Welcome to Overeducated and Underemployed. I'm
Fedden. Today we've got part one of my interview
with J. Roddy Walston. He was doing house shows
and came through my area. So I set one up with
him. I had people drive from a couple hours away.
After the show was over, he and I like partied
and watched a stupid movie and just hung out.
I want to point out that we had a bit of a rapport
before going into this interview. Even though
I had not known him very well yet. I tried to
provide context when they brought up something
we had already discussed. But for the most part,
we avoided what I wanted to talk about on the
podcast prior to the interview. This first half
of the interview, Roddy talks about his early
influences, what made him choose to become a
musician, what else he may have done. And then
tomorrow, we'll have part two where he talks
more about... being a father, what he's been
doing since COVID, and what he's doing now to
reinvigorate his fan base. Without further ado,
I'll give you part one of my interview with J.
Roddy Walston. Full disclosure, I'm a fan, and
he played in my house last night. Roddy, how
you doing, man? I'm good, man. I'm good. I gotta
let you know, I'm also a fan of mine. That's
good. That's good, man. Let's just start. What
was the first musician that you loved? First
musician I loved. I remember, very much remember
two moments that I heard something. I was like,
I wasn't even like, I was a kid, but I, in Ferris
Bueller's Day Off when he was in the parade and
they were singing, he was lip syncing to the
Beatles. And, but it's the Shake It Up Baby or
whatever. And it's one of those recordings where
John Lennon's. sick and his voice just sounds
destroyed. And I was like, I want to sound like
that. So I didn't even know what I was listening
to, but it was just like, ooh. And then in the
same way, seeing Jailhouse Rock and Elvis playing
it, I was just like, this is, I didn't really
care about the visuals as much as just like the
way his voice sounded. I was like, this is so
cool. In a more like, actually knew what I was
listening to kind of way. I found a box of records
in my house, and I have no idea whose records
they were because it was not my parents. And
it was the first three U2 records, Aerosmith,
Toys in the Attic. Aerosmith, Toys in the Attic,
and that was the box of records. And so that
kind of like really just flipped my lid because
at that point all I'd ever really listened to
was like church stuff or music that was in movies
or whatever. And then the first CDs I bought
was DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince, like
that first record. Same day bought that, R .E
.M. Automatic for the People, and those two records
were a lot of the early 90s stuff for me. And
then a year or so after that, my brother brought
home Nevermind, and it was just like, this is
so dangerous. We're going to get in trouble.
Just the way it sounded. And then in that same
world, like the Wayne's World soundtrack. strangely
like really it was that movie just was everything
to me and my friends when it came out yeah the
soundtrack was we were putting it on to feel
something from the movie but then it was like
oh this kind of really turned me on to a lot
of different stuff so I don't know. That's interesting.
The Wayne's World soundtrack is an interesting,
just, there's a cool story behind that too. They
were really fighting for Alice Cooper to play
schools out for summer, like in the movie. And
they had a new album coming out. Yeah. And the
label was like. Frankenstein. Yeah. You got to
play the new song. Yeah. And the compromise they
reached was like, okay, we're going to play the
new song in the movie, but the closing credits,
you get schools out. And Mike Myers said it turned
out like fine. Cause like, that's all anybody
remembers anyway. Yeah. I think it's crazy that
Twist and Shout was one of the first songs that
ever grabbed you. Because it was for me, too.
In fact, it might be the very first song. Different
path, although I do love Ferris Bueller. I remember
my mom taking me to a mall, to the Sam Goody.
Yeah. And I bought, it was the collection Beatles
rock and roll music. Oh, yeah. And it was one
of the volumes. I can't remember which one. Whichever
one had Twist and Shout on it. Yeah. And that
was the first cassette I ever had. Yeah. And
it's not the first time I've heard somebody say,
not just the Beatles, but that song in particular.
is yeah it's a great if you're in the like a
rock vocal kind of performance like that's got
to be an all -time like i think you can play
that for anyone at any given moment it's just
what the hell is going on here do you think there's
like a common thread between what you liked about
that and then what you heard and never mind where
like that's the kind of dangerous because i mean
obviously like twist and shout's not as edgy
of a song but maybe at that age yeah and Especially
the way you talked about John's vocals on that
track. I mean, I think, yeah, somewhere in there
is, yeah, Kurt's vocals are very blown out and
wild and different than, say, now it's just like
everything is so processed and it's not. Most
people, you're not hearing like a singular performance
or even maybe the best of two takes put together
or something like that. Yeah, yeah, I'm definitely
like drawn to vocals and the wildness in those
vocals. or someone being able to like really
bring it down and suck you in in a different
way but yeah also when you're young you're just
like you're still open to everything usually
yeah yeah everybody's an artist when they're
a toddler right yeah there's no rules and you
just kind of like what you like and yeah so it
was as wild to me to get the fresh prince record
and you know i was terrified of nightmare on
my street would you do you feel like do you feel
like that's like pretty representative of the
diversity in the music that you still listen
to or because those are kind of other ends of
the spectrum yeah it's kind of odd and weird
i mean you know like some people i think that
do like rock and roll influence stuff they kind
of get sucked into some romance with the idea
of what if i pretend i'm from 71 or i pretend
i'm from 55 or whatever and they're dressing
that way and they sing that way and record that
and it's like i gotta find a studio that only
has technology that stops you know whatever that
kind of thing where you're just like cosplaying
a decade or whatever and yeah yeah and i'm not
saying i haven't participated in some of that
kind of stuff in the sense of like being really
interested in like what's a real what would it
be like to record a record on tape or whatever
because computers were involved i had four track
cassette recorders but pretty quickly after that
a friend of mine a very early like the first
affordable version of being able to record on
a computer at home. I've been dealing with that
kind of technology since Julio. But the thing
for me, generally speaking, is I like all the
stuff that I've heard as far as past things,
but I still am recognizing that I live right
now. So I don't necessarily want to make a record
where someone says, oh, this guy's a contemporary
of the Beatles or something. It's like I did...
listen to whitney houston when my sister was
jim you know that influenced me i thought michael
jackson was a rock and roll singer i didn't necessarily
i was like you know because i was growing up
when he was doing like bad and thriller and that
stuff was yeah i was like that's crazy that he
and alvin the chipmunk sing a lot it's van halen
playing guitar yeah right yeah and again great
i mean michael jackson when he's singing aggressively
is like it's amazing it's insane yeah so i generally
try to I'm not like trying to jam every genre
and every decade and everything that's ever happened
in the same song, but I don't, I don't go, Oh,
I can't do that. That's too 97 or 2025 or what?
So it doesn't really, you don't make it be the
reason you do or don't do something. Right. Right.
I mean, there's certain things that, I mean,
unless I can find a really artistic, you know,
songs about like cell phones or something. I'm
like, there's certain words or very time specific
things that. I tend to avoid for a reason, like
lyrically, you know? It's interesting though.
The converse of that is so many like movie plots
are now obsolete. Yeah. Right. It's like, this
would have been, if they just had, you know,
a beeper. Yeah. And this would have been, the
movie would be over. Yeah. But, okay. So what
made you realize that music is what you were
going to do with your life? Or at least that
you were going to try it? Yeah. What was the
transition from consumer to producer? Pretty
much from early on, I was like, one of my earliest,
earliest memories was like writing a little,
you know, as like a seven -year -old, like being
like, you know, like a little rhyme. I know that
the rhyme was strife in life. And I like walked
up to my mom and like sang it to her. And she
was just kind of like, why are you saying strife?
Like, do you even know what that means? But so
pretty early on was like writing. Like, didn't
know how songs worked at all. I just would write
words down. But in my head, it was like, and
then when I start writing songs, I'll already
have all these words or something, at least know
how to put them together. Honestly, the year
that Kurt Cobain died, the talent show at our
school, they were like, because it was like days
later, they were like, no bands, whatever, can
play Nirvana songs. But none of the teachers
knew Nirvana songs, so everybody played Nirvana
songs and just said that they wrote them. And
then every band got up and smashed their gear
and stuff. And I didn't sound great. No, it was
an injury. Whatever the case, I looked at my,
I looked over at my best friend. I was like,
dude, we have to start a band right now. Like
the coach was like crying. Cause like high hats
were going like into the wood of the gym floor
and stuff. One kid smashed a brand new guitar.
And he was, as soon as he did, he was like, my
dad's going to kill me. And he like ran away
for a week. Like, and I was just like, this is
the best thing I have ever seen. That was probably
the moment that it was like, all right. He really
spread like wildfire. Yeah, it was just like,
let's go. Like, this is happening. I mean, also
it was wild to observe that moment where even
the cool kids were weird for like one or two
years. Like, oh, longer hair, tie dyes. They're
telling teachers, you know, suck it. But then
all of a sudden, like, the thing flipped and
they were like, actually, you know, I'm a quarterback.
Let's get rapey or whatever. yeah yeah yeah yeah
but just right back into their old yeah yeah
but it was a cool little the girls like the window
of like you know like what if the world was completely
like wild and weird you know and then it's like
no dog i'm trying to make money or whatever my
dad's a lawyer let's get real but yeah it was
a weird cool little moment to live through for
sure and then when when was when did you realize
like you could make this your like your living
or your life or at least something that you continue
to do and i know that hasn't always been the
case but yeah when did you realize i'm gonna
i'm gonna try and make this my thing and not
whatever else so i was in so after that point
started all like high school junior high whatever
kind of bands and like i think to whatever level
i was in a lot of ways the driving force in those
bands but it was also very young we're all in
it together you know thing and but within that
we were like the writing was really sort of democratic
you know kind of anybody that brought anything
it got to go in and then but inevitably some
version of the band would break up or something
quit and then you're like left with this like
oh we have this like 18 minute long song but
the third section blah blah wrote and they quit
do we get rid of their section can we play i
don't know so i had some moment where i was like
i'm gonna start writing just a song from the
front to the end. Because I'd basically never
been in bands that, like, unless the whole band
was in the room, you couldn't play through the
whole song. Or you were like, blah, blah, blah,
blah. But then hear this, like, explaining people,
like, that it would be better if you could hear
the whole thing or we can't play this section
because it's on the theremin or something. And
so I was like, I'm going to sit down and start
writing a song from, like, front to back that
potentially either on a piano or a guitar I could
just play for you. that's like gone way out into
the wildness of weirdness before i ever really
learned how to write a song but then i don't
know so yeah all of a sudden i had the ability
to play a song all the way through and people
are like i'm into that and then it's pretty powerful
to get positive reinforcement towards the front
end of something because you're like is this
just for me is this i like it but to have some
people that you respect like it enough to tell
you and also go Like right now, like if someone
brought me a song and it was just terrible, I'd
just be like, oh, cool. But I'm not going to
spend time trying to fix something that's unfixable.
So if someone sees something in you that's good
enough for them to actually give you a critique.
And I grew up, my dad was a basketball coach
and whatever. So I think a lot of artists, it's
like they don't have the ability to hear. You're
never going to be. a power forward or something.
My dad would be like, do you want me to tell
you the truth or you want me to help you get
better? I'm like, okay. And he's like, you're
short, you're slow, you're whatever. Like, but
here's what you can do. You get better at that.
And of course do the other stuff as much as you
can, but. And that's the downside of everybody
getting a trophy. Right. Yeah. Because everybody
is told that they're good at something they might
not be good at. Yeah. And they know how to hear
that when they do hear it. And then they just
like crumble. It's like, oh, what? And you're
like, yeah. And not only that, they're then they're
not. diverting their efforts into something they
might be able to excel at. They're like trying
to like flounder in this thing that they've been
told they can do. Yeah. So do you think you've,
you're playing solo shows for the first time
in this band's history. So do you feel like you're
going through that same experience again? Yeah.
Yeah. On the road? Yeah. In fact, as we were
cleaning up the house the other day, you know,
you end up with like Tupperware bins of like
memorabilia or whatever, like articles, whatever.
And it was kind of like, what is this? I was
sorting through it, and there was, like, a pop
-up quote in some art interview I did. And I
was like, you know, the name G .R .I. and the
business, when I named that band, or, you know,
I started playing as that, there weren't a lot
of blah -biddy -blah and the blah -biddy -blah
at that time. It was, like, one word, just, like,
bush. Yeah, but it was, like, the strokes. Yeah,
that was a few years later. But, yeah, a singular
word, a singular kind of er. And the... Premise
was really in reference to that thing where I
kept being in bands that broke up and I was like,
okay, I'm gonna be able to play and whoever's
in the band or not, I can keep playing these
songs because I had just gone through here in
high school. So I'm just, I don't like this anymore.
I'm going to college or whatever. And so when
I read that, I was like, dang, dude, I'm just
like learning the same lessons over and over.
Not, you know, I do love being in a band and
I do love. working with people and whatever but
like at this point in my life i'm at least ready
to have a chunk of time where i'm starting over
for a while and with that i'm trying to make
people feel appreciated while not making them
have allowing them to have the ability to be
like oh we can't do that show or that tour because
my family's vacation or something like that but
they should be able to i missed so much of the
important family stuff in my 20s through early
40s just being like band music whatever has to
come first and so like also when you're in a
band like that then being like can you play this
show and you're like why niece is graduating
like yeah it's gonna cost everybody else in the
band like four thousand dollars each or something
you're like sorry i can't go anyways so yeah
yeah i think coming back and being able to play
the songs by myself i was just in a band for
so long that like when it came time to finally
do a solo show again For the first time in 15,
20 years, I was like, oh man, I don't really
know how to play my songs front to back without
this. I'd normally stand up during the bridge
and run around or whatever. Or like, how do I
make this engaging to play by myself? And so
like learning that again. And then it's also
given me the ability to try out new stuff in
front of people versus like with the band. A
lot of times you're like, someone has, everyone
has varying degrees of comfort of what if we
fall flat in front of people. Which I also have
learned that I, while scared about it, really
thrive on. Yeah. Like this tour I went on last
summer, I basically just, it was both like as
I was traveling and on stage, it's like, if I
think about it, I have to do it. So I didn't
become careful about it. I was just like living
my life. But like at Soundcheck, if I did a weird
version of a song, it was like, okay, tonight
on stage, I'm just going to figure out how to
play it all the way through like that. Like that
version of Sweatshark that I did last night.
Yeah. That was just a... idea I had one night
and then I was like, all right, here we go. And
that keeps, I think that keeps people that know
your songs interested too. That's part of why
people, some people want to go see a band and
they just want to hear the way it sounds on the
record. But I think real music fans typically
want to hear the most organic version of that
song they can. Yeah. And I think like you've
gotten to the root of making these songs new
and organic again when you do that. Yeah. I think
we. like jay riding the business where we were
touring for at least 15 years at least 200 days
a year and it's exhausting and sometimes way
more than that and so that idea of hey guys how
do we keep this fresh it was more like how do
we stay alive yeah or like we were never on a
bus we were very much into even like at a point
when maybe people were like don't know these
guys are blowing up or successful we were driving
ourselves like no tour manager no we would have
merch guys but the merch guys were like buds
and we were like and they were also probably
doing two or three other things for you too yeah
yeah whatever you can come along we don't know
when or how much we can pay you if there's money
left over you'll get some and but it's going
to be a party and you know free booze and yeah
find a place to stay like you're enjoying it
yeah you can stay here and like work to buy beer
or you can go with us in the van and sling some
t -shirts in night and it's okay we'll share
wall share pizza or whatever it is yeah so yeah
with that it was just hard maybe to constant
to stay constantly motivated to reinvent things
and but at a certain point when you become almost
like ubiquitous as far as i think where we and
a lot of the people that kind of got shoved into
the just stay on tour and that's how you can
make money kind of version of being a musician
you do hit a point where then suddenly everyone's
i'll just catch them next time Because they're
going to be here another two or three times this
year, or definitely once a year if not. Their
show, plus they're out opening for someone, plus
a festival, plus whatever. And then if you're
doing generally the same set. Do I need to see
that for the tents? And so, yeah, that's definitely
a situation. Like house shows are changing up.
The whole process is where I'm at. Not necessarily
as a sales pitch, but just like it makes me more
excited. And I think it makes sense. If you want
to see. what i'm doing better see it right now
because in six months i'll change it all you
know or next time i come through which might
only be the time that only time that i come through
i mean it's the only time you've been here so
yeah i've never been here yeah yeah is there
anything else you could have done like looking
back like like some people i feel like they they
have a choice well okay i thought you meant like
to be more successful no i know i don't mean
it like no i just mean could you have done anything
else with your life and been happy or successful?
And I don't know that anybody's happy, especially
if they're an artist, but is there something
that, like, if you weren't a musician, what would
you do? Yeah, that's the point where you constantly
are, where I'm constantly, like, going, is this
it? Probably some weird world where I was, like,
a lawyer or something. I was really fascinated
with law and had a whole different concept on
it now than I did at a point where I maybe would
have considered it. But I'm handy at, like, doing,
building stuff. I can build things. I can do
stuff. I can, I got like the hyper -focus superpower.
So it's like for six months, I'm pretty good
electrician. Like lose all that knowledge or
whatever, you know, as I'm just like processing
things to learn how to do it. But it's like the
slowest version of the matrix or something. It's
like, I know electrician. Yeah. Yeah. And then
it goes away. Yeah. You know, I think most people
that really, every once in a while you meet like
someone who's like, you're just like an animal.
But, like, a lot of times, the people that really
are good at anything, I don't think there's that
many people that are actually good at anything.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those people could be good
at anything. And so I'm not saying I could be
a brain surgeon or something like that, but I
think had I become a lawyer and had I worked
as much and as hard as I did and have and still
do at music, partner you know i mean this is
the real question would you have could you have
worked as hard at that as you do something that
is i'm generally unemployable you know like so
i guess the answer probably is no but because
i was always the guy that had my regular job
i was never like trying to become the boss i
don't know i never really jumped in and said
let me just blow these guys away i can't i as
a teenager like first of all you're an idiot
The regional manager of Schlotzky's Deli is not
the sharp knife in the drawer. And then also
your parents own the business, so we all know
why. And then, but I was definitely just the
guy, I'm just going to keep my head down. I'm
not trying, like, I don't want to make this the
most profitable McDonald's in the country. I
don't care. This place sucks. Most of the people
in here suck. I almost never told people that
I go by Rod or Roddy when I had a job. Almost
all my bosses call me Jonathan because I did
not care to even pretend like this was going
to be a place I cared about. It was like, this
is to get some money to go over here and actually
do the thing that I do. I was never the, I love
you, corporate America. Probably the answer is
no. I would have sucked and generally have sucked
at being an employee. Money's not real. This
place isn't real. I don't care about it. yeah
i think what you said is interesting like the
people that are good at something could probably
be good at a lot of things but i think the motivation
to do that is really the difference between like
you have a different perspective on the law now
like you might if you become a lawyer and you
still gain that new perspective and i don't necessarily
know what that is but you might end up regret
regretting being a lawyer yeah whereas i feel
like if i regret being a musician no no that
actually that leads me to something i wanted
to talk about there was a time where you wanted
to call it quits right um well a few times yeah
yeah but it was a pretty recent time yeah and
about a year ago yeah and what i guess two things
like one is like the realization that you probably
Can't do anything else. Is that part of what
brought you back to it? Yeah, probably a little
bit. And also, what kind of caused that to begin
with? Is it the same kind of things that you've
always dealt with or was there something new?
I think it was the culmination of whatever led
to J .R .R. and the business ending straight
into COVID. Because like the last business show
was Thanksgiving 2019. Yeah. So straight into
COVID. which was wild. And then like inside of
that. Especially with the landscape of the way
musicians make their money. Yeah. And even that
sort of thing that the music industry really
pushed on probably my crew of people for the
first time. Don't worry if everyone's stealing
your music, they'll become your fans and you
can sell them tickets and whatever. And all of
a sudden it was like, oh, what happens when we
can't sell them tickets? Yeah. Mike Cooley once
said, we're traveling t -shirt salesmen. Yeah.
And it's hard to do that if you can't travel.
That sentiment actually was one of the final
straws for me of all the way to the end of 2024,
where, I'm sorry, 2023, going into 2024, just
this, everyone, all these guys, like, here's
how to make your career, blah, blah, blah. You
just need to accept that if you're a musician,
you're a traveling t -shirt salesman or whatever.
You're in the t -shirt business. And I was like,
dude, that is not what I want. that's not how
I want to go about this or that, you know, but
it kind of was one of those things where I think
I, you have to just kind of keep at it. And the
sort of, I heard some point it was like, you
know, do you want to make it in the music industry?
Don't quit before you make it music industry
or don't have a plan B because if you have a
plan B, you're absolutely going to take it, which
I never really had a viable plan B. And there
were a lot of times where it was literally like.
you know if I had a college degree and I could
pivot in one year have a specialized something
like to like move to or to be like probably would
have done it don't know that I was stuck with
it or been happy to do it but I probably would
have taken it a few times and it was just like
I got no option this is what I got it doesn't
seem like you would ever stop writing songs yeah
no there's moments where I had fantasies about
screw it I'm gonna sell everything I don't touch
instruments anymore and people being like how
do you do this? Will they sing the song or something
or do it for yourself? And just being like, no,
done with music. So we've talked off of the podcast
a little bit about this creative drive or the
curiosity that I think plagues a lot of artists
from visual artists to musicians to comedians
to how would you get that expression out if you
weren't doing music? I don't know. I used to
write something like short stories and then never
really thought I would put them out. And so take
a short story and go like, how do I condense
this down? That's the folly of the nature of
probably like my makeup is like other times when
I've been like, maybe I don't want to do music
anymore. Maybe I'll become a screenwriter, you
know, or start writing novels or something. But
instead of I have some practical, normal, let
me trade my time for a dollar bill kind of skill
set or something like that. So I think. I've
come back down also to when I was saying like
I don't want to be a t -shirt salesman part of
that was selling t -shirts that I didn't like
and have a lot of skin even more than that reading
that the majority of people that buy records
don't have a record player and like also majority
of people that buy band shirts don't necessarily
wear the band shirts and appreciate the sentiment
that it's like they're doing it to support art
and artists that they like but I was like really
turned off by the idea. I was like, so I'm just
making junk that, like, eventually someone goes,
we cleaned the house five times. Is it time to
get rid of this thing? My stuff's just more stuff
for the storage unit or something until it finally
goes in the landfill. I see what you mean. And
then, like, on top of that, though, as an artist,
to make enough to take on tour, you're putting
a lot of skin in the game up front. And at any
given point, people are going to be like, yeah,
I don't want to buy that or whatever. You're,
like, stuck with this stuff. Yeah. So I was going
through all these different things in these slow,
just train wrecks of just life in general, my
individual and the general experience, like I
said, COVID, whatever. And basically I'd get
hit, go down one knee and just that drive, you
can't stop. Get, you know, drag myself back up,
keep going. And finally, end of 2023, going into
2024, it was just like, I was like, you know
what? I'm just going to stay down. and sort of
sit in my annihilation and observe it the best
I can and be fine with it if that's where I land.
Your priorities are a lot different than they
were a decade ago too, right? You're a father.
Yeah. You've got other people that rely on you
to do things that, whereas like for a long time,
you were just doing it for you and that's all
you had to take care of. As somebody who was
also a parent, like it changes things a lot.
Well, there you go. There was my interview with
J. Roddy Walston, the first half of it anyway.
You'll be back tomorrow with the second half.
I really enjoyed talking to him. Make sure you
go catch him on tour right now. Check out his
website, jroddywalston .com. Check out his social
medias. And make sure you check my website out
as well, fedden .net. I'll be starting to stream
on Twitch again here soon. Changing platforms,
so I'll be starting fresh there. And yeah, come
back tomorrow. We'll have part two. Make sure
you hit that subscribe button. Thanks for checking
out overeducated and underemployed. Once again,
I am Fedden. And remember, if you want me to
answer a question on the podcast, go ahead and
send it over to FeddenXR at gmail .com. That's
F -E -D -D -U -N -X -R at gmail .com.