Ep 18 Eli Mosley, Singer Songwriter & Florida Rancher

In Episode 18 of Shutter's Full, hosts Brittany Allison and Alisa Thayne welcome singer-songwriter and Florida rancher Eli Mosley for a heartfelt conversation about resilience, purpose, family, and faith.

Eli shares the remarkable story of surviving a life-threatening brain tumor as a child. Doctors were uncertain whether he would survive surgery, much less go on to live a full and independent life. Yet today, Eli is thriving as a musician, husband, father, and rancher, proving that even the most difficult beginnings do not have to define the future.

Throughout the episode, Eli opens up about his passion for serving others, leading with kindness, and staying grounded in what truly matters. He discusses the realities of balancing a career in music with family life, including the emotional challenges of being a father on the road while working to provide for his wife and young daughter. Eli also speaks candidly about mental health, the importance of self-awareness, and the ongoing work of maintaining balance in a demanding industry.

With honesty, humility, and a heart for people, Eli offers an inspiring perspective on overcoming adversity, embracing life's challenges, and building a meaningful life rooted in love, service, and gratitude.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:10

Hey y'all, welcome to Shutterstool Podcast, where we talk with creators, dreamers, and doers who are chasing purpose and building something meaningful. It's not about what you do, it's why you do it. And today we have Eli Mosley.

SPEAKER_02 0:23

Hey, hey, hey. Hey. All right. Singer, songwriter, rancher.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

Rancher.

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Out of Central Florida.

SPEAKER_01 0:29

Yeah, yeah. Marine Corps veteran. All the good stuff. We hit all the good things. We hit all the things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:34

America.

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Merck. Need that American flag onesie that I wear for 4th of July.

SPEAKER_02 0:41

Oh my gosh. If you have that, you better post it.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

Last year we got in all sorts of trouble posting a video of that. Took off on a tractor. Cowboy hat, cowboy boots, and the little like what do you call that? Jumper or rumper or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 0:54

I don't know. Is it like a wrestling guitar guitar?

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Yeah, it's pretty much, yeah, that. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:58

Excellent.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

Put the bald eagle right here in the card. Okay, send that to me. I want to see that. See that. You need to see that. We will spread that. Roll up to the camera. America, baby. Buy all my songs. One of my finer moments as an artist.

SPEAKER_03 1:10

I love it. For those who don't know you and maybe hearing your story for the first time. No, you a lot of you. Tell us a little about yourself. A brief intro, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

All right. Yeah, brief intro. Here we go. Based out of Central Florida, born and bred. Whatever bread means. I don't know what it means either, human-wise. Born and raised in Central Florida. Yeah, there you go. Spent three Godforsaken years in Southern California when I was a kid. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:35

Grew up in Central Florida. My dad is a mining engineer. My mom is an artist. Um, like a like a like a painter. Like a painter. Like an artist. Like an actual artist.

SPEAKER_04 1:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:42

Not what I do, but an actual artist. Yeah. And she is um, she's incredible. She taught art at schools when I was growing up. She's just a great person, a phenomenal artist. I've got a bunch of her paintings just selected, and one day my goal is I'd love to have a room in my house that's just like an art gallery for her.

SPEAKER_02 1:58

Oh, that'd be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

All her stuff. But so when I was younger, my parents uh, well, let me when I was four years old, I had a brain tumor that we found. When I was eight years old, I had brain surgery to remove the tumor. I was having massive seizures growing up. Uh we'll we'll dive into that here in a minute. But after that, my parents, my dad got a job with Wycliffe, the Bible translation mission.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:24

And we wound up moving out to Southern California for three years to Orange County. And so I went from a small town called Bartow, Florida, which is at the time was probably less than 10,000 people, little small southern town, to Orange County, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Anaheim. Which is huge. Oh my gosh. Yeah. LA. And just culture shock, complete, complete and total culture shock. So spent some years there. Then we wound up moving back with Wycliffe to Orlando. Um, yeah, his first board meeting he gets there. He took the job as a vice president of construction projects for Wycliffe. So he's going all around the world doing mission work. And um, the first board meeting he goes to, they go, So we're gonna relocate to Orlando. And he was like, We just came there. Why are we going back? So, anyway, so wound up moving back to Florida um after high school, joined the Marines, and uh spent six years in the Marine Corps Reserves uh as a diesel mechanic, which is very handy, by the way, to have on the road when you have a Mercedes sprinter because they have like a 10% runtime. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Uh I feel like those are breaking down all the time.

SPEAKER_01 3:28

Yeah, yeah, they are. In fact, we're ordering a uh a Ford right now because our Mercedes van actually is on its way here and already having issues. Great, love it.

SPEAKER_02 3:37

Yeah, yeah. Buy Ford.

SPEAKER_01 3:39

Yeah. Something Mercedes by anything other than other than Mr. Other than a sprinter. If they gave me a new one, if they if Mercedes was like, hey, love what you're doing, here's a new van, I would literally take it to a four-dealer and be like, I need a transit.

SPEAKER_02 3:54

Like, If that ain't a testament, I don't know what I got.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

So, so done with them. Anyway, so where were we? Let's see. Marine Corps, oh yeah, yeah. Okay, so went to college for music business at Southeastern University down there, which is actually a phenomenal school. Much like Belmont, you don't have a bunch of professors who are just like have degrees.

SPEAKER_04 4:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:14

You have a bunch of professors who are like have degrees from Juilliard and then decided that, hey, this weekend, uh, we're cutting class early on Friday because I'm going out on tour with Carrie Underwood. Love it. And then I'll be back Monday. It's like, yeah, okay, that's that's the stuff right there. So you've got your real industry professionals. So it's really cool to learn from those people.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

That's so cool.

SPEAKER_01 4:32

So then I graduated from there. At the end of my college program, we did a semester at a school in Brentwood called the Contemporary Music Center.

SPEAKER_04 4:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:39

And it's kind of like a study abroad program for musicians, and you can go and learn how to write, how to record, how to perform.

SPEAKER_04 4:48

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:49

And so they kind of give you like a real-world crash course jump start, yeah, being an artist. And so that was part of my like degree program through Southeastern as they partnered up. And so I came up there, graduated from that, came home, graduated, got my degree, and then just started playing every open mic free barbecue festival, anything I could do. Really, really just started grinding, you know, doing the good, doing the thing. I said, Well, this is we're gonna earn it.

SPEAKER_02 5:14

Yeah, we're gonna earn it.

SPEAKER_01 5:15

So, so then you appreciate it more. Yeah, yeah. And so we kind of started uh like a fire, you know. We started in one little central area and just watched it slowly burn out and uh not burn out, but you know, expand. Um, and uh so you know, 20 that we're talking beginning of 2015.

SPEAKER_02 5:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:32

I'm playing my first free shows for $200 for a full band for four hours. Yeah, great times.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

And then by 2016, we're in the Carolinas and Georgia and Alabama, and then by 2017, we're playing in Texas, and then by 2018, we're playing in South Dakota. Well, 2019, we're playing in South Dakota, and we're building this whole thing out further and further. Actually, no, I think it was 2020 we played in South Dakota for the first time because COVID shut down.

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

And South Dakota said no.

SPEAKER_02 6:02

Yeah. I love the states that over like what COVID.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yeah. So as a musician, I had just escalated my music to the point where in Nashville I had a I was coming up here to do all my recording, all my songwriting. I've been blessed to be hooked up with some just incredible songwriters who wrote the songs that I grew up listening to. Yeah. Oh wow. Yeah. So one of the first things that happened to me as a songwriter is I got hooked up with BMI, and a buddy of mine submitted my name for the Island Hopper Songwriters Fest in Fort Myers. Okay. The BMI puts on.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

And it's in the fall. And so Dan Spears, who just retired from BMI, he invited me down. And when I get there, he's like, hey, whatever you do, go around, meet people, shake hands. Just don't ask to write with people. Whatever you do, don't ask to write with somebody. Just they don't know you, you don't know them. Build a relationship first. Don't do that. Exactly. I walk into this cocktail hour, and this guy, this everybody's got their click, right? Yeah. And you hate those moments. And everybody's got their click. And so I walk into this cocktail hour, and all these artists and all these writers, they all know each other. And there's this one guy over here who just looks friendly standing by himself.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

And I walked up to him, I said, Hey, my name's Eli. I'm brand new at this. I have nobody that I know here. You know, and he goes, Hey man, I'm brand new to this whole thing too. So come on and hang out with me. Sweetest guy in the world, great friend. Not 10 seconds into the conversation, he goes, Hey man, you know what? You're a writer, right? And I was like, Yeah, he goes, We should write. Right then, Dan walks by me as he says that, and I looked at Dan, I was like, he said it. Yeah, one of me at all. So the guy invites me over to a table, and now it's me as this like 26-year-old, new at writing. Yeah. I mean, I've written like a dozen songs at this point. And none of them good. Yeah. None of them good. And I am terrified. I've got this one guy who's new too. So I'm not the only new guy.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:51

And he sits me down, and we're all with a bunch of old guys, right? I say old guys, you know, respectfully, but we're with a bunch of season. No, oh no, definitely older than that. But but, you know, uh, you know, real old, like 40.

SPEAKER_02 8:04

Not just I like to be the bold, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

No, but but uh the the older group, you know, they're they're that's the one table, the oldest senior guys in the group. We like seasoned. Sure, season. So anyway, so I'm sitting here and it's Steve who invites me to sit with these guys that he knows. And I'm assuming these are all just like the guys that never made it, right? And I don't know, I don't know who any of these guys are. And Dan walks up to the table, looks at me kind of surprised, and walks over to Steve and goes, Hey Steve, this new new guy I just met. And he goes, Hey, get up and sing a song for us. And then he just kind of walks around and like taps different people on the shoulder. Now I'm at one of these round tables, you know, seven or eight of us, and it's me and all these other guys, seasoned. And Steve gets up and he says, Well, here's a song I wrote a few years ago. You may recognize it, Roundabout Way from George Strait. And then he gets up and he goes, Can I do one more? And he goes, Yeah. He goes, Watching you from Rodney Atkins. And he comes and he sits back down, and I just look at him, I go, Can I go ask to write with him? You're you're new too. And he goes, Well, I'm new to the festival. And oh my gosh. Oh no, it gets better. The next guy gets up. By the way, all these guys have all we're all talking, hanging out, exchanging phone numbers. Like I've we've made friends in the last 45 minutes because we're all just and I don't know who they are. Yeah, the next guy gets up, his name's Earl. He sings Friends in Low Places that he wrote. Yeah, the next guy gets up and sings, I can still make Cheyenne. Then it just keeps going. And they're all these just monster rascal flats number ones, Lone Star number ones. Yeah. And the coolest table there.

SPEAKER_02 9:36

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

And I just, I'm sitting there going, What did I get myself into? Three weeks later, I'm sitting at Steve Dean's house. I'm driving up there. And I'm going through a divorce at the time, by the way.

SPEAKER_04 9:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

I'm driving up there and he says, Bring your top 10 best ideas. Okay. Yeah, I'm a new hot artist. I'm going to show him what I got. I show up, I go, here's my best top ideas. And I rattle them off. And he looks at me and he goes, Man, you got some awesome stuff there. What else do you have? He said it nicely. Oh, and he is he is the nicest guy. It's one of the reasons why I have no tolerance for when I write with a big writer and they're egotistical.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Because you've been around the biggest and they're humble.

SPEAKER_01 10:15

Right, right. I had I wrote with one guy and uh he threw a line out one time. And I can Steve can throw a line out and I can just be like, that's a little dated. And he goes, Okay, cool. What what like and we just move on? I love that. Yeah. One guy threw out, I was writing with him one time and he threw out a really, really cheesy, corny line. And I was like, I wonder if we can come up with something different. And he just points to the wall behind him. He goes, When you have one of those platinum records, you can talk to me about a line. And I was like, Oh, one of the highest decorated songwriters of like the 90s. I have not written with him since.

SPEAKER_02 10:48

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

I just don't care to.

SPEAKER_02 10:49

I'd be like, I'm sorry, this isn't a good fit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Absolutely. Yeah. Like the fact that I stayed there, I thought to finish to write was like a real struggle for me. Yeah. Oh, I bet. Yeah. At that point I phoned it in. But um, so I'm I'm writing with Steve. He does this nice shoot down. He goes, What else do you have? And I said, Well, you know, you leaving me wasn't in the song that we danced to at our wedding.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

And he goes, That's interesting.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:13

I like that. And so we sat down and we wrote this song that we called Our Song because You Leaving Me wasn't in our song. It's just too long of a title. So we wound up writing this song. At the time, I was working at a radio station in Central Florida, and I was asking the program director, it was one of the Billboard reporting country stations. And I I asked the program director, I said, How do you get signed to a label? He said, Well, you got to get on the radio. And I said, How do you get on the radio? And he said, You got to get signed to a label. And I thought, well, it's like a credit card.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

How do you get credit? You have to have a credit card. Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Yeah. Well, how do you get a credit card? Well, we have credit. Yeah. So I decided there's got to be a way around this. So we wrote this song together and we produced it, and it was great. Kip Allen, Mitch Fur, I think it was our second song they'd produced for me. I mean, just incredible job. They were all new from Belmont, by the way. This is the coolest thing. They always talk about how you kind of come up with your people.

SPEAKER_02 12:01

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

So they asked me to take a chance on them because they were just graduating Belmont with a degree in audio production.

SPEAKER_02 12:08

Oh, cool.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

And Kip was starting to drum for a guy who had become Devin Dawson.

SPEAKER_02 12:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:13

And they were starting to really take off. So they were kind of, I'm going to say new, but they knew what they were doing. And so I switched production over to them. Turns out, fast forward, they're now producing for like Winona and Keith Urban. Uh they produced Wild Hearts for Keith Urban. I mean, just incredible stuff. And we're still good friends. Yeah. And we still work together. We just cut a song the other day. But um we got this song ready and we and we release it. And I start sending it out to all these little stations.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Okay. I'm talking the first station. Independently. Independently. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

So the first station that I sent it out to that I that I took it physically to was in Florida. It was a hundred-foot-tall tower with a shed in a cow pasture. And they played it. And I said, So we can do this. And so I went and hit a bunch of those stations up. Yeah. It was literally a 75-watt station.

SPEAKER_02 13:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 13:02

It serviced a town of about a thousand people.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

I love that though. Yeah. And yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:06

So and so we started doing this. And we started pouring money and time into actually going to the stations. And what we found is when I go into a station that is a small mom and pop station, they're as excited as if Tracy Lawrence walked down to a bigger station. They just think it's so cool.

SPEAKER_04 13:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

And so we go in and we sign stuff and we leave them, you know, thank you, you know, headshots and all that stuff. And um, it started building.

SPEAKER_04 13:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

And all of a sudden you have two stations, three, four. All of a sudden, our song is getting played on Daytona's country station on spring break because it is our 75th station that we're on independently. No promotion agency, no nothing, no label, no nothing.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

No money.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

No money. And yeah, I mean, other than driving there and visiting them.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:46

But yeah, it's it was incredible. Yeah. And so we just started seeing that those people started really respecting us. So that started off just single after single going to radio. And so we've had this beautiful career where these independent stations, 100,000 watt stations now, that aren't billboard reporters or music row reporters.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Yeah, which is fine.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

They've got, you know, a metropolitan area listening to them. And we then go play these shows and the fans show up.

SPEAKER_04 14:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:11

We played a rodeo in Cody, Wyoming back in 2022, and we were the headline act of the because the station had been playing my top five singles for three months leading up to it.

SPEAKER_00 14:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Of which I didn't realize it happened, not until we're playing for 3,400 people that showed up to see me play, which is insane.

SPEAKER_02 14:28

That's a big deal. That's huge.

SPEAKER_01 14:30

Huh?

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Yeah. How do you know who I am?

SPEAKER_01 14:33

Yeah. Yeah. I asked him, I asked him, by the way, I'm a stickler for numbers. So the only reason I know the 3,400 is because I asked, what was your ticket sale? Like when I walked off stage, I said, What was the it was the rodeo, and then you could buy like the additional ticket and get in early for the show.

SPEAKER_04 14:48

Right.

SPEAKER_01 14:48

And so 3,400 people bought the additional ticket to get in for the show. Wow. 3,400 people at a 5,000 person arena.

SPEAKER_02 14:55

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

By the way, that does not count for all you artists listening as a sold-out show. Sold out is sold out.

SPEAKER_02 15:00

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

3,400 of a 5,000 is not a sold-out show. Beautiful crowd. Amazing. Big show at the gates of Yellowstone. I mean, just gorgeous, watching the sunset over Yellowstone's. It was amazing.

SPEAKER_00 15:12

Not a sold-out show. Don't claim it was. And that's okay. Yeah, don't claim it was. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

So anyway, so that's kind of how we got there. But I'm sitting there playing for this crowd and a thousand people are singing my songs.

SPEAKER_04 15:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Y'all are actually singing the words. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 15:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

This is cool. That was that was amazing. So there is power in that. But yeah, that's incredible. It's been a grassroots start.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

It's like you had a divine appointment right out of the gate, but then you put in the work to make that happen. Yeah. And that wasn't about the people you wrote with. You put in the work. You were going to those stations. And that's so cool. And I think a lot of artists need to hear that.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

I think that that's something that people think artists think that you have to wait for somebody to take your hand.

SPEAKER_03 15:51

Right. And come to you. And you can't.

SPEAKER_01 15:53

It doesn't, it doesn't work like that.

SPEAKER_03 15:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

I will say though, I think I have, I don't want to say earned, but I have worked, like you said, I've worked for a lot. And it's not just me as family. Um, my dad, when I started getting into music, he was about to retire. And so he just dove into the booking industry. He has a Ross, I think it's over 5,000 now. If it's not over 5,000, it's darn close to 5,000 uh contacts, venues that we send every year that we reach out to.

SPEAKER_02 16:17

So that's incredible.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

That's so cool. And it's really amazing. But you know, it takes family. Yeah. My wife. My wife has been for the last years running my social media and getting content. And then we just recently had a girl, Katie. She just started, I mean, she's phenomenal. She works for a lot of much bigger artists, and she's really just a blessing because she has no need to be working with somebody like me, but she is. She's incredible. But the two of them are kind of hand in hand running content. But we have a lot of family doing stuff.

SPEAKER_04 16:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:43

We have a lot of family doing stuff. It has not been an easy road. Always kind of makes my stomach turn when I hear these artists are like, oh, I just knew it was God's calling because just every door opened.

SPEAKER_04 16:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

And it was like, I kind of hate you right now.

SPEAKER_04 16:55

That's how it works. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:57

That's for me. Well, I also know that from a from a spiritual, if we're going to dive into that side, uh, I notice that when everything's going my way is when I talk to God the least.

SPEAKER_02 17:07

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

And so I think that what he's doing is I think he's keeping me right there, needing him.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

100%.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

So, and every time I get kind of cocky and think, Oh, I I can I can do this. I got this.

SPEAKER_02 17:19

On my own.

SPEAKER_01 17:20

Here, I like to tell people, I tell God, here, hold my beer, watch this. You know, and he goes, Oh, yeah, I'll hold your beer right now. This is gonna be great. Throw it in your face. Yeah, this is gonna be awesome. Um, I I think the reason why I keep going is I feel sometimes like this is just living in the promised land. And sometimes I feel like I'm Jonah being called a Nineveh, and I don't want to go. There are times when I just I don't want to be in town. I don't want to be in Nashville. You know, I have a I have a 19-month-old baby girl at home and a beautiful wife who's just incredible. And it's one thing to leave your wife to go on the road, but when you got a baby girl that just spends two minutes just hugging you when you get home, and now I'm gone for 10 days right now.

SPEAKER_03 18:00

Yeah, and they're at the age where they have milestones and you don't want to miss that.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

It's and oh, I miss I've I've missed so much already. You know, it's just there are things there are things that you're just gonna miss. Yeah, and uh it's part of the game. Yeah. I've missed close friends' weddings for music, I've missed funerals of incredibly close mentors and friends. I've missed a lot. Yeah, but there are time and there are times when I just go, Really? I mean, God, is this what you want me to do? And there have been days, even recently, where I have begged him for the permission to hang it up, and he just says, No, I'm not done with you yet. Yeah, I'm not done with you. Keep going.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

You have a mission, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:38

Yeah, and um, I I touched on earlier, but what like I said, when I was four years old, I started acting off. My parents thought that I'd like seen a movie of a clown and was trying to impersonate the clown, honestly. Okay. They're like, What is he doing? And they found out I actually started doing it one day when I was in a doctor's office, and they were like, He's having a seizure. Like, he's having an epileptic seizure. Oh my gosh. And there was a tumor that developed in my brain, and uh it was right near the cerebral cortex. And long story short, is it took four years of diagnosing and trying to medicate it, not not working, and this wouldn't work, and this wouldn't work, and this didn't work. That they finally came down to I needed surgery, and there were two doctors in the world that would, or in the country, that would touch the surgery. Wow, and it was Ben Carson or a new young, very good doctor down in Miami at Miami Children's Hospital.

SPEAKER_02 19:26

This is when you were eight.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

This is when I was eight years old. So the odds of me surviving the surgery were not high. Right. The odds of me surviving the surgery without having either total vision loss, hearing loss, mental handicap of some major kind. In other words, living any sort of an adult life, yeah, or normal life were even lower. The odds of me getting a driver's life, that was not gonna happen.

SPEAKER_04 19:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

And in fact, there was even an odd, there was a time where they're like, even if this goes well, he's probably not gonna live past 11.

unknown 20:00

Oh, jeez.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

So you're narrowing down and narrowing down, narrowing down into single percentages, single digit percentages. And the fact that I can walk on stage and play a guitar, the fact that I can serve in the Marine Corps, the fact that I'm a dad, uh, is just God saying, What odds? I'm gonna do something. And so I know there's a deeper calling.

SPEAKER_04 20:23

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:24

That's why this isn't about me. Yeah, he's I'm doing this because he wants me to. It's funny because I've kind of developed the external or extrovert personality, right? But when I was a kid, I was I was the kid in the church choir that was crying on stage because I was in front of people. Yeah, yeah, literally, yeah, and now that's me up there at Shine Frontier Days in front of 2,000 people just getting it done, having a blast. How did that happen? So it is by God literally being like, Yeah, no, you're doing this.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

When when were you first drawn to music and country music? When did that start?

SPEAKER_01 20:59

When I was six years old, I saw Tracy Bird play at a festival in our hometown. I thought, oh, that's so cool. And then the next day I'm singing, Don't Take Her, She's All I Got on my picnic table in the backyard. And uh, you've seen that video of the kid singing Heartland or whatever through the screen door that's going all over YouTube. There's this little like three, four-year-old kid with a rodeo number on his back and a cowboy hat. It's adorable. I'll find the video soon. Yeah, send it to us. Oh, it's adorable. But that was me. Yeah. Um, and then I just kind of fell in love with country music, and Tracy Byrd was the first one that I ever, you know, it's interesting because if you don't have any perspective of the industry and you just a kid, in my mind, Tracy Bird was like bigger than Garth.

SPEAKER_04 21:37

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

In my mind, Tracy Bird was Garth Brooks. George Strait had like a Tracy Lawrence career, like that level. And Garth was like a baby label act. Garth and Alan were just barely scraping it by. Yeah. You know, just in my perspective. Yeah. Tracy Bird was the all-star. Yeah. I can't understand why radio wasn't playing him.

SPEAKER_04 21:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:56

And uh anyway, so yeah, he was the one that actually developed my. I've told him this by the way several times when we met and he just I don't think he believes it. He thinks I'm just trying to soon he just kind of like he he's like yeah okay whatever and he just walks away and I'm like okay well that's nice sometimes you can't hear it because then you have to listen to the bad stuff too I guess right and getting that but yeah but uh it it's sad because he really is my main inspiration I just don't think he I don't think he understands yeah and I don't know how many people that he's actually inspired to do country music yeah so you know George Strait everybody's like oh George Straight is my main mentor oh yeah or my main influence yeah and I don't know how many people can say that of Tracy Bird but he is yeah whatever one day one day I hope to let that click yeah but we actually just I did my first cover song recently to record okay never recorded a cover ever okay and we just did one of his songs it was not that was not one of the radio singles it was one of the deep cuts and I'm so excited about it that's awesome yeah and I'm gonna wait for that one to come out do you have a release date for that one not yet not we we're in the final mix program process and we gotta figure out which ones we're gonna release when and how and all that stuff so anyway but it's coming yeah it's coming we got we've got a batch of songs that we just released we're the first group of about a 16 song album so wow oh it's gonna be so fun that's gonna be amazing so anyway so yeah that's how I got into that's what and then I saw George Strait and I saw him do that live from the Astrodome on TV concert and then I went and saw him live in Orlando uh in when I was like 14 and that was it that was it 14 okay and then and then then I started going to a bunch of concerts and I saw like Brooks and Dunn. And in my opinion when an artist can walk down to the front of the stage with them and a guitar or a piano or whatever and they can just own it yeah they're the artist like that like that's an artist. Yep and uh Kix Brooks just grabbed a guitar went down and sang your uh was it you're gonna miss me and just hilled at just him and a guitar and I was like that I need to do that. That is stardom yeah Kix is absolutely like the cool yeah I met him one time at their CMA uh Hall of Fame or the yeah the Country Music Hall of Fame induction artists luncheon we got invited by a clerical error and I wasn't gonna say a thing no don't yeah I just just thank you for inviting me like yeah you're on the list I was like okay okay I didn't ask how that I love when that happens yeah yeah I'm in a room I'm in a room of about 150 people and Ricky Skaggs is right here Randy Travis is sitting next to me Jamie Johnson's sitting across from me and I'm just going to get on this list but they meant a different Eli Mosley after and afterwards I walk up and I'm like really nervous and Kix Brooks walks up to me he looks at me and he walks up to me and goes are you a new artist? And I was like yeah he goes dude tell me about the road and all he wanted to hear about was like our touring and our and it was he is the nicest guy. I've gotten to the point where I don't I've met so many of these artists I don't care really about how big of an artist you are right if you think you're all that just you keep that to yourself. Yeah same but I want to like hang out with those guys who just so down to earth.

SPEAKER_02 24:57

We're in it for the art yeah and love it.

SPEAKER_01 24:59

Yeah yeah uh people that I think of like that Mark Wills uh most down to earth nice guy ever Daryl Worley um Vince Gill obviously kicks rooks Tracy Lawrence Tracy Lawrence did something I've never had an artist do we opened for him and he stood side stage for most of the show and watched and then when I walked off he's like dude that was awesome thank you so much for doing that loved having you out here and it's like nobody does that nobody does that nobody does that that is so supportive I love that yeah I mean that that that literally was like two years of motivational fuel right there and it teaches you the person that you want to be the artist that you want to be too supporting other people.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

Yeah this episode is brought to you by Gas Boss our favorite small town gas station with the biggest heart. Gas Boss is the kind of stop that instantly makes you feel welcome.

SPEAKER_03 25:48

They've got hot delicious food and hand scooped ice cream and in the warmer months the kind of outdoor laugh music that brings the whole community together under the stars.

SPEAKER_02 25:57

You've got to check out their curated backcountry shops full of merch, bait, ammo, ammo, and all those treasures you didn't even know you needed and one of my favorite things their prayer shack open to anyone who wants a quiet moment. Gasboss is rooted in Christian values and real community spirit. You can feel it the second you walk in. So make the trip out to Bon Aqua, fuel up and experience Gas Boss for yourself. Shout out to Michael Shepard of Your Vibes Entertainment in Dixon, Tennessee for supplying our sound equipment. Contact him for all your entertainment and sound needs.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

He's ready to party I had a full circle moment about a month ago on the way down the Keys for Key West Songwriters Fest.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Okay, so a couple months prior we put our story out and this is when I reached out to you yeah about my brain surgery. Yeah I put a video out talking about it. Right after I put the video out I thought I wonder if that brain surgeon is still like around so I called the children's hospital in in Miami that changed names as things do.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 26:55

And they were and it was some guy answered the phone some receptionist he's like yeah yeah well let me I'll see what I can do. I was like I just want to see if I can like one it'd be cool if I could shake this guy's hand but I just like to say hi. Yeah and um he's I'll see what I can do. So posts a video and then like two weeks goes by and I get a phone call from a Miami area code and I go huh I wonder if that's a hospital they're gonna tell me he's not available. Yeah and I pick up the phone and he goes hey is this Elisha Mosley I said yeah which my my full name is Elisha I said yeah he goes this is Dr. Resnick when I was working at the pause when I was working at the radio station one day as an intern before I was an employee there Garth Brooks called in to do an interview and I didn't know I just answered hey man it's Garth I was more starstruck when Dr. Resnick called than when Garth called oh yeah because this is saved my life saved your life and he said what have you been up to for 28 years and I called him or I talked to him for like 10 minutes because I knew he's a surgeon he's the head of neurosurgery at this children's house. You don't have time to kill yeah so I'm like all right this is what I did you know gave him the quick synopsis and he said well are you ever in the area and I said I'm coming down for Key West Songwriters Fest on this date and he said can you swing by and I said can I swing by and he goes I will block out like this two hour time slot if you can make that I was like oh I'll be there. Yeah so we left at like 4 a.m to get to Miami in time to go and I went in and just hung out in his office and here's the cool part this guy saved my life and I wasn't supposed to live past 11 and I walked in holding my daughter I'm gonna cry I know I'm like stop and my daughter is just 19 months old or 18 months old just wreaking havoc around his office. Oh yeah just grabbing anything and everything when when I was a patient there he signed a little a little teddy bear yeah one of his little miniature hospital teddy bears a little surgical mask and all that and I still have that and I meant to bring it down and then he walks up my daughter walks up to this little shelf and she's looking at all this stuff and he goes here and he hands her a little giraffe and I'm just like you have a generational thing here. Yeah so long story short is I talked to him and his nurse who his head of nursing who is still his like head administrative whatever assistant yeah is still his same person from 1998. I love that and she goes I don't want to push anything here but do you think we could get you to come down and like do a show for like a fundraiser I was like uh yeah sign me up yeah I was like you can get me to do a hundred of them yeah she goes we have this also we have this camp that we work with kids going through what you're going through up actually near where we're at and she's like would you mind coming by and talking because I was like I'm whatever you need.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

See yes it's it's kind of like this it's like I I'm not in like the Saint Jew fundraiser circle because right I can I love it and I've helped out with some of their stuff in the past but like to me Miami is where my heart was because it's literally where I was saved. It's personal. They saved my life so I'm gonna go that direction. Yep I know I never thought of myself as a rebel before but I started thinking I was actually thinking of a line I was starting to write write down the idea of this song and I was like while everybody's in country music's driving Chevies. I'm rolling around in an F-150 like that's me. Yeah I do what I do like as you should. Yeah yeah and and I realized I've never been like oh I'm gonna buck the system it's just not me I but if I'm gonna go help out Miami Children's Hospital you have your St. Jude fundraiser yeah and let it be all over the news and all that stuff and we're gonna go down here. Yeah so and do some real work. But that's what it's about yeah doing the real work completely we played a show in uh Mississippi that's where I'm from I was gonna say was it Brandon Mississippi rolling rolling fork you know rolling fork Mississippi yes got wiped out about two years ago by an F4. It was really an F5 but it was one mile an hour shy of an F5 oh wow and uh it was an F4 tornado mile wide tornado hit like a mile and a half wide town dead on that yeah no way we we and it came out of nowhere it was middle of the night I remember a guy I was talking to a guy there and he said we had eight seconds I heard the sirens go off looked out my window laying in bed saw it coming across the cornfield he was on lived on the edge of town he hit the ground the house next to him his neighbor was a truck driver it picked up the semi dropped it on the house and killed everybody in the house oh my gosh it was the most terrifying thing yeah so this was about three months four months before our show wow so we showed up three days before the show and just put a roof on a house like that's what you do that yeah that's what artists do you don't call TMZ and say hey I'm gonna give five hundred thousand dollars to the relief fund no you get your butt out of your truck take your tools and you just do it and you just do it yep you know one of the reasons I respect Garth the most is because my brother who's a photographer he he had this really cool thing called the Fort Worth Portrait Project and he would walk around Fort Worth when he lived in Texas and he would just take pictures of everyday people doing everyday things.

SPEAKER_04 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

And one day he walked by this couple and it's this really sweet little picture and there's this lady standing out there in like yoga pants and a you know hoodie and she's up there handing her husband nails while he's hammering in siding on a Habitat for humanity house. Yeah. He comes back to his studio starts blowing up the photo editing it whatnot calls me freaking out and just sends it to me and it is Trisha Yearwood handing nails to Garth and he's up there just putting siding in a house.

SPEAKER_03 32:09

I love that and he had no idea.

SPEAKER_01 32:11

Nobody they just showed up and like we're volunteers oh my gosh that's what I'm talking about. Those are the people that's the kind of people that's the kind of people that country aren't doing it for publicity. Exactly yeah just show up do what you genuine good people yeah my my heart is I want to start a uh I gotta figure out how to do it. You know all you need is money. We just need some multimillionaire or just somebody that knows what they're doing. Yeah or yeah or bank robbers or both nice too much we need uh what I love to do is every year almost every year we get a hurricane in Florida and I would love to have a trailer full of tools and I do this on my own level and I start with the closest thing. I start with family then church then or family neighbors church and just work out but I triage the second that the eye of the hurricane goes through I start looking around who needs help who needs what and then as soon as that last wave passes usually before sunlight I'm rolling just getting people squared away. Yeah and making sure making sure that you you have a tree in your driveway and you need to get out I got you I got the tools you know yeah and we just do that. That's what we do. I want to get an or I I'd love to get start a mission an organization someday that is literally those people.

SPEAKER_02 33:21

Oh yeah I'll have to connect you with my church my church does that all the time they come in before FEMA and everybody else and I've they call us out a lot of the times and we'll go out and help and do it.

SPEAKER_01 33:29

I love that. And now now I'm also torn because there's this there's also you know the first wave of responders can be overwhelming.

SPEAKER_00 33:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:36

And I hear a lot of people saying the second wave is the most helpful yeah because what you get is you get that first wave they show up thousands of people show up there's nowhere to lodge them nowhere to feed them nowhere to nothing and it's overwhelming and then everybody disappears and there's just like now and then it's like yeah we're next I've toyed with the idea of like second wave ministries. I love that's and we we come in we come in three months later okay after FEMA's left after everybody's just kind of said well good luck. Yeah and then we do and that's what we did with the Mississippi tornado thing. And when all the news outlets leave you're there after after all the publicity after it's all said and done and people when everybody else has gone about their lives and forgotten about it. Yeah you're there all right yeah because I mean it says you know you don't let your left hand know what your right hand's doing.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

Exactly I might have my hands back on that I'll have to check the Bible on that one yeah exactly we won't hold you to it exactly but that's a great idea and I'm like let's just throw that out there to anybody if you guys know of anybody who knows how to start a foundation wants to help with this contact Elid I'd love it. Because that would be amazing.

SPEAKER_01 34:36

I mean it's cool because we have our touring van right we have our sprinter with six bunks. Yeah and so like we can sleep people we have a little generator we can keep the AC on and we got we got a little fridge we got a camp stove like we can pretty much take a to a crew of six people and pull a trailer behind the sprinter with tools and supplies and we can just do that. Oh by the way I got to brag on my fan base do it oh I love this this is the coolest thing finding fulfillment in what you do last year and then the flood hit Texas yeah in southern Texas the one that hit the hill country oh the hill country yes yes yeah that was like a few months ago wasn't it it was last July okay because I remember it happened July 4th because it was July 4th okay the morning of July 4th we're watching this and going oh my gosh we were headed out to play shine frontier days okay in Wyoming and we had this big trailer 14 foot trailer and we didn't need that much space but we just it was the trailer we needed for we had to use and I said we got all this extra space so I just was driving around on the side by side at the ranch one day and I looked in the camera and flipped it on and said you know people have literally lost everything everything everything I'm headed out there. It's a 10 hour detour to go down to San Antonio area to the hill country and then go up. It's a 10 hour detour what would it be like if we filled a trailer and our friends families and neighbors filled a trailer with supplies and the back of a truck I had to swap out the the van for the back of the truck that had a topper on it and we packed yeah and we dropped off clothes diapers formula shovels rakes power tools and the people of Central Florida just showed up and it was so cool yeah to see that.

SPEAKER_02 36:12

When a community comes together it makes a huge difference.

SPEAKER_01 36:14

Yeah yeah then I dropped it off at the first responder camp on the river and I was being a hurricane guy I'm used to seeing destruction. Yeah what I wasn't used to was little random things like I see a Coast Guard helicopter flying over the river's not that big it's a big river but it's not Cumberland River size it's Guadalupe over Guadalupe but at that point it's not from you know it's not a hundred feet wide yeah and there's this Coast Guard helicopter flying over and I said to the lady who I was dropping it off the supplies off to what are they doing? Yeah and she goes oh they're infrared scanning for bodies we still have eight kids we're looking for oh my god that's right because it went it took out of school we were it took out a camp a camp that's what it was and there are these little girls who are missing and I'm looking and firefighters are loading into rafts with a picture of a girl and they're going out looking for yeah and I'm just like that wrecked me. Yeah that wrecked me I pulled over and just cried that wrecked me but that's the stuff you need to do as an artist that's the stuff we need to be doing as peaches as humans yeah yeah yeah and we need to take care of each other. I feel like it's now with the economy being so hard it's hard to get people to do stuff like that. Yeah that's that's where my heart is that's why I want to get signed to a label that's why I want to I want to do the whole thing right that's why I want to do arena shows I want to do arena shows so we can when you have a missionary come by and say hey we're raising money for an airplane to deliver deliver humanitarian supplies to Africa it's like well how much is your airplane you know a hundred thousand lawyer real quick go raise money for something else. Yeah that's what and I know artists that do that and it's so beautiful. Yeah that's the goal.

SPEAKER_02 37:46

Yeah well and that's what should be your motivation yeah for anything yeah is help people along the way yeah I love that you're doing that.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

Well we're trying let us know how we can help we would love to help I'm busy asking people how I can help so I don't know I don't know I don't know we might have resources I'll get I'll get I'll get very very uh I'll I'll send you a needs list quicker than anything. And so it's so it's so cool because it's just how can we help people in need I I don't know that's just where my heart is yeah that's why I got into music around the time that I was getting into music and falling in love with country music and why right I was at a church what I the reason I just the example I just used is actually not far off. I was at a church on an evening service and a missionary was doing a report and he was he was raising money for an airplane to deliver humanitarian supplies to Madagascar and he needed 4200 left was what he needed to raise and I was just praying and God was like one day you're gonna be able to write that check. Yeah it's a means to an end it's and just stop him and say where are you going next week? Yeah well what's your next thing you're raising money for yeah and let me help you finish that goal. Yeah I can't wait to do that.

SPEAKER_03 38:42

That's I know yeah I know yeah it's so cool it's so much bigger than you and that's exactly up you know how we feel it's just this is really not about us. This is how many people we can impact and bring glory to God and help people that's what it's all about.

SPEAKER_01 38:58

And I'll be honest it's the hardest thing in the world to stay focused on sometimes yeah sometimes you get your your priorities mixed up you get your focus wrong. My biggest goal in country music is play the Opry. I want to play the Grand Old Opry with all my heart and my family is kind of has that same goal right well my mom a couple months ago had too many strokes and a heart attack in the same month. Oh no and one of my aunts who has absolutely poured so much into what we do her health has really declined and so I started really like focusing on that. And I think the thing that's been hard is that I've made that my center of everything. Yeah I know Opry members who could help that along the way and just don't seem to be ready to make that happen yet. Yeah I know and I have to be okay with that. Yeah I know people who are on the board in the decision making who could make that happen tomorrow and they don't and I have to be okay with that.

SPEAKER_02 39:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:50

And uh it's in his timing. Yeah you've got to trust and I was actually at the Opry on Friday night and uh I was watching the Opry show and I was thinking I was just praying about it. I was so frustrated because you show that video at the beginning everybody getting invited to play and all that. And it's like to me to me it was just like a knife and a wound just twisting. And uh and then you see you know they give you these metrics right yeah they give you these metrics and they say well you need to you know have this this and this and we're looking at like we're looking at Spotify numbers or we're looking at Instagram numbers and you go okay how many phones and so oh look who the who they just invite last week. Oh that person has a tenth of my Spotify numbers and a 20th of my Instagram numbers oh wait but their but their uncle is you know so and so and it's like uh that's what it is and that is so frustrating but anyway so I'm sitting there and I'm literally praying through the Opry show and I'm talking to God and I have been frustrated about this for weeks now and just to the point where it's like I don't even know why we're doing this. Yeah and being a Presbyterian we don't usually say what if we hear from God. Yeah we like to keep that keep those reins tight. Yeah but I literally did I heard from God and he's like why are you putting your timeline and your metrics on my plan for you yes why is the Opry maybe it's not important to me. Maybe it's not maybe it's not now maybe I'll have you there later but not you know you just stop putting your metrics and your timeline. Yeah in my mind I'm going the reason why I'm trying to push for that is because I've got two of the people who've poured so much into my life that don't have forever.

SPEAKER_02 41:18

Right. And it's like let's that would like to see that goal happen.

SPEAKER_01 41:21

Right. And so I'm trying to do it for them but also by doing that I'm losing focus.

SPEAKER_02 41:25

Exactly and that's hard. Well and that might not be God's plan and that's okay too.

SPEAKER_01 41:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:30

Yeah yeah and you have to be okay with that I realize the more I succumb to his plan the more I'm at peace and the more it's easier to follow like whatever open door comes and if it door closes then you're just like okay that wasn't for me and that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:43

Well and you know I think the hard part about this is right so it's one thing to be a young artist single married even is fine. Like you could take chances.

SPEAKER_00 41:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:52

Now I've got a baby girl I got to provide for yeah and now you're telling me that every single song that I go in the studio and record is equivalent to roughly a year of her college savings plan.

SPEAKER_02 42:04

And it's like Yeah I can't think like that.

SPEAKER_01 42:06

Yeah well and that and that's the hard part is you you have to and and as a dad you have to yeah and I'm going in the studio and it's like all right this is why now I I I need a label to start getting involved if we're gonna do this. And so that's my mindset. But also I also know what I told you at the beginning the more I find that I don't need to rely on God the less I'll talk to him. Yeah and I kind of find that you know what maybe God is not making all this click because he needs me to stay right here with him. Yeah and I don't like that I don't like that I'd like to be able I'd like to be able because it's so cheap I'd like to be able to afford a health insurance plan.

SPEAKER_02 42:43

Right. Can't because it's so cheap.

SPEAKER_01 42:44

I can't you know we we can't afford to do that in our family. So we just pray every day and I don't like that as a dad yeah I don't like that. Yeah and it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 42:52

But maybe security looks different yeah than what you're thinking.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

That's what yeah yeah yeah and maybe if I have the security that I am thinking maybe we don't trust God anymore.

SPEAKER_02 43:01

Maybe we don't talk to him about it the security that you're thinking is the way the world taught you to think what security looks like.

SPEAKER_00 43:08

Yeah absolutely and it looks different to God.

SPEAKER_02 43:10

Yeah and he's gonna provide in the way that he provides yes yeah yeah so then in the end it just comes down to do I have faith in that plan and the way it looks different.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Yeah and I am having to have that hard reality check right now. Yeah oh I have it all the time. I was I was um about two weeks ago I was really nervous about this today because I was like I'm supposed to go in there and talk about how I'm just trusting in God right now and I don't feel like it.

SPEAKER_02 43:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

I am part of a men's group at our church which our church hosts it but it's not part of our church but it's a men's group that helps Christian men who are going through usually their world is upside down due to their own doing. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:50

So you know they cheated on their wife and now she's left them and they're broke and they're out of their house whatever the case is or drug addiction or alcohol addiction or whatever the case may be. And um with That I learned in that group, I watched men who had real conversations with God.

SPEAKER_02 44:04

You have to.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

Because the church doesn't really teach you often that you're allowed to have those conversations with God.

SPEAKER_02 44:08

And you're supposed to. You are supposed to receive your own revelation from God.

SPEAKER_03 44:12

I grew up Presbyterian as well, so I relate to a lot of what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 44:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:17

Because I had to kind of find my own way for a while. I mean, I ran from God just because I feel like it was pushed on me.

SPEAKER_00 44:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

And like discover it for myself and build that personal relationship. So every everything you're saying and what you're going through. And I love having these honest conversations because we don't want you to get on here and act like, hey, I've got it all together and I trust God. And it it's it's about these times because we are we're all going through it. Everybody's going through something. So I appreciate this conversation so much.

SPEAKER_01 44:46

Oh, yeah. Well, thank you. Yeah. Well, it's it's it's interesting. In the group, every week somebody chooses a word to talk about. They'll throw a topic out. And usually it's something like, you know, consequences or judgment or grief or you know, something people are gonna yeah, shame. Yes, that's a great one that people dive into. Every so often somebody will throw out a you know, softball word like comfort or prayer life or you know, whatever. And one day somebody, I this is when I realized, oh yeah, I've actually gotten honest. Is um I'm in this group and somebody brings up the topic of prayer and they're like, you know, when was the last time you really like, you know, how's your prayer life and how's your communication with God? And like, are you in you know, in sync with him and all that? And I I wasn't trying to make a point, I wasn't trying to nothing. I just said, I haven't talked to him for four months because I just don't want to talk to him.

SPEAKER_02 45:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:35

I'm really pissed off at him right now.

SPEAKER_02 45:36

Yeah, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_01 45:38

And you could have heard a pin drop.

SPEAKER_02 45:39

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

But you know what? It wasn't because of well, it was because honestly.

SPEAKER_02 45:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

And it's such a cool group because it's it's real Christian men helping each other through real Christian life crises. And it's funny because one day one day we had a guy come in, he was a pastor, and he came in and somebody had um asked a question about like, you know, how do you how do you cope getting through tragic loss? And this guy gets up and he does, I mean, he drops the well. I just know that there's a hedge of protection around us and a piece that passes all understanding, just rattles off the phrases, and one guy just looks straight at him and goes, That's the biggest load of bowl I've ever heard. And I was like, Oh, that's like my second, and that's like my second week I'd been there.

SPEAKER_04 46:30

I love it.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

And he was like, This is neither the time nor the place for that. I was like, Oh gosh, okay, yeah, here we go. And what's so cool is that I go out on the road, right? Yeah, and we have these big show runs, and you know, like this next week, I'm gonna be um playing main stage at a festival directly before Drew Baldridge. How cool is that! And then and then we go out and we do another festival out in Wyoming. Yeah, and then we but but that Monday, I'm gonna fly back home Sunday night. That Monday, I'm gonna be sitting in that men's group and I am just another guy struggling with problems. Yeah. And how are you doing? Nobody really likes there's no like, oh, he's the artist, he's like, he's a celebrity thing. Yeah, it's so cool because it's like the great was an equalizer.

SPEAKER_02 47:13

Yeah, we're all the same. Yeah, we really are human.

SPEAKER_01 47:16

Yeah, and it's so it's so neat. When you can have those real conversations about addiction and about struggles and about stuff that you can't just have on a Sunday morning, you know, well, hey, how are you doing?

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Blessed, brother, how are you? Like that that that's we don't have time to go into it.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

That's not that's not a relationship, yeah. But these guys that you call at 2 a.m. or they call you at 2 a.m. and you get up and you walk them through, that's the real stuff.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

I love seeing men do that though. Men need to do that. Yeah, I wish more men would do that.

SPEAKER_01 47:47

Yeah, because you can't do it on your own. You cannot. But when you say that phrase, yeah, a lot of men go, Yes, I can. I'm gonna do it on my own for 70.

SPEAKER_03 47:54

Yeah. And June is men's mental health awareness month. Yes, it is.

SPEAKER_01 47:59

It's also what is it called? I think they're changing there's also uh like nuclear family appreciation month or something like that. Oh, I love that. Like the nuclear family being like the original, like how the family's supposed to be. Family unit. Okay, yeah, you know, two two parents, you know, mom and daddy.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

Nuclear, not traditional.

SPEAKER_01 48:18

I don't know. They just call it the nuclear family.

SPEAKER_02 48:19

Yeah, because it's the opposite of what it what families look like now.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

I don't know. I don't know. But it's just you know, it's just the it's it's the yeah, it's like the the yeah, something having to do with like you know, traditional family appreciation month or something like that. That's so funny. Just way to change June into something different than I always think about the the scene in Andy Griffith when you're only allowed to drink the moonshine ladies, and you're only allowed to drink on a moon on celebrate special occasions, and so people are coming up with like, you know, let's just invent them. Oh, it's Sir Christopher Columbus Day. It's it's it's National Potato Week. It's they're all invented anyway.

SPEAKER_03 48:51

I mean, it started with Andy Griffith.

SPEAKER_01 48:54

You knew that he was the original.

SPEAKER_03 48:57

My dad loves that show. I do too. My dad does. It was on repeat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:02

I watch Andy Griffith and MASH. Those are my two favorites.

SPEAKER_03 49:05

Oh those are my daddy's two favorites.

SPEAKER_01 49:07

Especially being in the military. It's just so it's so great.

SPEAKER_03 49:10

Oh, yeah. All right. You've talked about music being a vehicle to reach people and make an impact. What projects, tours, or initiatives are you currently focused on? And how can our listeners support you?

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Oh, oh well, the easy supporting is follow on Spotify, listen to the music. There's plenty of it out there. Instagram following, TikTok following, I guess. I do all the content, but I don't do the actual physical posting. So, like, people will come up to me at church and be like, love what you just posted about. I'm like, Thank you. Go pull out my phone around the corner, like, what did I just post about?

SPEAKER_04 49:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:42

Anyway, so but no, seriously, follow me on Instagram, follow me on social because that's how artists are judged. Yes, that's how that's how the industry is just.

SPEAKER_03 49:49

Unfortunately, absolutely drop your handles for them too. Yeah, okay. I find a handle. It's like, I don't even know my handle. I got a team for that.

SPEAKER_01 49:58

It's uh yeah, it's basically at Eli Mosley Music on everything. Okay on social media, and then Eli Mosley on on Spotify, and then elimosley.com for website. Okay, and then Bill Jones. I'm just kidding, that alter ego. Alter ego. Working on that. Yeah, not sure if it's a good idea yet or not, but anyway.

SPEAKER_02 50:17

And you have an Instagram, a TikTok?

SPEAKER_01 50:19

I have a TikTok. Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, okay, uh everything, everything the Facebooks, MySpace. I don't have a MySpace.

SPEAKER_03 50:26

Oh man, I want let's bring that back. I want to bring back MySpace so bad. Yeah, that was my favorite. So I can still wrinkled my own.

SPEAKER_01 50:34

I don't even remember that. I don't remember. Uh it was something else that I can't remember. Yeah. Anyway, but yeah, that's it. Yeah, that's social media stuff. Uh working on obviously we got a handful of shows out west this year. Uh, well, Minnesota, Wyoming, Colorado, and then Florida. Uh, just the economy's got everything really slow for booking. I'm noticing a lot of tours are canceling stuff, so I'm really happy that you know we're we have some shows set that we're we're good with. It keeps us going, keeps us moving. But uh, I'm taking this time to be in town a lot. I'm taking this time to uh record and write a lot. Like I said, I'm sitting on a 16-song queue right now. It's huge. And uh four of them are cut, and we're getting ready to hit the studio with the next batch, and it's just so fun. And and I threw away the idea that I was gonna chase the industry and what sound they wanted a while ago. Oh yeah, and I'm just having a blast making music now. I'm so over that.

SPEAKER_02 51:22

Yeah, I'm glad you're doing that.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

But yeah, yeah, if you listen to it, going back to the childhood trauma stuff, I had a song I wrote and released on the last uh record with a buddy of mine, Chris Choto, who wrote it with me, and it was that conversation with God. Uh, it's called Slipping Away, and it's a dad walking out into an open field, basically having a chest-to-chest conversation with a God while he's watching his daughter pass away in the hospital.

SPEAKER_02 51:46

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 51:47

If you dare go listen to it.

SPEAKER_02 51:48

Yeah. I love a good cry.

SPEAKER_01 51:50

Oh, you will.

SPEAKER_02 51:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

And then the steel guitar player at the very end of this thing just slides into a flatline heart monitor.

SPEAKER_02 51:57

I'm like, oh my gosh, send it home.

SPEAKER_01 52:00

Yeah, he did. And I was just like, oh, like the whole studio. He got done with that, and we're all staying there with tears.

SPEAKER_03 52:05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:06

And we're just like, uh, I did not see that going that way.

SPEAKER_03 52:08

Yeah. I'm crying just thinking about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 52:10

It's a phenomenal song. I can say that because the production people were just incredible. And Chris is such a great writer. But the fun thing is with that song, we went in and we every line we wrote, we sat down and backed it biblically and had a 30-minute biblical conversation behind it. It was a two-day write. Oh, it was so slipping away.

SPEAKER_02 52:28

Slipping away. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 52:29

Yep. Anyway. But yeah, we got more songs on the way, and we're actually writing with meaning and purpose. So I'm really excited to put this stuff out. And then you're just going to see my life. I cannot wait.

SPEAKER_02 52:37

I cannot wait. And there's no projection. Not yet. No, no.

SPEAKER_01 52:40

We're going to start dropping singles in July. And I'll let you know about it. Okay. So that'll be coming soon.

SPEAKER_02 52:44

Yeah. I was like, tag us and things and we'll repost.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

We're doing all the party stuff in the summer, and then it's going to get sad in the fall. How it goes.

SPEAKER_02 52:49

You can't do that. We've got to plan the marketing behind it. People get sad in the fall. Yeah, I was like, hit us hard in the winter season. We'll need it.

SPEAKER_03 52:58

We're already depressed. Just make us more depressed.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

Well, I feel like if you do like a beach song in January, people in Wisconsin want to like throw a hammer at a radio.

SPEAKER_02 53:07

Shut up. You're ruining my life. Why did you make me remember that? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 53:16

Oh man.

SPEAKER_02 53:17

Oh man. Okay. Well, we have some rapid fire questions for you. You ready for this?

SPEAKER_01 53:21

I feel like he's prepared.

SPEAKER_02 53:22

I feel like he is too.

SPEAKER_01 53:23

I'm prepared for one of them. I'm prepared for one of them. I forgot the air two.

SPEAKER_02 53:26

Okay, well, let's start with it. Favorite movie quote.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

All right. If we're gonna go fun, I think it is um that scene where Tommy Lee Jones is in Men in Black.

SPEAKER_02 53:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:38

And Will Smith says, People will figure it out. And he says, he says, why? He goes, people are smart. And he goes, No, a person is smart. People are dumb, ignorant, dangerous animals, and you know it. I think that's true.

SPEAKER_02 53:49

It's so true.

SPEAKER_01 53:50

I say that all the time. We're working on writing a song called People Suck. So they do just people being ridiculous.

SPEAKER_03 53:57

I love individuals, but people as a group of like, oh, you guys are the worst. Well, I'll start people watching CMA Fest. Yeah, I relate to it pretty often.

SPEAKER_01 54:05

But my serious, my serious favorite quote, I love if you've ever seen the movie Second Hand Lions.

SPEAKER_02 54:10

Yes, that's a great movie.

SPEAKER_01 54:12

There's a scene at the very end where the guy, where the the nephew is standing there, a helicopter lands, and this oil executive gets out, and he turns out to be the grandson of the desert chic in the story. And his little toddler kid or four or five-year-old kid says, So you're telling me that the men in my grandpa's stories actually lived? And the kid, the the nephew looks at the camera or looks at the sun and he goes, No, they really lived. Like they didn't just live. Yeah, they didn't just exist. They really live. They live, yeah. And that to me is like sends chills. Even when I just said it just sent chills. Yeah, yeah, they really live.

SPEAKER_02 54:48

They embraced what life was really about.

SPEAKER_01 54:49

Yeah, yeah. I love that. And that to me is just such an encouragement.

SPEAKER_02 54:53

I want to watch that again now. Oh, it's a true movie. Go home and watch it. Um, dream duet partner, dead or alive.

SPEAKER_01 54:58

Kix Brooks.

SPEAKER_02 54:59

Kix Brooks, hands down. Done. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 55:01

End of story.

SPEAKER_02 55:02

Okay. Well, contact him immediately.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

He is he is he was the nicest guy in the world. And I've got some cowboy songs that are in the pipeline, and ones that I've already released that just pulling down and redoing with him.

SPEAKER_04 55:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

You could just hear his voice in them. And I just, he is such a he's such a down-to-earth person. And I just think the vocal on it would be killer on some of these songs.

SPEAKER_04 55:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:25

And I have I probably respect him, I won't say the most, but it's darn close. I have an insanely high respect level for of respect for him. I mean, just he's amazing. Uh, just as a human.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

Yeah. I love just working with good people. Yep. Yeah. Okay. This is the one that stumps everybody.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

Oh boy. So one I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 55:42

Song you wish you had written.

SPEAKER_01 55:44

Oh, easy.

SPEAKER_02 55:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 55:45

Easy. Easy. I can still make Cheyenne.

SPEAKER_02 55:47

Oh, okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 55:49

Yes. What a phenomenal song. Written by Aaron Barker, one of the guys who is at that festival. And he is such a nice guy. He actually sent one of the songs I want to cut with kicks. Yeah. Is one that Aaron wrote that was actually a George Strait hold that George Strait passed on and I got to cut. And it is beautiful. But Aaron told me the whole backstory behind it and is just such a beautiful piece of art. The whole song is. We're going to have to bring you back on when that comes full circle. Can we be able to do that?

SPEAKER_02 56:15

I know. That's what I'm thinking. I'm just like, we're going to need to make another appointment right now.

SPEAKER_01 56:18

So anybody's listening right now and they know KickSbrooks and the Grand Old Opry. Yeah. Let's make this thing happen.

SPEAKER_02 56:23

Let's make this thing happen. Really, though. Let's make this thing happen.

SPEAKER_01 56:26

I would love it.

SPEAKER_02 56:26

Guilty pleasure. Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 56:29

Okay. My hat, Gus's Fried Chicken.

SPEAKER_03 56:33

He even has the hat.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

I love these people.

SPEAKER_03 56:36

Are they out of Florida?

SPEAKER_01 56:37

They know they're out of Tennessee. They're out of Memphis. Oh, really? They're national chain. Okay. Over 50 locations, I believe. Yes. And they are. There's actually one in Nashville, right near Nissan Stadium. And uh they're just across the interstate. Okay. And uh Gus's is the greatest group of people. Um, they used to be in Nashville. I fell in love with them. They closed up the Nashville location. Fast forward last summer, first responders camp on the river. They're feeding fried chicken for free to all the first responders. Not only were they my favorite, now they're really my favorite. Yeah. And now I got to meet all the headquarters people, the owner Wendy, and all that. They are the sweetest people, but they make the best hot fried chicken you'll ever have in your life, hands down. And their coleslaw, my goodness gracious. Holy moly. Every single thing that they touch, though, their food is insane.

SPEAKER_02 57:23

Okay, I'm going tomorrow.

SPEAKER_01 57:24

I have not been to, I have not been. I used to go to Hattie B's every time I'm in town. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

I have not been to Hattie B's in a year and a half.

SPEAKER_03 57:30

Wow. I love fried chicken.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

It's so good. It's so good.

SPEAKER_03 57:33

It's the best thing in the world. I started laughing so hard because it reminded me of Brooks, the conversation about the grease tooth. He said, and they were like, they need we need merch out of that. Grease tooth hat. Greek.

SPEAKER_01 57:46

Yeah, they Gus's is like I said, I love, and I'm kind of I'm starting to represent them. I'm starting to do some artist stuff with them. Yeah, cool. But they are just the best people. We've been talking about that.

SPEAKER_00 57:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:58

They're just the best people. And the corporate people are awesome. Every and when you walk in, you won't see a disgruntled employee in the whole place.

SPEAKER_02 58:06

Oh, that makes the huge sense.

SPEAKER_01 58:07

Every single person you're gonna swear is like the owner of the or the daughter of the owner. Like that's what you're gonna like. I'm sold. Everyone's everyone's thrilled. And the food is amazing. You don't need to put any sauce on it. It's oh so good. Easy.

SPEAKER_02 58:19

How many times have you eaten there since your trip?

SPEAKER_01 58:21

I don't want this. Oh, actually, okay, so a little well, TMI.

SPEAKER_04 58:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:25

I had something happen a couple weeks ago. My stomach's just been like on the fritz. I don't know if I got like mild food poise or something. I haven't dared to touch that. I've been eating, I've been eating like bread and water.

SPEAKER_02 58:35

So you've got to be eating clean.

SPEAKER_01 58:36

Yeah, when you're telling these turn and stuff. And so let me put it this way. Last time I was here for a week, I ate there four times.

unknown 58:42

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

Yeah. It's the best. It is. The closest one to me in Florida would be Atlanta. And they're working on, I know it's sad. So they're working on some Florida locations. And well, I mean let me rephrase that. I am begging them to work on some Florida locations.

SPEAKER_02 58:59

You're like, can I personally submit a location for you to build a place?

SPEAKER_01 59:02

Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And the the thing is though, if they go in, they have to find somebody, and there's their sticklers, they will find somebody that they trust to keep it. Oh, you have to their their let like they're not, it's not like you know McDonald's like throwing out anybody's franchise filet. Yeah, like and exactly the same sort of thing, but they're moral code. If I if I had my way, they'd have five in Central Florida House in Central Florida in the next like year. And I'm trying, I'm trying to convince them of that. Maybe you just open them yourself.

SPEAKER_02 59:31

If I had the money, are they a franchise?

SPEAKER_01 59:34

Uh they can be.

SPEAKER_02 59:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:35

I think they can be.

SPEAKER_02 59:36

So you could open. Oh, you could. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 59:39

But yeah. My stomach is growling. I do.

SPEAKER_02 59:42

I'm like, no, I just like, can we make a trip?

SPEAKER_01 59:45

They are they are the most they're one of those places that's so underrated, it's not even funny. Like, like nobody knows about them.

SPEAKER_02 59:50

Yeah, I've never heard of them. Oh, I'm not from the south though, so I'm like, I'm most things are new to me.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

Yeah. Yeah. Gus's Gus's fried chicken.

SPEAKER_02 59:56

Gus's fried chicken.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

I would set you up with some merch. I got a bunch of hats and t-shirts.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:00

Please don't.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:01

I'll send it to you or bring it next time I'm in town.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:03

Yeah, please do. We love merch.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

I love it. They are so cool. They're great.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:07

Do you have merch too?

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

Yeah, of course. Yeah, we have a on our website. Okay. Elimosley.com. We have a bunch of really cool stuff. The Florida Cowboy save, you know, save the Florida Cowboy and all that kind of stuff. So I love it. You know, me roping a gator on the front of the it's great. I love life is fun ranching in Florida.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:23

Yeah. Oh, it's like, yeah, check out his socials. He's fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:27

Horse, bird and cattle. Yep. I don't wear the cowboy hat, just be cool. Yeah. I always have a new cowboy hat because one's getting destroyed. Oh, I bet.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:34

Well, thank you so much for coming on. This has truly been such a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:38

Thank you. Yes. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:40

I'm so happy to meet you.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:42

I am I am thrilled and I'm thrilled that you all are allowing me to share my story. This is what I'm wanting to get out there to the world is just the message of the survival. We've been through a lot. We've been through a lot. Yeah. I wouldn't be able to get half of the stuff. I wouldn't even we didn't even get into the touring struggles. We'll get into that. We have to get doing part two to this stuff. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:59

We're going to have a full circle conversation. Yeah. When all of this, when you blow up even bigger.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:04

Yeah, I love it. Bring you back on. This is so fun. I am so blessed that y'all are letting me talk about the stuff. And it's a you you create a safe atmosphere for that. Oh well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:13

That's what we want to do. I'm like, I really just want to have an experience where we just get to talk with people that are just good people and that have incredible stories and are struggling and learning from it, and we can inspire one another. Because I told you in the beginning, we get just as much out of this as you and our listeners and everybody else. Like, it's a great day when we have podcast interviews because there's always something I need to hear.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:34

Yeah. Same, same. I've been listening like crazy recently. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

I love it. I'm catching up. I'm catching up.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:39

Yeah. That means a lot to us.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:41

The problem is when I catch up, I'm going to need like anymore.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:44

We got to start putting them out one a week. We're just like, I know.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:48

We're we're still looking for sponsorships. Maybe, oh, we should contact Gus's fried chicken.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:52

They might. Goodness. I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:56

We need a sponsor. So we are going to have you close out for us. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

Somebody can.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:01

So you're going to look into the camera.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:03

I'm going to say. Wait, can I say my name is Eli Mosley and my shutters? All right. My name is Eli Mosley and my shutter is full.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:13

Y'all make sure make sure that you like, subscribe, follow, just push all of our push all our buttons. Thank you so much for coming. Bye.