Bear Grease - Ep. 11: Bear Grease [Render] - Moonshiners and the Land Bridge

Episode Date: July 21, 2021

On this episode of the Bear Grease [Render], we'll talk about an alarming influx of black panther evidence from listeners, and introduce a new hashtag: #landbridge. You'll hear about Brent's family "borrowing" raccoon hounds, and we'll introduce a new character into the Render who's a Navy pilot who once stiff-armed Clay on a podcast partnership. Mainly, you'll hear the guys discuss episode 9 of the Bear Grease Podcast called "Moonshine, NASCAR and Bear Hunting." The episode is high energy and continues to deliver an unplugged, engaging version of Bear Grease. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. First Lights fieldware collection is made for the work that happens long before opening day and continues when the season ends. Products built for early mornings, full days and real use. Hard wearing where they need to be versatile where it matters. No shortcuts. Just gear designed for the work that earns the season.

Built to perform, built to last. Check out. First Light's new field. Worldware gear at firstlight.com. My name is Clay Newcomb, and this is a production of the Bear Grease podcast called The Bear Grease Render, where we render down, dive deeper, and look behind the scenes of the actual Bear Grease podcast. All right. Welcome to the Bear Grease Render. Before I get into introductions, which I am going to do, I, uh,

I've got to admit, we've got some major problems. Major problems. I still have grown men almost every day sending me pictures of panthers, of large black cats. I don't see what the problem is. When are you going to stop ignoring the evidence? Listen. Look at Gary. He's pulling out as fun of these kinds of pictures.

from Gary. Listen, listen, they send me pictures and like, don't say anything. Just like a picture. And it's like clearly a real black, large cat. And it's as if they're saying, Clay, do you not get it that there are such saying as Black Panthers? Okay. What my point is, I am highly aware that there are large black cats in the world.

Okay. And if what I am saying is that there is no such thing as a black mountain line. You're saying please stop. That's what he's saying. For the love of humanity, please stop. Please stop. No, I actually did get a really good guy. Now, this I appreciate.

A guy sent me a video yesterday. And he gave no explanation. It was just a video on Instagram. It was his grandmother. and I didn't I didn't it was someone I didn't know it was this picture it was this video of this like perfect southern grandmother and she's sweeping in her little kitchen and you know the decor in the house you could have just walked in there any one of us in which has been like this is my grandmother's house I can't figure out this is it got a happy thing I'm like where's this going yeah and and

she is telling a story and clearly doesn't know she's being videoed and she's telling a story about a Black Panther. I mean, just like, I mean, just giving this guy, like, what for? Just like, your grandfather was, he was hunting over here, and she's sweeping. She's got her back to the camera. She's sweeping. And a Black Panther walked out and she saw it. And I saw the tail of a Black Panther one time.

And, I mean, she's just like, I mean, there's no room for, like, was it true? Was it not? It was just like, this is the truth. No explanation from the guy. He just sent me this video of his grandmother, as if, to say, you wrong, Clay Newcomb. What is, what is do you need? You calling my grandmother a liar?

And then I went to the guy's profile and shout out to him. He was from East Tennessee. Okay. I appreciate that a lot. Now, welcome to the Bear Gries Render. I've got to my left, Brent Reeves, who is going to give a, I'm going to ask him to do something here in a minute to his director. To his left is Joshua Spillmaker. That's me.

Josh, there was, the Land Bridge is catching on. Oh, really? Yeah. I need my own t-shirt. I need my own hat. Man. Hey, people start hashtagging Land Bridge. You think that would happen a while ago.

You should use your power for good, man. I'm going to put a picture of Josh Spilmaker on my Instagram just to show you guys what I'm talking about. I'm getting a tattoo. Land Bridge. Yeah. Okay. So Josh's left is Dr. Daniel Rup. Hey.

Welcome, Dr. Rup. Good to be here. Good to see you. And hey, back from where he was, my dad, Gary Newcomb. Good to see you, Dad. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Yep.

Dad has been known to almost daily send me videos of black felines. I think he understands what I'm talking about. Oh, yeah. Hey, we got a new, we got a new guest on the render. This is exciting. This is exciting news. Especially exciting for me. We have a new guest.

And I want all of you to fill the pressure of this, okay? Oh, man. This is becoming, like, chopped. Okay. There are some faces here that I don't see. You know, where they line up the chefs. Yeah. And, like, they critique them, and it's, like, chopped, okay?

And we're not going to say, you know, who's not here today. But no pressure whatsoever. You know what? This is really sad. The reason we have to limit the number of people in this room is because of technical issues. I've got six headsets. No, I, here's exactly what I did. Because Josh and Malachi are like such good friends of mine, I messaged them both, Daniel. I messaged them both on a message and said, hey, boys, I really want my friend, I'm not going to say his name yet, to come to the render. would one of you guys be willing to not come? To graciously bow out. Do you know the first text message I got was Josh Spilmaker saying, it ain't going to be me.

I'm dead serious. He was like, nope. And so I actually sent him a meme of Dana Carvey doing the George Bush Senior. Not going to do it. Not going to do it. And so Malachi picked up his phone like, an hour later, it was like, well, thank goodness.

I guess I won't go. Yeah, he was relieved. Oh, no, so our new guest is Forrest Teeter. Woo. Howdy, everybody. What a name. What a name. I appreciate it.

Yeah, yeah. I feel like you should be a country singer. Country singer. I'm glad you don't have a mustache for us because I have some serious competition. Believe me, I would if I could grow one. This is like, I feel kind of oppressed by this room right now. He and I, he and I got something in common here. Yeah, Gary. You and Gary are the only clean-shaven ones.

I ain't got much to show here, really. You're the only two that actually held real jobs in your life, too, either. I was forced into it. No, hey, okay, me and Forrest have a very complicated web of a relationship. Okay. We're in prison together. No. How old are you forced? I'm 25.

25. I told him you were 30. Really? Yeah. So we met after I killed. my first black bear, nice cinnamon bear from up in the Ozarks. It was during a time when I was recruiting stories for Arkansas Black Bear Association. Oh yeah. And this kid killed this bear. And so I was like, hey dude, would you like to write a story for us? He did. I was in

11th grade and that was like, man, I'm going to be famous. How many years ago was that? In the Arkansas Bear in Buckdrow. That's almost 10 years ago, probably nine years ago. Okay. The story continues. So we become buddies because he writes this story, you know, just like, kind of like social media buddies. And then you killed a big deer. I did. He killed 160 inch deer. Could you send me a pen of where that was? Yeah, I'll send you, I'll share it. He killed 160 inch deer. I said, hey, how about we do a story on this deer? Now, did you write this story? I did. Yep, I wrote this story. Okay, so he comes up here and he brings his dad, and we have a great time and hit it off. About that time, I needed somebody to go with me to

Idaho to film a mountain line hunt. I didn't know you went on that trip. I did. It was just like the right moment. It was like, man, I bet Forrest would like to go with me to film that mountain line hunt. How old were you? I was, I think a sophomore in college, so it had been a while. So probably 20 years old, something like that.

I think I was more excited than you. I remember I was like, you ready for this, man? You ready for this? Like I'm so excited. I remember he told me at one point. He was like, man, I need you to weigh your expectations. It was just a very level-headed thing to say, but I need you to weigh your expectations,

a lot of factors, the snow and everything. It was like, all right, reel it back, reel it in, reel it in, you know. But it was cool. It was so cool. Okay. We're moving forward now. So we go to Idaho and have a great time. I killed a mountain line with a traditional bow.

We made a film that's got like 600,000 views on Bear Hunting Magazine, YouTube channel. You can check it out. So Forest filmed all that. And it was a tough hunt. It was cold, and it was really neat. Okay, the story continues. He, well, I'll come back to the tripod. Did you know?

I bet you don't even remember this. Or maybe you probably remember it. When I first had the idea of starting a podcast, I talked to you about being on a podcast with me. He is the only person that's ever straight up stiff-armed me on wanting to be a podcast partner. He didn't ask you to read a book, buddy. I wanted to.

Believe me, I wanted to. I had other obligations I was working on. This was back before I knew what podcasts were. It was like last Tuesday. Yeah, yeah. This would have been like 2015 or something. It was years before I was just like brainstorming. And we talked about it on the way to Idaho too.

We talked about it. And so I was like, hey, let's start a podcast. Forrest is like, nope. Is that what I said? It was just like Malachi Nichols when I asked him if he wanted to be a partner in a boat. And he was like, nope. You know what else? Forest Eater. I remember when I actually started the Bear Honey magazine podcast, I was talking to, just randomly talking to you about it on the phone.

And you asked me what I was going to call it. And I said I wanted to call it the Bear Grease podcast. Grasman, this was years ago. Forrest goes, nah, you don't want to do that. Did I say that? Yeah. No, I didn't. You did?

No. I mean, yes. Did I really? Okay. you either just totally agreed with me. I vividly remember you going, you don't want to have to remark it yourself. I may have presented to you Bear Hunting Magazine or Bear Grease.

Okay. And I vividly remember you going, nah, you don't want to do that. But perhaps you were agreeing with something I had said. Because, and I went with Bear Hunting Magazine podcast. Right. Just hold on. This is going somewhere, okay?

Because Bear Honey Magazine podcast was such direct, branding. I remember you saying, no, you don't want to have to like convince people or tell them what bear grease is if you're trying to promote a magazine. Right. So it was like, let's just go straightforward marketing. This is a bear honey magazine podcast. We produce Bear Honey Magazine. Okay. Because of that from this guy right here, the bear grease name was preserved for such a time as this. And see, that's what I was thinking when I said. Let me tell you something else. one time the best dog name my family

ever had okay you know I've got kids family wife and like we talk about dogs the best dog name that we ever had I bet I know it

was we had the idea to name a dog scout okay we almost named our kids scout but we didn't so I go drive 15 hours to go get a plot hound

and my family is like we're naming this dog Scout and I'm like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa we don't want to use the best name on a dog we know nothing about like you can't name the dog until you see it you understand it and I was like I don't want to use that name on a dog that is going to be of ill repute okay we get the dog and the dog doesn't work out the dog is no longer on Newcomb farm and he got the name scout ruined it.

Are you with me? Should have you. You see what I'm saying? The dog name is ruined. We can never go back and get that. That would have happened if Forrest Teeter hadn't told me to not name my podcast Bear Grease. Do you see what I'm saying?

Thank you, Forrest. You're welcome for that, you know? This would be the Scout podcast. There we go. Okay. You're tracking with him. Your best dog name is Cheater. What happened to Cheater?

Well, I mean, Cheater got stolen by some construction. workers down there. Oh my goodness. Yeah. Well, you're welcome to that. Yeah. So, so you, you helped preserve the name Bear Grease for such a time as this. Wow. You see what I'm saying? Oh, absolutely. Okay. All right. Forest is in the Navy. So Forest has now made something of himself. He doesn't just like follow around like people filming them. Forest, uh, dude, you just went to, tell us about being in the Navy. Okay, so I've relatively new to the Navy. I've been in two and a half years, I guess, I went to Officer Candidate School in July of September of 2018, and Native Arkansas, as most of y'all probably suspected, but went to Arkansas Tech. And, yeah, I just kind of decided about halfway through college.

Had a good job, honestly, but it was kind of a, you remember I was catching birds and just kind of all over the place. I'm like, where does this trajectory go? There definitely was a future there, but it's like I needed to look at something else and, you know, explore my options. And I've always been interested in aviation, but decided I was just going to send it on trying to be a pilot in the military, the Navy, kind of had the lowest standards at the time, which is what I needed for myself. So I explored my options there, got picked up. Now, okay, for you three over here, I'm pointing at Dan, Josh, and Brent. He's in the Navy, and that's boats and stuff.

Okay. But he flies an airplane. Wow. Confused. It took me. It's taking me a while to figure that out. And Clay still hasn't seen Top Gun, by the way. I just want to throw that out there.

True story. Wow. Come on. Anyway. Thanks to Gary Newcomb. He protected you from. He did. He protected you from science.

High standards. He put you out of bed in the bank vault at night, did you? No, so you fly like a incredible plane for the Navy, which is not a small thing. They don't just let anybody fly that thing, Dan. So. in that most military aircraft are gray. I'll say that. So it's basically a relay aircraft to

talk to the nuclear submarines that are under the water in case we have missiles inbound. We can kind of provide that last line of defense for the United States. So we're not operating over anywhere outside of the United States, really. How many pilots fly that one plane? I think we have... Well, no, like

in a plane, like if you were to walk out on the airstrip and take it up in the air, would you have to have another pilot with you? Yeah, so yeah, it's a multi-pilot aircraft. So generally have three on board and that's going to be pilot copot and then one who can kind of change out. Wow. That's pretty impressive. Hey, and the other thing, this guy's a heck of a hunter.

Like, no doubt. Good hunter. Thank you. We're going to have Forrest play some music later. Oh, nice. Hey, we got a lot of very generous comments about the rendition of old slew foot last time. Dad, you weren't here. Oh, yeah.

Oh, man, I tell you, it was impressive. Yeah? Yeah, especially the guy on the cowbell. That cowbell I actually had one The only like musical correction that I had Was on the cowbell Somebody was like

The dude on the cowbell needs to get on Get on the cowbell And then I started listening to it And I was like Yeah he's right Hey Judy and I noticed that At one point in the song I realized I was daydreaming

I had to bring it back He was hypnotized Oh Oh Wow. Okay. So what we're going to do on this podcast is we're going to talk about moonshine, NASCAR, and bear hunting, the Bear Grease podcast that just came out.

But before we do that, I totally skipped over. Every time I introduce all you guys, I want to, like, give just like a little nugget of information. And so, Brent, I got, there's a couple of stories that I had to order, okay, just like special order. stories. Okay, so Brent Reeves. Yep. Tell me about, uh, tell me about your dad and, uh, the, the coon dog that used to borrow. Borrow in air quotes. Um, when my dad and my uncle, my dad passed away now, my uncle's still here. So I have to reassure him when I tell the story that the statute of limitations is out on dog napping. But this, my dad, this was, would have been in the mid 50s.

My dad was probably 12, 13 years old. And my uncle, Jimmy Ray, would have been, he's a few years younger. And they loved a coon hunt. And there was a man who lived down the road who had a good coon dog. He also had a good job. And so instead of coon hunting all night, he would work. You know, he'd go to bed early. He'd work all day and go to bed early, and he'd hunt some on the weekends.

But he had a real good dog. And apparently my dad and my uncle thought that dog was going to waste, just laying out there in the yard. Coon eyes were pretty valuable during that time too. And they would go hunting with this man. But they tree a coon and kill a coon. That man gets it, it's his dog. You know, he's shooting it. They're just little old boys going with him.

So you couldn't expect him to give him the coonides. And you probably wouldn't have expected them to steal the dog during the week, but that's what they started doing. They would slip up there after he went to bed, and old dog was tied up on the chain in the backyard. And you said there was a nightlight you could see him, said the old dog would just set up. If you'd look at them, they'd slip up there, and they'd hide the edge of the woods, and they'd take turns.

One of them would go up there and take the collar off the dog, put the collar back just the way it was, like the dog had slipped the collar. The dog would follow them. They'd go out in the woods, they'd tree. They'd go coon hunting. They got tired. They go back home.

They just let the dog go. And he would go back and get in that dog house. Next morning, man, I wake up, go out there and feed his dog. He's laying in the house. And there's the collar. He's hooked back just like it was. How in the world did he get out of that collar? He's slipping that collar, you know.

This deadgum dog. He said, and they did that for a week about every other night. They did that. The last night they went up there to do it, probably the third or fourth time. He said, I send my little brother up there, my uncle. This is dad telling the story. He said, a little brother goes up there, and he crawls up there to cut the dog loose, and he comes crawling back real fast.

And dad said, I thought maybe the man that woke up was coming outside, and he said, what's wrong? He said, we done hunted this dog to death. And he said, what he means? He can't, we done made him sick. He can't breathe. He said, he's just, he's got pneumonia. He's coughing. And dad said, I go up there and fix it.

So he crawls up there and said, the closer he got, the more he could hear. that dog was he was struggling to breathe and he's like what in the world we have tore this dog we have broke this dog but he crawled up there to get a better look

and that collar was so tight on that dog's neck that he said if they would have took him that night he don't think he would have been able to swallow get a drink of water the next night so the guy the man was tightening that collar up every night

that dog was slipping in all Sinching it down, one after the other. Sinching it down. That's the last one. If I recall, it was a blue tick. It was a blue tick. Wow. Shocker.

It was a blue tick. Man, that's great. Perfect. Hey, now for the, do you like these introductory stories? Yes. This is great. And I didn't even tell the real story about Forrest losing my tripod on the side of the mountain in Idaho.

That's the main thing that I've ribbed Forrest about since 2017. Well, 17. It's been half a decade. Okay, listen, here's a treasure hunt for you. If somebody can go bring me back my tripod. They get a spot on the bare grease render. No doubt. It's like the golden ticket right there.

If you can find, and I would identify it and I would just be honest about it, if you can tell me on a map where that was, and this excludes everybody who was involved in the hunt, because there was a houndsman involved, I will fly you to Arkansas to be on the Bear Dries podcast if you can return that tripod to me. We treat this lion and we come off the mountain. It was a terrible hike up.

Took two hours to hike up. And we come out well after dark. We're like walking in the dark. We didn't have flashlights. And we get back down to the truck. And the next day I'm like, forces my cameraman. I'm like, where's the tripod?

And he's like, you had it. And I'm like, no, I didn't have it for us. This is your job. So the tripod is still probably standing up on three legs at the base of a big old fur tree that at one time had a lion in it. I guarantee it. The forest got fired and he never amounted to anything. Get this. He still paid me.

Clay took a net loss on that one. He wrote me a check for like $150. I'm like, all right. Yep, yep. I do have to. Meat Eater just came out with a Campfire Stories audio. If you like stories like you just heard, man, they went all out. It's a six-hour audio book called Campfire Stories for Meat Eater.

You can buy it anywhere you buy audiobooks. Random House is the one that officially published it. But basically, in all the travels of Meat Eater, they gathered up lots of stories. I mean, I don't know if it's like 10 or 15 or 20 stories. They have the person that the story happened to. tell the story. People are like super excited about it. So as of July

20th, you can buy that book anywhere you buy audio books. You know, it's an audio book. So check that out. Meteor Camp Fire Stories. And you can also find that on themeadeter.com where they have their books. Sweet. It's pretty cool. There's one story. I'll give you a teaser for one story. And I heard this story directly

from, well, it's from Steve Ronella. He's the one that recruited the story. But this is the way that it went. Is somewhere out west in one of the southwestern states, there was a poaching deal where a bunch of elk were getting killed and they were being shot with small caliber rifles and not recovered, just like shooting an elk and just leaving it. This happened a lot.

And so they called in the New Mexico Game of Fish to come in, and they did all this investigation, and finally they felt like they had a pen on the guy who was doing it. They didn't know who he was. They just knew, like, what kind of truck he drove and stuff. This game warden is out one night, and he encounters the poacher, and they get in a road race, just an absolute road race wherever they're at. It's New Mexico, Arizona.

The poacher gets out ahead of him and just disappears, just outrun. the game warden. The game warden comes to a Y in the road and he has to make a decision on which way the poacher went. The game warden pulls into this Y and there's a big mud hole

and from his truck he decides that a car has not been through that mud hole. So he pulled up to the mud hole and then he decides that a car hadn't been there so he backs out and he takes the left fork. End of story.

They never. catch the guy, ever. Fifteen years later, some extended period of time later, a guy gets arrested for like a streak of murders. Perhaps it was just one or two murders, but a guy gets arrested

for murder. And they've got him in the interrogation room and he just starts spilling his guts about all stuff he's ever done bad. And he tells the investigator that he killed a bunch of elk. And he used to just shoot him and leave him lay. like a bunch of elk.

So this is recorded that this man said this. Well, they go ahead and contact the gaming fish and say, hey, we got a guy here that's about to go to prison for murder that says he killed a bunch of elk. The game warden, who's still a game warden, goes and says, well, I'd like to interview the guy. I need to talk to this guy. And this is, again, this is years later, maybe decades later,

the guy the game warden is sitting across from this murderer and says tell me about your elk and the guy just starts laying out all the places he killed elk and this this game warden knows that this is the guy he was after for all those years he doesn't tell him the guy then says one of your boys almost got killed i mean i don't know how he said he said basically i spared one of your boys lives one day night back and he told where it was and the guy goes tell me more and he says i've gotten a game ward and started chasing me down the road came to a why i went through the mud hole because i knew that the guy would be able to tell that i went through the mud hole he went through the mud hole turned his truck into the woods got out and had a oozy and he was shooting those elk with an oozy wow and he said i got behind a bush about five feet after that mud hole and I was sitting there and when he and when that officer came to the mud hole I was going to just mow him down wow and the game warden is the one who was in the truck wow it's sitting there interviewing the guy and uh and he never told him oh really

really he never he never said that was me but uh it was and it's just a hair raising and it's just a hair raising Yeah, for real. Why didn't he shoot him? Wait, he didn't. The Game Warden pulled up to the mud hole in this trained game warden. Yeah. He perceived that no car had driven through the mud. So he turned around and went the other way.

But if it was, anyway, it appeared to me he was close enough to shoot him. Well, just the way it worked out, like the guy was going to just wait until he came right past him and just shoot him. I got you. I thought you were going to say it turned out it was that same grandma that was sweeping the floor with the car. It was the guy. from East Tennessee. My grandma. What a story.

What a story. So that's the kind of stories that are on. That's just one of them. And there's like, firefighters almost getting killed with fires coming in on them. People getting saved from drowning.

Lots of hypothermia stories. Wild. Hypothermia is like, you ain't going to get one of them stories from in here today. It's a little warm. No hypothermia. You might get dehydration.

The hypothermia stories. are like really wild. People do start doing crazy stuff. Like terminal, I've heard Steve talk about terminal burrowing. When people get hypothermia, they feel like they can dig into the ground and just ball up and they end up basically digging their own grave. Wow. And there's a story about a man who did that but survived.

But so Campfire stories, meet him check it out. Clay, I always remember the only thing that you get anxious, about is drowning. Yeah, it's true. You had a close call once. Yeah. Yeah. I did.

It's the only thing I ever hear you talk about with like fear and reverence. Like I don't want to get in that because it, I think it's... Fast moving water, man. Yep. I'll tell that story another day. Yeah. On blood trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker.

I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought. was a sleeping bag, and there was a full of blood. Oh, my God, he doesn't have a hit. Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence is scarce, and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't.

This season, we're going deeper, from cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness. Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers.

Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, Iheart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, what did y'all think of episode two? I think it stepped up. You know, the previous ones were probably a five and a half. We're looking, we're probably might even be hitting six territory now. It was pretty racy. It was pretty racy, I have to say.

Yeah, yeah. I'd label that one as PG. Yeah. Hey, I don't know if anybody caught it, and I don't necessarily want to bring attention to it. Did any of you guys hear a word that typically wouldn't be said in my podcast. Did you catch it? I don't think so. Okay. If Gary didn't catch it then. That's all I care about.

To this day, I'm, you know, a grown man. All I care about is my dad not hearing somebody cuss. I didn't hear that. Oh, really? I didn't hear it. Did you not? I thought there's you were. Man, my squirrel dog's got a squirrel tree out here. Can you all hear him barking? I thought it was. Nobody heard Mr. Roy Clark call his dog a classic name. Oh, yeah, but that, I mean. In that context, I just didn't stand out. He just didn't stand out. Correct. Yeah, I thought that was a technical term. It absolutely is.

Yeah. Okay, so y'all didn't even think about that. Do you use that term? Do you, do you say jip? Oh, okay. Jip? Jip. Where does that come from?

In the term that he used, I mean, that word has been prostituted from that to be a bad. No, it's, I didn't have any problems, but when I let Misty listen to it, she was like, oh, you're going to leave that in here? Because I really do. I have, I have, uh, I have, uh, I have, uh. Boys, we have gained the trust of people that let their kids listen to our podcast. And that's something I take very serious. That's great. At the same time, like, the podcast is not necessarily like four kids.

I mean, I got to get this dog to be quiet. That could be some of the best discussion we have right there. What's that? This dog barking. Oh, yeah. We've got to get that dog shut up. No, I take it very serious that people can, I mean, I hear it all the time. And that's what I want it.

That's been my issue with some other things I listen to is like I got to be careful with the kids in the car because I just don't want them to hear foul language or anything. But it makes my day. It makes, like if I go to Roy Clark's house, I want to hear him. I want to hear him say that when he's talking about his dogs. Makes my day. Why? I just like it.

He doesn't think a thing about it. He just said it without skipping a beat that I was like, oh yeah, that's normal. Yeah, absolutely normal. I just wondered if anybody caught that. No, what highlight, Josh? Of the podcast? Yeah. So the second part, Moonshine, NASCAR, bear hunting.

It was kind of racy. It was racy, and I actually didn't know all that about NASCAR. I thought that was terribly interesting. Yes. Them trying to outrun the fuzz. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and then the part at the end, I don't know, the whole snake handling thing.

Ooh, that was pretty wild. Yeah. That, you know, you hear it a lot of. about that. And just to have that around people's culture, like, there were certain groups of people that that was completely normal. Yeah. To this day. Yeah. Now, he said that that started in the 20th century, early 20th? Is that what he said, early 19th? I want to say that most of it started in the early 1900s. No, that's a purely American thing. Does that happen elsewhere? Nope. That's what he said.

He said snake handling and churches for, you know, ceremony is like new. Dan, how did I handle that? Because listen, I did not want to, like I said it on the podcast. Like I strongly believe in religious freedom. And so I wasn't like trying to say these people are crazy. Yeah. I mean, man. Yeah.

So, but at the same time, I've been highly aware of not stereotyping people or painting a picture that is untrue because that's really easy to do. So in both podcasts, if you recall, I said, hey, I want you to know that Appalachia is a very diverse, number one, it's not all white people. Number two, it's a very modern part of the country. It's not like everybody lives in like a log cabin. I mean, you know, on the first one, I said, there's swanky coffee shops and Target super center.

I was trying to think of the most like urban things I could think of. But so I didn't want to stereotype. The snake handling churches definitely is a stereotype, but I was very interested in it. So I talked to him. How did I do? I thought you handled it great. I mean,

I think there's a place to say this is happening and kind of why it's happening without necessarily making a judgment call on it. But as you're exploring their culture and talking about different things, that's a, especially people closely tied to the land. So much of what they do is physical, tangible, activities. They don't just sit around at coffee shops and talk about their feelings. They're harvesting tobacco or they're bear hunting or they're doing whatever. And this is another

material manifestation of their culture in church. Yeah. If it's a part of it, I mean, why skip over something that's there? And the other thing, I do think that it's been, I do think there were times when that was probably more authentically done. And then some of this new stuff and I've not, I've seen small documentaries on it. And it's just, to me, it's just clear that this is sensation, like they're trying to look sensational. And I mean, I think we have the right to at least say what we think. And so that, I didn't, I didn't want to foster that, like, but at the same time, there was some parts of it that were, that were pretty interesting. At some point, that probably started with some form of, it's hard to imagine, but like, kind of,

good or even neutral intentions. Yeah. And then it became, you know, a lot of people were going to. Dad, did you ever hear about snake handling churches anywhere? Yeah. Yeah. Did they ever, did you ever, did you ever know that to be done in Arkansas? No, no, no, no.

Only on documentaries that you see on TV. Yeah. And very intriguing. And the thing that intrigued me, if I understood it right, was people that would go document this stuff, sometime would get caught up in that movement. And I'm like going, you've got to be kidding me. So there is tremendous power in this activity, be whatever power it comes from. I mean, it captivated, educated people.

Kind of like Stockholm syndrome, you know, where you identify with your, when you identify with your kidnappers, if you were there for such a long period of time, like Patty Hurst is a famous example of that. She was kidnapped by some faction. A grand-daughter to the Hearst fortune, I think. And she was with them so long that she started helping them rob banks. You know what I mean? She was like, deal me in, boys, I'm in.

Well, I mean, you see it everywhere. Also that, you know, people are, it's almost like a high they get from doing things that are life-threatening. Skydivers and all that kind of stuff. I think that people experience that sensation of encountering a life-threatening situation and walking away unscathed. The old saying is you never live until you almost die. I think Tim McGraw said that. He did. Oh, live like, yeah.

But, I mean, I have found that to be, you know. True. It does make sense because you got a group of people. they're meeting, I'm assuming weekly, they're doing it in person. It's a big group. They're engaged in a tangible physical activity. There's risk involved, but it happens in a socially sanctioned and kind of approved way, at least in their community. Just those factors right there, a lot of people in an urban setting are not going to have that. Yeah. You know, they're going, they're going, what they're, that for them is they're going to work. And they're just doing it to get paid. You know,

or maybe they enjoy their job. But you can see the draw, even though, you know, personally, I'm, I think I'm never going to do that, nor what I feel the need to or condone it. But kind of socially, the mechanics make sense of it. Yeah. Forrest, what stood out to you about it? I guess part of what you said about... Not necessarily Snakehoundling.

We can move on. Just the podcast in general. Probably the thing that I really took note of the most, or I guess what kind of made me question myself and my own beliefs was the part, number one, about the metaphor that your family made about, hey, if your kids were dealing meth, would you, you know, be beholden to these people's that honorable to protect those people and to not dull them out? And that kind of thing really stood out to me because it puts an interesting question. Number one, if obviously legal doesn't necessarily equal, moral or ethical for that matter. So people that don't really have good opportunities to make

money for their family, I mean, who's to say that any of us in that situation, hey, we got to put food on the table. Are we going to run moonshine? Are we going to do things that we normally wouldn't? Because when it comes down to it, you have responsibilities to your family. And, you know, it's hard to say without being in that situation, what you do. But it definitely kind of can pull you two different directions. Yeah.

What did y'all think about my grandpa story? Houston Millsap. I want to ask that about Houston. Yeah. Go ahead. No, no. What were you going to say, Brian? Well, you just, you mentioned that, you know, that it wasn't uncommon.

Yeah. I have an extended family member who would have in the 30s when he got caught. He went to the federal penitentiary in New Jersey. And it's kind of a funny story how he got caught while he went to prison for making moonshine. The reason he got caught was a pair of overalls. And this guy was like lighting. Tell me more. This guy was like.

Carl Lewis, man. We're trying to get an overall sponsorship on the podcast. If Liberty overalls will sponsor this podcast, we will sell more overalls than you ever knew you could make. You cannot, you couldn't catch this guy on foot. You couldn't catch him on the motorcycle. Where did this take place? In South Arkansas and Cleveland County. Okay.

Panzer country. He was fast. They say he was fleet of foot. And the revenues are tried to catch this cat two or three different times. Cat. And they couldn't. You see the parlay. I just threw that subliminal.

So subtle. So subtle. They couldn't catch him. I mean, they'd get after him. He'd outrun him. Of course, he knew the woods and the lay of the land. He'd just move his steel. And one morning, they laid out there.

And he started, he was out there cooking, getting the fire going. And the old morning constitution hit. Uh-oh. And they literally caught him with his overalls down. That's the only way they could get. catch him. Wow. I thought you were going to say they baited him with a pair of overalls like a clothes hanger.

He saw a crisp shiny new pair of overalls. He couldn't get them up and get gone. Really? And they got it. And that's how they called him. I'll be darned. A footnote to that story, his job in the federal penitentiary in New Jersey, wherever it was located, was making moonshine for the warden and all the admin staff.

He fed chickens and made whiskey in the penitentiary. Really? Yep. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Dad, okay, I vividly, you heard me tell the story. Yeah, I heard it. Now, we called, so Houston Millsap is my mother's father.

So he died when I was in the eighth grade. So that would have been like, I don't know, mid-90s he died. So I have real strong memories of, we called him Pee-Paul. Peepal. I had, like, you know, he was, like, I have real vivid memories of him. And great memories of him. Yeah. But he was always.

sick. He had a stroke and he never was well my whole life. But I vividly remember dad telling me that, you know, dad was looking for something good to say about old people. And he would say he was honest to a fault. What do you remember about Houston? Well, I remember a lot about him. I mean, when I would pick Judy up when I was in college, I remember one time I was just barefell. footed and he'd never let me live that down. You're trying to marry my daughter. You ain't got shoes? Come on, man.

Well, P. Paul, I always admired him. I'll tell you, be honest with you. He was, he had a few faults like all of us do, but he was very honest. He didn't try to hide anything. He was up front. And when I go back to a 16-year-old boy and some of the stuff y'all have already talked about, uh, uh,

forced alluded to it a little bit. But, you know, if, if you're in a moonshine culture in your uncles, your aunts, your dad, your mother,

you're, I mean, you're going to run moonshine. Right. I mean, it's just that simple. I don't care if it's Billy Graham. He's going to run some moonshine.

Because it's, it's, in your little culture, that's okay. And, and the penalty is going to prison, you know, so anyway,

P. Um, you know, the culture that he was raised up in was you don't squill on anybody. You know, the culture I was raised up in was don't get involved in stuff that you got to worry about being squeaked. So to me, it's like a big deal. But, you know, hey, I was in this other little culture. So, hey, he ain't going to squill and I admired him for it.

You know, I forget this mess stuff you're talking about. I mean, in his situation back then, it's, you know, it's real easy to go back 30, 40 years and criticize people. The people doing to criticize, and if they were there, they'd be doing the same stuff. Historical revision is what that's called. Is that what it's called? Well, Pee Pee Pee Pau was a fine man. Yeah.

I'll tell you, he had a fine family, and Mimau was like the queen of queens. I mean, this lady was unbelievable. And for her to pick Pee Paul, I mean. Natalie Millsapples. So, Natalie, Natalie was like. Yeah. You know, I want to justify why I said what I said. I stand by 100% of what you said.

Like, I think it was honorable that he didn't rat him out. Both two women in my life that are very influential told me the same story separately. You know, mom said, I understand it. Mom said, hey, I don't know that that's something to be celebrated. and they were a little bit hesitant with me telling the story. But I just had to tell the story. And I did take,

the most feedback that I got, specific feedback, was people saying that it wasn't fair to compare moonshine to meth. And I'm 100% on board with that. Sure, sure. Because math has never been legal. And, you know,

there was just this short period, in human history where making liquor was illegal, you know. And so basically, basically they're like, Clay, that's not apples to apples because meth is like, I mean, it's possible to, you know, consume alcohol and be, and not be a drughead. Yeah. I mean, like, but if you're doing any kind of meth,

you're in big trouble. So I get that and I wasn't trying to make a heart, I was just trying to, because that was a new thought to me. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, just because I'm saying it doesn't make it right. That's just what I believe in. You're not going to change my mind. Now, hey, one other thing I wanted to say, and I did not have the opportunity,

when Roy said my dad, my grandpa, my uncle, and their friends stayed drunk all the time, I mean, that, like, set me back. So you look at generations of people. I had a guy do this one time for a group of people. He said, Uncle so-and-so raised his family this way and look what happened. Uncle so-and-so did it this way and look what happened. And he drew it down. He went through a generation.

So most of the people in that group might have followed the uncle dad. Yeah. And then you see this destruction. women, children, families. Then you've got guys like Roy Clark that goes, amen. Yes. I don't want any part of that. My grandmother would say she would not, let me think it, this right,

she would not put a thief in her mouth to steal her brains. My dad said, it was okay to let him run around in there a little bit. Just don't take the handcuffs all foot. Oh, man. Oh, no. Oh, man. Yeah, you, Gary, what I really liked is that moment where Roy is, and I can't remember the exact details, but he's talking to you, but in the room is the grandson of the gentleman who wrote him the Valentine's and said, we're bear hunters, aren't we? Yeah. Oh, yeah.

And from what I, from what I got was that Roy in that moment looked over at that grandson and basically affirmed him and said, this guy's a stand-up guy no matter what. And that to me is the embodiment of what you're saying, Gary, which is like, Roy decided he's going to do it different. And as he looked around at him and he saw a man doing something right, man, I affirm that. And that guy, he's, what did he say about? He said, he loved him for it. Yeah, he loved him. He said, that boy right there won't leave you and I loved him for it.

Yep. I love him for it. Yep. And, you know, think about all those men who had left Roy and he said, I don't want to be that way. And then he's now looking at the younger generation. and saying yes to that. And in it, you know, at the same time, he's saying no to something else.

I think one of the things I saw in Mr. Roy is that, you know, it really wasn't about the drinking or not drinking. He had an awareness of patterns that he chose to steer clear of. He said, I know that that, you know, and I really don't think, and I know for me, it's not about. drinking or not drinking. It's about understanding how the patterns are and generational continuance.

I believe someone can drink moderately and have great kids, but you have to be aware. It really comes down to awareness. So I appreciated the fact that... Because he had to see something in them that he didn't want

and adjust his life accordingly. And Mr. Roy did something that's very hard. He broke something that was not common for people to be able to break like to be able to have that kind of awareness and just do a 90 degree turn oh yeah and hey that's the reason that podcast is about roy clark i i had i had a few one person in particular that wrote me and and and he missed the whole point of everything i was doing because he tried to tell me that there were better bear hunters than roy clark that i could have done a podcast with and i mean

and i i took liberty to like smack the guy so i the head. It really did. It wasn't somebody I knew. It was like, because I was just like, was Malika? It was Malica.

And that's what it was not needed. Basically, I feel the liberty to highlight, like nobody's perfect. I mean, like James Lawrence isn't perfect.

Roy Clark getting perfect. Gary Newcomb isn't perfect. But the people that I highlight have some level of character. And that is something that I that I deeply value. What about Brent? Brett is right on the edge.

He said he's a professional liar. I'll tell you, man, I identified so much with what he was talking about and how emotionally he got. Yeah, wasn't that something when he cried? I was talking, I got a friend in England, Adam Dean that listens to our other podcast. This guy has such a passion for all the stuff that we do. and there are no coons in the United Kingdom. There ain't enough coon dogs in England to fill up that dog pen right out there.

But he absolutely loves it. And he and I were talking the other day back and forth. And he said, you know, you described coon hunting so eloquently to me. And I'm like, well, I'm going to need to hear this back. What did I say? He said, well, you told me that, you know, Coon hunting wasn't, Coon hunting wasn't at the tree. Coon hunting was everything before and everything.

after and and he's right you know it's it's me sitting out in the backyard with my watching my coon dog and my little girl run around the backyard or my wife come home from texas they'll say with a bow tie for this dog to wear around and this dog is just it that's the whole thing the whole embodiment of it and that's what i got out of mr roars's passion and the how emotionally was about it man i i get it and if you get it the guy that wrote you the story or they wrote to the note about there are better bear hunters out there. They may be more successful in numbers of bear hunters out there probably, but there probably ain't no better one than that.

Yeah. And he missed it. What I appreciated about, Roy, so I went back from an old podcast. Like that, I took that conversation out of context and played it. And Roy never gave a second thought to him breaking down into tears in front of, There were 20 people in that room. Like in the podcast, there were four guys that had headsets on. There were 20 people.

It was like a live recording, like neighbors, grandkids. And they, and I actually thought, you know, I wonder if Roy's going to say, hey, don't put that on there. That embarrassed me. It never occurred to him. Like, he just, he just is what he is. That's powerful, especially in a culture that defines manhood in all these false ways.

Sure. I mean, for a grown man to be able to look across a room and call somebody out and break into tears, and then immediately jump back in to talking about bear dogs, to me, that's a highly... That's so rare. Emotion. Like, that's good.

Well, that grand... The son, the guy that got on there and it said, see how important it is to us. Yeah. But in that same position, I could see that guy doing the same thing. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, he just scripted it out for everybody in that room that looked up to him that, hey, this is, it's okay to, it's okay to cry. It's okay to have, to express affection for someone. And not just it's okay, but as Roy Clark, I am a man and this is how you be a man. It's not just permit. It's not okay. You can do that. But if you're going to be a man, this is how you be a man. Yeah. Another thing he said that, similar to what you know, Gary, about maybe the negative side of keeping people around.

But I liked it anyway. He said, you know, if this is a, if you want to have, if you want to make money, this is a terrible place. Yeah. To live and do life. But if you want to have a close family, and I'm paraphrasing what he said. Yeah. He said, I believe there's no better place in the world. And I think just that value of he knows what's important to him.

And he goes about building his family that way. And so he's structured his life in particular ways to make that happen. and that's the 90-degree turn from the popular culture, which is what? You're going to, you got to get an education and you got to get a job and you got to get a two-car garage. And I mean, I've got a ton of education, but I still want to have a family. Yeah. You know.

Well, it was, yeah, I thought, I thought, I thought Dr. Pierce did a good job of showing a balance perspective. Dr. Pierce has a book called, what's it called? Corn from a jar. Corn from a jar, and it's about moonshinters. And he says in the book that his point was to humanize moonshiners, which was interesting because I came into it not wanting to glorify it. I just wanted to tell the story. And I think he gave a really balanced good view.

Like, you'd learn something listening to that. I thought I did a good job. The NASCAR stuff was cool. Fascist. Anyway, the podcast, to me, I mean, I loved it. What's so cool about this is I'm researching the stuff that I'm interested in. So, like, I could have made that podcast and, like, nobody heard it and me just listened to it. And I would have loved it.

It's like all stuff that I'm, like, super interested in. But the big question is, would you listen to this podcast? The render? Yeah. With these stories? Oh, yeah. Forrest, get your guitar out. All right.

What are you going to sing us? Well, I hope my guitar is still in tune, first of all, but I picked a song that has a lot of layers here relative to what we talked about and just the render in general. This is a song written by Jimmy Driftwood, 1959, recorded by Doc Watson, 1966. All right, let's hear it. What's it called? It's called Tennessee Stud. Oh, this is going to be good. Around about 1825, I left Tennessee very much alive.

I never would have made it through the Arkansas mud if I hadn't been riding on the Tennessee stud. Had some trouble with my sweetheart's paw. One of her brothers was a bad outlaw. That's some of your kin, right? I wrote her a letter by my uncle, Fudd, and I rode away on the Tennessee stud. The Tennessee stud was long and lean, the color of the sun and his eyes were green. were green he had the nerve and he had the blood and there never was a horse like the Tennessee studs that's right drifted on down into no man's land

across that river called the Rio Grande race my horse with a Spaniards for till I got me a skin full of silver and gold me and the gambler we couldn't agree we got in a fight over Tennessee we drew our guns and he fell with a thud and I rode away on the Tennessee studs Tennessee stud was long and lean the color of the sun and his eyes were green he had the nerve and he had the blood and there never was a horse like the Tennessee studs God just lonesome as a man can be dreaming of my girl in Tennessee the Tennessee studs green eyes turned blue because he was a dreaming of a sweetheart

too we loped right back across Arkansas whooped her brother and I whooped her Paul that's right no relation I found that girl with the golden hair and she was riding on the Tennessee mayor. Tennessee stud was long and lean the color of the sun and his eyes were green He had the nerve and he had the blood and there never was a horse like the Tennessee stood Stir up to stir up and side by side we crossed the mountains and the valleys wide We came to big muddy and we forded the flood on the Tennessee mayor and the Tennessee stood Pretty little baby on the cabin floor

A little horse cold playing round the door I love that girl with the golden hair And the Tennessee stud love the Tennessee man The Tennessee stud was long and lean The color of the sun and his eyes were green He had the nerve and he had the blood And the never was a horse like the Tennessee stud Right on!

There we go awesome Oh that's great Perfect perfect perfect perfect That is a heck of a song You know what? So many layers to that one. I grin from ear to ear Every time I hear Arkansas on a song

I mean, I cannot help it. I'm like, I love it. Yeah, when you told me pick one, have one of mine I was like, I know the one. You know it. You know it. It's got equines, got Arkansas, got Tennessee. It's hard to ram Arkansas.

It was like, maybe broke jaw. Well, hey, thanks a ton, guys. Thank each and every one of you. This has been a good render. Keep the wild places wild because that's where the bears live and that's where we get bear grids. I'm your best out hoot. Josh. I feel so bad going after Brent because that's a good hook.

I'm glad. Okay. Yeah. Brin. Okay. Gary. Now, Forrest has a good. Don't let me down, Forrest.

That's good. That's a good. That's a good. That's a good. That guy can do anything. One, yeah. That's okay. Try an owl next time.

Try a owl next time. On Blood Trails, the stories don't end when the hunt is over. They just get darker. I've seen something in the road. I instantly thought it was a sleeping bag. And there was a full of blood. Oh, my God. He doesn't have a hit.

Blood Trails is a true crime podcast born in the outdoors, where the terrain is unforgiving, the evidence. is scarce and the truth gets buried under brush and silence. Indications were he should be right there, but he wasn't. This season, we're going deeper. From cold case files to whispered suspicions, from remote mountains to frozen backwoods. Each story begins in the wilderness and ends in darkness.

Because out here, there are no witnesses, no cameras, just fragments and the people left behind trying to piece them back together. He's not an honest person. He's incapable of being honest. Somebody somewhere knows something. I'm Jordan Sillers. Season 2 of Blood Trails premieres April 16th. Follow now on Apple, IHeart, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.