132. The Best of Wheated Bourbons with Josh Bogard

I spent too much time skinny dipping back in those days. Oh, I don't like that image. Well, that's not, that's not big chief now. That was big chief back in the day. That's a different fella. Slim, true and racy. Yeah. I actually did run from cops one time and, uh, just fit myself under a VW bug. And I was only about quarter way under there cause that's all it would fit. He cop was like, I hate to tell you boy, but,

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank our friends at Premium Bar Products for sponsoring this episode. If you're ready to step up your game at your home bar, check out premiumbarproducts.com to choose from their wide selection of glassware, all of which can be custom engraved with your personal message or logo. And there's no minimum order. So after the episode, head over to premiumbarproducts.com and check out everything they have to offer. Now let's get on with the show. Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyde. And this is the Bourbon Road. And we are once again at Jep the Bend Farm in front of the fire. Woodrow on the floor, snowing outside. I don't know if it gets much better than this.

I mean, really snowing outside, Mike. It's a this is a it's almost like country Christmas.

Country Christmas. Yeah, this is if you look outside right now, you'd think it's you'd hear white Christmas being sung.

Yeah, I'd say the maturation in the barrels has ceased. Yeah, it's all squoze out of the wood, right? Yeah, it's just sitting there.

All right. Well, we've got a great show tonight, Mike. We got somebody special in the studio tonight. We also have a gallery.

Yeah, we had some people come up from Memphis. Drew and his wife came up from Memphis to just just to hang out with us, some roadies. He's one of our moderators, Drew Allen. Everybody don't know him. Make sure you follow him on Instagram. Make sure you check him out in the bourbon roadies. But then we got our wives back there behind us. Don't forget our wives, our wives. Yeah. They can't cook a bourbon cake to save their life.

He's coming.

I know it's coming. So we have Josh Bogard with us today. He is a country music artist. He's right down the road from us. Only 15 minutes. A little town called Mount Eden. You say you're from Taylorsville though, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I say, well, I was, I was born and raised in Louisville actually and moved out to Tavisville in the third grade. So I'm pretty much Tavisville. That's all I know. So we lived in Elk Creek area.

All right. We know everybody knows where Elk Creek is, but he didn't come alone tonight.

He brought his guitar.

I did.

I did.

We're going to hear some music and stuff, but we let him peruse through my bourbon. And what'd you, what'd you pick off the shelf for us?

Weller. Which one? I can't remember which one I got. It's a red label, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Weller 107, one of the most popular bourbons I'd say on the face there.

And it is smooth. Yeah. When we have a guest on the show, we'd like to let them bring a bourbon. And tonight you were able to sort of go through Mike's shelf here and pick something. I was lucky. And Weller's always a good choice, isn't it?

Yeah. I'd say, uh, if you can't afford a Pappy's and you see a Weller's pick it up. Cause it's to me, it's the same juice. I don't care what people say.

Yeah. I agree. A little different in the years, but as far as the, as far as the mash bill goes and where it's aged at, absolutely the same.

I don't know. This smells so beautiful. This is why they call me the Weedy King of Kentucky right here is because I can't put this stuff down.

Well, Josh, we're, we want to get into all things, you know, Josh Bogart and what you do, but before we do, we like to get straight to the whiskey. So tonight we're going to take a peek at your Weller Antique 107. We're going to talk a little bit about it, smell it, taste it, give our opinion of it. And then we'll, uh, then we'll dive in.

Oh, that's too late. I've been sipping on it. Josh been sipping on it. You're just late to the party.

Don't put bourbon in front of me. I'll drink it.

Well, I'm nosing this mic and I'm getting, I'm definitely getting cherries, sweet cherries.

Yeah, it's definitely sweet.

but it's got a little bit of power to it. It's got that, it's got that 107.

Right on the tip of the toe. Yeah.

It's got a Kentucky hug to it too.

Yeah.

I haven't got there yet, but I believe you. It's a, it'll, it'll kick you a little bit, but it does have those floral notes to it. That honeysuckle, like you're walking down a country road. Um, you know, just that, that pizzazz to it that I love about Wellers, you know,

So, Mike, you're a big fan of the Weller Special Reserve. Yep. What is that something extra that 107 brings to the table?

It brings that kick, that little meal kick you can get to your chest. You sip on enough of this, it'll definitely make you...

I'm probably not going to remember the songs after.

So Josh, when you're sipping on whiskey, what's your proof? I mean, where do you like to be at? 80 proof, 90 proof, 100 proof? Probably around 90 to 190. Yeah.

All right.

On the rocks. This one's at 107, so it's a little bit higher, so you're probably feeling that punch.

Yeah, a little bit.

Yeah. So Josh, how you're from Taylorsville, how long you been playing the guitar? 15 years. 15 years. 15 years.

Yeah. What age were you at? Let's see. I'm 37 now, so I'll tell you. I'm in my mid twenties. So that was a little later in life, right? Yeah. I wish I would have learned earlier in life. Yeah. I kind of, man, I was really into sports. So I played baseball all the way up through high school and that was kind of what I was going to go and do for a living was play ball and that didn't work out. And I kind of was, after I had my first child, I kind of was sitting around and I was working third shift for my uncle's business and was getting really bored during the day while everybody was gone and I was up. So I decided to go buy a guitar and teach myself how to play.

Before that, you just singing naked in the shower. Yeah.

So somewhere along the way, you, you, you probably thought what, so you knew you could sing. No, no, you didn't. I didn't. So I thought I could sing, but nobody confirmed that nobody.

Yeah.

Not even your wife. No, no, no.

She didn't say, Hey, you should, we should probably, well, I'm divorced. I got a, I got a new wife now. So I'll divorce the other one. But no, when I first started really playing, I went out and did pretty much what everybody else does. Go out and hang out with your friends and do karaoke. And, and I had some friends that, Hey man, you don't sound, you don't sound too bad. You want to, you know, pick up their guitar and try. And, and I worked really hard at it and I've been doing it since. So.

Well, heck, I'd say, uh, you know, that's, that's good on you to start later in life and, you know, try something new, you know, I think all of us have those aspirations and dreams at one point in our life to wish we could sing or wish we could play an instrument. I always say that.

Well, I'll tell you what my dad, he's in his sixties and he just learned how to play the piano and he's doing actually fairly good at it. He's taking classes and stuff, but I mean, it's never too late if you want to learn something, you just got to put the effort into it.

See, I went the other way around. I played the banjo and the bass as a youngster, and now I don't do anything. So I've lost it all. No, it's like riding a bike and lose it. Lost everything. I'll tell you what you do lose when you play banjo. You get those those bloody fingers. That's a pain to get them back.

Yes, I have them. Yeah, that's right. Well, today I was telling you I fly drones. So I was soldering some stuff today and touched the soldering gun with my I didn't even feel it because I got the all calluses on all my fingers. So.

Now let's, let's get back to this bourbon. How long have you been sipping on bourbon?

Probably since the age of 21.

So none before that.

We're not going to say that because I don't want to get in trouble. Let's just say I have. You had your first legal sip at 21.

Yeah. What was that first?

You remember what that first legal sip was? Yeah, wild turkey. Wild turkey, one on one probably.

Hey, he's in the club. He's in the club.

That's Jim's favorite. That was my first, and then I did have Pure Moonshine at 14, and it was with my neighbor across the street. And I drank that and I don't remember much. I did fall out of a green barn that he had. We had to set up his kids and fill out the green barn and got in trouble by the parents.

So you let it all out now because a minute ago you didn't want to talk about drinking under 21. I can talk about that. Now you're 14 years old drinking illegal whiskey.

There's some shine. There's nothing. I mean, you're in Kentucky. I got some shine at home right now. Yeah. So you cut some music and do you have any whiskey songs? I do. Could you rip one of those out for us? Of course.

This song is called whiskey and wine.

Here I'm from the country, that's where I was raised. I can tell you're more used to big city ways. So let's celebrate our diversity. We can find out what's in common to you and me. I drank my whiskey. You sip your wine I'm rough on the edges You're a little more fine I bet on my money And down to my last dime Two birds of a feather We go together like whiskey and wine Yeah, we go together like whiskey and wine. Oh, that's right. Nobody expected us to mix it all. You like to look picture perfect but I'm off the wall So let's celebrate our diversity We can find out what's in common between you and me I drink my whiskey and you sip your wine I'm rough on the edges, you're a little more refined I bet all my money, down to my last dime Two birds of a feather, we go together like whiskey and wine Yeah, we go together like whiskey and wine Here we go together like whiskey and wine. All right. Thank you.

Awesome.

A lot of, a lot of truth in that song right there.

Yeah.

It kind of fits, fits perfect to our, I think our podcast and our bourbon group we have is, you know, people from all, all around the world, I guess. And we like to celebrate that diversity. And, um, you know, the one thing that brings us together is our love for whiskey and that song fit perfect for our podcast.

Absolutely. Yeah, when you turn everything else off, you know, you turn off all the world and the news and everything that's going on and you just focus on people and focus on good times and whiskey. It's an awesome thing.

Yeah, most definitely. So you, you're a, you consider yourself more of a singer songwriter, right? Yeah. Yeah. I'd say so. And how did you, so you're someone, I guess your mid twenties, you figured out you can play the guitar. You figure out you got a voice and you sing. How did that, how did that accumulate? Did you just record somebody else's song or did you say, you know what? I can sit down and write a song.

Well, you know songwriting came a little bit later after that so when I really first started getting out and playing You know, you really kind of got to get your feet wet And so I mean, of course I was doing a lot of cover songs then and playing bars. That's mostly what people want to hear They don't hear your own music. Yeah, even Nashville to this day still like that so really Right. And just being around friends who started really kind of having their own music. And I was like, man, I really need to have my own songs. I need to do things. And so that was kind of really, you know, of course, I know you've had Dustin on here and Dustin written songs with him. And that's really kind of actually where I got started with was with Dustin writing songs and in his progress since then, I've written songs with Shannon Lawson and and really just kept going. And that's I found what I wanted to do when it comes to music is is write music that people can relate to from all over the world.

Yeah, I think music is kind of like whiskey. It'll bring you together. You know, people can appreciate a man that's sitting there on a guitar, just singing, singing his heart out and stuff. And, you know, seeing it out, it's kind of what's in his mind, what he's truly thinking. Right. And man, I got to respect you for that song right there, putting that out there. So have you cut that as an EP?

Yes. That was off our last EP, Better All The Time.

Which you can find that on like Amazon.

You can find that on any platform. iTunes, Spotify, Google, I Heart Radio, all that good stuff.

Because we definitely want our listeners to be listening to that while they're drinking whiskey.

Scott, type in Josh Bogart. It'll be there.

All right. So what's the you've cut a couple EPs. What's my other song that you cut?

Well, we got better all the time. And then we just did one called Just For Tonight. And then, of course, we did Coded Hands that Dustin wrote and then Bourbon and Magnolia. And what's the other one we got going? I got I got quite a few that were getting ready to start. I got five that were getting ready to cut.

So, wow, we got quite a few. We have covid of with that going on.

I've had some time to write.

So with with the music and stuff, was the traveling hard to get used to and go into different bars and playing and trying to set that up for yourself, setting up different bars to play at different venues?

Yeah. You know, when you're when you're starting out doing things for me was, you know, when you're doing things on your own, you don't really have. you know, a management company or anybody really helping you out. So you really had to stay out late. And bourbon was a good one because I so I'd go out and drink bourbon with friends and owners of bars or radio station people. And just really, you know, connect with with the audience or people that I'm playing with and try to get, you know, people along the way as I was going to get bookings and people, a lot of my fans and people that I'm friends with helped me out along the way.

Speaking of fans, I mean, when you're out doing the circuit and you're visiting the bars and having performances, have you got a group of fans that kind of follow you around a little bit? Definitely.

Yeah, there's quite a few.

Yeah. So you've actually played here in Shelbyville recently. I have. Played at the Barrel Room. Yep. That's kind of old stomping grounds for Mike and I.

Yeah, that's one of our, there's not a whole lot of bars in Shelbyville. So, you know, that's, that's a little good little bar and they bring in local artists or up and coming artists and let them play there. We actually saw him play over at Jeff, the creed distillery on New Year's Eve one, one evening. Love that place.

Yeah, I think we were, we were dressed up like, uh, 1920s people or something. It was a 30s style thing.

Prohibition style.

Mike, you, you pull out all the stops on that one. Did you wear your job dressed up all the way? This guy, this guy, Mike here, I'm telling you, he, he had the ultimate gangster outfit. You got to get a pocket watch and stuff.

And you know, you just, I, I think I was always born in the wrong era. I should have been born in the middle 1800s or that era of 1920s and stuff where If somebody was rude to you, you'd probably just pop them in the mouth and everybody would say, hey, he deserved that.

Right. You know? Yeah, it's funny you say that because my grandmother, my family originated from New York. And so my grandma used to tell me about, she was, you know, in around in the thirties. And just I asked her because I always was like, you know, where all the men just dressed up constantly all the time, she said all the time. She said, you know, you went out with your shoes on, you had your Sunday's best on pretty much when you went out and guys had their hats. And and I'm a big hat guy, like all different types of hats. So I'd say I'd be right there with you. And when being in the 30s and 40s would been a year, what I would have liked.

So is it true what they say if you wear a hat all the time and makes your hair stop growing or something?

I don't know. It's, it's done mine pretty well. It hasn't made the beard stop growing. Well, you know, I'm losing the hair up top. So I started growing the beard. So at least I have some kind of hair to flip around.

I can't say that. My hair just grows constantly. It's, it's a horrible thing. I think I wish it, I wish I would go bald, but I'm an ugly bald man.

I know I'm not completely bald, but I'm thin. It's, it's in the back and I think it might be, I'm going to blame it on the hats, but yeah, I think the head has something to do with it.

I mean, I wear a hat about half the time I think.

I've worn a hat since like forever. I don't think you can find a picture out there without a hat on. The bourbon road hat does not cause baldness.

So you said you'd pick this weller off the shelf. You said that's your favorite bourbon because I'd ask you what your

Well, I really just kind of got into Weller just in the last, I don't know, six months maybe, if that. So I've been, like I said, I had my buddy Harold kind of got me into doing bourbon tasting Thursdays with him. And really I got the regular Weller started with just a green and then kind of went up and had the orange label. And I liked the taste. So I've been sticking with Weller and that and Old Forrester. When you can find it, right? Well, my drummer, he travels around the country and he can get weller all the time. So I just got to call him and say, hey, man, when you're out. We need to have his drummer on.

He must go to Texas and Ohio.

He travels a lot, too. So he's always finding some kind of bourbon.

You used to be able to find Weller around here. I mean, you used to be able to find the Special Reserve without much difficulty. But even that now is hard to find. Green Label is hard to find here now. Everybody's just stockpiling it.

Usually if I go to Texas, I'll bring back, at least try to bring back 6 to 12 bottles just to have it. I put it on the counter and kind of hide it away with my little bourbon stash.

I don't know. Is it bad? Because I always just drink mine.

That's what it's meant to do. That's right.

I don't keep it around. I usually just sip on it and I got some.

I'm just prepared just in case zombies are walking around. You know, it's never bad to have bullets or bourbon. Right. Bullets and bourbon.

Bullets and bourbon.

Is there a song called Bullets and Bourbon? No. I don't know. That might be a pretty good song right there.

I know Randy's working on a song. Randy Minick. Bourbon and Blondes. Bourbon and Blondes. He's working on that. Yeah. Bullets and bourbon. That sounds like maybe a possibility. I don't know. Well, actually they don't really go together too good. Well, probably not.

Well, we're getting up on our second half. Do you think you could take us out with a song on this first half? Sure.

I'm going to do the song actually off the whiskey and wine. Uh, we'll do a better all the time.

She was standing on the front porch crying in my rear view I thought I'd head to somewhere better, someplace new I'd pack it up and leave it all behind me and start again Just when you think one door is closed and another's open and If I could only deal with the lonely But you'll say goodbye One last time I call you on the weekend When I've been out drinking But you're with your girlfriend And I pay me no mind And I was down to a letter Girl I left you better But you're getting better getting better all the time. Little towns they talk too much know everything. I can see on how you're doing without me. When I see you in your picture smiling So hard to breathe I gave it up for an empty highway This broken dream If I could only Deal with the lonely Just say goodbye One last time I call you on the weekend When I've been out drinking But you're with your boyfriend Not paying me no mind Now it's down to a letter Girl, I left you better But you're getting better Getting better all the time And I can see that water tower Fading from my view At least a thousand memories If I could only do it the lonely Just say goodbye One last time I call you on the weekend When I've been out drinking But you're with your boyfriend Now pay me no mind Now it's down to a letter Girl, I left you better But you're getting better Getting better all the time You're getting better all the time You're getting better all the time

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Yeah, you know, I'm getting a pick. I'm going to pick a Weider. So this is a Makers Mark cast strength. You know, Makers Mark, me and old Makers Mark go back a long ways, you know, but the Weider King of Kentucky is once again, chose a great whiskey.

Absolutely. I agree with you. Now, the first half we had Weller Antique, 107 proof. Second half, we've got Makers Mark Castrank 108.8 proof, stepping it up a bit.

So we did it in the right order anyway, right? Well, maybe.

But we got Josh Bogart with us. That's right. Well, I'm going to tell you this one, I definitely hit you in the sinus area. It does it like when I took a, took a small sip. It was, it was almost, it stayed there for a minute and kind of cleared the sinuses out.

Have you had makers mark before?

Yeah, I have made not just this one, but not cast.

Yeah. This is definitely one of my favorites. They changed the bottle out here this last year and went back to their standard bottle. That's why I try to covet this bottle right here a little bit. The wax on this bottle, they're famous for their red wax. This wax on this bottle goes almost all the way down the neck.

It does go all the way down. It's on the shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. You don't see that a whole lot. It's on the backside, right? Yeah.

Somebody got a little aggressive on their dip in there. Hey, I see something like that. I got to grab it. It's a special bottle.

Now I know when you go in the, when you, so they kind of changed things up a little bit here in the past couple of years. When you go there, they've got that nice big dipping room there in the, in the bottle shop.

It wasn't always like that though. It used to be just a little down home place you'd go into. I remember going there 15, 20 years ago and getting a bottle and dipping ourselves. And it wasn't like that.

Now Loretto Kentucky is on the map.

Well, I don't know if it is really. You can't get there from nowhere. That's for sure. Um, and I actually had a guy in the coast guard. Uh, he was a cook. He was a horrible cook. His name is Billy Bagley, but he was from there and I asked him, where are you from? And he'd tell me Loretto Kentucky. And I was like, where's that at? And he's like, well, there ain't nothing there. And I was like, you sure? I said, I've heard that name before. And he's like, well, I don't think there's no, I was like, there's bourbon there. And he's like, I don't know. But I think he's a Kentucky state trooper now. So if you ever get pulled over by this. gangly redheaded guy that's a state trooper. You probably outrun him. I'm pretty positive. Don't eat his cooking.

I was talking about those little towns, you know, being one stoplight or three stores in a stoplight or something like that. This is 72 Rick houses in a stoplight, right?

Yeah, it's, it's not much there. And like I said, you can't get there from here. Really. Um, you got to take a lot of left turns and right turns to get there.

Yeah. Well that's the good roads right there. But I will say this much about going down to the maker's mark. It's a hell of a tour. Heck of a tour. Great grounds. It's a good visit. So if you haven't, you know, I mean, you got to get off the Bourbon Trail just a little bit, right, Mike?

Well, that's part of the Bourbon Trail. I mean, you've got to get off the main kind of path. Yeah, you can't stay in Barstown or Louisville or Lexington or Frankfurt. You need to get out there and see Makers Market is definitely, you know, I think a heritage center or something like that. You know, something you want to go see is something you can take your family to. There's all kinds of stuff down there to do. It's super beautiful. There's a couple of covered bridges down that way. You know, like Josh said, those are the kinds of roads you want to get back on and You want to see real America, real people, meet real people. That's the kind of trips you got to take. There's some real people in the red house. That's true.

Yeah.

All right. So let's talk a little bit about this whiskey, guys. So we picked this one, Josh. Mike picked this one, actually. It would be highly unlikely for me to pick a Weeder. If I'd have got the choice, I'd have probably picked one of Mariah's over there.

You better go ahead and get one of those bullshit t-shirts on. Josh, I'll tell you, every time he comes over here, the first bottle he ever reaches for is in a rye. He'd be like, I'm going to get myself a pour of that Weller 12 right there.

Well, I don't know. I've got a bottle well or twice.

So why do you like rye and you like wheat so much? Can you tell me that?

So I like the wheat because it's a little bit smoother, you know, that bad word in whiskey, but it is a little bit smoother, softer on the palate and stuff. The older you get, the higher you get, you still get that bang, that spice and stuff, but it's just more refined to me.

It's softer up front, a little bit sweeter. Yep. and rye whiskeys have a little bit more spice to them. They're kind of... I mean, if you like hot food, you like spicy food, you're gonna like rye whiskeys a little bit more.

Rye bourbon, not rye whisky.

Rye whisky, rye bourbon.

Yeah. Usually rye whiskeys to me are super sweet. It's like... sucking on candy cane or something, you know, it's a rye whiskey, but rye bourbon though has that just, it'll punch you in the throat like a Rocky Balboa, you know, it's just got that big spice to it. I always think rye whiskies are more, you know, sweet and they do have that pop to it, but just not as much as a rye bourbon.

Well, speaking of Rocky Balboa, so we're drinking Maker's Mark Cast Drink today. And Mike, it's kind of been a while since you attributed a music artist to a whiskey. Oh, you're going to tell me name this thing? I think you need to name a music artist that matches Maker's Mark Cast Drink.

Let me drink on this for a second and I'll pick one out.

And Josh, I want you to think about one too. drinking this whiskey, who does it make you think of? And then you guys can both talk about who, who, who this whiskey reminds you of.

That's some good ass whiskey right there. I'll tell you what.

Yeah, Baker's Mark.

I'd have to almost take my boots off, let Woodrow kick down here beside me and just watch his fire all night right here. This is a, sit down and relax whiskey right here.

Yeah. What do you got? I would say whiskey batting hell bound.

Well, heck, who do I think of when I think of this?

Yeah.

Male or female? It's a male. Okay. Um, and I wouldn't call him more of a, a, I mean, he's not a well-known artist. And if I say his name, a lot of people probably think of him as an actor. Um, but I think of him as one of the greatest songwriters ever and it's Chris Kristoffers. Oh, I already know who you were talking about when you said that. I can agree with you with that. great actor in some old school movies like Convoy. I can see where you're coming from that.

Yeah. Sunday morning coming down. He's a laid back, Chris Christophe.

So he's not kicking the speaker over off the stage or nothing. He's kicking back in his chair. He's not a David Allen Cole.

No, he's not that. It's just to me, this is not. punch in the throat. It's, it's got that spice that kicked to it, but he's like a really just some magical songs in his life. And, and he was part of the highway man back in the day. Um, yeah. You know that riders in the sky.

I don't think we'll ever see that again. Yeah. Country music. Maybe, well, you come up and get four guys and. Well, we've tried. You tried. I got some, I got friends that we've done some shows, four of us. And, you know, actually we got a show coming up February 13th at Lexington and there'll be four of us and called the headliner showcase.

Where are you guys playing at? Austin city saloon, February 13th. All right. Well, this show will be out well in advance of that. So listeners, if you're, if you're in that area, Lexington, Kentucky. You want to check out this show?

Check him out. It's four artists. Got Tyra Halsey, me, Chris Linton, and who's the other one we got? Brad Harden.

Yep. So you said, you know, you didn't start music until you're a little older and you. You know, you just kind of, you're really just starting on your path. I mean, it takes a couple of years, right? What's your, what's your one favorite country song that you like to play that's not yours?

Uh, well, it'd be, uh, be some, I'd like, I'm more of, are you talking about old school or new school?

What's that favorite song that you'd like to rock it out to?

Merle Haggard's my favorite song. I mean, I love some old Merle Haggard. Could you play us one of those? Yeah.

Let's hear one of those.

Wish a buck was still silver when it was back when our country was strong.

It was back before Elvis and before the Vietnam War came along. For the Beatles and yesterday When the band still worked, still worked The best of the free life behind us now And the good times ain't over for good Stop rolling downhill like a snowball headed for hell No kind of chance for the flag, the Liberty Bell Wish a Ford and a Chevy still last 10 years like they should. The best of the free life behind us now and the good times ain't over for good.

That would have to be one of my favorite songs. Oh man.

I could listen to that all night long.

That's a classic right there. That's my grandfather. He had a farm and stuff and taught me how to ride horses when I was about four years old and been riding since. And that song was one that he played a lot. And also Loretta Lynn, he went and rode horses with her and Sissy Lynn and all that family. when I was little. And so really I got raised up on that. And that's, you know, I could say if I was going to play a song and be an old Merle song.

Now do you, uh, you said you, have you started gearing up more towards your songs when you play and stuff?

Yeah. Yeah. We're the more I write, the more I integrate them in to shows that, you know, more people want to hear, you know, the more I play them out and more people, you know, they come and see us want to hear original music. So especially in Eastern Kentucky, you know, at that way, they like original music.

Now do you, do you drink bourbon while you're at the bar playing and stuff?

Constantly. And that's why sometimes if you come to a show and I've had a good show, I might forget some things. So, and that's from bourbon.

So how does that work at the bar? So do the bars normally, um, comp you your drinks or? It just really depends on where you're at.

Everywhere's a little bit different. It depends on if you got a contract or, or what you got signed or, you know, wherever you agree on. Yeah. So sometimes there's, you know, when I used to play PBR four street a lot, there was, you know, they comp a lot of my drinks. So by the end of the night, I couldn't remember who I was. So I had to, I had to slow my, my roll a lot.

Slow your roll. They took that, they took that sign down the other day. Um, Hard Rock Cafe.

Yeah.

Sad to see it go kind of, um, Louisville losing a lot of business down there.

Yeah, I think the landscape is going to change a lot and not just in, you know, evening venues, places you want to go and listen to bands and have a few drinks, but restaurants as well. I think a lot of that's changing and it is, you know, we're going to see who survived it. And, you know, it's sad that, uh, that it's had to be that it's had to be this way. But so how, how is, how is this pandemic affected kind of what you do, Josh?

Well, when it comes to affecting me-wise, musically, it's dramatically taken a downfall, but it also had its ups too, because I got more time to sit and write and think about things. You get more studio time, right? Right, yeah, and we did. And I think that was one thing that I got to spend a lot more time with my family too, so I got to kind of Revamp and and have things to write about as well so things that I didn't realize that I was missing at the time that I was playing because I was you know music something I mean, that's my dream. That's my love That's and so when you're doing something that you love sometimes you can get caught up in it and forget about the things that were that helps you get to where you're at or Really the people that are there for you, and it's not that you mean to do it But you just you're just going you're trying to make money and that and sometimes you can kind of get lost in that. And I'd say lost in the lights, you know, and the neon lights. But it COVID really, you know, I got to I got to spend a lot of time with my kids. And that was one thing that was very special that I got to do that I haven't been able to do in a while. And it's I'm grounded now more. And it's not that I don't want to play. I'm picking and choosing when I play more. And it's not that I need to play music, but I'm going to pick the venues if that makes sense. Sure. Your kids ask you to play a lot for them? Oh, yeah. They know all my songs. Every one of them by heart. Really? Oh, yeah. They could sing them right now, word by word. How old are your kids? Nine, 10, and 13. Are they starting to play in a guitar? Nope, they want to, but it's, well, you got a 10-year-old that can't make up their mind what they want to do. We've both been there, I think. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, minor in the sports and video games. I got one that plays football. The other one's a gymnastics and the other one likes video games.

You mentioned in the first half that you were kind of on a track to play ball. What sport was that? Baseball. Baseball.

So you're a big baseball fan. Oh, yeah. I played baseball all the way up till I was a senior in high school and college didn't quite fit. What position? Shortstop and second base. Shortstop.

All right.

So you're quick. Yeah.

You're fast. Yeah. You got to be fast place short.

Yeah. I don't know if anybody's ever broke, but I had Spencer County out through like 11 double plays in one game. Wow. So I don't know if that's a record. Good memories though, right? It was great memories. Awesome. That's where you went to school at in Taylor. Yeah.

Some good memories there. Oh, yeah.

Back in high school. Well, you know, growing up in the country, I mean, that was you get to ride around and you get to do ride four wheelers and tear things up. And it wasn't drink, shine and drink, shine when you're 14 and try to hide it from your parents. Yeah. I mean, you know, get field parties. I mean, there's a lot of things that country folk do that other people don't do. And it's just I feel blessed to be able to be out in the country where it's still country. Right now.

Yeah, I remember going to a barn party. We used to do barn parties, field parties, you know.

Yeah, but going to a barn party when I was younger and they were a great time.

You know, you'd show up at somebody's old dilapidated barn and everybody would have, you know, bring something and pour it in a big, in a big 55 gallon drum and you'd dip out of it and it was good. Great time. And then the cops would show up, you know, and everybody would take off running, me included. running into the cornfield, right? To try and get away from them. You get way out halfway into the cornfield and you realize, wait a minute, my car is back there.

So I guess, I guess they're going to get me anyway. I spent too much time skinny dipping back in those days.

Oh, I don't like that image.

That's not big chief now. That was big chief back in the day. That's a different fella. Slim, true and racy. Yeah. I actually did run from cops one time and fit myself under a VW bug and I was only about quarter way under there because that's all it would fit. The cop was like, I hate to tell you boy, but I could see all of you.

I had that happen. Me and a friend of mine were at a party and went to go run and I couldn't, I was so drunk I couldn't make it over the fence. And I was trying to get my leg over and they, of course they knew who I was. So they come over and they were like, Bogard, just come on down over the fence. I'm like, I'm going, I'm going. And it didn't work out.

Yeah, those are the days, right? I'd gotten a minor in possession and I was distributing to minors a ticket.

See, we got just kind of sat down and if we were underage, a lot of times if we got caught at a party underage, you know. You got the speech. Got the speech, yeah. And my mom is scary, so. Usually if they were going to call your parents, you were in some trouble with mine, at least. So but a lot of times they were just, you know, you need to not do this. Sit down or drink everything out.

We were drinking in public on a little square in a town, a event, Texas. And there was probably 40 people out there and I'd I'd bought all the booze for everybody. Yes, because I looked old as I go and liquor store just buy it. So I went in there, bought it and brought it back and everybody's drinking and. Me and my buddy was sitting inside the pickup, probably listening to an eight track, probably Merle Haggard, eight track tape or something. Me and him were sitting there drinking beer and I see the cop lights everywhere. And I just sat there. He got out and took off running. I just sat there. I was like, I'm caught now. I took my beer and hid it behind my seat just a little bit where I thought it would be hidden. And the cop opened the door and it's tipped over and it started pouring out on the ground. And that cop was like, I sure hope that's water. And I said, I sure hope it is too officer. But he told, he said, you better tell your buddy to stop running before I shoot him.

And I was like, all right. Hey Larry, you better stop running.

And me and Larry are still friends this day. I just talked to my dad and said, I need, do me a favor down in Texas. And I remember me and him having to go see the judge and the judge was like, boy, you can either pay $250 and not say nothing to your mom and daddy, or you pay a hundred dollars and I'll tell your mom and dad. And I was like, I'll pay that $250. Where do I sign up for that?

All right, Josh. Well, you know, Things are different this year a little bit, at least we hope they are. We hope things ease up a little bit. I think I see a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel. I think so. So what's on the horizon for you? What do you got going on? Obviously you mentioned you got that event coming up here shortly, but what do you got going on that people can check you out?

Well, I got a new song coming out, hopefully in the next just give or take a week or two. If things work out, sometimes they don't always work out the way we want them to. But I got a song called Wrong Side of Loving You coming out, old school country. Just released just for tonight so you can pick it up. That's been out for maybe a month or two. So musically wise, like getting out and playing, bars are really starting to kind of open up. So we just had our first show back a couple of weeks ago at New Directions, which actually was great. It felt good to play in front of people again and actually have an audience. So we got some upcoming shows and new records coming out. Just stay tuned and go Facebook and check it out.

So are you scheduling like two months out right now?

I'm really spotty. I'm not trying to get ahead of myself because last year I did that and man, it just crashed. Um, so I'm kind of just kind of playing it by ear this year, man. If I don't book a show, I'm going to book a songwriting thing. So it's either I'm going to play live or I'm going to write music. So.

Well, maybe we can get you to come down here, jump to Ben farm and just play in our field. And, uh, that sounds like a good summer weekend right there.

A hundred roadies here, right? Well, I'm about a couple of hundred, but a couple of dozen, a couple of dozen sounds good.

So that new song you, uh, you have written and you recorded, uh, it's about to come out. You think you could sing that for our listeners?

Yeah, sure.

Well, she set up and wondered how things could have been If I'd upped and changed all my rowdy ways again But these late night benders She sure don't soothe her soul This outlaw way of life Is all that I've ever known I changed my ways So many times before More times than I can count I've let her down Each and every time I guess I'm on the wrong side of loving you Seems like you've washed your hands of me It's a cold hard truth I'll never be the man I need to be Now wasted your time All these years ago Trying to walk the straight line Just ain't working anymore I changed my ways So many times before More times than I can count I've let her down Each and every time I guess I'm on the wrong side of loving So many times before I've broken her heart More times than I can count And I've let her down Each and every time I guess I'm on the wrong side of loving you I guess that's why I'm on the wrong side of loving you

Well, Mike, you know what? I can't imagine a better pairing than Makers Mark Castreith and Josh Bogart's new single.

Yeah, I think that that's a that's a winner out there.

I appreciate it. We got, you know, of course, doing it because I don't do it justice. But I got a really good steel player on there, a pedal steel player. So it's definitely the band killed this one. They really knocked it out of the park. So I can't wait for people to release it so they can kind of hear it. But like I said, it's something different than what, you know, what I've normally You know, I've written and put out, so I'm kind of, I'm really wanting to kind of just venture and do different things when it comes to country music. So I'm going to definitely keep it country. So either you'll hear something like that again, be, you know, something old school, you know, six, eight, three quarter timing to, to, you know, songs like better all the time and some uplifting songs. So yeah, got lots to come.

Well, pretty awesome. Well, Josh, we'd like to give you the opportunity to let all our listeners know how to connect to you.

Well, you can go to Facebook and just type in Josh Bogart in Dirty South. That's the band page or just type in Josh Bogart, B-O-G-A-R-D. So you can find me on Spotify, iHeart, Google Play, and pretty much any platform. So you can, you can find me on Instagram, just type in Josh Bogart. So pretty much just go Google Josh Bogart and you'll find me. And if they come out and they see you play. They know you like bourbon. Oh, that's right. And you better have your dancing shoes on. You better dust them off. Well, I think your gym was getting that by the man of drink.

Yeah. By the man of drink. Yeah.

Do you guys see him playing by the man of poor wellers?

That's what he likes to drink. That's right. He's just a good old boy here from Mount Eden, Kentucky. That's right.

Which is just a stone's throw down the road from us, right? Mount Eden Road.

Which is pretty nice to have an artist that lives right down the road from you.

I know we're in, everybody calls it the flyover states, but we're really not.

I think your songs are awesome.

I hope our listeners will download your music, follow you on Facebook and Instagram, go see you in person, as many venues as they can possibly see you at. We wish you well. We can't thank you enough for being on the Bourbon Road.

Absolutely. We hope 2021 is a comeback year. You know, I think everybody's had to do a little bit of a reset, but I'm certainly looking forward to it.

I think it's going to be a good year. Everybody's kind of wanting to get back out and get their, you know, hear some music. Might get crazy. It could possibly get crazy. It might be too packed.

All right, well, as far as the Bourbon Road is concerned, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at the Bourbon Road. Mike, we also have a website, right?

We have our website, thebourbonroad.com. You can find our swag on there, our glasses, our shirts, and our hats. A little bit of a thing for everybody. You also find our articles on there and our reviews. Check that out. We have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies.

Absolutely. And on the Facebook group, you know, you got to answer three questions to get in. We want to make sure you know, we're going to make sure you're 21 because this is a bourbon group. Yeah. You know, we want to make sure that you plan on playing nice and and we want to make sure that.

Now, we don't want any rudeness, right, Mike? No, we just don't tolerate any rudeness. You know, we don't talk about politics, religion, or social issues in there. We talk about whiskey. That's what we know about. That's what we want to see posted about. That's what brings us together like we've talked about earlier in the show. One nation under God, I guess, right? That's right. We want all our listeners to just talk about whiskey. That's all we want to talk about. Yeah. Come in there and talk about it. We got people like Josh in there. We got people, uh, master distillers in there. You name it. We got people like Drew that's sitting in here with us today. One of our roadies, moderators, everybody's in there talking about whiskey, talking about being on the bourbon trail, talking about being on a whiskey trail, talk about all kinds of crazy stuff.

Absolutely. We do two shows a week. Every week on a Monday, we do a short episode where we talk about an up-and-coming craft distillery.

Sometimes we'll put a big boy in there.

Sometimes, but normally it's somebody that's really stretching, getting out of the box a little bit, trying something new. We'll review their whiskey. We'll tell you whether or not you ought to give it a try and then every Wednesday We do a long format episode a little bit like today's episode. We have a guest on We kind of explore what's going on in their lives And we drink a little bit of whiskey with them if you want to come on the bourbon road You'd like to be a guest on the bourbon road better be ready to drink a little bit of bourbon, right?

Well, we'd, we'd hope one would hope you'd like to drink some bourbon with us. Um, we're, we're not two guys that are have water in glass. We definitely got some whiskey in our glass. Josh build.

That's true. That's right. Yeah. Make sure you check out the site. Cause if you don't know anything about bourbon, you're going to learn something today.

Well, you can find me at one big chief. I'm Jay Shannon 63 and we will see you down the bourbon road.

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