Ep.311 – Riffs and Records: Rick Lovett’s Journey from Motor City to Sunsets and Vinyl Dreams

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Hey, everybody. Welcome back to Woody Woodsville Music podcast where we fight depression with the power of music. I am your professional handicapped host. Name is Cox, and we have an awesome guest for you today. We are in the midst of interviewing Rick Lovett. Well, let me tell you about it first. Born in Detroit, Rick grew up listening to country western, rock and roll and the Motown sounds, which is always great because I love Motown. And these influences can be heard throughout his work. He began singing, playing guitar, and writing songs with his family at a young age, and began playing professionally in the Lovett brothers band with his brother Steve and Ray, introducing listeners to numerous original works. After moving his family to San Diego, he joined the bluegrass brand called the high rollers, the high grass Rollers, and spent several years playing the San Diego beach bar scene and community festivals. He continues to write and record independently now. In the past year, he has released 17 songs and six music videos, which have been all well received, both nationally and internationally, having ranked up to 100,000 views. They can be found on YouTube, Spotify, Amazon music, and other major streaming platforms. He currently has two more songs and music videos in production. Rick, what's going on, buddy?

Oh, not a whole lot. We're glad to be on your show today. Today, James.

Yeah, well, I'm so honored to have you on our show because when Kaden, I think I met you through Kaden Gordon, and he's really like a blessing in disguise. That guy is doing major things. And when he introduced me to you, I'm like, I gotta have him on my show. So, yeah, so he got me in touch with you, and here you are now. So thank you so much for coming on.

Yeah, Caden's a really good guy. He helps a lot of people. And I haven't known him that long, a couple of months, but he's already helped me a lot. He's gotten me on like six radio shows already, plus nice. And, yeah, so I'm doing real well. And he helps a lot of people out, and he's a real nice guy. If you got some music out there and you want to get it promoted, get a hold of Kaden Gordon.

Gordon. Yeah. Cuz I heard he's doing great things in Nashville, you know, cuz I think, because I think, cuz, cuz I'm a member of his Facebook thing and he got like a billboard sign in Nashville. Now.

I seen that. That was awesome, right? Yes, Phil.

Yes, that's right. That's his radio station. Yes, sir. So you are born in Detroit. Detroit Rock City, huh?

Yeah, I'm from Detroit Rock City. Right. From the heart of the city.

That's right.

Go ahead.

Oh, yeah. So is it true that is the national rock city of Detroit.

So what is in Detroit?

Is that true when you say that city is the rock city of all of all time?

I think in Detroit we all believe. Yeah, that we got some rock and rollers. Bob, a great rock and roller, Mitch Ryder from years ago was a great rock and roller kid. Rock is actually from right around Detroit area there. And of course, we had the great Motown, and I consider them rock and rollers too. Some of them rock it on. So we had a great music scene there. And the local bar scene there in Detroit has a lot of great bands in it. When I was still living in Detroit and hanging out there, there was no end of bars that you could go to and find guitar players, bass players, great bands, and some of the best guitar players, in my opinion, that I've seen play. They were in bars. I'm having a couple of beers, and the next thing you know, this dude's up there playing guitar. And he ought to be on. He ought to be down at Coboha playing in front of thousands of people. But there he is in a bar, right?

I think that Ted Nugent's from Detroit, right?

That's. He's another one, Ted Nugent said, one of the all time great rockers. He's from Detroit, too. We have a great music scene there. I haven't lived in Detroit for quite a few years now, but I still got some friends there. And I think it's still moving along Detroit. Also for the country, country western scene there. My family immigrated to Detroit to get jobs during the war, my ancestors. And so Detroit had a southern flavor to it. And there was a lot of country western music being played there and a lot of soul music, for sure. So it was a great blend of music going on there in Detroit that I grew up with. And the old AM radio stations that we would listen to, they played a broad spectrum of music. On one of them, AM stay students, when I was a kid, you might hear. You might hear Johnny Cash, and then you'd hear Ray Charles, then you're hearing the Rolling Stones. Then five minutes later, you're hearing four, tops. So we were getting turned on to some all kinds of different music there. And I grew up down in the inner city there, and we had a strip down there. It was where a bunch of honky tonk bars were. And when I was a kid, I used to shoe shine down there. And in them bars, you'd walk by one of those bars, and them coming blasting out of that bar would be from a jack to a king by Ned Miller. I got a tiger by the tail by Buck Owens. But you walk three blocks north of that and just across the street, and you can google. This one was fortune records. And fortune Records was just a little cinder block building that lots of recording artists went in there and made some local hit records, and that was all soul music. So here, this was soul music, recording artists right down there in the middle of the honky tonk. So we had a lot of different kind of music. And then came the english revolution, rock revolution, where they all came in kind of still playing american fifties rock, kind of. And we got our dose of that, too. So Detroit was a great musical place. It still is.

It's. Yes, sir. Going back to what you said about Johnny Cash, it funny started to tell you it's Bush gardens. I'm sure we heard of Bush Gardens, the place. And I think it's Florida, maybe. Florida, yeah, Bush gardens. My mom said that I saw Johnny cash live at Busch Gardens, but I don't remember him, you know, because I was like five or six years old, you seem. Apparently I did. And I didn't even know because I was five or six years old. And my mom says, yeah, I saw Johnny Cash, Barbara madrill. I remember seeing the judds, you know. Um, and I saw, um, a lot of. A lot of different country bands. Um, but my favorite back then was the Oak Ridge wars.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right, yeah. Uh, yeah. That's the greatest song I ever made. Um, I think, you know, to this day still, um. Oh, so you're a big country fan, and I love country. Country music is my favorite genre of all time. Is that yours, or did you like. Do you have another favorite genre of music?

Well, I like rock and roll. When I was a younger person, I was a typical person. In the seventies, I listened to the Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, all of them. Songs are Allman Brothers band, right? All of them popular rock bands. In the seventies, I was into all of them. I listened to all of them. But at the same time, I could listen to a Buck Owens song or a Marty Robbins song with equal enthusiasm. Or I could Brook Benton, an old soul artist. Sometimes it's hard to tell Brooke Benton from. Is he a country artist or is he a soul artist? He's an old timer. I love his music. I love listening. I still do it now. I like to listen to Brooke Benton. I like Jackie Wilson. I like Levi Stubbs from the four tops. So I like a blend of music, and then a lot of those music sort of, like, overlap each other. Sometimes it's hard. Like. Like now, what is exactly rock and roll? I know there's new kind of rock and roll that I don't listen too much, but the old traditional rock, there was a whole bunch of different flavors of that, too. There's Led Zeppelin rock, and then there's buddy Holly rock. I like all of them. I like music, and, yeah, really think of a music that I just really don't like. I guess I'm not supposed to like rap music. I'm not a big fan, but I don't dislike it. And I can get down with busting some moves at a wedding with some rap songs or playing. I'll get up there and dance to it. I can see some of that stuff being pretty good. It depends on, I guess, what you grew up listening to. I like it. All right.

Yeah, well, I like the old school rap, you know, like Tupac and Biggie and so many other bands. But now, today's rap business, I don't really dig it, but. But, yeah, I think that going back to what you said, that you don't really listen to rock and roll now. Do you find rock and roll now to be not so. I mean, like. Like, why don't you listen to, like. Like, today's rock and roll? What made you turn away from rock and roll now as opposed to rock and roll then?

Well, uh, I. I don't know that I really ever turned away from rock and roll, because I sort of. I, as a matter of fact, I just released a song called street of Diamonds, and it's as old time rock and roll as you can get. Good rock and song, and you can get it on YouTube. And so I will, but it's old timey rock and roll. And, see, many years ago, I used to own a video store and had a young lady working for me, and she was a Jon Bon Jovi fan. And that rock era of the power ballads. And we were talking about music, and I said, well, what about the Beatles where they rock? And she goes, no, their country? And I go, well, what about. I asked. I asked about several other bands that were all established rock bands. She goes, they were all country because that's how her generation, that's how they looked at all those artists and stuff. So those songs seem to overlap. And then somewhere, and I remember back in the eighties, I was playing, like, the classics, like honky Tonk women and the Eagles and bars, and then punk, punk rock, I think they was calling it started coming along and kind of speeded and hot rodded things up a little bit. And that's when I sort of just. My band, the Lovett brothers, sort of disbanded in around 1984, and we were a rock band. Classic rocks, like I said. So I had to move out to the country from the city and raise my family. So that took me away from music, but I wanted to keep writing songs, and I did that with an acoustic, and I wanted. And I wanted to keep practicing. So I started doing songs, like, by Ernest Tubb, like, thanks a lot, Johnny Hortons, north to Alaska. And I was writing songs in my back room. And that was in the late eighties. And some of those songs, I think when I write songs, I just come out naturally. Being the country country type person, that's how I learned how to play guitar. Playing a rhythm guitar and singing songs out of a book. I didn't practice scales for lead guitar. I was going to be a rhythm player singer. And I learned chords out of a book. The first song was Eddie Arnold's make the world go away. So because I used that book and it showed that three chord structure, I sort of got the hang of that real fast. So when I write songs, they're basically either they're either going to be country or they're going to be old time rock and roll, in which my old employee said was country. So I guess whoever's listening to it, there's a broad spectrum of what you want to call it. Some of these songs I think I'm doing now could be called americana. And yes, one night I was traveling along in a car, and I heard an old song by the Rolling Stones. And it was called because I used to love her. Love is all over now. And that's a. That's a real old rock and roll song from the old days. And where I heard this song was on alternative rock station, they were calling that alternative rock because I guess it wasn't sounding anything like whatever was rock and roll at that time. And I don't know how long ago that was, 1015 years ago. So music keeps on evolving. But I have some friends that are in rock bands, and I haven't really paid much attention to the rock scene for the last 30 years, or really not much of any of it. I listen to the songs I want to listen to. I get my phone out and I say, play Ray price heartaches by the number. So I don't listen to radio anymore, and I don't really listen to the real popular singers. So I don't really know what's out there. But my friends who are playing rock and roll, I like their rock, but it doesn't sound like the kind of rock, like the old classic rock they call it or any of the old traditional stuff. It's a little bit different, and maybe. I don't know how to explain that it's a little different, though. My friend just said this is rock and roll. I don't doubt that. But I think that some of the stuff that I'm doing that they can call country, like, now, like street of diamonds, is classic rock and roll. If you want to get out the dance shoes, look up.

Right? Yeah. That's a very good song. Yeah, yeah. But. But, yeah, I. I totally agree with you because. Because I find myself not listening to the radio anymore, you know, just. Just what I listen to and what I like, you know? Because nowadays you can make your own playlist. You don't have to sit around and listen to the radio anymore if you don't want to, you know? And I think now, like. Like, the. The radio plays mainstream music more now. You know, it's all kinds of stuff that they want to hear and stuff that you find yourself. You. You know, you need to hear that, you know, because music is great for the soul, and the songs you connect with, they don't play on the radio station, you know?

Yeah, that's. They're not gonna play my favorites on the radio anymore. You have to put your ear to the ground to hear rape and all those old songs that Ned Miller's from. A jack to a king. That's my song list. The stuff that I heard when I was a kid coming out of those honky tonk bars. And that doesn't mean that I don't. I don't listen to Led Zeppelin, because I do. But music is a very mood setting thing. If I'm raging, I want to hear something by kiss or Led Zeppelin, some more angry sounds, or maybe I'm partying with a bunch of friends, and that puts me in that mood. But when I'm sitting out on my porch having a beer, I'm listening to Ray Price, something listenable, calming. He tells a good story. He's got a great voice. He's number one on my list. I also have the four tops. They have a great song that they did call she used to when she was my girl that they performed in 1980. And that's an awesome song. That's great. Another on my list is Solomon Burke's version of cry to me, the great Otis Redding classic. To touch on that again. The first time I heard that song was about 1965 by the Rolling Stones. They covered it on one of their albums many years ago. So that song was my favorite song for about six weeks. I usually get a favorite, and I play it mostly, but that gave rise to a song that I released about four months ago. I released a song called sweet, sweet Love and the beginning of Solomon Burke's song. And he's a great singer, and you can't match him, you can't imitate him. He's too great. He starts the song out by going, when your baby. So that just was on me all the time. And I love that. Those bass lines from the Motown era and those old soul songs. So I started my song off. That gave me the inspiration. Solomon Burke did I just go, I've been thinking about my baby ever since she's been gone. So Solomon Burke's song sort of inspired that song for me. And that's not, again, I think that's a. I call it soulful country or something.

Yeah. Yeah.

But that's what. That's what inspired me to write that song was Solomon Berkshire song. So when I'm listening to songs, it might be an old Motown song or it might be a Merle Haggard song. And then sometimes in Brooke Benton, the old black man that sang the old. He's also a very fine, progressive singer to him. And Diana Washington did some songs together, but he did a song many years ago called the Bo weevil song. Brooke. Brooke Benton did. And he also did rainy night in Georgia. So he's pretty country guy to himself, singing.

Right.

They classified it as soul, but I don't know, I think that they, that type of music back in those days sort of overlapped. I liked all of that stuff, too. All.

Well, since you and I love country the most, um, I, I figured we could, we could discuss this part. Um. Who do you think is the. Is a king of country? A lot of people say George Strait is, but on the other end, a lot of people were saying, um, either, like, Clint Black is. What do you think? Who is your, who do you think is the king of. King of the country?

Okay, that's an interesting. I'm glad you asked that question because that's very interesting because I'm. Of course, I'm going to go back to an older class. You got to go back farther to find the greatest. I do like George Strait and Clint Black. They're the more modern guys. But my top five guys was always starting with Hank Williams and then Johnny Cash and Noah Haggard and Buck Owens and Ernest Tubb, and then there's a lot more guys that can go in there, like whaling Jennings. A guy told me once, you didn't put Whelan on there, so when you go back to the old guys. But I'm thinking now, after all these years, I think Johnny Cash may have passed Hank up. Even though the, Hank is the beloved Hank Williams. He's one of the greatest all time songwriters ever. Of all time. He only lived to be 29 years old and he created that legacy in such a short time. And. But Johnny Cash did so many great songs and was around for so long. And when he actually was crossover in the sixties, you could hear Johnny Cash on the same station. You'd hear Led Zeppelin or Motown, there'd come a Johnny Cash song. So he did a lot of crossover songs and, and he helped a lot of. He helped a lot of musicians to get started. I'm told he helped Christopherson. So I got to put John Cash first. Sorry, new he comes first, and then Hank Williams. And then I'm going to put Buck Owens because I'm a big Buck Owens fan. I don't know if he's, if he should be on or not, but I'm a big Buck Owens fan.

Hey, man, this is your list, dude. We can go with whatever you want.

Yeah, I got the old timers on the new Timers, you guys. I like the white yokem a lot. I listen to him a lot. And I don't know how new he is now, but he was a big buck Owens fan, too. I actually seen Merle Haggard in 1971 at a fair in Jackson, Michigan. And I. Presley in 19, I think it was New Year's Eve, 1974. I think it was in Pontiac, Michigan. I see Novice Presley. Yeah.

Nice. Okay. Uh, so who do you think is the queen of countries? Since we got your king, who is a queen?

Well, um, I gotta find. I got, you know, I go to. I can go to a bar in Los Angeles or I can go to a bar in Detroit. I can go to a bar in Oklahoma City and somebody's going to go up there and do a Patsy Klein song. They're going to do crazy. They're going to go. I fall to pieces doing those other people's songs as much. But I always hear Patsy Cline, so I got to pick her. I think she had a beautiful voice. She died too soon. She could have a lot more great records. But yes, they say that imitation is the highest form of flattery. And I see people doing Patsy Klein songs all the time. And my family does karaoke here about once a month. And my kids are. They're all pretty good singers. They're all good singers and they sing their more progressive songs or more, more new country and some pop stuff. But it always comes down to papa sand. Somebody's gonna do some Patsy Klein, right? But I just love her music in another country, one that I like. I like Kitty Wells from the old days. Of course, everybody likes Dolly Parton. I like her, too. She's very talented. She's probably the queen of it when you whole thing. But again, I'm old school on that. I just love Patsy Klein's voice. I can listen to her phone book, right?

Yes, yes. I don't think you could replace Patsy Klein, but, but when Lee and rhymes came out, they said that she was the next Patty Klein. You know, it's kind of because, uh, because when she can, we came out with, with a song blue or something like that. Or, I mean, her voice was like on par with Pat decline way back in the day. So I guess that's why everybody thought that she was the next, uh, version of Pat's client. But I don't think you can replace Patsy's voice at all.

No, I don't think so. Just in history you have those great people that stand out and she's just, she's just one of them people. That song crazy with that. Willie Nelson wrote, of course, and he actually did a pretty good version on that, too. Willie Nelson, I've listened to him a lot and some. He's not a great singer, but he is really a great singer. When he wants to work up the vibrato, he can really work it out.

Yeah, he's, I mean, you like, like, if you say like, door like a Johnny cash, Merle Haggard, William Jennings and Willie Nelson. I think you had the four, like, definement of what country is and was, you know, with, with those poor guys, you know?

Yeah, I think so. I think so, too. Those I still listen to Merle Haggard I is the stuff that I really like, like the night the bottle let me down and a jukebox. I love all them old Merle Haggard songs. And when I'm songs are playing a guitar, I play those types of songs. And when I write songs, I think a lot of times they come out like that. I'm an old timer. Jeff Forrest, my direct, he's the director and the photographer for my videos and the engineer, he, jet force is everything he told me, he says, because different people come in his studio a lot. And so he played our songs for them and he said they're trying to figure out just exactly what you are. Is it old time rock or is it country or what is it? And I think, yeah, I'm kind of maybe a mix of, maybe a mix of country rock. And then the old time sixties singers like Ned Miller from Jack Boo King. I'm kind of like that. If I was in a bar and I was in a band and they were singing songs like by Ernest Tubb and Buck Owens. And I have been in a band like that. I do well in those kind of bands because I like singing those songs. I really like them. Old foods, love's gonna live here, love's gone song. Such an up song. I sing Buck Owens and Ernest Tubb and them all night. Merle Haggard, the new ones. I don't really listen to radio anymore, and I'm busy with my own songs and I'm so involved with this. You got to practice a lot if you're going to lay yourself out there. So I practice every day. And so I have heard it, but I don't know who's doing it. I'll hear a good song, but I don't really know who's doing it because there's so many new ones now. The newest guy that I can think of, I said earlier, was Dwight Yocomb. He made that song, guitars, cadillacs and hillbilly music. I would love that.

Yes, love that.

Yeah, but I listened to that. That's really good. What's the band made? Wagon wheel oh, something.

I know. I know. I know. Darius Rucker covered that song, but I know it was the COVID of that song. But I, um. Yeah, but I. I know that's all you're talking about, but I don't know who's.

But who originally did old medicine. Old pro medicine show.

Thank you. Yes.

Darius Ruckett. Rucker did a version of that, too. That's an awesome song. And that's that. I don't know how old it is because I don't pay any attention to would when I wouldn't know who the top stars are now in country, other than Taylor Swift. She's not country anymore, right?

No.

Beyonce's got the number one song.

Yeah. Have you listened to that song yet? Beyonce's song? Have you listened to it?

I heard a few bars of it. No, I didn't. I. I didn't finish it. It didn't sound.

I don't know if I.

What?

No, it's not bad. It's catchy, but it's, like, really, you know, I don't know. I don't know. And, you know, beyond. Beyond, like the. Like, the biggest artist and the female artist set aside of Taylor Swift. But I don't really dig the song. But the song. Good, you know? But I just don't really dig it as much as another person would, you know? I don't know. It's kind of weird.

I heard a little bit of that song, and it sounded pretty good to me. It's. And it's that kind of country, and it sounded like she did a good job and everything, but I don't listen to. I don't hardly listen to any of that music unless it's a really good song. I'm not gonna. I'm not gonna bother with it because I can always either practice my own song or turn on Ray price. So I know that I've got this choice to go back and reach in and get something from. I can listen to Eagles if I want, so unless it's really super good, like the wagon wheel song, right?

Yeah.

Not really gonna. I'm not gonna really bother with it. Her genre, I think, has been pop music and hip hop. I think maybe. I don't know. I've never heard a song by Beyonce, but I. People who are big, gigantic stars like that, they have control of everything, and they're in a certain genre, then they cross over. I just look at that more as, like, maybe a corporate thing rather than this artist. This is what this artist does all the time. But I don't want to be critical of it, any of them. So she ain't any different than the other ones, right?

Yeah. Cuz pianta is popping and she is popping hip hop. So I don't know if they both told her to go country or, you know, is she going on her own? I don't know. I don't know.

Well, she's the first big star that did that growing up. I remember the Beatles, they wrote in here doing a buddy Holly type. Right. Music.

Right.

She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah and then all of a sudden the psychedelics sound started breaking through and then all of a sudden the Beatles changed their style to go along with what was going on instead of she loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it's, you know, we all live in a yellow submarine and I'm walrus. And they were pretty good, too. I mean, I love, I love both, both eras of the Beatles. I like them both, but they did do that. They did switch from where this kind of band, now we're this kind of band because those kind of songs are what's popular. So they're doing what's popular. And they were very successful at it. And it looks like Beyonce's doing that, too. And I don't have anything against that. If I could have some success by doing a rap song, I guess I'd probably do it, but I'm not going to try it because I would look pretty stupid trying to rap.

Me too. You and me both. Yeah. But I think as artists, you are continually growing as an artist and want to keep up with the times because technically, if you, if you don't keep up with the times, no one's gonna really, you know, listen to anymore. So I think it's just keep it up with the times that the Beatles and Taylor Swift and Beyonce are doing these different kind of genres. You know, you didn't to keep up with the music industry now, you know.

I don't know, it's kind of like seeing some, your old favorite singer all of a sudden. He's an actor now and he's getting Academy Awards and say, well, which is it? Is this guy, is this guy really a rebel rock and roller or is he, is he an actor? And so, yeah, when I was a younger person, I had more a spit in me. I guess I kind of rejected those kind of things at first, but not anymore. Whatever people want to do, if they have the talent and they can do that and be successful at it, that's fine because you shouldn't be putting those people up on a pedestal anyways, they're just regular people when you meet them, artists. And if they're successful at music, and most people who are successful at that, they got that in their blood to want to reach out and try other things. So they're just trying other things and they're good at it and they're talented people. So I don't have anything against. They want to make movies, be an actor. Go ahead. Hollywood calls me. Hey, I'm probably take them up on it.

Right? I will do.

Yeah. Then you're bad guy. A heavy guy, man. Play a mean guy. I'm good at that.

Right? Yeah. Because I think playing bad guys are a lot easier than the good guys because you can do anything you want to as a bad guy. Can't do anything if you're a good guy. So that makes sense. You know.

If you're in the movies, the bad guy gets. They always get the good parts playing.

The crazy guy always gets a girl at the end.

Yeah, that's true. In the old days. That in the end now, right?

Yes. Right. So I would go back in time and talk to you about your growing up with music in your life, because I know that you said you got, you have you had a band with your brothers. So, um, I. So it sounds like you were in a, like, music, music incest home, which you grew up a lot with music. Is that correct? Or like, like, did your parents bring you up with music or did they, did they kind of keep you away from it?

No, we were, uh, there were ten of us and ten kids, and I'm number ten. So some of those kids, 20 year gap, some older brothers and sisters were already moved away. But my mother, my mother come from a musical family, kind of a successful bluegrass family down in Kentucky, the Phipps family. And so my mom was a spontaneous singer. You could say, how you doing today, ma? And she'd break into, well, since my baby, she'd start singing stuff. That's. Yeah, yeah. So in my house, you do around the house, they were all spontaneous singers. You'd hear one person singing Hank Williams in one room and another person singing Elvis Presley. So we were, yeah, that we were. None of us were professional. And rock had chord a guitar, but that's all she could do. And. Okay, so everybody thought they were a singer, and everybody thought they could sing like Elvis. And all the girls thought they could sing like Patsy Clyde. So then when me and my brothers were younger, like, in our teens growing up in Detroit, we had some really good close friends. And one of those friends wound up playing drums with me in the Lovett brothers for many years. We'd be walking down the street trying to do the temptation walk and singing that, you know, I got sunshine and singing these different songs and country songs. And then at night we'd get our air guitars out and play. Well, my one brother, Steve, he was actually writing songs, but he didn't have a guitar and he didn't know how to play guitar, but he was writing lyrics and he got ahold of a guitar and was learning to play that. So that picked my interest in guitar. So I started messing around with the guitar, but I wasn't serious enough yet to purchase one. Until one day he sang this song for me, part of a love, and I go, man, that's pretty good. But he didn't have the courting all together and everything. He knew what chord he wanted to go to, but he couldn't get his time in and he couldn't strum it. He could more. He could sing it the way he wanted it. But then he just like stroked the guitar once or twice. So I thought, I want to learn how to play guitar and help him out. So I got that book that had those chords in there to songs. And those songs was Eddie Arnold's song make the world go away. And the other one, oddly enough, was rose in Spanish Harlem and it was by Benny King. But I remembered the great, the queen of so Aretha Franklin. She did a version of that song. So I just started banging out on that chord they showed and singing it like her. And I had some success with that. So I was banging that guitar every day as much. I worked loading trains, but when I wasn't loading trains, I was banging on that guitar and then chords. And so finally, me and my brother Steve, we got together and I helped him chord that song out, part of love. And then we started chording out songs together. I'm playing the guitar on him while he's singing. So his songs are sort of now not just poems, they've actually become three chord type songs, country songs. And some of them sophisticated than that. He was very good and he was very sophisticated writer. So me and him, I actually moved in with him after I had a broken fallen out with my love. I moved in with him and his wife. And then we really started writing a lot of songs together. Then we bought a two flat. We bought a place that had a flat on the bottom and a flat on the top. We bought that together. And me and him over there, and we lived there five years together. Him downstairs and me up, and we wrote a lot of songs there together. And there's where the Lovett brothers band started. My brother Ray joined in with us and started writing songs with us and playing bass guitar with us. And then we weren't good enough to play bars or anything. We weren't a real tight band, technical band, because none of us took lessons. We were learning how to play music by learning songs and then learned and playing our own songs. That's how I learned how to play, by learning songs and learning them out of the book. And I never took lessons. So it was quite, quite a long time before we actually got cohesive enough to take our show out. And the guy who was playing drums with me, he was in our air guitar band. His name was Joe McCloud or Joe Thunder. He learned how to play with us, too. And the unique thing is we all learned how to play together, and we learned it by playing songs. So you hear a song by the Eagles, and I'd learn that beginning, I'd learn that then we'd learn how to do the song. And we actually got. So we played weddings and bars, and we were pretty good, and that's how we learned. And then as all bands, everything come, all good things come to an end, my brother used to say, and the love of those came to an end. It broke my heart because I put everything I had into it. And I had some kids, and it was time for me to make sure that I had a job in some way that make sure that I could support them and help my wife support them. So I had to get more serious in life. And I moved out of Detroit, moved to the country, and went to nursing school and retooled myself and became a registered nurse, making an adult wage and providing for my family. I had to put music away. But I didn't quit writing songs. When I got my kids, almost all raised except for the last one, everybody was gone except for my last one. My daughter kept wanting to move to California, and she did, and she came back and she kept going back and forth. And I came out here with her, and I decided to move to California, too. And so when I got here, I told my brother that my brothers, we rolled all those songs together, that I was going to record our songs. When I got out here to San Diego, it was like I was blessed. I meet a guy right away, and he. He works with me, Eric Biggins, and he asked me if I wanted to play some bluegrass music or if I ever had. And I had never really been in a bluegrass band, but we all listened to it. My mother loved that old bluegrass stuff by the Monroe brothers, so I knew I could play it. I said, yeah, we'll do it. So he was a banjo player, guitar, mandolin. He was really good at all of it. And he's a great person. And he was really good. And I was so inspired by him. Me and him just played together for about a year. Along came me and him formed that band of high grass rollers, and we played for about half years in San Diego. And we played on all of the beaches in San Diego. We were well received. These folks out here, they liked our music. A lot of that old bluegrass music is hot, rotted up. It's as rock and roll as you can get. If you forget, like, oh, that's country. So I don't listen to that. If you just let yourself go, some of that music will get you moving. It's got more energy in it than even Led Zeppelin. Some Led Zeppelin songs are just kind of plodding along there, like some modern rock songs, some of that old bluegrass stuff. They're rolling right on out there with it. And you got a bar full of people. We rocked them with that bluegrass stuff out here for three years. The high grass Rollers did. We recorded a disc. I still. I got a thousand of them, I think. Still.

Oh, no.

Yeah, that's all right. I've gave a lot of them away. The band broke up right after we finished our album. So as bands go there, I put all that energy in it. I passed flyers and I practiced all the time, and my heart was really in it because we were close to the golden ring. And then it was nothing anymore. And so that disappointed me. And so years, I never really ever quit writing songs, but I didn't practice anymore. And I had no intention. I just thought, nah, music's never going to work for me. It's never gonna work for me again. I'm too old. I'm not gonna do it. But I'm call. I ain't got the money. Right at the end of the high grass photos. And so here about three years ago, that song wouldn't leave my mind. I just go, I ain't got the money. And so I told Pam, I said, I'm gonna go record I ain't got the money. That's a good song. I'm gonna do it. So I thought I'd go to LA or somewhere around here and call up a studio. Then I thought about who I recorded with in San Diego or El Cajon, California. Jeff Forrest. And he's. I recorded the high grass rollers record with him many years ago. So I did. I thought he's probably not even still there. So I called him up and he's there, and he's really good at what he does. I don't think anybody can mix a song better than Jeff. And he knows his harmonies. He can play bass, he can play drums, he plays pianos, and he's got the best ear of anybody I've ever been around. And so I went down there and recorded that song with him, and he goes, that's one of the best songs we've ever recorded here. And so that inspired me, and I really did have a lot of faith in that song. And he hooked me up with some great musicians. Russell Hayden, who is in Nashville, Tennessee, now, he played steel guitar on that song. Buzz Campbell, who is playing with Lee Rocker in a band called Buzz Campbell and the Heartaches. Lee Rocker used to play with the Stray cats, and so did Buzz, has played with him. He wasn't a member of the Stray cats. But Buzz is a fantastic guitar player. He's amazing. Doesn't matter. I sent him three or four different kinds of songs. He always does an amazing Dom. He's an amazing guitar player, and he's a super nice person. And then another guitar player, and Russell Hayden played some electric guitar on guitar song with another guy named Trevor C. Edwards, who played guitar on guitar song. Those three guys are amazing guitar players, all three of them. And now I'm working with the guy in Nashville. I'm still working with all them, too. But I got another guy in Nashville. His name's Jeff King, and he played on a song called dreaming about you with me. And Jeff King is an a list Nashville guitar player. He's played with everybody. Dolly Parton, he played with everybody, everybody that has a name, and he's played with them all. And Jimmy Mattingly, who's playing fiddle. Jimmy's the one who hooked me up with these Nashville folks. Jimmy is the fiddle player with Garth Brooks right now. He's on when Garth does his Las Vegas tour. Jimmy's right up there with him. Jimmy's been playing fiddle with Garth Brooks for 30 years. He's an amazing musician. 30 years he's been playing with him. And he's just amazing. He can play fiddle, anything you want.

Anything.

So now him and Jeff King did the guitar work and the fiddle on dreaming about you. Then I did a song called street of Diamonds, and I had buzz Campbell on guitar with Jimmy on fiddle and Paul Hollowell who is another a list Nashville musician. So I think I'm blessed, because when I started this again, I was just old. Rick Lovett hadn't played no music in a long, long time. Even started painting Bob Ross paintings.

Oh, dang.

I got a few of those to about 14 of them.

Yeah.

Yeah. I started doing the painting thing, too, and I thought, well, I got to do something. And I didn't. I didn't want to break my heart again and get back into music and then get. Because I do cut your first. I'm thinking I'm going to put. When I do it, I don't want to embarrass myself. So I give it everything that I got. And once I stepped back into it with Jeff, we did 17 songs and six videos, and I got two songs that are coming back from Nashville now. I'm going down there on the. On April 5 and record another song that I just wrote. I just sang that song to jeff. And he goes, because I'm working on three old songs that me and my brothers did and then two that I just wrote, and so I sang this song for him. He goes, did you just write that or is that one of them old ones? I go, no, I just wrote it three days ago. He goes, let's do that song. So we're real excited about this song. It's in the traditional buck Owens, and I'm going down to record it, and I just can't seem to stop this. This trains rolling, and I ain't trying to stop it. I'm just trying to hang on and not fall off. It's like, fuck. Owen said on a radio show many years ago, you got to have all your ducks lined up, and then when you're done, when it's your time, get on out there and get them. And as Jerry said, when you're hot, you're hot. And. And I'm not hot like Taylor Swift or Beyonce, but I'm hot for Rick. Lovin I got 100,000 listens on my songs, and that's an unbelievable amount for myself. If you would have said, rick, you're going to have 100,000 streams on your songs, I'd have never believed that. Never.

That's a huge accomplishment, man. So congratulations. Take this from me. You're never too old for music, so don't. Don't ever think you're. You're too old for music because, I mean, music transcends time and space, you know? So keep up the good work, you know? I love you for it.

Thanks.

So you said, okay, so in January, you released Streets of Diamond. Diamonds. I think it's in January, right? Yes. Or did you. Yes. Right. So I noticed we have a lot of singles. Is there like a. Is there, like, a full blown album coming out soon that we can get our hands on?

Well, instance you're recording, I have enough songs to do an album. Like, I. I have. Like, I recorded eight songs with Jeff, and that's. I would. If I was going to do an album, it would be eight songs. I'd limit it to eight songs. I did 14 with the high grass owners on that I could have done. So I'm going to limit it to eight. And then I've got pretty much another album already done. But I was talking to Jeff Forrest the other day, and he was saying, he said, you're smart not to make an album. Just leave your songs out there, single songs, because he says, let's say they listen to one of your songs on your eight song album, and they don't like that song. Well, they're not going to listen to any of your other songs at that point.

Right.

So I don't know if there's. I don't know if that's the way it is or not. I don't know. But I'm kind of happy right now with. With the 16 or 17 singles. I think I got out there right now, and I've got about. I could. I've got seven or eight songs in my mind right now, two or three of them that are brand new, that I can. I want to do with Jeff before he. He moves to Portugal.

Oh, no.

Are you Jeff? No, he's gone. He's gonna move. He's already. He's already got him a place. And so I want to get as much I can with the man, Jeff Forrest, before he goes. And so I've got all these songs. I'm going to be pretty busy. And at first, I thought, I'm going to slack off and go back to Michigan and enjoy Lake Shamong and hang out with old friends. And then Jeff told me that he'd bought a place in Portugal, and I thought, oh, no, man. This guy's going to be gone. Just like band Japan breaks up. Working with Jeff Forrest has been such a pleasure because he's so talented and he's very patient. I'm not the greatest guitar player in the world. When I get out there, it takes me a few takes to get going. I'm like an old car. You got to let it warm up. I got to get warmed up. And he's very patient with me. He's very good. I'm very comfortable with him. I can go in there and sing badly, and I don't feel bad, because he'll do. He'll help me out. He'll tell me where I'm going wrong and help me out. Especially on backing vocals. I can usually do the first backing vocal, and maybe I got a sense of where I should be. But he's so good at it. He goes right in, can you do this like that? And I go, yeah, I can do it. So he sort of coaches me on his backing vocals. He's a really super talented person. Very talented person. You hear me, Jeff?

I think, like, I personally love full albums, you know, beginning to end. But I think Jeff is sort of correct, because I see now and more and more artists making single songs, you know, for the masses, and I don't know why that is. Maybe Jeff is right, you know, because if they don't like one song, they're not gonna listen to the whole album, which is sad, because it's got an album tells. Tells the whole story of what the artist is trying to. Trying to get across to the listener, you know?

I don't, you know, remember the old lP's, like, do you remember thick as a brick by Jethro? Told you. Remember that album?

Yes. Yeah, yeah.

Listen, in this thick of the brick, I listen to all those. Led Zeppelin, three. Led Zeppelin two. Led Zeppelin one. Listen, I got a whole piece.

Yeah, yeah. I just can't. I can't get enough vinyl records, man. Vinyl records. That's, you know, and recently I've been collecting cassette tapes, you know. You know, they're coming back, the cassette, and a big deal. Oh, yeah, yeah.

My glasses on. Was that a video cassette you had there, James?

No, this is a. This is the audio cassette, you know, like. Like, um. Oh, this is like.

That's. I was just.

Yes, sir.

Some of my old audio cassettes I got in there. My music, I'm looking at it, wondering how I was gonna play them. I got from the weddings.

Yeah, well, so now you could buy a cassette player, you know, cassette decks and whatever. And I want me cassette, Dick. And I can't stop listening to cassettes. But I guess the old saying is correct. What's old is new again. And I guess, like, you know, because records were not bought when CD's came out. Now everybody's buying vital like. Like I am, and Sleazy's are out the door, you know?

Yeah. My 16 year old granddaughter is playing LP's. Now she has a record player. Do you know that sound was, it really was better if you listen to ol LP, a vinyl record like that. It was way better than that. It sounds too antiseptic and too clean. I guess it's just like when you play guitar and you put a little distortion in it, you can get a little more out of it. Same thing with those records. There was that underlying distortion or whatever it was that gave that, that gave that rock and roll music a little bit of an edge. And then that sort of went away to the finer ear. If you can hear those things that went away with CDs and digital music on, on when getting it offline. Yeah, it's good to see the vinyl coming back. I had a collection. I probably had 80 vinyl albums all the way across my desk. There was just vinyl albums, 80 of them. And I had a nice little stereo. I was into that. And I don't know, time goes by, time goes by fast. And then all your records are gone and your stereo is gone. Now you're listening to music on this little phone, right? If I could get almost any song that I want if I like concrete and Clay by Eddie Rambeau. Do you remember that song? I bet you don't. You're too young to remember that.

I don't know.

That's a very obscure song, very good song. But if, if I want to hear Eddie Rambeau singing concrete and clay, I, I just have to say Eddie Rambeau, concrete and clay, and that's all. You got a pretty good song out of your little phone there.

Oh, I'll tell you a funny story because I asked about when I bought my vinyl record player. I asked my mom and dad did they have any vinyl records. And my mom had, she was the biggest Elvis fan ever made, you know, and she had, she had all the Elvis finals and, but, but I never got any. I'm like, mom, why, you know, why can't I, you know, have some Elvis records? And she said, oh, no, you're mine. You're not gonna get up until I die. I'm like, okay. But, yeah, but she loved Elvis and my mom and my aunt Molly loved the Beatles. So I'm a big Beatles fan. I'm a big Elvis fan. So I think I got the best both worlds, you know, with, with rock music, you know. But, uh, yeah, Elvis, I know Elvis finals are hers, you know, she said, you're not gonna get them until I leave. I'm like, okay, I don't want you leaving typhoon, but I'll take them, you know, so. Yeah.

But, um, I'm an Elvis Presley fan, too. I love Elvis Presley songs. I grew up listening. They say that. They say that. I don't know if this is true, but in that song, Elvis Presley, heartbreak hotel, where he goes when baby laugh, man. They say that he put him. He was one of the pioneers. Not him, but his engineer, I'm sure. Microphone down at the end of the hallway. And that's where they got their echo. That's one of the first echo songs. Yeah. He's singing from one end of the hallway into an open mic down there. And that's how they got their. Their echo sound in that song, because they didn't have. They didn't have no machines or anything. They could alter that sound back then, make echo. That's what I read. I don't know if it's true, folks. Maybe I ought to google that.

There we go, truth be told. Yeah. But, yeah, my mom was a big Elvis fan, and my dad. My dad really loved Green's Clearwater revival. That's a really good band.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I. Yeah.

If I was in. When I was in the love of brothers, if we did a credence song, I. Well, my brother racing bad. I sang bad Moon rising and lodi, and my brother sang have you ever seen the rain? So we did several of the Credence songs. We were a blue collar band playing down in bars where regular people hung out and had a good time. And so we sang a lot of credence cooler water revival and a lot of eagle songs and Bob Seeger. Fun, fun music and. Oh, yeah, I think that's my stuff I'm going to start rocking. It's probably going to be a country rock type thing. I got a couple rockers out there.

Did you ever do fortune and son by CCR?

Which one?

Fortunate son.

You know, I love that song. That song is so awesome. No, I never tried it.

No. Oh, man, that was my dad's favorite song from memorial. It's fortunate. He always told me about fortunate song, like, all right, well, the first time I heard it, I, you know, I couldn't stop a little. Stop listening to it. It's such a good song, too.

Blows you away. So.

Yeah, they're really an underrated man that should have got more publicity.

Yeah.

But, you know, there.

There's another example of it. You could be in a country bar and play fortunate son and you'll get a standing ovation. People will love that song. Yeah. Because it's sort of. They sound sort of what's rolling down the river. That's country, man. Those bands, they crossed that line of country. Or am I rock? Like Bad Moon rising in my country? And then I think a lot of people for years thought that band was from Louisiana because they. They signed. They sounded like that Louisiana rock, gritty rock sound.

Yeah.

They're from Fullerton, California.

Oh, yeah. They're not too far away. Yeah, yeah.

But so I love that band, too. That's the kind of bands that I like. And you can hear what they're saying on their songs and stuff, and you can hear the music, and that music will never go away. It's still around. I'm having. I'm playing some very similar type songs, I think, in that genre. I'm not like. I'm not as good as CCR. Who is? Who is? But playing that kind of music just naturally. I read a book once way back in 1983 about marketing your music and song songwriting, and they wrote that you shouldn't try to do songs that are, say, the genre that's real popular right now. Just do what you do best. And because genre music, bluegrass, has never went away entirely, it's always here. If you like to do bluegrass, do bluegrass, you're not going to get paid much money. But if you're doing it for the money music business, don't be in the music business. If you do it for the money, be a stockbroker or something like that, or a lawyer, an insurance agent. There ain't no money in music just for a very few. And the ones that are working, like, the working people that I know that are in music, they're not rich people, and they work it like a job. You can't hang out all day and smoke weed and beer all day. It ain't like people think, you got to get to work. Like the guys that are working on my songs right now, Jamie tours with Garth Brooks. Then when he's not touring with Garth Brooks, it's like another day at the office. You got to get to work, man. He's doing my songs. He's doing other guys songs. So it becomes. It becomes a job. And those guys are. Those guys are, I'm sure are making money but not being rich. I'm hoping Jimmy gets paid really good working for God. Hopefully our players guys are playing in bands, then there's millions of them in San Diego. You can have a really super good band, and you're going to work for free, or you ain't going to work unless you're one of the very few because there's so many bands here that will play for free just to get your name out there. Many years ago when I was playing with the Lovett brothers, I wanted to get paid because I was working so hard and I practiced so hard, so I wanted to get paid then and then. So we always did in Detroit. We always got paid in California. Not so much. But what I did learn from a friend is if you get a chance to put your music out there, and for any musicians that might be listening to this, don't get hung up on the $50 or the $100, you might not get it. If you have some good music and you can get into a good bar like in California, if you can get into Winston's bar or the coaster bar and you can get in there and play your music in front of a couple of hundred people, that's better than the $50. And if you need $50 and you're trying to get money in the music business, you better go get a job somewhere else. Because I've been doing this all my life and I have made money at it. I've collected money. I'm a professional, but I've spent way, way, way more money on music than I. Unless one of these songs that I'm doing hits the big time, I'll never get my back of music. So you're always buying equipment, strings, you're always buying speakers, you're always buying the next equipment. You got to buy gas, you got to carry your stuff out there, you got to have a van or something to carry your stuff. And it's a lot of work. And it's a lot of work. Like if I played a wedding, I'd be, I'd load the van, go out there and set up. I'd be 4 hours loading the van, going to the gig, setting up the gig and setting up the sound system before I ever strapped on a guitar, so.

Right.

And then after 4 hours of that and 4 hours of playing at the wedding and then 3 hours on the way home, unpacking, you got an eleven hour day in there and you got a $100 if you got that. And now you're playing up there for four straight hours after you work for 4 hours. If you're a big star and you got roadies and stuff that are setting you up, that's fine. And I did have a couple of friends that, that roadied with me and helped me out and I always gave them a share of the money and we all friends, but it's a lot of work. You have to really like what you're doing. You have to like the music, love the music, really. And you have to be the type of person that you're going to be criticized. So you can't let that. You can't let that get to you. You can use it to alter what you're doing, to try to maybe get a little bit better, but you can't let it stop you because you ain't going to please everybody all the time. But if you're doing it to make money, don't quit your day job.

Right. Exactly. But, but I agree with you that it's better playing live for, like, 50 people than that $50 because those 50 people might like, might love your music, go to your website, buy your merchandise, tell other people about your, about your music. They go to your website, buy a lot of. So, I mean, it might, it might snowball from there, you know, depending on if they like your music or not, you know? So, yes, playing live is a lot better than like $50, you know?

Yes, get your music out there if you can get in a good venue to play. We played a bar called Winston's bar, and that's in Ocean Beach, California, in San Diego, one of the beaches. And that place was packed the night that we played in there. And we had played a few bars, but not one is like as well known as Winston's and not as packed as that. And we're doing bluegrass. So I wasn't really nervous about it because the guys that I was playing with, they were so good. It was just crazy how good they were. It didn't matter. Live recording, we were always on the spot, so I knew we were playing good music. And so I wasn't worried that we were going to play some lousy music. I was just kind of worried, like, how are they going to take this? Because California's, I don't think it's the bluegrass state, although there's a lot of people out here that like bluegrass music, I'll tell you that.

Oh, yeah.

And so we busted out a song called the high grass roller song that I wrote. And I know that that song is a good bar song and it's a good music song because I put it on a platform that always worked for me in bars playing that type of music. So I knew that it was the kind of song that would get people up dancing. But I didn't know because we had a banjo and, and at that time, we didn't even had a fiddle. We had a banjo and a mandoline and a dobro, which is slide guitar.

Okay.

We busted in that song. Those people jumped off those seats and jumped up there and started dancing. And that dance floor was full.

There you go.

That whole bar love. We played maybe eight songs there that night. And they just loved us. They didn't want us to stop. When I say bluegrass, the high grass rollers were. We played bluegrass songs, a lot of them. And we did a lot of instrumental, classic instrumentals. But I think a lot of times we were just a country band without drums. I was doing most of the singing and I did most of the songwriting with the singing songs. And I think they were just kind of country. But because we had a banjo and we had a mandoline, it sort of. It had that connotation of being bluegrass. But we definitely did do some bluegrass songs like bury me beneath the Willow. And it weren't like we weren't a bluegrass band. We were. But we were, I think, maybe 50 country and 50 bluegrass. They don't know what bluegrass is. A lot of them don't know. They like that sound. Blue grass. This young girl come up to me at one of the bars. That was the coaster bar. And that's a mission beach. On Mission beach, actually. She comes up to me and she goes. She complimented me on what we're doing. She goes. And her name was Heather. And she goes. She says, now I know where to come to get my blue grass.

Yes.

I don't think Heather actually had a clue to, like, what's, like Charlie Monroe or Bill Monroe. And then Ricky Skaggs, who's my favorite. I don't think she had a clue as to what it is. But sometimes when you hear something that sounds cool, like blue grass maybe you think it might be some sort of blues sound that you can smoke some grass, too.

Right.

Go ahead.

Well, okay. Okay. So for the people who don't know what bluegrass is, how does bluegrass differ from country? Because I know it's like, it's not the same thing. Right. Is there a legitimate difference for the people who don't know what bluegrass is? Can you explain it as opposed to, like, a country music?

Well, I think maybe the bluegrass is an older form of it and a very early form of country music. My relatives, the Phippses, were doing it way back in the thirties and forties and before electrical amplification and sound reinforcement came to being so. And I think that music came over from Scotland and Ireland. The banjos and the fiddles and the acoustic guitars. And if you're poor people, a lot of times you don't have anything else to do but play music. And back in those days, no radio, no car, no tv. You play checkers on the porch and you play music. And so I think because nobody had any drums, they were just playing guitars and fiddles, and that was bluegrass. And then I think, as it just morphed into more sophisticated sound, Jimmy Rogers was a country guy. He's the first noted country western singer guy, and he actually wrote, like, house of the Rising sun and Tiefer, Texas. He was really a good songwriter. And so then as things got more modern, Hank Williams and them, and Ernest Tubb started using electric instruments, and Ernest Tubb was sort of a Texas swing guy. He was Texas swing. And so that morphed into that. And then all of a sudden, you had radio playing these songs, and just like now, what's rock and what ain't rock? So I think they make this distinction, and I think where it changes is like the electrification of music and the electric steel guitar coming along and with that twangy sound, that beautiful sound that it has. And so Hank Williams and them, and then came rockabilly. So is rockabilly. Is that country? I think it is. They rocked it on. But see, some country songs are rocking songs, and that's just the way it is. You'll rock on them country songs, and they're called country. A lot of this music sort of blends together, and most of these pop songs are. They call it the circle of five. Like the one four five sound, like the first note is g, and then you go to the fourth note and then to the fifth note. Well, these songs, most of these pop songs, whether it's country or rock or whatever, are all written in that circle of five. And if you're playing one, you're either going to go usually to five or four, and they're all 145 songs, or 154, with lots of exceptions, sure. But basically that's it. And like, like someone asked Johnny cash once, they say you only know three chords on a guitar. And he said, that's true, but I play every one of them from the bottom of my heart.

Oh, yeah, that's a good answer, Johnny. Yeah.

People will say, well, is it just another GCD song? Well, there's only, like, seven chords, so what else could it be? We can, we can. We can change it to ead, but it's still going to be one four five, so it's just a different key. And once you start getting out of that one four five thing, it's not going to sound right all of a sudden you're going to have to put. You're being more progressive. You're going to have to make it jazz. You're going to have to get it out of that, say, on beat type songs, like the old three chord songs. That's most of them. Most of the great songs. That's what they were with. Three chord songs. Hank Williams said, if you learn more than three chords, you educated yourself out of a job.

Yeah, that's great. That's great.

That's great.

So we have one more question for you, and then we'll let you go. So, this podcast is called when the words fail, music speaks, you know? And that's true for everything in life. I get, I think. So my question is for you. When you're down and feel real sad about. About anything, can you name an artist, an album or a song that you can. That you can listen to right now, but you can't tell me or wife or kids how it makes you. If you are deep inside your soul.

If I was feeling down and blue and I wanted to feel better, what song, what would I listen to?

What's the. What's the one song that you will listen to or artist or album, but you can't tell me or your wife how it makes you feel deep inside? You know what I'm saying?

Say that one again, James. I'm not sure if I'm getting it.

Okay, so is there, like, one song, artist, or album that you can tell me that? Okay, so let's say you're. Say you're really, really sad, right?

Yeah.

Okay. And you will go to this song, artist, or album, but you can't tell me or your wife or anybody else how it makes you feel. Demon slide.

I can't tell my wife or I can't reveal how it's making me feel.

Yeah, I mean, like. Like, it's like. Like you're so, like, moved in it. You don't know how to express how it makes you feel.

Oh, I guess, uh, heartaches by the number is a real song. I listen to that one every night.

Nice.

And, yeah, I don't know why I listened to it. I'm not. I've been with the same woman forever, and I'm a happy guy, but she knows I listened. Almost all of the songs that I listen to sort of have a sad tone to them, and she knows I listens to them, but. And I can't explain that. I guess I can just. I have empathy for people that have broken hearts, and I have had a broken heart and so I enjoy listening to them songs and like the song by the four tops when she was my girl. Obviously, he's lost his girlfriend in the song and. But he's singing it in an upbeat fashion. And if you've never seen that video with the four tops doing that song, it'll become your favorite song right away. It's just, it's just amazing. And Levi Stubbs was, he's my favorite soul singer of all time, him and Jackie Wilson. And so when they sing that song, he's singing about a sad situation, but it sounds pretty uplifting. I don't get sad when I listen to it, but if I want to get myself up, I'll listen to Jackie Wilson higher and higher. That's the one I get up off. Yeah, that's my ace. That'll get me going. I love that song. I wish I could sing. I wish I could sing like jackie wilson.

Oh, no, that would be amazing if everybody could sing like, you know, I.

Think Jackie Wilson was probably, I hate to use the word best, but I'm going to use my. I've already said it was Levi Stubbs, but Rick lovett's favorite can change real fast. Oh, yeah, I'm listening to.

Right.

I love all those soul singers. And tonight when I'm having my beer and having a smoke, I'm going to listen to heartaches by the number. I'm going to listen to the four tops. I'm going to listen to from a jack to a king. All them old songs, folks. And I'm going to listen to some Rick lovett songs, too.

There you go. Everybody should listen to Rick lovett. Oh, speaking of which, my co host asked me to ask you, are you related to Lyle lovett?

That's an interesting question because I'm hoping one of these days they'll ask a while. Hey, are you Rick? Really? Are you related to Rick Lovett?

Right.

Somebody told me because he was from Texas. He's from Texas. And years ago, I don't know much about my dad's family because it goes back so far, but I heard that some of his family had moved out to Texas, his brothers, but I'm not sure. But I was at work one day. I was at work one day and a lady asked me, I was a registered nurse, and she says, she goes, hey, Rick, are you related to Lyle Lovett? And I go, okay. And I go, I go, well, yeah, I actually am related to him. Just pulling her leg. I go, I am. I said, yeah, I'm a bit better musician. Just pulling her leg. And she goes. She goes, yeah. She goes, but he's married to Julia Roberts. And I go, yeah, but my wife's better looking than Julia Roberts. You're so nice man, to say that about your wife. My lovely wife, fam, is better looking. Well, my lovely wife is better looking than all women. And I know there's beautiful ones out there than the, than the great Pam Lovett.

Yes. All right, so I'm not related to him. Oh, well, so far we don't know that yet. Right. Keep on searching, you know. Okay, so for all of our listeners, you can find Rick's music at, anywhere you can find music is on apple Music, Spotify, Deezer, I think. But go to his YouTube channel. I will post his YouTube link on the bottom of the description here. So go to. And go to any one of those and just, just stream Rick. Love it. You know, let's get him up to a million listens, you know, let's get him noticed. So he's. He deserves that. And that's right. Yeah. Yeah. You deserve, like, all the probability. I think you're great. You're a great guy, you know? And we honestly do thank you for taking, taking the time out of your day to come on our show, you know.

Well, thank you very much for having me, James. I've enjoyed it very, very much. You're a great conversationalist, and I've actually sat here and enjoyed myself, and I think I got loose enough to be, to be the real Rick Levitt. I've enjoyed your show. If you ever want me to come back on, I'll definitely, if you'll give me a second here, I'd like to thank everyone that helping me in this music, all of the musicians that have played all my songs. Jeff Forrest, my friend, who, he's just great. He's helped me so much. I can't believe it. And then my wife has helped me. She works all the time. She set me up with you. She works harder than I do. I laugh at her, though. I go, yeah, but I got to go in there and arrange these songs. Well, you ain't loading trucks and trains no more. That ought to be easy. She's doing the heavy lifting. So I want to thank her and especially people that are taking the time to listen to new artists. It's not easy to do that. It's not even easy for me. I have my favorites. I like to listen to them. I make myself listen to new artists. I'm careful with it because I don't want to take anything from them or borrow anything from them or nothing. I don't want no influence from them. I'll let the greats like, I'm influenced by the other ones, but I don't want to listen to the independence too much. But I do. But thanks to everyone out there that listens to independent musicians and have listened to my music and taken the time to do that and given me likes, if you do listen to my music, it helps independent music people very much. If you push the subscribe button and if it doesn't cost you anything to do that, it really helps the artist out a lot because they give you a little tiny bit more. I think the more, the more subscribers you have. So push that subscribe button for me and push it for James Cox, too. And thanks again for having me on your show, James. I really like your show. Good luck with it. And if you ever want me to come back on you, just let me know and I will. And I'll have Pam send you some songs, too, as they come out.

Yes. Yeah. Man, I loved working with Pam. Pam for like a, like, such a beautiful song. And I think her, too, because I think I gave her the run around, maybe because we were, we were trying to do with, like, street yard. I don't think she noticed what streamyard is, you know, but, but I honestly do love Pam to death. Thank you. For me.

He's hearing you. She hears you. Yes. He's a really super great person. If you, if you want to see Pam on the video, she's on several of my videos, and her and I just got done making a video with Jeff that's probably going to be out in a couple of weeks. And she's in it with me. She's in two or three videos with me now. And I'm going to, I'm going to try to get her in all of them. My family is more important than anything. I put my brother, one puts two brothers on an album cover, and then I've got another brother, my brother Fred, who was in the Navy, and I'm going to put him on an album cover. It's incongruent with the song, but it doesn't matter to me. My brother deserves to be on it. And Pam and I are on one called here's love when we were quite a bit younger. So I'm going to put my family members on there, that each one of them is going to get a spot on there, and it'll be on there forever. That way my grandchildren can go, oh, that was my uncle Butch. There. That's my uncle Ray.

Yeah.

And that'd be fun.

That'd be fun. Okay, so we do odyssey. Thank you again. And thank you. Thank you, everybody, for listening to the show today. But until next time, always remember, when words fail, music speaks. Bye, guys.

Bye. Bye. I.