All right. Shoot. We're into the second week
of November. November 11th, 2025, Dudes Like
Us podcast. Chuck is at the helm with our back
Mr. Producer. We have a special guest today.
Another dude like us. Yes. We'll get into that
in just a second. We've got a full, jam -packed,
incredible show today. Lots of entertainment.
For those first -time listeners out there, welcome.
Thank you for checking us out. Check us out on
dudeslikeus -podcast. on both Instagram and Facebook.
And we also have some swag on dudeslikeus -woodcraft
if you're into that kind of stuff. And we'll
mail you a keychain. We'll see what happens.
There you go. Happy Veterans Day. Happy Veterans
Day. Absolutely. For some reason, I'm thinking
like Marilyn Monroe should be saying that, you
know, like, happy, happy birthday. Yeah, whatever.
Dudeslikeus, I'm Sean. I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. Hey,
I'm Jordan. Welcome to the show, sir. Yeah, we
got a lot going on. So Jordan, Chuck, turn us
on to Jordan. showed us some pictures, and we're
like, oh, he's kind of nice. Turned you on. 100%.
I was like, well, let's get this guy on the schedule.
And so, hell, how long ago was that? Freaking
Halloween last year, perhaps? I don't know. Something
like that. Yeah, it sounds about right. He came
over for karaoke. Yeah. Yes. One of our ventures
over at the house. But we put him on this Dudes
Like Us podcast schedule, and we got this thing
set up, and it just kind of came up all of a
sudden, which is kind of cool. And this is the
first time we've actually have done this. We've
had guests before, but we've never had entertainers.
No, ladies and gentlemen. I know you're used
to listening to Paul, but he's not a stripper.
All right? No, I gave that up a long time ago.
Well, now that you've got knee surgery coming
up on Friday. It's really hard on the body. Stripping
is hard. It's a lot harder than you guys think.
The pole work. The pole work, for sure. Absolutely.
A couple concussions, too. You've got to hang
out of that pole. You can take pole lessons,
too, and learn how to dance on a pole if you
want. That's true. It's very true. Yeah, share
your experience, Jordan. I personally won't get
into all that, but I know that there's some classes
you can get really good at it. I'll say Kim took
it. For real? Yeah, in Las Vegas. Wow. At the
Planet Hollywood Mall. Did you mount one in your
house? Not yet. Not yet? You're ever hopeful,
huh? You're saying there's a chance. Yeah. All
right. So you're not a pole dancer, but what
is your trade, Jordan? Well, so, I mean, obviously
the guitar singing part is a big part of it,
but I have to make like a living too. So I'm
a telecommunications guy. So when your cell phone
doesn't work somewhere, they call me to make
it work, basically. Okay. So that's Cowboy Stadium.
That's, you know. skyscrapers that's underground
stuff it's kind of fun i get to see all sorts
of interesting things and um go to a lot of places
a lot of people may not see but it's it's also
it's it's telecommunications so there's a lot
of red tape you know and i do a lot of like police
and fire radios but i also do like commercial
like your 18ts and t -mobile too so okay interesting
so you're dealing with a lot of different frequencies
tons of different frequencies um A million different
personalities. Is that the frequency, Kenneth?
Yeah, I mean, you can go. Oh, my God. It definitely
keeps you going, and I feel like I'm more like
sometimes a counselor. So I have customers that
get mad their phones don't work, so I have to
tell them everything's going to be okay. Right.
And we're usually able to do that, but you've
got to be a good listener in this business for
sure. You give a lot of hugs. A lot of shoulders
to cry on. I'll jam some tunes for if I get to
know the customers well enough. They'll let me
come in and jam out for them or whatever I'm
done. So that's what I do. So anyways. What's
like one of the number one things that when you
roll up on a job and there's some issues with
the reception, what is the number one thing that
you can fix it or that you notice that's the
problem? Well, so usually what it ends up being
is that people don't realize that. Being higher
up in a building is actually worse. Like the
way that it used to be, you'd think cell phones,
let me get up on a mountain and then my phone
will work. And back at a certain time, that was
the truth. But now because so many people are
using phones. It doesn't work that well. So you
can have really strong signal, but it actually
doesn't work because you're up too high seeing
too many signals. So that's the number one thing
I usually see. Oh, I see. You're competing with
everybody else's. Yes, absolutely. So the signal
isn't like a sphere. It's more of like a donut
that goes out. I would say, yes, yes, exactly.
A lateral, like a lateral donut. And so many
people can only use it at so many times. When
you get higher up, your phone doesn't – it tries
to understand, but it still can't. There's just
so much it's seeing. So people end up calling
us to come in. We try to make a dominant signal
in their building so they're not seeing so many
signals. We make it strong enough to where they
only see the one signal we want them to see.
Fascinating. Interesting. If it makes sense.
Yeah. And that's for commercial cellular stuff.
Public safety, like police and fire radios, we
do the walkie -talkies and everything that kind
of happened with 9 -11. Then all that stuff happened
with the firefighters and police, 9 -11. So there
was a big initiative to get buildings covered
for police and fire radios because a lot of those
guys, ladies, they died that day because they
couldn't communicate. Right. So that frequency
is what, the 310 channel around that area, 310
hertz? It's usually, I mean, it... 450 megahertz
up to like three gig. So it's a pretty wide spectrum
that you can get into. So I recently, like when
I say recent, like last week, I purchased these
walkie -talkies, coincidentally. Sean's a prepper.
So, you know, I got them specifically because
they were referred to as watching on a podcast.
And they were like, well, these things are 10
watts. And he says, this guy was like, you know,
I own $500, $1 ,000, $3 ,000 walkie -talkies.
And it's like, I cannot believe. they're selling
these on the internet for like 25 bucks each
you know and it's not like he's making any money
off of it he was referring it because it's a
good deal so I ordered two and turned around
and then I ordered The upgraded one. Because
I ordered two for like $55, I guess, after it
got delivered. But then I got the upgraded one,
which is a little over $100. And it just offers
a little bit more GPS. But the one thing that
they did block out is specific frequencies, which
are those emergency police channels. So the question
I pose on you, are these things jailbreakable?
I don't think so. I think in a certain. Do you
want the police frequency? He wants to listen
to it. I want access to it. I paid for. There's
apps on your phone. I think there's. Always a
way to probably do that if you really wanted
to get into that. But that usually will end up
opening up a whole other can of worms where you
get the FCC really upset with you. Not only police
and fire people, but you get the FCC, which is
the Federal Communications Commission, which
you guys know that is. What about like the ham
radio operators? So I'm a ham radio guy too.
So I have an FCC license. I'm a big, like, I
have old radio stuff, new radio stuff. I'm just
a big RF kind of geek, really. So the cellular
world for me is just kind of fun. I have, you
know, specific licenses for ham radio and yeah,
they get, you don't like when you have, cause
you, I know the radios you have, it's an unlicensed
spectrum that anybody can use and it's fun and
it works and it's great. But if you start getting
into some other banjo, you get some pretty bitchy
people and they'll start getting mad at you.
So I'm interested more in just kind of voyeurism
than participating in any conversation. CB radio.
That's still, I mean, that's still for real.
So you guys remember CB radio? It's still going.
And it's actually, it's even more dedicated now
because so many people have cell phones. So you
get the CB radio guys are the really diehards.
And there's like a whole, it's a whole thing.
I mean, it's fun. And what's the range? What's
the range on that? Because we got into a debate
on how far your walkie -talkies you just bought
can actually, you know, can reach. And they were
talking about CB radios can reach like 90 miles
or something crazy. I mean, like what? You can
go really long. Kind of just with the opposite
of saying, so with cell phones, getting really
high up in a building is actually bad. But for
CB radios and point -to -point radios, like what
you're talking about, getting high up is actually
good. Better. Yeah, the higher, the better. So
you can get a radio that's four or five watts,
can talk 40, 50 miles. If you say you're on a
rooftop, like a rooftop here, and you're talking
to another guy on a rooftop, and it's unobstructed,
so there's nothing in the way, you'd be amazed.
But what happens is it's trees, it's other buildings.
It's billboard signs. It's all sorts of things
that kind of limit that. So generally, your radios
probably go a couple miles before they start
having problems, especially in a neighborhood
like this, just because there's so much clutter
around. When I first got them out of the box,
I was just fagging out, man. I just took them
out. I had to turn every knob and learn it. I
left one in my daughter's room, and then I went
to Kohl's. The whole time, I'm like, heading
south on Hillcrest, heading west on Rolliter.
She's like, copy that, copy that. Just dorking
it out. But I got all the way down to the Kohl's
parking lot, and we still had continuity. It
started to get really fuzzy once I turned that
corner. But it still worked. Yeah, yeah. That's
pretty amazing. And that's like what? That's
like, what, two, three miles from here, maybe?
It's a mile and a half, two miles. Miles, okay,
okay. Yeah, you're just right on the corner.
There's a lot of houses and trees. But if you
got on the rooftop of Kohl's, you'd be. Oh, okay.
That's the key. I think it was 156 hertz -ish,
154, 156. Oh, so that, yeah, VHF. Yeah, I know
exactly where we're at. A lot of them are 450
megs. They're a little higher, but yeah, the
VHF ones, those are cool. Yeah, yeah, but I could
see how you could get into some weird, there's
a lot of licenses down there too. You drift into
them sometimes. Sometimes your radio will sort
of... That's what I was trying to find out. They
don't have a whole lot of information out there.
Maybe that's by design, but I kind of want to
know what those are. Not that I'm going to hit
them, but what exactly are they? I will give
you exactly where to go. So if you can remember
this, radioreference .com. So type in radioreference
.com. It'll tell you every single frequency that...
You're going to have to create a login, but it's
like a Wikipedia for radio frequencies. It's
pretty cool. If that covers everything you'd
ever want to know about radio. I mean, it's as
good as what people input, kind of like Wikipedia.
Right. So, I mean, but you could usually tell
you, you know, what frequencies does Frisco Police
use. RadioFrequency .com. Yeah. Yeah. RadioReference.
RadioReference .com. Yep. We've got it up on
the screen right there. Yeah. So, I mean, you're
going to have to go do a little, you know, but
this will tell you if you want to know what.
Frequencies, you know, Frisco School District's
using, you can pull it and you can actually find
it. I mean, you got to search around a little
bit, but there's a whole bunch of topics. There
are things you can learn about. It's just fun.
Oh, yeah. Ultimately, I think we'll use them
if we ever go camping. We'll use them for something
like that. Well, can't we be third -grade imbeciles
and all have one in our houses and all talk to
each other at night? That's what it's about.
Big Jeff, Big Jeff, come in. Big Jeff, over.
Well, it'll work. Why can't we all talk to each
other? It'll work from my house to Jeff's. It'll
work from my house to Chuck's. Just do a conference
call on the phone. Because this is more fun.
Yeah. And you're pushing and holding. Making
the noise? Oh, yeah. These things only work cell
phones as long as you have the technologies there
and the cellular networks there. Those point
-to -point radios generally always work. As long
as you've got battery power, you can talk. As
soon as you lose GPS signal, all your cell phones
aren't going to work anymore. Everything will
be done. So those radios that you're talking
about, that could be back. That's going to be
what it is back again. kind of it amazes me is
all the frequencies that are around us all the
time you know always always just it can't be
good it can't be good for our bodies it really
i mean there's something to be said about living
in a faraday box so to speak where you protect
yourself like that that's you know cancerous
stuff i don't know that probably took a leap
for their oil hat Whatever. I mean, I don't know.
But just the chronic exposure, you know, and
I don't know what's bad, but I mean, when does
it become bad? Anybody watch Better Call Saul?
Yes. Where the brother lives in the Faraday house.
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. He's a freak. Oh, that's
right. Don't bring your keys in. Don't bring
your phone in. Yeah, yeah. Put your phone in
the mailbox. Yep. Yeah. There are people like
that. I think Sean might be one of them sooner
or later. Maybe. Yeah. I enjoy it, though. He's
going to start with a little cap. All right,
so we were talking about the frequencies and
how I'm tripping out on my new purchase, and
it just so happens, what a quinky dink, that
that's what you do. Thank you for that reference,
the radioreference .com. I hit that up. So let
me ask a question. So you said you're a ham operator.
So you live in, you were saying Little Elm. You
live in Little Elm. So do you have like one of
those? Not a gigantic tower, but you've got to
have like a 15 -foot. I've got some stuff. Yeah,
yeah. And I deal with HOAs, too, that don't like
it. That's why I wanted to bring that up because
when I was on the board or whatever, the HOA
board, and there was a ham operator guy that
wanted to put up a tower. And we were like, dude,
I'm sorry. You can't do that. It's in the bylaws.
And he was like, I provide a great service, and
I can provide. Are you able to hide it? Like
put it on a tree? No, like put it on a tree.
Sometimes a little. bit but it's the same idea
you want to be at that you want to be high up
in the air uninstructed so you want a big antenna
on the roof and it's and then you everybody sees
it i felt so bad for him because he was such
a passionate and i think it's so cool right and
i think it is a good how tall are they do they
need to be well it depends on the frequency that
you're actually trying to use so so the idea
is lower the frequency bigger the antenna so
for like we'll say like CB radios, like 27 megahertz
that to get an antenna that actually will transmit
that signal completely optimally is like 36 feet.
Oh, good Lord. But they do things like they add
a coil and stuff in them. They wrap like, you
see like a, like it's like on a, on a car and
a bunch of those little coils and stuff. It's
a TV station. Yeah. Trucks. Yeah. They'll have
things. And so they're kind of, they're kind
of cheating trying to get like as much as they
can. Yeah. But by, yeah. But I mean, the idea
is really, yeah. Like, 36 feet yeah so i mean
like 800 megahertz i think the antenna needs
to be like 12 inches so it's totally gets different
then higher frequencies like gigahertz stuff
you start talking antennas that are four to six
inches and then even smaller than that now what
if you just protruded out of your rooftop you
make you just 36 foot antenna on the yeah no
no no i mean you have let's say you have well
you start for the first floor and you just kind
of Maybe start outside on the exterior and you
mount it to the side of the building. So it could
be that stripper pole type thing? Absolutely.
My point is, you may not go 36, but what if you
went to the height of the house and maybe five
foot over that? Yeah, and you can still do that.
And then they have things, they call it like
quarter wave, half wave, three quarter wave.
So they're not fully 36 feet, but they still
transmit part. The frequency is not as optimally,
but then you have things like you can add power.
transmit more Watts to kind of make up for the
smaller antenna. So, and then you're just throwing
more power, expensive equipment at it. Oh, what
you're having to do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
CB stands for constantly buying. Right. So yeah,
that's what, I mean, yeah, it's really bad. Yeah.
So, so what's the, what's the process getting
an ham operating license, ham radio operating
license. So it's, it's all done basically volunteer.
So ham radio, has like clubs in certain cities
you know like you could go to i think denton
and that covers like a lot of denton county guys
and they meet a couple times a month and they
distribute these tests that are monitored by
the fcc so you take a test it asks you several
questions about electronics antennas um really
more rules so you don't get into trouble you
know so why why all the testing and what is the
fcc care They care because they don't want you.
There's certain power restrictions that you can
easily exceed if you want to. And I will not
confirm or deny that I have done that to get
more power so more people can hear you. there's
big fines against that. And if you get, if you
become an FCC, I have an FCC license, a ham radio
operator, they expect you to respect that. And
it's also, they have specific bands that only
ham operators are supposed to be in like what
you're talking about. We can't drift into certain
bands like they're, they're licensed. So they
do it to regulate. They just want to try to regulate.
So you don't get somebody coming in and starting
a rate. Is it to make money? I think it is in
the end to some, yes, yes. I mean, to buy more
stuff. They're charging for licenses, you're
saying? Well, they don't charge. I think with
the FCC, I think if I remember my ham radio license
for 10 years costs like 100 bucks or something.
So it's not for money. I don't think it's for
money. So what's the regulations for? What are
they trying to prevent? Prevent people starting
stuff like a radio station and just transmitting
on any frequency they want. people that want
to make sure that there's a certain way you're
supposed to talk on the radio. Some of it's kind
of old school stuff. Like they don't, there's
a certain, like there's like, you know, 10, four,
10, seven, 10, eight, these 10 codes that you're
supposed to follow. So it's, you know, there's
more code that people still like to follow. So
it's more like, it's kind of preserving an old
school tradition, I think is probably what you're
getting to. Yeah. I think so. Yeah. But now I
know ham operators can talk to each other all
over the world. Yeah. So how does that work?
How can you talk to a guy in Australia? So it's
all depends on conditions in our atmosphere.
It's really interesting. So if you have a certain
day that, and I think it's the stratosphere and
ionosphere, I think it's between both of them.
Your signal can actually bounce off the top of
that and then go somewhere else in the world.
They call that skip. Skip talking is a thing
where I could talk to Australia. What wattage
would require that? Well, really not many watts
at all. I mean, you can actually do it probably
under 10 watts if you don't have anybody else
trying to do it over the top of you. So that's
where you start getting into buying more bigger
radios so they'll hear you more and hear somebody
else. I mean, I can talk to Australia on a day.
like this, almost like we're talking as clear.
We are right now. And then within 10 minutes,
they're gone. I never hear him again. I mean,
it just, it's a condition. It's just the way
that it is. It totally is. And, and then you've,
it's just about the moon. It's about this. Do
you ever listen to aliens? I try to, but that
goes back to that microdosing conversation. Mushrooms
are involved. Yes. You notice, yeah, people that
see UFOs, usually there's other things involved,
in my opinion. Yeah, but there's just the phantom
broadcasting that you can hear out there that
there's no explanation for, and you find it on
some, I don't want to say creepy or nefarious,
but just some awkward or un... Unchartered frequency.
They break those frequencies down to the 10 ,000th
to the 100 ,000th place. Digit, right? Absolutely,
they do. And then you're saying you hear a transmission
from 1945. Yeah, and it's a repeat, kind of like
the movie Contact. Absolutely. That movie was
fantastic. Jodie Foster. I love that movie. I
bought it. For now, I bought it. Yes. You bought
the license to watch. You have to watch what
I say when Jeff is going to be like, no, you
didn't. It's not me. It's Amazon and the courts.
Do they get fired or do they change it? I don't
know. I don't know what the outcome is. Well,
right now, I've got it. I've watched it like
once a year at least. It's one of my favorite
ones. I've watched it once like 20 years ago.
I think I've seen it twice, but an awesome movie.
Call it my house. We'll watch it. That's good.
So one more question about the ham operator thing.
So are you saying it's like on a Saturday morning,
that's what guys do? They see if it's a lucky
day where they pick up somebody from like far
away. That's like a thing. And what's made it
kind of fun now is because of social media and
things like that. People will talk on a skip
day, they call it, where people are talking to
each other, but they'll actually. live cast it
to facebook or whatever so that you're actually
on facebook watching the guys you're talking
to but you're talking to them on the radio at
the same time because you're giving each other
your information and you can facetime them yeah
yeah it's just pretty cool it's super cool it's
just a thing i mean it's a it's either you're
into it or you're not i've i've always loved
doing it i've it's it's been a passion for me
so to me to get into telecommunications you know
dealing with cellular and police fire radios
i mean it's it's all second nature to me I mean,
I'm just having fun. And what an advantage you
got over the guys doing this 30 years ago. Because
FaceTime didn't exist. Exactly. Yeah. All you
did, all you heard was this ghost voice from
who knows where. And now it's been so refined.
And you have, you know, things like this. I mean,
I know they can't, you know, but you look at
that and you keep going. Yeah, I am. You can
kind of definitely see what's going on there.
Super cool. So radioreference .com has a list
of all those different frequencies, which is
kind of cool. Is this specific to Frisco? That
is because you're in Collin County, but you can
search anywhere in Texas and find stuff there.
By the nature of the walkie -talkies that I have,
I shouldn't have access to that stuff, correct?
You should not. Right. Yeah. Do they have the
school district down there? Yeah, absolutely.
I think I saw it. Yeah, the schools would be
there. No way. You'll see them. You'll see them.
I mean, they may be. But I think they're there.
That's fascinating. Of course, we're not allowed
to go into any of those bands. Well, it doesn't
have the frequencies specifically listed, though,
does it? Right. I'm going to have to log in.
Well, right there. See, those are the frequencies
they use there. That's the range. And then those
are actually, that's the frequency. And then
these are actually channels. But yeah, that's
all the channels they use. Interesting. You can't
go to any of these, right? No, you can listen.
But you can listen to these, though. Oh, you
can? Yeah, so I actually have a couple scanners
that can scan all these. So I can listen, but
I can't transmit to it, but I can listen. So
I can hear police fire radio. I can hear things
are going on. Usually I know very quickly. And
a lot of times... there's things that go on with,
with things you don't, it never makes the news,
you know, but I hear about it. So it's kind of
fun. Like I'll hear, I'll hear stuff like I can
hear things, you know, police fire, but you can
even like airport, like airplanes, they all transmit.
Then they're on that one 35 VHF band where you're
kind of where those radios you had are. And you
can hear them come over the top, you know, come
in at 65 ,000 and I'll look and there'll be like
a jet plane right over the house. It's just kind
of a fun little thing to do. So my wife's a teacher
and they, they talk on the walkie talkies, right?
So you're saying that I could tune into my wife's
school and listen to them talking on the walkie
-talkie? Yes. That's crazy. That's why I was
interested, because I'm a school bus driver,
and we use radios, and I was wondering if they
had the frequencies on. You definitely... You
could listen to us all day. Yeah, it would be
on there. What's your call sign on your bus?
Big dog. Big dog. Big dog. Oh, I like it. We're
going to tune into your bus every day, Jeff,
and just kind of listen to you. Are you doing
Frisco routes? Frisco. Frisco? That's cool. So,
okay, well, here's the thing. So you brought
your ham radio and your setup over here, and
you're going to talk into the ham radio for us.
That's what you're doing today, right? We're
going to mount the antenna. Transmit right there
and go. This whole setup is over here? 37 -footer.
We can't. All right, so let's talk about why
you're really here. All right, so the real reason
you're here, because you are. Not the real reason.
Well, no, no. This is the real thing. Well, of
course, because he's a dude like us. He's a dude
like us. I get it. Yeah. But what we're interested
in, I should say, is that you are an accomplished
guitar player. Yeah. And singer. And singer.
Guitar, yeah. And break dancer. And pole dancer.
Oh, okay. I can do that, too. Well, and Jeff
has a pole. Breaking news. All right. There you
go. So what's your background there? So I've
been playing guitar for probably about 35, 40
years. Long time, long time, long time. I've
been playing out gigs professionally since probably
mid -90s, something like that. So I've always
sort of been on the... I grew up kind of being
a metalhead, so I was like super slayer and death
metal and all that. And then I started mellowing
out a little bit, as most people do. Sure. Now
you're into Barry Gibb. Yeah, I don't know. Barry
Manilow. Yeah. Maybe a little bit. Barry White.
Like Neil Young, maybe things like that. Creedence
Clearwater, things like that. But I've never
really been a country guy, so I struggle at times
here because I don't play traditional country.
I'm more of like a classic rock guy. And they
request country a lot? Oh, yes. Yes, they do.
What do they call that? Grassroots kind of music?
What do they call that? Salt? Red Dirt. Red Dirt.
Red Dirt. Yeah, that's a big thing here. Like
Texas country, outlaw country. Outlaw country
thing. I got you. So yeah, I'm more of a, I do
a lot of my own songs and I do, you know, I kind
of tear on the classic rock side. So I've been
doing it a long time. I mean, that's sort of
like my thing. It gives me, when my day job,
which I was saying telecommunications drives
me completely insane, which it does most of the
time, I go play gigs, go do private events, regular
bar and grills, and it just settles me down.
you know that's that that rounds me around so
it's totally just a totally a hobby yeah i mean
i don't know i get paid i have i have to i get
10 .99 i got to do taxes and all that just from
i get paid i mean the venues love to 10 .99 me
so i mean are you trying to grow it as a business
to where sometime you can quit your other job
i would love to do that i mean i i would you
know as you get older you're kind of like i'm
just yeah sure it's just it how does that work
though i mean you know you got to deal with like
insurance and all this stuff. I mean, day jobs
have their certain securities, you know? I mean,
that's the thing that scares me off. I mean,
there's times where I've made, like, in a couple
months, I'm like, I could do this full -time
easily. But then there's something where, like,
a month I don't play anywhere. Right. You know,
it's tough. It's a contract. You're a contractor,
essentially. And I got to tell you, too, man,
there's something to be said about any job that
you do. You know, you're out of your peak performance
era, you know? I mean, guys our age. Sure. That's
a fact. It doesn't matter what we're doing. Yep.
We're starting to be replaced by younger whippersnappers.
Yep. Got all the audio trickery. Hell, we're
being replaced by AI. Oh, yeah. The music. They're
making up, hey, tell an AI to make one. They
have, actually, AI -like songs you can come out
that actually aren't even anybody doing it, but
they're actually good songs. publishing them
it's kind of scary it is scary yeah yeah so you
guys are looking at the that's the band i'm playing
in so you're not a solo act you are in a band
i will do yeah so i i do solo act stuff and then
i also play a local band here called mason adams
project and i've been with them probably a couple
years now so we and that's that's primarily original
music um We kind of call it hippie funk in a
way. So it's certainly kind of rock -oriented,
but we kind of got this hippie sort of funk thing
going on. We do it at the same time. And a lot
of improv, so a lot of times we don't really
know exactly what we're going to play. We just
start in, and we hope that we all kind of finish
and get it done. It's sort of a journey. But
that tension is what is fun. So we're not afraid
to go up on stage and start doing something.
We're jamming. Just keep going. Yeah. And, and
then sometimes it falls apart and that's, that's
part of it. And, um, that's when we start all
looking at each other, like. Okay, let's wrap
this up or something. Oh, shoot. Yeah. So, hold
on. So, you've been playing with these exact
guys? These guys, yeah, a couple years. Okay.
Yeah. So, I mean, the lineup's changed a little
bit. Mason's in the middle. So, that's Mason.
And then a couple of those guys have switched
in and out there. It's probably just Mason and
I. I think we're like the old school. Those guys
are not playing with us anymore. You ever play
downtown McKinney? I used to play. Yeah, I used
to play there. I used to play at a place called
Aparicio's. If you remember that, downtown, right
on Virginia Street. It was a... mexican food
restaurant it was a bar on the second floor i
don't know if you guys it was how long ago was
that uh probably they probably closed down around
2012 or something but they're around for a while
but um i played on this off the square there
a bunch of different times sometimes do the music
texas music revolution out there i have been
i have done that before yeah i've not done it
recently but i've done it solo before but so
um Yeah, McKinney has gotten really big with
music, so it definitely would be nice to get
back out there for sure. The challenge for aspiring
musicians is you've got to tour. You know what
I mean? I mean, you might be able to line up
two or three gigs, two gigs this weekend, but
then you've got to go over to Austin, and then
you've got to go up to Oklahoma City, and then
you've got to... That's tough. That's tough.
And that gets into that thing about your day
job. It's a lot of stuff. How do you pull that
off? And yeah, so we... We probably play a couple
times a month. We go play shows. We practice
once a week. Sometimes we have more shows. It
kind of depends. And our set lists are probably...
85 % original and 15 % covers. We do some fun
cover, just kind of not your everyday covers,
but Jolene by Dolly Parton, but we do it a very
more kind of hard rocking way, if that makes
sense. So it's a little different. You ever play
down at the rail yard, Frisco? Oh, yeah. Oh,
yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I've played down there
lots and lots, lots. Yeah, so that's a cool little
spot down there. Yeah. I don't want to say frequent
there, but we go there once in a blue moon. I
think we've been more frequent in the last month,
especially now. God bless the weather. The weather
is so good. It's a cool hangout, yeah. Yeah,
we were there this last Friday, right? Yeah.
Yeah. Who did you go see there? We saw the Louis
Armstrong cover band. Yeah. Very nice. Oh, cool.
That is cool. They were good, though. No, the
guy had a kind of, it was a four piece, but they
were missing a guy. So I'm assuming this guy
that was singing wasn't actually the singer.
He was just kind of picking up the slack. Oh,
it wasn't the Louis Armstrong guy? But he sounded
like. He did. His voice got all down. I was like,
what in the hell is going on? It was the Louis
Armstrong version of. every cover they did. But
it was fun. We made a comment like the, it's
like every song was catered to the guitarist
because it was like, just fuck it. Let's play
a song. I'll just play solos throughout the whole
damn song. And the guitarist was fantastic. There's
something to be said about that too. Yeah. All
right. So talk about your, how'd you, you said
you've been playing guitar for 35, 40 years.
So you're saying you were a teenager and just
said, or were you younger than that? I was, yeah,
I was like, I was a teenager and I, uh, I lived
in California. So I'm originally from San Francisco.
So like Marin County area. And I, um, actually
got so many words hired to play in a band to
come out here, live in Denton, Texas. They're
like, you know, you know, I was what, 22. And
they're like, well, here's like a thousand bucks
and here's a place to stay. And so that was your
first dream. And that was, I, so, and I knew,
I knew a couple of the guys prior and I said,
you know, from band in California. Came down,
jumped in. It was fun. We played together right
there about four years, a band called Ed Rex.
And it was a primary... In Denton. In Denton,
yeah. Full -time gig. All the time, yeah. And
then I played... Well, we had times. What years
were those? That would have been like 95 to like
98, 99, something like that. Oh, my God. I used
to... You played down at Fry Street? Oh, yeah.
I played at Fry Street Fair. Yeah, that place
is cool. I ran sound at the Texas Jive. for what
six years from 94 to I don't even know when remember
like the flying tomato yeah that was right next
door hell yeah like cool beans yeah cool beans
so when you were playing up there and you're
like you're young and excited and the sound was
like all patchy and going in and out and sucking
he was it was Sean Sean was he was a guy like
going oh what do I do when I turn this knob oh
shit oh shit I love that. It was a lot of fun,
man. They had a couple, I mean, a lot of those
bars went through different phases and, you know,
absolutely they ended up knocking down almost
all those bars. I think Louie's is one of the
few that are left. I think, is it? Lou's, Lou's,
I'm going to say. Is it Rhino's? Rhino's that
used to be across from Cool Beans? I think that's
still there and Cool Beans is still there too,
actually. Yeah, and they built freaking, like,
I don't know how tall that building is, but they,
where the Texas Drive used to be at. It's like
an apartment complex. Yes. Style building. Condominium
style. Tall. Eight stories. UNT is huge. It's
a music school. Absolutely. A lot of the students
down there love to jam. In fact... There's a
band, something kitchen, Skull Kitchen, Cool
Kitchen, Cole's Kitchen. Snarky Puppy. Yeah,
well, they were a derivative of Snarky Puppy.
So Snarky Puppy. I've heard of that. Soul Kitchen,
that was the name of the band. So Snarky Puppy,
some of the members that are in Snarky Puppy
were in the Soul Kitchen. Because I remember
they set up at a band out there in one of the
establishments. And I didn't make it there that
night. But Tim, the owner, he calls me up. He's
like, what the fuck is going on down here? There
are 18 guys up here set up and all have different
instruments. And he was like, it sounds like
a God -blessing train wreck. And I was like,
I have no idea. I love it. It's because they
had no idea what blues is. And these guys were
jamming. And they were trying to just figure
it out. You know, they produced a lot of talent
because Snarky Puppy's huge. Absolutely. Yeah,
I know. I know exactly. I would love to go to
one of their shows. Cool. Do we want to jump
on there? Should I jam a tune or something? Are
you going to solo the guitar? Are you going to
sing? I'm going to sing and play a couple songs
of mine and I'll just kind of maybe give you
guys a backstory on those tunes before I play
them and whatever we'll figure it out. I'm jumping
over there. Get yourself set up over there and
we'll... I'm sure we're short. I'm going to go
ahead and take my pants off and get a little
comfortable. Oh. His lube. Is that what you do
when you go see a live band? I just like, you
know, get my waist a little freedom. Yeah, and
then everybody around you just kind of moves
away. Is it throbs? I just liked... To the beat.
What is going on here? You're adding a lot of
adjectives right now, Jeff. I don't know exactly
what kind of picture you're trying to paint here.
Well, he's the one who says he's getting naked
and playing with him. True, true. Hold on. All
right, yeah. Thankfully, he's going to preempt
us here. There you go. All right, let's see what
we got going on. Did I hear a little static out
there? Are we live or is it working? Yeah, we're
good. Okay, well, so I'll hit a couple songs
of my own. This one I'm going to do here is I
wrote this. Have you guys ever been to Sedona,
Arizona? Yes, I have not. Do you know where they
have those energy caves you go in? They're like
healing caves. It's a thing out there. Either
you know or you don't. Yeah, I haven't gone.
No, I've been out there. I haven't been to those.
Oh, I need to go. In those caves. With your walkie
-talkie? I was just with the walkie -talkie.
My walkie -talkie doesn't work with shit in this
cave. I brought a guitar with me, and this was
probably back, I don't know, 2000, 2001. And
my wife at the time, not ex -wife, but she always
loved daisies, like flower daisies. And she was
going in to actually, if I remember right. I
think it was a hysterectomy or something. And
she wanted me to get her daisies, but I was in
Arizona, and I couldn't get there for her surgery.
It was a long story. It kind of happened sooner,
and we wanted it to. So I saw this daisy, and
then I called the song Daisies in Arizona, and
I wrote the words in like five minutes in the
guitar, and it's been probably one of my staple
songs I've always had. So I played it with full
bands, played it solo either way, and so I'm
just going to do it just with my acoustic guitar
and me. All right. Sounds good. All right. Let
it roll. All right. So Daisy's in Arizona. Not
Daisy from Dukes of Hazzard. No, no. Oh, okay.
I mean, you could do it. Yeah, maybe, but not
this one. Yeah, don't change the words just yet.
All right. Never seems to matter where I go Oh,
is that the same feeling, bro? What I'd like
to see must be a part of me Cause Daisy's in
Arizona, we are here for you There they are,
blown away by the wind. Doesn't matter if you're
far or near. To Stacey's in Arizona. NALA! Daisy
said, Very nice. Yeah. I like it. Cool little
tune. Very cool. Yeah. So you were basically
feeling like shit in that moment when you wrote
that song. I was guilty. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But,
you know, it's a good, it always got me out of
the doghouse. We'll put it that way. There you
go. Yeah, I'm sure she appreciated that. Oh,
yeah. Oh, yeah. Okay. And that's something AI
can't produce a song like that. You know what
I'm saying? You would think it couldn't, but
I bet you it could. Yeah, it probably can. It's
getting pretty clever nowadays. So anyways, I
can do another one if you guys want. Yeah, let's
do one more. John wants smoke on the water. Oh,
man. Could you play some Madonna? Isn't that
the song everybody wants to play when they learn
to play the guitar? Smoke in the water. I thought
it was Stairway to Heaven. Stairway to Heaven.
Oh, that's another one. Yeah, that's another
one. It's the one they can't play versus the
one they want to play. Yeah. It's the only one
they can play. All right. I'll do this one. So
I have another one. I got so many, but this one's
a cool one called Hourglass. And this song's
actually about losing somebody. And it's about
actually... I've had quite a bit of loss, but
this one has to do with my sister about six years
ago. And she, she was an early COVID death, I
think. So she ended up having, well, it was flu
and pneumonia and then got really, really, you
know, just sick sepsis and died. And it was,
it was in November, 2019. And she had a, she
had, you know, my nephew, my nephew and her,
her son, Harley. That was tough. He moved in
with me, and it was just kind of getting him
to get over losing his mom. My mom is still around.
She's older. She was kind of stepped in as a
mom as well for him. Really, his song is about
healing, how time heals. The song is called Hourglass,
and it's just kind of being a trooper, I think,
would be the best way to put it. So we'll give
this one a run. Cool. What I thought in my time
would come Living through an hourglass moment.
Never understood the need for redemption. Please
carry me, my soul is near. Carry on, carry on.
and save us four. Carry on, carry on, carry on.
Hourglass turn time. Woke up and by the end of
the day Our lives were changed, sure we never
lived Orphan boy lost his mom and went Lost my
sister, no more and can I say Carry on and save
us from. Carry on, carry on, carry on. Hourglass
turn, time to burn. My soul made it. Stand by
for me, who I am. Give her the word, I'll die
trying. Loved you forever, our hours last. Awesome.
Love it. Very nice. It's good stuff, man. Thank
you. Appreciate that. You know, I got to tell
you, do the podcast. Similarly, singing is just
as addicting. I mean, we love doing the podcast,
but that's why when people go out to these karaoke
shows and they're scared to death to get up there
and do it, first of all. Oh, yeah. But once they
do it, they're like, it's like a... it's like
a roller coaster ride. It's like, I got to get
right back in line and I'm going to do it again.
And I tell you, it's, it's addicting. You know,
there's a, there's a special spirit that comes
along with, with being a performer and just to
sit there and do it and to be good at it. Good
at it. You know, some of these people that do
the karaoke, you just kind of, yeah. They're
horrible. Yeah. They get right back in line.
Oh yeah. I think it's about like for me, I mean,
we talked about a little bit about, you know,
music and making a living and different things.
I mean, for me if i can go into like a place
and i can change the mood of the place to kind
of be like vibing with me or and i can change
like if people actually will remember something
i did or something and sometimes i get people
come up with me that'll mention like a song like
that you know and they'll come up be like man
i remember that song i realized i don't really
remember them but i mean i remember the the night
and i remember what you know and So if you can
change and change the perception of what some
people may be, good or bad, but you're doing
the right things and just making it musical for
them. To me, that's what music's about. I mean,
it's just... I mean, just being able to impact
the emotions of others. Yeah. Period. Just do
something. Yeah. I think that's what... If you
can come in... And it's hard because I'm a feel
player. Like, I come into places, I feel the
audience. If they want me there... if they don't
want me there, I feel, and it affects how I play.
Right. Like, if I know if I've got a good vibe,
so you guys are being cool, so I'm in, but sometimes
I'll hold back because I'm like, shoot, and I'm
just counting the time I'm like, I gotta get
out of here, man. Is it kind of like Blues Brothers
where they start throwing shit at you? Yeah,
I've had some moments. There's like chicken wire
in front of you? I've had some moments. Is that
Blues Brothers? Blues Brothers, yeah. It was
Road Rage. What was the other one? Road, Blue,
Roadhouse. Roadhouse, yeah. Patrick Swayze. Yeah.
So, I've had time. I mean, what was funny about
Blues Brothers, though, is they were, At first,
they were super pissed off because they were
playing blues, and they were in a country bar,
and they're throwing shit at them with the chicken
wire. Oh, rawhide. They kept singing rawhide.
But as soon as they started singing rawhide,
then they started throwing shit at them again.
They're excited, though. Yes. So it didn't matter
what they did. They threw shit at them. It was
so funny. I love that scene. That was a great
movie. It was a great movie. All right. So this
is my own ignorance, but you've got all this
equipment on the floor here, and I know it's...
It's for you to be... I'm not even using any
of it, really. You're not. You're not. Yeah,
you're not at the moment. But I know, you know,
you... Chuck and I were at Rollertown. Right.
And I played there, too, several times. Yeah,
yeah. Rollertown, Salina. I know there's one
in Frisco. There's a new one. New one in Frisco,
yeah. So, anyway, this guy had the same kind
of setup, and he would, like, start his riff
with his guitar, and he would record it. Loop
it. Right? And he'd loop it. That's exactly what
Chuck was saying. He would loop it and then he'd
start something else and he'd loop it and then
he'd start singing and all that shit would be
going on. That's what Scott was showing us last
night. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We went over to Scott
Cash's house and delivered an arcade game. he
got this package. I saw the picture. Yeah, and
he opened it up, and it's one of those loopy
things, and he was so excited. Ed Sheeran does
that a lot. When you see him perform it, he'll
have one of those big old things down at the
bottom. Who does that? Ed Sheeran. Oh, yeah,
yeah, yeah. And he'll do that. He'll basically
be his whole band. Yeah, you can be a one -man
band. I mean, hell, you can even do that with
any equipment. Like, you can start the drums,
and then record it and loop it. Now you've got
drums going the whole time. There's amazing things
that you can do there. Anyway, it's fascinating.
Well, thank you, sir. That was a treat. Yeah,
and it's a first. It's Dudes Like Us podcast
first. A total first. I'm glad you guys listened
to that, man. I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah,
no, it was great. All right, well, cool. So check
out the band, though. So masonadamsproject .com.
I have to plug us. Masonadamsproject .com. Do
you have any planned gigs here? Yeah, we do.
If you go to that site, you'll see some. I think
we're playing, I want to say, it's November 22nd.
I think we're playing at the Sweetwater Grill.
We've got a couple different things coming up.
I'm spacing out on where that is. I should know
better than that. Playing at Barley House on
December 20th. There, yeah. So there's different
things going on. Yeah. So do you have difficulty,
not difficulty, but when you're trying to book
places to play, I mean, are you like a staple
at some of these places to where they're like,
oh, man, come on, come on. And you always have,
you're always welcome when they have an open
date to play there? Or do you have to kind of,
you have somebody in your group that like, you
know, has to sell it? and has to sell it and
like push it and we promote you and we have to
put so so so mason is is extremely talented on
all these little things you see here may this
is all mason stuff so he he's really strong with
the marketing side yeah and that's where i kind
of suck you know i'm more like I'll get out and
play, and I'll post up, but I don't get. He's
got a lot of time into this, and it's impressive.
And so that's the next gig. It's in Union Valley.
So Sweetwater Grill, and I think we have a canned
food drive going on that Mason paired us up with.
So it should be a really cool event. The weather
should be good. But Union Valley, Texas, it's
out a little ways. It's out there by Royce City.
Yeah, it actually is Royce City, I think. For
some reason, I think Union Valley is like a small
little patch. It's out there east of Mesquite,
a ways. Yeah, it's probably about an hour, 20
minutes, 30 minutes. That's super cool. Have
you played there before? Yeah, we did. We played
there last year, and it went really well, and
I know the venue liked us, and I know the people
liked us, but I think they had some sort of,
I don't know, softball tournament going on that
was a really big deal out there, so not a lot
of people were hanging out. Something weird happened.
Was it San Diego Volleyball? No, I wish it was.
Softball, softball, softball. Yeah, softball,
yeah. My mind went automatically to the Olympics.
The women's Olympic team. Yes, yes, yes. You
see the new rules? They're going to be nude this
time. Oh. Well, their outfits are going to be
painted on. Yes. Oh, wow. Yeah, there you go.
Yeah, there you go. There you go. And it's a
nice, it's like an outdoor venue. But it's, yeah,
masonadamsproject .com. And, man, we got a lot
of different things coming up. Is there a dance
floor out there? Yep, they got that. Yeah, there
you go. Oh, that looks cool. It's kick -ass out
there, yeah. It's very similar to the rail yard,
yeah. It is. It's probably a little bigger than
the rail yard, but it's a similar idea, yeah.
So one of my coworkers lives in Rockwall. So
I'll be sure to... And this is his gig. Hangtime.
You ever been to Hangtime in Rockwall? I used
to play there. I haven't, but I'm sure he has.
So anyway, I want to tell him about this because
this is down the road. It is in Adam's band.
Mason Adams Project. Yes. Mason Adams Project.
What is the other project? He does... Alan Parsons?
Alan Parsons. Yeah, it's probably done on different
things. Yeah, and there's like... He's got...
I mean, Mason, he's got... Three or four, I think,
CDs. If you go to any of the socials with music,
I think you'll find a bunch of different songs
on there. The site will take you to wherever,
but yeah, you can go. Any of the social platforms
will have his music. It's cool. It's fun playing
with him, for sure. How do you know Chuck? I
met Chuck because our kids played... baseball
together and i was a coach and then i kind of
talked him into being a coach too did you coach
did you coach soccer at one time i did coach
soccer at one time but um this was a baseball
thing so um what chuck what do we have we had
was it the the royals and then did we have the
marlins did you yeah we had a couple teams but
i know the royals for sure royals yeah you came
on the world kind of private and tournament yeah
yeah and we actually it was kind of funny we
We handpicked some of these kids, and we had,
like, this city team, which all we really were,
we were playing tournaments, and we were beating
these, like, big tournament teams that were spending
$2 ,500 to be on the team. Ours cost $90. Yeah.
And we were, like, full travel team. Oh, yeah,
yeah. Select everything. They got a bus. And
we're beating them. I mean, more than a few times.
The parents were coming up, and I heard them
getting mad. We didn't pay $2 ,500 to get ass
kicked by a city team. You know, it was like,
hell yeah. You said this was baseball? It was
baseball, yeah. Just before high school, right?
Yeah, it was like U12, you know, U13. Bad News
Bears. Is that what that name was? Bad News Bears.
Bad News Bears. It was baseball, yeah. It was
baseball. So did you ever struggle with, you
know, Chuck storming out on the field and you
had to hold him back from the umpire and he's
kicking dirt and, you know, like his anger, his
anger management problem. It's probably more
me. I mean, anger management problems. It was
not on my end. What did we have that guy? Didn't
we have to kick that guy off the team or out
of the game? Yeah, we'll leave his name out of
it. He was very special. Way too, you know, one
of those guys that like his kids are the best
kids ever to play. Isn't he crazy how many of
us men? adult men it just act like well and women
oh yeah women my wife yeah my wife's no better
she'd probably worse than i am and yeah we just
act like total imbeciles at these it's like youth
games you're like reliving your youth i don't
know what it is it's just weird it's it's it's
tough but i now my nephew he's like on a u11
u10 u11 team i'm not coaching but i'm just there
as a spectator and there's yeah i see guys get
thrown out like coaches getting thrown i mean
it's just and the kids are sitting there They
don't know what's going on. This is baseball,
right? To me, it seems kind of strange for baseball
to be getting all excited like that. Now, soccer,
I can understand because there's a lot of physical
contact and there's a lot of... Some of these
girls are a little... The kids are little shitheads.
Oh, yeah, they are. I'm embarrassed to even say
this, but yes. It doesn't matter what the sport
is. Parents can act like imbeciles because we've
seen it all. We've seen football, basketball,
soccer, baseball, but the one that my wife and
I had to basically omit ourselves from is dodgeball.
Dodgeball. It's totally stupid. We went to a
field house where they had a dodgeball tournament.
And it was supposed to be just, you know, stupid.
But we decided to go out there and watch our
boys play, and it was fun and stuff. The problem
is kids cheat, right? That's crazy. They get
hit. Yeah, yeah. They get hit, and then they
won't leave the court. And you're like, it's
hard not to be like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah,
because the game's going on. Yeah, he looks around,
and oh, yeah, we made complete asses of ourselves.
I had to. We had to. Is that you? Oh, yeah. There
you go. My son played on your soccer team. No
way. That's a pretty good little... That's crazy.
That was 2007. You have a picture of him coaching
your son? Yes. You have the same phone as 2007?
No, the pictures. That's amazing. There you go.
We can always be tracked what we've done. You're
kidding. The Rangers, right? There you go. classic
yeah that's actually soccer yeah that's why i
asked i was like soccer i was like all right
and then yeah that would have been frisky but
yeah then it kind of moved to his i followed
my son yeah i followed kind of his path so he
started with soccer and then went to baseball
so i just kind of followed along well i'm amazed
you don't remember this father because he was
oh i was maniac he probably kicked me out the
game or something oh no it's okay yeah my youngest
son played uh on your team that year. That's
so crazy. Okay. Now he's 24. Do you guys miss
it at all? I'm not sure I miss youth sports all
that much. I don't. I'm appreciating the break
between now and when grandkids come along. I'll
start watching them then. It was all consuming.
Every weekend was consumed for... Friday through
Sunday. Tournament teams are even worse. Awful.
And if you're a low seed, you have to play earlier
in the day. And you're just wore out, man. Oh,
yeah. It's tough getting drunk for those early
games. You almost got to stay liquid the whole
game. I didn't. I mean, I had some things in
my Gatorade bottle back then. All the women at
the FFL games had their... tumblers with... Oh,
you know it. Oh, they totally did. They told
us. Oh, they had vodka cranberries all in their
big tumblers. Oh, yeah. It's for real. They get
all snooty with me when I went out to the car
and I had a little cooler of beer and they were
like, oh, look at him. He's drinking beer. And
I'm like... If I put it in the cooler, if I put
it in the mug, it's okay then? Yeah, pour it
in a tumbler. Nobody knows the difference right
now. Lucky I wasn't drinking bourbon back then.
I'd have been shit -faced. There you go. Did
you fill out your box of red wine? I think I
was doing red wine back then. Jordan was so nice.
His kid got hurt, and he still kept coaching.
Wow. I did. I did. He retired. Yeah, he ended
up kind of an elbow sort of tendonitis in his
elbow, so he really couldn't, and he was a catcher,
so he couldn't really throw or whether it was
hurting him. I just kept going with it. I mean,
he was technically going to come back, and he
just couldn't. Did he have Tommy John surgery?
He did not, but that was next. So that's the
problem. That was what it would have led to if
he kept going. That's what we try to avoid. Yeah,
so I kept going. But yeah, Chuck is right. It
was definitely a labor of love. And a lot of
drama on those teams. It was a good team. We
had some divas. And I'm not talking the parents,
the kids. Kids. Oh, man. Oh, man. Well, and they
all have the dream to make the show and one out
of 50 ,000 even make it to some level of college.
Oh, yeah. Agreed. Shoot, the president of the
West, in my office, in my, God bless it, my company,
his son was on the Little League's World Series.
Oh, wow. And they won. Wow. That's a coach. That's
a big deal. That is a big deal. And I was kind
of like, are you kidding me? Because he was kind
of like, you know, he wasn't available for a
while. I'm like, where's Andy at? Oh, I just
said his name. But, you know, where's Andy at?
Right. I think that's cool as hell, man. It is.
Now, is that the one where they play like, you
know, they'll play a Japanese team? Japanese.
Well, it's World, right? Yeah. So it really is
World. Yep. Yes. Okay. All right. True World.
All right, well, you know what? We're doing a
little sampling of the whiskeys, and it's Jeff
and I and Chuck away on this one, but we picked
up a bottle of, pulled this one out of the roster.
They're the Clyde Mays 94 Proof Straight Rye
Whiskey. It's aged three years. I think the bottle
says four. Oh, does it? Yeah, this one's four.
Okay, four years. Three's not super long. But
I know we were big into Clyde Mays. Several years
ago. And for good reason. And it's good. Actually,
this is good. We haven't touched it in probably
two, three years. We haven't because we're snobs.
So for those listeners out there and for yourself,
Jordan, we were. And we've kind of, we fell into
a rut, I'm going to call it a rut, of just being
kind of snobby and always gravitating towards
super strong whiskeys, which is great. Yeah,
I get it. But at the same time, we've got a whole
treasure chest of other whiskeys that we're just
sitting up there getting old. So we kind of made
a business decision and said, you know what?
these podcasts, because we have the first half
and second half on Tuesday nights when we record,
we're going to go ahead and start with the lower
proof one on the first half and then dive in
for the higher proof one on the second. I'm super
excited about this one. This rye whiskey, first
of all, we didn't like rye back then. We were
kind of gravitating towards the wheat stuff and
the regular whiskey, bourbon, and the rye, but
this one. Well, I think we had a preconceived
notion that rye would be all peppery and harsh.
Super spicy and harsh. Harsh was the word, I
think. This one is It is. I mean, I'm really
enjoying this. It's sweet. It's got a very, very
stone fruit. I'll get it out. It's got a stone
fruit sweetness to it, like apricot, peach. I
pick up a lot of tobacco on it as well. That
first pool, I was like, wow, that's like chewing
on tobacco almost. It was that strong for me.
It's not so much now. But those first one or
two pulls was very heavy in the tobacco. Well,
this is very approachable, very crushable. You
can stick a straw in it for 94 proof and affordable.
Have you ever gone on a hike and tasted the honeysuckles?
Oh, yeah. I am getting honeysuckle off of this.
Interesting. Kind of a little floral. A honey
taste to it. Yeah. Vanilla. I can pick up the
honeys. What is that bought? What is the average
price of that? 40 bucks. 45 bucks. That's not
bad. 45. Oh, shit. Okay. Yeah, yeah. I missed
that. Okay. Yeah, that's very doable. It is doable.
And the process in which we were buying our stuff
was we were buying 20, 30, 40, $50 bottles until
we... got smarter and decided we were going to
split the cost of what we're purchasing instead
of all just buying separate bottles because we
built up our inventory really quick. Oh, yeah,
really fast. Buying three bottles a week, you
know, that was a lot. Yeah, but we also had the
impression that, you know, now there's all these
$60, $70, $80 plus and they've got to be better.
and we can't afford to be all burning 80 bucks
every time we go. I don't know that they're always
that much better. They're not. I don't know how
they are. Money does not equate to quality. That
is a true statement. Sometimes it does for sure,
but moreover, like some of these whistles, some
of the no -name brands out there, I don't want
to throw stones at any specific person or company
out there, but just because they cost more and
they've got a name brand behind them does not
push them. to the finish line. You know, there
are some heavy hitters that you would never expect.
You know, benchmark, foolproof. That fucks all
day long. Oh, yeah. Old granddad, $114. $25.
Old granddad? There's not a lot of higher proof
ones in that price point, though, for the most
part, right? I mean, $30, $40, $50 ones, you're
not going to find a lot of high proof. Full proof
is $125. Yeah, yeah. There's not a lot of them,
though. Not a lot. No. No, there's not a lot.
I think the people that are proud of their higher
proof bourbons are going to push that up into
$70. Well, the benchmark full proof, first of
all, it's a subsidiary of Buffalo Trace Distillers.
So, you know, they're in that same mash bill.
Yeah, they're just located in a different part
of the warehouse. It's the Rick House. What about
$500 bottles of whiskey? That's out there, right?
I mean, that's a thing. On the secondary, you
can get. four or five hundred thousand two thousand
three thousand dollars for some of these i don't
i i wouldn't i won't personally subscribe to
that now like pappies or something like that
and it's just out of our price range and not
it's nuts and that's that's a name brand also
that i wouldn't i mean i wouldn't kick it out
of bed if someone wants to you know provide our
podcast for some sampling and to review it yeah
by all means bring it on yeah but i am not going
to drop a thousand dollars on a bottle even split
between us you know I think that I'm pretty fortunate
by getting some of these some of the complimentary
bottles that we bring in here but shit we got
the cowboy from Garrison Brothers that is a extremely
meaty chunky hazmat and it's terrific and I can't
wait we'll wait for Paul to oh it should be coming
out again Whatever. We had the 10 -year. Shouldn't
the 11 -year come out pretty soon? Yeah, I guess
so. I think so. Yeah. Well, I think we're on
a spending freeze for a while. Well, I'll tell
you what. It's only $250. It's okay. So my coworker
was sharing a picture with me today. She has
her brother -in -law. Whatever. Her brother -in
-law is in town. And he wanted to pick up some
really nice bourbon. So he went on an allocated
run. And then he told her. Hit as many scores
as you can. I'm looking for this and this and
this, the allocated stuff, and whatever it is,
buy it. And so he had eight bottles. One of them
was the Rio Cancer one. Not Rio. Penelope. Penelope
Cancer one. Penelope. Fuck Cancer. Penelope.
Cancer. Fuck Cancer. Penelope. Penelope, yeah.
Yeah, we sampled that last night. Yeah, we did.
Anyway, and he had an 18 -year. It was good,
by the way. He had an 18 -year, oh, I'm trying
to blank, the square bottle. Knob Creek. Knob
Creek, thank you. 18 -year Knob Creek. I mean,
he, and I was like, holy shit. You can't rain,
man. I was like, yeah, no shit. I was looking
at all those bottles, and I'm like, that's probably
1 ,500 bucks. Easy. Oh, yeah. What he had spread
out on that table that he had just bought for
this weekend. That's amazing. Yeah, I'm like,
well, good for him that he could do it. Yeah,
kudos to him to drop that kind of money, but
I'm just like, oh, God. Why? What about apple?
Apple and flavored whiskey. Flavored whiskey.
Are you guys into that or no? It's got to be
the right setting, the flavored whiskey. I don't
go to those bars. If you want something sweet
or something like that, if you're looking for
something sweet. It's great for, I make a mean
mule. With apple. So you'll do an apple whiskey
that way. Okay, I get it. In a mule, right? Mixed
with ginger beer, mixed with a splash of Sprite,
with some lime. I mean, it's a fantastic mixture.
They're just not as strong, though. No, they're
not. You kind of kill the power. Usually 70.
But they're high in sugar. Tons. That's the part
that we're already... us being at the place in
our lives and our age, we're already pushing
the envelope with what we're already drinking.
So we're really trying to trim the fat as much
as we can. And we're doing it. We're fairly,
you know, I mean, as far as cutting out the Cokes,
I mean, no longer Jack and Cokes. I mean, especially
on special occasions. It's a lot of sugar, man.
Tons. Oh, yeah, tons. What's it called? The Revel?
Well, you get old -fashioned. You get like five
of them. Oh, God. By the end of the night, it
was just toxic, you know, and you could pound
them. And so you're like, oh, give me a double
chocolate Coke. Oh, I got an idea. Why don't
we sneak in a few small little minis, and that'll
save us some money. No. Then we get twice as
fucked up. You're right. And buying more. And
buying more. Yeah, we still bought the same amount.
We just had the extras. All right. Let's go ahead
and rate this really quick for the second time
around. That kind of. That was abrupt. That's
fine. Whatever. It is what it is. Dropped the
bomb in there. Well, it's like a second half.
We're going to rate this. First half. We're going
to rate this for the Clyde Mays ride. Fuck, man.
I'm going to give it a 6 .5, 6 .8. Yeah, because
this is right in the range of the. No, this is
a ride. The Victor's 10 was 95. So that's not
even close to that. But, yeah, probably a six
and a half on this. I'd give that. We have always
been impressed with all the Clyde Mates. I don't
think we've been upset with any of them. No.
It's a solid brand. Solid family. $40, too. That's
a good price. Chuck, for the record, what's your
rating? I gave it a seven. I like it. There you
go. Very nice. I'd have this on my shelf. It's
a nice sipping one. It's nice, relaxing. If you
want to get hammered, like, you know. Sure. It's
always good to have some of that. I'm starting
to appreciate, you know, kind of going dialing
it back a little bit on some of the lower proof
stuff. I am. Why not? I know, right? It's enjoyable.
Well, it's because, you know, when I feel my
Glenn carrying it up, when I've had a rough night,
dude, I will. Like before I went to your house,
dude, I filled it up that much. Yeah. And then
consumed it before I went over to your house.
That's why when I walked over there, I was like,
hey, Paul, what's going on, buddy? Eyes are all
crossed. But I was ready to go. I had a fun night
that night. All right. Well, you guys got anything?
Yeah, no, that was a great first half. Jordan,
you stick around for the second half? I stick
around. I appreciate you guys having me. Thank
you. Yeah, no, we really appreciated you playing
for us. I got more. I got more stuff. We got
other things we can get into if you want. Yeah,
let's definitely do it. Second half. All right,
first half of the Dudes Like Us podcast. Check
us out on Facebook and Instagram, dudeslikeus
-podcast. It's November 11th. Thanks, Chuck,
for being on Top of Stuff, Dudes Like Us. I'm
Sean. I'm Paul. I'm Jeff. Jordan. Jordan. Jordan
with Mason Adams. MasonAdamsProject .com. You've
got to hit that .com in there.