About this Episode:
We had the opportunity to sit down with #Zeb “The Legend” Ross and his partner, #Ashley Ross, of JCreek Cloggers on Gateway to the Smokies Podcast before their amazing performance in #Meadowlark Motel Enjoy this fun interview with the stars of #JCreekCloggers! We talk about their unique dance style, how they began dancing together, touring around the world, how they became Viral on #Tiktok, and much more.
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Transcript
00:00: 26 – 00:00: 45 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Howdy! This is Joseph Franklyn McElroy here with the Gateway the Smokies Podcast with viral sensation Zeb Ross and his wife Ashley Ross. And they are dancing beans, Right? That’s what you love to do. How long have you been dancing?
00:00: 46-00:00: 55 Zeb Ross: Ever since I was in my Mom’s belly. Jcreek Cloggers, we’ve been together for 13 years.
00:00: 55- 00:00: 58 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: 13 years. But you were dancing before that, right?
00:00: 58-00: Zeb Ross: Yes
00:00: 58- 00:01: 19 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah, I sang to my children in their momma’s belly twinkle- twinkle little star, so now that’s their favorite song. So, you know, you hear things that just goes with it. Right? So, 13 years ago, you started JCreek Cloggers, right?
00:01: 20 -00:01: 27 Zeb Ross: Yeah. My mom, we started off about six to eight when we first started the team, and now we got about 36 people 13 years later, So it’s grown.
00:01: 28- 00:01:32 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: And how old were you when you started?
00:01: 32 -00:01: 36 Zeb Ross: We started when I was 16, 15 or 16, I’m 28 now.
00:01: 36- 00:01:38 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Wow! and when did you join?
00:01: 38 -00:01: 53 Ashley Ross: So I joined back in 2018, around the time that I had moved here to North Carolina from Tennessee to date Zeb and get to know him and his family. And I’ve only been dancing on the team for about four years now.
00:01: 54- 00:01:56 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: All right. So, JCreek Cloggers brought you guys together?
00:01: 56 -00:02:00: Zeb and Ashley Ross: Yes, they brought us together.
00:02: 00- 00:02:07 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That’s fabulous, That’s cool. Where do you guys meet?
00:02: 07 -00:02:11: Zeb Ross: I don’t know. A place called Cotton Jones over in Knoxville, Tennessee.
00:02: 11- 00:02:12 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Really?
00:02:12 -00:02:17: Zeb Ross: It’s a honky tonk bar is what they call it. But we met line dancing.
00:02: 17- 00:02:22 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That’s cool. Are you doing your breaking ankle things
00:02:22 -00:02:30: Zeb Ross:I know a lot of dancing. I went there just to learn some new routine, stuff I had seen before, and I have to meet this wonderful lady.
00:02: 30- 00:02:39 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Well, that’s fabulous, wow, So you’ve always been on the team and you were, were you in that viral video? Were you dancing with him?
00:02:40 -00:02:57: Ashley Ross: the initial one that went viral on Tiktok first, that they put, like, the hot step or two and things such as that one I actually was not on, but on other ones I was.
00:02: 57- 00:03:00 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: All right, so you’re sort of viral, too?
00:3:00 -00:03:03: Ashley and Zeb Ross: Yeah, absolutely. You earned it.
00:03: 12- 00:03:18 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Well, before all this excitement, what kind of success did you guys have? What kind of success did JCreek Cloggers have?
00:3:19 -00:03:40: Zeb Ross: We’ve always done typically local things, so we did fairs or some nearby events. But we have traveled up to Virginia before Tennessee good. But we started a team. Just bring smiles for exercise and just to have a cool time. Just to keep the tradition of clogging.
00:03:40- 00:04:10 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Well, my family, my brother and sister were cloggers, my sister was on a team, and they did it way back into the day here at the Maggie Valley Playhouse back in the day. So, I knew about it, I was like, okay, I learned to do a little bit, but I never got the Double Tap. All right. I can’t do the little double tap. I can do the booze, but I can’t do the Double Tap. But I was like, yeah, I was busy studying computers.
00:4:11 -00:04:12: Zeb Ross: It pays the bills.
00:04:12- 00:04:35 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Yeah, it pays the bills. So, You guys had a good team. I know that history. You guys know your history about this really well. Your mom was on my podcast. She knows her stuff. Yeah. You’re proud of her, right? Yeah. Well, she’s very proud of you. How did that first viral video happen?
00:4:35 -00:05:19: Zeb Ross: Well, we were dancing at a place called Dark Mill Farms over in Bryson City, and we’ve been there a time or two before, but this gentleman came up and asked if he could record me and he said he was a tik toker which I had heard of. I simply don’t do social media, but if they record before, that’s perfectly fine. So, he recorded that 20 second video and that’s the last time I saw it, really. But two to three weeks later, I got a call from mom and my wife Ashley saying, you’re blowing up on Tiktok, you know made a little a cam happy to look and it went viral.
00:05:19- 00:05:22 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: it went like millions.
00:5:23 -00:05:29: Zeb Ross: The last I’ve heard, and I’m sure it’s grown since then was 700 million views and its crazy.
00:05:30- 00:05:32 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That must blow your mind, right?
00:5:33 -00:05:38: Zeb Ross: Yeah, we’ve been on YouTube before, been on Facebook, but one 20-second video on TikTok, yeah it changed our lives forever.
00:05:39- 00:05:41 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: All right, you got lots of people reaching out to you now.
00:5:42 -00:05:43: Zeb Ross: Quite a few, yes,
00:05:43- 00:05:45Joseph Franklyn McElroy: yeah. A lot of opportunities coming your way.
00:5:46 -00:06:11: Zeb Ross: Yeah. And we’re taking them just one at a time. One at a time. Because this isn’t our full-time job. This is what we do as a hobby, I’m a CNC machine operator, we’ve done that for the past ten years, we’ve been invited on the potentially going America’s Got Talent other and other bigger gigs, but I can’t take off months and month vacation.
00:06:12- 00:06:55 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Right. You know that is the thing with viral, all right? People are not prepared for something going viral. Right. So, to leverage viral events, you actually have to have infrastructure all in place. The vast majority of people that go viral have their moment. Right. And then they get to leverage that. You think that, boy, all of a sudden, you’re going to become a millionaire and it then doesn’t. I had a viral early today, so I did performance art and I did nothing like 700 million, but at the time it was really good. And I got two shows all over the world and an art show and things like that didn’t bring me a diamond look.
00:6:57 -00:07:22: Zeb Ross: It’s not all about money, we went viral. Gives us a lot of opportunities. Got to be a lot of people through it. Honestly, I thought this last a week or two of 15 minutes of fame, but it’s not about money, it’s just the joy of dancing. But we can make a little extra cash along the way. That’s perfectly fine.
00:07:23- 00:07:24 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Now, who started to call you the Legend?
00:7:25 -00:07:55: Zeb Ross: A guy named Ryan Charles is the one to blame for that. Really? One of the first ones to reach out to. He came out with a new hit single called New Food and he actually drove all the way from Nashville, Tennessee, to the Stomping Ground just right down the road. Right. And when we were doing our introduction, it wasn’t scripted, he just said, this is the Legend Zeb Ross and it stuck.
00:07:56- 00:08:00 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That’s a nice thing to have you. I’ve done it for the rest of your life. You know that, right?
00:8:01 -00:08:06: Zeb Ross: Yeah. He started selling us some merchandise T-shirts the Legend Zeb Ross.
00:08:07- 00:08:16 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Ashley, you and his mom found out about it, right? Yes. What was your reaction? How did you find out?
00:8:16 -00:10:08: Ashley Ross: I found out through Kim. I’m not a huge social media person myself. I’ve had a Facebook to stay in contact with my family in Tennessee and friends in Tennessee. But to be honest with you, she was the one who told me about him going viral, and she told me, hey, go log into TikTok and check it out. So, I did. At first, I was shocked, like, wow, this is really weird. Really getting a lot of attention. But to be honest with you, it didn’t surprise me. Right. I have always felt like when I joined the team, they were my family, not even my second family. This team is just made up of people from all walks of life with all different kinds of backgrounds, religious views, and political views. But we set that aside and we just get along. We’re just a family, just like in any other family. We all love each other and support each other, but we have different opinions about things. That’s okay. But I wasn’t surprised, to answer your question, I was not surprised that he went viral. I fell in love with the same thing that everybody else has fallen in love with. Thankfully, for the first one, you should have set up an only fans account. But no, really, I wasn’t surprised because he has such a kind heart and infectious smile and just a positive, joyful personality, and people are just drawn to that. So, I was very excited, very happy, but not surprised, because how can you not love this guy?
00:10:09- 00:10:16 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: So, Zeb, what do you call that step that everybody’s called clock clogging? That’s so smooth,
00:10:17 -00:11:10: Zeb Ross: Well, altogether, clogging is a mixture of different things. Kind of entertaining, whatever you want to. And what’s the great thing about it? It’s traditional steps. A little bit of flat footing, something called button dancing. And there are more modern steps as well. A little bit of sea walking crypt walking. Really? Yeah. Some people nicknamed my style hillbilly crippled. But my mom taught me the initial steps when I was first learning that. I kind of watched other people added my little dance thing and made up some steps along the way as well. It’s a nice combination of everything.
00:11:10- 00:11:20 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: I saw it on YouTube. You did an instruction sort of video about breaking your ankles.
00:11:21 -00:11:36: Zeb Ross: Yeah. I did a little thing on top, some people want to learn how to do some of my steps and one of the more popular ones is called the ankle break, that’s what I call it and yes, you just dance very carefully and try not to break your ankle.
00:11:37- 00:11:43 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: I thought the clue was to show that Then you probably said, you got sand on your feet.
00:11:44 -00:11:50: Zeb Ross: You put your ankle way off to the side by all the weight on your other leg. Yeah. You never want to hurt yourself. It’s just a nice illusion.
00:11:50- 00:11:56 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Now, Ashley, do you incorporate any of his moves that he does to his self?
00:11:56 -00:12:55: Ashley Ross: There is a line dance song called The Grand Daddy Long Leg that looks similar to Zeb moves, and all it is is throwing 1foot in front of you and 1foot behind you. Kind of like the Charleston move. But we do a wine dance where we do that kind of footwork. I do a little bit of that. I do the cow tail where you wind your foot behind your body. And I do, like, different steps backward, but stand still. But it looks like I’m skipping backward, but I’m not moving. I do some more of the traditional styles. I love to spin. If I had to have a signature, my signature would be spinning because I just love it. I just love the spin. Cool. I do not steal any of Zeb’s moves but I have practiced them at home. I’m not any good at them, but I’m going to keep doing it.
00:12:56- 00:13:04 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Everybody got their own natural thing. You guys are going to be dancing tonight, you got to be doing the spin, you’re going to be doing the creep walk hillbilly creep walk?
00:13:05 -00:13:20: Zeb Ross: Yeah, there’s going to be a lot of spins it sounds like. We do the dance you know, there’s nothing scripted It’s just whatever you’re feeling at that moment, like, well, I’ll do this step and maybe go into that step. So, it’s always unique whenever you do it.
00:13:21- 00:13:35 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: Right. That’s cool. Well, I know you have a big future. You’re going to be here again on November 12, I think, right? Yeah, that’ll be cool. For Meadowlark Motel. You know we’re gonna have a lot of clogging going on here. What do you see in the future for yourself?
00:13:36 -00:13:41: Zeb Ross: Hopefully just to bring joy, bring smiles and make new friends that’s what it’s all about.
00:13:41- 00:13:55 Joseph Franklyn McElroy: That’s great. Well, thank you for coming and talking with me, I look forward to seeing you tonight and then again on November 12 and watching what you’re doing online. All right thank you so much.
