The Adam and Dr. Drew Show - #2105 - Celebrating the Life of Bald Bryan | Part 1

Episode Date: September 23, 2026

Comedian Mike Dawson fills in for Adam on this episode of The Adam and Dr. Drew Show. Mike and Dr. Drew begin by remembering their former colleague Bald Bryan and reflecting on his recent passing. Dr. Drew discusses Bryan’s diagnosis and how remarkably long he lived beyond the typical prognosis, while Dawson shares how Bryan inspired him to pursue stand-up comedy.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Recorded live at Corolla 1 Studios with Adam Carolla and board-certified physician and addiction medicine specialist Dr. Drew Pinsky. You're listening to The Adam and Dr. Drew Show. Yeah, get it on. It's Mike Dawson in for Adam. Great God to get it on. No choice but to get it on. Yeah. Mandate, get it on. You know, sometimes he doesn't even do it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. But people know what it is. People know what it is. It's a way to start the show. So Dawson, good to see you. Corolla couldn't make it in, so we're putting you in the driver's seat, which I appreciate. I'm thrilled to be asked.

It's wonderful to be thought of in this capacity, and we will shine together. Well, yes. But it could not come at a more sort of unfortunate but important time. Yeah, big news over the weekend. Yeah. So, and I know Adam dedicated an entire show to this. topic and so he's sort of done his thing but I thought it'd be interesting to you and I talk about bald Brian absolutely uh Brian was our colleague for your colleague for a few more years than me but

well he he he came over here he was sort of out of my orbit I mean he would see each other and talk to each other and stuff and I I endorsed his books and I you know encouraged him with all the the well do we need to set up who ball Brian is is does everybody know bald Brian was one of the characters on the Adam Carolla show. Everybody knows who he is. I believe that everybody who listens to this show, although, you know, you and Adam are jumping into the zeitgeist a little bit more these days, so there are certainly some new listeners. Are we really? I can't tell any more. I believe, I believe you are. I mean, Adam just spoke at the midterm convention for the Republican Party. I loved it. I loved it. It was hysterical. You're getting a lot more TV hits.

I guess that's true, yeah. And so I think that that, that, that, that, that your reach has gotten bigger. But I don't feel like TV is the... What is Andrew? Andrew's pointing at me about something. I'm preemptively agreeing with you, Dr. Drew. I'm so sorry. About TV not being the thing?

Well, here's the thing with TV, though. It's depressing now. It's not what it used to be. Yeah, TV used to be the thing, the thing. It determined everything. Now it's like, I guess it helps. I don't know. It's interesting, but it's a whole different vibe.

A way to look at it is your television appearances will get clipped and then played on social media and then... Perhaps. I don't even know what it is ever. Because TV still has power. I mean, you can go on Gutfeld and get some attraction. I mean, here's where I notice it. I can't walk across a casino in Las Vegas

without a 65-year-old man coming up to me. Really? And what do they say? Thanks for speaking up about what you're thinking. Right. And thanks for going on Fox and not being afraid to do it. And I thought, Right.

Afraid to do it stuff. When people say you need to be scared, RFK Jr. was the first person to say that to me. I was interviewing him on my show, asked Dr. Drew, and he goes, he goes, you're so courageous to interview me. And I thought, what? For a doctor and a lawyer to talk publicly,

you have to be correct. It's fucking ridiculous. Courage has been warped. Anyway, so let's dedicate this to Brian. That's enough of that sidebar stuff. Yeah. Because Brian deserves our attention. He was, look, he was a wonderful dude.

he, I will take you back to when he was first diagnosed. He had a some sort of glioma, you know, oligodendricide tumor in the brainstem at the level of the ponds. And if you know anything about neuroanatomy, your ponds is sort of the final common pathway between your brain and your body. Right. Yeah, I remember that. But the point is, if that gets cut off, everything's cut off. And to have something swelling in that region, is it's curtains.

So that'd be like the cut off all the blood flow type thing? It just kills all the tissue and just cuts off your body. It's no different than cutting off your head in terms of the spinal column is seeing. Or the brain is seeing. And so all vital function funnels through there. And I mean, it's a little different, obviously. The blood supply and the sympathetic and auto-in-narm nervous system is preserved. but the function of those systems are affected by something swelling in the brainstem.

And back in the day, when he was diagnosed, I told Adam, I just thought, I said, dude, it's six months. That's it. It's always six months with this one. Bruce told him the same thing. And many doctors told Brian the same thing. And he had the intestinal fortitude, if you read his book, to go out there and go, I'm going to keep looking around, see if there's something going on. which was very courageous, very unusual, very insightful to know that even though, I don't know how many doctors told them, you know, sorry. That's one thing about Brian is he was stubborn in all the right ways.

And the wife, I think, was important part of that. She was also like, I can't accept this. It doesn't sound right to me. And he got on this medication called Avastin, which essentially was a brand new medication that affects how tumors grow. blood vessels to allow them to grow, right? A tumor in order to grow has to get a blood supply, and it has things it does to increase its blood supply as it grows, and Avaston blocks that. Cut off the blood supply. It doesn't cut off the blood supply. It impedes it from growing a blood supply, so the tumor can't grow anymore. Okay. And so it stayed, his tumor stayed the same. He had some

this and that early on, if you remember, he had some heavy plegia and stuff and stuff was happening, but it largely was a response. I don't know what other chemos or radiation or whatever he got after that, but that was the fundamental thing that took it from six months to, what is it, like 18 years? 18 years. Oh, my God. It is breathtaking. And in those 18 years, he became a father, a husband, an author, a filmmaker.

I mean, you talk about miracles. And so when I heard that the end was coming, I said, Adam, there's a time to celebrate. Yeah. And this is like, it's sad, but that. this is like one of those times. The funny thing, too, is you get, if anyone who's told, you have six months

to live pretty much, give or take. I go on a cruise or something. I'm going to go away. Right. I would spend my time looking for new treatments. Exactly. That she did. Good for him. But I guess in a case,

he did this his way. You'd be like, if we were told we had six months to live, we'd come up with bucket lists. Yeah, exactly. we need to do. Exactly. Brian essentially did the same thing.

Made a film, made the documentary, became a stand-up comedian, traveled the world. Really. Did he? I don't know about the travel part. That's good. Traveled some. Traveled some.

It is not the way we would, evidently. No. But do you think, let's ask hard questions about his experience. Please. Do you think he was in denial about some of this stuff? I think you have to be. denial in a lot of this stuff, you know, I do not accept this.

You are wrong. I will live. I'm a big believer in mind over matter. That is how, that is an explicit expression of denial that you're making. But I didn't have the sense that he was that. It was a little different, a little subtler.

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Like, he wasn't like, this isn't happening and fuck you guys. Because I've seen people do that too. Right. And that's disaster. This was more like, yeah, I don't think I'm ready. It's got to be something more for me here. Yeah, you could be wrong.

You're sure about that? Maybe I'm not. Yeah. And, but I would argue that a big piece of, I don't know, I got to say, I've really thought about this super carefully yet, but I got the feeling that part of his thing was a courageousness. Yeah. Because you got to have the courage to face that.

down your reality, right? You've got to, like, deal with it on its own terms. That news can just completely crush someone. I would disable me. Yeah, I would be disabled. And I wouldn't know where to start. Yeah. And he started with the fight. So let's, let's go through this. So the Avastin, if I remember correctly, was that a almost a trial drug? Did he have to go through some kind of selection process to get in? He must have been. Because it was, I don't about selection, but I'm sure it was, if not a trial, barely approved. Okay. Like, it was brand new stuff.

When I heard he was on it, it didn't even make sense to me. Because I, like, for that to her, they're doing it for that. So, oh, and it worked. Okay. So, I don't know. It's sad. It's, did you, have you any recent contact with him? I did.

I reached out to him. We hadn't talked in a couple of years, aside from a text. here and there. I called him about three, four weeks ago, and I just left him a long message. Did you know he was in trouble at that point? I had heard that. I did not know about that. There were some rumblings that Brian's not doing hot.

Something's up. And the last thing you want to do is miss your chance to talk to somebody. And I just stopped everything I was doing. I called him up. I left him a message. just saying, look, man, I want you to know that you're a big part of my life and I love your friendship and you're always an inspiration to me. And I'm very proud of you and I'm very proud to call you my friend. Do not worry about calling me back. You have enough shit to do. Take care of

yourself, take care of your family and just know you're loved. That's an interesting call because I believe that's important to have done that. And it'll be important for you, for sure, if not for him. I had a friend, psychiatrist. I liked a lot who got his dream job, and then like four months later was diagnosed with a pancreatic cancer. And I was like, I got to call him. I got to just call and say, hey, you're an important person to me. And that was one of the more important calls I've ever made. it's interesting. I didn't have the sense that he appreciated the call, but I felt like it was more important for me.

Do you feel like this is important for you? I think this was very important for me. I think I would have not been able to forgive myself unless I made that effort to have a final, what could be a final conversation. I mean, let people know they're important to you. Here's the other thing, though, too. Shortly after, shortly after the Last for Bald Brian show,

we had that important conversation face to face. You know, because at that time, we're thinking, dude, that he could be gone. And what do you say? At any time. Same thing. He sent me a text back and all it said was love you, buddy. And that's all I needed to hear. And, but 18 years later, God, he beat the odds.

Oh, my God. That's the most inspirational thing there is. It's ridiculous. Brian and I always had a, and Brian and I both came from the Bay Area. I think he's about three years younger than me. And I started the Corolla show in March of 2006, and he came on board in January when it started. Jesus.

So when Brian and I first met, we immediately connected on the Bay Area thing. And we started a nice, easy friendship. at one point, and I'd love to, I know we're focusing on, I want to focus on the Brian good times, but one time. No, I think we had to talk honestly about both of our relationship with them, because I would imagine, I know you guys both pretty well, that you would conflict. All the time, but it was a very, we had an incredibly healthy competition. Yeah. I sometimes told people, yes, I have a chip on my shoulder, and that chip is named Brian Bishop.

Okay. That doesn't surprise me. And does, did he have one on his shoulder also towards you? Or was we aware of it? If he did, not as much. Okay. I talked to Christy and she's like, he absolutely loved you and supported every year. Yeah. You guys both have that capacity.

But I would imagine. I don't think Brian's chip was, if he had one. I don't know. I think you guys have both the same construct underneath your personalities that would create conflict that you would trigger each other. Yes. Right? We triggered each other.

I'm not surprised. But then at the end of the day, we're still good friends. Yeah. Oh, no, no. You figured it out. Yeah. That, to me, is kind of interesting. We didn't have to have talks.

We didn't have to say, hey, I'm sorry about what I said, or just want to make sure that we're cool. We knew we were cool. There's an interesting male-female component to this, too, which is, I don't, not sure two women with those personality characteristics could do this together. Oh. I think they would never. The grudges would just get bigger and bigger and bigger. But men, at the end of the day, get the job done, shake hands, and go, see you tomorrow. Right.

And the thing is... It's like the coyote and the sheep dog. After 10 years, after Brian beat this for 10 years, and then he said, I'm going to start a stand-up comedian career. I'm going to start doing this. I'm going to take a class. I'm going to do some shows. And then we're going to do this thing at the theater. again and everybody's coming out

and I'm going to do stand-up this time I'm sitting in that booth over there and the first thought that went through my head was fuck now I got to start stand-up oh interesting he because I had to compete who's dick is bigger Chuck

that's what that was but then it was Brian and I told him and I didn't say I'm doing this because I'm I want to be better than you I said you know what I'm going to try this too. You're triggered. You got to compete.

I asked him, can you book me on one of your Bald Brian prep shows? Because he had to go and do. He said, absolutely. Oh. So he booked me on my first comedy show, did it at some brewery up in Santa Clarita. I had to write a five-minute set. And I came up with one of my best jokes on the way there. Okay.

And it's not Whatever It's 13 years ago But I said You always know the places You're not supposed to live in California Because they end in the word no Oh

Gino and Sino San Bernardino Fresno Sacramento It's a good It's a good joke And that's the first real joke I ever wrote Well no That's not true But for comedy

And I wrote it on the way to the show And And it's really all because of Brian If Brian did not start this comedy thing, who knows if I would have started comedy by now anyway. Anyway, we're going to take a quick break, and we'll be right back. Hello, and welcome to Pluto Fo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see,

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to quo.com slash ADS. That's QUO.com slash ADS. All right, we're back and we're talking about our loss of a community member here, bald, Brian, to a brain tumor, essentially. And do you experience grief right now? Has he given, sometime, let me just set you up for this. Sometimes when people have chronic, life-threatening illnesses, they give you enough time to kind of come to terms with it. So when it actually comes down, the grief is not so bad. I understand that.

My dad did that. And when he finally died, it was not fun, but it was like, oh, this is the, finally. He nearly died so many times that I was like, okay, I think this is the one. I had the same thing with my father. He had a fall. We had put him in a home, and like early onset Alzheimer's became full blown dementia. That's what you become grateful when somebody about it. Exactly.

My dad just had multiple life-threatening events. But no, what I... It's quite functional, but too much. What I thought, and this is probably interesting on more than one level, but I still have, I still feel invincible, and I really shouldn't. And I also project that onto other people. And so when Bald Brian survives this thing for 18 years, I'm like, the guy's going to fucking live forever. So it did not hit me until we came in the studio on Sunday. morning and I said one sentence about Brian and I I lost it.

Oh yeah. So you're really feeling it. So did Adam's dedication show do anything to you? Yeah. Is there anything stood out from that show? The body of work and the brilliance behind it that he put into this show. Did somebody pull all that stuff or did Adam just sort of bring it up? We were bringing it up.

We were bringing up all the great highlights. Yeah. You kind of forget because, you know, these things happen little by little day by day. But when you pile up this body of work and all the times I laughed, that guy made me laugh, Brian made me laugh only slightly less than Adam did. With the drops or with his sidebar comments? With the drops, with his sidebar, with everything. And I'm a horrible, like, remember. I can't dig back and tell you much more than the time when Brian broke the news that Christy was pregnant.

That, I'm sitting in that room completely bawling. I'm thinking, it's over. He's now. Brian's going to pass now. It's over. And he says, there's a new growth. And we're like, Oh, wow.

And then he goes, and we expect a child in nine months. I'm like, oh, my God, I hate you and I love you. That was, but I, there are probably, it's got to be in the high hundreds, the number of times where he had just a little quip. And in fact, and not just those quips, but the drops, too, when he would close out a show with a drop. drop, I would just start laughing.

Did Adam admit any of his frustrations with Brian during the dedication show? No, it was all of. Okay, good. It was all love. Because Brian would snipe at Adam and it would drive him crazy. Yeah. He would tell me about it. And I go, come on.

That's a lot of people in Adam's life, though. Oh, yes. Yeah. But that was Brian's job. I kept saying, I go, Adam, that's what he thinks he's supposed to do. If you don't want him to do that, you'd have to make it clear. It was the expert. point shitter. We actually came up with that idea for the A's Award because of Brian for

outstanding achievement and shitting on a point-through story. It's like my joke-shitting talent. Right. I could shit on jokes like nobody's business. Right. So you mentioned your invincibility that you felt that Brian had also, and I've argued that some of that invincibility has had a reality component to it with Brian. Otherwise, he wouldn't have pushed on so hard to look for treatments and things. But you and both you and Brian had something that was completely the opposite of both me and Adam, which was a loving mother present throughout your life. Yes.

And I would argue that's what creates that invincibility thing. And Adam and I have many, many, many conversations about you two as it pertains to that and sort of can't even get our hand around it. We're like, what is that? What does that work? What does that do to somebody? And it was never more evident to me than when our mothers died,

and we were both like, well, they at least did us that favor, so we don't feel a deep loss or anything. Oh, Adam zeroed it right in on me when I was talking about my mother's passing. Oh, no, no, I was talking about my dog's passing, which was devastated me. And he just goes, which is where you're your dog? I was like, oh, yeah, dog, for sure. Yeah. So, but they did us that favor, but it makes us very vulnerable and deficient in a lot of ways.

Right. Were your parents married? Yeah, yeah, forever. Okay, okay. But my mom was abuse, and I was singled out for abuse. And my sister's always bewildered by it because she never saw it. You know, it was always done. That's kind of how the abusers do it.

And a lot of it was done, frankly, before she was two years. She was six years younger than me and wasn't even two years old before it kind of wound down a little bit. So, and Adam had his own deprav. He had impoverishment, emotionally impoverished. But you guys got a fulfilling relationship and a mom that was supportive. I met Brian's both of Brian's parents. And it kind of added to the, for me and Brian, I think it's more, Brian met both of my parents as well. and it added to the competition a little bit, I think, in both of our minds. It's the whole source of it. It's the whole thing. Yeah.

And Gary Smith had a little bit of that, too. Not quite as bad as you, too, but we used to give him shit about that. He had like a half birthday party or something. His mom put on, we were like, what? Or Andrew, too, with a mom with a toasted rye bread, sending a sandwich in. We're like, how's it fast? What is that? So a sandwich.

What did your mom make for sandwiches for? so when when we were early on we have simple sandwiches salami and cheese baloney on wheat bread okay in a baggie right maybe a peanut butter or jelly but that was a little too much effort okay so mom's not everything we shot thought she was no she was she was a busy she were raising she went to work as soon as we could take care of ourselves so she She started working when I was about 11. And then from, as soon as we knew how to, here's the thing with the sandwich mom, as soon as we knew how to make sandwiches, we had to make our own sandwiches.

Did she give you all the supplies to make good sandwiches? Oh, yeah. All right. So that's something. So it was the effort that we put in. Andrew, do you make any other sandwiches ever? When I'm home, no, man, I get taken care of. That's right.

She's still sending sandwiches in now. What's in your lunchbox today? Bye. I get care packages. That's how much she misses me. Well, my mom lives next door to me now, built a house for her on my property, and she is the best sandwich mom in the world.

So she's picked up. She picked up where she left off. So, Andrew, did you know Brian at all? I sadly did not. I've only heard great things, though. Through Dawson. So, yeah, I'm just thinking about. the moms. So moms can create a lot of narcissistic stuff. Do you think Brian had some of that?

You have some of that? I certainly think that I am some kind of narcissist. I'm certainly empathetic. No, you both have emotion and you're both up there. I think Brian is. You're not, you're not malignant narcissist by any stretch. But it's a kind of narcissistic, bewilderous both being at him. Because, like, how do you get that? How do you? Like, what, Andrew? I don't think my mom instilled narcissism, and I will say this. I think she had an interesting upbringing. The way she treated me, it was more of just a joy of life

because her brother dropped dead when he was 16 in the middle of class, completely unexpected. What was it, do you know? It was an undiagnosed heart murmur. Congenital heart defect. Yes. Prolonged QT.

Oh, geez. And that's it? Just a long QT syndrome? Just a prolonged QT, but he was an incredible athlete. I was going to say it's a lot of sports. It's surprising it didn't happen in the field. Which it just said it. Those are the guys that get the, you know, what's the name of that syndrome where you get hit in the chest, you know, they drop dead.

Yeah. Shit. I can't remember it right now. But everyone claimed it happened to that. Was he a Viking? It did not happen. I'll look it up. But I think that just sort of shaped the whole, listen, every day's valuable.

That's interesting. But she was to someone who, she's not going to spend her life grieving. But it's not post-traumatic stress disorder. post-traumatic greatness, like, of just like, you went through hell as a kid, and then you're just like, well, I'm not going to let that. Did your mom have something like that? Was she protecting you from something? No.

No, we were, you know, raised in a large Sicilian Portuguese family. Yeah. There was no, there was zero. Well, gentlemen. Boring. Okay, okay. My dad was a little rough. Oh, okay.

Growing up. Okay. So there was some toughness there. So, yeah, I guess you could say. my mom. Was Brian's dad like that at all? I don't think so, no. Okay. So that's an interesting difference with you two guys. Yeah. So as time went along, did you worry about the, I seem like Brian and Adam would conflict a bit, right? And Brian would stand up for himself and that would drive Adam even crazier. Did you see some of that? The one thing that comes to mind right now is, I remember

we were talking about how the news media is biased. Oh, yeah. And, and, both Brian and Gina said, I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, boy. And Adam spent the next 30 minutes showing examples of how the news media is biased. And then by the time they said, oh, okay, what Adam wanted to do is say the news media is biased and here's what I want to talk about. Instead, the news media is biased 30 minutes later, segments over. I didn't get to talk about what I wanted to talk about. He's saying that.

Yeah, Adam's saying that. So, and I think it was during that conversation, I said to Brian, I think you are being deliberately obtuse. Oh. And I had to look up the definition of obtuse because I was like, I was like, wait a minute, I think I think I can use a big word here. And it's going to be especially satisfying. if I get to use a big word to Brian.

And so I'm sitting in the booth and I look up obtuse. And it's like willfully ignorant or, you know, something like that. Just kind of verifying. And it's like, Brian, you are being completely obtuse about this. The information is there. You just won't pay attention to it. Yeah. And it kind of sounds like that.

Oh, interesting. I got a little win about it. I chalked one up. Adam, thank you afterwards for a. getting his back? Oh, I don't know. No, of course not. I don't know. I still have a job, so I think he's thanked me enough. You know, another thing about Brian, he was a very good writer. Yeah. His books was good. Yeah. It was really quite good. And I was surprised. I was prepared

to be disappointed. And I called him after I said, this thing is really good, and it's important. I'm going to get the audiobook. For people that have cancer, I'm telling you, it's, he makes some really good points in the opening chapters, and it's worth reading about. Yeah. It's inspiring. And it's done in a way that, again, I see this quality we're kind of talking about now what your mom's instilled in you guys. But I thought it was going to be all about that. It was not.

It was a humility there. There was a reality there. There was a desire to give back to other people so they could benefit from it. Everything healthy you want to see from a person, Brian manifested there. And he did always want. to help other people. He was, I think... I'm not sure he always had that, but he definitely is this experience gave him that.

Yeah, but he is, I don't know if he transformed into it, but he always struck me as not a selfish person. Yeah, I think that's right. And when bad things happen, that's people want to make meaning of it, and that's one of the ways you give back. And he did that. I, I... So here's my relationship with Brian. He and I used to conflict a lot. back when he was the call screener.

Okay. And we did not, I mean, we're friendly, but we ground each other's gears for sure around call selection. I kept telling him, Brian, we can't do four young females of sexual abuse in a row. We can't do it. You have to spread it out. And he goes, yeah, but they're here and they need help. I go, yeah, but there's a hundred more behind them.

They all need help. We're in an epidemic of this shit. But we have to also do a show. and if we don't sort of balance these things out, no one will hear anything because no one will be listening. They'll be so bummed out by this stuff that it's just you can't. You can't just do only that. That's good radio sense.

It was I always wanted to reach people and you can't reach people if you're not reaching people. Right. And I was like, I would love to help every single one of them. But trust me, there's 10,000 more listening. And they won't listen if you just just overwhelm them with this stuff. And by the way, there's only so much we can do on the radio with this problem. We're really raising awareness about it and directing people towards treatment and what you can do and how this affects you and how this affects your choices and relationships and things. That's what Love Line became in the 90s.

No. He was obstinate about it. Yeah. And so it got to be a problem. I don't remember how it resolved or anything. But I think it probably was when Adam left and he went on with you guys. And I feel like when he came here, our relationship improved a lot. Yeah.

And then when this all – because I just admired what he was doing, and I appreciate that he was here with Adam. And it kind of made sense to me what these guys – what you all were doing here. But then when this all happened, in particular the book, I call him and said, dude, this is – you're on to something here. Good for you. When I started in radio, it was 1997. And I believe when did you start Loveline 95 or with Adam? 96. 96.

I started Love Line in 83. Right, right. And my time slot was up against Loveline. Who were you with? Santa Barbara K-Tide. You guys were simulcast on K-J-E. And I was up against you. And I lost in the ratings every single time to Loveline.

And it's just interesting that in that call screen, a room at that time. I'm looking at the ratings. Bald Brian was part of that show. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back. Bet Online. Hey, it's Adam Carolla from the Adam Carolla show. Football season is here, and bet online is where the action lives. Competitive odds, spreads, totals, player props, and same game parlays. Live betting keeps you in it from the opening drive to the final whistle.

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That's homeserv.com slash ADS for 50%. percent less. Savings compared to renewal price, Boyden, Florida. Oh, yeah. He was, he was right there from the beginning. I don't think he was part of the TV show. I don't really remember all that. And I don't remember how we got, Brian. It's interesting. Good question. I don't know that history, and we can't ask anybody. Maybe Adam remembers. I got a good story for you, though. Yeah, this is, so when I first got to the Corolla, the show. It was March of 06. Brian had been there for a while. We connected as Bay Area People. Memorial Day weekend was coming up. And Brian comes over to me and says, hey, my friends have a cabin in Tahoe. And me and a few of my friends are going to go up to Tahoe this weekend.

Wow. You just got here? It was, yeah. So we met in March. He invites me to go to Tahoe in May. When was he diagnosed? 18 years ago, it was like, uh... That was 2009. Okay, yeah. Go ahead. So I say, yeah, I love to go. Let's go to Tyler. He goes, great, you got to drive.

And I'm like, okay, I see you, I see you. I get it. And that is a great play. So I will drive. No, here's what Dawson actually thought, I would do the same thing. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well played.

So pick Brian up. We drive up to Tahoe and from L.A. Did you fight in the car or anything? No, not at all. We're listening to me. music. We're listening to 90s country. We really connected on 90s country. Okay.

And we get up to Tahoe and we're like wrapping around the lake. And on the right side of the car, the lakefront properties. The left side is everything else. Are you in Tahoe? Are you in the like the camp, are you getting into the Nevada area? Where are you? I think it's closer. It's in California, but it's closer to the Nevada.

It's separated from the gambling. I know exactly you're talking about. Yeah. Okay. And we're driving up. And he goes, this first gate here, that's my friend's property, but that's not the gate. Whoa. And I'm like, okay, that's interesting.

These are his SC friends. The second gate, that's not the gate either. Holy. Okay. Okay. There's third gate's the gate. We go in. We drive in.

And as we're pulling in, it's this expansive lakefront property. No, it's like the wedding scene from Godfather 2. Exactly. This property has three docks. Yeah. So it's Godfather 2. It's full on that stuff. Pull in and I look at Brian, I go, who was your friend?

And he goes, David Hewlett. Hulet Packard. Hewlett Packard. Like, first of all, and I look at him, I'm like, dude, you know I grew up poor, right? Thank you. I've never, I've never. been able to experience something like this. So we spent a glorious three days up there.

Have fun for you. Lots of booze, lots of fun. But now we're driving home, and you'll especially love this, Dr. Drew, because you know that I partake in the marijuana. But we were driving home, and I had a little six-inch bong. And we're driving home, and I'm driving down 195. and I scared the shit out of Brian. Apparently, he panicked the whole way because I was steering with my knee and...

Doing a bomb? Ripping bong loads the entire time. Chuck likes this. And he got... When we got home... Chuck's like, my man! When we got home, the word was, Brian is never going on a road trip with you ever again. Oh, because of that.

He scared the shit out of him. Why did he speak up? because I was ultra confident and I told him, dude, you're going to be fine. Oh, he did speak up? Yeah. Oh, you were ultra high is what you were. You weren't even like connected to whatever.

Yeah. So I could guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm surprised your relationship survived that. That, I believe, that little part. You could have gone to lakefront properties. Who knows what other friends Brian had? Exactly.

You fucked up. And I fucked that up. but that's the liability of what your mom did right right right the ultra confidence and that's the thing is you guys see it you see what happens i think if you ask you don't want a nice mom Andrew have you ever done any shit like that i think if you asked hold on here you come no comment oh see so if i asked what if you ask both brian and i um on an intelligence level where we stand. We would each tell you without hesitation that we are both of above average intelligence. That's what every human says. Right. But that's not possible. We would be right. Of course. Yeah. I was just thinking about the sort of the abusive mom syndrome of the dragon moms. It's a

high stakes game. You either get a concert pianist or a homeless person. Right. Well, your mom got a doctor? No, I was a hyper-achiever. I found hyper-achievement in high school, and that saved me from my PTSD and my bullshit. But I could have easily, I remember how depressed I would get and all the shit I would get, the symptomatology I would get. It could have easily sent me down the different path. If I had any addiction gene in me, forget it. I'd be on the street. Well, I mean, I guess all in, both of Brian's parents and the way he was raised, I guess we could say, I mean, there's nothing That's perfect, right? That was ideal.

For his life, it was ideal and perfect. Yeah. The life he led. So this is what the interesting philosophical things about psychology and parenting. Not every psychological circumstance is ideal for every, not every psychological makeup is ideal for every circumstance. Correct. Yeah. If you want to be a fighter pilot, you better fucking be a narcissist.

Yeah. Okay. If you want to be an empath, and do deep psychological work with patients, you better have the opposite. It's kind of construct. So I don't like anybody being pejorative, has a big word for you, negative,

about somebody having any thing I could label. The labels to me are just descriptions. They're not judgments. Now, certain conditions, those people create a lot of trouble and they're difficult to be around, but usually those people suffer more than the people around them even.

Tell me what you think about this. I was speaking with a fan of the show about Brian. And I had this experience also when I was in high school, someone got leukemia. But it was the closest family, the strongest family, the most tight-knit group of friends. And I said to them,

this is going to sound terrible, but here's the good news. this happened to you guys. You guys are prepared for this. If this happened to any other family in this school, they would have fallen apart. Chances are, yeah, exactly. And I feel that same way about Brian and his family.

I mean, we're blessed that he was able to, you know, stick around for as long as he did. So I wish it hadn't happened to him. Absolutely. But the fact that it did sort of is a model for how it can be done well. Yeah. And I put a tweet out, an ex post out, right when I heard it happened like Sunday morning. And I just said, you know, I admire what he did.

I just missed and I'm sad. I didn't even say I was sad. Of course I got attacked. Oh, of course. It's just unbelievable. It's unbelievable. And the attacks that were the most sort of disturbing were like, oh, it wasn't heartfelt enough. I need to see you.

I'm like, hey, we had a relate. That's one of the reasons I wanted to get into my relationship with him. The relationship was the relationship. Exactly. And we weren't that close. But I do miss him and I do admire him. And I feel awful for him and his family that they give this loss. And it's a time to celebrate for his life at the same time.

So it's a lot of mixed feelings. Don't judge other people's anything around grief and loss. Please, everybody. Does that bother you? Everybody's different how they manage grief and loss. I mean, I know it irks a little bit, but do you let those things actually bother you? Well, enough that I brought it up just now, right? Adam would even bring it up.

You're like, fuck off. But it bothers me that people are that negative these days. And I will tell you, I was at Disneyland on. What's that? Is that people responding to me? How do you guys respond to my post? I don't necessarily want to read it here, but you guys read it and you tell me, Dawson has to read it

I can't see it that far They're looking at everybody's response to it There was a lot of positive stuff too Don't get me wrong But the stuff that showed up on my fees That's a weird negative thing Yeah he didn't care enough They didn't put it in the comments

They tagged me as a separate thing But let me finish this thought Which is that we were in Disneyland over the weekend And I was amazed How much people want to be around other people And how good nature they are And how much money they were spending Where's the problem with the economy, dude?

This is like, I don't see it here today. This is shocking to me. I remember when I had kids, I was worried about it. No, you can't have that princess dress. No, no, you can't have that magic one. No, he can't. Too expensive. And people are just, I don't know if they've thrown in the towel

or just spending everything they have or if things are better than they appear. But more importantly, what I really saw was people liking to be, being very nice to each other and being gracious and people want to be around each other. That's the way it is in person online. it's a completely different thing. I have not posted about Brian on X.

I've surprised you have any of shit for that. Chuck, what do you want to say something? I've been... We've got some of the tweets to read. Tim Rhodes says, I know it's hard to judge feelings from words, but why did this one come off as less than heartfelt?

That's the one I saw. Maybe Drew wasn't that close to bald, question mark? So I had two reactions. I was like, both it's insightful. Like, yeah, I was not that close to Brian. But it sounded judgment. It's like, dude, I actually am feeling bad. I do admire this guy.

And I feel for everyone that is super close to him. I may be making it too simple, but I think all of that really comes down to TDS in the end. That's what that is. Someone sees you a line. And I am, and I. And you're normal. I'm a moderate. Exactly.

I'm a moderate. Moderate liberal. Yeah, I always thought it was a liberal. Adam's still pissed at me from some of my left-leading stuff. Yeah. What else you got there, Chuck? Something else you want to read? It's funny, you got right to the one that I was thinking of.

Good eye. I haven't. Go ahead. I wonder if you encouraged him to get Pfizerized. Oh, yeah. So that's a really interesting one, right? Because it is Big Pharma. That saved his life for 18 years.

100%. That was a feature of hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Big Pharma. to develop that drug so he could live 18 years. Right. So his child could have a father. Right. Give me a fucking break. That, by the way, is from Dr. Hollywood Hogan.

Yeah, okay, Doc Hollywood. Do you know him? No. Okay. I don't, but you were a gambler in the fucking early 19th century. So. Dog holiday. All right.

You guys down? That's all. We know, yeah. And most of it was pretty nice, right? And people felt bad and people felt connected to Ryan. And he's got something. No, but it is weird that people feel just compelled to write negative shit. Forget compelled, but at their liberty.

Yeah. And it's what that is, is anybody in the public is a cartoon. It's just bluey. If you know what bluey is. We've completely dehumanized people on a screen to the point. I noticed that the first time on Loveline in the mid-2000s, stevo was on the show. He had had a cardiac problem, and it was looking kind of.

serious. And he, he and I've been talking about it all day. He came on the show. He talked about it. And people would call in and go, hey, Steve, man, I'm sorry about your heart problem. Anyway, about my penis. And I thought, oh, they don't get a shit. Right. They just don't, you're not even a person to them. You're not real. They have no idea. Yeah. That's the default talk radio. Hey, guys, great show. First time, long time. Right. Right. And I was, but we were talking about something super serious and life-threatening. And I thought, and I told Steve, I said, dude, they don't, they don't know you're a person. And it's gotten way, worse since then.

It's been way worse. You're given liberty to post with an Avidar to basically be an anonymous figure, and it just gives people free range and free liberty just to say the most approach of shit. I'm here to tell you the happiest place on Earth is the happiest place on Earth again. And it was a really good to know. And by that, it was not that way. I was there like eight, ten years ago. It's kind of worried me.

Now it is back. And I will also say, it was Zemvik works. That whole feature is not so much there. and people want to be around the people and they were delightful. It was the happiest place on Earth again. It's because, and it's not just... So less scooter traffic at Disneyland is what you're saying. The people on the scooters were old people that belonged on a scooter.

Okay, good. Not young people that disabled themselves. Right. So I don't know. Either things are getting better or people are throwing in the towel. I think they're getting better. That's my instinct. I guess a bright spot in the X-verse and posting shit.

posting. I have not, I want to get my words together. Yeah, good. I mean, I'm fine with getting on a microphone and doing this stream of conscience like we did on Sunday and just letting it all flow out. But, you know, I want to, I don't want to say something that is not good enough because I'm still up against Brian. I want to compose something that is worthy of bald Brian. and just three, four weeks ago, and it's almost serendipity, like three, four weeks ago, I'm cleaning out some old boxes,

trying to get rid of some stuff. I came across a trove of photographs back when you had the instant digital, not the throwaway cameras, disposable cameras. I found a series of pictures from the first blotto in the grotto. And it's a Halloween show. Bald Brian is dressed as a,

USC football player, and the entire crew is there from 2006. So I will put that picture out there with my thoughts about bald, and that'll... All right, nice place to roll to a stop. Do you need to do the promos for Mr. Corolla? Hello, and welcome to Plutofo. If you know the name of the movie you'd like to see, just stream it for free on Pluto TV. Where all your blockbuster favorites are landing all summer long. Catch Anchorman, the legend of Ron Burgundy.

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