Yung Gravy and Carter Vail on Slim Jims, OnlyFans, and Pre-Show Jerk Offs

When the rapper Yung Gravy first went viral in 2016, two things became apparent: this guy loves silk blouses and hot moms. One person whose mom has fallen on the Gravy Train is Carter Vail. “After you met my mom, I saw my dad a couple days later,” the 27-year-old musician confessed. “He was like, ‘She kept on talking about how charming Gravy was.” After dropping his last mixtape, Serving Country, the six-foot-seven Gravy brought that charm on tour, tapping Vail to be his opening act. Seven weeks and an endless supply of Slim Jims later, the two artists got together to talk about global audiences, OnlyFans money, and how this tour differs from the more riotous ones of year’s past. “I’d jerk off or make sweet love and then go to the stage,” says Gravy. “Now, it’s usually just four beers.” 

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CARTER VAIL: Gravy, what made you invite me on tour with you, man?

YUNG GRAVY: I had seen the “Dirt Man” video, I thought it was lit. The same day, me and my agent both hit each other up like, “Yo, this Carter Vail dude is kind of dope.” That was a good sign, so I hit you up. I was like, “Hey man, interested?”

VAIL: I don’t think I realized how long the tour was, though. Seven weeks is so long.

GRAVY: I’ve done crazy long tours. Co-headlining with bbno$ and Dillon Francis, both were 30 shows. This one went by kind of fast, I thought.

VAIL: It’s super fun. I was wondering if your audience was going to be like, “What the hell is this indie rock random ass band doing here?” But they’ve been super cool. You have fans that are just open to having a good time.

GRAVY: And you’re charismatic, a good vibe, and that’s fucking awesome. That gets people every time. All the shows, they really liked it.

VAIL: What is the worst show you’ve ever played?

GRAVY: It was Rolling Loud LA. They put me and bbno$ together in this room, and the acoustics were really messed up. Well, I was pretty drunk. And I think we were pretty much off by like half a second the whole set because of the fucking echo. But I haven’t had any absolute tragedies. Oh, actually. There was an opener of mine, it’s the only time I ever let somebody pay to open for me– a kid that I knew from college. He came out to San Francisco with his posse, and I remember at one point taking a sip of a Red Bull and being like, “Oh, it tastes kind of weird.” Come showtime, I was completely out of it. It had to have been either roofies or some sort of date-rape drug or a bunch of Xanax or something. I went up on stage, tried to rap “Mr. Clean,” which was my opening song, and I barely got through the song. I was like, “Oh yo, I got to go,” and walked off stage and passed out in the bathroom for the whole set. I once did a lot of drugs with Dirt Nasty. You know Simon Rex? Look him up. 

VAIL: Got damn.

GRAVY: He’s a much older fellow who used to be a VJ on MTV, and I was always a big fan of his. We finally linked up, and it was like fucking both of us were starstruck and besties instantly. I got him to pop out to the show in the Bay where he’s from, and there was all these drugs. I was like, “Yo, fuck it, let’s just do some drugs, man.” We did all of them before the set and I kept on pausing and smiling and looking around the crowd on stage. I asked the crowd if we were inside or outside a bunch of times.

VAIL: Oh, they probably liked that.

GRAVY: Yeah, they did. No one commented to anyone that they thought I was on drugs, they probably just thought I was a weirdo.

VAIL: That’s crazy. I don’t really do shit before shows. I don’t get more energetic from that, and I always try to be super energetic on stage. I feel like if I was high on stage, I’d just be like… I would just stand still.

GRAVY: Smoking weed, I cannot. I don’t even smoke anymore, ’cause it makes me anxious. But back in the day when I did, it would only be on maybe a 4/20 show, and I would wait until the very end. And you got to make it look like you’re really smoking.

VAIL: Yeah, you can’t fucking pretend.

GRAVY: I was ripping it. And dude, there’ve been a couple of times where I realized there were still three songs left and I’m like, “Oh.” Just got to power through it, man.

VAIL: Yeah, that sucks. Do you have a favorite song that you’re performing?

GRAVY: “Gravy Train” is up there, I like that a lot. Me and Adam have been talking about doing the cover stuff more, but I mean, obviously the tour’s almost over and we haven’t really done it. VAIL: Have me sing all of “Lone Ranger.” You just go in the back, I’ll pretend to be you. I’ll come out with a wig. How pissed would you be if, during the last show, we just came out and only covered your stuff for the opening set?

GRAVY: Fucking hilarious, I think it’d be good. Leave me at least one or two hits.

VAIL: We’re going to open with “C’est La Vie,” fucking “Lone Ranger,” “Drugs, Money, Pussy and Beer.”

GRAVY: It would be badass, honestly. I’d pay to see y’all do a cover from a deep cut of mine. People would recognize it and probably—

VAIL: Yeah, they’d probably freak out.

GRAVY: There’s a few songs that are pretty popular that we don’t play. I’ll think about it, maybe I will send you something. One of these questions here… who wakes up first? I think you must wake up first.

VAIL: Yeah, ’cause we’re driving. We were up at like seven this morning. 

GRAVY: What’s the dynamic in the car? Do you take equal turns driving?

VAIL: We do pretty even splits except for our drummer, Garrett. He’s not driving at all, ’cause he has a normal job. So he’s working from the van every day, and I don’t think his job knows that he’s working on tour. You guys have every bunk in the bus taken up, right? 

GRAVY: Yep.

VAIL: Are you in a regular size bunk?

GRAVY: I have a bed now. 

VAIL: Okay.

GRAVY: Have you been on the bus since we got the new one? 

VAIL: I’ve been on the old one. I saw the old one and you were in a bunk on that one.

GRAVY: Yeah. That was brutal.

VAIL: How the fuck did you–

GRAVY: Man, I just crawled.

VAIL: Did you sleep beetle position?

GRAVY: That’s what I had to do every night. Now I have a bed in the back. It’s still the least fancy bus I’ve had, but it’s definitely more than enough. My room in the back, everything is basically mattress. There’s a couple of steps and a shower that I use as storage and two drawers. And then it’s just mattress. It’s like when you were a kid and you wished your whole room was a trampoline.

VAIL: That’s pretty sick, I want to do a bus tour.

GRAVY: Yeah, I mean, it’s different. Have you toured outside of the US?

VAIL: No. We’re going out in February, though.

GRAVY: To Europe or where?

VAIL: To Europe, yeah.

GRAVY: Sick. I like touring Australia because it’s usually quick and the shows are big for me. Europe… I really liked it the first few times, but I’ve literally just canceled my Europe tour that was going to be in a month.

VAIL: Why?

GRAVY: Well, my mom’s getting a surgery done. And I also just don’t want to go that bad. My fan base isn’t big enough there.

VAIL: Whereas Australia, I feel like Australians must fuck with you so heavy.

GRAVY: Yeah, I’ll do bigger shows in a lot of cities in Australia than I do here.

VAIL: I feel like everyone in Australia looks and acts exactly like you.

GRAVY: Thank you.

VAIL: I have some Australian fans.

GRAVY: Do you ever look at your analytics and see the other places?

VAIL: Yeah, Australia’s pretty high up there. I have a lot of UK folks, which is cool, and that’s why we’re going to Bristol and London.

GRAVY: They party super hard there in Europe– specifically Great Britain.

VAIL: Yeah, I’m stoked. But my big thing is that staying healthy on the road seems so challenging. Are you working out when you’re out here?

GRAVY: Besides during the show and after the show, I don’t get much exercise, man. I’ll do some stretches and push-ups and stuff, but honestly it’s cardio. I get good cardio between fucking 8 p.m. and midnight. Food-wise, the rider stuff is not bad. Some days I’ll just survive off of beef jerky and bananas and protein bars. I mean, it’s probably not the most healthy. How about you? I know you’ve been in the gym and go on runs.

VAIL: Trying to, yeah. The food though… The catering has been delicious, but oh my God. I eat like a demon every time I see that shit. 

GRAVY: It’s fucking so good. Catering is a new thing for me. Until the last tour we did, I had never had a tour with catering. 

VAIL: Really?

GRAVY: Yeah, we would just get buyouts every day, and somebody would make a big order somewhere. But honestly, the catering is pretty fucking nice.

VAIL: I’ve been doing a lot of Slim Jims when we’re actually on the road. 

GRAVY: Slim Jims, all right. Dude, you can always raid our ship. Actually, do you guys get sandwich supplies on yours? 

VAIL: Yeah.

GRAVY: ‘Cause I took them yesterday. You guys were gone and I went to the tour bus alone and saw the swiss and just fucking–

VAIL: Hammered that shit. I normally eat all the cold cuts. I think I eat about a pound and a half of cold cuts every day.

GRAVY: You know what? I can’t really talk about being healthy because for breakfast this morning, I took the leftover pizza, put it on bread. Avocado swiss pizza sandwich.

VAIL: Kind of sounds like it hits.

GRAVY: It was pretty good. What’s your favorite city we’ve played so far? I want to hear.

VAIL: Salt Lake City. That shit went crazy.

GRAVY: Do you have a top three?

VAIL: The Second Nashville show is number three. Salt Lake City is number one. There was another one, but I can’t remember any of the cities now.

GRAVY: Austin?

VAIL: Austin was fucking sick. I was blown away.

GRAVY: Yeah, me too. I’ve performed in Austin a lot, and it’s never that crazy. That was probably my favorite with Seattle and Salt Lake being close behind. And I agree, I loved both those Nashville shows. I had so many friends that were filtering in and out.

VAIL: Every night, it seems like you have so many people in your green room. Does that ever get tiring?

GRAVY: I am very extroverted, so it kind of energizes me. And usually, it’s people that I’ve been close with for a long time. It’s a cool benefit to have them there. 

VAIL: My whole squad is fairly introverted, so we pretty much keep to ourselves. I don’t know if I told you this. After you met my mom, I saw my dad a couple of days later and he was like, “Oh yeah, your mom had such a great time at the concert, she had so much fun.” And then he kind of took a pause and was like, “She kept on talking about how charming Gravy was.” And I was like, “Motherfucker…” She’s got to fucking relax.

GRAVY: I don’t even try to do that shit. I don’t know.

VAIL: It’s just the Gravy charm. 

GRAVY: I’m honored. My mom said the same about you. Pre-show routines, do you have any?

VAIL: I kiss all my boys on the forehead and then they kiss me on the forehead.

GRAVY: Yeah?

VAIL: We’ve been doing that for a long time.

GRAVY: Hot.

VAIL: Very hot, yeah. We get all oiled up for it, too. What about you?

GRAVY: I used to do more. Dude, I would do my meet and greets and then go back to my room on the bus and meditate. Sometimes I would do DMT to really chill out before I go on stage. Or I’d jerk off or make sweet love and then go to the stage.

VAIL: Pre-show jerk-off, that’s bold.

GRAVY: Yeah, that was a good tour. I got into the routine. Now, it’s usually just four beers. 

VAIL: How many beers is too many beers for you? At what point is it no longer a show?

GRAVY: That’s a good question, because I have been everything on the spectrum from sober to super drunk on stage. At this point, I’m pretty good about not getting too drunk ever. I mean, there was a while where I would get just plastered all the time. But the thing is, after a certain point I do slur my words and I’m conscious of it. I got a pretty high tolerance, though. That’d be like eight drinks, maybe nine.

VAIL: That’s a lot of drinks.

GRAVY: But I try to shoot for three or four. Who’s most likely to be found naked on a tour bus or in the hotel room? I sleep naked, so probably me. You have a girlfriend, right?

VAIL: I have a girlfriend, yeah. 

GRAVY: Okay, what’s my favorite part of your set? Honestly, dude. “Dirt Man” is a highlight.

VAIL: Have you been able to see much of the thing?

GRAVY: I haven’t seen the whole thing in a row. There’s one place where I got a good half of it. Usually I’ll try to sneak out behind you somewhere and hear a song or two. I’m going to try and make that my mission tonight: get a hoodie and watch you.

VAIL: The idea of you trying to sneak anywhere is fucking unlikely.

GRAVY: What’s your favorite part of my set?

VAIL: Okay, two answers to that. I love “C’est La Vie,” that’s the first song I knew of yours. And I think I’m partial to “Drugs, Money, Pussy and Beer.” You start it sitting down, and you always go, “Man, fuck this,” then you stand up. I think that brings a cool energy. Also, the other day when I got to throw the cereal out, that’s fun.

GRAVY: You could do pancakes one day maybe, if you wanted to.

VAIL: Again, let me sing all of “Lone Ranger.”

GRAVY: Yeah, right. “Soundcloud Cowboy” would probably work pretty well for you.

VAIL: Let me talk to the guys and see if we can learn some songs, that’d be fun.

GRAVY: I’ll think about it. Who’s someone dead or alive that you’d want to play with? 

VAIL: I think Mariah Carey. Or some crazy vocalist.

GRAVY: Yeah, that’s totally what I would want to do. We’ll take Mariah Carey. Who’s the most likely to get rich on OnlyFans? For sure, Gravy. 

VAIL: I was debating it at one point and I talked to my parents about it. I was like, “Should I do an OnlyFans?” And they were like, “What is that?” I kind of explained it to them like, “I think I could get a fuck load of money.” These gay dudes in my DMs really be asking for it. But I didn’t end up doing it and other stuff started popping off.

GRAVY: It’s funny. I did a brief stint of managing girls’ OnlyFans, and I was kind of the talent buyer. I don’t know how to say it without it sounding sus, but I was just helping girls sign good contracts. My mom heard about it and she called me and asked, “Matt, are you a pimp?” It wasn’t because of the song “Forget Me Thots,” it was because of the OnlyFans thing. She thought I was a pimp.

VAIL: Well, kind of.

GRAVY: I’m a modern pimp, yeah. At this point, I still have the business. My friend and I are going Robin Hood mode and getting girls out of contracts with OnlyFans and getting them better ones. So yeah, I make two grand a month on OnlyFans.