Latest / Johnny's World / Episode 24-Outlaw Gospel Musician Cody McCarver
Transcript
- 0:02SPEAKER_00: Coming to you live from the Johnny Packer Eyewear Studio in fabulous Dark Vegas, Mississippi.
- 0:09SPEAKER_00: Please welcome our co-host, the best i Doc this side of the Mississippi, BW.
- 0:18SPEAKER_00: And now welcome a true hero.
- 0:21SPEAKER_00: A DF Warrior whose favorite motto in life is just keep living.
- 0:42SPEAKER_04: How you doing today, BW?
- 0:44SPEAKER_01: Man, doing great.
- 0:45SPEAKER_01: Feels good to be back in the saddle.
- 0:46SPEAKER_01: I think we took a couple weeks off into the summer stuff going on there.
- 0:50SPEAKER_04: On there?
- 0:51SPEAKER_04: We did.
- 0:51SPEAKER_04: We did.
- 0:51SPEAKER_04: We took it took a couple weeks off, and uh it sure is good to be back.
- 0:55SPEAKER_04: Good to be back out there so our listeners can hear what we got going on.
- 0:59SPEAKER_04: It's gonna feel good to be a national champion.
- 1:01SPEAKER_04: I've said that every day.
- 1:02SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
- 1:02SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
- 1:03SPEAKER_04: But uh Brandon, give us an update on uh what we're doing and tell our guests a little bit about the glasses or how all this started, but I guess first give us an update first.
- 1:13SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so really the the biggest update is uh is pretty cool stuff.
- 1:17SPEAKER_01: We had somebody reach out, uh somebody reached out to me.
- 1:20SPEAKER_01: Friend of mine that I went to optometry school with um had heard about the glasses through Steve Robertson's podcast, and they uh they kind of figured out how they could get in touch with me.
- 1:31SPEAKER_01: And um they're actually opening up a shop in Starkville, and so we're working on getting um some of the Johnny Packer eyewear down to Starkville so that folks that are there for games and everything can can buy those and and you know, kind of see them in person as opposed to just coming to my place here in Memphis or just doing it online.
- 1:50SPEAKER_01: So more to come on that.
- 1:51SPEAKER_01: We're still talking about how to get everything set up and get some ordered in place, but that's really the most exciting thing that's going on.
- 1:58SPEAKER_01: So we'll keep everybody in the loop about that.
- 2:00SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, we'll have something there in Starkville sometime around football season so people can do it, take a look while they're in town.
- 2:08SPEAKER_04: That's exciting! That's exciting.
- 2:10SPEAKER_04: Uh, it'll be a great time to do it when everybody's uh getting in town for football season, shopping, and going downtown, and that'd be great.
- 2:17SPEAKER_04: They could check out the eyewear and hopefully it'll spread more awareness about CF and they'll get some cool looking shades and offer a good cause.
- 2:24SPEAKER_04: So win-win deal right there.
- 2:27SPEAKER_01: We've got a special guest with us today, so I'll let you introduce him and then I don't think he knows a whole lot about what we're doing with the eyewear, so we can talk about that for a minute, then hear his story a little bit as well.
- 2:37SPEAKER_01: Okay, awesome.
- 2:38SPEAKER_04: Yes, indeed.
- 2:39SPEAKER_04: We got a great guest today.
- 2:40SPEAKER_04: He's uh he's a good friend of mine, and um, I know him through my good friend John Schneider.
- 2:44SPEAKER_04: And he is a uh great, great guy.
- 2:47SPEAKER_04: Uh he was involved with uh Confederate Railroad.
- 2:50SPEAKER_04: You might have heard that band before, and and uh he has done uh real big into outlaw gospel and cowboy church.
- 2:57SPEAKER_04: And he and John had a great hit uh last year, he'll probably talk about that called uh These Hands.
- 3:02SPEAKER_04: And he's also uh plays in uh Stand On It and Poker Run as Roy, and he likes to drive.
- 3:09SPEAKER_04: So uh without further ado, I want to introduce our great guest, uh Cody McCarver.
- 3:14SPEAKER_04: Welcome to the show, Cody.
- 3:16SPEAKER_02: Hi, I'm glad to be here.
- 3:17SPEAKER_02: How are you guys today?
- 3:18SPEAKER_04: We're doing great, we're doing great.
- 3:20SPEAKER_04: Well, uh we're branding, just tell uh Cody what we got going on, how this kind of got started, then we'll we'll talk a little bit about Cody's life and what he's been into.
- 3:28SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Cody.
- 3:29SPEAKER_01: So uh John and I have been friends since high school, really before that.
- 3:32SPEAKER_01: And um John has uh always been an inspiration to me, and and we've always stayed really close.
- 3:38SPEAKER_01: And um when I started uh in school, I'm an optometrist.
- 3:43SPEAKER_01: So when I started and finished graduating optometry school, John always had some funky glasses he was looking for.
- 3:49SPEAKER_01: He's he's always been into kind of some of the Hollywood styles and stuff.
- 3:52SPEAKER_01: And he called me and said, Hey man, can you give me some of these glasses that Johnny Depp's weared in this movie?
- 3:57SPEAKER_01: And I'd look it up, you know, and it'd be we'd have to go to LA, spend a thousand dollars to get them for him.
- 4:02SPEAKER_01: And I said, you know, it'd be nice if we could find something that looks like that but doesn't cost as much.
- 4:08SPEAKER_01: And so kind of came up with the idea that maybe we could actually design our own.
- 4:12SPEAKER_01: And then with that in mind, I said, Well, why don't we let's name him after John Clark?
- 4:18SPEAKER_01: And so um we always like to call him Johnny Packer since he's such a big big movie star and everybody around us.
- 4:24SPEAKER_01: So why don't we come up with Johnny Packer Eyewear?
- 4:27SPEAKER_01: So we um got the glass glasses designed, named them Johnny Packer Eyewear, and and so we wanted to to throw in uh charity component with it.
- 4:37SPEAKER_01: And and since uh John Clark has been battling cystic fibrosis his whole life, I said, well, why don't we you know make these glasses and sell them, but then also donate a percentage of what we make off of them to the cystic fibrosis foundation.
- 4:49SPEAKER_01: And so that's really how we got started.
- 4:52SPEAKER_01: And um we launched the website with the glasses on it, and uh you know, we wanted to figure out a way that we could get more people to know more about the glasses and to just you know uh support us by donating or buying glasses and everything.
- 5:05SPEAKER_01: So I said, why don't we start a podcast?
- 5:07SPEAKER_01: So we started this podcast.
- 5:09SPEAKER_01: Um, gosh, it's been eight or nine months now at this point, and uh it's been fun because it's bringing some awareness to the glasses, and then um, but more people are able to kind of hear John Clark's story, and then you know, we we get to have people on people on like you that um have have crossed paths with John and you know get to hear that story about how y'all know each other and everything.
- 5:31SPEAKER_01: So it's been really fun.
- 5:32SPEAKER_01: So that's that's kind of how we got started here.
- 5:34SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and we kind of do it through uh we're trying to start off like how are we gonna get this uh to get more people to know about it.
- 5:42SPEAKER_04: So that's how we kind of started interviewing people who have a big following so they can share it to their people, and then uh eventually everyone will hear the story about CF and about the glasses.
- 5:50SPEAKER_04: Hopefully, they'll leave more people to donate or or buy glasses.
- 5:53SPEAKER_04: It's just kind of a win-win deal.
- 5:55SPEAKER_04: So uh, so yeah, Cody, we're happy to have you on.
- 5:58SPEAKER_04: Thank thanks so much for for joining us.
- 6:00SPEAKER_04: And and uh, I guess just first tell tell the listeners out there who's listening to this podcast uh a little bit about your story, how you got into uh to music, and and uh we'll just sit back and listen.
- 6:10SPEAKER_04: First off, I want some sunglasses.
- 6:12SPEAKER_04: All right, we'll get you some.
- 6:15SPEAKER_01: Yeah, John what you want, we'll send them away.
- 6:18SPEAKER_04: John's been wearing his.
- 6:18SPEAKER_04: We gave John, I gave John a pair for his birthday, and I've been noticing he's been wearing his at all the different events.
- 6:23SPEAKER_04: It's so cool seeing that.
- 6:26SPEAKER_04: So the ones that he's which one is he wearing that uh the Guffport brand?
- 6:31SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the Gulf Port.
- 6:33SPEAKER_04: Go to Johnnypacker.com, you'll see it.
- 6:35SPEAKER_04: I think Brandon even put on there John Snyder's favorite pair on there.
- 6:41SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I have uh, you know, I I'll try to do some things for you here.
- 6:44SPEAKER_02: You know, we have a I'm setting in a business right now that we opened here in Dunlap, Tennessee.
- 6:49SPEAKER_02: So I'm a 40 miles north of Chattanooga.
- 6:55SPEAKER_02: And um we've opened up a business called the Dunlap Mercantile.
- 7:00SPEAKER_02: And uh the the lady that's a partner in this thing, her name's Becky Card, her husband Louie Card, I'm partners with them in this business, and she has leukemia.
- 7:11SPEAKER_02: And so she literally, just like last night, got back from her doctors in Houston, Texas, uh MD Anderson.
- 7:18SPEAKER_02: And so we're always trying to do something to help give back.
- 7:22SPEAKER_02: No, just like John Schneider.
- 7:24SPEAKER_02: Uh so if there's anything I can do to help you on that end here, let me know.
- 7:30SPEAKER_02: All right, that'd be great.
- 7:32SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
- 7:32SPEAKER_01: I looked at the map, but I noticed you're you you're about probably five, five and a half hours from me here.
- 7:37SPEAKER_01: And we like to visit over there on that side of Tennessee every couple years.
- 7:41SPEAKER_01: My wife and my wife and I love it over there, take the kids and everything.
- 7:44SPEAKER_01: So maybe one of these days we'll we'll head over there and we'll we'll come up and see your shop.
- 7:48SPEAKER_02: Hey, you're going to Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, right?
- 7:52SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
- 7:53SPEAKER_01: And well, we we like to go to Chattanooga too.
- 7:55SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I'm uh 40 minutes from downtown Chattanooga.
- 7:59SPEAKER_02: So uh we are the hang gliding capital of the southeast.
- 8:03SPEAKER_02: Um actually.
- 8:06SPEAKER_02: We have uh our road through the middle of town just got named a National Scenic Byway, and we're in the middle of restoring five total of six buildings right here in where I'm sitting within four blocks to restore our historic district.
- 8:21SPEAKER_02: So we have uh some restaurants and we're putting in a recording studio.
- 8:26SPEAKER_02: If you make records, we can make them.
- 8:28SPEAKER_02: Uh, we've got some Airbnbs coming, we got all kinds of cool stuff.
- 8:31SPEAKER_02: So hopefully that stuff starts opening up this fall and uh make a trip over and see us and visit.
- 8:38SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
- 8:41SPEAKER_02: So, some way or another during COVID, I became a contractor.
- 8:47SPEAKER_02: All my life I've been a musician, uh sorted, I guess you could say.
- 8:51SPEAKER_02: Some people might argue that, but um I've been a musician, a singer, a songwriter, uh, done some film stuff, and then uh it just turned out during COVID that we were sitting here with a this Dunlight Mercantile building, and I delved into it six days a week till we could get it finished, and we opened in November and then came more stuff.
- 9:10SPEAKER_02: So we got a lot of buildings right here, and I'm pointing at this like you can see it, but you can't.
- 9:14SPEAKER_02: But check out Dunlight Mercantile.com and/or our Facebook page, and you'll see uh you'll see everything.
- 9:23SPEAKER_04: Awesome.
- 9:24SPEAKER_04: Now that's been it's been there a long time, and then you restored it and reopened, is that right?
- 9:28SPEAKER_04: Or how long has it been there?
- 9:29SPEAKER_02: The building itself is the oldest building we have in our town.
- 9:33SPEAKER_02: We have three red lights, so we're not a huge town.
- 9:37SPEAKER_02: But when I grew up here, we had one, and so we're growing.
- 9:44SPEAKER_02: Nice.
- 9:45SPEAKER_02: But this building that I'm sitting in was built in 1894.
- 9:49SPEAKER_02: Wow.
- 9:50SPEAKER_02: It has been nothing in 1894.
- 9:53SPEAKER_02: It was the Dunlight Mercantile.
- 9:55SPEAKER_02: Uh, we have the original sign hanging in here, and uh now uh all these years later, it's been setting with nothing in it since maybe the early 70s, mid-70s.
- 10:07SPEAKER_02: And so we restored it, put a stage in it, and uh we have uh ticketed concerts here.
- 10:15SPEAKER_02: We have a retail store, we sell women's clothing, we sell Stetson hats for men and women, Charlie One Horse Resist All Corral Boots.
- 10:24SPEAKER_02: Uh we sell Josh and I uh we have uh a stage that uh we got Daryl Whirley coming to be a part of a show here August the 20th.
- 10:35SPEAKER_02: Uh it's our second show, our first one sold out.
- 10:38SPEAKER_02: So uh we're we're we're a music venue uh as much as anything.
- 10:43SPEAKER_02: And uh we saved enough of the original floor, the 127-year-old floor, to build the stage.
- 10:50unknown: Wow.
- 10:50SPEAKER_02: So it's Randolph.
- 10:53SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
- 10:55SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
- 10:56SPEAKER_01: Y'all get a lot of uh people come up from Chattanooga and kind of surrounding area.
- 11:00SPEAKER_01: Are you getting more local folks, or how's that looking?
- 11:03SPEAKER_02: Man, it's like right now, I don't know if you've ever heard of this thing called the 127 yard sale.
- 11:09SPEAKER_02: It's the world's longest yard sale, and I think it goes from Gadsden, Alabama to Michigan.
- 11:18SPEAKER_02: And it comes, I that where I'm sitting, I'm on highway 127.
- 11:23SPEAKER_02: So right now we're you can't get through town because all the flea marketers.
- 11:29SPEAKER_02: Wow, and that we're getting a lot of people in here from that.
- 11:33SPEAKER_02: But on a normal day or a normal weekend, yeah, we pull people from Chattanooga Market, we pull people from surrounding counties, you know.
- 11:39SPEAKER_02: There's a lot of small Grande County, Marion County, Bledsoe County, we uh Warren, and beer and a lot of other counties around here, people are are coming to uh check out the rebuilding of this building.
- 11:52SPEAKER_02: It's uh it's a really a unique thing.
- 11:54SPEAKER_02: We have a a prayer room in it full of a hundred-year-old stained glass window.
- 11:59SPEAKER_02: And uh it's it's just a neat place.
- 12:01SPEAKER_02: Everybody says, what is the download merchant?
- 12:04SPEAKER_02: Uh man, I have no idea.
- 12:08SPEAKER_01: Now, how close are y'all isn't there a place uh that they they play music like bluegrass in the cave?
- 12:15SPEAKER_01: Is that close to y'all?
- 12:17SPEAKER_02: That is um there's two of them.
- 12:20SPEAKER_02: Uh there's one of them in Pelham, Tennessee, and then there's another one over in uh Warren County, McMindville.
- 12:29SPEAKER_02: That's the one called Cumberland Caverns.
- 12:32SPEAKER_02: And they have shows in both of them.
- 12:36SPEAKER_02: And they're within, I guess to answer your question, they're both within 45 minutes of here.
- 12:41SPEAKER_01: Okay.
- 12:45SPEAKER_04: Well, Cody, talk a little bit about your your music career.
- 12:47SPEAKER_04: I know you've had a successful music career, and I know you're out on the road uh in uh the Stars and Bars band with John.
- 12:54SPEAKER_04: And just kind of talk about how that got started, what led you into music, and tell us a little bit about that.
- 12:59SPEAKER_02: When I was nine years old, my mama held a gun to my head and said, You're gonna learn to play the piano.
- 13:06SPEAKER_02: Play in church.
- 13:06SPEAKER_02: And I said, No, mama, I want to be a I want to play in the NBA, I want to be a professional basketball player.
- 13:13SPEAKER_02: And uh actually played uh uh in college and uh could dunk a basketball at six feet tall.
- 13:20SPEAKER_02: So I was real serious about basketball.
- 13:22SPEAKER_02: But my mom made me look learn how to play the piano, and I played in church, I was our church pianoist at age nine, and uh I couldn't touch the pedals really, but I could play a piano like I was a 45-year-old man.
- 13:35SPEAKER_02: And so wound up, you know.
- 13:39SPEAKER_02: I found out you could go into a bar and get play paid to play and have cocktails and meet some pretty girls, and they'd kind of like musicians, you know, that whole story.
- 13:49SPEAKER_02: And uh wound up delving into the music business, went to work for a lady named Lynn Anderson.
- 13:56SPEAKER_02: Uh I beg your pardon, I never promised you a Rose Garden was her biggest hit.
- 14:01SPEAKER_02: And uh I didn't even know who she was when she hired us.
- 14:04SPEAKER_02: When I say us, we hired the whole band.
- 14:06SPEAKER_02: I didn't really know who she was.
- 14:07SPEAKER_02: Turns out she was one of the biggest stars of the 70s.
- 14:10SPEAKER_02: And uh so we went on a road with her, and the rest is history.
- 14:15SPEAKER_02: I wound up in Confederate Railroad, um, signed a record deal, lost a record deal, and then uh went out with the Confederate Railroad for 12 years and uh left in 2010 to I had an opportunity to go to California and my own recording contract and cut an album in Capitol Studios in Hollywood, so I did that, and then um I mean this one thing led to another of a couple years of touring real hard with David Allen Cove.
- 14:48SPEAKER_02: Um I became uh I always drank, but it uh it kind of got a hold of me.
- 14:55SPEAKER_02: And uh I I got where I was a fifth of liquor a day guy.
- 14:59SPEAKER_02: And um in 2013, I was just most probably the most miserable human being in the world.
- 15:07SPEAKER_02: And uh my dad passed away uh in April of 2013, and he was in prison.
- 15:15SPEAKER_02: Uh he was uh serving a life sentence.
- 15:18SPEAKER_02: And uh and he passed away and then uh the drinking and all that stuff, man.
- 15:23SPEAKER_02: I kind of just quit and went back to church and started all over, re-reinvented uh myself, you know, the prodigal son story.
- 15:30SPEAKER_02: Grow up in church and you uh go back to church.
- 15:34SPEAKER_02: And uh I went back to church and started writing gospel songs and uh sobered up.
- 15:40SPEAKER_02: I hadn't had a drink since March of 2013.
- 15:44SPEAKER_02: And uh I have sobered up and writing gospel songs, and I went to Nashville and I met with some people in the Christian music industry, and um I found some of those folks weren't too Christian.
- 15:57SPEAKER_02: And uh I I let them hear some of my material that I was real proud of, one song in particular called Hate God that I'd written, which was kind of my testimony.
- 16:06SPEAKER_02: And uh I kind of got shunned, but everybody I met with on several different meetings, including the GMA, which is the Gospel Music Association with Dove Awards, you know, runs the whole thing.
- 16:20SPEAKER_02: And um I I had uh let them hear some of my music, and they kind of said, Hey, you know, you really don't fit into what we do.
- 16:29SPEAKER_02: Uh you're not a gospel artist, you're not a Christian artist, you're not all these things, you're kind of you're just your own thing, you're weird, which has been the story of my life.
- 16:39SPEAKER_02: And uh I said, Well, you know, I don't understand.
- 16:43SPEAKER_02: And uh this guy told me in one meeting, he said, you kind of got this outlaw vibe, like outlaw country whaling kind of thing.
- 16:51SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, what if I call what I do outlaw gospel?
- 16:55SPEAKER_02: And I was joking, and uh he said, Man, what a brilliant idea! You should do that, and so I prayed about it, thought about it, studied on it, and we ended up calling what we do outlaw gospel.
- 17:09SPEAKER_02: And there's not many of us doing that kind of thing, but uh it's uh just the sound of the music, the reel of the lyrics, like uh the song, Hey God, the man said my lyric was too real.
- 17:21SPEAKER_02: And there was a line in the song that said, uh, there's times if I'd had a gun, only you and me know what I might have done.
- 17:28SPEAKER_02: And it was a complete insinuation to suicide.
- 17:31SPEAKER_02: And uh they didn't felt feel like that fit in the Christian music genre.
- 17:38SPEAKER_02: So uh I just keep writing and do what I do, and we go out and play shows, and you know, I do a church one Sunday, and the next Sunday we might do it at a prison, uh, just kind of all over the place.
- 17:51SPEAKER_02: And John and I, uh, John Schneider and I, you mentioned earlier the song we did called These Hands was a number one country Christian song, uh 2019 for the month of December.
- 18:03SPEAKER_02: And uh before that, a song that I had called Rise Up was uh number one country Christian song.
- 18:10SPEAKER_02: So we're actually nominated for an award uh on August the 22nd for uh uh vocal duo duet of the year, I think.
- 18:18SPEAKER_02: And uh so I guess there are people out there that like outlaw gospel.
- 18:25SPEAKER_01: So you mentioned the like the Dove Awards, like what are the awards for the for that?
- 18:31SPEAKER_02: The Dove Awards would be, you know, number one I don't know how much contemporary Christian music or gospel music you guys listen to, but it would be, you know, you're uh casting crowns.
- 18:43SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
- 18:44SPEAKER_02: He's like my favorite artist out there right now.
- 18:47SPEAKER_02: Need to breathe.
- 18:50SPEAKER_02: Uh so you know, here comes a guy that walks out on stage and he's got a gruffier voice and he's a little country or talking.
- 18:58SPEAKER_02: And uh, you know, they're I think they were kind of afraid of who's gonna who's gonna like this.
- 19:04SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
- 19:05SPEAKER_02: And uh when I asked the guy, I said uh in that meeting, I said, man, who's gonna like something called outlaw gospel?
- 19:13SPEAKER_02: I can't go to a church and sing something called outlaw gospel.
- 19:16SPEAKER_02: I said, they'll think Charles Manson has come to their church.
- 19:19SPEAKER_02: And uh he said, man, let me tell you, he said, people that are as a Dunk Dynasty or a Dukes of Hazard fan.
- 19:26SPEAKER_02: Wow, that's kind of probably true, and it's hell true.
- 19:29SPEAKER_02: It's uh you know, we uh we go at it on the level of uh real.
- 19:35SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to slick up anything, I'm just trying to get a message across.
- 19:40SPEAKER_02: And uh the reality of all that is is that uh I love working with John Schneider so much, we travel out on the road.
- 19:57SPEAKER_02: You know, uh we might sing uh What the Buck, which is a song about Buck Owens one minute and the next minute we might sing I'll Fly Away.
- 20:07SPEAKER_02: And I I love that about John.
- 20:09SPEAKER_02: He don't expect nobody to be any anybody that they're not, you know.
- 20:13SPEAKER_02: And uh so I I I I think that the outlaw gospel movement is catching on and it's gonna continue to catch on.
- 20:22SPEAKER_04: Well, Cody, uh it's it's funny.
- 20:24SPEAKER_04: Tell us about this song.
- 20:26SPEAKER_04: Every time I pass by Missionary Baptist Church, I have to think of that song you always sing, the uh Daddy cut a big one in the whore lake, Mississippi.
- 20:37SPEAKER_04: We know I love that song, man.
- 20:39SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that was originally a Confederate Railroad song.
- 20:41SPEAKER_02: Okay, and I'm uh I had you know, when I started, it was a song we never did, you know, on shows.
- 20:50SPEAKER_02: And I always thought it was a really, really cool song.
- 20:53SPEAKER_02: And uh a guy named Chubba Pet Talks produced a record that was on with Railroad, and I Chubba produced my gospel album or my my first country album and that we did in LA.
- 21:04SPEAKER_02: And Chuba kept trying to get me to cut that song and I didn't.
- 21:08SPEAKER_02: And we were all uh I always thought, well, that that ain't outlawed gospel, I don't know what is.
- 21:14SPEAKER_02: And I think sometimes as Christians, we all sit around and we we take ourselves way too serious.
- 21:23SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, your faith is a serious, serious thing.
- 21:27SPEAKER_02: Uh where you wind up someday is a serious, serious thing.
- 21:33SPEAKER_02: And uh, but I uh I think sometimes we we forget that you know God gave us a sense of humor.
- 21:42SPEAKER_02: You know, he he wants us to enjoy life and he wants people to see him and us.
- 21:47SPEAKER_02: And so I try to explain to people when I do that song, you know, you're gonna either laugh or you're gonna hate me when this is up for most people love it.
- 21:56SPEAKER_02: It's just uh I mean, you know, daddy farted in church, believe.
- 22:00SPEAKER_02: That or not.
- 22:02SPEAKER_04: That's hilarious.
- 22:03SPEAKER_04: Well, uh, well, tell us, man.
- 22:05SPEAKER_04: So when last time we're I was at Bose Extra Genesis, I remember you played the Whalen song.
- 22:10SPEAKER_04: Uh uh, which one was it?
- 22:12SPEAKER_04: Good Hearted Woman.
- 22:14SPEAKER_04: I tell you what, man, if you close, if I close my eyes and listen to me play it song, I would have sworn it was Whalen Jennings.
- 22:19SPEAKER_04: I was I was listening to uh Whalen Jennings, he he's my personal favorite, all-time favorite country music.
- 22:26SPEAKER_04: I think he's I think I heard you say that he was yours.
- 22:28SPEAKER_04: Is that right?
- 22:29SPEAKER_04: Absolutely.
- 22:30SPEAKER_04: Yeah, man, what a compliment.
- 22:31SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
- 22:32SPEAKER_04: Uh yeah, yeah, you did a great job with it.
- 22:35SPEAKER_04: I ever got.
- 22:36SPEAKER_02: But uh I uh it was it's it's a real story, man.
- 22:41SPEAKER_02: My dad, when I was a little boy, you know, five, six years old, my dad would he would always say, You need to listen to this country music.
- 22:49SPEAKER_02: And he would play me David Allen Cole and Whalen, and uh man, he just loved it.
- 22:55SPEAKER_02: You know, he loved country music and he he liked good music.
- 22:58SPEAKER_02: He loved I I re-recorded Rod Stewart's Tonight's The Night, and it's on my album that's a self-titled album called Just Cody McCarbur.
- 23:07SPEAKER_02: And it's a really cool version of it.
- 23:09SPEAKER_02: I did it because of my dad.
- 23:10SPEAKER_02: That was like his favorite song.
- 23:12SPEAKER_02: But he loved Whalen and Willie and Merle and all those guys, and I would tell him, I'd say, Dad, I ain't listening to that.
- 23:19SPEAKER_02: That's a bunch of crap.
- 23:22SPEAKER_02: And uh, you need to listen to this, Dad.
- 23:25SPEAKER_02: And I would make him try to look, I would make him listen to Leonard Skinner.
- 23:29SPEAKER_02: And I would we would listen to KISS and the Bee Gees and all this, you know, off-the-wall stuff.
- 23:35SPEAKER_02: But when my dad would leave the house, I would get his Outlaw album, which was Wanted the Outlaws, the first platinum-selling record in the history of country music.
- 23:46SPEAKER_02: And it was the album with Good Hearted Woman on it.
- 23:49SPEAKER_02: And it was Whalen, Willie, Tompaw, Glacer, and Jesse Colter.
- 23:53SPEAKER_02: And um, I would get that album out and I would listen to it.
- 23:57SPEAKER_02: I still have his, and I still listen to his.
- 24:00SPEAKER_02: And I never would tell him that I was listening to his album.
- 24:04SPEAKER_02: And uh, so I grew up going, man, Whalen is the coolest.
- 24:08SPEAKER_02: He's just the baddest dude in the world, in my opinion.
- 24:11SPEAKER_02: He could stand up there and hold that telly and and sing, and you didn't, he didn't have to jump around anyhow, do nothing.
- 24:18SPEAKER_02: He was just that cool.
- 24:19SPEAKER_02: And uh I hate he's gone, man.
- 24:22SPEAKER_02: When I was still in Confederate Railroad, we had booked, I think it was 40 shows with him.
- 24:28SPEAKER_02: Five days later, he passed away.
- 24:31SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
- 24:32SPEAKER_02: We were gonna get to do a whole bunch of shows with Whalen, and I was really excited about that because he is he is the epitome of what I call outlawed country being.
- 24:42SPEAKER_02: Yep.
- 24:43SPEAKER_01: Well, let me ask you this.
- 24:45SPEAKER_01: So, as a as a piano player, um, so my favorite Whalen song is Ain't Living Long Like This.
- 24:51SPEAKER_01: And that that piano at the end, it's one of my favorite.
- 24:55SPEAKER_01: I I play a little piano, but I wish I could learn how to play that.
- 24:58SPEAKER_01: Is that something you ever cover or anything like that?
- 25:00SPEAKER_02: I I have before in the past, yeah.
- 25:02SPEAKER_02: I think I've every Whalen song.
- 25:04SPEAKER_02: There's so many songs out there that he's got that people, you know, it's like that with every artist, though.
- 25:10SPEAKER_02: You you know, you you say, Well, George Strait, man, he's got oh, I love this song by George Strait and that song with George Strait.
- 25:16SPEAKER_02: And how many people, you know, like John Schneider are we talking about?
- 25:19SPEAKER_02: How many people can tell you what was track eight on his first album?
- 25:24SPEAKER_02: And there's so many great songs that are so well thought out.
- 25:27SPEAKER_02: And this world we live in right now is a single.
- 25:30SPEAKER_02: We're back, you know.
- 25:30SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you guys remember those little 45 records.
- 25:34SPEAKER_02: There was a little round that was 45, and then he had a B side and a hit side, right?
- 25:40SPEAKER_02: And that's where we are right now.
- 25:42SPEAKER_02: It's like you know, full-length albums anymore, or everybody's just listening to that hit, that one song they like.
- 25:49SPEAKER_02: But Whalen had some golly, just some great deep cut songs.
- 25:54SPEAKER_02: And his version of Precious Memories, if you ain't never heard it, go hear it because it's awesome.
- 26:00SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
- 26:01SPEAKER_01: What is what is uh so you know, talking about what you mentioned with the the hits and all that, what is the best way as an artist for for people like us to support you?
- 26:11SPEAKER_01: Is it is it download you on Spotify?
- 26:13SPEAKER_01: Is it is it just you know buy the physical CDs or yeah, yeah, everything?
- 26:19SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.
- 26:20SPEAKER_02: The Spotify thing, man, you know, I've said in the offices of Spotify, and uh I uh at this point in time, I you know, used to when I was trying to come up in the business, so I I think people say, you know, what's the best thing that's ever happened to you in the music business?
- 26:36SPEAKER_02: I say, Well, I've done it for over 25 years and made a living at it.
- 26:40SPEAKER_02: That's a that's a big deal.
- 26:42SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of guys don't, a lot of guys have to go back to washing cars because it didn't work out, right?
- 26:47SPEAKER_02: Or go back to what they learned how to do and you know or trade or whatever, which that's a great thing.
- 26:52SPEAKER_02: There's nothing wrong with that, but I've managed managed to make a living at it, and uh the world has changed so much out there because of the internet, it's a great thing, and it's the devil for an artist.
- 27:05SPEAKER_02: And um, you look at Spotify and a lot of these places where you go can get a free version of it, right?
- 27:13SPEAKER_02: And you go listen to your favorite artist pop up on Spotify or Pandora, who's getting paid for all that?
- 27:22SPEAKER_02: It's it's literally cents that you make as an artist, unless you wrote the song and then it's a few more cents.
- 27:29SPEAKER_02: So uh the best way to be an artist is and I I just bought a 2000 in 2019, I bought a brand new F-150.
- 27:39SPEAKER_02: It don't have a CD player in it.
- 27:42SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of like the best way to help an artist, to help any young upcoming artist or any older artist like me is to to buy that product, buy that physical from a website at a show, get it signed, you know, like those the movie Stand On it we did.
- 28:01SPEAKER_02: I had a party in with John.
- 28:03SPEAKER_02: Uh buy that DVD, you know, and John's smart because John's got his own streaming site, Santaflix Dod.com, to what to watch the movies.
- 28:12SPEAKER_02: So uh, you know, he's he's not having to share profits with other people.
- 28:18SPEAKER_04: Well, well, Cody, since you mentioned that, uh tell us about I guess how you did what else did that on purpose.
- 28:26SPEAKER_04: You did tell the great great uh great way to lead into it.
- 28:31SPEAKER_04: Well, tell us about how I guess tell us how you first met John.
- 28:34SPEAKER_04: I never I've never heard that story, and tell us how you got got into it and uh and poker run.
- 28:41SPEAKER_04: And we all want to know about Roy.
- 28:43SPEAKER_04: We want to know he likes to drive, right?
- 28:45SPEAKER_04: Tell us a little bit about all this.
- 28:46SPEAKER_02: You know, I met John years ago.
- 28:48SPEAKER_02: We it was funny after four years ago, almost five now, I guess.
- 28:53SPEAKER_02: We were in Nashville for a country radio seminar, and uh he came walking through the about seven o'clock, I was getting ready to go home.
- 29:08SPEAKER_01: Hey, start that story over.
- 29:10SPEAKER_01: I think you uh it muted for a second there.
- 29:11SPEAKER_02: I think we're sorry.
- 29:14SPEAKER_02: Um so I was um at the Omni Hotel in Nashville, Tennessee for uh country radio seminar four or five years ago, and John came walking through the omni hotel where I was, and I was like, there's John, you know, and I hadn't seen him in 10 years anyway.
- 29:30SPEAKER_02: And um, but we had first met uh at a Duke's fest years ago where uh Confederate Railroad was playing.
- 29:39SPEAKER_02: And um I went up to him and I talked to him, I said, You remember me?
- 29:44SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Yeah, and uh we sat down and began to talk, and they were getting ready to have Bo's extravaganza, the first one.
- 29:51SPEAKER_02: And he said, Hey, won't you come down and do cowboy church?
- 29:55SPEAKER_02: Because I sat down with John and I began to talk about what God had done in my life.
- 30:00SPEAKER_02: And uh basically um he invited me to come and do church at that, and I went, and we, of course, we sat there for two or three hours that night and talked.
- 30:10SPEAKER_02: And I went down and did cowboy church at the Bose Extravaganza.
- 30:14SPEAKER_02: More things began to happen, more shows began to happen.
- 30:18SPEAKER_02: He called me up and he said, Hey, I want you to go out on the road with us and share the stage and the band and blah, blah, blah.
- 30:24SPEAKER_02: And I said, Okay.
- 30:25SPEAKER_02: And then he came along and he said, Hey man, I want you to produce um kind of a more southern rock field record for me.
- 30:33SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, Okay, we uh well, you know, I wrote some songs, we hunted some songs, and we did the redneck rebel album.
- 30:40SPEAKER_02: And uh then we were in Nashville doing a showcase, and he asked me to be a part of this movie, Stand On.
- 30:50SPEAKER_02: And uh I I was like, Well, what is stand on?
- 30:55SPEAKER_02: And he said, Well, it's basically smoking the band.
- 30:59SPEAKER_02: And I went, Oh man, I don't I don't know about that.
- 31:03SPEAKER_02: Uh uh, how do you redo the greatest movie ever made?
- 31:08SPEAKER_02: And I that's my favorite movie, and uh I said, How do you redo that?
- 31:13SPEAKER_02: You know, just the music alone, Jerry Reed alone, and the music he did, and that's just unbeatable.
- 31:20SPEAKER_02: And he said, Well, just read the script and you'll see what it is.
- 31:23SPEAKER_02: So I read the script, and I'm like, holy cow, this is great! Because it was not uh it was not smoking band, it was a tribute to, a nod to.
- 31:31SPEAKER_02: There's some Dukes of Hazard in it, you know.
- 31:33SPEAKER_02: There's some uh there's some great music.
- 31:36SPEAKER_02: We went and made great soundtrack for it.
- 31:39SPEAKER_02: Um, so I did the production on the soundtrack for that for the movie, and then you know, I wind up being the Jerry Reed character for the lack of a better way to put it, and the Jerry Reed character's name is Roy, and Roy Reed is uh is the guy's name, and my my CB handle instead of being the snowman, John made it Frosty, and so we called me Frosty the You Know What, and we come short of saying Frosty the Snowman, and so it was uh just a treat.
- 32:12SPEAKER_02: I had done some movie stuff, well, it was westerns, and um so it was just a treat to be a part of, and uh, it was like being a kid again, watching Smoking the Bandit for the first time and getting to be with uh you know the General Lees and the cars jumping, and all these were things that we watched on TV as a kid.
- 32:32SPEAKER_02: Now I'm doing it.
- 32:33SPEAKER_02: I mean, this is really cool, you know.
- 32:35SPEAKER_02: And uh the character Roy, uh the reason that I ended up being named Roy, uh I think I I think John had me as Jerry Reed, or something, it was something Reed.
- 32:50SPEAKER_02: And I said, Hey, I got a song you might want to cut.
- 32:53SPEAKER_02: And he said, Uh, what is it?
- 32:55SPEAKER_02: I said, It's called Roy.
- 32:56SPEAKER_02: I've had it for years and years, and um nobody won't cut it, so I you might want to hear it, you know.
- 33:03SPEAKER_02: And he listened to it and he's like, Oh my goodness, we gotta cut this.
- 33:07SPEAKER_02: And uh we put my name being Rui because of that.
- 33:11SPEAKER_02: Of course, the hook line of the song is my name is Rui, and I like to drive.
- 33:14SPEAKER_02: So that's where that all kind of came from.
- 33:17SPEAKER_04: That's awesome.
- 33:18SPEAKER_04: Well, uh, and then and then poker run, you got to you got to uh doing that one a little follow-up stand on it.
- 33:24SPEAKER_04: Uh awesome with that, getting to get back into that character.
- 33:28SPEAKER_04: Y'all didn't do that new album with that.
- 33:30SPEAKER_04: Is that right?
- 33:31SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, we are uh we've already got about eight songs tracked.
- 33:35SPEAKER_02: Uh John, myself, and Keith Burns wrote uh poker run, a song called Poker Run.
- 33:42SPEAKER_02: Uh John just cut a song that I wrote called If I Was a Younger Man.
- 33:47SPEAKER_02: And uh we cut working on the building, uh the old Bill Monroe song.
- 33:52SPEAKER_02: And um, so I think it's kind of all filmed, you know, and edited and put together, but uh you know, here we it's like the the cool thing about it was it was we just kind of picked up where we left off.
- 34:06SPEAKER_02: And uh if you've not seen the trailer for for poker run, it at the very end of the trailer I say, hold on to you, skin, frog.
- 34:14SPEAKER_02: Here we go again.
- 34:15SPEAKER_02: And uh that's pretty much what it is.
- 34:17SPEAKER_02: You know, here we go again.
- 34:19SPEAKER_02: And then now he tells me he's writing another one called Double or Nothing.
- 34:22SPEAKER_02: So double or nothing.
- 34:23SPEAKER_02: I think John found his niche, man.
- 34:25SPEAKER_02: I I know he loved to do all kinds of stuff, but he calls it southern horsepower comedy.
- 34:30SPEAKER_02: And you know, I got to thinking about it.
- 34:34SPEAKER_02: There's not a person in the entertainment world that I know of that could have done stand on it and be taken serious, other than John Schneider.
- 34:47SPEAKER_02: He's the only one.
- 34:49SPEAKER_02: If you know, I mean, if Denzel Washington, as great as Denzel Washington is, had tried to put together a version of Smoking the Bandit, everybody would have said, nah, you know, that ain't that ain't gonna work.
- 35:00SPEAKER_02: Uh if Burt Reynolds was still alive, I don't know that he could have done a remake of it, but John Schneider could.
- 35:05SPEAKER_02: And uh John is the only one that I know that could pull that out.
- 35:11SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we had we had John on uh one of the first interviews we did on this, and I just can't say enough about him.
- 35:18SPEAKER_04: He it's kind of surreal, man.
- 35:19SPEAKER_04: He was my childhood hero when I was a kid, watched the Dukes of Hazard.
- 35:22SPEAKER_04: I I tell people, you know, with all this quarantine mess, I was built for this.
- 35:26SPEAKER_04: I stayed inside the first few years of my life with CF and I would watch the Dukes of Hazard over and over and over, and I was obsessed with it.
- 35:33SPEAKER_04: And and Bo was my favorite character.
- 35:35SPEAKER_04: I mean, my dog's name is Bo.
- 35:36SPEAKER_04: And and then all these years later, we become the best of friends, and it's just it's just surreal.
- 35:41SPEAKER_04: I like I still can't believe it.
- 35:43SPEAKER_04: And and he's invited me down and just treats me like family, him and Alicia, and I just can't thank him enough.
- 35:48SPEAKER_04: And that led me to meet people like you and and all the people all of his friends, and it's just uh I'm just so so blessed and thankful for for John Schneider.
- 35:57SPEAKER_04: I can't say enough good things about him and and what he means to my life.
- 36:00SPEAKER_04: And uh and Cody, we we just thank you for getting on and and sharing your story and letting people know about outlaw gospel and the mercantile.
- 36:09SPEAKER_04: Hopefully, people stop by Dunlap and and check that out.
- 36:12SPEAKER_04: And we can't thank you enough, Cody.
- 36:14SPEAKER_04: You're you're you're an awesome dude.
- 36:15SPEAKER_04: We really appreciate it, man.
- 36:16SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you guys having us, and I and I'll say this, man.
- 36:19SPEAKER_02: I like every other guy my age.
- 36:24SPEAKER_02: We all watched the Dukes of Hazard, right?
- 36:28SPEAKER_02: I tell John all the time, I we I say this on stage sometimes that well, I sure did love watching the Dukes of Hazard, but John, you wasn't my favorite character on there.
- 36:37SPEAKER_02: Daisy was my favorite character.
- 36:39SPEAKER_02: That's right.
- 36:42SPEAKER_02: And my daddy loved the Dukes of Hazard, God rest my daddy.
- 36:45SPEAKER_02: So when he loved Boss Hog, that was his favorite character.
- 36:48SPEAKER_02: Yep.
- 36:50SPEAKER_02: There was something for everybody on the Duke Hazard.
- 36:52SPEAKER_03: It was the best.
- 36:56SPEAKER_01: Well, Cody, or any other.
- 36:59SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna say before we let you go, just tell tell the listeners one more time best way they can find you and support you, websites, you know, Instagram, Facebook, whatever.
- 37:09SPEAKER_01: Tell us everything so we can share all that at the bottom of our show notes here.
- 37:13SPEAKER_02: We're not on the road traveling.
- 37:15SPEAKER_02: You can find me at 15664 Rankin Avenue in Dunlap, Tennessee.
- 37:22SPEAKER_02: Uh, but uh the best way to find uh the music stuff, man, is go to Cody McCarver.com and uh then go like our Facebook page is Cody McCarver Music.
- 37:33SPEAKER_02: Uh Instagram page is just at Cody McCarver.
- 37:36SPEAKER_02: And you know, it's funny since I started doing these movies and hanging out with John, now I've got all these people faking uh uh being me on Instagram, so I'm fine there right now.
- 37:48SPEAKER_02: But uh uh yeah, we have an Instagram page, uh YouTube channel.
- 37:53SPEAKER_02: It's just official Cody McCarver, and then my website's Cody McCarver.com.
- 37:58SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
- 37:59SPEAKER_01: We'll be sure to put that in the notes so that folks can uh just scroll down at the bottom of the description of the podcast and they can click on those links.
- 38:07SPEAKER_01: So we'll get that in there for y'all.
- 38:09SPEAKER_04: And I think John said you could go ahead and pre-order a copy of uh poker run right now.
- 38:13SPEAKER_04: That's what I've what I've heard him say.
- 38:14SPEAKER_04: So uh make sure you get on that.
- 38:18SPEAKER_02: I've seen poker run.
- 38:20SPEAKER_02: Is it good?
- 38:21SPEAKER_02: Not everybody's seen poker run, but I've seen poker run.
- 38:24SPEAKER_02: What did you think?
- 38:24SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
- 38:25SPEAKER_02: Tell us what you thought.
- 38:26SPEAKER_02: He actually, I think he told me that I was the first person to see it.
- 38:30SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
- 38:33SPEAKER_02: Right.
- 38:34SPEAKER_02: And uh Alicia was like, You don't need to show it to him, you don't need to show it to him.
- 38:37SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Well, why not?
- 38:39SPEAKER_02: And he and she says, because it's not, you know, finished, not color edited and uh sound effect and all that stuff, you know.
- 38:46SPEAKER_02: And he said, It's Cody, he understands, you know.
- 38:49SPEAKER_02: So I actually got to see it.
- 38:51SPEAKER_02: Uh if you don't know what a poker run is, you know, it's a card, you play cards, and uh you uh you drive from place to place, and when you get to this place, you get another card, and we we kind of play Texas holder, and uh then there's a winner and there's loser.
- 39:07SPEAKER_02: And uh I know who wins, but I'm not gonna tell nobody.
- 39:12SPEAKER_02: You gotta watch the movie.
- 39:13SPEAKER_02: It is great, it's hilarious.
- 39:16SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
- 39:17SPEAKER_04: We can't wait.
- 39:19SPEAKER_01: Yep.
- 39:20SPEAKER_01: Well, all right, folks.
- 39:21SPEAKER_01: Um, we appreciate it, Cody.
- 39:24SPEAKER_01: Hopefully we can uh get some more folks to listen to your music because I'm excited about checking you out.
- 39:29SPEAKER_02: So well, I appreciate you guys having me and uh have a great weekend.
- 39:37SPEAKER_02: I'll take I'll be going more listening to how many dumb things I said on this.
- 39:45SPEAKER_04: We appreciate it, man.
- 39:46SPEAKER_04: Hopefully, we'll run into you soon somewhere with John.
- 39:49SPEAKER_04: I want to know more about the glasses.
- 39:51SPEAKER_04: Yeah, johnnypacker.com.
- 39:54SPEAKER_04: I'm going around the word, everybody you know.
- 39:56SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
- 39:57SPEAKER_01: All right, thank y'all.
- 39:59SPEAKER_00: Thanks for thanks for listening to the Johnny's World Podcast.
- 40:04SPEAKER_00: Please help us spread the message about the DF and support our cause by going to johnnypacker.com.
- 40:11SPEAKER_00: You can also reach us at jonypackeryewear at gmail.com.