The Season with Peter Schrager: Melissa Etheridge

Peter goes deep on the Panthers’ decision to fire Frank Reich eleven weeks into his first season as head coach and details what’s not only behind the decision, but what and who Carolina could be looking at next. Then, Grammy and Oscar winning rock musician Melissa Etheridge joins the show to discuss her 50+ years of being a Chiefs fan, recent run on Broadway, and her unique point of view as a rock star Chiefs fan on the celebrity couple that’s taken both worlds by storm. Melissa and Peter talk ball, talk Springsteen, and talk life in the fast lane. Then in a very special moment, the guitar is broken out for a first (and likely only ever) live acoustic performance of a number 1 hit.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
The Season with Peter Schreeger is a production of the
NFL in partnership with iHeartRadio. What's up, everybody, Welcome to
another edition of the Season with Peter Schreger. I'm joined

(00:27):
here by Aaron Wong Kaufman, a producer with Jason English
from the iHeart team, and we're sitting this week in
a dressing room on a high floor of a Manhattan
sky rise. And our guest is one of the most
successful musicians of all time. She also happens to be
an enormous Kansas City Chiefs fan. Melissa Etherich, who just

(00:50):
got done doing a six week Broadway show might have
been longer, to be honest, I saw it on opening night.
It was the Broadway show one woman show about her life,
which included about with cancer, included multiple number one hits,
included her coming out of the lesbian her getting married,

(01:11):
her getting divorced, then her of course rise to fame,
and there's a tragedy at the end where she loses
her son and she bears her soul in this Broadway show.
It just wrapped, and she's in New York still and
I'm like, we got to have you on and she's
going to join us in just a second. Very cool
to have in studio guests. We had Hans Schroeder last
week from the NFL in his office. Well, we're in

(01:33):
my office now in one place I don't necessarily have
any desire to be as in David Tepper's office right now.
David Tepper is the owner of the Carolina Panthers. They
made a surprise firing of Frank Reich public yesterday. As
we're recording this, and Tepper just got done with a
press conference addressing the local media. Let's go through some

(01:54):
of the facts here. The Carolina Panthers are an unwatchable team.
Their quarterback Bryce young Look was completely lost and they
mortgaged a lot of the future to go get him.
They hired Frank Reich, who was a veteran coach, to
be the voice of stability and to be the one
who's going to usher him into the league. As Frank
Reik has coached several young quarterbacks in the past and
has had great success with guys like Philip Rivers and

(02:17):
like a young Carson Wentz and of course like Nick Foles.
When Foles went on his rise in Philadelphia, it hasn't
happened in Carolina. He gets fired eleven games into his
first season with Carolina, Aaron It is the quickest firing
of a first year NFL head coach in forty five years.

(02:37):
Urban Meyer lasted longer, Nathaniel Hackett lasted longer. Frank Reike
given the pink slip in Carolina, and this comes on
the heels of him also firing Ron Rivera when he
got there, also firing Matt Ruhle a couple of years
into his contract, and not retaining Seve Wilkes, who had
his team playing good football last year and is now

(02:58):
the defensive coordinator of the forty nine ers. The initial
reaction around the league and by fans is fair, it's
how could you do that? That's ridiculous. You don't give
Frank Reich a chance. I've had some time to talk
to a lot of folks and you'd be surprised. A
lot of people, and several who have similar positions in
the league, meaning either owners or president, say like, rip

(03:20):
the band aid off. It's going to be a wild January.
What do I mean by that? Not about the playoffs?
There is talk there's going to be eight to ten
job openings in the NFL this year, and you can
name the usual suspects. I take no joy in seeing
some of those teams that might be replacing their coaches.
And some of these guys will save their jobs. We've
seen it before. I saw Chuck Pagano save his job
in the final month of a seat. That's what Rex

(03:42):
Ryan save his job in the final month of a season.
We've seen it before where these guys can turn it around.
But if you're talking just offhand, and I don't need
to list them, I'd say there's eight to ten job opening.
So why would Carolina do this now? Well, Vegas already
fired their coach. That's a different situation. Antonio Pierce is
the intern. It's gonna give them a real shot to
be the head coach. But they're gonna most likely do

(04:03):
a full coaching search and Antonio will be one of
the candidates. Carolina now has a solid two months to
do all of the work now ahead of interviews. Go
to the farthest regions of the world and talk to
the most in depth to you possibly can to get
all of the candidates lined up that you want. Now,
what makes it interesting is they went after that guy

(04:23):
last year. I can say this now. I don't know
if everyone was aware, but there was real interest in
Ben Johnson, who is a thirty seven year old offensive
coordinator of the Detroit Lions. Last year, and this is
before the Lions even made the playoffs, they said that
great finish. Ben Johnson is a North Carolina guy. He
went to UNC, He's a local hero. In a lot

(04:44):
of ways, he would have been the perfect fit. I said,
He said, no, I'm good, I don't want an interview
for the job. Said no, thank you. Went back to
be the offensive coordinator the Detroit Lions. They're going to
be eight to ten other job openings. What now would change?
As they've traded away this year's first round pick, they
have shown that they have a roster that is kind
of barren on offensive line, skill position player, multiple things.

(05:07):
And the owner just showed that he'll fire you if
it doesn't work. In eleven eleven weeks. He hasn't like
what he saw. What would it take for Ben Johnson
to suddenly now say okay, now I'm gonna do it.
I say this. It would take a boatload of money.
How much money is Ben Johnson worth? Ben Johnson a
guy who's never been a head coach Ben Johnson, who
could walk through an airport and no one would know
his face. Ben Johnson, whose name is still mistaken for

(05:29):
the Canadian sprinter who went up against Carl Lewis. And
I think that would be the first Google search that
comes up. Is Ben Johnson gonna get money like McVeigh
and Sean Payton and those guys have it might take
that all right, So say David Tepper says, I don't
want to have to beg Ben Johnson to be the
head coach of my NFL team. What are the other
routes they can do? Well, you can go that same

(05:50):
kind of deal and look at the young offensive coordinators,
the young bright offensive minds that people talk about, and
that would be Bobby Slowick in Houston, who's thirty seven
years old, and it's the Houston Texans offensive coordinator. And
it is the guy who's been working with with c. J.
Stroud and year number one and got tanked Dell to
be an elite wide receiver in his first season in
the league. That's a possibility. Let's circle that name could

(06:11):
also go to the guy that we interviewed on our
podcast couple of weeks ago, Drew petsing for a two
win Arizona Cardinals team, but yet got Josh Dobbs to
play competitive football, got a lot of young players on
the field, and shown that he can run an offense
even without the top elite talent in the league. A nameless,
faceless offensive line in Arizona, a bunch of wide receivers

(06:34):
who you might have on your fantasy team but aren't
exactly winning any Pro Bowls or All Pro Awards. And
then of course quarterbacks that you might not be familiar with.
And Josh Dobbs and Clayton Tune before Kyler got there,
So let's put Drew's name out there. Then you go
through a list of guys that haven't had necessarily the
breakout seasons, but we've been hearing about them for years.

(06:54):
By that, I mean Brian Johnson, the offensive coordinator of
the Philadelphia Eagles, whose home crowd was booing the play
calling at certain points on Sunday, and yet is the
offensive coordinator of a nine to one or ten in
one team. And Jalen Hurts speaks to the world of
him and would be a very interesting head coaching candidate
right there. A couple other names of offensive guys that

(07:15):
you've heard of and have been around and maybe it's
their time. Well, you look at what's going on in
New England and immediately you'd say, well, no, thank you,
no one from that tree. But the name Bill O'Brien
will pop up because of his success with young quarterbacks
and the fact that he was Bryce Young's college quarterback
coach and was this offensive coordinator. The two of them

(07:36):
have a pre existing relationship. I'll throw out my name
that I will always throw out because I still think
he's a great young quarterback whisper, even if he's not
in the NFL, but he just got done with the
year with Kayleb Williams. I'll throw out Cliff Kingsbury's name.
Is that a possibility. Does Cliff get another shot?

Speaker 2 (07:50):
Probably not.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
I don't think David Tepper is looking to hire another
fired coach from another team that missed the playoffs. That's
what he did with Frank Reich. But I think if
you're looking about a young quarterback and someone who can
speak to him and get the best out of him,
Cliff's done it time and time again, whether it be Mahomes,
whether it be Kyler Murray. In those first few years,
and then of course what he's doing with Caleb Williams
in USC now working with Lincoln Riley. I think that's
really interesting. Brian Flores possibility. Brian Flor is a defensive coach.

(08:15):
Brian Flores has been a head coach, Brian Flores is
now in Minnesota. Or that defense is carrying that offense
and getting them to the finish line. Is he a possibility?
You go down these lists and then you want the
wildcard ones. Who are the wildcards? Is Jim Harbaugh wild card?
Would that personality mesh with David Tepper? Tepper is a
is a bull bulldozer in a lot of ways, and
it's a big personality. But I could assure you knowing

(08:37):
David Tepper and watching the way he has owned this team,
he just wants to win Harbaugh everywhere he's gone, whether
it be the University of San Diego, whether it be Stanford,
whether it be the forty nine ers, and whether it
be Michigan he wins. Is Tepper looking to bring in Harbaugh?
That would be a very interesting dallions in a very
interesting pursuit. And I would find this to be fascinating
for the NFL for years to come. You look at

(09:00):
Mike McDonald, defensive coordinator down in Baltimore, first real year
as the as the main man last year. Now it's
his second year, and that defense is as good as
any does. Mike McDonald, the young defensive coordinator at the
Ravens who also worked for Harborough in Michigan, is here guy.
And then there's our guy who had on the podcast,
Jed Fish, who has NFL ties and is now coaching

(09:22):
at Arizona and got Arizona to do some amazing things
this year, but has worked with Belichick, has worked with McVeigh,
and has worked with countless others. The list can go on,
and can go on and can go on, and you
can do the coordinator from this team. That's why they
have the time to do this. Narrow it down, figure
out what you're looking for, and try to put the

(09:43):
best path forward. I think what Tepper said in his
press conference today, and I'll summarize two points I think
really the only two that matters. One he wasn't like
this in his finance career. David Tepper is worth billions
and billions and billions of dollars from making money on
Wall Street, which is as cut third as the NFL,
if not more. And his point was people worked for

(10:05):
him for twenty to thirty years, like he had his team,
and he was not a guy who was quick to
pull the trigger and fire people. In fact, he would
nurture and grow. And these people, he's got his own
David Tepper tree on Wall Street, all different hedge funds
and all different finance firms where they swear by Tepper
and they say that he's the guy who got them
to start. He's the Belichick of Wall Street in a
lot of ways. And if that's the case, he says,

(10:27):
you know, that's not my mo just so you know,
and I'm very successful in that road. But until you
get success, I will be quick to make decisions because
I know what success looks like, and what we have
on the field every Sunday is not success. The other
point which was interesting was that he said he was
set to take c. J. Stroud at number two. They
thought they had a trade set up. They were gonna trade,

(10:47):
they were gonna get up to number two with the Texans,
and that whoever had that number one pick, whether it
be the Bears or somebody else, they were gonna take
Bryce Young and they were set with c J. Stroud.
They were fine with it. What happened was that trade
fell through. They end up making the trade with the Bears.
They got number one, and he said, I didn't make
the pick. He said, the football people make the pick,
and I'm the final decision maker. And I was more
than comfortable taking Bryce Young over c J. Stroud. And

(11:10):
as this thing moves forward, I will be okay with
it because I believe in the Bryce Young pick, and
we'll go from there. They might blow the whole building
up right now, we've had already. The head coach Josh
McCown unceremoniously fired after a great fanfare about his hiring
as a quarterbacks coach for Bryce Young. He's gone, Josh,
As we say, as a friend, I think he was

(11:34):
a little bit surprised that once they named the interim coach.
The interim coach, Chris Tabor said, all right, out with
you and out with Duce Staley. I think both those
guys have really good resumes. Josh is a player. Due
to the player and as a coach, they'll be okay.
I assume they're both going to be all right. But
part of that is, you know, we need to just
extinguish everybody from the building, put in our guys who
we want. Josh was in Bryce's ear the most, so

(11:57):
if the new coach is Jim Caldwell, Thomas Brown, whoever.
The fact that we're naming a half dozen different offensive
minds probably was part of the problem here. That's a
lot of people in a young quarterbacks ear. They'll figure
this thing out then. The general manager situation is fascinating.
Scott Fitter was chosen after he lent the general manager
search in Carolina a few years ago. I'm talking three

(12:18):
rounds and everyone from Ryan Poles to Adam Peters to
all these different guys who met and then did not
get the job. They chose Scott Fitter, who had been
an interview candidate for several different jobs over the years.
Fitter is there, Dan Morgan, the former Carolina Panther legend
is there in the front office. Do they blow that
whole front office out and do we start from scratch
on that side of it as well? We will see.

(12:41):
Whatever the reason that they did it this week or not,
the bottom line is this Tepper couldn't watch his team anymore.
He found it disgusting. He couldn't see it. He couldn't
see it and he couldn't see success coming. So they
make the change and everyone goes up in arms, says,
he's a horrible owner, and we'll see, let's see he's
gonna get a Let's see, he's had Ron, he's had
whoever the interim for Ron was. So that's two, he's

(13:03):
had Rule, he's had Wilkes. That's four, he's now had five.
And Frank Reich he's now got six, and Chris Table
he'll go to his seventh. Different look at what a
head coach could be for the Carolina Panthers. And that's
just since twenty eighteen, so interesting times in Carolina. But
this is kickstarting what I think is going to be
a wild, wild January of the hiring cycle. And we

(13:26):
went away from calling it black Black Monday on the
NFL Network because it's like two ominous, I don't know
what you want to call it. We're here, it's not
even December. I'm gonna tell you it's gonna be a
blood bath. That's what everyone says. That's coaches from the
head coaching position to offensive coordinators, defensive coordinators, just get ready,
buckle up. No one covers these coaches better. No one
interviews these gms. Better, No one talks to these young
coaches more than this podcast here, So don't be shocked

(13:48):
with a lot of the voices that you've heard on
the season with Peter Schreger end up being mentioned and
interviewed by a lot of these teams in the next
couple of weeks. Real quick, Aaron, we got through Thanksgiving weekend.
Everyone has their pictures of their turkey and all this stuff.
I have to tell you. I went to the Jets
Black Friday game against the Dolphins. I took my son Mel.

(14:11):
It was his first NFL game with me. Can I
tell you the experience? Zero to ten, ten out of ten.
It was unbelievable. I was so scared about the traffic.
All I heard about was the traffic. Even leading up
to the day of Everyone's like, you're gonna probably want
to sit and watch that game on your couch because

(14:32):
there is a mall there called and chime in here
at the American Dream Mall. I had never heard of
the American Dream Mall.

Speaker 3 (14:40):
Now.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
I remember there was the Xanadu project years ago that
Chris Christy tried doing, and it was just like a
ski lift to nowhere, and I think that's what this is.

Speaker 4 (14:48):
Now.

Speaker 1 (14:48):
They took the Xanadu project and they turned it so,
you know, New Jersey. I grew up in Jersey. Tax
dollars the whole thing. They dumped, you know, not millions
and millions of dollars into this thing. It never opens
for years. It's an eyesore. It's pink, it's on the
side of the parkway and the turnpike. You're just it's
just an eyesore. And they eventually turned into a mall.
How many years ago? Four years ago? All right? So

(15:11):
then they turned into a mall. It's called the American
Dream Mall. My last version or the last thing I
would ever want to be in a dream is in
a mall. They open it up. I guess it survives COVID.
All right, great, the American Dream Mall. We pull up
to this thing, you would think it's Shangri La. My
son in the back seat sees a giant SpongeBob, then
he sees Legos, then he sees a water park. This

(15:34):
thing looks like it's the most amazing place in the
history of the world. It seemed like it was Disney
and Universal combined and I'm telling my son, no, no,
that's not where we're going. We're not going to see
your friend's SpongeBob. We're not going to the water park. No, no,
We're gonna go sit in the cold and watch a
football game. No traffic. So everyone who bugged me out
about the traffic, no traffic, We get there.

Speaker 5 (15:53):
What time did you get there?

Speaker 1 (15:55):
All right? So that's it, okay, all right. We left
Brooklyn around noon, three o'clock kickoff. We probably were walking
in the stadium around one point fifteen. So I would
sign up for that right Lincoln Tunnel, a little bit
of traffic, and we get there, pull up the Jets,
hooked up field passes. I have no shame in telling

(16:15):
you that I very rarely will call in favors. I
didn't call in a favor. I'm like, is there any
way my son can just see the field. I've been
to a million games, he's never been one with me.
There were enough guests on the field that I guess
they could spare a couple more. My wife came with me.
It was so amazing to be there and see the
wonder in my kid's eyes as what he wanted to do.
And you'll love this. He wanted to sit underneath the

(16:38):
goalposts when they were practicing the field goals. So here
come these missiles from Jason Sanders and from Greg Zerline,
and the punts are coming there, and my son is
like enamored with the fact that he's watching from that angle.
The ball go through the goalposts, the game starts, It
goes horribly for the Jets, but mel my Son had

(17:00):
a blast. The fans were cool. I don't get stopped
everywhere but an NFL game. If you're a fan of football,
you might have seen our show Good Morning Football. You
listen to this podcast. So people are cool. They're not
everyone you know, wants a selfie. It's it's fine, I'll
do a selfie. It wasn't too many and everyone was like, hey,
you brought your son, How cool, and like it was awesome.

(17:21):
So we stay pretty much throughout it. I was hanging out.
Got to meet Eric Decker, Remember Eric Decker. Oh yeah,
got to meet Eric Decker, who, by the way, is
the coolest dude in the world. And he's got four kids,
and our kids are hanging pregame and Decker was awesome.
You know who else was there who was super kind?

(17:44):
And cool, the actress from White Lotus and from True
Detective and like alexand so her step kids are huge
football fans and they were there and it was so funny.
So her kid, her step kid, and her husband, uh
Andrew really nice guy. We're talking to them pregame. We're
all in the same little waiting area that they like,

(18:05):
you know, if you want to go on the field
for five minutes for the game. Commutum and their kid
had on an authentic Jets helmet and I'm like, oh,
that's badass, Like did a player give him that? And
the his dad's like, no, that's four hundred and fifty
dollars in the team store if you want to die.
I'm like, you bought that. He's like, I don't know,
I have no idea. Yes, we bought it. He wanted it.
That's his Christmas gift. I'm like, I love that, the

(18:25):
Black Friday thing. I don't know if the game stunk.
I don't know if everyone at home was like turning
it off the third quarter. It felt like an event.
It felt cool. I had the alternative is not having
football on Fridays? Like I loved it. I asked Hans
Schroeder last week. Like the impetus of it, I would say, PostScript,
I'll put it out there. I would love it if
it was in New York every year. I think it
was a cool feeling of like the Roquettes and the

(18:48):
Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and New York and Thanksgiving and like, oh,
there's a game on Friday that you've got the stars
already there and this kind of thing can kind of
bleed into it. I get the feeling the NFL is
not looking at you that. I think the NFL is
going to rotate at city to city. I don't think
they love the fact that they're tied to the Thanksgiving
cities necessarily, and this one, I think it would be
a lot like how the primetime game on Thanksgiving that
kind of moves place to place. But ten out of

(19:10):
ten experience, I can't say enough about the Jets game
day experience. Really cool, lively. They of course have what
every kid needs, and that's great concession stands and most
importantly a T shirt gun and a T shirt cannon,
so that gets them going. And the music was great.
The football just stunk. Other than that, it was cool.
And when you're a seven year old kid at your
first NFL game. I don't think you're so worried about,

(19:32):
you know, what the quarterback decisions are and how they're
going to run the two minute drill at the end
of the half, and whether or not you throw a
hell Mary with two seconds left to the third string quarterback.
You're more concerned with just the experience. And I think
my son had a great one. So everyone wondering, as
we lingered on it last week, ten out of ten amazing.
Take your kids to football games and if you can
ask for as many favorites as you can so they

(19:53):
can touch the grass too. That was pretty cool. I
know that was a rare experience. I'm so excited for this.
Our guest is a longtime friend of mine, a Emmy winner,
a Oscar winner, and she just wrapped doing a one

(20:15):
woman show on Broadway that I happened to see and
was blown away by. No further Ado Chiefs diehard fan
Melissa Etheridge, Welcome to the season with Peter Schrieger.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Oh, thank you. I know you're fried. But I didn't
win an Emmy.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
I want a Grammy, okay, so let's get you an Emmy.
How do we get you an Emmy.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
Well, I'm working on Believe me, I've got lots of plans.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Is it so like when you hear that the accolades
listed and you're sitting and then you add in Broadway show,
Where does that stand? I'm like, the accomplishments and accolade
from a career.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
Well, you know, I stopped thinking about the once I
won an award. I was like, Oh, it's not really
about the award. It's about getting there. It's about the experience.
And I really nowadays it's more about I want that experience.
Whether whatever awards are great, they're fun. I'm not putting
them down, but it's the experience. In man, this experience

(21:05):
of being here in New York City, being part of Broadway,
going and doing the show, same show over and over,
five nights a week. That was an experience and it's
something that I'm proud I did. Probably won't do it
again soon.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
But I have to mention it's just I mean, because
I've got friends who are on Broadway, we've seen it, like, yeah,
that grind of obviously six days a week, but then
you have the matinee shows and then you have the
two shows on certain day. By the end of it.
Are you just so mentally and physically exhausted doing a
Broadway show every day? I can only imagine. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
Yeah, and you know, bless my family. My daughter was
staying here and she just totally understood. And my wife,
who was there with me constantly like okay, you know,
sleep in, make sure I had enough sleep and and
fed me and just you know, I had a great
support and but boy, it was very exhausting.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Yeah. And for the listeners, the show is amazing. It
is your story, so it's not just doing a show,
it is bearing your soul to strangers. Your story is incredible.
But I mean there's the first of all to rock concerts.
He play all the hits, which is awesome, but it's
also this emotional journey through your life and what you've
learned and all the tragedies, but also the amazing highs

(22:15):
that have come with it. Of all the people who
you got to meet through this experience, either attending the
show or people who perform with Was there someone new
in your life that you met that you were like, Wow,
that was pretty cool. I'm so glad I got to
come away with that experience as well.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
You know, yes, there was. I did get to meet
a lot of people, a lot of great people. Came
back and met a lot of people you know, on
Broadway doing the stuff. But it surprisingly enough, it was Wolverine. Yeah,
it was huge.

Speaker 1 (22:43):
Jackman.

Speaker 2 (22:43):
Yeah, like I asked a friendship like butt from this
one hundred percent. I had met him before. You know,
we you know Hollywood, and you go, you know, I
know this person, but you know, are they? And the
show touched him and he if someone had told him
you should come see the show that maybe it would
help because he was going through some stuff and it

(23:04):
really touched him. And I gave him my number. I said,
you know, call me, and you know he didn't.

Speaker 6 (23:09):
He didn't.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
And the friend that the mutual friend, I was like,
you know what, tell him, he's not bothering me if
he calls me. And and he called, and we just
started talking about life. We started talking a lot about
what the show is about, which is, you know, how
to be successful and you know, famous in this world
and not lose your mind, you know, and be a person,
and and how not to just please everybody because we

(23:32):
have so much success, we've got to make sure everybody
else is happy around us. That's a that's a hard
hole to fall into. And and we've just been talking
and I can now say, you know, I have a
new friend because.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
It's so beautiful. The show itself tells the story, but
I think one of the takeaways something you just hit
on that you were, in a lot of ways chasing
not fame, but you were chasing it. Yeah, and then
you got it. And it was in the early nineties
and you're sitting on the perch and you're on the
cover of Rolling Stone and in the show you explained
there was this emptiness of wait, I got it in

(24:06):
it hasn't filled that hole.

Speaker 2 (24:07):
Yeah, that that I think it's hard to explain to
people who don't have this sort of experience. But but you,
I'm sure have, you know, growing up loving sports the
way you do, and now you are on you know,
one of the greatest, you know, football shows ever in
my opinion, and you know, you're like, yeah, but that's
not it that I don't wake up and go, well,

(24:28):
I did it, you know, you you It is about
the dreams, it's about the the adventures on the way
to it, and and so putting that in front of
me all the time, no matter what. Oh, this is
the this is the next adventure. That's what I'm looking
forward to.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yeah, the story is amazing and your life story is amazing,
but your love for football is cool too because it
starts with your father, who was also your biggest supporter
in your quest to become a rock and roll star.
Why don't you tell the listeners your connection to football
growing up in Kansas?

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Oh my gosh, Well, my father was. He he grew
up in Saint Louis, Missouri, and he he was very athletic.
He was actually a really good swimmer too. And his
high school that he went to, the coach. My father
came from a really trouble family, you know, seven kids,
The father was a horrible alcoholic from World War two,

(25:21):
you know, just really they migrant farmers. It was bad.
And this guy really helped him and said, look, you
can get a sports scholarship to college. And none of
his family had ever gone to college. And so he
went to college in Arkansas and got a teaching degree
to where he could be a coach. And he went

(25:41):
to and moved to Levenworth, Kansas because they needed a teacher.
We didn't know, he didn't know anybody there. And so
I was born there. And while he was there, the
Chiefs come to, you know, Kansas City in sixty four
and I'm three years old probably, and I have pictures
of my father and I watching the Chiefs on television.

(26:04):
Can't tell, it's just pictures. I was watching TV. But
I've got a red shirt on. I know what we're doing.
And he was so patient with me teaching me, and
I think that's something that that I really loved. He
taught me slowly about football and it's all about, you know.
And I remember as a kid watching and going, what
are they doing? Okay, why are they doing?

Speaker 5 (26:23):
What?

Speaker 6 (26:24):
Why?

Speaker 2 (26:24):
What's that mean? And he would explain every single thing
to me. And once you get the formula in your head,
once you get the strategy and you know what they're
doing and watching it, it's so much fun to watch
and we would share it. I remember the nineteen seventies
Super Bowl, Lady Dawson, and you remember watching it, Oh,
one hundred percent watched it. Bobby Bell and Buck Buchannan

(26:47):
and Willie Lanier and just all these great and when
they won. I mean, Levinworth is forty five minutes from
Kansas City, and everybody just all the horns were honking everybody,
and I was like, what's happening in the world. And
once you have that experience as a child, forget it.
You're hooked.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
And then you wait fifty years fifty years, but you do,
and there's so many heart breaks. I don't think people
everyone talks about the Vikings fans and the Jets fans
about the Chiefs would go to the playoffs every year
as a one seed and have this amazing home atmosphere
and road and they would lose the game they know
they would always lose. And then to finally win, what

(27:23):
was that like?

Speaker 2 (27:25):
H it's it. It is hard to explain, you know,
having gone through it. When when Andy Reid finally came,
that was you could feel kind of, oh wow, we've
just entered a level that we really haven't been on.
Joe Montana, sure we were there out there, you know, yeah,
three was there, but when Andy Reid came, it was like,

(27:46):
oh wow, and you could feel, you know, we still
lost that first year, but and then you know Alex Smith, Oh,
and all of a sudden there were games where finally
you'd see, you know, Alex Smith is quarterback, really try
that extra bit and go in there. And that's why
I wrote my first chief song, Alex Smith I Love You.

Speaker 1 (28:04):
You came on the show Good Morning Football and two
twenty sixteen before Mahomes leaving on the Chiefs, and you
were like, I like the show, I'm gonna come on
and you wrote a song called Alex Smith, I Love You,
which to me is still my favorite moments on the show.

Speaker 2 (28:14):
And so then when we get there and I actually
sang the anthem when we uh were playing, when Jason
was on that, Yeah, the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (28:24):
The AFC Championship for D four, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (28:27):
D Ford, and just the feeling and the whole feeling
in that stadium you've been there. Oh, and then to
have at tension just yes, and everybody doing that walk
to the parking lot afterwards.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
I was in the building when they lost to Pittsburgh
in the playoffs that a couple of years earlier, after
like four different times of the goal line that game.
And then god, I was in there when they lost
to the Bengals in the AH champion a couple of
years ago. But I wasn't there when you guys beat
the Titans in the AFC Championship. Came and anyone who
was in that building was like you felt fifty years
forget the super Bowl just to get there again, and

(29:02):
the stress of it is just gone.

Speaker 2 (29:03):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:04):
I remember, I think it was a Sammy Watkins deep
touchdown put the game away. It was and like generations,
the chief sentences.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
C crying, crying because it brings back your father, it
brings back why we loved it. I mean, I still
get joked up because that that was really special, and
that first one where we went and I remember we won,
and after we won, I went, huh, this is what
it feels like, you know, and I just stood and
it was kind of oh. And the day went on.

(29:30):
I went, well, now that's over. Whow what a journey.
And then you just want to get back there every
time now and they and I it's such a pretty cool,
such a gift, and you know it happens every now
and then to a team, a different team, and and
some day it could be your team. I just you know,
it might be just great when it does.

Speaker 1 (29:49):
What what's your viewing situations? You go to some games
to perform, but I feel like knowing you you're a
couch and right you watch the game.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Oh yeah, oh, no, no, I watch it. No, I'm
I watched every game. I'm a red Zone junkie. You
know how six hours can go by and you know
the whole and and uh no, I I like to
go to the games, but when it comes to like
the really important games of playoffs and like the Super Bowl,

(30:22):
it's like, no, no, I have to watch it at
my house.

Speaker 6 (30:23):
I have that right.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
You haven't been in the building for either one of
the Super Bowl wins?

Speaker 2 (30:26):
No, no, no, no, I haven't. I've been at home.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Interesting, I know. It's it's I've been on the field
for both the Super womins because they're both on Fox,
and I was doing postgame and it's that same feeling
of the Chiefs fan I was just talking about of
this generation of Generation Van. It's like, yeah, that is
a real fan base.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Oh no, it's for real. It's so. I mean I
can walk around and I do often in my Chiefs regalia,
and I you know, I walk through airports, I'm in
every city. I'm in countries where people walk up and go, oh,
the Chiefs, you know. And before I mean now it's
like we're like I said, yeah, but back then, before
people really knew it's it's a it's a language. You're

(31:03):
instantly you know, friends is there.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
You're an individual act when you go out there on
the stage and then you see this team sport. Is
there some sort of parallel to you know, the art
of football and the art.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Of Oh yeah, no, no, it's And I can do
my show solo, yeah I can, but I prefer to
do it with a group. And then not only do
I have those musicians on stage, but all the technicians behind.
And it takes that We're about a twelve person you
know unit as we travel around the world. But man,

(31:37):
those twelve people, they know exactly what to do. And
sometimes it's funny. I've had a conversation with my wife
where I say, god, I feel like Patrick Mahomes, I
feel like, yeah, like there was there's there's a time
when like something can be going so well. The audience
is crazy. Let's say it's like forty thousand people that
you know, some outdoor, big, crazy thing, and I just

(31:59):
I can look, I actually I have my Kelsey, I look,
I've looked at my drummer like this and he knows, okay,
we're not going It's like they know you don't even
have to say what it is. It's just a look
and everyone goes, Okay, I know what we're going to do,
and boom, it's really fun and I felt I felt
like that.

Speaker 1 (32:16):
So I loved the show. But I was a part
of the show getting to know your story even more.
And there's been about with cancer, there's been tragedy in
your life, but I want to talk about like the Rise,
because I think that's such a cool story for somebody.
People were like, you moved to LA. You have a
family member from my mistaken and who's out there?

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Yeah, she was my aunt, your aunt.

Speaker 1 (32:34):
You moved to LA not knowing anybody, and you didn't
just this wasn't I take the greyhound to LA and
I hit it. You struggled for a while yet in La.
And one of the stories is you end up at
a lesbian bar as the in house entertainment and it
becomes a sensation and like the underground of La and
that kick starts your career. And that's when the A
and R Record first seats it. But this is in
the eighties. This isn't in twenty twenty oh.

Speaker 2 (32:57):
This is the eighties. This is and it did. It
took five years and my manager at the time. He
and I made a choice because I was making a living.
I was actually getting paid to play five nights a
week and musicians don't have that in La and I
had made this, you know spot for me to play
and make money. What was the bar called, well, there

(33:19):
were One was called actually played in two separate well
three but two really. One was called Vermes, which is weird,
but and the other one was called Kraa And that's
actually it started as a it's in Long Beach and
it started as a you know, ladies women's club, lesbian bar.
They I said, look, let me set up in the corner.

(33:41):
They didn't have a light. After like the first year,
they said, we'll get you a spotlight. I'm like, hey, great,
you know, but I sat up in the corner and
I would play. And now that bar is not a
lesbian bar anymore. It's a live music and my my
gold records in the corner. And yeah, it's really I'm

(34:01):
really proud of that.

Speaker 1 (34:02):
That's so cool. And then the record guys, and you
had a couple of records before you hit though.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah, I mean my first record, you know, if you
bring me some water, like the way I do. Those
songs are are classics in the kind of the rock world.
But it wasn't until it wasn't until my fourth album
that I got like a big mainstream hit. Yeah. The
first big hit was what Was Coming to My What
Was Coming to My Window? Okay, and then I'm the

(34:26):
Only One?

Speaker 1 (34:27):
And so yeah, both those hits back to back and
you end up on the cover of the Rolling Stone. Yeah. Yeah,
you're doing everything on MTV, your fame rises. Are you
comfortable with that level of fame?

Speaker 4 (34:38):
You know?

Speaker 2 (34:38):
What's interesting and I know you have I have. Some
of this is is it is hard to tell how
famous you are in the world because your own skin,
you're in your own skin, and you don't you can't
you separate yourself from it. And at the time there
was no social media, so you couldn't. You had to
kind of judge it by.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
As a kid in that era and not dating youore me,
but I was that was like peak MTV, peak v
H one, and you're video was on.

Speaker 2 (35:07):
You couldn't get away from every hour.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
And so like What's efford was part of it was
Arrested Development, it was Ethridge, it was Twooty in the
Blowfish like it was.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
The late nineties music back then.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Yeah. Yeah, And for someone who had been hacking away
at this for a while, I can imagine like I
did it.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Yeah, you there's a sense of, oh, well, there it is.
There's my top ten album, there's now I'm a hit
now and there's more people coming and I am I'm
playing arenas and you know, and personally I wasn't happy,
So that sort of I mean, you do know it.
But again it's it's not even there's no you can't

(35:43):
stop and go hey, you know, I did it. There
I am. There's no stopping. You want more of it,
you want to stay there, you want to you know,
keep going. So it's a weird, funny trap the fame
thing is, And it wasn't until I just let it
all go and go Now I'm just going to do
what I love and whoever wants to you know, enjoy it,
you know, enjoy it.

Speaker 1 (36:00):
Yeah, And I'm imagining that the international stuff that you
talk about in the show, a bunch of all of
a sudden you're in these countries and they know your
songs by heart. Yeah, it's a lot of travel, it's
a lot away from home. Yeah, and of course you
put it all together and you have this amazing career
and then you're honored in all these different ways than
the two thousands. How do you take it from that? Oh?

(36:21):
My god.

Speaker 2 (36:22):
Well, the shock in the music industry from the nineties
to the two thousands was unbelievable, and it grew once
CDs came in and record companies started making ridiculous money
for listener.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
It was twenty dollars for a CD. Back then.

Speaker 2 (36:39):
They didn't think anyone would buy them because they sounded
so horrible. They were like, oh, and they just said, well,
we'll just you know, twenty bucks a CD, okay, And
all of a sudden everyone was buying them and they
were making money hand over fist. My record the guy's
My record company, Island Records, was founded by Chris Blackwell.
He was just a genius. He brought Bob Marley to

(36:59):
the world and you two, and he was just kind
of this genius music guy. And so in the nineties
then he sells his company for hundreds and millions of dollars, right,
and so now at the end of the nineties, I'm
part of a big conglomeration. The record the building is
as big as this that I go into instead of
this little thing I used to well in ninety five,

(37:21):
you know the height of that, Yeah, that was it.
By two thousand and five, empty empty, nobody's a sharing music.

Speaker 7 (37:30):
It's over.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
And the.

Speaker 2 (37:33):
Sales and everything just plummeted, and I realized, wow, I'm
on my own. There's no yeah, no, no infrastructure anymore
to really you know, the radio stations had narrowed themselves
down to jack FM. Yeah yeah, exactly fifteen year olds
and you were here or not. And you know, I

(37:53):
get my songs played on you know, nineties radio and
stuff like that now. But man, it was there was
just no room for art.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
And yet there's this touring culture and you have your
fan base, and I have to imagine that stuff never.

Speaker 2 (38:06):
No, that doesn't go away. And I learned very fast.
I could see that if you were an artist and
you didn't write your stuff, and you were not a
live performer, you were, you know, just a kind of
a tract sort of person. You were not going to
make any money. You are, You're going to have money
for a year or two, and then you're not. And
you see all these people going bankrupt because of that. Fortunately,

(38:28):
I write my own stuff, so I could that's part
of an income. And then I was dedicated because I
love it to performing, to going out there. Every year
you go, I go over to Europe, I go to Australia,
you keep going back that people keep coming. You do
a show that they like, so they come and you
can do all the hits so that you know, you

(38:49):
play the songs that they love, and you just it's
that's my bread and butter. That's that goes to me,
all of that stuff, you know, and and it's that's
that's what I do now.

Speaker 1 (38:59):
Yeah, Who are the who are the acts that you
looked at as peers in the nineties when you were performing,
and I know there was obviously this amazing movement of
women musicians and of course this different voice, and so
lillath Fair there was all Who were your crew? Who
are the people that you rolled with? And who is
kind of people that you looked at and said, hey,
I see I I with this person, whether it be man, woman, whoever.

Speaker 4 (39:17):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (39:18):
Well Springsteen was a real help and a real please.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
That's amazing. It's a freehome New Jersey. I'm from, so
he is.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
And he he kind of for for a couple of
years that kind of took me under his wing, and
that was ninety Yeah, I was right on Tunnel ninety
two to about ninety nine.

Speaker 1 (39:39):
So he wasn't with the East Street Man at the time.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Yeah, he was. Yeah, and so we and and so
you know, we he helped a lot. We did a
certainly certainly you've seen the Unplugged I did with him. Okay, good,
I was like please, yes, and you know, and so
that he really, he really was helpful in letting me know, look,
you you know, you want to hit every now and then,

(40:03):
but you don't want to have too many. You want
to be known as a two artists. And he's the
one who told me go back to Europe over and over.
They'll keep coming out for you. And he knows that,
and so I've just sort of followed that. But there,
you know, there was a ton of artists in the
nineties that you know, Cheryl Crow and you know, we
all kind of were in the same boat together and

(40:25):
Lannis Morris.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
You know, Cheryl Crow was inducted into the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame. We saw Dolly Parton at halftime.
There is that something you would care about the rock
and Roll Hall of Fame. I know, we laughed as
we were talking off camera.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
Right now, do I care about it even a thing?

Speaker 1 (40:37):
Or is it?

Speaker 2 (40:38):
You know, I can't help, but it kind of is.
It's not asking a football player. Is that a thing?
It was the Hall of Fame. Yeah, it's a thing.
You would love to be part of that, and you
would hope that your music would would stand a testa
time and be thought of as as you know, contributing
something to the whole world of rock and roll. And

(40:59):
and I hope to someday be able to celebrate with
my family and do that. But I'm not going to
get all twisted up about it.

Speaker 1 (41:05):
You also have a second memoir that is out and
I think I haven't read it yet. I will, and
it's a little deeper than just music in the past
of fame. Why don't you share with the listeners what
your heart and passionates really circled around?

Speaker 2 (41:19):
Now, well, yeah, it's my life has Oh, I've just
had the most interesting life, I really have, and I'm
so grateful for my life. But one of the journeys
I've had is actually with plant medicine, you know, psychedelics
as medicine. When I went through cancer twenty years ago.

(41:39):
It played a big part in healing and kind of
setting me to understand how important my own feeling is
about myself, you know, my health, my you know choices
I make. And the psychedelics part was was was a
big part. And and in the book I talk about that,

(42:02):
I talk about I mean, the first time wasn't actually
an accidental overdose of cannabis. I call it my heroic
dose of cannabis that I went way far out on.
But it really opened my mind to a lot of stuff.
And I'm a big supporter. And unfortunately, about three years
ago I lost my son, my oldest son. He was

(42:24):
twenty one, to an opioid addiction and he had he
had gotten addicted through pain killers. He was a snowboarder
and had a really bad accident and in his foot
and so he went down that road and it was
very hard to see him. And I had wished that
there was some alternative, you know, to help him, and

(42:46):
so we have formed after he passed, reformed the Ethridge Foundation,
which is a leader in raising money to study to
get the data because you know, the government says, well,
you know, we can't deschedule these things because there's no data.
Well you can't get data because their schedule. Yeah, So

(43:07):
so we we go to foreign countries and we go
all over and in America when we can to do
to fund studies for specifically for these psychedelics, these plant
medicines and how they can help with opioid EUSt disorder
and you know, pain and all kinds of things.

Speaker 1 (43:26):
It's a beautiful show and that portional show. It's difficult.
It is for the listener and for the viewer to
watch it. You bearing your soul. It has to be
therapeutic to be able to m kind of perform and yeah,
share it with people and get it off your chest.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Yeah, every night, over and over. I mean you you
came the first night, the opening night, and it was
really intense to speak about it. But then I got
back the next night and did it, and the next night,
and by my last couple of weeks, I was like, oh,
I have found a way to organize this in my mind,
which that that that feels good, that feels like okay, yeah,

(44:03):
I'm going to be okay. I do believe this. I
do believe that my son would want me to be
happy and not struggle with any kind of guilt about
this is something I didn't do or or did too
much or whatever with him that he would want me
to happy. He's out of pain. Now he's gone, you know, physically,
but he's there and not you know. And and the
spirituality that I have it really supports me in choosing

(44:26):
not to you know, close off and make myself sick
because I lost my son. And I tell you, by
the last night, I was like, yeah, I got this.
It really it was very healing.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
What an amazing opportunity you can even do that. What's next?
What do you want to do?

Speaker 2 (44:43):
I just want to go on the road and just
play my I was.

Speaker 1 (44:46):
You could do one or the other. You could say,
I want to go on the road and playing songs,
or I want to go hibernate for the next six
months and not be seen.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
And just be going to watch football for the next
three months.

Speaker 1 (44:53):
Figure Chiefs needed you to be watching football aast few months.
Maybe that was the only thing missing.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
I'm so glad I missed the Broncos.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
I'm going to say the Broncos game wasn't the only one.
I was at the Jets game, and I'm wondering if
it's the same one.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
But I'm like, going, But doesn't it seem like that
they were trying to just see what key fit and
they would not give anybody. I don't know enough time, yes,
until I had to do this.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
We're recording this. The Raiders game just happened. They were
down fourteen nothing and they went there and we just
talked about on the show. I don't get the feeling
that they're suddenly fixed.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
No, no, no, no, no, nothing.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
This isn't the team that was beating the Titans and
the Texans in the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (45:29):
That was with that Tyreek killing and he was he
was obviously a big part of Patrick Mahomes's you know,
and and they when you had Tyreek and Travis, well
you can't double team both of them, so you know,
you always had that kind of thing going on. So Okay,
he doesn't have that, but we still have Travis and
Rushie Rice. I think he's up there in the top.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
All the numbers and he leaves the wide receivers for them.

Speaker 2 (45:54):
And then it's just that that was just it's just
throwing it to him over and over and over, getting
him confident, getting I love talking.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Defense has actually been carrying the offense the defense.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
See that's the difference. I mean, we'd play games like
I went to the game in Oh my God, do
you remember Jesus on the Wall five years ago? The
Rams back in the college.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Monday night game? Yes, and had to change it because
of the fires, so they put it Monday night and
it was fifty five to fifty one.

Speaker 2 (46:23):
I was at that game. It was the most electrifying,
awesome game. Frustrating because my defense couldn't stop them, and
now my defense can when it comes down to that
part of the game and you're like, oh my god,
if we just hold him for this, I believe that
they can. And that's that's different to a Chiefs fan
because we used to always go, all right, can they
do it?

Speaker 1 (46:43):
I don't know. You know, you have such a unique
perspective being a Chiefs fan and an international rock star.
And we've talked about it before, you and I, But
like this, Taylor Swift, Travis Kelcey, you can bringing over
a whole other audience, and a lot of football fans
are pushing it away it saying we don't need to
see her after every touchdown please, And I don't need
Travis Kelce's mom in a shot every two seconds with Taylor,

(47:04):
I get it. Yeah, you have a different perspective. You
think it's kind of cool.

Speaker 2 (47:08):
Yeah, I think it. I mean I never like to
get political or kind of you know, or or highlight
divides in our in our nation. But there is, uh,
there's obviously a rise in in the female power in

(47:30):
our society. You know, there's there's an equalization happening when
you look around and see that. Who was the best
thing for the economy in America? Oh it was Taylor Swift,
you know, just in the Barbie movie and the Barbie movie. Yeah,
so this is happening, and you know, good straight white
guys are cool with it, and and there's others that

(47:52):
are a little weird about it. So to see the
most he man, you know, cool, the dude of all exactly,
big straight white guy loving this powerful woman. That's that's
that can only be good. That can only be good.

(48:14):
It's like, look at that. See that's how you love
a powerful woman. You you embrace her, you support her
and show up and go yeah I'm here.

Speaker 1 (48:21):
There's that moment where he's down there in Argentina and
she comes running off the station I don't care how
cynical you are. I don't care how much you have
to appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Yes, we went. Nut's my fan. I can't even I've
got two. I've got a twenty seven and a seventeen
year old daughter, and they just you know, where did
you see? Did you see her? And it's so it's
such an American story and it's beautiful and and it
gives us something all to kind of look at and
go look, no, no, no, we're not divided. This is
how you can do it. We can we can grow

(48:51):
and change and get out of the weird patriarchy stuff
and be more balanced.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
Have you met Travis before? I have not that happen.
He's really great, I bet.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
I mean I've just seen him.

Speaker 1 (49:04):
You know, He's funny, so fun and it's you know,
it's not the corny like football player, it's he's clever.
Like I had that experience with him where I'm like, oh,
that was actually a good line. And he hosted Saturday
Live and was excellent.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
He was awesome. Yeah. I I hope he doesn't retire soon,
but you know, it is around the corner, and I'm
prepared for that.

Speaker 1 (49:23):
He mentioned it in the Wall Street Journal. They had
an article a big for him, and he said, you know,
eventually that day's coming, and everyone freaked out. But you know,
he's the Saint Magor's Gronkowski. Gronkowski's been out of the
game for several years. No, so he's thirty four.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
It's not it's going to have You met Taylor Swift, Yes,
well I met her once. Gosh, fifteen years ago when
when she was like a second or third album was
out and hers and regan where was it? I was
it was an Awards thing cool and I was backstage
and she was so this is when she was, you know,

(49:56):
nineteen maybe or something, really young, and she came up
to me and she was a fan, and it was
very sweet, and she goes, I just got to tell
you you You've meant so much to me. You I
saw you when I was eleven years old in Reading, Pennsylvania,
and she said, and my parents took me to see you,
and I picked up the guitar because of you.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
Oh my god, I know.

Speaker 2 (50:18):
And I tell that to my kids all the time,
just to try to get cool perspective, cool points. Yeah,
but ye, that for you? Is that?

Speaker 1 (50:24):
Janice Joplin was that Joan Bias, who was wow.

Speaker 2 (50:27):
You know, No, Janes Joplins scared me when I was
a kid. I thought it was too yeah, because I
got it when I was like eighteen or nineteen, But
when I was eleven or twelve, it was she had
weird hair and I screamed. I didn't get it. It
was there's more of the Beatles. It was more your
singer songwriters, and there wasn't a lot of women that
I looked.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Up to at that time. Joan Mitchell, like I'm trying
to wrap, Yeah, Joan.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Mitchell was as a as a songwriter. I really appreciated her.
There was an artist named Joan Armor Trading that was
that was kind of underground and big in the late
seventies early eighties that I loved. It was the songwriters.
It was Bruce Springsteen, you know, it was it was
it was Barbara Streisan, you know, I thought she was
an incredible performer. It was the you know, the people

(51:12):
that got up and were able to hold an audience
and say. I always felt like if I could sing,
if I could write, then I could, you know, stay
in that arena of singer songwriters that I that I loved.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
The Chiefs are now driving towards the playoffing, would you
go to a game in the next few weeks or
are you like, I'm good?

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Oh, it's funny if if they asked me to come
do something. Okay, anthem, I've done the anthem three times
and they've lost every time. Okay, so I know, I know,
I know, So I would have been the drum too.

Speaker 1 (51:49):
Right.

Speaker 2 (51:49):
No, I have not been that they have asked me,
but I wasn't able to get there, so I might.
I don't know. I get really comfortable at home, and
now that I have not that, I've had to watch
the games recorded.

Speaker 1 (52:02):
Do you really like There's an old Seinfeld episode where
he's like, I watch every we Met game on vc R,
don't tell me, and then right when he's about to
get to like the biggest point, someone said, no, the
Mets lost. Right, you're that person. You watch it. So
how do you stay off social media? Is you don't
see to do it? There's no bottom line ticker. You're
able to DVR a game, yeah, and you'll watch it
start to finish and somehow not get a score, not
a text, nothing. That's amazing.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
Yeah, it is amazing and nowadays, the things you can
you can watch him really fast, you know you can.
And and sometimes like the Broncos game, and I took
there's a thing it's like, you know, uh, important plays
or something up to you know, when they're playing. And
I was like, okay, just give me the And then
I watched the last quarter and I was like, oh,

(52:43):
this is horrible. All that hurt, especially in the Broncos.
But they were playing with such passion because they were
we had beat them, you know, bazillion times.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
And I'm friendly with Sean Payton, and this whole thing
was like, if I'm taking this job, I've got to
deal with Justin Herbert twice a year. And Patrick Collins
is like, I can't so him to beat Mams. Yeah, banishment,
Would you perform a song? I know we're here as weird.

Speaker 2 (53:06):
I don't know my guitar and did you play one
of your heads?

Speaker 4 (53:11):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (53:12):
Why not?

Speaker 1 (53:12):
All right? Uh, Melissa Etheridge take it away.

Speaker 2 (53:15):
Here we go.

Speaker 6 (53:27):
I would dial the numbers.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
Just listen to your birth.

Speaker 6 (53:32):
I would stand inside my head and hold the hand
of death. You don't know how far I'd go to
ease this precious ache. You don't know how much.

Speaker 7 (53:44):
I'd give how much I can take just to reach you,
Just to reach you, to reach you.

Speaker 3 (54:00):
Come to my window, all in shine, wait by the
light of the moon, Come to my window.

Speaker 8 (54:15):
I'll be on the shore. I don't care what they think.
I don't care what they say.

Speaker 7 (54:34):
What are they all about?

Speaker 4 (54:35):
This law? Where came to my window, crawling shine, wait

(54:59):
by the light of the moon, on to my window.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
I that was unbelievable. Thank you. One of my favorite
performances of all time was right there, right now. That
was so good. Howard Stern once had the Foo Fighters
on him. They played ever long acoustic on their show,

(55:27):
and He's just like, oh my god, that's how I
feel right so good, and I appreciate you doing that.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
What a pleasure, What a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (55:35):
We've been friends for a bit on social media through
the show, but I feel like we've really connected over
the last couple of years, and I just you're a
special person. Thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Thank you. In best of luck to you, and come
see me sometime when you're now.

Speaker 1 (55:46):
I'm definitely gonna be out there and we will definitely
see it, and I would.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
Love to see the perform Come have a dinner.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
All right, beautiful guys. Melssa Etherage on the season with
Peter Schrager. Uh, go about those je Aaron, that was amazing.

Speaker 5 (56:11):
I was not expecting to be recording an acoustic performance
today this morning, and that was huge highlight. That was incredible.
One of the it was great.

Speaker 1 (56:22):
That was yeah, a speech the listeners. It's four of
us in an office space and it's four of them,
and like that was amazing. Melissa Etharge so cool and gosh, uh,
that was neat. It was neat. I'm kind of spelled bout.
I'm a little awestruck right now.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
Yeah, it was nice.

Speaker 5 (56:41):
Before you came in, you know, she was sitting in
here and so we were chatting a little and I
was talking to her about different guitars and everything, and
you know, getting the story behind this guitar that she's
got with her, and she just had it and I
was like, oh, she's you know, she just has the
guitar with her. And then she didn't put it away
and then it was sitting there and then I went
for it.

Speaker 1 (56:57):
I was like, we play us one of your hits,
because I could also say, like, we play us a song,
and she does like a silly like Chief song, or
she does something where she plays like a new song.
She played the biggest song of the nineties, just like
an acoustic person.

Speaker 5 (57:11):
Yeah, you know, I think from now on, every guest,
including ocs, including you know, gms, they've got to come on,
they got to do an acoustic performance of as they
got to have.

Speaker 1 (57:21):
A talent crche Like we bring on John Schneider from
the Seahawks, and he takes us through the drafting of
a player, and like we get to watch it like
in real time, we watch his craft. In all seriousness.
I grew up listening uh to most Ethridge's music, of course,
as one of many artists from the nineties, and then
I have such an appreciation for acoustic, whether it be
VH one, UH, Storytellers, MTV Unplugged, and I mentioned to

(57:46):
her the Howard Stern performance that Dave Grohl and Foo
Fighters had have ever long, which is like consider one
of the greatest like live impromptu on a show performances.
That was that moment for us right here. That was
kind of cool. It's very different than our usual guests,
all due respect to Nick Cassario GM of the Texans.
Different element here when you got live live music was
really cool. Let's wrap it with a quick mention of

(58:10):
the game of the year, which is gonna be on Sunday,
Eagles versus forty nine Ers. I think it's the best
game on the schedule I set up before the season started.
Here's why. A. It might help decide who's home, although
I think it's gonna probably go through Philly the way
the schedules lie out. B. These teams hate each other.
It's real. They don't like each other. Deebo Samuel I

(58:30):
think called James Bradbury trash last year, and then they
asked him this week about it and he's like, no,
I double down, like I don't regret anything I say.
If you remember, Fred Warner's wife, Sidney, was in the
crowd and she came out on her podcast afterwards saying
that the Eagles fans were absolutely horrendous to her and
to the other Niners' wives. It wasn't even funny, it
was like dangerous. And then on the field, there's a

(58:51):
feeling from the Niners side that they were screwed last
year by the brock Purty injury, and that was a
freak thing that happened, and there's an asterisk, and I'm
putting this words in their mouth. It's not them saying,
but there's kind of an asterisk to the whole thing
that they didn't get a chance to play the Eagles
with their full strength, with Perdy being on the field.
So Perty's on the field, Devo's on the field, Trent
Williams on the field, Kittles on the field. Four o'clock

(59:13):
on Fox. Greg Olsen, who I didn't mention as a
potential Carolina Panthers head coach. I saw he put his
name in the mix or someone through it in their form.
He'll be calling the game with Kevin Burkhart, Erny Andrews
on the sideline. I'll be on Fox pregame doing it
from LA. But I really do feel like this is
like forget NFC Championship preview. I feel like the winner
of this game is the top team in the NFL

(59:33):
right now in the AFC is wide open. On that note,
the season with Peter Schrager delivering results is presented by
Uber Eats. It's time for delivering results presented by our
friends at all Uber eats. Where I discussed a team
or a player that deserves the award this week for
their performance last week. I'm going with the La Rams.
Running Back Kyn Williams got off the ir and went

(59:55):
for two hundred and four yards of scrimmage only a
few weeks after going for one hundred and fifty eight
yards from scrimmage against the same Cardinals team. Before he
got hurt. They were one in three when he was out,
they win the game. Suddenly, with all of these teams
losing in the NFL and especially in the NFC, the
Rams have two straight wins. They're five and six, they're
a half a game out of the playoffs, and they've

(01:00:16):
got a pretty manageable schedule up ahead. Yes, they've got
the Ravens, but after that, I think the Rams they
might do a little thing or two in the NFC
and they might find themselves as a seventh seed. Stafford
was amazing, but Kyrone william second year running back in
a Notre Dame, a Day three guy. He is our
winner of the Delivering Results presented by Uber Eats Award
for this week. On that note, I want to thank

(01:00:39):
both of you guys, Aaron Wan Kaufman, Jason English. I
want to thank everyone out in LA. I want to
thank Melissa Etheridge for wowing us today with her musical brilliance,
and I want to thank you the listeners. We've got
a lot of great feedback over the last couple of
weeks from whether it be Drew Petsing or Cassario or
last week Han Schroeder, the NFL Media EVP. It's a

(01:01:00):
wide range of guests. We're doing good things. I think
I've mentioned it before. We're in talks to see if
we can get to the super Bowl and do a
show from there. If not, that's a budgetary thing and
we'll have to just lick our wounds and keep on rolling.
In the meantime, let's continue to keep on rolling. We
can only do what we can do. We can only
control what we can control, and we're gonna continue to
get the best guests we possibly can and maybe a
live performance of a number one hit from the nineteen

(01:01:21):
nineties in studio. Enjoy the week, guys, an amazing slight ahead.
Enjoy that Eagles forty nine Ers game until next week.
This is the Season with Peter Schregan. The Season with
Peter Schrager is a production of the NFL in partnership

(01:01:42):
with iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts.