Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Hashtag Storytime, the podcast where I
Speaker 1: bring you everyday stories from everyday people, brought to you
Speaker 1: by I Heart Radio and Curativity. I'm your host, Will
Speaker 1: the hardest working man in show business mc fadden. Guys,
Speaker 1: it's episode six. What is this? Episode six? And I
Speaker 1: am exhausted. Making a podcast is hard. It's a feat.
Speaker 1: I don't think you guys understand how much goes into
Speaker 1: this thing that only a few of you are listening
Speaker 1: to and generates little to no income. So I'm going
Speaker 1: to peel back the curtain and show you how the
Speaker 1: sausage is made. Okay, I'm gonna fighte you and bring
Speaker 1: you in to my sausage party. Suck on that seth Rogan,
Speaker 1: so that you may have a taste of my podcast sausage. Okay, So,
Speaker 1: first order of business when creating an episode of Hashtag
Speaker 1: Storytime is we have to find a guest, because absolutely
Speaker 1: nobody wants to listen to an episode that's just me
Speaker 1: talking for thirty minutes. And the challenge in finding a
Speaker 1: guest is we have to find somebody who doesn't like money,
Speaker 1: because uh, we don't pay them. So that's always challenging
Speaker 1: and somebody who has free time on their hand and
Speaker 1: most importantly has a good story to tell. But luckily,
Speaker 1: I have an amazing producer named Jason who does all
Speaker 1: of that for me. And then second, we've got to
Speaker 1: record with the guests, and you know that takes equipment
Speaker 1: that someone graciously purchased and set up for me. And
Speaker 1: then we got to write a script, and we got
Speaker 1: to write jokes if you can call them that, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm that was one right there. Thankfully, Jason also does
Speaker 1: this for me. Um note to Jason if in the
Speaker 1: future episodes, if the jokes could be funnier, that would
Speaker 1: be preferable. Then I get into the studio and by
Speaker 1: studio I mean closet, and I record these quote unquote
Speaker 1: jokes and I send all of this crazy crap off
Speaker 1: to my editor Tony, who literally does everything, and Tony
Speaker 1: sends it back with a nice shiny bow on it.
Speaker 1: It sounds all pretty and crisp, and that's the final
Speaker 1: product that gets delivered directly to your little earbuds. And
Speaker 1: then you think we'd be done right, but wrong, because
Speaker 1: we also have to promote the show, and we have
Speaker 1: to make social media content to do that, and that's
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how to do that, So
Speaker 1: thankfully I have two more producers, Danielle and Jordan, who
Speaker 1: make really awesome, engaging content for our Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
Speaker 1: If you're not following us there, you should go do that.
Speaker 1: You're missing out. Oh god, I mean it is a
Speaker 1: lot of work. I mean, I'm ready for a nap
Speaker 1: just talking about it. Wait. Also shout out to Jessica Ron.
Speaker 1: They do a lot of stuff too, So I mean,
Speaker 1: as you can see, I'm pretty much the hardest working
Speaker 1: man show business, kind of like the James Brown of
Speaker 1: this podcast, which leads me to our story today from
Speaker 1: Noel Brown. You might know Noel from Ridiculous History and
Speaker 1: a ton of other I heard podcast, but Nolan I
Speaker 1: sat down and he told me a story that involved
Speaker 1: his first job, James Brown and possessed microphone stand. When
Speaker 1: I was in late high school early college. For probably
Speaker 1: span about four years, five years maybe, I worked at
Speaker 1: Jay's Music, which was a music store in my hometown
Speaker 1: of August And it's the kind of job where when
Speaker 1: you're like a teenager, you know, you get to go
Speaker 1: to the music store. You're into guitars, and drums and things.
Speaker 1: You think, that's where, that's what you want in your life,
Speaker 1: that that could be like the best possible job opportunities
Speaker 1: to work in that place that you like to hang
Speaker 1: out in. UM. But as happens with with a lot
Speaker 1: of job, you know, when you kind of part the
Speaker 1: curtain and realize how the sausages made, uh, it sort
Speaker 1: of sucks some of the magic out of it. And
Speaker 1: it definitely did that. It wasn't wasn't quite the Empire
Speaker 1: Records experience that you were. One of the owners had
Speaker 1: the worst case of obsessive compulsive disorder that I've ever
Speaker 1: experienced in my entire life. And for whatever reason, for
Speaker 1: a time I was her go to person to help
Speaker 1: her check in merchandise. Um. The store was always a wreck.
Speaker 1: It was always just kind of like stacks of boxes.
Speaker 1: She was always quote unquote uh catching up um. But
Speaker 1: this was a permanent state of affairs, just catching up
Speaker 1: everything exactly. And my job was to sit with her
Speaker 1: while she you know, went through these invoices and checked
Speaker 1: off the items that were in the boxes of the shipments,
Speaker 1: and then you know, I would take them and put
Speaker 1: them on the shelf, tag them, et cetera. UM, just
Speaker 1: just to show you how deep her O C D extended.
Speaker 1: A drum set typically comes shipped in two very large boxes,
Speaker 1: very very large. One of them has like the kick drum,
Speaker 1: and within that has nested like the snare drum and
Speaker 1: some other hardware and things, and the other one has
Speaker 1: all of the tom tom drums like kind of nested
Speaker 1: within each other. She would like count them one, two, Okay,
Speaker 1: count it back to me. And I'd go one two,
Speaker 1: and she go okay, ok count of back to me too.
Speaker 1: I'd be like one, okay, one more time and then
Speaker 1: we're good. And this is you know, obviously this is
Speaker 1: a serious condition. And she um wasn't medicated for I
Speaker 1: don't believe, and if she was, it definitely wasn't working. UM.
Speaker 1: She was also very unpleasant person. So it was just
Speaker 1: kind of one thing UM adding on to the other. UM.
Speaker 1: But there was one kind of magical UM thing that
Speaker 1: happened every year, UM that I always looked forward to.
Speaker 1: There are a couple of things actually, so one of
Speaker 1: them was UM. This was in Augusta, Georgia, which is
Speaker 1: the home of two things, James Brown and the Master's
Speaker 1: Golf Tournaments. James Brown was born there and he lived
Speaker 1: there up until he passed away. Actually, uh and the
Speaker 1: Master's Golf tournament to this day continues to to be
Speaker 1: held there, right next to where Jay's music was. It
Speaker 1: is no longer there because the Augusta National Um basically
Speaker 1: has been buying up every piece of property around the
Speaker 1: golf course for many many years. Jay's was the loan
Speaker 1: holdout for a long time, and I guess they finally
Speaker 1: offered him enough money. Um. So now it's just like
Speaker 1: bulldozed and it doesn't exist anymore. Um. You know, if
Speaker 1: if Augusta was cool, if the Masters was cool, they
Speaker 1: would have had James Brown play there every year. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But I mean, if I'm sure you know that the
Speaker 1: history of the Masters, and probably of golf in general,
Speaker 1: as a pretty checkered racial uh you know, bias kind
Speaker 1: of pass it was. You know, they only let Tiger
Speaker 1: Woods play because he was like super awesome and wasn't
Speaker 1: like that black. Um So. In fact, Dave Chappelle when
Speaker 1: he did a stand up bit um when he played
Speaker 1: in august stuff, and he walked on stage and said,
Speaker 1: welcome to Augusta, Georgia. The whitest and blackest city in America, UM,
Speaker 1: which I thought was was very funny. UM. So the
Speaker 1: Masters was fun because we'd closed the store essentially and
Speaker 1: then us kids would just would park cars, you know,
Speaker 1: and um, we'd sometimes get tips and things like that,
Speaker 1: and it was just like an excuse to not have
Speaker 1: to really work and just kind of hang out and
Speaker 1: chat and you know, smoke weed and stuff, and it
Speaker 1: was pretty awesome. Um. The other favorite part of the
Speaker 1: year was James Brown related. Um. Every year, James Brown
Speaker 1: would rent a bunch of equipment from Jay's to do
Speaker 1: rehearsals for his upcoming tours. He was you know, he's
Speaker 1: known as the hardest working man in show business, which
Speaker 1: meant he was on the road constantly and well the
Speaker 1: second hardest. We do share a last name in fact them,
Speaker 1: but no no relation only in work ethic when it
Speaker 1: comes to show business. UM. But his management or whatever
Speaker 1: figured it was easier to rent equipment from Jay's, including
Speaker 1: the drums down to every single thing, you know, guitars,
Speaker 1: guitar amps, all of you know, the whole the whole nine,
Speaker 1: and set it up in this local theater called the
Speaker 1: Imperial Theater. It was cheaper to do that than it
Speaker 1: was to take their stuff off of the road or
Speaker 1: off of their like storage because they were they were
Speaker 1: playing internationally, they were always all over the place. So
Speaker 1: me and my co workers every year, Um, sometimes maybe
Speaker 1: it happened twice a year. I'm just kind of getting
Speaker 1: a little hazy, but we would take whatever they needed,
Speaker 1: go to the Imperial Theater, set it all up, including
Speaker 1: chairs for the horn sections and you know everything. We
Speaker 1: kind of get like, you know, told where to put
Speaker 1: things by H. James's road manager or Mr Brown. Excuse
Speaker 1: me if you ever called him anything but Mr Brown
Speaker 1: getting big trouble. Um, he was very very formal guy.
Speaker 1: Mr Brown's road manager would tell us where to put everything.
Speaker 1: We'd set everything up, um, mike everything up, including like
Speaker 1: p A monitors, microphones, everything on the stage, so literally
Speaker 1: on the stage of the Imperial Theater, which is this
Speaker 1: really cool old theater in Augusta, where I also used
Speaker 1: to work. After my Jay's days, I was a live
Speaker 1: sound guy for a period and I worked at the
Speaker 1: Imperial Theater doing sound for theater productions and live bands
Speaker 1: and all of that. But this was just before that. Um,
Speaker 1: so you were essentially a like a roadie for James Brown.
Speaker 1: It was a roadie, a miniature roady, you know, for
Speaker 1: a day. It was actually more than a day because
Speaker 1: it was like we'd have the set up, the load in,
Speaker 1: and then they'd practiced for like two or three days,
Speaker 1: and then we'd come back at the end and pick
Speaker 1: it all up. Um and my good friends still to
Speaker 1: this day. A guy named j. J. Bowers Um was
Speaker 1: the sort of senior member of the Jay's music staff.
Speaker 1: And by that I mean at the time he was
Speaker 1: probably like what like twenty four, you know, and I
Speaker 1: was like he was the veteran. Yeah, totally, and I
Speaker 1: guess I was. I must have been seventeen or eighteen
Speaker 1: something along those lines. Isn't a weird age, like you
Speaker 1: know in retrospect, you know, seniors in high school when
Speaker 1: you're in fifth grade, seemed like they may as well
Speaker 1: be like fifty, you know. Uh, from where you stand,
Speaker 1: it was kind of like that. I looked up to J. J.
Speaker 1: He was the best drummer to this day that I've
Speaker 1: ever known in my life. Absolutely, he can almost rent
Speaker 1: a car. He's so awesome, right in incredible. Um, that's
Speaker 1: the kind of stuff we talked about, you know, But
Speaker 1: I you know, it wasn't even old enough to drink yet. Um,
Speaker 1: just driving barely for a for a handful of years
Speaker 1: at this point. So we'd set up all the stuff.
Speaker 1: Then we go back to the store, which is a
Speaker 1: drag because it was like, oh man, the fun you know,
Speaker 1: little diversion Um is now done, and now we have
Speaker 1: to go back to having to sell Taylor guitars. And
Speaker 1: you know, uh, I was the guy that like reach
Speaker 1: strung all the guitars and did all the repairs and things,
Speaker 1: which was fun. I definitely learned a lot, but it
Speaker 1: was also like under the watchful eye of of the
Speaker 1: owner of this store, whose name was Vera Um. It
Speaker 1: was very stern task mistress. As as I've as I've
Speaker 1: kind of made clear I think um, but we always
Speaker 1: had to look forward to when we get to go
Speaker 1: back and take everything down because then we get to
Speaker 1: hang out with j J. We kind of got to
Speaker 1: take our time. It isn't like you know, it was
Speaker 1: it was in the evening usually, even though that was
Speaker 1: like technically we were working over time to do this.
Speaker 1: In our minds, you know, our teenage minds, it was
Speaker 1: like a privilege to be able to do this. So
Speaker 1: I go back to um the the theater, and I
Speaker 1: I realized that they're not finished yet. They're they're actually
Speaker 1: not done um rehearsing, and so I'm standing outside with
Speaker 1: you know, my my buddy at the time, who I
Speaker 1: was working with, and we're listening to them like wrap
Speaker 1: up their set, and you know, I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you ever saw James Brown live, but this
Speaker 1: is like super theatrical, incredible, funky, you know horns and
Speaker 1: you know, everyone in his band as the top of
Speaker 1: their game. He was notorious for like if if someone
Speaker 1: in the band like made a mistake, you know, while
Speaker 1: they were playing, he would just kind of covertly say
Speaker 1: gotcha and point at him. And you know, if if
Speaker 1: you've ever listened to me James brown songs, a lot
Speaker 1: of the lyrics quote unquote are really just him kind
Speaker 1: of riffing and going down take it to the bride.
Speaker 1: He just live got you in there, and no one
Speaker 1: would be the wiser, but a band member would know, Okay,
Speaker 1: that means I'm getting my pay docs I did. I
Speaker 1: heard stories about him in the studio too, if you know,
Speaker 1: if they made a mistake that they would get their
Speaker 1: their pay docked. That's right. He was all about efficiency. Um.
Speaker 1: And you listen to him, you know, because he's he's
Speaker 1: directing the chorus, you know what I mean. He's like that,
Speaker 1: like you said, take you to the bridge, you know,
Speaker 1: all right, here comes the chorus or whatever. You know.
Speaker 1: He was a band leader, is what he was. He
Speaker 1: was a very old fashioned kind of in that way.
Speaker 1: He would conduct the band, um, and he was the
Speaker 1: guy who you know, you would look to for the
Speaker 1: changes and all of that, and if you messed up,
Speaker 1: then he'd get you and and you'd get got and
Speaker 1: then you'd get docked. Um. So I'm out there listening to,
Speaker 1: you know, this performance, and it's like, I'm young music nerd.
Speaker 1: I think this is pretty cool. I think I was
Speaker 1: more at that time kind of into like incubus and like,
Speaker 1: you know, system of a down. I don't think I
Speaker 1: ever went to went down the po d road, but um,
Speaker 1: I was definitely into like harder kind of radio rock.
Speaker 1: Both of my parents were actually opera singers, so I
Speaker 1: grew up without like a mentor for like popular music.
Speaker 1: I kind of had to find it myself. Both of
Speaker 1: my parents they looked at music as work and so
Speaker 1: then they were working on um, whatever opera they were
Speaker 1: singing in, or my dad was a chorl conductor they
Speaker 1: were studying. You know, it wasn't like listening for for kicks.
Speaker 1: So I kind of had to find my way to
Speaker 1: my own musical taste, which meant that I had a
Speaker 1: couple of embarrassing years where I was listening to you know,
Speaker 1: new metal and you know, Limp Biscuit and things like that,
Speaker 1: which probably way super stoked about the newlymp Biscuit record
Speaker 1: that just dropped. I didn't even know. I mean last
Speaker 1: olymp Biscuit news I heard was watching the Woodstock documentary. Yeah, yeah, well, um,
Speaker 1: they apparently have a new album coming that just came
Speaker 1: out called Limp Biscuit Still Sucks. And now Fred Durst
Speaker 1: is going with this kind of like dad vibe. Look,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've seen pictures of him where
Speaker 1: he's got like a fake gray wig on and like
Speaker 1: a gray Mutton chop situation. And I remember when he
Speaker 1: wrote he wrote a movie that John Travolta was in.
Speaker 1: There was a lot going on there, a lot going
Speaker 1: on there. Um it's called The Fanatic or something like that.
Speaker 1: It's about like a mentally disturbed, stalkery fan of an actor,
Speaker 1: and John Travolta really gives it as all you can't,
Speaker 1: you can't, you can't do that. Um. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: I wasn't like I didn't fully appreciate. I don't think
Speaker 1: what I was witnessing, Like I sort of maybe took
Speaker 1: it for granted a little bit and just looked at
Speaker 1: as an as an excuse to kind of get away
Speaker 1: from work and kind of like you know, not be
Speaker 1: you know, bust around or whatever. And it's kind of
Speaker 1: like it was just more of like an escape. But
Speaker 1: I was hearing them play and it was definitely cool.
Speaker 1: And then I think I walked away because the thing
Speaker 1: that I'm the scene that I'm about to describe, I
Speaker 1: did not hear firsthand. I I what I'm about to
Speaker 1: describe I heard describes to me when I went in,
Speaker 1: So I couldn't have been standing out there listening the
Speaker 1: whole time because I didn't hear any of this that
Speaker 1: I'm about to tell you. So I'm assuming that I
Speaker 1: walked away for whatever reason. And I came back a
Speaker 1: little while later and they were done, and the backstage
Speaker 1: door was open. There's like a big loading duck kind
Speaker 1: of situation in the back of the Imperial with like
Speaker 1: a you know, one of those garage doors that kind
Speaker 1: of roll up and then like a ramp. And I
Speaker 1: walked out on the stage and you know, a handful
Speaker 1: of musicians are still there, um packing up their stuff,
Speaker 1: and in the spot where where James Brown would have
Speaker 1: been singing. You know, he he always used a straight
Speaker 1: microphone stand, and he was he was known for like
Speaker 1: manipulating the mic stand and like, you know, kicking it
Speaker 1: down and popping it back up with his foot or
Speaker 1: like doing little you know things that like Prince would
Speaker 1: have kind of learned from him, these kind of moves,
Speaker 1: you know. And everyone has gathered around, not everyone, but
Speaker 1: like a handful of people are gathered around this mic stand,
Speaker 1: just like staring in awe and I'm kind of like,
Speaker 1: I don't understand what's going on. I get a little
Speaker 1: closer and I kind of peeked through the crowd and
Speaker 1: I see that the mic stand. It's a straight mic stand.
Speaker 1: It's not sitting straight though, it's sitting at this weird
Speaker 1: canted angle, like like like it's tilted to the side.
Speaker 1: It's it's resting on the edge of the round microphone
Speaker 1: and stand base, and it's sort of like a magic trick.
Speaker 1: It's like, what is keeping this thing from falling over?
Speaker 1: I don't understand, And and clearly a lot of other
Speaker 1: people didn't understand either, because everyone's looking at this thing,
Speaker 1: you know, with like wonder in their eyes. And and
Speaker 1: I'm I look a little closer, and I realized that
Speaker 1: the cord, the mic cord, had kind of wrapped itself
Speaker 1: around the base of the stand just such a way
Speaker 1: that it was like holding it up and and and
Speaker 1: and at this like canton angle. And this is weird,
Speaker 1: all right. So I go to my friend j J.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell is going on? What's what's
Speaker 1: going on with this mice? He's like, dude, it was insane.
Speaker 1: So they're like doing their big finale and it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, probably the beginning of which I had heard.
Speaker 1: And then I walked away for a bit and then
Speaker 1: came back. Um, and James does this move where he
Speaker 1: spins around and he kicks the mic stand over and
Speaker 1: then he pops it back up with his foot, like
Speaker 1: when the things like almost on the floor, he takes
Speaker 1: his foot and kicks it down onto the base of
Speaker 1: the stand and it pops it back up straight. And
Speaker 1: he was known for doing that, like several times in
Speaker 1: a row. You do a spin, pop it down, kick
Speaker 1: it back up, to another spin, pop it back down,
Speaker 1: kick it back up. And apparently, um, according to my
Speaker 1: friend j J, on the third um iteration of that
Speaker 1: spinning kickdown and pop back up, it stops halfway, stops halfway,
Speaker 1: and James Brown freaks out. He likes, he backs away
Speaker 1: from the mic, stan he he stops everybody, he stops
Speaker 1: the band from playing. He said, stop, you know, everybody,
Speaker 1: everybody you know take five. And he is clearly just
Speaker 1: like been spooked in a very real way by what
Speaker 1: has happened here. Um, his road manager, I believe it
Speaker 1: was his road manager might have been as manager manager,
Speaker 1: but as a guy named Ronnie van Zant, which is
Speaker 1: the best name for a you know, musician adjacent, you know,
Speaker 1: kind of grizzled to her. Guy that could ever possibly
Speaker 1: be um, he apparent my friend j J. Here's all
Speaker 1: this transpire. He says, he leaned into Ronnie. He gets
Speaker 1: Ronnie go get the flag. And so you know there's
Speaker 1: that period of James Brown where he would do the
Speaker 1: thing with the Cape, you know, and like he had
Speaker 1: he had this like hype band named um Uh Donny
Speaker 1: Danny Ray, who actually recently passed away. I knew Danny r.
Speaker 1: I knew a lot of the people in his band.
Speaker 1: They were just around. They would they were shop at
Speaker 1: the music store, like it was sort of like just
Speaker 1: he was just kind of a fixture, like the way
Speaker 1: Michael Stipe there's a fixture in Athens, Georgia, like kind
Speaker 1: of James Brown was always kind of around, Yeah, the
Speaker 1: kind of way that like Andy Dick is a fixture
Speaker 1: of West Hollywood, yeah exactly. Or even Um I forget
Speaker 1: the guy's name, but he played Josh in the office,
Speaker 1: who was kind of the boss of the UM the
Speaker 1: Stanford branch, like carried his bike into work and Jim
Speaker 1: kind of he had an affinity for him or whatever.
Speaker 1: That guy whatever that actor's name is. He's also in
Speaker 1: the show called Um Outer Banks that's very popular. He
Speaker 1: apparently I was in Nashville for a conference recently and
Speaker 1: saw him at every bar, like and and like there's
Speaker 1: this really famous karaoke place in Nahville called Santa's. It's
Speaker 1: like in a double wide trailer and it's really really
Speaker 1: cool Um, and he was there and he's sang in
Speaker 1: her sand Man and so he's like, you know, clearly.
Speaker 1: So anyway, James Brown was like that guy UM and
Speaker 1: Andy dick Uh to Augusta, Georgia. Um. He didn't live
Speaker 1: in Augusta, though he lived in South Carolina. He lived
Speaker 1: in a little city called Beach Island, South Carolina, which
Speaker 1: is where he's like, you know, James Brown estate was.
Speaker 1: But he all he had like a radio station that
Speaker 1: he owned in Augusta, and he was always just around.
Speaker 1: My A good buddy of mine named Coco had a
Speaker 1: venue called the Soul Bar that was obviously named after
Speaker 1: the godfather of soul, and it was full of all
Speaker 1: this James Brown memorabilia, and James I think got a
Speaker 1: kick out of the fem sorry, Mr Brown got a
Speaker 1: kick out of the fact that someone you know had
Speaker 1: made a bar in his basically hometown. UM dedicated him,
Speaker 1: so he popped in every now and then. There's pictures
Speaker 1: of him and my friend's daughter as she was growing
Speaker 1: up in all that very very very very cool. But
Speaker 1: I had never seen the man. Everybody I you had
Speaker 1: seen him at some point or another where it's like
Speaker 1: whether it's like in the grocery store or just somewhere
Speaker 1: his beach child and there's not a lot going on,
Speaker 1: so he would probably you know, it's very closely. He
Speaker 1: would probably go into town if he was doing it himself,
Speaker 1: or like, you know, send somebody. But um, I had
Speaker 1: everybody I knew had had some James Brown store where
Speaker 1: they had seen James Brown. They did encounter James Brown.
Speaker 1: They said, oh, Mr Brown, it's it's it's an honor
Speaker 1: to meet you. And he would just kind of mumble
Speaker 1: and like walk away. But everyone had a story and
Speaker 1: I didn't have one. I never encountered him in the flesh. Um.
Speaker 1: And even at this thing where I'm doing what I'm doing,
Speaker 1: I still don't see James Brown. I see the aftermath
Speaker 1: of James Brown. I see his band. I see this
Speaker 1: weird mic stands you know, um that's like sitting at
Speaker 1: this canted angle. But James Brown has left the building
Speaker 1: at this point, so he says Ronnie van zand you
Speaker 1: know this is when I'm not there, go get the flag,
Speaker 1: and j J is picturing him bringing out some kind
Speaker 1: of glistening American flag like you know, uh, star studded
Speaker 1: kind of Ryan Stone cape right that he's gonna drape
Speaker 1: over him or do some crazy thing. Um. That is
Speaker 1: not what what Ronnie van Zandt brought out. Um. Ronnie
Speaker 1: van zan brought out a tiny American flag on a stick,
Speaker 1: like you'd buy it like a gift shop for you know,
Speaker 1: a national monument or something like you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like the fourth of July thing like the one that
Speaker 1: little Evie waves around in gray Gardens? Have ever seen that?
Speaker 1: Very similar to that? Um, he gives it, he gives
Speaker 1: it to James, and then James holds it and leads
Speaker 1: everybody in the building, the band, everybody who susy asked
Speaker 1: to stop playing in an acapella round of God Bless America. Um.
Speaker 1: And then you know, that's that's what happened. And I'm
Speaker 1: hearing this from Jam like what that's crazy? What what
Speaker 1: I don't understand? And then somebody else, some older person, UM,
Speaker 1: I don't remember if it was somebody with the theater
Speaker 1: or if somebody in the band or whatever, they kind
Speaker 1: of clewe us into what was really going on here. Um,
Speaker 1: James is uh. Mr Brown's previous wife had passed away
Speaker 1: not terribly terribly long ago before this happened. And guess
Speaker 1: where they had her funeral at that theater, at the
Speaker 1: Imperial Theater, and her casket was laid in the exact
Speaker 1: place where his microphone stand was situated. And I mean,
Speaker 1: the only implication being that he had to have in
Speaker 1: some way thought that the ghost of his dead wife
Speaker 1: was holding up that mic stand from beyond the grave. Um.
Speaker 1: Now he didn't never say that, and and it's just conjecture, R.
Speaker 1: But I mean he he really looked at it, like,
Speaker 1: you know again and I trust my friend, you know, implicitly,
Speaker 1: he he looked at this thing like he's, you know,
Speaker 1: like you've seen a ghost and it's a cliche for
Speaker 1: a reason. Um. And then he, you know, did all
Speaker 1: this kind of ceremonial stuff. UM. I just think that's
Speaker 1: what it had to be. And I after I hear this,
Speaker 1: I'm like, holy cow, this is incredible. Um. At the
Speaker 1: time I was, I think this is I think I
Speaker 1: was actually early college by this point, maybe, but I
Speaker 1: was only like a round eighteen and I had a
Speaker 1: like a Pentax black and white, you know, um, thirty
Speaker 1: five millimeter camera and it was in my car. And
Speaker 1: this is this is before smartphones. You know this is like,
Speaker 1: so I ran to my car to get this this camera.
Speaker 1: My car was probably a block away, and um I
Speaker 1: came back and of course and you know, the taking
Speaker 1: down of all the stuff and you know, straightening up
Speaker 1: and getting things to reset. The mike stand had been
Speaker 1: knocked back down to it's uh, it's original straight a position.
Speaker 1: Damn um. And then it was it was a handful
Speaker 1: of years later I was I was still in college,
Speaker 1: but for for a time. UM, I was actually an
Speaker 1: intern for public radio for Georgia Public Radio while I
Speaker 1: was still in college, and I was studying broadcast journalism,
Speaker 1: and I I went, I got into University of Georgia
Speaker 1: for music, but I decided not to go because so
Speaker 1: many people that I knew I was, I played in
Speaker 1: bands and kind of it was always into you know, music,
Speaker 1: and I staid working at Jay's. Everyone that I knew
Speaker 1: that went on to go to music school or study
Speaker 1: music academically ended up hating it, or it ended up
Speaker 1: like sucking the joy out of you know music, the
Speaker 1: same way working at the music store kind of sucked
Speaker 1: the joy out of music stores for me. So I decided,
Speaker 1: you know what, maybe about to go a different path UM.
Speaker 1: So I studied broadcast journalism, went to my hometown university
Speaker 1: UM and I you know, interned there for a while
Speaker 1: as a kind of about answer phones during UM requests
Speaker 1: like a classical music request show. My boss was this
Speaker 1: old dude named Alan Cook, who I adore very much
Speaker 1: this day. He was like a former He used to
Speaker 1: write jingles like in um uh St Louis was a
Speaker 1: big jingle town on the fifties or something, and he
Speaker 1: was an excellent guitarist and just a really cool dude
Speaker 1: and had this classical music request showed. My job was
Speaker 1: to answer the phones. These little blue hair ladies would
Speaker 1: call in and make their requests for like you know,
Speaker 1: um firebirds, sweeten your very obvious things every single week
Speaker 1: and I would write it down a little sticky note
Speaker 1: and running into his his booth and stick it on
Speaker 1: the desk and he'd play the request. UM. Eventually, Georgia
Speaker 1: Public Broadcasting the side and they wanted to do news
Speaker 1: out of all of their bureaus UH and Augusta was
Speaker 1: one of them, and Alan was like about to retire.
Speaker 1: He's like I'm not doing that. Um, nol, you figure
Speaker 1: out how to do news for these radio people, and
Speaker 1: so I would do little news packages and you know,
Speaker 1: get vox pop they called it like tape man on
Speaker 1: the street sound and you know, during elections, local elections
Speaker 1: and things like that. And occasionally if a big story
Speaker 1: happened in little Augusta like then now I would cover
Speaker 1: the masters and do little packages for you know, NPR
Speaker 1: sports like I got a few pieces on NPR. But
Speaker 1: the my big break, I guess you could say, is
Speaker 1: when Mr James Brown passed away on Christmas Day of
Speaker 1: I don't fully recall what year it was. Let's look
Speaker 1: it up just so I can sound smart, um James Brown.
Speaker 1: It was twenty No, it was two thousand six. He
Speaker 1: died on December twenty five of two thousand six at
Speaker 1: Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. And there was all this
Speaker 1: crazy controversy around his death because he was infamous for
Speaker 1: kind of not having his ship together in terms of
Speaker 1: like business type stuff, like he should have and could
Speaker 1: have made way more money than he did if he
Speaker 1: had had like some higher powered, you know, entertainment agency
Speaker 1: looking after his interests. But he always just had friends
Speaker 1: and local people. And I think people were like Robbin
Speaker 1: from the Kiddie and things like that, and it just
Speaker 1: wasn't you know, it wasn't an ideal situation. And also
Speaker 1: Cocaine's a hell of a drug, no doubt. And I'm
Speaker 1: pretty sure he was rocking. No Pun intended that stuff.
Speaker 1: Pun totally intended after the fact, till till he passed. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't I don't recall why how he passed. It
Speaker 1: was a heart attack and fluid in his lungs, according
Speaker 1: to the Internet, which could be the kind of thing
Speaker 1: that would be, you know, a byproduct of drug abuse
Speaker 1: for many, many years. I mean, he worked very hard
Speaker 1: on stage two. I mean, I'm sure absolutely heart into everything.
Speaker 1: He put his heart into everything, and he also gave
Speaker 1: his heart quite the workout. Um. He he was into
Speaker 1: like PCP and stuff. I mean, there's a video, there
Speaker 1: was a whole thing. I don't know if you remember
Speaker 1: where he like we went on a high speed police
Speaker 1: chase after he like shot up his business office which
Speaker 1: was in Augusta, and like you know, the police chased
Speaker 1: him and shot his tires out and he just kept driving.
Speaker 1: Uh And he was apparently on PCP when that happened.
Speaker 1: But anyway, so I got to cover his passing and
Speaker 1: n p Are wanted quite a few pieces on that.
Speaker 1: The guy's like a legend, you know, I mean his
Speaker 1: civil rights activism and like I mean everything about this
Speaker 1: man and his career aligned with all of that stuff.
Speaker 1: Best friends with like Reverel Sharpton, and like you know,
Speaker 1: influence on Michael Jackson and and and Prince and you
Speaker 1: know countless, Like I mean, there'd be you know, like
Speaker 1: rolling stones, you know, if there wasn't for James Brown.
Speaker 1: He was like not only was he the godfather of soul,
Speaker 1: in many ways, he like in reinvented or maybe even
Speaker 1: kind of invented the what we know today as like
Speaker 1: rock and roll, you know, in a lot of ways. Um,
Speaker 1: So I covered his funeral. Uh. And it was at
Speaker 1: our local arena, which they had actually renamed not I
Speaker 1: think it was before he passed, renamed the James Brown Arena.
Speaker 1: And it's the kind of you know, municipal, big old
Speaker 1: indoor concrete, pretty hideous arena, but it was it needed
Speaker 1: to be held in an arena because it was James Brown,
Speaker 1: and like thousands and thousands and thousands of people wanted
Speaker 1: to be there. Uh. Um, Michael Jackson was there. He
Speaker 1: surrounded by all these like Nation of Islam dudes with
Speaker 1: these like a little bow ties and it was the
Speaker 1: weirdest thing. Um, Bootsy Collins was there, Mick Jagger was there,
Speaker 1: like all of these luminaries were there, Al Sharpton, Dick
Speaker 1: Gregory did it, did a did a talk or a eulogy.
Speaker 1: But Michael Jackson got up there and like seeing Michael
Speaker 1: Jackson walk into a room like that and talk. It
Speaker 1: was sort of like if you saw like Scooby Doo
Speaker 1: walk into a room, you know, or like seriously, it
Speaker 1: was just like Uncanny Valley. And I'm not speaking about
Speaker 1: his uh his you know, plastic surgery. It was just
Speaker 1: he's so loomed so large that to see a person
Speaker 1: like that you only know from pop culture and television
Speaker 1: stuff like as in the flesh. It was very surreal. Um.
Speaker 1: And James Brown's body was laid out in this casket
Speaker 1: was open, open casket, um. And that's the only time
Speaker 1: I ever saw James Brown. It was was in his casket. Man.
Speaker 1: I uh, I mean the the notion of haunting a theater,
Speaker 1: uh is if I were a ghost, I would absolutely
Speaker 1: haunt a theater. Um, and I would be a very
Speaker 1: critical ghost. I feel too. I would kind of boo,
Speaker 1: you know, everything that was going on. Oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: very leash just made the lights flicker, you know in
Speaker 1: Morris code saying this sucks. Um, I was trippy though, man,
Speaker 1: Like I mean, I I grew up surrounded by this
Speaker 1: dude everything, like in my town, like the bar, Soul Bar,
Speaker 1: That's where I got cut my teeth, playing gigs and
Speaker 1: playing and like you know, indie indie rock bands. Uh.
Speaker 1: Never saw him in person adjacent to this event with
Speaker 1: his microphone stand. Never actually saw him. Everybody I knew saw.
Speaker 1: I only finally see him laying dead in his gasket.
Speaker 1: And it was actually an important moment for my career
Speaker 1: because I you know, I'm a podcast producer and that
Speaker 1: all came from my work with public radio. And if
Speaker 1: it wasn't for you know, the James Brown thing definitely
Speaker 1: got me more uh gigs and more clout and the
Speaker 1: fact that I had, you know, had pieces on NPR
Speaker 1: and they started using me more because they were aware
Speaker 1: of me at that point. Um, I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: all just very serendipitous and and and fascinating to me. Well,
Speaker 1: at least you got to finally see him, you know,
Speaker 1: at least it was an open casket. If it was
Speaker 1: a closed casket, then you know, you never would you
Speaker 1: never would have seen him. He was very shiny. I
Speaker 1: remember that. Then there was a whole thing where they
Speaker 1: didn't bury him for weeks. They had him like laying
Speaker 1: in like cryostasis or something like that, because there was
Speaker 1: like the family was arguing, like I was talking about
Speaker 1: earlier with like all you know, his affairs were not
Speaker 1: in order as they say, and the family was like
Speaker 1: arguing over whatever, like who owned what and I don't.
Speaker 1: For whatever reason, they didn't bury him for a really
Speaker 1: long time. And remember that being the source of quite
Speaker 1: a few conspiracy theories. And if I'm not mistaken, there
Speaker 1: was a documentary, Uh maybe it's not out yet, but
Speaker 1: it was something to do with CNN, um about this
Speaker 1: whole you know, uh controversy and like it did he
Speaker 1: did they ever really bury him? Is he still like
Speaker 1: laying out, you know, frozen in someone's basement even in death.
Speaker 1: He's still the hardest working man in show biz exactly.
Speaker 1: So of that that whole experience, what did what would
Speaker 1: you say that you how are you changed after? What
Speaker 1: did you learn? What did you take away? From it. Well,
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's weird. Like I'm one of the
Speaker 1: only things I do for for work is a critical
Speaker 1: thinking approach to conspiracy podcast. So I'm always you know,
Speaker 1: up against the idea of our their ghosts is there
Speaker 1: and afterlife, you know, are their extraterrestrials or you know,
Speaker 1: other extra um dimensional beings? Right, And I don't know,
Speaker 1: like you can explain away what happened with that Mike stand.
Speaker 1: You can, you can totally dissect it down to um
Speaker 1: it was this mike cord wrapped around the base of it.
Speaker 1: But I've never seen anything like that happen before. I'm
Speaker 1: sure if you tried to do it times again, never
Speaker 1: never make it, never make it happen. Um. So yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely left me with a sense of wonderment about
Speaker 1: that stuff. But also I think what I just said
Speaker 1: it left me with a sense of like, Okay, I
Speaker 1: think sometimes things happen for a reason, um, serendipitously or
Speaker 1: or whatever. Like all of that stuff, and all of
Speaker 1: that experience working at Jay's, you know, being there for
Speaker 1: all of that, having that experience leading to me kind
Speaker 1: of coming full circle with me covering his funeral for
Speaker 1: public radio all kind of lad to where I am today,
Speaker 1: and it's sort of made me open to experiences and all.
Speaker 1: It's just being kind of like on the lookout for
Speaker 1: not on the lookout because that's sort of like cheapens it,
Speaker 1: but just like being I think it's just as simple
Speaker 1: as just being open to experiences and just letting things
Speaker 1: kind of wash over you and letting things happen and
Speaker 1: not trying to always control everything or like could you know,
Speaker 1: because at the end of the day, what what will
Speaker 1: be will be and if you can just be ready
Speaker 1: to kind of bob and weave and you know, adapt,
Speaker 1: chances are you can make a good go out of
Speaker 1: whatever happens to you. But um, I have found that
Speaker 1: I've been throughout my career and my life exposed to
Speaker 1: these kind of awe ball situations that because I was
Speaker 1: open to them, kind of led me to other interesting things.
Speaker 1: So I think it's that well, I love that. I think.
Speaker 1: I mean, I often, I often my brain immediately starts
Speaker 1: to want to, uh, pick things apart or figure them out,
Speaker 1: and then I have to go just just enjoy that
Speaker 1: thing before you try, and you know, get down to
Speaker 1: the fundamentals of it and figure out how that magic
Speaker 1: trick works. Can't we just enjoy the magic trick? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And sure, I mean it's fun to figure out how
Speaker 1: to do magic tricks yourself, you know, or like learn
Speaker 1: you know, the secrets behind things. But also, like I said,
Speaker 1: when I worked at the music store, it made me
Speaker 1: kind of like music stores less because I knew too
Speaker 1: much about how everything went into it, and it wasn't fun.
Speaker 1: I wish I wish that happened to me because my
Speaker 1: first job was an ice cream chop and it did
Speaker 1: not have that effect. Well that's fair, I mean I
Speaker 1: think I think you also didn't have to hang out
Speaker 1: with a with a nightmare woman checking in, you know,
Speaker 1: boxes of guitar cables for thirteen hours a day. What
Speaker 1: if she was my boss too? Would be weird. That
Speaker 1: would have been wild. Okay, count the chocolate chips in exactly.
Speaker 1: She would have done it. She would have done it.
Speaker 1: She They also like sent us, uh, they sent us
Speaker 1: kids out for food they never cooked. So we always
Speaker 1: just would like go and get her the same meal
Speaker 1: every day from this deli called the Sunshine Bakery, every
Speaker 1: single day. Um. And so I could tell a million
Speaker 1: stories about Jay's in and of itself. But this is
Speaker 1: kind of the central one for me, this sort of
Speaker 1: defining one. And like I said, now it's gone. Um.
Speaker 1: The Masters that are the Ustin National is kind of
Speaker 1: bulldozed or turned into Master's adjacent properties, everything that's around
Speaker 1: there on Washington Road. You guys needed to do like
Speaker 1: a concert to raise money to save Jay's. Nobody wanted
Speaker 1: to save Jay's. They had a bad rep they were.
Speaker 1: They were not the best folks um in terms of
Speaker 1: like just just trying to put one over on people
Speaker 1: a lot of the time, like they would try to
Speaker 1: sell you something for the you know what the list
Speaker 1: price was, as opposed to it acting like they were
Speaker 1: doing you a solid. Because this is also before the
Speaker 1: days of like um musicians, friend and catalogs and boy,
Speaker 1: when the Internet and those came along, they were not
Speaker 1: happy because it took the power right out of their
Speaker 1: hands and they had to like match prices and stuff.
Speaker 1: And so I think they saw the end in sight,
Speaker 1: at least as far as their business model was concerned.
Speaker 1: Welcome back. So I've got another story from you from
Speaker 1: our Live story Okay event that we did in New
Speaker 1: York City, And this one's from Tamara Davis, who, in
Speaker 1: my opinion, was the hardest working person in Times Square. Alright,
Speaker 1: So this story is kind of two birds one stone,
Speaker 1: because this is not only the story of the worst
Speaker 1: job I ever had. This is the story of when
Speaker 1: I got robbed in the middle of Times Square. And
Speaker 1: if you guys know anything about Times Square, you know
Speaker 1: how sometimes they have the cops with the bazookas and
Speaker 1: the A K forty seven. For whatever reason, on this
Speaker 1: particular day, they were not there and they were completely ghosts.
Speaker 1: So I was on my own. Uh. And this is
Speaker 1: also technically my first job. I worked for a tourism
Speaker 1: company in New York City, so you did like hop
Speaker 1: hop on, hop off tours. Typical tourist trap were like
Speaker 1: the top of the bus was open and you could
Speaker 1: gaze up at all the overpriced real estate and like
Speaker 1: take pictures. So I didn't work on the street, you know,
Speaker 1: the ones that harassed tours like, oh, you want to
Speaker 1: buy a ticket now. I worked inside the office where
Speaker 1: if you bought a ticket online, you had to bring
Speaker 1: a voucher to the office so that we could exchange
Speaker 1: it for the real ticket. A really antiquated system, so
Speaker 1: antiquated that we actually didn't have registers, so we didn't
Speaker 1: have changed. So if you didn't have card or exact change,
Speaker 1: we either sent you really sorry, or we ourselves had
Speaker 1: to go out and find change. We had a location
Speaker 1: and yeah, I know, we had a location in Port
Speaker 1: Authority bus terminal and it was just me and my
Speaker 1: coworker there and I told her, you know what, you
Speaker 1: stay here, I'll take this hundred dollar bill and I'll
Speaker 1: go get a change. So I went to Dwayne Read.
Speaker 1: It was right across the street from Port Authority. It's
Speaker 1: still there. Fun that Dwayne Read. Anyway, I went to
Speaker 1: the I went to the the cashier and I said,
Speaker 1: do you have changed for a hundred dollars? And at
Speaker 1: the counter was this guy who I actually subconsciously thought
Speaker 1: was the manager because he was dressed very like professional,
Speaker 1: and he had like he had a lanyard with like
Speaker 1: his idea on it. And so I said to the cashier,
Speaker 1: do you have change? She didn't really say anything to me.
Speaker 1: She just kind of looked at the guy. And the
Speaker 1: guy was like, you need change, and I was like yeah,
Speaker 1: and so he's like okay, cool, and so he takes
Speaker 1: the hundred dollar bill and he starts walking and I
Speaker 1: think he's walking behind the desk to the register to
Speaker 1: get changed, but like he keeps walking like towards the door,
Speaker 1: and so quickly. I'm like the fun So I go
Speaker 1: and I'm like, my guy, where are you going? And
Speaker 1: he's like, what do you mean? I said my change?
Speaker 1: He's like, you didn't give me any money. I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: hell no. So he walks out right and I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: my hundred dollar bill. Where you going my hundred dollar bear?
Speaker 1: He's like, I didn't take no hundred dollar bill from you.
Speaker 1: What are you talking about? And so I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: you have my money and I want it. And so
Speaker 1: he's not really having that. He walks out into traffic,
Speaker 1: like trying to get away from me, like with full
Speaker 1: on car. You guys have been in time square full
Speaker 1: on cars coming. He does not care. He's willing to
Speaker 1: die for this hundred dollar bill, and I was. I
Speaker 1: guess I was willing to die too, because I followed
Speaker 1: him and he's walking into traffic and I'm like, dude,
Speaker 1: there's this traffic cop right that we come. When we
Speaker 1: get to the other side, there's this traffic cop there.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this guy just stole a hundred dollars from me,
Speaker 1: And the traffic cop is like, well, I can't really
Speaker 1: leave my post, and he says to the guy, did
Speaker 1: you take the hundred dollars? And then I was like,
Speaker 1: I didn't take any money. You can search me and
Speaker 1: I said, well, I'm not touching you. That's number one.
Speaker 1: Number two, you definitely did, and I want my money
Speaker 1: or I'm gonna call the cops on you. Bottom line.
Speaker 1: He's like, okay, call the cops. And I guess he
Speaker 1: thought I was bluffing, but I called his bluff and
Speaker 1: I pull up my phone and I start calling the cops.
Speaker 1: So he's like naturally, he's like oh shit, so he
Speaker 1: starts running away. The traffic cop already told me he
Speaker 1: can't really do anything. He has to stay where he is,
Speaker 1: so I start chasing him. Mind you, at this point,
Speaker 1: this isn't even my money. This is the company's money.
Speaker 1: I'm employee of the month after this for the worst
Speaker 1: job of my life. It's the company's money. But like,
Speaker 1: I'm like, the guy just took a hundred dollars from me. Also,
Speaker 1: technically it's my money because at this job, if you
Speaker 1: are short money, they make you pay it back, and
Speaker 1: I really was just not doing that. So I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I need to get this hundred dollars back. So I'm
Speaker 1: on the phone with nine one saying that this guy
Speaker 1: just I'm in the middle of Type Square and this
Speaker 1: guy just stole a hundred dollars from me, and I'm
Speaker 1: like following him, and he's like trying to get away
Speaker 1: from me, and so the cop the people on the
Speaker 1: phone are completely incompetent. They're like, wait, where are you
Speaker 1: what street? Wait? But where are you in front of?
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh my goodness. NYPD is so useless.
Speaker 1: And so he stops at this random like smoke shop
Speaker 1: and he goes inside, and I'm like okay, and then
Speaker 1: he's telling me come inside the smoke shop, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 1: why would I do that. I'm gonna stay here on
Speaker 1: the phone with nine one and I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: them to come to the smoke shop. So I guess
Speaker 1: he realizes that I'm really not gonna come into the
Speaker 1: smoke shop for whatever he's trying to pull, so he
Speaker 1: runs out the store. He punches me in the face,
Speaker 1: and he takes off. He bolts, he takes off running,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh, hell no, So I take off running.
Speaker 1: I take off running after him, right, I'm employee of
Speaker 1: the month. Oh my goodness, I take off running after him.
Speaker 1: And I was, oh, I was about to uh if
Speaker 1: I got my hands on him, I was about I
Speaker 1: was prepared to fight. So he's running. He runs it
Speaker 1: to the subway right, hops the turnstyle, gets on the
Speaker 1: train that happens to be there. Fuck the m t
Speaker 1: A happens to be there, trains during during doors closed.
Speaker 1: He's gone. Five minutes later, the cops show up at
Speaker 1: the train station and they're like, where's the guy? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, first of all, where were you? Second of all,
Speaker 1: he's gone. He hopped on the train. And they were like, oh, yeah, sorry, Uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know to tell you. I guess he's gone.
Speaker 1: And I'm like what. And so I'm like, we can
Speaker 1: go to the Dwayne Reid and get the security footage
Speaker 1: and see, like who the guy is. And so we
Speaker 1: go to the Dwayne read and the manager doesn't really
Speaker 1: want to give us the security footage because she doesn't
Speaker 1: really want to be liable for what happened in the store,
Speaker 1: and so she's like oh, I don't really want to.
Speaker 1: And then I'm like, you really need to give a
Speaker 1: security footage. The cops aren't really having it, and then
Speaker 1: they get the security footage in there, like okay. My
Speaker 1: manager for my job comes to the Dwayne Read because
Speaker 1: obviously I've been going for like an hour at this point,
Speaker 1: He's like, what the fund is? Where are you? And
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, I'm in Dwayne Read because I got
Speaker 1: robbed and like we need the security footage of the guy.
Speaker 1: And he's like huh. So he comes to the Duyne
Speaker 1: Read and he's like, so what's going on. I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have to follow the police report and then if
Speaker 1: they confined him, then it is what it is. And
Speaker 1: he looks at me dead pan and he goes, you
Speaker 1: know that's a shortage, right, A shortage meaning I have
Speaker 1: to pay the one hundred dollars And I said, go
Speaker 1: fuck yourself, that's a shortage and he was like, yeah,
Speaker 1: you it's a shortage. I said, I'm not paying that
Speaker 1: and he's like okay, we'll see. So he sends it
Speaker 1: up the chain with the with the story and everything,
Speaker 1: and I guess the higher ups get back and they're
Speaker 1: like yeah, she has to pay a hundred dollars for
Speaker 1: the shortage because she got robbed. And I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm really not paying that. That's not fair. And my
Speaker 1: manager goes, well, whether you like it or not, you
Speaker 1: have to pay it. And I'm like, well, whether you
Speaker 1: like it or not, I quit and he was like huh.
Speaker 1: He was like huh. I was like, I spoke English.
Speaker 1: Whether you like it or not, I quit and he's
Speaker 1: like no, wait, wait, wait, wait wait, because this job
Speaker 1: has very high turnover. At that point, I've been there
Speaker 1: four years. I don't know how I did. I must
Speaker 1: be a master kiss At that point, I've been there
Speaker 1: four years. It's still my longest job ever. And he's like, oh, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: you you don't have to quit. We'll ask about it.
Speaker 1: A week goes by, they're trying to negotiate, like, oh,
Speaker 1: she doesn't have to pay it, but the higher ups
Speaker 1: are like, no, we want our hundred dollars. And I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: you just lost your best employee for a hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: So I quit the job, needless to say, um And
Speaker 1: the day that I quit, I walked out. I went
Speaker 1: back to Port Authority, where one of my other coworkers
Speaker 1: and one of my best friends was working and then
Speaker 1: I show up and she's like, what are you doing here?
Speaker 1: I was like, well, I quit, so I'm here to
Speaker 1: just hang out with you for the rest of your
Speaker 1: shift and then we're gonna go get drinks and we're
Speaker 1: going to celebrate because fuck this job. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to say the company, but they went out of business
Speaker 1: and they kind of deserved it. But that's my story. Wow. Yeah, seriously,
Speaker 1: Uh employee of the Year I think was was said
Speaker 1: over there. Um, I wonder where that guy is today.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's outside. Wow. I learned a lot from that story, mainly,
Speaker 1: Fuck Dwayne Reid, fuck the cops, fuck the m t A,
Speaker 1: fuck that company, and funk that guy. That guy needs
Speaker 1: to pay for what he did. There's got to be
Speaker 1: a way we can, you know, bring him to justice.
Speaker 1: Maybe he's listening right now, Hey, guy who stole a
Speaker 1: hundred dollars and punched Tamara in the face. I here's
Speaker 1: what I want you to do. If you're listening, guy,
Speaker 1: I want you to go follow us on Instagram right
Speaker 1: now and turn yourself in via the d m S.
Speaker 1: I don't know if that's gonna work. Um, what about
Speaker 1: all you like true crime armchair detectives out there? Can't
Speaker 1: you help track this scumbag down? Oh my god, did
Speaker 1: we just start a fable baby crime fighting division? Am
Speaker 1: I the Batman of podcasts? Now pod Man? Or is
Speaker 1: it the bad Cast? Hey? Seth Rogan, guess what you
Speaker 1: can have storytime because we're changing the name of the
Speaker 1: podcast again to hashtag vengeance Time. Yeah, I've listened to
Speaker 1: the ship out of that podcast. Hey, thanks for listening
Speaker 1: to the ship out of this podcast. I'd love to
Speaker 1: give another huge shout out and thanks to Noel Brown
Speaker 1: for being on the podcast and sharing a story. As always,
Speaker 1: you can find all the links to the stuff he
Speaker 1: has going on in the description and if you're enjoying
Speaker 1: the podcast, please leave us a review. It helps us
Speaker 1: out a ton and I literally read every single one
Speaker 1: of them. Also, make sure to hit that subscribe button
Speaker 1: so you don't miss any of next week's episode with
Speaker 1: the Pointer Brothers. Here's a sneaky little peeky So we
Speaker 1: show up to this house and we there's a like
Speaker 1: a garage door. Right, We opened the garage door and
Speaker 1: you can't see more than like a foot and a
Speaker 1: half in front of you, and you're immediately smacked in
Speaker 1: the face with this smell that I can't even describe.
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if it's old food,
Speaker 1: if it's molly something, if it's like a dead animal
Speaker 1: like you. I have probably no idea what this smell was,
Speaker 1: and neither one of us. We had no idea. We're
Speaker 1: getting too and this was just a garage door hashtag.
Speaker 1: Story Time is produced by I Heart Radio and Curativity Productions.
Speaker 1: Hosted by Will McFadden. Sound designed by Tony maddox, written
Speaker 1: by Will McFadden and Jason Shapiro, Produced by Jason Shapiro,
Speaker 1: Daniel La Mora, and Jordan Elijah Michael. Theme song by
Speaker 1: Scott Simon's artwork by John Kuzagai.