#2424 - Jelly Roll

22:56And your basic provider will pay for it more often than not. If you have just like a standard insurance, just tell them you want to run a just standard blood lab. But tell them instead of just your A1C, this is important, you want to see your insulin level. Because I was diabetic, but I wasn't insulin resistant. So my diabetic marker, when I first got checked, was a six point. My A1C was a 6.4, okay, which is the threshold of what being a diabetic is, the pre-diabetic. The last point of being a pre-diabetic is 6.4. And I thought that when your blood work says you're a pre-diabetic for 15 years, it was whatever.

23:37You know what I mean? Like, this is not going to kill me or nothing. Yeah, that's what it said last time. I'm fine. And then finally, they checked for my insulin. It was over 40, Joe. It was like insane. And I don't want to get this wrong. What's it supposed to be? Like under five. Oh, Jesus. Yeah. So what happens is when your body goes to burn when you fast, it has to burn through all your insulin before it'll start burning through your reserved fat. So when you're at that high of an insulin level in your blood, you're having to fast. So you're hardly ever getting to the reserved fat burnings because it's just constant insulin.

24:12So and this is where G01Ps come in. It'd be a great time to talk about this. So Gary goes, hey, man, your insulin's high. We'll just give you a shot, and this will change all this. And I was like, cool, send it, whatever, I'll try it. And then my wife's manager, Mimi, started the shot, did wonders for her. But she had the worst stomach issues. I have a bad stomach. I started calling people and going, hey, man, how's this shot working? I was like, dude, we're losing weight. Food noise is gone. You've got to try it. I was like, what's the side effect? There's like one bad side effect. It tears your gut up.

24:41And I was, so I had bad reflux. And, you know, that's the worst thing a singer can have. Nothing is worse for us than reflux. So I got scared of it. So I called Gary and I was like, Gary, I can't do it. I'm afraid of it. So then I started doing research and I was like, well, if I'm not going to do this, I'm going to have to fast to get my insulin levels down a lot. So I was fasting and I was losing like next to no weight. And I was doing the right thing. And as a big dude, that's the most encouraging thing, discouraging thing is when you're actually not lying to people. because you know as a fat person I'm I'm programmed a lot like a drug addict like what'd you eat today oh grilled chicken and salads and I just ate seven snickers you know so it's like or I'd brush it off like a big thing my nutritionist would come in and be like did you eat something last night after I left I'd be like yeah yeah I just ate a little bit not bad just a little bit a little bit bad but I wouldn't quantify what little bit bad was it was you know you know it's like so I was just in a I I wanted to start being way way more honest about everything in the process and that's was probably the biggest thing.

25:41So I would not lose the weight. And I'm like, I promise you, Ian, I didn't eat nothing but what you handed me, Bubba. He's like, just stick with it. And I just stayed with it, stayed with it. And then Gary got turned into Gary Brecca and took over the world. And I was lucky for me. I bumped into your friend, a guy named Brigham down here in Texas. And he introduced me. You've met Denise, right? Denise? Sure, I love her. This lady's the lady who really, Gary started this journey for me and I'll never be able to thank him enough for it. But she brought it home. And Gary probably would have, but she had a brick and mortar and was just easier to get to.

26:15Gary travels the world. And I go to her and she goes, she runs my blood again. And my insulin got down to like 37 by fasting. And she goes, you're against the G01Ps, aren't you? I was like, well, I made it this far and I don't want to do it with an asterisk now. Now it's just stubbornness. At first it started out of a fear. Now I'm just fucking stubborn, you know? And this is where I don't want to hide anything that I did do because I think it'll help people. She said there's an alternative. She said, if you took a fourth of a dose of metformin, which 2 ,000 milligrams is what they would prescribe a diabetic one.

26:45Let's say we give you 500 milligrams, which is a real low dose, once a day, until we just see this marker go down. She said it might take a year because we're not trying to rush it and throw a bunch of GL1s at it. We're like, we're going to do this really slow. And that's what we did. And the first month I listened to her and I was losing, you know, I think I looked at Leanne's notes today. We were losing like, you know, four to six pounds a month. then it got up to that 12 and 13, that number we were looking for. You know what I mean? Of what we expect from a guy my size. But it was just that easy.

27:13Now my insulin, so I said all that to give you this. Oh, I'm so excited about this, Joe. My insulin was over 40. My insulin two weeks ago at Ways to Well with Dr. Denise was 4.6. My A1C was crazy, right? And that was just, we've only been on the Metformin for a year in November. So I think we're going to come off of it now. A1C was 6.4. It's now 5-4, which that marker is a three-month average of your blood sugar. Like, that's a real number to move that much. I know it doesn't seem like a big number in a year, but that's, like, crazy. My C-reactive was, like, in the sixes, and it's 1.2 now. That's an inflammation marker.

27:50Vitamin D, while I was getting sick all the time, was a 28. Vitamin D is at 100. This was the big one, too, and this is where they say, are you natty? I say, no, sir. Absolutely not. I'm a 40-year-old male. There's no way I was going to be natty. My testosterone was one of a pre-juvenile child when you're that big. Wow. It was in the 50s. Jeez. And you know, it should be in like the 750s. Yeah. My free test was 2.3, Joe Rogan. Oh, my God. My free test. You know what it is today? 149. I fucking. You remember that problem we talked about with my wife? Yeah. Not anymore. I'm walking around the house like a tiger.

28:30I'm throwing over my shoulder like a caveman and throwing her on the bed every time I see her you know what I'm saying it is awesome you know and it changed these were and I encourage people that like if you can get your blood checked there might be something there you know what I mean it might not be something big you know I still could have lost the weight without the metformin but it might have took another year you know what I mean if I would have just had to keep nicking it down a pound a week because I was just having to get that insulin down so slowly and uh that helped a ton. And the test, of course, helped bring, because my estrogen was so high.

29:02My test was so low. I finally got the estrogen down in the test up. So the fat starts burning. I'd done the mental work. I'd started really figuring out like why I was eating the way I was eating. Because once I recognized a pattern, my three R's changed it for me. It was reset, reconnect, re-engage. So every time I would go into my pantry to eat something, because I'm a binge eater, I'd stop. My therapist taught me this, that on-site. I'd stop and I'd reset. So I'd step out. First thing, get out of the pantry. I have no business in here. Bad place for me. Go somewhere I'm safe where I can connect.

29:35Near my wife or somewhere safe. Reconnect. What was you in a pantry for? What version of you, what storyline of yours walked in that pantry? Was it 15-year-old Jelly that thought he was a gangbanger and thought he was a thug that was just trying to be cool? There was actually a sad little boy that couldn't connect with people? Is that the boy that just walked in there and tried to eat some cookies? Or is this a 35-year-old man, a 39-year-old man that's stressed from work? But I tell you what you're not in there eating the cookies for is because you need them. You just ate a great meal. You feel fucking awesome.

30:05You know what I'm saying? Like there's nothing about that cookie that's good for you. And also, Jason, you are not a one-cookie kind of guy. You know what I'm saying? You are going to go eat the bag of cookies. And then I reconnect. Then I reengage. Because sometimes you go through all that and you go, you know what, though? I was thinking in there but I do need to go grab the salt just go in there and grab the salt and get out but where I'm so programmed it's back to old storylines I walk into some I've been going into the pantry to eat bad for so many years I walk in there and forget what I'm in there for I have to because if I sit there long enough then it's like oh there's a there's some stuff that you can eat that does nothing like you if you just want to munch on something man get some celery and some radishes those motherfuckers have like zero calories raspberries and blueberries were a big one for me.

30:50They don't have zero calories. They have calories. But you could eat like a bucket of them before you get into the hundreds of calories. If you want to have some raspberries with some salt on them, or not some raspberries, rather some radishes with some salt on them and some celery, there's nothing in that. You just eat it and you don't have to worry at all. You're just getting some fiber and some nutrients. Pickles? Pickles are great. Pickles are another one I'd get on to. Also, if you get good fermented pickles, they're actually good for your gut. I did all the cheats early. So like, but when I say cheats, like I was hungry.

31:24So I go to my nutritionist and go, hey man, just feed me whatever looks like the most food, you know, fluff it up. You know what I mean? Like just, I want a big serving of food because it's mine thing. And the cool thing is now I'm in a place where I'm looking for density. Like my relationships changed that much with food. Now I'm looking like, yo, what is like, do I have to eat this? Is there enough protein in this? Or can I only eat half of it? Not because I have the weird relationship with food other ways. Now I'm just really feeding myself for what I need. Right. You know what I mean? Like I'm actually have a healthy relationship with food now, Joe.

31:57Like I look at and it's not unhealthy in a way that was like if you cooked a big steak right now, like you want one? I'd be like, yeah, absolutely. I don't want to miss a elk steak with Joe. I'm down. I'm not weird. If we went to dinner, I'd eat. You know what I mean? I just wouldn't eat bread. Right. There's just certain things I haven't. It's like a drug addict thing for me. It's like there's just certain things I just can't do no matter what. Yeah. The bread is the one. Bread and pasta are the one. Why does it have to be the ones that are so goddamn delicious? All the good stuff, dude. So delicious.

32:25But I learned how to make all the good stuff better, by the way. Like, not better, but Larios is really. So a lot of my weight loss has come from, like, I used to always hear you say that you got into podcasting and talking to people about stuff you were just interested in. Like conversations you just thought were cool. and then I thought about that's like the approach to life you know what I mean? It's like get like dig it, do it you know draw inspiration from there so I was watching that's a great dig it, do it if you dig it, do it yeah you know, dig it, do it and I was watching UFC one night which I'm a fan too and I was this was six years ago and I was like I wonder who's helping these guys get on the scale you know what I mean?

33:08I was like most of these fighters are poor not in a bad way you know, they're coming up they're struggling I bet I could pay equal pay. This was six years ago. I was like, I wonder who it is. And I got introduced to George Lockhart. Okay. You know what I mean? Which famously, him and Mike Doce, I think, are kind of both famously known for the guys who created the weight cutting protocol of today. You know? And I call him. He's in Georgia for the holidays. He drives up to Tennessee to see me. We end up hanging out. George and me are buddies to this day. And, you know, George is like, let me find you a guy.

33:37And that's how he found me Ian Larios, who just came in to do nutritionists. He did a bunch of bully bees camps. But he's been with me. People say, I had somebody tell me this, Joe. They said, well, of course you lost the weight. It's easy. You got money. You know what I mean? I was like, buddy, money can't make you run these six miles. No, everybody who says that is just making an excuse for why they haven't done it themselves. You can't ever say, of course you did it. You have this. Just fucking do it. Just go do it. Just do it. And yeah, it's going to be hard. And especially if your hormones are all fucked up and your insulin level's all fucked up.

34:07It's going to be hard. But you can do it. Well, the biggest thing, too, is stick with it, Joe. Yes. That's my heart, y 'all. It's like, that's why I said give yourself one year, not three months. Because if I gave myself three months, I'd have been upset. I didn't lose enough weight. It didn't go the way it's supposed to go. I'd have went back into my shame spiral. We were talking about this. My whole thing was stress, overwhelm, food, shame, repeat. That's what I did. I lived in that spiral. You know what I mean? And it's like, oh, I've been working hard. I'm not getting it. Sad me. I'm going to go to the pantry and punish myself.

34:38You know, I'm never going to lose this weight. where it's like if I'd have just waited for the year and really said, no, I'm going to go birthday to birthday, which is why when me and Cam ran on this birthday of mine, it was so important to me because I was like two birthdays ago was the first day I even thought about changing my life. You know, and even last birthday, I was 400, you know, 380 pounds. And now this birthday, I'm I'm running a 5K with Cam Haynes. You know what I'm saying? Like, dude, y 'all can change it. If you hated your birthday this year, just give yourself a year. You know what I mean?

35:04You have a whole different birthday. It's hard for people because they want immediate gratification. You know, they really want it all to happen immediately, especially in the society that we exist in today where everything. I mean, this is why GLP ones are so enticing for people, because you can get immediate gratification, you know, and sometimes you got to just you got to focus on little victories. These little tiny victories. Today, I didn't eat cake. That's a little victory, you know, and momentum is everything. It's like that first day when your family was cheering you. That's what it's all about.

35:40It's all about you did it. You went out in the rain when you didn't want to. You did it. You came back. Now you've got momentum. You have that good feeling of success, and that will enable you to continue to chase that good feeling. That's the good addiction. I'm clearly addicted to exercise. If I take a couple days off, I don't feel right. If I take a day off, I feel weird. I feel squirrely. Like I got all this extra fucking weird shit. Leave me alone. You know what I mean? I get weird. You're going to blow this off. I get weird, man. I get weird. I feel weird if I don't do it. And I know people are like, that's horrible.

36:16There's something wrong with you. Sure. But it's a good thing wrong with me. I'm addicted to a good thing. Right. I'm addicted to staying healthy. Yeah. You know? They say addiction swap. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I've never had a bad addiction, fortunately. But I've had a bunch of addictions. You know, I've had like video game addictions. I'm addicted to playing pool. I was addicted to martial arts. But I've been addicted to like things that are beneficial. Luckily. Luckily. But I'm scared of all the other ones. I know it's the same thing. How much of that do you think has played a part in your environment and friend group?

36:54It's huge. Huge. Because if you can get around a bunch of other people that are addicted to good things, then you're all just doing good things. And you're all feeding off of each other. Yes. Yeah, it's everything, man. You imitate your atmosphere, always. This is why I can't be around negative people. I'm too sensitive. And I'm around negative people. First, I try to help them. Then I try to coach them. Then I try to see the world through their eyes. And then I'm reacting to them. And then I'm like, fuck, man, you're not helping me. I'm not helping you. You're just dragging me into your vibration.

37:30And I don't like it. and if you don't want to change there's not much i can do with this and so i gotta just ghost you yeah i gotta separate because you if you save a drowning man you know sometimes you can drown yourself right you know and there's a lot of people out there that have wasted years and years of their life in toxic friendships yeah you know with negative people guilty that's what made me It's easy to do, man. It's not a mark on your character. It's a normal thing that people do. And when you're around a bunch of people that are positive and that are inspirational, then all of a sudden you start holding yourself accountable.

38:11You're like, what would David Goggins do? What would Cam Haynes do? What would Jocko do? And that's a good thing. What would Rogan do? Yeah. I know you don't like it when we give you compliments, but we think about it. I said that because like I wondered if that was for you because the biggest thing to my note here is new playground, new playmates. You can't heal in the environment that hurt you. Yeah. You know, and it's like I started praying for new friends five years ago, like on my knees to God directly. Like, God, I've done everything I can for every friend I brought with me along the way.

38:45Everybody who came with me can't go with me. Everybody's not growing at the rate I'm growing. Right. I need new friends. I'm hanging. You know, when I was cheating on my wife, I was hanging around people that were cheating on their wives when I was drinking tons of alcohol and doing tons of cocaine. I was hanging around people doing tons of alcohol, tons of cocaine. So I'm like, I don't I want to be I want to change. Like, right. Send me some friends. Send me just send me some new interests. And then I'd start bumping into, you know, I guess, six, seven, whatever it was years ago. Guys like Cam Haynes, guys like Goggins.

39:16And I didn't realize it then when they came into my universe. It was just from a distance in a YouTube channel. Like, oh, this dude's fucking nuts. Who's this guy screaming at the camera running all these mouths? I was like, yo, who is this guy that won't quit his job that is like the greatest bow hunter ever and runs ultra marathons and like is refusing to quit his job? The Internet's like campaigning. Quit your job, Cam. You know what I'm saying? I was like, who are these guys? These guys are awesome, you know? And even then, my – and that's where the little scared kid in me comes out like, oh, man, but, you know, you can't do that, dude.

39:42You know how far you are away from even like being able to talk to a guy like that or being able to run or like you're just too far, you know? even down to bow hunting. I'm a felon, so I'm not allowed to possess a firearm or be within 1 ,000 feet of one knowingly. So I've never been able to hunt, you know? Well, I didn't think about the loophole. Y 'all know it. The bow. I can bow hunt. Yeah. You know, but also then you're 500 pounds. It was like, am I really going to bow hunt? You know what I mean? Right. But it was new playgrounds, new playmates. You know what I mean? And I started really believing that and like just finding that.

40:16My uncle always said, if you hang around nine, you'll be the 10th. So just look at the nine closest to you. And even if it wasn't a friend at first, it was just me being inspired by different stuff. Back to digging it, do it. You know what I mean? Like, dig it, do it. And I got into this. I was into, I signed up for the Two Bears 5K because Bert was my friend and I thought their podcast was funny. I never even met Tom. You know what I mean? That's crazy. I was like, this is a cool way to do it. You know what I mean? Like, you know, like, yeah, I'm on the internet, 500 pounds, waddling down a back road, going, I'm going to my first 5K in May, everybody.

40:46You know what I'm saying? It's like, it just, and I'm like, I'm ready. And I call Cam because we're friends by then. And I'm all excited, 470, walking my first two miles, a mile that day or whatever it was. I ran a whole, walked a whole mile, called Cam. I'm doing a 5K, Cam, Cam. I'm going to come support you. And Cam and Phillip Franklin Lee walked that 5K with me. It took us an hour and a half, Joe. I mean, listen, I'm surprised Cam, Cam could have rolled faster. He could have crawled. You know what I'm saying? we watched both of his kids run by us three times in jeans you know what i'm saying and uh but that's like it goes back to changing your friends like yeah it was a guy that wanted to lift me up a guy that cam cam used to tap me on the shoulder when i was 500 pounds and go dude we're gonna bow hunt one day i'm gonna take you bow hunt dude and i would remember thinking this motherfucker's crazy you know what i'm saying like there's no way me and this dude are ever bow hunting you know and we're bow hunting you know I just came out of a blind this morning I've been down there bow hunting with Cam ran my first 10k with him yesterday but it was it was completely the the new playground new playmates thing for me yeah you know yeah it's fuel if you can get around people that are real positive and they're doing good things and they're excited about life it's very contagious yeah it is I think that's one of the really positive things about the internet that you can be introduced to the way these people live their lives.

42:10And you can see videos on them. You can hear them talk on podcasts. And you can realize that people like this exist. And then try to find them, you know, and try to find people like that. And try to become like them. You can. You can assume those positive attributes. And you can incorporate them into your life. It's completely possible. For sure. Yeah. It's real. I mean, I did it. Somebody is listening to this right now. And as crazy as this is going to sound, I was you eight years ago. I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast. It was the beginning of me starting to be like what I put in my body comes out.

42:46What I eat, I shit. What I drink, I piss. What I hear, I believe. Yeah. And then I realized I was listening to a bunch of true crime, a bunch of negative stuff on my phone all the time. I was watching fistfights at bars like this was my algorithm. You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? My algorithm was just completely fucked. Yeah. So it's like, OK, I need to start changing my life. I need to find cooler stuff to put into my algorithm, more knowledge, learning stuff. Tell me, what have you done with the phone thing? So the phone thing is interesting. It's been real interesting. I got one now.

43:16I got one two months ago. I took a year. So part of the weight loss, I took a year off of a phone completely. Well, you know, I used to get drunk and give my number to everybody at the bar. So I would wake up after an award show and have like 3 ,000 unread text messages of people and was like, congratulations. And I was just like, oh, God. I was missing like big messages, you know? Yeah, that's a problem with me. Yeah. I got that problem. Yeah, I could imagine. Well, you look back and you're like, the president texts me. Not me, but I bet that's happened to you. You're like, I missed an entire text from somebody of that stature, you know?

43:44And you're like, dude, this is crazy. And I was like, I don't, I think that I was using it as another way not to connect. I have an avoidant personality, like I'll isolate or I can do it just right in a room full of people if I hop on the phone. And I was just like, man, I want to be more present, you know? I remember sitting doing stuff with my son and daughter, and I was scrolling Instagram, once again, watching bar fights. Nothing that was helping. You know what I mean? I was like, I'm just completely disconnected. It's another addiction. And with my personality, I got to watch those. So I got a phone two months ago, and I just didn't put social media on it.

44:18I have YouTube because that's my app. And I trust, you know, YouTube is where I get good stuff. It doesn't give me 60-second burst of shit I don't need. It gives me long form of good stuff. You know what I mean? I find channels that I really dig. And it's like back to new playground, new playmates. I never I know I'm super late to the party. Never heard of the Outdoor Boys until last year. OK, whoa. I've been missing a whole new thing of life. You know what I mean? He's back, right? He's doing it again. He's backish. Yeah. He took some time off. Right. I think he felt like that overwhelming. Yeah.

44:50The success of his channel got too crazy and he didn't enjoy the pressure. You know what I think he was doing? This is you want to speculate a little bit together about this? I think he was doing the coolest dad thing ever because he goes on there and goes, look, this has been a little overwhelming for me and my family. Me and my wife are out of this. And frankly, I got two boys that want to be YouTubers themselves. So I think I'm just going to help them. And I follow his son's channel. His son's got 3000 subscribers. He camps by himself like his dad did. He's 12 years old doing solo camping trips, dude.

45:19His name's Outdoor Tom. So it's like and he's been posting and his dad's on his channel. So I think the dad just built his channel, got big and was like, dude, I think I'm just going to leave this legacy for the boys, man. I'll just help them out. but he's kind of been poking his nose back around here and there. And he helped his friend out that had cancer. I thought that was the coolest thing. What was the name of that channel, Jamie? I don't want to blow this. They deserve a shout out because that was really cool. My Life Outdoors. Yeah, My Life Outdoors. And so that was a recent video that they made.

45:44Yeah. Yeah, he's a very interesting guy, you know. I wish he'd come talk to you. I would, if he was interested, I'd definitely have him on. I really have, I watch a lot of those shows. that's one of a part of my youtube algorithm is dudes who go out into the woods by themselves this is my new algorithm see this is me trying to change my playground because this is all about getting into shape joe like now i don't look at that as a an unachievable task i look at that like next winter me and cam are gonna go hunt somewhere we're gonna take a fucking tent you know what i'm saying we're gonna go out there and get lost in the woods camp on your back i think we can do it dude like i think i'm gonna be in shape enough to do it you know you're probably in shape enough to do it right now.

46:24I'm only going to get better. Yeah. No, I mean, I watched you on the treadmill today, man. You're in shape to do it right now. Yeah, you could do it. It's a, that's a beautiful thing, man. It's a really beautiful thing. And just to be out in the woods like that is, it's a, I think it's like a form of vitamin that people haven't recognized yet. It's medicine. Yeah. There's something to it. I mean, that sounds hokey and new agey, but I'm telling you man if i don't get my time in in the woods at least a couple times a year three and i really want to do it a way more often i just can't i just i'm just too busy but it's it empties all the bullshit out of my life the mountains don't give a fuck what's going on in in your life or how many likes your last fucking social media post god or who's upset at you they don't care you know the mountains are the mountains those animals don't give a fuck if you just won the grammy you know they don't give a shit oh jelly rolls here let me offer my vitals no sir not the case at all there's no charisma out there there's no cult of personality there's no it's all it's just wild and it's beautiful you always been outdoorsman no i i used to fish when I was a kid.

47:41I used to really love fishing. Then I got away from all of it for a long time until Rinella took me hunting. That's when I got that mule deer, that one that's sitting on the table right there. That was the first animal I ever shot. A bow or rifle? Rifle. That was a rifle. Then Cam took me on my first hunt with a bow. I got a black bear. That was your first hunt as a bear? Yeah. God. I'm trying to get him to take me one of those in May. It's good. I want to do elk next year. Bear is a good one because, first of all, it's scary, you know, which I think is good. And there's something about eating a bear that's just wild.

48:22They're kind of fatty, right? It feels crazy. Yeah, well, not that bad. I mean, they definitely have a lot of fat on them. They taste good. That's a big misconception. I mean, I've never eaten a grizzly bear, which I've heard are pretty rough. But my friend Ryan Callahan just shot a grizzly bear, and he says it's delicious. I think the thing about a bear that's a little daunting for a lot of people is trichinosis. And you have to cook a bear like 100 and I think that I think the number is 160. I think that's what it is where you you know, you got to make sure that that meat is 160 degrees, you know, so you don't get any parasites because trichinosis is rough.

49:01I can't believe your first bow hunt was a bear. I'm on my first bow hunt as we speak, and it's for a deer. And I definitely – I needed to do this if I wanted to see a bear. I am out there, I mean, stomach and – heart and stomach, stomach and pants. Well, I think Cam took me bear hunting because in Alberta, the way they do it, they do it over bait. So they set out oats and they use beaver carcasses and all these different things. So the animals – and people are like, oh, that's cheating. listen there is no other way to find these animals in alberta there you're talking about dense forest a dense forest that looks like a box of q-tips like you can't see shit out there you're not going to find them before they see you coming or hear you coming or smell you coming this is if you want to hunt them you have to use bait or you have to use dogs and you know that's how they used to hunt them in a lot of places they used to you know tree them with dogs then people would shoot them and people are like well that's horrible too but there's you have to control their populations if you understand wildlife biology and wildlife management you you must control the populations of predators and then you know like john and jen up in alberta where they took me they know how to cook bear like really good jen is an excellent cook and she she'll cook a bear roast and she rubs it down and put it puts it in a traeger and they'll slow cook it for 12 hours.

50:28Oh, they're smoking the bear. Was it the bear you killed? Did you get to eat that one? We definitely ate some of that, too. And there's another thing that Rinella taught me called bear candy, which was great. It's like basically like it's like Chinese food. It's like sweet and sour bear. It was really good. Yeah. And then Cam brought over some bear sticks. He gets some meat sticks made at this one butcher that he goes to, this one meat processing place. But bear is the misconception is that bear tastes bad it does not taste bad it tastes like beef it tastes like a weird beefy kind of animal you know here's a weird fun fact when settlers or the pioneers first were making their way across north america they didn't eat deer they were eating bear and they were using deer for skins so a deer skin was worth one dollar and that's where the term buck come from no fucking way yes the term a buck comes from these the price of a deer skin no and they were just throwing the meat away exactly wow how long ago was this the 1700s 1800s they didn't know any better not only that you know all those buffalo that people shot like buffalo is like very expensive meat it's delicious it's fantastic i think it's superior to beef they didn't eat the beef they didn't eat the buffalo they were eating their tongues they were they were killing them initially for their tongues and then they would pickle the tongues and send them to New York.

51:53And people in New York were eating pickled buffalo tongues. Wow. They were throwing away thousands of pounds of buffalo, good buffalo meat. Yeah. Oh, my God, thousands of pounds. And then they started using their skins, so buffalo hides became valuable. But it wasn't the meat that they were after, which is crazy because they basically almost made them extinct. Right. They came, like, within a hair's breadth of making bison extinct in North America. Just by giving away tongs. Well, also because they opened it up to the market. So market hunting was a giant problem with wildlife in North America.

52:28So what that means is they didn't have refrigeration back then, right? So you needed a constant supply of meat. And, you know, you could salt things down and transport them that way. And there's a bunch of different ways to avoid the breakdown of bacteria. But essentially, you couldn't – there was no fucking freezers, you know? So market hunting almost wiped out all the whitetail. It removed elk from most states. You know, the states that have elk, wild elk right now, are a tiny handful of the states that used to have elk in like the 1600s, the 1700s. It's all the settlers came from, you know, wherever, and they shot them all.

53:08Wow. And they shot them all and brought them all to market. You know, that was a lot of it. And so then they made market hunting illegal. And then they designated areas public land. And this is the Teddy Roosevelt thing. And what they did was really an amazing – what they did – an amazing example of conservation in North America that really doesn't exist anywhere else is our wildlife management and also our natural resources public land management. So we have public land in North America where you can apply for a tag. You could get it like we did with that mule deer. We shot that mule deer in Montana.

53:49We got a tag and went out into the Missouri breaks. And then we found that animal and shot it and ate it. And anybody could do that. It's part of you being an American if you fill out the right paperwork and pay for the tags. And all that pays for the management of this land and for wildlife biologists and park rangers and all those kind of different people that game wardens that help, you know, keep all this stuff managed. Wow. See, I didn't even know you could hunt public lands until recently whenever Cam and them were fighting back about the bill that was trying to get rid of some of us. Yeah, man.

54:26They were trying to sell off some public land. It's a fucking dangerous, slippery slope. And you can't let that happen ever. It's kind of like freedom of speech, man. You let any infraction of freedom of speech is a complete infraction of freedom of speech. I mean, it's deteriorating really badly right now in the UK. I'm loving the outdoors, though. I'm loving learning about it. Like, even hearing you talk, I'm just over here like, yes. Ah, it's an amazing thing. Because this is new to me, you know? I just got my first hunting license yesterday. You know what I'm saying? The day before yesterday.

54:55So it's a big deal for me. That's awesome. You want to hear my first big amateur mistake I made? Sure. This is a good one. I told you one of them, but I'll tell you the one I didn't tell you because it's way better. I'll save this one for the air. we're in there the first night, and it's like kind of, it's not nippy, but it's like when the sun went down, it was cool, but it was still, you know, I was so adrenaline up. The first night, a doe comes out, Joe, and I thought I was going to shit myself. I mean, I had to stand up. I farted. My stomach was bad. It was just so, it was every emotion I didn't think I was going to feel.

55:24And I'm doing it with like the greatest bow hunter ever sitting behind me. And lucky for us, Cam's a sweet dude, so he's just entertained by it. Well, he really loves helping people get into bow hunting, too. You know, that speaks again to who he is. Like, to be who you are in that, that'd be like me loving, going and meeting first-time songwriters. Like, I've never wrote a song and me being like, that's my favorite. Let me sit down and show you how to start. You know what I mean? Which I don't necessarily feel that way, to be honest. So it's like, for him to care. But I'm sitting there and the next morning we go, and it's fucking cold.

55:57And I'm shaking anyways because, you know, I'm nervous. And I'm shaking because it's cold. So when we go back that night, I bring my hoodie in case it gets cold, but I don't put it on. And we're sitting there, and as soon as the sun goes down a little bit, it gets cold in that blind bubble. Yeah. And I'm sitting there like— Well, you're also not moving. Not moving at all. That's a big thing. If you were walking around in the cold, that's a different thing. No, we're just sitting, and I'm like— Yeah. And I'm like, cold, cold. And I don't even think about it. Now, keep in mind, there's two does in front of us, and there's a buck maybe 80 yards away.

56:29Cam said this, and it's the most gangster thing. Bow hunting starts where rifle hunting ends. Bow hunting begins where rifle hunting ends. The moment you see a buck when you're rifle hunting, for those listening that don't know, you just shoot it. It's that easy. You see the buck, you better shoot it right then, as soon as you get a clean shot. The moment you see the buck when you're bow hunting, that's operation chill. Get them as close as you can get them and find the right shot. It's the total opposite of rifle hunting, which I haven't rifle hunted since I was 10 anyways. But so I'm sitting there and it's cold and I see the buck in the back and I'm like, you know what?

57:04Can I ask you something? Yes, sir. You're not allowed to own a firearm? Are you allowed to operate one? No, sir. No, so you can't rifle hunt at all? No, sir. I'm on my first hunt pretty much. This is an ad for BetterHelp. The holidays come with a lot of traditions. Gathering with family, cooking those once a year recipes and leaning into the little rituals that bring everyone together. That's something I always look forward to. But there's another tradition I think we should all start doing during the holidays, and that's taking some time for ourselves. This season, you do so many things for the other people in your life.

57:35You plan get-togethers around everyone's schedule. You spend hours picking out the right gifts and cooking the right food. But you also deserve just as much attention. Otherwise, you'll burn yourself out. So do yourself a favor and take some me time. Go on a hunting trip. Have a quiet night with a book. maybe even schedule a session with a therapist. Therapy is an extremely effective way to make sure you're focusing on what you need. And BetterHelp can easily set you up. They have access to a wide network of fully qualified therapists, and they do a lot of the work for you. Even if that first match isn't a good fit, you can easily switch to another therapist.

58:16This December, start a new tradition by taking care of you. Our listeners get 10 % off at BetterHelp.com slash JRE. That's BetterHelp.com slash JRE. And is that forever? Well, this is interesting. I am, this is a slippery slope for me. I am up for a pardon this year. My paperwork has been sent in to my governor. And he considers pardons in every December. So every day, I'm just kind of praying. You know what I mean? But even if he gives me the pardon, unfortunately, Tennessee has a zero forgiveness policy for violent offenders. So I would be pardoned, but I wouldn't be adjudicated. What's it called?

59:01Exonerated? Exonerated. The charters aren't completely gone. So what I'd have to do is, and this is my hope, is that my goal in this is that I want to reach out to legislation eventually and go, hey, like, if nothing else, I'd like my right to hunt. like it's done a lot for my mental health it's done a lot for my my physical health like it's been a being able to start going on that first bow these are little markers that i put on the calendar you know when i'm 400 something pounds and i'm like all right next year cam said he's taking me on my bow hunt i gotta get there you know what i mean like all right next year i'm not going to run that 5k an hour and a half i'm going to do it in 45 minutes you know what i mean like these are those markers so i want to go to them and go look i understand if you've ever raped somebody or killed somebody.

59:46But I think that every it should, there should be some path to redemption, even if it takes 30 years, put something unrealistic up there. You don't can't get a speeding ticket for 20 years. But like, I think it's important for people to have a path to redemption. I'm a, I'm a redemption guy. And you know, if God didn't just show me so many paths, you know what I mean? Well, I think it's one of the more beautiful aspects of Christianity that it does offer you a path to redemption, like a true legitimate path where you can become a different person. Literally. Yeah. And people not judge you on the old person anymore.

1:00:16Judge you on the person sitting in front of them. I get it for the public safety aspect of it. It's hard to know if a person's redeemed themselves. I get that. It's hard. And if you make the wrong decision, man, I couldn't bear the burden of your conscience of that neither. Right. But then you do have cases. And I know I'm not the only one of people who have like, even little things like, I mean, outside of hunting, Joe, it's not that I'm a big, you know, I don't have a, I just wish I could protect myself right you know what i mean it's like i'm a million dollars plus a year in security i'd cut that bill in half tomorrow if i had a right to carry right you know what i mean for sure you know but um but at least let me hunt i mean my heart's right i just want to feed the family and go out and spend some time with the boys and do some population control we don't kill them deer in tennessee they're taking over anyways you know what i'm saying i'm sure you got a lot down there they're every not like these monsters down here but they're everywhere yeah well that place that you're at is a particularly unique place.

1:01:07Cactus Jack. Giant deer. Dude, it's called Hunt Cactus Jack. I found this out. Do you remember the old vice president from here was called Cactus Jack? No. Will you look this up, Jamie? This is a cool story. So the vice president, I think it might have been during Roosevelt's term, maybe even, or one of those. Maybe Teddy. But his vice president was a Texas governor or something. And the The guy was famous because he's the one who tried to make the cactus plant the Texas state plant. So they called him Cactus Jack because of that. And then Cactus Jack. Yeah, there it is. There he is. Look at him, dude.

1:01:44He looks like a cactus. He looks like Cactus Jack. Yeah, Jim Nance Garner. Wow. He was a lawyer, a longtime congressman. He was the one who tried to make the cactus the state flower for Texas. Wow. Yeah. Who was the advice president to? Roosevelt. Yeah. The effort failed in favor of the Blue Bonnet, but Cactus Jack Moniker stuck with him throughout his long political career. Wow. So when he opened this place, how many years ago, the guy who bought it from him was super excited. He told me the story last. Look at how gangster that is. That's Cactus Jack, dude. A cigar with two pistols. Yeah. Yeah.

1:02:21We could never get away with that right now in politics. I know, right? But Cactus Jack, he's a—but the Rance is great. The guy who owns it, Mr. Jerry, was telling me the history of it last night. They kept true Texas deer genetics. A lot of the Texas ranches will have import genetics. And he was like Cactus Jack was big about making this a tried and true Texas ranch. And he is dead set on dying by keeping it that way, this guy Jerry that owns it. Well, it's like especially south Texas, hunting white-tailed deer is like a religion. It's a religion. Yeah, it's a big thing for those folks. and to grow big deer down there and to make sure that you manage the genetics correctly.

1:03:04Like you don't shoot any animal that's under like six or seven years old. And there's a place that I hunt in Utah that does that with elk. It's like they, a really well-managed place does that. They make sure, so like there's some places where when they have hunting season, everybody just goes out into the woods. Kids get a day off school and they shoot everything they can. Which is great. You get meat, it's great. But the problem is, if you want very impressive animals that are mature, which is also better for the entire genetics of the herd, because these are the animals that have lived a full life, they've spread their genes, and then you shoot them at the end of their life.

1:03:49So they've had a long, full... And by the way, when you're getting an animal that's seven, eight, nine years old, they really don't have much time left. Well, you know, they were telling me, you're so right about that. They were saying some of them, they'll try to wait and let them have another year and they won't make it anyways. Yeah, they won't make it through the winter. Sometimes they just won't make it, he said. So they've, yeah, no, they're dead. This guy is doing it. I mean, obviously, I'm not the case study cams to talk about it because I've been on one hunt. But the deer I see on my property back home compared to these deer, these deers would eat those deers.

1:04:19You know what I'm saying? Like these deers would fuck those deers in the butt. You know what I'm saying? And it's like, it just, it's a totally different thing. It is a different thing. But that's a very exceptional place. So I go to put my hoodie on. That's where I fuck up Joe. I'm cold in this fucking blind. And I said, Cam, hold my bow. I should have said, Cam, can I put my hoodie on? Because Cam would have been like, no. You know what I'm saying? But I was like, all right. And in my mind, Joe, I was going to slide one arm through. And I was going to wait 30 seconds to slide the other arm through.

1:04:50Because I didn't want to be shaking if I got my shot. And I seen my buck across the field. Right. But I put first arm through and I looked up. It was like a movie, Joe. All three deer in the field went right into my soul. It ran away. And I looked at Cam. I was like, that was me, huh? He was like, oh, yeah. They don't like that stuff. I was like, fuck. You can't move. Never came back. No, never came back. The sound is like they hear everything like 10 times louder than you do. Look at their ears. Their ears rotate and turn and do this. Those are antenna listening for predators. So they hear the ruffling of clothes.

1:05:28They're like, what is that shit? They were like, that's a human. Yeah, that's a fucking human. And when they're down there, that's the main predator. The main predator is us. No, it was amateur hour at the Apollo, dude. At least Cam got a hoot out of it. I learned a big lesson, of course, too. Bro, they look at you, too. When a whitetail busts you, they look at you like it's a weird look. No, it's almost like when I say they looked right up at me, Joe, it was like from feed to eye contact with me. I was like, oh, fuck. You know what I'm saying? I felt like a deer in headlights. I was like, oh, shit, he caught me.

1:06:01Well, people put felt on the rest just so that when the arrow slides, it's not making any sound. God. You got to be real slow in how you draw back. But it's something else. It's like rifle hunting, which I can't rifle hunt, but we have a bunch of stands on my property. And I'll go sit in them just to watch deer with my little boy. And, you know, that thing will be two football fields away from where the deer are. You'll be sitting up there with a heater on, listening to a podcast, smoking a joint, watching a deer like, if I had a gun, I'd kill it. You know what I'm saying? So I showed up first day with Cam, and I got my little weed pen in my pocket.

1:06:34And as soon as we sat down, and I seen a buck from here to a little bit past Jamie from me, I was like, oh, yeah, we can't smoke in here. Or talk. This is a different thing. I was like, this is real, dude. It's a totally different thing. It's a different fear, too. Like, you get excited when you see one out of a blind from 100 yards, 200 yards, you know, 50 yards, 70 yards. But when you see one 20 yards, 30 yards away from you, and you're sitting there with just a stick with a piece of metal on it, kind of. You know what I'm saying? And a string. Ultimately, you got a glorified, what came right after the slingshot.

1:07:07Right. You know what I mean? And you're like, this is me and this animal right now. Yeah. It is the fucking craziest feeling I've ever felt in my life. Dude, I wrestled at SummerSlam. It felt like that. It felt like when Logan Paul was going to jump through the table. It was that feeling the whole time. Yeah, this is it. Oh, wow. That's a big fucking buck. Look, that was me really shaking, dude. That's a big buck, dude. Oh, dude. We had so much. I'm having to tie my life down there. Oh, that's a tiny little hole you're shooting through, too. You see what I'm going through here? Look at him. You have a light on your pins?

1:07:37Do you have a sight light? No, sir. Okay. Are you using a spot hog? What kind of sight are you? I think so. Look at that beautiful bird. Cam set it up for me. It must be a spot hog. Is it Wayne? Is Wayne his name? It's the bow rack? Yeah, Wayne. Wayne, I love you, Wayne. Shout out to Wayne. Yeah, you got a spot hog. Oh, by the way. That's a booner. Your bow shop just dropped me off a kickstand for it, though. What do y 'all call it? Oh, beautiful. Archery country. Yep, yep, yep. Thank you for that, by the way. Oh, please. We love you. In the stand, I'm having to hold it on my lap. You know what I mean?

1:08:07Yeah. So Brigham hit them for me and was like, yo, while we're doing Rogan, can you just drop off a kickstand for Jelly? Yeah. So he dropped one off for me. Hoyt has it set up so that they're retractable, too, the way it's set up. It's perfect. You can just set it down. It's perfect. I bought 200 Aeros, and I put them 100 on my back porch in a bucket, and I have like 30 targets in my backyard now. And I sit 100 of them on my farm's back porch with like 30 targets, and now I literally wake up, let my dog out, and just let 100 rip first thing in the morning. Just rip a whole 100. It takes me like 45 minutes.

1:08:37Good exercise. Oh, yeah. And I only have to pull them once. It's also the concentration clears your mind because it's so hard to do. To hit a target, especially at a distance. It's your whole thing is just everything's got to be like coordinated in sync and on that release and that arrow flies and goes right into there. Oh, I love it. You're talking about concentration. It's one of the only things I've ever done that when I'm standing there, even over a target, especially over a deer, but even over a target and I pull that bow back. It's like you said about the mountains. Like nothing in the world matters right now.

1:09:15The world goes away. I don't even hear my inner monologue. All I see is that little green pin on that dart. Fred Bear had a great quote about a troubled mind, like nothing clears a troubled mind like shooting a bow. It's so true. It's like there's something about how difficult it is that it really requires everything of you. It requires all of your concentration. You can't have like distracting thoughts like, oh, I forgot to pay that bill. Oh, I got to call that guy back. Oh, I got to do this. Oh, I got to do that. You can't have anything in there. And because of that, it's like a moving meditation.

1:09:52Like it forces you to be completely present in the moment. And that cleans the mind out. You're talking about moving meditation. I was thinking about when you were saying that, even down to the breathing. Like the importance of the.

1:10:08It's also you're going to learn how to manage your nerves, right? So there's going to, this is a process and it's a journey. And so along the way, you're going to have some moments where a deer comes in or an elk comes in where you're, you see your body shaking, freaking out. But then in the future, you're going to know, okay, I know when this is coming. Now I know how to stay calm. And now I see this coming like, nah, bitch, we ain't getting there. We're not going there. We're staying right here. I call it going dead. Like you go dead. Like all this anticipation and what if I miss and what if I do this and what if he runs and what if he turns?

1:10:47Nothing. I don't let nothing in. You don't let nothing in. And you just like exist like a cat. Like you're like a cat, like staring at the thing you're about to kill. Just locked in. There's no negative at all. You don't ever let those emotions creep in. You know, I asked Cam, I'm like, do you ever check your heart rate when you shoot? And he's like, yeah, it doesn't even move. Like, yeah, because he knows how to stay in that moment. He knows how to stay calm. Afterwards, it's like, yay, everybody's great and everybody's happy. And, oh, my God, look at this. This is incredible. It worked out. What a perfect shot.

1:11:20I can't wait to feel that. High fives and hugs. Yeah. Can't think about that, though. Can't think about the result. Never think about the result. Always think about the process. And, Doug, here we have the Lemu Emu in its natural habitat, helping people customize their car insurance and save hundreds with Liberty Mutual. Fascinating. It's accompanied by his natural ally, Doug. Uh, Lemu? Is that guy with the binoculars watching us? Cut the camera. They see us. Only pay for what you need at LibertyMutual.com. Liberty, Liberty, Liberty, Liberty. Savings vary. Underwritten by Liberty Mutual Insurance Company and affiliates.

1:11:56Excludes Massachusetts. I'm always thinking about the process. I'm having fun with the process here. Process is amazing. Cam was saying that. I felt so bad. I looked at Cam and I said, Cam, you're not mad that we sat four times and I haven't got one yet, especially since I fucked it up once and twice. I had to pee today. But we'd been in there four hours. I mean, I was like, Cam, that buck's not coming back over. Especially if you're staying hydrated. Yeah, I'm staying hydrated. I'm like, Cam, I got to pee. That guy has amazing patience. No, he said he smiled. He was like, this is what I'm here for, Bubba.

1:12:22He said, I'm glad you're getting the journey. And I was like, I think if I had came here and just shot one, it wouldn't have been. I've sat four times. I'm working for this deer. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I pulled on him three times this morning, Joe, and just could not. Cam was proud of me, though, because I was like, I just don't have the shot, Cam. Because he whispers in my ear, he goes, you got a shot? And I've been, I forgot who wrote it, but it's a little book called Lying. Have you ever seen this book? No. It's like a, Jamie, it's like a little bitty book. It's just called Lying. But it's like some author, you got to check it.

1:12:49It's a really cool book, and it just talks about us lying. And it was the book that talked about me lying to myself. And right then I had to fight that urge to lie. Because it wouldn't have been a lie if I would have said, yes, I got a shot. But I didn't have a good shot. So instead I go, I don't get one I like, Cam. Cam goes, and he just put his hand on my sword. He said, I'm proud of you for that. And I just let it down. You know what I mean? I was at least, even in the moment of like, I want to kill this deer. So I would be so cool. Imagine if I went on Joe Rogan's after killing my first buck this morning.

1:13:17And I was like, but I was like, this ain't the shot. You know what I mean? Like, I want the first one to be the shot. I want to be proud of it. You know what? I don't want to harm an animal. You know what I mean? I don't want an animal to suffer. I want a double lung and I want to drop it like a movie. You know what I'm saying? And if I have to sit here eight more times to get that shot, no problem. It'll just make it even sweeter when it happens. I'm just getting better, Joe. I'm learning more. I'm learning how to listen for stuff. I'm seeing things. Now I know when they're looking, what the wind means.

1:13:41I learn what barometric pressure is and what it does to them. It's all kind of cool stuff, dude. I'm like a little nerd there. I'm like the little kid walking around asking questions all day. Well, there's a really big learning curve to hunting, particularly bow hunting. And it's really interesting. You just keep learning stuff. Like, I've been doing it now for, I guess I've been bow hunting for 12 years or 13 years. I guess 12 years. And I'm still learning. I learn all the time. I mean, I'm, you know, it's one of the most rewarding things that I've ever done, you know. And especially in terms of, like, getting pretty decent at it, getting proficient at it, and having a bunch of success.

1:14:19And success begets more success. I love it. And then when you eat it, it's different than any other meal you'll ever eat. When I pull an elk steak out of my freezer and I thaw it out and then I throw it on the Traeger and I throw some olive oil on it. And I like this Saskatchewan, blackened Saskatchewan rub that they have. It's my favorite for elk. And I get that sucker up to 120 degrees. And then I bring it inside and I sear it on a cast iron frying pan. Then I eat it. Oh, man. It's magical. I remember the whack when that elbow hit him in the lungs. The whack. That sounds whack. How crazy is it hunting elk?

1:15:01They're huge, right? They fucking scream. Oh, that would scare the shit out of his job. It's magical. I hunted with Cam this September, and I got this elk that was, he was coming over the mountains with his cows, and we saw him. We were like, whoa, that's a good one. We got to try to get to him. So we had to go over the top of this ridge and go down into this valley and go through the woods. And as we got to where he was, another elk stole his fucking cows. And so by the time we got to the woods, we were trying to like, we were following the screams because he was still screaming and they were screaming and the cows were, so we get through the woods and then we realize, oh shit, he got his cow stolen.

1:15:46So his cows, we saw the last of his cows run up this hill, run up the side of this mountain, and he was going after them. He was like slowly, and then my guy Colton that I was with, he called. He went, you know, he busted this little cow elk call. And you see the elk go like this. It's like a record skips. You know, like, and then he turns, and he's like slowly starts walking. I was at full draw for like a minute and a half behind this tree, just holding for a minute and a half while this dude was. He was about 25 yards, but he did not like it. He's like, something's going on here. I don't see the cow.

1:16:28What the fuck is happening here? So he went around sideways to try to get our wind. And as soon as he went around sideways, as soon as he got clear, I saw him put that pin on him, saw Swack. He hit him. He was dead in 15 seconds. 15 seconds. He got hit. He was like, what the fuck? He turned, started going downhill, and then fell and rolled. And it was over like that. And then I think of that moment every time I eat it. Every time I'm cutting into that steak, I think of that crazy moment. You know? God, that is a wild moment, dude. And it's also after miles and miles of trekking up these mountains.

1:17:08You're at 7 ,700 feet above sea level. And you have to hunt elk. You don't sit for them, right? You got to kind of go out and find elk. There's no sitting. Yeah, you go find elk. You're fucking exhausted every day. Let's go, baby. Yeah. It's crazy cardio. That's what I'm training for, Joe Rogan. Oh, 100%. That's what I'm getting in shape for. When June starts rolling around, that's when I start really ramping up the cardio. That's when I start ramping up the airdyne bike and ramping up the steps. When I start doing step-ups on boxes and I start doing bodyweights in September. Wow. Okay. So right around June is when I really just kick into leg strengthening, leg conditioning, and cardio time.

1:17:48Right. Because you know you're going to have to go. They live in the mountains, man, which is interesting because they didn't used to be like. They were more like living in the plains until people start fucking with them. And then they realize the best way to get away from people is to get way up where it's difficult to get to. So if you want to get them, you've got to go where it's difficult to get to. So you've got to get in shape. Yeah. And that's the stuff. I hope somebody's listening to this right now going, man, I'll never be able to elk hunt. Yeah, you can. Yeah, you can. I promise you can.

1:18:16Can you walk? Then you can do it. You can do it. Just start walking tomorrow, baby, and start going forward. Yeah. Even then, it's your big goal. Put little goals in between there. That was another big one for me. It was like I had these big goals, but I didn't get – they were so far I realized I'd lose sight of them sometimes. So you got to set them little baby goals in the middle. You know what I mean? those little like, you know what, I'm going to walk a mile five days this week, no matter what the weather is, I'm going to walk a whole mile. You know, I'm going to walk to my mailbox and back, whatever your starting point is.

1:18:45And then I encourage you to start making the decision that's hard because me and Cam talked about this when we ran our 5k. There's a hill. My driveway comes down a driveway, comes down a hill and you bust a right, Joe. And then you can go left into a neighborhood, the same run I run every day, or you can go right up a hill and it is a hill, hill, you know? And the first day I came out and I looked up that hill and I looked to the left and I took two steps to the left and I stopped and I told myself, I was like, I'm learning about stories we tell ourselves. The story I've been telling myself my whole life was take the easy way out.

1:19:24My entire life, Joe, I have always looked for the path of the easiest, like A to B straight line. You know what I mean? And I was like, I break that today. I turn right. Fuck you. You feel it, don't you? Right then, big. It's a big move. Big moment when you're like, no, I'm hitting that fucking hill. Because I'm big. Fat people hate hills. Stairs. We hate all that shit. So I'm like, hit the hill. You know what? I'm walking and I'm stopping. And I'm walking and I'm stopping and I'm walking and I stop. I just kept going. When I got to the top of it, there was a telephone pole up there, and I went and slapped it.

1:20:02I just slapped the shit out of it. And I felt so achieved, and I came down the hill, and then I took a left. And I was going to go straight down to the stop sign and back, but if you take a left, you can go up another hill. So in my mind, I was like, I'm going to stop sign and hit the hill. But as I was walking by that other hill, I was like, this is the new you. You hit the hill, dog. This is the new you. Today is the new you. You hit the hill. Left, hit the fucking hill. Come back down. on my way home that day, look up, see that hill. It's right by my house. I go, fuck it, I'm going to hit it one more time.

1:20:30You know what I mean? And then it started becoming a thing where it's like, I started adopting that philosophy in life now, Joe. I hit the hill first. Whatever the hardest thing is, whatever scares me the most, whatever I think is going to be the most daunting of the day, it's like, put that motherfucker on the table right now. Yeah. Let me see that bitch first. And it makes the rest of your life easier too. That's what's really important. When you elect to make these decisions, conscious decisions to do a difficult thing voluntarily, you elect to do that, then the rest of your life becomes way easier.

1:21:00Because the most difficult thing of your day is always the most difficult thing of your day, whether you decide to do it or whether life throws it at you. And you can decide to give yourself some shit that's way harder than anything life's going to throw at you. And then the rest of life becomes easy. It makes you ready to deal with life. It's also very important for famous people. It's very important for famous people because for famous the the pressures and the weirdness of fame most people don't understand the psychological burden that they that that carries that that how that hits you and it can really fuck with you and one of the best ways that i've found to keep it from fucking with me is to make the hardest part of my day, my choice.

1:21:50I do it. I put myself through. So other stuff that seems difficult for other people that don't work out or don't take on challenging tasks. It's not that difficult for me. It's easy. I'm already torturing myself every fucking day. And I feel weirdly more qualified to deal with shit when I do though. Like when I have a really hard run, I walk into the house that day like, I don't care what comes at me today. Exactly. I am on fire. I'll give you another quick story. There's nothing harder than what you're doing. You're barely alive, right? You're breathing so hard. Your heart is pounding. Nothing in life is giving you that.

1:22:28Nothing in life is giving you that kind of burden. No. So if you can do that to yourself, it'll make the rest of your life way easier. And then, believe it or not, it gets funner. Yes. It goes back to my first year walking was miserable. I won't lie to people that are listening to this. I didn't enjoy one of those walks. You know what I mean? Not one. I didn't have one time. But when the weight started coming off and I started being able to breathe a little better, like I wasn't just fighting for oxygen every single step. And that moment happens, though, if you're patient. The next thing you know, you're running with your friends and y 'all are talking about the football game and you're firing on all cylinders.

1:23:04Today when you were on that treadmill, you were talking. We were watching the Volkanovsky, excuse me, the Piotr Jan, Marab, Dvavishwili fight. We were giving commentary. Yeah. It's like you do it and it makes you. As you were running, like, oh, I remember when that kick landed. Yeah, I was like, ooh, that was loud. I'm telling you, dude. As you were running. I'm like just running. Yeah. And it makes me mentally ready now because I go out and I know David talked about this a lot, Goggins, but I go out there and beat that bitch every day. Yeah. All them negative thoughts, I deal with them on my run and my workout.

1:23:31Every one of those, you can't do it. And you know what else I've learned? If I have a chance to eat bad today, it's going to happen on a day I didn't wake up and run. Right. If I'm going to go off my program, because the days I run, I don't want that shit. I know I earned it. And mentally, it makes me better. I woke up the other day and ran my farm. And I come back and my son, I'm all excited. We're going to the Titan game. And I'm getting to connect with my son. And I go, hop on a four-wheeler right up to the top of the hill. I'll run up there and meet you. I'm going to get a little more exercise in.

1:23:59And when I'm running up to the top of the hill, I look up and he stopped somewhere going down another hill that I thought he was going to go down. And right then I realized it's the hill that he fell and broke his wrist on riding a four-wheeler last year. And he stopped up there because he's scared. And his friend already went down. Joe, I thank God in that moment. I said, Jesus, thank you. I'm ready for this. I've ran. I'm not. I feel the endorphins. Like, I am ready to parent this moment. Most of the time, you know, as a parent, you walk into these crazy moments and you're like, oh, not fully ready for this moment.

1:24:28You know what I mean? Like, we blow them and you look back and go, oh, I wasn't ready for that one necessarily. Yeah. And I walk up to him and I credit this to running. I walk up and I go, what's up, buddy? And he goes, I think this is the hill, dad. I go, it is, buddy. He goes, I'm scared. And I go, dude, I've been scared for 35 years and I never admitted it. So you're already way better than me. You're already twice the man I am. I said, now what we got to do is know we know what we're feeling. What are we going to do? It's me and you, buddy. What are we going to do? He goes, I don't want to drive it.

1:24:59I go, what if I ride with you? He goes, will you sit on the back of this? Now, he's on a 90. You know what I'm talking about? You know, for people at home, this is a nine-year-old four-wheeler. And even then, I start just thanking God in my head where I was like, I'm ready for this. For the first time ever, I'm not too fat to get on this thing with him. Probably going to rub a little bit. You know what I'm saying? But I can get on the back of it. And I sit down on the back of it. And he says, well, you grabbed a steering wheel? I go, no, buddy, but I'll grab your waist. I said, you don't need me to touch that steering wheel.

1:25:26You just need me with you. crushes it down the hill. Nice. You know what I mean? That's awesome. And then you get to have the moment where you get to go, now what did we learn there, buddy? He goes, I learned that I can do it as long as you're with me. I said, no, buddy, you learned that you can do it. You just thought you needed me with you. Right. I said, but here's the good news. Jesus is always with you, Bubba. You got this. Like, just go. Like, don't be afraid of this, man. He drove it back up the hill. So then I said, do me a favor. Just ride up top of the hill and ride back down. I'll be sitting here waiting for you.

1:25:54If you start to go south, I'll run and jump on you. I'll do whatever. I'll save you. I'll go. I'll, I'll, I'll die for you, boy. Just come down that hill. He drove right up the top of that hill, turn around, came right down to jail. And it's like, I was ready for it though. I'd already did the hard stuff that day. You know what I mean? Having an emotional moment with my son was the easiest part of my day. After that, I'd already ran three, four miles. You know what I mean? I'd already woke up and gap myself in a headspace of like, I'm going to pour into my son today. I'm going to, I'm going to take him to get his favorite suite from the Titan game.

1:26:18I'm going to get him a cam war jersey. I'd already had a thing of ways I was going to connect with him. And then God gave me a whole new opportunity. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like God gave me a real opportunity. I was making ways to connect. Like, oh, we could probably do this and this will be fun. But like it just naturally came. Yeah. I wasn't ready for that at 500 pounds. One, I would have never been like, go up there. He'll 500 pounds. I'm like, you want to sit here and watch a movie? Right. No kid wants to sit and watch a movie at nine years old for all parents out there that are 500 pounds.

1:26:43You know what I mean? I'll answer for them. But to be in that kind of place with them is like the joy of life. Like I want somebody to hear this podcast. I keep saying it this way and understand that you're not living the life you can. Right. And it's so, so possible. It's not easy, but it's possible and it's worth it. It's so worth it, Joe. You know what I mean? The things that are not easier are worth it. It's important to do things that are not easy. It's really important. It's like if you want real peace, peace doesn't come from rest. Peace comes from struggle. Peace comes from struggle. It really does.

1:27:19You have to. Peace comes from challenge. It comes from being excited about something, doing something difficult, figuring out you could do it, building resilience. Building resilience is so important. It's so important because there's just too many people that are afraid of resilience. They're afraid of confrontation. They're afraid of anything that's difficult, anything that's struggle, anything that's going to test them. They're scared of it. They don't want that discomfort. But that discomfort is when you find true peace. there was a guy that there's a there's a famous old tale that reminded me of that but the guy goes um a young man looks at a rich man one day and which health happy man he goes uh how did you get where you are and the rich happy man looks at him and goes good decisions two words good decisions you ever heard this story no he goes good decisions and the kid goes well how did you make good decisions he goes one word experience and the kid goes well how did you get experience And the guy goes, two words, bad decisions.

1:28:19Yeah. You just got to go do it, dude. Yeah, failure. Failure's critical. Failure and the pain of failure is also very important. It sucks and it's hard. In the moment, you don't think you're ever going to live past this. You're going to live in this moment forever and I can't do this. I'm going to, I can't live like this. I can't do this. But get through it. Get through it. Get through it. And now you have resilience. And you'll become a whole, you'll become a better person because of it. Like just, just taking and, um, I, I used to be that way and I'd get in shame about stuff. Like shame was a big thing for me.

1:28:53I'd be embarrassed and I'd get into a spiral where I just wouldn't deal with things. I'd be like, oh, I'm just ashamed of that. I didn't do it right. Or I'm a fuck up or I'll never do it right. Or I'll never be able to do that. I use this kind of language. It goes back to how we talk to ourselves. Right. You know, it's like this is, and your body believes it. You tell your body enough, you're never going to do none. Your body will start to be like, all right, we're never going to do that. you know but it's like i realized that it was more about actually just starting to go no man i can do that you know what i mean like i can figure that out and now i get motivated every time i've left that deer blind without one of them bucks every time we get in the truck i'm all i'm smiles cam goes how you feeling i was like dog i am going to get good at this you know what i mean like i look at it different i don't look at it like oh i suck i look at it like dog yeah i am eight hours into 10 ,000 of these hours.

1:29:42You know what I'm saying? Like y 'all be patient with me. I'm only on hour eight. You know what I'm saying? Like, but I promise y 'all I'll be a whole different dude. But God, eight hours into something like that is so nice because you know, you have so much to learn. And if you just look at it that way, like what a beautiful blessing it is to have so many opportunities to do things, so many times that you're going to be able to learn So much time to grow. So much time to get better. You have so much room. I mean, if you're already Cam Haines, boy, it's so difficult to get better when you're the best.

1:30:12Yeah, for sure. So hard. 100%. All you can do is help me. And, you know, he's just challenged by moments. So he just experiences a lot of challenging moments. And he rises to the occasion because he knows because he's got 30 plus years of experience doing it. And he knows how to do it. But for you, it's like you're in this beautiful place where it's all learning. Every day is a new lesson. Even mistakes, like putting your hoodie on. Okay, now we know. Now I know. I'm going to wear the hoodie. I'll tell you what, tomorrow night I'm going to wear the hoodie if it's 80 because I don't care. I'd rather sweat in it, and then when it gets cold, I'm ready, than be not ready when it's cold.

1:30:47And you're going to have a bunch of those. I had one elk hunting this September. We were going after these elk that were in this thickly wooded section, and we were in this open area. and we were trying to figure out where this bull is because he was running cows through there and you would catch glimpses of him. And so we decided to move around to this new spot. And as we decided to move around to this new spot, we were like, you know what, we're going to have to go up this ridge and go around this way and come at him from another direction. So as we started to do that, he changed. and he ran out through the woods into the clearing and I was stuck out in the open just standing there.

1:31:32I'm like, fuck, if I just stayed in cover, I would have got this motherfucker. But I got impatient and I tried to run out and meet. You know, it's one of those lessons. Like, okay, now next time. That makes me feel better. 12 years in, that makes me feel good. Oh, God, I'm not even close to knowing what the fuck I'm doing. You know, I need a lot of lessons. I'm green as a pool table twice a square. It's bad. I'm out there so lost, Joe. It's got to be at least entertaining for everybody to see it. It's so exciting, though. And you'll get that success. It'll come. I'm having so much fun. I was like, I think I'm going to get a buck this week.

1:32:07I believe it. But if I don't, I got so many lessons, and I'll be back the next week. They'll let me back to try. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, you'll find the moment. You'll find the moment. It's going to come. It's going to come with persistence and just putting in the time. And I feel like the universe just gives you these opportunities. And when it's there, you'll have this big burst, like this breakthrough moment. Like, okay, I did it. I fucking did it. I did it. I got it behind me. Okay. I'm going to cook this deer. This deer is going, you'll be salting that thing and slapping it on the grill and watching it sizzle.

1:32:40Pop it, baby. Smelling it. Oh, the smell. And then when you go to cook it, you're like, oh, my God, this is the best food I've ever eaten in my life. is the best bite of food because it's a bite of food with an experience attached to it. It's not just a bite of food. And it's the best meat on planet Earth, the healthiest food you can get. You want to talk about like density? You were talking about like density of nutrition. There's nothing more dense than wild game. It's like twice as much protein as a piece of beef. Twice as much for the same amount of ounces. Yeah, it's so good for you. Same calories?

1:33:13No, like probably less. Wow. You're eating an athlete. Oh, yeah, for sure. You're eating like an athlete. You know? That's crazy. I never thought of it that way. Yeah, man. I've never ate a bunch of game, though, obviously. This is also new. Game is the best thing for you by far. There's no better food than wild game. I've never had an elk steak. I want one. Oh, my goodness. You've got to try one. Oh, I wish I had one right here to cook for you. I wish I had a grill. We'll do one. The good news is we'll do it the right way. We'll cook one I kill. Yes. That'll be the big moment for us. If I waited this long, I might as well go smack my foot.

1:33:40It'll be so exciting. And then you're going to be fully, fully, fully, fully hooked. Yeah. Yeah, once you actually do it. I'm already a steer. When I shot that mule deer that's on that table, and, you know, Rinella did the same thing that Cam did for you. You know, he took me, he showed me what to do. He took me out there and completely green. I never even shot a rifle before. I only shot a rifle like three. Luckily, and I'm not saying rifle hunting is easy for people that rifle hunt and think it's very difficult. It's very difficult, but it's not as difficult as bow hunting, which is why I was able to be successful on my first ever rifle hunt.

1:34:16And, you know, being successful on a bow hunt for mule deer, good fucking luck. A bow hunting for mule deer has a very low success rate, like even with elite hunters. Because it's a very cagey animal. They're very intelligent. Super fast, too, right? We were eating this animal. We shot it. We packed it out. We started a campfire. We were cooking it. And I remember Steve said to me, what do you think? I said, I'm doing this forever. Yeah. Forever. Yeah. I knew at that moment, I was like, well, I'm going to be a hunter now. That's what I'm doing forever. Because I was on my way to being a vegetarian.

1:34:53I was like, I've watched too many PETA videos, and I'm like, oh, my God, factory farming is so awful. It's so terrible. I didn't understand regenerative farming and ranching. I eat beef now. I mean, I never stopped eating beef. But eating wild game is a different thing. It's a different, like I said, it's food with experience attached to it. There's something very spiritual about it. And it's also, it connects you to a part of mankind's history that is intertwined in your DNA. Like there's something about it. You know, like for people that have never experienced before, you know the feeling that you get when you catch a fish?

1:35:35Even little kids, man. I remember my daughter caught her first fish when she was like six. She caught a bass and she was so excited. You get it? That is in our DNA because that means that you're going to live. You're going to eat. You're going to feed your family. That's why that is so exciting to catch a fish. Shooting an animal and killing it and eating it, knowing that you can eat it for months, is that times like a hundred. Shooting an animal with a bow is that times a thousand. Oh, it made me think about it when I was thinking about animal killing and bows, especially now, because I'm thinking about this a lot, obviously.

1:36:10I'm in the middle of it. But there's this thing that's happening there where it's like the concept that back in the day a man left with this stick and piece of metal or just a stick back then, a shaved stick and a string. It was like, if this goes good, I will come back with enough to feed our tribe. This entire village of people, I will bring a deer and we will all eat together. That's crazy to me. It is crazy. That that was once the way it actually went. And it was the only way. This is from here. This, who knows how old that is. Wow. Yeah, a friend of mine got that on his ranch and gave it to me.

1:36:49Oh, yeah, this is crazy. Yeah, so some Native American, probably Comanche because it's here in Austin. And that guy who made that made it himself, attached it with sinew and twine and put it on a stick that he had shaved down and put feathers on it that he had got from a bird and, you know, glue that they had made from, they made glue from all kinds of different things. And he shot that probably into an animal and it fed his family. Yeah. And then that was lost in the dirt. And then a thousand years later, somebody found it. It still stands. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. It's crazy. And that he came home like a hero.

1:37:37Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, man, you're right. That feeling of catching that fish. My daughter felt it too. When she was six, I took her bluegill fishing. Yeah. I had a little spot in the lake where you could just drive and catch a bluegill almost every time. You know, they're pretty little fishes. It's so exciting for them. She would have a ball. Yeah. It's so exciting. I took my wife to fish for the first time when she came and moved down from Vegas. And I thought, I wasn't thinking, Joe, this was a user error. But I was like, oh, my friend's got a spot catfish pond. I was like, this is great.

1:38:04Do you just throw it out there? She'll get her a big old hog of a catfish. I wasn't thinking about how brutally hard it is to unhook catfish, like compared to a bass or a bluegill. You know what I mean? And, of course, I get a bass that swallows the fucking hook. Oh, no. So we fight this bass. I mean, there's a catfish in, and she's all excited until it gets there. And it, to this day, was the most brutal ripping out of Joe. She's never went back. She was disgusted. She was all in until after. Like, once we got, I should have just clipped it, threw it back in, but I was just determined to get, you know how you are when you're stuck.

1:38:40Like, no, it's fucking coming out. And it was just horrible. Yeah. I looked like, oh. Yeah. But the good news is, I think I've got her talking and wanting to deer hunt after I do, because Rihanna goes, Cam's assistant, she loves Bunny, and I think that'd be digestible for Bunny. Like if she went with another chick that was cool, you know what I mean? Rihanna's a big-time bowhunter. Big bowhunter. She'll show her how to do it. Maybe she'll get hooked too. I know she was good because she was talking about hitting one yesterday. She was like, I had a shot on one at like 40. I had one at 40 yards out, but I didn't have a shot.

1:39:11Right then I was like, you were going to take a shot at 40 yards if you had one? That's crazy bowhunting skill. I was like. Yeah. Yeah, the ability to shoot at distance is really tricky because you've got to take into account wind. You've got to take into account the movement of the animal. You've got to be assured that that is because, like, do you see that elk that's on the wall out front with a photo of Cam and I? Oh, yeah. That was 67 yards. Whoa. Yeah, we've got to video that. So this elk was standing at 67 yards, and he just stopped. He had fought off these other elk, and he was tired, and he just stopped.

1:39:49And that arrow, I'll never forget that arrow. That arrow was like right in the 10 ring. It was a perfect shot. For almost 70 out. Yeah, and he ran, and he just piled up. He just ran right over the top of this hill, and boom, and he was done. But that was years and years and years of every day. in the backyard all day long. I mean, I shot so many hours, I fucked my shoulder up, I fucked my lower back up. Because I'm obsessive. I will shoot for four or five hours a day, and I'm pulling an 85-pound bow like 150 times a day. It's ridiculous. Yeah, it's great. It's like on your body. Your body's like, what the fuck are you doing?

1:40:36For sure. I'm only pulling 45 pounds. But when you do that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over, it becomes a part of your central nervous system. It's like your brain just gets locked in. Your eye immediately goes to that peep sight. It lines it up immediately with the sight housing. You balance it all out. You put it in the same place every time, too? Always. Yeah, you have to. That's what I'm loving, too. Yeah, you have to have anchor points. I've got a little, I've got a Bomar nose button. It touches my nose. I feel that on my nose every time where the string touches my nose.

1:41:11This little thing just kind of pinches at your nose, let you know you're in the right spot. I'm going to go get Wayne to redo mine. He did it. We had it where it just sat on my nose perfect, and then I lost that weight. So, I mean, more weight. I lost like 80 pounds since I got set for the bow. Oh, wow. Yeah, this is like the never-ending problem in my life right now. Clothes are either super baggier. I got one size too early, so it's tight, you know, because I'm just having to constantly chase whatever's next. Right. I can't wait until I'm just a normal person. and I get down a normal weight and, you know, put on a holiday weight like everybody else, and that's the fluctuation.

1:41:41That's wild. I'm close, though. I'm close. You're so close. I'm in like the 260s right now, 30-something pounds of skin on me. I'd like to lose another probably 40 is probably my goal. You're going to be under 200 pounds. That is wild. That's the goal. That's the goal. I just want to see it once on a scale, just like as an adult male. See 190. Just see like 199. Just like, ooh, baby. That's crazy. It still feels weird telling people I weigh something that starts with 200. I haven't weighed in the 200s since I was like 12. Well, you know what? As you put on muscle, you might stay in the 200s, but it'll be a different 200.

1:42:13Dude, I'm packing, man. My shoulders are like, I'm proud of them. Yeah, you look different, man, like in every way, in every way. No, it's like my posture is better, like I sit better. You're not burdened by a – you're rucksacking 300 pounds everywhere you went. All the time. That's crazy. Your legs must be so powerful. I say that to Ralphie May. Ralphie May, unfortunately, never lost the weight and did wind up dying young. But I used to say to Ralphie, I'm like, Ralphie, if you ever lost weight, you get kicked through a fucking building with those legs. Like his legs were carrying around 500 pounds everywhere he went.

1:42:51Oh, yeah. And everywhere. He'd stand straight up and do a whole hour. Yeah. Pacing the stage and killing it. Yeah. You know what I mean? It's just crazy. Yeah. He was one of the best, too. He was a fun dude, too. Was he fun outside of the stage, too? He was a sweetheart of a guy. He was a great cook, too. And unfortunately, after a while, he had done it with surgery, and it didn't work. Like a lot of people that have that addiction, he couldn't stop. And he thought surgery was the answer, so he got his stomach done, and then he ate through it, and then he had to get it redone. He blew it out. So it got to a point where when they cut your stomach down, they shrink your stomach, the gastrointestinal bypass.

1:43:34He got to a point where he couldn't digest meat. So he would barbecue for us. Ralphie was a really good cook. So he'd make ribs. They were sensational. But he couldn't eat them. He had to be eating vegetables. Wow. Yeah, because his body wasn't, it wouldn't process the meat right. And that was after the bypass, right? Mm-hmm. I think after the second bypass. See, that's a, and once again, it's like my heart hurts. You know, not that anybody could have made a difference maybe, but man, I just wish. Yeah. I mean, maybe, maybe if he knew you and you guys did it together. I could have just sat down and been like, bro, I know.

1:44:09Like, I think that's why me and you doing this pod so important to me was like, I know there's going to be people that are going to see clips of this that are 300, 400, 500 pounds. And I want them to like, you can do it. Without a doubt. Like you really can't. It's like, it's, it's actually worth it. It's small steps. Telling yourself the truth, doing what you say you're going to do, meaning it, keeping your word. But most importantly, food, food, food, food, food, dude. Yeah. Like, I just now started showing the runs and stuff, like, because I think people appreciate seeing the work. But it's like, what was important, really, the weight's not lost in that running.

1:44:43The running's what makes me feel good. It's fighting the demon. The weight's lost whenever I sit down at the dinner table and I eat like a normal human. I don't eat seven plates and six desserts. You know what I mean? Like, that's where it's at. And that's that. Anytime I used to see guys like Ralphie and I would think at watching, I'd be like, man, when you get to that size, there's a mental component. There's something happening there. There's some trauma attached to it or there's a story that you're living in in your mind. It's just, you know, your body's just reacting to a pattern it's always had that you haven't been able to get it out.

1:45:15There's something you've got to really go in and roll the sleeves up and find a kind of find it. Like I did every kind of thinking back to this therapist did the coolest thing. She looked at me and said, when do you first remember being big? I talked to my sister Shelby about this the other day and I said and she said what I said, which made me cry. Because I never talked to anybody in my family about this. And I go, I think the first time I realized I was big was I was going to get school clothes for elementary school. And back then they had a section in the Dillards called Husky. You remember this?

1:45:48You're old enough to remember they had a Husky section. That's crazy. You know what I'm saying? Which is awesome, I guess. And I just remember not knowing what it meant, but just knowing it was different. And knowing that I felt different. like I felt like I felt ashamed even at that age a little bit being in this section you know what I mean like and I didn't understand why well kids are so brutal so brutal and then I talked to my sister the other day and I go Shelby man um do you remember the first time that you that you thought I was an overweight kid and she goes oh yeah I'll never forget it dude we took you to some store and they had a husky section and you you couldn't fit the jeans you had to shop in the husky session and she said dude it tore you apart and i was like wow okay so i lived in that shame forever too forever you know what i mean like just that constant shame but i did that work in therapy you know what i mean and had related that's why i said earlier sometimes when i'm in the pantry mary b would be like who's what version of you is in the pantry is it the kid you or is it the adult you that's not answering an email because sometimes this is how deep addiction runs sometimes that relapse will be caused by literally an unresponded email that you just let sit there and torture you but you don't notice it because it's just nagging at you just that why don't you just tell that guy that you're not interested why don't you just tell why are you avoiding that why are you avoiding that why you avoid everything you avoid every this is your personality trait you you know what there's thousands of things you need to be saying to people you start eating what you're not saying you know so like distract yourself distract yourself even whenever i first got through this I had to sit my wife down bunny who is I talked about a lot of this podcast she is my anchor joe she's the best thing I think I've said this every time I've been in your podcast the single best thing that ever happened to me was marrying the right fucking woman for sure you know what I mean and um bunny I sit down with bunny and I'm what was we talking about I'm sorry I got so excited about my wife well you're talking about being husky shame why you don't answer emails distracting yourself distracted it's like you're just constant the food is a a way of not having to deal with or even say so I sit bunny down I go baby I'm probably gonna start give me some grace I sit my whole house down and go I'm gonna try to do an effort to communicate how I feel in real time and I might be abrasive at first because this is a new concept I normally have to go like chew on things for a few hours to make sure I don't misrepresent my thoughts you know what I mean I was like but sometimes in those few hours I'll find myself in the pantry to distract yourself yeah so i was like you know if y 'all just give me some grace and what i need y 'all to do is just be and be a mirror for me and just go hey i got you but think about the way you said that just just put it back just make me see it you know what i mean just mirror make me mirror it and uh they were so patient with me bunny bunny's a gangster though she'd be the first one to be like oh there goes a little that little snippy there aren't we the last holy huh i'd be like fair she'd be like we probably she's like i got it probably could have said it different love I'll be like fair.

1:48:45You know what I'm saying? But it was just me learning how to communicate my thoughts. And now it's like but it was so many of these little trigger things that I found that would be what would send me back. And I call I keep saying the pantry. The pantry is the gas station anywhere I can closet. Right. I just give it a place. It's like a came. Cam was telling me about the pain cave idea the other day. It's like to me, that's what the pantry has always been. Not the pain cave, but the idea of it. It represents a lot. You know what I mean? But when I'm in the pantry now, I know I can literally once again, reset reconnect re-engage you know what i mean in any situation if i'm at a party now and i think about eating or i think about drinking i can go outside i can hit a joint twice i can reconnect with myself what do you think about drinking for in there what do you what do you need to prove who who are you embarrassed that you you're not being cool enough around right now that you think it'll make you a little more loose you know what i mean like what get be real with yourself jason what's wrong here right right and then you get it you're like yeah fuck i'm being weird dude i don't to go in there and drink.

1:49:41I'm cool. You know what I'm saying? You're becoming a different person. Yeah, man. Yeah, a better version of who you really are. Yeah. And it's a beautiful thing because you're not just doing it for you. You're doing it publicly and you doing it publicly is going to change the lives of countless people. There's probably a million people right now that are listening to this that are changing some aspect of their life because of what you're saying. That's why I didn't hide and do it, Joe. I've seen too many other celebrities go in the dark and lose a bunch of weight and try to come out with a big reveal.

1:50:15And it always just felt superficial and, like, it just didn't feel right. I was like, yo, man, we should just, like, post about this. Like, every workout, every day, it's like. It's also good because it makes you accountable. Makes you accountable. Because you're putting it out there to the world. As long as you're not reading the comments. No, no, no. Fuck the comments. I don't even post it. Somebody else posted it. It's ghosted from God. That's better. That's better because as long as you're not dwelling on other people's opinions and thoughts and because a lot of those people, one of the things that they do when they're saying negative things is they're avoiding introspection.

1:50:49They're avoiding their own personal criticism of themselves. So they're doing that by putting that on you. so by putting negative thoughts on you and negative comments on you what they're really showing is that they're damaged and that they're avoiding that that self-analysis that leads to you having to make changes for yourself so instead they're just shitting on other people yeah that's a there's a lot of people that's an addiction that's an addiction that's a giant addiction that people have not just to being on social media but to talking on so commenting on social media and being out you know just being negative well my favorite quote is the booze mean nothing to me i've seen what makes them cheer you know what i mean yeah you can't your booze mean nothing to me i've seen what you cheer at you know what i'm saying it's like y 'all do you think i care about them booze it also reminds me of the story of the donkey the dude the father and the donkey i don't know if you've heard his story but the sons um the father's walking with the son and the son's riding a donkey they're going through this little village and somebody goes, won't you look at that old man?

1:51:55Look at that poor boy's making that old man walk. So the man thinks, oh, I don't want to think bad of my grandson. So he tells the grandson, hey, in the next town, right before we go, I'm going to hop on the donkey and you walk. So he hops on the donkey and they start walking and somebody goes, can you believe that old man's making that little boy walk by himself? So he stops. He says, fuck it. I'll just buy the kid a donkey. So he buys the kid a donkey. They're going through the next city and they're both walking beside their donkeys. Right now, they're both on their donkeys. And somebody goes, well, look at them two people just beating the death, beating the death.

1:52:27Them poor old donkeys. Them old donkeys just can't do nothing. He said the next time he could tell the grandson, he goes, fuck it. We'll just walk beside the donkeys. So they're walking besides the donkey. And you know what? Somebody screams, don't you? Look at them perfectly too good donkeys. They're not using those donkeys should be getting put to work. And the moral is he couldn't do anything to make anybody happy. You know what I'm saying? It didn't matter what he can never make everybody happy because everybody's not happy. Yeah, that's it. That's the thing. It's like you can make happy people happy, but you can't.

1:52:56What percentage of people are legitimately happy? It's hard to get happy. It's difficult. You know what else changed for me was looking at happy different. I looked. My wife has that quote in the house that says, we no longer search for happiness. We search to be useful. It's like the moment I quit looking for my happiness, now I just look to be a tool. Like I walk in every situation with my hands open like, what you got for me here? Right. How can I bring value to this? What can I do? Can I motivate? Like, where can I be a little piece of you in this moment? You know what I mean? And that changed everything.

1:53:29Now I'm always, by default, I'm always happy because I'm being useful. Right. You know what I mean? Like, there's nothing more fulfilling than being useful. Yeah. But I quit chasing happiness. I just started chasing being useful. That's beautiful. Yeah. That's beautiful. It's an amazing story, man. And you're in the middle of it. You're not done. Well, we've almost lost the weight. The transformation will be next. And the transformation, Joe, that will be something to watch. The weight loss, that's been cool to watch, but the transformation, Bubba, I'm coming, dude. What do you mean by the transformation?

1:54:04Dude, it's like, I'm going to like, I see myself. I've never been able to see myself like this, but I'm going to be in top shape, Joe. You know what I mean? Like I was watching you with them kettlebells today. And while I'm running, I was thinking to myself, the next time I do this podcast, if Joe has me back, God willing, I'll fucking I'm going to do that workout with him and I'm going to blow his mind. I'm going to make him in that action. Bronch is my friend. So I say this out of love. I'm going to finish that workout. You're going to shake my hand and be like, dude, you did better in action.

1:54:33You know what I'm saying? Like, it's like, you know what I mean? Like I was watching it. Like I'm fucking coming for that. You know what I mean? Like that's the kind of shape I want to be in. Like man stuff. Joe, I didn't feel like a man. dude at 500 pounds I couldn't walk a mile um my video guy Andy you've met him a few times tall ball guy that's real fun he said something to me when I was losing this weight that broke my heart because he's such a good kid I got when I finally got down to like two seven three hundred he looked at me and said dude you're like I just need you under 250 and I was like what for and he was like because then if anything ever goes wrong I know I can throw 250 pounds over my shoulder and I can fire them and carry you out of somewhere.

1:55:10And I was like, what a sweet soul that you have secretly been looking at me all these years. Like, what if something happens to the jelly and I can't get them up? Right. You know what I mean? Like what a just genuine swell. Like I didn't realize how much my weight was affecting everybody. Well, people who love you know that this is not sustainable. And if they love you and they love being around you, they go, how much longer is he going to be here right yeah and when you're 40 years old and you're 500 pounds it's like the answer is not long yeah it's your body can't do you know and everybody's different some people don't even make it to 40 no i could feel it happening like i was i was i was scared of the way i would sleep in certain positions right like i would have nightmares that i was gonna die stop and if i rolled the other way i'd suffocate myself you know what i mean like It was just, you know, if I rolled over one time on my stomach and I was so fat that the way I rolled over, I trapped my left arm under me.

1:56:09And my right arm almost wasn't strong enough to get me up enough to let the left arm loose. Oh, my God. I'm panicking like you're suffocating. I'm going to die right here because I just physically don't have enough strength in one arm to get me from, you know, you roll over like this to get me up off of my other arm. I can tell you right now I can do 20 push-ups, though. That's amazing. You know what I'm saying? I know it don't sound like a lot to the listener, but from where I'm coming from, big deal. You know what I'm saying? I'm in better shape than Burt Kreischer, for sure. You know what I'm saying?

1:56:40I love you, Bertie boy. Yeah, you've done what he wants to do that he never can do. I will say this to him and Tom, boy. They better bring their A game to the 5K this year. Don't look up and I look like Tanner or Truett Haynes running with fucking jeans on. yeah he's he's interesting because he's got it in him he can lose weight like when tom and him first had that weight loss challenge tom went with it and never went back tom looks great he's looks fucking amazing he's thinner than he's ever been before he's like 180 now brigham said he's getting in shape yeah man he works out hard i secretly want to beat him in the 5k but it's a big it's a big dude but i'm on your ass tommy buns when i met tommy tommy was like real big and he was eating bad and, you know, and him and Bert both decided to have this weight loss challenge.

1:57:33So we had this podcast together. They lost all the weight, you know, and Bert got pretty thin too, man. They both lost a lot of weight. You know, they did it over the whole month of October. And then when they came in, they weighed each other on the scale and Tom won. And so Bert had to shave his beard and they did it, you know, live on the air. It was fun. We had a good time, though. but it was it was this moment where tom realized okay i don't ever want to be fat again and he never was fat again he just he gained a little bit of weight and lost it again but he never got fat again and now he looks fucking he looks tremendous i mean you go back and watch his earlier comedy specials where he's this big old moon face and then look at him now you would never even imagine that guy was ever fat no for sure it's back when he had the moon face the black button down and He was balding up top and he wouldn't commit.

1:58:26No, totally different time. He's a different human. He's a different human now. And Burt goes back and forth. Burt will lose a bunch of weight and then get big as fuck again. It's that yo-yo. Yeah. With Burt, it's booze, man. It's booze. It's all booze for Burt. It's food, too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, the motherfucker will go to McDonald's and order like 30 Big Macs. Yeah. He's a fucking animal. Yeah, you know how that is. The left hand will wash the right hand in those situations. You put a little alcohol in you, you're not thinking, you know what? I think a Caesar's salad with a salmon is pretty good tonight.

1:58:58You're like, somebody take me to In-N-Out, baby. I relate. My chef had a note one night. We looked through all my weight loss before this pod, and he had a note where I went drinking heavy one night, and I was probably 515 pounds. And he was just like, even in his note, he was like, not sustainable. He can never lose the weight drinking this way. You know what I mean? Like it was just Ian Largis was just that. And he sat me down and was like, Bubba, I don't care what I feed you. I can't out work. You get drunk and you eat 3 ,000 calories of shit after you drank 3 ,000 calories of tequila. Right, right, right.

1:59:28You know what I mean? I was like, I got to quit drinking. Yeah. You know, just a stone cold thing I had to come with. It's terrible for you. And when you see Bert with that enormous belly, that's all just alcohol and inflammation. It's like so bad for you. And Bert's 50 now. You know, it's like Jesus, Bert. And we got the same doctor. God. No, but. Yeah, but Bert don't listen. No, no, Bert don't listen. But he's also an athlete, though. The problem with Burt is that that dude, this is what I love about Burt that makes Burt so special, is that Burt, you remember when he ran about half marathon or marathon or something without training?

2:00:00He ran a whole marathon without any training at all. That's Burt. And he was fat. No, that's... He ran 26 miles. Yeah, this is just like Burt at who he is. So it's that really hard thing to tell a guy. It's like, yo, be careful, Bubba. But it's also like he'd go bust a 10K out today if you made him, just out of spite. You know what I'm saying? No, he's got extraordinary genetics that he abuses. The Mickey Mantle gene, dude. It's real, man. It's fucking real, dog. Yeah. No, it is real. It is real. You know, but he's playing a game that you can never win. Right. He'll never win that game. No. Eventually, one day, your heart will go, check, please.

2:00:38Yeah. And that's it. Yeah. You know, and hopefully, he catches it before that. Yeah. You know, and that's what everybody who loves him wants. Yeah. It's just he's also got this mindset that his whole success is connected to him being this party animal. It's not, though. It's connected to you being Bert. It's connected to you being one of the most genuine, sweet, funny show up for you dudes I've ever met in my life. Like six pack or 400 pounds, dude, your heart is the size of a horse. You know what I mean? Like Bert Kreischer is the new friends. That's one of the ones I pray for. and Burt Kreischer, Cam Haynes.

2:01:16I prayed for new kids. He sent me a bunch of really cool ones, a bunch of wild ones, Joe Rogan, Tony Hinchcliffe, a bunch of fuck-ups, but they were good dudes. You know what I'm saying? Like real, real, slightly outside of normal people, but are great guys. You know, and Burt Kreischer's a great, his friendship's done a lot for me. I hope me showing up, he hasn't really, he's seen me whenever at wrestling, but I think when I show up to this 5K and I do it in 30 minutes, I hope that's the moment Burt's like, all right, baby, I'm with you, Jelly. You know what I'm saying? He's just got to realize that his success will always be there.

2:01:48He doesn't have to be drunk to have that success. He's hilarious. He does Sober October sometimes. And one time recently he did it and he called me up and he's like, I just haven't been drinking. I feel so much better and I really think I'm done. I go, you should be done, man. You don't need it. You don't need it. He's like, you're right. I think I'm done. And then right back to it. It's hard. But in those moments of clarity, he realizes. maybe he'll hear this and he's funny that'll be it he's i think he's funny either way oh he'll be funny either way yeah i've woke up with more he's hilarious yeah he'll probably be more funny bird at breakfast to me is just funny as bird at night yeah oh for sure yeah for sure it's in healthier it's like I've been very fortunate in life.

2:02:35One of the most fortunate things, though, is the group of people that I've been connected to. It's very, like we were talking about that, it's very important. It's very important. And Bert is connected to a lot of really good people, and hopefully that will lead him on a similar. I mean, everybody has their own timeline. Everybody has their own way of doing it. Everybody has to have their own moment, too. You know, I had to have mine. My thing for Bert or anybody out there is that if you're, just don't let it get there if you can. Right. I just pray, man. I feel like I don't think I'm making this up when I say I think I was 6 to 12 months away from missing it.

2:03:13Especially traveling. You know, I travel 280 days a year. Right. At 500-something pounds. Yeah. 200-something flights a year. 250 flights a year. So bad for you. I just, I couldn't, I wasn't going to be able to do it. I knew it. You know what I mean? And lucky, once again, I had a wife that was just super supportive. She was supportive through all the phases, though. But she was just like, yo, this is time. and she went out of her way the first the first three months of the diet i probably left this part out because i'm embarrassed about it but i'll shit tell it the first three months of the diet i had to sit down with her go look i need you to hide the food like i will find it you know what i'm saying like i need you to hide the food so her and my daughter bailey found like all these cool like i still don't know where they were i never found it you know what i mean but they hid everything from me like there was nights i'd walk in that pantry and it would be like a banana You know what I'm saying?

2:04:01I'd be like the entire pantry was gone. I'd be like, fair. You know what I mean? Like, it was cool. But once again, it goes back to the fox, the mole, and the horse. I never asked for help before. Right. I never would get out of my own ego enough. I'd just say everything I was going to do and then not do it and then get mad when they ask, when they try to encouragingly love me. But maybe even more importantly, you were helping yourself. It wasn't just you were asking for help. You weren't asking for help while you weren't doing anything. Yes. You were asking for help while you were helping yourself.

2:04:28and they were like, okay, I think he's really doing this. That's it. Yeah, there's really a change going on. It goes back to that rain walk. Yeah. Whenever they, you know, you don't have to go. And then when I went, they cheered it. It's a great moment that it did happen in the rain, you know, because it makes it even more significant. It makes it more, you know, meaningful. It's so real. Yeah. I keep mentioning God because my faith in him grows so much stronger every day. But I truly believe that that was a God thing. You know what I mean? It certainly seems like it. It's like, you know, you walk out and be like, you know what?

2:04:58Even the hill. I've lived on hills my whole life and never walked up one. I'm from Tennessee. They're nothing but hills. I go downhill. That's what I do. It's a fat person trait. You know what I'm saying? We look cooler, move faster, you know? Yeah. And immediately, just like, no, man, we're hitting hills, dude. Like, every time I can hit a hill. I'm now looking for hills in life. You know what I mean? Right. I'm looking for, like, how can I make this run a little harder? Like, when Cam tells me we're at mile five, he's like, I'm proud of you. You did your PR. are i was like we better do six two then baby it ain't a 10k if we don't do another mile point too you know what i mean like immediately i was like we gotta go yeah it's just been it's the it's the it's the effort but helping the self knowing you want to change and then not being afraid to just go ask not being ashamed to just go to your wife because that's a little embarrassing and be like hey can you just like had the dark chocolate and they're who dark chocolate bars bunny's extremely healthy you know what i mean like has always been them who dark chocolate bars are so good But the problem is I don't know how to eat one.

2:05:55They're only 380 calories. But if there's five of them in there, I will eat all five for sure. You know what I'm saying? You know, so some nights you leave me a little half a bar out or something. You know what I mean? Like rations until I could control it, until I knew that. And then now my pantry is back full. Well, now you're addicted to the success of what you've already accomplished, which is a good addiction. It's a good addiction. Being addicted to being healthy is the best addiction you can find. Because I don't think you're going to get out of the addiction mindset. I think what addiction is, I think there's a reason why it exists in the human mind.

2:06:28And I think it exists because it's the same thing as obsession. And obsession allows you to be a successful hunter. It's like hunter's persistence. If you don't have that obsessive drive, you won't keep going until you're succeeding. And if you do have that, you'll feed your family. If you don't have that, everybody dies. I think that's like programmed into the human psyche. It's programmed into the human mind. But it can be hijacked by gambling. It could be hijacked by pornography. It could be hijacked by video games. It could be hijacked by a host of different things, drugs, alcohol, anything, food, fill in the blank.

2:07:08I think that is where it happens. You get addicted to all kinds of things that are negative or you can get addicted to positive things. Meaningful conversations. Yes. Exercise. Sure. I'm addicted to meaningful conversations now. Yeah. I used to be addicted to small talk. It's hard to find them. You know? It's hard to find a good. Stuff like this, like meaningful, like rich. I'm searching for rich conversations. Even in my relationships with my wife, like in my health, our conversations are getting deeper. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. I never thought I could know this woman I love so much better, but I'm getting to know her better.

2:07:44Like we're getting deeper in the foxhole together. We're getting deeper in the shadows of each other's crevices. It's like I'm looking for that. I'm looking to pour into people, man. It's just, dude. Yeah, that's another thing about phones that makes it very difficult, you know, for people to have meaningful conversations because everybody is so attached to their goddamn devices. Even while you're talking to them, they're checking this and checking that. And you feel like you're going, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, that's real. Oh, yeah. And they're just scrolling and half paying attention to you. It's a lot.

2:08:16It's a lot. It's hard. It's like one of the things that I've said about this podcast is like one of the most unexpected things about it is this education that I've got in talking to people, not just like listening to their stories and listening to whatever their expertise is. But it's also just the learning how to talk to people because you're sitting here for three hours or whatever it is with no distractions and no interruptions. And because of that, you learn this sort of ebb and flow of human conversation. So for me, it's so hard to have a bad conversation. When I'm out with people that are bad at having conversations, to me, it's fucking painful.

2:08:55It's like, oh, God. Yeah. It drives me crazy. Watching people talk over people, watching people that aren't listening, they're just waiting for their time to talk. Yeah. It's such a connection, man. And a lot of those people that are missing that goes into the byproducts of lack of connection are addiction, isolation, loneliness. These are the side effects of not connecting with people. You know what I mean? And that phone has tricked us into thinking that we're connecting with thousands of people. Right. And we're actually not connecting with anybody. Not connecting with a single person. We're being more lonely and more comparative.

2:09:41It's a trap. It's a real trap because you're getting input. There's some input. There's some words that come from a person, I guess. But there's no human. Like we're designed to talk to each other this way. The spiritual fulfillment, the psychological fulfillment that comes from talking to a human being and making a genuine connection and understanding more about that person. And then by also doing that, you understand more about yourself. like when someone reveals something to you that's very meaningful and very intimate like you go oh wow like what is it about why is that maybe i could be better at that maybe i could do this or maybe i can maybe i'm looking at myself the wrong way or looking at people the wrong way you know and you just like this slow learning process of how to interact with people better And that's all kids today that are on their phone all day long, they're psychologically stunted.

2:10:38We're stunting their social growth and their development of just most people don't, most kids today barely know how to communicate with each other. Especially even long form like this, it's the ability to really get, you don't really know how somebody feels about something until you really get into a conversation, like a real conversation. And these kids aren't having those conversations with each other. It's all in micro clips and micro spots. And me and my daughter talk about this a lot because lucky for I was I was blessed that she's a conversationalist. She's kind of she's like me. She will have a meaningful conversation.

2:11:14So I'm but I look at my nine year old who's a little younger than her. Obviously, she's 17. My daughter goes to college next year. And my nine year old's a little different, though. He doesn't he communicates good, but he's still in that, you know, video game world. Like he just it's a different thing where Bailey still really appreciates us sit around. I don't know, man. I grew up in a household where I told you a story. My mom would sit at the kitchen table and tell us stories like me. And you were talking right now for hours. We had a JRE every night. You know what I'm saying? You know, she'd smoke cigarettes and tell stories.

2:11:46And it was just like super charming. And, you know, it's so my daughter grew up a lot like that. And I'm really proud of that. You know, she grew up sitting in a room and having those kind of calm or like real long form. because that's how you know how you really feel about it. That's what therapy did for me too, was whenever I quit doing things at a surface level. When it started going, yeah, that's cool, but like really, when was the first time you remember being fat? I think people have a hunger for it, which is why this emergence of long-form conversations into the zeitgeist has been surprising to a lot of people.

2:12:19Because, you know, when I first started doing this podcast, one of the funny things that Ari Shaffir always said to me that I'll never let him live it down, Because he was always like you gotta edit your show. I go why he was nobody wants to listen to three hours I go then don't listen. I don't care. I go it's I'm doing it for no money anyway Like back then it was like it was it was costing me money. I was like I'm just doing it for fun, man I don't care. I put it out there. They don't want to listen to the whole thing They don't have to listen to the whole thing. There's another one coming out in a couple days Listen to that one listen to five minutes.

2:12:48I don't give a fuck right and he was like you should edit it It's gonna fuck up your show and I'm like all right, whatever and then now I'm like remember when you told me that haha because I don't think that people realize how many people are starving for real conversation just the you know this is one of the reasons why like when that Kamala Harris thing went down where I had Trump on the podcast and Kamala Harris kept resisting coming on the podcast they wanted to do it for like 45 minutes they wanted to do it in a conference room with a bunch of aides around they wanted to do it in DC I was like no no it has to be here and it has to be three hours like she's got to sit down like because it takes a while to get inside someone's head you gotta if you talk you could bullshit me for 40 minutes easy for 40 minutes you could have a bunch of canned speeches and a bunch of shit you prepared and a bunch of like bullshit answers but i'll ask you like what you like to cook yeah i'll ask you like do you exercise i'll ask you what's your favorite book i'll ask you like all kinds of different things and then we'll start talking we'll start talking about like did you ever think you were going to be this person like what what you know what what led you here like what and give me some real shit give me some real shit well you can't this is why i've always loved your pod is that it's where i go find out who people are yeah because it's so easy and i'm in the media right to go sit down for 20 minutes and like smile and smile just get it out of the way you know what i mean but like yeah exactly but it's like you give me three hours with somebody they got to show me who they are yeah somebody's joe's gonna find out who this person is you know what i mean like he's gonna it's like and that's back to like because we don't know who we are until we start having real conversations right this goes back to back to what i mean you started with this is that we don't know who we are until you started having real car i don't know how it started, whether it was in the green room with some of your comic friends, you were like, dude, we have the greatest conversations in here.

2:14:48We should do this. You know what I mean? Like, these are funny. I don't know, but something happened where you recognize like, this is rare that people have conversations this funny, this good, but also this cathartic. Like there's moments we've laughed, we've cried, like it's every podcast of yours. You know what I mean? Where, cause you can't spend three hours with somebody and not see the full dynamic human. Yeah. And I think there's a hunger that people have for finding out that other people have similar thoughts to them and how and maybe not even maybe different thoughts in similar situations and that someone is at a better way of approaching something and it's educational like to your soul there's something about it about like we all want to pretend that we exist in a vacuum and everyone everybody wants to pretend they're a loner and i'd rather be alone like shut up no you wouldn't you'd only rather be alone if the people around you suck if the people around me suck yeah i'd rather be alone but i have great friends i like being around my friends it's like it's it's not shallow to want to be around a bunch of awesome people but there's this thought that like you know that we we are that we exist on our own and you don't we're a collective like the human species itself is a hive And it's one of the things we're learning about the negative impacts of that hive being connected to social media because you're not really connecting with people.

2:16:14But we're also experiencing this thing that's similar to a hive. And so there's a writer, Avi Levinovitz, who talks about this. And the way he described it is that it's like processed food. You're getting processed information. and instead of real information like on social media you're getting this processed thing that's boiled down with no nutrients in it but you keep consuming it because you're so hungry because you're not getting the real thing you're just stuffing your face with stuffing your mind with process information i think that's an apt way to put it because that's really what's going on it's like we all want real connection we're just worried we're worried that someone's going to reject us.

2:17:00We're worried that someone's going to be rude to us. We're worried that someone's judging us, that someone's going to think they're better than us or that they're going to think we lack or whatever it is. There's a thing that we all hunger for. And I think for a lot of people, what they get, if they don't have it near them, if they haven't done what you've done and found a great group of friends, they can get it through podcasts. They can get it through people talking and communicating and being real and being interested and being curious and learning and just being cool to each other. And it's heartwarming.

2:17:40It's like it fills something in you that we're missing because we're being poisoned by these fucking devices. And we're only seeing these little snippets of people. Like back to the conversation, like we see comments, like a paragraph. yeah and we people building entire thoughts around a paragraph and you don't even know what that dude's thought was it's just a paragraph on the internet you didn't actually talk to that guy to see what that was you know what i mean like it's it's that that thing of like i had it i don't know i don't know i didn't plan on talking about this but it's a perfect time because i learned such a lesson in it i was on my laptop one day on instagram.com and it was the day of the dove awards which is a christian music awards and i had a gospel song get nominated for a grammy this year.

2:18:22What's it called? The double awards? The Dove, D-O-V Awards. And it's like the Christian Grammys. Okay. It's been around for a long time. Gospel Music Association. I have a, I did a song with a Christian artist this year named Brandon Lake. It's called Hard Fought Hallelujah. It's, I got to sing it at the Vatican, Joe. Oh wow. I got to sing this. Will you pull that clip, Jamie? You sang at the Vatican? I sang in St. Peter's Square, Joe. Oh my God. First live concert ever in St. Peter's Square, right outside of St. Peter. St. Peter's Basilica was our, this is it. Wow Right here, watch St. Peter's Basilica Look, that's the Basilica Right there I got goose Look at that That's the square, Bubba That's Vatican City That's incredible Look at this That's incredible I will tell you That's incredible Biasly, it might have been My best vocal performance Of my career Wow Look at that, Joe Boy, you're already Losing weight by then Yeah, no, for sure This was about six months ago Shows you how much I've lost since then You look like a different person Even now to then Dude, what's funny When you're five When you're 500 pounds, you lose 20 pounds, you don't really see it.

2:19:24Look how beautiful that is. I went out to sound check, Joe. And, of course, you all know I'm emotional by now. But I couldn't even get through sound check. I was crying so hard. But watch this part right here. You'll see my hand shaking. I'm shaking up there. You see it? Wow. I am shaking. Watch the microphone hand because it's the one that doesn't lie. Y 'all know that. The other one you can shake while you're moving it. But the microphone hand, look at it. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Wow. Wow. It was. Wow. And I'll tell you a story about this. That's incredible. I know I keep bringing up God things, but they called me to do this.

2:19:58And it was Pharrell and Andrea Bocelli put this together. Okay. And I love Pharrell. He's a dear, dear, became a friend of mine. Sweet guy. And I go, okay, cool. And I get there and Teddy Swims is there. And Jennifer Hudson. I love Teddy Swims. Teddy Swims is the dude, baby. Oh, man. That dude's got a voice. He's got a voice, dog. It is ridiculous. You had him on yet? No. We've been talking. We're going to do it. Please. His next element. He's a good conversation too, man. I believe it. Sweet soul. Little Georgia boy. Just southern as collard greens. You're going to love him. He's just like me.

2:20:29He reminds me of you a lot. He's me. He's the sweetest. That motherfucker. Absolute sweetest. Sing his ass off. It's not fair. It's not fair. I went and sang with Bocelli. I mean, if you're standing next to Bocelli and you got a voice, think about that. So I get there and I'm like, all right, so what's the story here? and everybody was either singing with Pharrell or Bocelli but me. I was the only person in that whole event that was singing alone. So I get super nervous. I'm like, why did I end up alone? You know what I'm saying? I was like, oh, shit. If Brandon Lake couldn't make it for some reason, I was like, this is bad.

2:21:06I've never been more nervous. I go out for sound check. I'm bawling, crying. And I'm like, dude, this is so crazy. And then I walk out and I'm like, when I go to do it, right before I go out, they come to me and go, hey, Jennifer Hudson's going to come out at the very end and do Hallelujah with you. Or just do Hallelujah. You just praise for a minute while she does it. I was like, the Jennifer Hudson? They were like, yeah. I was like, so Jennifer Hudson walks over to me. I love her. She goes, all right, what do you want? She's so sweet. She's like, I'm open for notes. You got any suggestions? It's one of the greatest female vocalists ever.

2:21:36I do not have a suggestion. We'll start there. I am Jennifer. I'm embarrassed. You have to sing near me. But I'm here. what I'm saying? And I'm like, and she goes, and then it hit me and I looked at her and I'll never forget this moment. She goes, what do you think we should do? I said, we give them Jesus. I said, I think that's why I'm here alone. I think, you know, I'm the one that's supposed to bring Jesus here. Like, I know it's a Jesus thing, obviously, but like we're supposed, this is supposed to be a, she grew up in the South too. She grew up Chicago. You know, she grew up Midwest and I go, this is supposed to be the church we grew up in, Jennifer.

2:22:05She was like, that's all I needed here. Oh, Joe, just when I had the best vocal performance of my life Jennifer Hudson comes out and takes them to church it's a full praise and worship at that point 200 choir members hands up in the sky we're in front of St. Peter's facility they're worshiping out there hands are in the sky dude watch it after the show if you can it's worth 5 minutes it'll make you tear up a little bit it was such a Jesus moment I even started I'm looking at the card and I'm going can we get a little praise for Jesus in here tonight Can we get a little praise for Jesus in here tonight?

2:22:42And I'm just, you can see the veins in my face, Joe. I don't remember it. I just was just there. You know what I mean? Like, it's just, I just literally. Look, right then. And this is where Jennifer Hutchins finna come out. Wow. There's people lined up in the street, too. This is wild. Oh, dude, what you don't see is the only reason you don't see people on the side streets is because they finally got rid of them. when it first opened there was like all over rome you just could not move like like six seven hundred thousand people were down there trying to see this thing it was the first time they've ever done live music at the vatican that's crazy i could not believe i got that call joe that's crazy but anyway i got there i was i just kept being more confused i was like hold on i'm the only one that's not singing with the two people that put this event together literally the only artist because jennifer hudson sang with them teddy swang with them i was like what am i here for You know what I'm saying?

2:23:37I just could not figure it out. I never had more imposter syndrome. Wow. And I prayed and I was like, God, I cuss. I smoke. I am. I don't. How am I being a vessel here? Like, I don't like. And then that's whenever I was just I heard it just so clear. Like, dude, just just open your hands. Just. Yeah. Got you. Yeah. I want to play you something. So you remember that Craig Morgan moment where you you talked about it when you were on stage? at the Opry. Oh yeah, almost home. Yeah. It's one of the coolest nights ever. Let's play that. I wanna play that, cause we're gonna show you something. I'm gonna show you something.

2:24:16That was a really powerful moment because you were talking about how you would listen to that song in prison,

2:24:27and how you went to the Opry and you sat there. I think you were in the seventh row. Seventh row? Yeah. Exactly where I was, 6th or 7th. I was right back there, stage left. And you talked about it when you were on stage, the first time you were ever on stage at the Opry. I want to play that first, and we're going to play you something else. Yeah, it was crazy, dude. Do you have it, Jamie? You want me to send it to you? Yo, while you're looking that up, can I do something right quick? Yeah, sure. Because I'm in love. My wife's got a book coming out here by this call, Stripped Down. It's coming out in February.

2:24:58She finally wrote her life story. I've never been more proud of a human in my life, y 'all. I'm so proud of you, baby. In February. You deserve this, girl. Beautiful. I brought you a copy. It took me 36 years to make it to the stage. Big jelly. 500 pounds. Look at the size of it. Tonight is the most special. Yes, sir. Night of my life.

2:25:23We're going to sing y 'all some music for the soul from the soul. This song is called Son of a Sinner, baby. Yes, sir. Let's go. You got that plaque.

2:25:42I never get lonely I got these doors to keep me company I took the review off of this old world I only see one of these

2:25:57I'm going to be more honest than I probably should be In 2008, I was incarcerated in a local penitentiary I have made some horrible decisions. I found strength in music.

2:26:16You need it, Jolly!

2:26:27Jolly, Jolly, Jolly, Jolly, Jolly!

2:26:39While incarcerated, I had a little girl. She's in the crowd tonight. She's now 13 years old. I remember sitting in my jail bunk when I knew she was born and thinking I had to do something to change my life. I came home and I pursued the dream of music by selling mixtapes and t-shirts out of the trunk of my car. Right here in Nashville, Tennessee.

2:27:00I married my best friend. We have full custody of that 13-year-old now. And in that jail cell, I found strength in country music. I used to listen to Craig Morgan sing Almost Home in my jail cell and think, I'm going to change my life when I get home. I came home and Googled Craig Morgan, live performance, and he was right here at the Grand Ole Opry. I sat right there with that man with the ball cap, and the seventh row back on this row is sitting. No line. I watched Craig Morgan and cried. For those of y 'all that don't know, I make music for the broken. I make music for the have-nots and the lost causes in life, the ones that have been through something and overcame it.

2:27:37If you haven't been that person, you know somebody who has, and I represent that person. I want to dedicate this song to everybody who's ever felt worthless and found their way out of that dark place. This record is certified gold. It is called Save Me. Thank you. Let's go.

2:27:55We love you, Kelly!

2:28:07Somebody send me Me for myself I spent so long Living in chaos They say my lifestyle Is bad for my health It's the only thing That seems to fail All of this drinking and smoking Is hopeless but feeling like

2:29:01The Porter.

2:29:07Brian from Zanis. Dorfman, baby.

2:29:27What is it like seeing yourself? Dude. What is it like seeing yourself that big and seeing yourself in that huge moment? One, I love you, man. You tricked me again. I thought we were getting off the pod, so I was like, oh, I just want to shout my wife's book out right quick. And then you would show me a video. I'm going to show you something else, too. I didn't think I'd make it, Joe. I'm going to show you this. My buddy. Give me some volume, Chase. Congratulations on all the great things happening in your career. And to thank you for the positive difference you're making in the lives of so many people who need the help.

2:30:02You're doing great work, buddy. And I'll never forget meeting you on the Grand Ole Opry and how much it meant to me to hear you say my music helped you get through some really tough times. That's one thing country music does really well. And who would have ever dreamed back then that I'd be back at the Opry house today to say, Jelly Roll, you're officially invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry. It's an honor to say welcome to the family, brother.

2:30:33He wanted to play that for you when you're here.

2:30:43Have a hug? Yeah, for sure

2:30:50I love you too

2:30:57I love you too, brother Hey, Joe, that's like Don't get no bigger in country music, Bubba Just makes a kiss, yo You know what? Fucking Grand Ole Offrey, dog. Oh, dude, I used to buy tickets to go there. And I remember I Googled. Man, I cry a lot on this pot. It's okay. I Googled Craig Morgan. I heard Almost Home in Jail. And you've heard the song, right? It's like the most tear-jerking song about a homeless man. And it just reminded me of jail. Just, you know, no matter where you are, the mind's strong. And it just, I came home and the song meant so much. I was like, Craig Morgan Live. It's like Grand Ole Opry House.

2:31:38And I was like, I'll go. I could barely afford tickets. I think I talked to some girl in the bottom for me. I went and sat by myself. I had an ankle bracelet on. So the show went off at 9. I had to be home at 9. So I was like, if he's the last one, I'm screwed. And he comes out and sings Almost Home. And I had, I'm not bullshitting. I'd maybe cried 10 times in my life at that point. And I cried. I cried. I cried. I cried like I'm crying here now. And I just remember thinking, man, I want to make people with. I can't believe I made me a member of the Hopper dog. I want to make people feel the way he makes me feel.

2:32:19That's what I want to do. Well, you've done that, man. You've done it, brother. I did it, Joe. Man, that's crazy, Joe. Oh, dude. Fuck. Oh, dude. I bet I'm the first person to ever get invited to the Randall Offer on a podcast. That's awesome. Oh, sorry. Let's see it with me for a second. I just figured it out. You did it, brother. Dude, that... You did what you wanted to do. That feeling that he gave you, you've given to many, many people.

2:32:53It's an incredible gift. You know? There's so few people in life that have touched people the way you've touched people. Thank you, Joe, man. It's just what a dream, dude. I used to write on my vision board when my wife first got together that your podcast was the number one thing I wanted to do every year. Because I always felt like I'd have a Joe Dirt moment on here. I always felt like somewhere I'd be sitting here telling my story and the world would be tuning in, you know? And to fuck the fact that I'm on your podcast, the fact you're my friend, dude. I love you, brother. I love you, brother.

2:33:28Thank you, man. Of course, thanks for letting me on the podcast. But I just never thought this was a journey, dude. I thought I'd die young or I thought I'd kill myself. I didn't think I was going to be able to figure it out. You figured it out and you're figuring it out more every day. Every day. And I think through that other people are as well. I hope so. They're figuring out their life for sure. Just through your songs, through your words, through your acts, through your deeds, through your life, through the way you've chosen this new path. For sure. For sure. You're changing people's lives.

2:33:59I hope, man. You are. You are changing people's lives. I will tell you 100%, without doubt, you're changing people's lives and you're enriching people's lives by being you, by being a real person going through a real life moment. Yeah. You know, and doing it the right way. Yes, sir. Yeah. Slow, it's not easy. No, it doesn't have to be easy. Telling the truth ain't always fun. No, no, no. It's not supposed to be easy. If it was easy, it wouldn't be so fun. Gratifying, though, man. Yeah. Dude. God, Joe, man, a member of the Grand Ole Opry, dog. My name on the sheet, Bubba. When you come in the back of the Grand Ole Opry, they have them all.

2:34:39And I'm shaking, Joe, like when that deer was in his stand. They have these plaques that they put the name on, and the first wall has only got two rows left of plaques. Wow. I played there a couple months ago, and I remember looking, going, thinking to myself, the negative guy in me was like, fuck, I'm going to be on the new wall. If I ever make it, it won't be on this one. You know what I mean? Right. You know, it's just like, even then I was having a moment where I was like, if they ever actually, you know, I never thought, like, when Jordan and Jen invited me to the Grand Ole Opry, I never thought that would happen.

2:35:10I never thought that I'd be allowed to play the Grand Ole Opry. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then to be a member of it, and I'll never forget watching Luke Combs when they asked him to be a member. And just, like, I think it's the first time I ever seen Luke emotional, you know? And I just remember being like, nah, it'll never happen. Just like I remember looking at Cam, like, I'll never be able to run a 5K. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, man, I don't know what can happen, dude, man. If God gets involved, you have a little humility, I think the rest can work itself out, Joe. You know what I mean?

2:35:38Amazing things can happen if you live your life true. Ooh. Ooh, baby. Amazing things can happen if you live your life true. Well, I know you don't leave Texas much, but you're going to come see me at the opera sometime now? Fuck yeah. 100%. You got to come see me now that I'm a member, dude. 100%. I mean, I get to close the show. 100%. I get to send my mail there now, too. Wow. Legally? Yeah, it's crazy, dude. Like all the OGs got their mail there, Johnny and him. Wow. It was like really, really cool. It's like a super legend there. That's awesome. Somebody wants to write me a letter suited to the Grand Ole Opry.

2:36:15Oh, my God. Oh, dude. That's incredible. Oh, that's, man, that's, I didn't even dream of it. God will make things bigger than your dreams. somebody out there right now is dreaming of something and it's too small dream bigger baby dream bigger baby you know what I mean that's it let's wrap it up that was perfect way to end this I love you brother thank you brother it's been amazing bye everybody

2:36:58Thank you.