The song is cool. It It just moves, you know? It just finds its own path. The best song you've ever written. It's one of them. Currently on the shelf at this record label.
This guy is genius. He's on another level. I want to be on this level. If you had to pick one show, the best show, the most proud you've been. What was that show? From South Bin to Evansville and everywhere in between, this is Get In.
The show focused on the Hoosier State and the incredible stories happening here today. I'm Nate Spangle, founder of Get Indiana, and I will be your host for today's conversation. Mark your calendar. We're headed down to Brown County on July 26th for Hard Truth Bourbon and Barbecue Festival. Get ready for a smoky, savory, and spirited weekend at Hard Truth in Brown County. Join me at Hard Truth Distilling Go the weekend of July 25th and 26th for an unforgettable celebration of bourbon, barbecue, and good times.
We've got live music rocking from 9:00 until noon with four different acts, bourbon and barbecue tastings and pairings, bourbon blending and cocktail crafting classes, as well as a VIP bourbon and cigar lounge. They also have interactive competitions and outdoor activities, bourbon barrel roll races, barbecue toss and cornhole tournaments, $10 entry for a $300 prize. If you're a good cornhole player, hit me up. Let's join up. And they have axe throwing as well. Me and my team are going to be down there and I will be releasing a full weekend itinerary for Nashville/ Brown County that is guaranteed to be a great time.
Tickets for the Heartre Bourbon and Barbecq Fest start at $10 for general admission that gets you entry into the festival, the live music and pay as you go food and drink. For $35 you can get the barbecue sampler pass tastings from all the barbecue competitors. Or for $75 you can get the VIP ticket where you get VIP lounge access, premium bourbon tastings, and a guided distillery tour by master distiller Brian Smith, previous guest of the show. I will see y'all in Brown County the weekend of July 25th and 26th. Now, let's get into the episode. Today, I'm joined by Clayton Anderson, an Indiana born country singer songwriter whose career was sparked by winning Kenny Chzn's Next Big Star competition in 2008.
He's originally from Bedford, Indiana, and his music blends Midwestern roots with country pop energy. Today, we're going to be learning about his musical journey over the past, oh man, 15 plus years. Holy smokes. Pretty wild, eh? Uh, copyright and the decision to open these two spots and what we can expect. And we're going to wrap up talking a little bit about what life was like growing up in Bedford, Indiana.
Baby Clayton, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Love what you do. Big uh big follower, big uh big watcher, big listener. I appreciate that, dude.
It's fun and it's cool to uncover all sorts of stories, whether they be oh my gosh, from business to tech to I mean, today country music. I'm really excited. I actually just had on or just released Matt Mason. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Talk about a wild story. Yeah. Uh he So, he lives down in Nashville now and he doesn't come back home as much. So, we did it was my first ever virtual one and he just pulls up. He's like on a side by side out in the middle of the woods.
He's like talking to me and he's a really interesting cat. Had like a really long, you know, I mean, story and and really talked about, you know, the business behind music and what it takes to make it and it's hard, man. It's brutal. It's probably the hardest business ever after, you know, the rise of Tik Tok and Instagram. It's like everyone like people who used to just be like hometown celebrities, you know, like now they can go viral on Instagram and like maybe be someone. Yeah.
It's pretty wild to think that you can in a in a I mean like snap of your fingers, you can go from playing to your mirror in your bedroom to you could you can play 3,000 seat theaters. You can I mean you could you can get to a stadium in a year. There's I mean you used to have to build up for so long to be a stadium band and now in a in a three four year run you could be playing stadium. It's like, yeah, you come back. Well, I mean, I think about Morgan Wallen, like he came through and I remember at 82nd, this was 2019, he was playing 8 second and the next time he came back, he sold out RUF. Like, what?
It's crazy, man. That's granted, there was a co year in there where people didn't have much to do except listen to music, but still. Uh, yeah, it it it and it doesn't matter. It's not it's co is not even an excuse. It's just it can happen like that. I mean, tomorrow, I mean, it's just like chapel ran now.
Like I mean, she's like everywhere. I know. That's nuts. like she's just out there playing in the backyard to no one and then bam, here it is. Like I mean there's like countless examples of that. But there's even more examples of like people who just grind through the industry for you know years and years and years.
And if we look back your career the first like I mean real launchpad into country music was in 2008 and that was Kenny Chzn's Next Big Star which is a great big star if anyone hasn't heard is a great country song from Kenny Chzn back in the day. These are like that's like what I grew up on. So again, I said this in the Matt Mason episode, but country music has a special place in my heart. So this is going to be a fun one. Um, so what was the show like? Tell me about that process.
How old were you? Where were you at in your journey? I was young and dumb and didn't have a clue what I was doing. I knew I didn't want to graduate from college because if I thought if I graduated, I had to grow up and get a job. So I kept hanging around Bloomington. And uh I was doing landscape had a little landscaping company and this this gal I was working for, she's like, "Hey, you should enter this Kenny Chzning contest."
And I was like, "Oh yeah, whatever." And so we entered it. I had no clue what a battle of the bands was. And got picked, went over to Cincinnati, Ohio, ended up winning this thing. And what what would the process look like? You got picked like you have to audition.
You have you in a band. You had to So you had to submit your song to uh the local country radio station B 105 there in Cincinnati. And they picked a top four people. We were wonder was it a uh original song? Yeah, I I sent in an original song. Um cuz I I I'd already decided then I was like I don't want to be a cover band because that shelf life is only going to take me so far.
I want to it's going to take you to Broadway, you know, at Tootsie playing covers, right? Yeah. And I just I just knew I didn't want to do that. So I wanted to try to write up my own songs and be my own thing. So we got picked. We went over there.
We I had no clue what a battle of bands was. I'd never participated in one, but luckily they they liked us and and we got picked. We won. There was like a radio DJ, somebody from Kenny's group, somebody else, a local celebrity. Kenny Chzn was not there. No, he wasn't there.
I was so I was so bummed. You're like, "Oh yeah, where's Kenny? Like, is he going to hand me a giant check?" And it's like, "Oh, this is Kenny's like third publicist down the road there that's covering the Cincinnati territory." Yep. I was like, "Gosh dang it."
But it was it was his sponsor guy, so it was cool. I I actually got to learn a lot from him and got to be really close with him and and figure out, okay, here's how this works on the marketing side of music and Kenny's super smart. Kenny made so much money. I mean, that was a Corona light deal that Kenny was getting paid for. And then also, I mean, we sold him 100 at least 100 extra tickets when we won. So, that was that's good marketing, too.
But, um, but yeah, we won. And then usually you had to play the night before or the night after you would the battle of the bands would take place. Whoever won would then play the next night. For some reason ours worked out that we had a whole month to wait it wait it out. So I'm calling the radio station. I'm having all my friends call the radio station saying play my silly little California Sunshine song.
The first song I ever wrote. and Son of the Gun. On our way to the show that day, they played our song on one of the biggest country radio radio stations in the country, which is unheard of cuz it's just so hard to do because it's so controlled. And it was it was one of the greatest times of my life. We got to go. You're driving to Cincinnati and like all of a sudden you were like, "They're not going to play my song."
And then you hear it start to come through the radio. Yeah. You crank that thing as loud as Oh man, I had it going. We were blaring it windows down, rolling across the river. I mean, I was still I mean, I still got this Suburban. We were driving a Suburban and pulling a trailer and it was just one of the greatest greatest days, honestly.
It's it's gives me goosebumps thinking about it. It was it was the motivation getting there, going backstage. Uh I'd never been backstage at the show. Um Leanne Rimes comes out in a towel and I'm like, "Oh, wow. This is awesome." She's just taking a shower in in the shower room.
I'm like, "This is great. This is awesome. This is what this is exactly as I imagined it." like like where do I sign? Yeah. So, uh we were kind of out of the way.
So much to take in. Kenny's so smart. He you know everything to him has a purpose. Like there was a grill. They had a grill up on the side stage with a fan blowing it out to the crowd. I'll never forget it.
They're just there's burning charcoal just to make it smell like a tailgate just to give that vibe and that sense. And I was like this guy is genius. He's on another level. I want to be on this level. We got our 15 minutes of fame. Got to play our songs.
Got off stage. Lean rhymes plays. Um, we were supposed to get to meet Kenny. This is I'm I've never told anybody this, but I'll tell I'll I'll drop it here because I' I've lied so many times. I told one person after the show. They were like, "Oh, so what was Kenny like?"
And I was like, "Oh, I didn't get a meeting." And then they were so disappointed for like that I didn't get to because they knew I was such a big fan that I just started lying to everybody. I was like, "Oh, yeah. He was great. He was great." cuz I didn't want him.
I felt bad that that person, my friend, was so bummed. I felt like I ruined their night. So, I was like, "Oh, yeah. It was awesome. It's great." But I don't know what happened.
Like leading up to it, I was dreaming every night. I knew exactly what I was cuz cuz the winner got to go out with Kenny and sing Tractor Sexy. So, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I knew exactly how I was going to do it. I knew how I was going to cut back at Kenny. and and and I don't know if something happened and I never got an answer, but some I think something happened right before our show.
I I don't know if someone embarrassed him and went out there and didn't know the words or really messed up because there were a couple bands that won that weren't country. So, I I don't know. And honestly, it was such a big bummer. and and but but the the event of playing being on that size stage being at Riverbend amphitheater that was motivated. That was your first show. Well, that No, no, no.
We've been playing the Bluebird and small clubs, but like a like a big I mean, how many people are at Riverbend that night? Gez 15,000 people. Uh I think I think when we played there was only probably about I mean we played as soon as the gates opened. There weren't a lot of people but but still you're on the stage. Yeah. I mean my gosh.
I mean this is what you dream of. I'd seen concerts there. So, that was the really big motivation. And after that show, I sat down with my dad. I was like, "Look, I got to try this. I don't want to I don't want to be a grumpy old man."
But the motivation to get back on that stage to that level. Um motivation to be like, "Man, I want to get there where I can meet Kenny one day and then retell him this story." So, that was that was the big uh that was the big push to leave Indiana. It's funny how that all ends up working. Like I feel like uh the higher up you get like you know meeting celebrities or whatever and it's like they're just like the schedule is always the schedule and it's I know it's it's never I mean or then you meet them and they're like oh you're just like a normal person too like there's not like some magical thing that happens when you meet Kenny Chzn or whoever it like changes your life forever. It's like oh you and they actually probably prefer it.
The best thing I ever like the best advice was like just treat them like normal people and like don't be a fan. Just be like oh what's up dude. Yeah, he's I'm sure he's a regular guy. I mean, he he I I've heard only great things like he he's so he's such an awesome guy and treats everybody incredible. His team, his his crew, his guys that songwrite for him, but uh yeah, well, it'll happen one day. It'll happen.
So, you you leave Indiana and I mean, there's only one place you got to go, right? Yeah. It was it was Nashville and I I found out a rude awakening that uh there's signs that say no soliciting, and it truly means no soliciting. it. Uh they uh we we went around town all day passing out our music, passing out everything. And then a guy from my hometown that I grew up loving, he was playing this club that we had been to earlier.
And all I knew about music at the time was you just play shows. You play shows. I knew nothing about the record business side of it. So we end up going back seeing my buddy and and at the end of the night he's like, "Hey Grimy, this place called the basement. It's pretty famous spot in Nashville." He's like, "Come come meet my buddy.
He was in here earlier. He dropped off his music and stuff. So, Grimy, the bar owner, reaches in the trash can, pulls it out. Hadn't been opened, hadn't been anything. I'm like, "Oh my gosh, we just wasted our entire day going around this town." Um, so that was a big that was a big root awakening.
And you started to realize that like the relationships are what's going to matter. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. It was all music is is all relationship business. It's networking. I mean, you got to network.
It's it's all about meeting people. Meeting the people you want to songwrite with. Meeting people that run the labels. Meeting people that's you know you got to find a champion that's going to champion you and push you in town. Um there's just especially when I first moved there, there were only so many slots. Like there's only so many slots you Well, this is like 2009.
Uh so I I moved there. So I I kind of danced around Nashville a little bit because I didn't know how to get my foot in the door. um ended up playing a show in Georgia. He's like, "Hey, man." This drummer, he's like, "Hey, man. I think I really like your music.
I think you should contact my buddy, my old bandmate, who happened to be a guy from Evansville, Indiana, who named Brian Cole, who was Luke Bryan's roommate when they first moved to Nashville. That'll work." Yeah. So, I was like, "Okay." So, then I I met Brian and he was my big introduction to Nashville and really really helped me a lot. made my first record and then I moved there permanently.
I mean, I was visiting. I was going in and out, but then I moved there in 2012. 2012. Yeah. Okay. So, you get to Nashville and what does life look like?
Like what are you what are you doing? What is a day? Wake up on Monday morning and you're in Nashville and you're a musician. Yeah. Uh went to Broadway, got hammered. uh woke up with my boots on and uh I was like, "What am I doing?
I got to get my life straight." So, um really just started going out to songwriter nights. Nashville is built on songwriting and there's songwriter nights all over town. Just started trying to meet people. Um went to the BMI songwriters Fest in Key West. Met a whole bunch of people from Florida Georgia Line to uh my buddy Jesse Rice who's written a bunch of big songs.
Uh, I think that's an interesting piece that not a lot of people know, right? It's like there's, let's say, at any given moment 25 to 50 really big country stars, you know, like the Morgan Wall and Luke Combmes, whoever, but there is just this massive tree of writers. Yeah. That then like the songs get funneled up to them. Uh, and it's like you can kind of see sometimes some of the songwriters will play. That's where Chris Stapleton like wasn't that his entire career was built on songwriting and then he didn't get just really start to like hum he was in other bands and then he started to perform on his own and he's like oh yeah I've written all of these great songs.
Yeah. Yeah. He's a hugely successful. Everyone's like oh Chris Stapleton saved country music. Well Chris Stapleton was writing the songs that you hate. So yeah I mean so you got it both ways.
I mean he was writing these these mainstream country songs and that's what you do. You go in, you want to cut, you want to, you want to get a song, you want to get a single on the radio. That's big money. That's millions of dollars. So, you go into these uh these songwriting, they're kind of that's like what people in the business were like their networking events, right? Their coffee meetings, whatever, but you're going to songwriting events.
Yeah. So, like 10 roof at the time was popping. It was the spot to be. They had songwriter events during during the evening. What does the event look like? Uh it's just four or three guys up on the stool singing their songs.
It's a songwriter round. So, you'd start your song. I I sing my song, next guy sings his song. Um, but those were happening everywhere. Um, my roommate at the time, she ran one of the biggest nights in town. Um, so and still does.
Uh, so I it's called the Freak Show on Wednesday at at the local. Go check it out next time you're in town. Um, but uh, it's uh, it's they're great events. I mean, she by way of that knew Ashley McBride and they've written songs together and Ashley McBride's now blown up. Laney Wilson, same example, written songs for her now. Blown up all through all through these writing writing events, writing show or songwriting events.
So, being in there, seeing someone, oh, I like what they're doing. They're kind of similar to me. Uh, let's try to write a song. It's and it's awful and it's really awkward at first. It's like really I'd only written songs by myself. So, then you go in and you're like trying to tell something emotional to person across from you that you might not even know very well.
and and you just it's it's it just either comes to you. Sometimes it does, sometimes you work hard on a song or whatever. Does it start with when you're writing a song, does it start with the lyrics or does it start with like the actual music itself? Um, it it it can start either way. I do it I do it all kinds of different ways. Sometimes I have an idea.
Sometimes my buddy said something stupid, I'm like, "Oh man, that's that's a that's a song." Um, sometimes maybe I have this whole story and don't know how to put it all together. So, I just kind of talk it out and then maybe this lyricist really helps me iron it out. Sometimes I have the melody, sometimes I have the hook like in the dark. I was like, she only likes it in the dark with or I think it started off she kisses in the dark and but then it moved into it. It just moves, you know?
It just it just finds its own path and then it it kind of song is cool. It's pretty cool. It's frustrating, but it's it's kind of like puzzle pieces, it seems, where like you have these little snippets of this like, oh, I want to put this like one chorus or this one line and then tell this story and oh, we could tie this in there and then you jumble it and figure it out and put it all together. Yeah. Yeah. It It's awesome.
And they come to you at different times. I mean, you could be stuck for an hour and it's like, oh, let's go play golf or let's go let's like it's not working. But uh but yeah, but that's that but that's where you really I mean like at the time Tin Roof was the hot spot. I mean Lee Bryce was a young he just he was coming up. He had just had a big song. Um Jared Neman was coming out with a record and everybody was hanging there.
So you just hang and if you're a good hang and you're a good person then hopefully you can kind of yeah navigate your way in there. You're 2012 you're going to these songwriter but like how are you affording to live in like how are you making money? Well, I was playing shows, so I was constantly on the road. We were playing Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Um, luckily the Tin Roof had just started opening up other places and they offered me to go play and Oh, like so this was cuz Tin Roof started in Nashville. Yeah.
So Tin Roof actually technically started in Atlanta, but really blew up in Nashville and then they opened one in Knoxville, Tennessee, one in Lexington. Um, so we would make that round playing it and then we would play elsewhere. we would play down in I thought I had to get out of Indiana for some reason. I was like, "Oh, we're popular here." We were playing a bunch of frat parties and a bunch of college parties and a lot of different stuff around here, but I was like, "I've got to go south and see if people really like me for for my stuff, not just for who I am." So, we play in South Carolina.
We were playing in Athens, Georgia. We were just playing every college town we could get into. And and that's how that's how I was making my money. Um, and and sometimes I look back, there's a blueprint. And when I first moved to Nashville, the blueprint was write songs, get someone to record it, and then you could possibly get a record deal. I knew I wanted to be an entertain I'm an entertainer.
I want to be the entertainer. I want to sing. I want to play. And maybe if I look back on it, maybe I should have just focus more on the songwriting side, but I was like, man, I want I write songs for me. I'm not trying to write them for everybody else. So, I didn't really fit that mode totally.
It's kind of like your entry- level job. Like, you got to pay your dues and you got to write songs and like give other people some bangers. And it's like that that balance would be hard of like, man, do I really want to give my best stuff to somebody else? And if you don't, then you're not going to rise cuz it won't be good. Man, that's hard. I know.
And and but but you look back, that's that's how that's how it happened. Like uh I mean Luke Bryan uh Billy Carrington took his first big song Good Directions like that was a Luke Good directions and turn them greens. Yeah. That Luke Bryan wrote that song I think all by himself but Billy Kurrington made it a number one which allowed Luke Bryan to have an opportunity to even get a record deal. So you got to give away a number one to get your own opportunity. Yeah.
And like Coach Swendell wrote a bunch of number one songs for Luke Bryan. And then Coach Swendell ramps his way up into getting an opportunity. Uh which which he had a great song. His first song out was a huge huge uh huge thing. Yeah. But if you go the route, it's like, "No, I'm writing these for me.
I'm going to perform." And this is preocial media era as well. Like it was like Instagram reels, you know, where you could get tons of exposure. Wasn't really happening yet. No, it's YouTube. YouTube.
You had to. And we had our first uh when we put out my first single, Summer Sun, it was doing I mean it it was great at the time it kind of went at the time it it really kind of took off and went viral. I mean you have 60,000 YouTube subscribers. Like that's not nothing. Yeah. I mean it's okay.
We got to get more. I got to get that's that's the crazy thing. There has been a change and when from what I started it was all grassroots grassroots grassroots grassroots. You need to shake hands and kiss babies. Yeah. Now it's now it's like how can and I keep trying to figure this out like how can I take what we do which I've always been told our live shows are our best thing how can I get that to come through on the phone and and you know who who has like really done that well oh my gosh what is his name he does like the country mashups the rap one he's he crushes it that dude he played a show here Cooper Allen yeah yeah he's crushing it dude he's got like millions and it's like he's built solely off Tik Tok, solely off Instagram.
But then I went to his show, he played the mill out in Teroot. Yeah. And I was like, "Okay, is this phenomenal?" He's an entertainer. Like, and that's just like I think the vibe is if you're an entertainer, it's like be entertaining on the camera, be entertaining in person. He's doing like he adds in some like Colt 45 country mashup on set.
I'm like, "This is crazy." Uh, but yeah, entertainer. So, like that's like one figuring out how to do that. It's just like you got to continuously like learn new tricks. When he started doing that, at first I was like, man, is this gonna work? Is it gonna Because it's like anybody can do a mashup.
It's not that hard. I mean, he does it incredibly well. I'm not going to I'm not going to say we we mash up songs all the time, but like is it going to stick? And then because the hardest part is how do you for me or I what I think is how do you how do I get someone to buy into what I'm doing, what I'm saying, what I'm singing about. Here's my original songs. But Cooper's showing that man, you can kind of be not serious.
Yeah. Because you would take that maybe it's not so serious and like change your the way that people perceive you cuz at first it's like oh yeah I don't know his name is Cooper Allen. I know that he is the match up the the the cult 45 country guy and he did a lot of those but like it was top of brand awareness and then he started to like find a way to incorporate his own music in there and it took a little bit but like he's got some decent songs like some pretty good ones. He's got some bangers that he played when when we were out there in saw material. And the show was just fun, but like he packed it out. Yeah.
You know, I guess like sycamore country out there. Love Cooper Allen. And the and and at the end of the day in music, the way you make your money is selling a ticket. And it's the hardest thing to do is to sell a ticket. And if you're selling tickets, I don't care if you're doing mashups or dancing, whatever you're doing, you're winning. I mean, and and whoever has the biggest ticket draw is is gonna get pushed and and be king at the end of the day.
Yeah. So, you ended up getting a record uh or like putting out a record, right? How long had you been in Nashville at that point? We started working on it before I got there. So, um I think it came out in 2000 about the same time I moved there. And I thought, "Oh man, we're going to get I thought it was awesome.
It's called Torn Jeans and Tailgates." I was like, "There's no way we're not going to get a record deal on this on this record." And I did the rounds, kind of went around and the label that Florida Georgia Line ended up signing with, met with uh a whole bunch of different publishers. Never really a record label, but a bunch of publishers and and just didn't get a bite. Everybody's like, oh man, you sound like Luke Bryan. We've already got that.
Then I was warned, well, if they're saying that, you better be careful who you sign with because they could just put you on the shelf and keep you from competing or trying to since they already have it. But um that was that was a real bummer. That was like, man, what am I going to do? And I had all these records that we bought. I I bought them myself. It's just independent.
So I was like, I got to sell them. So we just went out again playing shows. I would go knock on fraternity sorority doors and be like, "Hey, can I serenade you?" So I just take my guitar in and then sell CDs and and moved them. And we moved a bunch. I mean, I I sold all of them, so that was good.
Wait, you just bought So you just bought, you know, a thousand CDs or whatever. Oh, I I bought a lot more than that and uh we had to I had to get rid of them, you know. I had a lot of money. So you're just like kind of like a door to door I'm a door salesman. I'm a car I mean vacuum salesman. Yeah.
Terrible. But it's like you talk about like the grind to get to like to make something to bring your dream to life. Oh yeah. It's like a lot of people are willing to like, you know, put out a few things on clips on TikTok or whatever, but are you willing to go knock on doors in Bloomington and play fraternity houses and try to get broke college kids to spend 15 bucks on a CD? Like that's a grind. Yeah, it it was it was a lot of fun, a lot of work.
Um, you got to have a lot of nerve, you know, to to do it. But it's at the end of the day, if you're like if entertaining people is what like your northstar is, like I just love doing that. It's like you're getting the opportunities 10 times a day if they let you in the door. Absolutely. And it taught me so much because to take your guitar in and win a bunch of people who don't know who who the heck you are and say and to grab their attention, it really helped me improve my uh our capability of of reaching people. It's kind of like when a stand-up comic, you know, like they test their material at like random shows.
They stand up for five minutes and like give a little thing and they're like, "Okay, that joke doesn't work." It's like, "You're trying different things in those environments." Oh, people love when I do this. Like, cool. We need to put that into the main show. Yeah.
Yeah. It It's uh just you just sample it a little bit. Does this work? Does this not work? How's it How's it go? It's It's always I mean, I'm constantly still today trying different things.
I mean, you've had some some very successful songs that have like, you know, done really well. And you talked about how you are in and out of a record label right now. I'm in a record deal snare right now. And I I got uh I got trapped in uh I wanted to It goes back to my whole thing. I didn't want to be a grumpy old man on the front porch saying what if one day. Took the money that I had saved up, put my own radio team together and we were going to go with a song that we all thought was a great radio song.
And then COVID hit right when we were coming out with it. And so I I was like, "Oh, do I get any of that money back?" They're like, "No, it's I mean it's spent." And so it just totally I mean the just the floor just collapsed under me and and I was like man I'm I was broke. I was really really broke and uh So wait take it. So you put all the money into putting out a radio song and it was going to get pushed up to secondary country or like Yeah, we were going to start secondary radio market and then see where it went.
If we could get some to a certain point then I was going to try to bring some investors on and then we' try to run it up uh to rest. What song was it? Drinking in a hotel room, I think, cuz it was Panama City. We had a whole thing around Panama City. And we had that one and a song of mine called Tennessee. That that was those were going to be the two.
And uh we had this big campaign with Southwest. We're going to fly people down to Panama City. And it was all set up. And then COVID hit the moment the week it was supposed to happen. And yeah, it was like, man, kicking the And it all comes down to money there. It's like you saved all this money, you put all this money into it, and it's like you can get a song on the radio if you just put enough money into it and it's decent.
The song has to be good. Yeah. The song h you have to have a good song. You can't just I mean it's illegal to pay is not but yeah, it costs money to build the right team to then run your song up the chart. The more you want to go, the the better. It's kind of like racing.
The more money you put into it, the the better the car is. So, it it's a it's a tough game. And uh so so I lost everything was kind of in a pickle and then a great opport I thought it was a great opportunity. It was an incredible opportunity that presented itself in 2021. I didn't have any I'd always been independent and this indie label popped up. A guy that I'd been working with who's one of the top female execs ever in country music said, "I think this might be a really good fit for you."
I took my mind off. I didn't want to go the radio route anymore. Uh, I was seeing that my niece was singing all these old songs and she was learning them from Guardians of the Galaxy and TV shows she was watching. So, I was like, I want to focus on getting my songs in streaming and in a show. I mean, even recently, I mean, Stranger Things blew up that old Kate Bush song, made it the biggest song of the year. Yeah.
I mean, the biggest song of the year that year, most streamed on Spotify. So, I was like, I want to do that. this group, a gal that was working at this indie label had that capability of making that happen. And got over there, signed, everything felt really good. Got sync placements right away. Got a Ford truck commercial, which was the most money I'd ever made on a song.
Got a bunch of ESPN college baseball stuff, right? Yeah, I saw that. Got an ESPN. Like a national Ford truck commercial. Yeah, national. So, you're just watch like built Ford stuff and you're just like, what song was in the background?
Uh, let's get after it. Whatever you got, bring it on. So, that's that's playing while it's going on. I mean, I about felt we were going we were actually out in uh Tulsa, Oklahoma playing a show and we're taking an Uber to the thing and it comes on the radio. I'd never heard it on the radio. So, I flipped out and had to turn that up.
Uber drivers like don't touch don't touch the dash. You're like, this is my song. Yeah. And when people say built for tough and the way streaming is today like everyone streams but there's still nothing cooler than hearing your song on the radio or television or see wherever it's man. So you're so you're in there and you're starting to make some money like but in a non-traditional way I would say. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're so and I've always thought outside the box. I've always tried to think outside the box. Your love's like country music was a song that I dropped in 2014 all by myself and it just happened.
Spot this thing called Spotify was new and they put it on their biggest playlist and it changed that really helped helped me a bunch and I saw the power of streaming and where it was going. But then the record labels took it over. It's all it's music's tough, man. It's it's just controlled. You have to be so good. And that's what I love about the the capability of social media now is that if you're clever enough, smart enough, keep working at it enough, find your thing, your stick, you can you can do it.
You can blow it up. I've been kind of hog tied. I've got all these fun things that I want to do, but sour leadership uh from the top in this cuz you're signed with the Cindy label. Yeah. Sorry, I'm rambling. No, I love it.
I love it. We're here for it. Jeez, should have br some coffee. Hey, people come in the studio and always ask me, "What's that smell?" It's the blueberry cobbler candle from Warmlow Candle Company in Centerville, Indiana. This is the Hoosier Candle Company.
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Now, let's get back into the episode. It's kind of the trade-off, right? You sign with this label, but you get some immediate get paid. Oh, yeah. We got So, they funded the record. They funded everything.
It was everything was amazing. Like, everything was going like I was like, I couldn't have a better partnership in this thing. They agreed to spend more money to make the record because they believed in the song. We got one of the best guys in town to mix it. Like, all these awesome things. Made some cool videos.
And then all of a sudden, I I don't know what happened. I I'm still not for sure what happened, but leadership down. Just I don't I think they ran out of money. I'm not for sure. And then things started falling apart. People weren't getting paid.
People were being siloed. I mean, I've they have a song of mine that's the best song I've ever written that's sitting in their hands right now that I can't even do with do anything with. And No, wait. Yeah. So, the best song you've ever written, it's one of them, is currently on the shelf at this record label. Yeah.
And and they don't know what they're doing. I mean, they it's they don't even have a team. I don't like if they And also, like, this is not uncommon that I feel like artists don't love the label that they sign with, but it's like, do they hear, let's say, I'm not sure if they're ever going to find, but let's say they come listen to this. Like, what's their feedback going to be? Um, I don't know. They don't I mean, I'm just speaking the truth right now.
I've seen them. I've seen them. refile. I don't know. I can't even talk about it. But anyway, wow.
Uh it's hopefully hopefully I'll be out. I don't know. I mean, it's just I don't know what's going on. I feel like they've just dangled me as a carrot trying to get more investors to come on or something. I don't know. It's But everyone's quit.
Everyone's resigned. There's no team. There's there's I think one person running the ship over there right now. And but you're under contract and your best song is currently sitting. I'm under contract because they picked up an option. I made them.
So, I made them enough money that they picked up an option record on the very last day they could pick it up, which really made me mad. I'm like, you're stalling. You wasted six months of time we should have been working. Like, it's that that's the old model. The new model is release, release, release, constantly hitting people on so on social media. Yeah.
And it's like it's not what have you done that's great. It's what have you done for me lately. Yeah. and and people for I mean you got to be in on the top of people's minds non-stop and so ah I got really depressed because it's it's what I've always done is for the last 10 10 years and it seems as though like you're like things start to turn around and then I mean that's life right there's adversity that comes through and you have your seasons and that has to be hard especially being a creative yeah it's like and it's the entrepreneur roller coaster but it's like man come on like what like what h or or just the honesty or transparency like what is going on over here and uh they had a great team. I mean they'd built an incredible team. I just don't think the team was utilized correctly looking back at it now.
Mismanagement, a classic of mismanagement from the top. So you're going through a um a tough time there, right? And huge. When do ideas start formulating like you got to make a move, you got to do something, you got to keep going. Um and and obviously we teased at the beginning, but like getting into the the bar and restaurant space, how did how did that opportunity present itself? Um well, kind of sitting around going, what am I going to do?
Am I going to be trapped in this forever to get out of it? I'm going to have to fight this in court, obviously. And then, man, that's going to suck up a lot of money probably. It seems expensive. Yeah, it's it's it's very the last step. I've tried I mean, we've tried for over a year and a half to not go to court.
It's just not getting anywhere. So, I've always thought that it would be cool. I mean, Nashville had I mean, everyone's opening their bars with their names on it or whatever. And there had been a couple people come to me and were interested in doing that and then it kind of fizzled out and I didn't those talks just stopped. Last Labor Day, a guy I'm partnered with currently came up and was like, "Hey, let's maybe you and I just do this together." And the talks went from there.
And the more I was sitting at home not doing anything, I was like, man, this might be the great the best time to try to dabble in in something, I I've I mean, I've spent half my life in a bar anyway, so why not why not own the bar, right? Why not make it my own? And uh so that was Yeah, that was the perfect uh that was the perfect time that this this record deal snare presented itself as a perfect time for me to uh uh pursue something else. So, you're sitting around a bar, you're like, "Yeah, let's do this." Like, what had to happen for this to come to life? Trying to figure out our roles.
It's been a lot more work than I even thought it was going to be, to be honest. I mean, it's it's I I want it to succeed. I mean, it's I'm putting my name on it. So, yeah, that's the biggest that's the scariest thing really. You can always lose money and make money back, but like reputation and brand. Yeah.
Like that is the ultimate currency, right? Like so you want to make it something that's special and it's one of one in IND. So you have the opportunity like the opportunity presents itself to make it spectacular and awesome and the best the best country western bar in Indiana. Yeah. Yeah. I I want it to be I want to smack people in the I want people to be like, "Oh, wow.
Why do I need to go to Nashville when I can just stay right here and I'll just pop in Indianapolis and and check it out right here." And like uh it's the one downtown is going to be like around the corner from Wild Beaver. Yeah. Right. I mean, right. Kind of in that little country music corridor.
Yeah, depending on the night at 10 roof. I think I think it could be awesome. And I think, you know, I Tin Roof is so successful. Um, Wild Beaver is packed all the time. Is if they could they could honestly fill it Wild Lever on the right Saturday night. Triple the space.
Oh yeah. And maybe then I could like put my elbows above my like should it's amaz it's amazing. But that's good. Like that's the sign of a thriving bar and it's a very small space and they have to, you know, do very well. You're going to be down there just a little bit west and on that corner, right? The what's it called?
The Morrison Opera House. We're going to be Yeah, it's right on the corner of Meridian and Maryland Street on the east side uh northeast side of that of that corner. And uh it used to be the old Hard Rock. We're going to go in and and that's going to be more like a Broadway downtown Broadway Nashville type bar. Um, I I kind of say more like the stage kind of down there if you've ever been to that honky tonk. But, uh, I I I'm excited.
I I really have lofty goals. I want to bring It's always been something I've wanted to do because I'm so proud of Indiana. I'm so proud to be from Indiana when I'm in Nashville. I'm telling everybody about Indiana and and all I mean there you can find no bigger Homer than me. I think this is going to be exciting that I can bring a little bit of Nashville back to Indiana. And we also have so much musical talent in this state.
Hopefully, it'll give people Nashville's kind of getting a little washed out, like a little too saturated. There's too much. There's too too many too many bars. People are bouncing around now. The guys that I know playing aren't making the money that they were three years ago because of the explosion and so many Yeah. Because I can find someone who's 90% as good as you for 50% of the cost.
Yeah. Right. Because it's like a lot of young kids come and like, "Oh I do this for free if it means I get if the right person might hear my song." Like, yeah. Dang. Yes.
So, you're bringing some Nashville back to Indianapolis. What can we expect in uh in the downtown location? So, you know, I we'll start off playing a lot. I'm I'm going to play I got to I got to get going first. You know, I feel like I got to I got to play some and play a lot in the beginning, but we're going to have some slushy machines that I love. Everything's going to be something that I kind of love, you know, like we're trying to get the menu right right now.
My grandma's fried chicken. Um hopefully get my mom's chicken and dumplings when it gets to the, you know, colder months of the year. Uh I want it to be good food, not a lot of food, short, very limited menu, but everything we have is incredible. And it makes you like, "Oh, I want to actually go eat that." Like I crave to eat it. And good food.
Good healthy food. Well, it might not be healthy when we put on cheese on. Yeah. Right. like uh you know that comfort food though like everyone if you have spent time in I would say outside of Marian County in the doughnut counties right if you spent time out there everyone's got a grandma that's got like really good chicken noodle soup or fried chicken or something with chicken that's like it's not necessarily healthy in the sense of like you're not going to gain weight but it's healthy in the sense that it's like real and like just makes you feel good for the soul. Right.
That's right. It make it it'll it'll thicken you up a little bit sometimes. But no, it it'll be good. We kind of we want to do that. And then we want to have I've got some, you know, taking things from my show me your fish song. We want to have a show me your fish wall where you can bring your fish in and show put it up.
Oh, you holding your fish if you want to like pictures. Yeah. Yeah. Take your pictures. And then uh we've got I've got a song called Beer on a Boat. So we're going to do Beer on a Boat shots skis.
And uh so that'll be fun. Like other kind of memorabilia like is the So obviously it's a country it's like a it's a honky tonk type bar. What's going to be up on the walls? What can we expect for that? Oh, we're going to have a little bit of everything. I'm going to have a little space of of my junk that I've collected over the years.
I want to give ods to Indiana as well. It's coming together, so I don't want to jinx anything, but we're going to have some really cool I mean, Indiana's the boot state, so we got to give a little bit of the, you know, it kind of looks like a boot, so we'll go country western there. But we're going to have great bands. We're going to have full bands, and we're going to be consistent. You know, there's going to be bands all the time. We're not going to So, live music.
live music. Hopefully hopefully we're gonna have some type of live entertainment every night during the week as as as long as we can some type of live entertainment. That's uh like that could be what are the different besides like a band or singer? We could do acoustic. We could do I want to do a honky tonk piano type type vibe sing along. Not like a piano dueling piano, but like just a honky tonk piano in the corner maybe.
Oh, like someone just like playing like uh instrumental type stuff. Yeah. And then sing along. have them sing along if they want to. Maybe uh maybe we can turn it into like a a bar sing along because I love I love going to Ireland and how they do their bar sing alongs over there. So, kind of taking everything that I've experienced from all over the place.
Like I want fried bologn sandwiches in there cuz Robert's in Nashville is my favorite and they serve the best fried bologn sandwich I've ever had. So, just taking my favorite things from all over the country that I' that I've been able to experience and bring them bring them to Indianapolis. So that's the downtown location and then this is the best name of maybe any bar that I've ever heard. So you're doing Clayton's Ripple Rodeo, but basically right in our neighborhood here in Broadripple. What can we expect from that? Now that is going to be a cowboy western theme bar and uh it's a lot smaller than the downtown is such a big location.
It makes I'm nervous on the fact that it's so big if people, you know, people like to feel tight and but the the Ripple Ripple Rodeo is going to be a lot smaller. It's only like a 114 person cap and it's going to be more like the downstairs of Tootsies if you've ever been in that bar. Uh band will be up in front in the window and play towards the back of the bar. So, um much much smaller. I I would love to, you know, do some 90s country nights, do some different things like that. Really mix it up and and just have just hehaw around in there, you know, like is it open like what kind of is it like booths?
Is it like Yeah, we're going to have We're going to have a boot wall there. It's not a dance floor. It'll be it'll be like a saloon type just long bar, narrow bar. Uh when you think of tootsies, you go in that band's playing. There's some people see the long hair. So if it's when it's not too crowded, uh would love to uh be consistent and and obviously you got to figure out it depends when I'm saying we want to be consistent.
We want to do these things. It's really up to our customers if if they are up to have that. So it'll it'll really be relevant on them of their participation. Is a downtown location more of like it's going to be open till 3:00 a. m. like late night spot.
And then this one up here still probably open it, but more of like the sit down bar type feel. You listen to live music. Yeah, I think so. Unless we get it too crowded, then we'll pull out the chairs. And I mean, we got a little VIP corner. It's going to be called uh the Cowboys Corner.
And we're going to have the Mount Rushmore of my favorite Cowboys named uh John Wayne, uh Sam Elliott, Clint Eastwood, and uh Mr. Kevin Cosner. Wow. Yeah. Cowboys Corner. Yeah.
Cowboys Corner. We got and then we got uh we got a big nice painting that that a gal painted me uh Andy here in town. And and then we've got the Lone Ranger. We've got Roy. We got all the great cowboys. So that's going to be Cowboy Corner and you can rent that as like the VIP booth.
Which I think is kind of fun. Yeah. Oh, that's super cool. Uh and then Okay. So So talking about Cowboys Corner. Yeah.
I do have a bet. Yeah. Are you Are you a Are you a wagering man? You know, I I can't wager on sports because I love sports too much, but I I don't I don't mind doing a small wager. So, I did this with Randy Luwendowski, the CEO of the Indians, the Indian. I said, "Randy, how many views do I have to get so I for me to throw out the first pitch?"
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I saw I saw that. I'm talking about a You talked about the Cowboys corner.
I a 3inch by 1 in named booth. Yeah. In the Ripple Rodeo, I'll be a regular. It's It's right across the street. How many views does this clip have to get for a named booth in the Ripple Rodeo? Uh uh I don't know.
Should we say a million? Is that too much? Where are we at? 500,000. 500,000. If this video gets 500,000 views, I get a named booth at the Ripple Rodeo right here in Broadripple.
Clayton's Ripple Rodeo. Yep. We'll do that. That's a pretty fair wage. Oh, handshake agreement. Boom, baby.
All right. I have to make that video pop. I mean, fine with cuz it's like one I've been saying and that's my friend Brooks. He's a listener. He will validate. We've been saying a place to listen to country music.
Like even if it was live most of the time, but just like where they put country music on and just let me hear it. Oh yeah, absolutely. We'll be we'll have a curated playlist. Uh I've I know touch tunes and everything's really popular, but I I don't even want to take the chance. I want to curate the playlist, make sure the vibes are immaculate. Uh, everything I keep preaching this too.
It's like I I want culture and I It's not even about service. I want hospitality. I want you to come in and feel awesome and feel awesome to be there. I I want to come in and feel awesome myself. You know, it's like, man, I'm really happy to be here. Uh, what what else?
I'm excited. I was so bummed because we were actually supposed to our goal was to open today and I don't know I don't know when this is coming out but David Lee Murphy's playing in town tonight who I song right with him a lot so he's like no way he's like man I'll I'll come by your I'll come by your bar and get up to sing a couple songs. So this is also what I'm excited about is to bring my friends when they're in town. You just never know who might show up, who might pop through, who might come through, which has always been the Nashville thing, you know. Dude, this is literally like a dream. Like, you know, someone plays at Ruof and they're like, "Oh, I want to where's like the place to come hang out?"
And it's like, and it's like maybe it's not the one down Maybe it is some nights. It's the one downtown, but it's like the little like dive bar country small saloon in Broadripple. It's like you're in the neighborhood. It's like, "Oh, yeah. Could you imagine seeing the tour bus pull up out front there, you know?" Well, they pull up the vogue right here, man.
Then we just get them involved and it's like a little like we get a really a nice small venue country concert happening at the Vogue over there. Yeah. Getting people to come to Broadripple is it's been a challenge you know lately but with all the investment that the city the town's done or whatever you call it. I mean this about whatever it is it's I feel like it's a perfect time to make Broadripple great again of what I remember Broadripple as a kid coming up here and experiencing. There is a lot of people both private and public sector that have like I mean vested stakes in this place you know reviving a little bit and it was a little bit of a rough patch there. I mean I've been out recently.
It's not it's not bad. Like I don't feel it's definitely safe. I think the issue is now getting people like we got to bring people back here cuz I mean I I like my whole life is in like eight square blocks probably and I love it. I think Broadle is sweet. You can walk down. It's a little like friendly neighborhood.
So, like I said, when can we expect the the places to open? Hopefully, pretty soon. Uh, we're definitely shoot I mean, it's going to definitely be this spring. Um, just kind of waiting renovations kind of. Yeah. Is is kind of what that is.
Uh, the Broad will definitely open before the one downtown. Um, can we expect like a big honky tonk like neon? Oh, I hope so. I hope so. Wink wink. Yeah.
U, I love it, dude. Well, we're coming down to the end of the show. I have a few fun segment questions to ask you here. The first one is a sponsored question. It's uh brought to you by our friends at OR Fellowship. They're a great organization here in Indiana helping develop young business leaders across the state.
Clayton, what advice would you give to your 22-year-old self? Stop playing guitar all night long on your couch and go to chemistry class in the morning. No, life is about relationships. Work to build your relationships. work to build your circle of people and that will help you so much more than anything else in life. We have some fun questions here at the end.
Best venues to watch a country show, best venues to play a country show in Indiana. Well, my favorite's Lake James out on the sandbar, but uh not the easiest to get to if you can't, but man, I tell you what, I think I think uh the White River Lawn downtown. It's just fantastic. We got to play there last year. Um, and it was just so it's just so easy to get in and out of and there's not a bad seat in the house. Um, but also getting to play farm a couple years ago at RUF was uh, pretty sick, too.
So, yeah. 20 was that 23? Yeah, that was that was by far the coolest thing I ever ever got to do. I mean, Bob Dylan was there for crying out loud. It's cool as crap. Okay, so those are cool to play.
Is there one that you love to like to go and experience a show at? Yeah, I honestly I like smaller places like the White River Lawn. I like uh I like going to the Vogue even checking out a show when they have a when they have somebody that I like to see. I I think there's a new one coming downtown and I don't know exactly what it's going to look like. I think it's a Live Nation venue, but um they opened one up in Nashville that was sick about 3,500. Well, they got they got they got funds to you know Live Nation.
There's one thing they're doing is in Ticket Master actually. Brown County Brown County is a fantastic It sounds incredible and there's not a bad seat in there. You don't have to stand for I mean they do a lot of older acts. Zezy Top's coming to town in like a month. Like Zezy Top is like they're playing like a pretty big big venue in Cincinnati I think and then playing Brown County Music Center. It's awesome.
I love that. Is there a local artist that's like up and coming that you want to plug? I love them all. I love my buddy uh Jake Dods, Hank Ruff, any anybody out there. And honestly, that's kind of what I'm excited too about this is hopefully it will allow me to help other artists of giving them a place to play. I want to promote more Indiana things.
It's when I first moved to Nashville, everybody was from Georgia and all they they help each other. They help they help one. It's like, okay, I'm going to pull this guy made it now, so I'm going to pull this guy up and sign him to a thing. And it's like a little click like Georgia. Yeah. You know, I'm like, why not Indiana?
That is a thing. Well, you know who you who you need when they come back in town is uh Steven Wilson Jr. Yeah. You know what's crazy? He was when I was a freshman, I went to see their I love their he was in a rock and roll band called Autovon and they were amazing when I was in college and I mean like the Killers type vibe and so sick. It's funny because his wife uh Lee Nash who's a lead singer of Six Pence on the Richer um she signed she was signed to this indie label group as well that I was on and uh I got to re befriend Stephen and I was like man cuz I left my guitar back they accidentally got one of my guitars one night I was like oh no I'm never going to see this guitar again.
I opened up for them at the Bluebird or something. I was not very good at the time and and they sure enough they brought it back around and dropped it off. They they were playing uh oh there's a band called American Bang and now they're called Cadillac 3. And uh but it's Oh, I've heard of them. It's awesome to see what uh what he's been doing because I I'd heard these songs a few years a couple years back and he was playing, you know, we'd have jams at at uh at our friend's house and and Well, he's got such an like a unique sound. I mean, I I just had the um the Jenny, she's a CEO, 45, like they own the Vogue and do all this booking, whatever, and she was like, "It's just painful in the best way."
Like, it just sounds like he's like it just hurts. It hurts so hurts so good. Right there. There you go. Um Yeah. He's amazing though.
He He is The way he plays that nylon string guitar, he's so tal I mean, the dude is so talented. Uh Amen. Is there one if you I mean, you've been performing for a long time. If you had to pick one show Yeah. that specifically stands out in your mind as like the best show, the most proud you've been, what was that show? Probably the show we played at the White River Lawn last November.
It was November. The White River Lawn. I always dreamed of having a really big band behind me. Um, we used tracks because you just got to keep things economical, you know? I I don't I don't want the I can't afford to have a key guy keys guy with me all the time, but might as well put in the track to make it fill the song up. So, uh that was just that was just an awesome epic epic night of being sucked into the music, you know.
I'll never forget that one. That's a good one. All right, final three questions we ask everyone who sits in the chair. Uh first, what's something the world needs to know about Indiana? It's the greatest state in all the land. That's for sure.
I tell everybody everywhere I go that my hometown being the limestone capital of the world, the Empire State Building came out of my backyard. We would go swimming in the hole as a kid. That was our swimming pool. Well, you could like see it. It's there like you know where all this the stone the limestone was mine. Yeah.
Yeah. It's uh technically an oytic, but it's Bedford says they're limestone capital, but it's technically olitic. What's what's oyic? Oh, here here actually here's a great here's the one that everyone should know. Olitic in the movie Hooers, Olitic is the team that whoops the crap out of Hickory Huskers the first game. And Olitic is a little town in Lawrence County, uh, right north of Bedford, Indiana.
Wow. Yeah. Home of Dan Bush, the great basketball coach. Olitic. Yeah. Wow.
Okay, that's fun. But so Olic is the real capital, but Bedford claims it. Yeah, it's it's pretty much all in Otic. But I love it when people come down. I stop at a gas station. This guy's like, "You know where Oola is?"
And I'm like, "Ooic? Where? Anybody know where Oolletic is?" So yeah, it's Olic. I love that. Okay.
Uh this is your chance to shout out a place that that people need to know more about. Not well not well known. Yeah. What is a hidden gem in Indiana? That is a Spring Mill State Park. I think it's a beautiful I think it's one of I think Indiana has some of the most incredible state parks in in all the country.
But Springmill State Park is they have a pioneer village that's cool as crap. Um you can play in the creek, you can camp, you can do all these things, but I think that is a little little hidden gem down there. And oh, and one more one more. The Jackson County Fair. Greatest greatest county fair in all the land I've ever been to. That's the down by Is that Brownstone?
Yes, Brownstone. But they have an insane festival that's coming uh this fall, I believe. It's nuts. I think it's I don't know if that's the county fair or if it's the watermelon festival, maybe. But one of those. They got a bunch of stuff down there.
They got they got a huge German f They got a huge like uh October Fest they do, too. So, wow. How close is How close is Seymour to uh We're we're neighbors. We're touching counties. Jackson County, Lawrence County. about 20 15 depending how fast you drive on 50.
There you go. And that's another that's here's another little hidden gem for you. 50 highway 50 runs through Lawrence County uh runs through smack dab of Bedford, Indiana. And at that's the only highway that runs from east coast to west coast. One road continuous road doesn't stop. You can go from one coast to the next.
Highway 50. Highway 50. That's there's no other roads that do that. Not that's the only one. That continuously Oh. without like Yeah, you can go from Chicago on 66 or whatever and get there, but from east from the Atlantic to the Pacific, Highway 50 is the only road that will continuously not stop.
All right. The more you know, right? Yeah. Yeah. The more you know. Yeah.
Our final question. This is where you get to share the love with someone out there who's who's doing big stuff. How we find a lot of our next guests. So, who is a Hoosier that we need to keep on our radar? Someone who's doing big things. Caitlyn Clark's changed the landscape.
I mean, she's she's a hooer. She's a hooer now. Yeah. As a hooer now, everywhere I go, everyone wants to talk about Caitlyn Clark and that's unbelievable. Um like people you're in Tennessee and they're like, "Yeah, whatever." But like, what about Caitlyn Clark?
Yeah. They don't want to talk about Payton Manning anymore. They want to talk about Caitlyn Clark. It's honestly incredible what she's done for this town. And and I mean, you could sit on the floor for $20 two years ago and now you can't even get a ticket. It's the hottest ticket in town.
It's it's honestly unbelievable and it made me really mad last year when all them girls were beating on her early in the season, but uh she's so great, classy, and everything she does is just spot on. A true competitor. Like it's it's someone you want to root for. You have to root for. Yeah. But I got I got so many friends doing some awesome things.
I'd hate to name one and then forget the other and then they get mad at me. There you go. I just say them, not me. Yeah. But I think I honestly everywhere you go, there's somebody from Indiana that's doing something awesome. And it it's really cool to see.
And there's something that ties us all together. I don't know what it is, but it's really really really really awesome awesome to see that how we lift each other up. And I don't think you can find that in many other places. Amen. All right, Clayton, thanks for coming in today. Uh we're really excited for your downtown location for the Ripple Rodeo to open.
Baby boy up. And you got remember 500,000 views on this clip. And a 3 inch by one inch named named booth in the bar, baby. Let's go. Appreciate all you've done and the way that you're a you're a champion for the Hoosier State down in Nashville as as you go around. I think that uh that you're a good good marketing asset for the Hoosiers.
I I appreciate it. And uh say a little prayer for me out there. Kenny Chzn's got a song of mine on hold. So, if he if he records it, we'll make that full circle come all the way around. So, that'd be pretty cool. Kenny Chzn, if you happen to listen to the Get In podcast, and I know he does.
Yeah, of course he does. Go on. All right. I love it, man. Well, I'm sure I'll see you soon uh at the Ripple Rodeo. That's where we're going to be hanging out at a lot.
So, appreciate you, man. Take it easy. Thank you for listening to this episode of Get In. If you like what you heard, make sure you leave us a review wherever you listen to podcasts. This show is made possible by our friends up at Sweetwater. Whether you're looking to start a podcast or take your content to the next level, click the link in the description to see all my gear recommendations at sweetwater.
com. If you want a behind-the-scenes look at everything we're doing across the state, make sure you follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok @ Nate Spangle. Thank you so much for listening and being part of what makes the Hoosier State great. We'll see you next time here on Get
