Keith Lee on Overcoming an Eating Disorder, Dealing with Fame and Giving Back

Kev connects with his friend, social media personality and food critic Keith Lee, for a hilarious and uplifting in-person conversation. Keith opens up about battling an eating disorder during his MMA career, how Kev helped him overcome his on-camera anxiety, and the two swap wildly funny stories about navigating their newfound fame.

Keith also gets personal about his family life, his close bond with his kids, and expresses deep gratitude to the fans who helped him get to where he is today.

Please support Keith’s initiative to help feed families in need over the holidays!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:16):
What I have you all your boy kep on stage.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Welcome to Not My Best Moment, a podcast where I
talk to athletes, artists, entertainers and my friends about their failures,
not their successes. They've all had massive success. Who hasn't.
I've had massive success at least once a successful failure.
My New York Times bestselling book was a massive success
at least for that one week, and after that it

(00:40):
fell off the face of the earth. But that's not
why we're here. We're here to talk with Keith Lee.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
If you don't know Keith, he is a I guess
should I say former MMA fighter, current.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Either or former fighter food reviewer.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Currently how many on TikTok last time? I was like
eighteen million?

Speaker 3 (01:00):
Eight yeah, close to it.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Eighteen million on TikTok world where nown father, husband and
friend man. Currently as we record this, he has partnered
with brands to bring food to those who are losing
access to snap benefits. That's just the type of guy
he is. He's helped countless small businesses small business owners,
both in the food industry fashion industry, and I'm sure

(01:24):
he'll continue to do more related and jumping.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
Keith Lee honoratively here man, it's honoring.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
I consider him a friend. He's like a little brother
to me.

Speaker 2 (01:32):
Family, him and his lovely wife and children are just
beautiful people.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Keith, what is what is new in your life? You
have a new child? Everything. Man, I feel like it's crazy.

Speaker 3 (01:45):
This is a food second moment for me. So you
were a very first person I've ever done a podcast with.

Speaker 1 (01:48):
It was a brand interview.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Since then, I probably only did like two I think
really has been what.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Three years since then, it's been almost That was I don't.

Speaker 3 (01:57):
Know if you know how pivotal that was because that
was at the very, very very beginning of everything for me.
So like before I was still in the two bedroom,
too bath apartment. You have a paw patrol. I was
still on snap I was I was on food stamps, wait,
full blown on food stamps, Like were you All of
the food that I was making for my wife to

(02:18):
make the videos came directly from food stamps and give
cars that people were giving me. And when we did that,
our legit was owned. Like I literally went back home
after that and it was on food stamps. So to
be in this moment here is so full circle. And
that's why we're doing the stuff with the snap benefits
because not only do it feel like it's yesterday, but

(02:39):
I vividly remember what it felt like for somebody like
you to give me a chance and just want to
talk to me and want to have a conversation. And
if I'm blessed enough to be that person now, I
would feel remissed and feel like I'm completely doing this
for no reason if I don't extend that, because it's
like what we're doing. If you don't, what was the
point of getting here if you wasn't going to be

(02:59):
the same person that you looked up to when you
was in that same position, Like I don't know if
you know that, but I looked up to you when
we I was like, bro, this is I'm in this
podcast studio having a conversation.

Speaker 2 (03:10):
I remember being like being like, Keith's gonna come and
I was like, I don't know if Keith knows or
a yeah. And I still usually take that approach because
I don't ever want to be embarrassed. I loved it,
but now it's so interesting I have the same approach.
My life was changed a black lady and I cannot
remember her name. She might have been an angel, but
She's the reason I got a job at Boing, And

(03:33):
there was no reason I should have got that job,
Like I could do the job, don't get me wrong,
but like I'm sure there's more qualified people and me
getting that job after being unemployed. I remember thinking, I
have got to do this, whatever whatever power I get,
I have to at least create opportunities for other people
to make their life easier.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
And I love this.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
People don't think like that, kid, that's not that's not
a common common thought process. I'm starting to learn, like slow,
as I'm starting to talk to more people, I'm.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Like, oh, you don't okay, world domination.

Speaker 1 (04:06):
Absolutely, it'd be like, yeah, it's like, oh, I'm here.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Everything that I went through that didn't happen now now
it's only about what's about that having X.

Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yeah, it's full blow.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
That's not a normal thought process. And I admire you
for having that thought.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
I'm telling you.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I was telling someone the other day, I in the moment,
I wasn't grateful for growing up poor and being.

Speaker 1 (04:28):
Poor for the majority of my life.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Still as now, I had a few good years right now,
but it's never that far from my mind. Fact, and
I think it keeps me humble. It keeps me grateful,
It keeps me reminding my kids. Like luckily, by the
grace of God, my kids are as humble and grateful
as they can be and were grounded. Yes, and they

(04:51):
also was living in that house in Rosita where we
had literally a somehow a beehive guy on the inside
of our house and we couldn't get good. We was, hey,
that's as hood as it get. Somebody broke in our house,
stole my baby's piggy bank. I had computers, cameras and projects. No,
I was just in receiving like an.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
Episode of BJ.

Speaker 3 (05:12):
I don't even know if I am I too old,
just know what the DJ's is. Yeah, that was not
like the episode of DJ we used to have.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
We used to have helicopters going over the neighborhood two
three times a week.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
It was it was I think that's amazing character development
in retrospect. When you in that moment, it don't feel
like that for sure. In that moment, you are literally
just trying to survive. Like when my daughters were born,
both of them, So I got a five year old,
a three year old, and then I have a newborn.
When both of my daughters were born, we were on Snap.
We didn't get off a Snap until November or like

(05:42):
December of twenty twenty two, somewhere around that area. The
government don't faught me for this, because I don't want
you all to come back and be like, no, actually
you were getting so let me look into this.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
But it was around the end of twenty twenty two.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
But we did that podcast I think in like November
or December, so it was like right around that same time.

Speaker 2 (06:01):
I think that's so important that you were becoming the
kith Lee that you are now.

Speaker 1 (06:09):
And still on government assistance.

Speaker 2 (06:11):
I think people often I've realized people equate views with dollars.

Speaker 1 (06:16):
Oh absolutely, and it's not like that at all. It's
not like that at all. So the same thing that
I said when we first hit it. The podcast.

Speaker 3 (06:24):
I went from March of twenty twenty with maybe eighteen
followers to November twenty twenty two, I had one point
six million followers right within that time span. Within those
two years, I might have made maybe ten thousand, twenty
thousand dollars off of social media. Wow, so that's twenty
thousand every so that's ten thousand every year. Yeah, that

(06:45):
I don't know if you know when it's climate, but
that is not a lot of money. But from that point,
even with the one point six million, I was getting
like four hundred dollars a deal. That's how I got
my manager. To this day is that's why I love
to be here because again, this is full circle. I
remember having this conversation and being like, I don't have

(07:06):
no team. It's just me and my wife.

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Is me and my family.

Speaker 3 (07:09):
Now I got a manager pr agency, and it still
feel the same, but being here reminds me that it's
like the evolution of what it is that we're doing.
But that's how I got my manager. She literally reached
out and was like I heard because I made a
video saying like I got this many followers and I'm
not making no money off of it. And she was like, bro,
you can really make a lot of money. And I
was like show me. I was like, show me, come on,

(07:31):
come on, what's your money? Ruth is in the first month,
I got Chipotle. That was our first deal.

Speaker 2 (07:37):
Wow, So I want to talk about that, right because
what makes you great to me is you are not
a trained chef, not a foodie.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
You didn't come for food network.

Speaker 3 (07:50):
All that is.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
You just a guy who likes food and likes talking
about it.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
And you also are very honest and authentic, and I
think you know you are or not. I've never seen
you bash restaurant. No, but you don't lie and say
you like something that you don't like food. So add
a little context of that. So I am a foodie,
but in a foody and the most the most singnical sense,
as I just love food.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah. So like when I was fighting, that's all I.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
Was focused on is how I could learn why I'm
eating what I'm eating, and when I should eat it
and how I should eat it, and what's the purpose
behind what I'm eating. So being around food scientists and
food dieticians and people who were culinary trained, just being
around them and just learning and not even realizing that
I'm learning. I was more or less just like, how
can I meal prep in it not be discussing when

(08:39):
I get home, And.

Speaker 1 (08:40):
That's all I was focused on.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
I was like, how can I make this not nasty
and still lose weight so I can make weight for
the fight. But in retrospect, I was learning and I
was really honing it in a craft. So I'm blessed
enough to do what it is that we doing today.

Speaker 1 (08:52):
Okay, that makes a lot of sense.

Speaker 3 (08:54):
You don't know that when you in a moment you're like, Oh,
I'm just I don't want to eat tofu let me,
I gotta lose weight. I don't want to eat unseasoned
chicken for breakfast, lunch, at dinner.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
And that's what they've been trying to figure out.

Speaker 3 (09:06):
What what I can make to taste good and why
it would taste good depending on what season is or
what flavor palettes. And I think that's why I'm blessed
enough to be around that for one of the reasons.

Speaker 1 (09:15):
Okay, I love that. I want to stay there.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
Talk about making weight, please, I don't really understand how
hard it is. I understand that it's very hard. I
ain't made weight ever. I have gained weight, I ain't
made it. I ain't cut it that off camera you
look good. I've been doing I've been having a little
white But I love fighting, love combat sports. But like

(09:42):
you know, a pound, quarter pound can be the difference
between you being able to fight for a title and
your purse per yeah, for sure, and getting fined and
now it's.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
Not a title bout. You talked a little bit about
struggling to make weight led to you having an eating disorder.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
Absolutely, what walk.

Speaker 1 (09:58):
Us through how that happened.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
So the way I explain cutting wait for somebody who's
never cut weight, is you take a towel, you feel
the tile leuvel water, and you ring it out until
it's completely dry, and then you weigh it. So that's
what you do with your body pretty much. Okay, So
let's say I'm one hundred and seventy pounds. They call
me and they say, hey, you gotta fight at one
thirty five in four weeks, right, So that's what thirty

(10:20):
five pounds. What I would do is the first ten
pounds is straight just working out. I would go to
the gym twice a day, just work out, sweat as
much as I can, so I'll probably get down a
one sixty five within a week, week and a half.
It's just all waterweight right within. Once I get that
water weight off, now I start focusing on my diet
and really start focusing on cutting out any cars, cutting
out any heavy starches, cutting out anything that's fried, cutting

(10:44):
out anything that I'm probably preaching to the choir because
I know that's what you're doing right.

Speaker 1 (10:48):
Now, are you real? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (10:51):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (10:52):
I have looked at the GFC honey wings yesterday with
the wedges at a biscuit.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
So why are you eating egg whites and walking? It
just depends on the day. Is doing whatever you suld
like doing some day some days it's weird. So I'm
talking to KIV.

Speaker 3 (11:05):
No fried foods, no KFC hot chicken tenders.

Speaker 1 (11:11):
I didn't extra sauce with the diet coke.

Speaker 3 (11:14):
The diet coke do not change the fact that you're
eating hot fried chicken tenders. So I would just cut
out all of these things and really just have a
lot of proteins, a lot of healthy fats like avocados,
good oils, and just peanut butters and really focus on
the dietitian side, and that would get me down to
like one sixty ish right one, because you don't realize

(11:38):
that food does make a huge difference, but it's not
going It's not like a magic peel. We're not just
gonna cut twenty pounds because you're cutting out fried food.
So I would probably lose five to eight pounds from that,
and then fast forward to the week of a fight
I'm probably like one fifty, right, So I get to
the hotel one fifty three days away from the fight,
and now this is the part where I'm about to
fill my body up. So I feel with one gallon

(12:01):
a day, or no two gallons a day to start right,
two gallons a day. This is the analogy. I'm just
pouring water onto the towel. I'm just feeling my body up,
and I'm tricking my body into think, Okay, we have
all this water coming in, and we got all of
this nutrients, we got all of this good fats and
all of this. We can afford to let it go, right,
So you flush it and you just put a whole

(12:21):
bunch of fluids in your body. And your body gets
to thinking like, okay, since this is coming in at
such a rapid base, if I go to sweat, I
can let go more than I usually let go. So
you drink the two gallons. You do that for two days,
and then your body gets into this cycle.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
Right.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
So now you cut everything off. You cut everything off,
and you go into a super dehydrated stage where you
just in saunas in baths. Like when I say baths,
I'm talking about hot bath with ebbs and salt. The
bath is usually anywhere from one hundred and thirty degrees
to one hundred and twenty five hundred thirty degrees, So
like you cooking in there like full blown, like very unhealthy.

(12:58):
But if you do it right, and you do it
around professionals, is this is the way we all do it. Baths.
And then once you get out the bath, you just
get to a point where you just sweating everything out,
and again your body is so used to it, it
just rings it out cold. So you weigh in. I
weigh in at one thirty five. The second I win,
I'm drinking all the electrolytes, I'm eating all of the
food back. I'm getting everything back into my system, and

(13:20):
by time to fight come on probably like one sixty again.
So in twenty four hours I'm back up to my
initial weight that I got to when I was stopped
eating all of the five food. So the real weight
that I'm fighting at is the weight that I stop
eating all the five food at. Does that makes sense?

Speaker 1 (13:35):
It does make sense. I That's what a real weight
loss is.

Speaker 3 (13:39):
The real weight loss is cutting the food out, getting
to the gym, working out. That's where the real weight
loss is everything else is all water weight. So you
basically at weighing you are empty completely food and dry
dry bone dry, bone dry. So you know with a
bone dry TIWL you can't do nothing with it. That's yeah,

(14:00):
you can't do nothing with it. You can't wash it
with it, you can't climb, it, don't work. So you
only can be in that that state for so long,
Like it's literally like with the hour span that you
can be in that state just to get on the
scale and get off.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Like, you can't fight with no drivet, you can't. That's
what nobody drive out.

Speaker 3 (14:16):
It gotta get feel and replenished again, and that's what
you do right after the way in. So you can
you gain fifteen pounds, that's on the low end, if pounds.
If I gain anywhere from twenty five to thirty, I'm
in a good space. In two days, no, twenty four hours.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Twenty four hours, yeah, So the weigh in is at
ten am.

Speaker 3 (14:35):
The fight is usually that night the next night, so
the fight is usually if the main event is like
usually like ten o'clock at night, the next day is
the next day. Yeah, so it's oh my god, twenty
four hour span.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
And your strength is back. Yeah, that not I mean that.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
That's why we that's why they trying to cut weight
cuts like that and trying to stop people from doing
it because relatively, yes, you are in shape and you
your body gets back, but you never at one hundred
percent for sure, you're sure you your body isn't adapt
to do that. But everybody is doing it. So it's
pretty much an even playing field once you get to
the highest level because if you don't, and this is
the thing that people don't understand, if you don't, then

(15:09):
you put yourself at an extreme disadvantage. So right now
I walk around, I'm probably like one hundred and eighty
five pounds right Israel out of Sanya was a one
eighty five pound champ for a very long time. Israel
out of Saya's six four, and he walks around at
like two twenty.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
If I was to fight Israel out of Sonya, I
would get detroyed. I don't care how good you fight,
I don't care what those kill weight is. These guys
everybody does it.

Speaker 3 (15:36):
So it makes an easier playing field because if you
try to be the oddball, or you try to be
the person who doesn't do it even one. You have
to be exceptional like Iliotaporia. He doesn't cut a lot
of weight, but he's exceptional.

Speaker 1 (15:51):
Like there's so he just basically stays in training mode
all the time.

Speaker 3 (15:54):
Yeah, and there's exceptions to the rule, but you have
to be like one percent of the one percent of
the one person got it. So I can easily see
how this messed with your Absolutely psychic I was, and
I was just talking about this. This is crazy enough that
you brought this up. I was just talking about this yesterday.
In high school, I start my freshman year wrestling at
one hundred and three pounds, right, one hundred and three
hundred and three pounds is the firstway class I've ever

(16:16):
wrestled in. I used to walk around it like maybe
one hundred and ten pounds. There's no way you could
have convinced me that I wasn't the fattest kid in
the world when I was one hundred and ten pounds.
What cav I was walking around eating one jarred apple sauce.
I remember we talked about the body walking around eating
one jard apple sauce all day. That's all I would eat.
And my coach would come. He would see me with
like a shout out to coach Burden. He would see

(16:38):
me with like a salad or something or something with
dressing on it. And when I'm sitting at lunch and
he will walk past me, grab my tray and throw
it in the trash and be like, here, eat this apple.
I'm one hundred and ten pounds cav. But in my head,
I'm like, I got seven pounds to lose, Like I'm
huge right now, like seven pounds and I got We
wrestled every Wednesday and every Saturday. In my head, I'm like, bro,

(16:58):
I'm so overweight. This is ridiculous. But when you look
at a retrospect, I was forty eleven. Nothing about me
was big.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
Oh I don't.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
I probably was one hundred and three pounds at nine
years old.

Speaker 1 (17:11):
I was in the husty section. I was about to
say months, I'm having you. You clear that I was
a big baby. But I'm not even joking.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
One three yeah, I yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Fifth grade I was probably like forty pounds. Fifth grade.

Speaker 2 (17:27):
Oh yeah, I was tiny. So did you did you
realize this? Did you put a stop to it or
did it only stop because you stopped fighting?

Speaker 1 (17:35):
Uh?

Speaker 3 (17:35):
So? I didn't realize it until I probably got into
like my second or third year and fighting, uh, because
I was still trying to fight at one hundred and
twenty five pounds and I was probably twenty or twenty one.
And i'll show you a video when we're done. I
looked insane when I got to one twenty five. At
this point, I was five eight, five seven, and I
was probably walking around like one sixty and I was

(17:56):
cutting down on one twenty five and I saw a
video of myself being at that weight, and it was like.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Oh, this is not healthy.

Speaker 3 (18:04):
This is like long lasting damage that you're doing to yourself,
for sure. But when it comes to the eating disordered aspect,
I didn't really get a grip on it until everything
on social media started. Like that's why I say thank
you so much to the people own the platforms, because
they don't realize how much they brought me out of
a very dark, deep place. You don't realize it when

(18:26):
you're in it. For sure, you're like, bro, I'm just eating,
Like yeah, that's what I do. But like to take
a step back and realize like, oh no, I can eat, bro.
My first time enjoying Thanksgiving was November of twenty twenty two.
My entire life as an adult, my entire life from
fifth grade to because that's when I start wrestling fifth grade,

(18:48):
or I start wrestling in sixth grade, so sixth grade
to twenty twenty two, I've never enjoyed a Thanksgiving where
I can actually sit and eat because that's the wrestling season.
The wrestling season is during holidays. I was the first
time I was able to eat Thanksgiving and not want
to be like, I gotta go run right after this,
or I gotta go throw up, or I gotta go

(19:08):
get something where I can't eat for the next couple
of days. I just gotta stuff myself and I eat
for the next three or four days. That was the
very first time. And that's when all of like I said,
when social media was for me like a savior.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
I just really want to also pause you. You seem
so much more comfortable on camera. Oh, I'll be telling
you how I mean you.

Speaker 3 (19:26):
You you weren't uncomfortable, but like you have, I attest
that to you. Ken A lot of that bro a
lot of that. It's a lot of it. It's not
all of it, but it's a lot of it. Because
if I and I don't want to throw I'm gonna
throw a couple of people under the bus, but it
is what it is.

Speaker 1 (19:45):
Give give me a clip.

Speaker 3 (19:46):
So I did the Breakfast Club maybe a year after
I did you, right, And if I would have did
the Breakfast Club first, I would not be here, you
really think so. Absolutely, I would not be on camera.
And the reason I say that is because I was
so still so fresh in the space of being on
camera and talking to people and being in a space

(20:07):
where people are saying thank you for what I do
or even paying attention to anything that I do. Right
when I did on camera with you, not only was
it a comfortable space, it was a space where I
felt like I could talk and you wanted to hear
what I was saying. Right when I did the Breakast Club,
I felt a complete opposite. I felt like I was
just up there talking and they was like, Wow, how

(20:29):
the fuck is he getting here doing? And if I
would have did that first, right, Yeah, it would have
confirmed all of the negative self talk that I was
already doing to myself. It would have confirmed all of
the you don't belong here, You're not supposed to be here,
don't nobody care about what you're talking about. You just
a dude who eat food in a car, Like, don't
nobody give a damn about anything that you got going on?

Speaker 1 (20:48):
And that would have confirmed it. But when I sat
with you and you're like, Bro, you're gonna be the
biggest thing from here and you are walking in your.

Speaker 3 (20:54):
Purpose and you like y'all poured it into me so
much and I got to give it to Android, give
it to Josh that it was such a space where
I'm like, oh, I belong here, like I'm supposed to
be here. Like if I would have did that first, KIV,
I would have not talked to anybody like and not
only the breakfast club, but I did a couple of
interviews after I left. I'm like, damn, Like, if I

(21:16):
haven't had the character development yet and I did this first,
I would have been in shambles.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
I mean you you acted on Churchy like you were legit.
You were you knew your lines. Improbably if you.

Speaker 3 (21:28):
See the stuff that we got coming up keV, you
will be like, it's gonna go crazy. Oh nuts, God
is amazing you, Like, bro, what is what is happening?

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Our top for a quick break will be right back
with more from Keighley. Okay, so I want to ask

(22:03):
about two different things. I watched your some of your fights,
you didn't win them all. I know you were eighty
to five.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Yeah, lost a lot of them. You lost a lot
of them, which is fine, Which is fine.

Speaker 3 (22:15):
See, this is something that people don't know. A lot
of the fights. A lot of the fights that I
did lose were by split decision. So a lot of
the fights that I did lose were by like literally
like this much of a decision to where it was
like one exchange in a fight could have changed the
entire fight, right, And I think a lot of that,
And I don't want to again my brother, I love

(22:36):
him death.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
My brother is to blame for that. Really.

Speaker 3 (22:39):
My brother was so good, bro, he was so amazing
at what he do that I immediately was in his shadow.
So it was like I was Kevin Lee's little brother.
So when I came into my professional career, I was eighteen,
he was already in the UFC about the fight for
a belt. So you know the promoters, and I fought
through the same promotion that he fought through. So these
promoters are like Kevin Lee's little brother. We gotta put

(23:02):
you against the number one ranked national guy that came
directly forget and had thirty fights, and I know you
only had one fight. That's okay, but we gonna throw
you against him because you Kevin Lee's a little brother.
Kevin Lee is is in And this is the part
where he was he was really doing well marketing itself.
He was talking well, he was fighting well. So people
was like, Oh, you're gonna get on camera and you're

(23:22):
gonna talk shit, because he was talking shit like crazy, like,
oh you wanna get on camera. You're gonna talk shit.
You's gonna be charismatic, You're gonna be a breadwinner. And
they give me on camera and I'm like, hello, they
give me on camera and I'm freezing up, I'm shelling up.
They like your brother, Okay, I'm over here sweating. I'm
a fucking nervous wreck. And then I get in a

(23:44):
fight and I'm fighting guys who have like thirdy experiences
that I have when it comes to like the amateur circuit.
And when I get in there, I'm like, I'm doing
well because I'm blessing of that natural talent. But it
was definitely way too much, way too so got experiences,
and then once I got to the point where I'm learning,
I was already at the highest of levels. Like when
I fought in Belator, I didn't go to the bellator

(24:06):
with like the guys who were coming into bellator with me,
or like I was fighting guys with kids.

Speaker 1 (24:12):
I was twenty two. I was fighting guys with like
families at home. Bro.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Like if you go back and watch the fights that
I fought in Belator, Like the very first fight was
a guy named Sean Bunch.

Speaker 1 (24:20):
He was an Olympic alternate. He he restled in the Olympics.
Kid a man, kid, I got kid, I'm fighting for something.
It was thirty six. Like he went home to children,
Like I went home playing.

Speaker 3 (24:35):
Like I went home, took that money and went to
Disneyland with my my girlfriend at the time, who's my
wife now, Like we went and got your roles.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
He went home and changed diapers. It's a whole different situation.
You on a different plan, get them diapers.

Speaker 3 (24:49):
My last fight was in twenty twenty two, and I'm
twenty nine now, so that was what three years ago
my last fight, I was twenty six, so I was
a veteran at twenty six, which is like crazy because
I started professionally fighting at eighteen, so it was like
I got dumped right into the deep of it. But
again having a winner record walking out of that, and

(25:10):
a lot of those fights were split decisions. Yeah, I
think I lost three split decisions. So if any of
those again, exchange goes different, I'm tending to eleven and two.
So it's like the conversation could have been so different.
But the fact that it happened the way it happened,
I wouldn't be here if it didn't happen that way.
And I think that's and I think that's exactly why
it happened.

Speaker 1 (25:29):
Listen.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
I believe God is the greatest orchestrator stuff, and I
think if he let us in on the plan, we
would bruin run it.

Speaker 1 (25:37):
Oh, yeah, you ain't.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Gonna be Oh I'd be a champion right now. I
had two or three belts. I probably wouldn't be married.
I probably wouldn't have any children. Like if I did
have children, they probably wouldn't know me for real. I
would be fighting year round. I probably wouldn't be able
to talk as well.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
As I do.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
Right Exactly, fighting takes it takes a lot off of you.
Takes a lot of life, and I think a lot
of that in retrospect, and you know, it's crazy enough.
I've never told anybody this. I think I told my wife,
so that's it. It was a moment after I think
my last fight in Belator, right, first fight I've ever
got finished. So I've ever been finished once in my

(26:13):
entire career. And I think we talked about this a
little bit on the podcast, but it was the first
time when I went home and I was like, Okay,
let's say you get everything that you want, right, I'm
just how I'm talking to myself. Let's say you get
everything you want. Let's say you get everything that you've
ever dreamed of, everything you think you want, and what
are you gonna do with it. Let's say you are

(26:33):
a champion. You gonna be on the road. And I'm like, no,
I don't want to be on the road that much
by myself, and I said, okay, are you gonna go
to the gym year round? No, I don't want to
go to the gym year round. And I was like,
are you gonna cut weight whenever they asked you to cut? Wait?
If you gotta fight and defend your belt and you
gotta do this. I was say, no, I'm probably not,
and I vividly remember what I believe is God talking

(26:54):
to me. He was like that's not for you right now. Yeah,
And I kept fighting against it. I was like, you
don't know what you're talking about, Like what are you
talk about? IM about to be a champion. I didn't
want to be a champion of my whole life. And
I was so afraid to accept that or tell anybody that,
because I felt like saying it out aloud would make
it come true, when in reality it was gonna happen anyway.
So a few months after that, or maybe a year

(27:15):
after that, everything took off the way it took off
in a complete opposite direction, and it took me time
to like sit back and like really self reflect and
be like, you knew it the whole time.

Speaker 1 (27:26):
You just was trying to run away from it, like
you heard it, you heard it. You just like, ah,
that's not what you said. Yeah you said something else. Yeah,
oh you said go fight. I gotta hear it. Come train.
But I knew the whole time, and my heart.

Speaker 3 (27:39):
To heart was like, yeah, this is your passion, this
is what you love, but like, if it's supposed to
be for you, maybe one day I'll circle back to it.
But right now, that's not what I'm supposed to be doing.

Speaker 1 (27:48):
I totally get it.

Speaker 2 (27:50):
How do you think being a professional fighter has prepared
you for this? Cause you, like, I imagine there's not
much thing worse than somebody choking you and trying to
break your arm and then you're like, Okay, I gotta
try these wings, like you've got to break my arm.

Speaker 3 (28:07):
I say that every day in my life. I swear
I was like, she'd be like, are you nervous? I
got punched the face that talking about nervous? So what
go talk to somebody, Go eat some wings. Yeah, I'm
not nervous at all.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
But I think it has its steel.

Speaker 3 (28:20):
Like this, this this driving me that I think really
has has put a lot of I gotta go get
it kind of kind of mentality. But I've learned to
balance it.

Speaker 1 (28:30):
Well.

Speaker 3 (28:31):
Uh but I think, and you know me personally, I'm
a workhorse, So I think that's where that that's come from.
And I'm just blessed enough to have my wife with me,
who's also a workhorse. And we go hit the road,
we go do what we do, and then afterwards we
found a good balance of like sitting at home, like
I was just sitting at home for two months and
I was relaxing.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yes, actually, let me not lie to you.

Speaker 3 (28:53):
Care Okay, cav you gonna get something that you today
that nobody else got and nobody probably else gonna get.
These last two mon have been some of the hardest
months of my goddamn life.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
Wow, my god, what happened. It's a balance, bro, It's
so hard to balance.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
And I don't know if anybody's gonna relate to this,
but it's one of those things where So in July,
July fourth was the last time we was outside. I
was at the Essence Awards or the Essence Fest. It
was an Essence fest, and I told my wife was
seven months pregnant because she gave birth in September. So
I told everybody after this, I'm going on maternity leave.

(29:30):
Don't nobody mess with me. Don't nobody send me to offers.
Everybody leave me alone. We was hitting and rolled a lot,
so we had money saved up, like money was rolling in.
We got this check coming from here, will be good.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Right.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
The second I said that, I think, and this is
where my faith comes at. I think God was like, Okay,
let's see.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
You say that.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Watch this, Let's see if you're really gonna be about
what you say you're gonna be about.

Speaker 1 (29:54):
Right.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
So I told everybody I'm sitting down until January. Kav
it is November.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
I am in La.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
But when I saw you at the when I saw
you gonna be in La, I said, hey, we just
talked about this, you said January.

Speaker 3 (30:08):
When I got home, I was chilling for maybe like
two weeks. I was chilling, kicking my feet up. Oh,
not to mention, were supposed to do Keky Palmer's podcast, right.
We got stuck in the airport leaving essenceless. We got
stuck in airport to go to Keiki Parmer's podcast. And
that was a sign for me of like, you supposed

(30:28):
to go home. So instead of like getting an extra flight, this,
that and the third, I was like, I'm going home.
Like I told Kiki, I love her to death. I
will see you when we get out of attorney leave. Right.

Speaker 1 (30:38):
So I go home.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
I'm chilling for two weeks and I'm like, Okay, this
is what I'm supposed to do. My manager calling me.
She's like, hey, master Chef wants you to come and
do a cameo and I said, no, I'm chilling maternal leave.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
She said okay.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
Then she called me again full different times. She like,
the NFL want to do something with you. I'm like, no,
I'm chilling right. Then I get another call from a
company I can't name, but it.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
Was fucking huge. I'm talking about like I looked at
the phone.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
It was like you said, you said when you want
me to, But again I'm like, no, I'm chilling right,
staying steadfast. And what I feel like my mission was
I look my daughter in her face, and this is
the part where I feel like it became so hard.
She was like, Daddy, why do you be gone so much?
And the craziest part is she be with me all
the time, but like being gone so much because we're

(31:25):
so close. It's like two days for her, three days
for her. And it was like I couldn't justify or
I couldn't understand why I wanted to go out so
bad still, or I couldn't understand why wanted those opportunities.
Thinking that again that PTSD of like oh if I
don't take this opportunity, now it's never gonna come again,
or it's never gonna show up again, or like all

(31:47):
of this gonna go away, like this house that a man,
y'all gonna snatch it from even though I bought it,
this house, you gonna snatch it.

Speaker 1 (31:53):
You're gonna take it. It's yours.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
And it's like I talked about this on Club Sha.
It's like this, this survival remorse that and it's like
I thought I was past it. And I think that's
why it became so hard for me, because I thought
I was past that. I'm like, I've grown, I've learned,
I've done all of this, None of that matters. When
it hit, it hit bro like whenever it wanted to
come back, it just sneak up and you'd be like, oh,

(32:15):
this is all going tomorrow?

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Oh you who are you to turn out? MASSI hif
That's how I looked at myself in the Maryland. Who
are you? What do you got going on?

Speaker 3 (32:24):
But then a second we started traveling again, which was
this week. More opportunities than I can ever imagine. Yeah,
I'm sitting with you again again, more opportunities than I
ever would have thought. And I don't know why, but
for some reason, I keep getting into that space of
like this is all gonna be gone. It's all. I

(32:44):
lost forty thousand followers when I was on the attorney leave.
Did you really I did just from not posting. I
and told nobody that you getting a kid for.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
I am bout to be on the streets to you.

Speaker 3 (33:04):
You didn't even do nothing wrong. You just aren't posting,
not posting food stuff. I'm posting my family and when
I but they like, bro, you the fool man, I'm.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Like, you're not hungry. But I'm like, get gone right?

Speaker 3 (33:15):
But then this is again my faith. I had a
day where I was like, I think that day I
probably lost two thousand followers or something like that. I
had a day where I was like, this is gonna happen,
and how are you gonna respond to it?

Speaker 1 (33:29):
Right?

Speaker 3 (33:30):
And I was like, even if I don't gain another
follower day like I for like those two months stretch,
I didn't gain one single follower, every single day was
in a negative right. And I talked to my wife,
and this is why I love her so much. I
talked to her and I said, if we don't gain
another follower, all I care about is that were healthy
and were safe, right.

Speaker 1 (33:50):
And I looked at that.

Speaker 3 (33:51):
Baby that I got in there, both five weeks old,
and I said, I love you. I swear this sound cliche,
but I said, I love you. I guess I'm on
the head. Two days later, I posted the JL Patisserie
video about it's just like thinking, we just gonna go
out there.

Speaker 1 (34:05):
That was the lady who with the.

Speaker 3 (34:10):
Kav I have gained one hundred thousand followers in the
last two.

Speaker 1 (34:14):
Weeks and you still ain't posting food.

Speaker 3 (34:16):
Maybe two videos, two food videos. But it was right
after I gave it up, and I think it's a
message I'm trying to spread. It was right after I
gave up all of the expectations and all of the
guilt that I was putting on myself. Literally, as soon
as I said, whatever's gonna happen is gonna happen, and
I reminded myself of that, and I said it out
aloud and I meant it in my core, everything opened

(34:38):
up again.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
I don't know why be forgetting it though. Again it's
the hardest part. It's like I know it, I know
everything gonna happen, and I might have be talking to
myself right now.

Speaker 3 (34:47):
But sometimes I don't know why I get in this space.
But sometimes I'd be like, shut up, you're lying. Ain't
nothing gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
You about to be on the streets. They bother not
going to door right now.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
And I don't know why that happens to me, but
it happened, and it be so real for a couple
of days, the reality.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
I looked at myself and said.

Speaker 3 (35:05):
You fell off.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
You told yourself that. I said, you fell off millions,
and then right after words, I said, I fell off
of what what I fall up? What are you talking about?
It's so funny because video go well in three four days.
I don't know why that is lost it?

Speaker 3 (35:21):
Bro lost it the last via video do three million
views four days ago, and you'd be like, oh, it's
over with, It's over. If I posted right now, ain't
nobody ever gonna see it.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
I gotta go back to Boward. I don't nobody. It
wasn't good when I was there the first time. And
then you post another video and for some reason.

Speaker 3 (35:36):
It just go away.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
Yeah, they'd be like, oh, all those songs.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
I just had okay, And I feel like that's such
a scary cycle to be on. But I think for
me with changes that again, because even even when I
didn't have the video that do well, I had that
mindset but right before I had that video. But I
genuinely believe that if to this day I'm sitting in
the chair and I'm losing hundredousand followers, I would have

(36:02):
been able to be like, it's gonna be all right, Yeah,
I got it, it's cool for that little moment, and
then again.

Speaker 1 (36:07):
I would have another moment like no, it wouldn't be.

Speaker 3 (36:09):
But eventually, I'm gonna sit in this chair across from you,
and I'm gonna tell you that I figured out the
way to make it more streamlined and not.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
I think it's a process. I don't. I'm not there yet.
I'm in my healing journey. Before it was like this.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Now I was like, I still get ways, but they
little little little let's be that is progress.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
And then I get a random here, thanks for listening
to not my best moment. We'll be right back with
more from Keithley. So I want to ask you on

(36:58):
the same thing about brow Your content style hasn't changed.
You've been mom and pop eating your car. If it's
really bad, you just don't usually post them, and then
somewhere along the way, your voice became so big that
I remember like a few cities specifically you went to

(37:19):
Atlanta and it was up and down my timeline, and
you went when you went to London, and I think
DC as well was a bigger one.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
DC and the Bay.

Speaker 2 (37:30):
Oh I forgot about the Bay Portland too, but Portland
was more on a positive side.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
They didn't want to believe.

Speaker 2 (37:38):
Listen, I don't. I'm gonna pause myself real quick. I
don't argue with people who ain't been where I've.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
Been, agreed agree, because it's especially when it comes to
places like that.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
I've been to Portland. I used to live in Tacoma.
I had shows in Portland. When you said that, I
was like, and there's a lot of black chefs in Portland.
The guy who directed all the episodes of Church, he
has a whole series on black chefs in Portland.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
But what you people not? You don't You don't know that.
If you don't know that, and why would you know that?

Speaker 2 (38:04):
Few people who ain't been stationed in the Northwest, or
played for the Blazers or lived in.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
For somebody tell me right now wish to talk Kansas
got the best barbee you talking about. I just had
the best burger of my life in Chicago. Oh that
don't surprise me. A lot the best everything tacos and
Chicago Chicago.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Best best food city. So what was it like for
you to all of a sudden the thing that worked.
You never had nothing in Vegas. I don't remember anything negative.
It was all keep telling lines out the door suitcases.
Now they like, he don't even need finding it.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
He always eating in his car. Who is he to
even be eating his little palainate this? That's the fact.

Speaker 2 (38:45):
How and you and you usually address your stuff. You're
coming with the you've gotten better, I've gotten better, gotten better.

Speaker 3 (38:51):
And I tested a lot of that to my wife,
telling my language. She'd be like, shut the fuck up.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
I was like, I wanted that. She'd be like, I'd
be like I want to say.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
She'd be like, shut the fuck up. I don't care
about nothing. She was like, they not gonna care about
it two days from now. And you walking around, pacing
around the house is trying to figure out what you're
about to say, and shut I don'tbody care.

Speaker 1 (39:15):
That's exactly how she was like, bro, shut up, And
I was shut up.

Speaker 3 (39:20):
Yeah, and I'm happy I shut up afterwards.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Oh, there's no reason to speak on that because it's
like you be the flavor of the day, no pun intended. Yeah, absolutely,
But there's always another that's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (39:34):
There's always another celebrity, something, another video is gonna go viral.
Something's gonna happen. It's gonna move you off the front page.
I think the reason that moment it feels like the
whole world's matter to you.

Speaker 3 (39:45):
I think the reason why I don't necessarily bother me
anymore when they come to that is that it's nothing
that I can do like I've learned. It's literally nothing
like I've I've done so many different methods when it
comes to but it like it don't change, nothing Like
I'll do a method where like I'll just be not positive,

(40:10):
but I'll be only constructive. Right, Don't nobody give it that?
They're like, why are you not like that look a
little too greasy? Why you ain't say it look a
little too greezy? It looked a little too easy to you?
But that don't register, right. I think it's one of
those things where you just gotta you just gotta let
it be what it is, bro, you can't. I don't

(40:31):
really get caught up in that, Like so my mind
more or less gets on like that, the PTSD side
of things wrong, like everything's about to be gone. But
when it comes to people saying like, oh, he don't
got a good palette or his palette simple, or he
ain't never been a culinary school, I mean like that,
neither have you.

Speaker 1 (40:49):
You ain't ever been a culinary I have to go
to polinary school to know if the burger tastes good
than you or And the thing.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
That I think has gotten lost but I don't even
try to explain it anymore, is that my perspective isn't
a perspective of a chef. My perspective isn't the perspective
of a culinary genius. My perspective isn't the perspective of
a professional. My perspective is the perspective of a consumer.
And I think that is lost in this space. Well now,
God winy, it's a lot of people who do for views.

(41:16):
But when I started, it was legit, just like me
and maybe like two other people, and it was nobody
in the same space that I saw personally that was
except for roller Okay, we got to rollertib K her flowers.
She has been a pioneer for the space, and I
don't think people give her a lot of credit, which
they absolutely should. They just be trying to compare it
to me, which is crazy. But I think it's not

(41:37):
been a lot of people in the space that will
show you the side of just a person who want
to go get food. Like when I get off the
plane and I want to go to a food spot,
I don't want to have to have a hundred million.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Followers to go sit at a table.

Speaker 3 (41:50):
I don't want to have to pay you ten thousand
dollars to go get a burger like I don't want
to have to do that. And a lot of cities
that is the case where you either got to like
have this expectation and think it's been this part has
been so much harder. Ask Keith Lee. Oh, when I
walk into a restaurant, people be like, oh, it is
over with. I'm about to go home after this. I'm
about to tell my mom and dad my life has

(42:12):
changed forever. He about to spend thirty thousand dollars in here,
and I'll be like, ma'am, can I get take out
to go, please, Like, can I just get a bowl
of food so I can go home and watch TV?

Speaker 1 (42:23):
And every single time I go out.

Speaker 3 (42:25):
Now it's legit, like called aunties, call the moms, wow,
all the granddad's. You know how many times I've had
people cry because I've walked into a restaurant and I
have to like calm them down and be like, listen,
please please let.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
Me hold your hand when I say this. I just
want to eat.

Speaker 3 (42:45):
I don't want anything else. My phone isn't even on
me right now. I don't have anything just to record anything.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
I never thought about you just going to eat because
you're hungry and you're not working, and they like life
is man, Mama, little.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
Guy in the morning, call the bank two o'clock in
the morning. I have a hoodie. I just won't food.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
I've had people deliver DoorDash to my house and be like,
oh you about to review it?

Speaker 1 (43:12):
Can I watch? Oh my god, sir, sir, it's twelve
thirty in the goddamn morning. If you don't give me
this bowler rama and let me go.

Speaker 3 (43:25):
Oh cover And that is a blessing and a bit
of a disturbance, but it's something that I don't complain
about because again I was in a two big, two
bath department and nobody gave a damn about what I
was talking about. So if I gotta deal with a
DoorDash driver being overly excited, that is at least of
my complaints.

Speaker 2 (43:42):
I remember when the House of Receiver and I didn't
even feel like I was famous. Man, this dude brought
my food. I'm ready to smash it. Go sit back
at the table and my uber eats thing rings and
I'm like, yo, what am I tripping? Did I mess
up something? And I answered the phone. He's like, I
didn't want to say this. I'm a huge fan. He's like,

(44:03):
he come outside your front door. He's standing in my
front door. Before I had rings, before I ring was everywhere.
He come outside and take a picture with me. I said,
got a shirt off?

Speaker 1 (44:13):
I did it.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
I did it, man, because you're my house now. But
I said, I can't leave you at the front door.
You know where you live at now ask to what
I'm saying. And from that moment on, I never after
the pandemic, it became dropped anyway, but from that moment on,
I never answered the door to get the food.

Speaker 1 (44:34):
I never before, IAU.

Speaker 3 (44:35):
Every time I try to go before I lived in themmunity,
she would literally grab me.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Yeah, let me tell you what's even worse. Getting room
service and I got my shirt off.

Speaker 1 (44:45):
You know, the titties is out. I got titties a
little bit.

Speaker 3 (44:47):
I don't I don't know if I ever told you this.
I had a lady buy a hotel room at the hotel.
I was saying that, and bring pecan fudge that she
had made her house or cookies. If you're watching this,
please excuse me if I got the product wrong, some
kind of dessert and sit in my hotel lobby and
text me multiple times or DM me multiple times and

(45:08):
say I'm down here waiting whenever you are ready.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Oh man, you are going to try this.

Speaker 3 (45:13):
And I bought a room and God, Winsley, we don't
buy cheap rooms nowadays.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
This is a very Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:20):
I can say that name of the hotel because I
ain't there right now. The Post Oak in Houston, and
you know the Post Oak. It's up there with like
the four seasons. It's up there with like I gotta
stay there now, Okay, you gotta go to It's amazing.
Shout out too, but it's up there with like the
top of the echelon right, and she bought a full room.
You know you were there for two days. Somebody posted

(45:40):
me in the lobby. I was walking in the lobby
with my kids and somebody said, oh, look Keith Lee
and Hugheston. He about to try all y'all food. And
she saw that and stay downstairs with Pecan something I
don't even enjoy pe comments.

Speaker 1 (45:54):
And I couldn't tell her that. I couldn't go downstairs
and be like, I don't even like be gone. I
just damn. I buried myself in that room now whole
night and just hoped. I just pray. Look, I'm telling
of these I was like, please, I'll be down stairs.
I said please, Yeah, And it's it's again.

Speaker 3 (46:15):
It's one of those things where it's like, I feel
so conflicted when I complain about it. I feel because
it's likely, bro Like, what is there to complain about
that somebody is so excited to meet you that they
want you to try something, Like they care about your
opinion that much that they want you to try it,
Like why is that a negative thing? But at the
same time, what if I'm walking around a hotel and

(46:35):
I got my kids with me and were about to
go to the pool and you get on I get
on an elevator and you stand in the corner of
the elevator like I bought a hotel room just to
meet you, and my daughter like.

Speaker 1 (46:44):
Mommy, daddy, who is that? And like, hey, you got
to explain that to him. So it's like a double edged.

Speaker 2 (46:50):
So I remember one time we were on tour and
this is a few years ago, and we were flying
through Cleveland and somebody was waiting for us outside the
exit of the airport, not even outside like outside when
you leave your gate.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
And she was like, I knew it was y'all. And
I was like, I mean, I'm disoriented.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
It's like five o'clock in the morning their time, so
it was like two am my time, and I'm like,
what's going on?

Speaker 1 (47:12):
She was like, I've been at this airport all night.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I routed the planes from l A to Cleveland, and
I figured you guys were either on this from for
Delta from United and I guessed right that you guys.

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
I wasn't even I was too tired to be and
it was a lady, So I wasn't you know, I
didn't you feel like, you know, intimidated, But it was
just like She's like, I just want to picture.

Speaker 1 (47:35):
I know this weird.

Speaker 2 (47:36):
I'm so sorry, And in my head I was like,
this is insane. Yeah, there's nobody I would do that
for nobody, people who I want to meet. I'm not
going to the airport and hoping it's you.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
The fact, when I see are members to be, it'll
be down the lane.

Speaker 3 (47:54):
And that's why I've never said no to a picture
because I think about it like that, like there's nobody
I'm willing to do that with. So if you are
willing to do that, then there has to be something scheper, right.
But then shout out to my good friend Toby. You
know Toby, I told him the same thing, and he said, Nigga,
they don't all think like that.

Speaker 1 (48:12):
He said, no, but your self in that same mindset.

Speaker 3 (48:15):
But then again, this is something that I got constantly
battled because I'm willing to go to back for certain
things that I believe in, and that's one of the
things I believe in. If anybody is willing to take
time out of theay day to even say something to me,
I'm not gonna.

Speaker 1 (48:26):
I feel the same way. I don't. This person wasn't
talking to me, but I think it was. I'm aver
rold of Us.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
I don't want to say the wrong name, but he
was like, if you're famous and you don't feel like
being famous that day, don't leave your house because once you.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Go out, I think that's that's great advice.

Speaker 1 (48:42):
And that's how i'd be like. If I ain't got
it that day and I'm tired, I know I don't
have it. I don't because if you catch me, I
want to give you.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
A good experience. I thank the Lord for wrestlers. I've
met a few wrestlers. Wrestlers be like, without you, there
is no us. So they're very gracious unless you're trying
to like hawked the Merchant. Of course, that's the only
time they'd be like, all right, you're trying to make
money off of course, if you're just like an excited
fan for the most part, but they're like, and I
feel the same way. But if I don't feel like it,
if I got an attitude, I'm never really have an attitude.

Speaker 3 (49:12):
But if you're not, if you being a human being
having a human moment, and you're like, I just I
just want to go.

Speaker 1 (49:18):
Outside, Keith. My brother passed away and I was coming.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
Thank you ray Jack, you you.

Speaker 1 (49:33):
I'm sorry, come fuck sorry, thank you ray J. It's crazy.
And I come home and I was still crying a lot. Dog.
I'm Keith.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
I have tears in my eyes, Like off the plane
from the funeral. Somebody's like, I'm so sorry, Oh my god,
I know you going.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
Through right now. Do you mind if I get a
picture tears in my eye even in Houston after I
announced it. Heinate in the grave. Yeah, how do you
process that?

Speaker 3 (50:10):
That's such a hard It's such a hard emotion to
try to process of, like what do you like?

Speaker 1 (50:16):
What do you do? Do you just put yourself to
the side and be like it is what it is you.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
I've noticed I have. I've been giving people grace because
what's been happening a lot lately, and this is very jarring.
People have been grabbing me like I I like to
still walk it hug no, I mean like I'm walking past,
and they like and like like that. Yeah, often women

(50:42):
and I be like I'm in my own world and
I'd be like, oh hey, yeah, but that first reaction
is it's human.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
It's humans. Like, who are why are you text yourself?
But the hugs Auntie hugs. I love that.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
I get Auntie hugs, I get Auntie kissed, I get
Auntie hugs. I get a lady kissed me in my
ear one time, and I pan trade. I'm a German
phoe when it comes to stuffing like that A week
straight gift. Look, I'm in the mirror like this, I'm
trying to take the off and get a new one.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
I'm like, that would freak me out at I didn't
wash my hands every for a week. Yeah, I'm at
home panic.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
I'm on Google, like, can you buy new ears?

Speaker 1 (51:32):
Are there any surgeries to allow new ears to be implanted?
Then you can still here blown. I'm like, bro, get this. Yeah,
but again it's out of love. So it's like, and
that's what I was gonna say. I got instructed.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
But I give people grace because I think excitement robs
you of your manners. Sometimes people they don't mean no harm.
And I don't want to be mad at people don't
mean no harm. You just they don't know if they
don't ever see that, they're surprised shot, they don't know
they're gonna ever go to see you. This is their moment,
so they got to take it. And as long as
you're not rude, which I by the grace of God,

(52:06):
I don't have a lot of people who love me
who are just like rude thing. They be really excited
and they just like keV. I'm sorry, I know you know,
but sometimes they go a little too far. But I'm listen,
things could be worse. You like, I will take this
versus that we got to get keeped out of here.

Speaker 1 (52:24):
He's a loving family.

Speaker 3 (52:25):
First, before we leave, I want to say, in the
midst of everything that's happening right now, right with the
holidays coming up, with the snap benefits being cut off,
with us not understanding what we about to do within
the next couple of months, in life in general, when
it comes to what our country's in, right, I want
to say one happy Holidays to anything that I'm blessed
enough to be a part of, to be of any

(52:46):
assistance or play any part, and making sure any family
has a good holiday. I'm absolutely absolutely gonna do it,
and i want you to know from the bottom of
my heart, I'm looking directly at you whoever watching this,
I care and I will not be in this position
without y'all. So any thing that you see come out
within the next month, just know it is from a
place of love, is from a place of really putting

(53:07):
my heart sweat and tears, because it's gonna be a
lot of stuff coming this next month, heart sweat and tears.
And I really put a lot of effort and a
lot of thought into thinking what would I want somebody
to do when I was in that position, And this
next month or so it's gonna be a testament to that.
And it's just gonna be a culmination of all of

(53:29):
those things. And I just want to say from the
bottom of heart, if it wasn't for y'all, I wouldn't
be here. And I'm very thankful Keith Lee.

Speaker 1 (53:36):
Ladies and gentlemen. I have to move it up.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
This is I don't know what it is with us,
and I don't know what it is that we that
we do together, but every single time I walk away like, oh,
I'm about to go be a movie star.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
You and man, yeah, I love it. Man, ladyes, jentlemen,
thank you so much for watching and listening.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Please check us out wherever podcasts are found, but specifically,
iHeart media. iHeart iTunes, all that stuff. Keith Lee follow
him on social media. He's amazing. He is also the
person he presents himself to be. He's not pushing babies
on the ground and kicking frogs. He's a genuine family man.

Speaker 1 (54:20):
Morals, God, family food.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
He really is about body. So God, bless y'all. Got
keep you see at the conference. This has been a

(54:55):
Unanimous Media original. Not My Best Mama was produced by
iHeart Podcasts and Unanimous Media. It was hosted by me
Kevin Fredericks. Executive produced by Stephen Curry, Eric Payton and
Charlotte Sumter Brigette. Co executive producer Klena Maria Cutney. The
executive producers of the iHeart podcast are Sean Titne and
Jason English. This series was produced by Peter Calter and

(55:17):
Jabbari Davis. Co producer Kurt Redman. A special thanks to
Stephen Curry and Will Pearson. Not My Best Moment as
a production of Unanimous Media and iHeart Podcasts. For more
podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.