Dave Portnoy, Country Singer Zach Top, World Cup Bracket, Phil Mickelson In One + Mt Rushmore Of American Attractions Foreigners Should See

27:42Yeah, it was a crazy story. Phil feels like feels like things aren't going well for Phil right now. Walls might be closing in on Phil a little bit. It wasn't just the kid. It was like everybody at that club, other members, too. He was known for going up to them and just be like, hey, I'm just going to leave my phone in your cart for a couple hours. Hope that's cool. I thought the craziest part was him hanging out with Pat Perez and his wife. And then Pat Perez gets up to go to the bathroom. And then Phil just takes out his phone, allegedly, and shows it to Pat Perez's wife. And it's just a picture of Phil naked with a boner.

28:17I think they said, like, was he flexing or smiling? he was flexing one arm and then holding his boner with it. So that's surprising. He was flexing. He's a flop guy. That's what we know about him, but he showed it to her. And then Pat Perez comes back from, from the bathroom and he just acts like nothing happened. Embrace debate. Is that cool? Like to show your buddy's wife, a picture of your dick. If you're flexing, I'd say, no, I'd say not cool. That's not a bro move. Also makes me uncomfortable. rule the fact that like phil definitely like had multiple pictures like that and he's like he had to go through and be like all right which one is the best which one is my show show my friend's wife at the dinner table picture that's the primo boner flex phil picture that he had ready to do you think he had a favorited on his like pictures so he could pull it up real quick yes yes 100 100 % for sure.

29:15And he definitely went through others. He went through a phase to get the angle right, too. Yeah. Yeah. Get the border right. Yeah. Yeah. He probably spent a couple hours doing portraits, flexing. That's just such a pose, like flexing, holding your dick. It's crazy. You got to make this up for everybody in that picture. Yeah. It's crazy. The story was nuts. I don't know how much of it's true, but it seemed like there was some extensive reporting on it feels like phil is uh maybe burned a few too many bridges at this point of his career and then yeah it reminded me of the fact that the pga tour went out of their way to say that all the guys coming back from live like there will be exceptions made for people and they they went out of their way to exclude phil from falling under that category when they said like you have to be a major champion 2022 or more recently which was directly because of phil so i i feel like the rumors have been out there for a while and now something happened he didn't pay off the right guy and uh and people are talking i guess the only um there's no spin zone or like if any of this is true it's not like defending phil but i would say that the the one thing that popped in my head was like as fierce as fierce rivals could get phil and tiger probably would have a good time hanging out with each other at this point right like they might be the only two guys that they have left yeah i mean it's just the two of them maybe maybe phil like saw what tiger was doing off the course and then he said like to get to be able to beat tiger i have to act like tiger and so then he became like yeah he's like if you if you're gonna if you want to commit to it phil you have to commit to it fully and that's like the deal with the devil that he made to start winning majors yeah but yeah it's it's crazy the two of our the two the two of our like uh childhood golf stars have kind of ended up in similar spots yeah i mean there's just no way that was kind of my thought too is like there's no way that the stars of current like this is not coming out in 20 years like they scotty they phil and tiger were you know the best of the best and they were just absolutely insane while doing it but because they were still like everyone loved them it's like yeah phil and tiger like literally like the two favorite everyone's favorite people yes it was for a lot of those years it's it's the funniest possible sport to have the two best in the world be complete and utter scumbag perverts yeah like you would not think that about golf either but now i do now i do think that about golf because they've like almost branded it that way they've shaped the game forever yeah except for our guys yeah no our guys are good guys listen our guys are good guys fucking good guys I did not what were you going to say do you think it has anything to do with the nature of golf is all about being a gentleman every single thing about the sport you have to be polite you wear a tucked in shirt you wear your belt you wear a polo shirt not allowed to smash lockers everything about the sport is rooted in like being very polite and almost uptight do you think that that it represses you and so then if you're really good at the sport then it makes you more likely to just go fucking buck wild when you're not playing golf yeah shout out hey shout out you grew up in a in like a repressive household you're going to be that guy that ends up acting out when you get out yeah when you get cool yeah when you get cool and have money Shout out our good friend Brooks, though, because did you see this made me laugh?

33:02I was scrolling Instagram earlier today and his lovely wife, Jenna Sims, had a Instagram reel that had like a video of their house and it says things I did things I do to afford a home in Portugal. And then it just pans to Brooks and says him. That's good humor. That's good humor. Yeah, I love that. good shit right there i laughed out loud when i saw that so um okay what else oh uh grayson allen is a hornet the hornets now just are like hey you know what we're gonna sell tickets by getting duke and unc we we re-signed kobe white and we're gonna get grayson allen and that's how we're gonna get some you know we're gonna we're gonna sell tickets honestly not a bad idea yeah oh I don't hate the idea.

33:53Imagine if Philly had done that with Villanova. Yeah, they would have won a title. That would have been nice. Although, they did have a very good, fun year, and then they were just like, yeah, let's blow it all up. Right. What else did you guys see? Oh, is Michael Block in every tournament, Hank? This guy. Senior tour. No, is he playing at Travelers, though? No. Oh, these were just clips that I saw blocky being blocky. He's he, he just turned 50 so he can play in senior tour events. John Daly also was like, he, he, he shot like eight under on, on Friday and was like leading the tournament at one point.

34:35So I was like, there was some senior tour vibes. Yeah. Block party, dude. He was, he's, I did see that clip and I was like, I checked the leaderboard and he like, he wasn't even, I mean, he finished like seventh, but I was like, thought it was like he won the tournament i was like that's electric it's like michael block hits hits a chip within two feet and then does a fortnight dance and it's the chris paul meme like hits a three to to cut the lead to 50 that's just i got a feeling like block is going to play every champions tour event like he's going to just be full time people people hate on block i don't get the hate i got no i got no problem with him he's a hilarious guy he just kept popping up and I was like, what's going on here?

35:19I thought that was my fault because I thought it was travelers. I was like, how did he get into the travelers? That was more why I was asking. Yeah. I was like, how the fuck is he just getting exemptions into these tournaments? Okay. So he's just going to be playing that, which listen, if you could compete in that, it's probably so much fun. Yeah. There's one guy who wins all of them, right? The German guy. He wins all of them. Yeah, he's old now though. Was it Langer? Yeah, I think it was Bernard Langer. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He was just dominating every single time. Phil played one event in that one, like, like one by like 10 and then started live.

35:57He was like, I'm not doing, he's like, I'm senior tours. Not it. Last thing I have before we do who's back memes. I know you're a winner now, but there were two clips this week that were just LOL Mets that we should probably address. Would you like to address them? Which ones? Well, the first was when the Mets were playing the Cubs and the Cubs hit a home run and then it was like panned to just all that one was not that was just time and place. Whatever. Norway just rowing. That was just more funny. That wasn't really the Mets fault. Carlos Mendoza gets fired as the Mets manager and they're doing an on field report talking about it for like what SNY and Mr.

36:39Met is just like doing the Dougie behind the reporter while he's talking about the Carlos getting fired. Listen, Mr. Metz is trying to have a good time. Congrats on the wild card, Max. Thanks. You too. Thank you. Appreciate that. Congrats, guys, on the wild cards. Max, I got a question for you. You did start that. You did start the cards. I did. I did. Yes. Don't call me. I like it. I like the trend. It's a good thing we got going. It's a good way to just always know what the standings are. I know. I got a question for you, Max. Is this something that I had just forgotten about Bryce Harper? Or is this like a new thing that's come to light publicly?

37:26That when he flips people off, he flips with his ring finger. No, he did. It had nothing to do with flipping anyone off. What? But he clarified that he flashed his ring finger at the fans who were chanting expletives at him in right field, not his middle finger. and then there's a picture that i saw to win a ring this year oh because he wants to get a ring yeah that's somehow worse we're we're focused on getting a ring this year wait that's so i thought you were gonna say like because is he is bryce mormon mormon yeah i thought you were gonna say something like you know he's mormon he doesn't want to you know it's a kids you know they're they're heroes to kids yeah that would have been fine like lame but fine he's doing it because he wants to win a ring this year the the goal is to win a ring the focus is on winning a ring so we you everyone has going like this yeah we got to remind everyone i mean he's he bryce is on fire right now he's literally on fire it's just the funny part was it was against the gnats and yeah i i know that our bullpen stinks and and bryce well you lost three games when you give up 15 runs in three games in the ninth inning.

38:40You had a 98 % chance of winning all three of those games. It was a historically bad three. He said the bullpen was bad. He said that. Max, we've got, I think, 24 blown saves this year, and no other team has more than 16. Yeah, I know it's a terrible, but we're still like a year and a half, two years ahead of schedule. We can fix the bullpen eventually. I just had to say it. It was a historic three games. It does suck. And yes, the Phillies, actually, Max, the Nats were up 5-0. against the Phillies. And I texted you and the entire group, congrats on scoring a million runs in the ninth inning later on and winning this game.

39:15And then you guys won 10 to five after scoring five runs in the ninth inning, like an hour later. So I know, I know how bad, but the weird thing was, it was a game with Bryce against the Nats and he flips them off with the ring finger and Bryce left DC. And then the year after he left, we got a ring. That's what I was so confused about. remember when you were giving me shit about talking about Italy winning a ring like 20 years ago? Yeah. Who cares? Well, Bryce does. Cause he goes like this. Yeah. He cares about now. He's talking about the future. You're talking about the past. We're talking about the past.

39:53The past is for cowards and losers. Mike Dick. I just, I honestly didn't know the story behind the ring. So I want to ask. Thank you for, for yeah. That's what we do. I appreciate, I appreciate you asking PFT because I'm thank you. I'm not going to you know what we're on vacation this week Max about to get married I'm not going to judge I'm going to hold on judgment before we get back that's what you're doing this week right here Max one of these Max get it dude ring on it you should be all in fucking locked in on getting that ring Max where's your ring I took it off this week because I what I felt weird seeing everyone being like oh welcome welcome to the wedding i'm already wearing a wedding ring so i'm like that makes sense yeah yeah yeah um okay let's do who's back the week then we get to mount rushmore dave zach top uh who's back the week is brought to you by twisted tea summer's here and so is the twisted tea summer party pack twisted tea is a refreshing hard ice tea made with real brewed tea and five percent alcohol they also have a new summer party pack has a brand new twisted lemonade that's you got to be having a twisted lemonade fourth of july weekend it's a refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons it's only available in their new party pack so grab it while you can whether you're hanging out at the bar hitting the lake or beach for a weekend or daydreaming with friends twisted tea is here is there to turn your day up a notch and make a good time a great time keep the good times going all day and all summer long keep it twisted grab a refreshing twisted tea today okay who's back of the week hank um who's back of the week is stats and analytics being for losers yeah uh bobby marks came out and and said that you know i had an analytics guy tell me we viewed jalen brown as the seventh best player on a team not in the league on a team like out of a you know 12 man roster and then jalen brown went on a on a tweet spree just being like, state your sources, which is the shirty war, you know, to the Celtics championship parade.

42:00He's always adamant about, you know, sources should come out and state your source, which I agree with. If you're going to say a source told me, state your source. And he said, roll the ball out. None of these guys better than me on both ends. Who does he work for? So Jalen Brown, I want, I just want, I want, I know it still might not happen, but I, Jalen Brown is going to be on a revenge tour this year. And I want him on the Celtics. okay yeah i think that go ahead pfd no no go i was just gonna say if that analytics person actually does work for an nba team i guarantee you that his team sucks yeah like nobody can be that dumb to think that jaylen but then then the guy that that made that comment clarified and said like yeah that's crazy that the analytics guy said this um that was kind of the whole point of him saying it but when you isolate it and you just turn into that one quote then it looks like everyone's talking shit about jalen brown when in reality i thought it was more that guy saying this one analytics guy is so stupid that he said that dan uh is there a chance that you and jalen brown are way overreacting because he was this guy was actually talking about Team USA, a team that Jalen Brown didn't make the roster, so saying he's the seventh best player on Team USA would actually mean that he has Jalen Brown ranked higher than everyone else.

43:30Was it about Team USA? I don't know. You're going to have to do some more. I don't know. Could be. Who's deciding? That was my point. If you're saying seventh best player in the NBA, that's one thing. Right. But he didn't make Team USA, so maybe he was like, dude, he should have been the seventh best player on Team USA. I mean, that's clear that they would have said that because that's a non-story. If they're talking about Team USA, that's up for debate. Obviously, those guys are the best players in the league. If people want to rank them fourth, seventh, tenth, whatever, that would be a non-story.

44:04Well, unranked right now for Jalen Brown. Right. Right. Because he wasn't on the roster. Do you ever worry that maybe Jalen Brown just needs to go enjoy life somewhere? Just go be happy and take a break from the internet? He seems locked in on what all the haters are saying about him at all times. Coming from you and Big Cat, what are you talking about? I was trying to defend Jalen Brown. I am too. I think he's a great player. He just needs to stop listening to everybody. Are you on the internet every day? It's our job. I'm having a great time. Our job isn't to dribble a basketball, dude. with our right hand only i i i think jalen brown enjoys his life a lot and i don't like i think if people again like you guys are crazy like we're about to interview davies the same way it's like if people are talking there's much shit about you you're not just gonna everyone says like yeah i'm just gonna not ignore ignore ignore it you guys are not ignore it he's not ignoring it he's he's a proud guy he wears his heart in his sleeve like i'm happy that he's passionate about it i just want him to be happy.

45:06That's the thing. Dude, he's an NBA champion. Do you know who did ignore it? Who? Memes? Jalen Brunson? Jalen Brunson has a podcast. He did ignore it, though. He literally talks. Why does Jalen Brunson need a podcast, then? By your example of Jalen Brown, why did Jalen Brunson have a podcast? Probably trying to get Josh Hart to not have to fly economy. Also, having a podcast, You have to have friends to do a podcast. Jalen Brown just streams on his own. Oh. You stream with everyone. This is crazy. I just want to be happy. In this statement, it was crazy. Jalen Brown streams. He has his friends on.

45:49The funniest part about this, Hank, we're actually on your side. It is insane that anyone would say that he's the seventh best player on an NBA team. He's going to be the best or second best player depending on what team you pick. I don't think you can pick a team that you'd be. I actually don't think you pick a team. Maybe the third best. He's he's he's best or second best on every single NBA team. Yeah. What team would he be third best on? None.

46:21None. I don't have one. I don't. I don't really have one off the top of my head. I don't. Maybe the Wizards, but I don't know. Maybe. probably the Lakers. What? Austin Reeves and Luca? Yeah. I guess that's a good point. That's a good one. Yeah. Oh, Pistons. Okay, so Pistons, Cunningham, Tobias Harris. Yeah, it was a crazy comment, Hank. Do you think he's still... Where's your confidence in him playing for the Celtics? Same as it was when I said my stance a few weeks ago. I have convinced myself in my mind that he's coming back and I'm staying there. That's where my mind is going to stay. We did have a very funny...

47:08Obviously, there's reports and rumors and there's a... We'll see. Worst case scenario is it happens when I'm on an island for Max's wedding and I'm just going to ignore that even being a possibility. You can't have that vibe in your head going into a vacation. That would be the best case. You can just pretend like it didn't happen. Worst case is he goes to the Jazz because Because our good friend can't pick up any type of normal human interactions or social clues. Stephen Che sent me PFT and Hank a text being like, here's my reasoning. I think Jalen Brown's going to get traded to the Jazz. Here's the bet.

47:49You can bet on him playing for the Jazz. Hank just left the combo. He's like, why would you send? He's like, I was just trying to help a buddy out. Jay's been weird on Twitter. He just does a different hypothetical trade every single day. Yeah, that's what these NBA freaks do. Yeah. I think, Hank, Jalen Brown, that was a crazy comment from Bobby Marks. You happy? Yeah, I agree. Unless he was talking about Team USA. State your source, you know? Yeah, okay. PFT, who's your who's back? my who's back of the week is quarterback rankings actually NFL rankings in general because Prisco dropped his hot 100 I don't know if you had a chance to read it it was the most football guy Prisco move ever because he was completely oblivious to the fact that like I think he dropped it during a world cup game during a United States world cup game he's like this is quarterback ranking season time this is when we sit down we get we get into fights and he had caleb and jaden daniels back to back love the rankings to try to get the conversation going i didn't see too much conversation about so this is me doing a good friend a favor and getting the conversation going about it because i think that's what he was trying to do do you know guess what numbers he had them at top 100 yeah all players or just qbs all players all players i'm gonna say he had him in the 30s no no not pete not pete where do you have he wants he wants to see him do it again uh Caleb, 70.

49:36Okay. Jaden Daniels, 69. Okay. Where's Drake May? I did not. I just saw those two back-to-back, and I thought it was funny that he ranked them both so low. Got it. Then I opted out of that column from then on. I can look it up, and we can embrace true debate on it if you wanted to get into it. Let's see. Pete. i'll start you look it up i'll start my who's back okay my who's back is the city of philadelphia uh did you guys see yeah yeah did you guys see the poop incident sometimes people gotta go dude the noah khan uh it was a very popular uh singer songwriter had a show where was it was it the link or was it i don't know where it was at citizens bank park it was it was at the bank and apparently uh some fan pooped everywhere and noah khan had to tweet after being like hey everyone if you gotta shit like listen i'm a guy i've shit my pants he said if you have to poop at a show please dear god just go to the bathroom i've pooped my pants as much as the next 29 year old but you guys got to understand there's a venue worker out there with a thousand yards there deal after dealing with that.

50:58So yeah, Philadelphia way to show out. Sorry for partying. Nice work. Sorry. Yeah. That great, great followup. Sorry for party. Sorry for party. Sometimes you got a shit and you don't want to miss stick season.

51:15Imagine that guy. Like you're already so embarrassed. You're already like, that was a terrible night. I pooped my pants and everyone in my section. And then the guy you went to see the big star you went to see play music tweeted about you pooping everywhere. Do you think that guy just like squatted where he was at? And like there was enough people around him that were standing that he thought he could get away with it. No, I think he's probably just so fucked up. He just started shitting. Somebody wrote it up. What do you mean? Somebody wrote up the description of what happened to it. So this is what it said.

51:55The person who did this was one row in front of me in section AA. I guess they didn't want to miss a couple of songs. He's a bathroom. So they just straight up shit themselves. Mind you, not liquid or anything in case anyone thinks this was an accident. And they started picking actual pieces of poop out of their butt and put it on the floor. Now, are you guys ready for a plot twist? Because what I heard from you guys was a little bit sexist earlier. She started trying to waffle stop the turds and act like nothing happened. It was a girl that did this. Allegedly.

52:31How is it a girl? Wasn't there a rumor about some famous actor as he shits in the tub every time he goes to a hotel? I don't know. Oh, yeah. I think that made the rounds about somebody. Who was that?

52:52it was just like this this famous actor just every time he goes to a deli just shits in the tub and just like and just tries to shove it down the drain oh okay uh what did you find where drake may is well what's sylvester stallone by the way according to reddit there's a there's a there's a rumor. It's an open secret in Hollywood that when Sylvester Stallone stays in hotels, he always leaves literal shit in the shower. That's such a ridiculous rumor.

53:28That's like when you can't come back for like, I don't even know the toilets right there. There's nothing that is closer to the toilet. I want it on the record. I believe I love Sly. I believe that he does not do this. I have his back, but like it's such a specific rumor that it's like impossible to go against. Do you know what I mean? That's so specific. There's one guy who takes a shit in every single and waffle stomps the drain. It's like the Richard Gere rumor. So crazy specific that it stuck around. Yeah. What do you got for Drake? I did find Drake May. Drake May he clocks in just behind Trevor Lawrence or just ahead of Trevor Lawrence and Justin Herbert at 61.

54:16Prisco is so obsessed with Trevor Lawrence. And then Jared Goff is 57. Jordan Love is 51. Okay. That's crazy. Okay. Yeah, Prisco knows how to get the people going. Good for him. This is his way. It's very funny. Where's Baker? Where's Baker? No, he loves Baker. Baker at 80. 80? Baker is 80? Doesn't sound like he loves him that much. Baker's going to have a bounce back here. He's not injured anymore. Yeah, get healthy. Yeah. Play fast, play good. Sam Darnold, 72. Okay. Super Bowl winner. Elite. All right, Zach, finish us off. My who's back of the week this week was going to be off to Texas because we had a major four this weekend.

55:06Anybody catching clips from major four? No. No, no, no. I can't say I did. That's completely understandable. I know we had a lot of sports going on, World Cup, golf. But when it comes to virtual sports, Optic Texas finished second in every other major this year, and they're finally able to break through and get the win. It went to a Game 7 situation, Map 7, against LA Thieves. And who? Optic Texas is your team? No, Optic Texas is a professional team based out of Texas that you root for. You root for them. I would like to see the Thieves win, but I just felt like, I mean, they're back because they won after coming second three times in a row.

55:44So I'm just going to respect the win. Okay. You wore an Optic Texas champion shirt to the EA event. Yeah, because you got to respect glory, Hank. So just whoever wins the championship, you're buying their shirt. Back-to-back titles is good, and then you want to support an industry where there's not always the most going through it, man. I want to see the industry be around for a long time, so you support everybody when it comes to looking at some times. Yeah, so whoever wins, you buy their shirt. That's what I'm saying. Respect greatness. Hunk greatness. All right, give us another one, Zach. That one sucked.

56:14Give us another one. Another who's back in the week this week. I guess we're going to respect three kids. That's going to crush him. Why? You saying that he's going to be up at night tonight. No, Zach. He's completely correct. They were barely back, I guess. We'll take it back. It was only the fourth major tournament, kind of like golf. It definitely wasn't a major. And 18 ,000 people in the arenas in Paris, France. Oh, is that the one that Bush was at? They were at the Challengers version of that, and they came in third. They got knocked out by, I think, like the 14th or 17th seed. It was tough.

56:47See, I ride with Bush. Yeah, they came in third, but, I mean, it was a rough day for Bush. All right, listen, I take it back, Zach. Listen, I'm not saying you shouldn't like what you like, but, like, I need it better. It was bad. Give us a little who's back. All right, who's back of the week? Free kicks. Most electric goal, I think, of the tournament so far is Messi's free kick. oh i like what you're doing here i like what you're doing see this is a good who's back what why was it so electric zach i just think it was it was fantastic it was a great goal describe it to us what did the goalie do all right so there are some reports online saying that maybe the goalie started buffering i don't agree with those but there is a conversation out there that the goalie i don't know if he's got like a crypto account that might have may have spiked overnight or a relative who got pardoned.

57:37But I don't believe any of those takes. Those are all people online, usually behind faceless accounts. May say that Messi kind of got the nod and he just – he was close, but he didn't get there. It was – Yeah, it was really – you know what? I don't think it was the reaction of the goalie. The goalie was way out of position for that shot. Like he put himself behind the wall. So that's where he fucked up or maybe that's where he was getting the – the late night deposits hitting the account. He was standing right in the center of his three man or four man wall that he had set up right in front of him.

58:12And then of course he's not going to be able to see the ball. It didn't look good from the goal, from the goal angle. It was like the Cal Ripken all-star game home run kind of feel to it. But listen, goals a goal. You kind of wonder why he's that far off the post, but yeah, it goes a goal. You're right. And if we take all the conspiracy out of it, Free kicks are the funnest way to watch people score kicks and goals, and that's who is sick. Zach, that was an A-plus who's back. That's how you fight back with the Ronaldo-Messi stuff because it was not the most beautiful goal I've seen when the goalie could have maybe just fallen down to his right and stopped it.

58:55I think he may have made a choice right there in that moment. There's a couple angles where you don't believe it, but then there's like one or two where it's like, Oh, he just sold. Like he just, Oh my goodness. Maybe, maybe he just business decision. Cause that ball was coming in so hot. Yeah, no, it wasn't though. It wasn't coming in that hot. Oh, all right. Let's get some outrush for it. Then we got an awesome interview with Dave and a great interview with Zach top in studio. And like I said, Wednesday, we will see everyone for dingers only interview with John Smoltz and a little recap of whatever happens for NBA free agency.

59:35Okay. Before we get to Mount Rushmore, this segment is sponsored by Microsoft 365 co-pilot. What if you could add an AI assistant to your work without leaving your workflow built into Microsoft word, Excel, and outlook co-pilot works where you work, helping you do more in the apps you already use. In Word, Copilot helps turn scattered notes into a first draft. In Excel, it generates insights from your data. In Outlook, it cuts through the notes to get you up to speed faster. The apps you know go further with Copilot. Learn more at m365copilot.com. Okay, boys, Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore. What's the prompt?

1:00:18Mount Rushmore of U.S. attractions that a foreigner would see. Mount Rushmore of... Well, it was on Zach's list. Okay. So we can read what it said on Zach's list. So verbatim of the topic, it's going to be Mount Rushmore of American attractions for foreigners to visit. Okay. Great. Great. I love that. All right. So we don't know what the updated score is. Nope, because we're taping this on Thursday. Well, actually, it's 2-1 Turkey Day. Yes. That is the updated score right now. Yep. All right. So I think it's me, Max, and memes up first. And then Henry. And then Henry and Zach. But respect. Mad respect for Zach.

1:01:08Zach and Henry. Why were you mad at Zach right there before this started? Before it started? Yeah. I mean, this is, I guess we didn't talk about it in Fyre Fest, but Zach and I did a played EA College Football 27 on stream. And we're teammates like he had his, he just horrible video game etiquette. Horrible. Horrible. He's correct. Why? I had a lapse in judgment. There's a lot going on. I was up. There's 40 seconds left. I could have run the clock out. We're playing a game. We're streaming. And even if we weren't streaming, it's like, you got to keep going. You know, I'm not just going to run the clock out.

1:01:49Threw an interception. Zach then, and I stood up and walked away out of disgust because it was a pick six. Zach decided to run the ball out and down himself on the one to milk the clock. Why? To not even give me a chance to score with like 20 seconds left. He was playing to win. Got it. Oh, no, that's not. Yeah, you play to win the game. But Hank already. I could have. The game was over. Hank already set the precedent. Yeah, you should have trusted him. He's a snake. Yeah, no. Snake in the grass. It wasn't a gentleman's move. Hank had an amazing first quarter, 30 in the first. The patronizing, whatever.

1:02:29Zach, don't apologize for winning. Wait, what was the halftime score? Off the top of my head, don't remember. It was a close game, though. Was this the one that Hank was up 30 to 7? Yeah. In the first. And then he lost 43-42? It's a great game, both sides. So that actually makes a difference, too. It's like if it's a massive comeback that you have, I feel like you have to seal the deal at the end. Yeah. Streets would be talking about it forever. Yeah. But he kicked the field goal instead of doing it. But he had a moment to make history, and he made history. Did you center it? He tried to. He didn't center it.

1:02:59Oh, okay. He didn't center it. Still got it through the uprights, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hell yeah. Good dub. And then right before me and Zach were brainstorming, got a call that my car got broken into, so didn't really have much of a brainstorming session. And Zach's, I think, I think, I think it might just go Zach. Zach's list is unbelievable. Now for the record, on the text thread, Hank didn't say that his car got broken into. Hank texted the group thread, hold on a second. I just got robbed. And so I saw that on my phone. I jumped off the couch and I was sprinting through the foray to get outside.

1:03:31And then Hank came strolling in like whistling. Like, what's going on? Are you okay? What's going on? And Hank was like, oh yeah, it's just my car. Somebody got into my car. Yeah. I was like someone broke into your car, come out here, and then I saw like all my gym clothes were scattered on the ground, and my heart sank because - Your golf clubs. Yes. Your kids were in there. Basically. I don't know if my kids are. It's like, I don't know what the relationship between - It's your co-parents. Yeah. Yeah. My wife was in the car. And thank God she was just in there all rested, untouched, unbothered.

1:04:06So then I did come in. That might have been because there were righties. Yeah, true. Imagine if they took a quick look and they're like, oh, fuck it. Are you a little bit insulted that they looked at your clothes and they were like, I don't want this shit? I mean, it's my gym clothes. It was a gym bag. And I had like two yardage books, which they're valuable to me, not to anyone else. But they just threw them, which I appreciated because I still have. Hank, I have something else to say. Yeah. Have you seen the footage yet? No. I think you're giving these robbers too much credit about the technology that they were using.

1:04:44Oh. They were just going from cars to see which was open and yours was open. Oh. Oh, sorry. I wasn't the one that, I didn't, Big Cat was the one that brought up the tech. Well, because you said your car was locked. My car auto, I thought auto-locked. It does auto-lock if my key fobs are my thing. They were just going down the way, checking cars to see if they were open and they got to yours. There's car hopping. Yeah. All right. Yeah. We don't victim shame. Max just victim shamed the fuck out of me. All right, let's go. Let's do this Mount Rushmore. Give us a prompt one more time. Prompt is American Attractions.

1:05:16Wait, my bad. Let me get the exact one. So it's American. This Mount Rushmore is American Attractions. Okay. Yeah. That you would want to... Attractions for foreigners to visit. It was visit, not see. I want to make sure. American Attractions for foreigners to visit. That makes zero difference. Sea and visit is the same thing. Okay. Fair. Okay. Ready? Yep. We're doing number two? We're doing it? We're ripping it? Rip it. All right. Rip it. SEC football game. That's a good one. All right. College football game. Yep. You got to get down south. Different culture. Get their minds blown by it. They're like, wait, this is a school?

1:05:54Yeah. Like, just thinking about foreigners going to Death Valley on a Saturday night. Yeah. Or, you know, between the hedges, Georgia, Alabama. Something like that. What? You all right? That's between the hedges. What was that sound? That was me thinking. Between the hedges is Auburn. No, wait. They have hedges in Georgia, too? I believe they have hedges, and they might even have some hedges in Oxford. It's been a long day. What? No, they do have hedges. No, they have hedges in Georgia. That sound was Hank being like, oof, I was not thinking this way. All right. Who's up? We got a brace. We're up.

1:06:33It's brace, brace. We're going to go with the Super Bowl. Okay. It's America's greatest game. It's the greatest game in the world. It's our biggest event. You get to see performances like Bad Bunny, and you get to see the Super Bowl. Yeah, the reason why we didn't pick Super Bowl is because it's probably going to be in Europe soon enough because of you. Yeah, so I was about to say. They've never had them in Europe ever. But they're kind of desensitized. A while ago, they would have been like, what is this game? This is crazy. Now it's like, yeah, we see six games a year because of Commissioner Lockwood.

1:07:08So it's just another football game. I don't know what, like, it's crazy. What? I didn't make the choice for them to start doing international games. I just support their choices. Super Bowl's pretty expensive. That was also one of the reasons why we're like, eh. It's tough. I didn't know there was a price limit on this. Yeah, no, no. All right. Okay, PFT. Okay, my 1-1 is to a shooting range. To go fire guns. Okay. They fucking love it when you take them to go shoot guns. I had a bunch of guys that would stay with me. Like, we'd get teammates that would come over from Australia. And the first thing they wanted to do in Texas was, let's go shoot some fucking guns like Americans.

1:07:47And then they'd just be like, yeah, this is great. I love this. So I'm going to go shooting range, number one. And then number two, I'm going to go amusement or water park. Okay. They love that shit, too. Okay. They eat it up. We found out a fun fact in researching Mount Rushmore. There's a Disneyland in France. No idea. I had no idea. We were like, we threw out Disney, and then we looked it up. We're like, oh, shit. They got one. I didn't know that. That's bullshit, too. They shouldn't be allowed to have it. I agree. We were shocked. Like, what the fuck is that? That's ours. I'll tell you what they don't have is water slides.

1:08:32I think the difference is there's quite a few Disney worlds around the world. There's a Disneyland only in California. Got it. But Disney World is the thing. No, no, no. I think you have that. Disney World is Florida. I think they have a couple of Disney lands around the world, but there's only one Disney World. Got you. Because I thought the same thing, but then. Yeah. Disneyland Paris. There's a Mickey swap. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That shouldn't be allowed. I think we can all agree on that. Okay. Hank and Zach. Zach. Zach. Anything you want. Let's go. What do we think, Hank? I think whatever you like the most on this list.

1:09:10Air-conditioned room. There are some great choices on here. Okay, I would like to take Magic City. All right. I had strip love on my list, too. Yeah. I was happy you guys didn't take it because we were walking into the room to brainstorm and he goes, Magic City? Out loud when Max and memes heard it. And I was like, but then I think I heard Max say, like, we're not taking it. I will say, I think some Europeans may be disappointed when they realize things that you can't do. Yeah, strip clubs are so much better overseas. Good point. Pepper hot, though? Yeah. Good point. You guys got to get to the right rooms.

1:09:43You guys are in the wrong rooms. Zach, have you been to Magic City? No, no, not at all. I haven't been to a lot of U.S. monuments, but I still can appreciate them for sure. Yeah. I think we got a lot on our list. Yeah, a lot on our list. I think we go 12 and 4. no okay five okay i think 12 and five memes i do like 12 and five i think we definitely go 12 yeah all right definitely all right so our first pick will be although we next pick what what the first pick 12 okay you say it the vegas strip yeah las vegas all right you say las vegas Vegas. Vegas is good. It's Vegas. You got to go to Vegas.

1:10:28It is Vegas is maybe the most American city we've got because it's just we just do everything to excess. It's everything. It's everything to excess. Okay. Now we got a problem. What are we going to do? There's so much. We got so much on our list. Which one do you think could get back to us? I think five might be able to get back to us. Okay. Yeah. I think. All right. I actually agree. Yeah. I agree. Yeah. With the guy sitting next to you, I agree. Okay. Which one? Bass Pro Shop is our next one. We're going to go Bass Pro Shop. They don't have that. Just a Bass Pro Shop. They don't have... I mean...

1:11:08A Bass Pro Shop. I heard Bass Pro Shop. A Bass Pro Shop. We actually wrote down Bass Pro Shop Pyramid, so... I have that right here as for Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. I don't think you did. I don't think you wrote Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. Okay. Actually, we can't show it. We'll show you the list after. I have Bass Pro Shop Pyramid. It's a screenshot. Bass Pro Shop. I think Bass Pro Shop Pyramid is. It's a magical place. It is. It's a wonderful place. And it's not. You don't get bad in Europe. Oh, yeah. As a matter of fact, it's right here. Yes. We will show you. Are you fucking kidding me? Bass Pro Shop.

1:11:40Was it on my list? It was the first thing I wrote down. That's why I said the PF... That's why I said... I was like, the guy sitting next to you might not get back to us. It's a good place. I believe you. I believe you. There you go. Look over it. Over my hand. Top? Topwise? There you go. Yeah. That's a screenshot, not a text message. That's a screenshot. Bass Pro Shop Pure. Okay. Hank. Or sorry, Zach. It's my pick. You never know with these guys. We are going to take. You got this. Waffle House. Okay. Yeah. Good pick. Good pick. Good pick. It's you get everything. You get some great food. Yep.

1:12:18Some great action. You never know what's going to happen. I think we got a good Mount Rushmore going, boys. Yeah. Yeah, this is really solid. This is some good stuff. I love some kumbaya between the boys. Yeah. You love to, yeah. You do. Hank's giving me the face. You just victim blamed. You literally just interrupted, made a point that was completely unnecessary to the story just to shame me. Well, yeah. That's how it's at kumbaya. That was like 10 minutes ago. Yeah, that was so long ago. But it also like. And memes just kept saying, you got to say it. You got to say it. Yeah, memes is a piece of shit.

1:12:49You were like, I locked my fucking door. And then we saw the video. And then. Yeah, whatever. Hey, can I say at least it actually is in a weird way better that they aren't using the technology. That's true. That's a great point. I didn't know about the technology. Because your car locks. I was like, it locks when I leave the car. Yeah, I mean, I thought it would be a little shy because you'd have to be really close. But yeah. But I didn't know about the technology. I wasn't going around. Oh, I'm watching the video right now. They take out the 7-iron and they realize it's a lefty and they put it back.

1:13:21How does no one send me this footage? no that wasn't he made that up i made that up see that was more fucked up than what i thought it's so funny that was more fucked up it just took a couple just took a couple practice swings like fuck hank these doors open up so smooth they barely even touched a car dude yeah i think the guy used one finger and the door just opened up for him oh man okay who's up oh pft i'm up i think so waffle house last pick did you You say... Oh, right. He's a Waffle Box. I'm lost in this. You fucked up. I'm lost in this. You fucked up. I'm going to go rodeo. Ooh, that's a good pick.

1:14:04That is a good pick. They love rodeos. That wasn't on our list, but that's a good pick. That's a good pick. It's like the most American thing they can think of is to go to a rodeo. Mm-hmm. And for my last one, this is really good. There's like three ones that I want to take. I know. There's a lot of honorable mentions. Oh, shit. Okay. and somebody already took bass pro shop pyramid yeah good check way to go that was a quick var listen i had my challenge i gotta use it yeah uh bucky's okay okay we had it we had it bucky's and and they're just amazed by it being a grocery store and a gas station with like 40 toilets and the amount of stuff that you can buy there yep they just love that shit they eat it up pretty much all of our gas stations I feel like are just so much better our gas stations are better than every store they have yeah alright Hank Zach we would like to take the Daytona 500 infield nice you're going to get American racing you're going to get again all kinds of action action that is so American they're going to remember it all Yeah.

1:15:20We played the last round very well. Yeah, but now I kind of want to take 11 instead. Come on. Yeah, 11 is good. That was on our list. 11 is good. 11 was on our list. But five. I had 11 too. Like, we went into this draft saying that we wanted five. But we're also very – we're a tainted group. I think for both of those things you could say that. Yeah. So right now we have SEC football game, Vegas. Bass Pro Shop pyramid. I think five rounds it out nicely. But 11 is nice. 11 is good. Can I just call myself? Number five has something to do with food. Oh, yeah. The way that Max is talking about it. I mean, yeah.

1:16:00There's no one else that's going to take the pick. Max is getting so passionate about it. Yeah. We knew this pick was going to come back. Yeah. I'm good with five or 11. I think it's a strong draft. Memes, you make a decision. Memes, pull the trigger. Let's go. Come on, Memesie. Numbers, Memes? Just say it. I'm just staring at 11. Just say it. Whichever one you want, just say it, and then we're going to go so strong with it. Chili's. Okay. Great pick. Okay. Great pick. Chili's. I mean, it's just so much food, and the menu is just so good. I'll tell you what. I had two restaurants on my list. Chili's was not one of them.

1:16:37Yeah. I mean, listen. But Chili's is all over America. Yeah. The bottomless chips. Chili's is a worldwide brand, by the way. It's everywhere? Yeah. It's in Europe? 29 countries. Okay, 29. That's not a lot of countries, dude. Latin America, Middle East, Asia, parts of Europe. Parts of Europe is barely Europe. Which parts are we talking? Chili's is American. Come on. We're talking Scandinavia. It's a worldwide brand. All right, fine. You want to say that's an illegal pick then? No. Well, that's the argument. No, no, no. I'm not. It's because you're bringing it. You have to have two people object to it, two teams object.

1:17:13I'm not objecting, by the way. I'm also not objecting. I'm happy with Chili's on our board. I love Chili's. Chili's. Yeah, you could go to France and have it. Chili's would suck in France. I think I had Chili's in Lafayette. I'm not joking. It might have been... There are no official Chili's grill and bar locations in France. Paris, Texas. Maybe it was... There are locations in Europe, U.S. military base. Ha! Eh! In your face. You can't if you're European. Many in Europe are primarily, but no. Europe, Germany, only in U.S. military bases. Ah, gotcha, bitch. It looks like there might be one in Romania.

1:17:56Oh, okay. You're going to go to Romania to go to Chili's? Hank, ask Copilot. That should be Hank's punishment if him and Zach was not Russian. Romanian Chili's? Go to the Romanian Chili's. Listen, Chili's. I mean, I don't think that Europeans are getting the amount of food that you get at Chili's anywhere in Europe. and it's everything yeah the like beef in the skillet case was made out of horse yeah yeah but bottomless baguette could rip yeah that's a different that's a different beast blooming baguette we went there alright what do we got that we missed we said what's co-pilot got do you have it you wanna read it off we had da-ching we had yeah I got it okay give it to us what did Microsoft co-pilot give us Statue of Liberty okay Golden Gate Bridge.

1:18:45Okay. Grand Canyon. It's pretty big. Yeah. Las Vegas Strip. Yeah. Okay. Here we go. Rose Bowl. Yeah. I mean, yeah. When you said Rose Bowl would be pretty sick. It's like, yeah, Rose Bowl would be nice. Yeah. I had Monster Truck Rally. Yeah. Medieval Times was one of my restaurants. Ooh, that would be a good one. That's just their history. Yeah. That's what would make it so awesome is if like you took a European to our medieval times. Yeah. I want to educate you on your own country's history. Wawa. Yeah, Wawa would be good. Rough and Rowdy. Rainforest Cafe. Rainforest Cafe is a good one. R.I.P.

1:19:23Gasparilla. Cheesecake Factory is another one where it's just like the menu is just that would blow their minds. Oh, my God. Costco. Costco. Nice. Costco. Sam's Club. Wrigley. Bill's Mafia. Tailgate. That was the other one we were debating. between yeah bills but you know we had sec football bills mafia tailgate would be pretty sick although i feel like maybe they they probably have something uh the sphere yeah it's very be great sphere my whole problem with the sphere is like you don't get this you don't really understand the sphere until you go to the sphere yeah that's what max kept saying yeah like i wouldn't have said that pick until i went to the sphere yeah and so it's like i was pretty like aware that the sphere was a mind-blowing place.

1:20:09Yeah, but it's not You don't get it, bro. You don't get it until you go. You don't get it, bro. Well, no, you do get it because you've been. Yeah, right. I mean, you're just arguing against a pick that wasn't taken. You're just arguing to argue. You guys are bullying me. What else? I mean, New York City probably is on there. Yeah. Just Philly. Go see Philly. The foreigners have loved Philly. What would you... Zach said Houston Pool Party. I think you'll... Or anywhere on the 4th of July. Okay. I like that. Yeah. Houston Pool Party specifically. That's a pretty good one. They got those videos where everybody jumps in at once, one after another.

1:20:49It's like the biggest... It's like the whole party doing a cannonball. And also 4th of July, pretty much anywhere on 4th of July is a great time. That's a pretty good one. Which... What would you guys say would be like the more bucket list place for European? Madison Square Garden or Wrigley? To get married? No. Just to go visit. I would say probably... It depends on the European... It depends on what country. It's in New York. Yeah, that's true. But take out New York. I mean, that's a big part of this MSG. I'd say probably the biggest part. I don't know. I would rather go to Wrigley, but for an international person, I feel like New York City, they'd rather go to MSG.

1:21:34Yeah. Is it a miss that no one picks Mount Rushmore? No. I thought about that. No. No. Not a miss. I don't think so. It's a rock. Yeah. And it's close to nothing. I don't think so. You see Mount Rushmore and then you're like, fuck. Now what? Now, yeah. Is there Chili's nearby? Yeah. Probably. Probably. And then you're like, fuck yeah, let's go to Chili's. They should probably put like a restaurant or a bar at the top of Mount Rushmore. Wolfram's always doing something. What? He is always doing something. He's doing it. Sorry. Daytona Beach. Just like that whole thing. Margaritaville? Margaritaville.

1:22:14We thought of Guy Fieri's. We're just trying to find Guy Fieri. The attraction being Guy Fieri. Just go on a Triple D tour. That would be sick. That would be awesome, honestly. I would. Yeah. That would be sick. The grit sign in Youngstown, Ohio. Yeah. Legendary. Big Texan. Home of the 72-ounce steak. Yep. That's right. Yep. I had Hibachi. Amarillo, Texas. Hibachi. Yeah, you did have Hibachi. What else did you have? You were firing them off. Utah at night. Yeah, Utah game at night. D.C. That'd be cool to see Washington, D.C. Peppermint Hippo. Oh, Mall of America. Yeah. That would blow a European.

1:22:58That would suck. We're doing honorable mentions. You don't have to. We're just throwing shit out there, and you're still fighting them. None of these are picks. Fair. What are you so riled up for? Yeah, dude. I think Hank, Zach beating you in video games got you fired. No, you. You're on edge right now. It's okay. I would say any sort of combination fast food restaurant. A what? Combination. If you go to the combination Pizza Hut, Taco Bell. We had a McTaco Hut in my town growing up, which is rare because some of those companies aren't even part of the same parent group. No. That's insane. Yeah, the McTaco Hut was every time, like if there was an exchange student, we'd be like, you got to go to the McTaco Hut, and their minds would be blown.

1:23:39Another thing that would blow their minds is just going to like a 7-Eleven and looking at the different flavors of sports drinks. Yep. And they're like, we just have the one. Yeah. The, Piahti, I know you've been to this, and I have as well, Texas State Fair. Texas State Fair, pretty crazy. That would blow their minds. Yeah, they fry everything. They fry everything and just like the amount of, you know, just, And then there's a football game that goes on. Yeah. That is a purely Americana scene that you can't get anywhere else. Nathan's a hot dog eating contest? Yeah, we're talking about that. It's kind of a bummer.

1:24:13I love watching on TV, but it's hot and you're in a crowd. And Fourth of July, you should be in a pool. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. I just remember competing in it and then being like, Please just get me anywhere but here right now. That was also because I was stuffed with hot dogs. All right. Good Mount Rushmore, boys. Yeah. Should we have said the World Cup? No. No. No. Because it's currently happening. No, they have soccer everywhere. Bad pick. Yeah, but it's currently happening. It would have been bad pick. Soccer everywhere. Just thinking. No, it's all right. World Cup's going on. No, it's all right.

1:24:47Honorable mention. We're good. Oh, we could have said, though, sports related, a Stanley Cup parade. Because that is very American. Yeah. Right. Championship parades. That only happens in America. Yep. So that would be a good one. Got it. Yeah, yeah. Hey, four's up. Four's up, guys. Four's up. All right. Good Mount Rushmore. Okay. Before we get to Dave Portnoy, a quick word from our friends at Nutrafol. Most game-changing grooming products are just hype. What's different about Nutrafol is that it's actually built like a real game plan. Physician-formulated and clinically tested, Nutrafol is the number one dermatologist-recommended hair growth supplement brand used by over 1.5 million people.

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1:26:18promo code PMT. That's Nutraful.com promo code PMT. We also are brought to you by our friends at Jose Cuervo. When Cuervo enters, every moment just gets better. You find yourself in the center of the dance floor. You can't help but stand up and high five those around you at the game. The room reacts like it just got the same text at the same time. You stop checking the time. Suddenly, small talk escalates to laughing so hard you can barely catch your breath. that's the Cuervo effect a signal everybody understands a moment that anyone can join and a good time that just grows all you have to do is keep it Cuervo okay here he is Dave Portnoy okay we now welcome on a very very special guest he's our boss it is Dave Portnoy second time on pardon my take first time since I think 2017 I don't remember why I was on the first time it was I remember it was Championship Sunday.

1:27:16I think it was the year that it was Jaguars-Patriots, and we had a fan or a writer from every team. Because remember we had Aaron Nagler for the Packers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, that was the last time. But Dave has a book. It is out as you're listening to this. Cancel me if you can. Go buy it now. Buy it in a bookstore. Buy it on Amazon. Buy it everywhere. Just buy it. Buy it. Just buy it. You don't have to read it. We're not telling you you have to read it. I've even looked at ways that you can rig buying it. I haven't been able to figure it out. What do you mean? I mean, you could buy a shitload.

1:27:49No, you can't. So politicians buy their own books to do this, and they get kicked out. Like Ted Cruz got booted because he bought his own. You're not supposed to do it. Some people, like the guy from California did it for his book. He bought, the governor, Newsom bought like a ton of them, and then if you donate, he gave you. but they're supposed to kick you out if they find you doing that what about if you use like a I tried to buy them all but they limit you I was going to say what if you just do like a shell company and we just send Mincy like with a U-Haul truck around the nation just loading up the boxes I thought about the recent Mincy debacle with the treadmill because as much as Mincy sucks he somehow did sell quite a few brick watches like I don't know how he did that But he did So I debated just to tell him Go sell a million of these fucking books However you can And that'll buy you a decade I feel like Mincy driving over bridges Through tunnels with a massive U-Haul Is going to raise a lot of questions to law enforcement He's going to get pulled over everywhere He would actually sell some books for you Because if you told him that He would just go to every widespread panic show Which he's probably going to anyway There's probably not a ton of overlap He would just be selling it Like, you'd be like, buy a nitrous balloon, buy a day portanoid, cancel me if you can book.

1:29:13But you've got to get in the back of the truck, because I don't know how many, like, books bookstores hold either. Like, I think there's 10. So you're really going to make your dent online, but they do limit you, I think, on how many you can buy at once, because they don't want people rigging with these rankings. Why don't we promise just, like, a personal thank you video from Mincy, if you get the combo, if you get the portanoid part of my take combo. I know it's across different publishers. that's true i try to pre-order both yeah then how about how about mincy you you like take a screenshot you send that to mincy tag him and he will send you a personalized thank you video i'm down for that i'm down for anything to move the books it's uh it's more and as i i'm talking to dan it pound for pound the least profitable endeavor in the history of endeavors yes like And I don't even understand how the book companies make money.

1:30:06Yeah. It's so, all right. So, because it's funny because, you know, Dave, obviously it's weird we have a guest on who we know so well and who's our boss. And I talk to you, you know, every other day. But it's weird that we went through the same process of the book at the exact same time because we wrote our book. You wrote yours. Are you at least happy that you did it now that it's done even though it did suck? Yeah. Yeah, I'm happy it's over because I do feel like the Barstool story is pretty crazy and remarkable and probably not a similar version. Like there'll be other stories, but it's unique.

1:30:41And to have what I think is a fairly accurate memoir of it, I think it's cool. Like, I'm glad I have it. I would never have agreed to do it in the first place if I thought it was going to take the course it did. And Francis wrote a good book. people think i'm trying like francis wrote a good story book it just wasn't mine or ours it was different um and and like that his probably works more for like a movie or whatever he wrote in his style but it was like just not accurate and i my blood i still when i so in the book we did the audio and austin can attest to this like i'm reading it and when i read a francis line because It's probably 95 % me and it's 5 % like still his lines.

1:31:25I just get so mad when I read his line. Like, motherfucking Francis, I never fucking say that in the audio range. It's like this fucking, how'd this get in there? I mean, so, but it is. To answer your question, I think it's good. I think there's new stuff in there. It's nuts because you wrote it all. I joked to you because it was like three months ago or so. I think there was a three week stretch where we didn't talk. And I think that that was the first time that had happened in like 13 years. And I was like, what, what is like, what is weird? And then I realized, oh shit, he's just locked in.

1:32:02Austin, your assistant said that he, he taught you how to put your phone on do not disturb. And that changed your life. Yeah. That was a while ago. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, it probably took me five, six months, eight hours a day. Like I was just grinding and it's, it's, Francis was super helpful he gave me the outline like he and I did a ton of interviews so he had the chapters he had everything I followed that outline but I just rewrote everything in and then as you're going there's so much more that pops into your head that oh this should be in there you're trying to make it funny like the back of my head is like could this be a movie a tv show like I want to make it entertaining um but accurate so it you know writing sucks like we used to write all the time and even writing a blog for me a couple paragraphs to get it in a way I was happy would take me hours so yeah it was a long exhausting process but I am glad it's over yeah for us it was I mean it was partially you do want to make it funny but it's also more than that you want to make it interesting which is very different from blogging sometimes like with a blog you you know you're cracking your jokes you might try to make a couple points if you want to but in this you're like you're trying to make the memoir interesting and exciting for somebody to read and when when I was going back and writing stuff I'm sure big cat feels the same way we uncover things that we hadn't thought about in the last like six seven years and it makes you think and consider those a little bit more when you're writing are there a couple sliding doors moments that you had not remembered or that you kind of uncovered for yourself we're like hey if this had gone a slightly different way things would have been much different yeah I mean I I think a lot of it is known.

1:33:43And that's part of the issue with the book for me. It's like we're so open. There's like very few things and you want new tidbits. With you guys, I think, and it's interesting because when I'm doing these interviews, I've started, I'm really curious what people think. I'm like, did you like the book? And obviously, it's hard for somebody to be like, no. But the things they're asking me about aren't necessarily what I expected. What are they asking you? There are a lot of people are early days. Like it was like, oh, I'm fascinated by like the newspaper days of you grinding. Renee always gets brought up like that relation because we're still like getting along and super friendly.

1:34:24So that fascinates people. But the sliding door moment. And I don't I think it's well known if you follow us. And I would say the most important moment in the overall where we are now is still you guys and the ESPN thing falling apart. Like, to me, that was the moment that realigned kind of everybody and kind of forced us down the path where, all right, it's going to be us kind of together. That is a huge moment. but there's other early things, but in our current state, I don't think we're like the behemoth. If ESPN didn't ironically like create a common enemy for all of us to unite against. Yeah.

1:35:03I'd agree with that. Cause it did. It was really like in our writing our book. And then, you know, you showed us like, you know, what, what you wrote about us. We got to read a little bit of it, which by the way, my publisher is so fucking literal. So I, for the people at home, I wrote the PMT chapter, sent it to everybody, be like, here it is. Like, I just want you guys to get eyes on it because it's an honest perspective from my end of it. And there's a lot of stuff with PFT in it and our relationship in the beginning. Our editor is so literal. They want me to change it because I said PFT hasn't read it.

1:35:39They're like, well, he has read it. I'm like, yeah, but he didn't read it before I wrote it. Like they thought I now couldn't publish it because you had read it before it's actually out the day it's published. that's how literal my editor was that's that's unreal because because other people have seen it they're like this doesn't count i said you guys read it because some of the things i asked like do you have my editor on the legal side like if i i say uh like somebody was trashing us 24 7 they're like you can't say that i'm like what do you mean because they literally slept at some point yes it was that war consistently like no sarcasm at all that's crazy yeah i mean i i appreciate you let me read what you're i actually thought it was it was very very fair i thought it was a great description of kind of like what our relationship is and where we stand and how like we have this loyalty to each other and i did not realize at the start you were under the impression that we got into a big fight the first time that we met yes i thought it was just two guys talking and then i read it i was like yeah yeah this story i remember it like i i i went to gaz he He was at the bar.

1:36:45I go, this guy fucking hates me. Hates me. I'm like, he may not come. I don't know. And then you went back because we had the back and forth. You're like, I think I already signed when this happened. I'm like, I don't think so. I was like, he may not come here. He really hates my guts. Yeah. So we had a different perspective on how real that was. Yeah. I guess the story was Dave and I had a conversation, right? It was, I made my intention clear that I was going to go to Barstool. We had, we had, we had steeled it, uh, over a handshake. We went out to dinner at, um, what's that, what's that place?

1:37:17House of Prime Ribs. House of Prime Ribs. We were in San Francisco in 2016, right after Churnin had purchased us. And that's as good as any contract. As far as I'm concerned, we had second slices together and that, that binds us. But at that party, um, Dave and I had a conversation and it was about the size six joke, the skinny jeans joke. And I was just like, I was like, tell me what that means. Cause like coming from my background, cause I did not grow up like a stoolie, like other people had and i was just like let's let's hear what dave has to say about he was like it was a joke and then my response to that was like i bet you wish the joke was funnier since it caused you all this like back and forth and all this headache over the years and then i thought that we were good and that like we just a couple guys sharing a laugh having a direct conversation about it and to the point where like the next day i texted i was like hey that was a great dinner thanks for uh thanks for the invite looking forward to working with you i didn't realize that you and And again, they're coming from two different worlds.

1:38:13So that is a joke that is brought up to me by every person. It's the first thing. If you don't like me, you go back to that joke and be like, this guy's the worst. He's the Antichrist. He's pro-rape. And it's like the new guy who was coming from a world of people who didn't like us. I'm like, he hates my guts. And it really, I mean, you were firmly a Dan hire. Like we had really no relationship. You guys forged it. I'm like, man, this fucking guy does not like me. Yeah, I mean, we talk about it in our book as well, but there was a little bit of a Jets and the Sharks West Side Story with PFT joining us.

1:38:53But it's interesting because the chapter that you wrote, your account of BBT, I think is, everyone should go, who's listening to this right now, should go buy the book just for that. But I think back about it and it is crazy. the from churning to like after bvt we all moved to new york and the plan was that like everything was going to grow and it's just we never planned for pardon my this show to grow so much faster so quickly yes versus everything else and that's where like the weird tension came in because it just it happened so fast it was like we blinked it's like oh fuck this thing is massive right now It happened so fast.

1:39:34And there was that inherent, like, we like PMT, but we hate Barstool. Which it's like, they are Barstool. And especially for me, it's like, Dan's been with us forever. It's fucking Hank. Like, yeah, PFT is new, but it's Barstool. So to be like, you don't like, and there's always been a little bit of, and it all in the end melted together. like i'm an instigator you guys both during that time like we prefer to just turn the other cheek i don't do that i never have but it ends up like building each other because people find it it's like there is the crossover but yeah it was a tense i put that in the thing i honestly don't know if there's a civil war i think i used in the book if it was like the new i think i forget what i've written it so far ago i haven't read it but the uh the anchor man like if we all threw hank like a wrench who he was going to start hitting i was like who are you going to fight for hank because he'd probably just kill himself it was relevant i can't do it yeah yeah i can't do this right now but yeah and then it's it's funny because obviously everyone knows a lot of the story but like for people who are like oh yeah we we like pmt but we don't like barstool the a big big portion of the bvt blowing up was dave and i doing a gambling show to like 5 000 people back in like 2013 that we would do every single week which was pick them right and it's like that yeah stream of consciousness the ponder stuff yes it is very on brand like i didn't even remember we said it i remember the blog when she took a kind of shot at us for ray rice because we're like this guy's crazy how do you get four games like how can you guys defend when you do this but like people were blaming us for blowing it up but that was like core barthro was no intent we were just shooting the shit quickly and and it's like we didn't even remember that is like we say it about everybody i kind of said it to i before we started i got in a fight with a pbs lady it's like she brought up um we sold she's she just people say stuff to me like it's a fact like you're sexist she said that to me i'm like i don't think i am she's like well you sold when tiger woods had this controversy sinking putts nailing sluts that's sexist and i'm like i I think it's a joke.

1:41:54And by the way, he was actually like banging prostitutes. But like I'm talking about Summer House right now and this guy West being a man whore. Nobody cares. Like that to me doesn't make me sexist. That's a clear joke about Tiger Woods. And it's like kind of barstool, but it's everybody. Like you can find any group that we've talked about and made jokes. It's all about intent. And I'm pretty confident in our intent that we try to make people laugh. I told that size six skinny jean, what they cut off when I'm like, I would never make that joke if I knew it was going to offend people. Like I wouldn't make it now, but the goal was to laugh.

1:42:29Like I was never trying to be offensive. I never would. So does that, did that PBS lady know about the big Ben shirt? Thank God she didn't. I was going to say, that's not the shirt. Oh my God. That was a thousand times worse. I still occasionally will see somebody wearing that. No way. Yeah. Oh, do you talk? I don't even know if we can say it. No, I'm not going to say it. Do you talk about like the merch side of it? Is Welker in the book? Oh, yeah. Because it's a big part of like Barstool's growth and how we got to where we are is like we had to sling some merch. Totally. And that's what always has caused, and I have a line in there.

1:43:08I think they say in the golf, it's not personal, it's business. Like, well, when the business has been your life for 20 years and it's basically kind of like you when people attack barstool it's like you're attacking me so and i think that is something about the book people have read i hate when people and i'm sure you guys too like oh they just put up tna or like the lowest hanging fruit it's like we have really smart intelligent funny people and we worked our fucking asses off for a long time and even like the inside of barstool as everyone we're far more left than like right and but people see me and if i'm on fox news or whatever um and they just don't look under the hood and they don't even look under the hood on things i've said it's just you you fixate on something so and by the way what you just said like that that is obviously evolved for me too especially after the bvt thing where it's now i i agree like when when someone says something bad about barstool it's not i can't just be like oh that's okay like no no you're that's like my whole life that's literally like i'll someday many many years from now i'll retire this is all i'll be known for is like this so it's like there's nothing else i have so when someone's like oh yeah i read this in new york times like what the fuck are you talking about like that's you know i i said it in the last page of the book is actually the only time i'm like that's crazy i have now i'm gonna be 50 I will have been doing this for half my life.

1:44:32Like half my existence, I've been doing barstool. So yeah, I take offense if somebody's like, barstool sucks or this or that. It's like, well, you're attacking my entire life. Yeah, I do think you can win some people over. It's not a complete lost cause all the time. And on that note, I'm curious, do you think that you and LeBron just got off on the wrong foot? Like if LeBron and you hung out, maybe for half an hour, no cameras, I think you guys would actually end up like shaking hands at the end and be like, all right, all right. I'm glad we got that off our chest. I kind of like you. Yeah. Well, I've always said you can win me over like easy.

1:45:09Like if he came to the internet of invitation, there's different types of hate like LeBron and Goodell. Like when I bought that thing for Goodell to go to his basement for money football, that probably would have ended the beef. The business insider and people have come for like my life. I would never like I could sit down with them forever. Never. But the LeBrons and the sports people, definitely, like, we could probably get over, even though I still hate them. But I'm sure all you have to do is, hey, I sneaky like Barstool. I'd like him back. Yeah, like I'm a stoolie. If he's like, I watch pizza reviews, it's over.

1:45:42Yeah, what if he was like, I hate Barstool, but I love Fasoli. That's probably 25 % there. I think I would probably like him back, Fasoli. It depends who. If he's like, Mincy, no. Fasoli, probably yes. do you put in the book how much money you've lost gambling in your life because that's always you didn't because that's i always in my head i'm like hey uh someday if i have to write like a personal book i'll just that will just be what i do is i just i just calculate it all i don't know what the number is and i don't want to know but we wouldn't be here without correct the other side of it correct so that that at least is good but no i didn't put that in or it's yeah it is one of those things that if you even stop like right now you're thinking about it a little bit and it's probably like i can't i've directed it into horses which is better yeah it's more expensive and at least i have something to show for it at the end of the day are you are you prepared for them to in like five years make you do like an updated book and be like never i'll never do an updated book like i we have had a couple meetings about like turning it into a tv show or movie and people are asking why did i want to do the book it's like you guys and i don't know what the answer is for you guys when a lot of things don't excite me anymore it's like all right cool but for some reason it's made my age like the thought of seeing like a book in like walking through the airport and your books like in the store ego like i thought that was really cool and i didn't realize how much work and maybe it turns into like i i think the barstool store is clearly like built for like a tv more or more of a movie it has everything you need for it's a crazy story so that's kind of what convinced me i wasn't going out of my way looking for it like we got uta they pitched it i'm like oh yeah this sounds this sounds cool but again no no conception of what we i mean i don't know if austin's this clip of me trying to read the audiobook oh yeah i didn't know we had access to it but i can't read like i just can't it's not easy but by the way the answer reading it off like a little kindle no i did paper i had to print the whole thing out i i was doing the laptop i had a stack of papers dave because i had to literally go with my finger and do that and we also you needed a jerry jerry o 'connell should have just read your book for you he would have done it because he was a lifesaver for us some of the some of the book if you listen you're gonna be like he is so mad that he's doing this i can't wait to listen here here's just awesome says there's like an hour there we put in the mic put in the mic put in the mic are you doing the reading yourself yes uh i'm just gonna read it i changed uh crap that art uh

1:48:38I'm not a guilt but Jamaica's true if that makes sense what happens if there's something that makes sense there are definitely moments when I thought what the fuck did I get myself into here kind of like reading this book I'd be broke my mother makes a spectacular dessert called sour cream technology has never been my forte nor is reading more than double your equation it was all hands all deck both guys it's on and on it's like oh it's out any of those sounds like gibberish i couldn't it's just this little kindle and it's ours i i was like i fucking hate my agents how could i ever fucking think i'd want i was i hate it i actually have dyslexia a little bit yeah really like diagnosed yeah like things backwards i think that's why i get all my name no not diagnosed yeah you don't have self-diagnosed but to answer you what we did our book because i think i think honestly maybe pft uh has a different opinion but like 10 years snuck up on us like it was like almost like we got a call and they're like hey we're checking in on this book because they had pitched it to us before we had done meetings before about a book and it was like wait a second we're about to be 10 years what So I got pitched to write a book about sports conspiracies.

1:49:59And I was like, I think I would like to write a book now. But I'm not going to write this. We haven't written the part of my take book yet. So I went to Big Cat. I was like, hey, I got pitched to write this book. And I wanted to know if you had any interest in doing a book. And Big Cat was like, well, it's been 10 years. This now should be the time that we do the part of my take book. And we even had Hank write a chapter. well actually dave i don't think i've ever asked me by the way with the timing of your book like it which is very barstool but like of all the times like i've never written book you've never written book and we decide to drop a book like three weeks apart right it's incredibly stupid yes very dumb uh but it's it's it's eight weeks apart but yes but yes but that's all the people saying they're like why what has happened i i don't know i don't think it was we didn't know I thought you were doing your book There was a miscommunication I knew you were doing your book I thought for some reason it was coming out like two months ago So I was like I thought there was like a four month gap It is very funny that like The two least likely people To be writing a book It's like us and then you writing a book And we're both doing it at the exact same time Something weird happened there But in our book obviously Hank writes a little bit So we're trying to get Hank to become a New York Times best selling author I don't know that I've talked to you About your first impression of young Henry Lockwood and what kept him coming back.

1:51:24Because I know that he was fired. He came back a couple of times. The resume might have been embellished just a little bit. So I don't know. Do you have anything in your book about Hank? Oh, yeah. Hank's in the book. Yeah. I mean, he was like a helpless blob of a human. I mean, there's that picture of him from like Milton's pimple look. And he had like ketchup all over him. He's wearing like sweats. And really what happened with Hank was Gaz was still the same exact guy he is now. So I would have Paul, hey, Gaz, you got to do something. We need this. We need that. And Gaz, the Supreme Delegator, would tell Hank to do it.

1:52:07And Hank was brand new. And I was screaming at Hank. And finally, I'm like, why am I even yelling at this guy? He's brand new. He clearly is a helpless human. Like, he has no life skills. His school was not even real that he put on the resume. and uh so i'm like gaz you're gonna have to figure this out and get rid of hank so i have to yell back at you so hank was fired and i think gaz told him just keep coming which he did um and they slowly grew into the role but you know i i've told the story i think it's in there when hank hank went through his phase of trying to catch the drone out of the air like he wasn't letting it land and it like chopped his finger off and we took him to the r and he i must have been on speakerphone his mother's like i told you not to trust dave ford like i can hear that i'm like right here yeah he i the the the hank first day being i don't remember how he ended up with you guys he just he hank and i were like doing a bunch of stuff like we would travel he would come with me whenever i did a trip so like we did the blackhawks like la trip we did uh the tampa trip in the Stanley Cup final, he would come out to Chicago and do videos with me.

1:53:16So he kind of became my guy, and then we would go do trips together. We did the bro show together. And then it was like, I need a producer. I know he can do it. And Hank would know he could do it at that time. He was exactly like. Yeah, well, we didn't know we could do the pocket. But Hank was – we put it in our book, but Hank was about to leave Barstool. He was? Yeah. He was one foot out the door on the Dixie tour because he just – I don't know if you remember it, but you flipped out on me on the Dixie Tour because we didn't pick up Feidelberg from the airport, which wasn't my decision, but you just let me have it.

1:53:54I kind of made up my mind. I was like, I think when this tour ends, I might be done. Then we did that road trip. Where were you going to go? I was going to go. No fucking way. I was going to cut tickets at the Yammer side. No, no, no. I was on fucking tour at all these schools with like the hottest girls in the world. And I was 21. And I was like, I can still go back to school. Like if I ever have a chance to go back to school and just be a fucking kid with like all these people around, like this is it. And I told big cat that on that road trip, when we went to Michigan, Chicago and, and, uh, in New York back and forth, there was like a week.

1:54:34Cause that, that happened. There was a week where I like made up my mind. Like I talked to like Caleb and Ben about it. I was like, this is what I'm gonna do. This is what I'm gonna do. Like in my mind, I was like, this is done. But you were staying through the troll when you were being an asshole to us. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I don't believe that. No, Dave. I had, like, he said to me he was thinking about leaving, and he was very serious, and I told him, because it was right in that sweet spot where you had told me and Kevin about the churning investment. So I told Hank, I was like, look, this guy's buying Barstool.

1:55:09Like, things are going to change a little bit. We're going to have more money. We're going to do different things. We're all going to live together. So that was like part of the reason why he's like, all right, I'll stick it out. There was also, you talk about it in your book, Dave, but this was a time and like me and me and big cat were close. And this was like the G chat gang where like there was real tension with you, Dan and Kevin. And like, you talk about it in your book, but I like Dan, you know, me and big cat on these trips, like I would, I would hear stuff. We'd talk about it. Like, and so on that road trip was me, Dan and Kevin.

1:55:40And I was like, this is these two are going to get it more than anyone where I'm like, hey, I'm kind of done. This is what I'm thinking. And they both were like, no, like we're, you know, this turn and things are going to happen. But I thought I was going to be talking to two people that were like, feel the same way, kind of. And it was the opposite. It was the opposite. Yeah, we're going to think that you just unbelievable. I don't believe you would have the guts to leave in a minute. I've heard so at that point, you were just a useless little blob still. I've heard so many people. And when it's they get yelled at or whatever, it'd be like, I'm not resign here.

1:56:14And you know what? They're the first person in the resign line. I don't know if I believe before contracts. I mean, it is what it is, but how are you? What school? What was your fake school? What school do you think? I was going to go to like a film school. Like I was going to like, I don't know, USC or Emerson or something. I had, I had enough experience doing production. Like I would like USC, like Southern California. You think you can hit the USC? I thought so. That's crazy. I do remember. Can we admit? That's one of the hardest schools to get in. I had a full year at a film program, and I had two years of experience filming.

1:56:55It wasn't even in business. It was when I went there. I have a certificate of, what was it? Not a degree. GED? No. I was just going to go to a U.S. Southern Cal. Okay. You're going to Harvard. Again, I was at all these schools every week. We were at these schools. I was like, I fucked up not going to a big school. No, so Hank's offense in that moment, it did suck for him because it was the Dixie Tour, which there was no real plan for it. And it was Caleb, Busboy, Benny, and what was the other kid's name? Yev. Yev. And Dave, this is something that you're one of the fairest guys in business. You're fair to all your employees.

1:57:37but you also if you know you can yell at someone who can take it you will give it to them oh yeah and if you don't know someone you'll kind of just leave them alone so hank was in a spot where you didn't know caleb busboy benny or yev you knew hank so hank was just getting all the shit for their mistakes and he was like i can't do this anymore yeah that's fair how that would go for sure and caleb like i yelled at him one time for like screwing up a picture with bieber and he He tried to like beat me up at a Super Bowl party. But no, Hank definitely in the yard. I mean, Hank was sort of my guy for a little bit.

1:58:13So they get yelled at for sure. Yeah. I just don't believe this theory that Hank was going to be like, oh, I'm done with Barcelona. I'm going to USC. Like that is. You might have stopped the next Spielberg. That would have been a heavy, heavy dose of reality. I mean, Hank going to USC and being like, I've got two years of experience filming wet t-shirt contests at universities across the southeast. You should apply to USC right now. Actually, you probably would get in now. Yeah. Are we going to have to dig up his resume that he used? It's in our book. Yeah. It's misspellings, fake schools. The school was real.

1:58:47It just got unaccredited after I left. All right? I'm going to go to USC. I wasn't going to go at you as hard if you did South Carolina. I don't know what their deal is, but I think USC is one of the hardest countries. That's where everyone's cheating to get in. the documentary and i would assume it's like literally just nepotism hires of everyone in hollywood wow and was gonna usc i just knew if there was ever a clean break it was gonna be after that tour because i was like what when this tour ends like am i just gonna go back to the office like i didn't it was and that was a that was and hank brings up a good point like the churning the churning investment would came at the perfect time that also was a sliding door uh moment a hundred because kevin and i were in this weird spot where we were working really hard and like loving our jobs but dave had started to make money we weren't making like big money and it was like are we just gonna blog forever because like dave has barstool if he sells barstool he's he can walk off in the sunset what are we uh and then churning came along and it was like okay now we have a real thing that we can go for 100 and that came out of the left field like we weren't looking for it was through uh jared lorenzen yeah so without a doubt uh that there's been so many and people always ask that and i think any business like there's been a whole ton of luck like it's the right people in the right place to take advantage of the luck and the breaks and we did but the churning thing was huge the espn a lot of big moments so after the churning thing the other big moment i would say would be when they legalize gambling 100 sports gambling so like if if sports gambling doesn't get legalized, what do you think Barstool looks like from that moment on?

2:00:27Obviously, we've been doing everything, you know, for years. So there's a lot of stuff that's not going to change. But, I mean, that was a big opportunity. So, like, without that, where do you see the company going? Yeah, I thought I'd be done at Barstool. Like, I was coming up on the five years at Churnin. I put in the book, I didn't even look back. I hadn't renegotiated with Churnin. I was making 400 grand a year. Like, and I never got more from them. And in hindsight, I think it's a little insulting, like how big the company had been that there are never like, Hey, you're killing it. Like maybe you shouldn't be making what you made when you signed it.

2:01:04And then their offer to me was, I think like 2 million a year or something, which I thought this is kind of like at the height of like my personal brand and everything. It was like very installed. It's like, I can go do this. is a second so i didn't think i would stay i don't know what would happen with barstool i don't know what they would have done with you guys contracts but i think i probably would have been on my own yeah which that would have been a civil war which would have sucked yeah i don't even know if it's civil war like i had no animosity or anything to barstool like i could go just retrench in boston and like get my own deals and kind of do i wouldn't like that's like civil civil war i mean more like i wouldn't want to work for them without you yeah right right right You know what I mean?

2:01:49Like I would go with you guys be like, I'm not working for churning company without Dave here. Yeah. What you see now a little bit, Dan, too, in PFT to a great, it's like one of the weird spots during the churning years for me is I am involved in negotiating contracts. Theoretically, I'm like management. So the better deal for the company is better, but I'm also talent. So it's like not good for me either because when mine's up, it's like I want to get a deal. So yeah, the, it, If without the gambling thing, it probably doesn't, it doesn't all happen in the end of the churn. And I mean, I like Kearns.

2:02:26I try, I think they're going to be a little bit like, Oh, we didn't know Dave felt this way about how that all ended, but I didn't love the way our, our, like I didn't love the way it all ended with Turner. I thought there was too much negotiation and too much like, I guess, not thank you. We just made you a boatload of money and we all have to work our asses off by the way and aren't getting paid up front so i was a little i guess it was eye-opening yeah how business is done and nobody's your friend like i think we are unique in that we really do try to do right by people but that is not like if someone invests in you they're they're trying to get every nickel out of you and that surprised me a little that's one thing i cover too from my perspective is like the negotiation process and talking to people at different companies and And having to go through that experience to really understand the vibe from them and really understand what it would be like working for somebody else, as opposed to like here at Barstool, it's quite literally the best place to work.

2:03:24It's the best environment in terms of a boss. I've told everybody this. Like you are a great boss to have. You trust your employees to go out there and do their job, which is very rare. You don't have micromanagement. And yeah, it feels like there's a lot of risk out there if you were to go anytime you sign a business deal. And when you sign with Penn, I'm sure that there were some things that they promised that didn't end up being like exactly what they said at the time because they're trying to impress the shareholders and all that. And then when they when they sell the company back to you for a dollar, do they make that offer to you or do you say, hey, I hear you might need me to buy it back?

2:04:02that that's all covered in it but which i thought would be the biggest story of the book that was that was my offer to them basically being like all right well we're gonna have to figure out a way to make this happen you guys are going to espn i'm not gonna go really quietly into the night so how do we make this work where you guys get what you want we got what you want i mean and even to the the what you just said of like how barstool works and over the years and sometimes i gotta step take a step back i'm not great at it but that's why me and michael klein butted heads instantly because he comes in from an agent world and i'm like i've been working my ass off to get to this point i don't always have the answers like i don't necessarily have how are we going to make money if it's like i know and and it doesn't always work but with the employees like just trust me like i will take care of you i'll do the right thing i'm not sure what that looks like and he comes in from nowhere and i'm just like who the fuck is this guy and it is it is funny that you're saying this because like the the business stuff that like churnin you know in your book that maybe didn't end well and there is a business world out there where everyone is cutthroat and i think it's been to our benefit that we are the reverse through the years and wars because you and it's in your book you showed me incredible loyalty when dealing with churnin and like that whole process when churn and sold to pen and then i in turn like pen didn't really expect me to have the loyalty that i had to you when pen you know that that fell apart and it's like i don't think people really expect to deal with business people like we have on our side where we're like no we're just gonna like fuck you guys we're just gonna stick together it's the Number one, what has made us viable over 20 years or 20 plus now, and this is probably the same as sports.

2:05:56When you look at it, you guys, PMT and myself, could all make more money probably on our own. If we drop the idiots and it's just like we're going to take the most we can get and just that's it. That's all we care about. You guys could have made more on your own. I could have, but we haven't. So when you have the top breadwinners and we lose some, not everyone does that. Like color daddy bus and those, and you can't blame them. They took the biggest things, but we have enough where everyone can be paid pretty well, enjoy their jobs. And, and it, but if you guys were like, I need the most, I need the most, it wouldn't work.

2:06:32Like it just, the whole thing would fall apart at the seams and we wouldn't have the company we have. So, and that also is what I know, Dan at times drives you crazy has certainly drive me crazy. Yeah. is you sometimes get the feeling like the nicky smokes the world may not get that or like yeah people be like we want raises like the raises people ask for in our world they come in it's like i i think i'm due like a 100 raise like what i i actually apologized to dave last year at saratoga because i was like now that i've had to dip my toe into this and deal with people's contracts and deal with all these like people everyone wants you know more every single person wants more i was just and being that that push and pull of like kind of the boss kind of talent i apologize to dave i was like i get it like i get why you you were pissed at people i get why even like netflix rusillo he couldn't believe that i asked them if you want to do the netflix i'm like you don't have to do it's your podcast he was like over the moon he's like you're asking me if i want to do it like yeah of course it's yours yeah like we let people like even as you guys know netflix i thought it's a great deal no-brainer but if you guys were like we're not doing it it's like all right we're not doing it even though i think it was the right move so people have once you once you have a thing it's your thing and we try to do it together yeah that i mean that was one of those things where it was like netflix the money is incredible and it's something that we do to be able to employ lots of other people that work here 100 percent uh hank hank has a bunch of questions not a bunch i got a few i i the book was great i I obviously enjoyed the whole thing.

2:08:09I read I so obviously everything from after I was there. I know a lot of it. So I kind of skimmed through. But the first I don't know 10 chapters are great. Like I love I've always loved the early days of Barstool. How did you read it? Yeah. How did you get a book before anyone else? Awesome. I got like the preparation. I'm always prepared. Did you read Don Quixote yet? No. But I knew like some of my favorite Barstool stories, the angel of Barstool and obviously Ian White like the guy that basically started the website back in the day the one I didn't know about and like I feel like is maybe the biggest sliding door person of all time in the history of Barstool is Aaron Boyce oh yeah yeah so Aaron Boyce this is like right when we started I went to the printer of the newspaper and I had my buddy DiPietro had this like crazy elaborate design and I just sent all the articles like as word documents I'm like all right let's print the newspaper there and they looked at me like I was crazy they're like you need to put this into a newspaper format one of my best friends at the time from swanscott this kid brian hayes his wife uh his his friend's wife worked in the newspaper business and just got laid off at like the same company I was trying to print at so he's like she may be able to help you this was days before it was supposed to start so I go yeah I can do it she worked for seven years probably every single issue from that day forward as like a freelance and we'd be i'd send her the articles that uh i don't know like five on a tuesday we'd be up to like 4 a.m on a wednesday so without her i don't know there's a lot of those i don't know what would have happened that's crazy yeah insane i mean we still talk to her occasionally like she was interviewed for this and she's in the documentary um but yeah i had absolutely no idea how to print or produce a newspaper how many how many fake names did you write with because i know that you had to have like you didn't want the the paper to seem like it was all written by the same guy yeah right i had so many uh devil fish dave like uh that was the poker player or something i probably like 10 in the newspaper yeah and then we get in trouble like i remember so my thing in the early days which i've told like i'd put morton steakhouse and then i'd call like another steakhouse and be like hey your competitors in there you better get involved if flemings it was flemings and flemings called they're like why is our ad in here we want to sue who did it i'm like oh the salesperson quit i don't know how that happened so i'm trying to do anything to get any any advertising the paper was three grand the whole kit and caboodle was three grand to produce so as long as i could get three grand in yeah it's like all right i'm breaking even i'm living at home i had no other expenses yeah uh and i mean the you guys i mean obviously dan was involved like when i did first start the you guys were just bloggers you know the first four years it was like you guys the day in day out was literally just running 12 blogs a day and just like talk about the i guess the the art and balance because you guys did your own your own websites your own cities in different ways like the what was your like balance and art of right of the blog well we all had like the wake up guess that ass and in between it depends if your sports are going but it you try to balance sports and funny and really not everyone people think i say it as excuse i actually when people go back and find the blogs they think are offensive or whatever I actually think our track record is so good for the amount that we're publishing, trying to be funny.

2:11:48Oh yeah. No editor. And it's like that. I always, it's like you going back to 2010 for one blog when you've got read everything I've ever written, but you just try to make people laugh. Like you look for weird, funny headlines. The things I, I got the, the size six Tom Brady's kid. I didn't think twice. Like I wrote published go and I, it never even registered. I had just done something that create like a major controversy. I just wanted to be funny. We were doing nine to five every 35 minutes, new blog. And then like we, after, after five o 'clock, like you still had to do like three or four blogs.

2:12:26It wasn't like the day was over. You took a little break for dinner, but yeah, you're right. Like it was, you know, 12 blogs a day, every day. Yeah. There's going to be a couple that are maybe a little offensive. Yeah. And I was locked in. Like you all said, we locked in on your sports. So it's like you do those blogs and the Red Sox are on and I'm like locked in with my camera waiting for like funny things on TV, whatever it may be like. And then I blog probably till midnight one to have my early one scheduled so I won't have to wake up and rush. And then you just go. It was truly endless. And again, that is luck like.

2:13:04or sliding doors our first four before dan kevsey our paper writers were excellent they were like really really good jerry old balls um i have a good line about him i'm like we called him old balls like 20 years ago like we signed him like it was his 80th birthday yeah 20 years ago uh and then finding kevin dan k marco were all fucking great so like it was really funny talented at writing and like we haven't found those writers in a long time trying to find that we found them right away yeah and it was uh it really was it was so funny i i think back about it because i actually think like it was a simpler time where it's like you don't have a million things going on all you got to do is worry about the blog but the anxiety i would have when i would like leave my house for like 30 minutes and be like what am i what am i missing because because then we were all competitive too like you know the reblogs and people yeah oh my god the reblogs were like the biggest crime you could ever have you wrote something that someone else wrote more is that you guys have different beats yeah like it was like if something happened this is bullshit this person blogged about rob ford like that's my beat yeah yeah you had your own yeah and even now even at this it's and i'm obviously doing not nearly it's hard to be in and out like it's hard to have one foot in and one foot out and when you put one in you kind of get dragged in and want to talk but yeah it was non-stop i remember my first vacation and this wasn't the troll one like the website broke yeah yeah yeah you you're such a fucking piece of shit for that yeah we hired these guys to create a whole new barstool and dave's like all right i'm going i'm going away uh vacation that guy the dev nest i've described it as when people said turbo graphic 16 would be bigger than Genesis.

2:14:51Like he had some other code that he said was like replacing the internet. And it just didn't, it just didn't happen. And we're the only ones who went that route. It just didn't work. And he might've saved us a little bit in the end because he did totally. He did delete like two years of history. A lot of shit. Not intentional, but like they did on purpose. No, it was, I was human at the depth. They were cooking in that office for like eight months prior, and they would have these whiteboards and charts explaining the code, which none of us knew what they were talking about. But they were just like, this is how it's going to work.

2:15:28And then when they went to go, it just literally completely exploded. They banked on a totally different language that the internet was going to move. It just didn't. It just didn't at all. Do you think if you threw unlimited money at that problem right now, you could ever recover what was deleted probably because i think like you if i send pete something i want he can somehow go back and get the individual by itself i think like another thing we had which i loved it would get us in trouble for a brief time we had a story spinner so you pressed it and you didn't know what blog you were getting from what year what time it just gave you a random over the history that's a problem yeah i know those early blogs some of them are like very very funny i mean remember when you when you were like you your mom delivered all the newspapers to new york like oh we're gonna we're gonna start republishing the newspapers that lasted like a minute yeah it was the 20th anniversary i had them all it's like all right we're not we're not gonna do this yeah yeah um all right well everyone go buy the book cancel with me if you can uh zach you you got a last question roback question r-h-o-b-a-c-k.com promo code take 20 off your first purchase q-zips polos hoodies joggers shorts roback.com promo code take you ready zach sir how we doing today uh sir i'm good that's good to hear i did have a quick question that's okay uh you you hit on a little earlier in the interview that maybe in writing the story uh of barcel in the book maybe you unlock some memories you hadn't thought of in a while i was wondering if maybe you could share with us and listeners maybe a small moment that gave you a good laugh in writing the story?

2:17:10I mean, a lot of things did, to be honest. You know, the book is about the story, so you can't spend more time on some things. Like Bosco always makes me laugh, and he does have, again, like the lawyer, because I call him a terrorist. They're like, you need him to approve that. I'm like, no fucking way. I'm not getting Rico Bosco to approve that he's a terrorist. But there's all the little stories, the different characters and people we've had through the time of doing it i mean there's all it's a funny story and there were a lot that unlocked but again one's sticking out right now how you roast every basically any employee that you mentioned is is met basically with like a two or three sentence roast that i could picture you doing your little laugh loving it yeah as you're writing it like every time it was like dave loves this yeah yeah as i introduce new people i i will try to like like hank said a quick paragraph to be like who they are why are they in their world and why do i think they're a moron yeah how much i do that real quick how much time does boss who get in the book he got like one well what did i oh i think i told you where he comes in i'm talking about ponder and the pick 'em show and how much trouble it caused us and i'm like but that problem paled in comparison to the other problem that door opened pick 'em show which was the caller rico bosco and i did like a page of him basically terrorizing everybody so that's how he got worked in and again it's weird because our editors didn't know anything about us so So they would be like, you can't, like, I had Tommy Lights in the book who was, Tommy did the music tour, wore a suit, and like said, you know, you can't say that.

2:19:01Nobody is confusing. People won't know who he is. Like, our people know everything. So that was always a push-pull where they didn't want me to really mention new people without giving clear, like, reason why they're in the book. I'm like, I need it for the Barstool. And I don't know how many non-Barstool people will read it. I don't know. Yeah, I'm sure there'll be some. Zach, do you have a follow-up? That was a good question. When was the last time you talked to Dave, Zach? I said hello to him in passing the last time he was in the office. Okay, nice. Yeah, that was in the office recently. March Madness?

2:19:33No, I thought I saw more recent. I think maybe a little later than that. Oh, okay. Nice. I did have a quick follow-up, but that's okay. I do see you do a tee by the sea and you're out by the beach down there in the Keys. I've also seen you on the boat doing some fishing. Do you ever think to maybe do some onshore fishing? Has that ever crossed your mind down there? Well, I'm in Nantucka now. I would not onshore fish near my house because I consider those, even though there's like snappers and stuff, they feel like pets more than like fish to eat when they're like right in your backyard. And I don't go on boats ever since I sailed away.

2:20:08That's completely understandable. And that happens to any captain. You didn't leave the harbor though, right? No, I shot a flare in the harbor in the middle of the day. wait last question is max in the book at all no max wait he was gonna be your guy i know both those guys sitting there we yeah um he wasn't close to ever being the guy but he came in through like i think we had five we had the guy who didn't show up because on the first day called football austin was part of that group uh i think there were two more tevo yeah yeah carolina mark oh yeah carolina mark oh yeah carolina mark just disappeared oh yeah sad eyes dylan he was oh yeah but carolina mark somebody i ripped him without telling anyone no one realized for two months carolina mark was in a stream with us and then the next day he was just gone poof yeah yeah uh i'm trying to think if there's people i didn't mention that like are gonna be oh i didn't get mentioned because unless you come out it's not sort of got weaved in it's hard to mention everybody Max won't care I had zero expectation of being in that Oh no I don't care that Max He's not one of those guys who I was thinking Would be like why me Nadeau I don't know if Nadeau got a mention Oh Dave That's rider of the year material right there The orgasm for you callback Made me laugh so hard too His YouTube Yeah Are you talking about McAfee in there Yep yeah mediocre on mcafee i think i explained that that was in like the building superstars and they leave and i talk about his exit which we're still friendly i haven't talked to him a bit but it was a little murky the way he he left here i would say yeah um but yeah i talk about him call her daddy chapter people will get a lot out of because i i still think a lot of people don't it's hard i I guess still so mad about it, but they don't realize how involved Sophia Franklin was in my business insider troubles.

2:22:14She was directly involved. So that Superman's in our book, right? PFT. Yes. Superman's in our book a little bit because he I went out for a meeting with him during my contract negotiation, which happened right before the call her daddy thing. And so he was trying to be like, I mean, he was he was doing what he was there to do, which is say, like, if I worked at HBO, like I could have a show and I could be. I think his words might have been the next Jimmy Kimmel. And I was like, I don't think this guy's ever seen anything that I do. And then later on, I come to find out that there might be some of the same promises that were made to Sophia that he was making to me.

2:22:51And I saw through him and I was like, I don't think it'd be a good idea to split this up. Yeah, that and they were in cahoots, Klein, and I can't prove it, but they were friends. I mean, that whole, yeah. And again, it's the agent's job, but that suit man, I've never even met myself. He does hate us. I still think it's crazy. The guy who runs WWE now that he, like, he invited me to go to a fight and sit with him right after. Nick Khan. Right after. Yeah. The PNT blow up. It's like. He was Ponder's agent. Yeah. Yeah. And it's in. Again, it's like, I had to, for anything I want to say in the book, I had to dig up and prove it.

2:23:31So like, here's the article that says it was Nick Khan who brought it to ESPN. Yeah. Sliding doors moment. Still to this day. After that thing broke up, the fact that Skipper got fired like two weeks later. Incredible. Just that's one of my, oh God, maybe on our side here all the way throughout. Like the timing of that is just surreal that it took two weeks till he got, he had to quit for the Coke problem. Yeah, the two times I felt like the biggest loser was one when we went to the Breeders' Cup with Wes Welker, and then the next year he got busted for doing Molly at Kentucky Derby, and I was like, he just didn't want to offer us any drugs.

2:24:10And when we went to John Skipper's office and he didn't offer us any coke. None. It's like he probably thought we were cops. The Loud Sean story is very funny. Oh, Loud Sean. Sean, you want to talk about a guy who's like a unicorn? I talk about PFT dragging him out of the pool. He's putting coke in his eyes. They're like, but was it? I'm like, yeah, he was. And he's arguably the craziest guy we've ever had. All-time barstool party. That was a great party with Bortles and Goff. Somebody left her window open. I tell my whole story in extreme detail. The window open? The blinds? Oh, yeah. Bortles saw you again.

2:24:46Bortles saw a lot. Yeah. It's like it's already out there. that part, there's certain people like just skip this chapter or that chapter because that's Engrudgement Day, I think that chapter. Ah, that's fair. Woo. I texted you, Dave. Ran into her. Yeah, I know. In Vegas from Max's Bachelor Party. I also saw Light Switch Lou. I thought you said Lou for a second. I saw him tweet like two weeks ago. If anyone wants the real story, you can talk to me. Hey, Lou's texted me a happy Father's Day so I hope Lou's doing well. All right, Dave, thank you so much for joining us. And yeah, go buy the book right now.

2:25:24All right. I appreciate it. See you guys. Dave Portnoy was brought to you by our friends at Fruit of the Loom. For some reason, guys hold on to their underwear way too long. Why? Who knows? But when a fresh, comfortable, well-designed pair of Fruit of the Loom costs less than your morning coffee, there's really no excuse. Refresh your underwear drawer today with well-made, well-priced Fruit of the Loom, a household name for generations. trusted for comfort, durability, and consistency, high-quality essentials made affordable. The iconic fruit people bring charm and make us stand out in a crowd, making trusted basics since 1851, nearly 175 years of delivering comfort, premium feel without premium price, thoughtful designed essentials with designer-level quality but at a fraction of the cost.

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2:27:32Grab a Dew. Tasting great since 48. Okay, here he is. Zach Top. okay we now welcome on a very very special guest in studio it is country singer phenom can i say you're a phenom i don't know if you feel like it already arrived i i mean ish maybe star sure we can go with that yeah it's zach top he's uh he's got what your current tour is is cold beer and country music yeah that's the only tour i've had i figure when i find a better name for a tour i will name it that but so far that's the best i've come up with i'm sticking with that how long has the tour been going on for we started it beginning of 25 okay so you're gonna just keep it being the cold beer and country music tour forever yeah i love this this is like jfk's eternal flame yeah beer keeps getting colder and the music keeps getting country that's awesome man so and you won a grammy yes congratulations oh so you're a star phenom man star phenom slash Was that surreal winning a Grammy?

2:28:34Yeah, it was crazy, man. It's funny. The country portion of the show, obviously the main broadcast of it is all the pop stuff because that's the stuff that the general population knows. And us hillbillies from Nashville, they have this pre-telecast thing, and we all sit in an auditorium, and there's no organization about it. They just let me wander in there, and I sat down somewhere in the back, and I was just watching, and then they started calling the awards. I was up for three of them Called the first two Didn't win them And I was like Ah too bad And then the last one They said The title of my record Ain't in it for my health And I was like Looking around Waiting for somebody To get up Oh shit That's mine actually And I hop up Start walking down And they got this Like walk on music Band on stage and stuff And so they're playing This song And I'm all the way In the back of this auditorium Just walking down And then I hear like They're starting to fade out The walk up music And I Oh shit I'm gonna miss it And so I start jogging down there and then I jog for like a hundred yards and I'm like, shit, I look like an idiot right now.

2:29:35I know there's cameras going. I got to walk. And so then I'm like fast walking. By the time I get down to the stage, I'm out of breath. I'm out of shape and whatever. So I get up there and I don't think I said anything that made sense, but it's just, it's a funny, they just rattle off awards so quick for all the like not pop music stuff that nobody knows. Yeah. It was, uh, it was best, uh, traditional country. Yes, sir. That's great. That's a cool award to get. Yeah. It was fun. It's the first year they've done it. They just started it. So, yeah, little piece of history to go along with it. I'm very proud of it.

2:30:05Who did you beat for that award? It's pretty sacrilegious. I beat Willie Nelson. Oh, for best traditional country. Yeah. Doesn't that feel wrong? Yeah, it feels really wrong. Kind of fucked up, actually. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. He really smoked a little too much grass this year. Yeah, exactly. We can't give that award to him. Yeah. So your start, was it on TikTok? Yeah. So explain that. That's awesome. Against my, I hate it. It's so. No, but that's so cool. Yeah. Fuck that. No, well, no, it's just like I've never been a fan of the social media stuff. It's just a necessary evil. If you're an independent artist, it's the most powerful promotion tool that you have, obviously.

2:30:43So, yeah, it was, well, it started on Facebook. I was late to everything. I started posting Facebook videos in like 2017 or something. Okay. First one blew up in 2018. It's just you playing and singing. Just sitting there, yeah, playing old songs. I liked it. Yeah. Yeah. Blew up one on Facebook. So then got a little bit of a following on Facebook. Rode that. Rode the grandmas on Facebook for a couple years. And then got convinced to make an Instagram in like 2020 or something. And I think I had it before then. But I like, I don't know. I was just late to everything. Didn't start posting much on there until later.

2:31:20Oh shit. My lottery ball machine. The lottery ball's going in. It's too early, isn't it? Pick a number. Yeah, yeah. Come on. Give me 35. If you get this. This could be all time. I'll go 21. This would be all time. What's up? Do you guys? I used to listen to this show religiously. Oh, thanks for telling us that you hate us now. Yeah, yeah. 52 close. I feel like it always used to be my driving road trip thing because I used to spend a lot of time on the road. And now I just get driven around everywhere. So I don't ever spend time on the road. Just tell the people who drive you around Well I know I should put it on I was just like watching something on the TV On the bus or something But I need to put this on But I haven't listened in a while Are there any lottery ball schticks going right now?

2:32:09Has Hank gotten it recently? Oh yeah We haven't got it on Friday I haven't gotten it Memes hasn't gotten it Memes is very upset Memes got mad at Zach So do you know who Zach is? Yes Yes I do Alright alright Yeah so Zach There's been a little bit of tension With the lottery ball machine recently i love that yeah this is our new one we we upgraded uh and i didn't realize that's been a little bit ago now yeah yeah yeah but it uh it sounds like a lawnmower when it when it just pops up all right so so back to your start this is very cool so you're you basically how do you get found like how does how does it go from hey i'm getting a little popular yeah on social media to oh shit this is now a real thing that's going to maybe happen for me yeah it it was like right I was posting for a few years, I guess.

2:32:56And then in spring of 21, I think it was March of 2021, I finally moved full time to Nashville. I was living in Colorado before that work in construction from Washington originally. Anyway, moved to Nashville spring of 21. And like three weeks after that, had some video of a Tracy Lawrence song or something blew up on TikTok. and the my publisher uh now somebody that worked for them um found me off that video and asked me to come have a meeting so i went in and had a meeting you know of course it was covid times and whatnot so we showed up at the back of their their office there on music row and all sat in a circle and chairs in the parking lot and i sat around and played a few songs and stuff stuff that i've been writing and uh so they basically offered me a deal on the spot so it's incredible yeah started you know just writing um full-time and then yeah i'd play little shows here and there and whatnot and then it was still just yeah grinding it out on tiktok pretty much and yeah and then it kind of turned into i guess in 2022 um we released uh my first single was cold beer and country music um and then that all shoot what was it yeah released a few songs that fall spent all of 23 just releasing stuff and 23 was the first time i got like kind of full-time on the road um that fall and then spring of 24 put out my first record which is cold beer and country music you know i just can't get away from it um but uh yeah um and then yeah it's been i don't know we were on the laney wilson tour um for most of 2024 and then last year we uh did my first headline tour did a bunch of clubs um in the uh yeah in the spring of 25 i guess and i dm'd you um when we played what did we play rosemont uh what is it uh joe's joe's joe's on we did rosemont yeah yeah yeah two of them yeah played there i hollered at you i wanted you to come to the show um never got a reply wait wait where was it on instagram yeah i don't look at my instagram dms no i don't either so okay no i'm just messing with you no no i i i literally i i like purposely don't look at them because i just assume every time i look at them it's gonna be a bunch of people being like fuck you dude yeah oh yeah yeah yeah no doubt hate you like why i'm sure this yeah yeah yeah you know so i'm not i'm not putting myself through that not at all okay i'm just messing with you um but yeah and then we were on tour with dirks bentley last summer and then did our first arena tour last fall and then we're out on a arena tour now that's awesome it's very cool and i've been listening to your stuff and what i like about it i'm a big fan of 90s country music like late 80s yeah early to mid 90s country music to me that's when i i really love the genre and it sounds like you're making like a concerted effort that's like i can tell that you love that type of music too yeah when i listen to your songs it's nice to hear can you explain to us like the evolution of country music since say 1990 and because we are seeing like a little of a uh the pendulum swinging back yeah to that type of genre but for a while it's like more pop country how did you decide like this is the sound that i want to get well it wasn't a decision or a like a calculated thing that's just what comes out of me you're exactly right i like that's what i grew up on that's kind of part of the stuff that made me fall in love with country music but i mean even more than that it was it was older stuff like all the way back to in the 50s and 60s i remember i was probably 10 years old or something and my parents gave me a box set of george jones stuff from all the um probably no one will know anyway george jones one of the greatest country singers ever um but you know he started back in the late 50s i think um anyway so i was like learning all that stuff before i was paying much attention to any alan jackson or uh george straight was the first thing when i was really little he was my parents favorite so i heard a ton of his stuff and Amarillo by Morna was the first song I asked to learn how to play on guitar anyway but yeah it's it was not a calculated decision at all it's just kind of what ends up coming out of me when I write and play and sing for better or for worse but you're exactly right it's I mean I think country has always been that way and maybe most genres are but country feels like it's always been cyclical like back in the i don't know the 70s and 80s people were complaining that kenny rogers was ruining country music and it took george joe or george straight and randy travis coming along and they were saving country music you know all the way back then and now kenny rogers seems like pretty traditional country music um but uh i don't know it feels like it always does that it's it's kind of like we've country music finds like some new wacky edgy sound chase that for a little while and then people eventually feel like ah yeah but let's get back to what we know and love and like where this all came from and i feel like that's yeah kind of where we are right now i mean since probably yeah 2010 was kind of where like florida georgia line was the first big like they blew the doors open um with that sound and it was a new fresh thing you know between them and luke bryan and um obviously morgan wallen is kind of the peak of his powers now um maybe maybe he's not at the peak yet we'll see um but you know i feel like we've been rolling on that for 15 years and yeah now people are kind of all right let's you know kind of get back to come back home yeah come back home a little bit yeah i feel like uh like back in the late 80s more so like mid 90s garth brooks was like the organ wall and back then oh big time you had the traditional country music fans that were like i don't know about all that and then it comes back and it's like yeah it's a it's a fascinating way to look at like a genre evolving and then being traditional then evolving from that and so you get all these different branches of country music what's the difference between country and western i've always wondered that western is kind of like the texas swing thing um old bob wills stuff um i'm trying to think how to describe it's really really heavy fiddle music and it's like that it's almost like more um jazz influenced i think um as far as you know like i grew up in a uh bluegrass background that's what i grew up playing and um came play the banjo i tried i love bluegrass yeah not good yeah it's it's awesome it's so much fun and we still have like uh in our shows we do a little uh section in the middle of it where we bring out an old uh old-fashioned looking condenser mic and we all gather around they everybody comes down from their amps and their drums and plugged in stuff we all grab um an acoustic instrument and uh and play a few songs there in the middle of the set uh to kind of yeah pay homage to yeah my roots or whatever um but yeah western is the the western swing in uh when people talk about country and western the music that sounds like a train a little bit ish yeah it's it's uh yeah it's almost like it's country's version of big band music okay that makes sense and what would you say what would be the uh the mount rushmore of country music songs mount rushmore country music songs stone mountain georgia of country music songs yeah yeah yeah exactly um that's yeah we are in mount rushmore season aren't we we are well yeah yeah kind of we're in the thick of it yeah just think of it yeah um the mount rushmore of country music songs it's hard to i mean i think you already said one actually what did i say Amarillo by Morning?

2:40:32Yeah, that's a... I mean, yeah. My Mount Rushmore, I'll go Amarillo by Morning. And then I would probably go...

2:40:42If Drinking Don't Kill Me, George Jones, her memory will. And then I would go Between an Old Memory and Me, Keith Whitley. And then I would go... There's got to be a Merle Haggard song in there. Let's go with

2:41:01Today I started loving you again That sounds like good Mount Rushmore Yeah You guys don't know any of those I know the Merle Haggard Okay fair enough I thought you were going to go Mama Tried That's kind of like a square pick for me This is your personal Mount Rushmore Yeah if you're going to go Just like the people's Mount Rushmore It's going to be stuff like Friends in Low Places You know like the big bar anthems yeah yeah what uh so so you you sung the anthem for the nfc championship yes this year were you nervous for that yeah dude that's the what were you more nervous for the game or or singing the anthem because you're singing the anthem you're a big seahawks mariners fan yeah yeah um dude that was crazy that's the first time i've been to a seahawks game actually in person we grew up went to a bunch of mariners games and stuff but i'd never been uh actually to the stadium to see a game live uh for the seahawks so that was awesome i was pumped about that we got to be we were pretty close down we were like five rows back from the field or something that's sick it was yeah so much fun right there by the 50 yard line um but yeah doing the anthem is i think the most nerve-wracking thing i gotta do now because it's most of the time for one thing i always feel like by the third or fourth song of my set i'm like all right now i'm settled in you're in a groove yeah and it's like the first few songs it's not like they go badly or something but i'm like all high on adrenaline and stuff and it's like takes me a second to settle in it feels like the anthem for one thing you got no band with you i mean i did it you know i could have played guitar on it i guess but i just sang it acapella it just feels like you're naked up there and there is nothing to cover you up yep it's like it feels like it's fine until they finally say and now to do the anthem right oh shit and you can't fuck it up if you fuck it Then you end up on one of those YouTube compilations Of worst anthems ever Yeah I'm so paranoid About forgetting words I fucked it up once It was actually like a World War II vet Which there are not a lot of those left But it was about 10 years ago When Dave and I did the anthem at a Windy City Thunderbolts game And he came up and was like I served in the Navy in World War II You're a disgrace It was like through air I can't remember He was like one word I screwed up.

2:43:16Yeah. Pointed out. I was like, God fucking damn it. Yeah. Wrong guy to screw that up in front of. God damn it. Yeah, that would, I mean, you're just going to get crucified for that if you mess up the words. So I have not done it yet. I've done a few different sports games doing the anthem for them. Yeah. But that was definitely the biggest one. And an awesome football game after that. Oh, God. It was so fun. Yeah. It was incredible. So in the Seattle area, is it country when you get out of Seattle? Yeah, for sure. And I grew up kind of like, I'm from a town called Sunnyside. It's kind of down on the east side of the state.

2:43:54Out there, it's just nothing but rural. We got no big cities over there. The closest one, I guess, is Spokane. But that'd be, I don't know, two and a half hours from there. So yeah, it's just nothing but farmland. Yeah, I grew up on a farm. and my dad has always been in the cow business and ran a sale barn and stuff so i also saw that you went to and you mentioned that you went to university of colorado boulder for engineering yes and then dropped out after a year yeah so you just like i didn't even know they offered engineering in colorado you just were like the weed is too good why would i do this because i yeah like i can't imagine it being like being an engineer or like partying in boulder colorado Like that's a no brainer.

2:44:39You take Boulder, Colorado. It's, I feel like I missed out on a lot of fun at Colorado. This may come as a surprise, but I was quite a, I was quite a nerd back in the day. Really? Homeschooled growing up. No way. Yeah. It was very academic. Like I was, I was, I did a couple of years of community college first, came in, did a year at Boulder and had only one year to finish my engineering degree. and then decided I never wanted to do that again, I guess, and I just wanted to play and sing, which was always the goal, but it was like that was when social media was starting to be a thing, and so it felt like I had a way to get the music out or whatever.

2:45:19But yeah, I did almost no partying. I found the other three rednecks that were going to Boulder. I don't know why I didn't go to CSU. I probably would have fit in a lot better there Yeah it's a little more at the speed Yeah exactly but the yeah I found the other three That were going to Boulder and we ended up living together So I mean we would just hang out at our house And drink beer on the roof And get noise complaints It's an awesome city Alright so wait you were homeschooled You have siblings Younger brother two older sisters Okay now don't take offense to this question Every kid Ever has that moment when they're in like first or second grade where they get a crush on their teacher yeah so what happened i guess i never had that are you sure it's okay this is safe i would have to think back exactly we've all had that where we're like oh the teacher like i kind of like her i'm trying to yeah i'm trying to think if i had another um there was definitely uh i probably would have got it from like my friend's older sisters at yeah church okay okay that that makes sense also probably made it a little easier piano up there and stuff yeah yeah it makes it easier because every kid like you probably don't realize this because you didn't go to regular school yeah every kid has a moment where they accidentally call their teacher mom oh yeah super embarrassed by it yeah you had no problem i can get away with either one yeah yeah yeah yeah like you run into your teacher in the grocery store and you're like what's going on yeah like there's no chance that you actually shop here yeah i thought you lived My teacher was in there grabbing my ear and dragging me around through the house.

2:47:01So your dad raised cattle? Mm-hmm. So were you a cowboy? No. I've had this discussion many times. I would never call myself a cowboy. I have done some cowboy-ish things. Got to grow up around it a lot. But I've seen enough real ones to know that I'm not a real one. Isn't that the most cowboy thing to say, though? I don't know. Like, no, I would never say that. I have too much respect for cowboys. Yeah, maybe. Yes, I definitely have a lot of respect for them and know that I am bad at what they do. But I do like to do it for recreation. It's one of the most fun things. It seems like a very tough job, too.

2:47:38Yeah, for sure. I think a lot of people don't realize that there are actually cowboys that are responsible for raising their meat. Oh, for sure. We all have such a romanticized kind of picture of what it is. It's just riding along some ridgeline in the sunset and then making a campfire and sleeping on your saddle. Um, but yeah, no, it's, it's definitely, uh, it's hard work and, and yeah, like guys, those guys gotta be, uh, so knowledgeable. Uh, it always strikes me like when I go back every year to, uh, in the spring we'll brand the calves. Um, and I love going back for that, go back, help them gather.

2:48:17So, you know, we got, I don't know what, 5 ,000 acres of pasture that we're gathering 350 pairs out of. um so there's a lot of ground to cover on horseback and we're bringing them in and then like these guys will just they'll see some calf like 300 yards away it's like ah that thing's sick we got to go doctor it's like what are you talking about it looks normal sure enough wander over there catch the calf and it's yeah got a runny nose or you know butts all shitty whatever and yeah it's just like the amount of stuff that they know how to do and can just see and then know how to fix it too. It's pretty wild.

2:48:55Did you want to be a cowboy when you were growing up or did you want to be a country music singer? Well, I think that's what originally got me into country music was we got to do a bunch of cowboy stuff. We'd go gather cows. We'd go to brandings. We took care of animals. And so the first stuff that I loved was cowboy songs. I mean, like Amarillo by Mournett's rodeo song. Loved a bunch of old Marty Robbins stuff. he had a record called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. It's basically just old west ballads. And I just loved cowboy songs. And I think that eventually morphed into... Well, I think I realized pretty early on I was no good at being a cowboy.

2:49:34Maybe the closest I could get was to sing about them. You have a welcome to the league moment when you're trying to be a cowboy, get kicked in the face. Yeah. I'll go pick up the guitar. Yeah, I'll go sing about you guys from now on. When you're writing new songs, Is it like a fire hose where it's just like when you're in that mode, it's just coming to you? Or is it a slow process where over time you pick up a little something here? Oh, this might be good here. Because I'm always just amazed by musicians who are able to write songs and write so many songs. You're like, how does that? I couldn't think of one song.

2:50:07How do you do that? Yeah, it's kind of funny. I feel like the process has evolved for me. because for like, well, I started coming to Nashville in 2018, fall of 2018, and then moved there full time in 21, and then actually got on the road in 23. So 2018 to 23, like five years, all I did was write. I wasn't playing many shows, did a few, but for the most part, it's just stacking up songs. And then in 23, got busy on the road, and then we put the first record out in 24, basically all of 24 and 25 I think I wrote maybe a total of two songs um just because we were so busy on the road and it you're exactly right it feels like a different uh mode like when you get in writing mode then stuff starts to come easier um but for those two years it was just non-stop on the road playing shows and I didn't really think that much about it I definitely have ideas on the road like I'll get a little snippet of something and you know I got a million voice memos in my phone um so yeah always trying to like if something might be something write it down or make a voice recording of it whatever um and then so like the beginning of this year january and february we spent a bunch of time um writing and it was fun we did a couple uh retreats went up to the mountains in idaho spent a week there went down to key west spent a week there um inspiration from different places yeah and and you just like it's fun to when you have nothing to do but right we just get a cool house and uh me and my producer and then we'd take uh we had a three four different writers out with us three i guess um so yeah and then just all you have to do is just sit around all day and drink some beers and look at the ocean and write songs and it's yeah it's pretty awesome it kind of yeah it feels like it unlocks you a little bit right uh and it's fun to you know we'll write in nashville too but that's more like you kind of treat that like a job right we're starting the ride at 11 and usually it's like wrapping up by three or four and then it's you know got to go get groceries or got to go it's kind of you're still trying to unlock and be creative while you're in the middle of just like running errands and having a normal day um Doing a big trip like that where you just have nothing to do but be creative, it feels like it's, I don't know, I enjoyed it.

2:52:31It was my first time doing it. I feel like we wrote some of the best songs that we've written, and yeah, excited to eventually put those out. All right, I got a dumb question for you. Is there, when you're looking at your Spotify data, is it like summertime is just a big peak for country music? Yeah, for sure. There is definitely a certain thing. I love Radiohead. I will never listen to Radiohead on a sunny day. No, sure. You know what I mean? Absolutely. You just can't do that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you definitely see it with specific songs in my catalog. I haven't paid attention if it really fluctuates a bunch.

2:53:09It'd be funny if it was like so - From winter to summer. Yeah. It would make sense. It was really like day to day of like, oh, today's like a really sunny day. Yeah, yeah. In the south. Oh, today there's tornadoes or thunderstorms. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. and no one's listening to my music. Yeah, we've got a bunch of goofy summer songs that as soon as May hit, all of a sudden, people forgot about them all winter long. Yeah, right. They start coming back. Like Spring Break, you can tell when it's Spring Break. They start wearing out Good Times and Tan Lines. It's actually a genius move for you to name a tour Cold Beer and Country Music, because I would imagine that everybody that goes to see your show, they are fans of Cold Beer and Country Music.

2:53:49Duh. So they're not going to say, hey, you like cold beer and country music? They're not going to be like, no. No. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, because they're afraid maybe someone's going to misunderstand if they overhear. Yeah, exactly. I love it. Hey, hell, you know me. You know me. Yeah. It's interesting, like the songwriting process, you go out, you have these experiences, you get out of the office, so to speak, a little bit, and you come back with songs that you think are going to be great, and then you record them. After you record these songs that you love playing, you love singing, do you listen to them again after you lay them down?

2:54:22Yeah, I mean, especially in the process of mixing them. Right after we record them, we'll spend a while just getting them basically just to sound. And I don't know what I'm talking about, but I just say dumb stuff. And then my engineer, Matt Rovey, shout out Matt Rovey, he figures out what I'm wanting to hear and he knows the knobs to turn and the faders to push to you know make it sound like I want it to sound so we spent a bunch of time listening in that process once they're like once we actually release them I don't feel like I listen to them anymore but before then like I've got a bunch of stuff stacked up right now that's that we haven't released yet and I like every now and then I'll just listen through those because I love them and you know trying to figure out what the what's going to be included on the next record and all this kind of thing um so yeah i'll listen to them a good bit up until they're released then they become the peoples yes then they're the peoples they are no longer mine has there been a song that uh that you wrote that you uh you were surprised became such a big hit like when you're like okay it's good but you know it might not be the best thing ever done then everybody's like holy shit this is amazing not that i didn't think it was great but i mean i never lie is my biggest song and i loved the song and thought it was phenomenal i no one picked it to be like the big hit off the first record i had a handful picked out that i was like these sound like hits these feel like you know a commercial hit that people will latch on to and that one i don't know i thought that one was going to be like this is my favorite off the album people aren't going to pay that much attention to it but it's been there's been a couple like that that one and then uh use me it's another song it's just a like a slow it's a cheating song it's a waltz it's just like nothing about it is fashionable and uh and that when people latched on to that like crazy too um once again that was a great song i loved it but it was like ah this would be my little sleeper album track that i love the most but nobody will pay attention to yeah very cool how sick is it that cal raleigh walks up to your song uh it's the best we love the big dumper he's He's been on a couple times.

2:56:40He's the man. Heck yeah. He's so much fun. That's been a crazy, it's funny, like now that I've got a little bit of notoriety, the entertainment world and the sports world obviously cross-collateralizes plenty. And that's still, athletes are still like superheroes to me. It's wild that guys like that know my music or give a shit about it. Right. That's one of the most fun things. and yeah found out he was walking up to the song and then got to go out there and uh do a first pitch last summer i guess um how to go it was not bad it was it was up and away did a little off the rubber yeah i was on the rubber for sure and i i had i was planning on like trying to lean and put some heat on it yeah in case there were scouts watching and then i got up there i wore boots out there which would duh that's a dumb idea um so i got up there and i went in the wind up and whatnot and then like my foot slipped the second i picked my other foot up uh and slipped on that gravel i was like ah i can't slip and fall and yeah once again that's one that like if you do a forgettable first pitch that's probably pretty good yeah people only remember the horrible ones yep absolutely yeah i'm looking at this right now it's not bad it's not bad it's had a bad first pitch it looks like i have thrown a baseball before if that's all that matters yeah if you're a lefty it might have plunked you yeah oh yeah yeah it'd be some chin music for sure yeah i love that but no i mean cal rally is so much fun to watch this mariner's team nicest dude ever and the best yeah last year was such a heartbreaking postseason oh my god dude we were so close but we were right in the middle of our tour um while that was going when in the I remember specifically when they were playing Detroit.

2:58:30What was the game? It went to like 18 innings or something. Not that far. Maybe 13 or 14 or 15 or something. Yeah. It went forever. Anyway, I got off stage. We'll usually come out and do an encore. And anyway, we finished the last song of the regular set. I was like, good night. And as I'm walking off, I'm taking my ears off and handing off my guitar. I was like, no encore. I'm going to watch the game. So we skipped the encore. I think three nights in a row so I could go finish watching the Mariners game. But it was so much fun. I remember specifically that whatever that game went to weigh extra innings, we were sitting up there.

2:59:10We got a bunch of people on our crew that smoked cigarettes. So anyway, usually we'll stand around after the show and smoke cigarettes and drink beers outside and stuff. Anyway, we were stuck watching this game. And we ended up, I was like, how much will they find me if we just smoke in here? And they're like, ah, we'll see. People have done it before. Probably nothing. And so we ended up sitting around in the, we had it so smoky in there watching that baseball game. And I'm just like amped up sitting there on the edge of my seat, obviously, just chain smoking cigarettes watching this. It felt like we were like back in the 80s or something.

2:59:44It was kind of goofy. That's awesome. Yeah, that was such a fun season. It's been so long since they've been good. and like I remember the when I was real little but like already loved baseball you know we had John Olerud and Ichiro obviously was there and Raul Abanez and what was it Brett Boone played second base you know because you're too young to remember the like the Griffey yeah just right at the end of Griffey I remember it right exactly that was I know about all that stuff but yeah it was before my time kind of but there was still a few of those like early 2000 team that were fun and sort of competitive but then it was just I mean nothing for ever yeah it was tough yeah I mean you're a Seahawks fan too I assume right so when you sing that national anthem I would also imagine that like you don't want to screw it up because Sam Donald's watching you yes and like anything bad that you don't want to throw him off his rhythm exactly he's locked in he came over he gave me a fist bump as I was walking off from it I must have not screwed it up too bad.

3:00:50Did you have a Super Bowl? No. I had an invite too, dude. It was right in the middle of like I was bouncing. It felt like I was going back and forth from either side of the country so many times in like the span of a week. And it was going to have to be like a fly to Nashville that morning, fly out after the game because I got to be somewhere. And I was just like, yeah, I ended up passing on it, which is probably the stupidest thing in the world. Who knows? it might be forever till the Seahawks go back to one, let alone win one so yeah, I don't know. At the time it seemed like the wise decision to maintain my health and my sanity.

3:01:30But also butterfly effect, who knows, if you were at the game Yeah, it might have gone different It might have gone different Hank, do you have any questions? You talked in the beginning about a bluegrass upbringing Yeah You did the collab album with Billy Strings Do you have bluegrass music coming? Do you have more music with Billy coming? Oh, nothing on the books right now with Billy But we both talked about We'd like to do some more I mean, that was so fun And that's such a, I don't know, natural I don't do collaborations very much But that one is such a fun I don't know, natural thing I mean, when we spend any time together We just sit around and play old songs That we both grew up on so it is kind of i would imagine at some point we'll do do something again and we want to start doing uh some shows together too it's fun to like i don't know have obviously i come from that background but the music that i'm putting out right now sounds a lot different than that um do you want to switch switch over like do some do some bluegrass stuff oh i will at some point yeah put out put out some more because i've got one bluegrass record out um but yeah i'd like to do some more of that stuff and then i like i feel like as i keep making these country records too they become more and more uh acoustic driven and kind of like lean toward that they're still very much country music but kind of lean more into the bluegrass influence than you know stray away from it i guess but yeah billy's the freaking man he's so fun to uh be around and it's funny his guitar is like a emotional support thing for him he just like you sit there talking to him he never has it not in his hands and you just be sitting there talking to him and you get distracted because he's just like sitting there listening to what you're saying and just playing the craziest shit uh right in front of you while he's not even paying attention to what he's doing it's just like damn can hardly hold a conversation with him but he's so fun yeah um all right uh we We got one last question.

3:03:33This has been awesome. Thank you for coming in, Zach. Absolutely. Thank you, guys. Everyone get out there, and your tour is going all the way through the fall, right? Yeah, through the end of October. Go see us somewhere. Are you playing in a tornado tonight? We're not playing tonight. Tomorrow night. Hopefully, the tornadoes will be gone by tomorrow. They're going to be gone. Here's hoping. Roback question. RHOBACK.com. Promo code TAKE. 20 % off your first purchase. Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts. Roback.com. Promo code TAKE. Let's do a little Zach on Zach. Oh, come on. How are we doing today, sir?

3:04:03It was wonderful. How are you? Doing well, man. Thank you for your time today. Absolutely. I had a couple questions. That was cool to you. Absolutely. I was wondering, kind of going from the construction site to Nashville and then into building that relationship with Mr. Chamberlain, is there a moment you can recall that like, oh, this is really about to take off, like we could do this full time and like... Yeah, that's a good question. I mean, there's, I feel like a handful of moments I could pick out. The first one for sure was when I, in spring of 2018, I put out a video, a song called Spilled Whiskey.

3:04:35A guy named Daryl Singletary, great, great singer. He died pretty early, or pretty young, I should say. But yeah, he died spring of 2018, and I posted that video of his song. And that was the first thing that kind of blew up for me. and uh Carson ended up finding me off of that video and we got in touch um I don't know, it was probably March or something of 2018 and knowing what his resume was as a producer and a songwriter, you know, a ton of hit songs, ton of hit records. And then, yeah, the guys that he had worked for were all stuff that I was like a huge fan of. that was the first time that it felt like like all going up all I wanted to do was be a singer and uh just sing and play guitar and didn't have any clue like my parents didn't have any clue about the music business I didn't even know anybody that knew anything about the music business so it just felt like this you know far off dream pipe dream really um and so my plan was I was going to college to be an engineer and uh I'd get to just play for fun on the weekends if I had a good job that you know I could afford to do that so that 2018 when I got hooked up with Carson that was the first time that I was like oh shit if this guy thinks I'm good I might actually have a shot at doing this and then yeah moving to moving to Nashville you know that's kind of a scary thing that's a long way from home and it was kind of I didn't have anything lined up out there other than Carson.

3:06:09So that felt good, but it wasn't like I didn't have a publishing deal, didn't have a record deal. When I got that publishing deal and started making a check for writing songs, that was like, oh, wow, there's more people that think I have something here. And I think the other one, I remember the first time that we – I played a show. I don't know what the timeline exactly was, but it was sometime in the fall of 2023 into the spring of 24. I started being actually able to sell some tickets. It used to be you'd get hired and paid a flat rate in a bar, and then all you're going to do is play covers because that's what people know.

3:07:00They don't know your songs yet. So I remember a song called Bad Luck of mine. was kind of the first thing that took off for me as far as music that I had released. And we started being able to sell out these little like 200, 300 cap places. And then they started singing my songs back to me. And that was like the most insane feeling. I remember we played this place in Gainesville, Georgia, the Boot Barn Hall. Never forget it. It was like 800 people. And before we went on, that was like a big reach for us at the time. Like I was saying, we were playing these 200, 300-cap places, and that was like, that felt insane.

3:07:40That many people were coming and singing the songs back to me. So we played this 800-cap club in Georgia, and they told me the show was sold out before we went on that night. And it was like, I didn't really believe it, and then walked on stage, and sure enough, there they all are. and I remember that night specifically hearing him sing that song Bad Luck with me was like holy shit if I never do anything more this is like you know so much more than I ever thought I would ever do so it's yeah it's it's crazy those would be a few of I guess that was a long-winded answer to some moments that felt like oh shit this is happening I love that I love that for you man it's awesome thanks dude good job zach good question yes great question uh zach thanks so much for being here and yeah by the way i found the message uh it was actually yeah you were at joe's on weed uh which is like i live like a mile away which that sucks that i'm now seeing it but i did so it was from july 18 2024 there you go and you said you know uh want to extend the last minute invite if any of you uh pmt fellows or country music fans and happen to be in town come on through so i just replied hey just seeing this we're in so i got you we're good we're good now but uh thanks so much man really appreciate you guys i said it a little bit i think but we when i was working construction this was my buddy that i was working with trevor shout out trevor in colorado uh he introduced me to the show and it became uh yeah a religion for me forever like i said i haven't listened quite as much in the last like year i guess but up until then it was just non-stop i love that's great what's trevor what's trevor do on the site um now he's big project manager guy um is there a chance trevor's listening to this right now there is a chance yes i'll tell him if he's uh yeah i don't know when it's airing but i'll uh you let him know he better be listening yeah yeah as a project yeah as a manager he's probably doing a lot of leaning probably holding on a clipboard sitting in the truck roll the window down every now and then and just look and then roll it back up.

3:09:48He's got time to listen now. Oh yeah, for sure. He paid his dues. Yeah. Yes, indeed. All right. Thanks so much, Zach. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you guys. Enjoyed it. So before we get back into more chaos, we got to tell you about something that helps people focus on what's most important. It's Microsoft 365 Copilot. What if you could add an AI assistant to your work without ever leaving your workflow? It's built into Microsoft Word, Excel, and Outlook. Copilot works where you work, helping you do more in the apps that you already use. In Word, Copilot helps turn scattered notes into a first draft.

3:10:19In Excel, it generates insights from your data. And in Outlook, it cuts through the noise to get you up to speed faster. The apps you know go further with Copilot. You can learn more at m365copilot.com slash work. That's m365copilot.com slash work. All right, let's finish up the show. Numbers? 77. I'll go with 10. I'll go with eight. We'll go 14. 95. 31. Nine. 69. Nine. Nine's a good number. That's a good number. You hate nine. Don't tell him who he hates.

3:11:07You. Anyone? 84. 84. 84 Okay, that's the show Only one Love you guys No birthdays? I'm gonna do birthdays later

3:11:45Thank you.

3:12:14Thank you.

3:12:45Thank you.

3:13:15Thank you.