Latest / The Joe Rogan Recap / The Red Clay Strays (2025) - Rejecting Ego and Internet Absurdity for the Authentic Grind of Success

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The Red Clay Strays (2025) - Rejecting Ego and Internet Absurdity for the Authentic Grind of Success · The Joe Rogan Recap

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  Welcome to the Joe Rogan recap. You there Today we're diving
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  deep into a really remarkable conversation Joe had with the
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  band The Red Clay Strays. Yeah, and this wasn't just your
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  typical music chat, was it? It went way beyond that.
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  Absolutely. It's kind of a master class in,
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  well, how to navigate success today by maybe rejecting some
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  modern stuff, Ego, online craziness.
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  Right. It was a long one, and our
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  mission here is to pull out those those core Nuggets for
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  you. We're talking the realities of
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  touring the, let's say, bizarre side of Internet culture and
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  this really potent philosophy that kind of holds them
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  together. And we really have to start
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  where they did, which is hitting that viral moment and
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  immediately dealing with the comments section.
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  Oh yeah. The dark path of reading the
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  comments. Yeah, classic.
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  It's just the perfect snapshot of Internet absurdity right off
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  the bat. The singer talked about that
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  first big wave of feedback and it's specifically targeting 1
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  member Andrew. I still can't quite get over
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  Andrew being called a mustache lesbian repeatedly.
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  Yeah, it's so specific and just yeah, odd.
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  And he thought maybe it would die down.
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  But then the next thing was, Andrew, come on, man.
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  Don't sit with your legs crossed in the typical liberal fashion
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  like well. It's fascinating, though, how
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  instant that kind of polarized scrutiny is now.
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  They weren't even huge yet, really, right?
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  And it forced them to confront that whole tribal online thing,
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  which is, you know, the total opposite of how they try to
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  operate internally. Mutual respect.
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  Unity exactly. So it sets up their whole story
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  perfectly, this contrast. Yeah, it really does, because
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  their foundation seems built on something way more genuine than
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  just likes and comments. Let's get into how the Red Clay
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  strays actually started. OK, Yeah, it's a great story,
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  kind of rags to Rd. Dogs started back in December
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  2016 and. They weren't doing originals
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  right away. Nope.
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  Basically a cover band. Yeah, and they freely admit they
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  played really bad Blues. Bad enough to clear room.
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  Sometimes, yeah, that's what the singer said.
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  Playing tiny country bars, sometimes just emptying them
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  out. Rough start.
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  But the manager story is where it gets really interesting,
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  Drew, right? Oh yeah Drew, talk about
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  starting from zero. Literally 0 music vis
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  experience. He was described as down on his
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  luck. Totally squatting in a college
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  dorm. Apparently his plan was middle
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  school teacher and football coach.
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  No background in this at all. So how does a guy like that
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  become a band manager? Pure hustle.
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  Basically because he didn't know the right way.
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  He just did away. He was working for the equipment
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  staff at South Alabama. Washing jock straps.
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  Literally washing jock straps and in between he's sitting in
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  the equipment room scribbling phone numbers on post it notes.
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  No way. Yeah.
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  Just cold calling venues, contacts anyone he could find,
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  just dialing until someone anyone answered.
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  That's some serious grit. Post it note booking.
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  But the financial side, that's wild too.
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  They didn't know the standard 15% fee.
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  Had no idea they were all green. So instead of the standard cut.
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  They just gave him an equal share, like the same as
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  abandonment. The equal full cut, Yeah,
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  because as they put it, he was fully committed.
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  He wasn't just booking calls. He was there showing up drinking
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  beers at every practice. Wow, OK, but wait, giving an
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  equal cut that's like 20% or more to someone with no
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  experience? That sounds kind of risky.
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  Financially naive maybe? Did they talk about that side?
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  Not directly about the risk, but the whole vibe of the
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  conversation was that loyalty was the payment, commitment was
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  the currency for them. You know, he was all in, so they
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  were all in with him. They figured out pretty quick
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  that real commitment that's way harder to find than like
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  industry knowledge. OK, that makes sense in their
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  context. And Speaking of finding the
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  right people, that Drummer Search is another great little
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  story. Right after their first drummer,
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  Ray, the old man drummer as they called him, quit, they needed
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  someone new and found John. But John wasn't exactly easy to
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  contact. Not at all.
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  Guy didn't have a phone. Seriously.
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  Yeah. They had to literally arrange to
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  meet him at a Hardee's in Citronelle, AL and drive him
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  back in a Firebird for the audition.
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  That is straight out of a movie script.
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  Amazing. But when he played with Andrew
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  the bassist. Instant connection.
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  Just immediate, they said. John and Andrew just locked in
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  immediately, hitting every beat, every pause perfectly together.
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  No words needed. A telekinetic thing.
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  That's what the singer called it.
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  Yeah. That magic chemistry you just
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  can't fake. That's the bedrock, right?
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  Definitely, and that whole gritty, committed, selfless
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  start, It feels like that's the launchpad for their whole
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  philosophy, especially dealing with touring life.
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  Oh for sure, and survival is the right word.
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  They've been hitting it hard since 2018.
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  Started out touring in Andrew's Acadia.
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  Just piling in. And basically haven't stopped
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  since except for Christmas break in December.
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  They admitted they are burnt. It's a constant grind.
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  Most bands crack under that pressure, right?
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  Ego clashes, fighting for the spotlight totally.
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  But they seem to manage it with this this mutual accountability
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  thing, they call it the tack will correct.
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  The pack will correct. I like.
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  That Yeah. So if someone starts getting too
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  big for their boots or messing up, getting lost in the hype.
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  They have a come to Jesus meeting.
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  That's the term they used and they stressed how tough that is.
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  Learning to be vulnerable, especially as guys learning to
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  actually talk about feelings. Set boundaries, like if someone
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  shows up drunk or just needs space, you got to address it.
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  And this ties into that bigger philosophy.
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  They kept coming back to contrasting worldly success with
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  something else. Exactly.
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  They see the fame, the money, all that as temporary.
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  Like chasing wind, was the phrase.
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  Chasing wind? The real point for them is
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  feeling like they're fulfilling a calling, serving each other.
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  And that plays out in weirdly practical ways, like the hotel
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  room floor thing. Yeah, yeah.
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  Fighting over who gets the floor, not who gets the bed.
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  It sounds small, but it shows that focus on selflessness.
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  It's driven by something bigger than just making it big.
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  And they have proof that this focus actually matters, right?
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  Specific stories from fans. Oh yeah, that's what keeps them
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  going through the grind. There was this one incredibly
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  powerful story. The one about the fan
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  considering suicide? Yeah.
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  Lanning to take pills right then, yeah.
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  And at that exact moment, their song I'm Still Fine comes on.
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  And it stopped them, saved their life.
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  Wow, that kind of impact. They said that's the why that
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  makes the endless touring, the exhaustion, make sense.
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  And that connection, it stems from their own struggles,
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  doesn't it? The music feels real because it
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  is. Totally like the song Drowning,
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  written while the songwriter was driving Uber and mobile.
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  Trying to make just $100 a day. Yeah, sometimes taking 1214
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  hours to hit that tiny goal, Yeah, That kind of real life
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  hardship, That's what people connect with in the songs.
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  Yeah, you know. And they've had to apply this
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  whole unity over division thing to the real world too,
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  especially with politics lately. Right, they rushed out their new
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  single people hating. It was set for October 3rd,
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  right after that whole Charlie Kirk incident blew up online.
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  Yeah, for listeners who missed it, it was a kind of viral
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  political clash that unexpectedly put the band right
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  in the middle of it. Exactly, put them in a spot they
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  didn't ask for. And their response?
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  Releasing that song, it wasn't really taking a political side,
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  was it? No, it felt more philosophical.
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  They basically said, look, we're not putting politics or tribes
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  above just basic humanity. Refusing to let the internet's
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  polarization define their message, which is tough to do.
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  It really is. And that commitment to avoiding
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  ego and delusion, it connects straight back to those
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  historical warnings they talked about.
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  What happens when the pack doesn't correct you?
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  Right. The conversation immediately
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  jumped to Elvis, the classic cautionary tale.
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  Isolated the pills, The weird Kempo karate phase.
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  And awarding himself that questionable Elvis black belt.
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  It's what happens when you lose that external check, that
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  accountability. You can drift into delusion.
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  Which leads perfectly into the other side of this whole deep
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  dive. The world they seem to be
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  rejecting. The world of quick fixes,
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  artificial perfection. Things got kind of weird in the
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  middle of the original discussion.
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  They really did, but it's necessary, I think, to see the
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  contrast. What happens when ego meets
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  modern tech in medicine? Joe got pulled down some
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  disturbing Internet rabbit holes.
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  Surgical ones. OK, brace yourselves folks,
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  because these examples of chasing artificial perfection
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  are intense. First up, cosmetic surgery for
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  men lengthening in girth using plastic implants.
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  Yeah, they describe the implants as looking like a flounder
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  filet. A flounder filet.
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  That was the description and the result.
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  They called it a Franken penis, an unnaturally large organ that
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  just stays that way, flaccidly large.
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  Good grief, the details are just unsettling.
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  It speaks volumes about wanting some engineered, maybe even
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  dysfunctional ideal. I was genuinely shocked
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  listening to that part. And it didn't stop there.
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  The body modification talk then shifted to height.
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  Right Brian the Sasquatch, a guy who was already tall, like 6
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  feet. And he undergoes months of
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  painful leg lengthening surgery. To gain 6 more inches.
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  And the result? Now he's struggling to even walk
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  properly. His body just can't handle the
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  artificial change. It's such a stark warning about
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  chasing perfection at any cost. And discussing this stuff
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  immediately made them question the institutions involved,
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  right? Especially modern medicine.
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  Big time. They were really shocked talking
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  about how hospitals are at the end of the day, private
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  businesses. Which means there can be
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  financial incentives driving decisions, maybe pushing extreme
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  procedures. Exactly.
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  And that potential conflict completely erodes trust, doesn't
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  it? Yeah, and the stories about
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  patient care, or lack thereof, relying on Uber drivers.
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  It's staggering. Hospitals discharging vulnerable
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  patients, someone blind, someone right out of major surgery and
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  just trusting a random Uber driver to get them home, help
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  them inside, even into bed sometimes.
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  It feels like systemic neglect disguised as efficiency.
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  Yeah. And when you see that breakdown
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  of trust in big institutions, it kind of makes sense why the
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  conversation then sprawls into these other areas looking for
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  answers in history or mystery. Totally, which is how they ended
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  up talking about ancient sites like Gobikli Tepe in Turkey.
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  11,000 years old. And the weirdest part is that
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  the people who built it intentionally buried it.
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  We still don't know why and we've only dug up, what, 5% of
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  it? Mind blowing.
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  It just hints at how much we don't know about our own past.
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  And Speaking of unknowns and maybe hidden history, they
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  touched on giants. Yes, the Nephilim speculation
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  and that persistent conspiracy theory that the Smithsonian is
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  hiding giant skeletons like 1015 feet tall.
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  Yes, suppressing evidence that doesn't fit the standard story.
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  Always a fascinating, if unproven, idea.
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  And the last enigma they hit was the Shroud of Turin.
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  Right, focusing on the strangest physical property, the image of
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  Christ is only really clear as a photographic negative.
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  Which is the kicker, because nobody in the 1300s when it
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  showed up knew what a photographic negative even was.
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  Exactly. It just defies conventional
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  explanation for that time period, which led them to
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  theories about it being caused by some kind of intense blast of
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  radiation, but without any bird marks, without heat.
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  Bizarre and fascinating tangents all around.
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  So OK, let's try to pull this all together.
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  When you synthesize this whole deep dive, the main thing that
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  jumps out is this stark contrast.
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  Right on one side you have the red clay strays finding success
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  through sheer hard work, embracing the struggle, serious
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  self criticism, the selfless group purpose, almost fighting
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  against the idea of making it. And you put that right next to
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  the modern landscape they described.
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  Yeah, people chasing quick fixes manufactured online outrage,
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  surgically altered bodies. This widespread loss of trust.
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  It's like the band found their way by leaning into the
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  authentic, difficult path while so much of the world seems drawn
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  to the immediate, the artificial, the shallow.
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  And I really like that final point about music being a
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  unifier, that anecdote about their music playing in the green
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  room at the Mothership Joe Rogans Comedy club.
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  Showing that it doesn't matter if you're left right, a
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  comedian, a construction worker, people can connect over.
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  Just a good song. It cuts through the noise.
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  Which loots back perfectly to their core idea, honoring a
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  gift, maybe a God-given gift. Yeah, that's the center of their
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  anti ego thing. They totally reject the notion
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  that success is some final destination, someplace you
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  arrive at and then just rest. Yeah, they put it bluntly.
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  This idea that there's going to be a goal where you're going to
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  get to a spot someday where you could rest, that's nonsense.
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  That's when you die. Whoa, yeah.
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  The idea is you're meant to be constantly using the gift,
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  serving the purpose, not stopping.
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  So thinking about their philosophy, maybe the final
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  thought for you, the listener, is this.
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  If the goal isn't just resting on your laurels or piling up
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  stuff because as they said, you can't take any of it with you,
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  then what talent OR gift might you be neglecting right now?
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  What are you putting aside while you're maybe chasing those
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  temporary goals or getting tangled up in those online
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  fights that in the grand scheme, just don't matter?
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  Definitely something to Mull over.
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  For sure, until the next deep dive.