Five Foot Betty joined Greg Schultz live in the KGNU studio, bringing their signature blend of humor, heart, and harmonies. The trio—Haven Slay, Liz Patton, and Sharon Glassman—shared stories behind their original songs, including the quirky parking lot-inspired “Wyoming Truck,” and spoke about their roots, creative process, and excitement for the festival. They discussed their playful rivalry with Haven’s father, Scott Slay, who is also competing, and highlighted their recent community pop-up shows across Boulder County. With live performances, laughs, and talk of donuts, lavender amulets, and shamanic driving lessons, the session captured the band’s vibrant spirit and deep love for Colorado’s music scene. (Studio Session: 7/23/25)
Greg Schultz: Heck yeah. I love it. All right, folks, you are tuned to KGNU, and we have in the studio Five Foot Betty here to talk about their participation in the band competition this week at RockyGrass in Lyons. Welcome, ladies!
Five Foot Betty: Thanks for having us, Greg.
Greg Schultz: Oh, it’s my pleasure. This is fantastic. We love live music—especially when it’s local like you guys. We’re neighbors!
Five Foot Betty: We are neighbors! And you’re gonna crack up, because the next song we’re gonna play was inspired in a parking lot in our hometown.
Greg Schultz: There you go.
Five Foot Betty: Of Longmont. Can we tell them?
Greg Schultz: Yeah, absolutely. We do have an outlier here—Liz.
Five Foot Betty: I’m up in Hygiene and Berthoud.
Greg Schultz: I love it. I’ve got a lot of friends up that way. Well, fantastic. Again, thanks for joining us. Why don’t you each introduce yourselves, and then tell us what we just heard?
Five Foot Betty: I’m Haven Slay, and the last song you just heard was Alabama Sugar, a song I co-wrote with a friend of mine named Fred Donovan in Pensacola, Florida, where I grew up. It’s about the spirit of a lonesome fiddle player, which Sharon portrayed beautifully. That song will be coming out on streaming platforms in the next three or four weeks—Spotify, Apple Music, all the things.
And then we transitioned into Whiskey Before Breakfast, an old fiddle tune.
Greg Schultz: Yeah! Who doesn’t like that? The song and the whiskey before breakfast. At one point, I might’ve done that once or twice…
Five Foot Betty: I’m Liz Patton. I play bass and have been out at RockyGrass Academy. If you wanna talk about Whiskey Before Breakfast, it’s crowded out there!
Greg Schultz: Yeah, well, that kind of goes hand in hand, doesn’t it?
Five Foot Betty: A little bit.
Greg Schultz: You gotta work hard for those seats, so you deserve it once you get there—if you haven’t already had some before you got there!
Five Foot Betty: And I’m Sharon Glassman. I am the smallest Betty. We are named for a real-life banjo player named Betty Amos, who had a fascinating story. Her bluegrass band’s plane was going down over an ice floe in Canada. They threw their instruments out, landed safely, were rescued, and still made it to the gig on time.
We like to say: “If Betty could do that, we can do this.” Yay, RockyGrass Band Competition!
And “Five Foot”? You can’t see us, but you can probably imagine where that comes from.
Greg Schultz: I can vouch for that.
Five Foot Betty: This next song, as we hinted, is a love song inspired by the parking lot over at Third and Terry—if you want to go visit the site!
Greg Schultz: Before we do that, let’s talk about RockyGrass. This weekend—let’s talk about your foray into Lyons, when people can see you, how it’s all shaken out for you, and any good stories behind that. We’re looking forward to it.
Five Foot Betty: Sure! RockyGrass—can we say the most amazing bluegrass festival in the world?
Greg Schultz: Oh, yes.
Five Foot Betty: Pretty darn close! We got a thumbs-up in the studio booth. They have a wonderful opportunity for new bands to be heard—it’s the band competition. The first round happens on Saturday at 1:00 PM. The second round happens on Sunday at 1:00 PM. And the winner takes the stage next year as the opening band.
We are super excited. We’ve been working in the studio—i.e., the living room—and popping up across Boulder County. We played our set at a lavender field at dawn for the folks who were going to weed it. We popped up at a donut shop, which was super fun. We hosted a block party. And now, here we are at KGNU!
It’s all about bringing the community into the process. We’re also wearing amulets that Liz made. They have donut sprinkles, lavender fronds, and a little bit of the top of a Betty Buzz ginger beer bottle that we’re carrying with us.
Greg Schultz: I love that place! A bunch of friends of mine meet there once a month. It’s good people—and downtown Longmont and all these small towns are really kicking butt these days. It’s wonderful to get out and support them along with the live music—right hand in hand.
Alrighty, well, yeah—we’ll be streaming all weekend. We start Friday night and go live Saturday morning on KGNU at 9:00 AM, right after Honky Tonk Heroes. So folks, be ready. If you can’t make it up there, you can still tune in.
And it looks like you guys are on at 9:15… is that the Instrumental Contest Finals? Not sure I got that right.
Five Foot Betty: We’re playing the 1:00 PM band contest. It’s under the Wildflower Pavilion schedule on the RockyGrass website.
Greg Schultz: Okay, I’ll take your word for it. Cool! That’s fantastic. All right—let’s hear another tune and then we’ll jump back and talk more about what you guys are doing. So take it away.
(Five Foot Betty performs “Wyoming Truck”)
Greg Schultz: Oh man, I love that one! Who wrote it?
Five Foot Betty: I’m the resident New Yorker in the group.
Greg Schultz: Right.
Five Foot Betty: I didn’t really know how to drive when I moved to Colorado, so I got driving lessons from a shamanic instructor in Boulder County. I had learned to repel objects using my energetic force field and other useful skills for drivers, but I lacked things like three-point turns.
I found this parking lot in town where you could park for three hours. The spots are really wide. One time I picked a random spot—and there it was: the most beautiful truck in the world. Pine tree on the side, Wyoming license plate. If you’re listening, we love you. Also, we’d like to shoot a music video with you. Please!
Greg Schultz: I just love the genesis of that song. It’s always great to hear where songwriters get their inspiration from. And for someone like me who loves singer-songwriters, it’s nice to know that didn’t just come from a dream. That would’ve been a weird dream!
Five Foot Betty: I like to say I come from the Dr. Seuss School of Songwriting. I usually like a good rhyme and don’t often pull from real life—but when life hands you a story like that, how can you say no?
Greg Schultz: No kidding! So, real quick—each of you, tell us a bit about where you’re from. You’ve got an interesting geographical mix in the band.
Five Foot Betty: I grew up in Texas and spent most of my life down there. I moved to Colorado just shy of two years ago to play music full-time because the community here is amazing. Honestly, it beats the tar out of Austin. Sorry, Austin! I’ve fallen in with these lovely ladies and so many wonderful folks up here. It’s been great.
I love you, Liz. You’re my favorite truck-driving queen.
Five Foot Betty: I’m Haven Slay, and I grew up in Pensacola, Florida—right on the Florida-Bama line, hence the song Alabama Sugar. I moved here when I was 15 with my mom, finished high school out here, and decided to stay because I fell in love with the music scene. I’m now 19, so that’s four years in this beautiful Rocky Mountain state. Thank you, Colorado. I love you.
Greg Schultz: You’ve got a story to tell—especially about what’s going on this weekend in the competition. Can you share that?
Five Foot Betty: Smackdown! You do not want to miss the RockyGrass Bluegrass Festival at Planet Bluegrass in Lyons, Colorado. And if you can’t go, you definitely don’t want to miss the KGNU broadcast.
There’ll be amazing bands. My friend Corey Chubb and his band Off the Rails won the contest last year and will open the festival on Friday. I’m excited to hear them. My friend Anthony Howell is playing banjo with Seth Mulder and Midnight Run—also on Friday, I think. And I’m excited to see my friends Liam Purcell and Cane Mill Road, as well as Jake Leg. The frontliners are local Colorado folks—it’s a good time.
Greg Schultz: And the story about your father?
Five Foot Betty: Oh yeah. There might be a little throwdown—Slay versus Slay! My dad, Scott Slay, will be playing with Slay and Stinson in the band contest. I’ll be playing with Five Foot Betty. So it’s going to be a bit of a smackdown. I say: bring it on! Girls versus boys.
Greg Schultz: Let’s see if they can keep up! If he’s listening in—he’s raised a competent young musician, that’s for sure. I love that angle. Thanks for sharing that.
You play originals, but you’ve also covered everything from Buck Owens to Doris Day!
Five Foot Betty: Yeah! We ask ourselves when listening to a song: What does it mean? Is it witty? Warmhearted? Maybe a little nerdy? We’re very pro-nerdy.
When we found Doris Day’s Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps—which was originally a Spanish song— we thought, “Who knew Doris Day was so cool?” So we’re excited to bring that one to you.
Greg Schultz: Of course you did. You’re the coolest.
Five Foot Betty: We’re just catching up to your level of awesomeness!
Greg Schultz: I don’t know much else!
Five Foot Betty: We love lyrics. We love a good story. There’s that beautiful place where a country pun just perfectly balances—right on the edge. Not going over into cheese, just balancing in the genius zone. That’s our happy place.
Greg Schultz: And you arrange it in your own style—which is the fun part about doing covers.
Five Foot Betty: Absolutely. There’s a “Betty Way.” It’s vocal-rich. We have fiddle, upright bass, guitar—and now a banjo-guitar to play our theme song about Betty Amos. We’re not above using shakers and maracas. And in September, we’re playing at Oskar Blues in Lyons! We even recruited a young trumpet player.
Greg Schultz: Never go to a bluegrass jam—you might get “Betty-fied!”
Five Foot Betty: That’s right!
Greg Schultz: Before we go, tell folks where they can catch you live.
Five Foot Betty: Sure! We’re opening for Jeremy Garrett on August 30 at the Parkway Food Hall in Longmont. We’ll also be at Oskar Blues in September and have more gigs coming in August. Check out fivefootbetty.com or follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook—we’d love to be your friend!
Greg Schultz: What about the LEAF benefit show?
Five Foot Betty: Absolutely! That’s happening August 24 in Lyons.
Greg Schultz: Hopefully, people show up!
Five Foot Betty: There’s a lot of info—it’s on a need-to-know basis. Just bring us a donut and we’ll tell you where we’re playing.
Greg Schultz: That’s fantastic. Folks, get out and see these ladies. As you can tell, they’ve got great humor—stand-up comedy-level stuff. We appreciate you gracing our airwaves. Shout out to Liz, the bass player, for being the first one here. Always a beautiful thing.
And of course—shout out to George Figgs!
Five Foot Betty: You’re our hero!
Greg Schultz: Absolutely. What are you taking us out with?
Five Foot Betty: Sure! This is a song I wrote when we decided to do the band competition. It’s called Time to Fly.
