All Those Rich Men North of Richmond

We are live now on the Conversations That Matter podcast for this lovely Saturday. Hope you're having a good time wherever you are and prepared tomorrow for the Lord's Day. I'm actually preaching tomorrow, so I would appreciate your prayers at not the church I normally go to, but another church in the local area, the one my wife actually grew up at.

Preparing for Sunday and the Local Church

And so anyway, I'm still preparing my remarks for the sermon. And I mean, I've already kind of know what I want to say, but I'm still trying to organize those details. And it's just how my mind works.

I tend to write books starting from the middle, and some people think that's odd. Some people get it, but I don't just have everything. I have a lot of facts on the table, but I have to organize it. My wife calls them files.

Those are my thoughts. But anyway, I'm getting my file together for tomorrow. And hey, Abigail. Hey, Jacob. Welcome to the live stream. Good to see everyone. For a Saturday. I know some of you are out already.

You'll probably be listening to this later. And you're doing the weekend stuff, which hopefully it's enjoyable, whatever it is. Yep. Someone just said they heard the North of Richmond song today. Yes.

I've had probably more than, in a long time at least, more than anything else, people have sent me that song. I mean, I'll get things sometimes when the Southern Baptist do something, or Crew does something, or some big evil organization does something.

People will send me all kinds of things, and they'll want me to comment on it. They'll want me to just make me aware of it. And sometimes I'm not, like probably 90 of the time I've probably seen it, but there are times I don't, and it winds up in the program.

This is one I did see. And it's interesting to me that this song is striking such a nerve. So we're going to talk about the song, Richmond, North of Richmond. I have a number of clips to play for you on a number of different things, and just a few short announcements.

Oliver Anthony and the Appeal of “Rich Men North of Richmond”

But I want to start off the podcast with talking about this viral song by Anthony Oliver, who no one knew, well, hardly anyone did, a week ago. And now he is all over the internet. He's all over iTunes.

And why? Why is this song so popular? Why are people resonating with it? And I'll give you my thoughts on that. I don't want to overcomplicate it. But I do think because everything happens within a context, there certainly are things to say.

And I think a lot of people are getting it wrong. Not everyone, but I think a lot of people are getting it wrong. So anyway, we will talk about that. Before we do, though, I want to bring your attention to a few things.

First, we do have a men's conference coming up. I'm helping host this in the Adirondack, if I can say it correctly, Adirondack Mountains. And I did some calculations. Unfortunately, I don't know what I did with my calculations.

They were right in front of me. But I did some calculations before the podcast. And I was just curious, what would it cost you to go to a major conference, a major evangelical conference? It would cost you anywhere between 200 at the cheapest to probably like 328, somewhere in there to go to a major evangelical conference.

That's just the registration. Now, you add meals to that. Seven meals, let's say over the course of three days, you're going to have to pay for seven meals. Now, that's it's going to be more than that.

But let's just say for the time you're there, there's seven meals. Let's say you're able to get it. I mean, you're probably not. But let's say you can get the meals for seven bucks. That's $49. So we'll just say 50.

We'll say another $50. So why don't we say $350, then you have to pay for a hotel room for three nights. Maybe if you drive back really late, you can do two nights. But a cheap hotel room is now going to run you about 100 bucks.

So add another $300, you're talking $650 for a major evangelical conference. It's a lot of money. And that's one of the reasons I think, and it's not the only reason, but it's one of the reasons I've just shied away from those.

It's so much. And it's yeah, it's great while you're there, but you go there expecting to at least maybe I was naive. I used to expect to meet the people that are speaking and you hardly ever do. And if you do, it's a handshake and you're done.

You don't actually get to really talk with the speakers. Now, you do get to hopefully sit with people and get to know people at the conference, but there's really not much to do other than sit and listen to lectures and then walk around the booths.

That's just how it is. And I've been to many of these conferences over the years. And so anyway, a few years ago, I just thought, you know, I've been to men's retreats. I understand that's another thing churches do, mostly local churches with their own group.

And I thought, you know, it'd be great to do something like that and bring it to more people and really have a men's conference. So that's what we're doing, a three day men's conference that is cost effective.

I mean, it's not going to cost you at least an arm and a leg to go there. And all the meals are provided. You got to get there, but we're going to make transportation easy. At least there's a carpool set up.

So if you if you go to overcoming evil conference dot com, you can see what I'm talking about there. There's a carpooling sign up. You can click on that and it'll take you to a page that has carpooling from different parts of the country.

So if you're planning on traveling, this will help you connect with someone, share that gas. Gas is expensive right now. So if you can, if you're on the route, if you're on the way, let's say someone's coming from Ohio and you're in Pennsylvania and you're on the way, you may want to you may want to go with them.

But but but I wanted to bring the conference feel, I suppose, to what I would consider to be a better environment for getting to know people. I just noticed there was such a difference going to a retreat and going to one of these big conferences because at a retreat there's a campfire and men just open up for some reason when they're around the campfire.

There's activities to do, like going to the gym or going on the lake, going fishing, going hiking. There's just beautiful scenery right there in front of you. And so I thought this is just a much better environment for getting to know people.

It's a much better environment for getting to know the speakers, too, because there's plenty of time between it's not it's not just crammed sessions. Most of these big conferences have so many speakers.

It's just session after session after session. You're afraid you're going to miss something. And so then you get the tapes afterwards. You can listen to what you miss. But then why did you pay to go? You know, it's this whole thing.

So I thought, you know, why not just have a few speakers and have plenty of time for people to relax, take a nap if you want to take a nap, but get to know the people that are around you? And we had a great time last year.

And so anyway, this this is and by the way, I should also mention before I move on to Anthony Oliver, there is financial aid available as well. If this is just still too much money for you, email info at truth script dot com.

It's right on the website, overcoming evil conference dot com, and we'll figure out a way to get you there. I mean, that's that's at least the hope. And don't feel shy about asking. This is something we want men to come to.

The topic this year is overcoming evil. We have a number of great speakers, and I'm going to be introducing them to you on this podcast in due course. The first one I want to introduce you to is A .D. Robles.

So this is a short, about a minute long video, and then we'll get to the Anthony Oliver stuff and Richmond, north of Richmond.

It is time to sign up for the truth script conference. It's coming up the end of September. Check it out. It was a great time last year. Not only is the location just beautiful and awesome, it's just even the drive there was just worth it.

The actually event itself, it was awesome. I actually enjoyed it. Don't tell anybody. I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed the fight last feast conference. I think it was because it was smaller, you know, and so I got a chance to get to know a lot of people and good connections were made.

And, you know, we talked about all kinds of stuff. It was very helpful and practical, which was good. But also, you know, just on a personal level, it's cool to connect with a lot of you guys. So I hope to see a lot of you guys back there from last year and maybe some new faces as well.

I think you'll enjoy it. I'll be there. You can go fishing together, too. I didn't really have much luck last year, but I'm hoping to try a few new tactics this year. So, you know, we'll see what happens.

But anyway, sign up for the truth script conference. Hope you found this video helpful.

And you can go to overcoming evil conference dot com for more information and look forward to seeing many of you men there. I think it'll be a good time. I think it's the best deal and the best time at a men's retreat you can get east of the Rocky Mountains.

We'll put it that way. OK, one final, very short announcement. I just wanted to let people know, because months ago I talked about this documentary American Monuments, which I'm involved with. I should be you can pray for this.

I should be looking at a rough draft later next week. And hopefully within a month we'll have it done. And then I don't know when we'll release it, but hopefully this fall. So that is still underway. We're still doing it.

And you can go to 1607, not America. Did I say American Monument? I'm getting my documentaries mixed up. 1607 project. That's the documentary. You go to 1607 project. I think it's dot com. If you want to see more, there's a little trailer there.

But that's going to be our response to the 1619 project. And there needs to be one because there hasn't been, I think, an effective one. OK, so let's get into the Anthony Oliver stuff on that note. Now, there's this song, Rich Man, North of Richmond, that went viral, to put it mildly, went viral on.

I don't know, was it three days ago? It wasn't that long ago. And I think I saw it almost immediately because I'm friends with the guy on Twitter who kind of at least I'm Twitter friends. And I met him in person.

I've spent some time with him, the guy who on Twitter posted it. I don't think he realized what he was posting or at least that it would go this big. But since then, I've had all these people send me, John, you got to listen to the song, Rich Man, North of Richmond.

Now, I'm not going to play it for two reasons. First, there because now it is on iTunes. There's probably YouTube is going to flag the video. I don't want YouTube to flag this video, if possible. You can go listen to yourself if you want.

Rich Man, North of Richmond, YouTube, iTunes. The other reason is because I try to keep the show, even though we talk about a lot of sexual matters because they're in the political news, they're in the religious news.

I do try to keep it as family friendly as possible. There are a few words in this song. And and for that reason, I don't want you to have to, you know, turn it off while you're driving or whatever. So I'm going to read for you some of the lyrics to the song.

We're going to start there. And I'm going to substitute for some of the profane or what would be considered profane lyrics. I'm just going to substitute. And you'll you'll you'll understand what I'm actually saying here.

But here's the lyrics to the song. Oh, is that no, that's not it. Yes, it is. All right. So the first line says, I've been selling my soul. I should say it in the Appalachian Appalachian dialect, right?

I've been selling my soul, working all day, overtime hours for. And then there's a profane word for crap pay. So I can sit out here and waste my life away, drag back down and drown my troubles away. Now, I'm going to play for you in a second, kind of an explanation or at least part of an explanation for the song that Anthony Oliver posted before this went viral.

But the circumstances here, I think, are 2020. He's he's reflecting on not just 2020, but he's has the time in 2020 to reflect. And he's saying this is this is what life is like. It's it's all these overtime hours.

It's I can't pay my bills. I can't seem to survive. And I've lived, I think, near where he is, not far at least. I mean, I lived in southern Virginia for a few years and it's different for people who say they're from Virginia and they're talking about Richmond or they're talking about D .C. or they're even talking about the coastal areas.

It's a different Virginia. It's more authentic and real. It's not just northerners who move down. It's not cosmopolitan. When you get out to these rural areas, it's a different kind of Virginia. It's Appalachian.

And this is where Anthony Oliver is from. And it's clear you could just look at him. You look at his face and and there's it's the shape of his face. It's it's it's I mean, genetic makeup does have something to do with this.

The people who live in that area, because I live I worked in that area for a while. I traveled around doing repair work. Yeah, I mean, they're Scots-Irish. They look like it and they have a heritage that goes back.

And and that's where you get the bluegrass. And this this I guess what he's doing is kind of like a country kind of American folk tradition, Americana music. But but that's that's where you get that. And it's rooted in the soil there.

It is it's authentic. It's real. It's not something manufactured in some Nashville studio. I think that's the beauty of it. And if you watch the video for it, he's he's got his dogs out. He's on a farm.

Some of his other videos, he has like half buried cars, which I actually that gives me fond memories because so much of my family comes from Mississippi. When we would go visit for family reunions, I remembered all the half buried cars.

I remember they're just thrifty people. They're they want to conserve and save everything because they never know when they'll need it. Maybe that's the result of living in poverty for so long. But anyway, so so he says that basically things aren't working out well in life, at least.

And, you know, what's the escape from it? Well, sit here, waste my life away, drag, drag back home and drown my troubles away. So so drinking, maybe drugs, doing things to just try to forget about how terrible life is.

And this is I'll just say this is what conquered peoples do. You look at Native American reservations. You look at just people who who once were proud, who once had success and prosperity, and they were conquered.

They tend to. I'm not saying this explains every instance of someone turning to drugs or alcohol, but I'm just saying in general, I think there is a context here that probably fits that the people of Appalachia, if you read their history, if you read the history of coal mining and the war on coal, if you read the the history of setting up prisons in Appalachia and displacing people to put national park highways and through and the history, even the Civil War history, you're going to come away with a perspective that that says, wow, they really got the end of the shaft.

And of course, they're ignored because they don't fit the social justice victim ideology that they could, I suppose, if you really wanted to to make them that if you really wanted to portray them as victims and use that portrayal to then do some kind of a redistribution scheme of some kind, then you could do it.

But people aren't interested in doing it because they're white males. They're they're the they're actually the oppressors in the story that the social justice warriors want to tell. And I've just been around too many of them to know that that's just not the case.

Some of these people have nothing. You know, seven of the ten most deadly diseases commonly they afflict people in Appalachia more than anywhere else. I mean, lack of access to health care, all of that stuff is present in Appalachia.

And things just got worse during 2020. And so this is the context that this individual, I believe, Oliver Anthony is writing from. And and of course, this resonates with people outside of Appalachia. This is this extends past that because it's a story that goes beyond it.

I'm just saying it's particularly bad in Appalachia. All right. Living in the new world, this is the course living in the new world with an old soul, these rich men north of Richmond. Lord knows they all just want to have total control, total control.

So, you know, he's acknowledging the Lord here. He's saying that, I mean, it's a passing reference. But as I play for you a video of an interview or a camera, a webcam video he did or something, cell phone video, you'll see that he actually that there is a faith in God he has.

Now, I don't know if that's a saving faith or not. But in fact, I think on Twitter I had said, well, he's probably not born again. Well, I kind of take that back. I don't know. I don't know. After seeing the interview, I don't know.

People were telling me things like, well, he's got these other songs about smoking weed and stuff. I haven't listened to him. I don't know. But there is some kind of a religious background there. So at least a cultural Christianity.

So he's saying that these rich men north of Richmond, they just want to have total control. They want to usurp God. That's really what he's saying. They want to know what you think, want to know what you do.

And they don't think, you know, but I know that you do. So you don't think you're smart. They think you're dumb. They think you don't you're not wise to their plans. But you but he's saying that you're not dumb.

You common people are not dumb. Because you ain't because your dollar ain't worth. And then there's kind of an expletive. And it's taxed to no end because of Richmond, north of Richmond. So he's saying there's still that they're taking from you.

They're they're taking from you. They don't think you'll notice. They're trying to take your privacy. They're taking your resources that you and you're struggling to feed your family. You know, a lot of people find themselves in this position.

A lot of people. And these are well-meaning people. These are people that want to feed their families. They want to maintain their way of life. They're honest, hardworking, decent Americans. And this is what they get.

This this isn't people that are milking the system. These aren't people who say they have a victim mentality, but they've been on generational welfare. These are people that are trying their utmost to make it.

They're working hard to do so. And they're failing. They're struggling. He says, I wish politicians would is a verse to would look out for minors and not just minors on an island somewhere. Now, I believe this is a reference, I was going to do an interview that he did, and I think this is a reference somehow to child trafficking.

OK, and of course, in the wake of the Sound of Freedom movie, this really resonates with people, especially. But I don't maybe understand all the symbolism in that line. But he's saying minors in West Virginia, in the Appalachian region, who are there's a war on coal.

They can't feed their families, the government regulations. And but people in Congress seem to care more about minors on an island somewhere. They they they're in a I think he's saying that they're in this pedophile ring of some kind.

Now, if that's not what he's saying, then he's that's one interpretation, I suppose. The other one could be that he's talking about the preference that people in Congress seem to have for for others, people in Ukraine, people all over the world who aren't even connected to us, but they don't care about their own people who live in their backyard.

Both of those fit. He says, Lord, we got folks in the street and got nothing to eat and the obese milk and welfare, the obese milk and welfare, saying people who don't need it are getting resources and people who do are not.

Why is this situation happening? He says. And it almost sounds like a prayer at this point. Well, God, if you're five foot three and you're 300 pounds, taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds.

You shouldn't be buying junk food to make yourself unhealthy, to make your to. Fuel the problem that's already there, when if you didn't eat fudge rounds, you would be able to perhaps work, you'd be able to contribute.

And he's saying if you're grossly obese, you shouldn't be getting handouts. In fact, those are what those are killing you. Those are bad for you. And this is at a time when some people are struggling to eat.

So why is this disconnect exist? Young men are putting themselves six feet in the ground because all this this darn country does is keep on kicking them down. This is referencing the male suicide rate, and it's particularly bad among white men.

White men are killing themselves at an exceptionally high rate compared to any other demographic. Why? How come you never hear about that disparity? Anthony Oliver was willing to talk about it. And then he says it's a it's a shame that the world's gotten what the world's gotten to for people like me, people like you, which I could just wake up and it not be true.

But it is. Oh, it is. So facing the music, facing reality, not, you know, you turn on the country station today and you're going to hear all these party songs and all kinds of songs. And I've often thought, man, what?

There's such a disconnect. There isn't used to be in country music as much. Every once in a while, you'll get a song that resonates. But even artists who record songs that resonate like Trace Adkins, I remember recorded this song and I think John Rich did, too, during 2020.

And it didn't get any play. And, you know, we're content to just keep playing these terrible party songs. And it's not us who are content, actually. It's the people in Nashville who are who are increasingly leftist and controlling the industry and the market demands that people who listen to country music want music that actually speaks to the situations going on in their lives.

And they're not getting it. And so in step, someone like Oliver Anthony. My brother, David Harris, on Twitter, did a whole thread that got viral maybe two weeks ago. And, you know, the thread was on what he called Hicklibs Hicklibs.

And he said that these are Tyler Childers and I forget all that you have, Casey Musgraves. There's a bunch of people in there that he says, look, these people are trying to say that they're authentic country music.

They're not the pop and rock of Nashville. They're real country. Yet they're leftists when you get down to it. And why is that? And I mean, my theory has been any artist that maybe there's exceptions, but any artist who records for NPR at their tiny desk is probably compromised.

You know, Colter Wall hasn't done that. So there's just there's few exceptions to this. It's like if you there's two industries and they're both they intersect, but they're they're distinct. You have one that's like the polished Nashville and that this is in Christian music and country music and even rock music and pop and all that.

There's this kind of cookie cutter. You know, they they're selling you an image, optics, fashion. And then there's the more real, supposedly authentic style. But but those guys are also sometimes fake because you have to get on this circuit where you're playing certain venues.

You're playing certain theaters in blue cities, certain old theaters. So there's this sort of nostalgia about it, but it's in blue cities. And the people you're catering to are in blue cities. You have to you have to go to places like Red Rocks, where, you know, it's outside.

There's a large urban population outside of the town. And there's nothing wrong with this, by the way. But it's just what you have to do. And in doing that and in getting on radio stations, especially NPR public radio stations, you are rubbing shoulders with a whole lot of leftists and people who start out not leftist become leftist, just like when they go to Congress.

They start out good sometimes and then they're not. And so that's what happens in the country music industry. I happen to know this. I happen to have some loose connection with some people who are in that industry.

This is what I'm told. And and frankly, this is an industry I've thought about getting involved with. I don't think my voice is good enough, to be honest with you. I mean, I'm a minister of music at my church, but I have a backlog of stuff.

Funny enough, I had a song that was similar to not not as well written, I don't think, but it's in a similar vein of Oliver Anthony that's been sitting on my hard drive for like years. And anyway, I've been curious.

It's been almost a hobby of mine to just kind of keep up with the music industry, the country music industry especially. And I enjoy going to Nashville and all that. But but I can tell that there's a lot of rot at the top that you are disqualified at early stages if you want to speak truth and you want to meet the demand the market actually wants.

The market wants this. They want Oliver Anthony and they're not getting it. So that's the song. And I want to play for you some interviews. This is before the song went viral. I'm not going to play the whole thing.

Here's just a little sample of what Oliver Anthony believes, what he's about, what he says about himself.

It's August the 7th, 2023.

I'm going to skip ahead a little bit. We're almost over a minute in.

That I did care about didn't mean anything to me anymore. And I mean, this is certainly no Dr. Phil episode, but I I've I found an outlet in this music and. I started uploading a couple of songs and, you know, ain't got a dollar.

I uploaded Spring last year and then Rich Man's Gold, Cobwebs and Cocaine. And the list goes on from there. And there's probably been about a dozen or so originals that I've put out just off my cell phone.

And I started getting messages from people saying, like, how much the music was helping them and, you know, with their struggles in their lives. And they'd been sitting on the back porch listening to me for the last hour.

And it just. I don't know it, it it really gave me a purpose. It made me feel like made me feel like I wasn't just wasting my time.

All right, I'm going to skip ahead again. So I wanted to play that clip just to show you that this is a normal average guy in a pickup truck just telling you from his cell phone. That's how he started recording these, why he recorded them and why he kept recording them, because people resonated.

There's a demand for this kind of stuff.

I sit I sit pretty dead center down the aisle on politics and always have. I remember as a kid, the conservatives want more and and and me not understanding that, and I remember. I remember a lot of the controversies when the left took office and.

It seems like.

You know, both sides serve the same master and and and that master is not someone of any good to the people of this country. But I think one of the worst things that a human being can do is is take advantage of a child.

And I can't begin to conceptualize what has to happen to someone in order for them to think that's OK.

I want to stop there. Listen to what's happening. This is happening all over the country. People are being faced with real evil. At least they're recognizing that what's in front of them is real evil.

The veil is coming off. And this is one of the things I believe the Lord is using in the lives of many. And the thing that kills me, I'll just say this. The thing that absolutely kills me about this is that big Eva and even they call it medieval now to some extent medieval.

But are the leaders who even the ones who didn't necessarily go woke? They are not tapping into this. They are they are content to kick people like Oliver Anthony to the curb. So many of them to disparage them, to use them sometimes even as a punching bag, especially the woke people do this.

And these are the people that these are the common working class people that are now realizing spiritual things are important that they're trying to figure out how do we get off track? Something's wrong.

And Oliver Anthony here, when he says politically, I'm down the aisle, centered down the aisle. The example he gives is, well, I wasn't really for war in Iraq, I guess, in Afghanistan, and I didn't think we should be doing that.

And and and he said, you know, he's against child trafficking. What he's saying is actually and I hold to this, I really think that a lot of the country singers that get kind of unfairly characterized like like I saw this with that Hickleb thread that my brother put out, like people are saying, oh, Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash would be in favor of, you know, Tyler Childers song about homosexual minors having a romance.

And it's like, where are you getting this? And they think that that's what they would be for, because, oh, they're for the working man. They're for the little man. They're for the little guy. But really what's going on is, no, they're conservative.

Those guys were conservative. They weren't neoconservatives. They weren't what you think of when you think of political conservatives today. There are people who love their people, love their place, love their way of life, wanted it conserved.

And and they were willing to be critical about their own country at times. But just because they were critical and they didn't match the boomer con or the neocon stereotype doesn't mean they're not conservative.

They're probably more conservative. And I think that probably goes for Oliver Anthony. The fact that he wants the money to stay here, the people to take the country to take care of its own, not to get involved in foreign squabbles when people when the people controlling the levers are so corrupt, that's conservative guys that has been conservative for years.

It's not until recently that all of a sudden the conservatives are the more hawkish on these things. So, so, yeah, I know he's saying he's a moderate and stuff, but he's interpreting this based upon what he sees from the two major parties.

And he's saying they're both corrupt. It's a uniparty. That's that's where I think conservatives are today. They're saying it's all evil. There aren't good guys at the top. And what does that mean for us?

Well, let me play you a little bit more. And then towards the end of this, I think he talks about religion a little bit.

By chance. And and I'll say this and I'll go, I, I spent a long time being angry, an angry little agnostic punk. And I remember talking about Sky Daddy and Cloud Papa, and I would get so angry about the concept of God because I.

I had sort of perverted what my vision of God was because I, I looked at, I looked at the religion of man as God and not and not God himself. But there is a divine creator that loves you. And and sometimes it takes falling down on your knees and getting ready to call things quits before it becomes obvious that he's there.

But he's always there. You just got to look out for him and listen for him. So I'll see you on the next one.

OK, so I don't know if if if he's not born again, he may be close. Guys, pray for him. Pray for Oliver Anthony. Pray, pray that he would become saved if he's not, that he would have that this. Sense that he has that there's evil, that there's also good and that he needs to be on the side of good and that God is on the side of good, that that would be encouraged, that that would prod him closer and closer to Christ and also pray.

And this is a big one for me, that he wouldn't be corrupted because the trend is these guys get discovered and then it's too much fame too quick. It's overwhelming. It's just money being thrown at them and there's contracts involved and there's all kinds of people who don't share his values, who are going to make life really good for him on this side of eternity.

If he plays ball, that is an ever present danger. And hopefully he's strong enough to resist that. Here's another video. This is after now he's very happy in this. I think this was yesterday. Oliver Anthony put this out.

Y 'all are crazy.

Somebody just sent me a screenshot that Richmond, north of Richmond is number one on iTunes. And I don't even have words. I don't even know.

So everybody's been asking me about shows.

I've got one kind of last minute set up in eastern North Carolina, Currituck, North Carolina, this coming Sunday, August 13th at the Morris Farm Market. So that's the Morris Farm Market, Currituck, North Carolina, August 13th.

I'm playing from 1 .30 to 2 .30 p .m. And I will stay until 2 .30 a .m. if I have to. But I promise if you show up, if you're willing to come and listen to me, I am willing to stay and listen to you. I'm going to shake your hand.

I want to hear what you have to say. I want to hear your story. And if you're more than a few hours away from Currituck, don't sweat it. Don't make this into a big trip. There's no rush with this. I'm going to be playing a lot of shows, a lot of local venues.

I'm going to take my time with things. Like, I want to get to know all of you. This is not about me. This is about you.

I'm going to stop it right there and just say, a guy in front of a barn, fiddling with some straw in his hand, saying he's going to go play at a farm market, and he's going to stay there as long as possible because he wants to get to know you, and it's not about him.

He's got the right heart. This is not the kind of heart you have with those, the divas who go and seek their own fame and stuff. This guy's got a humility about him. Pray that that stays. Pray that that stays.