Chas Collins

The chorus hits like a switch. One minute you’re nodding to a groove; the next you’re shouting Slam Bam with a room full of strangers who suddenly feel like a band. We sat down with country recording artist Chaz Collins to unpack how a southern rock tune from the late 90s became a modern country rock anthem people can own from the first pass.

Chaz takes us inside the rewrite, how a handful of lyric tweaks turned a great song into his story, and explains the melodic choices that invite instant recognition, including a sly nod to Angel Is A Centerfold. Then we head into Nashville with producer-drummer Tommy Harden. Picture top-tier session players scribbling charts, hearing a demo once, and delivering first takes that feel like the record. Chaz breaks down why they tracked live for chemistry, how ear fatigue shapes vocal sessions, and where to feature steel or fiddle so the hook lands with muscle and heart.

We also trace the arc from hair metal roots to country edge, the influence of Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw on storytelling, and the reality of modern independence: a Virgin Music distribution deal that preserves creative control, global digital reach, and zero cuts from live shows. On the horizon, there’s a bold swing, talks with the NBA for halftime performances of No Place I’d Rather Be, a unifying anthem co-written with Byron Hill that aims to light up arenas and bring people together.

Along the way, Chaz shares road stories from thousands of shows across 43 states, the thrill of testing Slam Bam live and hearing it shouted back, and the gratitude that fuels the grind, his wife’s all-in marketing and his drummer’s behind-the-scenes hustle during a family health fight. It’s a blueprint for making country that hits: write for truth, track for feel, produce with intention, and take it to the people.

If the episode moved you, tap follow, share it with a friend who loves big choruses and bigger crowds, and leave a review to help more listeners find the show. Then tell us: what lyric made you hit repeat?

Episode Links

• Chas Collins: https://www.chascollins.com/

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Intro

Jay Franze 0:49

And we are coming to live. I am Jay Frenzy, and with me tonight, the Elliot Mike John, my beautiful co-host, Ms. Tiffany Mason.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

Ready to do this.

Jay Franze 1:01

All right. If you are new to the show, this is your source for the latest news, reviews, and interviews. So if you'd like to join in, comment, or fire off any questions, please head over to jafenzie.com. All right, my friend. Tonight we have a very special guest with us. I said it once. I will say it again. We have a very special guest. We have a country music recording artist. Halo from the great state of Louisiana. We have Chaz Collins. Chaz, sir. Thank you for joining us.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

What's going on? Thank you so much for having us.

Jay Franze 1:31

It is our pleasure. We cannot wait to dive in tonight. So we're just going to go ahead and start.

SPEAKER_02 1:37

Heck yeah.

The Story Behind Slam Bam

Jay Franze 1:39

All right. Let's start with your new song, Slam Bam. Can you tell us about the writing process first?

SPEAKER_02 1:47

Actually, I was not the one that originally wrote the song. My buddy uh Douglas Geary, he wrote this song for his old band called Catawampus. They were big overseas and all. They kind of did a cut to it. And then the Van Zant Brothers, everybody knows the Van Zant's 38 Special, Leonard Skinner.

Jay Franze 2:05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

But the Van Zant Brothers, the group Van Zant, that's the country band, uh, they had it on hold. And for an entire year, the manager was going to be like, Oh, we're naming the album that. Uh, this is gonna be the title track. And for whatever reason, the manager just said, Ah, scrap that, we're doing something completely different. So my buddy Douglas calls me and uh Doug's like, Hey, uh, I think you should cut this song. I said, Man, I've already got the six songs I need to cut. And he goes, You really need to hear this song. I said, Okay. So I listened to it. I love the song, but it wasn't me. I needed some characteristics to the lyrics to make it me. And so I said, Well, can I take this song, change some lyrics around to make it something that I can say, okay, this is me, this is genuine, because that's what you gotta do. Yeah, people have got to relate to it, believe you that it's who you are. And so I I took the song, changed some of the lyrics. We released it in November, latter part of November, along with the music video.

Jay Franze 3:07

Tell me some of the lyrics you changed.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Yeah. Well, slam bam, here I am, I'm ready to party, flying down the back roads. You know, we roll the windows down. Yeah, the specifics is uh, you know, things like we roll the windows down, my baby riding shotgun, recruising in town, headed to that honky tonk. I wanted a little bit of that Garth Brooks headed for that honky tonk. I want to get a little bit of that country in it because it was a it was a southern rock song. So I would say the lyrics I changed were minimal. There would be a word here or a word there just to modernize it because it it had that old honky tonk neon feel, and it's like, yeah, there's still neons, and there are still honky tonks, but there's a modernization that I had to do with the lyrics. It was kind of old school because when he wrote it, I believe it was like in the I want to say it was like the late 90s.

Jay Franze 4:04

So you just gave it a facelift.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

So I gave it a facelift and made it more country, whereas it was more something like I said, like a skinnered band, you know, a southern rock band would cover. And there's there's a little bit of a difference there.

Jay Franze 4:20

So is this a different approach than you normally take songwriting?

SPEAKER_02 4:23

Yes. Uh it's actually harder to take a song that's written and change it to fit you than it is for you to start from scratch. Someone asked me earlier, you know, how does this come about? Do you get the title? Do you get the melody? Do you do you just think of an idea? And songwriting is so out of the blue uh a lot of times. You know, you could be watching a movie and hear a line, you know, look at Kenny Chesney's You Have Me from Hello. He heard that in this in a movie. I was like, oh, that's a hook. You know, that can happen. Um, someone can say, Oh, you know, I met this girl of that, she was really awesome, but I can't remember her name. And I'm like, okay, so she must not have been that awesome. Uh, but now I've come up with a title on a song that I'm writing right now called I'll Never Forget Oh, What's Her Name?

Jay Franze 5:14

That's nice. So it sounds like a country twist for sure.

Rewriting Lyrics For Authenticity

SPEAKER_02 5:18

Yeah, so it's it's really, really cool with the writing, but I have noticed any songs that I write on my own. This is so odd. Anything that I write by myself comes out so traditional that it ain't me. I write the song, and it's something Alan Jackson would have covered in the 90s, or something Merle Haggard or Whalen Jennings would have cut, which is not my style. So, how am I coming out with this stuff? So, what I do is I find it best to find a good songwriter buddy that I can have that chemistry with to build a melody, put lyrics together to bounce off. And that's where I've actually found my, I guess you could say my home, my sweet spot in the songs, yeah, and into writing a song. That's where that collaboration brings out my style. It's really weird how it works, but that's you know, songwriting is very, very funny. You just never know. You can write with your best friend, and the song is just bad, and then you can write with someone you've never met before and come out with a killer song and go, How'd that happen?

Jay Franze 6:27

That's how it is with Tiffany. Everything we write together comes out bad. Everything you've mentioned so far has referenced lyrics in writing from a lyrical point of view. Do you write music as well?

SPEAKER_02 6:42

Uh, melodies. You know, I have a background in music as far as for nine years before I got into country music, I played trumpet and I play a little bit of piano. But as far as like composing something, no, I can hum a melody, I can kind of mess with it a little bit on the piano. I'm not strong enough on the piano to bring it out on stage just yet and and feature it in a song or anything. I play by ear and it gives me unbelievable headaches. Did you get that one? That's my dad joke. I play by ear. It's not gonna get any better, but that's the best joke I got right there. This is why I sing and ours aren't any better. But uh, but no, that the songwriting thing is a whole nother animal. A lot of people, you know, know that a lot of these artists out there, if you look them up, I'd say more than 50% of the time, it's not even a song they wrote. Songwriter wrote it and they found a song that fit them, something that people would believe. Hey, I live this song, and they can feel it through them based on them picking a song that that relates to something in their life where people are like, okay, I can see that you've been through that, those kind of things, storytelling. Yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Now you shared that you facelifted the lyrics. Did you facelift any of the melody, any of the music?

SPEAKER_02 8:11

A tad bit. When I first heard it, I heard a little bit of skinnered, like a little bit of a sweet omalabama kind of feel in there. And then uh if you remember the old 80s rock song Angel is a centerful. Yes, there's a little bit of that in there too. And I wanted that to be a little more prominent than the new melody because I was like, that familiarity sometimes can be an earworm for somebody, and and they hear the song and they're walking around going slam bam. Wait, I'm not trying to sing, and it's just stuck in their head, and you'll just you know it'll just come to you, you start singing it, and it just gets stuck. So I prominently wanted to make that angels of Angel is a centerfold melody. I wanted it to be a little bit more prominent, but then there was a twist where the original arrangement, the music, was so southern rock, I added a steel guitar in there and a fiddle, and so that that kind of countryside it a little bit, took it out of the southern rock and more into the country rock.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

You said that it sounds like Merle Hagard or Garth Brooks. Were those any of your musical influences? Do you feel like you're pulling from what you enjoyed when you were younger?

Songwriting Sparks And Collaboration

SPEAKER_02 9:29

A little bit. So here's here's uh a plot twist for a lot of folks that that don't know a lot of personal stuff about me. So I was not a country fan growing up. I was a big hair band, I was big into Stillan, uh Van Halen, Cinderella, Death Leopard, Twisted Sister, uh those guys. That's poison. That was the stuff I listened to growing up. So if I had to be honest, growing up, I was not a big country fan. And then Garth Brooks came out, and then Tim McGraw came out. Tim McGraw is the one that really made me start paying attention to country when he came out with the song Don't Take the Girl, literally changed my perspective on country. I was like, what a story. If that don't make you think and that doesn't hit you, you don't have any feelings. You know, uh that's kind of how it works.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Your headshots made me think of Tim McGrath.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

I have heard that, and there's one floating out there that was a complete accident that looks like Blake Shelton. We did not try to do that. How it looked. No, not the not the old Blake Shelton. The uh later on, Google Chad Collins, you'll scroll down and you'll see it, and you'll go, Blake Shelton, there he is. No, so so that was more of my influences. However, later on, once I got into country music and started writing, yes, the Garth Brooks, the Tim McGraw, a little bit of Kenny Chesney and even Jason Alding, that's maybe even a tat of Eric Church in there, too. It's that that real edgy country. Like I like, I'm not a performer of traditional country. So if I'm sitting in the car on a trip and I want to listen to some country music on a long trip, it'll be some George Jones, Johnny Cash. I like Merle and Whaling pretty good, but I'd say I could listen. You could just have Johnny Cash and George Jones and I on an eight-hour trip, and I can listen to every song they ever put out. They just have that vocal ability, that connection to an audience that I just love. But when I'm performing live, we're more the style of a Jason Aldean, a Tim McGraw, a little bit of Kenny Chesney, a little bit of Eric Church. We've got that edge to us to where you hear the 80s rock influence. I tell people I hired a rock band to play country. That's that's literally what it is.

Jay Franze 11:52

Yeah, to be fair, those are all the artists that we like. So there you go, including all the hair metal ones that you listed off.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Yep, but I do have a fiddle player because you got to have a little playing in there. Yes, right. I've got a utility player that plays fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and steel guitar, along with this rock sound that I have. So I think what we bring to the table is a newer sound. It's it's something people haven't done a lot of. It's like taking Garth, Al Dean, and Timagraw and throwing it together. It's literally like a hybrid of those three.

Jay Franze 12:28

All right, let's take it into the studio now. So you had an opportunity to work with Tommy Harden. What was that like?

SPEAKER_02 12:35

Absolutely love that guy. What a phenomenal person, musician, producer. What's crazy is how this worked out. My very first CD I've actually taken off. It's not even up anymore. My very first CD, way before I met Tommy, because it was one of those things where I was cutting music that I didn't really know any better. Somebody else was paying for it, and it wasn't really me. That's the truth. And so if it's not really me, I took it out. You know, it's a whole album we spent money on. So then I got with a different producer, Dan Hodges, in Nashville, and he introduced me to Tommy Harden. This was back in 2014. We came out with uh Chaz Collins, that's what she said. That was the first EP I put out. There's a backstory on that, too. Uh but uh on the title there, if we have time.

Jay Franze 13:28

Oh, we'll we'll have time.

Melodies, Instruments And Ear Training

SPEAKER_02 13:30

Okay, cool. Tommy was the drummer on there. It was unbelievable. Like, not to take anything away from Dan Hodges, the producer that was with me, but Tommy ran the whole show. My producer sat back and honestly didn't do really anything. Tommy ran the whole show. He was the band leader, the drummer, harmonies. It was so phenomenal. And I loved that EP when it came out. That later on I was getting ready to hire that same producer. And I'm like, why am I doing that? Why am I spending the money on that producer when I can do this with Tommy? Because Tommy's we can bounce ideas off each other. It was mainly him and I, the first EP. So I called him and he says, Yeah, man. He says, I've got my own studio now, you know, the hardened dungeon. And I'm like, Really? Where is it at? He says, In my basement. I said, Well, that's not creepy. That makes perfect sense. That's a thing in Nashville, but I had to pick on him. And I was like, Man, you know, I I'd love to come and and and record. I got these songs that I think you would do really good on because he's gonna give me a little bit of that 90s country in there with the rock edge that I want to do, and that's exactly what because he's played on any of those records or anything, right? Right. That man's like that. He's like the Brent Mason of drums, isn't he? Yep, absolutely. Yeah, he's amazing. So he cut those six songs, and uh, I mean, we knocked him out, and I was so pleased with it, man. So pleased with it. So him and I co-produced these six songs, which will later become an EP. Right now, we're just releasing singles, and I I couldn't be more happy, more happier with it. And I get to live a dream here shortly. They're coming to the Strawberry Festival. I don't know if you guys already know, but he's drumming for Alabama, and I'm like, uh, okay, I don't get starstruck really anymore, but there is a respect level when I see people and I just go, Whew, you are the man. And that's how I that's how I look at the guys in Alabama, man. Like they are legends.

Jay Franze 15:29

All right, let's take it back into the studio. I mean, we talk about all these amazing musicians, the Oak Ridge boys in Alabama, but you had an opportunity to record with Tommy with some amazing A players in the studio as well. Man, so let's get a little deeper. How much time did you actually spend? Were you there for the entire recording process?

SPEAKER_02 15:48

Yes, I was hands-on for the whole thing. It's one of those where I kind of let Tommy do his magic. The last thing I want to do is to interrupt his creative juices as he's doing this because he does so well. And the only thing that I would throw in there would be like, hey, you know, I want the steel guitar to be prominent in this song. Now here you go, take it and do what you think. Or this one, hey, I want to feature the fiddle on most of this song. Things like that. I would kind of just direct him where I wanted to go and just cut him loose. Uh, but I was there for every bit of it.

Jay Franze 16:23

So was he the one that hired the musicians? Yes. All right. So if we go back to your single, you had Alison Presswood play bass on it. The the bass line in that song is pretty pretty intensive. Oh, and Slam Band? Yeah. Did you have any input on that? Did you give her any suggestions along the way?

Turning Southern Rock Into Country Rock

SPEAKER_02 16:43

No, somebody said, Oh, she plays bass for Peter Frampton. And I'm like, let her go. She knows what she's doing. I was like, you don't need my input. And boy, is she a monster on that guitar? And I and I'll tell you the truth. Again, this would be another story. I was fortunate enough to have John Marcus in my band. For those that don't know him, he was one of the original dance hall doctors with Timagraw for 20, god, he was with him at least 23 years from the beginning. Wow, 23 years later, when he when he let go of his whole band and got a whole new band. John Marcus was his bass player, and he's the best bass player I've ever heard. And she was close second.

Jay Franze 17:23

Oh, she's amazing.

SPEAKER_02 17:26

She's absolutely amazing. It blew my mind, man. I I didn't expect it because those guys normally, those folks, when they come in, they don't have really an ego, but they have this confidence. And she was like, You've just walked over to talk to your neighbor. So I knew she was gonna be good. I just didn't know she was gonna be that good. You know, I thought, you know, hey, she's gonna do the job. And she was like, I was listening, going, Good lord, I'd hate to be a drummer doing a solo after her.

Jay Franze 18:00

So so paint the picture for us. When you first walked in, the first time you got in the studio to work with Tommy and see these musicians, just describe the day to us.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

We walk in, and of course, the very first thing is you pal out, man. You kind of just get in the zone. And you know, the musicians they're setting up. I'm always thinking social media. I'm like, sorry, guys, I'm gonna be a little weird here while you're trying to set up and do your thing. If it's a weird shot, I catch you making a funny face, I won't keep it and I won't post it. But I've got to video this, everybody's setting up, everybody would love to see how all this comes together. So we do that. And then the mind-blowing thing is some of these guys have never heard the song before. This is the part that blows my mind. They've never heard your song, and so everybody kind of just sits in a circle and everybody gets a piece of paper and a pencil, and they go, All right, we're gonna play the song. And and this could be an acoustic guitar, it could be uh, you know, really, really cheap version of a of a demo, you know. That sometimes they don't have really anything like exceptional to work off of, they just hear the melody, and everybody sits around, they start jotting down on their notes. All right, we're gonna play it through one more time, and play it through one more time and make a few notes. Every musician goes in their room and first cut, it's almost ready to go. And what blows my mind is the photographic memory of these folks. They're like, hey, uh the 12th measure, uh, the second note, I kind of flubbed that one. Can we punch that in? And I'm like, Are you how did you know? How did you remember that? Like, yeah, you know you messed up, but how do you know what measure? Right, just right there.

SPEAKER_01 19:47

I'm not from recording studios, so Jay is no stranger to recording studio. What time of day does this start and how long does it last? When are you taking your social media shots? Is it like 6 a.m.? Is it noon? Is it two o'clock in the afternoon?

Influences From Hair Metal To Tim McGraw

SPEAKER_02 20:03

Well, yeah, it's really hard for a vocalist in the morning, as you know. You know, you can wake up in the morning, you're like, hey, baby, you're talking up very wide boys, you're down there because you haven't warmed up, you know, and then and so you haven't gotten your you're you're not set up for your sound. It's gonna take you a couple of hours to warm up, talking something. So I would get there around nine o'clock with Tommy. Get there around nine. Let's say him and I towel out probably for the first 30 minutes and grab some coffee and just kind of just start feeling the vibe of the studio, you know. And his studio has a killer vibe. You walk in and you're just this is just great, it's a great ambience in there. And so then it's about 30 minutes, and then they get set up. Once we start, man, it's game on, and they're in there recording it, and it wasn't a lot of time in a studio. I want to say, with the musicians from the moment they started playing, we were there maybe two hours for six songs, other than being mixed, just needed the levels mixed. I mean, like, sorry, there is one thing that made them not radio ready. But uh, harmony vocals had to be added on later. Those were added on after the fact, and Tommy did all those too. I'm like, this man's got more talent and you know, in one finger than I got my whole life.

Jay Franze 21:26

Miss Tiffany, just to follow that up a little bit, in Nashville, they they function with a union. So all the musicians go through a union and they play in three-hour blocks. Okay. When you hire musicians that come in for three hours, if you need them for an additional three hours, then you have to pay them for an additional three hours. Okay. And if you were to say go three and a half or four hours, you're paying overtime fees. And it's not just the fee for the musicians, it's the fee for the union. It's the fee for the cartridge company. So the cartridge is the the company that delivers the instruments and sets them up for the musicians. Especially somebody like Tommy, who's a drummer, or he pops from session to session to session all day. So three hours with you, three hours here, three hours there. When they do that, the cartridge company is going from this studio. They set your gear up here. They're setting up an identical kit somewhere else.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

Oh wow.

Jay Franze 22:21

And then you go play there. They go tear down your old one and they move it to another studio. So that company's doing all that work behind the scenes. That's why it's that stuff costs so much money.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Interesting. Okay.

Jay Franze 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

I don't know what the union pay is now. I know when I recorded the I should say the first album that I wanted to record, the one that was me. That's what she said. Uh it was like$256 an hour, is what it was back then. I'm sure with inflation and all, I'm sure it's quite a bit more than that now. But Tommy, Tommy knows I'm going to work with him more. So we worked out a deal for both of us on that. And he was really, really awesome. So awesome that he's like, man, listen, I've got some favors I can call to help you out on the budget. Because at the time I didn't have an investor. I had some sponsorship money, but uh I didn't have enough to pay what Nashville normally likes to do. And Tommy's really good about that, not just me, just independence. He, you know, he charges his rate in most instances. But if someone's like, hey, you know, I'm not asking for a freebie and I'm not, I'm not asking, you know, I'm not trying to throw you a lowball offer here, but can you work with me on this and just make it a little bit easier for me? I tell him, I said, I'll be back. Hey, you're getting repeat customer. So we'll we'll catch it up on the flip side.

Jay Franze 23:46

That's one of the benefits of working in Nashville. Those musicians like Allison and others, they play on every major record that comes through town. So when someone like yourself or another independent artist comes through town, they're a little bit more forgiving on some of the arrangements. We'll see. Yeah.

unknown 24:03

Yeah.

Jay Franze 24:04

All right. So tell us about the rest of your day.

Building A Hybrid Live Sound

SPEAKER_02 24:06

So once we get re done recording, then we're listening back. So that's the band. We got the band out the way, that's three hours. It's like, okay, so now you gotta lay down the vocals. And this instance, this instance, and the one before that Tommy worked with me on that's what she said. The whole band played at the same time. Now you have other studios where sometimes they will bring it in one instrument at a time, and I don't like that because I feel like you lose the live feel. You can tell. Yeah, the chemistry and the feel. If people are feeling the music, and you know, these other musicians to me, it's more it comes across more mechanical when it's one instrument at a time. So I wanted the full band, and when they were done, they did give me a little bit extra. I want to say we were there about three and a half hours, and nobody charged me for that extra 30 minutes. So please don't mention the any of the other musicians' name. I don't want to get anybody in trouble. And so, of course, I tipped them for that because I was like, hey, here you go, guys. Thank you for actually caring. You know, you care about this, and that's important to me. So I'm pretty sure they got their overtime out of that. But when that was done, it was like, all right, quick break for lunch, because that was the morning. By then I'm warmed up, you know, it's 12, one o'clock, something like that. We go break for lunch, and he's like, Hey, you know, meet you in the in an hour or two hours, and we'll lay down the vocals. Well, a lot of producers will tell you one song a day, one vocal a day to get their best. Well, I need it faster than that. I don't have six days to spend in Nashville. I got three days. And so Tommy said, Well, what do you feel comfortable with? I said, Well, I've always been told, and I've always witnessed myself that three songs is about the limit because you're not just singing it through once. You know, you might sing it through three or four times, and then he's got to go back and punch you in because maybe you're pitchy on this note, or maybe you said the wrong lyric, or maybe the timing wasn't right to the music. Because remember, the music's already there, right? And it's got to be spot on. And he's really good at directing you too on roles, as they call them, you know, where you want to, you know, you want to go, you know, slam bam or slam bam, you know, different pitches like that. He's really good at at pointing those things out. You're overlaying vocals on those spots that you may have missed. And that can take two, three hours, uh, you know, with taking some breaks here and there to come in and listen to what it was and talk about it, and then go back in the vocal booth. It's about three hours of that. And then we sit there in front of the speakers, we listen to it and go, Are we happy with this? And sometimes I am, and sometimes I'm not. Sometimes he's not. Sometimes you get what they call ear fatigue. So now I've been listening to musicians for three hours. I've been listening to my vocals and headphones for three hours. So your ears, you need a fresh set of ears because if you go sit down and listen to that without taking a break, you may miss some things. You may hear some miss some tones that a fresh pair of ears that aren't hasn't been listening to music and sounds for six hours can pick up on. So you may take a break, you may take the 30 minutes, you know. We go upstairs, grab a cup of coffee, talk, shop a little bit, and you know, just BS a little bit. Can I say that? BS submit. Whatever you want. Okay, cool.

Working With Producer-Drummer Tommy Harden

SPEAKER_01 27:38

This is a safe space.

SPEAKER_02 27:41

Okay, cool. Um, so so after that, after that, we go back in and we get that fresh listen. And we decide if we're happy. And sometimes you gotta go change a little bit more on the vocal. So that could take anywhere from three hours to maybe four is about the max. And if if for some reason we've got three songs there and we're still not perfectly happy with the vocals, it's only happened one time, and it didn't happen this time when I recorded these six songs. It happened with the album, That's what she said, where I just couldn't get it right. My voice just was wore out, had been talking and singing and all this for six hours. It's like, hey, let's just come back on this. We'll work on the other songs tomorrow, brand new, and then we'll touch on this one and see if we can get it right. So things can roll over like that. I'm not there for any of the mixing. Once I'm happy with the vocals, I go, all right, do your magic on the harmonies, man. And he he does that, he sends it to me. He goes, What do you think? The mix is weeks later. So you're there pretty much, I'd say from nine to six, yeah, eight, nine hours, maybe later. Some people want to be there for all the mixing. I don't need to be there for all that. He knows what to do. You're literally gonna sit there, it's like watching a fly. That's what you're doing for hours, and you're just like that's it's that part's boring. Yeah, that's the work part. Yeah, it's very tedious on that. Make the magic happen, and uh, and you hope that everything's perfect, you know. I trusted him and he nailed it. I trusted him, go went back to Florida. He could have sent it to me, and I'm not happy with the mix. And now I'm like, well, okay, I'm not happy with that fiddle. That's not the guitar I wanted, that's not the sound I wanted.

Jay Franze 29:31

So, did you have an ability to make any updates?

SPEAKER_01 29:35

Yeah, can you make any edits, any revisions?

SPEAKER_02 29:38

You yes, usually, I mean, Tommy's gonna make sure it's right. The guy I used before, Jamie Tate, I believe his name was the roughest room in Nashville. Jamie was very very cool, but very strict. He's like, You get three revisions, three times you can tell me to do a different mix, and then after that I gotta charge it. So he gave me three, but Jamie was phenomenal too. I mean, I I didn't need him to change anything.

Jay Franze 30:04

Yeah, ruckers room is a demo studio, though. You're not in there making records, you're making demos. It's usually for songwriters who are trying to sell songs versus artists trying to make something for themselves. Yeah, yeah. Tommy's trying to make a record.

SPEAKER_02 30:19

Yeah, yeah. Um, Jamie did mix everything in the ruckus room. Yeah, we didn't record. Let's see, did we? No, we didn't record in the ruckus room, but he mixed it in the ruckus room. Yeah, we actually recorded in the vocals within the sound shop. Oh, yeah, yeah, which is closed down now. Yeah, I think it they tore the building down really. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:40

It sounds like Tommy did a lot of the heavy lifting, so the producer does a lot. He is a producer, but he goes by what he's a drummer, a drummer, or you were introduced as a drummer. He's a drummer, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:51

But he produces, but I co-produced with him. I've always got the last saying because I am the artist in what I want to hear. But when you hire a producer, you expect them to know what you're looking for, to where you're just there to be a part of it, maybe interject if there's something way off. But normally that producer should know exactly what you're looking for. Even Dan Hodges, he nailed it back then. Like I said, it was mostly Tommy. They had a conversation before I even got there because I literally paid my producer. Yeah, I don't mind telling you, I paid him two grand to sit there and let Tommy run the show. And that's why I thought the next time I'm like, no offense to him, I can tell Tommy what I'm looking for. Tommy's done this so many times. From my end, that's a waste of money. No offense to my producer I used the first time because Tommy and I came out with just as good a music. He knows what I'm looking for. You know, he's worked for before.

Jay Franze 31:47

There's different kinds of producers. You got the producers like that who sit back and do nothing but direct. And then you have the ones who can perform, or like you even mentioned, the ones that you don't like that layer instruments because they can play just about any instrument there is. So they go in the studio and play the guitar, then the bass, and they just keep layering things. It's whatever you like, whatever you prefer.

SPEAKER_02 32:09

Yeah, and I will tell you this I don't know if I will ever hire a producer again, except for one. If Mutt Lane wants to produce my record, I'm all in. You tell me how much it costs, and I will get it.

Inside A Nashville Session Day

Jay Franze 32:22

Mutt, if you're listening, jfrenzy.com, you can jump on the code. One of my heroes. He is an amazing producer. Especially back in the rock world before he started doing country records. You know, I say country records, Shania 20 records. But that was more pop. Well, even still, I mean, he it wasn't like he was doing other country records other than Shania's. But he was known for ACDC or Def Leopard or those type of records. Yeah. But he is an absolutely amazing producer, but he he cracks a whip. I mean, there are stories upon stories of just the brutalness that he put people through. But he knows what he wants and he's gonna get it.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

Yeah, he came out with gold, man. That's that's those people.

Jay Franze 33:14

He created a signature. You know, people say the producers aren't supposed to have a signature sound, but he has a signature sound.

SPEAKER_02 33:24

You can almost hear that any any song you hear. You know a Muttlang didn't.

Jay Franze 33:29

I mean, there's nothing more polished than a Muttlang record. Even the harmonies are just spot on. That's just amazing. You mentioned Brent Mason earlier on Shania Twain's record, he had Brent Mason play the same four measures of music, like for what, four and a half hours straight? I mean, it was brutal just trying to get him to play this the solo piece. All sorts of stories like that. It's crazy. Hey, you know? All right. Well, well, let's move on a little bit. We we've mentioned your your writing process and your time in the studio, but now you actually have had some time to go out live and perform it. So can you tell us what the reception's been like when you're playing the song live?

SPEAKER_02 34:15

Uh for slam bam, uh, people are singing along. There's nothing more satisfying as a performer than to have someone singing a song that's yours. Word for word, they look like they've just forgotten everything. Like they're they're in the zone with you. That connection is there. That's part of the addiction of being a performer for me is that human connection. When you make people feel something, whether it's an emotional ballad or like this, slam bam as a party song. It's like Mardi Gras, New Orleans at these shows when we hit that song. And I love it. People just cut loose.

Jay Franze 34:55

I think that's important to point out it is a party song, but it's like an anthem. So I mean, it's not just a party song that people sing along to, it's a party song that people can truly sing and repetitive, and it's something they can have fun. It's a party drinking song, you're gonna have fun. So yeah. You're playing the these live shows now and you're getting a positive reaction for the song. What is your hopes when it comes to these shows? Are you looking to start going on the road? Are you looking to open up for some of the the more known acts at this point?

SPEAKER_02 35:28

Okay, so yeah, so let me cover a little bit of that. So as far as uh touring, so I toured from 2000, 2006, nationally, from 2006 to 2019. So during that time, we covered just under 3,000 shows, 43 states at that time. So we did open some bigger national acts back then. I did a sold-out show in Lincoln, Nebraska, a place called Uncle Ron's with Lou Bryan. That's probably one of the bigger ones. We've done some stuff with Colin Ray, um, John Fort Coley, Brian White. Yeah, yeah. Uh Colin Ray was one of those, as you know, that should have, in my eyes, should have been way more commercial than what he was. But very, very underrated. Fast forward, just recently I did my first stadium show. We went ahead and played Slam Bam at it, even though it wasn't released yet.

Jay Franze 36:23

That's okay.

Session Players, Bass Firepower And Arrangements

SPEAKER_02 36:24

I had to. Uh, that was with Chris Jansen, Josh Turner, and Dustin Lynch. That was my first baseball stadium we played at. I think it was called the Grand Slam Testle, I believe is what it was called. What stadium was it? Port Charlotte. That's where the Tampa Bay Rays do their spring training uh in Port Charlotte there. It's right next to a place called the Twisted Fork, which is also a concert venue, ironically. But we got to do that. So played a lot of great venues. However, Florida has opened so many more doors for me than Nashville ever did. You know, I had a number nine on CMT in 2015 in Nashville. And the truth of the matter is I got squashed. I got squashed because I was an independent and did not belong there. So my CMT page was completely removed because I didn't belong there. And that was about the time I started getting my sights set on okay, I need to get out of this town. I've got enough credits to where if I go somewhere else, I'm gonna be the bigger fish in a small pond. Because here I'm kind of just getting covered up. So anyway, I know I'm segueing a little bit, but I'm coming back around here. But the goal now is with the things that have happened, no place I'd rather be. Our song number one for two weeks on Taste of Country, Time with You. That song, and that video, and the video was in the top six nominated Josie Awards for male video of the year at the Grand Old Opera House. Man, I would love to walk across that stage maybe next year. But these things happen, and now what's happening is Florida has recognized me and my band as national lacks now, and so now we're getting festivals calling, going, hey, we want you to headline our festival. So I'm right on that cusp, and I've been on that cusp for a few years, but I'm I'm starting to get that nudge over to getting into people going, okay, we're doing$25 tickets, you're headlining, we're bringing in an opener, and that's happening in Florida, and so I'm getting ready to go back on the road as I haven't toured full time countrywide since 2019 when COVID kind of shut that down. I was actually on the road right before COVID really started like exploding everywhere, I guess you could say, where it we figured out what it was, why everybody was getting sick. I just played Cowboys in Dotan, Alabama, and was heading down to Key West and played two weeks there. I'm moving from Nashville to Florida, I'm changing gears, and uh and and that takes me to where we're at now. You know, we got the the deal with Virgin Music this past March for distribution.

Jay Franze 39:10

How's that feel?

SPEAKER_02 39:12

That's great. I mean, it's great. I there's a difference in your record deal and your distribution deal. What I what I've always wanted was a distribution deal. I wanted a label that was willing to distribute my music, but let me not not try to control me as an artist. Guide me if I ask you to guide me is great. But even Kenny Chesney got bigger when he was able to be who he wanted to be and who he was. He was genuine. Instead of them packaging him as this country bumpkin, like they had him in the first album, you know. That's what Virgin Music has done for me as a distribution. I've got all creative control. They don't take any portion of my live shows, they take a percentage of my uh the money I make on my songs, as far as downloads, you know, social media stuff. They get a little, a little cut of that. But other than that, I get to be myself as an artist, book my own shows, no one to answer to, and it is it is exactly what I was looking for. It it's really changed, it did change my career to have that distribution. We're on AMI jukeboxes all over the world now. We're right on the cusp of finally breaking out to that commercial level.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

Congratulations, that's a pretty big deal.

SPEAKER_02 40:28

Thank you. Yes, and and I don't want to speak too soon, but I'll let you guys in on a little secret.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

Everybody lean in.

Union Blocks, Budgets And Studio Logistics

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Yeah, everybody lean in. As my grandmother would say, God willing, uh, in October, we've we've been in talks this last year, but it was too late in the season. We've been in talks with the NBA to do 30 halftime shows performances of No Place I'd rather be, the all-American song that I recorded and cut, uh, which I wrote with Byron Hill. I don't know if I told you that, if you knew Byron. Yeah, which was a big deal for me personally. They're wanting to surround the NBA to that song, No Place Would Rather Be. We don't care if you're left or right, we care if you're an American, you love the country, period. And that's what we're trying to do is unite people. And that song does that. So, God willing, we're supposed to talk about that in August. And if so, that will take me to the commercial level to where I'll be able to tour, you know, get on some of these tours if you're Morgan Wallins, your Luke Combs. If I'm lucky enough, a Jason Aldean or Tim McGraw, Kenny Chesney would be on my wish list. But we would be off to the race if that happened, the NBA thing.

Jay Franze 41:44

All right. Let's go ahead and hear the story behind that's what she said.

SPEAKER_02 41:48

Oh, that's what she said. Okay, so so like I said, I had John Marcus with me, one of the dance hall doctors. He was on the road with me for about three months, and let's be honest here, independent. You know, Tim was probably paying him six figures times two or three or whatever. And I'm not gonna even come close to that. I'm not even gonna pay you that in two years. You're not gonna get six figures. I'm not there. So he was on the road with me, and uh I think he was sold on me as an artist, me as a performer, because he told me, and that these were personal victories for me to sit with John Marcus and talk some of these stories on the road about Tim McGraw. That was my role model when I got into country music. You know, that's who I looked up to. And so, man, I mean I was on cloud nine talking about this stuff. This is so cool. And John Marcus looks at me and goes, Chaz, he says, you know, I'm not with you because of the money. He said, I'm with you because I have not seen a performer that has the it factor like you since Tim McRaw started in '93, I think it was.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Wow.

Live Band Tracking Vs Layered Recording

SPEAKER_02 42:57

And and and I said, Okay, you just go ahead and just take me out now. It's not gonna get any, I'm not gonna feel any better than being told this by this guy. And I said, Well, John, I said, I said, I'm not fanboying here, but I'm telling you, I got the book, Dance Hall Doctors. I know the story of the Dance Hall Doctors. I was like, You guys motivated me to do to just go to Nashville and just go, let's give it a shot. You guys sold me on this is what I want to do. And and you guys were my role model. This band, this whole thing that you guys do, this this brotherhood they had for those 23 years. And he goes, Well, Chaz, he says, as you know, I can't stay out here with you. He says, but I'm gonna do this as long as I can. And it lasted three months because I'm pretty sure his wife was gone. I'm pretty sure you were making a lot more before. You need to hook up with somebody that's already there. And he kind of did that before he retired. He's retired now. But anyway, so we're on the bus to uh Roanoke, Virginia, a place called Sidewinders. And I was recording this album, you know, we're recording these songs, and I was like, man, I'm trying to think of a name to this album. And I'm sitting there, John and I are sitting on the couch talking, my guitar. Players driving, everybody else is in their bunk sleeping. And I was like, Well, and he's he's really funny guy. He's like, Why don't you just call it? That's what she said. And I'm like, That's not an album title. He goes, Well, you say it all the time, and I do. I'm one of those people that you know I'm sure it's inappropriate sometimes. Yeah. But so I said it so much, he goes, dude, it can't be any more you. And I was like, I was like, I'll think about it. Well, you fast forward, and I guess it was, you know, like I said, he was with me about three months, so maybe two or three months after, once I got everything packaged and and got the CDs made, I called him up and I said, Hey, John, I said, uh, we put our album out. Try it on right now as number nine on CMT. And he goes, Oh, that's really cool. That's really cool. I said, Well, I'd like to come stop by and give you a copy of this. Because on the back of the album is my band, and John Marcus is in that photo because I wanted him on that album. I was like, That's my personal victory right there. I had to McGraw's bass player. So I showed him that and I said, Here you go, man. And he turned her over and he looked at it and he goes, Are you kidding me? He said, I was joking. I didn't think you were really gonna do that. Call it that's what Chief said. I said, Yeah, man, you're the inspiration on the album. He said, I was just making jokes, man. I wasn't being serious, and I'm like, Well, it worked. And so that was my own thing. Obviously, that's a way bigger deal for me because one of my heroes in the music business of that band named the album, was on the he didn't play on the album, but uh he named the album and his picture was on the album, and he was touring with me when that was being recorded. So that's that's how that's what she said come about. And so now I can say this at the merch table without anyone looking at me funny, because as soon as they look at me and it's like, okay, that was the wrong thing to say to someone, I go, It's the name of my album. I'm just and then they buy the album. So I use it as a marketing ploy network.

Jay Franze 46:21

What's it like to be groped by two women at one time at your show?

SPEAKER_02 46:26

That was hilarious. Um, they first asked my wife, what do you do with all these women that that just drool over your man? She says, I grab a camera and I join in. That's what she says. And she knows that she knows that it's social media gold, and I have a wife that it's almost impossible to make this woman jump.

Jay Franze 46:46

How did it come about that you just started signing boobs and stuff in the first place? I mean, that doesn't just happen at every show.

unknown 46:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:57

So key West means a lot of sun and a lot of booze.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

Yes, yes. I signed things in Key West where I had to throw the marker away. Just saying.

SPEAKER_01 47:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02 47:06

So, you know, it's really crazy that this has only happened in the last couple of shows. Woody's River Roo, there in Elleton, Florida, was one of them. And there is one that was a private event. This was a 55 and up in the community, and I'm sitting here thinking it's called Timber Pines.

Jay Franze 47:23

It's a nudist colony.

SPEAKER_02 47:25

No, no, not this one. I mean, it turned into that. It was like, I was like, I guess since it's a private event, anything goes, right? Like, but what had happened at that particular one, that's where I was signing like husbands and wives. Like everybody was we went to the little bar that was next to the to the auditorium that we played in. It made my day because they said we have lots of bands here, and we're gonna have lots of bands here. You set the bar so high tonight, I just don't know how we're gonna top that. And I said, Well, I said, Well, just wait till next year. He goes, Okay, give me the date. Let's book it. And I said, Well, we're gonna top it. And and we will, we're gonna bring our LED screen. We just bought a seven-foot tall, eleven-foot-wide LED screen with great visuals where it plays the music video in sync as we're playing our originals and just cool stuff like that. But that was the one apparently, we wowed them so much that even all the grannies were coming over here, find mine. I'm like, Well, if I'm gonna do one side, let's do the other side. My wife's video on this, and she goes, This could go viral. Let's attach her song to it because she's always thinking marketing. There you go. She knows, man.

Jay Franze 48:39

She knows what it takes. That might lead into this. Very, very lucky. We do this thing here we call unsung heroes where you take a moment to shine light on somebody who's worked behind the scenes or somebody who may have supported you along the way. Is there anybody that you would like to shine a little light on?

Vocal Sessions, Fatigue And Revisions

SPEAKER_02 48:53

Well, obviously, my wife. My wife has taken the back seat to my career pretty much the entire time we've been together during the week at social media, doing videos, editing. She built my website, which I'll have you know that Jeremy Westby and Scott Sexton both of them saw and said, Oh my god, who did that? as like my wife. And they're like, Wow, because it's just as good as Drew Baldridge, Morgan Wallins, what's I mean, she's put hours into this, and she's like, I see your drive, and I know that that's what you're gonna do the rest of your life. So if you're all in, I'm all in. And and she has been. She she used to work a day job. She hasn't had that job since October 2024. But she used to work a day job Monday through Friday. And Friday after she'd get off, she'd go to the show, she'd work the merch. She was there for setup. I'm the first guy there and the first guy to leave. I am a hands-on front man. I'm not your spoiled guy that everybody sets up and I show up saying my stuff and go here, clean all this crap up. I'm the first, I'm there before the sound man. I'm there hands-on, watching everything come together, making sure everything's set up the way it needs to be for the show, or to give a help, helping hand if they know what to do at that place. And I'm the last one to leave. And she'll go there with me early and she'll leave with me late, and then we'll do it again on Saturday. And she's given so she's given up so many weekends working her five days a week and still working Friday and Saturday, Sunday, sometimes even Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. And she's just now getting where she might skip a show here that hey bed, how does the merch sell here? Do you need me at this one? Because I I'd like to take a minute. That's the first person I'm gonna shine a light on. And if I can I have a second. Oh, fine, go ahead. Uh I I want to give a big shout out to my drummer. My drummer, Scott, Scott Carter, is giving me about four years now, and a big shout out to all my band members because they've been with me for three and a half years, and that's that's unheard of uh in this industry, unless you're you know throwing a millions of dollars. But Scott works behind the scenes as well. Scott spends between 15 to 20 hours a week making ads, working the groups, working my social media, building my numbers. And uh he just found out that his wife had stage four colon cancer, and she's just gone through surgery, and it looks like she's going to, she's gonna kick it, and we're praying for. But Scott, through all of that, I called him and I said, Scott, listen, I was like, dude, you've given me everything. I mean, this man, his wife told me you don't understand. This man is seven days a week, he's on that computer building ads, working behind the scenes, and he's like, You just don't understand. Like, we don't hardly do anything. He's he's he he see he believes in you that much. And I said, I appreciate that. That's really awesome. And you know, I try to comment save him as best as I can for that. But I said, Scott, we when he found out about his wife, I said, if you want to take a minute and take care of your wife, I can get someone to fill in and to cover till y'all get past this. And Scott goes, I'm good, she's good, I'm good. And I'm like, Okay, you let me know. So he left straight from her surgery and came and played a show that Friday night for him to believe in me to that level. Him and I had a moment at the merch table at the last show, and I looked at him, I said, Scott, I said, I know you've been through a lot in your life, I've been through a lot my life. I said, but no, I've got your back. And he says, Well, I got your back. And I said, I know that. I said, You make sure to let your wife know we got her back, we're praying for. And so he started to tear up a little bit, but I want to give a big shout out to him because that man has given me so much. He's given me more than any musician in this band over the years. All the musicians that I've worked with, different variations of my band, he's given more to this brand than anyone, with the exception of my wife. And so that's that's the two I want to spylight.

Jay Franze 53:26

There you go. All right, folks. Well, we have done it. We've reached the top of the hour. We've actually blown past the top of the hour. If you've enjoyed this show, please tell a friend and Miss Tiffany if you have not.

SPEAKER_01 53:37

Tell Tale.

Jay Franze 53:38

You can reach out to both of us, hell. You can reach out to all three of us over at jfranzy.com. We will keep this and any other conversation going. Sir, we cannot thank you enough for being here tonight. We would like to leave the final words to you.

SPEAKER_02 53:51

Thank you so much. I appreciate that. The big shout out to all of our fans. Country Music has some of the greatest fans in the world. If you want to connect with us, if you want to know what's going on in my career, follow what we're doing and be a part of it. JazzCollins.com, chascollins.com, jump on our email list. We won't spam you, we won't give away your email address. We will just let you know all the big things happening, new songs, new videos, any kind of big things happen, like if the NBA happens. If you want to connect with me on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, it's the same thing across the board. It's Chaz Collins Music, C-H-A-S. Chaz Collins Music. Shoot me a message. I'm still one of those artists that I try to answer as many messages as I can on the daily, and I try to keep that personal connection as much as I can. So thank you guys so much for having me, man.

Jay Franze 54:48

It is our pleasure. All right, folks. On that note, have a good night. Thanks for listening to the Jay Franzi Show. Make sure you visit us at JFranzi.com. Follow, connect, and say hello.