Luke Bryan

00:03Joe Rogan podcast, check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. TRAIN BY DAY, JOE ROGAN PODCAST BY HEY, what's up, Luke? Good. This has been Thank This has been a long time in the making. Well, I need to thank you for taking care of my family when they came to your show. I hope they had a great time. They had a [ __ ] fantastic time. But, it was also my daughter was like freaked out cuz she was going to the show. She didn't know she was going to get to get to meet you. And her friend didn't know they were going to get to meet you either. So, we we were able to keep that a a keep that a good little good little good little secret to them. Yeah, it was cool. They had the best time. They They came back beeping. So, thank you. Well, Vegas, you know, that was wrapping up Vegas. So, yeah, we That was the That was a a fun 2 years of of residency there.

00:54Did you do years there? I did Yeah, I did 2 years 26 shows per year. Dude, man, like Vegas will take a little piece of your soul. Well, here tiny piece every day. about it is like all of that get to Vegas and like, you know, you run to the craps table or blackjack table your whole life getting to Vegas. Dude, I got all that. I could I'm like, I get to Vegas. I'm like, man, let's just sit in the room, watch little sports, and I got got the gambling out of the system. Well, that's good. Did you used to Did you used to gamble a lot? You know, I've always been I've never been a sports gambler. Ne- My dad My Uh but, my dad raised me to kind of be a poker player kind of kid. He was a like a I mean, I used to joke if my dad didn't play poker, we didn't never had Santa Claus. You know, he I mean, he was I mean, he was just a crazy little poker player and

02:03like a little pool hustler and then uh and then um Oh, so he was all in. Well, so one of my dad's fa- one of my dad's famous quotes is um So, we we we he flies me out to Vegas when I'm 21 or whatever and man, I had like we were in college and I had took like three three or 400 bucks with me, you know, just broke as [ __ ] And uh 2 hours into the trip, lose my money and you know, this was like well, where we were still had truck phones, you know, I'm not even sure we were like toting No, we certainly didn't have like the Motorola razor where he could just call me. So, he just goes looking for him and he calls my hotel room and I'm he's like, "Boy, what you doing?" He's real George real Southern Georgia. I said, "I don't lost all my damn money and hell hell with this place." He goes, "Well, you ain't going to win it back in the goddamn room."

03:02So, I mean, once you have that That mindset? That mindset in gambling, certainly. I mean, when that's your dad going And so, that's been a famous saying with my buddies you know, when they when they're down and out down two or three grand and they're pouting over at the bar, you know, you're not going to win it back at the goddamn bar. So, but I did I went through phases where, you know, I I never really got financially behind when I didn't have money. I would just I I controlled it pretty well and I I did my 2 years out there. I never really uh had any big beats or anything like that, but I do love to just man, I love to just sit there, have a drink, have a cigar and watch dice and cards cuz you're just not you're just sitting there and your mind's checked out. Right. It's like no different than you know, going to the driving range and

03:55hitting golf balls or sitting on the bank fishing or sitting in a deer stand. So Right. It's been But I got out of there. I got all my gambling at least for now out of my system. But it was great to meet your kids there and I really appreciate it. They they really enjoyed it. And like I said, they were just on they were blown away meeting you. They were Well, it was a fun show because um we got to really do a lot of bells and whistles out there that aren't available on normal shows when you're you know um out touring and stuff because you're having to take down stuff and be real mobile out there. We put put a lot of stuff in the room and Well, that's nice that the That's one good thing about the residency. You know, you're going back to the same spot over and over and over again. And we had our routine. I mean, I have my my room and you know, about 6:30 I'd

04:43hop in the shower, run down there and get on stage about 8:30 and knock it out and 10:30 uh somewhere to crap stable. I'm lucky I don't gamble. I don't do it. got into sports? Nope. Nope. I mean, I used to bet on fights. Back in the early days of the UFC I used to bet on fights and they one day they made it illegal, but I already stopped doing it cuz I was like, this is probably not a good thing for me to be betting on things I'm commentating on cuz I can't affect the outcome. Right. But like sometimes I still quite close. I also sometimes know some [ __ ] You know, there's been a bunch of times. So one of my business partners I I would just I would tell him to what to bet on. And we were like 84% at one time. It was Wow. Yeah. Wow. For like six or seven fights in a row six or seven fight cards in a row we were at about 84% cuz every now and then

05:31they would have these guys who were coming in from Japan or from Russia and the the odds makers didn't know who these guys were. And I was like, oh Jesus Christ, bet the house. you already Oh yeah, I knew those guys. studying them for Yeah, you had years. So I knew I knew everything about these guys. I'm like, Jesus Christ, bet the [ __ ] house." Layup. Yeah, there was a few. Like, when Anderson Silva came to the UFC, I was like, "Bet the house. Bet the house on the Brazilian. Whatever you got, I go throw it all at this guy. You can't [ __ ] lose." Cuz when he came into the UFC, he was like in his prime. And I got to see him evolve in Japan and then later on in England. And so, when he when he came in the UFC, I think he was a favorite over this guy Chris Leben, who's a really tough guy, but I'm like, "Whatever the Whatever the odds are,

06:17[ __ ] throw it all at that guy." I bet you all. Were you Were you betting with him, too, at that time? I'd already stopped. I was like, "I could get in trouble." I don't know. don't any get get any trouble now, either. Don't lose the gig. Well, now now the UFC made a law, and it was real recent, like 2 years ago. Up until like 2 years ago, all staff, anyone could bet. Now, no one can bet. Really? Yeah, cuz there was a scandal. One of the trainers apparently was involved allegedly was involved with knew about an injury, and then it turned out there's probably some other bets that are a little shady that perhaps allegedly people were involved with, so they're like, "Okay, we got to put a stop to this." Which is too bad, cuz it was [ __ ] It's nice to know If I was unscrupulous, this episode is brought to you by The

07:04Farmer's Dog. Dogs are amazing. They're loyal, they're lovable. Like, just having Marshall around can make my day 10 times better. And I'm sure you love your dog just as much, and you want to do your best to help them live longer, healthier, happier lives. And a healthy life for your dog starts with healthy food, just like it does for us. There's a reason having a balanced diet is so important. So, how do you know if your dog's food is as healthy and as safe as it can be? Well, Farmer's Dog gives you that peace of mind by making fresh, real food developed by board-certified nutritionist to provide all the nutrients your dog needs. And their food is human grade, which means it's made to the same quality and safety standards as human food. Very few pet foods are made to this strict standard. And let's be clear, human-grade food doesn't mean the food

07:55is fancy. Just means it's safe and healthy. It's simple, real food from people who care about what goes into your dog's body. The Farmer's Dog makes it easy to help your dog live a long, healthy life by sending you fresh food that's pre-portioned just for your dog's needs because every dog is different. And I'm not just talking about breeds, from their size to their personality to their health, every dog is unique. Plus, precise portions can help keep your dog at an ideal weight, which is one of the proven predictors of a long life. Look, no one, dog or human, should be eating highly processed foods for every meal. It doesn't matter how old your dog is. It's always a great time to start investing in their health and happiness. So, try The Farmer's Dog today. You can get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy food at the farmersdog.com/rogen.

08:49Plus, you get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog.com/rogen. Tap the banner or visit this episode's page to learn more. Offer applicable for new customers only. I had a little So, I went my whole life no sports betting. Through college, I mean, my I Through college, I'd walk in and my buddies, back then, they spliced seven to eight TVs together and they're they got all their they got all their notes and and I'm like And I'm like, "Dude, no wonder you're [ __ ] you got all these and you're you're you're you're about to get shipped out of college." But I I survived all that and uh me and a buddy we started picking two games a week. And we would load up. And this was this was like um six years five years ago. So, I would load up like 20 grand a game. Ooh. And but I I was strict and I and I I had my deal. And yeah, it just, uh, we like bet, I mean,

09:55just take Alabama and the points in the first half. You do that most of the year, I mean, it was 80%. So, we did well and then my buddy moved away from me and we quit talking about it. And I just then I went rogue for like two years. I was betting like Utah State at it, you know, the West Coast game midnight just throwing bets in and I was like, man, I'm out. So, I stopped. But, uh, Did you see Uncut Gems? Yes. Dude, that movie tripped That movie tripped me out. I think it tripped everybody out there. What a great movie. Especially if you dipped your toe into that world of like Chasing that high. and I've got buddies that do parlays and like I'm not even sure I even understand the inner workings of parlays now. I still, I mean, and teasers and all that and and you know, I'm I'm so removed from that level of sport or like let, you know,

10:56so-and-so's doing four late going to get four layups at the half and man, that that'll that's that's opening up Pandora's Box there. So, It is and you got to think there's people that are involved. Like there's been scandals where referees were involved, where referees were making calls they shouldn't have made, maybe calling fouls they shouldn't have called and people getting paid. There's so much money being thrown around and you know, the average referee, what do they make, you know? Hey, dude, so I saw you at the I'm a giant Georgia fan. And I saw you, obviously, on the sideline, uh, on Saturday and just, man, some of those calls. It started getting weird. We actually left after the first quarter went to see Eminem. So we had an epic day. We saw the first quarter of UT Georgia and then jetted and went to Eminem at the racetrack. At the Formula 1?

11:46Yeah, Eminem played in front of like 150,000 people. It was [ __ ] wild. what a weekend for Austin, too. I mean cuz I had buddies I had buddies that were like "Why are you not coming?" And I'm like, "Man, I've had to be me all year and it's like the weather's chilly in Nashville. My boys want to go deer hunting. I'm going to take them deer hunting, sit on my back patio and scream at the TV and but yeah, it got a little dicey there on the back. I I was like oh, it was weird. Yeah, well, just the energy. There's so much so much anticipation for a game like that. And you can't replicate it. You can't replicate it in any other in any other I guess those big um global uh Brazil versus Argentina or whatever or We had some friends from England who had never been to an American football game before. Well, what was their take on it? blown away. They're like, "Oh my

12:45goodness. Oh my goodness. This is madness." Like this is Texas football. It's so fun, though. They get serious here. It's crazy. shoot the cannon. Boom. Did you shoot it through the Georgia shirt? That one? Yeah. Oh gosh. Maybe I gave them bad luck. my heart. Maybe it was bad luck cuz they lost. Maybe it was Maybe it's some [ __ ] rude thing to do. Oh. We uh yeah, man. It was uh it was a it was a good win for Georgia. And like I said, both those programs are just so Incredible. incredible. So It's when you watching it behind the scenes, you know, watching how much organization there is and it's it's incredibly complex. through the years Kirby and I um have gotten to be pretty good buddies. You Kirby can't be buddies with anybody because uh that job requires I've never seen a or requirement of a job more than being a college. It's probably like being a president.

13:45It's it is and and and so I don't text Kirby during the season really. I know he and man just watching what those guys go through trying to manage these big programs like that. I mean and when they're not coaching. I mean dude, they are politicking. Yeah. I mean they got to go to the steak supper for this Mhm. for this touchdown club here. You know, so man it is a it's a wild ride what those dudes go through. you think about gambling with calls like bad calls, that has got to be imagine all your money's on the line and you see some horrendous call and you [ __ ] See, I'm out of that and I didn't really get into that heavily even when I was betting regular games. But man, it's it's it's free to man, I just watch the games with freedom and I don't I don't get in, you know. I'm good friends with Dana White and Dana's a he's a real degenerate. Like a hard

14:43how big That's the best way to describe Oh, he'll describe it that way. Yeah, like they most like your big horse racing guys, they all their adjective of themselves is I'm a degenerate. That's the first thing they say. and I Jamie and I went to visit we went with Shane Gillis and a bunch of other guys who went to visit Dana while he's gambling. When we got there, he was down $600,000. And I was like, what is happening here? say he learned how to play back crap because you can bet more. Like you can you can bet like 500 K or something or crazy like that. That's so crazy. I could I I was getting anxiety just sitting there watching. And so then Taylor Twan came over and Dana and Taylor have this deal where Dana teaches Taylor what to gamble and how to do it. They're down $120,000 in what? 5 minutes? 5 minutes. 5 minutes they're down 120 grand. And I'm just sitting

15:35there going, what the [ __ ] man? Look, Dana's rich as [ __ ] Obviously. I know Taylor is wealthy. But there's like a level where you could lose $125,000 is $125,000. Well, yeah. I mean, I've learned kind of like if you're betting a thousand a hand, you can get down 50. Yeah. Like in quick. But when you transition to that 30, 40, 50 thousand a hand, you'll be down a million or a million or two. And And I I say cuz I've watched some other buddies that bet on that level. I'm talking about like 15 hand swing is a $800,000 swing. And I'm like But that's the scary part about gambling when you start when you don't have much money and you grow into some money. But your your level of what you want to press your your anxiety level and your endorphins and all that, it grows with your your wealth. And then next thing you know, you're

16:33Well, that's the only way they get their fix, too. They can't play $20 a hand. Yeah, right. That goes away. It's like Right. Well, it's like the whole, you know, it's There's a lot in society that you know, I think we're preyed upon with those with that thought process, gambling and and a lot of dopamine hits. Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then And then once one level of the dopamine levels out, then you go to the next one. Yeah, it's it's hard to watch. Like forget about doing it. It's hard to watch. Like I don't I don't get it. I'm glad I don't do it. say that that I've always have fun with it. I mean, I I've always had fun gambling. And And a lot of times I take my band after we get off stage and we'd have one band night and I'd like set them all up with some chips and and I've gotten at a craps table where I can kind of manage everybody's bets and

17:23I'm like, don't do that. Now, wait, wait. And it's kind of like the uh you know, steer steering the mothership and we had some great nights, you know, just laughing and cutting up and you know, cheering, you know, you know, like I said, one guy walk walks up and everybody rubs his head for good you know, it's just it's just if you camaraderie, you know, at the craps table. I I I gambled so much at the craps table my last night. They let my craps team that dealt me all the craps come on stage and WE I'M OUT THERE LIKE I'M PLAYING AND I look at my you know, cuz they work in teams, you know, they all and my team comes out on stage and dude, I was roaring laughing. I'm like, yeah, so That's hilarious. Look, I know people have a problem with gambling. I think it should be legal, but it can get away from you. Yeah, well, But that's like a lot of things in this

18:22world. Alcohol, there's a lot of things that can get away from you. It doesn't mean it should be illegal. Right, well, Lord. It's just weird that it's only legal in a few states. I think that's expanding now and then I remember when online gambling was illegal. Oh, yeah, and then It wasn't that long ago. The early days of the UFC, online gambling was illegal. And then my you know, and cuz we're obviously Southeastern Tennessee Bible Belt and I I don't know, but there's there's certain states. I guess Tennessee is a legal gambling state cuz or maybe Georgia. I can't tell. I have to I have to talk to my nephews, all of his buddies and see if they're on the little apps, but man, they'll go sign their buddies up to get the $200 free I mean, they got all kind of little racket. Yeah, well, and then also people would go to Indian reservations. That was the big thing.

19:13Right. And you got to Also crazy. Like gambling's illegal. red you got to pay the Indian reservation tax. You know, you got to pay your 50 cent to do the dollar bet. Yeah. Do that math. Yeah, and you only have to be like a small percentage Native American to get a piece of that. So, there's a lot a lot of millionaires just hanging around that casino, just enjoying it. But, if you got a place like in Connecticut, like Oh, Mohegan and all that. They're great places. know, typically on my way kind of the Mohegan, I'd go play there a couple years. I did one night I did three nights there, and dude, I'm like getting off stage, just sitting there gambling, and you know, I'm like, "Am I coming out ahead on this gig or what?" But, I think I got out of there making a little money. Yeah. It's It's weird though that you could do that legally. Like, how It's

20:02Well, then even like in Tennessee and Tunica back in the day, you just put a barge on the Mississippi River, and you can gamble. It's like, well, what is that all about? I mean, Right. That's that show Ozark. Right. Yeah, yeah. Well, totally the same premise, you know. It's like, put a barge on the river, and uh now let's take all these people's money. Yeah. My buddy Johnny used to He was a pool hustler. Used to call people riverboat gamblers. When guys would just go off, and he you know a guy was a gambling addict, you just trick him into a game. He's like, "That guy's a riverboat gambler." Or Yeah, that's the two analogies. Degenerate or riverboat gambler. Yeah. Be Be Be careful of all of them. So, It's just always been funny to me that like Native American reservations are essentially a country inside the country, and they could do whatever the

20:46[ __ ] they want. Like, I was just reading about this Colorado wolf deal, you know, where they've relocated wolves to Colorado, and the Native American reservation let them know, "The moment those wolves get onto our land, we're flying over in helicopters and gunning them down." I was I I I elk hunt every year in Colorado, and and is that where you've done I've done Colorado most of the years. I go to Utah. Yeah. Well, first of all, Cam Haines and I, you know, we we've got a connection with Cam and Yeah. just love that guy. But yeah, we So, when I saw Colorado do that, I was like, it's just like, what are what are we doing, guys? Well, whenever you have biology that's getting voted on by people who don't understand it, it should be decided by wildlife biologists. That's it. It's the only people that should decide whether or not things like that happen.

21:34Well, we can really dive into this and let's we are so governed in the world of wildlife biology through the states and stuff. They're not going to let animals They're not going to let humans ruin animal populations. I don't think anymore. If anything's going to happen, they're going to mess it up and let animal populations get too big. Right. I was I was and I don't know if I I don't know who to name or whatever, but I was with some guys with Wyoming and you know, we're talking about grizzly bears. Mhm. And I said, "Uh man, you know, cuz they they brought up, you know, grizzly bear problems and I said, "Well, what what what is the deal?" And they said, "Well, there's 1,500 or 1,400 grizzly bears in Wyoming. There needs to be 500 to 600. And and five of the 1,500 are only hunting humans. Like, have totally have totally But there's not that many human deaths.

22:48Well, you bet in Yellowstone, you If you pay attention, there's about two or three that get that get Right. But those 500 grizzly bears that are just hunting humans Five. Five. Not 500. five grizzly bears Right. There's like five grizzly Sorry, I'm This probably won't be the first time I am not totally clear with you, but yeah, so there's there's fif- four to 1,400 to 1,500, there needs to be 500 to 600 grizzlies, and but of the of those five to six oh of the all of them, five of them are have like, "Oh, we don't we don't care about salmon anymore. We want to sit by this trail and pick off this hiker." Jeez, Christ. that is a high-up biologist in Wyoming telling me that, and I'm like, "Well, why won't they let y'all go in there, let some hunters" Think about the the you can do the math chart do a $30,000 grizzly bear tag. Mhm. Do a $20,000 one. They'll go for that.

23:47Yeah. For sure. Um, go in and let it manage it right, but there's one federal judge that's got it all shut down. One judge That's so crazy. My friend went on moose hunting, said he saw no moose, and he saw 12 grizzlies in Wyoming. I went on a bear hunt in Alberta, and there's so many grizzlies now, you can't even go. It was through Cam's people. John and Jen. Yeah, they've I saw them recently, and they've had to move like areas. Yeah, they have abandoned areas cuz they're overrun with grizzlies. They sent me some trail cam pics, they're terrifying. Like little school buses. They look like school buses. Like the size of these [ __ ] grizzlies. you Did you Was it you that was talking about we were try They were trying to determine a male grizzly versus a male gorilla, and who would win? Did we ever I think I'm on team grizzly. Me, too.

24:34Cuz they eat things and kill things every day. Gorillas just they they fight. They just like they puff their chest out, and they mostly eat grass. Well, but when you think about 30, 40,000 dollars per grizzly, and then the the guiding fee, Yeah. and then the taxidermy. Yeah. Think about the taxidermist. And then the Pittman-Robertson people need to need to understand all the gear, everything, 10% of that goes to wildlife management. All of it. And then at the end of that, nobody's going to let the grizzlies get exterminated. Right. It's not It's they're overpopulated now. And then when you look at the population to how beautiful the elk population is in Colorado. Yeah. And how amazingly managed it is in Colorado for public hunters for a guy like me that can go get a over-the-counter tag, I think they're probably going to wipe out over-the-counter tags for

25:24out-of-staters. They're going to make it a draw system. And then now the wolves get to eat them and I don't get to bring my elk hunting money in and give it to the Right. But Well, the thing is they what they always say that they're going to get to a certain level of the population and then they're going to open it up for management, but they don't. Wolf management? Yeah, but what happens is people sue. And the wildlife you know, all the people that are like that love wolves, they fall they sue. And when they sue, they they stop the hunt and then it has to go to court, then it has to get decided. And if you get a radical judge like this judge that you said that's in Wyoming. And the these are all things that people in the know are telling me. So Lord, I don't I don't need a judge somewhere in Wyoming like pulling my phone. No, you're probably right. You're

26:11probably right. Everyone that I know that hunts there says there are there's a lot of grizzly bears and it's concerning cuz you don't see all of them. If you see a lot of them, there's a lot more than you don't see cuz most of them are just not just out in the open hanging out with you. Most of them are deep in the wilderness. Well, and and so I went on a uh I went on a uh salmon trip up in British Columbia. And what you 99% of your interpretation of a grizzly is this big old fat chunky thing. Well, so we're flying in on these helicopters to go fish the salmon runs that are running up into the mountains of British Columbia and it's an amazing trip. Like you fly over in the helicopter, you look down, you see the huge schools of salmon, you take your fly rod and you go catch them and drink your beer. Well, the helicopter pilot was like, "Hey man,

27:07we've seen some grizzlies in the area. Just And you know, at the time we're like, "Man, this is all part of the uh experience. Yeah, it's like get a get us kind of going a little bit. Well, we land and the night before we didn't fish that day, so we'd flown in and drank some wine and dude, you know, my eyes are like fuzzy and we're fishing and I tell my guy I'm with, I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to go to the helicopter and get a a beer or something." And and dude, I get there and I pop my beer and I'm like, I look down the river and I'm like, "Fuck, that is a [ __ ] grizzly coming toward my buddy." And I went, "Jay!" And dude, it was slim and like a damn it was lean and like a gray hound. Not I I wouldn't say lean, but it hadn't it hadn't got all fat on salmon yet. Well, it comes down the bank and jumps in and and we ease back to the

28:04helicopter. We look back, here comes another grizzly literally 30 yd from us and I'm like, we get there and I'd left my beer on the bank and my grizzly sticks his tongue in my beer and then he jumps in the river. I run, grab the beer, drink I'm like, "Grizzly spit!" Anyway, the helicopter pilot goes, "You did not drink a beer I had a sip of it after I had to. But that's like what kind of trichinosis wild [ __ ] are you going to get from that? Some berry infection or whatever, salmon infection. Moose ass. So, listen dude, we get on the helicopter and the pilot's like, "Man, they're they're getting too comfortable." We take off, fly a mile I I'd already had my fly rod together. I never broke it down, so I set it in the little basket and we land. I take off about 200 yards, start fishing. And I had I had I had to slide down this

29:05like 20-ft cut bank where the river had cut the bank. I look across the river and here comes a grizzly bear galloping Oh, boy. on the other side of the river. And I'm like, well, I'd already seen the other two mature ones and I was like, well, that's a baby grizzly. That's I was like, that's cute. Dude, that grizzly hits that bank on the other side of that river and jumps about 20 ft in the air and lands in that river. It looked like a a Volkswagen VW bug hit that river. I take off to the helicopter. All my guys are like, get here, get here. A mother and two two of the babies were on my tail. Oh my god. And when I got to the helicopter, dude, ruined my whole trip. I couldn't relax. That's when it gets scary when you're on the mothers. Oh, they're they're the ones that um They [ __ ] everybody up. in 2 seconds. Yeah, they don't play any games. When

30:03they have their cubs with them, they don't take any chances. Like, I'm going to incapacitate this dude. Yeah. [ __ ] him. It is uh So, that was my that was my grizzly encounter. all these people that get to vote unlike BC when BC outlawed grizzly bear hunting. I wish all those people that experience You should have to experience what it's actually like there. You should have to see. You should have to see the population. You see what it's like experiencing them. These aren't teddy bears. And you for you saying you shouldn't be able to manage the population as wildlife biologists say it should be managed. You're putting people in danger, especially people that live up there. about it with me, now listen, I grew up deer hunting my whole life, ducks, dove, quail. And man, I always had a soft spot for bears. And probably I still It's not

30:51like I got to go shoot bears every year. I mean, whatever. But when you find out when you hear you are a hunter and there are Like when I met John and and Jenny and they were like, "Luke, there are so many that are that need to be managed." I was like, "Man, that's cool. Let's go Let's go do a bear hunt." Had a great time and didn't you know, didn't get all heady with killing a bear. I mean, I know guys in Tennessee in Gatlinburg, Joe. I mean, dude, they are darting black bears off second story mo uh Holiday Inn balconies. They're digging in I mean, they're digging in candy you know, vending machines. Walk And I'm like, "Dude, it's just a matter of time somebody's going to walk out their balcony and these they're going to get they're going to get got." Right there. 100%. dart them and move them back into the Smoky Mountains. And then

31:45You know what happened in New Jersey, right? The governor ran on this policy of banning the grizzly bear hunt. And he got in or excuse me, the black bear hunt. In Jersey. Jer- Jersey has the most black bears per capita in the country, which is crazy. I'm going to send you something because I sent this to Cam uh last night cuz it's nuts. This dude just shot the um state record So, it's back in. Yes, it's back in immediately. Because they had so many interactions. My mother lives in Mexico Beach, Florida on the panhandle. over there, too. And they like trash cans turned over every day. Crazy amounts in in South Georgia and Florida. Yeah, that's it. So, I have a photo of the bear, Jamie. I'm going to send it to you next to the dude who killed it. That's a good one. Okay. Yeah, I'm going to send you this, too. Uh but look at that. Look at the size of

32:40that bear. So, this is in New Jersey. This is New Jersey. This is New Jersey. That's a 770-lb bear in New Jersey. I never I didn't know they were they were up there that They're dense. Dense with bears. I have a buddy who lives up there. He says he sees them all the time. down in the furthest, most southern corner of Georgia, Bainbridge, Georgia, and all that, and then Mexico Beach, Florida, around Lake Seminole. I mean, they're they're everywhere down there. They're all over the place. You got that photo of that dude laying next to it? Yeah. Look at that. Look at the size of that thing. Now, that that article says 800 lbs. That's from Sevr Broadheads. It says 880, but the other article said 770. It looks it's big. Whatever the actual size it is, it's big. Look at that Sevr hole. Good shot, dude. you know, like I said, I'm not the That's a perfect shot.

33:30I I I think there's healthy numbers of all of it. And like I said, when I see you know, when you see I don't know. Wolves and elks. Well, there's more than healthy numbers. Okay, there you go. 770 Oh, gutted. 770 gutted. Woah. Ah. That's what it is. So, they weighed it in at 770 lbs gutted. So, they think it was about 880. Holy [ __ ] Holy [ __ ] Yeah, you see they got it in a slide. They had to put it in a Well, That's crazy. Man, there's so many of And for people don't know, people eat bear. And bear's good. It tastes good. Well, and you know, the sad part about I think California, you know, the the whole um the whole you know, the gallbladder deal. I don't know much about that, but you know, Yeah. there was a black market for black bear gall bladders. Yeah, it's in some some cultures. It's They think it's medicine. And you know,

34:28So, they were killing black bears just for their gallbladder? Yeah, and But I don't I think that was overblown. I don't think it's going to affect the population. I'm just guessing. Especially a place like New Jersey. How are you going to affect that population? They're they're everywhere there. You ever see the the fights they have in Far Rockaway? What's Far Rockaway? Far Rockaway, New Jersey is like a nice suburb. It's like a nice neighborhood. Giant bears. Jamie, pull that video up. Giant bears Well, did you ever see the guy's front lawn? Did you ever see the guy that filmed like the 10-minute grizzly fight? This might be Oh, yes, I did see that. That was That was insane. But that's where grizzlies are supposed to be. This isn't a [ __ ] neighborhood. And these are big bears and they're duking it out on this guy's nice lawn. They go tumbling

35:14down the stairs and they start fighting in the street and people are watching. And they're probably fighting over trash cans. Look at them. So, look at the size of these [ __ ] Imagine like you're watching TV and you hear So, these dudes they duke it out. This is like Jamie, how long is this video? It's like a 10-minute video. 6-minute video. So, 6 minutes for 6 minutes these dudes duke it out. They they pile out into the street. They're biting each other and this guy's filming from a car. And you see it as it like trundles down like go Yeah, pull it down to where they're in this So, they come tumbling down the hill, you know, full UFC style, duking it out. Passing by this guy's this guy's mailbox. Look at them. It goes on forever. And they're out in the street. It's a nice neighborhood. And you have huge predators I MEAN, WHAT THE [ __ ]

36:17AND THIS GUY was trying to ban the hunt. Hey, pal. There's plenty of these bears. You should hunt them. Cuz if you don't hunt them, they're going to hunt you. Well, they're going to you know, that that's the thing. I think it's no different than I mean I grew up in South Georgia with gators and Yeah, same thing. You you get one comfortable with you, man, and it's Not good. It is not good at all. What's the problem that we're dealing with here is ballot biology. It's all people that are very emotional. Most of them live in cities. Before I ever hunted bear, before I ever hunted at all, I was like, "Kill a bear? Why What an [ __ ] You have to be an [ __ ] to kill a bear." And then you get an I was same I was kind of the same way. But you probably had more hunting experience than me. Well, I had whitetail hunting and I

37:00remember, man, you know, being a a 14-year-old kid shooting a deer and and having remorse. But then you need to have that remorse, too, as a hunter. You need to understand You're taking a life. Yes, and you need to And I tell my boys that. My boys have grown up in it seriously. I'm like, "Hey, man, hold up." Right. Let's just don't run up to the run up to it, chuck it in the machine, just just do a little homage. Respect. Yeah. Right. So, go ahead. But that Yeah. But the remorse Go ahead. The The remorse is important. It's it's a part of the experience. Like you have you are now connected to the food that you're going to eat. And I think that's what most people don't have. And I think that's what most people don't have. And I think I think that's bad for us. I think all of human existence has been wrapped around hunting animals and we

37:54hunted them ourselves forever and then we eventually figured out agriculture. But when we hunted we hunted them ourselves most of the time that humans were human and we had this deep connection to this animal cuz this animal was going to sustain our family. And they used it. They took the the the the skin from it and they made all kinds of things. They took the tendons. They made strings for bows. They And the fur. Yeah, like the fur. I mean, it's what their clothes were made out of. They ate all the organs. They ate everything. It sustained everybody and that was how people lived. And then when people stopped living like that, we got a little confused. I know people that eat meat. Like my wife was at dinner with her friends, and um the the the they're from England, and one of the friends said, "Uh where's your husband?" And she said, "Oh, he's

38:39he's uh elk hunting." And and the guy made some sort while he's cutting a steak, made some sort of like, "Oh, that's atrocious." "Why does he do that?" And she goes, "Why are you eating meat? You didn't like you you paid a supermarket hitman to go kill that [ __ ] steak." Listen. Like this is so stupid. But when you're removed from it culturally, and England is basically removed from it culturally, there's roe deer there, and there's some stags. Stag, yeah. But for the most part, England has a very small hunting population, and I believe bow hunting is actually outlawed there. It's outlawed in a lot of places in Europe. It's outlawed in Scotland. It's outlawed in a lot of places. So there's a like a deep ignorance as to what's going on and what it is, and then they have judgment based on these cultural norms of like and there's

39:24media depictions. Media depictions of hunters in movies, they're never the good guys. They're always pieces of [ __ ] The hunters are always [ __ ] they're always drunk, they're always, you know, trying to kidnap women or kill somebody, right? They're always like torturing an animal. There's always something where someone has to come in and [ __ ] up the hunters cuz hunters are they're portrayed as bad guys in movies. Yeah, and then and and listen, you you you know, you the success rate of the the the proper ethical things always line up. That that that you know, you don't the success rate doesn't always go like you wanted it to. Right. And but um you know, the fact that hunters still are are working every day just to keep hunting, and the fact that hunting is declining so bad. it took a little uptick during COVID

40:14because during COVID people are like, "Hey, man, this [ __ ] what if there's no food?" My buddy who lived in Asheville and uh he sent me a photo in the middle of the pandemic. He goes, "Dude, he goes, there's no meat." And he was going down the meat aisle, he's like filming it. He's like, "There's no [ __ ] meat here." One of the best things that's just naturally happened at our house and my wife is, you know, my wife's like typical housewife, plays tennis, great shape, doesn't, you know, when she she kind of eats like a bird when she does eat, but man, she will call me and she'll go, "Hey, let's have elk night." And cuz we keep our freezer in my garage and I've got all my tackle in there. And she has through the years understood like, "Hey, I'm going to run out to the freezer. We're going to do taco night.

41:04I'm going to throw all the elk meat in the sink and start thawing it." And man, over the last 5 years we I've woke up and we haven't had we haven't had, you know, beef cattle and hamburger um taco, spaghetti, bolognese. What do we haven't eaten it in 5 years at my house. And it just it takes you a minute to go, "Hey, uh put it in the freezer and then plan your plan your dinner." You know, we all get busy with kids and stuff like that, but I'm so proud of her that she'll call me and be like "Hey, I'm going out to the freezer. Do you want me to get these elk tenderloins?" Cuz by the time me and my I got three children that go out there with me now and two or three of us will get one. I mean, we got enough meat. Like it's awesome that best food. It's So good for you. Man, when you pat out an elk patty hamburger like your hands have nothing on it. Right.

41:59Like I mean, you could take beef patty and just like it's just like fat, grease. It's like talking, you know. That's also why it tastes so good. Right, which we got to There's a time and place for that. But it's pretty cool that elk gets that. And I I they still have to add a little bit of pork fat to elk just to keep it. But, um I give a lot of meat away, and whenever I do when I get text back, I get excited. People are like, "Damn, this is so good." And it makes me feel better. It does make you feel like there's something about wild game. You get energy from it. Well, yeah. And yeah, and yeah, when you can go like we uh it it my place uh my deer place in Southern Tennessee. Yeah, man, we we just we make sure, man, we got I got a big walk-in cooler there. And if we if we're if we're not going to take something in there, I put I've got some

42:47red stag at my place in Tennessee. Uh I did a high fence down there. And uh so, between stag and whitetail and elk, you know, we're moving we're moving meat around and making jerky uh they roaring on your property? do. That's the craziest sound. I thought the elk sound was crazy. Elk sound is probably the craziest It's the best elk sound. It's the best. But, the roar of the stag is It sounds like a lion. I put one on my Instagram story, Jamie. See if you can find it. This dude just staring at the camera roaring. I bet or I or I hear rather Argentina is a great place to go. Yeah. they have a lot of them down in Argentina. We um It's interesting cuz Tennessee is very very strict on their whitetail Imagine if you were some dude and it's like a thousand years ago, and you don't know what the [ __ ] that is. You run into the woods. So, my 14-year-old

43:59has been going to Colorado with me since he was five or six. And when they're that little, obviously they can't bow hunt. But, we would get an elk down. And I'd let the boys hike up with me and and pack the elk out. And one day we had another hunter with us going to get an elk and my two little ones were following me. And I said, well, we had an elk bugle. I said, "Hey boys, stay right here." And they're they're six six and eight. And we went up the hill and I could keep Well, Tate, right before I walked off, he goes, "Dad, are they going to kill us if we sit here?" Cuz those elk bugle, I mean, you can feel their bugles in the woods. And I said, "No, son, Feel them in your chest. went up and tried to call this elk in and then some elk did actually cross in front of them. And they're six and eight just sitting there, these big this big

44:52herd of elk coming by them. We come back. And I was watching I could see them sitting down there on this this tall log that I put them on. But I got back and they're like, "Those elk were all I mean, you know, having your boys I mean, that's that's what I live for and to to keep the, you know, and I just wish we could create a narrative where getting your children doing that will will I mean, I don't know. Well, hunting has a very difficult entry. It's very difficult if you're a person who's like listening to this like I've I've never hunted before, but I'd like to learn how to do it. Good luck. It's very hard to do. Very very hard. It's very hard to find someone who's going to teach you, who has the patience to show you what to do. If you've never shot a rifle before, it's very hard to understand like what is the difference between a .300 Win Mag

45:42and a 7 mm what is this and that? That that's the that is the tricky part really with all outdoors. And if you could if you could bridge the gap between um all parts of urban life and allow urban life to to find a place to go. But the when we went through a phase in outdoors where landowners were like, "If you hunt my land and you twist your ankle and break your leg, you're going to sue me, so no, you're not allowed to come hunt my land." So, all the deer will get overpopulated, eat all my crops. And then so I think now states, I think Tennessee has put a law in to where some of those getting sued I Well, what I'm what I'm saying is that feeds people's inability to go find somewhere to hunt, too. I mean, you're so many people don't have a 50-acre farm. They can't afford it, but they want to go hunt. And then I just hope the hunting community and even

46:41the the whole outdoor community can make it more accessible and landowners. I mean, I had this little lady that that um um I wanted to turkey hunt her she had 60 acres that bordered like a 300-acre tract of mine and I was like, "Ma'am, when when I'm out hunting and some of my turkeys or our turkeys may cross onto your property, do you mind if I go" and she and her house is a mile away from or it's 50 acres, it's probably 400 yards. She thought my shotgun was going to shoot through her house and kill her. And I had to spend 45 minutes and she grew up in Tennessee in the country and she doesn't understand that a shotgun is not, you know, And so man, the education of it all just the bridge in the knowledge of it gradually gets worse and worse, but the need for it gets greater and greater gets greater and greater. And I tell my

47:39children all the time. I'm like, "Boys, there is no drug in the world and I'm not a you know, I I'm pretty straight guy. Never done done much of that, but I said, "I got a lot of crazy buddies that have and when a big elk's walking in or a big white tail or you hook a big fish, there's that the the adrenaline from that no drug will replace it. And Nothing's like it. I've done some wild [ __ ] in my time. I I I've seen the documentation of the wild stuff. So I've done some wild [ __ ] I'm going to I'm going to send you a video, Jamie, of something that happened last week. So this this is the best example of that. This is the best example of that. We had this elk and he was out at about 50 yards. We had snuck in snuck in on him. He was over the ridge at 50 yards. We could see the tips of his antlers moving

48:27around. I had my sight set at 50 yards. And as my friend was calling him, my friend was at a tree that was about 20 yards from me. He came right into our lap. So it was one of those things where I had a range at 50. 50 and then And then I see him coming in. He's coming in. I dial him again. I range him again at 40. I dial him in. I'm like, oh [ __ ] he's coming into our lap. He just kept coming in. Watch this video. Is this Do you not have it yet? Modern technology. It didn't make it through? Oh, it's still going. Hold on. I'm still compressing it to send it through iMessage. Oh, is that what it is? Maybe. Okay, let me It said it went through. Did it go through? Just got it. Okay. Bust out those cigars. You want a little heavier or a mild? Whatever you have. Here it goes. Check this out. Oh. Listen to this. Listen to this when he

49:19Like when I heard that I was like, So right now he's about 50 yards. What's your heart doing right now? Right now I'm pretty calm cuz he's at 50 yards. Right. But now I'm realizing he's not going to stop. So I range him again. Now he's at 40. Oh my god. for a second. He's staring right at me. I have to stop. Oh yeah, so you're off to the right. to the right and I'm pressed up against the tree. Full camo, hiding in plain sight. So now he's moving out So now I'm like, oh [ __ ] I'm moving my sight to 20. So now I move my sight to 20. And I'm trying to figure out a time to draw. So right here I draw, that's when he turns. Oh. He needs He sees a movement. This is another one bugling. Perfect. That was it. Boom. It's the That and there's so much nerves and so much like anxiety and you range them and he's coming in and it's like

50:14and you think he's going to be at 50 but all of a sudden he's at 20 and then it's like don't punch the shot, like relax, execute a perfect shot. here's the beauty of all that in the outdoors. You know, when you Here, these are mild. They're good though. Um Man, when you when you when you kind of conquer one level of fishing or hunting, then there's another one you can go learn to spice in. You know what I'm saying? You can go Right. And what I say is like I just I mean, from the elk hunter that I was Um the elk hunter that I was 10 years ago, like took so much took so much work to to even get from a 10% knowledgeable elk hunter to a 60%. Now, like I can watch that elk react to everything and know what that elk's how that elk's reacting because I've done it for 11, 12 years now. And I've got I've taken my boys. Well, so when you get tired of whitetail

51:23hunting and whitetail hunting gets rudimentary, then go try to dig in and take it to the next level to challenge yourself. That's what's so fun about like when I got I was always a bass fisherman, always a bass fisherman. Never fly fisherman, but then I got into fly fisherman and that became the new 7-year challenge that I your own flies? I I can now the little I can tie big streamers. Right. But like the little bitty When you got to get like goggles on [ __ ] Oh yeah. I I It's a real art form. Totally the one of the most rewarding things you can do. Sure. You make your own lures. own fly Yeah. and trick a big ass fish. a big fish with it and Yeah. My My only problem with fly fishing is a lot of it is catch and release. And I'm like It's fun. I know it's fun, but you're basically just [ __ ] with fish. You're

52:20just [ __ ] with them like I could have killed you, [ __ ] You know? I like it. I get it. The handling of the trout like when I was you know I grew up bass fishing and we're like and the bass flies out of the water Right. we grab it and you know as kids we're like oh we throw you know you catch a trout and it's like a it's like a creature. Yeah, it's like a a team in the in the delivery room comes in to hold the the brand new baby or what heck they treat newborns. They're slapping newborns around and getting their lungs going before you know you mishandle a trout, but you know there the the whole mystique of trout and and all of this stuff is is just uh man it's outlets for all of us, you know? I mean I remember when I I moved to Nashville man my dad he kept me fishing and hunting and he wound up being a pretty dang successful business guy

53:17and he all he told me he goes dude when you moved to Nashville don't forget to take time to go do that stuff. And you know for about two or three years man I didn't. I was focusing on my career. Mhm. But now as I roll out man you know as I'm kind of established It's you know I can man it's it's been the highlight and the fact that three boys landed in my life like you know my wife's like, "You're You're It's not even fair that you have cuz I can always use one of them." I was like, "Well, baby Bo, you know, he's really been stressed at school and he wants to hunt this season." She's like, "I know your game. I know your game. But, uh Well, we're so lucky in this country, too, that there's so much places that are public land. That's another thing that Europe doesn't have. I mean, that's what Robin Hood was all about. People think Robin Hood was uh steal from the

54:09rich and give to the poor. No, it was about hunting lands and hunting rights. People were starving and the king had all the land. And there was all these deer and Robin Hood would go out and whack deer. Like, that was the story about Robin Hood. It really wasn't about stealing money. It was really about hunting rights. Right. They don't have that over know that. Yeah, well, that's what's why it's so [ __ ] over there. That's why they don't have this attitude about why That's why, you know, you hope um the the whole education of hunting and land owners and and conservation of the animals and all the land ties into where, you know, land owners need to have a better understanding of, "Man, give this old boy a break. Give this guy that just knocked on your door and asked permission the good old-fashioned way, man, give him a break and let him take

54:56his son or go Yeah. go hunt, you know, and and don't, you know, don't hoard Don't hoard your 15,000 acres till you're Right. you know, but till you're dead. But, hopefully he's a good guy. That's the problem, also, is that [ __ ] ask for permission and then do something stupid. You know, Dude, I had a guy shoot a stag one of them first year I put my stag in my fence, shot him right off the road. Really? Left him. Man, it Oh my god. You talk about pissed. Right off the road. Just shot him and left him. Shot him and left him. Yeah, I see there's people like that out there. That's so [ __ ] up. apples, you know. They They're out there. that to a stag, too? God, that's so awful. Yep. And the meat is so sensational. To know that meat is going to go to waste. That's so crazy. Man, I don't know. You know, I guess enough whiskey and a old back

55:45road and a rifle you'll you'll you'll Shitty education, bad childhood, all the above. Well, but um Yeah, all the above. But yeah, I mean I look at um I've got a Teal, my nephew. He's lived with me since he was 12 and then my So Teal's 22 now and Beau is uh Beau's 16 and Tate is 14. And Teal was 15 when he killed his first elk. The rule has been if you can pull 55 lb, you're you're you're ready to hunt. And so Beau is a lot bigger than Tate when he was 13 and 14. So Beau, my 13-year-old, killed a full-grown elk at 13. Whoa. With a bow? With a bow. Whoa. Totally the freaking most badass thing I've ever seen. And then Just to be that young and be able to execute the shot. Dude, he did it and he earned it. And like I said, I've been hiking them up those hills. That's what another Like the the hunting and the the killing is Man, when you pack out a damn Yeah.

56:54800-lb animal. The first time I packed my elk out, dude, when I got to the Polaris, I mean I was like I was sobbing. Like from Exertion? Exertion. Like delusional. Because we took a wrong turn, we hit a big aspen blowdown. And I had to tote the head and the cape out and I had to walk over blown-down aspens with that cape. And once we got 500 yd into the blowdown, and man, we got to that bug and you know, all the And all the elk hunting guides, they're the toughest they're the toughest dudes. they're doing that all all long. They're grizzled. They're the toughest guys. I tell people, man, if I get called to a serious uh if I get called in in a serious war, I'm calling my elk guide. That's That's my first That's my first call, so. But it's you know, when I didn't grow up ever thinking I'd have the opportunity or the or the you know, the the ability

57:54to go hunt elk. But once you start doing it and and and but you know, man, this this week I killed Thursday I killed my biggest whitetail I ever did and then I was so I'm so like overwhelmed by killing it. I haven't even like I don't even know if I've enjoyed it yet because it was it kind of happened fast. But um it's just so fun. We uh How big is it? It was big. Yeah. So listen, now and so I didn't post it cuz it's obviously in my high fence and you know the you know, but man, this deer was born in the fence. In Tennessee, you can't bring any genetics in. You can't do anything. Whatever herd you have when you wild herd Whatever wild Tennessee deer you have, you have to grow them. And man, this deer, Joe, when he was 2 years old, we were like, "What in the [ __ ] what a UFO ship dropped this off in here?" He started with huge mass,

58:56different looking genetics and we watched him for we grew him for we feel like he's 5 and 1/2 and uh Whoa. Dude, we are we are over the moon about that deer. I know. That's a huge deer. How How big is your property? It's uh I guess all together it's probably 11 probably 1,200 acres in the fence. So, that is much more space than a deer would ever travel in its natural life anyway. I'll I'll put it to you this way. We put about 18 red stag in there. They're up We don't know how many there are. That deer might have got [ __ ] by a stag. I think he might have. Yeah, he might have He might have crossed crossed a hybrid, yeah. Dude, we will ride around. We We have too many stag and we'll try to thin them out, Joe. We can't find them. Like literally like we'll spend a day I'm like, "Hey, grab the rifle. We're going to pull up here, walk this

59:57bottom." Can't find them. There's 60 of them in there. We hunted them for 4 days this weekend. We killed We killed two. So So 1,200 is I mean um It's much larger than a deer would have in its natural world. Yeah, and I you know, I Listen, I mean we There There are a million ways you can criticize me for having the high fence. But, you know, I have low fences that we we bounce back and forth on the low fences. Cuz that's fun as hell, too, to not know what's walking in. But, the main thing is is I wanted my boys to have the ability to manage deer and and grow them. And I grew up I love South Texas big big I love South Texas deer hunt. Like But I learned I leased I leased a South Texas place down here. And then I learned having, you know, young children and my schedule, man, to go own a South Texas ranch, commit that much to a South Texas ranch, and get 5

60:59days there weren't my thing. So, my my high fence in Tennessee is kind of like my little ode or my little homage to to my love for South Texas whitetail. So So, you can keep it close. Keep it close. It's 55 minutes from the house. Oh, that's nice. And it's a it's a retreat. I get down there. You know, Starlink has ruined us cuz now we have internet. Yeah. But, before that, man, you we'd pull in the pull in the holler down there, and you'd have to drive up to the hill to make a phone call, but oh oh Elon saved us on that. So. Yeah, the new Starlink's wild. It's the size of a like a notebook. Well, what was funny is the first time the first time we saw the satellites come over, we were at elk camp. And you know, my nephew, Teal, he's 21, and we're all liquored up, and my nephew, he goes, "Guys, I know we've been drinking all day,

61:51but what in the hell is coming toward us right now?" And we were like and then we had one guy in the group was like, "God damn, THAT'S ELON MUSK." AND WE WATCHED it go over, and we were like "Wow, what a what a" It's amazing. We we used one in Utah for the first time this year. So easy to set up, set it up in like 5 minutes, and then we're online, YouTube, whatever you want. when I went to elk camp, my wife was like, "All right, I'll I'll hear I'll see you I'll talk to you in 6 days." First day, elk camp, set the Starlink out, FaceTime, "Hey, baby, how are you?" Crazy. Yeah. My uh buddy was um uh deer hunting recently in South Texas, and he said on three different occasions in the week, their deer got bumped by illegals. He said it was crazy. He said illegal aliens just moving through the ranch. He said they they have, you know, a swarm of them every day.

62:50I hunt South Texas every year, and the at any given moment, you can drive and pick up 50 backpacks. They just that ranch looks like I when I and I hadn't been th- this ranch was closer to the border than I've ever been, and there are piles of backpacks and tarps, you know, they'll take tarps and put the tarp out and they're do well, they'll wait in the day and then they get, you know, they get picked up at night typically, but but when they get picked up, they chunk their backpack and dude, they like that that the ranch I was at they have to have a full-time team of people just going around picking up backpacks and keeping trash off the ranch. My buddy who has a ranch in South Texas found a dead guy. Found the guy ran out of water. Just died on his ranch. And it it's heartbreaking because dude, you if anybody dude, I can't imagine having to walk through

63:51that brush to get to freedom. Right. Because when I get back where you're going. Not knowing where you're going and probably you have kids. Yeah. Yeah. Dude, when I leave South Texas, I'm pulling cactuses out of my ass for a month. Yeah. Especially if you do, you know, you got rat- you got rattle form and stuff. So man, it's Forget about rattlesnakes. Forget about everything else that's down there. And when water, yeah, when you think about man, you you get your water rations. Yeah. You you miss that? Yeah. You could zig when you should have zagged and you're not going to run into water. Especially down there. And it was in the summer. So, you know, 105° And they found him. Well, I I every ran- every ranch every ranch I've went to the ranch owner um you know, they're encountering two two deaths a year, 15 to 20. Most of the time they come up to the the main headquarters

64:48needing water and when they get to you or that's been my experience with talking to ranch managers down there. They're they're very you know, they're not I don't think they're there to create any problems. They just like, hey, you know, we're Right. we need some water and majority of them are just trying to get a better life. Get a better life and Yeah, and we would be doing it, too. Could you imagine if you're living in a third world country and you had kids and you realize you can get to America and you get a good job and you got to figure out how to do it. Yeah, I would do it. We would all do it. We would all do it. It's just the the craziness of not knowing where you're going in South Texas, which is so vast. I mean I think it's one of those things where people talk about it, it's almost like talking about space. You know, like,

65:31"Oh, the galaxy is 200 million stars or 200 billion stars." It doesn't make sense cuz it's like it's too big for you to understand. If you had to walk through South Texas, it's South Texas Well, uh Texas itself is bigger than like multiple countries in Europe. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, and even imagine before like the oil booms and oil rigs and stuff like that. Now they have a little bit of visual Right. lights to walk to. Right. Right. I mean, man, I couldn't imagine. Yeah. Just striking out. Just taking a chance. Crossing the Rio Grande and hoping. Hoping or maybe you've gone with someone who went through it before or they have a vague memory of what's the I I don't know. I mean, I you know, we we've been there and you know, the the guys they they open box blinds, you know, the they're hunting towers and there's a family sleeping in

66:25the box blind and man, you just got to you got to feel so sorry for them. I mean, how bad Look, I mean, I thought I mean, dude, I remember when I was 15, 16 years old processing Cubans where it's so bad that you're going to [ __ ] piece together a raft Mhm. and you're going to you're going to give it a you're going to give it a go for Miami? Right. I remember being 16 going, "How bad must that be? How bad must that be?" Pretty [ __ ] bad. Pretty [ __ ] bad. Their their case is a little different cuz they're running from a communist dictatorship and they're like, "We got That's why the most Republican [ __ ] in this country Cubans. Cubans go hard. They're like, "We've seen We've seen what all this socialist horse [ __ ] comes down to." And it comes down to government control over every

67:16aspect of your life and they they enforce it with violence. They enforce it with guns. It's not as simple as everybody just gives up whatever they have and now everybody has an equal amount. That's all nonsense. That's the That's the hook. But the reality is the government controls everything and you are [ __ ] And they always live in big ass houses and they eat great food and everybody else is starving. everywhere. It's from from Africa to Cuba to I mean the whole African That that whole Have you ever hunted in Africa? I haven't, but I know I will. I I will I can go on this show and say, "Man, I'm not like a I'm not one of those guys that's like thinking about an elephant or lions and all that." I just I love to bow hunt and I love I'd like plains animals, you know, your your kudus and all that stuff, man. I I I you know, to to be able to When my

68:05boys get a little older and we can do a proper 2-month Currently sports and my children have ruined my hunting life or my Well, cuz my my boys are going to play all the sports, but when when we can get a I'd love to do them a gap year and let's go do a a true safari. Yeah. And and now when I say safari, that doesn't mean I want to go like hunt 60 days. I want to do like your I want to see the all of the Serengetis and all of the animals and take in the animals for a month and have like the the wives and the girls and the girlfriends and we sit out there and do the safaris, but then I want to carve out 2 or 3 days where all the boys go you know, go get the true plains game uh Yeah. And I I would love It's man, I tell you it's pretty cool story. My um my pilot my lead pilot is South African and during COVID, man, he couldn't his mother was dying and he couldn't get

69:00down there to tell his mother bye. And at this point I just I just kind of got to know AJ and man he I've always heard South Africans are pretty badass dudes and at the time I was learning that AJ's a pretty badass dude. I didn't all all together know it but well he caught he he got with me and he goes Luke man uh it's still I cannot get into South Africa. It may have been his mother or his wife's mother but I called some local guys some local Congress guys in Tennessee and we they granted him permission to um get down there and they got to tell uh either his wife's mother bye. Well he comes back he's like Luke I now owe you a Cape buffalo. And I was like what? He goes my family has a big ranch. We're overrun with Cape buffalo and you now have one of my Cape buffalo. So dude he is going to fly me down there and I'm like and that's just kind of the way

70:06he's he's he's wired but you know he's going to help us with some safari stuff down there. Don't they call them the black death? Yeah now they are bad. Yeah you you don't just go running up to them. Yeah. Like with with your not your [ __ ] together. That's a big animal. It That's like a 1800 pound animal right? Maybe bigger and like all muscle. So Cam and Adam Greentree they went up to uh Australia. You know Australia has like an infestation of Asian buffalo. They have I forget which type of buffalo it is but um invasive. So someone introduced it like all the animals in Australia. A lot of the mammals were introduced and they have no natural predators. So they have these buffalo up there everywhere. Cam said he shot one and he they you know they went up there with no food and they went up there to live off the the They're drinking out of

70:59[ __ ] crocodile lakes. Like literally bathing in that [ __ ] filtering water filtering water, eating whatever fish they caught. It's Cam's new version of pushing himself. Now he's going to Now he's going to I think it was Adam's idea. He's a psycho, too. So, they're the both of them are perfect together. So, he said he had one piece of buffalo in his mouth for a half an hour just chewing on it. He said that's how tough they are. He said it took forever to EAT THAT IT'S THE TRUE FORM of like yeah, no that's even a whole 'nother level of of true organics when it takes you you know, when your jerky's jerky right out of the right out of the you know, right in the field. Yeah, well there's no dry-aged buffalo out there. No, that's a [ __ ] say how it was a taste of it? Um I mean Cuz most plains animals in Africa uh historically

71:53they say are far beyond our plains animals as far as the meat. Like your kudus and your I mean your I'm drawing a blank on all the plains games. And then like I said, this is stuff that I'm like totally elementary in cuz I don't I just don't know much about that whole African thing. like the things that the big cats want to eat are all delicious. Right. Yeah. Like I shot a nilgai a couple years ago and tigers eat them. Right. Did you ever eat the nilgai? Yes, delicious. And they're the meat is like a even more vivid a more vivid red color to it than even our you know, our elk and stuff. Well, it's all delicious. My favorite is still elk, but another one is axis deer. They They get hunted by tigers and they're some of the best tasting animals alive. Axis deer are delicious. Well, I I think cats are smart. Just like bears are smart, too. Salmon's delicious.

72:48They sit there and pick them off. They know what they're doing. Well, have you done Africa? Are you you going to do it? I would like to. I'd like to go over to Africa just to see it. you you really got it. Cam, was he kind of your catalyst in and God, I mean you pick it's like you had it's like you had Michael Jordan teaching me how to play basketball. you how to shoot free throws, yeah. It's so fun, though. But, you know, even with God I tell you, man, I dove hard into duck hunting and you talk about you talk about I mean learning to blow a duck call. And when you think you know how to blow a duck call and then you get next to somebody that blows a duck call and you blow yours and the room starts laughing at you like like ridicule like take your duck call off and put it in your bedroom and leave it when we go hunting. And I'm like, "Dude,

73:40I've been working on this [ __ ] thing for 4 years." And they're like and it's so funny, but elk bugles. Yeah, And someone who sucks at bugling, like you hear them like, "What the [ __ ] is that?" it's like you walking in with a with a tutu on. I love duck hunting, too. I've never done it, but I love the idea because you're sneaking, you're hiding, you got fake ducks, you got the whole deal. You got some some people have ducks that even have like flopping wings. got all Listen, man, let me tell you something. Dude, I got given a chocolate lab about 8 years ago. And here comes this wormy ass chocolate lab into my home, you know, scrawny and since then, oh my god, that damn animal has thrust me into duck hunting just so I could take him duck hunting. And man, it is it's tough. like the same excuse you used with your kids. That's right, my kid, yeah.

74:37to go for the dog. Yeah, for the dog. needs some duck hunting. And then and my wife is this dog, man, this dog can open every drawer in our house. He can open Frito Lays with his beak and smack Frito Lays open and eat them. He can He can He is He's He's pushed a porcelain pound cake a pound cake on a porcelain island off onto the floor, ate the pound cake and the porcelain dish. And like X-ray 100 shards of porcelain in stomach. The vet's like, "Put that [ __ ] out in the yard cuz there's any if he makes it if he lives, call me back." He lived. And now I have duck hunting properties and my boy, you know, so and we're in the house blowing duck calls. My wife's like, you know, I mean my wife's like five four boys in the house all of them blowing duck calls. She's like, "Man, one day yeah." So do you have one of them setups where

75:40you're like hiding in one of those shacks that's underground? yeah we have we have elevated blinds that are brushed in and some brush and then we have pit blinds that are you know, when you get down in a pit blind it up? Yeah, you're right along the water level. And then you know, we have you know, there's experiences where you wait in the woods and they they come down in the woods and and man, it's just uh And and it's the thing about the thing that really makes duck hunting kind of like when you're in a blind with your with your Let's just say you got your buddies from way back and there's five of you and you're sitting there smoking cigars and you know, you're you're you're in the blind together and you're very It's very social, too. Drinking coffee, it's you know, 15° coffee, cigar you know, and everybody's like, "Shh shh shut up shut up shut up

76:31shut up." And you work the ducks. They light in front of you. Kill them. Dog gets them. Brings the duck back. You look at the duck and you're just like just have a big old toke on your cigar and you're like, "Yep, this is pretty good [ __ ] right here." at cooking them? Yeah, man. You know, the thing about it when you do you know, your grain ducks, your ducks that feed on your rice and your and your your corn. You know, you like a a diver duck that eats essentially minnows. Yeah, you know, that you don't want to eat that. But, and geese geese are you you find somebody that can cook a goose. You know the story about how to cook a goose? No. Well, you get a big pot and you put your you put a you put a bunch of water and then you put a concrete cinder block in there and you boil the goose and you pull the goose out and eat the cinder

77:24But, some people can make uh But, I thought goose was like a thing Christmas goose. speckled goose. Speck Specklebellies are good. But, I like a mallard and a wood duck. Oh, man, a wood duck with jalapeno and cheese and bacon wrap which nothing nothing's bad when you do that. But, My friend Jesse Griffiths, he runs this restaurant out here called Dai Due and Is it It's fantastic. And he serves a lot of wild game and Jesse came on this hunt with us with Steve Rinella down in South Texas and Jesse cooked some diver duck. And he Was it good? It was fantastic. the hell Jesse is He's a wizard. Is is a wiz Well, that's great, then. He's a real chef. Well, that So, So, Ryan Seacrest, he's like, "Hey, man, Ryan Seacrest, the radio guy? Yeah, my guy. Yeah, the at American Idol. And Seacrest goes, "Hey, I've got uh You need a light?" Yeah, thanks.

78:18He goes, "Dude, I booked this at EMP, 11 Madison Park. Number one at the time number one restaurant in downtown, you know, Adam was uh Ryan was taking me and Katie and Lionel to dinner and I've never been to a the certainly the number one restaurant in the world. Well, they take us to of the kitchen. And dude, they have ducks. Walls. Cuz all of your your French cuisine, the real the centerpiece is duck. That's like the Duck fat. The ducks are the the real big part of French cuisine. But dude, I see these uh I see all these ducks and I'm like, "What are y'all doing here?" He goes, "Man, we're aging them." So, they get these Now, they're getting probably they're they're getting farm-raised, organically grown ducks. And they age them with with the guts in them. Yeah, I've heard of that. I've heard people do that with like pheasants, too. You hang them by their neck.

79:20enzymes of the guts pull stuff out of the meat. Well, it adds a flavor to it, apparently. And dude, man, I ate ducks that me out. Yeah. Well, here's the tricky part, because dude, I don't know if I enjoyed my meal, cuz I I picked the chef's brain. Cuz I wanted to figure out a way to take my mallards and all my ducks I killed and age them properly. But what you do got to worry about is when you shoot them, you know, you're putting you know, you're shooting it's good the guts are going Right. through kind of in the meat a little bit. So, that gets a them, right. Right. That's different than an organic duck. that good where I all head shot them yet, but uh No, when when these guys are aging them, what's the temperature in the room? it's I think it's like a you know, just above They're not freezing them. I think it's however you would dry age a a cow.

80:11So, like 40° or something like that. and 13, 15 days with the guts in them. And then 15 days with the guts in them. I've heard that people hang their pheasants until their their heads fall off. And that's when they that's when they cut them up. Like who figured that out? Like who is the bold bastard It's the guy that ate the the guy that ate the first oyster, right? You know. out of the puddle. Right. Yeah, and I you know, it is fascinating in pheasant and when you look at pheasant and quail and chuckers and you know, Hungarian partridge. Now, you're talking about the you're talking about the end all of of wild game. In my opinion, the top of the That's what you like the most? Well, I think when you look at the pheasants, you know, they're you know, they call them prairie chickens and they're beautiful. The meat's a little wider and less gamey or so uh

81:00Have you had sandhill crane? Yes, ribeye of the sky. I haven't, but it's crazy to look at it. It does look like steak. It's a red meat, a deep red meat, and it's a bird. And you know, they're uh they're wild little creatures, too, man. You know, when you when you take your lab sandhill crane hunting, you got to you got to fit them with goggles. Cuz they'll poke your eye out? Yeah. Whoa. And then um we I I I just got in a golf course property down in Florida. And uh we sold our beach house and then we're kind of migrating to this place. And I fly down to the tour of the property and I'm like, "Dude, what are what are what are y'all doing with all these sandhill cranes?" And they're like, "What do you mean?" It's like a golf course guy. Right. And I said, "Dude, that's the ribeye of the sky, bro." He's like he looked it up and I don't you can't shoot sandhill

81:52cranes in Florida. What? I dude, they're Somebody call the governor. everywhere. Really? Everywhere on this property. shoot sandhill cranes in Florida, but you can shoot alligators? I I unless they're lying to me because they're scared I'm going to go like I'm going to like, you know, have a psychotic episode and go running out through the golf course with a with the guns. Maybe it's just the area where you're at, you couldn't shoot sandhill cranes. in certain counties of it, but you know, even in Tennessee, Florida sandhill protected under the federal under federal migratory bird treaty act. Look at [ __ ] Wow, state rule, blah blah blah, intentional feeding of sandhill cranes is prohibited. So, you can't hunt them. Wow, they're protected. Well, in Tennessee, we have uh in Tennessee, there's a couple guys that guide them, and I think it's a draw tag.

82:45You can draw You can put in to draw a sandhill crane tag, and then Man, they make a They make a very Something like that. And dude, you can hear them, and I'll hear them coming over my farm. And uh God, if if that's the wrong noise I just made, I'm going to get uh Sounds good. I I'm going Whoa. I love this guy. I need me one of That's them. Wow. Now, that's a all of them. Yeah, that's You hear that? What a [ __ ] cool animal. They sound like something from Avatar. See those beaks? Yeah. Those are uh Labrador blind Labrador retriever blinders right there. How what How do you fasten the goggles on a dog? Oh my God, this is like the drill. Jamie'll find it. Sandhill crane goggles for labs. This is going to be great. Do Does it Do How does it secure on? I'm thinking about a dog's face. It's a I guess you've seen those dogs in those side cars on the uh on the

83:59motorcycles. Probably probably that that rig. Uh I don't think that's the same. Yeah, that's that's like That's an Aspen. That's two dogs being silly. Yeah. But, um the um Yeah, so in Tennessee, you you can hire a guy, and he'll take you, and they'll kind of get them coming in an area, and I think you You got it. You got it. Oh, there it goes. goes. Oh, wow. Oh, that's crazy. Now, those look like I think those are snow geese. So, snow geese are probably the same. Look at their goggles all scratched up, too. Yeah. crane hunt No, those are Yeah, those are sandhills. Wow, that's crazy. Dogs need to have their eyes protected. Yes, so when you when you get Yeah, when you got your golden Mhm. But, man, if you get you a lab and Oh, man, beware of that cuz you will get hooked and you'll you'll start sure I would be. Uh also, I love duck. Duck's delicious.

84:54Oh, on the grill, marinated in a marinated properly for a day or two, plan on it. That's what Jesse does. That's the difference and that's what he does. duck. I'm telling you this diver duck was sensational. Well, but when that and that's the that's what you got to watch in all wild game is, man, plan it. preparation Get it marinated and and and man, you you just can't beat it. Yeah, you got to know what you're cooking, how to cook it, especially if you you're cooking something that has low body fat. You got to make sure you cook it nice and slow. You know, that's one of the great things about things like a Traeger. And you could just set it for 265. best thing in the world Leave it. The new one's fantastic, too. It just everything comes out so smoky and delicious. If you know what you're doing. 4th of July he was I think he was drunk and hated us

85:43on 4th of July cuz he stayed up smoking the Boston butt every night. You know, I remember my dad, man, he he'd had that old Char-Broil out there and he'd get up with his vinegar and all this [ __ ] and he would wake up all night night before the 4th and smoke them butts, man. But, now you just walk out, put that thing on 220 at about 8:00 p.m., wake up at wake up at 8:00 a.m. and The app tells you if you're low on pellets. I know. It's like, what are we doing here? It's crazy. It's so much easier. What There's something that men are attracted to like cooking over wood, though. Like an actual fire and trying to cook over wood. it in in Texas, you know, right here. I mean, these guys take a damn You know, they they Propane tanks. They glue four propane tanks together and have a smoke stack. And the guy that uh What's our guy that does our charity

86:33event? Oh my god, I can't believe I'm I'll I'll come up with him, but Mark text me uh Meat Church. Have you met the Meat Church dude? I met that dude. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. He comes and He's got some awesome rubs. He's got all that, but then what's funny is yeah, he pulled up to our charity event with this big smoker. And man, I'm like, this is like Elon Musk style engineering on this thing. It's pretty, you know, and man, you know, they get out there and yeah, they'll look at me and you doing Traegers and we're That's about like us That's our version of having a tutu on. It is funny cuz people want to do it all themselves. The offset smokers. Like if you've ever gone to Terry Black's here, see the lines of the offset smokers. Terry Black's is the number one barbecue place in the country, probably in the world. They cook more volume of barbecue

87:23than anywhere else on the country. And they have just line after line of these giant propane tank smokers with briskets and beef ribs and spare ribs. when I when I moved to Nashville, being a South Georgia boy, I'd never even heard of brisket. Really? We There was we only knew pork barbecue. And it's just So, when I moved to Nashville, and then like there's some dude there with a Texas brisket restaurant in Nashville, I'm like, what are they talking about brisket? And this was 2001 I moved to Nashville. This is how insulated you could be in your own, you know, as we talk about the ways of the world changing. I mean, it's like, dude, I lived in a section and and everybody North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, we they didn't Brisket was like I think brisket was originally a German thing. I think it was like with the sausages. Like there was cuts of the

88:19meat. Well, the the smoker thing came certainly from German immigrants that came to Texas. That's where the the origin of the barbecue out here is. And then the the whole And then the brisket was like cuts that nobody else wanted. Right. Right. So, they figured out a way to take these cuts that nobody else wanted and turn them into something delicious. They just had to do it over time. And now it's like a preferred cut. You know, if you go to Terry Black's, the brisket sensational. And they're probably cooking, you know, the preferred cuts of like which cut of the brisket would you like? Not the not the old flank meat down there, you know, probably you can probably get the ribeye and all that. all just how long you cook it for. How do you how you do it? What temperature? And they they wrap it and then they unwrap it and they spray it. Like they

89:02have it down to a science. And then at the end, it's like the the the key is you want to be able to fold it over your finger and not have it break apart. Just get it to just where it folds over. See, our deal was just always smoke a big pig, you know, smoke a pig. You know, you know, not not the not the ones big as this table, but you know, about about that long. 100 pounder. Yeah. And walked up there on the family reunion and all the women were grossed out cuz you know, you're just pulling the the big pig, you know, the big you know, you can pull that meat off a pig. It's like that. So, God, we're getting hungry, Joe. I know. That's the the the good thing about wild pigs, too. So, they're always available to hunt. Like the one of the great things about Texas. It's it's not good if you own a ranch or if you have a farm, but if you're a person who wants

89:50to hunt, you can hunt wild pigs 365 days a year and always have sausage. Our place in me and my best friend, we've got a like a quail hunting place in down in the heart of South Georgia, tons of swamps. Dude, we were uh which you know all the math and I'm sure you've brought it up on um how many uh sow pigs or you know, they'll kick off 30 30 pigs uh a year annually. yeah. And then we would have we would have them roll through our front front yard. $30,000 damage a night. Yeah. And the most And for anybody out there listening, if you have this going on, we mounted um we mounted lights in all the trees around our whole lodge. And you flip them lights on we hadn't had one wild hog root up our yard since. They will not come around those lights. They don't they It's a great tactic. That's interesting. Yeah, and when somebody told him, you

90:48know, some good old boy told him and he was like, "Man, we'll try anything." cuz you would walk out there and it looked like 300 landmines went off. And the night before our our yard looked like Augusta. Yeah, it's crazy, isn't it? I mean, they are they are bad little dudes, man. They do a lot of damage. I mean, in Texas alone, it's millions and millions dollars of damage to crops every year. They shoot them out of helicopters here. You ever seen it You ever done any of that? Have you? Man, it is It's the most unfair type of hunting that's ever existed. Man, if you know I don't know, you know, my children I took my boys and somewhere there's a you know, I hope he doesn't hear, but there's a Navy SEAL Marine recruiter cuz my sons are ready for warfare after doing that. I'm like But you know, my the guy that we took, you know, he's got a big beautiful high

91:48fence and me, you know, you can if you fly around and man, you can you know you he has to thin them out every year. Yeah, you have to. But it's so fun doing it out of a helicopter, you don't want to thin them all out cuz you keep wanting to you know, you keep wanting to do it a little bit, but uh Yeah. But uh it's a You hadn't done that yet? I just mostly bow hunt them. Well, you know, the uh our our our our pig stuff in in Georgia, man, it it it's fun because you can go on a deer hunt and shoot some deer with a bow and then we'll take a rifle and and late in the evening the hogs will come out and and uh you know of guys shoot them at at nighttime, too. Yeah, yeah. And then we with thermals. We have guys with the big uh you know, with the big you know, trapdoors that trap them and stuff like that. So, uh I mean, they're they're they're probably the number one

92:43you know, wildlife I I never will forget I you know, right when like maybe iPhones come out and you get your iPhone news updates and then I never even knew what the magazine like The New Yorker was or like The Guardian and all those things. Well, The New Yorker, I'm scrolling through and I see feral pigs and it was this huge article done by uh a guy uh maybe the editor of The New Yorker. Man, he did a great job with that article and just went through and this was 15 years ago I read that article about you know, the feral hog problems and and you know, you would think I I would I don't know. I would think The New Yorker leans left. quite leans quite left, but the fact that this guy wrote the article from a perspective of huge problem need to be need to be dealt with was pretty uh pretty badass take on it. So. Well, once people see the sheer numbers,

93:39they're so overwhelming that you go, "Wait a minute. How how are you going to stop this? How are you going to stop it from multiplying continually every year?" Well, you're not. You're not. These places do not going to get to that. There's too many of them. in these these swampy deals, you can't you know, you can't you can't helicopter them there. So, that's when you get you know that's when you get these old boys with their with their dogs and they run off in the run off in the That'll help, but even then So Joe, here's here's another thing. You think about this. So when I start with my high fence with the year that I that the year that I started it um our turkey population in Tennessee, which it's it's been going through hail. Um and you'll hear this. The turkey population in Tennessee was one of the most amazing things I've ever

94:29seen. I mean eastern turkey hunting one of the most beautiful things in the wildlife that state of Tennessee has and and my turkey population was like is amazing and still is, but we hired a guy and he put 110 traps out. 110 and night one had 100 over 100 varmints. Coons, possums, armadillos in the traps night one. So they're just killing all the turkeys. They eat the eggs. Yeah. You know, they're you know, a turkey lays 12 to 14 eggs. Now listen, I found this out this year. This is going I hope I I if I can get a couple nuggets that you hadn't learned yet, that that's kind of the goal for the day. So a turkey does not lay their eggs all at the same time. Really? They lay their eggs one day at a time. They will they lay it next to a water source. They go to the water source, hold the water in their mouth drip that water on the eggs periodically

95:38using the water to hatch them at the same time cuz a hen turkey if she had to hatch all the eggs hatch at the same time. But if she had to hatch them for 12 days she couldn't ever keep them corralled properly. Oh. So, she manipulates with water. And if I'm wrong, now this is a biologist that told me this. Never I heard this this year. Totally blew my mind. So, in the nest, and I've walked up on them, they got 12 or 13 of them sitting there beautifully. And whatever that hen does, she manages those eggs to hatch the same time. Wow. And maybe maybe um Now, like a tortoise, I guess, or a a beach turtle or whatever. You know, I think they they spit them all out that night. But a hen a hen turkey does not Well, so one armadillo rolls by that nest And that's a wrap. That's a wrap. She just lost them all. And um So, there was a big study that went

96:40on in uh Tennessee about the decline of the turkey population. So, what do they do about that? They they try to hunt armadillos? well, you you know, well, trapping now is so rare. You know, trapping the art of trapping has gone down quite a bit. And the arm of the the the um Oh, and I'm not even bringing up coyotes in Tennessee. But uh So, yeah, if if you can if they can loosen up Tennessee can loosen up their trapping laws and make it more available and and uh you just got to thin out those uh You know, armadillos in Tennessee, you would have never um Uh man, we woke up and we can ride around and shoot 30 a night. Really? Armadillos. 30. On a on a carry like crazy diseases? I wouldn't recommend touching them, you know. They they you know, they say they do, but that that's that may People eat them? I'd never heard of that, but I I you probably can find somebody

97:38eat raccoons. They definitely eat raccoons. And definitely I don't know about possums, but if you if you're eating a possum, you're You are you are Your your ass is hungry, so. hungry. But uh raccoons, I mean I yeah in Georgia where we grew up had had several old-timers, man, they'd get them a [ __ ] and it was always a kind of a party deal. You know, it's just raccoon taste like? I've never had. I never Well, we got old buddy down there. He's like, "You know what bald eagle tastes like? So, I guess you could say raccoon, you know, I had a buddy mine tell a game warden that joke. It didn't go over well, so but uh There's a lot of [ __ ] that people eat that people would go, "What?" Yeah. I mean, when you're talking about Yeah, I I saw somebody do what they do the pig deal with a full gator. Oh, I've seen that before.

98:29And I hadn't done that. I've had gator tail, but I hadn't had that done. smoker and put a gator in there. thing on there. And they skin, you know, skin it and and all that. apple in its mouth. Yeah. You You know what's crazy in Georgia? There's a There's a place rural. So, all the chicken farms down there, huge chicken farms, all of them. Well, what do you do with the chicken carcasses? Well, I mean, there's a lot they used to grind them up and feed them back to the chickens, but some of them would get Well, they feed them to gator farms. Oh, wow. them in a put them in a um a limb a limb shredder. Oh, wow. Now, you talk about the most foul smell on the planet, go into a gator farm warehouse. Joe. Buddy. Just rot. Nothing can replicate. Maybe the surströmming challenge can rep you know, the the the whole surströmming joke thing, but What's that?

99:27You've seen where the guys pop the lid on the uh Swedish fish? NO. OH, JOE. SURSTRöMMING? What is it? Oh, we did it in our in our deer camp. It's like a aged Swedish fish that's rotten in a can. It's aged? For years. Like a sardine. And so, yeah, the surströmming challenge. Dude, we popped that thing. So, people fish with them? They use it for bait like for a catfish or something? people eat that. Oh, foul. And if you can stay in the room with it, Have you tried it? Dude, no one I No, I was outside 15 yd from it throwing up in the flower bed. All right, we got to order some, Jamie. Order some. I'm glad I didn't get you uh I might eat it on Fight Companion. But, um Well, Denver's on They're on the verge of passing a no fur law. So, if Denver passes a no fur law, what are they going to do about cowboy hats that have beaver skin lining?

100:33And then, if you're going to say no fur, how are you going to say no fur, but you're allowing leather? So, skin is okay as long as you take the furry part off? Is the furry part what's offensive? You know what I mean? If you know what you would [ __ ] the the chaos that would ensue if you outlawed leather? Everybody's belt is illegal. Everybody's shoes are illegal. All Air Jordans are illegal. it illegal. Illegal? Yeah, they're trying to pass a law. They're trying to pass a law where they ban fur. Sorry. No worries. They've done it before. I mean, they've done it in other places. it I like I said, where does it gel at with a keeps going. That's the problem. When I'm in America, it never It never [ __ ] ends. When I'm in a No, it never It's never going to end. They're going to keep pushing. It would It'll get to you can't eat

101:18meat. It'll get to it has to be lab grown meat. It'll get to it will It could get as crazy as you could ever imagine. There's animal rights people that would like to push in that direction. And you would have never thought that this would be possible, but you would have never thought that you would have biological males competing against females in high school sports. And that's everywhere. And if you complain that, you're a bigot. You're seeing the craziest of crazy thinking. There's people that think that pedophiles are minor attracted persons. And they'll they'll talk about this as university professors teaching classes. It's been recorded. People have seen it. It's not everywhere, but it's enough where you go, I see where this goes if it keeps going cuz none of this [ __ ] existed 20 years ago. You go back to

102:022004, there was none of this [ __ ] Nothing. A transgender person was a rare person with gender dysphoria. It was very rare. And there wasn't a lot of hatred towards those people. It wasn't a thing that people worried about. Now there is cuz everybody's like, what the [ __ ] Why is this in schools? Why are you having them There was a recent pool tournament where it was a woman's pool tournament in the semifinals, it's two trans trans women competing against each other. Two men, two biological men that wear lipstick competing against each other in a women's tournament. It's [ __ ] crazy. So I would never thought that would be possible. So It can get to the point where there's no meat. It can get to the point where meat There's this demonization of meat. You keep hearing about it all the time. Meat

102:45is the number one source of carbon. It's [ __ ] complete total horse [ __ ] It's not even number two. It's not number three. It's not even [ __ ] close. Cow farts. Yeah, it's the dumbest [ __ ] ever. And oh, BY THE WAY, ALL OF THAT IS factory farming. Regenerative farming is actually carbon neutral. If it doesn't If they don't sequester carbon, it's actually good for carbon. There's a whole reason why there's a there's a balanced ecosystem of cows eating grass and the grass fermenting in their stomach and them creating manure. And that regenerates. Yes, regenerates. It's carbon neutral. It's actually good for the environment and everything feeds off everything. There's a system that nature has evolved for millions of years. That's That's the normal way it's supposed to be done. And you know, we're just We're in a

103:31crazy time. Yeah, when you think of Denver and Colorado and the outdoors, man, you got to appreciate everybody's opinion of you know, you know, the the you know, I mean, the the it's a it's a so so old term, the granola-ist, but it ain't granola no more. I mean, it's it's it's They're going a lot further than granola. Granola used to be normal until they See, the thing is, those people were weird and rare, and they were tolerated. But then they got online and say if there's only 10 of them in this town and five of them in that town. Well, then now there's hundreds of thousands of them collectively in the country all as a group, and then they think that they're activists. So, they they think that they're doing something good. So, then they start saying things like, "No fur in Colorado. Pass this bill." And he starts saying, "No meat. No more meat.

104:21No one should have meat." Okay, what are you going to do with these cows? What are you going to do? You're going to go around castrating all those bulls? What are you going to do? How are you going to control the populations? Are you going to let them go extinct? You're going to castrate all the bulls? Are you going to let some of them breed? How are you going to make this distinction? Are you going to bring in wolves to handle them? What are you going to do? What the [ __ ] are you going to do? What are you going to do with all those people that work at the butcher shop? What are you going to do with all those people that work at the meat processing plant? What are you going to do with all those people that have been transporting meat back and forth? What are you going to do with all those jobs, all those families, all their income, all their

104:50businesses that they've had for a hundred [ __ ] years? What are you going to do with that? These people have like the most minimal understanding of the system that they're trying to influence. They they don't know what the [ __ ] they're doing by releasing wolves. They think, "Wolves are beautiful. Yay!" See the governor, he's releasing the wolves. He's like, "Yay!" He's like so happy. Yeah, they're going to be saying, "Yay!" when they're when they're down. I don't know, dude. The whole The dogs are getting eaten. Dog, everything. Dude, let me tell you something. Well, not only that, they brought in wolves that had a history of killing cattle. The wolves they brought into Colorado than the grizzly focusing on the on humans and man, we I live just south of Nashville. We got 180 acres. I've got neighborhoods all around us, man.

105:40About every now and then an email goes out. Little fluffy's gone. Coyotes? We put six coyote traps out on my farm one night. Six for six. Wow. And let me tell you what else is a little vicious son of a [ __ ] A [ __ ] otter. Oh, yeah. Otters will [ __ ] you up. Let me tell you, buddy, those things are I mean, Joe, I'm so like I mean, I we like I said, my my brain is bass fishing and all this stuff. Man, we'll have otters come up into my bass pond. And [ __ ] those bass up. I'm talking about they're [ __ ] gone, the fish, in three nights. The fish are gone. And the otters eat one and play with the other ones that they kill. Wow. And like you go by my lake like I have a all female bass lake at my house, which you're going to this is a whole 'nother fun deal. They will roll through there and eat my all females

106:54and just throw them up on the bank. There's carcasses Like how many? Oh, you get four otters in your pond on a 17-acre lake, they'll eat 20 bass a And you the problem is you don't know you've been got until it's too late. till you've been got. Wow. And so, Joe, a tip to grow a 10-lb bass And think about I've been loving on these damn fish. I've been walking out there making sure they're happy so we can all catch them and yeah, and then damn them damn otters so they'll if you have a overflow a spillway on your farm and it runs through your farm and dumps into a major river body of water and that otter swims by that water dumping in that river he is up that river he's up that spillway into your lake and he is he has got you. Wow. And we'll put traps out there and man they just keep coming. Wow. Keep coming and I'm talking about otter pelts

108:04I mean like the prettiest thing you've ever seen. So do you turn them into coats or anything? You I mean we've got enough where you know we can we've got them skinned out in freezers and rolled up in our freezers and my my farm guys I mean I think they're but you know the sad part is there the market for that should be an amazing market but I don't I don't I think cuz everybody's scared to say they got a damn otter pelt. Yeah. You know but Yeah, fur it's fur's got a bad name. If it's got hair on it leather's fine. None of it's fine. But leather's fine with people. No one has a problem with you wearing a cowboy boots. Nobody gets mad. Yeah, see leather. Nobody gets mad at leather. All that is is fur with no with no [ __ ] hair on it. It's the same thing. It's weird. But damn otters man them little rascals you know they um

108:56I got I'm building a lake at my place in Georgia and it's right on the Flint River. wildlife management. I love it man. It's it's so fun. It's so damn fun. Like it it's it's 4 hours of my day. And it also cleanses your mind, right? Just like hunting. It's totally and it is not for myself. You can't my enjoyment is to watch the kid my friend my buddies my children's friends come enjoy it, too. You know, my my my sons will bring a buddy home from school. And next thing you know, Tate and his 13-year-old buddy are shooting bows in the front yard all weekend. And this kid, who doesn't have a dad that hunts or has the ability, next thing you know, we I got one kid my my Tate's buddy James his eighth consecutive weekend at my house hunting. Just loving life shooting bow and arrows. Did you show him how to shoot correctly? Got it all got him dialed in. He shot

110:00his first doe this weekend. Nice. Just so fun. And so so you know, when you meet these guys that they don't let anybody else enjoy it, I don't like those guys either. Yeah. And and you know, I love to I love to enjoy it with people, but yeah, the bass fishing thing is a blast. But my my lake in in Georgia, it's going to be about 35 acres and I think we'll do an all female lake down there. Why all female? So they can't breed. Your females are your trophy bass. Right, the big fat ones. The big fat ones But don't they have to get pregnant to be really big and fat? You put them in and if you don't They don't have to be pregnant. They just have to have the big eggs and when they lay them, they just have to have a male not fertilize them. That's right. Of course. So if you get a male in there, then the male then you have a natural thriving He'll eat the babies, too, though,

110:52right? They'll a male bass will forage on themselves. Yeah. And but male ba- Now, I have three lakes that are naturally their own ecosystem where we have to you know, I've got a 82-acre bass lake that we have to catch 3,500 lb of bass a year just to keep them from not choking themselves out. Really? Oh, yeah. It's It's 3,500 lb? 100 lb. So, how What do you do? Just call your friends? Dude, we have bass roundups and we get out there and we catch them and we'll load up coolers and take them into the little towns and give them, you know, we have give them to people and I mean, it becomes a problem. It's a weird thing with largemouth bass, too, cuz a lot of people don't eat them and yet they're delicious. They're good. They're great. They're great. the same as bluegills. Well, bluegills bluegills You know, like all the bluegills at my lake are we feed them pellet food, so

111:51they'll get big, so the bass will eat them, so the bass will get big. Ah. And you don't want to go eat a bluegill that's been parked under a pellet. Yeah. But a a little wild bluegill stream or a little natural creek where I grew up in Georgia, like shellcrackers and bluegill that eat like a cricket or a that are eating live stuff, you fillet one of them real small creek or river bluegills and Oh, nothing better in the world. Yeah. And then Bass is similar to that. Oh, bass if you flaky white meat. Flaky white meat, get you a 3 or 4 lb bass, fillet it like a red snapper. But people like catching them so much, they want you to release them. We We spent our whole life My dad would catch bass, we would fillet them. He'd put them in a Pyrex dish, sauté them, uh bake them, and then broil them on top, and we'd eat ba- we'd eat largemouth bass, you know.

112:49You could either have salmon croquettes that stink up the whole house, you know, where you knew your mama was cooking them, or you could have fresh bass, you know, so we we grew up. But isn't it a weird animal or weird fish, rather, that a lot of people don't eat, but it's good to eat? You know, you wouldn't want You wouldn't want your You wouldn't want everybody fish- fishing your big reservoirs. Like Texas is the best big bass lake reservoir state Right. in the country. You wouldn't want everybody out there keeping them. You know, you want to practice you want to practice catch and release on your big public reservoirs. Right. But you know, when you've got a private impoundment where you know you know, you you'd want you you want to you want to keep your bass cuz your bass you'll wake up. Let's just Let's just say you've got a nice brand

113:37new bass lake you built, 10 acres. You stock it. You You spend 50 grand to put your bluegill, your your all your fish in there. Well, you know, then you just don't ever catch them. Well, then in 5 years you've lost it. Right. You have to manage it. Yeah, you you're done. Your lake's done. Your Your Your Your 3-lb bass didn't have enough fish to get to 4 lbs. And then he missed a year of growing or she missed a year of growing. And then you just put a $50,000 investment in your bass lake. And then you're out. You You might as well drain it, start over. You know what I'd really like to do? Get a place in the north and have a a lake with pike in it. I think that might be my favorite thing to catch cuz they're so ruthless. That's such a ruthless fish animal. [ __ ] dinosaur. A killer. They look like dinosaurs. First time I caught a pike, I'm like,

114:28why isn't this like the most exciting thing to catch? They fight hard. muskie. Jeez. I've never caught one of those. Me either. That's the fish that takes 10,000 casts. Yeah, see I'm not a I'm not that dude. Now, I'll I'll wait and hunt a hunt a You know, I'm not a um Like I don't have to have the biggest best animal my whole life. Like I don't ro- You know, some people they're like They get into numbers. They're size queens. Size Yeah, or score. I'm I'm not that guy. I'm an experience. Let's have fun. Let's see a lot of animals. Let's catch a a of fish. Let's keep a lot of action. Yeah. Let's keep the kids engaged. You know, um like when when my boys were you know, when my boys were four and five, I'd take them You don't want to take them out there on their first three bass fishing trips and you you burn them in the hot sun and they catch one fish. You want them

115:22engaged. engaged and and get them get them going. But yeah, pike and all that that you know, steelhead and that northwest steelhead and catching one man, I I don't that's just I hadn't done that. I can't do that. I got That's a release fish, too, right? Don't they release them? are those are the Yeah, those are high on the list of especially like sea run steelheads. Mhm. You know, you have you have some that are kind of locked in, you know, locked in the reservoir locked. You get those those big sea run steelheads and they they really hold them and they should hold them in high regard. You shouldn't You need to leave those alone and let them you know, let them come and go. Yeah, but then why you catching them? You know what I'm saying? Why you [ __ ] with those fish? Cuz that's It's a little bit of that. I get it. It's fun. I'm not opposed to it. I get

116:17it, but if I catch fish, I like to eat them. That's the whole reason why I'm catching fish. Say that you know what? It's why I like to catch walleye. I would still say you're in the majority. Yeah. Yeah, you're in that's how it should be. I mean, imagine if you just run around shooting deer with tranquilizer darts. Like I got him. Well, yeah. Little weird. Yeah, I I've I've seen prove that you did it. Yeah, you know, and they make bumper, you know, they make bumper tips on bows. You can doink doink deer in the ass and run them off and not you know, and then they're like, why are you doinking a deer in the ass, you know? It's a little weird. It's like they make those club heads so you could shoot squirrels and birds, you know. Well, you know, man, listen, dude. I grew up you know, my little town of Leesburg, man, I mean, every year I got a pellet gun for Christmas.

117:06And I got a I got a full uh camo onesie or a a a coverall and dude, I'd put my new pair of Chippewa hunting boots, I'd put my new set of uh I put my new set of coveralls on with a camo pattern and I'd hit the neighborhood walking around with a pellet gun shooting the neighbor squirrels. And you know, we we we'd eat them, you know, we'd eat them every now and then. This little old lady Mabel Coxwell, she we'd skin them and she'd fry them with some wild rice and They taste good? If you cook a squirrel and do it right, man, it ain't nothing wrong with a squirrel. Isn't that crazy that most people don't know that? Right. Squirrels are delicious. Squirrel hunting is not very popular in parts of the South. squirrel dumplings. Yeah, it's instead of chicken chicken and dumplings, squirrel dumplings. Oh. You you You know, you get a squirrel and

117:58clean it right and brine it for the night and cook it with dumplings and put some onions and celery and all that and you're you're off to the races. People think of them they have like fluffy tail privilege. Rats, you know, rats with tails. Because you see a rat, rats have those slimy tails and people are like, that's disgusting. And they see that fluffy tail, they're like, aw, so cute. Not much different. You know? Well, the the the fact that you know, the fact that yeah, I could run rampant with a with a 8-year 9-year-old through the neighborhood riding my Honda 50 motorcycle you know, through people's backyards, you know, chasing squirrels and everybody's like, thank you, that damn thing's been in my attic chewing up my my Pink Panther insulation for uh That's rural life, right? That's rural life. People Well, that's people that understand what's going on.

118:50That's the difference between If you did that in a a neighborhood in Manhattan, people are be "What the [ __ ] is this guy doing? We need these squirrels." If you they catch you in Central Park with a pellet gun, you'd go to jail. First first round ticket. First Yeah, do not do not pass go, do not collect $200. If you break into a store and rob it, nothing will happen to you. They'll let you right out. But if Yeah, but if you get caught in Central Park shooting squirrels and eating them, you're going to get in real trouble. It's wild. We live in a wild world. It's a very strange, distorted version of what human beings have been experiencing No, I mean, nothing is wrong with hunting a little bit. That's especially when 95% of the world eats meat. It's a stupid argument. Well, and I think, you know, I think it's all trendy, too. I think the beauty

119:41is now with the education of you know, I mean, you look at you know, you look at the how great, you know, carnivore diets are being, you know, I've never done like a big old carnivore. Have you ever done a big carnivore? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Did it change your life? Oh, yeah. That's mostly how I eat. Great. I eat fruit and meat. Great. 99%. I [ __ ] around. Like my daughter likes to cook cookies. I had a big-ass cookie the other day. It was awesome. I I mean, I'm not ridiculous. I'll eat other things. I'm not religious about it, but most of my diet, like 90%, is just meat and occasionally fruit. Fruit before I work out. Fruit sometimes after I work out, but mostly it's just meat. Well, you know, like I said, the best thing about what you do here is you give everybody their platform to talk about their their way. Yeah. And and, you know, your platform has

120:32enlightened me. I mean, you know, dude, I've never you know, I I was around some dude that was talking about, you know, um my cardosin mushrooms and all that. Dude, I I never saw a drug. I never saw a drug until I was 30. Did you see moonshine? Saw moonshine a lot. That is a [ __ ] drug. Yeah, well, and you're right. I mean, you drink you drink a half jar of Mason, you know, you Oh, yeah, you got to die. That's the crazy thing about alcohol is It gets the best. thing We We are having nicotine right now. This is a drug. And when I have these It's a nice cigar, by the way. It's perfect. good, very mild. And man, when I I I was 39 years old before I did any tobacco. Really? Never dipped. My dad kept Levi Garrett Taylor's Pride you know, the only time he wasn't chewing meant he had a life insurance policy. He had to He had to He had to

121:34get blood work and didn't want to fail his life insurance policy. But I was 39. My mom, you know, my mom's a My mom's a character. She, you know, but um never did tobacco, never dipped. I put one dip in one time and threw up outside the outside my high school. This old boy threw me a dip in and did big old Kodiak and I threw up outside the high school gymnasium and missed my fifth and sixth period and I was like, dude, I don't need that. You remember those bricks, little squares of chewing tobacco? You bite a chunk off. old all the old and Well, what I was getting at is I was sitting uh we were celebrating of album release. I was 39 years old and one of my best buddies brought a nice Davidoff Churchill cigar. And any cigar I'd ever done Now, I had smoked a cigar like in Vegas and most time back then, you know, I'd done drink a handle of Crown and smoked cigar and

122:31you wake up the next morning and you're like you know, your life's over essentially. Well, it's probably the handle of Crown. Right. Well, we smoked that cigar and I sat in my rocking chair and just smoked that cigar and I was like, man, this is kind of It's kind of nice. This is kind of like therapy right here. people smoking cigars aren't stupid. It's got to be something to it. And they're chilled out. Yeah. They're you know conversational thing to do. They are universally Yeah. chilled out. But it's a drug. Oh, let's It's a drug. Yeah, let's don't We're drinking coffee, that's a drug. This This is The problem is there's a lot of drugs and some of them are really [ __ ] bad for you. Here's the deal. I and and I'll call my buddy every now and then that and he was my buddy that bought me the cigar. He was a lifelong Copenhagen

123:21and cigarettes here and quitting and I called him I'll call him periodically and I'm like you [ __ ] I'm stopping at a grocery I'm stopping at a random cigar shop. I've gone 4 days without a cigar and I'm riding down the road and I determine right now I need one. You know, you weave across four lanes of traffic, find the you know, and then next thing you know, you're smoking a grocery store I mean a gas station cigar to just but but hey, it keeps you keeps you keeps the head clean. I like them. I I like I said, I think it's one of the best things for conversation. 12 of them a day, you know. No, I don't think so either, but I know people who do. I know people who just go one to the other. They just chain smoke cigars. Yeah. Now my mother, dude Salem Ultra Light 100s, three packs a day. Whoa. Four four Bud Lights a day her whole life. Four Bud Lights

124:16Every day. Is she still with us? She's with us. Damn, that's the thing that always gets people. Dude. They're like, maybe I should quit. Hold on. Well, Look at his mom. Well, listen, my mom, man, dude she Joe she she's curbed the she's curbed the beer a little bit because she'll drink her a couple O'Doul's, but she's going to have her one or two Bud Lights. Every day. Every day. She's going three packs might she's but she's like a You know, it's like if she's walking into the to the to Dillard's or to the TJ Maxx, she's like, "Oh my God, I'm walking in Take a couple of puffs. Take a couple and hit, you know, litter the parking lot. But she'll she'll pan fry a ribeye in butter. Pan fries a ribeye. That's probably what's keeping her alive. Pan fries a ribeye, fries some shoestring french fries. And that's her damn meal four to five nights a week. Four 76 glorious years.

125:18That's probably why she's healthy. And is ready to chew my ass out at any moment. And how many cigarettes do you think she's down to a day? I I hope she's probably at a pack and a half. But man, when you do the math, when I used to sit her down and do math, you know, her and my my her and my dad were married 32 years and divorced. And so when she went out kind of on her own, I'd sit her down and do the math on four Bud Lights, two and a half packs of Salems, and four pan fried ribeyes. It that's becomes a damn number annually. I think the ribeyes are fine. Leave her alone with the ribeyes. You know what? But through the years I've gotten Miller Lite endorsements. I I would get Miller Lite. Like a I'd be like, "Mama, there's a Miller Lite truck pulling up to your house. It's going to deliver you a pallet of Miller Lite. Just try. Just try to fall in love with Miller

126:11Lite. Right? No, nope. Bud Light. I'd get home for, you know, get home two months after the pallet got there. You know, there the pallet sits. Calling my buddies, "Hey boys, A lot of people had like a personal crisis when there was that Bud Light boycott. There was a lot of people like, "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do." When Kid Rock shot that Bud Light And then he kept selling it IN HIS BAR. WE DRANK SOME. WE DRANK SOME ON THE PODCAST we did together. Yeah, and I I love him. He let it go after a while. He let it go. He did. I I love him. He He's been He's been a a damn good buddy of mine and has has come to my charity event. He's a wild boy. He's awesome. I love that dude. He's He's He's a lot of fun. He's awesome. But when I saw him do that, I was like, "Oof." Imagine being the CEO of Bud Light and seeing that. You're like, "Oh, no."

127:06Kid Rock just shot our beer. With a [ __ ] automatic. And was like, "Fuck Anheuser-Busch." LIKE, "NO!" And I mean, that alone probably cost them billions of dollars. Just having him do that. beer Yeah, when our beer when our beer is is political political, we're like, Not just our beer, but Bud Light. The Bud Light, the beer that sponsored more boxing matches, more sporting events, more people have been drinking Bud Light. I mean, think about all the people who swear by Bud Light. Post Malone's always drinking Bud Light. you know, my my wife's dad is a is a Budweiser [ __ ] 12-pack-a-day dude, man. And, you know, he had to he had to hear a little [ __ ] from his buddies about it, but People get in fights in bars. I have a friend who owned a bar. We we stopped carrying at the mothership cuz nobody

127:57was buying it. We stopped carrying Bud Light cuz nobody was buying Bud Light. Have we checked on where it It's come back. Fully? No, I don't think so. I think there's a bunch of holdouts that are always going to go, "Fuck those liberals." forever. But the lady who came up with the idea is gone. Like, the whole the whole marketing team behind They're all gone. Anheuser-Busch is an American company that has employed American people forever. It's a great company. They just [ __ ] up. They get caught up in the mind virus. Anheuser-Busch taught us that beer is wonderful for Christmas and Clydesdales and Dalmatians are the equivalent of of Jesus and Christmas. Well, you remember those Bud Light guys, the real American genius guys? Remember that? Yeah. American genius. They had great commercials. Dude, I would cry over the Dalmatian

128:48Clydesdale commercial. You remember when the little the little puppy? Yeah. He's riding on the Clydesdales and Find that, Jimmy. Oh, [ __ ] It's like a freaking Hallmark. never think that that company could get taken down. But that just I think that was good. It was bad for Bud Light, but I think it was good. Here it is. Let's see it. We're going to get all sweet. Here we go. Oh, don't Oh, the little puppy. Oh, poor puppy's lost. It's for beer. Yeah. Poor little puppy. Wow, what a commercial. Who We need to find Oh, god, wolves. They're The horses saved the puppy from the Very effective commercial, you know? Real quick. You're happy. and then there's the one where the it's the Dalmatian, too, that that grew up and then got to the the old Dalmatian and the little, you know, they're riding the and the young Dalmatian sees the old Dalmatian

130:25and I think the old Dalmatian kicks the bucket and then the new Dalmatian takes its place and then you're like, oh my god, it's the best thing ever. Yeah. Well. By having a transgender woman on their can. But it just shows you how prevalent this whole mind virus is that it even got into Bud Light which is just bizarre. But and then the the lady who's responsible for it all basically [ __ ] on the entire customer base. You know, saying that they have a fratty sense of humor and we need to update it make it more inclusive and like do you know what you're saying? You're alienating all the people that buy it and love it and counting on people who don't buy it and love it to start buying it and loving it. And maybe that'll work, but you just alienated everybody who buys it and loves it. It's the dumbest poker move of all time. The worst. It's the dumbest move.

131:27Well, you know, when you look at country music, too. I mean, with country music, I mean it is what it is. There's things that it is and you got to you got to love on what it is and then you got to grow it, too. I mean, there's there's sensible ways to grow it and But it has to be up to the artist just express themselves honestly. And if the artist is a country artist that has a different perspective, let that be, but leave all the rest of it the way it is, too. Buddy, the it with every successful music artist that's ever lived it it they may have faked you out. They any any genre, but country is even country's tough. Because once you show any un un unauthenti- unauthenticity Yeah. Buddy, you're you're done. You're done. I can imagine. Like, dude, I mean Yeah. Like, dude, my biggest like when I Man, you know, I got My thing was tight jeans.

132:35You wouldn't imagine me wearing tight jeans on stage how much that piss pisses people. Well, it's cuz you're handsome. That's part of the problem. You're a good-looking guy. Up there in tight jeans. Shaking ass. Shaking that ass, showing that bulge. Get out of here. Dude, and then I'm like Bring back Merle Haggard. What the [ __ ] is this? So, Joe, you know, one thing, you know My biggest My biggest hurdle ever in my my career And it it still breaks my heart to this day. I you know, back when I My only way to Your only way to make it in music is you've got to stop people's eyeballs on you. You got to grab them vocally, visually musically different. You got to get them to stop for 2 seconds and go, "What What is that What is that [ __ ] doing right there?" And when I came out with "Country Girl Shake It for Me" on the on the CMAs shaking my ass

133:51I mean, I had to do it that way. In my opinion, I had to go, "This is my moment to show "Country Girl Shake It for Me" and I'm the guy that dances and and don't give a damn and let's have some fun and come along for the ride." And it was amazing. It was amazing. You know, the fact that I'm a Georgia boy at the time and I was talking to Texas people. I was talking to everybody. Well, then at some point a label for me came became bro country. Uh Had you ever even heard that term? I did because of you. Yeah. Well, so I heard it and I'm like, well, bro country. Well, then I started seeing the people making fun of bro country and I'm like, this is kind of [ __ ] pissing me off. And then And then me and some other artists start getting looped into this bro country phase. I when I was in my form of coming up as an artist and I don't even know, we can we

134:56don't have to live on this long, but you'll be amazed, dude. So, I would go play I I I made my way by going to Georgia and playing Georgia college towns. In the Southeast and even I played Auburn a little bit, Auburn, Alabama. And that that school I never I I always wanted to break into Auburn and Tuscaloosa because I was always a Georgia artist. Well, I started branching out. Well, dude, I'd get done with a college party. I'd walk off stage. The first thing that would happen is uh you know, 369 damn she fine give it to me to give it to me one more time. Get low. Get low. I mean, and right when my set got done, hip hop the the the the the vibe went to a night club. And I'm standing I'm at the I done walked off the stage, went to the bar, ordered the beer, and watched everybody that just let me play Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, all the classics, my couple of new

136:04songs. And I was like, well, man, this is nobody's got a [ __ ] problem with this. This is This is We're all together in this good time. So, when I did "Country Girl Shake It for Me", that made that tie crossover. It combined them. It made it tie to a little bit. And then Jason Aldean had his um "She's Country" [ __ ] biggest song. When I heard I mean at the time when Jason and I are buddies, he does "She's Country", I do "Country Girl Shake It for Me", and he Me and him are like we're like this [ __ ] Our lives are I mean I toured with Jason one year and he broke all of Elvis's indoor records. We did it for 2 years. I was the opener and Jason was the headliner and people and and rap was We were playing rap before the show and and everybody was in Well, then Broke Country comes along. Dude I wake up on the bus one morning and I

137:12got this interview. Sitting there drinking my coffee in my [ __ ] underwear and this dude calls me with Hits magazine. And he goes, "Well, Luke, you know, man, this Broke Country thing." And I said, "Well, well, hold up, buddy. Here Here's what this is." And I said and man, I did this and I made one fatal error. And at the time, Joe no one hated my ass. I believe that. I mean I did I cuz I was coming to Billy Bob's playing and and well, I had Texas, I had the the I had the I had a I'd go to I'd go to Bozeman, Montana and play "Country Girl Shake It for Me". I'd go to everywhere. Well, and I said, "Man, I don't know how to be an outlaw. I'm not an outlaw. I That ain't I'm a I'm a college dude that played frat parties country music. I play I was like, I [ __ ] did not go sit in a prison cell like Merle Haggard and write

138:29songs about guys going to death row. And I didn't go to Folsom Prison. And man, I said I I listed all the I list I was like, I'm not like Willie Nelson. I don't do Willie Nelson they are they're outlaws. And I said, "If it's bro country and that's what I'm labeled as." I said, "And where I [ __ ] up as I said, I haven't wo- I haven't spent the night like sleeping on the street." And I didn't say like Johnny Cash's song Sunday Morning Coming Down. That's what I meant. I just didn't tie it. Well, that dude took that article and said, "Luke Bryan says outlaw country people are they basically uh drug addicts that sleep in the street." And man, I pissed that whole that the way they manipulated that story, I lost that whole crowd right there. Wow. Broke my heart. And Way- like I think Waylon Jennings' daughter went real public with being I mean, she was

139:27[ __ ] mad at my ass. And dude, she went on there going, "You know, Luke, my dad never laid." And I never meant that. I just meant Yeah, Waylon was in there, too. But we all know what all those guys are because we got to watch all the documentaries about those guys. And we got to be students of those guys. the problem with interviews. It's first of all, they're trying to get you. What your interviews are the beauty Well, and you no one's no one's gotten popped more than you because they'll take our Man, I hope we sit here and [ __ ] for 3 hours, but they'll take your 5 minutes. Right. Out of context. And now they'll AI you. That's happening a lot. So, well, the So, what happened, man? That thing started growing. And man, I had motorcycle gangs wanting to burn my house down. I had Oh my god. When when you get misrepresented in

140:20that type of deal, and then the the subcategories of articles, then the article of the article of the article. was this? Man, I I don't know. We I don't It was probably 2012 or 13. So, this was when social media was not as impactful. It was becoming Was YouTube even around then? Yes, and clickbait, the world of clickbait was was getting getting rocking. Right. But what So, what I did is man, I called Waylon Jennings' daughter and and said I said, "Man, I I just forgot to say like the like the Kris Kristofferson song Sunday Morning Coming Down. That's all I meant by that." And I think she accepted I called what I I text Willie. He sent me the best reply. He goes, He goes, "It's okay to step on your dick, just don't stand on it." I called Jessie Waylon I called Jessie Colter, and she goes, "Luke, what did you mean in the interview?" And I told her.

141:22And she goes, "Waylon stopped doing print interview." And uh And It was and then but by then, the the the narrative started. And since then, I can all I can always tell that if if that one little thing, I probably would have kept that whole base. And then the oh my god, he wears tight jeans, and he must you know, he must homosexual on on side, you know. As I'm As I'm posing with my my my you know, my all-American family. I think it's probably a thing also they think Hollywood has invaded country music, which is always a big threat because there's so much money in country music that they think these Hollywood executives that don't understand or appreciate real country are going to come in and make something inauthentic. So then they hear you saying that, get misrepresented, and then they take it as a part of all that, right? Joe laugh. So my album came out. I

142:22I I I I put I worked on an album for 3 years. It's called Mind of a Country Boy, and I put it out like first of October. And I didn't want to put the damn album out because the reality is this, I'm not at the height when you every artist hits their peak, every you know it. I mean, I sold out. I was selling out football stadiums first day. 3 or 4 years I did it. I know that's my peak, probably. I know it is. [ __ ] I'm not going to even say probably. I'm a realist. Well, so we put the album out, and I said, you know what? The album's No album sell. Nothing sells anymore, so I knew there was going to be a negative take on the album. I knew something negative would come by me putting the album out based on it may not sell. And it it sold what it would did it didn't do it did what I thought it'd do. As me being the artist where I'm at in my life.

143:17Especially in this world of streaming. Right. Nothing's buying anymore. Nothing's buying. Well, dude, I did 20, 40 I did 40 hours of 40 hours of uh you know, all the stuff. The What What's happened is because of online advertising being the primary source of income for news, they have to do clickbait [ __ ] They have to distort things, and then they have editors that don't give a [ __ ] about anything other than the bottom line. So you get a writer, even if the writer's a good person. I've had writers that I know have written about people that I know and they told me that their editor came in and changed things. They're told me they told me their editor came editor's ass is about to get canned. Yeah, exactly. Because they his company just got bought by big conglomerate. Exactly. That That's why artists should just stay away

144:04from that [ __ ] Well, and I you do and I knew it. What sucks Yeah. is that dude, I you know, you you know it. You know when you're getting baited. Yeah. You can see it coming a mile away. You have to film everything you do. Every conversation you have with someone, you should film them all so that no one can take you out of context and then if anything goes wrong, say that guy's full of [ __ ] This is what I said. I did and then I did even make a video. I did. And those people should be shamed. It's a ter- it's a terrible evil ugly thing you do. You crush people's perspective. You change how the world looks at people just for clickbait. And it could it could genuinely affect someone's life and career. listen. You know the deal. I mean, I grew up in South Georgia and you know, we've raised our dang kids like color blind. It's so awesome. I'm

144:58so proud of their color blindness. Isn't it funny that that is a negative thing to say today? That people don't like that idea. Did I just say something negative? Yeah, there's a lot of people that don't think you should be color blind. They think you that that's a lie. See, I thought that way. That was what we were all working towards until about 2012. Have you ever seen like the numbers I'm going to I'm going to send you this Jamie because this is what people need to understand. A lot of what we're all experiencing is manipulation and a lot of this manipulation might not even be from our own country. A lot of this manipulation is what happens when you have foreign entities that are manipulating people. Oh yeah, that's it. Thank you. Look at that. Jamie, you're the best. Yearly mentions of prejudice in popular US news media outlets. Now, look at what

145:48happens. Look at this crazy spike. So, you have everything from 1970 until you have like 1990. See, what's going on in 1990 between 80 and 90? You have cable, okay? So, now you have people that need more eyes on their [ __ ] So, you have Fox News. You have a lot of this You have people that get a little bit more jazzed up. Look at transphobia. You never even heard what the [ __ ] that was until 2010. Look at Look how it just jumps up in 2020. In 1990, it didn't exist. 1980 didn't exist. Islamophobia, same deal. Anti-Semitism, scroll all the way up to the top though, Jamie. So, look at racism. Racism is essentially fairly steady until around 2012. And then it goes on this wild ramp straight up. The New York Times, from 2010 to 2020, it goes up 712%. Los Angeles Times, 756%. It just skyrockets, all the mention of

146:54racism. Why? Because no one wants racism. No one wants to be racist. Everyone's scared of being called racist. And all the race hustlers love to call people racist. So, it becomes a commodity. So, people start chain trading in racism. And this idea that you shouldn't be color blind. And then you should recognize race. You should recognize color. And then they go Stop. We were on a We were on a good path to what Martin Luther King said, judging people by based on the content of their character. We were on that path. And social media and manipulation [ __ ] us. And hopefully we realize what happened now. And I think there'll be a downward trend and people will sort of like wake up. And uh I think that is That's one thing that is balancing out right now with the internet. There's enough are realizing they've been manipulated, so

147:41it's starting to like calm down. A lot of this woke [ __ ] starting to die off. And it's people are coming to their senses. Like Like everybody just woke up from a fever dream. But as far as your situation and dealing with the media, don't. Oh, I know. Just don't. Yeah, but when you're so dang You know the deal. You You're a little bit naive cuz you're a nice guy. But it's because you're a good person. That's why you're naive. You assume other people are good people. is when I'm at on American Idol that desk and I've been doing it for nine damn years. And I have cried with everybody. When those kids come in, they are Everybody walking through that door is a microcosm of America. And man, I've sat there and loved and loved and learned. Do you Do you enjoy doing that? Like seeing new talent pop up? Nothing is more amazing than watching a broken kid with with

148:40with that's been told they're not good. And they come from everywhere. They It could be the Man, the the craziest thing is the is the is the kids that were raised in the homes of doctors. That the doctor family can't wrap their head around my child wanting to go try this [ __ ] music thing. What? Well, you're You're doctors. We're doctors. And man, when they branch out and the family gets behind them and then they go and follow their dreams and man, it's really Yeah, it doesn't get old. I mean, listen. I mean, it's a fun chair to be in. It's a fun chair to be in because that door opens and it's a it's a life that comes in and you don't know what the hell. You know, we we have a note or two like you know, just lost their father to cancer 3 months ago. You know, from a small town, but other than that, man, we don't know what they're going to do and

149:39how they're going to react. And it's pretty cool. I mean, you know, when and and and when I just moved to Nashville when uh American Idol was just I mean, 40 million viewers a week. And the the you know, the the the tone in Nashville is that's the cheap route to get famous cuz I I I came up through you got to play a thousand nightclubs. You got to go you got to go through you got to meet the record labels, you got to do the radio, you got to go meet everybody at radio. So, the whole town of Nashville was like, well, it's not totally fair that they get to just pop on TV and and and sir you know, and and skip all the but now, I mean, now all that's gone, which is great. an example. Oliver Anthony. Totally. Oliver Anthony has one song he releases. It's the most Pull up that song because this [ __ ] song, this dude releases it and it's

150:41just a camera and him with his guitar. it I was like, holy [ __ ] That's [ __ ] amazing and holy [ __ ] That guy better have some songs to come behind it. Yeah, well, he's a talented [ __ ] I don't know. He's a very, very bright man. Damn shame. Listen to that. This dude was selling equipment. He never even done a concert. First concert he does is like 18,000 people at a state fair. And he's as genuine as you can You've had him on here, correct? I had him on here and I actually gave him advice. How did he do? He did great because I gave him advice before I met him. Cuz he was in the middle of all this and he goes, "Hey man, he goes, can I talk to you?" So we talked on the phone. I'm like, "What's up?" He's like, "Man, I'm getting all these offers from all these people. They want to buy this and buy that and they

151:47want to give me $7 million if I do this and sign that." I said, "Stay independent." I go, "You have talent." Everyone's saying I have to act now. I go, "Fuck those people." I go, "You don't have to act now. That's famine thinking." I go, "You're talented, man." And I had to heard a couple of his other songs as well. He's [ __ ] talented and he's genuine. And I go, "You can't fake that." Just stick stick stay independent, man, because they're not going to offer you anything. Those people are just going to They're The reason why they want to give you a lot of money is cuz they're going to make way more than they're going to give you. That's the only reason why they want to give you money. They want a piece of you before you become one of the biggest stars in the world and then they own a chunk of you forever because they gave

152:25you $7 million when you didn't have any money. I go, "Just bank on yourself, man." Yeah, and guys, you know, the beauty of Idol is is and and guys like this, there's so many avenues now. You can go the old-fashioned route, you can go the quick route, you can go the Idol route, you can go stream on you know, you can go video yourself on all your social platforms and the right song can blow you up but then and then you got to go do the real work. You got to do the real work. You got to have other other other bullets in your chamber. That's what we tell the kids on Idol now. I think when Idol was really really obviously when Kelly Clarkson and and Carrie Underwood won and and even people after that, they went they still they went their ass to work, too. And It's an insane opportunity. It's insane. Yeah, and and you know, these kids on Idol now, they love seeing

153:16their their social media platforms go up 1,000% and it's worth it and you know, we you know, and and there's going to be bumps in the road, and it's you know, it's still uh you know, it's still uh you know, there there's going to be a uh you know, a group of people saying, you know, American Idol may exploit these kids. But man, I'm in the back I'm behind the scenes on everything, and man, we we won't you know, they won't when we get a kid that we love, man, we sit around, we go to dinner, and we talk about that kid and love them. And and these I think you know, these kids um leave it going, man, that was a great experience for them. I hope so, but you know, I'm sure they do. And it is an insane opportunity. If you want to be a professional musician, and you want to make a career out of it, it's one of the most unbelievable moments. You got to do your path. Yeah.

154:13You got My path was my path, and it was unique to mine, and because yours is different, that don't mean I need to hate you for it. There's a lot of that [ __ ] with comedians today, too. Oh. Cuz a comedian will have one clip where he's doing some crowd work, or one clip of one bit that everybody loves, then all of a sudden he's selling out, and everybody's like, that guy He only had one good joke. Yeah, he's only been around for 3 years, but so what? He Let him run with it. Let him run with it. You know, it's it's uh we're living in a new world. It's like the song. It is a new world. Why wouldn't we all want someone else to win? Right. What is wrong What's wrong with people winning? It's like you have figured out how to feed yourself with a guitar? Yeah. You have figured out how to tell jokes? Yeah. And make a living? And And you know, all like, man, like I

155:10said, dude, I won't even post my damn deer I killed. Cuz I don't want to I don't want to get online and be there with a glass of wine at 3:00 a.m. and start [ __ ] people. Like dude, I AND I I YEAH. You and like I said, you get over it you get over it but man it pisses you off. I I don't read anything. I I tell everybody don't read anything. Don't read anything about you. Just don't. Don't read the good stuff. Don't read the bad stuff. with it and I mean hell I mean I'm sitting down with a 48 year old man. My shit's in the bank but it still makes you mad. It still makes you mad. It doesn't matter even if you're undeniable. It doesn't matter. It's a human It's a human instinct to read negative things and get upset cuz humans always had to worry about threats. And if the threats were other tribes or predators or whatever to attack that threat.

156:09So we're always we're mentally conditioned to look for threats. It's a fight or fight or flight or Yeah. Well it's also it's like if you have a hundred people who love you but one that hates you. That one is the one you're going to think about. You're not going to think all the people that take they say you're awesome. You're going to think about that one that hates you. And then you have to think about the kind of people that post comments. Most of the people who post comments are miserable people. Not the positive comments but the negative comments. I started a thing you know and I know Man you know there's [ __ ] and you'll huddle up and you'll spend an hour talking about how you can't believe how big a [ __ ] that person is. And I'm like guys we're 15 minutes in on talking about this person being an [ __ ]

156:53We wasted 15 minutes of our life. 15 minutes on all of us trying to figure out why can't they stop being an [ __ ] You basically wasted 1/100 of your day. On somebody that On somebody that sucks. You only get 100 of those 15 minutes in a day and you wasted one talking about a [ __ ] It's a mess but it's a normal thing that people do. You just got to not do it. You got to realize this is a new world. wear when I see when I see other buddies doing it and I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." Get out of there. Yeah. Man. I recognized it when I was on television before social media. There was a thing called um the There was these Hollywood magazines like Variety and the Hollywood Reporter and I would always call them the devil's rag because I would get to the set of the TV show and everybody was reading the devil's rag. They were all like,

157:45"Oh, I can't believe they're number two. We should be number one. We should be right after Friends. Oh." And they would Everybody was upset and I was like, "You guys are I'm on TV. I don't know what the [ __ ] is wrong with you people. I'm on television. I can't believe I'm on TV. Are you guys are upset that we're number 30 instead of number two or whatever the [ __ ] it is? Can't we just appreciate the fact that This is back when there was only like five networks. Can we appreciate the fact that we're one of the luckiest human beings that have ever lived? We're on a [ __ ] television show and yet you're reading these magazines and it's like Is it Thomas Jefferson who wrote that quote, 'Comparison is the thief of joy'? But whoever was that? Was it Jefferson? I know we know who it We read it before, but that quote is so accurate.

158:29Comparison It's That's why billionaires I I know a dude is worth like a billion and a half dollars and he thinks he's broke because he's friends with like Jeff Bezos. I do not get into that. You cannot get into that world. There You can't win. You can't win cuz you're in a crazy [ __ ] numbers race and it doesn't mean anything. You're not even enjoying what you have. So my wife for her 40th birthday, man, I surprised her and I rented her um never done anything. We went rented like a 120-ft boat and took all her college friends down to Saint Barts for New Years. Have you ever heard of this scene? No. Dude. Is it crazy? Joe. So, first of all, I mean, this boat that we got is a 120-ft Westport. Beautiful. We get the same boat. I didn't know what the [ __ ] we were doing. Oh, you're in the yacht world. Okay. So, you're entering into these worlds of

159:30200-ft boats, 250-ft boats. oligarchs. Yeah. Okay. Uh yeah, I've seen that before. And it's in Saint Barts, and they all float They all float there for New Year's. Uh-huh. And it's all dick measuring contest. Dude. And my captain of that little boat, which that boat looked like our boat that we were on looked like their shuttle boats. Right. And I My captain I said, "Did you ever pilot one of those?" He goes, "Oh, yeah." He goes I said, "What What the What were they doing on there?" He goes, "Looking at the other boats wondering." I said, "That dude is on a [ __ ] billion-dollar yacht and pissed at the other billion-dollar yacht." Yeah, that's real. They're all in competition with each other, and they're all hating. You know, and and I'm entering in Yeah, you just got to get your little world like my little world now. My little Tennessee hunting world. I

160:24tell people all the time. They're like, "COME ON DOWN TO MY RANCH." I'M LIKE, "MAN, I got I got my little deal." Yeah. It's enough. Stay sane. Keep it tight. What are they doing on that boat, captain? Isn't that nuts? Imagine being on a 250-ft yacht looking at the dude on the 300-ft yacht going, "God damn it. I got to upgrade." I was talking to a dude who pilots yachts, and he was telling me that they they always want to sell them. They always want to sell them and get another one. He goes, "All these yachts are always almost for sale." I go, "How come?" He goes, "Cuz they're always wanting another yacht. They always want It's a trap. It's a giant trap. Imagine having all that money you're not even appreciating it cuz you're worried about making more. Remember when we were kids, if you said do you like what would you do if you had

161:11a million dollars? Man, never work again. I'd [ __ ] just Well, you know, I remember dreaming. Did you Did you lay in bed and just be like I remember dreaming about trying to do it and how how I was going to How are you going to get rich? How am I going to get I wouldn't say rich. How am I going be able to have my own little my own bass pond. Right. Cuz I would have to call other people and get permission. Right. And that dude, the anxiety of calling old farmer Right. going, "Hey, you know, Farmer Johnson, can I go fish your bass lake?" "I don't know, Luke. Not today." I'd be like, And so, I I remember doing that and then when you start achieving it, man, I I still I mean, I I don't I don't think it's I don't think I'm living in that world of like the other Right. You know, I think you can for a minute. Yeah. I think it can I think you can for a little bit like

162:06a trap. It is a trap. And the problem is it's all numbers. Num- It's like, you know how dudes are crazy with deer? Like I want a 200-in deer. 200-in mule deer. I want a 400-in elk. They get crazy with numbers. You know, I talked to this dude who worked on a ranch and they they have big elk on this ranch and he said sometimes the counters are really happy with an elk and then they'll put a tape to it and measure it and it's 396 and they get bummed out cuz it's not 400. I'm like, those people are sick. You should never have them here again. You should boik- ban them. They should never be allowed to be here again. That's a sickness. But that's what happens with these people with everything, man. I never had a dream of being wealthy. It was never a dream. It was never even an Never even in my imagination did I ever think I was going to be rich. I never

162:53even thought about it. I When I started doing stand-up comedy, my dream was to be a professional cuz I always had jobs. My dream was to be able to pay my bills with comedy. I looked at all the dudes Yeah, that was Now, my dream Yeah, let me make sure I didn't steer you wrong on that. My My dream was to to do these things out of being driven. Like write a number I mean, when I moved to Nashville, I wrote on a chalkboard, write a number one song. You know, win a win a CMA award, you know, Oh, so you had a little vision board. a little vision board. Nice. But I I didn't understand I didn't really uh comprehend the money after that, cuz I didn't know it. And I didn't know like Like people are like I'm a big Georgia Bulldog fan. And they're like, "Did you go to Georgia?" And I'm like, "Buddy, me going to the University of Georgia when I was 18 years old,

163:53I mean, I I barely My dad barely got the money for me to go to the community college 12 minutes down the road. So, going to Georgia didn't Wasn't even a thought. even put it in there. Right. So, but go ahead. I'm just saying that when I see people that that's all they care about is the money, and then they're always thinking about the richness and the I just think it's a trap. And it The problem is if you're always comparing yourself to other people, you're not going to enjoy what you have. You're not going to enjoy this experience, temporary experience of life. Right. You know? Cuz it is temporary. It's so quick. I'm 57 years old. How the [ __ ] did that happen? All of a sudden, you just keep getting older. And then, you know, one day you're dead. And I bet on your deathbed, you're like, "How did it happen so quick? How did it

164:39happen so quick?" What are you doing with your time? And are you enjoying it? And I think you need things outside of what you do that you love. And like for you and I, I think it's hunting and the outdoors, cuz I think it balances you. I think there's something very spiritual about it. I think there's something just being in the woods is it's a very spiritual experience, like a real spiritual experience. Like there I think it's like a vitamin that you don't know you need until you get it. And when you get it, you feel better. When I'm out there, I feel better. I just feel better. I'm like the air is cleaner. I feel more in touch with being alive. It just feels better. And I think I'm not thinking about anything else. When I'm If I'm elk hunting, I'm not thinking about jokes and I'm not thinking about podcast guests. I'm not thinking about

165:25jack [ __ ] I'm just thinking about what I'm doing. That's it. It's and it's it's very difficult to do and it's it's you have to really focus and you're thinking about it and you're always trying to improve and this that alone is good for your brain. It's good for your life. I lost you know, I lost my brother and my sister and my sister's husband passed away. And man, when and then yeah, it [ __ ] I lost my brother at 26, my sister at 39 and her husband died at 45. And man, it is present. The the daily appreciation of this deal Yeah. is visually present. Isn't that crazy about people though? It's like you almost people need to lose something to be able to appreciate what you have. Well, and I tell people man, you know, you you meet I tell people man, really be careful because if you make it to 80, you're going to get you're going to get

166:25popped with something. I don't think you can get through this thing Like some kind of a disease or something? No, no, I don't I'm saying you're going to lose something. You're going to lose something dear. You're not going to get through A to Z without really a hard a hard loss. No, that's it's just a part of life. And but some people man, they're just delusional. Well, they're delusional and then a lot of people are medicated, too. So, that they don't even know what the [ __ ] is going on while they're living this life. They're living this life under the influence of the pharmaceutical drug companies and they're just floating through life in a haze and they don't even know what's happening while it's happening. And then they get to the end. And then what you do? What you do? Did you help people? Did you make people feel better?

167:13Did you inspire people? Did you enrich people's lives? What you do? You know? And then then you have to realize like god damn I wasted a lot of time reading comments. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Wasted a lot of time getting mad at [ __ ] I don't do it bad though. That's what's funny. I don't do it bad but that. Everybody says they don't look at their phone. You know, let me see your screen time. Like 6 hours. Jesus, [ __ ] What the [ __ ] you doing? Oh, lord. Yeah, man. I mean Well, we're all this is a new world, too, in terms of that. I keep saying this is a new world but there really is a new element to to our lives is this social media element. And I think there's not a lot of stuff that's written on it where people understand Yeah, we're learning and yeah. We're learning in real Yeah, we're the we're the lab rats.

168:04We really are. Especially our kids. Our kids really are the lab rats. The we The kids really are. And not just that also access to violence. They see so much violence. They see so much online that's horrible. Think about I think about this all the time. I would go stay with a buddy at his house and he go "Man, I rented Faces of Death." Remember those? I wouldn't watch them. I'd be like, "Man, my parents told me not to watch that." He go, "What? You don't watch this guy get electrocuted?" And I'm like "Fuck no, I don't want to watch a dude get electrocuted, dude. We're watching people they're it's Yeah, if you're on Instagram you're seeing people dying. Every Every day. Every day I have friends that send me horrible breaking? Oh yeah, every I mean I remember Joe Theismann when Joe Theismann broke his leg Dude, it like shut the country down. Yeah. I know now that's nothing.

169:13And now it's like I watched a dude on a diving board and his foot fell in a crack in the dive diving board had an opening in it and he went forward and his knee stayed in the same place and it just snapped his leg the wrong way and he's screaming hanging from a broken leg. That's just one thing I saw today. I thought you don't do that. I I watch things on Instagram. I just don't read comments. But uh me and Tom Segura we send each other the most horrible [ __ ] every day. It's ridiculous. But some days that he sends me things I don't even look at them. I'm like not today. Oh, I could see it coming but I do love I do love the funny comical aspect of it that gets me and a cup of coffee dying laughing at some person being a goofball. memes. Oh. Some memes memes are some of the best memes out there. got us. Yeah, memes are some of the best comedy

170:05out there. And it's just random people create these funny things. There's a lot of funny people out there. amazing is we've gotten to where we can see the meme happen and predict the meme and the meme's on your phone Yep. the next day and you're like Within hours. They're so quick. And memes are weird because a lot of times you don't even know who made it. You're sharing it. Somebody sends it to you, you send it to other people. Like who got who made that? Who's the wizard that figured this out? It's some [ __ ] hilarious stuff. It's like a meme factory. Well, it's like jokes. You remember jokes like you know, two guys walking into a bar, those jokes? Who [ __ ] wrote those? We don't know but some of them were bangers. And they spread. They just spread. Spread across the whole country, but somebody had to be the guy that sat down and tells the

170:46story. Two guys walk into a bar. And then, you know, You know how Um Well, I mean, there was a million places we can go, but it's you know, you look at Yeah, I mean, the damn children, my kids, I mean, we're yelling at them every day. Get up, get off the phone, Yeah. get out. So, they do a good job, but man, I I think it's just it's a part of it's part of their deal. They're being influenced by things far beyond our control and way different than anything that any other generation has ever experienced before. Like my son, um he's a 16-year-old quarterback. And man, he watches all these other quarterbacks on on you know, hell, there are 14 recruiting uh download sites from that that and my son's like, that dude right there is the greatest quarterback in the country. I said, "Well, how old is he, Bo?" He's 15, Dad. I'm like, "Bo, we don't know what that little shit's

171:50going to be. What What are you talking about?" He goes, "Well, Dad, he's a five-star and he's 15." I'm like, "Bo, your dad, when I moved to Nashville, I was a one-star country singer. If I'd have had a rating next to me and probability of me making it, yeah, I wouldn't it would have been a one-star. I worked myself into a hopefully a three-star Right. three-star recruit. And he's looking me like I'm crazy. And so, one of those kids, he play he played them. Now, my son's not starting, he's back up quarterback to a great quarterback, and we played them and we beat them. We get down, he gets home after the game. I said, "What did you think about your your He goes, "He's still the greatest quarterback of all time." I said, "Boy, WE LOST THE [ __ ] GAME! He's 15! Just son, let it let let's let life happen before we anoint Yeah. You know.

172:58Just be inspired. Be inspired by other success. But don't take it too seriously. And also recognize that kid might start getting laid and throw it all away. Exactly. He He don't know what's going to you know. Yeah, you're 15, you don't know what the [ __ ] coming your way. know what Yeah. Yeah, you run into some Russian chick in your English class. Yeah, some new Russian exchange student that that needs a that needs an English tutor. Yeah, then all all of a sudden you don't have any sperm left in your body and you're dehydrated all day long. Yeah, you're you're you're getting electrolytes on the sideline and You're not doing any off-season running or lifting. You're busy. Also, people just they lose the focus, you know? And sometimes they get pushed too hard by the parents. There's a little bit of that, too. The kids rebel,

173:42they don't want to do it anymore. Anything can happen. But that's what's fascinating about life is that it's all open. Your daughters are uh how old now? 28, 16, and 14. Yeah, the 16 and 14, man. The 16 and 14 are going through a totally different experience. The The Tik Tok all girls. You have a girl Girls are way I mean, I just They're way more influenced in a negative way. My heart aches for for girls in this uh in this Well, there's a there's some alarming statistics about the growth of social media from like 2009 where you see girls with self-harm, all sorts of psychological conditions, online bullying cuz girls are [ __ ] vicious to each other online. Boys will run into each other and punch each other in the face. Yeah. But girls will attack each others character and they'll they're reputation destroyers. And they love to like make up stories

174:36about girls and be mean about girls and talk [ __ ] about the way girls look and the way girls dress and the guys girls are dating and they do it to each other and it's just it's unfortunate but it's that's what gossip used to be. Gossip used to just be talking though. It's like a normal thing where girls get around and talk but now they talk online and when they talk online then other people read it like and you're ruining people's lives. You're ruining little girls lives and suicide is off the charts and self harm is off the charts and mostly young girls are getting affected by it. When when you have when when I have my 14 year old go dad I'm anxious about this. I'm like I didn't know the word anxious. Right. I didn't know the word anxious until I was 35 years old. Right? Right. Right. It wasn't thought when we were kids in high school.

175:26as anxiety. It was processed as like Life. Yeah, I'm Getting nervous. Yeah. I mean yeah. Yeah. I got a big test. My stomach hurts. I got to go take a [ __ ] Right. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. Now it's the thing they think about all the time and the problem with that is Abigail Shrier wrote a book about this. You focus on your problems your problems often times become bigger. When you think about things like anxiety guess what? It makes you more anxious. It it doesn't help it. It it actually Yeah, it's a weird world but they're going to be okay. We're all going to be okay. We're just going to have to adjust and figure it out on the fly. It's just this this adjustment is bigger than any adjustment that any generation's ever had to make before. But it's also like look at things like Oliver Anthony. Good comes out of it too. Yeah. You know, Jelly Roll.

176:09Jelly Roll. Jesus. Love that dude. Best thing ever. He's one of my favorite human beings ever. Best thing He's such a [ __ ] sweetheart. Best thing ever. When that guy sang that song Save Me and everybody was like what is going on? This This [ __ ] ex-con with tattoos on his face with a voice like an angel." Best thing ever. Incredible. But that's This is all possible today, too. So, you got good and you got bad. It's just you got to navigate the waters. You got to know where the rocks are. Steer that boat, young sailor. You know, and what amazes me is is Man, what breaks my heart is when people think they're all alone in their thing that's hanging up their life. Right. When you meet somebody and it's all scaled way differently. Like when you meet you know, uh you know, I I I've had people, you know you know, when you when you grow up in a

177:11country music band and you're on the bus for hours with buddies and everybody go They got their own life and then, man, I you find out I had one band member almost kill himself over something that if he'd have just had somebody to say, "Man, I have that, too." Right. And he would have not felt alone. Right. And and people have got to quit like thinking that they're the only ones that have gone through some [ __ ] gone through this thing. Yeah, well, that's why you need people that you love. Yeah. That's why you need friends. See, my household My household was a man, we sat at the dinner table and dude, it it it came out. I'm talking about That's good. And then but my wife's household was man, they you know Bottled it up. They bottled it up and it all worked and we don't know who came out better. But but me and my wife, you know, we we work on like

178:13you know, we work on like I mean, like my wife never saw her mama like in the shower like just showering, you know, like walk through the house naked. I mean, hell, we had one bathroom. It was like we're a bunch of damn naked idiots running around trying to get to the bathroom. And my my wife said, "Yeah, my mama did not uh shower with the door open." And I'm like, "Or" And I'm like, "Really?" She's like, I'm like, "You're kidding me. Never once." I'm like, She's That's kind of crazy. Everybody's Well, when you have daughters, there's a certain amount of time where Yeah. in front of them anymore. Once they hit like 4 or 5 years old, you're like, "Okay, that's all right." Dude, my my 16-year-old saw my beard. We're We're living in our guest house right now cuz we're doing some some work to our main house. So, you know, we're our main house had stuff that just kept

179:02happening. We were like, "We're moving out." And when we move back in, have it all fixed. So, we got three We got a 22-year-old, a 16-year-old living in the same house. Well, my wife stored all of my all of my bathroom stuff. It's in a It's in a box somewhere. I'm all my shaving gear. I'll run into my son's bathroom, my 16-year-old, and I grabbed his beard trimmer. I grabbed a I grabbed this [ __ ] trimmer sitting there, and I shaved my beard, and I'm all up under my nose, and Is it my ball hair? No. I get in my truck, and I'm driving on the road. My son gets home from school crying, laughing. "What?" "DAD!" "YOU SHAVED YOUR BEARD WITH MY BALL AND I WAS LIKE, "You little shit." I'm First of all, I'm like, "What in the hell What? 16-year-old manscaping? It's a new world. I know. I'm like, "Dude, I never imagined you had I don't even think he's

180:09you know, whatever." He's damn It's so fun, man. These kids My dad My my God, it's so amazing. Dude, we you know, we were elk hunting, man, and um my 14-year-old, we we got this really cool when we go elk hunting, we got to wade across a river to get to our elk spot. And the first couple of years, man, we didn't we just stripped down to our underwear and and hung our boots and all our gear and walked underwear and dude, it was kind of like a we're really men, you know. Right. And so Tate and Bo Bo the first time I would put him on my shoulders and walk him. Well, then after 2 years we were like, "Dude, let's go buy and get like eight pairs of waders and set them on the bank and we'll leave the waders." And everybody's like, "That's a damn good idea." I'm like, "Yeah. I mean, how many years it take y'all to understand go get some damn waders?"

181:12So, Tate, for the past the last 3 years I've I've toted him across the river and man, I I looked at him the last day of the hunt and this was Tate Tate's year to try to get an elk and he actually, Dad, I kind of messed up the elk hunt. I moved and spooked the elk. Which was great because he realized that just cuz you're Luke Bryan's son, you don't get the damn elk. But uh and I said, "Hey, um I said, "I want to touch across the river." I said, "You're growing and this probably be the last year." So, I toted him across the river and then on the way back he goes, "Hey, Dad, I want to wade it by myself." And man, he uh he wa- You don't realize how much your kids really are watching you. But we're sitting on the bank and he's watching me and I set my bow down and he takes his bow and sets it down and he watches everything I do and it was

182:08cutest thing ever. I even told my wife. So, every year I take my boots and I tie them in a knot and I and I hang them and throw them over my cuz we're toting gear and I throw my boots over my shoulders so they're not they don't get wet in the Man, I looked at him and he he's sitting there tying his little string. He stands up and throws them boots and he just Man, watching your kids just absorb it is just uh you know, it's pretty damn special. you're having a beautiful life, my friend. Well, it's uh It really does. Kids make it. It really does. It really does. Luke, thank you very much, man. This is a lot of fun. I hope we uh we enjoyed it. More than 3 hours? Was it? Yeah. Holy [ __ ] Yeah, it's 4:30. 3 hours then. There it is. Mind of a country boy, listen or download now. Look at you, handsome bastard. Well, [ __ ] tight jeans. Look at you.

183:05[ __ ] tight jeans. Everybody hates me. They don't hate you, man. Just don't read the ones that do. Yeah, oh [ __ ] Appreciate you, brother. Thank you very much. Hey, love you. Love you, too. Love you, too. Bye,