Tony Scott: 0:13

Welcome to The Jay Franze Show, a behind-the-curtain look at the entertainment industry, with insights you can't pay for and stories you've never heard. Now here's your host, Jay Franze.

Jay Franze: 0:42

Well, hello, hello, hello and welcome to the show. I am Jay Franze and this is your Backstage Pass to the Music Industry. This week we get to talk with a southern rock recording artist and an actor. We get to talk with Grayson Russell. We'll talk to him about the impact that his friend Houston had on his career, what it was like playing at Nickelback Night, and we'll talk about, well, his songwriting and production process. Now, Grayson, he is not only an amazing artist, but he is an amazing actor, and I can't wait to talk with him tonight. He is not only an amazing artist, but he is an amazing actor, and I can't wait to talk with him tonight. So, if you would like to join in, comment or fire off any questions, please head over to jayfranze. com. Now let's get started.

Grayson Russell: 1:29

Can you just tell me the impact that your friend Houston had on your career? Yeah, houston. So Houston played my brother in a film called Talladega Nights, this first one that I did. I'm an only child. Houston is really the only brother I'll ever have, or at least people will consider me to have. I mean, I have individuals I would consider to be my brother, but with a project like that it's wild, because I'm the only one left now that will remember Talladega Nights from a child's perspective.

Grayson Russell: 2:03

I know that's selfish, but that's one of the things that kind of blew me away, because me and Houston didn't talk for about 20 years. It was just whenever we kind of came up, you know, doing Talladega Nights. It was really kind of before everybody had cell phones and he lived about 45 minutes away, which was a pilgrimage to a, you know, a seven-year-old. What was crazy, though, is when Houston passed and we were at the funeral, I reconnected with his sister hayden, who's my age. She's an audio engineer at east irish studios for universal oh, I know it well and whenever I went to cut my record, she engineered the whole thing because my producer, who was who was going to help me do it, passed away, had a massive heart attack a month before we went into the studio going to help me do it passed away, had a massive heart attack a month before we went into the studio, so I was kind of scrambling to have somebody to hit the big red button and Hayden came in and handled it.

Grayson Russell: 3:02

It's been a tough journey. You know post, you know Houston's passing. I've got a degree, a master's, in clinical mental health counseling, and me and him started talking about two weeks before he passed away, which I was. You know. Praise the lord that I was able to get that in. But that, um, it's, it's been, it's been a ride. It's certainly been something that I've. I'll do a string of uh social media posts where I go through my scrapbook and just go through what it was like doing Talladega Nights or Wimpy Kid or Greyhound or whatever all these things that my mom thankfully put in a scrapbook for me and it works to keep Houston alive as much as anything else.

Jay Franze: 3:51

What was the age difference?

Grayson Russell: 3:53

He was six years older than me, so he was 13 playing 10, five years older than me, yeah, so he was 13 playing 10 and I was 7 playing 7. With Talladega Knights, I mean, he really treated me like a younger brother. He was very kind. I mean I don't know too many 13 year olds that would give a crap about babysitting this little 7-year-old kid, much less on a Will Farrell movie. You know, I had no idea who Will was, but Anchorman had just come out. You know, I mean Elf had come out.

Grayson Russell: 4:24

I knew a little bit about Will, but Saturday Night Live was after my bedtime. But Houston really took me in and put up with a seven-year-old child when he didn't have to and it was. Yeah, we were able to have that experience together and neither one of us had to go through it alone, and our parents didn't have to go through it alone either, navigating this whole new world from just the middle of nowhere, alabama. And now here we are in a cult classic standing, you know, in the premiere, at the Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard.

Jay Franze: 4:59

What's that like? I mean especially as a young kid. That's got to be crazy. So I mean from a child's point of view.

Grayson Russell: 5:06

What's the? What do you think? And that's this is the thing that. That, just that really gets under my skin is because I wish that I had rekindled that relationship with Houston sooner, because there's so many things that not counting personal development or professional, but there's so many things about instances like that that I don't recall. I remember, you know, my mom and my dad being like doing their best God love them to try to communicate the sacredness of the Chinese theater to a seven-year-old child Like hey, kid, john Wayne's footprints are in the concrete over here, and I think the best they could probably come up with is like it's like you're going to church. It ain't holy, but it's close. You know it's as good as it's going to get.

Jay Franze: 6:00

It is in that industry.

Grayson Russell: 6:02

Yeah, and so I'm as trying to keep it together and as professional as I know how to be. Talladega Nights was a newspaper article. Then the only reason we went was because dad had a tournament to go fish, so he had to go get ready and me and mama were bored. I couldn't read, hadn't started the second grade yet. I had no intention of being an actor. I wanted to be george straight. Still want to be george straight. So I get there and I'm, you know, dressed up to the nines in a tux that we got from the local prom dress shop across the street from my house. And I get out there like, okay, this is going to be like going to church, it's going to be like the Notre Dame Cathedral, maybe. And I turn around and there's a Hooters across the street.

Jay Franze: 6:51

Of course there is what else would you expect?

Grayson Russell: 6:56

And so in my seven-year-old mind or eight, I guess at this time I am so confused and so I'm like there's this like Mecca.

Jay Franze: 7:06

Giant orange glow.

Grayson Russell: 7:08

Sacred, you know, like this is the Chinese theater, and then there's a Hooters across the street and it was. It was so funny to me because every year or not every year, but just every time I would be back in LA and would be in that part of town, I would make it a point to be sure that I remembered that ride, and sure enough unless something's changed since, you know, in the past two or three years? There's a Hooters across from the the Chinese theater.

Jay Franze: 7:34

Why is the theater glowing orange?

Grayson Russell: 7:36

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And I did a movie my senior year of high school called Mother's Day. It was a movie with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis and Joey Roberts it was Gary Marshall directed it. So he directed like Happy Days and Mork and Mindy and Pretty Woman. He created all of them and it was his last film before he passed away and we did the premiere there at the Chinese again as well, which would have been about probably 15 years removed. That you remember. Yes, sir, yeah, and I go back, and it was wild, to kind of return to the place where the world as I know it began, certainly in hindsight of knowing that I'm going to make a career out of this, because, I mean, nobody expected me to get the role, much less actually keep going with it. Michael Clark Duncan, the big guy from the Green Mile, set me up with his manager at the premiere and that's how I was able to stay in it, but it's been a wild ride. It's been a wild ride.

Jay Franze: 8:39

Those are some amazing people you've had an opportunity to work with, especially right out of the gate. Happy Days, that's what I grew up on. I mean, that was the TV show of choice when I was growing up. You say you wanted to be George Strait.

Grayson Russell: 8:53

I wanted to be george straight.

Jay Franze: 8:54

I wanted to be the fawns. I mean, that was the way it was, yeah, so what was it like working with jason sudeikis?

Grayson Russell: 8:59

he's easily, easily one of the most intelligent actors I've ever worked with, just incredibly quick. I mean, I work with some quick guys. I've got to to spend some time around a couple of different you know, snl players. But that man he was playing a retired Marine Corps veteran who was a soccer coach but was like managing to work out, like work in Shakespearean insults into things and it like made sense in a weird way and he was making stuff happen. No different than Will Ferrell. I think that if it had come out of anybody else's mouth it wouldn't land. It wouldn't land. He is just an incredibly quick, really sharp guy and you have to be in that environment at that level. But Jason was precious, incredibly kind to me.

Jay Franze: 9:50

Was Will on at all times.

Grayson Russell: 9:52

No, no, he cut to me Was Will on at all times? No, no, he cut it on, he cut it on, cut it off. You know, when he needed to be on, he was on it, and when he didn't, I mean, he was just a normal, normal human and he was incredibly kind to me. I don't know who would be, you know, just an outright, you know, to a seven-year-old Right, of course, you know, I guess, going into it, all we had kind of heard were horror stories, you know, child actors that turned out this way or the other. But if that had been a bad experience I never would have touched it again.

Jay Franze: 10:21

Yeah, looking back at it now, would you do it over again?

Grayson Russell: 10:26

Absolutely, absolutely. I mean the I don't think I know a lot of films now. There's just so much more content that's out there. It's hard for a generation to really wrap something up and receive it. And it had the effect like Talladega Nights had the amount of people that have come up to me still and from all walks of life.

Grayson Russell: 10:53

I had a guy last year come up who he was a veteran, and he said, man, the day I shipped out to Afghanistan, iraq or Afghanistan, one of the two, he said dude, I was like rethinking my whole life. Why in the world am I here? Like, okay, boot camp's's cool, but now I'm actually about to go into a war zone. And he was all eat up and he was about to hop on the plane to go and they made him babysit some kind of I don't know what. It was something in the warehouse and he was sitting there and he was like man, this was. I was about to have a full-on breakdown and I looked up until they ignited on the tv and he was like man, this was.

Grayson Russell: 11:32

I was about to have a full-on breakdown and I looked up and Tyler David Knox was on the TV and it was the film that, like my family, like that was our movie, that's the one we watched and it was a touch point of just a little bit of peace for me. That just kind of, you know, calmed me down and I mean I know that's relatively small but that's something that's going to stick with him the rest of his life, no different than me. I mean, we're filming it and we're in the infield and the first person to ever throw me a pair of beads was Amy Adams coming out of the trailer. You know like there's little things and odd things that you remember. But just to get to play a part in Batman's life, and that's just one testimonial of Talladega Nights.

Grayson Russell: 12:15

Or walking into my film, undergrad degree and the dinner table scene is on the slideshow in my class for product placement and that's been in the slideshow curriculum for the past eight years, getting to walk into that curriculum for the past eight years, getting to walk into that. Or on the CCM, christian music side, having guys come up and say man, I use the dinner table scene as a way to teach people how the world views Christianity. So many different ways. You know that thing's been used as just I wouldn't trade it. I wouldn't trade it just for the good that, I know that it's done.

Jay Franze: 12:52

When somebody tells you something like that, how does that make you feel Humbled?

Grayson Russell: 12:59

Humbled. I tell people I've been so fortunate to hit a level of relative success in the film industry with Tyler Legonite's Wimpy Kid and Greyhound getting the Oscar nod that most people never get number one and if they do, their grandparents aren't there to see them do it. Maybe their parents are, but when they do hit it, they're Morgan Freeman's age doing Driving. Miss Daisy and the people that have supported this starving artist all the way through don't get to see them actually make it so for me. I tell people, if I get smoked by the pedal trolley down here on 2nd Avenue, don't wait for me, man. I've got my money's worth out of this life.

Jay Franze: 13:44

I really have To be fair. You get hit by that thing. You're going to make it.

Grayson Russell: 13:48

You might get trampled by a bunch of bridesmaids. It's's gonna have to be going downhill.

Jay Franze: 13:52

You'll make it the bridesmaids. They're not that fierce. That's a funny place downtown nashville, all right, sir. Well, let's go ahead. Um, let's break into music a little bit. Can you tell me what the nickelback night was all about?

Grayson Russell: 14:07

so I got the. That was wild, that was the crazy. I was more nervous to sing at nickelback night than it was to meet Tom Hanks, which is which is crazy. And it's not because, you know, tom Hanks isn't sacred, it's just different things, mean, mean, different things, different people.

Grayson Russell: 14:21

When I was I funny I just went and watched the new gladiator movie with my best friend from home. I can show you the tile in the floor and the tile floor I was standing on when I met him and I was four years old, when we were like 10, his older brother introduced us to Nickelback and I remember sitting and listening to this song, saving Me that somebody had put on YouTube to the original Gladiator, like they said it, to Russell Crowe's Gladiator, and I would get home from school and I would probably watch that thing like four or five times a week. And to be able to, you know, 10, 12 years later, get to sing that song that I'd sang in the shower since I was 10,. You know, I guess, 16 years later, since I was 10, to sing that at Nickelback's album release party was. I won't ever forget that. And then they posted it on their Instagram. It's like, oh wow, this is. But to get to do that was a blessing, a blessing.

Jay Franze: 15:22

Real quick tangents. You mentioned your schooling. Yes, sir. Clinical mental health, clinical mental health counseling.

Grayson Russell: 15:29

Yes, sir, so my undergrad's in film and then my master's is from Pentecostal Theological Seminary. It's in clinical mental health counseling.

Grayson Russell: 15:36

Yes, sir, so my undergrad's in film and then my master's is from Pentecostal Theological Seminary. It's in clinical mental health counseling. I did so much work or was put in so many situations with other actors and musicians just over my life, of these one-on-one circumstances of people saying, hey, what would you do in this situation? This has happened or this has happened, and I just kept finding myself in all these situations where counseling was, that was what was needed, and I was able to provide it to the best of my ability. But it just kind of came to a point where it was like all right, lord, if you're going to keep putting me in these situations, I want to know what the hell I'm doing, and I've done nothing else for my own personal safety. But it makes me be a better actor, though. I mean, I understand or I'm able to look into you know why did this character do this or say this, or you know what is their? Or they want to get this out of it, or they want to get this out of it. No different than than my songwriting. I'm able to sit and, um, you know if I'm, you know, writing something, you know if it's just me, particularly if it's a co-write. I treat a co-write like a counseling session. Just I get to, I get to put it, you know a melody to it and I know the questions to ask.

Grayson Russell: 16:47

Do you feel this way because you know? No different than with film? Is it because this was the outcome you were wanting and that hope was deferred? Or is it because you said this, because you meant it, but then that backfired, even though you were honest about it? Or how does that? You know, how does that work into it, and I feel like I'm able to get a far more authentic product that way. So it's interesting. I wasn't expecting how that would work into it. I do a a lot of work with this nonprofit called Creative Eds that does songwriting with veterans and it's the perfect, perfect mesh of those two worlds for me, because I'm able to pour into a veteran who might be dealing with X, y and Z, but then also help them tell their story in a way that's good and entertaining but is honest to what they've been through, because sometimes it can be real easy to say maybe X, y and Z and put it up in a way that doesn't grab a hold of you or might be a little more profane than you want to try to communicate. It's different and those situations need to be treated with an incredible amount of tact and delicacy as well.

Jay Franze: 17:56

Did you find yourself being a natural mentor? Yes, if you're a natural mentor, I think that this kind of background, this education, would come in definitely handy. And now that you have it and you're able to apply it with the vets and not only apply it but to combine it with your craft I think that's a really good thing. Yes, sir, so on that note, let's jump into songwriting for a minute. How do you approach songwriting?

Grayson Russell: 18:24

It's different for each song. For me, and I think it's a good thing, I haven't figured out a way, nor, I guess, have I really tried to write something that I haven't expressly walked through the middle of. It keeps my stuff authentic, for sure, but it also requires me to go through a little bit of relative hell to dig up, and especially with the counseling background I'm probably able to. It helps me articulate it a little better, but for me it's almost always situational. I've never wanted really a job as a songwriter because I never wanted that to have to be my day-to-day. It would be a tough one, for sure.

Grayson Russell: 19:06

It would be a tough one. I mean, I enjoy co-writing when I co-write, but there's usually, like I said, I do it a lot with Vets, so there's usually a greater purpose behind it than just what we're what we're doing.

Jay Franze: 19:17

I can imagine that's not your story either. That's their exactly.

Grayson Russell: 19:21

Exactly For for me I got a buddy. He's not, he's about to be 92. He was the only doctor we had in town for a long time and his favorite thing to do was deliver babies. He said that was my favorite thing to do. This has been like in the 50s and 60s. He said it's the only thing that I go into the or that you go into the hospital with and come out with something better than you had to start with.

Grayson Russell: 19:44

And that has been my relationship with songwriting. Is this going through some form of? Sometimes it's good, but for the most part for me to be moved to write it it has to be something relatively difficult or something that I might have gotten myself into or something I've observed right up close. That usually ends up redeeming the whole situation. I've got a song called Turned Out Good that I think I'll probably put out in April.

Grayson Russell: 20:13

It's about my granddad who just passed away. He lost his mom when he was three. She got melanoma picking cotton, and when he was seven he had strep throat and it turned into rheumatic fever and paralyzed him and so he would just scoot around on his butt and they took him to a tent revival like an old school church service in like 1952. After having been paralyzed for a year, they prayed for him and he took off running. After having been paralyzed for a year, they prayed for him and he took off running and the whole family converted, built the church I was raised in and there's a whole deal with that too. And the second verse involves a lot of counsel and stuff from my father.

Grayson Russell: 20:46

But there have been situations that I haven't lived through, that I've been able to watch develop my whole life and work with. I love songwriting when it's done and we have it and here it is, I can't stand doing it. Cannot stand doing it, but I love it when it's done. I love it when I have it and go okay, this is something worth working with and I can play it. And I got to play at the Bluebird a couple months ago and I love that venue and I wasn't thinking about it, but it's because it's the only one I've played where if I'm playing something heavy, I can hear people crying right behind me or hear them sniffling, and so to see the songs that I worked. It makes somebody laugh or or make somebody weep. Um has been a, has been a blessing for me and certainly validated a lot of the circumstances and situations that I've been in that made me write the damn thing in the first place.

Jay Franze: 21:48

The Bluebird iconic venue. And just a quick note of why you're able to hear somebody cry within that room is because not only is it not the largest room, but the protocol is there's no talking. So people go there to hear the story behind the song and they want to truly hear the story behind the song.

Grayson Russell: 22:08

And there's no stage. You sit in the middle of all these tables, so you're eye level with everybody, and so you literally have people breathing on the back of your head while you're playing.

Jay Franze: 22:17

I could hear the lady behind me just sniffing, as could be, and we're like okay, we're good, we're doing something, we're doing it I had um katie jane on the show last night and katie jane she's a country singer from australia and she's amazing singer I mean, just as talented as can be and she was talking about a lot of the same things that you're talking about tonight about when it comes to writing a song. But one of the things we mentioned was she says she prefers playing live versus writing the song, and I was telling her as a musician growing up that I preferred going into the studio because I like to leave the studio with something in my hand, something that is a finished product. So I can definitely relate to where you're coming from.

Grayson Russell: 23:02

Yeah, I love working in the studio. I love the mixing process.

Jay Franze: 23:05

for me, that's my favorite, that is where I am.

Grayson Russell: 23:08

I am far more hands-on than any of the engineers I've worked with would ever like for me to be, because I am. I mean, just my head is so far up there, I need help pulling it out sometime. I love working in the studio, but for me it's more being sure all my bases are covered, and then I'm going to spend the next three months listening to the. You know, because how I work is I like to do them live. I don't really like to like't really like to do it and then punch back in at the chorus and have one singular take, even though that's the workflow wise, that's the king, that's the easiest thing to do.

Grayson Russell: 23:42

It's really efficient. But we might have 15 takes of a song and I'll go through and I'll pick my drum take and be sure that I like the bass take that goes with that drum take and be sure that anything I got a fly in from anywhere else. Then we work through the guitars because there might be an organ lick that I've liked that Bryson did in take two that I want to have because we're using overall take 17. So I love doing that. It is incredibly tedious but also when I'm done with it there is no ifs, ands or buts. I know that I didn't neglect a singular piece of it and that is the very best that I knew how to make it and I can sleep real well with that. And if somebody doesn't like it, so be it. That's okay. It's all up to someone else's interpretation, but I know that I did everything I could on it.

Jay Franze: 24:33

Well, that's cool. Let's take a deeper dive into that for a minute. Who was the producer that you had lined up that passed away?

Grayson Russell: 24:40

His name was Scott Glazel, and the interesting story behind Scott is when I was seven years old, right before I started Talladega Nights, I had a band that I put together that sang solely Bee Gees music and have a Nice Day by Bon Jovi. That song was the one exception, the rest was all BG's.

Jay Franze: 24:59

And it was all my fellow second graders Did you sing it in a BG manner.

Grayson Russell: 25:02

Yeah, no, no, no, that one. We sung straight but we never played anywhere. But I would make them all come over on the weekends and have rehearsals Again. These are all my second grade classmates and fast forward 14 years. My band was playing a show out at Johnny Cash. It has a farm, or had a farm out in Bar Aqua in Dixon and we were playing a show and this guy came out of the audience. He said hey man, you don't know who I am, but my name is Scott Glazel. I'm going to mix four albums for the Bee Gees and I want to do yours when you get ready to do one. And I said amen, thank you, jesus, sign me up, sign me up. And, like I said, unfortunately he passed away about a month before we went to the studio to cut it. But it opened up another door for Hayden to come in Houston's sister and work on it.

Grayson Russell: 25:49

Another weird, crazy full circle is the first song I ever learned to sing. That I sang by myself when I was three. Was I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me. That I sang by myself when I was three. Was I Can Only Imagine by Mercy Me. I ran into those guys about 20 years later on a retreat out in Wyoming and they said hey, man, we got us a studio. We got a cabin from Motley Crue and we dropped a studio in it. We call it the Imagine House. Come over and cut your record. And I was able to not only cut a record. But I was able to not only cut a record, but I was able to do it in a studio that was built on the proceeds of the first song I ever learned to sing and the first song I ever recorded with my dad when I was six, on his first record. So there were so many different circles just fully coming around when we cut this thing. But yes, the Bee Gees guy's name is Scott Glazel.

Jay Franze: 26:36

All right, so Scott unfortunately passed away.

Grayson Russell: 26:40

Yes, sir.

Jay Franze: 26:40

Did you then take on another producer, or did you choose to do it yourself?

Grayson Russell: 26:45

I cut it myself and then I brought on a guy actually Scott's business partner, Mr Loren Johnson, his partner at the studio that they ran. It's an Atmos studio called Mersive. They actually just mixed the Red Clay Stray's newest record that got submitted for a Grammy Incredible, incredible work. And Lauren believed in me enough, mainly because Scott believed in me Right, and so Lauren's been incredibly helpful. I mean, I wouldn't be able to do this record without him, Just allowing me to come in and him working with me for all the post-op stuff. Him and alex alex both all right.

Jay Franze: 27:18

So let's touch on that for a minute, because I know when I had the opportunity to work for bob, I also had an opportunity to work for two other producers in town and they were all completely different. One was a demo producer that was doing demos for songwriters. One was a mid-level producer who was doing young, up-and-coming artists. And then there was Bob who was doing all the seasoned artists, all the big ones like George Strait and so on. So I've had an opportunity to work with these people and see different types of working styles. Can you tell me the style that you took on when you started producing the record and then the style that he took on when he stepped in after?

Grayson Russell: 27:56

started producing the record and then the style that he took on when he stepped in after. Yeah, for me, thankfully, all the songs that we cut we've played for about the past two, three years live, so there wasn't a lot too many discrepancies as to how we were going to do it. I mean, we walked in, we, we took us about four or five days. We cut 14 songs. So so I mean we really we stretched it out for sure, or we cut 12. I'm sorry, we cut 12. And then we've cut two more since then, and when Lauren stepped in, it was really far more on the mix and the plug-in world that I've been illiterate to. Thankfully, from the acting side of things, the self-awareness there of how I'm telling the story and how I'm breathing and the tone they'll sing this one in isn't going to be the same tone I'm going to sing this one in, but there has to be enough of a through line there to where I'm not sounding like two different people. But you believe each one. My pet peeve is when somebody sings a song and I don't believe that they believe it. That song's for somebody else. If you don't believe in it, then why should I? And Lauren was really really, really helpful. We cut the record and then I cut all my vocal takes post-op, over everything, and so he was really hands onon with me in the vocal comps and you know I'd cut four or five, you know vocal passes and then we would go in and literally grab this syllable from this one over here and grab this syllable from this one over here and it's funny because it's no different for me than my approach to acting and you give me five takes. There's going to be two or three spots in them that are all the same, because that's the way that I believe that's how that should be done. Right, and everything else. There's going to be a. It'll be a the. The whole take itself will be its own thing, more or less a consistent tone. And then take two will be its own consistent tone. It'll be just a hair different from the first one. Right, slight variation, yes, sir.

Grayson Russell: 29:57

And then I would go in, I would let Lauren take a break and then I would go in and listen to the 17 takes and go. I don't want to waste his time. I did that at a couple different studios where I had time over the next year and then, once I kind of compounded them. Lauren stepped in on the back end and, you know, approved kind of the mix that I was working with with my buddy, who's a who's an engineer as well.

Grayson Russell: 30:22

It's been far more. You know, he's been really good about letting me stretch my legs and and and figure it out for me and how I like to work, and coming in and giving you know, giving saying no, you need to go this way, and here's why. And it's just been somebody I knew I could really trust, that had my best interest at heart and wanted the best thing for the song. Really, I mean, that's all you need. I know that just kind of sounds ignorant, but that's really what it came down to. He knew what we were capable of and when you know if there was a piece where that fell short in the mix, you know those were his notes, where he trusted how I worked and corrected me when I was doing it wrong, but for the most part let me run, and then whenever I was done, he would come in and make his final notes and it's been hands-on where I've really needed it and where I've needed to grow, and he's also kind of let me run and figured out, which I really, really appreciate.

Jay Franze: 31:32

Well, let's connect the dots to a couple of pieces here. So you had Hayden come in as an engineer and she works out of East East Iris.

Grayson Russell: 31:42

Yes, sir, yes sir. So it's a, it's a, it's a, it's been a web, it's a web of engineers. So so Hayden came in with my. I had my buddy, luke from Cleveland, tennessee, where I did my undergrad. He helped me cut all my demos in his dad's studio and Luke's like 19. And so I had Luke come in. He assisted Hayden when we tracked it as a recording engineer.

Jay Franze: 32:06

Was this at East Iris?

Grayson Russell: 32:08

This was at Mercy Me's studio. So Hayden took a few days off, came in and worked with us. So Hayden took a few days off, came in and worked with us and then over the next year I was back and forth between Mersive, which is Lauren's studio where we're ultimately meeting the Atmos studio, the Atmos studio and, funny enough, grand Canyon University, because I've been dating this girl for the past couple years and she lives in Phoenix and so I was out there. Her mom teaches at gcu. They happen to have an immaculate recording studio that mercy me also helped them build, and so I made I made friends with one of the students there. His name's cooper mather, who's an incredible engineer and he was just an it, you know, like interning in the in the studio as a student. So he he helped me, he ran the board, and so I picked out all my takes there at GCU and then when I have one picked out exactly how I wanted it to and I came back to Tennessee, me and Lauren would go through them and Hayden would go through them and pick them. And then, when things really picked up at East Iris and Hayden's schedule's gotten busy, it worked out. My buddy, alex, also from Cleveland, tennessee, needed a job and he's a fantastic engineer. So Lauren just hired him and so it's been about four or five hands.

Grayson Russell: 33:28

I don't know how to run Pro Tools by the end of this thing, but it's been really interesting because I wanted to cast a really wide net sonically with this record because I didn't want one sound to stick and I cut an album, volume two, towards that direction and it come out of left field, right. I want everybody to know kind of hey, here's what I'm capable of, that's in my wheelhouse, that I know is in my wheelhouse. We've got this over here that sounds like George Strait. We've got this that sounds like Steve Earle. We've got this up the middle that feels like Gordon Lightfoot, or this part over here that feels like Skinner, or this that feels like U2. Boom, here you go. And so for Volume 2, if it's a little more U2 or a little more George Strait, it's not. You kind of know what you're getting into and it's not I always go back to. This is Spinal Tap, where they come out with the jazz fusion record. It's like who told them to do that? Anyway, sorry, there's my first real time.

Jay Franze: 34:32

There's your left turn. That's all right. We can take a left turn as long as we turn it up to 11.

Grayson Russell: 34:36

Yeah, amen.

Jay Franze: 34:38

All right. Well, let's tie it all in together now. You've got the production process, you've got the writing process, you've got the studios that we've worked and we've talked about the songs themselves. You mentioned that they all come from stories of your life.

Grayson Russell: 34:52

Yes, sir.

Jay Franze: 34:53

Okay, so let's talk about Corn and Kerosene.

Grayson Russell: 34:55

Corn and Kerosene. So when I was looking at the album, the first thing was that I wanted to write the whole record, for everything that wasn't a cover. I wanted to write it and I wanted to be the only writer on it, mainly because I wanted people to know that I'm here to stay. This is what I've always wanted to do, and it's not just an actor that switched over to music because he was bored. This is something that I've always wanted to do. This will be the fourth record that I've played a part in. Here we are.

Jay Franze: 35:22

And, to be fair, you wanted to do this first.

Grayson Russell: 35:25

Yes sir, yes sir. And two I put together in my mind. If I could just have one country record, what songs would be on it, what styles? I didn't solely write songs that paralleled to those, but some of them definitely lean more that way. So I love Copperhead Road by Steve Earle Corning. Kerosene is the closest I'm ever going to get to having a song that's that direction. I love Beneath the Bow because it feels something kind of like a Gordon Lightfoot record that Edmund Fitzgerald crossed with something. That's its own operatic thing, that's its own deal deal.

Grayson Russell: 36:08

Got a song there called sing it plain. That feels a little bit like crazy town off of, uh, or the song crazy town off one of jason aldean's records. There's a song called regret on there that feels very much somewhere between johnny cash and nine inch nails version of hurt. The turned out good song about my granddad is, you know, my closest thing I'll do to a song Craig Morgan cut called this Ain't Nothin', and so for me it was a matter of putting together what I saw to be one of the ideal Southern rock country records that I could put together in my mind and being sure that all those sounds were covered to some extent to the best of my ability.

Jay Franze: 36:45

As a producer yourself. At the beginning stages of the record were you the one that selected the musicians.

Grayson Russell: 36:53

Yes, sir, the musicians are the band that I put together in college seven years ago. It's the band that I travel with. The crew playing the record is the crew that I play with. That's awesome. The guy that played the harmonic solo in the Allman Brothers style deal, his name's Corbin Brown started playing in my band playing college gigs when he was 12. He travels with a guy named Jason Crabb right now who's won a whole slew of Grammys on the Christian music side of the world. The only guy I've brought in one guy on Beneath the Bough, his name's Dave Cleveland to put some guitar stuff on it.

Grayson Russell: 37:30

But for all intents and purposes, both songs are nothing. But the guys that I put together out of college. It's my band. It'll make you rack your brain too, because I mean they're not studio musicians any more than I am, but we've played the damn thing for three years. So it's just a matter of now like, oh sweet, so you mean we can add on two more guitars that we don't actually have bodies for live, or we can throw in this harmonic solo that goes back and forth like it's an Allman Brothers song or this, that and the other.

Grayson Russell: 38:00

I play mandolin on it, which I don't ever really play mandolin live. I play acoustic on this track and predominantly when I'm with my band. Honestly, corn kerosene was the first song we cut, the first one we recorded when we did the record because it was the one that was the easiest to play, so like four chords the whole time and it's the one we thought we would warm up to because it didn't have a chance like it was the one we thought would be the the, the crappiest one off the deal and we we got done and listened back to it was like well, boys, that's our song I don't really that's our signature hit right there.

Grayson Russell: 38:36

This is pretty good it's. It was a funny kind of I didn't. None of the songs are on the record. I meant to write, uh, well, one or two of them I did, but but again, it was all circumstantial as to how my life was going at that point in time. You know, the first two, three years prior to us recording it Korn and Kerosene is really it's about all the crazy shit I've had to do to pay my band and to make this dream happen. What will you buy? What will you sell? What will you buy? What will you sell? What will you buy and resell to pay the band?

Grayson Russell: 39:09

Because you know that was the song, the, the uh, again, crazy town. You pay your dues and you play for free and you pray for a honky-tonk destiny, like that's, cut your teeth and smoky bars and live off tips from pickle jar, like that is, that is it. And so you know what will, what crazy things will you do to make you know your life happen and to make the dream that you feel called to do come to fruition? And it took that and it compared it to, like I said, my granddad.

Grayson Russell: 39:36

When he was three, his mom died of melanoma. Well, his dad became a belligerent alcoholic and began actually making and selling liquor in the late 40s, early 50s in Alabama at home. And there's a line in there that says Pop said the Lord used hell to save him. He watched his sins drown in the TVA. His still was in a cave on Lake Mitchell in Alabama and when they put the dam in it flooded it and literally like dams up here it flooded it and literally like dam's up here comes the water like oh brother where are their style it was freaking, floating down there it went, you know, literally watched the sins drown in the TVA and it wasn't.

Grayson Russell: 40:16

It wasn't that it was Alabama Power, it wasn't TVA at that point in time. But just about every, every line in this thing is. I can't really think of a line that hasn't happened for sure and for certain in that song hasn't happened to me or somebody that I was related to.

Jay Franze: 40:37

Yeah, which is crazy all within itself. Yes, sir, how does it go over when you play it live?

Grayson Russell: 40:44

Oh, it's so much fun. It is so much fun. We've gotten in a groove now where we open up with Call Me the Breeze, the Leonard Skinner song, but we play it to be able to do your own stuff out of stuff that you've listened to and played the majority of your adult life, songs that you cut your teeth learning and playing and songs you learn guitar to. You're able to now take that, play it and then switch into one of your own and watch people jump around and hoot and holler and have a good time. I mean, my favorite line in that song is the bridge is now you got to take it easy, pop the clutch and try to unwind.

Grayson Russell: 41:32

Now I know why Pop and Willie asked that river to ease their mind, which is because, like Whiskey, river eased my mind. Don't let a memory torture me Old Willie Nelson song. But in all reality I mean, yeah, there's a lot of moonshine songs out there about people's dads or granddads or great granddads that I'm sure are valid. I mean I didn't just want to come out, you know, with here's my moonshining song, because I didn't do that. I didn't grow up doing that, no different than like mud and truck songs. I grew up riding around in mud and I grew up driving my granddad's truck, but that wasn't a massive part of my life as it is to other people. So for me it's like y'all saying that because you can do it well, because you believe it, and that's the life you live. I didn't, but here's how I can communicate in a way that's authentic and that I'm, you know, staying true to what I know and not really really having to fib, which has been a blessing.

Jay Franze: 42:20

We got a lot of source material to go on in the russell family so you mentioned the lyric of the song praying for tips in a pickle jar. I know, especially in Nashville, all of the venues, especially up and down Broadway, play for tips. So you start in that world and you work your way up to these bigger venues. What's that path like for you?

Grayson Russell: 42:43

The path has been no different than film, a rather ambiguous one. I've never gotten into anything the conventional way. I think that's just all glory to the good Lord making for sure and for certain Everybody knows it comes from Him. Because, yeah, I grew up doing gospel stuff with my family. When I was five, Started traveling, playing with them and then the Bee Gees came along and that, you know, dominated my mind while I was still doing gospel with them, Started leading worship in the seventh grade right up through my undergrad and then this southern rock band we put together my first year in college.

Grayson Russell: 43:16

It's been a wild ride from cover band to okay, now we're working in songs that I've lived through and it's a whole other level of being vulnerable because people know me as being an actor and playing these other parts. But here I am having to talk about something I'm not so proud of, and you know my mom's gotta stand out there and listen to it. But also I just saved the album mostly called "'Cautionary Tales" but we started playing like the local coffee shops and it was always funny because I told him I was like, look, guys, if all you ever play is coffee shop music, you only ever gonna play coffee shops. So we were like the one crew out of the whole freaking college, for better or for worse, that was in this. You know, Salvation Army coffee shop like playing Def Leppard, like to like.

Grayson Russell: 44:03

You know like three hipsters in their Carhartts and like the two homeless people in the back, and you know we're in here. You know blasted pour some sugar on me, which was probably a horrible idea, but then again, you know we're one of the only crews that you know kept going after that. So I guess you know jokes on them. But to go from that to, we've been really fortunate to play a festival for the past four years or three years, called Life Fest, which, even though we're a southern rock band, it's the world's largest Christian music festival. It's about four or five days and gone from playing coffee shops to three people or four, you know, and if it's four people I'm related to two of them and trying to date whatever. The other one is back there and we hope it's not to go from to go yeah, to go from to go from that to okay.

Grayson Russell: 44:56

now we're opening for casting crowns I don't know how many Grammys they got, but I know it's plural and this venue holds 40,000 people Right, and this venue holds 40,000 people Right To be able to take my guys who believed in me enough which is one of the biggest honors I've ever had in my 26 years take out all the accolades, things that won, things that lost.

Grayson Russell: 45:23

But to have a group of guys that, for the past seven years, have believed in me enough and what we were doing and believed in themselves enough to go, okay, cool, we're going to play all these coffee shops and all these frat parties for nothing, because we believe this thing got shot to be able to take that and seven years later, from playing coffee shops and gazebos on the front lawn at school, to cool. Here we are. I rent the van and I've got all the merch and I've bought the hotel rooms and here's our set and everybody, be sure you got your in-ears and everything else and this is what we've wanted, that we never really thought we might get and if we did not anytime soon and don't screw it up has been a has been a blessing just to have their, to have their vote of confidence in guys that I trust and respect as musicians they're far more adept in their musicianship than I will ever be and them just being my friends and confidants that is priceless.

Jay Franze: 46:22

Before I move on, what's it like playing at a frat house?

Grayson Russell: 46:26

Oh, it's awesome. It's awesome if you don't get hit with nothing. It's no different than playing at Losers. It's fine if you don't get hit with nothing.

Jay Franze: 46:37

Oh, losers is awesome too.

Grayson Russell: 46:40

I love.

Jay Franze: 46:40

Losers George Strait's manager. Well, he passed away. Now, mr Irv.

Grayson Russell: 46:44

I never met him, but the wild thing is and I've never met George either but my folks, like I said, when I was two, I would introduce myself as Grayson Claude Russell George Strait. When I was two, my folks started showing me Pure toddler.

Grayson Russell: 46:58

the reason I think that I believed so early on that this is what I wanted to do and that I could do it is because there's a song called Heartland which is kind of like the main theme of the song the first half, up until it gets to, you know, I Cross my Heart, which is my parents' wedding song, and everybody else is in Alabama and you know, 1993, on the Heartland track there's a toddler I think it might be George's son, I don't know singing the first verse when you hear twin fiddles in a steel guitar and I really think in my, you know, infant brain I went okay, well cool if that kid's saying it, well then, lord, I can do that too. And that, I think, really kind of pointed me in the direction of at least believing that I could. And then, since my folks are musical anyway, that just kind of fostered it, fostered it, and here we are and here we sit and I'm able to bring my dad up and sing too, which is crazy. What's that like for him? Incredible. I think it's wild too because, like I said, the first half of the song would turn out good. It's about my granddad.

Grayson Russell: 48:08

The second half is about my dad being abused as a child and you know, being able to point out that the only through line you, or you lost your mom at three, or you were terminally ill, or however you are. It can end with you. It doesn't have to carry on in the future generations, because I'm an example of that. It ain't got to keep going and the only common denominator in my granddad being alive and my dad not being in prison is Jesus, do that what you will, everybody. But here's the evidence and I'm able to bring my dad up and he can sing circles around me and we'll do. I can only imagine we'll do. Can't even walk, we'll do whatever. But you know, see those tears rolling down his face behind those Ray-Bans is, you know, I never, um, I couldn't play ball because I couldn't get hurt, because I started doing film so early. Not that I would have been great at playing ball, but he never got to see his kid hit a home run. You know, I know every dad probably won't see their son hit a home run. He never saw me get to do that. He never saw me get to score a touchdown. I made a couple of basketball goals, like upward basketball with the Baptist Church.

Grayson Russell: 49:24

But he does get to sing for 40,000 people, or 38 or whatever it is, with his son a song about his life and his hardship and that gets redeemed.

Grayson Russell: 49:38

And then when we're at the meet and greet table, there's as big of a line, if not more, of Harry Burley, 50-year-old guys bawling their eyes out going how in the world did he turn out the way he did? And he could halfway be sane and your marriage still be all right that you know there will be a bigger line for him than there has ever been wimpy kid or todd agnot's fans or, you know, burly 50 year old dudes who like our music, and that that brings it all the way around. That brings all the way around for me. And so to be able to do that with him and also, you know, with my band, my band, with the guys that you know, we never thought we would be playing where we're at, doing the things that we're doing, even though we believe that we could. I've always believed that it would be, but just to see it actually occurring and, you know, doing so at the rate that it's going is pretty crazy.

Jay Franze: 50:21

You know, I would think, especially as a father, I would think that that moment for him is going to be a highlight in his life, but especially as a father.

Grayson Russell: 50:33

I would think that that moment for him is going to be a highlight in his life. But we can't just not think about the impact it has on your life. I mean, what's it feel like for you? I'm always humbled at it. It certainly confirms that this is something I'm supposed to be doing and just to be able to, different than with Talia Ganat, having people coming out of the woodwork saying, hey, this is how this affected me in fun ways, in really meaningful ways, having and there really hasn't been a time that I haven't played that particular song like I said, they'll come out in April where somebody hasn't come up to me and said, hey, I think a time that I haven't played that particular song like I said, it'll come out in April where somebody hasn't come up to me and said, hey, I think that song kind of helped me get something out today that I needed to.

Grayson Russell: 51:21

Done Cool, get smoked by the pedal, charlie, we're good. It's just humbling because it's not. I'm just so thankful that the words came the way they did, and I know they didn't come from me. That was stories that have transpired 50 years before I was born, or at least with my granddad and you know, 30 years before I was born, or at least, with my granddad and 30 years before I was born with my father.

Grayson Russell: 51:52

So to be able to just have those moments and know that as long as we keep going the way we're going, those will continue and it'll get bigger. It's pretty wild because I just know the lives that we'll get to touch and in ways that might not get to otherwise, and that we're the ones that get to touch and, and you know, in ways that you know might not get to otherwise, and that we're the ones that get to do. It is I wouldn't trade that for anything. And then we turn around and we play Freebird, you know, or we go back to whatever we're, whatever we're doing. But to have that moment is is process as a, as a son.

Jay Franze: 52:27

So, being from the outside now getting to work on the inside, what's been different? That you would have expected it to be done a different way.

Grayson Russell: 52:37

I probably would have expected it. I mean, I expected it once we started for the work itself to be way more consistent. You think that once you're there, you're there and you're hauling ass consistent? You think that once you're there, you're there and you're, you're hauling ass? And I mean I went from Tallaghanites to a movie shot on favors called the Rainbow Tribe, which is arguably one of the best things I've ever done.

Grayson Russell: 52:56

And then it's, you know, wimpy Kid, wimpy Kid, wimpy Kid, and we're here, and then it's, uh, did about five films there, and then it's three years and nothing. And I'm racking my brain going, okay, god, I thought this is what I was supposed to be doing and you know, not realizing that I didn't get to work those three years because I was able to have a authentic high school public education. You know experience with the kids that I went to preschool with when I was two. And then okay, now we do Mother's Day, and then it's nothing for a while and then, boom, okay, now you're on a boat with Tom Hanks and you're nominated for an Oscar a year later, and then it's another four years of not doing anything. I think the reason why I was able to probably escape a lot of the negatives that you get with child actors is because it was inconsistent. There wasn't really a point in my career where I got used to any of it. I'd come home and nobody cared that I went off in the first place and that was the best thing that could have happened, because I went from LA or Vancouver or Charlotte or wherever I was at, to 9,000 population, clanton, alabama, where all my mom's family live on the same road.

Grayson Russell: 54:10

I think the thing that I expected to happen that didn't with the music so far is just how unconventional it would be as far as the trajectory that we've been on, because it's like, okay, you play, play, play a bunch and then you get a manager. Then you play, play, play a bunch and then you get your book and agent. Play, play, play a bunch and then you get a manager. You play, play, play a bunch and you get your book and agent. Play, play a little bunch and get your record up. And for us, we started playing the, the show with the, the one up in oshkosh, the one that's 40k, right, we played that four years before we had a song out, you know, and like we're up there going.

Grayson Russell: 54:41

This makes no sense. Why is there somebody over here believing in us enough that we're getting to get out here and open for people who've got four or five Grammys under their belt and they can't even go listen to something we've done outside of my mom's phone, posting something on my Instagram four years ago. You know, I was expecting and I don't know why, because I don't know why I would expect it to be a far more conventional track with the music. But it has been. It has been so like boom, boom, boom, all kinds of crazy mess, and I love it and it's hard. It's the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's also the only thing I've wanted more than air.

Grayson Russell: 55:25

I never understood, you know, like you know we'd be like I said I couldn't play ball because I couldn't get hurt, but I would tape everybody up on the sideline.

Grayson Russell: 55:32

I'd read the opposing offensive coordinator's hand signals. I did everything I could, but I didn't understand. You know, when you have people come in to speak or, you know, amp everybody up before the game and say you've got to want it, you've it. You got to want more than you want to drink water. You got to want more. You want to breathe air. And I I understood what they were saying, but didn't understand the intensity that they were coming from. You know, like I know, okay, I gotta want this more than air, but I didn't know what that felt like. And this has been the first time in my life with with music and not that I don't love film, it's just just that with film I'm somebody else. I get to be Will Ferrell's kid and shoot people with a water hose through their window, or I get to be Tom Hanks' signalman second class and get to dodge squibs going off on the side of a 1938 model destroyer. That's a blessing that I do not, do not, cannot take for granted right but I'm playing somebody else.

Grayson Russell: 56:34

But when I've got my guitar on or I've got that mic stand in front of me, it's all you, it's all me, um and so to. To be able to do that, able to do that, it's a blessing. And I ain't got Jack to complain about Everybody. You know we look at the song Beneath the Bough that we got out. It's about blue-collar workers. A lot of people don't realize that. You know what is a, you know what is Ricky Bobby's kid? Know about being a blue collar worker.

Grayson Russell: 57:07

The album cover is a guy on a scaffold. Is me at about 40 feet in the air when I worked for a scaffold company at a paper mill and the next scaffold over went up about 140 feet. So it's not. It hasn't always been. Again, like I said, work has been consistent sometimes and you take cool summer jobs when you're in college. But to be able to take this wild Again, like I said, work has been consistent sometimes and you take cool summer jobs when you're in college. But to be able to take this wild life experience that I've had growing up, but certainly just the intensive parts of the past five years, I wouldn't trade it for anything, even though it's been birthed out of a lot of shit.

Jay Franze: 57:49

Well, if it wasn't, it wouldn't be good.

Grayson Russell: 57:51

Exactly. I wouldn't have made it if it didn't put me in space too.

Jay Franze: 57:56

Alright, sir. Well, we do this thing here we call Unsung Heroes, where we take a moment to shine a light on somebody who works behind the scenes or somebody who may have supported you along the way.

Grayson Russell: 58:09

Do you have anybody you'd like to shine a little light on? I've got a million of them. I've got a million of them. There are two school teachers at home. The clan's got 9,000 people in it and most of my teachers either went to school with my mom or taught my mom. And if they taught my mom, they went to school with my grandma. It's actually a married couple. I don't know how long they've been married, ricky and Sherry McKee. They put on the only show in town. I think they've done it, probably pushing 30 years now.

Grayson Russell: 58:38

It's this thing called Blast from the Past and it's a 23 song, 24 song set where they take the high school kids and they let them get out. And if it's Johnny Cash, austin Rossi he was a senior when I was a freshman was out there dressed up like Johnny Cash singing I Walk the Line, and you might have Kendall Elijah and Katie Blackman a handful of the girls as sporty spies and they do want to be, and it's this whole thing. And when I was probably I don't know four or five, it was a big deal because all the other schools in the county would come and watch it, because we didn't have a whole lot of there wasn't a drama program, there wasn't nothing. It was just these two teachers that had a heart for that. They didn't even teach us how to sing. They'd bring in people that could sing in the churches. They just wanted to do it and create a space for us to do it. But, like the elementary schools would come and watch.

Grayson Russell: 59:37

And I remember my buddy, katie, who was, I'm pretty sure, was one of the Spice Girls when I was in high school. Well, when we were in elementary school, her older brother was a senior and I got to sit there and watch him sing this or that or watch a bunch of them dress up like kiss, with their football pads on, done up with spikes on the top of them. You know, it may not know any different, but I got to sit there and go okay, well, well, that's katie and that's her brother and he's from here. Well, if he's from here and he's doing that and that little kid singing, and he's from here, well, if he's from here and he's doing that and that little kid's singing on the George Strait song, well, I can do it. And, like I said, I didn't play ball, so there isn't a time where I go. You know, here's my last touchdown, or here's. You know me doing my thing, but I had blasts from the past for four years and I've gotten to play in a couple of alumni shows over the past couple of years and get to do that with kids that are, you know, 15 years old trying to figure out how to sing, no different than I was trying to figure out how to do this other bit, and I've got my wig on doing here I Go Again, or I've got my long hair on going. Sign, sign everywhere I sign Ricky and Cherry McKee. Those two for sure. Those two for sure. They're ones that just If they hadn't have done that, if they hadn't have started putting on that show, I don't think I'd be where I'm at now on the music side.

Grayson Russell: 1:01:07

I really don't, because I wouldn't have, there wouldn't have been a you know we hear it a lot now in like diversity and inclusion. You know representation If you don't see it, you don't necessarily believe that you can do it. If it ain't been done before, sometimes you get to be the first one to do it, which is its whole, its own thing, right. But I don't think if I had, I think if I hadn't have seen Britt Blackman up there singing I want to say Moonstruck and going. I think I can do that. I don't know if I would have done it because there wasn't another venue in town where I could really sing anything other than how Great Is Our God, and there's nothing wrong with how Great Is Our God.

Grayson Russell: 1:01:53

I learned how to run a band starting in the seventh grade. Going, okay, well, I can only play three chords and Adriana can only play three chords, but I can only play them in G and she can only play them in C. And then we got a bass player. He can only play them in G and she can only play them in C. And then we got a bass player. He can only play in A. What buttons does? She got hit on the keyboard and where do I got to be at and you know how do we run this three piece. And my mother mother will be my youth pastor who put me up into you know at the time his name's Jason Kelly who, who really believed in me enough to say, cool, you run the worship band.

Grayson Russell: 1:02:31

I think technically I wouldn't be where I'm at if that hadn't started. I wouldn't have the opportunity to. I'd probably be a better guitar player because I'd have nothing else to do other than just sit and play guitar. But as far as a band leader and just learning the capabilities of what I can do, live knowing what wheelhouse my guitar player's in and how we can move and navigate things, when you've got a three-hour off-the-call service going on because we're Pentecostal to the corners, people rolling around on the floor and how do you keep this ball rolling without singing? How Great Is Our God for the next three hours like it's Rawhide and the Blues Brothers Jason Kelly, pastor Jason and Ricky McKee. Hours like it's rawhide in the blues brothers jason kelly, pastor jason and, and, uh, ricky mckee, who was the english teacher, and miss sherry mckee, who was my blue shoes, my trigonometry teacher, my freshman year. Without without those people, I don't know, musically, where in the world I would be.

Grayson Russell: 1:03:26

On the film side, michael Clark Duncan, like I said, big guy from the Green Mile. He set me up with his manager. He believed in me enough to say hey, and maybe some of the other cast or crew did, but he was the one that stuck his neck out and said here's my manager, you need to meet this kid. And of course he's no longer here. But without him either, we really wouldn't be having this conversation, and I'm so thankful that something like Talladega Nights happened, at a time just in history where all people really did was sit around and quote Anchorman. You know, if that thing came out now, a quarter of the people would see it and a sixteenth of the people would see it, because there's so much more stuff being made and I don't think it would have the impact that it did.

Grayson Russell: 1:04:16

And you know a lot of people coming up. I've really tried to pattern my music career after Hank Jr. Somebody coming in who has a coattail that everybody knows they're riding. They somebody coming in who has a coattail that everybody knows they're riding. They know that Hank Jr is Hank Sr's son, but he was able to navigate that in a way of going hey, I know that I'm here because y'all know who my dad is and we're gonna acknowledge that and we're gonna put the credit where the credit is due. But also, here I am and I'm capable and we're going in this direction and this is where we're headed. But to be able to do that while also hailing back to why you're here was really important for me. And no, I'm not riding on my father's coattail, at least I'm riding on my own, or starting out riding on my own. There isn't a shadow I've got to live in, thankfully.

Grayson Russell: 1:05:09

But getting into music was not something that was ever an afterthought, nor the venues that I've played. I got here going okay, I don't want anybody to think I hit it big on TikTok and stepped over everybody's heads. I want to be sure that I get to play Live Oak in town and I want to really try my best to try to do whiskey jam and to get to play on the sky deck and to get to play the bluebird and get to play the listening room, because these are the steps that you got to do. And when people start to get their rocks ready to throw, hey, here you go, here's something to throw it at. Because I want this to be yeah, I want it to be legitimate and I don't want anybody to think it was something that I didn't do my best to earn. I'll take whatever opportunity is going to be in front of me, but it's not going to be for like I'm trying to earn it along the way.

Jay Franze: 1:05:51

A big thanks to Grayson for taking the time to share his stories with us and thank you for taking the time to hang with me here, as always. I really do appreciate it. If you know anyone that would enjoy this episode, please be sure to share it. You can do that and find the links to everything mentioned over at jayfranze. com/ episode 106. Thanks again for listening and I'll see you next week.

Tony Scott: 1:06:18

Thanks for listening to The Jay Franze Show. Make sure you visit us at jayfranze. com Follow, connect and say hello.