← 🎙️ Interesting Humans Podcast
🎙️ Interesting Humans Podcast
Ep. 60: Will Jones - Inside the Life of a Country Music Singer & Songwriter
01:29:09
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- [00:01]
Jeff Hopeck
Guys, welcome to Interesting Humans Podcast. My name is Jeff Hopeck. I'm the host today, and sitting with me, I have a new friend of mine, Will Jones. We met a couple weeks ago at the Caverns. I think it's like a bucket list item. It was for my wife, if you haven't seen it, incredible venue. But what I think was so incredibly interesting is we. So you're opening up for Josh Turner.
- [00:24]
Will Jones
Yep.
- [00:24]
Jeff Hopeck
And after you played, you said, come and meet us in the back. And my wife, who I'm not one to typically do this, but my wife said, I feel like we need to go do that. And here we are, just a couple weeks later. We're sitting here, your studio in Nashville, which is so cool, right?
- [00:40]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [00:41]
Jeff Hopeck
And I don't really have to come to Nashville to sport my boots. Yeah, I got my boots on all the time. I look pretty broken, but. Yeah, it's just. It's an honor to be here. It's awesome.
- [00:51]
Will Jones
Yeah, it's an honor for me to be here.
- [00:52]
Jeff Hopeck
It's a new, like, it's a new thing. Thing for me. So I've got, as you've seen, Secret Service, FBI, the list goes on. But I don't have music, and I certainly don't have country music.
- [01:03]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [01:03]
Jeff Hopeck
Which is a love of mine. So you're out touring right now. Right. Opening up for Josh Turner. Josh Turner, which we're going to get into. I have so many questions around that. Who picks who? And I'm going to. I'm going to ask another question at the end. I'm dying to know the answer. When you're on a car, like on a car ride, who. Who are you listening to?
- [01:21]
Unknown
Right. Yeah.
- [01:21]
Will Jones
It's a great idea.
- [01:22]
Jeff Hopeck
So we're going to get into that. But my promise here today is to have something so unique and different than what I call, like the usual music artist interview. It's typically the same kind of boilerplate question. So I'm dying to know a lot of these questions about you, but you got a lot of fans out there who want to. Who want to learn about you as well. So let's get started. I love this phrase on your website, you see this. You see this career with substance.
- [01:58]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [01:58]
Jeff Hopeck
And a long game. Tell me about that. Yeah.
- [02:02]
Will Jones
When it comes to music, I take it really serious because it's all I've ever known. It's who I am. It's. All of who I am is music. So when it comes to my career in music, I look at that just as you know, in a very Serious way. So for me, as an artist, as a songwriter, you know, I'm not writing songs, you know, typically in a gimmick type fashion. I'm not, you know, I have fun songs. I mean, I believe in having fun. I believe in writing stuff that makes people feel, whether it's happy and carefree or if it's sad or if it's touching, some sort of emotion. But as a, you know, in general, for my career, I look at writing music, singing, and performing in a manner that is, you know, offers substance, that stays around a long time.
- [02:52]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [02:53]
Jeff Hopeck
And you need, like, it's you.
- [02:54]
Will Jones
Yeah, it's me all the way.
- [02:56]
Jeff Hopeck
So other. So you're not looking out to other people, going, let me get a little bit of what he has, and a little bit of what she has, for sure.
- [03:03]
Will Jones
And I think that is such a difficult. That's a difficult, you know, thing to learn how to do. Which sounds weird. Right. But I mean, I feel like. I mean, this goes for any career in any lane of the world. Right. It's, you know, if you stay so busy trying to keep up with what someone else is doing or trying to achieve somebody else's goals.
- [03:24]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [03:24]
Will Jones
Then you're chasing the mouse and you'll never quit. But if you, like, settle into being confident in just exactly who you are.
- [03:30]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [03:31]
Will Jones
Which is, like, you know, a humbling thing, too.
- [03:34]
Unknown
Sure.
- [03:34]
Will Jones
But being very comfortable, you know, comfortable in your own skin and what you do and recognizing what you do.
- [03:41]
Jeff Hopeck
So my guess, you weren't born that way, right?
- [03:45]
Will Jones
No.
- [03:46]
Jeff Hopeck
You can't be born knowing that. Where was the invisible? There had to be, like, an invisible line.
- [03:51]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [03:52]
Jeff Hopeck
That you crossed that had you. That you changed from. If I just sing it the way that guy does and he was successful, I'll be successful. Where did you cross the line to? Like. No, I'm me, and that's who I am.
- [04:05]
Will Jones
Yeah. Well. And a lot of that plays into my, you know, my backstory of my upbringing and music, which we can get into. But the point where I really realized that, I think, was when I moved to Nashville, I had signed my first publishing deal.
- [04:18]
Unknown
What year?
- [04:20]
Will Jones
In 2020, I think it was.
- [04:22]
Unknown
Okay.
- [04:23]
Jeff Hopeck
Okay.
- [04:24]
Will Jones
In the last five years, and for the first time, I was kind of thrown into a machine or the fabric of Nashville in a manner that, you know, no one is. It's awesome. It's really. Dreams are coming true, you know, but you're also, for the first time, coming up into, like, a business, because the music business is a business, and people who run that Business. You know, they are business people, and they're looking at what makes money, you know, so they're looking at commercial opportunities and all these things. And so it does kind of test you for that first year of. You're getting pushed in a bunch of different directions, whether it be who you're writing with or what songs that you write that they think is the. Is really represents you, and you're going, I'm not so sure, you know, that that is truly who I am, you know, and feeling that pressure kind of like. I don't know, man. It's like being a rock and a string that kind of like starts smoothing out all these things and breaking you down into being. You have. And everybody talks about this, but you almost have a full circle moment, you know, where you come back to being like, wait a second, you know, this is who I am as an artist. Yeah, I've known that.
- [05:29]
Unknown
Right.
- [05:29]
Will Jones
But recognizing it, believing in it, and pursuing a career in music, thinking that way is a whole different thing. Right.
- [05:37]
Jeff Hopeck
What's the. Like. What's the physical feeling when you were able to come to terms with that?
- [05:45]
Will Jones
Oh, it's the. It's all the weight off the shoulders. It's peace. It's. It's your gut feeling. And I believe in gut feelings.
- [05:50]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [05:50]
Will Jones
I really do. And, I mean, I remember, and this is kind of nerdy, but I had first moved to town, and my dad had bought for me a book which. Anybody getting in the music business, go read this book. It's called Everything you need to know about the music business by Donald Passman.
- [06:04]
Unknown
Okay. Right.
- [06:05]
Will Jones
It's like, required reading, I think, now at Belmont. Now I'm a. You know, I didn't go to Belmont. I wasn't in the music business. So I came into town not knowing anything about how any of it worked.
- [06:15]
Jeff Hopeck
Even better.
- [06:15]
Will Jones
And I read that book, and a big part of that book talks about gut feeling and when doing deals and different things like that. Yeah, it's referenced several times, but it's a real thing. And that goes for any. Any business.
- [06:28]
Jeff Hopeck
Well, tell me a time when you had a gut feeling that went. That was the opposite way. It's like, I don't want to do that deal because that didn't feel.
- [06:35]
Will Jones
I did have that happen. And I had first moved to town. I was crawling on roofs, so I moved to town. I made the decision within, like, a week to move to Nashville. I had. I was playing cover gigs and. And we can get into all, you know, what I was doing. I was playing clubs and playing cover gigs. I was singing other people's songs anyway, in, like, one week. It all just, like, storms into me, you know, internally. I was like, I've got to move to Nashville. I've got to learn how to write better songs. The best songwriters in the world live in Nashville, Tennessee. And so I packed my 2000 model F150 up with, you know, some shirts and jeans and my guitar and moved to Nashville. And within a few months, I was out playing rounds, writers rounds, playing around town, and had gotten offered a publishing deal by a pretty prominent publisher in town at the time, and somebody who's well recognized and well respected. But the deal was just. It was a weird deal. And I had read that book, and I saw some red flags in that deal, and I was like, you know, my gut tells me this is not the right thing to do. So I turned the deal down right at the last second, making some people upset who were applying pressure for me to do the deal.
- [07:43]
Jeff Hopeck
That's right.
- [07:44]
Will Jones
And I was like, oh, no, I have complet. I have completely screwed up every opportunity I ever had. I gotta move back home. And I called my dad, and I was like, man, I might have screwed up. You know, I said, I turned this deal down. I don't know. You know, I'm crawling on roofs. It's hot. You know, what was a red flag?
- [08:01]
Jeff Hopeck
Like, what was one of them?
- [08:02]
Will Jones
It was just some of the pieces to how the deal was structured that they were. They were putting in there that wasn't. It wasn't really correct.
- [08:08]
Jeff Hopeck
They wanted too much or they wanted whatever.
- [08:10]
Will Jones
And the lawyer was like, personally. Like, their lawyer was personally texting me some. You know, trying to kind of put some pressure on me. And I said, nah, I'm good. And dad said, no, you didn't screw up. You just didn't do a bad deal.
- [08:22]
Jeff Hopeck
That's incredible. And I was like, put that in there. Chalk that up in the advice.
- [08:26]
Will Jones
Isn't that great Call.
- [08:27]
Jeff Hopeck
Oh, my goodness, that's incredible.
- [08:30]
Will Jones
So then there I was, still playing gigs on the weekends, still crawling on a rooster in the week, and I didn't care, and I kept going. And then I finally did my first publishing deal with Universal here in Nashville, which was really a great first publishing deal.
- [08:45]
Jeff Hopeck
How long after that period was. Did you.
- [08:47]
Will Jones
Well, so that was 2019, when I turned that deal down. And then, of course, we all remember the. The black hole of COVID that hit the world, you know, right in there. And it was right at the. The tail end of that first year Of COVID in there when I. When I finally did that deal with the Universal.
- [09:02]
Jeff Hopeck
So you.
- [09:03]
Will Jones
Which might have been. I can't. I'm getting. I'm losing track of the years.
- [09:05]
Jeff Hopeck
Yeah. It was somewhere in that couple years, 20, 21. You were considered signed.
- [09:10]
Will Jones
Yeah, I guess that's right. That was the right way to put it.
- [09:12]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [09:12]
Jeff Hopeck
All right, let's go way back now.
- [09:14]
Will Jones
Okay.
- [09:15]
Jeff Hopeck
To the start.
- [09:15]
Will Jones
I love it.
- [09:16]
Jeff Hopeck
Because you got another quote on your site that I gotta. I can't wait to hear this answer. You knew three chords before you knew your ABCs.
- [09:24]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [09:24]
Jeff Hopeck
Where's the truth in that? And where's the humor in that?
- [09:26]
Will Jones
I think that's a fun. That's such a fun statement. I guess the way I would classify that is I've been playing guitar and singing so long that I don't really have any good memories of not having a guitar in my hand.
- [09:39]
Unknown
Wow.
- [09:39]
Will Jones
You know, I was. I was like, around, you know, six years old or so.
- [09:44]
Unknown
Who.
- [09:45]
Jeff Hopeck
You just picked it up.
- [09:46]
Will Jones
Yeah. It's a really cool. It's actually a fun story. So my dad had bought me this cassette tape player. And if anybody remembers the cassette tape players that were like super colorful buttons and they had, like a microphone on the side you could, like, kind of talk through.
- [10:00]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [10:00]
Will Jones
They were kind of a toy. Right. And maybe for Christmas or something, I had gotten that, but I didn't have a tape to play in it. So I went down to my dad, had this music room because he was a. He's a hobbyist guitar player, but a great guitar player and songwriter. And he did it for fun. Had a regional band and everything. And I went in there and stole a cassette tape to play in my tape player. So it was J.D. crow, who's an iconic bluegrass banjo player. And there was a song on there called Crying Holy, a bluegrass gospel song. Then I had learned this song just in my own time using my new cassette tape player, which is really funny now as a parent. Sure. Like that. I'm just up in my room learning how to sing every word to this song. And so I come down and stairs and I, like, wake my dad up, who's in the recliner, you know, and he's like, what? You know, what are you doing? I said, man, I learned this song. And I just sang it all the way through. And he was like, okay, hold on just a second. So he goes and gets his guitar. And that's kind of where it started. And so then he. He put a guitar in my hands. I wanted to learn Guitar. And, and it was just one of those things that it was. I literally could not get enough of it, man. It was. I couldn't learn quick enough. I couldn't play enough. I was playing all day, every day. Just became obsessed with playing guitar and singing.
- [11:10]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [11:10]
Jeff Hopeck
Would you say so. So growing up, who's the most impactful person in your life?
- [11:17]
Will Jones
No, my dad. Yeah, my father for sure.
- [11:20]
Jeff Hopeck
By continually like.
- [11:22]
Will Jones
Well, all aspects, just in life in general. I mean he's, you know, he's my hero just in who he is as a man and you know, what he's done, the kind of father he's been too, you know, now as a parent especially, you know, the respect for that just continues to grow and. Yeah, but. And what a great teacher, you know, not just in life, but specifically in music too.
- [11:45]
Unknown
What did he do?
- [11:46]
Jeff Hopeck
So he played, you said, just as a hobby?
- [11:49]
Will Jones
Yeah, hobbyist.
- [11:50]
Jeff Hopeck
What, Claire, was he into?
- [11:51]
Will Jones
Yeah, so he's a small town attorney, so he comes from. Which we'll get into this too. My grandpa, his dad, and he grew up in the produce business with my grandpa who was in the produce business. A self made guy, World War II veteran, who I'll talk about more in a little bit. He was my best friend. And so my dad had went to college. He was the first to go to college in his family. Went to Virginia Tech where I later went, and then got done with that and was like, hey, what do I want to do now? And had decided to go to law school. And so went through law school at Richmond University law School and came back and opened his own practice with my mom as his secretary to start out with, you know, and just standing outside the courthouse doors, you know, went from, from representing people from the first day of figuring this out to becoming very successful in that.
- [12:41]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [12:41]
Will Jones
Has a great private practice back home and is just exceptional at what he does and loves it. I mean he likes to be in a courtroom every day, like on the front lines of defending people designed for and litigating and doing. Doing that. Yeah, yeah, man, he's. And, and so. But also in that he was. He loves music. He's always loved music.
- [13:00]
Jeff Hopeck
He's still playing.
- [13:01]
Will Jones
Yeah, he still plays around the house and stuff. And, and even then, you know, he was. He had a regional bluegrass band that he was traveling around with, performing and where I'm from and born and raised, bluegrass music is the cultural music, you know, of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Appalachia. And so I'd always heard him playing guitar in the house, you know, so that was. That was already instilled in me probably by then too.
- [13:23]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [13:24]
Jeff Hopeck
Was there a point like, do you remember saying, I'm gonna do that? And identifying that as being on stage and singing?
- [13:33]
Will Jones
And I don't know if, you know, at that age, if I could think big enough to know that, but I definitely knew it. There was a theater downtown and I was born and raised in a little farming community called Cana, Virginia. And it sets. The farm we grew up on sets about a mile from the state line of North Carolina. So the closest town to us was Mount Airy, North Carolina, which for anybody is where Andy Griffith was born and raised and where they based the whole show off of Mayberry. And so every Saturday morning, me and my dad would go down and play what was called the Merry Go Round on WPAQ radio, which is the second oldest running radio station behind WSM here in Nashville. So there's a lot of history there, you know, from Bill Monroe and Flatten Scruggs and all these guys back in the day traveling around playing radio stations. But every Saturday morning we go to the downtown cinema and we would walk in and we would. We would play the Merry Go Round on stage. And then it sounds, I mean, this is how great my childhood was. But then afterwards, the Snappy Lunch, which is a really famous place there that sell a famous sandwich called the Pork Chop Sandwiches. It's incredible and super well known, like every famous actor you can think of, like their pictures on the wall, giant sandwich. But my dad would let me walk down the street and go get one of those sandwiches. So I'd walk in, you know, like seven year old Will, after just like slinging bluegrass tunes for a few hours, would go in and they'd be like, all right, we know what he wants. You know, go get me a sandwich. And that was my Saturdays and.
- [14:58]
Unknown
Wow.
- [14:59]
Will Jones
And that's where. That's where being on stage, learning how to be in front of people, talk to people, sing in front of people, that's where that really got crafted.
- [15:08]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [15:08]
Jeff Hopeck
You almost didn't. You almost didn't learn it. It was just the way of life.
- [15:14]
Will Jones
It really was. Yeah. And so I don't know that I necessarily could think.
- [15:18]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [15:18]
Will Jones
To know it, but I did know it, you know, and man, there were so many like legendary characters during those years. Clyde Johnson, who was a radio host of that show, I think for like 40 years was, you know, some people like that that I think of that kind of dips a toe into yesteryear in a lot of ways. That I'm so glad I got a piece of.
- [15:36]
Jeff Hopeck
Yeah, yeah.
- [15:37]
Unknown
Is.
- [15:37]
Jeff Hopeck
Is there a place that you can point to that shaped who you are today?
- [15:43]
Will Jones
Yeah, I would say a physical location would just be home, you know, because. And I think about this now as a father, you know, as a parent, but back then, nobody was running around with cell phones in their hands, you know what I mean? I was just on the very tail end of before that started. I mean, literally right at the last point of where that was part of everyday life was. And then, you know, and then it wasn't, you know, in that transition. And so back home for me was, you know, literally running around on our farm and living a free life and running through hayfields and just a little Huck Finn style lifestyle, you know, or spending summers out at my. You know, my grandpa lived right down the road. Buster Jones, who I talked about, World War II vet, and his front porch of his produce business set right on the main road through our community. So it was literally like old Pepsi machine on the porch.
- [16:36]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [16:36]
Will Jones
You know, me and grandpa, just the.
- [16:38]
Jeff Hopeck
Way we envisioned it.
- [16:39]
Will Jones
I mean, literally picture perfect. And we would sit out there on the front porch, you know, and all these characters would stop in and people from around the community would swing in. We call it loafing. If you grew up in a rural area, you call it loafing. And we would loaf on Saturdays, but we would sit out there and just hear stories and talk and spend that time. And he'd pay me like $3 a day to help grade tomatoes, you know, and I was probably not helping at all, but man, I remember I saved those $3 bills, you know, every day, three $1 bills. I would save them up, you know.
- [17:09]
Jeff Hopeck
That's awesome.
- [17:09]
Will Jones
What a great life, you know. Great. So that's, that's really what shaped me between my dad, the man in my life, you know, my dad, my grand. My grandpa, my mom's dad.
- [17:17]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [17:17]
Jeff Hopeck
Special.
- [17:18]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [17:18]
Jeff Hopeck
Was there, was there a pivotal point that you would say where you could have just say it's a why. And you could have either become who you are today or you were going down a path that could have been whether it's much, much different for the better or for the worse. Yeah, one pivotal point.
- [17:39]
Will Jones
Oh, that's a great question. I feel like I've had several of those.
- [17:42]
Jeff Hopeck
What was the first one you can remember?
- [17:44]
Will Jones
The first one I can remember was, you know, the one that's typical for most, most people and that is career choices. You know, like, I graduated high school, I got accepted to Virginia Tech.
- [17:54]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [17:54]
Will Jones
And I thought, well, that's a great opportunity to go, you know, get an education. A lot of my friends at that time in music were just going straight into music. You know, they're like, why am I gonna go get a college degree?
- [18:03]
Jeff Hopeck
Really?
- [18:04]
Will Jones
I'm playing music and.
- [18:05]
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah.
- [18:05]
Will Jones
And I thought, well, I have this opportunity to do that. So I went. I went to Virginia Tech, you know. Got impatient with that pretty quick.
- [18:12]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [18:13]
Will Jones
Just being in. Being in school, in the university, it.
- [18:16]
Jeff Hopeck
Just took one classroom setting, probably.
- [18:18]
Will Jones
I don't know. It's just, you know, it's like. I think some people really dive into, like, the college years and just, like, really love it. And for me, it just felt like it was pulling me away. It just felt like just standing still or something. I don't know.
- [18:32]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [18:33]
Will Jones
And I was playing music then, too, still to make money. But being in college, I got a degree in history and political science because I thought, well, you know, I grew up, you know, seeing my dad and everything, and thought, well, I could go to law school. And I remember I graduated early from Tech because I was impatient. So I graduated a year early and said, all right, well, I took my lsat, you know, and got a decent score on it and was like, this is where you make the decision. Right. Because it's either I'm going to do that, and I'm going to take on that kind of debt, and I'm going to be dedicated to that, you know, for the rest of my life. That's what I'm doing now until I'm dead. And I was like, man, I play music.
- [19:12]
Unknown
Mmm.
- [19:13]
Will Jones
I meant to play music.
- [19:14]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [19:15]
Will Jones
So I immediately put together a country band and started the next chapter.
- [19:19]
Unknown
Yeah. And what was the name of my life?
- [19:21]
Will Jones
It was just under my name. Will Jones Band.
- [19:23]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [19:24]
Jeff Hopeck
And what. Curious. When you took that back to your dad, what was it?
- [19:28]
Will Jones
Oh, he loved it. He was extremely supportive, so he supported it. Oh, man.
- [19:31]
Jeff Hopeck
All the way, Giant.
- [19:32]
Will Jones
All the way. And even, you know, I had a family bluegrass band. My sisters got into playing after me, and. And we had that. So we, you know, a big part of my life growing up in my adolescent years, I still did the public schools, and I was playing, you know, in public school, I was playing. I loved that. I was playing sports.
- [19:48]
Unknown
Sure.
- [19:48]
Will Jones
You know, and we come from a. In Carroll County, Virginia. We have one high school for the whole county, you know, so it's the same 12, 15 guys are playing all the sports, you know, and it's awesome. And so, you know, I Was super into that. And then on the weekends, I was out playing bluegrass festivals with my family.
- [20:03]
Unknown
You were?
- [20:04]
Will Jones
Yeah. And so I had these two worlds that kind of didn't really. My friends just knew I didn't hang out with them on the weekends because I was out traveling around, playing music. Sure, yeah.
- [20:14]
Jeff Hopeck
What about during the week? Would you do, like, covers at schools, like, on campus or anything like that?
- [20:19]
Will Jones
Not really. Do you play in your room? Yeah, I was always. I always had a guitar. Yeah. Always playing. Always playing music in college, and, yeah, I would do a little bit of that stuff, you know, here and there, or go out and gig and try to make a little money.
- [20:30]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [20:30]
Will Jones
You know, during college, you gotta be.
- [20:33]
Jeff Hopeck
A good student if you got accepted.
- [20:35]
Will Jones
Like I did, you know, I was, you know, like everybody. I think we all suffer from, like, extreme attention deficit disorder. Right. I mean, nowadays it's more. It's worse than it's ever been.
- [20:44]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [20:45]
Will Jones
But. Yeah, so I probably could have done better if I'd, like, really have been able to, you know, sit down and, like, apply myself. I was pretty notorious for procrastinating or, you know, all the typical things, so I could have been a better student. But I guess I was a good enough student to, you know, get accepted to school and get a degree and graduate. I'm proud of that.
- [21:03]
Jeff Hopeck
So up until that point, then, is there a day, a week, a particular year that you wish you can live over.
- [21:17]
Will Jones
During those years?
- [21:18]
Jeff Hopeck
Just during those years, until LSAT time?
- [21:23]
Will Jones
No, I don't think so. I think. I think I'm really satisfied with how those years went, because I do have years that I wish I could live over for sure. Just either it's like, I could do that year better, or I think there's probably some years in there, but at the same time, everything's retrospective. So you think, man, if I hadn't made this mistake or if I hadn't made this decision, I wouldn't be where I am right now, you know? So I recognize that through those pivotal. Those pivotal years, for sure.
- [21:57]
Jeff Hopeck
Okay, so let's move into the, like, the creative and the artistic process that we talked a little about. So what is it? Is it you have a title in mind and then you write the lyrics to it? Is it exactly backwards of what I just presented? Or is it this third hybrid that you have a story and you just gotta try to get it outta your head? Or is it all of them?
- [22:22]
Will Jones
Yeah, it's all of them. Yeah, it's typically all of them. I love this question because I get asked that question a lot as a songwriter. Yeah, it can be anything. It can be like, you know, the hook might come first. You might be out fishing or something, or hear somebody say something. Personal conversations. That is where you get all your songwriting material. Talking to people. And so if you're ever with a songwriter and you're like having me a conversation, they just pull their phone out in their notes or whatever and they start writing something down. You probably gave them an idea for a song. Really?
- [22:54]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [22:55]
Will Jones
Or said something really cool.
- [22:56]
Jeff Hopeck
Okay.
- [22:57]
Will Jones
Reading books, watching old movies, getting out in nature. But sometimes you'll come up with a hook first and be like, okay, guys, I've got this hook. We've got to figure out how to write it. And then you'll spend some time with melodies. What does this sound like? What does this hook sound like? You know, if it's a good, having fun, drinking song, you know, we got, let's put some like a honky tonk shuffle behind it or something, you know?
- [23:15]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [23:16]
Will Jones
Or something might be a big ballad and you can tell just from the title.
- [23:19]
Jeff Hopeck
How do you know if. How do you know if it was written before?
- [23:23]
Will Jones
It's really.
- [23:24]
Jeff Hopeck
Database.
- [23:25]
Unknown
Yeah. Okay.
- [23:25]
Jeff Hopeck
You do?
- [23:26]
Will Jones
Absolutely. Especially if it's like a really good one. If you're like, there's no way that this song hasn't been written yet.
- [23:33]
Unknown
Right.
- [23:33]
Jeff Hopeck
Do a little research because can you tell us where you actually go to? Is it a website? I kind of reveal it. Is it a top secret?
- [23:42]
Will Jones
No, it's not top secret. No. I just go through like any of the streaming platforms, Spotify, Google, just.
- [23:46]
Jeff Hopeck
Oh, so you're doing a front end search.
- [23:48]
Will Jones
Yeah, general database, like searches. Got it on, you know, things that's been released in the past.
- [23:52]
Jeff Hopeck
And do you ever have to look at copyright and trademark scenarios?
- [23:57]
Will Jones
Well, you try to stay off of other ideas if they've been written or, you know. But nowadays, you know, even if it's an idea, that's it. Just, you know, you just want to stay off of not doing what they do.
- [24:08]
Unknown
Right.
- [24:08]
Will Jones
And people talk about this too. It's getting harder to write songs. Right. In the 60s, there hadn't been as many songs written.
- [24:14]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [24:15]
Will Jones
Which seems like just such a, like a, you know, simple thought. But it's true. There hadn't been as many songs written back then. So nowadays there's been millions of songs written.
- [24:25]
Jeff Hopeck
Millions.
- [24:26]
Will Jones
You know, and you try to stay as conscious of that as possible.
- [24:29]
Jeff Hopeck
I'll reveal how. Go ahead.
- [24:30]
Will Jones
No, but what I was going to say was. Yeah, so you might get a hook and you might be like, man, we got to write that.
- [24:35]
Unknown
You know?
- [24:36]
Will Jones
Or you might get a guitar lick that you just can't stop playing. And you might be like, okay, what is that? You know, or a melody in your head? Yeah, it comes from those three or four places.
- [24:44]
Jeff Hopeck
Anybody ever. You ever been, like, at a random place and somebody's like, oh, I always wanted to write a song about this, or I think this story should be a song. Did you ever get ideas from that somebody? Yeah, I Suggesting something.
- [24:57]
Will Jones
I get people hit me up all the time. Or at Shady People are stick. Yeah, sometimes. Yeah. And even. It might even be for like, an idea you already have, and it might be a line in a song. It might be. You know, it could be anything. But that does all fuel inspiration, for sure.
- [25:11]
Jeff Hopeck
Then how do you know? See, you. What is it called? A. Not a chord. You called it a lick. Would you call it.
- [25:18]
Will Jones
Okay, yeah, like a circular lick.
- [25:19]
Jeff Hopeck
How do you know if that exists? Forget the words. If that exists in a past song.
- [25:25]
Will Jones
I don't really worry about it too much. You know, do they exist? Are they, you know, you. The only thing is, you know, I thought. I thought of that. Right.
- [25:34]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [25:35]
Will Jones
Somebody will say something, and your subconscious picks it up. But most of the time, whenever you're playing a lick like that, you know, you'll know whether or not. Because you might go, oh, man, that sounds like something.
- [25:46]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [25:46]
Will Jones
You know, and sometimes you'll be like, okay, that does sound like something, because it's whatever this song is.
- [25:52]
Unknown
Right.
- [25:52]
Will Jones
But then you go, man, I really like the feel of that, though. How can I, like, take. Take that idea and that feel and, like, do something different with it?
- [25:59]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [25:59]
Will Jones
And you can always find something.
- [26:01]
Jeff Hopeck
So would it be true then that, like, when I listen to music, I can't name two songs that sound alike? Certainly not lyrics. I mean, obviously, but the music to the songs, the beat, the. All of it. Is there a database that you have to submit that. That stuff too?
- [26:20]
Will Jones
I usually just turn them into my publishers and them. And, you know, and. And they. They run with that. So maybe if they pick. Was to pick up something from there. But that doesn't happen as much as you would like.
- [26:30]
Jeff Hopeck
How do they know that it's not some random song that a famous person wrote?
- [26:38]
Will Jones
Oh, yeah.
- [26:39]
Jeff Hopeck
25 years ago. And you have the same.
- [26:42]
Will Jones
Right. Well, there's only so many chords and so many melodies and so. So many words in the.
- [26:46]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [26:46]
Jeff Hopeck
You know, but there's not a. There's not like, you're not copywriting. That is more.
- [26:50]
Will Jones
No, yeah. No, You. You just, you know, the song is copywritten.
- [26:53]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [26:54]
Will Jones
Yeah, so.
- [26:54]
Jeff Hopeck
But not the individual.
- [26:55]
Will Jones
Okay. Now. Yeah. And you have to free yourself up and just enjoy writing songs and melodies and not worry about it too much.
- [27:00]
Jeff Hopeck
Did you ever get fully finished with a song, start to finish?
- [27:04]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [27:04]
Jeff Hopeck
Put it out and go. I wish I didn't put that out.
- [27:08]
Will Jones
I haven't yet. But I was very conscious about that. I was very conscious about that. In fact, I didn't release music for a long time. And what's so funny is, even when I first put my first band together right out of college, I had started an open mic back home as a way to audition players. So I was like, okay, let's start a live band open mic. I'm gonna start this with what would become my first bass player, Joel. And then all these players started traveling up from, like, Winston Salem and all these places and, like, getting in because the music was so fun.
- [27:40]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [27:41]
Will Jones
Like, I got to go get in on that Wednesday night open mic jam that they're doing, and that's where I found all the players for my first band.
- [27:49]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [27:49]
Will Jones
And. And jumping into.
- [27:51]
Jeff Hopeck
And they're all still.
- [27:52]
Will Jones
No, they're not. They're not still with me. No, they're all. They all live back home, but they all still play music and do it. I talk to them all the time. They're somebody or cool.
- [27:59]
Jeff Hopeck
Did you. I'm just curious. Did you. Were you attracted to them based on skill set only? Skill set and personality. Personality only or how does that.
- [28:09]
Will Jones
Well, skill set, you know, but what.
- [28:12]
Jeff Hopeck
If you had a good skill set and they were just.
- [28:14]
Will Jones
Oh, man.
- [28:15]
Jeff Hopeck
Kind person now we talk about it all the time.
- [28:17]
Will Jones
Yeah, it does matter. Yeah. Because you're. You spend a lot of really personal time with these people on the road. You're faced with a lot of really good opportunities to do bad things as far as, like, you know, people are always shoving drinks and. And all these things you have to have, you know, you want to be around. A good hang is what we would call it.
- [28:33]
Jeff Hopeck
Good.
- [28:34]
Will Jones
The hang, man. He's got to be good. But that really what we're talking about is, like, somebody who's a great, solid person.
- [28:39]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [28:40]
Will Jones
You know, and somebody who can spend a lot of, like, really intimate. I mean, you're in a van together for 20 hours and in hotel rooms together and together all the time. Right. So, yeah, that definitely plays a big part in it. But also musicianship.
- [28:54]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [28:55]
Jeff Hopeck
Makes sense.
- [28:55]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [28:56]
Jeff Hopeck
So this is my. My Assessment would be that you are different than. Than the. The 96 probably percent is my guess. You're definitely a standalone. Again, my assessment. I spoke to Jess before this. I know some of your story. I found some of your story online, and I talked to you before this interview. You have a true north, is what I like to refer to it as. So you had accountability. You had this gut instinct instilled in you, learned from day one or how would you. Where did it come from?
- [29:38]
Will Jones
I think you continue to learn that. Okay, you know, especially when it comes to accountability. Right? Because, I mean, no one's perfect. No one does things perfect the first time. And especially in any business, but especially the music business, you know, you kind of just got to jump in the deep end and start figuring it out, you know, and there's a lot of paralysis that happens with especially artists who are like, I know I want to be an artist, but I don't know what. What are those first steps to, you know? Yeah, and people ask me that all the time, and I say, start booking shows and start going out and performing in front of people. You know, I spent years playing cover shows and clubs, a lot of clubs that, you know, closed down during COVID even. And those years, a lot of times I think, man, did I spend too much time, you know, playing for no money and playing other people's songs. But then I think, no, because what I was doing was I was learning how to run a band. I was learning how to book shows. I was learning how to put a country band together. I'm a bluegrasser, so I come from, like, an acoustic genre. And now all of a sudden, I'm strapping a telecaster on and I'm playing chicken picking country music, you know, with drums and basses and pedal boards and. And that, you know, all that changes everything, you know, from how I grew up playing music. And so I was learning how to do all those things. How to crawl in an old 95E150 conversion and drive four hours to make 200 bucks.
- [31:01]
Unknown
Right.
- [31:02]
Will Jones
And keep. And keep band members happy and. Yeah, and all that, you know, So I think during all of those years, that's where, like, you start learning that you learn accountability. You learn, yeah, all those things. And that continues. You still continue to learn that.
- [31:18]
Jeff Hopeck
So is it true, then, when they say a musician is somebody who has. Who puts $10,000 worth of equipment into a thousand dollars, $1,000 out here right now to drive 100 miles to make $10, take a zero off?
- [31:32]
Will Jones
Even worse in the. In Bluegrass. Because bluegrass, you know, we love old vintage guitars. And so you'll go to a bluegrass festival.
- [31:40]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [31:40]
Will Jones
And people might be carrying around $100,000 pre war, you know, D28 herringbone Martin, you know, but crawling. Oh, for sure. A lot of these vintage instruments will go for anywhere from 50. I mean, Lloyd Lord Mandolin's pre war, D45 Martins. And all the guitar nerds will.
- [31:57]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [31:57]
Will Jones
Kind of know what I'm talking about. But, yeah, that's really common, especially in the bluegrass scene, because we like really good quality music, you know, instruments.
- [32:05]
Jeff Hopeck
So what's the fine line in between if something's bluegrass or country?
- [32:10]
Will Jones
Oh, man, bluegrass. There's a lot of history there. As a history nerd, you know, you'd have to go back into, like, the actual roots and the culture of Appalachia and bluegrass music and immigration of where all the pieces of bluegrass music came from. You know, whether it be, like, Irish fiddle music, which is still very present in bluegrass music, you know, or banjos that came over on slave ships as Gordon instruments and was brought into this rural environment. And all of it, like, mixes into this culture that creates mountain music. And it's very, very diverse and incredible.
- [32:45]
Jeff Hopeck
Can you play the difference on here right now?
- [32:48]
Will Jones
Yeah, actually, I probably could do that. Show me that this is taking me back, man. You know, I used to when I was really young on stage. It's actually funny when you think of, like, bluegrass or mountain music. You know, a lot of that comes from Scots, Irish, or Celtic influences. Right. So a lot of times you're playing fiddle tunes, and a lot of times when you hear a song that makes you feel. It feels like a home reunion, it might feel like it strikes your, you know, instinctive DNA. You're like, man, something about that song makes me feel feel at home. It probably does because it probably has been a piece of your, you know, your ancestors history and everything else, too.
- [33:33]
Jeff Hopeck
So that's so cool.
- [33:34]
Will Jones
Because music, I mean, as a world language, I mean, it does do that to you. If you think of, like, a fiddle tune or something, as a flat pick.
- [33:42]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [33:42]
Will Jones
Acoustic guitar player, be like, you know, so it's. It's Celtic Scott, Irish fiddle music.
- [34:06]
Jeff Hopeck
I love it.
- [34:07]
Will Jones
But then you get into, like, you know, country music might be based more off of, like, the. The Memphis, the Mississippi Delta blues meets fiddle music. You know, everything from, like, Hank senior to. To New Orleans to Cajun to like, anything and all that, like, geographically literally blends.
- [34:28]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [34:29]
Will Jones
Right. With the migration of people.
- [34:31]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [34:31]
Will Jones
And it starts. But then you might get into the, you know, the country stuff is. It's hard, but any. Any kind of. That's a harder one because it's so broad now. But any that, you know, love it. Any of that stuff. So it all. It all, you know, you can. Gosh, we could spend a day talking about. We might have to do about that, but it is. It is really fascinating and cool.
- [35:00]
Jeff Hopeck
So it's incredible.
- [35:01]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [35:01]
Jeff Hopeck
Is this. Is this the one you play with?
- [35:04]
Will Jones
No, that is. That is. It has been my main ax out on the road, my main guitar out on the road for the last year and a half or so.
- [35:10]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [35:11]
Will Jones
But I got several that I'll show some love too, because I love. I love guitars.
- [35:15]
Jeff Hopeck
It's awesome, man.
- [35:16]
Unknown
Yeah. Yeah.
- [35:17]
Jeff Hopeck
I love how much you change as soon as you get this in your hand.
- [35:20]
Will Jones
Oh, that's. Yeah, that's where I'm at home.
- [35:21]
Jeff Hopeck
You open up.
- [35:22]
Unknown
I know.
- [35:22]
Jeff Hopeck
I love it. So when you're writing, is it for therapy, for storytelling, for both, or am I off?
- [35:31]
Will Jones
You're not off at all. No. It depends on the day. Just like anyone else, right?
- [35:35]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [35:36]
Will Jones
It depends on your life at the time. It on.
- [35:38]
Unknown
Depends.
- [35:38]
Will Jones
Depends on what you're going through, what you've been through, if there's something weighing on you, you know, Interesting. It just depends on. On those things. For me, it's. It's all. All of that, you know, music is obviously a therapy. That's why I tell people all the time, they come to me and say, I'm too old to learn guitar. I really want to learn guitar. And I'm like, you're crazy. Go learn guitar. You know, because in one year you can learn guitar, and then you can do it for the rest of your life. It's not like you're.
- [36:01]
Jeff Hopeck
That's a good point.
- [36:03]
Will Jones
Do it forever.
- [36:03]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [36:04]
Will Jones
And it's really good for you, huh. To exercise music.
- [36:07]
Jeff Hopeck
So on a. On a typical day. Typical work day for you.
- [36:11]
Will Jones
Okay.
- [36:12]
Unknown
You.
- [36:13]
Jeff Hopeck
The way I would see it is you can have two different kind of rides home at the end of the day. You can have really good ride home. You can have a not so good ride home based on what happened during your workday.
- [36:22]
Will Jones
Sure.
- [36:23]
Jeff Hopeck
What could or couldn't happen in your workday to give you a good ride home versus a not good ride home?
- [36:27]
Will Jones
Well, a typical day for me is I get up, I go to the gym. You know, My wife, who's a saint, she keeps me on a pretty healthy diet these days. The last couple years.
- [36:36]
Jeff Hopeck
Awesome.
- [36:37]
Will Jones
And I'm definitely a healthier Human now. So part of my good. Part of my every day is I go to the gym. I usually listen to a podcast. Literally.
- [36:45]
Jeff Hopeck
I'll work out any favorites. I'm going to pause. Any favorites?
- [36:48]
Will Jones
No, I fluctuate. I mean, the typical, you know, Joe Rogan or Shawn Ryan. We were talking about Sean. I love his show a lot.
- [36:55]
Unknown
The.
- [36:55]
Will Jones
There's several, you know, depending on what I'm into or who the guest is.
- [36:59]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [36:59]
Will Jones
Cool. And then I'll get back home and eat breakfast, do the normal thing and I'll sit down with my guitar for a minute, you know, just for ideas and melody ideas in the morning time. Drink coffee.
- [37:09]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [37:09]
Will Jones
And then go right for me. I love sad music. I love positive music, you know, and that's like a running joke in country music. It's like, how can like really sad country music make you feel so good? But it does. But it really does. You can listen to the saddest, like heartbreak, you know, country song. And it make you feel good.
- [37:35]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [37:35]
Will Jones
And it's the relatability of being human and hearing, oh, I'm not the only one that's went through that. And that makes you feel good. You know. I love sad country songs.
- [37:47]
Jeff Hopeck
Wow.
- [37:48]
Will Jones
So there really isn't anything that can make me feel bad because if I write the saddest country song known to man, I'm gonna feel good from that. Or if I write just like a really good, feel good beer drinking country music. Everyone, let's go have fun. Obviously I feel good about that. Yeah. So the ride home for me is usually pretty enjoyable.
- [38:04]
Jeff Hopeck
Let's use your most recent song.
- [38:06]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [38:06]
Will Jones
Lonesome Dove.
- [38:08]
Jeff Hopeck
Give me this story. Take me through the process of it. When, how long? Like, I have a bunch of questions, but how long from you got the original idea to it's now done like a done final product and like just what happens along the way, who inspired it, all that stuff. Give me the whole gamut.
- [38:28]
Will Jones
So as a, you know, as a songwriter in Nashville, when you're kind of in the fabric of the songwriting community in Nashville, you have a publishing deal, you're also an artist, but during the week you're writing songs, typically, you know, say three days of the week you have co writes, so you're writing with other writers in town. You know, you look on your calendar, you show up to whatever place is on your calendar and you're writing with so and so and so and so today at wherever it may be, Sony or something. And so you show up and after you've been here for a Few years, the people on your calendar are all your really good friends.
- [39:01]
Unknown
Okay.
- [39:01]
Will Jones
You know, because you've found the writers you write well with, you know, and you kind of stick into that, you know, cycle. So that day, I was writing with my buddy Davis Corley and Leigh Starr and our buddy Dan, and we were at Black river, and Lee said we were talking about Lonesome Dove. I'm a huge fan of the Western series Lonesome Dove.
- [39:22]
Unknown
Sure.
- [39:23]
Will Jones
And Lee was like, man, that just make the coolest love song, you know? And so we got to talking about that, and it kind of evolved into this conversation of, if you've ever seen it, what would Gus say to Lori Darlin, you know, because he was a cool cat, man. It's like, how would he approach that And Lonesome Dove if he was talking to her in a bar? And then it grew into what we wrote with Lonesome Dove. And that is. It don't matter who you are. Like, if you are single, alone, for whatever reason, widowed, I mean, it doesn't matter. Or you're just at a bar by yourself, even if it's just for one song. Not everybody's looking for love, but you don't have to be Lonesome Dove. You can just have a dance and it's fine.
- [40:09]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [40:10]
Jeff Hopeck
How long? Start to finish.
- [40:11]
Will Jones
We probably write that song in a span of, I don't know, four or five hours, something like that.
- [40:16]
Jeff Hopeck
Do you pop up in the middle of the night ever and go, oh, this is the word. And it ever comes to you or the sentence.
- [40:22]
Will Jones
Yeah, that does happen on a variation of songs. You know, sometimes you. Sometimes I'll write three or four songs in a week.
- [40:30]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [40:31]
Will Jones
But it happens a lot where I'm laying in bed and I can't sleep, you know.
- [40:35]
Unknown
Sure.
- [40:35]
Will Jones
And I'm just staring at the ceiling.
- [40:36]
Jeff Hopeck
Just thinking of it.
- [40:37]
Will Jones
Just get an idea, and I just, like, sneak out of bed and, like, go down to my music room and, like, I have so many voice memos on my phone and me, like, whisper singing with, like, a guitar. Yeah. They sound awful, but I'm getting that down or that idea down. Or I'll pull my notes up and write something in.
- [40:50]
Jeff Hopeck
Do you have anything out there that you. You hear it and you're like, gosh, I wish I would have done a different word there or a different sentence, or. Does it not work that way?
- [41:00]
Will Jones
Sometimes you might. You know, you might have a song that you just continually work on or sing it a little different after you've been singing it for a couple years. But most of the time. You know, I had a guy tell me one time because I got really hung up on this. When I was in my teenage years, we were recording. I was recording music for the first time. And so I'm recording bluegrass music with my family band. And when I was like 14 or 15, my guitar ability and my singing ability and all of that was, like, really changing. So I would hear something from two years ago and be like, man, that sucks, dude. Like, why did they. You know, because I'm so much better at that now or whatever. And I had this someone tell me one time. They said, it doesn't matter because what you're doing is you're documenting who you were and where you were in your life at that time. That's all you're doing. It doesn't represent who you're going to be or anything else. I was like, you know what?
- [41:51]
Unknown
You're right.
- [41:52]
Will Jones
You're literally just representing exactly where you're at in life in all aspects at that one snapshot.
- [41:58]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [41:58]
Will Jones
Yeah. So I don't. I don't let it bother me too much.
- [42:01]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [42:02]
Jeff Hopeck
And they say going all the way back to the beginning is helpful and. And can also be not helpful too, but that's the right perspective.
- [42:09]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [42:09]
Jeff Hopeck
Your first piece of work is. I mean, how can it possibly be.
- [42:12]
Will Jones
Your best, right, dude? I mean, for me, I was a piece like 10 or 11 years old.
- [42:18]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [42:19]
Will Jones
Obviously I'm better than like 11 year old will now. You know what I mean? But now I, like, go back and enlist to it and I enjoy it, you know, because it's fun to, like, remember where I was at during those years.
- [42:29]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [42:31]
Jeff Hopeck
Just curious.
- [42:31]
Will Jones
You.
- [42:32]
Jeff Hopeck
You said somewhere along the way you struggled to put stuff out.
- [42:37]
Unknown
What did you.
- [42:37]
Jeff Hopeck
What is that related to this, what you're saying?
- [42:40]
Unknown
Sure.
- [42:40]
Will Jones
Like circling back to what you were talking about. So as a country artist, I moved to Nashville starting a country music career, and I was very precious with putting music out because that's the paralysis when I'm talking about even not just booking shows or getting out and knowing I had already learned how to do that cold calling club owners and stuff was. I wasn't scared of any of that, you know, but putting music out in the world, I was very precious with it. And I didn't want to just release music to be releasing music. And so I did. I'd signed that first publishing deal with Universal. The first song that I had ever turned in as a writer for my first publishing deal was a song called Sedona that I wrote with Davis Corley and Leigh Starr, who would later become co writers on a lot of the stuff that I've released over the last couple years. And I said, you know, that's a. I love that song. I'm proud of that song. I would sing that song on stage beside of or in front of anyone. Let's record that and put it out. So we did. And that was my first. My first song ever released.
- [43:41]
Jeff Hopeck
First one. Very cool.
- [43:43]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [43:43]
Jeff Hopeck
All right, let's. Let's go. Let's lift up the hood of will now and talk. So I'm first curious, what does a routine look like? You mentioned, like, your routine. You go to the gym. Sure. Unpack that a little bit. What kind of stuff? You're 33.
- [43:58]
Will Jones
33 years old. That's right.
- [43:59]
Jeff Hopeck
What are you? You runner or.
- [44:02]
Will Jones
No, I don't run. I do whatever. Weights. Yeah. So my routine is my wife. Man, God bless that woman, you know, because she is definitely, you know, she came into meeting me, you know, when I moved to Nashville, I was probably drinking too much. I was staying out all night and playing honky tonk country music and.
- [44:21]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [44:21]
Will Jones
And all the things. And she has never once ever put any guardrails on me. But let me come to those realizations myself, which wasn't hard to come to, you know, and. But maybe a couple years ago, you know, I was like, man, I just want to feel good all the time. And I got really serious about personal health. And so my routine now, which has been pretty much the same, I eat the same thing for breakfast every single day. Literally, I have eaten the same thing for breakfast for, what is it, years. I eat. Going back to my wife, who is a godsend, she meal preps me. Baked. Baked protein oatmeal with, like, chocolate chips and blueberries and stuff in it. And she cuts it up into squares. So, you know, like, this Square has got 20 grams of protein in it or whatever. Yeah, I eat a piece of that and two eggs with egg whites every day.
- [45:19]
Unknown
Every day.
- [45:20]
Will Jones
Every. Every single morning. So I get up. If you're on the road, I'll pack it with me. Or if I'm on the road at a hotel, I try to eat as close to that as I can. Like. Like, if I'm at a hotel or I'll go get it or whatever. Try to get something as close to that as possible.
- [45:32]
Jeff Hopeck
That's cool.
- [45:33]
Will Jones
Like, Starbucks has got the egg bites or whatever. Yeah, things like that. But, yeah, I get up every day, I go to the gym, I work out, I listen to Podcasts. I get my mind right, sit in the sauna, come home. I eat that exact meal for breakfast every day. And then I start my creative process on looking at who I'm writing with, what we want to write or what I'm in the mood to write or. Or all these things and start getting the creative thing going. Usually talk to my manager, John, or some other people on my team to check in. I'm sure I'm, like, calling them and annoying them half the time, because I'm one of those guys that if I feel good, I'm real annoying in the morning. So I get up and I'm like, out there for sure. My neighbors. I'm sure I'm slamming the hood on my truck, and I'm just feeling good.
- [46:19]
Unknown
I love it.
- [46:19]
Will Jones
But I'll do that. And then I'll go, right? And then I'll get done with writing, and I'll either have a. Something else to go do in town, whether I'm playing somewhere or doing something that evening or meetings or what have you, and then I go to the house and wait for Kristen and. And my daughter Evie to get home so that we can have some time together.
- [46:37]
Jeff Hopeck
It's awesome.
- [46:38]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [46:39]
Jeff Hopeck
Tell me a time that you were so convinced you're quitting. I'm done. I just can't. I can't do this.
- [46:48]
Will Jones
That was probably during those years of playing clubs and playing cover shows.
- [46:52]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [46:53]
Will Jones
Because that's a grind that unless you've done it, you just don't realize how hard that is.
- [46:58]
Jeff Hopeck
And that's just here in Nashville.
- [47:00]
Will Jones
Well, at the time. At that time, I was. I was traveling all over the east coast, but regionally traveling mostly in, like, the Carolinas and the Southeast. And I was playing these clubs. And you're playing from Tandle 2 at night. You're staying in, like, the worst of the worst hotels, motels, you know, and because you. You don't have no money, you're not making any money, and you're driving your.
- [47:22]
Jeff Hopeck
Own truck, your own gas. That's right.
- [47:25]
Will Jones
All these things. I mean, you're paying for anything. No, you are living broke.
- [47:28]
Jeff Hopeck
No sponsors.
- [47:28]
Unknown
No.
- [47:29]
Will Jones
No sponsors. You're just, you know, and you're playing clubs and doing this. And they would have cover bands come in and, you know, even as an actor, an artist, you know, even. And this has always been that way. But a lot of artists might have, say, five original songs that they're believe in, you know, and then the rest of the night, they're playing top 40 country music.
- [47:46]
Jeff Hopeck
Got it.
- [47:46]
Will Jones
And so for me, I'm a pretty traditional country guy. I'm a roots guy, bluegrass guy, you know, And I like, we rock pretty hard, you know, but there was during those years of, like, you know, when the. The country music, which is always evolving and always changing and it's bigger now than it's ever been, which is awesome. But at the time, it was in a. It was in a spot where the top 40 country didn't really align with, you know, what I authentically could do.
- [48:12]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [48:13]
Will Jones
And so I was going into these clubs, and they're saying, you know, like, we need you to play top 40 country music because we're trying to sell beer and keep people on the dance floor, you know, And I'm like, trying to sing these top 40 country songs. And I'm like, man, like, this is awful, because I don't sound authentic doing that at all.
- [48:30]
Unknown
Right.
- [48:30]
Will Jones
That's not the will the guy paying me. Right. But the guy paying me wants me to do it, so I'm trying to do that. And, man, when you're in a spot like that, the only way I can explain it is like, feeling homesick. Oh, right, you feel homesick, but like, in a general, bigger sense.
- [48:48]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [48:48]
Will Jones
Because what you're doing is you're. You're. You know, your insides are like saying, like, this is not who you are.
- [48:54]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [48:54]
Will Jones
And that's a powerful thing as a.
- [48:56]
Jeff Hopeck
Human insides don't match the outside.
- [48:58]
Will Jones
That's right. Man is saying, like, whoa, dude. Like this, you know? And so during those years, I was like, man, maybe I'll. This is. Is this worth the grind?
- [49:04]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [49:05]
Will Jones
Like, is this really worth it?
- [49:07]
Unknown
Huh?
- [49:07]
Will Jones
You know, because in music, the odds of breaking through any noise, I mean, it's not like I'm the best basketball player in the world, right. I'm the sports related. Like, I am the best. It's not like that you can be the best, but people also have to, like, love you. Like, you believe in you, see that you're authentic. And also, you have to write songs and music that resonate with people enough to get their attention out of this noise of millions of other artists say, you say, like, dude, that's an impossible mountain to climb. Like, is it worth the grind?
- [49:43]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [49:44]
Jeff Hopeck
You just got me quitting, right? You just got me quitting, right? Like, literally sitting here listening to that, right? I go, I'm done. I can't see. That's Mount Everest.
- [49:54]
Will Jones
And that's the door. That's like opening the door into that.
- [49:57]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [49:57]
Will Jones
But then I think. I think that's why it's important to, like, literally not have a plan B.
- [50:02]
Jeff Hopeck
What were you looking at? So, to me, it's like the. You're staring at Mount Everest. You can't even see anywhere. Forget the other side of it. What prize were you looking at? That, like, the eye on the prize type of thing. What did you see?
- [50:16]
Will Jones
I saw creating a life that sustained me enough to play music for a living as, like, an entry point.
- [50:25]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [50:25]
Will Jones
You know, if I could write songs and perform and make enough money to pay the bills, you know, and make money doing it, then that's like. That's. I've gotten to, you know, the foundation of what it was. And I think if I hadn't had music be a part of my life for so long, that maybe I would have quit. But at that point in time, you gotta understand, like, I had already been playing music for.
- [50:48]
Unknown
For.
- [50:49]
Will Jones
I mean, I don't Even know, about 15, 16 years at that point, and had traveled, performed all over the country, had already had a, you know, kind of a smaller career in the bluegrass genre.
- [50:59]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [51:00]
Will Jones
Got out of bluegrass music and now was, like, entering the country genre in the country world, which is, like, starting over, really, in a lot of ways, you know? And so, yeah, if I hadn't had that momentum behind me, I might would have. But for me, there was no plan B. Yeah, it was. I play music. See, that's who I am and what I do.
- [51:19]
Jeff Hopeck
Take that story. Snip it. And what a gift for your kids to hear.
- [51:27]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [51:28]
Jeff Hopeck
Yeah, right.
- [51:30]
Will Jones
No doubt.
- [51:30]
Jeff Hopeck
It's not all because I. I'm guilty of it myself. Oh, grab a hat. Run down the street. Grab a pair of cowboy boots. Get yourself a tour bus. Yeah. And you're a country singer. Like, I. I can make that mistake in my brain for sure. So that's.
- [51:45]
Will Jones
Well, and it. And it's impossible for anyone to, like, truly be educated enough to know because you. To be educated enough to know what it takes or to, like, be in that working machine, you'd have to live it. You got to live it every day.
- [51:58]
Jeff Hopeck
And it's got to be different, what you thought it was coming in. It's got to be so much different.
- [52:02]
Will Jones
It is a little different, but for me, it's like. And this is also. Which I don't take for granted. It's where I am in my career and what the last few years have looked like. So it's different in, like, a really exciting way, because in some ways, it's not what. You know, it's exactly what you were hoping it would be too. I mean, you come to town, you get signed to a publishing deal, Next thing you know you're getting paid to write songs for a living. You're starting an artist career, People believe in you and you're going out recording music and playing shows and you start. So that part is, you know.
- [52:32]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [52:33]
Will Jones
Where you really are living the dream, which is what I'm doing.
- [52:35]
Jeff Hopeck
Where's the, where's the ugly side of it?
- [52:39]
Will Jones
Oh, the ugly side is definitely the traveling.
- [52:42]
Unknown
Okay.
- [52:43]
Will Jones
Yeah. For touring, which you can't avoid. No, you got to get from point A to point B.
- [52:47]
Jeff Hopeck
Industry. Like what the industry as a whole.
- [52:50]
Unknown
Right.
- [52:50]
Jeff Hopeck
I can look to other industries and as I learn about them, I'll hear like, oh, that's it right there. Like that's the snake oil.
- [52:58]
Will Jones
Sure.
- [52:59]
Jeff Hopeck
I don't want to use that word in country music, but where's the. You gotta like what you gotta really watch or you can lose it all or.
- [53:07]
Will Jones
I think that's almost like. I think it's almost applied to any business.
- [53:12]
Jeff Hopeck
So is it in the label deal or is it.
- [53:16]
Will Jones
I don't know. I mean, I think every industry might have some bad seeds.
- [53:19]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [53:19]
Will Jones
In there that might be trying to take advantage of somebody, but you know, most people can smell that from a mile away. So what I've always noticed is like, once you get around really successful people in this business, whether it be in the business side of things or artist side of things or anything else, most of the time you find out that they're like really good people.
- [53:36]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [53:38]
Jeff Hopeck
So you don't have to, you don't have to say the name if you don't feel comfortable. Point me to the last time you picked up the phone and called a mentor on a real serious business. Whether it was something that did or didn't feel right, it doesn't matter. But you used a mentor like you physically used when you picked mentor.
- [53:57]
Will Jones
I believe in always talking to other.
- [53:59]
Jeff Hopeck
People, especially tell me the whole story, like what happened.
- [54:02]
Will Jones
I won't get into the details of anything, but there's all. There's always going to be points in time in your career where you want to make sure you're making the right decision, you know, and it doesn't always mean that someone's trying to get up and take advantage of you either. It might just be like a career choice and a pivot and move and things like that. And for me, I've always called my dad. He's just a level headed guy.
- [54:22]
Jeff Hopeck
That's so cool.
- [54:23]
Will Jones
You know what I mean? But I also might call the people in the industry who have been mentors to me.
- [54:26]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [54:26]
Will Jones
You know, that I met in the early days and.
- [54:28]
Jeff Hopeck
But the point is, you have that.
- [54:30]
Will Jones
I do have that.
- [54:31]
Jeff Hopeck
You have that.
- [54:31]
Will Jones
I think everyone has to have that.
- [54:33]
Jeff Hopeck
And in this. It's probably similar in this regard to many other industries. But is it. Is it ever the feeling of you all don't want the other one to get above you? Does that ever come into play?
- [54:49]
Will Jones
I don't know if that comes into play or. I don't know the right phrase. I mean, I think it's like any business, you know? I mean, who can make a better deal or who can do something or whatever. You might both mutually recognize that and just smile and be good buddies, you know, or whatever, and just. Yeah, I don't know. That's a good question, though.
- [55:06]
Jeff Hopeck
All right, so this is Will not your career. This is you.
- [55:10]
Unknown
What's.
- [55:11]
Jeff Hopeck
What's something that scares you in life?
- [55:14]
Will Jones
Oh, man, I hate spiders.
- [55:17]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [55:17]
Will Jones
I hate them things, man. I hate all of them.
- [55:20]
Jeff Hopeck
Even though daddy long leg ones.
- [55:22]
Will Jones
Those don't bother me too bad. I don't care about snakes, dude. They don't bother me at all. Really. Dude. Something about spiders over recluse, bro, that you just don't even know is there the worst.
- [55:33]
Jeff Hopeck
They have those nasty. What are they called? The Jurgen Chair wars. They have those in Tennessee.
- [55:37]
Unknown
I don't know.
- [55:38]
Will Jones
I don't know.
- [55:38]
Jeff Hopeck
They're regional.
- [55:39]
Will Jones
There's a bunch of bad spiders here, dude.
- [55:41]
Jeff Hopeck
Black and yellow.
- [55:42]
Will Jones
The first apartment we moved in after we got married was not real nice. Right. And so we're, like, newlyweds, and we're living in this apartment.
- [55:51]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [55:51]
Will Jones
And I walk in the bedroom, and, I mean, it was fine, you know, it was. We were there for, like, seven months. My wife's like. And I go in this. I go in the bedroom. I'm like, I mean, we're doing the best we can. And I look and this, like, giant brown recluse is, like, dropping down off, like, the bed. I mean, the window curtains. And I, like, didn't say anything to my wife because I was like, if I tell her this, like, she's gonna burn the entire apartment down right now. Yeah. Start throwing hand grenades. And so I was like, all right. So, like, get two boots or whatever. And I'm like, bam. And I like, kill this giant brown recluse. And, dude, I couldn't stop thinking about it because I was like, they're here. They're in here.
- [56:27]
Unknown
Oh, my gosh.
- [56:28]
Jeff Hopeck
We moved out.
- [56:29]
Will Jones
Nest something. I mean, apartment complexes. Who knows, right? We left. I hate spiders. The other thing that scares me is in a serious note. Well, that's. Here, I take this.
- [56:40]
Jeff Hopeck
That's serious. Yeah, for sure.
- [56:42]
Will Jones
Screw spiders. But is when you become a parent, a father, that scares you? Not. It's not a bad way. I think it's just a reality check. Your whole reality changes, right? Your whole personality, purpose, your whole reason, your whole why changes the second they put your baby in your arms. And it's impossible to explain to anybody possible, especially when they're, like, expecting to have a kid and they're like, you know, asking all these questions. I'm like, there's no way to explain the miracle and the life change you're about to experience.
- [57:13]
Unknown
I know.
- [57:14]
Will Jones
All the way to your core. It's the most. I couldn't believe it. I could not almost process it. When Evie was being born, when it was going down, I was like. The nurses were laughing at me because I'm just like, this is unbelievable. I can't believe this is happening, dude.
- [57:30]
Unknown
Right, Right.
- [57:31]
Will Jones
It's a miracle. But the scary part is, like, that child is completely reliant upon me in every way, and that's to step up and deliver for your family. That's a pressure that scares me. But it also. It's a guardrail, man. It keeps you. It really. I mean, it just keeps you where you need to be. It grounds you all the way. Because it's a God thing, you know, in all aspects, man. So I think it's not necessarily, like, scared. It's just more. More aware.
- [58:08]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [58:08]
Will Jones
Of what that looks like.
- [58:10]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [58:10]
Jeff Hopeck
Fear. Like. Like, I'm afraid of that clown over there versus what we would call, like, reverent fear.
- [58:18]
Will Jones
Correct.
- [58:18]
Jeff Hopeck
Which is more of a respectful fear.
- [58:20]
Will Jones
Yeah, that's right.
- [58:20]
Jeff Hopeck
That's a good point. And you get to do it again.
- [58:23]
Will Jones
I do. Coming up in December.
- [58:25]
Unknown
And if it.
- [58:26]
Jeff Hopeck
In the miracle in that.
- [58:27]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [58:29]
Jeff Hopeck
Is that it's a miracle that the second one is as miraculous as the first one.
- [58:33]
Will Jones
100.
- [58:34]
Jeff Hopeck
Which doesn't make sense because you're like, no, I'm just going in again. Our fourth one was the. Was a miracle.
- [58:39]
Will Jones
It's amazing. It never quits being.
- [58:41]
Jeff Hopeck
Did you almost pass out? Just curious.
- [58:43]
Will Jones
No, I actually, to be honest with you, my wife laughs. Because when you have kids, what you talk about with other parents all the time is having kids. And a lot of that comes into that hospital moment. The first night when the doctor's like, are y' all about ready to go home for us. It's two degrees outside. You know, we've got our tiny baby. And you're like, dude, I just feel good every time y' all come and get our child to, like, take it away for five minutes. Take her away for five minutes, because I know she's in good hands, you know? And now I've got to bring this child to my house.
- [59:13]
Unknown
I know.
- [59:15]
Jeff Hopeck
Where's the operating manual?
- [59:17]
Will Jones
Gosh, no. I loved it. I couldn't. I wasn't gonna miss none of it, man. I was. I met you.
- [59:23]
Jeff Hopeck
It was so cool. So I'm talking to you, and Katie walked around to talk to your wife.
- [59:29]
Will Jones
Yeah, Kristen.
- [59:30]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [59:31]
Jeff Hopeck
And your girl was there. I mean, it was so.
- [59:34]
Will Jones
Yeah, they don't get to come to a ton of shows, but cool. They got to come down for that show. And it was really cool. My daughter, Evie Everly, we call her Evie, is just a little movie star, man. She loves it. I carried her in there and I walked her up on stage before, you know, the show started. And I carried her up there because she also was excited to be in a cave. We're in the caverns, right? Playing a show in a cave. So everything she loves. She loves music, she loves the caves and stuff like that. She just can't get over it. I walk up on stage and I'm showing her around. She gets really serious, and she looks at me and she says, am I singing? And was, like, dead serious. Like, no way. And I was like, you can't if you want to. You steal the whole show.
- [60:11]
Jeff Hopeck
But what a.
- [60:12]
Will Jones
What a cool night.
- [60:13]
Jeff Hopeck
And, you know, that post is awesome about her having the.
- [60:16]
Will Jones
Oh, yeah.
- [60:17]
Jeff Hopeck
Who needs the real protection?
- [60:19]
Will Jones
Yeah. So we're getting security escorted to the stage, and Evie goes up and grabs, like, the security guy's hand. And next thing you know, Evie is, like, in the security guard. We with a flashlight, like, you know, moving the crowd out of the way with Evie in the front of the pack all the way to the stage.
- [60:33]
Jeff Hopeck
That's awesome.
- [60:34]
Will Jones
The real talent, the real movies.
- [60:36]
Jeff Hopeck
So we got there real early because we were staying in those little cabins.
- [60:39]
Will Jones
Oh, yeah, Cool.
- [60:40]
Jeff Hopeck
And we just walked in. There was no security around, so we just walked in the caverns. And you were walking out. I remember because you had a baseball hat on. It's like, I remember him. But we had gone in, we were, like, checking it out, and then all of a sudden, a lady said, like, what band member are you related to? She's like, oh, you gotta go. What A special place, though.
- [61:03]
Will Jones
Isn't that cool? If no one's been to the Caverns, go. That was my first time. It blew my mind. Yeah, it was awesome.
- [61:09]
Jeff Hopeck
And Josh Turner's first time, too.
- [61:11]
Unknown
Right.
- [61:11]
Will Jones
I think he said it's for his first time, too, playing underground.
- [61:15]
Jeff Hopeck
It's incredible. All right. Do you ever feel any kind of pressure? So, again, could be business and professional, but more as you like, pressure to. I'm not. I'm not around enough as a dad. That guy's got this type of life and I don't. Or when you said you came to peace with your music, did that sort of permeate through life is like, I'm who I am.
- [61:45]
Will Jones
Yeah. I think we're all human, right? We have pressure, we feel pressure, we feel stress. It's not a question of, like, if you're gonna feel pressure. If you're gonna feel stress.
- [61:53]
Unknown
Right.
- [61:54]
Will Jones
It's how you deal with it. And that's. That's the growth process that happens, you know, that's the hardest part. Yeah, I feel pressure all the time. I feel pressure in delivering. I want to perform every show. I want to give the crowd 120% of who I am and what I can do because they've paid a lot of money and saved up money to come out and. And watch a show one night, you know what I mean? And I might be on somebody else's tour and I'm a guest, you know, on their tour now, playing for their fans that they have been performing for and delivering that for. For 20 years.
- [62:26]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [62:27]
Will Jones
You know, and I don't want to let that down as a father or when I'm gone. Yeah. So, I mean, I feel that pressure and stress all the time. It's just a matter of how you deal with that and how you, you know, process it.
- [62:40]
Jeff Hopeck
And Mental Health piece, it is giant, right?
- [62:43]
Unknown
Huge.
- [62:43]
Will Jones
It's everything.
- [62:44]
Jeff Hopeck
Do you have any. Any. Whether it's a protective measure or do you have any, like, hey, something's going a little awry out here, and I'm. And I'm not by my family. Who do I call? What do I do?
- [63:01]
Will Jones
Yeah, I mean, you know, there's several things that will thicken your skin, but when you're out placing in clubs for no money during those years, I'm talking about, you know, starting a band, figuring things out. Hey, you know, I was. Great story for you. I was out on John Pardee's tour, the first of last year. This is the first time I've been on, like, a really big Big tour and playing arenas for the first time. We were in Savannah, Georgia, playing a show at saddlebags. The next week had to be in Billings, Montana. It's February in the rocky mountains in the Pacific northwest. I didn't have a van or anything. All I had was a crew cab truck. I went and bought a camper shell for my crew cab truck. Yeah, I told my guys, I'm like, okay, we just got to get in the truck and drive up there. They're like, okay, it's 10 degrees outside. We drive to Billings, Montana, and everyone gets a kick out of it because they're like, what do you know? They're asking, like, hey, security wants to know, like, what are you pulling up in? You got a van and trailer? We got to make sure we're not just letting some replacement stranger through the back gates. You know, where the buses are and everything. And I'm like, no, I'm in my truck, you know, and they're like, what? And I go in there like, did you just get in your truck and drive up here? And I was like, yeah, that's exactly what I did.
- [64:14]
Jeff Hopeck
What else was I supposed to do?
- [64:16]
Will Jones
So I come pulling in, you know, in this truck. We drive it from there all the way. We had. We had one day of travel in between a show in Billings, Montana, and we had one day of travel off and the next. And then the next day, we had to be in Abbotsford, British Columbia, which is north of Seattle in Canada, which is about as far away as you can get.
- [64:36]
Unknown
As you can get.
- [64:37]
Will Jones
So we drive the next day through two winter storms, one at, like, 6 in the morning in the crazy mountains of Montana. Literally, they call them the crazy mountains. And we're laughing because we're like, in life or death situation. And it's 10 degrees outside. And, like, you see these signs, like, road signs, and we're, like, driving up the road, like, you know, at 20 miles an hour, hoping we don't, like, wreck, because we're gonna freeze to death. And we're in the middle of Montana, and, like, you see these signs, like, just appear out of, like, snowy fog that say the crazy mountains. You know, it's just a nightmare. And we get through those, and we cross the cascades into Seattle that night at, like, 10 that night, and hit another snowstorm that was, like, horrific. And then we pull into the hotel, and the next day we got to play an arena and Abbotsford, British Columbia. My truck breaks down pulling into the hotel. It's like, 11 at night, 11:30 at night. I'm like, okay, well, I got to get from here to Abbotsford, British Columbia, which is like, 45 minutes or something. And I'm like, all right, everybody go to bed. So I had my guys a hotel. They all went to bed. I found a shop, like, a mile down the road. This is the thickening of the skin. This is what toughs you up. There's no one there to help you. Your guys are relying on you Live nation reps, and everybody else expects you to be on stage. You've been contracted to play in an arena the next night where there's going to be 15,000 people waiting for the show to kick off, and you're the one kicking the show off. So I sleep for, like, five hours, right? Four or five hours. I've been driving for 16 hours through snowstorms, and I find a shop, like, a mile down the road. I call them. I'm like, hey, my truck, Whatever. I make buddies with these guys. They get my truck in there. They're like, hey, it's going to be, like, 3,500 bucks worth of, you know, stuff going on with your truck. I'm like, it is what it is. Whatever. Get it fixed. And then I realized that I got to be at soundcheck in, like, an hour, and my truck's still not done. So I talked to the shop, and they were like, just take the shop car up there. We don't care. Take it. Wow. And I go, what's the shop car? And they pull around this, like, Kia corte or something. Like the smallest Kia sedan made with, like, no hubcaps. You know, it's just, like, tiny. And so I look at the drummer. I'm like, you know, you got to stay in the hotel. You're not gonna make this show, buddy. Sorry. Like, here's some pizza money. We gotta. You know, because I only had room for, like, me, the other guitar player, and the bass player. So then I proceed to drive through customs at the Canadian border in this. In full, like, stage gear, cowboy hat on, everything.
- [66:57]
Jeff Hopeck
Yeah, they didn't like that, you know.
- [66:58]
Will Jones
And they're like, nothing. What are you doing? Who are you? So then I pull, like, purposely parked the car right in front of John's tour bus because I thought it was funny, you know, because it's his tiny car. Like, pull my guitar out of the trunk and, like, go walking in. Like, everyone starts applauding.
- [67:12]
Unknown
They're like, he made it.
- [67:13]
Jeff Hopeck
You know, just in time.
- [67:14]
Will Jones
Yeah. Great show. It was awesome.
- [67:16]
Jeff Hopeck
What a story.
- [67:17]
Will Jones
Yeah. So those moments, you know, there's no preparing you for that. But that is. But there. There's also no one there to save you. There's no one there to help you. It's figured out. You have to figure it out.
- [67:29]
Jeff Hopeck
You're a business owner. I mean, at the end of the day, you are.
- [67:31]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [67:32]
Jeff Hopeck
Like, you're a business.
- [67:33]
Unknown
Right.
- [67:33]
Will Jones
You are. You own a small business.
- [67:35]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [67:36]
Will Jones
Depending on where you are in your career, that's incredible.
- [67:39]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [67:39]
Will Jones
You own a business 100%.
- [67:41]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [67:41]
Will Jones
So it's fun. It's funny now. It wasn't funny. Yeah.
- [67:48]
Jeff Hopeck
So let's. Let's talk the Josh Turner thing. So I'm. I'm intrigued by this.
- [67:53]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [67:54]
Jeff Hopeck
Did he pick you? Were you sitting at home one day and you got a friend phone call, hey, it's Josh Turner.
- [68:00]
Will Jones
Oh, yes.
- [68:01]
Jeff Hopeck
Would you come out with me? How does it all work?
- [68:04]
Will Jones
Yeah. So, you know, in a part of my team, I have a booking agent, you know, who's a part of my team, as well as my manager, John. And the different people who make up.
- [68:13]
Jeff Hopeck
The core of those is the core here in Nashville. They're all local.
- [68:17]
Will Jones
They're all here in Nashville.
- [68:18]
Jeff Hopeck
Everybody's local.
- [68:18]
Will Jones
Got it. Yeah. And for the longest time, like last year, you know, I didn't have any of that, so I was having to do everything myself. But I did get an agent, and then I, you know, started having some people lighten the load for me. But through that, you know, they. They are able to, like, pick from maybe a list of opening opportunities or they might have somebody in mind. The artist might. But then, you know, the artist, sometimes they might call you, you know, but for me, like, Josh, word was sent to me, you know, that he wanted me out on. On that tour, and that was an opportunity to do from my. From my agent and from them. And so was it a text?
- [68:53]
Jeff Hopeck
Like, hey, can you get this text or call or. Yeah, like, he knew you. He met you somewhere. I heard you.
- [69:00]
Will Jones
You know, I'm not real sure. I know all of his band really well, band members and stuff like that, but I'm not sure how familiar. How super familiar he was with me. But so cool, though, enough that he, you know, entrusts me with his fans and. Which has just been amazing.
- [69:15]
Jeff Hopeck
So the agent gets the contact. The agent obviously calls you. Are you, like, jumping up and down with the phone on mute going, oh, my gosh, this is the greatest thing. Like, what's the feeling?
- [69:27]
Will Jones
You go, are you nervous? No. You're excited?
- [69:31]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [69:31]
Will Jones
You're excited? I was nervous whenever I got the call for the John Party tour, because I was like, how am I going to pull this off at the time? And then you go through, you know, a little bit of that kind of tour and experience and you feel bulletproof. You're like, there's nowhere I can't get to in the world. There's nothing I can't pull off.
- [69:48]
Jeff Hopeck
Even if it's in a little Kia, whatever.
- [69:50]
Will Jones
You'll always figure out how to get it done.
- [69:52]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [69:53]
Will Jones
And that's what kind of separates the people who are really serious about it as a career and people who are like, yeah, this seems fun.
- [69:59]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [70:00]
Will Jones
Right. Until it's not.
- [70:01]
Jeff Hopeck
What changes where?
- [70:03]
Will Jones
But you're excited. You're always excited.
- [70:05]
Jeff Hopeck
Yeah. You're excited and then you're thrilled. I mean, you knew obviously knew who Josh Turner is. You're like, oh, yeah. Great opportunity. I could see it.
- [70:12]
Will Jones
Oh, man. Yeah.
- [70:13]
Jeff Hopeck
What.
- [70:13]
Will Jones
What an honor.
- [70:14]
Jeff Hopeck
What changes? Were you at a band before and now you're just up playing by yourself?
- [70:19]
Will Jones
No. So for me, as an artist, I can kind of do a variation of shows. I can do a full band tour, which I do a lot, full band shows, which I really love, or I can go out and just me and a guitar perform that way as well. And either show kind of offers something different.
- [70:38]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [70:38]
Will Jones
You know, full band's loud, rocking, like we're old school amps on stage.
- [70:43]
Jeff Hopeck
Yeah. Wedge monitor, traditional.
- [70:45]
Will Jones
Oh, yeah, dude. Like, grip it, rip it, crank it. Like, let's go. You know, me by myself with a guitar. Takes me back to where I started.
- [70:53]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [70:54]
Will Jones
You know, nothing to hide behind.
- [70:56]
Unknown
Nothing.
- [70:56]
Will Jones
If you make a mistake, if you screw up, everyone knows who did it. Right. There's only one person on stage and that's. I love that challenge.
- [71:06]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [71:06]
Will Jones
I love that challenge. So I can do a variation of those different formats show wise. And on the Josh tour, I've been direct support, solo acoustic, which has been incredible.
- [71:18]
Jeff Hopeck
Every show.
- [71:19]
Will Jones
Every show with Josh, it's been awesome. It's been really awesome. Because his fan base really listens to.
- [71:25]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [71:26]
Will Jones
And you just feel really comfortable with them.
- [71:28]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [71:29]
Will Jones
And the way I treat those, you know, shows is I really do want people to get to know me and I want to get to know them.
- [71:35]
Unknown
Sure.
- [71:35]
Will Jones
And you can make any size crowd feel more intimate in that situation if you can, you know, and talking to them just like we're talking right now.
- [71:45]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [71:46]
Will Jones
I'm just going to tell you why I wrote this song and I'm gonna sing it for you.
- [71:49]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [71:49]
Jeff Hopeck
And it's so cool again. Back to the beginning. How we started today is like, that's how I met you.
- [71:55]
Unknown
Yep.
- [71:55]
Jeff Hopeck
Is because you gave that offer to come back, and I just. We just thought that was so cool.
- [72:00]
Will Jones
Yeah. I mean, it's like, I do want to meet people. I want to meet everybody that I can meet.
- [72:06]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [72:06]
Will Jones
And on Josh's shows, I've had nights where I stood at the merch table until the venue literally was, like, kicking people out.
- [72:14]
Unknown
Wow.
- [72:14]
Will Jones
Because, you know, what a special opportunity. And that's a really tender moment, too, because I get to be living the dream. I get to be Play music for a living. I write songs, and then I get to hang out and meet the people who give you the reason, give you the ability to do that.
- [72:31]
Jeff Hopeck
It's incredible.
- [72:32]
Will Jones
That is, if that don't touch you, hit you in your soft spot, there's something, like, really wrong with you.
- [72:37]
Unknown
Right.
- [72:38]
Will Jones
You know when you see somebody come up to the merch table and, like, pull their money out and, like, choose to, like, take that $20.
- [72:44]
Jeff Hopeck
That's so cool.
- [72:45]
Will Jones
And, like, buy something with your name on it or your T shirt. Like, if that don't make you feel something, man. Like.
- [72:51]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [72:53]
Jeff Hopeck
So we were trying to figure out after.
- [72:55]
Unknown
All right.
- [72:56]
Jeff Hopeck
Josh finishes, he leaves.
- [72:59]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [72:59]
Jeff Hopeck
So we're looking at the band members up there.
- [73:01]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [73:02]
Jeff Hopeck
Do they all get on the bus together and go to the next place? Do some of them fly different places? Is it whatever. Whatever everybody feels like doing?
- [73:12]
Will Jones
Yeah, no, it depends. Most time they crawl on a bus and some.
- [73:14]
Jeff Hopeck
So they're all getting on. Use him as an example.
- [73:17]
Will Jones
Yeah, sure. Any example. Most of them is the same.
- [73:20]
Jeff Hopeck
So they're all going on that red bus or blue, but whatever.
- [73:23]
Will Jones
Yeah, pretty much like, you know, the crew and stuff. They'll get in, you know, let's just use a show night to the next day. So they'll do a show, you know, where they've set up everything, performed the show. As soon as everybody leaves, they tear down all this production. It's a massive operation. They tear down all this production. They load it out into trailers on the back of the bus. Usually they'll have like a 12 or 1 or 2am bus call, meaning that's when the bus is pulling out. That bus will head to the next city, wherever you're playing, and they'll get there at either 8 or 9 in the morning or wherever it is, you know how long it is. And they'll immediately start unloading trailers, setting up production for the next night. Going through soundcheck, Eqing the sound System for the rim, all of it, doing all of that in rinse and repeat, you know, and the artists sometimes will, depending on what they're into, you know, they might get off and go and play golf, then come back and, like, work out and then, like, eat catering and, like, take a nap and then, like, get up and go do a meet and greet and do the show. You know, that's kind of the lifestyle.
- [74:26]
Unknown
What a life.
- [74:27]
Jeff Hopeck
Do you have a favorite part of the country or even of the world that you've been to?
- [74:32]
Will Jones
I mean, out west is pretty cool. You know, I just always get out there during the middle of winter, so if anybody on my team, you know, I would love to go to Montana when it's not January, February. That'd be cool. But I love it out there. I love being out west. I love going to Texas.
- [74:49]
Unknown
I love.
- [74:52]
Will Jones
I've gotten to go to Europe, you.
- [74:54]
Jeff Hopeck
Know, but to play.
- [74:55]
Will Jones
To play.
- [74:56]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [74:56]
Will Jones
Yeah. In Denmark.
- [74:58]
Jeff Hopeck
Do you get to see the areas? Like, do you leave an area and you're like, I really felt it, or is it just so quick?
- [75:04]
Will Jones
Sometimes you start making a. Like, a conscious effort to try to. Like, I'm a go doer, you know, like, if I'm going to be in D.C. i want to go to the mall and, like, go to every museum I can, you know, be a nerd. Or if I'm in Boston, like, we were up in Boston with Gavin Adcock back spring. Like, we got to tour, you know, the Boston baseball stadium and everything there, the Red Sox stadium. And so you try to, like, fit some of that stuff into the town that you're in. And sometimes, I'll be honest with you, sometimes you just get there and it's eight hours of a conference room that they've made, your green room, and you're sitting there on your phone or walking. You walk a million laps around the venue.
- [75:41]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [75:42]
Will Jones
You know, and you see everybody, like, awkwardly past, like, the same person for the 50th time, you know, and you're like, hey, I want to go grab some celery from the cat. Or, like, what? You know.
- [75:52]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [75:53]
Will Jones
So it just depends.
- [75:54]
Jeff Hopeck
So you got 24 hours. No accountability, no commitments. You're locked in wherever you want. What do you.
- [76:06]
Unknown
What do you do?
- [76:07]
Will Jones
I'll be honest with you.
- [76:08]
Jeff Hopeck
I'd eat recently peanut butter cups. Would you?
- [76:11]
Will Jones
I don't know, crush a bag of.
- [76:12]
Jeff Hopeck
Doritos if calories didn't matter too.
- [76:15]
Will Jones
Like, we had that.
- [76:16]
Jeff Hopeck
If Caveat. Calories matter either. What do you do?
- [76:20]
Will Jones
Oh, man, I'm in the mountains. I'm in a river. Fly fishing for trout.
- [76:25]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [76:25]
Will Jones
That's what I'm doing. That's like my. That is like the. That is my sanctuary church.
- [76:31]
Jeff Hopeck
Like a particular spot in a particular river or just any big river.
- [76:36]
Will Jones
You know, it might be 24 hours. I'm probably going to the South Holston, outside of Abingdon, Virginia, or, you know, Pisgah National Forest. Wading rivers with a fly rod, catching trout.
- [76:49]
Jeff Hopeck
That's what you did as a kid?
- [76:50]
Will Jones
You know, I got into it when I got older. I was like, you know, 19, 20 when I got into it. I was always. I lived my entire life was outside. I always have always hunted and always fished and been outdoors. You know, I'm a country kid. I mean, we literally were outside. Get off the school bus all day, run down the driveway, change your clothes so your mom didn't bust your hound in, Right?
- [77:11]
Unknown
Yep.
- [77:11]
Will Jones
And then you go straight out in the woods. Yeah, I love my mom, but you go straight out in the woods until dark. And then my mom could like cattle whistle, you know, like that.
- [77:20]
Unknown
Really? Oh, yeah, yeah.
- [77:21]
Will Jones
So you knew a lot of times, like, sure, time to go eat supper. So I grew up in the woods, but that's what I would do. I would go straight out to a river and no cell service.
- [77:30]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [77:30]
Will Jones
And just spend a 24 hours fishing.
- [77:33]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [77:34]
Jeff Hopeck
What would you say from dad or grandpa, most important lesson that you take. Take with you when you go up on stage.
- [77:42]
Will Jones
That's pretty good. Because those guys were so. I mean, they shaped who up between my mom's dad, my grandpa Buster, you know, Jones that I talked about, World War II vet and my dad, like, I think for all three of them, seeing like the. What they were up against in life and that they overcome, you know, and. And were successful, you know, like, my mom's dad grew up obviously in the Blue Ridge Mountains there around home with less than nothing. I mean, he grew up like, waking up with like, snow dusting on the quilts in the middle of winter through the cracks in the walls and getting clothes to fit and, you know, having to help raise his siblings and like, what a tough guy. You know what I mean? Grit, man. Like, entered the Air Force, Korea.
- [78:32]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [78:33]
Will Jones
And came out and ended up starting several businesses, you know, clothing stores, grocery stores and different things like that. And was successful, retired when he was in his 60s and played golf every day for the rest of his life.
- [78:43]
Jeff Hopeck
That was. That's the produce.
- [78:44]
Will Jones
That's my mom's dad, my pot rod, and then my My dad's dad, my grandpa, Buster Jones, World War II, grows up in, in what we would call now scrap town. It's a sub community of the community that I'm from.
- [78:55]
Unknown
Oh, man.
- [78:56]
Will Jones
In the mountains there. And his. The baby of 12 kids was born in 1924.
- [79:01]
Jeff Hopeck
12 kids?
- [79:02]
Will Jones
12 kids. My great grandpa Jesse, who would have been born in like the 1870s or 80s, you know, then was. I mean, that guy started a country store by walking all the way to town and he was like a giant man and carrying feed sacks back and selling them. Started the country store and then my grandpa, the baby 12, goes into World War II, was in Normandy, was in the Battle of the Bulge, you know, comes out with like five battle stars, Purple Heart. Doesn't really talk about it. You know, it talks about the pretty women in the poker playing and all the good stories that came with, you know, being over there and walked across Europe with a.45 under his arm, goes into Germany, comes back, gets into the produce business and starts with nothing and turns it into a great success. So I look at that model, which is like the American dream. That's like, if you want it, go make it happen and you can. And so I think about that all the time. When it's hard or it's tough or it's, you know, you can overcome all that.
- [79:59]
Jeff Hopeck
That's generational. You could pass that down 100%. Those World War II guys, depending on what, what, where they were most of them. Because I interviewed a World War II guy.
- [80:12]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [80:13]
Jeff Hopeck
So what was the hardest part about it? Other than the gun? You weren't sure. Say the gunfights sure was that their feet were wet non stop. Every day. I can't stand have my feet wet.
- [80:25]
Will Jones
Imagine your socks day in and day out. Yeah. And it's cold and you're in the Ardings Forest and you're getting pneumonia and you got Germans shooting at you.
- [80:33]
Jeff Hopeck
Brutal.
- [80:34]
Will Jones
What a crazy. I mean, that's crazy.
- [80:35]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [80:35]
Jeff Hopeck
Things we take for granted.
- [80:36]
Will Jones
Yeah, no doubt.
- [80:37]
Jeff Hopeck
All right. You got a couple hour ride in front of you. Let's say hypothetical, what are you listening to?
- [80:44]
Unknown
Music.
- [80:45]
Will Jones
Okay. That's a good question.
- [80:46]
Jeff Hopeck
Writing. Are you thinking?
- [80:48]
Will Jones
I'm not listening to anything.
- [80:51]
Unknown
No.
- [80:51]
Will Jones
Fact.
- [80:53]
Jeff Hopeck
Cool.
- [80:54]
Will Jones
My wife thinks I'm like crazy.
- [80:55]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [80:56]
Will Jones
I don't listen to anything if I got a five or six hour ride.
- [80:59]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [81:00]
Will Jones
Most of that is spent in dead silence. Very cool ears. Rest, self reflect. Think about what you got going on.
- [81:08]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [81:08]
Will Jones
Think about what you got coming up.
- [81:09]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [81:10]
Will Jones
Maybe think about a song. But just Think.
- [81:13]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [81:13]
Will Jones
And drive.
- [81:15]
Jeff Hopeck
And intentional thinking. Like, here are the five things I'm going to think about on this trip. Or just let your mind go.
- [81:20]
Will Jones
Just let your mind go. Just let it. Just let it run with. To all those places.
- [81:26]
Jeff Hopeck
If I went your. If I went in your truck right now and pulled up your presets, what's on number one?
- [81:33]
Will Jones
I don't even know because I haven't even said. I also drive a 1996 F100 that doesn't even have a working radio. Hartley.
- [81:40]
Unknown
I love it.
- [81:41]
Will Jones
Yeah. So usually my windows are down and the little swivel windows open, and I'm just cruising.
- [81:45]
Jeff Hopeck
That is so cool.
- [81:46]
Will Jones
Yeah. But if I do. If I was to listen to anything at all, it would be a podcast or talk radio or something. Some. Something where two people are having an interesting conversation with each other.
- [81:55]
Unknown
Right.
- [81:56]
Will Jones
That's what I would be listening to.
- [81:58]
Jeff Hopeck
They're probably at a point in time. My guess, it bugged you a little bit to hear yourself.
- [82:05]
Will Jones
Yeah, for sure.
- [82:06]
Jeff Hopeck
Does it still.
- [82:08]
Will Jones
No. No, it doesn't. I kind of got past that, but I'm also not, like, riding around just listening to myself.
- [82:13]
Jeff Hopeck
How long did it take? How long did it take to get past that? I can't get past.
- [82:16]
Will Jones
Oh, man. I don't know. It still does it to me.
- [82:18]
Jeff Hopeck
I hate listening to an episode.
- [82:20]
Will Jones
This sounds. This. This sounds like egotist or something. It's not at all. But I would rather hear myself sing than I would talk.
- [82:25]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [82:26]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [82:26]
Unknown
Huh.
- [82:27]
Will Jones
But was that always pretty weird? No. I never wanted to hear myself, period.
- [82:32]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [82:33]
Will Jones
Sing or talk or anything.
- [82:34]
Jeff Hopeck
The crazy thing is, so many people out there, we relate to this. Like.
- [82:37]
Will Jones
Yeah.
- [82:37]
Jeff Hopeck
I've heard, like, news anchors can't watch themselves. Famous news anchors can't watch that. It's a real thing.
- [82:43]
Will Jones
I believe it. I know it's weird. I think you're. I think you go back to, like, a primitive life where you never heard yourself.
- [82:50]
Jeff Hopeck
Right.
- [82:51]
Will Jones
You know, and now it's like, oh, yeah, I want you, like, in depth. Hear yourself talk. Sing all that wild, ain't it?
- [82:58]
Jeff Hopeck
The Hee Jeevies. All right. What's a hill that you would die on outside of? Outside of, like, it has nothing to do with music. It's a hill you're willing to die on.
- [83:07]
Will Jones
Oh, man. That's a good question. I don't know. Probably my faith. Probably do that, which is a pretty, you know, that statement. Gross.
- [83:19]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [83:19]
Jeff Hopeck
Day one. Did it start as early as you can remember?
- [83:23]
Will Jones
Faith was always around, always a part of my life, family, Family.
- [83:27]
Unknown
Yep.
- [83:27]
Will Jones
For sure. My great grandpa was a Primitive Baptist preacher.
- [83:30]
Unknown
Oh, yeah.
- [83:31]
Will Jones
And a tobacco farmer.
- [83:32]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [83:33]
Will Jones
So it's always been, you know, there's always been a piece. There's always been a lot of faith and stuff.
- [83:37]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [83:38]
Will Jones
But I think that's also comes from getting older, growing. Your faith changes and grows with life. You have kids and then it. Even then more so.
- [83:48]
Jeff Hopeck
More so.
- [83:49]
Will Jones
You know, it's also this like, self respect, you know, self reflective, humbling process of how can you humble yourself all the way down in human form, you know, and try to get. Try to get a little closer to Jesus.
- [84:04]
Unknown
Yeah, Love that. That's good. Yeah.
- [84:08]
Jeff Hopeck
What's. What would be something that your fans would be shocked to know about you? Good, good battering.
- [84:12]
Will Jones
Oh, this. Okay, we got some fun facts. I'm a triplet.
- [84:17]
Jeff Hopeck
No way.
- [84:17]
Will Jones
Yeah. So I have two sisters that were born at the same time. I'm a triplet with two of my sisters.
- [84:22]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [84:23]
Will Jones
I'm one of five kids. I got four older sisters.
- [84:25]
Unknown
Okay.
- [84:25]
Will Jones
So my older sister's five years older than me, and then the next sister was three years older, and then going for, I guess, kid number three, they wound up with three. So I'm a triplet and. Yeah.
- [84:37]
Unknown
Interesting.
- [84:38]
Will Jones
They both live down in Charleston, South Carolina.
- [84:40]
Jeff Hopeck
Yeah, I was gonna say, are you close with them?
- [84:41]
Will Jones
I mean, I'm really close to my whole family. Family and always have, but growing up, obviously really close with them too, because we went through school together, they played sports together, we had all the same friends. And. Yeah, me and one of. One of my triple sisters went to Virginia Tech at the same time, you know, so. Yeah, but that's kind of a fun fact.
- [84:58]
Jeff Hopeck
That's a really fun fact.
- [84:59]
Unknown
Yeah. All right.
- [85:00]
Jeff Hopeck
What's a. What's a guilty pleasure song that you. So you got, you know, every word to it.
- [85:09]
Unknown
A guilty pleasure.
- [85:10]
Will Jones
Guilty pleasure. I don't know if I'm.
- [85:12]
Jeff Hopeck
Would you refuse to, like, cover one, like something that you knew? But you're like, no, I can't let anybody know I like that.
- [85:19]
Will Jones
You know, probably not. I don't know that.
- [85:21]
Jeff Hopeck
Baby shark.
- [85:22]
Will Jones
Yeah, Baby shark.
- [85:23]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [85:23]
Will Jones
It depends on if he's crying or not. I would totally play Baby Shark, but I don't know if I have any guilty pleasure songs. I've covered so much music that there really isn't anything I wouldn't player sing for the most part.
- [85:37]
Jeff Hopeck
So you can't really be stumped.
- [85:40]
Will Jones
Oh, I can be stumped if it was like, you know, newer music because I spend so much time Writing my own music and.
- [85:44]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [85:45]
Will Jones
And things like that, you know, but, man, I've played everything from, like, blues to funk to gypsy jazz to all of it. All of it.
- [85:54]
Unknown
Incredible.
- [85:55]
Will Jones
Yeah. So I love it all.
- [85:58]
Unknown
All right.
- [86:01]
Jeff Hopeck
You'Re so. You got. You got dad, you got Grandpa. Yeah, you got you.
- [86:08]
Unknown
Yep.
- [86:09]
Jeff Hopeck
There's this. This generational. Well, you got Grandpa, you got dad, you got.
- [86:13]
Unknown
You.
- [86:13]
Jeff Hopeck
Yeah, you got this generational passing down.
- [86:17]
Unknown
Mm.
- [86:18]
Jeff Hopeck
Is there a single thing, one single thing that has to make it to your kids?
- [86:25]
Will Jones
Oh, that's a great question. Yeah, I think just. Just instilling hard work, faith and family, you know, or faith, family, and hard work. Yeah, I think that has to make it to my kids.
- [86:42]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [86:43]
Will Jones
Being respectful and knowing what's humbling and good about, you know, loving everybody and being a, you know, loving other humans, man.
- [86:52]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [86:53]
Will Jones
Patience. Things like that. That, you know, we all strive for more. Having more of, you know, and just thinking in that kind of way.
- [87:02]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [87:03]
Jeff Hopeck
Well, the good news in that, here in your house.
- [87:06]
Will Jones
And I also said shout out to my mom. Doesn't matter what, you know, in that, because, man, what a saint. I mean, you know, she was, like, cooking supper for seven kids. I mean, seven people every night. And just the toughest, best life loving, coolest. She still sends me music reels on Instagram, like, every day now. And my mom, by the way, I should say, like, my mom and dad have the coolest taste in music.
- [87:28]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [87:29]
Will Jones
Like the, like, the coolest mom. Dude, it might be like some old, like, whaling, you know, tape of, like, whaling doing some B side. Like, she stumps me all the time with songs I've never heard, like some, like, Haggard cut from, you know, way back that I'd never heard or whatever. And she'd be like, yeah, you should work this up or whatever. You're like, she knows what's up, man.
- [87:48]
Jeff Hopeck
That's awesome. All right, thank you, dude.
- [87:52]
Will Jones
Thank you.
- [87:54]
Jeff Hopeck
So incredible to get a look under the hood. I mean, special. Very, very special.
- [87:59]
Will Jones
Yeah, we should do it again.
- [87:59]
Jeff Hopeck
I learned a ton today.
- [88:01]
Unknown
Yeah.
- [88:01]
Jeff Hopeck
I'm sure everybody out there is going to learn a ton about you as well, so. All right, last thing. Where. Where. Where do we go if we want to support you?
- [88:09]
Will Jones
Sure. Go toWill Jones country dot com. That can take you to all the different places, the socials and the schedule and the new music and all that.
- [88:18]
Jeff Hopeck
Do you all have a favorite platform meant to ask you? Like, is insta a favorite one that you would like to promote people to go to? Maybe engage more there?
- [88:26]
Will Jones
I like them all. You know, I spend a lot of time on Instagram. Of course, Will Jones Official is my Instagram. I spend a lot of time there. TikTok's the same. Will Jones Official, but we try to. I like engaging with people on all platforms. So if it's Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, all those places.
- [88:43]
Jeff Hopeck
Appreciate you, man.
- [88:43]
Will Jones
Yeah, thank you.
- [88:44]
Jeff Hopeck
Awesome.
- [88:45]
Will Jones
Yeah, it's awesome. Let's kill us.