The Ben and Ashley I Almost Famous Podcast - 12 Days of The Bachelorette: Grandpa Knows Best

Episode Date: July 6, 2022

As we prepare for Gabby and Rachel's season of The Bachelorette, Ben and Ashley have some questions for a person that knows one of our leads better than anyone... and that's Gabby's Grandpa John!  The nation fell in love with him during her hometown date on Clayton's season, but now it's time to hear Grandpa John's love story! And he might share some of the advice he gave Gabby before starting her journey as The Bachelorette!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hi, my name is Enya Eumanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble.

Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your... free iHeart radio app search emergency internet com and listen now I just normally do straight stand-up but this is a bit different what do you get when a true crime producer

walks into a comedy club answer a new podcast called Wisecrack where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story does anyone know what show they've come to see it's a story it's about the scariest night of my life

this is Wisecrack available now listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I just think the process and the journey is so delicious. That's where all the good stuff is. You just can't live and die by the end result. That's comedian Phoebe Robinson. And yeah, those are the kinds of gems you'll only hear on my podcast, The Bright Side.

I'm your host, Simone Boyce. I'm talking to the brightest minds in entertainment, health, wellness, and pop culture. And every week, we're going places in our communities, our careers, and ourselves. So join me every Monday, and let's find the Bright Side together. Listen to The Bright Side on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In sitcoms, when someone has a problem, they just blurt it out and move on. Well, I lost my job and my parakeet is missing. How is your day?

But the real world is different. Managing life's challenges can be overwhelming. So, what do we do? We get support. The Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council have mental health. health resources available for you at Love Your Mind Today.org. That's loveyourmindtay.org.

See how much further you can go when you take care of your mental health. Have you ever wished for a change but weren't sure how to make it? Maybe you felt stuck in a job, a place, or even a relationship. I'm Emily Tish Sussman, and on she pivots, I dive into the inspiring pivots of women who have taken

big leaps in their lives and careers. I'm Gretchen Whitmer, Jody Sweetie. Monica Patton, Elaine Welteroth. Learn how to get comfortable pivoting because your life is going be full of them listen to these women and more on she pivots now on the iHeart radio app apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts this is the ben and ashley i almost famous podcast with iHeart radio hi guys welcome back to another episode of our free party for the bexorette today we have a guess that bet and i have both so much been looking forward to talking to i can't

believe we got him i really truly feel honored we have guys Abby's Grandpa John here. Such a fan favorite. The frontrunner become the senior bachelor and somebody we really hope to see a lot of this season. Hey, Ben. Are you stoked?

I'm so stoked. We asked and polled our listeners for questions that they had for Grandpa John. Well, you responded in a big way. We chose 10 of them to ask him today. So we're asking 10 questions. Talk to him about his love

life and see if he's pumped to watch this season of The Bachelorette. Let's bring him on. Hey, Grandpa, John, how you doing? I'm doing fine. How you doing? Who is this? This is Ben. Hey, Hey, John. This is Ashley. Hi, Ashley. How are you doing? We're so good and so, so

happy to have you. You are such a lovable character that we've seen so little of, but it's been all golden. Right. Yeah. Hey, um, all right. What's going on? Okay, we're going to get started right now. I have something I want to start with it. Here we go. So Grandpa John is joining us. Hey, Grandpa John, I do want to start this by apologizing to you. I know you have to take time away from the card game that you're playing to join us on the podcast today. So I'm sorry. It's my pleasure. And the people I'm playing cards would think it's an average. So we're okay. Oh, that's great. That's great. Well, hey, we're going to get it started here. We did pull some questions from our listeners. Ashley, take it away.

Well, Grandpa John, first I want to know how it feels to be like a semi-celebrity now after just a few appearances on TV, and like, is this your first podcast? This is absolutely crazy. I don't even know what a podcast is, but apparently it's voice only since I don't see any cameras around here to take pictures of me. Oh, that's great. That's great. Okay, well, before we get into questions from our audience, I really wanted to talk about your love story because we got a little preview of it on playtime season. My love story?

Your love story with your wife. Yes. So how did you guys meet? I want to know everything about your meat story. Those are my favorite. Well, we met when we were going to college. And if I had been intelligent enough to greater four years in college, I never would have met her. But since it took me six years to work my way through college, I managed to meet her at a freshman mixer at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee.

We boys from Marquette University used to go visit all of the girls colleges to greet the end of young ladies. And so that's how we met. Went out to Mount Mary College and she was one of the young ladies there. Was it a love at first sight thing? No. No, it was not. Love did not occur until I, uh, uh, one of the things that, uh, that we, older guys, that we would throw parties.

And so after meeting her in our Marquette Union cards, when we decided to have a party, like I said, we invited girls from all of the girls colleges. So she became kind of a point of contact for Mount Mary College. We both got drunk. and when the party ended up making so much noise that the landlady downstairs called the cops. So when the, yeah, so the poll, yeah, it was interesting that the cop came by and he said, your landlady whose mother is deaf is complaining that you're making so much noise that she can hear you. I'm going to come back here in five minutes, and I'm going to check everybody's ID card to make sure everybody is 21 or older. Well, of course, with a couple of my good friends, none of the young ladies that were with us were over 21.

So they all took off and went various and sundry different places. And unbeknownst to my future wife. She got stranded and had to walk several miles to the apartment of one of the parents, of one of the guys that was at the party. And she and her friends from Mount Mary College, finds of cane and complained about how these boys deserted them. And there was a party going on somewhere else, and they couldn't get there. and they were going to be campus at the girls' college that they were attending because they were getting to late. So one of the guys who had a car ended up taking all the girls back to Mount Mary College.

And I happened to be in the car with them since the party had started at my place. And so I was sort of responsible for him. And after they raised Kane and cussed us up one side and down the other side, I said, well, this is my kind of woman. I kind of like this. So, yeah, that's how we met. And for the next two years, we dated. And then after her sophomore year, and I graduated from college, I joined the Air Force. And then we had a long-distance relationship.

And I asked her to marry me, and she said, yeah, we ended up getting married. I love that story. It seems so modern. Well, it was certainly modern for that point in time. Yes, it was a lot of fun. We had a good time growing up and going to college, and we had a very, very good and healthy marriage while we were married. I mean, we only lasted like 50-some-odd years before my poor wife. She had COPD very bad at the end and ended up passing away.

But yeah, we had a good life, and I certainly have no comparison. complaints about any part of it. Yeah, hey, John, just to give perspective here, what year did you two meet? We met in 1960. Okay, 1960. Like I say, that was her freshman year in girls' college, and I graduated in 62, and she graduated in 64 from Mount Mary College. So that was a long time ago.

That was 60 years ago is on the 4th of July. Yeah, 60 years ago on the 4th of July is when we got married. Oh, man. Oh, that's such an incredible story. Well, yeah, we had a good life. We had a great time. John, we have a lot of fans of yours. Believe it or not, I'm not just saying that to say it.

there's a lot of people that are so excited to listen to you today here on the podcast. And so they did send in some questions that if you don't mind, Ashley and I would love to just ask you. They're random and some of them are awkward, but I think you're the right person to answer them. So here's the first question for you. I'm just going to dive in. One of the questions sent in was was hooking up or friends with benefits terms back in the when you were in your 20s or 30s or are these just my?

terms today. So again, the question is, was hooking up or friends with benefits a thing when you were in your 20s or 30s? If it was, I'd never heard of it. Okay. So, yeah, I am. Hooking up was, but hooking up with benefits, no, that's not my contemporary saying. Okay. Yeah, hooking up was something that was definitely, that was, that was a common expression. And, you know, And yes, that's what we did. That's right. Is it like hanging out, though, right?

You're like going to hook up. You're going to hang out. Exactly. Exactly. It didn't have any, it didn't have any sexual connotations. It was strictly a, a friendship thing, which inevitably always would lead to more than that. But it didn't necessarily start out as a romantic type of a thing. Yeah.

Well, that happens. It always leads to more. Well, next question for you is, Maybe not always, but frequently. Frequently, okay, that's a good way to say. So you're a good podcast host. You make sure your words are spot on or I'm a little more loose here. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor.

And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh my God, perfect. And want to hear people with mental illness, psychobabble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you.

Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. Hi, I'm Jenna Lopez and in the new season of the Overcomfit podcast, I'm taking you on an exciting journey of self-reflection. Am I ready to enter this new part of my life? Like, am I ready to be in a relationship? Am I ready to have kids and to really just devote myself and my time? I wanted to be successful on my own, not just because of who my mom is.

Like, I felt like I needed to be better or work twice as hard as she did. Join me for conversations about healing and growth. Life is freaking hard. And growth doesn't happen in comfort. It happens in motion, even when you're hurting. All from one of my favorite spaces, The Kitchen. Honestly, these are going to come out so freaking amazing. Be a part of my new chapter and listen to the new season of the Overcumper podcast

as part of the MyCultura podcast network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What would you do if one bad decision forced you to choose between a maximum security prison or the most brutal boot camp designed to be hell on earth? Unfortunately for Mark Lombardo, this was the choice he faced. He said, you are a number, a New York. state number, and we own you. Shock incarceration, also known as boot camps, are short-term, highly regimented correctional programs that mimic military basic training.

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My name is Ed. Everyone say, hello, Ed. From a very rural background myself, my dad is a farmer, and my mom is a cousin. So, like, it's not like... What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? I know it sounds like the story. of a bad joke, but that really was my reality nine years ago. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different.

On stage stood a comedian with a story that no one expected to hear. The 22nd of July 2015, a 23-year-old man had killed his family. And then he came to my house. So what do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? A new podcast called Wisecrack, where stand-up comedy and murder takes center stage. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A foot washed up a shoe with some bones in it.

They had no idea who it was. Most everything was burned up pretty good from the fire that not a whole lot was salvageable. These are the coldest of cold cases. But everything is about to change. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA. Right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. A small lab in Texas is cracking the code on DNA. Using new scientific tools,

they're finding clues in evidence so tiny you might just miss it. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, ah, got you. On America's Crime Lab, we'll learn about victims and survivors. And you'll meet the team behind the scenes at Othrum, the Houston Lab that takes on the most hopeless cases to finally solve the unsolvable. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The next question is, back in the day, what was your ideal date?

my ideal date yes good grief i don't know for the guy it was finding you know a young woman who was willing to make out and not necessarily get any serious ideas about it is right i don't i don't imagine that's any different than today i mean when when people uh get acquainted and if there's any kind of sparked their all, they feel like it ought to lead somewhere, not necessarily something serious, but certainly, uh, just to make, yeah, that's fair. That's fair. You're not wrong. I don't, I mean, isn't that the way things are today, too? I mean, you guys are, are today's generation more than my got to believe that's a much your generation is ours. No, you're exactly right. Things haven't changed that much, yeah. You're not wrong. No, it's the same way.

Okay, obviously dating apps today are one of the most common ways of meeting people. How do you feel about dating apps and would you have been using one back in your day when you were dating? No, I don't think so. I just, I can't conceive how you can get to know a person other than a physical. through, you know, through, through podcasts, through, you know, through that. There's nothing like meeting a person in person and making, making an initial contact. And I just can't, I can't picture today's dating that way. It's, well, it's not even, it's not even as much fun, I would think, as a blind date.

At least at a blind date, you get to meet a person in person and you can make a judgment. And blind dates were common in my day. That's where a friend of yours or a friend of a woman that you knew would hook you up with one of her friends. Or the guy would hook, would ask his date if he could find a date for a good buddy of his. So I don't think, I don't think that not meeting in person would have any attraction. To my generation, I certainly don't believe it. And for you, a blind date was truly blind. It wasn't like you were looking at Instagrams beforehand.

That's true. That's true. But you always relied on your friend. that the person you were getting hooked up with wasn't a total and complete mental dog. Yeah. You know, you couldn't always, you couldn't always know for sure what you were going to be getting as far as, as far as, whether there'd be any physical attraction.

But physical attraction, at least my generation, the only thing that you were looking for. looking for somebody that was, that you could talk to and, and if it developed some more and friendship, well, hey, that was great, but you didn't necessarily start out a physical attraction, although certainly that, that came into it eventually. Yeah. Well, John, I have one last question for you because I know we have a limited amount of time and you do have a car game to get back to and you have friends waiting. your granddaughter is about to be on every magazine cover in the United States of America and a lot of parts around the world she's going to be talked about she's going to be celebrated

you're going to see her love story unfold a magazine cover oh yeah she's going to be all these magazines almost a guarantee oh yeah she's going to be all over the place um how do you feel about all this well i love her because yeah how do you feel about all this are you excited for it are you nervous? Where's your mind on? I think it's great. She is such a, she is such a, she is a complete ding bad, but I love her dearly and that's, that's part of the, part of the, why I love her because she's, she's such a special. I am, I'm thrilled for her. I'm just, I think it's a great thing. I think it's something that she's looking forward to. I don't think that there's any fear and I think it's just super love her for it and I'm and I'm going to make

her take me out for a good dinner so soon she gets she better she better do that and she's going to have the hookups to take you this special place hey who knows we might even see you in Los Angeles on our televisions at some point uh well grandpa John it was a pleasure having you today Ashley you have anything else thank you it's it's been a pleasure being with you all too. Just wanted to know if you could confirm your appearance on the show this season. Are you going to be helping Gabby along the way with some advice? Oh, sure. If she, if advice, I'd be glad to give her some bad advice. I'm easy. Well, just like good grandpas are. Hey, get back to the car game. Thanks for joining us today. And best of luck with this season as Gabby and Rachel celebrate their time

of The Bachelorette. Bye, John. Thank you. All right. Thanks a lot. You all take care. You too. Bye. Follow the Ben and Ashley I. Almost Famous Podcasts on IHeartRadio or subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. Hi, my name is Enya Umanzor. And I'm Drew Phillips. And we run a podcast called Emergency Intercom. If you're a crime junkie and you love crimes, we're not the podcast for you. But if you have unmedicated ADHD... Oh, my God, perfect.

And want to hear people with mental illness, psycho babble. Yes, yes. Then Emergency Intercom is the podcast for you. Open your free IHeartRadio app. Search Emergency Intercom and listen now. I just normally do straight stand-up, but this is a bit different. What do you get when a true crime producer walks into a comedy club? Answer, a new podcast called Wisecrack,

where a comedian finds himself at the center of a chilling true crime story. Does anyone know what show they've come to? see. It's a story. It's about the scariest night of my life. This is Wisecrack. Available now. Listen to Wisecrack on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I just think the process and the journey is so delicious. That's where all the good stuff is. You just can't live and die by the end result. That's comedian Phoebe Robinson. And yeah, those are the kinds of gems you'll only hear on my podcast, The Bright Side. I'm your host, Simone Boyce.

I'm talking to the brightest minds in entertainment, health, wellness, and pop culture. And every week, we're going places in our communities, our careers, and ourselves. So join me every Monday, and let's find the bright side together. Listen to the bright side on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. In sitcoms, when someone has a problem, they just blurt it out and move on. Well, I lost my job and my parakeet is missing. How was your day? But the real world is different.

Managing life's challenges can be overwhelming. So what do we do? We get support. The Huntsman Mental Health Institute and the Ad Council have mental health resources available for you at loveyourmindtay.org. That's loveyourmindtay.org. See how much further you can go when you take care of your mental health. Have you ever wished for a change but weren't sure how to make it?

Maybe you felt stuck in a job, a place, or even a relationship. I'm Emily Tish Sussman, and on she pivots, I dive into the inspiring pivots of women who have taken big leaps in their lives and careers. I'm Gretchen Wittmer, Jody Sweetie. Monica Patton. Elaine Welteroff. Learn how to get comfortable pivoting because your life is going to be full of them. Listen to these women and more on She Pivots. Now on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast.