. You never know who’s going to be there.
You’ll never know, and usually there’s some tastemaker or somebody that can make a difference in your life or your career. If you’re having a less than perfect show or you’re mailing it in, it’s not good.
Who’s Watching: Learning how to sing classical music helps you know how to breathe from the diaphragm, how to sing properly, how to use your head voice, and helps preserve your voice
We grow every year as a band. That’s one of the main things I personally can say that I can tell a difference in this play, whether it’s for 200 people or 20,000 people. We’re going to play for 200 people. I’ve been playing for 20,000 people. Me as the leader, if I don’t feel like we did that, fortunately my guys are great. I have a great band. They’re all super talented. I don’t have to tell them. They know the expectations of what they need to do and they want to do that. We don’t settle for less. That’s the same with you all and Jason.
This is a testament to you that you recognize that because traditionally, even though Nashville is a very strong knit community, it’s a family-oriented community, much more than the music communities on the coast. There are a lot of changes that go along every year with bands, especially younger bands. For some reason, a lot of the female artists, they change their band like their panties. The idea is that you recognize that you have a bunch of talented people and you get along as human beings and that there’s a loyalty there and it’s definitely to be celebrated.
With my guys, I’ll just speak for them. They know I don’t have to tell them what you should do. You run into artists and have these rules and all these. I don’t do that crap. I’m like, “We’re all grown ass men. You all know how to act. You know what’s expected of you. Do it and we’re all good.” If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. I’m very simple, black and white. I like to run my business that way.
This is an interesting thing, your relationship with Colt Ford. I don’t know if you could feel this. I was cyberstalking you and I was getting all my back information about you that I didn’t know about you. Did you sing backgrounds for Colt Ford?
Yes. I have been to a lot of places. I’ve lived as much as a lot of 70-year-olds have lived.
You’re not 40 yet.
I’m 35 but it’s been a long 35 years. This was when I had a developmental deal. When I got signed with Sony, Gary Overton was the President of Sony. I got signed to a developmental deal, which is there’s no exact description, but it’s basically, “We think you could be a star. We are about to invest millions of dollars in you. We want to determine whether you’re going to F up or not. We’re going to test the waters.” I went out and worked my butt off. I was carrying around slabs of email, sign-up sheets for my own fan club. I was doing these shows with Colt Ford because when I had my developmental deal, Jim Catino knew Colt Ford. Me and Colt Ford had the same attorney, Scott Safford. He came to the city and I was right in the country. I’m like, “This stuff is fresh. I love this.” Colt was a real rap. He was a rapper.
I remember wearing a Colt Ford demo in 2006 or so. My friends in the band, Lit, I used to do demos for Jeremy Popoff. He said, “Have you heard this kid Colt Ford?” I was like, “Oh my God.” The next thing you know he writes Dirt Road Anthem.
I hear this and I’m listening right to the country. I don’t know where this falls, but this has got more country lyrics and half the stuff on the radio. It’s real rap. This isn’t like a redneck trying to rap and sound cool. He has no idea that he doesn’t. It was awesome. Colt calls me, gets a hold of Jim, gives me his number. Jim gives me Colt’s number. We hooked up, “Would you like to come on the road and play acoustic in my band?” He raps and would have someone sing the courses. I was playing acoustic and singing the course on Dirt Road Anthem, Ride Through the Country, No Trash in My Trailer. Me and Brantley Gilbert were opening for Colt. Colt said, “If you come and play my band, I’ll let you open my shows with my band. You can pay them out and I’ll pay to play my band and you can make some side money opening.” I was like, “Absolutely.” He goes, “I know you have a developmental deal and record deal with Sony. For a year, if you’d like to do that.” We became best friends and still are. He was a groomsman in my wedding.
I didn’t know that. I’ve got to have him on. We wrote a song for him called Crank It Up. I wrote that with Kevin Kadish, he did All About That Bass for Meghan Trainor, and my buddy, Jake, who’s worked with Nathan Chapman. I just had the title, Crank It Up, and I brought it to the guys. Next thing you know, two hours later, we got a song.
I realized how great of a dude Colt was. Brantley at the time was driving a blacked-out Ford excursion point, a U-Haul trailer, which isn’t the case now as we all know. I remembered it vividly. It’s crazy how times have changed and stuff. You see these guys. Brantley took off. Colt’s career took off. He wrote Country Must Be Country Wide and Dirt Road Anthem had all this success. He’s still touring and still playing all these big shows. I remember you all. I see Jason and you all playing. We played some shows with you when I was playing with Colt Ford.
That was the first time I met Jason because Colt called Jason over to the bus that I was riding on. He said, “Can I play you? I got this new artist. He’s on Sony. He sings for me. His name is Tyler Farr. He’s a great songwriter. Can he play you some stuff? I know you’re looking.” This was before he put out Dirt Road Anthem. I played him some songs. Of course, Jason didn’t like a single one of them, which is still the case. That was the first time I met him. I was nervous as a damn earthworm on Luke Bryan’s fishing pond. I was trying to get my songs together. I met him once, then I did not meet them again until the BMI Awards. That was the second time I met him. Next thing you know, I’m on tour with him. Now, I can’t get rid of him.
It was a chance meeting that changed both of your lives. This makes me think about you think having kids and then when you’re a father and they show an interest in music, “Are you going to get them music lessons? Are you going to take them to the School of Rock?” Because, Tyler, our sponsor of this show is School of Rock. That’s School of Rock Nashville and School of Rock Franklin. If you’ve got some parents out there, you’ve got some cool uncles, some cool cousins, you want to take the kids and you want to get them a music lesson. We’re talking drum lessons, we’re talking bass lessons, guitar, lessons, keyboard lessons. You want to make them a front person, get him some vocal lessons. You can take them to two locations here: the School of Rock Franklin and School of Rock Nashville. If you want some info on it, you want to reach out to Kelly and Angie McCreight and the emails are Nashville@SchoolOfRock.com or Franklin@SchoolOfRock.com. I’m a product of music education. Music education works. It gives our kids more self-esteem. They have life skills to navigate life all from the fun of playing a musical instrument. I think it’s a great thing.
It builds confidence.
You guys might have kids. Where did you guys meet?
It was at Myrtle Beach. It was after a show. I went to a bar out there and she’s in a bar.
It was laughing until you cry?
Yes. We cried though. She’s an identical twin. They stick out like a sore thumb. They look just like so. I just went and started talking to them. However this pans out, whichever one likes me, that I will marry.
When was the marriage?
A few years ago from October 10th.
Congrats. We had a gentleman here that celebrated 31 years of marriage. My parents just celebrated 51 years of marriage.
They said we’d never make it.
Fifty-one years of marriage is a lot of compromise. That’s a lifetime of compromise. They did a good job and I have to get them a really nice gift. We’re also celebrating something else for you. We have a big announcement about Buck Commander. Is it public knowledge?
It’s not public knowledge, but in that end, it doesn’t matter.
Tell us about Buck Commander. Who is that?
I was in the outdoor industry before I sang country music. I’d go to these conventions and stuff. I did a lot of things with the hunter specialties almost like outdoor stuff, and you’re probably not going to know what it is, Rich. I know you’re an extreme outdoorsman. I know you have a bottle of deer pee underneath the table here. I bought $150 worth of doe estrous at Walmart.
Is this like estrogen? What is estrous?
It’s the stuff that makes the bucks horny.
It’s like a low blouse or a high skirt.
I bought a lot of miniskirts and Victoria’s Secret perfumes, high heels.
You put this stuff out?
Yeah. You put it out and attract the bucks.
It’s mean if you think about it. I go to the red door to mingle with somebody, the next thing I know, I’m out.
Next thing you know, you’re on the grill.
It’s a very weird thing. I was involving outdoor industry before I sang. That’s originally what my goal was. I wanted to be a TWRA agent. My minor in college was Fish and Wildlife Management and the Classical Vocal Performance major. Very weird, I am.
Always bring your A game when you’re playing. You never know who’s going to be listening.CLICK TO TWEET
You were interested in it.
Buck Commander started many years ago. My thing is don’t ever be a jerk to anybody because you never know who you’re going to be working with or working for. That is very much true.
You meet everybody the same people on the way up and the way down.
I met Willie Robertson at this place called Raps, which was a restaurant in Louisiana that has a country music bar in it when I was playing with Colt Ford. Now, I know Willie.
He’s come out to a lot of shows.
He gets up and sings Dirt Road Anthem with us when we were playing there. I stayed in contact with Willie. We’re shooting the Redneck Crazy video, and the team goes, “I want to do it like this.” If you watch the Redneck Crazy video, maybe you haven’t thought about it when you see it, but the reason I did it jokingly and funny is because people took Redneck Crazy seriously. I didn’t throw any beer cans at any exes and stuff. I went through a break up, but people took it seriously. I was featured in Tennessee for Stalker Awareness Month because that’s all. Then she came back and interviewed like, “You’re a nice guy.” I’m like, “I didn’t do that. It’s a story.”
I like you in Better in Boots video with all the dancers. Whose idea was that?
They’re all nuns too.
Did that go over? Were you with Hannah when that video was shot?
Yeah.
Was she like, “Have fun flirting with all these girls today?” “I’m not going to flirt.”
She understands. This is part of the job. They asked me that this is how they want to do the video. They said that I get the script. This was when Duck Dynasty was popping. You couldn’t go into a 7/11, a Dollar General, a Walmart without seeing cut-out of Willie Robertson with the beard, Uncle Si and all of them guys. They said something like, “We haven’t like Willie Robertson or Si or something. It would be cool if we had someone like that in a cameo.” I said, “I’ve got Willie’s number. I’ll call him.” I called him and I told them I got them in. They said, “Who?” I said, “You said Willie.” They said, “How did you get ahold of him?” I said, “I have his phone number.” We drive down to Western Road Louisiana to shoot the Redneck Crazy video because I had kept this relationship with Willie and he was a great guy as well. I try to surround myself with good people. Good things come out of that when you surround yourself by good people.
I met Willie, then we did the Redneck Crazy video. Fast forward a little bit, it happened to be one of Jason’s favorite songs. He told me, “I love this song.” That’s what made him bring me out with you all. I’m on tour with you all. Fast forward, Chase and I moved over to Realtree, a camo company. I can now hunt with my friends at Buck Commander, which consists of Ryan Langerhans, Adam LaRoche, Willie Robertson, Tombo Martin, Jason Aldean, Luke Bryan. I’m friends with all these guys. We’re a bunch of misfits. We are absolute knucklehead misfits and we all love hunting. We all love cutting up and having fun. They’re running over rental cars. They’re shooting deer. We love the outdoors. I think Luke said, “It’s like a Girl’s Scout group full of bad asses.” I don’t know what he said. Willie said, “Tyler, I need to talk to other guys, but how would you like to be a part owner of Buck Commander?” I was like, “Why do you want me to be? I’m the biggest disaster out here. I’m not a perfect fit.” He’s like, “No, you’re not.”
You’re going to be part of the show?
Now, we’ll own a percentage of Buck Commander. I’ll pretty much be doing the same stuff I’m doing now, which I’ve been hunting on film with them. That’s what I do when I’m not singing. I hunt and write songs.
What network is it? Is it The Outdoor Channel?
Yeah.
Mondays, Wednesday and Fridays, I believe.
It’s on Amazon Prime too. I didn’t know that.
Have you ever been hunting? I’ve never been hunting either.
My dad was an archer, and not compound bows. It’s like a recurve, like a regular bow. He used to shoot deer and I have mounted deer heads in the garage in parent’s house.
He hunted. You never did?
No.
I never went hunting either. I wouldn’t mind trying it though. That would make a good show.
I don’t know if I could shoot.
I enjoy managing my farm. I got plants.
You eat the venison?
I’m not out there mowing deer down. I plant corn and stuff. Me and Jason’s farm manager, he plants food plots. There’s just a ton of wildlife. I’ll see a fox out there. I see a deer and I manage it for certain reasons. I’ll take care of some foxes or cows and stuff and raccoons because I eat the baby turkeys. I usually take a doe. If it’s a mature older buck, I’ll take an older buck off my property, but 1 or 2 does a year. I’ve seen up to 25 does back by my house. You’ll sit by my house, I have turkeys in my backyard.
Do you kill your own turkey for Thanksgiving?
Yeah.
Have you ever been with John Anderson?
I haven’t. He’s a huge turkey owner though. I’ve got to where I don’t want to shoot my own animals on my farm. I see them grow up like a deer will have twins.
Do you name them?
No, I literally see them grew up. I’ve seen them start from this past spring or something from there. I love it. That’s gets me going.
That’s cool. You guys can have a brotherhood and a business and cut up.
I was in shock. I was doing a radio interview and they said, “We heard some big news. Congrats.” I’m like, “I’m going to be part of Buck Commander.” “You’ve got some new music coming out.” “That too.”
Who’s Watching: When you surround yourself with good people, good things happen.
Do we have a release date for your music?
That will be on February 2020.
Jason Aldean’s ninth record entitled, 9, is coming out and that will be special. Me and the boys are going up to New York to do Good Morning America and the Tonight Show. We’re super excited about that. Come back, celebrate, have a deep-fried Tom Turkey over Tully’s house. That’s my tradition. I go to our bass player’s house.
I’m going to show up.
My girlfriend, Kara, is going to be here. We’re going to have a good time. She’s going to see Nashville. I’m going to show her some sexy parts of Nashville because Nashville is all grown up now. We’ve got rooftop bars. We have hipster five-star hotels.
We have stuff that I don’t even have a clue about. When I show up if I wanted to sing, there’s no way in hell they would let me in there.
We have our version of the Magic Castle. I forget what it’s called, but it’s like a magic show and there’s a secret password to get in and they serve you dinner.
Think about Jason’s waterpark he’s building with 25 freaking pumps. Have you seen this thing yet?
No, I haven’t seen it yet. That’s also known as his house. Hopefully, there will be a big house warming.
I’m having him build me a cabana, The Farr Suite. My wife will go, “Let’s go. Do you want to go to Cabo?” I’m like, “Nope. Where we’re going is free. We’re going over to Jason’s in Spring Hill. It’s fifteen minutes away, honey. Pack your stuff. Let’s go.”
It was really sweet. Over a decade ago, Jason hosted an engagement party for me and my ex-wife. We had it at his old house. That’s going back years. Jim was there. Jim has been in my life for a good time of years.
I had my feet in his hot tub. He has wood floor ceilings, very interesting, and also Georgia memorabilia all over the place.
He’s a big fan. What’s your team?
Georgia. Come on.
Just kidding. If you’re from any other place than Georgia and country music right now, it’s insane, everybody is from Georgia.
I’m not from Georgia and Jason gives me crap and all the guys give me crap like, “You’re not from Georgia.” I’m like, “I moved to Nashville.” I didn’t go to the University of Missouri. My college is Missouri State. I think they canceled their football program, they’re so bad. No one went to games. That’s horrible. We didn’t like MU because they were the rich kids. I didn’t go to any of their games. I moved to Nashville. University of Tennessee’s colors are the only reason I would ever wear the University of Tennessee color. I did not like bright orange, except rifle season of deer hunting. That’s the only time you’ll see me wearing that bright orange.
For our audience, Tyler is rocking some serious camo right now. He’s got camo on top of camo.
I can’t even see him.
That’s what I do for my wife. My wife likes it better when she can’t see me either. I’m going to get a full body tattoo of me, so when I’m naked she just sees.
—
I own no camo but what’s in right now is the sexy tapered camo cargo pants from H&M for men. I might dip my toes in that water, or gray camo.
You’re talking about the black, gray-ish, smoky camo. I can take it. The Arctic camo is cool too. It’s got that smoky color. I was cool and I had no idea about this. I had found out I was cool a few years ago when I was out in LA.
Do you like Los Angeles? Do you like going out to the coast?
I don’t ever get recognized. LA is one of the places I do the most. I have no idea why. Maybe it’s because I stick out like a sore thumb. I don’t know why. I think I fit in great with LA.
I think the people in Los Angeles in my experience are really intrigued by people in the country music industry. The entire culture is everything is wrapping up.
I opened my mouth and they were like, “Where did you come from?” I’m like a mud mixed with a little Georgia, Missouri and Tennessee. I was there and I go in this store and there’s this vintage t-shirt store I go to.
Is that on Melrose?
Yes.
The Wasteland?
Yeah. I collect Hank Jr vintage t-shirts in there. Jason wears a lot of them like that. I like the Hank Jr. shirts.
John Murphy goes nice. You just wait for him to show up.
I was out there and I started seeing these people wearing working man’s clothes. I’m like, “What in the hell?” I’m like, “Why are they wearing a Carhartt jacket? It’s like 80 degrees outside.” I see someone with a Carhartt. I’m going to the coop and tractor supply in Marshall County and just down to 15. I see the dude with these camo Nikes on. I am so cool, I have no idea. All these years, I’ve been the coolest kid on the block. These guys are just catching up to me. I’m a trendsetter and I have no idea.
Do you know that there’s a tractor supply where you can get this stuff for like $10, $15?
That’s the only place I get recognized, “Tyler, you take a picture with me.” “Sure, buddy.”
There’s one store at the end of Melrose going towards Fairfax and they crank up the price of the shirts up to $250. It’s some expensive stuff.
I’ll have a little moment of confession. I will splurge money on shoes.
What kind of shoes? Are those like the hot new Nike thing?
Don’t ever be a jerk to anybody because you never know who you can be working with or working for.CLICK TO TWEET
These are Jordans. It’s got some cat hair on them because you’re talking about 50 years of marriage, you have to make sacrifices, you compromise.
What’s your cat?
We have four of them, two Maine Coons. I was paying £35. They’re all males. They’re absolutely enormous. They look like lynxes. Then two Ragdoll kittens. They’re cute, I just don’t like the hair. I don’t like the hair because it gets on my stage clothes. What I have to do before I go to the stage is put stock into seventeen lint rollers. We’ve got lint rollers in every room. Our British tour managers are going, “Oh dear.”
Who’s your tour manager now?
John.
I don’t know if I met him. Is he an older, British guy?
He’s not older. He’s younger. He’s the tour manager of Alison Krauss. He’s only been in the States for six years. I do it to offset my redneckedness.
The shoes?
No, the Britishness. He balances it out. He calls the advanced shows.
I think they would take him more seriously though because that’s a very respectful accent.
He gets me in the hotels I’d never be able to get in if I was calling, “I’ll take two rooms. I’ll take a room up there at the Beverly Hills Bel Air.”
It’s like having Jarvis calling for you. That’s like when we had Peter Coleman, Richard Dada, the coolest accents ever. Peter has got the coolest voice though.
He’s a funny dude.
Back to the shoes, what does that set you back? Is it $250?
I’ve bought a pair of Jordans. I think the most expensive ones are like $350.
That’s nothing for a country music star.
It is for me. I don’t do stuff that a lot of country artists do.
You’ll be set in the end, which is good.
I felt bad about buying that new truck you’re talking about.
You bought it used, right?
Yeah, but it’s new to me. If it has under 10,000 miles, that’s brand new to me. That cute little Miata out there, I bought it used, thanks to Jim. I go car shopping with Jim because he knows all the ins and outs of car shopping and how they get you, all those hidden fees. He’s like, “You’ve got a flush clutch here.” I’m like, “How do you know this?”
How about a little Redneck Crazy for our audience? It’s the song that started it all. It’s your first number one.
“I’m going to drive like hell through your neighborhood, park this Silverado on your front lawn. Crank up a little Hank, sit on the hood and drink. I’m about to get my pissed off on. I’m going to aim my headlights into your bedroom windows. Throw empty beer cans at both of your shadows. I didn’t come here to start a fight, but I’m up for anything tonight. You know you broke the wrong heart baby, and drove me redneck crazy.”
The funny thing is that I hear those songs, nobody ever uses an F-150 or a Nissan Titan or a Toyota Tundra.
It’s a Ford or Chevy.
That’s never a Ford. I have a Mitsubishi mini truck I bought. I’m contradicting that song. He can’t amount to much by looking at that little truck. Little truck lives matter.
I moved here with a Toyota pickup truck.
This thing is a Mitsubishi mini truck. I don’t know if you know what I speak of this thing. I tried hunting in it with my buddy and we had a rifle up here and I’m like, “They didn’t know.” The steering was on the other side.
Mitsubishi is hard to run. Country music is the only form of music that you can rhyme Hank and drank. Your t-shirts, I love this, “Country music ain’t for sissies.” Who came up with that?
My bus driver, Bruce, he has all these sayings. He’s drove for 36 years and he drove Conway, Willie.
That’s a slice of history.
I wake up and go, “Bruce, how are you doing?” “Every day is a good day, brother. Don’t leave believe you just miss one.” That’s what he’ll say. He’ll come up with these little one-liners. That’s how he talks. He printed this shirt that said, “Country music ain’t for sissies.” It was like standard routing. I said, “I’ll partner with you on that.” He had it trademarked or whatever the saying and we took it to my business manager or whatever. Richards and Southern, a merchandise company, they made the fonts and started selling it. I said I want it plain and put my TF on the back. We made the pink ones for girls and that’s all it says, “Country music ain’t for sissies.”
He gets a piece of that.
It goes with the whole branding and stuff. It goes with my vibe and what I do. I’m not like some freaking sniper or anything. I’ve got a little redneck in me. You keep it like that. I do enjoy staying at the Beverly Hills Bel Air as well. I like Andrea Bocelli. I’m not just like this. I’m pretty diversified. A lot of people don’t know that.
Who’s Watching: Sometimes you just don’t think about it. You just got to go forward.
I didn’t see that side of you. We’ve been on the road for two years. You’d always be out doing press and stuff. Sometimes we don’t see you guys until the evening.
I’ll probably be listening to gangster rap on the way out. I’m weird as hell basically is what I’m trying to say. That Redneck Crazy story behind that song, I don’t forget since you played it, that was a funny one too. This was many years ago. We broke up because I caught her cheating on me. Her car was in her ex’s drive. I didn’t throw them beer cans or go nuts. That’s why I got the song. It is like the Rhett Akins song, That Ain’t My Truck. It was the same type of song. I don’t care if you’re from the city, the country, wherever, at some point, if you’re in that dating stage and you’re with a girl and she breaks up with you with an unexplainable reason, there’s always a backup plan for them when they just break up. You’re like, “What?” They love this girl, so they’re driving by her house. They may not go full stalker, but they’re going to go and look and see and they’re keeping an eye on Twitter and Instagram or who they’re talking to. I don’t know why they do that, but it’s reality. Women and men do that. It’s just the jealousy thing.
It’s just to see if there are backup plans.
It’s like, “Who are they talking to and fiddling around with, holding hands with?” This girl named Emma, she was a plugger at a publishing company. She knew me pretty well. She knew my story and I was going through a breakup that just happened. She’s like, “You’re the only that could pull this off. I’ve got to play you this song.” She plays it on my truck and I was leaving. I listened to song and this thing sounds like an ‘80s metal band song.
Was it a demo?
Yes. It had some tires screeching. It was pretty terrible. It was so outlandish. I was like, “This thing is either a turd or it’s huge.” My first two singles were huge in Japan, but over here, apparently they’re frowned upon. It went to 51, and 52 in Bangladesh. They didn’t do much. They’re like 49, 51.
They’re testing the water.
After Hello Goodbye, my second single, which is one of my favorite songs I’ve ever been a part of writing. It didn’t make it out. I was generally mad. I was pissed. I told my manager, “Screw it. We’re putting out Redneck Crazy. We’re swinging for the fans. I don’t have time to fiddle fart around. We’re pointing the bat and we’re swinging.” That’s how I lived.
Sometimes you just don’t think about it.
You just got to go for it. We did it and it was a risk. It paid off.
You’re going to fail sometimes. When those pay off, they pay off.
I got a fortune cookie and it said, “You will accomplish anything you set your mind to.” It’s general but it’s always nice to get that feedback from the universe.
What did mine say?
It says you’re going to take a big risk and it will pay off. Thank you for remembering that.
Imagine you’re the guy at the fortune cookie company that has to find all this general positivity.
What kind of fortune would you guys write if you had to prank somebody?
My fortune cookie said, “Be careful. There’s a lot of dog crap in your yard.”
I think you need to do 5 minutes or 10 minutes at Zanies.
Dusty Slay is a comedian we had on. Check him out. He’s like the house comedian now at the Grand Ole Opry. He had a Comedy Central special and he’s having a great year. Variety Magazine said he’s one of the top ten comedians in the world to keep an eye on. We had him on the show, Stitches, then I went to go see his show at Zanies. It’s a killer. For you folks out there, I’m a fan of Dusty Slay. Check him out.
That’s my backup, backup, backup plan.
You would do well.
I made a joke when we were playing in Deerfield beach. Sometimes it goes right over their heads. I enjoy making people laugh and I like entertaining people. I’ve been like that since I was this tall. I said, “How are we doing there? Are we having a good time? What’s that restaurant down the road called? Is it The Whale Rib?” I think that’s what it was called. They’re like, “Yeah.” “That place looked good. I went to eat there. I was looking at the menu before I went to eat there. To set it up, how many of you all have been to Texas? How many of you all know what calf fries are? For all of you who don’t, they’re cow testicles. On this Whale Rib menu, I got down and I saw this good food, and then I got down and it said whale fries. All day I’ve been on my bus trying to figure out where in the hell they’re going to get a big enough plate to fit whale balls off.”
I don’t even think they have balls. It’s just normal French fries.
“I’ve got to try something, a whale nut.”
I can’t believe that Kurt Alison, Tully Kennedy and Jay Jackson all tried Rocky Mountain oysters.
I did.
We were in Texas and they tried it.
I ate deer nuts the last time I’ve killed a deer. I cooked them and ate them.
How were they?
Juicy.
You’ve got to deep fry it. You don’t want to get a vein.
It’s the testicles?
Yes. They do that in Texas. They will deep fry anything. We were on our way through Texas.
Have you ever heard of Tumbleweed Testicle festival?
What part of Texas is that?
I don’t know. My stepdad who had played with George Jones had said about the Tumbleweed Testicle Festival. I think it’s in Oklahoma or something.
You meet the same people on the way up and the whole way down.CLICK TO TWEET
Your stepdad played with George Jones?
Yeah, for years. I rode the bus with George Jones when I was six.
What instrument did he play?
Lead guitar. Scott Coney took his spot.
This is a blast from the past.
He only gave me a wedging and bloody nose on The Jones Boys bus. I told you, in my life, there are a lot of things you don’t know.
There are a lot of cracks. I see a biopic in there somewhere. You can’t read it before you’re 40.
What’s a biopic? Is that what they put their finger in your butt?
A biopsy would be if they take a piece of you and they stick it in the lab.
That happens when you’re 40 though. It’s called the moon river.
I did that at 35. I had some digestive issues, so I got an early finger up my butt. The guy doing this stuff he’s like, “Here’s a picture of your colon. I’m going to count back.”
Do you remember when I missed Red Rocks? It’s because I had salmonella poisoning of the bloodstream when I was on tour with you.
That’s horrible. Yes, I remember that. My head is like, “I get a chance to play Red Rocks.”
I didn’t know what was happening. I was Brian O’Connell at Live Nation, he was sitting by me on the plane and Vicki McGee sitting by us too. I had her out to ride with me. I started sweating and shaking. I was like, “We’ve got to go to the ER as soon as we get there. I’m getting in a wheelchair. I’ve got to make a call.” He knows everybody. He’s like, “I’ve got to call Jesus and we’ll get you in quickly.” He got us in the Denver Hospital. They were great. I’m going to go on a list of what I had. I had an inflamed heart, inflamed liver, pneumonia of the lungs, on 103.9 fever, MRSA and salmonella poisoning of the bloodstream.
How did this all happen at the same time? What did you eat?
It was a bite from a mosquito. The week before, we were playing in Knoxville with you all with Jason over here on tour. I showed Jason and he goes, “Get away from me.” At the time, it was just little. He goes, “That’s MRSA.” I’m like, “It’s not MRSA.” He’s like, “Stay away from me.” Jason over-exaggerates everything. I can say that he does. I’ll be damned if it wasn’t MRSA. It ended up being salmonella poisoning in the bloodstream. I was laying there, and this is a funny story. I’m not sure why I’m telling it. My wife is a critical care nurse at Williamson County. She works two jobs, part-time of Vanderbilt, part-time at Williamson Medical Center. I haven’t had a hit in a couple of years. I was on my side and the doc comes in and he had a gentle voice. He was talking like this, “This can’t be good. I know what you’re fixing to do, buddy.” He tries to slip one by me literally. He’s sitting there and he asked me some questions about my sex life, which were uncomfortable. I think my wife answered them before I even had a chance. “I’m going to have to stick my thing and give you a rectal exam.” I said, “You’re going to stick your fingers in my butt?”
Is it one thing or two?
I didn’t see because I was laying on my side. I didn’t do the snap formation. He goes, “Your girlfriend, she can stay in here?” She said, “I’ll stay.” I said, “No,” and I’m all drugged up. She was like, “I’ll stay,” and she’s like got this big grin on her face. She’s like looking at me and she’s laughing.” I’m like, “I’m going to kill you. You don’t need to be here.” “I know but I want to.” It was very uncomfortable. Later on the rest of the story.
How long did it take you to recover from that?
It was a while. Jason flew me back on a jet or whatever. He was a good friend. It was bad. I was so mad because Red Rocks was one of those venues.
Have you been back since?
I haven’t.
That will happen.
I still have the plaque they gave me.
I got it down there.
I didn’t even play it.
That was a good one. You guys will get there, especially with this new product coming out. Congratulations on becoming a new family member of Buck Commander. You guys can watch this on the Outdoor Channel.
Also on YouTube, they put the episodes on there as well.
YouTube and Amazon Prime, which is a great thing. You have new music coming out on BBR and Night Train Records in around February 2020. As we get a little bit closer, we’ll know an exact date. You’re funny as hell and you’re super talented. You’ve kept the same band and super nice guy. I appreciate you being here. Tell your country music friends to drop by for a laugh. As always, Jim, thank you for bringing your time and talents to the table here.
What did you learn?
I learned that there are definitely layers to human beings and a lot of times people will put you in a box. I didn’t know all those interesting factoids about someone I was on tour with for two years like the classical training, all the day jobs that you had.
You forgot the one where I was a recreational therapist for a children’s in-house rehabilitation facility with kids with affect disorder and trauma and stuff.
That needs to be on your Wiki.
That was my second favorite job. I just threw that one out there. We’re working with another segment. Weird stories with Tyler Farr. I’ll share road stories.
You actually would be a wonderful recurring guest on this show.
I’m game. It took me maybe 30 minutes to get here.
What will be funny is that both you and Jason are on at the same time.
Who’s Watching: You will accomplish anything you set your mind to. It’s general but it’s always nice to get that feedback from the universe.
The thing is you have a beat button. If you do the show, he’ll do the show because you guys are such good friends.
I’ll get him on here.
What did you learn, Jim?
It was funny how you really delve in and you’re so deep with that question. I’m sitting here and looking, I learned about eating testicles. That’s my takeaway.
You have to make sure you’re frying.
No one likes boring shows. We can sit here and talk about the weather, but subscriber would get bored. They want to know about the Tumbleweed Testicles. They want to hear about rectal exam. They want to hear about the weird stuff Jason Aldean does in his free time, which I haven’t said. That will be on the next episode.
You’ve got stories for days, I know for a fact. Thanks, Jim. Thanks, Tyler.
Thanks for having me.
Thanks so much for tuning in regularly, subscribing, sharing, rating, reviewing. Tell your friends. Big thanks to the School of Rock. Keep coming back for the good stuff. We’ll be here. Thanks again. We’ll see you next time.
Important Links:
- JimMcCarthyVoiceovers.com
- Tyler Farr
- Nashville@SchoolOfRock.com
- Franklin@SchoolOfRock.com
- Buck Commander
- Realtree
- Amazon Prime – Buck Commander
- Dusty Slay – past episode
- YouTube – Buck Commander+
About Tyler Farr
“One of the best male vocalists in Country music today,” (Taste of Country), Tyler Farr is the first artist signed to Jason Aldean’s Night Train Records/BBR Music Group. The Country-rocker, with three No.1 songs to his credit (“Redneck Crazy,” “Whiskey in My Water,” and “A Guy Walks Into a Bar”) broke onto the scene with the 2013 release of his debut album, Redneck Crazy, which landed at No. 2 on the Billboard Country Albums Chart and #5 on the Billboard Top 200. Farr’s platinum-selling title-track “Redneck Crazy” projected Farr forward to celebrate back-to-back No. 1 singles, including his first No. 1 as a songwriter, with his Platinum-certified hit “Whiskey in my Water.” His sophomore album, Suffer In Peace followed suit, also making its debut in the Top 5 on both the BILLBOARD Top 200 Albums and BILLBOARD Country Albums Charts, leading Farr to become the only solo male Country artist in the past decade to have their first two studio albums debut in the Top 5 on the Billboard 200 Chart.
Recognized as a 2014 CRS New Faces of Country Radio and 2014 Music Row “Breakthrough Artist of the Year” nominee, the opera-trained singer quickly earned coveted slots touring with Jason Aldean, Florida Georgia Line, Brantley Gilbert, Luke Combs and Lee Brice. The Missouri native’s dry wit, silly antics and reputation as “a no-frills musician who pours his drinks as hard as he pours his heart into his songs,” (Rolling Stone), lead to Farr to receiving his own reality series A Little Too Farr (Unscripted) and a social following eager to see his next move. Farr is currently working on new music with longtime friend, Jason Aldean serving as a producer for the forthcoming project. Farr’s new single dropped to radio on February 18th, 2020.
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