Finding Positivity: Niko Moon’s Musical Journey from Electrician to #1 Country Artist

Meeting Niko Moon at a wedding was more than just a brush with a talented artist; it was the beginning of a journey into the heart of music's power to transform mental health. In our latest episode, join us as Niko opens up about his upbringing in a musically inclined family and the struggles that shaped his outlook on life. He talks candidly about his quest for positivity and optimism, driven by both personal experiences and a deep-seated passion for music. From his early work as an electrician and steam cleaner to realizing his dream as a musician, Niko's story is one of resilience, love, and the undeniable energy that fuels his creative path.

Personal growth often arises from looking back and learning from our past relationships, and this episode explores exactly that. Niko shares insights into how reflecting on past mistakes paved the way for a beautiful connection with Anna, which inspired his hit song "Better Days." We discuss the Happy Cowboy Foundation's mission to spread hope and how music plays a crucial role in encouraging listeners during tough times. Drawing inspiration from icons like Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffett, Niko emphasizes that true happiness is rooted not in material possessions but in meaningful relationships and genuine connections.

The conversation also highlights the significant role of therapy in overcoming emotional baggage and the commendable efforts of the Happy Cowboy Foundation to make mental health services more accessible. We discuss the critical shortage of therapists and how lifestyle changes, supported by expert insights, contribute to improved well-being. Moreover, Niko shares his experiences with record deals, revealing the complexities of the music industry and his decision to remain an independent artist, thereby maintaining creative control and authenticity. This episode offers a rich tapestry of stories, insights, and the enduring value of love and connection.

https://happycowboyfoundation.org

https://nikomoon.com

https://happyhimalayan.com

Chapters

• 1:26 Navigating Mental Health Through Music
• 14:36 Finding Growth Through Relationship Reflection
• 20:08 Discovering Happiness Through Relationships
• 28:20 Overcoming Relationship Baggage Through Therapy
• 36:25 Creating Emotional Support Through Music
• 40:59 Expanding Mental Health Support Organizations
• 53:18 Uncovering Water Quality Truths
• 1:05:32 The Truth About Water and Independence
• 1:10:33 Navigating Record Deals as an Artist
• 1:24:16 Artist Record Label Contract Navigation
• 1:31:02 Planning a Meeting With Astro

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:27

Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, corey Barrier, and I'm here with my favorite artist, nico Moon. What's up, brother? Hey brother, how you doing, man? It's so great to be here. I mentioned this before the show, but the first time I saw you was at Joel and Kat's wedding at the Biltmore Estate about. I mean, it was almost two years ago now, just about a year and a half ago, and I had no idea who you were. I had absolutely no idea, and from that day I you know I've probably listened to your music every single day since that day.

Speaker 2: 2:10

That's amazing, man, Isn't that? To me, that's the beautiful power of music right there. You know how it's able to bring people together, connect them, that maybe never would have if it wasn't for the music. So I'm so grateful for all the amazing connections music's given me, and definitely grateful for yours.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Yeah, music's given me and definitely grateful for yours, yeah, well, and I think to you know, being in your presence is different than than a lot of people. Like your, your smile is, it's just ridiculous. And like you, just you, you can feel. You know you can. You know you can feel somebody's energy. You know I'm a, I'm an energy person and, like you, know when somebody's vibes are off, you know when you can feel somebody's energy. You know I'm a, I'm an energy person and, like you, know when somebody's vibes are off and you know when they're not off and those are always on. It seems like.

Speaker 2: 2:57

Oh man, thank you. Oh man, thank you. I wish I wish I felt that way about my vibes myself. You know cause. You know, I think people do sometimes think that I'm perpetually happy at all times, you know, and that I'm living in this state of perpetual euphoria. But you know, I'm just a regular dude and I think the reason why I am so passionate about positive music and optimism is because of my own life and my own need for it and my own gratitude for the positive influences, positive people in my life that, you know, keep me on the right path when I'm needing it.

Speaker 1: 3:33

Yeah. So tell me, Nico, take me back to a time when maybe that wasn't the case.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Yeah, so you know, I think, my passion for positive music. Well, I'll start here. I was raised by musical parents. Both of my parents are musicians, so I always was having music playing in the house and so I've always had this really deep connection with music because of that. And I think I've known ever since I was little that I wanted to be a part of music. I wasn't really sure how. I didn't know as to be an artist, but as a musician, as a producer, as a music video director, I didn't know. I just wanted to be a part of music any way I could, because when I was around it I just felt love and I felt the magical quality that music brings. You know, it's to me one of the few things that bring us close to magic. You might say I still don't really understand how music works on an emotional level, you know, but I'm really grateful it does.

Speaker 2: 4:30

And you know, growing up as a kid, both of my parents were just regular, you know, working class people. My dad was a truck driver pretty much my whole life, and then he would play gigs at night playing drums and different like bands His main band that he was in I love the name of this band, but they were called the whole damn band, and my mom was a waitress for a while and she was also worked at like a temporary staffing agency as well, and you know, just salt of the earth people. And you know we didn't have a lot of materialistic things growing up, you know, but we had a lot of love in the house. But, having said that, you know there were definitely times where I watched my parents struggle, make those payments, keep the lights on and just watching them as young people. My mom had me when she was 19 years old, and so they're really young, trying to figure out how to survive, and I think a lot of people out there can relate to that. You're trying to figure out how to survive, and I think a lot of people out there can relate to that. Right, you know, you're trying to figure out how to survive in life and that can be really stressful in and of itself, and I think a lot of people think mental health might only be relegated to people that have gone through extremely traumatic events, you know.

Speaker 2: 5:43

But you know the daily grind of life can wear on you over time and I think I kind of watched that with my parents and was really aware of it growing up as a kid. You know when, when you're showing up to school and all your you know a lot of clothes or thrift store clothes and stuff. You know. You know sometimes you get made fun of and you all of a sudden you get aware of the fact that you don't have the things that maybe some of the other people have and that kind of realization for me was a little bit shocking. You know, when you're a kid because you just kind of think you're all the same right. But overall I had a really great childhood, you know. But I think I was also very aware as a kid that I think through my parents, that people go through things and that they're struggling. And I watched my parents struggle themselves and I think that was kind of my first example of mental health.

Speaker 2: 6:33

And then, as I grew up and started chasing down my path of music, I was doing it at nights and always kind of working odd-in jobs. I was a steam cleaner for a while and I worked at UPS on the graveyard shift from 3 am to 9 am and my main thing that I did was I was a construction worker, I was an electrician no kidding, and kind of found myself in a similar place that my parents were in when I was growing up. In that, you know, just trying to make it to Friday, make it to that paycheck to keep the lights on, keep the food in the fridge, you know, and I hadn't really connected that that's what I wanted to make my music about was to make music that encouraged people. I was, you know, I was still kind of trying to find myself musically at that time, but I was. You know, I was doing construction work. I was gigging at night, just like my dad did. I was playing these dive bars and honky tonks all across Georgia for, you know, a hundred bucks a night and free beer, and you know I loved it so much. I love music.

Speaker 2: 7:32

But I was also, financially, you know, having a hard time. I ended up falling in love with a girl that was my high school sweetheart, you might say. We started dating my senior year and we had like a seven year relationship. It was a really long-term relationship and we even got engaged and it ended up not working out. I ended up, you know, finding out that she was having a relationship with one of my closest friends who was going to be the best man in my wedding, and that was.

Speaker 2: 8:02

That was a difficult experience for me. I had. She was my first love, for sure, and the heartbreak of ofbreak, of losing that relationship, along with my relationship with my best friend, was a tough pill for me to swallow. And because, you know, I lost my romantic partner and I also lost my best friend at the same time through that experience. And so at that time of life, you know, I was doing construction work, I was gigging at night and I was having a hard time processing all of that, you know, and looking back on it, I just didn't have the tools to mentally navigate myself through that difficult situation. So I found myself, you know, leaning on the things that I think a lot of us lean on when we go through difficult times. You know, and I think we all have our own drug of choice, you might say, and for me my drug of choice was a lot of different things. I found myself jumping from relationship to relationship.

Speaker 1: 9:02

Sometimes it was just, you know, a different person every week, right, that you're hanging out with so let me draw a line really quick with what you said Like I mean completely didn't see that coming, and so one of the things that your music has helped me with is the song Better Days, and so about a year ago my 10-year relationship ended and that song got me through that time. And just recently, since I saw you last week, my last relationship just ended, and so I use that tool, that song, because it got me through the first one and it's going to get me through this one. The other thing that I use is books. You know, the power of now by eckhart tolle is you know, if you could stay present in the moment. We don't have anything outside of presence, we tomorrow's not here, yesterday's gone, and I think a lot of times I get caught up in forgetting that, thinking about what I need to do next or what I need to do and I missed the moment, and so thank you for that.

Speaker 2: 11:05

Man, I'm sorry that you're going through that time now, right now, and I'm here for you and not just in through the music.

Speaker 2: 11:14

You know, yeah, losing a really close relationship is a very difficult thing and I think we can relate in this, right, and that I don't know about you.

Speaker 2: 11:23

But when I was going through that situation, I felt really lonely, you know, and the interesting thing about going through something that difficult is when you talk to someone else who's also gone through it, you don't feel lonely anymore because you feel this connection that someone else knows what this feels like, and I think it's something that most everybody knows what it feels like, right, we have this in common as human beings the feeling of loneliness and loss, and it used to be something for me that was terrifying.

Speaker 2: 11:59

You know, it was scary to feel that feeling because it's uncomfortable, you know, and it took me a long time to embrace the thought and the fact that life is uncomfortable at times and that, you know, everyone feels lonely from time to time and that it's not an emotion to run from that. It's another emotion on the kaleidoscope wheel of emotions that we have as human beings, right there, with love and connection, you know, there's happiness and there's sadness, right, and they're both there for us as part of our human experience and so and part of the journey right in part of the journey.

Speaker 1: 12:46

This is. You know there's a lot of, I feel you know a ton of pain. You pain just even in this moment, bringing that up, but what I do know is this and I'd be willing to bet you've probably had the same experience I know what I'm going through right now is 100% going to make me better for the next relationship. Make me a better man, make me a better, whatever.

Speaker 2: 13:11

As long as I learn from this.

Speaker 1: 13:14

I mean, growth is painful. Yes, Right, Never. Growth's never easy.

Speaker 2: 13:19

It's always hard, right, yeah, it's always hard, and the biggest growth that I've seen in my life have come through those painful experiences in my life, or uncomfortable experiences, right. And so it's interesting how, when I look back on that relationship that I had and that whole experience, you know, I think about all of the things that I learned from it. At first I was very angry and only had it was like I was just seeing red and all I could think about was all the ways that I was wronged, all the ways that injustice was done upon me and it took me, yes, all you thought about was self.

Speaker 2: 14:02

I just thought about myself and was pitying myself and viewing myself as a victim. Yeah, and it took me a really long time and it took amazing people coming into my life to encourage me and honestly just dropped some knowledge on me and helped me learn that there's so much more, that there's so much to be gained from this situation than just being in pain. If I allow myself to learn and grow from it and when I allowed myself to do that I did I learned so much about myself. I saw a lot of ways in which I could have been. You know, how I could have communicated better in my relationship and also how I could learn from that situation so that in the future I had a better perspective on what the right person does look like for me.

Speaker 2: 14:56

I was under the impression that was the right person, right, and so I was wrong, and instead of I think I was really bitter about that for a long time. And then, when I let that go and was able to look at it and say, okay, what were the personality characteristics and what were the things, the warning signs that I could have seen, you know, and what can I take from this? And so that not only I'm more clear in what I'm looking for that's going to make the right fit for me, but also how can I also elevate myself and grow as a human being to be a better person in my next relationship? Because, even though and I know some people might be listening to that and being like, but you got cheated on, man, how is any of it your fault? You know, it's never 100% one person or another, you know, and I think when I was first looking at it, I was like, well, you did that and so I'm right and you're wrong.

Speaker 2: 15:53

Right, but there was a lot of things that led to us getting to that place where she was felt like that was the right decision for her to make, you know. And so when I started taking more responsibility for myself and realizing that, man, I have a lot of work to do on myself and I mean, quite honestly, I don't think, yeah, I wasn't ready to get married at that time. I still need a lot of growing to do and also I have the most amazing relationship now with my wife and I would have never met her. This whole beautiful life and family that I now have would have never existed if it wasn't for that situation. So, in a really weird way, I'm really glad she did that and I'm really glad that happened 100% Because life happens for you.

Speaker 1: 16:44

So Anna's your wife and you and her. By the way, I love the Christmas song. I don't have any songs y'all done together but just like, and I know she's home with a baby, probably doesn't have a, I mean, I'm sure she could travel, I guess, if she wanted to. But yeah, you guys are great together. So let me ask you something about Anna. So if I and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe this is the case so Anna helped you write Better Days.

Speaker 2: 17:14

Yes, yeah, we wrote Better Days together, all right, so tell me.

Speaker 1: 17:18

I just need to know like what, because the song has had such an impact and I'm just going to go ahead and drop that. You know, part of the reason that I wanted you to come on is because the Happy Cowboy Foundation and I want to get into that. So I do encourage people to go check that out, because it's a really, really great foundation. You put a lot of work into it. But I want to know about how that song came about. What were you thinking about, or what was she thinking about? Because there had to be something right.

Speaker 2: 17:58

There had to be something that we were able to create that from. Yeah, you know, I think it partially came from both of our personal experiences in life of difficulty, right, and I don't want to speak on hers.

Speaker 1: 18:03

Sure.

Speaker 2: 18:04

That's her own personal story to tell, right, Of course. But you know, like that one experience, you know, that we're talking about right now. You know that's one of many difficult experiences that I've gone through in life, and many people have far more intense and more difficult experiences than I've had in my life, you know. That's the interesting thing about life, right is? You know we've talked about before. We're all on our own ride in this life, you know. You know we've talked about before. We're all on our own ride in this life, you know. But the absolute guarantee is that we all are going thing that you can connect on it in a lot of different ways and, uh, you, it can. Music can encourage you to do a lot of things, you know, depending on what the message is. And so I'm really passionate about connecting with everyone through music on the message of encouragement, of optimism and remembering that nothing lasts forever and that better days are ahead always. And it's kind of like what we're talking about right now.

Speaker 2: 19:21

In these moments, Sometimes our brain can deceive us into this narrative that we're going to feel like this forever, but we never do. And when we remember previous difficult times and how hard they were and how they felt like they would never end, but they did. They did and we get better, right and wanting to, we both felt so passionately that we needed to write a song, not only that we could donate to the Happy Cowboy Foundation so that it could help raise money, but also encourage people out there if they were in a moment. And I'll tell you, man, a big reason why I'm so passionate about this is because of my own difficulty, my own need to remember this myself when I go through difficult moments. When I go through difficult moments because I still do have moments where I'm going through something and I accidentally start believing that narrative that I'm not going to be able to get out of this emotional place, this mental place that I'm in, that's feeling like it's going to last forever, and I really lean on positive music to remind me that that's not true. That's a lie that I'm telling myself and I love you talking about being up in the future of that worry. Is this going to go forever? And if I can get myself into the moment and into that state of gratitude of looking around, of all the beautiful things that I do have in my life, you know, those sorts of things help to remind me that this feeling isn't going to last forever, and I really wanted to have a song that really celebrated that fact, you know. So I'm so glad that you connect with the message of better days, man. That just really warms my heart up, and this is why I do music, man. This is why I'm so passionate about it. It's not about being up on some stage and getting any sort of adoration or anything personally from it, you know. That's why I created the symbol with the hat and the smiley face and everything, because I don't want people looking at my mug when they think of the music. I want them to look.

Speaker 2: 21:41

I created the symbol so that the symbol, to me, represents the message of the music, the mentality of the music, and it's just the message of optimism, of positivity, you know, in the same way that Bob Marley and Jimmy Buffett have, you know, really encouraged me in life, you know, and helped me to remember that every little thing was going to be all right when I was having a hard time remembering it myself, Just wanting to be another artist that picks up that torch, you know, and it takes way more than just one person, it takes a lot of people to do that and a lot of different arenas. And you know, for me, I'm just a musician, you know, and so I'm so grateful to lock arms with other musicians, like Michael Franti, you know, who is someone that I love so much and is another guy out there putting that message out there, and so just to be another voice in the sea of positivity, like you're doing, you know, through this medium of podcasts. It's just as powerful, it's encouraging people, right, and I think, at the end of the day, I feel like my purpose is and I don't know if it's a purpose that's been given or that I've made myself, but I do feel very strongly that I'm here to encourage others and what I've really noticed is that through that encouragement I have received an immense amount of encouragement back into my life, For instance, through this music this community has formed. I like to think of us almost like a musical family of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people all across this country and really across the world who resonate with the music. And now I have this beyond my wife and my daughter and my immediate family, this huge musical family now that I'm a part of, and it's unbelievable, it's beyond my wildest imagination.

Speaker 2: 23:38

I mean back then. You know, when I was, for instance, in that difficult time of life, I was, you know, just playing these little dive bars and when I would play, I was playing like eight or nine cover songs and then one original and just hoping that people wouldn't start booing me because they came to, you know, hear something, they could sing to, sing something. They know, you know, and you know now. I mean I was, I was 20, maybe 23, 24 years old back then. I'm 42 now.

Speaker 2: 24:07

So, you know, almost 20 years later, I'm in this new reality that I never, ever, could have imagined for myself. That's far beyond, honestly, my wildest dreams, and it's when I think of the beauty of life now it has something to do with like, I don't know, like a house or a car or anything like that. When I'm thinking about it, it's all the love that I got in my life and for me that is the cleanest, cleanest burning fuel when it comes to happiness for me, because, I don't know, materialistic things are so fleeting. I remember when I wrote my first number one song for another artist or I'll say with another artist, because me and Zach wrote the song together with another guy named Y Durrett, but it's a song called Keep Me In Mind for the Zach Brown.

Speaker 2: 24:56

Band and I remember when I got my first check. It was the first real money I had ever gotten in my whole life. You know the royalty check from it, you know. And I went and got, I got some nice clothes and, you know, I got a watch and I got these things that I had been pining for, that I felt like represented making it and could signify to everyone around me and to the world that I was valuable, that I was important, that you were enough. I had meaning I was enough, yes, and oh man, I was so excited when I got all that stuff, you know, and it was amazing to me how quickly the value of it it just became regular things, you know, and it was just, you know, just the watch on, you just put the jacket on.

Speaker 2: 25:45

You know it's just another thing now, but that my relationships, the people that are really high value people in my life, those relationships are absolutely priceless and they never stop holding their value to me. You know what I mean. I never get used to it or it just becomes just another thing to me. You know what I mean, and so I think that becomes more and more true. Every year that goes by, I lean more and more into that and the kind of just, the things of life become less and less important. I think that's why I sing so much about really elemental stuff like fire and water, you know, like getting by the lake, getting by the ocean or getting by a fire pit. These are just, you know, they're just very basic, elemental things that cost absolutely nothing.

Speaker 2: 26:40

But for me, I have found some of my best memories take place in these environments that are very simple but that involve people that I care a lot about and that care about me and has given me more enjoyment in life than anything else. And I'm so grateful for these realizations. And they're not ones that I've come to on my own. These are ones that I've come through from getting therapy and through having positive people in my life, you know, like my wife, for instance. You know, after that heartbreak relationship, I went through a couple of other really serious relationships that lasted for a few years and at times I went through my second love relationship like real relationship was. I think it was about a three and a half year relationship. And then the third really serious relationship of my life was about a two and a half year relationship, and both of those heartbreaks were very difficult as well, and I think after that third one I went a little numb.

Speaker 1: 27:43

Do you think that those you know because you and I have been together 10, 11 years? Is that right?

Speaker 2: 27:54

Yeah, we're about to celebrate our 10 in May.

Speaker 1: 27:56

Okay, yeah. So do you think that you know, if you don't fix yourself before you enter into another relationship, me, I'm going to bring Corey into that relationship and I'm going to read you know, I'm going to reenact the same stuff that I did in the previous relationship. So you think, because maybe you didn't take the time, because you were trying to fill that god awful hole, that you know that that the first one left left. You filled that maybe with the second one, and I don't know what the time frame was between the three, but my guess is it probably wasn't. It probably didn't take a lot of time to figure out who you were.

Speaker 2: 28:45

And so, after that third one, between the third one, let's say in anna, is that when you did the work, the therapy, is that when you found like you, that's a great question, man, and I would love to tell you that after that third one, I dug in deep and I started doing the work and I started really growing and bettering myself.

Speaker 2: 29:13

But that's not what happened. The truth of the situation is that I got a little, I think, worse off each time and because I wasn't dealing with it, I went through the first difficult one and I didn't really know how to emotionally fix myself from it, and so I kind of just put it to the side and was focusing on playing the music and writing the songs and going myself into that, and I started getting better in that way. But personally, relationship-wise and connection-wise with other human beings, I was getting worse and worse, and because it involved, you know, not just that person I was in a relationship with, but also my best friend, I started having difficulty with guy friendships as well, and I started realizing that, you know.

Speaker 1: 30:05

I wasn't able to really connect.

Speaker 2: 30:07

I wasn't able to connect with hardly anybody. You know I couldn't trust hardly anybody. And so that carried on into my second relationship because I didn't do any work. And so I brought all that baggage in there and then I accumulated some more bad habits, you might say, after the heartbreak of that one not going right, and then I went into my third one. So by the time I had got out of my third relationship I was complete and utter wreck because I was never trying to deal with any of it. So it just kept piling up, and piling up and piling up until eventually I was just I guess numb might be the best way to say it, but I was just numb to relationships period. I was completely disconnected. And I remember we met me and Anna met on Facebook. She friend requested me and I saw the friend request come through. So I slid into the DMs and invited her out to the show.

Speaker 2: 31:02

And at this time of my life, you know, like I said, this is where I'm at. You know, I was interested in just getting. You know, just hanging out and, you know, having some drinks, seeing where the night went, nothing serious at all. Did not want to be in a relationship with anyone. I trusted no one as far as relationships go. And she was my first therapist.

Speaker 2: 31:23

You might say Okay, because I remember she came to the show and she watched it and I was so excited she was there and after shows like, hey, you want to go to the bar and get a drink and hang out? And she was like no, and I was like what? And she was like, listen, I had a good time and I'm really glad you invited me out to the show, but you know that's not me. If you want to, if you really want to have a date and go on a date, take me on a real date. You know, and I have never been challenged in that way before Made you level up.

Speaker 2: 32:03

Yeah, she made me level up and looking back on it, I realized I was like, given this in my relationships and that's something she helped me to realize about myself previously is that I wasn't giving what I should have been giving in my relationships. And this is one of those things that I was just steady, kind of blaming everyone and everything in my life for my problems. Every relationship that went wrong, it was their fault. Every friendship that dissolved was their fault. There was no personal accountability and something about the way she communicated with me. It just inspired me to step my game up, you know, as a man, as a human being, and so she inspired me, you know, and I'm so grateful for her, that she came into my life and something, something in her saw something in me that was better than what I was currently showing externally.

Speaker 1: 33:04

And probably better than what she looked in my eyes.

Speaker 2: 33:05

I don't know what it was, but something she saw a better man inside of me, and I'm so grateful for that.

Speaker 1: 33:12

And better than you Did it happen overnight.

Speaker 2: 33:14

No, I was still a wreck. I was. I was living every day like it was Friday night, and it's really easy to do when you're an artist, when you're a musician. Period, you know, because you know most people when they come, you know, go out to a show, that's like their fun thing they're doing for that whole week or for that month or something.

Speaker 2: 33:34

For me it was every single day of my life. Was that environment. You know, I was living in a party every single day and I was allowing myself to, to be a part of the, to be a part of that in every single way. You know I was getting hammered every single night and you know that's not healthy for with, you know, my emotional problems that I was trying to navigate, while at the same time kind of being in this environment. That was like the exact opposite of what I needed, you know, at the time. And so it took me a long time and she was really patient with me and helped me to find my way back to myself again and through that I ended up coming to the place eventually where I was like you know what I need? To go talk to somebody, to a professional who really knows what they're doing to help me figure out how to untangle this knot inside of my mind, inside of my heart. Because, you know, hannah is such an amazing human being you know, she's not like a professional, you know in that way. So, but the love that she gave me and the understanding and acceptance and the encouragement to better myself helped me to get to the place where I was now strong enough to reach out and really get the real help that was going to help me fully get better.

Speaker 2: 35:05

And so I went to a cognitive behavioral therapist because it had gotten so bad as far as, like, my anxiety and stress about my own inner turmoil, that I was starting to have panic attacks and anxiety attacks, and I've never had them before my whole life. You know, I was starting to have panic attacks and anxiety attacks and I've never had them before my whole life. You know, I was grew up typically, you know, pretty happy-go-lucky kid, you know, and I was like getting this like tightness in my chest. I felt like I couldn't breathe and it just kept getting worse and worse. I remember one time I was just driving down the interstate when I was living in Atlanta, and that was when I had my first really big one, really big panic attack and I thought I was having a heart attack or a stroke or something. I don't know what was happening to me, but my whole body went numb. I couldn't feel my body and my fingers started curling in on themselves and I was trying to open my hands up and I couldn't.

Speaker 2: 35:58

My body was physically kind of checking out, locking up, locking up, yeah, and I couldn't drive. I had to pull over and I just kind of curled up like this in the fetal position and went to the hospital and I thought they were about to tell me I'd had some, you know, cardiovascular event. You know some cardiac event, you know. And they were like you had a panic attack man, and I'm like what is that? And I immediately was just felt almost like embarrassed for myself, you know. And they were like you had a panic attack man, and I'm like what is that? And I immediately was just felt almost like embarrassed for myself. You know, I was like there was a little bit of like, you know, like I'm a grown man, what am I doing over here, having a, you know, like a mental breakdown? Am I, am I going crazy? You know what's wrong with me, you know, and you know Anna encouraged me a lot to to go and talk about it, you know she's like it's time, it's time to to to really figure this out. And that's when I knew I was like I'm not going to be able to get on. What if this happens when I'm on stage and I just like my my jaw would lock up and I couldn't open my mouth and I was like what if this happens when I'm singing? I mean this could ruin my dreams for my passion in life. And I'm so grateful that she encouraged me to do that.

Speaker 2: 37:11

And when I went and started talking and started digging in and started getting down to what was really going on, I started getting a lot better and I'm really grateful for that and I can't tell you the impact that it had on me.

Speaker 2: 37:24

It was just, it was life changing and it's honestly that's one of the big reasons why Happy Cowboy Foundation exists, because I got that help and therapy's expensive right, it costs a lot, even if you're doing it online with like a better help and all these other like really cool organizations that exist now and platforms that exist now, because back then that wasn't even a thing you know, but still it's really expensive and not everybody can afford it.

Speaker 2: 37:49

You know, and I am so grateful for getting that help to untangle that knot in my mind that I am just so passionate about helping anyone else who feels that way Because, like we're talking about, I know what it feels like. I know what it feels like to be knotted up like that and I want to do everything I can to help anyone who's going through that, and it doesn't matter to me what it is, because, like I said, we're all on our own ride and we're all going to have our own situations that put us in that place internally. And so, whatever it is, whatever it is, the Happy Cowboy Foundation exists to help that person find their way back to peace of mind again.

Speaker 1: 38:27

You know it's hard to explain, I think to get somebody Well, I shouldn't say hard to explain when you're in that really dark place where it feels like you can't move, it feels like you really can't do anything. I mean, it's almost like you're mentally paralyzed and a lot of that's the thoughts that you're having, but sometimes those thoughts are uncontrollable until you figure out that there are ways to control the thoughts and you know, through therapy, through books, through whatever, yeah, but when you're in that place it's almost, it feels almost impossible to be able to get any sort of traction to get some relief.

Speaker 1: 39:17

So I think you know what I love about the happy cowboy foundation is it's not. You know, people can donate, of course, but it's also there if people can't afford to get help. And I don't know what the process is, but I imagine you just go on the website and click on I need help, or something like that. Maybe you can walk us through that in case somebody is listening to this that can identify with what we're talking about.

Speaker 2: 39:45

So, when we first started, we were looking at partnering up with different therapeutic networks that have, you know, like fast amounts of therapists on staff that we can maybe collaborate with and that we could help fund so that people could go there. But what we realized is that, through a lot of these companies being for-profit companies, just regular businesses out there that the Happy Cowboy Foundation would need to do financial verifications on our end in order to be able to help these people. And you know, I'm always on the road, I'm on tour, and so it's just that I knew I wouldn't be able to structure the foundation to operate in this way, and so I started looking well, how can we make this happen? And so what I started doing is I started reaching out to other nonprofits out there who were in this very same space, started asking them what's your advice? And what they told me was listen, we'll tell you, we have therapists on staff already. We have all these therapists, but they're not enough. We have so many people coming to us. For example, an organization like To Write Love on Her Arms it's an amazing organization Wounded Warriors, an amazing organization that helps service members struggling with PTSD. So many amazing organizations out there that are all different. You know sectors of the population where they be, you know, are young people, single mothers, whoever. It is right, there's all these organizations out there that have therapists on staff, but they're not enough. There's just the need is too great, and that's you know. It's something that I think we're all aware of is that this is like an epidemic of mental health right now that we have and so many people need help and there's just honestly not enough therapists on staff at these places. And that's when the light bulb kind of switched off for me on how Happy Cowboy Foundation can be of service. Is that okay? There's already all these amazing organizations that are set up that can provide the help, that have therapists. They just don't have enough therapists. So what we can do is we can fund all of these different organizations so that they can hire more therapists, so that they can knock these waiting lists all the way out, because they were telling me we have waiting lists that are so long. The people already know where to go. If you're a service member and you're struggling, you know that you can. There's some outlets where you can go. You know, a lot of people know about Toronto Loving Arms and these different amazing organizations, but unfortunately, at times the waiting list can be months and months long because they literally just don't have enough therapists. So I'm like there's already these great organizations set up. What I need to do is I need to fund them and bring money to them so that they can hire more therapists and get those lists knocked down. So that's what we do at the Happy Cowboy Foundation.

Speaker 2: 42:37

And to touch back on something you just mentioned earlier, when I first went to therapy, the big aha moment for me and it's funny because some people might say it's like how did you not realize this? And you know I don't have a good answer for it but when I first sat down with it, I was asked to kind of like, walk through my typical day, my typical week, no-transcript, and you was going to fix me. You know what I mean. And then I could still just keep, you know, getting obliterated every single night and just keep up. You know I wasn't sleeping good because you know, doing music a lot of times, you'll be up really late. And so I was, you know.

Speaker 2: 43:41

And since I was getting, you know, doing music a lot of times you'll be up really late. And so I was, you know, and since I was getting, you know, so hammered so consistently, I was getting really bad sleep. I gave no thought to us, whoever, to how I was eating. You know, there was a lot of things that I was doing, so I was just eating like a lot. I was addicted to really unhealthy food. I was always on my phone. I realized when I I got talking to her and she was like how much time do you spend on social media? And I realized I was spending hours and hours and hours a day on social media. I was addicted to it without even really thinking of myself as being addicted.

Speaker 2: 44:14

I just thought I loved social media at the time. She's the first person that kind of like brought that to my attention, you know, like brought that to my attention, you know, and I realized, oh okay, it looks. I'm realizing now that, like I am trying to cope with where I'm at right now in life and all these other ways, I'm addicted to all these other things and it's only making things worse. And therapy is and she was like therapy is not the only, it cannot be the only thing that's going to get you better, you know, because it just won't If you continue doing all this other stuff. It's just, you know, we can talk for one hour a week for the rest of your life and it's just good luck with that, you know.

Speaker 2: 44:56

You got to start doing the work outside of here in other types of ways and bring balance to your life. She's like I'm not telling you to completely, you know, abstain or just stop doing some of these things in your life, because you know that's not always the right answer. Sometimes it's about putting everything in its proper place, putting everything in balance and having moderation in your life. So, if you want, if you get online, don't doom scroll for five hours. You know, make sure that you're getting on there and you're doing it in a reason, within a reasonable amount of your day, and then, while you're on there, make sure that you're following things that you know, accounts that encourage you. You know, like you said, you know you love to read. You know, start reading books that are of encouragement. Start listening to podcasts that inspire you. Start in taking this stuff into you. That's making you feel positive. You know, start thinking about how you eat. You know, start trying to eat better. It's amazing that when you feel better from the way you eat, how much that's going to improve your mental health.

Speaker 2: 46:00

You know, I didn't even think about it, but I was really dehydrated. I ended up realizing because I never drank water at all you know, it just wasn't in my mindset. You know, I was just drinking sodas or a beer or something you know, anything but water, you know. And when I started thinking about drinking water and making, oh man, all of a sudden like I started feeling so much better. And it's funny because I recently saw Andrew Huberman podcast where he talks about how when a person is dehydrated, it raises their anxiety and stress hormones in their body. Your cortisol levels will increase when you're dehydrated and I was like it was something that I guess I had felt just physically but didn't have like a. I didn't know that until recently, but it totally registered with me because when I started eating and drinking healthier, I immediately started feeling better.

Speaker 2: 46:52

And then when I started getting better sleep and so the way she kind of broke it down to me and I think it's probably because I was an electrician for so long she was like think of it as like tools in your tool belt, and therapy is just one tool, you know. But you need a lot of different things to get the job done. You know You're going to need you know you're going to need your drill. You know you're going to need your hammer. You're going to need all these different things right. And when I started looking at my life in that way and I started applying it to my life, life started dramatically improving for me and I became. The better life got, the more excited I got about it and the more driven I got to want to start doing these positive things, the better I started feeling and now I'm just all in. Now I'm like I'm cold plunging every day.

Speaker 1: 47:43

Oh, I was going to ask you about that. Yeah, man, I even bring one on the road man Every day. I do it every day.

Speaker 2: 47:50

My man. I got a portable blow up, one that I bring out on the road and I'm cooking all my food on the road, all organic.

Speaker 1: 47:57

That was another question I had. Are you eating carnivore?

Speaker 2: 48:01

I'm not carnivore, but I would say the majority of the food that I eat is lean meat, and not to say that that's the only way to eat. You know, actually, during this period when I was trying to figure out what's the best way to eat, I saw a couple of documentaries on Netflix about I think there was one called Forks Over Knives, oh yeah, a couple of documentaries about veganism and being vegan, and I thought it was really interesting, you know, and I was like I'm gonna give this a try. And I went vegan for almost two years and at first I actually felt pretty good, but after a while I started noticing that my energy levels was really dropping during the shows and that towards the end of my shows I would get lightheaded at times and I just had a really difficult time catching my breath as well. I had a breath, a lot on stage, and so I went and got my blood tested and I was extremely anemic. The doctor was like you're one of the most anemic people I've ever tested and I was just like I'm eating, like as clean as you can eat, man, and he was like, well, you might be, but you're not getting in any iron, my man, and now I know a lot of people might say well, you know, just take an iron supplement, and you know, there's so many different ways to eat and there's so many philosophies on this, and I've always been the type of person that has never really stood on a particular way of eating to advise other people to do. I'm more of the type of person where I think get your blood tested and eat whatever way is best for your blood test. When you get your blood back, your blood test back, whatever improves that, just eat that way. And so for me, I want to take as few supplements as possible because I want to be able to get the best possible blood levels from natural foods. I personally have found that for my body personally and everybody's body is different For me, when I'm eating and it's not just any kinds of meat I don't eat like really fatty meats or anything like that.

Speaker 2: 50:08

I'm typically eating really lean protein like topsoil loin or ground round. You know chicken breast, things like that, and then also you know some veggies, fruits, stuff like that, and just a little bit of you know things like rice and stuff like that. You know. But for the most part, the majority of my diet is meat, lean meats, and healthy fats, like monounsaturated fats, like olive oil, avocado oil, nuts, seeds, stuff like that. And so for me, I have found that I feel the best when I'm eating this way and that my blood work comes back the best.

Speaker 2: 50:47

So it's a variety of things that I'm doing and I'll tell you what, man. It's funny because people would think, well, oh man, you must never feel any sort of negative feelings or you would never feel uncomfortable. So, not true? I mean, I'm, you know, the stresses of life are here for all of us, right? And there are times where I just feel completely overwhelmed and like, oh my gosh, and I'm just, you know, I'm like I've got to go hit that cold plunge because my hands are all sweaty, you know, and I'm feeling the weight, you know.

Speaker 2: 51:19

And this is like no sort of like complaint or anything like that. But you know I have two different companies, a third one that I'm getting ready to launch this summer, a nonprofit, you know an amazing family. You know there's just a lot of things in my life, a lot of beautiful things, but nonetheless a lot, you know, and sometimes the weight of it can be a little bit heavy, you know, just wanting to make sure that I'm doing my best in every arena of my life and that I'm being my best, and sometimes that pressure and I'm very hard on myself, you might say.

Speaker 2: 51:50

And so for me continually proactively doing these things is I don't know what I'd do without it. I don't think I could possibly honestly live, have the life that I have and do the things that I'm doing on a daily basis. If I wasn't doing all these things, if I started getting bad sleep and I started just eating junk food constantly and just started partying every night, oh man, it would all fall apart.

Speaker 1: 52:16

Yeah, so I'm curious, so I'm curious. So we haven't really talked about this, but you have Happy Himalaya. Is that somehow connected to you finding out that you were super dehydrated, or was it parallel with that?

Speaker 2: 52:49

You know it was through launching Happy Himalaya that I learned about that, because I started digging really deep into the water industry and hydration as a science in general. So you know Andrew Huberman, peter Attia, rhonda Patrick all these you know fantastic, brilliant minds out there on this subject matter and on just general health and wellness I started immersing myself into podcasts, and what I do a lot on the road is I have a treadmill and when it's in the cold months, like it is now, I'll put the treadmill up in my green room and I'll throw a podcast on my iPad and I'll just walk while I'm listening to this stuff and just learning. You know I love to learn, which is funny because in high school the last thing I wanted to do was learn Same here, dude, same here.

Speaker 2: 53:26

And now it's like you know, it's my drug of choice is knowledge. Now you know.

Speaker 1: 53:30

Yeah, it is really strange, right? Well, I have ADHD. I think I had part of it, and it's almost like now that I've found something that I really want to know about.

Speaker 2: 53:44

I can't get enough of it, but school wasn't that way, it's funny how learning is that way If you're interested in it, you'll go to the deepest depths learning about it. You know, and sometimes I wonder if maybe we could implement that more into our educational system. You know, and maybe you know. Of course there's some things that we just need to know, whether we like it or not, right, right?

Speaker 1: 54:06

right.

Speaker 2: 54:07

Math isn't something that I'm, like you know, hyper passionate about, but we need to know these things right. But I think there can be some sort of a degree of leaning into you know what our young people are really, really interested in and just letting them go down that rabbit hole as far as they want to take it. You know, I'm really glad that, really fortunate, my parents let me go down the musical rabbit hole right, whereas I think a lot of times music is almost kind of related sometimes to sports, where it can kind of be relegated to the dream world of like that one in a in a million chance type of thing. And let's be realistic and get that accounting degree first. You know that can be your plan b, but I was always, as a as a kid, encouraged to follow my passions in music and I'm really grateful for that, you know.

Speaker 1: 54:55

But yeah, it's uh, I've completely lost track where are we at? No, I didn't think we were just. We were just talking about. You know, I think we were just wrapping up with. I asked you about the water and how that had to do. Oh yeah, great question great question so no it was.

Speaker 2: 55:13

It was through, it was through launching or wanting to come out with happy himalayan that I that I found I found that, and I found that recently too, which was really exciting when I did. Because, like I found that, and I found that recently too, which was really exciting when I did, because, like I said, it kind of confirmed something that I had felt but didn't have any sort of like scientific support or anything like that. It really came from when I started getting interested in eating better. I kind of started to want to, like, get the sodas out, stop like the constant, constant every single day drinking and putting it more into its proper place, you know, into more of a moderative, you know adult way. And as I started learning more about water and how important it is into not just the way we feel but into our mental health as well, I also became aware of how toxic it is. That's what I was going to ask.

Speaker 1: 56:07

I was going to ask you.

Speaker 2: 56:08

And a lot of how toxic our water supply is. We know so much about our food supply and all the weird stuff that's put into it. You know all the different processed chemicals and dyes and all this stuff. Like the average person, I feel like now has really kind of switched on their awareness of this because of all these really cool documentaries and podcasts and people who are sounding the alarm, you might say. And so now people know it's like, if I get this thing, there's all kinds of. We turn the background.

Speaker 2: 56:35

We know that this is all crazy stuff that's not good for us, but when it came to water, I was just grabbing any water off the shelf thinking this water's good, this is good water for me, and it has a picture of a mountain on it and like making me think it comes from some crystal clear spring, wherever it's from. And come to find out it's tap water from Chicago's municipal facility that's been just sent through some reverse osmosis machine with all these like plastic components that are, you know, putting nanoplastics into the water. And then it's riding around on a truck. You know all hot, and then I'm drinking it, thinking I'm drinking like life's. You know.

Speaker 2: 57:18

Purest, you know element that we can possibly, you know, put in our bodies and it's just a complete and utter joke. You know it's a lie and when I found that out I was kind of taken back and I was also surprised at how little information there was. I had only really kind of come to learning about it through deep diving on YouTube and going down these like weird rabbit holes and finding people like Martin Rees, who is one of the world's foremost water experts and water sommelier. That's now a buddy of mine and I love him so much Learning from people like that that our water is not what we think it is. And when I found that out it kind of became another mission of mine, kind of like positive music to put out. I guess you could call it positive water. So what was the most?

Speaker 1: 58:09

what was the most alarming thing? What? What was the most alarming thing in doing all this water research? That you just couldn't believe when you, when you started researching and figuring out that the things that were in the water, was it the Chicago thing? Was it toxins? What was it?

Speaker 2: 58:28

For me and I guess I shouldn't have been as surprised in it, but it's. It's the trickery, the deceit that a lot of these companies have in their branding. And it's not. And it's also not just in our bottles, it's in our municipal water as well. You know there's a lot of websites out there and people can look it up, where you can type in your zip code and it will tell you exactly what the water quality is of your zip code that's coming out of your faucets in your house and exactly what's in it.

Speaker 2: 59:02

And when I put my zip code in and I live here in Tennessee and you know I'm not in the city or anything, you know I'm kind of out in the country and you would think that the water here would be, you know, great water. You know. Know, maybe not like some artesian water, anything but but safe. Come to find out. You know the arsenic levels in in in the water in my zip code are 90 times over the safe limits, uh for human consumption. It's insane, you know. And it's not like I live in some unique zip code.

Speaker 2: 59:36

Almost everyone, if they were to type their zip code in, would find out that there's some strange chemicals that are in their water that are well beyond safe limits. And we're constantly, you know, it's not just about drinking water we absorb water through our skin. So when we take a shower, when we wash our hands, when we wash our food, you know all of this stuff gets into our food and this was just a huge kind of epiphany for me. So I went and I got a water filtration system for my house, which, just to let people know, they might say, oh my God, how much was that? That had to have been so expensive. It costs a little bit. It was about $2,000. So I got one of the nicest ones you can get too. It's got like a UV filter and all that and they make whole they call them whole home water filtration systems, but you can get ones that are somewhere in that $500 to $1,000 range too.

Speaker 2: 1:00:30

So, yes, it is a little bit of money, but it's not as much as I think people might think it is. It's not 10, 20, $30,000 or anything like that I think people might think it is. It's not $10,000, $20,000, $30,000 or anything like that. For a couple of grand, you can clean the water in your house, filter the water in your house, where all of that stuff isn't coming through your faucets. And I'll tell you what one of the filters on mine. You have to change it every six months, and I had forgotten to change mine about a year ago and it had gone maybe like a month over or a few weeks to a month over, and I was giving my daughter a bath and something smelled funny and I was like what's?

Speaker 2: 1:01:05

that smell and I'm like, and I scooped up the water in her bath and there was no soap in the water yet I was just running her bath and I smelled the water and I could smell the chemicals in the water in her bath. And I smelled the water and I could smell the chemicals in the water and I immediately stopped the water drained the tub, realized that I had forgotten to change the filter, so I went out to my garage, changed the filter, let the water run for like five minutes, filled the bathtub up again, smelled the water. No, smell none of that. And so no, smell None of that. And so that's a really big one. That's a really big one. I think nanoplastics is a big one that people aren't aware of. The University of I can't remember if it was the University of New Mexico or the University of Albuquerque.

Speaker 1: 1:01:52

It's in New Mexico. It's one of those two Somewhere in Mexico.

Speaker 2: 1:01:55

Yeah, somewhere in New Mexico, but all your listeners, right now somebody go and do looking into this and find it for me, since the exact universities eluding me, but they've been doing studies on nanoplastics in the human brain, I believe, since around 2016. And they found that currently, the average person in America, their brain, is 0.5% plastic Because of the water. It's not just water, it's a lot of things, but water is a major contributor to this. Now we're getting it through our food, because a lot of our food is packaged in plastic, so it seeps into our food. We're getting it through the environment. I mean, just, you know all of the things that are in the air we're breathing that in, especially if you're living in more urban areas. This is an issue. I mean, this is and I don't want to make people feel paranoid or anything like that because there's no, I would say right now, there's no way for us to 100% eliminate this, but there is a lot of things that we can do to minimize it. And when they first did the test it was, I think, back in like 2016, the levels were much, much lower, and so that what they're seeing now from these most recent tests is that the increase of these nanoplastics in our brain, of the plastic in our brain, is increasing dramatically and if we keep going on at this rate, we're going to be at 1% plastic in our brain in the not too distant future. And that's the thing. The difference between nanoplastics and microplastics is these nanoplastics are able to cross the blood-brain barrier and once they get into our brain they're there. It's almost kind of like these you know metals, these trace metals that sometimes can cross our blood-brain barrier and get stuck.

Speaker 2: 1:03:41

You know it's a really important issue that people need to be aware about, but it's, you know, it's just not out there as easily. As you know, as the food industry kind of informative documentaries are out there, you know. So I'm actually working right now on getting up funding to make a documentary so that I can get this information, you know, out there to the public. You know there are a few things out there already, but there just needs to be a whole lot more information so that people are aware of this stuff. I mean it's crazy. I think one of the big ones too. It's just the whole fact that we think a lot of our bottled water is coming from these beautiful natural sources and they're not For me personally, I drank purified water because I thought purified water meant that it was, and I learned that the last thing we need to be drinking is purified water.

Speaker 2: 1:04:34

And the reason why is that when water is purified, it does take out all of those toxic chemicals that can be in the water, but it also takes out the bad. But it takes out the good with it too. So it takes out all of the trace minerals that we need in the water for our bodies to properly absorb the water Minerals like sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium. This is naturally found in our water. When water falls from the sky, it's purified, it's pure water. But when it hits the ground those minerals in the earth the water absorbs those minerals or it's.

Speaker 2: 1:05:13

You know, I'm not a scientist, so I'm not the proper word here but those minerals get infused into the water. That's natural water. That's the water we have been drinking for all of humanity is natural water. No one's ever drank purified water throughout all of human history. Right, we've been drinking real natural water. When we started this whole purified water thing, I totally bought into the marketing of it. You know what I mean, because I'm like oh man, it's purified, but our body is not recognizing it the same way that it does natural water. So we need to be taking in natural water. Purified water is good for appliances. So if you got your iron, you got a steamer. You know something that you don't want that buildup in. Yes, you know, but things like sodium, these, these minerals, they have been, you know, demonized in the past and I think a lot of people are becoming aware now that no, you know, we need things like sodium in in our water to properly hydrate. That's why Happy Himalayan is infused with pink Himalayan salt and all these trace minerals. You know, pink Himalayan salt has 84 different trace minerals in it. So people are starting to realize now that that's so important. So what they do is they purify the water and then, if you look on, I'm not going to name names because you know I'm not trying to be that bad guy, but at the end of the day, a lot of brands that are sold in these stores look at the bottle of water y'all, and when you see purified and then it says like with added electrolytes for taste your typical natural water it's called TDS total dissolved solids. What that measurement is is the measurement of minerals, of trace minerals that are in the water. What that measurement is is the measurement of minerals, of trace minerals, that are in the water Natural waters typically, you're going to see it anywhere from 100 to 200 TDS. Sometimes you'll you know when you got really mineral rich water it can even get up into the thousands, like one, two, three thousand TDS.

Speaker 2: 1:07:16

A lot of these purified water companies they're taking municipal water, they're taking tap water. They're purifying it through reverse osmosis. These reverse osmosis machines have a lot of plastic components and they're pushing that water through these plastic components that are introducing these nanoplastics into the water and then they're adding in minerals. Okay, but they're big plastic bags of processed minerals. They're not natural minerals. You know there's a big difference between natural sea salt and big old packaged processed salt, right. So they're adding these minerals back in. But what they're not telling us is is that they're adding in them in at very minuscule levels. So natural water may have one 200 tds. These purified waters sometimes are only like at 10 tds instead of 100. So literally a tenth or a 20th of the levels of minerals are in that water. So it's really just branding, it's really just so that they can. They're putting it on there with added minerals just so that they can say that. But it's all about maximum profit, right? They're just putting in enough to where they can legally get away with saying that they've added minerals into it.

Speaker 2: 1:08:37

So, as we know, it's a tricky world we live in. There's a lot of deception going on here. We all need to be very vigilant with our food and our water that we take in. I'm not telling people to go out and get Happy Himalayan. What I'm saying is get natural water, any source of natural water. Happy Himalayan is artesian water, which means that it's underground, encased beneath really thick and permeable rocks so that toxins can't get to it. But there's a lot of other great natural water sources out there, like spring water. So there's tons of companies out there that have amazing quality water, whether it's artesian or spring, but just make sure that you're getting your water natural. Natural water is what you want to have, y'all.

Speaker 1: 1:09:25

Yeah, the last thing I really thought we were going to get into is that deep of a conversation about water, but I'm pretty blown away. I didn't really know all that. I knew that water had a bunch of stuff in it that you don't really want to put in your body. All right, so I know we're getting close on time, but I do have one last question. You're an independent artist and I think I I for me personally, as, as you know, a fan of yours. That means a lot to me, because my perception and I could be wrong, but my perception of if you decided to sign with a label, is that you would lose a lot of control of your music and really potentially lose control of how. Maybe I shouldn't guess, maybe I should just ask you why do you stay independent? Because you could. Obviously, I'm sure you've had multi-million God who knows how much money people have offered you to put you on a label.

Speaker 1: 1:10:34

To sign a record deal, yeah there you go, but you haven't done it. Talk to me about that. Yeah, man, that's a record deal. Yeah, there you go, but you haven't done it. And so talk to me about that?

Speaker 2: 1:10:41

Yeah, man, that's a great question. You know, when I first became an artist, I did sign a record deal. I signed with Sony Records and you know, when you're a brand new artist, you just don't know how it all works. You don't know how the business of music works. Don't know how the business of music works. I think it's a little bit of an issue with us artists and that we're so right-brained that a lot of us are lost in the music. We're creatives by nature and a lot of us aren't business people. We've also grown up watching every artist that we love be on a major record label or to some kind of a record label, right, and so there's kind of like this narrative in our mind that quote making it means you get signed by a record label and if you're not signed to one, then you're not legit. You know you're not real. And how am I going to get on the radio, how am I going to get fans? How am I going to do this or do that if I'm not signed to a record label? You know, and it's definitely a narrative that I bought into and believed, you know as many artists do. So you sign your record deal, as I did you know? And what you immediately realize is that money starts getting spent on your record and on promoting you, and what ends up happening is every single artist on these labels. All that money that's being spent, you, the artist, have to pay it back, but they're spending it in the way that they want to spend it. You may want to spend it much less money or be a lot more efficient with how it's being used, and they may just be throwing money here and there and that's on you to pay it back. And artists can very easily find themselves millions of dollars in the hole with a record label, and so you can say you end up finally getting yourself a popular song and you get yourself a hit and it goes big. All of that money coming in is going to go directly to the record label, not to you, because they've put you into this huge hole.

Speaker 2: 1:12:46

A lot of the things that get tacked on to what is called your recoupment is shady at best. You might say you know so. Financially it can be absolutely devastating and most artists never, ever even get out of the red. Very few artists are ever profitable, but the record labels know this. They're well aware of it, of course right. That's why they sign so many. They sign a bunch of artists. They don't need them all to make it. They don well aware of it. Of course, right. That's why they signed so many. They signed a bunch of artists. They don't need them all to make it. They don't need them all to be big, they only need a couple. You get a few of them and those few make them so much money that it covers any sort of minimal investments that they put into their other artists.

Speaker 2: 1:13:37

Now, those investments, while minimal to them as in, say, a couple million dollars is minimal for them but to the artists that's a lot, it's huge, and they're never able, unless they get a hit, they're never able to climb out of that hole. And as long as you're not able to financially get them paid back, you're not able to financially get them paid back. You can't leave. They own you. They own the music, every record that you make. So when an artist released it's kind of like why Taylor Swift released you know Taylor's version of her records. You know it's because those first albums weren't hers, it was the record labels you know. And so when you're on a record label and you make your record, they own the record. Literally, it's almost like if you're a painter and they commissioned it, right, they own the painting. Okay, so it can be.

Speaker 2: 1:14:32

If you're in debt, it can pretty much be impossible to get caught up and you just find yourself making all your music for them and you're indebted to them and almost kind of like a slave to them for your entire career. It's a really difficult place to be in, especially when you add in the fact that they have a massive amount of say in what songs go on the record, what your message is. Everything All they're really concerned about is making money right, I mean your business. So if, for instance, you're doing something that they don't feel will be the most money-making message or sound or something like that, but that's what you're passionate about they will change everything about you. They'll change your sound, they will change what songs go on your record and what they want you to sing about and everything. They'll change everything about it to become profitable. So you end up not even really being yourself anymore, being what you're about. You're being what they're about so that they can make money right. So that is absolutely soul crushing for an artist to do. So you end up kind of finding out that when you peel back the curtain behind Oz, it's not what you thought it was at all.

Speaker 2: 1:15:53

You know, the beauty is that nowadays in 2025, you don't have to do that. An artist doesn't have to do that. You used to have to do that because, in order to make a professional sounding album that really sounded like the radio, you had to go into a multimillion dollar recording studio and record that music. And that costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to make one album. You know. I mean, typically you're looking at about a quarter million dollars minimum to make a really professional sounding album. That's what it used to cost, you know, sometimes a million dollars or more if you're getting big features and a big producer or something like that.

Speaker 2: 1:16:33

Right Now, a kid, you know, with a laptop and a microphone in their bedroom, you know, like Billie Eilish and her brother in their bedroom. Or you know, for instance, when I made the Good Time album, I made that whole album at home. Me and my wife made the entire record at our house with our home studio. I recorded all the vocals for the Good Time album in my laundry Dang yeah. And a lot of people do this now. That's the thing A lot of artists are doing this now because, fortunately, technology has gotten so good. Yeah, and all of that gear that costs all that money and all those studios that cost all that money now is all inside of a laptop.

Speaker 2: 1:17:16

And now the power is shifting in a beautiful way back to the artist. Because now you had to sound with the record label if you wanted to have music that sounded professional and sound like the radio, because who's got that kind of money? You also needed millions of dollars to market yourself or, at a minimum, hundreds of thousands of dollars to get your name out there and to get your songs out there. Well, now we have social media, you know, we can directly, as an artist, connect to the entire world directly, and that scares the ever living daylights out of them, because they were the middleman you had to have them to get to the people in any sort of real way. I mean, there's no other way really to do it. Back then, you know. But now you can make your record yourself for way less money. You know, you can take a few thousand dollars. Get you a laptop, get you a little interface and a microphone. I record all of my music, all my music, all my, my, my number. You know good time, when it's triple platinum was recorded on a $300 microphone. Okay, so you don't need all this crazy fancy equipment anymore because the software is so good You're, as long as you're willing to do the work and learn it. Now I learned how to produce on YouTube. That's the other beautiful thing is that you know you used to have to go into the studio if you want to learn how to be a producer and get on all this crazy equipment or hire some very expensive producer. Now you can produce yourself if you're willing to take the time to learn Now.

Speaker 2: 1:18:56

Does it take years? Yes, everything takes a long time to get good at right. But if you're willing to take the time to learn Now, does it take years? Yes, everything takes a long time to get good at Right. But if you're passionate enough, you can go down the YouTube rabbit hole. You can learn how to produce your own music. You can learn how to play guitar on YouTube for free. Everything is at our fingertips for free now, right, and then you can make your own music at home, by yourself or with your friends or whoever Right. At home, by yourself or with your friends or whoever right, and you can release it independently. You can put it up on Spotify, apple Music all of that on your own, or you can work with these really cool independent companies that will help you get it up on all these platforms and take a very, very small percentage. Nothing like what a record label will do, and you can go on social media and you can promote the music. Now you can do everything without them. They're not needed anymore. You know and it's something that more and more artists every single day are clicking onto and realizing and that this whole lie that you need a record label is being debunked constantly.

Speaker 2: 1:19:59

Now, with all these independent artists that are very successful on their own, I mean, I'm riding around. I mean I have an amazing crew of guys you know, a full tour bus of guys and we travel all around the world and we put on these really amazing concerts and we are completely self-funded and I'm not some unique anomaly. There is tons of artists out here doing that, and so for me it's really important. I'm so glad you asked that question. It's really important for me to spread that message, because I'm hoping that there's someone out there who's listening right now, who is interested in wanting to become an artist, but maybe thinking that, well, I don't know how I'm going to be able to actually like really get it out there. I need all this help. You don't. You don't.

Speaker 2: 1:20:43

You can do this on your own, and the funny thing is is now, when artists are blowing up, now, like an artist will be on TikTok and their song will just go viral, and now they're huge, and here come the record labels swooping in to sign them, yeah, yeah, promising them that, oh, we can take this to the whole other level, you know, but the funny thing is is you've already done it. The whole world knows about you. You are big, you are huge. Now all you have to do is get out there, get on tour, you know, and develop this thing and really build your fan base. Now that you have got a song that's resonating, don't sign with a record label and give them a. Now they own your song, you know, and you may never get it back. And if you do, you'll sign some contract where you don't get the song back for like 15 years.

Speaker 2: 1:21:36

And you know most record labels. You know a lot of times these deals will be split in a way where it's like, even if you do get back to even, the split will be 80% them, 20% you, 70% them, 30% you. It's crazy. And when you're an independent artist like you can literally flip that on its head. And even more so where now you can work with these smaller independent services that will help put your music on the different platforms. They'll even help with the collection of all the revenue coming in from the song streaming and all that. And now the split is 90 percent, the artists 10%, these people that are helping.

Speaker 2: 1:22:21

That puts the power back into the artist's hands, and so a lot of artists are thinking I would rather make a little less being, you know, even they think to themselves even if I do make a little bit less being independent, I'm making so much more because I'm actually making 90% of it, or 80% of it or whatever it may be, instead of only 20% of the pie of some hopefully larger number.

Speaker 2: 1:22:52

It's just the times are changing and it's a beautiful thing, and when you're able to now actually have the money come back to you, now you're able to fund yourself. Now you're able to pay for your own tours, your own tour bus lights, all this stuff that does cost money. You're able to fund yourself now and operate independently on your own, and I'm so grateful I've been able to figure this out. It's been a very difficult process for me because I'm not the smartest individual and it took me a lot of years to learn how this works and how to do it, and so I'm really passionate about helping other artists bypass all of the kind of hard roads that I've had to go down to finally get myself free from that and be able to be independent and hopefully, like, let them not learn it the hard way and start off on the right foot, independently, right from the jump all right, so I got.

Speaker 1: 1:23:50

I do have one quick last question, all right. So how did you get out from underneath the Sony deal, like, did you, were you, did you sign with him under a different name, or how did you? Or did you just get out of the hole? How did you break away from that? Because that couldn't have been easy.

Speaker 2: 1:24:07

I don't know if I can say that, oh, okay, yeah, I'm trying to think of how to put it, but I'll say this you found a loophole. Yeah, I found a loophole.

Speaker 1: 1:24:16

Exactly.

Speaker 2: 1:24:17

I think it's very difficult man and I have a lot of friends who are signed to a lot of record labels that are dying to get out.

Speaker 2: 1:24:29

They just dream about trying to figure out how to get out of this deal that they're in, because it was a big smoke and mirror situation for them and they can't. They just can't get out. It was just a big smoke and mirror situation for them and they can't. They just can't get out. They're stuck and they're going to be there for the rest of their career or for another 10 years, and for a lot of artists that is their whole career, right. So I'm so lucky that I was able to find the loophole that I did. It's a loophole that not every artist has in their availability to use, but I'll put it this way I had Get Out of Jail Free card in my mind before I signed my record deal that I had in my back pocket so that if it wasn't what I thought it was and if things didn't go the way that I hoped they would, I could use it, and so I had it going into it.

Speaker 1: 1:25:19

How did you have that awareness to think about that?

Speaker 2: 1:25:22

The reason I had that awareness is because before I became an artist, I was a songwriter for almost 15 years in country music.

Speaker 2: 1:25:31

So I've been so fortunate to write songs for Morgan Wallen and Zach Brown Band and Dierks Bentley and all these different people from Morgan Wallen and Zach Brownband and Dierks Bentley and all these different people. So, even though I had a lot of learning to do about being an artist signed to a label and stuff, I had a decent understanding of how things work from being a songwriter in this community and watching a lot of people that I wrote songs for sign deals sign bad ones, try to get out of them. For signed deals signed bad ones, try to get out of them. Some of them be able to, some of them not, and kind of getting some you know vicarious wisdom through them. And so, going into it, I already knew that there was a possibility. You know that I could be taken advantage of or that I won't even say take advantage of, I'll just say it nice, I'll just say that things wouldn't go the way that I would have wanted them to.

Speaker 2: 1:26:20

And so I set up, basically an ace up my sleeve so that if it went that way I could use it and it ended up coming to that conclusion that this is not what I wanted to be a part of at all, and I used my get out of jail free card and was able to to to maneuver my way up.

Speaker 2: 1:26:40

I bet you caught, but it costs but I'm going to tell you right now I'm not going to say what my card was, because it's basically a relationships thing and and I don't want to like out the people that helped me get out of it. But but not every artist is going to have that sort of that sort of ace up their sleeve and so please, please, please, like, think hard about it before you do it, because it's going to look really shiny, really nice, and it's going to seem like, oh my God, like next week I'm going to, it's going to, they're going to help blow me up and all this stuff. You know, the harder path is the better path. It might take longer to do it grassroots, but it's so much more worth it because when you build, when you build something this way, it can't be taken down.

Speaker 2: 1:27:27

There's no record label. No one can take this community that we built away from us, not from me, not from you, right? We have something real, something that's true, that's built on real music, that has a real message, and no one no publisher, no booking agency, no record label, no, nothing can take that from us, and I'm so grateful for that and I'm so grateful for the amazing managers and booking agents that I have in my life now and that I'm working with. They're all focused on the right things and they're all good, genuine people. And, yeah, I'm just grateful to be in the place that I am now and making the music that I'm passionate about making, which is, you know very much, this one love mentality.

Speaker 1: 1:28:09

Yeah, amazing. Well, nico, where can? So can you give everybody where they can find the Happy Cowboy Foundation?

Speaker 2: 1:28:16

Himalayan Water, where they can find the happy cowboy foundation, himalayan water, where they can find you, uh, so yeah I'll put all that stuff in the show notes as well, yeah if you, if you, if you want to come to a show, just go to nicomooncom. You can get your tickets there. Make sure you bring your palm shirt with you.

Speaker 2: 1:28:33

I like to wear the palm shirts because you know, hey, I've always been really inspired by Jimmy Buffett and for me, he's always just taken me to paradise with his music, and I want to do the same thing with the music myself. You know, I also like to think. I like to think of the show as a vacation, and wearing the Palm shirts just helps, helps me be in that mood. It's also why I don't wear I don't wear boots or shoes or anything during the show. I like to go barefoot because it just gets me into that vacation mindset. For the nonprofit, if anyone is curious about donating or looking at our resources on how to get help and where to go, you can go to happycowboyfoundationorg. Cowboyfoundationorg. And if you're curious about the water and being a part of what we call the Happy Humans, which is like our fans of Happy Himalayan, you can go to DrinkHHcom.

Speaker 1: 1:29:26

Nice, that's a great website. I don't know how in the world you got that. That's a short website.

Speaker 2: 1:29:34

Thanks, man. It used to be Happy Himalayan, but I found out really quick that no one knows how to spell Himalayan including myself sometimes so I was like I need a much simpler website name. So I got Drink HH and it's much better.

Speaker 1: 1:29:49

That's hilarious, all right, well, hang tight, I'm going to stop the recording, I'll cut that out. But man, dude, this has been like from my heart, heart to yours, like, truly, this has been a great conversation, as I knew it would be.

Speaker 2: 1:30:12

And it allowed me to spend, you know however long it's been with you not thinking about me, man. I'm there for you, brother, and you got this, you got this. I can just tell from our little bit of interacting that you have a lot of resolve in you. You're a very strong individual. I can just feel that from you and there is a lot of beauty and happiness and love on the way in your life, and just know that even right now you have a lot of it in your life right now, and there's a lot coming from me your way, bro. So I love you, I appreciate you, my man, and I really appreciate that you love that you connect with better days, because better days ahead, man, you got. This life is a beautiful thing. Stay in the moment, stay in your gratitude, bro, and I can't wait to hang out with you, celebrate life with you again real soon.

Speaker 1: 1:31:03

Yeah, and Astro most likely. Yes, let's do it All right, brother.

Speaker 2: 1:31:08

I appreciate you. You got it, brother. All right, bro. See you soon, corey, all right.