Romeo Vaughn on Nashville's Music scene, Songwriting Journey, and Building A Career in Music City-Interview Podcast.

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville. Obviously, when they hear the song and they look at me, they're not going to be like, oh, this guy made it. It happened so easy for him. You know, when they see the video, when they hear the song, it'll give them home.

00:00:14
Speaker 2: Today I have with me Romeo Vaughn, a Mexican American country artist originally from Santa Rosa, Texas, who blend's country, soul, and Latin pop and his music. He has been in Nashville since twenty sixteen and his story is one you don't want to miss today. Welcome to taking a Walk Nashville.

00:00:33
Speaker 1: Romeo, how are you, ken, How are you? Thanks for having me, of course, thank you.

00:00:37
Speaker 2: For being here. So just to let listeners know a little bit about your background. You are a US Army veteran, and thank you so much for your service.

00:00:47
Speaker 1: Thanks for you support.

00:00:48
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, and I'd like to know were you a performing musician prior to serving in the Army or did you get into music perhaps after that?

00:00:58
Speaker 1: No? So yeah, so I did do music before the Army when I was a kid. I have a cousin of my name's Jesse Turner. He has a band called signal. They're a Grammy Award winning band. And so when I was younger, he took me under his wing and I I performed with him. And then Ab Kintania, which is Selena's the late Selena great late Selena died. It was her brother started a band called the Kumi Kings, and from there Ab started a band called Big Sequel, which is like a it was like an upbeat Mexican American, but it was it was strictly Spanish. It was strictly Spanish music. And so I was in my teen in my when I was a teenager, I mean we got signed a capital in in my and so like we we were doing the music. I mean I was fifteen years old and I performed in Monterey, Mexico in front of ninety four thousand people, you know, so I mean we weren't the headliners, but I mean we got to perform on the stage. You know, I was on international television, you know, back in the I don't know, maybe if you have no Spanish listeners listening, and if you don't, it's fine, but we got Savoo hi gante risperto America, which is the equivalent of like disperto America is Univision's Good Morning America. Sado Hi Gante is like is the American Jimmy Fallon Show? Like so I was like on on doing all that at fourteen fifteen, sixteen, seventeen years old, performing yeah all over I mean I've been to I've been to all forty eight states, uh before I was eighteen, you know, and and performing all over Mexico and South you know. So yeah, it was. It didn't just start. I've been doing this for a long, long, long, but never in my own, never like my own truth. Never. It was always you know, in somebody else's band or or a band that I was a part of. It was never like my truth to my like who who I am?

00:03:10
Speaker 2: Right? Yeah? So you were doing music for as long as you can remember, right yeah, and then when you permanently moved to Nashville to continue pursuing your dream of music, you faced homelessness for sixteen weeks, and eventually you found support through the VA and the nonprofit organization Matthew twenty five. Yes, what does this Nashville nonprofit mean to you?

00:03:36
Speaker 1: Everything? Like everything. I would not be here talking to you if it wasn't for God working through Matthew twenty five. I mean they took me in. I don't know. Let me tell you the process, say how it's like really cool. I'm dead out of my car. I'm just like, uh, I'm under this bridge and I'm just eating like out of a garbage can and there's ants not my food, and it's just like ryan to me, and I don't know. That's why my burgers now, I tell everybody I only want bed and cheese like a five year old, right. But because of that experience, so I finally my brother actually was like Romeo, what are you doing man? Because my brother's also a veteran, so is my dad. He was like, you need to call the VA because we weren't. I didn't tell my brother until the end of my homelessness, and I didn't tell my parents until after I got out of Matthew twenty five. They had no idea. So my brother's like, you need to call the VA. So I said, okay. So I was like, well, can he pay my phone bill this month? Like because I'm not gonna have a phone, and at that time, I have cricket. You know, it's all we could get. You know, you got you know beggars can't be choosers. So my brother, my brother paid the fifty dollars a month for me because my phone was about to be disconnected like the next day or something. So my brother paid my phone bill. And he was super mad at me that I didn't tell him that I was homeless, right, and so I called it. I call them and I'm like, I'm homeless, like I've been out here for four months, like it's bad, like, you know, And they came. They literally from the time I called them to the time they picked me up, it was probably twenty minutes. They were there fast and in a hurry. They got there. They took me and they took me to the mental Health Annex and so from there they showered me, you know, and I got to shower. Not that I wasn't showering because I have a friend of mine, his name Swan Hernandez out of Laredo, Texas. He's a truck driver, so he would lend me his points once a week so I could go shower at the Loves off Trinity Lane. But it was always the struggle to get there. But anyway, so I go to Matthew twenty five on the Mental health annets. They called Matthew twenty five. I got. I didn't have anything but my bangs, and they washed my clothes. They put me in a bed in a room. They fed me the intake. They did the whole intake process. They also for while you're there, you have to do like an intake process, and then you have to do chores. You can't drink, you can't do drugs. You have to report, and when you like, they help you get a job. And thankfully I ended up gaining a job at our back steakhouse. While I was there, because I was about to lose my car. That's what helped me was I was about to lose my car, but my parents found out that I was homeless and I hadn't been paying my car. I don't know if he didn't for me or car was daddy. So you're like, oh no, I gotta pay for my car. And I was able to keep my car. I ended up going to UH to work. I stayed at Matthew twenty five for as long as I needed to. I was grateful that I was there, but I didn't want to be there. I will you know. I didn't want to be there, and I because The thing about Matthew twenty five is it could it's the biggest blessing in the world, but it can also be an achilles because they do everything for you. So do you take this too better to your life or do you take this to be lazy? You know? So all I needed was the help, and from the time I got there six weeks later, I was on my own. That's wonderful, Yeah, because you know there's some people that will be there for a long time, you know, but it's nothing bad to anyone. The thing is a lot of the people, a lot of the men that are there, they're older, you know, they got they got disabilities, or they got they don't they can do that they need. But I was, I'm young, I'm driven, Like what there was the excuse? You know, it was great. Matthew twenty five means everything to me. That's why last year for my birthday, you know, I always tell everybody, like I always give a shout out to Chuley's, that tex mex restaurant, because they donated all the food so I could go and feed them at Matthew twenty five. This year, it was scoreboards when we went to shoot the music video. Also my parents last year came to Nashville to be with me for my birthday because my birthday is August sixteenth, and so my parents came for my birthday and we were able to get like fifteen seventy five gallon bags full of clothes, and for my birthday we went to go donate that as well. And so Matthew twenty five is everything to me, and I think I believe it, and I will tell you that God willing my star rises and the more my platform allows me to do more, the more I will do with Matthew twenty five. I think the plane the easiest way I can say is when I make it, Matthew twenty five makes it. They will never need anything ever again.

00:09:10
Speaker 2: I love that, and I love that they were able to support you through your hard times. And now you're shining a light on this organization and you feature Matthew twenty five and the music video for your upcoming single Big Dreams from a Small Town. Yeah, I just got to say, Romeo, I haven't seen a music video so authentic in a long time. You know, you see a lot of videos now on social media out there that's all like glitter and glam but this video really gives listeners a look and to who you are, where you came from, and it's just so authentic and real and I really appreciate that.

00:09:50
Speaker 1: So did you.

00:09:51
Speaker 2: Come up with the vision for this music video?

00:09:55
Speaker 1: Yes, I literally wrote the entire treat. Like the director. I went to him. His name is Carl and I love him to death. I went with it in mind. I have the video in my head years before we made the video, so I knew, like I even I remember there was a when I was eating at Matthew twenty five and I, you know, I don't remember his name, that there was a guy next to me that was eating with me. We were eating and I said, before I die, I'm going to make a video here at Matthew twenty five. And he and I always like I had it all in my head and Carl just helped me bring it to life.

00:10:38
Speaker 2: Amazing. Yeah. I hope every Nashville local come out to support Matthew twenty five and volunteer and help them and need as well. And I want to touch on your previously released single over and it's about the struggles you faced with alcohol addiction. So now that you've overcome homelessness and your sober Would you say the music you right now is a lot different than maybe the music you were writing ten to twelve years ago.

00:11:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, most definitely. That's a good question for sure, because the music I was writing back then, I was drinking and partying, you know. I also struggled with drugs, you know as well, you know, and so it was more when I would write songs and stuff, it was or record songs, and it was more of like like I'm trying to get a girl, or you know, let's party and let's do this, and let's do that. And now it's not like that. I mean, I'm still gonna make songs like that because nobody wants to hear depressing song, right, But I think the writing has changed because the man has changed.

00:11:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I'm sure it's very healing for you to write out the struggles you have been through and overcome, for sure.

00:12:04
Speaker 1: You know. Like I actually just wrote a song the other day called wild Bills Nights, and I just wrote it, but the second versus those days have come and gone, but the memories we made I've put in this song. So it's wild Bills was a bar that we all us. It's a hometown bar back back in Harninge in Texas, but missed the wild Bill. The mister Bill. He was our biology teacher in high school. We all of us went to the Wild Bills and we just it kind of Wild Bills kind of you know, gave me that hope. When I got into country music. It was Wild Bills where I went because it was a country western saloon. I'm definitely different now because I'm for when I sober, you know, and so I'm clean and clear minded, and I can look back and remember the times that we had. And I think that's what's going to make the music great because even when I don't write about like overcoming struggles or overcoming this, like Wild Bills Nights is such a great song, you know, because it's it's almost like nostalgic for like people that because it even says you have to be there to understand those Wild Bills. Nice, you know, but in your hometown you have a Wild Bills. It might not be called Wild Bills, but there's a Wild Bills, you know. And I think everybody's going to relate and big dreams from a small town. Everybody's going to read. Everybody has and being having big dreams. You know, it's not not everybody wants to be a country music artist. You know, people want you want to podcast, people want to be doctors, people want to be lawyers, people want to be general people want to be ditit managers at publics. You know, people want it and there's nothing wrong with that. People have dreams are not all music, but if they can hear a song like Big Dreams from a small town and be like, you know what I am from. I always mentioned Burlington, Colorado because I have some family there and it's smaller than Santa Rosa. There's a place called Burlington, colorad Whether you're from Brington, Colorado, or somewhere in Kansas or somewhere in small town in Utah, and you're like, man, how could I ever go from this to you know, being the district manager of water Burger or whatever the case may be. From a small town. That doesn't happen to people like me. I'm just going to be the cashier forever, you know. But they hear Big Dreams from a small town and they're like, you know what, yeah, I you know what, I can do this, you know, and like the song in Big dream that says whoever said it wasn't easy wasn't telling a lie. So obviously when they hear the song and they look at me, they're not going to be like, oh, this guy made it. It happened so easy for him. You know when they see the video, when they hear the song, it'll give them hope. I believe.

00:14:51
Speaker 2: I think so too. Yeah, I think your whole message with the song will give people hope and know that it's not easy, but you know they can do everything they can and to overcome their struggles.

00:15:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, we all have struggles, and I think I think it's gonna be I think it's great because I mean, what what would life be if it was just easy? You know, where like because that's where you know our faith comes in and our hope comes in, and the hope that you know, that hope and faith that Jesus did come and die for us, and that he did rise again, and that he's coming back and that he's always with us. I even think about Jesus when because you know, we're human. Not everybody's going to like my song, not every reason I like the message. Not everybody's gonna like the way I dress, the way I look the way you look, the way you dress. You know, it's just it is what it is. But I think about when I think about Christ's them like they killed him for being perfect? Who am I to think that they won't judge me? And I think that that how me?

00:16:02
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for sharing your message, Romeo, and I just kind of want to switch gears now to a fun topic. So you design all of your stage where I've worked with Nashville celebrity fashion designer Manuel who's outfitted the likes of Johnny Cash and Elvis. So what got you into sewing clothes and fashion?

00:16:26
Speaker 1: I love Michael Jason. I have an aunt of mine and my aunt Lisa, we call it Da Lisa. He's a simstress and so she does like all like the like the little Girl's cheerleading outfice when I was when I was younger, my dad took me to McCallen, Texas to be a to do a talent show and and then I I won that one. But then my aunt Lisa Ida Lisa in La Fairy, which is like six miles down the road from Santa Rosa, they were having another talent show and I was in it to Michael Jackson, but I did the other time show I didn't have the jacket and I needed I wanted the rhyin stone jacket and the glove, and my Dallist made it for me, and she and I helped her and and kind of like really like put me down. And then when I came to Nashville, it wasn't until like twenty nineteen or twenty like COVID almost COVID times. I was. I was at Tin Roof in Cool Springs ten Roof two, and I was with a friend of mine and this guy said, hey, man, you got to meet my uncle. So I was like, okay, cool, I'll go meet him. And I went to meet him and I never left. And it was a great time, you know, in my life. But you know, like anything else, you got to move on and and uh, but I learned a lot, and I'm very thankful to man well for teaching you taught me and and I got to hang out with him a lot, and I got to see the man that the the star, you know, and uh, spend a lot of time together. But you know, like anything else, you know, you got to make your own path and make your own way. And so I took what he taught me. I took what my DA taught me, and and and you know here we are patching stuff up.

00:18:33
Speaker 2: Very cool. You are definitely multi talented. And I love that you designed your own clothes.

00:18:39
Speaker 1: That's so fun.

00:18:40
Speaker 2: It is my last question for you. We are on taking a walk Nashville, so I'd like to know what is your favorite place or where is your favorite place to take away the river?

00:18:54
Speaker 1: I could wow. I go every day. I go every day two Rivers park Way. I take my dog. You know Two Rivers Parkways at right the big bridge and stuff. Yeah, yeah, I've been on that many times. So I have five thirty daybreaks. So I wake up around I wake up every morning, like around three three fifteen, two forty five to three fifteen, I'm up and so I do my little morning routine and then I try to be at two Rivers Parkway by five point thirty when daybreaks, and I'll go run my I'll run the five miles I can go around, and then I go to the airstrip. You know that there's an airstrip out there, and I'll run that and I'll do five I make it five miles no matter why what way I go I make it. I make it five miles, and then I come home, I take a shower and do all the morning stuff again. And then I take Braxton, my dog, and we go to Two Rivers Parkway again. And he can't He's a little Boston terrieropo. But so he can't do five miles, but he just you know, but and so Two Rivers Parkway is my favorite place to take a walk in Nashville. I absolutely love it. I go every day of my life. They're got a day that goes by. If I'm in Nashville, I'm there every morning.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: I love Yeah, there's so many great places and paths to take a walk and run in Nashville. Well, Romeo, thank you so much for being on the show today.

00:20:22
Speaker 1: It was a pleasure and.

00:20:23
Speaker 2: We are looking forward to your new single release, Big Dreams and a Small Talent available everywhere.

00:20:28
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, so much, y'all go hear it.

00:20:32
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson, and check out our other podcasts, Music Save Me, Comedy Save Me, and Taking a Walk, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts,