The Zach Nichols Podcast - The Tyrie Ballard-Brown Interview! | ZNP EP. 114

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

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Hey, everybody. I'm Tyree. I'm here on Zach Nichols podcast. Here to shoot the breeze. Give you my perspective. Put my narrative out for once. Happy to be here. Let's get it. All right. Make sure you get your tickets to the live show. It's going to be September 20th, 2025 in San Diego featuring Carl, Pauli, Horacio, and Naurice, and possibly some more guests. So get on that now. You're not going to want to miss this one. Welcome back to the Zach Nichols podcast. We're here with a sizzling hot episode. It's me and Crocodile Fettuccini. You know what it is. But more importantly, very special guests coming in from Phoenix, the Tyree. Ballard Brown? Listen, it's both, like, legally is brown, but I use Ballard as my dad's last name. So I always respect to my parents.

Tyree the tyrant. Tyree, the MF, and Tyrant. In the building, bro. Thanks for making the trip. Yeah, dude. Thanks for coming in. I appreciate it, man. I appreciate you guys having me.

Question. to start. Like, you know how, like, so would you have been era four or era three? One or two? One or two, I mean. Would you been era one or era two? Are you, how OG is Denver? Denver is season 18.

Okay, so that's just one after Key West, which is Johnny Vanana. So you're, you're era one. No, no, I think we're, I'd be era. Oh, yeah, era two. I'm sorry, era two, yeah. So that's OG. Was Denver 30 minute or hour-long episodes? That's how you really know.

I think they started off with our episodes, and I think they ended up treasling them down. But the funny thing about that, and I don't know if it was the same thing with y'all, but they ended up kicking us out, like, you know, three months in. They told us originally we were going to be there filming for five months. Now, they said, listen. They forgot what we needed. That's exactly what they said, yeah. They said, so listen, when you guys come back from Thailand, the trip we went on,

you know, we're going on a trip every night and then. But when you come back from Thailand, you guys got a week, and we send you home. It's like, what happens? Listen, the first month of episodes is the first two days that you guys have been in. So, yeah, we got everything we need you. At this point, we just filming redundant shit. Right. Yeah.

That's crazy. I mean, let's start there, man. Denver, 41. You're a real world kid, which is hard to find nowadays. So, like, let's rewind. How old were you whenever the real, did you grow up watching it? What, like, let's talk about, like, your upbringing and then your casting story. Okay, okay.

So, like upbringing or the casting? Just your life up until you got casted. I mean, I lived in Omaha, Nebraska, brother. I mean, it's... What does that mean? I've only driven through Nebraska one time. I hate it when you all say that, okay? But, no, I loved it.

Because, okay, thank you. I actually did. Usually when people say we drove through Nebraska, it was eight hours of cornfield. It was like, yeah, damn it, I promise you, it's not eight hours. It's only six. That's like when people come to Detroit and they're, like, you go to eight miles. Like, for real.

Every time you wanted to go, don't lie. There is a lot of cornfields in Nebraska. There is. I was like, dude, this is a beautiful state. There is. And 100% like the first time I came to Detroit, I 100% went to wanted to go to eight mile. I'm not going to lie. Yeah, bro.

It's part of it. I went to Cleveland. I wanted to go to San Clara Street, East 99 and East 1999. It was just some things. These are monumental marks. I got to go to see this. Yeah. So you said, you know, you grow up in Omaha, Nebraska.

Like what characteristics of Omaha, Omaha Nebraska are in you. How did it shape you in, you know? Omaha and Nebraska in general is a fantastic place to raise a family, have a good life, and succeed if that's all you want to do. If you want any opportunity for grandeur, at least back then, I think Omaha has changed a lot now. But at least back then, like, you at least had to leave. You had to leave. You had to travel for a little bit.

And maybe even come back and bring what you learned, you know, back home. But, no, we grew up like everybody else did grow up, man. I mean, mom and pops, like, take your ass outside and play. Come back, you know, come back in before the street lights is on. You know, North Omaha is a, it's fun, but sometimes a dangerous place, believe it or not. People say, oh, Omaha's like, I don't know, people get shot there immediately. You know, there's no mess. and around. But, you know, we have our ups, we have our downs. But, you know, it's Omaha is Omaha,

Nebraska is Nebraska. And, you know, no matter where I'm at, it's always going to be home. Hell yeah. How old were you whenever you started, like, thinking about going on TV? Oh, okay. So a little tidbit about that. The first reality TV show I did was not the real world. Oh, interesting. It's getting spicy already. The first reality TV show I've ever done was called Tommy Lee Goes to College. Like, as in Pam Anderson's husband. Yes. Okay.

Dude, you're a 90s kid for sure. Oh, yeah, no. Dog, dog. Dog. People ask me what I miss most about the 90s, 90s, 90s Pam Anderson. That's what I missed the most. Bro, stripparella?

Don't get me started, bro. I mean, she was a, you know, multi-planned. Everyone's dad stopped when they were scrolling between channels and it landed on Baywatch. Everyone's dad stopped. Minimum five seconds. Until mom walked in and they were like, oh, where's that other game at? Yep, no, you got to have that last button ready, bro. Yep.

Or for the youngest, man, you got to have it ready to go back to Cartoon Network or something like that. So you don't get caught. Yeah. Watching BET, E.T. Uncut or something like that. 90s. Oh, you're exposed to me now. I miss the most in my childhood. Oh, my gosh, man.

I ain't got no pennies on. Oh, my God. Boy, that song used to hit, bro. It's like, dog. Oh, man. I just remember the tip drill video, personally. Dog, the tip drill, the, uh, the peep hopping on the handstand? Stop it, man.

Bro. Hold on. All right. Let's, let's get. back to the path. How old? Only the real ones know about the tip drill video. Only real ones know about that.

You guys, so, yeah, so this wasn't your first reality show you did Tommy Lee. What did you do on that show? What is that show? Yeah, what is it? For some reason, I don't know why, but Tommy Lee decided he was going to film a reality TV show about him going back to

college and he chose Nebraska. You know, I think it's because of our marching band. Our marching band was, you know, was fantastic. So he came and I was in one of his frat brothers. I believe my fraternity name was Brother Smoot. Brother Smoot. Brother Smoot. Brother Smoot.

Brother Smoot. And I can tell you that that motherfucker was crazy. I'm sorry. No, you can swear. Okay, cool. Yeah, no. Sorry, sponsors. Fuck yeah, you can swear.

That's right. Fucked your ass. Hold on. So real quick, I just want to make very, very clear. This is Omaha, Nebraska. So I'm assuming that Tommy Lee did not join in an all-black fraternity. Just assuming. Could be wrong.

Listen. Listen, I was the only brother in the frat, brother. There was six of us, though, but I was, it was me. It was brother smooth. Oh, so it was me. I know there was a foreign exchange student, a Asian guy, a really smart, but like stereotypical nerd dude. And then he had like one or two like jockish guys. Hold up.

The whole frat was like six people. It was like six people. It was like all school. people, bro. That's really what it was, bro. Literally, this is where old school got the script. Pretty much, bro. I really think that might be a thing. Listen, I wouldn't I don't, like, the weed is messing

my memory of something, but I'm pretty sure Tommy Lee hit me in with him. You're my boy, Blue? One good time, bro. Yeah. He had to have. Like, he had to. So, let me get, okay, so you'll cast for this? The greatest fraternity member of all time. Blue. Blue.

Pour one out for Blue. Yo. K. Y. Where the K. K. Or he went out like a cheed-do, didn't he? That's exactly how any 80-year-old man would want to go out. Dog, he went out the way that anyone is supposed to go out, bro. Yeah, the only sad thing is he didn't get a grip. He didn't know. He froze and died right before he got to the ariola, bro.

Old school, guys, go watch it. Very funny movie. Old school is constantly underappreciated. It's one of the funniest movies from the 2000s. And you lived it. With Tommy Lee. With Tommy Lee, which is crazy. I'm trying to figure out if, like, I guess Tommy Lee would be the Vince Vaughan character, man.

No, no, no, no. He's the Godfather. Fair enough. No, yeah, he's the Oarned. No, he was cooler than the Godfather. He was cooler than Godfather because he knew exactly where he went. He knew he was Tommy Lee on campus. Let's just say that, bro.

Yeah. So let me ask you, does this frat exist before you get there or they kind of get a compilation of people that are like cast for this? They definitely got a compilation of people. Okay, yeah. So you look funny. you look foreign exchange you look black and cool let's bring you all together

so did he actually live in the house with you guys for a quick second or he didn't like he had his plays but like you know when it's you know how it is with the filming scene

but when it was time to film like we all had our time's itself okay so you do that show and like you know so you had an interest in being on camera like from a youth right is that right

yeah so when it comes to the real world I am not ashamed to say that I you know I've watched the show from First New York all the way up to... Oh, for real real world. Yeah. I'm like, I'm a huge real world. I've always been a huge real world friend and I will tell you

straight up, tech is the person who at, would maybe feel like, you know what? I want to do this. Yeah, tech man. Tech, he's a legend I heard. Tech is a, tech is the man. He was in Van Wilder, bro. Yeah. He was in Van freaking Wilder. Yeah. But, uh, so like, tech was, you know,

uh, and always love and shout out to Cyrus. but, you know, Eric Neese always paid attention to him. Heather B, you know what I mean? These are old school, old school. Yeah, these are O-Gs. A lot of our fans are O-G. I'm sure they're going to appreciate that. I remember meeting Puck the first time.

You met Puck? Yeah, I met Puck. Yeah, I met Puck. And Puck was every piece of Puck, bro. He really was. Yeah, I think it was at the, Doc, I don't know if you was in this. I think this was maybe before you,

but it was a real world award show. Were you? This all happened right as I was getting into filming. Okay. Okay. So I think you was filming San Diego, because are you guys after the Hollywood season? Is that correct? Oh, way after. Yeah. So it was like Hollywood, a few more. We're after or back to Vegas? So I'm after Lee. I'm the season after Leroy. Okay. So yeah, that's when it was. Because I think Vegas, the second Vegas group was there. Yeah. But I remember meeting Puck at the Real World Award Bash. And they should still do that. They really should. No, you know why they don't know, right? No. Okay. This is good to good.

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