I interviewed 5 other Dallas Taylors and things got weird

It's hard to believe, but at this point, 20,000 Hz is up to 215 episodes and counting.

Of course, there are certain topics that stand out, like the really famous sounds we've covered.

And while I love telling the stories behind well-known sounds, when someone asks me what my favorite episodes are, they tend to be the ones that are more experimental and surprising.

There's one particular episode we made years ago that always jumps out in my mind because it was one of the most unique and surreal experiences of my life.

Here it is.

Enjoy.

So I did one faux pas of podcasting here and I completely forgot to ask you to introduce yourself and your title.

Okay.

I'm Laura Wattenberg.

I'm the author of the Baby Name Wizard books and the founder of Namerology.com.

That's exactly what I was hoping you would say, both of those things.

This is going to be highly edited, and it's actually actually kind of a very interesting show that we're doing, which is not really talking all about names.

It's kind of

a weird one.

This here is 20,000 Hertz.

Hosted by Dallas Taylor.

Dallas, it's a name.

It's a city in Texas.

It's where the cowboys play.

Where they roam, too.

And a tailor?

Now that's someone who makes your clothes fit just right.

Get yourself a bespoke, tailored suit, and you'll feel like a million buckaroos.

Now, what is a Dallas tailor?

Well, that all depends on who you ask.

First, I just want to say that names are incredibly rich signals.

That whether we realize it or not, every time we hear someone's name, we're forming impressions about a likely

age, gender, ethnicity, even socioeconomic status or geography.

That's all part of the impression that comes with a name.

So it's something that you carry around, like a little social microclimate that shapes the way people respond to you.

So is there any truth to the Dale Carnegie quote that a person's name to that person is the sweetest and most important sound in any language?

I think we're all trained and reinforced literally every day of our lives to respond to our own names.

A name is really a whole human identity in word form, and you can't help but feel so deeply attached.

My name is Laura, and the recent Hurricane Laura was a bizarre experience because every time I'd turn on the radio, I'd hear something like, but Laura's impact has grown even more deadly.

Every time, even though I knew there was a hurricane, I'd startle a little bit, like, what did I do?

Because it's so ingrained that that name is me.

What do you think about my name, Dallas Taylor?

Dallas is an interesting name because it has never been popular and it has never been unpopular.

That's actually a really rare quality.

But if you look look back over the last 150 years in the United States, the name Dallas has always been right around the 300th most popular name for boys.

That's a powerful kind of name position because it means that it's familiar.

People aren't going to be afraid to spell or pronounce it.

But it's also a little interesting and unexpected so they pay attention.

Do you think that there would be some sort of inherent similarities between my name and someone else with the exact same name?

I think there are two kinds of similarities people can can have from sharing a name.

And one is a similarity of who chose that name.

Parents who have something in common are likely to choose similar names.

So the name Dallas, for instance, is a name that's most popular in an area of the country that maps to essentially country music territory minus Texas.

Hence the motivation for this here voiceover.

So that's where you're going to find the most Dallases.

There are two different kinds of place names.

There are the names that are more popular near the place and the names that are less popular near the place.

Really?

So for instance, you'll never meet someone named Brooklyn in New York City, but a name like Savannah might be more popular in Georgia than elsewhere.

Then in terms of your personal experience, if you think of the microclimate of reactions that you carry around with you, every time in your life that you meet someone for the first time, even virtually, if you send an email or you're on Tinder, the first thing people see or hear is your name.

And they are going to make expectations about you, whether they realize it or not, based on that.

They're going to respond to you in a certain way.

They might be friendly or they might be wary or they might be more or less excited to meet you.

And two people who have gone through their entire lives sharing that same kind of first impression are going to have something in common.

Oh my goodness, this is so good.

Total editorial note here, but you are leading right into exactly what I was hoping.

Oh, good.

Thank you for playing along.

I'll tell you exactly what's happening here.

So I don't know if I told you this over email or anything, but I have interviewed five other Dallas Taylors.

And so you'll kick off the show.

And then at this point, I'll basically take it and meet five other Dallas Taylors with the exact same name.

And it's absolutely fascinating, the similarities.

I am very curious to see what you all have in common.

It's going to be a blast.

You're listening to 20,000 hertz.

I'm Dallas Taylor.

I'm Dallas Taylor.

I'm Dallas Taylor.

I'm Dallas Taylor.

I'm Dallas Taylor.

I'm Dallas Taylor.

Hey, this is Dallas.

This is also Dallas.

So, yeah, this has to be the weirdest request.

This is the weirdest thing for me as well.

I have never met another

Dallas, let alone a Dallas Taylor.

So can you just like introduce yourself?

Yeah, sure.

So obviously, my name's Dallas Taylor.

This is my married name.

So my maiden name is actually Keester.

And that carried a lot of, you know, funny taunts in middle school.

There's a lot that middle school sixth graders can say about the last name Keester.

And my mom always said, I married into it.

You can marry out of it.

So, I mean, it's kind of funny because my husband's name is James Taylor.

Oh, nice.

How sweet it is to be loved by you.

So Taylor seemed nice, safe, and a good way to go.

Not much that people can say about the last name Taylor.

So now I'm Dallas Taylor.

Now I'm speaking on this podcast.

So by choice.

Exactly.

Exactly.

All right, Dallas Taylor.

I am also Dallas Taylor.

So nice to meet you, Dallas Taylor.

It's nice to meet you also.

Sweet.

So I guess the first thing is, what did you think when a random person named Dallas Taylor contacted you about coming on a podcast to talk to me, a Dallas Taylor?

It caught me off guard a little bit.

First, I saw Dallas Taylor and like, someone must be tweeting me.

And I saw it was Dallas Taylor tweeting me.

I'm like, oh, did someone make a Dallas Taylor profile and just a bot is coming to troll me and then i saw the invite to come on the podcast i'm like huh it's very weird

can you give me like an introduction of yourself like what you're passionate about or what you do my name is dallas taylor i'm from buffalo new york i love to write anything creative poetry short stories and op-ed pieces writing is my passion So I work with a public broadcasting station down here in Buffalo, and I do a lot of promotional writing i do a lot of radio scripts i remember as a kid just watching pbs kids watching curious george george looked around professor saunders had left some seed packets and some sticks on the ground and clifford hey clifford i think t-bone needs some help

he'll be okay he's been up here lots of times Mr.

Rogers.

So let's think more about that as the trolley goes into the neighborhood of Make Believe.

And all those fun characters.

And to be in the building of the place that I grew up watching and pretty much got my education from as a kid, it's very, I don't know if cool or weird is the right word.

It almost feels like it was meant to be in a way.

Like that's where Dallas is supposed to be.

What's up, Dallas?

How you doing, man?

What's up, Dallas?

This is so weird, isn't it?

It's so weird.

I literally, I rarely meet people named Dallas.

Why don't you, just for our purposes here, just kind of introduce yourself, your name, and what you're passionate about?

Yeah, my name is Dallas Taylor.

Just like the guy right here, Dallas Taylor.

You know what I'm saying?

I'm from Memphis, Tennessee.

I'm passionate about a lot of things, but I would say anime is like my number one.

I say this to everybody and people think I'm like kind of crazy.

It keeps me sane.

And I'm dead serious when I say that.

that.

Like it literally keeps me sane.

Wow.

Memphis.

So this is wild.

I'm from Memphis.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Hey, that's crazy.

Wow.

So anime, as a sound designer, I've actually mixed anime in the past.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

Okay.

I don't watch as much as I would like to, but I have a deep appreciation for it.

Yeah, bro.

It teaches you a lot.

People don't even understand it.

How so?

Not to get like, I don't want people to think like I'm trying to get deep or nothing.

It's just like, okay, growing up, I had limited people that i can even look up to or like role models but there's like really with nobody i don't even know my father i don't know who he is but um it's like growing up anime stuff like dragon ball i am protector of the innocent i am the light in the darkness i am truth one piece luffy your pain may be great but it mustn't devour you

there is yet joy beyond your sorrows i look to those people as like role models and stuff so like i see their philosophies and I try to like include those in my life.

You know what I'm saying?

I just like how they is and I like the way they carry themselves.

In a world without anime, I just, I've been through a lot of my life.

So I just feel like I just go crazy without

that.

Hey, so

have you ever met another Dallas Taylor?

Another Dallas Taylor?

No.

I do know of some famous ones.

There's obviously the drummer for Crosby Stills and Nash.

Dallas Taylor knows what he's talking about.

As the young drummer of the legendary rock band Crosby Stills, Nash, and Young, he rode the fast track to success.

Thanks much, man.

There is a guy named Dallas Taylor, who I guess he's a singer for Christian rock bands.

All right, it's John here from Bandrescue.com here with Dallas Taylor from Alien and the Sons of Disaster.

How's it going?

We're out here.

So he's a little bit known.

And then there was in the 70s a

performer named Dallas Taylor.

And I learned that in college when the video store clerk at the good video store, the, you know, the local place where the guy was a super cinephile, he was a fan of my namesake's work.

So he never did let me forget how he recognized my name and my face.

So definitely know the drummer for Crosby Steels and Nash.

Oftentimes when we're doing interviews, depending on the age that they are, they'll ask, were you the drummer of Crosby Steels and Nash?

And of course, I'm not.

The other thing I get all the time is, Are you the former singer of Under Oath?

And I'm like, No, that's not me either.

And then I actually bought the domain name dallas taylor.com from the pet old performer.

Okay, awesome.

I

probably tried to buy that.

My domain name is Dallas-Taylor.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah.

So we were probably competing for that.

Possibly.

Have you ever met another Dallas?

When I was younger, I met a boy named Dallas.

And I was definitely going through a phase where I was very upset with my parents for naming me Dallas because everyone was like, that's a boy's name.

And here I was eight years old.

So I did offer my parents two alternatives for if they wanted to change my name.

One was Yasmin after a bratz doll that I had.

Yasmin can strike hundreds of rockin' poses to totally rule the stage.

The other name that I presented to them was Lizzie off of Lizzie Maguire.

Lizzie, those pants are sweet.

And I'd like to thank my mom and dad and the style shack.

They said, no, we're not changing your name.

When you get older, you will learn to appreciate it.

Do you know why you were named Dallas?

There's a lot of different stories going around, but My mom said she named me after a guy that she had a crush on in high school.

Really?

Yeah, his name was Dallas.

So she was like, one of my kids is going to be named Dallas.

My sister's name's actually Austin.

So, Dallas and Austin.

Guess what my brother's name is?

Is it Austin?

It is Austin.

Oh, my gosh.

Yep.

This is so weird.

So weird.

And then my brother's name is Austin.

So we get the, are you guys from Texas a lot?

Are you kidding me?

Yeah.

Do you want to know what my brother's name is?

I'd be very interested.

It's Austin.

And another Dallas tailor that I met, her little sister is named Austin.

Oh.

So I have a sibling named Austin, you have a sibling named Austin, and she has a sibling named Austin.

That is so wild.

I'm curious, have you ever gotten that is your sister named San Antonio comment?

Oh, always.

They always say, like, if there were twins, would one be San and the other be Antonio?

Oddly enough, my brother's name is Antonio.

So like people just think we're from Texas.

It's funny that you say your brother's name is Antonio because my brother's name is Austin.

That is crazy.

No joke.

That is crazy.

It's like looking in a parallel universe right here.

That's crazy.

We're named after country songs.

So my mom was obsessed with Alan Jackson and he had a song out called Dallas.

It's super twangy.

And when I tell everyone that I'm named after a country song, I'm like, don't look it up.

The lyrics are literally: Dallas packed her suitcase and drove off in the brand new car I bought her.

Which I'm like, that was a song that you chose to like name me, name me after.

But Austin, obviously, we have the age gap, so we're eight years apart.

And when my mom was pregnant with her, she was like, Well, I can't have a Dallas and like an Amanda and wouldn't make sense.

So that year, Blake Shelton released a song called Austin.

Can't you tell

this is Austin?

And I still love

you.

It was perfect timing.

So they always joked.

They said that if we had a brother, his name would be Houston.

I said it was probably in everyone's best interest that that did not happen because that would have been too much.

And it was probably good that we stopped at Dallas and Austin.

Did you have any nicknames?

I have a couple.

I'm curious if you've gotten any.

The only one that ever really stuck was people would call me D.

I've gotten D.

A lot of people do that.

I've gotten Big D because Dallas is called the Big D.

And the most popular one was Dally Pooh for a long time.

Yeah, I've had a couple people call me Dally when I was younger.

I didn't like that.

I was like,

nah.

I'm curious if you had the same nickname from your family.

Dally Wally.

No, I never heard dally wally i'm dally poo i got that a lot dally poo dally poo oh nah nah nah nah nah

nah nah nah they call me dally wally and my nickname is actually my real nickname is d like just d my family call me d if they want to be funny they call me dally wally

it's always cool having a nickname Texas or D or DT Big D.

I know my high school track coach, he would, because he's a big wrestling fan, so he'd often call me Diamond Dallas Page.

What a move!

What a move!

By Diamond Dallas Page!

When you go to a coffee shop or you meet someone for the first time and you're like, oh, my name's Dallas, do you tend to hear kind of the same reactions or jokes like all the time?

A lot of people will make reference to the TV show.

Obviously, that's decades out of syndication.

Premiering Sunday, April 2nd, Dallas, where money buys power and passion breeds conflict.

Usually it's about the football team.

Well, Dallas, bringing the house.

Flum got rid of it to Cooper and it's incomplete.

Most of the time, yeah.

Like, are you a Dallas Cowboys fan?

Are you from Texas?

It's so funny.

It's like the exact same reaction that I get.

They'll say, like, I bet your parents really love Texas.

Or like, I bet your parents are a big Cowboys fan.

Yep.

It's always either, oh, so you're from Texas or,

oh, your parents must have been really big Cowboys fans.

Or you're a big Cowboy fan.

Yeah, exactly.

I hear the same thing literally all the time.

And then people will be like, um,

hold on, my mom's right here.

I'm sorry.

I told her not to walk in.

But anyways.

Wait, she's the one that named you Dallas, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

You want to give her the podcast?

You can ask her why you're named Dallas.

Why did you name me Dallas, brother?

hey, do you really want to know true?

Yeah,

why you named me Dallas?

I named you after this fine boy that I said.

Who am I talking to?

Moment.

Oh, hello.

Hey, you're not going to believe this.

My name is also Dallas Taylor.

Oh, my God.

Hi.

Hi.

Oh, well, I got his name from a guy in high school.

A guy had transferred down from New York,

and I just fell in love with the name.

And so I always said that, you know, if I ever had a son, I was going to name him Dallas.

I just kept the name.

That's where it came from.

Well, thank you.

You're welcome.

We got it right from the source.

That got our Dallas to thinking, where did his name come from?

So he called his mama.

Hey, what's up?

Hey, not much.

Are you free right now?

I'm free.

Okay, because I need you to tell me a story.

So I'm doing a whole podcast about

names, and I'm curious if you can tell me why I was named Dallas.

Your dad named you.

Why?

Because he went to Dallas and went to insurance school or something like that

before he went into maintenance.

Uh-huh.

And he loved Dallas.

I mean, as soon as he found out I was pregnant, he said, oh, that's my little Dallas right there.

He knew the name right from the very start.

What did you think when he was like, we're going to name our son Dallas?

I was fine with it.

I thought it was a cool name.

Do you think it worked out?

Yes.

I think it's perfect for you.

How so?

Well, I like when your wife calls you Dalio or just different things, you know, that you could do with the name.

Do you mind if I use this on my podcast?

I don't care.

Okay.

Yeah, you could use that on your podcast.

I mean, literally this phone call.

Yes.

All right.

Great.

I have my mom's permission.

You had mentioned, you know, you're passionate about anime.

I'm curious, what other passions do you have?

I think you said something about freestyling or music.

Yeah, I write music.

That's been a passion since I was an eight.

Like, I've been writing music for a long time.

What kind of music?

I make hip-hop music.

A lot of people like my music, so they be like, what's your rap name?

I don't have a rap name.

I just, Dallas Taylor.

They'd be like, that sounds like a rapper.

That just sounds like somebody.

And I was like, yeah, I'm just going to use my name.

So curious, just tell me about your life.

I mean, I can tell you mine.

Like, I'm a sound designer.

I spent a lot of time playing the trumpet and eventually continued to do sound design and started to host a podcast.

And here I am.

So what's your life like?

Yeah, sure.

I'm very into the creative arts.

I was homeschooled for a lot of like my early education, but I was actually a dancer.

So I went to a performing arts high school for dance in Maryland and I ended up going to the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA.

Now I am working in fleet management.

Not as creative as before,

but then COVID-19 happened and I've been working from home.

So finding ways to get those creative moments out of things that aren't so creative anymore.

What would you say that you're just most passionate about now?

Like what gets you up?

Oh, writing.

I suppose particularly the novel that I'm working on, which is a project I've been, God, I've been working on this thing for five or six years now, I want to say.

But yeah, that's what gets me up in the morning.

My excuse for existing is that I'm a writer.

I want to write a children's book at some point.

But writing is really where I'm at and where I want to be with my life.

I know it's not the most lucrative, but it feels like it's the most rewarding to me.

Cool.

Yeah, the thing that's been really fascinating about all of these, every person that I've spoken with with our name, have all been heavily in creative fields.

So two musicians, two writers, a dancer.

I'm a musician who became a sound designer and kind of a writer thanks to this podcast.

Yeah, totally.

And no one has been anywhere close to being a lawyer or an accountant or anything that's like a responsible adult thing.

Good for us.

Everyone is creative, every single person.

So it's just been wild to kind of like see that thread.

I actually, I've been talking to a couple different Dallas Taylors and the last Dallas Taylor that I talked to about an hour ago, he was a heavy metal band singer, like a famous one.

Yeah, I know, I know who you're talking about.

Pretty soon, we'll meet the next Dallas Taylor, the heavy metal cast iron Dallas Taylor.

That's coming up after a quick word from our fine sponsors.

I'm Scott Hanson, host of NFL Red Zone.

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Congratulations to Tristan R for getting last episode's Mystery Sound right.

Those freaky sounds were actually made by a koala.

Koalas have an extra set of vocal folds outside of the larynx, which allows them to create these deep bellows and grunts.

These noises are mainly used by male koalas as a mating call, and also in altercations with other males.

And here's this episode's Mystery Sound.

If you know that sound, tell us at the web address mystery.20k.org.

Anyone who guesses it right will be entered to win a super soft 20,000Hz t-shirt.

Finally, a quick reminder that 20,000Hz is produced by my sound agency, DeFacto Sound.

Over at DeFacto, the same 20,000Hz team that we know and love sound designs and mix all kinds of awesome stuff, including commercials, documentaries, short films, features, museum installs, all kinds of stuff.

If you or someone you know needs help with anything like that, then working with De Facto Sound helps keep 20,000Hz going.

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Made for your chicken favorites at Participator McDonald's for limited time.

Martha listens to her favorite band all the time.

In the car,

gym,

even sleeping.

So when they finally went on tour, Martha bundled her flight and hotel on Expedia to see them live.

She saved so much, she got a seat close enough to actually see and hear them.

Sort of.

You were made to scream from the front row.

We were made to quietly save you more.

Expedia, made to travel.

Savings vary and subject to availability, flight-inclusive packages are at all protected.

Good to see you again.

Now kick back and enjoy the rest of this podcast made of 100% pure Dallas tailor.

Well, hey, Dallas, it's nice to meet you.

This has got to be bizarre for you too, right?

You don't know any other Dallases, do you?

I know a couple guys with the first name Dallas, but not with the same last name.

So can you give me like a little introduction of yourself?

Yeah, my name is Dallas Taylor.

I have done singing or attempted to sing in a few bands here and fiddled around with acting.

I think I know a little bit about you just because your name is my name.

So I often get confused for you or the drummer for Crosby Steels and Nash.

Have you had that same, that same

thing?

Yeah.

A lot.

Yeah.

That Dallas Taylor.

All the time, like people think when he passed away, they thought I passed away.

And then one time I heard, I guess he found out about me because there was one interview or something where he's like, I'm not the dude that screams and I'm not the

adult performer.

I'm the real Dallas Taylor.

But yeah, there's not many people with that name at all.

Tell me a little bit about your life, as much as you feel comfortable with.

I know you've told this story a lot.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

I was always raised super Southern Baptist.

And then when I was 15 or 16, or someone showed me like heavy music, and I was like,

what is this stuff?

And so when I discovered heavy music, I was like, this is it.

I'm rebelling, I guess.

But it's weird.

I never wanted to be a singer in a band.

I've always had bad social anxiety.

I couldn't even drive through a drive-through, I think, until I was like 20 or 21.

I get too scared, couldn't even write my own check.

And so, I started doing a band because it felt like it wasn't me having to be me.

Always like a bass player, not the best, but I wrote lyrics.

And so, when I was young, we were trying to do this horrible, horrible band, didn't work out.

And so, when the singer had stopped our guitar, I was like, Well, you're gonna do it.

And I was like, I don't want to do it.

Well,

this many years later, I'm still doing it.

And so,

then through many like horrible small bands, I started this band called Under Oath.

We had some friends that said, Hey, you can go on tour with us for like a week.

And so, we did.

Well, Under Oath got signed on that tour with a small label.

Dallas toured and recorded with Under Oath for the next four years.

Did you feel anxious when you performed?

Because I spent so much of my high school and college years playing the trumpet.

I was first chair in like every ensemble.

I thought I was going to be a professional trumpet player.

Yeah.

And then one day I kind of woke up with crippling performance anxiety and it just crushed all of my dreams of performing.

Gotcha.

So I'm curious if you still felt that same anxiety from when you were younger, once you started touring.

About every show, yeah, I always did.

And then the times I didn't feel anxious, that's when, you know,

there came a time where you start getting more concerned on the business side of it.

How much merch did we sell or what do we do this?

And then you start getting more anxious about that than playing.

And

that's a bad place to be because then you lose sight of why you get into it in the first place.

And you're more worried about staying afloat financially which happens to everyone and so it's a fine line you know you have to watch out for because that easily can take over and get you off path i guess under oath was getting more and more popular but during the 2003 warp tour dallas left the band

we parted ways because i was young and

my situation with a girlfriend like i just was like i picked that over anything The band recruited a new singer and continued on without him.

So then I moved up to Alabama and I thought I'd never do music again.

And then I started another band called May Leene and the Sons of Disaster and started touring again all through that.

Then I went through a divorce and those are always fun times.

Not really, that's being sarcastic.

And then I started making friends with people and asked us to do cameos and a couple films.

So I was like, this is kind of cool.

So maybe I'll give it a shot.

So I started acting a little bit here and there.

Dallas acted in a few small horror films.

He also played a character named Lucky Louie in Joe Dirt 2, who gets crushed by a trailer falling out of the sky.

So I was doing that more and then the band less.

And then I was was down visiting my parents just on vacation and they had gotten a four-wheeler.

And I was always the daredevil always.

And I

never broke in a bone really.

And I took the four-wheeler and I was, I guess the only thing I remember is I was trying to give it gas.

And then I went to hit the brake, but the brake and the gas from the same handle.

So when I pulled that, I rolled the gas and I went straight into a metal sign.

I broke about everything.

I made up for all the years of not breaking and I'm still crawling out of it.

But yeah, that was

about four years ago and

yeah, I did a number on myself.

Dallas's injuries were severe and life-changing.

He broke multiple facial bones and suffered brain damage and internal bleeding.

He lost his sight in his left eye and still has vision problems in his right.

He's had ongoing lung problems, thyroid problems, memory loss, hearing loss, and chronic pain.

But as hard as this experience has been, Dallas says that it's put him on a better path.

So before my accident, I struggled a lot with,

well, I always had OCD, I still have it, but a lot of anxiety, you know, depression, like things I was diagnosed as, and

I always looking at life as cup half empty.

And so after my accident, it's almost like my brain got rewired.

Trying to go through life, doing it on your own and thinking you can do it without having other people in our lives, friends or people that encourage us,

it really does take you down a downward spiral.

But it's like,

Well, I guess when you've gotten so close to death, you realize all the stuff I thought before in life that mattered, when you can't even take care of yourself, you realize how much the little things are the big things and the big things just totally disappear, you know?

And so

I wouldn't wish what happened to me on anybody, but it definitely has given me a different perspective on life and how I feel like we're put here to help each other out.

I guess after my accident, I realized, you know,

We're only alive for so long.

So my future really is as cheesy as it may seem is to um

try to let people know hey you're not alone i've been through that or even if i haven't been through that i'll try my best to understand

i think that's my legacy is uh to try to encourage as many people as i can until i uh finally take the last big four little ride exit home

You were, and I don't know if you ever lose this title once you've become, you know, a rock star.

So you have been a rock star.

What would you tell

maybe a 17-year-old kid with those same dreams?

What advice would you give in that case?

Well, first, I've always said I'm not a rock star, but I know a lot of guys and girls that have made it really well.

But I guess, you know, if you want to do something, stick your feet in and basically keep throwing at the wall until something sticks.

Just because something might discourage you, you know, it could be not getting as many Facebook followers or as many downloads.

That's the people that get discouraged by life and they just kind of let their dreams slip away.

And

if anything, until the day I die, I'd rather...

Be that person that said I tried and I can die knowing I never gave up on my dreams rather than going, huh, what if I would have kept at it?

So

to anybody younger, it's just like if you truly believe in it and you feel it in your heart, be yourself, be you, create you, try as hard as you can do to make it.

What is the future of Dallas Taylor from Florida?

What I see like as the future for me is

I have this drive to come back.

better than I was before.

I just have this

thing on my heart of like, hey, you've seen life on both sides.

You saw how much you had taken it for granted and how you thought everything in life was like negative.

And now I see it the complete opposite way.

So it's like, now my goal is to try to help or explain to so many people that were on that path that I was before my accident.

But yeah, that's my goal.

And whatever ways that will help me get that cross the most is what I'm aiming for.

Just curious, how old are you?

I just turned 40, so I'm old as crap.

No way.

So did I.

No way.

Yeah.

Wow.

So we lived like the same stuff.

It's so funny.

I'll give you a little bit of backstory.

Same with me.

I was a country kid in Arkansas, found heavy music.

I loved it.

Like, that's kind of how I express myself.

A lot of my friends started little heavy metal bands together, and I dabbled in drums and bass and guitar and screaming and all that stuff.

So it's almost like we were living a little bit, you know, parallel lives.

But it's so interesting because even when you were with Under Oath and Maylene, I knew both of those bands and listened to them and loved it.

No idea that your name was my name until years later.

Gotcha.

Yeah, I like what you're doing too.

That's pretty awesome.

Thank you.

About the deep fakes and movie trailers and things.

So yeah, it's awesome what you're doing with that.

I appreciate it so yeah i think we have this uh one question i do ask everybody just because i'm so fascinated with what people say um very simple question but what is your favorite sound i guess my favorite sound would be laughter and uh the crazier a person's laugh is is the more contagious

It's the best medicine to me.

So that would be my favorite sound, I guess.

It's funny you should say laughter because that's also my favorite sound too um most definitely my kids laughing

favorite sound in the world

that's a tough one this would probably i don't know if it's a sound but i feel like it's very underrated and satisfying the moment that you get your sound back after your ear is plugged like if you're in the shower or coming out of the pool like once that is out of there and you get that kind of like a buzz,

I feel like that's a very satisfying sound.

That's such a good answer.

That is a really interesting question.

And for whatever reason, I wouldn't have thought this until you asked me the question.

But

so, do you know Manu Chow, the singer?

I don't.

He's a sort of pan-European, used to be in a punk band called Mano Negra.

But anyway, so he has this one single guitar note.

It's the king of bongo or bongo bong.

That's where I think I remember it from most.

It sounds like something beautiful birthing itself into existence.

But yeah, it just has this very like sort of opening up kind of feeling.

And it's just like a half second, like one note.

I would probably say my favorite sound of the world, I would probably say, okay, I sit outside a lot and I just like listen to like nature, just listen to the world.

I think that would probably be like my favorite.

It's just so comforting in me.

Like it literally just so comforting.

Definitely, I would say be like crackling of a fire.

Yeah, I think that's super comforting.

Where we live, it's very woodsy.

so oftentimes in the morning we'll put a fire outside in the back fire pit, and it's so calming, relaxing.

I would say that's hand sound, my favorite sound.

Well, I suppose that about does it.

So what does it all mean?

I can't say I'm exactly sure, but it seems like when two people share a name, it means there's something deep that runs between them.

Something that binds them together in this strange, chaotic universe.

I will say that it was one of the most bizarre experiences because it's me, it's my name.

And so I see this other person and I feel like this connection with another human that I've never met ever.

I mean, I think it's just fascinating to talk to different people with my exact same name.

And there are different aspects to our life.

And then there's threads that are extraordinarily similar.

And what is really unique about this is that every Dallas Taylor I've met are all creatives and writers.

It's just so serendipitous that we all have a creative brain.

What I've learned in this situation is that Everyone has just like a fascinating story, like anybody.

Every Dallas Taylor I've talked to have just had these fascinatingly rich lives and interesting stories.

But it's just so bizarre how connected I think we all felt just by talking to each other with the exact same name.

You've really lived something unique in common that 200 million other people cannot understand.

20,000 Hertz is produced out of the Sound Design Studios of De facto Sound.

Treat your ears to a little sonic candy by following De Facto Sound on Instagram.

This episode was written and produced by Casey Emmerlin.

With help from Sam Reinbold.

It was sound edited by Soren Bajan.

It was sound designed, mixed, and narrated by Nick Spradlin.

Thanks to our guests, Laura Wattenberg, Dallas Taylor, Dallas Taylor, Dallas Taylor, Dallas Taylor, and Dallas Taylor.

You can find Laura's book, The Baby Name Wizard, wherever books are sold.

You take her easy now.

Thanks for listening.