Speaker 1: This is cut to It with Steve Smith Senior at
Speaker 1: production of The Black Effect and I Heart Radio. I'm
Speaker 1: Steve Smith Senior and I and this is cut to it.
Speaker 1: Good do it, Good do good. They's getting down to
Speaker 1: do it. Good do it. We asked the questions you
Speaker 1: always want to know, but no one ever asked, let's
Speaker 1: cut to it. You heard them about it, then we're
Speaker 1: about to let you know. It's all a backstage. Hey,
Speaker 1: if anybody listens to this podcast, all of our listeners
Speaker 1: and you know, we all know about our quotes, and
Speaker 1: you know, Steve's always got a book, and we're always
Speaker 1: hearing things, and you know, very many of them are
Speaker 1: very profound and our guests and joyous. I said many.
Speaker 1: I gave you the upside. I just think you just
Speaker 1: get through. We just we just get to say how
Speaker 1: we're feeling. And that's what what we love about this
Speaker 1: show is we get to hear things and see things,
Speaker 1: and we're share them with guests and sometime with each other.
Speaker 1: But um, you know, I was listening to some guys
Speaker 1: talk on on on a certain certain station, and um,
Speaker 1: one of the gentlemen that was talking said something to
Speaker 1: me that resonated with me, and I thought that I
Speaker 1: would ask you guys, even one of you've heard this before,
Speaker 1: ask you, guys, when I say this, where does it
Speaker 1: take your mind? At? What's it makes you think? Because
Speaker 1: in my opinion, it can relate to business, parenting, um, relationships, sports,
Speaker 1: And it's really really simple quote and I'm gonna say
Speaker 1: it to you and when y'all jump in first. We
Speaker 1: can be demanding without being demeaning. What what? I saw
Speaker 1: your eyes go up to you when I said that? What? What?
Speaker 1: What hits you when you hear those words demanding without
Speaker 1: being demeaning? I mean, just just just initially walking through it.
Speaker 1: It Basically you can still respect the person on the
Speaker 1: other end while still getting the results you possibly want.
Speaker 1: So I think that, you know, a lot of times
Speaker 1: there's always a a zero some type of mentality, especially now.
Speaker 1: Another reason why I've why I've taken a break from
Speaker 1: social media, UM, because there's always a this or that,
Speaker 1: there's a one side this side of your this, or
Speaker 1: you're that you know whatever, red blue liver is always that.
Speaker 1: So we're in this world where it's it's one of
Speaker 1: the other. So sometimes we think that you can be
Speaker 1: um demanding and demeaning, you can be both and still
Speaker 1: get the result that you want. So it's one of
Speaker 1: those things. I just hear that and saying, yeah, you
Speaker 1: can two things can co exist at the same time.
Speaker 1: You know, that's a great answer. I'm sitting here like
Speaker 1: to challenge you with saying, and we're all, we're all
Speaker 1: we've all played some level of sports, some of us
Speaker 1: longer than others, and a professional league than others. But
Speaker 1: you know, we've all done some kind of sports here.
Speaker 1: But when you think back, um, two coaches we've had,
Speaker 1: or you know, you know, I know tonight you're going
Speaker 1: to pick up your daughter from from a swim meet.
Speaker 1: You know, how do you get the most out of someone,
Speaker 1: whether it be your daughter, whether it be a coworker,
Speaker 1: whether it be a teammate, Because a lot of times
Speaker 1: how we go at him is man, you were sorry
Speaker 1: last play, or hey me, you know that butterfly stroke
Speaker 1: was terrible. You're know how to get better? Isn't that?
Speaker 1: But some people? But it it depends on individual too,
Speaker 1: because that's why I said it's not zero some because
Speaker 1: some people respond to that, right, So, whether you're being
Speaker 1: coached away or some people respond to it. But I'm
Speaker 1: just saying overall those two things can exist as long
Speaker 1: as it's delivered in the right tone my hearing you
Speaker 1: say that, or depending on the individual, depending on your age,
Speaker 1: m where you were, where you are raised geographically, and
Speaker 1: then how you were raised in that community, what the
Speaker 1: true expectations were in your household. That sometimes just demanding
Speaker 1: something from someone can depend on their temperament, can be
Speaker 1: just as or more severe and come across to those
Speaker 1: individuals as demeaning mhm. And you can demean someone that
Speaker 1: maybe from that that's from an area where what you know,
Speaker 1: there are duck water goes off their back no matter what.
Speaker 1: That you can demand and demean and they're unshaken. So
Speaker 1: it really just depends on their temperament. You know what
Speaker 1: I really believe, and I've said it before, you have
Speaker 1: we have to be extremely careful that we don't allow
Speaker 1: people's behavior to be witnessed or watched so critically that
Speaker 1: that results into leaving those individuals feeling devalued. It's okay
Speaker 1: to be the ending, right like if we got a deadline,
Speaker 1: So no, I mean, I mean, at some point in time,
Speaker 1: you you gotta meet a result, right like you gotta
Speaker 1: we gotta cross the finish line. We gotta deliver this
Speaker 1: deliverable like whatever it is, so you can be demanding.
Speaker 1: I just think in the quote that Joe saying, you
Speaker 1: also don't necessarily have to be demeaning in the context
Speaker 1: of whatever relationship. Yeah, I'm not saying to me Bill
Speaker 1: Belichick just made but Bill Belichick maybe the meaning to
Speaker 1: someone that they're going to get the result of possibly
Speaker 1: winning a championship. I'm just saying that. I just think
Speaker 1: where we are today. I think where we are today,
Speaker 1: there are some people being demanding, and I think people
Speaker 1: hide under the the notion of relationship. I think sometimes
Speaker 1: people because I'm you know, I'm I'm around my kids,
Speaker 1: Like you have two kids that was that are younger
Speaker 1: than mine, so you're interacting with them differently contexts different
Speaker 1: context is different. But I got a twenty four year
Speaker 1: old tune to be one year old in a sixteen
Speaker 1: year old who's gonna be seventeen this year, And there
Speaker 1: are sometimes I'm literally scratching my head, going, man, this
Speaker 1: is like when I was seventeen, you couldn't do that,
Speaker 1: Right when I was twenty four, you couldn't like you
Speaker 1: cannot do and I'm not saying my kids are, but
Speaker 1: I'm just saying other kids are. Subpar work. Yeah, subpar
Speaker 1: work was not always accepted, but now, well I gave
Speaker 1: it a try, so wouldn't you should be It was
Speaker 1: like agree participation ribbons, yes, right, and it's like it's
Speaker 1: okay to be demanding like And that's that's where I
Speaker 1: was going with this. I mean, because we all got
Speaker 1: all lathered up about this, because we all have so
Speaker 1: many different experiences with that. Because I think if we
Speaker 1: all go back to our younger adulthood, in our childhood
Speaker 1: mostly has been demanded, mostly all of our coaches probably
Speaker 1: leaning towards the demeaning hall. Don't get me started on
Speaker 1: with right coaches. I mean, what did you call you?
Speaker 1: I can't, I don't want. We're gonna need to gotta
Speaker 1: ready for we gotta, we gotta eat, we gotta explicit
Speaker 1: right that bad Yeah? Yeah, like coaches trying to get
Speaker 1: him up out of there like some more did you
Speaker 1: wasn't when you were playing basketball or football? Football? Because
Speaker 1: I see a basketball game, I'll cut you out too
Speaker 1: if I did. He say, you say, gosh, dang it, Gerard,
Speaker 1: like you to be okay on this play. If it
Speaker 1: was a basketball coach, I could understand. Was at the
Speaker 1: house one time. He hadn't played like two years. Tom
Speaker 1: touchball like two years. It looked like and yeah, that
Speaker 1: was likely. I'm not gonna lie. I looked at him,
Speaker 1: and once I warmed up, I was straight. But Horse,
Speaker 1: that first shot it was bad. I can admit that.
Speaker 1: He said, black folks back. He said us back literally
Speaker 1: does the ball in two years. Here's the last question
Speaker 1: I had for that, though, Were you demanding or demeaning?
Speaker 1: I laughed, my damn. So he looked. I said I had,
Speaker 1: I had. I had a card. As soon as I
Speaker 1: played that card and touched basketball two years. He shot
Speaker 1: at new He shot the ball. It was a straight
Speaker 1: air ball, but it wasn't the white it was. It
Speaker 1: was so it was so bad. I was like, you said, so,
Speaker 1: I can't remember what it was. I was shocked, though.
Speaker 1: I had a rebotal, quick relaxed, and weas were playing Horse.
Speaker 1: We were just like Horse. We were shooting like we
Speaker 1: were shooting, and we shot on the court. And I
Speaker 1: looked at I was like, it was bad. I'll take that.
Speaker 1: I'll take that. I just like, oh, my gosh, is
Speaker 1: she a brother man, want to welcome to cut to
Speaker 1: a podcast. The Jackson, a chef for Rising Star for
Speaker 1: the Food Network, also played a former NFL player. Right
Speaker 1: attended the University of Arkansas. I think they got a
Speaker 1: football team some days, some years. I'm not sure. So
Speaker 1: we're gonna get into that right Actually, yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 1: get But we appreciate Eddie Jackson coming on the cut
Speaker 1: to a podcast. I like to switch up so so
Speaker 1: so Steve, you know where I'm at right now, you
Speaker 1: and you talk, Be careful, be careful, I get some
Speaker 1: tongue is come over there and run up in your
Speaker 1: hotel and the boys way outside your way class. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: they don't play around. Now, they don't play around. So
Speaker 1: is it? It's snowing out there right now? Now? I
Speaker 1: actually know what, man. It is beautiful right now. It's sunny, clear,
Speaker 1: snow capped mountains probably about thirty five degrees thirty degrees. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's some good, that's what. Still that's still are too
Speaker 1: cold for me though I'm from Texas. It's cold, but yeah,
Speaker 1: it's good skiingamen. Man. We gonna get some ice breakers
Speaker 1: right now. So if you can have the answer to
Speaker 1: any question. What would that question be? What came first?
Speaker 1: The chicken out the egg? What's your thesis on it?
Speaker 1: The egg? What? I don't know it just who laid it? Somebody?
Speaker 1: Things that make you go. I like that. That was
Speaker 1: very good man. Being a chef. What's your cheat day food?
Speaker 1: For me? Cheap day food for me is barbecue. I'm
Speaker 1: from Texas, so you know, I'm known as the barbecue
Speaker 1: but I do a little at everything. I'm a kind
Speaker 1: of a global chef. Take a little bit of this,
Speaker 1: a little bit that from my travels. But for me,
Speaker 1: it's been in Texas. Man. When I want to cheat,
Speaker 1: I'm going give me some barbecue, some briskets, some ribs,
Speaker 1: some macaroni throwing down. Man, let's get right into it. Man.
Speaker 1: Where are you? You know, where are you from? In
Speaker 1: the place you call your hometown. So I was born
Speaker 1: in a small town in Georgia called Americus, Georgia, which
Speaker 1: is about two and a half hour south of Atlanta,
Speaker 1: But I grew up in Texas. I moved to Dallas
Speaker 1: when I was about ten years old. So I grew up.
Speaker 1: I considered myself a Texas boy. Uh you know everything
Speaker 1: that I love school and you know, really homed in
Speaker 1: on my cooking and all that stuff kind of started
Speaker 1: in Texas. So I raised in Dallas and now I
Speaker 1: live in Houston. I've been in Houston by eight nine
Speaker 1: years now, So Texas is it for me? All right?
Speaker 1: So how would you describe you up bringing? Uh? For me? So,
Speaker 1: but I grew up in a in a household full
Speaker 1: of when I was younger, you know, I was about
Speaker 1: you know, from one to ten. I was raised by
Speaker 1: my mom, right my dad was in the military and
Speaker 1: so I didn't I didn't really meet my dad until
Speaker 1: I was probably about eight or in between eight and ten.
Speaker 1: So you know, my mom had me at a really
Speaker 1: young age, so, you know, raised by a single, single parent.
Speaker 1: But the good thing about that was that I was
Speaker 1: in a small town back in Georgia. So this is
Speaker 1: where my grandmother's were, my uncle's, my uncle's, my cousin.
Speaker 1: So you know that old saying where it takes a community,
Speaker 1: you know, village to to to raise the child. So
Speaker 1: that's really what it was, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I was always with my grandmother's. I was always
Speaker 1: over to my aunt's house because my mother was really
Speaker 1: young and she was still trying to. She was basically
Speaker 1: still in school. My mom had me and she was sixteen,
Speaker 1: so she was still in school when I was one
Speaker 1: and two years old. And the time that I was
Speaker 1: in was rough. You know what I mean. It ain't
Speaker 1: nothing to do there, you know, it ain't nothing to
Speaker 1: do that but get in trouble and so what again, engagement,
Speaker 1: That's what I was doing. I was getting in trouble
Speaker 1: left and right. Uh, you know to the point where
Speaker 1: my mom was like, man, care, Uh, you need to
Speaker 1: go be with your dad. You did, you need to
Speaker 1: get some get right. So that's what happened. Um. You
Speaker 1: know when when moved with my dad after he got
Speaker 1: out the military, and I moved with my dad to Dallas,
Speaker 1: and uh, man, that's the best decision that my mom
Speaker 1: could have made. And that's the best thing that could
Speaker 1: have happened in my life because I tried my stuff
Speaker 1: that I was doing my mom. That first day I
Speaker 1: got the Dallas, I never forget I tried that with
Speaker 1: my dad. He punched me, squared my chest. He said
Speaker 1: that that meant that she was doing back home and
Speaker 1: it ain't gonna cut it here. They ain't gonna fly
Speaker 1: here and that's the last time that my dad, you know,
Speaker 1: had to get on me. My dad big dude six
Speaker 1: six to you know to sixty military, you know, hardcore guy.
Speaker 1: So so you said he punched you, but what he
Speaker 1: did is he socked you. Yeah, he socked me. Put
Speaker 1: them on you. Yeah, that's the one with the tears.
Speaker 1: Don't actually come out for about three minutes. The first
Speaker 1: two millions and you can't. Oh no, Now, my dad
Speaker 1: was man, you know, what to think about it, and
Speaker 1: then my dad was military. My dad was an amazing
Speaker 1: athlete as well. He was a McDonald All American. But
Speaker 1: you know, that's the thing, so to think about it
Speaker 1: was in the country, the mentality was different. So, you know,
Speaker 1: my dad had a child and he was, you know,
Speaker 1: a senior in high school. He had scholarship offering. He
Speaker 1: was a McDonald All American, you know, so he had
Speaker 1: scholarship offers from everywhere. But my grandfather was you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't understand that education was so important. He made
Speaker 1: him go into the military so he'd be able to
Speaker 1: provide for you know, my dad took care of me
Speaker 1: even though he wasn't around. He would always send money
Speaker 1: and you know, I would talk to him all the time.
Speaker 1: I just didn't see him because you know, you know,
Speaker 1: he was all over the country, all over the world.
Speaker 1: Back then, technology was nothing compared to what it is today.
Speaker 1: Oh no, not at all. Man. I was born in
Speaker 1: nineteen eighties, so you're talking seventy nine, seventy eight. Seventy
Speaker 1: nine is one. You know, my mom was pregnant, so
Speaker 1: my dad was my grandfather was like, you need to
Speaker 1: go to the minature. You need to start pro biding
Speaker 1: for this this child, not thinking, you know, going into
Speaker 1: college and getting an education. Who knows what could have happened.
Speaker 1: So now were your only child, You've got any siblings? No,
Speaker 1: I have siblings, but you know, from my my mom
Speaker 1: and my dad, I'm the only one. My dad ended
Speaker 1: up ended up remarrying and having I got two brothers
Speaker 1: and a sister and from my dad's marriage, and my
Speaker 1: mom remarried and she has two daughters. But I'm the older.
Speaker 1: So you know, we haven't seen each other physically, right,
Speaker 1: even on zoom since pretty much when we you know
Speaker 1: that one or two years that we played together. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and then now seeing you and and and admiring your
Speaker 1: career on on on television, it makes me go backwards
Speaker 1: right in my mind going, I never held a conversation Togo,
Speaker 1: do you like cooking? Right? And so you know it's
Speaker 1: it's one of those I just as being a former
Speaker 1: teammate or man. Take me down the journey of Eddie Jackson.
Speaker 1: How did you get how did you get here? Today?
Speaker 1: From your perspective, not the highlights of what you think
Speaker 1: everybody else you think that everybody wants to hear. I
Speaker 1: want to hear your story. We want to hear your
Speaker 1: story of how you got there because playing in the
Speaker 1: NFL to cooking, Yeah, and a pretty damn good cook
Speaker 1: and TV present, pretty personality on Food Network. Yeah, the
Speaker 1: personality all that stuff. Now, I did hear that you
Speaker 1: scared of Bobby Flame, but we'll get into that little
Speaker 1: bit later. Yeah, I heard what you'd be like, Hey,
Speaker 1: you know the food talking now talking talking, Bobby said,
Speaker 1: you don't want know smoke, no smoke, beat he said,
Speaker 1: He saide, listen, he said, he said, And I slap barbecue.
Speaker 1: So look real talk though. So the thing was is
Speaker 1: that so like I told you, I grew up in
Speaker 1: in in Georgia and ironically, both of my grandmothers on
Speaker 1: either side so my mom my mom's mom wasn't chef,
Speaker 1: and my dad's mom wasn't chef. Okay, you got You
Speaker 1: can't just say grandma like we are you black? You
Speaker 1: better tell your grandma's name. You gotta tell identified which
Speaker 1: one because you know, you know, if it's who ever listening,
Speaker 1: say well, which grandma was you talking about? Because I
Speaker 1: actually have two grandmas that are both named Betty. Really, yeah,
Speaker 1: you gotta distinguish which one you're talking about. So I'm
Speaker 1: gonna tell you right now. These names I'm about to
Speaker 1: say is the most interesting in red Mon days. I'm
Speaker 1: from North Carolina. You ain't said nothing slip to Knda.
Speaker 1: You're talking my dad's ball, my dad's ball, any Ruth Jackson?
Speaker 1: Ain't that bad? You kidding me? And then my mom mother,
Speaker 1: she's still alive. My dad's my dad's grandma, route Grandma Ruth.
Speaker 1: She passed away when I was a teenager. But Geraldine,
Speaker 1: Geraldine sounds like she was Naomi Gerdine sounds like she'll
Speaker 1: pop you. Oh man. She popped me with a with
Speaker 1: a pie roller one time. Oh snap, I got some
Speaker 1: weight behind it, made the thing in it popped it.
Speaker 1: It rolls that gets that didn't pop. You don't get
Speaker 1: popped by power roller. You got hit with a power roller.
Speaker 1: You know, get switch, you don't get you get hit
Speaker 1: with a power roller. Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's that's one.
Speaker 1: That's one of those. You get to hit whatever they
Speaker 1: got handy. And that's what she had. The old school
Speaker 1: names like because you don't see you. People don't have those,
Speaker 1: like you don't see someone named like Pernil anymore. No,
Speaker 1: but Pernell or Geraldine, like Geraldine looked, Geraldine sound like
Speaker 1: a grandma and she and based off her history, Try
Speaker 1: Geraldine if you want to. She whooped your ass so quick.
Speaker 1: You know she's gonna smell like being gay before you
Speaker 1: to meet. Yeah you know, yeah, you already know. But no.
Speaker 1: So my grandfather chefs. So I grew up in that household.
Speaker 1: I grew up. I grew up at a young age
Speaker 1: around food. Um, Like on both sides. Whenever I would
Speaker 1: go to my mom's house, it was always sent around food. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, for any type of celebration, weddings, funerals, graduation,
Speaker 1: it was always the biggest traffic ganza around food because
Speaker 1: you know, the head of the household, my grandmother's they
Speaker 1: were chefs, like really good chefs. And so the first
Speaker 1: thing that I learned how to do was really cooked.
Speaker 1: Before I even started into sports. I would, uh, I
Speaker 1: would cook with my grandmother, Geraldine, and she taught me
Speaker 1: how to make biscuits when I was five years old,
Speaker 1: like scratch made biscuits and make pies and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Would make pies and Scratch made piecrusting, Scratch made cakes.
Speaker 1: So I was doing this when I was five and
Speaker 1: six years old. I didn't really get into sports until
Speaker 1: I really moved with my dad. So before I even
Speaker 1: got into sports, food was like my thing. I just
Speaker 1: love food. And my grant, my dad's mother, Andy Ruth,
Speaker 1: she was actually a private chef for President Jimmy Carter.
Speaker 1: Jimmy Carter is from the small time that I'm from, Plains, Georgia,
Speaker 1: which is right next to America's that's where he's from.
Speaker 1: That's where he still lives today, and so she was
Speaker 1: his private chef for a while. So that's what that's
Speaker 1: what I was around, man, you know, for the first
Speaker 1: ten years of my life was food, food, food, food, food,
Speaker 1: And I always heard about my dad being this great athlete.
Speaker 1: They like, man, you you know, they would see me
Speaker 1: running like, oh man, you got your dad in you.
Speaker 1: And I never knew. It wasn't any sports around. There
Speaker 1: wasn't no little league, It wasn't. It was a small country. Know,
Speaker 1: we were raised. We were raised on the dirt road.
Speaker 1: That was about it. Man. So when I moved my dad,
Speaker 1: when I really got into sports. But my dad wasn't.
Speaker 1: My dad is an amazing cook as well. He learned
Speaker 1: from his mother. So that was really what we would do. Man.
Speaker 1: He got me in the football, got me in the basketball,
Speaker 1: got me in the track. Um. But we would always cook,
Speaker 1: always cook. Every Saturday, we would cook, you know, whether
Speaker 1: we were watching football, watching basketball. It was always sitting
Speaker 1: around cooking. That's all I ever did. All I ever did.
Speaker 1: And so when I got the arket, so I got
Speaker 1: a scholarships, arkis on I was. I was always cooked.
Speaker 1: I was a guy that was always cooking. So everybody
Speaker 1: would come to my house because they knew, you know
Speaker 1: how it is when you're in college. You know, you
Speaker 1: even wroma new thles. But I was over there cooking
Speaker 1: home cooked meals. So you know, it was always packed.
Speaker 1: And my dad was like, looking, man, you sitting here
Speaker 1: cooking all this food. But these guys, you need to
Speaker 1: start selling plates. So I started selling five dollar plates
Speaker 1: to all my teammates and little to goat boxes. They
Speaker 1: were put in their orders at the beginning of the week,
Speaker 1: meat low fried, chicken, bake, spaghetti, I mean barbecue, and
Speaker 1: I would. I had a whole setup man at grills,
Speaker 1: I had friars, and I was selling to my teammates.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out how you got groceries. So
Speaker 1: now that explains you. Was he was hustling, trapping, trapping
Speaker 1: pace o the bend though. I would take that pair.
Speaker 1: I would take that pail, grint man and flip it
Speaker 1: about three or four times, making meat loaf. This dude
Speaker 1: was trapping meat loaf. Yeah, man, I was. I was
Speaker 1: trapping meat loaf the window. I love cut to It,
Speaker 1: and I love it even more when you download us
Speaker 1: and subscribe, and you can follow us on social media too, Smithie,
Speaker 1: where where at that's at? Cut to It on Instagram?
Speaker 1: What about Twitter? At cut to It? Facebook? Cut to
Speaker 1: It featuring Steve Smith singr. What about online? And you
Speaker 1: can follow us at cut to It podcast dot com
Speaker 1: where you can buy merch and you can subscribe to
Speaker 1: us wherever you listen to podcasts. I got all my
Speaker 1: answers questions. Uh, yeah, I got all my questions answered.
Speaker 1: That's what I'm here for. A brother cut to a
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. What was your college experience? You know,
Speaker 1: based on the passion, based on understanding what you had
Speaker 1: to you know, endure, based on what coming out of
Speaker 1: this small town to play sports man, you go to Arkansas,
Speaker 1: what's your expectations? So yeah, you know when I, like
Speaker 1: I told you, when I moved to Dallas is when
Speaker 1: I really got into sports and I really, uh really
Speaker 1: evolved as an athlete, you know when I moved to Texas.
Speaker 1: So coming out of high school, I was, I was.
Speaker 1: I was better at track than I was in football.
Speaker 1: I was a number one hurdling in the country, number
Speaker 1: one long jumper in the country, and I was number
Speaker 1: five running back in the state of Texas. So I
Speaker 1: had offered to any school I wanted to go to,
Speaker 1: but Arkansas was the only school that would let me
Speaker 1: run track and play football. Uh. And so when I
Speaker 1: went to school that when I went to my visit there,
Speaker 1: like I fell in love with it. At the time,
Speaker 1: they had one thirty two consecutive national Championships and track,
Speaker 1: and they had just come off of being Tennessee and
Speaker 1: well they should have went to the national championship, but
Speaker 1: Clint Sterner dropped the ball in Tennessee, recovered and end
Speaker 1: up going to the national championship instead of y'all. Y'all
Speaker 1: remember that play. So they were they were really good
Speaker 1: at both sports. So that's why I went, and man,
Speaker 1: I fell in love with the school. Um while I
Speaker 1: was there. That the bond that I had with all
Speaker 1: of my teammates, it's still today my best friends today.
Speaker 1: All the guys that I went to school with. My
Speaker 1: guard daughters are you know, my my my best friend
Speaker 1: from college. Uh you know what I mean. My my
Speaker 1: my son's godfather is my best friend from college. So
Speaker 1: just that bond. Being in a small town, a real
Speaker 1: tight knit community. You know, the guys that we played with,
Speaker 1: we all hung out together every single day. It wasn't
Speaker 1: a big city. So we created this unique bond while
Speaker 1: we were there, and it was beautiful. Man, I couldn't
Speaker 1: have planned it out any better. Man, it's so so
Speaker 1: many connections that I got from the University of Arkansas.
Speaker 1: You go undrafted, you didn't get drafted, you come you
Speaker 1: come to the Carolina Panthers. Yeah, what was that experience
Speaker 1: experience like for you? Well, it was funny because for
Speaker 1: me in college, I mean, I started my entire career
Speaker 1: in college and I was actually projected a third round pick.
Speaker 1: My last year in college, I got rid of with injury.
Speaker 1: At the injury uh pull hamstrings. Uh. I had a
Speaker 1: messed up my ankle, a fraction of boning my ankle,
Speaker 1: and so even after coming out with all that stuff,
Speaker 1: I was still kind of a third or fourth round pick.
Speaker 1: But you know how it is, Steve, for some reason,
Speaker 1: I dropped it became a free agent, um, and I
Speaker 1: would never forget this conversation I had my dad. He
Speaker 1: was like, look, you know, you've had to work for
Speaker 1: everything that you you know, you've ever gotten, so this
Speaker 1: isn't no different, you know. So when I went to
Speaker 1: Carolina and they had just brought in Chris Gamble, which
Speaker 1: was the first round pick, the first round pick, and
Speaker 1: I don't know if you remember, you know, we used
Speaker 1: to keep stats. So that first camp, like I laid
Speaker 1: all the dvs and all the stats, and that was
Speaker 1: what I was trying to do. And that's the only
Speaker 1: reason that I made the team. Yeah, I remember that
Speaker 1: year was actually I was coming off a huge injury.
Speaker 1: Was coming off of injury. Yeah, so I I had
Speaker 1: to work. I had to work really really hard because
Speaker 1: I had to see. That's when I broke my ankle.
Speaker 1: So I had to kind of come out there and
Speaker 1: they were, you know, they were asking me to test
Speaker 1: Gamble as well, to see if he was that guy
Speaker 1: you're talking about, the guy that didn't talk. I didn't talk.
Speaker 1: I never mede nobody till this day. Like that man.
Speaker 1: Gam would not say a word, really, bro No, that
Speaker 1: was his mentality. Great dude, man just didn't He wasn't
Speaker 1: a talker. Even if he made a play, you would
Speaker 1: see him get excited, but it wouldn't talk. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: wouldn't talk. Wouldn't talk. That was wrong with it, brother, slow.
Speaker 1: But I do remember, I do remember Eddie. Eddie was
Speaker 1: uh nothing he was he told that talk. Oh no, man,
Speaker 1: it was it was. I mean, I just was a
Speaker 1: hard one. I was. He was a hard work still
Speaker 1: a hard one. He was a hard worker. It didn't
Speaker 1: sound like it's a it's a past tense verb. It
Speaker 1: sounds like you still are a hard work. No, he's
Speaker 1: very much hard worker. But yeah, so Eddie, what's your
Speaker 1: what's your what's your memories? Steve well already looked already
Speaker 1: had got the four one one on Steve because a
Speaker 1: friend of mine's uh Dante, you know Dante from Arkansas
Speaker 1: Wesley don't take Western with the Arkans are bluff pretty
Speaker 1: pretty pretty. He was with the razor Backs and then
Speaker 1: they transferred. So when I got there, he kind of
Speaker 1: took me on his wing and he was like, look
Speaker 1: at man. He was like, I'm telling you right now.
Speaker 1: He was like, okay, Moose gave me to run down
Speaker 1: about Moose. And then he was like, but Steve, he
Speaker 1: was like, looking, man, whatever you do, Like, don't talk no,
Speaker 1: Mr Steve, because Steve don't play. Like when he gets bad,
Speaker 1: he's gonna take over. So I was like, I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't care about that, man, But I'm Eddie Jackson.
Speaker 1: I'm Eddie Jackson Jackson. She's talking about somebody I better
Speaker 1: pay you. How did that work out? Uh? How didn't
Speaker 1: work out well? When you finally game back? I'll never
Speaker 1: forget this one time man. We was we was in
Speaker 1: practice and uh, I'm Eddie Jackson. What you heard a
Speaker 1: little like little like skin. Don't might care about a
Speaker 1: little curly man. You had called the ball on me
Speaker 1: one day, and you had called the ball on me
Speaker 1: one time and practice in the end zone and I
Speaker 1: could jump, you know, I I long jump ten and
Speaker 1: they and Jake had threw the ball all up and
Speaker 1: I went up for and man, I never forget. It
Speaker 1: was like a blur like just came out of nowhere
Speaker 1: and was like a half a foot over me. And
Speaker 1: I was like, how the hell this little light still due?
Speaker 1: Mostly just mostly And then he was talking smack too.
Speaker 1: He was talking smack. I was like, okay, all right,
Speaker 1: all right, But now that was the first, the first
Speaker 1: real experience, because when I first got there, he was hurt.
Speaker 1: He was still kind of rehabbing and doing this thing.
Speaker 1: But this wasn't till I think you, I think you
Speaker 1: came back. You was out the first six weeks, I
Speaker 1: think it was or something like that. Now I have
Speaker 1: been out in training, um yeah, training camp. They kind
Speaker 1: of let me rest because I you know, I still
Speaker 1: had that as scar tissue issues that I was still
Speaker 1: getting through. And I actually because you was rehapping with
Speaker 1: Drew Carter. Drew Carter had came in y'all was doing
Speaker 1: y'r stuff together. Man, So you go on the NFL.
Speaker 1: You played, You played for the Carolina Panthers, played for
Speaker 1: the Dolphins. Yeah, Patriots, red Skins. Watch the football team,
Speaker 1: watching to football team. They might they might be the
Speaker 1: something else Wolverines or red red Wolves, whatever or don't
Speaker 1: don't give, don't don't give, don't give off their surprise names.
Speaker 1: What was your mentality from what you've experienced not being drafted, Yeah,
Speaker 1: having a really good camp and yet hanging on by
Speaker 1: a string, seeing the hypocrisy, oh the National Football League? Yeah,
Speaker 1: what were you thinking at that moment? So for me, man,
Speaker 1: and I think everything is a blessing. So after I
Speaker 1: left Carolina that second year, I got released right after
Speaker 1: that last game that you know what it is, they's
Speaker 1: like fourth preseason game and that's when they do the
Speaker 1: last cut, and it was it was more of like
Speaker 1: a Rosster move, like you know, that's the year we
Speaker 1: had a bunch of linemen that went down. So yeah,
Speaker 1: that was that year. So they had to bring in
Speaker 1: a bunch of linemen and like I was on the Cup,
Speaker 1: they had like you know, Ken Lucas and then Gamble.
Speaker 1: We had like some other veterans DBS, Dante Wesley, uh
Speaker 1: and so like they released me, I was, I was,
Speaker 1: I was the youngest guy, was the you know, the
Speaker 1: last guy that you know. So I got cut and
Speaker 1: so I went to went down with the Dolphins and
Speaker 1: played a couple of years. But it was the same thing.
Speaker 1: I was behind all these veterans, uh that was that
Speaker 1: was down there, um And so I was still playing
Speaker 1: a lot to us when Nick Saban was there. So
Speaker 1: Nick brought me down there because he knew me from
Speaker 1: Arkansas and he was at LSU, so he probably down there.
Speaker 1: And I played a lot there and I learned a
Speaker 1: lot there from Nick Saban and all those, um, those
Speaker 1: veterans that was there. But my second year there and
Speaker 1: it felt like I was always playing catch up because
Speaker 1: then that free agent you know what I mean, always
Speaker 1: you have no leadway. So I was always playing catch up.
Speaker 1: And then my second year there is when I blew
Speaker 1: my knee out. My second year and that was my
Speaker 1: contract year because I signed a two year deal. And
Speaker 1: that second year there with Miami was my best year
Speaker 1: that I that I had, uh, you know, in my
Speaker 1: three years I was in league. So it was the
Speaker 1: best year, best year I had by far. And and
Speaker 1: that's when Nick Saban decided to just walk out and
Speaker 1: leave and went to Alabama, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So we had a new coach come in and he
Speaker 1: didn't know me from painting. I had proved myself to Nick,
Speaker 1: but he didn't know me. All he knew was I
Speaker 1: was a free agent, you know what I mean. And
Speaker 1: so I here I am with the town a c
Speaker 1: L N t L going in the off season. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: here we go. And luckily, uh, Nick Saban put in
Speaker 1: the call of Bill Belichick, and Bill Belichick picked me up.
Speaker 1: While I mean while right before I had my surgery.
Speaker 1: He called it like, we don't care about the surgery.
Speaker 1: We just want you to do your rehab up here
Speaker 1: and will sign him. So I mean that just you know,
Speaker 1: goes to say, you know, if you work hard and
Speaker 1: people see that, you still get opportunities. You know. So
Speaker 1: that's how it went from me. But after that knee injury, man, Steve,
Speaker 1: you know, I just wasn't the same man. I was
Speaker 1: a speed guy, athlete, type of guy, jump guy, um,
Speaker 1: and just after that injury, man, I just wasn't the same.
Speaker 1: It wasn't the same, So it was hard to kind
Speaker 1: of come back off of that. What was your psyche
Speaker 1: after your stent with with all of those teams? What
Speaker 1: what was your psyche when it was towards the end.
Speaker 1: Always been a business type of guy. Always, you know,
Speaker 1: my entire family come. I come from a family and entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: whether it be my grandfather, you know RZL how country
Speaker 1: is Their name is l Jackson. I've always been business minded,
Speaker 1: So I kind of looked at I always looked at
Speaker 1: the NFL as as as a business um. And so
Speaker 1: I knew that, you know, being and I'm a free agent,
Speaker 1: got this injury, and back then, the technology ain't the
Speaker 1: same as it is now. Back then, no you know
Speaker 1: guys coming back in four or five six months. Back then,
Speaker 1: you know it was gonna take you a year to
Speaker 1: come back to take it. I don't care what the
Speaker 1: technology stays for a guy to feel yeah, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So, if you already a free agent
Speaker 1: and you got an injury like that, like you know,
Speaker 1: chances of slim you're gonna be able to have a
Speaker 1: fruit for a long career unless something drastic happens where
Speaker 1: a bunch of guys go down and you get thrust
Speaker 1: into it and you do really well. So I started
Speaker 1: putting the plan together in my head. You know, I
Speaker 1: was like, look here, I'm gonna wait till I get vested,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I have that in
Speaker 1: my back, and then what I want to do is
Speaker 1: to start trying to transition myself into a career after football.
Speaker 1: So I waited and waited. You know, I went through
Speaker 1: the Patriots, and it got hurt when I was at
Speaker 1: the Patriots, after I got off, after I came back
Speaker 1: from my knee surgery, came back from knee surgery. That
Speaker 1: first game, we're playing the Coats, and I actually started
Speaker 1: that game. I actually started that game. Broke my wrists
Speaker 1: the first game. I was like, you gotta be kidding.
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, that's it. That's a sign.
Speaker 1: That's a sign. So I finished that season out. I
Speaker 1: had my four seasons. I'll leave my belt. And then
Speaker 1: that's when I really started looking and trying to transition
Speaker 1: out of football. Now, did you always know you were
Speaker 1: gonna sponge your way back to get into the food industry. Yeah, So,
Speaker 1: I mean I got my degree in business, so I
Speaker 1: really knew that I wanted to do something in business,
Speaker 1: and I just didn't know that I could be make
Speaker 1: a fruital career out of food, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So once I officially retired, I went to the Red Skin,
Speaker 1: but I didn't really play. It was the passion was gone.
Speaker 1: I had all these injuries. So I called my dad,
Speaker 1: you know, my dad's an og and I was like,
Speaker 1: look here, man, I was like, this football thing, I
Speaker 1: feel like, right now, I'm just chasing it. You know,
Speaker 1: I still love the game, but I'm chasing it. And
Speaker 1: if you're chasing it, it's kind of taking passion out
Speaker 1: of it. It's tough. Football is already tough enough mentally
Speaker 1: and physically, and then you add trying to put the circle,
Speaker 1: yeah through the square peg. You know, depending on how
Speaker 1: big or how small the circle is and how big
Speaker 1: the square peg is, it can fit for a little bit,
Speaker 1: but eventually it just you know, it'll have homes. It
Speaker 1: just won't. It won't fit perfectly. So with that, I mean,
Speaker 1: you got business degree, whoop do you do right? And
Speaker 1: I do nothing right? Well, yeah, whoop do you do?
Speaker 1: You got to degree? You've played football for the last
Speaker 1: five or six years or you know, got no experience, nothing,
Speaker 1: no experience. You talk to your dad, Yeah, what were
Speaker 1: those quiet moments like for you? Right in that and
Speaker 1: you hit it? Man, you hit it. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: telling my dad. You know, me and my dad. My
Speaker 1: dad's my best friend. So that's that's that's exact conversation
Speaker 1: that we had. You just had to bring that back up.
Speaker 1: You saw a grandmother. He was like, I don't look
Speaker 1: you have come into the sun. But no man, So uh,
Speaker 1: you know, me and my dad, we we talked about everything, man,
Speaker 1: And so I asked him. I was like, look, I
Speaker 1: got this degree, but like, what am I gonna do
Speaker 1: with it? I was for the last basically call it
Speaker 1: five years. All I did was played football in the
Speaker 1: off season. I didn't do any you know, like now
Speaker 1: they have these programs you can do. Now you have
Speaker 1: to do it yourself, you know what you can do
Speaker 1: all these internal programs and all this stuff to try
Speaker 1: to find what you're into. So that's all I ever did.
Speaker 1: So I had nothing on my resume, you know. So
Speaker 1: he's like, what did you love to do? And I
Speaker 1: was like food. He was like, that's what you need
Speaker 1: to do. You need to figure out a way to
Speaker 1: make both of them work. And so for the longer.
Speaker 1: It took me a year after I retired. It took
Speaker 1: me a year to to to be able to to
Speaker 1: to figure out what how I could pull that off.
Speaker 1: And like that first year, it was a struggle. Man,
Speaker 1: I was like, what in the hell and my doing?
Speaker 1: Had no idea what I was doing. I was still
Speaker 1: cooking and like I was happy, but I wasn't making
Speaker 1: any money, wasn't making a wasn't making a drop, spending money,
Speaker 1: spending just spending money. But now that I look back
Speaker 1: on it, I don't think I was. I was spending money.
Speaker 1: But what I was doing because I didn't go to
Speaker 1: culinary school, when I tell you I would cook every day,
Speaker 1: I didn't go to colinary school. But what I was
Speaker 1: doing was was teaching myself, you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like teaching myself every day and I would try to do,
Speaker 1: you know, learn something new every day or cook something
Speaker 1: new every day. And that's what I did for a
Speaker 1: full year. And then it was like a light. But
Speaker 1: I had ran into uh to Barus Tillman member Tavarius Hillman, Yes,
Speaker 1: and I ran into him and he was like you know,
Speaker 1: he was still playing for the Dolphins at the time,
Speaker 1: and he was like, oh, man, I'm having my baby shower.
Speaker 1: He's like, what you up to now? And I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm just trying to do this cooking thing. And
Speaker 1: I was like, well, look who who's cooking at the
Speaker 1: baby showing. He was like, oh with my wife at
Speaker 1: the time. His wife was puff Daddy's uh uh stylus
Speaker 1: and she's like, oh, you know, she got some connect this.
Speaker 1: And I was like, man, look here, bro, let me
Speaker 1: do it for free. Just let me do it for free.
Speaker 1: He was like all right. So I was like, come
Speaker 1: to the house for free. Yeah. He said, if it's bad,
Speaker 1: it was for free. If it's good, if it's good, yeah,
Speaker 1: free right. Yeah, that's how it jumped off. And so
Speaker 1: I did that baby shower, and you know, they had
Speaker 1: everybody from former teammates that I hadn't seen in a
Speaker 1: couple of years, you know, a few celebrities. O J.
Speaker 1: Simpson was there. I'm not even gonna go there. He
Speaker 1: walked and I was like, I thought him, look, you
Speaker 1: grabbed the chest again. I don't want to. Hey, this
Speaker 1: is two stories. This is true story. Uh. O J.
Speaker 1: Had walked up to the buffet table and his phone,
Speaker 1: really it was his phone. It was it was Snoop Dogg. Wait,
Speaker 1: wait wait, can we recap that? I just need to
Speaker 1: take it back, was Jinny Juice always gets better. Let
Speaker 1: me tell you when you think, let me tell you
Speaker 1: some about old j I don't know none about old Jan.
Speaker 1: I can tell you this. The stories that come out
Speaker 1: on Jay, you cannot live. You can't even lie to
Speaker 1: make them back. He put them on Twitter. What are
Speaker 1: you talking about? Brow thousand nine? This was two thousand
Speaker 1: nine or ten, two thousand, two thousand and eight or
Speaker 1: two thousand nine. His ring tone was jin and Juice.
Speaker 1: And he looked at me like as she said, excuse me,
Speaker 1: what hey, hey hey, little cater and p I have
Speaker 1: somebody extremely more important to talk to. It didn't ring
Speaker 1: on the course didn't rings rolling down, and then he excuse,
Speaker 1: excuse me, young man. Back he answered, he was like, hey,
Speaker 1: wait a yeah, excuse me you, young fella, because that's
Speaker 1: how the ogs always if young fella all the time.
Speaker 1: Young fellow. You don't know, that's my point, yeah, but
Speaker 1: that's how that's how it jumped off man. And that
Speaker 1: was like that was how it jumped off for me
Speaker 1: to I could be able to kind of make some money,
Speaker 1: like you know, friends that were there and they started
Speaker 1: reaching out for different events and stuff like that. And
Speaker 1: that's how my catering company jumped off from that with
Speaker 1: their Miami Cut Cut, let's getting down to do. Hey, Gerard,
Speaker 1: why did you get that T shirt? You mean this thing?
Speaker 1: Oh yes, I got it from cut to a podcast
Speaker 1: dot com where we have exclusive merchandise. Shout out to
Speaker 1: our guys at seven or four shot. But yeah, you
Speaker 1: can go on by you t shirts subscribed to us
Speaker 1: whereever you listen to podcasts. So you started catering. I
Speaker 1: started catering company. I kind of wanted to open up
Speaker 1: a restaurant, but you know, people in my family had
Speaker 1: opened up restaurants, and like restaurants, they take a lot
Speaker 1: out of you. Man. I wasn't trying to work seventy
Speaker 1: and eighty hours a week, so I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, I'm gonna do a food truck because in Texas,
Speaker 1: you know, food trucks. Back then, food trucks were like
Speaker 1: the hot thing. But I was in Miami, so I
Speaker 1: bought a food truck. Was called the Caribbean grill. One
Speaker 1: of the first cuisines that I kind of mastered was
Speaker 1: like Caribbean cuisine specifically, like Jamaican cuisine. And so I
Speaker 1: was doing like, uh like jerk chicken and you know,
Speaker 1: all these different, you know, crazy recipes that I would
Speaker 1: incorporate uh kind of these Caribbean flavors into. But it
Speaker 1: was like nobody was filling it down there in Miami.
Speaker 1: You know, Miami is like Vegas but with a beach,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So I was like, you
Speaker 1: know what, man, I gotta I gotta find my way
Speaker 1: back to Texas. So I kind of had this plan,
Speaker 1: like a like a kind of like a two year
Speaker 1: plan to kind of work my way back to Texas.
Speaker 1: So that's what I did then for a year. And
Speaker 1: then what happened was so I had I would always
Speaker 1: have all this food left over from cater events or
Speaker 1: like you know, whether I went out on the weekend
Speaker 1: with the truck and like, you know, I didn't sell.
Speaker 1: So I had all this food left over, and the
Speaker 1: girl that I was dating at the time, she would
Speaker 1: take all this food to work, and I was like,
Speaker 1: then just take it. Take it to your job. To
Speaker 1: take it to your job, and her boss at the time,
Speaker 1: I can't make this up. Her boss at the time,
Speaker 1: I was a huge fan of Mastership Gordon Ramsay, right,
Speaker 1: and so she would always take this food. So one
Speaker 1: day he told her, he's like, man, like Eddie kin
Speaker 1: cook Man, he needs to be on Mastership. She's like, Edie,
Speaker 1: don't watch that type of stuff. So he's like, let's
Speaker 1: sho He said, let's enter it, you know, enter him
Speaker 1: into the competition. So they did online and they never
Speaker 1: told me about it. So I was at the gym
Speaker 1: working out one day a couple of weeks later, working out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not I'm just sitting down bro bro Eddie. That's
Speaker 1: one thing about Eddie. He was always in the weight
Speaker 1: room always. That was one thing about me. I was
Speaker 1: always walking through the wa But but the funny thing
Speaker 1: about it was he was pound for pound, probably the
Speaker 1: strongest person on the team, like grown man strength. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I got the call and loan you know, long serary
Speaker 1: shop like man. I didn't do no application. Found out
Speaker 1: it was true, went down Audi Ship got on the show.
Speaker 1: So for the Mastership, for the Mastership audition, we had
Speaker 1: to go to basically like a convention Center, and it's
Speaker 1: like hundreds of hundreds of people. You know, they do
Speaker 1: it like regionally. So this one was in like South
Speaker 1: South Florida. So you know, if you had put in
Speaker 1: the application and they passed you through, like if you
Speaker 1: were in Georgia, you had to drive down there, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's probably a good hundred two thousand people at
Speaker 1: this audition. And then so what they would do is
Speaker 1: that they would give you a give you a number,
Speaker 1: and like maybe like a section and a number, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. So I may have been like
Speaker 1: section one, number twenty, so one through twenty and section whatever.
Speaker 1: You would go in this room and you had to
Speaker 1: bring You had to bring a dish that you could
Speaker 1: prepare in five minutes, right, so whether you cooked it
Speaker 1: at home and you had to reheat it or do
Speaker 1: whatever you had to do in five minutes. So you
Speaker 1: had all these people that were you know, like fancy
Speaker 1: and doing all this stuff from baying and trying to
Speaker 1: dora all this fancy stuff. Well, look, I ain't know,
Speaker 1: you know, you know, at the time, I was just
Speaker 1: a good cook. So I made some gumbo. I literally
Speaker 1: made like some seafood gumbo, and I had it in
Speaker 1: the thermis, and I had a bowl, and you had
Speaker 1: all these people like with all these you know set up.
Speaker 1: You know, one dude was in there with this lobster
Speaker 1: and this other dude had all this stuff with fire
Speaker 1: coming out of it. And they hit the timer and like,
Speaker 1: you know, people like scrambling. So I'm just sitting there
Speaker 1: and there five people and they walk around. It's like,
Speaker 1: what are you doing. I was like, you said I
Speaker 1: got five minutes, right, It was like, yeah, I waited
Speaker 1: till four minutes. In thirty seconds, I opened up my thermits,
Speaker 1: poured that gumbo on the bowl and sliding and it's
Speaker 1: sliding in front of me, and I just stood there
Speaker 1: and then they walked around and take your food. They
Speaker 1: saw me do it, so I was like, this guy
Speaker 1: is very arrogant or he could he know what he's doing.
Speaker 1: They came around and takes that gumbo and they whispered
Speaker 1: to each other and they gave me a ticket and
Speaker 1: like going to the other side. And that's how that's
Speaker 1: how that's how I saw this. I got on the show.
Speaker 1: Now was that Gordon Rams hit? That hit? That applause
Speaker 1: that's how you play, That's how you play. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I get on the show. Man, I get on the show,
Speaker 1: fly to California, get on the show. And even when
Speaker 1: you get on the show, you're not actually on the show.
Speaker 1: They started with a hundred people, and then you all
Speaker 1: cook at the same time, and you have to cook
Speaker 1: uh like your signature dish. I hope they more than
Speaker 1: five minutes. Ever forget what it was, but it's probably
Speaker 1: like fifteen to twenty minutes. And you have to cook
Speaker 1: your signature dish. And then this is when you actually
Speaker 1: meet Gordon Ramsey and uh Graham Elliott and Joe Barceiana.
Speaker 1: This is when you actually meet them and they take
Speaker 1: your food and then they move you on to the show.
Speaker 1: They only moved twenty people on, so don't there with
Speaker 1: a hundred people. So you have to make your your
Speaker 1: dish that you know what you're knowing jamaking curry style
Speaker 1: meatballs were like this ginger sweet potato puree and like
Speaker 1: some fried garlic chips. So I made that and you know,
Speaker 1: they watched me cook it, and then you know, they
Speaker 1: taste it, and all three of them was like, you
Speaker 1: need to be on this show. So I got on
Speaker 1: the show. I made I made the top twenty so
Speaker 1: it was Gordon as intense and at that standpoint, here's
Speaker 1: the thing, here's the thing, Like, I'm kind of like Steve,
Speaker 1: like you know, I don't like folks messing with me.
Speaker 1: So before I went on the show, I talked to
Speaker 1: my every each person has their own producer. I told
Speaker 1: my producer. I was like, look here, I haven't see
Speaker 1: the show. You know, at that time, I really wasn't.
Speaker 1: I really didn't watch the show. But when I knew
Speaker 1: it was gonna be on the show, I like caught
Speaker 1: up and like started watching it. I was like, before
Speaker 1: I get on this show, one thing I'm gonna tell you.
Speaker 1: I was like, all that stuff that he does so demanding,
Speaker 1: not mean. Yeah, I was like, I was like it ain'
Speaker 1: I'm not doing that. And if you want, if you
Speaker 1: watched that season and I was on, he never never,
Speaker 1: never said anything Gordon didn't want that smoke. Didn't want
Speaker 1: that smoke. Man, when you talk to a segment producer,
Speaker 1: here's how he said it. So he he dolling that. Listen,
Speaker 1: hey man, all that's that's Gordon to door. Y'all want
Speaker 1: to see Gordon get his ass up on this show.
Speaker 1: Don't talk, don't talk to me sideways if he wants to,
Speaker 1: because he definitely has that intensity, like as if he's
Speaker 1: like a head coach. I want this, but I ain't
Speaker 1: supposed to be here. So if he talked to me
Speaker 1: the way he talking to other he gonna see what
Speaker 1: kind of dB I used. A matter of fact, I'm here.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna here on the frank if that's what I
Speaker 1: thought Gordon Ramsey was like, and he is like that.
Speaker 1: But man, the things that I learned from that man
Speaker 1: in that short amount I was there for about because
Speaker 1: I made it down to the top eight, so I
Speaker 1: was there for a long time. I did really well,
Speaker 1: so I was there for about three months. And the
Speaker 1: things that I learned from him, he's very knowledgeable and
Speaker 1: he's very personal as well. Like a lot of that
Speaker 1: stuff is more for show, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: It is more. It was more for show, uh, don't
Speaker 1: get me wrong. And he went off on a couple
Speaker 1: of people. But it comes from a place of passion,
Speaker 1: you know. I mean, it comes from a place of
Speaker 1: place of passion, like most coaches are. It comes from
Speaker 1: a pace of place of passion. And I learned I
Speaker 1: learned a lot from it to the point that when
Speaker 1: I left Master Chef, I was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I think I can I think I can take this
Speaker 1: this food thing with TV a step further. So I
Speaker 1: packed up UH and moved to Houston. The first thing
Speaker 1: that I did was is that I started working and
Speaker 1: mentoring kids at the y m c A that was
Speaker 1: in this community that I was in because I didn't
Speaker 1: know anybody, so like the quickest way for me to
Speaker 1: be a part of the community for people to know
Speaker 1: who I am, you know, because a lot of people
Speaker 1: had seen me on Master Chefs, Like, I gotta I
Speaker 1: gotta do something. So I started working with the kids
Speaker 1: at the y m c A and mentoring and coaching
Speaker 1: them and doing some doing some training with them. So
Speaker 1: I did that for a year and a half, and
Speaker 1: then with that I started catering a lot of those
Speaker 1: events with my food truck. I had the Caribbean Grill,
Speaker 1: and I opened up a gym where I was aint
Speaker 1: in little athletes. But I had to I had to
Speaker 1: have the food truck connected to it. So I would
Speaker 1: train him and then I would take him out and
Speaker 1: I would, you know, give him something healthy to eat
Speaker 1: off on the food truck. This one day. Man, I
Speaker 1: never forget it. I would had come back from a
Speaker 1: catering event and it was it was late, and I
Speaker 1: was tired, and I was I think that made like
Speaker 1: some ramen noodles or something. Man, it was like something quick.
Speaker 1: So I'm sitting on the couch watching Food Network. It's
Speaker 1: probably about eleven twelve o'clock at night, and this commercial
Speaker 1: comes up and it says, if you think you can
Speaker 1: be the next Guy Fieri, try out for Food Network Star.
Speaker 1: And Guy Fieri had the reason he became gufarious because
Speaker 1: he won Food Network Star and that's how he kind
Speaker 1: of catapulted and became who he is. And I said, man,
Speaker 1: I can do that. Literally, I said I can do that.
Speaker 1: I grabbed my laptop, I went online, found the application,
Speaker 1: submitted the application. They called me a week later. I
Speaker 1: went down for the audition. But this time it was
Speaker 1: different than than the Mastership. This time it was cameras.
Speaker 1: So you had to like cook the same way you
Speaker 1: had to cook your dish or whatever. You was known
Speaker 1: for it, but now you got cameras in front of
Speaker 1: you and you gotta be able and they're asking you questions,
Speaker 1: but you gotta be able to cook. And talk to
Speaker 1: the camera at the same time, but also be able
Speaker 1: to have your personality go, you know, shine through. And
Speaker 1: I was just I was a man, got nothing to lose,
Speaker 1: so I was cracking jokes and yeah, that are being myself.
Speaker 1: I think I had like dropped the spoon with stuff on.
Speaker 1: I was like, well, it happens all the time. You
Speaker 1: can't tell me you never dropped the spoon at your house.
Speaker 1: I said something that was witty and and I got
Speaker 1: on the show. I got on the show and uh,
Speaker 1: it was only twenty people. It ain't like master show
Speaker 1: you got. This is like your real deal. This is
Speaker 1: like the crim Day, Like crim So people on this show.
Speaker 1: You know they got three and four restaurants. You know,
Speaker 1: they've been to culinary school. They you know, one guy
Speaker 1: was James Beard. Uh, finalists. So but here I am,
Speaker 1: this formal football player that had a food that has
Speaker 1: a food truck, compete against people that you know, got
Speaker 1: three and four restaurants, James Beard, culinary school. But the
Speaker 1: youngest with You're like I didn't give a damn. Like
Speaker 1: I was like, I'm supposed to be here and uh
Speaker 1: and I tell you what, Steve, be honest with you man,
Speaker 1: the only reason obviously I wanted the show, But the
Speaker 1: only reason that I wanted the show was because, uh
Speaker 1: football and the things that I had to go through
Speaker 1: with football, the elves and flows in my career, because
Speaker 1: in that show, it was the heart that in that
Speaker 1: show was probably the hardest thing that I've ever done,
Speaker 1: because the stakes were so high at that point, like
Speaker 1: it was all or nothing for me, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. So it would be weeks to where you know,
Speaker 1: it's like any other competition show. If you have a
Speaker 1: bad week, you're in the bottom, you have a chance
Speaker 1: of going home. So I started out guns blazing. I
Speaker 1: was in the top top two, top two, and it
Speaker 1: was about a good three weeks while I was in
Speaker 1: the bottom. But the thing about it was is that
Speaker 1: Bobby Flay, you know, it's all it's all about mentorship
Speaker 1: and like teaching you. So it was the same thing
Speaker 1: like you know, whenever you would do something wrong, it's like, look,
Speaker 1: this is what you need to work on, and this
Speaker 1: is what you can improve on. This is where I
Speaker 1: think you can get better at it. So every time
Speaker 1: that I would find myself in the bottom, those critiques
Speaker 1: and criticism that they would give me. I would go
Speaker 1: back to my hotel room and like I would just like,
Speaker 1: you know, work on it. Well, that's how it was
Speaker 1: for me. Man. I attribute that to sports, to where
Speaker 1: you know, you have a bad week, you get your
Speaker 1: great sheet and he's like, hey, this is what you
Speaker 1: did wrong, this is what you need to work on.
Speaker 1: And that's what I did man, weekend and week out
Speaker 1: to the point where I got down to like the
Speaker 1: final three, and then the final three it was all
Speaker 1: of that. Man. It was like, look you're gonna do.
Speaker 1: We're gonna give you. We're gonna shoot a show with
Speaker 1: you and see what you got. Every all three of us,
Speaker 1: each one if you gonna have your on different show,
Speaker 1: and whichever one is the best, whichever one we think
Speaker 1: can be the most successful food network, that's who's gonna win.
Speaker 1: When I told you, I laid it all out there.
Speaker 1: And then that show I did it with Rachel Ray.
Speaker 1: It was a barbecue episode in uh in the middle
Speaker 1: of New York. Man, I was out there, I was
Speaker 1: cracking jokes. I would just be I would just being
Speaker 1: myself and it worked and I ended up winning Food
Speaker 1: Network Star. And that was six years ago, and I've
Speaker 1: been with him ever since. Man, that's awesome. I mean,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's remarkable. Without revealing I've always had this question, Okay,
Speaker 1: you you beat Bobby Flay right in this show man,
Speaker 1: when those two chefs that go against each other, man,
Speaker 1: when they make these things up, do they give you
Speaker 1: any time to like look at or ponder recipe Bobby? Yeah,
Speaker 1: or the show on the show like the challenge because
Speaker 1: sometimes that's why Bobby is the o g man, Bobby,
Speaker 1: I gotta mind you, Bobby is like the first person
Speaker 1: that was on food never like and he's also you know,
Speaker 1: been cooking for over thirty some years, so his knowledge
Speaker 1: is bad. But what happens is obviously the people know
Speaker 1: what their dish is gonna be if they make it
Speaker 1: to to face Bobby play right, So once Bobby, once
Speaker 1: they tell Bobby they're gonna make like they're give him
Speaker 1: five minutes, just five minutes to kind of get his
Speaker 1: thoughts together. That's it. Like but still like, you know,
Speaker 1: some of these things like he's never heard of you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and he has to think about
Speaker 1: it and a lot of time it's not authentic, but
Speaker 1: it's his interpretation of it. He's gonna be delicious because
Speaker 1: he's not prepared, Like he doesn't not prepared. They doesn't know,
Speaker 1: like he literally doesn't. I asked the same thing, like, man,
Speaker 1: he gotta know. He's like no, now that we're friends,
Speaker 1: like many cool, I mean he's like, I get five minutes.
Speaker 1: I give myself five minutes to get my plan together
Speaker 1: and that's it. Like, do you still have the passion
Speaker 1: for cooking outside of being on the food network set?
Speaker 1: I do. I mean I cook pretty much every day. Um,
Speaker 1: but for me, it's more because I travel a lot now.
Speaker 1: So when I come home, like I'm I'm feeding for
Speaker 1: like a home cooked meal. Because when I'm traveling, like
Speaker 1: right now, I'm in Utah, I'm gonna be here for
Speaker 1: a month. No not no, not, So when I get home,
Speaker 1: it's all about cooking for me. But I cook every
Speaker 1: day anyway. So now I mean in Houston, I own
Speaker 1: a beer guarden food truck park. So now I have
Speaker 1: like I have like eight trucks, so I have different
Speaker 1: types of things from Columbia Fusion, the barbecue, craft burgers,
Speaker 1: and you know, so I'm cooking every day anyways. So
Speaker 1: when I get home, you know, it's I'm like I'm
Speaker 1: not I'm not cooking, man, I've been cooking all day.
Speaker 1: And what show you doing in Utah? Uh? Show called
Speaker 1: Halloween Wars. I did it last year. It brought me
Speaker 1: in last year. I was kind of like a judge
Speaker 1: host on it last year, and then so they brought
Speaker 1: me back this year to be the actual hosting. You
Speaker 1: got all these shows, you own the food trucks. Now,
Speaker 1: what do you see cooking taking you in the next
Speaker 1: ten years? Yeah? So for me, I kind of fell
Speaker 1: in love with kind of hosting. So I see myself
Speaker 1: kind of continue doing this host thing. I really want
Speaker 1: to get to a point to where I'm doing more
Speaker 1: like um like daytime talk talk show that involves kind
Speaker 1: of like cooking and things like that. So that's my
Speaker 1: my next big goal. But right now I'm enjoying this
Speaker 1: hosting stuff that I'm doing food never. I love it, man,
Speaker 1: just like it's just like just being myself, entertaining and
Speaker 1: you know, build to report with people contestants and laughing
Speaker 1: and joking and talking about food. So you can't beat that.
Speaker 1: I have a production company now called Pick six Productions.
Speaker 1: We just did a show. We did a show last year,
Speaker 1: the Beer Garden pick pick six, pick six production production.
Speaker 1: Actually you're gonna call it, but no, man, So let's
Speaker 1: it like, we did a show last year at the
Speaker 1: Beer Garden called because King of Roads here And while
Speaker 1: I had all these trucks come from across Texas to
Speaker 1: compete to have a spot at my place, and I
Speaker 1: was part of my production company in partnership with another
Speaker 1: production company, we were the ones that put it on
Speaker 1: and it did really well. So what they were gonna
Speaker 1: do another season of it this year? Man, in the
Speaker 1: in the food industry, especially on the Food Network, and
Speaker 1: and just overall when you're talking about cooking, and there's
Speaker 1: not a lot of men that are black men, men
Speaker 1: of color, right that are cooking. And also in this
Speaker 1: host steam roll right, So I keep doing that, man,
Speaker 1: Keep keep keep projecting that out of ownership, um, creativity, hosting, directing,
Speaker 1: just making sure that you're visible because when you look
Speaker 1: at when you look at so many other guys. I watched,
Speaker 1: I watched the Food Network. I love cooking. I'm not
Speaker 1: even close to you. I just like dabbling in and
Speaker 1: being able to provide and like if I want to eat,
Speaker 1: I want to eat, but I also want to mess
Speaker 1: around and do some you know, do some stuff and
Speaker 1: try it. Man, it's just as proud to watch, just
Speaker 1: like man. Right more over there, toss so so steeve
Speaker 1: The thing real quick, man, before we get out of here.
Speaker 1: Is that one thing that keeps me going? And you
Speaker 1: kind of touched on yourself. I remember growing up man,
Speaker 1: and like like a lot of other kids that look
Speaker 1: like me, and young men and women that look like me.
Speaker 1: It was always you know, you know, I was a
Speaker 1: big you know, Jerry Rice fan, Bo Jackson fan, and
Speaker 1: you know, all these different things. But now I have
Speaker 1: these kids that come up to me that don't even
Speaker 1: know I played football and they want to be like
Speaker 1: me being a chef on TV. I just think that's
Speaker 1: the coolest thing. And it just shows how times have changed.
Speaker 1: It just lets me know that what I'm doing is
Speaker 1: the right path. With with the women, both of your
Speaker 1: grandmother's that taught you man, what did they think? What
Speaker 1: did they say about you today? What do you want
Speaker 1: to want to hear from them? Well? But one of
Speaker 1: the hardest things about, you know, being in position to
Speaker 1: him right now, is that my grandmother, my dad's mom,
Speaker 1: h Any Ruth, she passed away before she could see
Speaker 1: any of this because she would be so proud. She was.
Speaker 1: You know, she has she has a cookbook that came
Speaker 1: out called any Ruth Family Cookbook. Uh, and so she
Speaker 1: would be extremely proud. Grandma Gerald Deane, she's that. I've
Speaker 1: actually had her on a couple of shows with me.
Speaker 1: Uh and it was to this day the highlight of
Speaker 1: my color in their career. You ever had my grandmother
Speaker 1: on show? But then she hit me up, Hey baby,
Speaker 1: you think we can make this jam nation wide? Trying
Speaker 1: to get you get the preserves out on the market. Hey,
Speaker 1: she trying to She trying to trap out the window. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she trying to chop the preserves out the win. What
Speaker 1: kind of what kind of preserves or what flavors? Man?
Speaker 1: What you want? She got an apricot, she got strawberry, BlackBerry, blueberry, jawberry. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I like blue. I don't like apricot though, Apricot, apricot, marmalade.
Speaker 1: You never had gin had Gerald Dean preserved. Man, I'm
Speaker 1: trying to take you. Man, well, appreciate it. Man, Thanks
Speaker 1: for the time. All right. Now, you are a unique person.
Speaker 1: You are well worth it, You are competent, and most
Speaker 1: of all, your lovable I'm Steve Smith, Singer, I'm Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John and this is cut to It. Cut to
Speaker 1: It with the Smith Singer That Is Me is a
Speaker 1: production of Cut to It LLC, Balto Creative Media, The
Speaker 1: Black Effect and I Heart Radio. For more podcast from
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows from Cut
Speaker 1: to It. Executive producer Steve Smith, Singer, co host Gerard
Speaker 1: Little John, talent in booking manager Joe Fusci, Social media
Speaker 1: team Wesley Robinson and John show from Balto Creative Media.
Speaker 1: Cut to It is produced by Brian Baltaschevitch and Meredith Carter,
Speaker 1: with production assistance by Alex Lebrec. Production Coordinator Taylor Robinson.
Speaker 1: Theme music by Alex Johnson, lyrics and vocals by Anthony Hamilton.
Speaker 1: You ain't heard them about it, then we're about to
Speaker 1: let you know. It's all one