Transcript of #2216 - Luke Bryan

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Train by day. Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day. 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 see your show.

I hope they had a great time.

They had a fucking fantastic time. But it was also my daughter was, like, freaked out cause she was going to the show. She didn't know she was gonna get to meet you. And her friend didn't know they were gonna get to meet you either.

So we were able to keep that. Keep that a good little, good little, good little secret to them.

Yeah, it was cool. They had the best time. They came back beaming. So thank you.

Well, Vegas, you know, that was wrapping up Vegas, so. Yeah, we. That was a fun two years of residency there.

Did you do two years there?

I did, yeah. I did two years. 26 shows per year, dude. Man, like, Vegas will take a little.

Piece of your soul. Well, here's a little tiny piece.

Well, the thing 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 the gambling out of the system.

Well, that's good. Did you just gamble a lot?

You know, I've always been. I've never been a sports gambler. My dad, my. 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'd have never had Santa Claus. You know, he was. I mean, he was just a crazy little poker player and, like a little pool hustler. And then.

Oh, so he was all in.

So one of my dad's famous quotes is, so 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 or $400 with me, you know, just broke his shit, and 2 hours into the trip, lose my money. And this was like, 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 me 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 done lost all my damn money, and hell with this place. He goes, well, you ain't gonna win it back in the goddamn room. So, 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. When my buddies, you know, when they're down and out, down two or three grand and they're pouting over the bar, you know, you're not gonna win it back at the goddamn bar. But I did. I went through phases where, you know, I never really got financially behind. When I didn't have money, I would just. I controlled it pretty well. And I did my two years out there, I never really 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. Cause you're just not. You're just sitting there and your mind's checked out, right? No different than, you know, going to the driving range and hitting golf balls or sitting on the bank, fishing or sitting in a deer stand, 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 really enjoyed it. And like I said, they were just. They were blown away meeting you.

They were like, well, it was a fun show because 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, out touring and stuff, because you're having to take down stuff. Be real mobile out there. We put a lot of stuff in.

The room, and that's nice that that's one good thing about the residency. You know, you're going back to the same spot over and over again.

And we had our routine. I mean, I had my room, and, you know, about 630. I'd hop in the shower, run down there, get on stage about 830 and knock it out and 1030 somewhere at a craps table.

I'm lucky I don't gamble. I don't do it.

You never got into sports?

Nope. Nope. 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. Cause I was like, this is probably not a good thing for me to be betting on things. I'm commentating on cause I can't affect the outcome.

Right. But I sometimes still quite close.

I also sometimes know some shit. You know, this has been a bunch of times. So one of my business partners, I would just. I would tell him what to bet on. And we were, like, 84% at one time.

It was crazy.

Yeah.

Wow.

For, like, six or seven fights in a row. Six or seven fight cards in a row, we were about 84%, because every now and then, they would have these guys who were coming in from Japan or from Russia, and the odds makers didn't know who these guys were. And I was like, oh, Jesus Christ.

Big house.

And you.

You already.

I knew those.

Studying them for.

Yeah, you had years, so I knew. I knew everything about these guys. Jesus Christ. Bet the fucking house.

Layup.

Yeah, there was a few. Like, when Anderson Silva came into 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 fucking lose. Cause 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 came in the UFC, I think he was a favorite over this guy. Chris Liebe was a really tough guy, but I'm like, whatever the. Whatever the odds are, fucking throw it all at that guy.

I bet y'all. Were you betting with them, too?

I already stopped. It was like, I could get in trouble.

Don't get any trouble now, either. Don't lose the gig. Well, now.

Now the UFC made a law, and it was real recent, like, two years ago. Up until, like, two years ago, all staff, anyone could bet. Now no one can bet.

Really?

Yeah, because 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 are a little shady that perhaps allegedly, people were involved with. So they're like, okay, we gotta put a stop to this. Which is too bad. Cause it was fucking. It's nice to know if I was unscrupulous.

I had a little. So I went my whole life, no sports betting, through college. I mean, my. Through college, I'd walk in and my buddies back then, they'd spliced 78 tvs together, and they got all their notes, and I'm like. And I'm like, dude, no wonder you're fucking. You got all d's and you're about to get shipped out of college. But I survived all that, and me and a buddy, we started picking two games a week, and we would load up, and this was, like, six years ago, five years ago, so I would load up, like 20 grand a game, and. But I was strict, and I, and I had my deal and, yeah, it just, we, like, bet. I mean, just 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.

Did you see uncut gems?

Yes. Dude, that movie tripped so much anxiety. That movie tripped me out.

I think it tripped everybody out there.

What a great movie, especially if you've dipped your toe into that world of, like, but now, and I've got buddies that do parlays and, like, I'm not even sure I even understand the inner workings of parlays now. Steal, I mean, and teasers and all that. And, you know, I'm so removed from that level of sport. Like, let you know so and so is doing four late. Gonna get four layups at the half. And, man, that, that'll, that's, that's opening up pandora's box. There it is.

And you gotta think there's people that are involved. Like, there's been scandals where referees were involved, where referees are 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 on Saturday. And just, man, some of those calls.

Yeah, there was some bad. We actually left after the first quarter and went to see Eminem. We saw first quarter of UT, Georgia, and then jetted and went to Eminem at the racetrack.

Formula One.

Yeah. Eminem played in front of, like, 150,000 people. It was fucking.

I mean, what a weekend for Austin, too, because I had buddies, ad 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 you got a little dicey there on the back. I was like, oh, it was weird.

Yeah, well, just the energy. There's so much. So much anticipation for a game like that.

You can't replicate it. You can't replicate it in any other. In any other. I guess those biggest global brazil versus Argentina or whatever.

We had some friends from England who had never been to an american football game.

What was their take on it?

They were blown away. They're like, oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. This is madness. Like, this is Texas football.

It's so fun, though.

It gets serious here. I got to shoot the cannon. Boom.

Did you shoot it through the Georgia shirt? That one?

Yeah.

Oh, gosh.

Maybe I gave you bad luck.

You hurt my heart.

Maybe it was bad luck because they lost. Maybe what? Maybe it's a fucking rude thing to do.

Oh, we. Yeah, man. It was. It was a. It was good win for Georgia. And like I said, both those programs are just so incredible. Incredible.

It's when you're watching it behind the scenes, you know, watching how much organization there is, and it's incredibly complex.

Through the years, Kirby and I have gotten to be pretty good buddies. You. Kirby can't be buddies with anybody because that job requires. I've never seen a requirement of a job more than being a college.

It's probably like being a president.

It is. 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 gotta go to the steak supper for this. For this touchdown club here, you know? So, man, it is. It's a wild ride, what those dudes go through.

And when 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 fucking 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 freedom, 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 horror.

I love how big. That's the best way to describe.

Oh, he'll describe it that way.

Yeah. Like, most from him, they. Most like your big horse racing guys. They. All. Their adjective of themselves is I'm a degenerate. That's the first thing that's.

Well, Jamie 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? I heard him say he learned how.

To play back rap because you can.

Bet more, like, you can bet like, five hundred k a hand or something. Or crazy like that. That's so crazy. I could. I was getting anxiety just sitting there watching. And so then Taylor lawn 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? Five minutes? Five minutes. Five minutes are down 120 grand. And I'm just sitting there going, what the fuck, man? Look, Dana is rich as shit.

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, 50,000 a hand, you'll be down a million or a million or two. And. Yeah, and I say. Cause 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.

Well, that's the only way they get their fix.

Right?

They can't play $20 a hand.

Yeah, right. That goes away. Right. 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 a.

Lot of mean hits, right?

Yeah, yeah. 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. Forget about doing it. It's hard to watch. Like, I don't. I don't get it. I'm glad.

Well, I can say that. That I've always had fun with it. I mean, I've always had fun gambling and a lot of times I take my band, and after we get off stage, and we'd have one band night, and I'd, like, set them all up with some chips, and I've gotten at a craps table where I can kind of manage everybody's bets, and I'm like, don't do that now. Wait, wait. And it's kind of like the, you know, 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 walks up and everybody rubs his head for good, you know, it's just. It's just camaraderie, you know, at the craps table. 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 celebrated the cat. I'm out there, like, I'm playing, and I look at my. You know. Cause 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 world. Alcohol. There's a lot of things. And get away from you.

Yeah.

It doesn't mean it should be illegal. Right.

Well, lord, it's just weird.

That'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 was not long ago, the.

Early days of the UFC, online gambling was illegal.

And then my, you know, ingest, because we're obviously southeastern Tennessee Bible belt, and I don't know, but there's. There's certain states. I guess Tennessee is a legal gambling state because. Or maybe Georgia. I can't tell. I have to. 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 brick. I mean, they got all kind of little racket.

Yeah. Well, and then also people would go to indian reservations. That was the big.

Right when you gotta.

Also crazy illegal, the rhett.

You gotta pay the indian reservation tax.

Right.

You know, you gotta 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 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. You know, typically on my way, kind of the mohegan, I'd go play there a couple years, or 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 there making a little money.

Yeah. It's weird, though, that you could do that legally. Like, it's.

Well, 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, what is that all about? Right?

That's that show ozark, right?

Yeah, well, totally. The same premise. You know, it's like, put a barge on the river, and now let's take all these people's money.

Yeah. My buddy Johnny used to. He was a pool hustler. He used to call people riverboat gamblers when guys would just go off and, you know, a guy was a gambling addict, you just trick him into a game. He's like, guys, a riverboat gambler or.

Yeah, that's the two analogies. Degenerate or riverboat gambler. Yeah, 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 fuck 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 elk hunt every year in Colorado. And is that where you've done?

I've done Colorado most years. I go to Utah.

Yeah. Well, first of all, Cam Haynes and I, you know, we've got a connection with Cam.

Yeah.

Just love that guy. But, yeah, we. So when I saw Colorado do that, I was like, it's just like, 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.

Well, we can really dive into this and let's do it. My thing is, 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, of course, going to happen. They're going to mess it up and let animal populations get too big. 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. And I said, man, you know, because they brought up, you know, grizzly bear problems and I said, well what, what is the deal? And they said, well there's 1500 or 14 to 1500 grizzly bears in Wyoming. There needs to be five to 605 of the 1500 are only hunting. Humans like have totally, but there's not.

That many human deaths.

Well you've, 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 five.

Five, not 500.

So there's 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 1400 to 1500. There needs to be 500 to 600 grizzlies and, but of the, of those five to six of them, all of them, five of them 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.

Jesus Christ.

And that is, 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. Do a $20,000.01. They'll go for that.

Yeah, for sure.

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 moose hunting, said he saw no moose and he saw twelve 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 Camspeople, John and Jen. Yeah, I saw them recently. And they've had to move.

Yeah, they move areas. Yeah, they have abandoned areas because they're overrun with grizzlies. They sent me some trail camp pics are terrifying. Like little school busses. They look like school busses. Like the size of these fucking.

Did you, was it you that was talking about? We were trying, they were trying to determine a male grizzly versus a male gorilla. And who would win? Do we ever.

I think I'm on team grizzly.

Me too.

Because 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 per grizzly and then the guiding fee and then the taxidermy.

Yeah.

Think about the taxidermist and then the.

Pittman Roberts people 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 an over the counter tag, I think they're probably going to wipe out over the counter tags for out of staters.

They're going to make it a draw tag.

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.

But the thing is, they, what they always say that they're gonna get to a certain level of the population and then they're gonna 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 fault.

They sue.

And when they sue, they, they stop the hunt. And then it has to go to court and it has to get decided. And if you get a radical judge like this judge that you said that's.

In, and 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.

No, you're probably right. You're probably right. Everyone that I know that hunts there says there, there's a lot of grizzly bears. And it's concerning because you don't see all of them. If you see a lot of them, there's a lot more than you don't see because most of them are just not just out in the open hanging out with you. Most of them are deep in the well.

And, and so I went on a, I went on a 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, helicopter pilot was like, hey, man, we've seen some grizzlies in the area. Just. And, you know, at the time, we're like, man, this is all part of the experience. Yeah, it's like, get a. Get us kind of going a little bit. Well, we landed, 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 him, like, hey, I'm gonna go to the helicopter and get a beer or something. 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 fucking grizzly coming toward my buddy and I went, Jay. And, dude, it was slim and like a dam. It was lean and like a greyhound. Not. 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 we ease back to the helicopter. We look back, here comes another grizzly literally 30 yards from us. And I'm like, we get there and I had 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. I mean, he just like, trichinosis. Wild shit I 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 getting too comfortable. We take off, fly a mile down the river. I'd already had my fly rod together. I never broke it down. So I sat it in a little basket and we land. I take off about 200 yards, start fishing. And I had to slide down this, like, 20 foot cut bank where the river had cut the bank. I looked across the river, here comes a grizzly bear galloping oh, boy. On the other side of the river. And I'm like, well, I've 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 20ft in the air and lands in that river. It looked like 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 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 rely.

That's when it gets scary, when you're around the mothers.

Oh, they're the ones that, they fuck everybody up in 2 seconds.

Yeah, they don't play any games when they have their cubs with them. They don't take any chances. Like, I'm gonna incapacitate this dude.

Yeah, fuck him it is. So that was my, that was my grizzly encounter.

I wish 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. We should see the population. You see what it's like experiencing them. These aren't teddy bears. And 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.

The thing 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 like 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 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 holiday Inn balconies. They're digging in. I mean, they're digging in, canning, you know, vending machines. Oh, yeah, walk. And I'm like, dude, it's just a matter of time. Somebody's gonna walk out their balcony and these, they're gonna get, they're gonna get got right there 100%. And they dart them and move them back into the smoky mountains.

And then, you 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.

In Jersey. Jersey has the most black bears per capita in the country, which is crazy. I'm gonna send you something because I sent this to Cam last night because it's nuts. This dude just shot the 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 out over there, too.

And they, like trash cans turned over every day. Crazy amounts in south Georgia and Florida.

Yeah, that's it. So I have a photo of the bear. Jamie, I'm gonna send it to you next to the dude who killed it. That's a good one. Here, I'm sending this, too. But look at that. Besides that bear. So this is in New Jersey? This is New Jersey. This New Jersey.

I never even.

770 pound 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, says he's all the time.

So 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. Size of that thing. Now, that. That article says 800 pounds. That's from several 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 several hole.

Well, it's, you know, like, that's a perfect shot. 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.

But, you know, the hunt.

770. Oh, gutted. 770. Gutted.

Whoa. Ah.

That's what it is. So they weighed it in at 770 pounds. Gutted. So the thing was about 880. Holy shit. Holy shit.

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.

For people who don't know, people eat bear, and bear is good. It tastes well.

And, you know, the sad part about, I think, California, you know, the. The whole. The home, you know, the gallbladder deal, I don't know much about that, but, you know. Yeah, there was a black market for black bear gallbladders in some.

Some cultures, yeah.

I think it's medicine and, you know.

So they were killing black bears just for their gallbladder?

Yeah, and I don't.

I think that was overblown. I don't think it's gonna affect the population. I will guessing. Especially a place like New Jersey. How are you gonna affect that population? They're everywhere there. You ever see 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 front lawn.

Did you ever see the guy that filmed, like, the ten minute grizzly fight this might be.

Oh, yes, I did that. That was insane. But that's where grizzlies are supposed to be. This isn't a fucking neighborhood. And these are big bears, and they're duking it out on this guy's nice lawn. They go tumbling down 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 fuckers. Imagine, like, you're watching tv. So these dudes, they duke it out. This is like, jamie, how long is this video? It's like a ten minute video. Six minute video. So six minutes for six minutes, these dudes duke it out. 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, tumbles down, like, go, yes, pull it down. So when they're in this, so they come tumbling down the hill, you know, full UFC style, duking it out of passing by this guy's trap of this guy's mailbox.

Look at him.

It goes on forever. And they're out in the street. This is a nice neighborhood. And you have huge predators in front of a Volvo.

What the fuck?

And this guy was trying to ban the hunt. Hey, pal, there's plenty of these bears. You should hunt them, because if you don't hunt them, they're gonna hunt you.

But, well, they're gonna met. 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.

You. You get one comfortable with you, man, and it's not good. It is not good at all.

What's the problem? What 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, white. What an asshole. You don't mean asshole to kill a bear. And then you get it.

I was saying I was kind of.

But you probably had more hunting experience. I grew up fishing.

I grew up whitetail hunting. And I remember, man, you know, being a 14 year old kid shooting a deer 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. And I'm like, hey, Mandev, hold up.

Right?

Let's just don't run up to the. Run up to it. Chunk it in the machine. Just. Just do a little respect. Right? So go ahead. But that, yeah, but the remorse. Go ahead, though.

The remorse is important.

It's.

It's a part of the experience. Like, you, you are now connected to the food that you're gonna eat, right? 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 hunted them ourselves forever. And then we eventually figured out agriculture. But when we hunt, we hunted them ourselves most of the time that humans were human. And we had this deep connection to this animal because this animal was going to sustain our family. And they used it. They took the skin from it, and they made all kinds of things. They took the tendons, they made strings for bows.

They made 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 they were from England. And one of the friends said, where's your husband? And she said, oh, he's elk hunting. And the guys made some sort, while he was cutting a steakhouse, 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 paid a supermarket hitman to go kill that fucking 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 stag.

Stag, yeah.

But for the most part, England has a very small hunting population, and I believe bowhunting 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 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 media depictions. Media depictions of hunters in movies. They're never the good guys. They're always pieces of shit. The hunters are always assholes. 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 fuck up the hunters because hunters are of. They're portrayed as bad guys in movies.

Yeah. And then. And listen, you know, the success rate of the proper ethical things always line up that, you know, you don't. The success rate doesn't always go like you wanted it to.

Right.

And. But, you know, the fact that hunters still are working every day just to keep hunting and the fact that hunting is declining so bad, it took a.

Little uptick during COVID because during COVID people like, hey, man, this fucking, what if there's no food? My buddy lived in Asheville, and 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 fucking 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 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 because 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 gonna do taco night. I'm gonna throw all the elk meat in the sink, start thawing it. And, man, over the last five years, we. I've woke up and we haven't had, we haven't had, you know, beef cattle and hamburger tacos. Spaghetti's bolognese. What? We haven't eaten it in five years at my house. And it just, it takes you a minute to go, hey, 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? Cause 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 it's the 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? Like, 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 it. There's a time and place for that, but it's pretty cool that elk gets that. And they still have to add a little bit of pork fat to elk just to keep it.

But I give a lot of meat away, and whenever I do and 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 game and get energy from it.

Well, yeah, and, yeah, when you can go, like, we at my place, my dear 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 not going to take something in there, I put. I've got some red stag up my place in Tennessee. I did a high fence down there. And so between stag and whitetail and Elfden, you know, we're moving. We're moving meat around and making jerky.

Are they roaring on your property?

They do.

That's the craziest sounds.

The bad.

I thought the elk sound was crazy. Elk sounds probably the crazy.

It's the best, but I'm used to it. But the roar when you hear a.

Stag sounds like a lion. I put one on my instagram story. Jamie, see if you find it. This dude just staring at the camera. Roaring. I bet. Or I hear rather, Argentina is a great place to go. Yeah, I hear they have a lot of them down.

We. It's interesting because Tennessee is very, very strict on their whitetail. Here he is.

Listen to this guy. Imagine if you were some dude and it's like a thousand years ago and you don't know what the fuck that is. You want it through the woods.

So my 14 year old has 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 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 gonna kill us if we sit here? Because those elk bugle, I mean, you can feel their bugles in the woods. And I said, no, son.

Feel them in your chest.

So we went up and tried to call this elk in, and then some elk did actually cross in front of them. And there's six and eight just sitting there, these big. This big herd of elk coming by. And 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 were like, those elk were all. I mean, you know, having your boys, I mean, that's. That's what I live for. And to keep the. You know, and I just wish we could create a narrative where getting your children doing that will. I mean, I don't know.

Well, hunting is a very difficult entry. It's very difficult if you're a person who's, like, listening to this. Like, I've never hunted before, but I'd like to learn how to do it. Good luck. It's very hard.

You're right.

Very, very hard. It's very hard to find someone who's gonna 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 and a seven millimeter?

That. That's the. That is the tricky part, really, with all outdoors. Yeah, you could. If you could bridge the gap between all parts of urban life and allow urban life 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 get overpopulated, eat all my crops. And then. So I think now states. I think Tennessee has put a law into where some of those getting sued. Well, what I'm saying is that feeds people's inability to go find somewhere to hunt, too. I mean, so many people. 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 the whole outdoor community can make it more accessible. And landowners. I mean, I had this little lady that I wanted a turkey hunt. She had 60 acres that bordered, like, a 300 acre track of mine. And I was like, ma'am, 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 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 and the knowledge of it, it gradually gets worse and worse, but the need for it gets greater and greater, gets greater and greater. And I tell my children all the time, I'm like, boys, there is no drug in the world. And I'm not a, you know, I'm pretty straight guy. Never 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 whitetail or you hook a big fish there, that. The adrenaline from that. No drug will replace it.

Nothing's like it. I've done some wild shit in my time.

I've seen the documentation of the wild stuff.

I've done some wild shit. I'm going to send you a video, Jamie, of something that happened last week. So 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'd snuck in on him. He was over the ridge at 50 yards. We could see the tips of his antlers moving around. 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 him range at 50, and then I see him coming in. He's coming in. I dial him again. I range him again at 40 a dial, man. I'm like, oh, shit, he's coming into our lap. He just kept coming in. Watch this video.

Do you?

Don't have it yet. God damn. Modern technology. It didn't make it through. Oh, it's still going. Hold on.

Pressing it to send it through.

Imessage. Oh, is that what it is? Okay, let me say it went through. Did it go through? Okay, bust out those cigars.

You want a little heavy or a mild?

Whatever you have. Here goes. Check this out. Listen to this. Listen is when he comes over the hill and gets angry. Like, when I heard that, I was like, uh oh, here he comes. So right now he's about 50 yards.

What's your heart doing right now?

Right now I'm pretty calm. Cause he's at 50 yards, right. But now I'm realizing he's not gonna stop. So I range him again. Now he's at 40. He pauses for a second. He's staring right at me. I have to stop.

Oh, yeah. So you're off to the right.

I'm off to the right. And I'm pressed up against a tree full camo, hiding in plain sight. So now he's moving out. So now I'm like, oh, shit, I'm moving my site to 20. So now I move my sight to 20. And I trying to figure out a time to draw. So right here, I draw. That's when he turns. Oh, he needs, he's some movement.

This is another one. Buggling. Perfect.

That was it. Boom. It's like that. And there's so much nerves and so much like, anxiety and you ranging them and he's coming in and it's like. And you think he's gonna 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.

Well, here's the beauty of all that. In the outdoors, you know, when you hear, these are mild. They're good, though, man. When you kind of conquer one level of fishing or hunting, then there's another one you can go learn the space in. You know what I'm saying? You can go. And what I say is like, I just, I mean, from the elk hunter that I was, the elk hunter that I was ten years ago, like, took so much, took so much work 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 elks, how that elks reacting. Because I've done it for 1112 years now, and I've got, I've taken my boys well. So when you get tired of whitetail hunting 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 fishermande never fly fishermen. Well, then I got into fly fishermen, and that became the new seven year challenge that I tie your own flies.

I can now the little, I can tie big streamers, right? But, like, the little bitty goggles on.

It'S a real art form.

Totally. The one of the most rewarding things you can do.

Sure.

You make your own fly and trick a big ass fish, a big fish with it.

And 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 fucking with fish. You just fucking with them. Like, I could have killed you, bitch, you know?

Well.

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, we grab it, and, you know, as kids were like, ah, we thought, you know, you catch a trout and it's like a, it's like a creature. Yeah. It's like a team in the, in the delivery room comes in to hold 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, they're the, the whole mystique of trout. And all of this stuff is, is just, man, it's outlets for all of us, you know? I mean, I remember when I moved to Nashville, man, my dad, he kept me fishing and hunting, and he wound up being a pretty dang successful business guy. And he all, he told me, he goes, dude, when you move 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. But now, as I roll out, you know, as I'm kind of established, you know, 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, it's not even fair that you have because 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 even. She's like, I know your game. I know your game.

But, 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 steal from the rich 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.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, that's why it's so fucked over there. That's why they don't have this attitude.

And that's why. That's why, you know, you hope the whole education of hunting and landowners and conservation of the animals and all the land ties into where, you know, landowners need to have a better understanding of Mandev. 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 his son. Or go. Yeah, go hunt, you know, and don't, you know, don't hoard your 15,000 acres to your right, you know, dead.

But hopefully he's a good guy. That's the problem also, is that assholes ask for permission and then do something stupid, you know, dude, I had a.

Guy shoot a stag one of first year. I put my stag in my fence, shot him right off the road. Left him, man.

Oh, my God.

You talk about pissed right off the road.

Just shot him and left him.

Shot him and left him.

Yeah. See, there's people like that out there and it's so.

It's the bad apples, you know, they're.

How could you do that to a stag, too? God, that's so awful.

Yeah.

And the meat is so sensational. To know that meat is gonna go to waste. That's so crazy, man.

I don't know. You know, I guess enough whiskey and a whole back road and a rifle, you'll.

Shitty education. Bad childhood. All the above.

Well, but, yeah, all the above, but, yeah, I mean, I look at. I've got till, my nephew, he's lived with me since he was twelve. And then my. So till's 22 now and Bo is. Bo's 16 and Tate is 14. And till was 15 when he killed his first elk. The rule has been if you can pull 55 pounds of, you're ready to hunt. And so Bo is a lot bigger than Tate when he was 13 and 14. So Bo, my 13 year old, killed a full grown elk at 13 whoa.

With a bow.

With a bow. Totally the friggin 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 him up those hills. That's what another, like, the hunting and the, the killing is that, man, when you pack out a damn 800 pound 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 yards into the blowdown and, man, we got that bug in, you know, all, and all the elk hunting guides, they're the toughest. They're the toughest dudes.

Oh, yeah, they're doing, they're all year long. They're grizzled.

They're the toughest guys. I tell people, man, if I get called to a serious, I get called in. In a serious war, I'm calling my elk gods. That's, that's my 1st. 1st call, so. But it's, you know, and I didn't grow up ever thinking I'd have the opportunity or the, or the, you know, the ability to go hunt elk, but once you start doing it and, and, but, you know, man, this, this week I killed Thursday, I killed my biggest whitetail I ever did. And 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 it's just so funny. We.

How big is it?

It was big. So listen now. And so I didn't post it because 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 two years old, we were like, what in the fuck? What? A UFO ship dropped this off in here. He started with huge mass, different looking genetics and we watched him for, we grew him for, we feel like he's five and a half and whoa, dude, we are, we are over the moon about stag. I know, that's a huge deer. Over.

How big is your property?

It's, I guess all together, it's probably eleven, probably 1200 acres in.

So that is much more space than a deer would ever travel in its natural life.

Anyway, I'll put it to you this way. We put about 18 red stag in there. There. They're up. We don't know how many there are.

That deer might have got fucked by his dad.

I think he might. Yeah, he might have crossed crawl. 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 bottom. Can't find them. There's 60 of them in there. We hunted them for four days this weekend. We killed. We killed two. So 1200 is, I mean, it's much.

Larger than a deer would have in its natural room.

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 because that's fun as hell, too, to not know what's walking in. But the main thing is I wanted my boys to have the ability to manage deer 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 five days there wasn't my thing. So my high fence in Tennessee is kind of like my little ode or my little homage to my love for South Texas whitetail.

So you can keep it close.

Keep it close. It's 55 minutes from the house.

Oh, that's nice.

And it's a retreat. I get down there, you know, Starlink has ruined us because now we have Internet. But before that, man, 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, Elon saved us on that.

So, yeah, the new Starlink's wild. It's the size of, 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. You know, my nephew till he's 21, and we're all liquored up. And my nephew, he goes, guys, I know we've been drinking all day, but 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, goddamn, that's Elon Musk. And we watched it go over, and we were like, wow, what a. What a.

It's amazing. We used one in Utah for the first time this year. So easy to set up. Set it up, like five minutes, and then we're online.

You mean my wife? When I went to elk camp, my wife was like, all right, I hear I'll see you. I'll talk to you in six days. First day, elk camp. Set the starlink out. Facetime. Hey, baby. How are you?

It's crazy.

Yeah.

My buddy was 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.

I hunt south Texas every year, and the ranch we went to last year, at any given moment, you can drive and pick up 50 backpacks. They just. That ranch looks like when I and I hadn't been, 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, like 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 a guy, ran out of water, just died on his ranch.

It's heartbreaking because, dude, if anybody. Dude, I can't imagine having to walk through that brush to get to freedom, right? Because when I know. Not knowing 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 go. Right. You go rattle for them 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 missed that.

Yeah. You could zig when you should have zagged. And you're not gonna run into water, especially down there. And it was in the summer, so, you know, 105 degrees outside, this poor dude just died. And they found him.

Well, every ranch. Every ranch I. Every ranch I've went to, the ranch owner, you know, they're encountering two. Two deaths a year, 15 to 20. Most of the time, they come up to the main headquarters needing water. And when they get to you or. That's been my experience with talking to ranch managers down there. 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 ahead. We need some water.

And the vast majority of them are just trying to get a better life.

Get a better life. And.

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'd all do it.

We would all do it. It's just 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, oh, the galaxy is 200 million stars or 200 billion stars. It doesn't make sense because it's like, it's too big for you to understand. If you had a walk through South Texas, it's South Texas. 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, 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 take hoping, hoping. Or maybe you'd gone with someone who went through it before, and they have a vague memory of what's the best way to get to a creek.

I don't know. I mean, I. You know, we. We've been there, and, you know, the guys, they opened box blinds, you know, the deer hunting towers, and there's a family sleeping in the box, blind, man. You just gotta. You gotta feel so sorry for them. I mean, how bad? Like, I mean, I thought. I mean, dude, I remember when I was 1516 years old processing Cubans, where it's so bad that you're gonna fucking piece together a raft and you're gonna. You're gonna give it a. You're gonna give it a go for Miami, right? I remember being 16 going, how bad must that be? How bad must that be?

Pretty fucking bad.

Pretty fucking bad.

Pretty fucking bad. Their case is a little different because they're running from a communist dictatorship. And they were like, we got. That's why the most republican motherfuckers in this country are Cubans. Cubans go hard. They're like, we've seen. We've seen what all this socialist horseshit comes down to. And it comes down to government control over every aspect of your life. And 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 fucked. And they always live in big ass houses and they eat great food and everybody.

And it's everywhere. It's from. From Africa to Cuba to african. Yeah, that whole.

Have you ever hunted in Africa?

I haven't, but I know I will. 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 planes, animals, you know, your kudos and all that stuff, man. I, you know, to be able to. When my boys get a little older and we can do a proper two month currently sports and my children have ruined my hunting life or my. Well, because my boys are going to play all the sports. But when we can get a. I'd love to do them a gap year and let's go do a true safari. And 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 Serengeti's and all of the animals and take in the animals for a month and have like the wives and the girls and the girlfriends and we sit out there and do the safaris. But then I want to carve out two or three days where all the boys go, you know, go get the true planes game.

Yeah.

And I would look, it's. Man, I tell you, it's pretty cool story. My, my pilot, my lead pilot is South African. And during COVID man, he couldn't. His mother was dying and he couldn't get down there to tell his mother by. And at this point, I just, I just kind of got to know Ajdehe. And, man, I've always heard that South Africans are pretty badass dudes. And at the time I was learning that AJ is a pretty badass dude, I didn't altogether know it, but, well, he got with me and he goes, Luke, man, 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 they granted him permission to get down there. And they got to tell either his wife's mother by, well, he comes back and 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 way. He's, he's, he's wired, but, you know, he's going to help us with some safari stuff.

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 shit together.

That's a big animal. That's like a 1800 pound animal, right?

Maybe bigger and like all muscle.

So Cam and Adam Greentree, they went up to Australia. You know, Australia has like an infestation of asian buffalo. They have, I forget which type of buffalo it is, but 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 land. They're drinking out of fucking crocodile lakes. Like literally bathing in that shit. Filtering water. Filtering water, eating whatever fish they caught.

It's Cam's new version of pushing himself. Now he's gonna, now he's gonna, I.

Think was Adam's idea. Oh, God, he's a psycho too. So 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 thing.

The true form of like. Yeah, no, that's even a whole nother level of true organics when it takes you.

Oh, yeah.

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.

Was a taste of it. I mean, because most plains animals in Africa historically, they say, are far beyond our plains animals. As far as the meat, like, your kudos and your. I mean, your. I'm drawing a blank on all the Plains games. And like I said, this is stuff that I'm, like, totally elementary in because I just don't know much about that whole african thing.

It seems like the things that the big cats want to eat are all delicious, right?

Yeah.

Like Aisha. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And tigers eat them, right?

Did you ever eat the nil?

Yeah, that's delicious.

And the meat is, like, an 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 get hunted by tigers, and they're some of the best tasting animals alive. Axis deer are delicious. I think cats are smart, just like bears are smart, too. Salmon's delicious.

Sit there and pick them off.

They know what they're doing.

Well, have you done Africa? Are you gonna do it?

I would like to. I'd like to go over to Africa.

So you're. You. You really got cam. Was he kind of your catalyst? And. God, I mean, you pick. It's like you had. It's like you had Michael Jordan teaching. Michael Jordan teach you how to shoot free throws. Yeah. It's so fun, though. But, you know, even with guys, 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 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, I I've been working on this fucking thing for four years. And they're like. And it's so funny, but it's like elk bugles. Yeah.

Someone who sucks at bugling. Like, you hear me? Like, what the was that?

I mean, it's like you walking in with a. With a tutu on.

Yeah. 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 get the whole deal. So listen, some people have ducks that even have, like, flopping wings.

We got listen, man, let me tell you something, dude. I got given a chocolate lab about eight 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.

That sounds like the same excuse used with your kid, right?

My kid? Yeah. Yeah. For the dog needs some duck, honey. And my wife is this dog, man. This dog can open every drawer in our house. He can open. Frida lays with his. He can 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 hundred shards of porcelain in his stomach. The vet's like, put that fucker out in the yard because there's. And 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. Like 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 you're, like, hiding in one of those shacks that's on your.

Well, 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.

Lift it up.

Yeah, you're right along the water level. And then, you know, we have, you know, there's experiences where you wade in the woods and they come down in the woods and, man, it's just the thing that really makes duck hunting. Kind of like when you're in a blind 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 in the blind together. And it's very social, too. Drinking coffee. It's, you know, 15 degrees. Coffee, cigar, you know, and everybody's like, shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up. And you work the ducks. They light in front of you. You kill them. The dog gets them, brings the duck back. You look at the duck and you're just like, just have a big old toque on your cigar. And you're like, yeah, this is pretty good shit right here.

Are you good 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. Your corn, you know, like a diver duck that eats, essentially, minnows. Yeah. You know, that you don't want to eat that, but in geese. Geese. Or 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 block. But some people can make a speckled goose speck. Speckled bellies are good, but 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 Dua.

Is it.

It's fantastic. And he serves a lot of wild game. And Jesse came on this hunt with us with Steve Ranalla down in south Texas, and Jesse cooked some diver duck.

And was it good?

It was fantastic.

Whoever the hell Jesse is, he's a wizard, is a wit. What? That's great.

He's a real chef with that.

So. So Ron Seacrest, he's like, hey, man.

Ryan Seacrest, the radio guy.

My guy. Yeah. At American Idol. And Seacrest goes, hey, I've got, you need a light?

Yeah.

He goes, dude, I booked this at EmP eleven Madison park. Number one at the time, number one restaurant in downtown. You know, Adam was, Ryan was taking me and Katie and Lionel to dinner, and I've never been to a. Certainly the number one restaurant in the world. Well, they take us tour of the kitchen, and, dude, they have ducks walls, because all of your. Your french cuisine, the really, the centerpiece is duck. That's like the duck fat. The ducks are the real big part of foie gras french cuisine. Well, dude, I see these. 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 there. They're getting farm raised, organically grown ducks, and they age them with the guts in them.

Yeah, I've heard of that. I've heard people do that with, like, pheasants, too. Hang them by their neck.

The enzymes of the guts pull stuff out of the meat.

Well, it adds a flavor to it, apparently.

And, dude, man, I ate it, Ducky.

It sketches me out.

Yeah. Well, here's the tricky part because, dude, I don't even know if I enjoyed my meal cause I picked the chef's brain. Cause 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.

You shoot them. Right?

Yeah.

Right. That's different than.

I ain't got that good where I all headshot them yet.

But no, when these guys are aging them, what's the temperature in the room?

I think 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 cow.

So, like 40 degrees.

Probably 40 degrees. And 1315 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 was the bold bastard?

It's the guy that ate. The guy that ate the first oyster. Right.

You know, drank out of the puddle.

Right. Yeah. And, you know, it is fascinating in pheasant. And when you look at pheasant and quail and chuckers and, you know, hungarian parcher. Now you're talking about the. You're talking about the end all 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 gameier.

So have you had Sandhill crane?

Yes. Ribeye the sky.

I haven't, but it's crazy to look at it. 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. They're wild little creatures, too, man. You know, when you. When you take your lab, sandhill crane hunting, you gotta. You gotta fit them with goggles because.

They poke her eyes up.

Yeah.

Whoa.

And then we. I just got in a golf course property down in Florida, and 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 y'all doing with all these sand hill cranes? And they're like, what do you mean? They said, like, a golf course guy. And I said, dude, that's the rib eye of the sky, bro. He's like. He looked it up. And you can't shoot Sandhill cranes in Florida.

What?

Dude, there.

Somebody called the governor everywhere. Really?

Everywhere on this property.

You can't shoot Sandhill cranes in Florida, but you can shoot alligators.

Unless they're lying to me because they're scared. I'm gonna go, like, I'm gonna, like, you know, have a psychotic episode and go running out through the golf course with the guns.

Maybe it's just the area where you're at. You couldn't.

They may be protected in certain counties, but, you know, even in Tennessee, Florida center protecting under the federal.

Protected under federal Migratory Bird Treaty act.

Look at that shit.

Wow. State rule, blah, blah, blah. Intentional feeding of sandhill cranes is prohibited. So you can't hunt them while they're protected.

Well, in Tennessee, we have. In Tennessee, there's a couple guys that guide them, and I think it's a draw tag. You can draw. You can put in to draw a sandhill crane tag. And then, man, they make a. They make a very distinct something like that. And, dude, you can hear them, and I'll hear them coming over my farm and, God, if that's the wrong noise I just made, I'm gonna get.

Sounds good.

I'm gonna.

You got it. Whoa.

I love this guy. I need me one of.

That's them now.

That's all of them, but, yeah, that's. You hear that?

Yeah. What a fucking cool animal. They sound like something from Avatar.

See those beaks?

Yeah.

Those are a Labrador blind. Labrador retriever. Blinders right there.

How do you fasten the goggles on a dog, man?

Oh. Oh, God. Here he goes. Oh, my gosh. This is like the girl.

Find it.

Sandhill crane goggles for labs. This is gonna be great.

Does it. How does it secure on. I'm thinking about a dog.

It's. I guess you've seen those dogs in those side cars, on the motorcycles. On the motorcycles. Probably. Probably that. That rig, but, um.

Yeah, 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.

Yeah.

But, um, the. Yes. So, in Tennessee, you. You can hire a guy and he'll take you, and they'll kind of get them coming into an area, and I think you. There you go.

Oh, there it goes. Oh, wow. That's crazy.

Now those look like. I think those are snuggies. Snow geese are probably the same.

Look at their goggles. All scratched up, too.

Crane hunt. No, those are. Yeah, those are sandhills.

Wow, that's crazy. Dogs need to have their eyes protected.

Yeah. So when you, when you get. Yeah, well, you got your golden. But, man, if you get you a lab and. Oh, man, beware of that because you will get hooked. You'll start.

I'm sure I would be. Also, I love duck ducks. Delicious.

Oh, own the grill. Marinated in a. Marinated properly for a day or two. Playing on it.

That's what Jesse does. That's the difference. You got the diver duck. I'm telling you, this diver duck was sensational.

That's what you gotta watch in all wild game is, man. Plan it, preparation, get it marinated, and, man, you just can't beat it.

Yeah, you gotta know what you're cooking, how to cook it. Especially if you're cooking something that has low body fat. You gotta make sure you cook it nice and slow.

Right.

You know, that's one of the great things about things like a traeger. And you can just set it for 265. The new one's fantastic, too. It's just everything comes out so smoky and delicious.

If you know my dad, 4 July, he was. I think he was drunk and hated us on 4 July. Cause he stayed up smoking the Boston butt every night. You know, I remember my dad, man, he'd had that old char barrel out there, and he'd get up with his vinegar and all this shit, and he would wake up all night before the fourth and smoke them butts, man. But now you just walk out, put that thing on 220 at about 08:00 p.m. wake up. It wake up at 08:00 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. So much easier.

What?

There's something that men are attracted to, like cooking over wood, though. Like an actual fire.

Well, we're in the heart of it in Texas, you know, right here. I mean, these guys take a damn, you know, they glue four propane tanks together and have a smokestack. And the guy that. What's our guy that does our charity event? Oh, my God. I can't believe I'm. I'll come up with him, but, mark, text me, meet church. Have you met the meat church dude?

Met that dude.

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 his 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 because people want to do it all themselves. The offset smokers. Like, have you 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 than anywhere else on the country, and they have just line after line, these giant propane tank, smokers, briskets, churning it out. Beef ribs and spare ribs.

See, 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 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. We talk about the ways of the world changing. I mean, it's like, dude, I lived in a section, and everybody. North Carolina, it's Georgia, Alabama. They didn't. Brisket was like.

I think brisket was originally a german thing. I think it's like, with the sausages. Like, there was cuts of the meat. Well, the smoker thing came, certainly from german immigrants that came to Texas. That's where the origin of the barbecue out here. And then the brisket was like, that nobody else wanted, 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. Not the old flank meat down there. You know, probably. You can probably get the ribeye and all that.

I think it's 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 have it down to a science. And then at the end, it's like 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. Not the ones big as this table, but, you know, about that long 100 pounder.

Yeah, yeah.

And walk up there on the family reunion and all the women were grossed out because, you know, you're just pulling the big pig. The big. You know, you can pull that meat off a pig. It's like that. So we're getting hungry, Joe.

I know. That's the good thing about wild pigs, too. They're always available to hunt. Like, one of the great things about Texas, it's not good if you're on a ranch or if you have a farm, but if you're a person who wants to hunt, you can hunt wild pigs 65 days a year and always have sausage.

Our place in me and my best friend, we've got a, like a quail hunting place, and down in the heart of south Georgia, tons swamps. Dude, we were. Which, you know, all the math, and I'm sure you've brought it up on how many sow pigs will, you know, they'll kick off 30. 30 pigs a year annually.

Yeah.

And then we would have. We would have them roll through our front. Front yard. $30,000 of damage a night.

Yeah.

And the most. And for anybody out there listening, if you have this going on, we mounted. We mounted lights in all the trees around our whole lodge, and you flipped them lights on, and we hadn't had one wild hog root up our yard since.

Really?

They will not come around those lights. They don't. It's a great tactic.

That's interesting.

Yeah. And when somebody told him, you know, some good old boy told him, and he was like, like, man, we'll try anything because 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. Now.

They do a lot of damage. I mean, in Texas alone, it's millions and millions of dollars of damage of crops every year. They shoot them out of helicopters here. You ever seen. You ever done any of that? Have you?

It is, man. It is.

It's the most unfair type of hunting that's ever existed.

Man, if.

Forget about hockey.

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 because my sons are ready for warfare after doing that, like. But, you know, my, the guy that we took, you know, he's got a big, beautiful high fence and, you know, you fly around and, man, you can, you know, 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 because you just keep wanting to, you know, keep wanting to do it a little bit, but it's. You hadn't done that yet?

No, no. I'm still, I just mostly bow hunt.

Well, you know, the, our pick stuff in Georgia, man, it's fun because you can go on a deer hunt. You can shoot some deer with a bow, and then we'll take a rifle and late in the evening, the hogs will come out and, and, you know.

A lot of guys shoot them at nighttime, too.

Yeah. Yeah. And then we thermals, we have guys with the big, you know, with the big, you know, trapdoors that trap them and stuff like that. So, I mean, they're, they are, they're probably the number one, you know, wildlife 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 a guy, 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, you know, you would think I would. I don't know. I would think the New Yorker leans 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, pretty badass take on it. So.

Well, once people see the sheer numbers, they're so overwhelming that you go, wait a minute, 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 places that you're not going to get to.

Well, it wasn't Georgia. And these, these swampy deals, you can't have, 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.

That'll help. But even then.

So, Joe, here's another thing. You think about this. So when I start my high fence, the year that I. The year that I started it, our turkey population in Tennessee, which it's, it's been going through hell, and you'll hear this. The turkey population in Tennessee was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen. I mean, eastern turkey hunting, one of the most beautiful things in the wildlife that the state of Tennessee has. 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 a hundred, over a hundred 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 twelve to 14 eggs. Now listen, I found this out this year. This is gonna, I hope if I can get a couple nuggets that you hadn't learned yet. That's kind of the goal for the day. So. And 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 the water on the eggs, periodically using the water to hatch them at the same time. Because a hen turkey, if she had to hatch, all the eggs hatch at the same time, but if she had to hatch them for twelve days, she could never keep them corralled properly. So she manipulates with water. And if I'm wrong, now, this is a biologist that told me this, I heard this this year, totally blew my mind. So in the nest, and I've walked up on them, they got twelve or 13 of them sitting there, beautiful. And whatever that hen does, she manages those eggs to hatch at the same time.

And maybe, maybe now, like a tortoise, I guess, or 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, and so there was a big study that went on in Tennessee about the decline of the turkey population.

So what do they do about that? They trapped.

Well, 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. Oh, and I'm not even bringing up coyotes in Tennessee, so, yeah, if you can. If they can loosen up, Tennessee can loosen up their trapping laws and make it more available and. And you just got to thin out those, you know, armadillos in Tennessee, you would have never, man, we woke up, and we can ride around and shoot 30 a night.

Really?

Armadillos, 30 on a. Don't they carry like crazy, man? I wouldn't recommend touching them. You know, they, you know, they say they do, but that, that's, that maybe them. I've never heard of that, but I. You probably can find.

They definitely raccoons.

They definitely eat raccoons. And definitely, I don't know about possums, but if you, if you're eating a possum, you're. Your ass is hungry.

Very hungry.

But, uh, raccoons. I mean, yeah. In Georgia, where we grew up, had, had several all timers, man, they get a coon, and it was always a kind of a party deal, you know.

What does raccoon taste like?

I never had. I never. Well, we got old buddy down there. He's like, you know what bald eagle tastes like? Ow. So I guess you could say raccoon, you know? I had a buddy of mine tell a game warden that joke. It didn't go over well, so.

But there's a lot of shit that people eat that people would go, what?

Yeah. I mean, when you're talking about. I saw somebody do what, do the pig deal with a full gator.

Oh, I've seen that before, and I hadn't done that.

I've had gator tail, but I had.

A giant smoker and put a gator in there.

Whole thing. Yeah, they skin, you know, skin it.

And all that apple in its mouth.

Yeah. You know, it'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. 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 chickens, but some of them get. Well, they feed them to gator farms. Oh, wow. They put them in a. Put them in 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 Sir Strahman challenge can repro, you know, the whole Sir Strahman joke thing. But what's that? You've seen where the guys pop the lid on the swedish fish.

No.

Oh, Joe. Ser Strahman, what is it? Oh, we did it at our deer camp. It's like an aged, sweetest fish that's rotten in a can. It's aged for years like a sardine. And so, yeah, the Sir Strahmin challenge guys face. Dude, we pop that thing so people fish with them.

They use it for bait, like for that.

People eat that.

Oh, foul.

And if you can stay in the room with it.

Have you tried it?

Dude, no one I know. I was outside 15 yards 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 might eat it on fight companion, but, um, well, Denver, 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? And then if you're going to say no fur, how are you going to say no fur? But you're allowing to leather. So skin is okay as long as you take the furry part off. Is the furry part what's offensive? You know, if you know what you'd fucking. The chaos that would ensue if you outlawed leather. Everybody's belt is illegal. Everybody's shoes are illegal. Air Jordans, they're calling it illegal. Illegal. Yeah, they're trying to pass a law. They're trying to pass the law where they banned fur.

Sorry, they've done it before.

I mean, they've done it.

Like I said, where does it. Joe? I'm out with it.

Keeps going. That's the problem.

Never fucking ends when I'm at a minute.

It's never gonna end. They're gonna keep pushing what it'll get to. You can't eat meat. It'll get to. It has to be lab grown meat. It'll get to. It could get as crazy as you could ever imagine. There's animal rights people that would like to push it in that direction, and you would have never thought 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 against that, you're a bigot. You're seeing the craziest of crazy thinking. There's people that think the pedophiles are minor attracted persons, and 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. Because none of this shit existed 20 years ago. Ago. You go back to 2004, there was none of this shit. 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 because everybody's like, what the fuck?

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 women competing against each other. Two men, two biological mendenna that wear lipstick, competing against each other in a women's tournament. It's fucking crazy. So I would have never thought that would be possible. So 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 is the number one source of carbon. It's fucking complete, total horseshit. It's not even number two. It's not number three. It's not even fucking close. Cow farts yeah, it's the dumbest shit ever. And by the way, all of that is factory farming, regenerative farming. 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 balanced ecosystem of cows eating grass and the grass fermenting in their stomach and then creating manure. And that regenerates. 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 living in a crazy time.

Yeah. When you think of Denver and Colorado and the outdoors, man, you gotta appreciate everybody's opinion of, you know, you know, the growth. You know, I mean, it's a. It's a so so old term. The granola is. It ain't granola no more. I mean, it's. It's. It's.

They're getting 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 ten of them in this town and five of them in that town, well, 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 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. No one should have meat. Meat. What are you gonna do with these cows? What are you gonna do? You're gonna go around castrating all those bulls? What are you gonna do? How are you gonna control the populations? Are you gonna let them go extinct? You're gonna castrate all the bulls? Are you gonna let some of them breed? How are you gonna make this distinction? Are you gonna bring in wolves to handle them? What are you gonna do? What the fuck are you gonna do? What are you gonna do with all those people that work at the butcher shop?

What are you gonna do with all those people that work at the meat processing plant? What are you gonna do with all those people that have been transporting meat back and forth? What do you do? All those jobs, all those families, all their income, all their businesses that they've had for a hundred fucking years.

Years.

What are you going to do with that? These people have like, the most minimal understanding of the system they're trying to influence. They don't know what the fuck 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 gonna be saying yay when they're, when they're. Damn, I don't know, dude. The whole dogs getting, eating dog everything, dude, let me tell you something.

They brought in wolves that had a history of killing cattle. The wolves they brought in the, no.

Different 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. About every now and then, 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 bitch. A fucking otter.

Oh, yeah. Otters will fuck you up.

Let me tell you, buddy. Those things are, I mean, Joe, I'm so like, I mean, 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 fuck those bass up. I'm talking about, they're fucking 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 an all female bass lake at my house, which you're gonna. This is a whole nother fun deal. They will roll through there and eat my all females and just throw them up on the bank. There's carcasses.

How many?

Oh, you get four otters in your pond on a 17 acre lake. They'll eat 20 bass a night. And you, the problem is, you don't know you've been got until it's too late. You've been got.

Wow.

And so, Joe, a to grow a ten pound bass is about $3,000. 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 m. Damn otters roll so they'll, if you have an 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, dude. And, man, they just keep coming. Keep coming.

Wow.

Keep coming. And I'm talking about otter pelts. I mean, like, the prettiest thing you've ever seen.

So do you turn them into coats or anything?

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 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 because everybody's scared to say they got a damn otter pill.

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 cowboy boots. Nobody gets mad. Yeah, see, leather, nobody gets mad at leather. All that is, is fur with no. No fucking hair on it. It's the same thing. It's weird.

But damn otters, man. Them little rascals. You know, they. I got. I'm building a lake at my place in Georgia, and it's right on the flint river.

You're running wildlife management.

I love it, man. It's. It's so fun. It's so damn fun. Like, it's. It's 4 hours of my day.

And it also cleanses your mind, right?

Totally.

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 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, I got one kid, my Tate's buddy James, his 8th consecutive weekend at my house hunting. Just loving live shooting bow and arrows.

Did you show him how to shoot correctly?

Got it all. Got him dialed in. He shot his first doe this weekend.

Nice.

Just so fun. And 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 you know, I love to. Love to enjoy it with people, but yeah, the bass fishing things a blast. But 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 that way 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. Well, they just have to have the big eggs. And when they lay them, they just have to have a male, not fertilizer.

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, right?

Bass will forage on themselves.

Yeah.

And. But male bass. Now I have three lakes that are naturally their own ecosystem where we have to, you know, I've got an 82 acre bass lake that we have to catch 3500 pounds of bass a year just to keep them from not choking themselves out. Really? Oh, yeah.

It's 3500 pounds. So 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, have given to people. And I mean, it becomes a problem.

It's a weird thing with largemouth bass too, because a lot of people don't eat them and yet they're delicious.

They're good. They're great. They're great.

They're basically the same as bluegill.

Well, blue gills bluegills, you know, like all the bluegills at my lake are, we feed them pellet food so they'll get big. So the bass will eat them. So the bass will get big. And you don't want to go eat a bluegill that's been parked under a pellet.

Yeah.

But a little wild bluegill stream or a little natural creek where I grew up in Georgia, like shell crackers and bluegill that eat like a cricket or that are eating live stuff, you filet one of them real small creek or river, bluegills prime up. Oh, nothing better in the world.

Yeah. And then bass is similar to that.

Oh, bass. If you get flaky white meat, flaky white meat. Get you a three or four pound bass, filet 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 filethe them. He'd put them in a pyrex dish, saute them, bake them, and then broil them on top. And we'd eat bat, we'd eat largemouth bass. You know, you could either have salmon croquettes that stink up the whole house, you know, where you knew your mama was cooking them, or you can have fresh bass, you know, so 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, you know, you wouldn't want, you wouldn't want your, you wouldn't want everybody fishing your big reservoirs. Like Texas is the best big bass lake reservoir state 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 because your bass, you'll wake up. Let's just, let's just say you've got a nice, brand new bass lake. You built, ten acres, you stock it. You spend 50 grand to put your bluegill, you, all your fish in there. Well, you know, then you just don't ever catch them. Within five years, you've lost it.

Right? You have to manage it.

Yeah, you, you're done. Your lakes, done. Your, your, your, your three pound bass didn't have enough fish to get to four pounds. And then he missed a year of growing, or she missed a year growing and then you just put a $50,000 investment in your bass lake, and then you're out, right? 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 lake with pike in it. I think they might be my favorite thing to catch because they're so ruthless. That's such a ruthless fish.

Animal.

Fucking dinosaur.

A killer look.

Like dinosaurs. First time I caught a pike, I'm like, why isn't this, like, the most exciting thing to catch? They fight hard.

Or a muskie.

Geez, I've never caught one of those.

Me either.

That's the.

We got a.

We got a lot casts.

Yeah, see, I'm not a dude. I'm not that dude. Now I'll wait and hunt it. Hunt up. 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 roll. You know, some people, they're like, they get into numbers.

They're size queens.

Yeah, or score. I'm not that guy. I'm an experienced. Let's have fun. Let's see a lot of animals. Let's catch a lot of fish. Let's keep a lot of action. Let's keep the kids engaged.

Yeah.

You know, like when my boys were, you know, when my boys were four and five, I take them. You don't want to take them out there on their first three bass fishing trips and you burn them in the hot sun and they catch one fish.

Right.

You want them engaged. Engaged and get them going. But, yeah, pike and all that. That, you know, steelheading, that northwest steelheading. Catching one, man, I don't. That's just. I hadn't done that. I can't do that.

That's a release fish, too, right?

Those are. Those are the. The. Yeah, those are high on the list of. Especially, like, c run steelheads. You know, you have. You have some that are kind of locked in, you know, locked in the reservoir. Locked. But you get those, those big c run steelheads, and 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 fucking with those fish? It's a little bit of that. I get it. It's fun. I'm not opposed to it. I get it. But if I catch fish, I like to eat them. That's the whole reason why I'm catching fish.

Say that yet? You know what?

That's why I like to catch wall.

I would still say you're in the majority.

Yeah.

Yeah, you're.

It should be. I mean, imagine if you just run around shooting deer with tranquilizer darts. Like, I got them.

Well, weird. A little weird. Yeah.

I just proved that you did it. Yeah.

You know, and then 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, 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.

Yeah, 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, and I got a. I got a full camo onesie or a coverall. And, dude, I put my new pair of chippewa hunting boots. I put my new set of. I put my new set of coveralls on with the camo pattern. I'd hit the neighborhood walking around with a pellet gun, shooting the neighbor squirrels. And, you know, we. We'd eat them. You know, we'd eat them every now and then. This little old lady, Mabel cox, we'd skin them and she'd fry them with some wild rice. And it tastes 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. Squirrels are very popular.

Squirrel dumpling. Dumplings, yeah. Instead of chicken. Chicken and dumplings. Squirrel dumplings. You know, you get a squirrel and clean 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 off to the races.

People think of them. They have, like, fluffy tail privilege.

Rats. 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, like, aw, so cute. Cute. Not much different, you know.

Well, the fact that, you know, the fact that, yeah, I could run rampant with a eight year, nine years 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 pants, their insulation for.

That's rural life, right?

Yes.

People. Well, that's people that understand what's going on.

Yeah.

That's the difference between a neighborhood in Manhattan. People like, what the fuck is this guy doing? We need these squirrels. If they caught you in Central park with a pellet gun, you go to jail.

1St. 1st round ticket first. Yeah. Do not, do not pass go, do.

Not click break into a store and rob it. Nothing will happen to you. They'll let you right out. But yeah, yeah, but if you get caught in Central park shooting squirrels and eating them, you're gonna 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 for most of history.

No, I mean nothing is wrong with.

Hunting a little bit, especially when 95% of the world eats meat. It's a stupid argument. Argument.

Well, and I think, you know, I think it's all trendy too. I think the beauty is now 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 fuck around like my daughter likes to cook cookies. I had a big ass cookie the other day. It was awesome. 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 way.

Yeah.

And you know, your platform is enlightening me. I mean, you know, dude, I've never, you know, I was around some dude that was talking about, you know, micro dosing mushrooms and all that. Dude, I never saw a drug. I never saw a drug until I was 30.

Did you see moonshine?

Saw moonshine a lot.

Well that is a fucking drug.

Well, and you're right. I mean, you drink, you drink a half, half jar of Mason, you know.

Oh yeah, you gotta do it.

Yeah.

That's the crazy thing about alcohol is.

It gets the put thing.

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.

It's very good. Very mild.

And, man, when I was 39 years old, before I did any tobacco, 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 get 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 never did tobacco, never dip. I put one dip in one time and threw up outside the, outside my high school, this old boy threw me a dip in the. And dude, big old Kodiak. And I threw up outside the high school gymnasium and missed my fifth and 6th period. And I was like, dude, I don't need that.

Remember those bricks? Little squares of chewing tobacco, you bite just.

Oh, yeah. Although. And, well, what I was getting at is I was sitting. We were celebrating a album release. I was 39 years old. One of my best buddies brought a nice David off Churchill cigar and any cigar I'd ever done. I had smoked a cigar like in Vegas. And most time back then, you know, I didn't drink a handle, a crown, and smoke a cigar. And you wake up the next morning, 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, it's kind of nice.

This is kind of like therapy right here.

All these people smoking cigars aren't stupid. It's got to be something to it.

And they're chilled out.

Yeah, they're, you know, it's a nice conversational thing.

They are chilled. They are universally chilled out.

But it's a drug. Oh, listen, it's a drug.

Yeah, let's drug.

We're drinking coffee. That's a drug. This problem is there's a lot of drugs, and some of them are really fucking bad for you.

Here's the deal. And I'll call my buddy every now and then. And he was my buddy that bought me the cigar. He was a lifelong copenhagen and cigarettes here and quitting. And I called him, I'll call him periodically. And I'm like, you asshole. I'm stopping at a grocery. I'm stopping at a random cigar shop. I've gone four 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 a, you know, and then next thing, you know, you're smoking a grocery store gas station cigar to just. But, hey, it keeps you, keeps you. Keeps the head clean.

I like them. Like I said, I think it's one of the best things to smoke.

Twelve of them a day.

No, I don't think so either. But I know people who do. I know people. Just go one to the other. Just chain smoke cigars.

Now, my mother, dude, salem ultralight 103 packs a day. Whoa. Four. Four bud lights a day. Her whole life for Bud, every 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, mom, listen. My mom, man. Dude, she. Joe, she's curved the beer. She's curbed the beer a little bit, but she'll drink her a couple o'toole. But she's gonna have her one or two bud lights every day. Every day she's gone three packs might. She's. But she's like, you know, it's like if she's walking into the. To the dillards or to the TJ Maxx, she's like, oh, my God, I'm.

Walking in a couple of puffs.

Take a couple and hit, you know, litter the parking lot. But she'll, she'll pan fry a rib eye in butter. Pan fries a rib eye.

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 for 76 glorious years.

That'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 hope.

She'S probably at a pack and a half. But, man, when you do the mathematic, I used to sit her down and do math, you know, her and, 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. That becomes a damn number annually.

I think the ribeyes are fine. Leave her alone with the ribeyes, you know?

But through the years, I've gotten Miller light endorsements. I would get Miller light. Like, I'd be like, mama, there's a Miller light truck pulling up to your house. It's gonna deliver you a pallet of Miller light. Just try, just try. Fall in love with Miller light, right? 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 Boyden caught. 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, I let it go after a while. He did. I love him. He's been. He's been 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, like, oof.

Imagine being the CEO of Bud light and seeing that, like, oh, no, kid rock just shot our beer with a fucking automatic and was like, fuck anheuser Busch. Like, no. And, I mean, that alone probably cost him billions of dollars just having our beer.

Yeah, when our beer. When our beer is political. Political.

We're like, not just our beer, but Bud light. Bud light. The beer that sponsored more boxing matches, more sporting events, more people been drinking Bud light. I mean, think about all the people swear by Bud light. Post Malone is always drinking Bud light.

You know, my wife's dad is a. Is a Budweiser. Fucking twelve pack a day, dude, man. And, you know, he had to. He had to hear a little shit from his buddies about it.

But people get in fights in bars. I have a friend who owned a bar we stopped carrying at the mothership because nobody was buying a it. We stopped carrying Bud light because 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 fucked up. They get caught up in the mine virus.

Anheuser Busch taught us that beer is wonderful for Christmas, and Clydesdales and Dalmatians are the equivalent of Jesus and Christmas.

Well, you remember those Bud light guys? The real american genius guys? Real american genius. They had great commercials, dude.

I would cry over the dalmatian Clydesdale commercial. You remember when the little puppy.

Yeah.

He's riding on the Clydesdales and Jimmy. Oh, shit. It's like a friggin hallmark.

You would 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 gonna get all sweet.

There we go.

Oh, don't fall.

Listen, that music.

Oh, little puppy got out. Oh, poor puppy's lost. It's for beer. This is for beer?

Yeah.

Poor little puppy.

Wow, what a commercial. Who we need to find. Oh, God. Wolves. They're in Colorado.

The horses saved the puppy from the wolves. Have a bud. Very effective commercial. You know, real quick you're happy.

Yeah. And then there's the one where that. It's a Dalmatian, too, that grew up and then got to the old Dalmatian in the little. You know, they're riding the. And the young Dalmatian sees the old Dalmatian and 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, and that company got taken out 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 the lady who's responsible for it all basically shit 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.

Love it.

It's the dumbest poker move of all time.

The worst, the worst, the dumbest move. Well, you know, when you look at country music, too, I mean, with country music, I mean. I mean, it is what it is. There's things that it is and you gotta. You gotta love on what it is and then you gotta 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. With every successful music artist that's ever lived it, they may have faked you out any genre, but country is. Even country's tough because once you show any unauthentic. Unauthenticity. Yeah, buddy, 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. You wouldn't imagine me wearing tight jeans on stage. How much that pisses people.

Well, it's cuz you're handsome, but part of the problem, good looking guy up there with 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 fuck is this?

So, Joe, you know, one thing, you know, my biggest. My biggest hurdle ever in my career, and 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. Go, what is that? What is that fucker doing right there? And when I came out with country girl shaking for me on the. On the CMA, shaking my ass, I 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 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 became broke country. Had you ever even heard that term?

I did. 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 fucking pissing me off. And then. And then me and some other artists start getting looped into this bro country phase. Well.

I.

When I was in my form of coming up as an artist and I don't even know we can, we don't have to live on this long, but you'll be amazed, dude. So I would go play. 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 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, you know, three, six, nine, damn, she fine. Give it to me. Give it to me one more time. Get low, get low. I mean, and right when my set got done, hip hop, the vibe went to a nightclub. 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 songs. And I was like, well, man, this is. Nobody's got a fucking problem with this.

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 behind them, it made it.

Tie to a little bit. And then Jason Aldean had his she's country fucking biggest song. When I heard. I. I mean, at the time when Jason and I are buddies, he does she's country. I do country girl check for me. And me and him are like. We're like this shit. Our lives are. I mean, I toured with Jason one year, and he broke all of Elvis's indoor records. We did it for two years. I was the opener, and Jason was the headliner. And people in. In rapid 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 got this interview sitting there, drinking my coffee in my fucking underwear. And this dude calls me with hits magazine, and he goes, well, luke, you know, man, this bro, country. And I said, well, hold up, buddy. 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, because I was coming to Billy Bob's played, and, well, I had Texas.

I had the. I had the. I had. 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. That ain't. I'm a. I'm a college dude that played frat parties, country music. I play. I was like, I fucking did not go sit in a prison cell like Merle Haggard and write songs about guys going to death row. And I didn't go to Folsom prison. And man, I listed all the. I was like, I'm not like Willie Nelson. I don't do Willie Nelson. They're outlaws. And I said, if it's broke country, and that's what I'm labeled as, I said. And where I fucked up is I said, I haven't spent the night, like, sleeping on the street. And I didn't say, like, johnny Cassius 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 basically drug addicts asleep in the street. And, man, I pissed that whole, that, the way they manipulated that story.

I lost that whole crowd right then.

Wow.

Broke my heart. And I think Waylon Jennings daughter went real public with being. I mean, she was fucking 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, be students of those guys.

That's the problem with interviews, is, 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 pop more than you because they'll take our, man, I hope we sit here and bullshit for 3 hours, but they'll take your five minutes.

Right out of context.

And now they'll AI you.

That's happened 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. When you get misrepresented in that type of deal, and then the. The subcategories of articles, then the article of the article of the article. What year was this, man? I don't know. We. I don't. It was probably 2012 or 13.

So this was when social, this was not as impactful.

It was becoming.

Was YouTube even around then?

Yes. And clickbait, the world of clickbait was. Was getting. Started, getting rocking and. But what, so what I did is, man, I called Waylon Jennings daughter and said, I said, ma'am, I just forgot to say like this, like the Chris Christofferson song Sunday morning coming down. That's all I meant. Bye. And I think she accepted. I called. 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 Jesse Whelan. I called Jesse Coulter. And she goes, Luke, what did you mean in the interview? And I told her, and she goes, Waylon stopped doing print interview. It was. And then, but by then the narrative started. And since then, I can all, I can always tell that 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 the side, you know, as I'm posing with 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 of that.

Right, Joe laugh so my album came out. I put. I worked on an album for three years called mind of a country boy, and I put it out like 1 October. And I didn't want to put the damn album out because the reality is, is I'm not at the height when every artist hits their peak. Every, you know, it. I mean, I sold out. I was selling out football stadiums. First day, three or four years, I did it. I know that's my peak. Probably. I know it is. Fuck, I'm not going to even say probably. I'm a real. Well. So we put the album out, and I said, you know what? The albums. No albums sell. Nothing sells anymore. So I knew there was gonna 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 sold what it didn't do. It did what I thought it did as me being the artist where I'm at in my life, especially in this.

World of streaming, right? Nothing's buying anymore.

Nothing's buying. Well, dude, I did 2040. I did 40 hours of. 40 hours of, you know, all the stuff.

What's happened is because of online advertising being the primary source of income for news, they have to do clickbait shit. They have to distort things. And then they have editors that don't give a shit about anything other than the bottom line. So you get a writer, even if the writer is 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.

Editors ass is about to get canned.

Yeah, exactly.

Because they. His company just got bought by bitcoin conglomerate.

Exactly.

That.

That's why artists should just stay away from that shit.

Well, and I. You do. And I knew it. What sucks.

Yeah.

Is you know. 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 could take you out of context. And then if anything goes wrong, so. That guy's full of shit. This is what I said. I didn't even make a video.

I did.

And those people should be shamed.

It's a hair.

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, dude, man, listen, you know the deal. I mean, I grew up in South Georgia and, you know, we've raised our dang kids like colorblind. It's so awesome. I'm so proud of their colorblindness.

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 colorblind. They think you. That that's a lie.

See, I told them that way.

That was what we were all working towards until about 2012. Have you ever seen, like, the numbers? I'm gonna 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 and popular us news media outlets. Now look at what happens. 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 shit. So you have Fox News. You have a lot of this. You have people get a little bit more jazzed up. Look at transphobia. You never even heard what the fuck that was until 2010. Look. Look how it just jumps up in 2020. In 1990, didn't exist. 1980, didn't exist. Islamophobia, same deal. Anti semitism. Scroll all the way up to the top, though, Jamie, 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 racism. Why? Because no one wants racism. No one wants to be racist. Everyone is scared of being called racist. And all the race hustlers love to call people racist, so it becomes a commodity, so people start trading and racist.

Racism. And this idea that you shouldn't be colorblind and then you should recognize race, you should recognize color and stop. We were on a good path to what Martin Luther King said. Judging people based on the content of their character. We were on that path, and social media and manipulation fucked us. And hopefully we realize what happened now. And I think there'll be a downward trend. And people sort of, like, wake up. I think that is. That's one thing that is balancing out right now with the Internet is enough. People are realizing they've been manipulated, so it's starting to, like, calm down. A lot of this woke shit started to die off as people are coming to their senses. 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.

When you're so dang, you know the deal.

You're naive. You're a little bit naive. Cause you're a nice guy, but it's because you're a good person. Person. That's why you're naive. You soon.

What's amazing is when I met 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 enjoy doing that? Like, seeing new talent pop up?

Nothing is more amazing than watching a broken kid that's been told they're not good and they come from everywhere. It could be the, man. The craziest thing is the kids that were raised in the homes of doctors that the doctor family, they can't wrap their head around my child wanting to go try this fucking music thing. What? We'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. 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 have a note or two. Like, you know, just lost their father to cancer three months ago, you know, from a small town. But other than that, man, we don't know what they're going to do and how they're going to react. And it's pretty cool. I mean, you know, when I just moved to Nashville when American Idol was just, I mean, 40 million viewers a week.

Week. And the, you know, the tone in Nashville is that's the cheap route to get famous because 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, what's not totally fair that they get to just pop on tv and, and insert, you know, and skip all the. But now, I mean, now that's gone, which is great.

Well, here's an example. Oliver Anthony.

Totally.

Oliver Anthony has one song he releases. It's the most pull up that song because this fucking song, this dude, when I released a camera and him with.

His, when I heard it, I was like, holy shit. That's fucking amazing. And holy shit, that guy better have some songs to come behind it.

Yeah, well, he's a talented mother. I mean, very, very bright man.

And it's what life shit. Listen to that bullshit pay so I can sit out here and waste my life away drag back home and drown my trouble. Damn shame. Listen to that.

This dude was selling equipment. He'd 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'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 for him because 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. They want 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. I had heard a couple of his other songs as well. He's fucking talented and he's genuine. And I go, you can't fake that. Just stay independent, man, because they're not going to offer you anything. Those people are just going to their, the reason why they want to give you a lot of money is because 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 you $7 million and you didn't have any money. I go, just bank on yourself, man.

Yeah. And, God, you know, the beauty of idol is, and guys like this, there's so many avenues now. You go the old fashioned route. You can go the quick route. You can go the idle 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 kids 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 Kerry Underwood won, and even people after that, they went their ass to work, too.

And it's an insane opportunity.

It's insane. Yeah. And, you know, these kids on idle now, they love seeing their social media platforms go up 1000%, and it's worth it. And, you know, we, you know, and there's gonna be bumps in the road and it's, you know, it's still, you know, it's still, you know, there's going to be a, you know, a group of people saying, you know, American Idol may exploit these kids. Man. I'm in the back. I'm behind the scenes on everything. And, man, 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 him. And these, I I think, you know, these kids 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 gotta do your path. Yeah, 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 shit with comedians today. Oh, because a comedian will have one clip where he's doing some crowd work or one clip of one bit that everybody loves, then all sudden he's selling out. And everybody's like, that guy, he only.

Had one good job.

He's only been around for three years. But so what? He let him run with it. Let him run with it. You know, it's, it's, we're living in a new world. It's like the song everybody 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 figured out how to tell jokes and make a living and, and, you know, all like, man, like I said, 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 03:00 a.m. and start motherfucking people. Like, dude, I I want to. I want to kill them. And I put you in. Like I said, you get over it. You get over it. But, man, it pisses you off.

I don't read anything. 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.

Do good with it. And I mean, hell, I mean, I'm sitting, I'm 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 because humans always had to worry about threats. And if the threats were other tribes or predators or whatever, you had to.

Attack that threat.

Mentally conditioned to look.

For fight or flight or something.

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 gonna think about. You're not gonna think all the people that they say you're awesome, you're gonna 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 you got people in your world where, man, you know, there's assholes, and you'll huddle up and you'll spend an hour talking about how you can't believe how big an asshole that person is. And I'm like, guys, we're 15 minutes in on talking about this person being an asshole.

We wasted 15 minutes.

We wasted 15 minutes on us trying to figure out, why can't they stop being an asshole?

You basically wasted one 100th of your day on somebody. Did somebody that said, sucks. You only get a hundred of those 15 minutes in a day. You wasted one. Talking about a shithead. It's a mess, but it's a normal thing that people do. You just got to not do it.

You got to realize where when I see, when I see other buddies doing it, I'm like, ho, get out of there. Yeah, man.

I recognized it when I was on television. Before social media, there was a thing called the, there was these Hollywood, 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, oh, I can't believe they're number two. We should be number. We should be right after friends.

Oh.

And everybody was upset, and I was like, you guys are. I'm on tv. I don't know what the fuck is wrong with you people. I'm on television. Television. I can't believe I'm on tv. You guys are upset that we're number 30 instead of number two or whatever the fuck 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 fucking television show, and yet you're reading these magazines and it's like, is it Thomas Jefferson who wrote that quote? Comparison is a thief of joy. But whoever was that, was it Jefferson? I know we know who it is. We've read it before. But that quote is so accurate. Accurate comparison. It's. That's why billionaires. 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 because you're in a crazy fucking numbers race, and it doesn't mean anything. You're not even enjoying what you have.

So my wife, for her 40th birthday, Mandy and I surprised her, and I rented her. Never done anything. We rented, like, a 120 foot boat and took all her college friends down to St. Bart's for New Year's. 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 foot west point. Beautiful. We get to St. I didn't know what the fuck we were doing.

Oh, you're in the yacht world. Okay, so you're entering into these worlds of 200 foot boats.

250 the oligarchs.

Yeah, okay. Yeah, I've seen that before.

And it's in St. Barts, and they all, they all float there for New Year's.

Uh huh. And it's all dick measuring contests, 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 my captain, I said, did you ever pilot one of those? He goes, oh, yeah. He goes, I said, what were they doing on there? He goes looking at the other boats, wondering. I said, that dude is on a fucking 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, you know.

And I'm entering in. Yeah, you just got to get your little world like my little world now. Tight. My little Tennessee hunting world. I tell 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, cap?

Isn't that nuts? Imagine being on a 250 foot yacht, looking at the dude on the 300 foot yacht going, God damn it, I gotta upgrade. I was talking to a dude who pilots yachts, and he was telling me that 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, because they always want another yacht. They always want a bigger yacht. It's a trap. It's a giant trap. Imagine having all that money, you not even appreciating it because you worried about making more. Remember when we were kids, if you said, like, what would you do if you had a million dollars, man, I'd never work again. I'd fucking just.

Well, you know, I remember dreaming, did you lay in bed and just be like. I remember dreaming about trying to do it and how I was gonna go, how you gonna get rich how am I gonna get. I wouldn't say rich. How am I gonna be able to have my own little. My own bass pond, right? Because 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, fuck. And so I remember doing that. And then when you start achieving it, man, I still. I mean, I don't. I don't think it's. I don't think I'm living in that world of, like, the. They're digging, you know? I think you can for a minute. Yeah, I think it can. You can for a little bit, like.

But it's a trap.

It is a trap.

And the problem is it's all numbers. It's like, you know how dudes are crazy with deer? Like, I want a 200 inch deer, 200 inches. I want a 400 inch elk. They get crazy with numbers. And I talked to this dude who worked on a ranch, and they have big elk on this ranch, and he said sometimes the hunters are really happy with an elk, and. And then they'll put a tape to it, measure it, and it's 396. And they get bummed out because it's not 400. I'm like, those people are sick. You should never have them here again. You should 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 in my imagination did I ever think I was going to be rich. I never even thought about it. When I started doing standup comedy, my dream was to be a professional because I always had jobs. My dream was to be able to pay my bills with comedy. I looked at all that was.

That was now my dream. Yeah. Let me make sure I didn't steer you wrong on that. My dream was to do these things out of being driven. Like. Right. I mean, when I moved to Nashville, I wrote on a chalkboard, write a number one scenario song, you know, win a. Win a CMA award, you know?

Oh, she had, like, a vision board.

I had a little vision board.

Nice.

But I didn't understand. I didn't really comprehend the money after that. Cause 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 of. So, I mean, I barely. My dad barely got the money for me to go to the community college twelve minutes down the road. So going to Georgia didn't.

Wasn't even.

I didn't even put it in there. Right, so go ahead.

But 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 money. I just think it's a trap. And the problem, if you're always comparing yourself to other people, you're not gonna enjoy what you have. You enjoy this experience, temporary experience of life.

Right. You know, because it is temporary.

It's so quick. I'm 57 years old. How the fuck 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 happen so quick? What are you doing with your time? And are you enjoying? 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 out there, because 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. Like, the air is clean. I feel more in touch with being alive. It just feels better. And I think. I'm not thinking about anything else. If I'm elk hunting, I'm not thinking about jokes, and I'm not thinking about podcast guests.

I'm not thinking about jack shit. I'm just thinking about what I'm doing. That's it. It's very difficult to do, and 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. Brain. It's good for you.

I lost, you know, I lost my brother and my sister and my sister's husband passed away. And, man, when. And then, yeah, I lost my brother at 26, my sister at 39, and her husband died at 45. And, man, it is present. The daily appreciation of this deal is visually present.

Isn't that crazy about people, though? Is like they almost need to lose something to be able to appreciate what you have.

Well, and I tell people, man, you know, you meet. I tell people, man, really be careful because if you make it to 80, you're gonna get. You're gonna get popped 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. Well, I'm saying you're gonna lose something. You're gonna lose something deep. You're not going to get through a to z without really a hard. A hard loss.

No, that's a part of life.

And. But some people, man, they're just delusional. Just.

Well, they're delusional. And then a lot of people are medicated too, so that they don't even know what the fuck 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'd you do? What'd you do? Did you help people? Did you make people feel better? Did you inspire people? Did you enrich people's lives? What'd you do? You know? And then you have to realize, like, God damn. I wasted a lot of time reading comments.

Thank you. Thank you for doing that.

I 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.

Everybody says they don't look at their phone, you know, let me see your screen time. Like 6 hours. Jesus, bitch, what the fuck are 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 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. Yeah, we're the lab rats.

We really are. Especially our kids. Our kids really are the lab rats. 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'd 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. We're watching people. It's.

Yeah, if you're on Instagram, you're seeing people dying.

Every.

Every day. Every day. I have friends.

I mean, legs breaking.

Oh, yeah.

I mean, I remember Joe Theisman, when Joe Theisman broke his leg. Dude, it, like, shut the country down.

Yeah, I know. Now that's.

Now it's like, that's nothing.

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 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 watch things on Instagram. I just don't read comments. But me and Tom Segura, we send each other the most horrible shit every day. It's ridiculous. But some days he sends me things. I don't even look at them.

I'm like, oh, I can see it coming. But I do love, I do love the funny, comical aspect of it that gets me in a cup of coffee. Dying, laughing at some person being a goofball or memes. Oh, some memes names.

Yeah. Memes are some of the best comedy out there, and it's just random. People create these funny things. There's a lot of funny people.

What's amazing is we've gotten to where we can see the meme happen and predict the meme and the means on your phone the next day, and you're like, within hours.

Oh, yeah, 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 fucking hilarious.

It's like a meme factory.

Well, it's like jokes. Remember jokes? Like, you know, two guys walking to a bar? Those jokes? Who fucking 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 story. Two guys walking away, bar. And then, you know, it's everywhere.

Well, I mean, there's 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, get outside. And they do a good job. But, man, 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. Way different than anything that any other generation has ever experienced, experienced before.

Like my son, he's a 16 year old quarterback, and, man, he watches all these other quarterbacks on, on, you know. Hell, there are 14 recruiting download sites from that. And my son's like, that dude right there is the greatest quarterback in the country. I said, well, how old is hedgesthem? Bo? He's 15, dad. I'm like, bo, we don't know what that little shit's gonna be. 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 had a rating next to me and probability of me making. Yeah, it would have been a one star. I worked myself into a, hopefully a three star, three star recruit, and he's looking at me like I'm crazy. And so one of those kids he played, he played him. Now my son's not starting. He's backup quarterback to a great quarterback. And we played him and we beat him. We get down, he gets home after the game. I said, what'd you think about your little savior? There he goes. He's still the greatest quarterback of all time.

I said, bo, he lost the fucking game. He's 15. Just, son, let it. Let's let life happen before we anoint.

Yeah. Just be inspired. Be inspired by other success. But don't take it too serious. Seriously. And also recognize that kid might start getting laid and throw it all away.

Exactly. He may. He don't know what's gonna.

Yeah, you're 15. You don't know what the fuck's coming your way.

You don't know one. Yeah, yeah.

You run into some russian chick in.

Your english class yet? Some new russian exchange student that needs a. Needs an english tutor?

Yeah. All of a sudden, you don't have any sperm left in your body. You're dehydrated all day long.

Yeah, you're. Yeah, you're getting electrolytes on the sideline.

And you're not doing any offseason running or lifting. You're busy also. People just. They lose the focus, you know, and sometimes they get pushed too hard by their parents. There's a little bit of that, too. The kids rebel. They 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 how old now?

20. 816 and 14.

Yeah. The 16 and 14.

The 16 and 14 are going through a totally different experience. The girls are TikTok. All girls.

The TikTok girls are. Girls are way. I mean, I just.

They're way more influential.

My heart.

Yeah.

Aches for. For girls in this. 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, because girls are fucking vicious to each other. Online. Boys will run into each other and punch each other in the face.

Yeah.

But girls will attack each other's character, and they'll have their reputation destroyers. And they love to, like, make up stories about girls and be mean about girls and talk shit 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, and you're ruining people's lives. 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.

When you have. 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. Thought when we were kids, it wasn't processed as anxiety. It was processed as, like, life. Yeah, I'm nervous. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

Yeah.

I got a big test. My stomach hurts. I gotta go take a shit.

Right, right.

Yeah.

Right now it's the thing they think about all the time. And the problem with that is Abigail Schreier wrote a book about this. You focus on your problems. Your problems oftentimes become bigger. When you think about things like anxiety, guess what makes you more anxious? It doesn't help it. It actually has the opposite effect. It's a weird world, but they're gonna be okay. We're all gonna be okay. We're just gonna have to adjust and figure it out. On the fly. It's just this. This adjustment is bigger than any adjustment that any generations 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.

Jelly roll. Jesus.

Love that dude.

Best thing ever.

He's one of my favorite human beings ever.

Best thing.

He's such a fucking sweetheart.

Best thing ever.

That guy sang that song, save me, and everybody was like, what is going on? This. This fucking 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 said, taylor, you.

Know, and what amazes me 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. You know, I've had people, you know, when you grow up in a country music band and you're on the bus for hours with buddies and everybody go, they got their own life. And then, man, you find out I had one band member almost kill himself over something, that if he'd have just had somebody say, man, I have that, too.

Right, right.

And he would have not felt alone.

Right.

And people have got to quit, like, thinking that they're the only ones that have gone through some shit, 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 came out. I thought, that's good. And then. But my wife's household was. Man, they, you know, you know, bottled it. 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, you 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 wife's like, yeah, my mama did not 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, just.

That's kind of crazy.

Everybody's.

Well, when you have daughters, there's a certain amount of time where you can't be naked in front of me more. Once I hit, like four or five years old, you're like, okay, that's a ra.

16 year old. So my beard. We're living in our guest house right now because we're doing some. Some work to our main house. You know, we're. Our main house had stuff that just kept happening. 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. When my wife stored all of my. All of my bathroom stuff. It's in a. It's in a box somewhere on my shaving gear. I run into my son's bathroom. My 16 year old, and I grabbed this beer trimmer. I grabbed a. I grabbed this fucking trimmer sitting there, and I shaved my beard. And I'm all up under my nose.

And smell bald hair.

No. I get in my truck, and I'm driving down the road. My son gets home from school crying, laughing, what, dad, you shaved your beer with my ball trimmers. And I was like, you little shit. First of all, I'm like, what in the hell? 16 year old manscaping. What the fuck's going on?

It's a new world.

I know. I'm like, dude, I never imagined you had. I don't even think he's, you know, whatever. These. Damn, it's so fun, man. These kids, my dad, my brother, my God, it's so amazing, dude. You know, we were elk hunting, man, and my 14 year old, we got this really cool. When we go elk hunt, we got a wade across a river to get to our elk spot. And the first couple years, man, we didn't. We just stripped down to our underwear and hung our boots and all our gear and walked underwear, and, dude, it was kind of like, 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 them. Well, then after two years, we were like, dude, let's go by and get, like, eight pairs of waders and sit 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. So, Tate, for the past. The last three years, I've toted him across the river, and, man, I looked at him the last day of the hunt, and this was 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 cause you're Luke Bryan's son, you don't get the damn elk. And I said, hey. I said, I want to tote you across the river. I said, you're growing. And this probably be the last year. So I towed him across the river, and then on the way back, he goes, hey, dad, I want to wade it by myself. And, man, he.

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 sit my boat, and he takes his bow and sits it down, and he watches everything I do. And it was the cutest thing ever. I haven't even told my wife. So every year, I take my boots and I tie them in a knot, and I hang them and throw them over my. Because we're toting gear. And I throw my boots over my shoulders so they don't get wet. And, man, I looked at him, and he's sitting there tying his little string. He stands up and throws boots, and he just, man, watching your kids just absorb it, it's just, you know, it's pretty damn special.

Sounds like you're having a beautiful life, my friend.

Well, it's.

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. Was that more than 3 hours, was it?

Yeah, yeah. Holy shit, daddy.

33 hours.

Here it is. Mind of a country boy. Listen or download now. Look at you, you handsome bastard. Well, fucking tight jeans.

Tight jeans. Everybody hates me.

They don't hate you, man. Just don't read the ones that do.

Oh, shit.

Appreciate you, brother. Thank you.

Hey, love you, too.

Love you, too.

Bye.

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