The Gene Mitchell Interview is featured on The Paul Leslie Hour.
Are you here? To be here is to be present, and the interview you’re about to hear feature a guy who is about as present as is possible. On this episode of The Paul Leslie Hour it’s a pleasure to present an interview with Sailor Boy Records and Sailor Boy Publishing performing and recording artist Gene Mitchell. A lot of people make tropical-inspired music, well Gene Mitchell is one of ‘em, and a one-of-a-kind talent. A joyful guy too.
You may recall the on-air beer tasting Gene did with host Paul Leslie. Well, what you’re about to hear is the time when Gene Mitchell, the big coconut himself called into Paul’s show. Now this was an old-school show. So Gene and Paul would chat a bit and then they’d spin one of Gene Mitchell’s songs. Now get this, Gene would stay on the phone while the song played and when the tune finished, Gene was still there and they’d talk some more. Novel concept, isn’t it?
Well, what we have for you is the talking part of that show and we’re putting it out there for you all. All of the episodes we release get distributed on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio and of course YouTube. The YouTube channel is growing like mad, probably because of all of the great content we’ve been releasing there. We just surpassed 3,000 subscribers. It’s free to subscribe and don’t forget to ring that bell.
I think it’d be worthwhile that we all listen to this one. Gene Mitchell should never be kept waiting. Let’s hear what Gene has to say.
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The Official Transcript
[2:02] Well, another aloha to Gene Mitchell. He has come back to our radio tiki hut. So we want to welcome back one of our favorite artists and most played artists, Gene Mitchell.
How you doing, Paul?
I’m doing wonderful. It’s good to speak to you. It’s been a while.
It has.
Good to speak to you again. Are you drinking Landshark Lager still?
I am drinking Landshark Lager. How’d you know that?
I just had a feeling that you were hooked.
Oh yes, you know it’s great beer, I tried it, and it’s really smooth, it’s got a good flavor. It’s not hard like a lot of the Mexican beers or the top beers you get. [2:44] It’s a good American beer made by Budweiser and it’s just a really smooth beer, it’s very tasty. It’s got a great aftertaste too, I mean it’s not leaving anything that I have to wash it down. I don’t have to have any rum or Coca-Cola or shot of booze after this stuff, it’s really good.
It.
So I think we should start from the beginning and I’ve often wondered if maybe or I wondered a lot about listening to some of your songs where you got the inspiration for different songs and today we’re going to do it be able to find out a little bit about your history. So first of all where were you born, Gene?
I was born in Brunswick, Georgia and that’s between Savannah, Georgia and, Jacksonville, Florida. So kind of close to the Florida line, but it’s a harbor town. A lot of shrimping going on. And there’s a port there, but I was raised on the river. My granddad had a place on the river and we caught shrimp. Didn’t have a shrimping boat.
[3:42] He worked at a chemical mill, but I was raised around that atmosphere. And a lot of people, say Georgia. They do think of Atlanta or cotton or peanuts and living on the coast and being raised on the coast, especially right above the Florida line, which is a much different atmosphere. That’s where I was born and raised.
And you still make it up to Atlanta sometimes, I saw, where you…
My only brother, actually, is an engineer and he works up in Atlanta. I’ve been up on Thanksgiving before last and then he got married last spring and he asked me what I’d play his wedding, so I played over at Cheeseburger Paradise, I think on [4:21] Saturday night after his wedding and then Sunday afternoon, which happened to be Mother’s Day last year. So I got up there. That’s the last time I went up, Actually found out he was leaving on a cruise the next day and so will my wife and I but we were actually going on two different ones, but we missed each other in Nassau by one day And I said if you hadn’t told me that I’d have saw you in Nassau, on the honeymoon, that would have been a surprise. I get up. I probably get up once a year sometimes twice a year.
And I heard that you rocked the house at Cheeseburger, that’s what the bartenders were saying.
Yeah, well, I didn’t hear that, but my brother did. I know that it was like 1:20. Little did I know I was supposed to stop at 12. The place was packed. Of course, I did some of the Jimmy Buffet and the island songs, some of mine. But as the younger kids started coming in, kids that grew up with music in the 80s and the 90s, I switched to that. I can play a lot of songs. I was doing the John Cougar and the R.E.M.
I was just reading their ages as they came in the door, what they would like. Yeah, and it was a non-stop party. It was. We went until 1:20 and actually, I quit because I was just dead tired.
I think I went back at 11 and played right straight through till 1:20.
[5:41] I didn’t, but my brother had said something about either the bartender or one of the waiters had said goodnight for him and they really hadn’t played that late before. It’s about playing the right song at the right time. It really is.
And I guess the business aspect of it is how much the cash register rings too.
Because if it rings more than you’re there than the guy last week, you’ll probably be back next week.
And the way to do that is to play the right song at the right time. And just play great songs that people are familiar with. And people always ask me when I play and do I play and rise to tropical rock.
I just tell them, basically, I’m playing classic top 40.
And that could be from last year all the way back to the 60s or 50s. But most of the songs were basically, they were top 10 hits. And if it’s a top 10 hit, it usually lasts forever.
It lasts for decades. [6:34] People know the song.
So what did you listen to growing up in Brunswick?
In Brunswick, I listened to, actually I listened to, probably the first music I was exposed to was my mother and her sister. Of course, they listened to 50s and early 60s, but my uncle was only 12 years older than me.
I remember every Beatle album bought as they came out. When I’d be over at my granddad’s, I was only four or five years old, we’d actually listen to them just over and over until I knew all the words. But I played piano at age six, had to take lessons that was my birthday present. [7:08] Everybody had to play piano. At age 10, I actually switched to drums because I was in the band at school.
I played this all the way through my senior year. In fact, I was a state drummer in Georgia in my junior year and the drum major.
But then things changed. I was listening to the rock-soul and playing everything. We were heavy into Grand Funk Railroad. Some of the newer KISS stuff, because they were basically coming out. But whenever I switched to guitar, my first things I was playing was America and Neil Young, Loggins and Messina, because that was real popular.
But I’ll say that probably I’m more influenced. I didn’t buy my first Jimmy Buffet record until 1996.
And my big influences was with that kind of jazz chord played with pop rhythms is what America was using.
And not Neil Young, but America was. But when I lived in Hawaii from 78 to 80, Cecilio & Kapono and the people of Kalapana and the Beamer Brothers, they were all using it. I remember learning all those songs that those guys were playing. They were on the radio and some of them were signed with Columbia. [8:23] But that was real popular. Hawaii had an entirely different top 40 so to speak and that is probably influenced my music. You know, I hear it, I was listening to some radio on the other day and heard, Cecilio & Kapono and I went to amazon.com and bought two of the albums that I had years ago and you know, I realized wow, you know a lot of those chords and a lot of that that groove they had. That’s in my music even to this day, so I’m sure that heavily influenced me.
So how did you make the leap from being a music fan to being a musician yourself?
A musician is not what I am, it’s who I am, what I am.
I don’t, it’s since I was four. When I had to be singing, I learned the songs on the radio, I had the hairbrush entertaining my grandmother and her friends, singing along with records, singing along with the radio.
[9:18] But I would say probably by when I got my first drums at age 15, there was no doubt I was going to be a musician. [9:26] I was playing in clubs in my junior and senior year. Then I just got really heavy into it.
Actually, when I joined the Navy, back in ’77 disco hit. They wouldn’t hire bands, they hired DJs.
So I started playing solo and playing the guitar.
I already knew how to sing the songs. I started playing guitar and doing happy hours.
And then someone said, “You should be playing on the beaches of Waikiki.”
I said, “tell me more!” And about six months later, I was playing in the clubs in Waikiki, still in the Navy.
But I started doing some writing there.
And in fact, on my second CD, I put out in ’98 of the song, or copyrighted in 79, that song, Caledonia, that I wrote when I was down in the South Pacific.
So I was actually cruising the South Pacific in Hawaii. And I think right before I left, Jimmy had come out with Margaritaville in ’77.
And I was familiar with the song, So we never played song, because by then, disco was heavy, and some of the country clubs, that I would sit in with a country band, they were playing it right before I joined the Navy.
But when I got to Hawaii, I mean, it was all the Hawaiian guys.
So I kind of missed all those years, and it wasn’t until ’95, I was living in LA, and I took a lyric-writing course from UCLA, and I’d taken a lot of music courses in college.
And I had written a song, and Norman Saleet, who was a friend of mine, he had written Air Supply’s only number one hit, and a hit for Selena, and he suggested I send a certain song to Jimmy Buffett. I asked, [10:53] “Is this guy still playing? He goes, “oh yeah, he comes out with an album every year.”
So I actually sent him “Out Past the Reef,” but Mike actually called first.
Norman gave me the number. I think Jimmy was with MCA at the time.
I called and they, I think this guy named Mike.
… his phone and asked him who I was. I told him who Norman was. He knew him.
He said, well, send a song in. Well, actually, Mike Utley called me back.
He said, “hey, this is a great song, but the next album is more eclectic.” Well, I’m trying to be a songwriter at the time, that’s all. Now, I’ve got a call back from a member of the band.
I started out buying Jimmy Buffett records and listening and writing songs that I might could pitch to him.
I was working with Norm at the time, we were working on songs and basically, I had all these songs that I was using.
Rick Cathaaway, who had played with the Osmond family the whole time, and Osmond Brothers, and Keith Horry King, who worked for Warner Brothers, who produced it.
Norma said, “you’re not writing demos, you’re writing an album.”
[11:57] I said, where am I going to sell them? Well, there’s a place called Amazon.com, you can play at the Disney Wharf every Saturday and Sunday.
[12:03] I had all these mixture of country songs, and I preferred that one, Rum and Coca-Cola and Caribbean Cowboy, and so I never sent them back to Jimmy.
I put out the CD and then somebody had to buy one at Fisherman’s Wharf.
[12:19] And they were the editor of a magazine, a clothing magazine called The Log that goes, from San Francisco to San Diego and they did a half-page article on me and all of a sudden, people are buying them.
And I said, hey, this works really well.
So I just started writing songs and that’s why I called it Caribbean Cowboy actually because I said I’ve got all these country songs and these Caribbean songs so then I wrote a song called Caribbean Cowboy and called it Caribbean Cowboy and that’s why that, album came into being.
And then a lot of the parrots had to start buying the record.
And so therefore I said, well, let me see what they’re worth.
I actually bought Fruitcakes, was the first CD I bought.
And then I bought some CDs backwards over the next four or five months, but they fall, backwards as they put them out.
And I said, well, you know, I’m not as country as he is, but he’s got a lot of nice styles on here.
But basically he was just selling a vacation. He did the Caribbean.
And so I just sat down and I wrote Big Coconut, got Gary Gibson to play the steel drums, and just ripped out an album that was nothing but basically parody and friendly.
I wanted to, I was living in Seattle and I wanted to get back to my roots, which were kind of jazzy.
And so I did the album Tropical Jazz and I featured Amy Lee, Jimmy Buffet’s saxophone player.
[13:35] And Don Raymond, who’s Tennegee’s guitar player, because I promoted featuring the guitar player, from the number one tropical band whose leader plays guitar and stars, or saxophone player for the number one tropical band whose leader plays guitar and that was him.
And guitarist for the nation’s number one jazz band and played saxophone, that’s how I promoted it.
You know, and I went back to that and I could tell in the writing of those songs, living in Seattle, I was really longing to come back to the southeast and to the beach.
And you can hear it in the songs because I’m talking about I need to go, I got to get, back by the beach, I got to live down by the beach, I got to get back.
And well, some smooth jazz and some blues on there.
And I was going to put out Down the Island Way, which Jeff actually sang on the title track with me, too.
[14:26] He thought that was a great album. And it’s because I had finally arrived in Florida.
I was where I wanted to be, and you could just hear it in the music.
And Jeff commented at the time that it was one of the best CDs I’d put out.
And I don’t know if that’s what he was saying on it. He really thought so.
But I took that as a compliment because on that album, I just moved to Florida.
I moved to Florida and I really didn’t have access to a lot of good musicians yet, and so actually, I had Gary, who’s a still drum player, but he’s got a master’s degree in percussion.
He played the drums, piano, and still drums, and all the percussion, and I did guitar, acoustic, and electric, and played the bass, and did all the vocals on all the songs, except.
[15:07] For the one I could play, Down Island, which song. So as you can see in the album, I’m just happy to be in Florida, so happy that I did, the next album, which was called Greetings from Florida. And that album, I highlighted all the places in Florida and how nice it was to live here.
And I always felt that that was my most…
Not the worst of my albums, but that’s the one I didn’t like as well as the others because really I was doing it as a way to get my foot in the door to Florida, show people that I could write about Florida.
And of course I put out four more albums after that, but that album is what got me the gig at the Capital One Bowl and playing for 17 million people.
Because the guy did a search, Greenies from Florida, and he did a search, Vacation.
And I got two albums by that name, and my name came up. And we opened the show at Capital One Bowl, with Greenies from Florida. And the second song was Vacation, So you never know who’s listening. You just got to get the music out there.
[16:15] And I appreciate so much so many people buying the CDs, that allows me to just to keep putting out more and I do I thought I would do myself, every time. Write something a little different but the same just you know so you don’t just get a rehash of the same old stuff. Like on the last album it’s you know a little bit of the California or Carolina shag and all the beat bop sound while still having some reggae and some, calypso and you know that jazzy foul that I’ve got so something new. So I was just wondering out there there’s there’s quite a few people that are doing this kind of tropical, and it’s down who out there would you have to say is is one of the one of the especially good ones and you can say yourself I don’t consider that the I hear a lot on the radio on the spot block vein of you know independent artists I hear a lot and I think that and you know what I think there’s a market for it you know Jimmy’s albums he keeps putting them out and Jimmy’s being a little bit more reflective you know growing older looking back on life, and you’ve got so many independent artists that are doing kind of what he, did in the beginning, right from the trenches.
[17:33] They’re talking about being in a little tiki bar, you know, not flying the airplane around the world.
They’re still in the tiki bar, meeting the average folk.
And I think that’s the deal with the independent artists, that they’re down in the trenches, you know, they may be riding in the wake.
You know, and I have to say, you know, Jimmy is as influential to music.
[17:55] You know, if you take the biggies in music, you’ve got Elvis Presley, you’ve got Chuck Berry.
Chuck Berry’s rock and roll, Elvis Presley, you know, was more of the pop.
He had it all during the 70s. I mean, the great showman as well as rock and roll, Ray Charles.
I’m not going to mention all these guys from the South either, but you’ve got the best music.
I think, I wish Jimmy a long, long life, but I can tell you that his music is going to stand and it’s probably going to be, far more popular than he ever dreamed of when he’s finally in the history books.
I can see there’ll be as many impersonating Jimmy Buffett as there are Elvis impersonators.
It’ll be that, you know, so I think Jimmy’s of course the number one, but I’ll tell you, as far as when I listen, I hear a lot of, Jeff’s probably going to, Jeff Feige’s probably going to agree with me on this, you got anybody out there that can make a CD now, they got the home, recorders, and you can make a fairly decent one. Now what I hear is just, you know, almost like, the first thing that rhymed in their head, I hear a lot out there that basically people can’t sing, but they put it out. It’s a good song. If you listen to some of the 60s and 70s all by themselves, really the singer may not have been… I mean, he can carry a tune. I don’t want to listen to them for hours, but it’s just such a great song. But I’ll tell you who I personally think.
[19:17] And I’ll say that I think these guys are the best, and I do it because of the lyric writing, their voice, and their production. The way they present the song, and the musicianship, and probably first, I really like Sonny Jim’s writing.
I knew you were going to say that. I don’t know how I knew. Right now, Kelly McGuire, that Vote and Believe album, I mean, it just blew my socks off.
It was a good album, well-produced, and he’s using a lot of the guys from Jimmy Buffett’s band.
So basically when it started, it sounded like Jimmy Buffett’s band because he’s using about four to five players.
But Kelly’s just got a very pleasant voice. I know he took a break from the Red Thick Island and went and did a straight-forward country album.
Album, but I could tell on that third album he was right back where he belonged, doing.
[20:12] The trot lock.
And Jim Morris, when I first heard it, I was like, well, Jim’s living the life of drinking and he’s writing those songs, but Jim Morris is really a good writer, really is.
And I’ll tell you, I was fascinated. He’s kind of the Ray Charles of the drop rock.
You know, Ray Charles, every once in a while, he would just sing silly songs, but he just had so many hits.
Then all of a sudden, and then Ray Stevens too. not Ray Charles, Ray Stevens, I mean, you know, the comedian.
Yeah. He’s kind of the Ray Stevens, you know, the freak and that kind of stuff.
He writes some very clever, funny songs that still, and you know, each of us, and son of Jim, he lived in the Cameron salon, he’s got that soccer ball sound down, just very clever, clever songs he’s written.
But you know, and I look at him, I said, each of us have lived different lives, you know, And Jim is from Georgia, and we’re all about the same age, and we just live different lives.
And it reflects in our songs, but it all comes together, that mutual bond of loving the tropics.
[21:26] Jim loves fish, and Sonny Jim, he loves the beach. I love the beach, and we all love the beach, and we all love the water, and we all love the crop rock. I really haven’t… A lot of guys I’ve had a few of them, but when I say I’m really impressed with someone, that means, I will play their CD more than once.
Yeah. Just listen to it. And when I talk songwriting, I always say, you know, a song is only as good as your worst lyric line in a song.
And an album is only as good as your worst song.
If you put one bad song on that album, that whole album’s bad now.
It really is. you can’t have somebody skipping tracks.
[22:12] If it’s something that you don’t like, skip it. And another thing, you can’t put a disclaimer on this.
I know that the guitar, I know that drumming is really bad on this, but he’s a good buddy of mine.
You can’t do that. I hear a lot of that, but you know, Kelly McGuire, Sonny Jim White, and Jim Morris, they’re consistent.
And both of those guys have really, from what I’ve heard over the last few years, Both of those guys have really taken a big step forward by getting band members to back them up.
A lot of the computer music was being done with Sonny Jim, because of being in the Cayman Islands, I’m sure, that was easier.
And Jim, Sonny Jim, I noticed a lot of his songs were a little bit longer, I was thinking, okay, but then I thought, well, you know what, when he was writing that, he was playing live every night, and he’s writing for people to dance.
And that’s why, because we don’t wanna dance or two and a half minutes long, we just got going.
And I can see the change in his writing and more so because they’ve been playing, with other musicians and they got a band backing them up, and that’s a great thing to play with real musicians and have that creativity that you can draw from everyone.
And I see it.
[23:28] Saying of course now, if A1A would send me an album or something, I could probably say something about them, but I haven’t heard.
I did hear a song on the radio and it said A-1-A and I could tell it was Jeff singing, because I tell you, Jeff has got a great voice.
He gave me a couple of CDs of his that he did solo. He’s got a great voice.
Of course, when he’s singing the top rock, he’s given that a different edge.
[23:52] But this song, as I heard, I forget it was a smooth song, but I could tell it was Jeff singing and it was very smooth, very well-written song.
That’s all I’ve heard. So I’ll give Jeff that plug there.
If he sends me up that album, I might say more next time. Yeah, I’ve had kind of the same impression that you did, and I would have to put Sunny Jim, Kelly McGuire, and when I first started writing and doing the radio shows and stuff, it was really Jeff that turned me on to your music on his website.
The link to you says, out of all the people doing island music, I’d have to say Gene Mitchell is the cream of the crop.
And I have to say, I mean, I get sent a lot of CDs. Your CDs do stand, they stand up because you don’t skip any songs.
Yeah, and I, and I, well of course it takes me two and a half years to put out an album.
I don’t put one out every year.
But I do, I start a lot of songs that I don’t finish because I just say, well, you know, but it’s not going anywhere. Maybe I’ll keep the idea and do a fun album later, but right now it’s not working at all.
I don’t just sit down and write a song. I can do that if I’ve got a title to work for, I can make up a story and I’ve done that before.
[25:15] But the last time I had 14 songs, and 10 of them were written over a two-year period, and four of them were written over the last two months.
Because once I’m in the studio, then it’s like, okay, I’ve got the guys here, and I’ve got these ideas, let me see if I can take all my ideas and let me see if I can.
Of course, the producer is always saying, you know, 14 songs, you know, 12 is enough.
You’re just giving them two more songs because you don’t understand.
I’m not going to put out an album for another two years. I don’t want to sit on, you know, two songs for another couple of years. I want them to hear them now.
I want them to hear, in fact, Big Coconut, the song of Big Coconut was the last song I wrote, and I have been writing it.
And we recorded it on the final day of making that album.
And it ended up being the title of the album.
The song was so strong. And you can hear us all having fun in there, especially if you get the Island Party, which is a compilation and it’s got the acapella version that we were doing at the beginning.
You can hear that. We were just having so much fun with that.
[26:13] Now, I have to tell you, if anybody gets signed to a record contract, it’ll probably be Kelly McGuire.
If a major record was looking, that would probably be the one.
The reason is because Kelly’s got the band, he travels with, and just Kelly is just such a hard worker.
He has just worked at State of Texas and been independent music of the year.
I mean, he’s, you know, he’s got a real commercial sound. I think he’s got, He’s got the time and the willingness to work it.
That I wouldn’t do it, but you know…
[26:46] I’m doing well, records are selling, and I’ve got nine of them out, and I know I had a lot of calls from a lot of people, marketing and people wanting to manage me.
You know, after I was advertised on the headline, Entertainment for the Capital One Bowl on ABC this past New Year’s Day, and then also on SiriusXM when the Vacation Channel was running.
And I was the second most played artist behind Jimmy on that station.
And so people are calling me, telling me what they can do for me.
And I said, well, you know, what can you do for me?
[27:19] I mean, can you get me a gig to play for 17 million people on TV?
65,000 people live, can you get, you know, what can you do? So, and for me, you know, I was in the Navy 21 years, and basically I had people telling me, you know, what to wear, how to cut my hair, where to be, and, you know, sign on a record deal with somebody.
I own the publishing, the copyright, the record label, and I own everything.
And the only thing I would probably do is let somebody, some young kid that’s willing to work hard sing one of my songs.
But other than that, you sign a record deal and you’ve got somebody telling you what to wear, how to cut your hair, where to be, and then you’re gonna have to sign over so much.
All your creativity that you do from that point on is gonna be signed over.
And not that I mind that. And I probably would entertain one, but I would probably have a lot of stipulations.
But right now I’m just happy doing it myself and having fun with it and it’s successful.
[28:17] And I wish, I really think though, the stop rock thing. I’ve been seeing so many radio stations doing this and a lot of island shows.
Just if, you know.
[28:32] I think that Phil probably will be a category at the Grammys for it one day.
No, I do. My goal has been to win a Grammy now.
And I said, well, they said, that’s a high goal. I said, yeah, but if I don’t reach it, trying to, I should hit a lot.
I used to have a lot of folks down trying to hit it, and I can see that, and you know, the radio stations that are playing more and more of it, and more and more people are doing island shows, and I can see that. I’d like to see a section at Walmart. That would be a great deal.
So when you’re not doing the music, I was just wondering, what do you do when you’re not doing the business related to the music?
Well, I don’t do anything else. I don’t work any other job. I have to say that January, because of Capital One Bowl, was my busiest month ever on sales on my website, Amazon.com, CD Baby, all the other radio, Airplay, royalties, everything.
Thing was in download, digital download, you know. And that says a lot, you know, because, you get an email every Monday saying, you know, this much has been deposited to your account. And, you know, I think, you know, 99 cents, you know, you look and say, my gosh.
[29:53] You know, all five people, 400 people a week are downloading songs on Yahoo and iTunes.
Like, who are these people? Why don’t they come, why don’t they buy the CD? And that’s That’s why I try to make my CDs really nice too, with all the lyrics and the pictures and all.
Because when people buy a product, they just don’t want to just throw it out there as a CD.
You’ve got to give them something to look at, read, and read a little bit about you.
It’s great and I really don’t do anything else. Now, I have been busy.
I’ve been really busy because I do all the business aspect of it.
I have a marketing director and they do some, but I do most of that stuff.
I try to stay as personal as I can with the people that are buying.
And I’m filling up my March and April schedule, mostly with private gigs now, of course in May, Memorial Weekend, Labor Day Weekend, I’m playing Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, says it’s Sunday, you know, every night.
[30:49] I’m just filling up my tape, so when I’m not doing the records, I’m actually playing, writing, but I spend a lot of time at home and doing nothing.
I spend most of my nights off going around and listening to other musicians and seeing, what’s on the beach and seeing what songs people are responding to, if it’s a new song that I might want to learn, if people are responding in a certain way.
I guess it’s all business, but to me, it’s fun. You find a job you love, you never work a day in your life.
But writing and producing the music and playing, that is the only thing I do.
Last month, it actually balanced out with the performance as well as the food sales balanced out.
But you know during the winter it’s um things slow down, but you know playing the capital one boys really made a difference, Because uh, January was my biggest month in February is good. So I mean that was a lot of exposure those 17 being peephorn.
[31:57] Football program is really nice program. It’s like a cosmopolitan magazine bossy full-color, About 150 pages and I’m right on the middle two pages, you know talking about me, So hopefully those people that didn’t pay attention or we’re getting a hot dog. They took it home and.
[32:11] Browse through their book and say, yeah, I think they’ll check the guy out.
So that’s been good for this winter, it really has. I hope to carry that into the summer and on to other gigs.
So how long have you been married.
[32:25] July. Since July? Yep. Yeah, because I remember, I think it was like a couple years ago when I wrote, that piece on you, I asked you if you were married and you said no. Nope. My wife actually lives in southern Alabama, actually lived about 100 miles, almost due west of my, where my mom lives in southwest Georgia and both of our dads are dead and my mom’s really got along well together, And she actually retired in August of 2015.
She taught college in Alabama. She retired and now she’s teaching part-time at the College here.
And that has made a difference too, because she was retired.
We got married in July and we retired on Wednesday. 24 hours a day, we were together and we loved it, but I wasn’t getting any work done during the day.
I mean, we would get up, we’d go to the gym, we’d go for the beach, and we’d go have some lunch somewhere.
That’s all we did. And now, basically on those three days a week she works, that’s when I can really sit down at the computer and do some writing and do some, you know, just get all the emails checked.
So basically get a little bit of business done. So just out of curiosity, how did you meet her?
Actually, at a restaurant where I was playing, but I was done.
[33:42] This was like, friends before last. So this spring is two years.
I was already gone, but my equipment was set up, and I was there, and her and two of her other friends, and I think they all went to college together, but one worked at the college with her, and another was a guy that counseled high school down in Spillwater.
Farewell, Spring Break.
They came walking through, so I just held the door open. I was there at the counter getting myself a drink, and I was at the bar, and I opened the door of the restaurant, and the first two came by, and when she came out that door, she looked at me and she goes, how are you?
I just looked at her and I said, I’m fine now. I did. I told her that.
Matter of fact, if you listen to A Lady and a Dancer on the new CD, that’s just one that really like that jag dancing.
Yeah, and so that’s why the CD incorporates that.
And if you listen to the song or look at the lyrics, the lady and the dancer, there’s a line in there that talks about, she said, how are you? And I said, I’m fine now.
And that’s in one of the verses. But actually, and she said.
[34:56] Hey, who’s playing music?
And somebody pointed to me and said, he is. And she said, are you done?
Well, I have to say, it’s kind of like I fibbed the first time because I said, no, I’m not. But then sometimes my boss is not a fib because I can determine when I’m done.
And I said, no, I’m not. And she says, well, can me and my friends sing Mustang Cali with you?
And I said, absolutely. And that’s still one of her favorite songs. And so they all got up there and sang. And luckily she could sing the other two. In case they’re listening.
They were good.
They were good, yeah. I’ll let Simon Cowell comment on that later.
But you know, and I think, in fact, I played two or three more songs.
And then basically we sat around and talked a little bit, but you know, she was with her, girlfriend, so I gave her a CD, because I’m figuring, well, you know, she’ll see I wrote these songs, and that way, when she’s away, I can be working on her.
She’ll figure, oh, this is great.
So she came out and I thought we were just a little bit said goodbye and then it was, because she was going to be back the next month but it was actually about two or three months later that she called and we met and then she had a place at the beach and I had.
[36:13] A great years and we’d come down once a month and then we’d come down every other weekend and then pretty soon every weekend she’d come down and you know I was playing, at the time but we spent the time together and then as last winter approached I wasn’t friends so much. They were friends a lot of the weekends together. And she said that she was about ready to retire and she was about ready to move to the beach, since she was a little girl. Her dad had been bringing her here and you will see that. That’s the first song I wrote about her on the new album it’s called Forever on the Emerald Coast and it’s about her growing up on the beach and it, and I made it you know generic enough so I’m missing a little girl but it’s generic enough anybody that has longed to come to the beach and have been coming for years on weekends, and then they finally make it to the beach or wherever they’re going.
They’ve always wanted a lyrical.
[37:01] That was the first song I wrote about her, actually.
It wasn’t a love song, it was basically about her life and her desire.
Then of course, we got married in July, and I wrote a couple of other songs.
I need to wrap this up.
At the end of the year, in November, and wrapped up the album, got it out, and so anyway, so we’re happy as a clam.
Excellent! It was a moray.
Yeah, well, all you gotta do is listen to the song, The Lady and the Dancer, it’s called Dancing on the Beach, it’s the album.
The Lady and the Dancer, that’s her.
I see. He really put a step in my groove as well.
[37:50] Rob Thomas would say, put the step in my ear. She brought a little different angle.
Vacation, I don’t prefer doing a little bit of that doo-wop kind of feel to some of the songs, and a little bit of retro sound and keeping it full of reggae and flip-flop and things.
But this one, I was like, I don’t want to do that again.
But the shag dancing is that, basically, it is that kind of doo-wop sound.
But, you know, it’s just the shag music. I looked it up on the computer. The beats for a minute, the styles.
And of course I’m playing the jazzy. It came out nice. Of course she was pleased.
I mean, there’s four or five songs on there about her, so she’s pleased.
All right, I’m on my last Landsat beer. What are you drinking?
Well, I think we’re running out here, but… I’m on my last one.
I had a six pack, but the wives drank five, so I only drank one.
One more question for you. What?
I learned to talk too much? Well, I’m going to be fumbling through the fridge for another Landyard, but before it runs out, I’m sure you’ll have enough time for one question, I hope.
My last question, since this program goes out all over the world and there’ll be people everywhere listening. What would you, Dean Mitchell, like to say to the world?
[39:13] Go to the beach, have a good time, or wherever you want to relax. Don’t wait to the rest of your life, wanting to do something. A lot of people down in Florida, you know, wait until they can barely move to finally come down and do what they’ve always wanted to do.
If you can’t do it permanently, you know.
[39:39] Put away 10 or 15% of your income and go on vacation. And do it often, and when you go, do what you want to do.
And if you’re out there looking for a mate, make sure they like to do that too, because that comes in handy.
Well, I do appreciate you taking the time to give us an interview, and I wish you the best of luck with your coconut girl.
[40:02] So thank you so much for the big coconut. All right, I appreciate it.
I hope we can break bread in person sometime, either in Atlanta or down in Florida.
I’ll buy you a Landshark beer. All right.
Or maybe two or three. All right, well Gene, you just have a great night and I will work on finishing off my Landsharks and you do the same.
I’ll do it. Have a good night. Now you’re cruising with the big fan.
All right. We’ll see you later. Okay. Bye.