The Joe Rogan Experience - #2424 - Jelly Roll

Episode Date: December 10, 2025

Jelly Roll is a rapper, singer, songwriter, actor, and philanthropist. His most recent album is “Beautifully Broken.”https://drop.cobrand.com/d/JellyRoll/downundertour2025www.jellyroll615.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Joe Rogan podcast. Check it out. The Joe Rogan Experience. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night all day. I just really feel like you might have a chance here to like really help some people that were big. You know what I mean? Like that in this pod we might have a chance to like. One million percent. So I brought a bunch of notes about what I went through.

So don't look at me like a super nerd today. But I wanted to make sure I got my, I want to help people, dude. I just, man, I never thought I'd lose this way. I like a dude with notes, especially a dude who lost 300 fucking pounds. Let's go, baby! Let's go. Look at you, dude.

Dude, I feel great, yo. You should feel great. I feel really, really good, dude. You're a totally doing human being. It is, man. You know what's crazy? I don't want to get super spiritual out the gate, but I will because I think God wants me to right now, because you're saying that.

There's a scripture in the Bible that says, in Christ, all things are a new creation. Which I thought was interesting, because it did. talk about restoring the old. It says that in God, we are a completely new creation. You know what I mean? So, like, I was looking at it at first, like, I'm restoring my heart. But then when you're saying that, I'm like, no, I didn't restore my heart. I got a whole new heart. This is a brand new heart, Joe. You know what I mean? Yeah. It might be cloaked as the old one, but God touched it. It's a whole new heart, baby. It's a different heart. Every seven years, doesn't every cell in your body get replaced by new cells? Isn't that what the number is?

That's crazy. And it happens on the holy number. Throw that into our sponsor, perplexity, and find out that's nonsense. But I think that's true. I think that's what happens. So you do have a chance to be a new human being. And think that it would happen on a holy number like that. It's a myth.

God damn it. Shit. Every seven years is a myth. Different cell types of very different lifespans and some last a lifetime. I think neurons last a lifetime. Seven year figure is a rough average estimate of cell age. Oh, okay. So it's not a total myth.

Not a fixed cycle or everything is swapped out all at once. Some tissues renew very fast, why others renew slowly or hardly at all, which averages out to several years if you look at all the cells together. So intestinal lining cells renew every two to five days. Wow. Stomach lining turns over roughly every two to nine days. Skin surface cells replace roughly every few weeks. Liver cells are typically renewed on timescales of many months up to a few.

years, bone cells take up to a decade to fully remodel a skeleton, muscles and cells. Anyway, cells are changing all the time. God, it's crazy. It's constantly renewing, baby. Yeah. Feels good, man. A whole different human. We were talking about it.

When I first came to your club, I couldn't even walk all the way up the steps without stopping like every seventh step. And today was my, me and Cam did my first 10K yesterday. We did a little bit over. We did six five. So today was recovery run day. I did two and a half miles. Just having a conversation with you while you're swinging.

kettle bells. I was like, look at who I'm Joe. I'm a old new guy. Yeah, just chilling, doing two and a half miles on a treadmill. It's wild. Just watching the Peter Yon fight again. And you you had a nice pace, you're a little casual doing it. Feel good. Yeah, you can tell you've been working. You know, it's not like a new thing. Your body's acclimated to

it. You could really tell. It's like, and I heard Tony Robbins once say that we grossly overestimate what we can do in a year and we underestimate what we can do in a decade. And for people that might be listening to this that are dealing with severe obesity, I want to give you this game. You will grossly overestimate what you can do in 90 days, but underestimating what you can do in a year when it comes to your health. Like it was right around my 30, I turned 41 three days ago, and it was right around my 39th birthday that I started really considering taking the step to try to make a major change in my life.

And I thought about it around my birthday because I knew my next one was 40. You know what I mean? And I was like, I don't think I've ever met a 500 pound 40-year-old. They don't come around very often. Usually that's when they drop off. And it felt like I'd already cheated the game. I'd had multiple heart issues, you know. And I was like, man, I should really start trying to figure this out.

I felt like I could feel myself dying, Joe. you know and it was crazy because I spent most of my life thinking that I when I get to this point or I never thought I'd get to this point we'll start there as far as success but even your hands look smaller do you have new hands I've had to change my ore ring size five times in this process I've literally I've changed clothes for two years straight I'm looking at your hands I'm like he has different size of hands now it's crazy everything I haven't seen you in how long. It's been at least a year and a half.

It's been a year and a half. We did the pod. I was in this pod bragging about being 420 pounds because I'd lost 120 pounds. And I was in here excited about those 120, you know. And I would have never guessed that. I've lost Ilya Tuporia since then. You know what I'm saying? I've lost a whole other, a whole other.

When my chef said it best, he said, when Charles Oliver fell off of Michael Chandler's back, that was what you lost since the last time you've seen Joe. It would be like if a Michael Chandler just jumped off your shoulders. Isn't that crazy? It's crazy, Joe. It's crazy. When I go walk with my dog, I put a 45-pound plate on a pack. And when I get done with the walk, I take it off.

I'm like, whew. That ain't shit. You were walking around with an extra 300 fucking pounds. Cam said this yesterday. It was so funny. He said, you know why you're inspiring so many people? He said, think about how much David Goggins inspired people. because he went from 300 pounds getting in shape.

He said, and you've lost David Goggins at his biggest. I'd never even thought of it that way. I was like, wow. I was like, yeah, that's a whole. You lost a whole David Goggins. Dude, my surgeon said I have 35 pounds of skin on me now. Wow. I mean, you've seen it.

I showed you my shirt on stuff. But it's like, it's crazy, dude. That's crazy. Just 30 pounds, five pounds of extra skin. Just extra skin. That's crazy. It's just hanging off the front of me right now. Who.

Somebody said, doesn't that? hurt. I was like not as bad as the 500 that was hanging. I'll take these 35 over that all day, dude. Way, way, way fair exchange. So what was, you knew you were doing bad. You knew your body was not, it was not going to be able to function at that weight for very much longer. And so what was the pivotal moment where you made this decision? Here's, this is good, this is why I wanted to do this with you. Thank you for letting me have this space, because this is what I want people to hear is that Every time I thought I had a critical moment, it was an emotional moment. So I'd get all fired up.

I've been trying to lose this weight my whole life. And I'd yo-yo, 50, 70 pounds down, go back up. Me and my nutritionist Ian Laureas were looking at notes yesterday. I spent most of 2022 between 480 and 560 pounds, like that year. That's how much I fluctuated just a year up and down. 560s, so crazy, you know. So it's like I was just such a. So when I sat down and tried to lose it this time,

I said, I'm going to take a different approach. I'm going to really take my time with it. And I'm going to think about what I'm doing and be intentional. I'm not going to let it be an emotional thing where you just jump up and go. I'm going to go running the day and do-to-do. And I was like, let me figure this out.

And clearly, I've dealt with drug addiction. So I was like, maybe there's something here. Like, how come I actually have this in my notes? Overeating wasn't a failure of willpower for me. It was a biological loop that I didn't know how to interrupt. That's a good way to put it. You know what I mean?

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Learn more at canadaswunderland.com. The problem with food addiction as opposed to every other addiction is that you have to keep doing the thing you're addicted to. It's the only one. And it's everywhere. Not that crack isn't everywhere and heroin isn't everywhere. There's not heroin on this table. You know what I'm saying?

There's a cookie on here somewhere probably. There has been. But food is something that you need to sustain you to keep alive. Imagine if you were a gambling addict, but you had to play a few hands of blackjack every day. Every day. That's crazy. Yeah, like you had to. Like, you got to play at least two.

You have to stay alive. Yeah. So you can imagine, I started, and with that mentality, I said, well, the first thing I'll do is, let me, you know, how can I cut back how much I'm eating, less eating periods. But the first thing I did was started, every time I said I was going to lose the weight, Joe, I said I lied to myself. We talked about this. I would tell myself, I'm going to do this. I'm going to go do that. And then I'd go tell my family that.

So the lie started with me, though. You know, there's a big person listening to this right now or a drug addict or somebody who wants to change some part of their life that right now is going, I'm going to start next Monday, you know, or I'm going to start Friday. Or I'm going to start. They have a start date. They, you know, they've, and then that Monday comes and they never do it. I told you, I was like, every other fat fuck.

Even when I finally did it on Friday, I was like, Monday, I'm waking up a change of my life. And I was like, but I had an idea. I was like, I'm not cutting out. food. I'm not dealing with nothing crazy. I'm going to do two small things first. I'm going to cold plunge because I've been watching Dana White do it and it seems to be working for him. That's how just naive I was to the whole thing first. I was like, Dana's cold plunging. He got in shape. I was like, and I reached out to Gary immediately. Like right around that 39th birthday, I reached out to Gary Brecker. And I just sent a message to Breka blind that said, do you work with fat people?

I hadn't seen a real case study of fat people yet. And lucky for me, Alina, their daughter, him and Sage's daughter, was a country music fan. So she comes in, like, you ever heard a jelly roll? And they're like, no. She's like, you got to listen to this song. And then you got to help him. So Gary called, and Gary was like, and I said, Gary, I'm going to start. But he said, just start by trying to get 10,000 steps a day and get in a cold plunge.

I'm like, dude, I'm 520 pounds, Gary. 10,000 steps a day is crazy talk. But I got in the cold plunge for six minutes and I would go for a half-mile walk. That first Monday comes, Joe, it is pissing rain. Pissing rain. I mean, cats and dogs, dude. And I wake up and I'm like, shit and I've been studying about lying to yourself

that when you tell yourself you're going to do something and you don't do it your body then starts to know that you don't mean what you say so now when you tell your body do something your body looks at you like bitch you ain't never meant what you said to me right you've never followed through what do you fuck you think I'm gonna run because you tell me to run dude you lie to me all the time and I was in that concept and I came out that morning dressed up in my stuff and I was like man that rains pretty hard and my family

and this wasn't them being a lack of support Joe this was just I think this was me lying to them for so many years you know that they wanted to save me my shame again and my embarrassment and they go it's okay I think my wife's like it's okay papa or my daughter was like just wait to the rain quits

or do it on the treadmill or something but in my mind I was like no I'm going outside you know and I was like I'm done lying to y'all and I'm done lying to me I told y'all I was going to go do this walk and I'm going to do this walk and I didn't want to get emotional

this early but I'm good there's nothing wrong with emotions brother I'm coming I'm coming back from that walk and I'm coming up my driveway it's up a big hill I'm bringing in Camelty it's a huge hill

and I'm coming up the driveway to the hill and all my family's out there cheer me on clapping hands up I'd done nothing but lied to them for years about this weight.

I had done nothing. I'd never proved to them that I was going to change that I'd be a man of my word in any regard. They had every reason not to go out there and cheer me on. And that was like, big moment.

That was the moment, you know? Where I was like, damn. And I realized that in addiction that an addiction, the family will kind of cater to the addict. It's nature. You know, like if somebody in your family was a drug addict, you would help with their kids, or you would, you know, you would feel a need to help in their absence.

It's what we do as a family. It's human nature. And I realized then how much my addiction had been hurting his family, you know, how much that my sex life with my wife was horrible. Dude, I married a fucking big titty, blonde, beautiful woman, dog. You know what I mean? Like, I married the kind of woman that makes you smile when you're crying, Joe. You know?

And I couldn't even get aroused. I was so big. I mean, I was having to play, I was having to play Twister to have sex. Left foot here, right foot in the X. You know, are we in there yet? Tell me if you feel something. I mean, it was bad. You know, my daughter, I think about my son, you know, my brother would have to go throw football with him.

I was too big to throw the football. And I was like, that's what my addiction has done to these people. And here they are cheering for me. Oh, do, we're turning up. We're fucking, we're in a fair of this out. So then I knew it was a mental thing. And I read a book called The Fox, the Horse, the Mole, and the Boy. You ever heard of this book?

No. It's a children's book. Jamie, if you don't mind pulling it up because it's just, it's somebody kind of recreated Winnie the Pooh. But for our kids, you know? And it was a children's book And I opened it up And it has a moment where it goes Yeah the boy

The Fox and Moire Oh, I have seen this You want to talk about a seven minute read That will change your life But there's a quote in there that goes I forgot if it was the mole But the fox or something Looks at the horse and goes

What's the hardest thing you've ever done in your life And the horse goes Ask for help Yeah It's just all these like really cool little things. But when it said ask for help, I was like, wow, I need to ask for help. It's like whenever I was addicted to drugs and I had to walk in that room for the first time and go, I don't have control. So I called a company called OnSight that does therapy. And I went and spent two

weeks with a lady named Mary B who wrote the curriculum for food addiction in the world. Like she is an 80-something-year-old woman with glasses, sweet soul of a woman. And we locked in a cabin. And she said, we're going to figure out what this is. And I spent, I'd say maybe two or three weeks in this cabin with this sweet old woman. And it was like no phone out in the woods. I walked every day. I played with the horses. I mean, I just went laid in grass.

And it really took me all the way back through all my years. And it was the first time that I didn't just try to rush to lose the weight. I tried to figure out why I was carrying the weight. You know, and that's whenever I figured out that overeating for me wasn't a failure. of a discipline. I'm a pretty disciplined guy. It was just a biological thing I hadn't learned how to interrupt.

I'd been doing it my whole life. It had been my constant go-to for stress. It had been, it was everywhere all the time. I was eating for, I had to start figuring out what I was actually hungry for, you know? Like, when we talk about obesity, Joe, there's groups. Like, if you're 340 pounds here, 330 pounds here,

you know, depending on your height, of course, you might be dealing with a discipline issue. Maybe you just like extra food. We can make small changes and get that off. You start getting over 300, 320. You start, that starts being morbid obesity. Like, there starts to be a real thing there, you know? And I'm seeing it more now because I talk to tens, 20s of guys that are over 500 pounds that have reached out to me.

Like, please, what is this magic Yoda? You know what I mean? Yeah. I'm like, consistency is the magic. But one, once I realized why I was eating, 80, 80, here's the note I took from therapy. I had my wife translate all my notes from when I was out there. And it goes, change, first of all, you change the way you think and talk. But because 80 to 90% of compulsive eating happens between the ears, not the teeth.

So the average obese person is that big. And I learned this from her is that they're only eating 20% of what they're thinking about eating. This is an all-day loop that's in your head. It's like a drug addiction. You know, I used to walk in, me and Schultz laughed about this. I used to walk in rooms and scan. Like I would walk in a room like the predator Like I would do one thing like the Terminator

And be able to look you and I'd be like There's a ball of schnickers on that counter There's two M&Ms over here They have some Lays potato chips over there Like I knew my way It was mostly sugar All sugar Man you were talking about dude's sugar

Well processed food I didn't You know how they said So Gary was like Get on a keto diet or a whole food diet at first And I was like I don't think I eat whole foods now at all anyway So I think I just eat processed foods

With maybe protein in it You know I mean I don't dude i haven't ate a piece of bread except for thanksgiving in two years joe i was colorblind we talked about this yeah i was a crazy story this is a true story joe i my wife will tell you this is she laughs about it now but i couldn't see i seen shades of colors like i general concepts but like hunter green emerald green like what green's green to me i never realized there was nuances and prettiness and that some were brighter and tone different i just seen them like shades.

So bad that, like, that's why I wore black. Johnny Cass was a lot of it, but, too, you know, I'd always have to ask people to our shoes match. You know, I was always off. Dude, I'd say nine months into no sugar. I thought, I think, I forgot what it was, but it was a plant at our house. And I come outside and I grab my wife and I go, dude, how long have we had that pretty purple tulip there or whatever it was?

And she goes, what? I was like, that is the prettiest purple plant I've ever seen. She was like, you've walked by that plant for two years. years. What are you talking about? I was like, there's no way we've had a plant that pretty. I didn't notice it for two years. It was bright purple, Joe. I mean, it was screaming. Holy robe purple. And slowly, I started looking around the next few days. And over the next months, I was like, I'm seeing clear color. I couldn't quit talking about it. I bought coloring books. My wife was laughing. This bitch used to have to give me a tie to mass to go to court. You know what I'm saying? And I'm in there

coloring. You know what I'm saying? She's like, what are you doing? I was like, you want to color? And I've got, like, 300 color in pencil sets. I was in a deer-blown with Cam Hayne talking his face off about a bird yesterday. He goes, I didn't know you like birds like that. I was just, I like color. He was like, real. I was like, yeah, I didn't see color for like 20 years. I was like, it is awesome.

It had to have been the sugar. Must have been. It must have been just rampant inflammation through your whole body, massive lack of nutrients. And your body probably is like, fuck colors. Let's just keep this dude alive. That's it. Yeah. Yeah, fuck colors.

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At least their daddy died of obesity because he had mental health issues, but he was a cool fucking dude, man, that did some cool stuff, you know? And it was like, I never would have thought I could have this kind of life. I never thought I could, even when I sat here and talked to you before, in my mind, I was thinking, man, I probably never see Joe again. I think, you know, it'll probably go any day for me. You know what I mean? Like, my heart could quit any day.

I could relapse and overdose. I'm not thinking right most of the time, you know. to like sit here and look at you now like dog i'm going to be a 70 year old man with you bubba you know what i'm saying like doc you know what i'm saying like it's going to be cool you was talking about my uh you mind about i run through these for a second yeah please well let me let me preface this so um because i want to talk about the labs you were talking about my inflammation but i got with gary breck and i did a blood test and this is something else i encourage big people to do and your basic provider will pay for it more often than not if you have just like a standard

insurance just tell them you want to run a just standard blood lab But tell them instead of just your A1C, this is important. You want to see your insulin level because I was diabetic, but I wasn't insulin resistant. So my diabetic marker, when I first got checked, was a 6.4. My A1C was a 6.4, okay, which is the threshold of what being a diabetic is, the pre-diabetic. The last point of being a pre-diabetic is 6.4. and I thought that when you are when your blood work says you're a pre-diabetic for 15 years whatever you know what I mean like this is not going to kill me or nothing I've had yeah

it's what it said last time I'm fine and then finally they checked for my insulin it was over 40 Joe it was like insane and I don't want to get this wrong it's supposed to be it's like under five oh Jesus yeah so what happens is when your body goes to burn when you fast it has to burn through all your insulin before it'll start burning through your, your, your reserved fat. So when you're at that high of an insulin level in your blood, it's, you're having a fast so, you're hardly ever getting to the resort fat burnings because it's just constant insulin. So, and this is where GO1P's come in. It's been a great time to talk about this.

So Gary goes, hey, man, your insulin's high, we'll just give you a shot, and this will change all this. And I was like, cool, send it, whatever, I'll try it. And then my wife's manager, Mimi, started the shot, did wonders for her. she had the worst stomach issues. I have a bad stomach. I started calling people and going, hey, man, how's this shot working? I was like, dude, we're losing weight. Food noise is gone.

You got to try it. I was like, what's the side effect? There's like one bad side effect. It tears your gut up. And I was, I had a, so I had bad reflux. I mean, you know, that's the worst thing a singer can have. Nothing is worse for us than reflux. So I got scared of it.

So I called Gary and I was like, Gary, I can't do it. I'm afraid of it. So then I started doing research and I was like, well, if I'm not going to do this, I'm going to have to fast to get my insulin levels down. a lot. So I was fasting, and I was losing, like, next to no weight. And I was doing the right thing, and as a big dude, that's the most encouraging thing,

discouraging thing, is when you're actually not lying to people. Because, you know, as a fat person, I'm programmed a loud, like a drug addict, like, what did you eat today? Oh, grilled chicken and salads, and I just ate seven snickers, you know? So it was like, or I brushed it off like a big thing. My nutritionist would come in and be like, did you eat something last night after I left? I'd be like, yeah, yeah, I just ate a little bit, not bad, just a little bit, a little bit bad. But I wouldn't quantify what a little bit bad was.

It was like, you know, it's like, so I was just in a, I wanted to start being way, way more honest about everything in the process. And that was probably the biggest thing. So I would not lose the weight. And I'm like, I promise you, Ian, I didn't eat nothing but what you handed me, Bubba. He's like, just stick with it. I just stayed with it, stayed with it. And then Gary got turned into Gary Brecker and took over the world.

And I was lucky for me. I bumped into your friend, a guy named Brigham. down here in Texas. And he introduced me. You've met Denise, right, Denny? Sure. I love her. This lady's the lady who really,

Gary started this journey for me, and I'll never be able to think of them enough for it, but she brought it home. And Gary probably would have, but she had a brick and mortar and was just easier to get to. Gary travels the world. And I go to her and she goes,

she runs my blood again. And my insulin got down to like 37 by fasting. And she goes, you're against the G-O-1Ps, aren't you? I was like, well, I made it this far, and I don't want to do it with an asterisk now. Now it's just stubbornness. At first it started out of a fear. Now I'm just fucking stubborn, you know?

And this is where I don't want to hide anything that I did do because I think it'll help people. She said, there's an alternative. She said, if you took a fourth of a dose of metformin, which is what they would prescribe a diabetic one, let's say we give you 500 milligrams, which is a real low dose once a day, until we just see this marker go down. She said, it might take a year because we're not trying to rush it and throw a bunch of G.O. ones at it. We're like, we're just, we're going to do this really slow. And that's

what we did. And the first month I listened to her and I was losing, you know, I think I looked at the Ian's notes today. We were losing like, you know, four to six pounds a month. Then it got up to that 12 and 13, that number we were looking for. You know what I mean? Of what we expect from a guy my size. But it was just that easy. Now my insulin, so I said all that to give you this. Oh, I'm so excited about this, Joe. My insulin was over 40. My insulin two weeks ago What weighs the well with Dr. Denise was 4.6. My A1C was crazy, right? And that was just, we've only been on the metformin for a year in November.

So I think we're going to come off of it now. A1C was 6-4. It's now 5-4, which that marker is a three-month average of your blood sugar. Like, that's a real number to move that much. I know it doesn't seem like a big number in a year, but that's like crazy. My C-reactive was like in the sixes, and it's 1.2 now. that's an inflammation marker. Vitamin D, while I was getting sick all the time, was a 28.

Vitamin D is at 100. This was the big one too. And this is where, you say, are you natty? I say, no, sir. Absolutely not. I'm a 40-year-old male. There's no way I was going to be natty. My testosterone was one of a pre-juvenile child when you're that big.

Wow. It was in like the 50s. And you know, it should be in like the 750s. Yeah. My free test was 2.3, Joe Rogan. Oh, my. free test you know what it is today 149

I fucking do you remember that problem we talked about my wife yeah not anymore I'm walking around the house like a tiger I'm throwing over my shoulder like a cave man and throwing her on the bed every time I see her you know what I'm saying it is awesome you know and it changed

these were and I encourage people that like if you can get your blood checked there might be something there you know what I mean it might not be something big you know I still could have lost the weight without the metformin, but it might have took another year. You know what I mean? If I would have just had to keep nicking it down a pound a week because I was just having

to get that insulin down so slowly. And that helped a ton, and the test, of course, helped bring, because my estrogen was so high, my test was so low. It finally got the estrogen down and the test up, so the fat starts burning. I'd done the mental work. I'd started really figuring out, like, why I was eating the way I was eating. Because once I recognized a pattern, my three R's changed it for me. It was reset, reconnect, reengage.

So every time I would go into my pantry to eat something because I'm a binge eater, I'd stop. My therapist taught me this, that onsite. I'd stop and I'd reset. So I'd step out. First thing, get out of the pantry. I have no business in here. Bad place for me.

Go somewhere I'm safe where I can connect, near my wife or somewhere safe. Reconnect. What was you in a pantry for? What version of you? What storyline of yours walked in that pantry? Was it 15-year-old jelly that thought he was a gangbanger and thought he was a thug that was just trying to be cool?

was actually a sad little boy that couldn't connect with people. Is that the boy that just walked in there and tried to eat some cookies? Or is this a 35-year-old man, a 39-year-old man, that's dressed from work? But I tell you what you're not in there eating the cookies for us because you need them. You just ate a great meal. You feel fucking awesome. You know what I'm saying? Like, there's nothing about that cookie that's good for you.

And also, Jason, you know, not a one-cookie kind of guy. You know what I'm saying? You're going to go eat the bag of cookies. And then I reconnect. Then I re-engage. Because sometimes you go through all that And you go, you know what though? I was thinking in there

But I do need to go grab the salt He's going in there and grab a salt and get out But where I'm so programmed It's back to old storylines I walk into some I've been going into the pantry to eat bad For so many years I walk in there and forget what I'm in there for

I have to Because if I sit there long enough Then it's like oh there's a There's some stuff that you can eat That does nothing Like you can if you just want to munch on something man Get some celery and some radishes Those motherfuckers have like zero

calories. Raspberries and blueberries were a big one for me. They don't have zero calories. They have calories. But you could eat, like, a bucket of them before you get into the hundreds of calories. If you want to have some, like, raspberries with some salt on them, or not some raspberries, rather, some radishes with some salt on them and some celery, there's nothing in that. You just eat it, and you don't have to worry at all.

You're just getting some fiber and some nutrients. Pickles? Pickles are great. Pickles are another one I'd get on to. Oh, yeah. Early. Like, if you get, like, good fermented pickles. they're actually good for your gut.

I did all the cheats early. So, like, when I say cheats, like, I was hungry, so I go to my nutritionist and go, hey, man, just feed me whatever looks like the most food. You know, fluff it up. You know what I mean? Like, just I want a big serving of food because it's mine thing. And the cool thing is now I'm in a place

where I'm looking for density. Like, my relationships change that much with food. Now I'm looking like, yo, what is, like, do I have to eat this? Is there enough protein in this? Or can I only eat half of it? Not because I have the weird relationship with food other ways. Now I'm just really feeding myself for what I need.

Right, right. You know what I mean? Like, I'm actually have a healthy relationship with food now, Joe. Like, I look at, and it's not unhealthy in a way that was like if you cooked a big steak right now. I was like, you want one? I'd be like, yeah, absolutely. I don't want to miss a elk steak with Joe. I'm down.

I'm not weird. If we went to dinner, I'd eat. You know what I mean? I just wouldn't eat bread. Right. There's just certain things I have an absolute. It's like a drug addict thing for me. It's like there's just certain things I just can't do no matter what.

Yeah. The bread is the one. one bread and pasta are the one why does it have to be the ones that are so god damn delicious all the good stuff dude oh oh so delicious but um i learned how to make all the good stuff better by the way like not better but larios is really so a lot of my weight losses come from like i used to always hear you say that you got into podcast and then talking to people about stuff you were just interested in like conversations you just thought were cool and then i thought about that's like the approach to life. You know what I mean? It's like, get like, dig it, do it. You know,

find, draw inspiration from there. Right. So I was watching, dig it, do it. If you dig it do it. Yeah. You know, dig it do it. And I was watching UFC one night, which I'm a fan to. And I was, this was six years ago. And I was like, I wonder who's helping these guys get on the scale. You know what I mean? I was like, most of these fighters are poor, not in a bad way. You know, they're coming up. I was like, I bet, I bet I could pay equal pay. This was six years ago. I was like, I wonder who it is, and I got introduced to George Lockhart. Okay. You know what I mean?

Which famously, him and Mike Doche, I think, are kind of both famously known for the guys who created the weight cutting protocol of today. You know? And I call him. He's in Georgia for the holidays. He drives up to Tennessee to see me. We end up hanging out. George, me your buddy said his day. And, you know, George is like, let me find you a guy.

And that's how he found me Ian Larios, who just came in a new nutritionist. He did a bunch of bully bees camps. But he's been with me. People say, I had somebody tell me this, Joe. He said, well, of course you lost. the weight. It's easy. You got money. You know what I mean? I was like, buddy, money can't make you run these six miles. No, everybody who says that is just make an excuse for why they haven't done it themselves. You can never say, of course you did it. You have this. Just fucking

do it. Just go do it. And yeah, it's going to be hard. And especially if your hormones are all fucked up and your insulin levels all fucked up, it's going to be hard. But you can do it. Well, the biggest thing, too, is stick with it, Joe. That's my heart, y'all. It's like, that's why I said, give yourself one. year, not three months. Because if I had gave myself three months, I'd have been upset. I didn't lose enough weight. It didn't go the way it's supposed to go.

I'd have went back into my shame spiral. We were talking about this. My whole thing was stress, overwhelm, food, shame, repeat. That's what I did. I lived in that spiral. You know what I mean? And it's like, oh, I'm working hard. I'm not getting it.

It's sad. Me, I'm going to go to the pantry and punish myself. You know, I'm never going to lose this weight. Where it's like, if I'd have just waited for the year and really said, no, man, I'm going to go birthday to birthday. Which is why when me and Cam ran on this birthday, of mine, it was so important to me because I was like two birthdays ago was the first day I even thought about

changing my life, you know? And even last birthday, I was 400, you know, 380 pounds. And now this birthday I'm running a 5K with Cam Haynes. You know what I'm saying? Like, dude, y'all can change it. If you hated your birthday this year, just give yourself a year. You know what I mean? You have a whole different birthday. It's hard for

people because they want immediate gratification. You know, they really want it all to happen immediately, especially in the society that we exist in today where everything, I mean, this is why gLP ones are so enticing for people because you can get immediate gratification you know and sometimes you got to just you got to focus on little victories these little tiny victories today i didn't eat cake that's it's a little victory you know and momentum is everything it's like that

first day when your family was cheering you that's what it's all about it's all about you did it you went out in the rain when you didn't want to you did it you came back Now you've got momentum. You have that good feeling of success, and that will enable you to continue to chase that good feeling. That's the good addiction. Right. I'm clearly addicted to exercise. If I take a couple days off, I don't feel right.

If I take a day off, I feel weird. I feel squirly. Like, I got all this extra fucking weird shit. Leave me alone. You know what I mean? I get weird. I get weird, man. I get weird.

I feel weird if I don't do it. And I know people like, that's horrible. something wrong with you, sure, but it's a good thing wrong with me. I'm addicted to a good thing. Right. I'm addicted to staying healthy. Yeah. You know?

They say addicts addiction swap. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I've never had a bad addiction, fortunately. But I've had a bunch of addictions. You know, I've had, like, video game addictions. I'm addicted to playing pool. I was addicted to martial arts. But I've been addicted to, like, things that are beneficial, luckily, luckily.

But I'm scared of it. all the other ones. I know that I know it's the same thing. How much of that do you think has played a part in your environment and friend group? It's huge, huge, because if you can get around a bunch of other people that are addicted to good things, then you're all just doing good things and you're all feeding off of each other. Yeah, that's, it's everything, man. You imitate your atmosphere always. This is why I can't be around negative people. I just I'm too sensitive. And I'm around negative people. First, I try to help them then I try to coach them then I try to like like see the world through their eyes and then

I'm reacting to them and then I'm like fuck man you're not helping me I'm not helping you right you're just dragging me into your vibration and I don't like it and if you don't want to change there's not much I can do with this and so I got to just ghost you yeah I got to separate because you if you save a drowning man you know sometimes you can drown yourself right you know and there's a lot of people out there that have wasted years and years of their life in toxic friendships. Yeah. You know, with negative people. Guilty.

That's what made me bring it up. It's easy to do, man. It's not a mark on your character. It's a normal thing that people do. And when you're around a bunch of people that are positive and that are inspirational, then all of a sudden you start holding yourself accountable. You're like, you know, what would David Goggins do? Right.

You know, like, what would Cam Haines do? Yeah, what would Jocko do? And then that's a good thing. What would Rogan do? Yeah. I know you don't like it when we give you compliments, but we think about it. Yeah. I said that because, like, I wondered if that was for you because the biggest thing, too, my note here is new playground, new playmates.

You can't heal in the environment that hurt you. Yeah. You know, and it's like I started praying for new friends five years ago, like on my knees to God directly. Like, God, I've done everything I can for every friend. brought with me along the way everybody who came with me can't go with me everybody's not growing at the rate I'm growing right right I need new friends I'm hanging around you know when I was cheating on my wife I was hanging around people that was cheating on their wives when I was drinking tons of alcohol and doing tons of cocaine I was hanging around people that was doing tons of alcohol tons of

cocaine so I'm like I don't I want to be a I want to change like right send me some friends send me just send me some new interests and then I'd start bumping into you know I guess six seven year whatever it was years ago guys like cam hanged guys like Goggins. And I didn't realize it then when they came into my universe. It was just from a distance in a YouTube channel like,

oh, this dude's fucking nuts. Who's this guy screaming at the camera running all these mouths? Yo, who is this guy that won't quit his job that is like the greatest bow hunter ever and runs ultramarathons and like he's refusing to quit his job. The internet's like campaigning,

quit your job, Cam? You know what I'm saying? I was like, who are these guys? These guys are awesome, you know? And even then my, and that's where the little scared kid of me comes out. Like, oh man, but you know, you can't do that, dude.

You know how far you are away from even like being able to talk to a guy like that or being able to run or like you're just too far you know you even down a bow hunting i'm a felon so i'm not allowed to possess a firearm or be within a thousand feet of one knowingly so i've never been able to hunt you know well i didn't think about the loophole y'all know it the bow yeah the bow hunt you know but also then you're 500 pounds it was like we'm not really going to bow hunt you know what i mean right but it was new playgrounds new playmates you know what i mean and um i started really believe that and like just finding that my uncle always said if you hang around nine you'll be the

10th so just look at the nine closest to you and even if it wasn't a friend at first it was just me being inspired by different stuff back to digging it do it you what I mean like dig it do it and I got into this I was into um I signed up for the two bears 5k because bert was my friend and I thought their podcast was funny I never even met Tom you know what I mean I was crazy I was like this is a cool way to do it you know like you know like yeah I'm on the internet 500 pounds waddling down a back road going, I'm going to my first 5K and me, everybody, you know what I'm saying? It's like, and I'm running, and I call

Cam, because we're friends by then, and I'm all excited, 470, walking my first two miles, a mile that day or whatever it was. I ran a whole, walked a whole mile, called Cam. I'm doing a 5K, Cam, Cam, I'm going to come support you. And Cam and Philip Franklin Lee walked that 5K with me. It took us an hour and a half, Joe. I mean, listen, I'm surprised Cam, Cam could have rolled faster. He could have crawled.

You know what I'm saying? we watched both of his kids run by us three times and jeans you know what I'm saying and uh but that's like it goes back to changing your friends like yeah it was a guy that wanted to lift me up a guy that cam but cam used to tap me on a shoulder when I was 500 pounds and go dude dude we're gonna bow hunt one day I'm gonna take you bow hunt dude and I would remember thinking this motherfucker's crazy you know what I'm saying like there's no way me and this dude are ever bohunt you know and uh we're bohun you know we just came out of a blind this morning. I've been down there

bow hunting with Cam, ran my first 10K with them yesterday, but it was completely the new playground, new playmates thing for me. Yeah. You know? Yeah, it's fuel. If you can get around people that are real positive and they're doing good things and they're excited about life, it's very contagious.

Yeah, it is. I think that's one of the really positive things about the internet, that you can be introduced to the way these people live their lives, and you can see videos on them, you can hear them talk on podcasts and you can realize that people like this exist and then try to find them, you know, and try to find people like that and try to become like them. You can. You can assume those

positive attributes and you can incorporate them into your life. It's completely possible. For sure. Yeah. And it's real. I mean, I did it. I am an ex- somebody is listening to this right now and as crazy as this is going to sound, I was you eight years ago. I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast. It was the beginning of me starting to be like, what I put in my body comes out. What I eat, I shit, what I drink, I piss, what I hear, I believe. Yeah. Yeah. And then I realized I was listening to a bunch of true crime, a bunch of negative stuff all my phone all the time. I was watching fist fights at bars. Like, this was my algorithm. You know what I'm saying? You know what I mean? My algorithm was just completely fucked. Yeah. So it's like, okay, I need to start changing my out. I need to

find cooler stuff to put into my algorithm. Things more knowledge, learning stuff. Tell me, what have you done with the phone thing. So the phone thing is interesting. It's been real interesting. I got one now. I got one two months ago. I took a year, so part of the weight loss, I took a year off of a phone completely. Well, you know, I used to get drunk, give my number to everybody at the bar. So I would wake up after an award show and have like

3,000 unread text messages of people's like, congratulations. And I was just like, oh, God. I was missing like big messages, you know? Yeah, that's a problem with me. Yeah. I got that problem. Yeah, I could imagine. Where you look back and you're like, the president text me. Not me, but I bet that's happening to you. You're like, I missed an entire text from somebody of that stature, you know?

And you're like, dude, this is crazy. And I was like, I don't, I think that I was using it as another way not to connect. I have an avoidant personality, like, I'll isolate or I can do it just right in a room full of people if I hop on the phone. And I was just like, man, I want to be more present, you know? I remember sitting doing stuff with my son and daughter and I was like scrolling Instagram. Once again, watching bar fights. You know, nothing, nothing that was helping. You know what I mean?

I was like, I'm just like, I'm just like completely disconnect. It's another addiction. It's another. And with my personality, I got to watch those. So I got a phone two months ago, and I just didn't put social media on it. I have YouTube, because that's my app. And I trust, you know, YouTube is where I get good stuff. It doesn't give me 60-second burst of shit I don't need.

It gives me long form of good stuff. You know what I mean? I find channels that I, like, really dig. And it's like, back to new playground, new playmates. I never, I know I'm super late to the party. Never heard of the outdoor boys until last year. Okay? Whoa.

I've been missing a whole new thing of life. You know what I mean? He's back, right? He's doing it again. He's back-ish, yeah. He took some time off, right? I think he felt like the whole... Got overwhelming.

Yeah, the success of his channel got too crazy and he didn't enjoy the pressure. But you know what I think he was doing? You want to speculate a little bit together about this? I think he was doing the coolest dad thing ever because he goes on there and goes, look, this has been a little overwhelming for me and my family. Me and my wife are out of this. And frankly, I got two boys that want to be YouTubers themselves. so I think I'm just going to help them. And I follow his son's channel.

His son's got 3,000 subscribers. He camps by himself like his dad did. He's 12 years old doing solo camping trips. Dude, his name's Outdoor Tom. So it's like, and he's been posting and his dad's on his channel. So I think the dad just built his channel got big and was like, dude,

I think I'm just going to leave this legacy for the boys, man. I'll just help them out. But he's kind of been poking his nose back around here and there. And he helped his friend out that had cancer. I thought that was the coolest thing. What was the name of that channel, Jamie? I don't want to blow this. They deserve a shout out because that was really cool.

My Life Outdoors. Yeah, my life outdoors. And so that was a recent video that they made. Yeah. Yeah, he's a very interesting guy, you know. I wish he'd come talk to you. I would, if he was interested, I'd definitely have him on. I really have, I watch a lot of those shows.

That's one of a part of my YouTube algorithm is dudes who go out into the woods by themselves. This is my new algorithm. See, this is me trying to change my playground. Because this is all back getting into shape, Joe. Like now I don't look at that as an, an, an, achievable task. I look at that, like, next winter, me and Cammer are going to go hunt somewhere. We're going to take a fucking tent.

You know what I'm saying? We're going to go out there and get lost in the woods. Camp on your back. I think we can do it, dude. I think I'm going to be in shape enough to do it, you know? You're probably in shape enough to do it right now. I'm only going to get better, child. Yeah.

No, I mean, I watch you on the treadmill today, man. You're in shape to do it right now. Thank you. Yeah, you could do it. It's a beautiful thing, man. It's a really beautiful thing. And just to be out in the woods like that is, It's a, I think it's like a form of vitamin that people haven't recognized yet.

It's medicine. Yeah, there's something to it. I mean, that sounds hokey and new agey, but I'm telling you, man, if I don't get my time in in the woods, at least a couple times a year, three, and I really want to do it way more often, I just can't. I'm just too busy. But it empties all the bullshit out of my life. The mountains don't give a fuck what's going on in your life. how many likes your last fucking social media post god or who's upset at you they don't care you know the mountains or the mountains those animals don't give a fuck if you just won the grammy you know

they don't give a shit oh jelly rolls here let me offer my vitals no sir not the case at all there's no charisma out there there's no cult of personality there's no it's all it's just wild and it's beautiful you always been outdoorsman no no No, I used to fish when I was a kid. I used to really love fishing. And, you know, then I got away from all of it for a long time until Rinella took me hunting. And that's when I got that mule deer, that one that's sitting on the table right there. That was the first animal I ever shot.

A bow or rifle? Rifle. That was a rifle. And then Cam took me on my first hunt with a bow. I got a black bear. That was your first hunt? It was a bear? Yeah.

God. I'm trying to get him to take me one of those in May. It's good. And I want to do elk next year. Bear is a good one because, first of all, it's scary, you know, which I think is good. And there's something about eating a bear that's just wild. They're kind of fatty, right? It feels crazy.

Yeah, well, not that bad. I mean, they definitely have a lot of fat on them. They taste good. That's a big misconception. I mean, I've never eaten a grizzly bear, which I've heard are pretty rough. But my friend Ryan Callahan just shot a grizzly bear, and he says it's delicious. I think the thing about a bear

that's a little daunting for a lot of people is trichinosis and you have to cook a bear like a hundred and I think I think the number is 160 I think that's what it is where you you know you're going to make sure that that meat is 160 degrees

you know so you don't get any parasites because trichinosis is rough God I can't believe your first bow hunt was a bear I'm on my first bow hunt as we speak and it's for a deer. And I could definitely, I needed to do this if I'm going to see a bear. I am out there, I mean, stomach and heart and stomach, stomach and pants.

Well, I think Cam took me bear hunting because in Alberta, the way they do it, it's, they do it over bait. So they set out oats and they use beaver carcasses and all these different things. And people are like, oh, that's cheating. Listen, there is no other way to find these animals in Alberta. There, you're talking about dense forest. A dense forest, it looks like a box of Q-tips. Like, you can't see shit out there. You're not going to find them before they see you coming or hear you coming or smell you coming.

If you want to hunt them, you have to use bait or you have to use dogs. And, you know, that's how they used to hunt them in a lot of places. They used to, you know, tree them with dogs. Then people would shoot them. And people are like, well, that's horrible too. But you have to control their populations. If you understand wildlife biology and wildlife management, you must control the populations of predators. And then, you know, like John and Jen up in Alberta, where they took me, they know how to cook bear, like really good.

Jen is an excellent cook, and she'll cook a bear roast, and she rubs it down and puts it in a traeger, and they'll slow cook it for 12 hours. Oh, they're smoking the bear? Was it the bear you killed? Did you eat that one? We definitely ate some of that, too. And there's another thing that Ronella taught me called Bear Candy, which was great. It's like, basically like Chinese food. It's like sweet and sour bear.

Wow. It was really good. Yeah. And then Cam brought over some bear sticks. He gets some meat sticks made at this one butcher that he goes to, this one meat processing place. But the misconception is that bear tastes bad. It does not taste bad. It tastes like beef.

It tastes like a weird, beefy kind of animal. You know, here's a weird fun fact. when settlers were, the pioneers first were making their way across North America, they didn't eat deer. They were eating bear. And they were using deer for skins. So a deer's skin was worth $1. And that's where the term buck come from.

No fucking way. Yes. The term a buck comes from the price of a deer skin. No. And they were just throwing the meat away. Exactly. Wow. How long ago was this?

the 1700s, 1800s, 1800s. They didn't know anybody. Wow. Not only that, you know all those buffalo that people shot? Like, Buffalo is, like, very expensive meat. It's delicious. It's fantastic. I think it's superior to beef.

They didn't eat the beef. They didn't eat the buffalo. Wow. They were eating their tongues. They were killing them initially for their tongues, and then they would pickle the tongues and send them to New York. And people in New York were eating pickled buffalo tongues. Wow.

They were throwing away thousands of pounds of buffalo, good buffalo meat. Yeah. Oh. Oh, my God, thousands of pounds. And then they started using their skins, so Buffalo hides became valuable. But it wasn't the meat that they were after, which is crazy because they basically almost made them extinct. Right. They came, like, within a hair's breath of making bison extinct in North America.

God, just by giving away tongues. Well, also because they opened it up to the market. So market hunting was a giant problem with wildlife in North America. So what that means is they didn't have refrigeration back then, right? So you needed a constant supply of meat. And, you know, you could salt things down and transport them that way. And there's a bunch of different ways to avoid the breakdown of bacteria. But essentially, you couldn't, there was no fucking freezers, you know.

So market hunting almost wiped out all the white tail. It removed elk from most states. You know, the states that are in, that have elk, wild elk right now, are at, tiny handful of the states that used to have elk in like the 1600s, the 1700s. It's all the settlers came from, you know, wherever, and they shot them all. Wow. And they shot them all and brought them all to market. You know, that was a lot of it. And so then they made market hunting illegal. And then, you know, they designated areas, public land. And, you know, this is the Teddy Roosevelt thing. And what they did was really an amazing, what they did, an amazing, what they did an amazing

example of conservation in North America that really doesn't exist anywhere else is our wildlife management and also our natural resources public land management. So we have public land in North America where you can you could apply for a tag. You could get it like we did with that mule deer. We shot that mule deer in Montana. We got a tag and went out into the Missouri breaks and then we found that animal and shot it and ate it and Anybody could do that. It's part of you being an American if you, you know, fill out the right paperwork and pay for the tags. And all that pays for the management of this land and for wildlife biologists and park rangers and all those kind of different people that game wardens that help, you know, keep all this stuff managed.

Wow. See, I didn't even know you could hunt public lands until recently whenever Cam and them were fighting back about the bill that was trying to get rid of some of it. Yeah, man. They were trying to sell off some public land. It's a fucking dangerous, slippery slope. And you can't let that happen ever. It's kind of like freedom of speech, man. But any infraction of freedom of speech is a complete infraction of freedom of speech.

I mean, it's deteriorating really badly right now in the U.K. I'm loving the outdoors, though. I'm loving learning about it. Like, even hearing you talk, I'm just over here like, yes. Oh, it's an amazing thing. Because this is an evening, you know? I just got my first hunting license yesterday. You know what I'm saying, day before yesterday, so it's a big deal for me.

That's awesome. You want to hear my first thing? big amateur mistake I made sure this is a good one I told you one of but I'll tell you the one I didn't tell you because it's way better I'll save this one for the air we're in there the first night and it's like kind of it's not nippy but it's like when the sun went down it was cool but it was still you know I was so adrenaline up the first night a doe comes out Joe and I thought I was going to shit myself I mean I had to stand up I farted my stomach was bad it was just so it was every emotion I didn't

think I was gonna feel and I'm doing it with like the greatest Bo Hunter ever sitting behind me and lucky for us Cam's a sweet dude so he's just entertained by it he really loves helping people get into Bowhoney too you know that speaks again to who he is like to be who you are and that that'd be like me loving going and meeting first time songwriters like I've never wrote a song and me be like that's my favorite let me sit down and show you how to start you know what I mean which I don't necessarily feel that way to be honest so it's like for him

to care but I'm sitting in there and the next morning we go and it's fucking cold And I'm shaking anyways because, you know, I'm nervous. And I'm shaking because it's cold. So when we go back that night, I bring my hoodie in case it gets cold, but I don't put it on. And we're sitting there. And as soon as the sun goes down a little bit, it gets cold in that blind bubble. Yeah. And I'm sitting there like.

Well, you're also not moving. Not moving at all. If you were walking around in the cold, that's a different thing. No, we're just sitting. And I'm like, and I'm like cold, cold. And I don't even think about it. Now, keep in mind, there's two does in front of us, and there's a buck. maybe 80 yards away

Cam said this and it's the most gangster thing bow hunting starts where rifle hunting ends bow hunting begins where rifle hunting ends the moment you see a buck when you're rifle hunting

for those listeners that don't know you just shoot it it's that easy you see the buck you better shoot it right then as soon as you get a clean shot the moment you see the buck when you're bow hunting

that's Operation Chill get them as close as you can get them and find the right shot it's the total opposite of rifle hunt I haven't rifle hunting since I was 10 anyways. But so I'm sitting there and it's cold and there's a, I see the buck in the back and I'm like, you know what? Can I ask you something?

Yes, sir. You're not allowed to own a firearm or you're allowed to operate one? No, sir. No, so you can't rifle hunt at all? No, sir. I'm on my first hunt pretty much. This is an ad for better help. The holidays come with a lot of traditions, gathering with family, cooking those once a year recipes and leaning into the little rituals that bring everyone together.

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That's better h-E-l-p.com slash J-R-E. And is that forever? Well, this is interesting. I am, this slippery slope for me. I am up for a pardon this year. My paperwork has been sent into my governor. And he considers pardons in every December.

So every day, I'm just kind of praying. You know what I mean? But even if he gives me the pardon, unfortunately, Tennessee has a zero forgiveness policy for violent offenders. So I would be pardoned, but I wouldn't be adjudicated. What's it called when they exonerated? Exonerated.

I wouldn't be, the charters aren't completely gone. So what I'd have to do is, and this is my hope, is that my goal in this is that I want to reach out to legislation eventually and go, hey, like, if nothing else, I'd like my right to hunt. Like, it's done a lot for my mental health. It's done a lot for my physical health. like it's been a being able start going on that first bow these are little markers that I put on the calendar you know when I'm 400 something pounds and I'm like all right next year cam said he's taken me on my bow hunt I got to get there you know what I mean like next year I'm not going to run that five can an hour and a half I'm going to do it in 45 minutes you know what I mean like these are those

markers so I want to go to them and go look I understand if you've ever raped somebody or killed somebody but I think that every it should there should be some path to redemption even if it takes 30 years. Put something unrealistic up there. You can't get a speeding ticket for 20 years. But, like, I think it's important for people to have a path to redemption. I'm a redemption guy. And, you know, if God didn't just show me so many paths, you know what I mean? Well, I think it's one of the more beautiful aspects of Christianity. Right. That it does offer you a path to redemption, like a true legitimate path where you can become a different person. Literally. Yeah. And people not judge you on the old person anymore. Judge you on the person sitting from home. It's just, I get it for the public

safety aspect of it. It's hard to know if a person's redeem themselves. I guess. I get that it's hard and if you make the wrong decision man i could i couldn't bear the burden of your conscience of that neither right but then you do have cases and i know i'm not the only one of people who have like even little things like i mean outside of hunting joe it's not that i'm a big you know i don't have a i just wish i could protect myself right you know what i mean it's like i'm i'm a million dollars plus a year in security i'd cut that bill in half tomorrow if i had a right to carry right you know what i mean for sure you know but um but at least let me hunt my heart's right I just want to feed the family and go out and spend some time with the boys and do some population control.

We don't kill them deer in Tennessee. They're taking over anyways. You know what I'm saying? I'm sure. You got a lot down there? They're every. Not like these monsters down here, but they're everywhere. Yeah.

Well, that place that you're at is a particularly unique place. Cactus Jack. Giant deer. Dude, it's called Hunt Cactus Jack. I found this out. Do you remember the old vice president from here was called Cactus Jack? No. When you look this up, Jamie, this is a cool story.

So the vice president, I think it might have been. during Roosevelt's term, maybe even, or one of those, maybe Teddy. But his vice president was a Texas governor or something, and the guy was famous because he's the one who tried to make the cactus plant, the Texas state plant. So they called him Cactus Jack because of that. And then Cactus Jack, yeah, this is. Yeah, there it is.

That's Cactus Jack, dude. Look at him, dude. He looks like Cactus. Yeah, Jim Nance Garner. Wow. He was a lawyer, a longtime congressman. He was the one who tried to make the cactus as the state flower for Texas. Wow.

Yeah. Who was the vice president to Roosevelt? Yeah. The effort failed in favor of the blue bonnet. But Cactus Jack Moniker stuck with him throughout his long political career. Wow. So when he opened this place, how many years ago, the guy who bought it from him was super excited. He told me the story last.

Look at how gangsters that is. That's Cactus Jack, dude. A cigar with two pistols. Yeah. Yeah. We could never get away with that right now in politics. I know, right? But Cactus Jack, he's a, but the rants is great.

The guy who owns it, Mr. Jerry, was telling me the history of it last night. They kept true Texas deer genetics. A lot of the Texas ranches will have import genetics. And he was like Cactus Jack was big about making this a tried and true Texas ranch. And he is dead set on dying by keeping it that way. This guy, Jerry, that owns it. Well, it's like, especially South Texas, hunting white-tailed deer is like a religion. It's a religion, too.

Yeah, it's a big thing for those folks. Big deal. And to grow big deer down there and to make sure that you manage the genetics correctly, like you don't shoot any animal that's under like six or seven years old. And, you know, there's a place that I hunt in Utah that does that with elk. It's like they, a really well-managed place does that. they make sure. So like there's some places where when they have hunting season, everybody just goes out into the woods, kids get a day off school, and they shoot everything they can, which is great. You get meat, it's great. But the problem is if you want very impressive animals that

are mature, which is also better for the entire genetics of the herd, because these are the animals that have lived full life, they've spread their genes, and then you shoot them. at the end, at the end of their life. So they've had a long full... And by the way, when you're getting an animal that's seven, eight, nine years old, they really don't have much time left. Well, you know, they were telling me,

you're so right about that. They were saying some of them, they'll try to wait and let them have another year and they won't make it anyways. Yeah, they won't make it through the winter. Sometimes they just, you know, they just won't make it. He said so they've... Yeah, no, they're dead.

This guy's doing it. I mean, obviously, I'm not the case study. Cam should talk about it because I've been on one hunt. But the deer, I see all my property back home compared to these deer these dears would eat those dears

you know what I'm saying like these these dears would fuck those deer's in the butt you know what I'm saying it's like it's a totally

different thing it is a different thing but that's a very exceptional place so I go I go to put my hoodie on that's where I fuck up Joe I'm cold

in this fucking blind and I go like I say Cam hold my bow I should have said Cam can I put my hoodie on because Cam would have been like no

you know what I'm saying but I was like all right and in my mind Joe I was going to slide one arm through and I was going to wait 30 seconds to slide the other arm through because I didn't want to be shaking if I got my shot and I seen my buck across the field right

but I put first arm through and I looked up it was like a movie Joe all three deer in the field went right into my soul it ran away and I looked at cab I was like that was me huh he was like oh yeah they don't like that stuff I was like fuck you can't never came No, never came back. The sound is like, they hear everything like 10 times louder than you do. Look at their ears. Their ears rotate and turn and do this. Those are antenna listening for predators.

So they hear the ruffling of clothes. They're like, what is that shit? They were like, that's a human. Yeah, that's a fucking human. And when they're down there, that's the main predator. Yeah. The main predator is us. No, it was amateur hour at the Apollo, dude.

At least Cam got a hoot out of it. I learned a big lesson, of course, too. Bro, they look at you, too. When a whitetail bust you, they look at you like, it's a weird look. No, it's like, it's almost like he, when I say they looked right up at me, Joe, it was like from feed to eye contact with me. I was like, oh, fuck. You know what I'm saying? I felt like a deer in headlights.

I was like, oh, shit, he got me. Well, people put felt on the rest just so that when the arrow slides, it's not making any sound. God. You got to be real slow. and how you drawback. Well, that's something else that's like rifle hunting, which I can't rifle hunt, but we have a bunch of stands on my property,

and I'll go sitting on just to watch a deer with my little boy. And, you know, that thing will be, there are two football fields away from where the deer are. You'll be sitting up there with a heater on listening to a podcast, smoking a joint, watching a deer like, I had a gun, I'd kill it. You know what I'm saying? Right, right, right.

So I showed up first day with Cam, and I got my little weed pin in my pocket, and as soon as we sat down, and I seen a buck from here to a little bit past Jamie from me, I was like, oh, yeah. We can't smoke in here. Or talk. I was like, this is real, dude.

It's a totally different thing. It's a different fear, too. Like, you get excited when you see one out of a blind from 100 yards, 200 yards, you know, 50 yards, 70 yards. But when you see one 20 yards, 30 yards away from you, and you're sitting there with just a stick with a piece of metal on it, kind of. You know what I'm saying? And a string. Ultimately, you got a glorified, what came right after the slingshot. Right.

You know what I mean? And you're like, this is me and this animal. right now. Yeah. It is the fucking craziest feeling I've ever felt in my life. Dude, I wrestled at SummerSlam. It felt like that. It felt like when Logan Paul was going to jump through the table.

It was that feeling the whole time. Yeah, this is it. Oh, wow, that's a big fucking. Look, that was me really shaking, dude. That's a big buck, too. Oh, dude. We had so much. We're having a, I'm having a time.

Oh, that's a tiny little hole. You see what I'm going through here? Look at them. You have a light on your pins? Do you have a sightlight? No, sir. Okay. Are you using a spot hog?

What kind of sight of a beautiful bird? Cam set it up for me. It must be a spot hog. Is Wayne? Is Wayne his name at the bow rack? Wayne, I love you, Wayne. Shout out to Wayne. Yeah, you got a spot hog. That's a Booner.

Your Boehshop just dropped me off a kickstand for it, though. What are y'all called? Oh, beautiful archery country. Yep, yep. Thank you for that, by the way. Oh, please. We love you. Because in the stand, I'm having to hold it on my lap.

You know what I mean? So Brigham hit them for me and was like, yo, while we're doing Rogman, can you just drop off a kickstand for jelly. Yeah. So he's dropped one off. Hoyt has it set up so that they're retractable to the way it's set up. It's perfect. You can just set it down.

It's perfect. I bought 200 Aeros and I put them 100 on my back porch in a bucket. And I have like 30 targets in my backyard now. And I sit at 100 of them on my farm's back porch with like 30 targets. And now I literally wake up, let my dog out and just let a hundred rip first thing in the morning. Just rip a whole hundred. It takes me like 45 minutes. Good exercise.

Oh, yeah. And I only have to pull them. what? It's also the concentration clears your mind because it's so hard to do. They hit a target, especially at a distance. You're when, you know, your whole thing is just everything's got to be like coordinated in sync and on that release and that arrow flies and goes right into there. Oh, I love it. It's a, it's, you're talking about concentration. It's one of the only things I've ever done that when I'm standing there, even over a target, especially over a deer, but even over a target, pull that bow back? It's like you said about the mountains. Like nothing in the world matters

right now. The world goes away. I don't hear, I don't even hear my inner monologue. Yeah. All I see is that little green pen on that dart. Fred Bear had a great quote about a troubled mind. Like nothing, nothing clears a troubled mind like shooting a bow. And it's so true. It's like there's something about how difficult it is that it really requires everything of you. It requires is all of your concentration. You can't have, like, distracting thoughts. Like, oh, I forgot to pay that bill. Oh, I got to call that guy back.

Oh, I got to do this. Oh, I got to do that. You can't have anything in there. And because of that, it's like a moving meditation. Like, it forces you to be completely present in the moment. And that, that cleans the mind out. You're talking about moving meditation. I was thinking about when you were saying that, even down to the breathing.

Mm-hmm. Like, the importance of the... It's also you're going to... to learn how to manage your nerves right so there's going to this is a process and it's a journey and so along the way you're going to have some moments where a deer comes in or an elk comes in where you're you're you see your body's shaking freaking out but then in the future you're going to know okay i know when this is coming now i know how to stay calm and now i see us coming like nah bitch we ain't we're getting there we're not going there we're staying right here i call it going

dead like you go dead like all this anticipation and what if i miss and what if i do this and what if he runs and what if he turns nothing i don't let nothing in you don't let nothing in and you just like exist like a cat like you're like a cat like staring at the thing you're about to kill just locked in there's no negative at all do you don't ever let those emotions creep in you know i asked cam i'm like do you ever check your heart rate when you shoot and he's like yeah it doesn't move. Like, yeah, because he knows how to stay in that moment. He knows how to stay

afterwards. It's like, yay, everybody's great and everybody's happy and oh my God, look at this. This is incredible. It worked out. What a perfect shot. High fives and hugs. Yeah. Can't think about that, though. Can't think about the result. Never think about the result. Always think about the process. Get you and your crew to the big shows with Go Transit. Go connects to all the main concert venues like TD Coliseum

and Hamilton and Scotia Bank Arena in Toronto. and Go makes it affordable with special e-ticket fares. A one-day weekend pass offers unlimited travel across the network on any weekend day or holiday for just $10. And a weekday group pass offers the same weekday travel flexibility from $30 for two people and up to $60 for five. Buy yours at go transit.com slash tickets. I'm always thinking about the process. I'm having fun with the process here. Process is amazing.

Cam was saying that I felt so badly to Canada. I said, Camer, you're not mad that we sat four times and I haven't got one yet, especially since I've fucked it. up once and twice had a pee today but um but we've been in there four hours i mean i was like cam that buck's not coming back over especially if you're staying hydrated yeah i'm staying hydrated yeah but um that guy has amazing patience no he said he smiled he was like this is what i'm here for above he said i'm glad you're getting the journey and i was like i think if i came here and just shot one it wouldn't have been i've sat for it i've really i'm working for this deer oh yeah yeah i pulled on them three times this morning joe and just could not and cam was proud of me though

because I was like, I just don't have the shot, Cam. Because he whispers in my ear, he goes, do you got a shot? And I've been, I forgot who wrote it, but it's a little book called lying. Have you ever seen this book? No. It's like a, Jamie, it's like a little bitty book. It's just called lying. But it's like some off, you got to check it.

It's a really cool book. And it just talks about it's lying. And it was the book that talked about me lying to myself. And right then I had to fight that urge to lie. Because it wouldn't have been a lie about it said, yes, I got a shot. But I didn't have a good shot. Right. So instead I go, I don't get one I like, Cam.

Cam goes And he just put his hand And he said, I'm proud of you for that And I just let it down You know what I mean? Yeah I was at least even in the moment Of like, I want to kill this deer

So I would be so cool Imagine if I went on Joe Rogans After killing my first buck this morning And I was like But I was like this ain't the shot You know what I want the first one to be the shot I want to be proud of it You know what I don't want to harm an animal

You know what I mean I don't want an animal to suffer I want to double lung And I want to drop it like a movie You know what I'm saying Yeah And if I have to sit here eight more times To get that shot

Yeah It'll just make it I'm just getting better Joe I'm learning more I'm learning how to listen for stuff I'm seeing things now I know when they're looking what the wind means I learn what barometric pressure is

and what it does to them it's all kind of cool stuff dude I'm like a little nerd there I'm like the little kid walking around asking questions all day well there's a really big learning curve to hunting particularly bow hunting and it's really interesting

like you just keep learning stuff like I've been doing it now for I guess I've been bow hunting for 12 years or 13 years I guess 12 years and i'm still learning i learn all the time i mean i'm you know it's one of the most rewarding things that i've ever done you know and and especially in terms of like getting pretty decent at it getting proficient at it and having a bunch of success and success begets more success

i love it and then when you eat it it's different than any other meal you're you'll ever eat when i when i pull a elk steak out of my freezer and i thaw it out and then i throw it out and then i throw I throw it on the Trigger and I throw some olive oil on it and I like this Saskatchewan black in Saskatchewan rub that they have. It's my favorite for elk and I get that sucker up to 120 degrees and then I bring it inside and I sear it on a cast iron frying pan. Then I eat it. Oh, man. It's magical. I remember the whack when that elbow hit him in the lungs.

Oh, that whack. That sounds swack. How crazy is it hunting elk? Oh, it's a huge. They fucking scream. Oh, that would scare this shit. It's magical. I hunted with Cam this September, and I got this elk that was, he was coming over the mountains with his cows.

And we saw him. We were like, whoa, that's a good one. And we got to try to get to him. So we had to go over the top of this ridge and go down into this valley, go through the woods. And as we got to where he was, another elk stole his fucking cows. And so by the time we got to the woods, we were trying to, like, we were following the screams because he was still screaming, they were screaming, and the cows are, meow, maw, maw. So we get through the woods, and then we realize, oh, shit, he got his cow stolen. So his cows, we saw the last of his cows run up this hill, run up the side of this mountain, and he was going after them.

He was, like, slowly, and then my guy Colton that I was with, he called. He busted this little elk The cow elk call And you see the elk go like this It's like a record skips You know like And then he turns and he's like Slowly starts walking

I was at full draw for like a minute and a half Behind this tree Just holding for a minute and a half All this dude was He was about 25 yards But he did not like it He's like something's going on here I don't see the cow

What the fuck has happened here so he went around sideways to try to get our wind and as soon as he went around sideways as soon as he got clear i saw him put that pin on him saw swack he hit him he was dead in 15 seconds oh 15 seconds he he he got hit he was like what the fuck he he rolled he turned started going downhill and then fell and rolled and it was over like that and then i think at that moment every time I eat it. Every time I'm cutting into that stick, I think of that crazy moment, you know?

God, that is a wild moment, dude. And it's also after miles and miles of trekking up these mountains. You're at 7,700 feet above sea level. And you have to hunt, hunt elk. You don't sit for them, right? You've got to kind of go out and find out. There's no sitting. Yeah, you go find out.

You're fucking exhausted every day. Let's go, baby. Yeah, it's crazy. That's what I'm training for, Joe Rogan. Oh, 100%. That's what I'm getting in shape. When June starts rolling around, that's when I start really ramping up the cardio. That's when I start ramping up the Airdine bike and ramping up the steps.

When I start doing step-ups on boxes and I start doing like body weights in September. Wow. Okay. So right around June is when I really just kick in the leg strengthening, leg conditioning, and cardio time. Because you know you're going to have to go. They live in the mountains, man. Which is interesting because they didn't used to be like they were more like living in the plane. until people start fucking with them.

And then they realize, like, the best way to get away from people is to get way up where it's difficult to get to. So if you want to get them, you got to go where it's difficult to get to. So you've got to get in shape. Yeah, and that's the stuff like, I hope somebody's listening to this right now going, man, I'll never be able to elk hunt. Yeah, you can.

Yeah, you can. I promise you can walk. Then you can do it. You can do it. Just start walking tomorrow, maybe, and start going forward. And even then, you know, it's your big goal. Put little goals in between there. That was another big one for me.

It was like I had these big goals, but I didn't get, they were so far, I realized I'd lose sight of them sometimes. So you got to set them little, the little baby goals in the middle. You know what I mean? Those little like, you know what? I'm going to walk a mile five days this week, no matter what the weather is, I'm going to walk a whole mile. You know, I'm going to walk to my mailbox and back, whatever your starting point is. And then I encourage you to start making the decision that's hard because me and Cam talked about this when we ran our 5K. There's a hill.

my driveway comes down a driveway comes down a hill and you bust it right Joe and then you can go left into a neighborhood the same run I run every day or you can go right up a hill and it is a hill hill hill you know and the first day

I came out and I looked up that hill and I looked to the left and I took two steps to the left and I stopped and I told myself I was like I'm learning about stories we tell ourselves the story I've been telling myself my whole life was take the easy way out my entire life Joe I have always looked for the

path of the easiest like A to B straight line you know what I mean? And I was like I break that today I turn right fuck you you feel it don't you right then big

it's a big moment when you're like no I'm hitting that fucking hill you know because I'm big that fat people hate hills stairs we hate all that shit so I'm like I'm like hit the hill you know and I'm

walking and I'm stopping and I'm walking and I'm walking and I just kept going when I got to the top of it there was a telephone pole up there and I went and slapped it I just slapped this shit out of it oh and I was just I felt so achieved and I came down the hill and then I took a left and I was going to go straight down to the stop signing back but if you take a left you can go up another hill so I was in my mind I was like I'm going to stop sign I hit the hill but as I was walking by that other hill I was like this is the new you you hit the hill dog this is the new you today is the new you you hit the hill left hit the fucking hill come back down on my way home that day look up see that hill it's right by my house i go fuck it i'm hit it one more time you know what i mean and then it started

becoming a thing where it's like i started adopting that philosophy in life now joe i hit the hill first whatever the hardest thing is whatever scares me the most whatever i think's going to be the most daunting of the day it's like put that motherfucker on the table right now let me see that bitch first and it makes the rest of your life easier too that's what's really important when you elect to make these decisions, conscious decisions to do a difficult thing voluntarily, you elect to do that, then the rest of your life becomes way easier because the most difficult thing of your day is always the most difficult thing of your day, whether you decide to do it or whether life throws it at you. And you can decide to give yourself some shit that's way harder than anything

life's going to throw at you. And then the rest of life becomes easy. It makes you ready to deal with life. It's also very important for famous people. It's very important for famous people because Because for a famous, the pressures and the weirdness of fame, most people don't understand the psychological burden that that carries, how that hits you. And it can really fuck with you. And one of the best ways that I've found to keep it from fucking with me is to make the hardest part of my day my choice. I do it I put myself through so other stuff

that seems difficult for other people that don't work out or don't take on challenging tasks it's not that difficult for me it's easy I'm already torturing myself

every fucking day and I feel weirdly more qualified to deal with shit when I do though like when I have a really hard run I walk into the house that day like

I don't care what comes at me today I am on fire I'll give you another quick story there's nothing harder than what you're doing you're barely alive, right? You're breathing so hard.

Your heart is pounding. Nothing in life is giving you that. Nothing in life is giving you that kind of burden. So if you can do that to yourself, it'll make the rest of your life way easier. And then, believe it or not, it gets funner. Yes. It goes back to my first year walking was miserable.

I won't lie to people that are listening to this. I didn't enjoy one of those walks. You know what I mean? Not one. I didn't have one time. But when the weight, started coming off and I started being able to breathe a little better like I wasn't just fighting for oxygen every single step and that moment happens though if you're patient

the next thing you know you're running with your friends and y'all are talking about the football game and you're firing on all cylinders today when you're on that treadmill you were talking we're watching the vulcanowski excuse me the pewter yawn maravd wavish willie fight we were giving commentary yeah it's like you do it and it as you were running like oh i remember when that kick landed yeah i was like oh that was loud i'm telling you dude as you're running just running and it makes me mentally ready now because I go out and I know David talked about this a lot Goggins but I go out there

and beat that bitch every day all them negative thoughts I deal with them on my run and my workout every one of those you can't do it and you know what else I've learned if I have a chance to eat bad today it's going to happen on a day I didn't wake up and run if I'm going to go off my program

because the days I run I don't want that shit I know I earned it and mentally it makes me better I woke up the other day and ran in my farm and I come at my son, I'm all excited. We're going to the Titan game, and I'm getting to connect with my son, and I go, um, hop on a four-wheeler ride up to the top of the hill. I'll run up there and meet you. I'm getting a little more exercise in. And when I'm running up to the top of the hill, I look up and he stuck, he stopped somewhere going down another hill that I thought he was going to

go down. And right then, I realize it's the hill that he fell and broke his wrist on riding a four-wheeler last year. And he stopped up there because he's scared. And his friend already went down. Joe, I thank God in that moment. I said, Jesus, thank you. I'm ready for this. I've ran. I'm not, I feel the endorphins, like I am ready to parent this moment. Most of the time, you know, as a parent, you walk into these crazy moments and you're like, ooh, not fully ready for this moment. You know what I mean? Like, we blow them and you look back and go, oh, I wasn't ready for that one necessarily.

Yeah. And I walk up to him, and I credit this to run. And I walk up and I go, what's up, buddy? And he goes, I think this is the hill, dad. I go, it is, buddy. He goes, I'm scared. And I go, dude, I've been scared for 35 years and I never admitted it. So you're already way better than me.

I was like, you're already twice the man I am. I said, now what we got to do is, no, we know what we're feeling? What are we going to do? It's me and you, buddy. What are we going to do? He goes, I don't want to drive it. I go, what have I ride with you? He goes, will you sit on the back of this?

Now, he's on a 90. You know what I'm talking about? You know, for people at home, this is a nine-year-old four-wheeler. And even then, I start just thanking God in my head where I was like, I'm ready for this. For the first time ever, I'm not too fat to get on this thing with him. Probably going to rub a little bit. You know what I'm saying? But I can get on the back.

back of it. And I sit down on the back of it. And he says, we grabbed a steering wheel. I go, nobody, but I'll grab your waist. I said, you don't need me to touch that steering wheel. You just need me with you. Mm. Mm. Crushes it down the hill. Nice. You know what I mean? And then you get to have the moment where you get to go, now what we learn there, buddy? He goes, I learned that I can do it as long as you're with me. I said, no, buddy, you learn that you can do it. You just need, you just thought you needed me with you. Right. I said, but here's the good news. Jesus is always with you, Bubba. You got this. Like, just go. Like, don't be afraid of this, man. He drove it back up the hill so then i said do me a favor just right up top of the hill and ride back down i'll be sitting

here waiting for you if you starts to go south i'll run and jump on you i'll do whatever i'll save you i'll go i'll go i'll die for you boy just come down that hill he drove right up the top of that hill turn around came right down at joe and it's like i was ready for it though i'd already did the hard stuff that day you know what i mean having any emotional moment with my son was the easiest part of my day after that i'd already ran three four miles you know what i mean i'd already woke up and gap myself in a headspace of like i'm gonna pour into my son today i'm gonna i'm gonna take him to get his favorite suite from the Titan game. I'm going to get him a Cam Ward jersey.

I'd already had a thing of ways I was going to connect with him. And then God gave me a whole new opportunity. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, God gave me a real opportunity. I was making ways to connect. Like, oh, we could probably do this and this will be fun. But, like, it just naturally came.

Yeah. I wasn't ready for that at 500 pounds. One, I would have never been like, go up there hill. You have 500 pounds. I'm like, you want to sit here and watch a movie? Right. No kid wants to sit and watch a movie at 9 years old for all parents out there that are 500 pounds. You know what I mean?

I'll answer for them. but to be in that kind of place with them is like the joy of life like i i want somebody to hear this podcast why i keep saying it this way and understand that you're not living the life you can right and it's so so possible it's not easy but it's possible and it's worth it it's so worth it joe you know the things that are not easier are worth it it's it's important to do things that are not easy it's really important it's like if you you want real peace peace doesn't doesn't come from rest. Peace comes from struggle.

Peace comes from struggle. It really does. You have to. Peace comes from challenge. It comes from being excited about something, doing something difficult, figuring out you could do it, building resilience. You know, building resilience is so important. It's so important because there's just too many people that are afraid of resilient. They're afraid of confrontation.

They're afraid of anything that's difficult, anything that's struggle, anything that's going to test them. They're scared of it. They don't want that discomfort. But that discomfort is when you find true peace. There was a guy that there's a famous old tale to remind me of that. But the guy goes, a young man looks at a rich man one day, and a rich, health, happy man. He goes, how did you get where you are?

And the rich happy man looks at him and goes, good decisions, two words, good decisions. You ever heard this story? No. He goes, good decisions. And the kid goes, well, how did you make good decisions? He goes, one word, experience. And the kid goes, well, how did you get experience? And the guy goes, two words.

Bad decisions Yeah You just got to go do it dude Yeah failure Failure is critical Failure Failure and the pain of failures Also very important

It sucks and it's hard In the moment you don't think you're ever going to live past this You're going to live in this moment forever And I can't do this I'm going to I can't live like this I can't do this But get through it

Get through it And now you have resilience And you'll become a whole you'll become a better person because of it like just taking and I used to be that way and I'd get in shame about stuff like shame was a big thing for me

I'd be embarrassed and I'd get into a spiral where I just wouldn't deal with things I'd be like I'm just ashamed of that I didn't do it right or I'm a fuck up or I'll never do it right or I'll never be able to do that I use this kind of language it goes back to how we talk to ourselves right you know it's like this is and your body believe it you tell your body enough you're never going to do none

your body will start to be like all right we're never going to do that you know but it's like I realize that it was more about actually just starting to go, no, man, I can do that. You know what I mean? Like, I can figure that out. And now I get motivated. Every time I've left that deer blind without one of them bucks, every time we get in the truck, I'm all, I'm smiles.

Cam goes, how are you feeling? I was like, dog, I am going to get good at this. You know what I mean? Like, I look at it different. I don't look at it like, oh, I suck. I look at it like dog. I am eight hours into 10,000 of these hours. You know what I'm saying?

Like, y'all be patient with me. I'm only on hour eight. You know what I'm saying? But I promise y'all, I'll be a whole different dude. But, God, eight hours into something like that is so nice because you know you have so much to learn. And if you just look at it that way, like what a beautiful blessing it is to have so many opportunities to do things, so many times that you're going to be able to learn, so much

time to grow, so much time to get better. You have so much room. I mean, if you're already Cam Haynes, boy, it's so difficult to get better. You're the best. Yeah, for sure. So hard. Yes, 100%. All you can do is help me.

And, you know, he's just challenged by moments. So he just experiences a lot of challenging moments. And he rises to the occasion because he knows, because he's got 30 plus years of experience doing it. And he knows how to do it. But for you, it's like you're in this beautiful place where it's all learning. Every day's a new lesson, even mistakes, like putting your hoodie on. Okay, now we know. No, I know.

I'm going to wear the hoodie. I'll tell you what, tomorrow night I'm going to wear the hoodie if it's 80 because I don't care. I'm rather sweating it, and then when it gets cold, I'm ready. Then be not ready when it's cold. And you're going to have a bunch of those. I had one elk hunting this September. We were going after these elk that were in this thickly wooded section, and we were in this open area, and we were trying to figure out where this bull is because he was running cows

through there, and you would catch glimpses of them. And so we decided to move around to this new spot, and as we decided to, we decided to move around to this new spot, we were like, you know what, we're going to have to go up this ridge and go around this way and come out of him from another direction. So as we started to do that, he changed and he ran out through the woods into the clearing and I was stuck out in the open just standing there, like staring. I'm like, fuck, if I just stayed in cover, I would have got this motherfucker. But I got impatient and I tried to like run out and meet and, you know, it's in those lessons. Like, okay, now next time. That makes me feel better. Twelve years in, that makes

me feel good. Oh, God. I'm not even close to knowing what the fuck I'm doing. You know, I need a lot of lessons. I'm green as a pool table twice and square. It's bad. I'm out there so lost Joe. It's got to be at least entertaining for everybody to see it. It's so exciting though. And you'll get that success. It'll come. I'm having so much fun. You know, I was like, I think I'm going to get a buck this week. I believe it. But if I don't, I got so many lessons and I'll be back the next week they'll let me back to try. Yeah, you'll find the moment. You'll find the moment.

It's going to come. It's going to come with persistence and just putting in the time. And I feel like the universe just gives you these opportunities. And when it's there, you'll have this big burst, like this breakthrough moment. Like, okay, I did it. I fucking did it. I got it behind me. Okay.

I'm going to cook this deer. This deer is going, you'll be salting that thing and slap it on the grill and watching it sizzle. Pop it, baby. Smelling it. Oh, the smell. Oh. And then when you go to cook it, you're like, oh, my God, this is the best food I've ever eaten in my life. This is the best bite of food because it's a bite of food with an experience attached to it. It's not just a bite of food.

And it's the best meat on planet Earth, the healthiest food you can get. You want to talk about, like, density? You were talking about, like, density of nutrition. There's nothing more dense than wild game. It's like twice as much protein as a piece of beef. Twice as much for the same amount of ounces. Wow. It's so good for you.

Same calories? No, like probably less. Wow. You're eating an athlete. Oh, yeah, for sure. You're eating like an athlete, you know? That's correct. I never thought of it that way.

Yeah, man. I've never ate a bunch of game, though, obviously. This is also new. Game is the best thing for you, by far. There's no better food than wild game. I've never had an elk steak. I want one. Oh, my goodness.

You got to try one one. Oh, I wish I had one right here to cook for you. I wish I had a grill. We'll do one. The good news is we'll do it the right way. Well, cook one I kill. Yes. That'll be the big moment.

Yes. If I waited this long, I might as well go smack my first. It'll be so exciting. And then you're going to be fully, fully, fully, fully hooked. Yeah. Yeah. Once you actually do it. I'm already scared.

When I shot that mule deer that's on that table, and, you know, Rinella did the same thing that Cam did for you. You know, he took me, he showed me what to do. He took me out there and completely green. I never even shot a rifle before. I only shot a rifle like three. Luckily, and I'm not saying rifle hunting is easing for people. people that rifle hunt and think it's really very difficult.

It's very difficult, but it's not as difficult as bow hunting, which is why I was able to be successful on my first ever rifle hunt. You know, being successful on a bow hunt for mule deer, good fucking luck. A bow hunting for mule deer has a very low success rate, like even with elite hunters. Because it's a very cagey animal. They're very intelligent. Super fast, too, right? We were eating this animal.

We shot it. We packed it out. out. We started a campfire. We were cooking it. And I remember Steve said to me, what do you think? I said, I'm doing this forever. Forever. I knew at that moment. I was like, well, I'm going to be a hunter now. Like, that's what I'm doing forever. Because I was on my way to being a vegetarian. I was like, I don't, I watched too many PETA videos. And I'm like, oh my God, factory farming is so awful. It's so terrible. I didn't understand like regenerative farming and ranching. And I, I, I mean, I never stopped eating beef, but eating wild game is a different thing.

It's a different, like I said, it's food with experience attached to it. There's something very spiritual about it. And it's also, it connects you to a part of mankind's history that is, it's intertwined in your DNA. Like, there's something about it. You know, like, for people that have never experienced before, you know the feeling that you get when you catch a fish. even little kids man I remember my daughter caught her first fish when she was like six

she caught a bass and she was so excited you get it that is in our DNA because that means that you're going to live you're going to eat you're going to feed your family

that's why that is so exciting to catch a fish shooting an animal and killing it and eating it knowing that you can eat it for months is that times like a hundred shooting an animal with a bow is that times a thousand

Oh, it made me think about it when I was thinking about animal killing and bows especially now because I'm thinking about this a lot, obviously, I'm in the middle of it. But there's this thing that's happening there where it's like the concept that back in the day a man left with this stick and piece of metal or just a stick back in a shaved stick and a string. It was like, if this goes good, I will come back with enough to feed our tribe. This entire village of people, I will bring a deer and we will all eat together. That's crazy to me. It is crazy. that that was once the way it actually went. And it was the only way.

This is from here. This, who knows how old that is. Wow. Yeah, a friend of mine got that on his ranch and gave it to me. Oh, yeah, this is crazy. Yeah. So some Native American, probably Comanche because it's here in Austin. And that guy who made that, made it himself, attached it

with sinew and twine and put it on a stick that he had shaved down and put feathers on it that he had got from a bird and, you know, glue that they had made from, they made glue from all kinds of different things. And he shot that probably into an animal and it fed his family. And then that was lost in the dirt and then a thousand years later, somebody found it. It still stands. Yeah. And it's crazy. It's crazy.

And that he came home like a hero. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like, man, you're right, that feeling of catching that fish. My daughter felt it too. When she was six, I took her bluegill fishing. Yeah. I had a little spot in a lake where you could just drive and catch a bluegill almost every time.

You know, they're pretty little fish. It's so exciting for them. She would have a ball ball. Yeah, it's so exciting. She would have. I took my wife to fish for the first time when she came, moved down from Vegas. And I thought, I wasn't thinking, Joe. This was a user error.

But I was like, oh, my friend's got a stock catfish pond. I was like, this is great, dude. She's throw it out there. She'll get her a big old hog of a catfish. I wasn't thinking about how brutally hard it is to unhooked catfish, like compared to a bass or a bluegill. You know what I mean? And, of course, I get a bass that swallows the fucking hook. So here we fight this bass.

I mean, there's a catfish in, and she's all excited until it gets there. And it to this day was the most brutal ripping out of Joe. She's never went back. She was disgusted. She was all in until after Like once we got I should have just clipped it through it back in But I was just determined to get

You know how you are when you're stuck Like this fucking coming out And it was just horrible Yeah I'd listen like Yeah But the good news is I think I've got her talking

And wanting to deer hunt after I do Because Rionan goes Cam's assistant She loves Bunny And I think that'd be digestible for Bunny Like if she went with another chick That was cool

You know what I mean Rehan is a big time bow hunter She'll show her how to do it maybe she'll get hooked too i know she was good because she was talking about hit one yesterday she was like i had a shot on one at like 40 almost i had one at 40 yards out but i didn't have a shot right then i was like you were going to take a shot at 40 yards if you had one that's crazy bow hunting skill i was like yeah this uh the ability to shoot at distance is really tricky because you got to take into account wind you got to take into account the movement of the animal

You've got to be assured that that, because like, like, there's a, do you see that elk that's on the wall out front with a photo of Cam and I? Oh, yeah. That was 67 yards. Whoa. Yeah, we got to video that. So this elk was standing at 67 yards and he's just stopped. He had fought off these other elk and he was tired and he just stopped. And that arrow, I'll never forget that arrow.

That arrow was like right in the 10 ring. It was a perfect shot. From almost 70 out. Yeah, and he ran, and he just piled up. He just ran right over the top of this hill, and boom, and he was done. But it was, that was years and years and years of every day in the backyard all day long. I mean, I shot so many hours, I fucked my shoulder up, I fuck my lower back. Because I'm obsessive.

I will shoot for four or five hours a day, and I'm pulling an 85-pound bow. like a hundred and fifty times a day it's ridiculous it's great it's like on your body it's your body's like what the fuck are you doing for sure but i'm only pulling 45 but when you do that over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over it becomes a part of your central nervous system it's like your brain just gets locked in your your eye immediately goes to that peep site it lines it up immediately with a site housing you balance it all out you put in the same place every time too Always. Yeah, you have to. Yeah, you have to have anchor points. I've got a little, I got a

bow mar nose button. It touches my nose. I feel that on my nose every time where the string touches my nose. This little thing just kind of pinches at your nose, let you know you're in the right spot. I'm going to go get Wayne to redo mine. He did it, but we had it where it just sat on my nose perfect. And then I lost that weight. So, I mean, more weight. I lost like 80 pounds since I got set for the bow. Oh, wow. Yeah, this is like the never-ending problem in my life right now. Clothes are either super bagger. I got one size too early, so it's tight, you know, because I'm just having to constantly chase whatever's next. Right.

I can't wait until I'm just a normal person. I get down a normal weight and, you know, put on a holiday weight like everybody else, and that's the fluctuation. That's wild. I'm close, though. You're so close. I got down, I'm in like the 260s right now, 30-something pounds of skin on me. I'd like to lose another probably 40s, probably my goal. You're going to be under 200 pounds.

That is wild. That's the goal. I just want to see it once on a scale, just like as an adult man. See 190. Just see like 199. Wow. Oh, baby. That's crazy.

It still feels weird telling people I weigh something that starts with 200. I haven't weighed in the 200 since I was like 12. Well, you know what? As you put on muscle, you might stay in the 200s, but it'll be a different 200. Dude, I'm packing, man. My shoulders are like, I'm proud of them. Yeah, you look different, man, like in every way, in every way. No, it's like my posture is better, like I sit better.

You're not burdened by a, you're rucksacking 300 pounds everywhere you went. All the time. That's crazy. Your legs must be so powerful. I used to say that to Ralphie Mae. Ralphie Mae unfortunately never lost the weight and did wind up dying young. But I used to say to Ralph, I'm like, Ralphie, if you ever lost way, you get a kick through a fucking building with those legs. Like his legs were carrying around 500 pounds everywhere he went.

Oh, yeah. And everywhere. And he'd stand straight up and do a whole hour. Yeah. Pacing the state. and killing it yeah you know what I mean it's just crazy yeah it's like one of the best dude he was a fun dude too was he fun

outside of the stage too oh yeah he's a sweetheart of a guy he was a great cook too and unfortunately after a while you know he had a he had done it with surgery and it didn't work he you know like a lot of people that have that addiction he couldn't stop and he thought like surgery was the answer so he got his stomach done

and then he ate through it and then he had to get it redone like he blew it out and so it got to a point where you know when they cut your stomach down they shrink your stomach the gastro intestinal bypass he got to a point where he couldn't digest meat so he would barbecue for us ralphi was a really good cook so he'd make ribs they were sensational but he couldn't eat them he had to be eating vegetables wow yeah because his body wasn't it wouldn't process the meat right and that was after the bypass right I think after the second bypass see that's um and once again it's like my heart hurts you know not that not that anybody could

have made a difference maybe but man i just wish yeah i mean maybe maybe if he knew you and you guys did it together i could have just sat down and be like bro i know like i think that's why me and you doing this pod so important to me was like i know there's going to be people that are going to see clips of this that are 300 400 500 pounds and i want them to like you can do it without a doubt Like, you really can't. Like, it's actually worth it. It's small steps. It's telling yourself the truth, doing what you say you're going to do, meaning it,

keeping your word. But most importantly, food, food, food, food, dude. Like, I just now started showing the runs and stuff. Like, because I think people appreciate seeing the work. But it's like, what was important, really, the weight's not lost in that running. The running is what makes me feel good. It's fighting the demon. Right.

The weight's lost whenever I sit down at the dinner table. Right. And I eat like a normal human. I don't eat seven plates. and six desserts. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's where it's at.

And that's that... Anytime I used to see guys like Ralphie and I would think it watching, I'd be like, man, when you get to that size, that's a, there's a mental component. There's something happening there. There's some trauma attached to it, or there's a story that you're living in in your mind. It's just a, you know, your body's just reacting to a pattern that's always had that you haven't been able to get it out. There's something you've got to really go in and roll the sleeves up and find of kind of find it. every kind of thinking back to

this therapist did the coolest thing Joe she looked at me and said when do you first remember being big I talked to my sister Shelby about this the other day and I said and she said what I said which made me cry because I never talked to nobody to my family about this and I go I think the first

time I realized I was big was I was going to get school closed for elementary school and then back then they had a section in the Delards called Husky you remember this you're old enough to remember they had a husky section yeah that's crazy You know what I'm saying? Which is awesome, I guess.

But, you know, and I just remember, like, not knowing what it meant, but just knowing it was different. And knowing that, like, I felt different. Like, I felt like, I felt ashamed even at that age a little bit, being in this section. You know what I mean? And I didn't understand why. Well, kids are so brutal, too. So brutal. And then I talked to my sister the other day, and I go, Shelby, man, do you remember the first time that you thought I was an overweight kid?

And she goes, oh, yeah, I'll never. never forget it, dude. We took you to some store and they had a husky section and you couldn't fit the jeans and you had to shop in the husky section. And she said, dude, it tore you apart. And I was like, wow. Okay, so I lived in that shame forever too. Forever. You know what I mean? Like just that constant shame. But I did that work in therapy. You know what I mean? And had related, that's why I said earlier, sometimes when I'm in the pantry, Mary B would be like, what version of you was in the pantry? Is it the kid you or is it the adult you that's not answering an email? Because sometimes, this is how

deep addiction runs sometimes that relapse will be caused by literally an unresponded email that you just let sit there and torture you but you don't notice it because it's just nagging at you. Just that why don't you just tell that guy that you're not interested why don't you just tell why are you avoiding that? Why are you

avoid everything? You avoid this is your personality trait. You know what? There's thousands of things you need to be saying to people you start eating what you're not saying you know? So like distract yourself. Distract yourself even whenever I first got

Through this, I had to sit my wife down. Bunny, who is, I talked about a lot of this podcast. She is my anchor, Joe. She's the best thing. I think I've said this every time I've been in your podcast. The single best thing that ever happened to me was marrying the right fucking woman. For sure. You know what I mean?

And Bunny, I sit down with Bunny and I'm, what was we talking about? I'm sorry, I guess so excited by my wife. Well, you're talking about being husky, shame, why you don't answer emails, distracting yourself. Distracting. It's like you're just constant. The food is a way of not having to deal. with or even say so I sit bunny down I go baby I'm probably going to start give me some grace I sit my whole house down and go I'm going to try to do an effort to communicate how I feel in real time

and I might be abrasive at first because this is a new concept I normally have to go like chew on things for a few hours to make sure I don't misrepresent my thoughts you know what I mean I was like but sometimes in those few hours I'll find myself in the pantry to distract yourself Yeah, so I was like, you know, if y'all just give me some grace, and what I need y'all to do is just be a mirror for me. And just go, hey, I got you, but think about the way you said that. Just put it back. Just make me see it.

You know what I mean? Just make me mirror it. And they were so patient with me. Bunny's a gangster, though. She'd be the first one to be like, oh, there goes a little snippy there, aren't we? Little ass holy, huh? I'd be like, fair. She'd be like, we probably, she's like, I got it.

Probably could have said it different. Love you. I'd be like, fair. You know what I'm saying? But it was just me learning how to communicate my thoughts. And now it's like, but it was so many of these little trigger things that I found that would be what would send me back. I keep saying the pantry, the pantry is the gas station, anywhere I can closet eat. I just give it a place.

It's like a, Cam was telling me about the pain cave idea the other day. It's like, to me, that's what the pantry's always been, not the pain cave, but the idea of it's a, it represents a lot. You know what I mean? But when I'm in the pantry, now I know why. I can literally, once again, reset, reconnect, reengage. You know what I mean? In any situation, if I'm at a party now and I think about eating or I think about drinking, I can go outside, I can hit a joint twice, I can reconnect with myself, what do you think

about drinking for in there? What do you need to prove? Who are you embarrassed that you're not being cool enough around right now, that you think it'll make you a little more loose? You know what I mean? Like, be real with yourself, Jason, what's wrong here? Right, right. And then you get it, you're like, yeah, fuck, I'm being weird, dude, I don't need to go in there

and drink, I'm cool. You know what I'm saying? You're becoming a different person. Yeah, man. Yeah, a better version of who you really are. Yeah, it's a beautiful thing because you're not just doing it for you. You're doing it publicly, and you doing it publicly can change the lives of countless people. There's probably a million people right now that are listening to this that are changing some aspect of their life because of what you're saying.

That's why I didn't hide into it, Joe. I've seen too many other celebrities go in the dark and lose a bunch of weight and try to come out with a big reveal. and it always just felt superficial and like it just didn't feel right i was like yo man we should just like post about this like every workout every day it's like it's also good because it makes you accountable makes you accountable because you're putting it out there to the world as long as you're not reading the comments no no no fuck the copy i don't even post it somebody else posted it's ghosted that's better that's better because as long as you're not dwelling on other people's opinions and thoughts and because a lot of those people, one of the things that they do when

they're saying negative things is they're avoiding introspection. They're avoiding their own personal criticism of themselves. So they're doing that by putting that on you. So by putting negative thoughts on you and negative comments on you, what they're really showing is that they're damaged and that they're avoiding that self-analysis that leads to. to you having to make changes for yourself. So they're just shitting on other people. Yeah. That's a lot of people.

That's an addiction. That's an addiction. That's a giant addiction that people have. Not just to being on social media, but to talking on, commenting on social media and being out, you know, just being negative. Well, my favorite quote is, the booze mean nothing to me. I've seen what makes them cheer. You know what I mean? Yeah.

Like, you can't, your booze mean nothing to me. I've seen what you cheer at. You know what I'm saying? It's like, you know, I do you think I care about them? booze. It also reminds me the story of the donkey, the father and the donkey. I don't know if you ever heard of his story, but the sons, the father's walking with the son, and the son's riding a donkey. They're going through this little village. And somebody goes, won't you look at that, look at that old man. Look at that poor boy's making that old man walk. So the man thinks,

I don't want to think bad of my grandson. So he tells the grandson, hey, in the next town, right before we go, I'm going to hop on the donkey and you walk. So he hops on the donkey, and they start walking. And somebody goes, can you believe that old man's making that little boy walk by himself so he stops he says fuck it i'll just buy the kid a donkey so he buys the kid a donkey they're going through the next city and they're they're both walking beside their donkeys right no they're both on their donkeys and somebody goes well look at them two people just beating the death beating the death them poor old donkey them old donkeys just can't do nothing he said the next time he could tell us to the grandson he goes fuck it we'll just walk beside the donkeys

so they're walking besides the donkey and you know what somebody screams don't you look at them perfectly two good donkeys they're not using those donkeys should be good put to work and the moral is he couldn't do anything to make anybody happy you know what i'm saying it it didn't matter what he can never make everybody happy because everybody's not happy yeah that's it that's the thing it's like you can make happy people happy but you can't what percentage of people are legitimately happy it's hard to get happy it's difficult you know what else changed for me was looking at happy different i looked we have my wife has that quote in the house it says we no longer search for happiness, we search to be useful.

It's like the moment I quit looking for my happiness, now I just look to be a tool. Like I walk in every situation with my hands open, like, God, what you got for me here? Right. How can I bring value to this? What can I do? Can I motivate? Like, where can I be a little piece of you in this moment? You know what I mean?

And that changed everything. Now I'm always, by default, I'm always happy because I'm being useful. Right. You know what I mean? Like, there's nothing more fulfilling than being useful. Yeah. But I quit chasing happiness. I just started chasing being useful.

That's beautiful. Yeah. That's beautiful. It's an amazing story, man. And you're in the middle of it. You're not done. Well, we've almost lost the weight. The transformation will be next.

And the transformation, Joe, that will be something to watch. The weight lost, that's been cool to watch. But the transformation, Bubba, I'm coming, dude. And what do you mean by the transformation? Dude, it's like, I don't, I was. I'm going to like, I see myself, I've never been able to see myself like this, but like I'm going to be like in top shape, Joe. You know what I mean?

Like I was watching you with them kettlebells today. And while I'm running, I was thinking to myself, the next time I do this podcast, if Joe has me back, God willing, I'll fucking, I'm going to do that workout with him and I'm going to blow his mind. I'm going to make him in that action bronches my friend. So I say this out of love. I'm going to finish that workout. You're going to shake my hand and be like, dude, you did better in action.

You know what I'm saying? Like, it's like, you know what I mean? Like, I was watching it like, I'm fucking coming for that. You know what I mean? Like, that's the kind of shape I want to be in. Like, man, stuff, Joe, I didn't feel like a man. Dude, at 500 pounds, I couldn't walk a mile. My video guy, Andy, you've met him a few times.

Tall ball got us real fun. He said something to me when I was losing this weight that broke my heart because he's such a good kid. When I finally got down to like $200, 300, he looked at me and said, dude, you're like, I just need you under $250. And I was like, what for? And he was like, because then if anything ever goes wrong, I know I can throw 250 pounds over my shoulder and I can fire them and carry you out of somewhere. And I was like, what a sweet soul

that you have secretly been looking at me all these years. Like, what if something happens to the jelly and I can't get them up? Right. You know what I mean? Like, what a just genuine swell? Like, I didn't realize how much my weight was affecting everybody.

Well, people who love you know that this is not sustainable. And if they love you and they love being around you, they go, how much longer is he going to be here? here. Right. Yeah. And when you're 40 years old and you're 500 pounds, it's like, the answer is not long. Yeah. It's your body can't do, you know, and everybody's different. Some people don't even make it to 40. No, I could feel it happening. Like, I was, I was scared of the way I would sleep in certain positions. Right. Like, I would have nightmares that I was going to die. Stop breathing. And if I rolled the other way, I'd suffocate myself. You know what I mean? Yeah, it's possible.

It was just, you know, there, if I, if I, I've rolled over one. One time on my stomach and I was so fat that the way I rolled over, I'd trap my left arm under me. And my right arm almost wasn't strong enough to get me up enough to let the left arm loose. Oh, my God. I'm panicking. Like, you're suffocating. I'm going to die right here because I just physically don't have enough strength in one arm to get me from, you know, you roll over like this to get me up off of my other arm. I can tell you right now I can do 20 pushups, though.

That's amazing. I know it don't sound like a lot to the listener. But from where I'm coming from, big deal. You know what I'm saying? I'm in better shape than Burt Kreiser, for sure. You know what I'm saying? I love you, Bertie boy. Yeah, you've done what he wants to do that he never can do.

I will say this to him and Tom, boy, they better bring their A game to the 5K this year. Don't look up and I look like Tanner or Truitt Haynes running with fucking jeans on. Yeah, he's interesting because he's got it in him. he can lose weight. Like when Tom and him first had that weight loss challenge, Tom went with it and never went back. Tom looks great.

He looks fucking amazing. He's thinner than he's ever been before. He's like 180 now. Brigham said he's getting in shape. Yeah, man. He works out hard. I secretly want to beat him in the 5K, but it's a big dude.

I'm on your ass, Tommy Buns. Well, when I met Tommy, Tommy was like real big, and he was eating bad and, you know, and him and Burt both decided to have this weight lost challenge. So we had this podcast together. They lost all the weight, you know, and Burke got pretty thin too, man. They both lost a lot of weight. You know, they did it over the whole month of October. And then when they came in, Tom, they all, they weighed each other on the scale and Tom won. And so Bert had to shave his beard. And they did it, you know, live on

the air. It was fun. We had a good time, though. But it was, it was this moment where Tom realized, okay I don't ever want to be fat again and he never was fat again he just he gained a little bit away and then lost it again but he never got fat again and now he looks fucking and he looks tremendous I mean you go back and watch his earlier comedy specials was this big old moon face and then look at him now you would never even imagine that guy was ever fat no for sure it's back when he had the moon face the black button down and he was balding up top and he wouldn't commit yeah no totally different time he's a different human no it's different human now. And Bert

goes back and forth. Burr will lose a bunch of weight and then get big as fuck again. It's that yo-yo. Yeah. With Bert, it's booze, man. It's all booze for Byrd now. Literally. It's food, too. I mean, the motherfucker will go to McDonald's and order like 30 Big Macs.

Like, he's a fucking animal. You know how that is. The left hand will wash the right hand in those situations. You put a little alcohol in you, you're not thinking, you know what? I think a Caesar salad with a salmon is pretty good tonight. You're like, somebody Take me in and out, baby. Yeah.

I relate. I used, my chef had a note one night. We looked through all my weight loss before this pod, and he had a note where I went drinking heavy one night, and I was probably 515 pounds. And he was just like, even in his note, he was like, not sustainable. He can never lose the weight drinking this way. You know what I mean? Like it was just, Ian Largis was just that.

And he sat me down and was like, Bubba, I don't care what I feed you. I can't out work. You get drunk and you eat 3,000 calories of shit after you drink 3,000 calories of tequila. Right, right. You know what I was like, I got to quit drinking. Yeah. You know, just a stone cold thing I had to come with. Yeah, that's terrible for you.

And when you see Bert with that enormous belly, that's all just alcohol and inflammation. It's like so bad for you. And Bert's 50 now, you know, it's like. And we got the same doctor. God. No, but. Yeah, but Bert don't listen. No, not Bert don't listen.

But he's also, he's. He's also an athlete, though. The problem with Bert is that that dude, this is what I love about Bert that makes Bert so special is it, Bert, you remember when he ran about half marathon or marathon or something without training? They went a whole marathon without any training at all. That's Bert. And he was fat. He ran 26 miles.

Yeah, this is just like Bert at who he is. So it's that really hard thing to tell a guy. It's like, yo, be careful, blah, but it's also like he'd go bust the 10K out today if he made him just out of spite. You know what I'm saying? No, he's got extraordinary genetics that he abuses. The Mickey Mantle gene, dude. It's real, man. It's fucking real, Doc.

Yeah, no, it is real. It is real. you know but he's he's playing a game that you can never win right he'll never win that game that eventually one day your your heart will go check please yeah and that's it yeah you know and hopefully he catches it before that you know and that's what everybody who loves him wants yeah it's just he's got also got this mindset that his whole success is connected to him being this party animal it's not though it's connected to you being bird It's connected to you being one of the most genuine, sweet, funny show up for you dudes I've ever met in my life.

Like six-pack or 400 pounds, dude, your heart is the size of a horse. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, Burt Kreischer is the, new friends. That's one of the ones I pray for. And Burke Kreischer, Cam Haynes. I prayed for new friends. He sent me a bunch of really cool ones, a bunch of wild ones.

Joe Rogan, Tony Hinchcliffe, a bunch of fuck-ups, but we're good dudes. You know what I'm saying? Like real, real slightly outside of normal people. people, but are great guys. You know, and Bert Kreischer's a great, my, his friendship's done a lot for me. I hope me showing up, he hasn't really, he's seen me whenever at wrestling,

but I think when I show up to this 5K and I do it in 30 minutes. I hope that's the moment Bert's like, all right, baby, I'm with you, Jelly. You know what I'm saying? Well, he's just got to realize that his success will always be there. He doesn't have to be drunk

to have that success. He's hilarious. He does sober October sometimes, and one time recently he did it, and he called me up, and he's like, I just haven't been drinking I feel so much better

and I really think I'm done I go you should be done man you don't need it you don't need it he's like you're right I think I'm done and then right back to it you know it's hard but in those moments of clarity he realizes maybe he'll hear this and

he's funny that'll be it I think he's funny either way oh he'll be funny either way he's yeah I've woke up with bird he's hilarious yeah he'll probably be more funny bird at breakfast to me is just funny as bird at night you know what I mean Oh, for sure.

Yeah, for sure. It's healthier. It's like, I've been very fortunate in life. One of the most fortunate things, though, is the group of people that I've been connected to. It's very, like we were talking about that. It's very important. It's very important. And Bert is connected to a lot of really good people.

And hopefully that will lead him on a similar, I mean, everybody has their own timeline. Everybody has their own way of doing it. everybody has to have their own moment too you know i had to have mine i just my thing for bert or anybody out there is that if you're just don't let it get there if you can right i just pray man if i i feel like i don't think i'm making this up when i say i think i was six to 12 months away from missing it especially traveling you know i traveled 280 days a year right at 500 something pounds yeah 200 something flights a year 250 flights a year so bad for you i just i couldn't i wasn't going to be able to do it i knew it you know what i mean

and lucky once again I had a wife that was just super supportive she was supportive through all the faces though but she was just like yo this is time and she went out of her way the first three months of the diet I probably left this part out because I'm embarrassed about it but I'll tell it. The first three months of the diet

I had to sit down with her and go look I need you to hide the food like I will find it you know what I'm saying like I need you to hide the food so her and my daughter Bailey found like all these cool like I still don't know where they were I never found it you know what I mean but they hid everything for me.

Like there was nights I'd walk in that pantry and it would be like a banana. You know what I'm saying? I'd be like the entire pantry. It was God. I'd be like, fair. You know what I mean? Like it was cool. But once again, it goes back to the fox, the mull, and the horse.

I never asked for help before. Right. I never would get out of my own ego. I'd just say everything I was going to do and then not do it and then get mad when they ask when they try to encouragingly love me. But maybe even more importantly, you were helping yourself. It wasn't just you were asking for help. You weren't asking for help while you weren't doing it.

you were asking for help while you were helping yourself and they were like okay i think he's really doing this that's it's it yeah there's really a change going on and goes back to that rain walk yeah whenever they you don't have to go and then when i went they cheered it it's a great moment that it did happen in the rain you know because it makes it even more significant it makes it more you know meaningful it's so real yeah i keep mentioning god because my faith in them grow so much stronger every day but i truly believe that that was a god thing you know what i mean that almost this weird thing Like, you know, you walk out and be like, you know what? Even the hill.

Dude, I've lived on hills my whole life and never walked up one. I'm from Tennessee. There are nothing but hills. I go downhill. That's what I do. It's a fat person trait. You know what I'm saying? We look cooler.

Move faster, you know? Yeah. And immediately, just like, no, man, we're hitting hills, dude. Like, every time I can hit a hill. I'm now looking for hills in life. You know what I mean? Like, I'm looking for, like, how can I make this run a little harder? Like when Cam tells me we're at Mile 5, he's like,

I'm proud of you did your piece. PR, I was like, we better do 6-2 then, baby. It ain't a 10K if we don't do another mile point too. You know what I mean? Like, immediately, I was like, we got to go. Yeah. It's just been, it's the, it's the effort. But helping the self, knowing you want to change, and then not being afraid to just go ask, not being ashamed to just go to your wife, because that's a little

embarrassing. And be like, hey, can you just like had the dark chocolate? And they're who dark chocolate bars. Bunny's extremely healthy. You know what I mean? Like has always been. Them hoojog dark chocolate bars are so good. But the problem is, I don't know how to eat one.

They're only 380 calories, but if there's five of them in there, I will eat all five for sure. You know what I'm saying? You know, so some nights you'd leave me a little half a bar out or something. You know what I mean? Like rations until I could control it until I knew that. And then now my pantry's back full. Well, now you're addicted to the success of what you've already accomplished, which is a good addiction. That's a good addiction.

Being addicted to being healthy is the best addiction you could find. Because I don't think you're going to get out of the addiction mindset. I think what addiction is, I think there's a reason why it exists in the human mind, and I think it exists because it's the same thing as obsession. And obsession allows you to be a successful hunter. It's like hunter's persistence. If you don't have that obsessive drive, you won't keep going until you're succeeding. And if you do have that, you'll feed your family.

If you don't have that, everybody dies. I think that's like programmed into the human psyche. It's programmed into human mind. But it can be hijacked by gambling. It could be hijacked by pornography. It could be hijacked by video games. It could be hijacked by a host of different things. Drugs, alcohol, anything, food, fill in the blank.

I think that is where it happens. You get addicted to all kinds of things that are negative or you can get addicted to positive things. Meaningful conversation? Yes. Exercise. Sure. I'm addicted to meaningful conversations now. I used to be addicted to small talk.

It's hard to find them. You know? It's hard to find a good... Stuff like this, like meaningful, like rich. I'm searching for rich conversations. Even in my relationships with my wife, like in my health... Like, our conversations are getting deeper. Yes.

You know what I mean? Like, I never thought I could know this woman I love so much better, but I'm getting to know her better. Like, we're getting deeper in the foxhole together. We're getting deeper in the shadows of each other's crevices. It's like... I'm looking for that. I'm looking to pour into people, man.

It's just, dude. Yeah, that's another thing about phones that makes it very difficult, you know, for people to have meaningful conversations because everybody's so attached. They're goddamn devices. Even while you're talking to them, they're checking this and checking that. And you feel like, they're going, yeah, yeah, oh, yeah, that's real. Oh, yeah. And they're just scrolling and half paying attention to you.

It's a lot. It's a lot. It's hard. It's like one of the things that I've said about this podcast is like one of the most unexpected things about it as this education that I've got in talking to people, not just like listening to their stories and listening to whatever their expertise is, but it's also just the learning how to talk to people. Because you're sitting here for three hours or whatever it is with no distractions and no interruptions. And because of that, you learn this

sort of ebb and flow of human conversation. So for me, it's so hard to have a bad conversation. When I'm out with people that are bad at having conversations, to me, it's fucking painful. It's like, oh, God. Yeah. It drives me crazy. It's like watching people talk over people, watching people that aren't listening, they're just waiting for their time to talk. Like, ugh. Yeah.

It's such a connection, man. And a lot of those people that are missing that goes into these, the byproducts of lack of connection are addiction. isolation loneliness these are the side effects of not connecting with people

you know what I mean and that phone has tricked us into thinking that we're connecting with thousands of people right and we're actually not connecting with anybody

not connecting with a single person we're being more lonely and more comparative it's a trap it's a real trap because you're getting input there's some input there's some words

that come from a person I guess but There's no human, like, we're designed to talk to each other this way. The spiritual fulfillment, the psychological fulfillment that comes from talking to a human being and making a genuine connection and understanding more about that person. And then by also doing that, you understand more about yourself. Like when someone reveals something to you that's very meaningful and very intimate,

like you go, oh, wow, like what is it about, why is that, maybe I could be better at that. Maybe I could do this, or maybe I can, maybe I'm looking at myself the wrong way or looking at people the wrong way. And, you know, and you're just like this slow learning process of how to interact with people better. And it's, that's all kids today that are on their phone all day long, they're the psychologically stunted. You know, we're stunting their social growth and their development of just, most people don't, most kids today don't barely know how to communicate with each other. especially even long form like this it's the ability to really get you don't really know how somebody feels about something

until you really get into a conversation like a real conversation and these kids aren't having those conversations with each other it's all in micro clips and micro spots and me and my daughter talk about this a lot because lucky for I was I was blessed that she's a conversationalist she's kind of she's like me she will have a meaningful

conversation so I'm but I look at my nine year old who's a little younger than her, obviously. She's 17. My daughter goes to college next year. And my 9-year-old's a little different, though. He communicates good, but he's still in that, you know, video game world. Like, he just, it's a different thing where Bailey still really appreciates us sit around. I don't know, man.

I grew up in a household where I told you this story. My mom would sit at the kitchen table and tell us stories like me and you were talking right now for hours. We had a JRE every night. You know what I'm saying? You know, she'd smoke cigarettes and tell stories, and it was just like super. charming and you know it's um so my daughter grew up a lot like that and i'm really proud of that you know that she grew up sitting in a room and having those kind of calmer like real long form because that's how you know how you really feel about it's what therapy did for me too was whenever i

quit doing things at a surface level when it started going yeah that's cool but like really when was the first time you remember being fat i think people have a hunger for it which is why um this emergence of long-form conversations into the zeitgeist has been surprising to a lot of people because, you know, when I first started doing this podcast, one of the funny things that Ari Shafir always said to me that I'll never let him live it down because he was always like, you got to edit your show. I go, why? He goes, nobody wants to listen in three hours. I go, then don't listen. I don't care. I go, I'm doing it for no money anyway. Like back then it was like it was costing me money. I was like, I'm just doing it for fun, man. I don't care. I put it out there.

They don't want to listen to the whole thing. They don't have to listen to the whole thing. There's another one coming out in a couple days. Listen to that one. Listen to five minutes. I don't give a fuck. Right. And he was like, you should edit it.

It's going to fuck up your show. And I'm like, all right, whatever. And then now I'm like, remember when you told me that? Ha ha. Because I don't think that people realize how many people are starving for real conversation. Just the, you know, this is one of the reasons why, like, when that Kamala Harris thing went down, where I had Trump on the podcast and Kamala Harris kept. resisting coming on the podcast they wanted to do it for like 45 minutes they wanted to do it in

a conference room with a bunch of aides around they wanted to do it in dc i was like no no it has to be here and it has to be three hours like she's got to sit down like because it takes a while to get inside someone's head you got a you taught you could bullshit me for 40 minutes easy for 40 minutes you could have a bunch of canned speeches and a bunch of shit you prepared and a bunch of like bullshit answers but I'll ask you like what you like to cook I'll ask you like do you exercise

I'll ask you what's your favorite book I'll ask you like all kinds of different things and then we'll start talking we'll start talking about like did you ever think you were going to be this person like what you know what what led you here like what and give me some real shit give me some real shit

well you can't this is why I've always loved your pod is that it's where I go find out who people are. Yeah. Because it's so easy, and I'm in the media, right, to go sit down for 20 minutes and like... Smile and just get it out of the way. You know what I mean? Top that.

Yeah, exactly. But it's like, you give me three hours with somebody, they got to show me who they are. Yeah. Somebody's... Joe's going to find out who this person is. You know what I mean? Like, he's going to...

It's like... And that's back to, like, because we don't know who we are until we start having real conversations. Right. This goes back to back to what I mean you started with this, is that we don't know who we are until you started having real car. I don't know how it started,

whether it was in the green room with some of your comic friends. You were like, dude, we have the greatest conversations in here. We should do this. You know what I mean? Like, these are funny. I don't know, but something happened where you recognize,

like, this is rare that people have conversations this funny, this good, but also this cathartic. Like, there's moments we've laughed, we've cried. Like, it's every podcast of yours. You know what I mean? Because you can't spend three hours with somebody and not see the full dynamic human. Yeah, and I think there's a hunger.

that people have for finding out that other people have similar thoughts to them, and maybe not even, maybe different thoughts in similar situations, and that someone is at a better way of approaching something, and it's educational, like, to your soul,

there's something about it, about, like, we all want to pretend that we exist in a vacuum, and everybody wants to pretend they're a loner, and I'd rather be alone, like, shut up. No, you wouldn't. You'd only rather be alone if the people around you suck. If the people around me suck yeah I'd rather be alone but I have great friends I like being around my friends

it's like it's it's not shallow to want to be around a bunch of awesome people but there's this thought that like you know that we we are that we exist on our own and you don't we're a collective like the human species itself is a hive and it's one of things we're learning about the negative impacts of that hive being connected to social media because you're not really connecting with people, but we're also experiencing this thing that's similar to a hive. And so there's a writer, Avi Levinovitz, who talks about this. And the way he described it rather is that it's like processed food. You're getting processed information.

And instead of real information, like on social media, you're getting this processed thing that's boiled down with no nutrients in it, but you keep consuming it because you're so hungry because you're not getting the real thing. You're just stuffing your face with, stuffing your mind with process information. I think that's an apt way to put it because that's really what's going on. It's like we all want real connection. We're just worried. We're worried that someone's going to reject us. We're worried that someone's going to be rude to us. We're worried that someone's judging us, that someone's going to think they're better than us, or they're going to think we lack or whatever it is there's this like there's a thing that we all hunger for and i think for a lot

of people the what they get if they don't have it near them if they haven't done what you've done and found a great group of friends they can get it through podcasts they can get it through people talking and communicating and being real and and being interested and being curious and learning and just being cool to each other. And it's heartwarming. It's like it fills something in you that we're missing because we're being poisoned by these fucking devices.

And we're only seeing these little snippets of people. Like back to the conversation, like we see comments, like a paragraph. And then people building entire thoughts around a paragraph. And you don't even know what that dude's thought was. It's just a paragraph on the internet. You didn't actually talk to that guy

to see. what that was, you know what I mean? Like, it's, it's that, that thing of like, I had it, I don't know, I didn't plan on talking about this, but it's a perfect time because I learned such a lesson in it. I was on my laptop one day on Instagram.com, and it was the day of the Dove Awards, which is a Christian music awards, and I had a gospel song get nominated for a Grammy this year. What's it called the Double Awards?

The Dove, Dove Awards? And it's like the Christian Grammys. Okay. It's been around for a long time, Gospel Music Association. I have a, I did a song with a Christian artist this year named Branden in the lake it's called hard fought hallelujah it's i got to sing it at the vatican joe oh wow i got to sing this we pulled that clip jeremy of me at the vatican i sang in st peter's square joe oh my god first live concert ever in st peter's square right outside of st peter's basilica was our this is it

wow right here watch st peter's basilica look that's the basilica right there i got goose look at that that's the square bub that's vatican city look at this that's incredible i will tell you That's incredible. Biously, it might have been my best vocal performance of my career. Wow. Look at that, Joe. But you're already losing weight by then. Yeah, no, for sure.

This was about six months ago. Show you how much I've lost since then. You look like a different person even now to that. Dude, what's funny, when you're 500 pounds, you lose 20 pounds, you don't really see it. Look how beautiful that is. I went out to sound check, Joe. And of course, y'all know I'm emotional by now. But I couldn't even get through sound check.

I was crying so hard. Watch this part right here. You'll see my hand shaking. I'm shaking up there. You see it? Wow. I am shaking. You see the mic, watch the microphone hand because it's the one that doesn't lie.

Wow. You all know that. The other one you can shake while you're moving it. But the microphone hand, look at it. Yeah, man. Yeah, man. Wow. It was, um, wow.

And I'll tell you a story about this. That's incredible. I know I keep bringing up God things, but they called me to do this. And it was Pharrell and Andrea Bichelli put this together, okay? And I love Ferrell. He's a dear, became a friend of my sweet guy

and I go, okay, cool. And I get there and Teddy Swims is there and Jennifer Hudson all these. Teddy Swims is the dude baby. Oh, man,

that dude's got a voice. He's got a voice, dog. It is ridiculous. You had him on you? No, we've been talking though. We're going to do it.

Please. I love that too. I love that. I love that. He's a good conversation too, man. I believe it. Sweet soul,

a little Georgia boy. Okay. Just southerners as collard greens. You're going to love me. He's just like me. He's the sweetest. That motherfucker can sing his ass off.

It's not fair. It's not fair. I went him singing with Bichelli. I mean, if you're standing next to Bichelli and you've got a voice, think about that. So I get there and I'm like, all right, so what's the story here? And everybody was either singing with Farrell or Bacheli, but me. I was the only person in that whole event that was singing alone. So I get super nervous.

I'm like, why did I end up alone? You know what I'm saying? I was like, yeah. I was like, oh shit. And Brandon Lake couldn't make it for some reason. I was like, this is bad. I've never been more nervous. I go out for sound check.

I'm bawling, crying. And I'm like, dude, this is so crazy. And then I walk out and I'm like, when I go to do it, right before I go out, they come to me and go, hey, Jennifer Hudson's going to come out at the very end and do Hallelujah with you or just do Hallelujah. You just prays for a minute while she does it. I was like, the Jennifer Hudson? They were like, yeah.

I was like, so Jennifer Hudson walks over to me. I love her. She goes, all right, what do you want? She's so sweet. She's like, I'm open for notes. You got any suggestions? It's one of the greatest female vocalists ever.

I do not have a suggestion. We'll start there. Jennifer, I'm embarrassed. You have to sing near me. But I'm here what I'm saying? And I'm like, and she goes, and then it hit me and I looked at her and I'll never forget this moment.

She goes, what do you think we should do? I said, we give them Jesus. I said, I think that's why I'm here alone. I think, you know, I'm the one that's supposed to bring Jesus here. Like, I know it's a Jesus thing, obviously, but like, we're supposed to This is supposed to be a – she grew up in the South, too.

She grew up Chicago. You know, she grew up Midwest. And I go, this is supposed to be the church we grew up in, Jennifer. She was like, that's all I needed to hear. Oh, Joe. Just when I had the best vocal performance of my life, Jennifer Hudson comes out and takes them to church. It's a full praise and worship at that point. 200 choir members, hands up in the sky.

We're in front of St. Peter's Facilia. They're worshipping out there, dude. Hands are in the sky, dude. It was – watch it after the show if you can. It's worth five minutes. It'll make you tear off. up a little bit, dude. It was like, it was like, oh, dude, it was such a Jesus moment. And I even started, I'm looking at the Cardinal and I'm going, can we get a little praise for

Jesus in here tonight? Can we get a little praise for Jesus in here tonight? And I'm just, you can see the baines in my face, Joe. I don't remember it. I just was just there. You what I mean? Like it's just, wow. I just literally, look, right then. And this is where Jennifer Hutchins is going to come out. Wow. These people lined up in the street, too. This is wild. Oh, dude, what you don't see is the only reason you don't see people on the side streets

is because they finally got rid of them. When it first opened, there was, like, all over Rome. You just could not move. Wow. Like, 6, 700,000 people were down there trying to see this thing. It was the first time they've ever done live music at the Vatican. That's crazy. I could not believe I got that call, Joe.

That's crazy. But anyone when I got there, I just kept being more confused. I was like, hold on. I'm the only one that's not singing with the two people that put this event together literally the only audience

because Jennifer Hudson sang with them Teddy swang with them I was like what am I here for? You know what I'm saying? I just could not figure it out but I never had

more apostor syndrome and I prayed and I was like God I cuss I smoke I am I don't how am I being a vessel here like I don't like

and then that's whenever I was just I heard it just so clear like dude just just open your hands just yeah got you Yeah, I want to play you something

So you remember that Craig Morgan moment Where you talked about it when you were on stage at the opera Oh yeah, almost home Yeah It's one of the coolest nights ever Let's play that I want to play that because we're going to show you something I'm going to show you something

That was a really powerful moment Because you were talking about How you would listen to that song in prison You know and how you went to the Opry and you sat there. I think you were in the seventh row. Seventh row? Exactly where I was.

Six or seven. I was right back there, stage left. And you talked about it when you were on stage, the first time you were ever on stage at the Opry. I want to play that first, and we're going to play you something else. Yeah, it was crazy, dude. Do you have it, Jamie?

You want me to send it to you? Yo, while you're looking that up, can I do something right quick? Yeah, sure. I'm in love. My wife's got a book coming out. Everybody's called Strip Down. It's coming out in February.

She finally wrote her life story. I've never been more proud of a human in my life, y'all. I'm so proud of you, baby. In February. You deserve this girl. Beautiful. I brought you a copy. It took me 36 years to make it to the stage.

Big jelly. Five hundred pounds. Look at the size of it. Tonight is the most special. Yes, sir. Night of my life. sing y'all some music for the soul from the soul this song is called son of a sinner baby you got that plaque I'm gonna be more honest than I probably should be.

In 2008, I was incarcerated in a local penitentiary. I had made some horrible decisions. I found strength and music. We did it, Jali! Charlie! Kelly! Kelly! Charlie!

Charlie! Charlie! Charlie! Charlie! Kelly! Kelly! Kelly! Kelly!

Kelly! While incarcerated, I had a little girl. In the crowd the night, she's now 13 years old. I remember sitting in my jail bunk when I knew she was born and thinking I had to do something to change my life. I came home and I pursued the dream of music by selling mixtapes and T-shirts out of the trunk of my car. Right here in Nashville, Tennessee. I married my best friend.

We have full custody of that 13-year-old now. And in that jail sale, I found strength in country music. I used to listen to Craig Morgan singing almost home in my jail and think I'm gonna change my life when I get home. I came home and Googled. Craig Morgan, live performance

and he was right here at the Grand Ole Opry. I sat right there with that man with the ball cap and the seventh row back on this row is sitting. No line. I watched Craig Morgan to cry. For those of y'all that don't know, I make music for the broken. I make music for the have-nots

and the lost causes in life, the ones that have been through something and overcame it. If you haven't been that person, you know somebody who has. and I represent that person. I want to dedicate this song to everybody who's ever felt worthless

and found their way out of that dark place. This record is certified gold. It is called Save Me. Thank you. Let's go! Without you, Kelly! me me for myself i've been so long living in hell they say my life's the only thing that's the only fact that seems to fail that seems to fail A haul up is drinking and smoking is hopeless

But feel like it's all that I need I'm surfing inside of me's broken Now hold on to be anything that says me, Frank I'm a lost call A reporter Brian from Zanis Dorfman, baby What is seeing

My hopes and my dreams I'm a lot Cause Baby don't waste your time on me I'm so What is it like Seeing yourself Dude

What is it like seeing yourself that big And seeing yourself in that Huge moment One I love you man You tricked me again I thought we were getting off the So I was like, oh, I just want to show my wife's book out right quick. And then you would show me a video.

I'm going to show you something else, too. I didn't think I'd make it, Joe. I'm going to show you this. My buddy. Give me some volume. I need to say congratulations on all the great things happening in your career. And to thank you for the positive difference you're making in the lives of so many people who need to help. You're doing great work, buddy.

And I'll never forget meeting you on the Grand Ole Opry and how much it meant to me to hear you say my music helped you get through some really tough times. That's one thing country music does really well. And who would have ever dreamed back then that I'd be back at the Opry House today to say, Jelly Roll? You're officially invited to become a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

It's an honor to say welcome to the family, brother. He wanted to play that for you when you're here. Have a hook? Yeah, for sure. I love you too. I love you too, brother. Joe, that's like, don't get no bigger in country music, Bubba.

It's the biggest of kiss, yo. You know what the fucking gran' all I free dog? Oh, dude, I used to buy tickets to go there. And I remember how new look, man, I cried a lot on his pot. It's okay. I googled Craig Morgan. I heard almost home in jail. And you've heard the song, right?

It's like the most tear-jurking song about a homeless man. And it just reminded me a jail just, you know, no matter where you are, the mind's strong. And it just, I came home and the song is so much. I was like, Craig Morgan Live. It's like, Grand Old Opry House. And I was like, I'll go. I could barely afford tickets. I think I talked some girl on the bottom for me.

I went to sat by myself. I had an ankle brace it on. So the show went off at 9. I had to be home at 9. So I was like, if he's the last one, I'm screwed. And he comes out and sings almost home. And I had, I'm not bullshit. I'd maybe cried 10 times in my life at that point.

And I cried. I cried. I cried like I'm crying here now. And I just remember thinking, man. I want to make people what I can't believe I made me a member

the hopper dog I want to make people feel the way he makes me feel that's what I want to do well you've done that man you've done it brother but did it Joe man that's crazy Joe

oh dude fuck oh dude I bet I'm the first person ever got invited to the radio opera on podcast that's awesome Oh, sorry, let's see it for a second. I just, I figured. You did it, brother.

I do. You did what you wanted to do. That feeling that he gave you, you've given to many, many people. It's an incredible gift. You know, there's so few people in life that have touched people the way you've touched people. Thank you, Joe, man. It's just, what a dream, dude. I used to write on my vision board

When my wife first got together That your podcast was the number one thing I wanted to do every year Because I always felt like I'd have a Joe Dirt moment on here You know? I always felt like somewhere I'd be sitting here telling my story In the world would be tuning in, you know?

And to be, fuck the fact that I'm on your podcast The fact you're my friend, dude. I love you, brother. I love you, brother. Thank you, man. Of course, thanks for letting me on the podcast But I just never thought this was a journey, dude. I thought I'd die young or I thought I'd kill myself.

I didn't think I was going to be able to figure it out. You figured it out, and you're figuring out more every day. Every day, brother. And I think through that, other people are as well. I hope so. They're figuring out their life, for sure. Just through your songs, through your words, through your acts, through your deeds, through your life, through the way you've chosen this new path. For sure.

For sure. You're changing people's lives. I hope, man. You are. You are changing people's lives. I will tell you 100%, without doubt, you are changing people's lives. and you're enriching people's lives by being you, by being a real person going through a real life moment.

Yeah. You know, and doing it the right way. Yes, sir. Yeah. Slow? It's not easy. No, it doesn't have to be easy. Tell the truth ain't always fun.

No, no, no, no. It's not supposed to be easy. If it was easy, it wouldn't be so fun. Gratifying, though, man. Yeah. Dude. God, Joe, man. A member of the Grand Ole Offrey, dog!

My name on the sheet, Bubba. When you come in the back of the Grand Ole Opry, they have them all, and I'm shaking, Joe, like when that deer was in a stand. They have these plaques that they put the name on, and the first wall has only got two rows left of flax. I played there a couple months ago, and I remember looking going, thinking to myself, the negative guy of me was like, fuck, I'm going to be on the new wall. If I ever make it, it won't be on this one. You know what I mean? You know, it's just like, even then I was having them over, I was like, if they ever actually, you know, I never thought I, like, when Jordan and Jen invited me to the Grand Ole Opry, I never thought that would happen. I never thought that I'd be allowed to play the Grand Ole Opry, you know what I mean?

Yeah. And then to be a member of it, and I'll never forget watching Luke Combs when they asked him to be a member. And just, like, I think it's the first time I ever seen Luke emotional, you know? And I just remember being like, no, I don't ever happen. Just like, I remember looking at Cam, like, I'll never be able to run a 5K. You know what I mean? Like, man, I don't know it can happen, dude, man. If God gets involved, you have a little humility.

I think the rest can work itself out, Joe. You know what I mean? Amazing things can happen if you live your life true. Ooh. Ooh, baby. Amazing things can happen if you live your life true. Well, I know you don't leave Texas much, but you're going to come see me to operate sometime now?

Fuck yeah. 100%. You got to come see me now that I remember, dude. 100%. 100%. I get to close the show. 100%. I get to send my mail there now, too.

Wow. Yeah, it's crazy, dude. Hey, well, like all the O.Gs got their mail there, Johnny and him. Wow. It was, like, really, really cool. It's like a super legend there. That's awesome. So, everybody wants to write me a letter suited to the grand old offering.

Oh, my God. Oh, dude. That's incredible. Oh, that's, man, that's, I didn't even dream of it. God will, God will make things bigger than your dreams. Somebody out there right now is dreaming of something, and it's too small. Dream bigger, baby. Dream bigger, baby.

You know what I mean? That's it. Let's wrap it up. That was a perfect way to end this. I love you, brother. Thank you, brother, man. It's been amazing. Bye, buddy.

I'm going to be able to be.