Speaker 1: So we've got country music star in the house, John
Speaker 1: Ridge on this episode. I'm sure you've seen. He's got
Speaker 1: a new song called Progress where he calls out all
Speaker 1: this woke crap that's ruining the country, ruining America, ruining
Speaker 1: everything that this country stands for, our values, freedom, liberty,
Speaker 1: and just utter destruction is what the left is trying
Speaker 1: to do. So he's got a new song about that.
Speaker 1: And what's really cool is he released the song on Truth,
Speaker 1: Social and Rumble rather than going you know, the traditional route,
Speaker 1: and guess what, it's sword to number one on the
Speaker 1: Apple iTunes chart within our So I love the fact
Speaker 1: he did that. He bypassed the machine and he beat
Speaker 1: the machine. Also, you know, it's really cool. So he
Speaker 1: he gives a percentage of all his proceeds from his
Speaker 1: Redneck Rivereria brand. He's got a bunch of things like
Speaker 1: you know, barbecue, sauce, whiskey, all these different things. He
Speaker 1: gives a percentage of that two folds of honor. How
Speaker 1: cool is that? I love that he does that. So
Speaker 1: he's a good dude. He's had you know, tremendous success
Speaker 1: in his career in country music and a variety of
Speaker 1: other things. He's got a bar in Nashville as well,
Speaker 1: so he's done a ton of stuff. Cool guy. We're
Speaker 1: going to talk to him about his new song and
Speaker 1: so much more. Stay with us for John Reach Country
Speaker 1: music star John Ridge. It's such an honor to have
Speaker 1: you on the show. I wanted to tell you I
Speaker 1: really respect your bravery because we really do live in
Speaker 1: this society where you know, telling you the truth comes
Speaker 1: at a cost. Uh, so I appreciate the fact that
Speaker 1: you do that. Well, it's uh at this point, I
Speaker 1: don't know what what it serves anybody to keep your
Speaker 1: mouth shut and censor yourself. You know, we speak to
Speaker 1: truth and if they want to sense to you what,
Speaker 1: that's on them. But self censorship, to me, is a
Speaker 1: real problem in our country that people are so afraid
Speaker 1: to even even try it because somebody's going to call
Speaker 1: him a bad name or kick him off of the
Speaker 1: platform or whatever. Well, that should not be enough of
Speaker 1: a reason for you to sacrifice your own freedom of speech.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of the attitude I have, and that
Speaker 1: that's why I keep coming like I do. Well, I
Speaker 1: love it, and then that's why I wanted to have
Speaker 1: you on. You know, Dave chappelsa that recently, and I
Speaker 1: love because obviously he gets hit on the trans jokes
Speaker 1: he tells, and he said, the more you say I
Speaker 1: can't say something, the more urgent it is for me
Speaker 1: to say. And I feel like that's where we are
Speaker 1: right now, right and you get it obviously with the
Speaker 1: new song that we're going to get into of the
Speaker 1: fact that now is the time to speak out and
Speaker 1: now is the time to be bold. Well, can you
Speaker 1: imagine if the founding fathers had not spoken out? Can
Speaker 1: you imagine if you go back and look at the
Speaker 1: Declaration of Independence and those people that signed that document,
Speaker 1: they all knew that if the British Empire ever found them,
Speaker 1: they were gonna hang them, shoot them, burn their houses down,
Speaker 1: enslave their families, rased them from the history of the earth.
Speaker 1: That's what they were up against. And they signed it anyway.
Speaker 1: You old John Hancock, I wish I could have known
Speaker 1: that guy. He's like, give me that pen, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: sign a triple bid, man, I'm gonna make sure they
Speaker 1: don't miss my name at all. That's the attitude that
Speaker 1: they had to found the country. Liberty or death was
Speaker 1: not a hashtag or a bumper sticker, or a T
Speaker 1: shirt or a ball cap or a website. Liberty or
Speaker 1: death was the attitude that took to build the country,
Speaker 1: and they were willing to risk at all for future generations. Well,
Speaker 1: who's the future generation? Us? The ones of us talking
Speaker 1: right now on this podcast, all the people listening to
Speaker 1: this podcast. It's us that they were doing that for.
Speaker 1: So who are we to sit here as the benefactors
Speaker 1: of all the risk that they took to only go
Speaker 1: You know what, I'm not gonna say it because I
Speaker 1: might get kicked off at Twitter. I'm not gonna say
Speaker 1: it because somebody will give me a dirty look at work.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna say it because it might hurt my
Speaker 1: business a little bit. Really, that's what we're worried about.
Speaker 1: I think as Americans, we've got to remember whose shoulders
Speaker 1: were standing on and we need to act like it.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad you said that, because, I mean, look,
Speaker 1: I've always loved this country. I've always been proud to
Speaker 1: be American. But it really kind of took COVID and
Speaker 1: some of the things that we've been dealing with as
Speaker 1: a society just to sort of revisit American history and
Speaker 1: realize what makes this country great. Realize how precious freedom is,
Speaker 1: liberty is, and how fleeting it is because I, you know,
Speaker 1: really before a lot of this stuff, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I I for whatever reason, thought somehow we were immune
Speaker 1: to some of this stuff because we are Americans. But
Speaker 1: but we're not. And we've really seen that. And it's
Speaker 1: as sad to see. Yeah, and Americans, a lot of
Speaker 1: Americans anyway, lack perspective. You know, it's been a long
Speaker 1: long time since our freedom was actually threatened, which in
Speaker 1: my opinion was World War Two. That's the last time
Speaker 1: it was actually threatened. If we hadn't beat Hitler, Mussolini
Speaker 1: and Imperial Japan, if we would have lost that war,
Speaker 1: you'd have a very different America today, very different. But
Speaker 1: they did what they had to do and and and
Speaker 1: one a war on both sides of the earth simultaneously
Speaker 1: to get us to the point we are today. But
Speaker 1: everybody that's alive today, nobody has any touchstone back to
Speaker 1: the World War two era. Nobody remembers that. I mean,
Speaker 1: all of our World War two bets now are in
Speaker 1: the late nineties hundred. Nobody's around that remembers that, and
Speaker 1: I think that the complacency has sat in over these
Speaker 1: over these many decades, with Americans thinking, yeah, we're free
Speaker 1: and we'll always be free and go America. But what
Speaker 1: we fail to realize is is there's all kinds of
Speaker 1: factions of people. There's international factions, but there's internal factions
Speaker 1: inside of our country that would really like to see
Speaker 1: this country come under control. You know, they'd really like
Speaker 1: to see America have to be on its knee so
Speaker 1: it has to reach up for help so they can
Speaker 1: take full control of the most powerful country in the world.
Speaker 1: That's really the point here, and we've been blind and
Speaker 1: deaf to it, just rolling on a about our business,
Speaker 1: thinking now that's not going on. Nobody would ever do that.
Speaker 1: Why would you want to mess up America? Nobody want
Speaker 1: to mess up America. We're the greatest, Well, we are
Speaker 1: the greatest, but there's a lot of people that to
Speaker 1: get what they want to see happen, come to fruition.
Speaker 1: America has got to be down on its knee for
Speaker 1: that to happen. And I believe that's where we found
Speaker 1: ourselves today. And instead of the great reset, I do
Speaker 1: believe it is a great awakening as scary as it
Speaker 1: is and as nasty as it is to go through.
Speaker 1: I think that Americans, from both sides of the political aisle,
Speaker 1: from all different walks of life, are all experiencing the
Speaker 1: same pain at the same time. And I said this
Speaker 1: to the day on Twitter. I said, America is finding
Speaker 1: unity in the pain right now. As bad as that
Speaker 1: is to say, if there's a silver lining to what's
Speaker 1: going on, Americans are finally waking up and going, hang
Speaker 1: on a minute, are these people trying to railroad our country?
Speaker 1: Because it's sure as hell looks like it, and we're going, yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's what they're trying to do, and one
Speaker 1: of us want to see that happen. So it's an
Speaker 1: interesting time, and even it's the most important time I
Speaker 1: think right now to be outspoken, to not let them
Speaker 1: scare you into submission. Do not take the knee. Uh.
Speaker 1: They've built their machine. There are ways around their machine.
Speaker 1: We can still exist and succeed and thrive without using
Speaker 1: their machines. And as an artist and an entrepreneur guy,
Speaker 1: that's kind of what I'm out to prove to everybody
Speaker 1: that it can be done well. And I love that
Speaker 1: you did that because you did that with this song Progress,
Speaker 1: and we're gonna play a clip here just in a minute.
Speaker 1: But what I love about how you released it is
Speaker 1: you released it on Truth, Social and Rumble and within
Speaker 1: hours it's stored to the number one Apple Tunes charts.
Speaker 1: So you're able to beat the machine and do it
Speaker 1: your own way. And I love that. I love that
Speaker 1: you did that way. Yeah, it was. It was a
Speaker 1: risky thing to do. I can promise you that had
Speaker 1: I run that idea by the people I work with,
Speaker 1: my managers and people, really smart guys, they would have said, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's not a good way to probably have the most success, John,
Speaker 1: because think of all the people you're cutting out by
Speaker 1: not going to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. But the song says,
Speaker 1: one of the lines says, they shut down our voices,
Speaker 1: they shut down our main street, they shut down our voices. Well,
Speaker 1: the voices who shut them down, who I'm referring to,
Speaker 1: are the liberal platforms YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the like.
Speaker 1: And I thought, you know, it would be awful hypocritical
Speaker 1: of me to put a song out like this railing
Speaker 1: against those platforms, those systems, but then use those same
Speaker 1: systems to go promote a song. I mean to me,
Speaker 1: that just seemed like double talk, which I can't stand
Speaker 1: people that double talk. Althought, well, I may not have
Speaker 1: as good a chance of of this thing going to
Speaker 1: number one, but I'll do it the right way, and hey,
Speaker 1: you never know, maybe I'll be surprised. And within six
Speaker 1: hours of launching this song only on True Social and Rumble,
Speaker 1: within six hours it had displaced Lizzo and Bill the
Speaker 1: Eilish out of the number one and two spots in progress.
Speaker 1: And this is with no record label, no marketing funds, nothing,
Speaker 1: no industry support whatsoever. In six hours, it's sitting at
Speaker 1: number one. And I just looked at that and went,
Speaker 1: holy cal look at that. It's possible. And it kind
Speaker 1: of speaks to where people are, right because obviously this
Speaker 1: struck a chord with people. People listen to the song
Speaker 1: and they said, I feel this, this is how I
Speaker 1: feel right now, which is why it was able to
Speaker 1: rise to number one. So, I mean, I think a
Speaker 1: lot of Americans listened to it. I know I did
Speaker 1: and said, yeah, I I agree, this is where we are.
Speaker 1: You know, Like, does the phrase ding ding ding come
Speaker 1: into play when you hear that? It does? Also, it
Speaker 1: was funny when you're talking about how you know, if
Speaker 1: you ran the idea by your team, they you don't
Speaker 1: really strike me as the kind of guy, you know,
Speaker 1: even if they're like, hey, John, this isn't in your interest,
Speaker 1: you don't really strike me as the kind of guy
Speaker 1: to you know, say all right, we're not going to
Speaker 1: do it. You strike me, You strike me as the
Speaker 1: kind of guy who's going to do it. Anyways, if
Speaker 1: you think it's the right thing, you would be correct
Speaker 1: in that assumption, especially now. I think listen, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of a lot of songwriters, singers, uh, movie producers,
Speaker 1: all kinds are really talented people that have content that
Speaker 1: they know if they put it on the big platforms,
Speaker 1: it's gonna get it's gonna get cut down. They just
Speaker 1: know it, and then they're right about that. So this
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I'm gonna be a Daniel Boone here
Speaker 1: for a minute. I'm gonna pioneer out here for a second.
Speaker 1: And instead of taking advantage of all these platforms, let's
Speaker 1: just don't do it and see if we can see
Speaker 1: if we can compete at a really high level without
Speaker 1: using them. Is it even possible? And that's that's a
Speaker 1: hell of a question, and we just proved yes, it's
Speaker 1: not only possible, you can, you can thrive with that.
Speaker 1: And what I found is that the the outpouring of
Speaker 1: support is maybe even more at this point because they realized, Man,
Speaker 1: he didn't go, he didn't go with those big machines.
Speaker 1: He didn't yell at the machine and then use the machine.
Speaker 1: He yelled at the machine and then walked away from
Speaker 1: the machine. And still one. And I think people appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I hope other content creators look at this and go, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's possible, because I can promise you true social rumble.
Speaker 1: Those platforms they are they are wanting to hit the
Speaker 1: gas pedal behind content creators that are putting out really
Speaker 1: really excellent pieces. They want to get behind them and
Speaker 1: blow them up. If we're in a culture war, which
Speaker 1: we are, how do you keep track if you're making
Speaker 1: any progress or not to play upon on that word,
Speaker 1: the real progress, Well, if you can take pieces away
Speaker 1: from them, take away their prize property. And in the
Speaker 1: world of music, the most prize property out there is
Speaker 1: the number one sales position. That's the big one. Because
Speaker 1: there's no bigger vote of confidence than for somebody to
Speaker 1: hit that download button and they spend a buck twenty nine.
Speaker 1: You know, it's not a free stream or something like that.
Speaker 1: They have to pay a little bit of buck twenty nine,
Speaker 1: but they do it and they download. If that's the
Speaker 1: ultimate confirmation that you're having impact, that's the price property
Speaker 1: that the music industry has. So for us to be
Speaker 1: sitting there right now is a huge statement. I so
Speaker 1: respect you doing that, and I want to play clip
Speaker 1: right now for the for the audience at home. Let's
Speaker 1: play clip. There's a whole in this country where it's
Speaker 1: hard used to be. No glory is divided on our
Speaker 1: industry to see building back. Then make America grace. If
Speaker 1: that's a weave of the future left you say, stick
Speaker 1: your pros where the song, then sun keep beings. I
Speaker 1: love that line there's a hole in this country where
Speaker 1: the heart used to be because I think a lot
Speaker 1: of US Americans, you know, that's basically this conversation we've
Speaker 1: been having is how do people not love this country?
Speaker 1: You know, we live in the greatest country in the
Speaker 1: world and we're just sitting there watching all these people
Speaker 1: on the left have no respect for it and no
Speaker 1: respect for the people who have laid down their lives
Speaker 1: to preserve the freedoms that we have now. And it's
Speaker 1: just like to your point, you know, there's a whole
Speaker 1: in this country where it's hurt eis to be. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: they sure as hell love it when they get arrested
Speaker 1: in Russia, don't they. You find yourself in handcuffs in
Speaker 1: a in a socialist, communist country, and you're begging your
Speaker 1: country to take you back when you just got through
Speaker 1: trash in our flag on a national platform and talking
Speaker 1: smack about the red, white, and blue up in front
Speaker 1: of God and everybody. But you get yourself in a
Speaker 1: bind in a communist country, and who are you calling daddy?
Speaker 1: You're calling your mama, Hey, come get me out. I
Speaker 1: can't be stuck here. Really, I think you're where you
Speaker 1: wanted to be. You know, you trash, You trash the
Speaker 1: country you live in. You don't respect that, you don't
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Now you're finding out what other countries are
Speaker 1: all about. Oh yeah, you don't have freedom over there,
Speaker 1: do you know? You don't. You got to due process? No, no,
Speaker 1: you don't. Uh that to me, that is such a
Speaker 1: poignant thing to see that athlete arrested and uh and
Speaker 1: Communist Russia uh and watched her beg for America to
Speaker 1: come bail her out after she just got through trashing US.
Speaker 1: I said earlier Lisa that a lot of Americans lacked perspective.
Speaker 1: And what I mean by that they haven't been around
Speaker 1: the world. I've had I've had the ability to travel
Speaker 1: all over the planet and sing music everywhere. I've sang
Speaker 1: it in I've sing it in Central America, the Middle East,
Speaker 1: i sing it in places in Europe, South America, Asia.
Speaker 1: I've been all over the place. And you see people
Speaker 1: living in situations and you go, now, I can't wait
Speaker 1: to get back home. I mean, wow, I can't believe
Speaker 1: people dealing with this every single day of their life
Speaker 1: and you get back home. Go. Man. We're not perfect,
Speaker 1: but we are head and shoulders above everybody else. And
Speaker 1: that's why everybody wants to live in America. That's why
Speaker 1: we got lines coming in and no lines going out,
Speaker 1: and we never will have lines going out ever in
Speaker 1: this country. And so they lacked perspective until they ultimately
Speaker 1: get it, which is what that athletes having right now,
Speaker 1: A big dose of perspective. Please unveil me out, America.
Speaker 1: I don't hate you anymore. Okay, it's a little late
Speaker 1: for that, sister, but uh okay, yeah, it's a little
Speaker 1: late for that. And it also just shows these people
Speaker 1: have no idea what they're talking about, right, like that
Speaker 1: they want to hate America at your point, they don't
Speaker 1: have that perspective, you know, they have no idea, They
Speaker 1: have no idea what the alternative looks like, and we
Speaker 1: certainly don't want to find out. Quit commercial break and
Speaker 1: back with country music star John Redge. I was reading this.
Speaker 1: I love this about because in addition to country music,
Speaker 1: and you've done so much with your career. You've done
Speaker 1: you know, television, You've got your red Neck Revera bar
Speaker 1: in Nashville, You've got your entire brand, the red Neck
Speaker 1: Revera brand. But I was reading this, which I loved
Speaker 1: how you used to be a Crown royal guy and
Speaker 1: then he found out it was Canadian blended whiskey and
Speaker 1: you're like, well, now I'm doing my own thing, which
Speaker 1: is American. So I like, I read that and I
Speaker 1: was like, I have to bring this up. I freaking
Speaker 1: love this, so so talk about that and yeah, get
Speaker 1: into that. I love it. Yeah. Well, so that was
Speaker 1: we had a song save a horse ride a cowboy.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows that because by the bar a double round
Speaker 1: a crown and everybody's getting down. Well, so me and
Speaker 1: Big Kenny, that was our go to drink was Crown
Speaker 1: Royal to a little cocaine at Crown Royal. That that's
Speaker 1: what we drank. So we we sang about it, you know,
Speaker 1: and one of our biggest songs. And one day I'm
Speaker 1: looking at that bottle Canadian blended whiskey. And when I
Speaker 1: went through such a thing as American blended whiskey, because
Speaker 1: if there is, I don't know what it would be.
Speaker 1: So I started going to liquor stores. We'd be out
Speaker 1: on the road, i'd have the afternoon off. I'd walk
Speaker 1: in somewhere in Iowa, you know, or Virginia. Hey, buddy,
Speaker 1: can you show me where you're American blended whiskey is?
Speaker 1: And every time I got the same answer, I don't
Speaker 1: think we have anything called that. I'm like, really, in
Speaker 1: this whole store, no, I'm not aware of anything called that.
Speaker 1: And I realized nobody had done that, and so I said, well,
Speaker 1: I don't really know how to go about it other
Speaker 1: than just jump in and try to figure it out,
Speaker 1: so in I linked up with a great master distiller
Speaker 1: and said, here's what I'm trying to do, trying to
Speaker 1: beat Crown Royal with an American blend, nothing else other
Speaker 1: than American whiskey, and it's got to be it's got
Speaker 1: to be superior to what I've been drinking. So we
Speaker 1: worked on it for a year, put it out in
Speaker 1: and we are now in over thirteen thousand stores throughout
Speaker 1: the United States, where we are in all the big
Speaker 1: blue ship grocery stores. Uh ten percent of everything I
Speaker 1: make goes to Folds of Honor putting kids through college.
Speaker 1: You lost a parent in combat. All my all my
Speaker 1: bottles have the Fold of Honor logo on them. And
Speaker 1: it's been a it's a runaway success. It's growing faster
Speaker 1: than almost than I can keep up with it. But
Speaker 1: it proves the point against that the brand this song,
Speaker 1: it is an underserved population that we have of people
Speaker 1: that love their country. They work really hard, they protect
Speaker 1: their families, They want they want more for their families
Speaker 1: than they had, but they're not getting the content that
Speaker 1: they want because the entertainment industry is not gonna let
Speaker 1: them have it. So it's it's a rare thing that
Speaker 1: you would ever hear a song like Progress come out
Speaker 1: because it's coming from a guy me who doesn't have
Speaker 1: a record deal, doesn't have a publishing deal. That's on purpose.
Speaker 1: I stepped away from them on purpose because I wanted
Speaker 1: to be able to say what I want to say.
Speaker 1: I didn't want them telling me what what I could
Speaker 1: and could not sing about or write about. So I'm
Speaker 1: in kind of a rare situation. There's a lot of
Speaker 1: country artists that would love to put out songs like Progress,
Speaker 1: but they can't. If if I had a record deal
Speaker 1: right now, Lisa, you would have never heard this song.
Speaker 1: That's a fact. Well, first of all, I need to
Speaker 1: go to your bar in Nashville. I went to the
Speaker 1: University of Tennessee, but it's been a little while since
Speaker 1: I've been back to the state. I need to do that.
Speaker 1: But you know, I was gonna how are you? How
Speaker 1: are you received? How am I received in Nashville? Will
Speaker 1: it depend? Are like the country music scene? I mean, like,
Speaker 1: how how is it? You know? You talked about kind
Speaker 1: of going your own way, which I deeply deeply respect.
Speaker 1: I'm the black sheet, but that family, uh, the record
Speaker 1: labels that they've all been their conglomerates. At this point,
Speaker 1: you've only got like four major companies that own of
Speaker 1: the labels. You've got Universal, Sony, Warner Brothers. You know,
Speaker 1: it's it's very, very tight. And the people that are
Speaker 1: at the head of the food chain, top of the
Speaker 1: food chain, on those giant companies, they dictate the policy
Speaker 1: of those labels. You know, it used to be that
Speaker 1: they would sign artists because the artists would say things
Speaker 1: that they thought would cut through the noise and really
Speaker 1: have an impact on the crowd, and that's you sell
Speaker 1: the most records. But nowadays, if an artist comes with
Speaker 1: something that's against what the head of the label or
Speaker 1: whoever personally believes, well, then the artist has to sacrifice
Speaker 1: what it is they really wanted to say to placate
Speaker 1: the record label. And it's an interesting dichotomy because the
Speaker 1: audience of country music in a large part uh they
Speaker 1: they are leaning. I'm not gonna say they're all conservatives,
Speaker 1: because they're not, but they lean that way. They're patriotic,
Speaker 1: they support the military, their police, their family people, their
Speaker 1: blue coll or the middle income. That's who they are.
Speaker 1: And so you see a song like Progress come out
Speaker 1: and it's blowing up and they're not hearing it on
Speaker 1: their country radio station. Leave, So it's country radio is
Speaker 1: not playing this song. Country radio has also been brought
Speaker 1: up by everybody. There's only three or four companies that
Speaker 1: own nine of our country radio stations. So between the
Speaker 1: radio stations being brought up and the record labels being
Speaker 1: owned by just a very few companies, it's they've got
Speaker 1: a they've got a chokehold on art. They've got a
Speaker 1: chokehold on what gets released and what gets played. And
Speaker 1: I'm just one of these guys that's outside of their
Speaker 1: system now that still has an audience, and my boy
Speaker 1: still works, thank goodness, and I can still write a
Speaker 1: pretty good song, and I've got a way to get
Speaker 1: to people, you know. So I'm a little bit of
Speaker 1: a uh, I don't know. I'm I'm a special case,
Speaker 1: I guess at this point. And again that's a responsibility too.
Speaker 1: You know, if I know that they're gonna hate it
Speaker 1: music row is gonna hate it, You're not gonna be
Speaker 1: invited any more parties. Well that's probably true. But what's
Speaker 1: more important to me my freedom of speech or the
Speaker 1: approval of the music industry. Well, I can tell you
Speaker 1: the answer real quick. It's my freedom of speech. I've
Speaker 1: got two sons that are ten and twelve. They're growing
Speaker 1: up watching Dad like a hawk, and I don't want
Speaker 1: to be the guy that yells at the TV. But
Speaker 1: then when I go out and do my business, I
Speaker 1: played Pattycake with all the people that I was just
Speaker 1: yelling at on the TV. That's being hypocritical, and I
Speaker 1: want my boys to go now, Dad held the line
Speaker 1: inside the house, outside the house, right out the open,
Speaker 1: I mean, right now, Lisa, I'm leaning in to the
Speaker 1: onslaught of hatred that's coming my way. But but to me,
Speaker 1: the fact that they hate it is validation that I
Speaker 1: said it correctly. If they liked what I had to say,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I just
Speaker 1: truly respect what you're doing and the way you're going
Speaker 1: about this, and I have sort of similarly come to
Speaker 1: a conclusion that you can't speak the truth and say
Speaker 1: what needs to be said and be accepted by society.
Speaker 1: It's one or the other. You know, you you either
Speaker 1: sell out, get a pat the head from the left
Speaker 1: in society and you lie and you don't tell the truth,
Speaker 1: and you don't see what needs to be said, or
Speaker 1: you know you speak the truth and you know you're
Speaker 1: you're going to be an outcast, But I I so,
Speaker 1: I I totally agree with you, know your perspective, and
Speaker 1: you know what, You're not an outcast. They want to
Speaker 1: make you think you're going to be an outcast? Am
Speaker 1: I an outcast? Sitting at number one right now on iTunes?
Speaker 1: Am I an outcast? No? I'm an outcast to them?
Speaker 1: Well good, I want to be cast out of that crowd.
Speaker 1: I don't do not want to associate with them, just
Speaker 1: like they don't want to associate with me. I don't
Speaker 1: want to be a part of that machine. But I'm
Speaker 1: definitely not an outcast. Look, there's millions of people right
Speaker 1: now consuming this song. They're feeling great about the song,
Speaker 1: that blasting it all over the place. Um, they just
Speaker 1: want to make you think that you're going to be
Speaker 1: an outcast. And at the end of the day, there's
Speaker 1: only there's really only two entities that need to approve
Speaker 1: of what you're doing as an individual. Number one is
Speaker 1: your maker, God needs to approve of it. He's the
Speaker 1: one you want to had on the back from. And
Speaker 1: number two is yourself. You will sleep good at night
Speaker 1: knowing you were true to your voice and true to
Speaker 1: what he wanted you to do, and you took the heat,
Speaker 1: you took the licks, and you kept on coming. When
Speaker 1: you lay your head down at night, you can have
Speaker 1: a grint on your face going, Yep, I didn't make
Speaker 1: everybody happy, but that wasn't the point. I think we
Speaker 1: did what we were supposed to do, and that's that's
Speaker 1: where I come from. I agree with what you're saying.
Speaker 1: I guess what I was saying is, you know it
Speaker 1: there is, you know, a cost to it in the
Speaker 1: sense of I've had you know, friends and families sort
Speaker 1: of you know, ending relationships over some of the things
Speaker 1: I've said, or not getting the vaccine and things of that.
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't regret it. I'm not going to stop. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you can stop. I believe what I believe and
Speaker 1: I hold those core values and I'm willing to take
Speaker 1: whatever comes my way or or professional you know, I've
Speaker 1: walked away from, you know, professional things that could have
Speaker 1: been good for my career because I didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't want to make decisions that would have compromised
Speaker 1: my belief. So I'm with you that that was the
Speaker 1: only point I was making. But but you're right, you
Speaker 1: know you week good at night? I do? You know
Speaker 1: I do because I do believe that what I'm doing. No,
Speaker 1: I I'm glad you said that. I do. I believe
Speaker 1: that what I'm saying is right, and I believe it
Speaker 1: to my core. And you know, I'm willing to to
Speaker 1: take whatever comes as a result of speaking the truth.
Speaker 1: So that's why I just I so respect your approach
Speaker 1: and the way you talk about things and what you're doing.
Speaker 1: You know, I wanted to ask you how did you
Speaker 1: get into all this? So I know that you were
Speaker 1: born in Texas and you grew up in Tennessee. How
Speaker 1: do you get into country music to beginning? How hard
Speaker 1: is that? I imagine it's really really tough to to
Speaker 1: even break into the industry. Well, so, my dad is
Speaker 1: a preacher. He started appreciating it was nineteen years old. UM,
Speaker 1: and he's never been one of those big church preachers
Speaker 1: because he's way too hardcore when he preaches. He's not
Speaker 1: a kind of preacher you can listen to every week. Um.
Speaker 1: He's more of that evangelist style. A matter of fact,
Speaker 1: a lot of his preaching has happened in third world countries,
Speaker 1: where it's happened in prisons in the United States. He
Speaker 1: still preaches in prisons today to be seventy here in
Speaker 1: a couple of days, still going at it. And and
Speaker 1: it's also a really great singer and great guitar player.
Speaker 1: So he would he would go a guitar around his neck.
Speaker 1: My dad checked this out. He went to thirty two
Speaker 1: Marty Gross, Dirty two Marty Gross and stood on the
Speaker 1: street corner in the French Quarter with a guitar around
Speaker 1: his neck, singing gospel songs while people were throwing stuff
Speaker 1: at him, spitting on him. And then he would preach.
Speaker 1: And I said, Dad, why would you keep standing there
Speaker 1: with people spitting all of you. There's one picture I
Speaker 1: saw that I saw something running. It looked like sweat
Speaker 1: on his guitar. I said, well, we must have been
Speaker 1: hot that day you were sweating. He goes, no, it's
Speaker 1: in February. He goes, that's spit. I go what. He goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's spit running off my guitar. Ago from them spitting
Speaker 1: at you. He goes yeah. I said, why would you
Speaker 1: keep doing it? He goes, because about one out of
Speaker 1: a hundred of them would stop and asked me what
Speaker 1: I was talking about. And so it wasn't about being comfortable,
Speaker 1: it wasn't about being popular. It was and about any
Speaker 1: of those things. Was about doing what it was he
Speaker 1: was called to do and doing it at a high
Speaker 1: level at any cost. And so for me, when I
Speaker 1: stepped into music, I loved playing music because my dad
Speaker 1: played music and I wanted to be like dad. You know,
Speaker 1: he taught me how to play the guitar. When we
Speaker 1: got to Tennessee, I started meeting people that were kind
Speaker 1: of in and around the music business. One kid I
Speaker 1: went to school with his dad was a bus driver
Speaker 1: for Ricky Skaggs. He drove his tour bus. And that
Speaker 1: just blew my mind. Your dad knows Ricky Skaggs. He goes,
Speaker 1: my dad drives his bus like that. It's crazy. And
Speaker 1: so I realized how close I was to that whole industry.
Speaker 1: So like seventeen, I started entering talent contests and I
Speaker 1: got hired at Opryland, USA, which was our big theme
Speaker 1: park here for a long time, and I worked there
Speaker 1: right after my senior year, and that's where I met
Speaker 1: some guys that wanted to start a little band and
Speaker 1: instead of going to college, I went on the road
Speaker 1: playing music with these guys in this band, and that
Speaker 1: wound up being the band Alone Star, which got signed
Speaker 1: and we sold four or five million records, and at
Speaker 1: that point it was off to the races for me
Speaker 1: and met Big Kenny, and Big and Rich came into existence,
Speaker 1: and just one thing after another, quick break more with
Speaker 1: John Redge. That's awesome what you said about your dad's
Speaker 1: I bet he's super proud of you, because it sounds
Speaker 1: like the way you're describing your dad or you have
Speaker 1: a lot of the same attributes. So I bet he's
Speaker 1: pretty proud of you, know, you taking a stand and
Speaker 1: being who you are this particular song. I think he's
Speaker 1: probably more proud of this particular song progress than anything
Speaker 1: I've done. And he's not one to to lay a
Speaker 1: lot of accolades out, but he did on this one.
Speaker 1: And he said, you know, there's a lot of people
Speaker 1: gonna hate you for saying what you just said. I said, yes, sir,
Speaker 1: he goes, but you said it anyway. I went, that's correct.
Speaker 1: He goes, well, good for you. I'm proud of you.
Speaker 1: And how that was just the biggest thing to hear
Speaker 1: him say that, and and then I got to call
Speaker 1: him the day it went number one, and I said, well, Dad,
Speaker 1: you know that song that a lot of people aren't
Speaker 1: gonna like. He goes, yeah. I go, well, it's number
Speaker 1: one on iTunes, number number one, must download a song
Speaker 1: in the world right now. He goes, well, I guess
Speaker 1: somebody must have liked it. I said, yeah, you think so,
Speaker 1: number one man so, And it proves the point that
Speaker 1: the left tries to make us think that we're isolated,
Speaker 1: that we're the only one thinking like that, that we're
Speaker 1: the only one feeling this way, and they try to
Speaker 1: keep you busted up. That's part of why they censor
Speaker 1: people is they don't want you to see that there's
Speaker 1: a large contingency of Americans speaking the same way they don't.
Speaker 1: They don't want you seeing that because that gives more
Speaker 1: people courage. Courage is contagious, but so is fear. Both
Speaker 1: of those things are highly contagious, and we want courage
Speaker 1: to be contagious in this country. And the only way
Speaker 1: that happens is people have to step out and be
Speaker 1: courageous and step into the fire and take the incoming.
Speaker 1: And you know what, if you can succeed what on
Speaker 1: top of taking them on, Buddy, you've got yourself a
Speaker 1: great recipe for other people to follow. And and I
Speaker 1: really hope that the success of this song does inspire
Speaker 1: people to be courageous and come forward and let's go.
Speaker 1: There's a hope. There's a lot more of us than
Speaker 1: there are of them. I really believe that. Now. I
Speaker 1: believe that too. And I do think, you know, looking
Speaker 1: at the success of your song, or even looking at
Speaker 1: the success of Top Gun Maverick, which is really you know,
Speaker 1: pro American movie, there's not this woke crap and it's
Speaker 1: just like wholesome, good content. I do it gives me
Speaker 1: a hope in the sense of I do believe there's
Speaker 1: more of us than them. You know, they're louder, they
Speaker 1: control the institutions, whatever. But there are ways around it,
Speaker 1: as you've pointed out, and you've proven with your song.
Speaker 1: But you're totally right. I do believe there's more of
Speaker 1: us than there are of them. Yeah. And by us
Speaker 1: and them, I don't mean Republicans and Democrats. And you
Speaker 1: know this as well as anybody. There are as many
Speaker 1: nasty judas Republicans as there are Democrats. I mean they
Speaker 1: are thick. I have met a bunch of them. I
Speaker 1: have supported people in the past and then realize who
Speaker 1: they actually are they've actually done behind the scenes, and
Speaker 1: went yuck. You know, so this is not a Republican
Speaker 1: Democrat thing anymore. There was a poll earlier in July
Speaker 1: that said percent of Americans agree that the country is
Speaker 1: on the wrong track. I'm sure you saw that one. Well,
Speaker 1: at least if you get eight percent of Americans agreeing
Speaker 1: that they like ice cream, that would be a big deal.
Speaker 1: But to agree that the country is on the wrong
Speaker 1: track eight out of a hundred Americans, well, that means
Speaker 1: there's liberals in that mix. There's there's moderates, there's conservatives,
Speaker 1: there's all there's there's religious people, there's atheist, there's every
Speaker 1: everybody is in that And when I saw that poll,
Speaker 1: I said it is time to drop this song. I
Speaker 1: wrote the song in January. I've had in my back
Speaker 1: pocket since the beginning of this year, and I was
Speaker 1: waiting to see what the summer would be like before
Speaker 1: the elections happened. And let's just see how bad things
Speaker 1: get in this country, and if we can get a
Speaker 1: consensus that we don't like it, when I saw that poll,
Speaker 1: I went, there's your consensus, there's your unity right there,
Speaker 1: and that that was kind of my Uh that was
Speaker 1: the red the red flare that went up and said, okay,
Speaker 1: put the song out. And that's when I started up
Speaker 1: setting this thing up to put it out. I love that.
Speaker 1: And then what's obviously the response in people listening but
Speaker 1: sort of I'm sure it's brought you some comfort to
Speaker 1: hear some of the feedback from people. Yeah, a lot
Speaker 1: of One of the most common things is your song
Speaker 1: says exactly what I've been thinking, which is which is
Speaker 1: the best compliment ever? Uh That it's almost like people
Speaker 1: are apoplectic these days, that there's so many bad things
Speaker 1: going on at the same time that when you try
Speaker 1: to talk about it, you just start stuttering and stammering
Speaker 1: and you can't even get it out because it's just
Speaker 1: too much like which one are we going to start with?
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've been mowing the grass before,
Speaker 1: you know, and you mow over a yellow jacket nest
Speaker 1: and they come swarming up at you and they're stinging
Speaker 1: you all over, and you just take off running as
Speaker 1: fast as you can. Like that's kind of what the
Speaker 1: current events feel like to me, we're just being swarmed
Speaker 1: and you can't get it out. So this song kind
Speaker 1: of distills it down to a really simple message and
Speaker 1: lays it out in a really simple way where you go, Yes,
Speaker 1: what the song? That what that song just said. That's
Speaker 1: how I feel about it, And that's what I'm hearing
Speaker 1: from most of the people. I do think in some respect,
Speaker 1: because you know, there's been a lot of hardship with
Speaker 1: COVID and what they did to us during that and
Speaker 1: all the other stuff we're saying in the Biden administration too.
Speaker 1: You know, a lot of the stuff we're talking about,
Speaker 1: it's sort of makes you realize more pointedly what matters
Speaker 1: in life, right Like, it's God, it's family, it's friends,
Speaker 1: it's the people. You know, there's there's still even amidst
Speaker 1: the fire around us and the chaos around us, you know,
Speaker 1: there's still so much beauty in life. I think, yeah, absolutely,
Speaker 1: I think, Uh, all the shutdowns and everything made everybody
Speaker 1: slow down, and that's the hardest thing for a person
Speaker 1: to do, is slow down. I mean, everybody's just going
Speaker 1: as fast as they can all the time. So that
Speaker 1: the slowdown UM gave people a chance to think about
Speaker 1: important things. Um it. Also it also showed us who
Speaker 1: we're really dealing with here. I mean, they shut down
Speaker 1: the churches, but they left the strip clubs open, okay.
Speaker 1: And then they say, hey, you have to you have
Speaker 1: to jab yourself with this experimental uh medicine whatever you
Speaker 1: want to call it, with this experimental procedure. And if
Speaker 1: you don't, you lose your job. If you don't, you
Speaker 1: can't travel. If you don't, you can't go to a concert.
Speaker 1: If you don't, you can't go to school, on and
Speaker 1: on and on. And I'm like, it's experimental. There's no
Speaker 1: long term study on this. I'm not doing it. But
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter. If you don't want to do it,
Speaker 1: it doesn't matter if there's no long term study on it.
Speaker 1: You're gonna do it. We're gonna wreck your life. I go,
Speaker 1: you know, last time I check that. That's awful reminiscent
Speaker 1: of the Nuremberg codes, that you tell somebody they have
Speaker 1: to do something that's experimental, that's in the medical world.
Speaker 1: Think we've got history that says that's a really, really
Speaker 1: bad idea, but they did it anyway. And so there's
Speaker 1: lines in the song that says, they say, let go
Speaker 1: of Jesus and let government save, and you can have
Speaker 1: back your freedom if you do what we say. Stick
Speaker 1: your progress with the sun don't shine. I mean, that's
Speaker 1: how far over the line they've gone. And when you
Speaker 1: go that far over the line we said, you're no
Speaker 1: longer talking about political differences. You're talking about human beings
Speaker 1: being mistreated in general. And that's where we are today.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why you're seeing this backlash, this whiplash,
Speaker 1: this boomerang effect that's starting to come back around, and
Speaker 1: they're panicking about what this fall is going to look
Speaker 1: like at these elections. Uh. And even the Rhinos, the
Speaker 1: Republicans that play ball with all these scoundrels, they're sweating too,
Speaker 1: as they should be. And am I mad about what
Speaker 1: they're doing. Sure, I'm mad about what they're doing, But
Speaker 1: when you listen to the song, there's a little bit
Speaker 1: of a in in that song. Because I believe that
Speaker 1: the American people and the principles our countries founded on
Speaker 1: will outlast, out survive everything that we see going on today.
Speaker 1: I think it's gonna be a really rough ride, but
Speaker 1: I do believe we survive it because it's us. We're America.
Speaker 1: We survived things like this, and we just gotta take
Speaker 1: your head on. Well, what I picked up and moved
Speaker 1: during COVID. I left New York because obviously it was terrible,
Speaker 1: and I moved to the Free State of Florida. And
Speaker 1: I didn't get the vaccine either, And I just figured
Speaker 1: it myself, Okay, maybe I can't fly for a couple
Speaker 1: of years, maybe I can't do certain things. But worst
Speaker 1: case scenario, I'm hanging out in Florida for all. Like,
Speaker 1: it's not it's not that bad. I'll just write out
Speaker 1: the apocalypse. You're in the Free State of Florida, John Rich,
Speaker 1: You're awesome. Anything you want to leave us with before
Speaker 1: we go, I just hope people keep their chin up.
Speaker 1: I hope people, uh, they catch a big case of courage.
Speaker 1: I hope that on their level wherever they are, with
Speaker 1: their neighbors and people they talked to and hang around with.
Speaker 1: You need to be bold. You need to speak your mind,
Speaker 1: and you need to realize that there's a lot of
Speaker 1: people out there um that will follow suit if they
Speaker 1: see you doing it first. Somebody's got to be the
Speaker 1: point of the spear, even down to the down to
Speaker 1: the very neighborhood and street that you live on. Remember
Speaker 1: that you're American, remember whose shoulders you're standing on, and
Speaker 1: act like it. And if we do that, we'll get
Speaker 1: our country straightened out. It's awesome, and go check out
Speaker 1: his new song Progress, John Redg. I really respect your
Speaker 1: respect what you're doing, and I respect your voice. So
Speaker 1: thank you for taking a stand and taking time to
Speaker 1: come on the show. I really appreciate it. Yes, ma'am,
Speaker 1: I love your voice as well. You're a You're a
Speaker 1: very important voice in our country, and I'm honored to
Speaker 1: be on your podcast. Call any time. How awesome, John,
Speaker 1: I think that's so cool. Everything he does for fterates.
Speaker 1: He's an awesome guy, and I appreciate him joining the show.
Speaker 1: And I appreciate you at home for listening every Monday
Speaker 1: and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week The
Speaker 1: Truth with Lisa Booth. I want to thank my executive
Speaker 1: producer for all the work he puts into putting this together.
Speaker 1: Please leave us a review, give us five stars, and
Speaker 1: Apple leave us a review. We always appreciate it. Until
Speaker 1: next time, say where the song, don't sign