Reuniting After Five Years

SPEAKER_05 0:46

My guest today was my 17th interview I ever did on Backstage Pass Radio, and that went down over five years ago. Hey everyone, it's Randy Halsey here. Today is going to be a short catch-up with former UFC vet and WEC Bantamweight champion Eddie Weinelin, and we'll do that right after this.

SPEAKER_03 1:05

This is Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio, a podcast by an artist for the artist. Each week we take you behind the scenes of some of your favorite musicians and the music they created. From chart-topping hits to underground gems, we explore the sounds that move us and the people who make it all happen. Remember to please subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. So whether you're a casual listener or a die hard music fan, tune in and discover the magic behind the melodies. Here is your host of Backstage Pass Radio, Randy Holsey.

SPEAKER_05 1:45

Eddie Weinland, what's going on, brother? Good to see you, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Absolutely. You too. It's been a little while, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:51

It's been a it's been a couple of weeks for sure. Like I guess we were we were talking a little bit uh post hitting the uh the record button. Five years. It's like, man, it seems like it was just a couple of years ago, but all the all the years seem to blend together the older you get. I don't know how that happens, but wow.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

It does. The old the old the all they say the days are slow, but the years are fast.

SPEAKER_05 2:13

That's right. There's a lot of truth to that.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Time really picked up once I had kids. Yeah. It's like it's just gone.

SPEAKER_05 2:19

Totally. And you know, we'll talk a little bit about this uh in in just a minute, but you know, 25 years post-9-11. Wow. I mean, that doesn't even seem like it was six or seven years ago, right? 25 years. That's nuts, man. Well, you know, I I keep up with you guys uh by way of Facebook, I guess like everybody does. I see you and Amber and the boys doing your doing your thing there in Indiana. So I I live vicariously through you guys uh here in Houston through Facebook, but uh it's good to see you, man. And I wanted to catch up with you and just see what's shaking in your world these days.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Like I said, I know you we we talk every once in a while via Facebook or or via comment or whatever. You know, um it seems to be how the world keeps in touch anymore.

SPEAKER_05 3:06

I know, I know, and you know, I've always said I'm I'm kind of a hater of social media, but it's such a uh it's a necessary evil. It is, man. You know, and it's like you can't live with it, you can't live without it. What do you do? You have to marry up somewhere in the middle. So what do you do? You just it's it's always that adapt, migrate or die mentality, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I guess you know, we we spoke a little bit about, you know, September 11th was yesterday, 25 years uh since the tragedy in New York City. And I thought that seeing you post your your uh 9-11 tribute the other day uh would be a good reason to catch up with you. So I just wanted to bring the listeners up to speed. Uh, you know, you're you're best known as being a fighter in in several different shows uh throughout your career, the UFC, the WC. But a lot of people may not know that you're a firefighter there in Indiana. And I'm just curious how you got into the whole firefighting thing. Help the listeners understand how you got into that.

Why Eddie Became A Firefighter

SPEAKER_01 4:10

So firefighting was it was never really on my radar until I turned about 22, 23. Um, I was fighting, obviously, when I turned 18. So from there, it was kind of like I didn't really know what I wanted to do. Uh WEC, UFC, I didn't even know what the WEC was until I got offered to fight there. Uh obviously I knew what the UFC was, but the lowest weight class at that time was 155. Um, so I I didn't really have any real idea of what I wanted to do. I was working with my dad outside of the steel mills, uh putting in 60 hour weeks. So it was like I'd get up, go to work at 6 o'clock, leave there at 4:30, go lift some weights, and then I'd go to the gym. That was my that was my day. Um and then a buddy of mine, he who I was training with at the time, he he got hired on the City of LaPorte Fire Department, and uh he made mention that they were hiring that I should try out. It's like, all right, you know, I I do that, you know. For for those of you who who don't know, my little brother, he was burned when he was two years old in 1996, 98% of his body. Um, and again, it it never that that wasn't that specific moment that was like, oh, well, I want to be a firefighter because of this. Um you know, but when the opportunity arose, it it the thought in my head was, well, if I could help somebody in that situation, you know, that that's that's just where I wanted to be. Um, I I enjoy helping people. I enjoy doing uh what I think is the right thing. I just just trying to be a good human being. Um and through through fighting and through through firefighting and just surrounding yourself with the right people, I think has put me um on that path. But back to the, you know, I I tried out for City Laporte Fire Department. Um, didn't really think anything of it. And uh one day I got a phone call. Hey, do you want the job? Um and I'm very thankful for the job. Number one, I love the job. It's it's the best job in the world. It gives me all the time off for my family. I get to help other people. Um I get to I get to learn new and exciting things. We're training all the time, doing different things. Uh, it keeps me active, keeps me busy. Um, but it also allowed me to fight at the highest level for as long as I did. Uh without without that job, I would not be, I probably wouldn't have been a UFC fighter.

SPEAKER_05 6:30

Most people or most companies won't turn their back on you that long to get out and train and do all the things that you have to do to be be a professional fighter, right? So they probably gave you a little grace there.

SPEAKER_01 6:41

Yeah, well, and really they didn't even have to give me grace. I mean, number one, they've they've stood behind me the whole time. I mean, they always they are always supportive of what I was doing and uh helped out where they could. Um, you know, we I trade time with guys if I needed time off. They, you know, they knew I needed time off for fights or or whatever. Uh we trade time. Um, but uh it it it's I worked a hundred, a hundred and ten days a year. So the other 260, 265, I got to be a full-time fighter.

SPEAKER_05 7:11

Yeah. Well, it's interesting because UFC fighter, um, firefighter, you you fight lots of shit, man.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

You're it there's a there's a there's a correlation there, there's a trend going on, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:24

It's it's um fighting and firefighting. Yeah, they go hand in hand. I mean, it is it's a different breed of people. Yeah, that's all it comes down to. It's you know, hey, I'm gonna lock you in this cage with an another man that wants to beat the shit out of you. So here you go. Or, hey, that house is on fire. We need you to go inside of it. Okay. And it fights back. It's running away, we're running in.

SPEAKER_05 7:45

Yep. And it fights back in its own way, right? I mean, you're yeah. Well, I don't want to go down a rabbit hole, but you it just kind of made me think when you said, you know, you were working the steel mills with with your dad. Uh years ago, you know, I was talking to our mutual friend, uh Johnny Colosi, and there was this mindset with him, you know, he went he went UFC as well, but he kind of came through white-collar corporate America. And I remember him making a comment many years ago that there's um at a young age, he figured it out. He said, I'm not gonna fall into the mindset that everybody or or many people in Indiana fall into that we've all got to just work the steel mills because everybody, our dads, our grandfathers before us did that. He said, I figured out real quick that I did not want to work in the steel mill, so I started using my brain. Was there any of that thought process with you as well? Like once you got a taste of the steel mills, did you say, Yeah, this is not my this is not my bag, man. I don't want to tell you.

SPEAKER_01 8:49

I'm I'm um I'm not smart enough for that. You know, uh the only thing if you're gonna be dumb, you've got to be tough. That's that's uh that's bred right into me. Um, you know, I it it's again the the the fighting when I first started fighting, it wasn't like this was my way out, this is what I want to do. Um I never did really good in school, not because I was a dummy, but because I just it wasn't for me. Yeah, the schools, the books, the smarts, that wasn't me. I'm I'm a common sense guy. Yep. Um and again, goes hand in hand with firefighting. I mean, there's there's a lot of common sense. I mean, you have to think on the fly, you have to be able to adapt and overcome, but that common sense goes very far, especially nowadays. Seeing seeing the amounts of common sense or lack thereof is um uh it's not so common, is it?

SPEAKER_05 9:44

Common sense is not so common.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

It's yeah, it's it's it it makes me sad.

SPEAKER_05 9:49

Yeah, yeah, we live in a very strange time for sure. And many times when Terry and I go to dinner, she's like, You're not driving, just sit over there in the passenger seat because she knows that I'll flip out on somebody, right? It's just the way it goes. Uh but well, so let's see. Um if I I'm trying to remember back to our first conversation, and if I correlate time, I guess you've got almost what 18, 19 years with the Laporte. Yeah, Laporte.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

February, uh February will be 19 years.

SPEAKER_05 10:23

19, so yeah, I was close. Okay. And and I guess Laporte, Indiana, not to be confused with Laporte, Texas, because there's a Laporte, Texas right here, right outside Houston.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

That happens. We we've had our station called a few times where they're like, oh, well, we thought this was Laporte, Texas. No, it's no, it's not.

SPEAKER_05 10:44

Yeah, and the interesting thing is that you're originally from Houston, Texas. So that's that's uh a kind of a cool correlation that you happen to be working for the Laporte Texas.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

My my parents are from this area, but I was born in Houston. They they met and they they moved on to here, or they were down in Houston when they met, actually. Um so I was born in Houston, and then a couple years later they moved back, moved back to here.

SPEAKER_05 11:08

Yeah, that's awesome, man.

Starting The 9/11 Stair Tribute

SPEAKER_05 11:09

Well, so I I mentioned early on in the conversation that you know there was a tribute uh to 9-11 that that I was speaking of, and you had started this some years back. Uh and do you recall what year you kind of started doing this tribute?

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Uh I want to say it was around COVID because I did it at my house. Okay. Um I did it in my house, up and down my stairs. I can't tell you how many times I went up and down my stairs. It it was like 160 times, maybe I don't I don't remember. Whatever it was, it equated to the uh the 2,000 plus steps in the World Trade Centers. Um so I started doing it then, and then uh a guy at work, we kind of started getting together, and um, we decided we were gonna do it at at the LaFort Kawanas field, which is their football stadium. Okay. Um, and then the one year we we made it an actual event. Um and it it's kind of we do it every year regardless, but whether or not the public's involved, or you know, it's it it all depends on the year and how our schedules fall and how everything falls. But regardless, we always try to do it on September 11th. If we're on duty, we'll do it the day after or the day before or or whenever. Um, because we're not gonna do that on duty. Doing doing doing 110 flights of stairs on duty and then having to go run some calls. Not a good thing. That's yeah, that's not a good problem.

SPEAKER_05 12:42

Is that is that kind of like dropping weight uh three minutes before a fight? Yeah, like you would never do that, right? Right, right. Yeah. So where did was this your idea completely? Is this something that you came up with? And did it and does it happen rain or shine, Eddie?

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Yes, rain or shine. Uh, it has rained on us a couple of times. Um, like you said, the the initial obviously was I did it at my house. Uh the other guy, Keith Wiegle, um he stationed with me. He he used to kind of do the same thing. And then once we figured out that we were doing this by ourselves, it's like, well, why don't we just do this together? You know? Um, so so we started doing that. And it's been kind of every year since we we get together and do it.

SPEAKER_05 13:27

Now you the interesting thing for the listeners out there, right? When you think, you know, Eddie mentioned that he, you know, he was climbing steps at the house, but it's we need to paint a picture here, right? Uh you're not just climbing steps like and I'm probably not using the the right vocabulary, Eddie, but you can educate me, right? Because I'm not a firefighter. But you suit up in the same gear that the firefighters were wearing in the in the towers, right? When they were trying to rescue people.

SPEAKER_01 13:56

Uh yes, yes, and no. Okay. So um, yeah, we're wearing our full fire gear. We're wearing our packs, we're wearing our boots, we're wearing our, you know, everything that they wore. The only difference is they were carrying pony bottles, they were carrying high rise packs, they were carrying tools. They, you know, they were they were carrying a lot more than what we're carrying. Um, and we are we are climbing in a perfect, a perfect environment.

SPEAKER_02 14:22

No smoke, no nothing, really.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

Yeah, we're outside breathing fresh air, the sun's shining, you know, sometimes it's raining, but we're we're climbing in a perfect environment. Those guys, I mean, they're getting in there, it's smoky, it's it's the closer they get to the fire floor, it's getting hot. Um, they don't know what they're getting into, you know. So, so it's uh we're climbing in a perfect environment. Um, they're climbing in the absolute worst and with with more equipment.

SPEAKER_05 14:50

You know what's well, it's not it's not funny, and it's it's certainly nothing that I'm bragging about, but um I'm 60 years old now, and I'm not an old guy, but I'm I'm not 20 either, right? And it's funny when I come downstairs at you know eight o'clock at night and I'm kind of winding down, watching TV. I grab a bowl of cereal and I go back upstairs, and I'm fucking panting by the time I get back up the stairs, and I'm thinking, you know, that's really sad. I'm talking to a guy today that's climbing thousands of stairs and doing it in uh full full gear and the whole nine yards, so I'm a little ashamed of myself. But how many, I think you mentioned it earlier, but is it about 2,000 steps? Is what it is.

SPEAKER_01 15:32

I don't remember the number exactly. I I used to have I used to have everything locked in my head. Um, you know, but I I don't I don't quite have it locked in my head. I I think there was a total of I think it was like 1,977 people that died, um, not including the terrorists, because fuck those guys. They don't count. I don't I don't give a shit that they died that day. Um so you know, the the the Americans that died, uh not not only the 343, but the police, the EMS, the all of the responders, all of the civilians, um, they're all they're all equally, you know, that that's that's why we do what we do is because fuck that day and fuck those guys and and we're not gonna forget about that.

SPEAKER_05 16:14

Yeah. I I think it uh every year that goes by and you see all the the documentaries and I think each each year more video and more I guess material comes to surface, you know, that that you maybe hadn't seen before. It's just like wow, it really it really resonates more and more every year how impactful that event was, right? And I hate to say that because it lends, I feel like it lends some credibility to these motherfuckers that did that. But uh it it uh it it it changed a lot of things, you know.

SPEAKER_01 16:49

It really did it, and it's um yeah, I I I I've seen a couple of couple of pretty decent documentaries. I think Netflix did one about how the guys from New York they were actually out on a super gas leak or you know, as a gas call when all of this stuff came in, and um there's some pretty pretty decent documentaries that are worth watching.

SPEAKER_05 17:12

Yeah. Well, from a uh from a physical perspective, I'm guessing if you didn't have if you weren't suited up, 1900 call it 1900, call it 2000, call it, I mean it's it's a lot of steps, right? How how diff how challenging is that to climb it without the gear? And then what does the gear add to the whole thing?

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Okay, all right give or take.

SPEAKER_05 17:42

All right. Yeah, so

The Weight Heat And Reality

SPEAKER_05 17:45

so the the the question there is like without this without being suited up, how physically challenging is that? And with it, how much more how much more difficult is it being fully suited up? Like how much weight are we?

SPEAKER_01 18:00

Yeah, people walk stairs every day. I mean, it it it's it's all relative to the body weight you carry, the muscle mass you carry, um and and and how conditioned you are, you know, people and not myself included, we're not that's not all we do all day. We don't just sit there and walk thousands of steps every day. Um, but the suit itself, between the suit and the pack, just the suit and the pack alone is probably 40 to 60 pounds. Now, the the other side of that is that suit doesn't breathe. Put a trash bag on underneath your clothes and then go walk. So, I mean, the the because it has to protect us from the heat, it has to protect us from the elements. Um so that suit is hot.

SPEAKER_05 18:42

It's hot, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

You know, you're you're already you're already in an elevated, an elevated stress situation, an elevated heat situation. Uh you you put all those factors in together, and it's um it's a it's a bad, it's a bad, uh, a bad recipe.

SPEAKER_05 18:59

Yeah. Wow. Well, each year, you know, we we all, I mean, you do, I do, we all get a little bit older. Have you have you, over the years, have you started to feel a little bit of that with the climbing? Like each year, does it get a little more difficult? And I know you're a pretty uh pretty well moving around kind of guy, staying in shape and whatnot, but do you feel a little bit each year like it's a little bit tougher or not so much?

SPEAKER_01 19:24

Not not necessarily. I mean, it's hard regardless. I I don't care who you are. You're you're you're not gonna walk through that, especially if you're in full gear. You're not gonna walk through that and and be breezing. Um there was there was one year, I think only one year that I made the full. So when we do Koanas Field, it's 72 times up and down that stadium. Um and and let me back up real quick. We do we do the 2071 steps. Now I understand that the the the guys who were at 9-11 and at the trade centers, they didn't do 2071 steps. Um I don't I don't exactly know what floors were actually made it to, but the reason that we do the 110, the 27, 2071 is because they would have.

SPEAKER_05 20:10

Yeah. If that's what it took, they could have gotten together. If they could have got up there, right?

SPEAKER_01 20:15

Yes, if that's what it took, they would have gone up and they would have came down. Yep. Um you know, the unfortunate thing for them is is they didn't get to come down. We we get to come down. Um, so that's that's why we go all the way up and go all the way down. Um so I I went off on a tangent there, I forgot where we were going with that. But um yeah.

SPEAKER_05 20:37

Well, I I mean I know the uh I I think the first time I saw it, man, you know, it was like uh it was really touching, you know, and I I think that uh it's it was a it was emotional for me. And you know, I think you should know that. I think that it touches people what you guys are doing. And now I know a lot of people do that kind of thing, but yeah, I I guess there was a connection to you and I because you and I know one another, but I said, wow man, this is really cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Touching on the emotion side of it. I mean, there's there's radio traffic from 9-11 that you can hear, you can hear the radio traffic, you can hear the May Days, you can hear the tell my wife's I love them, tell you know, you you can hear all of that. And that puts everything into perspective that these guys, balls of steel, run into this building knowing they're not coming out. I mean, yeah, it it gives me goosebumps talking about it. You know, it it's it's a different breed of person that's gonna go into this building knowing that you're not coming out or not knowing, thinking maybe there's a possibility I'll come out, but 90% I'm not coming out. I'm not gonna see my family again.

SPEAKER_05 21:43

Um You know what I you know what I think, and I and I bet you if you took 10 of the emergency responders, I would bet you, and and maybe I'm wrong, but this is just for the sake of conversation, but I bet you 10 of them out of 10 would tell you that they never expected those towers to come down like they did, right? Like burning is burning, but who would have thought that these two massive structures would have just crumbled to the ground like that? It makes sense, right? It makes perfect sense if it's hot enough and whatnot. But well, I guess they're bigger, they're bigger than life, and you just don't expect that to happen.

SPEAKER_01 22:21

You can you can you can get way off in the weeds on on all of that, and we are we'll we'll we'll leave that, but you can get way off into the weeds on on how or why those those buildings collapsed the way they did.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

Um there's been there's been professional demolition crews that have said that we couldn't have dropped that building any better than what they dropped.

SPEAKER_05 22:43

So yeah, now that you mentioned that's

SPEAKER_01 22:46

Pancake a building from hitting it in the top two thirds and it pancakes from the bottom.

SPEAKER_05 22:52

Yeah. And it's perfect. I mean, it's just the way it goes down. There's arguments both ways, so we won't we won't get into that. Right. All the conspiracy theories, right? Well, listen, I know your boys have, I don't know if they've started doing this with you like the very first year, but I know that they've been active with you uh the last few years at least, right? So they they actually

Raising Boys With Real Grit

SPEAKER_05 23:15

kind of do the tribute with you, and do they actually come do they actually complete the tribute as well?

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Absolutely, 100%. Uh my boys and my wife, uh, they both they both go with us. Um I pull them out of school, and then when we're done, they get they go back to school. And uh when they when they ask why the kids are out of school, I just write on the little sign-in sheet Patriots Day.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

You know, so it's um yeah, they they've been they've been the last few years. Uh my oldest Jack, he's he's completed it with a 25-pound weight best. Um, so he's he's kind of slowly graduating up to carrying weight, and then, you know, um however, however he wants to push it. But everybody everybody completes the challenge. Um actually they do it faster than I do now.

SPEAKER_05 24:04

So well, let's let's talk about the boys for just a minute because these are not normal boys. These are not normal kids, Eddie. Uh, and I and I say that with all due respect. You I I have to commend you and Amber for how you guys raise them because you don't you don't see a lot of what you guys do uh much anymore, right? It's all kids are inside playing video games on the internet, watching TV. They're not out doing, you know, boy things and manly things. You know, you got your mustache mafia shirt on, and you know, we talked in the last episode, what does the mustache mafia even mean? It's about it's about just being a man and and and and right all things manly.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

And Danielle, that's what Danielle, she she used to uh she used to laugh, and it was when the whole toxic masculinity was a thing, and it's like, yeah, absolutely. If being masculine is toxic, I want to be it, right? Absolutely sign on my forehead.

SPEAKER_05 25:04

Exactly. So so Jack and Sam, of course, are your boys. Was it ever an option for them not to be in some kind of combat sports?

SPEAKER_00 25:17

So Jack and Jack's sitting right here, he said no.

SPEAKER_05 25:20

He can jump in frame, he can jump in frame there if he wants to.

SPEAKER_01 25:24

But he says, uh, so I I told him when they when they uh when they started getting to the age of doing sports, and from the time they could walk, I used to play the game with them of don't let me push you down, basically. You know, don't don't I I push on them, and I push on them, I push on them, and don't let me push you down. It kind of became a game. Um, not only was it was it working on their balance, but their their their base and and their wrestling stuff. Um, but when they got to the point to where they started getting involved in sports and whatnot, I said, listen, you you can do two sports, and wrestling's not optional, so pick your other one. Um so they they picked soccer. And when Jack first came to me and said, uh, dad, I think I want to play soccer. No. Whatever. Um, you know, but watching watching soccer, it's I don't know if it's because I tried playing soccer when I was little, and maybe I just wasn't very good at it, or I did I I didn't like it. I I was always I was always an individual sports. Um I I I ran cross country, but I only ran cross country because I thought I was getting in shape for wrestling. Well, knowing what I know now, I'd have been doing sprints getting in shape for wrestling. Um, you know, so I was always an individual guy. It was I I want to be directly responsible. If if if I lose, guess who's to blame? You're you're it, right? You you got you got one person. It's funny because um out in their little, I call it their little boys' club, I built a little loft in the barn, and it's obviously it's it's cold storage, but we set them up a little table and they've got posters and they can go hang out out there, but um that I I got them three banners. One says, one says don't fucking quit. One is no one cares, train harder, and the other one is no one's coming to save you. Yeah, and I mean that's that's it couldn't be further from the truth. You know, it it it nobody cares.

SPEAKER_03 27:17

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

It doesn't matter. Yeah, just just keep moving. And I had that instilled in Jack from the time he was little. We were um I used to always tell him he he would kind of start, oh well, it's getting hard. Oh, okay, go harder. Yeah, it's that simple. It gets hard, you go a little bit harder. And every every time you do that, you you build your base, you build your base, you build your base, you build your base. So like like you you think it's getting hard, but mentally you can push through that. People don't realize that that just I I was commentating on some fights last night, uh, wrestling, fighting, you know, it life, life in general is 90% mental.

unknown 27:54

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

90% mental. If you can get past that mental block, you will be surprised the the heights that you will reach. Um you know, so it it it's from the time Jack was little, I used to tell him all the time, just go hard, just go harder, just go harder. We we were doing a hiking challenge at um uh where was it uh at Pokagan State Park over in Angola, uh Indiana. It's called Hell's Point Challenge. And anytime you say challenge, Jack Sears Challenge. Um I said, yeah, dude, it's an eight-mile hike. He goes, All right, so let's go hike eight miles. And mind you, he's probably eight at the time. So he's eight years old saying, Well, yeah, man, let's go hike eight miles. What's the big deal? Well, again, if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough. So me being the knucklehead that I am, I I didn't pack any waters, and it's like, oh, well, let's just go do this, we'll go bang this out real quick, no big deal. I got a six and an eight-year-old walking with me, and let's go walk eight miles with no water, right? Yeah. So we're we're you know about halfway through, and we we get into this little opening where it's just like this prairie and the sun's beating on us, and Sam start this is hard. Jack trots right past him, looks at him, just goes, go harder, and keeps walking. Yeah, that that's just that's that's the way that's the way that people need to think.

SPEAKER_02 29:19

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 29:19

Um would you I guess not not every situation, but sometimes you just you just gotta be mentally tough.

SPEAKER_05 29:26

Well, you know what, like this is this is me talking to you. I'm 150% uh of your mindset, right? But I would say that we live in a time now that's real um I I don't know what I don't even know what word I'm looking for. It's real artificial. It's not no, it's just like it's depressing because there's there's yes, like it's just I was gonna use, I know you got kids in the room, but I'm sure I'm sure they've heard all the words. They got them off like a sailor, I can tell you. You know, the the world is just kind of pussified now, like, oh honey, you know, it's okay. Just you know, go lay on the couch for a little bit. It's like the mind the mindset is just it's it's 180 degrees, and it doesn't set you up to be a winner, I don't think.

SPEAKER_01 30:16

It doesn't. And and the thing, like like these all these parents want their kids to be comfortable and to have everything and to do that. Well, that all that does, that that breeds softness. Yeah, breeds softness rather than rather than get out there and work for something and earn something, you know. These kids, they don't earn anything. You know, I I remember hearing, uh, I think it was it might have been Dan Gable when he was coaching the Hawkeyes, he said, You only deserve what you've earned. So what have you earned? You have earned nothing. Yeah you have you have done nothing by sitting on that couch and crying, I need this, I want that, and then throwing a fit because you can't have your phone or whatever. As my my boys say all the time, well, when when do I when can I get a phone?

SPEAKER_05 30:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 30:57

I didn't get a phone until I was 19 years old, and it's one of those next tell chirps. I wish I could have it back.

SPEAKER_05 31:01

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

You know? Yep. Hey, what are you doing? You need walkie-talkie. Um, but I I I pick them up from school and you see these 10, 11-year-old kids sitting outside of school in their own in a trance, right?

SPEAKER_05 31:13

It's it's wild.

SPEAKER_01 31:14

Yeah, it's wild.

SPEAKER_05 31:16

Kids don't even kids don't even, and some adults don't even know how to communicate with one another anymore.

SPEAKER_01 31:21

There's the the communication, but but the education side of things, you know, they're they they're actually they're making people dumb by doing this because they rely on that device. That's right. They rely on that device, number one, to tell them what they're doing, to tell them where they're going, to tell them the answers to everything.

SPEAKER_02 31:37

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

And it it is a good tool to have when you need. I mean, there's certain times when you can use it. Of course. But it's like spelling when you're when you're writing things out. It's got auto, auto-correct. Everything's auto-correct. You don't have to go back and check your spelling. It's everything is automatic.

SPEAKER_05 31:54

Yeah. I used to have to look in a dictionary to see if I was spelling the word right, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:00

You gotta be able to read a dictionary in order to do that.

SPEAKER_05 32:03

Yeah, there is a prerequisite for sure. Yeah. Well, it's uh, I guess it was a couple of years, I don't know how long ago it was, but my brother had had texted me. I think he might follow you on Facebook. He was always a fight fan and whatnot, but he's like, hey man, check out uh Wineland's kids. They're beating the shit out of each other in the basement. And I'm like, this is so cool because you just don't you don't see kids doing this stuff, right?

SPEAKER_01 32:26

That's a daily, that's a daily, that's a daily thing in our house. And it it's like it's kind of irritating sometimes because I can't you guys just fucking get along. But at the same time, it's like that that's brothers, you know. They're they they're gonna be at each other's throats, but I promise you, I promise you, if somebody else steps in the picture and tries to push the other one, you're getting tag teamed. Yeah, I promise you, you're getting tag teamed.

SPEAKER_05 32:49

That's the brother mindset.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

And I can beat my brother up, but you can't.

SPEAKER_05 32:53

Right, exactly. Well, I think I told my brother the other day, you know, that those are gonna be two boys that that go to school and nobody's gonna fuck with them for sure, right? And that's a great thing, man. You know? Yeah, yeah. So,

Guitar Comes Back Into The Picture

SPEAKER_05 33:06

so since um, you know, since Backstage Pass Radio is uh always had this musical tilt to it, it it would be a crime if we didn't talk a little bit about uh guitars. But tell me about the you know, the guitar and the background and and how long you've been playing, because I think when I talked to you the first time, Eddie, I don't know that we ever really talked much about the guitar.

SPEAKER_01 33:28

Yeah, or so when when we when we first talked, um at that point, I hadn't picked up a guitar in and I say picked it up, like like picked it up for real, picked it up in over a decade, probably. Um I've always I've always known the open chords. I know uh, you know, the the A, B, C, G, you know, all the all the way through G. I or all the way through F. Um I know the chords. My wife's a better guitar player than I am. My father-in-law, he's actually he'll play, he plays a stand-up bass, he'll play a mandolin, he plays a banjo, he plays a guitar. Um so he's he's big time into bluegrass. He's actually he's out playing some gig right now. Nice.

SPEAKER_05 34:10

Um I think I saw him on Facebook uh when I looked at yours. It was uh is it Charlie or Charlie Debart? Charlie Detmark. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:18

Yeah, yeah. He's I mean he's played, he's played. Uh I don't know if you're familiar with Oxcart Ramblers. He played at uh Jenna Fisher's wedding in California with Oxcart Ramblers. And um, so he's he's um very musically inclined. Very cool. Um she's a better player than I am. I think I think a lot of my problem is I want it all right now. I want to I want to be able to beat the guitar up and just you know, um, and I I think of it, a lot of it too is I'm trying to do it without lessons.

SPEAKER_05 34:49

I'm trying to do it like, you know, organically.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Right, right. It's it's I I get to that point to where she again, and I'm I'm sure you see you've seen it all the time. I I I play the same things over and over and over. You feel like you're going nowhere. Um, but anyways, I I I picked it up on and off since I was 15. It was when I when I started when I was 15 years old, I had a Kramer electric guitar. I was like, oh, this is gonna be great. At one point, I think my mom and my sister, we used to have a spiral staircase in our house. And uh I was down there playing, and all day the next thing they hear ping, ding, ping pong. And they look down there and what are you doing? I'm I think here, I think I'm Jimi Hendrix. I got the pick in my teeth, and the guitar's on the ground, and I'm trying to play with my mouth. Right, right. So um I I I played it pretty consistently for a few months, you know, maybe a year when I was 15, just enough to learn the basics.

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 35:44

And then I put it down, and I'd pick it up for a week, and then I'd put it down for a month, and I'd pick it up for a day. Um, and I just I've always had a guitar, I just never picked it up. And then I met my wife.

SPEAKER_05 35:56

That's that's interesting that you even bring up Kramer guitars because a lot of people don't talk too much about Kramer anymore, and that's the guitar that I started on. In fact, I had you can't see them, but I have two two Kramers hanging right here. And if I pan over, see that purple one down there? Yeah, that's a that's a Kramer that was signed by uh the whole band Loverboy, if you're familiar with the rock band Loverboy. Sure. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, Kramer has always been a big part of uh my my you know my arsenal, if you will. But so so how did so I guess living in a musical household like Amber came from, she it wasn't an option for her to not learn to play the guitar, right?

SPEAKER_01 36:37

Right, right. Yeah, she um she she was kind of like me. She she played the guitar like she she's she's better than I am. Um and then she kind of kind of like me, it was just didn't pick it up for a while. And now uh as of recently, probably I don't know, probably go back to about May of this year. We've we've been picking it up pretty consistently. Um you know, and and not like not for hours a day, but you know, it's like anything. You you do something for 10 minutes a day, every day, those 10 minutes a day over 365 days becomes a significant amount. Um so we we've been pretty consistent with picking it up and uh trying to uh at least get some campfire tunes, you know. And and that's realistically, that's where I want to be at. Um we we started off and and we're Amber and I's wedding was Johnny Cash themed. Um I remember you told me that. We started off playing playing quite a bit of cash, uh so simple stuff. And then my problem is is I get into strumming patterns and this and that. I can play anything if it's a boom chuck. Yeah, I can play anything, boom chuck, and sing it. Uh we start getting into the down, down up, up, up, down, up, down, up. Uh, uh, uh, so that I think that's my problem is I try to get into these two complex strumming patterns and trying to sing at the same time, and I can't put it all together, and then I get frustrated. But the thing I've found, I get frustrated and I put the guitar down, and then the next time I pick it up, it comes a little bit easier. And then I get frustrated and I put it down and I pick it up and then it gets a little bit easier. Um so it's just a consistency thing and trying to not get flustered, frustrated when I can't get something the way I like it.

SPEAKER_05 38:27

Sure. Well, I think I think I find that, you know, being a professional musician here and playing out, you know, I think pre-podcast, I was playing about 130 live shows a year. And because the podcast is so busy and I'm traveling a little more these days uh with the podcast, I probably like 60. Chris and I play about 60 a year, but I find myself I'll I'll go weeks at a time without even picking the guitar up. And it seems like when I go back to it, it just uh I play a little bit better. So it's almost the opposite effect for me versus playing like sitting down, okay. I'm playing eight hours today, you know. Like that that probably works against me. But some people can do that and they play better. I guess it's all in the in the person, right? I don't know.

unknown 39:17

Sure.

SPEAKER_05 39:17

Well, so I guess she comes from uh kind of more of a musical family, but are there m musicians in your family or not so much?

SPEAKER_01 39:26

Um not not as much. My dad, my dad actually played the piano when he was little. Um so he played and I don't know how long he played for, but um it might have been let me back up. So my grandma, my grandma on my dad's side, she was she liked a uh guitar, and I've actually got her guitar down in my basement. It's an old nylon string folk guitar. Okay. Um it just sits in the case. I don't I don't I just I leave that one alone. It sits in the case, I don't touch it. Uh I maybe I should, maybe I shouldn't, I don't know. Um, but she she used to she used to play kind of folk guitar. Okay. Um and then my dad, he played piano again, maybe just a few years. He actually knew how to play it. Yep. But yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:10

That was kind of my background. I started as a classical pianist and then moved over to the guitar probably in my late teens when I figured out, dude, you can't you can't go to a a high school party and pick up chicks playing the piano. You can't take a fucking piano to a party, dude. You gotta learn to play the guitar for Christ's sakes, right? Grow your hair long and play the guitar.

SPEAKER_01 40:33

You gotta learn the free bird song.

SPEAKER_05 40:35

Yeah, exactly. Or wagon wheel or something like or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 40:39

So that that's one that I can do. I can do wagon wheel. There you go. We can do wagon wheel.

SPEAKER_05 40:44

Chris and I like to refer to that as the modern day free bird because every it seems like everybody's playing that. Everybody knows it. Well, I saw, I I think I saw a video recently, uh, and it was maybe you and Sam, and maybe Amber, maybe it was Amber's dad that was playing in a video. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And how long has Sam been playing? Has he been playing a while or just picking it up?

SPEAKER_01 41:08

Uh so it kind of kind of similar. It it's so they've had guitars for a while, and I we they got, I think what was it, Simpli Guitar that you guys had? They had simply guitar, um, because obviously I don't know how to teach them. I can teach them open chords. Of course. And that's about as far as I go. Um, I can't teach them scales, I can't teach them, you know, any of that. And it's it's that's so that's another one where it's like every say, oh, well, you gotta learn this scale, you gotta learn that scale. Don't learn scales at all. Learn that, learn this, learn that. Well, this is this is the A, this is the B. I don't know, I don't know keys, I don't know any of any of this. I don't know, I couldn't tell you on the fretboard where the key of A is. I couldn't tell you any of that. Um but so they they had the Simplay guitar and they would they would pick it up for a little while and it was pretty nice because they knew the open chords they could kind of play along with a little bit, but then they got bored with it. Um so then I sat down and I wrote out a tab for the opening of Ring of Fire. Okay, and that kind of that kind of sparked Sam's interest. So he's doo doo doo doo doo doo. So once they started learning that, oh well, I'm actually seeing progress. Yeah. So when they they

Kids Learning Music Without Lessons

SPEAKER_01 42:15

they've they've been in Sam picks it up more than Jack, but I think Jack picks it up faster.

SPEAKER_05 42:21

Gotcha, gotcha. So they're so they're not technically in lessons or anything like that, they're just kind of learning it at their own pace in the way that they want to learn it, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:29

Not that I don't want to put them in lessons because I would love to put them in lessons, but motherfucker win. Yeah. When between my job, their soccer. So we're at the soccer field right now, they got Monday, two or three nights a week, right? Yeah, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and then games on Sunday. So plus school, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 42:49

Um, no time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

There there isn't. And it's um if we really wanted to, I'm sure we could probably find a half hour, an hour to take them to lessons, but it's like we need we need we need some us time. You know, we we need some time together.

SPEAKER_05 43:05

I totally know what you're talking about because you know, I I guess I don't remember how long it's been now that I've known Johnny and Kathy, but it's um I I'd have to I'd have to try to remember. But nevertheless, I know when we first kind of formed our friendship, we were we were coming and going to each other's homes probably two or three times a year. Like I was in Indiana, probably. I felt like I was there more than I was here. And over the years, that slowed down since you know, you know, JJ and Nolan. They had JJ and Nolan because they fucking are like, you know, a one-legged man in an ass whipping contest all the time, right? It's go here, go there, go here, go there. And it's like, man, I can't keep up with you guys. So I just kind of I don't come to Indiana as much here recently, mainly because they're just so busy with the boys, they're just at that age. And they're probably close to your boys' ages as well.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

It's funny because you you you hear people talk about it, and then I we're guilty of it too. It's like this is just non-stop. Well, you know, you complain about it and you want it, but I wouldn't have it any other way. No, no, I wouldn't, you know, I wouldn't have it anyway. I I I need to go, I need to go, I need to go, I need to go. Um, but it's like I want them busy, I want them active, I want them doing things, I want them learning things. Uh we gotta be on the move. We gotta be on the move because if you don't, you fall into that complacency and you become you become the next turd in line.

SPEAKER_05 44:36

Yep. Well, it it everything in my life too, like even at my age, it's like with the podcast, with working, with music, with now we just gotta. New hockey professional hockey team here in Houston that I'm uh an official for. It has to be organized chaos all the time, even at my age. Like, I don't know, I don't know how to fucking sit around and do nothing. Like it just doesn't register with me, right? Successful people are not lazy people, right? We don't sleep until noon, right? We were up early, we get shit done, right?

SPEAKER_01 45:09

You sleep when you're dead. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I I will I will say so that that is that's something that I I highly prioritize is sleep. Um it's it's in since since I've prioritized my sleep of of going to bed at the same time and waking up at the same time every single day. I feel like the way I feel, my health, everything is just falling right into place.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:34

But we'll sleep when we're dead, though. Yeah. The hours that I'm awake, man, it's yeah, it's going, going, going.

SPEAKER_05 45:41

Yeah, totally. Well, you know, keep the boys going there. I think, you know, just music is something that we can we can enjoy even in the later years of life when when our body when our bodies say, yeah, you can't go climb stairs and play hockey and do all of that shit anymore. But you can sit there and play a guitar and really enjoy that too. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

And that's so like like when we when we talked about um we need some us time, you know, sometimes that is our us time. You know, Sam, Sam will come home from school. There's about an hour delay in between when we when we get Sam and when we get Jack. Sam will come home, he'll bang out his homework real quick, and hey dad, you want to jam a little bit? Absolutely. You know, so so uh there's that. And then, you know, talking about being older and picking up the guitar, I saw this, I saw this little snippet, I think it was on Instagram, about this girl talking about her dad. Decided at 80 years old he's gonna learn how to play the guitar. Oh, at 80 years old he's gonna learn how to play the guitar. She says it was just a thing.

SPEAKER_02 46:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:39

And at 85, he's and he's strumming and he's singing.

SPEAKER_05 46:43

And so I mean, it's very comforting to do that, even just by yourself. You know, you can kind of get lost for hours. It's a pastime, right? Absolutely. Yeah, well, I I can tell you that um, you know, the boys they just keep picking, they'll get better and better. My son Brandon, my oldest son, he's I guess maybe 32-ish now. I I don't even know how old it Brandon is, but I don't think he even picked up the guitar, even with all the guitars around the house. Yeah, maybe he was in high school, like 15. Yeah, but man, what a player he is now. Jesus, like, like I'm I'm a clown uh compared to that guy. Like he just he's like 20 times the guitar player that I am. But the funny thing about that is, and I've said this in many interviews with with world-class musicians, that Brandon, even though he's 20 times the the musician I am, he has no desire to be on a stage and perform. He's just he's just the living room, hang out by the pool, the cowboy, you know, sit out at the campfire kind of guy, right? Like I don't need no, I don't need my name on a marquee. I don't need a limelight, right?

SPEAKER_01 47:50

But I just want a handful of campfire songs, but again, man, would I love to be able to play the Freebird solo? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 47:58

I'd love to play that too. I don't even know how to play it. And I've been playing the guitar for 39 years probably, but um circling back real quick, I want to be respectful of your time, but circling back to the fight game real just real

Life After Retirement From Fighting

SPEAKER_05 48:15

briefly. Uh I I think you and you can educate me the year, but I think it was a few years back that you officially retired from the fight game. Was it like around 22, 23?

SPEAKER_01 48:26

Or am I June, June of 22 because that was my last fight?

SPEAKER_05 48:30

Yeah, so so now that's four years ago. I know.

SPEAKER_00 48:35

It seemed like yesterday.

SPEAKER_05 48:36

Yeah, right. Well, well, it seems like I just saw you fight on the TV like a couple of weeks ago, but maybe I'm maybe shit's just running together in my mind. But anyway, I guess now you're involved on the other side of the cage, the kind of the media aspect of the sport. Talk to the listeners a little bit about life behind the mic for you.

SPEAKER_01 48:57

Yeah, so um even even when I was fighting when Paul and Danielle were throwing HFCs, um, I was I was kind of the household color commentating. I would do the interviews, stuff like that. And it's it's um I I I say knowledgeable very loosely um because I still get like anacondas and dars chokes mixed up. So it's like, oh, he's he's throwing anaconda. Like, dude, that's a darts. Uh okay. Well, whatever. It looks similar, right? He he he's he's gonna he's gonna choke him out. Right. Um So I I mean as far as knowing knowing the game and being in and out of the game, um, and I like to talk. Yeah, you know, I I just I like to talk to people, I get along with people, um I like to talk about fighting, and I I just I love the game. I I love the game. I I think it's um I think it's the purest form of sport. The purest form of sport. Um it's uh it's a one-on-one. Um, you know, so so between doing that and and I'm actually I'm actually helping, I say helping, but again, very loosely, the one the one day a week that we get to go to Miguel Torres's gym. Um I try to help out in there in coaching with the kids and where I can with them. So um between the commentating and the coaching, I try to stay at least a little bit, keep my feet wet in the game.

SPEAKER_05 50:14

Yeah. Well, you know who else loves to talk about the sport? I had Guy Mesker on my show uh about it's probably been about a year ago now. I know his wife, we're we're partners of one another in the the um industry that I work in. And uh great, great guy, but loves to talk about fighting, still has his you know, hand in the game and whatnot. But uh, and that's you know, Miguel Torres. There's a name I haven't heard in a long time, right? Like, I mean, what a phenomenal fighter he was back in the WC. And then he kind of just seemed to just go away. I don't know what where he went, or I think he was from East Chicago or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 50:53

And uh he was in East Chicago. Uh his gym bounced around a little bit, then he was in Griffith for a little while. Um, and now he's he's right in Hobart, he's on 6 and 51. Which is his, I mean, it's uh what was it not this summer, but the last summer. I I we kept saying, you know, the boys we're gonna we're gonna continue at least wrestling one or two times a week throughout the summer, but like, you know, because not that we don't go downstairs and horse around, but it's like when you get away from from the skill side and the drill side of it, it kind of tends to go to the wayside and and you get you get kind of a half a step behind. So it's like, all right, we're gonna take them and they're gonna two to three times a week throughout the summer, they're gonna be wrestling. Or do you guys want to do jujitsu? I I don't think I got jujitsu all the way out of my mouth, they both bought jujitsu. And a small part of me at first was like, I wish they would want wrestling. Which, again, I I I think a good solid wrestling base, if you if you take you take a D1 collegiate wrestler and you teach him basic submission defenses, man, he's gonna roll half the black belts in the room. Um but on the other side of that sword, it's like fighting. I I love wrestling, but man, I love fighting. I I I love I love using my wrestling to choke people unconscious. Um, so when they said jujitsu, it's like, all right, you know, well, let's start looking around. So we we searched around a couple of gyms here, and then I remember Miguel's right down the road. Um he um he uh he's got two boys that are similar in age to Jack and Sam. So I was like, all right, you know, let's try this. And I took him in there. Again, it gives me goosebumps thinking about it, watching Jack and his oldest son, their very first round, right? So Jack's Jack's got a wrestling base, his son's got a jujitsu base. I've got a wrestling base, Miguel's got a jujitsu base. Watching their first interaction and comparing it to Miguel and I's first interaction, I mean, it's it's like a direct mashup. You can you can take a video of our first interaction, it's like a direct mashup. On cue. Take them down, no problem. Blast double, put them on their back, okay. But then you get wrapped up and put on your back. You get wrapped up and legs start flying and everything, you're by the sudden next thing you know, you're on your back. Yeah. And I remember seeing Jack's face after that. He stood up and kind of looked at me like, dad, what the fuck was that? How did he do that? Dude, that's real life. Yeah. That's real life. Because in the real world, yeah, a wrestler is gonna handle their, they're gonna be able to handle their business. But you meet somebody that is a high-level jujitsu guy, you hit the ground, okay. Well, I I I've got you pinned, matches over. Uh-uh. It's my turn now. That's exactly that's exactly what it was.

SPEAKER_05 53:46

Well, that's interesting. And I I wanted to touch on that. I I swore I wouldn't go down a rabbit hole, but being just a um, I guess a lover of the sport, even though I'm not a fighter myself, like I've always loved the sport, and I I guess I I'm self-professed to know quite a bit about the sport just because I followed it for so long. But what I never really quite understood is I think uh jujitsu and wrestling, there's a lot of similarities there. But what what is the one thing that wrestling really brings to the fight game? Is it a way is it really a way to control the opponent? Is that what wrestling mostly?

SPEAKER_01 54:28

I think what how wrestling wrestling is is better in jujitsu in the sense of it it brings pressure, it brings it brings a high pace, and and it's just that work ethic. Okay. Not that not that jujitsu doesn't have that hard work ethic, but you look at wrestlers in the room, man, it's a constant grind. It's just a constant, constant, constant, constant grind. There is no stopping. Whereas in jujitsu, you can kind of especially in the gi, um, they train in the gi a little bit, but in the gi, I can grab on and just hold and uh catch your breath. Catch my breath. In Nogi with a wrestling bass, they just bang, bang, bang, bang, bang. It's a constant pressure, pressure, pressure, pressure. And a lot of times the jujitsu guys, they don't really know how to deal with that. Yeah. Um, if they're a good, if they're a good Nogi scramble guy, they'll be fine. But that that wrestling pressure and that wrestling pace is very, very hard to deal with.

SPEAKER_05 55:25

Yeah, and I've always heard that of the four disciplines that are most prominent in MMA, of course, Mui Thai, jujitsu, wrestling, and striking, right? Like, I I think, and maybe you agree or disagree, but wrestling is probably one of the best foundations to have as a professional fighter. Would you agree with that?

SPEAKER_01 55:44

100%. Um, you look at you look at some of these high-level fighters now, they've been wrestling from five all the way through college, right? They've got high-level wrestling. They've got high-level wrestling. So I've always said you can't teach, you can't teach uh I mean you can, but you you you can't get to the level where you need to be teaching wrestling in a year or two. Yeah, I get you. I can get I can get your striking game where it needs to be to hold your own within a year or two. Okay. Especially because, number one, you're an athlete, and and people who are high-level wrestling, they usually pick things up pretty quickly. So you you see, like uh I was uh commentating again on fights last night, and this kid's got the USA wrestling on his on his thigh, so okay, he's a wrestler. He shot one shot in the whole fight, and the rest of it was stand-up and looked fantastic. His stand-up fighting was fantastic. Wow. You you can teach you can teach a high-level wrestler how to stand-up fight in a year or two. But not the other way around. Right. And you you can teach you can teach wrestling in a year or two enough to maybe hold their own, but somebody who's got a lifetime of wrestling and they know all the slick little tricks, and okay, when I get put in this position, I'm gonna go here and I'm gonna go there, and I'm gonna chain this together, and I'm gonna tie this on the end of that. It's hard to deal with that.

SPEAKER_05 57:05

Yeah, wow. This um where you're doing the commentating last night, what is this fight promotion that you were working with last night?

SPEAKER_01 57:12

Steve Cologne, it was his it was his his promotion. It's called CK Fighting. Okay. Um, so I was I was commentating for him last night.

SPEAKER_05 57:20

And I guess uh Paul and Danielle are out of the fight game all together now, right? Yeah, I guess Paul is he he's still a real estate. Is he a real estate or something?

SPEAKER_01 57:28

Something to do with refinance or mortgage or something, something along those lines. And I don't know if Danielle is doing something with law or politics, or I'm not quite sure.

SPEAKER_05 57:36

I got you. Well, um, I I still hear from Nick from time to time. I guess he's still doing well with his gym there. And uh I didn't realize that Miguel had a had a place in Hobert. That's where Tony, Johnny's brother, lives in Hobart. I think he's still in Hobart anyway. So uh Yeah. So do you find that being behind the mic in its own way is some more is is it gratifying as it as fighting was to you? Be I mean, are they both gratifying in their own ways?

SPEAKER_01 58:08

In their own way, because it's like I I've I've done my time. So now it's like it's like the the kind of the passing of the torch to the to the younger generation, and it's uh um yeah, just to see some of the talent that's coming up, and and again, these these kids they've been they've been training for as long as I was fighting, you know, because these these kids they started training back in 2003, 2004, 2005, um, and now they're fighting 20

Final Thoughts And Where To Follow

SPEAKER_01 58:36

years later, and it's like the to see the skill set that some of these kids have is unbelievable.

SPEAKER_05 58:42

Yeah, yeah, they're impressive. They're they're definitely impressive. But um, well, listen, man, it's been great catching up with you. I know you probably got 10,000 things going on today, and uh I'd probably taken an hour of your life that you can never get back, but it was it was good to catch up with you. Oh my pleasure, yeah. Also, uh, you know, I try to get up to Indiana from time to time, but uh, I'll look you up next time I'm up there and maybe we can absolutely have have lunch or get together for dinner or something like that. That would be uh super, super cool. And then um, you guys enjoy your uh remaining days of summer there in Indiana because the cold weather's right around the corner.

SPEAKER_01 59:22

It's coming, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_05 59:24

Yeah, well, listen, I I also like ask the listeners to like, share, and subscribe to the podcast on Facebook at Backstage Pass Radio Podcast, on Instagram at BackstagePass Radio, and on the website at BackstagePassradio.com. You guys make sure to take care of yourselves and each other, and we'll see you right back here on the next episode of Backstage Pass Radio.

SPEAKER_03 59:47

Thank you for tuning into this episode of Backstage Pass Radio. Backstage Pass Radio. We hope you enjoyed this episode and gained some new insights into the world of music. Backstage Pass Radio is heard in over 80 countries, and the streams continue to grow each week. If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave reviews on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback means the world to us and helps us bring you even more amazing content. So join us next time for another deep dive into the stories and sounds that shape our musical landscape. Until then, keep listening, keep exploring, and keep the passion of music alive.