Jono, Ben & Megan - The Podcast - FULL: Ed Sheeran Told Us How Dwayne The Rock Johnson Let Him Down!

Episode Date: March 15, 2022

We had Ed on the show today promoting his newly announced NZ shows - Feb 2023 in Auckland and Wellington! And he explained how he got so excited to work with Dwayne The Rock Johnson on a movie - but then he never even got to meet him on set! Ben has also decided to follow Tom Brady's retirement plan of retiring and then un-retiring. How did our boss take it? Enjoy the show!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Behance, with the Jono and Ben podcast. 16th, it's Wednesday, it's March, Ben, welcome. Welcome, welcome, welcome to you too. We've just been putting bagels in our mouths. That was lovely, ANZ sent us some bagels. Hashtag ad, as it means to say, hashtag, I don't know what the... I don't know what the protocol is. I know on Instagram you'd need to, but yeah.

Well thankfully this isn't, this is just a podcast intro. Oh okay, hashtag, not sure what to say. But it was a lovely bagel. You can thank anyone you want right now. Yeah but it was a lovely bagel you can thank anyone you want right now yeah that was a lovely bagel so yeah

what was it made of? um that's basically well this is you know Kiwis we don't like talking about our finances

we don't feel equipped to have these chats but here at ANZ we want to help Kiwis be more open about their finances and improve their financial well-being

so I did the bagels I don't know get the bagels tied but you said Chats for here at ANZ. We want to help Kiwis be more open about their finances and improve their financial well-being. I don't know, get the bagels, Titan. Well, no, this is, but you said before I eat a bagel, I want to know what this is about. And so this is just coming off the top of my head. Yeah, so it's all about budgeting. Budgeting, you know, like budgeting. Yeah, at ANZ. So there you go.

Thank you, hashtag ad. You didn't just open the box and get into the bagels. You wanted to know the messaging. I did, actually. I did. I thought it was, yeah, I did. I ate a bagel and then I ate another one. Because there's not many people in the bagels. You wanted to know the messaging. I did, actually. I did. I thought it was, yeah, I did. I ate a bagel, and then I ate another one, because there's not many people in the office now.

And then I ate another one, and then I read what it was about. Yeah, the little bagels. I just didn't. I read what it was about. It's budgeting, mate. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. They were lovely bagels, and a lovely message about budgeting.

They were delicious bagels, yeah. Don't you find with mini food you eat more of it? Yeah, I was thinking that because I was like, well, they're just little ones, so I'll have another one. Yeah. Yeah, you're right, whereas a big bagel was. So you probably, yeah, well, I probably had two or three, and so then you probably had one and a half, two big bagels. You're right, but you stopped at one if it was a bigger bagel, yeah. I do like mini food.

Yes. Don't you? Yeah. The finger food, the finger food games was good, eh? The yeah. I do like mini food. Yes. Don't you? Yeah. The finger food. The finger food game is always good, eh? The finger food game is great. Yeah. You're not doing that to food nowadays, are you? In this current climate.

Oh, yeah, it's probably not so much. Less fingering of food. Yes. You're probably right, actually. You know, if someone came around with a platter of sausage rolls in a bowl, what's Ben Boyce doing now, 2022 Ben Boyce? Well, it depends on the environment, I think. You're right, if it was a big...

I'm talking a mid-morning tea, Sandra's birthday. It's her 35th birthday. We've all gathered round. Someone's put the classic, what's her name? Susan sausage rolls in the thing. Oh, sausage rolls, yeah. You know, I probably have one because the sausage rolls have kind of,

they've self-isolated themselves on the plate kind of slow but what if they're in a bowl and people are just grabbing and dipping grabbing and dipping you talked about this the other day actually um the peanuts that used to be on bars you know peanuts so when you think back now even before covid there would have been people not washing their hands and doing stuff in the boujee mix and stuff yeah just like you'd that. But you'd eat it, right? You'd eat it. You'd go, oh, that's great. They ran one of those lights over those bowls and it was not pretty viewing.

It was fine when someone would go, here's a bowl, here's your individual bowl. But if it'd just been sitting out there, you'd just, yeah. But no one suffered any consequences from those. Probably a bit immune systems. Yeah, what we've done is we've cleansed ourselves to the point of can't do anything.

Yeah, you're probably right. You know, there's always that famous thing, I don't know if it works or not, just every parent says it to make themselves feel better. Oh, it's good for their immunity, as little Timmy's sucking on a worm or something. Yeah, true, but there's probably a certain part of that that's correct, so thanks very much, the bagels.

And ANZ for what they're doing, Ben. Just to recap. Oh, they, ooh, the budget. Talk about budgets. You know, let's talk about budgets. And let's talk about them over Bagels. Hey, have a great day. We're going to play you the podcast now. And today on the show, Edward Shearham.

He's an international up-and-coming recording artist. Yeah. Trying to make his break in the game. He might be. He might have a career. I've heard some of his work. It sounds all right, actually. So, yeah, he joins us on the show today.

He's coming over here. He's going to play some shows over here, but I don't know. It's a bit risky if he's going to sell any tickets, so I don't know. No. Well, he's trying to get in park, mate. Good luck.

Yeah, good luck. Good luck, Ed Sheeran. Yeah. So he's on the show today, plus Ben resigns. Yeah. Then un-resigns seven seconds later. And then come back real quick, yeah. And was it accepted, though. Plus, Ben resigns. Yeah. Then un-resigns seven seconds later. And then come back real quick. Yeah.

And was it accepted, though? Well, there we go. Well, you can have a listen for yourself when our boss is on the phone. Have a great day. We'll catch you tomorrow. The Hits. Very exciting news. The Hits welcomes Ed Sheeran.

He's coming back to New Zealand again. He's going to be here February next year. 2nd of February at Sky Stadium in Wellington and then Eden Park, Auckland on Friday 10th of Feb. We've got tickets to give away each day next week and you can head to the Hits Facebook page if you want to register to win, which is pretty awesome.

Ed Sheeran coming on back. All the details at thehits.co.nz and the pre-sale starts Monday 21st of March. Jeez, we've spoken to Ed Sheeran a few times over the last 12 months. I think I've caught up with Ed Sheeran more than I have my parents in the last 12 months. But he's going to be joining us on the show after 8 o'clock this morning. As always, a very agreeable chap, Ed Sheeran. I always feel like saying to him, you know, you can just say no.

Because everything we ask him to do, he does. We've jammed 300 Jaffas in his mouth. I think we've got some audio of that. Yeah, because we saw somewhere on a TV show that Ed Sheeran's got just a massive mouth. Big mouth. One of the biggest mouths in the game. And so we were like, well, let's get some Kiwi Jaffas.

Real choking hazard. I don't know why we did it, firstly. 2022 Ben wouldn't have done it. No. Why he agreed to it. But again, he's such a lovely person. But he jammed all these. He got like 60 Jaffas in his mouth.

We've got Jaffas. We've got Jaffas. We're like New Zealand Maltesers. Right, you ready? Here we go. One, two, three, four. 39. Sharon's on 40.

Sharon. Jeez, you've got a big cough. 60 hits, Sharon. Unbelievable. 60 J you've got to think of. 60. Ed Sheeran. Unbelievable. 60 Jaffas in his mouth. And he'll spat them all out. And then, while he didn't factor in two, the red dye from the outer skin of the Jaffa stains, doesn't it?

And all his hands were. Yeah, he had to go on TV playing a song afterwards in New Zealand. And it looked like he'd just be part of a murder or something. And he couldn't quite cover it up. We have had a lot of fun moments with Ed Sheeran. We were reflecting on a couple now this morning because he's coming back. The time that I ended up

sculling, I'm a real lightweight and I sculled a little bottle of gin and I was in front of Ed Sheeran. It was a little game we were playing and I was really tipsy. Oh no. I'm glad you kept your word, though, man. Thank you.

Oh, thank you, Ed Sheeran. Good lad. We're going to see him naked walking through the corridors of the hotel later. A little bit queasy right now. He had some pretty sweet... A little bit drunk with Ed Sheeran right now. No American would do that.

That's such a Kiwi thing to do I love that there you go Ben's still hung over from that it was two and a half years ago

still getting over that fateful evening the other thing we did last time we had him was we tried to get him to audition for a karaoke

competition in New Zealand remember that we rang a sports bar just out of Wellington and he auditioned for the karaoke night to see how he would go and it wasn't the reaction we thought. Place your head on my beating heart. I'm thinking out loud. Maybe we found love right where we are.

Wow. What did you think? That was a really good attempt, but I'm pretty sure the participants at our karaoke on a Thursday night would surely give you a run for your money. Oh, you're going to run for your money. I wrote this song. This is Ed Sheeran. This is actually Ed Sheeran singing this. Really?

Yes. It legitimately is. But thanks, thanks. There we go. There's legend sports bar. So good, eh? So Ed Sheeran coming back to New Zealand February next year. We're very excited about that.

Scrolling through your feed. All right, here's the most unreliable news you'll hear today. But believe it anyway. Fully vaccinated tourists look to be allowed in New Zealand sooner than anticipated, with those from Australia set to arrive without the need for managed or self-isolation in April, April 12th, so about a month away, just in time

for school holidays and stuff, which is good. Now, what's with the booster? Do we need to get another booster? Because I think the over-80s are getting quartered at the moment. Oh, I haven't heard anything about that. I just know that Ashley Bloomfield yesterday was saying that maybe the terminology, the phrasing around fully vaccinated may have to change. Because people are obviously saying,

I've got two shots, I'm fully vaccinated. But he said, well, maybe three shots will now be the fully vaccinated stage. Get the triple shots, fam, or something. I hadn't heard about the quad shot yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. Well, because if you contract Omicron, essentially you're immune for three months following that, 90 days.

Right. So it's like you've had another shot anyway. Your body's built up the immunity. Yeah. So a lot of people who are getting it at the moment will be very protected,

won't they? Well, for 90 days. For 90 days, yeah, true. And National Party MP Simon Bridges, that was the big political news yesterday. He's stepping down as MP in a few weeks. There's going to be a by-election. So that's what's going to happen.

And people are saying, well, Winston Peters, maybe he's going to sneak back into Parliament again. Because he used to be the Tauranga MP for many years. On the news last night, they did some vox pops talking to people around the street in Tauranga. And they want Winnie back. Only one best politician around. and that's old Winston. He'll be back. Bring him back like Buck. Bring him back like Buck.

Now, Buck didn't make a comeback, did he? Unless you count Celebrity Treasure Island. Oh, yeah, true. So maybe Winston's going to be on Celebrity Treasure Island. Winston... With his top off swimming in the ocean. No, he'd wear a suit. I've never not seen him in a pinstripe suit.

He would be doing challenges on the beach in a suit. So what does this mean? So he can get him back through Parliament now if he wins this Tauranga seat? Yeah, potentially. Yeah, you're right. He'll go through it. I mean, National will obviously go through it. All the candidates, you know, all the parties will chuck in a candidate.

He just loves it, eh? Surely his family are like, have a rest, mate. You've been working so hard for so long. This is how you're on radio, too. It will be, yeah. Even when radio's not even a thing, I'll still be in here talking away to myself. There was lots of debate going on in Parliament yesterday. Simon Bridges sort of signing off.

And him and Grant Robinson had a little bit of a spa, a little bit of a fun spa. Basically, Simon Bridges was saying that, he was like, oh, you're going to miss me, mate, you're one of my favourites. And Robinson had a little gag that related to Simon Bridges once walking on a farm with a yak. Have a listen. Will I always be his favourite national finance spokesperson? I've been giving significant thought to this question and I can confirm for the member that among the six national party finance spokespeople I have faced, he's in the top half.

What will he miss most about me? I look forward to his hosting of the Country Calendar Yak special. So, yeah, it's good there's nothing more important for them to be debating, right? Nothing in the world more. And a throwback to a yak. Yeah. When was this yak incident? It was just after he got ousted by Todd Muller.

And then he apparently put out a video the next day on his farm going, oh, good, just walking with a baby yak. That was it. And it was just him and the yak. But I'd missed it. I feel like I'm across the news most days. It's a very obscure reference, but there you go. It'd be hard in Parliament to come up with witty quips all the time,

wouldn't it? You need to pre-write them. They almost need to go, hey, what are you going to throw at me? I might come back with one of these. Remember when you were walking the yak? Play the footage. Play the footage, yeah, like a TV show going to throw at me? I might come back with one of these. Remember when you were walking the yak? Play the footage. Play the footage, yeah, like a TV show. Or yakety yak, don't come back,

mate. The Google Game. It's a fun game we like to play from time to time where you ask us any question at all and we have to Google it. And we've got 10 seconds to Google the answer. If we can't do it in 10 seconds, you win a prize. Well, Usain Bolt can run 100 metres in 10 seconds,

so we should be able to get an answer on the internet. Ben Boyce, I'm going to do a little demo episode here with you. Okay, you can do the Googling. Yeah. Okay. Juliet Rothel. Oh, yeah. What is her father's name?

Is that information? Dave. Dave who? Dave Rothel. Well done. Yeah, but I knew that without Googling. Hey that information? Dave. Dave who? Dave Rothall. Well done. But I knew that without Googling. Hey, here's something.

I'll Google it. My daughter told me this when we were going for a walk last night with the dog and I don't know if it's true or not. Do bees have five eyes?

Bees have five eyes. Wings. The honeybee has four wings in total. Eyes. They've got some eyes. They have five eyes. The honeybee has five eyes. Oh, there you they've got some eyes. They have five eyes. The honeybee has five eyes.

Oh, there you go. Really? Five eyes. You were saying they had three eyes on the front and then two off to the side. And I was like, man, their perspective must be all over the place. They'd almost have a 360 view of life, wouldn't they? Five eyes is also the spy agency, isn't it? Well, maybe the bees are doing it.

Maybe that's how they spy. Oh, through the bees. I did not know that. You had a bee encounter yesterday. Yeah, I did. I saved a bee from drowning in my pool twice, and it was a wonderful experience, a bit of a roller coaster. Did you get a little mouth-to-mouth?

You would have stung me on the tongue. Yeah. I love how Ben's like, maybe the bees are spying on us. Do you want to get a tent and hang outside Parliament for a couple of days, mate? The five eyes, the five eyes. Do you want to get a tent and hang outside Parliament for a couple of days, mate? The five eyes. The five eyes. Here's the bees, guys. We'll head to Tauranga, where Simon Bridges is left there,

and Winston Peters could be coming in, local knowledge. Pia, you're on. Welcome. Hi. Good morning. Hey, Pia. Nice to talk to you. Pia's studying radio.

Yeah. Yes, I am. Don't study us. Geez, do everything the opposite of us, all right? Yeah, right, Pia. And also, don't take our jobs. Oh, you're true. Don't study us. Geez, do everything the opposite of us, all right? Yeah, all right, Pia. And also don't take our jobs. Oh, you're true. There's another one.

And what else do we want her to agree to? Mainly that one. Yeah, basically just don't study too hard. All right, Pia, what's your question? Jono, you can Google this one. All right. So my question is how fast is a snail's pace? How fast is a snail's pace?

That's a very good question there, Sia. Moving a sailboat, it means going really, really slow. How fast is a snail's pace? How fast is a snail's pace? That's a very good question there, Sia. Moving a snail, it means going really, really slow. One metre per hour. Nope, it's 0.013 metres per second. Oh, there you go. He was so confident too. He was like, I've got heaps of time.

I'll just say, hey, Pia, congratulations. We're going to send you out some Hell Pizza, right? Oh, thanks, guys. Hey, thanks. Appreciate it. You can get contact delivery and pick up as well from Hell Pizza right now. Someone's texting one. Who wants to do the Googling on this? Juliet, you want to do this?

Okay. Get your fingers happening. Formula One fingers. Okay, Juliet. The capital of Fiji, asks Tony. What is the capital of Fiji? The thing is we always type in the full sentence. Well done.

Sorry, Tony. No hell pizza for you. And that's how you play the Google Games. That'll be back again next Wednesday before 7 o'clock. We want to do a wee experiment involving retiring and then coming back out of retirement. You want to announce your retirement? Yeah.

Simon Bridges has done it. Ben Boyce is doing it today. Do it before seven on the hits. The annoying ones talking between the songs. Jono and Ben on the hits. We're just getting a lot of joy out of an audio clip of Kim Kardashian who has wound up the internet after she gave some advice to women wanting to succeed in business. I have the best advice for women in business.

Get your f***ing ass up and work. It seems like nobody wants to work these days. That's so true. You have to surround yourself with people that want to work. That's so true. I mean, Kim Kardashian, she works bloody hard from what I can tell. She's studying to be a lawyer. She's got a successful company.

She's a mother. She does a lot of stuff and she works really hard. So I don't think we can say she doesn't work hard. No. But I've been obviously coming from a Kardashian that's obviously wound a few people up. I saw Trevor Noah from The Daily Show, which is a great show in America, saying she does work hard. And there are a lot of people out there that work hard, but she's got the benefit of luck, which obviously plays a huge part in being successful.

You need to work hard and you need to have an element of luck as well. And maybe she's forgotten about that. That's in his opinion. My favourite thing is watching people on TikTok react to this. What were you doing? I reckon she does work hard. Oh, absolutely she'd work hard. And I got into a bit of a hole yesterday

because obviously Kim and Kanye are going through a very bitter public divorce battle at the moment um and kanye is kind of using instagram as most people would probably use a divorce lawyer he's doing all his messaging through instagram where maybe you should be using a a lawyer would be a good option i thought too a great business proposition would be divorce lawyer teaming up with the marriage counsellors. Now, okay, let's just say hypothetically you and Juliet are married. It's year seven.

Juliet's got the itch. She wants to move to France. She's got a what? She's going to move to France? Yeah, things aren't good. So you've come to see me, the marriage counsellor. And I'm like, nah, it's done, guys.

You guys are toast. But I'm actually in cahoots guys you guys are toast but I'm actually in cahoots with the divorce lawyer while I've said that do you want to go see this divorce lawyer who's really good

I get a backhand deal oh so they're giving you like every client you get I just ruined marriages as a marriage counsellor I can't do anything the marriage is over

by the way go see this you're like we've literally only been here for 30 seconds no it's done it's toast that It's toast. It's not a bad idea.

And I got into a hole yesterday on the internet, and it was the top five red flags of relationships that ended in divorces. Now, these all came from the female part of the marriage, and they all involved the guy's mother. Really? So when we got married, his mother cried tears of sorrow at the wedding. Wow. His mum told me to leave him and that I wasn't ready for someone like him.

I should have listened. He was a nightmare. So mothers throwing their own sons under the bus here. Before we got married, mum said, if you ever get divorced, it'll definitely be his fault. And then he cheated on me. His mum told me he cheated on every single partner he's had. He even cheated on

his third fiancée with her sister. But married him anyway. Red flag. When we were filing out the marriage certificate, I remember him having to call his mum and ask her what his middle name was. That's just being an idiot.

Who doesn't know their middle name? So there you go, some red flags to look out for when going into divorce. And if you want to see marriage counsellor, come see me. Who's also got a little under the table deal with a divorce lawyer. Hey, before 7 o'clock I'm retiring, I'll tell you more

very shortly. It is the hits. You're running late, stuck in traffic and now you have to listen to this. Jono and Ben, on the hits. Simon Bridges retired from politics yesterday. We were talking a wee bit about retirement. Obviously he's retired and then Tom Brady, who's one of

the greatest American footballers of all time, married to model Giselle Bunchen. He's won seven Super Bowl champs. He retired 40 days ago after 22 seasons, and now he's back. 40 days is all his retirement is. So Bridges, I mean, he could come back. So he officially said, I'm done for the double the spot, and then he's appeared back 40 days.

40 days, I'm back, I'm back, yeah. That's like an extended Christmas holiday here in New Zealand. Exactly. Was this always in the plan? I saw a great social media post saying maybe it's to do with gas prices. He's like,

I can't afford gas so I need to go back. Yeah, so he's coming back. No, I don't think it was always in the plan as such, but I think they kept the spot open

just in case. Usually in those movies they let those guys grow a beard and live out in the forest for at least four or five years before they say, we need you back. And they're like, I said I never would come back. Not 40 days.

I'll tell you a spare thought, though. There was a person who bought at auction his final touchdown throw. So basically his last touchdown, the ball that was used for his final touchdown. Now they bought that at an auction for $500,000 because it was his final touchdown, the ball that was used for his final touchdown. Now, they bought that in auction for $500,000 because it was his final touchdown ball. And now he's back, and they reckon it's gone to $50,000. So from $500,000, it's now been valued at $50,000. Oh, right.

Because obviously he'll play again and get more touchdowns. And it won't be the last. He's in his 40s, isn't he, Tom Brady? Yeah. No, I mean, the thing is we're probably both the retirement age for a professional athlete. However, looking at Gary McCormick, we've got years to go in the New Zealand radio scene. So, Ben, you want to announce your early retirement this morning. You want to do a Tom Brady.

I want to see if I can retire and then come back quicker than Tom Brady. So I'm going to call one of our bosses here at the Hits. This is risky. And just out of the blue, I'm going to say I'm going to retire. Then I'm going to quickly call back afterwards and see if I can get my job back. Risky on a couple of counts. Yes, that they might accept your resignation, but also it's 10 to 7 in the morning. That's probably the riskiest thing for me.

So we're going to go through to Matt. And good luck, Ben. Thank you. Probably meetings, yeah. Hello, mate. And good luck, Ben. Thank you. Probably meetings, yeah. Hello, mate. Oh, g'day. It's Ben Boyce here from the radio show. Matt, how's it going?

I'm good. How are you? Hey, good. Hey, just a bit of a one. I just wanted to ring you so you heard it from me. I've just been thinking about it. I'd like to announce my retirement from radio. I'd like to put an end to this career of mine.

I'd like to say thank you to everyone that supported me along the way, the fans, my family, people at work, and I just want to announce my retirement, Matt. Oh, that's, I mean, you do look pretty close to 65 these days. Okay. Not quite the reaction I was hoping for, but okay. I'm devastated to hear. What's the reason for the retirement?

I just thought it seems in trend and vogue at the moment. You know, Tom Brady's done it. That's all I can think of off the top of my head. I was going to say, a trend. Yep, I mean, he retires. There's two ways to retire. You can either do it early in the career like yourself, Tom Brady. You could do it Winston Peters where you get to about 800 and you still just won't retire. You can either do it early in the career like yourself, Tom Brady. You could do it Winston Peters where

you get to about 800 and you still just won't retire. Yeah. I know this is tough to accept and you're deflecting that with comedy, Matt, but I understand. I'll give it a moment for you to sink in and we'll talk soon, alright? Yeah. I'll have to think about who we could possibly replace you with. Okay, Matt. Alright. Bye-bye. Well, that was awkward.

Yeah, there you go. I think it hit him hard. No, it didn't hit him hard. It hit him real hard he used comedy I'm going to call him back now that's the quickest retirement I'm coming back I'm going to beat Brady

hello again hey I'm back I'm back I'm out of retirement Matt I'm out shivers mate I'm out he'd already found a replacement

no no I was going to say I had already found a replacement No, no I was going to say I had already found a replacement I was going to say I'd actually just called We've got an intern at the moment From the New Zealand Broadcasting Store His name is also Ben

And I was just going to swap you out Well, how not No one will probably notice Younger, more energy I want to beat Brady's Shortest retirement And I'm back, man It was a matter of minutes

If not even 60 seconds But you're gone No, I'm back I Matt. It was a matter of minutes, if not even 60 seconds. Well, you're gone. No, I'm back. I want back. I was going to say, mate, Tom Brady did seven weeks. What was that? Seven seconds? Yeah, pull me back in. Can I come back in, please? I didn't really want to retire in the first place. If it's good enough for Tom Brady, it's good enough for you.

There we go. What a rollercoaster. Well, a rollercoaster. Well, Matt seemed pretty even keeled through the whole thing. He wasn't on a rollercoaster. Well, a rollercoaster. Well, Matt seemed pretty even keeled through the whole thing. He wasn't on a rollercoaster. Oh, a rollercoaster for me. I thought I'd lost my job. I like this job. Well, I'll have to call intern Ben and give him the bad news.

Have him on standby just in case. Yeah. See you, mate. Spy. Know what's up. Spy.co.nz. Now to the celebrity news, a.k.a. Juliet, making out some stuff as she goes along. What's been happening, Ju?

So there was a Kiwi that was on the... No! Kelly Clarkson! Show. I love that. That should be her opening titles, eh? No! Kelly Clarkson!

And that was, you'll know her as Brooke Fraser. She's now known as Brooke Lidgetwood. She's married? Yes, she got married. I'll always know her as Brooke Fraser. She's now known as Brooke Lidgetwood. She's married. Yes, she got married. I'll always know her as Brooke Fraser. It's like when you bump into someone from school and they've changed their name. You can't get their new name in your head. She's sung amazingly.

Wow, it's awesome. Yeah, so she performed on the Kelly Clarkson Show. All right, our next guest has written and recorded some of the biggest church anthems in Christian music, including Hosanna and What a Beautiful Name, which earned her a Grammy. She just put out her debut solo worship album, Seven, now performing her latest single, Honey in the Rock, off that album. Give it up for Brooke Lidgertwood. Amazing. Winning a Grammy is incredible, right? I know.

And getting on Kelly Clarkson's show, too. It was a big part of my childhood. Mum and I would blast her in the car driving to school. Yeah, and she always seemed so lovely, wholesome and pure. Why aren't you that wholesome and pure, Juliet? I am pure, wholesome and pure. As a Christian, Jono, you should be more wholesome and pure. I'm just happy.

Hey, I should be. You should be. You wouldn't get anyone more wholesome and pure. Oh, really? Do you listen to half the stuff you say? You reckon, eh? You listen to the stuff Brian Tarmachy says. He says some wild stuff.

Oh, you're comparing yourself to Tarmachy now. Okay, all right. Interesting. Both God-fearing people. Yeah. Interesting, yeah. Both religious bogans. We're already doing our thing.

Religious bogans. That's a profile that's a niche profile. That's an untapped market. A religious bogan market. Yeah. Who still want to lead a life of boganism and drink and whatever they do, burnouts. Yeah. But then also fear the big man upstairs.

Yeah. That's an unusual combination. A very good combination. But Armin, thank you for bringing that content to the show, Julia. No worries. Me and my friends appreciate it. And that is a quick spy update for you this morning. For more, you can head to thehits.co.nz.

Rated M for mildly amusing. Jono and Ben on the hits. You've got to be transparent, don't you, in this job? It was like, share yourself, you know? Be vulnerable. Well, now I'm going to be vulnerable. Okay, here we go. And I risk some people listening thinking less of me.

Okay? Now, in my marriage to Jennifer, we have a significant date coming up, Ben. And I want to reward her with a gift. Putting up with you. She deserves a lot. Yeah. The significant date is the day I lost my hair. And now this is just a present to smoke screen. No. No, we do have a lot. Yeah. The significant date is the day I lost my hair, and now this is just a present to smoke screen.

No, we do have a date coming up, and she's wanting these boots. Now, these boots are coming at, you know, a sort of $250 price tag. A lot of money. Yeah, there's a lot of money. Especially at the moment, too, you know. Damn right. I've chucked that in.

I've chucked that in a conversation. Like the Prime Minister, she's denying it. Have you seen Petrobras? We're in a crisis. No one's saying crisis. Say it's a crisis, Jennifer. She won't say it's a crisis. Her and Jacinda.

The only two people who won't admit to it. But yeah, so these boots. Are they made for walking? They better be made for going to space, dancing, working out. They better be made for everything. If we're paying this much money for boots. So I've done some shopping online, some looking online. Now, here's where my conundrum comes in.

I've found an exact replica pair of boots for $85. Now, they look exactly the same. The design's the same. I mean, both pairs of boots were probably made by the same child. It's probably just the branding on them. That's the price difference. So, do I just buy the fake boots

and hope that she doesn't notice? What if she's like, hey, I want to take these back or something's wrong or change the size? There's a lot of risks involved with this She's absolutely going to notice Well I don't

What she doesn't know won't hurt her Unless these fake boots Don't have any orthopedic support And she rolls her ankle So you're quite comfortable You're quite comfortable In your morals To buy something that's a knock off

Yeah I'm happy Look at me Is she one to I'm a fake Christian Ben I'm going to buy fake boots Is she one to Like does'm a fake Christian, Ben. I can buy fake boots. Does she mind having clothes or something that might be on the more cheaper end?

She doesn't mind. She doesn't mind that. I don't know. I keep telling myself she doesn't mind. But I'll tell you what she does like. What? She likes fake tan. We've got a fake Christmas tree.

Yeah, that's fair. What's wrong with fake boots? We've got fake stuff surrounding us all day long. Yeah, I can imagine. It's a thing that many people would, you know. Do you like to buy knockoff stuff? No. No, I don't. Why not?

Because I don't like. I thought being a tight ass, this would be your. Yeah, I like the price. Yes, I do. Yeah, I like the price of it, but I don't like the idea of, you know, especially the copyright thing really gets me. It's someone else's copyright, you know, like. Yeah.

I know you're going to get, like, if I went went to a fair and there was knockoff T-shirts, I wouldn't buy one because then I'd be on Instagram and then someone would go, hey, that T-shirt's not legit. What are you worried about? The FBI doing a dawn raid on you going, mate, where's your Simpsons T-shirt? Where's it from? Matt Groening's on the phone telling me they need to buy it. But the people who are infringing the copyright care less about the copyright than you do.

I know, you're probably right, actually, but I just don't like the idea of going over that. So you won't do it just purely for copyright purposes? Yeah, but I like the price angle of it. And it also depends if she's phased on the brand. If she wants to have the branded thing, if she likes having the brand. There's no brand on it.

Oh, okay. It's just black boots. Right, right. As far as I know. So what do you want to know here this morning? Do I go fake or real? This is the poll I want to check out 0800 the hits

4487 Ben you've got fake grass What are you talking about? Yeah but it's not like the real grass is coming along Hang on a second mate See I think Well now you've got me worried FBI's going to knock on the door

Did you rip this off real grouse? I did, I did Copyright grouse Under the hits, 4487 Let's give Jono some helpful advice this morning Because I'm no help Have you done this? Have you gifted someone a fake product

Under the guise they thought it was a real one? Jono and Ben, breakfast on the hits Jono's in a bit of a dilemma Quickly recap again Basically I need to buy some boots For Jennifer, my wife Breakfast on the hits. Now, Jono, it's a bit of a dilemma. Quickly recap again. Yeah, basically, I need to buy some boots for Jennifer, my wife. We have a date coming up, a significant date, and I've found the same boots that are $2.50 for $90, $85. A knockoff pair.

Yeah, but I imagine overseas this happens a lot. You know, there's a lot of knockoff stuff that you can buy in other countries come back you know my friend came back with a rebox thing like they had a nike tag inside it was like this is the perfect combo of neither of these two major sports brands in one single my friend had some nukies or something he bought from thailand as well there's you know they just change a little letter yeah or they just, in this instance, they don't even put anything on that. But it looks similar, but it's not quite the item. And, you know, the bonus is what we're saving in real leather.

We're sparing a cow's life in whatever these are made from. Well, true, you're right. A cow gets to live. No animals are harmed in the making of whatever these are. Yeah, that's true. So, yeah, maybe I'm on board with this, Jono you're right. A cow gets to live. No animals are harmed in the making of whatever these are. Yeah, that's true. So yeah, maybe I'm on board with this, John. What a great argument. That's the first thing I've ever seen that made sense.

Cherie, you're on. Do I go the fakes or the real? Shoes are the biggest returned item on the internet. You can't buy shoes off the internet. You've got to get the real thing. She won't be able to walk in them. You've got to get the real thing. She won't be able to walk in them. You've got to get the real ones. Where did you get this internet fact from?

The biggest return item on the internet? I know, Ben Boyce, you bought your wedding suits from the internet, didn't you? That was an absolute shambles. That was a shambles, yeah. Yeah, that was terrible. I put that in a clothing bin. They look like the boys to men, except he was the boy in a man's suit. It was that big. Yeah, exactly. The sleeves were hanging the boy in a man's suit. It was that big.

Yeah, exactly. The sleeves were hanging about half a metre over your arms. It was awful. So Cherie's saying no to the cheap boots, get the legit ones. Yeah, get her what she wants. Thank you. I text here, 4487. Oh my goodness, Jono, you're a tight ass.

She birthed your children. Buy her real boots. Yes. Well, I also played a role in the children, too. Oh, mate, not. You played the easy role. Drove her to the hospital. Said, well done, Alfred.

Shook her hand. Kate, you're on for toe-donger. Are we going real or fake boots? What are we doing here? Jonathan Pryor, do not be the cheapskate. Hang up on Kate. No, I like Kate. She's coming in too hot.

That's very good. Okay. Well, there you go. I've been told. I've been told. We've got Martin. Do you reckon Martin might be on my side? Potentially.

I'm not sure. Martin, can you come through for me? Real or fake boots? What are we doing here? Well, stars, Jono. I'm not on your side. Hang up on Martin. No, Martin, why?

I'm on first-name basis of Ali Express, and I bought a pair of fake shoes from them, and let's put it this way. The soles are glued on with the stuff you used to eat in kindergarten. The PBA based. The PBA, yeah. So the quality's not up there. Will you get what you pay for, Martin?

Pretty much. You buy $5 shoes, you get $5 shoes or $80, whatever you want to spend it. Well, thank you very much, Martin. Cough up the money, Jono. Cough up the money, everyone. Now I look bad. I hate looking bad in front of people. Everyone's thinking less you very much, Martin. Cough up the money, Jono. Cough up the money, everyone. Now I look bad. I hate looking bad in front of people. Everyone's thinking less of me now, Ben.

And my plan's unravelling by the minute. So no one tell her about this conversation, okay? There's a promise, a blood oath between all of us. Thanks so much for your calls and texts. Don't forget, we've got Ed Sheeran joining us just after 8 o'clock. Very exciting news. He's coming to New Zealand next year. We'll tell you more soon on the hits brought to you by Razine one year no rent no mortgage the hits live free with oneroof.co.nz that was our song this hour to live free of your rent and mortgage for entire year thanks to

oneroof.co.nz one of the final few chances only happening for the next couple of days Christchurch is her hometown She's Christchurch's Canterbury's favourite daughter Ange, how are you? Hello, how are you? Would you be in the top 10 of the favourite daughters of Canterbury? Absolutely I'm in the top 5 mate

She's a big banger And 12 months of rental mortgage paid Ange, we understand this will go a long way For you at the moment Absolutely, we're go a long way for you at the moment. Absolutely. We're building a new house and renting at the same time. Oh, jeez. Yeah.

It'd be perfectly amazing if we could win this. Well, we will thrust that bank manager off you. Ben will use his hips and thrust them away from you for a year or so. Go Ben. Go Ben. He's got very strong pelvis. Well, you are in the drawing. $100 as well we're going to give you as well.

So you can enjoy that today. Spend on some gas or some groceries. Yeah, gas or groceries for sure, yeah. Well, that's hush money too, so don't ever say anything bad about us, by the way. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just paid you off. That's how we do things.

Go buy yourself something nice. Okay. Thanks, guys. Look after the things. Go buy yourself something nice. Okay. Thanks, guys. Look after the family. Thanks so much for listening. Good luck. All the best. Of course, Monday, that amazing prize is going to be revealed.

Actually, speaking of moving places, a friend of mine moved to a lifestyle block a few years ago. One of those things that seems like a dream. But imagine in reality when you're not from a farming background, it's a lot of – You know when you drive away on holiday at Christmas and you drive through those areas, you always have that conversation, could you live here?

Could you live in the Hauraki Plains? And you think, yes, I could. Well, he did it a couple of years ago. He made the call, wow. Yeah, and he says for the most part he's really enjoying it, but he's having to deal with things that he never had to deal with before. And sadly they had some lambs that raised and became sheep and then one of them sadly passed away the other day which happens on the farm the whole time and he's like well i'm gonna have to to bury this

this thing and bury the sheep and um they get quite bloaty don't they yeah well yeah apparently yeah so he was um he was like i've got a really busy day he had to leave and go so he's like i'm gonna have to get up really early to do this so he got up like at like four or five in the morning and it's like it's dark and he's got a torch on he's out in the space he's digging what is essentially a grave and his car's passing past he's like oh i just gotta get to gonna do this because i got a busy day and all of a sudden he hears this, oh, thank God. He turned around and his neighbour had come down to have a look. He's like, thank goodness you're bearing a sheep.

I thought you were bearing a body. Oh, my God. But obviously everyone in the neighbourhood would be driving past going, oh, my God, under the cover of darkness. But I love, surely on a rural lifestyle area, the first thing they jump to is I I thought you were burying the body. Maybe he's got that way about him. Yeah, he might have a murdery vibe about him.

You got caught stuffing a dummy into your boot at four o'clock in the morning. That's right. Our dummy, our dummy lifestyle's dummy. That's not a good look. Yeah. When he says a dummy into the boot, he wasn't pushing me into the boot. It was like a literal stuffed dummy, and you were taking it in to lend to someone.

Yeah, that's right. And at 5 o'clock in the morning when someone's sort of running past, they're looking like, what, is he putting it into the back of the car? Because it looks like a person. Yeah, and I mean, you really do, to get rid of a body, that's a lot of effort. Like, you really have to take your head off. Like, the stuff you have to go through.

That's why murderers always get caught. Well, you hope so. Exactly. All right, there's a cherry conversation for you Wednesday. Rise and shine. Time to start the... Who are we kidding? We're not the boss of you. Jono and Ben on the hits.

Now, the song was just ending there, and Ben Boyce... I gave a thumbs up. I thought you were cutting off producer Ben Humphrey. No, he was talking. He was saying we need to do something at 8 o'clock, and I was like, yep. I thought you gave him a palm up of stop talking

it was a thumbs up like yeah I got it but um yeah I thought you palmed him up don't talk to me mate it's time for me to radio well we're going to talk about things that are

important producer Ben Humphrey like the cost of living crisis that's right and the more we say the cost of living crisis the more we hope you get more anxious about it

and that's our job as the media, to freak you the hell out. That's our role. We want to help everyone out at the moment. There's obviously some things that we could be doing and thinking about. Yeah, and we're joined by Tony Alexander, economist. Yep, that's myself, yeah. John O'Prior, Ben Boyce. Don't quite know what we do.

No, I don't know what we are, but nice to talk to you. How are you? Good, mate, good. But you're doing a good job of it On the TV and everything So well done Oh thank you Tony He said whatever you're doing

You're doing an adequate job Hey now Tony Crazy times Cost of living Crisis Prime Minister's admitted it now Definitely It took her a while to come round

To the way of thinking on that But it's good to see her Finally doing something about it What? Because I feel From a personal point of view, you feel helpless. You're like, what can you do? I mean, the price of things is going to be the price of things.

You can't fight that. So what tangible things can we do to help our income or help our money? Well, actually, no, that's a good way of putting it, because there's sort of extra things a person can do this time as compared with in the 1970s and the 80s, when inflation averaged almost 13% a year from 1970 through to 87 just to put the current surge in perspective you can boost your income by taking in a boarder or a flatmate because there's a shortage of rental accommodation there's also

a big shortage of workers so you can pick up some extra hours certainly take up some part-time work and then on the other side of the ledger, it's all about cutting back on your spending, the eating out, the drinking out, drink at home instead. The subscriptions, all the services that one has signed up to, basically go through your spending and see what you really need to keep doing. Wow. So planning, I imagine, is a big part of it at the moment.

There's a lot you can do in that regard to help you out? Yeah, definitely. Have a thought about when you're going to the supermarket, what you want to buy this this is sort of the most basic thing uh draw up a list of what you need to buy at the supermarket do not deviate from the list and part of the secret of that is do not go to the supermarket hungry go after you have stuffed yourself with food it makes a big difference we don't want to be doomsday talking here, but is it going to get worse before it gets better? It'll get worse in that the inflation number will go higher,

probably somewhere like 7%, 7.5% when we get some numbers in a few months' time. But two times so far, I've emphasised that from 1970 to 1987, inflation averaged 12.6% a year. So we need to put this in perspective. This is a short-lived surge in inflation, the cost of living, that is not going to persist like it did back in those earlier times.

But nonetheless, it's still painful. So, yeah, have a look at all the crap you're spending on and at least chop it out maybe for 12 months or so before you go back to bad habits. You've got a bit of a newsletter that you've sent around, but people have actually suggested a lot of things, like selling you clothing you don't want anymore, putting things on trade.

There's a lot of actually good tips through this. Yeah, well, this is a survey I did earlier this year when I saw that we were going to be entering this debate. I figured people are going to get interested in this cost of living thing, so I've got 25,000 subscribers to my weekly publication, Tony's View. And I asked them, have you been through high inflation in the past?

What did you do? What years were the high inflation again? Sorry, Tony. 19. And anyway, they replied. 450 people replied. I put it all together in 11 pages and people can look for their suggestions on my website,

tonyalexander.nz, in the middle page there. It's not a flash website. Don't get too optimistic. Don't expect too much on the website. It's cost-cutting on the website as well. I like it. Well, you can sell it. I mean, I've tried selling my body before.

I didn't have much luck. But things are... They paid you to take it away. Please put clothes on. That's how I made my money out on the streets. Well, that's very interesting, Tony. Well, thank you so much for your time. I do appreciate it.

And selling, you're right, the amount of stuff you just have sitting around, it's worth money to someone. Well, especially if you've got any jib board. I was speaking with somebody about this yesterday. They said in the old days of the carpenter, they'd cut out the bit of jib they wanted, throw the rest away in the skip.

Well, now they don't. They save absolutely everything. And if they put any used up stuff in the skip, someone comes along and steals it and makes a big mess. So there's a lot of stuff that people can now put on Trade Me, which again was not around in the 1970s into the 80s. You're high inflation there, they tell me. That's what I've heard.

Hey, Tony, really appreciate your time. You keep well. You too, mate. Five words for 5k You're just five words away from $5,000 It is our game of word association We play it every morning at this time on The Hits Hopefully you know how it works But if you match all five words with our five words

You win five grand Yeah, this week, Ben, you've already ruined the childhood Of a 14-year-old Agonisingly close We'll see how you go with Stacey and Nelson How are ya? This week, Ben, you've already ruined the childhood of a 14-year-old. Oh, I know. Agonisingly close. We'll see how you go with Stacey and Nelson. How are you? Hello, how are you?

You're a courier driver. I am, yes. Brilliant calf muscles. I know, like both. Yeah, beautifully defined calf muscles, the courier industry, I find. Yeah. Busy at the moment? Couriers are just under the pump,

aren't they, for the last 24 months? Sort of. I kind of do like, I deliver like toilet paper and stuff so I guess we are kind of busy. Yeah,

a lot of toilet papers have been delivered out there. Absolutely, yeah. People love panic buying toilet paper for some reason. They do, they do.

There's always going to be a market for toilet paper, isn't there? It'll never die. It'll never die. It'll never die. Stacey, I understand you want to send Ben into the soundproof booth this morning. I do. Thank you very much.

Well, I'll get him away off to the naughty corner he goes. And I've been doing this the last couple of days. Let's just pretend you've won, Stacey. What's your reaction? Stacey, you've won $5,000! Oh, my God. Yeah, again, I'm going to need another 20%, OK, if this comes off, Stace. You can promise me another 20% to 50% on that excitement level, OK?

Woo-hoo, I just won $5,000! Yeah, that's good. Getting closer. All right, let's do it, OK? Let's see if we can match your five words with Ben's five words this morning. Stacey, the courier driver at Nelson. Visor is the first word for you this morning. Stacey, the courier driver, and Nelson. Yes. Visor is the first word for you this morning. Visor.

Sun. Boom. Icing. Cake. Yeehaw. Retired. Retired. Hmm.

Old. Retired Retired Old Damn, Stacey Soccer Ball You lit Oh my god, what are you doing? And the fifth and final word is story Book You played a very quick game

Thank you They were great answers, Stacey Thank you Story. Book. You played a very quick game. Thank you. They were great answers, Stacey. Thank you. Do you play in your car every morning in the courier van? I do, yes. Easier when you're listening, isn't it, passively? It is.

Now you're in the hot seat. Yeah. Ben Boyce is in his hot seat as well, still kept warm from those sweet cheeks of his. Yeah. And here we go. Let's see if we can win Stacey $5,000. The first word was visor. Visor.

Sun. Sun visor. Oh, yeah. Icing. Cake. Icing on the cake. Yeah. Okay.

Good. Two from two. Got a nod from John out there. Nod of approval. Yeah. Retired. Retired. Retired. Old?

Old. Oh. Oh. I was about to say old and retired, but that's not a saying. Okay, this is good. This is good. Stacey, you've got three under the belt. How are you feeling?

Oh, my gosh. I'm pretty nervous. Okay. Soccer. Oh jeez. Goal? No! Those are... Field ball.

Game. Game. Soccer ball. It's one of those ones that's heaps of options. Just a dad on the fourth word and story was the fifth one this morning.

Bedtime. Started good. Story book. Bok was better. Yeah, I would have said bok. Stacey, I'm so sorry. That's okay. Never mind.

A pleasure having you listening to the show though, Stacey. Yeah, good times. Good times. You have a great day and look after yourself. Hang around, Stacey, Yeah, good times. Good times. You have a great day. And look after yourself. Hang around, Stacey, because we've got Ed Sheeran with us just after 8 o'clock, all right? Okay, cool.

Thanks. I see. Amazing. She's not hanging around, is she? That's definitely the sound of someone who's like, I'm not going to be here for that, mate. Well, you should. Ed Sheeran joins us. Very excited.

He's coming back to New Zealand. He's about five minutes away on the Hats. The Hats. Jono and Ben. Very exciting news. Ed Sheeran is coming back on the mathematics tour to New Zealand. He's about five minutes away on the Hits. Very exciting news. Ed Sheeran is coming back on the mathematics tour to New Zealand. He's going to be playing two shows, one in Wellington in February 2nd, one at Egan Park on the 10th of Feb.

He can win tickets each day next week. If you head to the Hits Facebook page, you can register now to win. And pre-sales go on from March 21st. Yeah, we had the chance to catch up with Ed yesterday, and it was over Zoom and we wasted a lot of time talking about the office

because I was wearing my Steve Carell shirt and he's in the office. The American version of the office. Yeah, Michael Scott t-shirt. Because there's the British version we got talking about.

We had a long time because we only get a short amount of time with these stars. I can tell you were getting antsy. You're like, there was too much office conversation. Well, it was great. It was good good it was great to catch up with each other

to talk about the office and your t-shirt but i was at the same time we're like we're not getting to the stuff that we need to talk about but anyway we started talking about johnny's t-shirt and the american office really cool t-shirt as well it's kind of like i got given a uh ace venture a pet detective t-shirt like that the other day but i've never seen a michael scott one yeah michael scott yeah i got into the u.s office i was a huge fan of the british one and i didn't bloody the yanks they continued on their version of the office for years so the moment that they stopped trying to be like the uk office was the moment the genius started the moment because they spent the first season going we can do british humor and they just couldn't and then as soon

as they accepted you know what We're pretty funny as Americans. It just flew. It just flew. It's amazing. I gave it a really wide berth for, I mean, years and years and years. Cause I was just like,

I mean, we've had like, like the in-betweeners they've tried to remake and skins they've tried to remake. And they've been all these like inherently British things that Americans have tried to remake. But I think the, I mean the office,

I adore it. I love The American Office. I loved it when Billie Eilish was asked about it and she thought the Brits had ripped off the American one. Yeah, yeah. She's like, she'd never seen the British version of it. She's like, what is this? I mean, I watched the David Brent film.

Have you seen Afterlife? It's really good. It's so good. It's very good. I love talking to you. It's just like catching up with a mate. Yeah, I know. I feel like we should actually talk to you about coming to New Zealand, but I love this. But I feel like people will hear the interview and be like, what's he promoting?

And then they'll find out anyway. So we might as well just – Well, that's true. There's shows coming up. I'm playing all things well. Anyway, let's carry on. We're excited to have you back because last time you came here, geez, we came on so strong.

We had you having cups of tea with the Prime Minister. We had big big murals painted we were worried you're never going to come back i felt so loved on that trip i was like i don't i don't get that love in my own country my own country sometimes feels like you're like younger brother at school right you know you know you don't really like them and you're kind of but then like if someone takes the piss out of them or hits them, you're like, you can't do that to my brother. I kind of feel like that sometimes about England. When I'm here,

all the English press are like, but then if anyone from outside England never has a crack at me, they're like, you can't say that. When I came to New Zealand, I was like, I'm loved. We love you.

We do. We froth over each year in here. Is there anything like, you know, a tribute to you that you've seen that has weirded you out? Whether it be like a tattoo or something. You know what? If I'm being completely honest, you know when you sit in court and someone does a drawing of you? I had all my friends sending me this drawing. I didn't think you'd been sitting in court recently.

I don't know what that's about. Jono and Ben. Ed Sheeran, and he is coming back to New Zealand. The mathematics tour is going to be Wellington and Auckland in February next year. You can get all the details at the hitstock.nz. And some tickets were given away next week, which is very exciting. Now, we're talking to Ed Sheeran, and we talked about all the tributes that we gave him

last time he was in New Zealand. Speaking of tributes, do you know my friend Ben here? He is a huge fan of Dwayne the Rock Johnson. Do you know he's got a Dwayne the Rock Johnson tattoo on his bottom? I love heart with Dwayne the Rock Johnson. So can I tell you something? So I got an email about a year and a half ago from this guy called Rawson who wrote and directed Red Notice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the guy. He said, hey, Ed, I'd love you in my movie. I'd love you in a scene with Gal Gadot, Ryan Reynolds

and Dwayne the Rock Johnson. And I went, yes. Sign me up. So anyway, we're kind of emailing back and forth, emailing back and forth.

And I get there to film the day and I sort of turn up and I'm like, where's the rock? Oh, we shot his bits and make it look like you're at the same place now can we can we settle uh a bit of a debate that we've been having you came here a few years ago and uh when you departed we got a message from

the lovely lady from the record company she texted us both and she said ed is absolutely gutted he didn't get to catch up with you too so uh an honest answer yeah how gutted were you or b did you never say that at all no i definitely said that no i really really genuinely enjoyed because we have actually enjoyed times as not aside from the microphone. But yeah, no, because that trip, that was a pretty heavy drinking trip for me. I had fun. We just thought they were being nice to us and go, oh, that's lovely. But Ed Sheeran would never say that.

I wouldn't say that, because what would be the point? No, but genuinely, guys, I really do love you. Oh, it's great to catch up with you again. Just really quickly before you go, there's some items on Trade Me in New Zealand, Ed Sheeran items. This is like eBay.

Yeah, it's like Craigslist. I wanted you to know, you guessed the items, you guessed the price of the items, Ed Sheeran. So here's your book. I found it last night. It's on Trade Me.

Used paperback. Excellent condition. Buy now price. How much? New Zealand dollars. Are we doing Kiwi dollars? Yeah, which is about half of a British pound, I think.

I take 40 kibbe dollars no she's made 15 bucks you can get your book for her yeah that's you it's not new ed sheeran divide tour t-shirt size men small excellent condition how much i don't think i was going for that much 20 the 12 dollars mate You're really overshooting. These are quality items. Quality items. A used CD, the Multiply album, excellent condition, original case and artwork. Buy now, how much? It's going to be like 50 cents, isn't it?

No, it's actually $5.99. I put that down to aging technology. Hey, Ed Sheeran, always love hanging out with you, mate, and can't wait to see you down here next year, and I'm sure the shows are going to be fantastic. And you keep well. You keep safe. Nice one, guys.

Thank you. He is awesome. Back in New Zealand next year, and we'll have tickets to Ed Sheeran next week on The Hit. Your essential listening for non-essential banter. Jono and Ben on The Hit. Close contacts is a call that many people are probably actually having to make at the moment, unfortunately But this one has a bit of a twist

Less COVID-y, isn't it? Well, we hope so, we're still waiting for our rat results But it's the most gut-wrenching part of the show for me It reminds me of when you go to school camp and you have to do the trust fall And you fall back and you're hoping that your friends will catch you Now, in this instance, I know you're not going to catch me. No. Every time you don't catch me, you stitch me up.

Well, yes, it's my turn to have your phone right now. I've got my phone in your hands. We've plugged it in, so it'll come up as your number. To the person we're going to call, and I want to call someone. You don't know who this person is, and you've got to work it out. They're going to think it's Jono, obviously. This is a good one. Let's hopefully hopefully the answer oh hello hey mate how are you hello johnny how are you mate yeah good been well you're out of jail out of jail yeah all good are you

are you still in or yeah look you know, early release. How's the fam, mate? Oh, pretty quiet, to be honest. It's, yeah,

because a lot of my stuff is, I do a lot of event work and that's just all gone, you know. Oh, of course, yeah. Yeah, and then they rebook it

and they cancel. I had one job that you're on the books since August 2019. Rebooking, rebooking, rebooking. Anyway, we got that one away in January. I'm not thinking about it.

But anyway. Tough times. Tough times. And where are you living now? What's that? Whereabouts are you living? Wellington. Oh, nice.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it keeps me out of trouble. Is this? It's Mark Sainsbury. Yes. Yeah, you've rung the wrong mark, haven't you? No, no, no, Mark. We play a stupid game on the radio.

Welcome, it's Jono and Ben here. Ben literally takes my phone, he plugs it in, and he calls someone from the context. Why have you got Mark Sainsbury's number? How are you bugging Mark Sainsbury, Jono? I must say, when I saw Jono's number come up, I thought, I'm sure I blocked that. I'm like, he's got Mark Sainsbury's number?

This is close context. And so then we have to try and figure out during the call who we're speaking with. And hence the vague conversation with John Ah right, I just thought it was your usual disposition He's like, he's brilliant Get to the point, why is he calling? I could tell you were done with the

filler content, you wanted to know what the reason for the call was Oh Mark, you're an absolute legend, apologies for interrupting you No, no, no No apologies We were just saying

It's the most low level game But we get so nervous about it Mark Sainsbury, love your work You have a great day Hey listen, no worries boys We'll catch up again someday And don't forget your stymie boys. We'll catch up with you some day. And don't forget you're starting me money. Oh, we'll hang up on him.

Oh, that was so awkward. Such a good sport, Mark Sainsbury, but that was awkward because he got to the point, because you called him and his mind. Well, that's the problem with all these calls. It looks like we're phoning them. So generally, when you're phoning someone, you've got something that you need to tell them. Yes, and they get through the little bit of like, oh, it

works good. And then they're like, what is this person calling about but you don't know who it is that's a twist on this game close contact is back next week tested safe for listing from home jono and ben on the hits now ben boys you uh you don't you know you lead a pretty clean life for the most part and try to apart from your heroin addiction. Everything else seems above board. But you always, every day you're like, oh, I've got one vice. And there's one vice. It's coffee. I do enjoy coffee.

It's one of the, you know, one of the few things I get pleasure out of. One of the few things. So sad to my wife and kids there right now. It wasn't what I meant. But it is one thing I look forward to each day. Do you look forward to a coffee more than you look forward to seeing your family? No, no, not at all. I don't want to put it, I don't know why.

Do your family give you as much energy and pep in your step? Yeah, they do, all right? They love. I do love my family, but I also love a couple of coffees a day. Yeah, now there's no part I have noticed with you is there's no part of you that can deny a coffee even if he's six coffees deep and juliet you say well should we get a coffee he can't say no to it he can't deny that bitterly disgusting taste of that black liquid yeah because true it's not like i go out there and have six coffees or anything i'll go and go i have a one you know morning when i leave home and then one maybe after work. But you're right.

Someone's going, oh, I'm going to get a coffee. Do you want one? I'm like, oh, yeah, okay. I can't say no. You've always got the alertness of like a scatty cat on caffeine. He's got equal amounts of alertness and paranoia. Not after my day. I'm not like you.

When we go out for dinner every now and again, you have an after dinner coffee. Really? Like a boomer. Really? Actually? Not even you have an after dinner coffee. Really? Like a boomer. Really? Actually? Not even a tea? Just a coffee?

An after dinner coffee. It's a boomer. Really? That is a big boomer move. What is the point of that? To do no coffee. Just to set things back on track a little bit. Just for a little bit.

That is so strange. You know, when you're 14 beers, you know, coffee just kind of. Just a corner. So bring the equilibrium back a bit. You know, coffee just kind of... It just makes you more puffed up. So bring the equilibrium back a bit, you know, even things up. But yes, I do have an afternoon coffee. Get the foils down on Team New Zealand, mate. Just for a little bit. But I've always thought that coffee, it's the world's most disgusting taste.

You somehow just keep bullying your taste buds into tolerating this flavour. You're probably right. But I reckon kids, I mean, I've been a big backer of government for state-funded coffee for kids. Oh, no. A huge backer. You just have a lot more, you know, every teacher will tell you, your wife's a teacher. She'll say that 1.30, 2 o'clock in the afternoon, lol. Have a 1.30 coffee.

Oh, gosh. The kids are going to be prolific right through till dinner. No one wants kids on coffee. Get them hooked on a primary. They can pay for their own coffee from secondary onwards. Little coffee carts around the secondary schools. Yeah, we'd have a lot more productive society if we had more coffee in the mix. Oh, jeez.

All right. Scrolling through your feed. And you're over now to the only newsreader with a degree in prankology It's Ben What's happening mate? Yesterday National Party former leader Now MP Simon Bridges is quitting politics And will step down in the next few weeks

There's going to be a by-election Where that's going to happen in the Tauranga seat as well So they reckon there's an opportunity for Winston Peters to come back Yeah so they did some vox pops. They're talking to the people in the Tauranga where Simon Bridges held his seat, local seat. And this is what the pundits had to say. Only one best politician around, and that's old Winston.

He'll be back. Bring him back like Buck. He wants Winston brought back. And it's a general consensus maybe because they don't know anyone else. Yeah. I guess at this stage they don't really know who the National Party candidate's going to be. Do you reckon Winston's like Batman in his Batcave, and he puts on his pinstripe suit,

like Batman and hops in his Mona Mobile or whatever? I don't know, he has his gold card and gets on the bus probably. Gets on the bus, and he'll be in Tauranga this afternoon, shaking hands, kissing babies. Get your babies out actually today, Tauranga, because Winston's lips are ready for them. Are you kissing babies in a COVID world? I don't know if you are, are you?

Well, he went to the anti-vax protest. He was shaking hands with a guy with a tinfoil hat. I think he'll do anything. But Simon Bridges had his last little moment in Parliament and him and Grant Robertson was sort of sparring in a jovial fashion and Bridges was saying, well, you'll miss me when I'm gone. And Grant Robertson brought up the fact that he became famous for a video with him in a yak a while ago.

Will I always be his favourite National Finance spokesperson? I've been giving significant thought to this question and I can confirm for the member that among the six National Party finance spokespeople I have faced, he's in the top half. What will he miss most about me? I look forward to his hosting of the Country Calendar Yak special. We pay those people. What are they doing?

No one gets better laughs than the politicians, though. We used to do a TV show where we'd have an audience and we'd have to give them a few drinks and things like that just to get them laughing. But the politicians, I mean, that's, what is it, Tuesday morning, probably 9 o'clock. They're loving it. Yeah, I know.

But it's like a team sport, though. They've got their team. We needed more people, more players on the team, Ben. Now, he's four weeks to go, so let's be honest, he's checked out now. He's not going to be doing much for a month. Juliet, you're in the same boat. Yeah. Oh, yeah, you're leaving too.

I know. I've noticed a lot of lack of productivity from Juliet, Ben. Yeah, I've checked out, eh? See ya. You do check out when you announce you're leaving. You haven't, though. No, I try not to, because I don't want to be that person that resigns and then goes, oh, what's up to you guys?

You've already kicked us in the guts already, mate. There's nothing more you can do to bring it back. And that is scrolling through your feed this morning. Hey, next, The Rock, Dwayne Johnson. Love talking about him, but you've got some information that I didn't know about Dwayne Johnson. Yeah, he's got the most bizarre sleep schedule. More bizarre than Jono's, okay? You don't know how I sleep.

It is a hat. She got Jono and Ben. Spy. Know what's up. Spy.co.nz She loves gossip more than she loves her own family. That's how dedicated she is to this part of the show. Juliet, what's happening in celebrities' lives? So Sandra Bullock is stepping away

from acting to spend more time with her kids. So she has starred in more than 60 productions over her 30-year career, obviously been very, very busy working that whole time, and she has kind of decided that she wants to prioritise her children a bit more and take a little hiatus. She doesn't know how long it will be, but she's obviously set herself up very well that she probably won't need the income for a while. She once was, I think, one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood.

Yeah. Sandra Bullock. She's very good, isn't she? Yeah, she is awesome, hey? She's kind of an actress that you probably don't think about a whole lot, but the movies that she is in, you're like, damn, she's good. And she doesn't choose too many bad movies to be in, you know? Yeah.

She's always in really good movies. That's the key to longevity, isn't it? One of the people you don't think about often, but they just keep popping up. That's the way you're lost. That's the way you're lost, and that's how we've been here for 20 years. You don't think about us too often, and you turn on the hits, and you're like, oh, they're still going.

I guess they're still plodding along. But that's great. Did you know she speaks fluent German? Does she? That's really cool. Seems like a great person. Yeah, she does. She seems like Kind of one of those mums That would She'd be like the auntie

That you could bank on Anytime you see She'll have a wine in hand And is ready for a good time You know what I mean? Yeah Like she'd be the auntie You can chat to about anything

Yeah And Dwayne The Rock Johnson He reportedly has the very The weirdest sleep schedule So he goes to sleep at midnight And gets up at 4am So he means Jesus

Only four hours sleep. But obviously it seems to be working for him because he's as shredded as ever and looks very healthy. A lot of energy drinks too, I noticed in his schedule. He's a big promoter of his ZOA energy drinks. He would have all sorts of exotic supplements running through his veins, wouldn't he? So it's probably hard to sleep. That's true. But he's got a lot.

He is busy. He's a busy guy too, right? He's got a lot going on. He's like one of those people who would be like, sleep when you're dead sort of thing. He's like, well, no, I like sleeping now. Some people are like, I have to get my eight hours and other people are like, I can survive on four or five.

Was it Obama? He only had six hours of sleep a night, doesn't he? Yeah, he goes to bed at 1am and gets up at 7am. The late inventor Thomas Edison got five hours of sleep, to bed at 1am and gets up at 7am. The late inventor Thomas Edison got 5 hours of sleep, going to sleep at 11 and getting up at 4. Whereas Ellen DeGeneres gets 8 hours. She goes to sleep at 11, wakes up at 7.

Go on, say something. Go on, have a crack at that one. As soon as I write that down, I'll say it. Sleeps on all her interns, on top of them like a bed of mattresses. Maybe 8 hours of sleep means you're evil. I was just going to say I'm glad she's getting a great night's rest. Oh, really? It's not what you like.

I reckon we chuck it out there. Four, four, eight, seven on the text. Does anyone sleep less than Dwayne the Rock Johnson? Is anyone getting less than four hours sleep or not? Or maybe even unusual patterns.

Maybe you get a couple hours at night and then you have to sleep one hour during the day or something. Yeah. Like you sleep in pockets. I can't imagine you sleeping.

I can't imagine. What do you do? What do you do when you lie in bed? I can't imagine you just stopping. Just literally lying down and closing your eyes and shutting down. I find that part, I find sleeping very much a waste of time.

Really? Oh, I love it. You're like, If I could not sleep I would be happy What would you be doing? I'm just stuck You've got stuff to do Yeah there's always things to do right And I imagine it probably takes you

About nine hours to get to sleep You're like tick tick tick tick tick tick Brain going off Yeah Yeah probably Oh my gosh Imagine you meditating That would be so funny to witness

I've tried to get him to do that Head space That would be so good My head just starts thinking About meditating I wonder what the people got paid for this podcast. I wonder when they recorded that. I'm just thinking about lots of stuff.

You start thinking about it. 4487 on the text. Unusual sleep habits. Have you got it? I'd love to hear from you. I would love to hear from them too. Both of us would love to hear from you. If they were the internet, you'd want to clear this history.

Jono and Ben on the hits. So just talking about unusual sleep patterns, heaps of texts coming through. We might get back to this tomorrow. Yeah, just because we're running out of time for the show today. If we could keep going for another five hours, we would.

But Ben needs to go home and have some sleep. Great texts coming through. I only get three to four hours sleep a night. Too busy on TikTok. Oh, TikTok is a year. It's a beauty, yeah. Also, someone saying Steve Irwin basically never slept. Really? He and Terry would go to bed

and he'd just wake up and start doing stuff. Unusual sleep patterns. We'll get to that again tomorrow. Have a great day, New Zealand. We've got another 10 seconds. I've wrapped it up. Did you want me to keep going about Steve Irwin? No, did you hear the way I said New Zealand? I'd wrapped it up. Take two. Have a great day said New Zealand? I'd wrapped it up. I'll tell you this too.

Take two. Have a great day, New Zealand. There we go. Jono and Ben, brought to you by Resene, New Zealand's most trusted paint, Kiwi-made since 1946.