Welcome guys to episode 58 of Behind the Shield Podcast.
My name is James Gearing
and I have yet another amazing guest for you this week.
The firefighting profession, I think,
will collectively agree that there have been
very few movies made about what we do that earn our respect.
Backdraft certainly was one of the first.
Most recently, Only the Brave
absolutely has held up to that same standard.
But the other one would be Ladder 49.
So my next guest is John Travolta.
Now John lives in the town I live in,
is a very proud member of our community.
I was able to get a message to him
and he immediately replied saying
that he would love to come on the show.
And he ended up coming to my house
to do a face-to-face interview,
which I'm gonna tell you right now,
blew my wife's mind.
So we talked about an array of subjects.
We started off with his early career,
then we got to Ladder 49, what it was like to shoot,
what it was like to train for it,
and his perspective of the fire service.
And then we transitioned to some of the health initiatives
that he's actually helped spearhead,
helping firefighters around the country,
including Ocala where I live.
So this was an incredible interview.
Again, I was blown away that he was able to
come to the house and do a face-to-face,
a medium that I love to do
because the sound quality is so good when they do that.
So I'm gonna stop yapping.
If you guys have a chance, again, go on iTunes,
please rate the show
and share the hell out of the episodes.
Remember, the more first responders we get to,
the more people that we're gonna help.
So without further ado, I introduce to you
my interview with John Travolta.
Enjoy.
Okay, welcome to Behind the Shield podcast.
I am sitting in my home on the couch
and across from me is John Travolta.
So welcome to the show.
Thank you very much.
Thanks for having me.
Well, thank you for coming.
I can't believe that I was able to reach out to you
and you just dropped everything and said yes,
so you could reach out to the first responders of the world.
So I really, really appreciate that.
Well, you're welcome because when I heard
what your purpose was, I wanted to
because I believe in supporting the first responders.
And I have a soft spot for firefighters.
So there you go.
Well, we will definitely delve into that
in this conversation.
So if you don't mind, I would love to start at the beginning.
So where exactly were you born
and what was your family unit like,
how many siblings you had and what your mom and dad did?
Born in Anglewood, New Jersey.
I have five brothers and sisters, six kids total.
Mom was a school teacher, a drama teacher,
speech teacher and dad was a coach
and was in business with his brother
in the Firestone tire business.
And we had a very suburban lifestyle and I loved it.
I wouldn't have traded for anything.
Okay, and he said he was a coach.
What did he coach?
A football, basketball.
But he's in the Hall of Fame in New Jersey for baseball,
oddly enough, but he did.
And he also was a co-coach with Vince Lombardi,
the famous football coach before he was the famed Vince Lombardi.
My dad partnered him in coaching students
in St. Cecilia High School in New Jersey.
Okay, did you play any of those sports yourself?
I played football and I played basketball.
Five years of basketball and two years of football,
quarterback.
Oh, okay, fantastic.
Now were your aspirations to go into sports
or were they already into drama?
Well, we had a choice because dad was encouraging sports
but not enforcing it and mom was encouraging the arts
but again, not enforcing it.
So we got to choose what we really wanted.
So I experimented with sports and felt that it wasn't for me
as an end game, but that I felt that I was making
quite a good effect as a performer
and maybe that was a much more realistic end game.
Okay, so when you left school,
did you pursue the arts in college
or did you go straight into drama?
No, I left school and started making a living
as a performer right away at 16 years old.
I was making a good living at it and it evolved
and escalated into a wonderful career.
Right, now what would you describe
as your first true big break?
Well, every break is correlated
or connected to a bigger break.
For instance, that year I spoke of when I was 16
and I was in a summer theater professional company
of By-By-Birdie, a musical, and a big time agent
was in the audience looking at somebody else
but I was the only person he thought would be ideal
for his roster.
So I waited a month and he said the first mistake he made
was to wait a month because you could be already
doing other bigger and better things.
And I said, okay, well, what's our plan?
And before you knew it, I was off doing radio commercials
and TV commercials and bits on soap operas
and auditions for big time movies
and within months I was already on a map, if you will.
So that to me was a big break.
Now, if you're talking about fame break,
I would say that was Welcome Back, Cotter,
when I was 21 a few years later.
That would be when I became famous
around the world on television.
And then a couple of years later became famous in movies
with Sardinia Fever, Grease, Serving Cowboy.
Okay, now, if my sources are correct
and my source would be Wikipedia, so it may not be correct,
were you an extra in Emergency, the show?
Yeah, that would be that first,
when I first got with my manager, I was two years into it.
I was 18 or 17 and I got cast in Emergency
where I played a victim that was hurt
on the side of a hill.
You can look it up, it's a pretty cheesy scene
where I have kind of not so good dialogue,
but I was being honorable to the script.
And then I was a medical center
and I was on The Rookies and Owen Marshall Council,
all the shows that were popular in the day
prior to my doing my own TV series.
Okay, now I saw that you did the musical Grease,
was that before the movie?
Was that how you got into the movie?
Yes, I did the stage show of Grease first.
I did the National Road Company and then I did Broadway.
And that was really the blueprint for my clocking
that one day maybe I could do the movie.
And then indeed a few years later,
the movie came along and I indeed did it.
Okay, fantastic.
And then the other one of that period
that people talk about which you just did
was Saturday Night Fever.
Now, had you an extensive disco dancing pass before that
or was that something you learned for the role?
Well, everyone in my neck of the woods,
frankly knew how to act, sing and dance
as a trifecta for getting more work.
If you knew these three, if you have these three abilities,
when you audition for any given show,
you had three times the chances of getting employment.
So I had a natural ability to do all three.
And it just added to my, well, let's say the characters
traits being a disco dancer, you use the same talents
at doing other types of dance
and you just design it for that genre.
So that's what I did.
Okay, did you have any idea how many drunk people
will be emulating those moves for decades after that?
Yeah, isn't that amazing?
Yeah, they're doing a beautiful documentary.
They just finished it in England of Saturday Night Fever.
And it's a really accurate and terrific homage
to the film for its 40th anniversary.
Okay, John, so we're gonna get straight to Ladder 49.
So can you tell me how that project
even came across your radar?
It was December 20th or 23rd, I forget what year it was.
What's the year of Ladder 49, 2003?
2004, it was the release date.
Yeah, so it was December of 2003.
And I was at my home in Maine and I got a call
from my agent in Los Angeles saying
that there's a very interesting script about firefighters
that they want you to play the captain,
or chief, would you read it and consider it?
It's a real offer.
They're going in February or March of 2004.
And I said, sure, I've always wanted to do a movie
about firefighters, even back to Ronnie Howard's,
what's the, back draft.
Yeah, back draft, yes.
So they said, well, the exciting thing is
they're trying to make this much more realistic.
And the new technology was allowing us to do that.
So I said, okay, let's read it.
I read it, I loved the part of the chief
and thought it was fun and interesting and heroic.
And anyway, I said yes.
And we were off and running,
but the prerequisite was that I had to do a month
of training to be an actual firefighter.
They said, we want all of the men that are going to be
in the movie to be trained as actual firefighters.
So you have to go through literally the same training.
And I said, you know what, that's awesome.
I'd love it.
I don't know if I'll make it, but I'll try it.
So we did, and I was good up until the,
you could help me with this, but there's a black box
that you have to find your way through.
The maze.
The maze, yes.
And I couldn't do it with all the equipment on
because I couldn't find the wedges to get me up.
And then they put smoke in there too and all that stuff.
You couldn't literally see anything.
So I was willing to do it, but without,
I was willing to just do it, but not with the full equipment,
which is the, adds all that size and weight
to your overall structure.
So that was the only thing that I kind of drew the line at.
I did everything else.
I did all the actual putting out fires,
simulated climbing the sides of the building,
everything but that last bit is what I did
because I just couldn't find the niche for it.
I don't think you're alone there.
There's many firefighters that really can't stand
wearing their pack, and a lot of people do,
you still have to stay in, but you take your pack off
to traverse some of those.
So I would say that's still admirable
if you got through everything except that.
Yeah, I did, and I got through it without the pack.
So yeah, but I learned a lot.
And the main thing that I observed
and you'll understand this is that I was watching
many of these firefighters closer to retirement.
There was in particular a chief, a captain, and a sergeant
that were not doing well with physical ailments
from all the poisons and toxic they were exposed to.
So I got smart and I decided to offer them a program
that I had helped start with others around the September 11th
time where we were detoxing the firefighters,
the policemen, the first responders
that were at that site in Manhattan.
And the detox program is a sauna sweat program
where you sweat for up to, from 25 to 35 days,
five hours a day, includes a lot of vitamins and minerals
and oils pushing the toxins out of the body.
And I established this along with Tom Cruise and my church
and we were very successful.
We've done, I think it's upwards of 3,000 people
in New York now and all over the country.
I started other divisions of what they call
the Heroes Health Fund.
And it's for even soldiers from the Middle East
that are exposed to extremities of toxic elements.
And it's super effective.
And anyway, to get back to the story, I noticed this,
these three guys that were not doing particularly well
in Baltimore, and I said, look, I'll finance,
I'll open your own little division for detoxing you guys
to prove to you how well it works.
And if you like it, you can share it
with other first responders.
So I set up shop there.
I invested the money in setting up the saunas.
I hired a doctor.
I did the sole profile for them.
And one December after the movie had been released,
and I said, well, guys, it's all set up.
You are now officially ready to be detoxed.
And they spent 25 days, they got out around Christmas Eve
or something, and all their ailments went away.
All the ones that they were suffering from.
And this was anything from addiction to pills
that they were on because of these toxic effects
to not being able to sleep, to organs shutting down,
and some even extreme, even more extreme situations.
But they all got fixed and they were very excited,
couldn't believe it, it was as if by magic.
And we started a Baltimore Heroes Health Fund
right there where I filmed the movie.
And then we opened up another one in Nevada
and then another one in Utah.
Anyway, we have about five of them around the country,
including New York, of course,
and we're trying to build and make more of them.
And they're so successful.
So that was my personal gift back to the firefighters
and continues to be so.
Even here in Ocala, I have a place
where the local firefighters can use the Heroes Health Fund
to help them detox if they're interested.
Yeah, yeah, I heard that from local firefighters.
I got friends in Ocala Fire and Marion County Fire.
And they've told me that story about going through a detox
and doing an IASN and the Swedish steam baths.
And it's now catching on where I've heard
of other departments detached from your specific
drive that you've done that have also putting saunas
in the stations and steam baths for the same exact reason.
They really need to.
There were several local Ocala firefighters
that we succeeded with to have the same result
as the Baltimore guys.
I was just giving you the origin of it,
which was Baltimore, New York.
But we were successful in starting it here
in Ocala as well.
Right.
And then we'll speak in a Baltimore.
Did you actually spend time in the stations
and running calls with the guys there too?
Yes, we did that.
We had to as part of our training to be authentic.
So there was many calls that we went on.
And a couple became volunteer firefighters after the movie.
Oh really?
So I think two of the actors actually signed on
to be volunteer firefighters because they were already
trained and they got their cert.
So they just decided to be on call if they were needed.
Okay, brilliant.
And now I want to get the gentleman's name right.
Where are we here?
Goodness, great, I'm going to cut this bit out too.
Gentlemen, okay, Lieutenant Mark Lant.
Yeah.
So Mark, was he kind of mentoring you
through this whole thing?
Yeah, he was our lead trainer, very patient.
And there were some funny times too
because we had to do the call within a 60 second period
to get in equipment, on the truck and out.
And of course I was doing everything correctly I thought,
but I was by far the slowest of all of them.
So there was one take where they said action
and they tried to do it in actual time
where we get our equipment on from the time it's called
to the time the fire engine leaves the house.
And I'm suddenly, I finish everything
and everybody breaks out into laughter
because they've been already ready for about 40 seconds.
And I'm the only one, I think they clocked me
at two minutes getting everything where they were
under a minute and I said, hey, I'm an old man,
leave me alone.
Well, speaking of that, so you had a huge amount
of real firefighters in the production as well,
is that right?
Yes, and they needed to be, you know,
with any time you're trying to accurately portray
a subject matter, you really have to have,
you have to have the real deal with you.
You know, I finished a race car movie
and if we didn't have the actual professional car
race drivers, we wouldn't be authentic.
We wouldn't pull it off.
You really do need the real deal.
Yeah, I had Captain Dale Die, have you met him?
Oh yeah, yes, yes.
Yeah, I worked with him, I had stunts before
I became a fireman.
So I worked with him in Japan doing the Terminator show
for Universal Studios.
Oh, no kidding.
And he put us through the boot camp.
It's a very mini gentle version of what he put the guys
through for Platoon and Saving Private Ryan
and Band of Brothers.
But again, for the same reason that you guys did the fire
is I've interviewed so many military people on this show
because I hold them with high regards,
especially the special ops guys.
And so many of them say that especially Band of Brothers
is something they respect and it would not have been
that way had they not had real soldiers in the movie
and the actors being taught by a soldier.
Also it gives the actors that are not professional
firefighters or whatever the profession they're portraying
confidence to have someone near them
that is exactly the real deal.
And actors have a certain pride that they wanna
execute things well.
And if you have an expert next to you that can clock
what you're doing, then you don't feel like you
have an insurance policy next to you.
And it feels very good to do that.
Yeah.
By doing the right thing, next take do it this way,
try to do it okay, cool.
Now you know that there's at least one to three takes
that are absolutely authentic and they can scratch
the one that's less authentic.
Right, yeah.
I did the World Trade Center with Nicolas Cage.
And I'm gonna say with, he was physically there on the set,
nothing to do with me, we were just glorified extras.
But I guess they took that to such a point
when the final, the movie came out,
we were literally silhouettes through a window.
But even then they still wanted those silhouettes
to look like they knew what they were doing.
Of course, of course, makes absolute sense, yes.
All right, so once you've gone through that training,
had your perspective of what these men and women
go through changed?
Completely, because the danger was very real to me now.
What they're doing and risking is completely authentic
in regards to whether they like it or not,
they are heroic.
And I think it's empirical that they are.
Because as the saying goes, everyone else is leaving
the fire and they're going in.
I mean, that's putting your life immediately on line.
And I think it's completely impressive.
So yeah, my viewpoint, I mean, you got an inkling
that it was like that, but when you experience it yourself
and you feel the heat and you see the complexity
of how fires, let's say even in a kitchen fire
where apparently the most dangerous fumes are from plastics
that ignite and then the firefighter or the people trapped
breathe that in and it solidifies in their lungs.
Knowing that it's a kitchen fire or a restaurant kitchen
or something, you know you're going into something
that even if you don't get killed,
might be damaging you for life.
It's a very tricky thing that these guys are estimating,
but they do it.
You know, how brave is that?
Well, speaking of the heat, another thing that I got
from a couple of the interviews I saw about the movie,
they had the LPG props blaring when you guys were shooting,
is that right?
So you were feeling a lot of heat.
Oh, always.
And it was the first, and I'm not trying to brag
or say that we're better than other movies,
but I do think as far as authenticity,
we did capture it better than any film to date
because we simply had the technology to
and the earlier films did not.
So we are part of the, it's the evolution of the technology
of film that allowed us to be authentic,
or let's say more authentic than prior films
or earlier films.
Yeah, yeah, because another one that's prior to you again,
back to Backdraft, that's pretty much before that
of 49 with Shot, I would say Hell is the best one,
but there were obviously some big holes in the game.
I.e. being in the middle of those fires
and not wearing a mask and having perfect dialogue
and like, wait a second.
Yeah, which is what they do a lot in aviation films.
It drives me crazy.
They do all sorts of things that are inaccurate,
but in this one we were 100% accurate,
but that's because the firefighters
are not gonna allow us to be anything else,
but we asked them to not allow us to be anything else
but authentic.
Yeah, now I would say there's one more movie,
and we're talking a long, long time after Ladder 49 now,
but have you seen Only the Brave yet?
I have not.
Okay, I highly recommend that.
That to me now has joined the other two
as an incredible movie.
Josh Brolin played one of the lead roles.
Oh, what was it?
It was released, let me see, about two months ago now,
and it's based on the Prescott 19,
so the 19 wildland firemen that were burnt over
in 2013 in Arizona.
Oh, really, I didn't know about it.
Yeah, so I highly recommend that,
but that's a wildland movie, so it's very different,
but again, they went through a firefighter boot camp.
What's your feeling right now
about what's happening in Los Angeles?
In the wildfires?
Yeah, I mean, this is terra incognita.
I don't think anything's ever happened like this before
in that kind of high-end areas of Bel Air and Ventura,
I mean, what's your take on it?
I mean, I don't, I know from a firefighter's point of view,
when you start building houses amongst wildland interface,
it's a gamble, then, you're already rolling the dice,
but just the sheer magnitude of some of these fires,
it's almost like a fire-perfect storm that we're seeing.
Some of the footage has just been heart-wrenching,
but I used to work for it.
What do you think was the cause,
or what would you say are the probable causes of the cause?
I am detached from that side now,
so I would be, you know,
any words from my mouth wouldn't even be worth it,
but I would definitely ask my old department, Anaheim,
which is in Orange County,
those guys have been out fighting all those fires.
Is it just dryness?
Is it arson, combination?
You know, I mean, are these all things
that are usually considered?
Yeah, I think the arson, the point of origin,
is almost irrelevant, because whether it's a cigarette,
whether it's a piece of glass from the sun,
whether it's a debris set,
if it hadn't been these crazy dry conditions
and these Santa Ana winds blowing through,
it would be a spot fire and it would be out.
So I think what's causing the magnitude
is certainly the weather, yeah, and this dryness.
But then, sadly, the more of us inhabit this planet,
the more we put our houses in more dangerous places,
whether it's on a cliff on the edge of the ocean or,
you know, up in the hills.
How are you feeling about the neighborhood you're living in?
Do you feel that they're pretty well prepared
for any kind of fire?
For, yeah, I think, so as far as topography
and what we would look at as a risk,
yeah, we're pretty good.
We're surrounded by roads, we'd be fire breaks.
You know, there's not a lot of heavy fuel
as far as some of the green plants that do burn fast.
But I'd say our biggest threat here is hurricanes.
But again, unless we had a direct hit from a tornado.
Ocala has almost magically missed it.
Yeah. For years and years.
Don't know what it is, but it's kind of surrealistic
that it never quite affects this area.
And the Clearwater area is the same.
Clearwater and Ocala seem to be these little divisions
that never really quite get hit that hard.
No, well, the same as Disney, that's who we protect now.
And they say there's a bubble over there.
I mean, we've had some, you know, epic near misses.
Well, there's some good being done there.
So, well, speaking of Ocala,
so that's another thing I wanted to touch on,
you know, while we were talking.
Yes, you're this big, you know, star on the screen,
but you're also extremely loved in the city
that I live in, you know, that we share, Ocala.
And almost every restaurant we go into,
there's, you know, pictures of you in a good way,
you know, just eating there, being a normal resident.
So what was it that drew you here
and what was your impression when you first came?
Basically, the fly-in community concept is what drew me here
because where I live is quite a large runway
and was capable of safely bringing in and out
any size of aircraft.
So, and my wife really wanted to be in the country.
So I think that those are the two main things.
And it's close to my church in Clearwater.
And I think those two were primary of the reasons.
Okay. Yeah.
Yeah, because as we were talking before we went on Mike,
that sense of community, I think, is very strong
for a sleepy little town in the middle of central Florida.
Oh, I think so too.
I think we're very proud of our little town.
Yeah, I think that if it's not mistaken,
we got voted as the number one family community
in the country to bring up a family
like this would be the right atmosphere.
And I think there's, I remember there was a survey
done recently about Ocala and it rated so high
relative to everywhere else in the country
for all the right reasons.
Like for instance, this is what I was told anyway,
that the priorities of the citizens
seem to be more group oriented versus individualistic.
It's not we need a self-centered thing to open or do.
It's like I'd like a good place for the kids to go.
I'd like a good place for the family to blah, blah.
I would like more community activity.
All the desires of the individuals seem much more group
for the group more than self-centered ideas.
And that's unusual, that's a kind of exciting thing.
Old fashioned concept that is now reliving itself
here in Ocala.
Yeah, and we talked before about the whole tribal thing.
I think we have that, we're proud of our network here.
I do, I agree with you.
I think there is a tribal feeling
that makes everyone feel good about being here.
And it's evolving into all the niceties
that any cosmopolitan city could have
and it'll get more so.
But I mean, we're not wanting for much here,
as far as entertainment and food and stores.
And it's continually evolving.
Yeah, yeah it is.
I mean, every time they close a business down,
it seems like just a more genuine family owned business
pops up in its place, which is great to see.
Yeah, it really is.
All right, well, I'm gonna just, you said about emotion.
So the one thing I wanna touch on before,
we kind of close out,
one of the most powerful moments,
I think that most people would say about Ladder 49
was when you gave the eulogy
when Joaquin Phoenix's character had passed away.
I saw Ladder 49 right when I came out
of my very first fire department's orientation,
which was three months of hell, by the way,
hi, Aliyah, if you can still remember that.
But it was October and at the end of the movie,
it was very tragic and you saw the funeral
and it was a real punch in the gut as far as the job,
but it was still two dimensional on screen.
I watched Ladder 49 with my son, Ty,
you just met for the first time he's ever seen it.
He's just turned 10, I figured it was a good time to watch,
especially before he met you.
But when I watched that scene,
it was completely different.
I've been a fireman 13 and a half years
and then the last four or five,
I've lost count of how many firefighters are buried
from not any dramatic death in a fire or anything like that,
but from cancer, from heart disease, from drug overdose,
from all these different things.
And the detail in that scene, not only the actual funeral
itself and then your eulogy,
but the way they saluted the bagpipes,
all these different elements that they had,
I was in tears watching it
because it wasn't two dimensional anymore.
As a fireman halfway through his career, it was real now.
And then when you did your eulogy, obviously,
I was crying like a baby as well.
Yeah, I really totally understand.
And that's why I love that film so much.
I think it has a depth and an authenticity that is rare.
And as far as your friends are concerned that you've lost,
this is a time where you can promote
the Heroes Health Fund to them
because maybe many of them, their lives would be saved
if they experienced this Heroes Health Fund
and the detox program.
They would have a different fate
and you can help them have that by promoting it on your show
and enlightening them about how it works
and be a great thing.
Absolutely, well, I will put that on the website
for today's episode, which will be jamesgearian.com
for you guys listening.
I'll put a link there.
I also wanna put a link as well
for the Jettra Volta Foundation.
Can you just give us a brief overview of that as well?
Yeah, yeah, when my son passed,
we started a foundation that was very widely scoped
because so many things my son was connected to
and education and illness in children
and different aspects and it was so complex,
his situation that I felt like limiting the foundation
to just one or two ideas, it was not enough.
So I widened the scope for all areas,
not just any particular illness,
but education and support of special needs children
because that's really an area that
until you experience a special needs child,
you don't realize the magnitude and the depth of concern
it can give a parent and more importantly, the child itself,
they're not having an easy time of it.
So it's a good thing to do a wide spectrum
and when you're doing a charity like that.
Yeah, okay, well I will put the link on there as well.
Very good, thank you.
Okay, so just a couple of wrap up,
short rapid fire questions.
I always ask everyone,
is there a book that you recommend to people
on anything in the world?
Oh gosh, well, entertainment wise,
let's give you your other credit.
I have to think about that because
there's so many good books out there
that it's difficult to hone it down to just one.
It would depend on your interests
and your interest levels, I would imagine.
But of course I'm gonna promote my own religion
and probably, I don't know, fundamentals of thought
or let's say Dynetics or Science of Survival.
One of these books are always interesting to read
for people and help them through life
and give them some tools.
Those would be the books I would immediately recommend
and then there are others.
For instance, I grew up with all the classics
and always enjoyed them for young people,
To Kill a Mockingbird and Airport
because I was an aviator
and these are all books that were fun to read.
I don't know if in a new unit of time
if there'd be much fun for people
but that's what I grew up with.
Okay, fantastic.
Now what about a movie and or documentary?
I love documentaries and I think
there's so many documentaries
that I've enjoyed over the years.
I like the World War II documentaries
that investigate the antics and politics of that.
I think there's always something to learn from them.
Any aviation documentary,
any rock star documentary I find interesting.
There's many recently that are good.
And then what was the other movie?
Yeah, movie and or documentaries.
Yeah, movies are so, again, each year
I have not, to be perfectly honest,
investigated this year's cinema enough
and I have my obligation at the end of the year
to watch movies for my voting for the Academy.
So I will take time to do that.
So I don't have one yet that I would recommend recently.
Okay, I'm pretty sure the Academy
will be sending you only the brave
so that'll be coming to your doorstep soon.
Yes.
Okay, now is there a guest that you would recommend
to come on this show to talk
to the first responders of the world?
Yes, what I'll do for you is I'll give you a list
of about five guys that I think will blow your mind
with what they went through with the Heroes Health Fund
and detoxing and to give you details
of their life-threatening illnesses that they had
that were completely handled with the program.
And I think it would do you and your fellow first responders
a great deal to hear someone
who actually got their life saved.
Absolutely, that would be fantastic.
And I think the more extreme situations
or even the ones that will be better for you to hear
because we all know a healthy guy can get more healthy
but when you have a totally artificially affected
firefighter or first responder
that has been exposed to things
that he shouldn't have been exposed to
but had to for the line of duty,
to hear their magnificent results
would be much more effective, I think.
Yeah, nothing more powerful than the life story, definitely.
Okay, and the very last one before we talk about,
where else we can find you,
what do you do to decompress
when you're not acting and not flying?
Well, flying is one of the things I do.
Okay, well flying, sorry.
And I take courses at my church
and that helps me decompress.
And I spend time with my family
and that helps me decompress and travel if I can,
not just for business but for pleasure.
And honestly, being in Ocala helps me decompress.
I'm always more chilled when I'm here than anywhere else.
Yeah, I agree 100%.
Yeah, I can see it.
People ask, why do I, because I work in Orlando,
why don't I live down there?
And it's like, well, it's very simple.
Just come to Ocala and you'll see.
Yeah, and it may take a few months to get it,
but once you're here, you always come back.
Yeah, exactly.
I found that people that leave to get out,
they always find themselves coming back to Ocala.
Absolutely, okay, so we've got the two websites
you talked about already,
the Heroes Health Fund and Jet Travolta will be on there.
Are there any other social media or websites
that you wanna talk about?
I think we covered them all.
I think that's good.
Fantastic, all right, well, thank you so much
for coming on the show and I truly appreciate that
and I know that people listening will really be blown away
by this interview, so thank you.
Oh, good, well, my pleasure.
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