Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: This was for the home team.
[00:00:08] Speaker B: This was for the home team.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: Hey, everyone, this is Austin Tailgate Beers. Today's episode is all about Ryan Thompson.
We've shared it some on this podcast. We've shared a lot of stories, you know, I've gotten to hear a lot about. But I think you're also the type of person that has, you know, kept reserved about some things at times. And being able to piece all that together of who you are over the years has been fun to understand. But I also think we sometimes, you know, miss those moments of really what makes you who you are and, you know, why you are the way you are. So, yeah, we're going to dive in today again. We've got Surfside sitting here.
They became a big sponsor of us. One of my favorites is pretty much your just straightforward iced tea vodka.
The green tea has just become a new favorite of Ryan and I's. I would say it's probably Ryan's favorite.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: It is definitely my favorite. Yeah. But I do have this nice little reversible koozie that they gave us as well, so I want to take it off so you can see that it's actually Green Tea.
[00:01:16] Speaker A: But, yeah, but no, we appreciate Surfside. So again, shout out Surfside for being a part of this, taking a chance, being a part of the festival cruisings and everything else.
But, yeah, this whole thing is going to pretty much be sponsored by them because we're going to go through a lot of them. We've talked about your younger years.
Talk about your family. How many siblings do you have?
[00:01:37] Speaker B: So I have quite the extended family through. Through some. Some divorces a couple times over.
But I have an older sister, Kirsten, who is an avid Tailgate Beers supporter. You can see her on all of our socials a lot.
And then Miles is my younger brother.
And then I've got. Leanna and Alyssa are sisters as well.
And then I have Brandon and Blake.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: Blake.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: Blake is the one that was just commenting about Joe Stam. So shout out to Blake and him being active on our socials as well. So all of those are in some way, form or fashion. Maybe not all blood, but certainly what I would call siblings.
[00:02:27] Speaker A: Who do you think you were closer to as a kid? As far. As. I don't know in age, but as far as just throughout your younger years, I mean, do you. Did you guys have sibling beef?
How was that for you? And were you like the. Were you the older? Were you the younger?
[00:02:43] Speaker B: So I was the middle child, so I was always the one that was left out, you know, having that middle child syndrome. But my sister is Kirsten. She's two years older than me. So, you know, she has that, the age. And then Miles, my brother who lived with us as well, he's seven years younger than me. So a little bit of an age gap between me and him. But we also spent a lot of time together just because we were the two younger boys of the house and shared rooms at times growing up and stuff like that. So the older sister and the younger brother, again, kind of put me in the middle and you know, between those two, I will say and a quick little digression here, so my older sister Kirsten was always kind of the smart and she ended up getting herself into a little bit of trouble in high school, hanging around with different crowds and whatnot.
And then Miles, he's like the super smart, you know, works for Caterpillar now, but used to work for Rivian, used to work for State of Ohio where I worked for a period of time. Has multiple degrees like physics and, and anthropology and, and just stuff that I can barely even pronounce. Always been, been the super, super smart guy like my kids to this day, you know, if dad doesn't know the answer, they usually say, well, let me call Uncle Miles and just super smart, super smart kids. So still is the same way. Like I said, he does like data, science, data stuff that, you know, is way above anything that I could even think about understanding.
[00:04:24] Speaker A: Do you have, do you have any crazy stories of sibling family, you know, funny things you look back on as a child that, you know, growing up in the, the 90s and even, you know, late 80s of just some shit where you just look back on and just kind of laugh about.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: So it actually happened recently and I didn't even know this was coming, but it just popped in my head. So we used to as a family and you know, the three of us as kids and then my mom and my stepdad, who is basically my father as well, we used to watch Roseanne, you know, back in those days. And I think it might have been. Maybe it was, it was a Cosby show or something too. But one of the, the producers of, of that show was, was Girl, I guess. I don't know, I've never looked it up. But, but their name was Marcy Cary. And one of the, the things that, you know, it was like a daily show, right? You know, those are our five days a week shows that even at that time, and maybe if it wasn't even at that time, I don't Know, maybe I'm. I'm thinking more of recent.
Recent history, but, you know, on a Tuesday night watching Roseanne when Marcy Cary pops up on the screen, whoever is the first person that announces Marcy Car wins, right? We didn't win anything. You know, it was just one of those things where, you know, just kind of internal family, little competition. So, you know, everybody's waiting for the show to get over and the little credits pop up and. And there's Marcy Cary. And, you know, you gotta. You gotta yell out Marcy Cary, and then you're the winner for the night. So that was always kind of a fun thing. And then actually here, just recently, within the last, I don't know, four or five months, we were at my. My oldest daughter's house in Ohio, and. And it was an old Roseanne show. We were watching, you know, rerun, and Marcy Carcy popped up, and I yelled, marcy Carsey. And. And everybody in the house looked at me like I was, you know, crazy. But so I had to tell them the story as well and then texted my mom. So she was. She was excited about that.
[00:06:22] Speaker A: I mean, doesn't it pop up at the same time every time?
[00:06:24] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:06:24] Speaker A: Aren't credits like, you know, it's coming?
[00:06:27] Speaker B: It's just one of those things where, you know, you have those little things as a family. You know, you're sitting around, you're doing this, doing that. You know, maybe it's playing games or whatever it is, but that was just one thing in our house growing up that, you know, that I'll. I'll always remember, every time that pops up, I'll always be the first one to yell Marcy Carsey.
[00:06:45] Speaker A: So you were. You're a young dude living in Henry, Illinois, right? I was washing and born there.
[00:06:54] Speaker B: I mean, I was born in Peoria.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: But, yeah, born and raised.
[00:06:58] Speaker B: Raised in Henry.
[00:06:58] Speaker A: Yeah, born and raised in Henry.
[00:07:00] Speaker B: So Henry's about 35 miles north of. Of Peoria down Route 29. So Peoria is like our servicing city.
[00:07:08] Speaker A: You're right. It's the big city.
[00:07:09] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: Young kid, as you go through junior high, you know, sports, all that stuff. What were you. What were you into? What were you. What was kind of your obsessions that you went through? You know, like, I. I was into fighter jets at one point. Big into that. What were you kind of into as a younger kid? Sports wise and even just dream, you know. Dreaming wise?
[00:07:46] Speaker B: Yeah. So I would say from. From sports as a younger kid. I mean, I played baseball up until. And Austin And I have coached baseball together for four or five years up until probably junior high, was always big on basketball. Basketball was like my coping mechanism for life. Right. So having a small court, not even a court, just having a basketball hoop on the side of my driveway for a period of time, I was actually on the garage until I broke it.
But having that out there was my coping mechanism for anything that happened in. I'd go out and pick up a basketball and. And just shoot. You know, that's. That's where I learned how to rebound. Because I was out there by myself for hours upon hours, and I would read the ball, going to the rim, knowing that I had to go, you know, this way or that way to go get the rebound by myself.
And I still swear, and I still actually, you know, coaching basketball today, I still coach kids how to read the ball, you know, off the shot, just to put themselves in the right position for a rebound. But that's based upon, you know, in the back of my head, you know, thinking about that as a young kid, that, you know, I don't want to chase the ball any farther than I have to. So I'm gonna. I'm gonna, you know, read that.
[00:08:52] Speaker A: So mine was much different because my basketball hoop.
[00:08:55] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Was a massive hill behind it.
[00:08:59] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:00] Speaker A: And what's even worse is there was a curb, like a curb at the end of our drive so that you couldn't drive off of it.
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:09:07] Speaker A: And so if you didn't read that ball right, you were running because that ball was hauling. So that experience is so funny that.
[00:09:14] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:09:15] Speaker A: It just kind of lives with you of reading it and. Yeah. Coping with basketball is there's nothing better than just shoot some shots.
[00:09:24] Speaker B: And, I mean, I'd be out there for hours and just, again, just shooting and getting my own rebound, shooting again and, you know, junior high, getting into high school and whatnot. You know, I had a little nicer hoop at that point so I could dunk and, you know, lower the rim. You know, that was a big thing, you know, back in early 90s, you know, that you had an adjustable rim that you can, you know, lower down to seven, eight foot and dunk.
So I was always working on my dunk game.
[00:09:52] Speaker A: Meanwhile, I'm the kid that's got a tape measure out there making sure it is exactly at 10ft, no less, no more.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: But no, that. That drove me. That drove me a lot. I mean, my. My. Eventually, I kind of dropped off of baseball and really focused on basketball overall, you know, did little things here and There. But one of the other thing that I remember as a kid is when the Saudi war, you know, we're talking probably again early 90s, you know, George Sr. I think I met George Sr. In Chilicothe, Illinois, when he was campaigning for president. And that kind of stuck with me in like, fourth grade, you know, having, you know, getting to shake his hand as he was campaigning here.
[00:10:42] Speaker A: Like desert storms. Yeah, okay.
[00:10:43] Speaker B: Yeah. So then Desert Storm started kicking off and I. And, and for whatever reason, and. And certainly as we go along this story, it does kind of, you know, piece itself together. But for whatever reason, I really got into, like, the war and I started collecting, you know, the Peoria Journal Star. And I don't have them today, but I had bags and bags of Peoria Journal Star with. With nothing but the war stuff on the front page from Desert Storm. And all of that was happening back in that day and never really knew why, but it just was kind of not necessarily fascinating to me, but it was something that intrigued me or caught my interest. And I remember just having bags of, again, just papers that, I mean, I wasn't reading them. It was just more of like a collecting and knowledge about them. And that probably goes to some of my history teachers that I actually did like or did pay attention to, probably.
But as we fast forward that story, you'll hear too, that, you know, certainly, you know, going into the military, you know, kind of kind of creates that puzzle. We're not. We're not quite there yet.
[00:11:53] Speaker A: Do you consider. So, I mean, what. There was like 12 kids at Henry School when you were there?
[00:11:59] Speaker B: I mean, those were in your class. It was. I graduated and I'm gonna get. I'm gonna get beat up for this. But all this, all the social.
But I want to say off the top of my head, I think we maybe, maybe crossed over 40 somewhere around there. It might have been splitting here.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: I mean, we're, you know, you're 20. You're in a class of 20, some boys, 20, some girls. Roughly calling it 50.
[00:12:23] Speaker B: 50, yeah.
[00:12:24] Speaker A: And that was throughout junior high and high school or how big was the high school did the high school get?
[00:12:29] Speaker B: The high school was no bigger than the junior high. Yeah, we didn't. We didn't really consolidate much then. We did have one small town that consolidated with us, but that was early on.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: You're pretty much running all these same kids your who life. Were you considered a good kid, a troublemaker, good grades? Where would people rank Ryan Thompson at?
[00:12:47] Speaker B: Definitely not in the good grades department. I would say probably More of the attention seeking class clown.
You know, the attention span, my attention span. If you ever watch me on a podcast or anywhere else, you know that I'm not very good at sitting still. I'm a little hyperactive, like to move around a lot.
You know, I sit on an exercise ball, I jump on trampolines.
[00:13:11] Speaker A: We gotta get to that here in a little bit.
[00:13:12] Speaker B: But like I'm, I'm getting too far ahead of myself here, huh? But any class clown, so I'm, I, so I like to, you know, and it's not because I didn't like my teachers or whatnot, or didn't respect them or anything along those lines. It was just, I got so bored and I really felt like I needed to, you know, yell out, you know, some random chicken sound, you know, and then they would give me detention.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: You were the kid yelling penis in class.
[00:13:38] Speaker B: I don't know if it was penis, but you never played that game.
I was definitely that guy. I was definitely that guy as you.
[00:13:45] Speaker A: You know, again, I feel like we, I feel like we are very similar in a certain aspect of the school. You know, going to smaller class size, you're very, there's a lot of attention on you that doesn't necessarily always need to be on you. And that's kind of where I was going with this as, even as a younger kid, you know, both very hyperactive, adhd, whatever you want to call it, get into high school again, probably again, very similar for me. Middle of the road, average student, I would assume grade wise, just getting through. We getting through, getting through.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: I don't know if I would say average. Okay, just getting through. And a quick side story on that. So sophomore year of high school, I took geometry for the first time and ended up not passing geometry. So I took it again my junior year and I didn't get much better. My junior year in geometry I wasn't, you know, practicing as much as I should have probably so ended up taking geometry again my senior year. Came down to, I think it was graduation.
The day before graduation of my senior year, I had to pass the final with like a C or something like that in order to walk and graduate the next day. Wow, it took me three years.
[00:15:11] Speaker A: So crazy.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: And shout out to Mrs. McCroly who is my geometry teacher for three years.
She's taught me a lot of lessons in life and I've had this conversation with her not in the last 15, 20 years, but previous to that, just some of the lessons. But a quick. I used to terrorize her, terrorize her. And so Mrs. McCroly was, was a very nice teacher, kind of laid back, but I would just terrorize her. For whatever reason. She always had me sitting up in the front chair next to her table. Next to the desk. Yeah, right. I don't know why. And geometry. So we had papers at the time. This is also, you know, early 90s, mid-90s.
And so she'd have the whole class pass the papers up to me or up to the front table, front desk, where she was. They'd all get to me. And then once I got the whole stack of papers, I would take the stapler off of her desk and I'd staple about 50 staples right in the middle of the stack. Whole stack of math papers. So when she would go to grade them that night, she'd have to peel each one individually and they're ripping and tearing. And this is, you know, my classwork classmates work, you know that they were up all night doing. I didn't turn one in, so it wasn't mine, but I, I legit terrorized. I mean it was.
I. There's more of those stories, but I'll save those for, for off camera.
[00:16:37] Speaker A: Make me look good.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: Just so you know, this. At this rate, this podcast is going to be about seven hours long.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: Yeah, I know. That's where I'm trying to keep her moving along. I just, I think it's good, I think, I think it's interesting to know people childhood of where we are as kids because I also think, you know, I was a certain way that yes, there are a lot of things I am now still. I'm still adhd. I still, you know, have all these same certain habits. Some help me today and some hurt me still. And I think it's just interesting how people's passions and obsessions over certain stuff kind of evolve, you know, also the family you come come from and around, you know how that kind of evolves. So again, you're in high school, you get to walk during that time. I mean, you were basketball all through high school.
[00:17:30] Speaker B: Yeah, basketball was eventually, probably even my freshman year became my, my only true sport. I don't think I ever played baseball. I might have done track for a short period of time in high school, but it was primarily focused on basketball. Now in Henry also, we didn't have football, so there was no football offer growing up, you know, no JFL or anything along those lines. Probably would have enjoyed that.
But yeah, so like my junior year, maybe we ended up consolidating just for football for my junior and Senior year I did not play just because again, I was kind of into the basketball scene but then also not playing growing up, you know, I didn't want to go my junior senior year and have no idea what I was doing.
[00:18:16] Speaker A: Right. So basketball only pretty much through high school.
[00:18:20] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:21] Speaker A: No ambitions for college basketball. Was there a hope? Was there there?
[00:18:25] Speaker B: There was a hope, but again, going back to my grades, I just didn't have the grades. And, and my coaches and teachers told me all along, you know, there, there was there. You know, I wasn't a D1 athlete by any stretch of imagination, but you know, a lower end, D2, D3, something along those lines. I probably could have gone played but didn't have the grades to even get into college, let alone be thinking about, you know, anything along those lines. So.
So yeah, I mean I just.
As I was graduating, Caterpillar here in Peoria, Illinois is a large employer. I was able to get an apprenticeship with them. So I started off doing AutoCAD type of apprenticeship with them straight out of high school.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: I don't know that I even knew that to be honest with you.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: Yep, did that for a period of time. Went to icc, Illinois Central College and had an apprenticeship with them.
[00:19:13] Speaker A: I literally don't know that I knew you did AutoCAD and did all this.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Maybe you told me Pro Engineering AutoCAD.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I did that. Did you have a serious girlfriend all through high school? Were you a. I don't have a girlfriend type guy, just kind of play the field. Where was that, where was that at in high school?
[00:19:31] Speaker B: Didn't play the field. I mean there wasn't a ton but, but you know, definitely had a, had a handful.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: High school is the age where the military I think grabs ahold of most people if there is that chance. You know, again I was there on the cusp of. But again also generation times were a little bit different as far as what wars we're in, who's president, things are going on.
Where were you at in the military at this point of why didn't you go directly out of high school? You're going to ICC doing AutoCAD. Where does it come in to jump into it?
[00:20:10] Speaker B: So interestingly enough, so the. My apprenticeship because of my own doing. And again being, you know, 18 year old boy at the time, decision making wasn't. Wasn't my best thing that I had going for me.
So the apprenticeship, I mean I lasted maybe, maybe six, eight months.
Didn't finish, didn't graduate. I didn't graduate ICC. I did that for a period of.
[00:20:34] Speaker A: Time AutoCAD didn't grab your attention?
[00:20:37] Speaker B: Well, I mean, I enjoyed that part, actually. I did enjoy that part, but it was also going to school. I had some other things going on behind the scenes with, you know, family stuff and whatnot. That eventually what I. What I decided I needed to do was get a job full time, which I ended up getting on with some of the contractors from Caterpillar Butler at the time. I don't know if they're even still around or not, but I got on with them full time. Ended up getting, you know, my own apartment, stuff like that. And Henry with. With a roommate for. For a short period of time, shout out to Mitch for. For lots of different reasons. I end up, you know, thinking that I can no longer go to school and do an apprenticeship, but I need to get a job full time and. And be able to support myself on my own kind of thing. At 18 years old, so had an apartment, had a roommate, and started working at caterpillar doing autocad stuff still and just doing it full time again. 18 years old, you know, I'm partying, living and living that life and end up screwing that up too. And so next job, right? So next job, I start selling cars. So I become a used car salesman here in Peoria.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: God, yeah.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: So I. I start selling cars here. One dealership here in Peoria. Pioneer Parkway still there.
Sold cars there for a little while. I was horrible at that. Horrible, horrible at that.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: Where do you think you were the worst at about that?
[00:22:06] Speaker B: I don't like to bother people. Said that way from a sale. I am horrible salesman.
[00:22:12] Speaker A: You know that I sold cars too, right?
[00:22:13] Speaker B: Really? I don't know if I ever knew that at Lexus. Oh, really? During COVID Oh, yeah, we did. I did Dodges.
[00:22:19] Speaker A: But yeah, I mean, I looked at one of my first sales I ever did was I was like, I mean, you don't have to fucking buy this thing if you don't. I mean, I could give two shits.
I mean. And what's crazy is it actually, I mean, they just appreciate me being like, listen, you can buy this. You don't have to buy this. I literally don't care.
Makes no difference to me. And the person was like, I worked.
[00:22:38] Speaker B: At two car dealerships.
And so you're just like, fuck, I'm.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: Not a. I'm not a car dealer. I can't do. I can't sell cars.
[00:22:46] Speaker B: Not. Not a salesman. For whatever reason, after my second car dealership that I. I still failed at. I mean, I Would legit just go. I'd get to work on time, but then I would go out and like, find like a van and on the lot, and then I'd go get the keys to the van and go sit in there, you know, turn the radio on, you know, sit in the back of the van, take a nap, you know. You know, I started to take a little bit of a. A toll on me and, and, you know, couldn't find what I was good at. And in a short period of time, I went through many, many jobs and there's a couple more in there. I did door to door sales of life insurance for a period of time that obviously didn't last very long. You know, worked at a printing company locally. I worked at another contractor for, for Caterpillar downtown in Peoria. And so I did all of this, everything that we talked about in the last 10 minutes up until May timeframe of the next year. And that's when I joined the military. That's when I left for the military. Was May.
[00:23:44] Speaker A: What got to that point of you saying this is the answer? Was it just, hey, I need something to pay for schooling. I need something different. I want to go travel. What? Did you know somebody that was going. Because there's always somebody. It's like, well, I had a buddy that joined, so then I joined. Yeah, I needed schooling paid for. I mean, there's only, I mean, so many reasons of why.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: I had a buddy that was a year older than me in school, played basketball with him.
He. He had joined the army. And I would talk to him every once in a while. And I'll never forget this phone call or whatever it was at the time I called him, said, hey, Eric Stoker, shout out to you, Eric.
Thinking about joining the military. And he was 82nd Airborne at Pope, which is in, I think, North Carolina.
He said, hey, if you're going to go in the military, I'm always going over to Pope. And, you know, I see these Air Force guys and I mean, it's just like a whole, you know, it's like, you know, a fraternity. It's like, you know, they're having fun, they actually enjoy, you know, life and so on, so forth. So if you're going anywhere in the military, go to the Air Force. And that's the door I went into. And that's why I joined the Air Force, was because Eric said that that's what I should do.
[00:25:01] Speaker A: How soon from the time you join, are you moving somewhere, getting, you know, headed off?
[00:25:08] Speaker B: So I joined in May 99 is when I actually went into the military. So as I was leaving for the military again, I came out of the recruiting station here in Peoria, Illinois, and ended up meeting up with. With two guys, both from Washington, Illinois. Meet up with them. We all leave for basic training together, right? So we're all starting basic training together. Two out of the three of us. One of the last things that we start, we go through through tech school, which was Security forces Tech school, which is also at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. So we're in San Antonio the whole time. This would have been spring time frame. Two out of the three of us were. Were asked if we wanted to stay in San Antonio to be instructors, which also meant that we would have to, you know, not go to our first duty station, which I had at the time. I had orders to Germany, Spingdale, Germany. And so I already had orders there. I was getting ready to go there in weeks. And Chief Master Sergeant Wharton, who still follow on Facebook and see his stuff all the time, pulled me his office and asked if I wanted to stay and be an instructor for combat arms. So combat arms is. Is where we teach people in that realm. Lackland Air Force Base. All the basic trainings, they come through, they fire at the time M16s. And they were in desperate need of instructors to teach these basic trainees how to shoot M16s. So desperate enough where they were taking people straight out of school in order to make them instructors. So part of the deal was I'd have to stay there, go through another tech school to become an instructor. And Tim. Tim Mullen and I, we both went through that. There was 30 of us or so all together that. That were asked to do this, and Tim and I became very close. Like I said, he was from. From Washington.
When we got the opportunity, we would go on leave together, you know, drive back, because again, I'm from Henry, he's from Washington. Just made sense for us to kind of plan our leaves together, you know, vacations, if you're not familiar with the leave term. We'd come back home, spend a week home with family, and then we would jump in a car together and drive back. Spent a lot of time with Tim. He would come over to my house and at that point, long story short, I had gotten married for the first time in between my two tech schools, because that was already being planned.
So he would come over to my apartment because he lived on base. We would party together, we would go out and shoot hoops together, stuff like that, and became very close there.
So we end up, all of us together, Tim and I together, we end up getting stationed at. In San Antonio. That was part of the deal as well as becoming instructors that they needed us to be there. So we had been there for, like I said, about two and a half years in San Antonio at scene, you know, turn the town up. San Antonio, Texas probably is not the same since we've been there, but it really enjoyed our time and getting to know the city and everything it had to offer. I loved San Antonio. I always actually on the honor guard. So if you're not familiar with the honor guard and the military. So the honor guard is those individuals who are going to funeral services for those who have passed, veterans that have passed, retirees that have passed. They're doing, you know, flag folds and 21 gun salutes and stuff like that. So I was. I was a super trooper. I wanted to do the best I could and be different than what I was doing growing up. So I joined the honor guard and I'm over. I'm going to funerals, you know, two or three, four times a week. I'm passing out flags to next to Ken's, doing flag folds, doing, you know, all of this for honor guard duties, which was basically like half my job at that point in the military. I was actually at a. At a funeral. Got done with the funeral, just got done, went back to the office where the honor guard folks were at. And I get there, and as soon as I get there, one of the young ladies that worked in that office got a phone call and basically said that there was a young airman that got killed on his way to work that morning.
Really didn't put pieces together. And I don't know if she meant to. To say his name out loud or whatnot, but it was Tim. And he was on his way to work, 7:30, whatever time it was, and lost control. I think he blew out tire, lost control, didn't have a seat belt on. My last funeral that I did for honor guard was, was Tim's and ended up giving the flag, the folded flag to his mom. Graveside service. I now live 5.1 miles away from. From where he's buried.
You know, Memorial Day, you know, as you know, it's. It's a big day for me.
Every Memorial Day, we go to his grave site and, you know, spend some time there. But then we also have a good time at my house. We. That's. That's the big pool party, Memorial Day, and that's when we've had 100 people in, in our pool and. And none of them ever got out to go pee. I don't know how they were holding it that long.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: There's only one person I know that doesn't get out to go pee.
[00:30:33] Speaker B: But yeah, so, I mean, it's just kind of a full circle moment there that I certainly wanted to share that story. And a lot of his family still in Washington area.
[00:30:41] Speaker A: And at that time he's how old.
[00:30:44] Speaker B: He would have been? Probably the same age as me, so probably 20.
[00:30:50] Speaker A: Where's your head at that point? What's your next step as far as how much longer are you there? Where do you go from that?
[00:30:58] Speaker B: I had orders, new orders. Not my Germany orders. I had new orders at about the same time that he had passed and I was still dealing with that trauma. I had orders to England. I was supposed to go to England and I was, I was itching to get overseas at some point. You know, that was one of the reasons that I joined the military that we really didn't get into, but I wanted to go travel.
[00:31:22] Speaker A: Where's 911 at in this? So I bring that up because it is a very crazy time at when you joined and like the events that all happened and I'm still trying to piece together.
[00:31:34] Speaker B: So I was just off base and I remember trying to get into the. San Antonio.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:31:43] Speaker B: Yeah, still in San Antonio. Yeah, still in San Antonio. I was, I was off base, trying to get back onto. On base and San Antonio, Texas, Lackland Air Force Base. And, and yeah, everything was just kind of shut down while they, you know, kind of figured it all out.
[00:31:58] Speaker A: Those handful of years right around there were like, emotionally driven for being a young, young, you know, teenager, kid, an American citizen. It was like, like, I mean, if I, if I had been in high school at that point, I would enlist like the next day. You moved to other states and you move and you went overseas at some point. When did that happen?
[00:32:24] Speaker B: I was at San. In San Antonio at Lackland Air Force Base for right around four years and was an instructor there. And while you're there, you're kind of in a controlled, controlled environment or controlled.
I don't know what you even want to call it or I can't remember what they would call it to where you really didn't get deployed from there. Right. They, it's. It's one of those types of positions or roles that they, they really didn't deploy from, from that base or from, from that area. So my next duty station, I ended up going to the Air Force Academy so Colorado Springs. So not too far up the road from. From Texas, Colorado Springs. I was. I was there from about 2003 until 2007, roughly. Also being at the Air Force Academy, it's also, you know, what they call a special duty. So at the Air Force Academy, I wasn't going to the Air Force Academy. As far as a cadet is concerned or, you know, a student. I was actually teaching the cadet students how to shoot, you know, 9 mils. Ever since I've been out of the military. So kind of what you'll hear here is a lot. I spend a lot of time in the firing range.
My first seven years I was in the firing range probably seven years. Probably all seven of those years. Every day. I mean, hot, cold snow, you know, scorching temperatures in San Antonio, Texas. I'm. I'm on the firing range. So I got, you know, gunshots going off in my. In my ears, you know, all the time.
But at the same time, you know, I had not free reign or free access, but I had access to be able to, you know, make sure that I was proficient within what I was teaching. So I could go out and have, you know, proficiency time as well. So I could basically shoot, you know, anything that we had right, you know, available to us just about any time. So I got out. It wasn't like a big thing. I didn't even buy a gun when I was out of the military, probably 10, 15 years. It's just been last five, seven years. I had a little bit of interest.
But yeah, at that point, it just. It just wasn't, you know, something that I. I really wanted to. To. To do or have.
[00:34:27] Speaker A: Just interesting because us being friends and stuff, which I had a phase in my life where I did it. And like, we've been friends for now five years and not like we're out shooting and our big gun guys have all this stuff. And so we get to 2007 and then what is the next step from there?
[00:34:41] Speaker B: I mentioned that I. I was going through divorce, you know, shortly after, after Tim passed, ended up getting remarried.
And Joelle, my oldest daughter, who is 22 now, she was born. And she was born in San Antonio.
Luckily, she was born in San Antonio. So San Antonio hospital there is one of the best, if not the best hospital within the Air Force. And she was born with gastroschisis, which long. Long story short, we found out when her mom was about 17, 18 weeks along.
So she had basically her belly button never came formed. And she's probably gonna kill me for Talking about this in detail, but when she was born, she was born naturally, but all of her intestines, her stomach, her kidneys, her liver, everything was out.
They legit put her in a bread bag, feet first, in order to protect all of, you know, her organs, and immediately took her into surgery. And legit, I mean, the way it was explained to me, they legit stuffed everything in to her stomach cavity, sewed it up, created. To this day, she doesn't have, you know, a belly button like you and I, but she has, you know, where they basically pull all the skin together after they stuffed all her organs in and, and sewed it up.
But, you know, she was in, in, in NICU for a period of time. They had to make sure that all of the organs worked, you know, through all of this, you know, trauma on her body and stuff like that. Luckily, she. She bounced back like a. Like a trooper, was out of the hospital, out of the NICU within six weeks or so. And, yeah, and other than some scars, you know, she's never had any true issues from that, which obviously we owe all to, you know, the grace of God, of watching over on that kind of full circle moment with that as well, is that one of the times I was home, I visited Tim's grave and asked him to kind of be the overwatcher of her going through this and knowing what was about to come. And. And he certainly, you know, took care of that for me. So.
[00:37:10] Speaker A: Wow, that's crazy. I mean, did I share, Did I share on mine?
[00:37:16] Speaker B: I've heard bits and pieces and, and.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: It'S, you know, mine was like almost a similar thing.
[00:37:20] Speaker B: Right? Yeah.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: That's crazy.
[00:37:22] Speaker B: Yep. So Joelle's mom is. Was in the military at the time, too.
So she was. She was in the military. She was in the Air Force, and we worked in the same squadron in San Antonio. We end up getting married and have Joelle, and then we get to Colorado Springs.
Shortly after we have our son Trenton, who is 21 years old now, and we had him at Fort Carson, which is the army post there in Colorado Springs.
You know, I'm stationed at the Air Force Academy, so I'm working out at the firing range every day. I'm teaching cadets.
You know, kids are starting to grow up and become a little bit older. They're only 15 months apart, so they're very close in age. Their mom and I end up splitting, and she took both of them and moved back home when she got out of the military with our older son. And she went to Ohio, which Is again probably part of the story here. Later on she went to Ohio because that was home to her. We moved to Colorado. She, she and the, and the kids left. Left Colorado and went to Ohio. And the first, first deployment that I could jump on, I mean, you go through all of that. We talked about 9, 11 happening. You know, the first time that they offered me a deployment, I jumped on them.
[00:38:47] Speaker A: How much of that was driven because of that, the relationship and all that happening at that time? Was it like, give me whatever you fucking can. I'm gonna go wherever I, you know, I mean, because you got a lot of motions going on. Oh yeah, no, there was 911 shit between, you know, another separation, going to, you know, kids, going back to Ohio. Yes, like, fuck it, send me anywhere.
[00:39:11] Speaker B: I mean that's probably a lot, A lot of what exactly. What happened. So I think you, you read into that one perfectly.
[00:39:18] Speaker A: So now where is your first deployment at?
[00:39:21] Speaker B: My first deployment, I go to.
It was a four man deployment to Ashgabat, Turkmenistan.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: So at this point, I mean your mid-20s?
[00:39:32] Speaker B: Barely. Yeah, barely.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: 24. Yeah, 23, 4 range somewhere on there. And you're there for how long?
[00:39:42] Speaker B: I spent six months there.
That actually. And you know me personally, but that's actually where I tore up my knee for the first time. I was in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, and there's a top secret story on how I did that, but ended up having to take a little bit of a defensive stand against the local army and ended up tearing my mcl and ended up getting flew out, flown out of Turkmenistan because of that.
[00:40:16] Speaker A: Really? Yeah, from the knee injury. So you fly out into where?
[00:40:23] Speaker B: Germany.
[00:40:24] Speaker A: And then you're in Germany for roughly how long?
[00:40:26] Speaker B: I mean, it just depends. I mean some. Sometimes you get stuck in Germany for a couple days that time, I don't, I don't remember. I was in and out of Germany.
[00:40:33] Speaker A: Where was your next stop?
[00:40:35] Speaker B: That was it. That was it. So I, I was, that's. That was my deployment. You know, that, that six months that I was there was my deployment getting hurt and then going back to, to Colorado. So I, yeah, I get back and, and heal up through all of that. And I'm like. I basically said, I mean, I'm still in Colorado and within probably a year I said, let's run it back. So I volunteered for another deployment, got on a team, a little bit larger team. We actually went to a base, we were stationed in Kuwait doing missions in and out of, out of Iraq. And that was kind of the, the start of what eventually will become my, my certification. As far as the Phoenix Raven is concerned. You know, that's, that's really where my life changed because that was, that was the first war scene. You know, I had been in for that at that point, probably, probably seven, eight years in the military, and I'd seen some. Some stuff, but it wasn't war stuff. Obviously. I dealt with trauma with, with Tim passing, you know, another time where our first sergeant got blown up by a package bomb, you know, in, in our office in Kuwait. No, this is back in San Antonio. Totally different podcast, but happened sometime while.
[00:42:00] Speaker A: You were in San Antonio.
[00:42:01] Speaker B: Yeah, our first sergeant, it was a disgruntled airman and first sergeant, he sent her a package bomb in the mail and she opened it and ended up blowing off, like, fingers and hands and, and stuff like that.
[00:42:19] Speaker A: So this point, you're in Kuwait.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:42:21] Speaker A: And now you start dealing with some.
[00:42:24] Speaker B: Actual like, real, like first time of conflict. Right. I mean, going in and out of. Out of Iraq. I mean, we had a lot of. Of of missions that were convoying, you know, and the big thing, I'm sure if you didn't live under Iraq during, during that period, that portion of the war, a lot of IEDs. Our first time, I mean, this is 2006. 2000 time frame. 2006 time frame. So we only had, you know, been five years after 9, 11. So IEDs were a big thing that they were using against us that we really hadn't been prepared for or had to deal with previously too much.
So that was a big thing. Two moments that I'll never forget from, from that trip, which, you know, good, bad and ugly. And we talk about all three, but one of them was I was supposed to go on a convoy, which is a driving convoy from Kuwait to Iraq, and I was supposed to go out the next day on this convoy. And for whatever reason, I got scratched from that convoy. And I think I was out on one previously or they scratched me. Whatever the reason was. That convoy the next day went out again. I was scratched from that.
That convoy. The truck and that I was supposed to be in, ended up getting hit by ied.
And I'm pretty sure, if memory serves me correctly, that. That everyone in that truck, to include the gunner, if I'm not mistaken, and. Or at least at least two out of the three were killed. Obviously that's, that's a moment you reflect on. But then I was also there when, when their bodies, you know, within the, the next however many hours, whatever it was day came back to the base before they got shipped back back home to in most cases Dover is where they, they came through, which is in Delaware, but met them, you know, their bodies and, and, and ended up taking part in some of their honor guard type of duties. So that was certainly an event that I'll never forget.
The other one which is life changing for me as well is that from there I was in a flying mission and we were going to Baghdad and again this is only 2005, so we haven't been in Baghdad or Iraq for that long. So there was still a lot of stuff going on there and probably still is to this day, but a lot of stuff going on there. So it was a C, C130, which is a decent size cargo aircraft, not the biggest one we have, but decent sized cargo aircraft. And we're getting ready to, to land in Baghdad and a lot of going on, on, on the ground and we, we just are getting ready to land, getting ready to, to do my job as far as security is concerned. For whatever reason I didn't even know at the time until a few minutes later we don't land and we end up basically getting, you know, feet away from from the, the landing landing strip and take right back off of up in the air. And I'm up in like the cockpit area, which is a bigger area. I'm sitting back behind the pilots and I can see that something was wrong and I could tell just by their demeanor as well and, and they had some mechanical issues where we end up circling over Baghdad, which isn't the, the most favoritest place you want to, you know, circle. We end up circling over Baghdad trying to figure out how we're going to land because none of our landing gear was working. Nothing would would, would, would work. Come down. All that kind of stuff other, a lot of other mechanical stuff going on with, with the C130. And I distinctly remember the pilot, the, the main pilot turned around and looking at me and, and said, you know, say your prayers, you know, 15, whatever it was thousand feet above Baghdad, Iraq.
And you know, that, that meant something to me obviously. So you know, I go through my thought process of trying to, you know, figure out, you know, the, this is it. It's one of those moments in life if you haven't, you know, basically accepted the fact that, you know, my life is, is. Is over, that was it for me. And because you don't have, you know.
[00:46:53] Speaker A: It'S not like you guys carrying parachutes on every.
[00:46:56] Speaker B: No.
[00:46:56] Speaker A: And it's not like you can just.
[00:46:58] Speaker B: Bail and even if they did, it'd probably be a handful. And, and, you know, like that I, I was not gonna get one.
[00:47:04] Speaker A: Yeah. And you're over Baghdad, right?
[00:47:07] Speaker B: Right. So, yeah, I mean, it, It. It was just one of those moments where, you know, I, I believed when he, when he turned around and. And told me to say my prayers. And so, you know, I did. And, and I, I legit, you know, accepted the fact that, you know, I was about to die. And, you know, I think when you have those moments, just my personal opinion and from that traumatic experience for me, it changes you. I mean, the, the little things don't necessarily matter as much anymore when, when, you know, I am legit. I have two kids at this point, Joelle and Trenton.
You know, I, I am, you know, saying my prayers, you know, to. And, and, and for them, and basically accepted the fact that I was not going home and I was going to. To die that day. And I think, again, mentally, you know, once you do that and you accept that, you know, it changes the way that you think about life. It changes the way that you handle things from that day forward forever. Once some. That's something that I, I will. I will never, Will never, never forget for sure.
[00:48:17] Speaker A: I feel like you discredit it a little bit. And I'm saying this is a completely neutral party that's never been in that experience at all.
You know, I, I will never be able to say that I, you know, fought for my country, you know, served any of that stuff. So when you sit here and say, like, well, you know, my story is, you know, I haven't been through what this guy did or you didn't. You know, it's not like you've ever been shot or had, you know, an IED blow up or anything like that. But it doesn't mean that it still doesn't have that, like, that trauma on you and that experience of what you've been through. I mean, everybody has their risk of going into it. You know, everybody's numbers get called differently. And it's crazy to think, like, how your life could have been very, very different had you been on that, you know, had I just been on that convoy, had, you know, this not worked out this way, you know, and we talk about our chapters of our life and so, no, man, I mean, for me, you know, again, I haven't. I, as Ryan's friend, haven't heard even half of these stories the way you tell them now.
I think it's good to talk about them and just also not discredit, like, dude, you still dealt with this and went through this. And at this time, you're still only 28, 27, sick. I mean, somewhere in the mid to late 20s, not even late 20s, but mid 20s.
It's a lot. While two children are at home or in Ohio, while you're still dealing with your own personal problems, it's still a fuck ton to just have that wheat be on you and be dealing with and try to come up with your own answers of life and why you're doing what you're doing. And I can't imagine. So, yeah, definitely don't discredit where you're at with that. And there's a lot of people that have never sacrificed that much even.
[00:50:24] Speaker B: So, yeah, for me, I think it's just some of it is respect because there's, you know, obviously the people that have paid the ultimate sacrifice. And that's why Memorial Day is such a big day for me personally.
[00:50:37] Speaker A: Every form of service sacrifice, there are cops that literally deal with some fucked up shit every single day that I put on the same level of serving your country, you are putting your life at risk every day to do something. And then there are cops that are complete douchebags that are taking advantage of certain stuff. They are still putting their life online, don't get me wrong.
But not on a certain level where they're literally, they're doing it for some of the wrong reasons and they're they power trips and whatever.
What's so fucked up?
A guy who I went, who's older than me in high school, goes over, gets blown up, burns all over his body.
He battles his own problems with relationships, jobs, life in general, while getting like honorary, like all these awards locally, struggling with all this stuff, dies slipping on ice at Sue's place in Metamora.
That dude should never have to work a day in his life. There should be red carpet galore to a certain, you know, to an extent of like his life and his family and everything they do.
And that was a younger point where I hit home for me, where I'm like, this is just crazy.
And again, this is your story. But that was like, that's me looking at it from a civilian standpoint. I appreciate it of somebody that, like, again, I didn't get it. And here you're sitting and you're about to the point of the 2007 time frame.
I graduate high school.
I'm not having calls with again, recruiters joining the Marines.
It's one thing that when you serve and you go to sign up to try to Serve a country and you're dealing with this. But now here you start getting 7, 8, 10, 12 years from this. Like, does there come a point where you're going, what are we doing? If I sign up to do this, I mean, I need to be fully prepared to like, like serve our country and not be like, what the fuck is this president having? You know, what are we doing? And, and I got cold feet with doing it. And it's something that I wonder how you like your vision of how it's the struggle. If there was any of. When you get sent over places, what are we doing? You've kind of seen some things. You're in your young, you know, twenties.
[00:53:21] Speaker B: I enjoyed the, the deployments one just because it was something different, which I, I do enjoy. Change. It was so eye opening. I mean it was such an experience that again that, that you don't forget that when, when you go to Ash Batrach Ministan, everybody is trying just to make a living to feed their family, right? And this was way before Uber or Lyft, where every car in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, or in Turkmenistan, probably even larger than just the capital of Ashgabat is a taxicab. The four of us as Americans, that's how we got around. You'd stand on the corner and they'd pull up, you know, and you kind of give them directions or give them, you know, an address of where you're trying to go or you try to, you know, speak their language or whatever. And you know, they would tell you, oh nope, you know, I'm not going that direction or whatever.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: But could you ever speak another language?
[00:54:20] Speaker B: Very well. So I could speak just enough because that's so Ashgabat, Turkmenistan or Turkmenistan, self as a country is an old Russian country.
It's one that, you know, kind of declared sovereignty or declared what? Not from Russia had, you know, however many years previous to that. But there was still a lot of Russia happening there, still a lot of Russian speaking folks. But they also had their own languages too.
So I learned enough Russian to be able to go down and order, you know, food at a, at a local restaurant. Because, you know, the fascinating thing for me is us as Americans, there's some of us, don't get me wrong, and I'm probably going to get beat up for this, but yeah, so we don't, you know, take advantage of the opportunities that we have, right? I mean, you go to a third world country and almost everybody there, you know, can speak English. They can, they can speak Russian, they can speak Turkmen which, you know, is their local, you know, whatnot language. But they're, you know, their education system, you know, doesn't isn't teaching them that it's life. That's teaching them that it's, you know, if you want to have opportunities, you better learn that because you're probably.
[00:55:33] Speaker A: There's probably also like teenage kids there doing like full adult work. Oh, that's point that. I mean, absolutely. Hey, you're 12 years old, kid.
[00:55:41] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:55:42] Speaker A: You got to get out and. No, yeah, yeah, like, it's about time to be an adult school.
[00:55:46] Speaker B: School was probably an option, you know, after like 10 years old. And. Yeah, you know, don't quote me on that, but that's crazy. But yeah, no, it was just, it was just crazy to see it. So I, I enjoyed that part and, and legit. After going through San Antonio and, and doing the instructor thing for four years and then even getting to Colorado Springs, doing the instructor thing there for a couple of years, I was like, send me. I'm ready to go. And at that point again, you know, going through, going through the divorce and my kids were in Ohio, I'm in Colorado, you know, Kuwait's no closer to Ohio than Colorado is. But at the same time, you know, I was anxious to see the other part of it. I was anxious to see what, you know, the war side was. And so, yeah, I jumped at that as early as I could.
[00:56:37] Speaker A: Odd question.
What music?
Because we didn't touch on that in early life because, I mean, you were pretty much, you know, when you were born there, like records were just being invented. Then, you know, came all the other stuff, eight tracks. But at this point, where is music at in your life while you're overseas, if any? I mean, I don't know if you had an ipod. Did you have a CD player?
[00:57:02] Speaker B: So, I mean, even, even growing up, music was, was something that I always had around me. I've always enjoyed music. I've always enjoyed a vast array of music as well. You know, having a little bit of a rock background. You know, Metallica, Black album. You know, we've talked about it on the podcast and we've had a few guests that have asked us what our top five albums are. And, and we're getting to that point. Yeah. So, you know, not, not to burst the bubble on that one, but certainly that is something that had an impact on me. You know, some, some friends of mine, Brendan Bogner, I've mentioned him on the podcast from, for this very same story, but kind of introduced me to, to Metallica and Eric Leffers as well, and really getting into a little bit more of the rock side. You know, earlier on, you know, I did a little. The boy band stuff. You know, NKOTB was, Was, you know, big at that point. You know, fourth, fifth, me, New Kids on the Block.
[00:57:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:00] Speaker B: You looked at me like you didn't know what I was talking about, so.
[00:58:02] Speaker A: I was just shocked. I'm more shocked because I didn't take.
[00:58:05] Speaker B: Oh, there's, there's stories there that I'm sure people could tell too. But, you know, reenacting, you know, NKOTB's, you know, performances and, and my fifth grade, you know, talent show, but definitely.
[00:58:18] Speaker A: Maybe search the archives to get those.
So. So you're overseas. Are you guys playing music on tapes, CDs? What does that look like for you over there to kind of get you through some of these times and as you're traveling.
[00:58:36] Speaker B: So I'm getting, I'm getting to. Getting to your question.
Before I get there, though. After my, my second deployment, I came back and dealing with all these emotions from, you know, the things that I had mentioned. And, you know, my kids are not there. You know, they're in Ohio. And dealing with that emotion and all of that, that is really where I turn to music almost as a crutch, if nothing else. And so I don't even know if you know this or not, but I have, you know, a handful of songs that I've written from that period of my life, specifically, you know, one about, you know, relationship and that kind of thing. I've written some stuff just about other. Those types of traumas, you know, one about, you know, some leaders in my life from an early perspective of, you know, grandparents and grandpa and stuff like that.
So starting to learn to play music at that point. You know, I'm playing guitar. I grew up playing drums, so that was kind of always a back thing for me. Ended up starting to play a little bit of music in a garage band. Shout out to Mike and Sean.
That's when we had the band Flesh Knob, which is the best band name, you know, this side, actually, it was on the other side of the Mississippi. But do you.
[01:00:01] Speaker A: I mean, have you ever thought about getting with, like, creative vets and doing any of the writing or getting involved more in that, or is that.
[01:00:09] Speaker B: I've talked to him a little bit. I've talked to him a little bit. No, I still enjoy doing the music. I still enjoy playing music and, and can still play those songs that I wrote then. I still, you know, Every once in a while, pick up a guitar and, and still know, you know, the chords and, and stuff like that. But, but no, certainly I've talked to Brandon and the guys over at Creative Vets. I, I follow their stuff and, and you know, I've done a little bit of stuff with them. But, but either way, so I, you know, doing good into music that way too. And, and you know, we said it on the podcast many a times is that, you know, you kind of define the chapters in your life by the music that you're listening to. And to answer your question, originally, no, that was like the ipod face time. I mean, you, you are downloading all this Limewire and everything else and you've got, you know, 5,000 songs on your laptop that you put on your, your, your ipod. Oh, yeah. And I also had, you know, really long plane rides as well. I mean, you're talking, you know, 15, 18 hour plane rides here and there. So having a full ipod of music certainly was, you know, sanity. But then also when you're stuck in, you know, the desert, you know, music became your friend. And I know I remember all kinds of nights for all kinds of different kinds of reasons, of just sitting there with my headphones in and just listening to music and dealing with life that.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: Way while we're on this topic, because I don't really know how we're ever going to come to a stopping point while we're on this topic and we're sitting here talking about this. Music now is really, you know, baseball brought us together, our kids brought us together. And now, you know, your grandfather, you have four kids.
Grandbaby, all this stuff.
[01:02:03] Speaker B: Grandbaby is just turned one.
[01:02:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Just turned one.
[01:02:07] Speaker B: Yep. Colton. Colton James, which is also my middle name.
[01:02:10] Speaker A: Where does music now and where we sit in life, you know, where does that play a part for you and kind of your stress and your anxiety, everything you have going on, where does that play a part and what, what are your favorite albums? And I know again, this is. I don't want to bring back, you know, any. Like, I say the plane saga all the time. But now I'm like drawing. I'm like backtracking on whether or not I should say, you know, hey, you're on a plane and it's going down.
[01:02:43] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:02:43] Speaker A: Right now I feel like I don't want to bring up any. But no, for me, seriously, like, I know. All right, you're over Baghdad. Your plane is going down. Say your prayers. Yeah. Now I feel like now it's like that whole meaning of me saying that, and you've never told me.
You're like, God damn it, he's gonna bring up the plan again. But no, in all seriousness, you know what. Where does it play a part? And I mean, what are five very influential albums for you, you know, you. That stand the test of time for you?
[01:03:13] Speaker B: So I think it was raised Rowdy asked us, and I think. Who was it? Austin Snell, when we interviewed him, I think he kind of turned a question on us as well.
And I don't think I've ever got to 5 either time I've been asked.
I'm not a huge album guy, all right? So it's hard to nail down albums.
The easiest one album wise, obviously, the Black album from Metallica, because I already mentioned that, and that was. That was a. A huge time in my life. It'd be either between that or eventually because of that and getting into the Metallica scene back, I mean, this was like fifth grade for me.
And justice for all was. Was something that I eventually kind of took hold of too, which is a little bit harder than. Than even the Black album, obviously. But. But that is something that I just learn a lot from and listen to even to this day, moving forward into again, like the chapters of my life. I think about Shinedown, Colorado Springs, being on the Air Force Academy, going through lots of different emotions from a lot of different things that happened in my life, whether it was deployment, whether it was my kids or, you know, marriage or divorce or anything along those lines, you know. And I can't think what the album name is from that. That time frame. I looked it up one time just in case I ever got asked. But, you know, that's. That's the one that has like 45 and, you know, some of one of their other big covers too, that Jim and them and Jelly Roll have done. So definitely a Shine down is. Is in there. That one specifically had had a big impact on me. Same with like a Godsmack. Godsmack came out with an album, I think it was. It might have been live or acoustic, something along those lines, probably around 2006 time frame.
Ended up seeing them live in person that year too. And that just that. That rhythm and that sound certainly is something that I, you know, think about as far as that chapter in my life going back, way back, even before that. And I've said it before when. When been asked, but when I lived in San Antonio, obviously a big country area, George Strait was the big guy in town, you know, King. King George there, but he lived just outside of San Antonio. And everybody would always say that, you know, but he'd come in town every once in a while and with the San Antonio spurs, and some of them lived out there too. So I always enjoyed George that way, just from living there for four years and being in his world out there in San Antonio. Going forward from there, I kind of went into a little bit more of a.
I don't know if it would be a grunge stage, but it would be more of like a Fallout Boy and some more of that alternative type of rock. One of my friends that I was staged with in my later party in Colorado Springs, Scott, was really big into that type of music. And we lived together for a period of time and always was listening to that. And actually today, you know, the Sugar I'm Going down and the line in the song, which has many, many different meanings for me in my life of, you know, I'm just a notch in your bedpost, but you're just aligning a song that to me is just a lyric that sticks with me.
[01:06:55] Speaker A: I saw them in Champagne, really? And they came out Fall Out Boy. There was definitely this, like cadence and progression of that music where it was like, yeah, we get it. The same drum solo. You know, they all have the same kind of. It's got a tone to it, the singer's voice. Like, people make jokes about it. And I will, after this, share a tick tock that I have come on to that has brought up a ton of memories of mine, of bands that were forgotten. And there's that type of stuff where like, oh, this song is so good.
[01:07:28] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
[01:07:29] Speaker A: And, oh, that's. And you made the comment the other day like, oh, simple Plan.
[01:07:33] Speaker B: Oh, simple plan.
[01:07:36] Speaker A: Yeah, there's some good ones.
[01:07:37] Speaker B: I mean, even within that, you know, that, you know, I could go back to different chapters, just, you know, listen to Simple Plan and relate that to, again, it's life. And that's.
[01:07:46] Speaker A: Did you share five right there?
[01:07:48] Speaker B: I don't know, that might have been three or four.
[01:07:50] Speaker A: No, no, you didn't. You did King George, you did Shine down, you did Metallica, Godsmack, Metallica. Yeah, that was fun.
[01:07:57] Speaker B: And Fall Out Boy. Yeah, that is five. It's not necessarily not so albums, but.
[01:08:02] Speaker A: What I. I need to ask of you is when we get off here over the next week. I think I shared mine with you.
[01:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:08:10] Speaker A: But we have to create a Ryan's Top Albums list on Spotify. Yeah, I created one for me. I think I sent it to you.
[01:08:19] Speaker B: Yeah.
[01:08:19] Speaker A: That have all of my.
[01:08:21] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, you did.
[01:08:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I've put. And it has more than five albums, but they're all of things that mean something to me. And if you listen to that start to finish, it's a roller coaster.
[01:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah. And there's just songs in there, and I can't remember off the top of my head, but I could go back and find them in my phone.
But there's. I mean, there's songs in there that mean so much. And, you know, I, you know, can remember sitting in the middle of the desert, you know, in the middle of nowhere, and just this song that probably at that point, I'm listening to over and over again because I have a habit of doing that too, you know, just put it on repeat and just listening to it, and that probably is what is engraved so far in my head. So. So, again, not necessarily albums, but different chapters, different periods of my life. And, you know, today, I mean, if I had, you know, six or seven, that I could choose music, for me, today, even in the last four or five months, has been totally different just because, you know, getting into the podcast and listening to music differently, finding artists earlier on, you know, rather than just listening to radio music, which, you know, has certainly intrigued me. And as you know, I spend a lot of time listening to, you know, up and coming and knew that way, too, just because I love to support, but then also hear.
[01:09:51] Speaker A: And it's been exciting for me. And go back, we still haven't even covered all of your shit.
You have gone in super detail, which I'm very appreciative of. We are going to have to do a full part, two, maybe three for, you know, for it. But I don't want to discredit anything you've been through.
I'm very appreciative of you by.
By a long shot in so many more ways than you could ever imagine. From service to my friendship with you, to just our honesty with stuff. You know, at times I feel like we both have struggles that I don't think everybody, you know, fully understands, because I think both of us are seen as some pretty fun, whatever, don't give a fuck, guys. But I think both of us. It's so crazy how emotional we both can be, how much we both care about people around us. And, you know, you have.
It's been a great friendship and this podcast has been so much fun and watching you get to experience certain things, I mean, for me, having got to do it, and then I get to bring you along and then, you know, I get to show you all this music because I also felt like even in our early friendship stage, I'm showing you stuff. You're like, oh man, dude, I love this. This is cool. And then now I've brought you into this and now you're blowing me up like, hey, have you seen this fucking person? I'm like, fuck, man. I'm like, holy shit. You went from zero to a hundred to the people you're finding and you're enjoying that passion of meeting people and the networking and the just seeing them go from here to here and finding it. And I love that and I love it for you, I love it for us. I think this has been eye opening for everybody to hear more about you. And I don't know, we got to keep expanding on this because again, there's a lot of depth to both of our lives and the things we've been through. And one of the things I would like to get to and one of the next ones, and you can kind of think on it, is opening up for both of us of as dads, as husbands, as just men.
What have been some struggles we face when it comes to.
Again, I think every, everything, every person struggles. I told you today, I mean, I think today I'm just on one of those downs. I'm just a little depressed, I don't know. And I have nothing really necessarily to be depressed about, but just kind of just down. And I think one of those things I'd like to know is how it relates to your military life versus also some of it just your own personal battles that, you know, what you faced over these next several years after going through what you went through getting into your 30s, you know, what we kind of face. And I think that would be a good segue into chapter to for both of us of what we've.
[01:12:44] Speaker B: Absolutely, absolutely. And mental health is real. Mental health is real. Although I will attempt mentally to deny it every day of the week and try to ignore it every day of the week, it is real and I am not good at dealing with it. I have my own coping mechanisms that I have created and have gotten used to or adapted to over time of my life.
Not healthy. But at the same time it's, it's, you know, one of the things that I'm most excited about, or not even most excited about. One of the things I am excited about, where this is going in the podcast overall is one I think at first when we first started talking about this, it was all about the artist and it was all about, you know, talking to the Artist, which is absolutely what. What this is about. But the same point, there came a point in our conversations, we're like, you know, I think people need to know more about us and need to know about, you know, what, what individually, because we're the common Intel Gate Beers podcast. We're the common factor. Right. The artists will come and sit down with us for an hour or whatever we can get with them.
But, you know, they're watching us on every episode.
Right. So having that background knowledge, I think is. Is helpful there.
[01:14:10] Speaker A: And we also around and joke around and say all sorts of. But yeah, you know, at the end of the day, like, I think we're both deeper than that. And even some of the artists we've gotten to experience that there's much more depth and their struggles that they deal with.
[01:14:22] Speaker B: And I've had this conversation too, a couple times, even during the podcast and outside is, I tend to be a little bit more calculated in my thought process or what comes out of my mouth even on the podcast, just because, you know, in my regular daily life, I do have things to lose there as far as my real job is concerned and stuff along those lines. But then I also think about too, which we both have kids, and I've got older kids, I got younger kids. I've got a grandson that's one years old.
So, you know, eventually they might see, you know, grandpa acting a fool on a podcast is not something that, you know, I, I tend to try to ensure that I'm not discrediting, you know, myself or my family that way as well, or my, My career.
[01:15:11] Speaker A: That's a great. I mean, it's, it's a good point. I just, at the same time, I argue that at the same time, or someday they're going to look and be like, like, I mean, that is, that was my grandfather. That is my dad. My dad. And I've looked at it with my own kids. My kids got the, our TikTok sent to them. Audrey's, like, my friend sent me this TikTok, Dad. And for me, as, you know, with my kids and stuff, I am exactly.
This is what I am with my kids. And I, again, are there things I necessarily always want them to see? Not necessarily. But I also think I take the point that this podcast has opened up a can of worms of.
I don't know, I still kind of just want to be who I am and who we are and we're having real conversations. Might be a little bit more adult than most. You know, maybe you don't want your grandkid watching, 8 years old or something like that. Maybe I don't want Audrey watching this at 10 years old necessarily.
[01:16:11] Speaker B: However, so Cambria, my 13 year old daughter and all of her friends and Brecon too, but Cambria certainly at 13 is all over TikTok. They watched, you know, all kinds of tick tock. I actually asked her last night, hey, is there any way that you could like go follow our TikTok, you know, maybe like a few things here and there, you know, share it with your friends, you know, that kind of thing. So far been watching and she hasn't, so we might not be that funny, but no, it's always an interesting dynamic to, to ensure that you're representing ourselves individually but in a respectful way. Obviously the artists want that as well. I mean, they don't want, you know, they want us to have some credibility as well. So they're trying to make a living off of this and being out there, their name and stuff like that.
[01:17:03] Speaker A: So I think we've done a good job. At the end of the day, I think there's times maybe we've pushed it, but, you know, I think we still are both trying to navigate those waters of, you know, being us and saying what we feel and also not trying to get canceled or not trying to lose our jobs or, you know, I'll say too.
[01:17:21] Speaker B: I mean, if anybody out there is still watching this, other than Pat and Alex, who will have to eventually edit this if there's any bell, still watching, if you have any, any ideas for like random, random thoughts, random questions to ask people, we're always, always taking those. And, and that's one of the kind of segments we want to kind of get into this year as well, of just having a list of random things that we can ask an artist because a lot of them that come through us, a lot of them have done podcasts previously and, and we don't want to be the same as everybody else asking the same questions.
[01:17:54] Speaker A: No, we're all trying to find that niche of, you know, hey, where are you from? Are you writing any new music?
[01:18:01] Speaker B: How'd you get new music?
[01:18:02] Speaker A: Yeah, so again, if you have, if you have a suggestion, if you're still listening, suggestion, if you're still listening, comment, let us know. Share this podcast with anybody else you think might give two shits. But comment, let us know. What do you think is a good question? I mean, I asked mine. Ryan asked a lot of his same questions. And that's another tough thing we have. We're like, well, do we get off of the question now about it. Do we go on to something different gone this far? Let us know your thoughts. Again, appreciate this opportunity to be able to share with all of you, you know, about Ryan and man, I'm grateful for you and appreciate you.
[01:18:41] Speaker B: I appreciate it.
[01:18:42] Speaker A: I'm pumped for part two.
[01:18:43] Speaker B: Man, you've got 20 years left.
[01:18:46] Speaker A: Well, cheers, guys.
