SkiP HappEns Podcast
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SkiP HappEns Podcast
From Trucking to Tunes: Randy Cobb's Journey Through Country Music and Resilience
We are live, let's go. We're going to go for a ride tonight and you're going to like this ride. Welcome to another episode of Skip Happens. My name is Skip Clark, of course, I'm the host of Skip Happens, excited to have country artist Randy Cobb on with me tonight. Known for his heartfelt anthems, like the new single Not On Me, randy is making waves in the country music scene, celebrating the hardworking spirit of America. Get this over one million views on his music video, dude, that's huge. He's opening for big names and recording new music for his growing catalog. We're going to talk about that here tonight. Here we go, let's chat about this. I want you all to say hi to my new friend. We've been having a hell of a conversation before we went on. Absolutely, randy Cobb. Dude, it's a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 2:Man, it's a pleasure to be here. It's good. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Now, where are you?
Speaker 2:Right now I'm in Perdido Key, florida is where I'm at. Where Perd?
Speaker 1:Florida is where I'm at when Perdido?
Speaker 2:Key Florida, which is right on the coast of Pensacola Florida.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:As far south of Florida, I mean on the panhandle.
Speaker 1:Well, I know where Pensacola is.
Speaker 2:Exactly so. It's as far south of Pensacola, right there, gulf of Mexico.
Speaker 1:I got you, I got a friend of mine that works for Cat Country down there 98.7. But I guess is all the snow gone Because they got almost nine inches.
Speaker 2:Oh, they did. Yeah, absolutely. I think the majority of it's gone. I believe it's all gone.
Speaker 1:Were you there when it snowed Like on the beach.
Speaker 2:Well, I was on a farm in Crenshaw County, alabama, and I was up there with my guys over there hunting deer. We like to kill deer, so that's what we were doing there with my guys. Or they're hunting deer, we, we like to kill deer, so that's what we were doing. We was over, doing that kind of thing, you know, and it snowed up there. It's about three hours north of here, just south of montgomery, about 40 minutes, and we got nine inches up there, holy cow I just couldn't believe it.
Speaker 1:when I talked to him, he says dude, you know it's 18 degrees here and we got almost nine inches of snow. And I'm who are you kidding? He goes no, no, I'm being honest, it's crazy, never seen it before.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I never. Well, in our neck of the woods. You know that never happens, you know so, you know.
Speaker 1:So that was a I mean, I loved it, but I'm glad it's gone.
Speaker 2:I'm like I wouldn't want to live in this all the time, but on occasion it's pretty pretty darn neat you know.
Speaker 1:Well, dude, I mean I can give you like five months of it if you want. You got to travel to the Northeast.
Speaker 2:I think I'm good but I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Oh, randy, we're here to talk about you and your music and you're very unique because you're a truck driver and you own a trucking company. You've been over the road, you've done all that, but now you're also doing music. How does all that come together for you?
Speaker 2:Well, you know, I just the company with you know, I had my own trucking company for about 11 years and then I was a car hauler and you know the COVID come around, come around, and you know it devastated the automobile industry the whole trickle down into us and you know a lot of us went under.
Speaker 2:I couldn't stay afloat, you know it just devastated us. So I had some other things go on during that time and I just kind of I went up to my farm and just hung out there for many, many months. And then this job come up with velocity restorations. Y'all check those guys out baby Velocity Restorations. Velocity Restorations. Okay, they built the finest restomod vehicle in America.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:And so what I do is they pick me up to be their fleet guy, take care of their small fleet and I transport and I take care of all their DOT stuff, and so we have a deal worked out. After I work so many hours and I get, you know, comp time back. So what I do when I work my butt off and make my time, well, I take my time off. A lot of times I'm writing or I'm recording or whatever I need to do with the music thing. So I have to juggle it, you know, until I can get this off the ground and hopefully I can play this off the ground and hopefully I can play music full time. That'd be great. I still got to pay the bills by driving the truck and I'm grateful for that. You know, I love it, I love, I love being over the road. America is beautiful.
Speaker 1:It is. A lot of people don't understand Nothing like it, my friend.
Speaker 2:I've been to all of the lower 48. I haven't been to Maine, but I've been to every other state in the lower 48, and I can tell you America is unreal beautiful. We're blessed to be here for sure.
Speaker 1:I know we're here to talk about your music, but being a truck driver, have you gone coast to coast so you get to see a lot of people?
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I've been to every state. I have not been to the coast. I haven't had a soul. Now, I have not been to the coast in california. I haven't been up, you know, over there, malibu and all that stuff. I haven't been over there. But I have been in california. Northern california is a very beautiful place oregon, all that stuff but there's unreal beautiful, you know, the carolinas and all that obviously beautiful. I'm going to maryland, uh, next couple days I'll be going to mary. Uh, next couple of days I'll be going to Maryland and deliver one of these cars up there.
Speaker 1:So I go to Long Island a good bit, uh, you know, randy, if you're going to Maryland, um, bring a parka. I want you to dress warm. We were talking earlier. Like you know, you're basically in the Southern tier, down South, but just you know, take it from me that you may want to just bring an extra layer of clothes.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely, I agree with you. But I appreciate it. But yeah, I'm prepared for that, I promise you. I am say just on that note real quick is the cold in like the midwest and some of your upper states, like that is completely different than the cold down south because all the humidity in the air it's like you know, I've been all over like iowa, I've been all like in nebraska, you know, indiana, illinois, and I'm in 18 degree weather. I'm out there just a light jacket, a pair of jeans and a shirt. I'm good, bro, 18 degrees down here in the deep south. You better get your. It's killing you to the bone, man, I'm telling you, I bet it goes right through you. Well, we do the snow blizzard we had, we call it the blizzard. It got down to like 14, 16 degrees and we froze our freaking butts off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you still see me, or no?
Speaker 2:I can see you, but you're frozen. I can see me moving around all right.
Speaker 1:Well, I don't know what happened here to my camera, but something did. But, uh, I am here, um, not really sure what's going on, but we can still chit chat and I can go to the full screen if I have to. So we will do that. All right, maybe, or we can do I don't know what we can do not that, because I'm not. I don't know what happened to my camera here. My camera just shut off, but you can still hear me.
Speaker 2:That's a good thing yeah, I can hear you for sure looking up. If you do, you get me on that big screen like that.
Speaker 1:I look real pretty up there yeah, you do, yeah, you're looking good dude, look at that, that's a good looking dude right there.
Speaker 2:Look at that hat, that nose down, you know I like the head.
Speaker 1:What's, what's the logo on the head? That's a deer head it is.
Speaker 2:It's called nose down sense and they're at a south part of tennessee. Wow, jason caldwell is the owner over there and they, they sponsor my little dumb redneck self man. They like my music and uh they've jumped on board with me. I thought that's pretty cool, you know that is really cool.
Speaker 1:Hang on one second, do a little flip flop here on something and see what happens. And uh no, oh, look at that man, you're magic you know, dude, I'm gonna keep you on the bigger screen, it fits you okay, well, I got a big head and my head's big, so you know? Uh, well, you know, I just I'm down here in the corner, so that's okay, it works. But let's talk about you a little bit. Uh, so you grew up in pensacola I did, yes, you did so?
Speaker 1:how did uh? Growing up in Pensacola? How did that influence your music and your writing style?
Speaker 2:So I grew up in kind of some. So you know the writing thing. I got the bug real early man. It's like I kind of grew up in some unfortunate situations, you know. Okay, so my father was just an absolute terrible alcoholic oh.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, so I never seen my father sober the first 10 years of my life and there was a lot of things that went on. We won't dive into that. But my mother and father divorced when I I was 10 years old, I was awarded to my, to my father, because my mother she was really not able to to take care of uh of me. I mean, she just couldn't afford it. You know so my father uh, you know, just through his isms or whatever man he you know, he uh when I was 11, 10, 10 and a half 11 years old.
Speaker 2:I was in that time, you know, I lived in 16 different homes in one year. Wow, he would just like drop me off and you know, just doing whatever he does. You know, I really don't know, I don't. You know, whatever he's doing, but in those times, obviously you're still a very small child, very scared, and you know you've been dropped off on the doorsteps of people you don't know. You know, and I started writing poetry because you're afraid of death to talk to someone or ask anything, right, right, you know. So I would write poetry about what I was feeling. You know, whatever I was doing and that's kind of how I got to Bug.
Speaker 2:And when I got into my 20s, man, I started, you know, dabbling into, you know, transposing from that into a song. I still write poetry form a lot and transform it into a song. I mean, I still do the transpositive. And then I started recording in my mid to late 20s and then my mid to late 30s man shoot. I was walking in some labels trying to get some deals, you know. So that's kind of how it happened yeah, I think um for a lot of years.
Speaker 1:You know that way yeah, and you think back about all those years and everything you've been through, even though you know you're just a child. But still, that has to play a role it your life. It has to. But you know, what I believe is that it makes you a better person because you learned to survive through that and move forward and just keep doing your thing. I think it's made you a stronger person, or I think it would make you a stronger person.
Speaker 2:I think it makes you resilient for sure. Yes, I think I can handle a lot of different situations and I may handle them a little different than others. I'm a very headstrong person. If I want something, I go after it. You know, as far as me being better than, I, don't feel like I'm better than anyone, but I do have a strong drive. That's something I want. Good for you, brother.
Speaker 1:Good for you. Yeah, so you've. You've been out doing your thing, not only driving truck, but you're doing your music and you've performed at festivals and around the Southeast. Are there any of those that, uh, those performances or moments that really stand out in your mind?
Speaker 2:You know, when I did shows with Al Dean and Mark Wills and all those kinds of guys you know, I mean they were all a lot of fun. I played, you know, periodically down here, uh, I play a big club called the Floribama Lounge, which is, like it's world, renowned down here on the coast, here for Dita Key, and I usually play with a guy named Jack Robertson they also call him Big Earl and he has, you know, he's, he packs the place and I'm usually I'm a many, many times, I'm just a guest artist with him. I just did his big birthday bash, like two weekends ago, and there was a couple thousand there. It was awesome. But even out of all that, I can tell you the one performance I did that always stands out to me, and this was like in 08 or 09.
Speaker 2:I was dating this lady and her grandmother was in a retired old folks home, retirement retirement home where we say in Murfreesboro, tennessee, ok, and I was going up there to do some songs, and maybe in 2010, I'm not exactly sure, but I think it was 2010. And we stopped there to see your grandmother. Well, we stopped in there. You know, this lady I was dating was talking. We were sitting there at the cafeteria talking to her grandmother and the lady I'm dating is like, well, you know, brandy's a songwriter. You know, I I never go around saying that, you know, I just kind of humble and kind of laid back about it and on, you know she starts talking to me and she's like, oh, you write songs, do you?
Speaker 2:and you play. I'm just like, yeah, I play a little bit. She's like this lady had spunk right.
Speaker 1:She says well that's good, because you're gonna. You got your guitar with you.
Speaker 2:I said yes, ma'am, I do she said well, you're gonna go out to that car and you're gonna get that guitar, you're gonna come. You know, she was adamant and I was just like, okay, I'll do that, I can do that for you, you know, um, so I went out to my car and when I come back in, I don't know if they got on the loudspeaker or whatever they did, but they packed that cafeteria and it was just me and my guitar, no mic, no, nothing. I've got a pretty powerful voice anyway and I did about four or five songs for those people and I can tell you it just went through my soul, man, it touched me. All those people in there, I mean some of these songs I had wrote about losing some people in my life and some Alzheimer's stuff and stuff to that matter, and man, those people got it.
Speaker 1:Every one of them got it. That's cool.
Speaker 2:Oh, I mean, it's like not a dry eye in the room, kind of deal man, it just got all over me. To me that was the most memorable performance I ever did.
Speaker 1:Something you'll never, ever forget. I get it. I get it. Can you share some of the challenges that you faced when you were? I understand you were pitched to some major labels. I did, yes, and what were some of those challenges? These are the labels in Nashville and how did that experience affect your approach to music.
Speaker 2:Actually you know when I finally got a shot.
Speaker 2:It probably took me 10 or 12 years of just beating the streets of Nashville moving in and out, writing and just meeting the right people. So I mean it's like a roller coaster ride man trying to make that happen. It really is. So I mean I had a bunch of almost happenings with excuse me landing with some very powerful, uh, producers that I found I've signed you know production deals with and those things coming really close and then for whatever reason it's falling apart. And then those things come in really close and then for whatever reason it's falling apart. But when I finally got a shot to walk in, I walked into five or six of those labels with a real shot and Curb Armchair, curb Records. They offered me a deal in the meeting as a writer, slash developmental artist deal.
Speaker 2:We passed on that because it's kind of common knowledge that some of these people will do what they call shell view. Once they sign the deal. They shell view and they won't do anything with you. They just don't want nobody else to have you. They don't know what to do with you quite yet. So your career is really on hold. So we was kind of afraid of that. We passed.
Speaker 2:And then RCA suddenly passed on us. You know, we went into bigger picture. They passed on us Capital. Then we walked into Warner Brothers and Warner Brothers didn't pass. They just wanted more stuff. So we just started cutting more stuff and and then out with them, chris lacey over there, she was head of, yes, our team over there. She's a wonderful human being. Yes, I had. You know, there's just just a sweetheart of a person and after several months she's like man. Yeah, I want, I want you to make me a cd of the best stuff you have. You know, to back up a little bit, when I, when they first started making the connections and they called Chris Lacey, it was a guy named Rich Zadison. Okay, he owned a small publishing company. I mean, it was like a rinky-dink house and we walked in there with my producer at the time. Wayne Killius was the guy I was working with.
Speaker 1:And Wayne was like man.
Speaker 2:I want you to hear these signs. I cut on Randy and he said I think they're great man, but.
Speaker 2:I'm having a hard time getting traction. I thought I could just walk in there and Rich listened to him and he started making calls immediately and you know he called. And when he called Chris Lacey, she's like you got to hear this guy, randy Cobb, you know and she says, does he got a song out there, called I Don't Want to Do this Anymore. And I was like, yeah, I do that, yeah, I want to meet him. I want to meet him in about a week from today. You make that happen. I had my music before I even knew, you know. So that was always, that was always cool to me. They already knew who I was. I don't know how that happened. I really don't know how that happened, but it was just always kind of a neat thing to me. But anyway, working with her, she asked me to create some of my best stuff on a CD and hand it to her. We did that.
Speaker 2:I got a move from one producer to my producer. Now he is like my mentor, he's like one of my best buddies. His name is Jeff King. Y'all look this guy up. He's an absolute monster. He's an absolute incredible human being. You know he just he believes in me. You know, he told me just months ago. He said man, I'm all in with you. Man, you know, let's do it, let's try to make it happen. You know, I mean, of course, course, my head is as big as this room. You know, I look up to this guy. But anyway, I got with jeff and we started cutting songs.
Speaker 2:I've been writing and man, he's just an absolute monster of a guitar player. It's cool and uh, just, he's got a vision. I can walk in there and it's like he reads my soul. Man, he knows what I need, he knows what I want, he knows what I'm after, he knows the sound I'm. He knows the sound. I'm like Jeff, let's do this, this. And he's like oh yeah, watch this. And you know, he just nails it, creates some awesome stuff. So we worked on that project. It probably took us six or eight months, you know, to get it all ironed out and I handed it to her and you know she calls me Randy. This is great, this is great.
Speaker 1:Well, okay, it's like okay.
Speaker 2:Well, of course you can. So you know when that happened. Honestly, I had already started. That was in like 14, 14, 15.
Speaker 1:I was going to ask you what year that was.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had already started my trucking company, already started my trucking company. I started, I mean like 12. It last part of 11 or 12 somewhere in there. So you know when she, when I gave her my very best stuff and when she told me that you know she couldn't sign me the deal, it just I really just shut down. I just was you know what. I've been fighting at this for over a decade and I know it's a 10-year town. That's a common phrase from Nashville.
Speaker 1:It's a 10-year town, yeah very much Okay, but I was just spent man.
Speaker 2:I just felt defeated, if that makes sense and I'm not.
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:I gave a thousand percent, man, I felt like you know, cause you know, and then I just kind of let us put music down. I put my guitar down for probably five or six years. I didn't write nothing. I didn't. I just was like I didn't listen to the radio. I was just like I. Just it robs you.
Speaker 1:You try so hard and then it's like it's all gone. Yes, you know that whole feeling. And then you got to start thinking about other things in life and of course, you said you started your trucking company, but still you had a love for music. I mean, there's no doubt. Was that the moment that made you realize that music was still your true passion? When you you decided to do something else and you go. I still love music, I still got to do music.
Speaker 2:I can tell you, well to go. I still love music. I still know how to do music. I can tell you Will. My biggest concern after I made the decision just to dive into my trucking company and make that happen and I did extremely well I'm so blessed man, the Lord was looking over me. Whatever that was, I mean I hit the ground running and I never looked back. I've landed great contracts. Those people are still my lifelong friends Also. I've landed great contracts. Those people are still, I mean, lifelong friends. And also I had a daughter that was about to go to college.
Speaker 2:You know I have a great relationship. She and I have a great relationship. She's always been supportive. But, you know, I knew I had to do something different. I had to, you know, hey, I had to swap gears, man. So that's what I did. So I was able to put her through college, a four-year degree from troy university and nursing. She got her bachelor's in nursing and now she's thriving, you know. Uh, she's a nicu nurse at a big university oh my gosh, that's awesome I'm so grateful for all those things.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, the code came, and about the time she graduated, the COVID came and it devastated my business. But on top of that, it killed my brother, it killed my mother and it killed, it killed me. I got it too, trying to help my brother. Oh, my god, I am so sorry well, I'm not looking for sympathy, I'm just telling you no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1:I get that, I understand that, but still I just I've heard of that happening, but I don't know, wow, wow, you know. And then there's well, I don't want to get in the politics of it all, but still, you know, there's people that say, oh, covid was nothing, oh, it's just flu, or it's just this, I'm not going to get vaccinated, I'm not going to do this or that. But you know what I mean, what you've been through. You lost loved ones to covid. I mean, I lost my livelihood.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly 100 percent. We're not on me. So sorry, brother, so sorry I appreciate that yeah, but not. But not on. Me came from that, from those devastating times, because when I was on the couch and I couldn't go to work, they were telling us we had to stay home. Yep.
Speaker 1:And that we don't need to be with our loved ones. Of course I don't have loved ones, I mean my whole family's gone.
Speaker 2:All I have is my daughter now. But they're telling us we can't do that. We, we got to stay at home and we can't celebrate christmases or birthdays or none of those things and and while they're telling us that they're ushering thousands of folks over the border yeah, I know and it absolutely pissed me the off to me absolutely, absolutely not me, come from that experience.
Speaker 2:Right there I wrote the melody and I had the first verse on it. I just kind of got a little writer's block on it. I got with Jeff, my producer, and I got another buddy of mine, john Joyner, that I like to write with. He's a fabulous writer, fabulous human being, just incredible guitar picker too, and another buddy of mine, jeremy Kendrick, that I have played music with for many years. He is a deputy out of Dothan, alabama, and him and I have been best friends for 30 years. Man, he's also a musician and we got you know, I just got little things from Jeremy and then I went with Jeff and then John and I just freaking, polished it off. Man, it just tells the story. It's exactly what has blue collars feel, man. We get out there and do it every day. We don't stand around with our hands out.
Speaker 2:We don't mind helping people who want to help themselves, but it's wrong, it's freaking wrong, for them to do what they did to us man yeah yes, so that's where that song come from. Man, that's exactly where that come from.
Speaker 1:It still stirs me up when I, I could tell, I could see it yeah, so um yeah, that's where I understand it.
Speaker 1:I get it. I get it as of fact. I'm going to pull myself back up here because your face is like all over the screen. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know. And if I, you know what? If I do this, watch, I'm going to go like all right, now, watch, I'm going to move. Now, watch, I'm going to move. See, I put my hand up in front of the camera and it says okay, we got to follow him. So it's kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy. But let's talk about the single that's out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:Tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, uh, so, we got, uh, we got.
Speaker 2:I got lucky. I got a buddy of mine that some people that owns a promotion company that you know they promote these records to radio and try to get it off the ground and he put this knot on me in their hands over at Grassroots.
Speaker 1:Promotions I love Grassroots Props.
Speaker 2:Yes, grassroots Promotions, and they're like, yeah, we're in on this right here, we dig this right here and that's what we're doing, man. So I I did a radio tour through the midwest alabama, tennessee and the midwest, all the way up.
Speaker 1:So I have to ask. You went out on the radio tour. Yes, you had the guitar and the sleeper. Well, you pulled into the parking lot with this car carrier. My name's randy and I'm here to play music I would do it that way.
Speaker 1:I know that would be the coolest dude. You would get so much attention. I'm just and you know it's not just a little bit of talk, but me being a radio guy, I'd be like all right, everybody you got to listen to me. This guy pulled into the radio station this morning. It wasn't in a, you know, he didn't have a typical rental, he had an 18 wheeler. It was a car carrier carrier, and out of his keeper he pulled out an amp with a guitar. So I mean that would be cool it would be.
Speaker 2:Unfortunately, it didn't happen that way. I was able to get off work they, they, they know where I'm at too, and they were, which is really cool, and I was able to. I had some time built up, man, I, I took off, I hit the ground running and I hit. I think I hit 19 stations. Good, good, I did 19 stations in two weeks yeah, I did.
Speaker 1:That's a lot of running and it's a lot of morning shows, I know, I know that and I just wait a minute. I was gonna kind of play your song here for a second hang on. Well, I wanted it to go back. It didn't go back to the beginning.
Speaker 2:Here it is. I'm not a preacher, Dang it, I'm gonna preach. Everybody wants to get there fast. Got a soul for you gonna read.
Speaker 1:You've got your hands out.
Speaker 2:But these handouts ain't for free. No, baby, not on me, baby, not on me. Oh, it's a backwoods. Oh is it? Baby, not on me. Baby, not on me, oh it's backwoods, boys you hear that.
Speaker 1:Not on me, it's called, not On Me, it's a little clip of it. I didn't get the beginning in there, but definitely so if you want to hear. If you're watching this, it doesn't matter whether it's live right now or you watch it down the road. If somebody said man, that is cool, I or you watch it down the road.
Speaker 2:If somebody said man, that is cool, I want to hear the whole thing. Where can they go, randy? So I'm on all your digital platforms Pandora, spotify, apple Music. We're on Amazon Music, deezer, all that stuff. I've got some stuff on YouTube Now. The video that's on YouTube has got four million plays on it. Wow, yeah, so it definitely makes some noise on YouTube has got 4 million plays on it. It's definitely making some noise. We're on 43 radio stations, I believe, right now.
Speaker 1:That is good.
Speaker 2:It's moving up. Right now it's on the Music Row Country charts. We're at number 89. We started at 207. We've been on the chart, I think, for 12 weeks. I think that's it. We're at 897, so we've jumped up. We've been on the chart, I think, for 12 weeks. I think they said. I talked to them today. So we're at 89 now, so we're hoping we can get on up that thing man. So y'all go ahead and play.
Speaker 1:If I were you, I'd be driving through these towns. Get on the phone, Yo. Hey, I'm a trucker and I'm passing through. Hey, you got that song by Randy Cobb Not on me? Can you play that? I mean you're going to be hitting so many different towns, oh yeah no, but it's well worth being heard. I'll tell you that just a little bit. That I heard is impressive.
Speaker 2:Awesome man, thank you. I'm also on Instagram and I'm on YouTube. I always said YouTube, instagram, facebook. What is that? Tick tack, tick tack. I'll probably need one right now. My call letters is Randy Cobb music on all that. So you can look me up at Randy Cobb music. I'll come follow me and give me a like, give me a subscription.
Speaker 1:All that stuff kind of helps us man to move this thing on up Exactly, and you deserve to get the airplane to be heard. I think that's cool. I appreciate that man. Randy, what's next for you musically?
Speaker 2:I just got out of the studio yesterday laying down some vocals with my buddy, chris Latham, and he's got a place there in Nashville as well. That's where I actually have cut vocals with him many, many times.
Speaker 2:So we did three and what I'm really excited about this song. I penned it with Jeff and a buddy of mine named Mark Dooley. Mark Dooley is a fabulous guitar player guy. He's out of Boaz, alabama now, but he's been in and out of Nashville for 20-something years. Just a great fella. He's originally from Dothan guy. He's out of boaz, alabama now, but he's you know, he's been in and out of nashville for 27 years. Just a great fella. He's originally from dozend, alabama, so he's an alabama boy too. You know south alabama. He's still in alabama, boaz, alabama, but it's called hard to breathe and, uh man, it's an absolute banger. And if you go to my instagram or tick tock or facebook, I put all these little reels out. This is new stuff I'm doing. I'm just trying to get it out there.
Speaker 1:I'm going to have to get some of those up, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we've got some of that stuff on there. What we're doing, we started from the very, very beginning. We're first writing it, so we're doing guitar vocals on it in the studio with Jeff. So it's really cool. Man, I think I'm just going to put a whole little montage together about building the song to where it's at now, which is going to be, hopefully, the next single.
Speaker 1:Hey, so I would assume you have a full band that you play with.
Speaker 2:I don't have a full band right now so I'm not able to. I'm not to the point where I'm able to get out and perform Gotcha, gotcha. I'm hoping we've got to build this thing up and hopefully then, you know, people will start. I still go and play acoustically a lot with some of my buddies, you know, just to keep my chops up. I enjoy doing that.
Speaker 1:That's nice, okay, but when we get ready.
Speaker 2:You know my producer, jeff. We've already talked about that. We're all going to saddle up and we gonna. We'll have some. We'll have a badass band together. There's no doubt. When people call and they want, we'll be ready to go, that's for sure.
Speaker 1:You know, am I correct to think that if you're out on the road and you're cruising down a highway, you're doing whatever, and it's just you and that truck and your mind starts going a little bit, that you're thinking about writing certain songs or what goes good with what I mean does? Am I correct to think that way, that actually doing what you do and having that alone time over the road, I know, when I, you know, I take a family trip, I'm driving and I've got things tuned out over here, if you know what I mean and and uh, I just I think about things that uh, you know, I want to do, or just my mind starts going in a lot of different directions oh, 100.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get inspired on the road many, many, many times, yeah, so, like, I guess, like, uh, like the middle of the year last year they sent me out to, you know, to like wyoming and some of that, some of those places, and going across the plains over there, man, you can see trains and all of them old train, you know. It's just you really got to see that, to, to, to get to feel it. It's like so fricking cool to see that that kind of mess and those mountains and the sunrises and all that you know just all those things, man they they penetrate your soul, even though you're not.
Speaker 2:I'm not able to hang out there for long, but I'm still able to see the work of God man, it's absolutely beautiful.
Speaker 1:That's what America is about and you know you talk about that being you know, driving truck, maybe coast to coast or in the. You're in the heartland and you know when you fly over that I've flown coast to coast before and if it's a beautiful day, you can look down and just see all the squares, all the different you know what I'm talking about All the and you just go, wow, that's beautiful. It's like Jason Aldean song Flyover States. Yes, I love that song yeah it's absolutely beautiful Same thing, just a different angle.
Speaker 1:Absolutely yes it is angle, absolutely, yes, you know it is different angle. So, yeah, I mean, what's the? It's crazy things driving truck, what? Uh, oh, we're gonna get into some good stuff now. Okay, I mean, it was all great before, but I'm just saying a whole different. Like you say, we go down different roads. Just made a left, that's right. It's a stop sign and, um, downshift, all right. There we go, um. But what kind of? You're hauling cars, that's right. And am I right to think that it's not a pickup truck with a trailer on the back hauling cars? Like I know there's a lot of people out there that do that. They take them south or they bring them north, whatever the case may be. But you're actually, you're the big full-size car hauler, correct?
Speaker 2:So when I had my company, I had three full-size haulers. And then now this company here has got one full-size hauler it's what you call a business class enclosed trailer and then we have we also have a couple of other smaller enclosed trailers that are just dualies, and some smaller enclosed trailers.
Speaker 1:Is it hard to get those cars on and off? You have to load those as the driver, right? Yeah, you know we've got these big. Is it hard to get those cars on and off?
Speaker 2:You have to load those as the driver, right? Yeah, we've got these big doors and all where you can access to the wheels and strap them on and all, so that's not terrible. Now, when I had my big, they call them- rolling parking lots or what you're talking about.
Speaker 1:You have to get used to doing that for sure. Now, that's an education. All right, I have to ask do you still have CB radios?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think there's a.
Speaker 1:Where'd he go? Breaker Breaker 1-9, there's a Smokey at mile post 740.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think some people get on them, but I don't think Every time I've heard one. I always hear Julio or somebody other way way way. And I'm like I don't understand a fucking word. He's saying, man, we're driving way. And I'm like I don't understand a fucking word he's saying I don't think many people get on them too much anymore. To be honest with you guys, and when I was car hauling but we, just, we were just on our old you know phone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no. Well, nowadays that's what we have, right? I mean, it's cool, it's much easier, but I I guess I was just kind of showing my age a little bit, because I remember those days where we all had to have the cb radios and channel 19 was the truckers, channel 9 was the emergency channel.
Speaker 1:Come on a lot of folks had them home bases too, you know, yeah, oh my god did, yeah, and I can still remember the call letters he would call home when he was leaving work to come home, you know, and be on the radio, you know. So it's a mobile base. Kie 0321, mobile base. I can remember Somebody answer your father.
Speaker 2:My dad had one of those things too. He had one of those big old, tall antennas and he worked for Western Electric, which was AT&T or Bell South and then AT&T years later. But he was, I guess, what do they call it? His name is Handle.
Speaker 1:His Handle.
Speaker 2:His Handle. That's right, His Handle was the Peacock wire picker. I'll never forget He'd get in at work or whatever. I mean I was just very small, Of course. He'd always drink these big, tall Budweiser's and he'd get sauced and things. He'd get on that TV and he'd be arguing with folks.
Speaker 1:It wasn't good then.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, I do remember that 100%.
Speaker 1:What's the craziest thing that's probably ever happened to you on the road.
Speaker 2:People shitty driving. The road people shitty drive. I don't understand. It's always somebody in a prius. It never fails. Somebody in a prius is going to jump in front of me slam on their brakes, try to keep me from going around. You know, shoot man.
Speaker 1:I stay in the slow lane unless I'm passing you know they understand that you're a lot bigger and just give you the right away. I I don't get it, but I know what you're saying.
Speaker 2:I know that has happened I don't understand it, these people, they live in uh fantasy worlds, I mean I I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't get it because that my truck would absolutely pancake you if I wanted it to. Yeah, and I've thought about it a few times.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to say it happened.
Speaker 1:Well, if you want to watch it happen, you know YouTube right there in front of you, and I know there's videos out there of people cutting some of these truckers off.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is all.
Speaker 1:You guys out there watching this, don't do that, Not smart, you know have you, you know, being who you are, having a license to drive these rigs and also you love music and you're putting out music and you've got a song on the radio. But have you ever pulled into like a truck stop and pulled out the guitar and just kind of sat there on the side of the truck and just played a little bit or anything like that?
Speaker 2:I've never done that. To be honest with you, when I when I pull out of my home base.
Speaker 2:My my biggest uh goal was to get back to home. So I run harder. So when I'm out, you know I'm like I'm running. No, I do right, because I mean, you know I write a good. Luckily with that phone you have voice memos so you can sit there and you just write. You know, physically anymore you just talk and a lot of ideas. But I've never done that. I've brought my guitar with me. If I'm going somewhere I know I'm going to stay for a few days, we're doing a show or something like that these, these restomods, we do shows and stuff from around the country I'll bring my guitar with me sometimes, as a matter of fact, I wrote, uh, that hard to breathe my buddy Mark Dooley they let me bring Mark with me to go do some deliveries. They were doing some test drive events at Long Island and him and I polished that song off together up there when he was on the road with me. So that was pretty cool, very cool.
Speaker 1:How often do you get to Nashville?
Speaker 2:Shoot man. I'm there, I mean from my farm. It ain't about four hours to us. I'm there pretty regular, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1:When's the next time you're going to be up there?
Speaker 2:I just got back at 1.30 this morning, as a matter of fact, yeah, so, like I said, I was there laying down some vocals, this new stuff and then I was texting one of my producers this evening and we got some great song ideas, this new stuff. And then, uh, you know, I was texting one of my producer this this evening and we got some great song ideas, uh, and I think him and I are going to be doing some writing pretty soon, so I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 1:You know, getting him doing that. Yeah, the um, the country radio seminars coming up in February, that's right. You know that Anybody that's anybody's in town, we're all going to be there. We're all being in our lines. We'll all be somewhere like that. We're there for almost a week, well, four days, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I'm going to make an appearance there and hang out with grassroots people, I believe. I think I will.
Speaker 1:I'll definitely have to look for you. Yeah, miss Teresa, over there she. And.
Speaker 2:I have had some lengthy conversations about it and I think I'm gonna I'm gonna pop my little, my little head in there and say no.
Speaker 1:I think it's worth it because this is have you ever been before? I never have. It's a. It's an opportunity for an artist like you or anybody to, to go and meet the artist and also meet meet anybody, that's anybody, from the record label reps to the promoters, to the you. Important people as far as I'm concerned are the radio programmers, because they're the ones that will decide whether or not they're going to play your music. Sure, and they're all there. I mean anybody that's anybody is there. It's a great event and it's well worth it, right? You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hope I see you there.
Speaker 1:If you're going, what I'm saying? Yeah, I hope I see you there. If you're going, I'm going to look you up. Yeah, no, absolutely, I look for the car carrier out in the parking lot.
Speaker 2:Randy's here, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll go get a Miller Lite. We're cool, or spin around the block, or something.
Speaker 2:How about that? Yeah, no, hey, I could drive it. Hey, you said'm going to make you put on your big boy pants and back one of the cars right up the top of that thing.
Speaker 1:Screw that. Oh, come on man, I will not do that. Oh my God.
Speaker 2:Here we go.
Speaker 1:No, I would fall off the track. Then what are we going to do? Then the car is damaged. Who's going to pay for it? What's going to happen?
Speaker 2:I'm sure you're heavily insured.
Speaker 1:It'll be. I don't know about that, but I could handle. I could handle driving the truck. But you know one thing I've noticed, um, and anybody that's watching this that has driven a truck it's easier to back up a rig with a bigger trailer than it is a smaller trailer. It sure is, because I used to uh, I had like a six by eight I don't know utility trailer that I hauled behind my dodge ram back in the day. Yeah it just.
Speaker 2:It was a pain in the ass like that, that thing can turn on you, just like that yeah, just like that what that knife jackknife, yeah, so it's much easier to back up a big rig so you know I got to where I backed up. You know I was in my semi. You know my personal semi so much I had bought me a real nice motor like a 45 foot motor home nice and when I remember, when I first got in it and I was trying.
Speaker 2:I couldn't back it up because it didn't have a trailer on it. It becomes just natural to you. You know, with the trailer on and everything's backwards, you know. So when I was just trying to back that thing up, man, I was getting so flustered. My neighbors were over there.
Speaker 1:You know, I was living there ribbing the hell, what's the matter with you I know it's great A friend of mine now we're exchanging stories but he drove for Sunoco back in the day. So he drove a tanker. He could back that thing up. He put that trailer wherever you wanted it, I mean right on the dime. Then we put him in a truck with a small trailer and said all right, henry, you need to back this up. He couldn't do it. It was going like you said all right, henry, you need to back this up. He couldn't do it. It was going like you said just the slightest little. And he was like what the f? You could very easily back up one of those tankers.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. The shorter the trailer, the harder it is to do.
Speaker 1:That's a fact, randy, you're amazing dude. Look what you do, look what you're doing with your life. You know what. You've been through a lot You've got the music. Music heals all it tells all. Music is our life. It's international.
Speaker 1:It's the love language for sure it's the love language, absolutely. You've seen it all, you're doing it all. You're doing what you love. That's what love language, absolutely, absolutely. And you've seen it all, you're doing it all and you know you're doing what you love and that's what really matters. And you've got, you've got a daughter. I'm sure you keep in contact with. Yes, today was her birthday.
Speaker 2:Birthday. I don't know if you're watching, but she turned 25 today.
Speaker 1:What's her name?
Speaker 2:Her name is Haley.
Speaker 1:Haley. Happy birthday, Haley. Your dad is awesome.
Speaker 2:Oh, I don't know about that, but she'll probably tell you I'm crazy. But she'll tell you my dad is crazy.
Speaker 1:You know, daughters hold a very special place.
Speaker 2:She does.
Speaker 1:In a father's heart. I have three. I know, oh man, I know, and I've got eight grandkids, so I'm just until they start going nuts, you can always pick them up and give them back, that's where I was going with this conversation Time to go. Randy Cobb, once again, if somebody wanted to find you, they can find you on all the socials that are out there. Randy Cobb Music, you said correct.
Speaker 2:Randy Cobb Music. That's good.
Speaker 1:I'm on all your digital platforms as well for sure I love it, and dress warm when you make the trip to Maryland. I'm just saying even though it might be just a little bit south of New York State, but it's still cold.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Is there still a bunch of snow and ice up there right now?
Speaker 1:Are you seriously asking me that now?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I haven't really looked All right. So they're expecting here in Syracuse another three to five tonight. Three to five inches, but that's nothing. Just last week it was three to five feet. Three to five feet of snow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and just a few miles north of here they get what they call lake effect. I mean it could be sunny here. Drive a couple miles north, it'll be snowing so hard it's a whiteout. It's because with Lake Ontario, with the winds, the cold winds blow across the lake and then that that causes what they call lake effect snow and they would easily. I know just last week one shot to got seven feet.
Speaker 2:I didn't get seven feet of snow. I don't understand that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, it happens.
Speaker 2:It's crazy man.
Speaker 1:I've never seen such.
Speaker 1:I mean I don't want to see it. No, you know the one thing about, but there's a couple of different types of snow. If you get a nor'easter, one of those storms that come up the coast that they talk about all the time, the snow is heavy and it's wet. If that makes sense, it's got a lot of water in it. But if you get the lake effect snow when the winds blow across, for example, either Lake Erie or Lake Ontario, it's light and it's fluffy. So to get seven feet of snow, I mean that happens very easily, but it's easy to move too. How?
Speaker 2:do you move? What do you do to move all that?
Speaker 1:I hired a plow guy, I pay somebody to do my driveway. I just got lazy and said you know what, at this point in my life, I'm not going to shovel or I'm not going to snowblow anymore.
Speaker 2:So that's smart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I hired a guy to do that, but do that, but around here, as opposed to being in Nashville or other down South. Uh, we have the equipment, we have the, you know the men and women that take care of the roads and they do a great job. They do a great job. I mean. There's times where we will get a foot of snow during the overnight and we will still, the kids will still go to school the next day. So, because the roads, you know, two in the morning, the plows are out there, they're cleaning off the roads, they're doing everything they need to do. So, right?
Speaker 1:yeah yeah that's awesome man no, it is as opposed to being in nashville where they get, uh, just like a dusting is slow and everything's closed. I've been up there for that. So yeah, oh, shannon hall. Shannon Hall said hello, shannon Hall, something I think with grassroots kitty says cool chat. My husband drove doubles. And happy birthday, haley, that's my granddaughter's name and she's a fan of your dad.
Speaker 2:Oh, awesome. Thank you, that's awesome man.
Speaker 1:That is very cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's very cool.
Speaker 1:Awesome, there you go. See, you gotta love that, randy. It's very cool. Awesome, there you go, randy. It's been a pleasure. I look forward to shaking your hand and saying hello. Maybe, if you've got time, we'll go down to the place called Bar Lines in the Omni and get ourselves a cold one. I don't know what your schedule is going to be like, but I get in on a Tuesday and I don't leave until Saturday. The whole thing inside the Omni.
Speaker 2:But absolutely I'm going to get together. For sure I'll be there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. It's been a great conversation. Like Kitty said, I'm very informative. I wish you a lot of luck with the music. I just it's so awesome You're combining. You know you drive truck. You got something to fall back on, at least, and you've done very well at that. Thank god, um, and you're a very talented individual.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that man. I'm just an everyday guy like anybody else no, I know that.
Speaker 1:But you know, when we talk about you had the opportunity to talk to some of these major labels. A lot of people don't get that opportunity right. Yeah, you got that. I mean that's, that's something to say. Well, I at least got through the door. Maybe nothing happened, but I got through the door and I talked to somebody oh yeah, it was like a milestone for me.
Speaker 2:For sure it was man I was. I was, oh, I was just on top of the world when that happened.
Speaker 1:So very grateful to have at least a shot. You know, like you're, you're saying Absolutely, 100%. All right, my friend, have a good night and thank you for coming on. You know your time is worth something and thank you so much for just you know. Oh, you know what, when I come to Nashville, I'm going to bring a whole bunch of my mugs.
Speaker 1:Oh good deal. So if I see you, you know, remind me about the mug and I'll run up to my room and grab you one. Oh, absolutely. You don't want to carry it around the whole time, but I'm just saying, when you're ready to split or whatever you need to do, I'll go grab one.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, man Skip. It's been great talking to you. I'm grateful, man, that you had me on here. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:Right back at you, my friend. It's always good to. You're a good guy. I appreciate you and just doing what you're doing, you're a strong guy too, and thank you for watching Skip Happens y'all, it's Randy Cobb. Make sure you check out Randy Cobb music and make sure you give Skip Happens podcast a like right there on Facebook, and there's a whole lot of these. We do at least two a week. So, and thank you to grassroots, because their artists are the greatest and they're the greatest people to work with the artists. I'm just saying I know them and they do a good job. So, randy, have a great night, stay right there. Good night everybody. Peace out, see ya.
Speaker 2:Later.
Speaker 1:Dude, you're awesome.
