The Truth About Life on the Road (Part TWO)

Hey y'all and welcome to the Boys and Me podcast. Have you ever wondered what the Sawyer Brown guys talk about on the bus 40 years and 6,000 shows later? Now's your chance. These are all of their musings from the back lounge of the bus. It is a whole lot of nothing, but it sure is something. So turn it up and stay a while with the Boys and Me. So we're just going to get right into it. Talk about a topic that you guys are well-versed in, and that is life on the road. Wow. Okay. Ready for the hard-hitting segment. Here we go. What's in your bag? Because everyone has their road bag, especially, this is 40 years later. You guys, I would hope by now, have it down to a science. Yeah. Okay. Let me just go ahead before this gets brought up by anyone else. My backpack weighs about as much as a VW. But the thing is, for everyone who complains about, oh, what have you got in this bag? Every time someone needs something, it's in my bag. Now I could win the TV show, Let's Make a Deal, because if he were to go, who's got a Sawzall? I've got one. Who's got a shammy towel? I've got one. I've got everything. He does. It is ridiculous what I was saying there. Ridiculous. Sad. Kind of sad. Yeah. I'm not even going to argue that. There's a lot of stuff in there. Every time I'll go through it, I'll be like, oh, wow, I did not know this was in here. But I rarely go through it. I just keep putting more stuff in it. Okay. We're going to delve really deep into that, you know, literally and metaphorically. It's like a Home Depot. Well, I refer to it as my home. It is one bag that is never unpacked. Now, what kind of backpack is it? Is it just like a plain Jansport? Okay, you want me to be honest? It's a Jansport that I paid $19 for at a Target, no joke, probably 20 years ago. Really? And they don't even make this bag anymore. I would buy every one of them if you could, because, look, that bag has seen some miles and it's still there. It's beginning to fray a bit, but I'm not going to get rid of it until we buy the rest We do have somebody that tops him. Oh, yeah. On the road, Lightning, our front of house guy. He has three bags and he takes them everywhere he goes. Even if it's just a one-day show, like a one-day run? Oh, absolutely. And there's the possibility of everything in every bag, because he never remembers what's in what bag. So it's like, why have one toothbrush, because maybe you grabbed the wrong bag, so he just puts them in all three of them. Well, at least he has a system. He has a three, four bags. He has a system. Yeah. Well, that could be. That's a little stretch. A loose term. Yeah. Okay, so, but of y'all's two bags, what is the most rock star item that you would have in your bus bag? In my bus bag, probably the in-ears monitors that I wear on stage. What about the most boring? I have no rock star. I have no rock star-like items in my bag. Think about it. Why would you have a rock star item in your bag? Why have anything in your bag when Opie has packed for you? I have like a razor, a toothbrush. It is wild. And that's it. We'll go out, like, oh, we're about to do 26 days in Canada, and he comes on with like a toiletry bag. I'm like, that's it? Like it is amazing how light this man packs. You know, here's what I'm hearing, is that after 40 years, you know that you don't have to pack because he is going to have overpacked, which probably makes him overpack more. Well, no, don't give him that much credit, no. Yeah. No. Okay, so let's do this. What is the most random or useless thing in your bus bag? Random or useless thing. Well, I've always had a pair of gym shorts, always. Just in case there's a game of pick up? Yes, just in case there's a pick up game I can get in. I like to think that it's all useful. I probably have more sets of ear buds in there than anyone actually needs to have. With every connection. Yeah, exactly. Oh, okay. Exactly, because, yeah, Apple, I'm looking at you. You keep changing the cords. And you just don't take them out of your bag, you just add the cords to the bag? Exactly. They stay in there. That makes sense. Is there anything in there that would make TSA- Oh, I do have reading glasses and I only have one lens in them. I just found those. What? I'm like, I bet you I could take this out. Yeah. How did you just find- I don't know where the other lens went. You use this bag weekly. I do not know where the other lens went. Just found that before I went on this last trip. And do you have any idea how long that lens has been missing? Well, he wore them for like a week before he noticed. Yeah, I'm like, man, I'm getting really clear out of this. One sign. Yeah. Noah, is there anything that would make TSA do a double take? Possibly reading glasses with only one lens in them, but- No, I go through like it's nothing. No. No, I did have a TSA agent once ask why I had so many magazines in my bag. Because I like to read. And she went, you got to get rid of some of these magazines. Wow. I mean, I'm like, wow, it's 4.20 in the morning. I can't handle this right now, but I will. I just want to know how many magazines made a TSA agent comment. Oh, Noah. I don't know. Six? Eight? No, I would have a lot of GNC type stuff. You just have a lot of pill bottles. Yes. I take everything in case it works. Every vitamin under the sun. You really could open up a tiny little portable GNC shop. Really could. Yeah. Do we want to tell people how you distribute them? Because this is my favorite part of the day. He will take that hat off and pour the mixture of vitamins into his hat and sort through them and then take out one by one so they don't spill all over the place. In his hat. That is a bus ick. Right there. Yeah. I don't know. You wouldn't have even thought to ask about that one because that's very specific. Who would think to ask about that one? It's very specific. It's brilliant. Well, that's one. How am I related to you? Yeah. If only Elvis had worn a ball hat. Elvis had hair. Oh my gosh. Okay. Easy. Do you see what I put up with here? This is probably more for Hobie. Have you ever found something in your bag and thought, how the heck did that get in here? One lens glass aside. Yeah. See what I mean? Yeah. You sound like you know what's in your bag. He sounds like he doesn't. Yeah. Have you ever found something in his bag, going through it and thought, how the heck did that get in there? I don't go through his bag. Yeah. Okay. You want to be- Is that like a rule? You don't touch each other's stuff? No. No, you don't go through it. Well, you definitely want to be up on all your shots before you go digging around in my bag because there's no telling what could be at the bottom of that bag. Yeah. But there's a lot of stuff in there. There really is. For sure. You just wonder. A lot. Yeah. And the same as you don't make a guy a sandwich, you don't go through his bag either. Okay. Wow. Yeah. The rules of the road. Yeah. By Mark Miller. Yeah. So, if you two were to get stranded in the middle of nowhere, say the bus breaks down in the middle of nowhere, Arizona- Mm-hmm. If you just have your bags, each of you, who's lasting longer? Oh, him. I mean- Yeah. I probably- I died the first day. Yeah. First day, I'm done. Do you have granola bars in there? Yeah. Yes. Well, yeah. Peanut butter crackers, for sure. Are they not all smushed? Yes. Well- Do they still resemble a cracker? They can be because I found some of those, too, where you're like, oh, what flight did I think I was going to eat these on because they're like, at this point, just like powder. Yeah. But, no, there would be stuff to eat. You definitely- He's a hoarder. No. I feel like- Yeah, you are. No, I just- Here's what I've learned about being on the road is when you need something, you need it then. You don't need to be able to get somewhere to get it. Right. Toothpaste, Tylenol, all that sort of stuff. I want to have it in my bag, so I have it in there. Because also- A toilet seat cover. A toilet seat. Yeah. Right? Well, because the great Amazon doesn't apply to the road. No. You can't just Amazon it to the bus. True. Have you ever tried? That is, have you ever tried to Amazon something to the bus? No, but I have certainly had DoorDash or Uber Eats come to the bus. Yeah? Yeah. He has. I certainly have. Have you not? I don't know how to do it, so- He has because I've ordered it, but yeah. No, he would not know how to do it, but he has eaten Shake Shack that magically appeared. I'm glad you said shake. When you said he has eaten shh, I thought, come on now. Easy now. It's not that kind of show. Now, who could MacGyver their way out of a bad situation with something in your bag? Out of the two of you. Oh, I could. He couldn't. I could. Well, I would have the stuff that you would need to MacGyver it. I might not be able to MacGyver it. So he can MacGyver using your bag. That's an understatement. Yeah. I would definitely not be able to MacGyver. I could MacGyver from your bag. Yeah. Now, the next topic that we're going to talk about is one that is a vital part of road life, of tour life. That's the great crew meal. Great. Sometimes. Well, yeah. That's what I'm getting at. When you get a great one, that's a beautiful thing. Maybe more infamous, the crew meal. So what is, now, first of all, at a sound check situation, because you guys sound check earlier in the day, someone's probably always going to go check out crew meal. Now, is there always someone that you guys send as tribute to go check it out, or does that role change? Well, there are definitely some guys that you can't send. And why is that? Because they'll come back and they're not a good judge. It might be a little vague. Yeah. So let's get into this. What are you looking for specifically in that crew meal to judge if it's going to be a good one or not? Salads. Mm-hmm. Vegetables. Mm-hmm. And the color of the chicken. Oh, yeah, man. Don't be bringing me in some. If it's a certain color, he's not going to eat it. I'm out. Okay, what colors? White. That whitish gray thing. Boiled. No, no, no. Yeah. And as soon as I think that chicken's not cooked, I'm out. You're out. I'm gone. You're out. I'm gone. Yeah. So. You're looking for the peanut butter crackers in your bag. Yeah. I can live on those. So I'm good. But yeah, in crew meals, you'll see a little bit of everything. And often, Colin, our incredible road manager, he's had conversations with every show before we ever get there. And often, you know, part of the discussion is about crew meal. And sometimes it's exactly what they said they would have. And sometimes it's not. It's an interpretation. If it's roast beef, we would just pass. Really? Just pass. That's a hard pass. Hard pass. That sounds. Because it can be. It could be. It could be done. Fried chicken, you're almost always safe with. Yeah. But fried chicken's a solid one. Oh, always safe. Yeah. Fried chicken, green beans, real mashed potatoes. I'm a happy camper. And our favorite is KFC. So if you give us KFC, we are good to go. Happy campers. Yeah. What is the weirdest thing you have seen someone put on their plate? And I actually have one from when I was a small child and it still scars me to this day. What is it? Oh, Jojo? Put frog legs on his plate. Oh, yeah. Nope. I was out. He's an adventurous eater. I am not. That's the peanut butter crackers. We went to China and when the first night we were there, they served us a snake that was curled up. In monkey brains. And you were supposed to pick the food out. I go back to the hotel. I bought every Kit Kat bar and every possible cracker that they sold. And then I lived off that for seven days. Yeah. That's. Because I can't. I can't do the other. We have seen Jojo eat stuff that is still living. Like living. Yeah. So is he the one that's put the weirdest thing on his plate? Probably. Because he. Man, he is an adventurous eater and wants to try everything. It doesn't. It doesn't matter. Yeah. He will try it. OK. Which is probably a really cool thing. But it's not my game. I'm meat and potatoes. General rule. Farm boy. Now, do you guys have a certain like one crew meal that you could eat besides KFC? I'm kind of thinking. Is there. Because you guys play a lot of the same places again and again. Is there a certain crew meal that you're served that you're like, if we could just have this for every single crew meal, I would be the happiest camper in the world. It would be some of the ladies that have cooked for us. Absolutely. Over the years. Yeah. There were places in Cummings, Georgia. Cummings, Georgia. Calhoun, Georgia, where it was like this group of grandmas that made crew meal. And I mean, we would be like a week in advance going, I cannot wait till we get there. It would be like real meatloaf, real mashed potatoes, fried chicken, green beans, salad, chocolate cake. Not foo-foo fancy chocolate cake. Chocolate cake. Oh my gosh. Peach cobbler. It was incredible. Someone makes really good banana pudding. Well, there's some friends of Colin's that will bring a banana pudding. They actually brought it last week. That's like. I remember the banana pudding. It's unbelievable. Yeah. Banana pudding is a beautiful thing. That is a beautiful thing. So is there someone that is most likely to sneak seconds or thirds when no one's looking? Lightning. Our front house guy. Well, he's always going to want to take it to GoBox. Okay. Yeah. And he has cargo pockets that he'll put food in. Oh my gosh. He's like the Napoleon Dynamite scene. He's like, I brought you some delicious tots. Yes. Wow. So he can just snack while he works? Yeah. Got to give it to him. What is the worst crew meal disaster you've ever witnessed? So this isn't necessarily food, just disaster in general. Well, I remember specifically we were on the big tour in the 90s and we had paid a lot of money to have the crew meal brought in and it was spaghetti and ketchup. Not kidding. Yeah. You couldn't stretch that to call it marinara sauce. Really? I know what ketchup is. That was ketchup. And our manager, TK, went off on them. On the promoter. Yeah. I mean, went off. Because it was not inexpensive ketchup that they had charged us for. They were charging you for all 57 of those Heinz flavors. Yes. Yeah. Are you ready for this next section? What is it? Now, this next segment is a brainchild of mine because something you have bragged about my entire life, correct me if I'm wrong, hubby. Is that you are Magellan and that you can get anywhere without GPS because you are better than GPS and that GPS is a weakness and we should not be relying on it. So, what I've decided to do, hubby, so we can, as the good teacher, we can. And he can't get from here to the grocery store. Look, I'm going to totally admit it. I will put Kroger into Waze because I am completely directionally challenged and if you hand me a map, you might as well give a pig a wristwatch. It does not do me any good at all. Well, I heard that you had some trouble with the United States magnets on the bus. You didn't exactly know where they went even though you've crisscrossed the country how many times? Never. I know. I could have sworn some of those states bordered each other that apparently didn't. As I'm putting them on the refrigerator, I'm like, well, this doesn't look right. And Mark's like, have you ever seen a map of the United States? No, Indiana does not border Arizona, you know, so yeah. He thought we could get to Hawaii. Good try, little buddy. He thought we could get to Hawaii by bus. Oh, wouldn't that be ideal? So, there you go. Okay, well, here's what we're going to do. I have picked at random some cities from your tour this year and I'm going to yell them out to you. Right. And we're going to see how good you really are. All right. But because the teacher and you, yeah, we're going to be able to check his work with our trusty Rand McNally Road Atlas. Okay. So, let's start off easy. Okay. How does one get to Birmingham from Nashville? That's easy. Okay. What are we going to take? I-65 South. Anything else? It'll take you straight to Birmingham. Okay. That one was too easy. That one, yeah, that's because. Did you even, did you know that Birmingham is south? I have to. No, he didn't. I did, but that's probably one of the few that I would know. Okay, let's turn it up a notch. Tacoma, Washington. Okay, there are several ways to get there. We got to go west. We will leave Nashville, take I-24 to 57. What is 57? Okay, wait, let me find 57. Where's 57? It's right on the other side of Paducah. You'll take 57 North to 64 to 70 out of St. Louis. You can take 70 all the way to, let's go. He's not wrong yet. I don't even get this. You're a witch. We're going to go north. Let's take it all the way to Salt Lake and go north on 15. Sure, let's do it. Then go all the way up to 90 and then 94. Take 94 all the way into Tacoma. You might have to get on five to go south out of Seattle. So we're taking 90 how far? To Seattle and then I think we have to take five south to Tacoma. See, and here's the deal. This does not surprise me because I have lived this since 1980 where it never fails. I don't get it because I have zero of that. I don't know. But yeah. You're not the one that drives the bus. No. And we'll routinely, unfortunately, have times when something will happen with the bus and we have to get in rental cars from who knows where and go who knows where. He'll always do it. Like last summer when it happened every month, I'm like, hey, don't you want me to put this in Waze? And you would have thought I'd completely insulted him. I do not need Waze. You do insult me. So I had the volume down really low on Waze. And no. Now see, my mom will do that in the car, only her volume isn't low. Really low? Yeah. Oh yeah, no, he takes great offense at it. Well, I can get from here to Florida with my eyes closed and your mother will, you know. Are we through Atlanta? Yeah. She was napping. This actually happened the other month. We had to, our plane, things got canceled. It was easier to drive in the car and drive home. And she was just napping, her cute little face in the back seat and wakes up at random intervals yelling, are we past Atlanta? Yeah. And like, you know, we had passed Atlanta like, you know, two hours ago. Wow. Okay. Should we try another one? Let's try another. Also, this is, we literally did not tell him what cities we were going to pick. Let's try another one. West Fargo. Okay. So you take a couple of different ways. You could take- Would you start out the same way as you were going to- You want me to go a different way? No, I'm just saying. This is just me wondering. You start out the same way. Yeah, okay. So you could go- See, look how good I am. 24 to- 24 to 57. Pause. What state is West Fargo in? North Dakota. That's where the fair is. Proceed. Okay. So 24, 57. 57. 57 North. Okay. To Chicago. Okay. We're going to take- 90 out of Chicago that will connect you to 94 in Minneapolis. And then 94 will take you to West Fargo. Is that correct? Yes. Okay. There you go. Is there any that would stump you? Maybe the Northeast a little bit. But- But he would be able- I would be okay. Yeah, he would be able to figure it out. That's the crazy thing. Now, does this also apply to, like, if you were just dropped in the middle of a city, you can pretty much know, like, Norths, like, orient yourself. Yep. Have you ever actually been lost? Physically, not- Emotionally, yes. I think he was lost before he came into Pizza Hut and we began this adventure. I feel like that's when I sort of became his North Star. Yeah. Don't say anything mean, man. Don't say anything mean. I have to say, the two of you, because she's not very good either with her direction and neither are you. I don't have to be. I have GPS. Exactly. And I'm willing to own the fact that, you know, no, it's not my gift. But I really do feel like me not having inherited the sense of direction might be one of your- I feel like you feel like it's one of your bigger failures with me. That I just didn't inherit it. Don't say that. Because every time, I'm like, hey, where are we going? You will try to tell me how to get there. And I'm like, I didn't need a dissertation. I just needed the address. Right, right. And you're like, no, no. Come on. You can do it. Yeah. I'm like, no, I can't. Oh, I know. Been there. I can't. Okay. Well. There you have it. Maybe the claim is true. Maybe he really is Magellan. It's fine. One day we're going to stump him. How do you get to Hawaii? Fly. For a long time. Could you get to Alaska? Yeah. Of course you could. It's a long way to Alaska. And you've been. We've been. Yes. So, without further ado, we had to bring y'all into this. Thank you. We have some questions from the mailbag. Okay. Lots of fan mail. All right. Bring it on. So, over the years, you guys have amassed a couple of fans, as you can see. They're the best. Just a few. So, let's just pick one right off the top. And let's see. Now, if you want to submit your question for the mailbag segment, you are able to do that on any of the social media platforms. So, just keep refreshing that tab so you make sure that you can get your question in. Ahem. This first one is from Leslie. And she is going to ask, if you had to do it all over again, what, if anything, would you do different? New keyboard player. Wow. No hesitation. Wow. Response. I just try to be a blessing. So, I guess. You try to be a blessing? Exactly. What was the whole question? If you had to do it all over again, what, if anything, would you do different? Yeah. You wouldn't have walked into that Pizza Hut. Maybe I wouldn't have even shown up that day. Oh, I don't know. It all led us here. So, I probably wouldn't change too much. Yeah. As the song on our new album says, I wouldn't change a thing. Yeah. Okay. Well, I would change some things. Like, I don't know, a lot of the outfits you wore. Oh, well. Well. Yeah. Maybe the white overalls without the shirt. Okay, that one for sure. That for sure. No one ever needed to see that. True. My retinas will never recover. Yeah. Ever. Now, this is a great one because I feel like you get this a lot. Would you all ever put out a spiritual album from Cathy? Oh, that's a great question. Yeah. I hope that there are things on most every album we've done that have that definite spiritual undertone. I don't know if we would do a quote-unquote gospel album, but we've sort of did, I guess, with both of the Christmas records, to be honest. I would consider those spiritual. You know, the one thing is, you know, I produced the band Casting Crowns, and I have a Christian label. We are Christian men in our band, but I would never want to confuse sometimes, you know, the fans with Sawyer Brown music. Right, because Sawyer Brown is a country band. Is a country rock band. Oh, I'm sorry. Did you not see the documentary? Yeah. They're bussing. What song? Oh, I know the answer to this one because I did see the documentary. Okay. Thank you. I made the documentary. What song did you not want to record but became a huge hit from Nancy? One, two, three. Say it at the same time. I mean, yeah, I think I know which one. You talking about This Missing You Heart? Yes. I think, and again, it didn't feel like, look, it's a great song. So the people that wrote that, you wrote a great song. It never felt like us, and I don't think people knew it was us. It just doesn't resonate with our sound. But it still was a huge hit. It went to number two. It was. Because all the other songs you actually did really want to cut. That's the only one I can think of that was a hit that you did not want to cut. Yeah, true. You mean in terms of the singles? Yeah. There were definitely other things on those records that we might not have cut. But that song, again, and we've had songs that we got pitched that we didn't cut that went on to be big records for other people, but that's because they weren't meant for us. They just weren't for us. They weren't for us. Because, and we'll get into that in another podcast, but it's equally as important the song and who sings the song and that marriage of the two. We'll kind of do a follow-up to this. Was there ever a song that you guys wanted to record thinking it would be an album cut that then did become a hit? A bunch. Race is on. Yeah. We had no idea. Had no idea. When we started. This is just going to be fun. And we knew we'd want to play it live. But we would have never been able to picture that that would be what it became. So go watch the documentary so you can hear way more about that fun story. That's right. Shameless pitch for myself there. Okay. So that wraps up the mailbag for today. But let's also remind the good folks at home that 2025 is going to be packed with tour dates. I know that we are coming off of the big 40th year anniversary tour, but you guys are not slowing down this year, are you? Not much. No. We still feel like it's the 40th anniversary tour in some ways because we hit a lot of places last year, but there's still a bunch more. So we're still out there. So if you want to see where Sawyer Brown is going to be playing next, please go to sawyerbrown.com to see a list of all of their upcoming shows. And y'all add them fairly frequently too. So keep checking that to see if they're coming to a town near you. And also make sure to follow on all social media platforms that you can participate in mailbag. You can comment on some of the stuff that we talked about today and quite possibly have pictures of Lightning's three to five duffel bags that he brings out on the road with him every single time. So, yeah. Thank you guys so much for joining us. And thank you too. Thank you. Oh, and thank you. And thank you. Yeah. You know what? I thank God for you. Wow. That was so smooth and sincere. We will end on that. Yeah.