AI Killed the Radio Star? Gene Owens of Faithless Town on Soulless Slop, the ‘Vote Harder’ Midterms & Owning Your Music

Did AI kill the radio star? My guest this afternoon says it’s sure trying, and he’d rather hear Wesley Willis’ “Rock ‘n’ Roll McDonald’s” on a loop for the rest of his life than one more AI-generated song. Gene Owens of Faithless Town is a fellow Nashvillian, a new dad, and a guy who still pays a real engineer with real microphones to make his records. We talked about his new single “You Are the Sea,” what it’s like to be a rock band in a country town, the midterms and the two-party show, who really sits at the top of the pyramid, and the big one: where human art ends and the slop begins. Full disclosure, which I gave on air too: my questions were written with help from my AI assistant. Gene was a good sport about it.

As always: these are opinions, and the guest’s views are his own. Questions aren’t conclusions, theories are labeled as theories, and criticism of the powerful isn’t an attack on any ethnic or religious group. Gene said as much himself.

Topics on Today’s Gonzo Lounge

• “You Are the Sea.” The new single is the third song in a trilogy about someone Gene knew in his teenage years, after two songs on the band’s debut album, American Refugee. It started as a rehearsal-room rant about formulaic, product-placement country (“two Tito’s deep”) and turned into a song about growing up and finding peace. It features Dakota Holden, pedal steel player for Lukas Nelson, and the music video drops this Friday.
• A rock band in a country town. Broadway pays for four-hour cover sets, so original rock bands have a short list of rooms. Gene gave love to The 5 Spot, The Cobra and The Underdog, and talked about how a tight economy hits the arts first.
• What’s in a name? The band started out as the Easy Hearts until a band in the Netherlands turned up with the same name. Faithless Town came from a song on that first EP, with a tip of the hat to the Counting Crows. Plus Red Hot Chili Peppers, trademarks, and the other Nirvana.
• “Little One” and fatherhood. Gene wrote it in the months before his son was born, when he was asking what kind of world he was bringing a kid into. Greg Camp (ex-Smash Mouth, now Mezzo Fiasco) produced it in his East Nashville home studio, adding vocals, guitar, strings and piano. Gene calls it Britpop with a little Beatles, Elliott Smith and Oasis in it. And why bands that lose their songwriter (hello, Gin Blossoms) rarely recover.
• The band-shirt test. Gene asked two different people in Rolling Stones shirts to name their favorite Stones song. Neither could name one. In his day, that got you called a poser.
• Tenacious D and Butler. Gene thinks Jack Black did Kyle Gass dirty after 30 years. That led into questions about the Butler shooting and why accused “lone gunmen” seem to vanish from public view. These are questions, not conclusions.
• The midterms and the “vote harder” crowd. Two weeks out, Gene laid out five things he thinks beat voting (bake a cake, bring it to your neighbor, call an old friend, tell family you love them, or take a walk) and read Shane Cashman’s “If you don’t vote…” tweet. I told him why I’m done with both parties, and we went through who might run in 2028: Massie, Tucker, Tulsi, Vance, Rubio, AOC, Newsom. We also talked about Ross Perot and why outsiders never get through.
• Who’s at the top of the pyramid? Gene’s answer: it isn’t any one ethnic group or nationality. It’s generational wealth and a ruling class so far removed from regular people that they stop seeing them as people. He thinks winning would take mass, peaceful civil disobedience, like a general strike, and he worries that window is closing as surveillance tech advances.
• January 6 revisited. Gene’s take is that it was people demanding their preferred ruler, not their freedom. He gave Trump credit for the J6 pardons and for freeing Ross Ulbricht.
• Raising a kid in 2026. Gene is going with G.I. Joe, Thundercats, Mr. Rogers, Looney Tunes and Animaniacs, plus the blue-collar Pittsburgh values his father passed down: work hard, stand by your principles, and keep your integrity.
• AI and music: where’s the line? Gene is fine with AI for spreadsheets, copy and business plans. He might give aspiring filmmakers a pass. But for music and visual art he calls it “an abomination”: soulless, derivative and unfair to people who gave their lives to the craft. At minimum, he wants AI music clearly labeled.
• The bartender with a melody. No band, no money, no time? Gene says hire a human. Plenty of great players are on Fiverr, some for about $25. “Art is a product of suffering. Suffer a little bit more.” And just because something is easier doesn’t mean it’s better.
• Lucky prompts vs. paying dues. A Suno-made song hit No. 3 on a Korean chart this week. Should AI tracks share charts and payouts with bands that toured for gas money? Gene says no, and he’d keep them off streaming altogether. I admitted Pandora and Spotify opened a lot of doors for me.
• Own your music. Buy the download or the CD so a tech company can’t make it disappear with one button. We swapped notes on our Dandy Warhols CDs, and Gene told the story of chatting up an older Canadian gent at a Nashville bar during a World Cup match who turned out to be a legendary Pink Floyd producer. He took Gene’s card. He hasn’t called. Yet.
• Banned music videos. Faithless Town’s “Do Not Comply” is off YouTube but still on Rumble. Gene’s hot take: “This Is America” is the worst song ever made, and if you disagree, “you’re entitled to be wrong.”

Follow Gene & Faithless Town

• Buy “You Are the Sea”: $1 at faithlesstown.com gets you a 24-bit WAV plus an MP3, and the money goes straight to the band. You can also stream or download it everywhere.
• Music video: it premieres this Friday on the Faithless Town YouTube channel, so subscribe there.
• Live: Gene says Faithless Town plays The Underdog in East Nashville on Tuesday, Nov. 10, with Greg Camp’s band Mezzo Fiasco.
• Socials: @faithlesstown on X, and @faithlesstown everywhere else. All the links are at linktr.ee/faithlesstown.
• Last time on the show: Gene’s 2025 studio interview.

Chapters

• 00:00 Welcome to the Gonzo Lounge: Gene Owens of Faithless Town
• 02:09 Birthday twins & a tornado for Halloween
• 02:57 “You Are the Sea”: the third song in a trilogy
• 05:50 Dolly, Chappelle’s Prince & the Purple One
• 10:45 A rock band in a country town
• 14:55 Where the name Faithless Town comes from
• 16:05 Band names, trademarks & the other Nirvana
• 18:52 “Little One,” fatherhood & Greg Camp
• 22:51 Smash Mouth, the Gin Blossoms & why songwriters matter
• 24:18 Band shirts from bands you can’t name a song by
• 27:11 Tenacious D, Jack Black & Kyle Gass
• 28:44 Questions about Butler and the “lone gunmen”
• 31:05 Midterms: five things to do instead of voting
• 33:06 Deal breakers & losing faith in the system
• 34:07 France, unrest & a technocratic future?
• 36:23 “If you don’t vote…” The Shane Cashman tweet
• 37:42 Money, power & the 2028 shortlist
• 41:16 Who’s at the top of the pyramid?
• 44:30 Civil disobedience & the closing window
• 46:20 January 6 revisited
• 49:09 Raising a son on Saturday-morning cartoons
• 52:04 AI & music: where’s Gene’s line?
• 52:40 Blake’s AI disclosure
• 54:06 “AI is an abomination” when it makes art
• 58:20 The bartender with a melody: hire a human
• 1:01:23 The Dark Side of the Moon planetarium & a bar story with a Pink Floyd producer
• 1:03:20 Lucky prompts vs. paying dues
• 1:04:11 Streaming, Pandora & buying physical media
• 1:07:01 Own your media
• 1:09:15 How we found music before Pandora
• 1:11:20 “Stand Together,” “Do Not Comply” & banned music videos
• 1:12:57 “You Are the Sea” video drops Friday, with Dakota Holden on pedal steel
• 1:14:31 The Underdog on Nov. 10 & wrap-up

Fact Check Corner: What I Got Wrong (or Overstated)

• Prince and Rick James. I said Prince opened for Rick James around 1973. It was 1980, on the Fire It Up tour, which did hit North Carolina. (Prince Vault) My poster below is from the Saturday, March 15, 1980 show at Dorton Arena in Raleigh, N.C.
• Prince and First Avenue. We left it sounding like Prince owned First Ave. He didn’t. Allan Fingerhut did, and today it’s the Frank family. So many fans thought Prince owned it that Fingerhut said he was fine with it. (Star Tribune)
• “WAP” at the Grammys. I mixed up my songs and my year. I worked the Grammys in L.A. in January 2020 (the show plus the pre-party events), not 2019, and “WAP” didn’t come out until August 2020. The racy one I was remembering is Lizzo’s “Truth Hurts,” the one with the “new man on the Minnesota Vikings” line, which she performed to open that show. (GRAMMY.com)
• Butler. Thomas Crooks really did appear in a BlackRock ad filmed at his high school, which BlackRock pulled after the shooting. But “clearly there’s a big cover-up” was me stating a suspicion as fact. I’ve got questions. I don’t have proof.

Pay a human, buy the WAV, and say hi to Gene at The Underdog. See you next time in the Gonzo Lounge.

About The Author

Blake Walley

Blake Walley is a writer, reporter and producer. An idealist and truth-seeker obsessed with the future. A new media trailblazer and outside-the box-thinker. Former Las Vegas bartender influenced by Gonzo journalism. Inspired, eccentric, and always up for a challenge. Blake has been making waves for over 10 years with his original analysis and creative style.

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