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Jeremy Pinnell on Country Music, Jiu-Jitsu and Balance

In this episode, The Dads speak with Jeremy Pinnell, a country music dad from Elsmere, Kentucky.  Jeremy released his first full-length album in 2014 on SofaBurn Records, featuring a collection of songs that draw from his life to tell a truly country story. Jeremy recently released brand new singles “Save You” and “Come Home to Me.” He joined the Dads to talk about family, finding balance and all sorts of other topics on this episode. 

Show Notes: 

2:00 – Jeremy’s music seems highly biographical, but he gets into his roots and family background that shaped his musical approach and personal experience.

5:15 – The stories in Jeremy’s music feel true. And that is something that resonates with him. Story songs have always resonated with Jeremy, and he believes other folks like them too because they want to experience others and “feel uncomfortable.” In the discussion of “Feel This Right,” Jeremy notes that the story is true — perhaps. 

8:38 – Jeremy discusses how his experiences and drug use influenced his earlier writing. He goes on to say that he doesn’t discuss these songs with his son as he wants to allow him to just be a kid, something that he didn’t have the opportunity to do in many cases. 

11:02 – A discussion of the push and pull of home and the road — Jeremy started touring about the same time his son was born. It’s getting harder as he grows up, but he still needs to balance the pull of the road. 

12:40 – Donnie brings up the ideas of “I Don’t Believe” about religion, being a good person and other issues. Jeremy explains that he was looking for something when he wrote that song, and he’s still not sure why, but it has become a study of being content where you are in life. 

15:05 – Jeremy talks Jiu-Jitsu, getting his ass kicked and finding balance in being uncomfortable. 

18:31 – Work makes Jeremy happy. He shares that enjoyment on socials, but it’s more about sharing what he enjoys, not some desire to prove his country credentials. For the Dads and Jeremy, work provides a counterbalance to chaos that is always rewarding. 

21:09 – When talking about balancing inspirations, Jeremy told the Dads about the rules about not talking about the venue until you are three miles down the road with the windows up. And that gave birth to a great idea — and that is sort of how that happens. 

24:00 – The story of the “Save You” music video. 

26:38 – The new singles from Jeremy were produced by Shooter Jennings. The studio process was about highlighting the song and making it as strong as it could be, Jeremy explains. 

28:45 – The Dad Life Sound Check is coming in hard with Jeremy leaning into silence. A nice shift. Donnie and Dave have songs. 

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Transcript

This is Country Music Dads, the parenting podcast with the twang. We’re driving a highly subjective, comically contrarian, often irreverent conversation about fatherhood and country music for people who have a passion for both.

My name is Dave, and I’m a country music dad.

My name is Donnie, and I’m also a country music dad. This week, we speak with Jeremy Pinnell, a country music dad from Ellesmere, Kentucky.

Jeremy released his first full-length album, Ohio, Kentucky, in 2014 on SofaBurn Records, which may I add is a great name for a record label.

The album begins with The Way Country Sounds, a manifesto of sorts outlining hardships and other events in his life that explain his place in the long history of country artists who express their lived experience through song.

His second full-length album, Ties of Blood and Affection, made waves in the traditional and underground country scene when it came out in 2017. Ballad of 1892 slaps really hard.

Featured in the popular Western AF video series, this song kicks off an album that perfectly blends a driving rock sound with an undeniable level of country lyrics and licks that just kick a certain amount of backside.

My personal favorite on this is I Don’t Believe, which we’ll dive into a little bit later.

The third full-length release, Goodbye LA., came out on October 1st in 2021 and includes several bangers, including Nighttime Eagle, which was one of my first Dad Life sound checks of season two.

Jeremy recently released Save You, a song that explores several different kinds of loss, pain and hope, and it’s a great pleasure to welcome one of my favorite artists, Jeremy Pinnell, to the show. So thanks so much for joining us.

Oh, thanks for having me.

So jumping in a little bit, it seems like it’s pretty easy to get to know you as someone who writes songs that feel highly biographical, like the ones that dominate a lot of your albums.

But could you tell us a little bit about your family growing up and how you got into the space and kind of how that shaped your songwriting?

Yeah, I grew up here in northern Kentucky. I know there’s another question that talks about Cincinnati also, but I grew up in northern Kentucky. We moved here when I was about seven, seven or eight.

You know what, I don’t really remember because I was so young and that’s so long ago. But my parents were big church goers and we’d be in church on Wednesdays, Saturdays, Sundays. It was like this crazy amount of church.

Music’s a big part of the church. My dad played music in the group at church and he’s a great musician himself and singer. I don’t know.

I just wanted to do, I saw my dad entertaining people at holiday parties. They would sit around and sing, I don’t even know, a bunch of Crosby, Stills and Nash, and they would sing some Beatles songs, some Hendrix.

My dad would just entertain and I always like that, I guess. Or maybe it was just something that I had in me already, I don’t know. But it just started from a really young age, watching my dad.

And I told him I wanted a guitar and he had this big ovation round back, like all those guys played, and I don’t know what year that was, early 80s. I don’t know. But it was so-

It just slides off your stomach, right?

Yeah.

And if my dad hears this, whatever, they’re terrible guitars.

They’re like whatever. But anyways, he said, once I start playing that, I practice on that. And if I get good enough, he’d buy me an electric guitar.

I’d sit there and I’d have to lay the thing on my lap to try to play it because it was so big. And a year later, he bought me an electric guitar. And it’s always been something I did.

You mentioned before we came on that you’ve been out to LA a bunch.

I haven’t been out to your area too much. So I kind of got a geography lesson the first time I went to Cincinnati. I didn’t realize Cincinnati was right across the water from Kentucky.

What is the dynamic between Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky?

I mean, a lot of friends in Cincinnati and the music scene is always popping off in the city, you know, and it’s just both worlds. And I think people that live in Northern Kentucky are so familiar with Cincinnati because it’s just right there.

You just grow up running around Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana. The Cincinnati airport is in Kentucky, which is wild. And the Ohio River, we own most of the river.

So it’s like, I don’t know what’s going on there.

It kind of bleeds together a little bit, but yeah, I can see how Cincinnati is the big city, as opposed to the smaller towns.

You go 20 minutes south of Cincinnati, you’re in rural Kentucky. It doesn’t take very long. And so you grew up with a bunch of hillbillies and you grew up with a bunch of city people.

And it’s just a neat little mixture of people.

It feels like when you meet those people, you get those people’s stories, right? And it feels like the stories that come across in your music are true. Do you feel like you need to write true stories in your songs?

I don’t know who it was.

I don’t know if it was Billy Joe Shaver, but he said something. If you sing about yourself, you can’t go wrong or something like that. I don’t know.

I might have just made that up. I just always felt like story songs are neat because there’s people that like write story songs and I can connect with them. Teddy Bear from Red SofaBurn, he does a song called Teddy Bear.

Do you know about the song?

A little boy’s voice on the radio line. And he said, Breaker One Nine, is anyone there?

Come on back truckers and talk to Teddy Bear. And I get emotional every time I hear that song. I don’t know.

I always felt like I might as well just tell people what’s going on with me and I think people connect with that for me.

And I think telling the truth and especially in an artistic kind of form is people connect with that because I think people want to be uncomfortable. That’s what makes art. That’s what makes music.

That’s what makes people feel emotion is when somebody else shares theirs.

I got to ask about one song in particular and Feel This Right. One of my favorite lines in the song is you’re addressing your son and talking about how you broke the bed when you made him. Is that a true story?

I mean, I don’t respect anybody, obviously, to be right and stuff like that.

I’m going to wing it. Yeah, I mean, pretty much all my songs are, I’m not lying, maybe embellished because I think with art, you have to embellish, you have to be over dramatic. For me, that’s good creativity.

So I’m not saying it’s not true. I’m not saying it is true. I’m just saying.

That was a well-crafted response to a question like that.

You’re a politician.

I love that song.

My youngest son asked me what it meant yesterday. I said, oh, hey, look, there’s a garbage truck driving by. He goes, oh, cool.

It’s like, skip that particular lesson for the day and move right along.

The second verse to that song, somebody got it totally wrong and I stole it from there. I don’t know who wrote the song, but it’s that Porter Wagner song. Because the second verse I say, I got a little piece and a satisfied mind.

I stole that from that song, Satisfied, I guess it’s called Satisfied Mind, isn’t it? That Porter Wagner song where he talks about like money and all this outward stuff that we collect, but really it’s just about having peace of mind, you know.

And people, I said I got a little piece and a satisfied mind. Somebody took piece from me, put it in the wrong place. I was like, no, it’s the wrong piece.

Wrong spelling, my friends.

It’s funny what people take away.

At some point, your son may hear that song and go, oh man, dad, that’s gross.

You also talk about some more difficult topics you allude to and straight up talk about hard drug use in a lot of your songs. Is that part of your recovery process, or is it just that that was part of your life?

And so now you write about it as part of your art.

I think early, Ohio, Kentucky, and a little bit of Ties of Blood, that that was just what I knew at that time. And so I just, you just write about what you know, and then a whole world opens up.

And I think by time Goodbye LA came around, I’ve been open up enough to where I could like think of other things. And I’m pretty much a caveman when it comes to any kind of deep thought or anything.

I just, once you figure out that you can sing about whatever you want, then everything kind of changes. But yeah, I mean, the drug use, yeah, whatever.

Fair enough. I mean, do you address that with your son at all?

He’s 10 years old and I try to respect him being a kid as much as possible. Because I think it’s very important that a lot of kids, they just grow up so fast these days, they don’t have time to breathe.

And it’s just, man, we got, maybe we don’t, but I’d like to think we got plenty of time for those conversations. And I just want him to be a kid. I just want him to play and have a good time.

Because that’s all kids want to do, man. They just want to laugh, they want to play. So, yeah, I’ll keep those conversations for another time.

That is wise, man.

My oldest is seven and you do realize how fast everything’s moving, like for you as a parent too. So you want to savor them, being little, when life’s simple for them.

Just let the kids be kids, dude.

Yeah, by the time they start asking the tough questions, you at least have enough, a relationship with them and you’re open enough with them that they will ask you about some of the harder stuff.

For sure. I think some adults overshared with me when I was a kid and it’s filling my brain. And it’s just, it’s like, there’s no reason for that.

There’s no reason, there’s no reason he needs to know the things I’ve done. And a lot of people don’t need to know the things I’ve done. So it’s like, people just need to keep their mouth shut for a little while.

Be quiet, dude.

An interesting perspective on a podcast, I must say.

For sure.

Whatever. That’s right.

You know what I’m saying, we’re just joking around, talking, but we’re gonna get up and try to tell you about my dark shit.

Other themes that come up a lot in Country Music and in your music is the push and pull between Time on the Road and Time at Home. Donnie mentioned Nighttime Eagle.

How has that balance, the push and pull between the road and home life, changed for you since becoming a dad?

I didn’t start touring until Harlan was like a year old. I’ve been touring for about 10 years.

I think in 2015, we took our long, our first long tour, and then I came back home, and then I went to Europe for the first time, and he was only a year, and some change, and so I’ve always toured.

It gets harder the older he gets, because the conversations are getting better, the jokes are getting better.

I’m sure you guys know with your kids getting older, you realize the necessity to be around and have fun with them, and I don’t know, the older he gets, the harder it is.

I can definitely see that. There’s a lot of simplicity to those baby years when they’re really not doing too much.

They’re great. They just lay around.

They’re not running off on you.

They just sit there and look cute.

Yeah, there’s many more opportunities for fun stuff you can do as a parent and child when they get older, for sure.

For sure.

I feel that. My son’s the same age, my oldest, and I feel pretty lucky. I work from home.

It allows me a lot of time to be with him. I’m sure he would appreciate some time apart. It’s cool to be part of that.

Yeah, and sometimes, if you’re like me, you gotta go.

I’m good at home for a couple months, and then I’m just like, I gotta get out of here. Oh. Yeah, I know.

For sure.

One of my favorite songs that you have written is I Don’t Believe.

We dive into some real big concepts here. Ideas of religion, life.

It’s really interesting because, at least in my opinion, it seems like you’re saying that some of the orthodox views presented in kind of institutional, religious settings aren’t necessarily believable for you, but the core of that being a good

person, engaging, letting people be by themselves and be who they are, can make our world better. And maybe I’m reading that wrong, maybe I’m not, but it seems like a pretty good philosophy for life and perhaps even a good philosophy for raising

kids. Am I close?

I don’t know why I wrote that song. I think I was looking for some kind of, I was looking for something and I had some ideas, but I think just as a human, you just grow over time and things change so quickly.

I really doubt if religion has done any good as a whole. I don’t necessarily think you need religion to be kind and courteous and loving to people. Biologically, I think some people are capable of doing that more so than others.

I think I’ve always been searching for something, and when you find out there’s nothing, it brings you here in the moment, and you’re not somewhere else. I think learning to be content with just being here has been challenging.

I like playing that song where it breaks down and it talks about war or fighting or something. And it was so hard to record that and not have it sound stupid. You know what I’m saying?

Because you can go over the top, but I was just like, I’m just going to say it, and if people don’t like it, I don’t care. And I don’t know. I think just humans change.

So I’ve come a long way from that point, and I don’t think religion and children mix very well. So yeah, that’s the way I feel about it. But currently, I might change.

The final answer you just gave there, it might change.

It shows an approach to life that is racked in balance and understanding, taking kind of a sharp turn here. I have not read an interview from you or about you or even a story about you that doesn’t discuss your jiu-jitsu.

Does that practice help you understand that presence, the being in the moment and balancing life and physicality and interaction with other people in respect? Or is it just you really wanted to go do something and kind of battle it out?

I think the first things you said are the results that I didn’t know come from a discipline like that. Yeah, it was like 2020. I think it was right at the beginning of the pandemic.

Everything was locked down and I was just like, you know what? I want to learn how to fight. I’ve always wanted to learn how to fight.

Like people say they know how to fight, but I highly doubt it. And so I always hear people talking about Jiu Jitsu. And I was like, okay, like maybe this is the way.

And so I heard enough people talking about it, where I was like, I’m just going to go do it. And it was the most uncomfortable, awkward thing. And then it all changes.

And then you leave a class and you feel at peace with the world and you don’t want to fight anybody, even though you can ring somebody’s fucking neck. You just don’t, like you just feel so at peace. You don’t want trouble.

People get it so mixed up. And what it’s done for me, and obviously I’ve cut down training like so much because I’m just getting older. And sometimes when I get off work, I don’t want to go get beat up by 20 year olds.

I don’t want to fight for my life on a Tuesday night, just to get by so I don’t get choked out. But what it’s done is my interactions with humans is like night and day. I never liked fighting growing up.

I hated it. Every time I had to do it, I hated it. And people that say that they like it, I don’t know.

Maybe. I doubt it. And anyways, yeah, yeah, it’s changed everything for me.

It’s such an amazing, I wish people could experience it and just know that feeling of being content with yourself. It’s such a meditative, because you’re just fighting for your life. So you have to be in the moment.

You can’t be somewhere else. You can’t be thinking about work the next day, whatever. And it’s been quite a powerful thing in my life.

What you said about it being really uncomfortable at first, too.

I think that’s a cool approach and a lesson that I want to try and give to my kids. And you do that by example.

I’ve been looking for ways to try to make myself uncomfortable and do something different, because that’s what I feel like I’m always asking my kids to do. Oh, you got to try this. You got to try this because it’ll be good for you.

Yeah.

Trust me, my son’s seen me get choked out so many times. But he’s also seen me fuck some people up. So it’s good for him.

He trains and he’s just so smart. He’s not real aggressive, but he’s just got a good heart. I’d say if anybody’s thinking about doing anything like that, just go do it.

It’s uncomfortable. Going to the gym, lifting weights, doing whatever, people won’t go in the gym because they’re scared. But I’ve found nothing but positivity in a physical discipline.

It’s the only way, really.

It centers you, makes you feel good.

Yeah. I’m just trying to feel good, dude.

Speaking of that, on social media, you post a lot about you working the land, taking cold swims, other quote-unquote country activities. Are those activities important for your balance and your equilibrium also?

I always worked. If I could play music full time, I don’t know. I have to do something.

I have to. I just like working. As far as the cold point and stuff like that, yeah, those are great.

And I like pushing myself. I like doing things that make me uncomfortable. I like work.

Does that answer the question? Sorry. I think so.

I think it goes to the ever present question of authenticity, right?

It’s like, this is something that you want to do and you’re documenting it as part of your personality online.

People like to see that shit because not everybody is running barbed wire fence, new horse pasture in County, Kentucky. You know what I’m saying? In the middle of springtime, not a lot of people are doing that.

And I think people like seeing that stuff. I like seeing that stuff.

There’s a gratification with getting that type of work done. I had to fix my fence. I am not a person that has done a lot of work with my hands.

I don’t know if you can tell by looking at me, but I’ve started.

Just waiting for the standing ovation. Thank you. Thank you very much.

Anyhow, rough crowd.

Anyhow, I like doing it. There’s like a level of, you feel good when you finish something like that and it’s yours. And I had to fix the fence in my backyard because the people who lived here before screwed it up.

And so I fixed the fence in the backyard. And every time I walk in the backyard, I see that fence, I feel good about it. It’s not like a huge thing, going to the hardware store and getting some cement and a couple of posts and just doing it.

That type of thing, it makes me feel better. It makes me feel like I have some control over something. I think in parenting, there’s no doubt that there’s no control over anything.

We like to pretend there is. That these things, they provide a counterbalance to the chaos.

Yeah, work is always rewarding. I don’t know who came up with a five-day work week, but fuck that guy. But I’m three on, four off in a perfect world.

Yeah, me too.

I read somewhere that you were listening to a lot of ZZ Top when working on Goodbye LA. And you were also recently speaking with the Live Fast Die Whenever guys. And you mentioned that you grew up listening to like hard rock and punk and metal.

Obviously, you got some deep ties to the classic country music and perhaps some even church music that gets in there. How do you balance inspiration? Because especially with the new stuff that’s coming out, there’s a lot in there.

There’s a lot of different types of music that’s in there. It’s a little bit different.

Yeah, I think Goodbye LA was a good Kickstarter for me. Like mentally and like writing wise, we were in LA and we have this rule that we don’t say anything about the people or the club till we’re three miles down the road with the windows up.

And we were just commenting about how like, how all the, and we’re beautiful at this club we were playing. And somebody in the van said, yeah, but they don’t want to have babies. Just making a joke.

And I thought, that’s hilarious. I’m gonna write a song about that. And it’s, hello, LA, you got some pretty ladies, but they don’t want babies, and I do.

And I wrote that, and we were going down, we were heading to Austin to meet with Jonathan Tyler to record some demos.

And I had the first verse in the chorus, and we were on our way there, and I wrote the second verse, and we went in and cut the demo for it, and it just kind of all clicked, and I was like, oh, you just write about whatever you want.

You don’t have to write about drinking or, you know, I was listening to a song the other day, said something about sitting at a bar, and I was like, I hate fucking sitting at a bar. Like, I hate it. Like, I don’t want to sit here.

But some people, I guess, connect with that, but in my space, I was just like, I’m gonna write about whatever I want. And that was the turning point. I was listening to ZZ Top.

Is it a Lemonator, that record? Is that the one with, like, legs and… I just really like that sound.

That sound is just mesmerizing. And with this new record, I mean, it’s different. I remember, this is a crazy story.

There’s a song on Goodbye LA called Never Thought Of No One. Remember, I was sitting there with someone. I said, I don’t know how people will react to this song, because it’s not really a country vibe song.

And she’s like, what, people are going to get upset because you wrote a really catchy song? And so I was just like, you know what? It was Nikki Lane that said that.

And hearing it from her, I was just like, oh, she’s totally fucking right. I’m going to do whatever I want. And so I just started writing different stuff.

And then by the time this record came around, this is what came out.

I got to ask about Rob Gator just for a second. Speaking of names of cool people in the underground music space, you got Rob dancing in the video of Save You.

And it really balances this line of highly serious acting that he does, and a little bit of silliness in it. And then you’re talking about some really heavy stuff with kind of a positive sounding music behind it. How’d that video come together?

I’m sure if you follow Rod’s Instagram, you just see everything.

So we recorded the record, and I was sitting on the record, and he put some video on his Instagram where he was like dancing. Kevin Bacon, like in like Footloose.

And at the time I was, had that song going, and I reached out to Rod because I had the idea of him dancing for this song. I told him I wanted to do it at the Sagebrush in Austin, and he’s like, man, I don’t know.

He’s like, Zach Bryan just did a video at the Sagebrush. I don’t know. And I was like, oh, okay.

And then six months later, I was still thinking about it. And I reached out to Rod and I said, I said, hey, here’s the song. And I know we talked about it a while ago, but I told him the idea again.

I said, here’s the song, listen to it. And then he texts me back and he said, fuck it, I’m in. He said that song’s so good.

Rod’s such a solid dude. And luckily I caught him during a time where he was just like, I’m just going to say yes to everything. And I don’t know if he still feels that way, but he’s just a solid dude and he did such a great job on the video.

And I thought it was such a serious song that I needed to have him dance or someone dance. I needed something different because it is a heavy song. I thought it was a good mix between serious and him dancing.

Which is its own thing all by itself.

There’s some seriousness in those dance moves. And there’s storytelling in his movement. But it’s also a little silly.

It really is. Because the seriousness in his silliness, he’s seriously silly.

Yeah, that was the point.

It makes a heavy song heavier. And provides a way to make some light of it. It’s real interesting.

But I had to ask, because Rod’s an interesting dude.

He’s killer, dude. He’s some of his clips of him acting or whatever. He’s made for it.

He’s legit. Yeah, it is excellent.

On the project, you were working with Shooter Jennings out in LA. Shooter is a hit maker. And it seems like, at least as a listener, he brings out the person who’s making the music and he helps produce that in a way.

We spoke with Ted Russell Camp, who worked with Shooter for years and years as a bass player. He works in some of his studio work as well. How was that?

How did he make the process for you?

He was pretty, like, I had a few ideas, and it’s not that he’s shutting those ideas. He was really open to everything. But I think, like, he just wanted the song.

And if you notice, there’s not a bunch of, like, guitar leads everywhere. It’s just the song. And some of the songs are so simple.

She only knew who I was and what I am She said, don’t worry about coming back He was really about seeing what it was, like, just the voice, the guitar.

Like, I told him when I walked in, I was like, I’m not much of a guitar player, so if you want somebody, like, playing the acoustic track, that’s fine. He said, yeah, we’ll see.

And then I played guitar on the whole thing, acoustic guitar on the whole thing. And so it was just like, I don’t know, it was like we were there for seven days. I mean, I’d never met Shooter before.

When we were first talking about making a record with him, I got home one day and went outside to cut the grass. And I came back in, my phone was on the charge, and I pick up my phone and to text from Shooter Jennings.

And I’m just like, this is crazy. You know what I’m saying? I don’t think, for me, it’s crazy, but whatever.

And you know what? He’s just the sweetest dude ever. Like, the nicest guy you’ll ever meet.

And same with Ted. You’ve met Ted. Ted Camp is like, he’s solid.

And then everybody in the recording session was just excellent. They were so great. Yeah, just killer people.

And he was really good about finding just the song.

This stuff sounds great so far. I’m looking forward to the rest of the album when it drops.

We have a recurring segment that we like to call The Dad Life Sound Check where we share some song that’s been running through our head or that might be hitting us differently at the moment as dads.

So Jeremy, do you have anything that’s been running through your head lately?

No, I haven’t even been wearing the headphones at work or anything. Usually I listen to the audio book or podcast or music or whatever, but recently I’ve just been like, man, I just don’t want to hear anything at all.

Well, I just want to experience what’s going on around me. I’m not inspired right now.

Sometimes for me, some of the best inspiration just comes from silence when you’re outside, not thinking about anything else, things will pop in.

It’s so great. It’s so great. Like just noticing what’s around you.

It’s just a relief.

Yeah, it’s kind of related to the song that was running through my head a couple of weekends ago. It’s Sunshine by Ryan Bingham. I saw Bingham Outside of Sacramento.

That song, it’s a really hopeful song, positive song. It almost sounds like a prayer or something. It was really rocking live, so it was already in my head.

And then my wife and I took our family out into the mountains for a few days, and we went out to this alpine lake, and Donnie and I have talked about our family vacations.

They can be a little bit arduous, and maybe a little stressful when you’re trying to get out and relax. But my two-year-old really wanted to go swimming in this lake, and the lake was really cold.

I didn’t even want to go in the lake, but he wanted to so badly, so I was like, all right, I’ll go in the lake with you.

And he got so cold, but he didn’t want to stop swimming, and so I had to drag him out crying from the lake and wrap him up, and he’s shivering.

And that song, Sunshine, was going through my head, as I’m hoping that the sunshine is baking us enough and baking him enough to actually rejuvenate him so he’s not in serious trouble.

It was also a really nice moment, because I was just sitting there trying to warm him up, and so I couldn’t do anything else. I couldn’t go walk around, I couldn’t check my phone.

It was just a really nice silent moment with my son baking in the sunshine, and he fell asleep there.

And I feel like I needed that in the midst of the family trip, when I’m always worried about packing people up, where we’re going next, just to sit still with my son for just a few minutes.

Watch the color come back to the blue lips.

Yeah, exactly.

Dude, kids are crazy. It’ll be freezing, and kids will like, I’m not getting out of the pool. I’m like, dude, your lips are blue.

Like, you gotta get out of the pool. And he’s like, no, I’m good. And they’re like shaking.

They’re idiots, dude.

Should I get a popsicle now? It’s November. Get out of the pool.

Speaking of getting the fence fixed and things like that, we’ve had a list of things get done around our house, and there’s this Steve Denmark song called Honeydew that I think is funny.

White literally did what he’s describing in the song, is that he came up with the song as opposed to doing the things he was supposed to.

And I have been told that his wife doesn’t like when he plays the song, because it reminds her of the fact that he didn’t do the things that he was supposed to do.

So it was just a funny song, and I was cleaning up around the house, and I found my Steve Denmark hat, so put it on, I listened to the song again.

Dave, my father-in-law, there’s a cabinet in their kitchen, and the cabinet door’s been off for like, I don’t know how many years, but my mother-in-law’s constantly complaining about him never fixing the cabinet door, hanging in the kitchen.

I’ll call up every once in a while, I’ll be like, give him a hard time, and be like, hey, talk to my mother-in-law, and be like, hey, is that cabinet fixed in your kitchen? You know, she’s like, just give her a hard time, yeah.

A little poke in the bear there, huh?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I like a good song about domestic chores, so I’m always glad to find something like that.

You weren’t really going deep on that one.

We had a song about laundry a couple of weeks ago.

Exactly, man.

But it goes back to exactly what you said earlier, like you got to write about what you know, what you’re doing in your life.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

I could write a song about laundry, I’ll tell you that. Jesus, so much laundry. Anyhow.

There you go.

I might marry you. If you’re good with doing laundry.

Not really my type, but I appreciate the offer.

We’ll stop before we get any further.

Let’s go down the path, please.

All right.

Do you cook?

I do. I do everything. I don’t care.

You know what I’m saying? I do dishes. Plus, I just do it to let her know that I can do everything on my own and I don’t need her.

There you go.

See, that’s where it came back around. I thought you were going to say just to let her know that I’m here to help and be part of this partnership.

No, it’s a competition.

That’s healthy.

I’ve heard. Thanks so much for joining us, Jeremy. That was fun.

Good to hear some of your good stories behind the music.

Yeah. I appreciate you all.

Jeremy, where can people find you online?

jeremypinnell.com.

All the streaming sources have his great music, but consider going out and buying something hard copy. It helps all of our friends in the music industry continue to make great music. When that new record comes out, go buy one.

Thank you.

Thank you all for listening.

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