BOBBYCAST - Vincent Mason on His Tour Van Losing a Tire While Going 70 mph & the Time They Hit a Black Bear and a Hawk in Back-to-Back Days on the Road + Seeing Bobby’s Doppelganger at the Gym + What He Spends His Money on + Difference in Touring from...

Summary

BOBBYCAST Ep. 553: Vincent Mason on Touring, Milestones & Life on the Road

Date: November 11, 2025
Host: Bobby Bones
Guest: Vincent Mason (Country Singer-Songwriter)

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Episode Overview

In this lively episode of the Bobbycast, Bobby Bones sits down with rising country artist Vincent Mason to discuss the whirlwind of his career, the realities of life on the road, and the release of his debut album, There I Go. The pair delve into everything from wild tour stories (including losing a van tire at 70 mph and hitting a black bear), the pressures of headlining versus supporting, the evolution from van to tour bus, money management as an artist, family influences, songwriting processes, and lessons learned from both music and sports. The conversation blends humor with honest insights about the music industry, personal insecurities, growth, and the satisfaction—and strangeness—of finding success.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Life on the Road: Van vs. Bus

• Tour Mishaps:
  • Losing a van tire: “We're driving 70 miles an hour...the whole tire came off the axis, sparking down the road. I just see the tire, like, 40 yards in the air.” – Vincent Mason (35:18)
  • Wildlife encounters: “We hit a black bear...right in front of the van...and the next day, a hawk flew into the windshield.” (36:54)
• Hardships of Touring: Sharing a van with seven people, loading equipment, checking into hotels at 3 am, and playing frequent shows.
• Upgrading to a Bus: “The bus was, like, mythical by that point. ...You sleep more. You eat better. It's like a house.” – Vincent Mason (39:11)

Timestamps:

• Van story: 34:55 – 37:00
• Black bear/hawk: 37:48 – 39:05
• Bus upgrade: 39:11 – 40:24

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2. Headlining vs. Supporting

• Pressure of Headlining: “There's nobody coming out there after you...I hope this show's not boring, or my songs are actually good.” – Vincent Mason (06:26)
• Success Milestones: Selling 1,000 tickets for a solo show was a personal goal come true.
• Tour Dynamics: Preference for headlining where you can build a relationship with the audience, but also appreciation for shorter support sets where "you can pop out the hits faster" (11:17).

Timestamps:

• Discussing nerves: 06:02 – 07:23
• Selling out presale: 08:04 – 08:14

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3. Dealing with Self-Doubt and “Flat” Shows

• Acknowledgement that even when a performer's energy is off, the majority of audiences do not notice:
  • “I know a lot of times it’s me—even when I’m blaming ‘flat crowds.’” – Bobby Bones (09:47)
  • “95% of people would walk away being like, ‘I didn’t know anything was wrong.’” – Vincent Mason (09:56)
• Learning from Headliners: Headliners also feel this, and the ability to move past bad performances is critical.

Timestamps:

• Flat crowds & performance doubts: 09:21 – 10:37

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4. The Money Side & Making It Work

• Business Milestones:
  • Hiring a business manager was both intimidating and a huge relief.
  • “It’s probably the thing I’m...most thankful for, having a business manager. Like, why is it that just because I can write songs and sing, I get to have a business?” – Vincent Mason (14:23)
  • Musings on artist income: “People think you’re selling a lot of tickets, make a lot of money, and you’re not. ...You don’t take that home. It’s expensive to have the bus, a band and a crew.” – Vincent Mason (69:53)
  • Tour sponsors (Monster Energy) make a noticeable difference in profitability (69:40)
• Spending Habits:
  • Vincent says he’s not a big spender, focusing mostly on essentials like a good guitar and reliable transportation.

Timestamps:

• Business manager: 14:20 – 15:35
• Sponsor discussion: 69:40 – 70:13

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5. Family, Upbringing, and Support

• Parental Influence:
  • Dad is “like an A&R,” always honest and involved, especially on the business side, but never interfering with decisions (13:29).
  • Family attends as many shows as possible—approx. 10-15 a year (14:08).
• Honesty in Feedback:
  • “Everything goes—I send everything to my dad. He’s just a straight shooter.” – Vincent Mason (57:06)
• Relationship with his business manager and the importance of trust.

Timestamps:

• Family involvement: 13:21 – 14:18
• Feedback from dad: 57:06 – 57:28

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6. Getting Started, Songwriting & Artistic Growth

• Songwriting Journey:
  • Began writing on a ukulele, moved to guitar at encouragement of his sister.
  • Learned writing mostly solo for years (“I didn’t start co-writing till two years in…I could have been anywhere, but I just moved to town because I knew this is where stuff happened.”) (28:16)
  • First song often covered: American Kids by Kenny Chesney (12:06)
• Songwriting Process:
  • Inspiration often comes from personal emotion and observing life, not necessarily direct autobiography.
  • Importance of keeping “the demo” feel; sometimes leaving a song as a single work tape on the album (54:29)
• Dealing with Demo-itis:
  • “You always lose a little something when you go to make it a full production.” (54:57)
• Favorite Artists: John Mayer and Parker McCollum as benchmarks for songwriting; validation when Parker quoted his lyrics (28:52 – 29:10).

Timestamps:

• Songwriting intro: 12:30 – 14:01
• Writing “Hell Is a Dance Floor”: 26:43 – 28:12
• Songwriting as growth: 25:27 – 25:46, 54:29 – 54:57

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7. Viral Success & Notable Hits

• "Hell Is a Dance Floor":
  • Crossed 100 million streams.
  • “I don’t know what it was that made it the one that did that.” (52:52)
  • TikTok played a big role in viral lift, especially around the lyric “Rock bottom’s got a brand new view” (27:31).
• Reaction to Success:
  • "You put out song after song...then that's the one that catches everybody." – Bobby Bones (26:43)
  • Surprised by how little separates songs that "make it" from those that don’t.
• Authenticity in Music:
  • “I think now I write more about the feelings, and you use the story to get the feeling across. I don’t like it to be—this is about this person.” (59:03)

Timestamps:

• Viral hit details: 26:43 – 28:12

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8. Touring Survival Stories & On-Stage Challenges

• Stage blunders:
  • "My mic didn't work for the first six minutes in front of 12,000 people. ...You have an internal anxiety attack." – Vincent Mason (41:04)
• Adaptability and Routine:
  • Found ways to feel “more at home” despite constant travel; routines developed over time make life easier but change frequently (24:23).
• Persistence through Adversity:
  • Surviving physically dangerous and emotionally taxing situations on the road deepens resilience.

Timestamps:

• Technical issues on stage: 41:01 – 42:08
• Making road life routine: 24:23 – 25:04

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9. Imposter Syndrome and Navigating Success

• Both Bobby and Vincent admit to feeling imposter syndrome, especially when large opportunities or validation from idols arrive.
  • “Every one day you wake up and people just treat you a little different. ...It’s weird.” – Vincent Mason (34:25)
• Pressure to “amplify” a persona for public consumption; working to balance authenticity with performance.

Timestamps:

• Imposter syndrome: 33:22 – 34:48
• Amplifying personas: 50:21 – 52:26

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10. Transferring Athletic Mentality to Music

• Vincent attributes part of his drive to his athletic background—valuing discipline, process, and persistence.
  • "I liked doing the work and being able to get better at it...Nick Saban talks about falling in love with the process." (70:28)
• Bobby notes that work ethic built in sports often transfers successfully to music.

Timestamps:

• Sports & process: 70:17 – 72:31

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11. Reflections on Growth and Looking Back

• Both discuss how healthy it is to look back on older work and cringe, as proof of growth.
  • John Mayer anecdote: Even established stars struggle with loving their early work as much as their fans do.
  • “That’s always the goal—to look back and be a little [embarrassed]. That’s real growth.” – Bobby Bones (72:47)

Timestamps:

• Growth by looking back: 25:27 – 25:46, 72:34 – 73:36

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Headlining Pressure:
  “There’s nobody coming out there after you...the first time I played a headline show, sold a thousand tickets...and then you’re like, oh, I hope this show’s not boring, or my songs are actually good.” – Vincent Mason (06:26)

• On Viral Hits:
  “I still feel like I don’t know what it was that made it the one that did that.” – Vincent Mason (52:52)

• On Tour Disasters:
  “The whole tire came off the axis...I see it like, forty yards in the air...we all lost sight of the tire.” – Vincent Mason (35:18)

• On Growth:
  “If you’re not in two years looking back at it going, oh, man, that means you haven’t gotten much better, you haven’t progressed.” – Bobby Bones (25:46)

• On Family Feedback:
  “Everything goes—I send everything to my dad. He’s just a straight shooter.” – Vincent Mason (57:06)

• On Athletic Mentality:
  “Nick Saban talks about falling in love with the process. ...It's so much easier to tune out the stuff that might get weird.” – Vincent Mason (71:09)

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Additional Highlights and Fun Moments

• Vincent thought he saw Bobby’s doppelganger at his gym, leading to a recurring running joke about mistaken identity (04:14 – 05:36, 69:31).
• Discussed the surreal feeling of companies sending Vincent free clothes as “influencer” perks—and how odd it is that fame attracts free stuff only once you need it least (17:06, 23:41).
• Both shared insights into managing performance anxiety and “flat” crowds—recognizing that sometimes the issue is internal, not with the audience.
• The support of sponsors is revealed as a vital element in enabling artists to tour profitably (69:40).

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Topic | Timestamps | |------------------------------------|-------------------| | Meeting Bobby’s Gym Twin | 04:14 – 05:36 | | Touring: Van vs. Bus | 34:55 – 40:24 | | Headlining vs. Support | 06:02 – 11:41 | | Business Management & Money | 14:20 – 15:35 | | Family Influence | 13:21 – 14:18 | | “Hell Is a Dance Floor” Story | 26:43 – 28:12 | | Performance Doubt/Flat Crowds | 09:21 – 10:37 | | Imposter Syndrome | 33:22 – 34:48 | | Technical Stage Mishaps | 41:01 – 42:08 | | Songwriting Process | 12:30 – 14:01 | | Notes, Lyrics & Worktapes | 53:14 – 54:57 | | Passing the Growth “Cringe Test” | 25:27 – 25:46 | | Athletic Mentality in Music | 70:17 – 72:31 | | Sponsors’ Impact | 69:40 – 70:13 |

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Closing

Vincent Mason’s chat with Bobby Bones reveals both the glamorous and gritty realities of modern country music—from van breakdowns to viral hits, and the weirdness of growing into success. For aspiring musicians, fans, and industry insiders, this episode is both entertaining and insightful—a candid look at the unpredictable, hard-working, sometimes hazardous, but always rewarding life of a traveling songwriter.

[Check out Vincent Mason's debut album There I Go and follow him on socials for tour updates.]

Transcript

[Bobby Bones]

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[Vincent Mason]

5.

[Bobby Bones]

Find exactly what you are booking for booking.com booking. Yeah, that's booking.com booking, yeah.

[Hari Kondabolu]

On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

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[Hari Kondabolu]

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[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Diabetes in the United states. I mean, 50% of Americans are pre diabetic.

[Hari Kondabolu]

How preventable is type 2?

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Extremely. Listen to Health Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Michael Lewis]

Michael Lewis here. My bestselling book the Big Short tells the story of the buildup and burst of the US housing market back in 2008. A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy Award winning movie. And now I'm bringing it to you for the first as an audiobook narrated by yours truly. The Big Short story, what it means to bet against the market and who really pays for an unchecked financial system is as relevant today as it's ever been. Get the Big Short now at Pushkin FM Audiobooks or wherever audiobooks are sold.

[Vincent Mason]

The show was ahead of its time to represent a black family in ways that television hadn't shown before.

[Bobby Bones]

Exactly.

[Vincent Mason]

It's Thelma Hopkins, also known as Aunt Rachel. And I'm Kelly Williams or Laura Winslow on our podcast.

[Telma Hopkins]

Welcome to the welcome to Family with Telma and Kelly.

[Vincent Mason]

We're rewatching every episode of Family Matters.

[Telma Hopkins]

We'll share behind the scenes stories about making the show.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, we'll even bring in some special guests to spill some tea. Listen to welcome to the Family with.

[Bobby Bones]

Telma and Kelly on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. A man with down syndrome tries the impossible, the grand slam in turkey hunting.

[Vincent Mason]

4:53 hits were legal, shooting light. And he gives us this one last ch and he pitches off. And when he pitches off, he flies right into the gun barrel. I said to the cameraman, do you have him? He said, shoot him. I said, justin, shoot.

[Bobby Bones]

You can download this episode and others from lines and tines with Spencer Graves on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vincent Mason]

He's like, you see 100 million streams? And I was like, yeah. And I was like, I don't know if you feel this way, but I still feel like I don't know what it was that made it the one that did that. And he was like, me either.

[Bobby Bones]

Episode 553 with Vincent Mason. His debut album is out now. It is called There I Go. This song, Hell is a Dance Floor has got hundreds of millions of streams. It is really a great song. I don't know what else to say except for he has two first names and at times that can be confusing. And I would bet you people call him Mason. Vincent and Vincent Mason. Like if he's new to you, you don't know which one it is because I would think Mason's a more of a first name than Vincent. Feel like it's a little more common now. Like Luke Bryan's a double first name. Think about this. Luke and Brian. Yeah, that's a good one. Dylan.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Scott.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, dang. Dylan. Yeah. Scott. Yeah. Okay, you got me twice. Zach. Brian. Yeah, Zach Brown. I guess Brown's not the first name. Yeah. So he's got a new song out called Dan if I do, it's got a million streams in the first weekend. I really enjoyed this interview. And he's on tour. He's out. The thing about his tour, it's mostly already sold out. We talk about this like it's sold out in pre sale, basically. Great music. Love spending time with him. Here he is, episode 553. Vincent Mason. Vincent, good to meet you, bud.

[Vincent Mason]

Great to meet you too.

[Bobby Bones]

How long have you lived here?

[Vincent Mason]

I've lived here for five years and I got to. I got to confess, I feel like I've seen you at the. At the gym a lot, but I never knew if it was you or like your evil twin or something.

[Bobby Bones]

I don't think so. I never. I don't think it was me.

[Vincent Mason]

I never said. What's up? It might not be you now that I've met you in person.

[Bobby Bones]

What gym? No, don't say.

[Vincent Mason]

I'm not going to say. I'm not going to say the gym.

[Bobby Bones]

But close to here. Yeah, I own it. I have my own gym here. Is the dude Jack though? Is he like so ripped?

[Vincent Mason]

No. Meeting you in person. Now it might. It might not be him. I'm glad I've never said, hey, is.

[Bobby Bones]

It a boxing gym?

[Vincent Mason]

No, just a regular.

[Bobby Bones]

Because I owned like, three gyms.

[Vincent Mason]

Well, seeing you now in person, it really doesn't look like. It looks like your evil twin.

[Bobby Bones]

There's the problem. And I want to be as honest as possible about this. Most of the time, people, when they tag me and things, they'll go, hey, I think I see Bobby Bones. Like in. Are you in Iowa City, Iowa? And they'll tag somebody.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

Or are you in Sacramento? And it's always like the worst looking dude that just wears glasses like mine. Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

So he really.

[Vincent Mason]

He's not bad looking.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

I'm glad I've never said, hey, but I swear, people stop him and stuff and they say, what's up?

[Bobby Bones]

I don't think it's me.

[Vincent Mason]

Like, I love the show. It's me.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. No, if you've ever heard I love the show. That's funny. But yeah. And I don't think it's. I. I mean, is he bigger? Is he buffer than I am?

[Vincent Mason]

No.

[Bobby Bones]

Okay, good. That I like, that I like.

[Vincent Mason]

No, he's not. He's actually smaller.

[Bobby Bones]

Ah, I like that. Well, yeah. I'm confused on what I like at this point.

[Vincent Mason]

All right.

[Bobby Bones]

But, yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Well, I'm really glad I've never said hello then.

[Bobby Bones]

As am I. Do you live near me?

[Vincent Mason]

Not too far.

[Bobby Bones]

Nobody knows where I live.

[Vincent Mason]

So you. Well, now that. Now that I'm here, I'm like, it's really not that close.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

But it's not too far away. Everyone's gonna be listening to this and learning absolutely nothing.

[Bobby Bones]

Nothing. I was. I was going through your social media, and I've been watching your stuff for a while, but I know kind of the pressures of your own first headlining tour.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

How did you feel about that? Because it did really well, which is fantastic.

[Vincent Mason]

Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

But going into it, did you have nerves when you were doing your own? Because a whole difference in being, like, great support. Because that's not pressure on you.

[Vincent Mason]

No, that's pressure on the artist a lot. Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

You feel like. You know, I've always felt like sometimes you're opening, you could drop dead on stage, and you feel like no one would care. Like, they'd be like, oh, the opener.

[Bobby Bones]

Anyway, we're waiting for Parker McCollum.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, exactly. And, like, I think there was that added anxiety of, like, there's nobody coming out there after you. So, like, I think the first time I played a headline show Sold a thousand tickets in Columbia, which was awesome. That was always kind of like my benchmark. I was like, if I ever could sell a thousand tickets, like, that was kind of like my goal, like my dream, I guess you could say. And so, like, you do it and you're like, wow, there's a thousand people here. And then you're like, wow, there's a lot of people there just to watch me. And then you're like, oh, I hope this show's not boring, or my song's actually good. I've had the vision. I don't know if you have this, but, like, I just feel like everyone might, like, tap each other on the shoulder and all walk out at the same time, you know, be like, ah.

[Bobby Bones]

It wasn't as good as we thought.

[Vincent Mason]

So it's a whole other added pressure.

[Bobby Bones]

I. I felt, especially when I was touring, stand up a lot. When I put up multiple shows at once.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

That made me anxious.

[Vincent Mason]

Yep.

[Bobby Bones]

Like. Like a full tour.

[Vincent Mason]

Yep.

[Bobby Bones]

Because there will be some cities that would do great and some not as great. And then. So I'd be like. And then I would be nervous, like, if nobody buys tickets. Like, I never really was good or like. Right. Did you have those fears?

[Vincent Mason]

Absolutely. And I think it's like the last thing you do. Like, you put out a song, that's a step. You know, you go open, that's a step. It was kind of the last thing that I hadn't done yet. It was the last thing, like, we had no idea how it was going to go. Like, putting tickets on sale is different than asking someone to stream your song. Like buying something and going and showing up and obviously you don't want to book the show and show up and then 30 people are there. Like, wouldn't be a great feeling. So a little bit scary. But I feel like this time around we're going on tour again, and I think doing the 15, 20 shows, whatever we did this year, I think you're just kind of like hosting a house party is how I think of it now. And I've never really liked to do that, but I think the people, you kind of won the battle. Like, they like you enough to spend the money.

[Bobby Bones]

So I saw that a lot had sold out during pre sale. Like, that's such a relief.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes. That was the best. Very nervous watching them. And when stuff. When you can get stuff out of the way in pre sale. That's a. That's a great sign.

[Bobby Bones]

Do you do, like, the code?

[Vincent Mason]

We do the code. We do a few different Codes. Three of them.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, one for a fan club, one for local, you know, radio or whatever.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

It's such a relief when they. I would just put heavy, heavy, heavy pressure on myself totally. To not be washed up. And you can't be washed up yet because you're, like, 24.

[Vincent Mason]

Well, thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

But you can never be washed. But you don't have that. You don't have that fear. You have confidence on stage. You feel.

[Vincent Mason]

You feel good once I get out there. Yeah, I do. There's some nights where you feel off. Like, oh, no. It's funny. We've played, like, 200 shows this year and.

[Bobby Bones]

Really?

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Wow.

[Vincent Mason]

More. More than. Not. If you do the math, with all the radio stuff involved, too. It's more than. It's like two shows every three days, you know? But it's just so funny. You do it over and over, and for whatever reason, there are nights where you think you're gonna go out there and something's just gonna go off. And you've done it 200 times, and it's just like. But once I get out there and you rip a couple songs, I feel like it's okay. But, you know, like a flat crowd, you just. I think you. I know within one or two songs if it's gonna be a good show and you just gotta get through it. It's part of the. Part of the deal.

[Bobby Bones]

Even when I'm doing my radio show now, aside from even doing stage stuff, there are days where I just feel flat. And at first I'll blame it on the audience.

[Vincent Mason]

Yep.

[Bobby Bones]

Or maybe I didn't get enough sleep. Or maybe my blood sugar is weird.

[Vincent Mason]

Totally.

[Bobby Bones]

Or my dog is sick.

[Vincent Mason]

Totally.

[Bobby Bones]

And I'm like, man, what a flat crowd. And I now have done so many bad shows, and I mean this funny. And seriously, that I know, a lot of times it's me.

[Vincent Mason]

That's. That's a great point, too. Like, if you don't enjoy the show, how is anybody going to?

[Bobby Bones]

And I might be the one that's off.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

And I'm blaming them.

[Vincent Mason]

And they might love it. I feel like 95% of people would walk away being like, I didn't know anything was wrong. Like, you might think you did a terrible show. And they'd be like. Felt like any other time have had.

[Bobby Bones]

That happen a decent amount where I come off and I'm like. Or even like a tv. Like a live television spot. And I'm like, that sucked.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

And they're like, what do you mean? I'm Like, I bombed that I flubbed. And nobody really notices it at the level that we noticed when we're performing ourselves. Because it's our whole world.

[Vincent Mason]

No, nobody does. It is our whole world. Like, you notice every little thing. And it's funny. Like. Like some of the headliners you're with, they walk off stage and like, that was a bad one. I was like, oh, I'd have never guessed that. I went out in front of house and watched the show. I'm, like, expecting them to be in a great mood, and they're like, God.

[Bobby Bones]

I bombed and now. But that's you now.

[Vincent Mason]

That's me now.

[Bobby Bones]

So you got to convince yourself not to feel that way because you saw other side.

[Vincent Mason]

Absolutely.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. That's funny. You still have fun doing shows. Is it. Is it so much fun?

[Vincent Mason]

I do. I do.

[Bobby Bones]

Is it more fun now that your songs are. More songs are blowing up and the crowd singing more back.

[Vincent Mason]

Way more fun now where it's like, you know, at first you have nothing, and you're just, like, trying to make it through. You're like, can I play a set? And, like, look like I know what I'm doing? And then you have one song. We had one song that people knew. And then now it feels like there's a handful. And, you know, we've been opening since May, so we went from headlining to doing 25 minutes. So it's like we only play five, six songs, and people know, like, four of them. So, like, it feels like you're kind of crushing for 25 minutes. So if we can extend that into 90, that'd be awesome.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Because you may have a bigger crowd, but if you're going out and you're playing support, you do have a literally smaller space on stage and a smaller set, but you can also pop out the hits faster.

[Vincent Mason]

That's right.

[Bobby Bones]

But I bet it feels a bit incomplete a little bit. When you're. When your support. Because you've been doing your own thing.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

And now you're gonna go do support. And it's bigger, but it's gotta feel incomplete because you probably are just getting, like, wound up and then it's over.

[Vincent Mason]

That's the thing. You.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

You.

[Vincent Mason]

You don't wanna wait around all day. Cause you don't want the 25 minutes. It's long enough where you don't wanna be flat, but then if you get yourself amped up, you're just. You're on and off the stage. And I think that five, six songs is usually, like, in a longer set where you finally start to feel good. You're like, all right, we can rip the rest of these songs. Like, we all feel great. And, like, the last chorus of the last song, and then it's over, and you just gotta try to wind down.

[Bobby Bones]

What song do you think you've covered the most?

[Vincent Mason]

Definitely. American Kids by Kenny Chesney. That was the first song. I got a guitar my sophomore year for Christmas, and I loved country radio at that time. I still do, but, like, those were the only country songs I knew. And that's why I wanted a guitar to play the country radio songs and American Kids. I just, like, started going for that.

[Bobby Bones]

So.

[Vincent Mason]

Sounded terrible.

[Bobby Bones]

Why did you want to.

[Vincent Mason]

Crazy song to start with.

[Bobby Bones]

Why did you think your guitar would be cool?

[Vincent Mason]

I actually didn't want one. There was a. My mom got a ukulele as, like, a birthday present. I think somebody. My dad or my sister just got it for her, and they were like, mess around on that. And she did for, like, a week. And then was like, I don't. I'm not gonna do this. And I picked it up. I was probably in 8th grade. Learned a bunch of songs like, never put it down. And it was my sister that was like, please, like, if you're gonna play this often, get a guitar. I can't listen to that anymore. And I was always just like, no, I'm good.

[Bobby Bones]

Was anybody in your family drawn to music?

[Vincent Mason]

My mom can play the piano a little bit. Pretty good. But I wouldn't say musical. Everyone's like. I say, my dad could be an A and R, not my A and R, but somebody's A and R. Like, he's very critical of, like, why he likes a song or what song's good, what song's bad. My mom's kind of the same way. So I think we all love it. Like, we love movies and entertainment and music and stuff like that. That's always been a big deal. But nobody was, like, making music.

[Bobby Bones]

Nobody wanted to be in a band. No, nobody was in a band when they were a kid. Now they're living through you. What do your parents. What do your parents think about the success now?

[Vincent Mason]

They love it. I think they're. My dad's checks in all the time. He owns his own business. So, like, I think he. He likes to check in on that side of things with me, too. Like, he always, like, makes sure I'm at least keeping an eye on the numbers and stuff like that and where things are at. Yeah. So he. He checks in on that, and he's got a Lot of creative ideas that I hear him out, but he's got the right mix of, like, he's involved and like, he's got his ideas and like, I'm glad that he cares, but like, no decisions are made by him. We never got into that. That territory.

[Bobby Bones]

That's funny.

[Vincent Mason]

You'll hear they're super proud and my mom's just support number one supporter. Just like.

[Bobby Bones]

Did they get to come to many shows?

[Vincent Mason]

They do for like. Like I said, we're playing a lot of shows, so it's a small percentage, but like a good bit. I'd say like 10 to 15. Wow. A year, like whatever's around. Or they'll travel a little bit too.

[Bobby Bones]

When did you have to get a business manager?

[Vincent Mason]

That was, I think probably last year. Right.

[Bobby Bones]

Weird.

[Vincent Mason]

Weird year and a half. Yeah, it is weird. It's awesome. I'm very. That's probably the thing I'm, to be honest, the most thankful for having a business manager. Yeah. Like, why is it that just because I can write songs and sing, I get to have a business? Like, it's such a weight off the shoulder. Like, my friends are talking about doing their taxes and stuff and I'm just like, yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

It was weird for me. I'm from a rural town in Arkansas, so I didn't even know what a business manager was. Like, I didn't know what that. But to pay somebody to like manage my money. I never had any money, so to pay somebody, that hit weird. But then whenever I was like paying percentages to people.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I just knew I was gonna end up in jail, like for tax evasion. Accidentally not. I wasn't even gonna be evading on purpose. I just knew it was going to end up bad.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah. Do you feel like you have to look it over to make sure you're.

[Bobby Bones]

I now look at. I look at everything all the time. I just very anal about money because I never had it. So. Yes. I look at my accounts two or three times a day.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But I don't pay. I don't even get bills in my house.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, that's. It's awesome.

[Vincent Mason]

That's how my dad is. So when he's asking me stuff and.

[Bobby Bones]

I don't know, he's like, he wants you to know.

[Vincent Mason]

He wants me to know. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Do you. You try, I assume you trust your people, right. Do you have a close relationship with your business manager? I have a very close relationship.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Do you ever call be like, can I buy this? Do you ever. Have you done that?

[Vincent Mason]

I haven't gotten there yet. I'm really not. I'm not like that.

[Bobby Bones]

What do you mean?

[Vincent Mason]

I just don't. I don't buy a whole lot of stuff.

[Bobby Bones]

You see an awesome guitar and it's like a six thousand dollar guitar.

[Vincent Mason]

I did buy a Gibson, but that. I felt like that was like I needed one.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, you can write that off though, too, though, Right? So I've learned this stuff too. All this stuff I've learned through, like, trials and tribulations, but it's. So do you. Do you like, own like a house or condo or anything yet?

[Vincent Mason]

I own my truck. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

If you were to.

[Vincent Mason]

That would be next year. Like, we'll. We'll figure out what to. What to buy.

[Bobby Bones]

If you were to see like a. I was Talking to Parker McCollum this morning, who I've known for a long time. You like Parker, right?

[Vincent Mason]

One of my favorites. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Known him forever. And I didn't know. There was the story about that hellcat that he's selling.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Except he already sold it. And the person now is selling it from Parker saying, this is Parker McCollum's car. Parker's already sold it. It's not his anymore. And the guy's using, hey, this used to be Parker McCollum's car.

[Vincent Mason]

Oh.

[Bobby Bones]

As a tool to upsell. And he's like, I've already sold it. People are like, what do you want for your car? And he's like, no, no, no, I sold it. And I think he's kind of annoyed.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

That that's happening. But if you were to see like, that car, it was less than like $99,000 and you wanted it, you'd probably call your business manager and be like.

[Vincent Mason]

Can I buy this? Yeah, I think we're approaching that. That territory.

[Bobby Bones]

That's a good time.

[Vincent Mason]

I don't think I've had enough to, like, really. I was like, all right, that's cool that I'm. That I'm making that money to. To write songs and play songs. But it was never enough to, like, think about that kind of stuff.

[Bobby Bones]

Are you getting free clothes yet?

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, that's coming in. So that's cool.

[Bobby Bones]

It's cool. Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Really cool. I never like to pick clothes, so that's awesome. To just wear what. Wear what gets sent.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Or what?

[Bobby Bones]

Or wear what is free.

[Vincent Mason]

That's right. That's awesome.

[Bobby Bones]

A lot of free hoodies.

[Vincent Mason]

It's a great feeling. It feels. Did you feel like that? And like, I feel like they made a mistake or something or I'M just kind of like who did what to make this happen. Like it's hard for me to wrap my mind around a brand like wanting me to wear something. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.

[Hari Kondabolu]

On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Yes, I'm Dr. Priyanka Walley, a double board certified physician.

[Hari Kondabolu]

And I'm Hari Kundabolu, a comedian and someone who once googled do I have scurvy at 3am on health stuff, we're.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Talking about health in a different way.

[Hari Kondabolu]

It's not only about what we can do to improve our health, but also.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

What our health says about us and the way we're living.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Like our episode where we look at.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Diabetes in the United states. I mean, 50% of Americans are pre diabetic.

[Hari Kondabolu]

How preventable is type 2?

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Extremely. Or our in depth analysis of how incredible mangoes are.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Oh, it's hard to explain to rest of the world that like your mangoes are fine because mangoes are incredible. But like you don't even know.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

You don't know, you don't know. It's going to be a fun ride. So tune in.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Listen to health stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bobby Bones]

All I know is what I've been told and that to have truth is a whole lie.

[Maggie Freeling]

For almost a decade, the murder of an 18 year old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her.

[Maggie Freeling]

We know a story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national tv.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky.

[Vincent Mason]

Housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran.

[Maggie Freeling]

My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist producer and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

[Hari Kondabolu]

I did not know her and I.

[Vincent Mason]

Did not kill her or rape or.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Burn or any of that other stuff.

[Vincent Mason]

That y' all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Gas on her.

[Maggie Freeling]

From lava for good. This is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.

[Vincent Mason]

America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people and small towns.

[Maggie Freeling]

Listen to Graves county in the Bone Valley. Feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and to binge the entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Jingle bells, jingle bells Jingle all the way.

[Vincent Mason]

Yo yo, can we get a Thanksgiving first?

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

I'm hungry.

[Vincent Mason]

Hey y', all, it's Kadeen and Deval.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

The hosts of Ellis Ever after podcast.

[Vincent Mason]

This holiday season, whether you're cooking for the family, out buying gifts for the.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Kids, or crowded in holiday traffic, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After.

[Vincent Mason]

On Ellis Ever after, we get real with our crew about family. If you feeling like you feeling that's probably because you a good parent friendship. Be careful what you put in your body.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Move your body and love it the.

[Vincent Mason]

Way you love them cars that house, them clothes, them shoes, love yourself, them brunches, love and marriage.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

You know what's become attractive to me? And it's because I've self corrected and I guess I detoxified myself. Accountability like it has become mad attractive. So attractive to me and everything else in between. I've told my most embarrassing moment on this podcast before which was me taking a Ziploc bag.

[Vincent Mason]

So listen to Ellis Ever after on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome fellow seekers of the dark. I'm Danny Trejo. Won't you join me in Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows.

[Hari Kondabolu]

An anthology of modern.

[Vincent Mason]

Day horror stories inspired by the legends and lore of Latin America. Take a trip from ghastly encounters with evil spirits to bone chilling brushes with supernatural creatures and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura Podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

[Telma Hopkins]

Jenna World, Jenna Jameson, Vivid Video and the Valley is a new podcast about the history of the adult film industry. I'm Molly Lambert, host of Heidi the Heidi Fly Story, and I'll be your tour guide on a wild ride through adult film films. We get paid more than the men. We call the shots. In what way is that degrading? That's us taking hold of our Life. In the 1990s, actress Jenna Jameson crossed over into mainstream culture, redefined stardom, then left it all behind. I'm a powerful woman. I think that's intimidating to a man. With a cast of hundreds of actors and comedians playing key figures, we'll take a look at how adult films became legal in the 70s, hugely profitable in the 80s and 90s and fell off a financial cliff in the 2000s. Listen to Genoorld on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bobby Bones]

And we're back on the bobbycast. I felt like, two things. One, when I was poor, nobody wanted to give me anything. So it was the opposite. Like, nobody wanted to give me crap when I needed it.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

And then when I didn't need it anymore, everybody wanted to give me everything. So I felt like that was backwards.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

I felt like that was very backwards.

[Vincent Mason]

Where were these?

[Bobby Bones]

And then I felt the need to, like, prove to them I was worthy of their free stuff.

[Vincent Mason]

I do that. Yeah. That's kind of what I'm getting at. Like, I feel like somebody twisted somebody's arm to, like, get the wrangler shirts.

[Bobby Bones]

And I want to prove it. Like, you sent me this, so I want to tag you and let you know how much I'm just grateful for. And in reality, you know, just wear it and they're happy with it. You don't have to prove anything. Right. That's super cool, man. This last year feels, like, had to be a blur then. 200 shows.

[Vincent Mason]

200 shows.

[Bobby Bones]

That's a lot of not being home.

[Vincent Mason]

It was a lot of not being home. And I think last fall, we were out with Gavin Adcock the whole fall, and we were in the van, and that was just, like, it was such a fun tour to be on because we we really did catch it when the whole thing was just on the up. So it was cool to see in. The energy in those shows were crazy. But we were running around the van. I was just tired all the time. And that's kind of what the album's about is like, that year and year and a half after we wrote that Jose dance floor song where, like, everything just kind of became being on the road. And the album is working that out. But I feel like this year, I'm just saying all that to say this year, I feel like, found a little bit of a routine. I found a little bit of a way to make it feel as at home as you can.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. As soon as it feels normal, it changes. Something's going to change every time, and you want it to be that way. I'm not even saying that as a negative.

[Vincent Mason]

Absolutely.

[Bobby Bones]

And you'll always look back at your. And what's weird is I used to not be the old guy, and now I've been here long enough that I'm like, let me tell you this Young whippersnapper. It's such a weird thing, but you'll hopefully, in two years, you'll look back at this stuff and cringe.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, it's starting to happen a little bit.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Good.

[Vincent Mason]

With the early. The early days, I'm looking back at.

[Bobby Bones]

Them and I'm like, what was I thinking? Why did I do that?

[Vincent Mason]

And I know I was just doing.

[Bobby Bones]

My best and you were, and it was awesome. And what you're doing now is awesome. But if you're not in two years looking back at it going, oh, man, that means you haven't gotten much better, you haven't progressed.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

You're not different. You haven't changed.

[Vincent Mason]

And it's funny, too, because back then, I didn't even know what I didn't know.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Like, I didn't even. It's cool to have, like, a phase or, like an era to look back on because I felt like it was new. I don't feel like I'm the old guy at all, but I felt like the new young kid that just got here for so long, and now it's been like five years, so that's not really the case.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, you're still the young kid, right? You're the now young kid at the big kid table.

[Vincent Mason]

That's a good way to say it.

[Bobby Bones]

So you might be the old kid amongst the kid table at Thanksgiving.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

You're the oldest toddler. But no, no, no, you're now the young kid at the big kid table. I saw that Hell on a dance floor. I was just looking at some Data. Was like 100 million streams.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

That's significant.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I mean, that pays the bills.

[Vincent Mason]

It does.

[Bobby Bones]

More than anything. It just. It pays the freaking bills.

[Vincent Mason]

It does.

[Bobby Bones]

That's exciting.

[Vincent Mason]

And it's just fun. Like, I just put out that was like, this probably the 15th or 16th song we put out. And it's just like, really, like you said, as soon as stuff starts to feel normal and you're like, oh, another song's going out there, it's like. It's the. That's the one that catches everybody.

[Bobby Bones]

But I didn't know that you had put out that many songs.

[Vincent Mason]

Might have been a little less. Well, the five that came after that. So that was probably the 10th. The 10th or 11th song, I should say.

[Bobby Bones]

Was there anything about this song, though? Was there any more of a push with it than other songs that make it this much, makes it this much bigger, or did it catch?

[Vincent Mason]

Then you guys decided almost nothing made it different. And I was just Talking about this at the gym that you don't go to with Chase McDaniel. Yeah, I wrote the song with Chase McDaniel, and I saw him, and I saw your evil twin on the way down. But, yeah, me and him were just like. He's like, you see 100 million streams? And I was like, yeah. And I was like, I don't know if you feel this way, but I still feel like I don't know what it was that made it the one that did that. And he was like, me either. And part of it, I guess you just keep.

[Bobby Bones]

When you wrote it, did you.

[Vincent Mason]

I knew. There's this line in there. Rock bottom's got a brand new view that launches into the chorus. How was the dance floor? And like, just that kind of moment in the songwriting. I knew we did something. I was like, that's a great line. And then when we started clipping it on TikTok from that line, that's when it started catching. So I was like, okay, it's working. But I don't know, you start to see the numbers come in, the pre saves come in. You're like, all right, this one's gonna be better than the others. But I never thought it would do what it did. I didn't think I'd get a gold record, like, to hang on the wall. That was wild. Getting, like a physical, like, something tangible. I just never thought about that. I thought about getting a bus, thought about playing shows. Never thought about 100 million streams.

[Bobby Bones]

Did you think about people that you liked liking you?

[Vincent Mason]

Always. When I was writing songs, it was always like, would John Mayer like this song if he heard it? Would Parker McCollum like the song if he heard it? I was always kind of like, that was my benchmark because I was writing alone. When I first got to town, I didn't start co writing till two years in. I didn't really know anybody for the first two years. I could have been anywhere, but I just moved to town because I knew this is where stuff happened. So I was writing songs alone. That was always my thing. It was just, like, mental. Like, I was like, if they heard this, like, would. Would I be on the right track or do I need to change that line?

[Bobby Bones]

Has Parker commented on. Even in person, on anything that you've done and been like, dude, I really like that song?

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, he's. He's. He's a fan, which is awesome. Like, he's. He's really liked it. And, like, he actually listens to it too. He wasn't just saying it like, he was like, quoting lines and stuff like that. And he was. When I was at Ole Miss, I went to Ole Miss for a year. So I went graduate high school, had a handful of friends going. Ole Miss wasn't super excited about anything. So I was like, why Ole Miss.

[Bobby Bones]

Though, if you're from Georgia?

[Vincent Mason]

Because uga, there's a scholarship called the Hope Scholarship, and if you have a certain GPA in state, you can go for, like, a very little amount of money. So it became, like, really hard to get into UJ if you live in state. So everybody just started going to Ole Miss or Auburn or like South Carolina. If you didn't have the grades and you want to go to sec, you just go to one of those. And like, half my county went to Ole Miss.

[Bobby Bones]

Really?

[Vincent Mason]

Like, it was split between Auburn and ole Ms. And Uga.

[Bobby Bones]

What part of the state then were you geographically closer to Ole Miss?

[Vincent Mason]

Not really. We're pretty close to Auburn. It's like north Atlanta. Yeah, pretty close to Auburn. A lot of some Tennessee here and there, but Auburn and Ole Miss were like the ones to go to.

[Bobby Bones]

You did a year at Ole Miss. It's like prison.

[Vincent Mason]

You did a year, I did six months. That'll be your episode. Did a year at Ole Miss, Served.

[Bobby Bones]

A year in Hottie Toddy.

[Vincent Mason]

That's right. I was there in person for six months. And then Covid sent us home, like, pretty much right when the second semester started. I had just started writing songs, saying that all. Saying all that to say. My friend from Louisiana showed me Parker. And at that time, like I was saying, I love the country radio songs and I love John Mayer. I'd never heard any of that. Kind of like left of center, red dirt songwriter, country. I didn't know it was a thing. So I heard the I can't breathe in hell of a year, and it just clicked for me. And that's kind of what made me. I was like, oh, if I write songs, it's going to be something like this. And then I went and listened to him for the next two, three years.

[Bobby Bones]

So you just wrote by yourself?

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Even here for two years. That's a long time.

[Vincent Mason]

It was. Well, I was at Lipscomb here for a year or two. So I did. I did a year at Ole Miss, did a year at Lipscomb.

[Bobby Bones]

It's like you served two different penitentiaries.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah. Very different prisons. Also. Lipscomb Church of Christ School. Coming from Ole Miss to. To that establishment was a. Was a very big change.

[Bobby Bones]

Whenever you're writing songs by yourself. And most people come here and they've only written by themselves. The co write is very much a Nashville thing.

[Vincent Mason]

Absolutely.

[Bobby Bones]

But if you're at Lipscomb, I'm just surprised that culture wasn't already a part of the songwriting. Were you avoiding it purposefully?

[Vincent Mason]

There were a couple people there that were into it. I had a professor there that set me up with my first write on Music Row. And because I was just, like, dying for it, like, we would have these one on one. You had to do one on one lessons, and one of them was songwriting.

[Bobby Bones]

So that's a weird thing to learn.

[Vincent Mason]

It was really weird. So I'll just go in there on, like, Tuesday mornings and play or whatever I was working on. She'd be like, this is good. This is bad. Did you.

[Bobby Bones]

This is an unfair question to answer. I'm going to ask it to you anyway. Did you feel like you're telling me my songwriting is good or bad, yet you haven't done it at a level that unless you were my teacher, I probably wouldn't listen to you critique something that is creative?

[Vincent Mason]

I think there's a little bit of that. She played session stuff, though, so I respected her. Okay. So, yeah, she's been in town. She's. She wrote songs. But, like, I do think the general premise of music school, that is a thing in the back of your mind where you're like.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, if you were good, you wouldn't be here as a teacher. You'd be out there doing it. And it's a terrible thing to say. It's a terrible thing to say. But I remember having a. In college, I was studying television, and I remember the. Our professor would be like, and this is how you and I. And he was like. Like, on the news for, like, a year in. In Little Rock, Arkansas.

[Vincent Mason]

Right?

[Bobby Bones]

Which was, like, the big city to me from where I grew up. But I was like, dude, if you were good, why are you here?

[Vincent Mason]

I know. I hear that. I think it's the way they approach it, too. Like, you don't. If there's a little bit of cockiness to it and they're telling you, completely agree.

[Bobby Bones]

Completely agree.

[Vincent Mason]

If they're just trying to help you, it's like, great.

[Bobby Bones]

That's a great point.

[Vincent Mason]

But there is a little bit of. I'm with you on that. And I think a lot of people do. There's power trip is a real thing all over the place.

[Bobby Bones]

And I think, too, in a job like this, to succeed at it, to actually try at it, you got to have some Sort of screw loose.

[Vincent Mason]

I agree.

[Bobby Bones]

Because there's no stability in this.

[Vincent Mason]

No, there's.

[Bobby Bones]

It's. It's so unpredictable.

[Vincent Mason]

It really is.

[Bobby Bones]

You can work your freaking face off and nothing happened, or you can stumble into it and have a really good opportunity.

[Vincent Mason]

And it's been cool to see, like. It's been cool to get on tour and open for these people that, like Parker and Riley Green and, you know, people that I've, like, listened to music for so long, like, just to see how they go about it. I think everybody else deals with it. Everybody deals with it in a different way, I guess, is what I'm trying to say.

[Bobby Bones]

Do you have any sort of imposter syndrome?

[Vincent Mason]

I think so. I'm always, like, hesitant to, like, put the labels on stuff like that. But, like, every time I've heard that, I'm like, ah, I'm not gonna have that. And then. And then it sneaks up on you in a way of, like, kind of. I feel like with the brand deals is kind of like, I'm like, they're sending that to me.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. And I wonder if now you're feeling it because you're starting to have this success that's different. I call a big kid at the table success.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

And I would think now is about the time where if you're going to.

[Vincent Mason]

Have it, it's right now.

[Bobby Bones]

But I think everybody has it a bit.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, I think so. Well, I think you think about things happening and you think they're gonna happen a certain way. And, like, I think when you're daydreaming about it, you're always like, well, this thing's gonna happen first and then it's gonna naturally lead me into that. But really it just kind of happens and there's no ramp into it. And I think that's why I'm always like. I don't know if it's imposter syndrome or if it's just playing out differently or like there was no, like, prep for it. But, like, every one day you wake up and people just treat you a little different. Or like, one day you wake up and more people are buying tickets or more people are listening to the songs. And it's just like.

[Bobby Bones]

It's weird.

[Vincent Mason]

It's weird.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, it's weird. When you went from van to bus.

[Vincent Mason]

That was great.

[Bobby Bones]

Life changing, right?

[Vincent Mason]

I'm still. I'm still, like, fired up about that.

[Bobby Bones]

Would you explain that a bit, Grant? Like, granularly? Because I think, again, it's one of those things. Unless you've lived it you really don't understand. And I don't expect even people who listen to this podcast or radio show to understand fully because they haven't had to live it. Right? No, but would you explain what it's like on a van versus what it's like in a bus?

[Vincent Mason]

It is like, it's actually life changing. I think back to the van days and I'm like, I don't even know how we did it. I'm like thinking about having to go do that now. And I'm like, that sounds crazy, but what, what you do. We would bus from bus. We would pull the van. Tour manager would go get the van. We'd rent a different van every weekend. And on Thursday or Wednesday night, whatever, we would load up at my apartment. Everyone would park in the spaces and we'd load up the van and then we'd drive to upstate New York, we'd drive to Kansas City, we'd drive to Milwaukee, you know, however long it took. And then you're checking into hotels at 2, 3am, waking up at 8am, pulling up for soundcheck, doing soundcheck. Two hours till you open. A lot of times you can't stay for the whole headliner back in the van. You're driving another four or five hours that night.

[Bobby Bones]

People and not comfortable in the van.

[Vincent Mason]

Not comfortable. Multiple people.

[Bobby Bones]

It's not like beds, It's. We had.

[Vincent Mason]

We were rolling with 7, 7 and like a 16 passenger, but we didn't have a trailer. So like the, the first four rows were just like the drums and the guitars and like a lot of times they're falling on you. And we had a month long stretch where like God was definitely like laughing and like testing us for sure. But the. We were. Where was it? McFarland, Kansas. I remember we were driving to play with Gavin. Manhattan, Kansas, Kansas State. And we're driving 70 miles an hour. I'm half asleep. It's the middle of the day and we just fall down. And the front tire, I just see it roll up a ramp like a. It was a hill. You see the tire, the tire, the whole tire. We didn't blow a tire. Like the whole tire came off the access. The axis is sparking on the highway. I see the tire. It was a ranch with a hill. And it went up the hill like a ramp. And I just. We all lost sight of the tire. It was 40 yards in the air, going 70 miles an hour, just flying into somebody's ranch. And then the access is sparking down the road and we're Just saying, hit the brakes. Hit the brakes. Our drummer was driving, and he's real low key, and he's just like, there's no brakes. And we're like, what? He's like, the brakes are out. So we just skidded 100 yards to the side of the road in McFarland, Kansas. And everyone just watched us. Everyone was driving by, and I posted on Instagram, and some kid was like, I just passed you. And we were literally like. We were like, come get us. So he turned around in his little truck and he came and got us. And we took like, three, four trips from the van. And then everyone told us. They were like, you know, this is the hottest day of the year. And we were like, great. You can't sit in the van on the shoulder because someone might hit you. So we're all just standing in the tall grass on the side of the road. It's 101 degrees, I think. And everyone's getting, like, sunburnt, like, actually sunburned. And that was one of our stories. We hit a black bear on the way to upstate New York, where they had Woodstock. I forget the name of the venue, but we hit a black bear. That was our drummer. It all happened to our drummer. It was his first shift.

[Bobby Bones]

Might be what, the common shift.

[Vincent Mason]

Driving. We're sitting in the front. Our other tour manager just went to sleep. He'd been driving all day. I remember we're listening, talking Tennessee by Morgan Wallen. And the trees are like, you know, 15ft wide. It looked like bugs are, like this big. And I just remember being like, let's watch out for deer. Like, we don't need to hit a deer. And I said that. And I was looking to the left, expecting them to come out that way. That's where my eyes were. And then from the right, like, the way you see a bear, like, in full sprint on, like, National Geographic, just ran across the front of the van. We just.

[Bobby Bones]

It wasn't sitting in the road, was not sitting there. It jumped like a deer jumped out.

[Vincent Mason]

In front of the van, and we caught the back of it. And that was our driver's or drummer's first shift driving the van.

[Bobby Bones]

But something else about the van is everybody has to drive or people have to drive, and then they have to do their jobs. Right, which is the difference in the bus, where you have a dedicated driver, very different. But, like, your drummer is driving for, however, 3, 4, 6, whatever your schedule is. Then he's got to try to get some sleep, some. The tour manager takes over. But then Everybody's exhausted and they have to do their job. Like the show as well.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

And the bus. Game changer, because now talk about the bus.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes, that brings us to the bus. So a hawk also, the next day, flew right into the van. That's the last part of the van story, but that's into the driver. Into the driver's face. A hawk just.

[Bobby Bones]

Was the drummer the driver again?

[Vincent Mason]

No, it was our other tour manager. So drummer got a break. Good for him.

[Bobby Bones]

He's not the one to blame.

[Vincent Mason]

But. So, yeah, that brings us. We got on the bus in April, and I think all of us were just like. The bus was, like, mythical by that point. We were like, one day we'll be on the bus. When you're sitting on the side of the road, you're like, when we get on the bus, this won't happen anymore. But the bus is basically like a house. You have a driver. They have to have a CDL. They're licensed to drive 10 hours. You get another driver to take over, so you're not driving at all. No one on our crew drives anymore, really. I sleep more than I've probably ever slept in my life because you're. We really don't have to get up till sound check and a lot of these later chores. It's not till, like, 4:00pm so, you know, you can go to bed whenever you want. I can wake up kind of whenever I want, unless I'm doing, like, a liner or something. But every day I wake up. There's a kitchen. We got stuff we bust from a Walmart. So we go in the Walmart, buy all our stuff for the weekend, every weekend. It's got all the stuff that we need in there and eat better. I literally just wake up and walk into the front lounge every morning and, like, just take a. Take a breath out, because that's what I wanted, you know, like, being a fan of somebody like Parker, he talks about being on the road all the time. So I wanted to be on the road and I wanted to play shows, but the van was, like, quite literally starting to kill us. You know, we were getting close.

[Bobby Bones]

Bears, hawks. I can't believe you saw the wheel.

[Vincent Mason]

I saw the wheel. I lost sight of the wheel in the air. That's probably the craziest thing that, like.

[Bobby Bones]

You'Re lucky you didn't die, truly.

[Vincent Mason]

Like, if we were in a city.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, that.

[Vincent Mason]

That might have hit somebody, you know, like, it was very. It was close. And the sparking on the road was, like, at that. That fast. Like, the Faster. We didn't skid over. And the van being backloaded and all.

[Bobby Bones]

Anyway, also, it's. It's also, you put in so many hours on the road. You're gonna have those kind of stories just based on being out there, right? So much. Same thing with playing live shows. Did you have any shows last year where things. Nothing was working and you're just having to patch it together? Your ears aren't working.

[Vincent Mason]

That just happened to me in Red West, Utah.

[Bobby Bones]

What happened?

[Vincent Mason]

Went out first six minutes, my mic didn't work. And we were like, it's a great crowd. That whole festival was awesome. Like, they were really good about drawing crowds to every stage. And it was 12,000 people. And you go to sing your first song and like. Like, we're talking about. You're getting yourself amped up, like. And festival days are always weird, too, because sound checks faster. You don't have your normal routine. You're playing at probably like 3 or 4pm you're used to 7, 8. And I got myself hyped up. Ran out there, saw the crowd. Another festival kind of like putting tickets on sale. You're always like, how many people are going to come to our set? It's a great crowd. 12,000 people at the same time. Just started going, oh, they're doing. Not on. Mike's not on.

[Bobby Bones]

Can't hear you. Is the band playing around you?

[Vincent Mason]

Band's playing around me. I got ears in. All you see is people just going, can't hear. Can't hear. And you just have like an internal, I think, like, anxiety attack because you're.

[Bobby Bones]

Wondering, do I keep going? Do I stop everything? Or were you playing to a click?

[Vincent Mason]

Playing to a click.

[Bobby Bones]

So you really can't.

[Vincent Mason]

And it's a festival, so you have a set time, so you can't start over.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Unless you want to rearrange everything.

[Bobby Bones]

What happened? How'd that turn out?

[Vincent Mason]

We got it on. It was kind of. It kind of became a funny moment because the first time I went on, I was like, can y' all hear this? And everyone was like, so it was good. But I think those moments when stuff don't work, I mean, you. You're thankful for the 200 shows that you've played because you're like, I guess this song's a wash. Like, no one heard that song. Then we got into the rest of the set, and it was fine. The Bobby cast. We'll be right back.

[Hari Kondabolu]

On the podcast. Health stuff. We are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Yes, I'm Dr. Priyanka Walley, a double board certified physician.

[Hari Kondabolu]

And I'm Hari Kondabolu, a comedian and someone who once googled do I have scurvy at 3am on health stuff, we're.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Talking about health in a different way.

[Hari Kondabolu]

It's not only about what we can do to improve our health, but also.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

What our health says about us and the way we're living.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Like our episode where we look at.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Diabetes in the United states. I mean 50% of Americans are pre diabetic.

[Hari Kondabolu]

How preventable is type 2?

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Extremely. Or our in depth analysis of how incredible mangoes are.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Oh, it's hard to explain to rest of the world that like your mangoes are fine because mangoes are incredible. But like you don't even know.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

You don't know.

[Vincent Mason]

You don't know.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

It's going to be a fun ride. So tune in.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Listen to health stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bobby Bones]

All I know is what I've been told and that to have truth is a whole lie.

[Maggie Freeling]

For almost a decade, the murder of an 18 year old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her.

[Maggie Freeling]

We know a story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national tv.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky.

[Vincent Mason]

Housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran.

[Maggie Freeling]

My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist producer and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

[Hari Kondabolu]

I did not know her and I.

[Vincent Mason]

Did not kill her or rape or.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Burn or any of that other stuff.

[Vincent Mason]

That y' all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her.

[Maggie Freeling]

From Lava For Good. This is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.

[Vincent Mason]

America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people and small towns.

[Maggie Freeling]

Listen to Graves county in the Bone Valley feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts and to binge the entire season ad free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Jingle bells, jingle bells, Jingle all the way.

[Vincent Mason]

Can we get a Thanksgiving first?

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

I'm hungry. Hey y', all, it's Kadeen and Deval, the hosts of Ellis Ever after podcast this holiday season.

[Vincent Mason]

Whether you're cooking for the family, out buying gifts for the kids, or crowded.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

In holiday traffic, tune out the noise and tune in to Ellis Ever After.

[Vincent Mason]

On Ellis Ever after, we get real with our crew about family. If you feeling like you feeling that's probably cause you a good parent friendship, be careful what you put in your body.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Move your body and love it the.

[Vincent Mason]

Way you love them cars, that house and clothes, them shoes, them love yourself, them brunches, love and marriage.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

You know what's become attractive to me? And it's because I've self corrected and I guess I detoxified myself. Accountability, like it has become mad attractive. So attractive to me and everything else in between. I've told my most embarrassing moment on this podcast before, which was me taking a Ziploc bag.

[Vincent Mason]

So listen to Ellis Ever after on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast, kids. I'm Jonathan Goldstein and on the new season of Heavyweight, I help a centenarian mend a broken heart. How can one year old woman fall in love again? And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old. And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke. And he got down.

[Bobby Bones]

And I remember feeling kind of a.

[Vincent Mason]

Surge of like, okay, this is power.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Plus, my old friend Gregor and his.

[Vincent Mason]

Brother try to solve my problems through hypnotism.

[Bobby Bones]

We could give you a whole brand new thing where you're like super charming all the time. Being more able to look people in.

[Hari Kondabolu]

The eye, not always hide behind a microphone.

[Vincent Mason]

Listen to heavyweight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. You know the shade is always shadiest right here. Season six of the podcast Reasonably Shady.

[Bobby Bones]

With Gisele Bryant and Robyn Dixon is.

[Vincent Mason]

Here dropping every Monday as two of the founding members of the Real Housewives Potomac. We're giving you all the laughs, drama and reality news you can handle. And you know, we don't hold back.

[Bobby Bones]

So come be reasonable or shady with.

[Vincent Mason]

Us each and every Monday, I was.

[Bobby Bones]

Going through a walk in my neighborhood.

[Vincent Mason]

Out of the blue, I see this huge sign next to somebody's house. Okay, the sign says, my neighbor is a Karen. No way. I died laughing. I'm like, I have to know. You are lying. Humongous, y'.

[Bobby Bones]

All.

[Vincent Mason]

They had some time on their hands. Listen to Reasonably Shady from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your Podcasts.

[Bobby Bones]

This is the Bobby Castle. I found that I would. If doing comedy, especially if I would bomb early on, I would just kill myself for it. I'd be like, I suck. I suck, I suck. But then I would realize, man, I bomb worse than this the more shows I did.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And it turned out fine and great. It allowed me to have confidence, even when things didn't go right, that it was going to be okay on the other side.

[Vincent Mason]

You're okay. And the career is not over.

[Bobby Bones]

Yep.

[Vincent Mason]

Have you played, like a lot? What's the percentage of stand up shows to like. I know you play music too.

[Bobby Bones]

Just. But. But comedy music. Right. So not fair. Not like you. I don't have talent and there's a difference. So I don't want. I don't want these two to be compared. But probably the last few years has been mostly stand up. I wanted to do a special.

[Vincent Mason]

Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

And so I just went and toured. I did like 30 theaters. I wrote this show and I toured it and CMT bought it and ran it and it was awesome. And so I did a special and then I was like, I think I'm good now.

[Vincent Mason]

Nice.

[Bobby Bones]

I still play the Opry sometimes, but I was doing comedy more than I was music. Now I would have a guitar there because the greatest thing for me was if I would like, suck or if the crowd was dead, which meant I sucked, I would just grab my guitar because I can hide behind music. When you're just out there with a microphone and people are.

[Vincent Mason]

No. That's kind of why. It's kind of what I was asking. Because I could. I really couldn't imagine going out there and just talking.

[Bobby Bones]

You could because you're writing songs in a vulnerable way. Too true. Like the first time that you play like a work tape for somebody with an emotion from you and you're like, listen to this. And they're listening maybe for the melody. Listen to the chord. You're also like, man, those are my real thoughts. And like, it. It feels kind of naked. Yeah. I mean, it's. It's similar.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah. Okay.

[Bobby Bones]

To writing songs, but yeah, I. I found when I would grab that guitar, I could kind of hide behind it. It was nice.

[Vincent Mason]

Totally. I feel like I have that too.

[Bobby Bones]

Do you feel like you amplify yourself a version of yourself on stage? Is it a superman? Is it a cape? A bit. When you play music.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah. That's funny too. Like going back to the growth thing. Like, there'll be times where I. I swear I'm out there just like giving him my all and ripping it. And then I go watch the video and I, like, haven't moved. I'm like, just standing still. And you. You swear you feel like you're given a show and you have to realize, like, you really do kind of got to perform and get into it.

[Bobby Bones]

But do you watch videos?

[Vincent Mason]

I watch what I get tagged in on Instagram. It's about.

[Bobby Bones]

It does that.

[Vincent Mason]

I don't do it every night, but if there's like. If I just see a lot of tags come in, you know, like the story mentions thing at the top, you just click through.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, I know it well. Oh, yeah, Yeah, I know it very well. Explain that crap to me, man. I see it and kill myself over it. Do you, like, challenge your micro movements more so because people are recording everything?

[Vincent Mason]

Yes, I think so. But going back to that thing, you just got to learn how to have. There's a balance. Like, you got to have a good time yourself. You can't be just thinking about that. But, yeah, I do think I. I try to. I try to exaggerate myself in my songwriting, that's for sure. Like, I. I think I keep the emotions as true to myself as possible. But then, like, you're always leaning for, like, this is probably sounds a little bit cooler than what actually happened, or how can I make this a little bit more, you know, aesthetic maybe is the word, but songwriting and, like, making records, I go into this mode where, like, I am. I've tried to explain it. I tried to explain it to Jake Gere, who I produced the album with, and he was just like, I didn't understand any.

[Bobby Bones]

Try it.

[Vincent Mason]

But he was like, you're doing great. I was like, all right. But I just feel like. I feel like there's this songwriter version of me that, like, kind of walks through everything. Like, I go through life for real. And then there's like, this version of me that I tap into that I'm like. It's almost like I'm watching my life happen. And it's like, how can I make this a little bit more interesting?

[Bobby Bones]

I have to amplify every single thing that I do because I'm doing content all the time. So if it's radio or podcast or social media, whatever it is, like, my. If it were just the literal version of me, I think it would be probably about a 4. But when I'm on, I gotta. I gotta put it up or it's not compelling.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Like, I don't feel like me, the everyday person is that compelling. I feel like I Have very compelling thoughts.

[Vincent Mason]

I go through the same thing, so.

[Bobby Bones]

I have to amplify them and I keep note. Do you keep notes of like, of thoughts? Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Yep.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

I broke my phone at. In Utah. I had this case that fell apart and I like, you never want to go get a new phone. Like, it's just not a fun thing to do. And I just dropped it one too many times and the screen wouldn't open. And that was the thing I was the most.

[Bobby Bones]

It wouldn't do face id. Like, it wouldn't even fuck up.

[Vincent Mason]

It kept disabling itself because I would press one number and it would just fill out the passcode itself. And it was disabling for 8, 16 hours, 24 hours. So I had to take it to a screen repair place to even get into it. I bought the new phone then I didn't have any of my passwords to even back it up. So, like, I. It was a whole deal. But my notes app was the thing I was the most worried about because I've written down so much stuff in there. And, like, were you able to get.

[Bobby Bones]

It off the cloud?

[Vincent Mason]

I was able to get it. Well, not off the cloud. I had to go to a screen repair place, fix the old phone, open it, and then I was able to back it up. But I was for, like six days. I thought I lost all my notes, but I really do. I'm probably gonna write them down in a notebook now, but I have a lot of thoughts and like, lyric.

[Bobby Bones]

But a notebook's hard to travel with everywhere. Like, for me it is because I've got like six tabs on, like six different things that I do, and I'm constantly writing notes in each tab. I'd be walking around the freaking spiral notebook.

[Vincent Mason]

And you don't wanna stop. It's so much easier to stop and just. Yeah, you don't want to get the pen and pad out.

[Bobby Bones]

What are you mostly writing? Song concepts, ideas, lyrics? All the above.

[Vincent Mason]

Like, I feel like in Nashville, everyone's a title person. Like, it always starts with the title. Everyone's throwing out titles and I don't think of those as easily as I write down something that might be a lyric and then I, like, look at it and then I'll write down. Like, I try not to write down, like a ver. More than a verse or half a verse.

[Bobby Bones]

Will you do voice memos with melodies?

[Vincent Mason]

Yes. That's the main thing, really. I don't write too much down. I write down enough to, like, remember it honestly. I write it down to Remember it because like, kind of just the act of writing it down helps me remember. And then from there it's I. I try to make it all feel. And Chris Stapleton, John Mayer. I've learned to write songs on YouTube just how they did it. And like, they just say to start singing.

[Bobby Bones]

You put a work tape on the record. Yeah, that's the last track on there.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

Why?

[Vincent Mason]

That was that song. There was this kind of like two or three week. We had the cut dates for the studio, so we knew when we were going in. There was this two or three week stretch where we knew what we wanted the album to be called. We knew what the general idea was. And days are numbered. The last song, last full song on the album got written that week and a song called Painkiller got written that.

[Bobby Bones]

Week, which both made the record.

[Vincent Mason]

Yes.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

So like I was in this, like, Beat the Buzzer kind of like, what else can we write that's going to make the record? And I wrote good Run that work tape pretty quick. It like fell out. Like, if I get hot writing songs, I can do that. I don't usually get like the one take, like it just fell out five minutes thing, but that one kind of happened in like 10 minutes. And I sent it to Jake, the producer, and he was like. I was like, you think this is worth finishing to try to like get it on the record? And he was like, just leave it the way it is. It was his idea to kind of. And he's like, maybe we'll master it and see how it turns out. And I thought it was cool to put a worktape on there for me personally, because that's how everything starts. You know, like, everything starts with me texting Jake a worktape or texting, you know, manager a worktape or anybody. So for me as a songwriter, that's what I sit there and listen with and fall in love with the songs and think of production ideas. So it was cool for me to put that on the record and for one of those songs to kind of live in that way where it's like you always lose a little something when you go to make it a foot.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. I was gonna ask how you do it. Like demoitis, where you love the demo so much, but you also understand what the produced product should be and are there times where you're fighting against. Should we produce it this much?

[Vincent Mason]

Yes, all the time. Really didn't run into it too much with the record, which was great. Like, I think the way that Jake and I directed the band, like, it really did feel good. And I was sitting in an ISO booth playing, so everyone was kind of playing to me. So we had that work tape feel, which was awesome. But, yeah, anytime you go down that rabbit, it was cool to just not have to worry about it. I was like, let's just get a good one take. And it's kind of one of my favorite things. And I feel like if I had finished it, people would kind of shrug and be like, it's all right. But the half song, like all these playbacks and stuff, people are like, what about the rest of it? And I'm like, you know, I just played 14 full songs and you kind of shrugged at them. But the half song, it's just human nature. Like, everyone wants the rest of it.

[Bobby Bones]

You know, who do you feel will give you honest feedback on the Record? There are 14 tracks on the thing, but who would you give it to? And you know they're gonna have after it's completed. You're not changing anything, but you trust them to go. I really loved Painkiller, you know, but my favorite wasn't so and so. Who do you trust to do that?

[Vincent Mason]

Everything goes. I send everything to my dad. He's just a straight shooter. And I just remember from the beginning, like, when I told him I was writing a few songs, he was like, I'm gonna tell you if they're not good. And he's always been that honest. So, like, I know that he's somebody that will tell me when he doesn't like it. So I send it to him. Like I said, I take it with a grain sometimes too.

[Bobby Bones]

Cause, like, you have to.

[Vincent Mason]

He will listen to something. A month later he'll be like, you know what? It is better this way. It's a good thing you didn't go with my idea. But I trust his general opinion. It's just kind of my part of the workflow now. Dad's got to approve it, or at least I got to hear what he's got to say. And then I would say, Sean, at our label, he signed me. They had started their own label, and he was the first person to ever contact me from the music industry. Signed me off at Tik Tok. Did he dm He DM me on?

[Bobby Bones]

Were you like, is this a scam?

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, well, kinda. When they first, like, said they wanted to work with me and sent over the contract, I was like, I'm. I'm good. I was 18 or 19. I just remember all the stories of it was technically a development deal. And that's, like, kind of a bad word to a lot of people. Like, that's where they sign everything forever with the young kid. And I didn't want that to happen, so I was like, no. And then they helped me put songs out anyway. They were like, all right, well, we just want to help you, and.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, you said no?

[Vincent Mason]

I said no. The first. To the first contract, and they. They helped me put out songs anyway. They're like, we want to help you get these songs out. So they set me up with a producer. I didn't sign anything, and they just helped me through the first couple songs. And I was kind of like, I don't think they would do that if they were trying to steal all my stuff.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

And then I talked to my dad about it, and we actually, like, got a real lawyer to look at it, and we had more meetings about it. And then Sean's like, Sean and Max, both of them started that label, ended up partnering with Interscope, so that's how that side of the deal got worked in. But they're. Sean's, like, creatively a really good friend of mine, so I always send everything to Sean.

[Bobby Bones]

Any of these songs on this record about anybody, super specific.

[Vincent Mason]

You know, I kind of stepped away from that. I think in the beginning, you're writing about somebody in mind, but now I feel like I write more about the feelings, and you use the story to get the feeling across. I don't like it to be this is about this person.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, that's a great answer if you did and you don't want them to know, like, you're winning in multiple ways by giving that answer.

[Vincent Mason]

For sure.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

Also, I'm like. I'm older now, so it's not just. There's not just one. It's like, there's a. There's more people to write about than just one. So I think I try to write about the feelings that came out of that and, like, where I was at in life and, like. But I don't. I don't know. I don't really sit down and think, like, I'm gonna write about you. I'm gonna get you.

[Bobby Bones]

It doesn't be bad.

[Vincent Mason]

It can also be good, I guess you could write a nice song about somebody, like a love song. Ever heard of those? I've never. No, I don't write those.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, that's how.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, I don't write those. That's the Parker McCollum method.

[Bobby Bones]

What's the last song you wrote that made the record?

[Vincent Mason]

Days Are Numbered was The last full song. And then Good Run was the last thing we, like, tacked on. But Days Are Numbered was cool because I had There I Go, the title track. I wrote that verse chorus by myself and finished it with my friend Jack and we knew we wanted to call it There I Go. And I like to say if There I Go is us setting out in the van and wheels flying off the van and hitting Black Bears and stuff. I feel like Days Are Numbered is waking up on the bus one day thinking about all of it and thinking about that, you know, 12 to 12 months to a year and a half of I never stop and think about stuff. I think I'll just charge through six months, like just doing whatever I got to do. And I don't stop and think about it. And I think Days Are Numbered is like stopping and thinking about, oh, all this stuff has happened since I moved to town. Like, you wake up on a bus one day, it's like all that stuff I wanted to happen is happening. And here's the ups and downs with it. So I like that one and I'm glad it makes sense. It was the last one. It was kind of like it was the bookend of like, okay, we have a record now, you know.

[Bobby Bones]

Does it feel like you've been here forever and just here yesterday at the same time?

[Vincent Mason]

Absolutely. Yeah. When I. Like when someone asked me I hadn't been asked how long I've been in town for a while. And saying five years is crazy because I feel like I was always just saying, I just got here. Just got here.

[Bobby Bones]

When you moved, what'd you pack up? A car? Truck.

[Vincent Mason]

I was driving a Passat at the time. Drive a Chevy now? Yeah. But I had a. There's my one flex. The business managers. Yeah, I had a Passat, loaded it down with. With my guitar and like one suitcase full of clothes.

[Bobby Bones]

I think that's it. Do you have a room?

[Vincent Mason]

Xbox? Dorm, apartment? Yeah, I had a roommate. One of my. One of my friends I've met at Lipscomb. And then now I live with one of my best friends from home. One of my really good friends from home got a job in Nashville, so we live together.

[Bobby Bones]

You say live? I mean, you're not even here.

[Vincent Mason]

I don't live. Yeah, he basically lives alone. I went out for 53 days out of 56 days. A 56 day stretch. And I got home and he was like, man, I think I need it. I need to get like a dog. And then like a couple hours later, he was like, I think I'm gonna try to find a girlfriend. I was like, damn, you got lonely.

[Bobby Bones]

He's subleasing your room.

[Vincent Mason]

My roommate's trying to cure his loneliness. Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Well, congratulations on everything, man. It's, it's super cool to see and like I said, it's, it's cool to see like your version of what's happening.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Because to me, I'm seeing, because I really only see the big hit table at this point.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

But now, like you're, you're here. It's cool.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah. Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

And I was watching, when I was sitting there writing songs by myself, I was watching Bobby, Bobby Cassidy.

[Bobby Bones]

Oh, thanks, man.

[Vincent Mason]

I appreciate all the clips, all the interviews. My favorite artist was going on. I'm like, I got to watch Bobby.

[Bobby Bones]

Then I'm going to share something with you that I probably wasn't going to share with you.

[Vincent Mason]

You. Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor.

[Hari Kondabolu]

On the podcast Health Stuff, we are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Yes, I'm Dr. Priyanka Wally, a double board certified physician.

[Hari Kondabolu]

And I'm Hari Kundabolu, a comedian and someone who once googled do I have scurvy at 3am on health stuff, we're.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Talking about health in a different way.

[Hari Kondabolu]

It's not only about what we can do to improve our health, but also.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

What our health says about us and the way we're living.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Like our episode where we look at.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Diabetes in the United states. I mean, 50% of Americans are pre diabetic.

[Hari Kondabolu]

How preventable is type 2?

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Extremely. Or our in depth analysis of how incredible mangoes are.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Oh, it's hard to explain to rest of the world that like your mangoes are fine because mangoes are incredible. But like, you don't even know.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

You don't know.

[Vincent Mason]

You don't know.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

It's going to be a fun ride.

[Hari Kondabolu]

So tune in, listen to health stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bobby Bones]

All I know is what I've been told and that to half truth is a whole lie.

[Maggie Freeling]

For almost a decade, the murder of an 18 year old girl from a small town in Graves County, Kentucky went unsolved until a local homemaker, a journalist and a handful of girls came forward with a story.

[Bobby Bones]

I'm telling you, we know Quincy killed her.

[Maggie Freeling]

We know A story that law enforcement used to convict six people and that got the citizen investigator on national tv.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Through sheer persistence and nerve, this Kentucky.

[Vincent Mason]

Housewife helped give justice to Jessica Curran.

[Maggie Freeling]

My name is Maggie Freeling. I'm a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist producer, and I wouldn't be here if the truth were that easy to find.

[Vincent Mason]

I did not know her and I.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Did not kill her or rape or burn or any of that other stuff.

[Vincent Mason]

That y' all said. They literally made me say that I took a match and struck and threw it on her. They made me say that I poured gas on her.

[Maggie Freeling]

From Lava For Good. This is Graves County, a show about just how far our legal system will go in order to find someone to blame.

[Vincent Mason]

America, y' all better wake the hell up. Bad things happens to good people and small towns.

[Maggie Freeling]

Listen to Graves county in the Bone Valley, feed on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts and to binge the entire season at first free. Subscribe to Lava for Good plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Telma Hopkins]

Jenna World, Jenna Jameson, Vivid Video and the Valley is a new podcast about the history of the adult film industry. I'm Molly Lambert, host of Heidi the Heidi Fly Story, and I'll be your tour guide on a wild ride from through adult films, we get paid more than the men. We call the shots. In what way is that degrading? That's us taking hold of our Life. In the 1990s, actress Jenna Jameson crossed over into mainstream culture, redefined stardom, then left it all behind. I'm a powerful woman. I think that's intimidating to a man. With a cast of hundreds of actors and comedians playing key figures, we'll take a look at how adult films became legal in the 70s, hugely profitable in the 80s and 90s, and fell off a financial cliff in the 2000s. Listen to Genaworld on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vincent Mason]

It's okay not to be okay sometimes and be able to build strength and love within each other. Thanksgiving isn't just about food. It's a day for us to show up for one another. I'm Eliot Khani, host of the podcast Family Therapy, a series where real families come together to heal and find hope. What would be a clue that would be like? I've gotten lots of text messages from him. This one's from a little bit better of a version of him because he's feeding himself well.

[Maggie Freeling]

It's always a concern, like, are you eating well?

[Vincent Mason]

He's actually an amazing cook. There was this one time where we had neighbors and I saved their dog and I ended up inviting them over for food. And that was like one of my proudest Moments. This is family therapy. Real families, real stories on a journey to heal together. Listen to season two of family Therapy every Wednesday on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jonathan Goldstein, and on the new.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Season of Heavyweight, I help a centenarian.

[Vincent Mason]

Mend a broken heart. How can a and one year old woman fall in love again? And I help a man atone for an armed robbery he committed at 14 years old. And so I pointed the gun at him and said, this isn't a joke. And he got down.

[Bobby Bones]

And I remember feeling kind of a.

[Vincent Mason]

Surge of like, okay, this is power.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Plus, my old friend Gregor and his.

[Vincent Mason]

Brother tried to solve my problems through hypnotism.

[Bobby Bones]

We could give you a whole brand.

[Hari Kondabolu]

New thing where you're like super charming.

[Bobby Bones]

All the time, being more able to look people in the eye, not always.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Hide behind a microphone.

[Vincent Mason]

Listen to heavyweight on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Bobby Bones]

And we're back on the Bobby cast. Usually we have like a mark. Anybody below 27 has nothing to say. This is just me through the history of me doing this show and doing long, long form projects with people.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

Anybody below 27, usually it's not specific to the person. Has nothing to say because they haven't really been here long enough. They don't have good stories. They haven't developed the art of storytelling, which is a whole different part of songwriting and performing. And we put the over under at 30, 32 minutes on how long this would be because nice. If I'm sitting. If I'm sitting with you and I'm like, he doesn't have much to say. I want him to look good. It's my job to make you look good. It's also my job to pull some interesting stuff out of you. Right.

[Vincent Mason]

Thank you, Bobby.

[Bobby Bones]

And that was about the mark. We debated. You're 24. Yeah, I bet the under.

[Vincent Mason]

Nice.

[Bobby Bones]

I was like, there's no way we get to 32 minutes. But we did 50 minutes. And so when I say, like, it's been super cool hanging out with you, that's the way I can show you.

[Vincent Mason]

Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

Is that I feel like we could do another half hour and I'd have a good time. So, dude, I'm like, I'm rooting for you.

[Vincent Mason]

Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

I'm glad I never said hello to you at the gym.

[Bobby Bones]

Me too.

[Vincent Mason]

Nice to meet you.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, nice to meet you too. I'm glad the person is Smaller than me.

[Vincent Mason]

He is smaller. Yeah. Sizing you up now. It's definitely not you.

[Bobby Bones]

Let me ask you one. One final question. Two final questions. When you get a sponsor like Monster, how much does that help when you do a tour?

[Vincent Mason]

Very much. Very much so. Makes it a lot easier to Monster.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

That's when you can actually walk away with money, too. Because most of the time it's like people think you're selling a lot of tickets, make a lot of money, and you're. You're not. Like, at the end of the day, you don't take that home. That, like, it's expensive to have the bus. It's expensive at a band and a crew. So that's when you can really actually start to make some profit. And they're a huge help.

[Bobby Bones]

Also wanted to shout them out.

[Vincent Mason]

Shout out, monster, go buy it. Go buy one.

[Bobby Bones]

And then as far as playing sports, you're an athlete?

[Vincent Mason]

Played football, basketball.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Do you work at music like you worked as an athlete?

[Vincent Mason]

Yes. That's a. Yeah. Good questions. Yeah, good questions.

[Bobby Bones]

I've been doing this for a minute. Like I said, I'm old now. I've been doing this a while.

[Vincent Mason]

Well, I guess, like, it's just like, it's stuff that I never tell people that you're asking me about. Like, I never feel like I have the chance to tell people. But yeah, I think that was probably the thing that I was the best at and I liked the best about playing football, basketball. Like, I liked doing the work and seeing. Being able to get better at it and like seeing yourself get better. And I think I do try to apply the same thing. Nick Saban. I'm not an Alabama fan. I like great coaches, though.

[Bobby Bones]

You're not an Alabama.

[Vincent Mason]

Not an Alabama fan, but I am a Nick Saban fan.

[Bobby Bones]

You know what? I would put myself on both of those as well.

[Vincent Mason]

I listen to what he has to say and it's just like, there's so much stuff with sports that are applicable to everything. Like Nick Saban talks about, like, falling in love with the process. Like process oriented thinking.

[Bobby Bones]

I wrote about Nick Saban specifically talking about the process in my last book.

[Vincent Mason]

Damn.

[Bobby Bones]

Because I'm just such a believer in.

[Vincent Mason]

The process, it makes it so much easier to tune out of the stuff that might get weird and the stuff that might, like, steal the joy from it. Like, if you're just like, all right, I made this record with these songs. Now how can I make a better record with better songs?

[Bobby Bones]

You know, I found that work ethic in sports has translated well for people who do music, definitely. And some people are like, well, how are all these athletes, musicians? It must be. No, no, it's a lot of the skills that you develop while playing sports. Even the adversity, for sure. Which I think is a massive part of it.

[Vincent Mason]

Biggest one, too.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah.

[Vincent Mason]

And I think also, like, I played on a football team. We won four or five games in four years high school. So it was, like, not. Not a good situation. But, like, I think just even being able to be around stuff that's, like, not successful and still, like, be able to keep. Keep going, like. But yeah, there's adversity everywhere. So, yeah, I think everyone thinks it's like, oh, they're so talented. Like, they've been. They've got all the talent. They were high school quarterback, college quarterback, and they get to sing. It's like, no, since you learn how to develop stuff and you learn how to keep. Keep going.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah. Because I used to have just that jealousy of. Man, look at Sam Hunt. He can do it all. But I think there's a difference in causation and correlation and. And also the skills you develop at one thing can actually translate into another. Not that just you're blessed at both.

[Vincent Mason]

Definitely.

[Bobby Bones]

And so, yeah. Debut album. It's out. Congratulations, man.

[Vincent Mason]

Thank you.

[Bobby Bones]

I know you've had music, but to put out a whole project, that is another. That's. And I hope. My hope for you is that in 18 months, you look back and go, oh, some of those songs I cringe at, because that's growth. That is real growth.

[Vincent Mason]

That's the goal.

[Bobby Bones]

That's always the goal. To look back and be a little.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

I was talking because you like John Mayer, my favorite artist of all time, and I was talking with John Mayer. We had a brief season where we were friends. We're not. Not friends now, but we had a brief season where if we were in the same town, we would, like, see each other.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

And if he came to Nashville, he would come and hop in the show.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

And he would talk about how he would listen back to some of his stuff and be like, oh, and it's the stuff that people, like, still relate to the most.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

And he's like, man, it's so, like, milquetoast, like, down the middle, and, like, I'm just not drawn to it at all.

[Vincent Mason]

Right.

[Bobby Bones]

But it's what people, like, still love the most. And he still plays it, even though it. It doesn't always drive him. Like, it doesn't, like, spark him.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah.

[Bobby Bones]

But he knows what the people want, right? So as I say, look back and cringe. Also keep playing the hits. It's above.

[Vincent Mason]

You gotta like it.

[Bobby Bones]

Yeah, have the mix. Good to see you man. Good to see you too you guys. Vincent masonmusic.com and go to his socials and he doesn't really need you to buy tickets. But if you're there, cheer extra loud and check out the record. It is out now.

[Vincent Mason]

Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production.

[Bobby Bones]

Foreign.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Health stuff. We are tackling all the health questions that keep you up at night.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

I'm Dr. Priyanka Wali, a double board certified physician.

[Hari Kondabolu]

And I'm Hari Kondabolu, a comedian and someone who once googled do I have scurvy at 3am and on our show we're talking about health in a different way. Like our episode where we look at.

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Diabetes in the United states. I mean 50% of Americans are pre diabetic.

[Hari Kondabolu]

How preventable is type 2?

[Dr. Priyanka Wali]

Extremely. Listen to Health Stuff on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Michael Lewis]

Michael Lewis here. My best selling book the Big Short tells the story of the buildup and burst of the US housing market back in 2008. A decade ago, the Big Short was made into an Academy Award winning movie. And now I'm bringing it to you for time. The first, first time as an audiobook narrated by yours truly. The Big Short story. What it means to bet against the market and who really pays for an unchecked financial system is as relevant today as it's ever been. Get the Big Short now at Pushkin fm Audiobooks or wherever audiobooks are sold.

[Bobby Bones]

A man with down syndrome tries the impossible, the grand slam in turkey hunting.

[Vincent Mason]

4:53 hits, we're legal, shooting light. And he gives us this one last and he pitches off. And when he pitches off, he flies right into the gun barrel. I said to the cameraman, do you have him? He said, shoot him. I said, justin, shoot.

[Bobby Bones]

You can download this episode and others from Lines and Tines with Spencer Graves on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vincent Mason]

The show was ahead of its time to represent a black family in ways that television hadn't shown before.

[Bobby Bones]

Exactly.

[Vincent Mason]

It's Thelma Hopkins, also known as Aunt Rachel. And I'm Kelly Williams or Laura Winslow on our podcast welcome to the Family.

[Telma Hopkins]

With Thelma and Kelly.

[Vincent Mason]

We're rewatching every episode of Family Matters.

[Telma Hopkins]

We'll share behind the scenes stories about making the show.

[Vincent Mason]

Yeah, we'll even bring in some special guests to spill some tea. Listen to welcome to the Family with.

[Bobby Bones]

Telma and Kelly on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vincent Mason]

Hey, I'm Kyle McLaughlin. You might know me as that guy from Twin Peaks, Sex and the City, or just the Internet Stand. I have a new podcast called what Are We Even Doing? Where I embark on a noble quest to understand the brilliant chaos of youth culture. Each week I invite someone fascinating to join me to talk about navigating this.

[Hari Kondabolu]

High school speed roller coaster we call reality.

[Vincent Mason]

Join me and my delightful guests every Thursday and let's get weird together in a good way. Listen to what Are We Even doing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or.

[Hari Kondabolu]

Wherever you get your podcasts.

[Vincent Mason]

This is an iHeart podcast.