Home » The “Home Dad Chat” Podcast Goes Country

Country Music, Interviews, Stay-at-Home Dads

The “Home Dad Chat” Podcast Goes Country

The Dads are joined by the hosts of the ⁠Home Dad Chat⁠ podcast, Brock Lusch and Danny Mercer. Home Dad Chat is the official podcast of the ⁠National At Home Dad Network ⁠.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Show Notes:

  • 7:05 – HARDY Report: We were not going to do a HARDY Report this episode but Brock became a HARDY fan because of this segment and it had to be done.
  • 14:35 – Dad Life Sound Check: The Dads turned this segment over to their guests. Brock and Danny shared songs from Conway Twitty, Tracy Lawrence, Rodney Atkins, Billy Currington and Toby Keith  
  • 32:02 – Main Segment: The Dads learn about all of the ways that the ⁠National At Home Dad Network ⁠  provides resources for all dads to build community, find mentors and learn from their peers. The best way to see everything they have to offer is to visit and join their Facebook group ⁠National At Home Dad Network Facebook Group⁠. 

You can find the Country Music Dads Playlist on ⁠Spotify⁠ and via our ⁠⁠⁠⁠webpage⁠⁠⁠⁠. You can find all of our back episodes on our website⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠countrymusicdads.com⁠. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠Facebook⁠ @countrymusicdads. And most importantly, please give us a 5-star review and share the show with all of your friends.

Sources:

Transcript

The biggest thing that, and Brock and I talk about it a lot, the biggest thing that we find that men need is a mentor and a men’s group.

And especially when it comes to fatherhood, you need someone that you can go to and say, my kid stuck my keys down his diaper.

I don’t know what to do.

You know, and as professional fathers, as we all are, because we’ve had kids for a while, we go, oh yeah, you just stick your hand in there and take it out and go wash your hand, you’re fine.

This is Country Music Dads, the parenting podcast with a twang.

We’re bringing you highly subjective, sometimes questionable, but always 100% authentic country music analysis as only two dads in the trenches of modern parenting could do it.

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

My name is Mick, and I am also a country music dad.

And thank you for joining us.

This episode, we are joined by Brock Lusch and Danny Mercer from Home Dad Chat.

Home Dad Chat is the official podcast of the National At Home Dad Network.

An organization means a lot to me and to Dave.

So Brock and Danny, thank you very much for coming on the show and joining us.

Thank you.

So you guys are two luminaries of the At Home Dad community.

Home Dad Chat, like Mick mentioned, it is the official podcast of the National At Home Dad Network, making these two gentlemen the voices of the National At Home Dad Network.

So correct me if I get your titles wrong or your roles with the organization wrong, because I know things change sometimes.

But Danny is the vice president of the National At Home Dad Network.

Brock is a former board member for the National At Home Dad Network, and he is still, maybe we might call him the super volunteer of the network.

Somehow he seems to be involved in basically everything, and perhaps he’s picked up more work than he had when he was actually on the board.

Yeah, very excited to hear your perspectives on parenting, hear a little about the network, and of course a little bit about country music, because that’s what we like to talk about here.

So we want to let our listeners know a little bit about you two guys before we start talking.

So Brock, let’s start with you.

So how many kids do you have and what’s your story and what brought you to the At Home Dad Network?

Yeah.

So let’s see here.

My story.

I became a stay-at-home dad and I’m a work from home dad about seven years ago.

Childcare was the reason for that switch on things.

We’ve got two kids.

I’ve got a son.

He’s 11.

His name is Hezekiah.

He’s super smart and just knows way too much about animals.

And then my daughter, Ruby, is eight and she’s a very big artist.

So they keep me on my toes and they’re just a lot of fun to hang out with and also very frustrating at times like any other kid.

Me and my wife, we’ve been married for 17 years.

We’ll be coming up together for 20 years.

I met her in college and she’s actually from the middle of the cornfields of Illinois.

I grew up in a little farming town itself, but much bigger than hers.

Country Music’s been around us for the entire time.

I was very excited to be able to come on the show today and talk with you all.

That’s awesome.

And we are so glad to have you.

Yeah, I know you’re an early adopter of the podcast too, so we appreciate your listening.

We might have just designed the podcast just for you.

I love the playlist.

That’s one of my favorite things.

I will say that just for our listeners, Brock was the inspiration behind the playlist.

He kind of planted that bug in our ear and for that we are grateful.

And we are also grateful to have Danny with us.

So Danny, I know some of your background, but I am interested to learn a little bit more.

Well, let’s see, I have been a full-time stay-at-home dad for about 14 years.

I have four kids, they are 17, 14, 11, and 9.

We have a lot of birthdays in the next 30 days or so, so I will have an 18-year-old in the house pretty soon.

He is already prepared, ready to go to college.

He has got work scheduled almost every single day of the summer so that he can save money for college and really proud of where he is going.

I have been a member of the National At Home Dad Network for about eight years or so.

I basically found out about it, found out about the Facebook page and then found out about the conference.

Home DadCon is probably one of the biggest things about our organization.

It was in Raleigh and at the time I was living down near Atlanta, so I had about maybe five hours I think drive and my wife joined me and we went on a little second honeymoon almost where she stayed in her room and it and sat quietly and read books until I came in and just kind of extroverted all over her and she had a great time.

I brought her down to the lobby one time and introduced her to probably 40 people that I just met within the last 24 hours and that’s how it started for me.

Started helping out where I could, the Facebook admin team I think was the first place I went and started with the network and then it just started growing into what more can I do?

Where can I help?

That’s gone all the way up to me joining the board, being voted on to the board and then being voted to vice president just this year.

And I also run or facilitate, I guess we have better way to put it, mental health support groups for the organization.

We have three regular weekly that we do and then we have a big in-person one at the convention every year.

And I think it’s probably the thing that I’m most passionate about with the organization and with not only teaching myself, but teaching others and then how to teach our children about things like emotional self-awareness, just having names for the emotions you feel, that kind of thing.

Very simple stuff that I feel like a lot of us missed.

The way I grew up, you basically could be angry or you could be joyful in church.

That was about it.

So I’ve listened to country music my whole life and it’s been a long life.

So talking about your favorite songs, the songs you love, things of that nature.

There’s so many and there’s so much about it and different reasons for each one.

So I really enjoyed the episodes of the podcast that I’ve listened to so far.

We got, think five down and I got about half of the last one that you put out with Country Cutler.

That was his name.

Thanks for listening.

Well, yeah, of course, it’s good stuff and I will say, like Brock mentioned, the playlist is cool because every time I’m like, wait, what was that song?

I have to try to go back in the podcast and find it.

I don’t do that.

Just go to the end.

There’s it in the notes.

It’s well done.

Well done.

Hey, I was going to say, David, I got to thank you for introducing me to Hardy.

I had no idea who that was.

You have no idea how happy that makes me feel when someone says that.

Our listeners have no idea that Dave just jumped up out of his chair with a little Superman pose arms up in the air.

So the brewery that I work at is down the street from one of the biggest music venues in Cincinnati, River Bend Music Center.

And so I have to, as an event coordinator for the brewery, keep track of when all these musicians are coming in, because that means we’re going to be busy that day.

Like, anytime there’s a concert, we just get slammed.

And so I had seen his name show up and I didn’t really do any research on most of these folks.

If it’s somebody I know, I’m like, all right, cool, they’re coming in.

But it was like, I saw the name on the calendar and then you guys launched your podcast and you started talking about Hardy.

And I’m like, who is this person?

Like, Dave’s talking about him.

Like, what’s going on?

And I looked it up and I’m like, oh, I could get into this.

And then it was funny because I was listening to it in the car and my son, who listens to country music, 11 year old, by the way, and his the radio in his room, he’s just always busting country music like crazy out the window.

It seems like it was just like, oh, I know this song and he was getting so excited about it.

I’m like, all right, cool.

So I listened to a lot of the other stuff.

I’m like, yeah, this is some good beats.

I don’t know that I would call it country.

I feel like it sort of falls almost in line with kid rock back in the day kind of deal.

To me, it’s like a Florida Georgia line kind of like almost like it’s Florida Georgia line on steroids to me.

Like it is really much more than what they were doing.

But yeah, I like it.

It’s enjoyable.

It makes sense.

He wrote lots of songs for Florida Georgia line, actually.

Okay.

He started as a songwriter and that was they probably made him a lot of money.

You’re totally right about like it’s like kid rock and kind of that new metal sound.

I feel like it’s people that he probably listened to growing up.

He’s just trying to emulate them.

Nickelback.

Oh, definitely.

Yeah.

All that big Nickelback guy even has on his new album, he has a collaboration with Fred Durst.

He’s kind of channeling that.

Thanks a lot, Brock.

We weren’t going to do a Hardy Report this episode because we wanted to have a much more conversation with you two and now we got a Hardy Report.

Dave and I are doing a Hardy Report.

He’s coming to Cincinnati here pretty soon.

Is he coming to that venue?

Yeah, he will be coming to that venue.

Brock, we’ve got another little thing that we want to specifically thank you for.

A few episodes back, I shared the story of you listening to us talk about Chris Stapleton and his whiskey coming out, and how you sent us a care package each.

Well, Dave and I, we kept our little care packages still.

Well done.

So we thought the only proper thing to do would be to sip these tonight with you as a little bit of a thank you for sending them to us.

Yeah, definitely, man, that’s awesome.

I was honestly fortunate even to get the bottle of Travelers, which is actually a Buffalo Trace product for anybody who doesn’t know about it.

And it’s a collaboration that Chris Stapleton did with Buffalo Trace Distillery.

The bottle is really cool.

It’s got a map as part of the labeling in it.

So that’s kind of a neat thing.

Actually, when I finished the bottle, I didn’t get rid of it because I just thought it was a really cool design.

And so I’ve got that on my shelf.

I think it has some really fun characteristics to it.

I enjoyed it.

I’m hoping to get another bottle of it here pretty soon.

I’ve heard that there are traces of them around Cincinnati.

So we’ll see what happens.

Here’s the deal.

After you and I had the conversation about this and then the care package came and everything, not long after that we started seeing it in Kansas City without any issues at all.

That’s what happens.

So if you want me to grab you a bottle, they’ve got it at Costco now.

I am more than happy to grab a bottle and bring it to St.

Louis for you.

If I don’t track one down by St.

Louis, I will definitely take that offer up for sure.

I shared that bottle with quite a few people actually.

So I enjoyed it myself, but I feel like the whole idea of Bourbon is to share it and enjoy it.

And so to be able to put it in little sampler bottles and send it out to some different folks and give them out to guys that I have around here, I was more than happy to do it because I feel like you never know who is and who isn’t going to get bottles like that around the country.

So yeah, absolutely.

I will say it tastes like a Buffalo Trace product to me.

I can definitely get that.

I don’t pick up the notes like a lot of people do just from being bashing the nose from playing rugby for so many years.

So a lot of the nuance is gone.

I just know whether I like it or not.

And yeah, first sip, that was pretty tasty.

So Dave and I are going to share, we’re going to make another little announcement that’s whiskey related here today.

What would I plan to do with that bottle?

And Dave has got a bottle that he sourced out in LA that Ryan Bingham has put his name behind.

So what we’re going to do is we’re going to, in St.

Louis, we’re going to pit Chris Stapleton against Ryan Bingham from a bourbon standpoint and just kind of have a little bit of a, you know, little tasting, little sampling, talk about music.

Maybe something, somebody will push play on the recorder, you know, at the same time and get some content for an episode out of there.

I just had to look up who Ryan Bingham was and I’m like, oh, it’s the guy from Yellowstone.

Oh my gosh, I love that guy.

Yeah, he was such a great character in that show.

He plays a lot of his music on the show, too.

It’s like his real songs.

My wife and I enjoyed that show and, you know, just his whole character and what he did.

So that’s really cool.

So for all of our listeners, if you plan to be at Home DadCon in St.

Louis and you want to be involved in the showdown, the bourbon hoedown showdown, I know.

There’s the name right there.

I mean, we got to come up with something.

I don’t know.

The bourbon boot scoot and boogie.

Get a couple of these in you and they’ll be some boot scoot and boogie for damn sure.

But hit us up on the socials if you want to be involved.

And as we get more concrete details as to what is going to be involved, we will let you know.

Are you going to get Ryan to come to Home DadCon?

Is that what’s going to happen?

I mean, they are both dads, so, you know.

All we can do is extend an invitation.

That’s all we can do.

So, speaking of extending invitations, as you guys have said you both listened to the show before, we do the dad life sound check.

The dad life sound check is our way of showcasing what we’re listening to.

It can be new.

It can be old.

It can have a parenting connotation.

There’s really no rules for it whatsoever.

It’s just what particular song or artist is getting you right now.

And so, for the dad life sound check for this episode, we’re going to turn it over to you two.

Dave and I are going to sit back and invite you to share what is currently either running through your car radio or running through your Pandora, Spotify account, whatever you use.

So Danny, is there anything that’s really putting you in a boot scooting boogie mood or just something that you’re identifying with from a musical standpoint lately?

You know, boot scooting is its own thing.

So especially when I’m driving, no, not in a boot scooting mood.

But yeah, I put a lot of the older songs on my Amazon playlist and it’s on my favorites and I just kind of it’s a lot of different music, but there are four or five songs on there that are, you know, true, my opinion, true country song.

And in listening to your show, Conway Twitty saying, That’s My Job.

And it’s a song that’s basically about being a dad.

And I, of course, that song is old and it’s older than my kids.

So it’s not something that I really ever thought of.

I always thought of it from the framework of my dad and what my dad, how my dad fulfilled that song or how my dad failed in fulfilling that song and what have you.

And I got to say, like a lot of things, when you have children, when you recognize, oh, I’m the dad now.

It really changed that song for me because I look at the things that he talks about, it’s comforting basically your small child because there’s a thunderstorm or it’s comforting your older child as they go out into the world, which I’ve thought about a lot lately with my kid going to college.

And the song is like, what happens?

What if I fail?

What if I can’t do this?

What if it doesn’t work out like I think it will?

And every time the song comes back to the chorus, that’s my job.

That’s what I do.

And that’s probably the song on my playlist right now that is most poignant to me.

We covered that one a couple episodes ago for our Father’s Day playlist because that was the one dad song that Mick and I both agreed on.

It made both of our lists.

It’s a classic.

And you mentioned that the meaning and how it hits you changes from before you were a dad to after you were a dad.

It means something different to you.

Now as your kids are getting older, it means something different.

It’s just a magical thing that music can do to kind of change and grow with you.

Sorry, you talked about…

I don’t remember what episode it was on, but we talked about how music goes well with parenting because it’s telling a story.

And it’s creating traditions in your family through storytelling.

And it’s how it hits generationally for me with that song.

It’s what my…

The story my dad told was not the story that I’m telling.

But in listening to that song, I look at it and I think, there were times when my dad was never really around.

He really wasn’t that supportive.

But the moments, little touchstones that I had with him throughout my life, few and far between, unfortunately.

But they were points where he was there for me, whether I enjoyed it or not.

As an example, I was 16, got into a little trouble.

You know, that’s what you do.

And my dad showed up.

And I’m like, what are you doing here?

You know, he’d been gone for 10 years at least.

And he came in and he basically told me, look, your mom said this happened.

I want to know the story.

I want to know why it happened.

And I want to know where your head’s at.

And it was more of a disciplinary thing.

And I didn’t want to do that.

And I definitely want him to do it.

But I’m 16 and I need it.

He didn’t spank me, of course, or anything like that.

But he just came in and said, hey, maybe you should rethink how you reacted.

And maybe you should apologize, you know?

And little moments like that were times where he really personified that song for me.

And again, that was his story.

And my story is completely different.

The story that my kids will learn.

The traditions they’ve picked up.

There’s an Instagram account called, I think it’s called There I Ruined It.

And I’ll link it in the show notes.

It’s this guy who uses AI to mash up almost like parody songs across genres.

And he just did one.

He mashed up 50 cents in the club in Conway Twitty’s style.

And he called it Conway Fitty.

And 50 Cent actually shared that on his social media because he liked it so much.

So I think that was probably a dream come true for whoever runs that Instagram account.

But it was pretty funny.

That’s cool.

Oh, man.

It’s already got memes too.

Oh, man.

The picture of Conway Fitty is just breaking me.

Oh, yeah.

50 Cent with Conway Twitty’s hair in the leisure suit.

Man, that ain’t right.

Yeah.

Get the mash up on the music and also the image.

That’s awesome.

My other one is Time Marches On by Tracy Lawrence.

I originally liked that song just because of the TikTok beat.

You know, and it just keeps going.

And I love that.

I’m like, this is really cool.

Then I learned the words.

And I look at it now and I’m like, yeah, that’s the generations of a family.

And that’s what I’m looking at.

I can see basically the horizons of my life.

You know, I can remember when I was a little kid and I can look forward and see how long I’m probably going to live.

And that song is a big part of it to me because of you becoming again, the people you, well, I think for most of us loved or revered even as our parents.

And you become them in a lot of ways and yet you’re all so different.

All right, Brock, let’s hear your submission for the Dad Life Soundcheck.

So I had a hard time coming up with just one.

Danny gave us two.

Yeah, so I listen to a lot of stuff.

I’m very eclectic in my background of music.

But when it comes to country music, especially connecting with being a parent and just life in general, there are three songs that really stick out to me.

The first one is Rodney Atkins Watching You.

That song was, it just spoke to me.

I wanted to be a dad.

I just, everything about that song, your kids are watching you, what you’re doing, what you’re saying.

And sometimes maybe you’re not even being too observant to what they’re picking up on.

And then they do something, and you’re like, where did you learn that at?

And it’s like, oh wait, yeah, it was from me.

And so that song to me was the thing.

When I became a dad, my wife pointed out, she’s like, this is real life here.

This is about to be the real deal.

So that was the first song that really hit me.

And it stays with me.

It’s just such a good song.

It’s got a great rhythm to it, and just an amazing story as well.

So the other one is a little more meaningful to me now is my kids are getting a little bit older, because before when they were, all my kids are small, they’re six or under.

And six year old now is in kindergarten, and I have memories myself from kindergarten.

So I know that he’s going to remember stuff that he sees me do, maybe for his whole life.

Before that, I felt like I could kind of relax a little bit, like, they’re so young, they’re not going to remember this.

They’re not going to remember this.

But now he’s going to remember these things, and that song is always a good reminder, like, man, I need to watch myself.

For sure.

And two, there’s all the things that are kind of negative that happen, and then in the story, I love it when he goes into his son’s room and his son is on his knees praying, and he’s like, where’d you learn that at?

And he’s like, I saw you doing it, Dad, like that kind of thing.

It gets you all choked up.

You’re like, oh, gosh, OK, there it is.

The punch in the gut, the just amazing feeling of like, all right, I do some stupid things.

But at the same time, they also are picking up the right things as well.

You described that visual.

I got chills, actually.

The other song, one of their songs that I really enjoy is Bill Carrington’s People Are Crazy.

They sit in a bar, talking to some random person and basically becoming friends with them.

And then all of a sudden you get their life story and find out what’s going on.

And I love the storyline for that because the first time I heard it, I was just like, yeah, I could totally see that happening.

Yeah, that’s another one of mine.

And then the last one that I really like from Country Music is Toby Keith.

Honestly, anything Toby Keith.

I really think that he had an amazing career.

I definitely was sad when he passed away.

I knew that he had been battling some things, but he put together some amazing songs just about patriotism and just the country and life in general.

But the one that always sticks out to me is I ain’t as good as I once was.

Because I feel that.

I’m 44 years old, man.

I feel that.

Oh, yeah.

Do you feel it, young fella?

I feel it.

Danny, I’m with you.

The two of us, we got these two little whippersnappers over here.

You know, in your 40s, man, we got shoes older than you.

Hey, you know what?

Yeah, you’re right.

But it’s so true.

I think it starts in your 30s, really.

In your 30s, you start getting to the point, you’re like, oh, I can still do that, but I’m going to be hurting in the morning.

Yeah, definitely.

I love that song, though.

Gentlemen, I can honestly say that this has been the biggest dad life soundcheck we have ever had.

And that’s a good thing.

And here’s why it’s a good thing.

You guys mentioned two songs that we have covered on this show previously.

The first one, we just talked about the Conway Twitty, but the Rodney Atkins song, The Watching You, Brock, we put that one on our Best Country Songs for Father’s Day playlist.

And it was just, it’s so interesting because you know how a song hits you.

But to hear other people explain how a song hits them, that’s just always insightful.

And it’s a look into the person, you know.

I mean, there’s so much you can learn about someone by what they enjoy about a song or what the kind of songs they like.

It was really funny for me that I got into the car with my oldest and he’s got his playlist and it immediately starts playing.

And the first song he went, oh, and fast forwarded, went to the next one, skipped it.

And I went, what was that, buddy?

And he’s like, yeah, I cannot listen to that with you in the car.

And I’m like, so you’re not embarrassed about what the song is, right?

Because it obviously said something sexual.

You just don’t want to listen to it.

Well, he goes, yeah, it’s just, it’d just be weird.

I’m like, okay, cool.

And listening to his songs.

And the funniest thing is, I think the song that I heard, we weren’t in the car that long, but Tears for Fears came on, right?

And I’m looking at him like, what, what, what, what?

Why is this song on?

And he’s driving, so I’m finally like, dude, why is this song on here?

And he goes, oh, well, I heard it when you played it and I liked it, so I put it on my playlist.

This is so interesting, Danny.

Are you talking about your boy and his playlist?

Because my son, Luke, is a little bit older, less than a year older, but they’re both, they’re at the same stage in their life, graduated high school, heading off to college.

So really kind of going through a lot of the same stuff.

And so Luke has his, you know, playlist, too.

And lots of times when we’re driving someplace, I will let the kids plug in their stuff because I’m curious, how often do we hear people lament the fact that, oh, my kid won’t ever talk to me?

Try asking them where they heard that song.

Try asking them why they chose it, why they like it.

Or you can even go deeper and, okay, well, what does this song mean to you and everything like that?

But you don’t have to, you can just, you know, keep it as to whatever level that they’re comfortable with.

But I have found myself doing that, getting a conversation started about why Luke chose whatever.

There have been numerous times he’s like, yeah, I heard you and mom playing and I thought it was cool.

Well, I will say too, just going back to it, because the songs that you see people, you know, it really, it links the two of you when you have that musical commonality, right?

Hearing my son play Cheers for Fears, it just, I mean, I’m like, let’s listen to this forever.

And then he taught me to listen to other songs.

As an example, there’s a band called Glass Animals.

They have a song called Heatwave and it’s just amazing.

And I love it.

And I put it on my playlist, right?

And same thing.

And he knew that I got it from him because we were driving for a long while.

I’m like, yeah, I want to hear your songs.

And I think it’s very interesting that you really learn a lot about the fact that music doesn’t define who you are.

The fact that I love country music doesn’t necessarily mean that for lack of a better term, that I’m a redneck, right?

It, now it probably does, you know, but realistically the music you have doesn’t have to define you.

And I’ve met people that I didn’t really even have anything in common with them.

I remember a girl, I was probably in the late nineties.

I was listening to the Dead Milkman, which was a very off brand thing for me, admittedly, but I loved it.

And the song was just cool and it was just hard and I liked the way it went.

And she comes up and she’s like, why are you listening to this?

And it was so out of sorts for who she thought I was, you know, and granted she didn’t know me, but you really see something about someone.

And from there we had a very good friendship for a couple of years.

We never became more than friends, but we had that moment and it was enough to open up an entire two, three years of conversations and time out together and just learning more and more about this person.

Because for her, I mean, the thought of me when my old pickup truck with my ball cap and everything else and my boots, listening to anything other than Alan Jackson, maybe, he might be too modern for that old man, right?

It was amazing for her.

And then in me looking at it, I kind of saw how much it really opened up who we are to each other.

So listening to someone’s songs is the fantastic way, I think, to figure out things you may not know about them.

Yeah.

You know, connecting with kids in music, I find that to be like one of the interesting things.

Because a lot of times you have parents, it seems like they’re like all about the kid, Kid Bop kind of thing.

And now there’s a lot of parents who are like, I’m going to step out and I’m just going to like share my music, my things that I enjoy.

I’m not going to try to not play these things when we’re in the car and to see what their reaction is to it and things like that.

And I’ve seen some amazing things with my kids.

They really enjoy listening to a lot of the stuff that my wife and I listen to in the car.

And so we don’t have to do all the kids music stuff.

But one of the things that was really cool, so Bluey of course is a huge cartoon that everybody knows and loves, right?

Like, I mean, just it’s taken off like wildfire, but there was a cartoon on Netflix that was out way before Bluey that was all about music.

And it was called Beat Bugs.

Every single episode surrounded a song from the Beatles catalog.

And my kids ate that up.

It was so much fun to actually sit there.

It was one of those shows you could just enjoy the music.

The characters were singing the songs and they actually made the cartoon.

It was like a music video, basically.

I just can’t help thinking of the words cartoon and Beatles and not seeing a huge yellow submarine.

I know I had to say it and I apologize for just for no, no, you’re not for grabbing the low hanging fruit, but it felt like it needed to be done.

It’s there.

It’s one of the episodes and it’s really neat the way they do it.

But yeah, I just wanted to kind of put that out there.

That’s another just kind of cool cartoon show that I feel like as a parent, if you’re in music, especially if you’re a Beatles fan, like that’s a neat show to check out.

Well, let’s talk about something else that’s neat to check out.

So Dave and I have talked about the National At Home Dad Network on this show before.

In doing so, we’ve kind of shared how he and I first met at one of the Home Dad Cons.

That one was particularly in Brock, your hometown of Cincinnati.

Yeah.

And honestly, we could do a whole show on Home Dad Con.

And frankly, I’ve done a whole show on Home Dad Con before in my former podcast life.

But it’s every week.

I think last year it took two episodes or maybe three, if I’m not mistaken.

It was a one for every day.

But ultimately, Dave and I have shared some about it, but we haven’t shared specifically what the network does in terms of providing resources and support for dads that are primary caregivers.

So Danny, I’m going to ask you, if you could, what would you say that the fundamental purpose of the network is?

Part of my vision statement for when I put myself up to be vice president was building community.

And community, I think, answers that question.

The biggest thing that, and Brock and I talk about it a lot, the biggest thing that we find that men need is a mentor and a men’s group.

And especially when it comes to fatherhood, you need someone that you can go to and say, my kid stuck my keys down his diaper.

I don’t know what to do.

And as professional fathers, as we all are, because we’ve had kids for a while, we go, oh, yeah, you just stick your hand in there and take it out and go wash your hand.

You’re fine.

No, you build a network around yourself and everything that we do.

And we go into a lot of detail about like the friendship deficit and how men don’t have people to talk to a lot of times.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no about that.

But for me, the National At Home Dad Network comes down to community.

It is a community that I’m a part of.

It is a community that is in a way a part of me.

I go there to be inspired.

I go there to learn, to be educated.

I go there to be supported.

And there’s so much that the network does beyond just being a good community.

But the core of it, in my opinion, is having a place where you can go and ask those questions that you can’t ask anywhere else.

And granted, we’re still humans.

There are people that will poke fun at you for a question you might ask.

But generally, 99% of the answers are going to be people that are looking to support you.

I mean, we’ve had questions about home repairs.

We’ve had questions about moving from being an at-home parent to having a job again, how to do your resume.

We’ve had questions about, you know, my kid is this age.

Why are they doing this?

And there’s so many things that you pick up.

Dave, you said your oldest is six.

You’ve had six years of training, plus all the years with any additional children, because that’s exponential.

And you become, in your way, because of your experience, an expert in some things.

Things that, again, we talked about.

You never even imagine you’re going to talk about these things before you become a dad, right?

And when you’re in it, you’re in the trenches, so to speak, having someone that you can go to and say, okay, I took my kids to the playground and they called the cops on me.

What is going on, right?

And that has happened.

So it’s that community, I think, is really what the network builds itself around.

Yeah, a lot of definite community aspects to the network.

And you kind of touched on some of the things I see regularly as a member of the Facebook group that is moderated by the network.

Danny talked a little bit about the mental health support group.

We kind of mentioned Home DadCon.

Brock, talk about the specific ways that community can and is built within the network.

Yeah, definitely.

The network is such an amazing, tangible thing to actually touch that it’s not just a Home DadCon thing.

I think a lot of people see Home DadCon and they think, oh, it’s a once a year thing.

Dads get together, they get to hang out.

But the organization has gotten to be so much more than that over the years.

With the different online attributes, we’ve got the book club that is going on, and you’ve got Matt Strains doing his dad’s walk in the line, sober dads, that kind of deal.

And that’s huge.

I applaud him for stepping up and taking that on because that is a lot and he’s doing some amazing work there.

The webinar monthly has been also a really cool thing.

The one thing that I didn’t really plan on this being the thing that I would really do, but it just kind of comes natural, I guess, is connecting with dads out in the wild with your family.

So going on trips and you’re in an area and you have the opportunity to actually connect and go hang out and see these other dads in person or to be able to heed the call when a dad says, hey, I need to find out about this location or I need to find out if somebody lives in this specific area because I have a friend who is a dad who needs some assistance and some help from another dad kind of deal.

And I’ve kind of gotten to this point where a lot of people, whenever they have that question of who could I get in touch with, I get messages pretty regularly from people.

They’re like, who do you know that lives in this area?

And it’s just one of those deals where I just want other dads to know that there’s this huge network that goes deeper than just the things that you might see us doing on a normal basis.

And we are all willing to just bend over backwards for each other, even though some of us have only met maybe once in our entire life.

But it’s just the bonding that is there as fathers that we’re willing to do that for.

And so that’s what I love about this organization.

Did you mention the Dad Lounge?

I didn’t mention the Dad Lounge, yeah.

So at the time of this recording, the Dad Lounge is going on?

The Dad Lounge is my baby that I created during COVID to basically keep dads connected even though they were already isolated.

It was like, all right, what do we do?

And basically started doing a twice a week Dad Lounge where guys can call in and be a part of a Zoom call and just hang out.

Just like this, honestly, it’s very similar to this.

We’re just talking and sharing life and just enjoying hearing everybody’s conversation.

And, of course, life gets busy.

And so I’ve handed that off to Arvis Brekeen and he’s doing an amazing job with it and just really loves the connection that’s being made there.

And so, yeah, for me, it’s all about community.

And this organization has been just huge in making that happen.

And I’m glad that you guys keep focusing on the connections and the community aspect because as somebody that’s been around this…

Okay, well, let’s be honest.

I was around this organization before it was even an organization.

I know you guys have all heard me talk about that from time to time.

But I’m so glad that both of you keep circling back to the bonds that are created and the sense of community that is created, whether it be in person or online or whatever the medium is, because there are so many dads out there, to Danny’s first original point, dads need mentors.

And you need to find somebody who has either gone through what you’re going through or is going through what you’re going through.

Because you think about it, Brock, you talked about dads in the wild.

There is a feeling of security in numbers.

And if we can be honest, there’s not a huge number of dads that are primary caregivers.

And a lot of dads just think that they’re by themselves.

Right.

I think back to the dad.

Do you remember in Cincinnati for Home DadCon, the dad who walked into the lobby area while we were all sitting there?

And you can tell immediately, like there were so many signs that this dude had to be a stay at home dad.

He was looking around everywhere and he saw all these guys.

And we all had shirts on that said stuff about being dads.

And I just went up to him and was like, hey, man, like, by any chance are you stay at home dad?

I mean, this dude had like a diaper bag hanging from his head, you know, from his neck.

And he’s got the stroller and all kinds of crazy stuff going on and inviting him to the beer share.

I just feel like that guy had to have had one of the greatest nights of his life, honestly, because he came up to the beer share.

Yeah.

And that’s where I met him.

I didn’t meet him and see him in the lobby, but I met him up later that evening when he popped in for a little bit.

I talked to him and his wife actually at the elevator and said, hey, man, we got this thing going on tonight.

I’d love for you to be able to come to it if that’s OK.

You guys just walked in or whatever, but this is something that happens every year.

It’s kind of a special thing.

And his wife was like, yeah, definitely.

Like once we get the kid down, go for it.

And so he came and it was just so neat.

And that’s the that’s the thing like that connection.

And I’m very extroverted.

So really, I didn’t know that.

Yeah, you know, it was it was an easy it was an easy, you know, connection there.

And I think it’s a great segue, too, from what you were talking about, Mick, about fathers needing to know someone’s there, someone they can rely on and what have you.

And we’re about fatherhood.

Now, we’re definitely at home, dad, so it’s it’s niche.

But we’ve opened ourselves, our groups up to work from home dads.

And really, we’re just looking for involved fathers.

You don’t have to be an at home dad to be a great father, of course.

And the National At Home Dad Network is actually kind of partnering up with fathering together.

And they also father together part of city dad groups or city grad dad groups, a part of fathering together and Father’s Eve.

And over the next year, they’re doing the hashtag No Dad Alone campaign.

And this is something that really we recognize that we were all kind of on the same journey, but we were kind of on different paths.

Originally, when fathering together started, it was dads with daughters.

So it was a very specific thing, but it was huge because there was really no support, no real understanding of what it means to be a dad trying to raise a little girl.

And a lot of people struggled with that.

And they really found a bond with that that grew far beyond that so that it became, okay, well, we have dads with daughters.

We’re also going to have dads with sons.

And now we’re just going to be fathering together.

And fathering together has gotten so big that they actually took on city dad groups and kind of brought that into their group as well.

And they’re wonderful organizations for dads anywhere in any situation to find community and support.

And the No Dad Alone campaign, I think, is going to be one of my favorite things, definitely for the next year.

But I think I’m always going to look back on it and always drop back on to that hashtag because it really is the focus of what we need to remember.

You’re not alone.

There are other dads out there who get it.

Whatever you’re going through, they get it.

You may not be an at-home dad, but if you’re a work-from-home dad, you want to come into our network, let’s go.

If you’re a full-time working dad, you’re in the middle of a divorce, or you’re worried you might lose your kids, there’s another dad that’s been there and can help.

And through these organizations, and I want to say Father’s Eve especially, because I really love John Francis and I love his organization, it really focuses on how important fatherhood is.

So, hashtag No Dad Alone.

Look for it on Instagram.

Yeah, that really resonates with me, the concept of No Dad Alone, because I’ll admit to all of you extroverts on the call here, I’m the introvert in the room here.

I was a work-from-home dad during the pandemic, partially until I became a stay-at-home dad.

And that’s when I first found the network.

And when I heard you guys on the podcast, that was the first time I think that I had ever heard that a stay-at-home dad existed other than me.

I knew that they were out there, but I didn’t actually believe it.

I’ve come along some other dads who, especially here in town, there’s a couple of dads that they do a podcast, I don’t remember what the name of it was, but they invited me on a while back.

They’re like, we’ve never met a stay-at-home dad before.

It was like Unicorn walking into the Enchanted Forest and sharing all of this knowledge.

As an introvert, I think that even looking back on that time of my life when I was in the workforce and then transitioning into my time taking care of my kids, I didn’t really think that I needed more friends or more community.

And I didn’t really know what I was missing until I kind of forced myself to, all right, I’ll go to this convention because it’s probably good for me.

It’s like eating my broccoli or something.

Like I should just make myself a little uncomfortable and show up.

And it’s totally changed my life, the connections that I’ve made.

I never thought that I would be plugged into what’s really, for most of the year it’s an online community.

And I don’t really like Zoom calls, but I look forward to the book club calls every two weeks.

That’s kind of my version of the dad lounge that I’m plugged into.

And it helps that I do get to see a lot of those people once a year in person at the convention.

Or like you were talking about, Brock, some of them have come out to LA on vacation with their families, and I’ve been able to see them again.

And just those little touch points plus the online interaction and knowing that you can text somebody that gets what you’re going through, it’s just so powerful, whatever phase of your dad life you’re in.

I love the fact that people are coming out to LA, giving you a call up or whatever, and being able to connect with them like that.

I feel like that’s sort of this untapped resource to this network, is the fact that there are dads like that, to be able to just have conversations and meet up like that.

Before we wrap it up with a lightning round for you gentlemen, is there anything else that you think that our listeners need to know, want to know, should know about the organization?

There’s a membership fee of $35 to join, and honestly it’s very small, and you get a lot of amazing resources for that.

I think that it’s overlooked actually just how much you get for that $35.

I’m wrangling to make it $50.

If it goes up, you blame me, because I’m like, we’re doing all of this?

We used to do it for free.

It’s a great value, man.

It really is.

You get a lot for it, honestly, and I think there’s some other things coming down the pipeline, but yeah, the organization is definitely worth paying to participate in, and it also helps to keep the organization afloat as well.

But we should say that the Facebook group and Discord and all the socials are free.

Yeah, it is.

We’re talking about being a paid member, not just a Facebook member.

So, you know, don’t be dissuaded if you’re like, I got to pay $35 just to hang out in a Facebook group.

No, no.

It’s got an NPR sort of feel to it.

You can listen and be a part of it and not actually pay into it, or you can actually pay into it.

Home DadCon, like I said, we were talking about it, is coming up here very soon.

It’s October 17th through the 19th in St.

Louis.

You can go to homedadcon.org and get more information on that and register.

We’ve also got a resident stay at home dad cowboy coming to actually present as well.

I was just going to say that because I pulled up the list of speakers on the website, and I’m looking at this picture of Daniel Wilkinson.

I don’t even care what he’s talking about.

I want to go just to meet that guy.

He looks like he’s straight out of Yellowstone.

He’s a Yellowstone extra is what he is.

You want to talk Yellowstone and Daniel Wilkinson?

It gets better than that.

OK, so he Daniel raises horses and he doesn’t just raise horses.

He raises the kind of horses that they show in, you know, like seasons at four.

Yeah, the rodeo.

He’s got that aspect going on his ranch.

He’s got a six year old that fricking rodeo until three o’clock in the morning.

The horse that he has on stud on his ranch is a two or three generation direct descendant from the horse that they talk about, Metallic Cat in Yellow Zone series.

Yes.

That’s crazy.

So, yeah.

I mean, our podcast, which you can find pretty much.

I would imagine in a lot of the places that you guys have yours, any pretty much podcast platform that you can find Home Dad Chat and I always tell people to don’t put Home Dad Chat as one word.

It’s three separate words to be able to find it on all those different platforms.

Absolutely.

Thank you for sharing that.

And they are definitely worth a listen.

As someone who’s listened to them for three plus years now, I feel somewhat confident in saying that.

Another thing that I am confident in is that you gentlemen will get the answer correct.

Someone hands you a pair of grill tongs?

No, no, no, everyone knows that.

If someone hands you a drill, what do you do?

It’s just the same.

But they go, come on, we’re going to challenge you just a little bit here.

There’s only one of these.

I’m going to ask you three questions, three questions for the lightning round.

There’s only one song that has a correct answer.

The other ones you get to, you know, give your opinion.

There are no right or wrong answers.

That is not true.

I’m an idiot.

I’m about to prove it.

Who’s your favorite?

George Jones or straight?

Straight.

God, that’s tough, man.

Jetson.

George Jones.

George Jones.

The room is split.

So it remains split.

You got it wrong.

That’s the only thing I can say.

Way to go, Danny.

Dave and I are split on it, too.

So that’s kind of the running joke on that.

I was listening to George Straight tonight, man.

Literally, yeah, I’ve got one on my playlist that I listen to.

Yeah, I don’t want to talk about that song, but.

What song or artist is your country music guilty pleasure?

I don’t like some of the off brand stuff.

OK, fine.

I guess somebody would say Darius Rucker.

I love Darius Rucker, but I’m a huge Hootie and the Blowfish fan.

OK, I’m right there with you on Hootie and the Blowfish.

Yeah, I’m actually going to see them this summer.

Yeah, they’re touring.

They’re touring right now.

Hootie.

Danny, Guilty Pleasure.

Beyonce.

This ain’t Texas.

This ain’t Texas.

Yep, it is.

I can’t do it.

I don’t feel guilty about it either.

Beyonce is amazing.

That song is on the playlist.

I know it is.

Along with Police Navidad, which my kids, every time it pops up, they’re like, why is this on here?

Because Dave’s kids thought George Strait was singing it.

That’s why it’s there.

Yep, that’s perfect sense.

It’s all the horns.

All right, Danny, you get to go first this time.

Last question.

If you could have a beer and a honky tonk with anyone, who would it be?

Dolly Parton.

Excellent choice.

Hands down, one of the most…

You know what I loved about your answer?

It was Wick.

Well, I was thinking as you were asking, I was like, what is he saying?

What’s he saying?

Trying to keep up with you.

So by the time you finished your question, I had an answer.

Yeah, Dolly Parton is just such an amazing human being and would be a billionaire if she hadn’t literally given away so much money to her community, to her state, to the kids in her state.

She’s got the book program.

And man, I’ve never seen anybody that just wholly…

She was probably one of the first people, I should say, that wholly accepted her sexuality.

And the fact that she knew one of the main reasons why she was at a show or doing anything wasn’t because of her singing.

It was because of her boobs.

And she said that.

She said it on national TV.

She goes like, I know why I’m here.

But she used what she had so very well and then added to that all of the just pure talent that she has.

I have to believe sitting down with her, and I don’t know if she’d have a beer or not.

I don’t know what she drinks.

She doesn’t.

Whatever it was.

She’s the mayor of Gatlinburg, or Pigeon Forge, and it’s a dry area.

There is no alcohol in that entire area.

I’d be fine with that.

If you want a cup of milk, lady, I’ll get you a cup of milk.

But I would love to sit down and just listen to her talk about her life.

I would be beautiful.

Brock?

Johnny Cash, hands down.

The Man in Black.

I would love to sit down and just hear more about his life.

He led an interesting life.

I thought The Walk the Line was an amazing movie.

And yeah, there’s just so much that he was a part of and he was involved in so many just iconic people’s lives.

The connections he has with everybody from Jerry Lewis to Elvis Presley and all the other people that he’s had contact with over the years.

I feel like he’d have some great stories to tell and also just has some amazing redemption stories along the way as well.

And I would just really enjoy being able to sit down with him and hear him talk, honestly.

And then, you know, being able to get him up on stage and get him to belt out a couple of songs would be amazing.

A little karaoke with Johnny, right?

Yeah.

Wow.

Yeah.

I like sitting around a campfire and just letting go.

Man, I want to hear Folsom Prison.

I have to believe that Johnny Cash at this point would just tell you no, because he don’t feel like it.

He’s ready to play some new stuff.

He’s ready to give you his new music.

Boy Named Sue has got to be one of my all time favorite songs ever.

I mean, you think about like what sons go through with their dads.

Like that is the epitome of songs just based on how that all played out.

I will say my other favorite song is the song that talks about building the Cadillac one piece at a time.

Kids love that song.

That is when I heard that song for the first time, I was like, this is pure genius.

If you want to hear Dave and I do a deep dive breakdown on A Boy Named Sue, you can go to the episode that came out just one episode before you guys are scheduled to come out where we completely just do a deep dive on that song.

That’s awesome.

We’ll see.

I’m looking forward to getting to hang out with you guys in St.

Louis, honestly sharing a drink, just hanging out and chatting.

Yeah, they’re right there.

Yeah, likewise, man.

Yeah.

The second and third guests on our podcast ever, but you guys were awesome guests.

And it was a pleasure just catching up that St.

Louis can’t come soon enough.

Yeah.

I mean, I feel we could have continued if Danny wasn’t getting tired and starting to yawn.

I figure we could.

I got a stitch in my side.

It’s like, boy, you need to stand up.

I’m looking at the clock.

I’m like, wow, it’s 20 till midnight right now.

I know I’m feeling bad for you, Brock.

But gentlemen, thank you for joining us.

Thank you so much for coming on.

We could talk about this stuff all night.

And I think our listeners can definitely see the passion that YouTube bring to the organization and why it means so much to you.

And we just from the bottom of our hearts, really appreciate you sharing that, not just with us, but with our listeners and everything.

And for that, we just can’t thank you enough.

And to our listeners, thank you so very much for listening.

Brock told you where to find Home Dad Chat.

Same place as where you can find Country Music Dads.

If you want to find those back episodes, go to countrymusicdads.com.

The playlist that we’ve mentioned will be linked in show notes so Danny can find his Beyonce song and hold them because it is St.

Texas.

But what it is is Country Music Dads, and we are so glad that you all joined us.

Appreciate you.

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