Pod Insights Dumb Blonde Gavin Adcock: Country’s Viral Underdog About this episode This week, Bunnie sits down with viral country artist Gavin Adcock, who opens up about his wild ride from a cattle farm in Georgia to the national stage. Gavin gets real about his rough-and-tumble upbringing, his parents’ chaotic relationship, and the lessons he learned from his dad. He shares how a college suspension over a music post accidentally launched his career—and the early grind that followed, from $300 bar gigs to $500 shows.
Nothing’s off-limits as Gavin addresses the controversies that came with fame, including his public feud with Zach Bryan and his arrest for reckless driving. He talks about signing with Warner Nashville while keeping full creative control, his excitement for playing Stagecoach, and the importance of staying true to his fans.
Gavin also reflects on persistence, passion, and performing for crowds as small as 50 people—all while chasing the dream of headlining stadiums. With an ACM nomination under his belt and new music on the way, he’s focused on evolution, authenticity, and connection over clout.
Tune in to hear Gavin’s story of grit, growth, and good ol’ Georgia heart—and find his music everywhere from Spotify to Apple Music to YouTube.
Gavin Adcock: Website https://www.gavinadcockmusic.com
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www.dumbblondeunrated.com
Transcript 14,448 words · 3 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
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1:07 Bunnie XO? Is this thing on?
1:10 Bunnie XO? What's up you sexy motherfuckers? Welcome to another episode of Dumb Blonde. Today, we have country's loudest curveball, Georgia's wildest export, and probably the only guy who could turn a college suspension into a viral country artist career. Mr. Gavin Adcock is in the building.
1:27 Speaker 01 What's going on, yo?
1:28 Bunnie XO? Dude, thank you for being here early. I appreciate that.
1:31 Speaker 01 I just wanted to show it up, got done writing, and we got in the car, so.
1:35 Bunnie XO? Yeah, no, it was, I was like, what a gentleman, because normally I'm always here before waiting on, you know, podcast, the podcast to start, and then you were here before me. They text me, they, he's like, they're like, he's here. And I'm like, oh shit. So I jumped in the car and ran over here. But thank you for being here. I got to do a lot of research on you last night because I am one of those people who was never really familiar with the music. I was familiar with the personality. Do you get a lot of that? Like, do people know you more for your, like, your personality than your music?
2:03 Speaker 01 It's probably like 50, 50, 60, 40 music personality.
2:08 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
2:10 Speaker 01 I enjoy being outspoken and just saying what's on my mind. And sometimes I don't mean to, it just comes out and uh, I don't, it doesn't bother me anyway.
2:20 Bunnie XO? I think one of the craziest things was that I found out that you're a Libra. You have a birthday coming up, right? In October. And I was like, for a Libra, you are definitely outspoken, like super outspoken. So I just, I was like, where does that spice come from? So I started doing a little bit more digging on you and I found a song that you have that's called.
2:41 Speaker 01 The Battle.
2:42 Bunnie XO? The Battle. Yes. It's a song that you wrote about your parents. Essentially, they, you know, had a pretty like razor blade romance. And in the song, you know, you're talking about that. And I was like, I wonder if this is where his spiciness comes from. So can we kind of like dive into that a little bit?
3:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, from when I was a little kid, uh, my mom and dad had their second child. I was two and some change. And they just sent me off to work at the barn with my dad. I grew up on a cattle farm. And uh, my dad's a cattle trader. He's basically a stock trader with uh, with cattle. And buys them one day, sells them the next. And he's just kind of a, he's just kind of a fly off the handle, gets pissed off, raises hell. And then you can go eat some lunch with him five minutes later. And uh, my mom is a, is a nurse that doesn't take a lot of shit. And they just raised a lot of hell when I was a little kid. So it kept me all, uh,
3:43 Speaker 01 it kept my life pretty spicy when I was younger.
3:46 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
3:46 Speaker 01 They'd, they'd raise hell, mom would leave, come back. Um, next few weeks, they'd be good, argue. Then I got old enough where I could argue with them. We'd raise some hell.
3:57 Speaker 01 Then uh, yeah, but it, it definitely made me have some kind of fire.
4:01 Bunnie XO? Yeah, absolutely. I love that you light up when you talk about them. That's really sweet. And the lyrics, it says, when I come home late and she's been drinking, she just wants to fight. So we do. So was mom a drinker?
4:13 Speaker 01 Uh, they, they all drank a little bit.
4:15 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
4:16 Speaker 01 There's, they've been through times where they just come home from work, have a drink, have a couple too many, just argue. But uh, you know, I wouldn't have took them any other way.
4:25 Bunnie XO? That's like my kind of party.
4:26 Speaker 01 Me and uh, me and my girlfriend, we talk about how.
4:33 Speaker 01 She was a little sheltered by her parents from the world when she was younger and I, they didn't give me a damn umbrella when I was younger. So we just kind of meet in the middle, you know? So I've, I've saw a lot more crazy stuff when I was growing up than she did.
4:47 Bunnie XO? Yeah, I want to talk about Haley later too, because I've noticed that you don't really ever talk about her publicly. So I want to like, I want to like dive into that also. So you said you grew up on a cattle farm in Watkinsville, Georgia. What was that like? Like, what's a story from that farm that people wouldn't believe unless they saw it?
5:07 Speaker 01 Uh, just me and my dad, like getting woke up by a phone call in the middle of the night and he coming upstairs and getting me and there's cows out all, all down the road, down the highway. And me and him are just getting them up four o'clock in the morning or chasing some cattle back in our underwear if we get called like in the middle of the night. And it's just, and, uh, there's been a, a lot of cattle go through that piece of land. I've seen them shipped out all around the country and, uh, we've, my dad'd come home, you'd see, you'd see a load of cows coming to the barn and he'd clean off the back tags of them and clean them up and we'd load them up the next morning and take them
5:49 Speaker 01 to sale and he'd try to just swap them for a profit. And he's really a gambler. He's an addict. Like he's, he's a cattle addict. Like I've called him and like,
5:59 Bunnie XO? He's addicted to the hustle.
6:00 Speaker 01 Yeah, he's addicted to the hustle and I got a, I got a bunch of that from him.
6:04 Bunnie XO? I appreciate that, you know, from one hustler to another. Um, did, did that small town life kind of shape like how you look at fame now? Because coming from a small town, you've got to like have the people that you looked up to and you're like, I want to be like that one day. And, you know, so take me on that journey as growing up in a small town to being kind of as famous as you are now.
6:28 Speaker 01 You know, it's uh, it's been really weird not being able to go places that I've always been able to go to. And I, I've never really appreciated being a fly on the wall until I wasn't. And I can't even go to like my favorite bar in Athens, which is Watkinsville, it's right outside of Athens, Georgia, where University of Georgia is. I can't even go in there anymore without just it just being a problem for everybody there. And I've really just loved being this nobody redneck kid. That drove a flatbed truck, worked on the cattle farm that might've been, uh, had some friends, played some sports, might've been misunderstood every once in a while, but.
7:08 Speaker 01 I just, uh, really look back on it recently and go, damn, I had it made before I had it made, you know? That's hard for somebody that's grew up like small town living.
7:20 Bunnie XO? Well, you know, it's only going to get worse, right? The more notorious that you get. It's going to be to where you're not like even able, like my husband can't even go to the grocery store. He thr- but I, I call my husband a politician because he loves to kiss babies and shake hands. I'm the complete opposite. I am like, I don't, like, I love everybody, but it's like, I just want to be in my own space. So I understand where you're coming from whenever you say that. Like, it's very hard to deal with. And of course, the more you get bigger, the worse it's going to get. So how do you think you're going to be able to handle that?
7:50 Speaker 01 I love shaking hands and kissing babies too. I, I love it. And that's what honestly makes it really worth it for me is just to be able to. See my impact on other people's lives and how they kind of lose their mind when they see me. I'm like, they love me that much where they're kind of, they're acting like I'm not a, like, I'm not real. Like I'm just like figuring their minds just, but they, I'm going to keep chasing it and keep growing. I've just, uh.
8:19 Bunnie XO? You're not doing it for the fame, you're doing it for you. That's pretty much what you're saying.
8:23 Speaker 01 The fame's fine. It's like one of my least favorite things about it. But just to go play shows for thousands of people, we've been playing five, six thousand cap rooms, which is really big for me from when I started out. And as it, as it is for everybody, but. It's just a good feeling to change people's lives and make a difference. And that's just mostly why I do it.
8:48 Bunnie XO? You've come a long way in a short time, like to be playing five, six thousand cap rooms. Like, that's crazy because my husband has been in the business for, you know, 20 years. And when I first got with him 10 years ago, he wasn't playing rooms that big. And it took him from then until now to get to where he is. So you should be really proud of yourself with how far you've come.
9:08 Speaker 01 Thank you.
9:09 Bunnie XO? It's gotta, it's gotta be like overwhelming because I know how we feel. So I could only imagine how you feel. Um, I read somewhere that you wanted to ride bulls in the PBR before football and music. Is this true?
9:21 Speaker 01 Yeah, when I was a little kid, I'd watch rodeo with my daddy on the couch. And I told him I wanted to ride bulls and he's grown up around a bunch of rodeo people. And I have a bunch of rodeo friends and my dad just really pushed me away from that. And in high school, me and my buddies went to a test pen and we rode a couple bulls just to say we did. But my dad did a really good job of telling me, he was like, this is not a career you want to get into. You're gonna end up in a wheelchair with no money and medical bills. And I appreciate him for pushing me away from that. But I, I do love going to watch rodeo and think those people are badass.
10:00 Bunnie XO? Yeah, is it like the adrenaline? Is it the toughness? Like, what was it that pulled you into? Because that's a fucking, that's scary.
10:09 Speaker 01 Yeah, it was just the, it was the adrenaline. I've, I've grown up on a lot, a lot of adrenaline and just daddy would hand me a gate. And he'd drive 30, 40 cows up the alley of our barn. And whatever ones he wanted to take to the sale that day, he'd say, go buy. And he'd say, catch the other ones. And they were flying by and I'd be jumping up on fences, running away from bulls and stuff. And it would be like a near death, a near death experience at six, seven, eight years old. And I thought it was the greatest thing on earth. The adrenaline was awesome about almost getting killed by a cow. I don't know what, I don't know what it was, but, but I enjoyed it. And yeah, that, I've always been an adrenaline chaser.
10:50 Bunnie XO? I could appreciate that. I tried to make my, I have, so I have two Highland cows that I absolutely love. And one's name is Crunchy. He's pretty famous. Like, everybody loves him. And he is a fucking wild asshole. And yesterday I tried to dress him up as a ghost. Um, cause I saw this really cute video of this fucking cow running with a sheet and I thought that my bull would do it too. And he literally tried to attack me yesterday and tried to attack my girlfriend. And it was the funniest shit. We laughed our asses off, but it was scary. I couldn't imagine that happening at seven or eight years old.
11:20 Speaker 01 That's the only thing I knew. It was just like, here, boy, let's go do this grown man shit.
11:25 Bunnie XO? Sink or swim.
11:26 Speaker 01 Heck, yeah. And I'd go feed cows with him. He, he loved when I went, cause it saved him some time. I'd get out and open the gates and I just, uh, that's what I'm working for really, just to have a big enough ranch where when I'm forty, fifty something years old, I can just feed the cows, smoke a little pot and
11:44 Speaker 01 see the fam, I guess, you know?
11:46 Bunnie XO? I love that. Did you ever get addicted, uh, not addicted, did you ever get attached to any of the cows? Like, did they become like your pet? Cause cows are fucking cool.
11:54 Speaker 01 Yeah, we had, uh, this one cow is a Brahma, which is the breed of cow. It's got like big hump on its neck and floppy ears. Uh, I was a little toddler, probably one to two years old. And we'd go out there and feed the cows and daddy would put me on her back. And she'd walk around and I'd hold on to her hump. He wouldn't have to hold me, cause she was just, just a pet.
12:14 Bunnie XO? Aww.
12:15 Speaker 01 And, uh, she lived all the way till I was probably like thirteen, fourteen years old. She was probably like, I don't know, sixteen, seventeen year old cow. And, uh, she died and it was really emotional for everybody in my family. It was just like, like a dog, you know?
12:31 Bunnie XO? Oh my goodness. I couldn't even imagine. I don't even want to think about when Crunchy passes. So at sixteen, you got a guitar, but you didn't take it seriously until later. Is that true?
12:42 Speaker 01 I didn't start playing it until I was twenty-two.
12:45 Bunnie XO? Why not? You just weren't interested at that time?
12:47 Speaker 01 I was playing a bunch of sports. I was playing football, wrestling, baseball. And then just working in the summertime with my dad and then, and I just never got around to it. And I was always fascinated with music. Song would come on the radio when I was a little kid. I would just, I'd learn the song and then I'd want to sing exactly like they did. So I, I feel like that helped me learn how to sing a lot. Just trying to match the notes they were hitting.
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14:16 Speaker 02 Attention all new and existing members of the W D N C. I'm Melanie Sanders and this is the We Do Not Care Club Podcast. We got to midlife and realized we just simply do not care much anymore. Now, we gotta help each other make sense of hot flashes, dry coochie, chin hair, trifling families, brain fog, and bat wings. We are not alone and we will be heard. So come join the W D N C. Follow and listen to the We Do Not Care Club Podcast with Melanie Sanders wherever you get your podcasts.
14:46 Speaker 01 And then 22 years old came, I tore my knee up playing football, kind of come to the realization that that was probably gonna be the end of football. And I was not enjoying ball as much anymore because you get out of high school and you realize how much business college football is and how when things are going good, everybody's your buddy and when things are going bad, everybody's pointing the finger and hate each other. So that really, and I still love football. I watch football. I gamble, bet on games every weekend. But I always look and go, God, I'm glad I'm not doing that anymore.
15:24 Bunnie XO? Yeah, I've heard you talk about how toxic that environment was for you. And I think that that's actually really cool that you are speaking up about that because not a lot of people who were in your position would. And you know, like, kids want to play ball so bad that they're willing to like, kind of deal with the abuse. And so you speaking up, I think is really cool because, you know, other people will be able to follow in your footsteps. I think it's crazy that you got kicked off the team. So for people who don't know the story, I know you've told it numerous times, but what exactly happened? You were playing for Georgia Southern. You tore your, did you tear your knee first? Or did you tear your knee after the bus incident?
16:05 Speaker 01 I tore it before. I texted a buddy on Sunday and said, hey, you want to come down to Georgia Southern and play some music with me? I played guitar with, he had played guitar and I'd sang a little bit in college because I couldn't play guitar at the time. He said, yeah, I'll come down Wednesday. Well, Tuesday I tore my knee up. And I played with him when he got there in a big cast, started riding, did rehab, got all the way back to the season. And was barely healthy enough to like, even jog around. But I was like, screw it, I'm a competitor, I want to play. So I went to go
16:43 Speaker 01 back in, uh, fourth game of the year. We take these school buses around the campus. And go past the bars and all the tailgates and we go to the fraternities and sororities and they stop the buses and they shower the buses through the windows with beer and champagne. And everybody's just ends up going into the locker room sticky and just, I don't know, it's just what they've done there for years and years. And the exit of the school bus was broken open. These buses are old and ragged out. So I was surfing the bus, going past the fraternities and sororities and I looked down and a guy that I knew had a beer, he threw it to me and I chugged it down. We uh, played the game, lost by a touchdown. And uh,
17:31 Speaker 01 The next day Barstool posted it, it blew up.
17:35 Bunnie XO? Fucking Barstool, they're always fucking shut up. I love them though.
17:39 Speaker 01 Yeah, they, they helped me out and, and fucked shit up that day. So it's, it's a double edged sword, but.
17:45 Bunnie XO? Right.
17:46 Speaker 01 And then I got, I got suspended for a week from that. And then they brought me in there about two weeks later after I, Barstool had shouted my music out as long, as well as the chugging the beer. So that helped me get a little spark.
18:00 Bunnie XO? Hmm.
18:01 Speaker 01 They brought me in there. Everybody was toxic. We were one and four.
18:06 Speaker 01 And just brought me in there and was like, look, we want you to be on the team, but you can't be on the team if you're gonna keep posting about your music.
18:15 Speaker 01 You gotta go if you're gonna, if you're gonna post throughout the season. And I was like, well, I'm just gonna take off my music. So we parted ways. I had that chip on my shoulder and I just started letting out songs one after another. And I had that mind all the time. I was like, I'm not gonna let these people be the end of me.
18:34 Bunnie XO? I love that, that you had that, you know, foresight to do that. But you would think that you were bringing such great attention to, you know, the game and just the league. Why would they kick you off? Like, that's crazy.
18:47 Speaker 01 Well, they loved the attention before the season started.
18:51 Bunnie XO? Gotcha.
18:52 Speaker 01 And then we won the first game barely. I wasn't playing.
18:56 Bunnie XO? Hmm.
18:57 Speaker 01 And then lost the next two games. And I came back that game, chugged the beer on the bus. That was just big. We lost, if we'd won the game, it wouldn't have been a big deal, but we lost. So everybody was just pointing the finger and I was the person getting pointed the finger at because I chugged the beer on the bus. And I was like, whatever.
19:12 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
19:13 Speaker 01 And uh, when they figured out that we weren't gonna do very good that season, they were like, we gotta keep everything quiet. We don't want a bunch of media going around. Everybody ended up losing their job at the end of the season because we played so dang bad. But I think they won one more game after I left, so I was glad I got out of there.
19:32 Bunnie XO? Yeah, absolutely. So let's rewind because you had said that, um, the Barstool clip pointed towards your music. So when did you actually start doing music? Was this while you're, you were down with your knee hurting or?
19:44 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
19:45 Bunnie XO? Take me on that journey.
19:47 Speaker 01 Tore my knee up that Tuesday. Dude come over Wednesday. Um, we played a little guitar. Had my surgery the next week and went home. My mom picked me up from Statesboro. I drove, rode three back, three hours back home to Watkinsville with her. And I sat on the porch and didn't really know how to play guitar very much. So I started writing off melodies. I'd come up with melodies and find a time and I wrote, I don't know, six or seven songs in the first six or eight weeks of me being on the couch. And I'm not a inside person. So it was a good way to cope.
20:24 Speaker 01 And I started talking to people about booking shows. I hit up my, the best place to play in Statesboro was called The Blue Room. Said, hey, I'd love to come play one night during Silas Week. Uh, if y'all pay me a little bit, I'll come over there and play on the night. And they were like, well, we can give you free drinks and stuff. I was like, no, I kind of got something going. I'm the only athlete around here playing any music. NIL just started. I'd love to make a little money. So I went to their competitor across the street, Southern Social. And they were like, yeah, we'll pay you $300. I was like, hell yeah. First show ever, we're gonna make 300 bucks?
21:07 Bunnie XO? Which is actually really good.
21:09 Speaker 01 It was good. It was good for that time. And I introduced the acoustic guitar player to the electric guitar player, to the drummer that night on the stage before we started. And I was like, yeah, this is so and so. They all met. We played 24 songs. It went great. Everybody came to Southern Social that night and it, Blue Room didn't have a very good night. And the owner come up to me. He was like, man, it was great. Here's 500 bucks. Slap 500 bucks in my hand. I was like, hell yeah. I was like, I didn't think that was gonna happen. Blue Room hit me up the next day. It's the, and was like, we're sorry. We, we, uh, we didn't listen to you
21:51 Speaker 01 when you asked us to let you play the first time. We'd love to get you on the books for something later. And that was the place I wanted to play. It's just a better venue.
22:01 Speaker 01 So I played outside there one time, made 500 bucks. Year and a half later, we came back to Statesboro. I sold 300 tickets inside. The next time we came back, we sold out 800 tickets. And we're going back in two weeks for the biggest Blue Room show they've ever had, 5,000 tickets.
22:22 Bunnie XO? Yay.
22:23 Speaker 01 So that's, uh, that's been real fun to look forward to.
22:27 Bunnie XO? How does that make you feel?
22:28 Speaker 01 It's great. I feel like I accomplished what I wanted to accomplish there, so.
22:32 Bunnie XO? Yeah, that's amazing. I'm really proud of you. When you were sitting on that porch writing all of those songs, what was the song that you wrote that you were like, you know what? This is gonna fucking work for me.
22:44 Speaker 01 I wrote two songs the first couple of weeks, and one of them was called Ain't No Cure, which I had wrote the first verse and chorus three years previous, riding down the road. Took like a voice recording of it, put it away, never brought it out again.
23:01 Speaker 01 Until I tore my knee up and then I had my surgery. Started writing it one morning, took me 20 minutes, finished the thing. That was in early July, or actually it was in early June.
23:18 Speaker 01 And we got in the studio in July, cut it, let it out in August, and it just went platinum. This is my first song I ever let out, which was just blew my mind. That, I mean, I was showing people the song when they'd come over and they'd be like, that's really good. And I was like, yeah, whatever. I don't know. I really don't know. I like it, but... And then I wrote this song called Thriving Here that I still play at the shows. And it's just a song about when you're down and out and you really, really are looking for your like, your silver lining in life that's gonna get you back on your feet, that's gonna make you... Feel whole again. And that song's been a real staple of my career.
24:02 Speaker 01 I've got like a clothing company I'm coming out with called Thriving Here Co. So that's just gonna be my Pearl Snap company. So that's one of my favorite songs I've ever wrote.
24:11 Bunnie XO? Your, your sound reminds me a lot of like, like real cowboy music, like George Strait, like stuff, like kind of like, dare I say, Texas country. Because I feel like we got away from that sound for the longest time. And I feel like you're kind of leading the charge of bringing that back. Do you feel the same?
24:31 Speaker 01 I've really enjoyed old cowboy music my whole life. From Waylon Jennings to George Strait to more modern, like Red Dirt type stuff. And I love Red Dirt. I just, I just like how unpolished it is.
24:46 Speaker 01 And I was one of the first people in the southeast to, to come out of the southeast making a Red Dirt sound. Like you didn't have to wait for a Texas band to come for, to hear some dirty rock and roll, southern rock music, you know?
25:00 Bunnie XO? Mm hmm. Who were some of your inspirations growing up? Besides Waylon Jennings?
25:05 Speaker 01 Yeah.
25:08 Speaker 01 I get the Waylon comparison a lot just because I've got like his complexion and his.
25:12 Bunnie XO? You, you do have a little bit of the resemblance.
25:14 Speaker 01 I wear the vest and stuff, but I, I don't ever sit down and write a song and go, I want to be just like Waylon Jennings.
25:22 Bunnie XO? Right.
25:22 Speaker 01 I'm just, I'm a big fan of him growing up. I love listening to Alan Jackson. Some of Alan Jackson's more serious. I mean, he's got great boat party songs, but his like more serious.
25:33 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
25:34 Speaker 01 Stuff that he's wrote, like Remember When or Sissy Song or just, I'm, I'm a huge sad Alan Jackson fan. And.
25:45 Speaker 01 Listen to some Tim McGraw growing up and when Luke Brown was popping off, I was listening to him when he was just taking over the world. And then I started listening to like Coetzel and Parker McCollum.
25:58 Bunnie XO? Wow.
25:59 Speaker 01 Artist out of Texas and.
26:00 Bunnie XO? We had Parker on the podcast. He's fucking hilarious.
26:03 Speaker 01 Hell, yeah. He's been posting some funny stuff lately. I've been seeing him. I guess he's has a few drinks after a show or he's stoned or something and he gets on there and posts some funny ass shit.
26:12 Bunnie XO? No, he's funny. I did not expect that. When I sat down with him, I thought he was gonna be like really square and he's like does DMT and like fucking smokes weed and drinks. Like he's a funny motherfucker. I think you guys, have you guys met?
26:24 Speaker 01 Yeah, a couple of times. Yeah, I opened up for him.
26:26 Bunnie XO? That's right.
26:27 Speaker 01 Uh, one time, I don't know, three years ago.
26:30 Bunnie XO? Mm hmm. No, that's awesome. When you write music, do the lyrics come to you first or do you have to have a melody before you can apply the lyrics?
26:40 Speaker 01 My ADD is so bad, it's never the same. Sometimes I'll grab the guitar, come up with something that I think sounds catchy. Have no words. I'll start humming a melody. Or if I'm driving down the road, I'll just start trying to whistle or hum or catch a melody that I got or or somebody will say something clever. I'm never the same when I'm writing a song. It's just, it's always different.
27:05 Bunnie XO? Yeah, it's just like a, a process of whatever you're going through at that moment in time. Cause you write some really deep music for, and I mean, you're what, 26? You write pretty like angsty, like brokenhearted, soulful love songs. Where does that come from? Experience or just other people's experiences?
27:26 Speaker 01 I try to write off of both. I really
27:30 Speaker 01 haven't lived every single thing in the world that I've seen. So if I, if I come across somebody's hurt or pain, I really try to put myself in that mindset, which can lead for like a really tough day. I remember some of the saddest songs I've ever wrote. I got up at 8 a.m., started drinking some coffee, got into something that I was feeling or somebody else was feeling and it puts you in a real dark place about 12 or 1 P M. Your day, you're like.
27:58 Bunnie XO? You're like hitting the bottle by then.
27:59 Speaker 01 You're like, yeah, let's have a drink. Yeah, that was emotional. Like we, I wrote a murder ballad in college and
28:07 Speaker 01 By the time I got done and I headed back to my girlfriend's house at the time,
28:14 Speaker 01 she was like talking like crazy. I was like, I was like, babe, I just wrote a song about killing people. I was like, I was like, can I just go to sleep and I'll talk to you in the morning, but I don't, I don't, I'm not, I'm in like a really pissed off mood.
28:25 Bunnie XO? Oh, so it's, it's kind of like method acting.
28:28 Speaker 01 Yeah.
28:29 Bunnie XO? Like you like take on the emotions and you just pour it out in music.
28:33 Speaker 01 I think that's where the best songs come from, when you really, really get into that character that you're writing.
28:39 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
28:39 Speaker 01 And it can really carry into the net, into the rest of the day, you know?
28:44 Bunnie XO? You're like, don't let me end up on true crime, sister.
28:47 Speaker 01 Yes.
28:50 Speaker 01 Yeah, I tend to be very picky the rest of the day after I write a song. Like I'll come home after I wrote two songs with either me and, or myself or me and a group of people. And I'll be nitpicking everything and I've got to get myself out of that mindset of you're not writing a song anymore. You're just living life, dude. Stop being such a damn picky son of a bitch.
29:14 Bunnie XO? Is it hard to play yourself out of that?
29:16 Speaker 01 Sometimes, sometimes I just get just locked on to little shit that's pissing me off.
29:22 Bunnie XO? Do you consider yourself a moody person?
29:26 Speaker 01 Depends on the day, I guess.
29:28 Bunnie XO? It depends on what you're writing about.
29:29 Speaker 01 Yeah.
29:30 Bunnie XO? Poor Haley, she only wants you to write love songs from here on out.
29:34 Speaker 01 Oh, she's a moody person too. Don't you let her, don't you let her psych you out.
29:38 Bunnie XO? Let's talk about Haley for a little bit. So how did you guys meet? You guys have been together for about two years now? How did you guys meet and take me on that journey with you guys? She's super cute. I checked out her TikTok last night.
29:51 Speaker 01 Yeah, she's great. She really has, uh, helped me out for the better, for sure. I've,
29:59 Speaker 01 I've been in a relationship probably like six months, eight months. By the time I met Haley, so I was just kind of doing my own thing. I was living with my folks in Athens, making music, writing every day. And then on the weekends I'd go out with my friends. And, uh, we're sitting in the bar.
30:18 Speaker 01 As soon as it opened up with some of the bouncers that were my buddies at that bar that said I can't go to anymore.
30:24 Speaker 01 And she walks in and she's wearing this like really, really pretty flower dress. She's like really done up. And she goes up to the bar and asks the bartender, goes, hey, have you seen any keys? And I was like, this is a red flag walking on in, but I like it. And I was about to say like, hey, or flirt or something and bouncer next to me goes, only thing we find in here is panties. And I was like, she's not gonna talk to me now. So she walked on out. I was, I'll never see her again. And then the next night I was at the same bar hanging out and there she was. She was in a T-shirt and a trucker hat.
31:05 Speaker 01 And I walked up to her and I said, uh, you got a boyfriend? And she said, nope. I said, you want one?
31:12 Bunnie XO? Aww.
31:14 Speaker 01 She said, I don't know. And next week I was singing the national anthem at a rodeo in Athens. And I took her to it and sang. We went out to the bar and started hanging out after that and started officially dating probably a couple of months later.
31:33 Bunnie XO? You guys also went through, I think it was like a little bit of a public breakup for a minute there. What happened with that entire situation? Cause there's a lot of rumors and speculation, so I want to hear it from the horse's mouth.
31:42 Speaker 01 Yeah, well, I was just kinda in this rock star mode, you know, just not really ready to just absolutely settle down quite yet. I wanted just to live and be rowdy and she's a, she's less like that. And we were really getting on each other's nerves. I was having a lot of stuff going on and I wasn't physically cheating on her, but I, there was people just hitting me up left and right. And I was just kinda entertaining stuff on the cell phone, just that she wasn't appreciating. And so we took a break for, we broke up for two months. We didn't talk for two months really. And then, uh,
32:29 Speaker 01 We just, I hit her up one day and we started talking again and I was like, yeah, I'm, I enjoy doing what I do, but I don't want to live this party life forever. It's probably gonna kill me.
32:43 Bunnie XO? No, I love that. I actually was, I follow you. So I saw the breakup and stuff like that. And you could see a switch after she wasn't in your life. Like you were partying, partying a lot to the point where I was like, this poor guy, like he's hurting in a different way. And he's just taking it out, you know, on the stage when you would get on the stage and get like shitfaced plastered. And then since she's been back around, you can see kind of like a switch in you too, where you're, you know, you're still you, but at the same time, you're like, you can tell you're trying to take better care of yourself.
33:13 Speaker 01 Yeah, no doubt. I mean, how we were running for a couple of months and not getting any sleep and waking up and having a show the next day and your throat's just absolutely gravel and just you're absolutely killing yourself. And I just, I don't know. She's been real sweet to me and real good to me. And I decided that I was gonna, I'm still rowdy and I still like to have a good time. I'm still at the party. I just want her to be there, you know?
33:39 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
33:40 Speaker 01 And it's, it's nice when we have a weekend off and we don't go out. Like people, people think that I, I drank 24 seven, but I'll have a drink, one drink before I go on stage on a Thursday night, have a few beers on stage, put on the rowdy show, do the same thing for the next couple of nights. And then Sunday and Monday and Tuesday come around and I'm like, get that shit out of my face. I don't want to drink. I'll smoke a little pot and watch a little TV and.
34:07 Bunnie XO? Yeah. Behind every, every great man is a good woman. And I feel like a good woman is a backbone, especially for artists. You guys need somebody to kind of like, hold the balloon string. Cause if you don't have somebody holding that balloon string, you're gonna fucking just fly around everywhere. My husband was the same way when we first got together.
34:26 Speaker 01 Yeah, I definitely don't want to be a.
34:30 Speaker 01 Single forty year old playing rock and roll concerts, looking down at eighteen year old chicks.
34:36 Bunnie XO? Oh, no.
34:37 Speaker 01 It's just not, uh, it's not, it's not really something that you look at and you go, that's it. That's what you want to be doing, you know? And it's like, and for all the people that do that, that's.
34:50 Bunnie XO? I was gonna say, there are some people who actually really look forward to that. I have a couple of friends who are in their forties dating twenty year olds, nineteen and twenty year olds. And I'm like, what is happening? What in the midlife crisis is going on? But to each their own, I guess, right?
35:05 Speaker 01 Yeah, me and Haley got a, a three year age gap. And I'm like, God, you need to mature a little bit sometimes. And she, I mean, I'm, she's saying, saying thing about me, but I can't imagine being forty and being with a twenty year old and being like, relating to them at all. Not many things.
35:22 Bunnie XO? Like, what the fuck do you guys even talk about? I couldn't even imagine. Um, so you've dropped three albums, Bonfire, Blackout, Acting Up Again, and now Own Worst Enemy. How do you hear your sound evolving across these records?
35:37 Speaker 01 I think the songs overall are getting better, written and produce wise.
35:45 Speaker 01 Bonfire Blackout has some really good songs on there that I still play to this day. Probably like, out of the fourteen song album, I still, I think I still play five or six of those songs at concerts.
35:58 Speaker 01 And each album's getting where I play more of those songs at the concerts. I didn't know what I was doing during Bonfire Blackout. Anything that we recorded in that studio was like lightning in a bottle. It was, it was like, it was like, how did we get this to sound this good? Or like, that could have sounded better. And now there's just a little bit of a method to the madness, you know? Where I'm, I'm, my ears have got better to listen into specific things.
36:32 Speaker 01 And the writing's definitely matured. I wrote Bonfire Blackout. Ninety-nine percent by myself. I probably wrote. And I'm, I'm on all, but probably two or three of my cuts ever. I think I got probably like sixty-five songs out if I had to guess. And I've, I've only cut two outside songs. And I only take outside songs. If I'm listening to this song, I'm like, damn, this is good. If I don't cut it, somebody else is going to. So some people were like, yeah, Gavin doesn't write his own songs. I'm like, well, you know, I write ninety-nine percent of them. If that ain't good for you, then that's, that's whatever.
37:12 Bunnie XO? I don't understand why people get so hung up on stuff like that. You're, you're making music, you're co, even if you weren't writing the song, you could be co-writing it. Like, there's so many factors that go into writing music. I hate when non-musicians or people who aren't in the industry judge people who are in the industry. It's like if we went and told welders how to fucking weld a straight line, you know? It's like, leave us the fuck alone. It's, it's ridiculous. Um, Own Worst Enemy has twenty-four tracks, which is crazy. Because most albums are like ten to twelve. Like, what was that like writing twenty-four songs? And in your mind, were you like, you know, just keep adding songs? Or how, what was the process in adding so many songs?
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39:01 Speaker 01 When I let out that first song, Ain't No Cure, I didn't have a song to go after that.
39:07 Bunnie XO? Mm hmm.
39:08 Speaker 01 And if I talk to a young artist nowadays and they hadn't started, they go, you got any advice? I said, I would write as many songs you can before you start. Because once you let that first one out, you're on the clock for the next one, if it splashes.
39:23 Bunnie XO? Mm hmm.
39:24 Speaker 01 So I, after, after that, I told myself I would never not have something else to let out. So I would drop a single and I'd write three to five. And I'd drop a single and I'd write three to five. And sometimes I'd write eight to 12 in that four to six week period that I didn't let something out. And then when we went to pick On Worst Enemy, I think we chose from like, I don't know, 80 something songs we had sitting around. So we, I was like, okay, here's a good title track, On Worst Enemy. Let's pick all the songs that represent self destruction out of this pile.
40:04 Speaker 01 And since then, I've still been writing. I had people hit me up and go, are you still creatively motivated after letting this album out? I was like, I wrote an album since then. That pissed me off. Somebody asked me that. And I literally, I just walked down the room. I was like, I ain't talking to you.
40:24 Bunnie XO? Ah.
40:24 Speaker 01 Because I'm, because I'm always writing.
40:26 Bunnie XO? I guess it's hard for you to sit still. Like, is that like your creative outlet is to write? Because I know some people will sit down and write poems or sit down and write stories. And for you, your outlet is music.
40:38 Speaker 01 I like just getting up in the morning. My girlfriend sleeps in.
40:43 Bunnie XO? Mm hmm. Most women do.
40:44 Speaker 01 Yeah. She sleeps in and I really appreciate that because I get my creative time in the mornings from, I don't know, eight to, eight to 11 or eight to 10:30 and sitting on the back porch, watching the deer walk through the yard, picking on the guitar, smoking a little weed. That's the happiest I am, just when it's quiet. I live a pretty loud life recently, but.
41:12 Speaker 01 Yeah, I love getting away through writing. If I'm, if I'm in an emotional state, I'm like, okay, I better go grab that guitar and at least come up with a melody and some, some chords.
41:24 Bunnie XO? I love that. You could have much more deconstructive ways of, you know, getting your emotions out, but writing music I think is super constructive. So kudos to you for not choosing bad habits. Um, so I hear you call yourself an outlaw a lot. What is your definition of an outlaw? Cause I know a lot of people have different definitions for that.
41:48 Speaker 01 The only time I've ever called myself an outlaw is in my song, A Cigarette.
41:52 Bunnie XO? Mm hmm.
41:53 Speaker 01 I said, trying to love an outlaw man. And then I guess over the time of me just putting on rowdy shows where people sing along, fight, throw beers, that term is really, got thrown at me a lot.
42:09 Bunnie XO? Right.
42:10 Speaker 01 I don't really, really soak in that like outlaw term a lot. I'm just like, you know, we just do crazy shit and we just have a good time and we don't, the biggest outlaw thing you can do is make your own decisions. And I've spent a whole, whole career out of going, I'm gonna do it my way. I'm not signing a piece of paper where other people can tell me what to do. I write my own songs. I let out of my own cadence. And if you want to call me an outlaw for that, then you can call me an outlaw for that, you know, but I don't go around going, yeah, we're outlaw country music.
42:51 Bunnie XO? Right.
42:52 Speaker 01 I don't know if I've, I don't know if I've ever publicly said that.
42:55 Bunnie XO? Yeah. I think I, I don't know if I was watching something where I think you had said it, but I'll have to, I'll have to send it to our resources. Um, what, so you said that you wouldn't sign a piece of paper. You're not signed to somebody right now?
43:07 Speaker 01 I am, but I kept, I'm signed to Warner Nashville. But my biggest thing was I'm gonna. On my tracks when I leave.
43:16 Bunnie XO? Gotcha. You're masters.
43:17 Speaker 01 And I get to choose when we let out music and what we let out.
43:22 Bunnie XO? So you're doing it on your terms?
43:24 Speaker 01 Yeah.
43:24 Bunnie XO? Which I think a lot of people don't understand that, especially in the, in the independent realm. Everybody always says, oh, you signed your soul away, you know, whenever you sign record deals. And I feel like record deals aren't like they used to be back in the day. Back in the day, if you signed a record deal, they owned you and pretty much you had no sort of like creative control. And I feel like if you go into a record deal now, um, you can kind of use leverage and tell them what you want. Do you feel like that's how it worked out for you?
43:53 Speaker 01 Well, I think I put myself in a better situation than a lot of artists do when they come to town. Nothing against those artists, but I kind of had the mindset of I'm going to make it on my own. And if I never leave Georgia, I can quit or make my own music from Georgia. And I can live a nice life and I can buy a nice piece of land and I can just chill. And it got to a point where I was, I, I tell people this, I said, I, I made my first million dollars before I left. Living with my parents and I, I think that's awesome. People, why were you living with your parents if you made that money? I was like, cause I love them and they're cool ass roommates.
44:35 Speaker 01 Like they were hell when I was younger, but as they've got older, they're, they're badass roommates. And, uh,
44:45 Speaker 01 I don't know, I just, I really, really felt passionate about making it on my own before I went to Nashville and started writing with people. And that, that was a chip on my shoulder that I felt good about. And then I got to a point in my career of, I want to play the biggest shows in the world. I want to make this as big as I possibly can. I want to reach the most amount of people and. I'm really proud of all the people I've joined up with in Nashville and all the people I write with. They understand me. Warner really understands my plan and my process and they, they've done a really good job of going, "All right, kid, we trust you. Go do your damn thing."
45:30 Speaker 01 Instead of trying to hit the brakes or "Don't do this, don't do this." And, and we're gonna keep, keep doing it how we've been doing it.
45:40 Bunnie XO? I love that for you. You were just talking about your family, about how they're like cool ass roommates. There's a song that you have that's called Need To, where your mom's voice shows up as kind of like a narrator. How much of family in real life bleeds into your writing?
45:57 Speaker 01 A good bit, a lot more recently than it did at the start.
46:03 Speaker 01 I really,
46:06 Speaker 01 I've let out a little bit of everything from like more punk rock sounding country music to traditional to, to just like straight up bluesy and then like radio songs. And I just like to touch a little bit of all of it within the genre. And at first, I've, I had the mindset of let's write it party songs. And I, I still love writing party songs. I've still got a ton of them that I'm sitting around and I'm gonna get ready to let out. But I've been writing a lot more wholesome stuff lately as well, just a lot more life stuff. And my family has been a lot more influenced lately on a bunch of those, which I'm really excited about starting to let out a bunch of those through this next year.
46:52 Bunnie XO? I also think it's because you're growing as a man too. You know, you're in love, you're in a relationship, so you're not that wild, party college, you know, football player boy and you're like, you're a man and you're doing grown man shit. So I think as the years go on, that's your music is just gonna keep evolving to the phases of your life. So let's talk about life on the road. Going from tiny shows to festivals. What's the craziest fan interaction that you've had so far?
47:23 Speaker 01 I used to pull this camper around to my first shows.
47:28 Speaker 01 And the first show I ever played was in Birmingham, Alabama, at the Zidico Pub. It was like 400 people. I bought this camper for $16,000 and we used it as the green room because most of these places didn't have a green room. And after that first show, we were like, let's party in this camper. So, I mean, we, we had probably 35, 40 people inside of a, inside of, I don't know, 24 foot camper. That thing was rocking, squilling at the, at all, all edges.
48:03 Bunnie XO? How big was this camper? Just a little mini camper?
48:06 Speaker 01 Yeah, it was just a 24 foot, had one bedroom and two little bunks and a bathroom and a little slide and.
48:13 Bunnie XO? I love that you make the best out of every situation.
48:16 Speaker 01 Hell, yeah. I actually sold that camper last week.
48:21 Bunnie XO? Somebody bought that?
48:22 Speaker 01 It was ragged out.
48:23 Bunnie XO? Do they know the hell that it probably went through and some of the shit that it probably saw?
48:28 Speaker 01 So we've got a guy that's worked for us forever. His friend wanted to buy it.
48:35 Speaker 01 And I told the guy that's worked for us forever, I said, I'd rather not sell it to him. Cause I'd rather sell it to somebody I don't know and they just had to deal with what it comes with it.
48:46 Bunnie XO? Oh, no.
48:47 Speaker 01 So he came over to the house and was talking to me. This was, this was about a month ago, but he just picked it up because he had to get the money.
48:56 Speaker 01 And I told him, I said, the roof leaks, the sewer leaks out the back because I've dragged it all around the southeast. Like it's, it's, it's got water leaks on the inside, probably a little mold and stuff. I was like,
49:11 Speaker 01 I'm telling you now, if you want to buy this, you know the problem. So you're not mad at me later. He said, I want it. And I was like, all right, 14,000. He took it. So $2,000 off and we ragged that thing out.
49:25 Speaker 01 And it's gone. It made me kinda sad though, cuz that was home.
49:29 Bunnie XO? It was memories.
49:30 Speaker 01 We lived in there for probably, I don't know, six, eight months traveling around the country.
49:35 Bunnie XO? That is so funny. My husband had a van that he lived in when I first met him named Bertha.
49:40 Speaker 01 Yeah.
49:41 Bunnie XO? And it was the crustiest fucking van I've ever seen. It had condoms on the floor, used ones. It had, it was so like M and M's, like fucking blunt wraps. Like it was the most disgusting thing I ever saw and I still fell in love with this man.
49:55 Speaker 01 Yeah.
49:56 Bunnie XO? It was crazy, right? Like, why do you guys all have, in the beginning, you guys all have a Bertha? It seems like it, right?
50:02 Speaker 01 Yeah.
50:03 Bunnie XO? And then you guys are so attached to him. He did not wanna get rid of that fucking van, dude. Big ass brown van.
50:09 Speaker 01 I think that was some of the most fun I ever had on tour and cuz I'd drive that camper. Three or four people would ride with me.
50:18 Bunnie XO? Mm hmm.
50:19 Speaker 01 The rest of the band would all also drive. So we'd be telling a venue that wasn't big enough to go, hey, we need six or seven parking spots. And I would be so stressed all day. Is the band gonna get here? What if they get in a wreck? What if they don't make it? We're not gonna be able to play the show if our bass player gets in a wreck and is, we're just... And they'd pull up, make it. We'd play the show. It'd be insane. They'd be singing every word and it would just kinda be, I look at them and I go, damn, we did it again, guys. Not, there was no, there was no, no cer- certainty about it at all. It was just all flying on the seat of your pants and answered prayers to make sure it happened, you know?
51:00 Bunnie XO? Those are the good old days, right?
51:01 Speaker 01 Yeah.
51:02 Bunnie XO? So what's on your tour rider that some, that people would clown you for if they saw it?
51:08 Speaker 01 I don't know. We got, we used to get condoms on the tour rider, but we don't get condoms on there anymore.
51:15 Bunnie XO? Is everybody, is everybody cuffed up? Everybody has girlfriends now?
51:18 Speaker 01 All but a few.
51:20 Bunnie XO? What about the ones who don't have girlfriends?
51:21 Speaker 01 They supply their own condoms.
51:23 Bunnie XO? Oh, there we go.
51:25 Bunnie XO? BYOC, bring your own condoms.
51:28 Speaker 01 We got nicotine pouches and lighters and we got a candle on there.
51:32 Bunnie XO? Oh, what's the scent? We need to know the scent.
51:35 Speaker 01 It's just whatever they pick out. But last one we got was like a, like a manly smell. It kind of smelled like cologne.
51:42 Bunnie XO? It's like mahogany.
51:43 Speaker 01 Yeah, I'm, I'm not too big on the, on the rider stuff, but one day I might have some like oysters on there or something.
51:52 Bunnie XO? Yeah. Oh, they get crazy. Riders get crazy. Uh, what city has been your wildest crowd and which one shocked you by not, by not giving a damn?
52:03 Speaker 01 Every time I go to Ohio, I don't know if it's because there's nothing to do in Ohio. It's, it's the least tourist state that we visit. I'm like, dang, these, I mean, that's why, I guess that's why Ohio State football is so crazy because they ain't got really much to do.
52:23 Bunnie XO? Right.
52:24 Speaker 01 But every time I go there, it's just more electric than anywhere I ever played. Which is crazy, even in, even in my hometown or, uh, where I went to college, Ohio is just insane.
52:36 Bunnie XO? I love that for you because Ohio is huge Jelly Roll fans and whenever we were coming up, they, Ohio fucking showed us so much love. So for you to say that, I think is so awesome too.
52:48 Speaker 01 Hell yeah.
52:48 Bunnie XO? Yeah, I love that for you.
52:49 Speaker 01 They're trashy.
52:50 Bunnie XO? Yeah, we love them. Those are our people, baby.
52:53 Speaker 01 No doubt.
52:53 Bunnie XO? Yeah, I love, okay, what crowd has been like, was not into it at all and you had to like really work for it? What city?
53:02 Speaker 01 I played in Fort Smith, Arkansas, two times and I didn't like it either time.
53:08 Bunnie XO? Arkansas?
53:08 Speaker 01 Yeah.
53:09 Bunnie XO? We, I don't want to talk shit about Arkansas because we love all of our fans there too.
53:13 Speaker 01 I know, I know.
53:14 Bunnie XO? And my favorite water is from fucking Arkansas, you know, but every time we go there, it's, it's, it's hard. It's a hard crowd.
53:21 Speaker 01 You're gonna win them over. I don't know why it's such a hard crowd though.
53:24 Bunnie XO? I feel like they don't express their excitement, you know, like maybe they hold it all in. They're kind of like reserved or whatever. All right, so we're gonna get into a little bit of your controversy and public moments. And I was fully prepared to kind of like ask you today, like, hey Gavin, you know, like, why did you run away? But then, and I'm talking about the Zach Bryan situation, but then I went and like scoured the internet. And I never once heard you say that you wanted to fight Zach Bryan. Am I missing that? Or did you only say that he's just, you don't think that it was okay for him to treat fans the way he did? And that you don't think he's a good person?
54:02 Speaker 01 Yeah, I just said that on a, on another podcast that I didn't really appreciate how he reacted to a 14 year old girl's. Why didn't you sign my stuff message and telling her to get off my dick? Which is just a childish thing for a 30 year old to do.
54:21 Bunnie XO? He told her to get off his dick?
54:22 Speaker 01 Yeah, on TikTok, fucking commented on her post and said, get off my dick, you're not entitled to anything. So I sat there all day and I thought about it and I was like, that's fucked up. I was like, nobody's gonna say nothing about it. So I did. And he decides to show up at my show in Oklahoma at the Born and Raised Festival.
54:48 Speaker 01 Goes onstage with Gabriella Rose, which he has a song with.
54:52 Bunnie XO? I saw that.
54:54 Speaker 01 Which that was, that pissed me off the most, the whole day. The, the, the fan scaling stuff, the, oh, I'm gonna fight you, I'm gonna kill you type stuff didn't bother me. The fact that he took advantage of her set. Somebody that has, was probably really excited about you coming up there and singing the song with. And took that moment and screamed, fuck yeah Gavin Adcock, three or four times the whole song. She had to feel like sick because I've only been just super nice to Gabriella.
55:34 Speaker 01 I'm a big fan, I love the way she sounds and that just, that rubbed me really, really wrong that day.
55:40 Bunnie XO? Yeah, it's definitely hurtful, his actions.
55:43 Speaker 01 And he, he just paced around the inside of the festival all day, drunk as hell, throwing up in trash cans.
55:51 Speaker 01 Going up to other artists, treating them like shit, their crew like shit, and just asking, where's Gavin? And when I got to the festival that morning, they said, hey, Zach's coming today. He's probably gonna try to start some shit to get you to not go onstage, so just be aware of that. And my crew was smart enough to go, yeah, he's gonna try to pull some shit so you don't get to play this show for 10,000 people 30 minutes away from his house. So I had that on my mind all day. And when he pulled up on the other side of the fence, I was chilling out there. He started coming after me, so I was like, let's see how mad I can make this fucking guy.
56:32 Bunnie XO? Your trolling capabilities are fucking A1. I just want to let you know that.
56:38 Speaker 01 I mean, I started off my career in a public image of slander and hate. So whatever you say about me cannot hurt me. I'm gonna laugh and, like, Zach Bryan fans commented on my shit all past two weeks, and it's only made my posts do better. I probably went up, I don't know, 600 or 700,000 monthly listeners on Spotify just from them being whiny bitches.
57:07 Bunnie XO? Right.
57:09 Speaker 01 And yeah, I did fuel the fire for that whole next week. I posted a bunch of shit to keep them going, whatever, whatever keep them talking.
57:17 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
57:17 Speaker 01 And,
57:19 Bunnie XO? Do you ever think that it could go too far? Like, do you think trolling can go too far? Do you, are you always conscious of what you say and what you post to make sure that it doesn't get too crazy?
57:30 Speaker 01 I just don't know how, how far, you know, how far is too far? You know, I'm not, I'm not really sure. I mean, I'm not saying anything.
57:37 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
57:40 Speaker 01 Like, my opinions about Zach are an opinion of a quality person that's got some.
57:48 Speaker 01 That's got some meaning to it of like, yeah, you shouldn't be doing that stuff or you shouldn't be acting that way.
57:53 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
57:54 Speaker 01 You shouldn't come and use a young girl's set to have a public beef like you. It's just shitty.
58:01 Bunnie XO? Well, I was actually really surprised because I thought that you had gone publicly and said you wanted to fight him. Cause the way the, the internet was reacting.
58:10 Speaker 01 Yeah.
58:10 Bunnie XO? You know, they were like, why Gavin ran away or you know, Zach is crazy. And I was just like, what really happened? So when I, I dug deep and I looked, you literally just said, you don't think he's a good person. And that was his reaction, which honestly, it was kind of like case in point. Like, you know, he, this man lives in the public eye and for that to set him off to want to climb a barbed wire fence. I don't, I don't know if he ever like looks back at what he does and he's kind of embarrassed, you know? Cause I know I would be, I would be like, dude, this person just said, he thinks I'm a bad person and I literally just proved him right.
58:45 Speaker 01 Yeah.
58:46 Bunnie XO? You know?
58:48 Speaker 01 You know, it's just, uh, you think being one of the biggest artists in America, you would just have a little more sense.
58:54 Bunnie XO? Has he ever DM'd you? Never tried to talk to you?
58:57 Speaker 01 I ain't never talked to him besides that interaction at the fence. And I told him when we first started arguing and raising hell at the fence, I said, Zach, I'm not fighting you, dude. I'm about to go out here and play a show. He goes, dude, you act like I've never played a show before. I'm like, obviously you play country music, dude. But then he just kept coming at me. So I was like, I'm just going to stir this fucker up and see what he does. And I told everybody, I was like, roll the cameras. And I was like, I'll watch this shit. And I have a security guard and they had festival security. And as soon as he jumped over the fence, I take off towards Zach, my security guard's tackling the fuck out of me. And going, no, you're not doing that shit. So.
59:42 Bunnie XO? Yeah, I get it. And I love that you actually respected the festival because that is, you know, one, you respected the fans so that you could show up for them. But two, you also respected the festival because that's your business. And if you would have gotten in a fight there, that could have affected other business, you know, situations for you in the future.
59:59 Speaker 01 I hadn't played in Oklahoma in probably, I don't know, nearly a year. So instead of fighting Zach and getting arrested, the biggest win I could do is go out there and play the rowdiest, most badass show. And I really, I really gave him the energy that night. I pulled out everything I had on the stage to make it the craziest shit. And I'm proud of my decision to not fall into his trap and ruin the show.
1:00:28 Bunnie XO? I also think that was setting a really good example for the people who are watching and are supporting you too, because if they're ever in a situation like that, they could be like, you know what, I'm gonna take the high road also. So I think that was, you know, I know it wasn't your intention to be a good role model, but I do believe in that situation, you were a good role model for them. So in May of 2025, you were arrested in, out here in Tennessee for reckless driving, open container. The headlines blew up. What part of that story did people get wrong? Because you know how people, the internet just, it's like a wildfire?
1:01:03 Speaker 01 Well, I've got this old car. That was one of my dream cars when I was a little kid. It's 1973 Dodge Challenger. I grew up watching this show called The Dukes of Hazzard. And they, they drove the generally that had the number one on the side. And I always wanted a car like that. I thought they were the most badass cars. So I finally made me some money. I was on the way to a show, found it on Facebook Marketplace, called my manager Saxon, made him go to the bank, get out 40,000 cash, and drive up to Louisville, Kentucky from Nashville and pay the old man. I was like, Saxon might get shot at this old man's house, but.
1:01:49 Bunnie XO? Saxons here, by the way.
1:01:50 Speaker 01 Yeah, Saxons over here. He went and did it, got it for me. I put a good bit of money into it. It was a, it was to me, a really good steal. It was forty thousand dollars. I probably put, I don't know, fifty thousand dollars into the car to like, get it just absolutely perfect. The man told me it had some problems that needed some things changed out. And I got it, kind of like the dude got the camper. And I wanted to take it on a, just a ride one night.
1:02:24 Bunnie XO? Joyride.
1:02:27 Speaker 01 Few days before, I was cleaning out in the garage. I was sitting in there, was having a beer, cleaning dash off, wiping everything off. And I left a beer can on the floor. And when I went for my drive, I got pulled over going one oh three. And took me to jail for reckless driving and a, what was the other thing in there? Open container. And the open container is probably why I went to jail, because it was sitting in the floor. And I said, you can breathalyze me right now. I wouldn't be driving around town doing this dumb shit, drinking.
1:03:06 Bunnie XO? Did they?
1:03:06 Speaker 01 No. He said, no, I don't, I don't think you're drunk. But they ended up taking me to jail, sat in there for five hours or something.
1:03:15 Speaker 01 Got up, headlines, whatever. I was like, I ain't really worried about it. Went to court a few months ago, got that all cleared up, had to pay court fees. So I just took, but I, I talked to an old man when I first started out.
1:03:35 Speaker 01 And he said, you take every negative situation that happens to you in this business, and turn it into the best positive that you possibly can.
1:03:46 Speaker 01 And I had this song about blacking out and going to jail that I'd wrote a long time before that.
1:03:52 Bunnie XO? Morning break?
1:03:54 Speaker 01 Morning bail.
1:03:54 Bunnie XO? Morning bail, sorry.
1:03:55 Speaker 01 So I just told everybody else sitting in jail thinking, I was like, what am I gonna do to make this work out? And I said, well, let's just put out a song about getting arrested that I didn't know that was gonna happen. And then we sold mugshot tees.
1:04:10 Bunnie XO? Do you feel like you kind of manifested that by writing Morning Bell before this even happened? Do you believe in that? Like if you write a song before it happens?
1:04:18 Speaker 01 I do believe in manifesting stuff. So I mean, but I, I wasn't sitting there writing Morning Bell going, yeah, gonna get arrested, you know? It's just like, but yeah, they go, how, how'd that work out for you? I said, well, considering that I had to, when they towed my car,
1:04:40 Speaker 01 they drove it at the impound lot or took it for a drive. Messed up my motor. I had to get a new motor for the car.
1:04:49 Speaker 01 Had to pay, pay my ticket and then I had to pay like $4,000 in lawyer fees. So I'm 20, 24,000 in the hole from that. But I probably sold about $150,000 worth of mugshot tees. There you go. So there's little kids and husbands and wives wearing my face on the couch right now or out to dinner.
1:05:12 Bunnie XO? I love that.
1:05:13 Speaker 01 And so it, it just worked out.
1:05:15 Bunnie XO? I feel like you get that hustle from your dad.
1:05:18 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:05:18 Bunnie XO? Cause you, you definitely have a horseshoe up your ass with a lot of things. Like you seem to have like, I tell my husband that too. Like anything he puts his mind to, he can conquer and you have that same effect. Like if you say you want something, you go and get it and it happens. And like, it just keeps happening for you. So I think that's actually really, a really cool momentum that you have going on.
1:05:38 Speaker 01 I gotta credit my mama for some of that too.
1:05:41 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:05:41 Speaker 01 Because when I was a little kid, if I wasn't doing good in school or I was doing bad, mama was the first one to really get on to me and be like, I'm not gonna tell your daddy, but if you don't get this right, he's gonna know. And I was the first of three kids and I got my ass whooped every week, at least twice.
1:06:01 Bunnie XO? So you're the, you're the oldest.
1:06:03 Speaker 01 Mm hmm.
1:06:03 Bunnie XO? Okay.
1:06:04 Speaker 01 They whooped my ass and then they whooped my sister's ass a little bit less. And by the time my little brother come along, they weren't whooping his ass.
1:06:12 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:06:12 Speaker 01 And I was pissed. I was a teenager. I was like, why aren't you whooping his ass? They were like, it didn't work. So we just quit.
1:06:18 Bunnie XO? You broke him in.
1:06:19 Speaker 01 I guess.
1:06:20 Bunnie XO? Yeah, that's how it was with me and my sister too. I got all the shit and she like got nothing and it, is it the same for you and your siblings? Are you guys all like different personalities because of how they were raised? Are you guys all the same?
1:06:31 Speaker 01 We're totally different.
1:06:32 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:06:33 Speaker 01 All three of us.
1:06:33 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:06:35 Speaker 01 I'd say me and my sister are a little bit closer than like closer in mindset than me and my brother. We're all pretty close like. But me and her more similar than me and my brother. He's,
1:06:49 Speaker 01 he kinda had to deal with us like going to sports and doing all the stuff and I was doing a bunch of stuff. She was doing a bunch of stuff and he was kinda like getting drug along all the time.
1:06:58 Bunnie XO? Yeah, cause he was the baby.
1:07:00 Speaker 01 So he's very like self-aware about things. He's seen a bunch of stuff. I was, I was a little 14, 15 year old kid just cussing like a sailor in the house. My little, my little nine year old brother running around. He's hearing every single thing I'm saying.
1:07:13 Bunnie XO? Does he look up to you?
1:07:15 Speaker 01 I think he does.
1:07:16 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:07:17 Speaker 01 There's, there's been a time where,
1:07:20 Speaker 01 like I got, I got arrested before the week bef, a couple of days before his high school graduation.
1:07:28 Speaker 01 So he was kinda upset with me that I, that he felt like I like stole his, stole his light and I felt real bad about that.
1:07:35 Bunnie XO? Oh.
1:07:36 Speaker 01 And then I went to let my album out and it was on August 15th, which was his birthday. Which.
1:07:46 Bunnie XO? He's a Leo, so he's emotional.
1:07:47 Speaker 01 It's just the way that it fell. It was like, okay, we got this song, this song, this song. This is gonna be a good day to drop the album. He texts me this long text about how he was pissed off at me for letting it out on his, I'm like, I didn't, I wasn't thinking about it like that, dude. I really, I wasn't trying to steal your light. But he's went to college recently. He's going to college at Georgia Southern where I went. He's really.
1:08:13 Speaker 01 He's really coming around to like, understanding a lot of things to me. He's getting, he got away from home. He's making his own decisions and I think me and him are growing closer and closer ever since he's got to college. He's kind of understanding, you know?
1:08:26 Bunnie XO? How old is he now?
1:08:28 Speaker 01 Nineteen.
1:08:28 Bunnie XO? Oh, yeah. You guys are just, the older he gets and the more, you know, he matures, you guys will definitely get closer and closer for sure. So do you feel like people just take what you say and kind of like run with it? Do you feel like everybody's already against what you're gonna say? Cause like the situation with Beyonce. You had said that you don't consider her country and that kind of like set the internet on fire. And you do stand by that because I've seen another video and other podcasts that you've said, you know, yeah, I truly do believe that. Do you feel like, because I, again, I don't feel like anything you've said is that crazy to warrant the press and the shit storms that they cause?
1:09:13 Speaker 01 Well, start off, I listened to Beyonce with my mom growing up in the car. She has some incredible music. She's very talented. I don't think she appreciated the country genre or what it's about or the people or anything that goes into country music. I think it was kind of an invading thing of like, I'm gonna just go let out a country album and label it as country and take my 50,000 monthly listeners and just go over here and do this. Um, I didn't say anything off the wall.
1:09:45 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:09:47 Speaker 01 They made it crazy.
1:09:51 Speaker 01 And
1:09:54 Speaker 01 her fans started coming into my page and commenting bees.
1:09:57 Bunnie XO? The Beehive don't fuck around.
1:09:59 Speaker 01 I mean, but they weren't hurting anything.
1:10:01 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:10:02 Speaker 01 I mean, like, they were just making the post do better. So I, I woke up one morning and I was, I gave a little groan on a video that, mm. I was grieving and I want to let y'all know that shit ain't country and just stirred it up again. I just, I don't know. I, I get under some people's skin by my, by my, I don't give a fuck.
1:10:23 Bunnie XO? It's those trolling capabilities that I told you about. You, you're, they're A1. You can troll like a motherfucker. You know how to keep something going.
1:10:32 Speaker 01 Yeah, and people were like, why are you still posting about the Zack stuff? I'm like, well, I'm gonna have a good week off of this.
1:10:37 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:10:37 Speaker 01 Even though y'all are, y'all are upset that I'm still talking about it, but I'm, I'm not pressed about it.
1:10:43 Bunnie XO? All right, so let's talk about Stagecoach because you're playing Stagecoach this year.
1:10:47 Speaker 01 Yeah.
1:10:48 Bunnie XO? Is this your first Stagecoach?
1:10:49 Speaker 01 Mm-hmm.
1:10:50 Bunnie XO? Tell me how you're feeling about that.
1:10:51 Speaker 01 It's gonna be awesome. First time I ever played in California was early this year. I went on a west tour and, sorry.
1:11:00 Bunnie XO? You're good.
1:11:01 Speaker 01 Taking my zen out.
1:11:03 Speaker 01 And, uh, I wasn't really sure about country fanbases that far, uh, west. And we sold the whole tour out in a couple of weeks. We went over there and the shows were just as electric.
1:11:22 Speaker 01 And I think it's because they are kind of starved out from a lot of music. First of all, because it's so far away from where country music is based, which is in the southeast and east of Texas.
1:11:36 Speaker 01 And I have, I've had some of my most surprising shows on the west coast. So I'm, I'm really excited to be playing like the biggest country festival out west. And just, we got an offer to do it the year before, but it was that like a terrible slot. Early in the day, the money wasn't really right for us to go over there and lose some money. So I was really excited when, when we got offered enough money to go over there and just, I love playing for big festivals and giant shows. And we'll come off stage sometimes when we open up for big people. And the band will go, that show was okay. And I was like, well, it was better than you think because those people didn't know who we were when we got here.
1:12:20 Speaker 01 And a lot of them are gonna look us up after we leave. So just because they're not singing every word doesn't mean it wasn't a good show.
1:12:27 Bunnie XO? Absolutely. That's, we had to fight for fans in Europe, uh, with Post Malone. Everybody knows Post out there, but nobody really knew Jelly Roll. And so every night, my husband said the same thing you did. He was like, I'm just gonna go out here and I'm gonna win this crowd over. And that's how you start building a huge fanbase is, you know, just playing show by show by show. I've seen my husband play shows to 50 people, you know? And it's like, he still played that show, like it was the best fucking show of his life and won all 50 of those people over. And then you just keep doing it. And then, you know, sooner or later, everybody knows who you are. But to comment on the West Coast stuff, I'm from the West Coast and so is Mimi.
1:13:05 Bunnie XO? It's a huge country music, like we love country music out there because it's Western and we're in the West.
1:13:15 Bunnie XO? But they, I think the reason why country music does so good out there is because it's always like the rock bands are out there and country barely ever goes out there. So when it's Stagecoach's time to play, that's like fucking, what's the other festival called? Coachella? That's like fucking country Coachella. So everybody like goes just bonkers whenever the lineup gets announced. So I was really excited to see your name on there.
1:13:41 Speaker 01 Yeah, I'm excited to go. Just means a lot to a bunch of different people. And like, like you said, Jelly playing 50 people, I'm never gonna go out to a show and go, it's just not gonna be it tonight. I mean, if we're playing for nobody or we're playing for 100,000, we're gonna give them all we got. You know, that's always how it's gonna be.
1:14:03 Bunnie XO? Absolutely. Well, I'm gonna ask you a couple more questions and then I'm gonna let you go because I've already talked your ear off today. But five years from now, when I call you again, I'll probably see you again before then at award shows. But to come back on the show, what do you want to be bragging about to me then?
1:14:20 Speaker 01 Hope to be headlining stadiums.
1:14:22 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:14:23 Speaker 01 That's always been the plan ever since we were, I was paying the band $150 a piece. They were making enough to pay for their gas there and back and make a few hundred bucks. I just told them, look, guys, y'all stick with me. I'm gonna work my ass off and we're gonna be headlining stadiums one day. Just stick with me. So we've been continuing to grow and
1:14:46 Speaker 01 I hope that we just keep letting out music at the same cadence and get there. And I hope that's what I get to tell you when we come back.
1:14:54 Bunnie XO? Well, at the rate of songs that you're writing, you're gonna definitely get there because you are, you're a pretty hard worker. So, and a lot of people don't chase the dream. They let the dream chase them and they expect everything to come to them. And you're not doing that. You're not sitting around waiting for any of that. Do you want to win awards? Is that something that you're in this for?
1:15:14 Speaker 01 I'm not gonna let it determine my career if I don't win any awards. I got nominated for ACM last year. Didn't win. We went, had a good time. Saw everybody. I enjoyed it. My girlfriend enjoyed it more than me because she gets to dress up.
1:15:31 Bunnie XO? Get all dolled up, yeah.
1:15:33 Speaker 01 That's, that's great, but I'm just gonna keep letting out the music that we let out. And if it's eligible or good enough to whoever's standards that gets to pick, then that'll be that. But, you know.
1:15:45 Bunnie XO? Yeah.
1:15:46 Speaker 01 It'd be great and I'd be, I'd be happy about it.
1:15:48 Bunnie XO? You'll definitely win some awards. If you could leave one message for the fans listening right now, what would it be?
1:15:57 Speaker 01 I don't really do this for me anymore now that I've got some money. Just want them to get music and enjoy their life, you know? And if I can add some kind of value to that by the time they get sixty, seventy, eighty years old and they go, "Man, we got to see Gavin Adcock and he let us out all these songs and they helped me." And the amount of people that come up to me and go, "Man, you saved my life." I'm like, "I don't think I saved your life, but I'm glad I could help if that's, if that's what's helping you," you know?
1:16:32 Bunnie XO? Oh, Gavin, you're a sweet boy. I really enjoyed our conversation today. Thank you for being here.
1:16:37 Speaker 01 Thank you, I appreciate it.
1:16:38 Bunnie XO? And you better come back and visit me.
1:16:40 Speaker 01 I will.
1:16:40 Bunnie XO? All right. Can you tell everybody where they can find you if they're not already following you? Like your, shout out your socia's?
1:16:46 Speaker 01 You can find me Gavin Adcock Music on all platforms. Gavin Adcock on Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, Pandora.
1:16:56 Bunnie XO? Where can they buy the mugshot t-shirt? Because you know everybody's gonna want that.
1:17:00 Speaker 01 GavinAdcockMusic.com
1:17:02 Bunnie XO? Let's go, baby. Thank you so much for being here.
1:17:04 Speaker 01 Thank you so much.
1:17:05 Bunnie XO? I appreciate you. Thank you, guys, for tuning into another episode of Don Blonde. I will see you, guys, next week. Bye.
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