Season 2 Episode 5: ChadMcDaniel - 96lbs of dynamite!

0:43 What's up, guys and gals. This is a new episode of Bulldog Unsetsored today. I have a special friend of mine with me. We just went online a few weeks ago, and uh, you've got a very interesting documentary coming out Ladies and gentlemen, Chad McDaniel, Yeah, what's up? How much man? Good to meet you, Josh. I don't get to hang out with our people very much. Yeah, our people hang out with more normies than anything. Yeah, no ship. So uh yeah, since we're just kind of getting to know each other a little bit more here, I was, well, I should say we both were born with osteogenesis in perspective, little bone disease doesn't get a whole lot of media coverage these days. But there's you know, now the internet's growing and moving along. We're getting a lot more exposure out there, and we're building a community, and and you know, I'm I'm used to building the community, getting the rock and roll world. Yeah, so it's it's nice to, you know, now that I'm older, kind of get in touch with people that have been through the thing kind of shit. So, uh, I guess we can kind of compare cripple notes here, buddy, So tell me. Yeah, Like, how did everything start for you? Were you diagnosed at birth?

2:13 I was actually diagnosed a little bit before I was born, about seven. My mom was about seven months along. Oh no, and yeah, and uh just so happened a little hick town doctor that my mom had just happened to notice that my legs were curved. Yeah, and he diagnosed me with OLI and uh. I was born in June twenty fifth, nineteen seventy one. You're day after me, brother, No shit, Yeah. And uh, just a small town, seven thousand people in Mississippi. Uh, you know, I had small town life. I've never had I've only had one surgery in my entire life, and that was a hernia surgery when I was six weeks old.

2:59 Actually, you don't have any rods or anything. Nope, I'm lucky. I'm very, very lucky in that regard. I grew up there till I was nineteen, moved away to college, didn't go back, didn't want to go back, And then after college, I kind of struggled to find a job. I really wanted to stay in the college town, but nobody'd pay you anything because they can always get student workers, and you know, they're not gonna pay you what you're worth and ended up spamming my resume and got lucky. Took a job down here, like almost thirteen hour drive away from my college town, and I've been here now over twenty eight years.

3:47 I love it. I love it. That's fantastic. I'm still stuck in the town of Maryland's Little Lands, Sterling, Massachusetts. Oh okay, okay, yeah, okay. I grew up here. I was on eighty eight and I remember that year. Yeah, I was in high school. Yeah, I had a boy. Yeah you goes. I would have rather been in high school at that point, but uh yeah. So when my well, they didn't really find out I had anything wrong until my mother's water Boro because I was breech Oh okay. Then I had fourteen fractures in yu row oh wow, yeah wow, and they broke my collar room taking me out, so oh wow, oh wow. I had a start. You were born naturally, Well, no, they ended up doing the seat chicken because I would have yeah. Yeah, they did that with my mom too.

4:44 Yeah yeah, so. They sent they sent me home in nineteen seventy one. They sent me home on a pillow and told my mom, well, if he lived six weeks, you know, great, whatever, you know. I mean, they just they just didn't know back then, you know. Yeah, they really didn't know much better. But by the time I came around either, I mean, they pretty much and told my parents that, you know, give them the best leg you can for as long as he's around. And here in thirty six doing shit that nobody ever exchanged. Oh brother, yeah, I'm I'm well beyond that. Yeah. I ended up going to college. I got the job, finally landed a good job, landed a better job, and then I got my master's degree, and I worked for over twenty seven years for defense contractors down here, and then I retired in February.

5:36 I stepped away from. Yeah, thank you, I just stepped away from it. It was just too stressful. I was fifty three or well fifty two time, and just the stress of the job was just too much. Financially, financially I was able to work it, uh and you know, kind of kind of unfortunately I had to fall back on disability. But because I had worked so long and I had made so much money, my disability was a pretty good chunk of change. And uh, yeah, I have the opposite problem. I don't have enough work history on the books. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, I'm just playing the game, bro. Yeah, and that's what you gotta do, you really, you truthfully just got to do it.

6:17 You know. It was a game, you know, and I got out. And but what started about this movie thing, which was very much a trip. I play pool and I'm very I'm a very animated pool player. And so this guy. I was at the pool tournament Orlando, by an hour from my home and the regional tournament, big tournament, and I won the tournament. And this guy saw me play, and he had seen me play for a couple of years, but he really didn't know me. He didn't know if I was any good. He kind of was like, oh, oh, how cute this little guy in a wheelchair, you know, Oh. You know I get yeah, yeah, yeah exactly. He tries to play pool.

7:03 When he saw me play, He's like, holy shit, this. Guy could play, you know. And I've won the tournament and I won a trip to Vegas and we it just so happens with a mutual friend and he said, hey, would would you be willing to make a documentary about your life? And I was like, well, okay, he said Oh, it's. Just gonna be a fifteen to twenty minute thing, you know, no big deal, you know, you know, we're just we're just gonna have fun with it. Well, come to find out, this guy was an award winning producer for Dateline NBC for CNN, and he knew people. I'm not gonna care, I'm not gonna play around. He knows people. He's trying to get me on Howard Stern right now. And I'm like, yeah, that was my reaction. No, no ship, you know, and I'm not a Howard Stern fan.

7:57 That was the first thing. Hearn's got an ego than me. I don't know if I can handle that. So but but I mean, so we started, you know, we got to talking more and more, and this movie thing that grew and it came it's now an hour and twenty minute production. We ended up going back home to Mississippi and filmed me with my parents, thankfully, because my stepdad was dying with cancer. Uh he died a week after we filmed there, and then my mom died like two months later, three months later. Rather, and it's just been a rough year. I'm not I lost, you know, I quit my gup, I lost my stepdad. I lost my mom.

8:38 My mom uh, and my stepdad left me their entire estate in Mississippi, and it was four hundred and eight acres of land. I'm like, what am I gonna do with that? You know? Well, right, I have a similar situation. Yeah, I grew up on a small vegetable farm up here in mass Oh wow, we're about four and a half acres of the of the main form, but family property is over one hundred and fifty Oh nice. Nice. Yeah, what I did is one of that I got. When I got married. I moved across town, so I'm only five minutes away. But you know, at least chance desire, I'll probably wind up going to my nephews at some point. Yeah. Yeah.

9:24 My my parents are about, you know, late fifties, early sixties. Oh okay, okay, so they're not that old. Yeah, yeah, that'll be. They'll be around a while. Yeah. Yeah. My mom was a smoker. She was a fit okay. Yeah, my wife is unfortunately, yeah. Yeah, and my stepdad was to he he did tobacco and smoke, and so it's like, okay, there's no surprises there. They did, you know, I sold I sold the property to my brother, and uh, it's working out well for him and his family. Oh yeah, he's I have a large family, a lot of kids. His wife is really nice, and just it's working out well. You know, it's really working out well for them. And I'm I'm half to've done that, you know.

10:11 I mean, something's just like that. Yeah, and that's that's the way this is then the last year. But it's just to me, it's like you couldn't have picked a more odd year to film my life. I mean, yeah, it's just I didn't even meant to mean drama, you know. Yeah, but I didn't go out to Vegas and played in that pool tournament and I did horrible. I just wait, I did. I thanked that was like two and out done, you know, man. And I think it just everything on my mind, you know, just I just lost my stepdad. I had all this pressure. The film was on my mind, you know, I mean, just everything is on my mind. And uh, the guy, I've seen the rough cut of the movie already. It should be out. We're hoping the first next year. And it's good. It doesn't it's not a pity party. But he does touch on some things that I went through.

11:09 I don't know about you and your education, your childhood education, but I went through. A lot of ship for lack of a better work at you. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure we could swap stories that got. Oh yeah, yeah, I mean it's just small town in Mississippi that put me in a mentally handicapped class for the first two years. I was. I got stuck on the short bus. But I was the greatest one on the bus. I was. I wrote that bus to high school. Dude, you know it's amazing what they was, right, It's like, uh bo, you know I was. I'm not. Yeah, there you go. That's a good way. But yeah, yeah, that was six years old doing math. I was second grade math book, readA of a third grade reading book.

11:53 You know, I was Sheldon before there was a Sheldon. But you know. What Mike goes on, and you know what I personal ear. You know, adapt and overcome. That's what I'm saying, adapting overcom You. Know same thing here, man, Like I I live every day like a Viking man. Just push through and yeah, that's all we do is adapt and overcome. It is I should have a tattooed on my forehead. Yeah, you're brave to see you tats or you're a lot braver than me. I'm getting I'm fifty three years old. I'm starting to have that it. Man, I want tattoos now. Yeah. My mom's gone, she can't about it.

12:33 Yeah, h ship. I can remember, you know, going through high school and telling my dad all when I get my ear peers and tattoos and ship and he was having a banana. Fitt used to it because, yeah, coming up with a lot of surgical scars that I had. Yeah, and that's that was kind of the mindset behind it. Yeah, that is a. Great thing about tats. I think, you know, talking about the ear piercing. That was the first thing I did when I went to college was got my ear peers. My dad said, you ever get your ear piers kicking you out of the house. Yeah, but when I left, I did you do? Yeah. Yeah. It's not so much inshion nowadays. But yeah, yeah, but it was a big deal when we were kids.

13:18 You know. Oh yeah, yeah, you know, definitely. But everybody nine bolts in their faces. That no, no, no, that's not attractive. So and then you're gonna complain about I can't get the. Job I didn't know what to make it out whe her HI to the back of my truck. Yeah, luckily I didn't have to run into too much of that. But yeah, so tell me a little bit more about the defense contract stuff. I'm I'm huge in supporting the military and whatnot, and I'm actually thinking about when I retired from music to go in something like that. Well, I uh, I started with a small contractor. I had.

14:01 I have a batchelort of science and freer science, but I don't like the program. It's kind of a weird thing. I'm more of a system administrator, computer diagnostic that person. When I first started out, and then I left a small contractor and went to a larger contractor. I worked for Northrop Grumming for over twenty four years and they're like the third biggest defense contractor in the US. And I did pretty good, you know. I made well over six digits with them, and I was, you know, I was coming along pretty well. You know when I. When I did clock out finally, you know, and it was hard to walk away from that much money. I'm not allowed to you that was I was making number sixty eight dollars an hour, and you know when that's what I'm saying.

14:46 When you're making that kind of money. Yeah, Oh, a lot of things come sick in nature, is that Yeah? Yeah, you use hit cruise control at that point, you know. And I mean, but my career went backwards. My contract came to an end fall fall of twenty three, and they put me in a different position, and it just sucked. My career went back twenty years. And I was in a help desk role and I was on a call and my boss, my boss was bitch at me with my mouth on my screen went yellow. I mean, I said, yeah, that's what I mean, okay, And this guy was barely a couple of years older than me. He hadn't been at the company like one year longer than me, and he was he was a dick, you know, he was just a dick.

15:29 And I told him. Finally, finally I was on a call with him like teams like this, and finally, just one day I just said, fuck you hung up. I was like two weeks later I retired. You know, it was like I'm done, I'm gone gone. Tell me about your guitar playing what you guys play like heavy metal? Yeah? I played a little bit of everything. But my full time project is a look at Heavy trash Man. Oh okay, but I'll play anything because you tell up to ship Clint black Man like I'll play anything. Well, well, he grew up on a lot of country music. He is the most boring sob ever live. Yeah, I can imagine he's not that entertaining.

16:15 I went to the concert of his and two below ins and said, y I'll never forget it. He came out on stage. He sits on borsto he plays in music, and he never moved. I mean literally never moved. I was like, I mean, I can't move in my chair when I'm doing but I used to. But he was just he was just after seeing Garth Brooks live in nineteen ninety one. Yeah, what a what a major shift. Oh he was singing Mellie Joel, he was singing guns and Roses. He was doing I mean he did a Bob Seegers song. He would all over the place. You know, he was just all that shit. Oh it was just but it was cool how borstatile he was, you know, just doing all those different songs.

16:56 And so after that it was like, and didn't go to see Clint bike. He's like all right, love you, but get off your ass. Yeah. Yeah. My first rock concert was a Cheap Trick and Hard Nice and that trick. I didn't know who Cheap Trick was. And they opened and I'm like, dang, they're better than the Heart as far as musician was. You know, sometimes that does happen. Yeah yeah, and then you know, Nancy and they had come out singing and it was just like, Okay, this is that. This is good. You know this is good. But yeah, definitely no. I love the Heart and Nancy's phenomenal. Yeah crack last year with Disturbed that was unreal.

17:41 Oh yeah yeah, unreal stuff. Great shit, Yeah I might have that. Yeah, so I uh yeah. I started playing guitar when I was ten. It was given me a gift from a family friend after my grandfather retired from the police force. He was both started and a chief in the town at one point, so I grew up with a law enforcement background. My father was a cop. He's retired now he's a farmer full time. So it was getting into the rock and roll was a bit of a right turn. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, that's that's your rebellious stage.

18:23 Yeah. I mean I started out fresh out of high school as a dispatcher, but I didn't stay on long because the shift that I was originally hired for taking schedule wise, it just wasn't gonna work for me. So I can go back to any point in time if I want to. But like you said, it's a stressful job. And yeah that is, that's a lot. Yeah, I know some lens and now I'm won one dispatcher and she's of course, yeah emotional to be honest with your very emotional stories. Oh yeah, I mean I've heard it all from, you know, having cops in the family, so I get it. Yeah. Oh yeah, kids, you know, accidents with them, oh heart heart, tugging at you, you know type stuff.

19:11 Yeah. I'm hoping this year I can actually get my dad on the show and talk about some of that crazy shit. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But yeah, so I started when I was ten, and you know, like I'm sure you can relate, you know, being stuck on the short bus and not really fitting in with anybody early on. Music is what kind of got me from Josh the guy in the wheelchair to Josh the guitar player. Yeah, I started playing pool at eleven. Oh, there you go. That was kind of the same type of thing, you know, I got into. My cousins were playing football and baseball and all these other sports, and me, I picked up a pool que And I was always a math wiz and alemetry and physics and things like that. So pool just came naturally to me, you know, I mean, and so so I could you know the guitar, Yeah, I could?

20:09 I get it? You know about that age, that's a good age to get into it, you know. Yeah, And it was just sheer happenstance, honestly. Like I I had talked to uh, like I said, a family friend that was in the cover band that was playing his retirement party, and what was behold? Two weeks later, they showed him my guitar at my door with a flying V and the rest is history. Brother, You're hooked. Yeah. No, I've had a great career so far, and it's just now starting to uh get on a different level. So it's just one more rung to climb and I'm loving it. Good, good deal. Yeah, And then I get to do it like this too. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great idea. People.

20:56 They were trying to talk me into doing things like, you know, having my own podcast, or have my own brand or do anything. You know what, I just want to enjoy life. You've learned it, and that's it. That's that's what I'm saying. I'm fifty three. You know I'm comfortable financially, I really don't. I'm tired, like a shoot, pull and drink my beer and I'm good to go. You know. I love beer beer. My wife and I both you know. I was like, okay, she also has a lie that she yeah, yeah, yeah, we've been married twenty two years this summer, no ship. I'm coming up on eight years together and three years man o cool cool, Yeah, I got me. I got lucky.

21:45 I got my silver lookers. Mine's a beautiful woman too. She she's a type well we figured she's a type four. Yeah. She's in a chair also full time. And I get around without the chair. I can scoot around on the floor. Right, I'm pretty numble still, Yeah, thankfully. That's why I didn't partly why I didn't have the surgeries. At six years old, doctor gave me the choice. He said, well, you can have a rising surgery or not. Or I said, well, if I have the surgery, am I going to be able to walk? Because that was my you know, that's your goal as a kid thing we got and he's like, and probably not. I said, well, then why would I want to do it? He said, well cosmetically, you know. Well, And my aunt was really she's a nurse. She was really leaning on me to try and do it. And I'm like, no, I don't want the pain. You know, I've been through enough broken bones and I, oh, you undo, No, I'm just I'm glad I did all these years now looking back, I'm glad I made the choice I made, you know, because I think it's I think it's helped me to be more nimble in the long run, you know, for me.

22:52 But it's not. It may not be for you. You know, it's different. I mean, I've been under the knife. Probably I want to see at least it doesn't times whether it was rotting or re rotting or whatever. Yeah, thankfully I had some of the best docks in the world at the time. I had Bill Morgan from my forearms and whatnot, former Red Sox doctor up here in Boston. Cool and against you. Yeah, I know right, I'm a Yankees fan. Sorry, but you know from the South, and you like the Yankees, how does that word. I know, really I pull for the Cubs and the n L and the Yankees in the al I got you, I got you right on I was. I was a Red Dye Jackson fan.

23:36 Yeah that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was under the knife pretty much from the time I was four two thirteen. Oh wow, so it was a rough start. Yeah. Yeah, there's nothing work I can going to the hospital and being fine and waking up blustered. Yeah yeah. Yeah. My wife every time she she broke her femur, she would be in the hospital in traction for eight weeks, you know, and I would just be like and me, I break something, They patched me up, they send me home. You know. Yeah that sounds like you know, it's like, uh, because I just can't imagine the trauma she went through.

24:21 That, you know. And yeah, I still get pts. You can, like hospital smell, she does alcohol, Yeah. Yeah, certain certain metals, certain things, and I get it, you know. Me, I'm a little more resilient, you know, I'm like, I bounce back from it. Yeah, you know. And then my wife had a stroke in twenty nineteen right in front of me, and I actually diagnosed her having the stroke we gathered to the er and then that was a long day and so thankfully she survived and she did get some par elsis. She ended up going from a manual chair to a power chair, which was actually a blessing and long run. Yeah yeah, yeah, and she and I both have power chairs now and we can wheel around. And where we are is very uh she called it rule. I think it's actually in the city, you know. But well she's from La so everything, you know, I mean, come on, but uh, you know, we we wheeled around. We've got grocery stores, we've got bars, we've got restaurants and all kinds of things to do down here in Florida. And you know, I mean to give you an idea. Today the high temperature was eighty.

25:32 That's what I'm talking about. It's been a little bit warmer up here today. But yeah, not that one get you down here sometimes. Yeah, absolutely, I'm planning on hopefully getting out more down that way anyway. So uh yeah, So your wife you said, was a type floor Type four or why you wife? Yeah, yeah, yeah, she she's she's what I call normal size, but you know, working on the type three, you know.

26:13 So but yeah, she's got two kids. Uh, she and they both have a lot, very mild alive, both of them. So so yeah, they're they're her daughter's thirty five and her son's twenty four. Yeah. So I just I stepped into an instant made family when we got married. Yeah, I guess so. I mean I came close to that years ago, but things worked out better in the long run. Yeah. My my wife's fantastic. She is my PCA as well, so you know, there's some cabine okay, but yeah, things are great and she's so when me get my business off the ground, and we put it all in her name so I wouldn't get anything to mess with or any of that ship. Yeah, yeah, that's what we did. Disability.

27:10 Yeah, that was the one thing about her, and now we got married. She was on disability and when we got married, poof, you know, that immediately does the way, you know, And so I was like, yeah, that's the price you have to pay. You know for that. But yeah, luckily I was making I was making enough money to really keep us both you. Know, right right, you didn't have to worry about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It turns up my my wife and I met each other in preschool. Yeah, we didn't really reconnect until adulthood. But it all worked out. So that's cool. Fair share of crazy broads over the years and some good ones, but it all works out. You know, it wouldn't be rocking all without it.

27:55 Yeah, I got before I met my wife, I had really gotten comfortable idea of being by myself the rest of my life. You know. I had put a pool table in my living room. I had, you know, I was setting up the ultimate bachelor pad, you know. And she and I had a mutual friend that talked to us and to start talking over there in that little bit, and then we start talking over the phone. And then the EOI conference come up in Orlando in two thousand and two, and she and I said, hey, you know, let's just meet there. And we were talking pretty serious, but I said, you know what, no pressure. You know, let's just you and I if nothing else, will be great friends. Let's just don't don't pressure each other. Indeed, I tell you I laid eyes on her and it was just like, yep, I give the game over itch for.

28:50 Both of us. You know, we were both just clung to one another. And uh, that was in June. I proposed to her in October, and then we got married following July. So it was yeah, but it was a good time. You know that I moved her from l A to here just because it was so much cheaper. L A. Los Angeles is just way expensive, you know. And I couldn't afford a cardboard box out there. Most people can't. Yeah, and so but she loved it here. It took her a little bit to get used to because it is we have two seasons here, hot and hotter. You know, you got to get used to it. Uh.

29:30 Where I live is on the beach. It's closer to the beach. I shouldn't say. Uh, And so you get you get a good breeze, it's not so humid. Yeah, it's still warm. It's still warm. But she she she lets it here. Her daughter lives here now. Uh. You know, my son lives here as well, and he's he's about to finish up college with a math degree of all things. Oh my gosh, not me. Uh uh dude. I struggle, Oh did I struggle. I struggled so hard with calculus in college. I think when I finally finished my finale uh college calculus class, I threw the book down on the ground. I poured kerosene on it and.

30:18 I lit it on. Yeah here, brother, I was Uh. I had a hard time with math back in the day, and I always used to tell my teacher, well, nothing in my life adds up, so why would I move? That makes sense? That makes sense, But eventually things get better. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Math was never my strong suit. Yeah. So what's next after this movie is unveiled? Are you thinking Netflix? Or well, we're hoping. We're hoping. Uh. The producer and I both are kind of hoping for either Netflix or Amazon to buy Uh. He doesn't iTunes is an option, you know, Apple TV, iTunes is an option, but he'd rather not do that. We're hoping just somebody to come out right it's a big bat check, you know, and be done with it.

31:15 Uh. But but you know, we've got the guys behind the scenes, the cameraman and another executive producer. They released a film on Amazon and they they still draw you know, royalties for that, you know. Uh, and and they they you know, they've got some some background into it a little bit, and uh, but we're just kind of right now. He just he the fun I said, the film is prim much done. We've got a few little details we're cleaning up. Uh, you have to get a lot of it. I didn't realize this. If you have to get anybody that's in the film has to sign a waiver, you know, they have to sign a waiver saying they don't need royalties er anything like that from the film. And then we have to get that blessed off by a legal department.

32:10 And then once you do that, you get a publicist and they they will actually shop your film. They will they will bring it to Amazon, and they'll bring it to Netflix, they'll bring it to these different people. And once we do that, you know, once the film is out, you know, we're gonna we're gonna have a little local viewing here for people in my pool league, the a PA, the plate called the APA American Pool Players Association here in my area and let them see it. Because there's a lot of those people that are in the film. And uh, because we shot a lot of pool footage just me playing pool. You know, I play pretty pretty decent, they tell me. And so you know, we got a lot of footage of that. And uh, uh, if we're gonna let them all see it, get their opinions. Uh, we're gonna also take it to some small film festivals apparently, yeah, like you know, like cans, but not that big. Small film festivals and things like that, and uh, we'll see how it does.

33:18 You know. I'm not I'm not looking to be a millionaire up this or anything like that. But I really want to get the message out there about myself that if somebody would know why, you know, you can overcome anything if you if you you know, if you're willing to go for it, if you're willing to put yourself out there, if you're willing to push yourself. You know, I'm I had a great mom, you know, my mom just really there wasn't anything that my mother wouldn't let me try, you know, as far as if I wanted to do it, Okay. Go try and do it. You know. Yeah, you know I've smoked pith, I've done you know, I've done everything. You know, I mean, I lived a full life, you know, and uh, the do ain't wait too much beer probably, but you.

34:06 Know that's another yea. Yeah, yeah, I've cut way back myself. But I like good beer, you know, you beer steak. I'm good to go. You know your brother were separated in two different careers, two generations here. Yeah, I partially did cal and beer, as I call it. Yeah, So yeah, I'm just you know, I'm just really hoping. To finally enjoy some retirement, you know, just away from yeah yeah, for years and years and and uh, I'm finally just recently starting to feel like I'm retired, you know.

34:51 And and I quit work in February. It's just it's just between this film gave when my mom's state, Yeah, Gajinga just gave a little life, you know, just everything coming at me, you know. And and I play pool. I do play pool once a week, and I've got tournaments that I play on weekends sometimes and have a lot of those going on as well. And uh, I've been doing pretty good with those. And so you know, it's it's it's time to you know, the holidays. The holidays are gonna be tough, you know, because my mom's not around, and I'm gonna have to really you know, take a few deep breaths and just barrel through it, you know, so to speak. Uh, I've got my brother back in Mississippi. I'll talk with him a good bit and you know, spend some time in communication with him and his family, and we'll get through it. We'll get through it.

35:46 You know. Oh yeah, I'm just starting to get to that age is where you know, friends are dying and random shit like that. So I had quite a bit of loss, but i'd say probably the last ten years too, so I understand. Yeah, yeah, I. Had a lot of whole lot brothers that passed. You know that just you know, some of them just didn't make it a thirty you know what I mean, just like what that you know? Yeah, uh, you know meny of your siblings have or where you were spontaneous? No, I was the only child. I was the only child. Uh, my parents didn't have any more kids. My my the one daughter for kids. My brother uh and sister is my step brother and stepsister. But they've been in my life, I should say, you nine beg thirty five years now.

36:34 So yeah, they're practically like mine. So yeah, I get that. You know, I've dealt a lot with like I don't know if you remember Seawan Stevenson passing away. Yeah, that was that was a tough one to take, you. Know, Yeah, that whole thing. I didn't get to speak with him very often. We did converse like one time, but uh yeah, I mean what a shitty situation was understood. Then he fell out of a chair. You know, it was his wheelchair. He had. Had chair well just dog. Yeah, they'd just gotten a puppy oho and pump ran off and he grabbed a hold of the leash out of instinct and just took a header and that was it. I took a header in eight from fork left. What were you doing in a forklift?

37:27 It's a funny story. Well, I have had it, brother, We get all the time in the world. In two thousand and eight, I had just got a brand new wheelchair called a Big Boundary and it did twelve and a half miles an hour. Was a very fast chair, at the faster chair of ever owned. And I would be bopping along between buildings at work and the guy at work UHT parked the fort left with the fort sticking out, and you're not supposed to do that. You're supposed to park fork whift with a fort the end and the forts were sticking out. It was next to a vehicle and there was only about twelve inches of the fort sticking out, and I just didn't see it at all. And I clipped it with my front right tire and I went airborne and I came down on the left side of my skull. I really did a number on my skull on my left eye, and I remember very vividly.

38:27 Unfortunately. I opened my eyes and looking back to the to the left there, and I'm seeing my wheelchairs about four feet that way, and I'm on the I'm on the seamen, and I'm thinking to myself, this is not good, not at all. I sat up. One of the guys that I had passed on the side, will come running. Even nice black guy came running, running, running, said oh you're right, and you're right. I'm like, no, I'm not. Okay, he sat me. I think the technical difficulties here, folks bear with me. Oh there we go, get you, get you back. Okay.

39:21 Good. So anyway, I you know, I I open my eyes, I see my wheelchair and I sat up, and I believe nothing but blood out my nose and it was just a crap. I ended up in ICU for twelve or twenty four hours. So you had a full skull for ecture. Yeah, oh yeah. I had what they call symbol orbit orbit around both eyes, right. I blacked both eyes, but my left eye was so full and it was just like almost coming on my skull. It was just so bad. And I wouldn't let anybody take a picture of it because back in two thousand eight camera phones were.

40:04 No. I was like, no, I don't want to do it. No, I don't want to see it. I just don't want to see it. Luckily it all held up and everything. But yeah, I can find out. I was getting sick and they thought it was from the head injury and it wasn't. I'm allergic the morphine, like really allergic to morphine. Oh shit, that sucks. I project thy womit like you wouldn't believe. I mean I threw up on my wife twice. I mean it was just it was ugly. It would get my poor wife. Yeah. I was like, oh man, but but uh yeah, so yeah, that was that was pretty horrific.

40:45 Yeah. The chair, the wheelchair is the funny thing about wheelchair. He got one scratch. I went through all that and it got like one little scratch. I'm like that chair lasted me over sixteen years. Yeah, about six years ago I had a similar situation. Thank god, I didn't break anything in my face. I was. I was playing a gig and there was a nightclub that we were playing at and they had a lowered floor, but it was an old checkered so you couldn't see the depth change and it was like an eight eight inch drop, So I went straight down forward. How I didn't break any I mean I bruised up and sprained a whole bunch of shit. My toes were black and blue like. But how I mean the head rest is actually saved my life. Wow wow, I mean only to select few people know about that. But that's all I did for you. Yeah.

41:46 Yeah, I got an accident in high school, A little bit of an accident. My buddy way that drive around his bretta on the weekends because there's nothing nothing else to do in Mississippi but cruise the strip as we called it. Anyway, he stopped short one day and the bretta and I wasn't wearing a seat belt. I slid out of that seat and just that dashboard with my chest and I had to word barretta mir I had it from my dad for three days until it went out. And you didn't break nothing. No, I buried. I did burn my sternum. It was it wasn't that bad.

42:28 It was it hurt? I had it well, you know, it's one. Of those you know ship. Yeah, but he. You know, he stopped short. He had a truck stopped short in from the hands, so he stopped short. And you know, we're playing it cool, not wearing a seatbelts or anything. Stupid sid ship you do as a kid. Help exactly exactly, No, I get it. Unfortunately, I was always pretty conscious about that kind of stuff. But I was in a car wreck my freshman year of high school. That was pretty bad. Long story short. We were leaving a doctor's appointment, ironically enough, in my town, and woman had just had breast cancer removed and had a full chop down and somehow she was behind the wheel and decided to go around traffic, and my poor mother, thank god she's okay, was ejected to out the driver inside window and the dash caved in, and I clipped my legs and busted both of those and then you can see my left arm still fucked up.

43:49 That was at a ninety degree angle. I put I put the seat belt in my teeth and straightened it myself. Oh yeah, yeah, so that's some rainbow ship for you. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's okay, that's no not me. Yeah yeah, you got my mad respect there bromp. Yeah, now I got a I got a bent pinky not about it, you know. I mean that's iron pretty bent, but that's due to typing class. Okay, yeah, fifth grade. I took the cast office a bit of a teacher. She was a principal wife. And it's keyboarding, right, and we're not it's not real. It's not even typing. It's a keyboarding class. For nine weeks we learned the keyboard and I broke my arm playing pool and she gave me an incomplete because I couldn't type sixteen words a minute by the end of the nine weeks or whatever bullshit.

44:51 And I took the cast off probably too early, because I wanted to get I wanted to complete the freaking class. You know, I'm sitting there tie and typing, my arms killing me. She made me stay after school and all this shit, so my arm ended up curving to a keyboard capability and it was like you know what, yeh got I got the class finished. I still hate that woman. I'm like, you know, she just a bit her husband was faster, and I just didn't have a good time with high school. I hated it. It was you know, I was. I was not popular with the girls. I just didn't.

45:31 I was a geek. I finished third in my class, you know, I was. I had a three eight seventy pa. You know, I was. I was just I did a geek. I just wasn't a social guy, you know, as far as you know, until my senior year. And now I discovered alcohol and oh. Yeah, yeah, I had my first beer fifteen, so that was yeah. No, mine wasn't until eighteenth, you know, I was. I didn't start with beer. I started wrong. Oh ship but yeah, or Booty's Farm, Strawberry Hill. Oh. I'm a still co guy once in a while, not that much though, No.

46:13 I like we like we like our our micro brew beers, you know, the little the fruit, the good, good tasting beer. You know, you can drink one, maybe two, and then okay, I'm done, you know. Yeah. Before occasionally I'll drink High Life, just a Patano. But like, yeah, you know, I'm more of a weed in the mead gay nowadays. Yeah, yeah, well that's that's the other thing. By retirement, now, I could, uh, I occasionally borrow one of my wife's gummies. Oh yeah, I do the same thing. That's I uh, went through a hell of a year with pain management. Yeah, this past year, and you know, being in up here in Comic Choice, it's it's a little difficult. Yeah. They've been starting to really put a taking grip on narcotics because of all the junkies and all that. So the rest of us are getting screwed. They get medical legal there, no, it's legal to hear even recreational now.

47:14 Oh okay, okay, it's just medical here. Unfortunately, they should make we almost pass recreational but not quite. But I mean you can go out to Vegas and get you know whatever real I know, right, you probably don't want either to Yeah. Yeah, so well I usually go to Vegas once a year to shoot pull and so I enjoy it out there. You know. But yeah, my wife, my wife she does gummy. She can't she can't do any uh. Yeah. Yeah. It aggravates her bronchials too. Yeah, the same thing. I had the same problems.

47:55 Yeah, she she the gummies. Man, they're fantastic. I ain't gonna lie to you. They work and taking about twenty five old drummers twice a day oh wow, that takes care of it. Yeah, yeah, she I think she does, like ten maybe. I always put the stereotypical like new Stoner though, like it took me a good four months to get my head to work. Oh that was me in college for a whole. Yeah. I smoke a lot of weed. I got a lot of weed. But uh yeah, yeah. Then I finally got my first job, and that was the first thing they did, you know. I was like, okay, you got that. Listen, you gotta passed.

48:40 I'm like, how long is the last time I smoked? Right? Right? I made it, but yeah, yeah, I didn't touch it for a long long time. When I retired and I'm retired in February. My wife first thing, my wife does, well, you can have some of my dummies now. And I'm like, you're right, that's funny. Yeah. I don't have a many aches and pains though, I really don't. I'm very, very, very fortunate. I mean, I have more anxiety than anything. It helps a lot with that, absolutely, uh you know. And but for its pain pain, no, I don't have a lot.

49:25 I do use a seapout at night. I don't know if you do or not, do you? Yeah? I should, but I had a hard time with it. Really. I've used one for over fifteen years, and I swear about it. In the first six months, I didn't get a wing to sleep. Really. Yeah, I love mine, man, I have to put that thing on within ten minutes, I'm out, I'm going, you know, and I sleep so good I wake up. I don't have that got god awful headache. I don't have it. That just the drag, you know. I was able to get some weight off too. That helped a lot. That's my big issue now. I need to lose about fifteen pounds. Yeah. I got up to one hundred and three at my biggest.

50:10 Oh, I'm about one hundred and fifteen right now. Yeah, I need to get back down below one hundred. Yeah, I'm down in ninety six now. Doing the carnival for you? Good for you. Were you doing like Tito or are you doing mostly carnivore? So it's but yeah, yeah you carnivore. You the same thing. Yeah, yeah, doughnut, that's for damish. I know. Uh, I'm a sugar aholic, dude. I'm like the poster Madget for diabetes. Oh, I love my I love my cookies. You know. I love my candy. Yeah, yeah, I kick that. It was really good.

50:51 It is I solda have it really hard to kick? Yeah, I gotta do it. I gotta do it. Whatever I found that flavored water is probably your best bet. Yeah, yeah, I found I found a new flavored water, so I like. Yeah, stick with that and just one day could say yeah. Oh mad, Yeah yeah, I like. I like eating that way too. That's my gear. Oh I love it if I could get my hands on it. Yeah, I'm pretty lucky. Both my uncle's hunt, so I get spoiled you. Yeah, I love oh, I love dear sausage.

51:34 Or a good backstrap and state, you know, making my mouth water think about it, my brother. Yeah, it's good stuff. It's just real good. It's healthy too. It's real lean. Well yeah, it's it's the most lean meat you could get practically. You know much. Yeah yeah, but yeah. My brother, Uh, my mom's whole place. They've killed three year already this year, you know, and it's like, god, man, I wish I could be up there and get some of that. Yeah. Yeah, I love the taste of it too. Yeah. I think, Uh, once the studio and construction is done and we're going to get a new fire pit from back at my folks house and uh there you go do a little uh dear cookoffs for the brand.

52:22 Yeah, that'll be good. Ye make you some chili, make you some deer chili. I love that stuff too. Oh me too, me too, Man, it's good. It's stuff right home. So yeah, so you think within you said the early part of the year. Yeah, we're hoping to really head it out, no later than February March conferary. You know, we really it's pretty much finalized. It's just getting uh there's a few signatures we gotta get. Uh. We got to finish up some some minor pieces of like the credits and uh, a couple of blurbs of images.

53:04 He got some really good interview with the doctor in Maryland that talks about their lives. Some really good, really really nice, not too campy, you know. Back there, he's got some footage from the nineteen seventies talking about education and equality issues. Because I had a lot of problems in public education, you know, Like I said, I was in that mentally handicapped class and then they tried to tell me I couldn't use my electric wheelchair in school and just evy, bullshit, ridiculous. I learned. I learned at six years old that you know, people will try to get something over you. They try to you know. You know, I like to joke I'm the king of fuck around and find out, you know, because I will speak up and I will you know, assert myself in situations, and so you know, it's just I want, but I want the film to it focuses on some of that, some of my fool playing, some about me just in general, you know, to give to give other a liars.

54:16 You know. You get all these parents and they're just like they just have a kid with a eye, and they get all, Oh, what's he gonna do? Oh what can he do in life? Oh? I don't know, you know, and I just want to smack the stupid out of them. He's still a person, he's gonna You gotta let him face adversity. You gotta let him figure out how to overcome that adversity. You know, you can't. You're not gonna ri forever as a parent. You just not, you know. And that's the bit that's been something Oh sorry about that. Yeah, Oh you know that's something you've got to hopefully mistill in your kids is how to cope with life without you? How are they going to do life without you as a parent?

55:07 You know? And hopefully they they can do something, you know. Yeah, so well, I think it was never a matter of whether or not I could do something. It was just a matter of finding out what the right fit was. Yeah. Well, I to me, it sounds like you got your ship together. Man. You've got a lot of You've got a lot of hands and different cookie yards that I don't even have, you know, and you you play guitar. Man, I'm gelling a ship of that. I can't calme a tune in a bucket, you know what I mean. I was a radio DJ and I love that. Yeah, and I enjoyed doing this well, I guess stuff because I was hoping to get into radio before it went all downhill.

55:50 Yeah yeah, well it's it's all it's all online radio now. Yeah. Uh But uh, I collect music, like I said, I'm really I have over eleven hundred pieces of vinyl and it's I have such a variety of music that was just you wouldn't believe it. I mean, from all the way back playlist is the most bipolar thing in the world. My spastic data though, from b be King, the Assie, the you know, here comes eminem you know, I mean just all over the place. Yeah, I was doing shuffles the other day and it went from Cannibal Corpse to Michael Jackson in five minutes.

56:35 That right, that's fucked up. Really yeah. Yeah, but you know I'm that way. I'm just all over the place. But if it's got to beat, you know, if I could, if I can enjoy it and it takes me to another place or help me mentally, you. Know, so be it. You know, you got all these all these people these days. I don't know if you payt inning and attention to the country music sing a little bit, you know, they get all they get all hang about, you know, Shaboozie and Kelly Roll and all this, you know, and post Malone all that much. Just leave me alone.

57:15 It's good music for you, you know, if you like your old stuff. Great, it was wonderful. Don't not. What's you know, what's good? You know. I mean there's a lot of out there, but there's a lot of good stuff too. There's a lot of crap, you know, you know, the Beyonce thing. I'm a little about you know, but the song, you know, well, the song was catchy. You gotta admit, you know that the song was catchy. But she knows, no, they wasn't exactly it wasn't any you know, I don't know if you listen to uh. Oh, what's the guy? He's an independent artist, white guy from he's originally from Camp know that, and him and his girlfriend. Ah, it's gonna drive me crazy. Suck's getting old, by the way forgetting ship you thought you would never forget in your life.

58:17 And uh, anyway, this guy really talented rapper, but he he's he's all over the place. He's he's even got some country ish music and some but he's more to me, he's more eminem type rat, you know, he's more that's more of his forte. He's very political, but he's he's more middle finger poetical. Tom McDonald, that's the man that sounds. Yeah. Yeah, it is really good, really good. I was turned on him about four years ago, and I think I bought everything he's produced so far, you know, and he I just think he just you know, he's out there. He does his own thing.

59:00 Yeah, that's definitely one guy I'd love to collaborate. With Oh yeah, yeah, and I bet he would. I bet he would. You know, if I had a way I could reach into him. I do it for you, you know, But I mean just you know, you got to do your own thing. You know, we're unique OI and we're a unique people, you know, and so we we got to play with that. You know. We've gotta use the diadvantage. You know. Yeah, And I think you know, like I said, know that I'm a little bit older, and you know, when I was younger, it was more of living in spite of the LOWI rather than because of it, right, right, And you know, now I'm older and more mature and realizing the connections actually matter. Yeah, And because I I was pretty much a big fish in a small pond for a long time when it came to you know, because a token midget or whatever you know, in my area and whatnot, and the novelty you know I started my music career definitely helped. But now that I pretty much played everywhere and when you're England, you know, the novelties wore it off. So I gotta get the hell out of Dodge.

1:00:12 You you gotta find a new avenue. You change it up somehow. Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, having an announcement within the next couple of days. But we got some big news regarding the band coming up. So cool cool, yeah. So hopefully this time next year I'll be down your way playing fun. Oh yeah, definitely, Yeah, we cheat. I appreciate the time. We're definitely this is the beginning of a very good friendship. I can tell and appreciate your time and keep me posted and we'll we'll definitely put a link on the website to get to your film when you tell us. All right, I appreciate that, Josh and great man by I said, we're definitely brothers of a different generation. I definitely think that.

1:00:56 You know well, you stay safe, have a great holl theay despite it all. Yeah, and uh, we'll. Be in touch yep, stay warned. Yes sir, alright, hard folks, we'll catch you next time. Mm hmmmmmm h m