EPISODE 3: Remembering Toby Keith, Touring with Jason Aldean, and border talk.
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I met Toby one time, you know, it was in '93. And he goes, "So what do you do?" I said, "I think I want to write songs." And he goes, "Really?" He goes, "Are you any good?" "I think so. I think I'm pretty good." He goes, "Well, I'm here all the time." He goes, "If you ever got anything, just come by and just send me something." We're back. We're back. We are back. Here we are. Thanks for joining us. What a week. What a week. So, Aldine, that was awesome. That was incredible. It was pretty cool, huh?

I mean, just talking about some of those old stories, it's like the first time hearing them for us sometimes. I know. Well, and just having him here with us, and I didn't know any of those stories back. You guys have known him for 20, 25 years. That was fun for me hearing those. I've never had the opportunity to sit down with him. As long as I've known him, I've never had that opportunity to sit down and talk to him like that.

And listen to those stories and hear from his perspective. And it's easy to see, and we see it on a nightly basis on the road, but why his fan base relates to him. Because he's that guy that came in here, sat down, and was just talking. That was who he is. And that's the same guy. He's been that way. I think you said this. He's been that way for 20 years. Exact same guy. Yeah. And we've been on, you know, shoot, we're...

And as you guys probably picked up on, I mean, we're a family, right? We've been on the road 20 years. Is that right? Yeah. You know, people don't realize this, but in those days, we were all on one bus together. You know, it's a 40-foot tube, and there's Jason and the band, and it's like probably a couple crew guys, right? Yeah. And we're out there 300 days a year. There was a span from 04...

Probably until, what, 2010, where we didn't come home. We would leave. We would leave. We'd play a show on New Year's Eve, and we'd come back the next December 23rd, pretty much. Ooh. You know? I've got to ask y'all this, though. Okay, when y'all were all on one bus, did anybody smoke on the bus? Cigarettes? Yes. Cigarettes.

Cigarettes. Well, you got to qualify. Whatever. He did smoke cigarettes, but he was always polite. He would go out the window. Go in the back, out the window. Yeah. I don't think smoking was our vice. No. The reason I ask that... We were way overdue for a Crown Royal sponsorship. I'm just throwing that out there. I mean, we had...

60 empty purple bags on that bus. The reason I ask that is because, I mean, I come from a long line of singers. My dad was on the road for 40-something years. And I bet half the guys in that 12-man crew smoked, and they were all on one bus for that long, for that many years. Oh, my gosh.

And they didn't crack a window. They didn't do nothing. And it was a smoke tube going down the road. That can be your next song. I come from a long line of smokers. It was a lot of time together, right? I mean, we spent, what you just said, six years probably straight on the road. And I mean, we formed what is now like, you know, people say road family, right? Well, I mean, this is...

Tully is my family family. Jason is my family family. That's how much time we spent together every day. You know, I mean, you guys know this life. You get on a bus, you go to sleep, you wake up, you have your coffee, you go to soundcheck, you do the show, you get back on the bus. It's life.

All day, every day, you're surrounded by these people. And people ask, they're always like, oh, it's so cool you got to go to this town and that town. I'm like, let me tell you something. Here's how this goes. We go to bed at three, and we wake up in the next town, and the sun's going down. In those days, when we get up. So it doesn't matter what town we were in. It was very similar places.

every night you know we didn't see any of the daylight or the sights that's so funny you're right people always ask where's your favorite place to play you're like i don't know just on stage the red seats are kind of cool in that place let me ask you this let me ask you this so you get a schedule out on the road where you you sleep a long time and you get up in time for sound check and whatnot and then after the show i know your adrenaline is still pumping

Sure. And it's like, so what time do you actually go to sleep after a show when you're on the road? I don't get to sleep any time before 4 a.m. I'll get to my bunk before then, obviously, but I'll lay there wired up. Yeah. You know, and that's what the thing about the road is, which is no matter what you try to do, you always end up being a little tired. I mean, don't you agree? Does that carry over when you come back home and the tour's over and you get back home? Does that carry over? Yeah.

These days, it's a lot tougher because we don't play as many shows as we used to. We play, you know, probably 50 shows a year at this point. So, you know, your schedule is completely different. Six months of the year, you're home. And, you know, our work schedule, we get up at 6.30 in the morning, you know, go to work. You know, we come home, we're in bed at a decent hour. Nice. And all of a sudden. You're starting to act your age. Yeah. All of a sudden, though, you get back on the road and you're not getting ready for bed at 9.30 in the morning.

The show is starting at 9.30. Yes, fact. So, oh my God, you know. And some of those festivals that you do, they, you know, when you go on last, I mean, some of them you don't go on until 10.30 or 11. We're taking naps, bro. That's where we're at. That's where we're at. We are taking naps. No, but it was incredible to have him on here and, you know, and talking about why the song connected with him, you know, it's very obvious stuff.

For us, you know, it's like the disrespect of the police, you know, the smash and grabs the, it's just like when he heard that song, he was like, who, who could not be against this? You know? And we talked about that, you know, on his episode, it was, uh,

It was great for people to hear that. It's like, you know, how could you not agree with some of that stuff we're saying? Yeah, and from his perspective, you know, because the first episode, we got to talk about how we wrote it and how we all got together and everything and why we're even doing this podcast. And then the second episode, getting him to, Aldine to come. And actually, he was sitting, you know, right here in this very chair. Yeah.

that I'm setting in now. But to hear his perspective and how the song hit him, you know, where was he when he heard it? What did he think? You know, and all the pressure he took, you know, during that and standing up for it. And, you know, thank God for him for doing it, you know. Sorry to interrupt, but I think he was kind of, he didn't give himself enough credit. Obviously, he's not like that. But for the amount of, you know, he took a lot of abuse in the media. Yeah.

you know, undeserved, you know, and, and to see him go out there every night and, and stand up for what, what he believes in was just talking about it now. It's like, I'll never get sick of talking about that. He never apologized. Not for one line of that song. He never apologized. Well, nothing to apologize for. No, there's not. You know? No. But seeing him out there, it really was, you know, every night picking up someone's flag and, and slinging it over his shoulder. Yeah.

It it's I'll never forget that last summer. That was definitely of all the years you've talked about it. How many years have you known? Have we been out on the road? How many shows, thousands of shows we play tick town 150,000 times. We used to play that thing twice. We used to play it twice and it was the only hit. One thing that we didn't talk about that I wanted to talk about last week was, and we lost Toby Keith. I meant to bring it up when Jason was here. Great American, great,

And I don't know if what's talked about enough about Toby. You know, we played in Oklahoma City. Kurt, was it end of October? - Mm-hmm. - Right? - Yep. - Our friend Brian O'Connell from Live Nation said, "Hey, I think Toby might come out tonight."

I remember this so vividly, and I'll let you keep going with this. No, no, go ahead, go ahead. No, I was going to say, when he did that, I think just as a courtesy call, whenever Brian or somebody he's with is in Oklahoma City, he kind of says, hey, Toby, we're in OKC, come on out if you want. Toby never comes.

And Brian handled Toby's tour like he handles our tours for the nation. And so he put in this call to Toby, and Toby says, yeah, maybe I'll come down and see Jason and the guys. And he's really set. I mean, this is end of October. This is past October. And we, to be fair, I think me and Kurt said, man, how awesome would this be? But knowing that Toby's not feeling great, we didn't really think –

That it would happen. And Brian O'Connell told us that his son had a ball game that day. And so we're like, he's not going to drive down into the city after any sick. And apparently he avoids going to the arena there. Like that's just, you know, it's his own place. He just doesn't want to do it, right? So we're thinking, it'd be cool, but he's not going. And we're thinking, okay, if he does come,

I think Brian or someone said, or Jason, one of us said, we'll play Should Have Been a Cowboy, which none of us has ever, we've never played this song together, Should Have Been a Cowboy. Great song. It's his first single. But to be honest, we didn't even run it as soundcheck. Yeah, because we thought the chances that it comes is 2%. And about, Kurt, help me out here, was it, I know it was before, not that far from showtime, maybe, was it 8 o'clock?

Oh, we didn't find out he was coming until we were in the middle of the show. Because we were still wondering. And you guys know, we wear ears. Everybody does that now, right? And they get on the talkback mic. It was at least halfway through the show, and we're thinking, well, he's not coming. Toby is in the building. In the building. So to be safe, we listened to Should Have Been a Cowboy in our green room, our little hangout room before the show. And we all listened to it and kind of played through the chords and still thinking,

This is, let's just make sure we are familiar with some of this. Happily through the show, Toby's in the building and Aldine introduces him in the, you can see it on YouTube and it's a great introduction. And the roof blew off that place so loud. Unbelievable. The introduction Jason gave him, he walks up there and you can tell he's not feeling well. And Toby talks, getting goosebumps. Sorry guys. And we busted and it should have been a cowboy. Yeah.

And it felt so good. And Toby, I got to tell you, he sang his ass off. He sang his ass off. He did, and he owned it, and you would never think anything other than here he is, you know, mega superstar doing it. We do it. We figure he's leaving, right? Yep. Going to come up and sing, do his thing. Well, of course, he sits there and hangs out with us for, I don't know, an hour and a half, right?

After the show, by the way, I guess he told his wife he was going to pick up a hamburger. And three hours later, he's still with us. But told us some great stories, some Van Halen stories that are amazing. And we're just sitting there like, you know, and we go pretty far back with Toby. We met Toby in 03. But telling us stories, hanging out, and you could tell he just wanted to be around it.

He wanted to be around what he loves, music. He wanted to be with the guys. He wanted to be... The fact that he got up there with Jason, that was amazing. And I think he's always respected Jason because he probably sees a little of himself in Jason. Yeah.

He's doing it his way, you know? I was going to say that just on the side of I can see why they have a connection because I met Toby one time. It was in 93, and there's a little hotel, and they had a bar real close to Music Row, close to where BMG is right now. You know that little – I forget what it's called anyway –

I'd stopped in there and I'd heard there was writers there and I didn't have a deal or anything. I was going to go to Belmont University. So I just sat there, you know, checking things out. And so so I ended up talking to him at the bar. He was he was there and he already had he already had his first single out, you know, and he was there. I thought, why is why is he here? You know, for for one thing, we started talking and he goes, he goes, so what do you do? I said, I said, well, I don't do anything.

And he said, you don't do anything? I said, well, I'm going to school. You went to school? He goes, yeah, I did for a minute. I went to a lot of schools, actually. But he said, where are you going? I said, well, I'm going to go to Belmont. He goes, what are you going to study? I said, well, I guess I'm just going to study the music business. He goes, well, what do you want to do? He said, do you sing or something? And I said, not really. I said, I think I want to write songs. And he goes, really? Yeah.

He goes, you write. And I said, yeah. I said, I write a little bit. And he goes, are you any good? And then I started getting really insecure. I was like, well, maybe. I think so. I think I am. And before then, I thought I was this great writer. But as soon as somebody like that, who already is a hit writer and artist, asks you, you think, what?

Well, I think so. I think I'm pretty good. He goes, well, he goes, I'm here all the time. He goes, if you ever got anything, just come by, just send me something, you know, just come give it to me, you know? And, uh, to me, I just thought that was the biggest thing ever. I went back every night for three years, never saw him again, but, uh, no, I'm kidding. I didn't. Most, most artists wouldn't have said that. He wouldn't have said anything, but he was just, we're just having a beer together and he was asking me and I was, I was nobody and he was way somebody. And, uh, the fact that he gave me the time of day and ask what I wanted to do. I just thought that was great.

You know, in his career, he had 42 top tens, 32 number ones. And this is what I love, 18 USO tours. Wow. Yeah, that's the highlight of his career. According to him, it is. And they say he's played for over a quarter of a million troops in that time. And, you know, Jason actually brought up this last week. He was talking about country songs that have kind of moved the needle in a way that...

Ours did, and he mentioned courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue. After 9-11. Right, after 9-11. And apparently he wrote that just to do on the USO tours. Right, and it was not supposed to be a single, right? No, no, no, it was just for the truth. I didn't know that. Yeah, and I guess the commander came up to him and said, you have to put this out, you have to do this for us. And he's like, all right, I'll do that. Of course, that's what happened. And those tours, what happened?

We've done some Yoso tours, DOD Yoso tours. Few things are more rewarding than doing those because they're so appreciative and they so need it. Toby did a lot of those. I don't know how many he's done in these places, but a lot of them were in conflict areas, like actual active behind enemy lines. And secret bases and all that. Secret bases. And we've done a couple of those. And it's not like it's an easy thing to do.

I mean, you know, he did it right, though. He went and performed for the troops, the guys that really need it, that are putting their lives on the line, which, you know, I mean, really, it just says so much about Toby. It's amazing. And one of my favorite songs, Don't Let the Old Man In. So I heard it. I mean, so how he wrote that for the mule, for Eastwood, for the movie, right? So I guess I heard...

that Eastwood actually gave him the title for that in a conversation. You guys hear this? Yeah. Really? I didn't know that. It was, I saw something Toby was talking about and he mentioned that he was talking to Eastwood and I think it is when Eastwood was turning 88. And by the way, Eastwood's 93 and directing a movie right now. I have a hard time getting out of bed in the morning and Eastwood's directing a movie at 93. But I mean, I guess Eastwood's or Toby said,

How do you, you know, get up every day and, you know, you're 88 years old and doing this? And Eastwood's like, well, you know, I don't let the old man in. And what a story, what a song. I know, it's such a good song. I mean, it's, when I hear that song, I'm like, wow, okay, you know.

I've got a long way to go. Yeah. Well, and we're talking about earlier the courtesy of the red, white, and blue. I mean, that was one of those things. As far as being a proud American and a uniter, I mean, Toby Keith was that. Jason Aldean is that. Yeah. And that song came just a couple years out of the worst tragedy ever to happen on American soil. I had heard that he had written that too,

There were a couple of other great songs that came out around 9-11. Alan Jackson. Yeah, Where Were You? Where Were You? And what was the other one? Daryl Worley. Daryl Worley, Have You Forgotten? Which rhymes with Bin Laden. Yeah, exactly. Good song, right? Exactly. But anyway, I was going to say, and apparently Toby loved those songs, but he was saying...

It was, you know, they were kind of sad. And of course the event was sad, but he was angry, which kind of goes back to how this was, you know, our song was born, but he was just angry and he needed to get that across. Yeah. And it's funny too, because in the actual title of it, it says Toby Keith, courtesy of the red, white and blue in parentheses, the angry American. Right. Right.

And it just spoke to me so much. I just grinned when I saw that. I thought, you're kidding us, because that's the same place we were, because you're angry about stuff that's happening in the country that we love. And so then you write something about what you believe, and you have an artist like Aldine that stands up for it, takes all the bullets for it to get the message out there. You find out there's millions of people that think the exact same way. But it also, you know, the song was revealed to us, but what was also revealed is...

is what is happening in America, you know, is revealing to me how much dissension that there is and that we're more divided than ever, I think. I mean, I don't know of another time in my life that we're

you know i mean it's 50 50 this this group over here thinks this this group over here thinks this and there's no one there's not a uniter currently it's bringing us together i heard tully say this last week he was like how can we have been so united at that time and then come to this and it's just it's when you sit and sit back and think about that it's crazy because we were at the

Everybody was pulling together whatever we needed to do. And somehow it splintered. And it bums me out. Yeah. It bums me out because it's, I don't know how we can be so together at a time of tragedy like that. And it's like every time 9-11 comes around the anniversary of it every year, I can definitely feel people forgetting about it. I don't want to think that, but I feel like that. Whether I'm wrong or am I right, I just feel like people have forgotten about it.

Yeah. What can happen. And when I see someone burning a flag, that does piss me off. Yeah. That was absolutely pissed me off. And I don't know how there's any positivity in that, whether you're trying to prove a point one side or the other, I don't see how that is a way to convey any kind of point. You're, you know, people have, in my opinion, have forgotten how to respect the flag, respect the military flag.

And to come back to Toby for a second, like that's what he was doing. He was giving back to the, this freedom is not free. Yeah. I feel like we've definitely have lost. And that wasn't political with Toby either. You know what I mean? He wasn't an online conservative or, I mean, I think I heard him say he labeled himself a conservative Democrat. You know, he was like in the middle, which a lot of people are.

Yeah. I feel like people in the middle don't feel like they have middle ground anymore. Caleb just said it. Right. It's one way or the other. And really, Toby, you said it great, giving back to the troops, giving back to those who are putting their ass on the line. You know what I mean? And that...

Yeah, and you have, you know, just for so many years, men and women who have died for the right for somebody to stomp on a flag or burn a flag, you know. I just don't, I'll never understand that. It just, it just. I'll just never, I'll never understand that. Just don't get it. Just the privilege that we have.

and it's the greatest country in the world, and it just irritates us. So that's why we're doing this, because we've got people out there listening that are just like us, and thankfully we have Toby Keith and Jason Aldean and other artists like that to stand up and put out that message. Do you guys remember where you were? I know we were together. I know where you were. Neil, where were you? When? When the world stopped turning. Alan Jackson.

On 9-11? On 9-11, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was in our house in Cool Springs getting ready to go play a golf tournament to raise money. And I can't remember what the foundation was for, but it was a Diamond Rio golf tournament. And I was getting ready to walk out the door, and I was in our bedroom standing in front of the TV getting ready to leave, and I saw it unfolding and watched it all live. And I remember...

having to call somebody that was a representative of Diamond Rio and ask him if the tournament was still going on and The guys in Diamond Rio said yes this tournaments going on. We're not gonna let What happened today? Stop our purpose and what we're supposed to be doing and raising money for this foundation because that's exactly the reason that they did it was to get people just stop doing what they're doing in America and

all the good that everybody wanted to do. So we went and played in the golf tournament and had a moment of silence. It was a really moving thing. I'm glad they did the tournament that day, but I remember exactly where I was when that happened. I think it was just a shock. I didn't know how to process it. It may be the same even with the people on that tournament committee, but

you don't fully process what's happening you know at all like and i and i as kurt was asking i've i was at alpine bagel in brentwood you know where you guys live uh and and i had just come from a bible study you know and uh with you know with some guys just talking about family stuff and god and all that and you're just watching on this little tv and trying to process that of which which you couldn't it's like okay what do we do i mean do we obviously you go home you know but but it

But it was just— Yeah, I remember wanting to go pick up the kids at school, bring everybody home because we didn't know what was coming next. Yeah, and you're wondering, all right, is my cell phone— Is the whole country under attack? And it was a scary time. I remember it well. Yeah. What about you guys? Where were you going?

We were on our way to a session. Well, yeah, we got to the session. We got to the session. This is when Tully, Rich, and I lived together. Castle Door. We were going to Castle Door. Okay. Recording studio, yeah. And I think as we were leaving to go to the session, the first tower might have been hit. And at that time, they didn't know...

We didn't know. We didn't know what it was. What was going on. Did a commercial play? Did something happen? And we got to the session. We were playing the session, recording it. And this, I don't remember who this was on the session, who we were doing it for, some writer. And we were watching it on the TV there. And the way I remember, we were all sitting there and watching this happen. And we're like,

We're out of here. And the writer goes, oh, no, we've got five songs to get today. I said, I think Kurt or me or... And I remember Russ Paul was on this session. And I remember Russ Paul. I think we were all in agreement. Like, we played our last note right now. I tried to forget about Russ. You're right. You know, I think we were in...

It's such a confusing thing. Yeah, and after that, I mean, probably like you guys, you're glued to the TV for I don't even know how long. It was a week or a month. You're just like glued, like you're getting information. Yeah, what's next? What's next? Yeah, the unknown was scary. People band together, and you get that feeling of America uniting. Yeah. It was so united.

It was so united. Yeah, it was then, for sure. And you talk about the— There wasn't anybody burning the flag that day, I can tell you. No, no. They were raising the flag that day. That's a fact. And, you know, you talk about these amazing people. 343 firefighters and paramedics died that day. 23 NYPD officers and 37 Port Authority officers all died going in to save people. And when you think about the police and anything, it's like—

the lack of respect you see towards them and towards the flag, it's just like it's gut-wrenching to me. Like, you don't have to be... You don't have to be on... It doesn't matter what side you're on politically to have the common ground and respect of the country and the flag. Absolutely. And the people. And I can't imagine, Kalo, the day you were walking and you saw that footage which spawned the idea of Try That in a Small Town. I can't imagine...

After going through something like 9-11 and some of the other things that happened after that, how anybody could do the things like burn a flag and defund the police, be mad at a cop or whatever it is. I can't imagine the anger you felt there.

that day, coming up with that title. We're all thankful that you did, by the way. I'm thankful, too, to the Lord for giving it to me, and as my wife would say, in my fit of rage. Yeah, but you know what? To be fair, not fair, but just honest with you about this, I don't think the Lord could have given that to a better person. Wow, thank you. Amen. Because I think what you...

did with the gift of it, like the way it came to you and what you've done with it. We're sitting here now talking about things. Look what Jason did. Look what the song, what it came to be and what the movement that it became.

It all brought us here, which is there are no accidents like that. Yeah, I agree. Even though you were wearing tights. I wasn't wearing tights. And you can debate that. Go back and listen to episode one, please, to know that it was a prayer walk, not a power walk. But you said they're compression pants. Please, they were not. They were not.

That's good for circulation. Okay. That's very healthy. But, you know, Neil, you're talking about that, you know, but it's about the flag and about the defunding the police and all that. I mean, it's what's even more, you know, infuriating and frustrating and painful and heartbreaking is that it's getting worse.

And it's getting worse, especially in the cities. And it's not—you're just disrespecting the police. See, I don't understand. I don't get breaking us down like this. Because it's not like— Everything that happens is igniting the division in this country. We have 75,000-plus homeless vets. Yeah.

And they're giving money and feeding and housing. There's over 75,000 homeless vets in this country, and they're feeding and housing illegal immigrants. I'm not saying there's anything bad about these people that want to come to a free country like this. Who wouldn't want to come here? But when they get taken care of before that many homeless vets, I got a big problem with that. It goes back to my, I hate that I feel this way.

It bothers me, but I feel like there's no respect for military. I think I shouldn't say there's no respect. I just think there's a lack of respect from people. You know, my grandfather, all of our family, my grandfather was a World War II veteran. My granddad, World War II. Yeah. You know, it's my dad was in the Navy. My uncle was in the Navy. Yeah.

My wife's grandfather was a pilot in World War II, you know, dogfights and landing aircraft carriers and crazy stuff. And it's like that whole pride in this country, like that generation, our greatest generation, you know, think about what they endured for our freedom. And we have lost that. We've lost that, and that's for sure. And it's bleeding over into law enforcement now.

You have cops that don't want to be cops anymore because of the lack of respect. And they can't do their job. No. And like in Austin where, you know, whatever it was, it was like $150 million they took away from there. And they had 40 police officers retire in that year. It's like, we're not going to do this. You know, there's so much lack of respect. And I've got...

extended family in law enforcement one of my best friends in uh growing up his dad was a cop we thought that was amazing right it's like oh man's a cop that's so much yeah that's cool so much honor my friend he was a cop his whole uh life he just retired his brother was a cop his two sons are cops there was so much pride that they had but it's hard for those guys to do that now you know they're

they should be giving more resources to the police to be able to deal with what's happening as opposed to taking the money. It'd be cool to take this, you know, if we're fortunate enough to take this podcast on the road.

I would do writer's rounds and raise money for vets in small towns and first responders. It'd be such a rewarding thing to do, to go sing for those people and raise money for those guys. On our scale with this song, even on tour last year, a lot of places we go are connected to the Wounded Warriors Foundation. Mm-hmm.

And we'd see them backstage and people there, and they'd say thank you. And the local cops on hand that night would say thank you. And it's like, you know what? Whatever small part we can play in us saying thank you for doing a thankless job. It's a thankless job. And I don't, again, look, we've had, I remember me and Aldine were driving to Macon, Georgia in 1999 from,

you know, Nashville and we got in my old truck. We look like crap, you know, we're going to, you know, making an end and we had my truck loaded up a gear and,

everything you can imagine and we're leaf town we got like 25 minutes out of town down near murfreesboro tennessee and we're we're rolling we got a crappy radio on and all of a sudden the lights come on and i don't think i was speeding maybe i don't know i don't think that truck could go faster than the speed but i was we get pulled over we get pulled over and we got pulled over i would have pulled us over too so i i mean we get pulled over and uh he comes with the truck and we look you know

We looked like crap. I mean, we probably... Out of the car along there. Out of the car. Out of the car. Exactly right. So he gets me out of the car, gets Aldine out of the car. And I can't remember which one of us. I think it was... They might have put Jason in the car and I was sitting on the road and he... God, I'd love to have a video of that. Well, he emptied out my whole truck, convinced that we were probably had some drugs with us or we had some, we were up to no good, which, you know, to be fair, we probably looked like that, to be fair. Yeah.

But you know what I didn't do or he didn't do was like run from the cop. You didn't resist. Try to hit the cop. Like he's got a job to do. It sucked.

He emptied out all my stuff and all my gear, and there was a sad scene out there on the interstate. Oh, you're tighty-whities. Embarrassing. I get it. I get it. It's totally embarrassing. Embarrassing. No, but... The guitar in the back seat saved you, didn't it? It saved you, didn't it? No, I don't know if it saved me. I think he's probably convinced that he did us a favor and let us go, but we all have those stories. We've all been pulled over, whatever, but...

I remember, I've never not respected the police. I mean, bad things can happen if you do something stupid and you try to run or drive away. What those guys have to put up with, I can't even imagine. It's a ridiculously hard job. They're making life and death decisions in a split second.

And they're afraid to make those decisions because... Imagine walking up to a window, somebody you don't know, you've pulled over on the side of the road. You're walking up to the window and you don't know what you're walking into. You don't have a clue. There's so much training that goes involved. Those guys, that's years of training to do it. Now what's happening, it's just they're getting flooded with new people. And it's, man, as you're seeing with some of these cities that have defunded, obviously the crime rate has gone up. I mean, that's no big surprise. I heard in New York City, I heard this today,

Yeah, I know. National Guard. Yeah. Is in the subways. A thousand have been deployed. I mean, just think about it. With weapons. Come on. Yeah. But they'll tell you the crime rate has gone down. But if you live there, I'd be thinking, well, thank God. Compared to what? Thank God somebody's down there. Has there ever been a National Guard instructed to go to a small town? Has that ever happened in the history of America? I'd love to know that.

Well, you mean for, I mean, probably for like— For exactly. Maybe for some, I don't know, but not for civil unrest. I'm just saying, have they ever needed, has it ever been so bad that they needed the National Guard at a small town, or did the good old boys just take care of it?

Caller, we're going to get back to you on that one. We don't know 100%. Hey, I'm just saying. That just leads us back to our song. But the point you're making is great. And that's, you know, small towns, it's really...

what I feel like America used to be as a whole, you know, that now a lot of it has boiled down to small towns because there are smaller communities actually know each other's names and they watch out for each other. And now everybody is so just disconnected that it's almost there's just an apathy, it just seems, you know, which is a shame. You know, it just is. Yeah, it's definitely... I think we should...

make a toast to you for coming up with the title of the song and raise one for Toby. We should have actually raised one for Toby. That's a great idea. Yeah, let's do that. Hey, Wade. Hey, Wade. Hey, Wade. Hey, Wade. One for the red, white, and blue. Oh, red solo cup. And he's in a red solo cup. Yes. Cool story. Cool story about this cup. So a couple years ago, we were at the BMI Awards in 2022. BMI Cup.

Red Solo Cup. Toby was the icon. Give him the icon award. You were there. I remember. Got up there. Great speech. And you knew that he was telling his life. He knew what he was doing, how much this town meant to him, how much the songwriters meant to him, everybody in that room. So here's to a great American. Yeah, absolutely. Toby Keith. Yep. Okay. All right. Time races to the fan. Indeed.

Who bored that shot? Wade. That was Hay Wade? God dang, Wade. That was Hay Wade. How about running that over some mice next time? Good dang, Wade. All right, so guys, just in talking about the border, I mean, that to me is, I know it's a hot button, not for everybody, but the fact that you have so many millions of people coming from

So many different countries. I don't even know, Kurt, you probably know how many countries. I don't know how many countries. But they're coming from some countries that don't love America already. And we talked about 9-11 earlier. And you think about really a brilliant plan for years that that was planned to create 9-11 from the people that wanted to devastate us, hurt us, destroy us, kill us. You don't think they've been thinking since then?

You don't think that they're already sending people here? The unknown is what's scary. Yeah, they're coming from everywhere. So it's not like you have people from Mexico coming over because they don't have enough work, and they're coming over for work and money. Now, some people are, right? But out of 7 million, you said 10, Kurt, right? Out of that many people...

Somebody means his harm. No two ways about it, because it's already happened. It's already happened. They're already killing. They killed that girl, that Georgia student. It's heartbreaking, and you kind of alluded to this. What I don't get, and you said this, you can have an illegal that gets arrested, and 48 hours later, they get let go.

Because they only shoplifted so that you can't hold them for that. Right. Then they kill somebody. Yeah. And I mean, and you know what? If you have an illegal that commits a crime and you don't deport them, what is that? Like, I don't get that. Somebody explain that to me.

They're criminals. Yeah, well, Tully, if you stole something, if you stole a 12-pack of beer tonight on the way home, like... In front of everybody. I know you'll pay for it, but if you were to steal it, you would be in jail. Absolutely. And you'd be in jail tomorrow. Here's my issue with the border. And my ancestry came from Ireland. Landed in New York City, you know. America was built on immigration. We know this. Agreed, yes. That is the fact.

But it's a different time. Post 9-11, the border is now a way to get in and hurt us if you want to. A lot of those people just want to be here. I get that. But we can't be that naive to just assume that nobody wants to come and hurt us. And it feels, again, it feels like we're being set up for failure. Like, am I forgetting this or did this happen? For three years...

Wasn't Biden, the administration, saying, oh, there is no problem at the border? Yes. The border is secure, even though we're watching this. But now, all of a sudden, there's a problem at the border. Well, and we know why. Yes. The election is coming soon. So let's fix the things or make it look like I care about these things because I want to get reelected. So now I care. Well, they expected the border towns to absorb voters.

The influx. Oh, the sanctuary cities. No, just the border towns. You just said it, Kalo. Right. You said it. They just wanted to decimate these border towns. And funny, we were on the road, this is, God, a couple years ago, and near a border town, and one of the guys that was running us back and forth to where we needed to be,

was actually a police officer and he was saying that they are just getting destroyed and this is before it became where all the media started covering it right but that's they wanted they wanted the border towns to absorb this and it just crushed them and and you said the word sanctuary cities okay well you see what happens then yeah they don't want them and it's it's uh

I don't know how, maybe you guys can help me figure this out. How do we get out of this? How do, there's so many. What's the number, Kurt? You had said the number. Well, and again, it's up near 10 million. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That's amazing. Go ahead. No, Kurt. No, you go ahead. No, I'm just saying it's disturbing because like I said, that's as many people

That has been 18 years prior to that combined. That's more than the population of 34 states, 10 million people. Right? 34 states in our country. That's more than the population of 34 of them. And when you look at what's being newborn in America, it's about 3.5 million a year. So it's equal to that. And they're flooding them into these states. It's all about retaining power for the left. That's all it's about. That's all it's about. I can't imagine...

It's a terrible thought, but we, one of our, you know, I have two kids and it's hard. It's scary enough. There's a scary enough world there. You know, things can happen. But the feeling of like, if something happens to one of your children by someone who's illegally here, who has a record of violence and we didn't do any vetting, we didn't do any, it is unrecoverable.

I don't know how to even react to that. Well, have you noticed that the states that are reacting to it by constitutional carry now, you don't have to have a permit. I don't know how many states have passed it now, but you don't have to have a carry permit to carry a firearm, a handgun. And while all that's going on, that's going on over here, which shows where the division is.

You've got people that are taking—you've got sanctuary cities that are paying the price now that they're all coming in. And then you've got states over here that are enacting constitutional carry. And I don't know where it's going to end. It doesn't look good, but I don't know where it's—it's all going to come to a head at some point. Do you guys think— Because everybody's—most people are going to protect their own. Do you guys think the population is actually divided on this issue? How can it—do you—

Okay, that's a great question. How can that be? Do you think that? I do, just because on this subject, what's happening at the border and what's happening now to the cities in these unfortunate situations where someone gets murdered, are there people saying, oh, no, no, I like this? Well, I don't think there's people saying I like this, but it's funny you ask because I think you would think that we're all on the same page with this, but

I know there are people that think differently on this. And it's, I don't understand where that's coming from. I don't, you know, if it's, if they're just watching a different. But those same people, if you were to bring 20 Venezuelans to their doorstep and say these people need a place to stay, they're going to turn them away. They're a bunch of liars. I don't disagree with that. They are not going to take them in. They're all talk.

They want to sound that way. And if you were to drop them off at their front door and say, these people need a shower, they need food, and they need a place to stay, they would turn them away. Well, you're right. And if you zoom out a little bit, it's like we kind of turn the other way on this because we think, oh, it's down there, it's on the border, whatever. It's affecting different cities. When it affects you and your hometown, and like you said, if it affects your family, you're going to think a lot differently.

It just shows you how much Biden cares about his own people, the citizens of this country. It shows you how much he cares about them by letting somebody that nobody knows crawl through a fence, climb over a wall, and walk through somebody's homestead. Wearing a Biden-Harris T-shirt. Exactly. It shows you how much he cares about his own people. No lie. They love Biden. And they know, and we're seeing pictures of it and these people getting arrested and stuff.

They're gang members. And I think what scares me is the fact that it's just weird. How could we be okay with it? How could we be naive enough to think, oh, they don't mean us any harm. Of course they mean us harm. Not all of them. And that's the shame of it. We've just lost the process of becoming a citizen, which a lot of people spent years doing the correct way.

And it's amazing. You think about it, what this country is. That's why this country is great. The same thing that made it great is now tearing it apart, which is crazy to think. Which is every known... Anyone who's ever ruled the world, it all falls apart from within. And not saying it's going to happen tomorrow. It could be a thousand years. But it's not a good feel right now, for sure. And I think...

the current administration, they think, okay, let's just love everybody and just bring everybody in because love will, we love them and give them things. They'll be, they'll be nice. Well, and to your point, Tully, that, that is,

They don't really think that. Here's the thing. They don't really think that. Is that what you think they really think? They don't really think that. No, I know. They know. They know what they're doing. We can sometimes, you can be in your bubble, in your community, your neighborhood, and you can think everybody's wired the same. Everybody is not wired the same. They're not. There's not an amount of love you can give them or money you can give them to make them be like you and feel like you and love like you. It's impossible. They're not going to do it. I want everybody to feel like me. Some people want to do...

They just do. So I just want to know who's coming over. That's all. We just want to know, is there an issue of violence? Have you been arrested for violent crime? And what's interesting is because it's an election year, right? So we've been three years, okay, not visiting the border. And I think VP, she is in charge. Kamala Harris. Right, Kamala Harris. She's in charge. I think she's the czar.

And just bless her heart. She just doesn't say things that resonate with... It's difficult. You could say it nicer. I can't. I know you can't. I can't. Sorry. I can't. It's a freaking joke. But anyway, getting back on the point, you know, is the fact that three years...

Now Biden is going to the border. Now he only goes on slow days. Now we've learned that Mondays are slow, just like with Aldi and you guys. You guys don't do shows on Monday nights, right? You know why? Because everybody's working and eating their dinner and stuff. They're not going downtown. They're not going to a coliseum or anything like that. They're going to, you know, it's just they go when there's no traffic.

And then Trump goes too. He goes where there's traffic. Biden goes where there's no traffic. It's all political. They do not care. They don't care who's coming over. They don't. They don't. That's a fact. That's a fact. Or under. They don't care. Whatever side you're on, you have to see what you're saying. You said it very well. It doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense not to make sure

who's coming over isn't an obvious threat. And then when they present the threat, they show that they will be a threat. You don't do anything about it. It's like it's one conversation to let the illegals over. That should be all that needs to be said. Enough said. Enough unsaid. That hurts. You know, we kind of believe America currently is here to help Israel survive. Israel is very, very important.

Very, very important. And God knows none of this is a surprise to God. No, it's not. It's all biblical. And he also, he knows who the next leader is going to be. He's not saying, oh, no, it's Trump. He says terrible things. He's not surprised, right? Right.

So he is in control, and that's the thing that does give us peace at night. So we're not, even though we get on a topic and we get passionate and angry and you care about people and you don't like people getting hurt, I mean, to me, you know, I mean, God's on the throne. He is going to take care of stuff. But it doesn't mean we don't pray. It doesn't mean that we don't do things. It doesn't mean we don't help each other, you know, because that's what we're here for. And it doesn't mean that there's not –

still some good acts and some good things being done in the world. And, Kalo, you were just talking about Braylon Edwards, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. Hey, Wade sent us a story this week, which is great. So tell us the story, which it kind of pertains to the song, and it kind of gives us some hope and inspiration

speaks to what we're trying to say here yeah he just said that that's a great point i mean um because there are a lot of positive things you know happening and and just like we're talking about in the small towns people helping each other it was so cool that nfl player uh he was at a ymca you know he's working out and and he's just in the locker room and everything and he and he heard something and the first thought he goes because that music's really loud back there

And he just thought that, and he was just aware, right? And then he heard a thud, and when he heard a thud, he said, all right, that's not right. So he went back there, and there was a 25-year-old guy beating up an 80-year-old man in a YMCA locker room, right? So he goes back, and he says he grabs the back of his hair and says, I subdued the young man.

I subdued that. Which I loved. That's the epitome of our song, too. It's so good. No, but I absolutely love that. And then it gets down to the point and to everything that we're talking about and thinking about. And it's like they're asking, so why did you do that? Why did you put yourself at risk and do that? His quote was, at the end of the day, it's just what you do.

It's just what you do. It's just what you do. And it wasn't like a big thing. He didn't make a big thing of it. These are basic values, right? Right. I like that. It's the same thing. It's the same mindset that those cops had running into the towers that day. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Firefighters. It's just what you do. It's just what you do. Exactly. Well. It's just what you do. Amen. That's awesome. I mean, those are the kind of messages that we're trying to spread. I mean, I...

Could be a title of a new song, too. So anybody out there listening thinking you're going to write It's Just What You Do. Cut. Cut. Hey, Wade. No. Hey, Wade. Stay tuned for that one because that's a fantastic title. That is the overall spirit of what we're talking about. Absolutely. That feeling. What we started this conversation with tonight is how we'll end it. It's like feeling that united.

You know, and that is just helping your neighbor. It's just what you do. You see something messed up and you see something going on. You help out. That's the, that's the small town mentality. Absolutely. It's just what you do. Help out your neighbor. All right, y'all. Cheers, boys. Here we go. Love y'all. Yep.