Fred: I am enjoying music now more than I ever have. In the end, it’s seriously all about work. We work and work hard. If someone forks up 20 to 30 bucks to see our band, we’re going to bring it. 

​Cowboy Mouth guitar picks... preferred by rockers and golfers worldwide.

​Q: There are two very different versions of "Man On The Run". There is the one on the album "Are You With Me?" that you play in concert with Cowboy Mouth, and then there is the version from your "Apples and Onions" solo album that you play in solo shows. Did you intentionally create that song to be so versatile?

JTG: No. I was trying to find a way to play it live, acoustically, by myself. And I just felt like strumming it really hard didn't hit the nerve like when the band plays it.

Years ago I went on an acoustic duo tour with Fred. I watched the way he took his songs and rearranged them, so that when he played acoustic, he did them a little bit differently. Not every song, but most of them.

I spent the whole second day of the tour in my hotel room rewriting everything in my set. I sat there all day and thought, "How can I redo this song? How can I make this more interesting? How can I make this more poignant?" I rearranged "Everybody Loves Jill", "Man On The Run", "I Know It Shows". It was a turning point in my acoustic life.

​Hey, North Texas! Thanks so much for such a wonderful night! Feels GREAT to be playing again!

Fred: So the big, giant, crazy joygasm that is a Cowboy Mouth show, you put that out there and people run with it and every once in a while, a pretty kickass little miracle happens. 

​JTG: With songwriting, usually I start with a title and I try to write around that title. Sometimes I will do stream of consciousness writing, where you close your eyes, visualize a scene, and try to describe it in a way that fits your melody. Or sometimes I will start with a drum beat, because that gives me a feel, a groove. Those are really important. To me, if you don't have a groove or a feel, you are flying blind.

​Fred: A band is not just a group of musicians. It is a group of musicians at a certain moment in their lives. John, Paul, George and Ringo in 1964 would have sounded completely different than John, Paul, George, and Ringo in 1978. 

But there is also that musical DNA thing that musicians have. Everybody's place within the note is how they define themselves as musicians. Some drummers rush the beat. I rush the beat. I am on top of the beat all the time. Some drummers, like Ringo or John Bonham, they lay back. 

Check out our new single, 'The Things You Wanted To Do'!

July 30th at The Main Course in Columbia, SC! Tickets at https://smarturl.it/CM-July30-2021