The Highway Man - Adam Lopez Part 1

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Adam Lopez from his studio in Big Sur, sits down for a two part interview on how he went from a baseball playing, street skating, rebel to Touring the planet with his guitar. From the back of a cop car to a studio in Nashville Adam has redefined the road to success. With a new set of acoustic albums on the way your definitely gonna be hearing a lot more about him. Click the above link for info & dates.

Transcript:

https://app.podscribe.ai/episode/48488076
Speaker 0 (0s): Yeah, it's up everybody. We've got something special plan right now. We got the one and only Adam Lopez coming on. Pretty excited. I, I haven't seen this cat for a while and he's doing big things, you know, he's doing real big things. So the first time bringing anybody on, so try to set it up the split screen, have a nice interview and a conversation for everybody to check out. 

Yeah, there he is. Mr. Adam Lopez. What's up, man. You know what man? We were to everybody. That's there's only a few people here right now. I don't mean, I know that it may take awhile for some people to filter in. Right. But for anybody that's just showing up. Now I just briefly talked to Adam and we talked a little bit. I don't want to go too deep. Cause I wanted everybody to get, to see kind of a, how we started, where we started at. And we'll start, we'll talk a little bit about how I know Adam and our friendship, but at the same time, I have so many questions for you. 

So I'll just start off with Adam and I have known each other for how many years Adam, have we known each other? 

Speaker 1 (1m 17s): Oh man. Since we were six or seven years old. So almost 40 years. Oh man. It's weird to say, but yeah, almost 40 years, like darn close thirties. 37, 38 years. 

Speaker 0 (1m 31s): Yup. So we played baseball together. We escaped together. We went to Lincoln and then Rancho. 

Speaker 1 (1m 39s): Yeah, dude. I'm at the skate park right now. I just got done skating. 

Speaker 0 (1m 43s): So awesome. I was totally gonna ask. I was like, yo God, we used to skateboard together. So that is awesome to me. I don't mind. I want to just start off by asking you this. And as we move through our lives, people's lives, change their passions change. However you are. One of the only people I know that has apparently continued to skateboard like me, but also you've really worked on your craft as far as being a musician and you stuck with it and you've had some big gains. 

So how, how, how does that journey changed for you? Like how did it go from the beginning to where you are now? 

Speaker 1 (2m 24s): Man? That's a, that's a interesting question. I'm not even sure. I know the answer like you talking about like all the changes that people go through and stuff, and I've gone through a lot of change, but I'm doing the same exact things that bring me enjoyment as now at 44 that I was doing when I was five years old. Like basically it seems like everything I learned about what I liked. I learned by the time I was five and then I just kept doing them. 

I just found, I guess I found a way to, you know, to get paid, to do it so that I could keep doing it. And that, that was the goal. 

Speaker 0 (3m 3s): You know what, that might be the best definition of success I've ever heard. 

Speaker 1 (3m 8s): Yeah. You know, and it's, that's, that's where I'm at now is learning to, to appreciate and recognize what I didn't recognize for a long time. Like I, I thought I was maybe not growing up and not doing like real life stuff, but now I realize that, you know, I'd had it pretty good all along. Like I've been really lucky, super fortunate. 

Speaker 0 (3m 32s): Yeah. I, I, I heard a quote one time that said your first, 40 years is the experience you get. And then the next 40 years is you interpreting that experience, you know? And when you say that, you know, I think we're another one. One of the greatest things that people can do is to see themselves the way other people see them. You know, we, all of us tend to be critical of ourselves. Oh, am I doing this right? Am I not growing up? You know, or am I, am I being a responsible, but the truth is it doesn't really matter. 

What other people think about you. It matters what you think about you. 

Speaker 1 (4m 9s): Right? Right. There's a, there's a quote about, you know, it's not your business. What other people think of you? I love that. And I wrote a song about that actually. Okay. And it's kind of silly, but I wrote it anyway. Why wouldn't you? Right. I mean, yeah, 

Speaker 0 (4m 30s): This, this leads up to something that I've always wondered about. I think all of us inside are an aspiring artist. You know, some of us were able to really coax out the part of us that is an artist. How is it that you find inspiration to write music? And how is it that you decide to translate that inspiration into action? 

Speaker 1 (4m 54s): The best explanation that I've heard, somebody else describe it as is from bill Withers, who passed away recently. And he was really a matter of fact, dude. So when somebody asked him basically the same thing, he said, you know, sometimes things just cross your mind and that that's it like, you know, everything I write comes from observing or living through it or somebody else I know went through something and I feel like I can relate, even if I haven't experienced it. 

So on some level I can understand or relate to it. So if I write about it, then maybe somebody else can relate or understand and either identify with it or at least have empathy or sympathy for somebody else that goes through that. You know? So I don't, I don't have a direct answer. Like it just happens. I don't, I don't do it. It kinda just comes through me, you know? 

Speaker 0 (5m 51s): Yeah. It's, it's, it's always fascinating to hear people talk about the creative process and how it seems to me that people have a unique process to go through. However, there's usually an underlying similarity in that they are translating any emotion. No. What I mean by that, like, they they've been inspired or like you said, you've seen something happen, whether it's empathy or sympathy and you're able to somehow express that in the music, which I think is beautiful. 

Speaker 1 (6m 27s): Yeah. I feel like the best way to get there is just to let it happen, like get out of the way. Right. So, so don't tell yourself you can't do it or that it's not your thing or you wish you could do that. Cause I think, you know, everybody has a heartbeat, so music is in all of us. Like, that's, that's your, you know, that's your backbeat everywhere you go. You've got it. You know, where I'm doing it, where I'm coming from personally is I just love it that much. 

And I grew up in it. Like my, you know, a lot of my family are musicians when we were playing baseball and we're six, seven years old. Like on the weekends I might be playing at a party with my uncle's band. You know what I mean? So, so for me, it's, it's different in the, in the regard that like, I'm a more of like a historian or musicologist. Like I know my history and I study it and I love it. And I do, that's the part that's for me, like that's fun. Right. And then the creative stuff is, you know, my way of sharing, whatever good feeling I get with other people so that hopefully they have it too, you know?&n...