North Carolina musicians find surprise viral fame with 'The Righteous Gemstones' hit

The HBO comedy "The Righteous Gemstones" — known for its morally bankrupt televangelists and dark humor — wrapped its final season this month. But the music that helped define the show’s offbeat tone is still making waves.

One song in particular, “Turn the Other Cheek,” has gone viral, bringing unexpected attention to the duo behind it — a North Carolina team known as Hot Goat Music. Under the direction of the show’s music supervisor DeVoe Yates, Rick Randall of Winston-Salem and Mike Mitschele of Charlotte produced a wide range of music for the series, from gospel anthems to ’80s-inspired pop ballads.

Going Viral

“Turn the Other Cheek” drives a standout moment in Season 4: Uncle Baby Billy’s dance battle as teenage Jesus on his fictional TV show, Teenjus. It’s over-the-top in a way that feels distinctly Gemstones. Randall and Mitschele knew they had something special when they finished it — but they weren’t expecting what happened next.

“Right when I was trying to get to sleep, I looked and we were on (Stephen) Colbert, and I was like, 'Oh,' and I couldn't sleep after that,” Randall said.

Colbert was the tip of the iceberg though — the song really blew up on TikTok. Neither of them even had the app — they had to download it just to see what was happening.

“And then Eric Roberts, Julia Roberts’ brother sent me a thing like, ‘Hey, I want to do this joint post on Instagram.’ And so that was weird,” Randall said. “And then Emma Roberts followed us right after that.”

“All the Roberts are on board,” Mitschele added. “We’re just waiting for Julia.”

@streamonmaxau Dance, Teenjus dance. #babybilly #righteousgemstones #hbo #max ♬ original sound - Max Australia

This level of attention is new for the duo, but collaboration is not. “Turn the Other Cheek” is one of many songs they’ve written together since they were teenagers growing up near Charlotte.

“I can remember one time, we were both playing in a battle of the bands to see who would play at the big project graduation thing at Carowinds,” Randall said. “And I broke a string right before we were about to play. And Mike was standing there with his shiny red guitar. And I said, ‘Hey, can I borrow your guitar?’”

“Nope, we were rivals,” said Mitschele, laughing. “That wasn’t happening.”

That early rivalry eventually gave way to a friendship, and then a band: The Alternative Champs. The group made a name for itself in the North Carolina music scene, signed with a label, and even had some of its songs appear in Hollywood productions like Employee of the Month.

They stayed near the Charlotte area though, where they connected with Danny McBride’s production company, Rough House Pictures. McBride, a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, was looking for musicians to help score his new series and appear on screen as the church band “Tears of David.”

Finding the Sound

At first, McBride wasn’t looking for parody — he wanted songs that could believably play in a modern megachurch. That meant some trial and error for Randall and Mitschele.

“It took us a few passes at the beginning to figure out what this particular band would sound like,” Randall said. “And it was kind of funny — we offered, you know, four or five songs, and then at the last minute, Mike threw in this song, not thinking that it would be accepted at all.”

“I thought it was horrible,” Mitschele said. “I was like, 'Well, we’ll put this one in there, and this will be the one that kind of pushes them toward the other songs.' And that was the one that Danny loved.”

That song — “In His Light” — ended up in the pilot. As Gemstones grew into more of a character-driven comedy, the music evolved too — giving Hot Goat Music space to lean into their comedic sensibilities.

“It evolved. And it was really cool because it aligned with kind of what our goals were,” Randall said. “We started out just stoked to be on the show at all and to have songs being played. And then once they, I think, got confident that we could pull off some songs, they started throwing us a little bit bigger songs.”

One of those was the theme for Baby Billy’s Bible Bonkers, a fictional Bible trivia game show — and one of the duo’s favorite compositions.

“I remember a moment where we were a little bit stuck on some of the music,” Randall said, “And we just took a minute, and each of us did a little demo pass, and then when we played it back, they were crazy similar.”

Many of their songs were performed by actor Walton Goggins, who plays the scene-stealing Baby Billy. Randall and Mitschele got to know him well during the recording process.

“I remember talking to him, and he was talking to me like Walton Goggins, you know, like a regular person,” Randall said. “And then he turned around to go to the vocal booth, and he kind of had, like, the Baby Billy limp going on. And I was like, 'Oh my God,' there it is.”

They reunited with Goggins more recently to record “Turn the Other Cheek.”

“He literally had just gotten back from Thailand and doing 'The White Lotus,' and he was literally still wearing the clothes from his character Rick on the show,” Randall said. “But he popped in and he totally had the rap down memorized, and just, you know, came in and kind of nailed it.”

Goggins’ behind-the-scenes video from that session helped amplify the song’s viral reach.

What’s Next

Randall and Mitschele say they’re still figuring out what exactly sparked the song’s success — but they have theories.

“It was a lot of things kind of coinciding,” Randall said. “Our skills and our responsibilities for songwriting on the show were increasing, and we were getting these cooler songs. We’re getting better at pulling them off production-wise. And then here’s Walton — he’s like the biggest actor going right now. And then it was Gemstones’ last season,” Randall said. “I think it was sort of like we were set up for it to be kind of a buzz-worthy tune.”

Even as their profile grows, both musicians say they’re staying put in the Tar Heel state.

“I think the model that Danny and Rough House Pictures has shown us is that it doesn’t matter so much where you live,” Randall said. “In fact, there are advantages to being in the South, as far as shooting locations and the cost and all that. And we can do all sorts of stuff remotely.”

Though "The Righteous Gemstones" has ended, Randall and Mitschele say they aren’t slowing down — they’ve got more projects in the works, including continued collaborations with McBride and the Rough House crew.