Hey everyone, this is Paul Jackson from Blackberry
Smoke and you're listening to my weekly mixtape
with my buddy Brian Coburn and don't forget that
music is love and love is music. Always remember
that. Uncle Paul told you that. Welcome to My
Weekly Mixtape, a podcast that takes the classic
mixtape approach to building a modern playlist.
I'm your host, Brian Colburn. Joining me tonight
as guest curator is Paul Jackson, guitarist for
one of my favorite bands of the last 20 years,
Blackberry Smoke. Paul, thank you so much for
joining me on My Weekly Mixtape. Thank you for
having me, man. I appreciate it. It's awesome.
Well, it's awesome to have you. And as a first
-time guest, I'd like to start by asking you
the question, What does the word mixtape mean
to you? Oh, God. It reminds me of my youth, you
know, because we used to do it all the time.
Hell, we would take our boom boxes. That's right,
people. Boom boxes. And put it in front of the
CD when Headbangers Ball came on just to record
the music because our radio stations wouldn't
play like Maiden and stuff like that. So we'd
make mixtapes that way. It was terrible sounding,
but at least my brother had that five -band EQ
in the car. We could make it work. Hell. Well,
tonight's topic is one that I've been looking
forward to diving into for a long time. And that
topic is the music of Blackberry Smoke. So what
better way to do this than with a member of the
band? That's right. So let's get down to business
tonight. Paul and I will be curating the ultimate
Blackberry Smoke mixtape, and we'll use the old
cassette deck approach. Paul, as my special guest,
will begin Side A with his first song choice,
and then I'll add a song that I feel best follows
up his choice. We'll then flip -flop choosing
songs until we've mapped out 10 songs for Side
A. We'll then give our mixtape a proverbial flip.
And we'll map outside. Be only this time, I'll
kick things off with Paul choosing second. Our
overall goal for the episode is to craft the
best Blackberry Smoke mixtape possible through
only 20 songs. At the end of the show, you can
take our conversation to the next level by visiting
the episode page at myweeklymixtape .com to give
our final mixtape a listen via the embedded playlist.
And if you like what you're hearing on the show,
you can help me out by either telling a friend,
leaving the show a five -star review wherever
you're tuning in, or becoming a Patreon mixtaper
at patreon .com forward slash My Weekly Mixtape.
There you'll find ad -free episodes of the show,
gain access to future episodes, hear exclusive
bonus banter clips, chime in on upcoming show
topics, become a future guest, and so much more.
And with that, there are a couple of chime -ins
from the Patreon mixtapers, but in a first here
at My Weekly Mixtape, I'm going to hold them
for now. Because I have both of these songs in
my bank and I want to see how or when or if I
can find a place for them. Once again, if you
want to chime in for future My Weekly Mixtape
episodes, you can join the Patreon mixtaper community
at patreon .com forward slash My Weekly Mixtape.
And now, Paul, I'm officially pressing the record
button on the Ultimate Blackberry Smoke mixtape,
and I'm passing the mic to you. How are you kicking
off the musical festivities this evening? All
right, I'm going to kick it off with Flesh and
Bone, because that, to me, is just a heavy tune,
and Charlie wrote some good lyrics to it. So,
yeah, it's just a heavy song. It is, and there's
something about a lot of the songs in the Blackberry
Smoke catalog. There's a spectrum. When you listen
to a Blackberry Smoke album, Flesh and Bone was
from 2018's Find a Light. That album has a spectrum
of everything from hard rock to, I want to call
it Americana, a little bit of country. And then
there's also a little bit of Southern gospel
mixed in the fall. Yeah, it has a lot to do with
Charlie. You know, he's got that. Personally,
me, I can't see us as an Americana band, but
we are, I guess. I don't know. I like loud guitars,
man. As long as it's loud and nasty, I like that
part of it. And what I also like about these
songs is as heavy as they are, I bet you if Blackberry
Smoke did an all -acoustic show, you guys could
somehow find a way to take flesh and bone and
make it work at an acoustic level. I think we've
done that. Yeah, can you talk about how you take
these heavier songs and kind of rearrange them
for the acoustic setting? Well, sometimes we'll
rearrange one or two, but most of all, these
songs are written on acoustic anyway. Most of
them aren't. So the ones that need to be nasty,
we make them nasty. It's about the attitude,
how you play it, and how you're dialed in. It's
not rocket science or anything. It's just how
you feel the song at the time you're doing it,
while you're doing it acoustic. Well, you also
chose an album opener, which holds a special
place in my heart, because I feel like... That
is the way you set the tone. And Blackberry Smoke
definitely knows how to do that. However, I'm
not going to follow up Flesh and Bone with an
album opener. I'm actually going to follow up
with a track two. And this song comes with a
humble plea along with my thoughts on the song.
And I'm going to go with the title track from
2015's Holding All the Roses. Yes! This was a
huge milestone in music because for Blackberry
Smoke, this album marked the first time that
an indie band hit number one on the Billboard
country albums chart. Isn't that a trip? That's
a trip. How did you guys pull that off without
the major label machine behind you? I think we
released it when nobody else had a record out
there. That must have been the same case then
with 2016's Like an Arrow, because that hit number
one as well. A lot of bands, you'd be surprised
how many bands do that. Now, I'm still flabbergasted
by it. Every time you just said it, I haven't
thought about it in a while. It still blows my
mind. It's like, us? Really? But that's cool,
you know? And our fans, man. I hate that word,
fans, but our friends, I guess. It's all they're
doing, because some of them will go out and buy
six copies just because. Well, I have actually
two copies of this album because there is two
versions, the regular CD. And then I realized
down the road that the Best Buy version had bonus
tracks. And I went, son of a bitch. Or I should
say, son of a bourbon and go get the... Man,
I don't even have that one. I need to get that
one. I don't even know what's on the bonus track.
It's Pearls in Ink Out the Blues in a live acoustic
version. Oh, I definitely need that one. That's
my boy Brandon. He came up with that riff. It's
a great song. Yeah. Yeah. Going back to the holding
all the roses riff. When I listened to that song,
I almost picture what a metal bluegrass band
would sound like. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. You're
absolutely right. I was going to say the same
thing. So I feel like following up the energy
of flesh and bone, holding all the roses is a
great way to do that. And with that, I'm also
going to drop a plea to the band because. In
2015, when the album came out, you guys played
it at least according to setlist .fm over 70
times, but it's kind of fallen off since then.
I know you got a lot of albums to pull from,
but I would love to see this one live. Yeah,
I'll mention it. See what happens. I'll let Charlie
do the setlist because he's the one singing all
these. Well, we are back to you now for track
three. What are we going to go do next? I'm going
to go with Everybody Knows She's Mine. I like
that one. let me say something real quick so
everybody knows i don't have a favorite blackberry
smoke song i like all of them like literally
all of them so it's hard for me to pick these
is what we're doing it's kind of hard but but
um i'm doing everybody knows she's mine just
it's such a good song man i mean it's everybody
thought thinks that of their you know the significant
other oh god yeah or it could be a guitar you're
talking about or a car or something you know
Well, you released this album on Southern Ground,
which was Zac Brown's label at the time. We sure
did. How much involvement did he have in the
production of The Whippoorwill? Eh, ish, you
know. We were very fortunate when this band got
together that we were all old enough. We were
adults. We weren't teenagers where somebody,
you need to do this. Okay, we were just like,
no, we're doing it our way. Zac was pretty much
like, you can make the record you want. It's
up to you. It's whatever you want to do. And
that's what we did. And he was cool with it,
man. I like it. Zach's just a cool guy anyway.
Well, I think I'm going to follow up a track
from the Whippoorwill with a track from the Whippoorwill.
I'm going to stay there for a while. And I'm
going to go with one that is a staple of the
band since it was released. I'm going to go with
Pretty Little Lie. Ooh, nice. There's something
about this song that just, you could feel the
tension in the lyrics, in the story that's being
told. And there's such a staying power to this
song. It always usually ends up being early in
the set of a Blackberry Smoke show. And it kind
of seems to bring the crowd together. What is
so unifying about this song? I don't know, man.
That one really hits people too, you know? But
probably the high harmony vocal that I have to
hit every night. I'm just kidding. I don't know,
man. We do it. Thank God we do it at the beginning
of the set because I don't think I could sing
that high part at the end of it. It's just one
of those tunes that, what am I always looking
for? I always say, tell people, my mother told
me this actually when I started playing music,
simplicity sells. It's not a hard song to play.
It's got a good melody to it, a good hook to
it, and everybody can relate to it. That's what
I think it is. And people can really, they just
understand it. You know, I mean, it's a good
song. I love that song. Good pick, actually.
I appreciate that. Well, following up Pretty
Little Lie, we're back to you for track number
five. All right. All right. Track five. So I'm
going to go back to the first record. And I don't
know, man, this is hard for me. God, it's hard.
I like Scare the Devil. It's a live cut, but.
That's a good heavy song, too. I like the heavy
stuff, man. I can't help it. And that's such
a cool riff that Charlie has to the beginning
of that, you know, down, down, down, down. I
love that riff. So cool. It's a killer riff.
And I was always wondering why the band decided
to kind of do the half studio, half live for
this album. Well, I'll give you the right answer.
I have no clue. Don't ask me. I have no clue,
dude. Now, are there any studio versions of the
second half? Well, Scared the Devil Out of You
is the bonus track on the CD, at least. Right,
right, right. Oh, yeah, it is on there. See,
that's what I'm shouting there. I can't remember
everything on there. Yeah, we did record that
one, and it did get on there. See, I didn't even
notice that was on there until you said something
about it. All right. Well, following that up,
I'm going to jump us back to 2018's Find a Light.
All right. Because there are certain songs that
I listen to Blackberry Smoke that I want to get
down and dirty, loud and obnoxious. And Blackberry
Smoke definitely does that for me. But there's
also a side of the band that brings a level of
joy to the music. And it's a completely different
vibe. And I love that part of the band as well.
And I feel like Best Seed in the House is the
song that truly gives you a feeling of joy. when
you listen to it. And I know earlier you mentioned
vocal harmonies. They are such an important part
of Blackberry Smoke's sound. How much time and
effort do you guys actually put into locking
in the harmonies for any particular song as you're
working out the kinks before recording it or
playing it live? Well, I'll just give it to you
straight. It didn't take us long to do that because
I understand how Charlie sings. We've been doing
this for so long. I've watched him sing before
we even started Blackberry Smoke. And that's
just our thing. We can figure out the harmony
pretty easy. If I know where he's heading, I'll
take care of it. And sometimes we do. Sometimes
there's something that I can't hear. And Charlie
will come into the studio and go, it's this part,
la, la, la. And then I'll nail it. But I don't
know. It just works. I don't know how to explain
it. And that's the good thing. And to me, Best
Seed in the House could either be a song that,
You could take literally, you know, from a concert
perspective, but then you could take the lyrics
and almost apply it to life itself. That's exactly
where I just assume, I never asked him, but I
think that's where Charlie was coming from, about
life itself. We have the best seat in the house,
no matter where you're at. Amen. All right, so
now we are tossing it back to you for track seven.
Where do we go from here? All right, back to,
I'm going to do a little piece of Dixie record.
Shaker Manoa is fun. The ladies like it. So I'm
basing a lot of my picks on the heaviness and
what the fans dig and like and request and stuff
like that. But that's another cool riff that
Charlie had. He's had that riff, I mean, God,
since he was a kid. Here I am singing it, which
I shouldn't do that. Anyway, that riff is just...
It grabs you as soon as it starts. That always
gets in the ladies dancing. It does. And I feel
like Little Piece of Dixie is the one Blackberry
Smoke album that leans a little bit more towards
the traditional countryside where a lot of the
albums either pre. talking about Bad Luck Ain't
No Crime or anything after Little Piece of Dixie,
it seems like the spectrum was a lot wider. And
it seems like on Little Piece of Dixie, you guys
were trying to hone a particular sound, at least
in comparison to the rest of the discography.
That was Dan Huff. He produces a lot of people.
Tim McGraw, Kate Dill, Keith Urban, all that
stuff. He was producing that. And then he found
that, you know, he liked our band. And then I
want to lose the record. And he kind of. directed
that kind of vibe to it and yeah that's got a
lot of dan on it and i love dan dan is one of
my favorite guitar players on planet earth to
begin with but he's really good producer and
knows what he's talking about oh the album has
such a great sound to it i mean it still sounds
like modern country now and the album is what
16 years old at this point i think so god i'm
old yeah So from the sound of Little Piece of
Dixie that's kind of honed in, I kind of want
to balance the scale by completely throwing things
off balance. Okay. And I'm going to jump to 2016's
Like an Arrow. And I want to bring in the oh
so funky Believe You Me. Yeah. Which is, I don't
know, soul, R &B. Like there's this 70s stank
on the song that. To me, it feels like kind of
an outlier in BlackBerry Smoke's catalog, yet
when you play it live, it just sounds like it
was always meant to be there. Yeah. It almost
fools people to show how multifaceted the group
is. Yeah, it's, you know, with those kind of
things, and especially with that tune, we just,
there was that tiny bit of... Charlie came in
with that, and we just... knew what was going
to go on immediately. I mean, cause we, we all,
we've been playing so long together. We just,
you know, I know what I'm going to do. I know
what I'm going to do. You know what I'm going
to do. And it just fell right in. Nobody's going,
well, let's change this. You know, Charlie comes
in with the song complete 99 .9 % of the time.
It's finished to me. Really? So there's not a
lot of tweaking after the writing stages? Not
much. A producer may say something. you know,
and give us some ideas and stuff. But that one
was pretty kind of dry. We played it, I mean,
most of the time in the studio with these songs,
it was our first time playing them. Really? Like
as a band. Yeah. Yeah, we just kind of hear it
and go, okay, let's hit to it. That's extremely
interesting because the songs sound so polished.
It's as if you've been playing them for years.
Nah, it's just, like I said, man, we've been
doing it together for so long. I hate to ruin
the fantasy. Not ruining it at all, man. That's
a testament to how you guys approach music. Yeah.
That means Blackberry Smoke, Blackberry Smoke
to me. All right. With that, I'm throwing it
back to you to follow up Believe You Me with
track nine. What record was that from? That was
Like an Arrow. Okay. All right. I think I have
that record here. Like I said, I cannot remember,
folks, all the tracks. So I think All to Know
is on that record. That it is. That one. That
has got such a cool, cheap trick feel to it.
We don't play it a lot, but it's just got such
a cool feel to that song, man. Brit honed right
in on that one. It was awesome. It's funny you
bring up cheap trick because to me, this was
always a Blackberry Smoke song. But now that
you mention it, I do hear a hat tip in that song.
There ain't nothing wrong with that. I mean,
you don't have to take it to an extreme. You
don't want to sound like... I don't know Zeppelin
completely, but you definitely, if you're into
it, put something in there that reminds, you
know, that you're tipping your, you're like you
said, tipping your hat to. And to me, that's
probably, that's the way I see it. I'm quite
proud of that song. As you guys should be. It's
a killer tune, but now to close out side a, I'm
actually going to close out with an album closing
track. And it's one of my favorite songs from
the band that. for a while wasn't being played,
but was brought back in 2022 as the band celebrated
the 10th anniversary of the Whippoorwill. And
I'm going to close out Side A with Up the Road.
Ooh, yeah. That song, it's gotten me through
some rough times over the last decade. There's
something about the lyrics and the melody of
it that's just so inspiring, so fulfilling, and
it's such a perfect... cherry on top of this
sunday of songs we put together for side a there's
just something that's so affirmative about it
and i'd love to know after that 2022 run where
you celebrated the 10th anniversary of the whippoorwill
were there any songs that you guys played where
you're like man we need to break that out more
often because of just the kind of the reception
they got that one i mean That one for sure, because
I think we play the other ones a little often.
I'm looking at the songs. Yeah, we play. We do
most of those, and that one gets, we sometimes
forget. We're old people. I mean, I'm just throwing
this out in the universe, but next time you're
in New Jersey, which just happens to be a week
from this very night, and you decide you wanted
to break out up the road and holding all the
roses, I'd be a pretty happy guy. I'm not going
to lie about that. All right, cool. I'll mention
it. I don't make up a set list, but I'll definitely
mention that. Rock and roll. I got to go back
and learn both of those. We haven't played them
in so long. Well, that mixtapers concludes side
A of the ultimate Blackberry Smoke mixtape, which
consists of Flesh and Bone from Find a Light,
Holding All the Roses from the album of the same
name, Everybody Knows She's Mine and Pretty Little
Lie from the Whippoorwill, Scare the Devil from
Bad Luck Ain't No Crime, Best Seat in the House
from Find a Light, Shake Your Magnolia from Little
Piece of Dixie, Believe You Me and Ought to Know
from Like an Arrow, and Up the Road from The
Whippoorwill. Head over to myweeklymixtape .com
to hear all the songs we've discussed in this
mix through the playlist embedded on the episode
page. And now to flip things over for Side B,
Paul, I'm going to kick things off. And we talked
earlier about ought to know being a little bit
of a hat tip to cheap trick. And I'm going to
go back to like an arrow and I'm going to go
to an album opener and go with a dirty riff waiting
for the thunder. Yeah. I was thinking the same
thing. This song has an AC DC level of power
to it, even though it's a Southern rock song
at the end of the day. I mean, right there, you
said it. To me, that's exactly what I think.
Is that a song that you guys know is like kind
of one that it's easy to pull out of your pocket
at any given time? Because I feel like that song
can open a set and close a set with just as much
authority. Yeah, we do it on the reg quite often.
And it is always fun to hear the people sing
it back to you. And, you know, some people may
think it's political, but it's not at all, period.
It couldn't be, I think, if people wanted it
to. That's not the intention of that song, period.
It's just got, you know, it's pretty much what
people think most of the time. You don't need
to overthink it, right? Yeah, you don't at all.
All right. Well, now I'm throwing it back to
you for track two on side B. All right. Let's
go with you here, Georgia. I do like Morningside.
That's a good one. We'll put that in there. Nice.
Nice. That was a little bit of Charlie Starr
and Nick Perry. You know, they came up with that.
And yeah, it's just the guitars in that are raunchy
too, you know? And so, you know, Brandon killed
it on that one. Now, given the fact that you
like the heavier side of the band. Yeah. If going
by the picks here, do you ever say to Charlie,
like, hey, for, you know, the next album, why
don't we lean into some of the heft a little
bit? Or is that more of just kind of where he
goes with the songwriting? Sometimes. he goes
you know like i said i can't speak for him but
he's got all kinds of different things you know
spices to put in and like i said we could pull
those kind of things off doing a heavy song and
then the next one be fairly folky you know because
it's us and we don't care you know and i'm sure
i speak for a lot of the fans when i say we don't
mind that at all yeah you know it's like it's
funny like we do uh some songs sometimes i don't
look at the set list And I walk out and go, oh,
maybe I should have ran over that, you know,
because I get I get surprised all the time. I
mean, that's when I was had my own band. I hated
writing the set list. And Charles, he had a pretty
big job doing that. Now, is there any time that
you guys pull audibles on stage where you're
just feeling like we need to go here next? Yeah,
he'll you know, like I said, he's singing these
songs. So and we play quite often. So four shows
in a row with a day off and four shows in a row.
that could be tough on any human being yeah vocal
cords so i usually just stay out of his way when
it comes right to set list well i think i'm gonna
stick with you here georgia for another track
here and i'm just gonna go right to the album
i'm a sucker for album opening tracks so i'm
going right to the album opener live it down
because as far as i'm concerned anytime that
sherry and sharita murphy Get onto a track otherwise
known as the Black Bettys. They make their presence
felt. I'd love to know how that relationship
came together with Blackberry Smoke and the Black
Bettys. Well, back when we were cutting records,
we just always thought about getting a couple
backup singers just to do the studio stuff. Just
to do it outside of my stuff. Just to have that
different flavor on some of the tracks. I don't
know who found them. I think maybe Brit or Charlie.
I don't know. We asked them if they'd come in
and do some harmonies. And they said, sure. Which
is, who with me and these, I don't have to sing
all of them. And you've also brought them out
at shows like the Homecoming show that you put
out on Blu -ray and DVD. Is there ever a point
that you would want to have them on the road
for the entire tour? I mean, I'm down with anything.
You know, I'm just that guy. But it's expensive
to be out on tour. That's what I figured. Two
buses, one semi. It can get pretty pricey. And
they're usually busy a lot. But when we can get
them, we're always like, let's do it. Hell yeah.
Hell yeah. All right. Well, we are on to track
four now. Throwing it back to you. All right.
Well, I'm going to have to say One Horse Town
because that is definitely a fan favorite. And
that was our, I always thought that was our,
um, uh, what is the song? Small town by, um,
John Cougar, Mellencamp, John Cougar. Yeah. John
Mellencamp. And I was like, man, that'd be cool
to have a song like that, you know? And because
that's a great song. Oh, and then, um, yeah.
And then Charlie introduced that song to us and
I was like, Ooh, and everybody loves that song.
Kids love it. Grandparents love it. Because it's
true, dude. I mean, if you listen to the lyrics
to that song. That's what I was just going to
ask you. Is that all firsthand people that Charlie
knew? Well, I don't know. I didn't grow up around
his area, but I did live there for a while. Okay.
Pretty much. There's not one false thing in that
song. Because I've been around his little bitty
town. Believe me. Well, I mean, aside from the
fact that I love the melody and just the entire
vibe that the song has, the storytelling that's
going on, you really feel the emotion and the
realness of the stories that are being told about
this song. So it's by far one of my favorite
songs from the band. It's one that I always look
forward to seeing live. It's one that I've played
live when I've done gigs. So it was an easy scoop.
I had it in my list. And if you didn't pick it,
I was going to. But to follow that up musically,
I'm going to do a little bit of a shift here.
We talked about acoustic on side A, and I want
to really lean into the acoustic here. Blackberry
Smoke, like I mentioned at the top, one of my
favorite bands for the last 20 years. And one
of my favorite bands, when they cover my favorite
artist of all time, you have my frigging attention.
And on 2018's The Southern Ground Sessions. You
remade Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, You Got
Lucky with Amanda Shires on violin. Now, to me,
this is more than a cover because you guys completely
reimagined it. And I'd love to know kind of the
thought process behind taking this kind of synthy
1980s track and turning it into a beautiful acoustic
ballad. Man, first of all. That was a hard session
to do because it was hard to not stare at her
all day. I'm just saying. And, you know, she's
super cool and can play the hell out of that
fiddle. Yeah. And got a great voice. Now, she
came in and did that. It was just, it blew me
away. So I don't, there might be video of that.
I'm probably just laying my mouth open. But that
just happened right there. Right there when we
recorded it. Now I have to follow up on this
one because I've seen you guys live and I've
seen you break out sleeping dogs. And when you're
in the middle of the song, you sometimes pivot
into don't come around here no more and you don't
know how it feels. So who's the petty fanatic
in Blackberry Smoke? I think all of us are. But
Charlie, you know, whatever he's feeling at the
moment, he is whatever he's playing. We'll just
follow him. Cool. We're doing this one. Oh, we're
doing that one. You know, like, oh, my God, what's
that core? And you guys obviously wear your cover
songs on your sleeve as you had the, in 2021,
you guys did a studio album that was live to
tape of nothing but Rolling Stones songs for
a record store day. Yeah. How did that all come
together? Well, it was, you know, COVID and we
were chomping at the bits to play. And then somebody,
I think it was our management at the time. They
came up with the idea of doing that. We were
like, wait a minute, we get to go to the studio.
Cool. We'll do it. And the process was cool.
We played, I think we ran that set twice, you
know, just so they can get sounds. And the second
take of that whole record was that. Oh, wow.
You could hear a little bit of, pay attention,
some bum fuzzleness in there. Somebody's like,
oh, wrong chord. But the Stones wouldn't care.
No. That's rock and roll, baby. Rock and roll
is meant to be perfectly imperfect. That's right.
That's a shirt right there. Make many bucks.
All right. Hey, if you make one, just put my
weekly mixtape on the back of it. That's great.
So what are you going to follow up? You've got
lucky with. Oh man. Um, yeah, Lee. Oh, I like
off of, uh, be right here. Let's go with, uh,
Ooh, this is hard. Let's see. Be so lucky. Let's
put that on me. That's got a really cool, and
this is the problem with me. I'm always thinking
about the music part of it. It's got this really
cool riff in it. And like I said, I like all
of our songs, and this is terrifying for me to
do, just saying. Terrifying? Oh, no. Excuse me.
I just don't want to leave any of them out, but
we got to. That's the fun part of the mixtape.
Yeah, that makes the challenge. But guess what?
There's always a volume, too, my friend. That's
right. That is right. All right. Well, this album,
I'm not going to lie, Be Right Here is a little
bit of a bittersweet listen for me. Just knowing
it's the last album that Brit was on for the
band. And I know this is a little bit of a tough
topic, but I'd love to talk about and celebrate
Brit for a moment here if we could, because I
feel like his light still shines through the
band to this day. And I'd like to know kind of.
how you guys are keeping that light alive through
the music now. You know, it's for just personally
for me, Brit is always here. They didn't go anywhere.
You know, I know he moved on, but, um, for, you
know, when I miss him, all I gotta do is run
to the turntable and drop a needle, you know,
and he's right there. He'll be with us forever,
you know? So, and he, he was such a, you know,
A driving force of us not killing ourselves.
And I mean that sincerely. I mean, he just, he
did some crazy stuff for us to keep us from not
killing ourselves out on the road, you know?
So, and he was one of the funniest people I've
ever met. I was telling somebody the other day,
it's hard sometimes when I'm thinking about him.
I don't, I don't. It's hard for me to get sad
because I think of all the crazy, funny crap
he did. So I immediately go to that and start
cracking up. Even at his memorial, we had his
wife and daughter and everybody put on. They
had a crap ton of photos. And I remember every
one of those photos. And I remember what we were
doing and how we were talking and making cracking,
stupid jokes. So I sat there with a smile on
my face. And I hope people weren't like, look
at that fool over there. but it was just funny
i was like oh my god i remember that he just
i remember what he was saying to me and now he
was saying it but i'm missing i miss him a lot
we all do we all do and he was a huge piece of
the legacy and i i apologize for going to a heavier
subject but But I feel like anyone that listens
to this episode, I want to know that Brit lives
through this show, through the band, through
the music, through the fans. He's always going
to be a part of the Blackberry Smoke legacy.
Right. Always. 100%. So I think to tap into what
you were just talking about there, I think I'm
actually going to pivot. I had a song in mind
to follow up Be So Lucky, but you were talking
about kind of the... sense of humor and the smiles
and the laughter. And I can't think about that
without my mind going to one of my favorite Blackberry
Smoke lyrics that even though the song is not
meant to be a humorous song, this line always
puts a huge smile on my face. When my life is
over and my time has come to pass, bury me upside
down so the world can kiss my ass. Son of a bourbon
from the new Honky Tonk Bootlegs EP. Oh, I forgot
about that one. Bootleg. My God, I love when
you guys break this out live because that line,
I think, perfectly sums up the spirit of this
song and obviously the crowd feels it. Yeah,
that was a good one. I remember when we were
playing that song for the first time and my old
man, when he was alive, he did a painting company.
He had his paint company outside the fire department.
A lot of firefighters, they have extra jobs because
the pay's not really well. But anyway. His business
card said that on the back of it. Really? Those
exact lyrics. I had them somewhere in the house,
but that's not where Charlie got the lyrics.
He just came up with that. That's an old saying,
pretty much. From our parents' era. Yes, yes.
Well, now we are back to you for track eight.
You have two songs left and I have one, so we're
getting to kind of the encore, if you will. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. That's a hard one. I got it. Holding
all the roses, wishing one hand. Yes. That's
a good jam too. Probably because it says the
S -H -I -T word. I don't know. I mean, you can
kind of listen to some of these songs and learn
a lesson from them if you want to take it there.
But I mean, who hasn't? My parents said that
to me all the time. Exactly. But I want this.
I can't. My mom was there. Wishing one hand.
You know, see what first. Mm -hmm. Yeah. It's
hilarious. Well, we are down to one song left
each. Okay. And I want to take a quick moment
to give a quick shout out to two of the Patreon
mixtapers because they chimed in with some songs
that we haven't talked about yet. Sans my little
Tom Petty aside a few minutes ago. Okay. First,
we had Patreon mixtaper Chad LaMassa who chimed
in with Sleeping Dogs off the Whippoorwill. And
then... mixtaper jason donch has chimed in first
by saying that blackberry smoke is the best live
band in the land oh thank you but nothing gives
him the feels more like the opening to shaking
hands with the holy ghost also from the whippoorwill
i'm going to be perfectly honest this is a coin
flip moment for me because i love both of these
songs equally So I'm going to try something different
tonight, and I hope you're okay with this, but
I am going to ask you, as a member of the band,
which one of these songs should I pick for this
last song of the evening? I'm going to go with
Shaking Hands with the Holy Ghost. All right.
Awesome. Because that song is another, I mean,
it's an ass -kicking riff. Sorry, I don't know
if I'm supposed to say that. Oh, you can say
that all you want. It is. I knew when we played
that the first time, I was like, ooh, damn, people
are going to dig this for sure. Then we put it
on a record and cut the video in London somewhere.
That's definitely still a fan favorite. Certainly
is. So at track nine, shaking hands with the
Holy Ghost. And with that, a huge thank you to
both Chad and Jason for chiming in over on the
Patreon boards. And now, Paul, you have the pleasure
or pain, depending on a lot of people. Don't
like to spot, but you get to close out the evening
with the final song of the night, the closing
number. I'll find the light. Right. Let me make
sure I got the right record. I'll find the light
since we're closing it till the wheels fall off.
Nice. That's what we do. We always on tour and
we'll do this thing until the wheels completely
fall off of it. That's not happening. I was just
going to ask, what does 2025 have in store for
Blackberry Smoke in terms of touring? Busy. Well,
given the last few years, I'd say it's a given
at this point. I mean, last year, last year,
that was a long year, you know, and we love to
play. I mean, it's, you know, as you get older,
you know, you want to be with your family and
stuff, but there's something about that two hours
and you just can't beat it. It's hard being away
from your wife. It's hard being away from, I'm
not trying to be off on the rails. I'm just trying
to tell you how this all works. No, no, by all
means. Yeah. It's hard being away from your children,
you know, when. something's wrong and they need
you and you're looking through a phone and and
you can't get your hands on them to choke them
you know what i mean but the road life is rough
but we we love the place that's the reason we're
we're still at it and uh i've been home for almost
two months and i'm ready to rock and roll you
know what i mean And my wife's ready for me to
rock and roll too. If I could put this in Blackberry
Smoke terms, let me help you find the door. Yeah,
she always tells me, she's like, oh my God, I'm
getting poster phobic. You've got to go. Well,
there you have it, folks. Side B of the ultimate
BlackBerry Smoke mixtape, which consists of Waiting
for the Thunder from Like an Arrow, Morningside
and Live It Down from You Hear Georgia, One Horse
Town from The Whippoorwill, You Got Lucky from
the Southern Ground Sessions. Be So Lucky from
Be Right Here, Son of a Bourbon from the new
Honky Tonk Bootlegs EP, Wish in One Hand from
Holding All the Roses, Shakin' Hands with the
Holy Ghost from The Whippoorwill, and Till the
Wheels Fall Off from Find a Light. Head over
to myweeklymixtape .com to hear all the songs
we've discussed in this mix through the playlist
embedded on the episode page. 2024 was the last
time Blackberry Smoke put out an album. About
a year old now, be right here. Is there anything
that's brewing for any new Blackberry Smoke music
in 2025? Yeah, we always are, you know, it's
just trying to find the time to do it is the
thing. There's always new music. That's not the
problem. It's just trying to find the time to
do it. So we're looking, you know, who knows,
maybe near the end of the year, we'll hit back
in and have something for 2026. I mean, who knows?
Or there might be something before that. We'll
see. I'm not at liberty to say it. Which is a
good thing, I guess. I'll just leave it at that.
Paul, this has been an absolute honor. Thank
you so much for joining me on my weekly mixtape.
Well, thanks for having me. And thanks for all
the hard questions. And to all the mixtapers
listening, remember, you can find My Weekly Mixtape
on almost all the social media haunts at My Weekly
Mixtape. You can also head to MyWeeklyMixtape
.com to check out the full catalog of My Weekly
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That's all for this week. Thanks again for listening.
And until next time, enjoy the tunes.