Welcome back to WRCO Studios.
We have in the studio Randy Cobb, who is here.
Randy, how you been?
Man, great.
That's me. How are you?
Good. Good to see you.
You're wearing proudly an Alabama Crimson Tide shirt.
That's that rotat on that.
So we know where you're here from.
That's right.
You didn't get in the fight with Henry Bray on your way in here.
No, he knows who the real winner is.
He's in the market, so I got none on the big A.
You come on, man.
Good day, Abbie.
How long have you been kicking around with this music thing?
Man, you know, I got to bug at a very, very young age.
Do some, you know, some unfortunate circumstances
when I was very, very young.
I was, I never seen my father sober the first 10 years
of my life, and when him and my mother divorced,
I was awarded him in his alcoholism.
And the first year there, when I guess I was around 11 years
older, so yeah, I lived in 16 different homes
where he dropped me off while he did his shenanigans
or whatever, so I was pretty, you know,
pretty scary, scary time in my life.
And, you know, you can imagine being a young kid
and not knowing anyone.
Man, I turned to writing poetry.
That's what I started doing.
That's how you coped with it.
I did, 100%.
Yeah, that's what I did, man.
And then as I become, you know, an adult, you know,
a young adult, I kind of ventured in doing,
trying to do some song writing and then in my early 20s.
And then probably, as I got into my later 20s,
mid later 20s, sort of recording songs.
And then in my 30s and 40s, man,
I started just recording my own songs
and trying to get a record deal, and I walked in
to most of the majors, major labels,
man, with a real shot and never coming to fruition,
but all my head was as big as this room.
And I got the bug that way, man, I've never stopped.
I continued writing, and you know,
I still do it this day, recording,
and which brings us to this new song we got,
not only that's out right now,
but it's about very first single to radio.
Awesome.
What can you tell us about it, the writing,
and putting it together and everything?
Well, in 14 and 15, they pitched me
to Warner Brothers Records, and I had a good rapport
with those guys, and we negotiated back and forth
for probably 13, 14 months and didn't come together.
So I had to get a real job and do a,
we had a daughter about to go into college,
graduate in high school, and also,
man, I started a trucking company,
and I did very well in that for about a decade.
I'd started right around 11 or 12,
but it really just took off, you know,
and COVID hit, so COVID hit,
and I was a car hauler, and I still drive a truck
full-time as a matter of fact, but I hauled for a company,
but I had three semi-trucks.
Well, COVID hit, and you know, it devastated
the automobile industry, and it took a small guys out,
you know, it just couldn't keep my head above water.
So that happened, and in that time,
the COVID got my family, my older brother got real sick,
and we didn't really know what that was.
He was, we've always been a very healthy family,
so everything we ever get, we beat it, you know,
for you get a cold every couple of years or something,
but we never went to doctors, and nothing really.
We just, very healthy, really, and shoot a God on him,
and he didn't know what it was, couldn't shake it.
I helped him get him in the car, so we gave him some help,
and I never got to see him or talk to him ever again.
The COVID took his life.
Christmas Eve morning of 2020, and then I got very,
very sick in that time.
I caught it from him, I run a high fever for 16 days.
All the symptoms that you can imagine, you know,
estates, you know, I was very weak for probably,
I don't know, six weeks or so, you know,
and the most four months to the day after losing my brother,
it got my mama, it killed my mama.
So my mama was just a precious, precious person, man.
So I was devastated, man, but in those times,
I was watching, as they were telling us,
we couldn't work, you know, they were telling us,
we need to stay home, they're paying people to stay home.
You know, I can't, you know, I'm going through all my money
to, you know, try to keep my head above water and,
you know, tell us we can't be with loved ones,
we can't do anything, you know,
they're shutting businesses down, and then they're ushering
thousands of people over the border,
and I'm just saying, man, all this stuff they're doing,
he's back seeing all this stuff, they're throwing out,
it's all in our backs, it's all on us.
We're all gonna have to pay this back, you know,
so that's where not all me comes from.
That's exactly what it means.
All this stuff shouldn't be on us.
Well, it's not fair for us, blue collar workers,
it worked 40, 50, 60 hours a week, you know what?
We shouldn't have to carry that burden all the time.
Everybody should be pitching in,
and they shouldn't be putting extra on us, you know,
so that's where it comes from.
One of my favorite sayings is the American dream
is not a handout.
And man, that's exactly what this song's about, man.
All right, let's give it a spin, Randy Cobb on WRCL.
WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL.
WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL.
WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL.
WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL.
WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL.
WRCL, WRCL, WRCL, WRCL.
Fedctcribe.
What's going on now,
I think it's time.
People to see there ain't nothin' for free, yeah.
What's the bad word for, is that you're not on me.
Oh, not on, not on, not on me.
Oh, not on, not on, not on me.
Randy Cobb, and he is in the studio with us more coming up here.
Randy, we just played your song here a little bit.
You told a little bit of a story about being a truck driver.
Do you ever sing six days on the road, do you?
No, I never did.
I've never covered that song.
I do enjoy it.
Things been covered by several artists.
I think it has.
A lot of truck driving songs though.
Absolutely, yeah.
Well, I've got a few truck driving songs over it.
Yeah, oh yeah.
You get a lot of long time.
You see a lot of things that people never get to see.
America is a beautiful, beautiful place.
It really is, man.
And when you're seeing it one mile at a time like that,
you're really taking it in.
You are.
Yes, you actually, you are.
I mean, you're soaking in all of that, you know,
through that big old windshield, you know, for sure, man.
So, yeah, I'm grateful that I'm able to do that and get paid
to see all this stuff I do, man.
It's really awesome.
Tell them about you do get ideas when you're driving down the road.
How do you record them so you don't lose them?
Do you put them on your phone or something?
You know, there's a good thing.
You have these, you know, I'm an Apple fan.
So, we have voice recording.
Oh.
So, man, I can do that.
Sometimes I just, man, if something hits me or whatever,
man, I just, I was out in the northwest a couple of months back.
And I, man, just all these things that I had seen and heard about.
And then it just got all over my soul, man.
And I wrote this, I wrote it just to kill everyone out there about that.
So, looking forward to getting that thing done.
Of course, it's not ready yet.
But it's, it's well on its way, for sure.
Yes.
Something really, really getting inspired by America or really inspiring you.
You mentioned going to Warner Brothers in some different places.
This business is pretty dog-eat-dog, isn't it?
Yeah, man, it's a, you know, it's a tough business for sure.
You know, it's not for everyone.
If it was easy, everybody'd be doing it, you know?
So, you, you, perseverance, you know, I think a lot of it is political.
I think, you know, it takes a lot of money to stay in the game.
So, you know, I've got some people behind me.
I've got sponsors now.
These nose-down scents at a Tennessee is a grass roots company, man.
Built from the ground up by truck driver.
He was a truck driver and he dove out with him and his family and started their own line of nose-down scents as a hunting scent, you know, cover scent, deer scent.
You know, they got a full line of hunting apparel, hatch shirts, hoodies, you know, whatever you want.
You need to check these guys out, man, nose-down scents.
And as for Jason, tell him, R.C. sent you, man, I'll give you a good deal.
But, yeah, you, man, every little bit, you know, counts, everything you can get, you know.
You never know who you're going to meet that can open the door for you, man.
So, you just got to keep pushing forward, you know.
So, I've been at it for 20-something years and this is my very first single to go to radio.
And I'm so grateful for that.
I think the song is doing very well. We have a video out for the song on YouTube.
Under our Randy Cobb music, you can check it out.
Not on me. It's got 2.4 million views in eight weeks.
It's doing very, very well. It's resonating with the people.
And we want to just keep on building on that, you know.
Randy, you're an overnight sensation, I think, there all of a sudden after 20 years.
Well, you know, I'm good looking, you know.
He's an idol.
I don't know if I know overnight things.
It's been a long time coming, you know.
But we're going to keep pushing forward for sure.
Awesome. You were going to tell us a little story about a song that you might sing for us.
You'd be so kind.
Well, in 2011, I lost my grandmother to Alzheimer's disease, which is a terrible disease.
I watched her to my eyes.
She and I were really close. She lived in Frankfurt, Kentucky.
And of course, I grew up down south.
But I'd go up there a couple of times a year just to spend time with her and my uncles.
And so, you know, I used to watch her having a couple of margaritas at the Mexican restaurant,
dancing on table tops, being in the life of the party to no life at all hardly.
You know, just revert into just like a baby. You couldn't do anything for her.
So if I was the last one, she'd remember.
I remember I was coming home off the route. I don't think I may have been in Nashville for a while there.
I wasn't sure, but I was coming home. They said that it was time, you know, for her.
And so she lasted, you know, she had nurses, had her all hooked up with some stuff watching her vitals and all that mess.
And they were bedside with her.
And when I got there, I finally made it to her. They said all her vitals had changed, which was, you know,
I didn't really put two and two together. And after talking to the nurse, she said she was probably waiting on you.
And I just was like, I don't know about all that, you know, but I grabbed her little hands, fragile hands.
And I reached down and I told her that we loved her and that we were all going to be okay.
And it was okay to let go. 30 seconds later, she took her last breath. And it's exactly how it happened.
Man.
Yeah, so in 2014, man, in 2014, I had moved a good buddy of mine, Preston Standfield, down from Nashville to the Gulf Coast there.
He wanted to move down to play on, you know, a bit of a live at the beach, which is a lot of those guys' dreams.
And so I helped him do that. And I told him the story about my grandmother. He knew how close she was to me.
And Preston was the founding member of the Rascal Flat, so the original drummer.
He didn't move on with them as they had become, you know, they were called the Blue Healers.
And when they first started, I don't know if you know that story.
No, I didn't know that.
Yeah, they were the Blue Healers. And then of course Jim Riley came in there when I got signed at DreamWorks.
And he was, he's the drummer. He's been the drummer since they were the signed act.
But Preston and our buddies, and he knew the story of my grandmother. And Preston calls me in the middle of the night.
And he says, Randy, he said, I got your next song, man. And I was like, what are you talking about?
You know the story. You're talking about your grandmother. I got the next song for you. I got the title.
And he says, it's, I remember her, but she don't remember me.
And you're going to write it as if a man is losing his wife to Alzheimer's.
And that's how I did. I knocked it out of the park. And we're next month. We're slated to do a video for this song.
And hopefully if we can get some traction on not only it'll be my next single. And I thank you guys. We'll enjoy that.
Awesome.
Randy Cobb in the studio or blessed to have him here courtesy of grassroots entertainment. So you'd be so kind.
Play that for us.
Absolutely.
I was dating in my front yard. She'd be walking home from school.
When I played and I still see her, was her silent childhood fool. Yeah, I remember her.
She don't remember me.
Yeah, I remember her.
She don't remember me.
My how time it starts to run in when a boy becomes a man.
Had a wife, a house and a new baby girl, living free in a promised land.
When my country came calling, she was cutting her first teeth.
When I finally fought my way home, baby girl had just turned three.
I remember her.
She don't remember me.
Yeah, I remember her.
She don't remember me.
I'm just flipping through the pages of some chapters in my life.
Every turn turns one more photograph of my children and my wife.
I'm just going through emotions, breaking somehow.
We will all just make it through without you.
Because your mind is gone now.
No, it won't be long now.
Oh, my darling, I love you.
Now our time for making memories is coming to an end.
Oh, she's there, she can't remember.
She and I were best of friends.
Yeah, I remember her.
She don't remember me.
Yeah, I remember her.
She don't remember me.
Oh, my goodness.
That is a powerful song, my friend.
Thank you, sir.
How do you sing that and not get emotional?
Oh, it's, I've been singing it for a minute.
But sometimes, man, sometimes it still gets on me, man.
But for me to deliver a song like it needs to be, I put, especially something I wrote,
I put myself in the time when, you know, when all the memories are there.
I just put myself in that moment, you know, so I mean, that's how I get in there
and just, I just deliver it, you know.
Yeah, I could tell.
Very personal song.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
We'll come back and ask Randy a couple more questions and he's going to get on the road here.
It's been a pleasure having Randy Cobb in the studio with us.
Just Randy of anybody wants to get into your music a little deeper.
How can they do that?
Man, I'm glad you asked that.
I have a full album and this new song, Not On Me.
It's on all your digital markets, which would be your Pandora's, your Apple Music iTunes,
Spotify, Deezer, you know, Amazon Music, all those things.
Come here and check me out.
Also, I think I mentioned earlier, but I'll say it again.
On YouTube, you can catch me.
My username is Randy Cobb Music.
If you're there and check out the video, subscribe to me.
If you would, it really helps.
Follow me on my Spotify's and all those that really, really helps to get the word out
and get kind of bumps and algorithm to get my music spun around a little more.
So, man, any help I can get that way of be awesome.
On my socials, my username is still the same.
Like your Instagram, my ex, Facebook, it's Randy Cobb Music.
So, that's a Randy Cobb.
You type in Randy Cobb Music, all one letter or word.
I take you to all my stuff, man.
So, follow, subscribe, you know, comment, like.
If you, you know, whatever is good or bad, comment.
Don't matter what all of it. We need all of it.
Get that feedback.
Absolutely.
So, you're on the radio tour for a little bit.
Then you back home to Alabama then, too.
I'm back back into Alabama then.
So, I think that we'll wrap this thing up, probably Friday.
And then I'm going to hit my little red necktail back home down to Alabama.
I love it down there.
This is the weather gets cool. You're getting that out of here.
But you know, I love it up here. It's beautiful.
I love coming up this way. I do, man.
It's just completely different terrain.
The people are, you know, there's good folks around.
I've been really lucky. I've met a lot of good folks, you know,
riding these roads, man. I've really enjoyed my times coming up this way.
It's been an enjoyable time to get to know you.
Plus, you brought donuts, too, so.
Well, you know, I try to stay in shape and rounds in shape.
I'm trying to keep that round shape, you know.
Exactly.
Yeah. All right, Randy, good to see you and come back again.
You too, man. Thank you for having me.
You're all, I've been radio-land to have a great day of blessed day.
We'll see you next time.