The Long Road Sit Down with Larry Fleet
Tennessee-born troubadour Larry Fleet first captured attention with his breakout hit “Where I Find God”, which has amassed over 200 million streams across platforms and last year the eyes of the United Kingdom were cast firmly upon him as he opened for none other than Morgan Wallen. Fleet would also play shows of his own on that trip which were such a resounding success that following the release of his latest EP “Somewhere In The South” he returned to Europe with his “Hard Work & Holy Water Tour” which included a stop at this summer’s The Long Road Festival where we were able to hang out with him.
It's great to have you back man.
“Yeah, it’s great to be back, it's been awesome. I love it over here.”
It doesn't seem that long ago that you were last here.
“No, well, it was last year, about this time in September.”
You played with Morgan and then Lauren Watkins opened up for you when you had your own show.
“Yeah, when did the Scala show in London, she opened up for me there.”
The show was great but that’s one of my least favourite venues in London. However, you got to play a really cool venue last night to make up for it.
“Electric Ballroom is freaking sweet. That was packed and I mean, to the wall, all around, like in the balconies, everything. It was fun.”
It’s in such a cool part of town as well. Did you get to explore Camden whilst you were there?
“We did, we went around Camden Town. We stayed over by a little park area over there, I can't know what it's called now but, yeah, we walked around and I rode a bike. It's dangerous as hell, I was trying to remember I have got to drive on the left side of the road and people were just blowing by me. They would pass me like when I'm trying to turn, it was dangerous but here I am ha-ha.”
Have you brave driving a car yet here?
“No. I'm not going to lie, I love driving cars. I love cars but I'm nervous. I'm very nervous about it here.”
What makes you more nervous? The roundabouts or driving on the other side of the road?
“Well, the roundabouts, I get a little confused, but it’s the wrong side of the road because I've just been doing it for so long on the right, that I just have to think more. I don't like doing that, thinking's overrated.”
It's great to have you back man.
“Yeah, it’s great to be back, it's been awesome. I love it over here.”
It doesn't seem that long ago that you were last here.
“No, well, it was last year, about this time in September.”
You played with Morgan and then Lauren Watkins opened up for you when you had your own show.
“Yeah, when did the Scala show in London, she opened up for me there.”
The show was great but that’s one of my least favourite venues in London. However, you got to play a really cool venue last night to make up for it.
“Electric Ballroom is freaking sweet. That was packed and I mean, to the wall, all around, like in the balconies, everything. It was fun.”
It’s in such a cool part of town as well. Did you get to explore Camden whilst you were there?
“We did, we went around Camden Town. We stayed over by a little park area over there, I can't know what it's called now but, yeah, we walked around and I rode a bike. It's dangerous as hell, I was trying to remember I have got to drive on the left side of the road and people were just blowing by me. They would pass me like when I'm trying to turn, it was dangerous but here I am ha-ha.”
Have you brave driving a car yet here?
“No. I'm not going to lie, I love driving cars. I love cars but I'm nervous. I'm very nervous about it here.”
What makes you more nervous? The roundabouts or driving on the other side of the road?
“Well, the roundabouts, I get a little confused, but it’s the wrong side of the road because I've just been doing it for so long on the right, that I just have to think more. I don't like doing that, thinking's overrated.”
Thinking is definitely overrated, as said by Robbie Williams. He has a lyric in one of his songs called “Come Undone” that’s something like, I’m contemplating thinking about thinking, it's overrated get another drink in, which I think is one of my favourite lines. Anyway, back to the ball game and we said that Lauren opened for you last time, but you’ve had Everette out there with you on this trip and Brent is so cool too. How did you guys meet? Had you done things with him before?
“I knew about Brent and Anthony when they were a duo so I always enjoyed their stuff. When we got ready to go on tour, they were like, hey, here's your options for who you can pick to open and I'd seen him on there, I was like, I want them on it. So, we kind of swapped up a few things with them last year and then this year, I was like, they're with me all the time so he's been out. Then when we got this chance, I was like, do you want to go to Europe? He was like, let's go. So, I was able to just bring him with me, he's riding the bus with us and stuff. I love him and we've been writing songs together too. I've been working on a new album, and we’ve got a song called 525 that we wrote together on there and it's really good.”
Sweet, it’s always good having good people out on a road, like if you get on with the people you're out with, it makes life a lot easier and kind of more fun.
“He's got a wife and a young kid, I do too and he's got another on the way. Caroline’s due any minute now, I think about two weeks after we get back, she's supposed to have the baby. So hopefully the baby hangs on, it will be a little girl which is pretty cool and we could talk about being dads and husbands you know so it's kind of a comfortable feeling.”
I've known him for a couple of years now, him and Anthony had come over quite a bit and he’s always such a fun guy to hang out with.
“Yeah, just a laid back guy that’s really cool. He’s got cool ideas, he’s an interesting fella that’s really talented too.”
Then, now you get to tour another continent together.
“Hopefully we can keep this thing going.”
Well, you went to another continent a lot further away with John Pardi too.
“Yeah, Australia, we flew in an airplane for like twenty something hours. It was great, though, I'll tell you, once we finally got there, it took me a day or two to kind of adjust but man, what a cool time. I mean, we had twenty three thousand people singing our songs, like, every word to “Where I Found God” and a few other ones. It's pretty cool to see it and have music take you there.”
Did they get you doing a shoey while you were out there?
“They didn't ask me to but I did one! I took my own damn boot off. I did it out of my own boot because they were handing out boots, like here's a new boot that you can drink out of but I was like, no, sir, no, we can do this properly! I'm jamming, the place is rocking and I was like, so hyped up that I just kicked my own boot off, poured a beer in it and just turned it up and people went nuts. Then I put my boot back on and I had a soggy sock the rest of the night, but yeah I did it.”
You mentioned that you came over with Morgan and obviously got to play that huge room. He's fantastic and has this mega fanbase so to get to play a show in a completely new place with someone of that stature must be the best possible introduction to a market that you can get.
“Oh, one hundred percent. I was actually on another tour in the United States when Morgan asked me to be on the tour with him last year and I actually got kicked off that tour for it but was worth it. So, I ended up coming over here with Morgan, played all over the place where we were playing to like ten to twenty thousand people or so a night. My goal is if I can get ten percent of those people to like it and buy a ticket, then I can start a career right there. We've seen it where we can sell a thousand tickets a night or more, depending on where we're at so it just kind of gave me a boost to where I can afford to at least come over and give it a try and give it a go.”
“I knew about Brent and Anthony when they were a duo so I always enjoyed their stuff. When we got ready to go on tour, they were like, hey, here's your options for who you can pick to open and I'd seen him on there, I was like, I want them on it. So, we kind of swapped up a few things with them last year and then this year, I was like, they're with me all the time so he's been out. Then when we got this chance, I was like, do you want to go to Europe? He was like, let's go. So, I was able to just bring him with me, he's riding the bus with us and stuff. I love him and we've been writing songs together too. I've been working on a new album, and we’ve got a song called 525 that we wrote together on there and it's really good.”
Sweet, it’s always good having good people out on a road, like if you get on with the people you're out with, it makes life a lot easier and kind of more fun.
“He's got a wife and a young kid, I do too and he's got another on the way. Caroline’s due any minute now, I think about two weeks after we get back, she's supposed to have the baby. So hopefully the baby hangs on, it will be a little girl which is pretty cool and we could talk about being dads and husbands you know so it's kind of a comfortable feeling.”
I've known him for a couple of years now, him and Anthony had come over quite a bit and he’s always such a fun guy to hang out with.
“Yeah, just a laid back guy that’s really cool. He’s got cool ideas, he’s an interesting fella that’s really talented too.”
Then, now you get to tour another continent together.
“Hopefully we can keep this thing going.”
Well, you went to another continent a lot further away with John Pardi too.
“Yeah, Australia, we flew in an airplane for like twenty something hours. It was great, though, I'll tell you, once we finally got there, it took me a day or two to kind of adjust but man, what a cool time. I mean, we had twenty three thousand people singing our songs, like, every word to “Where I Found God” and a few other ones. It's pretty cool to see it and have music take you there.”
Did they get you doing a shoey while you were out there?
“They didn't ask me to but I did one! I took my own damn boot off. I did it out of my own boot because they were handing out boots, like here's a new boot that you can drink out of but I was like, no, sir, no, we can do this properly! I'm jamming, the place is rocking and I was like, so hyped up that I just kicked my own boot off, poured a beer in it and just turned it up and people went nuts. Then I put my boot back on and I had a soggy sock the rest of the night, but yeah I did it.”
You mentioned that you came over with Morgan and obviously got to play that huge room. He's fantastic and has this mega fanbase so to get to play a show in a completely new place with someone of that stature must be the best possible introduction to a market that you can get.
“Oh, one hundred percent. I was actually on another tour in the United States when Morgan asked me to be on the tour with him last year and I actually got kicked off that tour for it but was worth it. So, I ended up coming over here with Morgan, played all over the place where we were playing to like ten to twenty thousand people or so a night. My goal is if I can get ten percent of those people to like it and buy a ticket, then I can start a career right there. We've seen it where we can sell a thousand tickets a night or more, depending on where we're at so it just kind of gave me a boost to where I can afford to at least come over and give it a try and give it a go.”
You said you're work on your music, you probably don't want to say too much about it right now, but what sort of stage are we at? Are we still writing? Are we cutting? Are we just kind of waiting for the time to make the magic work and people tell you when you can go?
“Well, if he (pointing towards his manager) tells me something, I won't do it ha-ha but it works out. No, I've got nine songs that I've recorded, and then I've got a few more. I write every week so I've got plenty of songs, I just got to get back into the studio and cut a few more, who knows what number I'll end up with, but I'm going to do a couple more. We're pretty much there, I've got nine recorded and they're off to mastering right now.”
How have you found the process of working on this new music now you're independent and having complete control over what you want to do? Has it changed a great deal?
“It's changed a little bit. I self-produced this album I'm working on and I’m playing it with my own band so that it kind of sounds like what we do live, which is what people like. To feel like a live show, our live show, then I need to record it with my own band, because that's who I'm playing with. It still sounds really good and it's good production, but I just step back a little bit. I just really dove back into country soul, that's what I was doing. You know, a lot of times with more commercialised stuff, you can kind of suck the soul out of a song so I just kind of wanted to put the soul back in it and so that's kind of what I'm doing on it. I mean, the songs, they've still got a good hook but I would say I went back into a little more of the “Stack of Records” album that I have, which was more singer-songwriter driven. There’s still some groovy stuff in there, there's people going to get pregnant for sure from hearing a few of these songs.”
Are you road-testing any of them yet? Are we going to hear something new later?
“I've been playing a few of the new songs I just put out because I'm letting them work before I give them something they don't know but I have played a few. I have one song called “Baseball on the Radio” and I forgot that baseball is not really a thing over here.”
Yeah, cricket would be the kind of our equivalent.
“Yeah, it doesn't quite work the same, it went over it, but I forgot. I was like, ah, baseball's not a thing even though it’s America's favourite pastime, you know, but I might. I don't know if I'll have enough time to really bust out a few today, but I probably will on a few of these other shows. We have four new songs that we put out this year and I'm trying to push those.”
“Well, if he (pointing towards his manager) tells me something, I won't do it ha-ha but it works out. No, I've got nine songs that I've recorded, and then I've got a few more. I write every week so I've got plenty of songs, I just got to get back into the studio and cut a few more, who knows what number I'll end up with, but I'm going to do a couple more. We're pretty much there, I've got nine recorded and they're off to mastering right now.”
How have you found the process of working on this new music now you're independent and having complete control over what you want to do? Has it changed a great deal?
“It's changed a little bit. I self-produced this album I'm working on and I’m playing it with my own band so that it kind of sounds like what we do live, which is what people like. To feel like a live show, our live show, then I need to record it with my own band, because that's who I'm playing with. It still sounds really good and it's good production, but I just step back a little bit. I just really dove back into country soul, that's what I was doing. You know, a lot of times with more commercialised stuff, you can kind of suck the soul out of a song so I just kind of wanted to put the soul back in it and so that's kind of what I'm doing on it. I mean, the songs, they've still got a good hook but I would say I went back into a little more of the “Stack of Records” album that I have, which was more singer-songwriter driven. There’s still some groovy stuff in there, there's people going to get pregnant for sure from hearing a few of these songs.”
Are you road-testing any of them yet? Are we going to hear something new later?
“I've been playing a few of the new songs I just put out because I'm letting them work before I give them something they don't know but I have played a few. I have one song called “Baseball on the Radio” and I forgot that baseball is not really a thing over here.”
Yeah, cricket would be the kind of our equivalent.
“Yeah, it doesn't quite work the same, it went over it, but I forgot. I was like, ah, baseball's not a thing even though it’s America's favourite pastime, you know, but I might. I don't know if I'll have enough time to really bust out a few today, but I probably will on a few of these other shows. We have four new songs that we put out this year and I'm trying to push those.”
That’s the thing, by the time the EP came out, you're already working on the next bit because of how cycle’s work and that’s before you even factor in putting a song to radio. How long that arc takes baffles us because here if you release a song, within four or five weeks after it's dropped, it's literally gone. It's not like the gradual rise you have over there.
“Oh, it'll take us a year to eighteen months and by the time you get there, if you’re working for a year to eighteen months, I've lost interest, I'm ready to do something else. They’re like, nope, can't do anything until you run this. You have to be like slow down, man, enjoy it, like, you're already on to the next record, you ain’t even got this one out and you’re already thinking about the next one. But I think that's the way you got to think because attention spans are a lot shorter than what we used to be.”
Lastly, as we're at a festival, what's on your list for the rider? What are the things you’re asking for?
“Reese's Cups, I love Reese's Cups and Dr Pepper Zero.”
Do you find the Zero stuff takes different here?
“It does but I like it.”
Apparently, over here people have decided that sugar is very bad for you.
“That's what they say, not sure if all of that news has made its way back home though.”
Well here, people have done studies that say things like alcohol, smoking and sugar apparently are very bad for you.
“I don't know. I mean, I've been called a Greek God, you know, an Adonis. I like plenty of sugar. Pretty much my rider is cheese dip or queso and, you know, tortillas, then Reese’s and Dr Pepper Zero.”
Love it. Dude, this has been amazing and a lot of fun so thanks for coming to say hey.
The latest EP “Somewhere In The South” from Larry Fleet is out now and is available HERE. You can learn more about Larry and find details of all of his upcoming North American dates on his WEBSITE whilst you can follow him socially to keep up with all that he is up to on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
The Long Road Festival will return to Stanford Hall in Leicestershire in 2026 between Thursday 27th and Sunday 30th August, with tickets on sale now. You can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of next year’s event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
“Oh, it'll take us a year to eighteen months and by the time you get there, if you’re working for a year to eighteen months, I've lost interest, I'm ready to do something else. They’re like, nope, can't do anything until you run this. You have to be like slow down, man, enjoy it, like, you're already on to the next record, you ain’t even got this one out and you’re already thinking about the next one. But I think that's the way you got to think because attention spans are a lot shorter than what we used to be.”
Lastly, as we're at a festival, what's on your list for the rider? What are the things you’re asking for?
“Reese's Cups, I love Reese's Cups and Dr Pepper Zero.”
Do you find the Zero stuff takes different here?
“It does but I like it.”
Apparently, over here people have decided that sugar is very bad for you.
“That's what they say, not sure if all of that news has made its way back home though.”
Well here, people have done studies that say things like alcohol, smoking and sugar apparently are very bad for you.
“I don't know. I mean, I've been called a Greek God, you know, an Adonis. I like plenty of sugar. Pretty much my rider is cheese dip or queso and, you know, tortillas, then Reese’s and Dr Pepper Zero.”
Love it. Dude, this has been amazing and a lot of fun so thanks for coming to say hey.
The latest EP “Somewhere In The South” from Larry Fleet is out now and is available HERE. You can learn more about Larry and find details of all of his upcoming North American dates on his WEBSITE whilst you can follow him socially to keep up with all that he is up to on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
The Long Road Festival will return to Stanford Hall in Leicestershire in 2026 between Thursday 27th and Sunday 30th August, with tickets on sale now. You can find ticket details and further information on their WEBSITE and you can be the first to know all updates ahead of next year’s event by checking out their socials on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
