Series Finale

Host James Golden speaks with long time Rush Limbaugh Show engineer Mike Maimone, in addition to several close friends and colleagues of Rush’s over the years. Guests include Congressman Louie Gohmert, President of Hillsdale College Larry P. Arnn and the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. This episode also contains a story written and narrated by actor Nick Searcy, plus an appearance from Premiere Networks personalities Clay Travis and Buck Sexton, who lend their voices to a special feature about the lasting legacy of Rush Limbaugh. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you missed any episodes of Russia Limbar The Man
behind the Golden e I B Microphone, you've missed more
great stories from some of Russia's closest friends, family, and colleagues.
All previous episodes are available now on I Heart Radio
or wherever you listen to your podcast. Well here we are, folks,

(00:22):
were at the last episode of Russian Lumbar The Man
behind the Golden the IB microphone, and I wish, I
wish we could get to all of the stories that
still remain out there that we just don't have time
to do with this series. And this is just a
small drop in the ocean of what Russia's life was.

(00:43):
He impacted so many people and so many Americans and
people around the world. We hope you've enjoyed this series,
and we hope you'll enjoy this final episode. We've got
a lot of different people we're gonna talk to on
this final episode, and we saved our broadcast engineer, Mike Moan,
who has been the longest serving engineer with the Russian
VALL program for the last episode. We hope you'll enjoy

(01:06):
hearing from Mike, who's been one of my friends for
almost three decades, pretty incredible. In addition to talking with Micromone,
we're gonna hear from several different people, some guests, host
some former colleagues, and we've got a few surprises for
you as well. And that's all coming up in this episode.
Whether you listened every day you are at the E

(01:27):
I V Network and the Russia Limball Program heard on
over six hundred great radio stations for every now and
then nation's leading radio and talk show, the most eagerly
into Sumpter program in American the stories you've never heard
from the people behind the scenes who knew him best
and loved him most. Rushilyan Ball having more fundly human being,
it could be allowed to hear Rush Limbaugh, the man

(01:48):
behind the Golden e IP microphone, hosted by James Golden. Hey,
James Golden here. You might remember I told you a
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(02:12):
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I look forward to getting to bed every night under
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(02:32):
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(02:55):
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On this episode of Russia Number the man behind the
Golden E I B microphone, we are pleased to have
Mike Mamone broadcast engineer, the longest serving broadcast engineer with

(03:18):
the Russian Lumba program, and welcome Mr. A. Maimon. Well,
thank you for having me. Yes, now you have the distinction,
Mike Mamone, of being the only engineer in America that
is responsible for a billion dollar business that you have
no part of. I want to kind of go through

(03:39):
that story for a minute, and that would be the
story of Snapple. Tell us about Mike Mamone, Snapple and
the Russia Lumba program. Well, all right downstair. I used
to take the Long Island Railroad into into the studio
because at that time the Network studio was at Twopen
Plaza and pen Plaza is you know, is always just

(04:03):
it's a hole, it's a pit, it's a horrible, horrible
place to be. But at that time, they sold the
most amazing, you know, the deli's in there sold the
most amazing assortment of beverages. So I found Snapple one
day and it's like, oh, raspberry iced tea, this looks good,
and they sold cups of ice. So I started, you know,

(04:24):
I would buy one and you know, bring it to
work and drink it. And then you know, after like
a couple of weeks, rush he says, he says, what
is that? He says, that looks that looks really good.
And I said, I said, it's Snapple. I said it's
iced tea. I'll bring you one tomorrow. So I brought him,
you know, so the next day I brought him one
and it's like he's like, wow, this is fantastic. So

(04:45):
he goes down the air and he starts, you know,
expounding on how wonderful it is. And then so every
day then I would bring him, you know, I would
get one and bring one for him. So after, you know,
after a while, after one of these long spiels about
how wonderful it was, and he would always make the
the uh, the big show of sipping it. And it's like,
oh m, this is what such wonderful stuff. So I

(05:07):
made it. I taped it one day and I gave
it to one of the salespeople. I said, why don't
you go do something with dicks and he did so,
and that's what happened, and then it went through the roof.
It went through the roof exactly right now. At the time,
Snapple was a local beverage. This was a company that
was a quote, a local company. I don't know whether

(05:30):
they would New York, New Jersey or Connecticut, but it was.
They were making Snapple. It did not have a national
presence at all. And so Rush was talking about this
amazing iced tea on a national show even though it
was local. Their phones started ringing. It's like, where can
we get this? Where can we get this? So then

(05:50):
it suddenly it was everywhere. And then you know, they
got they took Wendy the snapp a lady. I mean,
but the thing that made Snapple different was that it
also had they had a different that of distributing the product. Um.
So it's like everything seemed to be very local. And
then uh, they took the company public. And I know
that Russia. I know that Russia got stuck in and

(06:11):
I was thinking, it's like damn and Snapple road rode
the way for you know, for a good long time
until they sold out to Quaker Oats. So, Mike mamone,
you are in a way responsible for the iced T
craze that has taken America by storm. Okay, so you're

(06:32):
the broadcast engineer for Russilan Bars program. You are the
broadcast engineer, the longest serving engineer on the most listen
to radio program in American history. Tell us what your
day is like? What do you do? Okay? Um, basically,
I every element that you hear that is not Russia's

(06:52):
voice gets mixed in by me. So everything everything that was,
as you said, that was not Russia's voice in some
way or another, you touched on that show. You as
I said, you you're the longest serving broadcast engineer that
we have had on the staff. What do you think
Russia's legacy is going to be, Well, the legacy of

(07:14):
you know, of the man who basically saved, saved a
M radio and recreated talk radio into a you know,
into a major political force. I mean, that's that's a
pretty big one. You know. He will oh well, I
mean we will remember him as being the kind of

(07:35):
giving things which you know, not enough people will ever
know about, you know, his charitable gift giving and the
organizations that that he is that he is supported throughout
the years, like you know, likely Leukemian Foma Society, m
cleff and you know all the other things. It's like
nobody would ever you know, it's like I know, and

(07:58):
you've you've told the stories about the you know, the
things that he has done for people on the condition
you know, of total anonymity. So you know, I would
like to see you know, more of that on side.
But you know the legacy of having you know, saved
the business, recreated the business, and been responsible for um, well,

(08:23):
you know an answer answering the mainstream media. I mean
it's like that, you know, that's enough for anybody. Well, Mike,
what what do you think? You look back over it
all and you've had an amazing career. Well, I don't
don't don't downplay the thing because people have alluded to
this before. But let's face it, if we had a

(08:45):
buck for every time someone said there's a real good
show going on in here, uh, we both have a
lot of money. I mean that was you know, another
thing that made it, you know, that made it fun
because there was a whole another show going on inside

(09:06):
and you know, mostly you know, being with being with
you Kit Brett. I've kind of felt like, all right,
when when he moved to Florida, it was like there
was still you know, there was still a show still
going on, you know at my end, because there were
still you know, there were still people here. But then
it's like as things went on, it's like you are

(09:28):
at the screening. Moved to Florida, so you were screening there.
So then it was just me and Kit. Then Kit died,
which still you know, still just I still tear up
thinking about. But then so now I'm in the room
all by myself, so you know, and I've made the

(09:49):
illusion before, it's like, um, I feel like Michael Collins,
you know from Apollo eleven. You guys are down there
having fun on the moon and I'm you know, it's like,
all right, I'm major Tom here, you know, a circling here.
So no, I have I have an entire studio full
of people again, and I'm actually having to sell people.

(10:11):
It's like, you know, stop screaming in the phone, because
it's like you don't. You don't have to scream at
the callers, you know, So, I mean, who would do
such a thing? I don't know. It's like you said,
a very bad example for those people, not because they
looked at you and it's like, James, stop screat What
is he screaming at those people for? And that? And

(10:33):
that you got suspended for doing that? Yes, I did.
I got you were not the only ones to spend it.
I got suspended to, yes, But yeah, but they taped
your phone calls. Yeah they did that. We want to
find out what's really going on back you're just letting
out all the secrets. Yes, they did. They wanted to

(10:54):
find out exactly what was happening on the other end
of those phone calls. And you know what, they taped
them when they came back and listened to them and said,
my god, I'd scream at them too, exactly, And after
they heard what I had to deal with every day,
it was kind of like that went away. The The
one regret that I have is that, you know, there
was never really anything of us doing anything in there.

(11:17):
So yeah, but it's probably just as well because there
was a lot of cursing. Yeah that was. Yes, Yeah,
we were a little naughty with the language. Well, Mike,
this has just been a real pleasure, real treat to
have you here. Um, I'm glad you did this interview. Michael. Yeah,
I was, you know, I wasn't. I wasn't going to
but after listening to the listening to the Lunar Crew

(11:40):
do their show, it's like, all right, that changed my mind?
What about that changed your mind? I really can't can't
put my finger on it, you know, because well, first
of all, it's like, having been around all this time,
I thought I knew all the stories, but some of
the things that you know that Brian and Dawn were
and it's like I really didn't know that. I remember

(12:02):
that when he moved down to that when he moved
down and he was in a room all by himself
with the you know, with the box that was things
just like I want to do this from Florida. How
would do this? I said, We'll build you a box, So,
you know, I came up with the you know, with
the you know basically with the box, and there was

(12:24):
a signaling device that we used which nobody else used.
And I was telling somebody about it. It's like, my god,
that's brilliant. It's like, but nobody, as far as I know,
did stuff like that. So I didn't know that Brian
was sitting out in the parking lot for half of
that and I thought, okay, you know, so I was like,
all right, well, let's give this a go. Did it

(12:46):
seem did it seem that it all went Yes, it
went went by incredibly fast, and it was like the
I mean, even you know, judging by all right, like
doing the Christmas shows when I said, it's like, you
know what, nobody's gonna listen to our show on Christmas?
Why don't we just play Christmas music? So and then
it's like I'm listening back then I said, my god,
I've done like twenty five of these and it was like, wow, Mike,

(13:10):
what a treat I'm glad you decided to do the
interview with us, me too. I guess the best illustration
that I can give of this is Snapple. I'd never
heard of Snapple until I got to New York, and
I last thing I thought it was was a nice
tea when I heard the brand name. The broadcast engineer
one day, who was the same broadcast engineer than his today,

(13:32):
was in his studio and his broadcast engineer studio complex
and he was pouring a bottle of this stuff over
a cup with cracked ice in it. It was the
hottest heck day in New York. And so what is that?
Is it? Snapple? It was like raspberry flavor. And I
tasted it and they said, whoa that was? It was delicious.
Mine now is better, by the way, but it was
the time. It was the best I've ever tasted. Over

(13:54):
the course of this series, we've taken you on the
biographical journey of Russia's life, narrated by his friends and colleagues.
As this is our final episode, we could think of
none better to narrate this final piece than the two
men who now occupy the sacred noon to three pm
Eastern time slot across America for Premier Networks Clay Travis

(14:15):
and Buck Sexton. The Life of Russia Limbaugh, Chapter twelve,
narrated by Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. I have to
tell you something today that I wish I didn't have
to tell you. That's how Rush began to break the
news to you, to us on February that he had

(14:36):
been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer, and for the first
time in more than thirty years, we had to confront
the reality that he wouldn't be there in the middle
of our day forever. Most people might have walked away
from their professional life for good at that point, especially
somewhat of his means, but not Rush Limbaugh determined as ever,
he dug in for the long haul, no matter how

(14:58):
painful or difficult it would get. I thought about trying
to do this without anybody knowing, because I don't like
making things about me. But there are going to be
days that I'm not going to be able to be here.
And you know me, I'm the mayor of real film.
This has happened, and my intention is to come here
every day I can. But what else would you expect.

(15:19):
This is a man whose passion for his craft was unparalleled,
a man who taught us that no matter how many
times you get knocked down or in his case, even
fired seven times, you keep getting up and pushing forward
until you reach greatness. Be humble, grateful, and share your
success with others, helping others, even if you don't expect
or want credit publicly for it. The legacy of Russian Limbaugh,

(15:42):
and its surface, might be that he was a groundbreaking
broadcaster who saved a m radio, or a savvy intellectual
who knew politics had sided out, both things true he
surely was, but his bigger legacy will live on even
brighter behind the scenes with the people who knew him
best and loved him most. Checking with a mother on
his staff before asking her to travel to make sure

(16:03):
her daughter didn't have any events at school she wouldn't
want to miss. Quietly helping an employee pay off some
debt or replace a broken down vehicle, sending ten, twenty
or fifty thousand dollars to someone he'd never met whose
story he found and touched his heart. You know, I
have a philosophy there's good that happens and everything that
may not reveal itself immediately, and even in the most

(16:27):
dire circumstances. If you had just wait, you just remain
open to things, the good in it, we'll reveal itself.
And that has happened to me as well. These are
the lesser known measures of the man behind the golden
E I B microphone. On the air, it was talent
on loan from God. But off the air, his character,

(16:51):
resolve and warm, loving heart. That was all Rush Hudson Limbaugh,
the third with integrity on loan from nobody, born from
the tragedy of nine eleven. The Tunnel to Towers Foundation

(17:12):
supports our nation's fallen and catastrophically injured service members, first responders,
and their families. Thanks to your generosity the stand Up
for Betsy Rose campaign, a five million dollar donation was
made to the foundation to honor dozens of heroes killed
or injured in the line of duty protecting our communities

(17:36):
and our freedom. That's shocking, that's disorienting, that's life changing enough,
But the prospect of losing a home and losing everything
else and not knowing where to go next. Helping to
maintain the nest, to maintain the home is one of
the great offers of security that people in these circumstances need,

(17:59):
and you've made it. Your help changed lives forever for
the better. Now, I'm asking you to join Tonne to
Towers on their mission to do good for America's heroes
and their families. Donate eleven dollars a month at T
two t dot org. That's t the number two T

(18:22):
dot org. Throughout this episode, you're gonna hear from a
lot of different people. Some of them you probably know,
some of them you may not. All of these people
have some kind of connection to Russ with personal stories
of times they spent with him, or even better, some

(18:43):
of the things they've learned from him. Among those, you
will hear from of some of Russia's former co workers
and friends, plus the many guest host of the Russiland
Ball Show over the years, like this guy, one of
our favorite guest host of all time from K T
T H N. C Ittle. You have often struggled with

(19:03):
how to explain to people sufficiently the honor it was
to fill in for Rush for all those years and
to be a guide host um after Rush died. And
the best he can come up with this is this,
if if you were a if you're an animator and
You've got to fill in for Walt Disney or your
favorite animator. What what would that be like? Are the

(19:25):
people who invented your medium, not even your favorite, but
who invented your medium. That's that's what this is like. Uh.
If you are a software designer and you got called
in to fill in on a day at work for
Steve Jobs, what's that like? I mean, that's the level
we're talking about here. And in terms of Russia's legacy,

(19:45):
any time you turn on a radio station and you
hear an opinion based show, you will be hearing the
legacy of Rush Limbaugh. Opinion radio wouldn't have survived without Rush.
It simply wouldn't have. So anytime you hear opinion on radio,
you're listening to the legacy. America had an extra thirty
years to try to save itself. That's Russia's legacy, and

(20:11):
that continues. There are people who understand their country now,
children who will read Russia's books. That's his legacy. And
in the last few months of his life he shared
with us his faith, his status as a Christ follower,
and of course that's his enduring legacy. Hey, everybody, this

(20:34):
is Mark Davis. Currently The Morning host at six sixty
Am The Answer in Dallas Fort Worth, but for almost
twenty years from the mid nineties until I hosted a
morning show on w b a P, the proud Rush
Limbaugh affiliate for North Texas. Now, that alone was an honor.
But when the opportunity arose in two thousand eight to

(20:55):
begin to fill in for Rush, well that's an easy yes.
So I slid into my version of the substitute host chair,
which in my case was right in my own studio
in Texas, except for the times when I flew up
to New York to see the first E I B microphone.
To sit in the actual genuine chair, it was like
visiting the Radio Smithsonian. Wherever I did it, the joy

(21:19):
of filling in for Rush was amplified by the pure
pleasure of spending time in person with James Golden, a
k A. Bo Snordly, Mike Mamone, the late Kit Carson.
He was the guy who would always call and and
then make the ask whenever there was a Rush absence
that needed filling and I filled that role so gladly
and so gratefully from two thousand eight to two thousand twelve.

(21:41):
When I changed radio stations here in Texas, but the
memories and the friendships live on. His absence is a
void in my life and an empty space in American
radio that cannot be filled. But those of us who listened,
those of us who love him, can continue to be
in inspired by him. I know I will, So as

(22:03):
a page turns in radio history, I want all of
you to know that Rush was the kind of man
you would want him to be. Kind, devoted to his family,
devoted to the radio family of people around him, and
devoted to this great nation which he served so well
in this chosen calling of talk radio. God bless you Rush,
and blessings to all of you who listened to him.

(22:26):
His love for you was obvious every day, and our
love for him will last forever. It's Kitty O'Neil here
and back in the eighties at kf b K, my
job was to screen calls for one of the talk shows,
and Rush Limbaugh moved into that slot, so I screened
calls for him. He did a show that was comedic

(22:52):
in nature, although he expressed a lot of political views
and different views on society and things that were happening,
but he did it in a way that was more
like a an f M radio jock. I think that's
what set him apart, is that he was conservative in view,
but very shall we say, irreverent in the way that

(23:17):
he executed his show. It was full of humorous bits
and jokes and certainly had a conservative bent, but was
highly entertaining, so people from both sides of the aisle
would listen. I remember him as being extremely confident, but

(23:39):
also very insecure at the same time. Rush was very
complex and often an enigma to me. He was extremely generous, though,
and as he became more wealthy and famous, his generosity
only increased. People often asked me what he was like
off the air, and he was not one to monopolize

(24:02):
a conversation or be overbearing with his views. He was
a very balanced conversationalist and would would listen to all
sides of an argument. I don't think he ever set
out to be the voice of the Republican Party, but
he really became elevated to that position, and I suppose
felt an obligation to fulfill that. But as famous as

(24:25):
he became, he never did forget his friends or where
he started. As we've been recording this series and we've
talked to so many people in Russia's life, professionally and personally.
We've had a chance to hear stories that even I
hadn't heard before. I had the chance to sit down
and talk with some of Russia's closest personal friends. People

(24:48):
he spent a lot of time with on the golf
course and out and about a normal everyday life. And
they couldn't have been nicer, more generous with their time.
David and Jennie Rassau. Now Rush came for the middle
class family in Cape Gerardo, Missouri. You guys came from
a middle class background as well, But here you are
friends with russilan Ball, living in one of the most

(25:10):
exclusive communities in the United States. You played golf together,
you dined together. How did you become friends with Rush?
Rush had a great curiosity about everybody he met. He
he would give dinner parties and we were fortunate enough
to be invited, and he would go around the table.
It maybe fifteen sixteen people around the table, to go

(25:32):
around and have everybody tell their story how they got
to Palm Beach, and if he knew their story, he
would then tell the story of the people. So he
was curious about everyone and how they how they got
to Palm Beach, how they made their money, what they
did that was successful, what they did that they were

(25:54):
most proud of. He loved those stories. He really loved
American stories, success to American success story. What do you
think the biggest misunderstanding is about Rush, particularly among people
on the left. What do people not understand about Rush Limbaugh?
They think he's an evil person. They think he is

(26:14):
so right wing and so unwilling to bend his train
of thought, that he's the enemy. And we saw that firsthand,
especially in Connecticut, which is not necessarily a bastion of
of right wing Republican views. And he would come up

(26:35):
to this golf tournament with they did it for like
twelve years. It was a three day tournament, and he
would meet a lot of people who were Democrats, and
they all approached him with a little wariness. But once
the ice was broken, whether it was the first t
shot or the first joke, or he'd hand them a
cigar or anything like that, all of a sudden they

(26:57):
opened up and they found out he was jed New
only a nice man. He was a teddy bearer. He
loved everyone. He didn't have a hurtful thing to say
about anyone, and I think that's the most misunderstood thing
about him. We were proud to introduce him to my brother,
for example, who is very left wing, and his wife.

(27:19):
We had a dinner party and they were both very,
very nervous about having dinner with Russia Limball because they'd
heard all these stories, and he just wiled them over.
They ended up exchanging gifts. They just could not believe
how nice a man he was. So that that was

(27:40):
the mystery. The man and the myth. Rush could walk
into a room and people would that's Rush Limball, and
they were. They gravitated to him. I mean, it's just
it's bigger than life. Now you also got both of you.
Of course, been a lot of time with the miss

(28:00):
As you said today, what do you think is the
thing that you most want people to know about him
that maybe they don't know, including those of us who
love him. His heart said it all. He looked at
you with sincerity, with understanding. He wanted to talk to you.

(28:23):
He wanted to find out all about you. And it
wasn't just at a at a dinner party. He didn't
talk much. He asked the questions and wanted to hear
other people talk about themselves Russian speak about himself. Yeah,

(28:45):
I think that's fair. I think you know there, we
have a lot of Democrat friends, were not solely Republican,
and we have Democrat friends here in Palm Beach. A
couple of them come to mind who we played golf with,
and he knew that they were Democrats, and they knew
he was Russia. Limbaugh the lead Republican, the leader of

(29:05):
the Republican Party and all that sort of stuff. But
they loved playing golf with him. They loved having lunch
with him. We'd have breakfast together on Saturday mornings. They
loved having breakfast with him because he wouldn't talk politics
all the time. You talk about life, you talk about
football games. He talked about golf, he talked about golfers,
He talked about all sorts of things other than politics.

(29:28):
If somebody brought up politics, he would be grudgingly asked
answer the question. But you knew he didn't want to
be involved in politics. In some of his free time
that he did that fifteen hours a week on the
air and another fifty hours a week in preparation. So
this was downtime for him. He appreciated it, and everyone

(29:50):
who met him really loved and respected him. Another great
story of Russian. He gave the best super Bowl parties
and Masters parties you could ever imagine. Everybody wanted an
invitation because he served great wine, and he served it.
You didn't go, and he went around, poured the wine.
He went around and gave everybody that something to eat.

(30:13):
He went on this one woman who was ninety years old,
the mother of somebody, was there. He doated on her
to make certain she was comfortable, she had a good seat,
she could see the tournament, whatever, and he would just
do it. So this one Super Bowl weekend, it's a
Saturday morning and I was arranging some of the golf games.

(30:33):
And he gets to the club and he sees that
I don't have my golf shoes on. He said, when
are you gonna put on your shoes. I said, I'm
not playing. He said, what do you mean you're not playing?
But this I said, I'm going back to Connecticut today.
I gotta call at two o'clock this morning our grand
We had a granddaughter born this morning at too. So
we're flying up there. And he said, you can't fly

(30:54):
up there I said why. He said, because I've got
the Super Bowl party. And I said, I'm sorry, going
up to see my new granddaughter. And he said so.
He walks out of the locker room. He comes back
about two minutes later. He said, at the time, we
had our own plane. He said, wait a minute, your
plane is in for maintenance. How are you going? I
said commercial, No, you're not. He went to the phone booth,

(31:17):
called up Mike, and he said, can you be at
the airport at ten o'clock. He's going to take you up.
So Brush flew Jeanie and I up to Bridgeport, Connecticut.
We've rented a car. We went from there to the hospital.
We saw our granddaughter before she was twenty four hours old.
And that's the way he was. He just his generosity,

(31:38):
knew no bounds. Well, let me close by saying this
and thank you for spending so much time with me
and with us. We're glad. I'm glad that Rush had
friends like you, David and Eugenie in his life and
his other close friends. Because he had to endorse so
much bullshit from people that didn't know him, from people

(32:04):
that lied about him, from a media that was filled
with people that were jealous of his success and knew
that some of the things that were reporting about him
we're not true, and so I am glad that he
You guys were able to help Rush have a normal

(32:30):
life as he could, especially on the weekends and with
family and with friends, and to take away from some
of that madness that he had to put up with. Well,
thank you. It was our You know, I feel more
rewarded than anyone Jeanie and I do. We just getting
to know him and be with him and enjoy his company.

(32:51):
It was a blessing. It was nice to be able
to say to our friends, he's just as normal as you,
as you with you. You know, he gets up in
the morning, he does what he does, does what you do.
You know, he's a human being, but he's a human
being with a huge heart. Yeah, I know you miss him. Well,

(33:15):
I will say this, the last year and a half
Rush was playing the best golf I've ever seen him play.
He was amazing. I used, I'll drive him. All of
a sudden, he's twenty to fifty yards ahead of me. Um.
He had an albatross on a par five, which means

(33:35):
he sank his second shot on a par five Yeah,
he was just beside himself. He was so excited. He
just loved the competition. He was If he hit a
bad shot, he didn't care about the score, he dropped
another ball and hit it again. He just he was

(33:56):
fun to be with. We just had We had so
much fun to go there and all. Now we have
a lot of great memories. Now, yeah, don't say he
never made his bed anywhere when he came to visit.
But a friend of mine, Lord Rosso of Cross Harbor,

(34:17):
has got this friend is it's a shaft manufacturer. I
don't know a few people who don't play golf. The
shaft is particularly in um long shafted clubs like the Driver,
Fairway medals and so forth, and longer. Well in every
club back the shaft is the engine. Anyway, Lord Rosso
had this new shaft in his driver on Sunday, and

(34:37):
I'm not kidding. He was hitting the ball ten twelve
yards farther than he normally does. And I was kind
of in disbelief because to get that kind of a
differentiation you need more swing speed. But a shaft can
compensate for a slower swing speed if it's good. So

(35:00):
I got this new shaft and I was gonna go
try it yesterday to see if I could get an
inditional tent tralve large yards like Lord Russo of Cross
Harbor was, and I got. I got rained out to
say that if you knew Rush Limbaugh, you were left
with an unforgettable impression of the man. That's an understatement.
Everybody who knew him remembers how when where they met Rush,

(35:24):
and also what they've learned from Rush, how he impacted them,
just like he impacted all the rest of us who
worked at the E I B Network. There's so many stories,
and here's more of them from a couple of the
guests host that sat in and a good friend of
mine and Russia's Congressman Louie gomer but first from w
HP in Harrisburg and w p HT in Philadelphia, Ken Matthews.

(35:49):
So I started guest hoasting for Rush in the summer
of and then I did my final show as a
guide host. It was also the final Rush show. And
the thing that sticks out to me, there's so many
things and we we don't have twenty six hours for

(36:11):
me to explain it. But um I started out as
a listener, like millions of other people that I ended
up as a guest toast, and Rush made me a
better guest toast. But he also made me a smarter
person and a better thinker, and a lot of that
came from being a Rush listener because Rush was an

(36:36):
intellectual giant, but he wasn't a snob about it, and
he had fun and he liked to laugh, and he
was a smart alec and I think a lot of
those characteristics appeal to the American people. So we always
have to bring our a game when we're guest toasting
for him. But the nice thing about it is the

(36:57):
entire team is at the level. Everybody brings their a
game because their patriots, they love America, and they love Rush.
So it was a wonderful environment to work in. And
the listeners are outstanding, and why wouldn't they be. Rush

(37:18):
loved the listeners, So it was a blessing and a
wonderful opportunity. My name is Brett winter Ball. I was
a member of the E. I. B Family from until
two thousand six and then brought back again in the
year that fateful year. I had such great, amazing memories

(37:41):
of my time with the folks here at the IB Network,
But most importantly of Rush Limbaugh. I came into the
IB network as a as a kid, really five years old,
kind of a wise guy. I thought I knew it
all until I ran at a kid Carson and James Golden,
Mike Maimon, and of course the Boss Rush Limbaugh. Then
I realized I didn't know anything. But over the course

(38:03):
of my years on the program, I learned so much.
I learned about generosity, I learned about humor. I learned
about the brilliance of a broadcaster performing day after day
against all sorts of adversaries, both professional and sometimes even
on a personal level. You know, Rush Limbaugh is a

(38:24):
once in a millennium talent, really is. When you consider
the amazing work he did in the different parts of
his life and over the course of thirty three years,
you have to be struck by the genius. But it
was also due in large part to the amazing team
behind the scenes. My friend James, Kid, Carson, Cookie Coco, Joe,

(38:47):
Ali Mayman, you go down the list, it goes on
and on, including the people who helped run the Limbaugh
Letter as well. This was truly a family, and a
family it remains to this day. I'm still in touch
with everybody on the program, and everybody's still in touch
with me. It's a profound mark that was left in
my life. You can't ever forget where you were when

(39:10):
you heard your wedding, your birth of your first or
second child announced on a radio program by a guy
who genuinely cared about you as a person. And to
this day, I remain indebted to the experiences I had
for the better part of a decade. Those memories will
live on forever in my heart, and I look forward

(39:31):
to sitting with Rush one day show prepping together up
there in the big, beautiful broadcast studio in the sky.
Thank you, Rush Limbaugh for all you did, and thank
you to the listeners who made this all possible. May
God bless and keep all of us that will one

(39:52):
day be reunited. This is Louis Gobert, a dear friend,
and each Texas asked have you heard Rush Limbaugh? And
I said, I've heard off him, but I had not
heard him. He said, his sense of humor is a
bit like yours, and I think you'd really like him. Well,

(40:12):
I didn't just like him. I loved him. During the
rest of nineteen ninety one, and from then on. I
was listening to Rush all I could. After being elected
to be a judge in one of our highest trial
courts in Texas, I had to allow the jury to
take a lunch break so I would go to my
office and work while I was listening to Rush. By

(40:32):
nineteen ninety four, he had so many Americans listening to
him it was no wonder that the freshman Republicans in
Congress named Rush as an honorary member of their class.
He really did make that much difference. Then, over the years,
his amazing dissection and explanation of our country's problems had

(40:55):
many of us saying, yeah, he's right. But as Rush said,
it wasn't he was brainwashing anyone. He was just expressing
so well what we all were feeling. So after I
got elected to Congress, I met became dear friends with
James Golden a ka bo Snerdley, who became a virtual

(41:15):
brother from another mother. Also getting to know David Limbaugh
because of Rush was another huge benefit. Yet, getting to
watch Rush and James and their other two staff in
the studio Palm Beach was like seeing a finely honed
machine that was poetry, emotion, looking back, just being able

(41:37):
to email and hear back from Rush, usually during the
show while he was talking. Was such an honor. He
was an anomaly among men who took what God loaned
him and made the most of it for the benefit
of all the people of this country. That's why my
last time to see him was an emotional moment. The

(41:58):
night he had President Trump announced the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in the House Chamber, we knew Russia was dying
of cancer, might not have too much longer to live.
Outside the gallery of the House Chamber upstairs, I rushed
up there to see him, and I saw others come

(42:18):
by and shake his hand while I was walking toward him.
But it was too emotional moment. A handshake would not
do for the person who had been in my car,
but in my home, been in my heart. I opened
my arms and said Rush, and he smiled, and he

(42:39):
opened his arms and said Louis. Then we hugged. As
I said in the last email, sitting before he left
the air for the last time, Russia, Beetles were wrong.
You've multiplied exponentially the love you make Rush, my friend,

(43:01):
You're missed. A few episodes ago, we played a vignette
that was voiced by Scott Bayo. You might have thought
when you heard it, wait a minute, Scott Bale. Well,
after the episode was released, we got a note from
one of our executive producers, Craig Kitchen. He reminded us
of how Scott Bayo actually came to know Rush, and

(43:25):
we thought it might be nice to put it in
context for you. Back in two thousand seventeen, I got
a call. It was Scott. He was calling in from California.
Put up the call and Scott, just like everybody else,
called into our number one eight to two. I screened
him the way I would screen any other caller. What

(43:47):
he was saying made sense. Well, he got on the
air with Rush and lo and behold it was revealed.
It wasn't a Scott from California. He was a Scott
that most Americans. Here's a portion of that telephone. Okay,
here we go to the phones. We're starting in Los Angeles, Hig, Scott.
Great to have you with us in the EIB network.
IM out, Thanks, Rush. You know I'm a hardcore conservative.

(44:10):
Tomp gave them power by winning and by and by
implementing his agenda. Or you think they should be grateful, Absolutely,
they'll win more. Isn't Washington, d C? Great? Alright, Sorry,
I'm in Hollywood, so it's the same thing. Sorry, Benda,
you're in Hollywood. Okay, let me see the Scots that

(44:31):
I know in Hollywood. It's not tom My Hand Scott,
Scott Scots. No, I don't. I don't know you. I
know people you know I know, but I'm trying to
do names. You are, Scott Bayo. I am Well, it's
an honor to meet you. I'm happy that you're in
the audience. It's great that you've been the audience every day.
I'm a huge fan and I'm dying to play golf
with your Rush. Well, look, when we finish here, if

(44:52):
you'll stay online, if you can give an email address
to Mr Snirtley the next time I'm out there, will play. Absolutely.
I absolutely love the So there you go. That's how
Scott Bayo and Rush Limbaugh are connected. And we thank
Scott and the many others we've had over the course
of this series that narrated the life of Rush Limbobb
and yets that you've heard in each episode. So in

(45:14):
addition to Scott, our thanks also to Rudy Giuliani, Mark Stein,
Sean Hannity, Mark Levine, Megan Kelly, Glenn Beck, Neil Boortz,
Mary Madlin, George Nori, Nick Sercy, who you will hear
from again in his own words in a few minutes,
and of course Clay Travis and Buck Sexton. Now the

(45:38):
thoughts of a couple of more guests, host and longtime
friends of Russia's first from w i s N in Milwaukee,
guest host Mark Belling. Rush didn't invent talk radio. I
mean it was there and a lot of people were
doing doing it. What he did was he was the
first to really tap it's potential, and all of us

(46:00):
who do talk radio will be forever grateful for the
fact that he was able to tap it to the
extent that he did, because it put all of these
stations all over America on the map. And here they
had this show or the Rush Show, that was getting
great ratings, but it's on for three hours a day
and they had to program the rest of the day.
And it gave opportunity for all sorts of other people

(46:21):
to not only get jobs, but beyond stations that had
huge listenerships, so we could all be exposed to the
same audiences in our local communities that you know Rush
was being exposed to the greatest talk show host of
all time. It's obviously Rush Limbaugh. But here's the thing.
He will always be the greatest talk show host of
all time. It's impossible for anybody to be greater than

(46:44):
him because he invented the art form and he'll always
be the standard by which everybody has measured, kind of
like Babe Ruth and baseball. He will always be the
greatest baseball player who ever played the game, and Rush
will always be the greatest talk show host ever. I
get hosted the program for I don't even know. It's
over twenty years, a long time. I still remember the

(47:06):
first time. It's late nineties, I think that I did
the program. And the day before I was to go
to New York in Milwaukee, I was unbelievably sick. I
was deathly ill. In fact, I was so sick I
couldn't even drive myself to the airport. I had to
have a friend drive me there. But I had to go.
This was the first time I was going to do
the program. And if you if I would have said

(47:28):
I'm sick, I can't do the show, everybody would have
assumed that I chickened out, I would have been the
biggest laughing stock on radio. So I dragged myself in
to do the program, filled myself with as many your
preference as I possibly could, and survived the whole thing.
People thought it was really good. In retrospect, it was terrible,
probably the worst one that I did, but I survived it.

(47:48):
I had to do it. The opportunity to do the
Rush program, your first chance to do it. To turn
it down would have been suicidal. Such a platform. Over
the years that I did the show, I'd hear from
people that I hadn't heard him in decade, somebody living
in New Mexico, somebody living in Nebraska, people even in
my own state of Wisconsin who weren't familiar with me
from Milwaukee. The reach of the show was incredible. One

(48:10):
other thing I want to talk about is the staff.
When I come in to do the program. Of course
I wouldn't see Rush. I'm doing the program on days
that he's off. I dealt with the staff, and the
thing that I noticed over the years was the incredible
loyalty that the staff had to Rush. I mean, many
people were with him for decades. I think of people
like James Golden Bulls post nearly, Mike Mamona's broadcast engineer,

(48:34):
The Lake Kick Carson, who like me, is from Milwaukee.
These people were there forever and they always had Rushes back. Now,
part of it is who wants to leave a winner?
Nobody wants to leave a program that's it's phenomenally successful.
Is this? But it was beyond this. There was clearly
a deep pride that the people who worked on the

(48:54):
Rushes Brush program had in the show. They knew that
what they were doing was changing communication forever. From WSB
in Atlanta, guest host Eric Ericsson the very first time
I ever filled in for Rush Limball, they flew me
up to New York City. I'm in there and I mean,
it is it's maman, it is Carson, it is both

(49:14):
Snrdly himself. I'm looking at all that. The light goes
on and I'm like, what on earth have I just done?
And I freak out, uh And there's silence there for
just a second, and then I start and it gets
a little natural until halfway through the show and I
look and they're Snurdly flailing his arms pointing towards me,
pounding his fist on the desk. I'm like, I've just

(49:37):
lost the opportunity to ever do this year. I had
no idea what I had done, and I run in
very apologetically during breaking I'm very sorry what did I do?
And kick Carson looks at me and says, what do
you mean? I said, well, I mean Snurdley. He's in there.
And this is before I even really connected both Sturdy
James Golden, same person, and he's how that's just James
talking to a caller. I was fine. I learned more

(50:02):
from Rush though, by not being able to fill in
for him when I didn't support Trump in twenty sixteen,
very deviated from where the audience was, and Rush reached
out regularly to see how I was doing. He called me,
it's like, look, you got to build a relationship with
your audience. And I started very mindfully, deliberately, maybe over
sharing my life with him, connecting to them on on

(50:24):
faith and culture and not just the raw politics of
the day, finding areas of conversation we could agree on
and talk about and laugh at. In particular, that was
one thing Russia always told me, is find stuff you
can laugh at with your audience. And it worked, and
my audience is now bigger than it ever was. Even
before jumping into syndication, it was one of the largest
local talk shows in the country, in large part because

(50:46):
Rush was a great mentor and gave great advice. And
I listened around October of last year before Rush passed away.
He reached out to me, and usually it was me
reaching out to him, and if it was him reaching
out to me first, I always paid attention and just
want to know how radio was going. I was doing
two shows at the time, and he knows he knew

(51:09):
I was not good at with business and wanted to
give me some advice on the radio business and how
it works. And then he just told me, I said,
you need to get up every day and make sure
that behind the microphone is where you want to be,
and if it is, you need to keep doing it.
Don't ever not do it. And I would never have

(51:31):
gotten behind the microphone had he not told me that
I needed to do it. I genuinely, truly. I mean,
everybody in radio talk radio is their career to Rush,
but I really do owe my career to Rush. I
would have said no to a job he told me
I needed to say yes to. And a decade later.
Now I'm suddenly finding myself in syndication and continuing to
grow my show. Thanks Rush. My name is Larry Iron.

(51:54):
I'm the president of Hillsdale College. I met Russland eighty eight,
I think was the year in which he became a
sort of national figure and moved from Sacramento, California, to
New York and launched this mighty radio show that then
went on from nine until his death this year. He's
a galvanizing man. He came to my notice because I'd

(52:15):
be in taxi cabs in Sacramento, California, and if it
was in the morning, Russia Lim Boss show was always on,
and every time there was a break, the cab driver
turned around and say to me, this guy is great.
And I listened to him, and I thought, boy, this
guy's something, you know, because that mixture of an analyst
and an entertainer was deliberate in him, and he took

(52:38):
it to the highest state. I met him in a
hotel somebody pointing about to me, and I went and
I said, love your show, which you know, everybody ever
made him and probably said that time. Then later he
became a big national figure and I would have contact
with him from time to time he got the idea
that we should advertise on his show, and he had
a backlog people wanted to advertise, so I I, yeah,

(53:00):
we'll give it a whirl. And then the point about
the world is he was great. He uh understood what
our college was about. He wanted me to explain it
to him, and I did many times, and uh, he
just turned it into gold. So I admired him. I
liked him a lot. You know, he was on the
radio three hours a day, five days a week for

(53:22):
thirty some years. It was essential to the success of
Russia Limbaugh that he was an entertainer. He was funny,
he would just make you laugh. But more essential than
that is that he represented some big things that are
rooted deeply in America, and he defended those things consistently
for his whole career. And of course those things cannot die.
They are eternal, and he has helped to sustain them

(53:44):
so far, and we should carry on. Trump doesn't care. Uh,
he's not politically corrective. He's fearless. He's not afraid to
tell people what he actually thinks about other people or things,
and he's not worried about the reaction that people have
to it. He's just gonna go ahead and be who

(54:05):
he is. He's one of these people that really he
embodies the idea that you attract the kind of people
you are, and that you should not be a phony
to try to attract certain people, trying to be like
the people you want to attract. It never works. He
just is who he is, and whoever doesn't like him
their problem. Whoever does find there in the inner circle,

(54:28):
We're so glad to have with us, if only for
a few moments, one of the busiest men in America
to share his thoughts about Russia. Lim Law President Donald J. Trump, Mr? President,
What do you think Russia? Limbaugh's legacy will be across
America and the world more than anything else. Freedom encourage.
You know, he had guts. Rush would talk about anything

(54:48):
that was appropriate to talk about. These other people, even
the good ones. They're good people, but they want to
be politically correct. They don't want to say anything that's
too controversial. And that's what made him successful. Bow. You
know that you don't other than anybody. You may be
one guy that does it better than I do. Rush

(55:10):
was a He was a man who had tremendous courage,
and he had tremendous principle and if he believed in something,
he talked about it. And who had an audience like him?
You know, Sean Hannity is great and he's a great
guy and a great person in every way. And Sean said,
it's a voice that can never ever be replaced. And

(55:31):
you know, for Sean to say that, who's so big
in his own right and he's a massive audience. But
and Sean openly says, Nope, Rush was the voice. It
can never be replaced. You cannot because I used to say, well,
who can replace Rush? And the fact is nobody will
ever replace him. He was a courageous person and he

(55:51):
loved our country. Well, Mr President, on behalf of all
of us who worked with Rush and his millions of fans,
we want to thank you will bestowing the Medal of
Freedom upon him at that time, only you could do
that and make all of the elected Democrats in Washington
show up for the ceremony. Thank you for that. It
was such a beautiful night. One will never forget. Thank

(56:13):
you for doing that, Mr President. That was a great
evening and I've never seen anything like it. One side
was going crazy in a positive way, and the other
side was dead and silent. But you know what, you
looked at the eyes of the other side. They knew
he deserved it. They knew it, they respected They respected
him as much as they may be disliked him. And

(56:35):
I don't know disagreed with him for whatever reason. I
don't know why you would. He wants a strong military
once slow texts, you know, all of the common sense things.
But but they got it and giving it to him
was his greatest honor. And giving it there and I
was just an idea that I had and I said,
let's go for it. And uh, that was quite a night.

(56:55):
That was quite a night. Thank you for your time,
Mr President. We so love you. Thank you for joining
Thanks keep up the work very much. He is the
greatest fighter and winner that you will ever meet. Rush Limball,
thank you for your decades tireless devotion to our us.

(57:28):
In recognition of all that you have done for our nation,
the millions of people a day that you speak to
and that you inspire, and all of the incredible work
that you have done for charity, I am proud to
announce tonight that you will be receiving our country's highest

(57:49):
civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. So this is
our last episode of Russilan by the man behind the
Golden the IB microphone. We've heard from a lot of people,

(58:10):
but I wanted you, ladies and gentlemen to hear from
the two men that helped me produce this podcast series.
Phil Tower Chris Kelly. Welcome to your podcast of Whom
with Me? Hello James, Well, Chris, let's start with you.
What have you learned? You came into this, as I
understand that, correct me if I'm wrong. You came into

(58:31):
this not so much a political guy. Tell me what
you've learned from this series. You know, listen, I'm I am.
I'm a radio guy, right, so having been around radio
for a long time and having worked for radio stations
that were rush lingall affiliates for a long time. Um,
obviously you know you you revere somebody of his stature,

(58:53):
uh and his success level politically speaking. No, I'm not
overly interested in a lot of politics in general, right,
but I am interested in somebody that knows how to
communicate and somebody who does it at the level that
he did it for so long. And I gotta tell
you Honestly, the stories that I've been privy to behind

(59:15):
the scenes, is we've recorded this thing, it's kind of
blown me away. He reminds me a lot of a
guy that I used to work for for a long time. Uh.
And hearing hearing people like Brian say he was like
another father to me, or hearing just your emotion in
talking about him, and getting the chance to know some
of these other people that have interacted with and and

(59:36):
been part of Russia's life for so long has been really,
really special, and I'm really really proud to have been
part of this project. This podcast has been about, you know,
at the end of the day, no matter what you
watch on TV, no matter what you listen to on
the radio, no matter what you read online, there's another
human being on the other end of that content. And

(59:58):
what I have been really sted in over the course
of this series, and I hope others have paid attention to,
is laying down all political ideology and laying down all
what you read in the newspaper, online or whatever, is
that there's this guy and there was so many more
layers to him than you ever really got to hear

(01:00:20):
on the radio, or that anybody ever really knew that
to me is the whole purpose of why we've been
doing this podcast. It's been an absolute pleasure to produce
this and and especially I have to say James, to
get to know you and work with you. You are
a prose pro and I know just in reading some
of the comments from um people that have left reviews

(01:00:44):
on the podcast, and uh, just getting feedback from people
in my own orbit, the level at which people speak
of you, Uh, they couldn't be couldn't be more right.
You are truly a gentleman and a professional, and it's
been an absolute pleasure to work with you. I'm blushing
and that's hard to see, by the way. Thank you,

(01:01:08):
Thank you so much. Chris Kelly our other producer, Phil Tower. Phil,
I'm gonna ask you the same question, well in a
different kind of way, what have you learned from from
from producing this podcast series about the life of Russian Lumball,
the guy behind the Golden IBY microphone. Well, I'm going
to give you a quick, simple answer, and that is
have a dream, never give up on it. Rush decided

(01:01:33):
that radio was his calling. We knew that as a
young kid he hated going to school and that was
his vision. He was fired from his first seven jobs,
and in the end he was successful because he had
a dream. He had a vision, and he kept to it.
And along the way he met some great people and
he stayed humble and grateful until the end. And what

(01:01:55):
in a great American success story that is James and
you were You had an inside seat to the whole thing,
So I mean, what an incredible honor um. In the end,
he was just a guy who loved what he did.
And we've heard that from our parents and mentors along
the way. You gotta love what you do in life.
And Rush loved radio and he loved his show. He

(01:02:18):
loved being with his audience. He was there until the end.
And I need to make Chris and you blush because Chris,
when I received a call from Craig Kitchen, the godfather
of this whole project, if you will, I told him,
I said, we need a masterful audio guy, and introduced

(01:02:38):
Chris Kelly, my co producer who makes these podcasts. Sing
James and you know that the way the music has mixed,
everything's together. And you, James, a storyteller who gave each
of us chills as we heard some of these stories.
Oh my gosh, Well, I'm gonna say this. You know,
I've been in radio all my life, almost as I
look back on it now, almost all of my life,

(01:02:59):
I've been in this radio business, and of course we're work.
Working with Rush Limbaugh was an amazing blessing. It was
a chance of a lifetime that has made my life.
And working with both you Phil and you Chris has
been such a delight. You Rush used to say, you know,

(01:03:22):
the job of Colors was to make make the host
look good, not to suck up or anything, but but
to bring out the best. And working with two people
who are the very best at what they do makes
you up your game. And that's what both of you
have done for me. You've made this a pleasure. You've
made this a remarkable experience that I'll never forget. And

(01:03:44):
I cannot thank you enough for the hard work and
energy you put in. People that are not in this
business don't understand the time that it takes just to
produce one episode, and you guys have now both of
you have spent so many hours going through this podcast
with me and going through Russia Llanbaw's life with me,

(01:04:06):
and the way that you produced this we hope brings
all of us hope. Those that listen to Rush, those
that knew Rush, and those that didn't know Rush will
find appreciation for what an incredible man he was based
on the production skills that you guys brought to the table,

(01:04:27):
and I just can't thank you enough. So just this week,
you know, in one of the previous episodes, I mentioned
the dream that I had of Russia. I was trying
to figure it out. So just this week I had
another dream. Um, as we sit here with the final
episode of RUSSI Lana the Man behind the Golden Knee,
I'd be microphone and in this dream, Dawn, Brian and
I were sitting in the control room and Rush was

(01:04:48):
doing the show. And let me tell you, this was
so vivid. It was such a vivid dream that at
some point I looked at Dawn and said, how is
this possible? Bowl, How are we here listening to Rush
in the studio with us? This has to be a dream.
And then I woke up. Well, my life with Rush

(01:05:11):
was kind of like a dream. It happened all so quickly.
Now when I look back on it, when you look
back over three decades of your life, and and and
you've spent three decades with someone who's had an amazing
impact on your life. What can you say. It's hard
to believe that we're at the stage now where where
we're talking about it in the past tense. But here's

(01:05:33):
the thing. Rush will never be past tense. For three decades,
he connected with millions of people. He didn't just connect
with their brains with ideas, he connected with their hearts.
He connected with people in a way that no other

(01:05:56):
media personality in our history has connected with people. And
that is evidenced by the stories that people tell among themselves,
some of the stories that you'll see in some of
the reviews of this podcast, and and if you're fortunate
enough to read in some of the emails or other
communications that people send with each other. Rush impacted people

(01:06:19):
in a way that most broadcasters could only dream of.
He loved what he did. He loved this country, he
loved his family, He loved what he did. Russell Lambas
said he was born to talk and we were born
to listen. He was so right. He was born to
do what he did, and he did it well. That

(01:06:41):
talent has been returned to God, but thank God we
had that talent. For thirty years. More than thirty years, Rush,
We love you, we miss you, and will never ever
forget you. One final guest host we haven't heard from yet,
or at least not in his own words, He narrated

(01:07:02):
a life of Russi Lymbob and Yet for us in
our last episode, but also sent us a little bit
more of his own story and insight on how Rush
impacted him and inspired his life. In liberal Hollywood, of
all places, actor Nick Sarcy was a fan of Russia Limbaugh,
but what he didn't know was that Rush was also
a fan of his work until one day he mentioned

(01:07:26):
him on the air and the rest was history. So
now here's Nick Sercy, one time guest host of the
Russi lan Bar Program, but more importantly, a long time
listener just like you and me. And this is nick story.
I was living in North Carolina with my wife and

(01:07:47):
newborn daughter and driving long distances for auditions trying to
get my acting career started. Many of my trips were
from western North Carolina to Wilmington, North Carolina, at four
hundred miles six and a half hour drive one way.
There was nothing but the radio to keep you awake
and alive. And then one day, flipping through I came

(01:08:09):
upon this voice, this warm, jocular, joyful, sonorous, pleasant voice,
bragging about his talent on loan from God and tying
half his brain behind his back to make it fair
to the callers, talking about politics, the news of the day,
playing funny song parodies, and he was making fun of Democrats.

(01:08:33):
And at that time this simply was not done, And
I thought, who the hell is this guy? For you
young whipper snappers out there, it is hard to understand
what life was like before Rush. There was no one,
and I mean no one like him. There was no
Fox News, no Sean Hannity, not really even a talk

(01:08:55):
radio format, not on a national level. Rush started it all.
He showed us all that the left did not define
him and by extension us, and he talked to us
like every single one of us was a dear friend,
and in our hearts we made friends with Rush. It

(01:09:20):
is nearly impossible for me to put into words how
much Rush has meant to me over the years working
in Hollywood amongst the leftists in power, Rush was the
thing I organized my day around. I even bought a
short wave radio from Radio Shack Google that kids, so
I could hear Rush from anywhere on earth, even if

(01:09:41):
he was preempted by current events. Because as a small
town kid pursuing the seemingly impossible goal of making a
living as an actor, I saw myself in Rush when
he talked about wanting to be on the radio from
a very young age and knowing that radio was what
he wanted to do with his life. When he talked

(01:10:01):
about the jobs that he had been fired from and
all the setbacks he had encountered along the way, and
how he had still persevered, he gave me hope. He
made me believe, perhaps more than any other single person
in my life besides my mom, that I could do
it if I just kept going. He sustained me through

(01:10:21):
all the disappointments and the triumphs, and most of all,
he let me know that I was not alone in
being a conservative, even while I was in the thick
den of leftist thieves, bullies and vipers that he is
Hollywood in I was cast his art Mullen and the
TV show justified a role that perhaps came the signature

(01:10:43):
role of my career. And Rush said repeatedly on the
air how much he liked to show which thrilled me
to no end. I was so proud that my friend Rush,
who had never met at that time. Like some of
my work, nothing makes me feel like I had made
it more than that fact. And then one day it

(01:11:05):
happened Rush mentioned me by name on the air. My
phone blew up with my friends calling me to tell me.
I couldn't believe it. And by then Twitter had arrived
on the scene, and I was already friends with Russia's
brother David, and I tweeted him and one thing led
to another, and then the next day I got a

(01:11:26):
call from Bo Snerdley himself asking me if I would
like to come on the show and be interviewed by
the Maha Rushi himself. And since then I've had the
privilege of meeting Russian person, of introducing him at a
speech he gave to that top secret Hollywood conservative group
that had no name and in fact never existed. And

(01:11:49):
towards the end of Russia's life, when he talked about
how blessed he was to live the life he had,
I saw myself and him again. There's no question that
I have been a very fortunate I've been able to
forge a living for myself and my beautiful family by acting,
which is a miracle in and of itself, but still
perhaps the most incredible, preposterous thing that has ever happened

(01:12:14):
to me occurred on December when I had the honor
of guest hosting the Rush Limball Program. It was a
gift to me in so many ways. I'm not a
radio guy. I was dragged across the finish line that
day by the great boats Nerdly and the amazing Mike Mammone,

(01:12:34):
and it remains to me the single most surreal event
in my life. It's an honor that I still can't
believe I received when Craig Kitchen passed along a message
to me from Rush the day before I guest hosted.
Rush had said to ask me why I wanted to
get into radio, and I told Craig to tell Rush

(01:12:57):
that I wasn't really sure if I did, but I
knew that I just wanted to know what it felt
like to be Rush for one day, and it gave
me even more of an appreciation of how great Rush
was when I experienced exactly how hard it is to
be on the radio for three hours just once, let

(01:13:20):
alone fifteen hours a week. Fifty weeks a year for
thirty years at the very top of the mountain, with
no one else ever even cloaks. Over those years, I
have so many memories laughing with him at his song parodies,
crying with him when he had his pain killer issues,

(01:13:40):
praying for him when his hearing went, and of course
sobbing when he announced that he had the cancer that
would ultimately end his life. And when that sad day came.
I was just like everybody else that was in Russia's
thirty million plus audience. We grieved not just because we

(01:14:03):
agreed with his politics, not for the validation and courage
he modeled for us, not just because we would miss
hearing his inimitable take on the day's events. We grieved
like he was part of our family and we were.
We grieved because we loved him, and we knew he

(01:14:24):
loved us. If it can ever be said about someone
that he did not live in vain, then his life
made a difference that someone is rush. He showed us
the way. May we have the same courage that he
had to laugh in the face of hatred, to defend

(01:14:46):
this country and what it stands for, and to do
so with intelligence and humor and love. God bless Rush Limbaugh,
and God bless the United States of America, and God
bless the United States. I'm never going to be able
to adequately think the people who are responsible for one

(01:15:11):
of the greatest lives anybody could have had. Anybody. Mega
dittos megal prayer, Mega love for Rush. That man is
in heaven and he's being right there by the throne,
and I thank God for them. You will be remembered
as a man who on air changed the course of
conversation in America. The more you can be your real,

(01:15:32):
authentic self, the better you're going to be. And that's Rush.
Rush encouraged so many of us to think for ourselves,
to learn and to lead. He often said it did
not matter where you started or what you look like.
As Americans, we all have endless opportunities like nowhere else

(01:15:55):
in the world. I have met the goals I set
for myself, and I have been able to do it
all for the most part on my terms. I just
cannot get any better. And to be able to share
all of this with you and tell you how grateful
I am makes me happy. You didn't have to know

(01:16:15):
Rush to love him all. You had to do was
listen to him. He was a historian, he was a comedian.
He was a brilliant, brilliant man, and he will be
greatly missed, and there'll not be another Russian law in
this world. People try to figure out why he was
so successful you did, You just can't put it in
in an easy define herble box. His love of his audience,

(01:16:35):
his love or what he did, his intelligence, his wit.
Rush was like a second father for me because I
probably spent more time with him than anybody in the
last twenty years. I know now that God needs him
for something up there. Now he's got a new job,
and he did his part here and now we all
have to, you know, continue his legacy anyway we care.

(01:16:56):
There was nobody that ever was in the presence of
the man, liberals or conservatives or a political people who
didn't think he was the most gentlemanly, humble person they've
ever met. Here's the all knowing, all seeing, all caring
Maha Rushing, and it was America's anchor man and truth detective.
And he was also a brother and an uncle, and

(01:17:18):
his son and a grandson. I'm just trying to give
thanks every day for all of the blessings. I have
had a blessed life I have. I have had so
many great friends I had and still do. Um that
it's it's uh, there's nothing negative for me. There's there's nothing,
nothing that i have deep regrets about because I've been

(01:17:40):
too blessed, because I've been to He would give so
generously to taste so many organizations and so many people,
and would do so many things anonymously, so much that
people will never know the amount of stuff that he's done.
Russia's voice isn't going anywhere, so you need not have

(01:18:00):
any care of that. On behalf of the Limbaugh family,
I would personally like to thank each and every one
of you who prayed for Rush and inspired him to
keep going. He loved you, and he loved this radio
program with every part of his being. You have to

(01:18:21):
give every day, you know. I've love to point out
we all only get one life. We don't get to
do over againness, Well we do. Actually we gotta do
over every day if we choose to look at it
that way. Once we're old enough on the tour enough
to understand what life is and that there is only one,
then you do get do overs. Far more optimistic than pessimistic,

(01:18:46):
focusing on the goodness that exists each day, and there
is goodness and everything that happens. It may not be
immediately a parent, but it's there and it will eventually
reveal itself. It always does reveal itself. It always does.

(01:19:08):
A russlan Ball The Man Behind the Golden E I
B Microphone has been produced by Chris Kelly and Phil Tower,
two of the most brilliant producers in America. Folks production
assistants Mike Mamone, the executive producers Craig Kitchen and Julie Talbot.
I'd also like to thank everybody from the E I
B staff who participated in this program. It could have

(01:19:28):
just as easily been you as me hosting this. We
all had the same love for RUSSI lan Ball. Our
program is distributed worldwide by Premiere Networks, found on the
I Heart Radio Apple wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
This is James Golden, This is both Snertling, This is
James Golden, and I'm honored to be your host for

(01:19:49):
this and every single episode of Russia land Ball The
Man Behind the Golden E I B Microphone. Thank you
for being with US