Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - 123: "Childhood" Throwback Episode | Ear Biscuits Ep. 123

Episode Date: December 4, 2017

Rhett & Link are going back into the archives to share a classic episode of Ear Biscuits from 2014 in this special "throwback" edition of the show.  Listen to Ear Biscuits at:  Apple Podcasts: http://applepodcasts.com/earbiscuits Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2oIaAwp Art19: https://art19.com/shows/ear-biscuits SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/earbiscuits Follow This Is Mythical: Facebook: http://facebook.com/ThisIsMythical Instagram: http://instagram.com/ThisIsMythical Twitter: http://twitter.com/ThisIsMythical Other Mythical Channels: Good Mythical Morning: https://www.youtube.com/user/rhettandlink2 Good Mythical MORE: https://youtube.com/user/rhettandlink3 Rhett & Link: https://youtube.com/rhettandlink Credits: Hosted By: Rhett & Link Executive Producer: Stevie Wynne Levine Managing Producer: Cody D'Ambrosio Production Manager: Jacob Moncrief Technical Director: Meggie Malloy Editor: Kiko Suura Graphics: Matthew Dwyer Set Design/Construction: Cassie Cobb Content Manager: Becca Canote Logo Design: Carra Sykes To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. This week at the round table of dim lighting, we are gonna be throwbacking to another episode-ing. That means we have ran out of time. And we literally- I think it's have run, isn't it? I've said throwback it. we have ran out of time. And we literally- I think it's have run, isn't it?

I've said throw back it, I'm making all types of, well, we're gonna play an old episode and we'll tee that up in a second because one, I can't speak well enough. No. Two, we don't have a second before you have to run out and have another data point, plot point, in the neighbor potential litigation saga.

Well I haven't even given you the update from the very first story, which I'll do here in a second. But yeah, so we're gonna actually play, this is a repeat for those of you who are long-time Ear Biscuits listeners. We usually don't, we've never done this, but we're doing it because we wanna give you something rather than give you nothing.

So we're gonna be replaying the very first episode of Ear Biscuits we ever did that was just the two of us. Episode 22, it was called Childhood, released on February 28th, 2014. Yeah, we tell a lot of stories that, some stories end up being in the book. I like talk about me spending the night at other people's houses.

You talk about some of your other best friends. Well, it's the first time we got really personal and I think it was, I think is, even if you listen to it, I think you might find it interesting to listen back to it to see how, you know, some of those stories were seeds for the book or maybe the style of the podcast that we've settled on now which is much more of us pouring our hearts out to you

in the dim lighting of just being here with each other. It's the first time we did it. So how did it feel then? How does it feel now? I don't know what you'll learn if you're re-listening to it but if you're listening to it for the first time, I think you'll learn a lot about us personally that we didn't get into anywhere else.

Yeah, so enjoy that but I will get. Because we just don't have, we gotta, you gotta take care of that and then it's just. And then we're getting up in the morning and heading to our next tour of Mythicality. Oh man, it's just kind of a crazy moment, guys. Yeah, we thought we were gonna have time

to record a whole episode. Sometimes this happens. Actually, this is the first time this happens. But we're gonna give you a little something new. So you know, I told you about this. Now again, I've been very careful to not be disparaging about my neighbor, even though you've tried to egg me on.

Uh-huh. Because there is the distinct possibility that he will somehow end up listening to this. But I am very honest in my assessment that my goal all along has been to have a congenial, neighborly relationship with my neighbor, in spite of the disagreement that we are having over this tree.

Yeah, and I agree, the way you truly win is by being his friend, because he doesn't want to be your friend. If that is your perspective, that this is about winning, that's great. That's my perspective, not yours, if the lawyer's asking. I wanna have a good relationship.

Now, what you don't know, your biscuetteer, is that since that initial I'm gonna take your tree and put it in your driveway if you don't know, your biscuiter, is that since that initial I'm gonna take your tree and put it in your driveway if you don't get it out, you have one day, which I didn't do, that was followed up by a letter from a lawyer. I received a letter from a lawyer. Ooh, your own lawyer, I hope. No, it was from his lawyer.

That's worse. Yeah, that's interesting that you would even question that. But it was from his lawyer. That's worse. Yeah, that's interesting that you would even question that. But it was from his lawyer. Our lawyer letters us all the time. That's how he likes to communicate. It basically said that you have until a certain date to get this tree, not only the tree, the tree, the sprinkler that goes to it and the light that goes to it

out of my client's yard. Oh wow. And if you don't, we will be forced to use everything at our disposal to, you know, because you're violating a certain penal code, basically. Broke out the word penal, which always sounds a little dirty. So basically what I thought when I received this letter is like, okay, this is escalated.

And what I did is I responded to the lawyer. Who knew it could escalate, by the way. With a letter that I wanted him to pass along to his client. And the summary of my letter is that, you know, I am more than willing to remove this tree, this light and this sprinkler from my yard because I am much more interested in having a congenial neighborly relationship

with my neighbor than I am having a tree next to my driveway which happens to be in his yard. But I must say that I'm a little bit confused by the fact that he wants this tree removed when his entire front yard is a collection of trees and he also has this exact tree multiple places in his yard already. There's no one, no one who came into our yard would know

that's not his tree. All of this is in the letter or are you just talking to me now? No, I said that in the letter, but I said it in a nice way. I basically said I'm a little confused why he wouldn't want this tree and I think that maybe something else has happened

that I don't know about that has upset him and what I wanna do. I think you're onto something with that. What I wanted to do, I said, I wanna sit down and have a conversation. I wanna have a face-to-face conversation where we talk about this and we find out exactly what he's upset about so it could be rectified.

I said, I'm sorry about the fact that I trimmed the tree from his yard that was going in. You apologized for the thing. That was encroaching on my yard and then I put the clippings on the curb in his yard knowing that I was going to get my dudes to clean it up but I apologized for that again, said that'll never happen again.

And did you say you wanted to have that face-to-face conversation in court? No, I said, so I sent this back to the lawyer and the lawyer responded to me and said, thank you for your professional and kind letter. Nice. I really hope that the two of you can get together and work this out.

So it wasn't, he did not respond with, well, you've got until this date to get the tree. So the date passed, I gave my information to my neighbor in the letter, the letter via his lawyer, and then he texted me and said, hi, I would, yes, I would like to meet, and he suggested a time, and that is in, my wife is actually calling me because that is in 40 minutes and I've got to be there.

Let me take this call. He's taking the call right now. Okay. He's backing away from the microphone to have a semblance of privacy. But, of course, if we listen closely, we might be able to hear a little bit of it. I can hear that she's talking, but I cannot understand anything she's saying. Can you go...

I think they're just trying to figure out where they're going to meet to then be together when they have the meeting with the neighbor. Can you go to an ATM and just get money? There's money.

They're talking about money. I don't know what that has to do with any of this. Maybe they're going to bribe him. That's just me talking, though. If the lawyers are listening, that's just me being funny. Yeah, I'm actually in the middle of recording a podcast right now. He's telling her he's recording a podcast right now. And that she's on it.

No, I mean my end of the conversation is on it. And that she can't be heard but he can. So can you just pay with that and then we'll figure it out. And then I will meet you at the place at the time. Rhett was about to say the place and the time but then decided not to because you're listening. He's off the phone now, he's back. Okay, that was my wife.

What you talking about money for? You gonna bribe the guy? No, she was, this is confusing, I don't know. She just got her nails done and she doesn't have a way to get to pay. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah, yeah, so she's gonna use the company card and then we're gonna have to, you know,

we're gonna have to call the accountant and reimburse the company for her nails. We just need to make a video about her getting her nails done. Done, it's a business expense. Okay so, you know, all that to lead up to the fact that. Or you know what, we just made it a business expense. We're talking about it on Ear Biscuits.

Okay, done, I won't reimburse. You're saying that my wife's nails are on the company. And again, if any of the IRS people are listening, if that's legal, then I'm in it. They don't listen. And if they're not listening, then that was a joke. Yeah. So I'm in it. And if they're not listening, then that was a joke. Yeah. So I'm having that meeting.

And your wife's nails are gonna look good for it. Yeah. Yeah, it'll be the two of us. I actually think that Shepherd is going to be there because that is, hold on. I think the Shepherd is gonna be there and we're gonna give him a phone and kind of set him up. Jesse said we'll put him in a different table.

Oh gosh. Different table with the phone. That can't, is that a good idea? No, I think. I'ma stand out. I think. You know what? Nope, don't even answer the question because I didn't ask. I think it humanizes the family a little bit.

You know, this is just a couple of. Look, we have a small human that lives in our house. Right, yeah, just trying to propagate the human species. So anyway, I have a lot of confidence that we're gonna be able to come to some sort of congenial conclusion. Well, I really feel that way. You know, I hope so.

But I just wanna go ahead and tell you that I also wrote him a letter via his lawyer. Yeah. So he might have a little more information than what was in your letter and what you're gonna share with them. I don't believe that. No, I don't write letters.

That's so archaic. No, but I mean, this is, I gotta tell you. So that will be another subsequent ear biscuit that, oh my gosh, or it might be broadcast live on court TV. Does that still exist? If this doesn't pan out. So I'm interested. I wanna be on the people's court.

Does that still exist? Can I go? Can I be at a table with Shep and be recording it on video, man? No. Can you record it with a voice memo? I honestly don't know how I even feel about the fact that I've been sharing details about it.

I mean. Yeah, I can tell you're second guessing it. And I'm like, it's probably a good idea. No, because you want to make entertainment. It's all about entertainment for you. Nothing's at stake for me except being entertaining. But like I actually, I care about this relationship. That palm tree.

Not just the fact that the guy is. You want that tree to stay there. Seriously, I don't, I don't care. I'm 100% honest, my wife probably wants it more than I do. No, I believe you, I'm just giving you a hard time for entertainment purposes, lawyers, if you're listening. And there is a chance that when I sit down with him tonight, he'll say,

I actually heard you talk about me on your podcast. I mean, that may get, I mean, but even though I believe that I- You said what he did. I have represented him truthfully and I represented my intentions truthfully. But we found it humorous. And he may not be able to do that.

That's true, that's true. We like to find the comedy in everything, you know? Life, death, taxes. Yeah, death is funny. Not really politics, not really religion. You can die in a funny way. Yeah. I hope to die in a funny way.

That's why we joke about death so much is because we don't joke about politics or religion. Or anything controversial. So we could just turn to death and farts. Yeah, death and farts. And mild sexual innuendo that makes some people feel uncomfortable. That's our MO.

Oh man, you know what? You gotta order a drink, you know? What are you gonna order? Well, it's a coffee shop. What are you know what? You gotta order a drink, you know? What are you gonna order? Well, it's a coffee shop. What are you gonna order? A decaf tea. And is it gonna be that awkward thing where you're both in line and then it's like,

you wanna get into it but you're gonna be having to order? So you're gonna be in line with the guy. You gotta think about this. You need to get there early. Go ahead and order and be seated. And he might be thinking the same thing. I need to leave now then. And then you're both in line together no matter what.

So you might need to be late so he already has his drink and he's seated. Or you need to look through the window and if he's already seated, good. If he's not there, good. This is a good point. You don't wanna pre-talk. You don't wanna pre-talk in line

because you know you're not gonna have a talk in line. Hey, I'm gonna get a drink real quick and then we'll sit down. But what if he's in line? I'm not gonna have a talk in line. Hey, I'm gonna get a drink real quick and then we'll sit down. But what if he's in line? Then I'm not gonna talk to him. You're gonna stand next to him in line and not talk to him at all? I need to go right now, I gotta figure this out.

Okay, what? I gotta go, it's time. If I don't leave right now, I'm not gonna get there. What are you gonna do? You need to decide. I'm gonna figure it out on the way, it's a half hour drive. Just if he's already seated down, you're good, but if he's not. I'm gonna give him the nod and the point that I'm gonna get my drink and I'm gonna sit down. If he's in line, listen, if he's already seated down, you're good, but if he's not. I'm gonna give him the nod and the point

that I'm gonna get my drink and I'm gonna sit down. If he's in line, listen, if he's in line, you just sit down and say, you know what? I'm not gonna get a drink, I'm not really thirsty. And then you'll be seen like a freeloader, which is what he's already accusing you of. Oh man, you're screwed. You better get out of here.

Yeah, I'm going, bye. Oh gosh. Oh gosh. I am I'm going, bye. Oh gosh. Oh gosh. I am so freaking nervous for him. Not really though, this is gonna be so entertaining when we hear about it. I can't wait. And we'll share all of it.

If you never hear about this again, boy, that must mean it went really wrong that he can't talk about it at all. I should show up and film it through the window and overdub it. Like we could get like bad lip reading. I love that channel. We could get them to like overdub the thing.

That would be hilarious. I wonder if we'd have to share the revenue with his neighbor. Hmm. I wonder what his wife's nails are gonna look like. I bet she got some sort of like tropical thing. You know how they do that these days? They'll like put, it's not just colors on nails anymore, you know, it's like scenes. They'll do like palm trees and coconuts

and Mai Tais and coconuts. There's whole YouTube channels dedicated to nails. Man, I wonder if we could get into that, you know? Start doing nails on our channel. Jesse, Rhett's wife could get in on that. Totally justify using the business card. Could really come up with something here. But you know what, I forgot you were listening for a second.

But yeah, I'm gonna tee up this childhood episode 22 back from, man, 2014. Man, that's like, that's like almost four years ago. this childhood episode 22, back from, man, 2014. Man, that's like, that's like almost four years ago. It's crazy to think about. I don't know, see how it hits you. Let us know, hashtag Ear Biscuits once that thing is done. I might come back and say a little something to you at the end of it.

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And you know what? For $30 off your first week of HelloFresh, we got a code for you. Go to hellofresh.com and enter EAR30 because you get the $30 off your first week. That's EAR30 once you visit hellofresh.com. Again, hellofresh.com, enter EAR30. Now on to the biscuit that's a throwback to childhood.

Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Rhett. And I'm Link. It's time for another conversation with someone interesting from the internet. Or not, what? Well, I mean, don't sell us that short. I mean, what I was gonna say, this week, that interesting person is you, Link.

Oh, and you, Rhett. And me. Us. Okay, guys, here's what we're going to do. We're just going to interview each other. That's what Rhett and I have decided. We're going to interview each other. This is an experimental, fresh, out-of-the-box-thinking type of Ear Biscuit here.

Hopefully, I believe that this is going to be a wild ride of in-depth conversation between the two of us. Right, okay. Involving some Twitter questions as well. Yeah, I think the thing that we have discovered about Ear Biscuits is that it's been fascinating getting to know all the people that we've talked to. And we just have a feeling that because there is, or are, two of us. There is two of us. There is two of us. There is two of us. There is two of us. We are going to take advantage of the fact that there is two of us and we're going to talk to each other because I'm kind of operating on the premise that we know each other incredibly well and we have discussed a lot together. We've

also incidentally discussed a lot on the internet. People know a lot about our lives. With you. But I still believe there is quite a bit that I don't know about you and that you don't know about me. And maybe things that need to be rehashed. And I don't mean like, let's go back and, you know, open up old wounds or maybe, I don't know, maybe that will happen.

Dig up the buried hatchet? No, I don't think that will happen. But maybe you're saying that, is there a challenge here that we'll see if we can learn something new about each other while the audience members out there learn about us and the intimacies of our inner workings? I think that's where the magic is gonna happen. I'm not kidding because we thought about,

okay, well, we wanted to do a semi-regular episode of Ear Biscuits where we talk to each other. So I will say at the beginning, depending on how this goes, how we feel about it and how you feel about it, we're going to do it again if everyone agrees that this is something worth doing. So let us know. Yeah, let us know on Twitter, hashtag Ear Biscuits. But we're not changing the course of Ear Biscuits. No, no, no.

I do want to clarify that. We have a lot of amazing guests lined up, and that's going to keep happening. That will be the vast majority of what Ear Biscuits is all about. Right. So every now and again, if this is something fun, if this is something that works for everybody, maybe we'll bring it back once a month or every so often. I don't know. We're not committing.

And the last thing I'll say before we dive in and starting to interview each other is you just yawned. I'm just going to pull a Glozell. I'm calling you out. I'm already bored with you. What is up with that? Don't do that, man. It hasn't been that long of a day. I love my job.

I love what I do. I do. And one of the, I mean, it's a privilege to be able to just dream up things and do it and to have you listen to us and enjoy hanging out with us. I mean, I'm sincerely thankful for that. One of my favorite parts of the job that I think is highlighted here in this exercise here is we get to try new things. It's, you know, the analogy of just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. And I think this is just another example of that. It's energizing from a creative standpoint to try new things and just to see what happens.

I mean, that's the key to success and maintaining relevance in the world of entertainment anyway. I mean, for us to be as successful as they have been, and maintaining relevance in the world of entertainment anyway. I mean, for us to be as successful as they have been, and I feel like it's trying to keep your head above water and maintain relevance, and you just have to try new things and see what works. So that's exciting to me. It's energizing, doing the same thing to get old.

I'm not doing this to be successful, Link. I'm doing this because I care about you. Did it sound like I was saying doing it to be successful? I mean, no. I mean, people might think that, though. Well, what I'm trying to say is that it's a creative endeavor to try new things and see what works. Trying to innovate.

And I'm just saying that originally when we were like, well, let's do an Ear Biscuit where we just talk to each other. At first I was like, let's just shoot the breeze. You know, let's just do it when we talk and see where the conversation goes. But then it hit us, it's like, no, the tone of this show is inquisitive, right? It isn't just two guys building on ridiculous ideas

like we do every day on Good Mythical Morning. It's inquisitive. It's like, there's things that- And personal. It's personal and it's inquisitive. And that's what we're going to do. So what we have done is we wanted to, when we do a show like this, a special edition of a Rhett and Link only Ear Biscuit, we want to make it themed.

So we decided that let's just talk about childhood. Okay, now we've done this thing where we talk about people's childhood and their career and all this stuff. Maybe we'll get to all those things with us. But we wanted to start with childhood. So we've come up with some questions for one another. But we also prompted our Twitter followers. Link did this and I this stuff. Maybe we'll get to all those things with us, but we wanted to start with childhood. So we've come up with some questions for one another, but we also prompted our Twitter followers. Link did this and I did this earlier. We said, hey, do you have any questions for the other that you want us to ask one another? And so we have a collection of questions that we've come up with and a collection of questions that you have come up with. And we're just going to

go back and forth and see where this goes. Yeah. We've never interviewed each other. I've asked you questions. I've asked you. In life. I've been like, where do you want to go for lunch? Yeah.

Kind of questions. You did that today, and we went to that place. I got Juevos Rancheros. It was very good. We went to that place. I still taste it. Okay. Is that your first question?

No, because lunch is over. Can you still taste what you ate for lunch? See, I can. I cannot. I think this is a good place to start. We're gonna, I mean, this is not my question. This is from Bob Saget has swag on Twitter. Oh, I thought that was Bob Sage. It has swag. Tell the story of how you became Blood Brothers. Not really a question, but we'll go with it anyway. Would you please tell us the story? What if I added that? It would be polite.

Okay, so the story of us becoming Blood Brothers, I think we may have mentioned it in places, but I don't know that we've ever fully unpacked the true story of the Blood Oath Pact. Which it really happened. That we really made in high school. And it has been cataloged or represented in our documentary that we made years ago called Looking for Ms. Locklear, where we kind of tell the story about the blood oath that we made. And in the movie, we reenact that and we, or we say we went back to the same place. No, we talked about how we went to the rock. But we didn't talk about the blood oath. I don't know where we talked about it. We talk about things all over the place, but this is going to be the definitive place to tell this story now. Right.

a definitive place to tell this story now. Right. I really think it starts with the cow pasture. Don't you? I mean, that's the location of the Blood Oath, so I think that's the starting point. Yeah, so we grew up in Buies Creek, North Carolina near a country club. Not in the country

club. We weren't those kinds of people, so don't judge us. We were outside of the country club, very near to a place called Keith Hills. So this is a golf course. Yeah, an 18 hole at the time golf course. And what hole was it that was on the far edge of the golf course? Hole three? It was hole number six.

It was hole number six, which is now, they changed the back nine and the front nine. So it's whatever that would be. It's the sixth hole of the back nine. So I guess that would be hole number 16. I've never played golf. I'm honored that you're asking me. Hole number 15. You're like asking me math plus golf, and my mind is blown.

It was hole number six, and I'm just telling you this because it's the old number six, and if you happen to live in the area, if you go down there, and it's a par four that goes up a hill, and then to the right there's a creek, and across the creek, there is a cow pasture that was constantly filled with cattle. And this was more attractive to us,

not that we were attracted to cows. I mean, we did grow up in Buies Creek, but that's not what I mean. We were more attracted to the cow pasture than we were to the golf course, especially Link. Yeah. Okay, that's true. So what we would do is we would um after school i mean we had to been

like 16 years old because you would we would drive our cars i know we would ride our bikes we might have been 14 or 15 when we started doing this but we would go out to the cow pasture no it was a middle we started in middle school because ben greenwood was the one who came up with the idea and we were really active with ben all throughout elementary school and especially middle school. So our favorite hobby was to go across the golf course, across the stream into the cow pasture and chase the cows.

You just called Buies Creek a stream, just so you know. That was Buies Creek. That was the creek of Buies. Really? You called it the stream. I never knew that. You didn't know that until right now? I've already learned something. I didn't know that was Buies Creek. That was Bu creek of Buies. Oh, really? You called it the stream. I did not. I never knew that. You didn't know that until right now?

I've already learned something. I didn't know that was Buies Creek. That was Buies Creek. Wow. It ran behind my house, and then it kept going all the way through Keith Hills. So nothing is more exhilarating in the town of Buies Creek than having a herd of cattle flee your presence. And it's just exhilarating to do that until the farmer shows up and chases you off.

But there was a pond there that the cows would get in and around the pond, there were some rocks, one of which was a very big rock within, I'm talking, it was probably a five foot tall boulder. It was big. It was obviously a rock that had been dug up out of the ground. You know those farm ponds that are completely rectangular and they have two hills of dirt on each side of them

Because they just dug it out with a big tractor. So this big rock comes out and a little rock beside it and for some reason we and this is what we talked about in the intro to the film was We devised this plan where we would just have these long, drawn-out conversations. When we were resting from chasing the cows, we would sit down on the rock, and we came up with this system that whoever was sitting on the big rock

would have the floor to talk, and then the other person would sit on the small rock and listen and can only ask questions to keep the conversation going. We need that here on Ear Biscuits. It was very much... Like a bigger chair and a littler chair. It was very much like an Ear Biscuit, wasn't it?

Well, it was. It was kind of like this. And then after a while, you would have your time, and then you would trade spaces, and the person would sit on the big rock, and they would have the floor to dictate the conversation. And I want to be clear here that our conversations... I don't remember a whole lot of details, but that is what we're going to kind of talk about, is what we ended up talking about. Our conversations were probably, if we were to go back and listen to them now, we would laugh at what we thought, how we thought,

the things that we said to each other. But we weren't just talking about what it was like to be in middle school. We were talking about the future. We always talked about the future. We were certainly talking about girls at times. We would talk about what you would imagine that kids would talk about. Look at that big cow.

But we would talk about things like that. What if that cow could fly? Would you ride it? You know? What if, I don't know, just stupid stuff. Very amateur middle school philosophical questions. But the thing that strikes me is that- But we were very future-oriented as well.

Yeah, we would talk about- Dreams. What it was that we wanted to do. And I want to be clear here that we grew up in Buies Creek, which was an amazing place to grow up, but it was not the kind of place that you just naturally, you didn't think about careers in entertainment or comedy. You didn't know anybody who did that kind of thing. So there wasn't any real sense that that was going to happen. But we decided one day that we started talking more about,

we wanted to do something, just this big something that we didn't know what it was, but we wanted to do it together. Right. When we grew up. We wanted to, yeah. And first of all, I'm sure this whole future orientation is something that knowing you and knowing myself better now, I can pretty much bet that this, that whole future bend is something that came from your mind. Cause you just were always,

that's how you think. Whereas the whole system of who was talking when and how we, how we talk. You came up with that. The rules of analyzing questions. I'm sure that was probably my idea. I can't remember, but just the way that our brains work differently,

I could see how that would come together. But yeah, we would talk about what are we going to do? And it wasn't, we didn't talk about entertainment at first. I think we did, we certainly knew we liked to entertain and show off and take advantage of any audience that we could find. But we had the idea to do the blood oath without saying, okay, we're definitely going to be filmmakers. It was, let's make a blood oath that we're going to be teammates in creating something. We're going to be like business partners in whatever we do.

Like, yeah, we're friends now but we we have a sense that we're gonna we're gonna like make something big i don't know what it is but we should probably write it down and then well if you're gonna write it down we should probably cut ourselves and sign it in blood i mean and that's what we did we took two sheets of paper out there we wrote down we wrote something that was i I mean, unfortunately, I'll go ahead and tell you, we don't have these sheets of paper anymore. As sad as that is. And in fact, Link is the one that would, I lose everything or I used to lose everything. You'd lose things more now than I do now. But back in those days, you collected everything, right?

But you don't have the paper, but I can attest to you that it did exist at one point. And we wrote something that was like, we're going to do something awesome, and we're going to do that something awesome together. Now let's cut ourselves. And do you remember how we cut ourselves? I think it was like a shard of glass that was like laying in the- Yeah, it was like a sharp piece of glass. In the dirt. Yeah, yeah. This is not advised, by the way.

And we cut our palms. Yeah, you should cut your, if you're gonna do a blood oath, you should cut, like prick the end of your finger. Why cut your friggin' palms? Well, I've established that we were misguided. But. And I kept that thing in my wallet for like two and a half years.

Yeah. And then I lost the whole wallet. That's the problem. Oh, that's what happened with you. I lost the whole wallet. Yeah, yeah, I just went that's what happened with you. I lost the whole wallet. Yeah, yeah. I just went home and probably set it down and then my mom threw it away.

But it meant a lot. The idea of it. It meant a lot, the idea. I was definitely committed to the idea. Yeah, so that was the question from Bob Saget Has Swag. That's the story. So I guess from that point on, it wasn't necessarily something that we talked

a lot about but there was always this guiding principle that was well it's in blood you know we don't have to talk about it all the time

to know that it's going to happen yeah we've got to stay committed to this amorphous idea that we're going to do something together

something big the word big was definitely in it. Are you going to ask me a question now? Yeah. Do you want to go first? I'm going to... Yeah, I'm going to move... There's another question that I think is good

for the both of us to discuss, kind of like that, but I want to move this into a more one-on-one place. It's a little weird. Yeah, this is going to be strange. I like it, though. Now, when we first met, we met in first grade. I moved from North Carolina. I mean, I moved from California to North Carolina,

and I met you at the time. You were at Buies Creek Elementary School. Do you think I forgot? This is for the benefit of the audience. This is for everyone listening. And we met on that first day, and there's a movie about that. But you were living with your mom and your stepdad Jimmy at the time, right? Which was in Buies Creek.

Jimmy Capps. Before that, where did you live? I don't know this. Before you moved in with Jimmy, where'd you live? I don't know this. Before you moved in with Jimmy, where'd you live? My mom and dad split up when I was two years old. And where were they? I don't remember, I was two. They weren't, I do remember.

Well, I know, I don't remember. My dad was a farmer at the time, like a tobacco farmer in Boone Trail,, which is, I mean, you know, between Lillington and Sanford, there's like nothing out there except fields. And, you know, some of those were my dad's. And then a trail to Boone. I guess so. So that's where I was born. born. And so, but my, I mean, my first memories are my mom got remarried to Jimmy and they were friends, they were like friends from like high school. And yeah, so they had known each other

for years and then they had both went through a divorce and then I think rebounded. They both had, they were in the rebound marriage together. They're not together now. When I was 13, they got divorced. But my first memories are in that house that where you met me with Jimmy and my step sister. The house in Buies Creek.

In me, his daughter. So, but where, but your mom, okay, so you were in Boone Trail. And I remember, I guess I remember the house that I was like born in where my mom and dad lived. I'm pretty sure.

And then where did your mom live after the divorce from your dad? I'll explain why I'm asking this in a second. I think that she moved into a trailer in her parents, like next door to her parents. In Anger. In Anger. In Anger. Why?

I asked this because I've never thought about this. Yeah? This is pretty, this is kind of crazy to think about, too. I know why I was in Buies Creek. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, I came to Buies Creek because my dad got a job at Campbell Law School teaching law, still teaches law at Campbell Law School until this day.

And that's why we moved from Thousand Oaks, California to Buies Creek, North Carolina. And I never really thought about the fact that like you were in Buies Creek because your mom married a guy who lived in Buies Creek. Yeah. Jimmy had a house. And I just want to point out that that was the seminal moment. And I just want to point out that that was the seminal moment. You know, if your mom had been like, you know, let's just stay here in Boone Trail or I'm going to stay in Andrew, or she had not had a romantic connection with her former high school classmate, Jimmy Capps,

you would have never been at Buies Creek School. Because I always wonder, I was like, what? I didn't know why your mom was in Buies Creek, you know, because it was, or why Jimmy was there. Because all of my family is in Lillington. Other places. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No family, I mean, within 15 minutes. So we can thank Jimmy Capps for this. There would have been no blood oath

if there hadn't been a Jimmy Capps. We should call him right now. I don't have his number. Okay. I mean, I remember the number when I lived there. It's probably the same number. Okay, well, I'll just put it out there and then anyone can call it if they want to.

Do you remember the number? My first phone number where we were friends? This is a really good question. Can you remember a phone number? No, but do you, no, I think this is something that younger people today will not understand. We knew everyone's phone number. Like I remember Leslie Peoples' phone number.

Oh, all the girlfriends. My first girlfriend. Now, there was a speed dial, but yeah, you had to basically know everybody's phone number because you had to punch it in. You couldn't pull it up on some smart device. Okay, I'm going to give you the number. We can bleep out.

Okay, 910-893. Nope, that's close, though. 910893. Nope, that's close though.. Wow! That was pretty close. I mean, that's amazing. I have not dialed that number since, what year? For like 25 years.

And I almost got it right. Yeah, but I did get it right. Do you remember my phone number, which is still my parents' phone number? Yeah, that's easy. I'm not gonna say it. Give it to me. It's still your parents' phone number.

I don't want them to have to beep anything out. It's too much work. You know that you know it, though. Yeah, I'll definitely know it. You wanna call it right now? Yeah, but I call it all the time. I talk to your mom. Okay.

We just, we have a connection. That's good. Me and Mama Di. Mama Di, we call her. Diane. But it's weird. I mean, your parents are still together. It's weird having your first memories and growing up in a house where I know this guy's not my dad.

He's just a stepdad who, like, I didn't have that much of a connection with him. It was like, there was this feeling of, well, you're not my real dad. You're just my stepdad. You're my mom's husband. So we're not going to be that tight, you know? He still spanked you though. But he, and he should have, and he needed to.

The times that he did, he probably should have done it more than that. But we weren't that close. And it was this thing of, okay, I have a sister, but she's not really my sister. And I don't like her. And I don't like her even more because I have permission to like her even less because she's not a real sister. And I don't have to really love Jimmy.

I can just either like him or not or tolerate him. That's kind of what I grew up in. And that's all I knew. But it was, I mean, I was certainly envious when I'd go to your house as a youngster, and, oh, look at this happy family. There's two brothers who are real brothers, and both the parents actually live there, and they drink milk for dinner. We did.

Isn't that nice? We drink a lot of milk. That's why I'm six foot seven. And I remember thinking, well, I'm going over to a house where there's like an intact family. Like there was a sense of pressure. You thought about that.

Yeah, and I was like, I guess if the parents are still together, you drink milk for dinner. Well, and you know, And I hated milk. It never crossed my mind. I never thought, like, I never was like,

I wonder, this is, kids don't think about this I think kids nowadays think about this because they're more like in tune with what everyone's feeling because of the internet

but I definitely didn't think about that I never thought I wonder how Link feels about this does the fact that you know

I have a dad and mom who live together how does this affect him and I also did not ask probably the more important question, which was, how does the fact that he lives with a stepdad affect him? I mean, we didn't even talk, and you didn't even think about that, really. At nine years old,

you don't have these type of deep conversations. Matter of fact, you don't have them until you have an ear biscuit without a guest. Well, but you know the sad thing, and you know this, probably by the time when this ear biscuit comes out, my parents will not be in that house. That is sad,

because I have a lot of memories of, you know, being jealous of your family in that house. No, I wouldn't say. They're moving on. My parents bought a new house. I don't think that I was jealous. But, and Jimmy wasn't a bad guy. Remember, he built that fort for me.

And really for us, like you were pretty much the only friend that came to my house. And we would walk out there. I went to a lot of people's houses. Not to make you feel bad, I went to your house more than anybody's, but I was addicted to spending the night at people's houses. I would meet a new kid at school, he would be there a week,

and I would invite myself to spend the night with him. I don't understand why, I was just like, hey dude, myself to spend the night with him. I don't understand why. I was just like, hey dude, can I spend the night at your house? Can I look in your refrigerator and see what your family's like? I think it's a, I mean, it's a personality thing, but I also think it may be a sense of security.

I was absolutely terrified to stay at anybody else's house. I mean, that one time that we had that sleepover at Adam Nicholson's house and he showed us Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Yeah. And then afterward, we walked around in the dark in the woods

in pitch black and we're like in fifth grade. Yeah. Like, I was terrified, man. And then I opened his refrigerator and it was like,

wow, there's a lot of food all over the place in here. Yeah, the refrigerator was scary. I was fascinated by him. My refrigerator at home was very neat and very orderly, and that made me secure, as secure as I could be. But I guess I was still, I didn't have the security of comfort to be able to leave home. But we had that fort. It was basically just, you remember it was just two trees?

I remember it. just two trees. I remember it. With two two-by-fours connecting between the two trees, like eight feet in the air. It was probably like five feet in the air, but we just felt like it was really tall. Well, it was the kind of fort that you get up there, and then you sit there, and you're like, well, what do we do now?

And then you get down out of the fort. Come back down. Right? But Jimmy made that fort. It was awesome to be out there for a few seconds. Okay, I should ask you a question at this point. Did you or do you resent your dad? Yes.

No. Oh. Finish the question. Let me finish the question. Do you resent your dad for all the basketball drills he made you do? I really want to know how you feel about that today. I know we've talked about the fact that your dad was basically the impetus in both of us going to engineering instead of going to film school, which by the time we were graduating from high school, that was the application of the blood oath was let's go to film school at UNC Asheville. And he was like, no, you need to do something sensible, Rhett.

And I'm like, well, okay, I'll do that too. But he wanted you to be a basketball player in college. And he made you do all these drills. Like, there was a span there when I couldn't, you were like, oh, don't come over to hang out until I've done my drills. So I'd have to wait two hours. How much, you were being groomed to be a basketball star.

Well, I- For nothing. Do you hold that against your dad? For nothing? That's my question. Well, then that was a statement. For nothing? Question mark?

You're not a basketball player. I was one heck of a basketball player at one point, though. And I could still beat you. Well, first, before you give me, at least characterize the amount of work that you put into it and how your dad was involved in it. Yeah, okay, so, you know, I was tall. That's a well-known fact.

I still am. I was athletic. That's disputed at this point. But I was very athletic, played all kinds of sports, and was successful at them, loved them and was very competitive still am competitive, but I Wanted to succeed. I mean I had an older brother three years older than me

Two years older in age and three years in school and we were very competitive. We played a lot of basketball We were a very athletic family. My dad was very much into sports and so we were too We were a very athletic family. My dad was very much into sports, and so we were too. So as soon as I – I was self-motivated. Up to a certain extent, I was very self-motivated. Eighth grade, I wanted to be the basketball star. When we got to high school, all I could think about was getting onto the JV team.

By the end of my freshman year, I'd been put on the varsity team to play in the state playoffs. And I was in, and I just thought, I mean, it had definitely been ingrained in me that, listen, like you can be a basketball star. You can pay for your college this way. And you got to understand that, you know, from a very young age, not only was I interested in basketball, but I was the ball boy, one of the ball boys for Campbell basketball. I remember how much I was into Campbell basketball. Went to every single game, was the ball boy along with my brother and Brooks Lee and Michael Juby. And I wanted that really bad. It was like really important. So when high school rolls around and then it's just like, okay, now you've got to get good so that you can get recruited and play college basketball. My dad, my dad was not, he, he was, uh, he wasn't overbearing. It was, I mean, he, he has that kind of personality and people see that he, you go to a basketball

game. My dad's there. He's going to yell at the ref. He's going to yell at the coach. He's going to yell at me if I'm on the court. I don't know if something about my personality, I never, it never hit me until later in life that that should have been embarrassing. To have your dad yell at you to do something differently from the stands in high school in front of everyone. Most people would be embarrassed by that. Like, pull your pants up! I was looking at him. And then Coach Gage would have to tell me, he was like, don't listen to your dad, listen to me.

You know what I'm saying? And I was just like, oh, okay. But you didn't care. I didn't care. I wasn't embarrassed by it. And then he would be like, you need to do these drills. You need to do the 300-shot drill. So I would do things where I would shoot 300 shots a day.

How long does it take to shoot 300 shots? I don't know. And I had ball-handling drills. And first of all, you got to understand, I was actually, I was very naturally talented and did a lot of work, but I didn't do nearly as much work as a guy who actually ends up being a great player does.

But then he got like the strength shoes. Yeah, so Rat had a, in his front yard, he was basically at the end of a dead end street, not really a cul-de-sac, but your dad put a basketball goal out there, and then so you would play on the street because it was the end of the street. But then I remember coming over there one day,

and under the basketball goal, there were three increasingly larger-sized boxes made out of plywood. Oh, yeah. And the tallest... Painted burgundy. And the tallest... Painted burgundy. And the tallest one was like four and a half feet tall. No, it was big enough for a white man like me

to jump up onto from the ground. And then I was like, right, what's this? And then he's like, well, it's my strength shoe boxes. And then you had these shoes. Shoes that looked like the Starship Enterprise turned upside down. Yeah. It was a shoe, but then it had these shoes. Shoes that looked like the Starship Enterprise turned upside down. Yeah. It was a shoe,

but then it had a platform built off of the- The toe. Of the balls of the feet. But just the toe. So that your heel was suspended in air and you were forced to only use the balls of your feet to run around. Yeah.

Sounds like a torture device, right? It was. It was supposed to increase your vertical. I couldn't jump, but I was tall and it didn't It was. It was supposed to increase your vertical. I couldn't jump, but I was tall, and it didn't really matter. It was supposed to increase your vertical leap and your quickness and all these things. You know, my dad also had the big ball. You remember that? Yeah, big basketball.

It was a ball that was a few inches bigger than a normal basketball, and if you could shoot with the big ball, then you could shoot with the regular ball. You know, the interesting thing, sidebar, my dad is still into these devices. My dad is a prolific golfer. He plays once a week, and he's probably going to retire soon. He's going to play all the time. And he wears strength shoes? He has.

You know you're watching TV, and you see a device, a golfing device being sold? My dad has that. Like every single thing that you can buy, every contraption, every driver, he has all of it. And every time I talk to him, he's like, I got the so-and-so saying it's a thing that'll make you break your wrist in the right place. And so I see that going back and I'm the same way. You know, he's compulsive.

The gimmick, the gimmicks. Yeah, he's into the gimmicks. He's into the things being compulsive about that. And so am I. But your question was, do I resent that? I don't. Because there were long hours. I mean, you would have to wear the strength shoes

and jump up on the box, jump down, jump up on the bigger box, jump down, jump up on the third big box, jump down. I mean, this is like, whenever I came to visit you, I was like, man, it's like going to a like a torture camp.

Like Guantanamo. I honestly can say I don't resent it. Here's what happened. I worked pretty hard, a lot harder than most kids work at their sport probably, and I was good at it. You know, I had a lot of success. I had the opportunity to play college basketball. I turned it down so we could go to NC State and be engineers. That's kind of a different story. But the idea of being taught that, no, you have to work hard. You have to practice. You have to devote X amount of hours to this if you're going

to be better than everyone else at it. If you're going to be the best. Yeah. Because this isn't just some hobby, right? This is like, do you want to be the best at this? And I just think that's how my dad thinks, and that's how he taught me to think. And so I think that the long story is that we ended up getting, and we started this band, the Wax Paper Dogs, and we thought that we were going to be rock stars, and that immediately took me off of the basketball track. And I was like, I don't want to do this.

Superseded the basketball aspirations for you. Yeah, because I was like, you know, I'm not going to be in the NBA. I wasn't that good. You know, I might go to like a lower level Division I college and basically just be a basketball player. But I'm like, I'm not going to be able to play music. And what is Link going to do? Because we wanted to go to the same school.

The Blood Oath? Yeah, the Blood Oath. It all comes back to the Blood Oath. And my dad accepted that. And I know that it let him down a little bit because he wanted one of his kids to be a college athlete. I know that for a fact. And I had, and my brother was very good at basketball too. And he could have played at a smaller school too, but he ended up going to Carolina. He wanted to, um, you know, go to a good school and get a, get a real degree. And so I

ended up doing the kind of the same thing. And so I know that that was a disappointment, but he never let me know it. He never said it. He never said anything. When I decided, hey, I'm going to NC State. So no, I don't resent it. It wasn't overbearing. It was just, he's an intense individual, but I think I needed that.

I remember kind of watching from the sidelines. Well, literally watching from the sidelines. I certainly was no basketball player. But not only that, but watching from the sidelines of this whole drama of, are you going to be a basketball player? And we didn't talk about this blood oath thing when we're like juniors and seniors in high school. It wasn't like, man, you can't be a basketball player because we signed a blood oath like a couple of years ago. But we did talk about it a little bit

because remember we went through that whole phase where we talked about UNC Asheville because I was being recruited by UNC Asheville. But I remember thinking that I just couldn't, it's not like I could make an argument to convince you that you shouldn't be a basketball player. But I remember being nervous about it. It was like, well, we had this kind of vision for what we were gonna do and it was being threatened,

but it was just something that I couldn't press. But I also feel like when we made the decision to be engineers, we also kind of concurrently made the decision to be engineers um we also kind of concurrently made the decision i think passively that this blood oath thing was probably just this like we're going to be friends forever yeah i i because i think that it the practical really overpowered the dream and we didn't have a lot of opportunity it was like well we're not going to film school. That seemed like the only shot that we had at this. I'm not going to move to Los Angeles.

I'm not going to... Well, we didn't even talk about that. Los Angeles didn't exist. We didn't know a person, a person who had ever moved to Los Angeles. I had moved from there as a child, but we didn't know anybody who moved there to do anything. Not one person.

We never discussed it. Yeah, yeah, it was totally off the radar. So, I just think we, you know. Yeah, and as engineers, it was the type of thing that, yeah, it was just, okay, yeah, now we're just gonna do this, but we're still friends. Yeah, yeah, and listen, I don't wanna, I also wanna isolate this conversation to childhood

and high school, and I don't, we can talk about the career stuff. Sure. Let's move it back a little bit. So you have another question for me? I have another question for you. And that question is, why did you care about school? Because let me premise that with, I cared about school because I was scared of my dad, as we've established.

Loved my dad, respected my dad. I was fearful of my dad because he did not put up with, you know, he didn't put up with bad performance, including grades. And so it's just like, I was always a straight A student, except for conduct. I had problems in conduct, but I got straight A's in the subjects. And if I made a B, it was a really straight A student, except for conduct. I had problems in conduct, but I got straight A's in the subjects. And if I made a B, it was a really big deal. You can't make a B in the McLaughlin household. That's a failure, right? So I carry that all the way through high school, all the way through college.

And never made a C, always made a B. That was the worst I ever did. But you did exactly the same thing. Actually, probably were a slightly, definitely a better college student than I was, and a slightly better high school student. Why? Why did you care? I was just naturally smarter than you.

No. I don't know. I think I just felt like, and it wasn't this, well, if you're going to do something, you got to do it to the best of your ability. It wasn't an external value that I was taught. But I think it, and I don't know that it, but on the other extreme,

I don't know that it was kind of a people pleasing thing, but it was like, well, okay, if, I mean, I'm a student, I'm supposed to do the best that I can't know that it was kind of a people pleasing thing, but it was like, well, I mean, I'm a student, I'm supposed to do the best that I can. It was just- But if you had brought home a C- It was just an approach. Your mom would have been disappointed, but that would be the end of it.

No, my mom was not a disciplinarian in any way, really. I mean, I was her only child, you know, and the only child she would ever have. I think that she had that sense. So, you know, I was the baby. It was, there was not a lot of discipline going on or, so she was not driving me to do it, but it was something that I've just always had that, and I don't think it's a good thing, by the way, that I just felt like, well, okay, I'm just supposed to, I just, I have to be good at this.

And so I don't even think I know. I think now there's- What were you scared of though? Because- I wasn't scared of anything. Well, I would maybe just feel like a failure. It's like if you don't do your best, you just feel like, well, I just kinda like, if I'm gonna do this, I have to really try.

I wasn't trying to please anybody. So I don't know. What do you think? Well, I got you. Do you have a theory? No, I don't. I just, and it hit me recently. Cause then- Cause I know, like I said, I know exactly why I never slacked off.

My parents, both my mom and my dad, they just instilled this fear. My mom used to say all the time, like, even as we were going off to get ready to go to college, she was like, now you've gotten by with straight A's in high school just because you're smart. But when you go to college, everybody's smart and you're really gonna have to work. So I remember that first semester, me and you roomed together and we just studied.

Killed it. Our freshman year, we just studied all the time. You know, 4.0 freshman year. And at a certain point, you realized that you didn't care that much and it didn't matter to work less.

Sophomore year. I never had that realization. Like you'd be out, much and it didn't matter to work less. Sophomore year. I never had that realization. Like you'd be out, you and Greg, our roommate, you'd be out playing video games and I would be studying for like four more hours because just a blind sense of obligation to, well, if you start it, you have to finish it and you have to do as good as you can. If you don't do the best that you can do,

you're robbing yourself of something. I mean, maybe my robbing yourself of something. I mean, maybe my nana kind of taught me that if you're gonna mow grass, don't just make sure all the grass is cut. Make sure it's cut the best it can be cut because I cut all her neighbor's yards. And she said, don't half-ass anything.

The only time I heard my nana cuss as a kid was when she told me that. Don't half-ass the grass. Don't half-ass the grass is the only time I heard my Nana cuss as a kid was when she told me that. Don't half-ass the grass. Don't half-ass the grass is the only time I ever heard a cuss as a kid. Now she's just, you know. She's foul-mouthed by a woman now. She doesn't care and neither do I.

But I don't know that she instilled that. I think it was, I don't know. It was just, if I can't do it, I have do it and i'm going to be a failure if i don't no i did yeah because it didn't hit me until by college by college it was a i got to make the best grades because that that links directly to getting a good job and i've always been anxious about money i don't think money was related to grades at a young age, though. I should give you another question. You should.

Wasn't it weird watching horror movies with your mom? I know that as a kid, she would put on Hellraiser and watch it with you. Yeah, she would. And you've kind of talked about it as, isn't this funny? And you come from this really conservative family, but in this particular area, and that was kind of the joke, that your mom literally, when you were in middle school,

watched Hellraiser with you. She would go and rent videos all the time, and then you'd watch horror movies with her. Yeah, well. And after that Texas Chainsaw Massacre, I wouldn't watch a horror movie until I graduated from college. I think the deal with my mom

is that she took the Motion Picture Association's guidelines very, very, very, literally it said parental guidance. You know? So she guided you in front of the television to watch it with her. Yeah, yeah. very, very, literally it said parental guidance. You know? So she guided you in front of the television to watch it with her. Yeah, yeah, as long as she was there.

Hellraiser's not PG, dude. No, no. It's R. It's restricted. It says parents strongly cautioned. It says, you know, children not permitted without their parents. But that means you are permitted with your parents. I think that's- What age were you when you saw Hellraiser with your mom?

Middle school, man. And what was that experience like? Awesome. Because for me, that would have been the worst thing ever. I loved it then, I love it now. My mom, my mom is, you know my mom, she's the sweetest lady.

She is, first of all, she's the sweetest lady, but she's still very conservative. But she has this part of her which is dark side. No, no, she likes that kind of thing. And she called me, she texted me a couple months ago whenever this movie was in the theater, and she was like, I just watched Insidious 2 in a theater all by myself. So, you know, she's this...

Not only meaning she didn't have a date, like your dad didn't go with her. No, my mom goes to movies by herself. But there was no one else in the theater. She was the only one. And she said something like, it was so scary, but I loved it. So, and I totally relate to that.

She instilled that. When we invited all of our friends over here for my birthday to watch The Conjuring. Well, that's the point. You had to get together for your birthday and that was the idea. It was to get a bunch of grown men together and to scare the crap out of them

and watch them act like little children. And that's what they did. It was embarrassing. I was embarrassed for half of those guys. Now I was scared out of my mind, but I loved it. I don't know, we like thrills like that in my family. And my mom has just always been like that. Was it weird?

No, it was awesome. Did it affect me negatively? I don't know, I still like horror movies. But it turned out okay. I went to my dad's. I had visitation every other weekend, and he pulled it. I remember

he rented Lethal Weapon 2, which has a sex scene in it. And I guess by the time the sex scene came on, and I was like in third grade or something, and he didn't, you know, it was like, just let it roll. Regular speed.

Regular speed. I watched a lot of sex scenes in Fast Forward. With your mom. A lot of really quick thrusting. Yeah, oh gosh, because that's horror movies. There's gotta be the sex scene. Lethal Weapon 2, I mean, it was a great movie, but there's a sex scene that I wouldn't recommend

for any of my kids or a third grader. Yeah, my mom never let the sex scenes just live in their regular pace. That would have been wrong. But fast. Yeah, you had to get through it. So she, I mean, she restricted me somewhat. Your performance expectations now in marriage are to be very quick about it. I brought a lot of weird perspectives into my marriage, having seen only fast forward sex my entire life. Wow. That's great. I was so embarrassed with that.

I remember. We didn't discuss it. I didn't tell my mom. Now, speaking of guilty pleasures, like horror movies, you, now I'm in the same boat, but I feel like you had a special passion for it, gangster rap. Tell me about your obsession with gangster rap and how that came about. which was a podcast. First, you'll see that it says Rhett and Link cast, and we released it on iTunes,

and we started putting them on YouTube. That video, we give a little bit of this story, actually. I haven't seen it in so long, I don't remember, but the start of my love for rap music was your brother Cole. Cole was, it was so cool to go to your house because not only did we get to hang out we were friends but a guy who was four years older three three years older was there i was like okay this guy's a we're we're in eighth grade he's a junior in high school man yeah and he would try to pin me against you like not physically but like i remember that he would say okay you'd say i got the new okay i got

the new dj jazzy jeff tape and he'd be like i got the new young mc tape and this is this is way back in the day but and he would say which Link, which one do you like better? And I'd be like, well, I gotta pick whoever Cole likes better because he's older and he's cooler. You didn't think he was cool. Well, he was a jerk. You would get in fights, and I would just laugh and laugh and laugh.

He would make you angry. Oh, it made me so mad. He would make you angry in front of me just to embarrass you. Oh, yeah. And I took the bait every time. And I remember was so mad. He would make you angry in front of me just to embarrass you. Oh, yeah. And then you got... And I took the bait every time. And I remember you got mad that one time, and you started chasing him. He ran

in his room and slammed the door, and you threw your speed stick deodorant against the door, and it went everywhere like a firework. But you know what he was saying at that moment? He was saying that I liked Melissa Hood. Ooh. Remember that? Melissa Hood? She lived in the neighborhood. Oh, yeah, I remember.

There's nothing wrong with liking Melissa Hood. I didn't like her, though. I mean, to this day, I'll throw deodorant at you if you tell me that I liked Melissa Hood. No, but he just would start it, and he kept pushing it and pushing it and pushing it. And I remember the two of you ran. I can vividly remember this.

I had a good arm, and you ran into his room, and I came to the top of the steps, and I remember, speed stick deodorant, and I threw it, it would have hit him between the eyeballs. If he didn't slam the door. He slammed the door, and it just blew up all over the door. And white. White.

Everywhere. Dust, particles everywhere. I was so mad. But he liked gangster rap. Ice- the way and it was so off-limits to listen to this stuff That's another thing now in my mom had let's watch horror movies with her, but she did not know She was ignorant about the gangster rap She did not know what was being rapped about in my brother's room And I felt like it was so cool to come to your house,

and I felt like I was friends with a high schooler. I mean, I wasn't, but I had that illusion, because if I took his side, you would be angry, and I would seem cool. It was great. And this music was, everyone always thinks that things have gotten worse. Everyone thinks that things get,

you know, there's moral degradation as time goes on. It has not, no. That's not the case. Okay? People have always been bad, people have always been good. Now, the music has not gotten any worse. I mean, maybe there's a little bit more mainstream acceptance. I mean, N.W. was very misogynistic

and it was very, I mean, and it was very brutal. I mean, talking about... It was over the top. Gang violence, but also- I mean, she was just, it was out of this world. The worst songs were, they were explicitly sexual, misogynistic. It was, I mean, there were a couple of songs that Cole felt so bad about that he taped over them on his cassette tape. He had a little bit of a conscience.

And the first CD I ever saw was one that Cole bought of a rap of like Gangstar. And I was like, this is so cool. One day I'll have a CD player. He didn't, to his credit, he did not have Two Live Crew. He knew there was a line somewhere. And if it was just like, okay, Two Live Crew is just rapping about sex.

That's it. So he's like, okay, I'm not going to do that, but we can stick with the other stuff. We haven't gotten to any Twitter questions. Maybe we should move a little faster for these last ones. Random TV USA wanted me to ask you, who was your best friend before Link? I don't know the answer to this, actually.

Do you remember anybody in California? That's a really good question. I can honestly not tell you the first name of anyone from California. I was three, four, and five when we lived there. I'm sure that my mom could help me think of this, but no, no. Nobody do you remember? No. I mean, I grew up in, my first best friend was Brad, this guy who I went to preschool with for years, and we like would dig holes in the driveway of. What's his last name? McDonald, Brad McDonald.

So we were like preschool buddies. It was just two of us. Loretta kept us. She's like four foot three three inches tall woman. Um, and then kindergarten, Matthew Inzor, who we were friends with all through high school was, I thought he was the coolest guy because he could run almost as fast as Randolph Clegg, who was a black guy. And you weren't friends with black people when I was in kindergarten. I'm just, you know, that's just the way it was. So Randolph was the fastest guy. I wanted him to be my best friend, but he was black. So Matthew, the fastest white guy, had to be my best friend.

And I want to clarify, because I think that there's a lot of people who don't come from the same area and the same time that we came from. And it was a time when- Yeah, he saved me if I've said anything offensive. I want to clarify that we come from a And it was a time when- Yeah, he saved me if I've said anything offensive. I wanna clarify that we come from a place where there was, you know, systematic racism and-

It was ugly. But it wasn't open. By the time it was 1983, 1984, no one was saying any, we didn't hear people say racist things directly to people. We didn't hear white people talk directly directly to people. We didn't hear white people talk directly to black people in a racist way, hardly ever. But they also didn't talk to each other. But white people would talk negatively about black people and vice versa within their own groups. And then you were friends with people of other races. And really,

where we come from, it was just white and black people. That was it. There were really very few Asian people, very few Hispanic people. But you didn't hang out, and you weren't real friends. You didn't go to each other's homes and that kind of thing. And it was just the way it was.

And we didn't know any difference. So I'm just clarifying. It wasn't like you. Thank you for rescuing me. I was no more racist than anyone else at the time, but I was brought up in that. And so I felt like, okay, the coolest people are the people who can run the fastest, because in recess every day, we would have, like, student-organized foot races. The fastest people were the coolest people.

I was nowhere near the fastest, so I just wanted to be friends with the fastest person, or the fastest white person, because that was my only option. Yeah, Matthew Ensor. And then it was first grade the next year when we met. So I had a couple of best friends. Now, Matthew Ensor's best friend was J.R. I can't remember his last name right now, the blonde kid. So I knew that it was not reciprocated. I was not his best friend.

He didn't give it back. I was very frustrated. And then when, you know, we were, I mean, I don't know that we were immediately best friends. We were very close friends, but I don't know if you'd apply that label until that we were best friends. Were we really?

I would say that we were as good of friends as I had at the time, all through elementary school. But I had these friends that, I mean, really, first and second grade, it was kind of like, you know, I had you and Tate Maddox and Michael Juby. Tate Maddox at the time, I mean, he was kind of a tool. I mean, he wore duck head shorts with his shirt tucked in. Nobody else did that. But we thought that was super cool.

I did. He always had a girlfriend. Yeah. But I hated him for it. But then third grade is when Ben Greenwood moved into town, and Ben became, you know, me and you and him. And there were probably times, and I think this relates to Lexi Poe's question from Twitter, she says, was there ever a point

when you guys were kids that you thought your friendship might be over? Hmm. Like a fight, no, but in terms of, am I a second best friend now? Yes. So two part question. The first one, there was definitely a time

in which I thought that Ben was my best friend. I'd say like fourth, fifth grade. We lived closer together. We spent more time together. The three of us were together almost all the time, but then there was also a year in their fourth grade and fifth grade, which we were in different classes. Right, so I- Ben was in my class.

And I would go over and hang out with you guys at Ben's house or your house, and you would report to me all the things you had done over the past two weeks when I wasn't hanging out with you. We found this weed that is hollow in the middle, and we've decided to smoke it, and we're calling it the Big George. Now, they did not put anything in it.

It was just like- It was just an actual weed. It wasn't weed. It was an weed, a weed. And you lit it on fire and you simulated smoking it like a cigarette. You had no clue what you were doing. You didn't even know what marijuana was, certainly.

It was horrible, though. But it was a weed and you called it the Big George. And you would build lean-tos and Ben had all these ideas. And I remember feeling threatened then that, oh, yeah, they're best friends. I'm on the fringe. I live across town. You lived across town and you were in a different class.

But I never thought that a fringe- Like not social class, like a different teacher. You were in a lower class. You lived in a smaller house. No. Yeah, a different teacher. And I don't know how they do it in eighth grade, you know, sixth, seventh, eighth grade these days, but the way we did it is you were in the

same class all day. Well, no, it's for sixth grade, but starting seventh to eighth grade, we did have different classes, different teachers. At this point in the, I'm just going to like come back to the reality of the ear biscuit here. And at this point I'm thinking all of a sudden we've lost our, I feel like I've lost myself in our past and I have no clue how this feels to anyone listening like I feel like oh red link come back to us you're reminiscing about your past but that's why it's experimental I mean this is why we this is why we tried it is this going I have this is why we want we want to know how you feel about it and if you want us to continue to do this kind of thing. But let me answer the second part of the question.

Oh, okay. Was there a point when you were kids that you thought that your friendship might be over? I would say that there were times, and you've relayed this to me before, which I think is also a question that you might have for me about girls. I have a question for you about girls. I do, yeah. uh about girls i have a question for you about girls i do yeah um and that is that i had i was very obsessive about women and fix would go from one girl to the next fixated on a girl whether she reciprocated or not yeah so what's your question because i want to i don't want to go too far well so well my it's not really a question i'm saying that there were times

So, well, it's not really a question. I'm saying that there were times in which I was so into a girl that I kind of forgot about you for a while. Oh, I mean, that certainly happened, but I didn't feel threatened as a best friend because it wasn't another friend. It was a girlfriend. That's a different thing. I kind of feel like I definitely had the question. I wanted to ask you, why do you think you were so obsessive about girls? I almost don't want to ask it now because I feel like we want to keep the podcast to a certain length that I think there's some good stuff to unpack if we decide this is a good thing to do. We can do the relational, the girl stuff, because there's a lot of girl stuff.

Oh, a lot of really good girl stuff. I mean, sharing first girlfriend, sharing first kiss. Your obsession with girls and my fear of girls. That's what they call a teaser, Link. That's good. Let's make that another podcast. Not that we have to end it right now. I'm trying to see if I'm looking through these Twitter questions to see if there's another one.

I feel like this is kind of part couples therapy. What's happening here? Maybe a little bit of that. Do you feel like you're getting an appreciation of our friendship? It's so easy to lose sight of how long we've been friends because you just get into the grind of what are we going to accomplish or what do we have to do this

week or this month or where are we going? No, I think I am gaining appreciation of it. Finally. I do think it is a little bit like, not that I didn't appreciate No, I think I am gaining appreciation of it. Finally. I do think it is a little bit like, not that I didn't appreciate it, I think it is a little bit like counseling without a mediator. I do, unless you call the mythical beasts who are listening, the Ear Biscuiteers, the mediator, which is a weird way to think about them.

Well, I sense their presence. But I do, I think this is a good question to close with, and this is a question that we used as a teaser over and over again on Good Mythical Morning Season 3, I guess it was, when we would, on our question episodes, we would say, did you do this? Do you do that? And did you ever, have you ever punched each other in the face?

And we never answer the question. Did somebody ask that? So DealBiz on Twitter, who's followed us for a while, says, have you ever punched each other in the face? Hashtag Throwback Thursday. He's been a fan for a while, so he knows that this is something that we use all the time as a teaser on Good Mythical Morning.

So let's just close by answering that question. Have we ever punched each other in the face? No. We haven't. Okay, so that's it. We haven't. But I will say... Have you ever reared back your fist at me?

I mean, you were throwing the deodorant at me and Cole. I thought it was because Cole was involved. And I think that's the point I wanted to make. And that is, as children, as children, I don't think we were even ever even close to being on the verge of a physical altercation with one another. And I think that, here's my theory, okay? I have a theory.

But I think that now, in current, our friendship is much deeper, much more complex, stronger than it was when we were 12 years old. But the nature of our friendship and the nature of our business, the nature of this being in this creative endeavor together, there are times when we get very mad at one another. And there are a couple of times where we've gotten really mad at each other. I'd say probably 10 times in the past 10 years where it's crossed my mind that we might be about to get into a fist fight. Like, we might be, like, that might happen. Really?

Where we've been so mad at each other that it's crossed my mind that, like, it wouldn't be totally out of the question right now if one of us punched the other. But is it, but are you really thinking it wouldn't be out of the question if Link punched me at this moment? Is that really what you think? Yeah, because I feel like you get madder than I do.

Right, I feel like you think I would never punch him, but sometimes I just don't know. He just might go loose cannon on me. Yeah, yeah, I'm like he's a lot madder than I thought that he was right now. And what I'm going to say is that when you were a child, before you became a man, that never happened. Like, you never had that in you. You never had this, like, I might punch you right now. I'm so mad I'm going to punch you.

You never had that. That was something that, like, began to began to emerge like after college, I think. As a kid, I remember getting so angry at certain things that my mom floated the idea that what if you got a pillow that when you got angry, you would punch it? Like I remember that. It's very unsatisfying. I think that was going into, like, dealing with puberty. But I do remember her making that suggestion. Hormones.

You know, hormones going crazy, puberty going nuts. No pun intended. But I actually tried it. I went to my room and I punched my bed. And I don't remember it helping. But it didn't play out in our friendship. We didn't really fight. I don't think we argued.

No, I mean, what was there to argue about? I mean, we got stuff to argue about every 30 minutes now because we're creating things. Right. You have, uh requires opinions and uh we're not always going to share the same perspective on things um well i think we've learned to accept that uh not that we couldn't do a better job of this but in general the create the creative process there

for us there's there's a give and take, and there's a, like, let's throw this idea back and forth, sometimes, like, throw it pretty hard back and forth until it shakes out into what it should be. Well, I also think that's another conversation is the whole creative process, the fact that there is a lot of conflict involved in it that nobody sees.

So now we've got three special episodes, if you count this one. Then we've got the girl episode, and then we've got the creative process. Unless this is a lot of conflict involved in it that nobody sees. So now we've got three special episodes, if you count this one. Then we've got the girl episode, and then we've got the creative process. Unless this is a fail. I mean, I'm open to that. I'm open to that. Maybe it was.

But I think it was good for us. If no one else hears this, I think it was good for us to have some perspective on our friendship that... Oh, this one's going out. Oh, you think? Oh, yeah, this one's going out. Oh, you think? Oh, yeah, this one's going out. Are you going to tell them

that we recorded a one earlier that never went out? Is that what you're implying? Because I think I just accidentally told them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That we already tried this and it didn't work. We tried this

and it was a totally different format. We didn't like the way it turned out, okay? There, we admitted it. Maybe it'll be like on some secret channel at some point. Yeah, it'll be, yeah, one day we'll exploit it. And there you have it, a trip down memory lane, double dose. Cause it was already a trip down memory lane,

but then, well, you get the idea. I'm curious what your experience was listening to that episode from almost four years ago, what you learned. I'm actually curious, because I haven't listened back to the whole thing, if our stories changed a little bit. You know how when you tell stories again

and because they were told in the book, if they shifted any, if we got anything wrong at any point, or whatever your experience is, let us know using hashtag Ear Biscuits. We enjoy hearing from you in that way. And I just wanted to mention right quick, we've got some Ear Biscuits mugs. Well, I call it a mug, but it's a jar.

You know what it looks like. It looks like biscuit batter hardened into the shape of a jar that you can drink out of. And you know what, if you get one now, we've signed a bunch of them at random. So you might be one of the lucky recipients of an actual signed Ear Biscuit mug. I kept calling it a mug, it's a jar.

If we can put a handle on it, well I'll leave that to you. You buy one, it might have our signatures on it, and then you can add your own handle and call it a mug. Let's call it a day. Oh man, it's been a long one. Rhett's now, I can feel it. By this point, he's like wrapping up his conversation, trying to escape litigation,

trying to be friends with his neighbor. I wonder how it's going, guys. Let's send him some positive thoughts. Well, they would have to travel through time by the time you're listening to it. Man, this is how it would be if it's just me and you. I'd just be talking to myself because I would forget you were there.

This is how I normally am when nobody's around. I just start talking to myself. Start mumbling a little bit and then I know the music's playing which means oh yeah I didn't

I didn't end it maybe they'll just make a decision to end it while I'm just mumbling away