Debating Cancel Culture, Holiday Controversies, and Unexpected Hunting Adventures :: Ep 32 Try That in a Small Town Podcast
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Neil, for people that are only listening, by the way, it's going to be amazing. They're going to be like, who is the fourth guy? I know it. I'm wondering who this is too. It's amazing. So any more of this being held down because you supported Trump? That's the president.

over half the country voted for him. So the fact that you can try to cancel someone or try to run someone down or push someone off a show or not hire somebody because they voted for Trump,

You should definitely check yourself if you have those thoughts. I'm not doing the happy holidays thing. That's going away. Trump's in. That's gone. Well, wait a minute now. Hold on. Happy holidays was something that... Happy holidays is fine. No, it's not. What are you talking about? That's a big topic. Happy holidays. Wait, wait, wait. Happy holidays. Don't stop. That's a freaking... No, wait a minute. In the words of Ronald Reagan, I paid for this microphone. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

The Try That In A Small Town Podcast begins now. We are back.

This is, so, we are back. Yes, this is a Try That in a Small Town podcast. We've got TKK, Lo and Thrash. I'm Kurt. I feel bad for Thrash. His voice is... He's a little under the weather. I'm a little squeaky. Are you under the weather or is just your voice bad? No, I feel fantastic.

You do not sound fantastic. I don't feel bad at all. I'm just squeaky and I've been hunting. Is it a bad time to go sing some of our demos? Yeah, it's bad. Unless you want me to do it down here. We should try that on a small town mask to wear. We don't want to get the COVID. You're not going to get sick. It's good for you anyway. But you're not sick. No, I'm not sick. I feel fantastic. What was it? Peter Brady from Walking Into The Wind.

Like 15 miles. I walked like 15 miles across these fields and the wind was blowing like 40 miles an hour in my face. And my throat is usually the first thing that takes the brunt of it. It's like, it's stupid. The things I do for hunting, it's a good thing I don't have a show this week because I can't see. You know, I don't ever want you to stop hunting because-

Neil sent me home after our last podcast with some venison. Oh, he sent you home? Did you get the venison? The deer jerky. Yeah, it was out there. It was there for everybody. No, no, no. Yeah, it was. It must have been there for TK and Kalo. No, it was there. What do we need? I wouldn't...

You got some too. Everybody in this room got something from Neil. You didn't get any? No. Well, that's your fault. Happy holidays, everybody. That's not my fault. How did I not get something? What happened? You lost me at happy holidays. I'm not saying that ever. Why? Happy holidays? I can marry Christmas. I'm just saying. I don't do happy holidays. Remember when Kamala said...

How dare we say Merry Christmas? How dare you say Merry Christmas? Was that fake or real? No, that was real. Did she actually say that? Yeah. That's a real thing. Okay. I don't care. You really hit my soft spot now. The holidays are my favorite. I mean, we get to November. So Thanksgiving just happened. We're coming into Christmas. Christmas this time. The tree's up. The lights are going on. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas.

It's a whole, I feel, I love it because I feel like everybody's starting to really stretch out the season. Like everybody's putting their tree up earlier, lights are going up earlier. I'm not doing the happy holidays thing. That's going away. Trump's in, that's gone. Oh, wait a minute now. Go on.

Hold on. Happy holidays was something that... Happy holidays is fine. No, it's not. What are you talking about? That's a big topic. Wait, wait, wait. Happy holidays. Don't stop. That's a freaking... Hold on a second. I paid for this microphone. Wait a minute. Wait a minute.

I'm confused. I didn't mean anything bad by happy holidays. I know you didn't. Do people do that, though, in lieu of saying... Absolutely. That's the only reason that you ever hear it anymore. Oh, okay. Because they don't want to say Merry Christmas. They don't want to offend believers. They don't want to offend the Christians. They don't want to offend the evangelicals. Are there people... I'm so tired of people trying to be careful to offend somebody. No, but I don't think they're worried about offending Christians. They're worried about offending...

Other people that aren't Christians, that's why they're saying happy holidays. Exactly. You're not going to offend Christians by saying Merry Christmas. No, they offend them by saying happy holidays. That's what I meant to say. It's kind of a riddle. Interesting. Okay. I would love some feedback on this episode, on the comments. Does anyone actually know anybody that won't say Merry Christmas? I don't think they exist. Do they exist? Oh, there. Oh, yes. Absolutely, yeah. Oh, gosh. There's a lot of them, yeah. Yes. Even I'm taken back by this. Who out there...

Won't say Merry Christmas. And what is wrong with you? I'm serious. Tune in next week. No, I'm serious. That breaks my heart.

Come on, everybody. Merry Christmas. That's right. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas. I want you to... My dad lit into somebody at Cracker Barrel one time. At Cracker Barrel? Who was it? Merry Christmas at Cracker Barrel. The person behind the counter taking his credit card. Really? Happy holidays. And man, he turned around. No, wait a minute. He's probably told to say that. Are you kidding me? Wait a minute. Happy holidays. Hold on a second. It's for everybody. It's for everybody.

Well, I don't think anyone ever thought about saying happy holidays 10 years ago before all the madness started. You're right. Happy holidays isn't a negative thing. Happy holidays. It turned into a negative thing for sure. It used to be Merry Christmas and happy holidays. Okay. Because holidays are coming after you got New Year's Eve and all this stuff. You also got Thanksgiving. I'd rather hear, let's celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of saying happy holidays. Happy Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving.

Happy Merry Christmas. I didn't know it was such a thing. I still can't believe that people won't see Merry Christmas. I think you guys are lying to me. No, they're still out there. There's a lot of them out there. Millions. Millions. It's the same damn people that kept Jason off the top 100 list. Maybe 100 million.

It's a lot. Really? Yeah, it's a lot. Bless your heart, you're in this bubble. You know why? You're in this safe Christian bubble. This time of year is so close to my heart that if you won't see Merry Christmas and I have no time for you, I don't believe you exist. Well, that's not the spirit of Christmas.

Kalo says there's hundreds of millions of people out there that won't say Merry Christmas. Hundreds of millions. Thank you, Kurt. So I kind of lied. I said Thanksgiving just happened. Big news flash. We're actually recording this before Thanksgiving. It's actually this weekend for us. When this episode airs, Thanksgiving will have happened. But what are you guys doing for Thanksgiving?

I'm going up to Minnesota in the freezing cold. Oh, you're going to hang out with Waltz? Is he up there? I will not be hanging out with Waltz. I will possibly see some of his supporters, but... I tell you what. I have to ask you this because you were in the middle of this. I don't want to delve into your personal stuff, but there's some... Sounds like you do. Let's do it. There's some Phelanian members that differ in opinion. Mm-hmm.

It could be an interesting Thanksgiving. It could be a short one for me. No, I'll say this. I did see a thing. Sorry. No, go. No, I did see a thing. Go ahead and talk about politics with your family at Thanksgiving. And you're going to save a shitload of money during Christmas. That was what we saw that today. I saw that too. It was pretty funny. Yeah. Really, honestly, the way I feel about it.

And maybe this pertains to people at Thanksgiving, but I actually really don't care what you think. I really don't. Everybody has a right to believe what they believe and that's fine. And as always, like we've said, just let me believe what I want to believe. And, you know, it really comes down. That's all you're asking. I love that. So I'm not worried about it. And yes, I do have some family that thinks the other way. And that's fine and great. I do too, by the way. And you bought your tongue.

What's that? You bite your tongue when you're with them? No, I don't bite my tongue. I mean, if somebody brings it up, I'm more than willing to talk about it. Who's more willing to bring something up, the left or the right, in a family game? I think the left. They want to get it going, don't they? They do, because they, oh boy. Most of them are convinced that they are correct.

and they know better it's a game at this point because there's no convincing and there's no change and you're not going to convince anybody yeah i think you're right about that it's a game at this point i miss the days of um and you can't have this these days anymore because it's just it's too polarizing one way or the other but when you could actually have a conversation about

and everyone has a right to think what they want to think. And unfortunately, it's really not that way anymore. So good luck. No, actually, I'm looking forward to it. All the family that I have, we're going to see are amazing people. I love them. It's going to be a fun weekend. And getting back to the just, no, it really is. And Thanksgiving is an awesome holiday, right? I love Thanksgiving. It's amazing. I love Thanksgiving. Is that still okay to say?

What's that? I don't know. You guys tell me. Well, it's okay because it's not a Christian holiday. Okay. Well, I am learning something tonight. Well, who are we giving thanks to if it's not a Christian holiday? Okay. Fair, but it isn't derivative of Christian belief, right? True. True.

We just took a bunch of land from the Indians. Smart Christian than not. Siri, Google Thanksgiving and the people that we took things from. Anyway, we hope everybody had a... So what are you doing for Thanksgiving? Are you going to be in Nashville? Yeah, having a small one, small Thanksgiving, just the kids and the wife. Do you eat to failure? Back to this. Like on Sundays? Oh, yeah.

Your NFL stuff? It's pretty. It's going to be a lot, yeah. It's going to be a lot. Because it's a weekend. You guys are with me and Tully. I know Tully's like me. I eat all weekend. I eat the leftovers. Do you guys do that? Kalo's in such good shape. I don't know if he does that anymore. No, I get bored of the same thing. I say that. I eat eggs every morning of my life, every morning. But-

for Thanksgiving food I get tired of the turkey fairly quick I'll eat the dressing for a couple days after that you got to get off that or bad things are going to happen you dress your turkey with hand sanitizer no I don't sanitize yes you do no no no now what I do it's a it's really interesting yeah but that's a no that's a whole no we're going to get there we're definitely going there

You're not going to get away. Okay, who... We do need to kind of get into it, but we'll bridge the gap with this. On Thanksgiving, who is doing most of the cooking, and are you monitoring how well they're sanitizing

Hmm. Okay. That's a day. Just ruin your Thanksgiving. This is fantastic. Um, well I don't do the cooking. Uh, my, my brother and my mom, they live in the same neighborhood and they're great cooks. And so is my sister-in-law, Krista. They cook everything. Um, I don't think about people preparing food. You don't? No, no. That's disappointing. That blows me away. I mean, no, because I've been, my mom, I mean, she'll be 79 on Saturday and I'm,

you know, never gotten sick from anything she's eaten. So I feel like, you know, he's got clean little angel hands. And so I've been fine. So I don't worry about that. Uh, but, but I will say, you know, because Thanksgiving is, it's in a buffet style, right? And so, so I, I do kind of look at, you know, where my place in line is obviously women and children go first. Oh, you, so you aren't thinking about this, but a lot of times you, you want to notice if the, who's, who's going, you know,

You know, who's got a little cough or anything like that. And you do, I kind of, you know, even if I'm going last, but no matter what, when you touch the utensils, you put everything on there and get to the table, set hand sanitizer,

and then you're ready because you got to think there's 20 to 40 people touching all the utensils and there's kids. I want to know from our listeners, if there's anybody out there that's as bad as he is. So what Neil is alluding to, I've known this guy a long time. You do have a little bit of a thing with germs, right? He comes over to my house and he puts his hand underneath his shirt before he opens the fridge. And he does. I mean, it's, it's,

It's amazing. But I'm consistent. I do it on my own. You are consistent. Not just your fridge. Yeah. So you're a little bit of a germaphobe. When did this start?

Well, that's a long story. Okay. No, can you give a rated PG version of that story? We have no guests tonight, so feel free to expand. We're reaching here, Kalo. Read the room. This is a pretty good story. Just give the PG version of it. Okay, so I was a little bit of a germaphobe. I wouldn't even say germaphobe, but I'd wash my hands and things like that, but I feel normally like wash your hands, but-

but I was at the YMCA and this was a long time ago. This is, I mean, it's 20 years ago probably. And I went in there and it was after a workout. And usually I'll go in after a workout, you've touched all the weights, all the stuff, right? That people been touching all day, sweating on everything. So I'd go in and before I'd use the bathroom, I would wash my hands, then use the bathroom. Let's call it the one. Do you get a rash? Do you get a rash?

Well, I'd usually wash my hands, use the bathroom at the urinal, and then wash my hands again and go out, right? You wash your hands before you pee and after? Yes, because it's crucial.

It's crucial because you've just touched all the stuff, right? Okay. Fair. Then you're going to touch yourself to your bathroom. Exactly. And you put all that stuff on your stuff. Yeah. Right? Wow. Okay. So this one time, I went in there and I just forgot. And I went to the bathroom and as soon as I did it, I went hands-free real quick and went, oh, shit. Okay.

And I panicked. And then I thought, I thought to myself, okay, it's one time. Surely it's going to be fine with no less than 48 hours. Exactly where I had touched to use the restroom. Right. Uh,

These boils. I'm telling you. I'm telling you, it's a thumb and a forefinger. Boils came on your area. Oh, my God. That's nothing to laugh about. I'm just telling you. Are you sure it's from the gym? No, it was biblical, and it gets worse. It was biblical. So they actually turned black, and it was terrible. Oh, my gosh. And my lymph nodes on the side that I had touched were,

right by my waist like the size of a softball. Okay? I could barely put my Christmas sweats on. You know? Your compression pants. The length of the drawstring.

I couldn't tie it. I refuse to believe this is from the gym. I refuse to believe it. This is not from the gym. Kurt, you can't make this up. It sounds like you went down the deja vu 20 years ago. No, so I went to the Vanderbilt clinic and I saw the doctor about it and everything and I told him what happened and everything and he said, so you've not been having extramarital. I said, no, no, no.

it's not even happening at all. So, and he says, okay. And so he goes out and I could hear him talking in the hall and he goes, Hey, I'll be right back. And he's talking to another doctor said, Hey man, there's a guy, he's got these, you know, this area looks pretty bad. He goes, he says it's not an STD or anything like that, but come check it out. And I'm thinking, great. Here, I'm going to show it to another guy. Yeah.

So anyway, comes in, they said, so no extramarital or anything like that? I said, no, no, no, not even marital. Not even marital. And so he goes out, and then they talk to this lady, another doctor. Come on in. She goes, yeah, you may want to check this out. I said, hey, we've got Dr. So-and-so in from Vanderbilt. I said, great. And so there you go. Anyway, it's terrible.

So, by that time, the lymph nodes up here on the same side, it's just the side that was affected. That was all your lymph nodes. The whole side of your body was swelled up. And so, they gave me this ointment and some antibiotics, but actually just time, it went away. But anyway, that really, really heightened my…

Okay, that's fair. It really is. When you hear the whole story, you kind of get it a little bit. And there may be some editing in there, Jim. No, no, no. That was fantastic. All I can think about, though, is that you repeatedly have to show your private parts. Oh, that was terrible. And you're probably not...

Feeling the best. No, it was just like, I mean, you turn your head and just, you know. Yeah. So anyway, it's cough. Okay. So that heightened your sense of making sure that you're always clean. Yeah. How was your confidence level when that was happening? When you're at home?

When they were looking at you. Oh, it was terrible. Because you're being judged. They don't believe you. It's like, okay, dude's been in... I don't know where he's been. I do get kind of offended, though, when you come to my house and you got... I get that. You know, and it's like, you think, what do you think? We got diseases running around my house. Yes, that's what he thinks. I get that. And I'm like... But you have seen me at my house do the same thing. You do the same thing? Yeah, because...

Well, I mean... I try not to do it as much like in the house. You know, I'm trying not to... I'm wanting to talk, dude. You may listen to my voice tonight. I'm wanting to talk. I got news for you, though. With a little girl now and kids, it's...

Your wife, she's like... My wife, I wouldn't say she's a germaphobe, but it's close. I mean, she's... It's like the kids... Mine is. It's hard because there's... They just get sick all the time and they're around kids that have stuff going on. And it's just... And I'm not the most clean person in the world. So like... Which can be good. We're probably good that we're opposite sides of the table. Yeah, but you're exposed to stuff, which is really good. But what blew me away about you is...

Not too long ago, you were telling us like you, what, two showers a week, maybe? I don't know what he meant. No, I don't know. That's what you said. Well, now, no, I don't know. You'll go like two. Who weighs that kind of water? You go a couple of days and not shower. That's true. But here's the thing. We're not working construction. I mean, we rhyme stuff. We sit down all day. I mean, I don't. Sure. But you work out. Yes, I can wear the same shirt two days. You work out and don't shower and stuff? I don't perspire much.

I just don't. We're learning a lot about Kalo today. We keep it very cold. I mean, it's good for the listeners. I'm sure they're riveted. They are. They've got to be. It's fantastic. Yeah. But anyway. I shower frequently, but yes. Neil, you brought up, to save Kalo here. Thank you. Yeah. Neil brought up... I'm going to take it right back to him. I don't know. Okay, go ahead. Somehow it's tied in. You brought up the billboard of listeners or writers or something. Yeah.

Just recently, we had an article, I guess, from Billboard that came out that said, or that listed the 100 best country music artists of all time. And they had a lot of great artists on there. One that was not listed was our friend, our boss, Jason Aldean. Tully and I took to Instagram because- I want you to read what you said.

Did you read it? Tully, you want to pull up your post? Pull it up. I thought you had a great post. Both of y'all did. But listen, and Tully has said this, and I think he's on the money with this. Like, that's our guy, right? And he's not going to come out and say, that's bullshit. So I think we felt like we had to speak for him.

Um, because it was BS. That's just stupid. I know Brittany came out and said something. Yeah, and Brittany did too. You got your post up? Because I thought you said something good. What I said was, um, and like the whole reason I posted this is because Jason can't. True. You know, so Kurt had posted, then I posted, I said, uh,

It ain't always easy standing up for what you believe in. I don't know what's funnier at Billboard. How ridiculous this makes you look or the fact that you think it would bother us. Thanks for making that chip on our shoulder just a little bit bigger. And I said, proud to make this music and be on that stage with you every night at Jason Aldean. Love you. So my whole point behind that was,

Getting his back because he's not going to, he can't post anything. He's not going to post anything about it. And he can't to lose, lose really for him. So I think me and Kurt the same way where it's like, well, that's our brother and really am proud of what we've done and what he's done. But, you know, that kind of stuff kind of drives us, you know, and still continues.

makes us feel like we're the underdogs a little bit, which is probably true again. Well, the biggest problem I had with it, you can say whatever, where he ranks and all that, but, and I heard you say this and I agree up a hundred percent with it. Jason Aldean forged a new era of country music. Like nobody was doing what Jason Aldean was doing when he broke. Nobody did.

Nobody. And it changed music for the next however many years. That's influential to me. And how you can't recognize that is BS. Absolute BS. Even beyond that. I mean, 28 number ones. Artist of the decade. And there's all those facts that go along with that. You got all those numbers that go with it. And that makes it even more obvious how intentional it was. Well, yeah. And I always say...

Even with an artist that maybe I'm not a fan of, you can argue with awards and the Grammys or a CMA award or ACM, or you can argue with that stuff. Who gets the award? Who walks away with it? Who remembers it? Who doesn't? What you can't argue with is sold out stadiums and arenas and amphitheaters for extended years. And you have artists on there that can barely sell out a theater, right?

So I think there's a huge disconnect there. And it's fine. And like I said, I know it really doesn't bother him or bother us per se, but it needs to be addressed. And I've had a lot of just incredible response to that. I've also had the last week a lot of really hateful responses

And you can check out my post on Instagram. There are some really, truly hateful things that are said on there. And regardless of what you think about someone's politics, you can't argue with the reality of success. Even there's an artist that I don't necessarily love. I'm never going to sit there and tell you that if someone's selling out three nights in a football stadium or three nights at Wembley, that this isn't deserved. Right.

I don't care who it is. I don't care who it is. And that comes back to the Morgan Wallen thing, you know, where it's like, it's Morgan. He's, he's been, he's been raining for a couple of years now, but like,

I mean, talking three nights, football stadiums. Yeah, nobody's doing what Morgan's doing. So you don't have to like what he stands for. You can hold some sort of weird grudge over something that doesn't exist, but you cannot argue with a hard ticket sale.

Yeah, Morgan's killing it. And he's talented. He's awesome. CMAs just happened. Morgan finally won Entertainer of the Year, which was long overdue. Long overdue. Like ridiculously overdue. Yeah.

And then who was one of you guys? Neil just said Jeff Bridges. Oh, my God. Jeff Bridges. And he's a flaming lib, too. So it's like... Which I hate. I love his acting. Oh, he's amazing. Yeah, he's amazing. It's just so sad. I know. Him as a narrate actor should host next year. It's so ridiculous. I mean, he's like... He's amazing. He's a stream lib.

But he's an amazing actor. I'm with you. He's great. He's had some of my favorite movies. I hated it too. That made it even more, it made it more look like it was so intentional to call him Morgan Whelan. Are you kidding me? I really don't think that, not that I know Jeff Bridges, I just think he doesn't know who Morgan Whelan is. He just read Whelan.

I don't think he did that on purpose. It's ridiculous to have somebody on the show that doesn't know anything about country music. That's insane. If you look at the name Wallen on a piece of paper, you would never say Waylon. Let me tell you this. Let's stop the conversation. We've played the CMA words a dozen times. It isn't like he walked up there and didn't know what he was going to say. Someone would have told him, that's how you pronounce it. So even if he...

Either someone didn't

Tell him anything. W-A-L-L. Yeah. Does not say Wayland. No. He failed English and grammar in elementary school. It's whatever. And I guarantee you, Morgan doesn't give a crap either. No, he doesn't. You know, he's... And don't be misunderstood if you think we're pissed because we're not pissed about all this. It's just, I saw, when I first saw that, I just kind of chuckled. Well, you know what's interesting? I don't think, well, I would guarantee none of our listeners would know this about the awards.

This is not any kind of statistical based or factually based winning award. It isn't.

for entertainer of the year it isn't they don't look at who sold the most tickets or who sold the most records that is not how it works all political it is political and it's just like how i used to grow up and watch the grammys or the oscars and you think oh that must be the best record of the year or the best film of the year because they won that is not how it works it is political it is

people buying boats i'm sorry the secret's out but that's just how it works people get in cahoots with other labels other management companies other publishing companies and they say listen if you can vote for my artist i'll do you a favor and do this that's just how it works it's not that's not supposed to happen anymore like i mean it 100 percent i know there's it's supposed to not be a thing you know but even let's let's let's say that that is happening

The thing is, it's voted on, the CMAs, by people like us in the country music industry. So let's say there wasn't block voting. You know, you'd say it's still somehow the majority of country music industry is voting a certain way. I can guarantee you, and I'm sorry, I'll probably get in trouble for saying this. No, say it. People get told who to vote for. Absolutely. And they get asked questions.

and persuaded, can you vote for this person and I'll help you out. If it was a numbers game, we would have played Try That in a Small Town on the CMA Awards. Yeah. That's exactly right. So that's what we're talking about in this post. Tell everybody about that night. You would have played Try That in a Small Town. Of course. Yeah. We had a huge song. But they asked you to play something else.

Yes. No, they told you to play something else. Well, that was ACM Awards. That was ACM about a year and a half ago. A year and a half ago, yeah. We played Tough Crowd, which we all wrote. Which was nice for all of us. But we were not allowed to play Trout in a small town. It's good for everybody to know that. Yeah, I think it is. And I also think it's important to understand that's why...

when this post was made at me and Kurt made in support of Jason for all you haters, by the way, but it wasn't about us being mad. It's about recognizing some of the craziness out there that goes on inside the business. I know, I feel they've been trying to push country music to the left and

for years. Um, and they've been trying to do it. Um, the business has the business for sure. As the, the, the audience has not led it. That's why, you know, people, that's why people still come to hear us play after 25 years and it, they don't want that. The industry and the business is trying to push it left and push an agenda left for the reason I really don't know. I mean, I, I, that's, I always, um, it's kind of the same way I felt, um,

when Trump won the election this year, the left is so disconnected with the working people. I feel that way in the music industry. The industry needs to spend more time out at shows because they're missing the fan base. I like that. Their personal agendas, they're trying to outweigh that over the people that actually...

buy and love and listen to the music. And every time they try to do it, you know, we have a try that in a small town comes out and it's like, Hey, we're not going to be told what to listen to this week. This is great. You know? So anyway, you know, it's my two cents on that, but I, but definitely feel that push to the left. It's, it's been happening for a while. Oh yeah. It's infected a lot of, a lot of big artists too. Once who we, you know, it's obvious who they voted for.

they cannot bring themselves to utter the word Trump. It's like a forbidden word for them and they still can't say it. What's messed up, and I've heard Kurt say this, this really bothers me. Everybody has a right to vote for what they want to vote for. Trump, get used to the word because he's elected president and everybody voted. He won the popular vote.

So any more of this being held down because you supported Trump, that's the president. Like over half the country voted for him. So the fact that you can try to cancel someone or try to run someone down or push someone off a show or not hire somebody because they voted for Trump, you should definitely check yourself if you have those thoughts.

I kind of understand why some artists won't say the word Trump. You know what I'm saying? They won't say it, but I'm still like, even after he got elected, they're still going to be afraid and fear for their job. That is really concerning. And I actually feel a little bit like those... That means that they're still owned by the industry. That's really sad. They don't have to be. If you see what's happening, though, I think people, when Trump won...

I think people felt a relief who voted for him. You notice a lot of sports stars now when they're celebrating touchdowns, they're doing the Trump dance. They're not scared. They're finally saying, finally, we can have fun with this. Yes. We can have fun again. And they're getting backlash for it. All right. From the NFL. They're getting backlash for it. Taylor Swift's not afraid. She's not afraid to endorse Kamala Harris. She wasn't afraid at all.

Well, no one should be afraid to endorse who you want. But what I'm saying is the conservative country music artists, the majority of them are still afraid.

They're walking around doing their shows and they're still afraid. You're right. That's how big of a hold the left has on all the businesses. They'll post an American flag and they'll post this in a picture, but they will not post anything that has the word Trump in it still to this day. I think it's going to come back a little bit because I think people are... There's a freedom in what happened where it's like, look, he won the election. It was...

democracy like is amazing yeah it is right um and it's funny that people actually are happy again i'm happy i mean seriously yeah i mean i i really i really believe that that people are there's a freedom in this like god i you know it's amazing if the other side had won i'd still be happy

Okay, that's great. It doesn't affect what I do from day to day. I'm still thawing out my turkeys in the refrigerator for Thanksgiving. It doesn't change anything. Are those vegan turkeys? Yeah, right. Tofu turkeys? No. Hey, guys, hang with us for a little bit. We're trying that in a small-town podcast. We're coming to you from the Patriot Mobile Studios. Hang with us. We'll be right back.

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at drinkoriginalbrands.com because freedom is worth drinking too. drinkoriginalbrands.com My name is Glenn Story. I'm the founder and CEO of Patriot Mobile. And then we have four principles.

First Amendment, Second Amendment, right to life, military and first responders. If you have a place to go, put your money, you always want to put it with somebody that's like mine. Of course. I think that's the beauty of Patriot Mobile. We're a conservative alternative. Don't get fooled by other providers pretending to share your values or have the same coverage. Go to patriotmobile.com forward slash smalltown to get a free month of service when you use the offer code smalltown or call 972-PATRIOT.

All right. Thanks, everybody, for sticking with us. If you could only hear the conversations that happen in between while we're on break. But I do want to say... What's that? The cameras are still rolling. I know. Maybe we'll put together like a best of or outtakes. Absolutely. That's got to be a paywalls kind of stuff because... For the subscribers. How do you say that? Neil, I...

For people that are only listening, by the way, it's going to be amazing. They're going to be like, who is the fourth guy? I know it. I know. I'm wondering who this is too. It's amazing. Uh, but listen, uh, we're so thankful for Patriot mobile. It's a great company. Uh,

They have great service. If you don't know about Patriot Mobile, go check it out. They have great values and what they do is amazing. But listen, they're giving a free month of service away, which is pretty awesome. So you go to patriotmobile.com forward slash smalltown. They'll give you a free month of service. Do it. Use the code smalltown.

How awesome is that? Patriot mobile.com forward slash small town. Use the promo code small town, free month of service. Let's go. If you guys haven't checked it out, I promise you, you won't be disappointed. Go, go to that website, put in the code. You're really good. You're really good at that. Man. He's so good. You know what is awesome about that? Patriot mobile is first of all, it's a legit company and they have great service. And just to explain, I'm not, this isn't an infomercial like, like,

We actually love what they do. If you have, let's just say you have AT&T and you're in an area and you don't have service, you know what Patriot Mobile does? They take the towers from all of the different companies and you're going to get service no matter where you are. You're like, oh, your friend has T-Mobile and they're getting service, but you're not. Well, if you have Patriot Mobile, you're going to be able to

whatever service is the best in your area. It's because they're conservatives. That's why. Well, let's go with that. That's what they do. That's what I do. They just know a lot about technology. Yeah. I mean, but it's awesome. I encourage everybody to at least check it out. Uh,

It's pretty awesome. And don't forget the promo code small town. Kayla, you were talking about something in the break and we got to get to this. Oh yeah. Back to the CMA just for a minute. And we had Jamie Johnson perform. We all love Jamie. He's amazing. One of the best singers ever. And somebody had sent around this, this meme or whatever about Jamie and said, and he apparently got arrested, you know, a couple of days before, you know, the CMAs. What did he get arrested for? I don't know. I really don't know what it was, but it was, was it, was it some, something weed related or whatever? Oh, wow. So,

I don't know. I have no idea. But anyways, so it just said, it just said, it said, Jamie Johnson posted bail and performed at the CMAs two days later. Country music is alive and well, folks. Because back in the day, you had just that, the outlaw country music. You know, you had Waylon Willie. Yeah, he's a real threat. He's a real threat to society. But, you know, but he just has that persona and everything. I just thought that was really funny that he was arrested. And a lot of people actually have had

a good amount of success from things going bad or breaking the law just a little bit. Or for example, like Tracy Lawrence got shot in the, in the, yeah, the hotel close to the Shoney's back in the day when the Shoney's was close to Music Row. Yeah. That really helped him. You had Tim McGraw and Kenny Chesney stole a horse at some point. Well, that propelled Kenny's career for sure. Right. But there, there's some little things that has to do with, you know, whether it's

Breaking the law just a little bit or a lot, that kind of helps a little bit sometimes. Maybe you should get arrested tonight on the way home. I don't know. It's so close to Thanksgiving. You might be onto something, Neil. That's not a bad idea. I mean, it could help our podcast. Maybe. Come on, Caleb. Take one for the team. I'll try. I got one thing I want to bring up. Okay. This is a shameless plug for a guest I want to have on. Ooh. So-

Me and Kurt, massive Boston Red Sox fans, lived through years of torture. So they finally won the World Series in 04, coming off a heartbreaking year of 03. 20 years ago. So anyway, on Netflix, there's this little docuseries called The Comeback. And if you're a Red Sox fan or baseball fan in general, watch The Comeback. It is about as well done as you're going to see. I've watched it.

Easy. Easy six times through. You told me to watch it for however long it's been out, a month now. And I wanted to wait and watch it because I knew when I started I would binge it. And I did. I watched it all in one night because it goes by that quickly and it's that good. Are you guys baseball fans at all? No.

Baseball lost me at the strike. That's okay, because this happened before the strike. But yeah, the Braves, for me, and I still watch them some, but I'm more into college baseball. I watch that a lot. Tennessee Vol fan here won the national championship last year. Go ahead. Aluminum bats. With aluminum bats. Okay. Don't get me started on that. But anyway, for...

Any hardcore baseball fan. And I love baseball. I love the tradition of it. I love everything about it. Red Sox finally won in 04. Anyway, this docuseries is great. And Kevin Millar, if you're out there listening, I'd love to have you on. I would venture to say, by the way, Kevin Millar was like, he was kind of a role player with the Sox. Yeah.

But a good player and a great teammate. He was like the glue. He was a clubhouse guy. And I bet he's a fan of Aldean, not necessarily us. If you're listening, Kevin, I have DM'd him with no response. Oh, you have? Yeah, I tried. It's falling on deaf ears. But Kevin. Kevin, what's going on? If you're out there.

Would love to have you on and talk some baseball because I think it's in the whole, the way it's done. If you're, if you're a baseball fan, like it is, it is done really, really well. That's my plug for Kevin Millar. Um, anyway, there it is. It's out there. Do you think he ever used an aluminum bat?

Maybe not. I don't know. Because you bashed all of college baseball by saying they use aluminum bats. All of the pros use aluminum bats. Here's my theory. They all used it before they got to the pros. We're not watching Mickey Mantle. I'm with Tony on this. I'm with Tony on this. Here's my thing. Listen to me. Now, this goes... I mean, these are college sports fans. I have no choice. You have to... That's right. So here's the thing. If you're in college, you're getting ready to go in. You're trying to get drafted to the majors.

College should have to use the wooden bat. Same thing in college football. To go along with the wooden bat in baseball...

This college football rule where only one foot has to be down for a reception. That's high school. You go to college, two feet down. What is the high school rule? Is it one foot? Does anybody know? It is one foot. I'm just assuming since we're in college. Yeah, but it graduates as you get more professional. It graduates to a harder level. What's bigger than Tennessee football? Dude, you should have to have two feet. There's a lot bigger than Alabama football right now. No, listen to me. You should have to get...

Two feet down for a reception. You should have to use a wooden bat. Come on. Come on. I think they should use wooden bats, too. And I'm just saying this. My son plays. He's 11 years old. Man, that ball gets off the bat quick, and they're 11 years old. In college, I feel like it's actually almost dangerous. Those bats are crazy. That's him being third baseman? Well, they just have to be more talented catching.

You know, I'm just saying it skews what kind of power you have. It just does. Well, I wasn't thinking of it as a safety level. What I was thinking about from college, it's a lot of scoring. It's people watching the game a lot. Then they follow those players.

to the major leagues. Then they start watching. Then they're into wooden bats because that's what they use there. If they could use aluminum bats in the program, they certainly would. If you have the choice, if I'm playing and I have the choice, I'm definitely using the best instrument. If I'm a scout for the Boston Red Sox, which maybe I will be someday, I don't know. I want to see the college. I want to see what they got in college with a wooden bat. Yeah. I do. Anyway. Okay. Neil, you brought up Alabama. Yeah.

It's been tough. I really don't want to talk about it. Let's talk about it. Are they out of the playoff? Is Alabama football out of the playoff? They're not out of it, but they should be. I mean, if I was a voter, they would not be in as bad as they got beat by Oklahoma. Maybe this is my fault. They have a 36% chance right now. Why is that? I went and worked out the facility last year.

I feel like I tainted the... Did you wash your hands? Did you use sanitizer? You don't have any boils, do you? I tried to use the machines, though, and I couldn't reach half the stuff. No, but long ago in a podcast, and you were sitting where Kurt was sitting before everybody decided that Kurt brings the show on better than everybody. Hey, we lost a light, by the way. But you did tell Neil that Alabama could name the score on Vandy, and you were just laughing about Vandy.

Never? Nope. Okay, no, I actually... No, we did. We did kind of kid about Vandy. But Vandy, I mean, they're not great, but they're... Yeah, and Tennessee's going to have to...

They're competitive. This may be after. Yeah, it'll be after. This will be after the game. So this episode. So we'll see what happens. So Vandy, Tennessee is Thanksgiving weekend. It's Saturday. So as this airs, we will know who won that game. So what happens? I'm just...

praying that the Vols bring their A game to Nashville and crush Van. He's a quarterback. He's a freshman. We do have a good quarterback. Is he Hawaiian? I don't know what he is. Is he like Tua? I worry about concussions. I think he is from Hawaii. He is from Hawaii. But he's a freshman. They got soft skulls. Oh my gosh. You said something about you know

Titans during the break. Oh, you're now a fan of Will Levis. No, no, no. I kind of mumbled that word, but you said something about that. Will Levis got a victory. Strange day. He trashed the Texans. Well, look, I mean, it doesn't change my overall thought that we need a QB. You know what I do like, though? What? Crazy enough, you know, when the QB plays decent, if Pollard ran well, he's been running well.

A little too late. No, I mean, it's all too late. But get a QB. Have your thoughts changed on Will Levis? No. Yeah, mine either. No, not at all. It's the same way I feel about Milrow. Hey, that's a great... What is your thought? I'm curious. I want to get your take. They haven't changed at all. He's like...

He's a tremendous athlete. He's a running quarterback. Yeah, who cannot? Yeah. We can't have a balanced attack at Alabama. We can't. But I blamed the Oklahoma loss on coaching and lack of preparation completely. Before, I was, like, blaming it on this and that, but now it comes down to freaking the staff, the play calling. It's all come down, in my opinion, to coaching now. They shouldn't have got beat by Oklahoma.

It was ridiculous. We looked insanely horrible against Oklahoma. It was bad. And there was a pivotal play, though. Y'all got a penalty. I don't know the guy's name. I don't follow Alabama that much. But it was number two. He was a receiver. He was. And they said he was covered up. And he was not. He was not. Ryan Williams, he made a great catch. And I don't know who was paying off the ref.

But he throws a flag. We're not going to get fined by the SEC. We can say whatever we want. But you know what? It was too late then anyway. I don't care if we scored anyway. We were playing so bad. The lack of preparation. That wasn't a Saban. The athletes at Saban left bore.

to play with. And they show up with that. It's a, it's a high bar though. It's like Saban. I mean, listen, I don't like, I, he's easy to hate, but you can't deny. It's kind of like Belichick. Now you see it though. You can't, but I was just, what I was going to get to was Saban,

He's the pinnacle of what coaching is. That's right. And with Belichick, he's the pinnacle of what coaching is. And you see the drop-off with the Patriots and the Crimson Tide. It's just you go, oh, that's not a disciplined team. Oh, that's not how they should be coached. Hey, look, this week we saw on the pro level, Drake May, our savior, you're badass. And I'm sorry you have to get your head bashed in every weekend, but you look great.

The coaching on the patch right now against the Dolphins, even you were texting during the game, 10, 11, 12 penalties, stupid penalties that Belichick, you would have never seen that under him. Say what you want. Mayo, you got to go. You're in my Levis file.

The leveled files. You know, it's funny. I saw a thing with Belichick. He was talking about when he was at Cleveland, and he was like, you know what used to piss me off? And he'd say these reporters would ask him questions about the defense and like, God, do you think the coaching needs to be better? And it's when Saban was coaching the defense of the Browns. He's like...

That's when my hatred for the media started. I had Nick Saban coaching the defense, and they're questioning me about that. Yeah. But I got to ask you guys something because you're SEC guys. How do you feel that Texas came in and just dominated the SEC? They haven't really dominated.

Dude, they're going to be in the championship game. They're going to be it, but they haven't dominated. That's a strong word. They won that division. That's a strong word right now. They won the division, right? I love it. Yeah, Vandy almost beat them. Vandy beat Alabama. I know it. The number one team in the country. I'm just saying. This might be the last podcast. No, it's not. I'm just saying, everybody loves to brag on the SEC, but Texas is now, as of right now, in the championship game.

Yeah. How does that make you feel?

this year and they're they're a good team i've watched them play they're a good team they have a great defense they've got two solid quarterbacks you know um and they're they're really good they move the ball well but their their schedule has not been what all the other teams in the sec has played against i'll say that i was trying to get them riled up and they didn't go for it you know i do love that you guys so you can't do it i'm glad oklahoma's been throttled it is it is fun to watch i tell you that speaking on another show um

To you guys, you two SEC guys, have you watched Swamp Kings on Netflix? Yes. Yeah, I watched Swamp Kings. Yes. I did a rewatch of that. Really great. That is a great... The whole power of the SEC and that whole thing is... That was not growing up in it. That was pre-team playoff. But not growing up in it, though. Yeah. That's pretty...

Are you guys cool with the 12 team playoff? I think it's going to be a good thing. No, it's, it's, it's exciting. It's great for the fans, but I think so too. But,

That committee is left with a shit show. Yeah, the only thing I think is that... Having to vote who's going to be the top 12 teams? Oh, my God, I wouldn't want that gig. Well, just by having 12, it just lets in a lot of weaker teams that are going to get so exposed. You need it, though. But it is for the fan bases and for money, for TV, for everything. You saw Ohio State and Indiana?

Yeah. Well, I agree. Indiana got so exposed and it's like, if Ohio State doesn't win the national championship, that head coach is gone. 16 to $20 million they spent, I think. I don't know how much it was. It was a lot.

They have the best athletes in the world. If they don't win the national title, he's done. I love it. There it is. I'll say this. Having the 12 teams, it's still like that strength of schedule. You can have an undefeated team in a different conference that has played no one and get in and your team, again, we're SEC biased, but

It just is the better conference. It just is. There's just more talent. There's better players and better coaching. Okay, so the argument would be this. Like Alabama just got beat by Oklahoma. Five and five, Oklahoma. Should they be in the playoff? No. No, not based on that. I would not put my own team in the playoff right now. I don't care what happens. I wouldn't put them in.

Are they better than Indiana, though? Probably. Probably, but it doesn't matter. No, definitely I think Alabama would beat Indiana. But like you say, now a three-loss team, there's not an argument to put them in there unless everything just falls completely apart this coming weekend. Well, I say this coming weekend. Right.

when we're filming is a little bit different. But that's the only thing that bugs me is the strength of schedule. Undefeated teams get in and they play nobody. But it gets people like us talking and the whole world talking. It's good for the sport. It's good for the sport. I tell you this, for people like me who love football but not the biggest college football fan, I like it because it does make me want to watch it a little bit more. That's right. You know what I mean? So I can see that. Yeah. It's...

And it does make us watch other teams that I wouldn't have watched before like Indiana. It does. So now I'm watching those teams say, okay, let's see how good they are. So it's expanding the interest level, I think. I love how we can talk about everything in the book. We almost have. I love it. We almost have. We can get political. We can go to football. We talk about the music business. It's insane the knowledge that we have. God, we're so good. We are so good. Yeah.

I hope everybody else thinks so. Anybody else got anything? That was fun, though. That was fun. That's a fun episode. I think the Jamie Johnson thing is a joke, though. That's like, are you kidding me? You're going to arrest him? Really? I think that cop's just trying to get his name in the paper. Maybe. I don't know. I don't know the specifics. There's so much bad shit going on in the world, and you arrest Jamie Johnson?

Hey, they arrested Tyreek down in Miami. I'm like, that's a joke. Opening day. Yeah. Opening day they did that. How many kids is he up to now? Tyreek? Yeah. It's a lot, bro. It's kind of a thing. It's like 12, right? There's a weird thing going on with some athletes. They just have a lot of kids. A lot of different baby mamas. It's biblical. Go forth and multiply. Yeah.

And on that, I want to know who Tyreek voted for. That's what I want to know. Well, all I know is this. I was watching, and again, we're a week behind, but I'll say this. We were watching the Dolphins Patriots last week. Tully and I were texting, of course. Got a little sack. I saw a little Trump dance in there from the Dolphins guys. I think it was my voice. Yeah. I saw two of their, two is a Trump guy. I mean, I'm... Can I ask y'all one question whilst I have my voice? Yeah. Yeah.

What does it mean when you see in the end zone in the NFL, it says it takes all of us. What does that mean?

It takes all of us. What it means to them. It means... It's painted in the end zone. What that means is... What does that mean? What do you mean to them before we start it? Because I haven't even seen that. Well, I mean, it... It takes all of us. The saying, I think what it means, the way they're... To do what? To make change. Change for what? I don't know. Don't get mad at me. Are you mad at me? I'm just telling you what they mean. They mean change. I don't know why...

Or what has to change. But that's like league stuff. Inspired change. I see that on the back of helmets too. Inspired change. Yeah, that's like league stuff. Changed from what? What's wrong? You're ruining my game for me, Neil. I don't know. I think... But I'll say this. I think that all of the leagues are starting to learn...

Just stay out of that. Just stay out of that. It's not working. I think I'm with you on that. We just want to watch football. They tried it. And I don't care what side they're on. Just stay out. They tried that in the NHL as well. A few years ago they tried it. That lasted about two months. Yeah, it didn't go over in the NHL. I'm just...

spitballing i would just assume you know they they want everybody to be accepting of everyone and everything not working i'm just saying i mean it's just a guess just a guess no that's a good guess yeah you're probably right you know of which you know like kurt was saying earlier like talking about christmas like just do your thing

Just whatever that is. Do your thing and don't judge other people. Yeah. It's pretty simple. Yeah. Right. It should be simple. I guess. Really. I mean, and I hope they would have learned this from the election, but that never does.

People just want to live their lives. Yeah. Yes. They want to pay their bills. They want to raise their kids. They don't want to be force fed a bunch of shit. Just. Let them live. Let them live their life. And if you don't, then they're going to make a change. Yeah. And that's what you saw. And that's what we saw. Yeah. It takes all of us, guys. It takes all four of us. It takes all of us. It takes all four of us. It does.

God, thank God for our podcast. Hey, I hope, we all hope that you guys had a great Thanksgiving and happy holidays. Happy holidays. Don't you dare. Don't you dare. Neil, give us a big old Merry Christmas. Seriously, though, we appreciate, we're thankful for all of you.

Merry Christmas from the Patriot Mobile Studios. Thank you, Neil. This is, we got, you know, Neil. We've got Kelly. We've got Tully. Oh, that's still so weird. Oh, I like first names. I love it. And we've got Kurt. We're, of course, from the Patriot Mobile Studios. This has been Try That in a Small Town Podcast. Thanks for listening, guys.

We will see you next time. Make sure to follow along, subscribe, share, rate the show, and check out our merch at trythatinasmalltown.com.