Ep 506 - King Marcus (feat. Marcus King)

Music Wild Wild West shred so fucking hard dude there's some wild stuff on that first record it's pretty tight dude thanks well i was wondering this too by the way if you don't know who marcus king is he's obviously rock god what's your what's your go-to what would they say like use it rock blues what's your uh man find a one genre man i never had i just like a lot of different kinds of music yeah if i'm in the airport i usually just pick one and tell people that i play rock and roll or country or yeah you know whatever i'm in the mood for that true well you fucking shred dude i was i was walking my dogs i was a little drunk uh we had like a kid's party so yeah i got a little too turn up at it but i i was recovering i was walking by the way too this is a side they sell wheat seltzers now here in texas yeah you just go to the liquor store and there's just i couldn't believe it i'm like this has to be this can't be real it's real i spiked a cooler with a bunch of those wheat seltzers how strong are they like five milligrams 10 some of them are 10 which i think is dastardly you can't be dropping 10 milligrams of a bowl just like you know because that's one of those things anyone will pick it up and they see a label they're like this is legit right so i just put like eight of them in there being like yeah if that's your thing but then like i was talking to my one friend he goes i didn't even know this is a weed cell so he's drinking i'm like oh shit that's yeah my bad brother he's like i don't know that'll get you it will but um but yeah so i was i was walking at a nice little walk at nighttime and i was listening to your first album i'm like dude you dude, you fucking shred. I'm not just slobbing or not.
Dude, you fucking shred. Dude, I'm trying, bro.
I'm trying to shred. I'm a baby shredding, dude.
But you can fucking, I was listening, and it's like, because whenever, because, you know, if you're country, if you're blues, like you said, you kind of just bounce around. Because I do feel like you can get kind of stuck, and I heard you talking about this on the other podcast, getting stuck in that pentatonic.

I mean, sorry, we're going deep on musical theory.

But you can get stuck in that one sound.

And when I was listening to your first album especially,

I was just like, dude, you really can dance around

and jump out of stuff.

And it was cool.

It was really like, it was fresh the whole time.

It was tight.

Man, I appreciate that, dude.

I mean, I just try to, with a guitar,

just try to express what I'm feeling in here. And I didn't have a lot of friends growing up, so just play the guitar.
That's awesome. That seemed to do it.
When did you start playing? I was probably like three or four, three or four years old. What? Yeah.
I was like a latchkey kid, you know, and I'd spend a lot of time just at the house alone with records and my guitar, playing guitar. When you were like were like three though how did you play i had a little bitty could you shred a little bit my dad taught me like louis louis by the kinsmen and i just kind of went on from there damn that's awesome yeah i feel bad because i played in high school a lot and there is something to like when you play when you're a kid like it's you're never going to have that much time again like i would sit there for hours and just yeah play and play and if i like i talk to adults like i want to start playing it's like you're never going to have unless unless you can just you know take all day off or get unemployed well i mean my family all played too so i always thought about it like a like a bilingual family you know like you grow up learning spanish and it's just kind of second nature to you because you're folks speaking in the household.
But that's how guitar was for me. I just kind of picked it up because my grandfather and my dad and my uncles all played.
Yeah, that's pretty cool. So were they traveling musicians? So they're what we call weekend warriors.
Okay. My grandfather was like career service in the Air Force and just played honky-tonks every weekend.
And my dad still is a touring musician. He's 71 now.
Damn, really? Uh-huh. So what was that like when your dad was on? I worry about that.
I'm always on tour. I'm on tour a lot.
So I'm like, do my kids, does this bother them? I can't tell. They're so young.
I'm like, I hope it doesn't bother them. Right.'t bother them right did it bother you well i mean my dad when my parents got divorced when i was like four he kind of dropped everything and got a straight job became a contractor really you know and um you know looking back on it now i could tell that he just hated that so around the time i was like 11 you know i was playing good enough where he was like i'll just bring you with me shit you know really my sister would stay back at home with my grandparents and i'd go out with him oh really i started playing bars and you know music venues when i was like 11 really yeah damn that's fucking awesome yeah i just they like, man, that little girl you got up there sounds great.

I still get misgendered online.

Do you really?

Yeah, dude, people on the Instagram comments are always asking if I'm like a transgender,

which, I mean, nothing wrong with that, but I'm not.

Yeah, for sure.

I mean, if you're not, you could say, you could plainly state, like, yeah, don't do that.

Since I was like 11 years old, though, man.

Yeah.

Really?

That little girl is rocking.

Your dad's like, shut up, dude.

Just go with it.

This is fucking great.

Yeah.

Well, that's kind of cool, though.

So you were literally just, how did that happen?

You were just shredding for your paw, and he was like, let's get the fuck out of here, bro.

Fuck contract, and let's go play music.

Right.

I mean, yeah, we're going.

like we would tour

just like

Thank you. was like let's get the fuck out of here bro fuck contracting let's go play music right i mean yeah we're going like um we would tour just like everywhere we could to get me back in time to go to school the next day and um i always kind of looked at it like you know the tribe goes out and hunts yeah like you become a certain age you just go out with the men and hunt fuck dude that's what it's what it kind of felt like.
Yeah, that makes sense. What kind of stuff were you seeing? Was it wild or was it kind of pretty chill and tame? It was fucking crazy, especially by the time I got to be 13, I started booking my own gigs outside of my dad's band.
So I was like 13 and 14 is when I got my learner's permit and i had to have a licensed driver in the car so i had like my two you know um but you got your permanent oh wait when is the when you when can you drive so i'm from south carolina so in south carolina i got like a working permit because i was able to work at that age gotcha so i got that which was like super restricted and i could drive with could drive with a licensed driver in the car. And it was like an extended learner's program kind of thing.
So I had a bass player who was 18. My drummer was like 35 with kids.
And I had like grown men. And I had like a fake email.
I would book us, you know, have us working like four or five nights a week. And'd end up in like ashville north carolina and there's like crazy old bartender lady was just like trying to you know uh teach me about being a man and just like all these crazy stories she was trying to usher you into trying to awaken you usher me into adulthood yeah damn dude some dude.
Some wild stories out there, yeah. How did you feel about that at 13? I mean, Florida, I'm guessing.
It was pretty exhilarating, yeah. So you were – I guess, I mean, did you look younger? Because, you know, you were just a boy.
Yeah, I'm just a pup. But you had your permit, so.
I did have my permit. I was driving my 94 Pontiac Transport transport minivan and i had my rig uh the the pa i had my bass player's rig it was a good deal for him and like i found out like later like we would go work in ashville north carolina twice a week we'd go up on monday i'd play a gig um and unbeknownst to me he was like moving some serious weight and i didn't realize that he was just like filling his gig bag with like a qp every time we go up we come back down to greenville i think the statue of limitations were good now but he'd come back and then move it and then we'd go back up and play a different gig thursday that's so funny and he'd pay the guy but we used to work this club called the hole in the wall.
It was spelled hole in dough wall. Yeah.
And, like, a couple people got stabbed, and they maintained, you know, their liquor license. And then somebody got shot and killed.
That's when they closed down finally. Really? But I was, like, all the 14 years old in there working.
Just driving quops around, no idea. Yeah.
You had a QP on you. Yeah, dude.
It was just like all your lyrics for me.

Sketchy as hell.

I don't know how I got out of some of the situations I was in.

Yeah.

So did you ever have a job then, or you just did the music stuff?

When I was 16, I had a job at Mellow Mushroom.

I actually like that place a lot.

Mellow Mushroom's pretty good.

Pretty good.

I got fired twice from that same job, but the manager was a buddy of and just pretty mellow about it he was chill he was chill so they fight you got the fire rehire yeah nice yeah so what did you get fired was it him who fired you like the hires up fired you and then you kind of had your come back so i was working back of the house i was a dishwasher and then I got fired just for being kind of a slacker.

Yeah.

And then I came back and I was working back in the house. I was a dishwasher.
And then I got fired just for being kind of a slacker.

Yeah.

And then I came back and I was in front of the house and I was trying to like quasi-unionize the hosts.

Because we did everything.

We bust the tables.

You know, we took drink orders and, you know, we didn't get tipped out at the end of the day.

And I think, you know, I was being a little bit too adamant about it. I see what you're you wanted you wanted it on the waiter's tips yeah i was like what's going on with this you know like we work our asses off and let us get some of that back in some some restaurants do that though i've worked in restaurants where as a bus boy you'd get a little bit of the uh waitress's tips yeah and it was kind of it was i mean it was a pitt dude.
They were making probably like 400 bucks a night and they would slide you like 40 bucks.

You'd be like, sweet.

Yeah.

The money got funny.

I got the bartender's tips.

There was a bartender named Matt.

I worked in a restaurant and there's a bartender named Matt.

So they gave me the wrong envelope and I was just like, I would get like 40 bucks as a busboy

and I had like $400 in an envelope and I was just like, fuck yeah.

Like we gave you the wrong envelope.

I was like, no, you didn't.

I don't think you did.

I was like, I don't think you did. They're like, no, we did.
I'm like, mad on it like how much was in it i'm like i don't even remember you gotta you gotta have a little bit of hustle about you yeah man i mean dude if someone hands you an envelope of cash now i would have obviously i'd return it to the rightful owner but back then i was i was a bit of a dog i'd be like nah that's mine i'm taking that right so you had so you started as a kid that's crazy I didn't know you could even start I guess you can't do it anymore maybe I don't know man I don't know really how I worked around that but I was really you know I knew what I wanted to do from a young age so I had that going for me I had a lot of gumption yeah so I just wanted to get the fuck out of there what were like so what were was there any like nightmares or i'm sure there were just like absolute nightmare gigs or like any meltdown have you ever freaked out on stage and melted down well i played a cruise one time we used to work the cruise circuit a little bit like blues cruises and shit and like this particular blues cruise i mean i had gone off one morning and was trying to find some drugs and like the first T-shirt vendor guy I came to, this was in one of the little port cities in Mexico. And I was like, you know what, find a little weed.
And he's like, I think you want something a little stronger. And I was like, how did you know? How did you fucking know? And I got in the van with him and he took me out in the middle of nowhere and they like i mean they gave me some good coke but they robbed me robbed me blind and like took me to an atm and strongly suggested i pull out some more money for the driver oh i see so they they did sell you the coke yeah and they were they did half of it with me oh okay it's kind of a smooth grift yeah you can't be too mad like mad.
You're like, well, we sold it. So they basically were like, it'll be this amount.
Took you to the ATM to like withdraw funds. Yeah.
And sent you on your way with half of it. It was kind of like, are you not going to tip my mom for all the tequila you drank? Yeah.
Are you not going to tip the driver? They just juice you up. And I was like, man, you just took all my money.
I don't have it. They're like, well, there's an ATM right here, man.
You should get it. So it was a smooth grift.
I respect the hustle, but they didn't kill me, which is nice. Yeah, that's sweet.
But I got back on the boat, and I had a real bad drinking problem. And on those cruise ships, it was international water, so a lot of people would kind of turn the other way.
I was 18 and 19. Yeah, yeah.
You know, it was kind of like we're out in the middle of the ocean. This kid can drink.
Dude, I got served on a cruise at like 14. Right.
I was with my friend's family. We went on a cruise, and we were just ordering beer, and they were like, whatever.
Yeah. They didn't care at all.
They didn't give a shit because it's just all the, like, for the most part, like on the Norwegian boats, it was all like Indonesian workers. Yeah.
I noticed. And, yeah, they would serve me, but I had a meltdown on that cruise on a blues cruise way too drunk and just like had a full cup like the size of this coffee cup of just whiskey neat and just dropped it and it spilled all over the fucking stage and i was just i got pissed off started throwing furniture around damn in the lounge what happened did they did you get fired from the blues crews no they asked us back the next year it's kind of tight if i was at a blues cruise and the dude just melted down on stage i'd be like this fucking rules yeah i mean it was the most punk rock thing happening on that boat did you still play or did did you not play that night? That was after the gig.
Oh, really? I always managed to get through the show. Yeah, yeah.
That's when I, the last time I put, you know, I quit drinking, and I've quit drinking many times. But the last time was because I was still able to get the shows done.
And as long as I was getting the shows done, nobody was really too concerned about me.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's no good because I can always get the work done.

Really?

Because I love it.

Yeah, how drunk can you get in play?

I've always wondered that.

I can get really drunk in play,

but singing is a whole other thing.

You just mull through it?

Yeah.

Start jawing into it.

Is it drinking and Coke or just drinking? Yeah. Two peas in a pod oh yeah yeah the best peas somebody uh like sometimes you know when i'm playing like and i think all guitars are guitar players are guilty of this like mayor is a real culprit of like just the crazy mouth shit that you do yeah yeah you're kind of just you're not thinking and you're reacting um but they posted a video of me playing and somebody was like this dude's totally gacked up and i don't really usually respond but like i let it just simmer for like 48 hours and i responded i was like dude you have no idea how much i miss cocaine so so you weren't even on coke.
No. You were making guitar face.
Yeah, I was just guitar facing. Everybody does.
Which is the same as cocaine face. True.
Oh, yeah. You start getting like, you know.
Yeah. That makes sense.
You can kind of fly under the radar, I guess, because if you're, yeah, you're like, I was just making guitar face. I'm not coked out.
I don't like coke, by the way. Yeah.
I mean, I've never done it, to be fair. I just out i don't like coke by the way yeah i mean i

don't i've never done it to be fair i just i don't like the idea of it i heard it's everyone i tell it to they go you should try it it's fantastic and i say no i'm not going to i don't like i just i don't like it i got convinced at a young age i was like that shit's fucking it's bad yeah don't listen to those guys think it's bad my dad's only advice to me was like never do cocaine because you'll love it which i absolutely did yeah he was right yeah yeah people do it casually now too a lot of younger people i talked to were just like oh dude like we're just bumping some coke and like they're like young like frat kids now just do blow yeah when i went to college that was a big deal if you did coke it was kind of like a lot of people did it but it was kind of like now it's it's as acceptable now i think as smoking weed right i could be wrong i don't you know i don't frequent frats but just like the stuff i hear about it like yeah dude do some bumps and get out there and i'm like dude people just like hide when i was younger people were like hot people still i guess kind of do hide a little bit right that was always kind of my thing was like you'd be at a party and then everyone would be in the bathroom and there's like 30 of you in the bathroom i'm like why don't we just bust this out on the coffee table instead of all crowding around the toilet well that yeah i mean i don't know i just my problem is i didn't do it and i knew people who did and i hung out with people on coke not on coke a lot and i was like this fucking sucks so it really kind of turned me off to it forever this episode is brought to you by call of duty calling all call of duty fans verdansk is back in call of duty war zone starting on april 3rd you'll be able to drop back into verdansk experience all the chaos and relive the thrill you've been missing not only will you get the classic battle royale experience we all know and love but verdansk is back with upgraded graphics and gameplay that's right you'll be experiencing verdansk like never before smoother movement stunning visuals and new mechanics whether you're dropping in solo or teaming up with your squad it's time to come home to verdansk download call of duty war zone for free and drop into verdansk on april 3rd rated m4 mature right Because it's brutal dude yeah someone's on coke and you're not it's like please get me the fuck out of here yeah that's a tough hang it's a wildly tough hang it's not it's not fun bro you fucking go you're like yeah yeah yeah they're they always got big ideas but um but shredding on stage gacked out and drunk is probably pretty tight you know pros, pros and cons. It's probably kind of fun.
I mean, whatever the buzz is that you like, it's pretty nice. Yeah.
Having it while you're doing what you love, you know. Yeah, but this is a question for you.
Do you even now off of, you know, that, is it really? Because I think a lot of that for me is like a kind of a a blanket over inferiority issues so like a lot of it kind of like just gets you able to like get out there and do your thing you're pretty good obviously guitar you're fantastic at it do you still have those like do you feel like you need to kind of drug yourself a little bit to kind of like was it that was it that the issue or is it just you could perform but it was like yeah why not i might as well party i think that was a lot of it because now like the stage fright it's like it's so much worse it is worse yeah so much worse like being sober yeah you know and like just having a little something that gets you out there and just having that confidence because it is a lot of inferiority and you get out there and like once i'm like five minutes, I'm like, all right, this will be all right.

Yeah.

But those five minutes before showtime, I'm just, you know.

Yeah, and you can't address it.

I've always wondered if you can go out.

I've done that with stand-up.

I'm like, to fuck around, like, yeah,

I'm kind of having a panic attack for the first five minutes,

and crowds are like, stop that right now.

They don't like it.

We don't want to hear this shit.

We want to see you perform.

Yeah, it's like, you know.

Yeah, dance. I've tried to address it many times.
And they're like, no, just play the song. Yeah, that's unfortunate.
But yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, you know, stand up similar where it's like you have to do it. And I'm the same way.
I can just inhabit like a mental torture chamber. I'm better now with it because I feel like what's helped me is instead of focusing on myself, I just focus on the people who are watching it.
And like, I'm just going to do my best to let them have fun. And like, when you get out of your like, I need to be great.
I need to be the best and just be like, it's literally, they call it de-reflection. There's like a term for it where you're just like, I want these guys to have a good time.
And you focus on making them have a good time rather than like, am I doing good enough? And dude, I think it makes everything a lot easier. And you have fun.
Like you end up having more fun, which, you know. Right.
It runs counter to all the stuff you hear where it's like, you have to suffer. If you suffer, then the good things will happen.
It's like, you can not suffer and good things will happen too. Right.
Just, you know, takes half your life to learn that. And by then you're oh fuck i wish i knew that right i mean like the philosophical thing behind it like we were

talking about rick rubin and his book oh yeah yeah yeah and his whole thing is like put the

audience last which was always really foreign to me because i'm like you i like to you know

you call it d reflection right yeah yeah it's like as long as they're having a good time i'm

i'm cool yeah and i've also got a seven piece band behind me so i can kind of lean on them

I'm cool. Yeah.
And I've also got a seven-piece band behind me, so I can kind of lean on them. Yeah.
And try to entertain them to a degree and not focus on the larger audience in front of me. Yeah.
That's worked for me in the past, but I couldn't imagine being up there alone. Yeah.
I mean, I don't know, because I've tried to play music a couple times, and that's harder for me because you're getting, when you're doing stand-up, you're getting feedback in real time. Like, if people aren't laughing, you know.
It's like, red alert, this isn't going well, this isn't going well. So, like, and they laugh, it relaxes you.
When I would play music, the whole time I would just, like, watch people in the crowd like, dude, do they fucking hate this? And I would just stare.

Then the song would be over and a couple people would clap and I'd be like, I guess that's good.

There's no like, you're not getting that feed.

The feedback kind of relaxes you.

Everyone says that does music.

They're like, stand up's crazy.

It's like, I don't know.

I think it's easier.

I could be wrong.

I mean, that's a wild take.

Having a band behind you.

I mean, I'm also, I'd be, I wasn't that good though.

So I'd be worried about like missing a string and I'd be like, fuck. So I don't know.
I mean, as long as I got my boys with me, I like, they, they kind of keep me humble. Yeah.
My drummer points out a lot of the mistakes I make. Really? Yeah.
He's a, he's a stickler. Oh, that's good though.
That's good to have. Yeah.
You can't get too loose. Yeah.
You can't get too loose, especially if you're – I mean, I guess you could – if somebody fucks up, if I'm, like, watching a band and somebody, like, fucks up a chord and, like, kind of laughs and keeps playing, I'm not going to be like, what the fuck was that? Right, you don't ask for your money back. Yeah.
But, I mean, we also grew up in the service industry. True.
So – I only was in the restaurants briefly. I did – well, construction, but similar.
It's like – yeah, I mean, it's not similar, but yeah. You do what you actually, I guess when you do that kind of work that you do, like, I've heard this from waiters, especially.
They're like, people who do construction usually leave, like, blue collar type jobs, whatever it is. They usually leave better tips.
Yeah. Just because they're like, you know what it's like to be at a job that sucks.
You're like, yeah, here's, you know. Yeah, it's tough.
That shit sucks. I mean.
What you're doing sucks. What I'm doing sucks.
Here's some extra money. Yeah.
I've, yeah, I've heard the same thing. And I was in the service industry long enough to, to realize like, you know.
Mellow, talking mellow mushroom. Talking mellow mushroom.
At the end, man. I was there just long enough.
I was a mellow man. Just long enough to, to you know not get frustrated about how long it's going to be for a wait for a table yeah that makes sense yeah to be like all right man yeah especially if you work in a restaurant dude i used i worked actually you know what i take that back i was in my brother's taco truck and i remember like when people are waiting for their food they're they're like very they're like especially angry like if you're in a restaurant and you're like, Hey, we took the day off.
We're closed. People show up and they're like, they're furious.
Like you see, I do it. If I show up to a place and like normally open their clothes, it takes me like 10 seconds to calm down.
Cause you're like thinking it's like primal. You're thinking of a meal you're about to eat and they're like, you can't have it.
And you're like, all right, that's fine, man. But it fucks you up.
But yeah so i remember like trying to we were like a little lunch truck so i would just watch people waiting angrily and just be like my brother would be cooking in the back and i'd be like just another couple minutes everybody and then like you'd run out of food and there'd be a guy who's waiting half an hour and you have to be like bro we're out of food bro my bad and they'd be like what the fuck you're like yeah i get it man that's how you get an active shooter on your hands I know, primal you know it is man dude if i waited for a half an hour like hey uh we don't have any food my bad here's your money back i'd freak i'd call the cops i think i'm calling the fucking police that happened to us recently with my drummer actually like everybody finally got their meal and like what he wanted they were like they came around gave everybody their food and they didn't bring his and they were like oh um yeah we're actually out of that he's like why are you just now telling me you know and they were like you want something else and he's no he fasted he's a grump when it comes to food like dude a lot of people are yeah he hunger striked i would have done a hunger strike as well i'd be like i won't eat then he protested i'll be hungry and you guys will pay for it he just sat there and watched everyone eat damn dude yeah so how was it so you said you did your last album with rick rubin yep how was that it was it was interesting man i mean it was it was a long process because he's super mysterious

guy. Dude, I was trying to figure out what the

guy... I had seen him

in stuff and I was like...

I learned he doesn't play any instruments, right?

He plays no instruments.

And I was like, how does he produce all these

musical stuff? And it almost...

His mystery almost perverted

my mind to being a hater where I was like,

I think he's full of shit. Right.
And then I read his book and I'm like, fuck, this is the coolest dude I think that might have ever lived. It's super interesting.
The book's awesome. Because he does try, like the way I've explained it is he's like, he's like an ambassador of music for the human population.
I would hear shit like that. I'd be like, shut the fuck up.
And I read his book and I'm like, yeah,'m like yeah he could do that i was like he's the for real it might just be the coolest dude yeah and he'd he'd come in and we'd listen to stuff and you know he's always like just barefoot and he wears like you know these thai fisherman pants which are like these huge pants i want to wear those so fucking bad i don't have the courage i don't either you know how much courage it took me to wear my biohacking ring dude this is my aura ring I've been hiding under the table dude I'm not a two ring man yeah I got rings yeah I am fuck that dude my wife won't let me wear the Thai fisherman pants why not uh she hates them we have to let me let me google these things real quick I want to see I think I know you're they're like the long flowy like almost kung fu master looking pants big time fuck yeah fuck dude i'm just fuck yeah dude that's all i want to wear every time i see people in them i'm like i'm a coward and i don't wear these things and it doesn't work for me um so says my wife but he would just he would roll he'd flow in with those and like a big iced coffee and or like a tea and he would just like he lays down in meetings a lot what like while he's talking to you he just lays down and then how did you feel so you who produced your other album you had other people producing obviously yeah well i've worked with like dan auerbach from the black keys i worked with this producer named dave cobb who did a lot of the chris stapleton and sturgill simpson stuff. Yeah, I've worked with Dan Auerbach from the Black Keys.
I worked with this producer named Dave Cobb, who did a lot of the Chris Stapleton and Sturgill Simpson stuff. I've worked with a lot of different producers, and all of them kind of have their weird quirk.
And at a certain point, you've got to step back and remember, I'm paying for this guy to produce the record, so I'm going to lean into their process so a lot of personality mirroring like end up laying down on the adjacent couch talking to rick really yeah oh yeah fuck dude i'm like i'll take my shoes off and lay down and talk to you and he just because his book the way he the way he approaches his book is pretty cool and you're saying he instructs you the opposite he's like fuck the audience do your thing yeah it's like so hard to do and that and that book like i read it after we worked together and like hearing him talk and like i mean he's a he's a big he practices what he preaches you know yeah he's such a big fan of music and of comedy too like he loves comedy and i was in italy working with him when he was about to, you know, go on Rogan and talk about his book. Yeah.
And he was like nervous, you know. It was really to see him kind of have these like human emotions.
Yeah, because I guess you kind of like legendize him in your mind. You're like, dude, Rick Rubin doesn't get nervous.
You can't wear a fisher pants. You think about him floating and shit.
Yeah. And flying lotus.
I'm telling you lotus telling you anyone i would recommend his book i like started especially if you're like trying to write something or do something or even like if you're just like trying to chill at your job that's my mission right now is like how can i just make my inner world as peaceful as possible it's obviously hard dude i fail all day every day but his book you read it and you're like damn this is it's a cool approach to just like sitting brainstorming letting like ideas flow letting them take shape and like creating things it's you know that's that's the one thing i think a lot of people who aren't in like when i whenever heard the term like i'm a creative i i dislike it because i think anyone can do a cool like you can like build something in your backyard you can do all this stuff and i think that's a lot of people get frustrated because they'd have no creative outlet it's like i think it's a you know it's like a god-given right for every man or person or girl whatever to uh like do something other than like wake up stare at your phone go to a job you hate go home watch tv and go to i think that's like it kills you yeah really build a thing draw draw something dude it gives a fun but if you read that Rubin book, I think that helps people get out of their head. I read it, and it was just fantastic.
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Yeah, I'd recommend it to anybody because I agree with you, man.

I think anybody can do something creative, and it really it helps you dude dig like a fish pond yeah like that would be all i want to do that dude it's like you can do literally people think like it i in my opinion it's like the commercial aspect is like a hard kind of brick wall for a lot of people because if they think of something that's like deemed like creative or artistic they go well i could never sell that it sell that. It's like, who gives a fuck, dude? Right.
Just build a fucking statue in your yard. You're a little crazy, but it's like you, the satisfaction you would get if you got good at building a statue, digging like a fish pond, anything like that.
I mean, it's unmatched. You got to be okay with failing.
Yeah. And that's the approach I take to every gig.
If I can find like that transcendental place yeah on stage and it's so it's hard but like i think i even heard you talk about this like

if you're doing something like uh like the assembly line you know you're doing a repetitive

motion over and over oh yeah it unlocks like that creative side of your brain that's what um

fuck what was that guy's name i think adam smith that was the guy who found it was like one of the

thinkers in capitalism he thought that was what he thought though and i think it is right because

of the thinkers in capitalism. He thought that was what he thought, though.
And I think it is right, because if I when I would paint houses, especially if you're doing a repetitive task, it does unlock you to think about other stuff. But he had this dream where like people would work in like dog food factories and then like just start coming up with these sick ideas.
And it turns out it's like a lot of people will just stare at a fucking wall too so that is that but i agree if you have that capacity to like for your mind to float it's like yeah when you do something that's like like manual labor intensive your brain really can yeah like my wife um you know when she started her she has like a trucker hat company and she started it out of our garage and i'd just go down there there and make boxes. And I'd make the same box over and over and over again.
And I would come up with so many ideas, and I would just write them down. Yeah.
And it kind of led me to like, you know, now when I write, a lot of times I'll have like a show that I've seen a thousand times, like The Office or like The Big Lebowski, something that I've seen a million times that'll kind of get those gears turning. turning.
So it's kind of stimulating my brain, but I don't have to think about what's going to happen because I know what the, you know. No, that's a cool idea.
I used to trash Adam Smith for his take when he would be like, yeah, you're going to get guys in factories. They're going to unlock the next level and unleash all the secrets.
Right. When in reality, they were just, a lot of them were just bored to death.
But yeah, I do agree though. That works for that works for me too if i when i would do manual labor any of that stuff where like i used to have to that my it was working with my dad and my uncles and they would like knock a building down pick up like concrete like chunks of rock bricks plastic metal and wood and they would just dump it and you had to separate them into like those five categories yeah and i would do that for like eight hours a day and like dude you really do like you can't hit a flow state yeah it's pretty tight there's something something healing about that in my mind like having a task and just getting it done like we've been in the moving process i'm like i gotta get this couch from here to the truck from the truck to the storage unit and just like doing it and just sweating and like like earning your rest at the end of the night dude and i'm telling you man people like because i i've worked i've done jobs that are purely physical my dad worked with my dad he's like look i need you from the neck down today i don't want to hear anything just i don't need any ideas i just need you to lift that and put that there because i'd be like what if we do it this way you'd be like don't want to hear it do that there to there that's it but like yeah and it's like when you use when you do a job i always wanted to have a job where i just use my brain but then it's like you do get to the point where like dude i would love to move some boxes right now yeah and people who move all day like fuck you dude you think i'm like dude you don't understand like just let me when i like get to carry shit like if i do yard work i'm in heaven dude but if the thing is if you do it all day every day you're like all right man fuck this it sucks yeah but good point you've hit a dead end of the conversation so and you how many albums do you have four do you have or five so it's kind of weird the way it was so i did three three records with my guys called, it was Marcus King Band.
And then I did a record called El Dorado and it wasn't my guys. It was the first album I did without my band.
So I didn't feel right calling it Marcus King Band. And I just thought this would make everything a lot simpler.
And it just kind of convoluted everything because now I see articles that refer to me as like the former lead singer of the Marcus King band which is like a brain pretzel just yeah it doesn't make any sense Marcus King aka former lead singer of the Marcus King band yeah it's still the same band or at least my drummer. You know, relationships kind of ebb and flow and you grow.
Yeah. Some people don't grow with you and then you come to those hard moments in life where you kind of have to move on and they have to move on or stay behind.
Yeah. But I've got three out with my group and I think three as a solo artist,

as it were, but it's still my band on the road.

And me and my band just did a record together that we're going to put out next year.

Okay.

So you guys were the Marcus King band and then you went solo.

Who were the musicians you used when you went solo? Did you just bring different people in here or there,

or did you have a different band that was with you when you did solo stuff was it some of your marcus king band like how that worked right so that that was another like you know kind of trust the you know the process when i worked with dan auerbach he's like i got you know like if you uh like the memphis boys they worked on all like the Dusty Springfield Elvis Presley

Bobby Womack

that kind of thing

and they're all like

80 years old

but they're incredible musicians

and they played on that record

with me

and just watching them work

was just astounding.

Did a record with 80 year olds?

Oh yeah.

That's crazy.

That record

El Dorado

everybody on that record

is like

70 plus.

Damn dude.

Yeah.

How was that? It was it was incredible. They must be like wizards at that point they are i mean it was it was it was really just like you know you know uh how do you say like yeah like wizards that's crazy yeah you can't really hate on those that's what i was curious about it people get like that it's a tough thing like my i think he was saying this or like when you have a band it's like having like five girlfriends because you really do have to like you have to maintain all that's the one thing i will say stand-ups easier because if you have a band you have to like maintain all these different schedules all these different people's lives all these wants and needs where it's like it's got to be difficult it's like a marriage yeah it really is and um it gets it gets hard yeah how so how was the salt was the solo move to like doing solo stuff kind of freeing or like how'd you feel about it i mean in some ways it was freeing and you know like now i just really crave like that familial aspect and like working together as a team to have something that's creatively like ours.
And, um, we did that, we cut it down in Macon, Georgia and Macon, Georgia is just a really fascinating place to me. Like, um, they've got like this, uh, export, um, it's like this powdery substance that they have reservoirs there for.
It's like this protein, that you need it to, it's like this powdery substance that they have reservoirs there for it's like this protein uh that you need it to it's like kyle light or something like that you know what i'm talking about no making georgia exports a protein powder yeah not a protein powder but like it's like a it's like a natural resource that you need to build like most shit oh okay i understand yeah so so they mine it yeah gotcha so like because of that it's all like still mom and pop there they don't have like a lot of chain places yeah town so it's like a really old school feeling town and we went there and cut a record it was really really cool that's pretty tight yeah yeah i feel like neil young had something similar with his uh his band was crazy horse i think and i think he would like go off and on where he like would do a solo thing come back with crazy horse do a solo and come back and and i was like thinking about crosby stills nash and young a lot and like all those dude had they had the band then they had their own little solo things yeah it's pretty cool man yeah i mean i've always kind of thought about neil young yeah like as somebody to model a career after because he he kind of accomplished that idea of having a band, having the solo shit.

Yeah, he did.

You know,

he did.

He did. yeah like as somebody to model a career after because he he kind of accomplished that idea of having a band having the solo shit and then he did you know do whatever he fucking crushed it he had that that catalog in the 80s was wild dude we got into vocoda phones dude that was fucking crazy i haven't dug much into his catalog in the 80s he had a strong i feel like he like just he for real like crushed.
The 80s, he just did his own, he was like chilling with Devo a lot. Which I could see that.
If I was in the 70s and 80s, I've never heard of 80s music and it was coming out, I would dip my toes into it as well. Right.
And then he came back in the 90s real hard and you know, he's been touring for, what, 50, 50, 60 years. That's one, that's one fellow I'd really like to meet.
Yeah. But you know like, he's aump, dude.
I heard. He's a grump.
My dad loves Neil Young, and he'll come home from his concert. He's like, fucking bitching about politics again.
Fucking goddamn, he gets so mad. He's like, fucking crying about the goddamn president.
My dad loves Neil Young. My dad loves Al Stewart.
My dad's seen Al Stewart 40 fucking times. He's seen Neil Young a bunch of times.

He's like,

yeah, fucking Neil Young's

crying about fucking politics.

He'll come home all pissed off.

Oh, yeah.

My dad went to see Al Stewart

recently in Poconos,

like the mountains in Pennsylvania.

And he was like,

it was just a bunch of gay guys.

My dad said,

these two gay guys

are singing every song right next to him.

And he's like,

dude, I just couldn't focus on how to do it.

Wow.

But yeah, I grew up, my dad was a big,

I think my dad was a huge fan of music.

He had this, like when we were younger,

he had this, it was like this double-sided cassette case where he would, he just had like 48 tapes,

like little like cassette tapes.

And he would carry it around in his truck

and he'd always just like blast different, like dude, going to work with him was so fun because he would just blast like 48 tapes, like little cassette tapes, and he would carry it around in his truck, and he'd always just like blast different, like, dude, going to work with him was so fun, because he would just blast like Neil Young and all these other, just like 70s, like, he got into like NXS for a while, which is funny. It was weird, man.
He had a very like kind of eclectic music taste. Right.
And he would just, he would get home from work, and he would just like hit a tape in the deck, fire it up and just sit by fire and just blast albums it was really nice i mean it's it's great to have that growing up people who have an eclectic sense of or taste in music my dad was like that my grandfather listened to a lot of country and western my grandmother loved like dean martin frank sinatra um and my father loved rock and roll so um i had a really eclectic kind of mix of music when i come home from school yeah i always thought i don't know i've ever like ever been in someone's house and there's just like no music at all or like riding in a car with somebody and there's no music yeah it's a psychopath move it's a psychopath move you know i'll try i used to have a very i've gotten better with this but i'd be very nervous to play music for other people because i think they would listen to it and be like dude this fucking it's from having older brothers so i'm like worried they'll listen to it i'm like yo this sucks dude you're a loser so i would do a thing where i'd play music but i'd play it very quietly which is almost worse than silence because people are kind of like what it's like water torture yeah like what are you doing like to play the fucking song or turn it off because i would play it i like maybe like i'll turn it up a little bit it was just psycho thing i would do or like nobody there no one's thinking about it like you never get into someone's car and you're like what the fuck is this yeah just like oh there's music on right but uh i'm always you know just a glimpse into my tortured fucking world dude well i mean you're talented at what you do so there's got to be some torture in there true i need reuben i need reuben to lay down with me dude you know as friends dude lay down head to head paul hellard paul's head to head yoga pants that's got to be so cool though dude like what do you do when you're sitting there with that guy i would i would but i think i might bug that guy till he leaves i'd be like oh rick what should i do this? Dude, should I close my eyes? What should I do, dude? Well, the first day I met him, because he just cold called me, and I showed up at the studio out in Malibu, and I pulled up, and I noticed he was in front of his Airstream trailer, and he was interviewing Mike Campbell from the Heartbreakers. And it's like the two most like, you know, distinctive looking dudes ever sitting out there and like my windows down from the car and I'm at the gate and I just hear the director say, cut, there's a fucking car in the background.
And like I ruined that take and they open the gate and I go up to the main house and I start checking out amps and like the way Rick likes to have his studios laid out, it's all really open and all the doors are open and like you can hear everything. Like when I was recording in the chapel, I could hear the Red Hot Chili Peppers cutting because, you know, Chad Smith is such a distinctive sounding drummer.
But I went up there and started trying out these amps and then this poor intern runs up and starts yelling at me because I ruined another take just from playing these amps. So I haven't met him.
But they were filming a movie? They were filming that documentary, that Tom Brady documentary. Oh, I got you.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.
And I fucked up a couple takes. But when he came in, he didn't even mention it, man.
He's a really cool dude, and he's a fan first um that record was difficult because rick like migrates with like the weather that he likes so he'll be in malibu for a few months and then he goes to like costa rica then he goes to hawaii and then he goes to tuscany and he just kind of migrates with like i need to take a break dude he's so fucking cool dude so you had to like go to all these different little places yeah so it was challenging you know i mean it was truly challenging he put me through a lot of shit yeah like i wrote for like six months and we didn't use any of it well what was that how did you decide not to use it was he just kind of like do you like that do you really like that yeah i mean he made me more intro like uh introspective with all of it

because the whole record the concept was uh mental health and like you know my struggles with mental health and like he wanted to just be as bare bones with it as possible yeah like no metaphors yeah so i'd write something that i thought would be appealing to a listener and he's like

no

that sucks dude

especially very calmly be like no

yeah something that i thought would be appealing to a listener and he's like no yeah that sucks probably especially very calmly be like no yeah we're not going to use that yeah and he doesn't like to be in the room during the creative process he'll come in after the fact and then just like make little notes and adjustments and then he'll just like kind of drift away which is unlike anything so the record took like two and a half years to finish

that's kind of cool which is interesting because like you listen to the record like i can listen to it and like some songs i wrote when i was with my ex and like out there writing about her and how i was unhappy in this relationship didn't know how to you know communicate it so i was writing about that and then there's songs from when that relationship ended and i kind of just became a train wreck yeah it was just a little heavy metal yeah i was just i was abusing everything and um and then kind of after the fact like when i met my now wife like so the record kind of takes me on this journey and i don't know if he like had the foresight for that yeah that's kind of nuts so you have songs from like a period of like you know domestic you know let's call it domestic kind of hell like a hellish domestic situation where like it's disintegrating blah blah drug abuse period and then kind of like you know greener pastures yeah it's kind of fucking cool and i'm thankful for that and and in any other circumstance i wouldn't have had you know they would churn it out like pop it out yeah because i've done records in six days i've done records in you know two weeks but never like more than like a month damn you know that's crazy so for like two and a half years it's really just a full journey it's like the full like circle that is pretty cool and when did that come when did that come out for i'm sorry i'm like came out in april okay nice man that's awesome so it's pretty new it's it's pretty fresh still um but you know we kind of have our sights set on like the next thing yeah and you know like this honky tonk shit is like popular again i grew up i grew up playing in the honky-tonks and like it's like in my blood my family's from the appalachians i'm bringing the fiddle back out i'm like this shit's hot i'm gonna the fiddle does move me dude when i hear the fiddle it does it does something to me there's something about us whites man we get to go on it's probably a hard fucking shrill note on a fiddle i started I started thinking like i might grab someone's arm dude i might do a do-si-do yeah the thing i like that ruben did too in his book was he's like stop reading the news like stop taking in all this bullshit entertainment news like just knock it off read the classics try to like take in it was like a uh not even as an entertainment diet but just like he's like think of it like the food you eat he's like stop taking in this shit like stop you don't need to read the news fuck it don't worry about the news read classic novels read this read that you know to your own taste you don't have to read try to read like like wildly complex shakespeare stuff but he was like yeah just stop taking in bullshit information it's funny i love whenever someone is like fuck the news i'm like yes dude yeah you get it i like hearing that um i don't even have a news source really that i trust right now yeah um and i don't really know where to get my news i mean i just kind of overhear a lot of it yeah i i do like i will spaz check the news before podcasts sometimes if i have nothing to talk about and i i don't i something happened to me when i was like i think like 22 i got i was very high i was stoned i was just very high and i was watching that i like you know so you go to i'd see the news on like my parents would watch it i'd be like well fuck the news and i would be like this sucks and i would like run away and then like i watched it as an adult for the first time like at my brother's house just stoned to death and i was

like this looks it looked like the homeroom show in my high school i was like this is fake

yeah something happened where i was like this is just this is the homeroom show for adults i'm

like this is bullshit it's pageantry i something happened where i can't every time i see it i just

i can see the set and stuff and i'm like this is people talking behind like a painted billboard and

it's fake it's not real like i don't know i mean obviously there's like real stuff that happens

that you can see the set and stuff, and I'm like, this is people talking behind a painted billboard, and it's fake. It's not real.
I don't know. I mean, obviously, there's real stuff that happens they talk about.
Right. But I've been in newsrooms, too, and it's like I've heard – like there was a guy – and I'm not saying this is like, you know, it's a proof it's fake, but I remember a guy got a call specifically on, like, the Palestine-Israel situation.

And they were like, I remember he was on the phone when I was waiting to do something.

He was like, oh, I'm feeling pretty good.

And the guy was, or he was on the phone talking to the guy.

I'd be like, how are you feeling about it?

He's, you're doing good, dude.

Hang in there.

You're doing good.

Just keep going.

Keep.

And he was, like, coaching him.

It was like, I remember him being like, damn, dude, what the fuck is this?

It was just weird.

It was just a weird phone call.

He'd be like, hang in there, dude.

You're doing a good job.

Keep talking to you.

And I was literally, like, right next to him. That's that's kind of like you what are you coaching him into dude yeah i don't like that it made me feel weird and i did like a good morning like local news show like do you like comedy and i was like those those are the worst dude that's terrible and you feel bad because i you know everybody you think like i'm gonna go on there and just fuck with these people and it's's just some nice lady being like, so what's it like at your comedy show? And you're like, it's nice.
I like it. I like comedy.
Please come. But yeah, I agree.
I think, I don't know. I'll check in on stuff here and there.
But yeah, you just never know. You're like, dude.
I'm reading a book right now. It's called born again.
And it was by Chuck Colson, who was Richard Nixon's, they called him like his hatchet, man. He would like bulldog people politically.
Like if you had like a political rival coming up, you would like dig into them and you would use your contacts in the press to be like, run something fucked up about his wife. And they would do that.
He like, it's, they talk about this. Like it was like, this guy's a hothead.
We'll start releasing news stories. news stories we know that'll fuck with there's like all this stuff going on in the news where it's used as like a political tool too where you know you just never know yeah i mean like i watched that uh the octopus murders what was that the octopus murders about uh tommy castellaro that uh reporter that got that killed himself in uh west virginia but um yeah yeah it's pretty recent it's on netflix it's all about like the promise like software and like um you know like these eight like key figures like including george h bush who were just kind of maneuvering and manipulating everything behind the scenes this is on netflix yeah damn it's fucking crazy that's kind of nuts what in what is there's a journalist who got caught up in this yeah this journalist uh castellaro tommy castellaro i think but um or yeah i can't remember his first name but uh i've watched it a couple of times it's it's really fascinating man like he was he was really onto some some wild shit and he killed himself he killed himself yeah but um you know like it just it doesn't really add up yeah you know like uh you should you should check it out check that out that'd be kind of cool but yeah that's that was the one that was the one thing i fell in love with rumen when he was like dude stop stop doing the news listen to classic albums straight that's what i do now with music i try to just listen to it in albums more because i would like just do song song like in my car i don't know if you ever got to the place where you're like i've heard every i've listened not i've heard everything but i've listened to all my my little playlist is just burnout yeah i use spotify so i'll just do like i'll like make a little playlist or do like spotify morning and i'm like yeah fuck it put it on right and i'm like they're just feeding me the same songs over i get like depressed if i don't have like a new thing to listen to i get kind of like dude fucks the point same john martin just broke me out of my music depression right now yeah he's really uh he has a couple of live albums i

like but the uh yeah so now i try to just like put it on an album in the background and listen

to it straight through or like before bed with headphones just try to do as much as an album

as i can do and just pass out it's kind of nice right and i get like i i've been chasing the hit

rush that's the problem i'll do a playlist of hits yeah and then it's like they just start they like wear off you got to listen to like all this so i don't know i feel you got to listen to all the songs yeah it's like it's like a dopamine yeah like instant gratification like social media like you hear all the hits in a row like don't go listen to the eagles greatest hits like yeah you know artists put together know, a compilation of songs, you know, meant to be listened to in an order. Do you do your own playlist when they do that? Yeah.
Like, this presents, that's kind of tough. I'm like, you know, I want it to be, like, chronological.
And, like, you know, sequencing is a big deal. And they still make a big deal out of it.
And then people listen to it and they shuffle it or or whatever you know how dare they but i thought that was like an ai generated like check out blah blah blah so you have the control of that well like the playlist you see on spotify and stuff like if i'm on a playlist i don't have control of that if it's for sure yeah but the one of your what is that called your picks or is that this is oh like that one i don't i don't even know how that one comes about but like my records i'm like this is oh i got what you're saying my record my records the sequencing is important i thought you're saying okay so okay so you're talking about the out the sequence yeah that's out of my pay grade like the spotify they just do what they do yeah because it'll be like edit like artist picks yeah so i was like damn you get to put together a playlist for all of spotify i guess everyone can do that though really yeah it's kind of tight well dude so what do you have coming up what's your what's the next what's the next move man uh we're about to finish this last leg of the tour we're doing canada um we're doing like the east coast we're going to be going through philly we're going to be going through dc um and new york city playing um at the paramount in brooklyn in Brooklyn, And then we're heading overseas doing UK, all that. Are you taking any breaks? How do you tour? Do you do it for like six months at a time, take a break, or do you just do it forever? We let it go out for like six weeks at a time.
Okay. You know, and just kind of hit it and stay out.
Because once I get in that mode, I just like to stay in, you know. Gotcha.
So you do like six weeks on, how many off? kind of hit it and stay out because like once i get in that mode yeah i just like to stay in you know gotcha so you're like six weeks on how many off uh kind of depends like um for this particular tour cycle it seems like we've done like six weeks two weeks off gotcha that's not bad and then a couple one-offs here and there but i like to tour on a bus because it's like there's just something different about it but yeah i mean just had time off, and I just get a little stir crazy. So that's why I'm down here in Austin just kind of fucking around.
That's cool. I was real nervous to come on here.
Why, dude? I don't know, man. I don't help.
I'm exuding anxious energy all the time. I'm a big fan of the show, and the fans are very vocal.
So I hope I didn't fuck it up. Dude, you killed it, man.
Yeah, dude, you're the best. That's the thing, too.
You shred, dude. Oh, thanks.
You absolutely shred. It's crazy.
I appreciate it. I know, I guess it wears off on you, but, dude, it's like, it's got to be so gratifying.
Is there a level of shred? Does it wear off? If you shred right now, will it bring you deep joy, or are you just kind of like, yeah, yeah, whatever whatever well i think you know i try to i try to keep the guitar um fresh you know so when i'm home i'm like playing banjo or piano ukulele that's cool and just trying to create in any other way except for the guitar so when i come back to it it's fresh and it's like you know a reconnection almost that's that's a good idea, actually. I feel like you get better, too,

when you leave it alone for a little bit.

I think so.

Something happens in your brain.

I would, like, stop playing every now and again

and I'd pick it back up and be like,

God damn, I got better.

You just, you have more ideas.

Yeah.

Because you come into it fresh.

You come into a blank canvas.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah, man.

Or maybe your brain, you go to sleep

and it just figures out stuff for you.

Yeah.

I don't know.

But either way, dude,

thank you so much, dude. Thank you for doing this.
You're the

motherfucking man. Marcus King.

Dude, I try, bro. I'm trying.

I'm doing my best. But no, thank you so much,

man. Yeah, man.
I'm glad we connected.

Thank you, bro.