Latest / Takin’ A Walk Nashville / Nashville Songwriter and Podcast Host Tony Mantor discusses His Music History, Creative Journey, Collaboration and Making A Difference

Transcript

Nashville Songwriter and Podcast Host Tony Mantor discusses His Music History, Creative Journey, Collaboration and Making A Difference · Takin’ A Walk Nashville

0:00
Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.
0:02
Speaker 2: Hi, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Tick and
0:05
Speaker 2: Walk Nashville, and today I am back in the Russell
0:09
Speaker 2: Hotels podcast studio in East Nashville, and here with me
0:13
Speaker 2: is Tony Mantour. Tony is an established singer, songwriter, pianist,
0:19
Speaker 2: podcast host, and record charting music producer who is celebrating
0:23
Speaker 2: working in Nashville for more than thirty years. The Madison
0:27
Speaker 2: main native first arrived in Nashville as a touring sideman
0:30
Speaker 2: for country music sensation Ronnie McDowell in nineteen seventy six.
0:35
Speaker 2: Since that time, Mantor has progressed into an award winning
0:39
Speaker 2: music producer, recording and placing thirty three songs into the
0:43
Speaker 2: top forty sixteen songs into the top ten of various
0:47
Speaker 2: US major music charts. He's worked with the likes of
0:51
Speaker 2: Debbie Campbell, the daughter of Glenn Campbell, Bobby Brooks Wilson,
0:55
Speaker 2: son of Jackie Wilson, Happy Day Star, and singer Donny Moet,
1:00
Speaker 2: and many other country artists inspire to have his music
1:04
Speaker 2: make a difference in the lives of people. His recent
1:07
Speaker 2: song why Not Me has become the inspiration for launching
1:11
Speaker 2: a new podcast in twenty twenty three, also called Why
1:15
Speaker 2: Not Me, which focuses on autism awareness, acceptance, and understanding
1:21
Speaker 2: and features one on one interviews with those who have
1:24
Speaker 2: been touched by autism. Since its launch, the Why Not
1:28
Speaker 2: Me podcast has been downloaded more than nine million times worldwide.
1:33
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty four, Mantor debuted his second self produced podcast,
1:38
Speaker 2: Almost Live Nashville. It's currently number two on the Apple
1:42
Speaker 2: Podcast Music category chart and turning his attention back to
1:47
Speaker 2: the world of entertainment, music, and TV. Mantor also host
1:52
Speaker 2: the thought provoking stories with celebrity guests on this podcast,
1:56
Speaker 2: who share how they've achieved their own success.
2:01
Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
2:03
Speaker 1: Walk Nashville podcast. Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville with
2:13
Speaker 1: your hosts, singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson.
2:16
Speaker 2: So, Tony, you are a man of many talents and
2:19
Speaker 2: I'm so glad you're here on Taking a Walk Nashville today.
2:21
Speaker 2: How are you all.
2:22
Speaker 3: I'm doing good. Thanks for having me.
2:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for being here. So I want to start
2:26
Speaker 2: by talking about the beginning of your career. How did
2:30
Speaker 2: you make the move from the Northeast down to Nashville
2:35
Speaker 2: free music. I had to look up where Madison, Maine.
2:40
Speaker 1: Wise.
2:40
Speaker 2: I've been to Bar Harbor, but not in that town before.
2:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, bar Harbor was about an hour and a half
2:46
Speaker 3: from where I grew up. It's an interesting story. I
2:51
Speaker 3: started out just performing like anyone does, where we join
2:57
Speaker 3: the band, we go out and perform. We have our dreams,
3:00
Speaker 3: we hope that we can make it. I was a
3:03
Speaker 3: rock singer. I did more Eagles, you know, that type
3:07
Speaker 3: of music. I wasn't a country singer. And I had
3:11
Speaker 3: some friends of mine that were country songwriters. They didn't
3:15
Speaker 3: have the transportation. They wanted me to take them to Nashville.
3:18
Speaker 3: And because I didn't know what Nashville was other than country,
3:21
Speaker 3: I thought George Jones that type of thing, which I
3:25
Speaker 3: really appreciated, all the Johnny Cashes of the world and
3:28
Speaker 3: everything for what they did and how they got there.
3:31
Speaker 3: I just wasn't a country fan at that time. And
3:34
Speaker 3: I looked at him, I said, why would I want
3:36
Speaker 3: to go to Nashville as a country Sydney. I'm more
3:41
Speaker 3: on the pop and the rock side. They talked me
3:44
Speaker 3: into it. I wound up coming down and they pitched
3:47
Speaker 3: their songs around and how it all kind of fell
3:51
Speaker 3: together was we went in the studio, they got a
3:54
Speaker 3: publishing deal. We went in the studio and the piano
3:59
Speaker 3: player didn't show up. And back then you didn't have
4:01
Speaker 3: a cell phone where you could just say where are you?
4:04
Speaker 3: You know, they didn't show up, you just moved on
4:07
Speaker 3: or found someone else real quick. Because I was a
4:11
Speaker 3: piano player and they the producers found out about it,
4:15
Speaker 3: they asked me to play on it, and I'm and
4:17
Speaker 3: here I am playing in a demos situation with some
4:22
Speaker 3: of the best musicians in Nashville. So, long story short.
4:27
Speaker 3: A guy walks in and he's an independent record label.
4:32
Speaker 3: He knows everybody in the room except for me. He
4:35
Speaker 3: comes over, introduces himself to we talk, and then he says, well,
4:38
Speaker 3: what are you doing this summer? I said, well, I'm
4:40
Speaker 3: just kind of taking a few months so ought to
4:42
Speaker 3: find out what I'm gonna do. And then he's good
4:46
Speaker 3: friends with Ronnie McDowell's manager, and he goes, how would
4:49
Speaker 3: you like to go out and perform with Ronnie mcdioell.
4:51
Speaker 3: I said, who's that? And that was kind of before
4:54
Speaker 3: he became Ronnie McDowell, you know, So I wound up
4:58
Speaker 3: doing a short tour with him and then just kept
5:02
Speaker 3: my contacts growing in Nashville. And to be honest, walking
5:07
Speaker 3: into a Nashville studio with the players, the atmosphere is
5:11
Speaker 3: just so much different than New York and LA, you know,
5:13
Speaker 3: so it was worth the trip.
5:16
Speaker 2: And a little bit warmer winters here than that main.
5:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I mean it. But actually it's as warm
5:24
Speaker 3: in Maine today as it is down here.
5:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, which is wild. That never happens, it really is,
5:29
Speaker 2: it really is. So you've been in Nashville for a
5:32
Speaker 2: long time and you've seen how Nashville has evolved over
5:37
Speaker 2: the decades. What's your opinion of the new Nashville now?
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Speaker 3: Well, you know, a lot of the people that I
5:45
Speaker 3: know say they are so glad that they grew up
5:49
Speaker 3: and worked through the transition of what old Nashville is
5:53
Speaker 3: to New Nashville because we changed from two inch twenty
5:56
Speaker 3: four track tape to digital, so all that transition and
6:01
Speaker 3: then cuss the changing of the music styles to where
6:06
Speaker 3: country isn't the country that they once knew. So with
6:11
Speaker 3: that said, it's different, you know, in the fact that
6:13
Speaker 3: the dynamics have changed, but everybody still has the same
6:17
Speaker 3: dream they still have the same process. They just have
6:20
Speaker 3: to figure out how they're going to do it right.
6:22
Speaker 3: So as much as a lot of people want the
6:26
Speaker 3: old country back, it's never going to come back, you know.
6:30
Speaker 3: It's always evolving. So the only thing I don't like
6:34
Speaker 3: is that some of the iconic studios have been torn
6:37
Speaker 3: down become hotels and condos that I don't like. I mean,
6:43
Speaker 3: one of the most famous studios that Paul McCartney recorded in,
6:47
Speaker 3: it's been torn down and now you've got condos in there,
6:50
Speaker 3: you know, that I don't like. But everything else as
6:53
Speaker 3: far as the way that the transition of the music
6:55
Speaker 3: has evolved, it's just an evolution of of everything keeps
7:01
Speaker 3: turning around. And now there's a lot of nineties country
7:04
Speaker 3: that's starting to come back again. So the circle always
7:08
Speaker 3: keeps evolving. It's just a matter of you being able
7:12
Speaker 3: to accept it and grow and build and work and adapt.
7:16
Speaker 3: And that's kind of what I've tried to do.
7:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's important, being able to adapt. And
7:21
Speaker 2: with the evolvement of technology, more people are producing and
7:25
Speaker 2: recording at home studios or their own homes now, which
7:29
Speaker 2: has led to the closing of some major studios in
7:32
Speaker 2: Nashville and on music Row, which is sad to see.
7:36
Speaker 2: I personally love being able to get together in a
7:39
Speaker 2: studio with other people because it kind of brings out
7:43
Speaker 2: the creative side of everyone, and there's something to be
7:46
Speaker 2: said about the community aspect of recording on a studio
7:49
Speaker 2: together with other people.
7:51
Speaker 3: It does.
7:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, So how has it evolved for you as a producer.
7:57
Speaker 2: I know you said you're have adapted and accepted change
8:01
Speaker 2: with technology, but has it changed how you have been
8:05
Speaker 2: a producer for other artists?
8:09
Speaker 3: No, because I still stay true to my roots. I
8:13
Speaker 3: like the interaction between the players because when you have
8:17
Speaker 3: great players, you bring them into a studio to do
8:22
Speaker 3: what they do best. If you can just have a
8:24
Speaker 3: whip out there and say do what I say, then
8:27
Speaker 3: it doesn't matter. You can put them in five different
8:30
Speaker 3: places at different times and let them overdub and it's
8:33
Speaker 3: be fine. But if you give them the creative ability
8:37
Speaker 3: to work and do what they do, then you can
8:41
Speaker 3: always say, you know, I love what you're doing, but
8:42
Speaker 3: I need you to tone it back, or I need
8:44
Speaker 3: you to change this, or sometimes you just get the
8:47
Speaker 3: magic where they make a mistake, but the mistake is
8:51
Speaker 3: so damn good. Yeah that you go. You know what, No,
8:54
Speaker 3: don't change that. Let's leave it exactly the way it is.
8:57
Speaker 3: So the ability for the players to sit in that
9:00
Speaker 3: studio and talk back and forth and work out their
9:02
Speaker 3: parts and then do it is still the very best way. Then.
9:07
Speaker 3: The only thing that's changed is now I can do overdubs.
9:12
Speaker 3: I can do those type of things virtually because then
9:16
Speaker 3: I'm just telling them, Okay, this is what I want
9:18
Speaker 3: you to do to the track that's already there. And
9:21
Speaker 3: then because vocally, I have them come into my studio,
9:24
Speaker 3: we lay down the vocals, and then I bring in
9:26
Speaker 3: the background vocals. I guide them the way I want
9:29
Speaker 3: it to go there. So everything still stays the same,
9:32
Speaker 3: but we'd have adapted to bring in some of the
9:37
Speaker 3: new ways of doing things so that it can quicken
9:39
Speaker 3: up the process slightly.
9:41
Speaker 2: Right, And I think sometimes, especially with vocal sessions, it
9:45
Speaker 2: makes it quicker being in person instead of back and
9:48
Speaker 2: forth cutting vocals over the internet.
9:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it allows me as a producer to tell them, no,
9:58
Speaker 3: this is what I'm thinking that I need you to do.
10:00
Speaker 3: Because as much as I hate to say it, you know,
10:03
Speaker 3: because it seems like I'm throwing dars at some of
10:05
Speaker 3: the singers, but they don't know what they're doing. Sometimes,
10:08
Speaker 3: you know, they they're putting all their attention on one
10:12
Speaker 3: word in the line and it's the wrong word, you know.
10:15
Speaker 3: So you have to take and know exactly what you
10:19
Speaker 3: want this singer to sing and the emotions that you
10:23
Speaker 3: want them to put on a particular phrase or word,
10:27
Speaker 3: so that when the listener hears it, it draws them in.
10:30
Speaker 3: And sometimes when you do it virtually, you can't. You
10:33
Speaker 3: can't just do it three or four or five times
10:36
Speaker 3: in a row. I mean, I've spent an hour and
10:38
Speaker 3: a half on one word before, just getting it where
10:41
Speaker 3: it needed to be, and then after the singer heard it,
10:44
Speaker 3: they're going, you know, you put me through the grinder.
10:46
Speaker 3: But I really do like that, you know, and that's
10:48
Speaker 3: something you can't get virtually.
10:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I agree. In addition to being a producer
10:54
Speaker 2: and musician, you're also an artist and songwriter. I know
10:58
Speaker 2: you mentioned you're working with Debbie Campbell right now and
11:02
Speaker 2: you have a song now with her. Correct.
11:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, actually I have a song out with her and
11:07
Speaker 3: Bobby Wilson, Jackie Wilson's son. It's the old song that
11:10
Speaker 3: Glenn Campbell did Shoulder or Shoulder with Tanya Tucker Wow,
11:14
Speaker 3: And so we were trying to figure out what would
11:18
Speaker 3: be a good singer to put with her because he
11:22
Speaker 3: had to have a male singer and they had to
11:24
Speaker 3: cover Glenn. But I didn't want to go country because
11:27
Speaker 3: that would seem like we're just reproducing something that's already
11:30
Speaker 3: been done. So I brought in an R and B
11:32
Speaker 3: singer in Jackie Wilson's son, Bobby, and he was able
11:35
Speaker 3: to bring his texture in there so that we still
11:38
Speaker 3: paid tribute to the original song, but we still allowed
11:42
Speaker 3: it to be their song and it turned out really good,
11:47
Speaker 3: very cool.
11:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you also have another song, why Not Me,
11:51
Speaker 2: which inspired you to start your podcast with your first podcast,
11:57
Speaker 2: why Not Me? And it's such a beautiful music video.
12:01
Speaker 2: I watched it and it has to do with awareness
12:04
Speaker 2: of autism. Do you have a personal experience with autism
12:09
Speaker 2: that made you want to write the song and start
12:13
Speaker 2: this podcast?
12:14
Speaker 3: Well, actually I didn't write it. A friend of mine
12:16
Speaker 3: wrote it. It started out the story of how this
12:21
Speaker 3: whole thing came together is one Saturday morning, about nine o'clock,
12:25
Speaker 3: I woke up and turned out and I went into
12:27
Speaker 3: my email and there's a song sitting there and I
12:31
Speaker 3: had recorded one of his songs with another artist I
12:33
Speaker 3: worked with a few years prior. I heard the song
12:36
Speaker 3: and I called him up. I said, man, you wrote
12:38
Speaker 3: this song for me, didn't you, Because it's about never
12:40
Speaker 3: giving up on your dreams. It doesn't matter when you
12:43
Speaker 3: do it, as long as you do it. And that's
12:44
Speaker 3: what I post on my Facebook all the time. Never
12:47
Speaker 3: give up and you'll keep working do it. So I
12:50
Speaker 3: told him, I said, you know, I'm I'm working on
12:52
Speaker 3: a and this is during COVID, so I was working
12:54
Speaker 3: on a personal project just to do for the fun
12:57
Speaker 3: of it. So I told him, I said, I'm gonna
12:59
Speaker 3: cut this song. I cut it, and I cut it
13:03
Speaker 3: with a pot flair, but I added a steel in
13:08
Speaker 3: it to give it a texture like the Eagles used
13:10
Speaker 3: to do. And then all of a sudden, I'm getting
13:14
Speaker 3: I'm getting people that want to hear something I'm doing.
13:16
Speaker 3: So I send it out to them as, oh, man,
13:18
Speaker 3: you recorded a country song. I'm going it's not country,
13:22
Speaker 3: you know, but perception is reality. So if they want
13:25
Speaker 3: to call it a country then fine. Because it was
13:28
Speaker 3: a positive song. My promoters in New York, Nashville, LA
13:33
Speaker 3: in London wanted me to release it, and I'm going, now,
13:36
Speaker 3: I'm not getting back out on the road. I'm just
13:37
Speaker 3: doing this for the fun of it. It's just enjoyment.
13:40
Speaker 3: It's something to kill time. So they talked to me
13:43
Speaker 3: in the release and it I did, and it did well.
13:46
Speaker 3: I mean, it went number two in the in the
13:48
Speaker 3: secondary charts. And I felt like, if I'm going to
13:52
Speaker 3: put it out there, I need to pay tribute to someone.
13:56
Speaker 3: So I chose to pay tribute to our first responders.
14:00
Speaker 3: So I had done a couple of years before that,
14:04
Speaker 3: I had done a charity event for a fallen officer
14:08
Speaker 3: and I just call up a couple of people, I say, hey,
14:10
Speaker 3: can you get me some pictures of police and bironmen
14:14
Speaker 3: and all that, And then before too long, it got
14:17
Speaker 3: out here and I had people wanting to be part
14:19
Speaker 3: of that video from all over the country. So I
14:22
Speaker 3: wound up putting it together. It did well. And then
14:26
Speaker 3: how the autism came about is a lady heard the
14:30
Speaker 3: song and she really liked it, and she called me
14:34
Speaker 3: up and well, she sent me an email she goes,
14:37
Speaker 3: is there any way that you could do this for us?
14:40
Speaker 3: And she was a speech therapist for autistic children. I
14:44
Speaker 3: told us I really don't know anything about autism other
14:46
Speaker 3: than I've got a couple of friends that have relatives,
14:50
Speaker 3: but they don't talk about it. So I decided to
14:55
Speaker 3: re record the song in a more contemporary pot version
15:00
Speaker 3: and create a video with autistic and special needs here
15:05
Speaker 3: in Nashville. So I call it why Not Me Nashville
15:08
Speaker 3: so that people could differentiate between why Not Me, the
15:11
Speaker 3: so called country song and why Not Me Nashville for
15:15
Speaker 3: the autism and special needs and it just blew up.
15:18
Speaker 3: It just started blowing up. And at that time, I
15:20
Speaker 3: was co hosting a podcast out of New York on
15:23
Speaker 3: Business and we were talking about the music business on
15:26
Speaker 3: my part of it, and I told my some you
15:29
Speaker 3: got to take in and at least the last five minutes,
15:31
Speaker 3: we need to talk about the video I just did
15:35
Speaker 3: for autism and special needs. So they agreed to it,
15:39
Speaker 3: and then they wanted to extend the contract, and I
15:42
Speaker 3: felt that in order to do what I wanted to do,
15:44
Speaker 3: I needed to start my.
15:45
Speaker 1: Own We'll be right back with more of the Taking
15:48
Speaker 1: a Walk Nashville podcast. Welcome back to Taking a Walk.
15:56
Speaker 3: Nashville so I started my own podcast at that time
15:59
Speaker 3: was why Not Me the World because it was about
16:03
Speaker 3: a worldwide autism podcast, and it grew and eventually I
16:09
Speaker 3: changed it and rebranded this year to why Not Me
16:12
Speaker 3: Embracing Autism and Mental Health Worldwide. So that's kind of
16:16
Speaker 3: how it all evolved and how it all happened, and
16:18
Speaker 3: it just seemed to happen all byself.
16:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's amazing. You just hit nine million downloads on
16:26
Speaker 2: the podcast, and I think it's great because you're giving
16:30
Speaker 2: awareness to these voices of autism and mental health throughout
16:35
Speaker 2: the whole world.
16:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's crazy. I mean, I mean it's shown up
16:40
Speaker 3: in podcast charts, Apple and Spotify in all kinds of
16:46
Speaker 3: countries all around the world. So it's not just the US.
16:49
Speaker 3: It's been in Canada, as men in Brazil, as men
16:52
Speaker 3: in Argentina, South Africa, I mean all several countries in
16:56
Speaker 3: Europe and because of the UK. I mean, it's just crazy.
16:59
Speaker 2: Yeah. And if listeners on taking a Walk Nashville I
17:03
Speaker 2: have not heard the podcast, you can check it out
17:05
Speaker 2: on iHeartMedia, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. But
17:09
Speaker 2: in addition to that, you also have your other podcast
17:13
Speaker 2: almost Live Nashville. How do you have a time to
17:16
Speaker 2: do two podcasts at once.
17:18
Speaker 3: Well, you know, it's really interesting because when I told
17:21
Speaker 3: everyone that I was going to be doing a podcast,
17:24
Speaker 3: everyone just naturally assumed that because I'm in music, I've
17:28
Speaker 3: been here for the long length of time that I've
17:31
Speaker 3: been here, that it was going to be an entertainment
17:34
Speaker 3: music podcast. Yeah, So when I did why Not Me
17:37
Speaker 3: and it was about autism, it caught everybody off guard.
17:40
Speaker 3: It's like, what's this a Well, you know, I can't
17:43
Speaker 3: do another one because I don't know that much about
17:46
Speaker 3: podcasting yet. I was just actually just learning myself. This
17:50
Speaker 3: was a little over two years ago. So once I
17:54
Speaker 3: had about a year year and a half under my belt,
17:57
Speaker 3: I decided to create almost Live Nashville and have it
18:01
Speaker 3: focused on different artists that I've known or different people
18:05
Speaker 3: I've come in contact with over the years, and just
18:09
Speaker 3: build it that way. But I decided to make it
18:12
Speaker 3: an every other week podcast rather than every week, and
18:17
Speaker 3: it just I didn't know what to expect, but it
18:20
Speaker 3: just kind of blew up on me the same way.
18:22
Speaker 3: I mean, I just reached to I haven't put it
18:24
Speaker 3: out there yet, but I just reased three million downloads
18:27
Speaker 3: on that you Know and it's you Know hitting. It's
18:31
Speaker 3: in twenty twenty different countries around the world in the
18:34
Speaker 3: top charts. I mean, it just just caught me off guard.
18:37
Speaker 3: I didn't expect it. But I've had some great, great
18:40
Speaker 3: people come on, and I've got great people lined up
18:42
Speaker 3: to come on, and it's really amazing. I have people
18:47
Speaker 3: that email me every single day wanting to be on
18:51
Speaker 3: one of the other podcasts of both. I mean, it's
18:54
Speaker 3: just I'm overwhelmed with the amount of people that want
18:56
Speaker 3: to be on it.
18:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's wonderful. Congratulations you have. You have two podcasts,
19:02
Speaker 2: you have artists, you're working with, songs that you're releasing yourself.
19:07
Speaker 2: You're doing it all right now. So what's next for you?
19:11
Speaker 2: Is it? Is it releasing more music as an artist,
19:15
Speaker 2: working with more artist as a producer.
19:18
Speaker 3: Well, I've got I've got a few songs that I've
19:23
Speaker 3: that I've worked on that I could release through some
19:26
Speaker 3: of the other artists. I've got another song that I
19:30
Speaker 3: recorded last year that I haven't put out yet that
19:33
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about putting out with a video for because
19:36
Speaker 3: I did. Why not me for autism? Now? I'm thinking
19:40
Speaker 3: about doing this one for the mental health side, and
19:45
Speaker 3: I have, I've I've just started working. I've been on
19:49
Speaker 3: three three chapters away from finishing a book.
19:52
Speaker 2: Wow, you know.
19:53
Speaker 3: And and the book is going to be about autism
19:55
Speaker 3: and mental health and what I've and it's basically what
19:58
Speaker 3: I've learned through the podcast, asked bring up different little
20:01
Speaker 3: stories that people have told, and it's I'm hoping that
20:07
Speaker 3: that my main focus. The music one is it's fun
20:10
Speaker 3: to do because I deal with people that I know
20:13
Speaker 3: and we talk musically, get to lap and have fun
20:16
Speaker 3: with it. But the autism and the mental health one
20:19
Speaker 3: is one that needs to be heard because people do
20:25
Speaker 3: not realize that they could be seeing a child having
20:29
Speaker 3: a meltdown in a store and they think that the
20:32
Speaker 3: parenting is bad when it's really not. It's the child
20:36
Speaker 3: having a meltdown. The parent is doing what they're trying
20:38
Speaker 3: to do, and in ten or fifteen minutes it'll subside
20:41
Speaker 3: and they'll be okay, you know. And until we learn
20:46
Speaker 3: to recognize that the difference between a meltdown and somebody
20:50
Speaker 3: just being you know, a brat, so to speak, because
20:53
Speaker 3: that's what they think they are, you know. Oh, they're
20:55
Speaker 3: being a brat and they're not. So until we learn
20:57
Speaker 3: the difference between a meltdown and just an undisciplined child,
21:03
Speaker 3: we need to have a little empathy and we need
21:05
Speaker 3: to learn. And then when you get into the mental
21:07
Speaker 3: health side, you've got ADHD, you've got bipole, you've got anxiety, schizophrenia,
21:13
Speaker 3: you've got so many different things that people walking around
21:18
Speaker 3: you don't realize what they're going through. And it's not
21:22
Speaker 3: like cerehl palsy or MS or some things like that,
21:25
Speaker 3: because you can see that, but with autism and serious
21:29
Speaker 3: mental illness and those type of situations, you can't see it,
21:36
Speaker 3: you know. So if you can't see it, then you
21:38
Speaker 3: automatically think that it's not real. So we have to
21:42
Speaker 3: learn more about it as a society so that we
21:46
Speaker 3: can take and tone it down a little bit and
21:49
Speaker 3: help the people that need the help. So that's my
21:52
Speaker 3: goal with the podcast, is because people open up their
21:56
Speaker 3: lives to me and tell me things that they probably
21:59
Speaker 3: wouldn't tell them any and they tell things that they've
22:02
Speaker 3: never told told others before because they're bearing their souls
22:05
Speaker 3: to the listener. And so it's educational and informative and
22:11
Speaker 3: heartwarming and you can laugh, you can cry right along
22:15
Speaker 3: with them, but hopefully you're learning from them. And then
22:19
Speaker 3: this book once it gets out, if it gets out,
22:22
Speaker 3: because I'm not going to self published, I'm going to
22:24
Speaker 3: take and try and get somebody to handle it. So
22:28
Speaker 3: once I get that taken care of, then I'm hoping
22:31
Speaker 3: people reading it can learn from the different things that's
22:35
Speaker 3: been told to me, so that if one or two
22:37
Speaker 3: people learn something from it, then it's a win.
22:40
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think it's great that you are bringing awareness
22:44
Speaker 2: to this topic through your podcast and also a book,
22:47
Speaker 2: and I'm definitely looking forward to that when it does
22:50
Speaker 2: come out. Tony, thanks again for being here with me.
22:54
Speaker 2: On taking a walk Nashville today. This is something I
22:57
Speaker 2: always ask my guests. Do you have a favorite place
23:02
Speaker 2: you like to take a walk in Nashville.
23:04
Speaker 3: I've always liked the Parthenon, you know, you know, going
23:07
Speaker 3: down the air Centennial Park, Yeah, Centennial Park Yeah. And
23:13
Speaker 3: cuse Music Row, you know, because you asked me earlier,
23:20
Speaker 3: what change? What changes? I haven't liked. That's one thing
23:24
Speaker 3: that's lost because Music Row used to be you could
23:29
Speaker 3: walk down sixteenth and seventeenth and you could walk into
23:32
Speaker 3: these old buildings and you'd you'd walk in to an
23:35
Speaker 3: independent label or an independent publisher, or a producer or
23:39
Speaker 3: a public you know anything. And because of everything being
23:44
Speaker 3: online now, that has kind of died, but still sixteenth
23:49
Speaker 3: and seventeenth is still nice to walk down and just
23:51
Speaker 3: look at the you know what's still left there and
23:54
Speaker 3: realize that this is the path that Elvis took, This
23:58
Speaker 3: is the path that that because if you go down
24:01
Speaker 3: in the old RCA building, you know that Elvis has
24:04
Speaker 3: signed his concrete there. You know, you can you can
24:07
Speaker 3: look at places where some of the icons of country
24:10
Speaker 3: music have been and that hopefully never goes away.
24:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is said that a lot of studios and
24:17
Speaker 2: iconic places on music Row have closed, and you know,
24:20
Speaker 2: corporate buildings and condos have been built there, but there
24:25
Speaker 2: are still some great things like RCA there. One of
24:29
Speaker 2: my first internships that in college was at Nashville Songwriters Association,
24:34
Speaker 2: and yeah, that was the time where it was easier
24:37
Speaker 2: for people to go into the buildings to drop their
24:40
Speaker 2: demo into a publisher or label, and of course they
24:43
Speaker 2: would just send them all down to NSAI to get
24:47
Speaker 2: affiliated with.
24:49
Speaker 3: Uh.
24:49
Speaker 2: So, I think that's something that's still a little bit
24:52
Speaker 2: lost from music row, so it's a little bit bittersweet.
24:56
Speaker 2: But there's been a lot of good change too.
24:59
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, absolutely.
25:00
Speaker 2: You know.
25:00
Speaker 3: It's you just have to adapt, You have to have
25:04
Speaker 3: to keep changing with it, because if you don't change,
25:07
Speaker 3: then you die, right, you know. So I've got a
25:10
Speaker 3: lot of friends of mine that have moved away from
25:12
Speaker 3: Nashville because they get tired of the change, and they said, well,
25:16
Speaker 3: they're getting ready to retire anyway, so they did, and
25:19
Speaker 3: I'm just not there, you know. It's like, yeah, I
25:21
Speaker 3: love doing music, I love doing working with people and
25:25
Speaker 3: telling stories and just going through the whole thing. So
25:28
Speaker 3: you just keep evolving, just keep working. And now it's
25:32
Speaker 3: just a little more selective, that's all.
25:34
Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, And there's still so many creative projects to
25:38
Speaker 2: work on. I hope our listeners will trickle over to
25:41
Speaker 2: your podcast if they haven't already tuned in, listen to
25:45
Speaker 2: your music and check out the other artists that you've
25:49
Speaker 2: been producing as well.
25:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that'd be great, and they can find me
25:53
Speaker 3: at Tonymantou dot com.
25:55
Speaker 2: Perfect. Yeah, we look forward to that. Tony. Thank you
25:58
Speaker 2: so much for being on Taking a Walk to Nashville.
26:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks, I appreciate it's been great.
26:03
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with singer
26:06
Speaker 1: songwriter Sarah Harrelson, and check out our other podcasts, Music,
26:11
Speaker 1: Save Me, Comedy, Save Me, and Taking a Walk. Available
26:15
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
26:18
Speaker 1: your podcasts