- 3 days ago
Gavin Adcock joins Katie Neal in Nashville to talk about the release of his ambitious 25 track album, 'The Day I Hang It Up,' his prolific songwriting output and commitment to an authentic, live sound, and some of his most bizarre and memorable fan interactions on tour. 'The Day I Hang It Up' is now available everywhere
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00:01His brand new album, The Day I Hang It Up, officially out now, Gavin Adcock, is here to talk to
00:05us all about it.
00:07I'm so excited to talk to you about this album because I feel like you've been releasing tons and tons
00:10of music,
00:11but also there's a lot of songs on this album.
00:14Talk about, what is it, 25?
00:16It'll be 26.
00:17We've got the bonus track coming out this week on Friday.
00:20Talk to me about that one.
00:21It's one of my favorite songs on the records, and that's why I held it to the end.
00:27It's called Most Wanted.
00:29And it sounds like something terrible is going on at the beginning, but it's a love song.
00:35And the hook goes, some folks say I'm a real bad man, but baby, you're most wanted.
00:41So it's got this smoky rock and roll bar feel, but it's a love song the whole time.
00:48So the title of the album, The Day I Hang It Up, it makes it feel like Gavin's thinking about
00:53the end of his career,
00:55but it's actually this declaration that you're never going to do that.
00:59Talk about the story behind that song and why you wanted to call this album that.
01:03Well, I've wrote a ton of songs over the last four or five years, and we've stacked up a giant
01:08pile.
01:09And we're just looking through titles, and that one really caught me to just play on my career of just
01:16like the controversy
01:17and the people that love me and the people that don't like me.
01:20And it's just kind of a sticking your foot down and going, no matter how you feel about me, I
01:26ain't going nowhere.
01:27So that's why that became the title of this album.
01:30How many songs have you been looking through that you've written that you've stacked up?
01:34Like if you had to say a number in the last few years, like if 26 songs made it on
01:39this album, how many did you have to choose from?
01:42Well, we probably had about 110 to choose from.
01:46Wow.
01:46And then people have been asking me lately, they're like, are you going to start writing for the new record?
01:51And I'm like, I'm pretty sure I got two records wrote after this one, because I'm always writing.
01:56I get in the writing room probably two days a week, and then we write on the road on the
02:01weekend.
02:01So I always had this mindset when I started my career of drop one, write three to five.
02:08Drop one, write three to five.
02:10And that's crazy, because at the rate that you release songs, that's a lot of writing.
02:16For as much of a music you're putting out to know that there's like three to five times more than
02:20that,
02:20like sitting in a file, like a folder somewhere, is wild to think about.
02:24Yeah, it's a good feeling.
02:25The first time I ever let out a song, I didn't have anything else to let out after that,
02:29which felt like a missed opportunity to me.
02:32I got in there and recorded one, dropped it two weeks later.
02:34It did really well.
02:36And then I was still in college, so it was hard to get in the studio and hard to find
02:40time.
02:41And then after that, I just told myself I'll never not have something to release if I need to.
02:47Yeah, I want to talk to you about the production on this album.
02:50Because when I was listening to it, I was like trying to pinpoint what it was reminding me of.
02:56And it's something like, and I could be totally wrong on this,
02:58but like the stuff that leans more rock reminds me of like alt rock moments that were happening in like
03:03the early 2000s.
03:05Yeah.
03:05Like I wouldn't say that it's like underproduced, but the album is not overproduced.
03:10Like there's something really simple about it, and was that intentional?
03:15That's always been my intention on, I would say, 95% of the songs in my career.
03:22I've had some that I've produced up a little more, but the first time I ever got in the studio,
03:26I told my producer, and we didn't know each other for anything, I was like,
03:30I don't want to hear any tuning on this album.
03:33I want it to sound like we're playing it in the garage, or sound like we're just playing it live.
03:39And that helps us out a bunch on our live shows, because we have me and five band members.
03:45And I don't want to put anything in a song that me and them cannot play.
03:49We don't run any tracks, we don't have any extra things going on.
03:55And that correlates really well to the live show, because when the people leave, they go,
03:59wow, he sounded just like or better than the record.
04:02I was going to say, you set yourself up for the success of that,
04:05because I feel like these songs, they sound so great, but I know that they're so much bigger live, even.
04:10Yeah, I love playing songs live more than the record.
04:13There's just an energy, you can feel the music going past your head if you're in the crowd.
04:19Just the sound guy cranking it up, and the band, you're feeling it here in the bass and the drums.
04:25Yeah, I want to talk about current single right now, Wannabe.
04:28Talk to me about the story behind that song.
04:30Yeah, I was writing with Ernest.
04:34When we wrote the song that he's featured on on the album, and he said,
04:41hey man, I got this song I want you to hear.
04:44Me and Morgan and a few guys wrote it a few years ago, and you should hear it.
04:50So he sent it to me, and it had a handful of lines I wanted to change.
04:54So I asked him if that was cool.
04:56He was down for it.
04:57The main one was called East Tennessee, My Home Sweet Home, but I'm from Georgia, so I changed to Bulldog
05:04Country.
05:07And I got it together, let it out as one of my first songs this year, and that's what we've
05:11been starting the show with, and it's got just the best energy.
05:15And it's different than a lot of the stuff I've let out before, which is good because I like to
05:19bounce around in between country music, kind of like the all rock stuff, or like a slow ballad, or something
05:24more modern, or something more like smoky western.
05:28I just love not being pigeonholed to one sound.
05:32I think it's, I did not realize that it was Morgan and Ernest who had wrote that song, and that's
05:37kind of like a special thing, because I feel like, you know, years ago, people could probably cut songs that
05:44Morgan wrote that Morgan wasn't going to cut, but there's like not very many of those I feel like probably
05:48floating around to this day.
05:49And to get one is, like, that's pretty sweet.
05:52You know, I get a lot of songs sent to me, and I'm not big on outside songs, like they
06:00have to be damn right for me to cut them.
06:04And like on this record, I think there's three outside cuts, and I get a bunch of songs sent to
06:12me where I can tell that they wrote this, trying to write it for Wallen, and they sent it to
06:17me, and I turn them down nearly all the time.
06:21It's just like, I'm just like, it sounds way too much like Morgan.
06:25Right, it's funny, Riley Green, I just saw a clip of him this week that's going viral about, like talking
06:29about, like he gets the same things.
06:30Like a lot of, like you can tell, like, who this was written for, and it's very apparent that, like,
06:34it was Morgan.
06:35Yeah, no doubt, and I mean, I just, me and Morgan have a certain crossover in our music sound, but.
06:45No, there's nothing wrong with it, and like, anybody writing songs for that, like, every writer in town wants Morgan
06:49to cut a song, so I totally get it.
06:51No doubt.
06:52There's been a couple that he passed up on that I've taken, and there's one on the record, it's funny,
06:59we, it's this song called Dreamer, and somehow we both put it on hold at the same time.
07:05Really?
07:06And I cut it, and he hadn't cut it yet, so I mean, I'm over at Styx Management, where he's
07:13at with Austin Neal and my manager Saxon's over there, and I just told Saxon, I was like, hit Austin
07:21up, tell him I cut this song, see what Morgan says.
07:23I was like, God, I hope he doesn't say he's going to take it, because I'm not going to like,
07:27and he was like, yeah, you can have it.
07:30That's nice.
07:31Yeah, I mean, it's a great song, and it's not necessarily, like, terribly, like, or it doesn't sound so much
07:40like Morgan that I couldn't cover it.
07:41You can't hear it another way.
07:42Yeah, no, totally, I always say, like, songs find the right home, like, they find the right person, and, like,
07:47sometimes there's crazy stories behind them, but, like, they always come from the person that they're supposed to.
07:52I also wanted to talk about your out on the Day I Hang It Up tour.
07:55What have been some of the highlights of this so far, because it looks like you're having a great time.
07:58Well, just selling out the biggest places I've ever played in my career.
08:04We played the biggest show of my career, the first date of the tour in Orange Beach, Alabama.
08:09It was 10,000 people, and that was awesome.
08:14We've traveled all around the whole United States.
08:17I mean, we've been anywhere from Oregon to Washington, California.
08:21We've been to Texas last weekend, coming back to the southeast, starting this weekend in Oxford and LSU, and it's
08:30just, it's been damn fun.
08:32It looks like it's been a lot of fun.
08:33And I was cracking up, because I saw a video the other day, and it's, like, a little girl who
08:37had that sign about, like, I bet I can lick my eye for an autograph.
08:40And she hopped up on stage, pulls out her prosthetic eye, licks it, puts it back in.
08:44And I was like, this can only happen in a Gavin Adcock concert.
08:48Yeah, I mean, it's gotten to the point where a bunch of little kids come to the show.
08:52And there's anywhere from four to 12 of them in the front row.
09:00And every show I take, before one song, I take five minutes.
09:05And I tell the security, I'm like, whatever one of these little kids wants to come up here and take
09:09a picture with me or say what's up, or I'll sign their hat, come on up here.
09:13And I get the crowd.
09:15I'll tell them, I'll say, all right, now, y'all been cheering all night, but I want y'all to
09:19cheer the loudest for these kids one time.
09:20And they erupt.
09:22But I saw that little girl, and she had that sign.
09:27And I was like, heck yeah, bring her up.
09:31Well, I looked at her, and I noticed she had two different colored eyes, but some people have that.
09:37Yeah, exactly.
09:37And I was just like, I didn't think anything about it.
09:39For some reason, I just thought she was going to have a long tongue.
09:42So did I.
09:43I was like, can't wait to see this.
09:44And I brought her up there, and I had her sign, and I told everybody to shout her out.
09:49And she was so nervous, shaking her hands.
09:51Oh my gosh, she's so cute.
09:53It was so sweet.
09:54And I was like, you want to show us?
09:56And she did not hesitate.
09:57And she popped her eyeball out, licked it, slammed it back in.
10:02And I mean, that was...
10:04That was one of those rock star things I feel like I've probably seen in a long time.
10:07I just love it because every little kid's got their insecurities or something that could probably make you just break
10:15as a little kid.
10:16But the fact that she owned up to it.
10:20And the people in my comments, they were like, imagine sinking the last cup of beer pong with your fake
10:27eyeball.
10:28Or that's going to be one hell of a party trick.
10:31Oh my God.
10:32I know.
10:32It was so funny.
10:33But it got me thinking, like I said, that could only happen in a Gavin Adcock show.
10:37What do you feel like are probably top three craziest moments that have happened either on this tour or in
10:42the last few years that stand out to you?
10:44That's in the top three.
10:46There's no doubt.
10:47That's in the top three.
10:49One guy got up there to propose without a ring.
10:54Oh no.
10:54And the girl said no on stage.
10:57And I was like...
10:58Is there a video of this?
10:59I've never seen this.
11:00It's somewhere out there.
11:01This was probably two years ago.
11:02Well, that just sets the precedent for if someone asks to do it later, you're like, I need to see
11:07a ring.
11:07And is she going to say yes?
11:09I've had some successful proposals up there as well.
11:12But that one was rough.
11:16Totally.
11:16I was like, I'll get off the stage.
11:18How do you even bring the vibe back up from that?
11:21No, I was like, we got to play the best song we got.
11:23I was like, we got to forget about that.
11:25And then we've had some stage jumpers before.
11:29And this guy in Kansas jumped the stage.
11:34And it was crazy.
11:35He looked like he was coming at me with bad intent.
11:37Like he wanted to tackle me or fight me or something.
11:41And I was like unfazed by it.
11:44But it was crazy because he was in the front row singing every single word.
11:50And then he started coming at me like a zombie on stage.
11:53And my security guard tackled him and put him in like a jujitsu move.
11:55Oh, my God.
11:57But those are probably top three.
11:59There's some more.
11:59Yeah, I'm sure they are.
12:01Probably not appropriate for air.
12:02But what would you say is in your tour survival kit?
12:06Like what stuff that you have to have with you on the bus?
12:11We got to keep a bunch of waters in case we get hung over the next day.
12:16In case.
12:17We like to stop at the legal states and pick up some pot.
12:24Jack Daniels for sure.
12:26Yep, always.
12:28And we always got an Xbox or something.
12:30We play a lot of NCAA football seasons back.
12:33And we've just been loving getting out there on Saturdays and just watching college game day.
12:38And then we watch all the games before the show.
12:41You played a bunch of shows on Morgan's stadium tour this year.
12:45And I'm very curious, like being inside of a stadium and being in front of that many people,
12:48like what were your biggest takeaways or things?
12:50Like you felt like you learned about yourself as a performer from doing those shows or learned from Morgan?
12:54Yeah, we started off playing places as big as this room.
13:01Maybe double the size.
13:02There'd be like 250 people there.
13:04Yeah.
13:05And those were your fans.
13:07And they sang every word.
13:08And it was awesome.
13:09We'd groan.
13:09Every time we'd headline somewhere, be like second to close on a festival or something,
13:14they'd be singing every word.
13:17And when you get in front of a crowd that big.
13:20And it happened two years ago, the first time we played the show with them.
13:24We get off the stage and the band members were like, oh, well, the crowd wasn't really into it as
13:29much as I wanted them to be.
13:30I was like, and I had to bring them in.
13:31I was like, look, guys, these are Morgan's fans.
13:35They don't know us.
13:36But they do now.
13:38Yeah.
13:38I was like.
13:39You're winning people right now.
13:41I love playing in front of a crowd.
13:43And most people don't.
13:44I love playing in front of a crowd that doesn't know me because that's the opportunity to gain a new
13:49fan.
13:52The best the best thing in the world is when they're singing every word, but they're already your fan.
13:56They're already there.
13:57You know, so I enjoy a challenge of going out there and winning people over.
14:02Yeah.
14:02Something I wanted to ask you about, because, you know, we've got our taxidermy collection out here on the wall.
14:06And you had the most incredible, like, end of tour gift for Morgan.
14:10Talk about what I think you called him Rufus.
14:12What was that thing?
14:13How did you find that?
14:14Oh, my God.
14:14It was like the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life.
14:16Well, I was trying to figure out what I'd get Morgan for an end of tour gift.
14:21And, you know, the man's the man's made of money.
14:24And, you know, you know, you can't have money.
14:28No, you can't have money.
14:30And, you know, I could get him something cliche.
14:33And, you know, I don't want to get him a guitar.
14:34I don't want to get him a driver for golf or something.
14:39So I just wanted to get him something that would really make him shook.
14:44Just so he will never forget the gift I got him.
14:48And I was scrolling on Instagram about three weeks before our last show.
14:53And this taxidermy page popped up.
14:55And I saw that.
14:57And I immediately DMed the guy.
14:58And I was like, hey, can you make me one of these before three weeks?
15:04And he was like, I don't know, man.
15:06I'm pretty backed up.
15:07I was like, I'm going to give it to Morgan for an end of tour gift.
15:10And he was like, I'll get on it.
15:12I'll get it to you tomorrow.
15:13I'll get it to you.
15:14It's funny because Shane Proffitt was in here recently.
15:16He's like, I have a piece of taxidermy for you.
15:18But he's like, but it's been there for a year and a half.
15:19It'll probably be already in six months.
15:20And I'm like, I didn't realize it took that long to get taxidermy.
15:23So, like, being able to get something in three weeks is a big deal.
15:25Yeah, no doubt.
15:26I mean, I killed a buck a couple years ago.
15:29It took about 11 months to get to me.
15:32That's so, I had no idea that they were that backed up.
15:35Yeah.
15:36That's crazy.
15:36This guy that did that, I think he just did it just for fun because he's a real taxidermist
15:42and does, like, full body mounts and everything, you know.
15:44But it was a buck ass with fake eagle claws, real turkey claws, his arms, and they pulled
15:56the tail back like a mohawk and put fangs, and then they put eyeballs right where the
16:00cheeks were.
16:02It is one of the funniest things I've ever seen in my life.
16:05Like, I really, good on you for that.
16:06That was a really good get.
16:08I wasn't there when I gave it to him.
16:10But he, Morgan texted me, he was like, you're fucked up, dude.
16:15He's like, I was like, good.
16:17That's what I was hoping your reaction would be.
16:19I was like, I know I am.
16:22I'm dead.
16:22That's so funny.
16:24Or Saxon, your manager, to tell me that there is an IOU that you have some taxidermist you're
16:28going to bring in.
16:28So, I'm very excited about that.
16:30I'm going to bring you one.
16:31I hope so.
16:31My goal is that, like, one day the Country Music Hall of Fame is like, can we take this
16:34as an exhibit?
16:35And, like, that's where all that goes.
16:36That would be awesome.
16:37For a brief period of time, right?
16:39I wanted to talk a little bit about beginning of your career, because, like, you know, you
16:44have really been grinding the last five years.
16:46Like, 2021, you have this knee injury, and, like, your music career happens.
16:52Do you think that, like, without that injury, music still finds you?
16:56Or, like, what do you think would have happened?
16:58I think it still finds me, but not at the time and the rate that it was going to happen
17:05if it didn't happen.
17:06People say, I go, yeah, I tore my knee up playing football.
17:09They go, oh, I'm so sorry.
17:10And I go, no.
17:11It's the best thing that ever happened to me.
17:13And they look at me kind of funny.
17:15And it is.
17:16And chugging the beer on top of the bus is the best thing that ever happened to me.
17:19And I've done a good job of, and this old man told me one time, he said, you're going
17:25to have some terrible things happen to you over your career.
17:29You've got to make the best out of the worst situations.
17:33Yeah.
17:33And I feel like I've done a good job of taking that advice and making the best out of every
17:38situation I've ever been in.
17:39Yeah, truly.
17:40When you think about, like, because probably in that moment, like, when you tore up your
17:42knee, like, you had to think, like, what now?
17:45Like, is everything over?
17:46Like, what am I going to do?
17:47Like, that had to be, like, a really tough time.
17:48Well, it was like a God thing, because I'd hit up a buddy that I'd played a little guitar
17:54with in high school that Sunday.
17:58And I said, what are you doing on Wednesday?
18:01And I thought he'd be working.
18:02He was like, nothing.
18:03I was like, well, you want to come down to Georgia Southern and play some guitar?
18:07And he was like, yeah.
18:10So that Tuesday, we're at practice, and I tear my knee up.
18:15And he comes down the next day, and we're just sitting there picking and playing covers
18:19and just hanging out.
18:22And the night after I tore my knee up, I made my Instagram sitting on a recliner, and I just
18:26gave an ad cop music.
18:28I started posting covers, and I started writing originals, and then took off from there.
18:33I mean, if you scroll to the bottom of my Instagram, you could see all them cover videos
18:36still.
18:36That's so wild.
18:37How old were you when you realized that, like, you could sing and you could sing better than
18:41most people?
18:44Probably somewhere between 8 to 12 years old.
18:46Really?
18:46I was in the car.
18:49And I mean, whoever was playing on the radio at the time, for some reason, I wanted to
18:55hit the notes they were hitting.
18:57And I don't, I'm not, I'm not into music theory.
19:01I know, like, the basics of it enough to obviously write a song and get in the studio.
19:07But I would sing and hit the same notes as the country singers, the rock singers in the
19:13car that I was listening to.
19:14And at some point, some of my family members or friends were like, wow, you sound really
19:20good.
19:21And I was like, so shy about it.
19:23No, I just blew it off for years and years and years.
19:26And I love to sing.
19:28And I, it was always a dream.
19:30But like, I was like, I want to be a bull rider.
19:32I want to be an NFL football player, or I want to be a country music star.
19:36I just had those three things that was, it was like, those are my big dreams.
19:39And at a young age, and how the industry was at the time, it seemed impossible in my mind
19:45to figure out a way to break in.
19:47It is, it's, I mean, it is a really tough thing.
19:49And I feel like it's like amazing to think about, like, you know, the way that you came
19:53up singing covers and Instagram and like being found that way is just like such a cool story,
19:57Gavin.
19:57Yeah, it was just, social media was a blessing to anybody that's popped off in the past six
20:03years.
20:04Yeah.
20:04I mean, it's, it, it changed the game.
20:06And at first I didn't want to be a social media artist until you make that one post and
20:12you look the next day and your numbers are moving and you're like, I think I can do a
20:17little bit of this.
20:18But I think the thing that's different about you is that like a lot of times you watch like
20:21these artists get signed from like TikTok or Instagram or something like that.
20:25And they haven't spent the years out on the road, like cutting their teeth and it's just
20:29like harder for them.
20:30But I feel like you are such a road warrior and you are out winning fans over one by one
20:35in
20:35person as well as online.
20:38And I think that that is just like, just keep doing that.
20:40Like you are doing all the right things.
20:41Well, we didn't, we didn't sign a record deal until two years into my career.
20:48I think I had a couple million monthly listeners on Spotify and I had this, this mindset of I'm
20:56going to make it on my own and look at the money coming in and look what we're getting paid
21:00for
21:00shows and go, if I kept doing my thing, could I live a happy life, be financially stable and, and
21:10do
21:10this the rest of my life at this rate, regardless of how big I got.
21:13If I could stay here, grow just slightly, I'll be happy.
21:17And when I got to that point, I decided I wanted to make it bigger.
21:21So I came to town and, and got a record deal and, and, uh, it's been a great past three
21:29or four years doing that as well.
21:31Yeah.
21:31That's been amazing.
21:32Before we wrap up, I want to ask you one last question.
21:34This is brought to us by Bob's Discount Furniture.
21:36So everybody has like that, oh my moment in their career where you're like, oh, things
21:39are working and like, this is clicking.
21:41And like, what, what do you think has been one of those recent moments for you?
21:45Or we're just like, oh my God, I can't believe this is happening.
21:49Just letting out new music and really everybody wants to fight everybody else.
21:57Everybody wants to be like, let me compare myself to this person, compare myself to this
22:01person and this person and this artist, how they're doing.
22:04But it's just compete to me.
22:06It's just competing with myself at this level because everybody's got their own lane, their
22:10own path, their own way.
22:11They made it and I love seeing the new songs that I drop move in front of some of the
22:20legendary
22:20songs of my career that I've dropped.
22:23And they, I drop one and then a week or two later, they're singing them at the shows still.
22:28And there's, everybody gets to the point in their career where they're not going to best
22:33their greatest song of all time.
22:35So to continue to have that success as we're in the album for, it's been an awesome moment.
22:43That's awesome.
22:44Well, this album, amazing.
22:45Thank you so much for coming to see us and talk to us about it.
22:49I'm so excited to see how everyone reacts to this.
22:50There's so many great songs on here, Gavin.
22:52You should be very proud.
22:52Thank you so much.
22:53Gavin Edcock.