The Josh Innes Show - Plantation Burns To The Ground

Episode Date: May 19, 2025

First off, a kid from my area was a finalist on American Idol. He didn't win. But, it was certainly something seeing a guy from my tiny little town on TV. Second, Nottoway Plantation burned to the ground. It was the largest remaining antebellum mansion remaining in the country. My dad posted about this and inadvertently found himself in the middle of a war on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Stop wondering. Start winning. Winners find fabulous for less. Greetings, friends. What's going on? It's Josh. It's Monday. It's about 11 o'clock. A little bit late, but I'm always a little bit late. I slept in today because we had a lot of adult beverages while we were watching. Well, actually, we didn't start watching TV till later in the evening, but I played a little Yahtzee outside, watched Game seven of the Nuggets and Thunder series, which turned out to be a dud of a game, and

then watched the end of American Idol. It was the finals of American Idol last night, and I haven't watched a second of American Idol in a hundred years, but one of the finalists was this kid who is from Addis, Louisiana, and Addis is basically my hometown, right? Like I say my hometown where I grew up in Louisiana. If you on the west side of the Mississippi River, if you cross the bridge over into West Baton Rouge Parish, there's Port Allen, which technically I lived in Port Allen, but there's Port Allen, Brule, Addis. Those are like your West

Baton Rouge Parish little towns that exist in that little nook, that little piece of earth is Port Allen, Brule, and Addis, Louisiana. And Addis is like a tick on the map. Like it is nothing, right? It is a tick on a bull's ass when it comes to size. My hometown, Brule slash Port Allen isn't very large. But Addis, everybody from Addis goes to high school and middle school and elementary school. At Brule High School or elementary school, or they have an upper elementary school or a high school, that's where they all went. So Addis is a place

that I know very well. Like it's, I mean, first of all, it's hard not to know it. It's a tiny little place. But basically, Addis is in between Port Allen slash Brule. And then there's Plaquemines, Louisiana, which is past Addis. And Plaquemines is technically in what the fuck parish is it in Iberville Parish or whatever the hell it's in. So and Plaquemines a larger town than that. But everybody in Plaquemines goes to Plaquemines

High School, Plaquemines Middle School, St. John is a school there. So Addis is its own little kind of piece of the earth. This little tiny town and people that live in Addis tend to go to school in Bruleys. So I had a lot of friends in high school and middle school that were from Addis. So like when your little town basically like someone that is from where you're from is on TV, It's kind of fascinating now.

I didn't watch any of this throughout the year and I didn't care but my dad started telling me about it. And he's like, yeah, this kid's really good and blah blah blah. And I think he sounds good. And of course my dad is convinced that he was able to convince this kid to sing John Denver. So apparently last night on American Idol this kid singer last week saying country roads take me home by John Denver? So apparently last night on American Idol this kid singer last week sang Country Roads, Take Me Home by John Denver and my dad had been telling him

that he sounds and looks like John Denver so maybe he should sing some John Denver so my dad's convinced that his decision or his advice to sing John Denver is why this kid sang John Denver I don't fucking know all I know is that I watched the finals of this last night I remember. I don't fucking know. All I know is that I watched the finals of this last night. I remember why I don't give a shit about American Idol because I wasn't really all that interested in it. None of these people go on to become anything anyhow. Like back in my day, we would watch American Idol and it felt like somebody would win it and then you'd hear about them forever like Kelly Clarkson won the first American Idol. Kelly Clarkson is the host of a very popular daytime talk show 23

years later. You know, Carrie Underwood was in there. Still she's hosting the show now. Katherine McPhee who didn't win it but she's had like TV success and everything else go down the list. Daughtry. Daughtry finished fourth one year the one year I watched it I think Daughtry finished fourth one year. The one year I watched it, I think Daughtry finished fourth. And now, you know, Daughtry's a pretty big deal. Like there are a ton of dudes in here that are Jennifer Hudson, who's like an Oscar winner. So, I mean, some people used to come out of it and be very successful. Now, just like the voice, if you win this fucking thing, all you end up doing is like singing the national anthem at a

rodeo or a state fair or a local minor league baseball game, right? So does winning really even matter in this? I don't know but the kid that my dad was you know behind didn't end up winning he finished in second place so there you go. But we watched that last night. Let me play a couple commercials and we'll continue. Okay, let me play a couple commercials and we'll continue. Speaking of my dad, bless his heart. So I don't know if you guys saw this story, but last week, one of like the last surviving plantations, plantation houses in America caught fire and I'm assuming it's now burned to the ground.

Nottoway Plantation is what it was called and it is in is it in West? Oh no, it's in is it towards is it in Plaquemines, Louisiana, Nottoway White Castle. So White Castle is also in that same drag. White Castle is past Plaquemines and everything and it's on LA one right so LA one if you get on LA one in in Louisiana you go to Port Allen Brule Addis White, White Castle, I think Donaldsonville. Like it's just this straight shot on LA one Notaway Plantation Resort was what I say was now was on was

part of this and it was the largest remaining Antebellum Mansion and it burns down to the ground in a devastating fire historic Notaway Plantation the largest Antebellum Mansion and it burns down to the ground in a devastating fire. Historic Nottoway Plantation, the largest Antebellum Mansion in the US, burned to the ground this week after a fire broke out on Thursday. There have been no reports of injuries or deaths connected to the fire. Fire crews worked to extinguish the flames with water reportedly being poured onto the rubble as long as 18 hours after the fire started. So, big picture here. The 64-room mansion was built by John Hampton Randolph in the late 1850s, according to multiple sources. It sat on more than 53,000 square feet and in addition to dozens of

rooms, it contained 365 doors and windows and 22 white columns. Randolph first arrived in Louisiana in 1841 and began by planting cotton but ultimately shifted to sugar cane according to the LSU scholarly repository. The scholarly repository article also notes that the mansion was named Nottoway after the county in Virginia where his ancestors came from. Let's see, Randolph owned 155 slaves and 6,200 acres of land by 1860. In modern times, the mansion and the surrounding property functioned as a museum, resort, and wedding venue. See, here's one thing I will say. It is quite fucked up to get married in a place where slaves used to be getting their

asses kicked. Now, to be fair, if you want to just use that as an example for why everywhere is bad, then there's a lot of places where a lot of racism and shit happened, I understand that. I wouldn't be rooting for this place to burn to the ground, but I also wouldn't be like, hey, you guys want to go spend a weekend at this place where 155 slaves used to be put to work without compensation and probably got their asses whipped by someone who was running this place where 155 slaves used to be put to work without compensation and probably got their asses whipped by someone who was running this place? No, like to me that's fucked up. Like there is an element of that that you'd go, huh, that is certainly a fucked up thing. Like honey, where do you want to

get married? Well, I think we should have our wedding at the place where slaves used to get their fucking asses kicked. Like, no, it's like what was your other option? Like, well, we were going to go to, we were actually going to get their fucking asses kicked. Like, no, it's like, what was your other option? Like, well, we were gonna go to, we were actually gonna get married in one of the gas chambers in Nazi Germany, but it was booked that weekend. So we were like, no, we'll pass. Like, it is a little fucked up. I would agree with people about that. However, there was a large, well, let me rewind. So my dad, bless his heart, mind you this is the

same guy that whenever he had warrant in for a concert wanted the exclusive party deck to be called Uncle Tom's Cabin and Party Deck. We called him on the air and we're like dad you cannot call this Uncle Tom's Cabin and Party Deck like I'm aware that warrant has a song called Uncle Tom's Cabin but there's a book called Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is where the term Uncle Tom comes from, and I just don't know that the idea is good for you to be like, hey, a bunch of people watching Warren sing Cherry Pie on a bunch of white people watching The Fucking Heaven by Warren on a party deck that you're calling Uncle Tom's Cabin and Party Deck. Do not call it Uncle Tom's

Cabin and Party Deck. I repeat, abort mission, right? So sometimes my dad does not always make the best decision and you have to tell him, Dad, this is not a good decision. Well, my dad apparently posted a video on Facebook of this place burning to the ground. When he told me this, I assumed he just posted a video of it on fire and posted something along with it. Apparently, he posted it with like some music underneath it or something. I don't know if he made it or if someone else made it, but my dad posted it. And my dad's currency in life is likes on Facebook. That is what

my dad's world revolves around. If you like if he posts something and it doesn't get a bunch of likes immediately, he'll delete it. He just needs likes. He needs likes and he needs shares and that's what he gets. So my dad post this video controversial because again, it's a plantation that's burned to the ground and I don't know what song he put underneath it or what. He calls me, he goes, Josh, my video is on fire right now. I got like 800,000 views and like 100,000 shares and it's hot.

And I'm like, well, good for you, dad. You've really done something. You took a video of a plantation burning to the ground and people have shared it. You have done it. You are super successful. But what my dad didn't count on is that the comment section of this was going to create a race war because everything creates a race war. There's no such thing as just, Hey, you know what?

We're going to say we like it or we don't like it. It becomes black versus white. Everything is racist. Everything is not. Hell, the end of American Idol was a black guy versus a white guy. And if you go to social media, there were a bunch of people saying we got to make sure the black guy wins or whatever. Like everything is a race war. Everything is black and white. So what my dad did not anticipate when he posted this video and was basking in the glow of his

million likes and shares and whatever is that there would be people from across the country fighting with each other. And in the comments of this, you'd have black people saying one thing, then you'd have white people saying, well, black people used to swing from trees here. And like it was just a full on fucking race war. And I'm like, Dad, why do you have this thing here? Like the second you saw these people doing this, you should have deleted this. This is not good. What are you doing? And I think he eventually

deleted it. But when you see comment sections of shit, you realize how fucked we all are and we are super fucked because everybody is evil and vile and people say some shit that like it is hard to believe people say this shit in public. Like it's one thing if you're sitting behind closed doors and people are playing cards or some shit and they're like, you know who fucking sucks? White people or you know who I hate black people. It's one thing to say it behind closed doors. It's another thing to go to the internet with your face and name in a post and say some of the shit that

people say on these things. It's crazy what people will say. Again, it's one thing to do it in secret and do it in the dark. It's another thing to just feel confident enough and comfortable enough to come right out and just say, fuck up shit. And that is what these people do. It is bonkers the shit people say on the internet, man. Like I get that the internet is not the real world. There's hundreds billions of people in the world. Not everybody is saying horrible fucked up vile shit on the internet but whoa, I think some of this shit was nuts. So then I think my dad eventually

deleted it. He was like Josh. I mean some of the shit they were posting on there was terrible. I'm like duh like what did you think was gonna happen? Now that said, you think about a plantation burning down. I, the reason I'm against things like this is I do think history is an important thing. I think you can learn from history. I think it's important to learn from history. What I think has happened is nobody gives a shit about history except the history that's super

negative. And so like in the minds of people somehow tearing down statues is a big deal or keeping statues erected is a big deal or like oh a plantation home is burned to the ground great and like you see all these people saying dumb shit like oh good. That means the spirits of those people are finally free. Well, I don't really fucking buy that this isn't some witch shit unsolved mysteries, friend. It's just a house that burned to the ground. To me, it would be fascinating to see these kind of places because you'd like to see what history was like. You know,

there were people that lived in the White House whenever bad shit was going on in the world. Like, if we base everything on, well, this thing was around when bad shit was happening nothing would be around so the fact that we sit here and and and celebrate this place burning to the ground is fucking stupid it's just internet bullshit however the idea that somebody would get married at a plantation is just fascinating to me like you're sitting here you're all out there dancing doing the fucking wobble wobble baby wobble baby wob, wobble. While like in the room next door, some woman was getting the shit kicked out of her by Simon Legree and you're like, holy shit, this feels kind of awkward. This is certainly a weird thing. But then on the other hand, you could say, well, you could get married in a church.

And in that same church, there was probably some priest diddling some kid. So I guess in theory, you could say that about any place. But it is a little weird, isn't it? Like it's a touch weird, you know, like, hey, we're getting married, we're having our reception over here at Nottoway Plantation. It's a fucking plantation. But the idea that it's a museum that people visit, I think is good. What is wrong with learning about history? But like people feel like if you just burn down history or tear down history, that history somehow didn't happen. I am a history person. I think it's important to look at history and say, okay, this is what it was. What is wrong with knowing about this?

You know, what is wrong with learning about history? But like the people celebrating, they're like, good, burn that shit down. Like it didn't accomplish anything. It's not changing the world. You were never gonna visit it. Probably someone up in like fucking Memphis, somebody up in Washington,

someone up in Kentucky celebrating that. You're like, when were you ever gonna fucking go see this thing anyway? It didn't impact your life at all. But yes, so that's what happened to my dad. My dad was all excited. Josh, I'm on fire, baby. 700,000 views, and then people are shitting on him

in the comments, people that have no idea who he is, and they're like, call, like, the person that posted this video is probably some fat fuck anyway, and he's terrible, I'm like, Dad, what did you think would happen? You do not need to be dipping your toes into this well. But I did, like in his defense, like I don't think when he did that,

he even thought he'd get any views or he thought that it would be some divisive racial thing. Like I seriously doubt that's anything that crosses my dad's mind. Like I don't think he posted that and was like, whoo-hoo, watch. He was just hoping that it would get some views. He didn't expect it to become the comment section

of outkick.com or the comment section of a breakfast club post or the comment section of a breakfast club post or some shit. He didn't anticipate it but it had thousands of comments and it was a full-on fucking race war. The poor doofus whose job is to play Journey and do the Scooby voice on the radio is out here like, holy shit what the hell happened? So that was his weekend so So he's like, I'm going to delete this now. And I'm like, good, you dumbass. Anywho, alright, more to come.