WEBVTT - His Own Way with John Rich 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:04.280 So we've got country music star in the house, John 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:07.200 Ridge on this episode. I'm sure you've seen. He's got 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.400 a new song called Progress where he calls out all 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:14.920 this woke crap that's ruining the country, ruining America, ruining 0:00:14.960 --> 0:00:19.720 everything that this country stands for, our values, freedom, liberty, 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:22.479 and just utter destruction is what the left is trying 0:00:22.520 --> 0:00:24.360 to do. So he's got a new song about that. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:28.320 And what's really cool is he released the song on Truth, 0:00:28.440 --> 0:00:31.760 Social and Rumble rather than going you know, the traditional route, 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.040 and guess what, it's sword to number one on the 0:00:35.080 --> 0:00:38.480 Apple iTunes chart within our So I love the fact 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:40.760 he did that. He bypassed the machine and he beat 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:44.440 the machine. Also, you know, it's really cool. So he 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:47.920 he gives a percentage of all his proceeds from his 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:50.640 Redneck Rivereria brand. He's got a bunch of things like 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.480 you know, barbecue, sauce, whiskey, all these different things. He 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:58.240 gives a percentage of that two folds of honor. How 0:00:58.240 --> 0:01:00.440 cool is that? I love that he does that. So 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.840 he's a good dude. He's had you know, tremendous success 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:06.120 in his career in country music and a variety of 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:08.840 other things. He's got a bar in Nashville as well, 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:11.600 so he's done a ton of stuff. Cool guy. We're 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:13.400 going to talk to him about his new song and 0:01:13.480 --> 0:01:16.680 so much more. Stay with us for John Reach Country 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:25.920 music star John Ridge. It's such an honor to have 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:27.679 you on the show. I wanted to tell you I 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.160 really respect your bravery because we really do live in 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:32.320 this society where you know, telling you the truth comes 0:01:32.319 --> 0:01:35.240 at a cost. Uh, so I appreciate the fact that 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:40.520 you do that. Well, it's uh at this point, I 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:44.280 don't know what what it serves anybody to keep your 0:01:44.280 --> 0:01:48.480 mouth shut and censor yourself. You know, we speak to 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:50.080 truth and if they want to sense to you what, 0:01:50.200 --> 0:01:53.080 that's on them. But self censorship, to me, is a 0:01:53.120 --> 0:01:55.320 real problem in our country that people are so afraid 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:58.320 to even even try it because somebody's going to call 0:01:58.400 --> 0:02:00.160 him a bad name or kick him off of the 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:03.360 platform or whatever. Well, that should not be enough of 0:02:03.360 --> 0:02:06.360 a reason for you to sacrifice your own freedom of speech. 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:08.360 And that's kind of the attitude I have, and that 0:02:08.480 --> 0:02:10.440 that's why I keep coming like I do. Well, I 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:11.960 love it, and then that's why I wanted to have 0:02:12.000 --> 0:02:14.240 you on. You know, Dave chappelsa that recently, and I 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:17.320 love because obviously he gets hit on the trans jokes 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.000 he tells, and he said, the more you say I 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.560 can't say something, the more urgent it is for me 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.280 to say. And I feel like that's where we are 0:02:24.360 --> 0:02:26.720 right now, right and you get it obviously with the 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.520 new song that we're going to get into of the 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:31.959 fact that now is the time to speak out and 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:33.600 now is the time to be bold. Well, can you 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:39.359 imagine if the founding fathers had not spoken out? Can 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.840 you imagine if you go back and look at the 0:02:41.880 --> 0:02:45.280 Declaration of Independence and those people that signed that document, 0:02:45.880 --> 0:02:50.400 they all knew that if the British Empire ever found them, 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:53.680 they were gonna hang them, shoot them, burn their houses down, 0:02:54.000 --> 0:02:57.080 enslave their families, rased them from the history of the earth. 0:02:57.120 --> 0:03:00.880 That's what they were up against. And they signed it anyway. 0:03:01.240 --> 0:03:03.520 You old John Hancock, I wish I could have known 0:03:03.560 --> 0:03:05.320 that guy. He's like, give me that pen, I'm gonna 0:03:05.360 --> 0:03:07.360 sign a triple bid, man, I'm gonna make sure they 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:10.360 don't miss my name at all. That's the attitude that 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:14.120 they had to found the country. Liberty or death was 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:16.480 not a hashtag or a bumper sticker, or a T 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.840 shirt or a ball cap or a website. Liberty or 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.079 death was the attitude that took to build the country, 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:25.960 and they were willing to risk at all for future generations. Well, 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:29.639 who's the future generation? Us? The ones of us talking 0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:31.800 right now on this podcast, all the people listening to 0:03:31.840 --> 0:03:35.080 this podcast. It's us that they were doing that for. 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:38.960 So who are we to sit here as the benefactors 0:03:39.000 --> 0:03:42.520 of all the risk that they took to only go 0:03:42.760 --> 0:03:44.720 You know what, I'm not gonna say it because I 0:03:44.800 --> 0:03:46.880 might get kicked off at Twitter. I'm not gonna say 0:03:46.880 --> 0:03:49.480 it because somebody will give me a dirty look at work. 0:03:49.560 --> 0:03:52.520 I'm not gonna say it because it might hurt my 0:03:52.600 --> 0:03:56.080 business a little bit. Really, that's what we're worried about. 0:03:56.720 --> 0:03:59.520 I think as Americans, we've got to remember whose shoulders 0:03:59.520 --> 0:04:01.720 were standing on and we need to act like it. 0:04:02.120 --> 0:04:04.160 I'm so glad you said that, because, I mean, look, 0:04:04.200 --> 0:04:06.640 I've always loved this country. I've always been proud to 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.320 be American. But it really kind of took COVID and 0:04:09.360 --> 0:04:11.040 some of the things that we've been dealing with as 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.680 a society just to sort of revisit American history and 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:19.160 realize what makes this country great. Realize how precious freedom is, 0:04:19.279 --> 0:04:21.520 liberty is, and how fleeting it is because I, you know, 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:24.279 really before a lot of this stuff, I don't know, 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:26.960 I I for whatever reason, thought somehow we were immune 0:04:27.279 --> 0:04:29.760 to some of this stuff because we are Americans. But 0:04:29.760 --> 0:04:32.400 but we're not. And we've really seen that. And it's 0:04:32.440 --> 0:04:35.760 as sad to see. Yeah, and Americans, a lot of 0:04:35.760 --> 0:04:40.839 Americans anyway, lack perspective. You know, it's been a long 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:45.599 long time since our freedom was actually threatened, which in 0:04:45.640 --> 0:04:48.320 my opinion was World War Two. That's the last time 0:04:48.320 --> 0:04:51.960 it was actually threatened. If we hadn't beat Hitler, Mussolini 0:04:52.040 --> 0:04:54.880 and Imperial Japan, if we would have lost that war, 0:04:55.560 --> 0:04:59.680 you'd have a very different America today, very different. But 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.480 they did what they had to do and and and 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.279 one a war on both sides of the earth simultaneously 0:05:06.000 --> 0:05:07.640 to get us to the point we are today. But 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:12.640 everybody that's alive today, nobody has any touchstone back to 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:15.520 the World War two era. Nobody remembers that. I mean, 0:05:15.560 --> 0:05:17.320 all of our World War two bets now are in 0:05:17.320 --> 0:05:22.520 the late nineties hundred. Nobody's around that remembers that, and 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.479 I think that the complacency has sat in over these 0:05:25.480 --> 0:05:29.480 over these many decades, with Americans thinking, yeah, we're free 0:05:29.480 --> 0:05:32.760 and we'll always be free and go America. But what 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:35.400 we fail to realize is is there's all kinds of 0:05:35.440 --> 0:05:40.040 factions of people. There's international factions, but there's internal factions 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:42.600 inside of our country that would really like to see 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:46.080 this country come under control. You know, they'd really like 0:05:46.200 --> 0:05:48.760 to see America have to be on its knee so 0:05:48.800 --> 0:05:52.000 it has to reach up for help so they can 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.119 take full control of the most powerful country in the world. 0:05:55.240 --> 0:05:58.599 That's really the point here, and we've been blind and 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:00.760 deaf to it, just rolling on a about our business, 0:06:00.760 --> 0:06:03.320 thinking now that's not going on. Nobody would ever do that. 0:06:03.360 --> 0:06:06.040 Why would you want to mess up America? Nobody want 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:08.800 to mess up America. We're the greatest, Well, we are 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:11.039 the greatest, but there's a lot of people that to 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.480 get what they want to see happen, come to fruition. 0:06:14.760 --> 0:06:17.120 America has got to be down on its knee for 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:19.680 that to happen. And I believe that's where we found 0:06:19.720 --> 0:06:22.200 ourselves today. And instead of the great reset, I do 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:25.280 believe it is a great awakening as scary as it 0:06:25.360 --> 0:06:27.400 is and as nasty as it is to go through. 0:06:27.839 --> 0:06:32.080 I think that Americans, from both sides of the political aisle, 0:06:32.560 --> 0:06:36.000 from all different walks of life, are all experiencing the 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.839 same pain at the same time. And I said this 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:42.160 to the day on Twitter. I said, America is finding 0:06:42.279 --> 0:06:45.520 unity in the pain right now. As bad as that 0:06:45.680 --> 0:06:48.080 is to say, if there's a silver lining to what's 0:06:48.120 --> 0:06:50.600 going on, Americans are finally waking up and going, hang 0:06:50.600 --> 0:06:54.560 on a minute, are these people trying to railroad our country? 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:58.320 Because it's sure as hell looks like it, and we're going, yeah, 0:06:58.320 --> 0:07:00.120 I think that's what they're trying to do, and one 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:02.560 of us want to see that happen. So it's an 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:06.240 interesting time, and even it's the most important time I 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:10.920 think right now to be outspoken, to not let them 0:07:11.160 --> 0:07:15.720 scare you into submission. Do not take the knee. Uh. 0:07:15.760 --> 0:07:18.800 They've built their machine. There are ways around their machine. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:22.880 We can still exist and succeed and thrive without using 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:27.920 their machines. And as an artist and an entrepreneur guy, 0:07:28.080 --> 0:07:30.160 that's kind of what I'm out to prove to everybody 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:31.880 that it can be done well. And I love that 0:07:31.920 --> 0:07:34.360 you did that because you did that with this song Progress, 0:07:34.360 --> 0:07:36.520 and we're gonna play a clip here just in a minute. 0:07:36.560 --> 0:07:39.080 But what I love about how you released it is 0:07:39.120 --> 0:07:42.320 you released it on Truth, Social and Rumble and within 0:07:42.400 --> 0:07:45.960 hours it's stored to the number one Apple Tunes charts. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.360 So you're able to beat the machine and do it 0:07:48.400 --> 0:07:50.360 your own way. And I love that. I love that 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:52.760 you did that way. Yeah, it was. It was a 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:55.360 risky thing to do. I can promise you that had 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:58.880 I run that idea by the people I work with, 0:07:58.920 --> 0:08:02.000 my managers and people, really smart guys, they would have said, yeah, 0:08:02.120 --> 0:08:05.040 that's not a good way to probably have the most success, John, 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:07.760 because think of all the people you're cutting out by 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:11.920 not going to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. But the song says, 0:08:12.400 --> 0:08:15.200 one of the lines says, they shut down our voices, 0:08:15.720 --> 0:08:19.120 they shut down our main street, they shut down our voices. Well, 0:08:19.160 --> 0:08:22.080 the voices who shut them down, who I'm referring to, 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.440 are the liberal platforms YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the like. 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:29.400 And I thought, you know, it would be awful hypocritical 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:31.600 of me to put a song out like this railing 0:08:31.640 --> 0:08:35.800 against those platforms, those systems, but then use those same 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:38.520 systems to go promote a song. I mean to me, 0:08:38.640 --> 0:08:41.560 that just seemed like double talk, which I can't stand 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:44.040 people that double talk. Althought, well, I may not have 0:08:44.080 --> 0:08:46.320 as good a chance of of this thing going to 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.280 number one, but I'll do it the right way, and hey, 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:51.760 you never know, maybe I'll be surprised. And within six 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:56.200 hours of launching this song only on True Social and Rumble, 0:08:56.240 --> 0:09:00.120 within six hours it had displaced Lizzo and Bill the 0:09:00.200 --> 0:09:03.960 Eilish out of the number one and two spots in progress. 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:08.680 And this is with no record label, no marketing funds, nothing, 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.720 no industry support whatsoever. In six hours, it's sitting at 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.520 number one. And I just looked at that and went, 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.880 holy cal look at that. It's possible. And it kind 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:20.760 of speaks to where people are, right because obviously this 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:23.000 struck a chord with people. People listen to the song 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:24.680 and they said, I feel this, this is how I 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:26.800 feel right now, which is why it was able to 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.200 rise to number one. So, I mean, I think a 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:30.959 lot of Americans listened to it. I know I did 0:09:31.000 --> 0:09:34.120 and said, yeah, I I agree, this is where we are. 0:09:34.280 --> 0:09:38.040 You know, Like, does the phrase ding ding ding come 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:40.120 into play when you hear that? It does? Also, it 0:09:40.160 --> 0:09:42.880 was funny when you're talking about how you know, if 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.560 you ran the idea by your team, they you don't 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:47.400 really strike me as the kind of guy, you know, 0:09:47.440 --> 0:09:49.800 even if they're like, hey, John, this isn't in your interest, 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:51.360 you don't really strike me as the kind of guy 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.319 to you know, say all right, we're not going to 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:56.199 do it. You strike me, You strike me as the 0:09:56.240 --> 0:09:57.800 kind of guy who's going to do it. Anyways, if 0:09:57.840 --> 0:09:59.960 you think it's the right thing, you would be correct 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:04.360 in that assumption, especially now. I think listen, there's a 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:09.600 lot of a lot of songwriters, singers, uh, movie producers, 0:10:09.640 --> 0:10:13.600 all kinds are really talented people that have content that 0:10:13.720 --> 0:10:17.000 they know if they put it on the big platforms, 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:19.600 it's gonna get it's gonna get cut down. They just 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:22.320 know it, and then they're right about that. So this 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.560 was like, Okay, I'm gonna be a Daniel Boone here 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:26.760 for a minute. I'm gonna pioneer out here for a second. 0:10:27.480 --> 0:10:30.640 And instead of taking advantage of all these platforms, let's 0:10:30.640 --> 0:10:32.240 just don't do it and see if we can see 0:10:32.240 --> 0:10:34.760 if we can compete at a really high level without 0:10:34.920 --> 0:10:38.240 using them. Is it even possible? And that's that's a 0:10:38.280 --> 0:10:41.120 hell of a question, and we just proved yes, it's 0:10:41.120 --> 0:10:43.800 not only possible, you can, you can thrive with that. 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:47.960 And what I found is that the the outpouring of 0:10:48.040 --> 0:10:51.720 support is maybe even more at this point because they realized, Man, 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:55.040 he didn't go, he didn't go with those big machines. 0:10:55.480 --> 0:10:57.840 He didn't yell at the machine and then use the machine. 0:10:57.880 --> 0:10:59.839 He yelled at the machine and then walked away from 0:10:59.880 --> 0:11:02.800 the machine. And still one. And I think people appreciate that. 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:07.280 I hope other content creators look at this and go, Okay, 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:10.840 it's possible, because I can promise you true social rumble. 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.560 Those platforms they are they are wanting to hit the 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:18.800 gas pedal behind content creators that are putting out really 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:21.920 really excellent pieces. They want to get behind them and 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:24.360 blow them up. If we're in a culture war, which 0:11:24.400 --> 0:11:27.560 we are, how do you keep track if you're making 0:11:27.559 --> 0:11:30.320 any progress or not to play upon on that word, 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:33.800 the real progress, Well, if you can take pieces away 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:36.800 from them, take away their prize property. And in the 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.680 world of music, the most prize property out there is 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.360 the number one sales position. That's the big one. Because 0:11:44.360 --> 0:11:46.520 there's no bigger vote of confidence than for somebody to 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:49.120 hit that download button and they spend a buck twenty nine. 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:51.920 You know, it's not a free stream or something like that. 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:53.960 They have to pay a little bit of buck twenty nine, 0:11:54.600 --> 0:11:56.400 but they do it and they download. If that's the 0:11:56.520 --> 0:12:00.600 ultimate confirmation that you're having impact, that's the price property 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:03.040 that the music industry has. So for us to be 0:12:03.120 --> 0:12:05.560 sitting there right now is a huge statement. I so 0:12:05.720 --> 0:12:07.480 respect you doing that, and I want to play clip 0:12:07.559 --> 0:12:09.680 right now for the for the audience at home. Let's 0:12:09.679 --> 0:12:13.400 play clip. There's a whole in this country where it's 0:12:13.480 --> 0:12:19.640 hard used to be. No glory is divided on our 0:12:19.840 --> 0:12:27.200 industry to see building back. Then make America grace. If 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.760 that's a weave of the future left you say, stick 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:39.599 your pros where the song, then sun keep beings. I 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:42.280 love that line there's a hole in this country where 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:44.040 the heart used to be because I think a lot 0:12:44.120 --> 0:12:47.120 of US Americans, you know, that's basically this conversation we've 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:50.280 been having is how do people not love this country? 0:12:50.720 --> 0:12:52.319 You know, we live in the greatest country in the 0:12:52.360 --> 0:12:55.040 world and we're just sitting there watching all these people 0:12:55.080 --> 0:12:58.040 on the left have no respect for it and no 0:12:58.160 --> 0:12:59.960 respect for the people who have laid down their lives 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:03.079 to preserve the freedoms that we have now. And it's 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.240 just like to your point, you know, there's a whole 0:13:05.400 --> 0:13:08.719 in this country where it's hurt eis to be. Yeah, well, 0:13:08.760 --> 0:13:10.640 they sure as hell love it when they get arrested 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:13.959 in Russia, don't they. You find yourself in handcuffs in 0:13:14.040 --> 0:13:17.520 a in a socialist, communist country, and you're begging your 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:19.719 country to take you back when you just got through 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.320 trash in our flag on a national platform and talking 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:25.560 smack about the red, white, and blue up in front 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:27.719 of God and everybody. But you get yourself in a 0:13:27.800 --> 0:13:30.920 bind in a communist country, and who are you calling daddy? 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.559 You're calling your mama, Hey, come get me out. I 0:13:34.640 --> 0:13:36.880 can't be stuck here. Really, I think you're where you 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:40.040 wanted to be. You know, you trash, You trash the 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:41.960 country you live in. You don't respect that, you don't 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:44.920 appreciate it. Now you're finding out what other countries are 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.240 all about. Oh yeah, you don't have freedom over there, 0:13:47.320 --> 0:13:51.199 do you know? You don't. You got to due process? No, no, 0:13:51.360 --> 0:13:54.439 you don't. Uh that to me, that is such a 0:13:54.679 --> 0:13:58.199 poignant thing to see that athlete arrested and uh and 0:13:58.320 --> 0:14:02.679 Communist Russia uh and watched her beg for America to 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.240 come bail her out after she just got through trashing US. 0:14:05.600 --> 0:14:08.960 I said earlier Lisa that a lot of Americans lacked perspective. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.480 And what I mean by that they haven't been around 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:14.640 the world. I've had I've had the ability to travel 0:14:14.720 --> 0:14:18.680 all over the planet and sing music everywhere. I've sang 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:22.520 it in I've sing it in Central America, the Middle East, 0:14:22.640 --> 0:14:25.800 i sing it in places in Europe, South America, Asia. 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.680 I've been all over the place. And you see people 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:31.560 living in situations and you go, now, I can't wait 0:14:31.600 --> 0:14:34.560 to get back home. I mean, wow, I can't believe 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.480 people dealing with this every single day of their life 0:14:37.520 --> 0:14:40.040 and you get back home. Go. Man. We're not perfect, 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:42.520 but we are head and shoulders above everybody else. And 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:46.080 that's why everybody wants to live in America. That's why 0:14:46.160 --> 0:14:48.600 we got lines coming in and no lines going out, 0:14:49.200 --> 0:14:51.800 and we never will have lines going out ever in 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.600 this country. And so they lacked perspective until they ultimately 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:57.720 get it, which is what that athletes having right now, 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:01.160 A big dose of perspective. Please unveil me out, America. 0:15:01.400 --> 0:15:05.280 I don't hate you anymore. Okay, it's a little late 0:15:05.360 --> 0:15:08.840 for that, sister, but uh okay, yeah, it's a little 0:15:08.880 --> 0:15:10.560 late for that. And it also just shows these people 0:15:10.600 --> 0:15:12.280 have no idea what they're talking about, right, like that 0:15:12.360 --> 0:15:14.320 they want to hate America at your point, they don't 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:16.720 have that perspective, you know, they have no idea, They 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.240 have no idea what the alternative looks like, and we 0:15:19.400 --> 0:15:22.280 certainly don't want to find out. Quit commercial break and 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:28.880 back with country music star John Redge. I was reading this. 0:15:29.080 --> 0:15:31.840 I love this about because in addition to country music, 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:33.480 and you've done so much with your career. You've done 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.440 you know, television, You've got your red Neck Revera bar 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:39.440 in Nashville, You've got your entire brand, the red Neck 0:15:39.520 --> 0:15:42.600 Revera brand. But I was reading this, which I loved 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:46.600 how you used to be a Crown royal guy and 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:48.920 then he found out it was Canadian blended whiskey and 0:15:49.000 --> 0:15:50.960 you're like, well, now I'm doing my own thing, which 0:15:51.040 --> 0:15:53.760 is American. So I like, I read that and I 0:15:53.880 --> 0:15:55.440 was like, I have to bring this up. I freaking 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.280 love this, so so talk about that and yeah, get 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:01.720 into that. I love it. Yeah. Well, so that was 0:16:02.000 --> 0:16:04.280 we had a song save a horse ride a cowboy. 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.640 Everybody knows that because by the bar a double round 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:10.520 a crown and everybody's getting down. Well, so me and 0:16:10.560 --> 0:16:13.160 Big Kenny, that was our go to drink was Crown 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:15.400 Royal to a little cocaine at Crown Royal. That that's 0:16:15.440 --> 0:16:17.880 what we drank. So we we sang about it, you know, 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.440 and one of our biggest songs. And one day I'm 0:16:20.440 --> 0:16:23.840 looking at that bottle Canadian blended whiskey. And when I 0:16:23.880 --> 0:16:26.280 went through such a thing as American blended whiskey, because 0:16:26.280 --> 0:16:27.600 if there is, I don't know what it would be. 0:16:28.160 --> 0:16:30.320 So I started going to liquor stores. We'd be out 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.280 on the road, i'd have the afternoon off. I'd walk 0:16:32.360 --> 0:16:36.200 in somewhere in Iowa, you know, or Virginia. Hey, buddy, 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.760 can you show me where you're American blended whiskey is? 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:41.080 And every time I got the same answer, I don't 0:16:41.080 --> 0:16:43.520 think we have anything called that. I'm like, really, in 0:16:43.600 --> 0:16:45.880 this whole store, no, I'm not aware of anything called that. 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:49.480 And I realized nobody had done that, and so I said, well, 0:16:50.440 --> 0:16:52.400 I don't really know how to go about it other 0:16:52.480 --> 0:16:54.400 than just jump in and try to figure it out, 0:16:54.800 --> 0:16:58.240 so in I linked up with a great master distiller 0:16:58.280 --> 0:17:00.280 and said, here's what I'm trying to do, trying to 0:17:00.360 --> 0:17:04.040 beat Crown Royal with an American blend, nothing else other 0:17:04.080 --> 0:17:06.240 than American whiskey, and it's got to be it's got 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:09.480 to be superior to what I've been drinking. So we 0:17:09.600 --> 0:17:11.440 worked on it for a year, put it out in 0:17:12.280 --> 0:17:15.720 and we are now in over thirteen thousand stores throughout 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.000 the United States, where we are in all the big 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.440 blue ship grocery stores. Uh ten percent of everything I 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.919 make goes to Folds of Honor putting kids through college. 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.240 You lost a parent in combat. All my all my 0:17:27.320 --> 0:17:30.480 bottles have the Fold of Honor logo on them. And 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.520 it's been a it's a runaway success. It's growing faster 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:35.879 than almost than I can keep up with it. But 0:17:36.080 --> 0:17:40.000 it proves the point against that the brand this song, 0:17:41.040 --> 0:17:44.639 it is an underserved population that we have of people 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.520 that love their country. They work really hard, they protect 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:51.399 their families, They want they want more for their families 0:17:51.440 --> 0:17:54.200 than they had, but they're not getting the content that 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:58.119 they want because the entertainment industry is not gonna let 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:00.960 them have it. So it's it's a rare thing that 0:18:01.080 --> 0:18:03.240 you would ever hear a song like Progress come out 0:18:03.600 --> 0:18:07.119 because it's coming from a guy me who doesn't have 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.840 a record deal, doesn't have a publishing deal. That's on purpose. 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:12.040 I stepped away from them on purpose because I wanted 0:18:12.080 --> 0:18:13.600 to be able to say what I want to say. 0:18:14.520 --> 0:18:16.440 I didn't want them telling me what what I could 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:18.800 and could not sing about or write about. So I'm 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:21.480 in kind of a rare situation. There's a lot of 0:18:21.560 --> 0:18:25.080 country artists that would love to put out songs like Progress, 0:18:25.680 --> 0:18:28.040 but they can't. If if I had a record deal 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.320 right now, Lisa, you would have never heard this song. 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:32.440 That's a fact. Well, first of all, I need to 0:18:32.480 --> 0:18:34.480 go to your bar in Nashville. I went to the 0:18:34.600 --> 0:18:36.640 University of Tennessee, but it's been a little while since 0:18:36.640 --> 0:18:38.680 I've been back to the state. I need to do that. 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.040 But you know, I was gonna how are you? How 0:18:41.119 --> 0:18:43.600 are you received? How am I received in Nashville? Will 0:18:43.600 --> 0:18:46.800 it depend? Are like the country music scene? I mean, like, 0:18:46.880 --> 0:18:49.399 how how is it? You know? You talked about kind 0:18:49.440 --> 0:18:51.800 of going your own way, which I deeply deeply respect. 0:18:52.040 --> 0:18:55.560 I'm the black sheet, but that family, uh, the record 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.080 labels that they've all been their conglomerates. At this point, 0:18:59.119 --> 0:19:02.639 you've only got like four major companies that own of 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:07.119 the labels. You've got Universal, Sony, Warner Brothers. You know, 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.760 it's it's very, very tight. And the people that are 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.080 at the head of the food chain, top of the 0:19:13.119 --> 0:19:16.440 food chain, on those giant companies, they dictate the policy 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:18.639 of those labels. You know, it used to be that 0:19:18.760 --> 0:19:22.359 they would sign artists because the artists would say things 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:25.120 that they thought would cut through the noise and really 0:19:25.160 --> 0:19:26.840 have an impact on the crowd, and that's you sell 0:19:26.960 --> 0:19:30.480 the most records. But nowadays, if an artist comes with 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.399 something that's against what the head of the label or 0:19:33.440 --> 0:19:38.200 whoever personally believes, well, then the artist has to sacrifice 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.639 what it is they really wanted to say to placate 0:19:41.280 --> 0:19:44.680 the record label. And it's an interesting dichotomy because the 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:49.240 audience of country music in a large part uh they 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.520 they are leaning. I'm not gonna say they're all conservatives, 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:55.560 because they're not, but they lean that way. They're patriotic, 0:19:55.640 --> 0:19:59.280 they support the military, their police, their family people, their 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:02.480 blue coll or the middle income. That's who they are. 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.879 And so you see a song like Progress come out 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:08.440 and it's blowing up and they're not hearing it on 0:20:08.520 --> 0:20:10.800 their country radio station. Leave, So it's country radio is 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:14.320 not playing this song. Country radio has also been brought 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:16.520 up by everybody. There's only three or four companies that 0:20:16.560 --> 0:20:19.520