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Joe Rogan Experience #2386 - The Red Clay Strays

Brandon Coleman, Andy Bishop, and Drew Nix are members of country rock group The Red Clay Strays. Catch them in 2025 on the Get Right tour, and look for their most recent album, "Live at the Ryman," anywhere music is sold. https://www.redclaystrays.com Get a free welcome kit with your first subscription of AG1 at https://drinkag1.com/joerogan This video is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://BetterHelp.com/JRE

Brandon ColemanguestJoe RoganhostDrew NixguestAndy BishopguestBand member / associate (likely touring or former member mentioned, e.g., Ethan from Paw Paw's Medicine Cabinet)guest
Sep 30, 20252h 24mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

  1. 0:00 – 1:40

    Podcast life, comments, and the band’s running jokes

    1. NA

      (drum roll) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

    2. NA

      The Joe Rogan Experience.

    3. BC

      Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. (rock music) Well, I mean, we haven't done many podcasts but, uh, we were on Theo's last year, and, uh, it -you know, Theo's gets a lot of engagement, a lot of views. Ours didn't do too well. I think Bertcast did all right.

    4. JR

      I -you gotta not pay attention.

    5. BC

      I know, I don't.

    6. JR

      You do not pay attention. Don't pay attention to numbers, don't pay attention to shit. Don't read the comments.

    7. DN

      That's where I messed up.

    8. BC

      (laughs)

    9. DN

      I got called a lesbian so many times.

    10. BC

      Yeah, they let Andrew off with the comments? (laughs)

    11. JR

      He said mustached lesbian. (laughs)

    12. DN

      Mustached lesbian? (laughs)

    13. BC

      Where'd that come from?

    14. JR

      What, he's like, "He looks like Matthew McConaughey." I don't know.

    15. DN

      Well, it's, uh, might be the chain.

    16. JR

      Maybe.

    17. DN

      That, that looks very lesbian-esque.

    18. BC

      (laughs)

    19. DN

      My sister-in-law made...

    20. JR

      It's not, it's not a bad one. It's not bad. There's nothing wrong with being a lesbian.

    21. AB

      It's not that bad. (laughs)

    22. DN

      (laughs) No, nothing's wrong with being a lesbian.

    23. JR

      (laughs)

    24. DN

      I'm just a heterosexual male.

    25. BC

      That's all-

    26. JR

      With a wonderful mustache.

    27. BC

      I went back to the comments last night and, uh-

    28. DN

      Oh.

    29. AB

      Oh, don't do that.

    30. BC

      I did. And somebody was like, uh, "Andrew, come on, man. Don't sit with your legs crossed." That was just the latest one. Was there-

  2. 1:40 – 2:42

    Touring grind: burnout, schedules, and life on the road

    1. JR

      So, are you g- you guys are, you were telling me you're kind of burnt right now. So, you guys are fully on the road right now.

    2. BC

      Oh, yeah. I say that and then, and then the next moment I'm walking around, I'm just like, "Dang, this is fun." But yeah, we're just ... But usually about this time of the year, uh, where we have a couple more months left, it's like, "Man, we're almost done. Get to be home for a while more than two days at a time."

    3. JR

      How long have you guys been on the road for?

    4. BC

      This year? Or just in general?

    5. JR

      Well, all t- all told.

    6. BC

      Uh, we started touring in Andrew's Acadia in 2018.

    7. JR

      And has it been flat out since then?

    8. BC

      Pretty much. I mean, we'd usually-

    9. JR

      Just a few little breaks?

    10. BC

      Yeah. We, well, I mean, we'd break in December for Christmas. Um ...

    11. AB

      Geez.

    12. BC

      And, uh, but it's gotten better. This year, we started touring in July, which was good, 'cause we usually start, um, we would usually start in I- April or May.

    13. AB

      When did, when did you end? So ...

    14. BC

      We, we end in December.

    15. AB

      Oh, okay.

    16. BC

      Yeah.

    17. AB

      That's not too bad.

    18. BC

      No. Not this...

    19. DN

      Well, this last year, we started in March with Canada.

    20. BC

      Yeah, Canada. But that was, like, a month. That didn't really count.

  3. 2:42 – 3:13

    Origins of The Red Clay Strays: early gigs, cover bands, and learning by failing

    1. JR

      How long have you guys been together all told?

    2. BC

      We got, so, we g- this, Red Clay Strays got together, uh, in December 2016. But before that, uh, Drew was the manager of a cover band and Andrew was the bass player in the cover band. And, um ...

    3. JR

      What, what were you guys covering?

    4. AB

      Everything.

    5. BC

      The good stuff.

    6. AB

      Yeah, just blues, just, like, really bad blues.

    7. JR

      (laughs)

    8. AB

      Yeah, we used to run people out.

    9. BC

      Mostly, yeah. And country.

    10. AB

      Yeah.

    11. JR

      And how did you guys all get together?

  4. 3:13 – 7:22

    DIY management: Post-it notes, cold calls, and building a career from scratch

    1. BC

      Um, I met Drew, um, through the- a mutual friend. Uh, we were working out in the gym together. I was in high school. And Drew, um, this guy was like, "Hey, man, I'm, I got a buddy. He's kinda, he's kinda down on his luck. He's, like, squatting in my dorm and, uh, I wanna give him something to do." (laughs)

    2. JR

      (laughs)

    3. AB

      Aw.

    4. BC

      I wanna give him something to do. So, uh...

    5. AB

      I didn't think I was down on that, down on my luck that bad.

    6. JR

      Nobody ever does, man. Nobody ever does.

    7. AB

      Dang, dude.

    8. BC

      I'm just repeating what I heard.

    9. AB

      (laughs)

    10. BC

      And, uh, yeah, so Drew had never done anything like that. He had never booked or wasn't, he was trying to be a middle school teacher/football coach. That's what he was going to college for.

    11. JR

      (laughs)

    12. BC

      And, um ...

    13. AB

      Why middle school? Uh, high school, college. That's what, that was the goal.

    14. BC

      I know, but ...

    15. JR

      Realistically. (laughs)

    16. BC

      Never had any... (laughs)

    17. AB

      That's just where I was gonna land, 10-4. (laughs)

    18. BC

      (laughs)

    19. JR

      (laughs)

    20. AB

      (laughs)

    21. BC

      Never done anything in the business though and he just, like, "I'm..." What did you say? He's like, "I'm gonna, I'm gonna do everything I can to help you make it." And, uh, I was like 18 and he was like 22, 23. And he had us playing in every single bar on the Gulf Coast and, uh, we didn't know anything about the business either. So, the, the manager booking agent fee is, you know, 15%. We didn't know about that so we cut him in evenly.

    22. JR

      Oh, boy.

    23. BC

      Yeah. And, uh, so he'd show up and drink beer at our shows and he'd al- he'd always be at our practices and he was fully committed. And so, he got an even cut and then he, he ended up turning his life around and he was able to scoot around and buy burgers.

    24. JR

      Damn.

    25. BC

      And not be down on your luck anymore.

    26. AB

      Hallelujah.

    27. BC

      I think that's impressive. Never done anything like that and you stepped up and became a legitimate booking agent and a legitimate manager.

    28. AB

      Yeah, I mean, I just saw something on you that was incredible. And I was like, "All right. Well, what do I need to do to get this guy in front of people?" And I just, I would sit and, like, I worked for the equipment staff at South Alabama and I would sit in the equipment room between washing jockstraps and, like, you know, setting up cone drills or whatever and just, like, put Post-It Notes up on the wall and just write numbers down and just call these people until, like, somebody picked up. (laughs) Or, like, "Hey," like, "What's the email for booking?" or whatever. And I'd just book as much as I could and ...

    29. JR

      So, it was basically just learning on the job, trying to figure it out as you go ...

    30. AB

      Yeah.

  5. 7:22 – 12:55

    Finding the right lineup: drummer auditions, chemistry, and band conflict management

    1. BC

      and, uh, that's when we started holding auditions. And we were gonna audition this one guy, and he flaked, uh, he couldn't make the audition. We rescheduled him, and he couldn't make the audition again, and then we were like ... How did we get in touch with John? What, when did we audition him?

    2. BC

      Uh, there's a, um, Ethan, uh, who was in Paw Paw's Medicine Cabinet.

    3. BC

      Yeah.

    4. BC

      Uh, I reached out to him. I was like, "Man, I, I know you play drums." That, that was the best band in town at the time. I was like, "I know you play drums. You probably know a good bit of drummers. Like, you know anybody who could use some work?" And, uh, he, uh ... John was playing in a band called Ryan Dyer Band back home, and he said, uh, "John just, they just separated from that band, so, uh, John's available. You should get him for a tryout." And I was like, "Hey, dude, you want to come play with us or whatever?" And he showed up blaring Skynyrd in a ... with him and his brother (laughs) in like an SUV or something.

    5. JR

      (laughs)

    6. BC

      Yeah, we had-

    7. BC

      We were like, "This is going to work."

    8. BC

      We had the auditions in, uh, Citronelle, Alabama, which is like up in the sticks, and he didn't have a phone.

    9. JR

      (laughs)

    10. BC

      Um, so he's like, "Meet me at the Hardee's at like, you know, 6:30," or whatever time it was, 'cause he di- we couldn't call him once he left his house. (laughs) And, uh, so Andrew left ... You were driving the Firebird at the time.

    11. BC

      Yeah.

    12. BC

      He left it in the Firebird and, and met him and brought him back, and we auditioned him then. And the audition went great. He showed up with his, with his brother, who, uh, played piano. And, um, his brother wasn't trying to join the band, but his brother just played with us. And, uh, just the first song we played, we, we tried him out with a, an original that we were working on, which was a terrible song also, but, um ...

    13. JR

      (laughs)

    14. BC

      Yeah.

    15. BC

      Andrew and John locked in immediately and just, they hit the, all the pauses together, and I just remember still being blown away by that, just how quickly y'all locked in. And, um, and it still shows today on stage, their, their chemistry. They're just, they've got some kind of telekinetic thing going on, I think, 'cause they-

    16. BC

      I think the big thing was coming from that old man drummer.

    17. BC

      (laughs)

    18. BC

      And then that's the first time I've ever played with like a, a real drummer besides my own dad.

    19. BC

      His name was Ray.

    20. BC

      And me and John, I mean, we can, we s- it's really weird how, when we first started, like, we can, we know a l- a lot when we played in those bars, it was improvised. You know, we're playing covers. We're not even playing them the right way. And we can hit those pauses without even looking at each other.

    21. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    22. BC

      Like, we just know what each other's gonna do. So as a bass player, your drummer's your best friend. Even though we were ... me and John probably butt heads more than anybody in the band, but-

    23. BC

      (laughs)

    24. BC

      ... that's the relationship.

    25. JR

      That is a big part of the problem with a band, is that you guys just get on each other's nerves, right?

    26. BC

      Uh, I mean, just like any other-

    27. JR

      Yeah.

    28. BC

      I mean, we're just like brothers. Like-

    29. JR

      'Cause well, it's a group of guys, and you're traveling-

    30. BC

      Yeah.

  6. 12:55 – 27:50

    Naming the band and staying together: humility, faith, and avoiding ego traps

    1. JR

      Who came up with the name?

    2. DN

      My brother.

    3. JR

      Oh, really?

    4. DN

      Yeah, of all of... It's not an interesting story at all.

    5. JR

      No?

    6. DN

      We get asked all the time. No, we were at a, just in that first stage of... Like, coming up with a band name is the hardest thing in the world. And we had nothing really we, that we liked. We had the- the Dirt, the Dirt Leg Trio.

    7. BC

      Mm-hmm.

    8. DN

      Brandon Lane and the Hurricane.

    9. BC

      Yeah. That's my middle name, Brandon Lane. And then-

    10. DN

      And then he shot that over.

    11. BC

      Yeah. And I didn't like Red Clay Strays y- ... I don't think any of us did.

    12. JR

      Brandon Lane and the Hurricane sounds good too.

    13. BC

      Yeah.

    14. DN

      Yeah. We're only on-

    15. JR

      I might have voted-

    16. DN

      ... gold coasts.

    17. BC

      Yeah (laughs) .

    18. JR

      (laughs)

    19. DN

      When Drew came up with that one.

    20. BC

      I like that. But Red Clay Strays is great too.

    21. DN

      Yeah.

    22. BC

      That was...

    23. DN

      Yeah.

    24. BC

      Yeah, that's good. You have two great ones to choose from. Uh, if I need to start another band, I- I have it in the chamber. (laughs)

    25. DN

      Wow.

    26. BC

      Talk about that another time.

    27. DN

      (laughs)

    28. JR

      (laughs)

    29. BC

      I'm just kidding.

    30. JR

      God, hopefully not.

  7. 27:50 – 29:48

    Music as lifeline: depressed fans, suicide messages, and purpose beyond touring

    1. BC

      Well, we do stray, to play on our name a little bit, I think we, we do stray a little bit from the industry. Um, 'cause our fan base is a lot of sad people, a lot of depressed people, a lot of people who, you know, are suicidal. Um, so, and we make music for that fan base, I guess. And you're not going to hear that at, like, a country music festival on the beach.

    2. JR

      How do you know that about your fans?

    3. BC

      We get messages every day.

    4. JR

      Oh, yeah.

    5. AB

      Tons.

    6. BC

      We, um ... And sometimes they email, email our agents and stuff. We had one lady who sent us an email saying, uh, she decided to off herself, take a lot of pills, and she wanted to go to sleep listening to music. Well, um, as she was laying there waiting to take the big nap, um, she ... Our, our song I'm Still Fine came on and it kind of, you know, s- snapped her out of it a little bit. And she started crying and immediately regretted it, and got up and called her sister and told her sister what she had just did. And they rushed her to the hospital and did whatever at the hospital for someone who takes a lot of pills at once, and saved her life pretty much. And, uh, she's-

    7. JR

      Wow.

    8. BC

      Yeah, it was so moving. And, um, that's what really makes it worth it for us, 'cause touring is a lot. Touring sucks a lot of the times. And if we were just doing it to be popular or to be famous or to be relevant, make money, I'd ... I don't think it-

    9. JR

      (clears throat)

    10. BC

      That's enough to keep me going, 'cause-

    11. JR

      Hmm.

    12. BC

      ... being on the road is very hard.

    13. JR

      Yeah.

    14. BC

      What, what keeps us going is those stories and seeing how our music at our ... at the concerts, seeing how our music affects people, uh, and helps them in a positive way. And so, I don't know, that's, that's just where we get our fulfillment from.

    15. JR

      What do you think is about your music that appeals to people that aren't feeling good?

  8. 29:48 – 32:43

    COVID survival and Uber stories: money pressure, odd rides, and hospitals using Uber

    1. BC

      A lot of it came from us not feeling good. Uh, Drew and my brother Matthew are the main writers for the band. And, um, uh, you know, they just ... Our song Drowning, Drew wrote that during COVID when we were driving for Uber trying to keep the bills paid. We were ... My goal was to make 100 bucks a day for Uber. And, uh, driving for Uber in Mobile, Alabama sucks. Uh, I'd have to do, like, 12, 14 hours a day to get that. And then most-

    2. JR

      To get 100 bucks?

    3. BC

      Yeah. And then most of the time spent-

    4. JR

      So that was just five years ago?

    5. BC

      Yeah.

    6. AB

      Mm-hmm.

    7. JR

      Wow.

    8. BC

      Yeah. And we were locally famous at the time, so I was picking up people and they went, "Oh my God, Reclay Strays."

    9. JR

      (laughs)

    10. AB

      (laughs)

    11. BC

      "Yeah, man, get, get in."

    12. AB

      "Hop in." (laughs)

    13. JR

      Really?

    14. AB

      I don't want to talk about it. (laughs)

    15. JR

      (laughs)

    16. AB

      Make sure to leave a tip.

    17. BC

      That's-

    18. AB

      Dude.

    19. BC

      That's crazy. I, I picked up, like ... And I, I was driving a Hyundai Sonata, and I had to ... I picked up, like, five Black dudes, they wanted to get in the Hyundai Sonata to go to the stripper club.

    20. AB

      (laughs)

    21. BC

      And I was like, "Y'all can't ... Like, all five of y'all can't fit in here. I can only take, like, four at the most." So they had to leave one behind. (laughs) And I had to take them, like, 30 minutes across town. That's what Mobile is, everything is, like, a 30-minute drive. And so I took them 30 minutes across town to the stripper club. There's some very interesting...... people at nighttime who get Ubers, just so you know.

    22. NA

      Mm-hmm.

    23. JR

      I'm sure.

    24. BC

      Yeah.

    25. JR

      And they probably wanna talk to you.

    26. BC

      Sometimes. The worst was people with bad BO.

    27. JR

      Oh.

    28. NA

      Mm.

    29. DN

      Get in your car with bad BO?

    30. BC

      Yeah.

  9. 32:43 – 41:10

    From medicine as business to the weird internet: body-mod rabbit holes and “what are we doing?”

    1. JR

      Well, one thing I found out during COVID that, it sounds so stupid that I didn't know this, but hospitals are private businesses.

    2. DN

      Mm-hmm.

    3. BC

      Mm-hmm.

    4. JR

      I used to... This is how naive I was. I was like, "Well, doctors, they go to universities, they do it so that they can become the best doctor they can, and then they work for these hospitals that are set up so that all the people in the city have medical care, and this is, like, part of the city services." I, I really believed that.

    5. NA

      (laughs)

    6. BC

      (laughs)

    7. JR

      I really thought that. And then I have some friends that are doctors, and they would tell me, "No, no, no, not only that, you're incentivized. You're incentivized to push certain medications, you're incentivized to do surgeries that maybe people don't need, and you have to challenge your own ethics, because you, you'll be talked into doing surgeries that this guy, you kinda could justify, but really he shouldn't get it." I'm like, "Oh, fuck, man. Really?" And then, you know, I've had friends that left and started their own practices because of this, 'cause they tell you. Like, you just, at the end of the day, you're like, "Why did I go to school?" Like, I thought I was going to school because I wanted to learn medicine because I thought that would be a really fascinating way to make a living and very rewarding. You're helping people that are injured, that are sick. And then he got just enlightened to, like, what the business really is, so it's just about numbers.

    8. BC

      Yeah.

    9. NA

      Mm-hmm.

    10. BC

      And-

    11. JR

      He got sick.

    12. BC

      ... Instagram reels will scare you, too, with all that stuff.

    13. JR

      Oh, dude, I went down, down a rabbit hole last night. (sighs) Just sitting in my bed. I shouldn't have done this.

    14. NA

      (laughs)

    15. BC

      (laughs)

    16. JR

      It was, like, nine o'clock. There's no reason for me to look at dick lengthening videos.

    17. DN

      (laughs)

    18. NA

      What?

    19. JR

      It just popped up on Instagram, you know, in, like, the For You section.

    20. BC

      Yeah, dude. (laughs)

    21. DN

      Stay away from that For You section. (laughs)

    22. NA

      What's up?

    23. JR

      I didn't ask for it. I don't know what happened.

    24. DN

      How many videos did you watch after that?

    25. JR

      Oh, I watched a lot of them.

    26. NA

      (laughs)

    27. JR

      I watched hours worth of- It's fucking horrific, man. Three-

    28. DN

      You get three inches of hidden penis. Everybody's done it.

    29. JR

      It's not just that, man. It's like they're... These guys are getting these things put in their dicks so that their dicks are thicker.

    30. NA

      (laughs)

  10. 41:10 – 1:02:11

    Genetics and the future: CRISPR, artificial wombs, ethics, and human bonding

    1. JR

      He was doing sprinting and plyometrics. Some people have do it, but I don't think he gained six inches. This guy gained, like, half a foot. Look, they're gonna get to the point where, with CRISPR, they're just gonna edit your genes, and there's gonna be no normal looking people anymore.

    2. BC

      Yeah.

    3. DN

      Like, all the interesting personality quirks that you have to develop because you got a weird chin, like, all that shit's gonna go away.

    4. JR

      It's getting weird, man.

    5. DN

      They're trying to get rid of Down syndrome.

    6. BC

      Yeah.

    7. DN

      I mean...

    8. JR

      Well, probably be a good idea.

    9. DN

      That wouldn't be terrible.

    10. JR

      Listen. I mean, there's nothing wrong-

    11. BC

      I mean, I don't mind it.

    12. JR

      With... They're sweet people. You know, my friend, Shane, he's got family members that are Down syndrome, and-

    13. DN

      Mm-hmm.

    14. JR

      ... he loves them very dearly. But if you could do that and they would be normal functioning members of society, that would be a better thing. Just better for the world.

    15. BC

      They'll have to delete that gene?

    16. JR

      Yeah.

    17. BC

      Or whatever it is.

    18. DN

      Just man- yeah, manipulate it.

    19. JR

      They're gonna be able to do that. They're gonna be able to do a lot of things.

    20. DN

      Then we're gonna be birthing super babies once they... Like, you know, uh, things usually always seem like they start good, and then they go really bad.

    21. JR

      Well-

    22. DN

      And then we're creating superhumans in the womb.

    23. JR

      We're at the cusp of some really, really wild shit with AI and with genetic engineering and oth-

    24. BC

      But China, they're... I've heard... I read something where they can, like... They're trying to grow babies in an artificial womb now.

    25. JR

      Mm-hmm.

    26. DN

      See, that's where-

    27. JR

      Yeah.

    28. DN

      That's where ethics gets a little weird, 'cause then you're playing, you're playing God then.

    29. JR

      Well, there's something that happens. There's communication between the mother and the child-

    30. BC

      Mm-hmm.

  11. 1:02:11 – 1:29:20

    UFOs, angels, and ancient texts: Chris Bledsoe, Book of Enoch, and flood history

    1. BC

      Well, the alien thing is-

    2. JR

      It wouldn't be aliens, but it'd be cool.

    3. BC

      ... the alien thing is just another interesting topic. Like, you see, you, I'll get random, there's random times where people are seeing all these crazy things in the sky, and, uh, it's like a big deal for a few days, and then you don't really talk about it anymore. Did you see the, that one thing that lady was filming? She was like, "Hi. Do you know Jesus?"

    4. JR

      (laughs)

    5. BC

      And the wheels were like going crazy.

    6. JR

      No. What is that?

    7. BC

      Yeah. It was like a-

    8. JR

      It's also hard to know what's real.

    9. BC

      Yeah. I know. It's 'cause of AI.

    10. JR

      Oh, AI. Yeah. You know?

    11. BC

      Yeah. See, and it, the interesting thing about that, though, is it, somebody in the Bible described seeing something, uh, one of the angels or something-

    12. JR

      Ezekiel.

    13. BC

      Yeah. And, uh, the wheels on wheels.

    14. JR

      The wheel within a wheel. Yeah.

    15. BC

      And that's what this thing was, and she said, "Do you know Jesus?" And then it, the wheels would just start spinning really, really fast.

    16. JR

      Yeah.

    17. BC

      And I was like, "Whoa, man. I hope that was real. That's pretty cool."

    18. JR

      Oh, man, uh, is this it?

    19. BC

      Look. Yeah.

    20. JR

      That looks like a rocket launch.

    21. NA

      I know I can, but my fingers don't work.

    22. JR

      She says-

    23. NA

      I'm sorry, guys.

    24. JR

      She zooms in on an orb and speaks to it.

    25. NA

      Sorry, guys.

    26. JR

      And she says, "Jesus loves me." She definitely have an Android. Look how fucking cheery it is. Yeah. (laughs) It's gonna, it's gonna turn into the moon here in a second. Watch. Well, that's the thing if you zoom in on stuff, it, uh, especially stuff through the atmosphere-

    27. NA

      That's kind of cool.

    28. JR

      ... things look very blurry. Like, if you zoom in on stars, they totally look like they're some sort of a fucking spaceship.

    29. BC

      It, yeah, see how it-

    30. JR

      But it's just a star.

Episode duration: 2:24:07

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