Skip Happens Podcast - Every Boot Has a Story! Direct from your favorite country artist!

From Misfit Toys to Music Stages: Bizz Bigsby’s Road Through Addiction, Legacy, and a New Nashville Sound

• Skip Clark

Share episode

Send us a text

Support the show

Thanks for listening! Follow us at youtube.com/c/skiphappens

SPEAKER_03:

Hey everybody, we are live and welcome to another Distant Skip Happens, and I'm joined by this biz B. Say that when you've had a few. All right, he's an incredible artist. He's got a journey that is nothing sort of inspiring from childhood marked by hardship to sharing stages with some music legends. We're going to talk about that because it's turned pain into powerful storytelling. And I cannot wait to hear about this. Blinding the soul North Nashville and with country in blues. And he created a sound that he calls Urban Americana. I love that. His music is raw, it's honest, it's full of hope. And today we're diving right into his story. And ladies and gentlemen, you can see him like I can see him. It's Biz Bigsby. Dino, I'm gonna mess that name up before we're done here today.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, trust me, Skip, I've been called worse.

SPEAKER_03:

I've been called Trust. Ladies and gentlemen, here's Buzz Big Big. Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_01:

Here's Big Bagby. Here's Big Bag B.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that's I'm not doing an album call it just Big Big Bagby.

SPEAKER_03:

Do you that's awesome? How are you, my friend? It's still good. I'm well.

SPEAKER_00:

Thank you for having me. Thank thank you so much for having me. It is it is an honor to be here.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, you know, it's called Skip Happens. So that's and it does. And it does. And we've been we've been chatting a little we've been chatting a little bit before you went out with the lights and the camera. You know, just the energy that you have and all that. You know, I mean both you and I we're no spring chickens, so I'm just saying, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

But uh I'm not even a fall chicken. No, I'm more like a winter chicken.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I gotta say, when I first came out before we get into everything about you, I said, How are you? It's nice to meet you. You go, Well, I got up this morning, so it's yeah, all right. It's how we look at it.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, exactly. No, exactly right.

SPEAKER_03:

They're probably just going to bed when we're getting up. So exactly. Exactly. But uh, Biz, welcome to the podcast Skip Happens. Um, for those that might be discovering your music for the first time, how do you usually describe your sound and what you do?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh well, I I know one thing. There are only two kinds of music that's ever been made, and that's good and bad. So I just try to do good stuff. I don't really know the genre. Um, that's not really my job. Um, I just try to write good music. I grew up listening to everything from George Jones to Parliament Funkadelli. Like that, and everything in the middle.

SPEAKER_03:

Little George Clinton?

SPEAKER_00:

Little Clinton up man.

SPEAKER_02:

We want the funk. Yeah, get about yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, he was just here at uh at our our uh we're in Syracuse, so I'm in upstate New York, but we had the uh New York State Fair, it runs up until Labor Day, and it was one of the George Clinton was here for that.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, I tell my son all the time, um, like I feel sorry for you. He's 24 and he's never seen live shows. Like, you know, he's never seen I saw the mothership land like when it really landed. I saw Earth Wind and Fire like live when the drones were going upside down. Oh my god, he's never seen it. I feel, you know, he he doesn't he has no clue. Was that like with uh Maurice White and that whole actually George Clinton and Earth Wind and Fire were that were the same thing. They were in the 70s, early 80s. Oh yeah, oh yeah. Earthwind and Fire was like clean, wholesome, and George Clinton was the total opposite. So we would go to both and kind of just you know, yeah, balance it. We're going to George Clinton this month. I've actually uh I've actually had the pleasure of of being in his company.

SPEAKER_05:

No way, dude. Tell me about that.

SPEAKER_00:

He's just a good dude, man. He he got out of a cab one day at 328 performance hall when they were playing, and we just happened to be standing on the corner passing a doobie. This is in the 70s.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, we do it now and it's legal, so hey, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, right. You don't have to run anymore. Um this is this is not live. We can cut this all out.

SPEAKER_03:

Actually, just it is live, but never mind.

SPEAKER_00:

Never mind. Let's take that out. Um, so so we uh we had to talk, and so every time we will come, we talk. Every time he would they would come every seven, eight months.

SPEAKER_02:

That is so cool. Um yeah, really, really cool. Good people, fun, fun, fun, fun people.

SPEAKER_03:

Immediately, you you just you know, you're like just like you're talking about George Clinton or I was, and you're talking about Parliament and all that. It's like, dude, I listened to all that stuff. I played, I was doing radio in the 70s. So oh yeah, you got it. You know, I mean, been there, done that, and it's just now it's like, even though I'm in the country format itself with the radio station here in town, but uh still I go back to those days and I can crank Earthwood in fire or Parliament or you know, it's all those bands that were coming out of the 70s that you and I and probably everybody else is like doing bad things, if you know what I mean.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, bad things with good intentions.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, no, exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

So Biz, where are you right now?

SPEAKER_03:

You're in Nashville, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I am at a uh I'm in an apartment overlooking the Cumberland River that runs right through the heart of Nashville. I am right in the bend. There's a do you see the gentle nest right below me? It doesn't come this far out. It only goes, it only goes, it's a tourist attraction. It only goes back and forth where you can see the city. There I'm out, I'm out in the good part. No, I'm just kidding. No, but there I have an eagle's nest right below me, and and I get to to go out on my balcony and sit and get really, really close with uh with nature and and the universe. It's a really cool spot.

SPEAKER_03:

I use this for writing and oh my god, it's gotta be perfect for that. I was asking about the General Jackson because uh for years I've been going to the country radio seminar. And way back in the day, a couple of the well, one of the big labels in Nashville would charter the General Jackson, and they would put, I think it was RCA or Sony or one of those, and they would put all their artists on this boat and bring all the radio people on board. Right, right. We would go down the river. That's why that's you know that's fun.

SPEAKER_00:

No, you will never that those are see, that's what makes Nashville different and special, and and it we'll we've lost that. Um and we've we've gained a lot, but we've lost a lot. The trade-off, I don't know if it's really good for the city. Well, I know it's good for the bottom line, but not for the city.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I love Nashville, and I love the people that are there. Now I'm meeting you, and hopefully someday I'll meet you out there as well. Um But it's when I was going there, you know, about 20, 25 years ago when I started going there for this country radio seminar thing, um it was completely different.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Now we go, it's like, I'm not leaving the hotel. Right. It's like you know, I could walk down, I could go down on Broadway, and it's like, no, I'm too damn old for that. I'm not getting it.

SPEAKER_02:

No, right, no, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

But no, it's cool.

SPEAKER_00:

Broadway. I don't know if Broadway changed or if we're just getting older. I think it's both.

SPEAKER_04:

I think it's a combination.

SPEAKER_00:

I think it's a combination. Um, I I think now, nowadays everything is driven by money, and so you would be surprised if you you wouldn't be surprised how much money is made in Nashville from fifth and broad to first in broad. Oh my god. Four blocks. Yeah, millions of millions of days. That's crazy. It's four blocks. So that's that's what drives it now.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, well, you know, Nashville is known for the music, and you're a part of that, is you're a part of what they're doing there and what you're doing. You said music has been a lifeline for you. Um, can you take take us back to the earliest memory where music really became that source source of strength for you?

SPEAKER_00:

For me, um, four years old. Wow, I was I I don't remember a lot about being four, like most people don't.

SPEAKER_03:

I gotta go back 64 years.

SPEAKER_01:

I can remember five, but I can't remember four. But no, you can remember four.

SPEAKER_00:

No, I was that there's a reason why I was my grandmother and great aunts, they were all sisters, they raised me. And so I was it was a Friday night, I was four years old, and uh TV was on, and they let me stay up late. It was 10 o'clock, and um I saw this show, and they had these, everybody looked like they were dancing, having a good time, and all of a sudden this guy comes on, and my my grandmother says, That's your dad. And I'm like, Really? That's your dad right there, and so I watched him do um, I don't even know what song he was doing at the time, but but he was he had the the processed hair with the go-go girls in the back and the band, he's doing splits. I'm like, that looks like that's fun. I I want to do that.

SPEAKER_01:

And I pretty much skip have been chasing that my entire life.

SPEAKER_03:

So, I mean, you touched on it a little bit because you're the son of go ahead, tell everybody.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, his name is Jimmy Church, and he was he was on a show called uh Night Train, which was the first RB show in the history of the world to ever do live music on TV, RB music ever. Uh it was before Soul Train, actually, Soul Train pretty much took the the entire framework that Night Train had, took it to Chicago and the rest of his history. But they were um they were doing this. I think my dad was like 19, 20 years old. Well, when I saw him, he was 20, when I saw that that night he was 24. Um and and they they did it at WLAC Studios, and it would be them and um, I mean, Lil Richard and Sam and Dave and Sam Cook and all this ready, aretha Franklin, all these guys, Aretha Franklin, I board Sam, uh all of these people, man, would be on this show.

SPEAKER_03:

Um yeah, so biz, what was it like growing up with that kind of legacy? I mean, and how did it influence your own path? I mean, so you didn't really know your dad?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I knew my dad, I just didn't know the legacy he was doing. He was just, you know what I mean? I didn't know what was going on when it was happening. My father was, he lived, he lived like any touring artist lived in the 60s, especially if you're African-American, you just you you were out there. That's how you made your money, that's what you did. Um, and so um I can remember the same thing that they that brought me so much pride, to be perfectly honest. The same thing that brought me so much pride and joy also made me feel very insecure and made me feel very small because my parents were not there. So when you're a kid and everybody loves your dad, and your dad is like the bell of the ball in the city, but he doesn't spend any time with you, you as a kid, you well, you think something's wrong with you. It can't be them because you're gonna be. Did you feel lost? I felt like uh I remember watching, I remember watching uh Rudolph the Red Nose Ranger.

SPEAKER_04:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And they went to he went to the land of misfit toys. Yes. And I remember saying to myself, that's where I'm from. I'm from there. That's that's I I felt a kindred spirit with that with that that land. Now, um, you know, like I'm saying, I'm very proud. And my father and I are very close.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Now my dad and I are very close.

SPEAKER_03:

And your dad's gotta be up there though.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean uh he's 86.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, God bless my dad.

SPEAKER_00:

My dad still plays music, man. My dad opened up for the Commodores last summer.

SPEAKER_01:

Come on, I kid you not, I kid you not, man. And he killed it. He freaking killed his 80s, he was 85, and he freaking killed it. You were there for that. No, I was too, I was actually at a show.

SPEAKER_00:

I had to show you, but how awesome is that? Oh man, it was it it was it it blew my mind. Because, you know, he tells me all of these stories of of of of Motown and and and him and uh Barry Gordy and Yeah, he had to be going through that time where it was tough.

SPEAKER_03:

Being a black artist and all that going on, you know, everything was just it was.

SPEAKER_00:

It was terrible. Yeah, it was it was bad. It was bad. And and and um, you know, you're trying to figure it out. And he had left Nashville at the time and moved to LA. Actually, when I was born, he was in LA with Lil Richard. Him and him and Richard have been had been friends. Uh, when Richard died, they've been friends since they were since Pop was 20.

unknown:

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00:

So they were in LA, and then Pop was working with uh, he was, I mean, he was he was out there with uh with Marvin Gaye and and then all of these cats, man, and and uh Wilson Pickett and uh Nancy Wilson and Sam Cook. And the same thing he said, the thing he would tell me about Sam Cook was that everybody, everybody else would be around, and everybody was everybody until Sam Cook walked in the room, and then he was everybody just gave it up for Sam. He was that he had that that thing.

SPEAKER_03:

He had the record label in uh or no, was he in Memphis? What am I thinking? Sam Cook? Yeah, um no, maybe I'm wrong. No, no, you know. I'm thinking his son is maybe Al Grand. I don't know. I don't know. Never mind. Forget I said that.

SPEAKER_00:

Stax was in Memphis. Yeah, Stax records and that's that's it, Stax. Which was Isaac Hayes and B.B. King and all of those guys, yeah. Which yes, a bad mother, shit your mouth. Um, I didn't realize my dad was a big deal until we did a show. I was with his band, I was with his band for about five years, um, after my mother died, and that's a whole nother story. But I was with his, I was with his band, and we were playing uh I think the governor's inauguration here, and um, he was doing it with with with Al Green. And and we were backstage and Al Green called me over. He said, Man, let me tell you, you me and your dad used to shut Memphis completely down. I'm like, huh? He's like, Yeah, man, me and your friend, me and your dad that. And uh one time we were opening up for Richard, um, and we were at the sound check and he's banging, he's knocking, but you can't come in. And he stops everything. He's like, Jimmy, is that you? And my dad is very stoic. He's not a I love you kind of dude, you know, like old old 80-year-old dads are, you know, you hug and he still feels like a hug. He's like you too. He don't really know how to, they don't project that. And he went up to my dad and the man, I love Jimmy. Jimmy Church was the better, and Pop's like, Okay, Richard, stop now. I'm like, Pop's a pretty big deal, man. Everybody knows him. So I was proud to be his son. Um, I love this, but I was I was lost being his son, yeah, all at the same time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, wow. So uh I'm trying to so who were some of the artists that really spoke to you as a kid? I mean, you you had Sam Cook and George Jones, and you know, I did some homework here, a little bit of James Taylor. What about their music? And how did that connect with you?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh George Jones was pure. See, oh my god, that's what I that's why I say there are only two kinds of music. George Jones could have been a blues singer and could have killed it.

SPEAKER_03:

No doubt, no doubt.

SPEAKER_00:

You know what I mean? Yeah, no, exactly. He's doing soul music that is from his soul. Lord, I am the bartender, and I don't like my work. It's just so I would go from that, and then James Taylor was just an awesome songwriter. Actually, this album, this album that I'm releasing next week is is a it's a mixture between James Taylor and Motown. It's kind of what it is. That's that's the vibe I wanted it to be. Uh, which is why I call it Urban Americana. But those those those people just drove me to want to be great at writing. And that's why, you know, people don't realize, well, I guess people do, but Nashville, songwriters came in. Musicians and people that's great vocalists, they didn't come here. Songwriters came in to write great songs. And I happened to be in that bucket, and so I got to see that.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Where did you um back in the day though, where did you go and write? You were in Nashville. Where would you go and write? Just somebody's living room, somebody's baseball?

SPEAKER_00:

In my in my in my grandmother's in my room in my grandmother's house. There you go. And I would have people come over, and we'd have a little keyboard with about eight things, and I'd have a and I had a a guitar, an acoustic guitar with two strings.

SPEAKER_02:

And so we would I'd write a bass line and then I'd put a melody on it, and there we go.

SPEAKER_00:

Um that's kind of where it started. And and then we got a I was blessed to um a friend of mine and I grew up with Charles Spoke, who is an accountant now. Most of my friends are totally the opposite of me.

SPEAKER_03:

Because they want to go make money. Um, I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00:

No, you you you hit the nail on the proverbial head. Yes. No, they didn't want to go make money, they made money.

SPEAKER_05:

They made money, exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

And they're like, dude, are you doing why are you still doing this music? I'm like, dude, first of all, um your purpose is what makes you happy, and it's what makes you sleep well at night, not your money. Uh, because I know people with lots of money that I don't that don't sleep as well as I do. No, money's not that out of well, money is it gives you choices, but it doesn't make you happy and peaceful. You have to be in your purpose.

SPEAKER_03:

That's how you handle it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. It's and it can become it, it can, yeah, that's a great way to put it. It's how you handle it and how you how you um because in done right is a really good tool. Done wrong, it will it will consume you.

SPEAKER_03:

How do you handle startup? How do you handle I have no idea? I don't know what that is. Because you're very humble, you're very cool. I mean, you're you're full of energy. But you know, it's like, well, I mean, there's gotta be those moments where I just did this and I can't believe I did it. You pinch yourself, but you also gotta keep everything in check. You also, you know, you gotta just I've talked to other artists where you know it's just like I have to stop being that person and come back to me. Yeah, I mean, like shows and stuff like that. And you know, there comes a time where you just gotta separate everything and do I mean grocery shop, you do everything like the rest of us. You know, it's all the same. But then there's this other side that but how do you handle all that? What do you every once in a while do you have to say, All right, all right, biz you need to uh talking yourself, you need to like, you know, okay, I need to slow down, I need to get my shit together. Here we go.

SPEAKER_01:

All the time. Every day. I did it before I came on here. Like, I'm ready to come on skip show and let me come down. Well, you know it's called skip happens, so you know, man, it does, and it's happening right now.

SPEAKER_03:

It is, and it's see when skip happens, it's good. I'm just it's good.

SPEAKER_00:

You know, I'm telling you. I I need I need one of those shirts, man. I started to actually buy a shirt and get it done the other day and wear it, but I'm like, I don't want to get I don't want to be. You know what?

SPEAKER_03:

I'm actually um I've got uh I'll send you a couple of my coffee mugs when we're done tonight, but yes, there you go. I'll I'll make sure you get hooked up with those. Please do, please do.

SPEAKER_00:

But I'll I'll tell you to answer that question, um, two things. Number one, um ego is really, really tricky, and your ego will fool you. You have to keep that bad boy in check. And I was blessed because God humbled me at an early age. The life that I grew up in and the way I was raised, I had I was humbled. Um, I'm 12 years clean, right? So my son always tells me, Dad, you're just 12. So you gotta hold it, you know, you're only 12. You've done you've done a lot in 12 years. Um it's easy for me to stay humble because I I've seen that other part. Yeah, I was gonna know what that's I know what's waiting on you over there.

SPEAKER_03:

So I was gonna ask, Biz, now when you went ended up going down that road, why? Just because you wanted to forget about other things? I mean, just if you don't mind talking about it a little bit. Not at all. Because you could be an inspiration to others that maybe going through something, you've been there, you're 12 years clean. But why did you go down that road? What happened?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, that's a that's uh there are about four answers to that. Number one, I got I got lots of time. Number one, I used to love getting high. Let's just be honest. Everybody say, No, man. My thing was my drug address was cocaine. But my mother gave me a joint when I was 11. And that's where it started. Like I'm sitting on sitting on the porch.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and uh uh but a joint is one thing, cocaine is another.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, but when you're 11, a joint is cocaine. Like when you're 11, that door has that door is good.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, I got I gotcha. I got you.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, you don't know what you're doing, man. Your mom, so it must be good, it must be okay, you know. Um like mom wouldn't give me, you know, she makes me eat turnip greens. That ain't good. This is pretty good stuff, right?

SPEAKER_03:

Some poke salad, some poke salad, yeah, Tony Joe White.

SPEAKER_00:

But um, so I I started uh it started there and it and it felt I could escape. I could escape the fact that my parents weren't around me, and I could escape the fact that I thought I was broken, and I could escape the fact that I wasn't good enough and all of that. And then it got to the point where I just wanted to please everybody around me because I wanted everybody to like me because I didn't know who I was. Um, so I'm buying out the bar when I'm going in. I never had a problem. Uh I just say I never had a problem acquiring money. Gotcha. So I would I would go to the bar and buy the bar out, and everybody loves beers, and I'm in a limo, and da da da da. I'm the loneliest dude in the world. Um and then it gets to a point where where you just you don't even think of life without it. And it affects every part of your life. Oh, that's my phone.

SPEAKER_01:

I thought you were just going, I thought you had like special effects. That's the bird of the background. Yeah, special effects. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03:

We got a few of those here, but um not real birds.

SPEAKER_00:

It just got bad, man. Yeah, and and so um what what what made me stop, if you if it if I can tell this.

SPEAKER_03:

No, no, please do, please do.

SPEAKER_00:

What made me stop, my son, who is 24 now, he was 12 at the time. And I uh we got him this MacBook Pro, and they were really, really expensive at that time. And I've been out three or yeah, I know I've been out for three or four days on a binger, and I was coming home, I was trying to sneak in the house because I was running out of everything, and like, okay, I need to I need to keep using, and um I'm like, ah, his MacBook Pro.

unknown:

No, dude.

SPEAKER_00:

And and no one will never know. I'll get it back before it just it didn't even make sense. So I'm sneaking in the house to get it, and my wife comes in, and uh she's like, What are you doing? I'm like, Well, I'm gonna take this out, but if don't wake him up, I'm gonna bring it back. She's like, No, you're not taking his MacBook, you're not doing yes, okay. And we're going through it, and he comes out of the out of his bedroom and he goes, Mom, let him have it. And uh man, I get emotional right that thing. No, no, no. I mean, I don't even know if he said it. I don't know if he said it because he felt sorry for me, or if he said it because he was done with me. But the one thing that I always, always, always said was I was gonna always be there for my son and be a father because that's why we were all in the same house. My father wasn't in my house, his father wasn't in his house. You were gonna do things that you dad did not do. I was gonna break that generational curse, man. I'm breaking that curse. And here I am, and and here we are, and now uh he's I I've let him down. And I'm gonna tell you how bad drugs are. I it it killed me inside, but you know what I did? I wrapped the cord up, I shut the MacBook, I put it in my backpack, and I left. And uh I was out for another two days and I could not get out. I just couldn't. I'm using everything because my drug address was coke. So I'm snorting in Peru, my nose is bleeding, I'm I can't, I can't, I can't run, I can't escape it. And uh so I run out of everything, and then two days later I come home, um, figured out how to get back in the house because by then they had locked me out. And she the she just she was changing the locks on the door the next day, and she had they hadn't done it yet, so I figured out how to get in the house and I got in and I called uh a place here called Cumberland Heights, which is a rehab center. And I said, Look, I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I need to get in there. And they're like, we don't have any beds. And I'm like, no, you don't understand, I'm coming. Whether you got beds or not, I'll stand in the corner, but I'm coming. And it's uh Cumberland Heights is probably 12-13 miles from where I live, and I walked. And um they let me in and said, dude, you must be serious. So I was gonna be in for one week, it ended up being 30 days, um, and I've been clean ever since. So, and my son and I are like this like we like we he's my best, best friend. Oh my god, yeah. So, so yeah, man. So I you know, and I used to be really ashamed of those stories.

SPEAKER_03:

Um be ashamed, no, man.

SPEAKER_00:

I am I'm proud of those stories because it shows what God does in your life. Like, thank you. It makes sense.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Now it makes sense because I'm telling you, and somebody might hear it and go, they're gonna that dude can get due. I can make it now. Now that all the pain, now the pain makes sense to me. It makes sense. But before I would care, you just walk around with all that in you. I don't want anybody to know because you don't want anybody to be judging me. Man, I could care less about what people think about me. I really could. This is bigger than me, it has nothing to do with me. My story has nothing to do with me. You know, it's it's uh it's to let people know. Well that you're not bigger than that.

SPEAKER_03:

I want to say you're wrong. It has a lot to do with you because look at you as a person right now, it's made you such a better person. It's it's done so much for you, and the love that you and your son have for each other, yeah, and all that. I mean, yeah, no, it is about you, Biz. It is. Well, I I get what you're saying, but I do, I do, and I couldn't quit it, Skip, and all of a sudden it just went away.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, you know this, you in the business, you know this. I can't do a show without somebody handing me something. Like somebody gonna put something in my hand, somebody I can't. I'm around liquor and drugs all the time, and it never crosses my mind. I don't even think about it.

SPEAKER_01:

I didn't do that. That's not me. That's you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00:

I got you because I didn't have the strength to do that. All of a sudden, it's just like I have to, and that's what I mean when I say for me that ego is really tricky. I had nothing to do with that. I was I was blessed to be used to show the power of things that are bigger than me.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, I hope somebody uh whoever watches this, and I know people are watching it live now, but uh somebody knows somebody and they haven't watched this and listened to what you said. Yes. Um if you save one life or you somebody says Yeah, that's my hope.

SPEAKER_00:

That's my hope. The whole reason that I go and I I do a show here at Rudy's Jazz, and we saw that show probably two years now. And uh the show is is I tell these stories and I play songs, and it's never not there. Hasn't been a show in the last two and a half years that someone hadn't come up to me and went, I needed to hear that. I'm gonna bring my son back to the show. I needed to hear the so it makes a you know to me, church is not a building, church is here, it's here. The spirituality of what we need. It's an extension, it's a yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we we are we over there having church.

SPEAKER_01:

But you can't say that because people won't come. Wow. We call it church without the guilt. That's heavy stuff.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh no, no, no, I get you. Um let's change the mood here a little bit because I know this was um really a big thing for you. Tell me about the night that your dad asked you to step in as lead singer for his band.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, um so my mother died.

SPEAKER_03:

And what was going through your head?

SPEAKER_00:

And he was never around. My mother OD'd. Um and and so she uh it's funny, man. She oh she overdosed on on crack okay. And she smoked so much that her stem cells just snapped. And so I had to make a decision of what to do. And um to make a long so she was this was 23 years ago or thereabouts, because Brandon was a year old, he had never spoken a word until I was nine, ten months old, and we they moved her to the to this place and we went and looked at her and she was out, you know, just not nothing, the nose thing coming out of it. And we're trying to make a decision of what to do. And I I I can the doctor's like, well, look, her brain stems are snapped, and there's nothing we can do about it. So I don't know what to tell you. You you know, we we just can. We can the insurance is only gonna pay for so much you can't afford our you know, so we're like, okay, we're leaving the nurse, we're leaving this this nursing home facility thing, and and uh my son was EO looks back and first words out of his mouth was bye-bye. And my mother woke up, she opened her eyes, she looked at it, and she smiled, and she closed her with a guy. And by the time we all got home, she had passed. So um my father, and my my dad wasn't in my life a lot before that. I mean, we were cool, but he didn't spend a lot of time with me. So my father uh he called me maybe um at well at the funeral. I can't I sang at the funeral. I sang a song called Mama from Boys to Men, and he was there. And maybe uh two months after that he called me and said, Look, man, you ain't got nobody to do it. I'm like, No, I'll say your everybody's dead, you know, gone, your mom's gone, grandma's gone. So why don't you come on the road with men work the lights? Um, you know, give you something to do, you get some money in your pocket, you try to keep an eye on you because you're running rampant. And so a leash on you. Hold on, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hold on, like, and I and at first I was kind of upset. I'm like, oh, so now you want to hold a leash on me, huh? Like now it's okay. Like, man, I I'm I'm okay. You know what I mean? Just the the pride part, like I don't need you. But the other part that like, I want my dad in my life, I just want to make you proud. That part took over. So I'm like, sure. So we get in the band, I'll never forget it. We were we uh we flew into into San Jose and we drove down to Monterey, but we played in Carmel. And we were playing, uh, we ended up playing at Clint Eastwood's house. And and he's like, and my and the the lead singer got sick, and he couldn't he couldn't do the show. So he's like, Man, I I can you think you can you you can work up some songs and we can kind of off the fly. So he never knew I could sing, he never knew I could entertain at all. And I got up and I went out front and we did Mustang Sally and we did a couple more, and then because he's got this 10-piece band, three horns, two female singers, yeah, him, uh, and rhythm section, and it's doing a lot of different stuff that's moving around. And um, and we killed it. And I was with him for five years after that.

SPEAKER_03:

And that's what started all the touring and all that.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what started all that, yeah. Well, he had been touring, he had been doing it for years. I just caught that at that time he was the number one wedding corporate band uh in the uh actually in the world series. So he he he was playing for uh for the royal family in Europe. Uh he was he was doing pretty big things, and so I'm I'm I'm but I'm not used to that stuff, Skip. I don't know what's going on. I'm still using. He doesn't know this, right?

SPEAKER_03:

I'm still I mean doing your thing there when yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so one day, um one day we're going to to Sand Dustin Floor, and I think we we were getting Beyoncé's tour bus or something. And we're like, we're gonna take the bus and then she's not using, we're gonna take this and um take it on down to Florida. And I ran up up the street to get me a uh, you know, a little a little something, something to take on the trip. And I started I opened the package and I didn't make the trip, and he fired me on the spot. And so take that as a lesson. Yes! Oh man, one of the most humbling times of my life, I'll make this real quick. One of the most humbling times of my life is that I I I um I was I started trying to get clean and I lived right around the corner from him. Um at that time we were trying to get close, and there was a house right around the corner that he knew that got it on the house. It was like, man, just you live in our take care of it for you, and da-da-da-da. And I'll you could we're right around the corner. You can come right around the corner and we catch the bus and go to the gate and catch the cleans. And so I had to walk by his house every day, going to my meetings, my NA meetings. And every day I would see them getting on the bus and they'll go, everybody's like, hey, biz. He wouldn't even look at me. I disappointed her, he wouldn't even look at me. That is humbling.

SPEAKER_01:

Wow. I was like, one minute I'm at Clint Eastwoods, right? And the next minute you're I'm walking to a rehab.

SPEAKER_00:

And uh yeah, so it's it's it's uh it've been a lot of those in my life, you know.

SPEAKER_03:

And I hope somebody's taking this all in because, dude, what just wow, I guess one word explains it. Wow, so God is good, man. God is good. What was it like? Uh any memorable moments. I mean, being on stage with that James Brown. Ooh, I feel good. Arika Franklin, Little Richard. You know, that I know you mentioned those before, but still, I mean, you were on stage with all them.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Out of all of those people, the thing that touched me the most was being on stage with James Brown, man. Man, that dude is a there was an energy. Get on up, you could just feel get in it.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't care. I'm like, oh really?

SPEAKER_00:

And it was it was actually Dorothy Moore, Aretha Franklin, James Brown. That was the tour. And um, and and he was. And how old were you? How old were you when you were I don't even remember, to be honest. Uh in my 20s.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay. All right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, in my 20s, we've we've gone through uh there was a guy named uh did you know Marty Gamlin? Uh is is big, he he was big in country music, but Marty um I do, I do. Yeah, uh Marty just passed not too long ago. Was that Gatlin? Gamlin.

SPEAKER_03:

Gamlin. Oh, I don't know about that. All right, no.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, he he was a pretty and Marty got us this. He said, I think, I think you might want to you might want to look into this. Um we looked into it and and change he comes out of the thing, he's like, you know, I know your dad, and I know you got it in you, and y'all just God bless, God bless. But I'm thinking, I can't really hear him or understand. I'm thinking he's calling us garbage.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm looking over to him, I'm like, yeah, he's saying this shit right into right to my face.

SPEAKER_00:

He's like, no, he's saying, God bless. He really, really knows you're doing a really good job, and your dad would be really proud of you. And then he pulls us, he pulls me into this into this room, and it's uh we're in Jackson, Mississippi, man, in like August. And he's got this mint coat on. And I'm like, how are you not sweating? I don't think you're human. He's like, you're not sweating, and he he was he was so nice and so um just outgoing, and just he just made me feel really, really, really good. And then I watched, I got to come up on the stage and stand back in the corner and watch him work. And I still take some of that with me in my because I got a I've got a uh 10-piece Motown band, the corporate band, it's just like my dad's that I do that's totally separate from my music, and so that's kind of why I do that. You can't yeah, I mean the energy.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, the energy, the memories you have, and I'm sure there's more to come, but uh just everything from the past to where you are today and the people you've been on stage with. And you know, how can you not just smile and go, damn? Yes, I do it all the time.

SPEAKER_01:

It's happening.

SPEAKER_03:

And it continues to happen. Um you know, uh your music is I I urge people to go online and you know, do a search for bids at Bigsby. And uh you're gonna hear it. I mean, I was blown away by it. It just uh you know everything that you do. Um so can you we talked about your struggles with addiction, but also you've had some other near-death experiences. I mean, I read that uh you overcame cancer.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh yeah, I'm a cancer survivor.

SPEAKER_03:

God bless you, man.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh oh man, yeah, I'm I'm so blessed. I caught it early. Yep. Um, I caught it early. They took the entire prostate out.

unknown:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, it it has not come back. That was years and years ago. I think uh my PSA level now is 0.002. Uh and I have good friends of mine that have had the same exact thing and it came back and just killed them in their own.

SPEAKER_03:

It's pretty common for men. Yeah, it is.

SPEAKER_00:

And nowadays it has never come back, and I'm so glad.

SPEAKER_03:

Dude, God bless you. That's awesome. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

That's what I mean when I say this is so faith, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Faith and hope. I mean, all the ups and downs that you've been through, you wouldn't be able to do that without faith and hope and your recovery, and you know how it weaved that into you weaved that into your music, and you know, that's what I hear. Yeah, yeah, yeah, too. It's an escape for me. Tell me about urban Americana and how did that sound develop?

SPEAKER_02:

Because there was nowhere else to put the music.

SPEAKER_03:

That's right. You just kind of created uh we just made a lane. You made your own genre. I mean, no, and I think that's cool.

SPEAKER_01:

We made a lane. Well, we couldn't, it when I didn't it just evolved, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's you go in this, you know, you go in the lab, you go in the studio, you sit down with somebody, and you you it's like a blank canvas there, and then you you don't know what you're doing, and you start messing around with stuff, and in two hours you got, or sometime in 20 minutes, you've got this great stuff, and you don't know what to do with it, and then that's the good part. Then you have to take it and package it and and and ask somebody where to put it, and you know how how to sell it, right? And you got this I don't know. Yeah, it's like, well, I'm not country, I'm not R and B, but I'm not because I'm I'm not, but I'm but I'm all of that, right? Right, exactly. So what do you that's what I mean when I say that how can how do you like it's almost like this how do you describe chocolate cake? How would you describe chocolate cake to me? See what I'm saying? Like it tastes like chocolate. Well, what's chocolate tape? Yeah, but what's that taste like? It's good. I know, I know. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_03:

That's how exactly, right? You know, and we talked about the different genres and not finding a road to go down with whatever genre. Nowadays, it's not what it was years ago. I'll I'll tell you what I think about this. Not maybe it doesn't matter, but um I think it does. Oh no, it matters because if it does it, let me tell you. Um but nowadays what used to be country was country, you know, pop was pop, hip-hop was hip-hop, yeah, um, you know, jazz was jazz, uh smooth jazz was jazz. Smooth jazz.

SPEAKER_02:

Um yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Nowadays I don't know where you draw the lines because there are no lines. There are no lines to write. Because you know, I look at, for example, doing what I do, playing country on a country station that's kicking ass and styric.

SPEAKER_01:

Um that's right.

SPEAKER_03:

Thank you. But I'm glad I'm sad. But no, when I look at when I look at like where our listeners are coming from, you know, I I don't know whether you believe in the ratings or not, but you can see pretty much the crossover. Like it's like, you know, I got people that love hip hop and pop and all that, but yet they're also listening to country. And country is now listening to hip hop.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, I'd cross that cross-pollinate.

SPEAKER_03:

There right. There are no real lines. And you know, it's just old school, I guess old school folk saying, oh, that's not country. But really, what is what is country? You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. No, I and and I'm you know, it's funny because I'm at I'm at the age where I understand why they feel that way. Yeah, because you don't want to change. Why why change? It's not broken. Why why fix it? But but you have these creatives that that are younger and younger and younger that listen to everything and they want to they want to cross-pollinate. And I you can't say, I mean, if it works for them, I can, you know, we can remember when when like they didn't want the Beatles here. It's gonna call these kids to go to hell. Exactly. You know what I mean? So I I can't, even though one thing I've learned is that I I can't, I do not judge anything. Like I it might not be for me, but it's for somebody. And so um then I like the same thing I said. How can you describe chocolate cake? Well, some people like pecan pie. That doesn't mean it's wrong, it just means that's just what you like. Is it pecan or pecan? Pecan? Pecan. Well, you know, I'm in I'm in Nashville, so it's pecan pie. So it's pecan. I mean, yeah, I mean, I mean, that's probably pecan, tomato, tomato, somewhere else. Yeah, exactly. I know, I know.

SPEAKER_03:

I go off on these tangents every once in a while, but go ahead.

SPEAKER_00:

Man, there's a street here called Lafayette, and I can tell if you're from Nashville or not by how you pronounce that word street. If you Lafayette, if you say Lafayette, you're from here. Lafayette. If you say Lafa Lafayette, you're not from here.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, we have a Lafayette, we have a Lafayette Street, Lafayette Boulevard, we have a Lafayette New York. That's how we say it's Lafayette.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Here's Lafayette.

SPEAKER_03:

Lafayette.

SPEAKER_00:

Lafayette, yeah, man. It's not even, I never even knew, I never even heard of Lafayette until I was 20.

SPEAKER_03:

There's one street, and I'm sure you know exactly what I'm gonna say here. Demember, Demembrion? Demumrium. Thank you. I already said Demon Burrow. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's that's a harbor.

SPEAKER_03:

Because when we're going from the airport to get to downtown, it's like we got to go to the Mumbrium, yeah. We go to the Demonboro Street. I don't know. I that's it. I I can never get that right.

SPEAKER_00:

But that that one is hard. That one is hard. But but it's uh that now you got a lot of uh transplants in Nashville, so it's kind of it's it's fun just having a lot of conversation in English. It gets really fun. They're not we call ourselves uh unicorns because it's not many of us left that were born and raised here.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow, and it it's not many of you're right, that were born and raised there, and that are musicians because a lot of people are coming in from the outside.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, a lot of LA, it's a lot of LA here, uh, which is why um this the the name of the album, the song here in this town, that's where that song came from. I um I was born in in a in North Nashville, okay. Which is there's a street called Jefferson Street that goes right down the middle of North Nashville. Now, Jefferson Street, uh most people don't know, but you've heard everybody's heard of Bill Street in Memphis, but nobody's heard of Jefferson Street. Jefferson Street was was was Bill Street, but it was just it wasn't blues, it was everything. There would be nothing that Hendrix played on Bills, on Jefferson. Um Lil Richard, of course, uh Fats Domino, all of these people played on on up and down Jefferson Street. They would go and they would they would bring them in to play on the white side of town, but they couldn't stay on that side of town once they got through playing, they had to come back over here. And they would just that street became D street in music. Um, and it was huge, and everybody um that's how that's really how night train and all this started because all this talent was here. And and so the interstate came through, they had to put an interstate from Memphis to Knoxville, and that was interstate 40. So it's 40 West, and then 40 is coming back. So they were coming, it had to come through Nashville, so they decided to take it through my community, and they completely cut off uh about 20 cross streets. So you can imagine Jefferson's going down here, 8th Avenue, now 8th to 28th are all cross streets, and it's a neighborhood, and everybody's having, and all of a sudden you cut that off. Yes, and it it choked out the community. The dentists had to leave, the doctors had to move, the stores had to close, and it became um the number one 37208, my zip code, was uh was the number one it got hit the hardest. It got hit the hardest. So uh that always bothered me. So I wrote this song called Here in This Town because I have a love-hate relationship with my city, okay, to be honest. I love it, but sometimes they just ain't like anywhere else.

SPEAKER_01:

No, it's like any city in the world, man.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I mean I think we all can say that for our cities, yeah. But go ahead, tell me about the city.

SPEAKER_00:

We just happen to be songwriters here, right? So everybody feels it, but we've got to say it. We just can't feel it. So we there's a line in the song that says, You walked into my hood and took what you wanted. Monday is mine, but by Friday, you own it. And I'm supposed to live there and love you anyway. And that's corporate. That's just that's that's not that's not contained to North Nashville. That's happening everywhere. Um, and so it was just it was just um, you know, you're getting pushed out, the tall and skinnies are coming, and the corporate, and people are coming and buying up entire streets and then putting tearing down all the houses that are 20 houses and putting 80 up. And it's happening everywhere. It's real life. But I wanted that song to have a country, like the like if I if I'd have made that an RB song, it wouldn't have it wouldn't have hit the way it hits. I wanted the song to be Nashville, like I wanted the core progressions to be Nashville. I wanted the vibe to be bluesy country, and that's exactly what it is. And then, and then um, for lack of a better term, there's a soulful voice on top of it, which happens to be mine. I don't know if that makes sense. I mean, I feel real weird saying that.

SPEAKER_03:

No, no, no.

SPEAKER_00:

I wanted to make it like Otis Reading doing this song, and that's that's that's kind of what my mind was like Otis Redding does this country ish blues song about the neighborhood he grew up in. And that's where it came from. And actually, that song was the album was done.

SPEAKER_02:

We were done. We were about to put it in the case. We were putting a check by it.

SPEAKER_00:

And about three o'clock uh that Tuesday before the Friday, we were finishing the album. I got this epiphany. I'm like, oh gosh, I got these chords and I gotta get them out. And I called my my co-writer of Guitar Phil. I'm like, man, I I can't stop. I got I got these chords in my head and I can't go to sleep. So we'll just write them down, put them on a thing, and we'll talk about it in the morning. And we wrote here in this time, and it became the the title track of the album.

SPEAKER_03:

That is so cool. When when uh the album drops when uh we've changed the day so much, it drops um pretty quick though, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Next, yeah, it drops next week.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

I should know that.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sorry, man. My people are gonna kill me. I can feel them choking me now. What is he talking about? But if you go, if you go to Biz Bigsby on it's probably somebody taking, it drops so and so, Bill, they're probably thinking you can tell me. I know they're they're like texting you right now.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Christy, I love you, Christy. You do like you, bird.

SPEAKER_05:

Um my good.

SPEAKER_02:

You know, there um it's dropping this week. But if you really want to know, if you go on to bizbigsby.com, we'll tell you all of that. Every link tree is there. So that's awesome. Um, but it's it's it's next week that we're dropping it. We're doing a show at Rudy's on the 15th. Uh, and we're doing the entire album front to back.

SPEAKER_03:

How um how often do you play at Rudy's? Once a month. Once a month.

SPEAKER_00:

Normally it's the third Wednesday, six o'clock. And it's it's turned into a really good vibe, man. The thing I like about the thing I like about it, honestly, is that it's a room full of people that are so diverse.

unknown:

I love that.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, it just nobody is nobody, everybody's from a different place. Everybody doesn't look alike, everybody doesn't think alike, everybody doesn't vote alike, everybody doesn't believe in the same things. But but at that for those two hours, everybody's there saying, no, this can happen. Because it's happening. And that is that that's the power of music to me.

SPEAKER_03:

I just have to keep that in mind. I make a trip to Nashville. I'll have to find out, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

You have to.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, when you're playing at uh when you're playing at Rudy's.

SPEAKER_00:

Please let me know when you come.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm taking you to lunch. And I'll walk. I'll take you on. There you go. I'll I will have a shirt on it says.

SPEAKER_03:

All right. Let me ask you that. Yeah, I I should have those men. I know you do. It really is. Um if if you could share the stage with anybody, any artist of today, who would it be and why? I'm talking about today.

SPEAKER_00:

Um Post Malone.

SPEAKER_03:

That is so cool. See, Post is from this area. I don't know if you know that or not. I did, but I love it. I love him. He um he's so genuine. Yes, he is uh very down to earth. You look at him, you might get scared. But other than that, I mean, you know, this guy can sing. He can sing practically any uh here go here I go, genre if there is one. Right.

SPEAKER_02:

Well they make us say it, man. They make us say it. I know they do. They do, you're right, you're right.

SPEAKER_03:

Um wow. I think I was wondering what you were gonna say.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, Post Malone. He he he was the first. Everybody, everybody was was so was so upset or crazy, crazy, whatever good or bad about Beyonce changing genres and coming into the country vibe. Post Malone did it first.

SPEAKER_03:

I know. And here's one thing I'll say about that.

SPEAKER_01:

Nobody said anything.

SPEAKER_03:

No, you're right. Po Posty did it.

SPEAKER_01:

You're right, it's exactly the same thing.

SPEAKER_03:

And uh people argue with me when I talked about when I talked about the Beyonce thing, and I'll tell you why. Um, I firmly believe that it was all good, and I believe what Beyonce did was, if anything, it gave a boost to the country genre. Uh because now you're taking some of Beyoncé's people and they're kind of coming over to the countryside a little bit. Yes. And countryside's good. So it was a good thing for the format.

SPEAKER_00:

It was a good thing for the well, it gives it gives people an option. And and so for the people for you know, for the hardliners that don't want to cross it, they they can stay, that's fine. But if people have one of choice, and I don't think there's any like I I just I refuse to take sides on anything. I just I'm not doing that because there's too much gray, there's too much in the middle, so it's all good music. And and I wish I wish that we could have a if if I could do one thing in this world right now, and I could do it, I would have Post Malone and Beyonce co-headliner show.

SPEAKER_03:

Damn, you better call me if that happens, you know what I mean? I'm gonna I'm gonna give you my number.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, no, I would man, because it would just it's the same soup. The bowl is just different, but the soup is the same, yes. Oh my god, it's like it's so it's like it doesn't make sense that we would that we have to take sides on this, it's just it's music, so it's supposed to go all kinds of different ways and make so if I had a choice though, I if I had to sit down and talk to someone, and it's because of uh what yeah, he's genuine and he's honest, and and he's he did something to most people, he did it seamlessly.

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, he did it seamlessly. He got this guy smooth with tattoos everywhere with gold teeth with a cow and go with a cowboy hat on and and cowboy boots, and they're like, come on in, yeah. And and that's who it's not like like I don't like stuff that is being done to get money, like you know, I don't like fake shit. Right, right. But he's he's real fake, he's real. Wherever he is, he is where he wants to be. He's not doing it for anything other than the fact that that's what he's feeling right there, and that's that's and I went I went to the post Malone show when they hit the amphitheater here in town.

SPEAKER_03:

One of the best shows I had ever seen, if not the best. I mean, that he was just phenomenal. No, just phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00:

He he's that dude to me, man. Yeah, because cool. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I'll wait for it. Send it to me when you do it. Yeah, no, you'll you'll know.

SPEAKER_01:

Trust me, you'll know. Uh get in touch with Skip. And tell him that we're about to make this happen, man. Um start in New York.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, you know. It could just could have sparked something. But uh, you know, uh Biz Bigsby's been with us uh tonight on Skip Happen. So before I let you go, let's have a little bit of fun. We've been having fun all night, but uh yeah, we have. So Nashville is full of great food and stories. What's your go-to Nashville spot when you want to unwind and grab a bite?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh man, ooh, I think Silver Sands.

SPEAKER_03:

What is it?

SPEAKER_00:

Silver Sands.

SPEAKER_03:

Silver Sands.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a meet and three on 10th Avenue North off of Jefferson. And man.

SPEAKER_03:

Silver Sands.

SPEAKER_00:

Silver Sands. We're talking about homemade chicken and dumplings. I mean, homemade. We're talking about uh oh man, we're talking about fried chicken and waffles for breakfast. And and oh yeah, we're talking about hash browns and dude, uh like like grandmama. So much. Holy shit. Well, I can't, you said once. I I'm not only go once, like every now and then, because I can't blow up on the same. That's my goal. You know, food is is like it's like it's one of the senses, it's one of the five. So you know, it just makes me it makes me remind me of home.

SPEAKER_03:

All right, before I let you go, if you could describe your life story in the title of a song, what would it be? A change gonna come.

SPEAKER_00:

Sam Cook.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow, I was gonna say, I knew I heard the edit, you're right, Sam Cook. Sam Cook.

SPEAKER_02:

Sam Cook wrote that song and he never got to hear it. They killed him, but he died before the song was released.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh have you um been to uh is it Studio A, the RCA studio? Have you done that tour thing?

SPEAKER_00:

You probably accidentally because everybody that's on my album has played there, yeah, has done some stuff there, and I I just I had a we had a publishing deal on the road, uh, and I'm very proud of that because I was one of the um few blackers say that a publishing deal on the road, and I was very, very, very, very, very proud of that and got into the part where where I actually saw how it was done and how it was made. So I've gone through it, but I never took the actual proud of that.

SPEAKER_03:

How about Jimmy Allen? Did you ever do anything with Jimmy Allen? Or no? I've had him on the podcast a couple of times, you know. He he's been through a lot of tough stuff. But um yes, yes.

SPEAKER_00:

We had a we had a long, we had a nice conversation at uh um he's a good guy.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, we talk all the time, dude. I could call him right now and he'd talk, he'd answer his phone.

SPEAKER_01:

He'd answer your phone. That's a I tell people out of time, people like, yeah, I know so and so. I'm like, Yeah, but does he know you? You might have been Jimmy I don't know. Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_03:

But no, he's somebody that he's been on Skip Happens twice, and um really, you know, he's trying, he's a great guy, and he's really, really, really talented. Oh my god, he is just skip happened and not in a good way for him.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, but you know, but he's here and and he's here, yeah. I would love I actually I thought about this um after I talked to him because we met, we met. I was I had my kids at a uh at a place and he had his kids and it's the place we had a conversation and talk, and I thought about like, man, that would be a really good guy to co-write something with. Oh my god, he's I had one person I would co-write with right now in this city, it would be him.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, cool. And that I'd love to I'd love to hear the result too.

SPEAKER_00:

Because yeah, you might make I might reach out, man. Reach out to him for me, tell him I really want to talk to him.

SPEAKER_03:

I will, I'll actually do that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we can put it together, and we will we'll tell everybody, man.

SPEAKER_01:

Skip happened, and that's why it will give out free t-shirts. That's why this song, man.

SPEAKER_03:

Wait, but I got skip happened's hat here somewhere too. I do, I don't know where the hell it is.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, but it's it's uh no man, you never know how things work, but yeah, just when we get out the thing, Texas.

SPEAKER_00:

I ran it, I ran into this dude named Biz. He said he's seen you forget a couple times because we played with him. Um we played the after party of a show that he played, and so that's this that's and then and then I got to, you know, we talked and we met and and had a totally different thing. But I really would that's one person I would love to sit down and write with.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, dude, I I ain't look watch. I mean, I'm just gonna text him. Watch this.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, and I'm sure he'll text you back. He'll be like, Biz, who don't know that dude.

SPEAKER_01:

Which is fine, which is fine with me. I have no problem. I told you, man, I have no ego. I have no problem, but the point is is that he will know me, and that's I just want to meet him.

SPEAKER_00:

So we'll we'll actually we'll on a writing basis. Because he won't he won't remember who I am, I promise you.

SPEAKER_05:

All right, hang on. I gonna be I don't know that dude. Who the F is he? No, right, right.

SPEAKER_01:

No, that's probably but but it's but but man, I'm used to that.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh I'm Used to that. That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_02:

I I um I tell you, me and my ego, we got a really good, we have a good, good relationship.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh my god. I see. Anyways, you know what? This has been great. Um thank you. A lot of fun talking to you, getting to know you. Um thank you. Your history, everything you've been through, a good, bad, man, it's just made you into the person that you are today. Um, and hopefully somebody watches this or somebody gets something out of it with you know, talking about everything that you've been through. And yeah, you know, you're you're you're standing tall and you're making it happen. And look at you, you're still writing, you're performing, you're doing all that. You got a song coming out that uh, you know, it's kicking the ass. If it like I say, what what the website is a biz? I almost said Bill Bixby.

SPEAKER_01:

Bill Bixby. Bill Bixby. Uh courtship of Eddie's father.

SPEAKER_03:

That was that's right. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah. Remember those days? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_03:

Courtship of Eddie's father.

SPEAKER_01:

You remember those managers? Let me tell you about my best friend. Oh man, God. See, I could talk to you for another hour now.

SPEAKER_02:

You you just you you gotta you gotta easily talk.

SPEAKER_03:

But it's my bedtime. Yeah, it's mine.

SPEAKER_02:

So I'm staying up for you, brother. No, I would.

SPEAKER_03:

I did I, you know, I I do my podcast, we go as long as whatever. Usually I like to keep it about an hour. I mean, yeah, if I cut you off at a half hour, that means you sucked.

SPEAKER_02:

So I'm just saying No, you know what's funny? They said I get all these, I get all these papers characters that come saying, okay, we got this for you, we got this for you.

SPEAKER_00:

And normally they'll give me a length of time. Yours put TBD. I went, okay, I know exactly what that means.

SPEAKER_01:

Like that means I'll determine how long I talk to you, buddy. Because if this ain't fun, skip's about to happen.

SPEAKER_00:

It is. And uh, so so that means that we're the hour, so that means I must have been, I must have passed the test. But but I I uh You did. You I'm so honored, man.

SPEAKER_03:

Right back at you. And uh, you know, doing all this, I get to meet a lot of great people like yourself, and who I probably would not have met or even known. Uh, but now I've been doing the podcast for a few years. Everything I used to have them, uh, artists would come into my studio. I have a full studio here, right? I own like this room in the house. Nobody comes down here, except for my wife. Except for my wife when she wants to go in the other room to do laundry. That's it. Then she's gotta have a pass.

SPEAKER_02:

Right, right. I'm just passing through. Right.

SPEAKER_03:

See these socks? You want them washed? You let me in. How about this underwear? This has got to be washed. You know, I'm just it's your choice. I think they'll leave them at the door.

SPEAKER_01:

You know what to do. Didn't have done that, man. Oh man, you're the best. I totally get it. But uh thank you for your thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh yeah, and thank you for your time. And um stay right there.

SPEAKER_00:

Can I say something really quick? Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03:

It's all yours.

SPEAKER_00:

Any anybody that is going through anything of what I went through, if you've been watching this show and you reach out to me, I have no problem talking to you. None at all. Uh, go to bizbigsby.com and and um email me. If you all of my the link tree is in that is in is in my website. Find me. I will talk to you. It is okay. It is really is okay. They gave up on me years ago, and I'm still here. Nobody gave up on you. Nobody gave up on you.

SPEAKER_02:

No, man, don't do there'll people that there are people that will tell you, like, don't deal with them. Um and now these same people are paying like good money to come see me play.

SPEAKER_03:

There you go. Yeah, as long as they buy a ticket at the door, right?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and they the same people like, hey man, can I get in? Can I do you remember you walk right back?

SPEAKER_03:

No, I'm just gonna but that was so cool. That's cool of you to do that because Yeah, no, I mean that.

SPEAKER_00:

I and I mean that uh you are not alone because you never know what one person, just just one person saying it's okay, can change the whole direction of the wind blowing. You just never know.

SPEAKER_03:

You never know. Wow, I'm here for you. You are the best. Thank you, brother. Biz Bigsby.com. Yes, biz bizarre. Why didn't you just call yourself Bill?

SPEAKER_01:

I said, Hey man, the Bigsbees would be really mad at me if I didn't understand that.

SPEAKER_03:

Quickly, where did Biz come from?

SPEAKER_00:

I used to take care of a lot of business when I was a kid. They used to call me baby business. Okay, and so I had to, I, you know, I'm I am nine years old, and I see this this group on TV, and I'm like, I want to start this group, and so I'm nine, and I start a band in my living room, and I'm like, this dude is saying he's baby business, and then it goes from baby business to because when you're 20, they can't call you baby anything anymore. So then it just cut cut down the biz. But it I thought it was kind of I didn't usually like it, but I've leaned into it now. My name, my real name is Wendell Scott Bigsby. So if your name was Wendell, wouldn't you have a nickname too by the time you were 12?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I don't know if it'd be Biz, but I would do that. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_00:

At least I didn't name myself.

SPEAKER_01:

Like I know some cats give their own nickname. Like, no, dude, it's no, you name you gave yourself your own nickname.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, you know, it goes back to you know, growing up, yeah, and whatever was going on. That's how you get your nickname. I totally get it. I totally get it. And and you know what? You want it to be different because you want to be unique. So yeah, and now you know I'll leave it to it. Yeah, they'll remember Biz.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well, let's hope so. And for all the right things, all the right reasons.

SPEAKER_03:

There you go. Uh, Biz Bigs B. I wanted to say nope. All right, no, Biz Bigsby, dude.

SPEAKER_01:

Big uh I love Skip Clark. I love you.

SPEAKER_03:

Right back at you, my friend. Biz Bigsby on Skip Happens tonight. It's our podcast. We're gonna do this again. Uh we're gonna sign off. Everybody, thank you for watching. Subscribe. I don't know. Do you have a YouTube channel? Make sure they subscribe to your YouTube channel. Make sure you also subscribe to Skip Happens so you don't miss another one of these crazy conversations because you never know the direction the road we go down. It's it's always different. Every week it's different. So and it's always a lot of fun. Uh, Biz, thank you for joining us. Stay right there, and thank you everybody for watching and listening. Have a great night.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Skip Clark

Host