Ryan traces back to 2008, the definitive date when mainstream media abandoned all pretense of journalism and began openly rooting and echoing talking points of the Obama administration. This continued through much of the coverage surrounding Hillary Clinton during the 2016 election and almost entrirely through the Biden administration.
John Morrison went on a deep dive to write the definitive biography on the 1990s R&B sensation 'Boyz II Men' - Boyz II Men 40th Anniversary Celebration: Unofficial & Unauthorized. He joins Ryan to preview the book, due for nationwide release on Tuesday, May 20.
John Morrison went on a deep dive to write the definitive biography on the 1990s R&B sensation 'Boyz II Men' - Boyz II Men 40th Anniversary Celebration: Unofficial & Unauthorized. He joins Ryan to preview the book, due for nationwide release on Tuesday, May 20.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
During Chamber, road and network doc.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Where did you keep papers that really had to those
things that you were actually working?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Where did you keep these classified documents or otherwise papers
at your house that you were actively working on? Robert
Herr you heard his voice there. It's a little difficult
to distinguish, but I amplified it some. He asked that question.
It took just under nineteen seconds. Very basic, direct, straightforward questions,
(00:40):
not trick question. Where would you put these docums? Where
would you say you store them? What we will go
over in this segment in parts is Biden's meandering, wandering,
listless response where you can't remember names, dates, facts, figures,
where his sun died, when his sun died, if his
(01:02):
son died, was he serving overseas? What timeframe was that?
When was Trump elected? None of that all from that
basic question you just heard. We'll hear it one more
time and work stopt.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
The Bible.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Book. Where did you keep things that related to those
things that you were actually working.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
It's very open ended. It's like a multiple choice question,
like while you're working in your book, you got the
cancer moonshot and any of these things. Mister president, I'm
gonna make this real nice and easy for you, just
you know, in general, where would you say you kept
those things? And we'll get into those details in just
a moment. But further evidence of not only the cognitive
decline of Biden, that's just the tip of the iceberg
(01:52):
on this whole topic, but the wilful obfuscation by those
around him, in his immediate circle and those that were
closest to him deserve the most blame, meaning specifically doctor
and quotes Jill Biden, the Edith Wilson of our time.
Woodrow Wilson famously had a massive stroke that rendered him
basically noncommunicative for the last portion of his presidency, could
(02:15):
have been up to a year maybe, and Edith was
screening who was allowed to come into the president's quarters
Woodrow Wilson and actually interact with him. She would help
facilitate signage of Bill. I mean, this is really scandalous
for its time, but was largely buried in real time.
Same thing going on now with doctor Jill Biden sitting
(02:35):
at the head of the table in the Oval office
on Air Force one running meetings on his behalf. Do
you see Milania doing that? Did you see even Michelle Obama,
who many would say is capable of doing him. But
did she need to do that? Did she even attempt
to do that for President Barack Obama? Hillary Clinton largely
probably wanted to. But was she commandeering meetings from Bill Clinton?
(02:58):
I don't think so, and certainly not Laura Bush. So
that's modern history. But why was Jill doing Why did
Jill feel compelled to do it? Jill, you did it.
You intoed all the questions in the Bogada. That's my best,
Jill Biden. I hope you enjoyed it, but I did
not enjoy his presidency, and I know you didn't either,
and I certainly didn't enjoy being lied to. And this
(03:20):
is where I draw the line. I give you the
for instance, because the only example that comes to mind,
there's two, there's two, but the most recent one would
have been Sean Hannity, who I'm not a big fan of.
As all of you know, he's mister interrupt us during
every interview that he does, and it's really aggravating because
for some reason he keeps getting the big interviews and
(03:40):
he steps all over his guests and won't let him talk,
and it's really aggravating. But he also was doing this
kind of quasi bizarro Rachel Maddow thing with regard to
the Hillary Clinton email server and the Bleach bit and
the white being and when she was gonna be charged
and few this hunger for those of us on the
(04:02):
right that would love to see her go to jail.
And I think there's a lot of things that she
did that she needs to be held to account for.
But I'm also a realist, and I know what the
Clinton family does, what they've done, the power they wield,
and I never had faith, never had faith belief that
Hillary Clinton would be brought up on charges and prosecuted
(04:22):
and convicted and sentenced. But I'm telling you, folks, there
are people on the left, and I'm not just talking
about the looney Tune fringe, No, I'm talking mainstream Trump
derangements syndrome, having folks that truly believed Fannie Willis or
Latitia James, or Alvin Brad or Jack Smith or even
(04:44):
Merrick Garland or any of this, that Donald Trump was
going to go to jail, was going to serve hard time,
the Secret Service was going to have to accommodate him.
You know who believed that, or at least perpetuating that
belief James Comy, that guy's supposed to have a brain, right, No,
these people are incapable of thought that divorces their emotion
(05:04):
from Donald Trump. It's sad. It's a sickness. It truly
is a sickness. I know we joke about it. I'm
not joking about it. This is an illness. This is
a mental illness that any one individual would live rent
free in your head to that degree where they control
your emotions, your thoughts, your visceral reactions, your motivations, every
and it includes large swaths of the media. And what
(05:26):
I'm getting at is this was the prime reason motivation
for so many, as I illustrated in an Hour one
to run cover for Joe Biden, because they figured it
was a binary choice. Either we were going to get
another four years of Donald Trump, which ended up happening,
thank god, or Joe Biden, senile though he was, we
(05:47):
had to drag his deceased carcass across the finish line
because anything that it takes to beat Trump. But if
they truly were in that mindset of wait a minute,
who's the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump? And maybe
they just have one, but I have to believe that
if they had run an open primary with Gavin Newsom
and Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro, and I don't think
(06:08):
any of them are any great shakes, but certainly compared
to Joe Biden, and I would even venture to guess
compared to Kamala Harris. But then they were stuck with her.
Did you want to win? Was Trump really that evil?
Because that's the thing I can't square either. If he
was that evil, then you're not going to settle for
some dementia addled, you know, washed up Joe Biden as
(06:32):
your best shot to defeat Donald Trump. No, so that's
why they did the law fair and there were the
two assassination attempts. Everything they could think of could not
bring the Orange Man down. But you understand again it's delusional,
but the mindset of they couldn't afford to cover Biden fairly, folks,
this goes back to Barack Obama. That's when it started.
(06:54):
I'm telling you that's when it started. We couldn't we
never dared criticize the gray Barack Obama on I because
he was the first black president. Well, we can't do
that because if we do that then well, we're racist.
We can't do it. I mean, rush limbah did, but
what was he painted and labeled as a racist? Were
there legitimate criticisms of the Obama administration that baired mentioning
(07:17):
and coverage. Of course there were, of course, there were
fast and furious that debacle, and Libya had BEng Ghazi,
just to name a couple. I just watched a documentary
that Hutch alerted me to and I had to chuckle
through a lot of it. It was the pursuit and
capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, and I will
(07:38):
I'll stop right here and say President Obama deserves credit.
He made a decision in real time that was not easy,
was not necessarily a slam dunk to send Seal Team
six in there, raid the compound and take Osama bin
Laden out. The intelligence I would say, upon watching this
documentary was good. I wouldn't even categoriz that is great.
(08:01):
It certainly wasn't fool proof, and Joe Biden objected to it.
Of course at the time. He's never been right on
foreign policy. We've told that before by Robert Gates. But
they really painted Obama and his team as the heroes
and the w and the ministration was bungling and bumbling
their way through it, and they did. I'm not sticking
(08:23):
up for W here. I mean it took almost ten
years for us to locate and vanquish Osama bin Laden.
That is ridiculous, and I will maintain to my dying
day that had we not been sidetracked distracted on the
off ramp of a rock for whatever reason that was,
and we had dedicated our full time effort, resources, blood, treasure, lives,
(08:46):
our military boots on the ground at specifically going after
Osama bin Laden until we got him, it would not
have taken ten years, but not have taken ten years.
So W deserves his fair share of the blame. Is
administer the decisions he's made. More importantly, maybe the decisions
he didn't make, But there's that. But how they paint
(09:06):
Obama was just part and parcel what I'm talking about.
He is the anointed one, he is the exalted one.
Thou shalt not criticize the Great Barack Obama. He has
done no wrong. There were no scandals under Obama. You remember, though,
that's a talking point. Well, there were no scandals under
Barack Obama, just a tan suit. But did you live
through the Obama years. Okay, why then if Barack Obama
(09:30):
was so transformational, so great, you know, they said the
same thing about Ronald Reagan. Let's go back and let's
let's walk that path a little bit. Look at the
winning margin for Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty against a
very unpopular president sinking reelection. Well, that would have been
Jimmy Carter, and Reagan won by a sizeable amount. Fast
(09:52):
forward four years to nineteen eighty four and observe how
red the electoral map was. Walter Mondale barely won his
home state of Minnesota. That's it, and DC that's it.
So Ronald Reagan was reagan Ing, as they say on
Thirty Rock with Alec Baldwin, and he sore the reelection.
(10:14):
Bill Clinton won by a larger margin in nineteen ninety
six than he did in ninety two. George W. Bush
won by a larger margin in two thousand and four
then he did two thousand. Why did Barack Obama lose
states and lose votes between his first election historic as
it was against John McCain to his reelection bid against
(10:38):
Mitt Romney, He got less popular for one he lost me.
I was an idiot, and I believed in hope and change.
Hope he changey, especially against Hillary Clinton. I was rooting
for him. Then I'm like, you know, maybe he's a
different kind of Democrat. Maybe he's like Bill Clinton pretended
to be in ninety two and ended up being. He
got pulled back to the middle after he got humiliated
(10:59):
in the ninety four or midterm elections, and he got
nut gingrich not only on the phone but in the room.
They passed two balanced budgets. There was a lot of
sentiment I think for Bill Clinton after the impeachment scandal
that they went in kind a star looking for Whitewater
and came out with Monica Lewinsky, and how they went
from A to Z, I don't know, And I didn't
like it at the time, and I don't like it now.
(11:20):
I don't like impeaching presidents of the United States who
were duly elected. The people have spoken, move on, beat
the next one, or beat this president running for reelection.
You don't get to just remove him because he did
something in the Oval office that we all knew that
he did with Jennifer Flowers and the whole host of others.
(11:41):
Paula Jones Anyway, all this to say that the media
stopped doing its job in two thousand and eight, stop
doing its job completely. Obama's elected, that's it. He's great.
Anybody who says otherwise is racist, and we cannot go
against him. SNL had a weird cultish tribute to Barack
Obama when he was leaving office back in twenty sixteen.
(12:04):
Going into twenty seventeen, they also had that iconic image
of Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton in the white jumpsuit
at a piano undersoft lighting, playing Holly Loujah, singing it
in ohmige, almost like a dirge to Hillary Clinton's campaign, Like,
what is this? I thought it was a comedy show.
What's going on here? I feel like I'm on crazy pills.
(12:28):
But then this derivative kind of snowball down hill effect
on the media and the Democrats and the left covering
him went from Obama to Hillary, and then they just
had to do the same with Joe Biden because Trump bad, Trump, evil,
Trump Hitler, Trump supporter's Nazeison, that's it. They're very simplistic
in their approach now, and it's really sad. It's sad
(12:49):
how far down the media has fallen. There was a
post by a colleague of mine who had the utmost
respect for his names, Rich Spicer. He's been on with
me before, and when I was filling it over on KOA,
we're talking about like AI and how one of our contemporaries,
younger Gal, was doing a midday show and she was
really excited because she announced that the AI version of
(13:09):
herself was going to be hosting the middays and she
was moving to a different day part. And I'm just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Pump the brakes there, milady. If they can replace you
with yourself as AI in a day part for one
portion of the day, what's to stop them from doing
it for any portion of the day. Now we've got
(13:29):
a problem. Andy and I talked about that, But what
he was getting at in his post over the weekend
was there's local news coverage where he is, which is
kind of rural northwestern Lower Michigan looking at Traverse City
and there's only one locally owned newspaper left in the state,
to which I reply, why do you think that is?
(13:51):
And I just pointed out that when the mainstream media,
when their approval numbers are lingering somewhere around where the
Democratic Party is right now, which is extreme. They didn't
get there by accident. They got there for the reasons
I just stated. They lost the faith and trust of
the American people. They don't trust the mainstream media. They
might not even be conservative, populous libertarians like many of
(14:14):
us in this audience, but they know blank from shinola,
as my grandfather used to say, only he didn't say
the blank. They don't like to be insulted. And this
is what I'm getting at overall in this segment. Why
do liberals who consume media tolerate being lied to? Let
alone like it? I think they like it. I think
(14:35):
they like it. I think they invite more of it.
And even though they're lied, they just churn it out
and they go right back to the trough from our lives.
Rachel Maddow, Russia collusion, that whole hoax, that sham. It
was not true. And if you hated Donald Trump, weren't
you disappointed you didn't get what you wanted because it
(14:55):
wasn't true. You were lied to? Doesn't that offend your senses?
Doesn't that bother you?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
It?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Sure as blank bothers me. I don't want to be
lied to, condescended, to assume that I am as stupid
as the host who's lying to me. Rachel Maddow, Chuck Todd,
Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Splitzer, Joe Scarborough, and blank
you f you if you don't think it's true. This
(15:24):
is the best Biden ever, like you, No, even I
don't even Joe Biden doesn't believe that. Joe Biden was
probably at his best. And that was like, I don't know,
a D plus C minus maybe late eighties, early nineties
when he was chairing the Judicial Committee for Clarence Thomas
and those hearings. That's probably as good as it got
(15:46):
for Joe Biden. And here's the thing, Joe Biden would
probably agree with me on that. Maybe the Crime Bill
ninety three, ninety four, maybe I don't know, but he
certainly didn't go up from there at all. He became
vice president because he was riding in the wake of
Barack Obama and he wasn't a threat to the new president.
And it was a good kind of yin and yang.
(16:06):
You got the young black president first ever elected, and
you got the old white guy to kind of counter things.
There and they're like they're bros. They're not really bros.
They don't like each other. But it's this cavalcade of lies.
So once again I present to you Robert hur and
the question under nineteen seconds.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Late Chambers row and they were stodiens the Bible? Where
did you keep tapers that really ind to those things
that you were accidently.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Where did you keep papers that were related to those
things that you were actively working on? Okay, yes, there
we go.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Where did you keep tapers that relyated to those things
that you were accidently.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Working not at a real time?
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Here, well, I don't know, this is what twenty seventeen eighteen?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Then here.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Remember in this time, my son is either be deployed
or is dying.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Which is it?
Speaker 4 (17:28):
And and so.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
If it was his son was either deployed or was dying,
he's talking about bo Biden there, Well, which one was it?
And this isn't like they're going way back in the
time machine, folks. This report was released in February twenty
twenty four, so these interviews were conducted slightly before then,
and they're referencing a point in time going back to
(17:55):
would have been what twenty seventeen. That's seven years ago.
Do you remember things you were doing seven years ago,
places you went seven years ago? Biden continues in this
meandering answer to a very simple question.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
And by the way, there were still a lot of
people at the time when I got out of the
center but that were encouraging me, Cabron in this period,
except the president. I'm not being not me, said man.
He just saw that sh had a better shot, but
(18:29):
when president.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Than I did.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Somehow he gets down to the topic of Barack Obama
wanted to endorse Hillary Clinton instead of him running for
president in twenty sixteen. What does that have to do
with the price of tea in China or whatever Hunter
Biden was selling in China. It has nothing to do
with it. So there's this, there's the cancer diagnosis. We
were completely lied to, and those on the left just
simply lap it up and ask for more. That was
(18:57):
the biggest hit of nineteen ninety two, according to the
Billboard charts, And for many of you who graduated high
school in the nineties, I'm going to anticipate that may
well have been your class song. I was the class
of ninety two myself, and it came out that summer.
Ryan schuling with you and joining me now. He is
the author of the defendative biography about the band you
(19:17):
just heard, Boys to Men fortieth anniversary celebration Unofficial and
unauthorized John Morrison our guest, John, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Thank you for having me Ryan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Now. I'm from Detroit, so Motown is a big thing
to my mom growing up to me, of course, coming
from that region. You're from Philadelphia, and what Boys to
Men did was bridge that gap both in time and
I believe also in music between Motown and Philly. In fact,
it is the name of one of their all time
greatest hits, Motown Philly. Take us through that genesis of
(19:50):
Boys to Men. How it all began and when you
noticed them, Yeah, boys and Men.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
They actually met in high school Hereladelphia, at the High
School for the Creative and Performing Arts. You know, they
were young musicians, vocal majors who had a lot of ambition,
so they came together. Initially their name was Unique Attraction,
but they got rid of that name. They took the
(20:19):
name Boys to Men from a song written by New Edition,
just showing you know that they were kind of the
next step in that lineage of male vocal groups, you know,
picking up the baton from a new edition, and you
know they came out and you know, like you said,
Motown Philly was their first big hit. And I was
(20:43):
ten years old when Motown Philly came out and it
was everywhere, block parties, you know, family reunions. You know,
you heard it everywhere with an absolute smash and a
phenomenon was interesting because it had like that early nineties
(21:04):
hip hop production, you know, that great Dallas Austin sound
to it, but then it also had these really rich
vocal harmonies. They have, like the doop breakdown in the
middle of the song. So it felt like something that
was very new and cutting edge, but you also had
(21:26):
a sense that it stood on an older tradition and
pulled from some of the music of my parents' generation
and before.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
John Morrison our guest. And this book becomes available Tuesday,
May twentieth, so just one day away from that, and
you can order it on Amazon or your favorite bookstore.
It's got a really nice looking cover, I might add
as well, also available on Kindle. John people here unofficial
and unauthorized, and they immediately maybe jumped to a square
(21:57):
where oh, this is going to be scandalous, or it's
going to be hostile or to the group. But that's
anything but the case here. You talked to so many
people behind the scenes. The question I have though for
you is why was it important to you to write
the book that way? In other words, have it be
just kind of from an objective perspective, maybe not involving
the individual members of Boys to Men.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, I think that's exactly it. You said, you know, objective,
you know, being objective and unbiased with writing the book.
I think that this is a work of reporting, right,
I'm a music journalist. This isn't you know, a collaboration
with the band. This is something that I wrote, you know,
(22:42):
from my perspective and the perspective of the people that
I interviewed. You know, I tried to, you know, tell
a story that's about music, you know what I mean,
and culture and history. I'm not, you know, a scandalous writer,
you know what I mean. Wasn't interested in any like
(23:03):
you know, nasty stuff or whatever. Not even that I
think that the group has any of that stuff around it.
But you know, that kind of stuff doesn't interest me.
I'm interested in music and journalism. And reporting the music
as it happened. So that was important to me, you
know what I mean, having something that felt intimate and
(23:26):
felt detailed, But I personally had a little bit of
distance from the subject.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Boys to Men fortieth Anniversary celebration unofficial and unauthorized. The
biography comes out May twentieth, that's Tuesday. That's tomorrow. John Morrison,
our guest. The two things I think the jump off
the page and I guess at the time the record
you and I are getting old here, John, maybe the
CD jumps off the CD at the time that we
listened to them was both. And you touched on this
(23:53):
a little bit. Their talent, their talent was just off
the charts, and also though behind the scenes that reduction
value somebody like Babyface Kenneth Edmonds who would come into
his own a bit as a performer, but especially with
this knowledge of constructing songs and a lot of these
people who you interview involved in that process as well.
Can you take us through that nexus of how it
(24:15):
all came together and why the sound of Boys to
Men became so iconic in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, I think that the nineties were the perfect time
for a group like Boys to men. People were interested
in hip hop and R and B and how it
could be blended together more so than you know in
the eighties. I talk about this a bit in the book,
(24:43):
but there was a point in the eighties when you know,
even black R and D stations wouldn't play rap music.
You know, certainly wouldn't play it during the day unless
it was like, you know, like a breakout crossover song.
But generally the genres weren't playing together as nicely. People
just didn't see it that way, especially like the old
(25:04):
guard in the music business. So Boys and Men came
around at a time when young people wanted, you know,
a little bit of hip hop flavor in their R
and B and then vice versa, and you know, so
it was a ripe time for them to break through.
And then, you know, like you said, the talent was unbelievable,
(25:27):
the vocal talent between the four members. They were fantastic singers.
They had trained in high school at the High School
for the Creative and Performing Arts and really went through
a rigorous, you know education in music, playing or singing,
classical music, pop music, jazz, all of this stuff. So
(25:51):
once they got to the point where they were ready
to put out a record. They had really been developed,
you know what I mean, and mentored. You know, you
had folks like Michael Bivins and then later on Babyface
that were veterans in the music business at this time,
and they really helped the group develop a sound that
(26:13):
made it you know, is it made perfect sense that
they will be as successful as they were.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
John's voice sounds familiar. It may be because you've heard
him on NPR's All Songs Considered and one of my
all time favorite programs where I listen and find new music,
The World Cafe as well John Morrison, our guest John.
In the course of writing any book like this, and
you put so much time effort and flushing out resources,
(26:39):
sources and putting this story together with all of these
people that you had these conversations with. Are there maybe
one or two nuggets that you discovered during this journey
of writing the book that really jump out to you
that made you go wow?
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah, the wildest thing that I discovered while working on
this book. And you talked about this before, but Boys
to Men in nineteen ninety five, they built their own
recording studio right outside of Philly in the suburbs. So
you know, I knew that part before I started the book.
(27:14):
But what I didn't know is that the building where
they built their studio actually used to be an old
Civil War weapons factory, so they would manufacture guns and
ammunition for the world for the Civil War back in
the day. You know, I had no idea that a
(27:35):
lot of these records that boys men made were recorded
in you know, that building where weapons used to be built.
So it's just an interesting thing that reminded me that,
you know, landmarks and moments in time, they're not disconnected.
You know, they have a connection to something else.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
John, you make mention of the fact that this the
supergroup of the nineties has ambition still to come back
together to tour. There's a gen X and millennial following
that they have no doubt that would support that in
the course of this book coming out. I know that
they were not involved in the process of you writing yet,
but are you looking forward to their reaction to it?
(28:19):
I'm talking about the individual members of the group. Have
they read it, have they reacted to it yet? And
does that matter to you?
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Honestly, it doesn't, Like I don't want anybody to feel
slighted by a book that I wrote, or you know,
I know a lot of musicians are working on their
own memoirs and they, you know, may feel hostile to
another book being out on the market. But then some
you know, artists enjoy it and they're like, Yo, this
(28:49):
is cool. This person put all this time into, you know,
writing something that respects and celebrates our work. So you
never know how an artist will respond to it. But
that's not something that I like factor into my work.
Like I said, I'm a reporter. You know, if there's
a car accident on a street, you know, a reporter
(29:12):
comes out and writes a story about what happened, you know,
and that's that's what it is. So, you know, I
don't know. Hopefully it would be cool if you know,
they read it and were like, oh, this is dope.
I like this, but it's you know, it's not something
that I really think about, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
When I look at some of the names mentioned the
description on Amazon here, I look at the book ends
of the appeal to a younger generation kind of discovering
themselves and music. You have new kids on the block
on one end, late eighties of course, and then late nineties,
Backstreet Boys and syncing all in between was boys to
men in this unique sound that was coming out of Philadelphia.
(29:49):
I think also about DJ Jazzy Jeff the Fresh Prince,
the iconic cultural impact that those two had as well.
But that's just scratching the surface. I guess my final question, John,
is why you felt this book about this group was
so important to write, why you were the one to
write it, and why people need to know the story
about the music that came out of Philly at that time.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah. I think that Boystermen uh is a really significant group.
You know that uh warranted h critical I and and
and uh a revisit.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I've read uh my sing is music books, you know
what I mean. So I've read books on you know,
the great groups of throughout the years, you know, Sonic
Youth or Nirvana or the Rolling Stones, you know what
I mean. Like I've I've read a bunch of music
books about these significant artists. Uh. But Boys Men I
(30:49):
felt deserved that as far as you know, why am
I the one to write this book? You know, anybody
can write a book about a given subject. But I've
been working in Silly's music scene and covering Silly's music
scene for twenty five years. I'm a DJ, you know.
(31:11):
The music from this city, you know, is my heart.
And it's a subject that I know a bunch about,
you know what I mean. It's not like, you know, Oh,
I just like this and I'll write about it, you know,
without tooting my whole horn too much. You know, I
had the experience and the chops to write something like this,
(31:33):
so I felt like it just it made sense for
me to take this project.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
For if you live through the nineties and want to
re experience one of the landmark pop culture achievements and
impacts of that time, or if you're younger and this
always makes me kind of scared to talk about. But
if you're gen z, you missed it and you want
to live it again for the first time, this is
the book that you want to get. It's an Amazon
your favorite bookstore as well. Boy to Men fortieth anniversary
(32:01):
celebration Unofficial and unauthorized the author John Morrison joining us
here today. John, thank you so much for your time,
best of luck with the book, and I look forward
to touching base again soon.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Yeah, Brian, I really appreciate it. Man, thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
You bet. John Morrison, Boys to Men the fortieth anniversary celebration,
we are getting old. I'll take this time out come
back after this on Ryan Shuling Live. You know, I
talk about the end of the road with Boys to
Men and the fortieth anniversary, and I'm getting to the
point where I was talking to John Morris and They're like, Okay,
(32:36):
I got to figure this out. This retirement thing is
wealth building planning a little late in the game, and
I'm not ahead of the curve. I'm not even on
the curve anymore. But I'm looking to do the best
that I can to catch up with trading wealth, and
I invite you to do the same. I'm gonna have
a sit down discussion one on one this week. It'll
be on Wednesday, and my visit will be in the
(32:56):
Denver Tech Center right here in Greenwood Village, is not
far from the station. Go there too, or one of
their other three locations. Of the three locations, Broomfield or
Loveland here in the Denver Metro. You set up this
free one on one consultation by phone seven two oh
four zero five thirty three hundred, and what you're going
to get is an informed perspective on how to build
(33:18):
your portfolio, how to pull forward, maybe some other retirement plans.
You have patchwork going on, like I do. I don't
have my stuff organized. I'm the first one to admit it,
but I feel so much better just about anticipating this
meeting to sit down and getting things on the straight
and narrow, getting things sorted out, and getting my money
(33:38):
pulling in the same direction, a positive direction with Trajan
Wealth that phone number one more time seven two oh
four zero five thirty three hundred or online. You can
find them there. You can start your journey there trajanwealth
dot com. That's Trajan Wealth, a proud sponsor of Ryan
Schuling Live. Rounding out this Monday edition of Ryan Schuling Live,
(33:59):
and congratulations to front of the program Johnny Fabs, John Fabricatory.
He posts the following on Facebook and he may be
in the running for longest title ever. Now time to
end retirement, says John Fabs. Today, I was sworn in
the US Department of Health and Human Services Immediate Office
of the Secretary Senior Executive Service as a Senior Advisor,
Office of Refugee Resettlement whoa hashtag find the Kids. Another
(34:24):
great member of law enforcement in that community. We hope
that maybe he goes on. We were talking during the break,
hooray to serve in that capacity with John, and that's
Sheriff Steve Reems. Welcome to it. Thank you. Ryan.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
Yeah, you know, like I said early on some different
shows that i'd put in for something in the Trump administration,
I'm pretty open to wherever I am the best fit,
and we'll see if any of that materializes. But it's
a process. So kudos to John. He's definitely a guy
that get won on your team, no.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Doubt about it. Well, speaking of best fit, you are
that for the Dan Kaplis Show today as a guest host,
you got thirty seconds.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
Tell the people what they can look forward to. Well,
we're gonna have Dudley Brown on with Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
He's a president of that organization. He spiced it up
a little bit over the weekend with some social media
posts from his organization about a representative Ryan Armagoust, and
then in the second hour, we'll have a gun store
owner by the name of Aaron Casey.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I saw that post you're talking about, and I'm very
interested to see where that conversation goes. So stay tuned
for that. Sheriff Steve Riems in for Dan Cafles, not
just today but tomorrow or no, yes, sir, all right,
two days double dose. The good Sheriff joins us next
During Chamber, road and network doc.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Where did you keep papers that really had to those
things that you were actually working?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Where did you keep these classified documents or otherwise papers
at your house that you were actively working on? Robert
Herr you heard his voice there. It's a little difficult
to distinguish, but I amplified it some. He asked that question.
It took just under nineteen seconds. Very basic, direct, straightforward questions,
(00:40):
not trick question. Where would you put these docums? Where
would you say you store them? What we will go
over in this segment in parts is Biden's meandering, wandering,
listless response where you can't remember names, dates, facts, figures,
where his sun died, when his sun died, if his
(01:02):
son died, was he serving overseas? What timeframe was that?
When was Trump elected? None of that all from that
basic question you just heard. We'll hear it one more
time and work stopt.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
The Bible.
Speaker 2 (01:24):
Book. Where did you keep things that related to those
things that you were actually working.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
It's very open ended. It's like a multiple choice question,
like while you're working in your book, you got the
cancer moonshot and any of these things. Mister president, I'm
gonna make this real nice and easy for you, just
you know, in general, where would you say you kept
those things? And we'll get into those details in just
a moment. But further evidence of not only the cognitive
decline of Biden, that's just the tip of the iceberg
(01:52):
on this whole topic, but the wilful obfuscation by those
around him, in his immediate circle and those that were
closest to him deserve the most blame, meaning specifically doctor
and quotes Jill Biden, the Edith Wilson of our time.
Woodrow Wilson famously had a massive stroke that rendered him
basically noncommunicative for the last portion of his presidency, could
(02:15):
have been up to a year maybe, and Edith was
screening who was allowed to come into the president's quarters
Woodrow Wilson and actually interact with him. She would help
facilitate signage of Bill. I mean, this is really scandalous
for its time, but was largely buried in real time.
Same thing going on now with doctor Jill Biden sitting
(02:35):
at the head of the table in the Oval office
on Air Force one running meetings on his behalf. Do
you see Milania doing that? Did you see even Michelle Obama,
who many would say is capable of doing him. But
did she need to do that? Did she even attempt
to do that for President Barack Obama? Hillary Clinton largely
probably wanted to. But was she commandeering meetings from Bill Clinton?
(02:58):
I don't think so, and certainly not Laura Bush. So
that's modern history. But why was Jill doing Why did
Jill feel compelled to do it? Jill, you did it.
You intoed all the questions in the Bogada. That's my best,
Jill Biden. I hope you enjoyed it, but I did
not enjoy his presidency, and I know you didn't either,
and I certainly didn't enjoy being lied to. And this
(03:20):
is where I draw the line. I give you the
for instance, because the only example that comes to mind,
there's two, there's two, but the most recent one would
have been Sean Hannity, who I'm not a big fan of.
As all of you know, he's mister interrupt us during
every interview that he does, and it's really aggravating because
for some reason he keeps getting the big interviews and
(03:40):
he steps all over his guests and won't let him talk,
and it's really aggravating. But he also was doing this
kind of quasi bizarro Rachel Maddow thing with regard to
the Hillary Clinton email server and the Bleach bit and
the white being and when she was gonna be charged
and few this hunger for those of us on the
(04:02):
right that would love to see her go to jail.
And I think there's a lot of things that she
did that she needs to be held to account for.
But I'm also a realist, and I know what the
Clinton family does, what they've done, the power they wield,
and I never had faith, never had faith belief that
Hillary Clinton would be brought up on charges and prosecuted
(04:22):
and convicted and sentenced. But I'm telling you, folks, there
are people on the left, and I'm not just talking
about the looney Tune fringe, No, I'm talking mainstream Trump
derangements syndrome, having folks that truly believed Fannie Willis or
Latitia James, or Alvin Brad or Jack Smith or even
(04:44):
Merrick Garland or any of this, that Donald Trump was
going to go to jail, was going to serve hard time,
the Secret Service was going to have to accommodate him.
You know who believed that, or at least perpetuating that
belief James Comy, that guy's supposed to have a brain, right, No,
these people are incapable of thought that divorces their emotion
(05:04):
from Donald Trump. It's sad. It's a sickness. It truly
is a sickness. I know we joke about it. I'm
not joking about it. This is an illness. This is
a mental illness that any one individual would live rent
free in your head to that degree where they control
your emotions, your thoughts, your visceral reactions, your motivations, every
and it includes large swaths of the media. And what
(05:26):
I'm getting at is this was the prime reason motivation
for so many, as I illustrated in an Hour one
to run cover for Joe Biden, because they figured it
was a binary choice. Either we were going to get
another four years of Donald Trump, which ended up happening,
thank god, or Joe Biden, senile though he was, we
(05:47):
had to drag his deceased carcass across the finish line
because anything that it takes to beat Trump. But if
they truly were in that mindset of wait a minute,
who's the best candidate to defeat Donald Trump? And maybe
they just have one, but I have to believe that
if they had run an open primary with Gavin Newsom
and Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro, and I don't think
(06:08):
any of them are any great shakes, but certainly compared
to Joe Biden, and I would even venture to guess
compared to Kamala Harris. But then they were stuck with her.
Did you want to win? Was Trump really that evil?
Because that's the thing I can't square either. If he
was that evil, then you're not going to settle for
some dementia addled, you know, washed up Joe Biden as
(06:32):
your best shot to defeat Donald Trump. No, so that's
why they did the law fair and there were the
two assassination attempts. Everything they could think of could not
bring the Orange Man down. But you understand again it's delusional,
but the mindset of they couldn't afford to cover Biden fairly, folks,
this goes back to Barack Obama. That's when it started.
(06:54):
I'm telling you that's when it started. We couldn't we
never dared criticize the gray Barack Obama on I because
he was the first black president. Well, we can't do
that because if we do that then well, we're racist.
We can't do it. I mean, rush limbah did, but
what was he painted and labeled as a racist? Were
there legitimate criticisms of the Obama administration that baired mentioning
(07:17):
and coverage. Of course there were, of course, there were
fast and furious that debacle, and Libya had BEng Ghazi,
just to name a couple. I just watched a documentary
that Hutch alerted me to and I had to chuckle
through a lot of it. It was the pursuit and
capture and killing of Osama bin Laden, and I will
(07:38):
I'll stop right here and say President Obama deserves credit.
He made a decision in real time that was not easy,
was not necessarily a slam dunk to send Seal Team
six in there, raid the compound and take Osama bin
Laden out. The intelligence I would say, upon watching this
documentary was good. I wouldn't even categoriz that is great.
(08:01):
It certainly wasn't fool proof, and Joe Biden objected to it.
Of course at the time. He's never been right on
foreign policy. We've told that before by Robert Gates. But
they really painted Obama and his team as the heroes
and the w and the ministration was bungling and bumbling
their way through it, and they did. I'm not sticking
(08:23):
up for W here. I mean it took almost ten
years for us to locate and vanquish Osama bin Laden.
That is ridiculous, and I will maintain to my dying
day that had we not been sidetracked distracted on the
off ramp of a rock for whatever reason that was,
and we had dedicated our full time effort, resources, blood, treasure, lives,
(08:46):
our military boots on the ground at specifically going after
Osama bin Laden until we got him, it would not
have taken ten years, but not have taken ten years.
So W deserves his fair share of the blame. Is
administer the decisions he's made. More importantly, maybe the decisions
he didn't make, But there's that. But how they paint
(09:06):
Obama was just part and parcel what I'm talking about.
He is the anointed one, he is the exalted one.
Thou shalt not criticize the Great Barack Obama. He has
done no wrong. There were no scandals under Obama. You remember, though,
that's a talking point. Well, there were no scandals under
Barack Obama, just a tan suit. But did you live
through the Obama years. Okay, why then if Barack Obama
(09:30):
was so transformational, so great, you know, they said the
same thing about Ronald Reagan. Let's go back and let's
let's walk that path a little bit. Look at the
winning margin for Ronald Reagan in nineteen eighty against a
very unpopular president sinking reelection. Well, that would have been
Jimmy Carter, and Reagan won by a sizeable amount. Fast
(09:52):
forward four years to nineteen eighty four and observe how
red the electoral map was. Walter Mondale barely won his
home state of Minnesota. That's it, and DC that's it.
So Ronald Reagan was reagan Ing, as they say on
Thirty Rock with Alec Baldwin, and he sore the reelection.
(10:14):
Bill Clinton won by a larger margin in nineteen ninety
six than he did in ninety two. George W. Bush
won by a larger margin in two thousand and four
then he did two thousand. Why did Barack Obama lose
states and lose votes between his first election historic as
it was against John McCain to his reelection bid against
(10:38):
Mitt Romney, He got less popular for one he lost me.
I was an idiot, and I believed in hope and change.
Hope he changey, especially against Hillary Clinton. I was rooting
for him. Then I'm like, you know, maybe he's a
different kind of Democrat. Maybe he's like Bill Clinton pretended
to be in ninety two and ended up being. He
got pulled back to the middle after he got humiliated
(10:59):
in the ninety four or midterm elections, and he got
nut gingrich not only on the phone but in the room.
They passed two balanced budgets. There was a lot of
sentiment I think for Bill Clinton after the impeachment scandal
that they went in kind a star looking for Whitewater
and came out with Monica Lewinsky, and how they went
from A to Z, I don't know, And I didn't
like it at the time, and I don't like it now.
(11:20):
I don't like impeaching presidents of the United States who
were duly elected. The people have spoken, move on, beat
the next one, or beat this president running for reelection.
You don't get to just remove him because he did
something in the Oval office that we all knew that
he did with Jennifer Flowers and the whole host of others.
(11:41):
Paula Jones Anyway, all this to say that the media
stopped doing its job in two thousand and eight, stop
doing its job completely. Obama's elected, that's it. He's great.
Anybody who says otherwise is racist, and we cannot go
against him. SNL had a weird cultish tribute to Barack
Obama when he was leaving office back in twenty sixteen.
(12:04):
Going into twenty seventeen, they also had that iconic image
of Kate McKinnon as Hillary Clinton in the white jumpsuit
at a piano undersoft lighting, playing Holly Loujah, singing it
in ohmige, almost like a dirge to Hillary Clinton's campaign, Like,
what is this? I thought it was a comedy show.
What's going on here? I feel like I'm on crazy pills.
(12:28):
But then this derivative kind of snowball down hill effect
on the media and the Democrats and the left covering
him went from Obama to Hillary, and then they just
had to do the same with Joe Biden because Trump bad, Trump, evil,
Trump Hitler, Trump supporter's Nazeison, that's it. They're very simplistic
in their approach now, and it's really sad. It's sad
(12:49):
how far down the media has fallen. There was a
post by a colleague of mine who had the utmost
respect for his names, Rich Spicer. He's been on with
me before, and when I was filling it over on KOA,
we're talking about like AI and how one of our contemporaries,
younger Gal, was doing a midday show and she was
really excited because she announced that the AI version of
(13:09):
herself was going to be hosting the middays and she
was moving to a different day part. And I'm just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Pump the brakes there, milady. If they can replace you
with yourself as AI in a day part for one
portion of the day, what's to stop them from doing
it for any portion of the day. Now we've got
(13:29):
a problem. Andy and I talked about that, But what
he was getting at in his post over the weekend
was there's local news coverage where he is, which is
kind of rural northwestern Lower Michigan looking at Traverse City
and there's only one locally owned newspaper left in the state,
to which I reply, why do you think that is?
(13:51):
And I just pointed out that when the mainstream media,
when their approval numbers are lingering somewhere around where the
Democratic Party is right now, which is extreme. They didn't
get there by accident. They got there for the reasons
I just stated. They lost the faith and trust of
the American people. They don't trust the mainstream media. They
might not even be conservative, populous libertarians like many of
(14:14):
us in this audience, but they know blank from shinola,
as my grandfather used to say, only he didn't say
the blank. They don't like to be insulted. And this
is what I'm getting at overall in this segment. Why
do liberals who consume media tolerate being lied to? Let
alone like it? I think they like it. I think
(14:35):
they like it. I think they invite more of it.
And even though they're lied, they just churn it out
and they go right back to the trough from our lives.
Rachel Maddow, Russia collusion, that whole hoax, that sham. It
was not true. And if you hated Donald Trump, weren't
you disappointed you didn't get what you wanted because it
(14:55):
wasn't true. You were lied to? Doesn't that offend your senses?
Doesn't that bother you?
Speaker 3 (15:01):
It?
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Sure as blank bothers me. I don't want to be
lied to, condescended, to assume that I am as stupid
as the host who's lying to me. Rachel Maddow, Chuck Todd,
Jake Tapper, Anderson Cooper, Wolf Splitzer, Joe Scarborough, and blank
you f you if you don't think it's true. This
(15:24):
is the best Biden ever, like you, No, even I
don't even Joe Biden doesn't believe that. Joe Biden was
probably at his best. And that was like, I don't know,
a D plus C minus maybe late eighties, early nineties
when he was chairing the Judicial Committee for Clarence Thomas
and those hearings. That's probably as good as it got
(15:46):
for Joe Biden. And here's the thing, Joe Biden would
probably agree with me on that. Maybe the Crime Bill
ninety three, ninety four, maybe I don't know, but he
certainly didn't go up from there at all. He became
vice president because he was riding in the wake of
Barack Obama and he wasn't a threat to the new president.
And it was a good kind of yin and yang.
(16:06):
You got the young black president first ever elected, and
you got the old white guy to kind of counter things.
There and they're like they're bros. They're not really bros.
They don't like each other. But it's this cavalcade of lies.
So once again I present to you Robert hur and
the question under nineteen seconds.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
Late Chambers row and they were stodiens the Bible? Where
did you keep tapers that really ind to those things
that you were accidently.
Speaker 1 (16:43):
Where did you keep papers that were related to those
things that you were actively working on? Okay, yes, there
we go.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Where did you keep tapers that relyated to those things
that you were accidently.
Speaker 1 (16:58):
Working not at a real time?
Speaker 4 (17:00):
Here, well, I don't know, this is what twenty seventeen eighteen?
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Then here.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Remember in this time, my son is either be deployed
or is dying.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Which is it?
Speaker 4 (17:28):
And and so.
Speaker 1 (17:34):
If it was his son was either deployed or was dying,
he's talking about bo Biden there, Well, which one was it?
And this isn't like they're going way back in the
time machine, folks. This report was released in February twenty
twenty four, so these interviews were conducted slightly before then,
and they're referencing a point in time going back to
(17:55):
would have been what twenty seventeen. That's seven years ago.
Do you remember things you were doing seven years ago,
places you went seven years ago? Biden continues in this
meandering answer to a very simple question.
Speaker 4 (18:07):
And by the way, there were still a lot of
people at the time when I got out of the
center but that were encouraging me, Cabron in this period,
except the president. I'm not being not me, said man.
He just saw that sh had a better shot, but
(18:29):
when president.
Speaker 3 (18:30):
Than I did.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Somehow he gets down to the topic of Barack Obama
wanted to endorse Hillary Clinton instead of him running for
president in twenty sixteen. What does that have to do
with the price of tea in China or whatever Hunter
Biden was selling in China. It has nothing to do
with it. So there's this, there's the cancer diagnosis. We
were completely lied to, and those on the left just
simply lap it up and ask for more. That was
(18:57):
the biggest hit of nineteen ninety two, according to the
Billboard charts, And for many of you who graduated high
school in the nineties, I'm going to anticipate that may
well have been your class song. I was the class
of ninety two myself, and it came out that summer.
Ryan schuling with you and joining me now. He is
the author of the defendative biography about the band you
(19:17):
just heard, Boys to Men fortieth anniversary celebration Unofficial and
unauthorized John Morrison our guest, John, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
Thank you for having me Ryan, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Now. I'm from Detroit, so Motown is a big thing
to my mom growing up to me, of course, coming
from that region. You're from Philadelphia, and what Boys to
Men did was bridge that gap both in time and
I believe also in music between Motown and Philly. In fact,
it is the name of one of their all time
greatest hits, Motown Philly. Take us through that genesis of
(19:50):
Boys to Men. How it all began and when you
noticed them, Yeah, boys and Men.
Speaker 3 (19:57):
They actually met in high school Hereladelphia, at the High
School for the Creative and Performing Arts. You know, they
were young musicians, vocal majors who had a lot of ambition,
so they came together. Initially their name was Unique Attraction,
but they got rid of that name. They took the
(20:19):
name Boys to Men from a song written by New Edition,
just showing you know that they were kind of the
next step in that lineage of male vocal groups, you know,
picking up the baton from a new edition, and you
know they came out and you know, like you said,
Motown Philly was their first big hit. And I was
(20:43):
ten years old when Motown Philly came out and it
was everywhere, block parties, you know, family reunions. You know,
you heard it everywhere with an absolute smash and a
phenomenon was interesting because it had like that early nineties
(21:04):
hip hop production, you know, that great Dallas Austin sound
to it, but then it also had these really rich
vocal harmonies. They have, like the doop breakdown in the
middle of the song. So it felt like something that
was very new and cutting edge, but you also had
(21:26):
a sense that it stood on an older tradition and
pulled from some of the music of my parents' generation
and before.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
John Morrison our guest. And this book becomes available Tuesday,
May twentieth, so just one day away from that, and
you can order it on Amazon or your favorite bookstore.
It's got a really nice looking cover, I might add
as well, also available on Kindle. John people here unofficial
and unauthorized, and they immediately maybe jumped to a square
(21:57):
where oh, this is going to be scandalous, or it's
going to be hostile or to the group. But that's
anything but the case here. You talked to so many
people behind the scenes. The question I have though for
you is why was it important to you to write
the book that way? In other words, have it be
just kind of from an objective perspective, maybe not involving
the individual members of Boys to Men.
Speaker 3 (22:19):
Yeah, I think that's exactly it. You said, you know, objective,
you know, being objective and unbiased with writing the book.
I think that this is a work of reporting, right,
I'm a music journalist. This isn't you know, a collaboration
with the band. This is something that I wrote, you know,
(22:42):
from my perspective and the perspective of the people that
I interviewed. You know, I tried to, you know, tell
a story that's about music, you know what I mean,
and culture and history. I'm not, you know, a scandalous writer,
you know what I mean. Wasn't interested in any like
(23:03):
you know, nasty stuff or whatever. Not even that I
think that the group has any of that stuff around it.
But you know, that kind of stuff doesn't interest me.
I'm interested in music and journalism. And reporting the music
as it happened. So that was important to me, you
know what I mean, having something that felt intimate and
(23:26):
felt detailed, But I personally had a little bit of
distance from the subject.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
Boys to Men fortieth Anniversary celebration unofficial and unauthorized. The
biography comes out May twentieth, that's Tuesday. That's tomorrow. John Morrison,
our guest. The two things I think the jump off
the page and I guess at the time the record
you and I are getting old here, John, maybe the
CD jumps off the CD at the time that we
listened to them was both. And you touched on this
(23:53):
a little bit. Their talent, their talent was just off
the charts, and also though behind the scenes that reduction
value somebody like Babyface Kenneth Edmonds who would come into
his own a bit as a performer, but especially with
this knowledge of constructing songs and a lot of these
people who you interview involved in that process as well.
Can you take us through that nexus of how it
(24:15):
all came together and why the sound of Boys to
Men became so iconic in the nineties.
Speaker 3 (24:22):
Yeah, I think that the nineties were the perfect time
for a group like Boys to men. People were interested
in hip hop and R and B and how it
could be blended together more so than you know in
the eighties. I talk about this a bit in the book,
(24:43):
but there was a point in the eighties when you know,
even black R and D stations wouldn't play rap music.
You know, certainly wouldn't play it during the day unless
it was like, you know, like a breakout crossover song.
But generally the genres weren't playing together as nicely. People
just didn't see it that way, especially like the old
(25:04):
guard in the music business. So Boys and Men came
around at a time when young people wanted, you know,
a little bit of hip hop flavor in their R
and B and then vice versa, and you know, so
it was a ripe time for them to break through.
And then, you know, like you said, the talent was unbelievable,
(25:27):
the vocal talent between the four members. They were fantastic singers.
They had trained in high school at the High School
for the Creative and Performing Arts and really went through
a rigorous, you know education in music, playing or singing,
classical music, pop music, jazz, all of this stuff. So
(25:51):
once they got to the point where they were ready
to put out a record. They had really been developed,
you know what I mean, and mentored. You know, you
had folks like Michael Bivins and then later on Babyface
that were veterans in the music business at this time,
and they really helped the group develop a sound that
(26:13):
made it you know, is it made perfect sense that
they will be as successful as they were.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
John's voice sounds familiar. It may be because you've heard
him on NPR's All Songs Considered and one of my
all time favorite programs where I listen and find new music,
The World Cafe as well John Morrison, our guest John.
In the course of writing any book like this, and
you put so much time effort and flushing out resources,
(26:39):
sources and putting this story together with all of these
people that you had these conversations with. Are there maybe
one or two nuggets that you discovered during this journey
of writing the book that really jump out to you
that made you go wow?
Speaker 3 (26:53):
Yeah, the wildest thing that I discovered while working on
this book. And you talked about this before, but Boys
to Men in nineteen ninety five, they built their own
recording studio right outside of Philly in the suburbs. So
you know, I knew that part before I started the book.
(27:14):
But what I didn't know is that the building where
they built their studio actually used to be an old
Civil War weapons factory, so they would manufacture guns and
ammunition for the world for the Civil War back in
the day. You know, I had no idea that a
(27:35):
lot of these records that boys men made were recorded
in you know, that building where weapons used to be built.
So it's just an interesting thing that reminded me that,
you know, landmarks and moments in time, they're not disconnected.
You know, they have a connection to something else.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
John, you make mention of the fact that this the
supergroup of the nineties has ambition still to come back
together to tour. There's a gen X and millennial following
that they have no doubt that would support that in
the course of this book coming out. I know that
they were not involved in the process of you writing yet,
but are you looking forward to their reaction to it?
(28:19):
I'm talking about the individual members of the group. Have
they read it, have they reacted to it yet? And
does that matter to you?
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Honestly, it doesn't, Like I don't want anybody to feel
slighted by a book that I wrote, or you know,
I know a lot of musicians are working on their
own memoirs and they, you know, may feel hostile to
another book being out on the market. But then some
you know, artists enjoy it and they're like, Yo, this
(28:49):
is cool. This person put all this time into, you know,
writing something that respects and celebrates our work. So you
never know how an artist will respond to it. But
that's not something that I like factor into my work.
Like I said, I'm a reporter. You know, if there's
a car accident on a street, you know, a reporter
(29:12):
comes out and writes a story about what happened, you know,
and that's that's what it is. So, you know, I
don't know. Hopefully it would be cool if you know,
they read it and were like, oh, this is dope.
I like this, but it's you know, it's not something
that I really think about, to be honest.
Speaker 1 (29:28):
When I look at some of the names mentioned the
description on Amazon here, I look at the book ends
of the appeal to a younger generation kind of discovering
themselves and music. You have new kids on the block
on one end, late eighties of course, and then late nineties,
Backstreet Boys and syncing all in between was boys to
men in this unique sound that was coming out of Philadelphia.
(29:49):
I think also about DJ Jazzy Jeff the Fresh Prince,
the iconic cultural impact that those two had as well.
But that's just scratching the surface. I guess my final question, John,
is why you felt this book about this group was
so important to write, why you were the one to
write it, and why people need to know the story
about the music that came out of Philly at that time.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Yeah. I think that Boystermen uh is a really significant group.
You know that uh warranted h critical I and and
and uh a revisit.
Speaker 1 (30:27):
You know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (30:29):
I've read uh my sing is music books, you know
what I mean. So I've read books on you know,
the great groups of throughout the years, you know, Sonic
Youth or Nirvana or the Rolling Stones, you know what
I mean. Like I've I've read a bunch of music
books about these significant artists. Uh. But Boys Men I
(30:49):
felt deserved that as far as you know, why am
I the one to write this book? You know, anybody
can write a book about a given subject. But I've
been working in Silly's music scene and covering Silly's music
scene for twenty five years. I'm a DJ, you know.
(31:11):
The music from this city, you know, is my heart.
And it's a subject that I know a bunch about,
you know what I mean. It's not like, you know, Oh,
I just like this and I'll write about it, you know,
without tooting my whole horn too much. You know, I
had the experience and the chops to write something like this,
(31:33):
so I felt like it just it made sense for
me to take this project.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
For if you live through the nineties and want to
re experience one of the landmark pop culture achievements and
impacts of that time, or if you're younger and this
always makes me kind of scared to talk about. But
if you're gen z, you missed it and you want
to live it again for the first time, this is
the book that you want to get. It's an Amazon
your favorite bookstore as well. Boy to Men fortieth anniversary
(32:01):
celebration Unofficial and unauthorized the author John Morrison joining us
here today. John, thank you so much for your time,
best of luck with the book, and I look forward
to touching base again soon.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
Yeah, Brian, I really appreciate it. Man, thank you.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
You bet. John Morrison, Boys to Men the fortieth anniversary celebration,
we are getting old. I'll take this time out come
back after this on Ryan Shuling Live. You know, I
talk about the end of the road with Boys to
Men and the fortieth anniversary, and I'm getting to the
point where I was talking to John Morris and They're like, Okay,
(32:36):
I got to figure this out. This retirement thing is
wealth building planning a little late in the game, and
I'm not ahead of the curve. I'm not even on
the curve anymore. But I'm looking to do the best
that I can to catch up with trading wealth, and
I invite you to do the same. I'm gonna have
a sit down discussion one on one this week. It'll
be on Wednesday, and my visit will be in the
(32:56):
Denver Tech Center right here in Greenwood Village, is not
far from the station. Go there too, or one of
their other three locations. Of the three locations, Broomfield or
Loveland here in the Denver Metro. You set up this
free one on one consultation by phone seven two oh
four zero five thirty three hundred, and what you're going
to get is an informed perspective on how to build
(33:18):
your portfolio, how to pull forward, maybe some other retirement plans.
You have patchwork going on, like I do. I don't
have my stuff organized. I'm the first one to admit it,
but I feel so much better just about anticipating this
meeting to sit down and getting things on the straight
and narrow, getting things sorted out, and getting my money
(33:38):
pulling in the same direction, a positive direction with Trajan
Wealth that phone number one more time seven two oh
four zero five thirty three hundred or online. You can
find them there. You can start your journey there trajanwealth
dot com. That's Trajan Wealth, a proud sponsor of Ryan
Schuling Live. Rounding out this Monday edition of Ryan Schuling Live,
(33:59):
and congratulations to front of the program Johnny Fabs, John Fabricatory.
He posts the following on Facebook and he may be
in the running for longest title ever. Now time to
end retirement, says John Fabs. Today, I was sworn in
the US Department of Health and Human Services Immediate Office
of the Secretary Senior Executive Service as a Senior Advisor,
Office of Refugee Resettlement whoa hashtag find the Kids. Another
(34:24):
great member of law enforcement in that community. We hope
that maybe he goes on. We were talking during the break,
hooray to serve in that capacity with John, and that's
Sheriff Steve Reems. Welcome to it. Thank you. Ryan.
Speaker 5 (34:36):
Yeah, you know, like I said early on some different
shows that i'd put in for something in the Trump administration,
I'm pretty open to wherever I am the best fit,
and we'll see if any of that materializes. But it's
a process. So kudos to John. He's definitely a guy
that get won on your team, no.
Speaker 1 (34:54):
Doubt about it. Well, speaking of best fit, you are
that for the Dan Kaplis Show today as a guest host,
you got thirty seconds.
Speaker 5 (34:59):
Tell the people what they can look forward to. Well,
we're gonna have Dudley Brown on with Rocky Mountain Gun Owners.
He's a president of that organization. He spiced it up
a little bit over the weekend with some social media
posts from his organization about a representative Ryan Armagoust, and
then in the second hour, we'll have a gun store
owner by the name of Aaron Casey.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
I saw that post you're talking about, and I'm very
interested to see where that conversation goes. So stay tuned
for that. Sheriff Steve Riems in for Dan Cafles, not
just today but tomorrow or no, yes, sir, all right,
two days double dose. The good Sheriff joins us next
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