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This is later with Lee Matthews the
Lee Matthews Podcast More What You Here weekday

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afternoons on the Drive Back in nineteen
eighty eight, Kevin Griffin and his friends

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on the campus of LSU formed a
group that would later become legendary Better than

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Ezra, an alternative rock icon about
to well. Actually, they're in the

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midst of their Legends of the Fall
twenty twenty three tour, one of one

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stop of which will be in Oklahoma
City at the Jones Assembly Center on November

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fourteenth. Mark that down. Kevin
Griffin, lead singer Better than Ezra's joining

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us now. Greetings, Lee,
it is so good to be talking with

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you today, especially about going to
Oklahoma City, one of our favorite clubs

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in the country, Jones Assembly.
Well, you know you and I have

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something in common. About the time
you were forming Better Than on the campus

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of LSU, I was studying broadcasting
down the road and laugh he hatte at

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usl Are you a rage and Cajun? I am a raging Cajun. I

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am born in New Iberia and bread
in New Iberia. Dude, I love

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that. And you don't have any
New Iberia accident anymore? Can you can

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you can you summon it. I
can get that. You pump up a

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pump a couple, you pump a
couple of bears in me, and I

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turned right back into my barry boy. Yeah. Look, I grew up

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in Monroe, Louisiana, and you're
right, man, I love it.

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We started LSU and and we used
to go play Lafiette Latte. Everybody was

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nuts and it was a party town. It still is a party town.

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What was the crazy? What was
the crazy? Late night club outside of

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Lastiette? It was just, oh, I'll have to remember it. I

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can't remember it. Was it alic
to say, Well, was it a

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Cajun club with Cajun music or was
it? Oh, it was like a

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dance club, like craziness happening.
And some people, some of my friends

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and my opporternity at who would go
there late night. They would drive the

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fifty fifty minutes over there, drive
back with one eye open. Oh my

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god. But yeah, just insanity
at back in the day. But yeah,

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man, we can't wait to be
up in Oklahoma City. You know,

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a good friend of ours is one
of the owners of Jones Assembly,

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a guy named Graham Colson, who
has its own reporting career and uh,

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and we just you know, it's
it's a great venue. And uh,

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we're looking forward to being back Legend
of the Fall, return of Legends of

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the Fall. Yes, because you
had a Legend of the Fall tour and

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this is the return, this is
the twenty twenty three version. Are we

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going to see anything new? Are
you gonna hear new songs? Yeah,

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you're going to hear You're going to
hear well, actually, you know,

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we haven't announced yet, but I'll
tell you or Howie Day is going to

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be on that bill with us.
So Howie Day will be opening all the

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shows on that tour, singing his
hits and new dance moves. We're always

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thinking of like we really based every
tour on what is Pink doing. And

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Pink has been doing a lot of
a lot of bungee aerial gymnastics. So

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we we've rigged something. We don't
have the budget that Pink he has,

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but we have some of those elastic
tie downs. We've rigged jury rigged a

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kind of carness for our drummer and
he'll come down from the roof and splash

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in an inflatable pool at one point, and it's just beautiful. It's just

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so graceful and we can't wait to
share it with Oklahoma and that'll be on

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fourteen November at the Jones Assembly.
So keep that in mind and get now

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is better than Ezra currently in the
studio, was well working on new music.

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Can you tell me about the origin
of the name? Better than Ezra?

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You know what? We used to
tell people to origin the name,

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and people were just kind of let
down because it's such a fun name,

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but the explanation just didn't live up
to it, so we didn't tell anybody.

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And all these great explanations have come
up and one of our favorites,

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and let's go with that this morning. Ash on Himingways a Movable Feast,

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his one of his great novels.
One page two fifty eight, there's a

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line that says anything was better than
Ezra learning how to play the bassoon.

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I think that's the fact that Himmingway
wrote the words in a row better than

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Ezra, and then it has something
to do with music. Was just badass.

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So I like to think God was
that educated. But you know,

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I graduated from Louisiana State University,
so that's that's debatable. Yeah, and

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your degree was English though, wasn't
it? So? I mean you were

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well English major. Yeah, it's
got a little bit to do with Ezra

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pounds, but it's all silliness.
Let's go with him away. Kevin Griffin

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is with this lead singer better than
Ezra, embarking on their Legends of the

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Fall twenty twenty three tour. And
you also have a book out, The

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Greatest Song. It's a business parable
it is, dude, thank you so

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much for missing that. It came
out April twenty fifth. It's been a

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number one book on Amazon for music
and music business, in print and on

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audible. You know, about seven
years ago, I got asked by a

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friend, he goes man, would
you ever want to speak to our business

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group. It was a business group
called YPO. There this this kind of

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like there's five hundred chapters around the
world and it's all entrepreneurs, men and

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women, And so I got a
few months later, I spoke to them

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just about the creative process, what
I do to continue being to be able

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to write hits and get singles for
other bands and sustain a career. And

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what I found is the things that
I do in my music business, people

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do or can do in any business, and it kind of resonated. I

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speak to groups like Disney and Google
and Nike, and I go all over

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doing it. And so I turned
it into a book, and you know,

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like a business parable like Who Moved
My Cheese? Or Richdead Poor Toader,

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those kind of books, and it
just is taken off man, and

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it's been really gratifying. Early in
my career, I was in Fort Smith,

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Arkansas, and in charge of a
group of radio stations. We organized

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a downtown concert every Friday, and
we tried to feature local talent. And

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I heard about a young girl who
was going to school in Tallaquah, Oklahoma,

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not far from Fort Smith. I
reached out to her and I asked

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her, Hey, would you be
willing to come and perform at this venue.

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All we can offer you is lots
of free publicity. I don't have

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a budget for a sound guy.
I uh, you know, she said,

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don't worry about it. I've got
my own sound guys. I said,

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okay, and and and you know, we people come out and it's

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all about exposure. And she goes, great, as long as I can

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sell my CDs, I said,
you can sell your CDs all you want

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her name was Carrie Underwood. This
was before her American idle days. And

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I said to myself, when she
came and performed, and what had her

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brothers out selling the CDs person to
person in the audience, I said to

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myself, she she gets it,
she understands that this is a business.

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And and sure enough she did.
It's so true and and it the the

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misperception, the misperception that people have
musician cab is that you know, you

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know, I can't I can't think
about the business side of it because it

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will, it will make my music, it'll it won't be sure and stuff

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like that. But it's called the
music business. And the people who were

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really successful in this business, they're
eight musicians, they're great artists, but

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they are also great business people.
And I always tell young I've mentored a

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lot of young writers and and and
and and artists in my life, and

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I'm always I'm always the first thing
I say is like, learn about your

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business, you know, learn about
how what the income streams are, how

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how you do what you do,
you know, Because the irony is that

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people say, well, I don't
want to, you know, I have

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to learn about all the business stuff. But that's what ends up ruining your

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career. And the people who are
around now and crushing it, they're mainly

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incredibly great businessmen like like Taylor Swift
or or Carrie Underwood or you know the

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insert different artists. So yeah,
you gotta you gotta know it. And

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there's no reason not. There's so
much information out there on how to to

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to have a successful music career and
do all these things. They can really

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allow you ultimately to have artistic freedom. And and the book is one of

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those things that I've put out there
that that is is really a great thing

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for people to read to know how
to continue being inspired and successful. Kevin

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Griffin, The book is the greatest
song available on Amazon and everywhere you get

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books. It's a business parable but
everywhere you go and their concerts, which

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is the It's coming on November fourteenth, led the return of Legends of the

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Fall twenty twenty three. November fourteenth, Oklahoma City, Jones Assembly. We

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will see you then and Kevin Griffin, thanks for the great music and the

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great advice. Brother to thank you
great Called to a Feather, Louis Biennia,

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thanks for listening to Later with Lee
Matthews, the Lee Matthews podcast,

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and remember to listen to The Drive
Live weekday afternoons from five to seven and

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