Chasing Dreams from Kentucky to Hollywood, Personal Freedom Battles, and Finding New Purpose w/Leigh-Allyn Baker :: Ep 19 Try That In a Small Town Podcast
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The thing that gets me is every now and then you'd see a person by themselves in their car driving with the mask fully on. Oh, yeah. See, those are the people I want to run off the road. If I had a bigger car, I would run them off the road. I'm going to pay the people I pray for, but yes. Do you carry? Oh, yeah. I got lots of death threats, and so I learned to shoot a gun really well. You know, I'm not saying you won't lose your friends or you won't pay a price, basically. There is a price that I've paid.

And I got a little choked up and this girl yells from the back, we love you, mom. And I look up and they're all yelling, we love you, mom. And they're all doing the heart sign. And for the first time, I just thought, oh, I mean, I would do it anyway. I would speak up for this generation no matter what.

But to get a glimpse of the fact that they see it and they need it and they love it, it was just the best highlight of my entire career. The Try That in a Small Town podcast begins now. We got our first actor on the show tonight. Murray Kentucky Redneck. I like him. Yeah. And...

My daughter, my youngest daughter, had to be here tonight. She's sitting over there watching because we told her that Lee Allen Baker was coming on the show tonight. Yes. Yes. Listen to that. One of America's favorite moms. How many people did you bring? I said, how many people did you bring? These are all your people clapping for you. We've got a studio audience tonight. I love it. Thanks for being here. It was good. My pleasure. Thank you very much.

Big fan. I said a bunch of rednecks wanted to interview a redneck, and I'm here to have them for it. There's a couple. We have good diversity here. We have an upstate New York redneck.

An Iowa redneck. I'm an Iowa boy. Chattanooga redneck and an Alabama redneck. There you go. And Kentucky completes the table. Kentucky. You complete it. And you're our first actor on the show. Wow. And thank you for showing up. You're welcome. Yes. Yes. Well, no, I was just going to say, for people that know Lee Allen, she was in Will and Grace, Charmed.

And probably most famously, Good Luck Charlie. Disney's Good Luck Charlie. And for those of you that don't know Lee Allen, maybe you should start there. How did that show come about with Good Luck Charlie? Maybe how long were you in L.A. before you got that? Maybe some struggles? Oh, struggles. I've got a few. You can write a song about it. Yeah. So my first pilot audition ever. That's a show that they audition and make.

Right. At the beginning of a year to see what shows they're going to pick up for television. And my first pilot season out of college, I booked pilot. And not only did I book it, it got picked up. There was friends. And then there was my show. One of them lasted. One of them didn't. Now, I will say we went for 12 episodes. It was really it was really cute show.

And, uh, Debra Messing had a show, Ned and Stacey at the time that was partnered with our show, which was called The Last Frontier. Cut to, I auditioned, test and book, probably multiple pilots. I make a living off of,

Killing pilots. And it wasn't until I was 36 years old that I got good luck. Charlie was a show that got picked up and went and was actually the number one show in the world at the time. So I went from getting my very first gig, it getting picked up.

to it being a season of struggle bus until I was 36 years old. That's unbelievable. And you moved to LA when? I moved there when I was 18 to go to USC. And you were like, I want to be an actress. Yeah. Oh yeah. I was going to be Julia Roberts. I didn't turn out that way. I'm good with that. You could have been. I could have been. But she was already Julia Roberts. So I decided, you know what? I'm just going to be Lee Allen Baker. It's just a timing thing. It was. Yeah.

It's true, though, like in entertainment, like the struggle. Yeah. But also the perseverance. And it's a great story. Yeah. And it makes it all somehow worth it. You know, you talk about a lot of years. You know, that's the great part of the story when you look back probably, right? Yes, it is. Seeing it through? Seeing it through. Perseverance. You know, look, I think that God puts you through experiences in your life to really –

I tell people pressure can either burst a pipe or build a diamond and it's your choice and what you want to make of it. So to me, he has used all of my life experiences to really make me pretty headstrong,

Pretty bold, pretty brazen at times. And I don't think that there's anything I can't do. Except for mow lawns. I won't mow lawns. I would if I had one of those fancy tractor kind of things that I had air conditioning. Could be a good business. I would do that. Zero turn, maybe? Yeah. No, but it's true. It's like, you know, people think even in, like Tali said, in most entertainment businesses, you

People think, oh, you show up and it happens. Like, you know, for people that obviously know, we play with Jason Aldean and people think, oh, he showed up, he got a record deal and he became famous. Well, that's not the story. People think you moved to LA, got your show, you became famous. That's just not how it works. And that is, you know, how and why you look back. And it's those times that build you, give you that character. And so good luck, Charlie. 2010, is that right? Yes.

Were you excited about that? Did you audition? I was not excited. I thought that Disney Channel was where adults' careers go to die. And I thought,

I thought, what am I doing? But you know, I was pregnant. I was nine months pregnant. At the time of the audition? At the time, I wouldn't audition. I wouldn't audition. I had done another show for them, a pilot for them, and I was tired of messing around with Disney, and I didn't think that they paid enough. And I decided, I actually had a show, a pilot on HBO that we did 13 episodes of, and they put $30 million into this show. Oh, wow. They even advertised it after The Sopranos as the best is yet to come. It was Lily Tomlin, Mary Kay Place, Gary Cole, myself. Wow.

It was the part to have. And then what happened was Chris Albrecht, the head of HBO, slapped his girlfriend on video in Las Vegas. Oh, no. And so the board members decided we need a new guy to come in and we don't want any of his stuff on our air. And so here I was. I always say that my career is like, hello, square one. We meet again. You know? Kind of like Kalo's.

There you go. See, it happens, my friend. Let's go to lunch. Sorry, Caleb. It was hanging out there. Low-hanging fruit. Low-hanging fruit. You took it. Good chicken bio. Chicken bio. But they wanted me to audition. I'd done an episode of this show called Hannah Montana, which is really big in the United States. Yes. You've heard of it. Yes. And I was pregnant on it. And they were like, oh, my gosh, it reminds us. We're doing this show about a mom who has a baby and goes back to work.

And so they were like, well, you audition. I was like, not really interested. And then finally they were like, well, will you test for it? We've got it down to the family. We want what you test. So I went in nine months pregnant.

I forgot a line. And one of the kids says, I have a line there. And I said, I grew an ear today. What did you do? So I think that that kind of like me bringing just my personality and being so pregnant, I didn't care what they thought of me, that they had to have me. And then they...

I ended up not going into labor until very late. So they cast another girl for the pilot and then they released her and hired me to do the series. And it ended up being one of the best experiences of my life. It was incredible. It was so fun. And what they did was Disney had decided instead of just doing a show for kids, we want to do a show for the family. We're going to take network veteran writers and actors, Eric Allen Kramer and myself and

And we're going to put them with kids and see what happens and make it an ensemble. So it was basically Disney's version of a TGI Friday. And it was huge. It was a big success. Yeah.

That's amazing. You mentioned Deborah Messing. Was that the connection to your Will & Grace role or was it just coincidence? That just happened to be. So for Will & Grace, that was another pilot that I had tested for. I had actually tested for the role of Karen. She was originally written, the role was originally written to be a young girl with a rich father fresh out of college. Wow.

And they couldn't find anyone to take past the studio level with me. I'm the only one who made it past studio, but you can't go to a network and be like, we have one choice. They don't like that. They like choices. Yeah.

So they went back to the writer's room and they rewrote it as a woman with a really rich husband who's older. And, you know, look, they made a great choice. She's fabulous. Yeah, she's, you know. Meghamel, all these fantastic. So that is how that occurred. And so they were like, gosh, we feel so bad. Would you want to play the friend? And I was like, sure, I'll play the friend. You know, so that was one of the, that was a pilot season where I tested 13 times. Oh, wow. And I also saw that you, I have to bring this up because it's one of my favorite shows.

King of Queens. Yes. I had to get to that. I couldn't wait to. That role was supposed to be a voiceover for

And I just auditioned for voiceover. And then they saw me come in and they're like, oh no, you got to do this part. We're going to put you on camera. So, um, voiceover meaning like you were like on the phone or like, it was supposed to be me on the phone. Okay. Yeah. And then they rewrote it. That's awesome. Love that show. They're really nice people too on that show. That was a, that was a really good show. Did you get to meet Jerry Stiller? I didn't get to meet Jerry Stiller. He was in the basement. He was hiding. He's on a different day. He was intimidated. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, but it was... On Will and Grace that Kurt just mentioned,

I'm just kind of curious because that was so long ago. And with, with, thank you for that. Way to go, Kayla. Oh, your chair looks comfy. I'm okay with that. You just passed your next part. So congratulations. Yes, please. I'm going on vacation for extended. Great show. I love that show. Uh,

I don't love everyone on it. I love a lot of people on it. Who don't you love? There's one that is not my cup of tea. It's just us. Nobody else is listening. There's one that is not my cup of tea. There is one that I've seen one treat the other so badly that I've never seen such...

despicable behavior on the set. We have that in our industry. We have people that we like and people we don't like. When are we going to get to the point where we can actually say their names? Yeah, when does that happen? Next week. Tune in. Part two. As Neil goes rogue on Music Row. Let's go to more happy cast and crews. What was your favorite set? Good Luck Charlie. Really good. Yeah.

And that's one of the things that I told all the kids when we left. It was such a great experience from the time that we stepped foot on to the end. I tell them when we first got together, I said, listen, you've wanted to do this your whole life. Some of them like all 10 years of their life. You're doing it.

Like, there is no... That is the... That was the sorrow of watching them on Will & Grace is that there was such a pressure cooker to have that catapult you to being a film star. Because remember, that was at the time when you were either a TV star or the film star and neither the twain shall meet and you definitely don't do commercials. Right. You know, right? Look at how things have changed now, am I right? And you see that all the time now, but that was the

But that was like Kiss of Death. Oh, they did a commercial. What? Oh, nobody's going to touch them now, you know. I watched them on Will and Grace go from how do I get to the next step and how do I climb that ladder and into the film industry? Because everybody really wanted to be in the film industry. So it was like this brilliant comedy that they were on. They just kind of sometimes felt was a stepping stone. And so when we were on Good Luck Charlie, I said, hey, guess what? You wanted to be an actor on a show.

And the time is now. Congratulations, you're doing it. Like, you're doing it. Like, someone who has, you know, been in this industry getting pilot after pilot after pilot, if you don't think I'm going to enjoy every single day that I come to work and be thankful and hit the ground running with joy in my heart and a smile on my face, then you don't know me because we got it good. I mean, we're not curing cancer, right? We're making people laugh.

I get to go to work and be silly. How great is that? It's unbelievable. And we talk about this all the time because, you know, in a similar way, we struggled. And when we got here, there were still struggles. And when Jason hit, and he'd be the first one to say this, it doesn't take a day for granted.

And you know you have a window. You just don't know how big the window is. And it can close at any time. So be thankful for every day. And I think that we've felt that way. And luckily, we're still in the window. And that's awesome. But we know that it could end at any time. And you're right. If you don't approach life that way, you're missing it. You just absolutely miss it. Which I think is the positive, at least I look at it, the positive end of the struggle.

Yeah. I feel like without that struggle, sometimes you don't realize how good it is when it's happening. Sure. So looking back on it, it's like, it sucks to go through that. But like for us, like he said, I know we're all the same way. At any moment, we feel like it can end. Right. Because you know what it's like when you're trying to get there. Yeah. And because it's good. So you don't take it for granted. Yeah, exactly. I saw my kids today in the dark. I mean, in the car driving to school, I was like, you know, you see the light in the dark. And that's one thing Walt Disney knew.

I mean, let's look at his first big film, Snow White. It started with a woman trying to kill a girl with a knife, right? It was pretty dark. But then, you know. I like that side of Disney. You said it's the dark. It's Disney at the dark. I like the good dark side of Disney. I miss that. You can't see a candle in the light very clearly, but boy, it can light up an entire room in the dark. Wow. When did it start, your transition from Hollywood to moving back here?

That was a clutch overnight decision. Really? Do you say overnight? I fled overnight with my children and the good dog. Oh, wow. I left my husband. In a wagon, a horse in a wagon. You fled in the middle of the night. What led up to that? Like...

communist COVID policies. That's what I mean. What were the things that got you going? You know, and your views changing on abortion and things like that and COVID and all these things. So what happened was I vaccinated my children and they almost died from their vaccines. That's what happened. One of them flat out had inflammation of the brain and had seizures.

And so I had medical exemptions. And in 2019, behind closed doors in California, Gavin Newsom was signing laws that would ban medical exemptions. And only 4,000 children in the state of California actually had medical exemptions. And what they would say to you is, well, you don't...

I would say, well, how can you, if the doctor has acknowledged that they will die if they have these, then why would I give my kids these to what, go to school? And they're like, well, you don't have to do it for them to go to school. You could homeschool. So see, that's the game. That's the game that they're playing is this. This is the game that I'm here to make sure they don't play in Tennessee. And believe me when I tell you they're playing this game. Okay. In California, it started out

You don't have, we don't have the right to tell you what to do medically with your child. Every child has a right to go to school. And then it quickly changed to, oh, no, you have to get a vaccine. And then the people were like, but we don't want to do that product on our child. And so then the state says, okay, fine, fine, fine. We will meet you halfway. You can have a personal exemption, a medical exemption, and a religious exemption. So the people say, oh, well, that sounds fair. That's not fair. They've just taken away your right to not, to say no. They've said you have an exemption.

Okay, so then what do they take away? Your personal belief exemption, that's gone. So then what do they take away? Religious exemption, that's gone. Oh, now what's left? Medical exemption. But COVID is coming down the pipe, and they know this. So there are backroom doors in 2019 at the end saying, nope, we're going to make...

vaccinations mandatory for all children. And you're talking, I'm sorry to interrupt, but you're talking like normal, well, normal childhood, all 72 childhood vaccines. Yes, normal ones. But then they signed a Senate resolution. And this is where my perspective of COVID was different. This is where I had a little bit of clarity and insight that God had exposed me to through my experiences that made my viewpoint a little bit different.

So they had signed a Senate resolution in California. A Senate resolution is nothing more than, hey, we're all on this team and we signed a paper saying that we like this idea. It really is nothing. It doesn't mean it's a bill passed. But that Senate resolution said that they acknowledged that a vaccine schedule was good for all people, including adults. And I went, oh, hold a phone. Something is wrong.

They're cooking up something. This was in 2019. Yes. Okay. Go on. October of 2019, right around that time of event 201 going down. So when they introduced the pandemic and medical exemptions were taken from children, I knew my time was limited there anyway, because I couldn't, my children would not be able to go to school there. Long story short, I moved here and realized, oh, the school system's not great here either. I'm going to homeschool them instead. Yeah.

But that is, that's kind of the quick version of, Gavin Newsom had actually gone on record and television and said that after COVID, that California would not be back to normal until every person had been vaccinated in the entire state. And that is to me, that is not just communism. That is a loaded gun my friend pointed out my kids' heads. And I don't mess with that. And that's when I come out swinging.

So, and that guy, when they talk about Gavin Newsom, we talk about this, his name comes up. We even on the road, we'll be talking about him. And it's like, you know, it feels like the, that party's trying to work him in eventually. And I'm like, what, what's the appeal? Like, what would he run on? Like just a, it's off topic a little bit, but what good has he done? Because he's practically a, he's practically like a child of the Geffen family. Like,

He's really in with, there's families that are, there's this whole, like, do a deep dive into, like, the people who run California and see where he fits into that. That had to be tough, though. I mean, not only brave to do what you did, to give up everything that was going on in Hollywood for you. My kids or my career. It's an easy choice. That's exactly right. And so what year was it? Was it 2019 or 2020 that you were? 2019, I was really behind the scenes kind of working things, trying to get work in legislation and get, but trying to be,

salvage my career. And then I saw what was happening as soon as the paper came out, Bill and Melinda Gates offer $180 million to COVID vaccine philanthropy, philanthropy with a 20 to one return on investment. That's when I was like, Oh,

I see what they're doing. Oh, this is the mandatory vaccine schedule that Warren Buffett is talking about in his book that could make them billions of dollars in an untapped market. I see, I'm connecting the dots and I see where this is going and I'm not going to play that game.

Wow. So this was in, but so you did move to Tennessee in 2020. Yes. During COVID, I guess, outbreak. Yes, we had, I made it, I think, 58 days of lockdown. And then I decided I don't like communism. It's not for me. I like to live freely and I'm not doing it. You said you're doing it right by your kids. Yeah. Yeah.

So looking back, it's just crazy even thinking back to that. It's, I mean, the lockdown. Oh yeah, the lockdown. I think the craziest thing for me, and I've heard people say, you know, wow, that was so brave of you to give it up. And I realized the other day, like, I really wasn't brave. I didn't even give it a second thought. That's awesome. I didn't even, and I would never give it a second thought. And I'd come out swinging again.

What surprised me was that when I turned to look behind me, nobody was there. I was surprised at how nobody in Hollywood had balls. Nobody. That it took a mother of a Disney Channel show to stand up for America's kids and say, you don't have the right to force any medical product, certainly not from the most corrupt industry in the history of the world, on our children. And nobody was there to back me up.

So was it that nobody had balls there or they just believed the agenda? No, there are people. Hollywood is really mostly healthy people that believe in holistic healing and working out and food is your medicine. Believe me, they're not taking this. But they love to virtue signal about it. Hollywood loves to virtue signal. They got to be the first to post at Black Square. They got to be the first to say this and the first to do that without really taking a look at it.

what does that mean? It doesn't mean what they say it means. Oh, that's a Marxist agenda. Oh, that money's not going to where they say it's going to go. It's not going to help. It's being funneled and, you know, it's just a way to launder money for individuals and to push a Marxist revolution. Yeah.

Then you bring it to Williamson County and start causing trouble here. And then I come here and stir it up. Right away. Boots on the ground. It's great. I got to say this, Lee Allen. So I wasn't familiar with Good Luck Charlie. It wasn't my era or whatever. But so as we're getting ready for the show, we all kind of do our research, right? And we're going through. And I come across this video. And I go, you ever seen that Leonardo DiCaprio meme where he's pointing at the TV? It was like.

I know her. And that's where I knew you because I vividly remember this time period. And, of course, I have a son in school. He was how old at the time? Seven, eight. And it was a big deal. They were trying to reintroduce the mask mandates, right? Mm-hmm.

And I do remember it was Clay Travis at that meeting as well. Clay was there. Yeah. So I remember him speaking and then I saw the video and you brought down the house. Yeah, that sucker went, that sucker had legs. That sucker's still walking to this day. Yeah. Pretty amazing. And you stood up and I'm sure said what was on a lot of people's minds was,

But, you know, as you do the Google, I got to do this. As you do the Google, you see where the words that were used on you. This is good. It's good stuff. It was an outburst. It was a rant. It was misinformation. You are a domestic terrorist, I think. Joe Biden called me a domestic terrorist and it was the rant heard around the world.

So explain to people what happened here. So what happened was I was asked to go to a school board meeting and I was driving around with my kids that day, just focusing on them. And I'm like, no, I'm not doing it. I'm tired of doing things for other people. I'm not doing it. And a friend called me and said, please, we just want you to come. And I don't even know if you'll speak, but please come and support us. And my kids said, mom, you stand up for us every day. And I think it's time you stand up for some other kids too. And I was like, oh, yeah.

I just got homeschooled by my husband.

So last minute, my friend comes by to pick me up and I just ordered these books and I grab them. It's Declaration of Independence, Constitution, these little papers, and the Bible. And I grab them. And I thought, well, I'm going to go. One thing I'm good at is I'm a good cheerleader. I want to get the crowd going. If they're bored outside, I can entertain them while they're all waiting around for this silly thing. I get there. Of course, all the speaker spots are taken. And this girl comes up to me and she goes, I got here early. I got this ticket and I want you to have it. I need you to speak for us. And I thought,

I don't know what I'm going to say. I don't know what I'm going to say. And then they called my name. And I remember saying, I remember feeling this overwhelming sense of gratitude that really brought tears to my eyes that I'm living in this moment in time. And it may just be a short time at this point, who knows, where I have the freedom to stand up here and say what I want to say. What do I want to say? And that moment was not lost on me.

And I just said, I'm so thankful to be here. I had been, you know, in my perspective, I'd fled terrorism. I think I made a joke about I'm a refugee from California. And I said, and I've been met here in Tennessee with open arms. And that's the truth. Like the first day that I went into a Whole Foods with my kids, I didn't even know what I would do. My kids are like, why are we here? I'm like, I don't know. I don't know. We're at Whole Foods. We fled communism. We're at Whole Foods. Just

Just get something that's organic. You're free. Buy organic things, kids. Do it. You know? And we had no masks on, of course. And it was still here where people were wanting you to wear them. And I just didn't. I just walked in like I own the place and didn't.

this woman comes up to me and she goes, thank you so much for not wearing a mask and not making your kids wear them. And I was like, I will never wear a mask, you know? And she said, I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to pray for you. And I remember getting in the car afterwards and I called my husband and I was like, you're not going to believe this. I met a woman in Whole Foods and like she said she was going to pray for me and she meant it. Right. I,

People in California don't do that. People in California were hiding behind plexiglass and standing an ace on the ground. I'm sorry, people. If you're one of those people that stood in a circle six feet apart on the ground, I think you need to have a mental illness check. I really do. It's insane. It's nuts. It really is. Looking back on some of that stuff, it's like, you know what my favorite thing was about that? They pulled it in Nashville too. They make you wear your mask

A coffee shop or whatever. Yeah, yeah. For some reason, though, when you ordered food, you could take your mask off and eat the food. Yeah, when you're spreading germs. Yes. And you could pull it down and smoke a cigarette. What was that all about? Yes, yes. If you're eating, it's okay. You know why? The germs don't come out. I'll tell you what it's about. There's a group of elites sitting in a room laughing their asses off at how stupid we are. Yes. That is what it's about. No doubt. That's what it is. No doubt. Let's make them...

Wear it when they can pick it up when they order food. We're going to tell them that it's airborne. But if they put a piece of plastic in front of them, they won't get it. I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous. It doesn't go through the plastic. No, no, no, no, no, no. It's magic. It's Disney. Yes. Disney magic. The thing that gets me is every now and then you'd see a person by themselves in their car driving. Yeah.

With the mask fully on. See, those are the people I want to run off the road. If I had a bigger car, I would run them off the road. I'm going to say they're people I pray for, but yes. I'm sorry about that. I'll pray for them as well. But I'm trying to process. I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. I'm thinking, okay, if you're at a red light and the person in front of you

If they have it and they've got their window down and they cough and it gets sucked up through your AC, possibly maybe that's why they're wearing it. I don't know. I don't say a word to them. I just pull up. I don't say anything. I'm just curious. It wasn't that long ago I called Kurt. I was going to work, Music Row, pulling up. I looked over and there was...

a girl in her car double masked. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. She had the little one in the big, what's the end? 95. What's it called? With the hose coming off the thing. It's like double mask. I told, I said, Kurt, there's a freak out the light double masked by herself in the car. I was like, what is the, what are you doing? Windows up. I've seen the ones with the mask pulled down to the chin, smoking a cigarette in their car. Yeah. Well, that makes sense. You can't smoke through the mask. Yeah. Right.

You could. But in seriousness, and that is all true and funny. It's true, though. It is true and funny. But the real thing is you can do what you want, and that should be the point. That is the point. Anybody should be able to do what they want. Except double mask in a car by yourself. That should be illegal. It should be illegal. But that was the point at the school board meeting. Right. Is there is a group of parents that are saying –

I understand if you want your child to wear it, that is your right and you have the freedom to do so. But we don't want to. Then there's another group of parents saying, no, we want to control not only our kids, we want to control yours too. Right. That's the problem. You don't get to make choices for my kids. I don't co-parent with the government and I certainly don't co-parent with you. Yeah. Like you're free to be you.

And I'm going to take my freedoms and be me and raise my kids the way I want them to be raised. 100%. The mask was an issue in our house. You know, anti-mask as far as, I mean, pro-common sense, I should say. And my daughter, especially my daughter, she's just turned 13. So she was right in that age group. And, you know, wearing the mask, it was hard, honestly.

on her. It had an effect. Of course it did. Their brain is supposed to have oxygen. Yeah, and she's like, why am I breathing my own filth the whole day? Correct. And fortunately for us, that phase didn't last as long. Right. But it lasted...

One day was too long. Well, sure. It's to get a generation so that the next time they do it, they don't think it's so odd. Then the next time they do it, they don't think it's so odd. Then they tell their children, oh, when we were little, this happened and we had to do this. So suddenly you've got a little army of ants complying with their little marching orders, no matter what. And you've just indoctrinated an entire generation. I mean, it was, it was pretty crazy. Even, you know, we were playing some TV shows at that time and we'd have to go and we'd have to wear the mask backstage and we'd,

It was so ridiculous. And then we had this weird time where you didn't have to wear the mask, but you could. We did some TV shows in California, I believe some award shows. And the band's back there in a mask. The artist is singing. What are we doing? It's so ridiculous. It's so ridiculous.

Of course, we didn't wear a mask. You know, a Tennessee paper came out and said after that, they twisted things around. They were, you know, of course, people said awful things. But the best one was that I said that I refused to protect my children from COVID. No, what I said was I refused to mask my children.

If people were dropping dead in the streets of the most deadliest disease in the history of the world, here's how crazy I am, I wouldn't send them to school. I probably wouldn't send them out into the world where people were dropping dead everywhere. I certainly aren't going to send them out with a cloth mask.

Or an N95 or whatever you want to call it. I'm not doing it. We're so thankful for our sponsor. Original Brands is starting a new era in American domestic premium beer. American made, American owned. Original Glory. Original Glory.

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All right, everybody. Welcome back to the Try That in a Small Town podcast. You know, we have a lot of different guests, right? Wide range of people. But I feel like we're at our best when we have somebody who has spoken up for what they believe in, faced adversity, took bullets, and now they're

and came out on the other end. And I think that personifies Lee Allen Baker. We're so glad she's here. We've got to find out if Lee Allen is a country music fan, too. Okay, so look, I grew up in Kentucky. I had country music shoved down my throat since the day I was born, and I wanted to be a star! You know what I mean? Like, picture that. And then I go there, and I'm like, oh my gosh, those people are my people! I must get back to them! Those good old boys with guns, yes! That's where I need to be! So...

Yeah, I came running back home pretty fast. Did you carry? Oh, yeah. I got lots of death threats. And so I learned to shoot a gun really well. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about getting to the other side a little bit. Yeah, I'd love to because that's the real meat of the story, right? Yeah. So lately I've been trying to reach out to this generation that I love. The line that they say to me is, you raised me. Every kid is like, you raised me.

And I do feel a certain responsibility in that. And I feel a responsibility to let them know that you can't cancel people. You can cancel your Netflix subscription. You can cancel your plane ticket. You can cancel dinner reservations. You cannot cancel people. It's not a thing. They want you to think it's a thing. It's not a thing. It's not a thing. So it's always, in my opinion, right?

worth it to stand for the truth because there's three things that always come out, the sun, the moon, and the truth, right? And as I tell them, it doesn't mean you won't lose your job. It doesn't mean you won't lose your friends. It doesn't mean you won't face adversity.

that's probably going to happen. But it's always worth it. Because for me, I lost the friends. God was clearing the deck for me to have real, true friends like I never imagined I could have before. You were losing friends during when you were speaking up. Absolutely. Yeah.

Absolutely. You know, would I lose the job? Sure. Lost them. Not anymore. I just finished my first screenplay. I just produced a television series that I also starred in. What I...

merchandise for the first time ever. My kids think I'm really cool because I have merch. What is your merch? I have Babam. Where is it? Babam? Where do we get this merch? My Jesus Family Freedom Babam sweatshirts. You don't have those, guys? No, but where do we get them? I'm going to have to get you some of those. Okay, let's do it. And life has been... I wrote a children's book about speaking up and being brave and facing your fears and speaking the truth anyway. So at the end of the day...

I don't believe that I was ever canceled. I was just redirected. That's awesome. That's a great message, too, because that's one thing that really bothers me is the fact that there was a point and still is where people think they can cancel people. Yeah. That's acceptable. That if you don't like something, okay, well, we're going to cancel you because you have conservative thoughts. That's one of the things that was...

Really just terrible. It's still going on. It's so funny that the word conservative has gotten such a bad rap because I know that I guess I'm conservative because I believe everybody should have freedom. That's what it's come down to. But here's the deal. You can't have diversity, equity, or inclusion if you don't have freedom first. Yeah. All right. Amen.

She sounds like she was a co-writer on Try That in a Small Town. She wouldn't be getting a seat at a table. I wrote the sequel. Shouldn't have done that in a small town. Kayla, I think either me or you are getting replaced after this. It's possible. Kurt's the president in Neil's house. So one of us is on the chopping block. Cut the Neil's house thing out. Sorry. Please edit Neil's house. I like it. It's Neil's house. Neil's house.

Well, you've teamed up with another warrior and a super talented guy, Kirk Cameron. Yeah. And I'd love for you to talk about that. It's Adventures with Iggy, I think. Adventures with Iggy and Mr. Kirk. And Kirk is a really great guy. And he, too, has really been vilified in a way that isn't true at all. They love to –

You know, the media is owned and they're pushing an agenda and so they make up lies, but that's okay. Kirk is a great guy and he and Brave Books partnered together to make a television show. And it's kind of like a modern day Mr. Rogers, but we've added a lot of fun, interesting elements to it. Kind of meets the Muppets meets Sesame Street. It's got a lot of really cool puppets in it. And it's really fun and every lesson has a biblical foundation in it of...

how to go to God with your problems, uh, how to listen to your basic things for little ones, how to listen to your parents and, um, how to know a good friend, how to spot a lie, really sweet things that our children really should be learning. Um, you were made perfect in God's image. You don't need to cut off your body parts, things like that, you know? Um,

And so they needed a producer. And so I said, all right, I'm a glutton for punishment. So I went to Texas for six weeks and filmed 20 episodes. And this is one of those times where I realized I was redirected because I feel like God for years has been my Mr. Miyagi. And I've been like, wax on, wax off, wax on, wax on. Why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? And suddenly I show up and nobody's really ever done it before other than me and Kirk and the guys working the puppets, John Kennedy. And so,

All of a sudden, I'm standing in the room going, nope, we slow the quad down. I need camera A to get a two shot. I need B on a wide. I need C on an ISO on Kirk. And the next thing you know, I'm like, when did I learn to be a camera coordinator? I just, the 35 years of being in it and being immersed in it, I never would have had the guts to say, oh, I can do that.

I would have been like, I'm just an actress. And instead I was like, oh, you want me to do that? I can do that. I can light that sucker and I can do this and I can call that shot and I can prove this and get this going. And I was really surprised by how I can work so efficiently in an editing room. These are skills that I didn't even know I had. And had I not been pushed to it, I never would have discovered it. Yeah.

And it's so much more rewarding than just saying somebody else's lines. I got to be honest. And now I'm writing my own lines, producing my own shows. And it feels better to be more hands-on. Yeah, it's more challenging. It's more rewarding. It's less approval-seeking and more...

creatively fulfilling. Do you have friends? No. None of us have friends. We've all lost our friends. That's true. The circle is way smaller. The circle is way smaller. I was going to ask, are there any friends from the Hollywood days or do people reach out to you? One of the interesting things I think about, especially going through COVID, there was...

Man, there's a lot of division. Of course, there's still a lot of division in the country. Like with COVID, now we've got a little bit of history and a little bit to look back on and maybe go, like, I'll be the first person, even for the first few weeks, I'm like, ooh, what is this? I'm a little scared, right? You keep going, you learn more information and you learn more information.

Some people, it's interesting through COVID, they have kept the same stance and they still believe what they believed in the early days. But are there people that maybe disagreed with you that have reached out since and said, man, that was really awesome you took that stance? Or are there no people and you just made new friends in Tennessee? I kind of made new friends. No, there are those that I know...

Obviously, because like I said, three things always come out, the sun, the moon, and the truth. And now they're seeing the truth and like, oh, wow, she called that spot on the nose at the very beginning of all of this. Yeah. Um, so there are a few of those, but there are some really hurtful ones, you know, like the people that were the guardians of my children, not in Hollywood, just my friends in California, just my friends, my friends. Like I trusted them. Like my children were willed to them if something happened to me. And, um,

And nothing, no Christmas cards, no happy birthday to my children. And I wish I could say, the crazy thing is it's not like these are, I can't sit here and say these are bad, awful people. No, these are really, they were my friends. They were good people. I try not to choose jerks as friends. These were nice people. And, you know, look, at some point life gets hard and you separate the wheat from the chaff, my friends. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm not going to be on that side of history ever, ever, ever, ever. So moving to Tennessee, 100% thumbs up. You've made some new friends. Do you love it? Are you going to be here for a while? Yes. I love it. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited for what is happening in Tennessee in the film industry. I'm excited to keep it free and stand up to our audience.

current governor who puts things in place that I don't like the way they're heading. But here's what I love about Tennessee. Our government here, I'm going to level with you, is just as corrupt as it is everywhere. Politics is dirty. You know, they asked me to get into it and I was like, oh no, I touched my toe and it was like, that's too dirty for me. Like, and I've been in Hollywood and that is too dirty. Right? But my neighbor, even though my neighbors have gotten the vaccine and believed that that would protect their health, their health,

They know that if someone were to come to my house to come for my children, they would stand up and protect my children. Like your neighbor will protect you here in Tennessee. I agree with that. Yeah. People here will lock arms.

And that's kind of the thought behind the song, you know, as we kind of circle back to the, try that in a small town, it was, you know, it was that looking out for your neighbors. You might have differences, but your neighbors, your neighbor. That's right. Protect them. That's how it is here. Yeah. And you know,

I don't carry so that I can act like a bigwig. I carry so if someone comes for you or your children, whether you're liberal or not, whether you voted for Joe Biden or not, I can protect you from some lunatic. That's right. 100%. You know, I'm all about we the people. I know a lot of people see it as, you know, left versus right. I really have done a lot of digging and I feel like it's all one thing.

It's like one cage and each side of wing of the bird is trying to shove us into it. And all I ask myself every day is, how do I stay out of that cage? And how do I keep my family out of it? And the only thing that I can come up with is it's we the people versus a very small global elite 1%.

And until people realize that, and they will, you know, the World Economic Forum comes out and says, you will own nothing and you will be happy about it. And I try to tell people that means they're going to take your stuff. Do they? Okay. Great point. Okay. Do you think...

This gets on – this is – do you think people are going to wake up to that? Listen, I don't care how liberal you are or how blue you've dyed your hair or how much you're for furries uniting. If someone comes to take your stuff, the biggest liberal in the world is going to be like, hey, you know what? I believe I'm going to exercise my Second Amendment rights. Yeah, they are. I wonder about them sometimes. No, we've talked about it before. Where's the first place they're going to run? They fall –

I mean, it's happening. The DNC starts this week and they're falling right in line. It is amazing to me. It's the information that they've been given. Here's the deal, guys. Most people, I used to think it was most people are bad, but now I disagree. I think most people are good and most people have good hearts. I think that everybody's been given different information on what's happening in the world. It's the propaganda is so thick and so hard to see through these days that

You know, people think that doing this is kind. Other people think that doing this is the way. Everybody agrees that we have these problems. It's just that we've been exposed to different experiences and different information that help us form our own opinions. So I think that when those people are hit smack dab in the face with communism...

They're going to realize, oh, that's not what you said it would be. Well, okay, to that point. So it's out there, like Kamala came out and said basically about controlling the price. Basically Soviet Union policy. Yeah. Okay, you think that would have an effect on people when they heard that. Mm-hmm.

Do we think it did? Because I'm still, I'm blown away. Why isn't that up? Why aren't people up in arms? Because you've heard it in the publications that you look into. But a lot of people don't hear that. A lot of people will not hear that message. And that's what I'm saying. When are they going to start not just looking at one source? Because generally the truth, at least in my opinion, is it always lies somewhere in the middle. Yes. So if you're just looking at one side of the media or this side of the media, you're never going to get...

Both sides of it. Yeah. And you think it's the middle. I think it's somewhere back over here in a room they're not even showing us. Probably so, but they're not. But if you're on that side, if you're liberal and you're just looking at one outlet, you're never going to get any of that information. No. And it's right there to see. Yeah. But do they, this is another subject, not to go off, but do they even want to see it?

You know what I mean? That's exactly right. I think she confused people because the first time she talked about pricing, she said she was reading, obviously, off the monitor, and she said price gauging. Well, gauging. Gauging. Yeah, she said gauging. Nobody called her on that. Well, guys, I mean, it's really about imagining a world tomorrow where we are unburdened by yesterday's of today's tomorrows, unhinged by being unburdened.

Word salad. It's amazing. So it's the word salad. Yeah. That's pretty good, by the way. Yeah, it's happening again. Slowly but surely, it's starting to crack. I mean, I watch both sides. I watch all of them. You should. Me too. All the news outlets, whether it be- I'm just curious. Whatever, I watch it all. Hey, guys, remember when there were a couple of competent candidates on each side? And we would go vote with our friends, and even though they voted different than us, it was okay. We went out for a beer afterwards. Remember those days? I miss it when almost-

You could do that. You could talk. I mean, families have been splintered apart now. And it used to be just like, you nailed it. It's like, let's have a beer, joke about politics, talk about here's, you know. Yeah. You know, I'm right, you're wrong. What do you want to drink? Right. It's great. I really miss those days. Well, yeah. And you're, you know, you moving from California and you're talking about losing friends and stuff like that. It can happen when you don't move too. You can have lifelong friends. And all of a sudden, the last few years, politics has gotten, it's just...

It's ruining a lot of friendships because each side is painting the other side as crazy, horrible, terrible people. Actually, it's not even each side. It's the media that is painting each side as villains. When did it become a villain to support a candidate that's actually a legal nominee for president of the United States? Suddenly you're labeled this heinous –

racist murderer racist you're racist you're homophobic bigot murderer type person uh it's that if people don't recognize that as propaganda like when when are they gonna go oh that but he's still allowed on the ballot so okay people are allowed to to exercise their freedoms to vote for who they want to vote for that's right it's the propaganda it's the media painting things a certain way so then the question becomes who owns the media

Sounds like part two. I mean, someone's losing their chair here tonight. Satan's return. Oh, that's what I'm doing is I'm doing college tours now. I'm speaking at the big AmFest. I'm like, get it. Candace Owens speaks. She's beautiful, brilliant, smart as a whip. Charlie speaks, you know, smart as a wig. Not as beautiful as she is. All these really amazing speakers and then...

When they come out, I see that they get pyrotechnics, like flames. And I was like, oh, yeah. I was all about when I come out, it's going to say Lee Allen Baker, and there's going to be six big things of flame coming out. And I sent Diego the video, and he goes, did you shoot the flames? I was like, yeah. I walked out there. Yeah.

Oh, you had the guns. I had the big guns. That's awesome. It was the best experience. And there was one point where I was saying, like I said to you guys, I'm not saying you won't lose your friends or you won't pay a price, basically. There is a price that I've paid. And I got a little choked up. And this girl yells from the back, we love you, Mom. And I look up and they're all yelling, we love you, Mom. And they're all doing the heart sign.

And for the first time, I just thought, oh, I mean, I would do it anyway. I would speak up for this generation no matter what. But to get a glimpse of the fact that they see it and they need it and they love it, it was just the best highlight of my entire career. That's incredible. That's incredible.

Yeah, it was pretty great. And now I'm going to be speaking at AmFest, the big event with 15,000 people coming and more pyrotechnics on the stage. I'm expecting more. You hear that, Charlie Kirk? Bigger guns. Bigger pyrotechnics. And that is December 19th through the 22nd. December 19th. Where is it? It is in Phoenix, Arizona. All right. That's awesome. Great. This has been the first time. So we've done quite a few episodes now. This is the first time that we've had a guest on that none of us knew.

and really didn't know much about, and it's been one of our best. It's been unbelievable. We are so thankful that you are here. Thank you. We're so thankful you shared your story with us, and we just couldn't be more appreciative. Thank you, Leigh Allen. Thank you so much. It's been great. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, you've got to have one. All right. That's a catchphrase. So to close this out, what I meant to say at that school board was, ba-bam!

Let's go. All right, guys, that was pretty awesome. Like we said, we delved into new territory there. It was somebody that we, probably none of us had really any idea who she was, right? I mean, it wasn't our age group to watch. Just through my daughter. That's the only way I knew her. She was a huge fan of hers. Is that how she came to us? Was through...

No. She lives in the same neighborhood we live in, and we found that out. We were doing a writer's round up there, and she was there. Did you meet her there? Yeah, my daughter pointed me out and told me who she was. I'm like, really? And my daughter, Emma, is like a huge fan of hers. Watched...

Good luck, Charlie. Good luck, Charlie. Okay. Was a huge fan of it. She was like America's mom to her. Right. That was super fun. It was super fun. And I mean, she's an amazing... Good story. Amazing story, right? She's a warrior. We kind of talked about this. It correlates to us, the podcast, kind of our mission, if you will. It was like...

You know, she stood up for something and didn't have many friends, had a lot of people speaking bad things about her, and she didn't flinch. Yeah. Came out on the other side of it. Definitely strikes me as a...

Type of person that will not flinch. No, no. Very confident. Yeah. And that's awesome. Yeah. And I'm no concern, you know, like we were talking about of, of her career, you know, of what, what it's going to do. You know, if I, if I leave LA as, as an, an actress, this is where I've made all my money and now I'm just, I'm going to leave. And, and,

She's still being incredibly successful, which is amazing. It's all about her kids, just like the way we think. Yeah, she started doing all that research on the vaccines, and that was in 2019. So when 2020 hit, she was kind of ready for it. She was ready. Yeah. Pretty amazing. Great show. Great segment with her. She's incredible. She's a rock star in my book. Yeah. She'll be back.

I think she'll be back. Now, who won't be back? Well, apparently it's been suggested. As soon as we got done, our producer, Jim, comes over and he says, hey, by the way, I think she would make a great fill-in host. When? Did you say fill-in or just host? Well, like a co-host. In my mind, I heard co-host, but he might have just said host.

It was like, try that in a small town, Charlie. Yeah. It was like the third or fourth time during the evening where I felt a little insecure. And not that I disagree, but apparently either me or Tully are going on vacation soon. We are. It's a mutual agreed hiatus. I feel like I could get pushed out like Biden. But we'll still tune in. Yeah.

Something's happening. You sense it? I sense it. You can cut up with a knife on this end of the table. Well, I think we could probably take a lot of our guests, and they would be better hosts than we were. We're a bunch of idiots. We're already idiots. I mean, really, we really don't know what we're doing, which has been brought to my attention numerous times. But I think that's part of our charm. Yeah, we're almost idiot savants.

I will say this, though, what I love about doing this, really, I love doing this because really, we're just, like Kurt says, we're just talking. We're not newscasters. I mean, it's like, I really don't know what I'm saying half the time, but it's usually out of confusion.

Because I'm confused about how crazy shit is. Right. And I think that's the whole point is we're not trying to impose our will or our thinking on people. We're just trying to have a conversation. I am. No, I am. Well, but maybe, but we're finding out that more people think the way we do and they're afraid of talking. So in that way, I agree. I will say that it's...

Making me smarter in the sense that... Hold on. We're making you smarter. Not you. You guys are making me smarter. This is like homeschooling for Tully. No, because I find myself... Obviously, I'm really paying attention to the news on both sides. And I am just very confused on how... Again, off topic, but everybody's like Kamala, Kamala, Kamala, Kamala. Yet she hasn't said one thing about what she's going to do. No policy, no...

And it does make me worry a lot. Like, what are people thinking? Like, at some point, she's going to have to say something that matters, not just... We'll see. We'll see. I guess we'll do a show maybe after the DNC, obviously.

They're having the week that we're taping now. I don't know if I can do it. I don't know if I can make it through it. That'd be a good idea just to kind of see because she's going to have a... Because I won't be able to say stuff I want to say. I can't do that. Well, no, you can. I mean, she's, you know, they've had, you know, they talk about the honeymoon phase, you know, because she is the

new shiny penny and all of a sudden it's not Biden. It's anybody but Biden. And so far, I think the reason that she's not talking about policy or anything is because her numbers look pretty good and she hasn't had to. So she might have to. Isn't that terrifying to you? Well, and maybe she'll do that during the DNC possibly. How can that possibly be? I guess people just don't care enough about the fact that they can't afford things. Because if you look...

at what they've done. And she is Biden. She's tied to Biden. So what's, I mean, she's flip-flopping her stances on things or appears to be, but has not rolled out a single policy. And for you to say that she doesn't have to, which you're right, because- Currently. Currently, hasn't really died down. So it does make me concerned that

It's so media-driven that Trump bad, don't vote for the evil guy. It's a lot of people buying into that. Yeah. At the cost of their family and the safety of this country. You don't have to like Trump, but tell me that you love your family more than the dislike for Trump. Yeah, it's going to be an interesting few months for sure, and we will be here. Or an RV. Or an RV, yeah, we'll see.

But that was super fun. I think we, like I said, we delved into some new waters and it was kind of cool to get to know somebody researching and then having them here, getting to know their story a little better. We hope you guys loved it.

For Tully. For Kalo. For Neal. I'm Kurt. And we're Try That in a Small Town Podcast. Thanks for listening, guys. Later. Make sure to follow along. Subscribe. Share. Rate the show. And check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.