Jay Franze: 0:57

And we are coming at you live. I am JayFranzi, and this is George Storce for the latest news, reviews, and interviews. So if you would like to join in, comment, or fire off any questions, please head over to JFranzy.com. Alright, folks, tonight we have a very special guest with us. I said it once, I will say it again. We have a very special guest. We have an actual recording artist hailing from the great state of Ohio. We have Mr. Corey Hooker. Corey, sir, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. It is our pleasure. We cannot wait to get into this tonight. I know we have a lot of things to go over, so I'm pretty excited. But I want to just jump right in with this description of your band. The alternative rock. I I love it. Can you take a second to just go ahead and describe the actual genre of your music? Yeah, that is uh I don't know how much time we have, but that that's a really good idea. Seven hours, don't worry about it. Yeah, I just had this conversation with a friend today. It's like music's almost become so genreless lately that uh it's hard to put a uh a finger on it, but I think the best way to describe it would be like Americana, Americana rock, Americana folk. I think Americana really is the root of it. It's a lot of singer-songwriter, heartfelt lyrics, sometimes funny, sometimes sad, and also just a rock and dan coming at you. There is a band. Corey Hooker and the Cadillac Preachers. Let's start with you first. How did you decide you wanted to get into this? What was the background behind that?

Corey Hooker: 2:33

Yeah, so my papa Jerry, he always loved bluegrass playing guitar. He wasn't the best, but he loved doing it, loved playing. And when he passed away, he was left-handed, I'm left-handed. He always wanted me to play guitar. I was too involved with sports when I was younger. And when I was 19, he passed away, and I received his guitar. Just found a new love for it. You know, sports were kind of fading out of my life. You know, I was going to college, I was playing guitar, meeting new people, and I just fell in love with songwriting. I I had a few poems that I had written before, never thought anything of. Put some chords to it, and it kind of had it's really taken off from there. It took about five or six years to really even think about doing anything with it, but it's been about a 10-year grind now.

Jay Franze: 3:18

Alright. Couple things you mentioned in there. First was being left-handed. The reason I I bring that up is I'm also left-handed when it comes to playing guitar. Oh, really? I'm left-handed with writing and I'm left-handed with playing guitar. Everything else is right-handed. Really? Did you have any of that or was it left-handed only for you? Well, in like sixth grade in elementary school, I was in this guitar class, you could call it, and we had to play like these three songs. It was like part of the class. And all they had was right-handed guitars. So that was my first taste of guitar when I was younger. I think that might have what turned me off for a minute. Was I was like, Well, I think I'm left-handed. They're like, Well, this is all we have. So I wasn't very good. So I got scared of it. But every time I went to my papa's house, he'd pull the guitar out, he'd beg me to play. I'd play G C D for him. We'd sing a kid rock song, and that was about it. Right. Well, it's funny. I played bass guitar, and the first bass I got was right-handed. Just didn't work for me as much as I wanted it to, it didn't. So over here to my right is a left-handed bass guitar right now, and there's a left-handed acoustic in the other room. And I can't really play either one of them, so it really doesn't matter. However, if I were to play the left-handed, the other thing you mentioned was your grandfather's guitar. What kind of guitar was it? The brand is an Austin. I'm pretty sure it's a uh like a replica of um a Martin D18 or something like that. I can't remember. It's got the same body shape and everything and headstock, but it's nothing special. It's special to me, but uh it doesn't get much stage time. It definitely needs some love. It's got some screws in it, but I think that might be another story for later. It's funny. I mean, you say it's nothing special, like it is special, you know. It's definitely special. Oh, yeah, sentimental, very yeah, and it's the foundation too. I'm sure when you pick that up, there's something different about playing that guitar than there is any other guitar. Oh yeah. Oh yeah, that's where I I've wrote most of my songs on that guitar. That was my next question. So do you write with that guitar? Yeah, every time I get the chance, I was without it for a little bit, and my wife actually bought me this Taylor guitar. She spent some good money on it because she loves me, but I love this guitar, but when I do feel like I've got some writer's block, can't really figure out what's going on, I go grab my Bables guitar and sit down and get to work. Usually something comes out. I mean, I can understand that completely. To me, Taylor is the guitar of all guitars. That's my favorite. And Martin is up there as well. But the reason I like Taylor better is because being a recording engineer and being in the studio, I feel like the Taylor cuts through, cuts through all the other instruments and has this kind of shimmery sound that kind of just dances on top of the music. Where Martin, if you're a solo artist and you're outperforming, I think that has more body, so it fills up more. Yeah. I like them for the different purposes. So if yours is similar to a Martin, I can only imagine that would work well for you being a singer-songwriter. Oh, yeah, that might be it too. I might, I might like the sound a little better when I'm playing alone. With the old uh with the Martin lookalike, he'll call it. And also your your wife, talk about a present. For your wife to give you a guitar like that's awesome. Do you know what model it is? Uh, I don't off the top of my head. Backstory, everyone thinks that because I play and sing that I'm like this big guitar guy. You know, it's like a everyone thinks a mechanic would be a car guy, but I'm not big um on the brands and the names, and sometimes I even have to Google what a part is on my guitar just to get it replaced, so I don't sound dumb at the music store. But um all I know is it was bought with love and it sounds great, and she believes in me. And if I broke it today, she'd probably buy me another one tomorrow just to make sure I get through. Oh wow. No, that's awesome. Congratulations, great wife. That's a great present. She's the best. Yep. So you find yourself playing that Taylor when you're playing live? Mm-hmm. That would make sense then. So you're playing that and it's with the band. Yeah. When I first started playing with the preachers, I was actually playing a tele full time, and I I don't know, I just there was something going on with the band where I was just like, there's something missing. Like, there's something missing to this, and it it really was just that acoustic sound. That's I'm an acoustic guy, you know. Everything I've done, I've wrote acoustic. I've started off acoustic, and I just feel more natural on stage with the acoustic in my hand. So that was the missing piece. I put the telly down temporarily. 95% of the show, I'm I'm rocking the tailor. All right. Well, let's take it a step further. Let's go back to the initial comment of you wrote poems, and that kind of led into taking those poems into songs. So can you tell us a little bit about your writing process? Um, it's different. It's always different, uh, but I would say for the most part, it either one starts out with a lick, I'll I'll hear a song, or I'll I'll just be sitting around noodling with the guitar and I'll find a certain lick or a melody, and um I kind of hum a melody out of that, and then once I find that keyword, that's really where the song takes off. But you do have times, you know, like perfect family and I know you better and a cry every day. A few of my other songs, those were ones that were like, man, I got this song in my heart, or I have something that's weighing on me, and I I need to get it out of me, and I don't have a therapist. So it this was a great that was a great way to do it. But most of the time, yeah, I'm I'm playing guitar, I'm picking, and I'm just I'm just singing the words that come to me and trying to make the most sense of it that I can. That's awesome. I'm a songwriter as well, but I tend to work on lyrics. So I'm a lyric first person. I was even telling the wife just the other day, I can't just write anything anytime. It has to be inspired by something. To me, those tend to be the the best songs that I produce. Something that has happened to me personally and and uh I feel like I need to get out of my system. It you know, it is funny because I am a lyrics guy first. I I pride myself in being a a good songwriter and um writing good, deep, passionate lyrics, but uh it usually does start with the music. I feel like I I don't even know how I feel until I pick up the guitar and you know maybe I strum an A minor first and now I'm you know I'm on the I found this like sad melody in my head or remind me of a sad time, or you know, I play an E major and I'm ready to boot Scootin' Boogie, fall to the floor. Right. So you mentioned that you feel like the best songs are songs that are just in you and have to come out. Can you give us an example of one of those songs? Uh yeah. I have this song, it's called Perfect Family. You may have heard it. It was like the first acoustic song we did of the night there at Laurie's. And you know, I was having a disagreement with this person that the song was about. I was just angry with them about how they handled this situation they're in. And you know, I was like, I'm gonna sit down, I'm gonna write a song, and it's gonna be a m- it's gonna be an angry song because I'm angry. And as I write the song and I'm I'm reading back on the lyrics after I, in 15 minutes, 20 minutes, just scribble all these words out to this little lick that I had. And by the time I go back and reread it and sing it again, I'm like, oh, this isn't an angry song at all. It's a sad song. You know, as angry as I am for what's going on, I act I really feel sad and hurt by the situation. And the song really puts yourself in uh the shoes of the third character in the story. I guess you could say a mom and a a father and a daughter, and puts you in the shoes of the daughter of what what they're seeing happen and fall apart in front of them. So sorry, I'm trying to do this the best I can without saying names and didn't realize how hard that was. That's fine. You you mentioned something there that is hard for me. You mentioned it's turns out to be in the eyes of the daughter. So most songs that I write are from my point of view. You know, if I'm writing a song about my wife, it's from my point of view about the wife or the struggles we're going through, or if I write something about the family or anything like that, it's something from my point of view. But just recently, my daughter was in the hospital, and she's out of the hospital now, thank God. But she was in the hospital last week, and I wrote a song from her point of view. Right on. So when it was done and produced, it was produced with a female vocal instead of a male vocal. So that was different from for me. Do you find it harder to do songs like that? Yes. I've I've had a few female friends who are also in the music business be like, we should write together. I'd love to write with you. And I'm like, heck yeah, that'd be that'd be fun. Let's, you know, I want to get together and I want to write. And I've tried to sit down and write songs from a woman's point of view. And the only person I've been able to do that is I've been able to write from my mom's point of view or you know, from my sister's point of view. And and uh it's hard. It's uh a lot of my songs end up being not about me, but other people, but it you you would think that I'm singing the song about my life. Like I always have to tell people to shows, hey, I hope you guys like the music. Just so you know, my wife's not a piece of crap. These songs are not about her. These are songs about other people's lives and things I've seen, or maybe even just my biggest fear. But yeah, directly writing about someone else's personal view, that's hard. I think that that's challenging because I don't want to mess up maybe what they actually think. Yeah. I mean, I've written a song for my daughter in the past, but it was how I see my daughter. This was how she sees herself, and that made it a lot harder for me to write that song. Oh, yeah. But I think it turned out good. I was happy with it. It was a good experiment for me. I look at them all as an experiment. Experiment indeed, yeah. So now you sit down, you write these songs, whether it, you know, whatever the process be, whether it be lyrics first or or music first. What's the next step for you? I actually call three or four different people immediately and I I make them listen to it, and I I tell them, you know, give me your opinion, not as my friend, but as a as a uh critic, and then I hang up on them immediately and call the next person. And I do that with about three or four people until I'm I'm like, okay, yeah, I think this song is might be as good as I think it is. So it's usually um just some uh I guess uh feedback. Some feedback, yeah. It's it's trying to get feedback from the people I I write with or write for or write about and people you respect. Yeah, people I respect, especially my dad. My dad's my biggest hater. I always say it. Yeah, my wife is mine. Yeah, yeah, mine's second, she's in second place. But my dad is my biggest hater, but I say that with love. My dad was a musician too, frontman bands, he was my drummer. So I I you know, as much as I hate hearing his opinion on my stuff, I I do respect it and I I take it. You value it. Yeah. Absolutely. No, my wife is the same way. No matter what I play for or show her or anything, there's always the critique first. Right. But nine out of ten times she's right. So I can't I can't knock it too much. She's a creative person herself, so I take her opinion when it comes to creative things, you know, to heart. But hearing her tear it down first is always rough. It's funny because my wife and I are the same way. I'm very organized and structured when it comes to when it comes to art and music, that's how I am. When it comes to art and music, she's very free and you know, well, whatever. And but when it comes to real life, we're the total opposite. We we switch, switch, she's the organized one, and yeah. So uh, and it's funny too, you said how your wife is your biggest critic too. I've only been married to my wife a year this past September, and when we first got together, it was I love that song. I love that song, that's great. And then it started turning into, well, what's that even about? Well, what if you took this lyric out? That's cheesy, and I'm like, Wow, but you do love me. That's funny you mentioned that. I just finished uh an album that I did as an experiment, and that's where a lot of these songs from my family came in because it's sad. I wrote a song for my daughter, just the one I told you about. I wrote a song for her, and my wife was like, Well, what are your other daughters gonna think? So I was like, Oh, so now I gotta go back and write songs for everybody. So I went through and I wrote songs, it ended up being like a family project. So I just took different things I wanted to experiment with, and I wrote a song for this person. Then I went and wrote a song for this person. So I ended up writing these songs for the family, and then she critiqued everything. It's like, well, is that really the feel you want for that song? Or that daughter's different than the other daughters. Why why should her song sound similar? Yeah, you know, it's like, oh, you're killing me. How about because we're a family and it's supposed to all be on the same project? How about that? Right, right, yeah. So no, it's gotta sound different. Each kid is different. Again, having somebody like that in your life that pushes you to see past what's right in front of you is a good thing. Oh, yeah. I'm definitely I'm definitely blessed in that. Uh my wife is well, she's she's Polish, so she's got this like European blunt thing about her where it's she's like, I'm going to be honest, and you might not like it, but I just know it's out of love. And I'm like, Great, hit me with it. My wife is southern, and I get the same thing. So I don't know if it really matters where you're from. I think it's just I think you're right. I think that's just a sign of a good woman. Yeah, it's just the title of wife. Yeah. I think that's what it is. As soon as she got the title of wife, things things changed. Yes. All right. So you write it, take a poem or whatever you had originally. You write the song, whether it be music or lyrics first, whichever the inspiration strikes, you go in there, you play it for other people, and then your wife critiques it. What's next? Unfortunately, it it's a lot of sitting and singing. The mistake I've made is I should be recording stuff faster. I should be getting stuff out, I should be getting demos of things. I'll write a song, I'll put it in my notes, I'll write the next song, write the next song. You'll hear all these songs at my shows, but you can't find them anywhere, and I've lacked in that department. I always say I'm a perfectionist who's not perfect. It's a never-ending cycle because I want my songs to be perfect and I want them to sound exactly the way I hear them in my head, but I know at the same time maybe I can't do that, and it uh it always ends up with me closing the laptop and not finishing it. So that I can promise will end this went this this year. Well, let me take that a step further. So when I write songs, I'm a a studio person. I spent my entire career working in the studio. So to me, a finished product is when it's recorded. But I could see as a performer that it might have a benefit to playing it live for a long period of time until you tweak every little thing until you master it so you're as comfortable as can be with it before taking it into the studio. So do you find like having that opportunity to fine-tune and practice the song might have a benefit to it? Yeah, I guess I never really thought of it that way, but now that I think about it, you know, if if me and the preachers were to go into the studio and do, you know, even five of the ten to fifteen songs that we do together original, I solely believe that in in two to three takes, maybe even one on most of them, we would have it down and that would be it. And that's kind of my goal. I love a live album. I love uh like the Jamie Johnson album where it it nonstop, the whole album never cut. You hear him talking in the background, the band cuts in, he's telling stories. That's my kind of album. So yeah, I think that actually is a positive for me when I do find that studio time, it's uh get in and get to work and everything goes as smooth as I could picture it to be. Yeah, I think it would do nothing but benefit you and having that opportunity to to play those songs over and over again, night after night, you whether you feel it or not, you're fine-tuning them and you're becoming comfortable with them, and it's becoming muscle memory. Yeah. When you go in the studio, it's just gonna be muscle memory when you spit it out again. Yeah, and that could have been my problem early on now that I think about it too, is I would write a song so fast, like I'm known to finish a song in 20, 30 minutes. Once I catch that groove, it's it's on. And when I finish a song, I'm ready to turn the laptop on and cut a demo or get the the final version of it. And I'm also known to be a little impatient. So I, you know, I just want I just want my stuff to be the way I hear it in my head, and I don't know how that can ever make that truly 100% possible, but that's the goal. I want it to be perfect. I want the people to hear it the way I want to hear it. Yeah. I think that's the benefit of being in the studio. But if you go in the studio first and you're not sure the way you want it to sound, you're gonna spend a lot of time and therefore waste a lot of money. Oh, yeah. So I think if you're playing live and you have the opportunity to, especially if you're gonna use the band you play with to go into the studio, you want that that band to be as rehearsed as possible as well. So I do I do believe that that there is a benefit to that. So we've mentioned the band several times now, so let's talk about the band. Was the band a band before they got with you? Yes, and they still are, they still gig all around. We're actually both with the same agency, Crave Agency. We signed with them as a band, and then you know, they started working with another artist that they had there as a backing band recording stuff. So um our managers just decided, like, hey, you guys are gonna be two different acts, even though you still play together. You know, the the preachers are I encourage anybody to go out and see the Catholic Preachers play live, they're quite the show. Keep it open since the this is the open mic. The first open mic I went to in Cincinnati when I got back from Colorado, and my drummer Dylan, he's the drummer for the Catholic Preachers, he runs the open mic, and they were arms wide open when I got there. The Catholic preachers were the first people I met when I got there and heard them play. And I was like, I remember looking at my cousin one day, and I'm like, man, I I gotta have these guys as my band. Like, how sick is Cory Hooker and the Cadillac Preachers sound? And uh it took about a year, a year and a half, actually, of just becoming friends and jamming with those guys. And although we don't really have the same avenue as far as genre, I love what comes out when we get together. I think that's where the alternative really hits harder. Some people even have called it fugitive folk rock. Yeah, which is that's awesome. Yeah, you guys definitely have names down for sure. Yeah, Cory Hooker and the Catalytic Preachers just sounds awesome. Yeah, it rolls off the tongue. The alternative rock is awesome. Yeah, fugitive rock is awesome. But a couple things you mentioned there. It's funny, every time you say something, I'm like, oh wow, that's kind of cool. So you mentioned the band being a band on their own, and then they also back other artists. So that sounds like something that used to happen in Memphis years ago. So is that the type of stuff they're doing now? Um, it's kind of like uh a floodgate opened when I when they started jamming with me. I think it was something where they were like, hey, we're a rocking band, we know a bunch of rock and singer songwriters. Let's learn their stuff. And if they need us, we're there. These guys are rock and rollers, they have their own original music, and it's like this funk, rock, psychedelic rock. I mean, they're a killer. And even though when I watched them play before, it was like it's not that I want to be a part of the preachers, but I had this vision of what would happen when we came together and combined our sounds. Yeah, those guys were. I can't say enough about them. They've hooked me up with so many gigs and connected with me with so many people, and you know, even when I decided to go back to Colorado and do this solo tour, they were so supportive. It was friend first, bandmate second, and I love those guys. That's cool. I saw you performing at Laurie's Roadhouse, and anybody who listens to the show knows that I really enjoy going to Laurie's Roadhouse and seeing the acts that go through there. And Laurie's Roadhouse to me reminds me of Billy Bob's out in Texas. It's a just a larger venue than most venues. Has multiple stages and it's got major acts that come through and play there. So how did it feel the first time that you played on that stage? Man, uh the first time I played on that stage, uh it was it was a little nerve-wracking, actually, because as you know, there's the seats all the way in the back, and then there's the dance floor in the front. And the first time I got on that stage, I was acoustic. I didn't even have a band with me. And you were on the big stage during that time? Yeah, I was on the big stage. I think the venue thought I had a band. There was a mix-up, and so they they put me on the big stage. I did a solo act. Although I was nervous, I wasn't so much nervous about playing, I was more nervous about being able to get people to come up and dance. But I love Laurie's. I love I love playing there. Great staff, they're always great to us. Yeah, it's an amazing place, and I've taken my daughters a couple times now. I've taken my older daughter, she's 15. I say older, the oldest of my daughters. I took her to see you that night. So, how did you get hooked up with Laurie's in the first place? My gosh, I tried to get in there forever. Have you ever heard of the band The Filthy Heathens? Yes. Cody, the guitar player, he actually lives right across the street from me at here in Camden. And uh, we went to the same high school and we've known each other for a while, and he was in with the Lori's gang. He had a band called Four Low. He played with a couple other people as a guitar player, and I was like, Cody, you gotta get me in Lori's. Like, whatever you gotta do, get me in Lori's. But it ended up being an acoustic competition that I joined. I ended up winning that and got the opportunity to open up for Sawyer Brown band. Once I did that, it was kind of like, hey, you're it you're part of the Lori's family. You're you're gonna play here. We got you in rotation, and uh we'll we'll keep you on the call. That's awesome. So with that mentioned, we've we kind of danced around it a little bit. You're gonna be moving here shortly. So tell us first of all, why and where, and then what you're what you hope to accomplish by doing it. Yeah, uh, that's a question a lot of people are asking me is why. A lot of my support is from family and friends, which is great, but I'm not sure that'll ever get me to the next level. I think I need to go out and play in front of strangers, and I just feel the farther I can go out and get my name and face out there and meet new people, then um then I can really get this thing rolling a lot quicker and start gaining new fans. I think that's really what it's all about is having people who want to listen to your music, and aside from myself. Well, okay, so again, a few things there, but let's talk about the move first. What made you choose that location? My wife and I met in Colorado. She's from Colorado, like the Denver area. We actually met in Telluride, Colorado, but uh it's a ski resort town, and uh we both worked for the resort, and that is my second home. I love Telluride, Colorado. I love Colorado in general. I love being in the mountains. I feel like I wasn't on my phone as much when I was out there. Uh, I didn't doom scroll as much. It just felt like home. It felt good, felt good to be there. And um, you know, we came back to get married and save some money up and try to do the the adulting, and we realized quickly that we we want to travel and we want to spread our art with people, and I think that's uh a good place to be for now, you know. And it's a temper it might be a temporary move, it might be a forever move, but for now we're just kind of chasing, chasing where the shows are, chasing where the people are and where we feel we'll fit best. Absolutely beautiful place. Funny story about Telly Red, Colorado. Dirks Bentley lives around that area. I had no idea he lived next door. And long story short, his dog jumps over the fence and bites me in my back. And I go up to his door, I'm freaking out. I'm like, hey, come outside, mother effort. Your dog bit me. And out comes Dirks. Out comes Dirks, and I'm like, holy crap! I'm like, now I'm feeling bad. I'm like, sorry about this. And and so I was just starstruck. I couldn't believe it. That's like you know, that's like my childhood country there. After that happened, I remember the police were like, Do you want to sue? I was at the hospital and getting my tetanus shot, and they're like, I'm like, I don't think so. Like, you know, he's pretty local. He's he's chilling here, and they're like, Are you sure? And I'm like, Yeah, I'm pretty sure I don't want to be that guy in town. I don't want to be the guy that sues the big country artist. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Although it'd be big payday. Yeah, could have been, yeah. I don't know. He paid my medical bills. I guess that's all I can ask for. There you go. That's not bad. Did he offer to do it? He did. Uh when he sent me down to the medical center, he was like, go down there. He's like, Yeah, I'll I'll pay for it all. Come back here when you're done. I came back, we sat and talked for you know maybe 20 minutes or so on his porch, and he gave me his phone number on a little piece of paper with his name. And I was like, Wow, I was like, I'm gonna tell my kids about this one day. And he's like, Oh, you have kids? And I'm like, Well, no, but one day when I do, you know, they'll know about you. So that's awesome. Yep, it was cool. If nothing else, it's a story, right? Yeah, yeah, a good one indeed with a scar. So right, there you go. I mean, that is really a cool thing. I bust on him a lot, but it's cool to know that he's a cool guy. Yeah, oh my gosh, yeah. He's he's a boys' guy, you know. He's so he plays in the softball leagues out there, the local hockey league out there too. He probably has another arch rival in Telly Ride, I'm sure. It's fun. I I I've worked with a lot of people in Nashville, but I never had the opportunity to work with him, but I did have the opportunity to play hockey with him, which I think that's cool. To me, it was more fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's cool. All right. So now that you're heading to Colorado, you talk about getting to play in front of more people. Every time you have the opportunity to play in front of new people, I'm always curious how you plan on taking that new audience and converting them into listeners or followers or whatever you want to call them. How do you plan on capturing those people? I think there's a few different steps I take. You know, crowd engagement is one thing I love doing. You know, I'm I'm a pretty goofy cut-up guy, and anytime I can grab their attention just for a second and have them laughing and talking and be like, what is this lunatic talking about? And then play a song they might like, or something that I'll do is, you know, I'll play a uh I'll play Mary Jane's Last Dance, and then right after that I'll play a song that I wrote called Indiana Beauty Queen. They kind of they kind of have the same vibe as far as the story. I'm like, hey, if you like that song, you might like this song. And you know, just staying engaged with the crowd, trying to play my best stuff, but also not trying to drown everyone out with music that they've never heard. All right. So what do you hoping happen in the future? You got any big plans coming up? Uh I do um I have a uh pretty fun show coming up at Laurie's. I think it's safe to say I'm me and the Cadillac Preachers will be direct support for Mark Chestnut at Lori's Roadhouse February 6th. All right. So you mentioned Mark Chestnut. So how do you feel about that opportunity in general? I'm very excited. Just put it on the best show I can possibly put on. Trying to make people smile, trying to give people a reason to remember me. Maybe I'll, you know, rip my shirt off and show my hairy chest or something. That way, if the music wasn't any good, they'll remember that. Right. Yeah, yeah. So um, you know, any any publicity is good publicity. That's what they say, you know. All right, so well, we do this thing here we call unsung heroes where we take a moment to shine the light on somebody who may have supported you or helped you along the way. Is there anybody that you would like to shine a little light on? Yeah, definitely. Um, I mean, aside from the obvious obvious one, which is my wife, my mom. My mom makes it to every single show that she can make it to. You know, she's drove an hour and 20 minutes to watch me play for 30 minutes. You know, the drive there and back was three times as long as the show, and she's always sharing my stuff, and uh, she's always supported me, whether it was I you know, I thought I was gonna be an MLB pitcher one day, and she wanted that for me. And then when I picked up the guitar and said I was gonna do this, she wanted that for me, and that's never changed. She's my number one supporter, and hopefully one day it pays off for the both of us. That's awesome. All right, folks. Well, we have done it. We have reached the top of the hour, which does mean we have reached the end of the show. If you've enjoyed this show, please tell a friend. And if you have not, well, tell two. You can reach out to the two of us over at jfranzy.com. We will be happy to keep this conversation going. We will be happy to keep any conversation going. Corey, sir, I cannot thank you enough for being here tonight. I would like to leave the final words to you. Thanks for having me. You can find me at Corey Hooker Music on Facebook, on Instagram. If you want to check out our first single, it's called Losin' by Corey Hooker and the Cadillac Preachers. Thanks for having me, Jay. It's been a pleasure. It's been an absolute pleasure having you, sir. On that note, folks, have a good night. Thanks for listening to the Jay Franzi Show. Make sure you visit us at JFranzi.com. Follow, connect, and say hello.