The Josh Innes Show - Life Changes

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

Hello Friends! Welcome to 2025. We are preparing for a massive winter storm in St. Louis. Man, I need to get the hell out of here. Also, I made a major decision that will impact my life and career. I discuss in this episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Ah! Woo! Okay. All right. When a core's life is cold enough, the mountains on the can turn blue. So the next time you want a cold lager, cold filter, cold package, Coors Light. Just wait until those glorious mountains on the can turn blue. It's easy to say that fast when you're freezing cold.

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See app for details. Hello, Jamokes. Welcome in. Greetings. It is a new year. It is Thursday, January 2nd, 2025, And I'm glad you're listening to the pod. I appreciate all of you who've been doing it. And I hope you continue to do so.

And God damn it, tell a friend. Tell your friends. Tell your neighbors. Tell your cousins, your auntie, your uncles, your pop pops. Tell them all to listen to the Josh Ennis Podcast, which we'll be doing bigger things in 2025 once my life gets kind of settled down. Once I hopefully find a new place to live that includes a new job, that would be nice. And there we go. Because no matter what happens, my ass ain't going to be in St. Louis come sometime around March. My lease is up. Severance

runs out at the end of February. And I ain't staying here. So look, we have got a winter storm on the horizon here for the St. Louis metro area. And it appears that where we are located is going to have an ice event, which is truly the worst possible thing ever. Like hurricanes suck and they're terrible. And I've lived through some of those. We saw it with Harvey in Houston. And I've seen it a couple times down in Louisiana. Like hurricanes are terrible. They're awful. They blow.

Tornadoes, I've never been through a tornado. Hope I never am. Freaky shit, fine. But when you talk about shit that's not destructive but is terrible, like an earthquake is destructive. A tornado is destructive. An ice storm can be destructive, but just it's awful. You can't get around, the roads are closed, you can't walk. Everything about ice is terrible. We lived it in Houston, what year was that, 2010? That had been the 2010 year or the 2011 year, I forgot which year that was, where there was the big ice storm and there was a big ice storm at the Super Bowl in Dallas when

we were there, a big snow storm. And that was ice when we got back to Houston. It was terrible. And I've lived it in Philadelphia. We lived awful storms in Nashville as well. But here we are, St. Louis, just days away from a big ice storm, which means now I have to go to the grocery store and stock up and fight all the people at the grocery store for all the essentials. So now we've got to go get the breads and the milks and the meats and everything just in case we can't get the fuck out of the house, which as of today, as of Thursday, January 2nd,

it's looking like this thing's coming on Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening, and then really going to go hot and heavy through the rest of the weekend. And then it's going to be miserable and terrible. So that's where it stands for us right now in St. Louis. Awful, not snow, ice. There will be snow, and then there will be ice,

and then we will be frozen, and it will be miserable. And I'll tell you someone who's not going to like sitting his ass at home and not walking, that's Ross, because Ross is an energetic dude that likes to get a lot of steam out by walking. Now, you take him to the dog park, and you take him to the dog daycare, bless his heart, he doesn't do a damn thing. He just kind of stands around and looks around and observes. But you take him on a walk, he walks 9 million miles per hour. Oh, and by the way, he's supposed to get his training done. He's supposed to have two weeks of training that starts on Monday. Well, the odds are it's not going to start on Monday because the whole damn town's going to be frozen. That's what

we're dealing with. Now, I'm hoping, I'm very hopeful. And if I were a spiritual person, I'd pray. And if I want to be a fraud right now, I'd certainly pray that somehow this does not happen. I don't want to deal with ICE. Not only is it terrible, not only can you not walk, not only is it miserable, but it could impact my drive into Illinois to bet on my football games on Sunday, which is truly the worst case scenario because it's the last NFL Sunday and there's tons of cool shit going on with guys trying to hit incentives, which means that they are prime candidates for prop bets. I know you got your own problems, but that's where we stand right now. The weather sucks in St. Louis right now. By the way, it's been raining here

essentially nonstop, whether it's heavy rain, a lot of drizzling rain, a lot of drizzling cold rain that finally stopped yesterday. From the time that we adopted Ross, maybe it's a sign, Ross, what do you think? Two and a half weeks ago, almost three weeks ago when we adopted Ross, we drove to Carbondale, Illinois, which was about two hours or so away from here. Had to drive all the back roads and small towns, no highways, just kind of weaving through small little towns. And we got to Carbondale, Illinois, the home of Southern Illinois University, the Salukis of Southern Illinois University. They had a brief moment in the early 2000s where they were one of those darling NCAA tournament teams. Missouri beat them on a last second shot in the 2003, I believe, NCAA tournament. Maybe 2002.

I'm not sure. I think it was 2003. Either way, we went down there and adopted Ross. And from that day to where we are now, it has basically been raining nonstop in some way. Very little sunshine. Mostly rain. Horrible, soggy, wet ground, muddy everywhere you go. So it's been a real crappy two and a half weeks of weather. And now we're going to top it

off with ice, which is the worst. I'm trying to think of the worst storm I've ever been in, in terms of like a winter storm that I remember. I'm sure I dealt with a lot of shit. I lived in Montana for like two and a half, three years as a kid. All I remember is snow. Like I don't remember times that there wasn't snow in Montana, but thinking about it, Philly, we had a massive storm one year. I want to say it was like 11 inches or so. I forgot how many inches it was, but I opened our front door in Manayunk and the snow went up to nearly my knees. So then I had to get my ass out there with a shovel and try to shovel the walkway. And that was terrible.

And that's the other thing that sucks. It's like this expectation that you're supposed to shovel your sidewalk outside of your place. Like, bitch, I rent this shit. And then like, I do it because I'm, you know, team player guy. I don't want to be the guy that everybody looks at and goes, oh, that dickhead didn't shovel a sidewalk, right? So I get out there and shovel the sidewalk. And then I get irrationally angry when I see other assholes who don't shovel their sidewalks. Shitheads. Anyway, I got some other life stuff to talk about. Then we'll do some other pods about football and some other stuff. Lots going on. It's a new year, kiddos. And we shall continue after these words.

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All right, so some things going on. Speaking of life things, obviously we adopted Ross almost three weeks ago. He's wonderful. Very rambunctious. Speaking of life things, obviously we adopted Ross almost three weeks ago. He's wonderful. Very rambunctious. Lots of energy. Walking him is a real wild time because he doesn't settle down. That's why we're getting him some training just so he'll have a nice walk. And not like he's basically it's like the guy, I don't know, maybe he feels trapped being on a leash.

Maybe he was a rolling stone that used to go around town from port to port and was used to being a free man. Maybe he didn't being on a leash. Maybe he was a rolling stone that used to go around town, you know, from port to port and was used to being a free man. Maybe he didn't want to be rescued. Maybe that's the reality. Although the way he sleeps in the bed and overtakes the bed and sits there with his grundle out in one scratches and he begs for treats all the time, I think he does like having a home. But as far as like being out on the streets and wandering, maybe he liked that.

Here's one about Ross. So when we walk him, if it's garbage day and the garbage cans are. Maybe he liked that. Here's one about Ross. So when we walk him, if it's garbage day and the garbage cans are out, he will stop at every garbage can and not just sniff around the garbage can and pee on it. He will stand on his hind legs and start trying to get into the garbage can, which kind of leads me to believe that this guy was like the tramp, just kind of going around, going to like Italian Italian restaurants looking for spaghettis and pastas and some bolognese and shit so maybe so but uh that's the update on Ross now other things I made a a relatively large decision and it's something I've been stewing over and mulling over for weeks and weeks and weeks uh months even. And it's just something that I've contemplated.

And I finally had to kind of to do it because ultimately I think it's better for me moving forward. And I finally decided to do it on the most random of days. On December 31st, on New Year's Eve, I was in the shower as I always am. I'm on my phone in the shower because I'm a lunatic. I just stand there and scroll things, look at dumb shit, reels and shit on my phone. And for days I've been trying to figure out a way to send a message to my agent to let her know that I don't need her services anymore and that I just want to represent myself essentially. That's what I've been trying to contemplate and do really it's been like over a year and it's nothing against her she's wonderful but initially it was hey I have this job in St.

Louis I think I'm gonna have this job in St. Louis for a long time I don't need an agent to redo the contract I can just do the contract on my own and not have to pay the agent 10% which is what I pay my agent so I didn't need like in my mind I'm like if I'm still here and this is what I pay my agent. So I didn't need, like in my mind, I'm like, if I'm still here and this is where I'm going to stay and I'm making this money and like, why should I be giving 10% of everything that I make at least from my base salary to my agent? So that's something I've really been contemplating for, you know, a year or more. And again, nothing against her. She's wonderful. She helped me get these gigs and I appreciate that. But I was just kind of at this point where I'm like, I don't want to keep giving money to someone. I'm kind of out

hunting for jobs anyway. And that's the hard part. Like my initial agent I had really wasn't an agent. His name was David Brody. I think we had David on the podcast at least once or twice back in the days of the Rona. David was an awesome guy and is an awesome guy. He's a friend. And I forgot how David even discovered me. It all started kind of like my, I guess if you want to get technical, I didn't have an agent when I was in Baton Rouge, but there was this website and it was called Sportscasters Talent Agency of America. It may still exist. A guy named John Chelesnik ran it. And basically you'd pay 20 bucks a month and he'd put your audio up there. And if there was a job that opened up, he'd send your package out to people and, uh, and it may work and it may not, it would make sense.

So I put that up there and it didn't take long for me to get a couple of bites from people. And those people were of all people, uh, Michael Berry at the time, he was like the ops manager of I heart media in, in Houston. I believe he was the operations manager. And he was doing a lot of the hiring. And I was supposed to go up there for an audition, an on-air audition at 790 for the job that I think eventually went to a guy named Dylan Gwynn, who was not great. But he eventually got that little two-hour show there.

The other one was Gavin in Houston. That was the two people that were interested in my stuff. So my plan was to go up there and meet both of them on the same day, do an on-air audition on 790 and then go meet Gavin or I forgot what the order was, but go meet Gavin and do that. So when I was on my way up there, 790 canceled the on-air interview, the on-air audition, I should say. And I sent a message to Gavin and said, listen, they've canceled my on-air audition, but you're the one I want to work for. You're the one that's got the football team. You're CBS. You're legit. You're the place I want to be. Met Gavin. He

brought Mark Vandermeer over to meet me at the Starbucks right over there by the radio station. And then me and my buddy who came with me, a guy named Eric, came with me. We went to a Rockets game, a preseason game that night, I believe it was a preseason game. We went to the game. We drove back and then sure enough, I got that gig and kind of the rest was history. But the guy that helped me do that, the guy that helped me get my stuff out there was a guy named John Chelesnik who I haven't talked to in forever then I'm trying to think of who turned me oh you know who it's funny so who turned me on to David Brody was a guy named Brian Straw who I haven't talked to in a billion years but Brian was like a part-timer

and a fill-in guy at uh at 610 who had moved there I think his wife was in medicine or something so she made a lot of money or something like that and could move anywhere. They moved to Houston so he could try out the radio thing. He had been doing radio, I want to say in Mobile or Birmingham, one of them in Alabama. He gets the part-time job with Gavin and all of us in Houston. That's how I meet him.

He hooks me up with David Brody. Me and David become friends, and David starts to represent me, and we build a really close friendship over that time. Like our relationship was that of like a Jerry Maguire and, and Rod Tidwell. Whereas I would say that the relationship I had with my current agent, and this is to no fault of her own, she's got a billion clients. And oh, by the way, she's got some high end clients that probably make her six figures over the course of a year. Like she's got big time fucking people down to people like me who are very low on the totem pole. But she's also got people who are like mammoth. At one point, she repped Casey Kasem towards the

end of his life. She was Casey Kasem's radio agent. So I guarantee you, the money she's made from that and some of the other big-timers dwarf the money that I made for her. So at the end of the day, I don't think I was one of her most important people. She never treated me as such. She was always wonderful and always nice. And we always talked on the phone. I'm, I'm a lot to deal with. So I text a lot and I could tell she would get annoyed by my text. Fine. It's all good. But, uh, our relationship was not like the relationship I had with David. So when I had to tell David that I wasn't going to have him rep me anymore, which was after I got fired at 790, that was really tough because he and I are buddies. I don't think he took it personally.

We still talk. He sent me a message yesterday. So I'm not worried about that. But if you're looking for a comparison, like David may have had two or three people that he was an agent, quote unquote, for. And by the end of it, I may have been the only one people that he like was an agent quote unquote for and by the end of it I may have been the only one like I was his guy and we were buds and we were awesome together and I appreciated him and it was great and I believe that he had my fucking back to the nth degree like I feel like he was like locked and stocked and he was also kind of a psychiatrist which is kind of what I need if I'm gonna have someone like if you're my boss you're kind of my psychiatrist as well that's why me and Andy Bloom are still friends because he was kind of a psychiatrist, which is kind of what I need if I'm going to have someone like, if you're my boss, you're kind of my psychiatrist as well. That's why me and Andy Bloom are still friends, because he was kind of like my psychiatrist. Whereas here in St. Louis, I didn't have that

kind of relationship with the guys here. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's a bad thing. I don't know. Maybe a real psychiatrist could tell me if all of these are issues. They probably are. But like when I had real bosses that I appreciated, Gavin, Andy Bloom, Jonathan in Nashville, guys like that were like truly like friends and like they know that when I work for you, part of that comes with it is I'm gonna come into your office, I'm gonna lay on the couch

and I'm gonna bitch about shit because I'm fucked in the head. And that's kind of part of what you deal with and that's what David dealt with a lot. I don't think that my current agent or now former agent had any interest in that because at the end of the day, like she's got, I don't know how many clients she's got, 20, 30, 40, who knows? I'm probably not all that important at the end of the day. And let's be real, like you're sitting there trying to broker deals for

these big time people that might make you six figures a year, big time people. And I'm over here bitching about shit. I can understand if you didn't want to put up with it. So I always kind of had that vibe. Like, you know, I feel like I need to represent me. And on top of that, you know, I've been out of work for, uh, like Gary, us bonds out of work. I've been out of work since August 1st of last year. So that's been, has that been five months? So five months. And in five months, there hadn't been a lot percolating. And the stuff that does percolate is stuff that I'm like, I'm constantly every day trying to find stuff and trying to talk to people and send people shit and trying to, you know, keep my name out there. And it's,

I don't believe anybody can truly represent you and push you harder than you can push yourself out to people, if that makes sense. So I've been trying to find ways to do this. I've been trying to find ways, as I mentioned, to do this back when I still had a job because my hope was I was going to be here for 10 fucking years and I would just renegotiate the deal, thus not having to, you know, I could do it on my own and not have to pay 10% of the next deal and the next deal and the next deal because this deal was a good one and it ended up pay 10% of the next deal and the next deal and the next deal because this deal was a good one. And it ended up being a lot of cash.

But anyway, so I finally decided to do it. I was texting people. My dad was like, yeah, you probably need to do that. And my wife was like, you probably need to do that. And I'm like, probably. And it's hard because I've typed out the email. I'm making it sound like I'm divorcing somebody, but sort of am. Like I typed out that email multiple times and then didn't send it or I'd screenshot it and send it to someone else and say, Hey, how do you think this sounds? But in my mind, this was the biggest

thing ever. Like the biggest thing. Like if I do this, my agent's going to be like, she's going to hate me and say horrible things about me and tell the industry that I'm a lunatic and a piece of shit. Like that was my concern, right? Like my concern was that if I leave my agent, my agent is going to be so despondent. Like this is the, I guess the arrogance of me. I don't know, but I'm like, she's going to be so despondent and so angry and so betrayed that she's going to go out and tell the whole world that I'm a piece of shit and to never hire me. Like that's the thought that I had in my mind. So I never sent the email. I was always worried. I was always worried that I'd be blackballed as if I'm a piece of shit and to never hire me. Like that's the thought that I had in my mind. So I never sent the email. I was always worried. I was always worried that I'd be blackballed as if I'm not blackballed right now, but like, I'm not blackballed, but let's be real. I mean,

but like still, that was my big concern. So I'm standing in the shower, it's December 31st. And I finally type out something that's kind of short, sweet, succinct, like, cause I'm, I'm mulling over this. I'm like, do I make it sound like I'm a sad sack? That's never going to get a job anyway. I never want to do radio. And I'm like, well, no, because that's not true. I'm not a sad sack. I am going to get a job. I'm good at this shit. Someone's going to hire me. Right. So just be honest. So I was like, finally, let's keep it short, sweet, succinct. Listen, you're wonderful. You did great for me. I just want to represent myself moving forward. And, you know, I just no longer want to pay 10%,

especially if I get a job that doesn't pay what this job here is paying. I don't want my money going to someone else. You're great. Bye. Hour later, so I get a response, and it's, look, I'm expecting the response to be, you know what? This is terrible. Can we have a phone call? Um, let's, let's talk this out. You know, like in my mind, like it's

like a breakup, right? Like this is the, in my mind, it's like, we're breaking up and it's like, what the fuck? Let's have a conversation. I get an email back and it's like, understand completely i'm like huh like yep wonderful okay uh we'll get the paperwork whatever and uh let's still be friends i'm like oh interesting i've been concerned now i don't know if that would have been the response if i were still making the mega bucks i was making here like if i was like hey i no longer you don't want to be in this world with you maybe it'd be different if i were making that now i'm an unemployed jamoke it I no longer want to be in this world with you, maybe it'd be different if I were making that. Now I'm an unemployed jamoke. It's a lot easier to be like, all right, cool, see you later.

No hard feelings when you're a jamoke sitting in his underwear doing a podcast versus a guy that was making mega bucks to go work in St. Louis. So who knows how it would have gone then, but I appreciate it. I appreciate the nice way that that ended. So now I just got to wait for it to become official. I mean, it is official. I'm on my own. So I'm out there looking for a gig, and that's what I'm trying to do.

But to me, that's what I've got to do. I got to be out there talking to people, selling myself on a gig, which is also a pride-swallowing siege, by the way. Because when you're someone who knows you're good at this shit and you have to constantly go out and try to ask people for interviews or phone calls or send them demos and shit. And a lot of these people you don't really think are that good at what they do anyway, especially when you've worked with people who are fantastic at what they do. And now you see a lot of the people who are left in radio and you're sitting there and you're like, why am I groveling to you? You know, like, why am I begging you for a job? Or why am I sitting there trying to convince you? It's not even begging. It's like, why do I have to sell myself to you? You should be selling

yourself to me. Cause I don't know who the fuck you are, what you do. I've done some cool shit. I've lived a fucking life. I I'm good at this shit. And if I ever get out of my own way, who knows how great I'll be. Right. But like, I'm awesome at this shit if I ever get out of my own way who knows how great I'll be right but like I'm awesome at this shit and I've done amazing things and like I don't even know who you are you're just some guy in a suit and I have to sit there and like not grovel but like sell myself to you like that's what I go through in my mind a lot of the time but anyway so that's where I stand right now it was lovely I had Heather and I needed Heather at the time because at the time I had been fired by 790 and I mean you talk about being totally damaged I don't know that I was ever going to get a job again and then the Rona happened and everything else but you know then we went to Nashville and then we went here and uh I hope to get the fuck out of here as soon as possible

um I know I've told you guys this before but one of my great regrets was leaving Nashville. Not that I love Nashville. Nashville's fine. And classic rock radio isn't my favorite. It's fine. But coming here, leaving that job, even though the money was better here. Hell, I moved here so I could watch my favorite baseball team in person. It's just the two worst years they've ever fucking had. So yeah, I've said it. I really have a great regret for leaving Nashville. I was watching the Nashville New Year's Eve shit and look, not like I'd be at any of those parties because that doesn't interest me. I don't want to be, you know, in downtown Nashville, some bar watching jelly roll, right? It's not what I'm into, but I'm watching Nashville and it's thriving and people want to move to Nashville and it's

young and it's hip and everything else. And I'm like, you know what I'm going to do? Move to fucking St. Louis. And looking back on that, that was probably a mistake, but not probably. It was a mistake, especially knowing what the, you know, the benefit of hindsight, it was definitely a mistake, but here we are. What are you going to do? Anyway. All right. We will do more coming up.