Name: Travis Tritt | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #327
Uploaded: 2021-03-05T14:00:22.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Travis Tritt | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #327' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-03-05. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Travis Tritt | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #327' from Theo Von on Comedy Buff. Published 2021-03-05. Transcript available.

Travis Tritt | This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von #327

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Today's guest is, well, he's a soundtrack of a lot of lives, many lives.
And he's, I mean, just a real archipelago of talent.
You know, I really, my God, I just, well, you'll hear all about it.
I'm honored to be able to be in his presence today and to have a conversation
with the musical superhero, Mr. Travis Tritt.
Shine that light on me
I'll sit and tell you my stories
Shine on me
And I will find a song
I'll be singing just for me
And how's it been like having kids?
Like, was it hard to go from, like, being a kid?
Because I feel like with fame and popularity, there's this, you know, and I can't
imagine your position.
In my position, I noticed a little bit there's more opportunity to stay a kid.
Yeah, right.
Things are just, you know, life, there's more fun going on.
You're part of the fun.
You're bringing the fun.
Was it hard to go from that to, like, wanting to be, like, a parent and getting
into that vibe?
Like, was that ever a thing?
It, you know, it was a process.
It, I got married right out of high school and did what everybody else did.
You either did one of two things.
You either went to college, which that wasn't an option for me.
Damn, no judgment, bro.
You know what I'm saying?
College is hard.
Exactly.
Or you got married and went to work.
So I got married to my high school sweetheart and went to work for heating and
air conditioning wholesale company down in Georgia.
So was that age factor, were you getting in the attics or were you just selling
the equipment?
No, I was selling the equipment.
Okay.
But I was also going to school, like, two or three times a year to find out all
of the, you know, updated products and kind of be a troubleshooter, you know,
for all the products.
So I did that and I started out on the docks loading trucks and worked my way
up to manager of the store for, in about 18 months.
Dang.
And were you a hard worker?
Yeah.
I mean, well, that's right around that same time is when I started wanting to
play music as well.
And so that marriage lasted for about two and a half years.
And as soon as that marriage was over, I started playing clubs at night and
then six days a week, Monday through Saturday.
And then I would play.
I would go and get up the next morning and go and do my gig.
So that nearly killed me.
Even though I was very young, it nearly killed me.
Just those hours.
And do you think if you had stayed married in that first marriage, would you
think you would have had the same career?
Was there inspiration that came out of getting a separation at that young age?
Was it, were you just too young to even be able to put any of that, any of
those feelings into music?
Did any?
I wouldn't even have thought about it probably at that particular time.
Thought about music?
Yeah.
As a full-time gig.
I mean, I played occasionally with, you know, I had a little band that I played
with, you know, every now and then, but not very often.
And I was kind of, my wife at the time, she kind of discouraged me from doing
that, too, because, you know, when you're a new, young couple, you don't want
your husband out traveling around all over the place, man.
And it's not even, look, doing a live performance, it's not a real job to
people until you start to really make it, I feel like.
That's right.
I mean, until then, you're just a really, you're just somebody who's trying to
break up marriages around the area.
I feel like, like, people are like, this shit is a little strange.
That's a good analogy.
It really is.
But that whole thing just, it just worked out.
And I did, I did the day job and the night job for, oh, I don't know, several,
eight months, maybe.
And I started realizing that I was having more fun at my night job than I was
at my day job.
And oddly enough, I was making more money at my night job than I was at my day
job.
So I went back to my vice president and said, look, you know, if I don't take
this shot now, I'll never know.
I'll end up being an old man one day and I'll never know whether or not I could
have made it in the music industry.
So I quit that job and never looked back.
Was there a person that kind of, like, chatted with you and influenced you?
My best friend Scott's dad, actually, he introduced me to Jerry Clower, who I
was telling you about.
He's one of my favorite comedians.
And just a storyteller.
You know, I just miss, so often now, everything's glanced over the art of
storytelling.
And it's all just like, almost like everything's an equation of what sells, you
know.
And Jerry Clower just did it.
He just put me in a comfortable place.
But my friend, my best friend, when I was young, his dad was from Mississippi,
and he introduced me to Jerry Clower.
And then he said to me one day, I said, you know, I think about doing stand-up
comedy.
And he goes, well, you have to go do it.
You know, you have to go and take that chance because otherwise, your life will
be there.
You can always come back, you know.
Absolutely.
Was there anybody like that that kind of, or was it just you playing that kind
of influenced you to keep moving?
The vice president of the heating and air conditioning wholesale company that I
told you about, he also was a really good guitar player.
And he had had, of course, it was kind of a family business, and his whole
family, his dad had been president of the company, and they had groomed him to
basically do that.
But when he was very young, I think he had an offer from Carlos Santana to go
out on the road and play guitar with Carlos Santana.
That's huge.
He's wonderful.
And he passed it up.
And so when I went to him and told him about what my dreams were, he's like,
man, do it.
Because he said, I will be that guy in my rocking chair at however old, 80
years old, wondering, man, I wonder if I could have made it in the music
industry.
And he gave me, he also gave me kind of a safety net because he said, look, man,
if it doesn't work, your job here is always safe.
So I knew something, I had something to fall back on.
Yeah.
But it worked out great, man.
I mean, it was just a.
It seemed like you're doing, it seemed like it's paid off for you.
Yeah.
You know, from an outsider's perspective.
Do you, do you miss sometimes like, like I've gotten to some light levels of
success in my work in the past few years.
And, and it's been a long series of work.
But it's kind of weird.
I felt like when I got to a certain level of like, like mild popularity or
comfort, like that every, all my problems would go away.
Right.
Or other things would disappear.
But really, you're just still right there.
Oh, it's, it's, it, those things never change.
You know, and the, the more success that you do have, first of all, the busier
you are.
Yeah.
So, you know, I remember the first two years when I started releasing records
in, in 1989, the first two years I was home each year, a total of 14 days each
year.
Oh my God.
And no two days were ever together, Theo.
They, they, they were all, it was just like one day here because you're either,
you're either writing or recording or you're out on the road performing
concerts or you're doing videos or doing press or doing whatever.
Yeah.
And it's every single day when it takes off like that.
It just, it's every single day.
And I don't have the luxury of being Travis Tritt 40 hours a week.
Right.
You know, wouldn't it be nice?
Wouldn't it be nice?
You could lock out at a certain hour.
It would be, man.
You're like, all right, I'm just Donnie Tritt.
You know what I'm saying?
I'll be like, yeah.
Joe Schmo.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Wouldn't that be nice?
It would be great.
Out of it.
It'd be great.
But on the other side of that coin, I found that for me, the old saying about
find something that you love to do and find a way to make a living with it.
And you'll never work a day in your life.
And that's really true for me.
I mean, you know, yeah, there's, there's, it's not all glitz.
And a lot of people out there think it's celebrity all the time and they think
it's glitz and glamour and all this stuff.
But that's, that's not it at all.
As a matter of fact, when I come home, a lot of people that, that I correspond
with through social media or whatever, they think that.
The only people that I hang out with are celebrities.
Right.
Right.
Are people in that.
And that's the furthest thing in the world from the truth.
In my case, I go back home.
When I get off the road, I go back home and hang out with people that I've
known for.
Some of them I've known since high school.
That's cool.
And like 30 years, you know, and they're all, every single one of them, you
know, these are not, they're not even involved in the entertainment industry.
I mean, they're, most of them are blue collar, hardworking people that go out
and work with their hands.
And they keep me grounded.
They keep me grounded.
If I, if I came back home and started acting anything other than the Travis
that they know and have known for all these years, man, they wouldn't hesitate
one second.
Give you an ass whooping maybe.
Oh man, put me right back in my place.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Was there a time like, cause yeah, it's a rock when things get busy, especially
in you guys's world.
Like it is, it's such a rocket ship.
I mean, I did about a year and a half of touring and it was so intense, like
around the world.
And it was just intense.
I was just like, there were countries I don't even remember being in.
Right.
Really.
And this happened a year and a half, you know, it was just like, it's almost
bizarre kind of just the pace that you go at.
And was there a time when you had to kind of check your ego at all?
Cause the ego is a dangerous thing.
It's not even something we control.
You know, that ego, it can start to, cause you see a reflection of yourself so
often in posters and in people's smiles are so excited to see.
Like little things like that.
It can creep into your soul and build you up.
Did you ever struggle with it?
I don't know that I necessarily struggled with ego, but obviously when you're
just trying to get started and especially back in those days, it's everybody's
in competition with each other.
And there, there weren't, uh, as far as all of the people that were the newcomers,
they, they didn't hang out a lot, you know, together with each other.
I mean, everybody's kind of, and they're very secretive.
They're keeping their stuff to themselves cause they don't want to rush almost
or something.
Exactly.
They don't want anybody else to know exactly what it is that they're doing for
their recipe for success.
And so it, it gets competitive and I've always been a competitive guy.
Yeah.
You know, I like to compete and I like to win.
Yeah.
Um, so there, there comes a point in time where you have to, um, realize that,
Hey, a little friendly competition.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But at the same time, you have to remember that, uh, you know, nobody was more
surprised to have the career success than I was.
I remember in the early days, man, you know, you dream about it, you dream
about wanting to have that, but it becomes a reality.
I mean, when it becomes a reality, I remember being on stage, man.
And I'm, you know, you'd be in these big, huge arenas that seated, you know, 25,000
people and it's sold out and they're there to see you.
And I'm looking at the band and looking at the guys and it's gone.
Can you believe this shit is happening?
Yeah, this is, this is unbelievable to me.
Tell me I was dreaming, baby.
It's unbelievable.
Yeah.
Wow.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's something, sometimes there's some surprising moments.
You can never really live in the fame or in the popularity.
It's almost like it's something that's bigger than you.
It's almost, it's like, um, you can't really wear it that muc