Tom’s Wild Life follows the crazy life of Tom McMillan and his family as they hang out with some celebrity friends, not only hunting, but traveling around the United States as well. He’s an All-American guy who loves his guns, his hunting, and his country music – so get ready to know the man behind the laughs.

Watch the preview of the new season before you read our interview and tune in tomorrow night at 9:30 pm EST. Tomorrow’s episode features Easton Corbin, Kevin Canady and Chris Tate – who look to get even with Tom on the green after he makes things difficult for them.

Tom’s Wild Life is Back on March 8th!!! – Open Season! from TrueSight on Vimeo.

First of all, whose idea was it to have a show?

Actually it was my own. I had some help from some people in country music that had been coming to my place for several years, just as a getaway friendship-type basis. I heard the idea of having a show from other people, telling me to look into this. I’ve done a lot of neat things and have met a lot of neat people. I guess if you hear that long enough from enough sources… I thought it over and thought well, maybe they’re right. Maybe I should look into this a little bit further and what it would take to have a show. I was sitting at home one evening and thought that I was going to try this, that I was going to follow this idea and see where it takes me.

 Did you ever think you’d be on tv?

Not really when it came down to it, as far as my own show about my life and what we do here. I’ve been on tv briefly before with running my own hunting business here in Kansas. A lot of people on the Outdoor Channel, Versus, and the Hunting Network and stuff… they had come to me filming their own shows. I’ve been on television kind of in an indirect way as a guest on other people’s shows. I think you kinda know whether you can do it or you can’t; you know whether you can be on camera or you can’t. You get more comfortable with it the more you’re on it, but I never had a problem with it. I had a buddy that said “well, it must be hard to forget about the camera being there,” but it’s really not. You just go about your day and just do what you gotta do. Kinda just walk around the cameras and let them do their thing and hope it works out.

What was your favorite moment from the season?

From last season, the first seven that have already aired, or the next season that’s about to air?

Either one.

I’m a gun nut, I believe in the American way and the right to bear arms and all that good redneck stuff. We got to go out to Las Vegas and do a shoot out there. One afternoon we went out to a gun range where they let you shoot machine guns and all kind of big stuff that you can’t do on a day-to-day basis. I got to shoot a machine gun and experience that for the first time. I met Colt Ford out there. He’s just a great guy like everybody that we’ve been able to have on the show. They’re all good country people. Once you kind of get into a situation with somebody you don’t know too well, or somebody that you’ve heard things about, you can tell right away if they’re a genuine country person or not. Everybody that we’ve had on we’ve been pretty lucky to have a lot in common with them right off the bat. No matter where the guest from our show is born and raised, or how they came to be, or where they’re at today.. it all comes back to being good country people and enjoying the same things. It makes it real easy for us to get along and everything that comes across on camera isn’t acting – they just turn the cameras on and let us go. Like it or not, that’s what you get! (laughs).

That’s another thing that I think is a favorite for me from season one and two. It’s just getting the chance to meet the guests that are on the show and hang out with them just because they’ve all been so great to deal with.

Now who will be joining you this season?

So far this season we’ve got Easton Corbin, Chuck Wicks, Colt Ford, Justin Moore, Brett Eldredge, Clay Walker, and I think we’ve got a couple little pieces in there with the duo Joey + Rory, who was on “Can You Duet?” on that other country television channel for a while (laughs). We’ve got some surprise guests, some sports figures, who honestly we didn’t have an idea they were going to be part of the show – we just kind of run into them. I’m gonna keep them a surprise. They surprised us so everybody’s just going to have to tune in and see!

Now this is a fan question that came in on Twitter… they want to know who is the better hunter – Blake Shelton or Miranda Lambert?

(laughs)

Without getting you in trouble.

(laughs) Without getting me in trouble, alright. I know what they want to hear – they want to hear that Miranda is, but the truth is that it’s Blake. He loves to hunt, he’s a good hunter. Now that’s not taking anything away from Miranda; she’s great too and she loves it too, but Blake can tough out the cold a little longer and he has a little more patience so I’m going to have to go with Blake on that one.

So who got you on Twitter?

Actually, Blake did! He became an addict way before I did. I knew that it was going on, and I kind of heard talk about it here and there. He was always doing it and finally one day I said “I guess I’ll look into it, it’s something to do.” I tweeted just a few times and people started responding to it and it just took off from there. Sometimes I gotta make myself walk away from it and leave it alone for a while to regain some sanity. There’s also some other times when it’s therapeutic for you, for me anyway. It’s kind of a good idea to be able to voice your opinion about something, or talk to people you wouldn’t normally get to talk to about certain things. I guess the verdict’s still out on if it’s good or bad.

Have you been hunting up here in Canada lately? And for what?

I have not! Actually, I have never hunted in Canada. I would love to because I love all types of hunting. I’ve hunted in Alaska, which I know is different, but you can say I’ve flown over Canada to Alaska to hunt. That’s the closest I’ve been. But it’s definitely at the top of my list to get up there to Canada to go hunt.

What’s the stupidest thing Blake has ever said to you?

(laughs) Good Morning.  Because if we’re together it’s usually not a good morning.

Do they have to separate you guys, put you in different corners?

(laughs) Sometimes, yeah! We’ve been prohibited to be in certain restaurants at the same time and certain types of public events. He’s so dang busy I haven’t seen the guy in forever! He started to be a big star a long time ago, but he’s really busy now. His career is cutting into our hang out time, it’s pretty hard.

What was your favorite moment that didn’t get to air?

Oh my gosh. There’s no way I can pin it on one. Let me say this, there is probably ten times more footage that we don’t get to show over what we do get to show. It’s such a crying shame because we have literally a room full of blooper reels and stuff that we can’t show. (laughs). It drives me nuts because some of it is the greatest stuff ever and we’re on a family network and I’m not always “family” worthy or whatever. I wish I could say that there was one thing but there’s literally so much stuff that I wish people could see. Maybe someday is all I can hope for, maybe someday we can release a bloopers reel or something. Not to make money off of it, just to have people see some of the greatest stuff ever.

Here’s a really random one. If you had a superpower what would it be?

X-ray vision. I think that would come in pretty handy. Who doesn’t like to see naked people?

Have you ever regretted something you’ve said on Twitter?

No. I’m a pretty straight forward person. If I say it, I mean it. Whether it’s on Twitter or in-person. Believe it or not, I know it doesn’t look this way,  I usually try to think through what I say (laughs). I’m not a 100% on that because we all stick our foot in our mouth from time to time. I don’t want to be the type of person that maybe expresses an invitation to somebody then backs out of it. Usually when I say it, I mean it. So, no, I don’t take back anything that I’ve said on Twitter good or bad.

Has the popularity of your show surprised you at all?

Yes! It really has. Without knowing, or having any clue of what it could do, I didn’t have an idea in my mind that it would have this sort of following or this much or that much. But, it has surprised me to the point that it just shows me how many people out there are just like me, that like the same things I like and live the same way I live and believe in the same things I do. It just surprised me when that many people came out of the woodwork saying “you’re just like us,” or, “we feel like we’re family”. Really, more so than the people on Twitter, it’s the people who walk up to me in an airport or something that like that, that people that honestly I know probably aren’t even on Twitter or on social media.

Back in Las Vegas, there were three elderly women who came up to me and said something about loving the show, and I either reminded them of their grandson, or their son, or their neighbor boy or something, you know? Man, they can’t be on Twitter, they can’t be watching this stuff on social media, so they’ve gotta be watching the show. It just surprises me that maybe I’m not such a screwed up goofball because we all share the same ideals, wants and interests.

Now are there any plans to get the show on up here in Canada?

I thought they were already working on that, and I’m kind of surprised that it’s not up there. I remember talking with people on Twitter from Canada, actually I think it was you, during the first season. I brought it up to people at GAC that I’m in contact with at the network and they said they were working on that. Actually, I’m surprised to hear they haven’t gone that done yet. I’ve asked them and they said “we’re working on it, we’re working on it,” so now you’ve given me a little project to work on.

How old were you when you went out on your first hunt?

I’m probably going to incriminate myself with the state laws of Kansas, but way before I was legal. I have pictures and remember stories from the age of 4 of going with my Dad and shooting pheasants. If they want to give me a ticket for that then they’re going to have to get a lawyer ’cause I’m gonna fight it (laughs). But, yeah, that’s the truth, my Mom and Dad tell stories of me being at the age of 4, and the dang gun that I was using was bigger than I was. That actually goes back even further than I can remember. We have a lot of pheasants here in Kansas and I remember being infatuated with them, and actually all kinds of wildlife while I was growing up. It doesn’t matter what it was – if it was gonna fly from me or run from me I was going to hunt it down and shoot it. (laughs)

The pheasants are everywhere here, they’re right here at my house. These things think they’re chickens when I come down the driveway and they stick their nose at me. They know season’s over for the year so they know they’re safe for the next couple of months. They’re just making fun of me.

What’s one thing that ticks you off the most when you’re hunting?

(sighs) Daylight. See, this is what people wanna hear from me, they don’t want to hear the truth, they want some smart ass comments so I’m giving them one. (laughs)

Anything else you want your fans to know?

A big fat thank you to everybody, and keep tuning in. It starts tomorrow night!

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He’s currently promoting his single, “Give A Damn,” and is putting the finishing touches on his self-titled album, which is due out near the end of March.  You may already have heard some of his music — not necessarily on the radio but on TV.  His “If I Only Could,” was featured on an episode of Smallville on the WB.  Plus, he has written and performed the theme songs for two shows:  The already mentioned “Give A Damn,” which is the theme song for Tom’s Wild Life on GAC and the title theme song for Last Chance Highway on Animal Planet.  If that’s not enough, he also wrote and performed a jingle for Lipton Tea.

The interview is the first time that I had spoken with Lucas.  Yes, he’s out to promote his music, but clearly there’s so much more to him than that.  It may have only been one conversation, but from it I could tell that he is truly compassionate and caring about people, pets, and, naturally, making music.  You’ll probably get the same sense about him after reading it.

“Give A Damn” is the theme song for Tom’s Wild Life, which airs on GAC.  How did you get hooked up with that show?

It all came about from a hunting show that I did in South Dakota called Goin’ Country.  I got to know the cameramen really well and the producers of the show and we just kept in touch.  About three or four months after that show was done they called me up and said, “Hey, we’ve got this new show goin’ on called Tom’s Wild Life that we’re producing and we’re looking for  theme song.  We don’t have anything yet.  Is that something you’d be interested in?”

They sent the pilot over to my wife/manager/you name it (laughs) and we sat there and watched the pilot.  Within 30 seconds I was like, “Please, stop!  I don’t want to hear anymore!  I don’t want it to influence me anymore than it has.”  I had a great idea and sat down and literally wrote the chorus, it kinda just fell outta me, right there within a few minutes.  Then I sat down with my wife, Laura, and my buddy, Corey Barker and we wrote the song.

I met Tom for the first time in Las Vegas during the ACA awards this year, just a few months back.

I understand you’ll be making an appearance on the show this coming season.

Since we were all out in Vegas for the ACAs and I was out there with Wrangler for the National Finals Rodeo, the producers called us up and said, “Hey, since you guys are in town why don’t we shoot an episode together with you guys?”  So it’s gonna be fun!

The host of that show, Tom McMillan, is good friends with Blake Shelton, yet here you are the one who’s doing the theme song and not Blake.

I think I was a lot less expensive!  (Laughs)  I think that’s what it boiled down to.  But I felt very honored that they came to me and asked me to do that.  I felt really blessed and really honored.  Hopefully we can all sit down together and write another one! (Laughs)

Obviously, Blake would be one heck of a contact to have.  Have you used your connection to Tom to meet him yet?

I’m kinda hopin’ that it comes to that point.  We haven’t been able to sit down and talk yet.  But Tom’s there and he’s always willing to help out if he can.  So I might pull that card out of my hat here in the next few weeks!  (Laughs)

You also wrote the theme song for another program, Last Chance Highway, which aired on Animal Planet.  Beyond the theme song, you also participated in the show, which focused on saving soon-to-be-euthanized dogs by pairing them with people and transporting them to their new homes.  Have you always had a passion for pets?

Me and my wife have been pretty active in the pet rescue industry here in Nashville.  We work with Nashville Cat Rescue a lot, where we foster little kittens that need homes.  We bottle feed them for two to three weeks and get them up to the spay and neuter age.  Then we adopt them out.

We’ve also rescued a bunch of dogs and had them at our house, too.  There was a big hoarding incident here in Nashville where there was like 60 dogs in a trailer home that we helped out with.  But we’ve been very active in the rescue community.  So it was a perfect fit when they were looking for that singer-songwriter guy to kinda be the new guy on the transport service and go down and be part of the show.  I felt very blessed that they asked me to be involved.  It was a great show and I hopefully it gets picked up again.

How many pets do you and your wife have right now?

We’ve got four dogs and two cats – of our own! (Laughs)

But that number can go up?

It always goes up!  We have a lot of foster kittens that come in.  So it can go up from five to ten cats at a time! (Laughs)

Along with writing the theme songs for Tom’s Wild Life and Last Chance Highway, you also wrote “Medal of Honor,” which Wrangler National Patriot adopted as their theme song.  How did that song come about?

It was 2009 that we got asked to go overseas and headline our own tour.  My wife was singing quite a bit at the time, too.  So we co-headlined a tour over in Iraq, Kuwait and Kosovo.  We were over there for almost three whole weeks – a week in each region.

We just got so inspired by all of the stories we were hearing from all of the soldiers.  When we came back we wrote the song “Medal of Honor” together.  Just last year it got picked up by Wrangler National Patriot to be the official theme song for their tour.

This will be their third year coming up in May.  I’m going back with them to Afghanistan in May.  I went them last year and I just fell in love again just going over there and just hanging out with everybody.

Obviously there is a sense of pride and patriotism going over and performing for our troops.  But is there also some fear involved?  After all, these are live combat zones.

I don’t feel fear going over there.  I’m not going to say there haven’t been a couple of incidents that scared the living daylights out of me while we were there.  (Laughs)  When we were over there the first time we got shot at a couple of times.  We were actually doing a show and we were in the tent there and the air raid whistle went off.

When you first go over there, they say if you see a soldier running or if you see a soldier hit the ground, hit the ground with them.  So we’re sitting there in front of all of these soldiers playing our songs and air raid is going off and nobody’s moving a muscle.  I’m like, “What’s going on?”  So I stop in the middle of a song and they’re like, “It’s fine.  We get mortared all the time.”  And I said, “Well we don’t!” (Laughs)

This coming June, you’ll be having a homecoming of sorts when you open up the Country Stampede in Manhattan, Kansas.  Will you share with us the story of how you first got involved with that?

I had been going to the Country Stampede ever since its conception, pretty much.  We lived in that area and there’s not a lot of good concerts to go to around there.  And I also worked for Affiliated Food, which is one of the big sponsors of the show, so I got free tickets every year.

I think it was the fifth year, I was either a junior or senior in high school.  I remember my buddy pulling up with his camper at my mom and dad’s farm there and we’re all piling in.  I turned to my mom and dad as we were leavin’ for the show and said, “I’m gonna be playn’ on that big stage!  You wait for my phone call!”  I was just joking.  I had no intention of it happening.  It was just a total joke.

We get there and it’s Saturday morning of the Country Stampede in Tuttle Creek State Park, so we’re all camping out.  We just happened to have the radio on to the station that’s promoting there.  And I hear this lady come on and she goes, “We’re having a ‘Hey, Y’all’ karaoke contest at the beer tent at 10 o’clock.  If you win you get to sing in the big contest on the big stage at 6 o’clock tonight.”

So we all were grabbing our jeans and running because it was like 9:45, so we’re already late.  But we get there and find it’s actually like Russian roulette karaoke – they have to draw the song for you.  You don’t even know what song you’re gonna sing.  So we already had three strikes against us right there! (Laughs)

They pulled a song I was very familiar with.  I think it was “Much Too Young” by Garth Brooks or something like that. And I get up there and I sing and I win over my brother and a bunch of his friends and all the other people who actually knew about the contest! (Laughs)

I ended up playing there that night on the big stage right after Travis Tritt and ended up winning the whole thing.  I got the big trophy and VIP tickets for the next year.  I entered the contest the next two years after that and won each year.  But there’s a clause in the contract of the contest that says you can only win three years in a row.  So they told me I couldn’t come back! (Laughs)

But now you’re coming back as the first act on the bill.

Exactly!  We’re back and we’re bringing a whole band down.  It’s ten years later and we’re gonna have one heck of a blast down there!  It’s gonna be fantastic!

Let’s follow a Country Stampede progression here:  You’ve gone from a karaoke contest to the festival’s opening act.  Do you even dream about taking it to the final step of being the one who closes the festival?

Oh, man!  Someday I would love to close that festival!  It’s usually like Alan Jackson or somebody like that or Toby Keith.  When I get there I’m gonna have the best time of my life.  It’s gonna be one of the highlights of my career, that’s for sure.  From where it all began to where it all ends – that night anyway! (Laughs)

What is it about your sound and style that you think will draw fans to you?

I really love to write songs that everybody can relate to.  Like “Give A Damn” is a song that’s for everybody growin’ up either in the country or the city – it don’t matter.  That song is just about being who you are and owning who you are and not letting anybody tell you on way or the other because that’s your life.  You live it how you want to live it.

I like to draw the emotion out of people.  Whether it’s just a feel good song that makes you raise your glass or tap your feet or whatever; to a song that’ll kinda rip your heart out and make you think about stuff.

That’s what I love to do.  I don’t want to just write songs that are just fluff, you know, filler.  Hopefully this record has something in it for everyone.  I think our sound is very down to earth; very relatable.  A lot of the songs you can whistle along to or hum to.  Some of the songs today you can’t even understand some of the words! (Laughs)  We like it when people are singing along with us!

What is it about you as a country singer that makes you unique?

I would say it’s our live show.  I love to talk with the audience and interact with the audience.  I like to bring them on stage, literally, if that makes any sense.  We try to put it so we’re sitting right there in the living room with them.

I love my fans.  I love the people who love to listen to country music.  I will stay until the last person is there at any show and shake their hand and talk with them.  If they want somebody to talk to I’ll be there.  We’ve stayed three, four, five hours sometimes after a show just to sit down and talk with people.  That’s my thing.  I want to be that artist that you can have a cup of coffee with in the morning.

One group of people really likes you:  motorcycle riders.  How is it that you’re so big with bikers?

The stereotype with bikers is that they all want to hear that head-banging, hard rock music that everybody thinks you have to listen to when you’re at a bike rally.  But when we start playing country music, these bikers will sit there all day long.

I’d say 90% of those bikers are ex-military or current military.  When they find out that we’re out there trying to support our troops and going overseas to play for them, they want to sit down and listen to what we have to say.

We’ve made some great fans and friends over the years playing at Sturgis and down at Daytona.  We’re actually going back to Daytona in a couple of weeks to play again.  We’re one of the very few country bands that keeps getting asked back every year.  This will be our 7^th year, so we must be doing something right!  (Laughs)

Finally, I’d like to give you the opportunity to address your fans (and potential new ones) directly.  The floor is yours to say whatever you would like:

I just really appreciate everyone’s support this far.  I hope they continue to support me along the way and just follow the music and love the music.  I hope they do.

I definitely want their truthful input about the music that we’re putting out there.  If not for the fans, we don’t have anything to do! (Laughs)  If they’re not buying the music and having fun with it, then we’re out of a job.  If not for our fans, then we don’t have anything to strive after; to make these guys continue to love us.

We really appreciate all the fan support.  The more times people call and request the song the better.  The more times they watch the video and spread it around to their friends, even more so better.  Just keep buying the music and we’ll keep putting it out there!

For more info:  www.lucashoge.com and Lucas Hoge Facebook Page

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