Larry the Cable Guy: Abusive dad taught me comedy | Forward Progress

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0:47Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights, and instant replays. The FIFA World Cup, streaming live on Fox One. Offers a subject to change. See fox.com for complete terms and conditions. Hey, it's Graham. Our past in-depth guests have shared so many inspirational stories about overcoming adversity and tackling the darkest and most challenging times in their lives. We're sharing one of those moments in today's Thursday podcast in the hope that it provides a blueprint for any difficulties you might be facing. This week, Larry the Cable Guy.

1:25Pawnee City, Nebraska, eight miles north at the Kansas border, I think population of a little more than a thousand. How was going to school with your dad as principal? You know what? It was okay. My dad, my dad was a disciplinarian, but my dad was cool. He was a good dad. And he was a great principal. All the kids loved him. He was an elementary principal. It did stink though when I got like, we used to have a thing in our school called tallies and if you got so many tallies you got in trouble. Of course elementary principal's kids got a lot of. In what ways was he strict? Well he was, you know, he was, his dad was pretty tough on him.

2:10He's old school, you know. And I ask that too because in reading about you it seemed like there was like just more there to, you know, that relationship? Like, he was really strict. Well, he was strict in some things and not strict in other things. You know, he's just like, I would say he was probably, he was old school. You know, you do something, you get spanked, taking the belt off, he's going to spank you. You know, you didn't cross him. He was tough. So it only took one time for me to do something I shouldn't do. and that was it. And I knew not to do it again. Is there one time that sticks out the most when you misbehaved and he really had a new point?

2:56Report card day. Report card day hammered me. What would happen? Well, you'd get a flippin' spanked, punched. You name it, you know. Spanked, punched. you know he was a human being I got no ill will toward him he's dead now and it is what it is didn't turn me into a bad person sometimes I deserve sometimes I deserve to get spanked you know sometimes I deserve to smack across the head you know as a stupid kid sometimes did he overdo it sometimes I think so I wouldn't treat my kids the way my dad treated me but I didn't get in a lot of trouble when I was a kid I stayed out of trouble because I was scared of my dad and I knew what would happen if I got in trouble so you know a lot of people blame this or blame that I don't blame that on anything people are human beings human beings are going to be human beings my dad made a lot of mistakes I make a lot of mistakes.

4:14So it is what it is.

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5:22Why? Well, if my dad came home and it was report card day and my brother was in trouble and I was in trouble and it was going to be tense, I always knew when to pop a joke out and make him laugh. I could make my dad laugh. So I knew when to say something and I knew when to not say something. I knew when to tell a joke and I knew... That's how I've always got good timing. I know when to tell a joke. I know when it's appropriate to tell a joke. I know when I should tell a joke. He taught me that pretty good. Describe what it was like growing up on basically a pig farm. Yeah, you know, it's really crazy.

6:01I love that life. You know, the guy that ran the sale barn was like my adopted grandpa, and I'd go to the sales. I remember waiting for Thursday. I couldn't wait for the class to get out when I was a kid. And I'd ran home, and I'd grab my hog stick, my bullwhip, and I ran across to the sale barn, and I started loading and loading cattle trucks and hog trucks. I loved it. It was my life. How do you go about buying as a kid three pigs and discreetly raising them in your bedroom closet? My mom tell you that? Yeah. I got into raising hogs because Kenny, who was my adopted grandpa, I call him, I went with him to a sale like I always did, and he bought me three little baby feeder pigs.

6:52I mean, they were little. And I had to bottle feed them. and I didn't have a place to put them so I snuck them into the closet and I put them in the closet and I gave them some water and I would get a bottle at the sale barn I'd get the little bottle thing and I'd walk in there and I'd feed my pigs and then my mom found out there in the closet and I had to move them so we ended up making a place for them in the barn you know but that got me started and I was the only I was probably the only nine-year-old, eight or nine-year-old in Pawnee City, Nebraska, or anywhere in Nebraska for that matter, that already had a bank account of about$3 ,200 because I was going over to the sale barn and I would buy four.

7:41I would sell some. I would buy this many. I would sell some. And your parents were cool with that. Oh, yeah. I had a place made for them in the whole deal. it got to the point where I was buying 35 head, 40 head, you know, loading them up on a truck. I had a whole thing going. Yeah. And how old were you then? Well, when I was buying that many, probably 10. Oh, okay. 10 or 11. Yeah. But I could do the whole thing. I didn't understand. I'd sit there and the auctioneer would come on there and, Hey, what have you been for?

8:21And I'm a little kid, and I'm like going like this. Hup! Hup! I'd be like, hup! You know, I knew my limits. Candy trusted me. If he thought I was going too much, he'd be in the ring, and he'd look at me and go, shake his head at me. And that's, man, I loved it. I did that. I loved it. That's it for now. But if you're hungry for more in-depth interviews, head over to YouTube.com slash Graham Bensinger. You can dive into our deep library, which includes more than 2 ,000 clips spanning 12-plus years. Thanks again for listening. By all, Lorenzo, the pitch looked good. Yeah, so green. USA Keeper was decent enough.

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