#357 - Bailey Zimmerman on Getting Started in Music by Accident + From The Gas Pipeline to Signing a Record Deal in 2 Years + The Details On His Massive Tricked Out Truck!

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Speaker 1: All right, Bailey Zimmerman, it's gonna be a good one. We've already done it, so I can say that, but a good conscious he blew up on TikTok, and that's a thing, right, and kids, TikTok kid. This story is just a lot different than that. It's I didn't even know he blew up on TikTok really. When I had him in full disclosure as this is episode three seven, I was just looking at Dad and it was like, Bailey Zimmerman one of the most consumed country artists of all country artists. I'm talking about, up against Luke Combs and Morgan Wall and Kenney Chesney. And I was like, how is this happening? So I told Mike Mike d my excellent producer and right hand man. I said, hey, let's get her on the show. And he said, um, that ain't a herb, bro. And I was like, oh, Bailey is a dude. I had no idea, and he's like, yeah, Bailey's to do this, well, let's get him on the show. And then he came in and I tell him at the end my review of him, which was funny. And this is also his first real interview ever. So I loved it. I don't know, Bailey, you might be listening to this back. Great job, buddy, I can't wait to do more with you and see you explode and just a big fan of this kid now after hanging out with them, I don't say that often. Sometimes I get on this and I'm like, why I ever want to hang out with that person again? That's a good one, Bailey Zimmerman. Go follow him Bailey dot Zimmerman on TikTok and enjoy this very refreshing Bobby cast. Here we go. When you were driving in, Bailey, one of the guys that worked through it was like, I think he's got like a monster truck. I was gonna bring it and then it starts coming through and I was like, well, it looks like a nice white SUV, but I don't see how big is the truck? This this mysterious truck. The mirror get up on the microphone right there yet the mirror it's probably two or three foot above my head the side mirror, so if I'm standing up it's probably I mean, it's really so. I feel like it would be one of those helicopter rope ladders to get up in does it have a ladder that comes out, or you just put yourself up. Every side. Well, I've been really working on getting steps for it that come down, but they're not in yet. So it's a struggle because I don't drive it very much. Because you do, but you have time you jump. Okay, talk to me because I don't know much about cars. But is it an old truck? Is it a new truck? And you got it jack that high? Yeah, I've always wanted to do it, and I mean, I agree, if you want to do it, do it. So it's so big. I think if I had spent all this money and time, I would only want to drive it. But I guess now you want to drive it. But then when you get home and there's like a paint chip here, there's like a crack somewhere, You're like, I'm not driving this anymore. What about parking spots? I feel like that would be tough, not bad. No, it's it's really not. It's just you have a picture of it. Yeah, yeah, I guess I I'm picturing like a big foot, like literal bigfoot. Oh, that thing's huge. It's pretty big. Are those pink wheels? No, gold, it's just it's all gold. So okay, let me ask a couple of questions here. Then, how long you have the truck? About a year probably? How long did it take to finish? And did you are you the one that specialized? I customized at all. I didn't do the work, but you from the beginning you said, I want this done, this, done this. Well, I've built this truck in my head for years. Man, if I get enough money, I'm gonna build a truck like this. So I've had every color picked out for like five years. So it took like six months to build it though, And are you impatiently waiting the whole time? Like, come on, come on, come on. As I've grown older, I used to be really impatient with things, and now I'm it'll get it's because I get a patient. If I buy a pair of shoes online and I'm like, all right here today, you just spent six months building a truck. I would have been so ready to drive that thing immediately. Well, oh I was. Every day. I was like, man, I wish my truck was done. But you go through and you get calls like you have, like two calls when we came in. This happened. We gotta we gotta switch this or you know, so after like four times of that happened, you're just like, you know what, just I want to stress myself out. And now people know it's that truck is so known, I would assume a lot of people would even know it's you because of your social media presence. I'd be where people follow me home. We did have people follow us to Red Lobster the night. Yeah, that'll be That's what I'll be worried about that. And that's why I never got a personalized license plate because I don't want someone it would be like I hate that guy key in my car or just people like, oh big shot, got not you, but maybe looking at him driving that, let's go let's go hast them a little bit. Yeah. I've kind of just always had big trucks, so I just thought it's part of my brand, and I've I've always had big trucks. So nobody how much cost to fill up hundred bucks, but it only gets me like a hundred and twenty miles. I say, hundred bucks isn't bad for a truck, but when it only drives down the road, yeah, that's pretty good. You can go to Walmart and back. Oh man, it's good to to see you, good to talk to you. I was when I leave the radio station on music Row, because we'll work out of here. Some will work out of their some. But when I leave, I see your face on the big sign I'm driving out, and I was like, what was up with this kid? And so I just started researching a little bit. First congratulations, because you know, I'll look a kid usually and look at just consumption. You know, I don't really have any. I don't care that much about what gets put on the radio because I'm gonna whole a whole bunch of stations. I don't I don't really look. I shouldn't take care. I don't really look and try to affect radio stations. But I will look and see, you know, who's streaming a lot, who's getting played a lot that's new. You're killing it, man, really cool like and and to be honest with you, I did to you what people do to me when they don't know who I am. And most people don't, but they'll go my name will gets billed b O b B. I have a unisex name. They'll think I'm a girl. And I was like Bailey. I was like, man, she must be killing it. And then I realized, oh that's him with the unisex name. Do you ever get that? Oh my whole life. I used to hate it so much. I was like, mom, why did you name me Bailey? You know, why would you name me a girl's name? But as I've gone over them, like, you know what, I've never met another I've never met another dude named Bailey, So I'm at peace with it now. But oh yeah, I'm a whole live It was like Bailey Lynn to my middle name is Lynn. Didn't double enough the girl and double it up, Like like, what what are you attributing? Because obviously you give a big social media presence, but um, what I read though, was you didn't start off to a music on any sort of social media, like even TikTok. You were just showing off truck trucks. Yeah, so let's go back then, before music, you said I'm gonna get on and did you plan to just do it for like your small circle or did you go I got some real I think truck people will follow me. I'm going to create a brand here. So I started there's this girl in my hometown as Walmart and she was a cash here and she was like I was flirting with her, and I was like, I'm gonna catch you on TikTok because I posted one video and it did just, you know, a couple of thousand, and she was like, you'll never hit ten thousand followers on TikTok. So I just kind of got it in me. I was like, oh, I'm gonna do that. So I started. I built this truck. I started just filming it and stuff and putting sounds behind it, and then ended up getting a lot of traction. And then I got hooked on truck shows, so then I started going yea, I took it from just like building traction sen It's like, oh, I think I'm gonna start going to these shows and maybe get some you know, try to win trophies. And I got hooked on that in two thousand nineteen and then just kept doing my truck stuff. And then one day I had never sang before, and I was wanting to get out of the pipeline industry just because of not seeing family and being gone so much, and so I was like, Okay, I'm gonna start building trucks. That's a profession. And not only am I gonna post him, but I'm gonna build other people's trucks. So me and my brother John started doing that, and like three days into business, I tried singing just in the shop in the student named Gavin Lucas from the same town I'm in. I was like, hey, man, I think you've got a cool voice, and I write songs. I can play guitar. Would you ever just want to hang sometime? And I was like, yeah, man, I'll hang some time. I've never really watched anybody play guitar and sing at the same time. That's how it started. That's how the start wholes thing started. Yeah, dear god, I've never heard of it. More random, cooler oops, but awesome story. It was very random. We we like jammed like three times, and I was just so in awe of him playing guitar and sing at the same time. He's like writing, this guy can write songs. So one night we were hanging and he said, hey, man, tonight we should try to like really write a song and see if we can write songs. So that was my first single, Never Coming Home. That night we wrote the first verse and myn just like a weekend to hanging with Gavin and we wrote the first verse and then posted it on TikTok that night at like two AM, and I woke up and I like, kid you not. I woke up had almost two million views, a crazy amount of comments. I called my union that I was in that I pipelined with quit after one video in the next morning, and you're already looking to get out, but listen when there's not a paycheck coming. Yeah. Yeah. We were laid off at the time and got it. I just felt like, man, if I'm gonna chase something, this is definitely something to chase. You know, you might as well try it. But what's funny is you're like, I'm if I'm gonna chase something, I guess it is this thing that just randomly popped up a couple days ago. That's awesome. Yeah, yeah, well man, you did? You never sing as a kid. My mom would always like tell me in the truck, like, oh, you should sing. I used to be able to sing before I started smoking cigarettes. I used to be able to sing and stuff, and I just always blew it off because that's my mom, you know, So I always just blew it off. And then over my life I've had like three people tell me, Man, I think you could sing, but but did you ever sing where people can actually hear? You know? It all started like two years from now or two years back from now. I like sang one day and then after that I had like three people tell me and then just random, like a random place. I think it was up at the courts um in Flora, Illinois, like the basketball courts. Yeah. So we mean you're just like just right here me and you, and you're like you are my sunshine. You sing Luke Luke Combs Hurricane. This kid named Trey Judy was just jamming on the guitar and I was real bored, and you always just went up to the basketball courts to hang out and he was like jam only time. I was like, I'll trying to sing. And then I tried, and then I tried again, and then that video I like, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna try it, Like what could it hurt if I tried singing? That's crazy. You're like a kid who's walking by a ball field and you're like, man, there's a ball land down there. Let me just grab you have a glove one over there? Am I supposed to throw it to you. Yeah, fast off, You're like, wow, So if I'm rewinding before the music stuff, because I'm I'm so interested in your passion of car trucks building when you because when you said to me, when I got some money, I built the truck. I figured it was when you got some money from either stuff in social media, signing a deal, but it was when you got some money. We saved up money from like working a real job. So when I got some money, I built my big truck, the one truck I had no money. Dude. Two years ago, I couldn't like afford my truck payment. I had no money. I was living my mom, which I love my mom, but I was like twenty almost twenty one living my mom, and I'm like, and what am I gonna do with my life? And pipeline is not working out? So I had no money. So I just budget built this truck. It was like it was like painted. It wasn't that truck you're talking about. That's the budget truck you built. This is a truck you built. When you're like, Okay, I have some money for being creative. Yeah, I thought, man, if what if I just build the biggest truck, the biggest half ton truck in America. What if I just build it and then I try to brand me because my music isn't very party. It's like super sad and feelings and like, you know what I'm feeling. So I thought, man, but I do want people that I can't know that I have a good time too, So yeah, I'm not always just this sad, really depressed dude to my house. You know, I do have fun, And so I thought, man, I'll build this huge truck and take it to truck shows and maybe I can get my my fans to come to these shows and see me that way as well. That's pretty cool. I'm kind of in awe of this story. And I've heard all the stories. I've never heard one quite like this. This is really cool. And you're you're going, that's crazy. So you live with your mom at twenty, you have no aspiration to be a performer. Yeah, it's not that you didn't want to, you just didn't even know that. What is the thing. I was living in an eight hundred person town. You know, nobody ever makes it out of there. So I thought, I mean, I'm in competition with a billion people that are all trying to do the same thing. Um, Louisville, Illinois. Where in the state like very southern, so very southern, close to like Mount Vernon, Effingham, Um, two hours from Champagne. Yeah, three towns that I don't even know where they are, and I tore, I tore a lot, but that's tougher, so very like the bottom litd of tip thing there. Yep. So if you go up to Champagne or Peoria, we're like, yeah, yeah, three hours from Peoria South because minor league teams in pe Okay, so you go, you got graduate high school? Yep, you graduated high school. You finish high school. What kind of student are you? Terrible? Hated school, a failed, math failed, there's a lot of Yeah, if you're talking, I'm not gonna be like, O can't believe. Yeah that sucks. Yeah. So okay, you graduated high school. And does your truck fascination just generally come from your dad? You think it comes from a dude in my town named Wade Pray, Sir. I saw his huge truck when I was uh thirteen, twelve thirteen going to school. Every day's man, one day if I can make some money and be able to build that, I would do that. So that's what I think. That's where it all comes from. Did you have the truck driver was a truck driver, Yeah, he hauled cars and stuff. So did you learn about trucks and actually the functionality of them and how they work and how to fix it from your dad at all? Yeah? Working on motors. So it all started really with just like anything with the motor. I loved going fast, so I raced a lot of outdoor motocross um, you know, from like fourteen to nineteen and twenty, and Dad and John always built race cars and dirt cars and trucks. Whatever they could build, if they could like work on it, they in your yards. Something was being worked on. Our built. There was chassiss and motors. So that's you know, that's the early fascination to me, Even if you don't know, you're fascinating. You're learning sometimes just because you're around it, your dad's around it. But then you go next level and you see somebody with a freaking awesome truck and you're like, I know how to do this, but that's what I want. That's that's so did you ever think about racing like with that that is being a career. Um, I wanted to so bad, I really did. I love, you know, racing outdoors, and I always did love it, but kind of the same thing. And that's even a harder just industry to get into. You gotta be a top five contender to even make a living. I hear you saying that, Honest to god, I do and I respect that. But what you're doing right now is just as weird and odd and hard and and lightning in a bottle and all. So when you're like, man, I don't know about what do you do? You can do anything. Apparently you're nailing it. You can be a astronaut. Just go do it. Yeah. I tell people that from the last two years, I truly believe a person can do anything and they ever want to do and they're like, there's nothing is impossible. You can anything. I just wasn't very fast on it her bike. Is it still weird to you? What's happening to you right now? Every day? Every day I wake up and I'd call my mom and I'm like, hey, Bobby Bones just asked me to come be on a show. I'm blown away that you're so normal. I'll be honest with you. I thought twenty two. You're killing it right now. Sometimes you may not even know how much you're killing it, but you're killing it. You're town's talking about you, your style, and I'm like, oh, this guy's not a douche because just the nature of this town, there's a there's a good amount of douche bags because uh creative and even if I think you're doing, somebody else may not. But there's just enough. But there's enough to always and you're not. You're just a dude. It's awesome, it's so refreshing. You're just a dude. And so but I mean that in the best way of you know what you care about, you know and you understand what's just happened to you and how crazy it is, and you're still going full speed ahead at it and like you're dedicated and you're attacking this thing, and that is really freaking cool. Yeah, I just you gotta think, man, Like a year and a half ago, I have I know where it's I know where being at the bottom is. I know how it feels to have nothing and feel like you just have literally nothing. And now that I know, you know it all honestly, how how it is to be, you know, going towards the top or or going and doing great things. So every day I wake up, I thank God for just letting me be here. First, She's always just like, no freaking way, that's crazy, you know, And she'll like she's like, this is just insane, and she like talk to herself like this is just crazy. You know. So Mom is like I love talking to her about things because she has no clue what's going on, as you know, just as much as I do. And I'll just be like, yo, I think I'm like flying on a private jet and she's like what And I'm like, yeah, Like how crazy is that? Man? Is it? I I just can't just like I just sit back and a smile and I'm just like, this is insane. Have you done a lot of interviews? No, you're one of the very first I've not. I don't think I've ever done an interview like this. Are you serious? I've never done anything like this. Don't change, And it's gonna be hard for you not to change because you get so jaded. And also you'll get your label people and they'll do a good job. For the most You're a good place. You're a good place. You're warn right, you're warn there. That's that's a good that's a good group. And so you already know how to talk. And some people who are great off might come in and they aren't sure how to talk. But what you're doing is you're talking what out there and just bring it in here like that's the key. I'm just talking to They never change. So you're freaking out, your mom's freaking out everything. But I want to go back to you. Load the video up, You're you're singing, you wake up, You've got a couple of million views. You decide you're gonna tell the union you're not coming back. So but then what do you do next? Do you go? All right? So I'm to sing on TikTok? So literally what I did next was so I called to the Union quit and they were like, wait, you just like you just want to like get off the list. I'm like, no, cut my card up, I'm done. And they were like, what are you gonna do? And I'm like, I'm gonna be trying to be a country singer because I might as well try, you know. And so I called Gavin because I called him at two am, and I said, hey, do you care if I post this video and he said, no, man, hell if it if it gets some views, why don't we try to cut it or however you do that. I don't even know how it works, you know. So I called him and I said, dude, have you seen TikTok? And he's like no, and I'm like, yeah, dude, go look at TikTok And he looked and he's like, dude, so what do we do now? And I'm like, well, we gotta figure out how to record it. We gotta figure out how that works. Like I don't know how it works. And he said and he said, uh, all right, man, I'll I'll take off of work today. You take off too. And I said, now, I dud I to quit and he's like, you quit your job and I'm like, dude, no, I'm for real, Gavin, like, I'm coming over to your apartment in the next year. You're gonna quit your job. I'm gonna I'm already quit my job. So you're gonna quit your job. We're you're gonna be a writer. I'm gonna be an artist. We're gonna do this. So we got over there and we searched up recording studios, because I always thought you had to have a personal studio to start off musical, and that's what it looks like on TV anyway, is that they have to go into a building in a room where all the big board is the microphone. I thought the same thing, But then you quickly learned what that It's just a lot of home studios, And I thought, you legit. I had to go buy speakers, I had to go buy all this gear. I had to like produce my own stuff. So when I learned that you didn't have to do that, I was like, Okay, this is way easier. This is a lot easier, I think it is. So we went to Nashville, cut the song. What's the drive to Nashville? Four hours? Okay, so not that bad. We were doing it like two or three times a week, man, gav when you cut a salt, you drove to Nashville. Who did you find somebody here with the home studio or yes, Sean Rodgers had a home studio and I randomly, it's the weirdest thing. I randomly got hooked up with him from a dude that I hadn't This dude in my hometown of people randomly knew that I was looking for a producer and I had not told anybody about this. I had not talked to anybody but my mom. Well, how abould he know? Then? No clue still to this day, have no clue how any of it got. He just randomly called me. He said, hey, man, my name is Richie and for some reason, I just got your number from somebody. Do you need a producer? And I was like, why do you know that? I've literally not told anybody. He was like, I don't know, but I feel I just I just got your number and I like, I just new to call you, and I was like, yeah, I need a producer. And he was like, well, Sean Rodgers does an artist from back home name Doling Wolf. He produces him, and would you wanna would you want to go produce him? Like I'll take whatever I can right now, you know. So it was really wild. I had like fift bucks, me and gab Throundred to get the song produced. And we're like, man, do you think we'll make our money back? Like I don't have no more money. And so if you take the song, though, do you load it up on the digital DSPs? That kid? Okay? So you put it there and then it goes up. Now that's a song you did on TikTok at first, So then how did you get back on TikTok and go we just loaded it up? Or did you like, how do you let that crew? Because how many followers do you have now at this point because of that song? I so I went from thousand that night and then when I woke up the next morning, I had a hundred and forty thousand. So you went from the truck fan the people that were fans of your work and and trucks, and you doubled up in one night. And so now you have all these music folks too. Yeah, so how do you let them know? I just, um, I just started doing TikTok's I was just like, hey, y'am, thank you so much further support on this song. Um, I'm gonna try to get it out. I really don't know how we do that yet, but I'm trying to figure it out. So just bear with me. And I was super just transparent with him, and I just told them how it how I was learning how songs were made and this and that, and then I just told him, hey, I uploaded it and now it's gonna be released this day. You guys can stream it this day, And were you surprised? Relieved? What? Which? When it started to really get some traction and that's then on the you know, getting streams. So when it started like streaming really well, we hit a million on Apple and I called I called Gavin Mom into the room and I'm like, is this good? Like is a million? I think it was a million streams first week on Apple? When I was like, is this good? How how do I gauge this? Are we doing good? Is it not making enough money? I had no idea. I had no idea what anything was. I thought my management before I signed with him, was a label. Oh no, that's that's a comment. That's common. Yeah, same thing, label, management, agents, all that crap to me. When I started to I was like, wait, I thought, what do you do? Yeah, you're telling me I can have a manager and a label at the same time, and you're telling me I gotta pay a manager and an agent. But I feel like it's the same crap. Yes, yes, same thing. So you are when did you get manage? When did they come to the picture? Do they message you from seeing you blow up online? Yeah? So Scott Frasier Um hit me on on Instagram, and for some reason I responded. I would have never responded because there's this long, huge message with this weird looking guy with a bow tie on and this profile picture, and I just thought, man, this guy looks like a weirdo. But something is telling me I need to like talk to him. So I called him and I'm running through the airport and we just had the best conversation, and he introduced me to chief chiefs Rooke and Simon Tickman of the Core Entertainment and that was I had already had a meeting with Warner with Chris Lacy and I didn't know even what it was. I didn't know what I was. I was at this building just talking to a bunch of random people about music. And then a month later I told them all about it and they were like, wait a second, You've been talking to Chris and you've been doing this and I'm like yeah, and they're like, we need to manage you. So they like signed me. And then about that was two months after Never Coming Home came out, and then I think I signed my deals like a month and a half after that or two months. Why can you play someone Never Coming Home, and I got iver coming Home. Oh no, Never Coming on. I figured, so, what is the label when they meet with you and they say, hey, we'd love to have you, I love to sign you. What what's their pitch to you as to why they'd be the right one. So when I got with Warren, when I met with Warner for the first time, it wasn't they The first question was do you know why you're here? And I was like, no clue. I'm gonna be fully transparent with y'all. Have no idea who you are, who you are, I don't know what this building is. And they were like, well, we're Warner Nashville, were a record label, this and that, and I was like okay, And then honestly it was just a really good conversation. I just really got to know Chris. I really got to know Rohan. Did you get down there though? Who? Who? How? Who told you to come to that building? And what they told you was gonna happen there. Rohan COLEI is an A and R from Warner and he just messed me on Instagram and he just was like, hey, man, would you want to come to have a meeting? And I said, sure, I just love Nashville. I was like, any anything to get me to actually drove down to have the meeting with people. You had no idea what they did. Eight pharmacy burgers in front of the That was when COVID was really really you know, popping and outside with mass eating burgers and stuff. And we didn't even talk about deals or nothing. We didn't talk about anything like that. What did you tell them that your your life goals were? Um, I just told him, I said, I don't know what's going on. But more of the story is I've got a vision for this. I'd like, I think I know what music I want to sing, and I know how I want to do it, and I know who I want to be. So there you go, That's that's what I am. I don't know, I've not written, you know, written any more songs of not I don't know how to play guitar. I can't do this and I can't do that. But I know I've got a vision for what I'm doing and and and social media is working, so I'm just gonna keep doing that. So you left the meeting. What was like the general feeling was that, Hey, we'll talk more we would love to have you go think about it. We don't like you like what what? What do they make you feel like? Chris made me feel super like at home, I felt super like, um, very comfortable in the situation, just with the people. I got to know Chris and Rohan really well, just sitting there, and it was more like, um, hey, we're gonna keep watching what you're doing. We're really excited about you. And I'm like, hey, I'm just grateful to be here, so thanks for having me. And they paid for the burgers. So let's paid for the burgers and no backtrack in a second. But I'm even looking at your dates here because you're gonna be doing on this eight shows and half of them are already sold out, maybe more than that at this point. Have you played a show yet for more than a hundred people? Yeah, yeah, we've We've been playing some really crazy shows. That's another thing. Can you sell more than a hund tickets? Don't be confused by that, because I know you can. But I'm saying, when did you start to actually they make you, Okay, go in front of this many people. You've never done it before, but ghosting in front of folks when did that happen. So my very first show, I had a Rider's Round in Nashville, Live Oak and it was just a little acoustic and I was I wasn't really nervous. I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. Let's see how this goes. And then the next show I did was Luke Combs Rock the South. I opened for Luke, and it was I just I've watched rock stars, so I grew up on rock. I I grew up eight years old. I went to a Tesla Pop Evil concert and in um, so you're like like seventies, like sixties and seventies rock, you say that, yeah, yeah, some, but more into like the nineties stuff too, like the you know, saving able and you know and straight ahead or not even nineties alternative, like you're straight ahead modern rock nineties. Yeah. I grew up put just on a lot of rock, but anything with big guitars, you know, Kid Rocks, Shryl Crow, any of that stuff. And so I started going to shows when I was like eight or ten. And when I went out to play Rock the South, I just I was like, all right, I'm just gonna do what I've seen other people do. So like the very first thing, I'm running all the way down the catwalk. I'm just a sprint as fast as I can, and that will get people's attention. Maybe, So literally, very first thing was just like sprinted. And I've not stopped every catwalk I've ever done. I just go and I just balls the walls all the way down and then I just sit there and look. But playing these shows for more than a people is insane. It's like, truly something that I've never experienced in my whole life. No, truly, Yeah, because truly you didn't do school like talent shows. You know, it's like, okay, oh I can sing, well, go play for thousand people, five thousand people here, Like I mean that's baptism by fire? Yeah? Do you have Did you have fun doing it? A blast? I learned that to sing you have to breathe. I Like, I got off of Rock to South stage and I said, man, I just don't feel good. I don't I just don't feel like I can't breathe. I don't feel good. And then I ended up like Zoonkin in the camp. I just passed out in the camp. Or so it was insanely fun, insanely for on, like my my body has never felt that, Like just I can run as much as I want, nobody's gonna tell me to shut up. I can scream as long as I want. And after that, I was like, I definitely want to do this more. But let's figure out how to breathe. Let's get in shape, let's get some cardio going. And it's really a thing. Yeah, And if you don't breathe right, especially if you have songs that are even the song we just played there, if there's a lot of singing, you have to really measure where you're going to breathe, or you miss it, you don't get back to it until later, and they're catching up the whole time. God awful. Yeah, So if you kind of figured it out basically, you know when you have a second, take a breath. Yeah, Well the show since then has progressed a lot. You know, We've got like a like a break where I introduced the band and it gives me just a second to like get my heart right down, get my breathing. But when you miss a breath, it's hard to catch it. You don't you're not getting the back, there's no way because your next breath is going to be as shorter than what it was supposed to be terrible and a really wordy songs and you know, and also do a lot of stand up and so really wordy situations. You have to hit your exact points and then you miss it, and when you do finally get your second point, you're trying to make up for the first one, but you're never caught up. But it's fun that you you've got a band break because you learned quick. You learn. Yeah, one night I just went boys singing gonna work, saying gonna work. I I gotta, I gotta have something to breathe because that last show is pretty rough. I need something to get me through this second half. And I've learned. I went from playing twenty five minutes with Luke at Rock to South to now I can play our hour half shows whatever in a year. And like, if you'd have told me, you know, one year old me playing that show, that's like dying in the camp, or like, hey man, in a year, you're gonna be just fine the watch, I would have been like, you're a liar. So I've learned a lot. Listening to your music like rock and a hard play that's like my vibe musically meaning you know, you go. You know, I sing all these slow songs, but that like songs that I can hear the words, I can feel the words. I don't need a bunch of tempo like that's that's my vibe. And even musnically, even musically like what you have going personally for me, like I love it, you know, I don't think, and I don't think I have to love something to act to know why it's good. But like I really love how you're doing it. I want to play rock and a hard place right now, man's braves? Have you got to be a better singer now? Because you have to sing a lot more so you gotta take care of it. But also, like tricks and you're working on a muscle, are you getting better? Insanely better? Going? Uh? Looking back at like demos from last year to Down'm like, yeah, we gotta recut those vocals. I've I've learned just I've been in a lot of um vocal lessons. I did go through some voice stuff. Um right off the bat, I was smoking a lot because I used to smoke vape, and I smoking a lot and singing every single day. I was you know, I was going out and having dreams just because I was twenty one, and I learned very quickly that you can't do that. It's not just this like infamous thing that just has power all the time. It's it's a muscle and you have to work it. So I've went through the last year has been a very um informational year. I've learned so much just about how the voice works, things to preserve the voice, things to do after a show, before a show. So you've had to cram that's a great word for it. You've had to cram it all that people learn it eight all the way until now for a normal person who grows up singing, you had to cram it all in one year. Yeah, like all all of it, the physical part of it, the mental part of it, to take care of your voice. And so it's a it's a crash course. Feel healthy right now, super healthy. I'm like the healthiest I've been in a long time. Um. I've been singing a lot here recently, and every day I just I'll call chief with it, just cut another song. And I feel amazing, man, Like I can't I can't express how amazing I feel, you know, And that just comes with the cardio and working hard. You know. So, did you get nervous when tickets go on still that people are gonna buy tickets or did you not think about it at all? No? I didn't complete transparency. I didn't even know that what what the dates were yet. I didn't know like the routing or what was happening with the tour. And then Scott called me and said, hey, tickets went on twenty five minutes ago and you just sold out six of the eight venues. And I'm like, well, that's good, that'll work. Let's go that you that that is good. Sold out is always good. So the stress didn't even get to you because you were still learning and you didn't know what you didn't learn yet. Yeah, being being just thrown in the fire is honestly the b It's like, can you swim? I don't know, Let me jump in and see. So because then you're not so focused on the little things. You're more focused on let's keep living every day and let's make sure we're progressing. And also what I what I like, what's happening to If you don't know the rules, you don't always follow the rules, and sometimes you can create your own rules. And I've been able to do that micro a bit where I would just be a dummy it's something and be like I'm gonna I'm just gonna attack it for writing a book or doing stand up and people like, well, you have to write it like that, but I don't know how to write it. So I did it my own way. And so when it finally comes to life, people like, oh, this is different, and I'm like, oh, you're saying it's different. They said it was wrong, but it is different. I didn't know how to do it, and now it becomes kind of a standard. And I can see that happening with you a bit where you didn't know. But that's a strength for you because you created your own lane. And so that's exciting as an artist when you don't know all the rules because you can create your own And with all these other Nashville folks, producers, writers, they want you to be around them. I'm assuming like, hey, uh get with this writer. Is that happening to you now where they're trying to put your places? Um any of these rooms you walk into and you're like, dang, you've read in all these songs and you're gonna write, you're gonna write with me? Does that happen at all or is it all still a lot of your crew? Yeah? We wrote with we wrote, I write with of course Gavin every single day I write. It's awesome to that. You guys are still like, like, that's all that's your dude. Yeah. I told him from day one, I will never like you know, if we start this, it's like in it to win. I don't when did he quit his job though, that's the question. How long? Um? Probably six months ago now. Yeah, he was so nervous. He was like, man like, god, I don't know if I should quit. I don't know if I should quit. And I'm like, dude, I can promise you I'm gonna work really hard to make us both successful. Just trust me. Does he go on shows with you? He loves He doesn't playing with me, but he goes and he'll just watch. He just loves watch. And he's like, dude, can you believe this is what we're doing now instead of working? So is he he signed a publishing deal? Yeah, he just signed with Warner Chapel. Okay, so he's writing songs with you and with other folks. Yeah, I bring him. I told him. That's why I told him too. I said, I will never not bring you to a right. You you were always invited to a right, whatever, whatever right. I don't care if it's the biggest right in the world, you know. So I bring him to every right because we grew up, we grew up together. He knew, he knows exactly who I am, how I like my songs to be, so he can kind of help guide guide the train in the room. Has he gotten to be a better guitar player since he's around a lot of players all the time. Oh yeah, we both have. I mean, yeah, yeah, I can. I can. I played my first I played fall in Love on guitar the other day. I was very proud of myself. So when did you pick it up? And how long did it take you before your fingers stopped hurting and you could do more than g C d um. I just honestly going into all the rights. Man, I watched just every guitar player. I'd be like, man, that's a cool chord. So I would watch every time he would go to play that in progression, I'd be like, where's his fingers? So then I would go home and I would just find it, and then I would do different variations of that chord to see yourself without even knowing what it was, the same thing with just not knowing the rules, you know, And even to this day, everybody's like, hey, why do you think about guitar license? I'm like, you know what, no, man, I've been doing everything my whole life, whether it came to pipeline or building trucks or this and that. I just did it my way because I didn't know how to do it. So I'm just gonna keep doing it my way and I'm gonna figure it out on my own. Do you feel pretty confident playing in front of folks now with the guitar not on stage yet, but playing good song? If they're like, hey, can you play as a song? I'm like, yeah, I can play a song. You know. I can make you think I can play guitar. That's what I do too. Yeah, Like I have people that are really good, but like I like, I'm gonna do the Bluebird on Sunday night because I have a couple of theater shows in town that I'm doing, and so I just need to get on stage a couple of times because a lot of myself comedy and you know, you can practice a song, but if I don't tell jokes in front of people, I don't know if they're funny, because I can go like I wrote, this is freaking funny, but if I don't put it out in front of people and here back and never really know. So I'm gonna go play the Bluebird, I'm gonna do it it by myself. But like you, I gotta really pick this so long as that I'm really comfortable with, because unless I got my people around me, I'm very selective about what songs I'm gonna be playing. So same to where it's like I'm not I can fool you. Yeah, if you need twelve minutes, I can fol you. You'll be like that definitely. Or if you need a clip on Instagram, no problem, I can do that. So you're playing guitar, are you getting the free stuff now? Are like our music companies reaching out guitar guitar companies anything going Hey, we want to put this you know, on your Instagram or your TikTok and take it on stage. You need that happening. Um, I've been telling Scott and them, I'm like, honestly, I wanted Gibson, and I wanted Gibson deal. I've ever since I've watched The Food Fighters live. He Dave Girls always had a light blue Gibson whatever that is. It's some some guitar. But I've always been a fan of the Less Paul's so as Less Paul's s G forty or at s G, the uh J forty five whatever. So I'm like, yo, if I could have any guitars, it would be Gibson for sure. Big food Fighter fan, huge massive Food Fighter fan. I've seen him nine times. Dave grow is just a different energy. Honestly, it's an energy. It's an exact energy that nobody else has. Dave Girl live. Yea. When I when I watched that, I go I want to be him. I want to be Vincenel. I want to be these rocks too. Oh I watched. I watched the Dirt every single night all the way through. I never I never not finished, not every single night, every swear for the last that's good three and a half months. I've just manifested that I wanta what about that though? It's not like the crazy party like drugs and stuff, but just the way they live life. I want to just do what I want. I've always had that mentality of my whole life. I just don't tell me what to do. I just want to do what I want. I just want to be able to live. Let's do this Five Singers front man and that that could be two. You may move off of who are the five front man that you've watched as a kid, and you're like, I want to be them? And now you're actually going I always wanted to be them, but I didn't really know. But now I do really want to be them as I do this. Who is it inspiring you? Vince Neil, Chad Kroeger from Nickelback, Jeff Keith from Tesla, No Girl, Chris Cornell, Chris Cornell. We were watching him last night and he was different, man. Chris Cornell was different. Scott stabbed was badass. Scott's badass. Any any of them old rockers, man, they just all knew how to Just have you met Scott Nope, not yet. We've had him. We've had him here before. He follows me on TikTok. He does, he does follow me on TikTok. So that's awesome. I was a big as a huge creed guy. When you are with awesome. I went to a Creed show. I'm from Arkansas rule small town in Arkansas about Drew people like you grew up in a town like you the same size, and drove the little rock to watch Creed in an arena and I was a teenager, so I was, but I was working in radio and I went back and Scott Staff was walking around. You know, they were massive at the time. I mean, he was like, where's the pink pong table? And I was like, I was next to the pink pong table. I don't. I don't know play ping pong? Picked up Battle and he found it. It was like play pink bong. Was like yeah, I said, He said, you want to play like I don't. I don't play ping pong. Oh my gosh, I don't play people. And I was like, yeah, of course, and he goes, all right, here we go. I don't even know the rules, like you have to hit on the ground first to go around. See, you have to hit on the table to hit it over. And he goes, you want to go first? He goes, you go first. I don't know what to do. I go no, No, you go first. You're the guest. Of course, yeah, yeah, and I'm watching he hits it and I'm like, okay, I think he beat me, Like I don't know. Before we got too he was like, you don't want to play and he quit. We quit and he walked out like you don't how to play and he walked off. And then I told him that story and he goes, yeah, that's about like me. He's awesome now, but that's that's really cool. So you don't put Dave Grol up there though it's your top five. It's hard. It's so hard that Dave Girl would be up there. He's such so many He's such an intense positive energy. When he performs, he screams and I don't want to throw that word screen around, but he screams right on key. I mean, it's it's perfect. And I've seen him nine times and it's always been one of the greatest shows I've ever seen, every single time. Yeah, have you seen him live? Never seen it? I've on YouTube every day every single day. I just watched Dave Girl I've watched. I really like going back to like the Nirvana days and watching Dave Young because I like, look at him straight hair, long haired, goofy playing the drug grunge, just really grunge, and I like, look back at that, and I look at him and I go, all right, what has he done from then to now to better his life? Because if he was doing these things twenty two probably shouldn't do those. What has he done? He's a super big role model. Yeah, Like looking at him through the phone, I just go, man, I would be best friends with this guy. I feel like it's interesting too, because you know, he's in Nirvana and he is starting to do the food Food Fighters, but he's doing it's all him. It's all just him. He created all that himself, all the instruments, everything, and he talks about you know, he gave it a show to Kurt and Kurt's like, great, that's all you know? So um, he had already been on that bit. And I think at times, and obviously I'm way older than you, but I grew up a massive Nirvana fan, massive Food Finders fan, like that for me was when I was a kid kid. And to watch him come out of Nirvana possibly one of the top, depending on decade, top ten biggest rock groups of all time because Navana made the whole night. He's down there, the first one and for him to go from something that big too something else that's massive that really aren't connected. Yeah, he did it twice. He did it twice, and I don't think, Yeah, I don't think he gets the respect and he gets a lot of respect, but I don't think he gets what he deserves. I would argue, and it should be an interesting conversation that he is right now America's biggest rock star. He's a little older, But who would be a bigger rock rock star than Dave girl meeting success, relevance, history, who's an American rock star? Rolling Stones are still dead, so I'm not you can't there. They're not dead, They're still live. But the British, right, and I'm counting the old people. But once you get certain old, you're not even Cold Plays a massive rock band that's still here. Not American name a bigger American rock star. I don't think there is Dave Grohl that. I think that's it. And he's like the craziest part about him is he's never lost momentum. He's always just been And they just put out another record and it was it was massive again. Yeah, few fighters just put another record up. Yeah, like a year ago, or so oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what I mean, like just meaning they're their fifties and that's just and it was relevant even then. So that's that's pretty cool to hear your influences. And it's also pretty cool that you're honest about him, you know. I like that. I like that. I'm just a big fan. I'm a big fan now even more so after spending time with you, because like I enjoy what you're about. It's just all right, um, this is presented itself. I really love it. I want to work really hard to do it. And you don't know the rules and that's great. And if you're gonna get in trouble, you have people now that'll stop. If we're getting trouble, I'm like, well, we can't do that, but like that might put you in jail. But I like what your mind was. I do want to play fall in Love, Mike, if you could play that, please to four radio right now. I'm starting to get a little little let's go. Yeah, And that is a whole different animal, meaning you have a lot of people are gonna come to shows, but it's just a different kind of and I say it, radio to me is radio. It's satellite. It's anything where the mass population that is not extremely tuned into the digital space where they just hear things and then come fans of that's a that's a game. The space you're going into now is a game changer because you already got one on lock and you keep putting stuff there. You're gonna hold that on lock because of who you are and how good you are. But man, you start to become just everywhere I want you hit freaking radio. You can change somebody's like an artist live so many tanks like ways. But if you go to radio and you have a song do good like people's aunts, then't know who you are. Random people's like, oh I know, I've heard of Bailey. Oh yeah, And I think it's so funny talking about radio. Um small towns, hometowns of artists. You're never like a big artist until you're on like the highway, or until you're on you know, someone can actually listen to in their car whatever it is. You're not big until then, you know. I saw him. I was on the way to case Sas and hell he came on the radio. He must be getting pretty big, you know. So I've always thought it was so funny how you really nobody really knows like music industry unless you're really in it, you know. So radio is a weird thing that I'm still trying to learn. I'm still trying to understand it. So I don't think there's a thing to understand. I get gets the whole situation. Well, man, it's it's really cool. Like keep at it. I'm anxious to see how you just you just kill it, man, you know you came in. I was like, we'll see how this guy is it. Probably a diche bag and you're not. You're not, You're just not. And um, I'm super pumped at that we were able to make this happen. I was with my manager just this is how, this is how it happened. I was with my manager and we were talking about just general consumption and he said, Bailey Zimmerman, um is like one or two this week. And I just heard it and whatever. People people are always telling me that things are good or things are not good, and so I was like, cool. So Mike, who's like my main guy here at my Preyers or my right hand guy and everything I do. I was like, hey, I know anything about it. I know who you were I was like, Bailey Zimmerman, what's the deal. Uh, apparently she's killing it. Like I said earlier, I said, she's killing it. And Mike goes, we're talking about sat Bailey Zimmerman because the one I know is not a she, and I was I was like, whoever it is, I need to I need to know what's up. And so then I found out what's up and I saw like all your dad and listen to your songs and stuff, and I was like, Okay, I'm into it. Then now get to spend time with you. It's like I might be your biggest fan. I might have you number one family. That's that's it. I'm paying for me grades. But dude, I I've been your biggest fan. I've I saw um Mitchell's wife, Megan Megan Mitchell, Yes, yes, Megan. I saw her cry on her tour bus because you, like you had her on your show and stuff, and I thought, dude, I want to cry. I want to I want to do that, like I want to be on Bobby Bones Like that would be so sick because I like just you know, going around Nash listening to you, like, hey, like my stylis. She was like yeah, that's Bobby Bones House. I'm like, man, maybe one day I'll get to go over there and like do that show or something. So well, you should come up whenever you're good, and we got a whole stage at the studio. You play play one morning, it'll be awesome. D be awesome. I've not actually played a radio show yet like that where it's like hey, eight am, we're gonna come in and we're gonna play. I've never I've not done that yet. Well, I know it sounds exciting, but kind of sucks because you're like, hey, am I never sing it eight a m. We just had Cody Johnson and and he did a bunch of songs and he was like, man, and Cody plays for people and every night. Yeah, and he's like, man, its singing in the morning. That kind of sucks. And I'm like, I know, imagine waking up at three to do this stupid show for five hours, stid show and it's awesome, but you don't like I don't like being early. That part of it sucks. We'll keep it up. Man. I'm really really pumph for you. It's exciting to see all of that you're accomplishing, and it sounds like you have your priorities and check, you're still you got your boys you came up with, you're still running with them. That's such an awesome story. And I'll end on this and that it's such a story. And and you know, in five years, ten years, we'll see where where it takes you. But like when you talk to Garth or when you talk to Dave, girl, they've had this small, small group of folks the whole time, and that has been a bit of what has at times kept them centered either as a human or creatively and some times a little bit of both, sometimes one or the other. But yeah, you and you and your boy. I hope you guys are doing it for a long long time. I will never get rid of him, so I mean famous last words, I love it, I love it. I love it. Well, yeah, and and maybe he wants to get rid of you. So let's it's all you tell your mom, I said, hello, she sounds awesome. If she ever comes down and she's here, Uh, we should bring her to the show, bring her up, well, do the whole thing. I love us, I love us. Supportive mom that it is just like living uh through their kid and someone who you call and like, hey, this is happening, and I feel like that's that's awesome. All right there, I'll tell you guys, go follow Bailey Bailey dot Zimmerman on both tick Talk on Instagram, and that's it. I got nothing, Mike's everything you want to say. This has been one of the most fun interviews. I've done it a long time. Yeah, dude, I'm telling you a lot of it's it gets to be pretty douchy, and so it's awesome. This has been really fun. Yeah, I was super nervous. You were I was. I was nervous, man Like, Okay, honestly, I thought maybe maybe Bobby's a douche. I feel like, I'm so nervous to go into these rooms and with these random people, because you know how it is, like it's very easy to get off the ground when you're a person of interest and people know who you are when you go around, and so going in here, I was like, I really hope Bob he was just like a chip just hanging well. I think at this point, I am. I think I got to this town. It was normal. It was like, well, I can't believe it had a couple of years where things blew up really fast. I didn't know what was going on, and I was like, oh, maybe I was. And I had my douche eighteen months or so because I was just confused. I was like, oh, maybe I am way cooler than I and I was wrong. I was like, wait, let's cool than I actually thought. And so but now I know that, and you know, I just I'll leave with this. And I've had a couple of friends that are artists that started. I was like, Um, you're gonna kill it. I can just see. I can see it already. You're gonna kill it. This is gonna be a long career for You're gonna be super successful. Um, you'll have. It's just try to shorten your douche as much as you can. Yeah, you're gonna have a couple of douche months on the minimal, but it's have good people around you, hopefully they're douches with You can live that out and then you get back to normal and you remember that douche team months we had. Let's never do that again. But you're owed. Dad. Just don't be a douce to me. We're all good to everybody else. You're only good douche team months and then back at it, you know, yeh next time? All right, do you want I'm gonna listen to this? You think? Yeah? Yeah? What's her name? Christ Christie, You are more than welcome. If Bailey's ever like, Hey, I'm going to Bobby's show, you come with him. I would love to meet you, and I hope you're super proud of him. You've got a good kid. You stop, you stop vaping. That's sick. Yeah, and he stop vaping because that's that. That's what it is like. If you want to care about your professional career, you gotta take care of things. And so all right there he is, all right, Bailey Zimmerman. Follow Bailey. Tickets, I'd say get them. There are a couple of shows where it was like three tickets left in the roll, separate parts of the venue. He's selling out like crazy. But if he comes, go see them. All right, Bailey, good to see Buddy, Good to see you. Man. This team is kol