Road Dogg Explains Inspiration Behind 3 Live Kru’s ‘You Are My Sunshine’ Theme Song

Oh, you didn’t know? Road Dogg is back on the airwaves, looking back on his wrestling career on a new podcast named after his memorable catchphrase.

Road Dogg (Brian James) spoke with WrestleZone Managing Editor Bill Pritchard to promote his Oh, You Didn’t Know? podcast, co-hosted by former WWE creative team member Ryan Katz. James and Katz worked together in NXT, and Road Dogg spoke about their relationship and why the pairing made a lot of sense.

“I had met Ryan years back when he first started working at NXT. It wasn’t even NXT yet, it was FCW at the time, and he was one of the first hires. So he’s been around a while and then the last, I’d say three years, that I was with WWE and at NXT, I worked very closely with Ryan,” Road Dogg explained. “I got to see how talented he was and how many hats he could wear. And look — I’m always clinging on to people so I can ride their coattails. [laughs] I did it with Jeff Jarrett, I did it with Billy Gunn, I’m doing it now with Ryan Katz.

“He’s an incredibly talented dude and he has been inspirational and influential in making a lot of these stars. He was there for the Bray Wyatts of the world and when Dusty was there, so he was Dusty’s right-hand man. He’s just got a ton of experience and he’s a very talented individual. So when Conrad [Thompson] and I talked about doing this podcast, I just said, ‘hey do you have a guy in-house or could I suggest somebody?’ And Conrad was eager to jump on that because I think he knows what Ryan brings to the table. I don’t know if everybody does. I feel like he gets the short end of the stick sometimes,” he explained, “but he’s a very talented dude and has the respect of a lot of huge stars in our industry.”

Prior to his run with WWE, Katz made his name on the independent scene, including his respective stints with Wrestling Society X as Fabian Kaelin and his XPW run as GQ Money.

“He used to wrestle, he’s wrestled a few times. And so he was always out in California doing stuff on indie shows, with indie shows and booking indie shows and so again, he wears a ton of hats. Thank God I got him, he can hold it all together when I start bumping my head into the wall,” Road Dogg joked.

One recent episode of Oh, You Didn’t Know? featured a look back at Road Dogg’s “Voodoo Kin Mafia” run with TNA Wrestling. VKM followed his time with Konnan and R-Truth in 3 Live Kru, the stable that briefly used a song that sampled “You Are My Sunshine.” Road Dogg was asked about the pitch behind such a unique track, and he explained that the final version was one of many that they recorded.

“We all just said like, let’s — we recorded that song, of course. We recorded a couple of different songs that I thought were really good. Like I listen to ‘em now and still go like, ‘yeah, that’s a banger.’ Look, that’s me, I’m biased, I love myself. So I think the idea was ‘we’re gonna try to make a song that reflects each of us.’ It was like, at the beginning, it was an old-timey, so it was just a sound effect kind of thing, like [sings] ‘You are my sunshine, my only — This mother is a bad jam, beware.’

“So it was just all over the place. It was almost like an Echo And The Bunnymen type thing. It was, we were trying to just establish each of our characters. Like I was the trailer park gangster, Truth was the suntanned Superman and Konnan was, I’m not sure, but he was Konnan. I think he was just Konnan [laughs] I’m not sure.”

Podcast Heat’s Oh, You Didn’t Know? airs on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts, in addition to many other podcast apps. The latest episode about Road Dogg’s brother, Scott Armstrong, is available now. The next episode, which covers his run as The Roadie, will be out Thursday.

Read More: Road Dogg Responds To Randy Orton’s Remarks About NXT Talent Not Knowing What They’re Doing