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Stand-up comedian Dusty Slay, known for his blue-collar observational storytelling style, will discuss his new collection of personal essays, We’re Having a Good Time, on Thursday, Nov. 12, at Vanderbilt University. Slay will be in conversation with Rolling Stone senior music editor Joseph Hudak beginning at 6:30 p.m. in the Commodore Ballroom at the Student Life Center, 310 25th Ave. S. Doors will open at 5:30 p.m.
The event is hosted by the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries in collaboration with Parnassus Books and Dialogue Vanderbilt.
Tickets for the talk are $33.00 each (plus Eventbrite fees) and include one general admission seat and a pre-signed copy of We’re Having a Good Time, to be published on Nov. 10 by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. A signing line for book personalizations will take place following the conversation on stage.
About the book
From stand-up comedian Slay comes a collection of personal essays featuring his signature storytelling rooted in finding the hilarity in everyday life.
Dusty Slay has lived a lot of lives. At 18 years old, he dropped out of community college. At 19, his plans to join the Army were foiled by an arrest. By 21, he moved from his hometown of Opelika, Alabama, to Charleston, South Carolina.
On the coast, Slay worked as a waiter and pesticide salesman for more than a decade while moonlighting as an obscure, often drunk, open-mic comedian. It wasn’t until he quit drinking in 2012 that he started to take comedy and his unique talent for telling jokes seriously.
These personal essays chronicle the life he’s led—from growing up in a trailer park to performing at the Grand Ole Opry—with his characteristic Southern humor and wit, revealing how to find light, laughter and gratitude in everyday moments, even through life’s challenges.
About the author
Slay is a Nashville-based comedian who has been featured on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Hollywood Squares with Drew Barrymore, Comedy Central, and Netflix’s The Standups. In 2024, he released his first Netflix special, Workin’ Man, followed by his second, Wet Heat, in 2025. He is the host of the Public Figures and We’re Having a Good Time podcasts.
About the moderator
Hudak is a senior music editor at Rolling Stone, overseeing the magazine’s Nashville office and the Rolling Stone Country vertical, which covers the country and Americana genres. Prior to joining the iconic title in 2014, he was managing editor of Country Weekly magazine and spent 12 years at TV Guide magazine as an editor, dissecting and writing about all types of television programming. Most recently, he’s hosted the “Country Pickups” series for Rolling Stone Country, moderated panels and interviews with artists from Luke Bryan to John Oates, and called for the country music community to speak up about gun control and “alternative facts” in a series of essays for RollingStone.com.