From Football to Flying Beers with Gavin Adcock

Summary

Podcast Summary: "From Football to Flying Beers with Gavin Adcock"

Introduction In the episode titled "From Football to Flying Beers with Gavin Adcock," host Troy Vollhoffer welcomes Gavin Adcock, a rising star in the country music scene and the owner of Country Thunder Music Festival. Gavin shares his journey from aspiring football player to thriving musician, offering listeners an intimate glimpse into his life, career, and creative process.

Early Life and Background Gavin Adcock opens up about his upbringing in Northeast Georgia, just outside of Athens, a region known for its rich musical heritage. He describes his family's involvement in the cattle business, with his father being a rancher and trader, and his mother working as a nurse. Growing up, Gavin was deeply immersed in the country music scene, influenced by the sounds playing on the radio.

Gavin Adcock (00:41): "I grew up in Northeast Georgia, right outside of Athens, Bulldog country. And my daddy was a cattle rancher, trader, just a little bit everything in the cattle business."

Transition from Football to Music Football was a significant part of Gavin's life, with aspirations to become a professional player. He attended George Southern University, where he played football for four and a half years. However, a knee injury altered his path, pushing him towards music.

Gavin Adcock (02:24): "Maybe this is a sign from God that I need to be making music."

Gavin recounts how, after his injury, he turned to music as a coping mechanism, beginning to pick up the guitar more seriously during a difficult time when his mother was hospitalized.

Musical Influences and Development Gavin's musical influences are rooted in classic and contemporary country artists. He cites legends like Waylon Jennings, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kid Rock, Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, Jason Aldean, and both Hank Williams Sr. and Jr. These influences shaped his musical style, blending traditional country with modern sounds.

Gavin Adcock (02:54): "I listen to a lot of Waylon Jennings, a lot of Leonard Skynyrd, Kid Rock, Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, Jason Aldean."

Songwriting Process Gavin delves into his songwriting process, emphasizing his role as a "melody guy." He often starts with a guitar piece and builds melodies before adding lyrics. His writing is deeply personal, drawing from his own experiences and emotions.

Gavin Adcock (27:24): "I'm the melody guy. I come in with a little guitar piece, killer melody."

He collaborates with various songwriters in Nashville, appreciating the diverse backgrounds and styles they bring to the table. Gavin highlights the importance of collaboration in creating impactful music.

Touring and Live Performances With an ambitious schedule of over 70 shows in the year, Gavin describes his love for touring and the unique experiences it brings. He enjoys exploring new cities, interacting with fans, and the camaraderie of being on the road with his band.

Gavin Adcock (06:31): "I love waking up in a new town, going to get a cup of coffee, being a tourist, basically going to check out somewhere you've never been."

Gavin also discusses the challenges and joys of live performances, including managing the dynamics of different venue sizes—from intimate clubs to massive arenas—and the exhilarating energy of performing for enthusiastic crowds.

Collaborations and Future Projects Gavin credits his manager, Saxon, and Bradley Jordan from Peachtree Entertainment for their pivotal roles in his career development. He also mentions collaborations with fellow songwriters like Jack, Red Aikens, and Joy Beth Taylor, highlighting the synergy and creativity they bring to his music.

Gavin Adcock (10:22): "Give it up to my manager. Saxon was there from nearly the beginning..."

Looking ahead, Gavin plans to continue releasing singles at a steady pace, ensuring his music remains fresh and continuously engaging for his audience. He's also excited about upcoming tours in Canada and Australia, marking his first ventures into international performances.

Personal Insights and Philosophy Gavin reflects on the power of music as a means for both himself and his fans to escape and find solace. He emphasizes the connection his music creates, allowing listeners to relate to his experiences and emotions.

Gavin Adcock (20:43): "I just want to go down like one of the greats... I hope in 30 years people are still talking about me."

He shares his philosophy on authenticity and resilience, aiming to make a lasting impact in the music industry by staying true to himself and his artistic vision.

Challenges on the Road: Flying Beers A notable topic in the episode is the tradition of "flying beers" during his performances. Gavin recounts moments where enthusiastic fans throw beer cans into the crowd, sometimes becoming disruptive. While it adds an element of unpredictability to his shows, Gavin appreciates the fervent fan engagement it represents.

Gavin Adcock (17:04): "I just lost my shit there for a second and I just laid into him. We played the last song and after that I was like, we're not going back to Fort Smith, Arkansas."

Despite occasional challenges, Gavin remains committed to delivering high-energy performances and maintaining a positive connection with his audience.

Conclusion The episode wraps up with Troy praising Gavin's authenticity and rapid rise in the country music scene. Gavin expresses his gratitude, looking forward to future collaborations and continued success. The conversation underscores Gavin Adcock's dedication to his craft, his ability to connect with fans, and his unwavering commitment to making meaningful music.

Troy Volhofer (30:25): "I'm so proud of your career... I wish you the best of luck on your tours this year and beyond."

Listeners are encouraged to follow Country Thunder on social media and stay tuned for future episodes as Gavin Adcock continues to make his mark in the music industry.

Transcript

[Gavin Adcock]

You've never seen 20 something year old dudes turn to each other during a song and sing it to each other like, like they do at these shows. I'm like, young, like girls like get into like pop music or something and.

[Troy Volhofer]

I'm like, the dudes are rocking out, right?

[Gavin Adcock]

Like they're rocking out together, having bro time. And I've literally seen dudes like get so into the song, they just launch the beer in the air like a, like a firework. They just had like, I feel like they just had an out of body experience. They're just having such a good time that they couldn't control themselves. They just throw the beer.

[Troy Volhofer]

Welcome to on the Bus. I'm your host Troy Volhofer. As we're gearing up for our first Country Thunder music festival of 2025, I could not be more excited to have one of our Wisconsin artists with us today. He is one of the fastest rising stars in country music, being named one of Music Ro's next big things in 2025. If a knee injury from football had not kept him, you know, out of football, we would not be meeting him today because he wouldn't be an artist, he would be a football player. He's shaking up Nashville. I'm so excited to get to know him. So if you must, grab a cigarette and welcome the very talented Gavin Adcock.

[Gavin Adcock]

Appreciate you having me on, Joy.

[Troy Volhofer]

Oh man, it's great to come over and hang out. We usually do this on a bus, as I was saying earlier, you know, so we're just getting started in our tour season. So from Watkinsville, Georgia, let's talk about your upbringing, your. Let's go through the whole scene and how you got to where you are today.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yes, sir. I grew up in Northeast Georgia, right outside of Athens, Bulldog country. And my daddy was a cattle rancher, trader, just a little bit everything in the cattle business. And my mom was a nurse and I grew up working wild cattle and farming and hauling cows and different stuff. Grew up around country scene a good bit. Played a lot of country music growing up on the radio and just fell in love with and found out that was my genre.

[Troy Volhofer]

Wow, that's great. So football big part of your life?

[Gavin Adcock]

Yes, sir. Played since I was a little boy.

[Troy Volhofer]

Wow. Wow, that's great. So where'd you go to school at?

[Gavin Adcock]

I went to George Southern University. Played for four and a half years and had an injury. I fell into music, started writing and I never looked look back on that.

[Troy Volhofer]

So maybe without the injury, you might not be sitting here today. Huh?

[Gavin Adcock]

No, I had a feeling like a few days before and text a buddy and said, hey, from high school. I said, what are you doing this week? And he said, not much. I said, you want to come down and play some guitar? That was Sunday, Tuesday. Tore my knee up and dove into it. And I said, maybe this is a sign from God that I need to be making music.

[Troy Volhofer]

Oh, that's fine. That's a great story. So growing up in Georgia, what were your musical influences? What. What turned you on? What. Who are your. Who are your idols?

[Gavin Adcock]

I listen to a lot of Waylon Jennings, a lot of Leonard Skynyrd, Kid Rock, Alan Jackson, Johnny Cash, Jason Aldean. Getting a little more modern, a little closer to my teenage years. And I like Hank Williams senior a good bit, too. Hank junior as well.

[Troy Volhofer]

Good stuff, isn't it?

[Gavin Adcock]

Yes, sir.

[Troy Volhofer]

So kind of come from a traditional background, then, musically, that's. So when did you learn how to play guitar? When did that all come about?

[Gavin Adcock]

I got my first guitar at 16, and I couldn't wrap my head around learning to play it. And I started picking on it when I was getting done with college, and my mom had, like, a heart condition, and she. And I really wasn't getting a lot of progress, and she had a heart condition and went to the hospital and was on a ventilator for a little while. And I remember when I was worried about her on the ventilator, I just coped by picking up the guitar. And over those couple days, I made the biggest jumps of my career learning guitar and just picked up as the days went by.

[Troy Volhofer]

Wow, that's. That's fantastic. And you write too, right? So.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yes, I write. Nearly every song let out.

[Troy Volhofer]

So how do you feel about. What's the experience like in a writer's room when you're in there with a couple. Couple. A couple other artists and trying to get that. Trying to all get along to write that perfect song.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah, usually it's just come in and see somebody you hadn't seen in a while, so you just kind of start shooting the. And eventually somebody's like, well, let me show you this idea. And they do an idea, and you bring what you had to the table. And sometimes they meet, sometimes they don't. Sometimes nobody's idea is the idea, and you come up with something new. I wrote a lot by myself when I was starting out. I just was real determined to write my own songs. And when I got up to Nashville, I started getting in rooms with a lot of people from different backgrounds and different places. And different writing styles and I've really enjoyed it. We've been writing some of the. The best songs I've. I've ever written in the past three or four months.

[Troy Volhofer]

It's a pretty cool environment here, isn't it? A lot of creative juices flowing around. And in your writing on the first record, any of those songs come out of your earlier days?

[Gavin Adcock]

I had a first record and then that was more of like a compilation over my first like year and a half. And I wrote nearly every single one of those by myself minus like maybe two.

[Troy Volhofer]

Right.

[Gavin Adcock]

Two songs. Then the next record, which was my official first record that didn't come out as a compilation was acting up again. And I had wrote those ever since I got done with that first record and stacked them up and I probably had. I probably had 30 songs I was sitting on at the time, maybe 35. And I just picked the, the best ones that I've thought would go together on that record.

[Troy Volhofer]

Who, who produced that record?

[Gavin Adcock]

Full Moon Studio in Watkinsville, Georgia where I still, still record all my stuff. His name is J. Rogers.

[Troy Volhofer]

Oh, that's cool.

[Gavin Adcock]

And I walk. I called him in 2021 in like July. He didn't answer. Emailed him. He answered, went in there, cut one song and we never, never looked back. We got 40 something songs out now and we're, we're working on finishing up this, this album and kind of keep on going.

[Troy Volhofer]

That's super exciting. So let's talk about the live performance, being on the road. As we just talked about earlier before we were on camera, that you have 70 shows left this year. So you have a big schedule. You have, you have a real big schedule.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yes. There's the busiest year of my career, tour wise. And I think last year we probably played 50 shows maybe so we had 100 on the books this year and it's been great. I love waking up in a new town, going to get a cup of coffee, being a tourist, basically going to check out somewhere you've never been. The, the different landscapes and just. It's basically just a different world everywhere you go. And I'm enjoying it.

[Troy Volhofer]

That's great. Yeah. Touring can be a. Do you sleep well on a bus?

[Gavin Adcock]

It's kind of bad. But everybody, everybody on the, everybody in the band says when they home for a couple day break that they're like, I can't wait to get back on the bus. Because it just. We. We're basically more used to being on the bus than we are at home. Something about the white noise and the bus rolling down the road. I. I sleep better on the bus than I do at the house.

[Troy Volhofer]

So big summer coming up. So what are your goals this year? What do you want to achieve at the end of the year when you look back at Christmas time and go, all right, 100 shows this year. What, what's your goals this year?

[Gavin Adcock]

I just hope everybody that came to the show got away from whatever they got going on in their life. And for that three, four hours, maybe the whole day, I hope they wake up in the morning and they go, we're going to the Gavin Adcock concert tonight. And they get with their friends, have some drinks, they go to dinner, they just make it a whole day and they party and get to the show and the anticipation is built up all day. And I hope that the Hope people want to come back.

[Troy Volhofer]

Your show's high energy, which is. Yes, sir, that's really cool. It seems like the response you're getting, that must be pretty surprising because it's overwhelming response you're getting.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yes. It's real crazy to me when a song that I let out, I'm real into the numbers. I love watching how this one streamed compared to that one and the different scenarios and the holidays and if people are in school, people are out of school, what date it fell on, what other stuff's going on around it. And there'll be songs that I go, that one didn't stream as good as that one. And we go to play it at a show three, two, three weeks after it's out. And they sing every word. And it's really refreshing to go, okay, they're listening. They just maybe like this one better than that one. It's really cool to have the fans sing along to something that you wrote and put your heart into and you, you come up with it.

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah, it's kind of a. It's pretty neat right now when you can actually look at your. All of your stats on Spotify. It's right in front of your eyes. Right. Checking your streams every day, hourly, I'm sure.

[Gavin Adcock]

Oh, yeah. I get up and see how they're doing it. Spotify and Apple, as of recently, Apple added it. But it tells you how many people are listening at one time.

[Troy Volhofer]

Oh, wow.

[Gavin Adcock]

So I, I get up in the morning about 9, 9:30, check it and I watch it enough to know if it's high or low for that day. And I know if tomorrow streams that come out, how they're going to be just. I watched it when I was, when I first started and it would say 13 people are listening right now and by about 11 o'clock at night, it was a zero people listening right now.

[Troy Volhofer]

Right.

[Gavin Adcock]

And I'll check it at its peak and there'll be 5,6000 people listening nowadays at a time on Spotify. And that's just amazing.

[Troy Volhofer]

That, that is really amazing. So who, who broke you? Who, who was the person who believed in Gavin Adcock from the beginning? Because, I mean, your success has, has been quick, fast and furious and you're somewhere that is in a great place career wise. And it didn't take a long time to do and take some artists. Months, years.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah.

[Troy Volhofer]

To get to where you are today.

[Gavin Adcock]

Give it up to my manager. Saxon was there from nearly the beginning and the first show I ever played. He was there probably about six months after we met and I was picking up speed. I was like, one day I'm gonna need a manager. Saxon, we'd become friends and I drive up from Georgia and stay on his couch. Bradley Jordan at Peachtree Entertainment is, lives in Athens. And I was real cut off from everything else because I was like, I'm, I'm too new in this. I don't want to deal with people on the outside. I need to, I need to make it myself before join Nashville and I join agent management, anything. And me and him went to lunch and he was like, let's book you some shows. So I started playing some little tiny clubs and Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi, and they were selling pretty good. So those two were there with me from the beginning.

[Troy Volhofer]

Bradley Jordan's response for Luke Combs in the beginning, I believe.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yes, sir.

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah, he knows what he's doing. He knows. He obviously has a great year.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah, he's broke a few acts early on and found them and put them in there in their early day shows, which is awesome. At first I was like, I don't, I don't know. But I'm glad I, I took the chance and started playing the shows on.

[Troy Volhofer]

On your live show. What's your favorite part about touring? Like, you know, every day is a new day. It's a new city. What, what's your favorite part about it?

[Gavin Adcock]

I like going somewhere I've never been and just seeing the, the reaction before we go on stage. Maybe we hit it hard. The Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and you're whooped and you're backstage and all the bands kind of whoop, you know, I'm ready for an off day. And the fans are just, they hadn't, they hadn't had that the past few days. So their, their Energy feeds into you. You can hear it down the hallway into the green room and they're chanting and screaming and having a good time. And we take a shot of liquor and get stirred up and everybody's this great, good to go.

[Troy Volhofer]

Talking about your influences. So Skinner was a big influence for you? Yeah, they're. They're a great bunch of guys. Those guys.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah, it was pretty crazy. We opened up for them on. On the Rock the Countries last year. Yeah, those dates. So that was surreal moment for me to open up for Kid Rock and Skynyrd and Travis Trent and a bunch of people I listened to when I was in a car seat.

[Troy Volhofer]

Right.

[Gavin Adcock]

That's. Which is just mind blowing to me.

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah. It's only in this business it seems like. I mean this and sports are kind of the only two places you can have that experience where you're actually playing with your heroes. It's a different vibe playing a. A club or a theater or an arena or a festival. Which one of those venues do you prefer playing at?

[Gavin Adcock]

I love all of them for different reasons. The club, if you can get a. If you can get a set of 800 people. I feel like a club's like 200 to 800,000 people.

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah.

[Gavin Adcock]

If you can get those people with the right energy. It's so compact. It's. It's insane how. How good it feels in there and also how trashy it kind of feels. The PA screaming. There's a lot of different noise that the. The. The front of house dude has to work to get through in there. Festivals are really cool to me because if there's 12 to 20 acts on a festival, there's only a select of that came there just to see me. And a lot of people don't know who I am when that. When I get there. But that. That's great for me because I give them the opportunity to walk out of there and go on. The Gavin Adcock dude is. But we're going to see him again. And then arenas are just amazing because when it's dark and it's just people is about as far as the eye can see in there. And it sounds so good. I love a good sounding arena. You'll. That's where I feel like I've sounded the best so far in my career.

[Troy Volhofer]

That's fantastic. So you're heading out on a headline tour. Let's talk about that for a bit. So how did. Who's all with you? Who are you taking out with you?

[Gavin Adcock]

Well, we took out Vincent Mason last fall and me and him let out a song together in November and we sold out the first Acting Up Again tour and we're in the middle of the Acting Up Again Again tour and we took out Fox and Bead, which is a rowdy, rowdy rock band that's on the come up right now. They just let out a new song and Will Jones, which is a more traditional sounding country artist, he's going to be coming out with us this Friday on the east coast and that we split up that this tour with Fox and Beat and them. And in the fall we've got Baker Blankenship which he played a show at a rodeo with us recently and we hung out Braxton, Keith and we've hung out at a couple festivals and things run into each other and Laney Gardner and she, she's having a, she's having a moment right now. She's doing a song Warren Zers and she's, she's letting out her own stuff and she's gaining popularity. So I'm excited about having all those people on.

[Troy Volhofer]

Sounds like an awesome show. Sounds like a great show. So have you done any international, international stuff yet? Have you been over overseas yet or up to Canada?

[Gavin Adcock]

Not yet. We're, we're going with Wallen to Canada Y coming up in the summer and 2026 we're going to Australia to play what's the festival called? CMC Rocks. Yeah, and I'm excited about that. I'm gonna definitely get me a bed on the plane.

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah, I'm gonna pay the extra money.

[Gavin Adcock]

To get me a playing bed because I've never flown that far.

[Troy Volhofer]

It's a long ways over there. Yeah, like 13 hours, I think from LA or something like that. Yeah, I, I did the, I did with, went over there with Metallica and ran around with them. They're going back this fall. So that's pretty cool that the, the, the CMC Rocks thing. CMC Rocks, right? Yeah, is a very cool festival. And I, I mean I think once you have your American following automatically have a Australian following just from whatever I would have been told anyway. So let's talk about the beer stuff. What's going on with that? I, I, I see. How did, how did that get started?

[Gavin Adcock]

Well, we were in Ohio. The crowd was crazy. It was one of the biggest shows I ever played. And the first time it was my, it was my fault. I just got to in the moment and I said if you got a drink, throw that motherfucker.

[Troy Volhofer]

So you're on fire, right?

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah. I was going crazy and then here Just goes here. Just goes a rain of cans and beers. And a little bit after that we, we had him flying every once in a while. It just depends on the city really. Sometimes you go, there won't be but a couple things thrown, but at a, at a rock concert you see some, see some stuff going through there. It's just what it is at, at any wild rock concert. And it died off a little bit. And then I'm singing in Arkansas, which we've played at this place in Arkansas. We played with Giovanni and the Hired Guns at the end of 2023, I think. Yeah, 2023. It's called the Majestic and Ford's middle and we played the show, Giovanni in them and I didn't feel like it was a very good show to me. I felt like we could have done better. We go to headline it the next time and I'm going into the last song and about to sing the last chorus of run your mouth and a half full can comes and zips me in the face. And I just let the, I let the dude have it. I just, I lost my shit there for a second and I just laid into him. We played the last song and after that I was like, we're not going back to Fort Smith, Arkansas. I was like, I'm not, definitely not going back to the Majestic. But, but yeah, we've, we've toned that down. The venues are all having to pour in cups. It's a lot better to get hit with a plastic cup than it is a full beer can. And sometimes I think there's a say there's a group of 10 people, eight people wanted to go, two people didn't want to go, but they didn't want to miss out. So they got drugged by the friends of the show. They might not even like your music, but they're there and they're like, I'm going to hit this guy with a beer can. And some people you, you watch in the crowd and I've seen them, they're so into the song. I'm sitting there behind the mic playing the guitar and I'm watching one or two people that are like, you've never seen 20 something year old dudes turn to each other during a song and sing it to each other like, like they do at these shows. I'm like young, like girls, like get into like pop music or something and.

[Troy Volhofer]

I'm like, the dudes are rocking out, right?

[Gavin Adcock]

I'm like, they're rocking out together, having bro time. And I've literally seen dudes like, get so into the song. They just launch the beer in the air like a. Like a firework. And I'm like. They just had like. I feel like they just had an out of body experience. They're just having such a good time that they couldn't control itself. They just throw the beer.

[Troy Volhofer]

Well, that's the best thing about music, though. I mean. Yeah, you know, you can. If you can work a crowd to that frenzy. And these guys leave their. All of their, you know, women and men leave all of their thoughts of their bad week that they had. Their boss sucks, their job sucks.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah.

[Troy Volhofer]

Working for the weekend kind of thing. I mean, that's the power of music, man. It's such a cool thing, isn't it?

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah. That's my favorite part about it is just knowing that I've got problems that they don't know about. They've got problems I don't know about, but they relate to the music and it hits them in a certain way that it hit me when I wrote it. And they just can zone out from any. Everything else they got going on.

[Troy Volhofer]

So were you a bull rider at one time?

[Gavin Adcock]

I wanted to be a bull rider when I was a little kid so bad it was my. It was the only thing I could think about. And I ended up. My dad made me watch 8 seconds, which is a movie by Lane Frost, and he dies at the end of it. And after that, he basically kind of talked me out of being a bull rider A couple times in high school. Me and my buddies, we just, we got to talking about it. I grew up on a farm, a lot of country folks. And they would have a test pen about 30 minutes away from the house. And we would go $20, show them our fake ID and we rode a couple of bulls a couple of different times just to. Just to say we did. We were just like. We got to. One day we won't be able to. And yeah, that was the extent of my bull riding career. But I just, I knew that it wasn't. It wasn't a career, it was more like a dream, right?

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah. Rodeo is a whole different deal, isn't it? Yeah, it's a whole different business. Those guys, they live a, you know, interesting life. Probably the same life that we. We're living right now, you know?

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah. It's fun and it's a. It's a thrill. And I know why they do it. It's like. It's like a drug.

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah. Get some jacked, right?

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Troy Volhofer]

The adrenaline junkie.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah, it's that's why I do crazy share the shows.

[Troy Volhofer]

I'm looking forward to seeing a country thunder in Wisconsin. It'll be a good, good time. And yeah, I got to get you on some shows next year. I'm just starting to put that together now, but, you know, so. But I'm really looking forward to it. But man, it's. I'm so proud of your. How you've. Your career has. Has gone from, you know, whispers in your ear about an artist. And you were one of those artists two years ago. You know, you check this kid out. You got to check this kid out. And then all of a sudden here you are headlining and doing the business and. And it's only getting bigger, which is awesome.

[Gavin Adcock]

I just want to go down like one of the greats. I want people in. I mean, Waylon died and 97. I believe people are still talking about him today. I hope in hope in 30 years people are still talking about me and what I had going on and talk about my flaws. And I hope people go, he was real. He was a real human and he had going on just like everybody else.

[Troy Volhofer]

When you write your songs, where are you pulling from?

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah, most. Most of the time I either dig back into a past experience I had. I would say that's probably 75% of the time is just something that has directly happened to me. And then the other 20 to 25%, I put myself in a situation that I think of or something that could possibly happen to me or that has definitely happened to somebody else. And I just put myself in that headspace and that emotion. And I tell a lot of people, I say, when you write a really, really sad song, you wake up at 9 o'clock in the morning and you write it and it's over by one. The rest of your day can be kind of awful. It can put you in a really, like, you really need to take some time off after that.

[Troy Volhofer]

Like a weird space, right?

[Gavin Adcock]

Yeah, like a real, like real weird feeling space of. You don't want to get drug into that too much. You take some time to just do something you enjoy after that. And I enjoy writing songs, but when you write a. I wrote a murder ballad one time and I let it out. It's called Caretaker. And it's just a real aggressive song. It's about basically this bad outlaw and it's like based in like the 1800s. And I come home to my girlfriend that day and she was talking, she was talking. I was like, baby, I really need to go to sleep. I really just need to reset because I'm really pissed off right now, and I'm not pissed off at anything. I'm just in that mindset. And I was like, I just need to reset.

[Troy Volhofer]

That's. It's. That's pretty interesting style of writing. I think that's super cool that you get that involved in it. It's almost like an actor who goes so far deep into the storyline of whatever they're acting, and we kind of take part of that, part in that whole process. Who are some of the dudes you're writing with nowadays? What's going on?

[Gavin Adcock]

Main guy I write with, I met him at the University of Georgia at a bar, which is. It's in Athens. It's called General. It's my favorite bar of all time. He come up to me, he said, what's up, man? My name's Jack. I write songs. I'd love to get with you and show you some of them. And I was like, all right, whatever. So probably like six months down the road, we ended up getting together. Wrote the craziest party song that I've ever let out. And we just started getting together and having. Writing two ways. When I was living back in Georgia up until a year ago, he moved up to Nashville probably three or four months before me, and I was letting out some of his songs, and he was getting approached by publishers. He was like, what do you think I should do? I said, I think you should let me let out about three or four more of these songs and then you can decide, because then you'll have some different songs out there. I think he had six or seven songs out with me before he signed. And then I've been riding with. He. He signed with Warner Chapel, and I've been riding with Colton Venner over the past year. And we're letting out a. We're letting out the first song I've wrote him this Friday called Never Call Again. I also wrote that with Jack. And another person I've been writing with a lot lately is Red Aikens. Yeah, we've been. We probably got five or six songs over the belts over the past couple months. And.

[Troy Volhofer]

He's a neat guy, isn't he?

[Gavin Adcock]

Oh, yeah, he's. We've clicked pretty good, and I've enjoyed riding with him every time. And then I wrote with. It's the only girl I've ever wrote with. And we've been doing like three and four way rides. Her name's Joy Beth Taylor. She rides a lot with Elle Langley.

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah.

[Gavin Adcock]

But we've had Three rides together now and wrote some really good songs. She brings a really cool aspect to the table when we write.

[Troy Volhofer]

That's the exciting part about the writing process in Nashville. It's different than any. I mean, country music is the. It's so special in that way that the songwriter is actually respected and the songwriter is not always the band who wrote the song. You know, it's kind of a different vibe than. Than rock and roll, but. But having all those different influences of different writers and create and. And all of a sudden you got a two way or three way, right? Are you a melody guy or are you a words guy?

[Gavin Adcock]

I'm the melody guy.

[Troy Volhofer]

Yeah.

[Gavin Adcock]

I come in with a little guitar piece, killer melody. And then I say that. But I come up with a lot of the lines when we write. But I'm way stronger on a melody. Somebody will start playing guitar and I'll just start. It sounds like gibberish. I'll just find the melody and put fake words in it as I'm catching the melody. And then somebody in there and it sounds like you said that or sounds like you said this. I'm like, yeah, add it in there and we just put the puzzle together. But I'm. I'm way better with the melody.

[Troy Volhofer]

So what's coming up next? What are you gonna drop? What's the next single? What are you thinking?

[Gavin Adcock]

Well, I got new song called Never Call Again. It's a. It's a nice high energy love song. And then from here to when we let out the album, I'm gonna let out four other singles besides that one rolling right up in the album song every four weeks. I've let out a song at that pace from January until now. And I. I don't want to. I don't want to let off the gas. I just want to give people the songs. I got them and I'm ready for them to hear them. And we've got a tour coming out this fall that we just let out about a month ago. It's called the need to Tour. It's probably around 20 something dates. Southeast, Midwest and Northeast. We just tore up the West. I've never been to California and Oregon and Seattle and all those places, but we just got back from a 28 day run, so we're hitting the Southeast and Northeast and some Midwest this fall on the need to Tour.

[Troy Volhofer]

That's exciting stuff. I love that you're putting out a song, you know, a week or keeping everything fresh. Something's always in the listener's ears. I think that's a really important aspect of being an artist in today's environment.

[Gavin Adcock]

I credit that a lot of the time for me being where I'm at is when people were playing the long game. I was just like, let's just feed them and they'll download a song and it'll go down. They might download two more songs and then I'll let out another one. If they like it, they'll download it. And their whole year of new songs they added will have me sprinkled in there. And I'm not the biggest fan of an album because all this like all these songs that I'm going to put on this record this year, I will have no problem letting them out as a single.

[Troy Volhofer]

So it'll be all singles.

[Gavin Adcock]

I feel like they're all singles and that's how I write them that I. I want them to all be that quality of songs.

[Troy Volhofer]

What a great philosophy. I just want to thank you very much for coming over and having this great chat with you and a real pleasure to meet you for the first time and man hope many times, many more times I have a couple beers together and you know, and hang out because it's a real honor to have you on our show and I'm so impressed with you. You're a great young man and I wish you the best success.

[Gavin Adcock]

Yes, sir. I appreciate you. We'll see at country thunder.

[Troy Volhofer]

Be safe going down that road. All right. Before we wrap up the show today, I wanted to hit you with one of our segments we like to call thunderstrike. In this segment is where we go to share a song of one of our festival artists and share some information about the artists. We're so excited to have Blake Shelton out at our festival with us this year. He'll be with us in Florida a few days ahead of his first album release in four years on May 9th. The records called for recreational use only. Cannot wait to see what he's going to be performing from that record. Shelton released a second single from it called let him in anyways. It was co written by fellow country thunder performer Hardy. He's going to be in Eric, Arizona. The song is a ballad about a man hoping for divine forgiveness for a lost friend who is just shy of redemption. Let's take a listen. Until next time. We are on the bus. This is Troy volhofer. Take it away, Blake.

[Gavin Adcock]

I know you know what I'm about to pray God, I just had to suck it up and say goodbye to my best friend and I don't ever want to never see him again and I know thee.

[Troy Volhofer]

Thanks for joining us here on the Bus. We hope you enjoyed our conversation with Gavin Adcock. There's really something to be said about saying staying true to yourself, and I can see why he's had such massive success. Great interview, great guy, and really look forward to seeing him live. I wish him the best of luck on his tours this year and beyond, and be sure to follow Country Thunder on all social platforms platforms. @countrythunder.com we have new episodes dropping bi monthly and do make sure to like and subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen. So don't miss an episode on the Bus with Troy Walhopper. It's produced by Country Thunder in partnership with Pod People.