#266 - Lee Greenwood on The Legacy of “God Bless the USA” and it Going No.1 for the 1st Time + Conspiracy Theories About Musicians + Scarlett Burke Creator of “Make It Up As We Go”

00:00:01
Speaker 1: Welcome to Episode two sixties six. We'll talk to Lee Greenwood on the legacy of God Bless the USA and the fact that it just went number one for the first time ever. Eddie will come by. We'll talk conspiracy theories about famous musicians, which is pretty wild. Some of these got to be true. And then Scarlett Burke from the Make It Up as We Go podcast. Alright, my top five picks this week. As far as new music, number five, Matt Stell has an EP called better Than That. Now. You may know this song everywhere but on Moved Everywhere, and here is the title track that's called better than That. Hands At number four my top five, Portugal Demand and Weird Al Yankovic teamed up for a song called Who's Gonna Stop Me? And here's a clip of that. If you don't know who Weird Al is. I mean, when I was a kid, he was the parody king. He had parodies that were so big the videos got played on MTV. So I don't know that I love the song that. I just think that's pretty cool that he's on a song with Portugal Demand. At number three, there is a deluxe edition of Tom Petty album Wildflowers which I love. It's a new four CD set, Wallflowers and all the rest. It has outtakes, live cuts, demos, home recordings. Here is a clip of a home recording version of you Don't Know How it Feels, John to Be and you Don't Know How It feels. That's cool. I love that album. At number two, Tanya Tucker has a new live album. It's called Live from the Troubador. We had on the morning show, the radio show. It's pretty cool. Here's one of the tracks is a medley of I'm on Fire from Bruce Springsteen and Ring of Fire from John Cash. Love it's a Bernie. I don't always love live albums, this one's pretty good. Emma Klein is my number one pick of the week. I'm just such a fan of her as an artist. I took her out. She toured with me Open to Me for a long time. She has a new song out called Butterflies. Then thank God you don't look this good after you left? And that's fine. I know that I see almost I can do honestly say that I'm moving on. Thank God. The bet so it's my top five. Honorable mention this week is low Cash. They put out a song with the Grenkowski Brothers, Yeah, Football Brothers called Cloud of Dust, Cloud Twis We's Country Runners in the Head Last and Stevie Knicks put out a new song from you Know Stevin Knicks is right, Mike Ye Wait with Mac Nice show them the Way and I said, Please God on this Day. New albums and EPs out this week. Parker McCollum has an EP called Hollywood Gold, Sasha Sloane has a new album Only Child, Runaway June has their holiday EP called When I Think About Christmas. The Almond Brothers band the Final Note to the Eagles Live from the Forum, Various configurations, different people in the band, Soul Asylum, Born Free, and they had a song back in the day Runaway Train, Never Going Back that's not on this album. Stevie Wonder has put out a new song too, So there you go. That's the new music out this week. In music news this week, Luke Combs one big at the Billboard Music Awards. Listen, he's the biggest thing in country music right now. Kind of the end, Morgan Wallen's on his tail a little bit, and then obviously still like the Luke Bryan's and but right now it's Luke Combs World Morgan Wallan's knocking on the door, but it is Luke Combs central man. Garth Brook said he's not giving up on Chris Gaines. You know, he was asking an interview. It's like, hey, what about Chris Gaines. It's really the only things failed for you? And he was like, well, listen, that ain't over yet. He didn't give a whole lot more details. But I personally liked Chris Gaines. I thought it was that there was a great project. People just thought it was weird because it was Garth. One of the headlines was Bobby Bones to return to Idol announced his engagement. We talked about that on the radio show. But yeah, I'm going back to American Idol. I think I go back in December. Listen, the show didn't start till March or April, so it's no different to anybody else. But I am not at the audition phase because of my National Geographic show. But um, and then I gotta gage. Uh. This Here's rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be a virtual event. Man. That stinks you're finally in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and you don't get to have it at the show and have people m M. It's cool, especially the show it on TV. But still it's not as cool as when they do it in Cleveland or you know, wherever they do it. They have a lot of stars lined up, Miley, Luke, Bryan at lash Keys, Dave Grohl, but still that kind of stinks for them. The inductees are Depeche Mode, the Doobie Brothers, Whitney Houston, nine Inch Nails, Notorious, b I G and t Rex. Justin Bieber earlier in the week finally released his new crocs and they sold out in just a second and people are pissed they couldn't get a pair. That's what happens. Though the Milli makes so many what do you want him to do? I'm sure they'll make more. But early bird gets the worm. Dr Dre wife under investigation. That's just money. She wants money. It's about money, right. The latest wrinkle in the Doctor Dre billion dollar divorce has gotten the Moguls a strange wife investigative by the l A p D for a legend embezzlement who knows and a divorce. It's so dirty. What will will not be eligible for one Grammys. Cardiby wants to submit it next year as part of a campaign for upcoming album, but WHOP, which stands for wings and Pizza, will not be available. It does not stand for wings and pizza. And finally, Ariana Grande announces that a new album is coming out this month. If you're a fan of Ariana, there you go. That's your top five, that's your music news. I think you're gonna like. This show on with us right now is Lee Greenwood. Hey Lee, how are you good? Thank you? It's a really good talk to you. Know. I've seen you a few times. I've played the same operates you a couple of times. But I'm always a little too intimated to come up and say hello, because you're a guy that's that's been around forever and I've always looked up to you. Well, thank you, Right, i'd hesitate to to say that was ever necessary. I Mean, the thing is, it's like, I'm just a normal guy from Sacramento, California. I'm a farmer. I'm usually in high cotton and uh so, you know, don't don't ever hesitate to come and say hi. Next time. I will say hello. Whenever we're out of the pandemic and we're saying hello in person. Here you go. You know what's interesting, And I'm glad you came on because I want to talk about God Bless the USA. Because back in eight four it peaked number seven on the country chart. However, it finally hit number one on a chart for the first time ever in July of How crazy does that feel to you? A little? A little crazy? I mean, the common thing around Nashville was don't ever follow Lee Greenwood, first of all, because he has the anthem. And second of all, you know, I can't wait to see another crisis so that our song will do well on the charts. That's ludicrous. You know. The thing is I wrote a song about America to be UH in a time of peace and and I wanted to unite the country if I possibly could. And here we are, you know where the song has had as much impact as it ever has in this release in and UH, and I couldn't be more pleased if it serves that purpose. We have social unrest and the people confused about the direction of the country. Hopefully God Bless of You USA will still stand as a uniting thing rather than a devising thing. I gotta know when you when you wrote this song, did you think, you know this thing has a real chance at radio or you know this thing may last for five generations? Like what in the world are you thinking as you're writing it and then as it starts to blow up? Well, Bobby, you know the thing is like I wanted to write this since I was a kid, and uh, I lived almost twenty years in Nevada and worked alongside some of the most wonderful entertainers on the planet, and I just didn't seem to have the wherewithal at the time, nor did I have a platform to release anything. But you have to realize this when I when I wrote God Bless USA, it was for our fourth album project You've Got a Good Luck Coming, which produced a video that did very well on YouTube. The first thing CMT was scrambling for with videos, and so we released that one even though we had a lot of money in it. But Universal made the call to have God Bless you would say released as a single. It was never intended to do that. My producer, Jerry Crushfield, and I talked about the direction of my career, about the kind of songs we released, which were many of them heartfelt about person to person love and romance and and even crisis in their life. And so that's what we built our career on, and so God bless USA would have been a real diversion from from what we were intending as a career path. However, after its release in a D three and eighty four, uh, it was embraced by the public. It was embraced as a career song for me, but but not for quite a few years. I mean, USA, as you just pointed out, didn't really reach the top of the charts until the whole nation became aware that it was a song for them. Was it at any point? Do you remember a moment where it kind of crossed over and you're like, wow, this thing is actually now not just for folks to listen to country music, Like what was that instant or the thing they invited you to do where you're like, holy crap, weren't a whole new world now? Well, of course, the song of the year in Country Music Association, I mean that was a tremendous tribute, but from the c M A with a song that never hit number one, and yet after that it's sort of dissipated. We moved from m c A to Capital Liberty. At the time, Garth Brooks was over there at the label, and Derrek Crutchfield and I decided to go ahead and move our recording career away from m c A and m c A put God Bless USA and Catalog. So when two thousand one happened, two things were very important. I had my own theater for five years in the Smoky Mountains, and our last show was um uh two thousand, um in in uh in In in the Smoky Mountains. And and and we decided not to be in residence there anymore and gave up the theater. Had we not done that, I would have not been able to travel in two thousand one when we had the attack on America. And the second thing is I released an album at Capitol Now with my producers um agreement that UH I called American Patriot, and I wanted to put God Bless USA with all of the other American songs. That was a lucky stroke, I mean, because its timing couldn't have been better. When people then look for God Bless USA after UH eleven, the only album they founded on was the Capitol album. They couldn't find it at m c A. And that album went double platinum, and so it was a it was a blessing to me. But um, but I never intended it. It just happened. And so after that, of course, then USA began to gather their strength and we sang it at stadiums and I traveled with Barbara Bush across the country to uplift the nation. Uh. It was, it was just one thing after another, and then it just became, uh, the anthem that the country grasped in order to have unity. And that's exactly what I intended it. Just I couldn't have orchestrated it. It just happened. He wrote the song if I'm correct, by yourself on the back of your bus. Um. My first question, and I'm asking both at the same time, how long did it take you to ride it? And too, do you still have the paper that you wrote it on? Pinned the paper? Um, it took me about an hour. Um. We finished some concert in Arkansas and we're heading for Texas on the bus. And not normally I would jump in the tractor trailer because I'm pretty psyched after a concert with you know, five six thousand people, and and so I would the only time I could talk to my truck drivers is when um, they're driving and and we're sleeping. So I would take time after the concert and drive it and jump in one of our trucks, talked to the driver for an hour and get in my bus. And I can remember doing it that night and um, and it was just one of those nights. I guess I'd met some soldiers in our previous show, and it just reminded me of the passion I had to to to write that song. Um And yes, it took me about an hour, but I didn't quite finish it till I brought it home and exposed it to my producer during Crutchfield. And he's the one that actually, uh suggested the Lakes of Minnesota because I wanted to put the hills of Tennessee. And of course I could have said Seattle in Miami, but you know, I was poetic and tried to remind myself of what's important in the geography of the United States. Of course New York l A. That was a no brainer. Detroit and Houston because of Motown and the auto industry and the oil in Texas. And I just mentioned Texas twice because it's a big state. But but to kind of get the geography right. So it only took me a few moments once we had spoken, because you've got to realize we were doing all the time and there was no place to write but on my bus, and no place to record but except m c a's uh music recording studio there on Music Row. So we laid down a quick track and UH and Jerry and I you know, then talked about what to do with it. And again it was one of those things that we had realized it's sort of out of place on that You've got a good love coming album, because there's some great songs on that on that album. But UM, we said, well let's just put it on there because I think that this is a person tribute to my country. And he said, if you want to do this, we'll do this. And so the second question, do I have the original manuscript? No, there there were several scribbled versions, and I, you know, I took it into the studio and I don't know, we probably trash this Stu Good. I didn't look ahead a little bit, but um, I've written some handwritten versions since then. Um, there was a couple for auction for St. Jud's and for UM in rocket Town, Michael Smith's charity here in Nashville. But I have two copies for my sons that I put in a safe and UM, so I once I leave this ear to, they'll have a memory of it in my own hand. So here's I'm gonna read some stats about you that people may not know. Eight number one, by the way, which God bless Usa, was not a number one. However, the biggest song and in years and years and years, however, Somebody's gonna love you goes number one in three. Let me play some of this for our audience. Here, going, going, gone from three Dixie Road from nineteen eighty five. I don't mind the thorns nineteen eighty five when I have don't underestiate my underestimate my love for you, nineteen eighty six. Hearts are made to Break night six and morning Ride night six. I gotta say, leave all those number ones and you have all the CMA Mail Vocalist of the Year a D three and eighty four. Do you remember who was in the category against you when you won at the c m A. The two I remember was Kenny Rogers and Ronnie Millsap and I remember standing backstage with Larry Gatlin and he said, I think you're gonna win this, and I'm like, nah, you know, either Roady go fap to be. It was one of the greatest singers ever and uh and when they call my name, the only regret I have is that I made no notes. And uh. You know, when you get in front of the microphone and you're honored in front of your industry and all the peers are waiting for you to say something really wonderful, I just kind of, uh, well, thank you. You know, it's it's just, you know, you look back at those films and your acceptance space with boy, that was really stupid. You know. I would I had more things to say, but I couldn't remember until I get off stage, and I dang it. Which I remember that there were some great pictures as I recalling with Chris Chris Stofferson, and uh, I think Janey Fricky won that year and we have those pictures and memories. But again, that was my only disappointment. You know, nineties countries having a huge resurgence right now. All your number ones were in the eighties, and you know, maybe eventually the eighties come flying back to because I think that was a really it's an underlooked at time for the value that it has been for country music. And with you, I would ask, because we do this thing when we do the Mount Rushmore of favorites, if you were to have a out rushmore of eighties country artists to you, who were the four that you had put up there on that Mount Rushmore. Barbara Mandrell Um. I figured she was kind of my counterpart in entertainment because she was just a great entertainer. I remember giving her the People's Choice Award in St. Louis that years she shared it with Barbara streisand I wrote a song that inspired our duet album called We Were Meant for each Other. Uh. The hit song from that album was to Me, written by Mike Read so definitely Barbara Mandrell UH. In the eighties, no doubt Kenny Rodgers, I mean good Grief. We toured with him UH for a couple of three years, along with t Graham Brown and Sawyer Brown, and we were at the opening acts even in Canada, all across Canada. So I admired Kenny so very much and and his impact on my life was was terrific. Um let's see eighties. Um, you know, the oak Ridge Boys as a group, I have to tell you, and still my very close friends, had such a movement from gospel to country, and a lot of the gospel people's kind of were like disappointed that they had long hair and they were playing music with more of a beat to it. And but their success was undeniable and they blended those two genres together with country and gospel, and they're still my very close friends today. Um. Other than that, I you know, I have to look back certaintly. George Straight has has survived, and Reba McIntyre and we were, by the way, on the same label, all four of us, Reba, Barbara, Me and George Strait and and the oak Ridge Boys. So it's just it was a great stable gym focus on put together at m c A and uh. And we kind of patterned ourselves after the oak Ridge Boys in the way they toured, because they knew when to reduce their overhead and when they stopped working stadiums, and otherwise we probably wouldn't survived economically. Is it true that you bought your first bus from Earle Haggard back in the eighties, Well almost it was Haggris bus, but um it belonged to his wife who won it in the divorce. And I know that sounded rather silly, but I actually sent my driver out to pick up the bus in California and drive it to me. And that was our first bus before I ever bought a band bus, and then my personal coach, and we were running three buses and two tractor trailers then finally uh, And it's it's interesting that I don't think I looked at the economics. I just looked at the impact. We were carrying our own production, sharing some of the time with the Judge because they were my opening act for a while, and then they also had tremendous uh impact on the business, and so we toured together for a while. One of our last shows was at the Fox Theater and Roy Orbison was the star attraction. We were there four nights, sold out. He got sick the second night we were there, and the Judge and I finished the engagement, just the two of us. But you know, running those kind of buses, we just kept that that first bus for an awful long time. Him and I finally sold it. I have two questions for you, and then we're gonna wrap this up, and I appreciate your time so much. The first one is, I know you visited the White House. What is something about the Oval Office that most people wouldn't know unless they've been there. Um. I think it's size. Um, as many of the TV shows have depicted in the Oval Office that looks bigger than it is. It's really not that large. Um. And the second thing is it has several doors. I don't know that people recognize it as like three or four doors that are and I don't know if they're made for escape routes. Assist. It's a place where the Secretary of Defense can walk in or his wife can walk in. The first lady, Um, I guess that was it. Of course, I performed it at the West Wing for the Reagan administration when Bush was vice president, and that's when I met him and sang it to inaugurations on both at the Lincoln Memorial for Bush forty one and for our current President Trump. A final question is about Charlie Daniel else. I know you love Charlie very much. How did you guys become friends? You know, it's funny because you rarely see anybody. Um. That is a big star in Nashville, and at the c m A Awards, it's usually confusing and and there's so many people, so many fans. Uh, you don't really have a lot of time backstage, although I always made a hit a point to get pictures with Charlie backstage because he's just this imposing figure he was. He was so gentle. He's just a big gentle bear. And uh, Emmy had hugg in just say how things are gone? You know, at least we have a minute or two here there, but um, you know, we just and dearly miss him. Um. He was such a great figure for country music. Always wore that big white hat and and uh, everybody has one song you know that they're known for. Now Charlie had many many but the Devil without the Georgia, of course he played that. Uh every every moment that he was on stage to the end of his life was as good as he was at the beginning playing the fiddle. So I had great respect. And yes, I generally met Charlie at a truck stop when we would be on the road touring, and we do that with a lot of acts, and you see their bus over there, so we jump out and and go and meet with you know, the artists and get on their bus or whether they get on my bus. And that's a cool moment when we can meet somebody like that. Well, Lee, I appreciate your time. Congratulations on the new number one, which is crazy to say because that song is such a staple and just our American culture at this point. And it's great to talk to you and thank you for spending a little bit of your day with me. Well, thank you, Bobby. I do want to mention about the digital release of two albums, Same River, Different Bridge and have your something merried Little Christmas. H It's the first time ever we've after thirty five years of having albums in my career bag, that I'm able to retrieve them and and own them and then release them again for the public. So Christmas album, New Christmas album out, well new but old but new right, yes, Christmas. By the way, there it is. Everybody checked that out just in time, Lee, grand and what Lee? Thank you have a great day of my friends. So Eddie is here to join me in this next segment. I saw a story on the rap dot com about famous musician conspiracy theories, one of the most recent ones that I've seen lately was the Joe Joe Diffy and he had um that he didn't have coronavirus. I have not heard of this. So he died from coronavirus complications, yes, and then everyone was like, no, he died something else. And so it was weird because where did these conspiracies even come from. So Joe Diffy, who I really liked as a person, who died in Nashville March twenty nine after he tested positive for coronavirus. He was sixty one. In the days following his death, Facebook and Twitter, posing as Internet salutes, said that he had either lung cancer or that he had a lot of other things. I don't even want to get into because it's not true. So his widow comes out and says no. And as a matter of fact, I knew a nurse that worked with him before he passed away, but nowhere, well, I don't know he was in the hospital from it. And so I would see this and I would go, ma, in, they're just making this up? So what other crap? Are people just making up a lot? Because I do start after a while, the occasional conspiracy theory gets me to go because every conspiracy theory can't be wrong. I think most are. Most are supposed to be wrong, but every one of them can't be wrong. And you gotta understand, even just as tragic as some of these are, people have a fun good time making these things up, Like they just love making up conspiracy theories and seeing if they catch fire and watch it burn if so. Um, you can talk about the Elvis one that Elvis isn't dead. Oh yeah, that's been one for a long time, and I mean I kind of I believe it. Sometimes it's one of those where like I can't prove it's not right, you know, because they sometimes do have pictures of Elvis, you know, in another that's not someone that looks like Elvis. Uh. There's also the theory of that his gravestone is misspelled. His middle name Aaron Erin, has only one a, not two or something like that. So I mean that also covers them with a theory of oh, it's that's not really him. We tricked you, it's the wrong Errand there was also because the corner diagnosed him of cardiac arrhythmia, which cannot be determined in the dead body. Interesting, you didn't do you know that part I did not know that part. And they say there are rumors he was sweating in his casket, proof that the figure was made out of wax. And then there's the curious fact that the autopsy, and then there was a curious fact that his autopsy was placed under a fifty year still meaning this, so you can't you, no one can investigate it. But again, if it's somebody super famous, you want to put a seal. Yes, And I think with each of these will say do we believe it? Okay? Okay, by the way, Joe diff Fee, do you believe the conspiracy theory that it was something other than coronavirus? No? I don't either, because that firsthand knowledge, Elvis isn't dead. What do you think. I believe that there's a chance that he's not dead. They suggest that he had become fed up with fame, fame and was in bad health, so he faked his own death in order to get back to a simpler way of life. Okay, I have another theory to that. Okay, So I watched it. It wasn't a documentary. It was some kind of like it was a movie where it had true footage of him during his Vegas rehearsals and it's a whole movie on it, you know. And he hangs out with these mafia guys, the Memphis Mafia, real mafia dudes, and there's footage of him and they kind of treat him like crap, like like they're all there, the dudes trying to work. Elvis is on stage doing a sound check and these guys are just drinking in the ballroom like Helly sing this song, just heckling him and He's like, okay, guys, all right enough, I'm trying to work here. And to me, I'm thinking, man, these guys really had him, like they had a good control of Elvis. It's a scene like it so to me, my theory is that he was two in with that mob. He was tired of the fame. He's like, I need to disappear. Well, there is a theory that he was forced to go into witness protection. A man bought a plane ticket to Buenos Areas under the name John Burrows and alias that Elvis Presley used for hotel reservations. Wow, now here's the thing. If you were going to do that, would you use the same name though that you people knew you had used under hotel, but they probably found that out later. Like what you know, you probably have a name you used under hotels? Yeah, like you know, maybe you know, so you think you're safe with that name, and then later these two managers or assistant managers that you worked with are like, no, that was his name. Okay. Do you believe the Elvis Pressley conspiracy theory? Do you believe it that he's not dead? I believe there's a chance that he's not dead, or he wasn't dead then and maybe he has died now. Oh no, I still think he's alive. But he'd be like eighties something, right. It's someone with that bad of health. You don't think you think they're gonna live in their eighties. Once he was a little chubby, No, he got pretty fat. Later on Mike holds, Elvis would he be he would have been eighty five. Will how Old's Willie him and Willie will be chilling right now. Absolutely, I'm gonna Elvis is dead. Wow, No, man, he's living. Just what you say, Buenos Aires. I believe they're not for a bit. I'm not joking. I believe there's a chance that he could be in South America. Absolutely. Hank Williams haunts the Opery. Some visitors believe that Hank Williams still haunts the Grand ol Opry despite being banned months before his death. Others swear a mysterious man in a gray outfit watches rehearsals from a balcony, only to vanish before showtime. A creepier story has Civil War soldiers haunting the Ernest Tub record shop. But we'll stay on the Hank in the Opry, Okay, Mr Auprey, Well, I work there. I'm there every week, per formed there fifteen times. Probably are they talking about the new opery house or it's just show been at them both. Never seen a figure up in the stand, Never even heard anyone there that works talk about it. Have you looked for him? No? But I don't know. I don't believe this. I'm not a big believer the ghosts are haunting, and if they are, we can't see them anyway, right, I'm not a believer that some ghosts that looks like their human shell is bouncing around up there. So no, I don't believe that one. Uh see, I don't believe it. But see I have to start thinking too, man, that like when I die, I do want to be part of certain things that I loved down here on earth. And if he loved the operation, he loved country music and he wanted to be there in his little gray suit. It sounds like something we'd want to do. Huh. You can do any operation show you wanted. If there's an afterlife, he could probably make up your own. Yeah, the greatest line of ever. I'm not going to believe that one. Did Paul McCartney die in nineteen sixty six? Now we talked about Elvis. There's a conspiracy theory too about Paul McCartney from the Beatles. Um, did he died? Yes? Or no? No? You don't think so too. Huh, he did not die. He's not dead. M paul as still continues to make music and I don't think anyone can replicate that. Well. So in sixties six was the first time he was rumored to die, but then he's died a couple of times since, because he's died more times. Yeah. Um. British radio DJ talked about how the Beatle had been killed in a car crash. It had been replaced by a look alike because it's worth so much money. Among the bits of evidence on the cover of Abbey Road. He's not wearing shoes like a corpse. Although they were pretty hippy, it doesn't They don't have to wear shoes the rest of them. Mark, but who cares? The VW Beatle license played in the background, says twenty eight. I f because Paul would have been twenty eight if he were still alive. That's awesome. And if you play the end of I'm So Tired backwards, John says, Paul is dead. Man miss him, miss him? Miss him? I hear is dead, Paula is dead. No missing Paul dead. Okay, that's just them finding a clip where they could. I mean, if you try, it's trying to hear it. It's like green wig or pep or whatever that there's two sounds. Are that you hear, yeah, whatever you're whatever you're trying to hear, you hear bones and also too, if we tried to, like right now, bones, we we want to make this up. There's no way that we can find the words to say, like, all right, I want you to say this, but we're backwards. It's gonna say Eddie is an idiot. Okay, if I were to do Eddie is and idiot? Yeah, I would go, well, first of all, I d sigh nah, yeah yeah, and I gotta put that in a song, Nadya. And then years or now they're like that the proof is right there. They were like then Yanni saw not tinya these he is an idiot. He's not. Paul McCartney's alive. Have you met him? No, I've seen him. Have I ever talked to him? I have ever done an interview on the phone. I don't think I have be amazing. I think it would be cool. I've heard about you Grea interviews with him. How its turns down a bunch. I don't know that I would ask him anything that other folks haven't, Okay, I mean, I'm sure everyone's asking it, but I wouldn't go deep on the beatles, like would you talk about maybe he ever goes to the drive through? Oh yeah? Or how does when he gets away? Like where does he know he can go? Or is it like can you go into the busier city the better because there's just if you're walking on the streets in New York City, there's so many people, you don't nobody looks like anybody like does Is it the opposite of what you would think where you think he goes somewhere where there's not a lot of folks, but then everybody sticks out to you. But if you go somewhere where is packed with people, nobody us anybody. I wonder if he ever thought that when he got older, people would just forget about him and not remember him, because that's not the case. He's still very, very famous. Mama cast choked on a sandwich. Yes you know the band she's from. Yes, Mama's in the pap The leaves are brown, leaves are brown, and the guy is great, and this guy's great. Well that's that's a better version A false pretty autopsy comment provided the news media included New York Times, and they spread the rumor that cass Elliott died after choking on a hand sandwich. She was actually stricken about heart failure at age thirty two. That sucks, man, because I know her is dying from the hands too. I heard that when I was because she's overweight, and it was mean to do and I believe it, and I did too, and I don't rise it right now exactly. I learned right now that's not true. How was this many years old? When I learned that Mama cast did not choke out, and it's not fair, it isn't That sucks? Yeah, that sucks. What about the Michael Jackson and LaToya Jackson are the same person? Not? You don't ever think I never thought that. I've never heard of that. But I love that, Yeah, because they do kind of look the same, because he started to look more feminine with surgery and and she almost looked a little masculine. Um. The additional Avril Levin's is interesting because I've seen this one a lot. So after her album let Go, which had this song here Skaterboy on it, they say she was replaced by someone named Melissa Vandela, who is slightly taller than the original Avril Dead giveaway and fake Avril started talking about it and the songs get a little different. Um, Apparently she died. She died, right, and it was the same thing where they were losing money on her. And I read a lot about this, and I went into the even a rabbit hole on this one day and I started to go, you know what, I don't believe it, but there's a possibility because there's a lot of money to be you made, and a lot of money to continue making and let's say her family. I was like, well, you know, we're sad she's dead, but we'd like to keep making money in her honor and other songs and this other Melissa. But then I met Avril Levine because she played Dancing with the Stars one of the episodes when I was there, Okay, you met her currently, not before death right, And I went up to her and I walked by as a joke and I said, Melissa, I did, and I didn't look at her face. I just said it out loud. Melissa. She never even turned and look because if she would, if she would about to come on the air, she goes, what what did you just say? What me? Oh? No, sorry, that's hilarious. And then I went up, made a loop around because she was sitting backstage at a makeup place. Made a loop around, and when I introduced myself, she's really nice. We didn't have a lot of contact, but I sure walked by. I didn't look at him, was I said, Melissa, and nothing. Well that's it. You can't argue with that. Yeah, her. When when scatter Boy came out, I was like, just the greatest song. It's the deepest song I've ever heard. Yeah, like, there are a few of those in my life. Don't take the girl. When I was like a kid, I was like, oh my god, this is the deepest song I've ever heard. That's not the one that I really liked from her was well, it wasn't my favorite. My favorite aprill of bean song is a slow one. Which one it wasn't complicated. That was the first one complicated. That was the first. Yeah, I don't remember. Lord is lying about her age. There's a conspiracy theory that Lord is actually much older. Gosh, she does act old. Apparently she's thirty five years old. But but that's not surprising, Like that could be real, right, Like I don't know if it is or not, but but don't don't believe it. Artists. I could believe it, because don't a lot of artists do that. They may be flub it by a little bit. There was the one Australian actress, the comedian who did that. She went lower Rebel Wilson lied about her age for a while. He was older than she said she was. I just believe stuff like that, like because it's entertainment. But none of it. She was like sixteen when she launched. If you were twenty four and you were claiming to be twenty one. That's different, not sixteen thirty five. There are some thirty five year olds that can pass as really young young young people, not you. Stevie Wonder isn't blind. Oh gosh, that would be terrible. And he's been pretending as a publicity stunt an think about that. I feel like I would lose trust in people in general if that wasn't true. Yeah, I don't believe that one either. Phil Collins let a man drown because of in the Air Tonight. That's supposedly with that we've talked about this for a principal hypothesis involves Phil collins inability to save a drowning man based on a key line from the song, and one version of a friend falls out of a boat, and another Collins witnesses the tragedy from far away and cannot come from the swimmer's aid. In many of these theories, there was someone closer to the horrific events, but he refuses to help anyway. They're like, you must have I don't believe that. Yeah, I don't believe it. Jay Z is a time traveler or a vampire. That sounds like something someone wrote, just doing stupid fiction, like make it a little more believable. If you're gonna that's not worth our time. That's the one that's really comes out. We sit here and this gets played back like ten years from now, once we find out jay Z actually was that a big one. Taylor Swift is an agent of the Illuminati. I listened to a podcast and read a whole thing about the Illuminati. I don't believe it because they're not there in theory. It's a real but it's not what you mean by that. There's not really a group called the Illuminati. Else, it's who they consider to be these people that have all this power. Are these different groups that literally have a lot of power, But the Illuminati people are wearing robes and going into a cave and having sex with a donkey. That's just me on Saturday. Sounds familiar. I am fascinated with the Illuminati. People have said that I'm in the Illuminati. Yes, I've heard that from multiple people. They're like, are you And if I was, I would be doing this whole bit exactly like I'm doing now. Yes, so we can't say that it's not true, right, So I was fascinated with it. So I decided to research it, and what did you find? It started off as a small thing that broke off from the Freemasons. They would go to the Free Mason Secret Society and then the Freemasons. But they weren't like secret and dark. They just were groups that met but no one knew. I guess one made them secret is that no one knew who was part of it. That was it. Sometimes they did, but you didn't know what they were talking about. Okay, but we're talking about seventeen sixteen, seventeen hundreds, and the Illuminati was a small group and they ended up dying out as well, Oh they don't exist anymore. Well, no, they made now and some but the Illuminati that we know, they kind of fizzled out. The guy who created it wasn't that good at creating a secret society that would last and flourish. Because you think about, you know the idea of that's phenomenal. I've thought about doing it here in Nashville. I mean, honestly, God with like a few different people in big air, influential people, and we just quietly dominate, moved, moved the strings, pulled the strings on everything. Don't tell anybody about it. Very possible. Still up for it, guys, they're listening. Who would I put in the secret Society? I would put in in Nashville? Yeah. First of all, you want to get an artist that people would never believe would be in it, but could also control some stuff. Luke Bryan, I feel like you may tell people just drunk one night. Come here seriously, between you and me, here's a picture of us at our meeting. We are having sex with the dog you see. Oh wait, that's secret. Like Keith Oh gosh, he's so connected. Keith Urban, who's connected in lots of ways in the actor world to like Scott Borchetta, the record the guy me um Brian Donald. Who is that Live Nation? But it's a big promoter. Maybe who in the publishing song right? Did somebody have song right? The publishing world? And then somebody in the management work? What about an athlete? What's he gonna do about the music the national music community? Oh you just wanted to music, not just the world community. Yeah no, no, no, just here we control pull the strings. They would none of the times would. Why are you really thinking about this? Hey? No, No, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this. This is not something that comes to me. Now, Hey, you know what you should do. You should do a secret recording with you and Keith, Sayking Keith, this is what I want to do. And I want to hear the reaction. Hey. And if he says yes, we don't even play it never. But if he doesn't and so if you never hear it, yeah, maybe he's in you know what to do. But if he says no, one he laughs in your face, I want to hear it. No, no, probably you probably lose his trust forever. The CIA killed Bob Marley, I could see that. Yes, yes, Bob Marley. He was shot at, attempted, people attempted to kill him. I think a couple of times. One of them is pretty famous. Um, he just got very political. Do you know how? He died cancer a toe injury from a soccer match, term occasion under his nail. Then he diagnosed with yes, malignant melanoma. He refused to have the toe amputate amputated and then it spread those bodies. Yes, but but he he did get shot at, and they like they tried to kill him. But I think at that point he was just getting too political. He was trying to. At that time, Jamaica was just split, very very dramatically between two parties, and he was trying to get in the middle of it, and they wanted him dead. Conspiracy theorists say that the CIA set up their sites on Marley, who's growing influence and message of peace went contrary to its goals. The son of former CIA director William Colby, reportedly gave Marley a pair of boots adapted with poison coated copper wire near the Toe Wow. Unbelieve Marley tried on the boots and inadvertently sealed his demise. Others believe the CIA had already tried to take Marley out with sharpshooters who missed their target. Marley had, in fact survived the nineteen seventy six assassination attempt by three gunmen at his home in Jamaica. You believe I don't know about the boot. The boot sounds weird that one. I could almost think about leaning into a little bit research. No, I'm talking about just now check out after that. I'm not thinking about it again. But it's when things get political, people do crazy things that we never think would happen. Yeah, Hotel California is about devil worship. I know what it's about. Have you ever dissected that song. I've never read book where we were on We were on a we're in the van, we were touring, and we all had the big discussion. You might have been headphones and tuned out, but we talked about it. It's it's a it's a whorehouse. Yeah, okay, I mean, and I've read books from the guy who wrote it or was one of the writers, and I don't think Felder. Yeah, not not double worshiping couple A couple more here day Off girl never broke his leg. Remember in the Food Fighters context, a quickly spreading rumor charged him with faking his injury. That's a dumb one. But Dave's kind of dramatic though, Like, wouldn't you see him doing something like this just to kind of be like, this is good, this is gonna be funny. He is dramatic, but I don't think so not breaking a leg. You can do something better than that. I agree, you can do better that. Finally, Jack and Meg White are actually brother and sister. They do look alike. They were married. One of the band's early gimmicks was that they portrayed themselves as innocent musical siblings. The truth was that Mr Jack Gillis married Miss Meg White September, ended up taking her name to become the world famous Jack White. They divorced in two thousand, by which time the truth came out. So those are your Oh yeah, I don't believe they were brother and sister. Okay, so so they're not brother and sister. He rocked s andl this past weekend to watch Club. I didn't see it. Morgan Waller was supposed to do it, and then he did it. Did you see it, Mike? I did it? Watch it? Killed Dead? Huh like a two day notice. Jack Whites a rock star I've seen. I saw the White Stripes live one time, and it is. It was pretty amazing what they did. They were really two people on stage and it sounded like a full band. Oh you saw the literal White White Stripes, which Jack just her on drums and playing guitar and singing. Unbelievable. I never say anything like it. Two people. Wow. I've seen him playing other bands, racking tours, the racking tours in Austin like a c all live, and he hasn't hit another band too that he was in for a while, but I think he's been in like eight bands. He was in the Raging Idiots for a while. He was everything. Because there's xylophone player. All right, that's it, Eddie. You have a podcast called the Sore Losers. The Sore Losers. There's big drama right now too. I mean, I might be getting out of our fantasy team. What was that about? I saw the tweet. What happened? Well, we have a fantasy league with a bunch of listeners that we've done, and they're one of the people in the league. They took a bunch of defenses, added them to their team, and then dropped them before the game started, so that no one could have defenses because because the Corona, there are a bunch of games being postponed and postponed and things like that that you really last minute are like, oh my gosh, my team is not playing. I need a defense. This guy locked everyone. So there were two people that had no defenses playing because of that. I was one of them. I really, he was brilliant. I would have done the same thing. It's not against the rules, and he's actually hurting himself by not picking up other players and holding out of them. That's a strategic If you would have been able to think about and do it, you would have done it too. My my part of this, though, my thoughts is that that's not the league. You want to be parted. You don't want to be out smart but hurt, because I would have done the same thing. I am very but hurt. You know, you learned from it and do it next time. So now I think everyone is going to start doing that every week, start locking players, okay, but then they're not gonna be able to hold other players on there. If it were a normal year, bones and they weren't games just being postponed, same opportunity to be strategic and do things too, and it's not like they have options that you don't. I fear that everyone's gonna start doing that. The whole league's gonna be pissed, and they're not going to pick up players on the waiver wire that have chances to blow up for them. You know, I really thought you'd be on my side. No, no, no, I think I'm on the side of the smart person who went by the rules. If you quit because of this, you are a loser and you're just a baby, you just didn't think about it. I'm a sore losers? What I am? The Losers podcast? All right? Thank you? On right now is Scarlett Burke, who is the star, the creator and director of the Make It Up as We Go podcast. Scarlett, how are you? Hey? I'm pretty good. I was talking to one of my friends the other day and he messaged me and he said, Hey, so I'm watering the plants for someone that's that's my neighbor and I was like, oh yeah, and he goes, he goes, yeah, it turns out it's Scarlett who who is? You're on that podcast with Terry. He goes, I had no idea. She's in Nashville right now. So Jason and Kelly are are my dear friends? Are you serious? Oh my god? Yeah? They live across the hall for me in Studio City. That is like a small world. He was like, I've been hearing about this podcast for a while and he goes out and then I saw you were on it, and I was like, holy crap, what so how do you know this? Um? Caitlin my I guess now my fiance she it's her like growing up lifelong friends and so, oh my god, yea't that crazy? That's so crazy. And congratulations, by the way, I just saw that last night. Congratulations, Thank you very much. Well, let's talk about this podcast for a second, because you know, it's a it's a scripted series, it's a musical podcast. Can you describe to our listeners right now you like what this podcast is because I get a lot of questions about it. Sure, it's um, well, it's just scripted country music series, but that it's really from the songwriter's perspective and what unfolds in the writer's room or in the songwriter's world to create the music that you hear on country radio. And so what kind of storylines do we follow in this So our main character, Charlotte Sales, who I play, it's it's her journey from leaving home and moving to Nashville and just taking a chance on herself. So we follow her a journey and and hear her go through the highs and lows of um maneuvering around the writer's rooms of Nashville. And then she lives there with her boyfriend Davis played by Rob May's. And you know, I think, like any couple moving to a big city, there's there's always going to be some drama and some complications and so we hear that. Um. But really one of my favorite scenes is listening to the scenes of like Billy Bob and Miranda and hearing the dynamic of what those conversations are like between artists and songwriter and and producer just sitting behind the board and it's like it really makes you feel like you're in the room and kind of like close to like Miranda's songwriting world. And that's one of my favorite Those are from my favorite scenes to hear. So how did you get Miranda Lambert involved? I know she's an executive producer as well. That's that was a pretty big gut hunt. Oh huge, Yeah. I mean we like when Nicole galian is, you know, when we were writing A Champion, it just we just there was so much of um. We were both just thinking, oh my gosh, just to be this this sounds like a Miranda song and um, and so we had I had my heart set on Miranda from day one. Um, I'm not sure if it would happen or not. But then, um, you know, I think sitting with the scripts and some of the songs that were already written, it gave her a chance to you know, red through everything, and I think she really, you know, felt like she she related to the character as well, being from Texas and and um taking that chance on herself of you know, pursuing a career in music, and so I think that's that's really how how we connected on this project. How long ago did you start writing music for this? Oh? Gosh, well, UM, this is so six of the songs were not written, Like six of the songs were already written, and I just had them kind of like sitting on a shelf. And I had been coming out to Nashville, UM, doing writing sessions. But two songs that Nicole and I wrote for this project, we wrote those about a year and a half ago. No, a little over a year ago. Year and a half ago. There are I know, No, I feel the same way for the last eight months. I don't know what month it is there As of right now, there are two episodes out. They're going to continue to come out though, So, um, two episodes in. When you heard them fully produced for the first time, would you think it just doesn't feel real? I mean you listen, like, would you listen to every single word in the in the podcast? You know, like it didn't I didn't feel it just didn't feel real because I've been so in It was like the sound design and making sure there's footsteps where there needs the footsteps, their door closing or fasting on, and so it was so cool to kind of sit back and hear it from the thousand foot view, you know, and how the listener would hear it. The radio spots were cool. I'm just so tired of hearing my own voice. Listen, I'm over myself and I've been over myself for years, so I get that. Here here's the thing. You follow Scarlett on Instagram at Scarlett Burke UM. Also follow on Instagram Make It Up as we Go Podcast and you know it's an a part podcast Miranda Lambert. Um, I'm in a Dennis Quaid, Billy, Bob Thornton, Craig Robinson, you know, one of my favorite songwriters ever, Nicole Galleon. So I hope you guys check it out and um episodes, more episodes will be coming out. So hey, super proud of the project, and I'm so glad that we could talk about a scarlet. Yeah, it was so good chatting with you and we're just so It's such an honor to have you on this, and like I just it ties the whole thing together hearing you, know, like my character with you doing an interview and doing the whole flashback. I mean you really were like like you're you as yourself, like was Luke, who was just glue holding it all together. So thank you so much for being a part of this. It's just it's so cool hearing you in episodes and I just couldn't be happier with it. If there's one person that I can mediocrely play, it's myself. So I'm glad that we can nail that. All right, Scarlett, thank you and I'll talk to you soon, all right. Thanks Bobby,