If you ever go into a pediatric cancer ward, you’ll probably see a lot of the same shit I saw. Every patient room that’s got an open door, more than likely has a parent looking down on their angel with no answers & the most hope for a will to survive against all adversities than any other human on this planet. I can also tell you from what I’ve seen first hand, those parents may not be able to be by their angel’s side 24/7. Some of them are driving for hours one way just to make their daily appearance with a lack of sleep. I know if I was in their shoes, I’d have to stay intoxicated in order to turn my mind off & get some sleep.

Shortly after learning how broke someone can be after paying for the betterment of life through our healthcare system, I woke up in my best friend’s sunroom. She told me she was taking me to the trainyard where a bunch of homies were going to get me on my first freight train. I showed up looking ridiculous – cut off overalls into short shorts, shaved head, no eyebrows, bright red flat bill hat that had “get bent” on the visor.

One of the more tenured riders said this train would take us to Miami & from there we would be hitching to the Florida Keys but he wasn’t going to take me because he would look like a fool for having me turn red as a lobster and die in the south Florida heat. He put me on the same train except this one was going north & I was pulled off by 11 officers with their guns drawn before making it out of Duval County.

This friend of mine had me live with her for a long time. She would always tell me when I was playing in the background of her parties or dropping me off to busk that I should write a song about her. When I started writing this album, I knew that one of the songs had to be about her.

We were coming home drunk at some point in our relationship and hit a fox running across the road. We got pulled over for speeding shortly after that. Turns out, the tag had expired, her insurance had lapsed and her license was suspended due to not having insurance. The officer let us off with a warning after some back and forth. During the process, we asked the officer to discover any frontend damage from the fox. He said everything looked fine.

Once home, we found the fox stuck in the grill of the vehicle. My drunk sense of humor thought it would be great to duct tape it to the oak in the front yard. The neighbors didn’t care for the stench the next morning and threatened us with reporting animal cruelty. I cut the tape & dug it’s grave.

At one point, she had lost her job and couldn’t pay the mortgage. The banks were taking back the house and for months we couldn’t afford the utilities. We turned the empty inground pool outback into a collection of urine, feces & cigarette butts.

After she moved back home with her parents, she took me to a local beach that was well known for shark teeth. She showed me that after drawing a 2’ circle in the shore with a stick, she would discover several shark teeth within moments. I’d never find any in the circles I drew but she always found some in there somehow.

Most folks in our friend group had TIU tattooed on their body, standing for Turn It Up. I never really got the reference. When asking one of them that was staying with us at one time, his response still echoes today.

“It’s like you're riding in a five seater filled with six of your best friends, doing 30 mph over the speed limit, grandma is calling your cell phone, the windows are down, everyone is 3.5 cartons of cheap gas station wine deep blaring a Two Gallants or Defiance Ohio song on the radio.. I’m going to need you to turn that car stereo the fuck up because your grandmother is gonna love this song”.