Cooper Riley Country Artist

Hailing from the musical heart of Memphis, Cooper is a rising country artist with a soulful twist and a bluesy backbone. Growing up in a family where music wasn't just a background noise, it was a way of life, he found himself naturally drawn to the sounds that shaped his upbringing. From front porch jams to studio sessions, music has always been in his blood. Y'all go check him out at

www.cooperrileymusic.com

all links are there

Transcript

0:01

All right, so we're gonna have a little bit of fun and uh we're gonna find out about Cooper Riley. How are you doing, Cooper? Good man, how are you? Now I gotta ask this because I did that when you first walked up. I called you Coop. Does a lot of people just uh automatically call you Cooper? Yeah. Yeah, like uh for the most part, I'll you know, I'll say my name's Cooper or whatever, but then like they will never say Cooper for the most part, it's just Coop. Just the Coop. Coop. I love that. I love that you were born and raised in Memphis. Born and raised, yes, sir. So you old Tennessee boy. Yes, sir. Yeah, I love that. Yeah. I um I've lived here my whole life. Really? Yeah, I was born and raised in Nashville. Yeah. And I just uh I moved away from it and moved around and stuff, but dad always had me right there at, you know, Jones Avenue and Trinity Lane areas where I grew up. Yeah, I I've um it was I think before I moved here, the last time I was in Nashville was I was super young and then I like really kind of wanted to take the music route and then before I moved here, um me and my parents came up here to kind of check it out, see where I wanted to be. Yeah. And then like two and a half, three months later I was here. So Well, that's what's weird because what genre are you actually? Blues country. That's what I was I was trying to because I mean Memphis is known for the blues. Yes, sir, you know, and uh I've been to Bill Street many a dagumte day that I just it gets crazy down there. It does, it does for sure. Uh my um my mom's side of the family is sh they're from Jonesboro, Arkansas. And so um on that side of the family, you can either play an instrument or sing or do both. So I was around that my entire life, and all of them play the blues, and so I've just been around music and blues music my entire life. See, I find that awesome. It's so fun. You don't you don't realize how much fun music can actually be, but when you're brought up in it and it's always around and it's always fun, because I've talked to a lot of artists that they've actually grown up, and it was at the grandparents' house or you know, on the back porch or something, and people are just hanging out and singing and doing stuff, you know. Yeah, it's it's it's fun. I mean, every time I go there for a holiday or somebody's birthday or whatever, we'll like me, it's more of like me, my two uncles, and my cousin, well, two of my cousins, and you know, we'll hang out with everybody for about 30 minutes to an hour, and then we'll like disappear upstairs into a studio and just play till like late at night. It's so fun. Well, see, me and my producer Caitlin, we've been talking about this, and I'm really, really gearing towards doing it because I started buying new equipment and stuff so we could do this. Yeah. And uh I'm thinking about doing a bonfire and just having some people come over and hang out and bring some guitars, and you know, we'll uh grill out some burgers and stuff like that and just have a little party and do it. That sounds like a good time, and then we'll put it all on the podcast just to watch it. I think it'd be fun as I'll get out. A hundred percent. I mean, you know, playing music by yourself and playing with like friends and family or whatever is a completely different thing. So being able to play with other people is always my favorite thing to do. Oh yeah. Well, that was, you know, when we used to go off roading and stuff, and we'd have a bonfire out in the woods somewhere or something, you know, and it'd always be like one or two people would break out a guitar. But if you was doing a song and the two guitarists knew that song, dude, it was like, wow. Yeah. It's it's funny because my uncle, he um he grew up playing music, you know, in the church and all that stuff, but he um would let let's see, he was a producer and he had a bunch of different bands, and then um and he had some songs out too and stuff like that. But you know, I'll go to his house or he'll come to mine or whatever, and we'll play. And I'll just be playing, you know, a couple of songs, and then next thing you know, he just starts going crazy on the guitar, and I just set my guitar down. I'm just like, all right, you I'm done. You can have it, you can do whatever. Yeah. It blows me away off. Some of the people were like that, man. And it's just because I've said when you're on stage, are you playing guitar and singing at the same time? Yes, sir. See, to me, that that's skill right there, because I never could learn how to play, but I knew people they could play. Yeah, they could play real good, but they couldn't really do the vocal part unless it was like backup vocals. Yeah. But when you see somebody that can actually play a guitar and sing at the same time, I'm done. It it it took because I started playing guitar when I was like super young and then I kind of like strayed away from it, and then when I was I want to say 10 or 11, maybe, yeah. I started playing piano, and I haven't stopped playing the piano, but then I was 17 maybe, it was right before I graduated high school. I picked up the guitar again, and then um it was like learning a whole new language. I was like, I don't remember how to do any of this. But then once I got the hang of it, um I'd say it probably took me two or three months to be comfortable to like play and sing at the same time. Yeah. But um, but no, I I love playing guitar, I love playing piano. Um it's both of them are beautiful instruments for sure. Well, now you just gotta do uh banjo, mandolin, and a couple others. My uncle just gave me uh his mandolin he bought when he was 19. Oh man. I need to get it new strings on it and stuff like that, cuz but been sitting in the attic for who knows how long. But I want to learn how to play that, and then uh last year my dad got me a banjo for Christmas. Don't know how to play it, but I'm gonna learn it at some point. But it's a fascinating creature, I can tell you. Because I was uh I was raised up, you know, watching Hee-Hall and all this other stuff. And uh I used to love watching Roy Clark. Yeah. I mean, that guy could play any freaking instrument you handed him, you know. That's crazy. And uh I think a lot of people don't really look back on a lot of those great instrumentalists of the day. Oh yeah. I mean, even the harmonica. Like I think that is so sick. Oh yeah. Well, I mean, it used to blow me away how uh several songs that Bob Dylan did, he was playing the acoustic guitar and the harmonica. See, that's too much for my brain to even wrap around. Right. How do I keep time here? I mean, come on, and then jumping straight into singing too. Well, yeah, and uh I had a I had a guest on the show. He was playing guitar and he had the the setup for the harmonica, but instead of a harmonica in it, he had a kazoo, and he was playing a kazoo on his frickin' song, and I was just like it mesmerized me. I've never heard of that before, dude. It was freaking awesome, man. I bet because you know, we had kazoos growing up and stuff, and and just but he incorporated it into the song, yeah, and it was just it actually was really, really good. I bet. I bet that is that is really interesting to hear. Oh, yeah. Well, you'll have to I'll I'll I'll show you where you can pull it up, and it'll be funny because um I love people that are just multi-instrumental, yeah. Because it keeps you from going in that box. Oh yeah, I mean that's the thing, like, and and I'm wanting to kind of with my music want to do some more like piano type of songs because I feel like I kind of get stuck in all these different guitar. I mean, you know, four quarters of the truth is what everybody likes to say, but if you if you keep kind of making all these guitar songs, and all of them sound different, but to be able to have piano, like majority of p piano in the songs, yeah, it's a completely different thing. And I feel like whenever I am singing with a piano in the back, I'm able to like bring back the blues back into my music and really get into it and kind of feel the whole vibe of it all. Like I just did one uh that I wrote three months ago, and um I really don't even know what category to put it in. But it's it's super like bluesy jazz kind of like I don't really know. I I'm still trying to kind of figure that part out, but we uh wrote it with a piano and it's like completely different beast, dude. Yes, it's awesome, it's so cool. Well, I mean, some people I don't know, it's kind of weird because Used to be the genres was just rock, hard rock, heavy metal, country, yeah, blues, rap. Now it's like genre, 15 subcolumns, 15 subcolumns, and you're just like, what the hell are y'all doing? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you know, I grew up listening to, you know, old like Merle Haggard and George Stray, Randy Travis, Keith Whitley, so forth. But then, you know, I grew up listening to a lot of blues. So that was the kind of thing, you know, when I before I moved here, I was writing, and I guess you could say I was writing bro country. Yeah. But um, and I just thought, man, like I love this stuff. And I do love it, but it wasn't who I was, I guess. And I played um, I did this podcast downtown, it's called Playlisted. Yeah. And um, and so I played one of my songs, and he's like, I feel like you can do something better. And I was like, What's that supposed to mean? And uh, and so then he was like, Um, do you have any songs that showcase your vocals a little bit better? And I was like, I mean, this is like right when I first moved there, and I was like, Man, I I don't know, you're kind of putting me on the spot here. And he's like, Well, do you have any songs that you could cover that you know showcase your vocals? And I was like, Yeah, I'll I'll do one. And it was uh Hurricane, uh, which Levon Helm wrote it, but Band of Heathens is what everybody knows about. And um, and when I did that, it's just like everything changed, and after that day, that's all I all I did. So well, see when you say the song Hurricane. I start thinking of back in the day Leon Everett. Yeah. And all them, and he's a good friend of mine, you know. And I was just like, Yeah, I mean, but to highlight your vocals and everything else. Isn't that what you singing your song is supposed to be? I mean, yeah, but it's it's kind of more I guess the right way to put it is the stuff that I was writing before was more lyrical. Yeah. And not necessarily showing what I can do with my voice. Yeah. And so I feel like, you know, if you write a good song that's lyrical, and if you can do things with your voice that not a lot of people can do, or you know, don't necessarily put in their music, it kind of makes you stand out a little bit. And it's a lot more fun for me because when I'm singing, you know, different types of stuff, yeah, uh I enjoy it a lot more. Well, yeah, you know, and I'm good at uh like Viking stuff. There you go. You know, the chanting and stuff, I'm good with that. Because you gotta have that deep voice, you know. Yeah, and um but yeah, I I find that fascinating because the weird part about all that is each genre actually does different with the the vocals. Yeah, you know, and I took uh I was listening to somebody and they had like one kind of like genre they were in, but then they did a different totally wrote a different song altogether, yeah, which was more of a Americana. Okay. And I did hear where vocally I think their voice actually did better in the Americana group than it did in in the basic country group. Yeah. Uh over the last like, which when I was younger, I listened to it too, but um I listened to all types of music, but I've been listening to a lot of like bluegrass stuff. And um about a month ago, I went down to Oxford, Mississippi. It's an event called Double Decker, and they have you know live music and a bunch of different booths set up, and I was sitting there and I was like, hey, y'all want to go check out? I was with my buddies about it, I was like, Y'all want to go check out some of the music? And they're like, Yeah, let's go. So we're walking down there and keep in mind, I mean, there's like thousands of people, there's so many people that go to this, and um this they're probably my age, but there's this bluegrass band from either Alabama or Georgia or something. And I like sat there through their entire set. I'm like, this is so freaking cool. Because it's a completely different thing, like you know, the way that they're playing and the way that they're singing. I mean, you know, Zach Topp did that's what he did when he was younger, and you know, I feel like those those vocalists that sing that bluegrass stuff, they automatically are able to hit higher notes and go lower and all that stuff. I think I just think it's so cool. Yeah, because uh I love uh I don't know if you know of them or not, uh the Cody Norris show. Sounds familiar. I love those guys. I mean, they they've got this whole bluegrass vibe thing going on, and they're actually doing the old style uniforms and everything, and and I love that because like you know, I I grew up with Merle and and Whalen and and all these greats on Hee-Hall and everything else, and I remember the old suits that they wore, you know? Yeah, and uh I kind of want to I almost want to see some of that come back, you know. Oh yeah. I I was um talking yesterday when we were at dinner with uh Ely Cowderman people, so they do like cowboy apparel, yeah. They just stuff with like Jenna Paulette and stuff like that. But we were talking about how just that older style is kind of coming back in the younger generation, like my generation, everyone's kind of wearing that stuff now, which I think is awesome. Oh yeah, I love it, you know, because you never seen George Strait wear something like that, but I think George Strait has got his own little style, man. I mean, he's just like 100%. I still call him the king of country. Oh, he is, he always will be. Always, you know, it's just something about how he does. I'm curious though, what's on your playlist? Stuff you listen to. Like when it comes to certain songs or certain artists? Certain songs, certain songs. Everybody's got a song that they they they listen to that helps them through everything. Let's see. I don't know. I mean, I listen to a lot of like which you may know of him, you may not. His name's Joshua Salone. And he put out an album earlier this year, and his stuff they say it's country. I don't necessarily see it in that way. It's kind of more pop indie, maybe, but I listened to a lot of his stuff and um Chris Stapleton and um what else? I'm trying to think. I love Jason old Jason Aldean, though. Oh yeah. Love old Jason Aldean. Um there's one song that Jason Aldean done that because I used to drive, you know, Monday through Friday I was driving trucks. What kind of truck did you drive? Uh well it all depends. Um sometimes I was in a freight liner, sometimes I was in a peak, you know. It just all depended on what I was doing. That's awesome. Which company I was at. Um I worked for almost ten years at Old Dominion. So Wow. That's cool. That was just a wonderful little old freight liner and pulling wiggle wagons across the world, you know. Um but that Jason Aldean song, uh the one that I really I thought it would be bigger than what it was. And the name of it was This I Gotta See. I don't know if I've heard that one. And it's all about that guy that's out and he's traveling and he can't wait to get home. Yeah. Because the woman that he loves is he knows her routine. She's sitting on the front porch, you know, in his old sweatshirt, drinking sweet tea, you know. I'm gonna listen to that after after this. It's a damn good song. This I gotta see. Okay. This I gotta see. Yeah. What kind of music do you listen to? I'm eclectic as I'll get out. I can go from old rap. Okay. What kind of old rap? It all depends, really. Because some uh some of it you can't find anymore, but uh I like some old uh um I'm trying to think of the daggum name now. You caught me off guard. I can't think of the name. Um there was DJ Jazzy Jeff. There was uh I'm trying to think of the daggum name of it. Now I can't remember who done it, but I met a little girly, her hair was kind of curly. Okay, you know, yeah. And uh it was just that old, old school stuff when when rap was actually first starting out. Yeah. I I listened to a lot of that. But then I was Judas Priest and Iron Maiden and all these different heavy metal bands and stuff, you know. And um I remember back when Michael Jackson first came out with the thriller. I went and saw that movie last night. Dude, yeah, that man was a genius. Yeah, he was. I mean, there I don't I seriously don't think that there will ever be anyone like him. No. Like, just straight up honest. And I think the close second would be probably Bruno Mars. Bruno is kicking butt. I mean, he is doing a lot of really good things. Yeah, and I mean he's the same way. He dances up on there on stage. I mean, that's what people really found so unique about Michael is you know, him up there doing all these crazy dance moves that nobody's ever seen before while singing and making it look so easy. He blew me away when he was on stage and he had I think it was like five or six other dancers around him, and they were doing smooth criminal, and they did that forward lean. Oh, yeah, I know what you're talking about. And I was just like, holy crap, you know. How did they do that? I want to know how they did that. Yeah, I I grew up listening to Michael Jackson. I remember I it was actually funny talking about I went to Oxford. Um, I was hanging at my buddy's house because he goes to college there, and and he's like, Hey, we're gonna invite a couple people over. Is that all right? I'm like, dude, this ain't my house, I don't care. Yeah. And so this kid walks up and I said, I said, You look really familiar. And he's like, he's like, You're Cooper, aren't you? And I was like, Whoa. I was like, You went to heart, like we went to the same school. So me and his name's Coy, me and him grew up together, whatever, and we were I was talking to him about it, and I remember sometime in elementary elementary school, we were dressing up as like our favorite athlete or musician or whatever, and I dressed up as Michael Jackson and I had the glove on and everything. I mean, I was pimped out, yeah. And I remember I walked in there and I saw him wearing the same thing, and I was like, uh-uh, no. I remember I ripped his glove off and his fedora, I was so mad. But um, but yeah, I thought that was so random to be able to see him there, and I haven't seen him since like third grade. You just mentioned a fedora, and that is a hat I miss. I used to wear them all the time. That was like my go to. I loved a fedora, me too. And then everybody went cowboy hat. Mm-hmm. But when I was helping out on the farm and stuff like that, you couldn't wear a cowboy hat when you were working on the farm. No. No. You get that bale of hay and pick it up, that hat's flipping off. You know, it was always better just have an old baseball cap on. A whole lot more fun. Oh yeah. Have it sideways, frontwards, backwards, wherever you want to have it. Yeah. It was nothing but fun. Oh yeah. Oh God. I like those boots. Oh, thank you. What kind are they? Uh, I think they're lizard. I just I was in um Napa, California, I guess almost a month ago, maybe. Yeah. Something like that. And um, there was a Lou Casey uh booth there, and I was like, I know I don't need to be buying this. I was like, what kind of boots? Like, what what boots do y'all have here? They're showing me. I'm like, comment. And um, I ended up getting uh I think they were alligator skin, but they were blue suede. Yeah. And um they're so sweet. Well, I took when I sold my house, yeah. They always tell you always buy something, no matter what it is, but buy something for yourself. Yeah. That's it. So I decided I want a pair a pair of ostrich boots. So I went on the hunt and uh Lisa was with me, and uh she took me to boot barn. We were down in Florida at the time. Yeah, took me to boot barn, and I found the most lovable pair of ostrich boots. I'd been looking for something because I wanted something that wasn't the normal, you know, I wanted something with a little bit of pop. And I got them, and then we went down to the uh Daytona Speedway. Was it Daytona Lisa? Okay, um, and we went to another boot barn down there, and then I seen these, and I was like, Yeah, I want them to. You know, so I got them and uh thank you, Dan Post and Boot Barn. I love Dan Post boots, man. They're so comfortable. Really? I love them. I'm I'm so picky when it comes to boots. I don't know why, but like, you know, I walk into a boot store and I'm like, yeah, these are cool, but like would I really wear them? And then that's that's probably the reason why I ended up getting those Lucese's because I saw them and I was like, I would wear these all the time. Oh yeah. But it's one of those like I'd only wear for like special occasions or on stage or whatever, because they're just like extremely nice and I don't want to mess them up. Oh well, I've got regular leather boots that I wear to mess up that I ain't gotta worry about. That's the same way as me. Yeah, the ostrich or or these I'll wear them if I'm doing the show or I'm going out somewhere. Yeah. Um we got a thing that we got uh we're going to see Kelly Lang up here in Andersonville. We're gonna go check that out and I'll probably wear these or the ostrich items. Yeah. Just something comfortable and something to wear. That's awesome. Do I want to get them dirty? Nope. Because I mean, if you get a good pair of boots, it doesn't matter if they're work boots or what. You can pretty much figure from the time you buy them, five years down the road, you might need to get them resold or something. But you buy a good pair of boots, they're with you for the duration. Yeah. I was uh I was wearing these boots. I was uh those are ostrich, right? Yeah, they're ostrich. Um they're Anderson bean or something like that. But I uh I was wearing these boots to do some content for social media, and it it rained the day before, but I was like, you know what, I'm just gonna wear them. I'll be careful where I step, whatever. Yeah. So I'm sitting there and one of my buddies is filming me, and I'm at at this lake back um in my hometown or whatever, and we're we're sitting there and we're all kind of talking, and I look over, and this goose is like coming from across the lake, coming to like attack us, because I guess we were too close to eggs or whatever, and I'm not even joking, like chased us over like a hundred feet, two hundred feet. Yeah, and I looked down and these things were like destroyed, and I'm like, oh my gosh. But we did get it on video and it was really funny, but um, yeah, I was not too happy about that. I wouldn't have been either because that would have that would have just really ticked me off. Yeah. And I was like, I still gotta make this video, like how am I gonna do it? So we just went on the other side, but she was staring us down the entire time. So you asking me about that. There we go. And it's been bugging me ever since you asked me. LL Cool J. I listened to him. I listened to Oh Lord. Run DMC What was the one that had uh LL Cool J and uh the ones that this is gonna bug me the rest of the day. I'm gonna have to freaking pull my whole week up. It's it's it's gonna bug me now. Yeah. I'll blame Liza. What's your fake what's your favorite, like all-time favorite old country song? One that nobody ever in the history of country music has ever even touched or even danced around. Which is what he stopped loving her today. Oh my gosh. That is an amazing, amazing song. And he didn't even like that song. I don't know why. It is such a good song. Because it was sad, yeah. But I love sad country songs. That to me was what country started out as. Yeah, it was a sadness and it was a storytelling of it, and then we got into the uh get drunk dancing the headlights stuff, and then the notorious uh he's a piece of crap. I tore up his truck and I done this and I done that, and yeah, so I I was doing uh stages of of country music. I was doing a gig for the live golf tournament. I can't remember, I guess it was two years ago in um College Grove. Yeah. And so we had a bunch, it was kind of we set it up, it was supposed to be like individual, but the people that were on stage were also my friends. So I was like, what if we just did like kind of like a writers-round type thing? And so we all went to go, we went to one of their houses and we were playing the songs, and they're like, Cooper, all your songs are kind of sad. You know, this is like a golf tournament, right? I'm like, I'm like, uh, are they that sad? And then I'd like play them, and after they told me that, I'm like, okay, yeah, maybe this isn't the vibe. But like, that's my favorite stuff to play, is like sad stuff. Yeah, but the way some people hit a golf ball, it's kind of sad anyway. So yeah, yeah, it is. You know, you'll especially when I hit the golf ball, it's um it can either be really, really, really good or just awful. Well, say I had a buddy of mine, he tried to teach me golf probably 15 years ago. I could do the driving part. Yeah. Cause he took me to like batting ranges and stuff or golf ranges, whatever ranges. Yeah, driving ranges. And he took me out there, and I was getting pretty good at the longevity of it, you know. I think the furthest I ever hit one was like 300 and something yards. There you go. Yeah. And but I mean, he's dinging stuff, hitting the net on the very backside of it and all that other stuff, and I'm just like, yeah, driving me nuts. One one of my buddies, he's um he's from Australia, and he still lives there, but he went to University of Memphis, and so that's kind of how we met. And um, and so he came back to Memphis last summer and he was there most of the summer, and he's uh on the Australian golf tour. Yeah. And so we went golfing like two or three times a week, and uh, he came up here and he taught me so much stuff, but uh it's just like golf is one of those things like a love-hate relationship. It's like you hit the ball and you're like, I'm never playing this again, and the next time you hit, it's like, oh my gosh, same time tomorrow. Like, you know, yeah. And then everybody's watching Happy Gilmore with the run hit, you know, and I'm just like, I could do that. Yeah. I used I used to do that when I was younger. I did it with my dad actually in Lake Tahoe. Um was it in last September? Yeah. We were just messing around or whatever, but um I've been around golf my entire life because my dad, he um he still kind of does, but does heating and air conditioning for sporting events, so a bunch of different golf tournaments and Formula One races and stuff like that all across the country. And um I sp I actually spent my 18th birthday on the 18th Green at Pebble Beach, which was so cool. Yeah, I'll never forget that. You did take pictures, right? Oh yeah. Plenty. Yeah. Maybe you ought to start doing that. Do doing what? Golfing? No. All the pictures of different places that you've been at, just start putting them up, man. I have, I mean, I've been let's see, I I haven't traveled as much as I did when I was younger, but um by the time I was 18, I've been to 47 or 48 states. Right. So I in high school I was homeschooled, so um, we went wherever my dad went for work, and um it was it was so cool. Yeah, I've been to all continental United States, every state, and I've been to Canada four times. Really? Yeah, I I went to Canada once, went to British Columbia and uh Whistler and somewhere else, I don't remember, but Whistler was my favorite part. Yeah, because I it's really outdoorsy, so I love that stuff. What I liked about it was in the States you got nightclubs or venues, up there you got pubs. Yeah. Total different name, and it's a total different vibe, actually. Yeah. Yeah, I think I was probably 13 maybe when I went to Canada. Yeah, you wouldn't go in and bother doing that. But it's a beautiful place though. Oh, yeah, it is. It's gorgeous up there. Too cold for me. Where do you think your favorite place you've been? This is where top three. My top the top place I've ever been to honestly is Tennessee. Really? That's why I never moved to a different state or anything. Yeah. I just I love Tennessee. I love everything about it. If you want to go fishing, lake's right there. You want to go four-wheeling, the woods are right there. Yeah. You can do whatever. You can do whatever you want to do. Uh my dad was big about he would take us out to the lake. Yeah. We'd take a tent and we would stay the whole frickin' weekend, man, at that. That's so awesome. And just you fished, you had fun, you know, yeah uh bonfire and the family and everything else, and then uh the second place I would pick honestly would probably be Florida. Florida? Only because you can run around in shorts pretty much year-round. Yeah. And uh the oceans right there. Mm-hmm. If you got any kind of, you know, acne problems or anything, just spend a week or two on the beach, you know, and it's gone. Exactly. Um and then the third place. It's weird, but uh the third place would be Texas. Really? Where in Texas? I don't know, because I got friends all over Texas. Yeah. Um I got friends down in Bryan, Texas. I got friends in Dallas, Fort Worth. Uh I got a couple of friends in San Antonio. Um I got one friend that still lives in El Paso. So Yeah. I mean, it's just all over. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think my favorite place, like, I just I've always, always loved it is Lake Tahoe. I I it's just like there's like it's so much different from looking at pictures of just the lake in general. You look at pictures, you're like, man, it's so pretty. Then you get out on a boat and just look down. Yeah. It doesn't even seem real. Well, they got that thing every year that they do on Lake Tahoe, don't they? Where all the boats get on there and line up and and it's just like one big lake party. Probably. Probably. But I mean, it's it's just that water's so clear and so it's it's literally the bluest thing I've ever seen in my life. Yeah. Well, you need to go to uh Dale Hollow. Where where's that at? East Tennessee. Good to know. Keep that in mind. Yeah, nah, but the thing is, like, I don't think I'll ever leave Tennessee. Yeah. I just especially the outskirts of Tennessee, I just love like the um the other day I drove through Leapers Fork, and there is just something about like, especially on a pretty day, you roll your windows down and you're listening to like some good country music, whatever, it is like a breath of fresh air. It's so nice. That's it's just something about it, man. I mean, it the only thing really you gotta worry about is a deer jumping out in front of you. I've I've hit I've hit um one or two of those before. Yeah, well, yeah. Yeah, that was uh I don't really hit deer. I've never really hit a deer in my life. But I have had deer run into me when I was I was probably 18. Probably about 18. I was um I was heading to go hang out with some buddies in town, and and I was like, all right, yeah, I'll meet y'all there. I was like, I I just put this new bumper on my truck and a new uh front license plate. Like, because we love I mean I still love trucks, but yeah, we always love to deck our trucks out and all that. And I was like, I'm I'll show y'all when I get there, whatever. So I'm driving down the road on this back road and probably going like 40, 45 miles an hour. Next I I look down for a split second and I look up and there's a deer right in front of me, and I was like, Oh my gosh. Yeah, so I get out and my entire front end was just all messed up, and I'm like, Dang it. So I didn't say anything until I I didn't say anything to my buddies until I showed up, and they're like, What happened to your truck? And I was like, dude, I don't even want to talk about it. Oh yeah. I just I just got the front bumper painted and everything, and I was like, This hurts. Yeah. But it's bad. Yeah. And those things are like tanks. You hit them and you feel it. You haven't hit anything until you hit a moose. See, that would be terrifying. Or an elk. That would be really terrifying. Yeah, because those those things are like three times the size of a regular white tail. Yeah, that would be really terrifying. Very huge. I was in um somewhere in Colorado, I don't remember, kind of like Vale area. And um, where well, let's see. Yeah, it was like somewhere around that, but one of my dad's friends lives there and he lives on this golf course, and he's like, I'll show y'all the rest of the place or whatever. And so we're driving around and um we roll the windows down and we hear all these elk, and I'm like, Oh, this is so cool. So we uh go out on the green, and I'm no joke, there's like 70 of them just on this one golf uh on this one hole, and there's people like about to tee off, like hitting over them. Like, this is so crazy. And I mean, they didn't those things didn't care, they just stood there. Yeah, they don't. But when you're as big as them, I mean, would you really care? I wouldn't be scared of anything. No, I wouldn't either. And the horns they got, oh my god. Yeah, it's insane. It is really crazy. I mean, I grew up deer hunting and all that stuff, but being able to see one of those, it's like, wow. Yeah. Like it's a completely different thing. Oh, yeah. But it's uh I've always wanted to hunt hunt them. I feel like that'd be cool. It's a pain in the butt. Oh yeah. One one of my buddies, him and his dad go almost every single year to um somewhere in Wyoming, I think. But uh he went this past year and he got him a big elk, which was I mean, those it's just like he's already a a s smaller kid. Yeah. And seeing him next to that thing, I'm just like, bro. Oh yeah. Like they're insane. And he he goes bear hunting and all that stuff too. He hunts everything, but yeah. Well, I one of my buddies, uh he me and him's been friends since first grade. Um the company he works for, every now and then they'll go out and do hunts. And the big wigs go on the hunts. Yeah. And uh he went out on this hunt and got a moose. And he's telling me about it, and I'm like, Where are you gonna mount this thing? Because he wanted the head. Yeah. And he literally at his house had to go all the way through the brick o' block with big washers and stuff to mount this moose head in his basement. It's probably very worth it to him, though. But I bet that that was a pain. But it's the weirdest thing. You sit on the couch and you got a moose head right above you. It is weird. Um, one of our family friends, JT Hodges, yeah, he's a uh singer, songwriter, actor, and a bunch of other stuff, but he has a buffalo head above his bar at his house. And I mean, even those things are freaking huge too. Oh, yeah. Because his dad back in the day had a um a studio in Texas, somewhere in Texas. Yeah. And it was called Buffalo Soul. And so that's why he got that buffalo. And then me and my dad made him a um a fire pit, and it's engraved, like it's engraved in the side and it says Buffalo Soul. It's it's pretty cool. That's nice. Yeah. Dude. I couldn't think of a better name for a damn studio. I know. Isn't that a cool name? That is really, really cool. Now everybody's gonna be looking up. Yeah. Yeah. But um check them out. It's a great studio. Yeah. I don't know if it's still around or not. Um tell them to reopen it. Yeah, yeah. I I where I really want to go is Muscle Shoals. Yeah. I really want to go there. See, that's my thing. I've I love the muscle shows area and the music scene that's down there, but I have not yet been down there to any of the studios or anything. I would love to go down there and just go check it out. Yeah. Um, Morgan, miles, she goes down there and records, and um another one of my friends, Maggie Rose and Garrett, apparently one of my friends Garrett Bradford, he apparently knows one of the guys who works in the studio or whatever, and he's like, You and a buddy ever want to come down here, just let me know. And I was like, dude, you better take him up on that, and I will be there. Uh, and tell Liza to call me and I'll go around. Yeah, let's do it. Because I think that would be fun. Hell, we'll televise half of it. We'll just have some fun with it. Let's do it. Yeah, and I mean, you know, it'd be cool to get, you know, a couple other artists down there and stay for a long weekend or whatever, write some songs and try to go in there and record or whatever. But yeah, I can't write, but I can I got stories. Stories are great. I love stories. I got all kinds of stories. Look, we'll just sit around a fire, you tell your stories, pour me, we gotta pour me a glass of uh bourbon, and then we'll be good. Just tell the stories. We can all play guitar, do whatever. Only thing uh I don't know. You give me starting drinking bur bourbon, we're liable to get some weird stories. What's your what's your favorite bourbon? I've actually been digging the wood food reserve. Okay. I like wood food. But I'm I'm weird, you know, because some people like that burn and that bite from a bourbon or a whiskey. I'm not. I don't like that burn. I like more of a smooth. That's how I am. I really I what I've really been drinking is um Buffalo Trays. Yeah. I love Buffalo Trays. There's uh what's the name of that? Peyton James, I think is the name of that. And that's uh right across from the Johnny Cash Museum on Third Avenue right there. Yeah. Um I have to think of the name of the I can't think of the name of the brewery down there. Remind me and I'll show you afterwards. Uh but yeah, that that's a whiskey that we bought down there. And it is smooth. Really? There's no bite to it. Huh. Yeah, I've just I like mine smooth. I can't but I can tell you there is a back end butt kick on that thing. Oh, I bet. Because it it's smooth and tastes good, but uh an hour later you're like, ooh. Yeah, you feel it pretty quick. Yeah. That's awesome. And you didn't drink that much of it. No. Because I've always been, I'm not one of those that drinks to get drunk. Yeah, no. I just drink because I like the flavor. Oh, yeah. I like the taste. Good little social vibe. Well, mom taught me a long time ago. If you get to the level of you're feeling good and you got that little buzz going, maintain the buzz. Yeah, don't go past it. Don't go past the buzz. Don't go past it. Because if you go past the buzz, then you're like looking at everybody else and and you're becoming this everybody else. Basically getting in fights and bars and and running people over and doing all kinds of stupid stuff. Yeah, a bunch of bad decisions after that. Oh yeah. But and I've made enough of them in my life. We all have. We all have. I think it's nuts. So uh I guess we need to talk about you for a minute. I'm waiting on Liza to throw something about me. But anyway. When did Out of Time come out? Is it fixing to come out or you already put it out? It came out on May 1st. May 1st. Yes, sir. How's that doing? It's doing good. It's doing good. It's doing uh better than the past ones, which is always a good thing, right? Well, yeah. So um you gotta l level up every time. Yeah, been getting a lot of good uh feedback on it. And um it's just a fun song, man. Yeah. It's it's a good song. I'm just now I'm kind of put that behind me now. I'm like, all right, now what's next? You know, so well it resonated with me because I I honestly feel a lot of daggum times that there ain't enough time in a day. There ain't enough time in a lifetime, dude. Like, I feel like there's so many things that you just like you want to try to try to do, but you know, you don't get to do it in that week or that weekend or yeah, whatever. But yeah, no, it's it's a cool song. It's uh because I remember we'd be out all weekend doing all kinds of stuff, and and Sunday it's kind of like you gotta wind down because you gotta go to work Monday morning, and we're just like, dude, where did time go, man? I mean, I was just uh let's see, Friday I went down to Knoxville for my buddy's uh graduation at uh UT. Yeah. And you know, I d I did college online for a semester and then dropped out and then moved here. But so I never like went to college. But seeing now that like this year, like my friends are graduating college, it's like, bro, this does not seem right. Like, where did all the time go? And yeah, like, you know, it's just like it's weird because you know, all basically all my friends that I have, I've been friends with since I like elementary school and all that. So I've been friends with them forever. And so seeing them like walk across the big stage, you know, graduating and all that, it's like, bro, I remember like we didn't even have any responsibilities, like nothing. And now, you know, he's about to move to Austin, Texas, and got another buddy who goes to Southern Mist and Hattiesburg. He's about to move to Birmingham, and another one lives in Charleston. It's like everyone lives everywhere, you know, and you know, we don't get to see each other as much, but when we do, we yeah, we try to have a good time. What I'll be honest, I wished I could go back to 17. I I think all the time. I didn't have to worry about so much stuff in my life, you know. I mean, I'm I I would do anything to go back to the day I first got my driver's license and you know, going to see all my buddies and all that. It's just like, you know, you mean my actually me and one of my friends were talking about this the other day. It's like you try to recreate things you did back then, yeah, but it doesn't feel the same. And it's like, dang. Yeah. And I mean, well, you know, it there was a lot of fun that was had and a lot of experiences had, and then like I stop and think every now and then, you know, people would give you stuff, and then you're like, I remember I got this. What in the hell did I do with it? And now I can't find it, you know. Yeah, and when you were talking about guitars earlier, I was just like, dude, hold on to every damn one of them, you know. Well, that's the thing. I mean, you know, I like I said, I have like nine or ten of them, and you know, I could absolutely sell them, but it's just like, why? Yeah. Cause like, you know, I'm in a small little house now, but like one day, whenever I have a bigger house, I'm gonna have a whole room full of them, you know. Oh yeah. So and something to look back on. Oh, I remember when I did this with this guitar, and I remember when I got this one and tell the whole story about it all. And oh yeah. It's it's a it's a very special thing to me. Oh yeah. You know, and that's yeah, I wrote that song on that guitar. Yeah. Those two songs I wrote on that guitar. Yeah, you know. It's different things. Now, when you write, do you write with a guitar or do you write with a piano? Uh majority with a guitar, but um but I'm wanting to start kind of doing more stuff with piano. Yeah. But um, but yeah, I mean, for the most part, it's mostly guitar. Yeah. But like I have my my two favorite guitars I have is the Gibson SJ 200 and then uh Gibson J45. Yeah. And for the most part, I write majority of the songs on a J45, but um, and then I'll just play, depending on where the show is, I'll bring my SJ because it's hard to write with that jumbo SJ because it's so big and you're like holding on it huh onto it the whole time. But whenever you're playing on on stage and you have your guitar strap, it kind of makes it a little bit easier. But the funniest thing, I get a kick out of it every time I see it. But sometimes you'll see these female artists, and they're like four foot eleven, five'1, and then they got this big, huge bigger than them. Yeah, and I'm just like, how now do you even play that? Yeah, no, I have no idea, but um, but yeah, I know I I love my guitars. Well, there's plenty of them here. Yeah. We'll have to get Lisa to show you a couple of them. She'll she's got an old electric one in there that is just awesome. Really? Yeah. Yeah, I need to start I have an electric, but I just don't I hardly ever pick it up. I need to start playing it. I played it a lot when I first got it, and then I guess I just kind of in a way forgot about it. Yeah. Because I I don't have enough wall space to hang it up, so it's always sitting in the case, kind of tucked away. But I have I think five or six of them are hanging up on my wall. But yeah, I'm starting to kind of run out of room, so I need to be careful with what I what I'm getting. Oh, you never know. So when you release the song, how were you doing that? Are you doing it like once a month or once every two months, or because there's so there's a formula out there that people are using, but then when I talk to each people, they're like they're doing like dropping singles or they'll drop an EP. Yeah. And I'm an old, give me the whole frickin' album guy. Yeah. You know? Yeah. I mean, you know, after Out of Time came out, it's usually kind of like an eight to nine week process to be able to like send it to distributors and you know, get the cover art and kind of get everything set and you know, promoting it and things like that. But you know, I'll I'll put out another one, you know, in month, month and a half, maybe. Yeah. And then um I'm wanting to do an EP the towards the end of this year, which I'm not 100% sure that's gonna happen, but I'm kind of trying to write stuff that would make sense with an EP. Kind of um, you know, because at a times like it's bluesy, but it's not like bluesy like the other stuff that I have written. So I'm kind of wanting to do like a strict, like strictly blues EP, which will which I think will be really cool, and then um, you know, maybe some Christmas music. I don't know. I I recorded one last year, but I never ended up putting it out because I just kind of ran out of time and it was it was a whole situation, but um hopefully I'll do that. Well, Christmas music. I I always thought Christmas music, they were like recording it October and then putting it out, you know, in November. Yeah. But then you find out people start recording Christmas music January or February, and for it to all go through the process and everything else to actually be released in November. Yeah. And I'm like, holy crap. Yeah. It's a whole it's a whole process, but um, but yeah, I mean, you know, it just kind of depends on what songs line up with what, but usually about eight weeks after each each song. Yeah. So yeah, but I'm excited about the next one though. It's gonna be cool. Got a name for it? Uh I'm picking in between two right now. Oh, okay. Multiple choice. Here we go. Yeah, but I have to I actually I recorded it last year, but I I'm wanting to kind of do something a little bit different with it. So um I leave tomorrow to go to Florida, and then I come back like I think Saturday or someday, and then I have to be in the studio two times next week to kind of fix a couple other things, and then I'm gonna try to I'm gonna I'm gonna do both of them, like re-record both of them and see which one I like more, and then go from there. Oh, okay. So um because I was just sitting here thinking up a contest. You could which song title should I choose? Yeah. Yeah, I mean it it's the the thing about summer is like everyone wants a good little summer song, you know. Oh yeah. And you know, I d I do write a lot of lower tempo, like sad country songs, which I don't know why I get caught up in that, but um, but I feel like if I you know kind of do at least one more little upbeat, because out of time's really upbeat too, and so if I do one more upbeat and then you know, towards the end of summer, kind of go back into that, which um that song I was telling you, that piano song, I think I'll probably do that one after summer too, because I d I don't know if really that would be the vibe for like a pretty summer day. So but um but yeah, no, I mean definitely a bunch of new music, and I'm constantly writing and you know in the studio like four times a month, maybe. Sweet. So um, so a bunch of a bunch of music for sure. Oh yeah. And then uh you got all the live shows and stuff that you're doing, and you're running out of time just on what you're doing. I know, I know. It's it's uh it's crazy to think like, you know, I've only been here about three years, but like to think about all the things that I've done in three years and how much my life's changed in three years, it's like what's the next three years gonna be like? You know, like it's it's insane. I mean, and to be able to like see, you know, everybody all my friends and family, you know, growing up, it's like this is so weird. Like yeah, I know. But it's uh you try to fit everything in that you can, but every now and then something always comes up, you know, and you gotta get things done. And I ate it, I haven't even bugged the crap out of you yet about putting your music on vinyl, so I mean I definitely want to do that. I definitely want to do that. I um I one of my dad my dad has uh like a record player or whatever, and I don't know what brand is super nice, but I for his birthday I got him a couple of like old vinyl records and yeah, some some newer stuff too, but um he loves it. He loves it. There's no other sound like a vinyl album. I think it's pretty insane to like see how that all works. Yeah, it's it's pretty cool. Well, go to the vinyl lounge right next door, is they have the vinyl place. Yeah, yeah. Just go over and check it out, yeah. Then tell him, you know, hey, while you're at it, hear some music. Can you uh yeah, that'd be so cool. That'd be awesome. But and then take it to your dad for Father's Day. That would be cool as I would. That's a really good idea. Ideas by David Bradley. That would be cool, man. Yeah, Liza, write that up. She's on it. All right. Cooper, we gotta go, man. I appreciate it, man. Thank you. This has been a lot of fun. Yeah, I've had a great time. Great to meet you and talk to you for a little while. Yeah, and uh look in that third camera over there. Okay, and tell everybody where they can find you. You can find my music under Cooper Riley under uh wherever you listen to music and Cooper Riley or Cooper underscore Riley Music on all social media, and then my website is Cooper Riley Music.com. So y'all go check it out, listen all my stuff, and got a bunch of good stuff coming this year. So awesome. I love it, and I can't wait to see what all you do, man. I'm I'm very jazzed about it. We'll stay in touch for sure. Well, yeah, because uh we have a little bit of uh friends that we know and music and and all the good stuff, and and you a Tennessee boy, so I mean, you know, hell, I'm old Tennessee boy, so shit. Let's do it. We'll do it. All right, brother, we're gonna get out of here. Cool. Thank you. All right, everybody. Please remember like, share, follow, and subscribe. And not only helps this old podcaster, it helps Cooper, it helps all the other artists that you like. If you get their numbers up, these booking agents are looking at the numbers. They're looking at their followers, how many streams, how many subscribers. If you want these artists in your town, and I'm telling you, these new age artists, they want you there. They want to shake your hand, they want to take a picture with you, and they love hearing just a five-minute story out of each one of you. All right. Love you. Mean it. Bye. Oh, isn't it? Okay. What I do on um where I load it on YouTube and everywhere else. Oh, you're fine, you can just