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Circling The Drain is a show about the current state of the music and radio businesses as well as culture in general!
Hosted by John E. Bozeman and Jay Harper along with Jim McCarthy as Co-Host/Executive Producer.
John has had a storied career in music and talk radio, most notably as the Executive Producer for the late and legendary Phil Valentine.
Jay also has has a long career in radio as Announcer, Play-by-Play, Voice and On-Camera Actor. He was also an Artist Rep for MCA records.
Jim McCarthy ALSO has had a tremendous career in radio since 1996 and has since brought his consulting/producing skillset to the podcast world.
Circling the Drain is produced by ItsYourShow.co
Unknown: The next year, when it
came around in Oh, eight, my
wife is the one who said, hey,
they're having that songwriting
competition. Yolanda, by the
way, oh my, yeah, that thing,
Scott won last year. They're
doing it again. And she said,
and I really want you to enter a
song, like a song contest. I've
had 20 number one song, you
know, I'm in a song contest. And
she goes, yeah, just do it, you
know. And then, you know, I
always say, she said, she
literally said, bro, you got
nothing else going on.
Wives are good at that.
Welcome to a podcast about music
and entertainment before it all
goes down the disposal. This is
circling the drain.
And welcome back into circling
the drain. The podcast that we
talk about everything. It talks
about radio, entertainment,
music, you name it. Jay Harper
is over there. Jay, how are you
doing? Always doing well, when
I'm with you. Johnny B, same,
right
back at you and Jim McCarthy
piloting this ship. My honor.
That's my honor too, sir. My
name John E Bozeman. Some people
know me as Johnny B. We got a
special guest today. In fact, I
thought, you know, we've had so
many pro you know, so many
episodes where we're talking
about all the sinful things we
do the horrible things we've
done in radio and all,
especially me. I mean, I'm
talking more me than you two
guys, but I thought we, you
know, elevated a little more,
and bring somebody in that, I
think the world of, and that is
Reggie ham, singer songwriter.
Oh, good to have you with us,
sir. Yeah, elevate baby. First
of all,
I feel like I need to talk like
this with
you guys. I think we can
advertise
anything in this room. Call me
now.
Operators are standing by. Look
at that. Come on, right now.
Every every product in America,
you're missing the opportunity
of a lifetime. You
really are. We're all here
if you want to, if you want to
support this program in a world
right there. We've got the
voices. We've got it. Yeah,
exactly so what in the hell are
you waiting for?
Come on, that's what the lines
are open now.
But Reggie has been around quite
a while with us. I actually got
to know Reggie through the Phil
Valentine show, yeah. And the
big thing that kind of brought
us to him was the big song that
you had on American Idol that
you won the song of the year,
which was a time of my life,
yeah?
Well, you know,
actually, so the way Phil and I
became friends was through a
song called infidels. Yes, I so
when I when my debut record came
out on in 2003 American dreams,
American dreams, yeah, and this,
so there's this, you know, big
story behind it, and all of
that, but, but when it came out,
three days after it released, my
wife and I flew to China to
adopt our first daughter, and
that was Very dramatic. And
there's, like I said, a big
story about it. There were
relates to the American Idol
song and all that. It was a
book, and they're trying to turn
it into a movie and all that.
But while we were gone, my
management team was I had a
single that was in the top 20 on
the Billboard charts when I left
for China, and I was supposed to
come home and open for Cher. I
was supposed to come home, I was
supposed to open for the Goo Goo
Dolls on a European tour, open
for like, Willie Nelson on a few
dates. It was all like, lined
up. The whole this was March of
oh three, and, you know, the
rest of the year was booked,
yeah. And so my management was
like sending songs to different
radio. There was a lot of
syndicators picking up songs,
and I had different kinds of
songs on the record. And it was,
it was just kind of creating
interest here and there and
whatever. And I got home, and
I'll never forget it. My phone
started buzzing. You know, this
is back when we had flip phones.
You know, phone started buzzing.
Answer it. And it's a guy from
CSAC, the performance rights
organization, a friend of mine
there, and he goes, Hey, Phil
Valentine, is like, talking
about you right now. I don't
know if you know this, but you
might want to call in the show.
I'm like, Phil Valentine, the
radio guy. He goes, Yeah, he's,
he's talking about you, yeah. I
said, Oh, okay, so I closed the
phone, literally, it buzzes
again. I open it, it's my dad.
He goes, Hey, Bill Valentine's
talking about somebody. Just
somebody told me. He goes, Yeah,
you might want to call in. He's,
he's like. Asking about you.
Okay, close the phone. Third,
third call my manager. Hey, you
got to call Phil Valentine right
now. I said, Okay, I and I had
heard Phil I actually had
followed the whole tax tax
protest, yeah, which I thought
was fantastic. Yes, it was. And
I told him many times like that,
that was more game changing than
you think it was, you know, or
maybe, maybe he did know how
important it was, but I thought
it was great. And Pamela fur had
been a friend of mine for years,
and so I kind of followed him
through that. Anyway, my
management had had, apparently,
while we were in China, had sent
you guys the record American
dreams, and particularly the
song infidels, yes, played it a
lot, and Phil played it and was
like, I don't know, I don't know
what to think about this guy. I
don't know where he is on this,
on the political spectrum, but
this song is cracking me up. And
Reggie, if you're out there,
call in the show. You know what?
I remember that? Yeah, and so,
so I did, and we had a great
conversation on on air, just,
just from the phone. And then
when that ended, he, when the
when that segment ended, just
off the air, it was either you
or him said, hey, you need to
come in the studio one day and
let's, let's have a longer
conversation. So we did that.
And, and then, I don't know,
Phil and I just became buddies,
and we, we would go to lunch
occasionally and just talk about
everything, yeah, and, and it
wasn't all politics, in fact, in
fact, very little of it was
politics.
No, that's, that's the truth.
Anytime you, anytime you spend
any time with him away from the
show, yeah, it was usually
either about Tar Heel basketball
or music, yeah, or ideas, yeah.
Or I did
just we, I remember one
conversation. The last time we
had lunch together was at Jay
Alexander's, and we, man, we
just talked about every just all
kinds of ideas. And it was,
that's the that's where I am,
like, I always, I'm about ideas.
I'm not really about politics.
You know, the politics of the
moment changes. The people
definitely change. Yeah, and
it's the ideas, really, to me,
that are the most important
thing. And that's, I think Phil
felt the same way. Obviously,
his job was to talk about the
topics at hand, which he did a
great job. Both of you guys did
a great job of that. But, you
know, we talked about everything
under the sun. And I was funny
because I was telling my dad
last night we were talking about
Phil and how much we missed him
on the radio and and all in your
show. And I say a lot of people
don't know this, but when Phil
would say, a friend of mine just
texted me and said, blah, blah,
blah, blah, blah, it was almost
always me.
So you were basically doing show
prep for
like I would usually take my I
walk three miles a day, and I
would usually take my walk
during the first hour of his
show, yeah, and listen. And he
would say something. He would
tee it up, you know, some so and
so and so happened or whatever.
And I would text him, yeah, but
this and that. And then the next
segment would come around, and
he would a friend of mine just
he was such a rush for me to
know that
was a good imitation of his
laugh.
The last the last one I texted
him, I'll never forget it, and
the reason I remember it is
because it was the last one that
he was talking about Zuckerberg
losing money from Facebook,
because people were at at some
point boycotting because of the
you know he was, he was
censoring people, you know this
back in those, in those in those
days, and I texted him, I said,
if Zuckerberg gets below 50
billion, he won't be able to get
laid anymore.
He I was, and I thought to
myself, There's no way he'll say
this on the air. And he did, and
he's like, if
Zuckerberg is below 50 billion,
he won't be able to get laid
anymore. I was like,
I didn't realize how much show
prep you were,
you're like a staff writer, man.
It was so much fun. I was just
and he would just like, you
know, and he would text me back,
and I still have the last text
he sent me. I can't, I can't
bring myself to get rid of it.
But we were texting about
Condoleezza Rice and something
she said, and this and that. And
anyway, I didn't mean to get off
on that. Oh no, that's fine, but
that's how Phil and I met
through infidels, yes, and then,
and then he, he actually became
fan of all the other music in
and I played at his 50th
birthday party. And I. Remember
that, yeah, something else. And
he did a couple of charity
things for us, like Bella
bashes. Bella bash, he was at
several of those. And the last
one, the bourbon bash we did, he
was at that. And, you know, I
mean, we were just, we were just
friends and and I still
occasionally keep in touch with
Susan, just to check on her,
just as she has, yeah, how the
kids are doing. And he was
always, and I'm going to use
this word again, always
available to me if I needed to
promote a show, if I needed to,
you know, we were doing some
kind of charity thing. He never
turned me down. No, never one
time. And man, when you find a
friend like that in those days,
in particular, when radio was
basically King, and you had to
be on the radio to get your word
out right, as an artist, if you
found some somebody like that
who was in your camp like that,
you just never forgot that.
Well, that's the whole thing
with him, and we won't make this
all about Phil but, but when he
believed in you, or if he loved
you, He would do anything for
you, that's why I've told people
many times that I've seen him
help out so many people that,
and I'm talking people from all
walks of life. It's not just
somebody that's on the
conservative side where he was.
He was that way with everybody.
Yeah, if you were, if you were
good to him, he gave it back
tenfold. Yeah, he was that kind
of innovation.
He was a really good man and
really and a talent in that
space too. Oh yeah, people
forget, that's that's its own
ability. You know,
oh, it's not as easy. People
think, Oh, you just get on the
air and you talk. No, it's,
it's, it's an art. And he was
the greatest. And
it's funny because, again, my
talking about the whole
conversation with my father last
night was about people who have
that ability, and it's the
ability to go. And I was telling
him, You know, I've been
entertainment my whole life, and
my dad has been entertainment.
And we were talking about how
it's this, it's this ability
right here, man, I'm gonna
listen to this for three minutes
and then I'm gonna turn it off,
because I don't have time
listening to this the rest of
the day. You look at your watch,
you know what? I'm gonna listen
three more minutes, and then I
promise I'm gonna turn it off,
dang it. I got it. Okay, I'll
listen three more minutes. That
is what the entertain. That's
what the ability to do that is
exactly. You know, there's a lot
of people with great minds,
great voices, whatever, but for
some reason it's real easy to
turn them off, whether that's a
musician, whether that's a voice
talent, whether that's a
novelist, you know, a filmmaker,
whatever it's the person who has
the ability to keep you on the
line one more minute.
Well, you've probably learned
that a lot too, from your own
father, because he was a
Pentecostal minister. Was
he and an amazing one, yes, and
he, my dad, was was deep into
human behavior and all this
stuff, all these hacks that we
that we're like, into online. He
was doing this stuff in the 70s
like he knew exactly how long
the human attention span was. He
knew exactly how you have to
turn a story at one minute, 30
seconds. You know what I mean?
He right. He was very detailed
and all that. And my father
could, could preach for 90
minutes, and you felt like, it
was like two minutes. You felt
like, Man, I haven't been here
that long you had because he
just wove the story. So it
wasn't eloquence. It was like,
Man, I gotta, I gotta keep
hearing what this guy what I
don't, I don't know why I'm
still listening to this, yeah,
but I can't stop. And he had
that ability. Still, still has
that ability. But in his prime
it was, it was almost a miracle.
I mean, I've seen, I've seen my
dad hold 10,000 people
spellbound for two hours, and
it's and I'm thinking about,
how's he doing this? How these
people not leaving, but they
wouldn't, man, nobody would get
it. Nobody wanted to go the
bathroom. It's like, I can't
miss what's next, right? You
know, that's the that's the
essence of it, right there. If
you have that ability, you can
apply that to anything, any
stage, any activity you can, you
can be a car salesman, you know,
if you've got that ability to
keep them in the office one more
minute, like, I just think this
deal is going to be great. I
don't know why, but this guy's
got me feeling like, you know
what? I mean, that's a really,
that's, that's buying a car from
me. I mean, that I might have
bought,
I spellbound. I would have
we buy one right now. Jim Well,
as a matter of fact, there,
Johnny come on down,
well, you started with your dad
too. Did you now you're playing
drums, yeah, because we were
talking before we came on. But
we both kind of started in a in
a what? Because my. Father
wasn't a preacher, he was a
salesman, but he was also a
singer and and he was a radio
my dad was a salesman too. He
was Yeah, basis, baby, yeah. He
was and,
thank goodness, right, but, but
you started playing drums with
him, so I'm sure you learned a
lot.
Absolutely, yeah, my dad. So, so
my dad was kind of a child
prodigy guitar player. When he
was 10, he was given to, and I'm
not that's exactly what it was.
He was basically signed over to
a traveling evangelist in 1957
who traveled the world. And my
father, my father's job was to
plug his guitar up in some
place. Great example, London.
Okay, they're in the middle of
London. My dad finds an outlet
to plug his amp in. Yeah, on the
street corner in London. He
plugs his amp in. He's 10 years
old. I guess when they were in
London, he was 13. But anyway,
he plugs it in. He sings and
plays. He busts, basically, and
gets a crowd. And when the crowd
is big enough, the evangelist he
was touring with would literally
put a soapbox down. They
literally carried a soapbox.
People say, I'm up on my
soapbox. That's what this comes
from. Evangelists doing this,
Street Preachers doing this,
this man would literally put a
soapbox down, stand on the
soapbox and start preaching to
this crowd. Wow. That's how my
father was raised, and so he
continued that on it as an
evangelistic team, by the time
he was 20 and had a band, a
group called the World Challenge
singers, and they toured the
country and played and saying my
dad was the minister, and then
when that, when that disbanded.
And so I was raised on that bus
with that group. I tell people I
don't know when I learned to
play an instrument, like I just
always known how to play. Yeah,
people ask me, when you start
playing? I don't know. I don't
remember not knowing. I just so
we were, we moved to Atlanta. My
dad took a church to pastor, and
the drummer for that, for the
church could not he was on his
honeymoon. We weren't going to
have a drummer. And I said,
Well, Mom, I'll play. I'm five.
Yeah. She's like, Oh, honey, I
know, I know you will No, no,
seriously. I like, I'll play.
Yeah. And she, she looks at my
dad. I know what the look is
now, you know. But then I was
just trying to, I was just
getting the social cues, but the
look meant, I think he's
serious. My mom always she's
like, okay, so we got to church
early. She goes, Okay, jump up
there. Let's play something real
quick before people get here.
And, man, we we started rocking
something. And she's like, okay,
yeah, he'll play. He's part of
the key. He's the he's and so
that I was officially, at that
point, the backup drummer from
five to, like, seven. And then I
was the, then I was the official
drummer, once my legs got long
enough to reach the kick pedal.
And I could, actually, I used
to, I used to only be able to,
like, grab the the hammer, you
know, the kick, the kick pedal,
yeah. And I could, I could pull
it back, and I could get a kick
every, every, like, three or
four measures, you know, that
took some talent, yeah? So I
got, like, a little bit of a,
you know, one of those things,
yeah, to do that. Anyway, when I
was seven, I started, I pretty
much was the full time guy, and
then at 10, we went back on the
road as the ham family, and I
was I played drums and sang
lead.
Wow, yeah. So yeah, and did you
know you guys did these? We
talked about it, but a lot of
people don't know about the all
night sing a thons, or the all
night singing. And, man, those
things and people. Because I was
in, I was in Hot Springs,
Arkansas one time, and I won't
say what the guy said, but
apparently there was a husband
there that had never been to an
all night singing. He probably
thought, yeah, it's probably
gonna last about midnight.
Whatever. Found out they last
all night. That's why they call
them all night, baby. Yeah, it's
sun's coming up. They're still
playing, yep.
Oh yeah, we did. We did a lot of
this. We did, I've been in a lot
of tent revivals, yes, like,
more than you would think.
But we did this one
all night, thing ever. We did it
for three years. We did it in a
place called fields of the wood,
North Carolina. And this is a,
like a Christian Gospel theme
park in North Carolina, way back
in the woods, in the sticks, and
it's this mountain that they
call it 10 Commandment mountain.
It's literally a mountain. And
they have the 10 Commandments
carved in stone like huge
letters you know, bigger than a
person you know, all the 10
Commandments. On this all the
way down this mountain, and then
it's, like, lined with stone,
you know, around it. And then
there are steps going right up
the middle of the all the
commandments, you can go all the
way to the top, and the kids
would get, you know, the thing
was to get to the top and then
try to get back down, like,
like, without the steps, right?
Yeah. But somebody would
inevitably, like, trip and fall
and just roll down the mountain,
like hit every commandment on
the way down all those stones.
Good way to learn them. Yeah, we
would learn, you know. And so
you learn. So I learned all the
commandments by, like, literally
falling over them.
And but at the base of this
mountain, we would set up a
tent, and for three years, we
were the fam, the host, the host
artist, you know, and we'd set
our park, our bus or motor home,
whatever we were traveling in at
the time, next to this tent, and
our family would start the all
night thing at sundown, six or
seven, whatever it was, right?
And we would do 45 minutes to an
hour to open it. And then all of
these groups from the backwoods
in North Carolina would come out
of the woodwork, and they would
do their their stuff. And man,
it was, it was unbelievable.
Some of it was great. Some of it
was like, true, like
undiscovered brilliance, you
know. And then at midnight, we
would do another set, you know,
to kind of rev it back up. And
then we, you know, then you had
this, the next round of these
performers from, you know, say,
1am to four or whatever. And
then as the sun was coming up,
we did our last set as the sun
was coming up. And then they did
a pageant, an Easter pageant, on
this mountain. But, yeah, man,
we did that three years. And we
did a lot, a lot of that stuff.
And then, you know, we played
really high end stuff. We played
toward the end of it, you know,
my dad was becoming pretty well
known. We played arenas and, you
know, this really cool center in
Detroit once that was like, real
high end. And we did, we played.
There were these two, like,
performing arts centers in
Virginia, and we were in one and
and the Sugar Hill gang was in
the other. I don't know if you
remember the Sugar Hill gang,
and I remember, and I met wonder
Mike, like I just stood out in
the lobby and, like, hung out
with wonder Mike. Wonder Mike is
the guy who invented the term
hip hop. You know, wonder Mike.
I am wonder Mike. And I'd like
to say, Hello,
something in yellow.
He said, That's wonder Mike.
He's the guy that said, and so,
you know, it was, it was a weird
way to grow up, a fun way to
grow up. Sometimes, I've got
some stories that people don't
believe but the absolutely
happened. So were you? Were you
home school? Yeah, some part of
it, I was tutored in the second
grade. I was part of a
homeschool thing from like my
sophomore year till I graduated.
So it was kind of all over the
place. Few years I was in public
school, but but every year I was
in public school, my father had
a meeting with the principal,
and my brother and I were given
three tours we could do, and the
all of our teachers were
informed that they had to Get
lesson plans ready for us for
these three tours. And so even
when I was in public school, I
knew, Okay, well, in October I'm
going to be gone, you know,
those three weeks, and my mom's
got the lesson plans from the
you know. And then in February,
we're going to be into, you
know, whatever. And so we had a
schedule like that. So it was
odd, you know, and my school
experience was sporadic, and I
don't know, I mean, it was fine,
but it was, yeah, it wasn't
everybody else's. You couldn't
have played sports, I guess,
even if you'd want, and that,
no, that was a big point of
contention. My dad had a very,
very strict rule that we could
play one year of each sport. So
you can play one year
basketball, one year baseball,
one year football. That's it.
And a lot of it had to do with
our hands. He's like, I can't,
you can't, true, risk messing
your hands up. And it was a big
deal. Like, like, you, you take
care of those hands, because you
need those hands. My brother and
I both. So I played one year
football where I stayed on the
bench because I I was hurt all
the time. My knees were just
this. I played running back for
one year, but, man, my knees
were just i. Have water on the
knees all the time. And that's
when I realized I don't have the
body for this sport. Yes, almost
be a little bit of a, you know,
masochist, masochist. Love pain,
and I did not love pain. I'm
with you, and I played baseball,
I think when I was like little
league baseball, and I've
actually played basketball a
little bit more than the rest of
it. But once I got in high
school, and then I ran track in
high school, he was fine with us
doing that, and I ran track for
three years, and wrestled when I
got in high school, but that
didn't really have, that was no
no impact so and didn't really
have any impact on my hands, you
know.
But, yeah, so that was kind of
like,
that school was, was a happy,
you know, it was, it was
a necessary evil. Exactly. It
was, like, we got to do this,
but we don't. We get to do it
our way. And, yeah, exactly. And
we didn't put a lot of stock in
it, you know, in this just his
thing, like, okay, so I can sit
in a class and I can learn about
Bunker Hill, but I'm going to be
in New Jersey next week at
Bunker Hill, yeah, so, why don't
I just learn about it there, you
know? And it was a lot of that,
yeah, you know, I would read
about this stuff, like, in, you
know, this America, you know,
American history stuff. And it's
like, yeah, I mean, I was there
in the summer. I saw, I saw read
out 10. I know, I know how the
American Revolution ended. I
actually have eight millimeter
video of me charging read out
10. I know that French showed up
on this, you know, because I saw
it all. Yeah, right. And so that
you don't forget. You'll forget
all the stuff you learn and, Oh,
definitely, but you don't
forget, you know, and I took
that into my parenting style. I
really parented my son that way.
He wasn't a performer with me,
but I took him as many places as
I could. Take him, and we would
go see stuff and talk about,
talk about it. And, you know,
this is the way they teach it,
but this is kind of how, how it
really went down. Yeah, they're
standing over there, and then
they, you know, and, and, you
know, that's a we live in,
Nashville is a great place for
that.
Oh, it is. There's so much
history here. Yeah, absolutely.
So what brought you, I mean,
what? What was the when you what
brought you out of working with
your family to becoming the
songwriter you are, the artist
you are. What brought you to
Nashville?
Well, a bull auction in South
Dakota, basically was our last
show as a family. Wow, we, we
were hired to play a bull
auction out in the middle of
nowhere in South Dakota, and
they put a piece of plywood down
in the middle of the ring where
all the bulls were brought in.
They handed us one plug, and we
could do that. We like, we could
handle that. And they handed us
this this one plug, and they're
like, there's your electricity.
And, you know, so we set up on
this 10 by 10 piece of art. It
was probably two, four by eight.
Actually, I think it was, I
think that's what it was. So it
ended up being like, eight by
whatever, eight by eight. And
as I spoiled you, yeah,
and I have a picture of it in my
office, because the local paper
snapped a picture. And so I have
that paper that clipped our last
show, yeah, as the family, I was
17, and it was just horrible.
It's just, it was just the worst
gig you can and I was so, I
mean, I was jaded by then, you
know, by then, I was just like,
Man, I gotta get through this
set. You know. No, 17 year old
should be going, I gotta get
through this.
You're 17. You should be like,
Yeah, I'm
still the drummer. I'm still the
drummer. Singing lead. I'm on
song four. Okay, I can do it,
you know. And, you know, an
unstable platform, an unstable
platform. All your stuff's
moving, yeah, and I'm sliding
off here and there, and I'm in,
you know, bull crap. And so then
it's so then it starts raining
during the show, we can always
great, we got a tin roof, so
it's, we're it's off of us, but
we can hear it like, okay, and I
know load out is gonna be awful,
you know? Oh, yeah, so that's
all I'm thinking about now. I'm
here in the rain, and all I'm
thinking about now is loadout is
gonna be awful. And sure enough,
man it. And so dad backs the
trailer up that we kept all this
stuff in to the pen, you know.
And we're like, as fast as we
can. They're like, hey, we need
to get in here and start. You
know, we're like, going as fast
as we can to get everything in.
And I have the last piece of
gear. I have the monitor mixer
in my hand. I will never forget
this. And I am running with this
mixer to get to the trailer. I
slip and fall. All in the pen,
and I'm just covered in bull
crap, you know, and I, and I
stand up and try to and they,
and they had brought the first
bull in, and the bull is coming
at me. Oh, no, I'm covered in
the stuff. And I'm got the, I've
got this, and the only thing on
my mind is protect the gear.
That's when, you know, you've
been raised. I got to protect
the gear Exactly.
So think about your own safety.
Make
sure this gear gets in the
trailer so I get out of there, I
get out of the pen, and, you
know, and I and I'm wet. I've
gotten rained on now, I've
gotten stuff on me, and I'm and
I just, I get in the van, I
slammed the door, and I said, I
am done. And dad knew, you know,
he's like, You okay? I said, No,
I'm done. I won't do this
anymore. Yeah. And he goes,
Okay. And now, let me say this,
in my dad's defense, my dad
never forced us to do any of it.
You know, I was, I was, it
wasn't a Joe Jackson situation.
I mean, my dad was always very
clear, you boys don't ever want
to do this. You don't have to.
This is my thing. Yeah, you
know. And you're, I want you
with me, but you don't have to
be. And that's when I said, I
don't want to do this anymore.
And he was and he never wavered.
He said, that's totally fine,
son. He said, I get it. And that
was, that was the end of the
bed. Was the last show we did as
a family.
Well, I don't blame you, because
I remember when I worked with my
dad, it was always a crap shoot
where you were going to play.
Because what he did, he used his
radio station. It was out in
Kansas. And back in those days,
Kansas didn't get a lot of
entertainment. So he so he
would, he would hire a big
country star and then bring his
troupe open for him. Yeah, we
opened for them. But I remember
my first gig. It was in a place
called cold water, Kansas. Oh,
yeah. And we were outside, and
it just happened, there was a,
there was a severe thunderstorm
that was blowing up about the
time we were setting everything
up. So they made the grand
decision to put us in the high
school. Yeah, but the high
school had been shut up all
summer, and it was like 100
degrees, and they did not have
air conditioning, right? And we
go in and we put on this show,
and when we as we're coming out
on stage, me and this singer,
they introduce us. There's not
one hand clap, nothing. The
audience is angry. They're hot.
They had to wait. Yeah, it was
the MC goes, oh no. Boys go back
out. Let's, let's get these
boys.
You literally had to walk out
and walk back, yeah,
okay, I'll give them a
background that was like,
so anyway, what brought you to
Nashville? What,
I mean, we were from Nashville,
so I basically came home. I
mean, we, I'm like a fifth
generation native, so
Wow, that's kind of unheard of,
yeah.
So we, I went to one year of
junior college, Johnny, where I
carried a solid
2.0 great.
Dropped out of college, and just
I realized, because I was in
bands in college, and all I was
doing was chasing girls and
making music, and I was like, I
can do this without paying a
college, you know exactly. So I
left college after my freshman
year, moved to Nashville because
I knew this is where I wanted to
be. I wanted to really, I wanted
to be a studio player. I wanted
to be a session drummer. And I
came to town with my set of
drums and my little pickup
truck, and just started
hustling. And I was, I was
circulating tapes that I was
playing drums on to try to get
drum work, and I had written the
songs on the tapes, which to me,
was like, incidental, like I
didn't really care about that. I
just, I wanted people to hear my
drumming, right? And I kept
getting calls about the songs,
and I'm like, Yeah, but I'm
playing drums. We don't care
about that. We care about the
songs. Yeah, finally it dawned
on me, oh, oh, you're mainly a
songwriter, you know, and
you're, you're okay. And my dad
used to tell me, I used to get
mad at him, but he's like, you,
you know what, you're a good
drummer, but you're a great
songwriter. And I'd get really
pissed off at him for that, but
he was right, or at least he was
right about the drum part, you
know, anyway, that that sent me
down the road of focusing on the
songwriting and and then when I
got successful enough as a
songwriter, that's when I
actually realized, I mean, I had
always wanted to be an artist
that. What that was the thing
that was the ultimate goal. But
I felt like, well, I think I
could be a session drummer until
I can do that. And I think I
could, you know, maybe I need to
be in a band to make that
happen, because I'm not really
the lead singer, you know. But
then when I got enough success
in the music business, I went,
Oh, I just need to do this
myself, because I don't really
care if these other people are
singing my songs. And, I mean,
I'm always appreciative, but
it's not, it's not my goal. It's
not the same, yeah, yeah. And
it's not, it's not really, you
just write different songs when
you're writing them for other
people. Yeah. So I gave myself
permission. One year I was a
staff writer at this company,
and I was like, you know, I'm
just gonna write whatever I
want. I don't want no radio
involved, no no success
involved. I don't care if they
ever get recorded. I just want
to, like, say what I want to
say. So I had about 13 of these
songs, and I started going in
and just paying to record them
myself. And that's the American
Dreams
record. Man, that is a fantastic
record. It really is, in fact,
that my favorite on there is
Shelby Street Bridge. Oh, I love
that too.
Well, it's a true story. So
Shelby steer bridge I was when I
was in this year of college. It
was in a little town called
Cleveland, Tennessee, just
outside of Chattanooga. Yes,
yeah. And I was driving back
I do their live stream of their
sports Cleveland State. Okay,
yeah, so I know Cleveland. Well,
yeah. So Cleveland. I lived
there for a few years when my
dad was a national evangelist
for this church. That's where we
lived when I was from, like, age
10 to 15, and then I moved back
there to go to this to this
college and we were my a
roommate, my college roommate
and I were visiting Nashville.
For some reason, we'd come up
here for something, and we were
driving back, and we and the
pickup that the aforementioned
pickup, yeah, had a blowout
under the Shelby Street Bridge,
like it was on Interstate 65
north or, yeah, we were on
North, going south, trying to
hit 24 and I just pulled off the
road. This is before Shelby
Street Bridge was a walking
bridge. This is way back in the
80s, and I pull under the bridge
because that was that, you know,
little drizzle going and I was
trying to get out of the rain.
And, you know, what are we gonna
do this? So we pull under the
under the bridge, and there's
this van kind of staring at us
on the side of the road, and
these guys, it's like a movie,
like, all the doors open and all
these dudes jump out. I'm like,
oh, you know we're what's going
on. And, you know it's 218 year
olds.
Well, back in those days,
Nashville wasn't like, yeah,
people forget, yeah. It's like,
I told I think I was on another
interview on a podcast
somewhere, and they asked me
what Nashville was like then.
And I said, Well, if you went
out at night on lower broad you
you were among criminals and
prostitutes. Listen, basically,
listen, okay. I thought about
this the other night because I
was down on second and I
remember, I remember vividly, my
friends and I would drive to
Second Avenue and the The
Crucible, like the proving you
were a man Yes. Was walking to
the end of second, yeah, and
back and making it, yeah, we
literally would do that, like,
we enter the bottom of second,
go, Okay, who can do it, yeah?
And, you know, and one of us
would try and, you know, man, I
got up, I got like, six blocks
by. I just couldn't, you know,
anyway, I'm under the Shelby
Street Bridge while these doors
open, this van, these guys get
out there wearing, like it looks
like army surplus clothes, you
know, yeah. And they're all long
hair, they got beards and
whatever. And they, they come
out there, Hey, man, you need
to, you need help with your
tire, like me, I guess,
you know, may have been one of
those guys.
And this one dude was sort of
the, clearly, their leader, you
know? He was like, okay, dude,
you go. He was, like, giving
orders, yeah, you know. And it
was, it felt kind of quasi
military at that point, you
know, yeah. And, and they all
introduced themselves, really
nice guys. They were all Vietnam
vets, wow. And they helped me
change the tire, come on back to
the van, man. So we and they
lived in this van. And this
dude, the leader, me and my
buddy sat kind of in their van,
and he's like, where you guys
headed? Like, well, we're going
back to college. He's like, Ah,
man, F that you need to tune
out, drop out, tune in and drop
out, whatever the you know, the
phrases were back there, you
know. He's like, Nah, man, you
don't need to go back to
college. You need to do this.
And we're like, what is this,
you know. And he's like, and he
spent the next 20 minutes
preaching the gospel of
homelessness to us, you know.
And he's like, Yeah, you don't
need a you don't need a house.
Man, you don't need a car. You
need a van that you can, like,
keep the sun off of you, keep
the rain off of you. Man, and
some of those lines in Shelby
Street Bridge are exactly from
his mouth. Mouth, like,
Sullivan's Ridge is where he was
from, yeah, is. And he literally
told me, man, one day I'm gonna
get back up Sullivan's Ridge,
you know, it's where I'm from.
And, and the first born son,
he's like, Yeah, I'm the oldest
of three, or whatever. And, and
the thing some, if I wake up in
the mood, I work for food. He,
like, literally said that to me,
like, man, you can get a sign,
like we got the sign here. It
says we'll work for food. People
will stop and give you money.
And, you know, sometimes you go
to their house, you do stuff for
them. I'm telling you, man, this
is the way to live. And I'm
dude, he preached this. He was
like, really adamant about,
don't, don't plug into society,
stay on the edges of it, right?
Kind of an off the grid. And
I'll tell you, man, now that
I've got a wife and kids and a
mortgage, I'm not sure he wasn't
right.
He was ahead of his time. Really
appealing, yeah. Well, it's very
interesting too, when you say
you talked about this, because I
remember when, when you gave us
that, that CD. I remember going
into Phil and saying, I love
Shelby Street Bridge. I said,
for some reason, it really
reminds me of a John Lennon.
What something John Lennon would
Oh,
wow, wow. That's what I thought.
Yeah, that's, that's high
praise. That's, I appreciate
that. Oh, I just fell in love
with it, man. Well, it was,
yeah, it's true story. And I
remember it's one as a
songwriter, you tuck these
things away, and I remember
tucking that one away, going,
Okay, I gotta find a way to make
a song out of this. Yeah, I
don't know how I'm gonna do it,
but it was, you know, about 10
years later, I think I was, I
was just at the piano, and I
came up with this little riff
and and I started singing a
melody over it. And I saw that.
I saw that event in my head, and
I was just like, he called
himself a native, and it just
kind of went from there, you
know. And I realized, Oh, I know
what the song is. It's the song
is just him telling me about all
this, you know, and and all of
its every Oh, the other thing
that's true is him. I sold it
for some blow a year ago, after
my brother died, he really, he
told the same thing, like, he
had a he had a Harley Davidson,
and he sold it to buy cocaine to
kind of cope with his brother's
death. And so all all of it,
there's some stuff that filled
in the gaps, but most of it is
like, what straight out of this
guy's mouth? You know, I just
made it rhyme.
Awesome, awesome story. Well,
you also had a hit off that.
Really, that album, American?
Well, yeah, baby, baby was the
thing that Delilah, yeah, yeah.
So Delilah picks up this song,
babies, which was my least
favorite song on the record. It
was the last one recorded. I
didn't want to put it on the
record. But every time I would
play live, women would request
this song and just lose their
mind. It always works that way,
doesn't, dude. And so I play the
all you know, what I'm thinking
are the cool songs, yeah. And
some woman would go, would you
buy babies? So finally, a friend
of mine, great songwriter,
friend of mine, his wife, pulled
me aside at a club one night and
she said, kind of put her finger
in my face. She goes, if you
know what's good for you, you
will record that song. I'm
telling you, that's the one. And
I said, okay, okay, Jane, so I
did, and it was it cost less
money to produce, I mean, like
we literally went in and just
cut me, and Kent Hooper just
went in and kind of did it. I
kind of played every I mean, we
just did it, and we did it in a
couple of days, just because
it's just how I would have it to
give to people, you know, and
that was another thing that my
manager had sent Delilah that,
and she heard it the day she
adopted her son. TK, or was
going to trying to decide if
she's going to do it. She gets
this song, and it freaked her
out. And she's like, this is the
sign that I'm supposed to adopt
my son. Wow, and he's, I don't
know, 2526 now, strapping young
man, but she started playing it,
and it's, it's as I understand
it. And I had her on my podcast
a couple years ago, and she told
me, then it is still to this
day, the most requested song
she's ever had on her show. Wow.
Yeah, so power of radio, yeah,
exactly. So it that kind of
catapulted it into this, and
that's when they started sending
songs to all these syndicators.
And Phil got infidels through
that, yes, yeah. And we played
the heck out of that one,
yeah, that one, that one got me
beheading threats.
We also tried the infidel
report. Remember? Yeah,
absolutely back when we kind of
did like two episodes,
who should I piss off in the
world?
Pretty understand, I don't think
they'll get too upset. No.
Oh, fine. They're known to be
amenable,
yes, well, it was around this
time too. That wasn't this
around the time that you went to
adopt your
dog, yeah, in China, yeah. So
the story goes,
my release date for American
Dreams was March 18, 2003 and we
get a phone call from the
service we had gone through to
adopt. This had been going on
for 18 months, but we didn't
know that they were even going
to pick us, you know. And we had
to leave on March 21 to go to
China. Oh, wow. Debut record
drops song in the top 20
supposed to tour with Cher on
March 18. Oh, by the way, you
got to be in China on the 22nd
Oh, man, so we and, by the way,
the other thing that happened, I
wrote about this in the book
angels and idols that talks
about this, but though the Gulf
War started while we were in the
air. We are, me, yeah, we are
literally like, you know,
getting our bags checked, and
I'm looking up at CNN, and
George Bush is like, and we will
commence operations. So, you
know, we're like, are they gonna
be shooting people down? You
know, you know, you just think
about that stuff like you don't
know you're in international
airspace. You don't know why
it's all gonna play out. So the
Gulf War starts while we're in
the air. Anyway, we got to
China, and they handed us a
little girl a week later, you
know, with one of the rarest
genetic disorders on the planet.
And that really just changed my
entire life, my wife's entire
life, and and the whole
trajectory of my career, and
what I'm about as a person. And
it's not even people say it's
night and day, it's like night
and Mars, yes, you know, it's
not even night and day, it's
night and another planet. And
really, you know, she has
Angelman syndrome, so she's
missing a piece of a chromosome,
and she can't speak, she can't
bathe herself, feed herself. You
know, she's 24 hour care. She
can walk. If she came into this
room, you might think she's
relatively typical, you know,
until she started reaching for
your glasses and pulling your
hair and, you know, all this
stuff that she's also had. She
also has autism. She's dual
diagnosed, so she has all the
tics of Angelman syndrome, and
then all the kind of, you know,
difficult compulsions of autism.
So there's a lot going on there
with her, but we didn't know.
When we got her at eight months,
we had no idea. They didn't
know, you know, nobody knew. And
we didn't. We got her home, and
when we got back to the United
States, all the dates had been
canceled. The single died, you
know, it all went away, yeah, in
three weeks. And then that's
when the story starts, you know,
because then it's like, okay,
now I'm scrambling to figure
out, what do I do now, you know,
I left my cushy songwriter job,
and nobody really wants me back
there, and I'm fell in this
weird, no man's land of now
nobody really wants they don't
know me enough as an artist to
book me for the for those dates,
I don't know what to do. That's
I think that's why I still, you
know, back to Phil but and you I
always had a soft spot for you
guys, because you didn't care
about any of that. And you
always like, you know, had me
on, and that was great. And it
was like, I felt like, Okay, I'm
kind of back to being who I'm,
who I am, but for the next five
years, you know, we didn't know
what she had, we didn't have the
diagnosis, we didn't know what
the hell was going on with our
life. You know, it was just
spiraling out of control. And
that's when the American Idol
opportunity came up.
That's fantastic. Tell that
story if you could. Yeah. So how
that all came about? Yeah.
So for two years oh seven and oh
eight, they had songwriting
competitions in tandem with the
singing competition. A lot of
not a lot of people know that in
oh seven, a friend of mine, one
named Scott kerpain, brilliant
songwriter, and that's the only
reason I didn't watch American
Idol. But my daughter loved the
bad singers, so she would, you
know, we would have it on so, so
that she could enjoy that, yeah,
and, and then I saw that finale.
I saw my friend Scott win, and,
oh, that's, that's all. That's
awesome, you know. And then I
talked to him, I don't know,
maybe three months later, and
he's like, yeah, it was, you
know, it was a pretty cool
thing. You know, Jordan spark
did my song, and, you know, we
got an iTunes single out of it,
and that's it. That's the only
conversation we ever had about
and it's the only reason I knew
about it. And the next year,
when it came around in Oh,
eight, my wife is the one who
said, hey, they're having that
songwriting competition.
Yolanda, by the way, oh my,
yeah,
that thing, Scott won last year.
That. Were doing it again, and
she said, and I really want you
to enter a song, like a song
con, I've had 20 number one
song, you know, I'm in a song
content. And she goes, yeah,
just do it, you know? And then,
you know, I always say, she
said, she literally said, bro,
you got nothing else going on.
Lives are good at
that. I love your honesty, but
really, come on,
yeah, Reality Bites for sure.
No, all I'm
saying is you're not, you're not
doing your basic, you know, as a
man, you're not
doing that, no offense. And
it's just the basics, above and
beyond stuff you're not even
doing, like the basics. Yeah,
that's all I'm saying. I love
you. You're just not doing the
basic a slug. And then
there's you right here.
Inspire you to write a song.
I'm not saying anything other
than I regret my decision to
marry you every day. That's all
I'm saying. Okay, don't read
into it. Reggie, if
I can go back and ask myself,
what were you thinking?
I contemplate suicide and
alcoholism three times a day.
That's all I'm saying. Okay,
only three times. Yeah, don't
only three. Don't make this more
than it is. Okay. Just write a
song,
one little song, American item,
yeah. And if you could please,
you
know, yeah. And then take out
the trash.
Could you get to this trash?
Don't want to bother you out
by the way. You know I love you,
right?
You're the love of my life.
You're just not taking care of
the basic needs anyway, so yeah,
oh, we laugh because we
can't cry, and we've all been
there. Don't feel alone. Rich.
Okay,
good, good to know. So, yeah, so
I, I said, Well, okay, I'm gonna
give it a shot. So, and we had a
we had just adopt we our son was
like, 16 months old. We just
adopted him, and he was, like,
amazing. He's still amazing.
He's, he's in first year of
college now, but he was just,
like, he brought this, you know,
we have, we have this daughter
with, you know, this crazy
condition, but then we got this
little boy who's like, this
light, you know, he's like,
lighting everything up and be
becoming the, you know, the
little rock star. And so I'm
thinking about all this, and I'm
like, Man, I think what I want
to say is something about the
moment that you have right now
is important. And it's not about
trying to get somewhere, like
I've been trying to get
somewhere in my life. I think
it's about these people who live
in this house with me. You know,
this, this crazy little boy who
I love, and this miraculous
little girl who is this mystery,
and this amazing woman who
constantly reminds me of how I'm
not doing the basics to take
care of my family,
showing the love, loving me
unconditionally, I kid. I only
say it because it's true.
Reggie, if we could put a sound
effect to your life right now,
would be okay,
man, my wife is going to love
this and hate this.
She's gonna laugh and be like,
okay, they get it. You really
should. It. My wife is
hysterical. She is the funniest
person I know. She's the person
that needs to be doing these
podcasts. She's so funny anyway.
So I thought about the all of
that, and I was like, You know
what? Man, I'm just gonna write
this from that perspective. I
don't know if it'll gonna fly
with American Idol or these kids
or whatever, but so I wrote the
song The time of my life and
turned it in on the day, man, on
the deadline day with my $10
entry fee, had no idea. I didn't
even know if I did it right. You
know, I was like, I think I got
it uploaded right, but I'm not
sure. And somebody from the
company called me. They kind of
knew me through a friend of a
friend, and they called me and
they said, Hey, I just want to
let you know your song did get
because I think I called
somebody. And hey, man, did I
even do this, right? Is it in
there? And somebody just did
call me, and it was like, real
cryptic. They're like, Yes, we
did get it click, you know? And
that was it. So the only
interaction I had, well,
that's the music business for
you, yeah. And so,
you know, I just forgot about
it. Man. It was just like, Okay,
I did what my wife asked me to
do. I can't do any more than
that. I think I did the best I
could on this thing, and got a
call. You're in the top 20.
Again, real, real, like, terse,
you're in the top 20. If you
talk about it, you'll be
disqualified. Click, you know
so. KGB, yeah, man, it was just
like, who are you? KGB, or my
wife. The whole time I'm like,
Wait, who are you, dude, you
know what your name? Yeah. And
so
I just So again, I'm like, so
they put it up on a website. It
was 2020, songs, and I talked to
Scott about I was like, man,
what do I do? Because there's
nothing to do. He goes, I'll
tell you what you don't do. You
don't read the blogs. I'm like,
Okay, I mean, I went right to
the blog, and they were
scathing, man, nobody was even
talking about my song. You know,
every all these other songs are
supposed to win. I'm like, Okay,
well, I guess I lost that too.
And then, like, one of the
trades did a, did a breakdown of
all the songs. And it did. There
were 20 songs. It did a
breakdown of 19 songs, and not
mine, like they didn't even do a
thing, they didn't even tell
they didn't say it was bad.
They're just like, oh yeah. And
then there's this other song,
like,
wow,
not only did I lose this like
they don't even want to act like
I'm in the
room and they don't even
remember the title,
yeah, so this song did this, and
this song does that. And there's
some of them had great
soliloquies, you know, like,
this song is, it wraps us in.
It's, you know, rapturous, Oh,
yeah. And then there's this
other song. I'm like, yeah. So
first, yeah, okay, first, my
wife. Now, you guys,
we love you. Come on.
No, the bloggers, you know.
So I was like, Okay, well, okay,
I guess I lost that too. Anyway,
I came home on a third I'll
never forget it was a Thursday.
I came home and I was just
tired, and we've been up with my
daughter for a couple of days.
One of the things about Angelman
syndrome is they have sleeping
disorders when they're young. My
daughter didn't sleep two hours
a night for five years, and I
was just dead, and I said, I'm
gonna take a nap. She goes. I
think they're gonna call you
today. I think you're gonna win
this like I baby. I love that.
You love that, that you think
that, but I'm gonna take a nap.
I took a two hour nap. I woke up
and I had 36 voicemails, all
310, numbers. And I'm like,
okay, that's LA, wow. I either
won this or I lost it. And so I
called him, and the guy goes,
literally again. He goes, Hey,
man, you won. Okay, here's
what's got to happen. And it was
like, you know, you got a USA
Today interview in two hours.
I'm like, Whoa, what's your
name, dude? And so I win the
contest of David Cook wins the
year, and he was the dark horse.
David Archuleta was, like, the
favorite. But David Cook wins,
and his version of my song
becomes a single. Now, those
coronation songs in those days
were just like kind of a, you
know, flashing out, you know, we
sing it on the thing, on the
show that night, and then we
move on to the next thing. But
something happened with this
one. It was just kind of the
right moment at the right time,
right song, right voice, and
people lost their minds over it,
and they crashed the iTunes
server to get it. And so the
company was like, Well, wait a
minute, we might have a hit on
our hands. So they took it to
radio, and it became like a 16
week number one radio global,
you know, all around the world
kind of thing. And they used it
in all of these packages, like
they used it on the ESPYs, and
they used it on NBA Finals, and
they used it on So You Think You
Can Dance, and all these shows.
And so here's the cool thing,
when my wife and I were had been
in Beijing adopting our
daughter. We got little hats
that said 2008 Beijing Olympic
Games, and we made a pact with
six other families in Beijing.
We're bringing our daughters
back to Beijing for the Beijing
Olympics in OA. Oh, how cool.
And, yep, we're all in. We're
all gonna do it. Well, obviously
we, you know, I lost everything.
We lost all our every I lost my
Platinum American Express card.
You know, there's no way we
could have done that.
Told you leave him home without
it. And
then I did. I went dead.
But on the on the eighth day of
the eighth month of the eighth
year of the new millennium. They
closed the opening ceremony of
the Beijing Olympic Games. To my
song, Oh, how cool was that. And
and they it was like Bob Costa
says, for all of us here at NBC,
good night. And I heard the
guitar strum. Yeah, and it's
like, what is happening, right?
You know? So we couldn't be
there, but the song was there,
and it was like, speaking to the
whole world. And so my my wife
and I just kind of sat in our
living room and just sobbed.
It's like, wow, we're there.
That's a God thing. Yeah, that's
special. And they used it seven
more times. They used it as
Michael Phelps victory song. He
won a record number of medals
that year. So it was played, you
know, and then Oprah declared it
like the official theme song of
the Olympic Games. It became
this thing and and so I wrote a
blog about it. My manager at the
time said, do you tell people
about this? I wrote a blog about
it. It went viral. Millions and
millions of reshares and clicks
and this and that, back when
that was, you know, back before
this, and it was MySpace, and it
was people literally sending it
to each other's email, you know,
yeah. And I got a call from a
book publisher, and they said,
We think this could be a great
book. And I said, Well, let me
write you three chapters,
because this is what the book's
actually about. And so I sent
them three chapters, like, we
love it. Finish it. So that was
my first book I wrote that I
came out in 2010 angels, and I
angels and idols, yeah, and
they've, they've been trying to
make a movie about this for a
long time, for 15 years, and it,
it gets traction, and then it
loses traction. And actually got
a call tomorrow with a guy about
it, but we're making the doc
about it. We're making the
documentary about it now, and
David Cook is involved and and
we're little expand. It's a
little more than just our
stories kind of expanding into
the whole kind of American Idol
experience. This, this
experience, though, is that
because kind of the behind the
scenes, thing you've never
heard. You know, there are the
world has never heard. And that
that led me to just writing more
books and that kind of thing, as
opposed to just doing records. I
mean, I still do it, you know, I
still make music, and I still go
out and do shows, and I've got a
new record I'm sitting on my
computer right now, but it's
really more for me about issues
and, you know, things. It's so
weird. I've my fam, I like I
don't care a lot about political
things, but my family, for
whatever reason, is at the
center of adoption, which has
kind of become a thing. There's
a whole movement to abolish
adoption, believe it or not,
immigration, because my daughter
is an immigrant, a legal
immigrant, yes, that we went
through the process of
immigration to and we're still
having to jump through hoops in
that process. And special needs,
you know, because my daughter
has Angelman syndrome and the
autism conversation, my daughter
is in that world, so all of
these weird under, what you call
it, Nexus points, where, where
politics is really hot, all
these hot button issues, like my
family's like, in the middle of
it, and it's Like, I don't want
to talk about it, but
everything, but every but you
can't not talk about it. It's
just it informs everything. And
so I find myself writing about
that stuff. And I started
because that blog went viral, it
kind of sent me into becoming a
blogger. And I think I have more
people who know me as a blogger
that didn't know me as a music
guy, and I've written five
books, and, you know, it's just
it opened my world. Sometimes
the thing that you think is
going to destroy your life
actually opens a door to a whole
world you didn't know was in
there. Yeah, adds more to it.
Oh, absolutely, yeah. And I
think about who I was before my
daughter's adoption, and before
all this happened. And that guy
really, you know, I think he was
a thoughtful guy. I think he was
open to things. I don't think he
was a bad guy, but I think there
was just a lot he didn't know,
you know, yeah, and I don't
even, I don't even know that I
can have a conversation with
that guy anymore, you know,
because it's just a lot of stuff
he didn't know. And you just
don't know what you don't know.
I mean, I know that's a cliche,
but it's really true. And so I'm
thankful. I find myself in
gratitude. So when you the first
question, you asked me, How you
doing? And I said, yeah, in some
ways, my life is better than
it's ever been. And it's a lot
of that. It's a lot of just
being thankful for things that I
didn't even realize. You know,
were things you could be
thankful for. Oh, yes,
Reggie, do you find the the
blogs and the books and all that
is, is that therapeutic? In some
therapy from Yeah, yeah.
Well, songwriting was that. It's
always been that for me, and so
I've expanded that into
blogging, and it's me getting
clarity. Man, that's what it is
for me. And the books all spring
I just, I had an idea and and my
grandmother, man, I want.
Everybody to hear this. My
grandmother used to tell me
this, if God gives you the idea,
he gives you the responsibility,
Ooh, I like that. Yeah, it's
used to, I mean, just hammer
that. If you get the idea, you
have the responsibility. And so
now, every time I get an idea
for something, I hear her words
and I think, Okay, I got to
figure out how to do this, you
know, because this was, this
idea was entrusted to me. So the
books really came from that
just, well, I got an idea for
this book. My nanny would not
like it if I didn't, you know,
at least try to write it. So I
don't know I'm any good at it or
not, but I certainly, boy, it's
just, I just love doing it and
so that so creatively, man, my
life is so wonderful in that
regard. I just feel like I feel
I'm 58 I feel, I feel more
creative and more excited about
that world than I ever have,
really in my life,
unfortunately, I look around and
there's no way to make it make
any kind of sense anymore. It's
like, all amorphous. And, you
know, nobody listens, nobody
buys music, nobody buys book.
It's like all in Oh, everything
is going crazy. And so I don't
know really where to put all of
it, but,
but I sure do enjoy Yeah, and
you still feel compelled to do
it exactly, yeah, and
I'm glad you are. I don't mean
to blow I'm not blowing smoke up
your rear end, but you can be
quite a talent. But the thing
is, ever since I was made aware
of you, I have, I have been a
huge fan, and I've also been a
great admirer, and I think, I
think you and Yolanda were meant
to have this child. There's no
doubt about that. Yes, that was
a God.
There is no doubt about that.
Johnny, we and we. I'm not
saying anything. She wouldn't
agree with me if she were
sitting here. We, don't talk out
of school about each other. We
both know we probably wouldn't
still be together if it weren't
for our kids, and particularly
our daughter. I mean, our son
too, but our daughter was kind
of the she was this anchor
point, because we had to really
figure out how to be co
caregivers, and we are real good
at it, like we there's an 80%
divorce rate among people with
children with special needs.
Yes, people don't realize, man,
it just wreaks havoc on a
marriage. And I don't why we
ended up in that 20% we don't
know, like we, if you had put it
all on paper, there's really no
reason we would have made it.
You know, we weren't those
people. We were like, real
surface level, you know, my wife
worked for a record label, and I
was a singer songwriter, and we
were like, always, you know,
going out on expense accounts,
and we went to all the parties,
and we drank champagne on a
Wednesday night. We were like,
those people, right? You know,
we were partiers, and we would
go to Vegas for fun, and we
would go to New York just to
shop for clothes, you know? I
mean, we're surface level
people. We were not, you know,
these.
We were bougie man
and unapologetic about it, like
we didn't even care. And we put
on our application when we when
we applied to adopt. Do you
think you could handle a child
with a disability, and we were
like, not just No, but hell no.
Like, we are not those people.
You can't, you can't. And we
somehow we became those people,
and found out that we were, in
fact, those people. And that's
so when people tell I could
never do what you do, I'm like,
Yeah, you could. And if you
couldn't, you're probably a
really bad person. Because,
trust me, if we can do it,
anybody can do it, but, but we,
man, we just, we just locked
arms, and you're right it. We
know that this was God's gift to
us, yes and and a hand on our
life, and it's all meant to be
that way. And we've, we have
become a couple that we're,
we're glad we became and the
people you know, we we always
say we're kind of just standing
behind Isabella, our daughter,
you know, we're just trying to
be as good of a person as she
is, because she's very loving.
She's, it's unconditional, she,
you know, she wants to hug
everybody and kiss everybody.
And that's, you know, her gift
to the world. And so I'm trying
to learn from her, you know, and
she, she really keeps it simple
in such a wonderful way. You
know, it's just all, well, I'm
gonna love you, and I'll start
there. Yeah, we'll start with
love, and then we'll see, we'll
see where it goes. But I think
we're gonna stay with love and
that. And I'm trying to, gosh,
I'm trying to stay in that. And
it's, boy, it's getting harder
and harder.
That's called life. The world
makes it harder and harder. You
know, well,
where can people get your blog
for one
the it's just Reggie ham Blog
on. Honestly, r, e g, it's 1g R,
E, G, I, E, H, A, M, M, 2m blog,
and you can get the it's a
WordPress blog, and you can just
follow me there and and then I
have a Patreon site, if people
want to, like, get involved in
that. And it's all Reggie ham,
you can just find it all Reggie
ham, and that's where they can
get your music as well. And I'm
working on an only fan site
where I
Oh, we're doing that. Yeah,
we're doing that too. We didn't
tell you this, but there is an
only fan portion of the podcast
that we'll be hitting on the
minute. So you may want to get
ready
oiled up. One of the surfaces is
blowing smoke.
Well, I was gonna say, if you
want to come blow smoke at my
rear end on the only fans,
I got a whole niche, you know,
group of people
and it's affordable.
Where did that come from?
Right with you? I've never
understood how that's good for
anybody.
I might just blow it smoke. It's
like, I don't want you to
I don't watch anywhere near
there. That's everything.
But even if it weren't smoke,
why the
charts has a meaning musicians
are playing off the charts? Yes,
exactly. You know, on your
soapbox is an actual soapbox.
Why was it a soapbox? I don't
know. Was it still full of soap?
Blowing smoke
up your ass? Where is that from?
You know, we're like Victorian
people like blowing smoke up
each other's butt. Politicians.
Guess where it came from. But I
keep making the music because I
was listening to 24 hour
conspiracy call, oh man, this
morning. Yeah, the show and,
man, you just make some great
music. Thank you. You got a fan
here, and I hope that we get
more heading your way.
Well, it's coming your way, man.
I'm working on getting the new
record out here, so I'll let you
know. Let
us know when you
do I have an answer? Oh, there's
actually blowing smoke up your
butt.
Of course, there's an answer.
There is.
It's an AI overview. So with
that in consideration,
originates from the literal
medical medical practice of the
tobacco smoke enema in the 17th
and 18th centuries, used to
treat conditions like
constipation and to resuscitate
near drowned victims.
So everything's got a medical
circle
in the brain. So they were
teaching people how to do this
right in medical school.
Here's what you Okay, watch this
jack. I've got smoke up the butt
class.
What part are you guys to you?
Well, right now we're inserting
the we're learning how to insert
the instrument.
People had to learn how to do
that, right?
And because of your fanaticism
from Marlboro, yeah, you're the
lucky
guy, yeah. So what were you
today? Well, I was the smoker.
So to do this, right? It really
takes two people. Hold him down.
Yeah, hold him down. Here we go.
Hold him down. Look, his life
depends on this. He's
drowning, and people don't know
that's where the you know, where
people blow the smoke rings.
That's called circling the
drain.
To drain, full circle. Moment.
So
much for being on this with us
today. Thanks for having me and
tell them where they can catch
us.
There, brother. Of course, all
of the podcast platforms for
listening, we're there, but you
can also find us. Of course,
Facebook and Twitter and
YouTube, and we're on Twitch as
well, so that's where you can
see our lovely faces and the
lovely faces of our guests. Yes,
indeed. And circling the
drain.net. That's correct. And
merchandise coming soon.
Oh baby, hang on and come back
for the next episode of circling
the drain. You. You.