← Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
'Ridin' into the Sunset: Celebrating Parmalee's New Horizons"
00:25:45
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- [00:02]
Larison Campbell
In Mississippi, Yazoo clay keeps secrets.
- [00:05]
Matt Thomas
7,000 bodies out there. Or more.
- [00:09]
Larison Campbell
A forgotten asylum cemetery.
- [00:11]
Matt Thomas
It was my family's. Mystery.
- [00:13]
Larison Campbell
Shame, guilt, propriety. Something keeps it all buried deep. Until it's not. I'm Larison Campbell, and this is under Yazoo Clay. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [00:30]
Buzz Knight
Taking a Walk.
- [00:31]
Matt Thomas
We were like Southern soul guys, R B soul, and anything that kind of was in that vein. And of course, we loved. You know, we grew up on mtv, and we loved the rock and roll bands and all that too. It was all. All that. Kind of just thrown in a big batch together. Growing up in the south, being country as you can be, and growing up in that lifestyle, but also having all those different influences of music around us.
- [00:54]
Buzz Knight
Welcome to Taking A Walk, where we celebrate the latest chapter in the journey of country music sensation Parmalee, with your host, Buzz Knight. Fresh from achieving their fifth number one single with Gonna Love youe, the band is now gearing up for the release of their new album, Fell in Love with a Cowgirl. Join us as we take a walk with Matt Thomas, Scott Thomas, Barry Knox, and Josh McSwain to explore their creative process. Parmalee joins Buzz Knight on Taking a Walk right now.
- [01:26]
Scott Thomas
So since the podcast is called Taking a Walk, I did want to ask you guys first. If you could take a walk with somebody, living or dead, who would you take a walk with?
- [01:38]
Matt Thomas
Oh, man. Oh, wow. That'd be hard, man. I'd have to go with Robert Plant because he looks like him. I go with my dad. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I go with my granddad. Since you're going with our dad, you probably go with.
- [01:56]
Barry Knox
I like to go with Jimi Hendrix.
- [02:00]
Scott Thomas
Wow, that's a. That's a broad array. I like that.
- [02:04]
Matt Thomas
That's.
- [02:05]
Scott Thomas
That is diverse, for sure.
- [02:07]
Matt Thomas
Yeah.
- [02:08]
Scott Thomas
Awesome. Well, we're gonna get inside the making of Fell in Love with a Cowgirl in. In a bit. But I did want to ask you to sort of take us back to the beginning on how Parmalee started.
- [02:23]
Matt Thomas
Oh, man. Back in the. Almost back near the 1900s. We're, you know, me, Scott's my brother, Barry's our first cousin, grew up in a little small town, and my dad played music, and so we had the bug as kids, so we started playing in. In his band and grew up playing in his band and eventually wanted to do our own music once we got, you know, a little bit older. So we wanted to start a band, and we. We knew Josh was in a local cover band. Playing some of the same places we were at and some of the same venues and some of the same songs. I reached out to Josh. I said, hey, man, we want to start this new thing and do our own songs and do some younger music than, you know, our dads and stuff. So we drug him out to a little barn in the town of Parmalee, North Carolina, which was close to where we grew up. Little, small cement block building that we rented for 50 bucks a month. And we just went out there and we started this band and started writing songs and making noise and just, you know, stayed out there as much as we possibly could and. And just figured it out, you know, try to. Try to write songs and be a band. So that was. That's kind of how it got started.
- [03:39]
Scott Thomas
And it sounds like the influence is based on your answer to the Taking a walk question. It sounds like they went to many different places beyond just certainly country music.
- [03:50]
Matt Thomas
Oh, yeah, we. You know, I mean, as far as country music goes, where. How we grew up, it was, you know, Travis Tritt was like the. The side. My. My. My dad played Travis Tritt song. So we learned how to, you know, sing and play like that. That was our kind of introduction to country and Garth Brooks a little bit later and. But Josh grew up blue.
- [04:13]
Barry Knox
My dad was in a bluegrass band, and so I was on that side of country music. The more mountain, hillbilly style stuff.
- [04:22]
Matt Thomas
Yeah, but we were like Southern soul guys, R and B soul, and anything that kind of was in that vein. And of course, we loved. You know, we grew up on mtv and we loved the rock and roll bands and all that too. It was all. All that kind of in a big batch together. Growing up in the south, being country as you can be, and growing up in that lifestyle, but also having all those different influences of music around us that kind of was training, but also like playing in my dad's band, all the songs that he learned, we were just playing those because it was cool. All the brothers, Delbert McClinton, Stevie Ray. That was a lot of that growing up. But my mom listened to pop music and my grandma listened to country. Old country. You just heard everything.
- [05:08]
Scott Thomas
Very diverse. That's very cool. It really is. That's. That's like making a. A very interesting stew, stirring it up, letting it simmer, and then serving it up.
- [05:20]
Matt Thomas
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [05:22]
Scott Thomas
What was the first time you witnessed live music? Whether it be from an act that was well known in national or just in general, someone that was out playing out.
- [05:37]
Matt Thomas
That would follow seeing our dad seeing Our dad at the 4th of July celebration at the ballpark on a flatbed trailer. Yeah. And then Josh, he was the same thing.
- [05:47]
Barry Knox
Seeing my dad on stage, we used to travel around and go to all these bluegrass fiddlers conventions and stuff.
- [05:53]
Scott Thomas
That's what they called the fiddlers convention.
- [05:56]
Matt Thomas
Yeah, it was. Was my Uncle Jerry. Their dad watched him play, was my first introduction. The live music. Yeah. Yeah.
- [06:03]
Scott Thomas
And did you ever have any idea that something would come together named Parmalee that would have, you know, through thick and thin, which we'll talk about, you know, great success? I mean, could you have imagined this?
- [06:20]
Matt Thomas
Oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, I, I, we all, I always imagined it. I just didn't know how it was gonna happen. And that was, that was the thing. We didn't have any clue on how to get in the music business. We knew that we knew how to play our instruments and, and, and try to write songs, but we didn't have anyone that showed us the path of, hey, guys, this is kind of like how you to write songs, and this is how you be a band. And this is my cousin who's in the music business, and he can tell you a little bit about this, or I have this guy that can help you out and maybe get a pub deal and you can play music for a living and write songs. There's a college, none of that. There was zero education on, like, anything other than, you know, you watch TV and you see bands and then you go in a barn and you start trying to emulate those bands and learn those songs and you book your cover show gigs and all that stuff. But I always knew I wanted to play music for a living, and I just, you know, we all did.
- [07:14]
Barry Knox
And yeah, we always thought it was the, is the fantasy of if you started a band, one day you'd be playing at the local bar and the big record guy would come in and sign you and give you $1 million and you'd be famous.
- [07:25]
Matt Thomas
Yeah, that's how we thought it. That was it. So that's what we did. We just tried to play as many bars as we could with the songs we had.
- [07:31]
Scott Thomas
Yeah, but the story is a little different than that. You.
- [07:36]
Matt Thomas
It is, but it is honestly kind of happened that way with us in a, in a strange way. We were playing, we were in our first band slip joint, same four guys, and we had just put out an EP and we had this six songs that were just six completely different songs we recorded. And we were packing out the club in town, one club, and we had this one song that everybody loved. And the guy came to town, he was in. He was in a cover band, but he was. He was actually a manager from the town up the street. And he asked the club owner, he's like, what bands are packing, what bands are doing well in this town. And. And so the club owner told him about us. And so he got a cd and then he actually reached out to us and ended up being our first, like, manager, our first kind of connect with the music business. He didn't come in with the checkbook or none of that, but it was the first guy that we met that was actually in the legit music business. He was managing some current artists at the time. And so I guess it kind of did happen in a. In a small way.
- [08:41]
Scott Thomas
But you were out touring for a couple of decades and. And you didn't get a deal until 10 years after starting out, Is that right?
- [08:54]
Matt Thomas
Yeah, yeah, we, you know, we did. We did everything we could to get record deal. We tried all kinds of music. We just didn't have the song and have the sound. But we. We were grinding it out for 10 years before we got signed to a major record deal. And we had ups and downs. We had almost so many times or we had, you know, some people trying to help us out, it just couldn't get it done. It is a long. We were right on the verge always for 10 years, but we didn't give up. We just find out that next. That next light of hope to kind of chase, you know, whether it be somebody coming on board that wants to work with you. They got some connections, they're going to try to get us a deal or the song we have that people like, or this producer you got to work with, or this, you know, anything that was would lead you forward instead of backwards. And that's always been our thing.
- [09:51]
Scott Thomas
But this is a story of chilling resilience even beyond the, you know, the record business aspect stuff. And I see you, you nodding, Scott, because you had a terrible incident that occurred to you specifically and to the band in general. Do you mind sharing that difficult story?
- [10:15]
Matt Thomas
Yeah, we. Sure. We had an attempted robbery at a practice show. Yeah. We were playing a club on a Monday night in a small, little, small club just to kind of prepare to get back out to Nashville. We had finally got us something on the on the verge in Nashville. And we were just doing some rehearsal shows and played a small club. I think we made 15 bucks at night. Maybe 20 people showed up. But some guys tried to rob us on our little RV after the after the show, Barry and Josh were in the club packing gear. Me and Scott were on the RV and get a knock at the door thinking it's these guys coming to get on the little RV so we can roll. And it's a gun at my head. Give me your effing cash. Two guys bandanas rolled up in the RV and. And fired, fired, fired a shot. Give me, give me your cash. And. And I knew Scott was a concealed carrier in the back so I screamed for help from him and, and he, he didn't hesitate. He came up and he engaged both of the guys and, and shot both of them. One of them is no longer here. The other one's about done. Was permanent prison. I think he's in prison now. But yeah, I mean they, they, they were demanding money and, and they fired on us. And Scott came out and protected me but he got shot three times in the shootout. Almost died right there. Bled out on the couch. One hit him in his heart, one got him in his stomach and then one hit his femoral artery which was the money shot I guess. But luckily there was a policeman right next door to McDonald's that heard the commotion, was there in an instant. The airlifted him, took it to the hospital. 40 days in a comb for 10 days in a coma. I'm sorry 40 days in the hospital, 10 in a coma. Three life saving surgeries, pins and needles or whether he was even going to be able to walk again or, or have this leg or just. I mean it was. It was worst case scenario out the gate, you know. And luckily he survived. Dead at one day at a time.
- [12:13]
Scott Thomas
We.
- [12:14]
Matt Thomas
We were in their nurses. We. We were the nurses. We were the physical training. We were twice a day guys. We had family and friends and fans. Everybody raised money and just come to the hospital and stayed and it was just. It was a. It was a miracle but it was a. Gave us a lot of hope. Yeah. Yeah. I mean you know you got to imagine you're in a band and you. You've had so many. You had so many almost their chances, you know that we're going to change your life. And nobody. Nothing happened. And then we finally had that we finally had recorded must have had a good time which we ended up being the four week number one on the highway and top 40 hit and then Carolina, the version that you hear now, the song that changed our lives. We had those recorded in July and. And we're trying to get back out to Nashville in October and then this happens in September. So you're all Your hopes and dreams are just shattered on this thing. And then you. You have to. But we pushed through it. We did. We didn't. We didn't. We didn't stop. We said, we got to get back out to Nashville because that's. That's where the. That's where it's at. We got to go. And. And so when he was in the hospital, we played songs. Here's your song. Get up, get up, get up, get up. You know, and just kind of pushed through. And I think four months later, after. After the incident, we did a showcase and here in Nashville, and. And we play six songs and. And the label on. Or. We played one of his. One of his songs that he wanted us to cut. Wanted us to try playing somebody else outside cuts, you know, other songwriters had one of his favorite songs, and we played that, and we love it. And he's like, you boys passed the test. You're gonna get this record deal that makes.
- [13:49]
Scott Thomas
Oh, man, I got the chills just thinking about the story and everything that obviously, Scott, you went through, but that you all went through. It's a story of incredible resilience. I. I do have to ask you. I produce another podcast, which is called Music Saved Me, and it is about the healing power of music. So I think I know the answer to this question. I mean, do you believe that music has therapeutic healing power?
- [14:17]
Matt Thomas
100%, absolutely. There's no doubt about it. Yes. When you're riding in your car by yourself and that song hits you and you get those chills, or you flashback and it makes you smile or makes you cry, you just love it. You know what's helped?
- [14:33]
Scott Thomas
And then there's the other part of this story, which is so beautiful, where Matt and Scott, your mom, came into the story. She was always there, for sure, but she played a significant enough role. Do you want to talk about the specific role she played that sort of added a little gasoline to your career?
- [14:58]
Matt Thomas
Oh, yes. I think each. Each one of our family members have gave us a little. Yeah. All along. Touch up. Yeah.
- [15:06]
Barry Knox
Everybody's help us.
- [15:07]
Matt Thomas
Josh's dad, he. He first one we got. We got bought a van back in the day. And Josh's dad, I think he loaned us. Was it. Was it $5,000 or $3,500 and something like that. Maybe $3,500. Except for our first loan that he never asked for. Hey. Ryan's never cleared money back. And then Uncle Benny goes. Our second loan. Well, this RV that we were on. Yeah. The incident happened, and our mom pulled us before that though this is. Well, this is the song Carolina. We, We. We did a. We did a showcase. We had a record guy coming to see us Rest in peace, Kim Stevens in a local town. We had this big record guy from Atlantic was going to come see us. Well, this was one of those almost times, you know, like, we, we were. This is 2007, I think. So we were seven years into this thing, pretty good. Five, six, seven years and into this, trying different managers, different songs, just couldn't get a deal. And this guy was coming, so he came to the show. We whined and we dined and we made sure that. That everything was great and we played our hearts out and we did the best we could. And. And he just, you know, at the end of the show, I. I knew he wasn't going to sign us. I, you know, it just didn't have that vibe. But I went up nasty him after the show. We were like, hey, if you signed us tomorrow, what's the first thing you would do? And he said, well, I'd send you to. I'd send you to Atlanta to work with this guy named Rick, actually. Rick Beato, who's got a massive YouTube channel.
- [16:32]
Scott Thomas
Definitely heard of him.
- [16:33]
Matt Thomas
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Rick. We worked with Rick way back in the day. Didn't know he was. We just went down and like, man called him up, said, hey, man, we're just Bam Parma Lee and. And we want to come work with you. You know, we didn't guess it. We just said, we want to come work with you. He said, cool, come play me some songs. So we did. We went down and we saw Rick and played in some songs and we had this one song we hadn't finished. I said, you want to finish this with us? You know, as a writer? And he said, sure. So we came back, we did a recording. At this point in time, we had a buddy who was our investor that was, you know, it puts. Put some money behind the band as far as like, you know, starting this business together. And this was like the, The. The third or fourth kind of thing we worked on. And he wrote us a check. And so we went down to see Rick and we did our recording. We finished a song, and then, you know, we're pumped up. We got these great songs, we're excited. And about three days later, I get a call from Rick and he's like, hey, man, he was pissed. He's like, just check bounced. You have. You owe me $11,000, y'all, dude. And we're like, you know, where we, how are we gonna get 11 grand? Because you know, credit cards are racked up, we don't have any. And, and I, I, I think I'd mentioned something to my mom, but, but yeah, she, she took a loan out on a, on a. We grew up in this little three bedroom house that she got in a divorce and, and she took a second loan out on that house and loaned us $11,000 so we could pay this guy. And she didn't. It's like I said, she never asked to hear a song. She didn't, she didn't care anything about the music. She just knew we, you know, we were working hard and we believed in it and all that. So yeah, so she loaned us the, the $11,000 and, and I always say the show, it's like the cool thing about that is that one of those songs is Carolina. So you know, we, we paid her back. Plus we bought her a new house and a new car. She's retired now.
- [18:19]
Scott Thomas
Wonderful. Oh my goodness. Wow. That's great. So congratulations on the new music. Take us inside the creation of the new music. When did you start working on it and how did that all come together for Fell in love with a cowgirl.
- [18:36]
Matt Thomas
I don't think that work ever really stops. We do have times where we're like, okay, we need these songs, we need to go right. But it just kind of flows and you get songs you get excited about and that may start the process. I think for this project we, we had, we've just coming off of, you know, going to love you was the, was last song off before you deluxe. And we just knew that, that it was time to start something new. When it was time to put something out. And we had the song enough that that kind of fired us up. It was different, it was tempo and we just loved it. And we were just kind of going in that lane for a minute and that really kind of got a Kickstarter. We were excited just about a new album. New album and trying some new stuff. And we knew we had to have a tempo because gonna love you was a, you know, more mid tempo ballad kind of thing. So it was really just, it was go time and we knew like we just got to get the best songs that we can, that we can muster up that's going to fit what we do and that are our fans that we, you know, feel like our fans are going to want from us. And so that's kind of how the whole thing, you know, panned out. And we're saying that we have four or five songs that kind of fit this bowl. Four or five to fit this. And we ended up with this batch of, you know, bunch of songs. And we just kept whittling down like a. Like a sports chart, a bracket. Br. Sports bracket. You know, we're just like this song, you know, on. You're out on the road and. And. And, you know, Thursday, this song might be your favorite. And then by. By time you get home and listen to it a couple times, it's out of the bracket. And they. They kind of keep. We kept an ongoing list just on the bus, handwritten. This song's out. It's back in. Let's go, you know. Yeah. And that's. That's kind of how we did it.
- [20:18]
Scott Thomas
And are you constantly envisioning it, how it will play in live performance as well?
- [20:24]
Matt Thomas
Yes. Yeah. Yes, sir. It has a lot to do with it. It's so crazy because some songs just work well at radio. It's just like you. You hear it on the radio. Some songs just work well live, and some songs just work well streaming. If you can get all three of those together in the song, then you gotta. You know, that's the golden goose. And so we knew we had to have. We knew we needed, you know, a nod to the fans that Love Just the Way and Take My Name and Girl in Mine. You know, we hadn't. So we had day one that was our best one that was kind of in that vein. And, you know, we knew we needed a straight radio song. I knew better or, you know, something down the middle that people would expect to hear from us. And we knew we needed something different but totally Parma Lee that nobody else could do. And so Inner Cowgirl. And then, you know, the other songs are just us being band guys and just loving guitar licks and things like that. But it's really about knowing the fans and. And knowing what we need to give them and knowing radio and streaming services, too. So it's like kind of putting it all together with the least amount of songs we could. Then I confuse everybody.
- [21:35]
Scott Thomas
So when you're out in the road, as an example, when you were out on the tour with. With. With Kane Brown, are you writing all the time while you're out on a. On a tour?
- [21:46]
Matt Thomas
Yes. Yes. Sometimes I think out on tour is where you might come up with a cool idea, because they're always coming, you know, but if you're really sitting down, really serious about writing a song, you know, in Nashville, which other writers you bring those ideas that you get from the road. Town and. And kind of mold them, you know. Yeah. In a different setting, it's. It's tough to do it on the road because we've just got so much. There's so much activities going with meet and greets and. And shows and set lists and. And all that. It's hard to. To be able to sit down for a couple, three hours and. And really focus. Yeah, it's. It's not my preference. Now, like on the Cane Tour, Tyler Hubbard was out. Now he had his. He had his bus and his crew bus. Now he had a rider. Riders come out with his bus. So it's easy if that kind of thing's going on, or Kane's got a room in the back and he's got some riders out. You know, we all jump in on a song that. That's a little bit easier sometimes, but I. I'd prefer to. When I go on the road, I like to enjoy it and enjoy my time out and my day and. And have fun at the show knowing you got a song to kind of come back to. If. If it's fun, it's easy. Sometimes it gets to be a chore when you're out there. But that's part of song, right? You gotta. You got to get it all out. You got to knock it out. But I'm like him. I love. I get more ideas on the road that I can bring to town to kind of bring to life.
- [23:13]
Barry Knox
If we had the assets like Tyler had with his own studio set up at his.
- [23:17]
Matt Thomas
Oh, yeah.
- [23:18]
Barry Knox
So many of us on one bus.
- [23:19]
Matt Thomas
Yeah, all of us. Yeah. There's six, seven crew guys, but there's 11 people on this bus all the time, which is decent space. Yeah.
- [23:28]
Scott Thomas
I mean, it's not easy getting out there and going from city to city and. And making this all happen. I mean, is that fair to say, that people don't always understand?
- [23:41]
Barry Knox
Oh, it's definitely fair to say.
- [23:43]
Matt Thomas
Yeah. It's a lot of work in parts and. And it's, you know, not glamorous. Like, you know, some things show, but it's also. It is fun. And it's like what we've always wanted to do. We love it and. But it is a lot of working parts. It's a lot of people that are just busting their ass all day to get it, make it happen. Whether you're doing. It's crazy. You know, you do an opening slot for. Say you do it open a slot for 30, 45 minutes, and you're driving eight or nine hours to get there. Somebody's flying in and it's like, it's crazy when you think about it. But you know, you're, you jump on stage and you're in front of this festival crowd of 20, 30,000 people sometimes and you're doing a 45 minute set and then you're out of there and flying to the next place. You know, you just barely, barely made it. Yeah. Yeah, but everybody's having a good time and I mean that's, that's the power of, of hit songs and, you know, having fans. It's really cool.
- [24:36]
Scott Thomas
Well, talk about that how when you look out at a show and you see the crowd and you see the smiles and the joy that you bring to people as an artist, how does it feel?
- [24:49]
Matt Thomas
Oh, I love it. That's the best. I love it. I'm excited to get out there this weekend. I ain't gonna lie. I had played in a couple weeks. I mean, it's got a boogie fever though. Yeah. When you're on stage performing for me, it's like everything else in the whole world or even in your mind is just gone. All you're thinking about is performing those songs and performing that crowd and that's just a great space to be in.
- [25:17]
Barry Knox
I think too, when it's, when you see everybody singing back, it validates that you've done something good, like enough for them to, to want to be a part of it, sing with, you know.
- [25:25]
Matt Thomas
Yeah.
- [25:28]
Scott Thomas
Well, guys, it's, it's such a joy to talk to you. Congratulations on the new music. It's really special to hear it and to hear yourself story and to meet you and to know the joy that you bring to so many of us with your music. So I really have to thank you, Matt and Scott and Barry and Josh Armale for, for being on Taking a Walk. It's a true honor.
- [25:53]
Matt Thomas
Thank you man. That's my.
- [25:57]
Buzz Knight
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us on so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts and wherever you get your podcasts.
- [26:17]
Larison Campbell
In Mississippi, Yazoo Clay keeps secrets 7,000.
- [26:22]
Matt Thomas
Bodies out there or more A forgotten.
- [26:25]
Larison Campbell
Asylum cemetery it was my family's mystery, Shame, guilt, propriety. Something keeps it all buried deep until it's not. I'm Larison Campbell and this is under Yazoo Clay. Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.