The Eric Metaxas Show - Ricky Skaggs (Encore)

Episode Date: July 12, 2023

Ricky Skaggs visits the studio to share music and stories from his career (Encore)

Folks, welcome to the Eric Metaxus show, sponsored by Legacy Precious Metals. There's never been a better time to invest in precious metals. Visit legacy p.m.investments.com. That's legacy p.m. Investments.com. Texas show with your host, Eric Mettaxas. Sometimes you have the privilege of having a guest on the program, who really is what we call a legend. And I never would say this if he were here because I wouldn't want to embarrass him. But the person that I'm going to interview in a couple of seconds, some of you know all about him.

If you don't, you will very soon. His name is Ricky Skaggs. He is a legend in the music industry. He has 15 Grammy Awards in 1982, who he's the youngest member ever at that time to be inducted into the grand old opera. when he was six years old, the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, picked this six-year-old out and said, would you play for us? He went on to become a seven-year-old playing with Lester Flat and Earl Scruggs. There's videotape of it.

In 1971, when he was still extremely young, teenager, went off to play with Ralph Stanley in his brief. band. By about 1980, country legend Chad Atkins credited him, my guest, Ricky Skaggs, with saving country music. Have you heard enough? He has played, performed, produced with Barry Gibb, Emmy Lou Harris in the 70s, produced Dolly Parton, work with Bruce Hornsby, and the Amana

Radar Range. In 2021, the president of the United States gave him the National Medal of Arts. Again, I wouldn't say this if he was here in the studio, but he is a legend, and I'm very embarrassed to say, I think he's right here in the studio. I never would have said this, Ricky, if I knew you were sitting here. Ricky, my new friend, welcome. It's great to be here, Eric. I was sitting there listening to you make all these nice things, and we could be talking

about all kinds of other things. So anyway, I appreciate it, and you're amazing. Man of honor. I made a lot of this stuff up. I just want my audience to know. This couldn't be true. So I'll have to live up to the things that you said. When you were six years old, now, you know, you're in your late 60s now.

So when you were six years old, which would put us back about 1960, you played with Bill Monroe. That is very hard to comprehend that. I know. My dad bought me a mandolin when I was five, and so I learned. You know, why did he do that? I had been singing in church with him and mom since I was like three years old. And this is in old Kentucky. In Kentucky.

And we would sing songs together at home. And then when we go to church, we'd get up and they would set me, literally set me on the pulpit. And I would sing harmony with mom and dad. They would set you on the pulpit. Yeah. See, up here we'd say put you up on the pulpit. But down there, they would set you on the pulpit. That sounds better.

That sounds more American. But you, the reason I'm saying this is you obviously at that time already had a gift for harmonizing. You could hear and sing. And so they knew that they needed to encourage it. So your dad at age five gets you a mandolin. And already at age six, Bill Monroe is taking notice of you. Well, we, mom and dad and I would play at church. like I said, then Dad and I would go to this little local grocery store there in Blaine, Kentucky,

and they would set me up on the pop case, you know, that had... So it wasn't a pulpit, it was the pop case. The pop case, that's the marketplace version. Right. Yeah, so I was getting my teeth ready for the marketplace back then. But I would set and play and sing, and people would want to get a Coke, so I'd have to scoot over, and it was a double door. And look, you were so cute.

I saw the video of you I saw with Flat and Scruggs, which people can look up on YouTube. But, I mean, you were so darn cute at age seven. And when he says, what's your name? And you say, Ricky Skaggs, it's so cute. It's unbelievably cute. But even cuter is the song you sing. Yeah.

Because for a seven-year-old to sing a song about a broken heart and a woman who left me is funny. Yeah. I didn't understand those things back then. I just liked the song. And the song was, Ruby, are you mad at your man? Ruby, oh, Ruby. I mean, to hear that little mad at your man,

and the 70-year-old singing it while he's playing. And that's what I sung with the Bill Monroe thing, you know. Ruby, are you mad at your man? You know, the neighbors in the hood at this little high school where Bill Monroe was playing, And, you know, they started shouting out after half hour Mr. Monroe's set. They started shouting out, let little Ricky Skaggs get up and sing, you know. And my dad didn't plant these people, I promise you, you know. And anyway, I didn't even take a mandolin with me.

So the irony of the whole thing is that I had to play this size mandolin. You had to play. I had to play his mandolin. You played Bill Monroe's mandolin when you were six. six years old and I you know not many people can say that wrap around and you know wrapped it around the curl here so that it would fit me right set it on me and and I said you know they said what do you want to do and I said Ruby and so it was a popular song by the Osborne brothers Bob and sunny Osborne and so away we went you know and you know no mistakes no you know I didn't flip out

didn't faint or anything falling the floor didn't drop his mandolin well you were too young to be Self-conscious, probably. Yeah, I didn't know what that was. Yeah. If you were 11, you would have just freaked out. I probably would have. But he sent me back offstage and then did his big famous Mule Skinner Blues just to rat me, show me up. No, I don't know that for sure.

But I just, you know, the crazy thing about that is when I became a member of the country music Hall of Fame, they wanted me to take out of the, they got some. some instruments in a place in the Country Music Hall of Fame Museum called the precious jewels. They have Earl Scruggs's banjo. They have Maybel Carter's famous archtop. What? They still have that? Yeah. They have Bill Monroe's F5 mandolin in the case. So they took it out for me. Do they have Mother Maybill's tortoiseshell combs? Maybe.

I'm just kidding. But I mean, who knew that? Unless you're sitting here, I wouldn't know that they would have these objects. These are like sacred relics. But they let me play that same mandolin that I played when I was six years old. He kept that mandolin all his life. He got it in 1945, found it in a barbershop

in Miami, Florida of all places to be in Miami, Florida, walking the streets, just out walking around, and happened to look in a barbershop with thousands of barbershops in Miami, Florida. So Bill Monroe,

found it in 1945 and went in and bought it for $200 and used it for the for the 15 years until he met you then he lets you play it he keeps playing it and today it still exists yeah it does and was busted up and still you know somebody Gibson put it back together meticulously but uh it's amazing and it just brought back so many memories and it it almost closed a door or closed a season of my life, you know, to play that mandolin at six years old and then get to play it again going into the most famous, when did they induct you into the country music hall of fame? 2018. So they waited way too long. Shame on you.

No, it's almost funny to me because it is, you know, you, listen, if in 1980, Chet Atkins, the legend, you know, credits you with saving country music from the commercialization that it was undergoing because of the urban cowboy fad and John Travolta his. But it's just kind of funny to me because you've been in this world, you know, forever. The idea that you were playing with Ralph Stanley when you were just a kid, what was it, 1971, so you're like 17? Were you still in high school? I mean, you're still in high school.

Yeah. Did you graduate? No, I wanted to go to the Stanley School of Music, so I wanted to stay. We started Keith Whitley and I started when we were 16 and played the summer with Ralph and then we had to go back to school. And, you know, Ralph wanted us to go get her education. And I thought, man, this is the education I want right here, you know. I think a lot of people understand. Folks, I'm talking in case you're just tuning in.

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You've gotten every other kind of award. You've worked with practically everyone. And you're a man of deep faith. I want to talk about that because that's kind of how we met. But I want to keep going on your career here. So you're a young man, very young man, 16 years old, 17 years old, playing with another huge legend, Ralph Stanley. The famous Stanley brothers.

How did that, yes. How did that go? How many years were you playing with Ralph Stanley? Well, my mom and dad, we had gone to see the Stanley brothers right the next year after I had played with Bill Monroe. And so we kind of had met Ralph and Carter. And Carter, they let me get up and sang with them, you know, or do a song with them. And so anyway, we kind of knew each other. And so Keith Whitley and I met.

Keith was a great, ended up being a really great short-lived, unfortunately, country music artist himself. And just has recently this past year gotten inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. But he and I were friends. We, like 17 days apart in our age, we met, me and my dad was playing this little place. And we met Keith and his brother. They were playing as well. And so I invited Keith over to my house the next weekend. And from that weekend on, you know, we just knew each other,

just played music with each other almost every weekend. You know, we'd be out of school and playing together. And so we heard that Ralph Stanley had just hired a new lead singer that sounded just like his brother Carter that had passed away a few years before that. So we wanted to go same. So, well, it was a little beer joint in West Virginia right across the river, from Louisa, Kentucky, where I went to high school. So, Dad took us over there.

And we, you know, Dad, you know, Dad was one of those that, you don't leave home without it. He should have got, you know, money from, you know, was it, what's the card that don't, don't leave home without it? Oh, the card. Yeah, the credit card. I don't know nothing about those cards, but I know what you mean. American Express. So anyway, he always had us prepared. you know, just in case somebody asks us to get up and sing, well, Ralph had made a phone call that his bus had a flat tire.

They were going to be late about 35, 40 minutes. So this club owner, beer joint owner. In the musician world, that's on time. Oh, yeah. And he was such a good man that he said, well, we don't want 35 minutes of dead air. Right. Yeah, the natives were getting a little rest and we sent that a little beer joint. And so they come up to the table, and I don't know how they knew that we played, you know, because I'd never been in there before.

We'd never played there. But they asked us if we could get up and sing a few songs, you know. And so here again, Dad, you know, we go to the car and get the instruments, get up on stage, and we start playing and sing it. And Ralph comes walking in, you know, in the band. I see him going to the dressing room with their, you know, with their instruments and everything. Well, Ralph doesn't go in the dressing room. He sits down on a bar stool and just eats up what he's seeing.

You know, he's seeing these young kids, you know, 16 years old, singing Stanley Brothers songs because that's really the only songs we knew we were singing his songs and I could see him in my right eye over there and I was like I don't and I was singing his part you know and it was so embarrassing you know but anyway

we met remet that night you know and from then on you know we we tried to play with Ralph whenever we were out of school if they were close enough we'd drive and go and then finally when we got out of high school he hired us full time And that was a great place for me to grow. You know, Ralph's music is very mountain, very old time.

And at a time when a lot of musicians would be wanting to play the newest, greatest, you know, most cutting edge bluegrass, I really wanted to insert myself in the dirt, in the ground, in the hills and the hollers. I really wanted to know more. Even though I was raised in that, there was something about the way he sang, and the Stanley Brothers sang that always just touched me right in my spirit. You know, I just knew that they were singing truth. They were singing songs about heartache. They were singing songs about breakup.

They were singing about real life. Well, this is always the tension. And this is the tension really almost in any art, in any genre, the tension between the roots and then where it's going. and how you commercialize it and in the Ken Burns' series on country music

in which you're prominently featured, it's interesting because he's constantly talking about that, how you've got the, you know, once it starts making money, people all over it and they got this new kind of sound, what do they call it,

the Nashville sound, or am I confusing it with the Bakersfield sound? And, you know, but this kind of, they get producers producing. And of course, the tendency is to produce, away from those roots. Right.

And so there's always that tension and then it becomes a dialectic, let's call it, fancy word, right? So when Chad Atkins says that, you know, you, you, save country music, I guess what he's talking about is that, you know, when a movie like Urban Cowboy

comes out, there's this big surge in a certain kind of music, but it is pulling it away from those roots. And you always, for whatever reason, you love those American, those old roots, which are older than America, of course. Well, you know, that scripture of honoring your fathers, you know, so that your days and mothers, so that your days go well with you and you'll prosper in the land, you know, that always rang true to me in my heart. I just knew that if I honored, and I don't think it means your particular father,

or mother. I think it's fathers or mothers in the faith. I think it's fathers and mothers that pour into you musically. It's just honoring people that's above you and has lived longer than you have, you know, and there's something that you can get from them that will be beneficial in your life. That's the way I was raised. And so I just, I wanted to keep the roots of that music alive, yet I added drums, I added steel guitar, I added piano, because I'd been with Amy Lou Harris for the last couple of years, and I saw that that was working. And that's in the 70s. So how did you connect with Emmy Lou Harris? Well, I met her in Washington, D.C. when I was working in a band called The Country Gentleman. I was living in Manassas, working for VEPCO, Virginia Electric

and Power Company. And I worked there just to make a rent. and a car payment for about six months. I got a raise, and then I got a job, and I said, see you all later. I got a real job. So you're like, what, 21 years old at this point? Yeah. You're an old man of 21 by now. Yeah.

So. To make a living. So, so Emmy Lou Harris realizes she could use an instrumentalist such as yourself and her band. Yeah, and someone that knew the old stuff. I met her one night. There was a guy in D.C. He was a doctor. His name was John Starling.

And he worked at the Army Hospital there. And he loved old-time music, worked with the Seldom Scene group there. And so he would invite people like, you know, whoever was playing the cellar door or whatever big club there in Georgetown, he would invite people to come to his house and have a pick-in or a son. singing, you know. And so he invited me to come over and said Linda Ronstadt was going to be there, you know, and that was in the 70s. She was about as hot as any performer could be at that time. I mean, Linda Ronstadt was huge. And also kind of connecting the pop and the roots.

Right. And Emmy Lou knew Linda very well, but I'd never met Emmy Lou. She came in and just kind of squatted down on her knees in the floor, pulled out an old, you know, Gibson guitar and started singing. And it was like, oh, my God, this angel just walked in, you know, with this voice. And so me and her and Linda was singing, you know, singing harmony and stuff together on these songs. I knew so many old songs, and they wanted me to teach it to them, you know, and here I was carrying the Stanley brothers. I was carrying Bill Monroe. I was carrying that old Louvin brothers, even, sang, and in my heart, and they wanted to know it. Well, it's just beautiful, and I'm glad.

I want to talk to you about just your whole story. When we come back, I want to get into your faith story because you're a profound man of Christian faith or a man of profound Christian faith, we're both. And later on, maybe you'll pick up that instrument and see, you know, if you still have it, you know, that thing that you've had over. the years that talent we'll be right back um i uh i i think you'll stick around because uh look look i'm

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So please order now. Folks, welcome back. I'm talking to Ricky Skaggs, the legend. Not another Ricky Skaggs, but the Ricky Skaggs, the legend. Ricky, you, the reason you're here in New York, and I thank the Lord for this opportunity, is tonight you're going to be at Carnegie Hall, playing with my friends, Keith and Kristen Getty. They do an annual Carnegie Hall Christmas concert. And you were with them a few years ago. I remember you up there. But I think you were playing your fiddle, were you? No, I was playing mandolin. You were playing mandolin? So that's a trick of my memory. I misremembered it.

But you live in the Nashville area these days, I assume. I've lived in Hendersonville. It's a little suburb north of Nashville. I've lived there since 1980. Yeah, I moved there in 1980, and so I've been living there a long time. And your wife, I neglect to say, is Sharon White? Sharon White. The whites. Another Grand Ole Opry members. And, well, we'll talk about them in a few minutes and about her.

But just to go back, so in the 70s, you in a way were a bridge of this traditionalist world with, you know, Flatten Scruggs and Earl Stanley and Bill Monroe. into what was happening in the 70s. And it's interesting because the 70s you do see, whether it's the Eagles or Linda Ronstat, you're seeing a mixture happening. And some of that music being brought into the mainstream, into the world, you know, to the pop charts. Yeah.

I don't remember, I'm trying to think of others who were in that. But it's interesting, you know, to see, whether it's Leonard Skinner or Alabama, I mean, they're just different things happening in a way. And so you were in the middle of all that, but you were still playing the traditional stuff yourself. Yeah. You know, I wanted to make sure that the mandolin and the banjo and the fiddle weren't mixed so far in the background that you couldn't tell what they were. You know, I wanted, and I got to, you know, that was one of the bargaining points.

I really didn't have anything to bargain with except, you know, some demo. that I had played for the head of CBS in Nashville at that time. But I just said, because they asked me who produced this stuff. And I said, well, I did, you know. And I said, if you like what you hear, I want you to let me continue to produce. Well, I'll have to get, you know, Larry Gatlin's the only artist we have. And I said, well, so there's a precedent set. Okay.

So, you know, I really want to do it. And if we don't sell records and we don't get, you know, chart, action happening, then I'd be willing to take a co-producer. But I was not going to let, you know, just for the sake of having a record deal, I was not going to let my hands come off the console and the mixing. That is interesting. Yeah. I mean, that's interesting.

Now, you had that, you felt their responsibility to those roots and to that kind of music. When I watched the Ken Burns country music series, which was. delightful, delightful education. One thing that actually shocked me, I kept waiting and waiting and waiting for, at

some point, for there to be some mention made of Glenn Campbell. No mention. As if he didn't exist or he was just a, was he too much of a pop star? Or was there somebody who just said,

you know, I won't be in it if he's in it? I mean, it really was so bizarre to me, because I thought, of course, he was extremely popular and, you know, but sometimes purists sneer at what's popular and stuff. I mean, I just don't know if you knew

how he was regarded in that world. You know, I know all of my friends in country music absolutely loved Glenn, and Glenn absolutely loved Bluegrass and loved, you know, Stanley Brothers, Bill Monroe,

flat shows he loved that stuff you know hired one of my one of my friends Carl Jackson a great band show player hired Carl to play in his band for you know for years so they would do you know gone gone gone by you know by Jim and Jesse you know

they do those bluegrass songs on on stage you know actually recorded it and had a single out on it you know so I'm surprised to you know that there was you know there was others that you know that loved this music and that could have been you know very we would think very important to country music.

To me, you know, if you're going to mention Charlie Pride and Freddie Fender, I'm thinking you're going to get to. You know, like they really made a great effort to include all these folks. And I just thought it just was bizarre. Sometimes he just kind of scratch your head and you say, where can I get an answer to why he's not mentioned in there? But again, when we're talking, you know, country, country and Western, it gets very broad. You know, when you're talking about somebody like Buck Owens, the Bakersfield sound, how do you, you know, it's difficult to kind of pull it all together and say this is it and this isn't it or this is outside the line and this is, you know.

Yeah. Well, Buck had a sound. He didn't want to record in Nashville. He knew what Nashville sounded like. and Buck liked that top end, lots of mid-range, not a whole lot of low-end bass and that kind of stuff. There was just something about the way that he recorded his records. Even at Capitol Studios in Los Angeles, you know, he just had a sound. And when he went into record, he wanted to make sure it sounded the way he wanted it to.

And I'll tell you who was like the biggest fans. was the Beatles because they were on EMI, you know, in England. And as soon as they had, they had sent a message to Los Angeles, the Capitol there. As soon as Buck Owens records anything, we want to, we want copies over here. We want to listen to it, you know, Ringo especially. But, I mean, the whole band loved. Well, I love the cross-pollination. I mean, it's obvious that Elton John, whom I love, he, you know, connects to all that kind of

country music and Bernie Taupin. We're going to be right back. I'm talking to, I believe it's Ricky Skag. I'm talking to Ricky Skaggs. Ricky, you're in the studio with me, and I see that you have a, it looks to me like a perfectly good condition mandolin. And I don't know if it would be possible for you to peck out happy birthday to you or something like that.

Okay. I didn't mean you to take that literally. But of course. Here's a tune I wrote not long ago. Ancient tones. That shows my craziness for the old sounds. Have you ever thought of going professional?

I think it's time for you to make the leap. Stop living in the shadows. And just step out in faith, brother. You've got to step out in faith. No, I tell you. I've lived in faith for a long time. I watch you, you know, playing that instrument. And I think to myself, you see more comfortable.

with it than without it practically like it's been a part of you for your whole life and then some practically um we were just talking about all these different uh characters and the history uh of country music uh you mentioned that the Beatles loved buck owens now what's interesting to me is there's certain things that it's it's the americanness uh of certain folks like Buck Owens, when you talk, it's obviously you grew up in Kentucky, you know, you don't say took, you say tuck, you don't say sit, you say set. You know, there's something attractive about anybody's roots, really. And so there's something about American roots. And when you hear Buck Owen's voice, he's got, I mean, he has such a great singing voice. You want to hear his

voice. And there are many, many vocalists like that. You just think, I just want to hear his voice, because I love his voice. It sounds like America. And I think he was born in Oklahoma, and it was like migrant families that moved to California for work. But he carried that Oklahoma stank with him when he went to California. He just had something. Oklahoma stank. But, I mean, look, George Jones is the ultimate example of this.

His voice, you just think, why do I want to hear his voice? I don't know why, but I just do. Yeah. The two biggest musician fans in the whole, wide world that loved George Jones more than anybody was Keith Richards and Elvis Costello. Who'd have thunk it. Yeah.

Unbelievable. Well, that's what I'm saying. Like, you know, you get this cross pollination with, you know, the stones and the early beetles, you know, they're playing American blues, you know, and you think it's just so interesting how that cross-pollination, as we keep saying, It keeps happening over and over and over. Well, think about it. There's the Monroe brothers, Bill Monroe and his brother Charlie.

They had this brothers duet. They inspired the Stanley brothers. Stanley brothers inspired the Lovin brothers. The Lovin brothers inspired the Everly brothers. And so the Everly brothers are. big inspirations to the Beatles, the stones, all these English groups, you know. So I just still feel like it had a point of birth somewhere with Bill Monroe. And, you know, they call him the father of bluegrass music, but obviously he got inspired, you know, with people around him, you know.

But, you know, it's amazing to see how this old music continues to have life, you know. Well, it's extraordinary. And, you know, I was talking about the voices of some people. When I think of Loretta Lynn, I think there's certain voices that are so American. Yes. And without a doubt, you know, June Carter Cash, there's something, you can't put your finger on it, but it's just beautiful. And it's so in any event. You've worked with so many of these people.

You didn't ever work with Johnny Cash, I don't think. I think I would have looked that up. Well, we knew each other, and we lived there in Hendersonville together, and we went to their house quite a few times, you know, for dinners and just fun things. And he'd call me up. Sometimes he'd say, Ricky, I'm in jail. And what it was, he would go to the jail in Hendersonville and get locked up so that he could make phone calls from there and have people.

donate to the police department. Are you kidding? Make donations. They'll let me out of here, you know, if you make a donation. I said, okay, John, we'll do it. Holy cow. What a blackmail artist Johnny Cash was. You're going to get the rest of this story.

Oh, that's unbelievable. Well, I mean, I would have known that you would have known him. And, of course, he married into the first family of country, the Carter family. Yeah, June was amazing. Yeah, she was. I mean, her story is. Most people don't really know her story. I mean, she was a comedian.

She was an actress. She was really an extraordinary figure. Yeah, she was a star. I mean, just born a star. Yeah. You know, you could see it. On those old Al Ganoi, Grand Ole Opry shows that were shot in Technicolor. Yeah.

Have you seen those things? They're unbelievable. Oh, my gosh. They're incredible. And June would come on as June Carter, as a comedian. But then she had sang with the Carter family when they would come out as loud, you know. Yeah. But you could tell.

You could just look at her and say, she's got star all over her. She just commands something when she walks out. All eyes and all ears are on her. Well, there's no doubt about it. We're running at a time again. We're going to lock the doors and keep you for a second hour, Ricky. Did they tell you that? Yeah.

Yeah, you're in jail. You and brother Johnny were all in jail together. Yeah. And that's the beauty of it. when we come back, I want to talk to you about your faith journey, because a lot of people say they're Christians, and a lot of people, especially in the country world or Christians of some kind. But you're what I call a hardcore Christian, a fanatic like myself. And I want to talk to you about that. I want to talk to you about a lot of stuff.

So when we come back, I get to continue talking to Ricky Skaggs. Ricky, we're grateful for you and for your time. Thanks for being here. Yes, sir. And folks will be right back. This is one of the most important things we talk about on this program. We don't talk about it enough. But the money that you have in pension funds, 4-1Ks, whatever it is,

is effectively being controlled by people who are working against you and your values. A lot of us have money in funds that invest in, oh, Target, Amazon, you name it, all kinds of companies that are working dramatically against everything you believe in. So it's time that we wake up. We understand the financial power that we have and pull our money out of these kinds of places, which is why I have as my guest, the founder and CEO of Inspire on the program, Robert Netsley. Robert, we've talked to about this before, but the power that we have financially is huge. But the reason things have gone to hell in a handbasket is because most of us don't have a clue that we have this power. We kind of act

like it's a separate thing. And I go and I vote, you know, every two years or something. But every single day, tons of our money is being used against us because of our investments. So before I let you talk, I want to tell people to go to inspireadvisors.com slash Eric, where you can fix this. You can find out what's happening with your money. Inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. Robert Nessly, when did you wake up to this and say, I want to solve this? Because this is as big as it gets. Well, it was about 12 years ago when I was working at Wells Fargo Investment Services.

and I just got, you know, kicking the rear end by discovery that I, here I am president to our local pro-life pregnancy center and I own three stocks of companies manufacturing abortion drugs. And the Holy Spirit just convicted me on this issue that here I am, you know, fighting to save the lives of these precious unborn and yet I'm making money every time somebody has an abortion. And then you go down the laundry list of all these other issues, LGBT activism and human trafficking, you know, et cetera, et cetera, launched us into what we're doing now. And by God's grace, millions upon millions of Christians and other conservatives with similar values are waking up to the fact. Uncomfortable fact that in your investment account you own and are profiting from things that would make your stomach churn.

And not only that, but because of the fund companies that you have your money placed in, those fund companies get to vote for the issues that these companies promote things like we're seeing in the news with Target and others. that's your money at work, but it's at work against you. But it doesn't have to be that way. So that free report and that there's a way to fix it. It's very easy. Just got to be aware and take some simple steps. And we're putting some free work and reports out for listeners here, inspiredvisors.com slash Eric, like you mentioned.

So people are informed and aware of what they can do to fix this because if we don't fix it, if you just sit there blindly going along, like, next you can get better. It's going to all get worse. And frankly, it's going to be your fault. not doing anything. You know, we've got to do something about it and, you know, let God have the, have the results. But we can't just sit here and do nothing because that's how we got here in the first place. We've all got to become activists. We've all got to do. I think a lot of us just thought, like, well, I'm just going to go along in my life. And, you know, I go to church on Sunday. And well,

folks, there are things you need to do. And if you don't do it, you're responsible for things going to hell in a handbasket. So I want to ask you, please, first of all, this is, free. Okay. This is, this is free. Inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. This is the solution. Every single one of us needs to get our dollars and cents out of these places with a satanic agenda. Inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. When you go there, you will see that this is not going to cost you anything. They're there to help you, and I just wish everyone would do this. I'll say it again, Inspireadvisors.com slash Eric, inspireadvisors.com slash Eric. Robert Netsley, thank you so much. Thank you.