Today Columbus Ohio native and frequent Nashville visitor, Rock/Rap artist Doobie released his lasted video “Worth A Shot.” Doobie invited Nashville.com to be on location for the video shoot which was shot entirely in Nashville. Doobie has an amazing story and the stars seem to be aligning for this quick rising artist. His first concert was KISS who he loved and mimicked as kid among other classic rock bands. Later he was heavily influenced by Jelly Roll who he opened up for as a DJ for $50 a show.
Things really turned around in a viral flash for Doobie while on tour not long ago. He was in Vegas with his band when he was informed the tour had been canceled. Out of money and stuck in Vegas, a friend offered he and the band a place to stay in LA and just as they had out-stayed their welcome, he noticed that a video he had released, “When The Drugs Don’t Work” was going viral right before his eyes. Over 118,000,000 views later he has earned platinum status on YouTube and Doobie is on fire.
Doobie and his crew treated us like family at the video shoot and we became instant fans and friends. They love what they do and they love Nashville. Watch the video above and read the interview below.
Did you grow up in a musical family?
My mother was just a huge influence. She was obsessed with, you know, rock and metal and just would take me to shows as a kid and she was friends with a few bands and she would introduce me to these bands. That’s kind of what got me excited about music. My mom was real close with a few bands growing up. You know, Soil was good friends of hers, Seven Dust, and she used to date a guitar tech for Tesla and so she had me around Tesla and Def Leppard a lot which was super cool as a kid. But yeah, all that stemmed from kind of my mom’s influences, you know.
Seems like you’re a mixture of rock and rap. What would you call your genre?
I’m just making the music that I love and that I would want to hear. My music’s kind of everywhere. I could do a pop song, I could do a rap song. Right now, we’re working on a rock album. I’ve done the singer-songwriter stuff. Like, I’m just a musician first. And I think the more and more, you know, we’ve got artists like Jelly Roll and your MVKs and the people who are blending genres, I think the genre thing’s gonna slowly slip away in due time. You know?
When The Drugs Don’t Work, seemed to get things rolling for you. How did that play out?
Yeah, I was on a tour and it got canceled for whatever reason. It wasn’t my tour, it was a bigger artist. And we were on the West Coast. And keep in mind, I’m from the Midwest, so very far from Columbus, Ohio. We were all the way in Vegas. And when the tour got canceled and I didn’t have any money to get back home. So a buddy of mine let me, me and my buddies crashed at his house in Los Angeles. We drove to Los Angeles and we stayed on the Sunset Strip in his apartment for a few months and kind of overstayed our welcome to where it was time for us to figure it out. You know? I got someone to put up money for a house for us to stay in while we were in Los Angeles. And basically, you know, no furniture, nothing, just air mattresses. And them things don’t hold air very well. But we basically were just releasing music, you know, normal routine. Every day was just the same.
And then one day I went to wake up at like six in the morning to pump air in my mattress because it went flat. And I’m checking my video, just normal routine. And as I’m checking it, it’s going viral. And I’m like, what the hell? I kept refreshing it. Like, there’s no way this is real. You know? And I’m calling my manager like, yo, I think YouTube’s bugging out. I don’t know what’s happening, but it’s saying that we just got like 30,000 views in a couple hours. I’m just like, yeah, something’s happening. And then it just kept bubbling, bubbling. And the next thing you know, I was YouTube’s artist on the rise. And now that’s my first platinum record.
That is crazy. How does that happen?
Man, I wish I had an answer. It’s like a mystery. I genuinely wish I had an answer. Well, obviously the music is good, but still, you know, to get that thing going like that, it just like a mystery. And it was so organic. There was no label. I’m fully independent. So everything that I get out of it is what I put into it. You know, it’s, there’s no help from anywhere else. So it was, it was really wild. And still to this day, I mean, I’m looking at the plaques right now, like how the fuck did this happen?
Your music touches on struggles with mental health and addiction. Tell me about your experience with that.
Yeah, I was well off the cliff. I was doing drugs every day. And I’m like, cocaine was my drug of choice. But there was a time when I was doing anything I can get my hands on. And I would mix drugs, uppers, downers, anything, alcohol. And to the point where my body would just be confused. And that was my normal. Ever since I want to say eighth grade, I was using drugs. So I never really knew what it was like to be clean from drugs since I was a kid, basically. And when I had my son in 2020, I had already been wanting to stop. I guess me wanting to stop still wasn’t a good enough reason because I kept using. And when I had my son, I just quit everything cold turkey. I was like, hey, this is it. I got to better myself now because it’s not just about me. I can’t be selfish anymore. You know, the high can’t be that important to me anymore. And I quit after a decade of going hard since a young kid. And even in recovery, I’m almost five years clean from hard drugs now. I’m still like learning to be normal. You know what I’m saying? It’s still a trip. It was very difficult for me to make music when I was in recovery because I was like, damn, what do I make songs about now? All I had really was drugs. That just proved to me why I needed to better my life.
That’s awesome, man. It’s funny how often you hear about people with a
similar story where they can’t kick it until all of a sudden a child comes along
and that just changes everything.
Yeah. And it’s so funny because like you’re saying, you hear these stories all the time. But then when you’re faced with that decision and it happens to you, it’s really like, wow, it makes you really listen to those stories even more, you know, because they resonate more. And it’s crazy. It is wild. Kids are a beautiful thing now. And he’s the love of my life, man. I love him to death. He will be five.
Tell me one song in your catalog that means the most to you personally and why.
Off the top of my head right now, I’ve released I think over 300 songs, so I have to go back. I would say Desperate Times on my last album as well as Change of Heart on the album before that. There are a lot of songs that really, I get real deep. I like to be as vulnerable as possible in my music. I think that’s why the connection between me and my support system, my fan base, is so strong. I’m always the guy that’s like, hey, this is what’s happening in my life right now. It’s not made up, it’s not a story, it’s real. It’s what’s going on. Those songs definitely tell a lot of that.
Tell me about how you write. What’s the process for you?
I used to do a lot of overthinking. I used to be like, man, I have to be as lyrical as possible. It has to be meaningful. Now my process is just feeling. If I’m not enjoying it while I’m making it, I’m going to leave the studio. If I’m not enjoying making the song, if it’s not fun, I’m going to leave the studio. It’s just all feeling. Everything is all based off feeling now. I let everything come to me and I don’t force anything.
Do you do a lot of co-writing or do you prefer to write by yourself or are you a
healthy mixture of all that?
Honestly, all of that. The album I’m working on right now is the first time I brought in co-writers. They’ve helped me formulate and structure my ideas. I’ve always been an amazing writer. I think structurally was where I really needed the help. Shout out to Connor Matthews, my co-writer who worked with me on Worth a Shot and Early Bird Gets the Whiskey. He’s kind of just helped me structure my music properly and say things in a way that’s effective, but saying it exactly how I still would want to say it.
Do you have any dream collaborations?
I wouldn’t necessarily say a dream collaboration, because my dream collaboration, he passed away, it would be Lance Daly of Eyes Unchained. But I think necessary collabs would probably be me and Jelly Roll, because I came up under him and was touring with him in the rap space, and that’s kind of how I got my buzz. And many years ago, over a decade ago.
So it sounds like that’s a very possible collaboration then?
Oh, yeah. I mean, Jelly’s a buddy of mine. It’s just, you know, he’s fucking crushing it right
now. So it’s just a matter of timing, you know.
Well, thank you for your time, man. And I guess until we chat again, brother.Sounds good, buddy. Appreciate it.
Doobie will be back in Nashville in late May for his album release party so stay tuned to Nashville.com and check doobieofficial.com.
–Jerry Holthouse
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