E528 Dermot Kennedy

Calling all Call of Duty fans, the iconic map, Verdansk, returns to Call of Duty Warzone.

Starting 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 gameplay updates and the return of Verdansk-era weaponry. That's right, you'll experience 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.
So download Call of Duty Warzone for free and drop into Verdansk on April 3rd. Rated M for Mature.
I have some new tour dates to tell you about. These are new.
I'm going to let you know Colorado Springs in the Colorado, October 23rd.

Casper, Wyoming, October 24th. Billings, Montana, October 25th.
And Missoula, Montana on October 26th. Looking forward to getting into that beautiful part of America.
Also, we have shows This weekend, Las Vegas, August 30th and 31st.

Then Bend, Oregon, Spokane portland vancouver oklahoma city northern little rock springfield kansas city sioux falls lacrosse cross green bay moline lafayette and beaumont texas get all your tickets at theovon.com slash T-O-U-R. And thank you so much for supporting live comedy.
And make sure you go through that link. Otherwise, you'll end up on a secondary site.
And those aren't the prices that we are charging. Gang.
Today's guest is a singer-songwriter out ofireland and uh and ireland is one of the most um beautiful and complex and simple places all at the same time a wonderful uh time that i had there recently i'm really grateful to spend time with him i've been a fan for years and uh we've been in touch for years and glad to make this happen um he has had hits like paradise and kiss me amongst many others i got to see him play last night here in nashville tennessee today's guest is my friend dermot kennedy shine that light on me i'll sit and tell you about stories We'll be right back. I love this guy.
Kiss me the way

Oh man

Sorry Kiss me the way Oh, man. Sorry.
No, it's okay. I didn't mean I meant that for me.
Oh, yeah. I understood.
I understood. Yeah, yeah.
I like that you did it. Dude, yeah.
Listen, I think after the first song last night, I leaned over to your... I was like, God, dude, I might be gay, dude.
I was like, this is really awesome, man. It felt so serious.
Like I was saying to you afterwards, it felt like a very serious show. When I play headline show, we've got moments that are down and somber and the moments that are fun and up.
When I do a show like that, like the Bluebird last night, it's quite, you know, it stays serious.

And I haven't done that in a long time.

Yeah.

And I think crowds sometimes want both.

So I would worry while I'm doing it

if people are kind of like,

this is a lot of seriousness, you know?

Like it feels serious, yeah.

Yeah, which it should be.

I take it seriously,

but it's just like,

I think sometimes you need relief.

But I think then as well,

I like having funny moments in between songs talking to people because I don't take life very seriously, but I take the songs very seriously. Oh yeah.
Yeah, man. When you like got into the songs, you were at bluebird cafe last night for our listeners.
And that's a small venue in Nashville and it's probably, I mean, it may seat 60. Yeah.
If even, yeah. Yeah.
And I mean, we were sitting, I was in the second row and i was five feet from um gabe simon who was playing with you accompanying you yeah yeah and like i could have done a couple notes i could have you could have you should have yeah i could have chimed literally i could have chimed in yeah yeah it would have been nice it would have been a very welcome thing i think but yeah it was captivating man it was so incredible i was like yeah it felt so intense in there at

moments you know you could see everybody going through like i mean i was going through like

the history of like relationships and like i felt bad like after one song i was like i gotta text

this one gal yeah yeah yeah well we spend so little you know i think we kind of in daily life

we go through the motions and i think i would like to think moments like that maybe put you in a spot where you think about life and just assess things a little bit, you know. Like, that's what it does for me.
I don't know who I'd be without it, you know what I mean? I think sometimes in terms of the therapy and catharsis I get from it, I think I take it for granted 100%. I don't know who I'd be without that outlet.
Do you know what I mean? And I find it difficult. Sometimes it's tricky.
Like last night, start of the show, I loved it. End of the show, I was feeling good.
In the middle of the show, I kind of went within myself for some reason. But yeah, I think I'd be a much worse person if I had all that emotion kind of bottled up, you know? Are the Irish notorious for like struggling to show emotion or something i think there's definitely issues in terms of like men in particular i think in terms of not opening up to people i think it's something that's improving constantly but uh but definitely and i think i mean it's no surprise that ireland has a rich history in the arts because that's how it comes out.
You know what I mean? Authors, actors, musicians, everything. Yeah, man.
It was crazy, dude. It was like, I went through it all.
Yeah. You know, I was sitting there.
I was like, I even, I got home and I texted an ex-girlfriend. I was like, I think I owe you a call, you know? That's a nice thing, right? No, it was good.
And yeah, I'm glad I did. Yeah, there's a lot of ballads there.

I know, yeah.

I was thinking where you...

And it's because you don't have all the instrumental.

I've listened to your albums where it's like you have the whole...

And some of those are upbeat songs and it's different.

But when you're playing them just right there for everybody.

Totally.

But even how you frame something is so important.

I even laughed when you were singing Kiss Me There a minute ago

because that to me is one of the best songs I've made lyrically in terms of how it's put together. But if I could do it again, it would just be me and a guitar.
It'd be like last night. You know what I mean? And I think you frame things in a certain way for certain goals and stuff.
But when I play that song by itself, I'm like, oh, it should be this way. think it it takes courage to take everything away from a song and i it's only recently i've kind of got that back it's like i said last night when i would play shows like that when i was younger i felt so confident you know what i mean because i love that no one knew who i was and i loved that i had something to bring to the table and people might be excited and i felt like i said last night i felt borderline kind of arrogant about it but now when I'm doing it I got quite nervous for last night but if it's like 10,000 people I don't get nervous at all but things like last night I do get a bit nervous yeah.
Yeah just now when you said like it used to be nice to be a surprise dude that was the best. Yeah yeah.
That's one thing I miss the most about you know'm grateful for having like uh people come out and people get to know you and stuff but it was awesome when only you knew you of course in a way and you got to be this like you were like were always your secret because you're you right you and you build up this especially as a comedian you build up this sort of rapport with how to interact with the world. And the surprise people are like, what? How did, what is this guy? Like that always seemed interesting to me.
And then people get to know how your instrument works or it's just the surprise isn't there anymore. And it's different.
Totally. I mean, that moment, I'm sure you feel this, like that moment where you feel like you've arrived and people know who you are and, and, and yeah, no longer do you surprise people.
And so you kind of feel like you have to change or deviate from what you're doing and, and to try and keep that feeling. It's tough.
I find it difficult. I know, like, I know for myself, like, I remember seeing a thing, an interview with Drake years ago, and he was just saying that moment where people are sharing your music and kind of say you gotta listen to this you'll never get that back again no matter how successful you get because that's the most exciting part I don't know I think like for what you do for what I do for anyone involved in the arts I think the work is the only thing that's exciting it's the only thing and of course you play big shows and you have ambition and you try and grow your career and all those things are lovely, but at the root of it, if you're not, like I always say, you could be miserable playing in stadiums.
Do you know what I mean? Or you could be completely content playing shows like last night. So I think it's very important to keep that.
Yeah, I noticed when I have some new stuff and that is the most exciting time when I'm ready, when I'm like, wait till I get to this new part of the show and it's going to be fun for me and it's going to be fun for them.

Oh yeah.

And I'm sure you could play to like 40,000 people and it can go either way.

It can be completely euphoric or it can kind of feel hollow either way.

But it like nothing, the work is the only thing I think.

That's a good point.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And especially these days, there's so much like surrounding things that you have to do to kind of manage yourself you know like social media and just um i mean specifically i guess social media probably it's such a big world of it all do you get involved with that side of things do you run your own stuff and all that yeah uh no i split it with my producers and stuff you know but you know i'm particular kind of about what we put out and like try to be sensitive or try to think, okay, this feels like me. Sometimes they're like, no, this is good.
And I don't have an idea. Of course.
Yeah. Yeah.
So trusting other people sometimes that's with your own voice, you know, totally. I think I find it hard.
Sometimes I spend way too much time worrying about how I'm perceived. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

And I think things like social media only make that more kind of inflamed. And then, yeah, you just get closer to forgetting what you're actually truly about.
So I try and stay away.

Yeah.

But it's healthy sometimes.

Well, before this conversation gets any gayer, dude.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And no offense if it does, dude. I think Irish people- No offense to me.
Yeah, yeah, sorry. Yeah, yeah.
No, and probably me, dude. I mean, look, who knows what'll happen with us.
But I think, yeah, dude, the Irish are- I couldn't believe what the Irish were. I always had an idea, you know? That wasn't your first time there, though, recently, was it? It wasn't, but it was my first time really with my eyes open, I think.
Yeah eyes open. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I saw you in a field with a load of cows. Where was that? I was down in Cork County.
Brilliant. Oh, you'll milk anything down there, people.
And there's no women. This is the thing about how people are always like, oh, the girls are coming.
They're going to be here. And you'll be, you'll go to the next place.
You know, they're coming. The losses are coming.
It's a false promise. They never come.
Who made all the men? Who, how did they, what did they fall out of? Yeah. They're the ones that stuck around, I guess.
I guess. I mean, here I am.
They said, this is some women we met. It was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Unbelievable, dude. Actually, these are some drunken mixed fellows that we met out there, dude.
These are the blackest guys I saw in Ireland right here. Did you just, were you invited to this field? No, we got there and we wanted to like just drive out into the distance.
So we stopped at a farm and a man took us and showed us all about the dairy and gave us fresh milk or whatever. And, um.
Do you drink the milk straight from the cow? We drank it straight out of it. Did you really? I mean, it felt, I don't know how old the cow was.
It felt a little illegal. I'll be honest with you.
I mean, the first sip, yeah, it's normal. But if you, you know, I had a couple sips and I'm like, You got into it? It's like, you definitely peek around for the police after a bit, you know? But it was, yeah, it was just unbelievable.
We just wanted to see the countryside. We wanted to feel something that felt normal.
A farmer took us into his home and sat at his table. No way.
Yeah. I'm glad you got around the country.
I think a lot of people go to Dublin for two or three days and they just experienced that. But Ireland's a beautiful place and you can see so much of it in like a couple hours.
Do you know what I mean? It's a small country. Yeah.
And you have to see it because if you ask somebody something, you can't understand what they're saying. And so you have to just believe that they're going to be okay when you meet a lot of Irish people.
Yeah. Yeah.
They love you too. Did you like, you had good shows? Yeah.
I mean, I felt a lot of love and support. Yes.
And it was awesome, you know? I think, and it's just such a unique culture. Like, they just, they have a good time.
They know how to have a good time. They're not as overly concerned with a lot of other bullshit like as we are in the States, you know go on tour in Australia I feel a similar thing People just don't take it too seriously You've been down there yet? Oh yeah, Australia is so great Yeah, similar thing There's no bullshit You feel good energy from people But I have a comedian friend Mark Hayes And he's Irish And so he's always Cuing me in on just The shame shame of the Irish and the, you know, the dark, you know, I guess there's a lot of shame over there.
I guess there is, but also, I don't know if you heard this phrase earlier there about notions, this idea that when you start doing well at anything, you get notions, like you kind of start feeling yourself a bit and you have to be very careful of that. I think humility, like you see Irish people who just won medals at the Olympics, they just kind of, in the interviews, they're just like, no, no, no, I stink.
They're so mean to themselves. Yeah.
It's terrible. But yeah, happy medium would be good.
I think sometimes you kind of are constantly downplaying what you do. And I think it would be nice if people celebrated themselves a bit more, but notions is a real thing.
Yeah. I know like people have said about me me you get to a certain point and some people just don't like you for no reason yeah I could maybe see that because there's this more unity of us as a group yeah yeah yeah I remember there was a thing years ago I think it was Damien Rice told a story they were like in a restaurant and there was lobsters and who was Damien Rice he's a brilliant musician from Ireland he had a song called Cannonball and an album called oh it's like a classic and he but he was talking about lobsters in a...
And who was Damien Rice? He's a brilliant musician from Ireland. Okay.
He had a song called Cannonball

and an album called Oh,

it's like a classic.

And he,

but he was talking about lobsters in a tank.

I think it was him.

I don't mean to attribute this quote to him

if it's not him,

but he was,

apparently there was like a lobster

trying to get out

and another one,

he was kind of like,

oh, careful,

it's going to get out.

And someone was like,

no, they're Irish lobsters,

so the other ones will like

drag it back down.

Oh, yeah.

Apparently.

The shellfish.

I don't know. I love it.
You feel massive support too, don't get me wrong. Oh, it was great.
It's the best place in the world for doing anything, because people just were so quick to celebrate our own, and I love that. Oh, that's beautiful.
Yeah. Yeah, what's that article right there? It was about an Olympian.
Irish rower's brilliant response to winning an Olympic gold medal goes viral. It's all right, Yeah, I can't complain.
In a BBC interview following the win,

the pair were asked,

Paul O'Donovan, Fenton McCarthy,

gold medal winning athletes,

how does that sound?

It's all right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You can't complain about it, really.

I wouldn't go around introducing myself.

Yeah, it's that type of thing.

You wouldn't talk about it.

You didn't.

But I love that too,

because we do take care of business,

but don't talk about it too much.

Yeah, there's a bit more humility.

Definitely.

Yeah, man. There was so much like, there was something you said last night that I really resonated with.
It was about like, wishing you could slow down time or grab onto a moment a little bit more and just how like impossible it is. And like what a fight it is.
Yeah, I'm crap at it. What about you? I can't like I, when things are good, I don't know.
I feel like I'm sometimes I feel as if I'm waiting for something bad to happen. You know what I mean? Like you're almost like just sort of waiting for bad news or bad phone call or something.
I don't know. Instead of just enjoying the fact that it's good right now.
I feel very bad at that. And again, music puts me in a better place.
But yeah, I feel that way. I find it very difficult to settle into a good feeling.
Yeah, I think it's hard. I mean, the moment, it's hard to have the moment you used to.
I've talked about this before, but you used to, with the moment, the moment used to be like a real thing because we couldn't record it all the time, right? We couldn't capture it. So the moment, it was like, it had so much value.
The only way you were going to learn about what had happened was through someone else, through a storyteller. So it promoted so much more storytelling.
It's like cameras have taken all that away from us. Not all the time and not all of it, but it's definitely, it's like squashed squashed a lot of that, you know? Definitely.
Yeah. I mean, the moment, if you got to see a girl like at school, you couldn't go home and look at pictures of her.
You had to imagine. Oh, so you would wait till tomorrow.
What she was doing. And mostly in your mind, you imagine, oh, she's thinking to me, she's drawing pictures of me in the walls and everything.
And then you got to school the next day and she still didn't care about you. Yeah.
Yeah. Or like that they're online and they're not texting you yeah that type of thing yeah it's squashed yeah yeah so i think like there's like stuff like that i miss because your imagination became so much more of a um it did its natural work absolutely i think about it yeah like i that's my livelihood comes from my imagination you know what i mean that's all I have.
And so, yeah, you got to be careful. I think about it.
Yeah. Like that's my livelihood comes from my imagination.
You know what I mean? That's all I have. And so, yeah, you got to be careful.
I think what you put in is very important. Like if I read, I can feel it sort of, I can feel ideas start to generate.
If I walk around just all day and stay just literally looking at the most boring stuff, I can feel ideas start to come, but I got to be careful and not let it get squashed all the time. Like, what do you mean? Like by, like get squashed by what? As in like, if I look at my phone too much, it's just sludge in my brain.
Do you know what I mean? And it's just bad thoughts and stupid stuff. And so like no good song is going to come out of that.
But also I spend so much time traveling by myself and all that kind of thing. So it's a, yeah, to stay creative, I find it difficult.
I don't know. Like, I know, like, we were in your car last week, and you were kind of saying, you taught us something,

and you were like, oh, I need to write that down.

And it's that constantly, right?

You're constantly trying to grab that thing

and that moment of inspiration

or something that can translate to part of your show.

Yeah.

Yeah, you notice, especially, like, a phrase or a thing,

like, oh, I've never said that,

or I never thought about that.

After a while, I notice it's like,

if it makes me laugh,

then it might make somebody else laugh. So I have to, like, you know, because at this point, you have to think maybe you and your audience have some like symbiosis or whatever it's called.
We're similar people, yeah. Yeah, or similar.
Definitely. And so, yeah, if they told you this thing you just heard, or you're like, oh, this will probably play.
Do you base songs? Like, do you kind of start with like a nugget of a line? Definitely. Yeah, I find it hard when someone's kind of like, what you want to write about is like, I don't know yet.
Like I have, I'll have a lyric in a song last night. So the first song I played is called An Evening I'll Not Forget.
And I know there's a lot of lyrics in that from the best days of my life and from the worst days of my life. And they just mix together.
So I struggle sometimes when someone's's this song about or what you want to write about it's everything you know like there'll be one lyric about like hanging out with my friends and one lyric about someone passing away and difficult things all mixed in together but it all kind of I think sometimes when I and this is overly serious but I think like the one lasting message through my music hopefully is like a hopeful thing you know what I mean so if song seems down, it's never all the way down. There's always a hopeful moment.
And if it's up, it just, I'm trying to lift people up a little bit. I would like, if I could have a goal from people coming to my show, it's just, they feel a bit better about where they're at and how their life is.
And not in a corny way, but just that they kind of think about things and realize that life is good a little bit. I would love that.
Even a in ireland is pretty good probably i think yeah yeah like i said the irish like oh yeah we'll take it you know oh definitely yeah people are good we kind of yeah like i even i don't know i just when i get too far from home i kind of miss that feeling i don't know there's so many people that are happy-go-lucky good people i'm sure you saw tons of them but just uh yeah so that's what i mean is between songs I don't feel serious like we're all on in-air monitors on stage and in between songs when we're on tour it's relentless like people shouting at each other and we're all just communicating on stage it's just people like taking the piss out of me while I'm doing something I'll like yeah so I'm trying to sing through all of that like everybody on stage will be slagging me in some way in my ears while I'm trying to say something really sincere. And then I'll laugh and the whole crowd will kind of cheer because I look happy.
Yeah. But it's really because someone's like slagging me about something.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. You know what? There's nobody likes to laugh more, I think, than the Irish maybe.
Really? Yeah. Maybe that's something that I realized.
I was just so yeah, people just love to fucking laugh there. It's very sarcastic.
Yes. They love to rip on each other and it's okay.
They don't take things as personally. No.
Yeah, in a way that sometimes I'll say something sarcastic over here and it doesn't necessarily land and people think I'm quite serious about it so you have to be careful. Yeah.
Yeah Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. Some of the songs last night, it was like, uh, yeah, a lot of them felt like kind of relationship based or trying to like capture, um, a moment from a relationship or relive a relationship or where does some of that energy come from? Does it just, do you feel like that that's like been something that's been very important in your life? I mean, it's important in a lot of people's lives.
Of course. Yeah, I think even the relationships.
Were you on The Bachelor or something? No. I was meant to sing.
What was I meant to sing on? I was meant to sing on The Bachelorette years ago. And it fell through.
Thank God, yeah. But I was.
Yeah, because after some of the songs, I'm like, Jesus, how many? No, yeah. How many love? This guy's been, yeah.
I'm like like this guy's been on a lot of dates. That couldn't be further from the truth.
But I think sometimes I'll sing a song and it'll be from the perspective of anybody, you know, like a family member. Sometimes I'll just embody someone else in my life.
I think it's an interesting thought, right? To think that my community, say my close friends and my family at home, we all have the same feelings and emotions. It's just icing about it.
Do you know what I mean? And so sometimes I feel like a mouthpiece for them. Oh yeah.
You know? And that puts me in a good place because I'm not thinking about my own life all the time. So that's where all the dates come from.
I've been on very few. Yeah.
Oh, were you not a big dater growing up really? No. Oh Oh, man.
I was like, I said, people went to school with me. Yeah.
I mean, supply and demand. Yeah.
That's not your issue. Yeah.
I'd say this. A lot of people went to school with me who have like, if they watch this, would hear me speak for the first time.
Wow. Hater.
Really? Yeah. Yeah.
you hate the public speaking of it or something? Not even public speaking, but just... I just felt so awkward in school.
We used to go to... You know the way you'd have your locker at school and you would get your books for the first half of the day and then get your books for the second and drop them off? I would walk around with every book for the whole day in my bag so I didn't have to go to the lockers for that potential interaction.
I hated it, man. Yeah.
Not good. God.
And is that a kind of a general Irish thing? I don't think so. I don't know what it was in me, but I just felt quiet.
I didn't, even nowadays, I kind of feel that way. I think it's lovely.
Like I'll talk to you and I know we can talk about things and get into it, but just general socializing,izing, I suck at it. And you know, you get to an age where you don't apologize for it and you don't care anymore.
But when I was a kid, yeah, I hated it. Yeah, I got so nervous around girls.
I just remember, well, on the school bus, I would get like erections all the time, I guess, because of like the motor going. Of course.
And they would would play music that we weren't allowed to listen to at home. It was kind of not sexy music, but just pop music or whatever.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I would just have to like, I just would turn my whole body just like facing.
Just and like. Just a constant state of arousal in school, you mean? That was just on the bus, dude.
When I got to school school I think there was so much Kind of like violence And stuff at our school That it was hard to stay erect Around a lot of violence Yeah That's a typical thing Yeah If there's broken glass Or somebody getting beaten I can't get an erection You know? Nor should you Yeah I mean maybe I'm old fashioned Or whatever But it's like Yeah I just, around girls, yeah, I was always afraid, never could ask a girl to a dance or anything. This one girl, man, I loved her.
I think I did anyway. I don't know.
I looked at her really hard every day and I, yeah, finally, I just, I needed to express to how I felt and I saved up as much saliva in my mouth as I could one day. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I just spit it right into her you know every primal thing yeah it was all it was all I knew yeah yeah yeah you lost control yeah I guess I lost control I remember uh yeah yeah I I don't know I couldn't like it those situations didn't even come up for me I would just hide I remember I remember there was a girl that used to kind of fancy me, I guess. And it got to the point where I stopped putting gel on my hair and stuff because I was like, I need to look scruffier for school so no one pays attention.
Wow. Weird, right? Like, I got to tone this down.
Yeah, too good, man. Yeah, I can't be like this.
Back into the moor. Yeah, just hide in the corner constantly.
What is a moor, anyway? Moor is like a British thing, I guess. Oh, I thought it was like a swamp, is it? In my mind, I would think of a misty moor.
Yeah, it's like a swamp in the middle of nowhere. It makes me think of Jack the Ripper.
Oh, yeah. And was that you guys' guy, Jack the Ripper? No, no, no, no, no.
We don't claim Jack. Who's your most famous serial killer over there? Well.
Besides alcoholism, I'm going to say. If you look at, there's a great podcast called West Cork.
And you could think it's fiction, but it's a true story. Now, it's not a serial killer.
It's one standalone murder. There's very few things like that.
But it's an amazing story. And it's about this lady that was killed in Cork, in West Cork, out by the ocean.

Horrific thing years and years ago,

but they still haven't found the person that did it.

And you know how Ireland is.

There's a lot of talk in the town about who did it.

And even up until recently, the fellow that they thought did it

was selling pizzas on the market and stuff.

And everyone will go just to see him and all that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

But no, I mean, I know I'm wrong,

but I don't think there's many serial killers.

I know here you've got classics. Yeah.
Yeah, I guess. Yeah.
People, it's definitely, there's a lot more we kill over here. Yeah.
Who's your favorite? My favorite serial killer? That's a great question, man. You know, there was the BTK serial killer.
Who's that? He was out of Wichita, Kansas. And yeah, he was like an electrician.
He ran his community church, and he was just killing people. They're all like weirdly handsome as well, aren't they?

Not him.

Not him.

Well, we've had some of the handsome ones.

Ted Bundy, I believe, was the handsome guy.

You know, Dahmer was a famous one.

That show was pretty great.

But yeah, I guess, I don't know.

I should think about that a little bit more,

who my favorite one is.

Yeah, no, there's very few things like that in Ireland.

It's like a small country.

Well, and you also, yeah, you'd rather, if you kill somebody, they're not going to be able to drink anymore. Yeah, true.
So true. So it's like, hey, we got to keep this guy alive.
We got to keep the pub in service. Local commerce.
Yeah. You know, I love going to concerts and different debauchery where you can buy tickets online, whether it be a sporting event or a swimming thing or a eating contest, whatever it is.
Game time can help. Game time.
It's a ticketing app. And they have a new feature called Game Time Picks that makes getting tickets for concerts and events even easier.
That's right. GameTime Picks filters out the fluff to show you only incredible deals on great seats.
So you don't have to waste your time searching through thousands of tickets. GameTime offers all-in pricing.
Toggling this feature shows the total upfront with no surprise fees fees at checkout. As well, you can get seat views.
Get a panoramic view from your seat in the app before you buy. Take the guesswork out of buying concert tickets with GameTime.
Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code WEEKEND for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.
Again, create an account and redeem code weekend, W-E-E-K-E-N-D for $20 off. Download game time today.
Last minute deals, lowest price guaranteed. You know, there's some things in life that are okay to be a total crapshoot.
Like trying a new type of milk. Sometimes you see this, say, oh, Debbie's milk or Randy's milk.
And you try it, you know. Sometimes it's rolling the dice on a new workout class and seeing if you like it.
Or mixing it up with a new takeout spot, maybe Chinese, maybe Korean. But finding the right doctor shouldn't be a total crapshoot.
And with ZocDoc, it's not, because you've got more options than you know. ZocDoc is a free app and website where you can search and compare high quality in network doctors.
Choose the right one for your needs and click to instantly book an appointment. We're talking about in network appointments with more than 100,000 health care providers across every specialty from mental health.
Thank you to dental health. eye care to skin care and much more.
Plus, ZocDoc appointments happen fast, typically within just 24 to 72 hours of booking. You can even score some same day appointments.
So stop putting off those doctor's appointments and go to ZocDoc.com slash Theo to find and instantly book a top rated doctor today. That's Z-O-C-D-O-C.com slash Theo.
ZocDoc.com slash Theo. Make it easier on yourself to get a doctor's appointment.
Yeah, so was there like, so where does some of that influence thing come from? Like a lot of the, cause it's a lot of like, you know, there's some love stories there kind of. Definitely.
But like tons of hip hop. I'm listening to hip hop 99% of the time.
Oh, you are? Yeah. Yeah.
Like I've been, I remember my friend had 50 cents first album and that was just huge for me. Oh, so good.
And it's funny because I listened to it all the time and I never try and let it influence my music too much because I'd just be pretending to be a rapper and that would be ridiculous but it does influence the way I write. Like I'll write verses in a hip hop type way and no one really knows or acknowledges it but to me I can feel the flow.
If there's no beat or anything there may be no drums or whatever but it's just to me that's written in a hip hop way. Like if I could yeah I would love to get certain features and stuff that would be my favorite yeah definitely yeah I feel like that could easily happen especially now because there's so many there's a lot more featuring now it feels like yeah definitely it's important J.
Cole to me is like number one I that would be like an incredible thing to me I would love that so much did you you're here working in Nashville right now on music yes yeah have you met up with other artists while you've been here? A little bit, yeah. It's funny, you know, because like you said, Gabe Simon and Joshua were with me at the show last night in the Bluebird.
But also the idea is you kind of have your friends with you playing songs, and it's like you go back and forth. I'll do a song.
You do a song. They do a song.
But like I don't have friends like that. Do you know what I i mean i kind of feel quite solitary when i go to these places uh yeah like sometimes you know there's sometimes people have tons of features and have tons of friends on songs of i i feel quite content in this way but like a bit of a loner in the music biz i feel like i kind of go about my business in a in a in a loner way which is fine i'm okay with that love people.
I think they're incredible. I think the other artists in my genre and that are doing well, I, I absolutely love them.
But I, I oftentimes, if I'm doing a thing like last night, I'm just like, I'll do it by myself. It'll be fine.
Oh yeah. Definitely.
Is it just, and it's not really a choice that you don't want to work with other people. It's just kind of like, this has been going fine.
This is how I'm doing. Do you feel like you don't want to bother other people ever? Yes, definitely.
And also, I don't want to be kind of, I don't want to seem as though I'm reaching out to somebody for their clout or whatever. You know? I don't want to seem sweaty about it.
I don't think you could seem like that. Nice one.
Yeah, I appreciate it. To be honest with you, I don't think, just, you know, I don't know you super well, but we've gotten hung out a few times.
I don't think that you could seem like that. Okay.
Yeah. I know that anything but no no no but you know when you're still not working with j cole but i think you easily could i mean we went out the other night and zach brown saw you and he was like i you know immediately he brought you onto his show yeah thank you for that he said that immediately he didn't think at all it was cool he just he was like so excited to see you yeah we we randomly ran in and we were at the red Clay Strays and yeah, there you are right now.
That's crazy, dude. I saw that video.
It gave me chills, dude. It was nuts.
We had, it was funny. I lingered for so long because we, he said we rehearsed it beforehand and he was like, I'll sing the outro verse.
He said, you sing the first half of the outro verse. I'll sing the second half.
I was like, perfect. So I sang my my bit then went and hit away with the bongo player for a while And then the outro verse came along and I walked back out to the walkway and I was like alright sweet Here we go and then he started singing the outro verse.
I was like, oh no now. I'm just standing here So into like being an awkward person.
I was like, I'm just standing here in front of 70,000 people. Yeah with nothing to do I should have been gone ages ago.
Yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah he was lovely though god that's so cool looking dude it's nice it's the best thing i don't get nervous for that which is weird yeah oh man that yeah karaoke makes me so sad i could not even imagine having to sing in front of people um so when did you start to learn that you had singing talent i mean i i know that some of this will be like elementary stuff to you but for some audience that doesn't know you you know so like when did you start to learn that because how do you go from being like this sort of like not recluse but sort of this like quiet kid shadow lurkering yeah. My, yeah.
Yeah, we don't want to make it sound like a villain. No.
But sort of this, this guy who's this patient person. How do you go from that to like being able to like express yourself? Because dude, yeah, when you start, it's like, there's a lot of levels to what you do.
Like sometimes I feel like there's like some Mac Miller. Sometimes I feel like there's like this Dr.
Seuss of like Irish funerals going on. There's so many.
And then sometimes it's just like this. You almost feel like you're at a opera or something.
Right, right, right. You know? Yeah.
So it's really impressive. Nice one, man.
Thank you. Yeah, I try and do a few different things.
But I remember my sister played piano. And she still does when we were kids.
And classic thing. I would just sing in the back of the car.
And I remember my mom, I was just loud, you know, I'm still loud. And I, uh, so yeah, I just started figuring out, I played soccer quite seriously when I was a kid, seriously in my head.
And, uh, and so music was like a secondary thing. So I never worried about playing to people cause I was, I was thinking about playing football.
So I, uh, I would always, it came quite easy to me to play to people cause I didn't see it as being that important the first few times you know and uh and so yeah it just gradually became a thing I started realizing I wanted to write music I'd go into town and like do open mics and stuff oh you would yeah like Dublin's so supportive that's what I mean it's like I know I was talking about notions and all that kind of stuff but it's just like it's a nice place I was 15 16 playing in these pubs and people would do anything to help you you know i don't know what it's like oh yeah yeah no that iris will do anything yeah and they just if they see some potential in you they're just kind of say i know this person i know that person be careful with this and that and lots of advice and all that kind of thing so um yeah just gradually i mean like i'm 32 now so like i've been doing this since i was 19 i guess you know You know what I mean? So it's a long road. And I know we were talking about the Red Place to Raise and how they put time in.
And I think if you get to a certain level, there's very few people who haven't had that journey. Do you know what I mean? I know you had Luke Combs on here.
I know everybody's got their journey in music, but like there's so much time you spend knowing you're good and being frustrated that you don't have a career. You know what I mean? So I think you just have to be patient.
It's so, like it's so silly to me. It's so kind of arbitrary in a way because it's like, it's this thing where you're, like you said, like you're lurking in the shadows knowing you're good and, but no one's paying attention and then out of nowhere people decide you're just really good and it's like, I knew that before.
Yeah. But it just takes time.
Yeah, a fine line there's a like what's it like for you you know what i mean like when you knew you had this potential but yeah i thought that i was funny i think i was sitting on a porch one day at school in college and this kid's like you should do stand-up comedy man and i was like fuck you dude you're an idiot right and the guy was an idiot so I was right but yeah eventually I started doing comedy

you know? But was it that classic thing? But yeah, there were times you start to do good, yeah, and then you're like, why? Why, what? You know, you see other people like, I'm doing, but I think a lot of it's just time and it's like, yeah, like weathering that storm and then weathering that storm of like other people's careers have been going, they have to have their successes. And so that's just the way that time works.
Do you find that hard sometimes when you see people like having massive moments? Yeah. I know you are too, so it's probably made easier by that, of course.
I definitely did earlier on, you know, and then, um,

yeah, now it's like,

you know,

we're able,

able to sell out a club and able to sell out some spots.

So once you can kind of do that,

you start to feel a little bit more like in control that like,

at least,

okay,

at least I'm doing my job.

I think that's part of it too.

It's like,

hell,

it's hard to admit to somebody that you're a comedian.

Like,

you know,

cause everybody's funny and everybody has good stories,

especially being from Louisiana. So, um, like they don't even have any comedy clubs in louisiana because people are so funny just talking to them yeah yeah so it's like i'm not gonna go pay seven dollars and go in that you know booze my friend is funnier than that yeah yeah yeah well fucking randy out here did you spend a lot of time sort of doing sets and clubs With just Oh yeah Tough ones Yeah for years man Yeah I would drive And do all the sets Yeah I think there was a part of me That wanted to be good at it Of course And then I think After a while I think The art chooses you Because I didn't end up getting married I didn't have a child So those things Didn't kind of like Start to take up my time So I was still available for it Of course, yeah, yeah So yeah, I think there's a moment Kind of where some of the art chooses you I keep thinking about you Spitting on that girl's head Terrible times God, if she only knew And I tried to, I think, draw a heart When I spit or something Lovely, yeah, yeah, yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I tried to save it. I tried to do something.
You know, I remember just doing like that a little or something. I don't know.
I wanted to be kind of artistic. I don't fucking know.
But it was, that was the only way I could express myself. I know what you mean about the saliva.
I find it even when I'm doing this, you know. So I don't know man yeah what were we talking about but it's been good I've loved being here honestly it's a good place making music definitely I think you have to kind of like put yourself out there some here and if you like to do kind of your own thing your music does feel very music does feel very important to you, like you said, right? Like the stuff you're, you know, you're not trying to go for like, it doesn't seem like some pop thing or trying to like read a bunch of other people's songs that they've written.
No. It seems like you're trying to make your voice.
Yeah, if it was like someone else, you know, there'd be no point. There's people I'm a fan of and there's people I'm inspired by But you gotta take a mix of all that And make your own thing Yeah otherwise it's boring Cause that's a big part of the culture here Is like all the big songwriter groups Yeah And then they service the musicians You know Totally And you gotta be careful Cause you find Like I've written songs Where I'm like Oh no that's too like this person There's no place in the world for that I think it's funny Sometimes You kind of, see, I remember we were talking about Lewis Capaldi the other day.
I remember for a long time, I was kind of pushing to do just piano and vocal. And it never really worked out.
And then he had his massive song. I was getting kind of used to being someone you loved.
And then I remember someone in my team that I worked with was kind of like, oh, I was thinking like maybe piano and vocal. And I was like, this is so obvious.
Like you did that already. So like it's so senseless that I would go and do that unless it felt right.
But this idea of just like copying something else that did well is weird and we'll never get the right results, I think. Yeah, I think you see a lot of that with music.
You see like someone breaks out of the pack. Yeah, and then there's a lot of other people that start to sound just like them.
Oh, totally. You see it now, like, say Noah Cannon and Zach Bryan having these huge moments.
I'm inspired by it, but I have to make sure I do my own thing and don't sort of, what's the word, try and replicate it, I guess. Because you'll just end up on your ass.
Yeah, because then you're just like, oh, he sounds like this person. Totally totally and the reason it works for them is because they are them and they're uniquely them and people are drawn to that definitely i think even like the the attitude that's contained within your music like you see zach bryan like the recordings and everything they're quite what's the word like they're so rough and ready but people are drawn to that everything's so perfect nowadays so people just like that If he's literally just pressing record and that take is that take.
I think it's incredible. Again, I heard Luke Combs kind of say they'll go in and do five songs in an evening.
I think that's beautiful. I've been in situations now where things can get quite fragmented and you're kind of like, okay, we'll do piano, then do vocal.
It's all quite polished and put together. So I want to get back to that side of things.
Yeah. Yeah, that feels like a challenge.
I think that's a challenge in any art, you know? How do I stay me? Yeah. And then how do I stay me as I change? Mm-hmm.
And then is it okay to still be me? This changed me at the risk of that. My, the people who are paying attention to me won't, will understand.
Totally. And I, I like, I get to hide behind the music.
Like in your line of work, I think you are your brand, right? So like changing, it's gotta be a whole different thing. Do you know what I mean? Like I can change my music all I like and I'll still be me underneath it.
But like I find for comedians or people that do what you do it's tough because because your name is the whole thing right you know like like if you change as a person people will kind of could criticize could enjoy it whatever yeah or like but to not even evolve I think right like I think that's kind of the thing that I'm thinking of is like like a guy told me one time um he's a manager he's uh worked at uh a fancy management company in los angeles and he said you know your audience will grow up with you so you have to grow up as well or it can get kind of stale you know and i thought that was just interesting you know it's just like yeah that's kind of true like if i you know be afraid to change or don't grow up or you know then they're gonna grow up past me of course yeah i got that with music too you know oh yeah you try and like you try and sort of think about what age you were when people first started listening to your music and then change with that 50 cents a good example he always he stopped making music sometimes because he was just like it's not relevant to those people anymore it's interesting yeah i'm trying to think yeah there's some like there's a little bit of zach brian want to hear this a little bit of james blake but there's it's you it definitely felt like uh this guy at the shipyard who's just gonna fucking show you what's going on i hope so you know i know? I hope so. My voice was blown out too last night.
And his girl, she better pay attention. Yeah, yeah.
It's all like that. Yeah, it's stories.
And if he goes out on the boat with you to fish or crab or whatever, he's going to be a little loud sometimes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I got told I even talk too loud. A speech therapist recently was like, you need to relax.
Really? Constantly, yeah. Yeah, they said like, because I have trouble with my voice my voice sometimes even last night my voice kind of went about halfway through and I don't know how to not go full beans constantly you know you must get so many dude every girl I know my brother's wife my ex girlfriend every woman is looking for you so I don't know if you'm sure you have, how many ring cameras do you have? Yeah, we got the cameras in the house at home.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Nah, it's just people can connect to real feelings.
Yeah, the feelings, yeah. I saw you.
You were nodding along. Oh, I was.
I had one song that had rhythm in it last night, right? Oh, no, there was a couple moments. You hit some rhythm.
Yeah. I mean, well, yeah.
When it's not like the whole band and it's just you, that's a lot of pressure. I mean, you had the boys with you there.
The poet, Joshua. Yeah.
He was great. Dude, he was at my show in Halifax.
Did I tell you that? Was he at the show? Yeah. Because he said he bumped into you on the flight.
Yeah, I didn't know he was at the show. Yeah, he came to the show in Halifax in the morning.
I'm on the plane. Brilliant.
He said, hey, I was at your show last night. I was like, oh, you're heading to the US? He's like, yeah, I'm going to play with Dermot Kennedy.
I said, oh, I'm actually going to his show. No way.
And so I'll see you there tomorrow. Yeah, he's a nice guy.
He was so much more confident than me. He was funny.
Yeah. He's 22 as well.
So it's just like, I don't know. I think that's a difficult gig when it's just spoken.
The music, you can hide behind it and stuff. But when it's just spoken word, that's not easy.
Yeah. But it added this element of like, because last night, so just for the listeners, so there was Dermot, there was Gabe Simon accompanying him on guitar and mandolin and some different instruments.
And there was Joshua De Schutter. and he's a poet.
And he was like kind of reading lines at certain points. Yeah.
And he had sort of tailored his poetry to fit around the songs. It was just cool.
I don't know. Yeah, it was cool.
I know when I was that age, I kind of was dying to do things like that. So I was excited to work with him.
Yeah. Yeah.
I thought that was super cool. How'd you find him? Instagram.
I saw him doing a poem. He had a really cool poem.
I couldn't even point it out now, but he had a really cool poem about two people who every night in a cemetery, they come up out of their graves and one guy was really rich and one guy was really poor and just, it's this beautiful poem about like not forgetting what's important in life. So I thought it was cool.
I think there's a lot of, I think there's a lot of bullshit poetry on Instagram and I think he's not that, so that's why. Yeah.
Yeah, I like even just having a younger person, it like added this element of like nervous energy and approach to the world, which was like such a dichotomy to kind of some of your music, you know, some of it's like, you know, it's more like, I don't think a young person could even write something, you know, you know, I think you have to have some experience, you know you know i definitely think about that now even like having any degree of success i feel better equipped now you know i i used to be annoyed that i wasn't getting gigs and stuff but i guess i'm glad it happened the way it did because now i i even as a person just in society i try not to you know you you learn how to not take shit from people and you learn who you are in the world a little bit. I'd be scared if I was 22 doing this, do you know what I mean? Oh, yeah.
Having like a lot of success at that age. Just anything, any kind of traction.
Yeah. And someone was like, I feel like I'm easily led or gullible even at this age.
So I don't know what I'd be like if I was younger. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
It seems kind of risque out there. I want to think more about Ireland, dude.
Do they have, oh, somebody said the Irish started Halloween. Is that true? Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because what is it? It sort of translates like the night of the lost souls or something like that.
I'm not sure. But yeah, Irish people...
Ireland's very pagan and sort of a lot of things like that. The dead are very important.
You know the way in Coco? Yes. In those movies? That's the Mexican dead, right? Yeah.
It feels like there's similarities in that sense. There's like the Celtic Sound Festival, yeah.
Wow. My, actually, I was talking about it last night of the gig, the island my auntie lives on.
Halloween's really important, and it's all the lost souls. Din's, Din's, what is it called? Inishmore.
Inishmore. I thought her name's Deirdre.
I thought you were about to say her name. I was like, you know my auntie Deirdre.
But they have these traditions, you know, where there's very few people live on the island. It's like, I'd be bullshitting, maybe a few hundred people kind of thing.
And there's this tradition where someone, someone you know will knock on your door and they're kind of allowed walk around your house in silence and open drawers and close drawers and then leave. And then later on, everyone's in the pub and you don't know who is in your house.
So it's this kind of, there's all these creepy traditions. Yeah.
Ireland started Halloween. Yeah.
Oh, that's guessing. Yeah.
Halloween was invented in Ireland. The roots of Halloween can be traced back 2000 years to the Celtic Samhain.
Samhain. Samhain.
Yeah, I think those things are important in Ireland, like ghosts and all that kind of thing. Do you believe in ghosts? Yeah, for sure, dude.
Yeah, from Louisiana, we got fucking ghosts over there, dude. Oh, true, yeah.
Everybody's, yeah. Everybody's eating trout or something, you know, even you'll hear a ghost eating something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a lot of, we have fat ghosts down there.
Like you'll be at the hospital and be like, yeah, there's a ghost in the other ward. Yeah.
He broke his legs. New Orleans is Louisiana, right? Yeah.
Ghosts are like, that's a ghost town, right? It's a ghost town, yeah. You can do tours.
Yeah, and the crazy thing, you'll be on a ghost tour, somebody will get murdered because it's so dangerous there. Then another ghost will show up you're like oh damn that's reginald yeah yeah yeah i knew him yeah they just he just got here he's fresh yeah yeah uh but yeah there's a lot of like that that sort of energy there there's tons of ghost tours and stuff like that we had a dude in our town who got um busted by the cops being a ghost, dude.
We had, so this family owned, they bought like a Ramada. And it was like a small.
What's that? It's a small motel. Oh, okay.
And it used to be nice. And now it's still nice, but it's not like, it's not like swanky.
And they were trying to make it on the, get on the ghost tour. So when people when people came to america to go learn about ghosts and everything it would show up on like the ghost like oh you got to stop here right so they wanted to make it haunted okay so they did like some like like low-key haunting shit like the wiring and stuff and like it was getting a little bit of a buzz but then they're like oh we're not getting enough people that love ghosts you know and so they would have somebody would dress up upstairs and they had hotel room doors that were across the hallway from each other so they would open a door on each side and when you go walked up the stairs the person would just walk across yeah so you'd see something like just what was that you know and um yeah and so it was getting some heat and people were like holy shit there's ghosts and people were outside fucking hanging out and drinking dr pepper and fucking sometimes even people because there people get real excited and um and then they busted the guy the guy forgot to take off his ghost sheet or whatever he was driving home it was oh no the owner's son and they fucking busted him dude idiot yeah yeah yeah have you had any like encounters properly with ghosts oh yeah a friend of mine died and like i was laying in his living room um the day after and i felt him he was right outside wow no way and i just it felt as if he was right there i mean it just i don't know i never felt like he was standing around me before or since, but it just felt real.
And I just started like crying.

It was like just super intense,

you know?

Wow.

I've never had,

I believe in all that stuff so strongly,

but never anything like that.

Yeah.

Ireland,

you guys have like the Giants.

Causeway?

Causeway.

Yeah.

And it's supposedly made by Giants.

Yeah.

But did you go there?

Did we go to Giants Causeway?

We didn't.

No,

I haven't been there.

But.

Is that good?

Is that helpful?

I don't know.

But it's,

but it's like,

But the story is that There was a giant from there And a giant from Scotland And they weren't getting along, is that right? I feel like you know more about it than I do Yeah, I think so Oh, Finn McCool, that was one of the giants And there was another giant Legend has it that an Irish giant named Finn McCool created,

and everybody's going to think

this is extremely

exciting.

An Irish giant,

Finn McCool,

yeah,

to cross the Irish Sea

and fight his rival,

the Scottish giant,

Ben and Donner.

Yeah.

So they like,

and so it just looks like these like,

there's these big square

stones heading out into the water from each side. Yeah, so there's one of them in scotland as well that's a good question hopefully there is if not you made it up yeah fuck it um the scotland giant cosmic we'll say that there is let's keep the lore alive but yeah there's a lot of stuff like that in ireland.
A lot of like, well, there's leperchons, there's mystery, you know. Ancient things.
Yeah. A lot of that.
There's a lot of like lore. Definitely.
Possibility. There's a lot of myths and stuff.
It's romantic in a way. Yeah, I think like I loved Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit and all that stuff purely because I think being Irish, you kind of grow up loving those things.
Yeah. Definitely hate to be without that I think to be honest like I in my songs like I had a song last night called The Killer Was A Coward and it's just made up story I love it it's just about a king and a person that kind of like finds his way through this castle and kills him and to me I was just like fuck it why not make a song like Yeah.
What has the songwriting experience been like in Nashville? Has it been inspired by any country vibes? Or is it just this is a place that you feel is good to write and be? I think it's a good place. I think you can't downplay how talented people are.
Sometimes if I'm writing somewhere else, I can get stuck and kind of come away with half a verse or half a chorus or something or something Whereas here you come away with full songs because people do not stop. It's like Gabe who was there last night.
He just He's relentless, you know what I mean? He can kind of just he never runs out of ideas So people here are just so talented plus it's just a better place to write. Yeah, I don't know I like being here.
It feels like it's not the be-all and end-all the music business Even though it's here And it's based here And there's so many people here That are working on music It doesn't feel like People are writing To try and be successful It feels like people are trying To just make music And see what happens Yeah Yeah I agree There's a nice sense of like Just being alive here Definitely And you just take time And people are nice And you'll be playing a song And someone will kind of Invite their friend over And play guitar Whereas in LA They'll be kind kind of like what's in for me why would i do that you know what i mean whereas here it's just supportive yeah yeah yeah i think that's really true man i mean we went out and saw some great music and then you met up with zach brown then you're playing with yeah i think it's definitely people uh it's more of a sharing culture here for sure and it yeah it feels like it's a it's its own place outside of just the possibility of um making music totally i think sometimes when i write i question how important it is do you know what i mean that's why like i've had moments in the past where i struggle with getting music over the line because i'm just like who cares and i completely forget about the fact that people listen to it? I kind of, I have dismissed that. And I don't mean who cares.
Like it's always important to me, but also in the past I've kind of been like, oh, I don't know. You get so caught up in it.
You're just like, does it really matter? Really? Like, and I don't know. Yeah.
So it's nice to be back at a place where music is the most important thing. It's lovely.
I think when you kind of go chasing a career, it can be a tricky thing and it can get in the way of doing the right stuff creatively. So I'm glad to be here.
Oh yeah. That's a good point.
Well, do you feel like, I mean, you've had such a great career already. Do you feel like, yeah, does a new desire arise in you once you're already doing well kind of? Is it like a maintaining desire is it no i think it's a returning i for me it's returning to who i was before doing any of it you know what i mean yeah like you being funny on the porch because it just makes you feel good you know what i mean um me playing music at home just because it's the thing i love um i have yet to play a show where i come away being like oh wow that was perfect i'm happy now.
Do you know what I mean? Like when I'm on the tour bus after a gig, like I keep an even keel constantly. I don't come off stage wired or I don't come off stage really sad.
I just kind of like, yeah, it was good. And if it was good, I'm happy with it.
And if it was bad, it's okay because I'll do it again tomorrow. But yeah, like getting back, I said that last night, like I want to be able to play music like I don't care do you know what i mean i just there's no thought about like whether it's good or bad i'm just doing it because it feels and it's fun right yeah like i blow my voice out because i'm just trying so fucking hard all the time do you know what i mean i need to get to a place where i don't feel very confident doing it you know what i mean not at all doing what just performing for people like I I self analyze constantly uh to the point that it's detrimental but then like I think a lot of musicians do that right like you're hard on yourself you're hard yeah you're hard on yourself you want to do your best totally yeah yeah that's part that's something I got out of your stuff too it's like I felt like I felt like am I am I I want to give everything that I'm capable of while I'm here yes yeah of course yeah it's only last night like you talked well I exist even while I exist I want to get everything that is possible out of me definitely you know like having played sport for such a long time when I was a kid, that felt like such a powerful feeling.
And I think sometimes I'm trying to get that feeling from music. And so, yeah, I just, I think like if you play well in a match or a game or whatever, the reason you feel like you leave nothing out there and I take that into music, I think.
And I think it's easy. It's important to not be competitive as a musician, but, but sometimes I, gigs in a competitive way and just make sure you have nothing left.
I think that kind of feels important. What happened with sports, with football? I just wasn't good enough.
Really? Yeah. Damn.
I was all right. Don't get me wrong.
I wasn't. But I'm always conscious of if I was on here being like, oh, yeah, I had to decide between soccer and music.
There'd be someone in Dublin and be like, arsehole, not true. You know what I mean? I was all right, but I wasn't doing that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. No way.
And that's like the biggest sport over there. Oh wait, have you seen that road bowling? Yes.
Yeah. I don't know what it is.
I like. Really? Well, I know what it is.
I follow them on TikTok. Do you really? Have you seen have you seen the stone lifting no i haven't but i know this is people and these are adults most of them it looks like yeah and they get up in shannonvale and they throw a ball and this is a real thing that happens this isn't like a prank they throw a ball down a street and try to get it as far as they can and they want to get to a certain finish line in the least amount of tries so it's kind of like golf just with your hand.
Yeah, yeah. And it's an iron ball.

It's a steel ball.

You should look up the stone lifting.

The stone lifting seems to be back in a major way.

Really?

Yeah. Play one more of those.

I want to see.

We got to,

because here's Huff Wayne Parks here going.

Turn it up, Bob.

13,800 euros out.

For cancer research.

Charlie, we can't hear it.

And Shannonville.

Here we go.

He runs so far. Oh, he's planted like a jet from Wayne Park.
I was right on the good part. What a big, big shot.
I was right on the good part. What a big, big shot from Wayne Park.
It's the best thing that I've ever seen. How much did they get? They say 13,800.
Nuh-uh. Really? Oh,800 a side and Wayne Parks is on fire.
Good man, Wayne Park. Wow.
Yeah, there's certain things are back. There's people lifting stones at like 300 kilos and stuff.
It's probably on TikTok. I feel like it's a big thing again.
Lifting stones. Yeah, and they're awkward.
It's like random. It's not like those big round ones.
It's like a proper awkward awkward stone in the field there we go let's see it yes holy let's go come on john holy john let's Oh, come on! Holy fuck, John. Those are his coaches.
Yeah, yeah. When I'm not on guard, this is what I'm doing.
Oh, yes!

Come on!

Woo!

Woo!

Holy God!

Woo!

Let's go!

So strong.

Oh. When I'm not on guard, this is what I'm doing.
Oh, yes! Come on! Woo!

Holy God!

Let's go!

So strong.

Oh, unbelievable.

Now, how high do you have to get it up?

I guess you have to get it above your waistline, it looks like. I feel like it needs to be on your chest, yeah.

Play one more of those.

That's unbelievable.

I mean, that is a huge...

Strong people, yeah.

That was a huge stone.

Play that top one.

Just play the top one.

Oh, and this is a more rounded stone. Yeah.
Wow. This guy wants to make an omelet.
Dude. And there's his brother who can't lift him.
Talking shit all the day, probably. Oh, yeah.
This is crazy. This is, yeah.
There's something so Irish about all this, I think. I don't know what it is.
I feel like I've seen him before. Told you he's a strong man.
Yeah, what's that guy's name? Yeah, mate. With the awkward ones.
Tom Saltman. Tom Saltman official.
Oh, wow. Where is that? England.
Strongest Brothers is a t-shirt. Oh oh they're both strong then it does seem one side he's doing all the work yeah but yeah I will say this one of them is doing a lot of the work lads yeah that road bowling play one more of those I just couldn't see if you can find Pa I'm I'm trying to think pa.
There we go. Play that one in Gary daily there.
Oh, he's an off duty police officer.

Yeah. I never really knew this.
Well, I knew it was a thing, but I didn't know people

throw it into a crowd of people. That's the crazy part.
And some of them move and sometimes

they don't move. Yeah.
Yeah. Look at that one.
3.2 million views. Wow.
50 grand. Wow, that's a massive amount of money.
What is that? 50 pounds, yeah? 50,000 euro. Find the one with Pa somebody right there.
Who is this lady that's just constantly? That's Michelle Smith. Oh, Pa Flood right there.
See what she says about him? Go up. Road Bulls in Ireland.
So just to let you know that Pa Flood is throwing a column Rafferty. Approximately 20 past 3 on Road Bowls in Ireland on Facebook.
So, who's going to win? And it's a qualifier to take part in the King and Queen of the Roads Festival 2024, happening in September. That's Pa Flood versus Colm Rafferty.
Colm Rafferty is a big thrower from County

Armagh and Pofflood

needs no introduction here.

So tune in in about 20 minutes.

You should have gone to this one.

I tried. Did you read it? Yeah, they were out of

Cork. They were

far away or they were in Europe.

Somewhere.

There was one that actually made a little message to me.

There you go. Shortest bowl in history.
Shortest bowl in history. Let's see it.
That's Poff Flood right there. That's him? That's him, yeah.
Oh, shit. Oh, bollocks, Poff.
That was best work. Gosh, my flood, huh? Just joking, Poff.
That guy will throw one of those through my house. Oh, imagine that though, lad.
You're just in your shins. Yeah, that's Michelle Smith official.
How much is that? 50,000 pound for the winner? 50,000 euro, yeah, so I don't know, $55,000 probably in and around.

And look up the rules for road bowling real quick.

I just want to read it so I can.

$60,573.

Wow.

To throw a damn ball down a road.

Yeah, I don't know where that money comes from.

Now, that's a great question, brother.

That's an IOU.

Road bowling is an Irish sport in which competitors attempt to take the fewest throws to propel a metal ball along a predetermined course of country roads. The sport originated in Ireland and is mainly played in counties Armaa and Cork.
Road bowling in Ireland is governed by the Voluntary Irish Road Bowling Association. Armaa won the All-Ireland this year in the they did the bullet or bowl is a solid iron cannonball uh seven inches circumference and it weighs 28 ounces uh there are two or more players or teams in a match the one with the fewest shots to the finish line wins if two players or teams approach the finish line with equal shots the winners decide about which throw goes farther past the finish line wow you should have played this god i'd love to well you gotta i guess you really have to have the shoulders for it you know are you lefty or righty yeah i'm pretty much righty normie i'll do it but you know remember when i was younger i used to like i'll try to like eat with my left hand for like i'd be like i'm I'm gonna change things up.
I'm gonna be different. And I would do it for like two bites.
I'm like, fuck that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Are you, so like fork in your left hand? Yeah. So you would now eat with a fork in your right hand? Oh, no.
Now I go fork in my left hand. Yeah.
Yeah. Knife in the right hand.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But every now and then I try to change it up.
Yeah, yeah. I remember at home, if you were lefty, this probably happened here too.
If you were right hand with your left hand, they would slap you and put the pen in your right hand. I remember my dad, my dad's lefty too, and he, they would make him write with his right hand when he was younger.
Why they don't like it over there? No, yeah, I mean, it's not to stay on Google the whole time, but I bet it's like an old Irish thing. There was some weirdness about being a lefty.
Wow. They just don't want you to be different? 100%.
Yeah. You get like slapped on the back of the hand.
It says right here, it was all due, it was believed to an unloving refrigerator mother. Even as late as the 1900s, some schools in Ireland were still forcing Southpaw children to write with their right hands.
Nowadays, we know that nine out of 10 people are right-handed and that left-handedness is likely to be genetic. What's a refrigerator mother? Yeah.
Is that like a latchkey kid in Ireland? The term refrigerator mother was coined by Austrian physicist Leo Kanner in the 1940s To describe a mother whose cold, uncaring style so traumatized her child That they were treated into autism Wow So they thought maybe if he was left-handed, he was autistic We had a fellow with Down syndrome in our town And his mom just thought he was Irish his his whole life. I can't remember him saying that before, yeah.
And it was just crazy, man. Yeah, and he might have been, actually.
He would dress him up in all these Boston Celtics shit all the time. No way.
Oh, it's crazy, yeah. Leprechaun things.
Yeah, just different, yeah, different, just joyful outfits. That poet yesterday, the guy we were doing the show with, I had green shoes on, and he called me a leprechaun within five minutes.
I had never met him him before and called me a leprechaun. It's terrible.
Yeah, he was kind of outgoing like that. Yeah, he was.
Yeah, he kind of, he had a couple of pops. Do people get married young in Ireland? What's that like? Not so much.
I don't know. What's it like here? I feel like it used to be, but not anymore.
Yeah? Yeah, like I would say 30s, early 30s, maybe. Nowadays.
I know my parents got married when they were like 23, so I was just gradually growing up. Yeah, I guess I just wonder like how the cultures are super different.
Oh, yeah. In a lot of ways, I'd imagine.
I mean, that guy Joshua the Pope last night, he couldn't drink. He was 20 years old.
I mean, in Ireland, that is not the. People can drink there early, eh? Well, 18, but you know.
Well, they let him in the pubs as well, some? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Especially down the country, like after the road bowling.
Yeah. Everyone's getting in, I'd imagine, yeah.
Yeah, dude. Yeah, cork was something else.
I couldn't even believe when we got there. I was like, this is so wild.
You played the marquee too. That's great.
Yeah, in the tent there. I played there one time.
Yeah. It was it was totally different the acoustics were a little bit different in there do you have to change your set on in a cultural way probably not right oh i i learned stuff about like belfast when i first got there yeah yeah like the um nra the ira yeah and the ira yeah yes and uh we learned about the ira and like uh yeah like oh uh up the raw we learned about that and then we learned about the IRA and like, yeah, like, ooh, we learned about that.
Yeah, yeah. And then we learned, fuck England was the big thing we learned.
You were saying you could just lean on that whenever you wanted to do. Oh, if things got bad, yeah.
You just yell it out. Yes.
People would go, some guy pulled out a sword. I'm like, who has a sword? And I think he worked there.
Yeah, yeah. I'm like, well, that seems.
It's just security. Yeah, that seems a bit out of sorts, but yeah.
Yeah, yeah. What do a mechanic and an auto shop owner in Georgia, a taco restaurant operator in Arizona, and a life-saving medical innovator in Tennessee have in common? They're all small business owners and they're all thriving on TikTok.
Across the U.S., over 7.5 million businesses, from family-owned shops to entrepreneurs, are using TikTok to compete and grow. In fact, 74% of businesses on TikTok say TikTok has allowed them to scale their operations, increasing sales and expanding to new locations.
And that growth means jobs. Today, there are over 7.5 million U.S.
businesses on TikTok employing more than 28 million people. And that number keeps growing.
Small businesses thrive on TikTok. Learn more about TikTok's contribution to the U.S.
economy at tiktokeconomicimpact.com. Is pornography causing a problem in your life? That's a good question.
It's a real question. It has in mind.
It has at certain periods in my life, watching porno and everything and watching porno was making me, it was ruining my life. It was ruining my life, man.
Made me feel just so much shame. That's what it did.
Well, watching pornography has become commonplace today. And oftentimes men will use porno to numb the pain of loneliness, boredom, anxiety, and depression.
That's all. I want to introduce you to my friend, Stephen Walt.
Steve is the founder of Valor Recovery. He is a dear friend of mine.
He is a dear friend of mine. And Valor Recovery is a program to help men overcome porn abuse and sexual compulsivity.
That's right. Their coaches are in long-term recovery and they will be your partner, mentor, and spiritual guide to transcend problematic

behaviors. There is zero commitment if you reach out to them.
It's just the first step in trying to figure out if you may need some help, if you can get some help. To learn more about Valor Recovery, please visit them at valorrecoverycoaching.com or email them at admin at valorrecoverycoaching.com.

The links will be on the YouTube.

And again, there's no commitment when you reach out to them.

But I promise you, only something positive will come from you reaching out and figuring

out what type of health, if any, could benefit you. Thank you.
What are some musicians that you really admire? I know that's kind of like... No, no, no.
Hosier is a big one for me. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. He's playing here coming up at the Pilgrimage Festival.
Oh, I saw that. Yeah.
I was sad because I'll be gone. But he, yeah, he just...
He's Irish. And he, he.
Oh, wow. Yeah, I think sometimes people don't know that.
I think, I remember someone thought, I was talking to someone recently that thought he was from here, but he, it's just cool. He kind of blew up way before me.
And it's just a nice to see. It's kind of a cool role model to have.
He just carries himself very well, I think, you know? Will you keep in touch or hit him up if you have any thoughts or something? Yeah, definitely. Not even thoughts, but just to talk.
I think artists don't talk to each other enough. Like I find it hard to talk to other artists sometimes because I feel like it's very, we're all quite selfish and we're all so locked into our own existence that it's tricky sometimes.
I find it much easier to connect with people who are involved in sports. I think that's easier sometimes, but he don't know it's just cool for me to see him he's got this huge career where he's got so many followers and supporters of his music but it's all always just about the music you know what i mean it's just he's inherently him and i think that's a pretty cool thing and it's good for me to kind of like just see that follow it yeah yeah definitely yeah i'm trying to get some other irish musicians um you two are obviously probably the biggest ever but oh yeah of course dude one time i went to like the mtv movie awards or something might have been music awards i think it was music awards actually so i got dropped off there i'm walking up and all these people start cheering right and i And I got like a pass, like through the artist pass, whatever.
And I'm walking up. All these people are cheering.
And I just like in my head, I was like, these people are cheering for me. Yeah.
And I was like, what? And then I looked next to me and it was Bono. Bono.
Yeah. Were you talking to him? I said, nice glasses.
That's what I said. Because I didn't know who he was.
Yeah. Yeah.
At the time, I was just kind of like, I was 19. I was like, I didn't have a clue.
He's the best. You know, sometimes when you're talking to somebody that's so famous and has been for such a long time, you kind of feel like you're not getting it.
There's nothing beneath the surface. Oh, yeah.
With him, it's the complete opposite. Really? You can tell.
If you were talking to him, he's just full undivided attention. Oh, it's so cool.
Gives feedback and we'll pay attention to you

and stuff.

It's great.

Oh, I've met some of these guys.

Niall Orrin.

Yep.

Neat guy.

Who else?

Oh, the Cranberries.

Yep.

Van Morrison.

Oh.

Thin Lizzy are the best.

Have you listened to Thin Lizzy?

Uh-uh.

Oh, man.

I got to get in it.

You like rock and roll?

You like the right place, Rays?

Yeah.

Oh, man.

Thin Lizzy is...

That's up your straza. I'll have to get into that.
Thin Lizzy. Oh, the best.
He passed away a long time ago, but the music's incredible. Wow.
The boys are back in town. You know that song.
The boys are back... Where were they? What do you mean? Like, why were they? Where were they? Does he ever say that? I actually do know, yeah.
They're hanging down at dino's is the lyric dino dino's is here too but there's a dino's lake restaurant in dublin oh yeah yeah and that's where they're hanging out and where where they come back in town from yeah i don't know but i think about that all the time and i always think about them going on tour back then it must have just been like see you soon yeah imagine in the 70s and no one knows where you are no one knows how it's going you're not on social media it must have just been like, see you soon. Imagine in the 70s, and no one knows where you are, no one knows how it's going.
You're not on social media. It must be insane.
And you just come back and kind of, hopefully it went well. Yeah, and I don't even know if you knew how well it went, really.
No, never. You just get feedback every night.
A lot of drugs and drinking, though, so. God, that must have been fucking funny.
Crazy. Did you ever struggle with any of the gear or whatever they call it over there?

Nah, man, I find it like, I don't know.

Again, like not to harp on about it,

but I think sport was crucial for me.

It was just kind of, I always, like a tour.

When I tour, I'll often do kind of,

I feel like it's not sustainable nowadays in music.

It was different back then.

I don't know how heavily they toured and stuff,

but nowadays touring is so key.

Like you'll just, I don't know. Personally, I wouldn't be able to sustain it at all.
No. Even drinking, I've got to be careful.
Yeah, I just think it'd just be impossible like to be hung on. And then to the responsibility is getting to the next place.
It just seems like. It's not worth it yet.
Yeah. I don't know how people do it.
No, I know. Yeah, sometimes like, I don't know.
I don't know how some artists do it, but I wouldn't be able. able Even last night Like I'm tired today From just playing an acoustic set In a cafe last night I'm very pedestrian Yeah Definitely What about the love life man How does that look for you It's solid And always has been Not always has been But for a long time Oh really you've always been good With the ladies then No No no no no Yeah because that, no.
Yeah, because that's kind of- I've always been good with one lady, yeah.

Oh, you have?

Not in a corny way.

That's the corniest thing I've ever said.

Do people know that?

That you have a girlfriend?

Yeah, kind of.

I don't talk about it much,

but I think if people wanted to know,

they would know, yeah.

Oh, so you had a lady then?

For a long time.

Wow.

Yeah, yeah.

I don't see, like,

I'm happy to talk about it,

but I don't see it as, like,

a relevant part of my career.

Do you know what I mean?

I don't see it as something to promote. She definitely doesn't.
So it's just our relevant part of my career do you know what i mean i don't see it as something to promote she definitely doesn't so it's just our existence outside of my career does it um feel does that inspire some of your music with some of the like the emo stuff or no what do you mean the emo stuff like some of the loving type stuff definitely all of it all of it um that's where it all comes from. And yeah, yeah.

I never talk about it, but it's all good.

What about you?

I don't know, dude.

I think.

Yeah, I got to get a wife.

I would like to get a wife.

I will say that.

I got to get some of my affairs in order.

I got to get some of my affairs in order. This feels like a follow-on from the serial killer chat.
This feels like, yeah. Oh, yeah, dude.
I've had it, like, I, yeah, I mean, I date, you know, it's just hard. You're in town, you're gone, and then you're supposed to be like date, you know.
Yeah, of course. It just, you're like, come back three weeks later.
But I think that's one of the reasons why I stayed in comedy, I was like Oh well I had so much trouble Staying in relationships and being committed in relationships I was like this always gives me an excuse to leave You know So it's like I gotta go And then you come back and they might have found someone else You'd hope they found somebody else Oh really? A lot of times So you can detach from it You're like oh gosh good luck with Stanley

Or whatever

I'm glad you found him

Things like that

I'm trying to think of

I don't know

It's just always hard for me to

Trust somebody

I think that was just the hardest thing

I just had no idea of how to do it

Thank you. like trust somebody I think it was just like the hardest thing I just had no idea of how to do it yeah it was like a foreign practice trusting somebody really? anybody? only romantically? friends? oh no it even goes over into work and everything a lot of times I think I have yeah, I don't know.
Does it like take time? Yeah, I think it takes time. Sometimes you can tell with people kind of easy, but it's been, it's just been a tough thing for me over the years.
Sure. And I don't even know why sometimes.
It's a crazy line of work to be in too, right? Yeah. For that situation.
Yeah, and then you're leaving her all the time or something. It's like so many of my friends have been divorced that are in comedy and stuff like that.
I think it's just a tough go of it. Yeah, of course.
Do you own any animals, Dermot? I have a dog called Tom. That's it.
I miss him dearly. He's a puppy.
Does he write? Does he write? Yeah, Tom, the writing dog. Yeah, he is the best.
It's the best thing in the world. I always took the piss out of the emotional support thing, but I believe in it now.
You know what I mean? Like emotional support dogs flying with them and stuff. Oh, you take them on planes and all? I haven't yet, but I will.
Oh, you're looking forward to it? Yeah, yeah. You think like Noah Kahn, he was in Dublin with his big German Shepherd.
And I was like, if he can do that, I got to be able to get my little puppy on the plane. Wow, he took a German shepherd with him? Yeah, now it's a nice dog.
It's like well-behaved. I think it sleeps under his legs while he's on the flight.
Oh my God. Yeah, it's badass.
That's beautiful. Yeah.
It's the best thing. I don't know.
Here's a Dublin zoo and let's help a breastfeeding mother is to encourage female orangutan bond with her newborn. So this is happening over by you guys.
Brilliant. Well, not brilliant.
What app did this monkey or this woman off of? Because this seems like, and if those are Irish breasts, brother, they're full cream. I'll tell you that.
They have, dude, I saw some breasts over there. You did? Oh, my God.
It's like, just like, I'm coming home. Tell the world I'm coming home.
It just feels like the root of time started in them. Right, right, right.
Lovely. I mean, God, they just like the fucking, just beauty, just like the eyes of the moon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah hammers baby you'd see some goddamn i mean you'd see brett they literally look like they were sculpted out of like you know just a fine fucking thick yogurt this is wild you thought you said there's no women oh but when you saw them you know there was one they would break yeah or they'd see Yeah you'd see a fucking shadow Coming over you and it'd be a big tit A woman would have leaned out of a window To look for something You had your eyes peeled constantly Make sure a man was still at the pub I mean I went into a pub No furniture A bunch of guys holding each other up Fucking just yelling And drinking Yeah No furniture You would go into a pet store No pets Seven people Drinking in there Just drinking Talking about animals Yeah Yeah What Everything there Is just People having a beer man It's funny though You know like Do you ever see the way Italians Like live to be Really really old Because they all just Hang out constantly I like to think Irish people are kind of like that too. We just need each other.
There's all these small communities and stuff. They need somewhere to gather.
Music's part of that. And I grew up in New Orleans, and there people were drunk, vomiting.
You didn't see it in Ireland, man. Puking? Yeah, I didn't see a lot of it.
Oh, there's plenty of puking. Oh, there is.
Oh, yeah. Oh, and they do it all at once or something? I would say it's just like you maybe missed it.
There's plenty of it, though. Yeah.
Yeah. It's the worst feeling in the world.
It's crazy. I would say that nearly keeps me away from drinking too much, is the puking.
I fucking hate it. Well, the first part of puking, I don't like.
You start to get this little sweat out of the middle of your neck or tongue. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Or the saliva. It's like the saliva all over again.
Yeah, it's like your saliva starts to be like, hey, guess what? Fuck you. Yeah, you're in trouble.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, you're in trouble.
Yeah, that's pretty hellish. I like how you take moments to think.
Oh, dude. You just scan your mind.
I don't have a choice. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I wish I could. Just call upon it.
Yeah, man, my brain retired years ago, man. Years ago.
Yeah, and some of the names in our life, I feel like people are trying to have the most Irish name. You'll meet like somebody A-O-I-F-E.
Aoife. Aoife, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And that doesn't really spell that.
Niamh. We were talking to someone yesterday called Niamh.

It's N-I-A-M-H.

Yeah, and that's not anything.

So it's like you have to have real names

if you're even going to...

You should guess some. These are very

run-of-the-mill. Alright.

You got some spicier names. Bring up very hard

to spell Irish names.

But without the answers.

Alright. Count.
Count. Count me.
Count me. Count me.
Quiva. All right.
Nope. Siobhan.
That's nice, but it's Siobhan. Siobhan.
Okay. I didn't know they had black people there alright Rory Rory that's nice yeah Rory oh Rory that would be like Rory D-H like it's like silent okay they spelled it so you know at home R-U-A-I-D-H-R-I okay yeah so they don't spell it like Rory.
The next one, T-A-D-G-H, ta-da.

Taig.

Taig.

Taig. Taig.

Taig.

Okay.

And the next one, N-I-A-M-H, Noah.

No, Neve.

Neve, okay.

Just N-E-E-V, Neve.

And then the next one, another one that's not real, S-A-O-I-R-S-E Siri Saoirse Saoirse Saoirse Yeah Oh this is unbelievable And then I'll do this last one Because I've seen this one before These are good now We're Okay Here we go to G-R-A-I-N-N-E Granny Grania That's the closest you've been Oh, that's beautiful actually Yeah And this one right here is not anything But I'll read it B-L-A-T-H-N-A-I-D Blot Blotnide Blotnide... Blot...
Blot... Yeah, you're doing all right.
All right, here's one right here. C-A-O...
C-A... C-A-O-I-L-F-H-I-O-N-N.
Kill. Kevin.
I... That one is even weird for me.
I would say... I would say Quailin.
Quailin. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, there's just... Quailfin.
everybody you meet over there, you're like, I'm Quailin Madonna Gargi, you know. Yeah, yeah, but I see that here too.
Oh, that's true. You know what I mean? Everyone, I was in the boot barn last weekend, and there was a guy called Lachlan.
Yeah. Yeah, and he was like, I'm Irish.
You know, he just claims it, but he doesn't know. You're like, no shit.
Yeah. What about the new album? So are you working on a

new album? What is it like for you right now?

Yes I am. I have

written I would say

25 to 30 songs.

Wow. Yeah but it goes crazy.

It's kind of like you can do as many as you want.

You can do hundreds and like I know

do you remember that song that Rihanna had?

I want you to stay

not really sure how I feel about

Thank you. you could do hundreds and like I know do you remember that song that Rihanna had I want you to stay not really sure how I feel about it that song no I was with the fella that featured on that song and huge success and then his second album he wrote 250 songs so it's just like at what point do you kind of call it you know what I mean and then I've heard Billie Eilish do interviews where she says if the album is 12 songs I've written 12 songs and that's it so I'd like I'd rather be like that.
It's crazy to me, the idea of throwing songs out, you know what I mean and then I've heard Billie Eilish do interviews where she says if the album is 12 songs I've written 12 songs and that's it so I'd rather be like that it's crazy to me the idea of throwing songs out you know I don't know why I would do that so I got a bunch now and I feel good about them I never know that's what I'm saying is like I analyze myself too much and I think sometimes I lose perspective and I could have the best song in the world but I can't see it you know and do you is there certain people you go to to get really clear perspective no no I don't play music to anyone anybody yeah because if it's good feedback I'll be like yeah I know and if it's bad then I'll be aggressive yeah wow so what about a management or an agent or anything yeah some of that but then that's hard too right because you kind of question like what are people's criteria you know me, I only care that it's good. But then they might be like, oh, this song could be successful.
And it's like, what does that mean? Right. You know, it could stink, but it could like, it could send me down the wrong path musically, but it could make money on the radio.
I don't know. So you got to do the right thing.
And do you, will you choose a certain number out of those? i like 10 i i know like i've seen like morgan wallens album with like 37 songs and stuff i don't know if i'm able for that kind of thing yeah i mean yeah i mean different people have different stuff definitely hmm yeah i wonder like yeah would i be scared god it's just got to be so scary putting an album out. Mm.
Yeah, it's going to define your life for two or three years, you know? It's almost like throwing a stick of dynamite into a room or something. Definitely.
And then what if you don't hear anything? It may not go off. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, you never know.
I think like, yeah, that definitely scares me sometimes. And it might not happen.
You know what's almost even worse is that middle of the road, kind of just like some people like it and boring. Yeah.
For me what's funny is like I've never had a song go crazy. Do you know what I mean? Like I've never had a song, like I play big venues in most places, but like I can walk around all day and no one knows who I am.
So I think I kind of exist in a sweet spot to some degree. You know what I mean? Yeah.
I think for me, it's like a careful what I wish for scenario sometimes because my life is still very normal, but then I get to go on stage and do very abnormal things. You know, like if I had to stay in my hotel room all day, cause I can't, that would make me sad.
Definitely. Yeah.
You're almost like Clark Kent kind of, you know, or Claire. Yeah.
Quailin. Yeah.
Quailin kinship. Yeah.
I just. Just because you have some anonymity still.
Definitely. There was one time you do have a chip on your shoulder sometimes though.
I do. Like I was playing for a football team in New York and we were at training one night and one guy was like, are you playing shows or whatever? And I was like, yeah, I'm playing a show at the garden.
And he was like, oh, cool. Are you like part of a bigger bill? Are you supporting somebody? And I'm constantly just like, no, it's my show.
Like people will be there hopefully. So I think people are constantly surprised how big the shows are.
Cause my, I don't feel like a very famous person, which is lovely. Yeah.
You don't, yeah. I think you keep like a, you seem like a pretty regular demeanor.
Nice, man. Which I think is probably one of the best compliments you can get.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But then to go and have that many people show up for something, yeah, that's pretty freaking unbelievable.
It's nuts. I think like if I, I feel lucky in the sense that before I did all this, if I had a checklist of what I wanted, I feel quite lucky.
I feel like I've ticked most boxes, which is nice. You know, my life hasn't changed.
I get to play to lots of people. I get to decide what music I put out.
That feels good to me. Yeah.
Yeah. How long do you think your album will come out or do you have a plan on it? Does it matter? I don't.
I'm trying not to care. It matters, but I don't know how it works to people.
Yeah, definitely. You do? Yeah, like, will people stick around? You know what I mean? Like, I think music, you kind of have to stay relevant and stay present and release music all the time.
You know, I think it's, I think you have to kind of do stuff constantly and constantly bring stuff out. But you but you got to be careful too.
Cause if people just get bored, you know what I mean? I would love to, I'd love to bring out an album definitely in less than a year, but I'm not in a hurry to do it either. I would rather have a good one.
You know what I mean? I don't think it needs to be just constantly doing it. And the tour off of it.
Yeah. Like we've been doing touring very slow.
We'll do like chunks. Yeah yeah i see three years now to do the tour oh man but it's fine yeah people don't care as long as you show up people don't care yeah it's like and it's been good and i couldn't handle doing like a seven month tour or something i've seen like who did i see i saw matt mccusker's tour and it was just every weekend like couple shows i was just that must be so sweet to do shows and go home but music you can't do that because you got like a band and crew on the road and you're paying everyone every day so you just you'd be bankrupt immediately yeah that's true you gotta do it all yeah definitely when you have such a squad how much uh do you have a big band supporting you when you go out there's what is it there's like six of us on stage oh i were playing no two of us Irish.
And then everyone else is from Australia, Switzerland, and the UK. Ooh.
Yeah. Pretty diverse.
Yes, indeed. But it's important.
Like, you kind of, even though it's a solo project, I think it has to feel like, I hate when a songwriter, it looks like it's them and their employees. I think that's crap.
Yeah. I think it makes for a bad musical connection.
I think you want to feel like a band. Yeah.
What makes that happen? I think, I mean, bottom line, the way you treat people, you know, and you give people creative freedom, you let them play the way they want to play. I think if you stifle it and sort of restrict people too much, it stops being fun.
Do you know what I mean? I think people come to see my show to see that musical interaction.

It's not just me playing.

You know what I mean?

I think it's weird sometimes

when you see a solo artist

and their band is just kind of in the background

and not really part of the show.

That's weird to me.

Yeah.

Where'd you meet your gal at?

Like, what? 25 years ago probably at home at home what was she going door to door no she wasn't but we were it's not your sister we grew up in the same area yeah it's a very like it's a very sort of high school sweethearts thing oh that, there is some romance right there then. Definitely.
There's something romantic about that. Yeah, I guess Ireland makes me just think everything seems like fairy tale over there a bit.
Yeah. Sometimes too much.
Certain movies and stuff, you know. Yeah.
What was the one? I wonder if you're talking about Gangs in New York. That one's kind of cool though.
There was like this movie recently, The Irish Wish or P.S. I Love You, those types of things.
They're terrible, yeah. Get fucked.
Yeah, if your wife, yeah, if you found your wife in a wishing well or something, you're out of your fucking mind, dude. Could happen.
You could do it. Hey, look.
That's true, man. You need to go back.
Oh, yeah. Oh, I want to go back so bad.
I want to do a couple more spots there. Yeah.
And maybe do one more. I think I owe a little bit better of a show to maybe Belfast.
It was good, but I think I want to, you know, you just want to do it better. Yeah.
I like the way you say I tried my best at the end of your shows. I think that's good.
Yeah, thanks, man. I think I usually, I definitely, 99% of the time I feel that way, that I tried my best.
Now the outcome sometimes. Yeah, but then that sentiment stands above everything, right? Like even if it doesn't go the way you want it to, tried my best.
Yeah. People appreciate it too.
Yeah, I think people appreciate it. I think so.
That's probably a good point. What will you do when you get back to Ireland? Like, what's something you look forward to doing? I will, like, to write music every day and to be, like, in the studio every single day.
I know it's a very privileged thing to say, but it's a very taxing thing. I get tired of it.
So, like, I'll go just, where I live is in the middle of nowhere. So, I'll just be in the forest every day with the dog.
Do you have a dog? No, I would like to get a dog As soon as I quit touring Yeah In like seven months I'm going to try to get some kind of dog It's the best thing I've done Yeah Oh man, yeah It's just like a companion It kind of It's a nice injection of real life as well And amongst all the weirdness It's just nice Like And it's this thing that would die If you didn't look after it So it's kind of It's a powerful feeling You guys a, is it a staffie over there? What you got? No, teeny little scruffy terrier. No.
Yeah. And it's a rescue.
Oh yeah. Yeah.
Everything is in Ireland. Everything, I'm a rescue.
Yeah. If he's a male, is he? He is male.
Oh yeah. Good.
He's still got his cojones. Well, he won't be using them.
There's no girls out there. That's true.
There's nothing. I'll have to bring them to America.
Dermot Kennedy, thanks so much, man.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for having me.

I appreciate it.

Thank you for all the awesome music, man.

Thanks for just kind of sharing whatever you can to the best of your ability.

Yes, sir.

That's kind of how I feel when I listen to your stuff.

Yeah, I had a great time.

Thanks for inviting me last night.

Yeah, thanks for the ticket, dude. It was awesome.
Not at all. Thanks for going.
Thank you, man. Yeah, I had a great time.
Thanks for inviting me last night. Yeah, thanks for the ticket, dude.
That was awesome.

Not at all. Thanks for going.
Thank you, man.

Yeah, cheers on you, bro. But when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found.
I can feel it in my bones.

But it's gonna take a little...