← Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Takin' A Walk - Music History with Buzz Knight
Romeo Vaughn on Nashville's Music scene, Songwriting Journey, and Building A Career in Music City-Interview Podcast.
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Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Romeo Vaughn
AI produced taking a Walk Nashville Obviously when they hear the song and they look at me, they're not going to be like, oh, this guy made it. It happened so easy for him. You know, when they see the video, when they hear the song, it'll give them hope.
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Sarah Harrelson
Today I have with me Romeo Vaughn, a Mexican American country artist originally from Santa Rosa, Texas, who blends country, soul and Latin pop in his music. He has been in Nashville since 2016 and his story is one you don't want to miss today. Welcome to Taking a Walk Nashville. Romeo, how are you?
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Romeo Vaughn
Good, how are you? Thanks for having me.
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Podcast Host
Of course.
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Sarah Harrelson
Thank you for being here. So just to let listeners know a little bit about your background, you are a US army veteran and thank you so much for your service.
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Romeo Vaughn
Thanks for your support.
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Podcast Host
Yeah of course.
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Sarah Harrelson
And I'd like to know, were you a performing musician prior to serving in the army, or did you get into music, perhaps after that?
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Romeo Vaughn
No. So, yeah, so I did do music before the army when I was a kid. I have a cousin of mine, his name's Jesse Turner, he has a band called Signal. They're a Grammy Award winning band. And so when I was younger, he took me under his wing and I, we. I performed with him. And then AB Quintanilla, which is Selena's, the late Selena, great late Selena died. It was. Her brother started a band called the Kumia Kings. And from there AB Started a band called Big Circo, which is like a, it was like a upbeat Mexican American, but it was, it was strictly Spanish. It was strictly Spanish music. And so I was in my teen. In my. When I was a teenager, I mean, we got signed to Capital emi and so like we, I, we were doing the, the music. I mean, I was 15 years old and I performed in Monterey, Mexico in front of 94,000 people. You know, so I mean, we weren't the headliners, but I mean, we got to perform on the stage. You know, I was on, on international television, you know, back in the. I don't know, maybe my. If you have Spanish listeners listening and if you don't, it's fine. But we got Salvador Gigante Disperta Medical, which is the equival. Like Disperta America is Univision's Good Morning America. Salvador Gigante is like, is the. The American Jimmy Fallon Show. Like, so I was like on doing all that at 14, 15, 16, 17 years old, performing all over. I mean, I've been to, I've been to all 48 states before I was 18, you know, and, and performing all over Mexico and South, you know. So, yeah, it was, it didn't just start. I've been doing this for a long, long, long, but never in my own. Never like my own truth. Never. It was always, you know, in somebody else's band or, or a band that I was a part of. It was never like my truth and my, like who. Who I am.
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Sarah Harrelson
Right, yeah. So you're doing music for as long as you can remember, right? Yeah. And then when you permanently moved to Nashville to continue pursuing your dream of music, you faced homelessness for 16 weeks and eventually you found support through the VA and the nonprofit organization Matthew 25.
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Romeo Vaughn
Yes.
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Sarah Harrelson
What does this Nashville nonprofit mean to you?
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Romeo Vaughn
Everything. Like, everything. I would not be here talking to you if it wasn't for God working through Matthew 25. I mean, they took me in. I don't know. Let me tell you the process, how it's, like, really cool. I'm dead out of my car. I'm just like. I'm under this bridge, and I'm just eating, like, out of a garbage can, and there's ants on my food, and it's just like rotten tomatoes. And I don't know. That's why in my burgers now, I.
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Romeo's Brother
Tell everybody I only want meat and cheese like a five year old, right? But because of that experience.
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Romeo Vaughn
So I finally. My brother actually was like, romeo, what are you doing, man? Because my brother's also a veteran. So is my dad. He was like, you need to call the VA because we weren't. I didn't tell my brother until the end of my homelessness, and I didn't tell my parents until after I got out of Matthew 25. They had no idea. So my brother's like, you need to call the va So I said, okay. So I was like, well, can he.
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Romeo's Brother
Pay my phone bill this month? Because I'm not gonna have a phone.
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Romeo Vaughn
And at that time, I had cricket.
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Romeo's Brother
You know, it's all we could get. You know, you got. You know, beggars can't be choosers. So my brother.
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Romeo Vaughn
My brother paid the $50 a month for me because my phone was about to be disconnected, like the next day or something. So my brother paid my phone bill, and he was super mad at me that I didn't tell him that I was homeless, right? And so I call the V.A. i call them, and I'm like, I'm homeless. Like, I. I've been out here for four months. Like, it's bad. Like, you know, and they came. They literally, from the time I called them to the time they picked me up was probably 20 minutes. They were there fast and in a hurry. They got there, they took me in, they took me to the mental health annex. And so from there, they showered me.
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Romeo's Brother
They paid me, you know, and I got to shower.
- [07:11]
Romeo Vaughn
Not that I wasn't showering, because I have a friend of mine, his name's Juan Hernandez, out of Laredo, Texas. He's a truck driver. So he would lend me his points once a week so I could go shower at the Loves off Trinity Lane. But it was always a struggle to get there. But anyway, so I go to Matthew 25, the mental health annex they call Matthew 25. I got. I didn't have anything but my bags, and they washed my clothes. They put me in a bed, in a room, they fed me they intake.
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Romeo's Brother
They did the whole intake process.
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Romeo Vaughn
They also, while you're there, you have to do like an intake process and then you have to do chores. You can't drink, you can't do drugs, you have to report. And when you like, they help you get a job. And thankfully I ended up getting a job at Outback Steakhouse while I was there, because I was about to lose my car. That's what helped me was I was about to lose my car, but my parents found out that I was homeless and I hadn't been paying my car.
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Romeo's Brother
I don't know if he did it for me or car. Was Daddy for something on it? So he was like, oh no, I gotta pay for my car. And I was able to keep my car.
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Romeo Vaughn
I ended up going to work. I stayed at Matthew 25 for as long as I needed to. I was grateful that I was there, but I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to be there because the thing about Matthew 25 is it's the biggest blessing in the world, but it can also be an Achilles because they do everything for you. So do you take this to better your life or do you take this to be lazy? You know, so all I needed was the help. And from the time I got there, six weeks later, I was on my own.
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Sarah Harrelson
That's wonderful.
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Romeo Vaughn
Yeah, because, you know, there's some people that will be there for a long time, you know, but it's nothing bad to anyone. The thing is, a lot of the people, a lot of the men that are there, they're older, you know, they got, they got disabilities or they got, they. They don't. They can do that. They need. But I was, I'm young, I'm driven. Like what. There was the excuse, you know, it was great. Matthew 25 means everything to me. That's why last year, for my birthday, you know, I always tell everybody, like I always give a shout out to Chuli's, that Tex Mex restaurant, because they donated all the food so I could go and feed them at Matthew 25. This year it was scoreboards when we went to shoot the music video. Also my parents last year came to Nashville to be with me for my birthday because my birthday is August 16th. And so my parents came for my birthday and we got. We were able to get like 1575 gallon bags full of clothes. And for my birthday we went to go donate that as well. And so Matthew 25 is everything to me. And I think, I believe it. And I. I will tell you that God Willing, my star rises. And the more my platform allows me to do more, the more I will do in Matthew 25. I think the plain, the easiest way I can say it is when I make it. Matthew 25 makes it. They will never need anything ever again.
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Sarah Harrelson
I love that. And I love that they were able to support you through your hard times. And now you're shining a light on this organization and you feature Matthew 25 and the music video for your upcoming single, Big Dreams from a small town.
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Romeo Vaughn
Yes.
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Sarah Harrelson
Yeah. I just got to say, Romeo, I haven't seen a music video so authentic in a long time. You know, you see a lot of videos now on social media out there that's all like, glitter and glam. But this video really gives listeners a look into who you are, where you came from, and it's just so authentic and real, and I really appreciate that. So did you come up with the vision for this music video?
- [11:30]
Romeo Vaughn
Yes. I literally wrote the entire treat. Like, I, the director, I went to him. His name's Carl, and I love him to death. I went with it in my, I had the video in my head years before we made the video. So I, I, I knew, like, I even, I remember there was a. When I was eating at Matthew 25, and I, you know, the, the, the. I don't remember his name, but there was a guy next to me that was eating with me. We were eating. And I said, before I die, I'm going to make a video here at Matthew 25. And he. And like, I always, like, I had it all in my head, and Paul just helped me bring it to life.
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Sarah Harrelson
Amazing.
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Romeo Vaughn
Yeah.
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Sarah Harrelson
I hope every Nashville local will come out to support Matthew 25 and volunteer and help them in need as well. And I want to touch on your previously released single, over, and it's about the struggles you faced with alcohol addiction. So now that you've overcome homelessness and you're sober, would you say the music you write now is a lot different than maybe the music you are writing 10 to 12 years ago?
- [12:44]
Romeo's Brother
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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Romeo Vaughn
Most definitely. That's a good question for sure. Because the music I was writing back then, I was drinking and partying, you know, I also struggled with drugs, you know, as well. You know, and so it was more. When I would write songs and stuff, it was, or record songs, and it was more of like, like, I'm trying to get a girl, or, you know, let's party and let's do this and let's do that. And now it's not like that. I mean, I'm still going to make songs like that because nobody wants to hear depressing songs all the time. Right. But I think the writing has changed because the man has changed. Yeah.
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Sarah Harrelson
And I'm sure it's very healing for you to write about the struggles you have been through and overcome.
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Romeo Vaughn
For sure. You know, like I actually just wrote a song the other day called Wild Bills Nights. And I just wrote it, but the second verse says those days have come and gone, but the memories we made I've put in this song. So it's. Wild Bills was a bar that we all used to. It's a hometown bar back in Harlington, Texas. But Ms. The Wild Bill, the Mr. Bill, he was our biology teacher in high school. We, we all of us went to Wild Bills and we just. It kind of. Wild Bills kind of, you know, gave me that hope. When I got into country music, it was Wild Bills where I went because it was a country western saloon. I'm definitely different now because I'm for one, I'm sober, you know, and so I'm clean, clear minded and I can look back and remember the times that we had. And I think that's what's going to make the music great. Because even when I don't write about like overcoming struggles or overcoming this, like Wild Bills Nights is such a great song, you know, because it, it's an. It's almost like nostalgic for like people that. Because it even says you have to be there to understand those Wild Bills. Nice. You know, but in your hometown you have a Wild Bills. It might not be called Wild Bills, but there's a Wild Bills, you know, And I think everybody's going to relate and big dreams from a small town. Everybody's going to everybody but. And being. Having big dreams, you know, it's not, not everybody wants to be a country music artist. You know, people want. You want a podcast. People want to be doctors, people want to be lawyers, people want to be general. People want to be district managers at Publix. You know, people want it and there's nothing wrong with that. People, people have dreams are not all music. But if they can hear a song like Big Dream from a small town and be like, you know what I am from, I always mention Burlington, Colorado because I have some family there and it's smaller than Santa Rosa, but there's this place called Burlington Color. Whether you're from Burlington, Colorado or somewhere in Kansas or somewhere a small town in Utah, and you're like, man, how could I ever go from this to you know, being the district manager of Whataburger or whatever the case may be. I'm from a small town. That doesn't happen to people like me. I'm just going to be the cashier forever, you know? But they hear big dreams from a small town, and they're like, you know what?
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Romeo's Brother
Yeah, you know what?
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Romeo Vaughn
I can do this. And like the song in Big Dream that says, whoever said it wasn't easy wasn't telling a lie. So obviously, when they hear the song and they look at me, they're not going to be like, oh, this guy made happened so easy for him, you know, when they see the video and they hear the song, it'll give them hope. I believe.
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Sarah Harrelson
I think so, too. Yeah. I think your whole message with the song will give people hope and know that it's not easy, but, you know, they can do everything they can to overcome their struggles.
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Romeo Vaughn
Yeah, we all have struggles. And I think. I think it's going to be. I think it's great because, I mean, what. What would life be if it was just easy.
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Romeo's Brother
You know, where.
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Romeo Vaughn
Like. Because that's where, you know, our faith comes in and. And our hope comes in, and the hope that, you know, that hope and faith that Jesus did come and die for us and that he did rise again and that he's coming back and that he's always with us. I even think about Jesus when. Because, you know, we're human. Not everybody's gonna like my song. Not everybody's gonna like the message. Not everybody's gonna like the way I dress, the way I look, the way you look, the way you dress. You know, it's just. It is what it is. But I think about. When I think about Christ, I'm like, they killed him for being perfect. Who am I to think that they won't judge me? And I think that that helps me.
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Sarah Harrelson
Thank you so much for sharing your message, Romeo. And I just kind of want to switch gears now to a fun topic. So you design all of your stagewear, and you've worked with Nashville celebrity fashion designer Manuel, who's outfitted the likes of Johnny Cash and Elvis. What got you into sewing clothes and fashion?
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Romeo's Brother
I love Michael Jackson.
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Romeo Vaughn
My. I have an aunt of mine, my aunt Lisa. We call her Thea Lisa. He's a seamstress. And so she does like, all, like, the.
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Romeo's Brother
Like, the little girls cheerleading office.
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Romeo Vaughn
When I was. When I was younger, my dad took me to McAllen, Texas, to be a. To do a talent show, and. And I. I won that one. But then My aunt Lisa, my tia Lisa in La Feria, which is like six miles down the road from Santa Rosa. They were having another talent show and I was going to do Michael Jackson, but I did the other talent show. I didn't have the jacket and I needed. I wanted the. The rhinestone jacket and the glove. And my tialisa made it for me and, and she. And I helped her and kind of like really like hold me down. And then when I came to Nashville, it wasn't until like 2019 or 20, like Covid. Almost Covid time. I was in a. I was at Tin Roof in Cool Springs, 10 Roof, 2. And I was with a friend of mine and this guy said, hey man, you gotta meet my uncle. So I was like, okay, cool, I'll go meet him. And I went to meet him and I never left. And it was a great time, you know, in my life. But you know, like anything else, you gotta move on. And, and, but I learned a lot and I'm very thankful to Manuel for teaching me what he taught me. And I got to hang out with him a lot and I got to see the man that the. The star, you know, and spend a lot of time together. But you know, like anything else, you know, you gotta make your own path and make your own way. And. And so I took what he taught me, I took what my tia taught me and, and, and you know, here we are patching stuff up.
- [20:08]
Sarah Harrelson
Very cool. You are definitely multi talented and I love that you design your own clothes. That's so fun.
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Romeo Vaughn
Yeah, it is.
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Sarah Harrelson
My last question for you, we are on taking a walk, Nashville. So I'd like to know what is your favorite place or where is your favorite place to take a walkway?
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Romeo Vaughn
I could. Wow.
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Sarah Harrelson
That was, you know that instantly.
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Romeo's Brother
Yeah, I go every day. I go every day. Two Rivers Parkway, I take my dog.
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Romeo Vaughn
You know, Two Rivers Parkway is at. Right, the big bridge and stuff.
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Sarah Harrelson
Yeah, yeah, I've been on that many times.
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Romeo Vaughn
So at 5:30 day breaks. So I wake up around. I wake up every morning like around 3, 3:15, 2:45 to 3:15, I'm up and so I do my little morning routine. And then I try to be at Two Rivers Parkway by 5:30 when day breaks. And I'll go run my. I'll run the five miles. I usually go around and then I go to the airstrip, you know, there's an airstrip out there. And now run that and I'll do five. I make it five miles. No matter where, what way I go, I make it. I make it miles. And then I come home, I take a shower and do all the morning stuff again. And then I take Braxton, my dog, and we go to Two Rivers Parkway again. And he can't. He's a little Boston terrier duple.
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Romeo's Brother
But so he can't do five miles, but.
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Romeo Vaughn
You know. But. And so Two Rivers Parkway is my favorite place to take a walk in Nashville. I absolutely love it. I go every day of my life. They're not a day that goes by if I'm in. If I'm in Nashville, I'm there every morning.
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Sarah Harrelson
I love that. Yeah, there's so many great places and paths to take a walk and run in Nashville. Well, Romeo, thank you so much for being on the show today. It was a pleasure and we are looking forward to your new single release, Big Dreams and a Small Town, available everywhere. Thank you so much.
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Romeo Vaughn
Thank you so much.
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Romeo's Brother
Y' all go hear it.
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Podcast Closing Host
Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with singer songwriter Sarah Harrelson. And check out our other podcasts, Music Saved Me, Comedy Save Me, and Taking a Walk, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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Podcast Host
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