From Jeff Foxworthy and his “You might be a redneck” shtick all the way back to Ray Stevens and his parody songs, rural comedians — dare we call them, “blue collar comics” — have a long association with country music. But few are as in tune with the genre as Dusty Slay. The Alabama native has a wry, lived-in perspective on country music and the lifestyles that, right or wrong, are often associated with it: Slay spent more than a little time living in trailer parks and he knows a pop song masquerading as country when he hears one. (He kicked up a fuss online when he deemed Post Malone’s country album F-1 Trillion anything but.)
But it’s the bespectacled comic’s knack for breaking down country songs that’s helped make him a favorite in Nashville, where he’s called home since 2014. In one of his signature bits, Slay deep dives into Darrell Scott’s “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive,” a 2000 hit for Travis Tritt, and questions the validity of any “great day” that begins with eating microwaved rice.
In his new Netflix special Wet Heat, streaming now, he dissects another country classic, Brooks & Dunn’s 1993 anthem “Hard Workin’ Man.” (He thinks he knows exactly where the narrator’s money is going.)
This week, Slay joins Rolling Stone on our new podcast Nashville Now to talk Wet Heat, tell us why George Strait music is the perfect antidote for when the gummy kicks in, and reveal just what he thinks about Morgan Wallen’s brand of country music.
One of the things you have fun with is dissecting country music lyrics. What do you think makes for a good country song?
Sometimes it’s a good story, but I think voice plays a big, big role. I love a good, deep voice. I have a joke where I say a good country song will have you reminiscing about times you never had. And I think about the Brooks & Dunn song “Brand New Man,” where he’s talking about how he’s basically been running around with all these women, and now he’s met a woman, and it’s changed his life. I was probably eight years old and ready to settle down! I was like, “I need to change my ways,” and I’d never even done anything. But I just think that’s what good country does.
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You dig into another Brooks & Dunn song, “Hard Workin’ Man,” in Wet Heat.
I love the song and I’m listening, and basically, he’s complaining about how he can’t get ahead in life. He’s working so hard and he can’t get ahead, but he reveals to you in the song why he can’t get ahead. And this guy, this character — I feel like they’re writing about a character — is a guy who’s complaining about how he never has any money. But then if you look at his own personal finances, you’re like, “Well, you’re spending all your money and you know you’re doing it.”
He’s spending it all on booze, right?
I know people like this. In my own life, I’ve been this guy, where you’re complaining about money, yet every day you go to the bar. When I quit drinking, I quit my job because I hated my job. And I was like, “If I quit drinking in the bars, if I quit smoking cigarettes, I don’t even need money.” I barely spend money outside of those two things. I’m right around Nashville and there’s two billboards out here advertising $6 beers, and it’s like they’re advertising that, because I guess that’s a deal these days?
So, are you sober?
I do a little weed. I’m not that into weed, but I keep doing it.
Smoke or gummies?
Little of both. I like smoking. When I was driving to comedy shows, I would drive there on Thursday and I’d not smoke any weed, because I can’t do comedy high. So, I would do all my shows, and then on Sunday, I’ll get a little high in my hotel room, take a shower, get in the car, drive home. I’m not saying do this, but this is what I would do. Oftentimes I would do too much, and then I’d feel like I’m having a heart attack. And then I’m like, “This is not good for the drive.” You work yourself up and you go, “No one’s ever died from weed.” We always say that. I don’t know if that’s true, but we always say that to ourselves. But what if I’m the first? Then when I started flying to shows, it’d be the same kind of routine. I would fly home on a Sunday, and I would do edibles, and I love doing that. But I’d panic sometimes. I’ve had times where I’m getting on the plane and I go, “Why is my heart beating so fast?” … I needed someone to break this whatever I’m in.
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You needed to be grounded in reality.
And that’s also what Nineties country is good for. George Strait is great grounding music. There’s nothing too wild about it. Because, you listen to Merle Haggard, and next thing you know, he’s into a horn section and some guitar, and you’re like, “I’m tripping now.” But George Strait is good grounding music. And I love it.
Were you a hair metal guy at all growing up?
I grew up in a trailer park and, for some reason, I feel like hair metal is trailer park music. Now, I know that everybody that listened to it wasn’t in a trailer park, but I felt like people in trailer parks liked hair metal or liked country music, or both. I like Poison. The Poison ballads, “Something to Believe In,” “Every Rose,” are pretty close to country songs. My sister bought me a David Lee Roth VHS when I was a kid, a video cassette of David Lee Roth. It had “California Girls” and “Just a Gigolo.” And for that time period, that could have been porn. It was just women everywhere, it was unbelievable. Even the interviews in between the videos was David Lee Roth on the beach with two girls in bikinis.
You caused a bit of a stir on social media when you made the claim that Post Malone’s F-1 Trillion was not country music. Why didn’t you consider it country?
I’ll say this. I think it was two discs and I did not realize that the second disc actually was a little more country. What I listened to was the stuff with other country singers. And I was like, I don’t like it. I don’t think it’s country personally. I don’t think Post Malone has a country voice. I don’t mean an accent. He just doesn’t sound country to me. And then he was paired up with a lot of country singers that I really like. I don’t like people switching genres, coming over to country and being like, “Now that country’s super popular, I’m gonna make country now.” I have heard that Post Malone, his next album is going to be more traditional country, so I think he heard me… If you want to make a country album, make a country album.
What are the ingredients for that then?
I think you need steel guitar. I think steel guitar, fiddle — if you have those, you already got a recipe for country. That’s the place to start. And if you don’t have a bassy voice, you’re gonna need those two things. If you have a real deep voice, I think you can get away with just an acoustic guitar.
Alright, I’m going to throw five records at you and I want you to weigh in if they’re country or not. Ready? O Brother, Where Art Thou? Soundtrack.
I think it’s a little more bluegrassy, but for sure.
Sturgill Simpson’s Metamodern Sounds in Country Music.
That’s my favorite Sturgill Simpson album. I love it. That cover of “The Promise” is unbelievable. I didn’t even realize that I knew the Eighties version of that song, because it’s so good. For sure it’s country.
Morgan Wallen, I’m the Problem.
Alright, I don’t think so. I don’t like it, but this is what I’ll say. I got a brother-in-law from Michigan, he grew up with us. My sister’s 10 years older than me. They got married; they started dating when they were like 18, so I was like 8. So this guy, he’s been in my life. He moved from Michigan down to Alabama, lived in a trailer park with us. He knows all about country music now, and I was trying to show him how not country it was, and he goes, “That sounds country to me.” So, it’s hard to argue, but to me, it’s not country. It’s a thing they’re doing with the way they sing now. Everything sounds so emotional, and everything’s trying to sound so deep. I think there’s a groundedness that country music really needs.
This one’s a song: Carrie Underwood, “Before He Cheats.”
Yeah, yeah. Country’s very well known for its breakup songs. But I feel like there should be a male version of this song where you’re the other guy. You’re the guy that she keyed his car. You need that guy. What’s his side of this? What was going on? Why did he cheat? What happened? Did he really? Is she overreacting? Did she go to jail? Cheating is not illegal in a relationship.
Final one: the Urban Cowboy soundtrack, with Johnny Lee’s “Lookin’ for Love.”
John Travolta. I know Charlie Daniels is in the movie, and I can’t tell you that I know the soundtrack, but just based on “Lookin’ for Love” and knowing that Charlie Daniels is in the movie, I’m going country.
You have a wonderful bit in your last special, Workin’ Man, about Travis Tritt’s “It’s a Great Day to Be Alive.” I was at a karaoke bar on Broadway recently and someone sang it and everyone stood up like it was “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
It’s a positive song, and if you listen to it, you feel good. You’re like, it is a great day to be alive. But if you listen to the lyrics of that song, it doesn’t sound like it’s a great day. The guy’s like, I got rice cooking in the microwave. I’ve had a lot of microwavable rice, but that’s not really the start to a good day for me. I’m not like, “Ooh, microwavable rice! This is gonna be a sweet day.” It sounds like a guy that just got divorced, and he’s trying to convince himself it’s gonna be a great day.
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So, what country albums do you listen to?
Chris Stapleton, Traveller. I picked up that album at Grimey’s [records] here in Nashville. My first album was called Making That Fudge, and I took the album to them and they let me put 10 copies in their store to sell. A year later, they called me and asked me to come pick them up because they hadn’t sold a single one. When I was in there, I picked up this album by a guy I’d never heard of, Chris Stapleton, and the album was Traveller. He had a song on there called “Traveller” and I love songs like that, because I’m a traveler. I’ve been all over the place in cars, all over the place in planes. I had a car that I traded in that had 317,000 miles on it, and I listened to that song for about a week. I wanted to post on Facebook, “Hey, you guys got to check out this Chris Stapleton guy, I just found the CD,” but before I could post, he goes on the CMA Awards and just blows up. I like to think I discovered him.
I did the Michael J. Fox charity show that he does for Parkinson’s, and Chris Stapleton was on the show, and I met him. He did not know that I discovered him. He was not rude to me at all, but he looked at me like, “What’s this guy doing on this show? The only guy on the show with nicer hair than me.”
