The Josh Innes Show - Rest In Power, Dawson Part 3

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

This is going to sound kind of weird, but when people who became stars when I was a kid die, it makes me think about mortality. Perhaps that sounds self serving. But, I think other people feel this way. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Man, but also, and this sounds self-serving, and I understand that this sounds self-serving, and that's not the intention, but I'm sure it does. I don't know if you guys are like me, but when you start to see celebrities who were, like, in their prime when you were a kid die, it starts to creep the shit out of you. Like, that's how I feel, like, the last couple of days,

like, when I've seen that Brad Arnold from Three Doors Down died, and I'm like, fuck, that, I mean, I mean, I grew up listening to Three Doors Down when Three Doors Down was new, right? Like, it's one thing like when you hear, I don't know, sad news today, you know, the lead singer of Thin Lizzie died or whatever. And you're like, well, that sucks. And I listened to Thin Lizzie when I was a kid because I drive around in the car. I, you know, when I first got my first car, my first truck, I would just drive around listening to Eagle 98.1. And Eagle 98.1 played just fucking straight up, balls to the wall.

all good fucking classic rock. And I would listen to that. And that's like all of us. We all grew up listening to Classic Rock. There's not one of you listening to this podcast right now that didn't grow up listening to fucking ACDC, the Rolling Stones, fucking, whomever. Zeppelin, Floyd, they were all on a Classic Rock station somewhere. And for whatever reason, when you're 13, 14 years old, Classic Rock, even though it's 25, 30 years

before you still fucking rocks. And that's why some of that shit still resonates is because it still fucks. And not all of that music does it. Like hair metal doesn't resonate with as many people, right? Like that's why when you see these music tests and you're like, what about hair metal? A lot of hair metal doesn't test well

because it was a moment in time but it doesn't stand the test of time. What stands the test of time is the Zeppelins, the Floyds, the Steve Miller bands, the Thin Lizies, the Kisses, those kind of bands, the Springsteins, the Jay Giles, these kind of things stand the fucking test at time.

And maybe in 20 years, we'll learn that Lincoln Park stands the test of time. Or we'll learn that three doors down stands, spans this time. But as a kid, I just grew up listening to just classic rocks. I also had an 80s station that I listened to. And that's why I know so much about this shit. There was an 80s station called 92.3 The Point. And I would listen to that on my way to school. And that was, you know, your fucking simple minds and your, oh,

MDs and and you know your Tina Turner's and Brian Adams and all your you know 80 shit and I'll tell you the most crushing feeling this is why this was like my no Santa Claus moment I'm driving to school one day and remember every day I get in my green GMC Sierra which I would kill to have that truck right now by the way kill as a guy who has no fucking car right now I would give my left fucking nut to have my green GMC Sierra in 1997 in my dead there was new wheels put on it like at time you don't realize it's a badass truck, but it was a pretty badass fucking truck for a 15, 16 year old kid to get for his first car, considering that it was also only like four years old at the time, like when I look, no, I guess it was a little bit more than that, five, six years old. But anyway,

1997 GMC Sierra. And sometimes I go pick up my buddies, take them to school, whatever. My buddy Tance, his mom would make us these biscuits every fucking morning and they were delicious. God, I miss that shit. So I'd pick him up and I'd put on 923 the point, which was a station out of New Orleans. It used to be a rock station. Then it flipped to the point. And the point just played 80s. And I fucking loved it. Every morning it was Jay Giles band. Every morning, it was Rick Springfield. And that's why I learned all that shit. Why I was into that, I don't know, but I was. I'm like a 16-year-old kid driving to school just enamored with music of 20 years prior. You know, and I'm fucking, here's a little run to you, Brian Adams. And I'm like, this fucking rules. Here's a little

starship. Fucking right. Nothing's going to stop. us now. This fucks, right? All into it. And what you want to know heartbreak? You don't know heartbreak until you get in a car and you're used to hearing this radio station every day. Like this is your radio station that you listen to every day going to school. You don't know getting your bowl stomped on until you turn that on and it's different. And if I recall correctly, the different was they turned it into a female leaning station and I believe it was called Diva 92.3 is what it was called. And I remember turning that on and it's like, here's, you know, Madonna,

which again, you probably heard Madonna on the 80s station as well. But there was this big wave in the mid-2000s of radio stations called like diva 92.3 or, you know, music that was geared towards like uptempo, pop for women, basically. Like, we'd have a lady name, like, hey, it's, it's Kim FM or whatever, like dumb shit like that. And I just remember being destroyed by that. I just remember sitting there in my car like, where the fuck is 92.3? Mind you, I grew up around this shit, so I knew how the radio industry worked yet somehow,

like, it was like somebody stomped on my balls. Let me see. What was the, um, I'm trying to remember now what the station. It was 92-3 the point. And I don't know. I think it might be a rock station again now. 92-3 New Orleans.

Let's see what that is now. It's an alt station, okay? So, but back in the day, let me make sure I'm accurate on what it flipped to because I think it did. Okay, so not that any of you care. I don't even know how the fuck I got here. How did I get to this point? But anyway, so in 2000,

So in 2003. Actually, sorry, this would have been 2002. So they were playing an all 80s hits format. Okay? They had the 92, three, the point, right? And then it flipped to the diva. And I'm like, what the actual fuck is this shit? Why do you want to rip my balls off and stomp on them?

You sons of fucking bitches. But anyway, how the hell did I get here? I know that there was a reason for getting here. know there was some reason that I went down this path. Like I started with something, and I thought it was something relatively profound that was guiding me here. And now I have no fucking recollection of how I went down this, this path of,

I'm telling you about what I listened to when I was a kid. But man, I just used to love that shit. And it has to be Vanderbeek related, right? Oh, that's what it was. Okay. Now, we're back. I'm back.

Thank you for indulging me as I spent six minutes breaking down the radio station. I used to listen to when I was, you know, in high school. But we all had those, right? It meant something more to us back then. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. So anywho, so you start seeing the people and the artist and the actors that you legitimately grew up listening to. Like three doors down. When I heard that Brad was sick, like, it's weird.

I remember where I was when I first heard that Brad from Three Doors Down was sick. I was at a gas station in St. Louis. I was getting gas. I look at my phone and I see, you know, a message from Brad Arnold. And it's a video of him explaining that they can't tour anymore because he's got cancer. And I'm like, well, that fucking sucks, but he'll be back. Nope, he's dead. You know, a couple months later, a year later, he's dead.

And I think it sounds self-serving and I'm aware it sounds self-serving. But I think you'd all agree with me. Oh, I know how I got to the classic rock thing. Like, it's one thing to think that, like, when you hear that somebody, Like if you hear that Steve Miller dies, he's still alive. But let's say Steve Miller when he dies eventually. You'll go, fuck, that's sad, man. That's a piece of my childhood, you know, when I was in the car and I would hear take the money and run,

or I would hear fly like an eagle or the Joker, which to me is like one of the five most iconic classic rock songs ever, and that's a different show for a different day. But if there was a Mount Rushmore, a classic rock radio songs, I could argue that the Joker should be on there. But anyway, so that's what you go, oh, that's a drag. but in your mind, Steve Miller's always been older than you and always been much older than you. Right? So Steve Miller is not the same as Brad from Three Doors Down,

who, you know, dies in his 40s. Or James Vanderbeak from Dawson's Creek, who dies at 48. It's not the same. It doesn't feel the same. Like, it starts to let you realize, or you start to acknowledge there's some level of mortality in us. You know, and it wasn't like he just died in a car accident. Like, when you hear that, well, you talk about guys from Varsity Blues.

When you hear that, what's his name from varsity blues died? What's his fuck from Fast and the Furious? When you start hearing that he died, well, you know, you die in a car accident. People die in car accidents. That's nothing that's age related that would make you go, shit, he died in a car accident. He was only, you know, Paul Walker. Like Paul Walker died in a car accident. He was only 30 something years old.

But yeah, but anybody could die in a car accident. car accident tomorrow. It doesn't matter if you're 80 or eight, right? Like, you don't think about it. You don't register. Like, it's sad that someone dies at a young age, but you think, hey, I can control whether or not I die in a car accident, right? But when you start hearing that people who were contemporaries, at least in terms of age, right, were contemporaries of yours, it starts to freak you the fuck out a little bit. Like that, I'm dead serious when I say this today, and it sounds self-serving and I get it. I was in the car, and an email pops up on my phone, and the only thing I see in the email headline is James Vanderbeek. My first thought was, oh, James Vanderbue is shopping him out for

interviews. That was like my honest and got first instinct when I heard that. Oh, James Vanderbeek must be, you know, the interviews are shit, yeah, I'll interview James Vanderbeek. Then, you know, I, I open up the email and it's like, hey, James Vanderbeek's dead. He was 48. He had cancer. And we knew he had cancer. Like we've seen videos of James Vanderbeak. He couldn't be at the Dawson's Creek reunion thing, which was sad. Like you knew he wasn't doing well. But still, it is jarring. It is jarring when people who are near your age,

you know, we're both in our 40, I'm basically 40. But like when you grew up with an artist, like you watched them from the beginning to the end essentially of their career, like you lived it from top to bottom. And then like, again, like three doors down, like Brad from three doors down. When he dies, that's like, fuck. And you start thinking about your mortality.

Like, I could get cancer tomorrow and within eight months I'm dead. Same with James Vanderbich. I can get diagnosed with colorectal cancer, you know, because he was diagnosed or at least announced his diagnosis, I think, in 2024, 2025. And then you're dead a year later. And you go from being vibrant and healthy and handsome. And, you know, you're in movies.

and then you're dead. So it certainly does hit different. You can't tell me it doesn't. It hits different when it's someone you grew up with. When Steve Miller dies, it's not the same because you don't view it that way. You don't look at it through the lens of, holy shit, I could die too.

It's just, oh, that's an old guy that died. I mean, it's a shitty way to look at it, but like, oh, that's just an old dude that died. But when James Vanderbueck dies and he's in his 40s and you're in your 40s, and he gets a type of cancer that just fucked him up and you're like, shit, should I go get a goddamn colonoscopy? Like, what the fuck?

And that's how I felt when I heard that. That was like, it was fucked up. And that's how I felt. This has been a shitty, a very shitty week for those of us who came of age in the late 90s and early 2000s. Because again, you're talking about two legit icons of that era. John Moxon slash Dawson. Dawson and Brad from Three Doors now.

Anyway, more to come.