Ep 15: Johnny Be Goode Part I

Send us a text

Support the show

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, welcome back.
Episode 15, tales from anAirport Bar.
As usual, it's Chris, and I amwith my esteemed co-host, your
boy Blake.
We're back, baby, yes, sir, andwe have an excellent, excellent
guest for you this week.

(00:21):
Been anticipating him since westarted this show.
Number one storyteller, greatfriend commandant, welcome to
the show, john.
Thank you so much for coming ontoday.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Awesome.
Thanks, man.
This is freaking.
I'm really excited what youguys got going on.
When you told me about thisback in the summertime.
I was like hopped up about Imean seriously hopped up about
really getting onto this and Iwas like want to do it and it's
taken forever Freaking ourschedules busy shit, jesus Lord.

Speaker 1 (00:58):
But yeah, big time but yeah, super pumped.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I hopefully this, I want to see this thing go far
for you guys because I'm superproud of both you guys.
Just met Blake over.
Yeah, cheers Got some JohnnyWalker Blue going, Uh-oh.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Feel free to pour yourselves a drink.
Yeah, so it's just a podcastabout the bar.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Known Chris, for Get your drinks ready.
Shit, 24 years man, oh wow.
I'll get into that in A littlebit more detail here.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Well, this is coming up the end of the summer.
Yeah, 24 years.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, 24 years, oh, and I got a good story.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
I bet you got a couple, but so, john, talk to me
how, what year did you start Atthe?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
airport.
Okay, so let's start there.
I'm very long-winded.
I want to make this episodeabout five hours long.
Just joking, I love it.
I love it so actually.
So I never considered this myvery first date of when I
started.
I usually my very first date is, and I'm big on dates, but May
28th 98 is when I say my firstday I really started.

(02:02):
But when I really started, butwhen I really started, because
it's only for a glimpse Iactually.
So I was working, I had a joband I took off like summer 97.
I saved up some money.
I was having fun, I was 23years old I was just like you
know, just having a good time.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
Swinging dick.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
Well, I actually had a girlfriend at the time, my
ex-girlfriend.
I didn't go to school, I justworked my ass off, saved up some
money.
I had a good job, I had goingon, but I left it in good terms
and I sort of was wanting tomove up there.
It had nothing to do withairports a whole different kind
of you know but I used up a lotof my money, a little bit more.

(02:44):
Yeah, good background Used upmy money a little bit more than
I wanted to during that summerand I was like, hey, I need a
little side job.
I did not want to and I neverreally thought about waiting.
People get it, waitingbartending, whatever, dude.
I found this back when Freakingfound an ad in the paper
Four-star telegram.

(03:05):
I was just looking.
It said Chili's 2, terminal C.
You know freaking.
You know you want to be part ofthe opening team.
You know start a new.
You know they already hadChili's B, which I didn't know
Chili's 2, b Terminal.
Actually, back then it wascalled 2W.
Remember you go to 6W, youw,training at host and all that.
So yeah, that was back when itwas letter terminals and all

(03:26):
that and whatever, or no, it waslike number terminals.
I think they call it like 2W.
You know freaking, you know 2Byeah, so this is why, and they
started changing it pretty much.
I guess 98, 99.
I'm not sure on that day forsure, but so for sure I ended up
found an ad in the paper.
It said hey, come join our team.
Blah, blah, blah.
I was like, no, what?

(03:48):
All this stuff?
Be part of a great team, thishave fun, all this stuff.
We didn't know anything aboutwhat kind of money you made out
there.
I didn't know.
I knew nobody.
Everybody that's come on afterme, because I've got a lot of
people on.
You're like, you know, for someof you.
I was like, hey, why not dothis guy, this guy, I mean even
back, even the late 90s, you gotto get out here.
This is freaking good money.
I didn't know anything aboutthat.
So I got on, did the training.

(04:10):
Oh, it said at the bottom, itsaid call, ask for Frank Howell.
I was like, who's this guy?
Yeah, I'm like, oh shit, yeah.
So I ended up, uh, yeah, dude,with Frank, a very odd guy,
whatever you know.
but he was just you know.
I mean now you know he's amastermind for, for a
millionaire, whatever.

(04:31):
uh did the training, as thereare two weeks working.
I was making some really goodmoney, it was cool.
So, as they're almost aboutfour weeks, and I ended up
leaving, leaving because my oldjob said, hey, we had this other
position, it wasn't.
You know, I did a lot of manuallabor.
Hey, we're going to, you know,self-service this and you can
open up and do other things sosort of left them high and dry,

(04:54):
but I still left them.
I was like, hey, man, I gotable to sort of had a shift.
I was like, hey, man, I can'twork.
Also, I got this fuckinghorrible haircut.
Also, I got this fuckinghorrible haircut and they fucked
my hair.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
I was like I'm not going to go wait tables on this
shit, so it made it.
Yeah, I was just like thisperson.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Sam's fucking, I don't know.
Sam Summers fantastic Sam.
Yeah, I don't know, sheprobably don't remember it.
She fucked my hair up butwhatever.
So I was like whatever dudejack my hair up.
I was like dude, yeah, I can'tcome in, but I did have a new
opening at the Southern.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
So I went and did that.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
I was there all through 97, 98.
Things didn't work out and Isaid fuck this, I was like
checking out other things.
I was like you know what, I'mgoing to go back to the airport.
I was like I sort him.
I said, hey, I'm sorry, I gotthis.
And the main guy I was talkingto, somebody named Mike, and he
was just like hey, man, Iunderstand he was cool.
So I don't know how they wroteme down or wrote me off or

(05:50):
whatever, but I was like man.
Another thing is I never hadexperience, and so myself I told
Frank in that interview he'slike so, man, what about
yourself?
Yeah, I was like no dude.
I was like I'll freaking, Iwon't you know.
I was like I won't let you down.
Well, I was just like I'll getback to that in a minute.
So.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
I said I won't let you down Whatever Go into.

Speaker 2 (06:13):
I called Terminal B Cause I was like dude, I ain't
going to go to C, I didn't knowwhatB and I call and say hey,
you guys hiring blah, blah, blah, blah.
And they were just like, becauseI knew nobody really over there
.
I didn't, you know, I had somepeople but I didn't hang out
that whole short time at C, Ididn't hang out with anybody, I
didn't really know anybody.
So go over to B, get hired,they have me in.

(06:38):
They're like hey, blah, blah,blah.
I was like, hey, I worked overhere with a girl, Sandra, that
was a manager of a C.
I talked to her on the phone.
She's like.
John, I remember you.
No, yeah.
Yeah, she's like dude, we needsome people, go ahead and call
on in.
I was like, cool, yeah, so comein, I go in.
It's May 20th.
She's like well, hey, wealready, you don't need no badge
, you just walk in the damnairport and go in May 28th.

(07:08):
I mean, it's so crazy.
It's sort of May 28th of whatyear 98.
May 28th 1998.
So I'm walking in there and thefirst thing on the freaking TV
I walk into and this I'm a SNLguy, phil Hartman just got him
and his wife, she killed himDouble suicide, whatever.

(07:30):
I walk in and I see that I'mlike dude.
She's like are you okay?
I was like Phil Hartman.
She's like okay.
She's like blah, blah, blah.
This is B, it's a little bitdifferent than C.
She's like okay.
Moving right along.
We're not worried about this.
We're walking in the back, theway this kitchen is.

(07:52):
So you walk back here and yougo, and then here.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
This is one thing you've got to say.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Corner, you're going to get bitch slashed.

Speaker 1 (07:58):
Have you ever done this?

Speaker 2 (07:59):
You're walking at your house, you're going around
the corner, or I'm going to thebathroom in the terminal and
some guy getting on my butt andhe's like what Is this guy
yelling at me?
Corner is just in your blood.
It's muscle memory, I'll do itat the mall or something.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Sometimes Do it in my damn sleep Kitchen out Behind
behind.

Speaker 2 (08:18):
Full hand, full out.
So we're going around there andI was just like, okay, and do
more, turn the corner to go inthe back.
She's like okay, so this is thekitchen, blah, blah, it's good,
it was right here.
Well, I hear this dude just insinging.
I was like what's this guy?
And he's going you're the bestaround, I'm just never going to
get you down, just fuckingsinging.

(08:40):
And she's like Colin, calm down.
She's like hey guys, this isJohn.
I was like this fucking karatekid.
He's like what's up, bro,fucking chest bumps me.
Big girly dude Guy named ColinArnold.
Fucking dude, I'm sorry.
Airport legend Rest in peacebrother.
I mean the dude passed awayabout two years ago.
Awesome guy, anybody that'slistening.

(09:02):
If you know this guy, holy shit.
I don't even have to sayanything and you know, not even
to make it less dude.
Fucking Brent Archibald.
I met those two guys right atthe same time and that sort of I
mean dude.
These guys go on.
I mean they were part of ourgroup.
I mean and so met those guysthere at Chili's.
So Chili's was great, Greattimes, and just it all went.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
you know all the time You're young.
You're in your 20s.

Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, so that's just a little start there.
I'll go back to that, go intomaybe some other stories.
But so I went to Chili's.
I ended up sort of in 2000.
So that's there about two years.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
They left Another guy named Thomas left.
They all went to Vintage Texas.
They're like bro, you got to goto this place and I was like
man, okay, whatever, differentcompany.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah yeah, different company.
So I ended up finally doingboth jobs.
I was just like Frank Howe Backthen.
He would pull you out.
He'd cop to you outside 45minutes.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
I was like Jesus, john, I don't mean to interrupt
you but for our listeners' sake,Kevin talks about Frank busting
his ass for closing therestaurant early and then going
through the Red Book.
He was coming through security.
That's on.
I think like episode five orsix called.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
The Little Red Legend with Kevin.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Frank Howe.
So Frank Howe, he was sort of Idon't know GM partner.

Speaker 1 (10:29):
Well, he was an owner slash proprietor slash GM yeah.
He had his hands in everythingfrom.
Starbucks to what Hudson News.
He owned 10 different news.

Speaker 2 (10:46):
So this guy would be in my shit all the time like
dude, this nitpicking, and I waslike dude, get off my ass.
He wouldn't be mean, he wouldjust be man, john, you need to
do this and that.
Come on, let's go out and turnthe world upside down.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
So basically that company.
He was the GM of that company,but he was also part owner,
which is this huge conglomeratecompany now Back then he was
actually opening every morningtoo.
But that company.
That particular company ownedthe Chili's yes, and you decided

(11:19):
to go to work for this othercompany called Anton Air.
Foods Anton Air Foods yes,which owned the vintage Texas
concepts that you worked at?

Speaker 2 (11:28):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Okay, so the Chili's was in what terminal?

Speaker 2 (11:32):
There's Chili's in C, but I was working at the
Chili's in B.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
Okay, and then you were working at the Vintage
Texas.
In what terminal?

Speaker 2 (11:39):
Vintage Texas was E31 .
Okay, so there was one E31.
And E12.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
E12 and E31.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
So there was one E31, E12, and E16.
Where I started E12.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
In the art bar and then I went back to it, that
came on afterwards I was hiredto go to the art bar, started at
E12, went to the art bar, backto E12.
Yeah, E16.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
Yeah, I know it's like, did the jump jump this?
This?
Yeah, so, yeah, yeah, so, so,yeah.
So I was working both.
I ended up getting a job there,finally left.
I'll never forget leaving.
I think it's like march of 01 Istarted.
I started vintage texas e31,november of 2000.
So I was working both jobs,finally left march of 01.

(12:17):
I remember walking out of 6w orwhatever you call it, the, the
office and I was like I'll neverbe at this place again.
Shit Three more times on thatmotherfucker.
I didn't have anything againstFrank.
I'll come back to Frank.

Speaker 1 (12:34):
That was a hard company to work for, very
micromanaged.
Very micromanaged.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
He was nitpicked Everything.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
We're just selling burgers and beers and chilies,
Give me a break.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
He talked to mepicked everything.
We're just selling burgers andbeers at Chili's, Give me a
break.
But he would talk to me about45 minutes and I was like that
person's taking my tables now,what the hell?
So ended up going over toVintage.
So Vintage got a lot of shit onyou know.
Talk about that.
Great, that was my best job andI've met some of the best
people that I'm still friendswith, close friends with.
They're like family and prettymuch met.

Speaker 1 (13:06):
I know one of those guys yeah.

Speaker 2 (13:10):
Chris is right here and then actually also met a
great girl.
I work with Victoria.
She's one of my best friends.

Speaker 1 (13:19):
Oh, not to mention, you know, a great girl named
Christy.

Speaker 2 (13:26):
Through her I met Christy, which just happens to
be my wife now Going on 23 years.
So, yeah, I mean my familystarted all through the airport,
A lot of great friends and allthat which still today and we've
got more.
I can talk on that.
So I was there, Then ended upgoing over with Varsity, so that
shut in 03.
I'm still going to jump back onthat.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
What shut in 03?

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Vintage Texas E31 closed in 2003.
July, by the way.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
And then it reconcepted into Varsity.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
But that didn't open back up until January of 04.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yes, which I ended up going to and being the unit
manager of that one.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
So yeah, for a while we jumped over A16, the other
vintage Texas.
Then I ended up.
When Varsity opened I went overto E12.
We'll get into some goodstories there.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
When we say E12, A16, these are the flight gates
going out of the DFW terminals.

Speaker 2 (14:25):
I was there for a while.
Host came back into our lives.
Frank Howe host there.
They bought all of thoseconcepts from the Antons, all
the vintage Texas's.
You got away from them and thenthey bought it.

Speaker 1 (14:40):
They bought out the company we worked for.

Speaker 2 (14:43):
I know you and Kevin talked about where they were
like hey, since we werebartender managers and it was
great.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yeah, we were bartending, getting paid tips
and then we were managinggetting paid a salary.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
It was badass.
It's cool, great, freakinggreat.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
Yeah, when I was 23 and I just had a new baby, it
sounded like a great gig and Iwas there for two weeks until
September 11th.

Speaker 2 (15:10):
Yes, but no, so I'll just jump in.
So I was there when hosts camein.
I ended up already had a plan,so we had to become a bartender.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
Yeah, you had to go one way or the other.
You had to be a bartender.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
They took over in December of 05.
I ended up.
My wife was pregnant with myboy and he was due in June of 06
.

Speaker 1 (15:34):
Oh, it sounds like I'm going to put on a shirt and
tie.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
So, yeah.
So thank you, host.
Thank you, frank.
They did pay for the wholepregnancy.
I didn't get it, but I had aplan.
I ended up getting back out ofthe airport.
I got out of the airport for alittle bit, went to a place
called Air Chef over at LoveField it's outside.
It was a catering for privatejets.

Speaker 1 (15:52):
What year did you go do the private catering for jets
?

Speaker 2 (15:56):
So that I left.
I started in March of 06.
So you were at the vintagetexas concepts.
Then it got bought out by hmsand I stayed with hms till june
of oh six.
But I was already workingairship so I already had a plan.
I was like I ain't gonna bedoing this shit forever.
Remember dennis was on.

Speaker 1 (16:15):
He said I can't take this stuff with you know dennis
was our gm at vintage texas, whohad to switch over to hms host
too, who left right after yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:26):
He was like oh, you're doing this shit.
Sorry for all this names around, you know, yeah so, but yeah,
so did that.
Then came back to tagines,which is, under different
companies, an irish pub in thenew, in the new international.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, that was new.

Speaker 2 (16:39):
At the time, eternal d uh was there with you.
We ended up.

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Well, yeah, dennis ended up cherry picking us and
bringing us over there.
Dennis was over there.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
We worked there, we managed Wait what this is like?
Oh, so I started managingAugust 08.
And we got you on about two,three months after, yeah, and we
were both there.
We both left in 2013.
So I jumped over back totequila.
I was backtracking the tequilaRia, which used to be at the E12

(17:11):
.
And this was a host area HMShost.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
They reconcepted it into the tequila, went back to
bartending.

Speaker 2 (17:17):
That was great.
That shut down.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
It's always something there's a shutdown, it's always
fucking nothing that ever lastsforever or the lights move or
something, and then crazy thingis I know this is on probably,
or they build a new terminal.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
The listeners are probably like what is it?
But it ended up.
I went back to Terminal Bbecause people got shoved back
around and I was already likeman.
I'm 41 years old and I'm like Igot to do something.
I was doing eBay.
I always had a side job,something going on, and so it
was cool going back therebecause there's a lot of new

(17:52):
people.
But some of the old schoolpeople, that people that were in
their 40s when I was there backin the late 90s, were still
there about to retire and theyknew that Terminal B was going
to be closing as well.
And so, remember, because thatclosed and I'll get to some of
the other detailed stories withthat but I ended up leaving, not

(18:13):
wanting to leave yet I sort ofhad a plan, but I had some
personal stuff happen and so Ipretty much I say May 28th and
98th and my last day was June20th 2015.
So, and I remember the day,it's cause they're sort of
detailed, crazy.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
So you worked at the airport, a total of 17, 17 years
a little, not a year in between.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Wait a second.
Wait a second.
Wait a second.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
So you worked at DFW for 17 years.
What about, so, after you leftin you?
So after you left in, you saidMay 28th of what year?
June?

Speaker 2 (18:46):
20th 2015.
Yeah, when I left there.
That's the last day.
I've never been back.
I've never worked in arestaurant, bar, anything.
I've been on my own working.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
Oh, okay.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
So you did not go back to SkyJet, that was cutting
time.
Yeah, okay, cool.
When I left that day I did notknow that was going to happen.
There was some crazy turn ofevents, a lot of things that
happened, but yeah, so that's mywhole.
Sorry took a freaking hour onthat.
That's my fault so yeah, that'swhat happens we have a long
history and you know a lot ofthese jobs.

(19:18):
I didn't want to leave thefirst Chili's I did.
I'm going to go back to myfriends or vintage Texas school.
I was like, oh, this is family,and it was and it still is.
And that's the thing, man.
It was like a big camaraderieand brotherhood.
Yeah, exactly, you know ofpeople that you work with.

Speaker 1 (19:32):
Well, for I mean, you know, you still don't you
commission the fantasy footballleague.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
So all these people that keep coming on our podcast.
So vintage on our podcast or inin vintage Texas.
Um.
So we were all talking there's.
You know, back in 2002 we weretalking.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
You know, I've been doing that's where I started, at
the airport myself.

Speaker 2 (19:52):
So I've been doing fantasy football fucking back
from 94 paper leagues, you know.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
I still got to leave with some guys we've been going.

Speaker 2 (19:59):
We're going on 32nd year.
So back then you did it onpaper and finally eventually got
it on Yahoo.
Jesus Lord.
It was like I got to get on acomputer and do this.
Fuck yeah, you can sit therewith your newspaper and take
points.
People are like, oh, thisscore's not the right thing.
Well then, you got to rememberwho's been picked.
Oh he got picked in 2002,started the 2002 season.

(20:23):
We sat there and it was, wewere all talking and we were
just like hey, let's do afantasy league.
And this is at Vintage TexasE31.
And it was me, davey, jason,joe, joe, a guy named Billy and
Brent, and so there's just sixof us.

(20:45):
We did our own little league.
It's just that we were all injust that restaurant.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
So we did our draft at.
You know how.
Both of the restaurants itwraps around.
We had a table that wrappedaround.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
So they were L-shaped and you would walk in and you
would turn the corner to theleft and go to the back and like
nobody could see you back there.

Speaker 2 (21:07):
No, but if you're sitting in the back you could
see all the tarmac you could seethe air.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
Yeah, you could look out and see the air.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
The purview and all that.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
It was really cool.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Okay, let me switch it on.

Speaker 1 (21:17):
Scotch, scotch, scotch.

Speaker 2 (21:20):
It tastes so good when it hits my lips the scotch
is going down good, so yeah.
So we ended up.
We had a draft we did it on.
It's called Table 40.
I remember Table 40.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
We did a lot of stuff on Table 40.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
Put it's going down.
We played cards, we playedtwo-card.
Gut, we freaking.
That was after hours.

Speaker 1 (21:45):
Just freaking lost a lot of money.
We would walk in and you guyswould be back there gambling
with people flying out.
You guys would be back theretaking everybody's money.
We would play bar.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
We would lose a lot of money.
We got customers involved A lotof times.
We'd shut the gate.
We're done, sit there, we'dplay cards.
There'd be customers insidewith the gate.
So we did our draft on table 40.
Reason I'm bringing that upwhen I talked to you yesterday,
when I was talking to you, Istill got table 40 in my garage.

(22:18):
Oh wow, you have the actualtable.
When that place closed, I saidI'm taking table 40.

Speaker 1 (22:25):
There's cocaine.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
On the god damn table .
There's a lot of shit, a lot ofsmoke, a lot of stuff.
A lot of stuff happened on thattable.
I didn't have sex, but otherpeople did.

Speaker 1 (22:41):
Oh, so I was going to ask any babies can see Any
babies can see.
So table 40, that all went downat Vintage Texas at gate.
Okay, so the terminal was E atgate 31.
Is that right, john?
Yes, yes, okay.

Speaker 2 (22:59):
So yeah, so that's a league that started and that's
something that has gone on, andactually we're going on to
freaking year 24, and it'scalled the Vintage Texas E31
Fantasy Football League, year 24and it's called the vintage
texas e31 fantasy footballleague and, uh, you know we've
had so that those six were theoriginal ogs and sadly there's

(23:20):
three of us.
You know, a couple of themmoved on, one, you know, just
sort of got out of it.
Uh, actually, brent, if youwant to call his a franchise,
you know, james brown, yourbrother has carried on that so
he, he didn't really come ontill two years later, but and we
, jumped up, kevin and Iactually played that league.
Y'all played it one time.

(23:41):
Uh, johnny Barback, there's alot of people, yeah.
So, um, now it's not everybodythat's been at their port, but
people.
You know everybody it's friendsof friends and you know that
we've all.
You know everybody it's friendsof friends and you know that
we've all you know have have theleague now but, yeah, it's,
it's been going strong sincethen and you know it's just a
cool thing.
So, and another thing, there'slike Chuck Joe, brother Joe, we

(24:07):
know a lot of Joe's, you know,and they they worked at the
other concepts but they've beenpart of the league for now.
They're going on like 22 years,but yeah, so, something that
has come from the, you know,from the airport, you know, and
we have a, you know, it's like afraternity, like you know a
brotherhood.

Speaker 1 (24:24):
Well, that, and you know you've been through yes,
it's like I think Justin andSpencer, on a couple of our
episodes, mentioned it's like,well, okay, so I've moved on to
a different concept.
And you walk in on the firstday and you're like oh shit, I

(24:46):
know you, I know you.

Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, yeah so, but but one thing I mean, I mean
yeah, no, go right.
So you know I got a lot of crazythings that's happened.
A lot of different people I'vemet, cool encounters, crazy
sports stories, uh, personalstories I mean, um, but some of

(25:11):
that sort of set the tone, gointo everything.
I know y'all probablyexperienced something like that,
everybody sort of has.
And this is sort of the wholevibe at the airport.
And one of the crazy thingsabout being out there is, like
you know, and I've heard y'alltalk about you never know what's
going to happen.
It's a new day.
I mean, it ain't the same old.

(25:32):
It's never a new moment.
So something crazy, somethingnew.
And you know my first place.
So at Terminal B waiting tables, chili's.
At Chili's Terminal B back in98.
So that summer I remember wewere busy and there, see, and
here's another thing you onlyhad like six tables.
You got the bar area.

(25:52):
You'd have multiple.
It got a little crazy overthere, and I'm not saying
bartending, there was like acocktail area.
So you had that area bartendingthe bartenders, and then you
had four different sections.
Each section had like five, sixtables.
But dude, I mean you wereturning those quick.

Speaker 1 (26:08):
You were busy.

Speaker 2 (26:13):
You're.
When you're busy, you're closeto the kitchen.
Yes, sometimes quicker isinsane.
One thing I'll never forgetthere's one table Thursday.
Thursday is crazy.
Friday is crazy.
All day is crazy.
I'd run around, head cut off,sweating, hot summer day.
By the way, I had AC in my carthat year.
It was really bad.
I'm sitting there.
I had these light green chilishirts.
I had AC in my car that year.
It was really bad.
I'm sitting there and I hadthese sort of light green chili

(26:35):
shirts.
I had to keep my arms sweatingthrough my arms.
It was a hot summer.
I had this table.
It was table four.
It was a man and his wife andtwo kids, teenagers.
I'm like, hey guys, they're justlike sitting there like sort of

(26:56):
dead to the world and I wasjust like, oh jeez, I'm busy,
you know busy, you know,sometimes people don't really
communicate well.
And I was like hey, and thelady's like I think we need a
couple, and I was like, hey, noproblem, no problem, I'll come
back.
I was like whatever, well, Ijust did the first.
I just brought some water ballsto the wall.

Speaker 1 (27:14):
Busy in those restaurants.

Speaker 2 (27:15):
And you got it and you know, when I was younger and
I was 23 and I'm just like Ididn't care.
Here's the thing.
I got really quick.
Therefore, and I never this isone thing.
It bugged me and I knoweverybody about it.
I never really bitched abouttips because the news is going
to fucking make the money.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
That's all I quit.
I was like dude.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
I'm making money, I'm happy.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
You got to take the good with the bad.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
Hey, this person didn't.
I don't get mad about it, itstiffed me, someone else will
sit down and tip.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
You Never really got stiff.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
But even I didn't give that girl a tip.
Sometimes the conversationmeans more than anything, or
sometimes people just not be anasshole.
I've had people be toldassholes give me the biggest
ditch.
Well, you know?

Speaker 1 (27:53):
yeah, exactly so you never know, and sometimes people
just don't want you to talk tothem at all and just leave them
alone.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
And then they'll be like thanks for yeah, yeah, and
we talk about that you have tobe able to read the room people
don't give you anything, but I'mlike you know what, whatever,
whatever.
So these people, they're justlike and dude, seriously, you
know, it's one of those.
It felt like it was an hour.
I was just like.
It's literally probably about20 minutes, which is a long time
.
Most people are gone at thatpoint, yeah, so I brought them

(28:19):
waters and I was like, hey guys,they're just like I don't.
I was like, okay, and I wastrying to be calm with them.
I really don't feel I showedany kind of you know, like I was
getting impatient, but I wasjust sitting there and other
people like you know, whenyou're going, you're going,
you're going quick, Becausethere's eight other guys.

(28:40):
Jesus Lord, I'm just sittingthere and I say hey guys but I'm
inside going Jesus Lord, canyou just tell me what you want?
But I've dropped them somewaters, they're just still
sitting there.
They had straws and they'rejust sitting there, like you
know, just drooping.
And I was like, so I come back.
And I didn't want to.
And then I thought, you know,when you go and ask the table, I
was like I don't want to askanymore, I'll wait until they.

(29:02):
So, I go back and it's been agood 15 minutes.
I was like, oh man.
And I was like, hey guys.
And I was like, man,something's up here.
I was like, hey guys, the ladysort of grabs my arm.
I'm like I'll touch you with it, blake, I just met you.
I was like, yeah, oh dude, thisis one of these things that
just I'm going nuts.

(29:23):
You know me, I got ADD.
I'm freakingda-da-da-da-da-da-da-da,
Certainly waiting tables.
This is one of those moments.
Stop you in your damn tracks.
And she's like.
She's like, hey, we're, I'msorry, we're.
I was like, oh, it's okay.
And she's sort of grabbed myarm like this.
She's like we're actuallyflying to go pick up her son's

(29:43):
body.
He just passed away at college.
And I'm just like, and theywere just like, had tears and
they're like, yeah, they losttheir older brother.
And I was like, I'm just justlike my legs are taken out of me
.
I was just like I'm so sorry.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
I was like oh, my God , I was like hey guys, okay, I'm
so sorry.

Speaker 2 (30:04):
They're like we're sorry.
I was like hey, you know, letme bring some chips.
I was like, what did I do?
I was like totally just stoppedme in my tracks and so I've had
that.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
I had that happen a couple weeks back, man, this
lady well, you ask somebodywhere they're going, you're like
hey, you're going somewhere fun.
They're like oh, I'm going tothis funeral to bury the and
you're saying, yeah, bury yourson, you know bury your kid.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
You don't, you know, you don't want, you don't want
to have no.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, that's almost the worst.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
I I mean it's inevitable.
Both of my parents have passed.
I mean it sucks.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
but yeah, but you're not supposed to go before.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
Yeah, you know, and I was like God man, I was like
whoa, and so pretty much justsort of set the tone.
So one thing that happened, sowe had a very spiritual lady
named Wanda, her host, and shecaught wind of it.
She prayed with everybody.
So Sondra, the lady I talkedabout, my manager, she ended up

(30:58):
and I told her and she evenasked she's like hey, why don't
we have any food?
You know?
Like why are these people?
What's going on here?
Yeah, so we ended up takingcare of the whole meal and they
were super nice.
I don't even remember what theyleft me.
I don't even remember what theyleft me, I don't even care.
But Wanda came over there andI'm going to tie this in.
It's weird because it's sort ofthe start of set the tone of
you never know what everybody'sgoing through, you never know

(31:21):
what anybody's going through.
A lot of times I haven't beencool with everybody.
I mean I've got into it people.
I've never had a brisketsandwich thrown on me.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
At least it was good brisket.

Speaker 2 (31:37):
Or if you had a bottle of liquor thrown at you
or you mixed water, like me.
That happened to me.
Yeah, I love that story, chris.

Speaker 1 (31:45):
Well, didn't she throw the pepper at you.
She came back Watch it downwith this shit.
She came back just todeliberately make sure.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Yeah, jesus, so yeah.
So Wanda came over.
We were like sitting there, meand my manager, and I was like
wait what?
I held hands, we freakingprayed God dang freaking busy
shitting the weeds on a Thursdaynight and it was weird.
She was like I need to pray forhim.
It was really sweet and allthat Got something sort of the

(32:15):
full circle I'll talk aboutlater.
All right, real weird thingthat happened.
That's later in my career, atthe very end, actually the last
day, which is crazy on that June20th, I told about real weird
but crazy things I have in theairport and I don't want to get
into all the sad stuff, but whatdid you want me to talk about,

(32:38):
chris?
Well okay, talking about notknowing what people are going
through, we lived.

Speaker 1 (32:44):
I mean, excuse me, we worked in the International
Terminal Terminal, yeah, and weworked in this Irish pub concept
and then, above it was aconcept that was closed down and
our company took it over, uh,along with the Irish pub, and

(33:06):
they opened up, uh, a pizza andwine bar.
Yeah, we, we had to walkupstairs to get to it like three
flights of stairs.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
And our office was upstairs right next to it.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah and uh, when we managed the Irish pub together.
Yeah, our man, our manageroffice, was always up there next
to this closed down restaurant.
Yeah, then eventually theyturned it into the pizza and
wine bar.
Yes, well, I had left work oneday and I had been gone for
maybe about 10, 15 minutes tops.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
I think you were off that day.
It was me and Taryn.
Remember, Taryn?
For some reason I remembercalling you that night about
this story.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Oh, I thought I had.
No, I had worked that morning,okay.

Speaker 2 (33:49):
And I had just left when this went down.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
So yeah, I remember leaving.
You did call me later thatevening I was like this happened
right after I left, actually,so I'm leaving for the day.
You're coming in for work andyou're upstairs at the pizza

(34:14):
well, I'd work there.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
I think we all worked there together all day.
You left early, I was there,because I was there all day that
day.
It was a long day, okay, so me,and there's other manager,
taryn, that was there as well Iforget because we remember we
had three managers.
I ended up working all together.
Um so, taryn, cool, cool girlthat worked there.
Um so, uh, it was towards theend of the day.

(34:38):
We usually close both conceptsaround nine ish, you know but
that was pretty yeah.
Close around nine and this wasupstairs.
Uh so throw the date out.
There it was.
I remember very clearly it'sDecember 1st 2011.
And the Pizzavino was only openprobably about four or five
months, I think, and so we hadthat.

(35:00):
I was taken.
Taryn was inside checkingeverything.
I was getting paperwork ready.
It was sort of slow.
It was already slowing down forThursday you shouldn't be all
crazy and sometimes you can stayopen to 10 on Thursday night.
Thursday nights are very busyat the airport and this was
leading up to Christmas time, soyou know.
So we ended up there was a tableover, sort of by my office you

(35:23):
know those tables and so Icouldn't even even in my privy I
get sort of behind the entrance.
So I was eating.
I was like freaking eating, Iwas freaking hungry, I was doing
paperwork, getting ready towrap up the night, getting

(35:44):
everything you know, starting toget some people leaving early,
doing checkouts and sort of my Idon't want to say peripatetic,
just sort of a little.
Behind me was the entrance andall I hear.
All of a sudden, taryn startsrunning out with it looked like
a herd of just all these peoplestarted leaving yelling.
She's like John, john run, andI'm just like what the?
She's like run, run, he's got abomb.
And I'm like what the?
So I get up and I start likerunning.

(36:06):
I'm like I don't know what thefuck's going on.
I don't see anybody, what ishappening.
So I take off, I stop right atthe office.
She's like no, dude, all thesepeople running by me, like all
these customers and they wereactually, it was actually pretty
full for Pizzavino, so and I'mjust sitting there, she's like
John, they got a bomb, go, go.
So we're running, run down andgo down the escalator.
So I call 911.

(36:28):
You know our concept.
Hey, this is manager pizza.
You know, I don't even knowwhat's going on, but someone
saying there's a bomb, all thesepeople running out, so we all
run down and get on theescalator.
I'm like I don't know whathappened.
And, dude, everybody saidPatrick was in there.
Uh, tanya, uh, that girl, becca, um, the cooks people and they

(36:48):
just feel like a ghost and I waslike what's going on?
they're just like.
And then there was some othercustomer guy coming down the
escalator, started yelling well,there's still people down there
getting on flights.
And I'm like, hey, don't makethis whole airport freak out.
I was like, so tears, like dude.
There's a guy.
He said he has a bomb.
He's in his hand.
I was like so this all happenedwithin a matter of something, I

(37:09):
mean a of minutes.
We're downstairs.
Well, I'm like, well, nothing'sgone off.
I mean it's stupid.
So I run back up there Cause Iwas like, well, why did I?
Sort of stupid.
I was like, and she's like Johndon't.
And I was like, and I was like,I don't know, this is yeah,
okay, so there's a side entrance, but where these people came

(37:32):
out, we're out of the frontentrance and it's sort of on the
opposite side of the sideentrance.
Yeah, so I go and I sort oflook back that way and then I
run it back to the front.
Well, all of our people, scott,scott, who worked downstairs at
Tegin, uh, freaking.
Um.
Dion, who who was his?
He was a cook.
No, yeah, he was a cook atTagine and that was our place

(37:53):
downstairs from Pizzavino.
All the people ran up like whatthe hell is going on.
We heard them yelling.
They came up to it instead ofgoing away.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
Yeah, so they ran out .

Speaker 2 (38:01):
So I run behind them.
When I run behind them, there'sthis dude sitting there.
He's sitting there with a phoneand this guy is looking off
into the, looking off into the.
He's going bomb, bomb andfreaking uh, who's dion's god?
Dang it.
The other cook it was his, likehis son-in-law, but they were.
Yeah, I can't.

(38:21):
Oh gosh, I feel horrible.
Younger guy yeah, so he.
He was just like man we'regonna kick your ass and the guys
like and dion.
He's like from jamaica.
He's like, hey, man, dude, justbe cool.
And this guy's like, and yousaw from that side door cops
like drop it.
And he sort of drop it and dude, this guy's like you see, like

(38:44):
I saw his eyes and they went andtackled him and, freaking,
handcuffed him.
So I was like holy shit, it's afucking bomb threat.
I was like holy shit, it's afucking bomb threat.
I was like this guy's goingaway.
He's goddamn fucking in theairport.

Speaker 1 (38:56):
So that's when you called me, no, no, but then you
called me again later, that'sjust the first story.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Yeah, so go on.
Oh, it's airport officials, allthese people, because it's a
bomb threat.
So, dude, you got all thesepeople, the cops, all these
people they're questioners andall this stuff questioning
everybody.
So obviously we shut down.

Speaker 1 (39:21):
Place is shut Pay your check and get out.
Maybe not, we don't know whereyou are.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
Some people are really nice and like, hey,
here's my debt.
Hey, we're so sorry, I juststarted giving.
I just closed every fuckingcheck and the guy being there, I
think I told Tanner, tanner,just avoid every check, don't
worry about it.
Yeah, keep the cash.
There were a lot of customersthat came back up.
We're so sorry, can we pay?

Speaker 1 (39:44):
Yeah, what about my pizza?

Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, Is that extra well-done pepper?
Yeah, it's still in the oven.
So this guy, they have himhandcuffed.
Life flight's boring, well.
So we're sort of standing inthat he's lucky he got
handcuffed.
Oh, dude, he is.
So there's cops up there sothey're questioning, talking to
everybody.
You know, shut the place downfor the night.

(40:09):
I went ahead and told everybodyhey, y'all, shut down your body
.
It sounds like 9 o'clock.
Everybody's coming up formonsters, y'all.
Okay, what the hell is going on?
As I was talking about, bringback that little side door,
we're standing sort of in theentrance.
There's cops, there's someairport officials, people are
questioning us, taking notes.

(40:30):
Hey, what happened?
Investigators from the airportare already like.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
They're on you know it's a federal airport, so yeah,
I'm sure Most of the time thesepeople don't have anything to
do, oh shit, and they're likehuge, huge.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
So that side entrance is goes out and you can
overlook one of the main likeyeah, there's like a guardrail
and you can look down to otherconcepts and down to the second
floor.
Yes, so they put this guy inhandcuffs, set him in a chair.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
Next to that back entrance.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
Yes, there's a cop I forget his name, it was an older
cop, he was about to retire,cop standing.
He was just like on guard thereand we could see him like we
were.
I forget his name, it was anolder cop, he was about to
retire, caught standing.
He was just like on guard thereand we could see him like we
were looking around the corner.
They're asking, they're askingeverybody what they saw and I
said, hey, I'm the one.
I call 911.
I show other people I didn'tsee anything in here, pretty
much what the guy did.
He was wandering around.

(41:28):
I did see that guy earlierwandering around, earlier one in
a round sort of loss.
He said people do that and wepay attention.
You're sort of like, okay,observe what's this guy doing.
But there's a lot of people.
When people get in the airportthey're in a whole different
world.
Sometimes their brain justturns on.

Speaker 1 (41:44):
Yeah, and when they start drinking?

Speaker 2 (41:46):
any extra, whatever they want to take, because
they're freaking out Xanax orwhatever.

Speaker 1 (41:50):
People just go on a whole different they're on a
different planet once they comeinside so this guy and he seemed
a little like sort of lost.

Speaker 2 (41:59):
I remember him walking over to the bathroom.
I remember seeing him earlierand Taryn brought it up, said,
hey, you remember that guyearlier and you know man, I was
like, yeah, this is around 6o'clock and she was like, yeah,
well, I saw him sort of walkaround but didn't think anything
of it, but he didn't go inthere.
Well, he went in there.
There was a girl named tanyafirst day she started.
She was over towards that sideentrance.

(42:19):
He grabbed her, yeah, and shewas trying to shake him off.
Or patrick ran over and he justyelled bomb.
I got a bomb and patrick didn'tsee it.
He freaked out.
He's like god damn.
So he started running.
She shook him off and ran andthat's when he started.
I guess he was yelling bomb.
Taryn was in there.
She started running out,everybody started running out.

Speaker 1 (42:42):
I didn't know what the hell.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Yeah, I ran, I didn't know.
I'm like I didn't really thinkof it, I was just like but I ran
back up there and I was justlike dude, what the hell.
So I saw that I was crazyseeing get taken down and so
we're in there questioning,we're talking to, you know,
these officials and I was overby.
So you know I'm in the frontentrance, I know the viewers

(43:05):
can't see me, but I'm trying toshow that it's a big open conch
sections over here and so youcan see through the kitchen, the
kitchen ovens, but then oversort of behind, I could see over
the corner where I was at, Iwas talking and you could see
that guy sitting over there justoutside that side entrance.
Yeah, by that railing, by therailing upstairs, and dude, I'm

(43:27):
talking to this lady and I justsee out of my peripheral.
I was like I just see out of myperipheral.
I was like what?
And I see these legs fly overthis dude in his handcuffs.
That cop just had his back tome for a split second.
That dude, freaking, jumps andputs his waist on that side
railing, flips over my dumb ass,just runs over there and

(43:50):
everybody's like, and I run overthere and it was not a pretty
sight.
Thank God no one was under therebecause it was not a pretty
sight.
Yeah, thank god no one wasunder there because that was the
entrance to like there's alittle food court underneath
that.
Yeah, yeah, I know, so, okay,so I don't even know what was
there.
So I run over there and I seethat and it I'm not trying to it
was.
It was looked like a pumpkin,yeah, busted on the ground now

(44:11):
his head it was.
There was blood everywhere itwas.
It was horrible because I sawpeople over there freaking out
and you know the cops.
So this changed the whole thing.
It was sort of like they tapedoff everything like a crime
scene and sad dude, this was sad, this is scary.
So when I saw that and I ranover there, I was like one of
the first ones over there.
I was like the cop was like goddamn.
I ran over there, I was likeone of the first ones over there
and I was like, and the cop waslike God damn, I saw that

(44:35):
bathroom by Brookstone.
Dion walked out and just frozeand he thought it was someone.
He thought it was one of us.
Yeah, he's like.
He was like oh my God, hethought he was one of his people
and I was just like that.
Fucked him up it Everybody.
You know some of the cooks weregone.
I was just sitting there.
I was like what the?
And it just sort of goes backto Well you're still in shock

(44:55):
already from before.
Yeah, like bomb threat.
And this guy, you know, commitsuicide right in front of our
eyes.
He ended up.
I found out he lived.
He was like a vegetable.
Sadly, he lived like anothermonth.
I found out he passed away.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
But it just sort of goes to you never know.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
Like a part of me was like man, this dude, what was
this guy going through to dothis?
What was going on?
It just really threw me off,threw us all off.
They had PQ.
We had the next day, like Icalled Jeff and I called you,
told you know, I told you Ithink the story was 10 times
longer because Chris was likewhat, what the fuck?
I had to tell Jeff they had allthese people come in.

(45:38):
Do y'all need to talk?
It was very traumatic for a lotof people.
I've seen a lot of effed upshit that was pretty effed up.
That's up there.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah, man, that was a crazy story that is probably
the craziest thing, one of thecraziest things that I saw
happen.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
And again dude I mean yeah, Did he totally harm
anybody?
No, what he did, yeah, Oneright, what do you?
I felt bad, like mental health.
Like what the hell?

Speaker 1 (46:06):
was this dude.
This guy needs help.

Speaker 2 (46:15):
And I found out that he was Filipino and I found out
that his family like disownedhim and he was at the airport
that morning in the AmericanAirlines terminal and other
terminals trying to get a flightand people were like he got
kicked off of the flight.
He was roaming in the airportall day long and they just let
him stay there.
Yes, and then he went todifferent terminals and ended up
at our freaking concept.
But yeah, sadly, I mean I feelbad.
I mean part of me was like man,what a piece of shit.

(46:37):
But at the other side I'm likedude, what did this guy?

Speaker 1 (46:40):
What was going on to make this happen?
Why did?

Speaker 2 (46:42):
he have to go to that .
What was he going through?
Yeah, so I don't want to do allthe sad stories.

Speaker 1 (46:50):
Well, no, I'm glad you put that out there for our
listeners.
Man, it's just like we alwaystalk about.
You never know what people aregoing through and man,
everything goes down inside theairport.
Nothing's off limits.
No, definitely, john.

(47:11):
Let's move into something elseA little bit more positive.
You met any cool celebrities oranything?

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Yeah so.
I'm sure, okay, you've been outthere a long time.
You've been out there 24 years.
That's okay for me to sayYou've been out there five, ten
years.
Dude, we've met a lot ofcelebrities.
I mean, there's people I forgetwho I met- yeah, exactly, and I
say You've met so many and I saymet, just maybe you waited on
them or they came in the storeor you saw them because they

(47:38):
were there while you wereworking at a table, whatever.
So I can't even.
I usually remember, like mydaughter was talking about some
oh, chris talked the other dayand I was like holy shit, I
waited on him at Chili's.
Totally forgot about that, youknow, totally forgot about that,
you know so.
But the ones I want to bring up, the people that I actually had
a conversation with orinteracted, interacted with for

(47:58):
a long time and it was like realpeople and that was one thing
I've never.
Now, back in the day, today,you take a picture back in the
day, we have camera phones, wehave phones.
I didn't know, kia, okay yeah, Imean there's times I didn't
have a phone in the late 90s, soyou know, luckily one time I
had a disposable camera.

(48:19):
I was going to say you got tohave the Polaroid or something.
Tony Dorsett came into Chili's.
I was like man, I'm going topicture Tony Dorsett, one of my
favorite running backs.
Cool thing is I've had aninteraction with Tony Dorsett
Now that was just talking withhim.
He took a picture.
That was it, me.
And another guy that worked atChili's, herschel Walker, was a
regular.
Oh, he's getting hot dog withKraut.

(48:40):
Come in big smile.
Another you know cowboy runningback.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
I met Herschel, super nice guy.

Speaker 2 (48:46):
Super nice guy.
A lot of people have hadinteraction with him.
One of the best running backs Iever saw in Emmet Bojack's was
the best few running backs thatI saw in college football Now I
was little.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
It was Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
What about Adrian Peterson?
I liked him better in college,but that was more of an imprint
on me when, adrian Peterson, Iwas in like my 20s.

Speaker 1 (49:06):
Okay, yeah, you're right, hey, reggie Bush though,
was pretty freaking badass,badass.
No doubt.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
Adrian Peterson was an amazing college, but you know
, barry Sanders was a prettybadass college, but you know.
Now we're talking sports.
I can't help it.
I always get into sports.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Talking about those.

Speaker 2 (49:22):
Dallas Cowboy running backs.
Yeah, Emmitt has been up therea lot.

Speaker 1 (49:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:28):
Luckily I have a good one with Emmitt.
He came into Tequene, talked toeverybody, cool, you know
whatever.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
The Irish pub yeah.

Speaker 2 (49:40):
So back in.
So this was 2002.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
Oh, wow.
I could look it down so at thispoint you're at the vintage
Texas concept.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
It was late January 2002.
It was right before he wasactually heading to the Super
Bowl.
It was Super Bowl, gosh, hangon, I should know this.
It was the 9-11 year, so it wasthe Super Bowl.
It was actually on.
I think it was February 3rd.
It was my best friend'sbirthday, 2002.
It was the Rams against highlyfreaking big.

(50:14):
You know Rams had a 14-pointyou know favorite over freaking
the New England Patriots.
Yes, with no name, tom Brady,we didn't know anything about.
Yet I was like if there was abracket dude, I would always
look at who's in the playoffsevery year, and if there was one
year that year I was like thatmotherfucking thing.
I went to the Super Bowl.
Tom who's?
This guy Didn't know anythingabout the guy.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
It's just a great.
Nobody did he played atMichigan.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
That's all we know.
Bill Belichick great defense ofmine.
He was with the Giants way backin the day you know, freaking.
Bill Parcells, you know greatdefense, you know all this stuff
.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
That's all I really knew about them.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
Everybody got hurt.
They're not going to win it.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
So funny thing is.
So we're sitting there, youknow, and this is leading up, I
think it was like that Mondaybefore the Super Bowl.
Well, I was in the frontsection.
My good friend Jason, he was inthe back section.
We were slow.
We were slow in this towardsthe end.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Shout out Jason McGee .
Yes.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
And David Gwynn.
He was bartending manager, sowe're about to close the place
now.
Well, I said, and Jason said,hey, if you want to jet.
Earlier I was like yeah, sure,he's.
Like I'll just cover the front,which is really about a 30
minute difference, cause we wereabout shut anyway.
He's like, hey, just clean allthat.
It's like cool, cause I wastrying to get I forget what I
had going on.
So I was about to get Jasoncomes around that backside by

(51:35):
table 40.

Speaker 1 (51:36):
We were talking about that area.

Speaker 2 (51:38):
Back in the corner, dude, guess who the fuck is that
?
I forget the table, table one,I don't know it's a table, it's
just a little two-top table.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Jason's all geeking out, yeah.

Speaker 2 (51:48):
Right in the front he's like dude, guess what?
Jason's a big Chiefs fan.
He's always been he just one ofthose I had friends I grew up
with.
They hated the Cowboys so theytook someone else.
They're like all right, what'selse regionally?
Yeah, so he was just a Chiefsfan.

Speaker 1 (52:00):
He's always been a Chiefs fan way before they were
decent.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
Now he's happy, sort of Well, fuck, he's happy, who
cares about this last one?
Jason's like dude.
I was like what the fuck?
I just gave up my section forthis shit.
I was like holy shit, we walkedby, I didn't want to bug him.
Davey, great date.

(52:24):
Davey's like we're closing thegame.
Davey's like we're closing thisgame.
There's somebody trying to walkin.
He's like we're closed.
Emmett's like we're closingthis gate.
There's somebody trying to walkin.
He's like we're closed.
And Emmett's like hey, man, isit?
He's like no, no, we got you.
So Davey gave him a triplecrown yeah, triple crown on the
rocks, and he had a hot dog.

Speaker 1 (52:45):
No, you're locked in now.

Speaker 2 (52:47):
We shut the gate.
We're keeping the peasants away.

Speaker 1 (52:50):
So no one's coming in there.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
There's a couple people walking by because he was
up front but the gate shut down.
Yeah, a couple people are likewe're closed.
So, dude, we all come up front,sort of sweeping this.
We just start bullshitting,talking old school Cowboys
football, talking about thenight.
I was like well man, I was likedude.

(53:12):
One of my all-time favoritemoments was freaking winning the
Super Bowl.
That one, that was awesome.
Super Bowl 27 against the Bills, what?
52-17.
I mean, my favorite was thefreaking going into San
Francisco beating, fucking the49ers NFC Championship, you know
, to get to the Super Bowl, thatwas the biggest one.
Because I was a little shit.
I remember the fucking catchwith my dad.

(53:33):
My dad did not let me go toschool.
The next day I was crying myeyes out, fucking Dwight Clark
catches that, oh macularreception.
Yeah, so it's not 81, 82 season.
We had a second grade orsomething.
Yeah, I remember that shit.
I was like let's go getchildren.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Just like the kids that I can give them.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Still, that was burning my brain too.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
It's still too soon to talk about I'm sorry, we'll
always be too soon.
It's bullshit.

Speaker 2 (53:56):
We could have gone on to Seattle, maybe, I don't know
Whatever, but so yeah.
So, dude, we sit with Emmett.
He has three triple crown onthe rocks.
He was buzzed.
He was talking about man.
That night that we beat SanFrancisco, we had all that shit
y'all had behind your bar, dude,we were lighting it up.
So we just talked football,talked live.

(54:16):
I said to you, like hey, whereare you heading to?
You're still with the Cowboys,because later that year I think
it was fall of 2002.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
When you went to Arizona.

Speaker 2 (54:23):
You know, I think it was this last year with us where
he got to beat Peyton's rushingtitle yeah, yeah here.
I think it was against theSeahawks or something.
And then I think the next yearhe did go to Arizona.
I think I'd have to look thatup, but that was his last year
he was still with us.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
I have a nice airport story about Emmitt's rushing
title We'll get there, okay.

Speaker 2 (54:45):
So he was on his way to the Super Bowl it was in New
Orleans that year and I rememberwe said I was like dude, what I
remember.
We said I was like dude, what Iwas like dude, this is going to
be a blowout.
We were just like, yeah, he'slike, what chances.
And I'll never forget, he'slike man.
He was like, hey, billBelichick's a great defense of
mine, if he can stop thatgreatest show on turf of

(55:06):
freaking the Rams, you know,kurt Warner, freaking Marshall
Flaught, isaac Bruce, TorreyHolt a good defense, great cut
Dick Vermeule, you know, theyhad a great team and you know,
and he was just like, he's likeI'll never forget, he put his
hands out.
He's like man.
They got to start praying.
He was pretty buzzed.
He's like they got to startpraying.
And I'll never forget that.
Next Monday, back after theSuper Bowl, freaking Jason's

(55:28):
like I guess it was Motherfuckerpraying.
I guess they listened to Emmett.
Emmett gave them a job.
But that was a cool story, justhaving that good intimate, you
know intimate with Emmetttalking with him.
It was just sort of.
You know, we didn't have stupidcrazy fanboys, bullshit, we
just talked to him for real.
Just talked to him like a bird,yeah, so that was a cool one.

(55:49):
It was cool, like it's likedude a, he's a Texas legend.
He's a cowboy, you know, sothat was really cool.
He's an NFL legend yeah, ohhell.
Yeah, he's a football legend,so yeah, anyway, and of course
it's here in his hometown.
You know, well, it's not hishometown, I know it's from
Pensacola, but you know he's,you know, oh yeah, homeboy
Dallas, you know, and Davey andthose guys I'm still great

(56:11):
friends with to this day.
I mean, we go on vacations, wedo holidays together.
We just went to Breckenridge,all three of our families, we
all go out together and wealways still talk about remember
that time we shut the gate withthem.
So it's cool, you know, to getto talk about shit like that.
Well, I mean, regular peopledon't get to have those moments.

Speaker 1 (56:35):
You don't have the chances at a regular.
Yeah, people will hop in, but,dude, if the airport is always
open, the opportunity is justinsane.
At least celebrities are justmy first year.
I probably met 50 celebrities.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
I was like what the fuck.
And you couldn't name them allright now, until if I said Joe
Schmoe, You're like?
Oh yeah, I did wait on that guy.
Well, it was like whenever wehad Jose on.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
he was like you remember when, with Sean Lee and
trying to make him drink, I waslike God damn it.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
I forgot about that Cause he was just sitting at the
well and Jose does like Chris,where people order a water.
He's always like water at thebar and I'm like dude, it's Sean
.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
And then he just kept harassing him and harassing Be
like, come on, you want to drinkit?
Dude, sean Lee's going.
Oh shit, I didn't know that hewas a giant.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I was like oh.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
That's a giant man.
But yeah man, so him if youwant to get into boy bands.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Adventist Texas freaking.

Speaker 2 (57:30):
Jordan, nott and New Kids on the Block.
They were sort of like this is2005.
He sits at the bar bar and I'mlike that's the goddamn new kids
on the block guys.
What the fuck he says hey man,can I get a Heineken?

Speaker 1 (57:41):
He sat down.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
He had his sister and his nephews, his family.
They sat out at the table.
He sat there, dude.
He sat there and we bullshitted.
For about three hours he was ona layout, it for about three
hours.
He was on a layover.
We had a big Boston flight andso he was in and out.
But one of the coolest thingsthat happened to me freaking,
god dang freaking.
Oh my gosh, what's her name?
My brain's farting right now.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
Um, ah, jesus, give me, give me some.
Uh, one of her waitresses endedup.

Speaker 2 (58:11):
He was like hey man, you got a lighter and you know
she's like now, she's like early40s.
She was just like dude oh, Iposted that guy, that's a little
good and she was just like umKim Tran.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Ah yeah, jesus' wife.
No, no, no, that's Nancy.
Nancy, excuse me.

Speaker 2 (58:30):
I think Nancy and Kim are cousins, cousins, thank you
Forget it.
It's been a long time.
So, kim, he's like hey, you gooutside, you have a lighter.
She's like I just went andfucking smoked outside with
Jordan fucking Knight.
She was like but it was Jordanfucking Knight, it was just cool
.
I was like dude.
She was like oh my God, it wascrazy.

(58:51):
He came in.
It was sort of lightly bullshit.
He was just sort of dozing offat the bar.
I was like I'm not fucking withyou.
He was fucking like the Beatles.
Back in the day that was when Iwas in high school I was like,
yeah, whatever, I was in rockand roll.
I got into the grunge.
I was in rock and roll.
I got into the grunge.
I wanted it, but it was coolhaving that.

(59:12):
But cool thing I remembersitting and talking you know
we're sort of BS in sports,talking about the Red Sox, you
know baseball, this and then Isaid, hey, man, I got to ask you
, you know, and I felt like youknow, y'all just went nuts and

(59:32):
just became celebritiesovernight.
And he said it's cool, it waslike a junior reaction.
He was just like man, it wascrazy.
He said it was, it was, it was,it was a curse and a blessing
at the same time.
He said, yeah, dude, I mean,he's like you know, these guys,
we weren't like I'm put together.
We were all from the sameschool.
We grew up together.
These, these boys, those guys,all from the same school.
We grew up together.

(59:52):
These boys, those guys, allthose guys in that band, they
grew up.

Speaker 1 (59:54):
They didn't take us one by one yeah yeah, yeah, he
was like.

Speaker 2 (59:57):
We grew up together and so we were childhood, you
know, and he's like you know wewere popular around, we got
popular around, you know.
He's like dude, it wasovernight, but we couldn't walk
out of our damn house.
We had to get bodyguards and hesaid it was cool.
He's like yeah, dude, chicks, Iwas like man, like whoever, but

(01:00:19):
he said, dude, we had to dealwith that for five years.
He's like driving crazy.
He's like living normally, he'slike there's, you had 24 hours
security.
He said he just he didn't havea life.
And I was like at the times Igot into ma I had an agent at
one time I was like I don't wantto.
That's why I ended up gettingout of the job.

(01:00:40):
I don't want, I don't even geton facebook.
I want people to know what thefuck I'm doing.
So you know it was crazy.
So I'm getting that.
You know, hearing that part ofyou know it's a lot.
Certainly they were fuckingcrazy.
Nuts, yeah, popular at one time.
I mean so, and I was just like,oh, that's cool, sort of
talking, you know, sort ofpicking the brain of someone
that got that popular.
So I thought that was prettycool.

(01:01:01):
Um, the only other, brookeBurke.
Ah, yes, brooke Burke.
And I didn't know who she waswhen I was talking to her
because she just started Wild On.
Remember Wild On, oh geez.
So at Chili's, my mom knows ahot chick's in my table.

(01:01:21):
I don't know, I'm trying tomake it so this chick, two girls
are sitting there.
You know, very nice tancomplexion.
They look like they just camefrom the beach.
This was at Chili's.
At Chili's Beach, it's like2000.
And I was waiting.
You know, waiting on them andeverything.

Speaker 1 (01:01:38):
I've heard this story , Blake, but go on.
Go on John.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
So these girls very good look.
And they looked like they werevery tired and you know, and
they were having no makeup on,but just pure beauty.
Anyway, they didn't need makeup, they were just wearing John.
Were they beautiful?
Oh, they were beautiful, but soI'm just sitting there talking
to them, whatever.
And they were very good, theywere nice.
And then Brooke was talking.
She's like yeah, we, uh, weback from like Brazil and we

(01:02:08):
were.
And I was like, oh, okay, cool,I didn't have no clue, you know
.
She's like yeah, I know we'reactually gonna be to take a
little break.
Uh, she's like I'm heading backhome.
I forget, I don't know Florida,I don't even know.
She's like we're gonna beheading over to.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
Europe and I was like wow, I was like man, that's
freaking cool.

Speaker 2 (01:02:25):
I was like this girl can't?
She's only a couple years olderthan me and I was just like she
.
She can't be too much.
I was like, what the hell doesshe do?
I didn't really ask.
She was just like yeah, we workat this company, tour around,
visit beaches and all this stuffshe's paying out.
It was just normal talk, didn'tknow anything about it.
I was like man, that's freakingcool.

Speaker 1 (01:02:45):
When you talk to people, I'm like what am I doing
here?

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
I need to do something else instead of
freaking bartending.
Wait, you know I'm always.
You know it makes you goddamndamn, I need to get out of this,
here I'm just not as hot asthese chicks.
But you know, I don't know ifpeople want to look at me.
So she gives me her card andshe and her, her, and I forget,
man, dude, 25 years ago she waslike hey, you know?

(01:03:07):
Hey, what's your name, john?
And I was like yeah, she shookmy hand.
She's really nice, justgenerally nice.
I was like hey, you know.
She's like hey, thanks forchatting with this, you know,
hey, you know good luck witheverything I said.
Oh, thanks.
And she's like, hey, well, weneed to head out.
So it just said Brooke Burke EEntertainment.
I was like, oh, I was like, oh,you work for E.

(01:03:32):
And she's like, well, hey, uh,my show comes on every like I
don't know, tuesday night.
Um, it's called wild on.
And it's like, oh, I was likeokay, I was like cool.
She's like, yeah, check it out,it's on the e-channel, blah,
blah, blah.
I was like, okay, cool.
So I'm with my ex-girlfriendand actually at this time joe
wilson was living with myex-girlfriend.
They lived together, they wereall friends way before yeah, so
we all tell met her.

Speaker 1 (01:03:50):
Yeah, well, sort of.

Speaker 2 (01:03:53):
Actually, I met her and then I met Joe Wilson.
Joe Wilson and I went to thesame high school.
He was four years younger thanme but, joe, I got him into the
airport.
He did all this stuff.
We're in there, me and Joewould have pizza night.
We'd watch Friends, friends dothis.
Me and Joe were hanging out inone of the you know, and so

(01:04:14):
we're sitting there hanging outmy ex-girlfriend, we're all
sitting there and, dude, I waslike yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
Check.
This thing called Wild On.
We got to turn this off andJoe's like.

Speaker 2 (01:04:24):
I think I know this show and I was like, yeah, this
girl, I guess she's like thehost, I don't know.
She says she's going to be onit.
This chick comes out with a twopiece freaking at a beach just
talking about going out havingfun, and and Mike's girlfriend
was just looking at me and meand Joe were just Joe's, like
dude, you waited on her.
I was like holy shit, she's.

(01:04:44):
So that was pretty cool, didn?
So that was pretty cool.
Didn't know who she was at thefirst, but I know who she is now
.
She just told me she's been toa lot of beaches.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:02):
That's like I think it was like the first, like
probably the first week I wasthere.
The Hawaiian Tropic Bikini Teamoh, you did.

Speaker 2 (01:05:08):
I dropped everything.

Speaker 1 (01:05:09):
I dropped everything and called my ex-wife and I'm
like you won't believe who's inhere and she's like who I was
like, uh, the wide trafficbikini team.

Speaker 2 (01:05:19):
She's like click and then that's when Chris, you know
, got a divorce.

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
I wasn't told a decade later.

Speaker 2 (01:05:28):
Don't get mad at me, sorry Anybody that affected me,
but yeah, so, dude, a lot ofthings you know.
Sports, love sports, crazysports moments.
Yeah, a lot of crazy.
I would say crazy.
I don't know biggest sportsmoments I ever encountered at
the airport.
Yeah, so, first off, I was justtalking about games, anything

(01:05:55):
that was on.
One thing that was huge.
I have never worked a SuperBowl because that's my national
holiday.
Over Christmas I always watchedit with my dad.
That was our thing.
Ever since, I've seen everySuper Bowl in my whole life I
don't remember until maybe thelate 70s Davey Glynn and I would
work the Super.
Bowl.
Everybody knew Everybody thatknew that worked would be like

(01:06:15):
hey, yeah, dylan doesn't fuckingwork Super Bowls.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Someone's like no, he's working Super Bowls.

Speaker 2 (01:06:19):
I'm like, oh, I'm fucking quitting.
Okay, cool, I got my job back,Go ahead.
I've never seen any Super Bowlsat the airport.
Three crazy, three crazymoments.
I always love talking abouttelling people.
One.
So at Tagine 2010.
The World Cup.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
So in US when it landed Donovan everybody was
into that, holy shit we stillgot remember we had the Tagine
shirts, was that?
The boo-boo zellas and all that?

Speaker 2 (01:06:47):
I think I can't I forget where it was at.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
I don't know, that was the one that everybody was
in on.

Speaker 2 (01:06:55):
Oh they.
Irish Pub printed out all thesecool.
We had all our shirts, usaSeagame shirts and, you know,
usa Blue, and then we had a 10for me in 2010, but that was
Landon Don, I think.
So, dude we're.
I think the games were over inEngland or we were playing
England, I cannot remember, butyou know they were offset.

(01:07:15):
You know, when they'resomewhere else, I've never heard
a freaking terminal, a roar,and you scored a goal against
England.
I think we tied the game up andyou I was sitting.
You know how to the inside, youwalk out and there's tables,
and then you're on the outsideand you see everything.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
It's a big open concert and you heard?

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
I saw that score and everybody's like ah, and I've
never heard a roar in a wholeterminal.
You heard a roar, it was just avibration.
I was like that's a bigterminal, that's very wide open.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
So I closed in, like some of the whole terminals.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Each of those terminals are a mile long.
Oh yes, and that was insane.
I was like, oh my, you couldhear.
It's like it traveled.
I mean, everybody was watching,insane.
Um, in my other two momentswere at e12.
All with these were within ayear of each other E-12 Terminal
E at Vintage, texas, yeah,managing bartending, and we had

(01:08:14):
a Boston flight.
So this is 2004 World Series.
Well, not the World Series yet.
That whole freaking Bostoncoming back down three, yeah, so
we had the game on it.
One of those games wentfreaking, one in the morning, we
didn't stay that late.
But One of those games wentfreak, one in the morning, we
didn't stay that late.
But Big Poppy, that's prettymuch what put him in the game,
freaking, all the things Made aname for it.
He's already sort of a big name,but he came to Boston.

(01:08:36):
I think it was in Minnesota.
He came to Boston and freakingthat World Series just put him
on the map.
And I remember there was aBoston flight.
We had that game on Joe.
I was working with Joe freakingall the time over there and,
holy shit, big Pop and freakingJax at home were in that fucking
place, napkins flowing, justfucking beers getting spit on,

(01:08:59):
and that was a crazy worldseries because it's one of those
where the only people going forthe Yankees you could get a map
of the fucking god damn wholeworld and the only people the
people right there in New York,everybody was pulling for Boston
.
It was.
It was fucking a great time,dude, and that was.
I don't know if y'all seen thedocumentary of Boston Red Sox.
It's just fucking awesome.
But them coming back on theYankees, that was the World

(01:09:21):
Series itself.
Of course they went on, playedSt Louis Cardinals, wiped them
out and that the Yankees withthe whole curse of the Bambino
and all that shit.
That was really cool.
Now, that was over a couple ofdays, but that whole being in
there at that time, well, justthe energy of it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:37):
Oh no, you're right, dude, you just feel it, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:39):
Definitely man.
No, you're right, dude, theenergy that's the right word for
that, because the energy inthere was insane, Probably the
craziest.
I don't know if it was thecraziest moment, but it was just
one instant.
I'm not the biggest golf guy,but the Masters in 2005.
Everybody tunes into theMasters.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
They turn into nothing else there's nothing
else going on that day.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
I don't work Sundays, but I work that Sunday.
I do, I work that Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:10:07):
Really yes.

Speaker 2 (01:10:09):
I won't work, but it's not football season.
Whatever, I worked it so I wasmanaging bartending.
You know, sitting there, theplace is packed and dude, you
know when Tiger's coming downthe stretch and he's in the run,
when he's got that Sunday redon the whole terminal stops,
damn right Especially at hispeak.

(01:10:30):
Oh yeah, and that was rightthere at his peak.
So you know you have people.
He's one of those people whoare coming off the plane going
what's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:10:38):
What's Tiger doing?

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
What hole is he on?
So that place is packed but youcouldn't watch it on the plane.

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
There's no.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Wi-Fi to watch it or anything.
God dang, it was hole 16.
The famous fucking chip in yeah, fucking, he chips that thing
in that ball, rolls down theNike symbols right there, slowly
rolls in that ball dropped.
It was a commercial and yeah,it wasn't a roar of a crowd like

(01:11:04):
a whole terminal, but God damn,I've never felt the vibration.
That place fucking eruptedFucking people are slapping my
hand hard.
I was like fuck that hurt andthe dude over there.
I fucking dug the hole.
I think Joe was working.
He was just like what the fuck?
It's Tiger Woods dude.
That was a cool moment to bepart of that.

(01:11:27):
See that, I did see hiscomeback.
He did in 19 when he won thematch.
I was at home fucking sittingthere trying not to cry.
That was emotional because likesame spot he hugs his son or he
hugs his dad when he first youknow.

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
So you know I always like that was cool at the
airport being part of that, thevibe, like you said yeah like
the energy, the you know, andhaving all these people don't
even know everybody's everybodyhugging each other yeah, it's
like yeah, you know people canfrom all walks of life can come
together over you know specialsports moments and things like

(01:12:03):
that moments in history and yeahit's amazing.