The Right Time with Bomani Jones - Spencer Hall on Will the SEC KICK OUT LSU? Texas Pressure vs. Ohio State, Remembering Dolly Parton | 09.09

Episode Date: September 9, 2026

Bomani Jones is joined by Spencer Hall of the Shutdown Fullcast and Channel 6 newsletter.  First,  they discuss the reports that the SEC might kick out LSU and the real reason everyone hates Lane Kiffin.  Later, they break down the impending matchup between Ohio State and Texas and what's on the line for Arch Manning & Steve Sarkisian.  Finally, they remember the incredible life of Dolly Parton and what made her such a beloved figure.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the right time. My name is Beaumani Jones. Thanks for listening wherever you get your podcast. Thanks for watching us on YouTube. Subscribe, like, rate us, review us, give us five stars. You only give us four stars. I'm inclined to believe you are a hater. It is the time of week where we have a guest to join us.

Coming to us live from Atlanta, GA. Check him out at Channel 6. He is the best college football writer in America. And his name, Spencer Hall. What's going on, brother? How are you, sir? I'm good, man. by the way, just curious.

Like, did you see everybody screaming USA for Ben Sheldon when he was playing against Al Carras? No, because that was at 3.30 in the morning last night. I heard about it. I heard about it. I didn't actually watch it. But I'm just curious as I saw them do that. Do you think they know that Ben Shelton is, you know,

a Ben? How's this? There is a sphere, okay, circle. You want to do this? okay, around New York. And in 30 miles in any direction from New York, you can start just chanting USA and it's fine. Okay.

It's not for anyone, for anyone. I mean, that's a New York thing, right? That's like a Jets thing. Like when the Jets fumble, it's a USA! They can just do it. Okay. So I think that's my New York exception to it. It doesn't have to make sense.

Got it. Me and my people normally don't get to Hax-Ole of Jim Duggan treatment. You understand what I'm saying? And I just wouldn't be then. I'm not sure they knew. one person I talked to today did not know. And so I was wondering if maybe that, you know, good, good, maybe we're making this kind of progress, right?

The 2024 basketball team at the Olympics got treated like that. Maybe it's a whole new day. I would hope. I would hope. But we have now USA versus USA. So whenever it happens. Well, yeah, we have USA versus USA, but where I don't know if everybody knows about being,

everybody do know about big folk. You understand what I'm saying? So it's going to be interesting seeing what the divisions. is going to be. Tennis fans are notorious. I think tennis fans are the best kind of mercenary. They go with whoever the hot hand is. So if somebody,

it's like wrestling fans, if one of those guys is putting on the full, I'm blading, sweating, nine comebacks, right? If they're doing that, tennis fans will typically just go with them,

right? Yes. So I'm hoping, what I'm hoping is what I hope with most sports events in 2026. The dorsh that like, like we go ahead and bring everyone in and we don't, there's nothing outside bleeding in.

because what's outside is bad, right? We don't want any of that. Yeah, but as I, hey, US Open, it gets to Cracken. It gets to Cracken. Speaking of Cracking, Slane Kippen thing is off to a roaring start, right? We have already decided he's going to be without, if nothing else, the singular figure of September, because they are going to be the story for three weeks in September.

But the one thing that we didn't think was going to happen was at the Southeastern Conference was going to threaten to expel one of its founding members in the first month of the season. So if you don't know this, it's this thing where basically, it's an existential question, what is a professional?

And now that the guys in college get paid money, it's kind of hard to argue that they're not professionals. Anyway, had a couple guys went to some NFL training camps. They did not make the teams. They come back down

because now the NCAA says you have five years to play and these guys are like, it would have been my fifth year. People have been winning lawsuits to allow the players to come back for the fifth year, LSU at the South Eastern Conference rather is like, nah, if you sign for a pro team,

we don't want you to come and play. And LSU was like, well, what if we do? Well, what if we do? They have closed the roster so these guys can't play. But they were ready at the very least to give the posture that they were going to kick LSU out of the conference for daring to try to play these guys. That, again, to be fair,

the courts have kind of said should be able to play. Because it's a market and because again the Supreme Court for the better part of almost 10 years now has basically said come on, come on through, just do it. Literally inviting people to open up whatever

lane this is for strifeing the NCAA and amateurism out of existence. And there are suits and they are in process and some have already gone through but I am still astonished that there aren't more of them. and maybe this is yet another opportunity to open a few of those up.

But this is the astonishing thing about this case. Essentially, the SEC is accusing LSU, the institution of not having control of the football program at all. Like using and stretching so much that they used Lane Kiffin's halftime comments to Holly Row, where beating Clemson's ass at halftime. Lane Kiffin said, oh, well, hey, imagine if we'd had pro players. Yes. Now, this is case one for why you don't ever want to represent Lane Kiffin in court.

Don't. Don't. You know how, you know, your worst enemy as a lawyer is your client. That is Lane Kiffin to the endth power, because the mouth is on and is going to say what it wants to say, even if it's not legally sound. So attorneys, if you. want to make a lot of money in a very short span of time and then dump a client, Lane Kiffin is ready when you are. The other thing is the astonishing claim that the football program is not controlled by the

university. That is, that is to me the most unprecedented part of this because that is everyone else in this club. A bunch of universities who are essentially pass-throughs for this money that they've never had any idea how to handle. They've never had any idea what to do with. that's them saying you're threatening to blow up the spot we're still doing this we're still doing this

get her in well in this case a figurative her get her in check yeah yeah i understand that sounds crude but that is what they're saying that is what they're saying and this is also extends beyond i know i just said i don't want to bite anything beyond the field but it's inevitable in this case it also extends to the governor, Jeff Landry, who's been a mess with all things LSU for at least the past year and a half, or at least past year. This extends to the president of the university.

This extends to the entire political apparatus of Louisiana, which, as we know, famously does sometimes enjoy putting its fingers in the pie of LSU athletics in a very intrusive way. Go look it up. I love saying this. You say, like, oh man, we're talking before the show about, you know, like various things about getting older.

I love this stuff because you get to tell the kids, you get to tell the kids, hey, the governor of Louisiana at one point led the band onto the field. The governor of Louisiana at one point walked into the offices at LSU and said, you need to fire the band director because he didn't think it was hot. He didn't think they were killing it. And he walked in and said, hey, you guys need to fire him. The guy's like, well, who are you?

And he's like, I'm Huey Long, the governor of, Louisiana. That's fact. I'm not making any of that up. Dewey Long co-wrote. Co-wrote. One of the fight songs for LSU. That's, these are all true things.

So the level, by the way, this is now LSU being demure. I think this is LSU being mature because considering the level of political meddling that's going on at that program prior to this, like 50, 70, 80 years prior,

stuff. Or how about the meddling just from what, seven, eight months ago and it got laying here in the first place? Yeah, we just decided that was going to happen. We just decided it was going to happen and it happened. And we haven't even recovered from that. Consider that they took a coach from a rival,

from a rival, like over there, right there. Not distant, not historic, not like only historical. No, real live rival. They took old Mrs. Head coach. Hold on with a helping hand from their, former head coach who became their arch nemesis. Yeah. Yeah. And to show you how tied up all of this is politically and college football can be kind of incestuous, this is all tied in to a larger struggle over what college athletics

is going to look like, which is right now, and I say this because on my phone, I got a text message from my friend Nick Sabin who wants me to support the Save College Sports, whatever that bullshit is. It doesn't matter. It's going to. to die. It won't pass. Congress won't do anything about it. They're going to have to save themselves. I got a text message from him. Former LSU coach, by the way, who, who allegedly when he was at LSU had a really interesting relationship with the boosters of that program. Interesting is the way I can put it without saying things that are perhaps legally actionable. Yeah, that's all tied together of a piece. By the way, this is also how I learned if you type the words,

off to some of these bots, they'll go, you've been unsubscribe. That's it. You don't have to hit unsubscribe. If you just say fuck off, they'll be like, ah, yes, we're out. So I think the thing for LSU, and God knows, like, how they're feeling in the offices or whatever, like how seriously they took this threat of the SEC putting it on the calendar, they were going to vote over your expulsion and everything else, right? Like, don't know exactly what the motivations were that made people do, whatever the thing is.

as you mentioned with Lane and the lawyer and client analogy, Lane is that guy who doesn't understand when this has stopped being funny. He doesn't, like, there's a moment where you look up and you're like, oh, wait a minute, this shit isn't funny anymore, right? Nope, we need, like, we need to stop right now. It doesn't matter if you're right or wrong, this ain't funny no more, and you need to let it go.

You ever been like, go ahead and finish what you're saying, then I'll say my thing and then they say the thing and you're like oh my thing doesn't matter. Like I had a situation once where I had somebody I was related to and I told her that I thought her boyfriend was a little lay and I had a very good reason for thinking that that dude that does something that I found to be very, very offensive when I had met him and I just let it ride or whatever.

But then that cousin told me that they were going to be getting married at which point what I had to say didn't matter. Shit wasn't funny no more, right? This is gone to a different place, and we just need to let this go. Laying with this thing with the guys, no, no, no. It seemed pretty clear early that this wasn't going to be funny anymore. Texas Tech took them a long time to realize people didn't find that Brendan Sorsby thing to be funny. They did, like, they got it, though.

They figured it out. They're like, oh, okay, so this isn't funny. Can we point out one pattern, though, here? Okay, we started this with Texas Tech. Texas Tech, if we go STR college football programs, like if you're familiar with the S to F tier, right? Texas Tech is not S tier. I'd say they're like B tier, historically speaking, right?

Lately, A tier, like no shade. But they're all the way out in Lubbock. There's a ceiling to what they're going to be. They attempt to challenge some of the rules governing eligibility, et cetera. And they're shut down very quickly. Okay, okay, cool. Do you think people give up on this? No, LSU tried it.

LSU tried it. not in a coordinated fashion, but they saw that. And I'm sure they went, hmm, interesting, there's an opportunity here. And they're going to get shut down because they don't want to break up the safety and security of being in the SEC for now. Notice I said, for now. Conferences, I will remind you, everybody,

conferences can evaporate overnight. Yes. They have done that and they are vulnerable, right? Again, fun things you get to tell the kids, hey, guess what? Everything dies and everything's vulnerable. And that includes the SEC. And that includes the Big Ten, right? Conferences are really insecure.

And institutions generally are very insecure and will be very violent in reaction to challenge because they are always fragile. They are always vulnerable. And they know it. They know it. And so LSU tries this and they get rebuffed. You think this is done? This is just started, right?

This is what the real challenge is when you get, this is LSU, by the way, who I would say, that's an S-tier college football program. That is in terms of talent, in terms of resources devoted, and in terms of institutional commitment. Doubt me, go look at what the governor's work. It's an S-tier program, but also a historical underachiever.

Exactly, exactly. Which, again, relatable, deeply relatable college football program, right? You're like, ah, not quite sober, sometimes shows up late, often underachieves, little messy. You go, I feel you LSU. But when they're up, but when they got it, when they got it going.

Boy. When they have it going, when they have it going, by the way, they're not only the best, they're the best you want to watch. There are programs that are consistently better. There are programs that have more championships, and there are programs that have a greater record of success

and could walk up to LSU and be like, we're better. Ohio State can walk up and be like, man, we're a better program. When you're good, though, which one do I want to watch? Right.

You know, I'm sorry, you'll never have the sex appeal of LSU. And I mean that in so many ways. Because it's just a little bit sleazy. It's a little sleazy. Just a little zeezy. We're talking about sex appeal.

We're not talking about beauty. Listen, Joe Burrow, I can say this, continuing that comparison. Joe Burrow was at Ohio State, was at LSU. Which one was more fun than one? Which one unlocked that? LSU unlocked that, right? For one year, one hot year, what happened after that? Ed took boxing lessons.

That's what happened. What happened after that, Ed was bringing single, mothers to practice and letting their children participate in drills. You know, I have, I will not say anything about that Ed Ogeron period because he, he earned whatever happened through a series of life circumstances that y'all are just going to have to research and read about. I will also say this, that there were other coaches at LSU who don't get dinged for that same kind of stuff where their, their adventures were much more well documented

and nevertheless did not receive the same kind of flack. That's all. Well, that flat cave because they were winning seven games. The number of wins determines the amount of laissez-faire we will apply to you and your behavior. Or more accurately, the number of losses, right? That's correct. Because, like, for example, Lane Kiffin is only won one game at LSU, but he hasn't lost any. So LSU was riding.

Bill Belichick, on the other hand, lost a lot of games. He'll be in shape. Yeah, allegedly, allegedly a little bit of a coup attempt there over the weekend that was rebuffed by Belichick and company. I will say this, as far as Pallas scheming, that man's a politician. Yeah. That man understands moving the levers of power. He also understands how to coach a defense, which is probably going to bail them out to mediocrity, I'm guessing, right? I don't think they're going to be like rock bottom ass bad.

Yes. But they're going to be okay. Yeah, Lane God, fucking Lane. Here's the other thing with Lane. You all gather around, you're like, man, why is this guy worth it? That's a good football team. That's a really good football team.

I went back and rewatched last night because the first thing I watched when I watched that game, you know, there's like nine games going on and you see this one and you go, oh, that's over. Right? Your critical instinct kind of shuts down when you watch that. You just go, oh, they're getting their ass beat. What can I learn from this? Well, I went back and watch. And here's what you need to know.

Everyone on the defense is finishly fast. Nobody's really going to be able to score many points on them unless they have misdirection, QB run threat or the ability to go downfield and actually hit those reads. Clemson had guys open. They did. They just couldn't hit them. Vizena's just not reading it. And he was, I don't think he's the answer.

They're probably going to switch their talented guy. Tate was coming up. But fundamentally, that is a defense and run first team. They ran the ball 51 times versus Clemson. They ran for them. 300 yards. They are monstrous on the ground. And until someone fixes that or until Sam Levitt gets injured, they're going to be a very difficult out. Well, the thing I have to give Lane as a coach that I appreciate because, you know, maybe one day he'll win a conference.

Again, keeping in mind, this is the third best job that Lane has ever had, one could argue. It's kind of amazing. But one thing I do appreciate it about Lane is Lane ain't necessarily making this too complex. He has been guilty of that in the past. But Lane basically is he's like a basketball coach. Who's our best player? Well, why don't we run every play for him? No matter who it is. What was his thing?

The Heisman trophy thing? Like, who are we going to try to get a Heisman this year? Walk in and just say, hey, man, who wants a Heisman? You know, are you, you want to see the most number of carries anyone's ever going to get? It's Derek Henry when he was at Alabama. And they wrote that. Yeah. Yeah.

And in the pros for a couple of times. Because as somebody figured out it was a good idea to give him the ball and that he wouldn't break down. Yes. I'm kind of interested to see how Lane does that with this team because offensively, his Ballywick, his side of the ball. Right now, there's not one guy. It's Sam Levitt, allegedly. But Levitt's had injury problems. He had a big foot injury that kept him out at Arizona State.

And you don't really want your quarterback who is very brave. Like they mentioned on the broadcast. They're like, yeah, his whole family plays deep. And he's the quarterback. And that usually means that he's got something to prove. Having something to prove when you're the guy everybody wants to kill is not great on a football field. It can make for missing games due to injury.

Yes. So who is that guy for LSU? That's going to be very difficult. It was Kiwan Lacey last year at Ole Miss. I mean, I know Trinidad Chambleau was everything to that team. But the bedrock of that was a run game built around Lacey. I don't know who that's going to be for LSU. I mean, it might be Dylan Jones.

There's signs of that. He had 23 carries for over 100 yards. They might try to build the whole thing over him. With that offensive line, that's not the worst idea. Their big challenge is going to be this. Their big challenge is going to be diversifying a little bit. Because I know what Lane wants to do because it works, right? Like, he's going to do what works.

But what works here might be diversifying a bit just to keep the pressure off Levitt. Yeah. because that would be a big loss if they lost him because he opens up so much of what they do. Yeah, like I want to leave some meat on the bone for the fact that they got the old Miss game at about 10 days and then they get Texas A&M after that. Like they are they are the thing to talk about and lucky for us in between that. Ohio State is coming to Austin. Arch, Arch gets his chance to get a little get back.

And this is interesting to me because the last time they did a home at home like this. The first is in 2005, 2006. 2005 was Vince Young letting everybody know it's about to be like that this year. That was a matchup between two guys. Vince Young over here and AJ Hawk over here. It was an amazing game. The next year, Texas, it was one versus two, but Texas didn't have the same caliber level of team. Ohio State, which was great that year

until they played Florida, came and put a, they put a pretty good thumping on them in Austin. The score didn't reflect it, but there was never a chance that they were in it. Last year, Texas goes and plays Ohio State in what I think was an all-around miserable game to watch. Like nobody was really, I didn't feel like anybody came out of that looking too good, but nobody came out of it looking worse than Art. Because I feel like it's not Arch's fault.

Everybody kept trying to say how good Arch was and there was no evidence of it to that point. And so we basically hammered Arch because we created a completely fictitious narrative around the greatness that he supposedly already had. even though he couldn't beat out, beat out Quinn Ewers. It colored the way we looked at him throughout the season. By the end of the year, the dude was really, really good. And now we're going to see exactly how good he was or wasn't.

They're a favorite in this game. They are loaded. Ohio State's number one team in America was probably the best player in America, but I'll say it right now. That was it saying, that how you say it? Yeah. Let me tell you what nobody's saying about him. Ooh, look at that ball.

He throws lollipops. My goodness. He does. He can throw lollipops because he has Jeremiah Smith as the fat kid catching him on the other end. So unfair. It is deeply unfair. But I think there's- Hold on.

And they got a boy on that team name Legend. And I looked it up. That appears to be his actual name, right? It doesn't appear to be a nickname. His name is Legend. And I don't know who you are, Mrs. Legend, Miss Legend, Mama Legend, who you are. But talk about calling me. and your fucking shot.

Because the name that we've seen come up is Reggie Bush. And I don't think it's Reggie Bush, because Reggie Bush was taller and lankier. Like, if this is, this feels a bit more like, what if Noel Devine turned out to be Noel Devine? Yeah, consistently. Yeah, there's, this is terrifying because, this is terrifying facing Ohio State

because what you don't want is you don't want this to turn into a game where suddenly I have to cover two guys. that's it and unfortunately I think you might have to try to cover two guys so the only way football is real simple to win this is to attack the distribution system that's it the distribution system in this case

is Julian Sand so I've seen this before we're early season it's going to be very very hot we have an anticipated matchup between two quarterbacks Beau this usually means that we get a defensive struggle with a lot of turnover

that's like whatever they think the game is going to be, it ends up being something entirely different. And I think that's probably what we'll get. There's no way Arch won't be pushing here. There's no way he won't be stretching too far. Because I would, what, you're at home? These are the guys that you played first. Yeah.

Yeah, there's no way that somebody, there's no way psychologically that you won't play with a little bit of pressure. That first half is going to be super tight. That to me, getting some turnovers. I think defensively we're kind of sleeping on both teams. And we shouldn't because they're incredible on that side of the ball as well. All right. So if we get into a little bit of University of Texas football, okay.

You give Texas that guy at quarterback. What guy, that guy. Historically, and to be fair, this is probably not terribly dissimilar than any other school. This is just how college football works. But the results are kind of, yeah, right? Take it back to Shay Marin's, for example. that didn't really shake out. Shake about to Chris Sims.

I think Chris Sims was done in by the coaching staff that he had, but in the end, yeah, right? Didn't really go great. Vince Young, it was until it wasn't. Right? Like we had a good, solid almost two years of, I don't know about this one. And then suddenly it turned into a thing.

There's something to be said about whether Arch in the end turns out to be more of a Chris Sim. type of figure at Texas, but the real one is, is Sark Mac Brown all over again. Yeah, he might just be glossy Mac Brown, fancy Mac Brown, like the, like, Crat and Barrel version of Mac Brown, as opposed to the Sam's Club version. I mean, hold on, back to having the level of talent that Mac was able to get for the first few, you know, the first 10 years, basically, of that tenure. And also with that, wow, you never want a conference sort of thing that keeps pop.

popping up. Not like the trophy room there is bare. I don't think that this is going to work out quite the way people think it will. And I just think that it's because, uh, Sarkeesian doesn't do the easy thing when like he could use actually a little more Mac Brown, I think in terms of when you get in these games, just do the easy thing. Yeah. I just run the ball, get out of there. Like run the ball, play defense, and get out of there. I am here. I will firmly old man this. Sometimes you watch Sarkeesian and you go, it didn't have to be that hard. Get dumber, right? You're very smart, right? Sometimes you have to do that with people, you know, not just coaches, but you have to go, hey, man, you're real smart. That's cool. Why don't you go do the thing that works? Right. And why don't

you protect your young quarterback? Who, by the way, like, Arch's, like, arch is, like, as far as overall professional development. Obviously, he's in college. He's still young. The number of games he started is still relatively low. Yes. Right? Like, this is just do the thing that's going to work.

And with Ohio State, by the way, I know that they could put up some offensive fireworks. Don't you want to keep Jeremiah Smith off the field? Don't you want to keep all of those blue chippers off the field? Don't you want to test Ohio State's gangster a little in that heat and crank it? Like, like, seriously, grind it out. that would be to me the ideal game plan is to make them survive that environment at DKR. And by the way, if you keep them under that kind of pressure, that crowd might stay in it. Yeah.

And they require you hold their attention. That's not a self-starting crowd. It's not. No, that's not a, listen, that is not a quick, that is not a quick fire barbecue grill there. Okay. You need to bring some lighter fluid, maybe more lighter fluid. It's a place that can be really good. I've heard it really loud,

but it's also a place where they will find other entertainments. That is a list to come up with is like great programs with not quite intimidating crowds. Like I went to the big house for Michigan, Michigan State one year. And I was like, wow, I really thought it would be a little louder in this place. Now, part of that I think is architecture. But it was still like, man, yeah, this isn't really as cracking as one would think. It is not. And part of that is architecture.

because it shaped like a walk. Yes. You know, like it kind of lets the sound go out. It's not like Death Valley where, you know, it's built with the sides nearly vertical so that it just, the sound just vibrates. Kyle feels the same way.

It's like loud as hell in there. I would put it this way. Your crowd needs to be irrational. They need to be a little insensible. You need to be people who are unreasonable, who if you're down 20, you're still there, right? Take notes. I know that the attendance was bad.

because it was 120 degrees on the field. South Carolina is to me the example of the rider dies because they'll go 0 and 11 and sell out, right? Because I've seen that. That to me, you need a crowd that doesn't, you need a crowd that honestly is probably like kind of in a bad relationship with the team, right? Like, well, you know, they never give me anything,

but I just keep showing up. Yes. That's the best kind of crowd. Texas requires some give and take. You have to give them something good. And they will stay in the game. I'm not going to speak ill, too ill of the DKR crowd in general. Also, it won't matter because I really do think Texas could just boil them out of this game.

They should be excellent this year. Should be. It will be interesting to see why they are not. And that heat is already on. Sark, man. Like, he does not, he is not a man built for the jobs that he has been able to get. is I kind of like this does feel he feels a little maccovic me hold on that first of all a way let's talk about a guy and we don't talk about him in this context a guy who's had nothing

but not good jobs but great job great jobs Washington USC and Texas yeah you know and got an NFL coordinator got listen and as even his coordinator spots right coordinator at USC coordinator for the Falcons that's an NFL gig right that's a good job uh I know it's the Falcons that's still a good job on your resume. Yeah. And he was coordinator. His comeback job was he was coordinator for Alabama. Yes.

In a playoff under circumstances, which are funny because it involved firing Lane Kiffin. The week before the championship game, got to get this guy out of here, man. No, like, you want to know what watching film does? Nick watched that film. And according to the excerpt in Vanity Fair from an upcoming book about Lane Kiffin, Nick said, his words, not mine. After watching, plays get called that they hadn't practiced. or that they weren't ready for, weren't part of the script.

Watching him kind of wing it was the implication. Nick said, and I quote, the next morning after you watch film, he slept on it, he woke up, and he said, I'm going to fire that cock sucker. Do you want to know? That's the quote. And do you, like, do you want to know, by the way, how mad you have to be at somebody to go to sleep and you wake up and you call someone and go, yeah, first thing this morning. I'm firing that guy. Nick took a nap, woke up and said, nope, nope, still got to do it in a playoff. That is your immediate, in a playoff.

Where the only guy you're promoting, as I recall, isn't even actually an assistant here. And because he was like an analyst. He was on the, like the, all I'm saying is in line with our previous thing, Lane just doesn't know when the shit ain't funny no more. Yeah. And that's all it came down to. Doesn't know when it's not funny.

Never under, how do you not understand? This is the other thing too. He's generally portrayed as not understanding the assignment in Tuscaloosa of how to be on that staff, which is to say, yes, sir, jump when told jump, that's everything.

Lane never got that. Just you could not. Like the dog who does not understand orders. Just never understood how to look at the number of people who've been coaches under him and there are some people who are very unsab and like in their overall demeanor dress and out and like way of doing things. There's people who've made it work. Playing Kiffin was like the dog you could not train. Run the ball lane. We're just run the ball. Run the ball. Run the ball. Run ball. Run ball lane. Then again, maybe listen, then again, maybe we're underestimating him in that respect

because you know what they did against Clemson. I ran the ball. is there. Coming up next, it might be some trouble up there in Michigan and also, I believe we'll find some time to talk about Dolly partner with Spencer.

All right, we are back with Spencer Hall. I mentioned the Michigan thing first, but it's a little boring. You with Dolly, I was on the other side of the world when Dolly died. You were the one person, I needed to make sure it was doing okay.

I appreciate that. Yeah, so that lady, if you want to know what she, embodied meant was to a lot of different people. You have to know that she is the only person I know who my mom, like, asked me about, like, hey, are you okay? My mom called me to be like, okay, you okay?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm totally good. I don't know anybody else who was capable of doing all of that all at once. Like, you have to understand her Wikipedia, when you read it, it says she signed a deal to be a songwriter in house in Nashville when she was like 16. The next sentence is two years later, she became the first person in her family to graduate high school. In that order, that's crazy.

She was a chart-topping songwriter before she was a hit singer. She was the sidekick and a TV star before she really became a solo artist. My grandfather, devout Dolly Parton fan. he watched the Porter Wagner show where she was the sidekick for seven years she watched that and the woman say man you watch a lot of the Porter Wagner show

not much of Porter Wagner didn't pay attention to a single word coming out of that jughead's mouth watching for Dolly and maybe not necessarily for all the right reasons but I mean I don't think those are the wrong ones wrong is not the word

and she knew that That was part of the packaging. She understood that. And I love that she had a shorthand. Like, I think good entertainers have a shorthand. They walk up and they have a shortcut to being the thing they want to be when getting around that, right? Because you're always trying to get around something, somebody. You're trying to say, okay, there's an obstacle between me and you and the thing I want to do artistically.

And Dolly Parton would walk up and she would be dressed garishly, right? She would be, you know, big wigs, right? Like, outrageous physique, right? Not hidden in any way. In fact, dress to accentuate at every time. And then she would get up and in 30 seconds, she would realize, oh, I have been cool. I have been, I watched her at the Hollywood Bowl. And the woman's rapport with an audience was on a level that I don't think most people can understand.

She spent most of a two-hour show, I would say, 45 minutes of it, maybe an hour was singing and the rest of it was telling stories and talking. The Hollywood Bowl is filled with, you know, 18,000 to 20,000 of the most polished cynical L.A. people you've ever seen in your life who all get tickets to sit down, be very sincere little people with their hands like this, literally, like in their hands, listening to this woman, hold them in the palm of her hand. That was the kind of command that she had over people. And she never abused that, you know. Like when you take that and you decide that the best thing that you can do with your life, is to start a theme park where you can bring your dog. I don't know if people know that about Dollarwood, but you can bring your dog. And also to send books to kids. It's pretty simple because their dad could never read. Right? He was illiterate.

Something that you and I have talked about this in a different context, but something that she figured out, not just as a performer, but I feel like she figured out just overall. Like, I had to run a couple years ago where I really went deep into and through the Aretha Franklin catalog, which is a roller coaster ride in terms of quality, right?

Where it's excellent, it's excellent. And where it's not, hey, boy, she was singing really loud. And I bring that up because at Aretha Franklin's best on record and you hear it like with the Curtis Mayfield stuff, it really kind of depends on who the producer is, is when she brings you close to her.

Right? Like when she's really into a song, she can take that song and bring you to it. But there are other times in certain emotional registers where rather than bring you close to hear her, she goes scream that shit to you all the way in the back, right? And that's where he gets to be like, oh, man, we need to modulate this a little bit.

But she can't, like I read some of the ones that said, the job of the singer is to bridge the gap between the songwriter and the song, right? And I read his breast, that's where she gets it. Sometimes there's this huge chasm between these things, and she screams to get the point. Dolly Parton had figured out how to bring everybody close to her at every turn. Like you watch those clips of her on all those talk shows, her voice never raises. It's always real quiet.

She makes you lean in and hear exactly what it is that she's talking about. You listen to the songwriting. It's always these structures of these narratives and these stories that make you sit there and listen for every adjective and every little bit of construction that makes it happen, but it never screams at you. It always just kind of brings you, just pulls you close

so that she can lustly and thoroughly tell you the story without having to turn the amp up too high. Yeah, like, Aretha could hit it on, call me, because I can hear that. Yes, you hear it right here. Call me is the one that grabs, like, call me is the one that hooks me because you can tell she's talking to someone.

Yes. Right? Like, I need you call me when you get it. there. Yes. That is rare with her. With Dolly, it's pretty much every song. Sometimes she's doing a standard, right?

But even with a, even with the standard, she could sort of bring people in with the song that everyone knows from her, from Whitney, with I will always love you. It's broken. Like it starts so small. Whitney's version is big, right?

No slander to that whatsoever. It is done in a very Whitney way. with Dolly, the original version, it's starting at like a one, maybe a two. But what it's saying is cold as hell in a lot of ways, right? Which is like, I'm not staying.

Like from the first line, you get the sense, like, if I should stay and you hear it and go, that's not happening. Mm-mm. No, she's gone, she's gone. How do you do that? Like, she was so good at putting her foot

in two places at once and making it seem like it was completely cohesive and coherent. Yeah. Like, yeah, I'm out of here. But I will think about you. I will, this, this, and like, if I will always love you and, um, you were always on my mind, two great, uh, one genuinely a self-assertion song, like an empowerment song, right,

of saying, hey, that was wonderful. It's done. Uh, and then I will, and then, um, you're always on my mind, uh, which Willie Nelson covered is the ultimate scumbag song. Like that's, that's such a dirt bag song, right? Like, hey, maybe I didn't do all of the. the things that you should do when loving someone. But I was thinking about you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Counterpoint. Right? Like, like, I know what you're thinking. It's not that I don't love you. But the practice of loving you is problematic for me. Yeah, like, I mean, don't get me wrong. I understand why you might think that.

Yeah. You don't know how I feel. Yeah. Also, I found your number again. And I'm interested in giving it another shot. Okay? because I think you're still about it. Yeah.

Dolly has a song, which is like an amazing song called Joshua, and it's about falling in love with like the meanest man in town. And it's crazy-ass song. Like lady comes up to the scariest man in town that lives on the edge of town. And she's like, I ain't afraid of you. And then they fall in love and they have a great time.

It's insane. But when you're listening to it, you're like, oh, yeah, we've all been there. You haven't been there. But Dolly could make you believe it. She could take a scenario like that and go, yeah, totally believable. I am so consistently in President May's the durability to actually, like, hear all the songs and get what they're about. Because I think most people just kind of hum along.

You get there. I can't, I can't do that. I always have to, I always have to hone in. Like, my kid's really into, my younger son is really into semi-charm life by, by third eye blind. Third-eyed blind, yeah. A song that a 13-year-old, I'll let him listen to it, even though it has layers of, about sex and crystal meth. And he doesn't...

It's about that time. Yeah, it is about that time. And you should know what those things are and what not to do. And when listening to it, though, I can tell his head is just do-do-do-doing, right? He's just hearing that. That's all he's hearing, right? And in my head, I'm like, wow, this is definitely about a really bad time in this person's life. Right?

From the first time, they're like, oh, man, this song's so catchy. And I was like, that's what you're hearing? Yes. That is not what I'm. hearing, dad. Yeah, that's nothing quite like when you get old enough to realize, wait a minute, that was actually sad. Case in point, outcast ATLians from start to finish.

Yo, these are two unhappy guys. Outcast in general, right? Like, Miss Jackson, everyone loves to sing the chorus, right? Yes. Listen to the verses. I like that song, as a side note, that song has one of my favorite, like, Big Boy moments because Big Boy sounds more personal. affronted by the situation, which is in fact in real life, Andre 3000's situation.

Yes. Big boy sounds more angry, hurt, hurt, like genuinely in his soul hurt. Look at the way I treat her. Look at the way she treats me. Yeah, you go get the hell on. That's the part where I'm like, oh, God damn, that is a performance. Yes, and it led and your mom. And it issued in a 10-year period where the most consistent theme in big boys music

is baby mama drama. The rooster. I think some of that was personal. Yeah, picking the kids up. I think that was a very real thing for him. My daughter don't won't be up at the PTA meetings. And then my son, he can't talk. But when I see him, he's peeing.

I think he's pissed. He's like, everybody's mad at me. Yeah. There is, that is an example of someone who I think, we will never give enough. I don't think we ever give enough credit to big. I did like as a rapper, as a writer, as as someone who could conceive something,

even on behalf of someone. It's like he's, it's like he's Andre 3000's attorney in that case, right? Like my client, you have been so rude to my client, Ms. Jackson. Like that is him. And I think that's a rare, rare talent. I got one more dolly story for it.

Go for it. One more. And it's this that, apparently a reader of ours was like hey man i got a dolly story for you just in case everyone thinks she was absolutely about her business she had this thing where she was uh this guy had a relative who worked for her and he was on a call he was privy to a call that dolly was having with the manager which i imagine this at the time was probably on one of those gigantic white speaker phones like gigantic white speakerphone that they had in every important 80s or 90s drama right like

let's talk to the CEO of big business whack and they would be, you know, coming out of the speaker. And the manager is going up and down with Dolly to say, I'm like, I can't believe that you're going to do this and I can't believe that you're going, these people fucked us over before. Like it is a very explicit, nasty conversation about business. And she goes, I can't believe you're going to do this. This is the dumbest fucking thing you've ever done, Dolly.

I can't believe you're going to trust these people again. Dolly hears this all out very calmly for like five minutes, which is, if I was watching, that's how I would know from being from East Tennessee. Something real nasty was going to. come something nasty and definitive was going to come out the other end. And she waits and she hears him. And she goes, okay, I hear all that. Okay.

I hear that. But you need to remember, I sign the checks around here. We're going to do whatever the fuck I want. That's what we're doing. And the guy goes, okay. And she goes, okay, hey, listen, you tell, you know, you tell Claire and them, I hope they're well. I hope your mom is good.

And we'll see you at Thanksgiving. All right, bye. Don't ever let an accent or country nice pull you into thinking that person is not ready to cut nuts. They will. I do think that what is very clear about her

is that realization of, well, you know, actually I do make the decisions around here. And would wield it like a sword. Yeah.

And sometimes in ways, so she did a thing with Porter Wagner, who she wrote, I will always love you for. Porter Wagner was in bad health, his career, taking a downturn.

And at every point, by the way, at one point, Porter Wagner sued her for $3 million when she did not have $3 million to give.

early in her solo career, relatively early in her solo career. Later on, when Porter Wagner was in bad shape, you know, hence his kid's future was in bad shape, she bought Porter Wagner's rights for his songs for like, I think a hundred of his songs, bought them so he would have, be liquid, have some cash, get his affairs in order at the end of his life, and then sold them back to him, and hence his children for like a dollar. Right. Right. and did that because

I think that's, again, she's in two places at once. That is a very charitable thing to do. Also, look who made it before. Yep, yep, yep, yep, yep. Look is in charge. Yeah, I did that for you. I did that for you.

Like, I'll never forget once that I was talking to my guy, a couple of guys I used to work with and they had an idea for something. And then I was like, oh, I've got an idea to go with your idea. And I kind of housed their idea, right? I didn't house it, but I was,

and I told them, I was like, well, look, I was thinking about these changes or whatever, but, you know, I don't want to take your stuff, so I need to, you know, I'm going to friend this spot, you know, and I never forget, there's one of the greatest moments of my life empowering, and I love these guys for this. They looked at each other, and they

kind of chuckled and they looked at me, and they were like, hey, we're going to do whatever you do. I was like, oh, that's how it works. Okay, got it. Like, they didn't have to do that. I wasn't asking them to do that, but the bottom line was they were like, hey, hey, hey, I don't think you get it. Like, this goes where it goes, where it goes

with you, we're going to do whatever you want. And Dolly Parton, clearly, when you read that story, had the moment where she was like, oh, okay, so this is what it is. Okay, got it. Not even like some shit they needed to be flexed. Just a, this is just how it's going to go.

Flexes take a lot of different forms and sometimes they're charitable ones and my favorite is the little moment of attention that she gave the 3-6 Mafia when they managed to beat out her she was nominated for the best song Oscar at the same they were and when they won

she sent them a letter that was like you know hey listen I'm just glad someone from Tennessee one and I'm not real familiar with your work but you know we're kinfolk hey good job that I love I loved it by the way imagine Juicy J after three days of partying right coming back to the hotel room eyes blurry no idea where he is

picks up the like letter and looks at it's like did Dolly Parton write me a letter? Yo that whole everything doesn't seem real like when you watch the video of all of it and all the way to John Stewart being like, I think those are the guys that actually have the right idea of what this is supposed to be like.

They are like crazy underdressed for being there. And it's like 2004, 2005, right? So like it's that era of hip hop fashion. That song isn't even that great, but they won an Oscar and nobody's ever been happier about anything. The Project Pat, Juicy Jay, and DJ Paul, on stage shouting people out

completely unselfconscious about the whole situation and it's like to the point where everybody who lost saw it was just kind of like no you know what I would have enjoyed that nearly as much yeah let him let him take it also get out of their way for the next 48 hours yes and none of us knew at the time even those of us who were familiar with them

that they would then prove to be maybe the most influential figures in the next 20 years of popular music. Like their music became the bedrock of like 20 years of what was on the radio. That moment, that moment to me is

we do sometimes get good things. We sometimes get good things. Right. And then at the end of all of that, just, you know, Dolly being both gracious enough and also sort of, you know, realizing she's big enough

to be like, if I send a thank you letter, it's going to be a big deal for them. Yep, yep. I'm going to do that. Yep. And look, she knew funny when she saw it. That moment was hilarious.

Hey, listen, and a real one too, because talking about her husband, who they had this very unusual relationship over the better part of, you know, 50, 60 years, however long they were married, which was a real long time, saying to a live audience going, Listen, that man, when he's standing at attention, I, I salute.

I pay attention, not referring to his posture. That man, winner of the game, may they both rest in peace. That is Spencer Hall. Check out channel six. Subscribe. My brother, I greatly appreciate you. Yeah, anytime. And shut down full cast.

I always feel like I don't bring that up because I think Channel 6 is kind of the all-encompassing, but I want to make sure everybody knows all the places. We got enough. spots buddy subscribe and you'll you'll get more than enough ladies and gentlemen thanks so much for joining us here on the right time we do this four days a week ryan brumley hand a thing behind the scenes thank you sir hit the voicemail line 323 599 677 6-67 remember follow the right time subscribe like rate us review us give us five stars you only give us four stars i'm inclined to believe you are a hater what's on to you guys take it easy has been a playmaker production