Darrin Bradbury - He Disappeared then Returned to Serve and Sing
He Disappeared then Returned to Serve and Sing...
What happens when a rising Americana star vanishes, only to come back with a mission—and an album—that redefines storytelling, music, and humor?
After several critically acclaimed albums, Darrin Bradbury disappeared from the music scene, leaving fans wondering what happened.
Years later, he returned with a profound purpose, leading a homeless outreach nonprofit and crafting an incredible new album, Freeman’s TV Repair Shop. Blending humor, grit, and raw authenticity, Darrin’s music and mission reflect a journey of transformation, resilience, and service.
His comeback is not just about songs—it’s about stories that inspire.
You'll Discover:
From star to servant.
New album, bold truth.
Laughter as survival tool.
Mother’s circus inspiration
Outreach powered music
Redefining Americana’s impact
This conversation is a must-listen, offering heart, humor, and hope through Darren’s remarkable story.
Learn more Darrin Bradbury here: https://www.instagram.com/darrinbradbury/
Here's Darrin's outreach organization: https://www.thebeattn.org/
AND follow Americana Curious on Instagram for the latest interviews and the behind-the-scenes with your favorite artists! https://www.instagram.com/americanacurious
Transcript
You find your way out of this paper bag.
Speaker A:Do me a favor, brother, and don't look back.
Speaker A:I do the same for you.
Speaker A:Remember that.
Speaker A:Don't look too hot.
Speaker A:Don't do the math.
Speaker A:Just dream.
Darren:I moved to Nashville 10 years ago, living out of my car in the Walmart parking lot.
Darren:I grinded every chance that I could, and it was at a time that whole Americana boom was happening.
Darren:I tried to walk that line as authentically as possible.
Darren:I ended up with a contract with Anti and Tom Waits record label.
Darren:So I said I was retiring.
Darren:So I became a janitor.
Darren:I disappeared.
Darren:I run a homeless outreach nonprofit now.
Darren:And all the music I do, it funds the outreach program.
Darren:That's the only reason I do music now.
Darren:And that's what got me out of janitorial work.
Darren:I started throwing benefit concerts.
Darren:And then one thing led to another and now I'm back in music and seemingly relevant.
Ben Fanning:Americana music transforms the world and and unfortunately, too many are unaware of its profound impact.
Ben Fanning:Americana musicians are the unsung heroes and here you'll join us in exploring these passionate artists and how they offer inspiration and hope for the future.
Ben Fanning:This show makes it happen in a fun and entertaining way.
Ben Fanning:You'll discover new music that you'll love, Hard earned lessons from the road, the story behind favorite songs, a big dose of inspiration for you and your friends, and a good laugh along the way.
Ben Fanning:I'm Ben Fanink and my co host is Zach Schultz.
Ben Fanning:It's time to get Americana curious.
Zach Schultz:Hey there and welcome back to America the curious.
Zach Schultz:Big top tree coming your way today with the inimitable Darren Bradbury.
Zach Schultz:Now if you're not familiar with Darren, well, he's a singer songwriter who dives deep into the quirks and struggles of everyday life through a unique blend of folk, Americana, ant country.
Zach Schultz:Known for his razor sharp storytelling and dark humor, he brings to life the overlooked, often gritty details of the human experience with an authenticity that has earned him quite the devoted fans and high praise from critics.
Zach Schultz:Originally from New Jersey and now a fixture in Nashville's music scene, Darren has shared stages with greats like Robert Earl Keane, John Morland and American Aquarium.
Zach Schultz:Of course, we hosted BJ Barham early on.
Zach Schultz:Check out that episode.
Zach Schultz:And he's been captivating audiences coast to coast with his unfiltered honesty and unforgettable performances.
Zach Schultz: Now in October: Zach Schultz:Something special, Freeman's TV Repair Shop, a 12 track collection that cuts right to the heart of America's everyday oddities and celebrates life's idiosyncrasies with his signature wit.
Zach Schultz:Darren, welcome.
Darren:2Americana2 so excited to be here.
Darren:Ben and Zach, thanks for having me.
Speaker E:Oh, awesome.
Speaker E:Thank you.
Speaker E:You're a traveler, a troubadour.
Darren:Yeah.
Speaker E:And I read somewhere your mother was a circus clown.
Darren:Yes.
Darren:And you are the only.
Darren:You are the first media outlet to ever dig deep enough to know that.
Darren:Because I've, I've, I've.
Darren:I think.
Darren:I don't know where you heard that, but I.
Darren:The reason it's.
Darren:Yes.
Darren:My mother was a clown for Rayland Burrows and Barnum Belly Circus.
Darren:That's where she met my biological father.
Darren: rows and Barnum Bailey Circus: Darren: She was on there: Darren:And the main star was Gunther Gable Williams.
Darren:She was in the Red Troop and also was a graduate of clown college.
Darren:And I am you.
Darren:It doesn't get more Vonnegut than that.
Darren:I am a product of.
Speaker E:That is what I was trying to get off of.
Speaker E:Not more like what did you take from the inspiration of that to turn into your kind of your performance style?
Darren:Well, for me, you know, I never was on the circus.
Darren:My mom left the circus and then I was born shortly thereafter.
Darren:But my first job was being her assistant at 5 years old.
Darren:So I would get paid $5 a show and we would go around the neighborhood and she would do birthday parties as a magician.
Darren:Now I need to clarify this.
Darren:She's not a scary clown.
Darren:She's actually more of the European Cirque du Soleil clown.
Darren:Because a lot of people, you know, you know, they have this image of this.
Darren:I go on and on about clowns, but.
Darren:But the thing is, is that what it.
Darren:She was the best performer I ever met because we were a struggling working class family in Irish Catholic town in New Jersey and she was driving a beat up piece of shit Ford Escort from, you know, that was baby blue.
Darren:And she had some real struggles and we as a family had some real struggles and we were lucky, but we had struggles.
Darren:And my father was, my adoptive father was a landscaper.
Darren:So you know, he.
Darren:Working class, true and true.
Darren:But we would pull up to these birthday parties at these rich folks houses and this woman who you could obviously tell in retrospect was tremendously distraught, was able to walk into any room and just light it up and just, just take up all the space in the room and do the job that she was paid to do to feed her family and that left a really big impression on me, on what it means to be a performer.
Darren:And it's not just like some clown walking in with gags.
Darren:It's.
Darren:It's.
Darren:I learned how to perform by watching her perform, and she was very good at it.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:Was there one specific moment or one specific performance she did?
Zach Schultz:That really, you know.
Zach Schultz:You know, in your mind, serves as an inspiration today in terms of getting.
Darren:It's not.
Darren:It's not going to be a pretty.
Darren:It's not a pretty story because it's not her performance that did it.
Darren:It's.
Darren:And I'm gonna.
Darren:I'm gonna take the.
Darren:The blame on this.
Darren:I was being a real out one day because I was fighting.
Darren:I was like.
Darren:Like 5, 6, 7, 8 years old, but I was twisting balloon animals.
Darren:I was part of the gags.
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:Like, it was part of the show.
Darren:It wasn't like she was just taking her kid around.
Darren:Like, I was.
Darren:I had a job to do.
Darren:I got paid five bucks a show to do it, and I was being a particular brat.
Darren:I was not being a very good employee that morning.
Darren:And I think she.
Darren:She, in very ethical ways, but sternly corrected me and.
Darren:And then went in and just turned it on.
Darren:And I was like.
Darren:It was almost like a power flex.
Darren:Like, it was like, you can be distraught.
Darren:You can be this.
Darren:You could even be mad at your.
Darren:You're not like, mad, but, like, frustrated with your kid and still walk into a room and make everybody laugh.
Darren:Because laughter is involuntary.
Darren:That's the coolest thing about laughter.
Darren:Like tears, it's involuntary.
Darren:You can't force someone to laugh.
Darren:You can't force someone to cry.
Darren:You can either do what elicits that emotion through something authentic within your soul by connecting with another.
Darren:But you can't.
Darren:You can't.
Darren:You can't make a room laugh unless you can make a room laugh.
Darren:Because they want to laugh, because they.
Darren:Because something has been struck in them.
Darren:So the big takeaway is that laughter is, for me, I've always been on the sardonic side, you know, and the thin line between laughter and sadness is something that even Prine would say, would, you know, second verse of that's the way that the world goes around, you know, sad as the eyes of a clown, you know, that's the truth, you know, but.
Darren:Yeah, so.
Darren:But I don't have a specific performance.
Speaker E:Is it easier to write a humorous song with heavy topics or vice versa?
Darren:I mean, predicated on the concept that laughter and tears can serve the same function A.
Darren:There's two.
Darren:There's two points.
Darren:The first point to that.
Darren:So laughter and tears can serve the same function.
Darren:A is a human being.
Darren:Would you rather make people laugh or make people cry?
Darren:I'd rather make them laugh.
Darren:And I'd rather.
Darren:And I do the deep laugh and I love.
Darren:Because I become an expert on laughs and audiences like, what's a cheap laugh?
Darren:What's a deep laugh?
Darren:What's a sad laugh?
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:And always that sort of thing.
Darren:And then also as a writer and I don't know.
Darren:And we have.
Darren:I think this is not as writers but as anything you are.
Darren:You have a certain obligation to do what you're naturally inclined to do.
Darren:So if you're good at.
Darren:I may want to be Bob Dylan and wish that I wrote Desolation Row and held someone's attention for nine minutes.
Darren:But if I was supposed to be like Bob Dylan and write Desolation Row, that would have already happened.
Darren:I'm 38 years old.
Darren:You have a certain obligation to society if you are engaging in anything, but particularly the arts, to lean into your strengths and strengthen your strengths so that you can better serve the population that you're serving, which is the musical audience.
Darren:I am an artist that very much.
Darren:The audience is everything to me.
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:Like, I don't, like, I don't take it lightly.
Darren:When you.
Darren:My semi famous quote is when I go up to songwriter, I'll talk to other songwriters and I'll go, do you know that your songs are killing people?
Darren:Your songs are literally contributing to three minutes of their life they're never getting back.
Darren:Are you using their time correctly?
Darren:And if you're not using correctly, you ought to be using their time correctly.
Darren:Because they don't get that.
Darren:Because you can do it in your bathroom all you want.
Darren:And that's a beautiful form of self expression.
Darren:I believe in art for self.
Darren:I'm not a snob.
Darren:Express yourself with a ukulele all day long.
Darren:Write a song that only means something to your aunt.
Darren:But if you're going to get on stage and expect to perform in front of 150, 200 people, 1,000 people, two people that don't know you.
Darren:You have an obligation to what is their lifespan and life cycle in the world, which they don't get it back.
Zach Schultz:Darren riffing on that.
Zach Schultz:So you're on stage.
Zach Schultz:What's something that you wish everybody in the audience understood about you and your.
Darren:Music now from the records?
Darren:It's an uphill battle for all storyteller songwriters to translate what the live show feels like on the record.
Darren: ing Dogs and be like, should I: Darren:Just should I send a.
Darren:You should listen to Talking Dogs and you could be like, should I send out a.
Darren:What are the.
Darren:What do the police do?
Darren:A care call or whatever, you know, and then not realize that when.
Darren:That when performing all the tunes from Talking Dogs, people are laughing and losing their minds.
Darren:So I have a much harder time getting understood via record than I do via performance.
Speaker A:Some days the show don't make a big top, you just roll on anyway.
Speaker A:You make fair with what you got.
Speaker A:Even if fair don't do the same.
Speaker A:There'll be a lawn chair in the rain Cause life's a bathtub.
Darren:And death.
Speaker A:Is the drain that circles around.
Darren:And.
Speaker A:It washes away so you give em hell cause you're naked in this place don't do no good feeling any shame yeah yeah.
Zach Schultz:Communicating a story live and in person and then doing it in a studio where someone's going to be experiencing it potentially by themselves is definitely a whole different deal.
Zach Schultz:Now I want to let the record show like you heard Darren saying.
Zach Schultz:Thank you.
Zach Schultz:Someone brought him coffee on a boat outside of Nashville somewhere.
Zach Schultz:He's doing this interview.
Zach Schultz:He's got a beautiful skill.
Zach Schultz:It's early in the morning and we know storytelling is often best, perhaps late at night over suburban.
Zach Schultz:But he's up early.
Darren:No, this is.
Darren:I'm warming up.
Darren:I know I'm doing the best that I can.
Zach Schultz:He's not thanking people for drinks.
Zach Schultz:But the riffing on that.
Zach Schultz:What is going on?
Zach Schultz:Like you went from on the road creating albums, singing into janitorial life.
Zach Schultz:What is the story there and what do we need to know about that?
Darren:Okay, so I moved to Nashville 10 years ago, living out of my car in the Walmart parking lot in Dickerson on Dickerson Pike.
Darren:I played five, I.
Darren:I played four or five mic nights and they live out of my car in January.
Darren:I grinded every chance that I could and it was at a time.
Darren:It's the only time in my life I was ever in the right place at the right time where that whole Americana boom was happening.
Darren:And I East Nashville was being descended upon by a bunch of artists all at the same time.
Darren:And I tried to walk that line as authentically and true to form and true to myself as possible.
Darren:I worked my ass off.
Darren:I ended up with a contract with Ant and Tom Waits record label.
Darren:I got to meet all my heroes I got to have people like, you know, people.
Darren:Look, man, as far as ego goes, if your song means something to one person, ego wise, that ought to be enough.
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:Like, that's, that's enough.
Darren:Like you wrote something that meant something to somebody, one other person that didn't know you.
Darren:Let's say that's, that's enough.
Darren:Same thing with Press, man.
Darren:It's like, you know, the first time you get written up in Rolling Stone or an emperor and power system, really nice by you.
Darren:You're like, okay, that's, that's not like as a human, that's enough.
Darren:When you get to tour with Todd Snyder, who you've been listening to for 10 years, like, that's enough for a human to be like, you know what?
Darren:I'm, I, I'm okay.
Darren:I had this crazy hunch that drove me insane for 20 years that I'd be good at this and I hadn't at least received some sort of.
Darren:So as far as it goes, I felt like I got a really fair shake of the pie and I really felt like, I mean, I got to know the prime family and the oh boy family and still getting included in that stuff.
Darren:Literally, they're the ones that dug me out of hiding.
Darren:But that's a different story.
Zach Schultz:I hear a but coming.
Darren:No, there's no but.
Darren:Is that, is that I, to me, I, I had compulsively written since I was eight years old, right?
Darren:And I stopped writing, which to me was an indicator.
Darren:And then I looked back at the catalog before Freeman's and I was like, I said, and I said, you know, this is good enough.
Darren:Let's balance the scales.
Darren:I had always said that if I didn't do music, I would do some sort of job of service.
Darren:And so I said I was retiring and I was very confident in that at the time.
Darren:And I got a job as a janitor at a, at a, at a fairly well to do church in Oak Hill and was cleaning toilets and fixing breakers and, you know, screwing and best chairs and honestly was pretty, pretty happy with it.
Zach Schultz:So you enjoyed that?
Zach Schultz:You enjoyed that change at the time.
Zach Schultz:Like it felt like the right path.
Darren:Well, it just was like life, life should be well rounded, you know.
Darren:And I won't say much about the musical industrial complex or give any kind of like shit talking on that stuff, but the pursuit of fame, notoriety and relevance is like the least important thing that should be on anyone's mind.
Darren:Anyone who's had any sort of ability to even be slightly in the spotlight on something.
Darren:Statistically, the probability of that is so slim that your gratitude ought to be up here and your desire for that to be in perpetuity down here because there's a million other people that would want to be doing what you're doing.
Darren:And you see a lot of that in the musical industrial complex.
Darren:And it's hard, especially as well as a support artist for a lot of it, because I never had enough of a fan base to really draw.
Darren:We're only trying to be headliners now.
Darren:I never tried to be a headliner because I was like, yo, look, I get the coolest gig in the world.
Darren:I'm done by nine and playing for 700 of somebody else's audiences.
Darren:And I'm doing.
Darren:I'm gonna kick as much ass as possible.
Darren:But for me, I.
Darren:I wasn't embittered by it, but I would watch people that have so much and be so dissatisfied, you know what I mean?
Darren:And, and, and always wanting more.
Darren:And for me, I would rather.
Darren:In my mind, it was like a letting go of saying that.
Darren:Okay, I.
Darren:I listened to all three records.
Darren:It all has a pretty consistent narrative.
Darren:I think I made my point about how I feel about, you know, modern day society.
Darren:And it's for the bowels of time to decide whether that means anything to anybody else.
Darren:You know, nobody.
Darren:Nobody knows but the gods.
Darren:The song, what.
Darren:What will mean something in 20 years and what won't.
Darren:So I became a janitor.
Speaker E:Me and you met about three weeks ago at the you got gold John Prine's birthday bash down in Nashville.
Darren:Well, it's not as.
Darren:It's not as.
Darren:It's not as.
Darren:So that part of that narrative too, is the work that I do now with the.
Darren:With the outreach.
Darren:And I.
Darren:So I disappeared.
Darren:And I don't think they knew I disappeared, you know what I mean?
Darren:But Eileen from oh boy was like.
Darren:I forget who it was.
Darren:But I was deep into my outreach work, being in camps every day.
Darren:I had this huge long beard.
Darren:I looked like me.
Darren:And the people I worked with were one and the same.
Darren:It was sort of like that's where I was.
Zach Schultz:And what were you outreaching?
Zach Schultz:Like, when you say outreach?
Darren:Oh, I do.
Darren:I run a homeless outreach nonprofit now.
Darren:And all the music I do, it funds the outreach program.
Darren:That's the only reason I do music now is.
Zach Schultz:And what's the.
Zach Schultz:What's the outreach for?
Zach Schultz:Or what's the.
Darren:We serve Madison, which is the neighborhood adjacent to East Nashville where I've lived for 10 years, and we run three to five days of consistent homeless outreach to the second most second largest population of unhoused folks in Nashville, next to downtown.
Darren:So we have about 500 to a thousand on any given day.
Darren:Unhoused folks that are living in camps.
Darren:All my neighborhood that I've lived in for 10 years, and that's what got me out of janitorial work, is that I was like, I want to do something about this.
Darren:So I started doing that.
Darren:And then I realized that I like autonomy and I hate rules.
Darren:So I started throwing benefit concerts with my.
Darren:Because I realized, you know, raise money for it two years in instead of kissing rich people's asses or trying to get grants from the government.
Darren:And then one thing led to another, and now I'm back in music and seemingly relevant, which was never my intents.
Darren:Very.
Darren:I.
Darren:It was a very reluctant.
Darren:But this kind of leads to that story.
Darren:Yeah.
Darren:Which is they were trying to find me for.
Darren:You got gold, like, two years.
Darren:Like a year and a half ago.
Darren:Two years ago.
Darren:And no one knew where I was because I was deep within the trenches of the homeless communities in Nashville every day, like, not looking at my phone, like, not on Instagram.
Darren:And then there was, you know, like, just nobody could find me.
Darren:And then Zach Jackie, Zach Schmitz, girlfriend now wife and mother, soon to be mother of child.
Darren:I always forget my friends get married.
Speaker E:We've had them on the show.
Speaker E:Goal everything.
Darren:Well, Jackie.
Darren:Jackie found me for the Imogene and Willie thing last year.
Darren:Oh, that was my first public performance.
Darren:She was like, you know, Darren, like, do you want to.
Darren:Do you.
Darren:Like, do you exist?
Darren:Like, are you alive?
Darren:No one's heard from you.
Darren:Would you like to do this?
Darren:And I was like, of course.
Darren:Yeah.
Darren:I'll hang out with the Primes any day.
Darren:You know, I mean, like, it was good people.
Darren:And that actually was.
Darren:I think it was my first.
Darren:My first performance after retiring was playing Sabu for the crowded Imogene Willie on the closing night of last year.
Speaker E:I wanted.
Speaker E:I wanted to hear, okay, so you saying Sabu visits the Twin Cities this year at the Basement.
Speaker E:Each where you got gold.
Darren:So I did both.
Zach Schultz:That's one of the more.
Speaker E:Okay, this one of the more wordy John Bryan songs, as we all know.
Darren:Yeah.
Speaker E:And so at the Basement east, you're kind of playing to the crowd.
Speaker E:There happened to be somebody from Minneapolis or St.
Speaker E:Paul at the crowd, and you're kind of doing a spiel and you're talking and you're singing the song at the same time while you're kind of Relaying this story that you're telling us about coming back and what John meant to you.
Speaker E:And then something happened in the crowd.
Darren:I recall very.
Speaker E:Tell me about that and how you improvised while that was going on.
Speaker E:What was going on?
Darren:Well, a woman, I think a woman who had been on her feet for.
Darren:You got gold for a long time, which is part of the joy of it.
Darren:I don't think it's anything infrastructurally.
Darren:They just.
Darren:They.
Darren:If there is one thing that people that.
Darren:That the musical industrial complex does, they send people on boats for outlaw country cruises and all these things.
Darren:You got gold is the most pure thing there is.
Darren:They basically invites you to just live prime life for a week.
Darren:And to me, I don't know what it costs.
Darren:I don't know what the deal is, but to me, it's worth every penny because what they put out is authentic and real and is a real pilgrimage for us primesters.
Speaker E:Yes.
Darren:So, you know, this woman had had.
Darren:And someone from the audience had said, hey, stop.
Darren:Someone's passed out.
Darren:Two things were kicking in my mind there, because, you know, a, I just spent the last two years running into woods, sticking Narcan up people's noses.
Darren:Like.
Darren:So I have a.
Darren:There's a.
Darren:There's a response part of my brain to crisis that is like, okay, like, if I was in the crowd, I would have done something different than I would have been as a performer.
Darren:But what the.
Darren:I think the weirdest part was is that I had the aerial view, so I could see the back door opening.
Darren:I could see the space being built around her.
Darren:I knew that the message had been there.
Darren:And also we had our photographer, Madison Thorne, jump down and she took the outreach.
Darren:Her and I have talked about doing homeless outreach before, which is funny, but I felt kind of locked because in crisis situations, nobody wants to be the dumb hero.
Darren:I could unplug the guitar and jumped off stage and carried her out on my back and been like that.
Darren:Or it's something outreachy.
Darren:But in most crisis situations, you want to ask yourself, like, what.
Darren:What is my best role here?
Darren:And my best role was in the.
Darren:I saw that the situation was being solved, and I knew that this had to continue to be a show.
Darren:So I had.
Darren:I was spending all of my time trying to, a, stay present with the audience there that I was obviously and was visibly concerned.
Darren:And then, B, I.
Darren:The show had to go on, so I had to think to myself, how do we.
Darren:How do I wrap this story up so that it returns back to your regularly scheduled television program.
Darren:And I said.
Darren:And the right words came out of my mouth because I was talking about how much pride meant to me.
Darren:And it really was about that.
Darren:That entire crowd, everyone was complimenting me that night.
Darren:But I compliment the crowd.
Darren:The crowd stopped the show.
Darren:The crowd took care of the person.
Darren:And the crowd did exactly what John Prine talks about, which is decency.
Darren:For he's just.
Darren:He's the middleman.
Darren:He's the middleman between decency, absurdity, and the human condition.
Darren:And to me, the audience is what demonstrated all that is kind of beautiful about not only you got gold, but about Prine and Prine's writing.
Darren:And there was a palpable sense of concern throughout the entire audience.
Darren:And I just tried, tried to hold that energy and say the right thing that helped the show go on so that people could continue to celebrate after we knew that the woman was being taken care of.
Darren:You know, that's.
Darren:That's a lot of outreach.
Darren:Neurons were going off because.
Speaker E:And you.
Speaker E:You handled it.
Speaker E:You handled it with.
Speaker E:I mean, perfectly.
Darren:That's what I was told.
Darren:But I walked off stage being like, man, I must come off like a freaking idiot.
Speaker E:No, I immediately said to my wife, I gotta.
Speaker E:I go, if we get this guy on, I gotta save that story.
Speaker E:Because that was perfection.
Speaker E:Because that was a tough situation.
Speaker E:You know, I mean, it was hot in there and it's not a very big place.
Speaker E:So I can see how, you know, it was very.
Speaker E:It was steamy.
Speaker E:But yeah, you handled it great.
Speaker E:You like to.
Speaker E:The night before you at the Feed and Seed or Acme.
Speaker E:Feed and Seed.
Speaker E:You chose to sing with the band Bottomless Lake.
Speaker E:So do you like to sing the more difficult, wordy John Ryan songs?
Speaker E:Is there something in the writing that you like those ones?
Darren:Well, no.
Darren:Okay, so like here, here.
Darren:Here's the jam with the.
Darren:You got golds, right?
Darren:This is.
Darren:This is.
Darren:Look, I am.
Darren:We are.
Darren:We live in a world full of tribute shows.
Darren:People love tribute shows.
Darren:I'm not a big fan of tribute shows.
Darren:To me, it's the Broadway Ification of East Nashville from.
Darren:Away from original music.
Darren:But John Pryn is one of my favorite, if not my favorite writers of all time.
Darren:So there's only one circumstance in which I can be a valuable player.
Darren:That is a John prime benefit.
Darren:I.
Darren:You can throw me on a Bruce Springsteen thing.
Darren:You can throw me on a Bob.
Darren:I'm not useful.
Darren:I am useful in this.
Darren:So when you all come to town, I am going to give you everything I got because I am Aware that I am the link between a professional artist and a complete fanboy.
Darren:And so the thing is, you get it, okay?
Darren:And you deserve that because you're simply based on the fact that you are a John prime fan.
Darren:That is it.
Speaker E:I love it.
Darren:That is it.
Darren:That is why I am the fanboy.
Darren:I choose to.
Darren:That's why I went to.
Darren:For after the basement, I went to France and I did karaoke, and I walked.
Darren:And it's not like an ego thing.
Darren:It's like, you know, a lot of them weren't singing karaoke.
Darren:Some of them were.
Darren:Some.
Darren:It was moving.
Darren:My firm was running.
Darren:And I don't want to seem like it was a bad time, but, like, there we go.
Darren:That's the guy from the basement.
Darren:He's.
Darren:Who just performed, and he's here with us.
Darren:And they were just.
Darren:They were telling me the request, this thing, and I was like, sure, got it.
Darren:If it's on the list, I'll do it.
Darren:Because to me, I don't know, like, I go all out go.
Darren:It's like, if.
Darren:You know.
Darren:And that's due to a lot of love for Fiona and the crew and, you know, and Colin and Eileen, and they've been very good to me over the years, and I appreciate them very much.
Zach Schultz:Darren, your music.
Zach Schultz:So when I.
Zach Schultz:When I got the text from dad from, hey, I just got to check out Darren, I immediately noted your music digs into life's underbelly with a mix of humor and grit.
Zach Schultz:And we've.
Zach Schultz:We've covered some of that.
Zach Schultz:But what's a moment or experience that pushed you to write with such darn honesty, raw honesty, but also this dark humor side of it?
Darren:Well, I.
Darren:You know, I know that moments are hard for me to remember, but I.
Darren:It is my personal belief that every artist serves the God of song.
Darren:And you.
Darren:Or goddess of song or however you want to perceive that.
Darren:But the thing that is the gigantic orifice of song, and I live by the code that I don't.
Darren:I don't.
Darren:I refuse to say a word on stage or write or have a word come out my mouth in song that I wouldn't be willing to croak in the middle of saying.
Darren:That's it.
Darren:That if I'm not willing to croak in the middle of saying it on stage, then it's not something that makes my sad.
Zach Schultz:When you say croak, what do you mean?
Darren:Like, croak if I'm not.
Darren:If I'm not willing, like you die.
Darren:But as my last.
Darren:Because on stage, you are.
Darren:You are.
Darren:I'm not, you know, like, on stage.
Darren:You are.
Darren:You are not only performing for the folks, you're performing for you.
Darren:And you're performing for this idea that we all love.
Darren:I mean, you have an Americana banner behind your head, this idea of this storyteller.
Darren:You will.
Darren:You serve that.
Darren:And you can only approach that with the utmost honesty and be effective.
Darren:BJ is very much in the same category.
Darren:It's not about how.
Darren:And it's not about how you do it.
Darren:You figure out over time you're the most honest version of yourself through the evolution of your own writing process.
Darren:And then you say to yourself, am I willing to go down with the ship saying this?
Darren:So I take it to the nth degree, which is that I try not to do anything on stage that I wouldn't be willing to have it be my last moment.
Darren:You know, it's the insane to me.
Zach Schultz:So I'm listening to Freeman's TV Repair Shop, your latest album, and I'm listening to the Story of Bob.
Darren:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:And I'm getting sadder and then sadder and then the last dang line of that song, welcome to Staples Corporate.
Zach Schultz:Or we miss you.
Zach Schultz:No, we miss you at Bob.
Zach Schultz:We miss you at Staples Corporate.
Zach Schultz:And I just start cracking up.
Zach Schultz:And that was about me and my sense of humor.
Zach Schultz:Your sense of humor?
Zach Schultz:Or I'm like, are other people laughing at this?
Zach Schultz:Because I'm.
Zach Schultz:Like you said earlier, you know, how live people are going to get it, but now you've got to do it in a studio.
Zach Schultz:How are people, I mean, responding to this dang sense of humor of yours?
Darren:Well, I might have to go plug in my phone downstairs, which will be fine.
Darren:It'll change the background because I'm about to lose percentages.
Darren:But I'm always scared to tell why I wrote the Story of Bob because I feel like it disfranchises what it became.
Darren:But what I can say is that song's intent was far different than its outcome because it became a character very quickly that people gravitated to.
Darren:I've been playing that song live for the last.
Darren:That's been a fan favorite for.
Darren:Okay, like.
Darren:Okay, you want to know the really shitty?
Darren:The really.
Darren:The.
Zach Schultz:Well, I don't know if I want you to.
Darren:I don't want to break down.
Darren:No, no.
Darren:But.
Darren:But I'll say, dude, take it how.
Zach Schultz:You want to talk.
Zach Schultz:But I think to me, that summarizes some of what I feel when I go through a lot of the songs on that 12 album.
Speaker A:We could all take the time to gather here today.
Speaker A:Debbie, thanks for bringing the donuts.
Speaker A:Well, let's.
Darren:That's a shame.
Speaker A:You know about the carbon monoxide leak.
Speaker A:But I bet you good old Bob dude didn't even notice.
Speaker A:So this jelly donut's for you, Bob.
Speaker A:The old B O B.
Speaker A:And every time I'm checking the weather, it'll feel like you're kind of awkwardly standing over me.
Speaker A:Seriously, Bob, we all miss you here at Staples Corporate.
Speaker A:I wouldn't say the Bob was short.
Speaker A:I wouldn't say the Bob was tall.
Speaker A:I wouldn't call all Bob quiet.
Speaker A:He wasn't very loud at all.
Speaker A:He was just Bob.
Speaker A:Backwards and forwards.
Speaker A:He was just Bob.
Darren:Let's.
Darren:Mike is.
Darren:I'm getting class A service for Mike literally has brought out a phone charger.
Darren:I cannot.
Darren:We got a shout out.
Zach Schultz:Darren leads his life.
Zach Schultz:He's on a boat, people bringing him coffee.
Zach Schultz:He's doing interviews.
Zach Schultz:Top podcast in the world.
Zach Schultz:Americana.
Zach Schultz:Curious.
Darren:They're the board members of the org but they.
Darren:He also.
Darren:He fixes all my guitars.
Darren:So I'm giving him a shout out here.
Zach Schultz:Oh yeah, Guitar brings his, his, his guitar repair staff with them wherever he goes.
Darren:Well, anyway, this is my first time taking a break from outreach because we do outreach.
Darren:We do.
Darren:We do physical outreach in a very hardcore sense, working both with political social services and people on the street pretty much 24 7.
Darren:And we're a four person organization besides a board.
Darren:So you mix that with now bringing entertainment as the main fundraising platform for what we're using, which is turning out pretty well because I don't take a paycheck.
Darren:I never have more than 20 bucks in my pocket and I like it that way.
Darren:So I'm the luckiest guy in the environment.
Darren:But they've.
Darren:This is my first break from that in.
Darren:In over.
Darren:Over two and a half years being on this boat.
Darren:So.
Darren:And they were very gracious to invite me out.
Darren:They're like, Darren, you never take a break.
Darren:You never.
Darren:You never stop.
Darren:That was great.
Darren:So it's very cool, right?
Darren:But to the point of humor.
Darren:Let's get this angled right.
Darren:Yeah, we got this.
Darren:Let's see.
Darren:So to the point of humor.
Darren:What I learned on the so with.
Darren:With the American.
Darren:The humor was always gotten the really.
Darren:Okay, sorry.
Darren:Everything.
Darren:The reason why I'm pushing you with.
Zach Schultz:These questions and I love it.
Zach Schultz:Darren is so thoughtful about his respons responses.
Zach Schultz:He's like rubbing his head.
Zach Schultz:He's like, let me get this.
Darren:Well, the thing is is that like I made Freeman's I don't even know the name of it.
Darren:I call it TV Repair Service.
Darren:But we just.
Darren:I took the picture in front of one day.
Darren:I'm like, this is the name of the album, right?
Darren:But I made that album seven years ago.
Darren:And then I added.
Darren:And I added the new.
Darren:The acoustic tracks, which were relatively new, but all of the band produced songs.
Darren:And I redid the vocals because I've gotten older and I've had.
Darren:I've had whatever.
Darren:I knew when I made it, it was my most accessible record.
Darren:But we were in a moment in East Nashville that everyone was vying to be accessible and to be successful and to be that.
Darren:And I then got into Dan Reeder and I was like, you know what?
Darren:There's going to be a time that I'm going to need this record, and I'm going to shelve it.
Zach Schultz:Wow.
Darren:And so I did.
Darren:And I didn't know when that time would be.
Darren:It's the only.
Darren:Well, actually, there's a bunch of other stuff coming out this year through, like, you mean it, but it's more small EP stuff.
Darren:It's not like a fully produced album, but that all the acoustic songs are written in the last couple years and the piano songs, but the band tracks are all stuff that has been sitting in the vault for seven years.
Darren:And I knew that it was accessible.
Darren:I knew it was accessible when I made it.
Darren:And I didn't have a record contract at the time.
Darren:And I said to myself, I.
Darren:I don't know.
Darren:I just.
Darren:I don't.
Darren:I don't know.
Darren:We were in that.
Darren:We were in the throes of something very different seven, eight years ago.
Darren:Like, it was everyone.
Darren:Like, this is a much longer podcast, but if you ever want to have, like, history of the Americana revolution from.
Darren:From, like, the time of Sturgill Simpson's first album to, like, where we are today.
Darren:Sierra Farrell, Like, I was on the ground for all of it, saw it all, you know, like, and at that point, I wanted to push the boundaries of the art form in a way that made sense to me.
Darren:And I started.
Darren:I started being very heavily influenced by Dan Reeder.
Darren:And Dan Reeder's idea of songs is in my.
Darren:I don't have this from purse.
Darren:I don't know that this is.
Darren:But my perception of it is what I got from it was the songs over when the thoughts over.
Darren:So if you listen to Talking Dogs and a bit of advertisement they get.
Darren:They ended up being so.
Darren:So I ended up making Talking Dogs and it ended up getting some And I got signed to Anti almost immediately after making it.
Darren:Literally, Andy from Anti called me up out of the blue one day, was like, look, this record hit my desk.
Darren:I want to sign you.
Darren:I don't know if I can.
Darren:I don't know if anyone else will get it, but it's really good.
Darren:So the point that I'm trying to get at is that while the art form was extremely hot, I wanted to make the art that I felt was the best art.
Darren:And I wanted to leave an impression on what I think.
Darren:So I.
Darren:So I chose to write and to some success.
Darren:I mean, Breakfast is still the most listened song that I have on Spotify and has been for a long time.
Darren:But to answer the question, sort of about humor, I always kind of knew I had this in my back pocket and I knew people would like it.
Darren:And I find it on track and on brand with the absurdity that I've released my most accessible album after releasing three that were art projects and then one that is.
Darren:That is completely.
Darren:You could show that because that.
Darren:Because here, here in lies the Rub, you can go see a Darren Bradbury show.
Darren:Sorry to speak of myself in the Royal.
Darren:And I could be singing about squirrels getting taken up by hawks and all this dogs that are talking and the weatherman, the atom bomb and the microwave, and you totally get it.
Zach Schultz:Or bop.
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:But I never really had a record.
Darren:Well, I did.
Darren:I just didn't use it until that.
Darren:You could take it.
Darren:And if you try to explain it to your friend and show them a recording, they'd be like, I.
Darren:This guy's just talking about Breakfast.
Darren:I don't get it.
Darren:This album, I think, is the perfect balance of.
Darren:But also it was very strategic to me because I feel like.
Darren:Like, as an Americana, we're at this point where I think, how do I.
Darren:Y'all.
Darren:Y'all, like, during the last 10 years, y'all had all this really pop stuff.
Darren:The stuff that made sense to people, this stuff.
Darren:So I wanted to contribute the stuff that didn't make sense to people in the moment of that and stand against the tide of it and not try to make some sort of killing out of my life or be the most successful artist I wanted to make.
Darren:I wanted to stay fast.
Darren:I didn't know that I was showing up to East Nashville at the time that it was going to explode.
Darren:I had no clue.
Darren:I was a kid from New Jersey who heard that Johnny Fritz lived there and was like, man, I love that dude's writing.
Darren:I want to live Wherever all those people are writing, that's it.
Darren:End of story.
Darren:And the Hume.
Darren:So but more towards the point that you're saying is, is that now Americana?
Darren:I wouldn't say that it's died down, but it's.
Darren:It's settled itself.
Darren:And to me, this is a nerd out record.
Darren:And when we made it too, and people that are close to me, we listened to it were like, this is going to the fan favorite record.
Darren:It's going to be the record that you can show your friends who have never gotten why you liked Bradbury.
Darren:And they'll be like, oh, I totally get this.
Darren:I like this.
Darren:That's exactly what happened to me.
Darren:Exactly.
Zach Schultz:I'm like, I guess I'm a fanboy, but everyone listens, knows that.
Darren:Yeah, but like, but that's how it happened.
Darren:And it was the right.
Zach Schultz:I love that, like, you make this record and you're so committed to it.
Zach Schultz:You hold it for seven years because you're waiting for timing, you're waiting for an experience.
Zach Schultz:And a lot of people ain't got that kind of courage or guts or artistic fortitude to hold on to it.
Darren:Wow.
Zach Schultz:It's.
Zach Schultz:It's out there now, but I want there.
Darren:I wanted it to be because.
Darren:Because, man, to me, when I was a kid in New Jersey playing open mic nights at 18 years old, there was nothing cool about folk music.
Darren:Like, we were not cool.
Darren:It was emo.
Zach Schultz:Kiss Jersey, man, we're doing emo city.
Darren:They're really pretty girlfriends, like, thinking that we're stupid.
Darren:And it was a bunch of dorks.
Darren:And honestly, I like dorks.
Darren:I am a dork.
Darren:I've always been.
Zach Schultz:That's why you're on here.
Darren:And I.
Darren:Everything was.
Darren:Everyone was just trying to get too famous at the time.
Darren:And it just seemed like it would be more a better use of that to make art projects that really that real.
Darren:And the thing is, is they were, you know, like once again to that lucky thing.
Darren:Like, I can say this is an official quote.
Darren:I mean, Ann Powers was like, you're the right flair.
Darren:In my mind, you're the right flair to John prime, like in print.
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:Like, you know, like, you know, like I.
Darren:If you read the trades that came out about those paper, about those records, like the, the smaller blogs, like, you know, like as press.
Darren:As press folks, you know that like, you'll get the.
Darren:You'll get the thing the publicist sends and a lot of reviews will just regurgitate what the publicist blurb is.
Darren:But when we put out talking dogs and Advertisement.
Darren:A lot of these smaller but substantial blogs wrote.
Darren:And it was weird.
Darren:And that's another thing too, man.
Darren:Is that like you're talking about what.
Darren:What made me want to leave.
Darren:I was 33 years old.
Darren:Getting referred to as a master of the craft, like I was.
Darren:That's not something that, like, I didn't need that.
Darren:I didn't need that in my head.
Darren:I don't want to think of myself as that.
Darren:And I don't ever.
Darren:That's not.
Darren:And I appreciated it.
Darren:But like, I only needed to read that once and go, wow, that's really nice.
Darren:That guy said that and then just move on with my merry day and fix somebody's flat tire.
Darren:But yeah, I think a lot of.
Darren:So this album to me is a celebration of dork dummy.
Darren:You know, like, I'm a dork, but in the humor.
Darren:I gotta say this, this is the important part about the humor, is that BJ was so gracious with his stage.
Darren:And I'll say it this way, and I've opened up for a lot of people and I really don't have any bad stories about any of them.
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:I really don't.
Darren:Everybody's.
Darren:Most people are putting their pants on one leg at a time and trying to make through the best day.
Darren:And the reason that I've been kissing BJ's ass so much lately is a.
Darren:He was the first person when I came back saying, look, I want a tour to raise money for my organization.
Darren:He jumped on board and was like, I am into this.
Darren:I want to do this.
Darren:I believe that you can do this.
Darren:And I was like, okay, man, you give me an inch, I'm going to take a mile in the right way.
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:Like, I'm going to make good on what you're.
Darren:What you're giving me.
Darren:But number two is you gave me 40 minutes on stage, which most openers get about 30.
Darren:And if you really want to be a good opener, you should get off the stage at 27.
Darren:You.
Darren:Because you leave them wanting more.
Darren:And you just.
Darren:Most opening slots are just giving a good presentation to yourself.
Darren:All the best songs, songs that you've got and.
Darren:And then rushing back to the merch stand for whoever wanted to.
Darren:Whoever wanted to meet you, buy your merch, whatever it is.
Darren:So to the humor point and to you saying you earlier that you wanted to laugh.
Darren:You don't know if you want to laugh.
Darren:You don't want this.
Darren:BJ giving me that 40 minutes on stage in Front of a captive audience that we.
Darren:I say we because I think of us as the crew, Albert, the whole thing.
Darren:How do I put this?
Darren:Like, there were moments that I can visibly.
Darren:Because I.
Darren:I don't know what' changed.
Darren:Like, I always got a good response, and I was always good at my job as an opener, but there was just a different reverence.
Darren:And I don't know what made that.
Darren:I can't tell you what made that, but it became such an intimate setting, even with 400 people, however many it was, that you could hear a pin drop, and I could see someone start to laugh.
Darren:And I would just go aside, and I would just hold whatever court I was on, just look at the guy and go, no, brother, just let it out.
Darren:That's the point of being here.
Darren:Like.
Darren:Like, you don't gotta hold this in here.
Zach Schultz:Yeah, a good dark humor thing makes you feel like, should I be laughing or should I not be laughing?
Zach Schultz:What is he trying to communicate?
Zach Schultz:And you're like, hey, experience it.
Zach Schultz:How you're gonna experience it?
Zach Schultz:And so I'm gonna ask you, Dave.
Zach Schultz:Darren.
Zach Schultz:Kind of starting to wrap this up.
Darren:Unfortunately, I'm terrible to interview.
Darren:I should have said no.
Zach Schultz:This is so much good, so much insight.
Zach Schultz:What is the.
Zach Schultz:I mean, what's the Darren Bradbury legacy going to be that.
Darren:That's for.
Darren:Well, I mean, honestly, the rest of my life is dedicated.
Darren:Well, I don't want to.
Darren:Well, I don't want to say this, because I said this when I retired, and then I wished.
Darren:And I did not edit the Instagram post saying sabbatical.
Darren:So I'm going to.
Darren:I'm going to choose my words correctly here.
Darren:For the foreseeable future, my life is dedicated to enriching the lives of the disenfranchised in this country.
Darren:I, as an artist, was never really able to advocate.
Darren:I was not someone, I don't know, who wanted to stand up for himself and be like, look, I want to be a headliner.
Darren:I want to do this.
Darren:I want to conquer the world.
Darren:But for the foreseeable future, my life is committed to using the platform that I've made as a way to create autonomy in my city so that I can serve folks the way that the neighborhood and I that I live in, which is a whole different side of my life, I see fit.
Darren:And it is my goal to leave an impact.
Darren:And what I always say to Mike on the board, and that drives him crazy because I don't take a paycheck from the nonprofit.
Darren:I refuse.
Darren:We don't have Enough.
Darren:A, we don't have.
Darren:B, I don't.
Darren:I don't care.
Darren:Like, I want to have made music and art and writing for the rest of my life that its proceeds go to making something a better place.
Darren:And right now, that is the impoverished community of Madison.
Darren:And then I want to have done all that and raise money to buy houses and build shelters and do things that are equitable for the world and then one day be an old man and croak and have negative $3.75 in my account and no belongings.
Darren:And just to prove that you could live a life that just is full, well rounded, and it's not necessary to.
Darren:It's not necessarily.
Darren:It's not necessary.
Darren:The only rule that you need to play by is, are you doing your best to serve other, to serve others and to be a good neighbor?
Darren:That's, you know, that's my.
Darren:It's the only rule I live.
Zach Schultz:It's a great, great way to wrap that up, Aaron.
Zach Schultz:It's.
Zach Schultz:It's legacy and impact.
Zach Schultz:What I hear through the music, which is.
Zach Schultz:Which I believe is a world changer.
Zach Schultz:Game changer.
Speaker E:Yep.
Zach Schultz:But also you're leveraging it and your gifts and your tools to make an impact in other ways through your nonprofit.
Zach Schultz:And Americana Curious salutes you, Darren.
Darren:Well, thank you.
Zach Schultz:That's our music.
Darren:And I just want to say, though, that because I feel like it, you know, I didn't want to talk too much about the non profit on this podcast because it's Americana Curious and I know that people like my music.
Darren:And I don't know, I can't tell you why I've become more relevant in the last six months.
Darren:I.
Darren:No clue.
Darren:No clue.
Darren:I have no clue.
Darren:It's anybody's ball game, but I'm going.
Speaker E:Well, you made a hell of an album.
Speaker E:I don't know that.
Darren:But the thing is that like.
Darren:And the thing is, is that I'm glad it's serving its purpose because every one of those sales on my most accessible album goes to my nonprofit.
Darren:And that to me is what makes sense.
Darren:And that.
Darren:And that sums it up.
Darren:But I.
Speaker E:That's great, right?
Darren:I know it's.
Darren:It's.
Darren:It's over, guys.
Darren:It's over.
Darren:But writing, Writing is just the most important thing in the world.
Darren:And what that's.
Darren:The thing I wanted to say is that I was very reluctant to want to get back on stage.
Darren:And I'm so glad that I did.
Darren:I did not realize that performing and writing was good for my own mental health.
Darren:And I did not realize that I didn't.
Darren:I didn't realize people missed me.
Darren:That's it.
Darren:And I didn't realize that it was good, too.
Darren:I hope.
Darren:I hope this ends up being a good episode for you guys.
Darren:I know I'm really hard to interview because I don't dodge questions.
Darren:Just.
Speaker E:No, everything awesome.
Darren:Everything has.
Darren:Everything has an epilogue before it, and it's a real shame.
Zach Schultz:Well, thanks for coming on American.
Darren:I'm so glad that you're into it.
Zach Schultz:Because that's how to fanboy out too much.
Zach Schultz:But then you said you made this for fanboys like me.
Speaker E:Yeah.
Zach Schultz:So then I thought, well, I'm going to expose myself as a fanboy.
Darren:Well, the thing is.
Darren:Well, that's the thing is, too, is that what we want to do is, is we.
Darren:We have a plan to become headliners, and we wanted.
Darren:And I took a lot of cues from BJ on how he built this headlining fan base.
Darren:And, you know, his accessibility is something I respect tremendously.
Darren:You know what I mean?
Darren:And we will remain as an organization, as a team, as an outfit.
Darren:I am for the word nerds.
Darren:So if you can throw this on there that you are a word nerd and you liked what you heard and you saw this podcast and you want to DM me.
Darren:It may take me a couple days, maybe a week or two, but I am most likely going to respond and want to nerd out with you.
Darren:And we'll give you my phone number.
Zach Schultz:All right.
Zach Schultz:Nerd out with Darren.
Zach Schultz:Go check out the album, have a cry, have a laugh, have confusion whether you should be laughing or crying and stay Americana curious.
Zach Schultz:Stay America, here we go.
Speaker A:I saw time, time push Jim off a bridge.
Speaker A:Time may fly, but Jim don't swim.
Speaker A:You shrug your shoulders, shake your head, you get a little bit older, you go to bed and you dream I any old dream.
Speaker A:Nothing crazy, maybe something sweet.
Zach Schultz:Thanks for joining Zach and I for.
Ben Fanning:This episode of Americana Curious.
Ben Fanning:Subscribe where you listen to your podcast so you are notified when a new episode is released.
Ben Fanning:I'm Ben Fanning, and it's been great sharing these artists and music with you.
Ben Fanning:Until next time, stay Americana Curious.
