Speaker 1: All welcome to a special edition of the first episode
Speaker 1: of the series called the Trouble Tapes, where we go
Speaker 1: back through some of the history of me and the
Speaker 1: show and talk about when I are we got in
Speaker 1: trouble and there's always a chance of getting fired. But
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Speaker 1: for years, way before they were a partner on the
Speaker 1: podcast or the show. And yeah, here we go, this
Speaker 1: is a new, a new deal. We've come up with
Speaker 1: a bunch of ideas. Through the history of of this
Speaker 1: whole project, the Bobby Bones Show, there's been a few
Speaker 1: really really close calls where I was really really almost
Speaker 1: fired hard. In this episode, we'll talk about one of
Speaker 1: the biggest scandals sort of and I say sort of
Speaker 1: because nobody knew about it when it was happening as
Speaker 1: far as that I was involved in it. And we're
Speaker 1: not gonna be in the same room because what happens
Speaker 1: when we talk about stuff we have different opinions and
Speaker 1: we start fighting about it, especially when it's the controversial.
Speaker 1: So all these interviews are done separately and so over
Speaker 1: the first time you hear my story than Amy's and
Speaker 1: Lunchbox and Eddie's, and you'll get their version without us
Speaker 1: arguing over each other, and maybe a clearer take from everyone.
Speaker 1: So I'm not sure what I was gonna say, because
Speaker 1: I don't remember when everyone found out. Before I get
Speaker 1: into my side of the story, let me set the
Speaker 1: stage for you. It wasn't until May until the Washington
Speaker 1: Post did a story that revealed I had paid for
Speaker 1: those billboards to be put up myself, and they saw
Speaker 1: the story because it was in my book, Bare Bones,
Speaker 1: and they had a copy of the book to review
Speaker 1: it before anyone else did. So I'll start with my
Speaker 1: side of the story and then you'll hear everyone share
Speaker 1: what they remember from the story as well. So this
Speaker 1: is the trouble tapes, the billboards, they go away, Bobby
Speaker 1: Bones billboards. I think one of the other biggest scandals
Speaker 1: is that time about billboards in town. Now, you have
Speaker 1: to understand our when it came to town, and still
Speaker 1: to this day, was really a counterculture of what was
Speaker 1: happening in mainstream country radio. It really hadn't been anyone
Speaker 1: do a lot of new when we came. And for me,
Speaker 1: you know, I was feeling it big time because the
Speaker 1: listeners weren't really getting the show. Yet the people inside
Speaker 1: the industry hated the show, because you have to remember,
Speaker 1: if something new comes in and it works, everyone who's
Speaker 1: still doing the old starts to go, oh no, does
Speaker 1: that mean what I'm doing is not working? And that's
Speaker 1: really not what it meant. But it did mean that
Speaker 1: there was something new that wanted to be heard, and
Speaker 1: that was our listeners, and that was our type of listeners,
Speaker 1: someone who loves country music but also loves other things.
Speaker 1: And it was absolutely acceptable to say that you liked
Speaker 1: other kinds of music too. So we came into the show.
Speaker 1: We had this whole message of we're normal humans, we're
Speaker 1: not really one genre only. And I really wasn't resonating
Speaker 1: at first, and our shows never a show that you
Speaker 1: hear the first time ago I love it, but we're
Speaker 1: a show this kind of the slow burn and then
Speaker 1: you're with us, And so the slow burn was happening,
Speaker 1: but really nobody was with us, and we were just
Speaker 1: getting crushed and in the press, ratings weren't that good,
Speaker 1: and most places ratings weren't that good. We were still
Speaker 1: a new show. So what I decided to do was
Speaker 1: to come up with they scheme to get people talking
Speaker 1: about us, to get people feeling sorry for the show
Speaker 1: instead of hating it, to get people acknowledging that we
Speaker 1: were even here, that we were So I thought about
Speaker 1: it for a long time and I finally came to
Speaker 1: where I was gonna do like a reverse pr like
Speaker 1: uh pseudo publicity stunt where I wanted to do negative
Speaker 1: publicity about the show. And I didn't know what I
Speaker 1: was gonna do it. First about a by doing a
Speaker 1: fake Facebook page. I thought about doing a fake blog
Speaker 1: and somehow highlighting that. And I was watching a thirty
Speaker 1: for thirty on Brian Bosworth and they were talking about
Speaker 1: Brian Bosworth, who played linebacker in Oklahoma. He also played
Speaker 1: for the Seattle Seahawks and a crazy haircut. He was
Speaker 1: really good in college, wasn't really great as a pro.
Speaker 1: But what he would do because he was so hated,
Speaker 1: is that he would go and he would make clothing
Speaker 1: like a merchandise and he would sell you know, Brian
Speaker 1: Bosworth sucks T shirts out on the street. Now he wouldn't,
Speaker 1: but you'd have people do it, and so they were.
Speaker 1: He played for the Seattle Seahawks, so they would go
Speaker 1: to play the raiders, right. They go to Los Angeles
Speaker 1: the time, and there'd be people on the side of
Speaker 1: the road selling Brian Bosworth sucks t shirts. Literally they
Speaker 1: know Brian Bosworth was the one selling the shirts. I thought, Wow,
Speaker 1: what an interesting idea that you can actually use people's
Speaker 1: hatred or distaste for you to your advantage. You know.
Speaker 1: That's where the blog I came in. That's where the
Speaker 1: fake Facebook page came in. And I had all these
Speaker 1: ideas of how to manipulated, and I thought, why not
Speaker 1: just go for it, and I'll just buy some billboards.
Speaker 1: And at the time, I didn't know I was gonna
Speaker 1: write on them. I don't if I was gonna put
Speaker 1: a picture in my face with a circle through it.
Speaker 1: I didn't know how obvious this should be too. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know, put something up there that maybe had a
Speaker 1: logo on it. There was self deprecating, but you knew
Speaker 1: it was me putting it up. Like I had all
Speaker 1: these thoughts, I didn't quite know what I wanted to do,
Speaker 1: and so when I decided to put up the generic
Speaker 1: message white back with black letters, they just said go away,
Speaker 1: Bobby Bones. I didn't think it was too distasteful. I
Speaker 1: thought it would leave room for people to go I
Speaker 1: wonder if that is Bobby. I thought people would go,
Speaker 1: Bobby Bones, who's that? Or Bobby owns? Go away? Upon
Speaker 1: was I agree with that or I don't agree with that? Like,
Speaker 1: I just felt like it was going to give people
Speaker 1: all these different feelings. And so Imember the morning they
Speaker 1: went up, and I told no one, And so the
Speaker 1: billboards go up and people start calling about them. People
Speaker 1: start calling when they're putting them up. You know, he
Speaker 1: see the little guy up on the bill we're rolling
Speaker 1: the letters. People start calling, going, hey, they're putting there's
Speaker 1: the billboard going up. I was like what, And so
Speaker 1: these billboards go up in lunchboxes out reporting about him.
Speaker 1: He didn't know, at least not not at first. I
Speaker 1: started to get a little foggy about when people knew,
Speaker 1: because I had on such lockdown that my company didn't
Speaker 1: know at first, and they started investigating, trying to figure
Speaker 1: out who it was. The local news was doing stories,
Speaker 1: my company was trying to figure out who would put
Speaker 1: them up, and I was completely on lockdown. What I
Speaker 1: had done is I created a company that paid another
Speaker 1: company that I created that paid the billboard company. So
Speaker 1: there was no way to actually track it back to
Speaker 1: me through companies. Read a book, learn how to do that,
Speaker 1: and so the next thing you know, all the billboards
Speaker 1: are up. I think they're up for three four weeks,
Speaker 1: right in the middle of Nashville, big old billboards too,
Speaker 1: and people couldn't figure out. And the only time they
Speaker 1: ever got revealed it was in my book two years later.
Speaker 1: So luckily nobody found out. Nobody had a big mouth.
Speaker 1: That's why I wonder who on the show even new
Speaker 1: because I think I might have had to clue them
Speaker 1: in at some point, but nobody ever said anything. I'm
Speaker 1: Amy from the Bobby Bones Show, and what I remember
Speaker 1: about the billboards is being really disappointed in someone that
Speaker 1: put him up. Like I remember thinking, who would be
Speaker 1: so rude to put up a billboard like that and
Speaker 1: spend their money just to say, um that Bobby Bones
Speaker 1: needed to go away? And I mean we were new
Speaker 1: to town, like it was nerve racking coming to a
Speaker 1: new city, a new format and like starting over, and
Speaker 1: I was like, hey, well that's one way to send
Speaker 1: a message. And I just remember driving past the billboards
Speaker 1: end of being awkward, because there's one I would pass
Speaker 1: like a lot, and I was like, huh, And it
Speaker 1: really didn't bother Bobby that much, so I was like, okay, well,
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let it bother me. And then I
Speaker 1: didn't find out that it was actually Bobby until he
Speaker 1: put out his book, which I wasn't totally annoyed by
Speaker 1: that because he's really good at keeping things like that
Speaker 1: to himself. Um, and you know, it was genius marketing
Speaker 1: move on his end. Quite the investment though, and so
Speaker 1: I mean, I understand him keeping it on the lowdown,
Speaker 1: but sometimes he will tell me things, so part of
Speaker 1: me was kind of like, oh, well, thanks, you didn't
Speaker 1: tell me about that one. But I found out when
Speaker 1: when the book came out. I was I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: totally makes sense. I felt kind of dumb for falling
Speaker 1: for it because I thought someone else had done it,
Speaker 1: and when people would even say to me that what
Speaker 1: if Bobby's behind it, I was like, no, don't be ridiculous.
Speaker 1: I sort of like stood up for him, and then
Speaker 1: it really was him. So I mean, I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't think I ever would have put it past him
Speaker 1: by any means, because I do know him. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, I was kind of. I guess, just
Speaker 1: a little bummed. I didn't have a heads up like
Speaker 1: I found out with everybody else. Although yeah, no the
Speaker 1: full book. I think there was parts of his book
Speaker 1: I got to read early and then um, and then
Speaker 1: I read the whole thing when it came out. February four,
Speaker 1: lunch Box reporting live from the side of the highway.
Speaker 1: We're on Highway Highways twenty four out here in Nashville.
Speaker 1: We are going westbound. This Smith Way is westbound, and
Speaker 1: if you look, we had reports of a billboard going
Speaker 1: up saying Bobby Bones go away. Well, if you look
Speaker 1: over my right shoulder, you are loaded. Here is a
Speaker 1: billboard and says go away Bobby Bob So funny hats
Speaker 1: Bobby bonds it up. He spend their hard oard more
Speaker 1: to put up this billboard. Yea, we have confirmed reports
Speaker 1: that there is a billboard, and we have seen it
Speaker 1: with our whole eyes. We have bus So if you
Speaker 1: are taking the trip and you're trying to or remember
Speaker 1: put this up. That's very rude. But it says go away,
Speaker 1: Bobby Bones. And if you're going eastbound, it is also
Speaker 1: on the other side. That is right, Ladies and gentlemen,
Speaker 1: breaking news. It is a double sided billboard and says,
Speaker 1: go away, Bobby Bone. We brabed the elements we came
Speaker 1: out here. We didn't want to think it was true.
Speaker 1: We didn't want to think someone say miss Loan. But
Speaker 1: guess what someone did. They are rude, they are me
Speaker 1: and they want Bobby Bones to go away. I remember
Speaker 1: that we got a call from a listener saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I was driving on I don't know the names of
Speaker 1: the highways twenty four or forty, and they said there's
Speaker 1: a billboard that says go away, Bobby Bones. And I
Speaker 1: was like, who in the world would spend their money
Speaker 1: on billboards? Because they hated Bobby so much. So I
Speaker 1: went out there to investigate. I had no idea. I
Speaker 1: was like, this is crazy, and I thought it had
Speaker 1: to be another radio station that was a little nervous
Speaker 1: about the show coming to town and they hated Bobby
Speaker 1: so they put him up. But then another color calls.
Speaker 1: The next thing goes there's one on this other highway,
Speaker 1: so they were on two different highways. I was like,
Speaker 1: this is crazy. That's all I had was radio station
Speaker 1: because I didn't think anybody hated Bobby enough for him
Speaker 1: to go away. The only person I thought that would
Speaker 1: hate him is another radio station because he's coming in
Speaker 1: to steal their listeners. That's it. I didn't think it
Speaker 1: was like another human, because one other human hates another human.
Speaker 1: To put up a billboard, it has to be a
Speaker 1: company paying for it. And when did you find out?
Speaker 1: I found out whenever Bobby wrote his book. I mean
Speaker 1: he said I revealed something about something in the book,
Speaker 1: and then the book it says I paid for the billboards.
Speaker 1: And I was like, I hate you because you didn't
Speaker 1: tell me, Like, why not tell me? Why not tell me?
Speaker 1: Bobby's a pretty smart dude, so he knows what he's doing.
Speaker 1: I guess it. Uh what do you call it? Draws
Speaker 1: up interest? Or people are like, who's that Bobby bones guy? Uh?
Speaker 1: Smart move, Bobby, Like, props to you. You tricked everybody
Speaker 1: for years, for years, no one had any idea. And
Speaker 1: if anybody knew, they didn't tell me. If you told
Speaker 1: Amy before me, not cool. If you told any before me,
Speaker 1: not cool. I don't know who all knew, but I
Speaker 1: didn't have any idea. Oh. I tried to ask everybody.
Speaker 1: I was like, all right, tell me, really, who did
Speaker 1: the billboards? So I don't know. I don't know, I
Speaker 1: don't know. So bill Boards that was a good one.
Speaker 1: I remember Bones came up to me and said like,
Speaker 1: oh man, but about to do something crazy, like something
Speaker 1: really crazy. It's gonna be big. I think it's gonna
Speaker 1: be really big. And then he didn't tell me what
Speaker 1: he was doing, though I found out later what he
Speaker 1: was doing when they actually came up, and I started thinking, like, dude,
Speaker 1: this guy one. I thought, we're people gonna believe it,
Speaker 1: like where people are really gonna think that somebody's gonna
Speaker 1: pay this much money to like trash talk, some new
Speaker 1: radio DJ that came into town. I knew as soon
Speaker 1: as it came up. Somebody had tweeted it, I think,
Speaker 1: and we saw a picture. Somebody had a listener tweeted
Speaker 1: like wow, look what I saw on the road. And
Speaker 1: I say, as I saw the picture him like Okay,
Speaker 1: this is what he was talking about, Like this is
Speaker 1: the big thing Bone said he was gonna do. Honestly,
Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't know if he was ever going
Speaker 1: to reveal it, Like, I didn't know if he was
Speaker 1: ever going to talk about it or if this is
Speaker 1: just gonna be a thing that he knew that he
Speaker 1: had to do to get people's attention about the show
Speaker 1: and all that. But I didn't know that he was
Speaker 1: going to come out later and talk all about it,
Speaker 1: which is refreshing because when he did, I was like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, yah, yeah, yeah, the billboards. Yeah, we all
Speaker 1: knew about it. So any would get brought up in
Speaker 1: conversations like people ask you, what would you say? It
Speaker 1: was the worst, man, it was the worst. I had
Speaker 1: to look at them and be like, it's crazy, right,
Speaker 1: Like I don't know, Like I mean, who would hate
Speaker 1: us that much? Like I would start talking about that
Speaker 1: and then just let them kind of go because I
Speaker 1: didn't want to give too much information. I would just
Speaker 1: be like, I know, right, and then they would go off.
Speaker 1: Anyone I would talk to on the streets or whatever
Speaker 1: or play events or whatever, they would be like, dude,
Speaker 1: this is like who would do something like that? Do
Speaker 1: you guys, do you have any idea? Do you think
Speaker 1: it's an artist? Do you think it'd be? Like? Oh't know? Okay,
Speaker 1: So this has been first episode in the series we
Speaker 1: call the Trouble Tapes. Yeah, so I got lucky on
Speaker 1: that one. Probably could have been fired or it could
Speaker 1: have worked out terribly, but in this instance it didn't.
Speaker 1: By the way, I would like to say that I
Speaker 1: do not think Eddie knew, because Eddie never said anything
Speaker 1: to me, and I know Eddie said there, oh, I
Speaker 1: said something big was gonna happen. I say that all
Speaker 1: the time. I don't think any new. He would never
Speaker 1: once said anything to me, and I would think that
Speaker 1: would at least be a side conversation over the years
Speaker 1: and years. Honestly, after hearing Amy, I didn't know that
Speaker 1: she didn't know. So man, I'm able to lock up
Speaker 1: a secret pretty good. And that's the Bobby Cast, Episode
Speaker 1: one the Trouble Tapes. There are more of these to come,
Speaker 1: because well I've been in trouble a whole lot of
Speaker 1: my career. Thank you very much, and we will see
Speaker 1: you on the next episode of the Bobby Cast. Goodbye, everyone,