The Highwire with Del Bigtree - JOHN RICH: “I WON’T BE A FISH ON A HOOK” FOR BIG PHARMA

Episode Date: September 24, 2023

Legendary country music superstar, John Rich, joins Del to discuss how speaking out against COVID-19 testing and vaccine mandates changed his career and how he managed to stay true to his convictions despite the overwhelming pressure to tow the line.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

One of the biggest stars of the country western scene, John Rich, stood his ground all the way through the mandates, everything, said, oh, hell no. And you better not put that anywhere near my audience if they want to see me. This is John Rich. Everybody, we are here with the party. This is the party right here. This is big and rich. Joining me now is country music star John Rich. Now the great John Rich.

Country music superstar. An unapologetic patriot, John Rich. Award-winning a songwriter. A man who needs no introduction to much of our audience, John Rich, one of the biggest names in country music. One of the biggest country acts in the entire world. Mr. John Rich. Thank you, Jimmy.

What's up, guys? Come on into my house. John Rich's new song, Progress, has everybody buzzing after reaching number one this weekend. On a red carpet, baby. Come on your cameras. You know what's coming. I'm offended.

You're a fan. reach number one on the billboard sales chart across all genres and that is despite the fact that you have no radio support and no record label support. America feels exasperated, they feel shredded, they feel shredded, they feel angry, they feel sad. I think we're all watching our country be systematically dismantled in front of our eyes and it's being dismantled by people who say they are progressive. But meanwhile, the only thing I see and everybody else sees in this country is regression and destruction and all these terrible things, it's the opposite of progress.

People are sick and tired of being lied to, manipulated, marketed to. They see through the nonsense at this point. And so when you bring them the real truth and you really sing from the heart and you don't edit it and it's not censored by a record label, they respond. People want to be told the truth.

When you mandate experimental medication, there's a little something people can read called the Nuremberg Code. I'm a dad, I'm a patriot, I'm a small business owner. John Rich, you are the real real quike. It's my honor and pleasure to be joined by country western superstar John Rich right now. John, what a pleasure to have you here on the High Wire. Thank you, Dale.

That was quite a sizzle reel, man. You dug deep for some of that stuff. Well, you're quite a superhero to us here at the High Wire. I mean, you know, all through COVID, I come from Hollywood. I worked in Hollywood, everyone I knew just seemed to throw in the towel and bend a knee to an authoritarian regime. And I would guess, was that similar in the world of music? Yes, so in my world, in the concert world, most of the venues, almost all of them, a few of them held out, but almost all the venues put in these protocols that said the artists can't enter the building unless they show their medical papers.

The fans can't come to the concert unless they prove to us that they've had certain medical procedures done. And so when all that started to break out, it was real simple for me. I said, well, then I guess we're not doing any concerts because I'm not going to be the bait on the hook that gets somebody to go out here and do something against their better notions just because they want to get out of the house and come see a concert. I'm not going to be a part of it. Actually, it might have been a lawsuit with one guy who sued us for canceling the show. Even though the contract originally had nothing in there about any COVID protocols, COVID happened after we booked the show. So in essence, it was a different contract because he added all these new rules.

And I said, hey, I'm not doing it. And the guy sued us. We had sent all his money back. He didn't lose a nickel. Send his money back. Still sued me. I beat him in court. He appealed it.

Now, I got to go do it again. But I don't care. Listen, there are certain things in this life that you do not back away. from. You do not let them bend you, break you, you just don't do it. And I think medical autonomy is one of those things. I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, if we don't control our own bodies, then we cannot, I think, describe ourselves as free in any way. I always say, I think you have the same rights as a farm animal if you're just going to be injected with, you know, whatever the government wants to put into you. But, you know, and you would imagine

that in the country, Western world, which is sort of, you know, You know, I mean, it's the heart of America. It's the ranchers, it's the farmers. I mean, it comes from what built this country and has always stood for freedom, that that would be just held tantamount as a principle in that space. Were you, did you feel like a lot of the country Western world and your peers and music sort of held your position and were standing with you on standing up for your right to body autonomy?

Hell no, hell no they didn't. I was so disappointed and so many artists that I've known my whole career. Listen, some of the biggest artists in country music, I won't say some, I'll say most of the artists in country music, the big ones especially, fired their bus drivers, their bands, their crews, their light guys, their sound guys. They fired everybody, a lot of these guys that have been rolling with them for 10, 15, 20 years. I mean, when you're on a tour bus and you tour like that, you become like family members. I mean, you're literally living together, rolling down the road together for long, long periods of time, many, many years. In Big and Rich, we were actually hiring guys that were getting dropped from other big acts for not taking the vaccine.

Like, they would go, hey, man, I just got fired from, you know who. I said, are you kidding me? He fired you over that? Yeah, I said, how long you worked with him? 16 years. I mean, this story went on and on and on. And guess what? Now that we know that the vaccine doesn't stop transmission, it doesn't keep you from getting sick.

If anything, it's worse for you than taking it at all. Guess how many of those people have been hired back by those country artists? That'd be a total of zero. Really? None of them have been hired back. None. And I've checked with them. I've checked up with these musicians and said, hey, did so-and-so-ever hire you back?

Hell, no, they didn't hire me back. So what are you doing? Well, I'm playing with somebody else now or I'm focusing on the studio or whatever. I mean, it wrecked people's lives. And if the country fans knew what some of the guys and gals out there that act like them and talk like them, but behind the scenes are absolutely not like them. If they knew that, man, you'd have a whole different crop of singers out there right now. Why do you think they don't hire back?

Is it they don't want to look them in the eyes and recognize or have to admit in some way that they were wrong? Or is it just some power trip that you don't do what I say? and I just, you know, I mean, that's how this has to roll here, and it doesn't matter what it was about. I mean, what is the psychology of that? I mean, you probably nailed it on both counts. I mean, number one is they don't want to admit that they were wrong. But, you know, it's interesting.

I just saw in New York State that the Supreme Court there in New York State ordered all the nurses to be hired, I'm sorry, all the teachers to be hired back and give them back pay. You probably saw that article. I'm sure they'll appeal it and try to keep that from happening. But the same thing should be happening across the country. People that had to go through that, police, military, teachers, nurses, doctors, whoever, musicians, you know, anybody that got whacked over not taking experimental vaccine should be going after them legally.

I think they have the grounds now to stand there and probably get their jobs back and get back pay and everything else. But that was a horrible thing. A part of that sizzle reel that you showed. is when I brought up to an interviewer, I said, yeah, that violates a little thing called the Nuremberg Code. Yeah. If you go back and read the Nuremberg Code, it doesn't take long, it's only about two pages of rules that they established in an international court after World War II when the Nazis carried out all their medical experiments on people. One of the first things it says is you cannot coerce, punish, or otherwise force someone against their will to take an experimental medical procedure, end of sentence. So explain to me how this has managed to roll out all these years, and now I turn the television on,

and here they are again, promoting the vaccine again. Del, I just hope at some point people are finally held to account for what they've done to our country. Do you think they're going to try to do this again? I think they're going to try, but I think it's going to be a lot different response this time. We now know that masks don't do anything other than back your kids up in school. it messes them up, it makes you sick, breathing into the mask. You know, a mask is considered an experimental medical device by the FDA. If you go on their website and read about it, in the NIH, too, you look up mask,

and it's considered an experimental medical device as it pertains to stopping the transmission of a virus. Now, this is all coming from a country music singer with a high school diploma who grew up in a trailer in Texas. Okay, this information is readily available. I think if they try to roll this out again, two things will happen. The fury that will come from American citizens, not just on the right. I'm talking across the board is going to be like nothing they have ever seen. So in a way, I kind of hope they do try it again because I think unity will happen in our country when the level of anger and pain gets high enough where we're all feeling it at the same rate.

Well, you tweeted that out almost exactly. I think we're about to find out just how much of a background. We, the people, actually have, you know, the vice is about to start turning again, but I don't think it will work out like it did last time. I have faith that our fellows that is will lean into the pressure and not budge an inch. I would agree with you. And I think when we look at the numbers on this, you know, you can look at the failure and people can look at the dark side. I like to look at the light. I've always been a glass is half full kind of guy.

30% of this country rejected this vaccine under the, I would say, the most highly funded propaganda. machine that's ever been. And you have to imagine, you know, that other 70%, probably half of them only got the vaccine because they were probably not able to work. They couldn't support their families. They absolutely used coercion, threatening to take away your job if you didn't get the vaccine, which you're right is an absolute violation of the Nuremberg Code. But as you sit there, right, and you know, I mean, you just tout it, you sound like a scientist,

but the truth is, you know, a high school education is all you would need, and probably less to do some really basic reading. I think for a lot of us, there's been this self-reflection on what makes me different than all my friends around me. Did you go through that as you tried to talk sense in your friends? Did you lose friends over this? And have you sort of tried to figure out what makes you different than all these other, probably robust, pro-America, pro-freedom?

people that you thought would have been standing with you? That's a great question. I will tell you that one thing that I consistently pray for and I ask God to give me is not success and not popularity. I don't ask for those things. It's discernment. That's the thing I asked for. In a world that is absolutely swallowed up with lies,

and everything's a lie all the time. You don't know who's telling you the truth because the answer is most of them are not. There's lies on top of lies. and then you've got these huge decisions to make and you don't know what the truth is you know i pray for discernment that hey god put put something in me make me feel a certain way that's that's correct that's true and i will follow whatever that is and so i felt that way about the vaccine i i felt that something wasn't right about it and listen i'm a trump supporter and trump was all about the vaccine

yeah you know warp speed and everything else so it wasn't like hey i'm gonna if trump says it's good i'm going, nah, I'm going to stand back and look at this for a minute, and I think we were right. I mean, so many people now are damaged from adverse effects from this vaccine. I've got a family member that is. There's a country singer who I won't name, and she's had myocarditis now for the last 16 months, can't tour, you know? I mean, it's terrible what it's done to people. And so I think discernment is something, if you're a Christian and you really, you believe in God,

you know he's there and you're his. He owns you. You need to ask him for discernment because this is not the last batch of lies we're going to have to live through. This is going to continue on and it's probably going to get more and more complicated to try to understand what the truth actually is. I absolutely agree with you. It's one of the things that we try to get across on this show, though. It's mostly news. I say the same thing.

You have an intuition inside of you. God does speak to us. And these are confusing times. We've gotten so used to listening to experts thinking, oh, they must be telling me the truth. They wouldn't have this many experts saying it if it wasn't true. But now I think there is the gnashing of teeth as though it's Armageddon for so many people that just watched, you know, regulatory agencies they believed in and trusted and experts that are now dead wrong.

We now know, as I'm sure you know, you clearly are well read on this topic. They didn't even test to see if this product could stop transmission in the trials, which I just think is the ultimate, just sad statement. about the state of their state they were giving it to del they were giving it to pregnant women all over the united states and they had never tested it on a pregnant woman or to see what it would do to an unborn child not once they had no idea and so they're telling them you got to take it and you got to protect your kid i mean monsters absolute monsters i think fouchy is one of the biggest monsters that ever walked the planet you and i both i've said multiple times i won't be happy

until we see that guy in jail. How do you do your research? I'm sure everyone's going, where do you get your information? How are you this on top of it? I mean, you know, that wasn't in the newspapers. We weren't reading that they're, you know, never tested on pregnant women.

So how do you do your research? Well, listen, I mean, you can go to the own websites of the people that are lying to you, you know? So if Fauci says, well, the NIH and the CDC and the WHO said, blah, blah, blah, or whatever, then go to those websites. and start digging down through their pages and find what they actually wrote about their testing

or what results they actually had. It's all, it's all there. And then you find it and you read it four or five times and you go, hang on a minute. This says they did not ever test it on pregnant women. It says it right here, that because it was an emergency authorization use, they didn't have to.

They just went on and moved ahead with it. I mean, so for a side of the country that it's so atheistic in the way that they think, They sure asked us to have a hell of a lot of faith, didn't they? I mean, that's nothing but faith. Hey, trust me, have faith in my word, have faith in what I'm telling you, and stick this in your arm, and your baby will be fine and you'll be fine. Well, that's a hell of a lot of faith to exert on anyone,

much less another human being like that that's being bought and paid for by Big Pharma. I'll tell you what, man. I think I just found my new guest anchor. If we ever need someone to, like, fill in here, if you ever have some time off, you're doing it right. John Rich, I want to change the subject just for a second because, you know, clearly you are,

you got your eyes are clear, and it's not just on the vaccine issue. I understand you're even starting a bank. Tell me why. Why is that something, the old glory bank? Why do we need a bank from John Rich? Well, so Dr. Ben Carson, Larry Elder, myself, some guys that had come from the banking world

for many, many decades, They're all patriots. And we had a conversation after Justin Trudeau shut down the trucker protest by freezing all their bank accounts. That was his final backbreaking move. He froze their bank accounts. If a tow truck company refused to tow the trucks out, he'd freeze their bank accounts. He'd freeze your boss's bank accounts, your friends and family's bank accounts.

I mean, that's how we did it. Same thing happened down in Brazil when the Bolsonaro election was going on, a bunch of people happen. Nigel Farage just got kicked off of all his banking here about two months ago. So if you think that that can't happen in America, then you're just not paying attention. There are people in places of power in our country that fantasize and are just salivating at the thought of someday we'll be able to freeze the bank accounts of people who we don't like what they have to say. So O'Glory Bank was established for that exact reason that this is a bank where you will never be penalized for exercising your constitutional rights. Now, how pathetic is it that that has to be a

platform for a bank to stand on? But it is, and it's necessary. People feel like they want to run for the hills these days, but what hill are you going to run to? Because the enemies bought all the hills. They own the city and they own the country. They own every hill surrounding your town. There's nowhere to go unless we build new hills to run to. That's what Old Glory Bank is. And tens of thousands of people have opened up a county. We just started doing small business loans back in July. And people are realizing, yeah, this version of America is not a safe place at the moment. All right.

Tell me about your new album. Are we, you know, what's the tour going to look like? Are you going to squeeze in dates before they try to shut us down again? What's the plan? Well, I got a new record called The Country Truth, and it's called that because most every song on it would never be played on a radio station. a record label would have never touched it, but there's songs that are true, and they're from my perspective, how I see things.

There's funny songs on there. You played a piece of I'm offended. That's kind of put a grin on your face about how absurd culture has gotten. But there's a lot of songs, man, on there that just talk about God, family, country, and how I see things. The record came out two or three weeks ago was actually the number one most downloaded record on iTunes for the whole week, the week that it came out. So, you know, there are ways to still go out here and compete at a high level, even without the big music industry behind you.

Thank goodness. It's called the fans. It's called the fans. I appreciate everybody that went out and supported my music. So for everyone, young people out there that are looking, maybe getting into music, and I think it feels so daunting. My wife was a musician. I have some experience with being on the road and tour with bands. But, you know, recently Oliver Anthony, you know, put out a song on his own, being offered.

record deals. He's turning them down, doesn't want to be controlled by record labels. Is that the right move? Is that, is that the way, you know, you should do music these days? Well, if you're a guy like Oliver Anthony, listen, can you imagine him walking into Sony or Universal or Warner Brothers and singing Richmond north of Richmond and calling out Epstein Island and calling out welfare and on and on and on? I mean, they would have escorted him out of the building for triggering them and violating their safe space. There's no way in hell. But it's funny, he puts the song out and it becomes the biggest song in the world. And these record labels are grobbling at his feet.

We'll give you millions of dollars, man, just sign on the bottom line. And to his credit, he has not taken the bait and he has remained independent. I hope he stays independent just like he is for the rest of his life. I think he's a powerful, important poet in our country at a very, very important time. Well, so are you. I hope you remain independent. You have been a powerful force for truth when so few were. It's an honor to know you. We're so honored to have you join us today. I really appreciate you taking the time. And I know everyone, audience, is going to go out and buy that album. So I look forward to seeing you out there on tour. Appreciate it, Dale. You have a great day. Thanks, brother.

You take care.