Justin Biltonen

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host. It is Monday and I am so excited to be here with you for another week. Here we go! I hope you are pumped and ready to rock this week out. I know I sure as hell am. We are pretty stoked today. Our guest's name is Justin Biltanen and he is the bass player for Three Doors Down. And I know what you're wondering, how the hell, what the hell does this have to do with restaurants? And you know, it doesn't. It doesn't have anything to do with restaurants. This is one of those episodes where I met somebody very interesting and I thought, hey I love to talk to him and just kind of get to know him a little bit. It'd be kind of fun to do it on air. And we're in Nashville. He lives in Nashville. He's got a solo country thing going on right now. And I thought, hey it'll be fun to learn. I've never interviewed a bass player from Three Doors Down. So this would be kind of neat. So there's not a whole lot of restaurant stuff here and I warn you. We do have a lot of fun and I really feel like this is a very interesting conversation. And I'm getting, I think I learned a lot. You know, I mean I know a fair bit about restaurants and talking to people about what goes on inside of the restaurants.

01:48But I'm genuinely curious as to what happens like in a band and how that works. And I do think that there are some similarities between what he does and what we do as far as running restaurants and with hospitality and creating art and putting art out there for other people. And that spirit of service I think is absolutely part of what he does versus what we do. So there's some get to know you stuff at the beginning. I'm learning. I'm you know figuring it all out. But I think the interview really picks up kind of towards the middle and towards the end. And I hope that you stick around and listen to it. You will hear an advertisement in the middle of this episode for Trust 20. They're doing amazing things out there. Check them out at TrustTheNumber20.co and get your restaurant certified. Do it now. Go to TrustTheNumber20.co. See what I'm talking about. There's 20 tactics to help get your restaurant certified. They're doing amazing things just like Amarshall Hospitality and Puckett's and Deacon's New South have done already. So we had a huge week last week and we are so excited this week to bring you this interview with Justin Bilton. And on Wednesday we're gonna be talking to Charlie Nelson of Nelson's Greenbriar Distillery and this interview is going to blow your mind when you hear this guy's story. It is out of control. We are going to have another, I think we're gonna try and do another Best of Nashville episode this Friday with some other winners because we just had so much fun celebrating with people. Their wins and what was awesome. But if you didn't catch our episode of the Roundup on Friday, we spoke with Ford Fry who is the owner of The Optimist and they won for Best New Restaurant. And then we also spoke with Brian Lee Weaver who was the writers pick for Best Chef. Coincidentally we got to have Chris Chamberlain on the

03:53show to talk to Brian about why they gave him the Best Chef Award which was really cool. And thank you Chris Chamberlain for hanging out with us throughout the whole show. We also spoke with Matt Bolus for Best Collaborative Menu and we had the Best Chef, Best Restaurant and Best Happy Hour, Lachlan Table, the chef and owner Hal Holdenbache owned us stop by for that episode. And then we had Margo McCormick. She came by voted Best Chef by the readers. What an amazing honor. What an amazing episode that was to have all five of those six of those amazing people come on. So if you haven't heard that go back and check that out and we're gonna do something similar this Friday. Maybe a little different but something fun nevertheless. We have got hats for sale at our website www.nashvillerestaurantradio.com. We got hats. Check them out. We love for you to help support us. While we do have sponsors every little bit helps us keep this train running down the track. So we certainly appreciate it. I got really high quality hats. They're worth it. We'd love for you to go check them out and purchase one or ten. It's up to you. So without further ado we're gonna jump right in and I hope that you enjoyed this interview. It was a lot of fun for me to do it. It's a little departure from what I normally do but hopefully you stick in there and give me some feedback. Let me know what you think.

05:26Send me a message. Just say hey I liked it or hey I didn't really like it. Don't do that anymore or hey let's see more of that because I'd like to know. I mean if you guys want to hear from more musicians I think a lot of them are willing to talk right now. So let me know and you can watch this on YouTube. It is probably better to do that watching it on YouTube because you can see there's a lot of references we make like watch this or check this out. We talked about tattoos and he shows tattoos and little things like that. So yeah that's an option too. Let's jump right in. All right with much excitement and welcome in Justin Belton in into Nashville Restaurant Radio. Welcome Justin. Man I'm so excited and this is gonna be a little bit of a different interview for me because you are a musician. You're a recording artist. You're a solo artist. You're in the country genre yet you're also the bass player for the iconic Three Doors Down and so why are you on Nashville Restaurant Radio and I hope today to kind of bridge that gap and kind of I'm interested in interviewing musicians obviously because we're Nashvilleians and that's part of our culture here but I I feel like there's a lot of similarities between what you do and what we do and I love talking to interesting people so if you're down I'm so excited just to talk to you. Okay so let's start off with some history. So for the people who are listening to this that don't know who you are you're currently working you're performing solo work as Justin Belton and you've got a country solo a new song that came out not too long ago called Worth Holding On To. A great video by the way and like I said you're

07:32also the bass player for the iconic band Three Doors Down. Let's walk back exactly kind of the beginnings. Where are you originally from? I'm originally from Western North Carolina, kind of outside of Asheville. I love that area I mean it's so beautiful. Beautiful, a big food community, a lot of beer, a lot of good stuff going on in that area. Oh yeah and the the Biltmore estate is there which was a nice beautiful place to go especially this time of year it's a crazy place to go in the fall. So like far far East Tennessee. How would you start playing music? I think I picked up guitar when I was 10 or 11. My mom played a little bit and she had this old ovation acoustic laying around and I kind of banged around on that and then within a year I was you know going to pawn shops and trying to find you know with my parents because I was 10 or 11.

08:38I wasn't like in pawn shops by myself but I found an old electric and started kind of messing around with that. Did it come naturally to you? Do you just like did you just did you teach yourself? I don't think anything comes naturally to me. I've got to like really work hard and stuff so I think it was a long process of you know learning and really sticking to it. No lessons? I worked very hard. Yeah I took lessons for a little bit. There's a guy in our hometown Mike Barnes. He's a pretty well known guitar player. He's played with like Warren Haynes a bunch. He does a lot of stuff. Oh wow. He's always like on the Christmas jams and stuff but I took lessons from him for a couple weeks and then I think the big thing was around that time I started playing in church. Okay. I started going I think it was like eighth grade. I started going to like kind of a wouldn't say evangelical necessarily but it was you know the modern Southern Baptist Church and especially at the time in like 98, 99 it was like all the music was kind of turning into like kind of rock band stuff and like the Third Day and DC Talk and Jars of Clay all those bands were like kind of the big thing and it was cool to try to get you know the youth interested in church music so you weren't just you know standing there singing hymns. So they started kind of outsourcing everybody from the youth group who could play instruments and that was the worst of music. Sorry. Oh yeah so that was my time. I was really into that type of music during that time and so my dad was in the Christian music industry. Oh cool. And I don't know if you ever read any

10:43publications back in the day but there was a magazine called CCM magazine. I remember that. I remember CCM yeah. That was my dad's magazine. Oh cool. So like the guys in DC Talk and all those guys so I'll tell you a funny story. Back then my dad would probably kill me for telling the story but the guys in Jars of Clay. So my dad was out of town. He and my parents were out of town. We have a pool and he says hey guys I've got some photographers coming to take some pictures in the backyard. I don't know what day they're coming but they'll probably be here someday. You know just let them in. If the people in the backyard don't worry about it no big deal. So we're like okay so my brother and I throw a party at the house because they're out of town of course. That's what you do when you're like 16 years old and your parents are out of town. So I go to bed. I wake up in the morning to my brother going dude wake up wake up wake up and I said what's uh what's going on and he said do you remember remember the party last night and I said yeah and he goes there's people in the backyard taking pictures and there's like 50 beer bottles floating in the pool upside down and it's Jars of Clay in the backyard taking a photo shoot for the cover of CCM magazine the new bands that make a splash. So we're like in the pool putting beer bottles and they're just cracking up at this these idiots in the pool and uh but that was right at that time and I know exactly what you're talking about. That's a great story. Yes it's uh it's one of those stories that I just told my dad like two years ago that that actually happened. The guys every time I saw the guys from Jars of Clay they were like did you ever and I'm like no I'm not thank you for not saying anything they were totally totally cool. That was that kind of intersection of that stuff where you know you had these Christian groups they were like that's cool it wasn't like you know here's this traveling choir and it wasn't like Carmen or Sandy Patty it was like this it sounded good. Yeah it was a different you know it was a I guess kind of a modernization of that kind of stuff which

12:50which I thought was cool I would always let it there's some of those bands still go back and listen to and a bunch of them oh yeah and playing and it's good music I mean whether you're all in on it or not it's there's a bunch of good solid out there for those bands there most certainly is. So you're playing in church did you play any other instruments so you learned the guitar and obviously you you play the bass but did you learn you play drums you play any brass or anything? No I never could figure out drums I think that was I was I don't think I was crazy enough for drums that takes a whole separate kind of crazy person to be a drummer everyone that I know like you there's too much going on you got to be you have to screw loose to be able to do that stuff but never messed with any brass either. Keys? Very very small amount I kind of messed around on messed around with banjo a little bit especially Western North Carolina bluegrass is huge so especially like kind of growing up in the family that was that was always bluegrass pickers and stuff but yeah I was just kind of stuck to guitar and I messed around on bass a little bit whenever somebody needed something like in high school if we needed a bass player for a church thing or something going on with like a battle of bands or something in school kind of mess around with it but it was primarily guitar I think that was that was what also drew me. What was the first band that you were ever in?

14:24I had one that I was we were kind of we played a bunch and then we're kind of we break up every three months all through high school. We had a bunch of different names. I don't know why I can't think of the name of it right now it's me and my buddy Jason and Daniel we always put we did like 182 covers and yeah some of our own music I don't know it'll come to me in a bit but that was probably the first band that like we we'd actually play we actually played at church too but then like whenever Jason's mom and dad worked at the church so whenever something wasn't going on we'd go in and rehearse and play in there and like play all the the band songs that you know we wanted to be playing and try to leave the cuss words out because we were at church and a lot of punk rock stuff that's really like I was really getting into like the old punk scene and a lot of sky was in a bunch of sky bands. Really? Yeah like full horn section sky bands that was like such a like I was in like three or four sky bands. But that's got to be like the most I always imagine like if you're in a band being in a sky band would be like the funnest thing in the world but you would just be so exhausted after a show because I just imagine there's lots of jumping around. Yeah there's a lot of jumping it was fun it's one of those things too like when when you have that many people playing I'm sure it's the same like if you're playing with the orchestra or something like whenever you have you know like a four or five piece band plus three other people playing in a horn section and all that stuff clicks it's the coolest thing like whatever it is that stuff like comes together there's like a big chorus part it's it's a cool feeling I think that's especially at the time whenever you know in 2001 or two like whenever sky was actually like on the

16:26main mainstream there for a minute like I think that was the draw was like all that stuff hits and it was like really cool you know all that stuff comes together it's a it was just was a cool vibe it's a cool feeling so this is one of those restaurant assimilations that I'm talking about to where you've got all of these things that have to work in literal concert and when it does it's really special and that's kind of like what it's like in a restaurant on a really busy night when the bartender's pumping out drinks they're three deep the host they're they're kind of managing the place as a server or as a manager you're just it's just this flow it's this this organized chaos it's just this chaos that just happens and at the end of it you're all like we just went through battle together and we killed it like we did a great job like do you ever get that feeling when you finish a show like that or when you just when you just when it just everything works out well you're like really close to everybody like is it just like this moment oh yeah um and yeah it's like uh worked in restaurants and stuff so I don't know exactly what's moving everybody's when you got the whole staff's all clicking together and everything's moving right and it's total chaos in there but like food's going out on time drinks going out on time it's like it really is very similar whenever um you have a big show or you have something that was like a fly date where you've got everybody running all day you got the crew running all day everybody's trying to set stuff up or like a big festival and you've got a very specific time slot and it's like you guys are on you know it's got to be right here right now go go go and whenever that actually clicks and goes off and the show's great the crowd's great everybody got in got out seamlessly that's uh that's a good feeling because I've definitely been on the other end of it where nothing works nothing's right you go in it's total chaos and

18:31things are falling apart because you got some of the wrong people in place and I think being on both ends of that so you you get that feeling when everything's right you know but you see when you're in a band like you were in a band called a campaign 1984 which was kind of your band that led up to um three doors down right so when you're with that band and you're doing concerts and you put everything together is it more you doing everything and or did you have a full crew but when you get to three doors down that's a different level right I mean you have like roadies and a whole production team do you have to do a lot when it comes down to like a three doors down type situation you're going to play a festival do you what do you have to do to prepare for that or you just show up and play um I think uh yeah with the campaign it was it was all on us we're DIY we had nobody that went with us it was the four guys in the band and loading gear doing all it was total chaos all the time and a lot of times it didn't work it was frustrating a lot of times it did and it was fun and you know you get to that level of three door stuff and all of a sudden it was just my job is to perform this song the best I can and to look right play right do everything that I'm supposed to do is only on that stage for that hour and a half two hours and I don't have to worry about any of the stuff behind the scenes because it's it's not my gig it's not my job so it was a big it was a big jump for that but it really was just like focused 100 on that performance which is cool it's is that better is that better or worse I mean because do you feel more of a sense of satisfaction when you actually set everything up and you put that blood sweat and tears into it was playing the music kind of the the icing on the cake like we did all of this

20:34and when it works you're like holy shit this actually works we're doing it is there more excitement in that or is there more excitement playing in front of 15 000 people in an arena playing bass playing you know an iconic song like kryptonite it's a thousand people jumping up and down and you've just like what's the difference in emotion there because I'm like it's got to be the number one question you get asked right yeah um I don't know that's that's a tough question because like I do do my solo stuff and whenever I do that it's just me I throw the tar or pa or whatever I got to take in the truck and drive and go play shows so I guess I still do like that you know doing it all on my own kind of forging my own path with that stuff and there's a sense of accomplishment there yeah and uh but also I mean there's definitely that good feeling that sense of accomplishment with getting on stage and playing for a bunch of people and doing that one gig and going to bed um I think I like I think I still just I love I love performing no matter what so no matter what I'm doing like even with everything shut down I'm still doing live streams at least once a week um since back in April and been able to get out and go play bars and stuff now and go play my own shows and do different things now and I've got a couple coming up and booking more so I think I think it's just performing I'm going to do whatever I have to do to perform so getting out and playing music like whether it's setting up in here and doing a live stream or doing my my own you know shows where I throw everything in the truck and go play somewhere or just show up and and do my gig with three doors um so you guys still it's feeling of accomplishment I think what is your where are you guys at with um so you just said

22:38you're doing live streams you're you're focusing right now on your solo career I imagine because that's something that you that's yours you own it's your deal and obviously if that's if you become the next Keith Urban that'd be really cool um but three doors are you still are you guys recording I I read that you guys were going to go on a huge world tour this year with a re-release of the uh inaugural your first album on the 20 year anniversary yeah is that it and obviously that is on hold like where what's our what's your status there um that was that was going to be the main deal this year was uh June through I think December was going to be Europe the states Canada full on all over the place like we're supposed to be going to a lot of different cool places for the 2020 anniversary like it was 2020 was going to be the 20th anniversary yeah the first record and um I think with all that stuff getting it didn't necessarily get canceled just got pushed to the next year like all that stuff was already in place for you know the re-release everything so they've just kind of moved it over um and that's that's the main plan now um did a little waffle house uh thing last week which was pretty fun it's like they've got an award ceremony called the toonies and yeah it's for their jukeboxes in all the waffle house and um they were honoring the people who get played the most so uh I think Kid Rock and Luke Columns there's a bunch of different artists on it and uh we were one of them so we went and did a performance and some different stuff for it but um with three doors yeah nice so um yeah that's uh I think this year happened and they just moved everything next year so we'll see what

24:39happens with that but um I know they're already working on the solo let's just move everything that was supposed to happen June through November to 2021 so hopefully you see I said you seem you seem to be just like rolling with it though I mean so many people are having a tough time with just all of the change and what's going on with my life and your plan going to world tour are you are you married do you have children not married but uh we got a girlfriend we just bought a house over here in heritage and oh nice yeah um congratulations thank you thank you um we've been excited about it's been a huge blessing being able to work on this here and the whole thing but um does she travel with you when you go on tour no no she uh always says she's got a real person job um works in medical field and medical research sales and stuff so she's been able to work from home this whole time and she hasn't missed a beat on her her stuff is still going strong which has been another huge blessing we're you know kind of worried about a lot of stuff obviously with I never expected to just be completely shut down but um yeah she's going strong and she she works normal hours so uh she doesn't travel with me but so I we got way diverted from our story we were telling as to how you got here and I know there's just so many questions I wanted to jump in and ask you but um so back to your band um a campaign 1984 you're in this band you moved to Nashville did you move to Nashville with the band or did you start the band when you got to Nashville um we started that band in North Carolina okay um I for the probably the last two years that we were doing that band was in Nashville pretty much every weekend um I was kind of when I started

26:43really and this was like 10 years ago but um really started learning the ropes of country co-writes in Nashville um ended up getting an opportunity with a guy named James House and we had some mutual friends and he kind of took me under his wing for about a year year and a half and we'd do co-writes and I'd come to town and we'd work on stuff and I kind of had like a little country trio duo thing going for a minute that we were working on and um that's so what can trying to get in here okay what was what kind of music was I haven't heard campaign 1984 what type of music were you playing it was kind of heavy crazy southern rock a lot of okay chaos um a lot of riffs a lot of a lot of kind of heavy stuff we're going to take a quick break to hear a short word from trust 20 trust 20 is the new standard of restaurant safety and diner comfort trust 20 restaurants are part of a national network of restaurants that meet a high standard of cleanliness and safety giving diners confidence in the measures you're taking to keep them safe trust 20 restaurants receive expert guidance operational resources and benefit from diner focused promotion on behalf of trust 20 network of participants so how do you get certified it's easy first go to trust 20.co and request a certification appointment then a trust 20 specialist will reach out and arrange a visit the specialist conducts a 60-minute review and consultation according to trust 20 tactics if adjustments are needed the trust 20 specialist will provide guidance to assist now that you're certified have peace of mind that you're doing everything you can to keep your restaurant safe and start enjoying the benefits of trust 20 certification remember visit trust the number

28:4720.co to request your certification appointment today so just i'm just following your musical progression because i just started listening to country at the beginning of 2020 i literally um i i met stormy warren from uh the highway and uh he challenged me i said i told him i said country music to me is like oysters i keep trying it and i continue to not like them so i think i'm just labeling it that i don't like it and he goes have you listened for longer than 10 days and i said i don't think i could make it he goes i challenge you listen for 10 days and you will fall in love and i said you know what dude i'm gonna do that because i'm i'm just gonna try and listen for 10 days and now i love country music i don't know what it was but i fell in love with the stories there's something very wholesome about it i dig it but you went from playing your mom's guitar to now you're uh into the christian genre you like the rock type stuff and you've got a heavy southern rock band but you're also co-writing in nashville doing country music like where where does all this how does it make sense so growing up i guess my my first all the music that i remember like first being kind of introduced to and being old enough to to absorb was the 90s country that was happening that my dad was really into because he always he always wanted to be a country singer if you get a couple beers on and he just sings all the time it's really good and it was just always on and alan jackson brooks and dunn garth brooks alabama but all the old stuff whale and johnny cash charlie daniels big time um all that stuff was just like my the music that my parents were listening to and that i was listening to when

30:48i was younger kind of got out of it through high school and started getting into the heavy stuff because it's got the progression of you know teen angst i guess you'd call it you don't want to listen to your parents stuff and growing up north carolina was like i didn't want to listen to bluegrass at the time it was like this this cool heavy stuff that i'm listening to and grunge was really big then i mean grunge and rock alternative rock was really big around that time right i mean so i mean that was all the radio stations were playing absolutely and i think that was that was kind of the progression was just you know like everybody try to find your own stuff like is my music this is what i connect to and at different times that's that's what happens so you might start listening to heavier stuff or different stuff on the radio or i don't think everybody does that obviously i think some people just turn on whatever's on the radio and go about their day but um i think being a musician and playing in different bands and doing all that stuff i was always like absorbing and listening and trying to find songs and things that i could relate to and found a lot in like the the kind of punk rock heavy stuff for a while and once i got on the road with a campaign and you know it was i think around like 2005 i think was when i really started getting back in the country because we'd go play the crappy bar somewhere in the middle of nowhere and have a long drive somewhere else at like 2 30 in the morning and you know you're the only one awake in the van because you're driving and you don't want to listen to a bunch of screamy stuff or like heavy music so try to find something softer you try to find something you know a little quiet you can put on and you're also driving by yourself you're

32:51playing bars you're kind of living what the old country stuff was talking about and well you're identifying with the music you're listening to it kind of it's it's comforting it's like almost like if you're by yourself it's like listening to a it's like you know i have a conversation with a friend but somebody that gets you right now and i think that you know that was the the the whole thing was identifying with stuff for a time and everything's kind of got seasoned to it but um yeah i started like going back and listening to the stuff that i grew up on and i was like that songwriting's amazing like i'm i'm out here on the road doing exactly what you know wayland jennings was talking about and started kind of diving back into that stuff and and really got into it i was trying to write i was trying to play it and around that same time like jason aldean dirks bentley here church all those guys were like really coming on the scene and that kind of new wave of this kind of country rock stuff but also kind of blended like a little bit of what i was doing there's all these like big heavy guitar riffs and jason aldean's got this huge band singing and i was like oh this kind of bridges the gap of the stuff that i was listening to and go see you know drive-by truckers or something and there's just just i think at the time they had like seven people in the band when i saw them whenever jason isabel was playing with them and there's all this stuff going on and it was like kind of a good mix of what i was into anyways and this older country stuff that i loved and i think that just kind of i started identifying with that more listening to the stories and eventually started you know trying to write that stuff on my own and that's kind of how i ended up doing the stuff here at national james house and subsequently started writing with a bunch of other people in town too especially once i moved here officially with when i started with three doors that was that was easy

34:53i was getting rights all the time with people so so when you get rights do you get hired by like a publishing company to be a writer or are you just known because you've been doing songs and you have friends you meet people and you're like hey i wrote this what do you think like talk about how because i think there's a ton of people out there in nashville who are songwriters i think we hear the term songwriter all the time but i want to know kind of the nuts and the bolts like how does it work do you meet me at a bar you're like you want to write a song is it like an intimate thing is it like you got to know the person you have to have chemistry to write a song how does it begin um all that there's a bunch of different avenues um pretty much everything you just said is true um there's some people that get you know pub deals and they're they're a songwriter for a specific publishing house that happens all the time that's kind of something that you strive for as a songwriter um opens up a lot of doors and avenues but um i think mostly especially starting out you just kind of you find other people that are songwriters too that are um coming up a lot of them now and you know you got artist writers so you meet other people in town do you have any kind of chemistry whatsoever just like hanging out drinking a beer or you know like just hanging out at a writer's round or something then that evolves into usually trying to get a song right together and then kind of go from there too like if if you guys get a good song or you get started on a good song then maybe get another one and write more and you kind of end up over time finding like a little group of people that you write well with and it just kind of goes from there i've had so many people just like hit me up on instagram like hey you want to write i'm like yeah so there's a lot of it that's organic and then you start getting to different levels of it and if you're on a publishing thing they're setting up rights for you um probably three a day and

37:00writing as much as you can so how much of your experience is from kind of just growing up being in bands playing traveling around the country like you said playing in small bars playing in just crazy but i don't know in front of 10 people versus a couple hundred people or whatever but then driving across the country just those experiences and then being in a band like three doors down and having those experiences do you think that that rounds you as a songwriter do you think that that's something that you're able to put into your songs that that different level perspective because a ton of people out there who write songs have never played the inauguration yeah who you know people out there who play songs haven't played in these festivals in front of 20 000 people and you have that experience do you think that that adds to your songwriting ability um i hope so um i feel like as a songwriter or writer of any kind if you're writing you know stories or novels or poems or anything we we draw from experience and there's some people out there that can just like totally make something up and be a thousand percent relatable and have no experience with it whatever like they're they're that talented but natural yeah there's some people just you know they they have a way with words and they can just spit out what um whatever they they feel needs to be said on whatever subject and that's a that's a whole other talent but like i said i gotta work at everything i do really hard i'm not like naturally talented so i think the experiences that i've gained from traveling so much because i've been doing some form of touring since 2004 and that's when i first started back when you could book stuff on myspace and you could play a bunch of cities with bands that you've never

39:00met before and like there's this whole weird time where you you know you could do that and print out a whole trapper keeper full of map quest directions and take a flip head out um so that's old school right there yeah uh looking back now as connected as we are with gps and all that stuff i'm like i have no idea like actually like reading an atlas and getting to a show somewhere in california but we did it you know uh something i would i wouldn't trade that experience for anything and it definitely led up to all this stuff that i've been able to to do with my career so far and it adds to that story it adds to the stuff it adds to what i can bring to the table whenever we you know sit down to write a song or talk about something um because it comes from a real place and i think the best songs come from a real place so yeah whatever it is that you're you're writing about if you if you actually have that experience i think it's going to be better than just trying to imagine what it's like to do something so i like to think you know it's an extra kind of tool in the toolbox for sure for sure what do you what are you most proud of what's the experience and the thing that you've been able to do through all of this that you look back on as your fondest memory oh man um i don't know if i have like one in particular because they just come up randomly like in a conversation when you're talking something like oh yeah this when we were out west doing this this one time but um done a lot of cool stuff with with three doors we've been able to travel world and the band has a really great charity that they started way before i was in it but done a lot of great stuff with that charity over the past seven and a half years that i've been in the band and really proud of all that stuff let's talk about that what is the charity and

41:05let's give it some yeah all the all the love and all the the let's talk about it and let's learn more about it so we can educate our listeners yeah it's uh it's called the better life foundation and the band it's it's from the record but um the band started it i believe in 2005 maybe 2000 or 2005 somewhere in there like early on in their career and um it's been a really awesome charity they've done a ton of work around the states and a lot of international stuff too it's uh dollar in dollar out charities and nobody nobody makes any money on it goes directly to whatever stuff needs it so a lot of disaster relief a lot of um women's shelters a lot of cancer stuff a lot of veteran stuff they're just helping everybody yeah and and i think it's it's it's something they can just kind of allocate money wherever there's a there's a need for it and it goes directly to the people that um are foundation chair mark smith he's very adamant about you know sourcing out who's who's legit because there's a lot of charities out there where you know you give ten thousand dollars and you know a hundred bucks of that actually is used on what it's going to everything else goes to yeah and um they've done a really great job over the years of finding the stuff that all right here's this group that's going to take this check directly to Lowe's to buy supplies to rebuild these homes after the storm a lot of stuff that's directly boots on the ground no you know money doesn't get you know murky in any way it's it goes directly to the people they've done a great job with that so um over the years it's just been it's been a really cool thing to be a part of so it sounds like the guys of three doors down are really using um using this this platform to to do some great things and i i love that about them the rest

43:10of the band they all live here in nashville too yeah we got uh our scene was at murphiesboro and then chris graham and chet they live in hendersonville and then i live in hermitage all right very cool so you guys so hermitage henderson you guys aren't that far away do you guys practice like a lot do you guys get together and like practice or do you need to practice kryptonite like you like i played a thousand times yeah i'm good a little bit of that you know before we do something we usually get together and knock the dust off but um we've been playing together a long time we've been doing these songs for a long time so um muscle memory is pretty crazy you can not play a song for a year and then sit down it may not be the best you've ever played it but also your hands are just doing what they're supposed to and i can yeah i play guitar not really i i learned court that played it in church and around that same time you did in 97 98 or a little before you but um i can still play better man but i can still do it my hands just go right there and i can do the chords and i can still do it all i pick up the entire day of the week and like i can play come as you are i can kill it it's uh it's a funny thing like you just it's like riding a bike i guess he's there's a lot of it that's kind of perishable if you don't practice and i think that's more more along the lines like the performance that and i think that's something that you definitely have to to work on if you want to be an entertainer because i'd like just me on my solo stuff i can hear a difference like if i haven't gone out and played a show on my own in a month like what i finally do i can tell like it's little stuff it's it's things where like if i was playing i nailed this little riff that i do while i'm singing and then if i haven't played in a while

45:12it's a little tougher my voice isn't you know i don't have the the energy in it or something so there i think the performance side there's stuff that's that's very perishable and to be a good entertainer you kind of kind of work on that all the time and be in front of people doing that stuff but it comes back quick how often do you deviate from you know your song you have a song um you know some bands are notorious for widespread panic you mentioned warren haines but starting a song and then like moving into another song and then coming back to the original song but doing just all kinds of deviations in the middle of a song do you ever do that is that something like musicians do where they go i'm going to sing the verse this way counting crows i used to hate it because counting crows adam dirts would always sing the songs live and i'm like it it doesn't sound like the album and then kind of after a while i was like oh he's doing that on purpose because that's his thing yeah i think so you know they don't want it to be boring they're trying to you know mix it up a little bit and every show is different which is totally cool but um three doors has never been that bad we got one thing like we do a little reggae part in kryptonite sometimes for a breakdown but that was like it's it really didn't it doesn't change the song it's not like went off and jammed or anything but um three doors we just play the song just do just do the thing man they go they came to hear the song we're going to play the song yeah um with my solo stuff i guess i don't really jam but it's like i usually end up playing like two three hours and then yeah it's it's weird like that i don't know how i got roped into that but uh two three hours i thought that's a set man yeah i think that's definitely in the uh in the country world a little more common because you go and play places and until you're like the on a tour where you only get 30 minutes because you're an opener

47:19or you're the main act um you end up having to play you know there's pretty good long sets for uh um throwing in covers and then all that stuff to kind of keep the crowd interested but um yeah whenever i do that stuff it's just kind of i guess the only problem just be whatever i'm feeling i can kind of like i don't have a service on my ground and bang through this and take you play covers yeah i've got a couple that i like playing um got to fill up that time it was like three hours do you have that much original music to play or do you ever play originals and i've probably or songs no i'll never do that you'd like a country kryptonite just bust that out one night if there's like nine people there or something and you're like oh yeah we're gonna do this like no i've never messed with that stuff just because i'm not the singer for three doors so it it feels weird yeah i understand that it doesn't feel natural to to sing those songs if that makes any sense it totally makes sense it just feels so weird doesn't feel like even doing a cover it doesn't it just doesn't feel right to me so so i just don't do it if anybody like whenever people ask themselves they're like hey let me play that song like you're thinking like you're thinking of a different band i'm in three dog night and but isn't it nobody knows in three dog night songs but uh no everybody knows three dog night come on uh i think about the now i've been out performing long enough to where whenever i do go play places it's like that's cool that he's from the band but we know he's he's doing his own thing it's the crowds and i look well why aren't you playing kryptonite man what's going on is that people people get it they know it's just it's me and whatever i want to play not like out performing the three door songs on my own it's totally

49:24different thing so i'll pivot a little bit because we're not that we're just running out of time but time does fly when we're having um good conversation you also have another company that you do it's called sacred west trading company yeah right and so tell me about that tell listeners um you kind of do some leather works and even coffee yeah um that whole thing kind of evolved uh out of this whole situation um with everything shutting down and it's something i've always wanted to do um a lot of the fans have been doing leather work for a very long time and and tooling leather and making all sorts of different stuff and it um it gets pretty hard to keep up with since it's not my primary thing and i wanted to kind of divert that creativity in something that i could kind of keep up with and uh one of my best friends he's really good with computer programming and doing all that kind of stuff and i'm not at all good at it and and we kind of started working on this stuff and it was just designs that i had because i love wild west stuff like i love all all the the imagery of it and just a it's cool stuff with it so there was a lot of the designs that i did with leather work anyways was that kind of you know different leather work and stuff that that always kind of ends up being that you know western thing so when everything shut down i started drawing and working on different stuff and we kind of put together this apparel company and i wanted a lot of different ways to to do stuff instead of just relying completely on like all right i'll make this leather wallet that make that takes me you know two days to finish and i hope somebody buys it that's with the apparel things like all right we got t-shirts we got all sorts of different stuff that we can offer and

51:26it's still a way to be creative and do that and kind of get things running all the time because it's not just me sitting in the garage you know working on something so that started to evolve when we started kind of seeing what else we could add to it and we ended up with two great coffee offerings that we have right now that we started with and some different leather work started adding in recently it's kind of southwest native jewelry that i've been collecting for a long time and we've got that aspect of it so it's all cool vintage stuff and just kind of worked up a bunch of different ways to to be creative within that company i guess and launched it a couple weeks ago and it's been doing pretty good like we've been getting some sales people been digging it and i don't know just another another way to be creative i think there you go so it is um sacred west trading you can find it sacred west trading you got a picture you got it there you go there's a one of the coffees sacred west and then i got the t-shirt on too very nice yeah so i like that it's a cool t-shirt is that like the super duper soft t-shirt yeah it's like uh just those canvas beta soft they're they've been good all the designs gotten from them were very comfortable so you know another way to i got um i haven't exactly bridged the gap between restaurants and bands but done a good job we've just been talking about your life and career um but i imagine um kind of just talking about the the kindred ship and all the things that you do in a band all the experiences you have that brings each other closer uh and i think that there's a spirit of service that you have to

53:30have to get on stage because you're you're presenting art and the same way people in restaurants present art it's almost like i talk about love languages a lot you know and you've got a girlfriend you guys live together you probably know each other's love languages um so the spirit of service of like wanting to give and create you know this experience for people i think is something that we we absolutely share and um i just love you've come on today and just kind of talked about your experiences and everything you've done one of the other similarities between chefs people who work in restaurants probably everybody these days but not me um you have a bunch of tattoos oh yeah yeah it's uh um i love do you have any stories behind the tattoos um yeah i got a couple different ones uh the short story on this one um so rose just for the storm there's a uh one of my favorite whale and jenny songs rose in paradise it's uh kind of a ghost story it's a really cool song i played on my set it's one that i've always loved but that's where that tattoo came from so that's a short story on that one but uh nice there's some longer stories for some other ones but yeah they all have they all have something is there any that you regret um no there's a there's some that um i've gotten just kind of in the heat of the moment that don't really mean anything to me that they're just kind of there but it's there's nothing that i'm like oh man i need to get that yeah just kind of but if if i ever had a chance to like get like a bigger piece to cover it up or something i might but i don't have anything that i'm like oh man i can't stand that i can't believe i got that you know travel tramp stamp or something i don't know

55:35a couple just rapid-fire questions and i'll let you off the hot seat we get you out of here so who is it have you you've been out there you've played a lot of shows you've been probably with a lot of different um probably been on stage with some different people is there anybody you've been on stage with or you've just got to get to meet that you've just been starstruck or that you've just been it's just been really cool um we have played with a lot of iconic bands which has been really cool getting to to see all those or perform with the same stuff but um i'd have to say uh mr charlie daniels he rest in peace um yeah he was a great man and got to meet him on several different occasions we played with him and uh the first time i met him uh myself and brad our singer and with brad sang on stage with him at uh lipscomb university whenever he was doing his uh charity event there and that's still probably the coolest thing i've ever gotten to do wow yeah what an amazing moment um back to the restaurant world you live in nashville where do you where do you and your girlfriend go out to eat uh everywhere um back when we could i guess uh now that we can a little more it's it's it's been nice because that was kind of a big part of the culture around here's the food and beverage industry so um it i'm banking on it yeah yeah i guess it kind of just depends like that we what we're you know what's going on all right so you're just hungry and you guys are going out to eat where's the go-to you could be like the local mexican restaurant hermitage i don't know but like just if you guys just going out to grab a bite to eat what do you choose what's like your it's the old standby um martin's is a big one all right

57:38barbecue at some point especially if we got people in town that's like a it's a good go-to the atmosphere is really cool food's great um there's another new barbecue place over on the east side called shotgun wheelies yes awesome and i've spent a lot of time in texas and they do brisket right down there and so shotgun wheelies it's texas style not too many people that that do it right around here there's a lot of good pork barbecue ribs and stuff but his brisket is awesome so i love the shotgun willy shout out uh we're gonna we're working on getting him on the show him and his wife awesome awesome yes yeah tell him tell him i'm a huge fan it was great all right we'll do all right so that's your casual hey we're gonna go out grab something you like barbecue now so let's just say you want to go out for an anniversary you want to go out for it's your birthday one of those type situations where are you going um just recently for my birthday which was in july we went to the optimist oh yeah ford fry there in germantown oh yeah incredible that place was awesome uh really good food really cool atmosphere loved it um been to urban grub a couple times that place is great um i'm having brunch there this sunday great yeah the great ribs um chau han's really good uh all right right next to the mockingbird and then um it's the asian place right there in the middle tonsu tonsu yeah that place is awesome and they have a uh they have a pop-up right now called case of beria oh yeah which is just uh they're doing all kinds of crazy stuff that's all all the rage right now yeah uh burger republic's great both they're located well i think they've got more than two now but um the one in the gulch is really good it's great great i was just just there the other day have you uh have

59:39you gone to any of these pop-ups that have been happening all over town not yet but there's one at fat bottom it's like the mac shack or something oh yeah and it's all like gourmet mac and cheese oh that's happening very soon um they're different mac and cheese flights so you can get like different mac and cheeses that are all crazy and they're gonna get beer from fat bottom so that one's that one's happening soon that might be one i can take my kids to i have i have five and seven-year-old boys that are practically macaroni and cheese connoisseurs so it sounds like a perfect afternoon for the family yeah do you cook at all is your girlfriend the cook what do you what do you make at home we cook a lot um and have been doing all this stuff and everybody's got their own especially i've got a blackstone riddle that i got um beginning of summer and it's like the flat top riddle so we're cooking burgers and tacos and all sorts of good breakfast stuff on there um heck yeah no we make everything um that's i think that's a little more fun than going to restaurants these days like actually honing honing those cooking skills instead of just you know getting used to something in a pan or something like actually learning proper ways to do that stuff i've seen a lot of people doing that um throughout this whole crazy situation because you want some good food and that's for a while you couldn't you just really couldn't go get it because it was closed so so a lot of people kind of learning a new skill and it's carried over and cook all the time um she just made a really good corn chowder that was like one of the best i've ever had um yeah pasta the vodka sauce like homemade vodka sauce and um all sorts of stuff i've been i've been really getting after it um

01:01:43i'm gonna try to make like a brisket chili um i had out in uh california one time that i'm gonna try to recreate i had like brisket in it with bison yeah stuff so can't go wrong there you can't go wrong there that sounds fantastic are you a sports fan did you watch the titans game last night yeah we did um we got two friends that are middles fans oh nice so we went and watched the game with them which was just awesome yeah what did you think with derek henry through uh norman last night were you guys were you just like oh yeah that was i made the whole place was great we were at a bar down here it's a jb's poor house oh yeah it's awesome i love jb's poor house great spot and it's it's like a mile from our house so that was amazing josh norman used to play for the panthers and being from north carolina we've been panthers fans for a long time but um didn't really love josh norman's attitude for a long time he's just kind of a you know a guy that was rude all the time but uh oh when it when i when i saw him get up and i went oh shit he just threw josh norman it made that it made the i was like that is the most adult thing that does the most manly thing i've ever seen somebody do just throw a dude a grown ass nfl player throwing him and then when i go oh it was norman i was so excited is that terrible yeah i don't wish anything bad on anybody like ever i'm curious but uh that was that was pretty funny um and he's just a beast uh like i don't know what i don't even know what norman was thinking trying to get in front of him like that i think all right here's a really fast refrigerator coming at you what do you what do you do it just let him go by try and push him go for the legs

01:03:44it was it was incredible um he got poster posterized yeah growing up north carolina like the panthers are my team but you know the titans are my home team because we live here and i've been to more titan games than than anything so it's it's exciting to see them doing well because they have notoriously not done well so it's good to see that that team like come together and getting all their stuff and players in the right places and really clicking and it was a great game i mean they really put up some points and it was it was fun to watch because titans look good man undefeated yeah take it awesome this is the first time since like 2008 that they had uh 4-0 yeah well this show is going to come out on monday so people are gonna they're gonna be like that's old news dude but hey it happened last night for us we're recording this a little bit exactly so thank you so much i love seeing him play it is awesome so nice it's nice when he's on your team yeah he's a good guy to have on your team you don't want to watch your own guys get thrown around like that it's nice when he's the guy throwing it's good my friends my friends that are the bills fans were they weren't laughing whatever he tossed normal we've had a good visual episode today so if you're if you're listening to this you got to go to our youtube channel and watch this you can actually see his tattoos you can see all of our facial expressions and laughing uh his t-shirt you can see the coffee you can see everything justin builtin and thank you so much for coming on nash restaurant i've had a blast just kind of talking to you getting to know you a little bit this has been a lot of fun um i always have the final word on this show i always like to give my guests just an open mic whatever they want to say anything that's on their heart if it's nothing

01:05:46if it's an hour long i don't care whatever you want to say i just want to give you the mic to take us out anything you want to say to the people listening um yeah keep you know stay positive keep taking care of each other um turn your tv off some days you know watch something other than the news and uh go talk to other people i think that's the best thing we can do right now there's a lot of weird stuff going on and it's uh nothing's nearly as bad as they're trying to tell you it is and go have a conversation with somebody go find people with different ideas and and try to find the good and the common with people and i don't stay positive don't be a dick just you know do your best to stay off the internet you're gonna do something physical go outside you know go go pick up a weight do some squats i don't know like these um learn pick up a weight yeah learn some cooking you know read a book um do your best to not be totally consumed with that little screen in front of you whether there's a pandemic or not that's good good advice just get off your phone for a minute it's hard to do man yeah it's tough man i totally get it especially like i see myself doing it more often just because i'm running my socials and you know doing my solo music stuff and constantly have to be engaging with folks but um one thing that's helped me i tell a lot of people's every morning when i get up before i turn on the tv here start messing my every morning when i get up before i turn on the tv here start messing my phone if you can i sit and read for at least an hour and i know not everybody can do that because you got

01:07:46a you know different responsibilities but um starting my day without the tv or the phone you know the first thing that i do is has been hugely helpful that's good stuff all right well thank you true words never spoken man i couldn't agree with you more on all of that and thank you for that message as well as coming on and kind of telling your story um i'd love to check back in with you as we get past this thing and you know when you're headlining cmas and you're you know doing the whole thing i'm gonna i'm gonna send you a message and be like hey man let me uh i would love to come see you so i've been checking out your music it's good stuff and i wish you nothing but the best of success uh your new home getting through covid the world tour coming up all of these things uh thank you thank you so much thank you so much for having me i really appreciate it that was great yeah man all right justin bilton thank you so much for being on nashville restaurant radio that was an absolute honor to speak with you i am uh like i said i'm learning i'm getting better it's kind of like you remember that time when you were on stage like the that was cool like the chris farley saturday night live sketch but uh we're gonna get better at those and uh let me know what you think let me know if you thought that i'm a little hard on myself and that that was a great interview or if it was just okay send me a message say hey dude it was cool it was not cool whatever um and uh yeah i always like to have a little bit of feedback appreciate you guys and uh stay tuned wednesday charlie nelson that's an interview you do not want to miss hope you guys are being safe out there love you guys bye