This was an interview I knew I wanted to do the second I decided to bring back the podcast. Quite frankly there are very few people more interesting to me than Tyler Mahan Coe. I started following Tyler on Twitter well before his Cocaine and Rhinestones podcast. If memory serves I was planning on attending a David Allan Coe show in North Carolina and mentioned that, having no knowledge of the band’s “restructuring.”
Tyler was polite enough about it and I continued to follow what he was up to, mainly because he consistently said smart, insightful, funny, and interesting things. When Cocaine and Rhinestones dropped, he became more akin to my spirit animal. As a kid brought up on country music, I simply found it difficult to fathom that not only could something like this podcast exist, but that it could be that fucking great.
Now when I tell you I was obsessed, that’s no exaggeration. I became determined to ensure that everyone within earshot or tweetshot of me listen to this masterpiece. I proclaimed myself the show’s unofficial publicist. And then this happened:
So my primary achievement as unofficial publicist was to have a legendary musician shit on the project I was publicizing. I’m not sure how Tyler felt about the late Crosby to begin with, but this certainly didn’t help. It definitely clarified how he felt about my PR abilities:
Of course Cocaine and Rhinestones didn’t need my help to become a global sensation. I have no idea how many listens the show has received but I’d guess easily in the millions. Tyler has been featured in GQ, the LA Times, and The New Yorker, among many others.
And from way back to the first Twitter exchange to now, Tyler has only gotten more and more interesting. Which is why I was thrilled and a little terrified to interview him earlier this week. Not because of the sharp jabs he will jokingly (mostly) deliver to those who draw his ire…
Ok, maybe that a little. But really because he has a breadth and depth of knowledge that few possess, particularly on his areas of expertise. And that’s one of the areas I really wanted to explore.
Listening to myself awkwardly fumble through some of the questions, especially in the first part of the episode. But luckily Tyler was gracious and patient enough to see the direction I was going even when I had difficulty articulating it.
It’s really tough when you are talking about big subjects with someone who knows those subjects inside and out. In the almost two hours we tackled music distribution, Ticketmaster, nostalgia, historical revisionism, and a lot about where Tyler sees his place in the world, at this nexus between entertainer, historian, activist, author, and personality.
I really hope people will check it out. Part of me thinks it would have been better stripped down to a print interview, simply because I get lost in thinking through my questions out loud at times. But Tyler delivers some real insight on a lot of topics and that’s what you’ll likely be paying attention to, hopefully.
Available now on all platforms and at the link below.
One last thing I’d like to add. Before every episode I pick a song to listen to as I wait to synch up with the guest. Since I don’t have a license to play them on the podcast I figured I would start sharing them in show notes, as an Easter Egg of sorts. Here’s this one.