Shaun Newman Podcast - #932 - John Ondrasik

Episode Date: October 14, 2025

John Ondrasik, known as Five for Fighting, is an American singer-songwriter and pianist born in 1965 in Los Angeles. With a background in piano from his music-teacher mother and a UCLA degree in Applied Science, he initially chased glam metal before pivoting to introspective soft rock. His 2001 hit "Superman (It's Not Easy)" became a post-9/11 anthem, earning a Grammy nod, followed by hits like "100 Years" and "The Riddle." With over 3 million records sold, his music blends emotional piano ballads with themes of life and unity. A passionate philanthropist, he supports veterans through USO tours and the Gary Sinise Foundation, and has taken bold stances, like his 2021 song "Blood on My Hands" critiquing the Afghanistan withdrawal and advocating for Israel post-2023 Hamas attacks.To watch the Full Cornerstone Forum: https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastGet your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500Silver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionBitcoin: www.bowvalleycu.com/en/personal/investing-wealth/bitcoin-gatewayEmail: [e-mail] Use the code “SNP” on all ordersProphet River Links:Website: store.prophetriver.com/Email: [e-mail]

This is Viva Fry. I'm Dr. Peter McCullough. This is Tom Lomago. This is Chuck Pradnik. This is Alex Krenner. Hey, this is Brad Wall. This is J.P. Sears. Hi, this is Frank Paredi.

This is Tammy Peterson. This is Danielle Smith. This is James Lindsay. Hey, this is Brett Kessel, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Tuesday. How's everybody doing today? You might have seen that I released a blue-collar roundtable.

It's been a while since we tossed one of those out. We did it on a podcast. bonus episode on Monday, so I guess yesterday. And we recorded it here late last week and decided to slide it in for a second one Monday evening as all of the fine candidates are running in their respective communities here coming up this coming weekend on the 20th. So that in case you missed it was just late yesterday. So that came out.

So if you haven't tuned into that one, make sure you go back and grab it. Okay, happy Tuesday. All right, there's my note for yesterday. I hope everybody's rolling along, getting back into the swing of things after a holiday weekend, hopefully spend some time with family and maybe some friends. Certainly on the Newman side, we got to play a little bit of football outside. That was fun. It was cold.

I don't know about you, but it was cold where we were at. And we made the best of it. What is it up with kids? It just doesn't matter the weather outside. They're not bothered. And it, that, that, that, that, that, that, that. It's a ton of fun to be around. Okay.

The number of ounces of silver folks to gold right now. Let's check out the charts, shall we? Well, when it comes to the price of gold today, we were sitting at the time of recording this, 5702, where silver, man, it is on a climb, 7165. If you're interested in any precious metals, silver gold bull, it's all down on the show notes. just text or email Graham for details

whether you're interested in buying, selling, storing, or using your retirement accounts to invest in precious metals. I don't know if there's ever been a time quite like today, now. Yeah, the climb is steep. Anyways, silvergoldbull.com. Any purchases you make, just make sure to reference the Sean Newman podcast. Profit River, all right, folks, we got a few different things coming up here. October 25th is their customer appreciation day.

They got Rod Giltaka and others. I keep pointing to Rod Giltaga and others going to be in Lloyd Minster for the 25th. And they got a whole, what am I trying to spit out here? A whole day for Saturday for customer appreciation day. And then if you're interested on the 26th, yeah, I'm going to be shooting guns with Rod Giltaka, Chuck Prodnick, Jamie Sinclair. All you got to do is shoot me a text. Prophet River has been kind enough to supply the ammunition. That's going to be a ton of fun.

And, you know, if you're looking for at this time in Canada where everything seems upside down and you're looking to get firearms, or you haven't got your pal yet, you can go in there. They've got a sign-up list to do that. Any purchases you make at Profit River, whether, you know, it doesn't matter where you're sitting in Canada. They ship all across Canada. Just make sure to use the coupon code SNP.

It gets in for monthly draws. You can go to Profitriver. and see everything they got in store and then some it is uh well they they got a lot uh i mean they are the major retailer of firearms optics and accessories they serve all of canada and their customer appreciation day one more time is october 25th we're going to be shooting guns october 26 i hope you'll come uh join us rec tech for 20 years they've been uh leaders in uh the power sports industry and I've got a phone call coming in from Florida right now. I'm sure that's a nice telemarketer,

but maybe it's one of you lovely people out there. I don't know. Regardless, rec tech. Stop looking at your phone, Sean. Who's doing these ad reads today? This is like coming, you know, who is this guy all over the place? If you're new to the show, welcome to the show where Sean at times and ad reads wanders.

Rec tech, okay? Yeah, it started to snow. I threw my back out last week, and I tell you what, shoveling, dirt, and it is giving me a new thought perspective on whether I get a snowblower. And I might be going over to rec tech to see what they got. They got a whole lot of stuff in there. From Alberta built aluminum trailers to, I don't know, the Cadillac of fishing boats in Lund. Or, you know, if you're a snow person and you're excited because we saw flakes over the weekend and you're like,

ooh, here we go. Anything to do with snowmobiling and all the snow sports. Yeah, stop in there. an excellent selection. They're open Monday through Saturday, and you can see it all at Rectpower Products.com. If you're busy running a growing business trying to stay on top of the ever-changing world of information tech, well, it can be overwhelming to say the least. Yeah, that's an understatement. And they want to take care of that for you. You say, Bay, who's that? Planetcom, leaving you to do your thing while they do theirs. For over 22 years,

Planetcom has been here to boost your productivity by proactively managing every aspect of your IT infrastructure, both in the house and in the cloud. make sure you're not too tangled up in tech to get anything done. Go check out the Sean Newman Podcast.com to see their handiwork, and you can visit them at planetcom.com.com. October 14th, that is today. The Health Charter Tour, the world's greatest health show, is in town. I've been saying 7 p.m. doors open at 5.30.

It starts at 6.30. So, yeah, thanks, Sean, for just butchering that. They're going to be in Lloydminster night, Sean Buckley. and so you can stop into the Legacy Center and check that out. October 18th, the tickets are now all done, but Prairie 4-Rising Forum, October 18th. I'm looking forward to being there with Martin Armstrong and others in Regina. October 25th, once again, is Prophet Rivers' Customer Appreciation Day.

October 26th, Shooting Guns with Giltack, a Pradnik, Sinclair, at the Lloyd Minster District Fish and Game Association, an indoor range. Once again, in, once again, am I going to say that seven times today? I guess I am.

Okay. Welcome to Tuesday. The fire, the ammunition is being supplied by proper river. It's 20 bucks to come shoot some guns with us. Just saying,

shoot me a text. We need numbers to know what we're doing. Quick Dick McDick live, November 22nd and Lashburn, all the proceeds going to the Lashburn Elementary School for a new playground set.

The SMP Christmas party. I don't know what you're waiting on. there's somebody sitting there. They've been twiddling their thumbs. One table left. Dueling pianos back by popular demand, December 20th. Get your table today, folks. There's only one left.

Mashbill, January 17th. Yeah, me and twos putting on a little community event in Kalmar, just west of LaDuke. We had 16 teams available. We're under 14 now. Don't wait. It's going to be a fun day of curling, laughs. I don't know, some shenanigans, I'm sure, by twos. and we want to see you there.

Cornerstone Forum, March 28th. We are in the final days before tickets go on sale. We're close. Yeah, we buttoned up pretty much everything, and I'm back running at 100 miles an hour. We're going to have these tickets on sale this week. Looking forward to it, we've announced Alex Craneer, Vince Lanchi. There's others coming as well,

and as the days go on, we'll be announcing them all. excited to be in Calgary again and hopefully run into some of you. Substack, it's free to subscribe to. We got the week and review every week, Sundays, 5 p.m. A way to catch up on everything podcast related. And if you want to be a paid member and, you know, discuss some things with me. I've been sharing some thoughts recently. And that's for all you find paid members.

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I don't know. It's a Tuesday. I'm all over the place. Let's get on to that tale of the tape. Today's guest's American singer-songwriter and pianist, best known for his stage name, Five for Fighting. I'm talking about John Androzic. So buckle up.

Here we go. Well, welcome to the Sean Newman Pawsick. Oh, man, I'm going to start that again. Now I can't even pronounce my own show's name. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by John Androzic. Sir, thanks for hopping on. Sean, nice to be with you, but.

Now, I was thinking about this before I started the show. I'm like, do I introduce you the same way? And I'm like, yeah, your guy puts his jeans on the same way as the rest of us. You've never been on the podcast before. And what I get with new guests is they've got to tell us a little bit about themselves. in case somebody's never heard of Five for Fighting or who you are. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Yeah, singer-songwriter from Los Angeles.

As you mentioned, I kind of perform under the stage name Five for Fighting, which many folks assume I'm from Canada because of the hockey term, which I kind of enjoy, even though I've kind of a born and raised Kings fan down here. Thank you for sending threats to us back in the day. Yeah, but I feel like we've repaid the favor of the last how many years in the playoffs, right? The Oilers and the Kings have met year after year, and you guys are a solid team. I swear if you play anybody else, you probably win the first round, you keep running into us. You know, I'm still have not recovered from the collapse last year.

You know, a chip out of the zone by Byfield, we're up three nothing. But who knows, maybe it would have been a reverse sweep. But yes, the karma of sending us Wayne has definitely been repaid. And we suffer. We suffer every year. And at the same time, there's this kind of love, hate with McDavid because, you know, he kills us and breaks our hearts. But you want him to win a ring, right, the best player of his generation. So hopefully this year we don't play you guys.

That's all we're hoping for. I don't care if we come in first, fourth, whatever. But yeah, you certainly have repaid that. And as folks watching can tell, I'm a huge hockey fan. That Stanley Cup back there signed by all the 2012 King Stanley Cup champions. You know, live my childhood dream to become a singer-songwriter and have a few songs that folks know, Superman being one that was one of the songs that kind of provided some solace and paid tribute to the heroes of 9-11, a song called 100 Years that folks may have in their home

movies. But yeah, we also have a family business that I work with our family down here. We make shopping carts. So I have this strange world of kind of the real world in manufacturing. and then the creative world. Your family makes shopping carts? If you shop at Costco up there, you use our shopping cart. Yep, yep.

Just a random question on this. How does your family get into shopping carts? You know, like, I think of all the things that are used all the time. Shopping carts are. Yeah. But like, how do they start into that? Well, we are Androsca, Androsica is Slovakian. And back in the early 1900s, my great-grandfather came,

to America like so many did looking for a better life. And one of the trades back then in Slovak, and still at this day, was wireworking. The wire meals were back there. So he started a business called wire products. His son, my grandfather, kind of split off and started another business in 1946. My dad called Precision Wire in Commerce, California. And we started making shopping carts in the 80s. My dad was an astrophysicist, crazy.

He worked at NASA, JPL, basically. navigated unmanned spacecraft across the solar system. And then when my grandfather passed away, he kind of took over the business. And we started making shopping carts in the 80s. And he redesigned the cart. It's called the new concept cart. It doesn't have a baby seat that collapses,

which solves a lot of problems. And I'm giving you the pitch for precision wire. We just filmed yesterday the world's greatest shopping cart show, which will be hilarious. But anyways, yeah, so it's been really cool, because I've kind of grown up in this manufacturing business, make a payroll, insane California laws. And I've also had this great careers of musicians.

So I think I have this unique two paths of an experience that's different than frankly, pretty much any musical artist that people know their songs. So growing up in a shopping cart, I don't know, entrepreneur. Yes. How do you become the musician? Like, was that always there? Or was this, did you start writing about shopping carts as a young kid? You know, like I was telling you before we started, your song,

Justin Trudeau never played hockey. I think, well, that's what I call it. I actually don't know if that's the name. I was wondering if that's actually the name. But regardless, I feel like every Canadian, especially this show, listen to that song. You're like, oh, man, this is great. Did you start writing songs about shopping carts?

I know that's tongue-in-cheek. I assume you didn't. But like, you have this gift of be able to write about a lot of different things. Well, my dad was the engineer, and my mom was. the piano teacher. So that's where the music gene came from. She was a piano major at USC, taught piano, took over our elementary and started to put on music, uh, musicals when LA Unified cut funding. So as a young kid, um, I had a passion for songwriting. You know, she gave me the fundamentals of piano and at 13 when I wanted to ride my skateboard, chase girls,

uh, she let me quit. And I'm like, okay, I like writing songs and, and, um, and I have been ever since. So it's really been my childhood passion. I kind of threw out college. I had my reel-to-reel, you know, my dorm making music out of college. I actually, for some reason, ended up in a band with all the ex-members of Pat Benatar. They're all 40. I was 22. And we were actually having some progress. And then this little band called Nirvana came out. And the hair bands all went away. And I went back to the piano. And I started writing kind of my influences, you know, Billy Joel, Elton John, James Taylor, Johnny Mitchell, the Beatles, but also I was a huge fan of the great singers, Freddie Mercury.

I found Steve Perry's voice teacher. So I studied voice with some of the best teachers. And ironically, those singers trained operatically. And so you kind of sing opera and you learn kind of the correct way to sing, but I'd always loved rock and roll. So, you know, I struggled. I was a 15-year overnight success. You know, I didn't have, Superman was not a hit till I was 30 years old, which is very old in kind of music sense to break through at that age.

So for me, again, I feel very blessed to do it and to still do it and to still have songs that resonate. I've had amazing hockey experiences. I played the 2001 All-Star game in L.A. I played the Heritage Classic in Calgary when it was 30 below and had to sing live. I was introduced by Don Sherry. And at the end of my performance, I said, Go Kings and got pelted with snowballs from all the Calgary fans. It was one of the greatest days of my life.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, pelted with snowballs. That sounds about right. No, those are great stories. It's always fascinating to me how somebody makes their way. You know, like I got to interview Don Cherry one point. And that was just a surreal. experience because as a kid I grew up watching the rockam-sockoms all the time watching hockey night in Canada and on and on and on I think here in Canada if you're a Canadian you watched a ton of

Don Cherry and it was just one of those surreal experiences and then to hear him tell his story is just another surreal experience so to be sitting across from you I'm like man I'm just kind of curious how you went from you know chopping cart kid in the factory to you know producing I don't I don't even know what did they finish John Like, are they platinum? Are they titanium? I don't even know the music world. Forgive me for my ignorance, but your songs went to the moon and back. They did.

And I think what I'm equally grateful for is they seem to have, you know, stood the test of time. You know, you still hear the songs. And also, you know, you mentioned Justin Trudeau, the song. Again, it's not a song that's on the radio. And you can't really say it's on my radio job. But again, to have songs, resonate in the culture. You know, I've written some few songs in the last few years that they're not hit songs, but songs about the withdrawal from Afghanistan, songs about Ukraine. I went to Ukraine,

performed with Ukrainian orchestra. As you know, this new version of Superman for the hostages, which we're in feeling really good about right now. So, you know, to still have songs that resonate in the culture globally, even though they're not on the charts, again, gives me inspiration to keep doing it. And again, I said, you know, if, If I had to take, you know, 10 songs with me to the island of mine, Justin Trudeau would be one because he certainly deserved that song. And he did never play hockey. You know, the great thing about it is I listened to it again today because I'm like,

I have this song. And I was singing along. Now, this is my hat tip to you because, you know, you listen to a good song. And maybe the first time, that's a really good song. I listen to that song the first time, I'm like, it probably really feed it into what I was feeling about Trudeau. I mean, how many, it's a couple years ago now, right? Like, or has it been that long? Has it been a year?

Like, yeah, it's probably been over a year and a half, yeah. And I flicked it back on and I knew all the words. And I've only listened. I'm like, how many times when I listen to this song? Five, 10 times max? I don't know, maybe maybe a bit more. And I'm like, I know all the words. That is my hat's off to you.

Because you, like, I even find myself chuckling. And I swear in the song, you're chuckling, which just makes it even better. Either way, I, I, there's, my gush on you for that song because it was cool to have somebody write something about our fearless leader at the time for all the ineptitude and everything else. And tied in the hockey culture was beautiful, to be honest. Well, thank you. I love Canada.

I've always loved Canada. We go fishing at Massad Island every year. I have very wonderful friends. We toured with the bare naked ladies a couple years ago, which was the best experience I've ever had and rock and roll. The guys are truly the salt of the earth. It was like rock star dad summer camp. We had so much fun. And it's kind of, you know, broken my heart to see, to see Canada in so many ways kind of follow the trends that we see in Europe and the decline, both of the economy and the culture. And again, I think it was, for me, you know, Trudeau was easy to make fun.

of, but, you know, he kind of led the, what I would say is kind of in many ways the cultural collapse, especially during COVID. And so, you know, I was hoping Carney wouldn't come in, but I have to say, I think Trump played a role. You know, I think Trump made a huge mistake, making fun of Canada. And look, I think Trump's done amazing things, including this hostage deal. But, you know, his arrogance sometimes, you know, has consequences. And I think, I wish he had just, stayed on the sidelines. But here we are. And I always believe Canadians and Americans at the end of the day will get it right. And you know, you're one example of that. Well, I appreciate that. I was thinking the other day, I was just talking to one of my co-hosts on a different show,

that you could probably start writing songs about Canada right now. And they'd be probably very clever and very popular because there's so many things going on that are upside down. Like it's just an endless supply right now. If you're a comedian, you just got all the material you could ever want. And, you know, listening to a few different of your songs, I just go back to the Justin Trudeau. And I'm like, yeah, that's a hit. And honestly, you could probably make five more about some of the things going on in this country. Switching gears, though.

One of the things, I think if I wrote this downright, I believe you wrote it. I want to make sure that I'm going to read it off. But it was sent to me. It said, art is supposed to transcend politics. It is supposed to give a voice to the voiceless. Shed light on the human condition and create empathy across divides. But this boycott does the opposite. It silences.

It excludes. It tells Israeli artists, your voice doesn't matter. That is not art. That is discrimination. That is anti-Semitism. That is despicable. Walk me through. Because, you know, like sitting here in Canada, I know, I know, like, I know some things about Hollywood.

But I mean, honest to God, I'm not sitting there. I got three young kids. We got our own list of problems happening in Canada. We do not have a Hollywood, although Hollywood comes up here often and films things. Yeah. Walk me through what has been going on in Hollywood. Well, I think we've seen probably a historic, shameful disgrace of Hollywood and the arts reaction to October 7th. Certainly we were all horrified to see the atrocities of October 7th.

But quickly, Hollywood and many of its leaders, including Jewish leaders, kind of fell into this woke, free Palestine dogma. Look, I played the concert for New York after 9-11. Every single kind of living icon was on that stage at Madison Square Garden. I wasn't an icon. I was a new kid with a song. But everybody came out to condemn Osama bin Laden and stand with America after that atrocity. After October 7th, you really had, with exception of Bono saying one little thing, which he kind of like went silent later, you had virtual silence after the massacres of October 7th. And these are the people who like to tell you they're the humanitarians. They're the ones who are on the side of good. But, you know, look, there's a history of the music industry doing good things. Live Aid, Sun City, the concert for New York.

But there was this deafening silence. Just a few weeks ago, 4,000 artists signed a letter, basically blacklisting Jewish artists. And if you wonder how the Holocaust ever happened, you can look there. You could start at the arts. So basically, for me, I've been just incredibly ashamed. of my own industry, who has stood on the sidelines. There was an art artist, Idan, Golan. They have this thing called Eurovision,

which you guys know Eurovision, where in Europe they have, it's basically the biggest musical star in the world. She literally had to have armed security with dozens of cars to go from her hotel to the studio because she was Jewish. And no artists were condemning that. And then all of a sudden you have Coachella

and Glastonbury where it's F Israel, F. Free Palestine, Nobody's condemning that. So for me, this collapse of the moral spine of the music industry is something that I don't think we'll ever recover from. Once the hostages are released and the tone goes down, you may see some of the rhetoric come down. But there's no other way to put it. They're cowards. They're shameful. They're useful idiots.

And many of them, believe it or not, are Jewish, which is insane. what was the the letter condemning or wanting to blacklist Israeli artists what was the letter like what were they signing what did it say it just said we don't want any Israeli artists being used yes and we won't work with Jewish or Israeli production companies is you know Israeli projects and their whole reason was, well, because Israel's committing genocide, right? Which is, as we know, just a sinister lie to basically excuse the killing of Jews. Look, if you look on TikTok, if you look in the arts, they all hear the same, you know, Gaza Health Ministry propaganda. You see it in the media, of course.

You see it in Canada. You look at Toronto. You see it basically throughout the halls of Congress, the Rashida Talibis of the world. We have Congress members who are allies, propagandists for Hamas. So, again, I think a lot of these people have been kind of seduced by this kind of woke, free Palestine lie, which actually at the end of the day hurts the people of Gaza, because that's what Hamas wants you to do. But again, that's not an excuse.

It has the same result. It empowers the bad guys. It makes it much harder to release the hostages. It gives political capital to this lie. You end up with things like the UN where it's really a cesspool of anti-Semitic Marxists. So again, this really is not about Israel and Hamas. It's about the battle for civilization, which we're facing. And you're facing it in Canada.

We're facing it here in the States. And if you look at the kind of riots and the mobs and the Canadian streets, look, I spoke to 500 high school and college students a couple years ago after October 7th. And what really broke my heart in which I was shocked at was one of the worst anti-Semitic academic spaces in the world is Toronto. Toronto. I love Toronto. We love Toronto. It's Canada.

Everybody's nice. That's why we go there. And that has become an anti-Semitic hellhole. That breaks my heart, you know? And it's up to us to fight back. We have to save our countries. We have to save our citizens. We have to save our kids.

You know, I was thinking about this before we, we, um, hopped on here. Like, uh, I, I must be in, it must be small town, Alberta. Because I'm just like, I just don't, I don't see any of this, right? What I, what I see playing out on social media and forgive me because I'm, I'm probably going to butcher this and you hop in, uh, and, and just correct and everything else. October 7th happens And the videos that came out of that

Were horrific I don't know of a better word to put it than that And then since then You've had I think Some of the criticism on Israelis Or Israel I should say Has been I don't know

The thousands of people they've probably killed Or have killed And that's some of the criticism that's come from there And so it's been going back and forth And back and forth And you got Canada recognizing Palestine as a state. You have Trump basically saying, what are you doing? You got Trump trying to negotiate with Hamas. And I guess I sit here in rural Alberta. And I'm like, I don't see the anti-Semitism.

I'm like, I don't get it. I see it online. I hear it online. But like I actually, in my little bubble of the world, John, I'm like, I actually don't quite understand the entire scope of this. I see different things and different thoughts and different posts from, I think, both sides, but probably not on my Twitter feed. And I guess it's confusing. I'm like trying to fully understand the scope of this. No, it is. It's tough, especially with all the kind of craziness online.

And, you know, I do, you know, like to think that we live in kind of bubbles of sanity. You know, you don't live in Ground Zero, Toronto, where all this is happening. I don't live in New York City where you have a lot of these riots and we're basically about to elect a new mayor who wants to globalize the Intifada, which is insane. But again, wherever you live, if you kind of ignore it, the first kind of Jewish person that was killed in a kind of demonstration, early after October 7th was three miles from my house. And I live in West Lake, California, which is a very... In California, sorry, in California, they killed a Jewish person. The guy hit him on the head with a blowhorn and killed him at a kind of protest.

There was the Jewish folks on one corner, and there was the Palestinian folks. And they killed it three miles from my house. And I think what a lot of people say is, look, wow. How does this affect me? It's not, it's not affecting my community. But it really isn't about, as I said, Israel and Hamas. It's about civilization. It's about our academic schools, our high-end academic schools, both in Canada and America,

are literally being funded by Qatar. Qatar has spent $4 billion to basically kind of infiltrate our schools. And that's where you see the kind of ground zero of this anti-Semitism, Marxism, hate America, hate freedom, you know, hate capitalism. It's all put together. And again, if we kind of just ignore that, it's coming for you. You know, it's coming to for all of us. And I think that's what we have to understand.

The, you know, the free Palestine narrative is really kind of a scam to get you to kind of look at the Israel as the oppressor. They're the bad guy. And any oppressor is the bad guy. America is the oppressor, so they're the bad guys. So the atrocities, oh, they don't matter. The fact that if you actually went to Gaza, perhaps you were gay, you would be killed. If you were a woman, you would be probably raped and killed. These are what these people are trying to free people for.

So again, I think it really is a battle for civilization. And I think if we kind of bury our heads in this end, we'll see what's happening in our big cities. We'll see what's happening in Toronto. We'll see elect feckless leaders like Carney and the UK and France who recognized the Palestinian state and rewarded Hamas for unspeakable atrocities. I saw some that you didn't see. And not only is it the beheading of babies killing kids for their parents, they uploaded it to Facebook to show the world and they're proud of it.

And that's what these people are supporting. So again, I think as much as we'd like to just kind of think it's over there, that's the problem. I think we're naive. And at the end of the day, they're coming for all of us. And I say this as someone who rescued Muslims from Afghanistan after we abandoned Afghanistan. I have deep compassion for children in war zones. I went to Ukraine. So again, this to me is not about religion.

It's not about ethnicity. It's really about good versus evil. And at the end of the day, you've got to pick a side. Yeah, the naive thing, I lost that during COVID, right? Like, I remember thinking, it won't come. It won't, you know, you'll laugh at this. You know, Calgary's five hours for me. And they arrested a kid on an outdoor rink in the middle of COVID, right?

And then we spread dirt on or gravel on them. So kids going to go skate on the outdoor rinks. We went full on insane here. And I were thinking, it's in Calgary. Calgary's kind of a weird place. Right. And then, you know, COVID, we all know how COVID went here in Canada. And it just kept spreading and spreading and spreading and spreading.

And obviously it landed here in where I sit today. And I was naive to think that. So I'm not naive to think it can't come here. More just, it's hard to unpack everything that's going on. But when you talk about Hollywood and them condemning, like, we're not going to allow these people to do anything. We don't want to work with them. I'm like, oh, that's, that's a dangerous slope to ostracize a group of people from working in an industry that has nothing. You know, my only kind of example of it that really, I guess, I can wrap my brain around is Ovechkin broke the all-time goals record, right?

Right. And his lead up to that, not his final season, but it was the year or two before, I noticed, and I talked to different people on the inside of the hockey world, and because he was Russian, they were going to not really talk about it that much. And I was like, yeah, but he's not fighting in the war. I mean, he's been literally living in the United States for almost 20 years, and the guy's going to break Wayne Gerexki's goal record. That should be the headline of all the, but since it was Russian,

all of a sudden everybody wanted to draw back from it. And so I guess in the musical world, that's how my brain interprets what you're telling me. I assume that's similar. Look, yeah, we judge people on who they are. We don't judge people as classes. Are there wonderful Muslims, you know, fighting for good? Of course.

This really has to do, I think, with common sense. It's really truly common sense. Oh, Vechkin, you're right. Look, the guy has a ton of family. back in Russia, all right? They're basically hostages, right? So the guy can't come out and basically say, you know, Putin's a thug, right? And he's a hockey player. It's not his job. If athletes and musicians want to get on their soapbox, that's fine. Is it an obligation? You know, I don't think so. And yeah, no, I agree with that. I, again, for somebody who literally went to Ukraine and

and has been working to end that war and support the Ukrainian people. You're right. I think, I think, again, it's just common sense, right? It's common sense. And we all love Ovi. We love him, drunk with the Stanley Cup in a fountain. You know, he's been a wonderful thing for hockey. And also, you know, sports is the one thing that kind of bridges these gaps, right?

you know, these kind of, kind of tribal, tribal, you know, worlds that we all live in. You know, sports is the one place we come together. So, so, yeah, I'm kind of glad that they got through that quickly. And it was wonderful to celebrate his, you know, his accomplishment. And but, again, I always look at, you know, hockey players in the hockey world is a sane place of good people, mostly farm boys. Look, we had Daryl Sutter down here, you know, for a few years. one is a Stanley Cup. I had this, I'll tell you a little hockey story. This is how I really found out about hockey players. As I mentioned, I was asked to do the 2001 All-Star game at Stable Center.

And I had, my kids were very young at the time. They're basically one and two years old. And so we were underneath the Staples Center right before the game was about to start. And of course, all our hockey fans know when you watch an All-Star game, they introduce the players. And here's Paval Beret. He skates on the ice. Steve Eiser. man, he skates on the ice. So we're down there and I'm doing an interview and I see my wife with the kids walk over to the line of hockey players. And I'm like, oh my God, no, I can't believe she's going over there. But I couldn't stop her because I was doing an interview. So she goes over to the players. She says, hi, guys, would you take a picture with my kids? First of all, any other sport, you wouldn't

get near the players. And the guys being hockey players are like, sure. So I see my wife taking pictures with the All-Stars and they're announcing them to come out on the ice. And so if you look back, you'll see, ladies and gentlemen, Steve Eiserman, he doesn't skate out. Pavel Burry. He doesn't skate out because they're taking pictures with my wife and their kids. That's hockey players. They're the soul of the earth. Luke Rubatai is my best friend.

They're wonderful. They say the F word, every other word. I love them all, you know. So again, I think the hockey world is one place and sports where we can kind of get away from the insanity and kind of, you know, just I went to the King's opening night the other night. You know, just it's such a great place to get away from the insanity of the world, but also remind ourselves that, you know, we are at the end of the day, have much more in common than we do apart, unless you're an oil or a fan and a king fan. Or an oiler fan of flames fan.

You know, I agree with on the sentiment sports and honestly, comedy, music. Yeah. There's a few different things that bring people together. Daryl Sutter was, he had a beautiful, when he was coaching the captain, Algarie Flames and they were playing the Oilers for the first time Battle of Alberta and how many years folks. He had a lovely thing on a press conference where he said, you know, the game of hockey, the Battle of Alberta brings people together. And there's only a few things that do that. He mentioned church.

He mentioned music, hockey. I add in comedy because I think, you know, under the right circumstance, everybody can come in and laugh at a comedian who, you know, certainly there's some people that find jokes offensive. but the idea of that realm is to come in and laugh. And there's just certain places where we all can come in and find common ground. Leave that, is it 5%, is it 10%, whatever it is. I'm sure in the United States, the number might be a bit bigger of a divide on certain issues. You know, I guess I come all full circle. You know, you bring up Ukraine.

I've had lots of different people talk the different sides of it. and that's a really complicated conflict. And when I look at Israel and the Middle East, it isn't naivety on my part. When I look at it, I'm like, man alive,

if you're going to dig into the history of that area, while you're talking about civilization, you're talking about thousands upon thousands of years of conflict and different things. And you can go down and down. And I still sit here and don't understand it. But what happened on October 7th,

what Hamas did, horrific. It's as simple as that. And to entertain the idea that that was anything but horrific, that doesn't make any sense. But then it's the other side, right? They talk about Israeli's response, Israel's response, and the thousands of people that have died since. And that's where I'm like, I sit and look at it. I'm like, I'm trying to make sense of it, but I don't live there. I live in the middle of Western Canada where we have things like made and all the jail judicial systems going on, the cost of living, Carney being our leader, Justin Trudeau before that. And I'm like, I guess I come back on it, isn't naivety on my part.

It's how much brain cells do I have to try and understand all the conflicts of the world? And when you come on and talk about, you know, what these artists are doing in Hollywood, to me, I'm like, that is a concern. That is like a concern when you ostracize a whole group of people. We're not going to work with that. well i remember in canada here there was a huge divide in covid and it was a whole group of people if you don't do a certain something well then not getting on any planes trains and automobiles

and you're not leaving the country and you're not doing this and you're not doing that and on and on it went and it seems like those are popping up more and more it's become you know when you talk about the the mind virus of like common sense disappearing that's the way it's playing out in all these different countries is we're putting two groups of people against each other over and over and over again. And that is by design. No, it is. And I do think there's a common thread to all of this, and it really is this kind of radical leftist worldview. And I don't even put liberals in it. You know, liberals, you know, there's a difference between liberals and leftists. But the leftists do the same thing. The leftists basically want to freeze your bank account if you don't follow the rules on COVID.

And they're the same people, you know, putting up this free Palestine narrative calling Israel genocides. Look, Israel has the lowest combatant to civilian to combatant casualty rate in the history of warfare. Israel could basically take out Gaza in 15 minutes. When I was in Israel, I talked to a soldier who'd been shot three times and his best buddy was killed right next to him. And they were going door to door in Gaza. And I said, why are you going door to door? He's like, well, there's civilians in there and then there's Hamas. I said, but you guys could just take out that building, right?

He's like, of course. So I'm like, so your butt's buddy died and you're shot three times because you're trying to protect the civilian lives in Gaza where everybody basically wants you to die. And he's like, yes. And I go, why do you do that? He goes, because we value life. We value life. So there is a difference.

So the same leftist ideology that wants to shut you down for COVID, put you in jail for COVID, that'll arrest you for basically skating by yourself on a hockey rink, just like Gavin Newsom did for a guy walking on the beach in California. That narrative, that kind of philosophy of that, you know, anybody who's kind of free democracy successful is the oppressor and then everyone else is the victim, that basically. that basically is the core value of Carney. That's why you see him basically give Hamas or give Hamas of Palestinian state after the atrocities of October 7th, because he believes at the end of the day that Israel is the oppressor.

So no matter what Hamas does, that's why he wants to shut down free speech. That's why he wants to, like they did here in America, they wanted to take over social media, Twitter. I truly believe that the savior of kind of the way, Western world is Elon Musk buying Twitter. Because for the first time, you could actually have ideas that were not censored by social media. They took Donald Trump, the president of United States, off all social media. Imagine that. Imagine if that was a Democrat. So to me,

all these things are in common. And you'll see the results of that, of course, in big cities, in big countries, but in the middle of, you know, of Canada in a small town, where I wish I lived. I wish I could go fishing every day and hang out with you and go to the hospital. And go to the hockey games and not have to deal with the insanity that here in California, why are you still living in California? I'm just curious. Yeah, well, our family business, you know, is here. My parents are in their 80s. And I have an obligation to precision wire and to the employees that have worked with a 30, 40, 50 years to keep that business going. We did just open a new facility in Texas because basically

there is a mass exodus of businesses from California. There's a mass exodus of middle class. people from California because of Gavin Newsom's kind of tyranny here. So again, I'm here while my parents are here and there will be a day when I can basically hire someone to run our facility here and I'll be to a saner place, maybe near you, but that day is not yet today. Yeah, like I think of the different states and California is very close to the top that most resembles Canada. Yeah.

if I'm being, if I'm being, you know, but like you guys have, correct me if I'm wrong on this. You guys have made, correct? Or some medically assisted suicide, correct? Or medical assistance and dying is what we call it. You know, I don't think it's formal, but it certainly happens without consequence in California. You know, being a federalist country, the states can be polarizingly different. Yes, they can. Yeah.

So, yeah. So in California, there. There's a million things. Look, in California, you don't have to show an ID to vote. You can be an illegal alien and get a driver's license. You can have assisted suicide. What are your friends say to that? You don't need an ID to vote.

It's insane. But, again, part of what California did was let in a bunch of folks and hope that they became Democratic voters. Look, we have boys. in girl sports. And then you go, you know, cross the border to Arizona and that all goes away. So it is kind of crazy. But yeah, it's this insanity that, again, has no common sense that, again, is this kind of woke leftist worldview? Now, you know, love or hate Trump, you know, thank goodness that he was elected. He says crazy stuff. Do I agree with him on certain things? No. But in the day,

he has this common sense that it's like there is a good versus evil. We shouldn't let anybody cross our border. Boys should not be playing in women's sports. There should be costs for imports. They're taking out American businesses like ours. All this stuff is something that shouldn't be controversial, right? But for some reason, it is. And I think that's kind of why we'll see what happens in Canada.

but Democrats here in the States are at their lowest popularity kind of in their history. And many people, many Jewish people who are Democrats, have kind of seen the light. They basically stood up for Black Lives Matter. They stayed up for all of these kind of liberal causes, some that I agree with. And then all of a sudden, October 7th happens, and all of a sudden they're abandoned by all the people that they supported. So I think people are kind of waking up to the insanity of the left. We need a healthy Democratic party. That's, you know, back in the days of Reagan, we had the Blue Dog Democrats.

We need a healthy Democratic party with solid ideas. That basically makes democracies flourish. And I think, you know, again, Canada is kind of at this crossroads of where do we go. Hopefully the Trump rhetoric will kind of fade from the zeitgeist up there. Because I know there's a lot of people that have common sense. And they see that they're losing to a certain degree their country. And that cannot happen. That cannot happen.

The West is the greatest force of humanitarianism, good, prosperity for all races, all ethnicities, all religions that we've ever seen. But we can't just assume that'll happen forever. We have to fight for it. Yeah. Yeah. It's Canada is sliding and very quickly. Like, you know, like, yeah. I can't, you could get me on a rant here about Canada and which way we're going.

You don't have to look anywhere outside the border just inside and what's going on and it's going down. And the reason I brought up made with California, or sorry, our term for it is made. I don't know what California is the thing I'd heard about California is a doctor can't ask the patient if they want it. The patient has to request it is what I've been told about California. Where in Canada, a doctor can suggest it, right? And it's like, well, if you called it a different term, John, you'd call it eugenics. And when you put it in that light and a doctor suggesting that, well, all of a sudden, it would be a pretty taboo thing to do.

But somehow we've created this narrative around it, you know, that, you know, it's so bad. You know, I can't understand. It's just under 5% of deaths in Canada right now are made. And that number is only going up. it does kind of make you just wonder what kind of world we live in. And I, you know, to keep going back to it, but to have biological boys play in women's sports. And again, I have great sympathy and compassion for trans people. I actually write songs that have been in many trans shows.

I have trans folks come to my concerts. I sit with them. I talk to them. I hug them. But the idea that not a small amount of the population believes that it's, fair to have biological boys playing in women's sports. Can you imagine, you know, a biological boy playing hockey with girls? Not only how offensive that is to fairness, but it's dangerous. And we have large segments of the population, virtually all of the Democrats in the House

Representatives supporting that. And if you would have said that 10 years ago, people would have said, you're insane. You're crazy. It's like, and that that kind of insanity has permeated all of our cultures, whether it's assisted suicide, where it's men and women's sports, whether it's basically allowing this kind of radical Islamist kind of belief to kind of take over our culture. Again, it's it's something you never could have imagined years ago, but it is what it is. It is what it is. And I'd be interested. in your thoughts. You know, you always down here, you know, you, you know, you hear about the possibility of secession up there and movement. And I follow, you know, Thur and Flurry, of course, who's a big

voice up there. What is, you know, for American down here, what is your opinion on kind of the state of Canada and where it's going in this kind of, you know, secession idea? Well, so the simple answer is it is definitely a hot topic. Independence would be the word that Albertans would use. If you get into the weeds of it, it's a heck of a lot more complicated than that. But certainly, you know, it sounds like there's going to be a referendum in Alberta in 2026. Wow. And if that's successful, the news coming out of some of the things that have happened here in Alberta is that Washington would recognize Alberta. as an independent country. Now, is that, have I heard Trump say that?

Nope, haven't. It's just been from a visit to, you know, the White House or Washington, the state, or not the state, sorry, the capital. And, but like, yeah, it's, it's a conversation that's happening around the water cooler, John, a lot with a lot of everyday people. The statistics I see on people wanting to leave Canada

here in Alberta of the current, government, the United Conservative Party, the numbers are as high as like 70 some percent that want to leave. Of the everyday population of Alberta, I think it's somewhere and somebody right now is going to be all over me. Did it climb over 40 percent or is it still on the high 30s, folks? It's somewhere in that range of everyday people that want to, you know, leave. And then if you're the NDP, which is, you know, a left-leaning party. it's definitely like 90% want to stay, right? And so, you know, like it, but it's, it's a conversation.

And the longer things go on here in Canada, it only helps that cause and not weakens it because people are seeing how broken Canada is and they're trying to find ways to fix it. And as you try and see those ways through and realize they keep putting up walls in place or hurdles and more bureaucracy, yeah, the conversation is heating up.

It was a fever pitch when Carney got elected. Like it was insane how many people were talking about it. And so you go like, you know, there is a healthy chunk of Alberta that wants out. There's a healthy chunk of Western Canada, but Alberta will be the place where the referendum occurs at least first. And I would think, you know, if I'm watching this correctly, in 2026, that'll happen. And if it happens, you're going to know one way or another, which way Alberta wants to go. at some point in 2026. That is my 10,000 foot view for an American. No, I appreciate that. Yeah. We have something kind of similar here where parts of

Oregon want to kind of join Idaho. And because basically, if you look at the states here, like Oregon, Washington, California, there are some of the most kind of left. this states. But if you look at the people, virtually everywhere outside of the cities are very conservative. They're very kind of more kind of red, conservative. So the vast majority of the state's conservative, but of course in the city is that's where all the people are. So you have many parts of Oregon who live right next to, you know, Idaho. Idaho. And they're like, they see oh wow the taxes are good there's no kind of threats to business um the cost of living's much better and that's 10 miles for me where portland's you know hundreds of miles for me and i want to go over

there but as you said it's very hard to do and you know it's it's almost like you have to have a perfect storm but as you said you know if carney keeps going down this road maybe more more people will you know we've been we've been in the perfect storm i think yeah for probably the last years. Daniel Smith got elected. Yeah. And like she is a juggernaut of a politician. She is well spoken and has been, I think, dancing the political scene here in Canada as good as anyone can. And so we do have, I think, the political or sorry, the perfect storm for a referendum to happen for it to be an outcome that would see Alberta leave. Now, I don't have a crystal ball. I can't sit here and act like I know

what the future brings. If Alberta votes it down, I mean, Alberta votes. down. Yeah. But certainly there's too much going on in Canada right now that makes zero sense. And Alberta is the financial backbone of the country. Right. So like you have this, this isn't a position of weakness. And once Albertans realize that, which I think they do, all of a sudden this is a perfect storm of an opportunity to really push on the rest of Canada to find a better way. And one way or another, I think in Daniel Smith's tenure, as as a premier, we're going to see that and see it through. I just, once again, it's not like there's 90% that want out,

but the number has been growing steadily. Well, again, I think for both our countries, I hope and pray that we kind of find some common sense and find a way to come together and get back on the right foot. And I hope President Trump kind of tones down his rhetoric because, you know, Canada and America have been, incredible allies, brothers, and all kind of things good for so long. And, you know, as an American, a Fyfer Fighting hockey fan, I love Canada and I want to see it prosper,

just like I want to see all of kind of the Westburn nations prosper and, frankly, the world prosper. And I think at the end of the day, I like to be optimistic and I believe that will happen. John, I appreciate you hopping on today. and yeah, I just appreciate you coming on and give me some time today. Well, thank you, Sean. I'd say go Kings, but I don't want to bring up the oil. You can. We can.

If they mean the playoffs again, John, I'll send you an email. We can put a friendly wager on it. Well, hey, and if you ever come down to L.A., happy to take you at a hockey game. And again, if I ever get up there, maybe we can go take in a game. And I do want to see McDavid get a ring, just not against the Kings. So thank you for having me. And thank you for fighting the good fight every day. buddy. I enjoy following you on social media and look forward to doing this again. Thank you.