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Each month, Texas State University President Dr. Kelly Damphousse sits down with faculty members, staff, students, alumni, and community members for a conversation about all things TXST — the past, the present, and the bright future of the university.
Part of the TXST Podcast Network: https://www.txst.edu/podcast-network.html
- They'll get excited about, you know, all the things that are happening at the university, and they'll say, hey, how can I help the university? They'll see big gifts by people, like, giving a big gift to the football program or creating scholarships, and they feel like, I can't do that. I don't have a million dollars. If I did, I would give it.
- While you might not be able to cut a million dollar check, what about, like, 10 bucks a month? Whatever you can is helpful because as you know, part of the tier one is the percentage of alumni who give.
- Yeah.
- So it's not necessarily how much you give, but it's just giving. I mean, at the end of the day, it was all about, and still today as an alumni, it's how do I help improve the value of my own degree?
- Yeah.
- And that's by improving the prestige of the university and there's a lot of ways to do that.
- My name's Kelly Damphousse. I'm the president here and I'm your host for this podcast, and today I'm super excited to be welcoming my friend, Nathan McDaniel. Nathan, thank you for being here.
- Thank you so much for having me.
- Yeah, and I'm trying to remember, you've had so many jobs since I've known you. What are you doing right now?
- Yeah, so I'm doing government relations at a state agency. I currently work for the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, so we've got like, I think 34 more days of session left. So I'm very grateful-
- Everyone's holding their breath right now.
- Hey, I'm happy to break away and join you in the studio, but yeah, no, it's going well. I work with members of the legislature and staff, and talk about bills and budgets, and, you know, serve as a resource for them wherever I can.
- And before that you were with The Railroad Commission?
- Correct. Doing largely similar stuff, but that's gonna be an industry that's more about energy regulation and oil and gas, things of that nature. And I've worked kind of in and around Texas politics, federal politics. I worked for a congressman for a little while, so now that I have two young kids, actually getting in on the agency side made it a little more of a natural fit for me, but I'm really enjoying it.
- Yeah, two young kids. I mean, that's a full-time job right there.
- Yes, sir.
- No more, right? Or maybe more? I don't wanna get in your personal life.
- No, we're good. We got one boy, one girl, and I told my wife we have to have, at least one of 'em has to be potty trained before we can continue that conversation so.
- Well, you know, you're man to man right now. I dunno if you wanna go to zone or not, but anyways. Well, it's so good to have you here and you're one of the first alumni I met, I think I met you at a football event up in Austin.
- It was coach's night and Bailey was pregnant.
- Yeah, Bailey were there. And you guys didn't have kids yet. You just, you know, a young couple and you guys came over and Beth and I thought, man, that's a great couple. Never thinking we'd ever see you again. And then like, then we see each other all the time and actually it's a blessing for me to have you as my friend and you and Bailey as well, but let's learn more about Nathan. So where'd you grow up and how'd you get to Texas State?
- Yeah, no, I appreciate that. And I wanna start off by saying I appreciate your leadership and friendship. I think what you've done at this university has been amazing and just how you and Beth both, and your whole family for that matter, walk into the role of you identify as Texas State, right?
- Yeah.
- That is your life.
- Yeah, we're locked in.
- And we notice that and appreciate that very much. I was born out in West Texas, I was reared in North Texas, and then I was educated here in Central Texas, so that's how I describe it. My dad, we also lived in Oklahoma and Colorado for a little while.
- Yeah.
- And my dad had a job with Coca-Cola at that time, so I'm not a military brat, but I bounced around every couple and a half years, whenever he would get a promotion, we would go to a new city. And then after middle school, middle of middle school, he actually left Coca-Cola to bring us back to Texas. And that's where we kind of grew up from there to graduating high school in Keller, Texas, just north of Fort Worth.
- Do you think moving around a lot like that kind of influenced who you are, and your personality, and your ease at meeting new people?
- Yeah, definitely. And in fact, one of my classes here, freshman year, was an English class. And one of the things, it was a self-research paper.
- Yeah.
- And it was to try to identify three to five things about yourself that you thought were unique, and moving around was one of the things that I did. So I looked into academic research of what actually happens to adolescents during movement, moving, you know, different cities. And the interesting thing is I am very, you know, social.
- Yeah.
- I connect well with groups. I enjoy the government relations stuff. My brother is the opposite, right? He's at home with video games. He likes his core group of three or four people, and he'd much rather, you know, be a homebody than out and about and being social. So I do think that it impacted us a little bit differently.
- Is he a younger brother?
- He is.
- Yeah, that I can tell.
- Only a little younger, but yes.
- So how'd you end up coming to Texas State?
- So I applied to four universities in Texas. I got into all of 'em. I was dead set on going to Texas Tech. A lot of my friends from high school were going there. My dad was from the Panhandle and I just thought that would be where I went. I took a tour to SFA and really liked it. I was surprised by how much I liked it. And then I came down here and took a tour in San Marcos and fell in love.
- Yeah.
- And I've heard a couple people on the show say that, but one thing that's kind of unique about me is we were, in high school, we did this thing where the volleyball team taught the football guys how to play volleyball then we did a tournament, it was called the Sandman Tournament.
- Oh, yeah, yeah.
- So I had gotten in a pretty tragic knee accident, and I came to campus in a straight leg, knee brace and crutches.
- Tried to do the tour.
- And despite the stairs and the hills and everything else, I just fell in love with the campus.
- Challenge accepted.
- Right. It felt like home, everything from driving in and seeing Sewell Park to being on campus and Old Main. And then I think the community of people that I got a chance to talk with. It really felt like the students and faculty who engaged with us that day and told us about Texas State, they made it, you know, made it feel like home before I even got here, so that was it for me.
- Do you still have friends that you went to college with? Like, they're still your friends today?
- Yeah, and the funny thing is too, I mentioned everybody went to Texas Tech from my high school. Almost nobody came from here.
- Yeah.
- Until like my sophomore year, junior year, some people who went to junior college, they ended up coming here. So I built a lot of friendships here at Texas State.
- You don't bring your friends, you make 'em, right?
- Right, exactly, 100%. And you know, one of the things that was helpful for me that, I was not super involved in high school. I played football and, you know, probably did a couple things here and there, but here was a different story. Here, I saw opportunities to major and study what I wanted to major and study in, to get involved with groups that, you know, spoke to my passions and things that I was interested in. And with what, like 400 student organizations, there's really no excuse to not at least see what's out there. And so I did, and I had a couple people say, hey, you should look into this, or you should look into that. And that's largely where most of my friends came from.
- You know, I think there's something to be said about that, about going to college, and sometimes when I talk to students, student groups, I'll mention You 2.0, like, you, for the first 18 years you were with your parents, you're with your high school chums and so on. And for the first time you can kind of be in a place, especially if no one came with you, where no one knows who you are, and you can kind of reinvent yourself.
- Mm-hmm.
- And so that kind of happened to you, I guess.
- Yeah, yeah. I joke, I took three semesters to pick my major, but once I did, I was all-
- You were locked in. Now, you had some pretty good success while you're here in the classroom, but also outside the classroom as well.
- Yeah, I learned just as much outside the classroom as I did inside the classroom. I think in terms of time management, leadership, and even silly things like doing my own laundry and finding my own meals.
- Yeah.
- You know, that's all on you. And so getting involved in student organizations, I had an opportunity to lead a couple of 'em. And again, really build my community. I wouldn't be where I am without people who invested in me and people who supported one another to help us all kind of get through this experience. But yeah, it was the best, you know, the best time.
- Yeah, so not everyone does it, but some people have experience in Greek life and student government. And you did both of those.
- Yes, I did. I never thought I would join a fraternity.
- Yeah.
- And then I got here, and actually a girl who was a couple years older than me was like, hey, come, you know, hang out with this group that I'm hanging out with. I don't know, I think we were watching, like a football game or something, and my roommate went with me, and we ended up kind of just continuing to hang out, and eventually they were like, hey, so do you wanna, like, join? And I was like, I don't know. I never really thought that I would.
- Did your parents go to college?
- So my dad did.
- Yeah.
- And my dad, he went to Hardin-Simmons in Abilene and he did, he was Greek, but in Abilene they don't allow national fraternities.
- Oh, okay.
- So it was just, like, a local group that he sees when they randomly go back to like, you know, homecomings and stuff. But it wasn't this big national experience that I ended up joining. And so that would be, I consider that like my gateway into leadership opportunities in other organizations because it really came to older guys, and other friends in the Greek community were like, "Hey, you, you should think about this. Or have you ever looked into that?"
- You know, the retention rate, graduation rate, the returning back to campus and giving rate of people who are involved in Greek life, of all aspects of it is much higher than those who don't because it almost forces you or creates an expectation that you'll get involved with campus life, and create these kind of friendships that are lifelong friendships. You wanna come back to campus at Homecoming to reconnect with those people.
- You also never know who from other chapters and organizations you're gonna meet that have that similar connection.
- Yeah.
- Even if it's not your own chapter or your own fraternity. I meet people in the professional world and just by the fact that I know that they were Greek themselves, they went through similar experiences, and so you can kind of connect with people in that way.
- Yeah. Now I had no interest in student government at all, and I'm not sure if you did in high school, but you got involved here and eventually became student body president. Talk about that.
- Yeah, yeah. So that was a great experience. Again, I think that goes back to the community and the friends and the leadership opportunities that were presented to me through, you know, like the Housley Principled Leadership Program
- Yeah.
- When I was in the inaugural class of that, and I was the youngest guy there, the youngest student in that. I got to meet some amazing folks, and I was like, what makes these people tick?
- Yeah.
- How are they so amazing just all the time? And then they introduced me to their groups and their friends. And ultimately I ended up serving as student body president. Before that I was chief of staff for the president before me. And to me, it was just, I didn't think I could do it or that I should do it. And I ended up talking to a friend and mentor Reagan Pugh, and he was student body president a few years before me. And he said, look, if you think that you can do it and that you're the best person for the job, frankly, you'd be doing a disservice to the university and your student, you know, your fellow students if you didn't at least try.
- Yeah.
- And so I built a team. We had a vision. What we tried to do largely, and I hope that this is still maintained, you know, whether my alumni experience or anything, is figure out what the university's goals are, marry up with those, and then move forward together and how do we get the student body engaged and go in that direction. And at that time, you know, tier one research institution was a big deal.
- Yeah.
- Veteran friendly campus was a big deal. And so we looked at kind of building out our priorities in line with the direction the university was going, and you know, it was a great time. And I think we did some good stuff.
- You know, it's interesting. I think sometimes the student government can feel like their job is to be the royal opposition to the administration. And I think that we just had an administration change in student government here, and Olivia, who's our former student body president, she had the same kind of philosophy as you. Like, she said, what are you doing and then how can I get there? And like I said, well, one of the things I'm really interested in is getting students to come out to games. And she said, well, I'm gonna make school spirit be one of my things. And so she worked really hard to kind of help us, you know, get students to come out to games and get excited about supporting the university. And to see a student body president have that kind of alignment with the university really kind of helps me do my job. But I think it makes the university better as opposed to creating all this friction that's not very necessary.
- I mean, at the end of the day, it was all about, and still today as an alumni, it's how do I help improve the value of my own degree?
- Yeah.
- And that's by improving the prestige of the university and there's a lot of ways to do that.
- Sometimes people in your demographic, you know, you're 34 years old.
- 4.
- And they'll get excited about, you know, all the things that are happening at the university and they'll say, hey, how can I help the university? And I think they'll think that they'll see big gifts by people, like, giving a big gift to the football program or creating scholarships. And they feel like, I can't do that. I don't have a million dollars. If I did, I would give it. And they, sometimes they'll say, if I won the lottery, I would do this. But I often, my response is often that you can give of your time, or your talent, or your treasure, and the treasure may come later. So if you want to fund scholarships or create professorships and so on, but everyone's got talent and some people have time. And those are great ways to give back to the university as well. And no one, that's why you're here today, is to talk about how you've done that, about how you, I mean, seems like you're always here, and I know you're plenty busy, but how did you make the decision to kind of invest back in the university with your time and your talent? And then let's talk about some of the things you do.
- Yeah, yeah, sure. First of all, I feel a responsibility because so many people invested in me. I would not be the person I am today without the people who invested in me and Texas State University investing in me. So anything I can do to pay that forward is sort of what drives and motivates me. But on the treasure piece, let me just say. I believe that most people, while you might not be able to cut a million dollar check, what about like 10 bucks a month?
- Yeah.
- Or doing what you can do, because I do think giving, the culture of giving sooner will help it be easier later down the road. So I will put that challenge out there to my peers that whatever you can is helpful because as you know, part of the tier one is the percentage of alumni who give.
- Yeah.
- So it's not necessarily how much you give, but it's just giving.
- You're a hundred percent right. By the way, there's, with the giving days that we have.
- Just did Step Up for State.
- There's so many things, Step Up for State. There's so many ways that you can just say like, I'm just gonna like $18.99 a month for a year. And you'd be surprised how 200,000 alumni doing that, how that could impact the university.
- Oh, it's huge.
- And again, like you said earlier, when you improve the university, you improve you because now your degree is more valuable.
- I was talking with Brooks this weekend. I'm not sure I could have got in the university if I applied today, you know?
- I'm the same way.
- So it's pretty well.
- I got in the back door.
- In terms of time and talent. Yeah, I mean, look, I live in Austin, so it's a little easier for me to be here on a regular basis, but the university does things all across the state.
- Yeah.
- I think one thing that everybody has that we already kind of talked about is connections and relationships that they built here. And so encouraging people to go to something with you. Like whether it's an away baseball game, or an alumni event that's coming to town, or if you're able to get a crew come back to Homecoming. I do think just the participation in being here will help expose you to, like, the great things that are happening. And I've been, you know, blessed to be on a couple different committees that evaluates, like, student scholarships. And I'm not kidding, the students that we produce today are super impressive.
- Unbelievable.
- And so if you can be here and see what's happening at this university and feel called to get involved in some way, the alumni association, the development foundation, there's things with the athletics, there's so many opportunities.
- There's so many boards and committees that are looking for people. And if you're not careful, you'll burn out people by trying to get them on all those things. There's plenty of work to go around, right.
- Mm-hmm.
- And then in terms of talent, everybody's got something that they do, whether it's professionally or just passion. And I would, I don't know, but like 95% of people are on social media. So what about just like creating some social media buzz about things that are going on at the university?
- Yeah.
- I think that everybody can contribute in some way that works for them.
- I always talk about like, if you're at church and someone's saying, hey, my son's thinking about going to college somewhere, just saying, hey, you should check out Texas State, here's a website. That's something, and it doesn't cost a penny to do that.
- Yeah.
- And so. And hopefully your experience was good enough where you wanna do that.
- Exactly.
- But another part of that though is learning more about what's going on so you can advocate for us by watching the podcast or getting on, you know, reading the newsletters when they come out and so on. And you have so many ways to help. So talk about some specific things that you're involved in. I think you and I were chatting recently, there's probably like five or six different ways that you're engaged in addition, just being a fan and showing up to everything. But we were together Friday night for the Bobcat Bonanza deal. And then you were at another thing on Sunday at a scholarship program. And so talk about, let's talk about each one of those.
- As a student leader, I got exposed to the alumni association, so I've been a part of that group. I'm now actually the executive on the executive council for the young alumni engagement. So I don't really-
- How long do you get to be on there?
- Yeah, right. I don't love, it's a two year term. I don't love the term young alumni because that, you know-
- Recent.
- Right, right. It makes it think that we got old alumni. But my goal is to engage alumni under the age of 40. So we've put together some teams that are working to do that. We have a Forever Bobcats program, which is essentially a life membership. And so any contribution goes directly to student scholarships and supporting things like tailgate and other alumni activities that we promote. I'm also, I mentioned the fraternity or we talked about the fraternity. We recently came back to campus. We took a little break for a while.
- I heard about it.
- But we're happy to be back, we're thrilled to be back. We've got a great group of young leaders on campus who are excited to be here. I'm the advisor.
- It's actually growing very quickly.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We initiated like 40 guys and so very exciting. But I'm the advisor for that group, so hopefully they'll, if they do anything, call me, let me know.
- I've got you on speed dial.
- And then yeah the Stelos Alliance is a group that I was involved with. I mentioned the Housley Principled Leadership Program. My good friend and mentor, Bill Poston, who's a successful entrepreneur, he started this program. And at my time it was on Friday mornings and had no credit. So you had to really, you know, want to show up to do that program. I ended up getting a scholarship from that organization and then later as an alum, they asked me to be a part of the board and help set some of the strategic priorities. And now we've raised, you know, over the years, millions of dollars. And most of that has gone to Texas State students so.
- And think about that's really Bill and a couple of his buddies getting together. And I think originally they wanted to honor a couple of their fellow students who had passed away.
- Right.
- And just, they kept building their network and building kind of energy around it. And I think I saw in 2025, $300,000 in gifts to scholarships or programs, mostly at Texas State, but also around the state as well.
- Well, and the cool thing that you mentioned is Bill really wants to build an avenue for people to contribute to students doing things that they were passionate about.
- Yes.
- So like female entrepreneurs, we started the Capitol Cats internship program. There's Women in STEM. I mean, there's all different types of things that people can raise money for and give directly to students who are doing these things
- Because they have that memory of being the only one doing this,
- Right.
- or the struggle you have. And as I mentioned yesterday at this scholarship program, so many of our students are one, you know, flat tire away from dropping outta school and they might say, well, I'll stop out for a semester and you know, go work and try to come back. And once they leave, it's almost impossible to get them back. And so these scholarships are the difference makers to help kids finish what they start, and finishing is what's so important.
- When I was a student leader, one of my responsibilities was to review the emergency funds that students have access to and man, yeah, you hear, an apartment burns down, or something happens with a vehicle and they need 500 bucks.
- Yeah.
- You know, it goes a long way.
- Well, let's talk about Capitol Cats for a second.
- Oh, okay.
- You mentioned in passing and I wanted to talk about that because it's actually a program I'm super excited about because it's become more than just Capitol Cats.
- Yes. And I appreciate your leadership and willingness to get involved and support that. Essentially, a good friend of mine, Vanessa and I, she was student body president the year after me and currently a chief of staff at the Capitol.
- Yeah.
- So, again, those-
- She's fantastic.
- Those relationships that continue, you know.
- She's like an Energizer bunny.
- Yeah.
- I mean, she just, like never gives up.
- We both had, not at the same time, but we had internships at the Capitol when we were students that were unpaid.
- Yeah.
- And so we were driving from San Marcos every day. We were working at least 40 hour weeks.
- Did you intern during session or?
- I interned, it was a special session, so it was summertime.
- Okay.
- But there was a special session that was called when I was there.
- Yeah. Because sometimes people intern, and it's outta session and it's kind of like pretty laid back.
- You really want session.
- Yeah. But you wanna be in session.
- Right.
- And then some of those work weeks are horrendous, right.
- See how the sausage is made.
- Yeah. In session. And so I think that that's very valuable about the Capitol Cats is we work to find, right now the way the program has grown is I think there's seven students, but they're vetted, they apply for it, they're reviewed, they're interviewed, and then they really find the best students to serve in these legislative offices. And I think actually we have one in the governor's office too.
- Yeah.
- So Vanessa and I being unpaid, we thought that that was very challenging, and frankly, if I hadn't been working while I was a student, I don't think I would've had the ability financially, to do that. So we had this idea to create this scholarship program that would give a small stipend to the students interning at the Capitol every month. It's not a lot, but it's at least gas money. It's something to say that they're working a paid internship and they've been incredibly grateful. I mean, they're making impacts. I've talked to some chiefs of staff, they're like, yeah, we gotta kick 'em outta the office at six because we don't pay 'em enough to be here that long, you know? So they're very passionate about what they're doing. And to see that program kind of grow and blossom, and become what it is today. And I think, I don't want to spoil anything, but I've heard rumors that there might be talks about trying to do the same thing in DC.
- Yeah. So this thing works so well, and they're getting, like I said, it's not a bunch of money, but a little bit of money to go to Austin, which is great and a great experience there. And by the way, we went up there and had a breakfast with them recently, and you were there, and Vanessa was there. And it was interesting because it was either the week before budget week or it might've been budget week, and they were like getting up at four in the morning and driving up here. And so they would be in, because sometimes you get stuck in traffic. So they were trying to get here before so they would never be late. And then being up here till super late at night. But they were so excited because they're learning so much. And as you said, seeing how the sausage gets made is something. I remember being, I was 60 years old going to the Capitol for the first time and I was intimidated by it.
- Mm-hmm. And now you got these kids who are 19 years old, walking around the Capitol and seeing stuff that is just a natural thing for them. And we, you know, we have no state representatives or senators that are alumni of Texas State, but some of these young people I think will start to get inspired, like, I could do that.
- Well, Olivia was student body president. She was in the first group of the Capitol Cats program and she floated legislative ideas to her boss and some of 'em passed into law.
- Yeah.
- So, I mean, they really have a opportunity to make an impact for the state of Texas and I love that.
- Yeah, and our goal now is to do the same thing in DC to get another level of experience. Going to Austin is great, but going to DC is just the next level up. And for many of our students, they've never left Texas, and the thought of going to New York, or LA, or Chicago or DC seems super intimidating. So we're funding this, we're actually partnering with the chancellor of the Texas State University System. It's called the Chancellor's Internship, DC Internship Program. We're funding it originally 'cause we're gonna be sending Texas State students there. But eventually, we'll open this up to other component institutions in the system to get more people up there. We're working right now trying to figure out housing for them 'cause that's a huge deal. But I think we've got some great plans for that as well. Again, trying to give our students something special, extra, more than just being in the classroom 'cause you can learn so much outside of the classroom.
- It's great to have it on your resume. It's great to know how it's done, it's great to be able to go into a job interview or talk to people and connect and reconnect rather than a, you know, first time connecting. Yeah, I love it. I'm happy to hear that.
- Well, thank you so much for what you do for Texas State, for coming back and investing yourself and your, like you say, Bailey and your kiddos. and your personality, and all the stuff you got going on. The fact that you come back here is a great honor for us. And you inspire me every time I see you. I can't believe that guy's here again, because he's got a life he needs to be living. But this has become part of your life here. And it is creating a really great legacy.
- Well, I appreciate you saying that, but you know, I look at someone like you who does all the things that you do, and I'm inspired by you and I think that your presence, and your message, and your value, and you and Beth both have been exceptional leaders, and the students. I say that you're the most popular man in San Marcos. And if you want to, you know, if you wanted to get elected to the legislature, you should give a run. But I appreciate all you do.
- I'll leave that to people who are better situated than I am. Because that is not my passion. My passion is what happens here because-
- Yes sir.
- I really believe we're changing people's lives 'cause my life was changed by people who allowed me to do something that I could never imagine doing otherwise. Yeah, it was great to have you here. And what I love about what's happening in the podcast is people who are watching it, get super excited about learning about people like you, but they're also wanna know something about me sometimes. And so we've started this new thing where people are asking questions to me. And what we'd like to do is get our guests to serve now as the podcast host.
- Yeah, this one is very interesting. So what's one thing you're passionate about that you're not sure anyone else knows?
- Oh boy, that is a tough one. Something I'm passionate about. You know, okay, maybe people do know this about me, but I think we're all products of where we're from. And in your experience of kind of moving around, how that made you who you are. As much as I'm very patriotic as an American, I love what this country has done for me. I'll go fight for this country if I have to. By the way, if the country's relying on me to go, we're in a lot of trouble, if it's down to me to come, but I will go in a second because I love this country. But I'm really passionate about, you know, also my Canadian heritage because there's something special about Canada, I think. And if you spend much time with me, you'll know that. But if you don't, you might not know that I think about Canada a lot about how that influenced who I am because Canadians are very American like, but are not, but are a little different. And so I hope that the good parts of being Canadian influence the better parts of being an American. 'Cause I'm a proud American. After 9/11, I decided if I'm here, I gotta be all in. So I joined up. And so I'm proud to be an American, but also I'm proud about being a Canadian as well. And I hope that some of that sensitivity kind of bleeds over so. What about you?
- I'm fairly clean cut, I work in government relations, but I'm also kind of, like, I've got tattoos.
- Oh.
- I'm somewhat, like, I like good, you know, music. I wouldn't say artsy, but like-
- Yeah.
- You know, that's maybe something that people don't know about me.
- You're not cut and dried.
- Don't let this blazer fool you.
- Yeah. That is something people don't know about you. The interesting thing about tattoos is when I was your age and younger, having a tattoo is like, you know, boy, that's something going on there, but now it's become more and more common. Like, I know a lot of people have 'em now.
- You're in the minority, I think if you don't.
- Yeah,
- I think that's-
- I'm getting one.
- Statistics.
- That's my plan.
- Oh, a bobcat?
- Well, maybe I'll put-
- I'll get one with you.
- Maybe for Bobcat Bonanza, I'll put it for bid, they get to pick what my tattoo is.
- That would be funny.
- Yeah. Actually, both my daughters, one of 'em has a couple tattoos, and the other one's going to get one. And I was thinking we should just all get one, like, have a family tattoo.
- So my first tattoo, is a, I have a rose incorporated in it and my mom got a rose on her shoulder.
- [Kelly] Oh yeah.
- And so it was the year I turned 18, the year she turned 50. And one of the reasons was because my dad said that he would kick me outta the house if I had a tattoo or I couldn't live under his roof with a tattoo. And I go-
- She did that in solidarity with you.
- He can't kick both of us out, you know, so.
- Good for your mom.
- Yeah, right.
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