The following is an interview I did with Cody Canada and Jeremy Plato for the cover story of LoneStarMusic Magazine during the fall of 2009.

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Happiness and All the Other Things. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It’s an apt title for the tenth album from Cross Canadian Ragweed in this, their fifteenth year as a band.

While two members of the band – Grady Cross (rhythm guitar) and Randy Ragsdale (drums) – are back in their home base of Oklahoma, happiness is certainly the theme at an early lunch of sushi as LoneStarMusic Magazine sits down with Cody Canada (vocals, guitar) and Jeremy Plato (bass, vocals). Cody has just purchased a fully restored Hudson Hornet (“seen Cars?” he asks) and Jeremy has also recently purchased a classic car of his own. These “newest” trophies are symbols of the roll the band is on.

After fifteen years, ten albums, and over three thousand live shows the group is in an enviable position. They have a strong home-base in the southwest and a growing national audience. They’re on a major record label (Universal South), but are not beholden to the sacrifices and trade-offs that usually entails. They’re getting to do what they love to do for a living with people they’ve been friends with for far longer than Cross Canadian Ragweed has been a band.

As the cover for the new album suggests, Cross Canadian Ragweed undoubtedly has a bird in hand with no intentions of scouring the bushes for any kind of replacement. Over several pieces of white tuna and spicy salmon, Cody and Jeremy discuss their first gig, the origins of the CCR logo, the latest album, being in a video game, plans for their first national television appearance, and your mom.

LoneStarMusic: I’m not used to musicians wanting to meet before noon.

Cody Canada: Neither are we.

Jeremy Plato: It’s kind of a rare deal.

CC: Home’s a different situation.

JP: I usually get up pretty early.

CC: I get home and it’s Lunesta at night; asleep by 10pm and up by 7am. On the road it’s in bed by 6am and up by 3pm. I went through the “Daddy, get up!” until about three in the afternoon only one time. I felt like a big loser.

LSM: Fifteen years as a band is a hell of an accomplishment. Congratulations.

CC & JP: Thanks, man.

LSM: Is there a specific date you consider the anniversary?

CC: October 1^st. That was our gig at the Czech Festival in Yukon.

JP: That was our first real gig.

CC: We practiced for so long and then played this gig.

LSM: Did you guys have the typical practice gigs where you go and play your uncle’s backyard or a friend’s house party?

CC: We did a couple of house parties where the parents were cool, you know? “All the kids can come over and drink tonight as long as you guys just stay here.”

We used Randy’s dad’s PA for so long and finally saved up enough money to get our own PA.

LSM: All Peavey?

CC: Randy’s dad’s stuff was all Peavey. Peavey columns.

JP: They were old school Peavey 4×12 columns. Then we got into the big Cerwin-Vega’s and EV.

CC: Yeah, the EVs. We were playing this party once and there was this kid – his brother was Plato and I’s age and he was Randy’s age so he was two years younger. He was always stoned. We had played for several hours in this garage. He walked up and said, “Hey man, your speakers are smoking.” We said, “Thanks man, we just got ‘em.” He was like, “No man, they’re on FIRE.” And they were, we toasted them. Had to buy new cones for them and all that.

LSM: Do you remember your first gig outside of Yukon?

JP: El Reno.

LSM: Long trek from Yukon.

JP: Yeah, it’s like twenty miles.

CC: If that.

LSM: Where was it at?

JP: Where was it? Was it…. Reno’s?

CC: Yeah, Reno’s. They put a lot of effort into the name. It was the smokiest bar. Man, it was smoky.

LSM: How long was that after the Czech Festival?

CC: I don’t even know. It’s been so long ago. We played the Czech Festival and the Fifty Yard Line. The Czech Festival was in the alley of the Fifty Yard Line. We played there forever. Played the Horseshoe one time, across the street from the Fifty Yard Line, and they got pissed. But the El Reno show was probably within the same few months.

LSM: After fifteen years you guys have outlasted most of the venues you started in.

CC: And most marriages.

LSM: Who were some of the early supporters, venue-wise, as you started playing out?

CC: Wormy Dog for sure. Golden Light Cantina up in Amarillo.

JP: Blue Light in Lubbock.

CC: The Blue Rose in Tulsa. Their big claim to fame was that Hanson got their break there. Capacity was 96 people.

JP: We used to cram – what was it – like, 125 people in there?

CC: Right. The wives used to sit on the monitors so everyone else could get in to see the show.

Oklahoma City never supported us in the beginning, so we just bought a bar there. We’ll play here.

LSM: That’s a good way to get around that. You guys need to buy a bar in Waco.

CC: No thanks.

JP: That was one of our first gigs ever in Texas, the old Cadillac Jacks.

CC: We got there and it was the first time we’d ever heard or seen Walt Wilkins.

JP: Oh yeah. He was pissed.

CC: The place was a dump and we got there late and they were like, “Who are you?” We told them and they said, “Well, we’ve got Walt Wilkins tonight.” We told them, “Well, we’ve got a contract.” And we did. It was a hand-written contract but luckily we had it and we got to play. Walt opened and after everybody watched Walt, nobody stayed for us. That was a good night. Boland came with us just to hang out.

LSM: Were there any bands that were supportive as you guys were getting started?

JP: Cooder Graw.

CC: Cooder Graw was awesome. Of course, the Great Divde – all of the Okies.

LSM: You Stillwater guys stuck together pretty tight.

CC: Gary P. Nunn was a big one.

JP: He helped us out.

CC: Gary P. Nunn is the reason we know this town [New Braunfels]. He got us at his Terlingua North show up in Hannah, Oklahoma. And we opened for him at the Wormy Dog. Then he said, “Why don’t you come down to Gruene Hall and open for us?” We said, “All right, we’ll be there. When is it?”

“Tomorrow.”

So we’re downstairs partying in the Under Dog and then we drove down there. We showed up and he goes, “Oh…. Uhhhh… Hey guys!” We noticed the Cooder Graw guys were hanging out at Gruene Hall too. So we asked them, “What are you all doing?”

“We’re opening for Gary P. tonight.”

“So are we.”

Then we realized why Gary gave us that look earlier. He’d promised both of us and we both showed up. We ended up just partying together and Gary said to get us during the break so we played during the break and fell in love with the town after that.

LSM: Fifteen years later now and an opening slot at a Cross Canadian Ragweed show can really help a new band out. Do you guys get hit up all the time for openers?

CC: We do every now and then, but I know the office gets hit up every day. We try to listen to everything, but it’s like Mattson [KNBT program director]. Same way with you. I’m sure you get 15 CDs a week, saying “listen and sell it”. Mattson probably gets 15 CDs a day saying, “listen and play it.” But we try to listen to everything we can and say, “Hey, give these guys a shot.”

LSM: Is it more bands that you see out on the road and watch perform that have a better chance of making the cut?

CC: Yeah, like Jonathan Tyler. That was people calling and saying, “Hey, can they open?” We put them on one festival and after that we started doing tons of shows together.

LSM: I think it was your office that turned LoneStarMusic on to Matt King.

CC: We got turned on to him by Robert [Earl Keen]. Robert called Shannon and said, “You guys are in my opinion the best management team out there right now and he needs some help. He’s thinking about moving back to Texas so help him out.” We listened to it and said, “Yeah, this is it. This is what we’re about.” It’s a little bit different, but it’s woven from the same music.

LSM: Fifteen years with no lineup changes is pretty tough to do.

CC: We’ve known each other….

JP: Forever. Before we were even in the band.

CC: Grady and I didn’t even really know how to play when we all met.

JP: I first met Grady when I was ten years old. I was in fourth grade.

LSM: So it’s more like the band is an extension of the friendship?

CC: Yep, and I’m glad it happened, because who knows, we might not still be friends.

JP: People do drift apart.

CC: There’s people from high school when we were really, really tight friends and I haven’t seen them in fifteen years, but we get to see each other every day, and it’s still awesome. It really is, that’s no shit. There’s hardly ever a bad day.

JP: We carry on like we’re kids still. Mom jokes and everything.

CC: The mom jokes are brutal.

JP: They’re very graphic. They’re very graphic these days.

CC: Some day someone’s mom is going to pass and put and end to the mom jokes…. or it’s going to make it worse.

JP: Or somebody’s going to hook up with somebody’s mom.

CC: That could happen.

JP: Again.

LSM: The CCR logo seems to be an integral part of the band image. Did you ever have any run-ins with the St. Louis Southwestern Railway?

CC: Cotton Belt Route? Yeah, we did. We were in Stillwater and working with Matt Gambrell at University Spirit. He did everything for us – flyers, and the people working for him did CD artwork for us. Our Carney album, which the first artwork was just horrific. Sorry, but it was.

Matt was coming up with different logos for us. The first one was basically a Great Divide rip-off. In fact, it wasn’t basically, it was. Everybody had already pegged us as a Great Divide wannabe, so we told him to do something original. So we saw what is now the logo and said, “That’s awesome, that’s great!”

JP: And none of us had any idea.

LSM: No railroad buffs in the band?

JP: No clue. I mean, the Cotton Belt didn’t run through Oklahoma.

CC: Then we came down and did a gig somewhere in Texas and there was an old Cotton Belt Museum that had that shield…

JP: It was in Stephenville.

CC: It was hanging there, this big wooden shield and we were like, “Shit. That seems familiar.”

JP: Same font and everything on the first letter.

CC: So we called Gambrell and said, “Dude, it’s a little too late to turn back now.” We got a couple of phone calls about it and our lawyer had called Shannon several times about it. Then one day we got a phone call that they’d gone completely defunct and shut it down and we could use it. Public Domain.

Of course, now all of the colleges are using it. We have a sticker on the fridge in our bus that says Texas State inside the shield, but it doesn’t bother us. We’re not sue-happy people anyway. We’re not going to sue somebody for something we ripped off in the first place.

LSM: Going back to when you started playing Texas, it seems you had an unusual ability to breakthrough in towns quickly. I remember in Amarillo it was three shows. You opened for someone, then headlined the Golden Light, and then headlined the Nat Ballroom. Did that happen a lot to you across Texas?

JP: Not a lot, but it did happen.

CC: Lubbock was harder to crack.

JP: We hammered that place and then finally…

CC: Stephenville was pretty easy. We opened for the Great Divide and then the next time we came to town we were headlining it.

Fort Worth was easy. I know a lot of people think it’s all the same town, but Dallas was a little tougher than Fort Worth.

LSM: I find that Dallas and Fort Worth have totally different vibes and totally different crowds.

CC: They do. Forth Worth’s more laid back and “Howdy Ya’ll” and Dallas is more fast-paced and “Fuck Off”.

LSM: How is it now across the U.S. when you go into a city for the first time?

JP: In the past couple of years we’ve had some success with Rochester, New York. We’ played there twice and the last time we were there, people were there ti see it. They came to watch, and it was a good time.

CC: We played the International Jazz Festival up there two years ago.

LSM: I wouldn’t have normally put “Cross Canadian Ragweed” and “International Jazz Festival” together.

CC: I wouldn’t either, but they also put the Kentucky Headhunters there the next week. Their whole strategy was to have this big jazz festival and then to have someone completely different. Listen to jazz all week and then, “Check this out.” It worked for us. We had 6,000 people in New York. There are sometimes we struggle getting 6,000 people down here anymore.

We played Chico, California a few weeks ago and we’d never played there before and sold out the Sierra Nevada Brewery. Then we went to Sacramento and that place was sold out. The Sierra Nevada Brewery was pretty big, but Sacramento wasn’t. Still, we’re a long ways from home and selling out the shows.

It’s kind of going like it was in Texas ten years ago. We play it a couple of times and the next time we come back it’s rockin’.

LSM: Has the practical joke feud between you guys and Reckless Kelly died down yet?

CC: It’s died down a little bit. It’s because they suck at it. I’m not just saying that because we give them so much hell, but the last few attempts have just been sad. They’re not as creative as they used to be. Now it’s just destruction of property.

They took a personal hit out on me a while back and I just kind of stood back. Stink bait in the microphone screen?

JP: Ooooooohhhh.

CC: That was personal. That wasn’t like a group thing. We put a dead fish in their van. That’s for all of them.

LSM: That’s what started it, right?

CC: Yeah, that’s what started it, but that’s all of them. That’s not a personal hit. Of course, Grady and Randy – and I’m not saying this because they’re not here, it’s the truth – they get real nervous about it. Plato and I think it’s funny [Jeremy nods in agreement], because they’re not going to hurt anybody or anything. Grady and Randy get super, super nervous every time we play around them because they don’t like the element of surprise. “I know they’re planning something. I know it.”

JP: [Doing a Randy/Grady impersonation] “We need to watch it, man.”

CC: Well let ‘em do it, Then we’ll get ‘em back.

But that’s some family right there. I know we always joke around and give ‘em shit, but those guys are definitely family – all the Brauns for that matter.

JP: Hearts of gold. Good people.

LSM: We talked earlier about Ragweed being an extension of the friendship and all of the Stillwater bands stuck together like family. It seems you’ve found a new family down here with Reckless Kelly and more recently with Robert Earl and his people. It seems to come natural to you.

JP: We’ve always had the school of thought that there’s really no need, especially in this business, to be an asshole. We’re kind of all in this together.

CC: That’s the truth. We’ve seen so many acts be jerks to other acts. And why? Why would you be a jerk to someone playing music, trying to better their music? Unless they’re a jerk to you first. Then go for it.

Back to those boys in Reckless – the first time we heard them, Shannon and I weren’t married yet, we’d just started dating. Boland and I and Ted, our merch guy at the time, we were all living together at the Yellow House. Not Shannon though, she wouldn’t even step inside the Yellow House.

JP: That place was a living breathing staph infection.

CC: It was.

I’d never seen Steve Earle live, so Shannon bought us tickets to Robert Earl’s Texas Uprising. I talked her into all of my friends going to – she footed the bill. It was a pretty dead crowd for Reckless, only because they played really, really early. In fact, I think they were the first band. I remember me and Boland sitting there watching Reckless with our mouths open.

We chased them around. I know those guys made fun of us. We’d sneak backstage and request songs while they were just sitting drinking and having a joint – bullshitting and unwinding. “Play ‘Hey Say May’. Please. I know you just played it, but play it again.”

JP: [doing a Willy Braun impersonation] “I wish these jerk-offs would get out of my face.”

CC: They were always really nice to us and it felt really cool to get to know those guys. And now Reckless and Ragweed and the Motorcars – we’re all as tight as it comes.

We talked about not doing the cruise next year – taking a break – and Reckless said, “We’re not going if you’re not going.” So were like, “All right, let’s book another gig together then.”

LSM: One of the few original Ragweed “goals” that hasn’t been fulfilled yet is a Saturday Night Live appearance. Anything on the horizon?

CC: We’ve been told to keep a lot of dates open in December. We have a lot of irons in the fire for that time so we have a feeling at least one of them is going to happen.

LSM: If it doesn’t, will you take being in a video game as a decent concession prize?

CC: Yes!

JP: I saw some YouTube video yesterday of Slayer on Jimmy Kimmel Live. I thought, if Slayer can make their television debut on Kimmel, why can’t we?

CC: We got Kimmel working, we got Letterman working. Actually I think we got all of ‘em working from what I’ve been told.

But the video game thing – that was a trip! We make a weekly trip to Toys ‘R Us. I went there the other day and went to the video games. There was this girl – I don’t want to sound like an old man – some young girl working with her face pierced and purple hair. Which ain’t no big deal, I thought she was cool, but I told her, “I need to look at a video game” She asked which one and I said, “Rock band Country”. She said it like a dirty word, “Country?”

LSM: Any thoughts on still doing the Johnny Cash Tribute album?

CC: Yeah, we still talk about it. To be real honest, when the kids hit there was not as much free time. We’re still in the works on a lot of things. I’ve been wanting to do a Christmas song with Lee Ann [Womack] for years. Have Asleep at the Wheel lead the way, but it still hasn’t happened.

LSM: How many dates do you guys play each year?

CC: It goes between 220 and 260 on the road. I don’t know exactly how many of those days are gigs, but it’s over 200. As long as we have a break every now and then. Just a couple of days off to rest up the vocals, rest up the liver, and rest up the lungs.

LSM: Does that much time on the road make the geographical separation of members of the band irrelevant?

CC: Yes. When we started talking about moving down here we said we’re going to see each other more than we would when we’re home. I lived a mile from my dad and I saw him more on the road – him coming to shows. It was going to work that way with the band too.

LSM: You guys went back to California to record the new album, Happiness and All the Other Things, and the record does have more of a west coast vibe. Were you going for that?

CC: We weren’t intentionally going for it, I think it just kind of happens when we’re there. The reason I like to go out there is because we don’t know anybody.

LSM: No distractions?

JP: No distractions and the weather’s always good.

CC: And in being that laid back, I think they were on to something. I think Gram Parsons was on to something. Go out there, kick back and relax and make a good record instead of rushing it.

LSM: I love the “a punch and a kiss” open to the record.

CC: I didn’t want to bury “Bluebonnets” too deep in there.

LSM: Stephanie Briggs plays a noticeable role in the CD. Was that an outgrowth of writing together?

CC: It was writing together and singing together. My wife had talked about her, saying I had to check this girl out. We did our first acoustic run together and we talked about writing, but we never really did. Then the second run came around and we’d been doing gigs together, learning covers together, and we had some ideas. What started it all was “Confident”. We were texting lines back and forth.

LSM: Twenty-first century way to co-write.

CC: Yeah. So I got iRecorder and we emailed that song back and forth and wrote it just over email. I thought, “That’s really cool. Now let’s get together and do it like we’re supposed to do it.” We started writing together and we couldn’t stop. And we still can’t. We were writing one last week the same way – via email and iPhone apps. To me there was no other way than to have her sing and play piano on the record. Anybody that can co-write the song and deliver a harmony needs to do it, and I think she sounds really good with us. She plays a lot of shows with us, she’s like the 5^th member. I think it was meant for us to play music together. And Jeremy and I sit in with her and we’re her bass player and guitar player at gigs.

LSM: Is the cover art synchronicity between the two records (Briggs’s latest solo release and the new Ragweed album) purposeful or a coincidence?

CC: I think she’s just got a thing for birds. She was drawing a lot in the studio, and [Mike] McClure, being crazy-ass McClure wanted a tattoo of Mr. Wrestling II.

JP: Mr. Wrestling II, the beacon of decency. McClure went back and said it’s actually “the deacon of obesity”.

CC: He asked her to draw it, so she drew it. And I was like, “Wow, I didn’t know you were that good of an artist.” She lived the record the same as the rest of us did. She was there the whole time. So I said, “Why don’t you start drawing something? Just go with the theme of the record.” She went home because she had gigs and she sent me a picture of what she was working on – I’ve still got it – and that was it. With this band, usually the first thing we see is what it’s going to be.

I wanted to do it in black and white and she said, “Let me paint it”. And Shannon said, “She should paint it”, and there you go.

LSM: And did McClure get the tattoo?

CC: Oh yeah. Mr. Wrestling II right there on his arm.

LSM: He stole mashed potatoes off my plate one night and ate them off a butcher knife.

CC: That does not surprise me.

LSM: Who were some of the other writers on the record?

JP: “To Find My Love” is a Stephen Bruton song I’ve always sung myself after a show at the back of the bus or at a party or something.

CC: “Drag” is Brandon Jenkins and I. That started out as me and Jeremy and we shit-canned it. Then Stoney [LaRue] and I tried it twice. That didn’t work. Then Jenkins and I wroteit and that one stuck.

McClure, of course. Steph. And Micky Braun wrote on “51 Pieces”. He actually wrote the chorus. We didn’t get a chance to write with Stoney on this one. Or Wade [Bowen] or Randy [Rogers].

LSM: You guys have done a Todd Snider cover the last couple of records. This time around you did a Warren Zevon tune (“Carmelita”).

CC: We’ve been doing that one for a while. It just feels right.

LSM: How many records have you guys done with McClure now?

CC: Let’s see… This is the sixth.

LSM: He is like the non-performing fifth member of Ragweed?

CC: Oh yeah. He performs every now and then. You have to catch him when he’s sober. Otherwise he’ll crank that amp so loud you can’t hear the drums.

He’s been there since day one. He was there when we first started. He was at one of our first gigs – the Moose Lodge in Yukon. He might have been the only person there. He helped us out from the get-go. He put us down when we needed to be put down. To help us get better, you know, tough love. I’ve heard Tom Petty’s quote, “When you make the great record with the producer, then kill the producer and move on to the next one.” But to me, Mike gets better every time, and he approaches it different every time.

LSM: The work he’s been doing lately with Joe Hardy is phenomenal.

CC: That’s a good team. That’s one thing we owe to Tony Brown. He turned McClure on to Joe. He said, “When you mix and master this thing, be sure to call Joe Hardy.” McClure said he’d never heard of him and Tony promised he’d like him. And now McClure’s gay for him.

LSM: Is he still trying to find a good track for horns on a CCR record?

CC: Man I wish I would have listened to him on “The Deal” on Mission California. That would have been great for horns, but I was hard-headed and said “No horns”.

LSM: So if another one comes up, you’re ready?

CC: We’re in! He was giving me shit about piano. I’d never really liked piano or organ on a record because we didn’t have that live. I’d been thinking and I finally gave in. Last October was when I threw everything away and said, “Let’s just make a record.” If there’s a fiddle on it, then there’s a fiddle on it. If there’s three other people singing harmony, if there’s steel guitar, dobro, banjo, whatever – let’s just go for it. Let’s just make a really good record and then we’ll compensate live. But he gives me a lot of shit about that piano. He says, “Awww you found somebody new to write with. Glad she didn’t play the damn kazoo.”

LSM: The first single, “Kick In the Head” has an Eaglish west-coast feel. Did that come together in the studio or is it something you’ve been playing for a while?

CC: My opinion it just happened that way. There was really no plan on making it sound like that, I think it was just kind of destined. And, of course, putting Lloyd Maines on top of it…

LSM: Because it has that kind of feel, do you think this is a track that the label has been waiting for?

CC&JP: Yes.

CC: To go back, the harmony thing on it – when Steph and [Stephanie’s husband] Matt were out with us on our way to California, Plato would do “Soul Agent” acoustic and then I’d do a song, Stephanie and I would sing together and we’d do “Kick In the Head” and then one night Stephanie and Jeremy did that three part on “Kick In the Head” and it was like, “Holy shit!” It was perfect and beautiful. So I hounded McClure about the harmonies on that and he went for it – thought it was cool – and then he wanted to use Lloyd. That’s what brought it together, I think.

That was the song where I said, “I’m not going to bitch any more after this.” I know I over-bitch about the label, but they’re worth bitching about. But I said, “I’m done, I’m going to stop complaining.” They promised us video after video on the last record, they promised us all kinds of things. And that’s all they were, just empty promises. They never followed through with it. And then when radio or fans didn’t get something, the label blamed us for it.

LSM: How would they blame you?

CC: We were supposed to have a video for “Cry Lonely”. Two Thanksgivings ago on the day before Thanksgiving I talked to the director for two hours in the parking lot of Cowboys. We had this idea of doing this Robert Rodriguez style grim fairy tale to “Cry Lonely”. We talked about filming it in Steamboat so the blood would show up brighter on the snow. That was supposed to happen in January. Nothing happened. March rolled around and we just kind of forgot about it. We got up to Nashville and they said the reason they didn’t do anything is because we’re hard to work with and I wouldn’t call the director back. That’s bullshit.

JP: That is classic, high school “he said/she said” bullshit.

CC: And this was the new people at the record label. They were supposed to come in and change everything. And they spend half their time in Hawaii.

But “Kick In the Head” – we’d just got home and I came up with that first line and sat on it for a little bit and decided this is going to be the very last song where I bitch about the business. Turn over a new leaf – quit complaining and just make music.

LSM: So are they promising a video on “Kick In the Head”?

CC: Who knows. Actually they wanted to do a video for “Drag”. This is typical Universal South right now. They wanted to film an “I Believe” video. Then they didn’t. So we brought out our own people.

JP: We just filmed it ourselves.

CC: And CMT picked it up, and the label took the credit for it.

JP: Of course they did.

CC: So we had some people come out and film in Birmingham for the extra footage. That wasn’t the label, that was our people. That was Shannon and Betsy and Enzo. So yesterday Shannon said they want to use the footage for the video for “Drag”, can you approve it? And I was thinking about it and this was filmed before we knew the song all the way, so I thought, there’s no way we can use it. But that’s what they wanted to do. Take the stuff we filmed and pitch it to CMT. Get off your fucking ass, and do something. They’re not putting money behind us to tour. We paid for this record on our own.

LSM: At this point all they really are is a distribution channel?

JP: That’s it. And I know that that fact is something that’s really tough for them to swallow, because nobody does that any more. Everyone expects the label to pick up the tab for them nowadays. But we don’t have to do that any more.

CC: They got pissed off because we booked the studio and didn’t tell them about it. This is the second time. We did it with Mission California too. They said we’re supposed to tell them this stuff. But we’re not. We’re not going to tell them because if so they’re going to be bugging us and sending people to the studio. They’re going to want to pitch songs to us and it’s just going to cause an argument.

LSM: They still haven’t figured out that you’re not a band for song pitches?

CC: That was another thing. Right along the same time as the “Cry Lonely” video – they asked if I knew Radney Foster.

“Yeah, I know Radney Foster.”

“Well, you need to write with him.”

“No shit I need to write with Radney Foster. Just let it happen naturally.”

JP: We don’t really need you guys to make an appointment for us, thanks.

CC: If I want to call Radney Foster, I’ll call him through Randy Rogers. Bunch of jackasses. We got one more record after this one and we’re done.

LSM: One more on the contract usually means a “Greatest Hits” package.

CC: Yeah, they tried to do that, but we don’t have any hits.

LSM: Dierks Cobain Canada made an early recording debut on this record.

CC: Yeah, I had to pay him out of my own pocket on that one.

LSM: Label didn’t pick that one up?

CC: No, the label didn’t pick that up.

LSM: He have tough management?

CC: Very tough. He’s got a rider a mile long.

I didn’t want to record that song [“Bluebonnets”] on anything but our wristbands. I was a hard-headed asshole about it. I didn’t want the label making any money off of my kids, you know? As we’re walking out the door he asked, “You going to record my song, Daddy?”

“Yep, we sure will.” No arguing that one.

We have some extended, deleted stuff that he recorded. He was so amazed – the big microphone, he called the sound board “the big computer”. He sang the Nightmare Before Christmas song on there. The he said, “Daddy’s a badass.” I might have put him up to that one. They took that and slowed it way down and played it back for him – he laughed so hard.

LSM: Sounds like a natural.

CC: He’s a natural somethin’.