Ep 14 Brooks Herring, Singer Songwriter, Veteran

Episode 14: Purpose, Service, and Song with Brooks Herring

In Episode 14 of Shutter’s Full Podcast, hosts Alisa and Brittany sit down with singer-songwriter, veteran, and all-around powerhouse Brooks Herring for a conversation about purpose, perseverance, and using your gifts to serve others. Brooks brings a powerful mix of discipline, compassion, and creativity, and his story is one that will leave listeners encouraged and inspired.

As a veteran himself, Brooks is deeply involved with CreatiVets, where he helps fellow military veterans find hope and healing through songwriting. In this episode, he shares meaningful stories of writing music alongside service members and witnessing the way creativity can help process experiences and restore hope.

Brooks also holds a PhD in Physical Therapy, reflecting his heart for helping others heal. Yet through prayer and faith, he has felt God leading him toward songwriting and storytelling as his life’s direction. Now, he’s also stepping into the world of acting, bringing his natural charisma and strong presence to a new stage.

Known as one of the hardest-working artists in the industry, Brooks is chasing his calling with integrity, humility, and a heart to serve.

@brooksherringmusic

brooksherringmusic.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Hey y'all, welcome to Shutter's Fool Podcast where we talk with creators, dreamers, and doers who are chasing purpose and building something meaningful.

SPEAKER_01 0:17

It's not about what you do, it's why you do it. And today we have our favorite person, Brooks Herring. Brooks Herring is a singer-songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee from South Carolina. And we love him so much.

SPEAKER_04 0:31

I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

He's the best. So for people just discovering you, tell us a little bit about who you are.

SPEAKER_06 0:38

Well, uh, I grew up I grew up in rural South Carolina, deep in the pine trees and tobacco fields on a dirt road. I'm a country boy through and through, and joined the military right out of high school, spent six years on active duty, two years as a contractor, uh, deployed to Iraq, Africa, and Afghanistan. Came home, opened up a restaurant with my dad for and did that for a few years, then went to school to become a physical therapist, um, became a physical therapist, and then almost immediately turned around and became a full-time musician. That's the that's the short version.

SPEAKER_01 1:09

Oh my gosh. I didn't know that you had a restaurant though. How long did you have a restaurant for?

SPEAKER_06 1:13

Uh I was I was there for about three years. I never meant to be like as involved as I was. I was gonna be like the financier and I did a lot of the paperwork, did the business side. I was just gonna turn it over to my dad and let that be his thing. But after two and a half years, I was I was in there 18 hours a day with him in the kitchen. I was just like, this is not, I love you, and I love this. And I mean it was it there were things about it that I did love, but I was like, this is not my purpose, this is not my calling. And so I went searching and and it was really hard. And speaking of calling, like it's really hard when I left the military to to find a mission, to find a calling. Not to get too deep too soon, but I mean, like the the when I first got out of the Navy um in January 2011, I I spiraled down uh really bad. I felt like I had completely lost my purpose in life. I was determined to retire or die wearing a uniform.

SPEAKER_05 2:02

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 2:02

And that was just that was what I thought was my calling from the time I was a kid. Like my brother and I used to run around the woods barefoot with BB guns, shooting at each other. We'd take turns, who's gonna be the sniper and who's gonna be the hunter, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:13

I'm glad you took turns.

SPEAKER_06 2:14

Yeah, we'd we'd wear our our because my dad was in the Air Force and we'd put on his old uniforms and we'd run around the woods. And I mean, he and I both, my brother, two years older than me, joined the military two years before me. He and he and I both enlisted right out of high school, and that was just like that was my my calling in life. And when I left the Navy in in January 2011, I I didn't know who I was. I didn't know what I was gonna do with my life. And um there was a point that summer where I was in my bedroom at my house in Virginia Beach with a shotgun in my mouth, just ready to be done. Be done. Just ready to be done. And um I was looking for another bartending job and I found I was always on Craigslist. Craigslist, you remember Craigslist?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah, I think it still exists, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_06 2:57

I was looking for another bartending gig and I saw this ad for a crane operator in Afghanistan.

SPEAKER_05 3:01

Oh.

SPEAKER_06 3:02

Out of desperation, I sent the guy an email. I was like, I'm not a crane operator, but here's my resume. I was a weapon specialist in the Navy, blah, blah, blah. And they hired me the next day, and I deployed to Afghanistan like a month later, and it like gave me that purpose back. It like from the day like sitting on my bedroom floor with my granddaddy's 28 gauge shotgun in my mouth, and that happening was very there was a very short time in between there. And I feel like it was, you know, God picked me up off the floor and was like, Let me give you something for right now. You know, and I felt like I had that purpose back, and I felt like I had my mission, you know. I was I was back in uniform, I was overseas, I was working, and then I came back from Afghanistan, June of 2013. I opened the the restaurant with my dad because I had money in the bank, I had a great credit score because well the whole time I was over there, I was just paying stuff off. And then, you know, just in the restaurant all the time with my dad, I was looking for other opportunities to to work with the military. I was looking for other contracts. Again, I was kind of like going in a downhill direction. You know, I I was in the restaurant smiling to people every day and and doing the business thing. But in in private at home, I was still like I had lost that mission, I had lost that purpose. I was drinking heavily and just not going in a good direction. And then that's you know, I told my dad, I was like, I gotta do something different. Yeah. Something's gotta change. And my brother, who's he's medically retired from the army, he was on me. He was on me nonstop. He's like, You gotta go to school. You gotta go to school. I can't go to school. I'm 20, 28 years old, whatever it was at the time. I gotta get a job. I need to work and pay these bills and help dad with the restaurant and take care of my kids and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And he's like, You need to go to school. And so just to shut him up, I went to the VA and I was like, Yeah, my brother says you'll send me to school. Yeah, thinking they're gonna be like, No. And then they were like, Yeah, I'll send you to school.

SPEAKER_01 4:38

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_06 4:39

I'm like, Well, what do you want to send me to school for? They were like, We don't know.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

What do you want to go to school?

SPEAKER_06 4:45

Yeah, what do you want to go to school for? And I was like, I don't know. Like my whole life, my whole like this whole mission-oriented life that I had lived, being in the military and working for the military, was like, give me a mission, I will execute it. Give me a mission, I will execute it. And now they were like, What is your mission? I'm like, I don't know. And so I spent a couple weeks thinking about it and I decided that I wanted to be a physical therapist. Okay, because I wanted to work with combat trauma. I wanted to work with veterans recovering from combat trauma, and that kind of gave me a sense of purpose again. Like, I'm gonna go help my veteran brothers and sisters, I'm gonna help them, and that is gonna be my mission. So I went hard charging on that. I went to South Carolina, got a bachelor's in exercise science, got a doctorate in physical therapy to become a physical therapist, and then right afterwards went full time with music. So that's yeah. So for the music, no, we rewind and go back. You might have to add it a lot of this. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 5:34

No, because that was my next question. It's like, how did you get into music from physical therapy?

SPEAKER_06 5:38

And I started playing the trumpet in the sixth grade.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 5:41

Still played the trumpet a little bit, you know, kind of a little rusty, but I started playing the drums in seventh grade. I started playing guitar at 14. I started doing poetry in elementary school. So when I started playing guitar, songwriting just kind of came as a natural progression. I started writing songs, mostly praise and worship songs for you know, I was in the youth praise and worship band.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:59

Um, that's how I learned how to play guitar. My my cousin was the lead guitar player in the praise and worship band. I would sit there with my little guitar and I would just, what's he doing? What's he doing?

SPEAKER_02 6:07

What's the chord?

SPEAKER_06 6:08

And I would just bang on that one chord until it sounded decent.

SPEAKER_02 6:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:12

Um, I was never good as a teenager, but when I deployed to Iraq for the first time in 06, I mailed myself a guitar. Okay. I bought a guitar at a pawn shop in El Paso, Texas on a whim, and I mailed it to myself. And the whole time I was in Iraq, I would just I would sit in a bunker and I would just practice and I would play. And every now and again I'd go sit on a picnic table and play for whoever wanted to listen. I recorded my first song in Iraq. I was it was on my the little voice recorder app on my Toshiba laptop.

SPEAKER_03 6:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:40

It was like a seven-minute song. It would not would not work for radio.

SPEAKER_05 6:45

Little Pink Floyd in there.

SPEAKER_06 6:46

It was just me and the acoustic guitar, but I mean it was just like the first first time I actually like felt like I had something that I had written that I wanted to keep forever. And I did the same thing in Africa, mailed myself that same guitar, played, you know, in between deployments, it just kind of collected dust. You know, I thought it was cool that I could play every now and again, but it really collected dust. And in Africa, the bass chaplain came up to me. I remember one day he came up to me with a hard case and a guitar in it, no strings, no pegs. One of the tuning keys was broken. He's like, Gunner, I can't do anything with this. Do you want it? I was like, sure. Yeah, I'll take it. I'll figure something out. You know, I got tools. So I fixed the tuning key in the armory, strung it up, put you know, pegs and strings. I think back then it was eBay. You know, Amazon wasn't delivering to East Africa. But um, but I strung it up and I've written thousands of songs on the guitar. That's my Washburn D10S that that I played just about.

SPEAKER_02 7:31

I was gonna say, is that the same guitar you're playing?

SPEAKER_06 7:32

It's in the truck. No way. She's at Wendy Washburn, she's in the truck.

SPEAKER_02 7:36

Oh, she's so sweet.

SPEAKER_06 7:37

The truck. But uh in Africa, I got open for a couple USO tour bands and um played some shows out in like the whole hotels out in town and stuff, and came back, collected dust, you know. And that that summer, like when I was struggling, and I should have been playing music, but I I was struggling and didn't even think to pick it up. But then when I went to Afghanistan, I took Wendy with me and I played a ton of there. That's when I started recording YouTube videos, and that's like I put stuff on YouTube, and I had I got one video that had like 40,000 views, you know. I'm saying like that, like I was the OG, okay? Like back before TikTok even existed. Before TikTok existed, I was going viral on YouTube. I used it in Afghanistan to kind of like start healing. Yeah, and therapy. And I just started to realize just how how awesome it was, and and writing more songs, and I was learning more songs and learning more chords and challenging myself and recording myself. That was the hard thing for me, and it still is, but recording myself and putting it out there for the world to see. Like that was hard. And I got a lot of great response, and I was like, oh, people actually think I'm good.

SPEAKER_01 8:36

Well, and were these cover songs or were your your originals? Both. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 8:40

Yeah, both. Yeah, a lot of cover songs and a lot of uh some original songs that I wrote that are out there that are really old.

SPEAKER_03 8:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 8:45

But and probably not my greatest work, but I mean, just you know, I was like, whatever, you know, just gonna put it out there. It was a lot of fun. I got invited to play um at the radio station at Bogger Mayorfield before I left Afghanistan. I went I went on AFN radio. Uh that's where Middle Easternville like made its debut. But then uh I came back and I was in the restaurant constantly. I'd pick the guitar up every now and again. In 2015, is that after I started at USC, I started playing drums for a guy named Jesse Moore who played country music all over all over South Carolina, mostly in the Columbia area. Whenever he took a break, I'd get out from behind the drum set and I'd pick up his guitar and I'd play a couple songs just during his break.

SPEAKER_05 9:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:22

And then those venues were like, Well, you're pretty good. Why don't we book you?

SPEAKER_03 9:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 9:25

And I'm like, hell yeah, you know, I'm gonna make the big money and I can be the guy in the front. Yeah. Yeah. And then they're like, Cool, we want you to play for three hours. I'm like, oh crap, I only know three songs. So I got a 10-minute set. Yeah, no, I I had to, but I had that's when I was like, okay, all right, let's do this. So I started like printing out, you know, all the the lyrics and everything, and started playing and stumbling my way through. And uh then Jesse decided to retire from music, and he told all those venues that he played for, he's like, Give all my gigs to Brooks.

SPEAKER_03 9:52

Oh awesome.

SPEAKER_06 9:53

And so I started playing more and more, and it was still kind of a background thing. I was in school.

SPEAKER_03 9:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 9:57

My mission was to be a physical therapist. This music thing was kind of a background thing, it was a hobby, it was fun. Yeah, got a little extra money, mostly to pay my bar tabs.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

But um You're going to Belmont, right?

SPEAKER_06 10:07

No, I this was at South Carolina.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

Oh, this was in South Carolina.

SPEAKER_06 10:10

This was in South Carolina, yeah. And it was it was it was the summer between my first undergrad and grad school. This was summer of 2018. I graduated in May with my bachelor's. I didn't start the DPT program until August.

SPEAKER_05 10:20

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 10:20

Instead of spending a month looking for a job that I was gonna quit a month later, I just decided to start playing music as much as I could. And by the end of the summer, I was playing six, seven shows a week and making great money, like better than any physical therapist I knew. And I was like, that's when it was like, bing, yeah, I can do this.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:37

I can do this as a job. Like, I still wasn't even thinking about being a songwriter, recording artist, anything like that. I was just thinking about I can play gigs and play cover songs that I like. I'm basically up here just having fun, doing what I've been doing as a hobby for a decade. Yeah. And getting paid for it.

SPEAKER_00 10:51

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 10:51

Yeah, cool. Let's do this.

SPEAKER_00 10:53

What were some of your favorite songs to cover?

SPEAKER_06 10:56

Oh man, uh, so Hooting the Blowfish, always been a favorite of mine. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 10:59

I never would have thought.

SPEAKER_06 11:00

Oh, I used I used to go, I used to go uh and have coffee with with Sonny, um, with Jim Sunnafield. Uh back in in Columbia on campus, we'd go get coffee and we talk about stuff. And his brother Mike is the chief in uh the Hermo Fire Department right over where I used to live. And so I got a you know connection to them, and and I've always just loved Darius's voice and just love their music. And I mean that's um so I always I always love covering hootie. Um Garth Brooks was my first favorite country artist. Yeah. Um Toby Keith is my favorite of all time. So those those covers always I love covering rock music. I love doing like acoustic covers of Breaking Benjamin, stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 11:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 11:36

Definitely Three Doors Down. God rest in peace, Brad. Three Doors Down was uh a huge, huge band for me, you know, growing up and just anything. I'm Elvis. I love doing Elvis covers. Okay. I'm all over the place. I I I grew up listening to a lot of really old music. My parents had a vinyl collection, part of which is now mine. I listened to records like that's how I start my day. Yeah, put a different record on and just you know, let it spin, you know. Original records from like the 50s, 60s, 70s. But we listened to Sunny 106.5 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Oldies, 50s, 60s, 70s. That's what I grew up on. I had a deck of cassette tapes, Elvis Presley cassette tapes, that I would murder people to find. I don't know what happened to them, but I had an obsession with Elvis from a young age.

SPEAKER_00 12:15

And um my Elvis Presley shirt on today.

SPEAKER_06 12:19

Thank you very much. Thank you. Hey, Twin Liddy, Elvis. I love Elvis.

SPEAKER_00 12:24

That's so cool you're talking about.

SPEAKER_06 12:25

That's definitely go to.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

When did the songwriting come into play?

SPEAKER_06 12:29

So the songwriting was was always there. I mean, I that's something I did as a therapy. That was self-therapy, but it wasn't anything that I didn't expect any of the songs that I wrote to go anywhere. They're just you know things that I did, and then I stuffed them in a folder, and half of them I wrote and never sang again. Like I wouldn't even know how to go. But um, I continued on in PT school because even though I was playing gigs now and it was cool, like the mission was still PT. So I thought my purpose was PT. So I was in PT school. I I heard about this this program called Creative Ets.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06 12:58

And I was like, man, that sounds pretty cool. And like a trip to Nashville. I've never been to Nashville, and I was doing music now, and I was like, man, I would love to go to Nashville. I've never been to Nashville. I actually got picked up by the Creative Ets program to come to Nashville, and it just happened perfectly to line up with my spring break in 2020. So March of 2020, mind you, this is literally the week before the world ended.

SPEAKER_05 13:16

Right, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 13:17

But so everything's still going. You know, March of 2020, in my spring break, I got to come to Nashville for the very first time. And I went through through the Creative Ets program. And I mean, from day one, it was writers' rounds, recording sessions, backstage at the Grand Old Opry. I met Trace Atkins, I met um Dirk Sventley. Well, I met I met the Hot Country Knights. It wasn't Dirk Sventley. You know, if you know, you know. I went from knowing nothing about the music industry. I was a musician, I was a hobbyist. I knew nothing about the music industry. Nobody in my family was ever in the music industry. I went from knowing absolutely nothing to just having my head just dunked in it for an entire week. It changed my life. Yeah. It changed the way that I looked at my life, it it changed the direction of my life. That's when I knew this is where I belong.

SPEAKER_05 14:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:04

This is you can be a songwriter as a profession.

SPEAKER_05 14:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 14:08

What? And selfishly, I looked at it as okay, this needs to be my mission because this is what I like to do, and this can bring fame and notoriety, and it's fun, and all these different things. I was like, this is this is where I need to be. I feel like God knew that I would do that. I like He can't he kind of like used my own desires to get me to go down that path. And that's when I knew this is where I needed to be. And so I continued on in PT school. I wasn't gonna, I don't quit anything, sometimes to a fault.

SPEAKER_03 14:36

Yes.

SPEAKER_06 14:36

But I while I was in PT school, I created my website, created social media, just started laying the foundation for a career in music, started recording, started writing more, started talking with different studios in the South Carolina area. And by the time I graduated from PT school in December of 21, I had laid that foundation. And I in January of 22 I announced I was like, hey, I'm going full-time as a musician.

SPEAKER_01 14:58

Nice.

SPEAKER_06 14:58

And everybody outside of my immediate circle was like, What? What?

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Never saw that coming.

SPEAKER_06 15:05

You got a doctorate for what? But yes, I did practice as a physical therapist. So like starting to do that. That's what I was wondering.

SPEAKER_01 15:12

Did you actually practice?

SPEAKER_06 15:13

I did, and I I love it. I was practicing, I would be in the clinic Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and then I would be playing shows Wednesday through Sunday, and then in the clinic Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I was seven days a week between the two jobs, the two lives. I flipped a switch when I went into the clinic and I was one person.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 15:27

When I flipped the switch, and when I went on the stage and I was a different person. Same person, but just different, you know, like different altered egos. It's hard to be a rock star in the clinic, you know. All right, yeah, we're gonna work on your total knee replacement today. I want you to do that.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

So you charge extra for that.

SPEAKER_06 15:45

But it was it was it was also like a you know, it's a small town. Yeah, it was a small, it's South Carolina. I would have patients, you know, come in and be like, weren't you the singer at my dinner last night? I think yes, yes, ma'am, I was. Yes, ma'am.

SPEAKER_05 15:57

And you didn't tip.

SPEAKER_06 16:00

So now I'm really gonna wrench on your lung. No, it was it was it was great. But I like um PT was um it was a paycheck. And I mean it was it was something that I was that I do love. And I think this all ends ends up tying in together. I love helping people heal, like being a part of the healing process physically as a physical therapist for people and like seeing them progress and seeing them heal and get back to running, walking, whatever it is that they want to do, like that was just so fulfilling. Yeah, it was so amazing. Working at Walter Reed, I was at the Matsy, I was at the Military Advanced Training Center, working with other veterans, returning from combat with severe injuries and just watching their perseverance and just watching the resilience and and just the progress is just incredible. Yeah, it's just incredible, and it's something that I loved doing. But by the uh by the middle of of 2022, I I knew that I had I'd hit the ceiling in the the South Carolina music market. Like I was like, I gotta do something. Like I want to move to Nashville. I want to I want to do the creative edts thing, I want to make that move. It was it was the summer of 2022. I got a phone call from the VA and the guy was like, hey, I just wanted to check in and see how uh PT was going. I was like, I am practicing, I'm using the degree, you know. I love I love doing it. I was like, but my heart is with music and I am pursuing a career in music. And he didn't skip a beat. He was like, Well, you still got 36 months of chapter 33 eligibility if you want to go back to school for music. And I was like, What? I just went to school for seven straight years. There's no way. He was like, and so like the wheels just started turning. And I'm like, uh immediately the first thing I did was was look at South Carolina. It's my alma mater. They have a music industry studies program. I was just looking, and you know, I had roots in that community, and I was just gonna try and stay there. And God spoke to me and just was like, do your due diligence, look around. Now I know you're comfortable here, but let's let's let's get uncomfortable. There's more to this world than South Carolina.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:42

I started Googling music business programs. There's stuff all over the country, but consistently at the top of the list was Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_05 17:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:51

I went on the website and I applied for chapter 33 benefits, and I got the letter in the mail, 100%, 36 months.

SPEAKER_04 17:57

Holy cow.

SPEAKER_06 17:58

So I got a hold of him. I was like, Can I go to Belmont? He's like, You've been through this, you know the deal. You can go wherever you want, just get accepted. You know, and I I so I applied to Belmont and I got accepted. And so I moved here in in January of 2023 and started classes at Belmont. I started as a music business major. I didn't know about the songwriting program.

SPEAKER_03 18:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 18:16

And after I was at Belmont for about a month, I found out there was a songwriting program and I applied. And uh you have to submit like a video and play some original songs and introduce yourself and why you'd be a good fit and everything. And I was so nervous. They're they're gonna make decisions at the end of February, and February 28th came around, and I hadn't heard anything. And then I got an email that night. I was like, Y'all really wanted to come down the bar. Testing testing my patience. But yeah, February 28th, they were they were like, You've been accepted. So spring break, I changed my major, and uh, so I was in the songwriting program at Belmont. So I was I was yeah, all these things kind of culminated into I moved here and I was able to study music and music business and songwriting while I was already here in Nashville and already pursuing shows downtown and writers rounds and like performing and everything else. Started working with Creative Vets as a as a mentor and a songwriter and just getting more involved in everything that they had. Just felt like home so quickly.

SPEAKER_05 19:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:10

It really did. People ask me what it's like being a musician in Nashville, and I tell them it's like being a gambler in Vegas.

SPEAKER_04 19:16

Yeah. Honestly.

SPEAKER_06 19:18

You are surrounded by what it is that you love and you want to do. There are endless opportunities to make money, and there are endless opportunities to lose money. It's all on how you play your cards. So I just had all this opportunity just laid out in front of me. Yeah. Just the VA is paying me to go to school, and I'm going to school for music while playing music, and just getting connected with all these producers and everything else. And it was great. But I fell into that first summer, I fell into the downtown Nashville trap. Oh, yeah. I was getting drunk at every show. It's so easy. It's so easy. People just come up and they're like, take a shot with us. You're like, hey, free booze.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

Free booze, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 19:55

So this is specific to me, but I would get hammered playing the show or whatever. I wouldn't I wouldn't get like sloppy, you know, most of the time. But I would get drunk on stage and then I would just continue, just like go out the rest of the day. I'd be on Broadway or whatever, and spend whatever I'd made, and I was just going downhill again. It wasn't the same kind of downhill. It was it wasn't like I've lost my purpose. It's like I found my purpose and I'm just living it up.

SPEAKER_00 20:16

Yeah. Yeah. It's easy to do here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:19

Of August of 2023, you know, I had another little meeting with God. I had a little another little Jesus. Yeah, a little voice come down and say, Did you did you come here for this? Is this what I brought you here for?

SPEAKER_05 20:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 20:30

Did you come here to party or did you come here because you want to be an artist and you wanna and you want to make something of this? And so I I started. I wouldn't drink it all during the semester. So starting in August of 23, I didn't drink it all the entire semester, and then I'd let loose, you know, during the breaks, and God, I would get crazy like during the breaks from school. And in Christmas of 2024, I got hammered drunk. We were sitting around a table, and one of the guys at a t at the table was he was a cop. He had a freshly calibrated breathalyzer. So I mean, what does one do when you have a freshly calibrated breathalyzer? Try and see who can get the high score, you know? I got the high score, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 21:06

You didn't want to play with the taser?

SPEAKER_06 21:09

No, we didn't. That comes next. That probably came up in conversation. I don't remember, but I I remember like I I had like a god, I had like a three or four-day hangover. Oh. And I just remember thinking to myself, who does that?

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:21

On Christmas.

SPEAKER_01 21:22

Yeah. What am I doing?

SPEAKER_06 21:24

Literally, like the celebration of Christ. And I got so drunk I don't remember anything.

SPEAKER_05 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:30

I knew that I could go months at a time. I I've been doing it, you know, like I've been doing it for a couple years now. And it's like, I just don't want to do this anymore. I don't want to be that person. I want to be a better person. I want to be a better version of myself. I want to be a better songwriter. I want to be a better father. I want to be a better performer. I want to be a better athlete. I want to be, I just want to be better.

SPEAKER_05 21:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 21:49

And I'd just quit. Cold turkey. Just cold cold turkey. I just quit. That was just it. When I would set myself a goal, I would be like, okay, I'm not going to drink during the spring semesters. You set that goal and you know at the end of that goal. At the end of that time, we're gonna go back to it. We're gonna we're gonna party it up. We're gonna celebrate our achievement or whatever. And that's the mindset. When I decided to just stop, I don't want this in my life anymore. And I made it past like I think it was about six months. I don't eat I didn't even look at it the same anymore. It wasn't like a oh, I'm missing out. Oh, I wish I could have a drink with you. It was like, why are you putting that crap in your body? Why did I ever put that in my body? Like, would you like some cyanide? No? Yeah. Same thing. Pretty much it's a small dose.

SPEAKER_05 22:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 22:29

My mindset completely changed about it. And I think one of the one of the biggest things is since I quit, I've had this just clarity. This ability to look back on my life and and look at my life in the present and look at what I want to be my future. And I've been able to repair a lot of relationships that that I ruined because of alcohol. Starting with my relationship with God. You know, I finally was able to put it all together and I I had to I had to end some relationships. But it's just it's been it's been the best year that I've had. Not just in music, not just in music, but in my life.

SPEAKER_05 23:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:04

It's been the best year that I've had. I'm over 15 months now. I'm you know, working at working on 16, and it just I've made it to my son's football games and you know and baseball games and school functions and dinners and been able to be there for people.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

The actual difference.

SPEAKER_06 23:24

And another thing, ooh, I'll tell you what, man, when I quit drinking, I realized I make pretty good money. I didn't know that before.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

Well, you weren't spending it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 23:33

Well, I mean, yeah, y'all know, y'all know drinks on Broadway are expensive. There was a time there when I when I lived, you know, closer to to West Nashville. I was going to Carbon, the gym. Yeah. It's the Taj Mahal of Fitness. Shout out Carbon. I love y'all. Still love y'all.

SPEAKER_01 23:46

Sponsor Brooks.

SPEAKER_06 23:47

I had to cancel my membership because now I live over on like Southeast Nashville, and like it's like a 45-minute drive one way to go there. People would be like, you ask me, like, where you work out? I'm like, I'll work out at Carbon. Like, how much is that? I pay $200 a month. That's for like the 24-hour access. I got the elite side and everything else. And they'd be like, $200 a month.

SPEAKER_03 24:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:04

And I'd be like, well, it's all on how you look at it.

SPEAKER_05 24:07

Yeah. Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 24:07

That would be one night of drinking for me by myself.

SPEAKER_05 24:10

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:11

$200. One night. And now I spend that in a month and invest it in my body.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

That's actually your investment. Yeah. I used to sell gym memberships. So that's exactly how I would pitch it. Yeah. This is an investment.

SPEAKER_06 24:23

I mean, this the memberships I was selling were like $30.

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Yeah, but yeah, think about what you're spending on booze and fast food, booze. Or going out to eat. Like just take one of those away and invest.

SPEAKER_06 24:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

In yourself. In your health. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 24:38

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 24:39

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SPEAKER_00 24:48

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SPEAKER_06 25:33

But yeah, this this this past year, just like it seems like so many more things have um, like I said, God's been nudging me in the right in the right direction, and I finally like took full hold of it and said, you know what? I'm gonna do this. I'm not gonna do this for me. I'm not gonna do this for fame. I'm not gonna do I'm gonna do this because I want to share the healing power of music, and that comes from the Almighty Father, and I'm gonna do that in his name. And I think just getting there, that's when he just opened up the gates and he was like, Yep, okay, here we go. Now we're ready to put the pedal down.

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Yeah. You know, now that you are ready.

SPEAKER_06 26:04

It's just been uh it's been an awesome ride.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_06 26:08

Ain't nowhere near going to the body.

SPEAKER_01 26:10

Yeah, yeah, awesome.

SPEAKER_06 26:10

Now we just gotta hope something pops off before I turn 50.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

Okay, so you and I have been working together for a couple years now. And it's been so fun. Like we've shot music videos together, creating together, and it's I haven't even looked lately.

SPEAKER_06 26:26

I think I had a fix of broken heart last time I looked, had like 130,000 views.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

Oh, the music video did? Yeah, yeah. I'll have to look.

SPEAKER_06 26:32

So it's gotta be, and that was that was a while back. So I mean it's it's gotta be, I'm sure it's it's way higher than that. Because we're over a million across all platforms. So like YouTube and Spotify, Apple Music, yeah, we're over a million on that one. So and i stand, everybody loves that one.

SPEAKER_02 26:43

I still love ice stand, it pumps me up. Yeah, like every time you and Caitlin Zing, I'm just like, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:47

One of my favorite pictures is all of us on the tank. The tank. Oh that's our we were using that on our our marketing poster for uh the show in Hop Springs uh at Murphy's Boro. Murphy's borough, if you're watching. We got a show at Hop Springs on May 14th, and that's that's the promo poster is us on the tank.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Oh, I'm so glad you're using that. It's so good. What I want to know is I've heard a lot of your songs and your writing process and everything. Is there one that hits you deep? Like, is there a song that you're particularly proud of?

SPEAKER_06 27:12

I'm proud of the way How to Fix a Broken Heart is performed. My very first song, the first song that I released, February of 2022. Any new artist wants to come out with something that's gonna be fun and fast and hits the radio and gets people going and creates a lot of, you know, whatever. I didn't do that. My first release was a song that I wrote in Afghanistan, and it was a song that I wrote out of guilt and shame and depression. I didn't write it to record it, I didn't write it to release it, I didn't write it to play it for anybody. I just wrote it because I needed to get it out of me. And I had pen and paper and guitar, and that's how I that's how I knew that's all the only healing I knew. And so I wrote it down, and that was the first song that I released. It's called Why Me? And the question of the song, why am I here?

SPEAKER_05 27:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 27:55

Anthony Chad Owens, Joseph David Alamar, so many others that have died, and it's like, why them? Like, why are they gone? And and I get to stay here. Like, why am I deserving? Who am I? Like, and the crazy thing is that I was compelled to put that into a song. The answer to that question was music. Why me? Music. Music is my why. I do what I do for Anthony Chadowans and for Joseph David Alamar and for their families and for all of my veteran families and and and gold star families and just anyone who is sacrificed not just for for our country, but for their families, for their faith. That song still it's still hard for me to to play. Yeah. It's hard for me to make it all the way through that song. Like sometimes when I play that song, I probably look very disconnected, and that's on purpose. Because if I actually like think about the lyrics as I'm singing them, then I I usually break down. But um, that's where it all started. You know, and I I started with honoring those who have who have sacrificed so that we can continue to do this.

SPEAKER_01 28:51

And so that's uh is Winy released and streaming?

SPEAKER_06 28:56

Oh, yeah. That was my first release. That one came out in February of 2022, and that's that's that's been out for for a hot minute.

SPEAKER_01 29:03

So, how do you handle seasons of where creativity feels blocked or inconsistent? Like, how do you deal with that and push through? I don't have those.

SPEAKER_02 29:12

Nice. I love that.

SPEAKER_06 29:14

I don't have those. I I mean, and I and I don't I don't say that to to be like cocky. I just I've intentionally put myself in so many different um like scenarios. Well, yeah, because I I don't, you know, I don't just do this one thing. Like I recently recorded a 30-second commercial for Liberty Mutual.

SPEAKER_04 29:30

Oh, that's right, you do.

SPEAKER_06 29:31

Yeah, it's a radio commercial for Liberty. Like my son, I've got a video of him. Like they were they were sitting, uh my son, his mom, and and Paige were sitting in in a car or in an Uber coming downtown, and the the radio commercial came on and Paige caught it on on video. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

And Colton's just like I know that guy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 29:49

You know, I I do I'm doing radio commercials. Um, I'm doing a lot of a lot of work in the sync world. So, you know, music and uh music for for TV, movies, video games, uh working with Artless, Atrium, Sony Extreme, doing a lot of work with Jay at Enduro Studios and with Jonathan Clark. Those are different realms. I'm also like writing and recording my own music. I'm also writing trying to write music for other artists. I've started doing production at my house. So I mean, like I'm set up a studio in the house, you've seen the studio, and like I'm trying to.

SPEAKER_01 30:19

It's amazing.

SPEAKER_06 30:20

So there's not really a lull. Like if you know, if I'm not, I can't even say if I'm not inspired to write because I write every single day. I've got like a thousand notes in my phone of just like little snippets, little titles, hooks, verses, whatever, just like you know, ready to be added on to. Like, there's never a day when I don't feel like writing. If all I've got is a verse in me today and that's all that's happening, okay, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna work on a track. I'm gonna work on something that I'm producing, I'm gonna work on playing guitar for something that I want to work on in the studio. Or, I mean, there's there's always, you know, seven or eight projects that are in the queue. Like somebody's like, hey, I need vocals for this, you know, like for that that Liberty commercial, uh, Liberty Mutual commercial, Liberty Bibbity.

SPEAKER_00 30:58

Liberity Bibity. That's what they should call it now. I got that. Liberty Bibity.

SPEAKER_06 31:03

We we did we had to have done like 70 revisions for that song. Yeah, I was using a USB microphone to do revisions um up in Wisconsin. I was using my studio here in Nashville to do revisions, and then I went on a cruise and they were like, hey, we need revisions. Uh I'm on a I'm on a cruise ship. So I paid for the internet package, used my USB microphone, made revisions from a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean, sent back. Then we were in LA for a show, and they were like, We need revisions. So like I'm in LA, I didn't bring a microphone or anything. They're like, that's fine, we'll have somebody pick you up and take you to a studio in LA.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

Oh my gosh, jeez.

SPEAKER_06 31:36

And they did tons of revisions and everything. So um, there's always a project that's like, you know, somebody's needing something for something. And I've really started hunkering down on charting out my songs and putting like lyric sheets and stuff like that to where I can easily access them. Cause you know, when you when you've got 36 released and I'm working on a 12-song album right now, like people request things that they've heard on TikTok or whatever else. It's like, let me see if I can remember how that one goes. You know, I've written thousands of songs, like it's hard to remember them all. So but I've been you know working on getting all that done, and and there's just so much work that goes into this that that I didn't understand before before going into it. I don't I don't think most people do understand. Like, there's there's so much work that goes into it. I run a business, I don't, I don't take you know the cash that I make downtown and stuff it in my pocket and pay my bills with that. I deposit every single dime, I pay taxes on what I make. Pure Music LLC is who you're paying. It's not Brooks Herring. I get a paycheck every week from my company, and that's what I have to live on. So there's the business side of everything that has to be run. You know, I have to have W9s for everybody. You know that they have the W9s for everybody and send out 1099s. Gotta make sure the taxes are all right and you know, travel and all that. There's because I'm I'm playing shows in uh Idaho, I'm playing shows in Florida, I'm playing shows in South Carolina, I'm playing shows in uh Alabama. So even when I'm not having a creative moment, there is always something to do. Always something to do.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

I have to say, you're one of the hardest working Nashville artists I have met out there. It's almost impossible for you not to succeed at how hard you work. I mean, the fact that you're but the fact that you're running it like a business, I think that's where a lot of people fail. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:16

What I've what I've said in the past, and I I can I stand by this today, is I don't have the best voice in Nashville. I've heard better voices than mine.

SPEAKER_01 33:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 33:25

Like, I'll tell you right now, Shelby Ray.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Uh oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_06 33:29

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

She's so good.

SPEAKER_06 33:30

Best voice in country music, hands down. You heard it here first.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

Yeah, she's insane.

SPEAKER_06 33:34

Justin Andrews, his voice is like butter. Yeah. Like, like I've heard some amazing voices in Nashville. I can't control who is just naturally more talented than me. I don't control like who's a better guitar than I mean I can I'm practicing on guitar, I'm trying to get better, but like there are players that are half my age that are five times as good as me. Like, you can't control every day who's gonna be better than you. You can control who outworks you.

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_06 34:02

And that will be no one. Yeah, you know, I I will not be outworked.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

I am witness to that.

SPEAKER_06 34:07

Yeah, I just I just wake up every day, just like, okay, how can I make the most out of this day? Every single day, how can I make the most out of this day? Because you don't know how many you got. Yeah. You don't know how many you got. And so, like, you know, I want to be remembered for music and for for sharing the healing power of music. I want to leave a legacy of service, and you know, one of the things that I want to be remembered for is just being a hard worker. Yeah. And so you just gotta wake up every day with that mentality.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 34:30

Even when your back hurts.

SPEAKER_00 34:33

Okay. I want to go back to your songwriting process because you have so many things going on. You're such a hard worker. Do you structure your rights? Like, do you ever set time aside and say, I'm gonna sit down and write a song, or do you schedule co-writes, or do you just simply draw from inspiration? And how does that yeah?

SPEAKER_06 34:52

Both and all of the above.

SPEAKER_03 34:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 34:53

Um, so like I have a co-write today with with two other writers, and yeah, I do schedule co-writes with people that uh that I know I love writing with, people that I want to write with, and I love writing with with so many different people, as many different people as I can, because because I don't sit down and do it the same way every time. I want to see how you do it. I want to see how you do it, I want to see how you do it. I want to see everybody's process. And part of that is I've seen the world in in a lot of different ways in my own life, but a lot of the things that I've been through and done and seen in my life, they affect the way that I see the world.

SPEAKER_03 35:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 35:25

I want to see the world through your eyes and through your eyes. So in having rights with people and just kind of like letting them lead the process, or maybe I'll start the process and like we'll see where they want to go from there, or maybe I'll change the process based on something I just read and see how it works with this one person because I want to see the world through their eyes. So I do schedule co-writes and I also like I'll wake up at two o'clock in the morning sometimes and have a melody in my head, and I'll just pull up my phone and I'll raspy 2 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

voice, you know, try and like I do that all the time, not for songs, but just I just life notes.

SPEAKER_06 35:59

Sometimes it's like that, and sometimes I'll I mean I've been on stage and just like I'm like playing something on the guitar, and I'm like, that's a pretty cool little thing. I'll hand my my phone to one of the band members, like, record this real quick, record me playing this real quick. And so I'm like just had a musical idea, and you know, other times it'll be in the middle of the day and I'll be at home and I'll be like, you know what? I need a break. I'm gonna go up to the studio, I'm sit down, I'll write a little bit. I mean, it's it's it's never it's never the same. Yeah, it's never the same. I mean, like, I like to let it occur naturally. Yeah, yeah. I don't want to force it. I would love a pub deal. Don't let don't, you know, don't get me wrong. Um, I would love to write for other artists, but I just I can't, I don't think I would enjoy going to work every day to write music.

SPEAKER_03 36:36

Right.

SPEAKER_06 36:36

Because then it feels like a job. It feels like you know, okay, I have to do this before this date, and I have to have this many songs before the kind of boxes you in.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 36:44

Yeah, I just like when it like you gotta leave some little room. Yeah, I feel it, and I I feel it a lot. You're saying that I don't really have creative lulls. I feel it every single day, but it's not always the same.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

Yeah. Well, and you're doing this full time, so I mean you can just jump to another project. Yeah, that's true. So you've told us about the seasons in your life where God has changed you. What and He doesn't stop. I mean, just because you've accomplished certain things doesn't mean he stops inspiring you. So what do you think he's trying to teach you in this season of life?

SPEAKER_06 37:10

I think resilience has been a continuing theme in my life. Um, something that that I've had to learn and relearn and employ over and over again. And uh, you know, it's it's the failure syndrome is like I I keep failing, keep failing, keep failing. And now I look at it as he keeps redirecting and redirecting and redirecting. And now, in this, in this season of my life, I don't feel so much like it's the resilience, it's not so much the redirection. It's not like I've I'm falling and I have to get up. It's I fell for the last time, I got back up, I'm on the right path. He's got my back, I know why I'm doing it. And now in this season, it's just perseverance. Stay the course, walk the path.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Because you're on the right one.

SPEAKER_06 37:54

Yeah, yeah. This is this is your this is your road to travel. So travel it and and stay true to it and don't give up on it and just continue to build and and be better and and not be silent about it, not just walk the road in silent, not just walk the road and be like, all right, I found my path, I'm just gonna walk it. But to tell people like, hey, this is this is what I went through, this is what I experienced, and this is why. And this is what God has done in my life.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Because in sharing your story, you're changing lives. I mean, you're inspiring people, and that's part of the fun of this podcast, is just you know, people get to hear it, and you never know who it's gonna touch and who it's gonna inspire just by your story.

SPEAKER_06 38:32

That's that's all I can do is offer, yeah, offer the life I've lived. Experience. Yeah. It was uh uh wisdom comes from experience or good decisions come from wisdom, wisdom comes from experience, experience comes from bad decisions.

SPEAKER_01 38:44

Yeah, that's a pillow. So you've got new music coming out and other projects coming out. So what can people expect and look out for?

SPEAKER_06 38:53

So I I just released a song called Leave a Mark. Leave a Mark is a very special song to me. It's one that um that's been called for by a lot of people. I went on a retreat to Park City, Utah in 2024 with Creative Ets. We had an awesome group of veterans out there. You know, everybody was just hanging out and bought. We went through the challenge course where you're like up on the ropes and everything, 40 feet in the air, whatever it was really cool. And just had a great time out there. But we uh on the second day that we were there, we split into some smaller groups to start writing and like teaching everybody how to write. And so each group had like, you know, like three songwriters, three mentors, three veterans. And so my group was uh we were downstairs in the cafeteria to start it off. I was like, let's just write down the first few things that pop in your head when you think about your time in the military. Just good, bad, indifferent, doesn't matter. Just write down the first few things that pop out. And then we went around the table and we shared. And one thing that we all had in common is we all went overseas, we all fought, we all bled, but we all came back with all ten fingers and toes.

SPEAKER_05 39:48

Yep.

SPEAKER_06 39:49

And we all feel guilty about that because we had friends that came back missing pieces of their bodies, we had friends that came back missing pieces of their minds, we had friends that didn't make it home at all. We had friends that came home and could not defeat the demons of war and and took their own lives. We just you know um that that'll set you up for a really depressing song.

SPEAKER_03 40:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:10

And and you know, one that I've written. But um we decided we wanted to shed a more positive light on that, and we believe we're all left here for a reason. And we're all here to leave a positive mark on this world so that their sacrifice would never be in vain.

SPEAKER_05 40:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 40:25

And so we wrote that into a song, and it's called Leave a Mark. I performed it that that week, you know, at the end of the week for for the donors that came to the program and everything, and I just fell in love with it. And I started playing it at every show, and and every time I played it, a veteran or a family member of a veteran would come up to me and say, Where can I find that? Like, I need that. I haven't recorded it, you know. It's just we did it at this camp. And I finally did record it. And it's just one of those things. Like, I I was working on producing it. You know, I had my band members play on it. Sierra Hager was on violin, uh, on fiddle, if you will. You know, the different difference. I don't know what the difference is. So the difference between a fiddle and a violin, yeah. You can spill a beer on a fiddle. That's about it. But Nick Shear is my lead guitarist, and he's uh also a Marine. And he was on there, Logan Hatcher on bass, also a marine, Keith McGonigal on drums. I played the acoustic guitar and did the vocals. Um, Dale Shaq helped us record it uh down at Joe West studio, and then Jay Denton helped uh helped me produce it because I was like, I was trying to produce it on my own. It was one of those things, it's like it's such a special song, like I couldn't stop. I couldn't like I was never satisfied with anything. Yeah, and so I like you know, and Jay just really just made it incredible, just as he always does with everything. But Jay like put the finishing touches on it. So I'm really excited that that one's out. And that story is just one that um it's like the other side of why me. Yeah, it's like why me.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

And then it's like you have a purpose and a mission.

SPEAKER_06 41:45

So that one that one's fresh out. I'm currently working on a project, it's gonna be two six-song EPs for a 12-song album. Uh, we're gonna release it in two parts with label 22. I'm really excited for this one. It's Mike Hamilton's working on it, and Chet, the lead guitarist from Three Doors Down, oh no. He's producing it, yeah. Yeah, so like one of my like favorite bands growing up. Like, and he's gonna play guitars on it too. So uh we're working on that, and so we're gonna release that in two parts this year. Um, so be on the lookout for that. So lots of lots of new music coming this year, and I've got several, um, several other songs with different projects, you know, between like Memories of Honor, the work that I do with with Jay Denton. Like, we've got a couple songs that are gonna be come out this year. I mean, I'll probably end up releasing like another 20 songs this year, if I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_01 42:29

That's amazing. Yeah, I'm just gonna when does your movie come out?

SPEAKER_06 42:33

Yeah, so we had the the the world premiere. Yeah, I didn't we didn't even cover that, did we? I started acting. So Bob came up to me, he was like, he was like, Hey, would you um would you want to be in a movie?

SPEAKER_01 42:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 42:43

I was like, yeah. Who says no to that question?

SPEAKER_01 42:46

Have you done acting before?

SPEAKER_06 42:48

No.

SPEAKER_01 42:48

Okay. This is your first time.

SPEAKER_06 42:50

Yeah, this first time, and they flew me down to Austin to film for the movie, and I was supposed to be like uh this guy's got like a gambling problem, and I was like one of the guys that's like collecting money, and I was just supposed to be like scary and in the background and whatever else. And I got there and like just talking with everybody, and they're like, hey, uh, we need to make a change. Can you be uh an angry tennis player? You're gonna be like fighting with them or whatever else. I'm like, yeah. So I put on like this all white tennis outfit and had this headband on and everything.

SPEAKER_01 43:12

Did you wear short shorts?

SPEAKER_06 43:13

I did.

SPEAKER_00 43:15

As I do visual because you're such a big guy about like you playing tennis or pickleball. It's just a funny bit. You're a teddy bear. People don't know that.

SPEAKER_06 43:25

Show my secrets. Sorry. It was fun though. We ended up doing like a 300 scene.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_06 43:32

It was yeah, it was like like we used 300 scene and short shorts. Yeah, instead of archery, though, we were launching tennis balls at them. It's it's uh you gotta I can't wait for everybody to see it.

SPEAKER_03 43:40

It's just that's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 43:41

But yeah, they were like ended up with speaking parts and ended up in several different scenes and yeah, like had a great time working with them from what they said. They had a great time working with me. And so it's like I I hope to do it again and we'll had a great time. So yeah, that was a lot of fun. That was my that was my little dabble into acting.

SPEAKER_05 43:55

And yeah.

SPEAKER_06 43:56

So the the the premiere was at the Austin Film Festival last year.

SPEAKER_05 44:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:00

Um, so that was October of last year, I think it was. Yeah, it was right before the cruise. So it was October of last year. It it came out so good. It's it's freaking hilarious.

SPEAKER_01 44:08

Have you seen it?

SPEAKER_06 44:08

Yeah. Okay. Yeah, no, I went to the city. Because you went to the premiere. It was so fun. It was, it was, it was awesome. Um Shelby's in that movie too.

SPEAKER_05 44:15

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_06 44:15

Yeah. And it was it was such a good time. And uh so that was the the film, they're they're putting it in a bunch of different film festivals. That was the premiere and pitching it hard to try and get it on like Netflix or you know, like some major streaming service. I don't I haven't received any word yet that it that it's on any major streaming, but okay.

SPEAKER_01 44:32

What's it called again?

SPEAKER_06 44:33

Yeah, pickleheads.

SPEAKER_01 44:34

Pickleheads.

SPEAKER_06 44:35

Pickleheads, it's about pickleball. I'm not a pickleball. I'm I was a I'm a I'm like the ringleader of the angry tennis players.

SPEAKER_01 44:41

Yeah, I love it. It's like dodgeball, but pickleball is all on the rage right now.

SPEAKER_06 44:45

It's very, very much like like the dodgeball movie. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 44:48

It's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 44:48

That's so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Send us the trailer again. I want to show Britney. Yeah, I want to see it.

SPEAKER_06 44:53

I'll do it.

SPEAKER_00 44:53

It's okay.

SPEAKER_06 44:54

I made the trailer.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

Yeah, I was awesome. Okay, where can people find you and your music?

SPEAKER_06 45:01

It's really hard. It's uh Brooksherringmusic.com.

SPEAKER_00 45:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 45:04

Brooks like Garth Brooks, Herring Like the Fish, music the same way it's always spelled. All right. Brooksherringmusic.com. Everything is there at Brooks Herring Music on everything. Okay. I made it super easy. At Brooks Herring Music, Brooksherring Music.com.

SPEAKER_00 45:16

And you're still on YouTube?

SPEAKER_06 45:17

I'm still on YouTube, yeah. There's uh, you know, like because YouTube is associated with your Google account. So like there's the videos from way back that are associated with like my old Gmail. They're still on there. You look up Brooks Herring on YouTube, they're still out there. I didn't take them down.

SPEAKER_05 45:29

Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_06 45:30

But like the newer stuff, like what we've done, is is under like my BrooksHarringmusic.com account on YouTube. And so it's you know a little bit different, but I mean you st you can still find it. I've I've never taken anything down off YouTube, so they're all on there.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

Yeah, we made music videos.

SPEAKER_06 45:46

We've got a couple of music videos out there. So fun. More coming, more to come.

SPEAKER_00 45:49

Okay, we're gonna end with some rapid fire questions.

SPEAKER_06 45:51

Oh boy, I'm nervous.

SPEAKER_00 45:52

All right. Ready? Your favorite movie quote.

SPEAKER_06 45:59

I believe that's when the shit turns purple and tastes like Rainbow Sherbert.

SPEAKER_04 46:05

Super trooper point. Super troopers.

SPEAKER_06 46:07

Super troopers. Oh, yeah. That's my favorite movie. I have nothing. My favorite movie right there.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

I totally forgot about that.

SPEAKER_06 46:12

Does it sound like that when I do it? You boys like Mexico!

unknown 46:18

Woo!

SPEAKER_06 46:19

I can I can literally quote that whole movie like from start to finish.

unknown 46:23

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

And you do it so well. Now I see why they gave you some lines in that movie. Right? Executed with perfection.

SPEAKER_06 46:31

All right. I love that movie.

SPEAKER_00 46:32

Song You Wish You Had Written.

SPEAKER_06 46:34

Oh man, Till You Can't.

SPEAKER_00 46:36

Oh, Cody Johnson. That was so good. I love that song so much.

SPEAKER_06 46:42

There's another one. I mean, God, any Tim Nichols song, but um, especially um Live Like You Were Dying.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_06 46:48

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

unknown 46:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:49

It's a great one.

SPEAKER_06 46:50

Or courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue.

SPEAKER_00 46:51

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 46:52

There's a long list of songs I wish I would have written. Like, I hear so many times that I hear songs and I'm just like, add that to the list. Yeah. Of songs I wish I had written.

SPEAKER_00 47:00

Personally offended.

SPEAKER_06 47:02

No kidding.

SPEAKER_00 47:03

Okay, dream duet partner, dead or alive.

SPEAKER_06 47:06

Toby.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

Toby Keith?

SPEAKER_06 47:08

Toby Keith. I feel like there's like part of that is as a duet. Like, I don't know. I don't know if our voices would complement each other because they're so similar.

SPEAKER_05 47:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 47:16

At the same time, maybe they would because they're so similar. I don't know, but he's just he's my favorite country artist of all time. So like I would love that.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:22

Um, Alive? Kojo. Yeah. I love his voice. Yeah, it's so good.

SPEAKER_00 47:27

Favorite guilty pleasure.

SPEAKER_06 47:29

We're talking about like diet.

SPEAKER_00 47:30

Are we no, it's guilty, so it can't be Diet Coke. I listed that as mine and I was like, that's not really guilty.

SPEAKER_06 47:35

No, no, Diet Coke's 99% water.

SPEAKER_00 47:37

Yeah, it is carbonated.

SPEAKER_06 47:39

Water and aspartame. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my favorite guilty pleasure. So this is like something that I do regularly. Matheson's on Second Avenue. You can get an espresso milkshake. No, not even the cookie, no, the milkshake. They'll take any flavor ice cream, put a shot of espresso in there, and blend it up like a milkshake. And I get cookie dough with espresso.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

My gosh, that sounds so good.

SPEAKER_06 48:01

And all that all their ice cream is homemade. That's all fresh made. So it's yeah, it's so good.

SPEAKER_01 48:06

Not even gonna ask how many calories that is.

SPEAKER_06 48:08

I don't even want to know.

SPEAKER_01 48:08

We don't want to know.

SPEAKER_06 48:09

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 48:10

It's guilty. We're not supposed to.

SPEAKER_06 48:11

Ignorance is bliss.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:14

That that is like a regular guilty pleasure. That's like easily accessible. I say like less accessible less often, but still a guilty pleasure. Mama's cheesecake.

SPEAKER_00 48:22

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:23

My mama makes a cheesecake. I can eat that whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 48:26

Did you have like a major sweet tooth when you quit drinking?

SPEAKER_06 48:30

No.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

No?

SPEAKER_06 48:30

No?

SPEAKER_00 48:31

I've never hear that so much. I've never really had a sweet tooth. I just want like ice cream.

SPEAKER_06 48:36

When I eat desserts, I go all out. But I mean, but I don't really have a sweet tooth. I have a grease tooth. Like I'd rather eat bacon any day, you know? Like this. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:42

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 48:44

I have a grease tooth.

SPEAKER_02 48:45

I haven't heard that, but I'm using that.

SPEAKER_06 48:47

Barbecued brisket, ribs, chicken, bacon, eggs, sausage. Like that's yep.

SPEAKER_01 48:52

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_06 48:53

That's my thing right there.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

Grease tooth.

SPEAKER_06 48:55

Grease tooth.

SPEAKER_01 48:56

It's a new hat.

SPEAKER_06 48:58

With like a pig hanging upside down on like a cooker or whatever. Like have the pig on there and grease tooth. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 49:04

Just have you laying underneath with your mouth open, catching the visual.

SPEAKER_00 49:12

Now I don't want the espresso ice cream to be pulled hot for me. Too far.

SPEAKER_02 49:18

Just say too far, Elisa. Too far.

SPEAKER_01 49:21

Oh my gosh. Okay, well, we've so enjoyed having you all.

SPEAKER_06 49:26

Oh, that was all the rapid fire?

SPEAKER_02 49:28

That was all the rapid. Did you want another one?

SPEAKER_06 49:30

No, I'm gonna. I always get nervous when somebody does rapid fire because some of the questions trip me up, and like sometimes I'll answer and then I'll think back and be like, why did I say that?

SPEAKER_01 49:37

Why did I say that? Why mean is that? That's what makes them fun. Why was that forefront of my mind? Okay, so we're gonna have you close us out because it's our favorite thing. And all you have to say, you have to look into the camera and you have to say, My shutter's full.

SPEAKER_06 49:53

That there is an RV, Clark.

SPEAKER_00 49:56

I'm trying not to snort.

SPEAKER_06 49:59

I'm Brooks Herring, my shutter's full.

SPEAKER_00 50:02

I love it. Thanks so much for coming on. You're awesome.

SPEAKER_06 50:06

Absolutely. Thank y'all for having me. I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 50:08

You're the best. Sure. Y'all make sure that you are like, subscribing, following at Shutter School Podcast. Hit all of our buttons. Thank you. Bye. See ya.