Marissa R. Moss
View all posts by Marissa R. Moss September 29, 2026 Add us as a Google Preferred Source
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Mike Vanata* The VMAs may have already passed, but Willi Carlisle (and a puppet Tyler Childers) may have just given us a new contender for our favorite video of the year.
Co-written by Carlisle, Kenny Miles, and Childers, “Gas Station” is a tale of finding your identity on the road and away from convention — even if sustenance comes from a couple of questionable gas station hot dogs. From Carlisle’s upcoming Childers-produced double album, The Universal Bubba, the video for “Gas Station” finds a rambling Carlisle accompanied by puppet versions of Childers (complete with a signature green cardigan) and his band, the Food Stamps, who also played on album. Directed by Mike Vanata of Western AF, it’s pretty damn joyful.
“This record came together by luck, passion, and circumstance,” Carlisle told Rolling Stone about the making of The Universal Bubba. “Tyler and I had talked a lot about songs while I was opening for him. We sat down and played old-time fiddle music together, too, which was a big joy. I played banjo, Tyler fiddled, and we just gabbed on this and that. We talked about ‘Tomcat and a Dandy,’ his song on Snipe Hunter, and played it through a few times together. It truly was just a fun time, an Appalachian and an Ozark guy picking tunes, sharing folk music.”
Carlisle explained in a statement that “Gas Station” didn’t start as a Childers co-write, but once they found themselves together in the makeshift New Orleans studio where the album was recorded, it all came together organically.
