The Josh Innes Show - New Year Life Update Part 4

Episode Date: January 2, 2026

Why do I start to like places after I leave them? We were watching the Nashville New Years Eve show and Jilly and I were like, "You know what, Nashville wasn't so bad". Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

That was another thing I turned down. You want to talk about a regret. I'm sure we've talked about this too, but that was a real regret was I was doing afternoons in Houston and we're killing it and Gavin leaves to go to Dallas. 1053, the fan, big-ass FM radio station. I'm dicking around, you know, Houston a.m., whatever, you know, and everybody wanted to give it. Like even I think Dallas or Gavin always aspired to get back to Dallas, all that shit, you know.

I was at some golf tournament and I was leaving. And I got a call from Gavin. And this would have been in the summertime maybe of 2013. And he's like, hey, do you want to come do middays in Dallas? And I'm like, no. I mean, I eventually was going to move to Philly in a couple months anyway. Like, I'm not going to Dallas to do middays. I'm a drive time guy.

Now, eventually those guys who were doing middays, and I forgot who got that gig at the time. But they had a bunch of guys move around and eventually moved to afternoons mornings. And knowing me, I probably would have found a way to move to. afternoons, mornings, whatever. And it would have been cool. Who knows? I think there's one person. Packages by Expedia.

You were made to occasionally take the hard route to the top of the Eiffel Tower. We were made to easily bundle your trip. Expedia, made to travel. There's one human on the planet that truly was able to keep me in a place. There was two, but one, Gavin was someone who would have known how to handle me, and he and I had our knocked down dragouts, but I think if I were working for Gavin in Dallas, I don't know that I would have ever had desire to leave. And who knows? Maybe, dude, the dudes that are doing mornings in Dallas right now, I've been doing more, they got hired right around the time that this happened, I guess, in like 2010 or 11 maybe, and they've been there for like 15 fucking years. Like, I can't even wrap my fucking. brain around that. I can't wrap my brain around the idea of having the same job for 15 years, living in the same place for 15 years. I can't even, like, I can't even entertain the idea of that. I can't just sit there and go, hey, you know what? Like, I've been here for 15 years. I'll never

know what that's like. I cannot wrap my brain around it. But, you know, I wonder if I would have done that. Like, there's always, you know, I wonder what if, what if, because I had a huge offer to go to Portland before I went to Houston again. And I was now. never going to go to Portland. And I probably would have got fired in Portland in 15 minutes because just my style in Portland probably wasn't going to work. But what if? I got a job offer in Memphis around that same time. What if I would have gone to Memphis and would have loved it? You don't know. You don't know what would have happened. You don't know. I thought I was going to move to Atlanta at one point. I had a pretty good feeling that I was going to get a job in

Atlanta and that it didn't work out. Or I felt that I was going to go back to Philly again. And what would have happened? I don't know. But one of the hardest things about where I'm at right now, not with the job or anything, just where I am mentally is, like, you wonder, like, Josh, have you, like, finally run out of spins to become something? Like, I could probably have this job for as long as I want this job, and it's not a job. I'd scoff at it. I'm on the radio. I'm in Detroit. I'm, you know, I'm not digging ditches. I'm not driving DoorDash at the moment. So, like, hey, rock on, right? but what if what like what if like i have finally run out of spins and maybe i haven't maybe like to me 39 and 40 sounds ancient but maybe it's not maybe like my ship will come in maybe i'll and that's the one thing i've been talking with jilly about this a lot and it was kind of what i was talking with my dad about as well i was like you know really maybe maybe the well hasn't run

as it relates to one last go-round of becoming like a big-time I-Hart media. I told this to my boss the other day. I'm like, I'm never going to be Bobby Bones. I'm never going to sign some, you know, $200 million deal at I-Heart. And I'm never going to be Charlemagne the guy. I'm never going to be one of these guys

that signs a $200 million contract. And I don't want to. That's not what I aspire to be. Like, I don't believe that's ever who I'm going to be. Like, I don't want to be a guy that's doing like, media hits on fucking CNN and shit i don't want to do that right that's not who i am but i do believe realistically i can be someone who's not making a fraction of what i used to make and i can have some impact and i can be in some other places and if you really start to kind of look

back on places where you fuck shit up and i don't know how happy i was in nashville like here's what i you want my fucking problem is i leave places because i'm in the midst of being there and i'm not And then I see them a year later. I'm like, I kind of miss that fucking place. My drunk ass on New Year's fucking Eve. I'm flipping through the channels. You know, seeing what's on, New Year's Eve. Oh, there's New Year's Rocking Eve.

Oh, there's Anderson and Andy. They're doing their little thing. I blah, blah, blah. I flip over to the country music one, and it's in Nashville. And they're showing all these amazing shots of Nashville. And Nashville is a boom town, and it looks fucking incredible. And I look at Jillian. I go, you know what?

I kind of fucking miss Nashville. She's like, yes, so do why? I'm like, then why did we fucking hate the place when we were there? I mean, I was getting fucking bonuses. We were like the only rock station in town. I had just gotten a new deal that was going to pay me base about 30,000 more per year that I was already making. I was getting cash on in Detroit? Why was I meant that, like to me, that's the question I have never been able to figure out.

Why are you a malcontent? Why is it something about, am I like Lane Kiffin? Is this what Lane Kiffin is? Am I Lane Kiffin? Is it just like, no matter which guy? Lane Kiffin says he wants to go to LSU to win titles, okay? His team's two wins away from winning a title now at Ole Miss. Why did you have to leave?

You obviously were right there. Maybe you would have won that game and you'd be in that same spot. Two wins away from winning the national championship at fucking Ole Miss. So why? Is it like what is the hold up? What is the issue? What is the problem? Why is it that I

always feel the need to run. Like, why? Maybe you guys can psychoanalyze me here. But I'm watching that. And, like, when you think about the Nashville gig, right? Now, granted, I was looking sort of for another job when I was in Nashville, but there was nothing there. So I was just going to be in Nashville. Like, I was ready.

I was just kind of holding out hope. And then this Casey thing happened, and I wielded it into existence. And it was a mistake. Maybe if I would have stayed in Nashville, I'd be on 10 stations by now. And I'd have a big morning show. and it'd be awesome and maybe you'd have huge numbers and I'd be someone that's looked at as important. Isn't it sound like that's what I would view a success? I want people who are above me to view me as important.

You know, like the guy, like Mojo, who works next door to me here at this station. He's important to these people. I think that's why I just want to be important to people. But I was important, relatively speaking, in Nashville, and I was still fucking miserable. I'm just a fucking malcontent. it's pretty much as simple as that I am just a malcontent why I don't know

why I am this way why I feel the need to bounce from place to place like I'm watching that it blew my mind that I sat there on the couch remember we did these shows when we were in Nashville we did the Twitch shows did all this shit when we were in Nashville

and all I would ever say is like I like Nashville but it's very crowded and the traffic sucks and like it's not my vibe it's it's it's broke country Disneyland and all this shit. And then my fat ass is sitting on the couch. New Year's Eve. New Year's Eve I'm sitting there.

And they're showing like Laney Wilson or Luke Combs, wherever the fuck it is, Brooks and Dunn. And they're out there jamming. I saw the light up in my time. I'm like, Jilly, Nashville kind of fucked. Why did we hate it? And she's like, I don't know, but I was just thinking the same thing. Like, I miss Nashville.

Like, why? Why did we feel that way? I don't know. It's just fascinating. But that's how I am. Like, I'm watching that, and I'm like, you know, it wasn't so bad. But the entire time I was there, I'm like, I got to find somewhere else. I'm talking old people on a classic rock station.

Dude, I'd give my left nut to have the people calling that used to call that radio station. I'd wake, I'd get there in the morning, people just call and just tell stories. That's why classic rock seems so easy because for as bad as things got in St. Louis, phones always rang and these old motherfuckers had stories. Nashville, these old motherfuckers had stories. Non-stop stories.