Cledus T Judd - Addictions & Redemption, and a Country Music Journey :: Ep 53 Try That in a Small Town Podcast - Try That in a Small Town Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The biggest show I ever performed in front of my
entire career was.
I ended up being good enough tocompete in the World
Championships of Hairdressing inDusseldorf, west Germany, and
Whitney Houston was down on oneend singing One Moment in Time
and there was like 100,000people in this big house cutting
hair.
I just went into a realm sleep.
You know, just dozed off onthat, ambien.

(00:23):
You know, eyes out sleep, youknow, just dozed off on that,
ambien you know eyes out and allof a sudden whoop whoop
intruder.
Brenda, seven, whoop, whoop,door eight, looking in a mirror,
as ugly, morbid as I'd everlooked in my life, and I thought

(00:45):
you, son of a bitch, all you'veever wanted was a kid, all you
wanted to be was a daddy,because you didn't have one, and
you're going to come in here inthis bathroom and do what
you're fixing to do.
You don't deserve that kid.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
The Try that in a Small Town podcast begins now
all right, welcome back to thetry that in a small town podcast
here at the patriot mobilestudios.
Okay, low thrash.
We got tk.
Tonight's gonna be fun y y'all.

(01:22):
We got a country music legendin his own right.

Speaker 4 (01:26):
Oh, come on, dude.
Who do I owe money to?

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Listen.
Two million records all alongthe way making fun of some of
our best artists like Tim McGraw, shania Twain, toby Keith.
We got.
Cletus.
T what's?

Speaker 4 (01:40):
up.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
I fixed a lot of those people off along the way.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
Welcome to the way I promise you.

Speaker 7 (01:45):
Welcome to the club.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Man.
You know, I only had one personin my entire career when I was
doing those at the high level.
You know, and you'll neverguess who the one guy out of all
the people that we know came upto me and said hey, I got a
problem with this.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
This is great.
Get right to it, garth Brooks.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Of course.

Speaker 3 (02:05):
I was at.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Hermitage, golf course, and I just uh some kind
of tournament out there and Iwalked into the parking lot and
he's like, hey, are you Cletus?
And I said yeah and he said,well, I'm not a fan and I said,
well, get in line, you know, andhe laughed a little bit or
whatever, and he said look, Iknow you got this song.
They had did him.
And Trish did a song called inanother's eyes remember that one

(02:26):
?
And I did you need another size.
And gar said man, that thing'sup for a grammy, we don't want
anything to compete.
Going up, and when he saidcompete my chest bowed out, you
know, and he said so.
We'd appreciate if you just youknow, hold off till after the
awards.
I said are you kidding me?
You've sold more.
Till after the awards.
I said are you kidding me?
You've sold more records thanthe Beatles and you're worrying

(02:48):
about some lowly comediankeeping you from winning a
Grammy?
Sony didn't give me near enoughadvance money if I got that
kind of time.
And I did the song anyway, andhe won the Grammy, so it all
worked out.

Speaker 3 (02:59):
It all worked out.
How did that relationship end?

Speaker 1 (03:04):
It's really good, know, really been.
Uh, you know, paul mccartneytold me to never name drop, but
I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it here.
He's been really good to me anyany time.
I interviewed him a coupleyears ago.
When he got on the phone I saidman, look, I'm trying to buy a
truck down here and and inashland city.
Could you co-sign?
I mean mean.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
I just need a little help Out of the blue you said oh
yeah, I just asked him.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
He said where are you on my HR?
I'll help you out.
I was just kidding, but he wasgoing to do it.
I think he was going to do itanyway.
He's got plenty of money.

Speaker 3 (03:40):
You've heard a lot of stuff like that as well.
Yeah, you know, we got.
We got a great car store.
We'll have to tell on adifferent episode.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
Oh thank you for having me dude.
I appreciate it very much.
Thank you.

Speaker 6 (03:50):
We're pumped to have you and I was kind of curious
like um, like when you moved totown, so did you come to?

Speaker 1 (04:00):
be a parody artist, Did man my journey here, and
I'll just go ahead and prefacethis up front.
It's very rarely that I canever get through any podcast
that we talk about that at somepoint I'll cry like Chris Cagle,
so I'm just going to let youknow, man my journey wasn't easy
.
Nobody's is.
You know, when you come up hereit's tough.

(04:22):
I didn't have no TV show.
I had been involved for years.
You know I was a full-blowndrug addict.
You know I played collegebasketball for a while.
You know went into thehairdressing business.
I still got my barber license.
The biggest show I everperformed in front of my entire
career was I ended up being goodenough to compete in the world

(04:45):
championships of hairdressing inDusseldorf, west Germany, and
Whitney Houston was down on oneend singing one moment in time
and there was like a hundredthousand people in this big
house cutting hair and man.
It's just a surreal moment.
That was in 1987, when that was, and right after that man, I
found something that I, you know, I wished I'd have never found

(05:06):
in that world and became a fullblown drug addict and ended up
losing everything I had.
I'd had cars and money at thetime and what I thought was
money you know nothing comparedto, by the grace of God, what
came later on.
But I think he kind of preparedme for that at that moment, you
know, because it got really badto the point where I was living

(05:28):
I'd lost everything I had.
I was living in Ponte VedraBeach, florida.
I didn't even play golf at thetime down there at Sawgrass.

Speaker 8 (05:34):
You did not play Sawgrass.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
No, I did not, I didn't have enough money to buy
a golf ball and I was livingwith this dude.
He would book me classes and Iwould go out into the field and
do haircutting seminars.
And I'll never forget it, man,I called him the refrigerator
Nazi because every day he wouldcome home.
He's like looks like you ateone of my chicken pot pies.

Speaker 4 (05:54):
I'm like damn dude, I'm starving today.
I ain't got no money.
I broke no dun me for the potpie.
Okay, and man, I'd had enough.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
You know, life had about got me.
I was embarrassed, I, I, Iwanted to be somebody.
And how old were you at?

Speaker 3 (06:13):
this time I was there .

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Well, it was in, that was in 1990, so I would have
been.
I was born in 64, neil, wasn'tthat?

Speaker 8 (06:18):
okay, who's good at math like that?

Speaker 1 (06:20):
you're a tick older than me, go ahead and I found
myself, uh, and you might havesaw this on TL's podcast, but I
found myself on a bridge inPonte Vedra Beach, florida, for
about six hours one afternoon ona Friday, you know,
contemplating, and I always say,if you want to do it, you will.
It was more of a cry for helpon my end, you know, and I never

(06:43):
forget.
While I was on that bridge, man, I kept thinking you know, this
is the weird side of me.
I'm thinking, if I do this, I'mgoing to back traffic up and if
I go here, I'm going to.
It's just all the every reasonin the world to not do it.
You know, and by the grace ofGod I didn't.
And a friend of mine, um, theygot me down off there and a
friend of mine flew me home.

(07:04):
I left my car down there.
It wouldn't run.
It was a Honda Prelude and,believe it or not, man, that's
when my journey started to gethere and I was sitting in a
double-wide trailer, my mom'shouse, 477 Crow Springs Road,
and I was sitting in shag carpet, that was.
You could make snow angels init.
It was so thick, you know.

(07:27):
And the CMA awards came on andVince had won a um, uh, song of
the year for when I call yourname.
And I turned around and I knewnothing, knew nothing about that
world, our world we live in now, or whatever.
And I turned around, my motherwas crying and I said mom man,
why are you crying?
And she said I don't know.
Son, I would just give anythingin the world to meet, meet that

(07:49):
man.
I think he's the most beautifulhuman being I've ever seen.
And I said you want to meetVince Gill?
And she said oh boy would I.
And I said I can make thathappen.
And she said, son, you've donea lot, but you can't.
You don't know, you can't singsilent night, you know.
So you probably ain't going tobe able to make that happen.
I said, let me figure it out.

(08:10):
And a few weeks later I wentdown to the Buck Board Country
Music Showcase and I did anamateur night.
And the same guy the same nightI did it.
Another Hall of Fame member,opera member, was on there, mark
Wills was on the same.
I beat Mark that night and Isay he he's a member of the
grand old Opry and I'm a memberof Sam's club, you know.

(08:31):
Uh, but that started my journeyand uh, for the next four or
five months, man, I went downthere and did amateur nights,
wrote horrible rap songs theywere.
I didn't know what I was doing.
And my mother gave me $600 and aT Graham Brown and Bruce Burch,
if y'all remember Bruce.
Bruce had watched me a fewtimes.
He said, man, you got to cometo Nashville.

(08:52):
You got to come to Nashville.
And so mom gave me, bought mean old pickup truck, a Toyota
love truck, and I took off toright here where we sit and you
know it had the speakers in thedoors with a sheet metal.
There was no speakers, no air,no heat, no anything.
And for three years, man, Idrove that truck and I'd get on

(09:14):
a Greyhound bus and my mom wouldpick me up in Chattanooga and I
said I don't want nobody to seeme, I want to go home and see
my buddies until I make it.
I don't want nobody to see me.
And I'd go home, sit in adouble-wide trailer with my mom
and I'd go back and finally I'dsleep in a walk-in closet.
If y'all remember Vern, dan, Idon't know if y'all remember

(09:35):
Vern, vern has it and some otherthings with Bruce and Vern had
a walk-in closet and he said,man, you got no bedroom but
you're welcome to a closet.
And I put me a big Budweiserheadboard in that closet, a
blow-up mattress, and I stayedin there.
When I didn't stay there, ifyou remember, where Ruby
Tuesday's was out on DonaldsonPike, by the airport, they had

(09:55):
these big old lights in thatplaza and they were massive.
I'll never forget them, man, aslong as I live.
And I would take that truck andI'd park on those lights
because I wasn't afraid, youknow, the light was shine, I was
.
I felt safe there, you know,and I'd cover up under my my
clothes that I had, and I'd goto YMCA the next morning I'd
take a shower and then I'd go tomusic row and I'd beat it up,

(10:16):
try to meet somebody and, uh, dothe best I could well.
Finally, if y'all remember, in1994, the ice storm came through
.
It was a really bad ice stormand I was living with the late
Darren Norwood, if y'allremember Darren, great singer,
and he helped me get toNashville as well, and I was

(10:37):
driving home in that old truckand I didn't have no defrost in
it.
I was coming down 440, going toWhite Ridge Road, and I'll
never forget, dude, as long as Ilive I had a CD jewel case and
I was scraping the windshieldgoing down the highway and I'll
never forget looking throughthat windshield and it was a
Mark Chestnut CD and the singlewas too cold at home it's a hell

(11:03):
of a lot colder than this truckis at home, I tell you, mark.
And when I got to Darren'shouse a few days later, I got
frostbite on these three fingersand I went to a med I didn't
have insurance, of course, and Iwent to a med first or whatever
, and the doctor said man, Ilost these three fingernails.
The doctor says there's achance you may lose a couple of
fingers.
It was bad Frostbite was reallybad.
And so I had it all wrapped upand on a sunday night, man, I

(11:25):
called mom collect if youremember collect calls and I
said, mom, I can't do it.
I said you gotta come get meand she said are you sure?
I said ain't never been moresure in my life.
I said I'm hungry, my clothesare filthy.
Uh, I ain't got notransportation.
I tried it's time to come andget me.

(11:46):
And my mother said are you sure?
Twice, I'll never forget it,and she'd only said it once I
wouldn't be sitting here, butshe said it twice.
And in that meantime in my rightear I heard on a little
transistor radio sitting on adesk I heard Tim McGraw doing
Indian Outlaw.
Transistor radio.

(12:06):
Sitting on a desk, I heard TimMcGraw doing an Indian outlaw.
And by the grace of God, thefirst notes out of my mouth were
there.
My Indian in-laws came to visitme and my squaw been here for a
month.
Y'all about to lose my mind andI went damn, that's pretty good
.
I said, mom, I got to call youback and she said Am I coming to
get you?
And I said I'll let you know ina month.
And I hung up and T Graham andLarry locked me and me and Jody

(12:30):
Jackson and Bruce finishedwriting Indian Outlaw, indian
In-Laws.
And I sit at Bruce's house withdual cassettes.
Remember that you had a masteron one and then the other for
days making Indian in-lawcassettes and I'd put them in an
envelope and I'd mail them outto all these radio stations and
195 or six of them startedplaying it.

(12:53):
And the next thing, you know,man, my career took off.
I did If Shani Was Mine, andthis is leading up to my mom.
But when I did If Shani WasMine, I'd already lost, sent one
video to them at CMT, said thisis awful, don't send back,
we're not interested.

Speaker 4 (13:13):
We had one of those.
And me and my buddy.

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Chris Clark wrote.
If Shani Was Mine, we recordedit.
I did a video for it.
David Ball was in the videowith me.
That's back when David was hoton a firecracker and we sent it
to cmt.
And I don't know if y'allremember tracy rogers she was
head of programming there and ona friday they used to sit and
take, you know, in a big roomlike this and they would watch
all the videos and go, okay,that's uh, he's not in.

(13:37):
You know, we're gonna add jasonor whatever next thing you know
.
And so they got to mine.
Everybody said, said, oh hell,no, that ain't happening, done
out of here.
So my manager called me.
I was living on Edmondson Pike,I was laying sideways on the
couch, nothing like this.
And he called and he said itain't happening.
They said no, and I never gotrolled off the couch and just

(13:58):
started bawling because I knewit was over at that point.
The record company won't giveme no more money.
I didn't have no more otheroptions.
And you, talking about definingmoments in a man's career, tracy
Rogers took that damn VHS tapeand took it back in her office
that afternoon, on a Fridayafternoon when everybody's ready
to go home, and she put thatthing in a cassette in the Vhs

(14:22):
and watched it again, called ameeting of the higher-ups at cmt
back in that office, like thisright here, and said I've never
done this, but I'm gonnaoverrule the committee, I'm
gonna play this kid.
I think he's got, I thinkthere's something there and she
put that thing in jammingcountry the next weekend.
It was the longest runningvideo that cmt had ever put out

(14:43):
at that point and in my my lifechanged uh, because then I
followed up with butt biggerthan the beatles and, uh,
cleatus went down to florida Istarted selling records and man,
you know I mean I, you know itwas unbelievable.
So fast forward to the hermitagegolf course.
I know we've all played.
I came in on a off the road, Iwas doing shows and things were

(15:05):
good and I got a phone call froma lady at the ACMs that said we
need one more celebrity to playin the golf tournament at
Hermitage.
Will you do it?
And I said no, I done.
Got cocky by this point.

Speaker 4 (15:17):
I had a little money, I thought I was going to go my
way around and say no to a golftournament.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
And she said if you'll come and do the golf
tournament, fill out the lastfour, some, or five, some, we'll
give you a spot at the ACMs.
We'll let you present at theACMs.
I said, done, all right, I'lldo it.
So I go out to the Hermitage onMonday and I'm looking, I put
my bag down.
You know how, neil, they gotall them boards hole one, two,
one, two, three, four, yeah, Igo all the way down to 16a,

(15:44):
never forget it, 16a.
And it had so and so, so, andso cletus t, judd, vince, gill,
and I went oh my god, now's mychance.
And one guy that was in thegroup said well, I'm riding with
vince.
I said, okay, yeah, go ahead,I'll beat you with this four
iron, I'm going to shoot you todeath with clothes being filthy.

(16:07):
I'm riding with Vince Gill.
I got in the car with Vince andI spent the whole day with him
and I told him about my mom's,the whole thing, and I said, man
, would you do a video with me?
And he said, buddy, consider itdone.
And so about five years after Iwalked out of that double wide
trailer, I, in an old, beat upToyota pickup truck, I sent a

(16:27):
limo to home to Georgia to pickmy mother up and brought her and
her rep, my relatives MyrnaWyatt and Bobby Terry Not Bobby
Terry, but Bobby, I think herlast name was Terry and I
brought them all up to the to avideo shoot.
And the whole crew knew what washappening, they knew the story.
And there was a knock on thedoor and the whole crew stopped

(16:51):
and john lloyd miller, who wasmy video director, he said
moselle, why don't you grab thatdoor?
And she said wine.
He said, just grab it.
And, man, I hope alzheimer'snever gets me because I remember
watching my mama's footstepsshe had on house shoes walking
across that floor, man, and withevery step she took I thought,
man, I've done it.

Speaker 4 (17:11):
You know I literally am fixing to change my mother's
life in about 15 more steps.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
I come up here and beat the piss out of this place
for this one moment in time,isn't that good.

Speaker 4 (17:25):
And for a moment man, my world stood still.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
It was a surreal moment.
And my mother opened up thatdoor and there stood Vince.
I said I told you I could do it.
And she jumped up in Vince'sarms.
She tried to stick her tonguedown his mouth.

Speaker 4 (17:41):
He turned his head and you know it's like that was
just a moment of.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
you know, I can't believe I pulled this off you
know I mean and it was by farout of everything I've ever done
in my entire life.
You know it was by far thebiggest monumental moment.
You know there's alwaysdefining moments in people's
lives as artists, but that wasand Vince is still a very close
friend of mine to this day Wow,good night.

Speaker 6 (18:07):
Was that a good lead-off question, jeez?

Speaker 8 (18:10):
I got to tell you this I had something really
really strange happen.

Speaker 7 (18:14):
Say next and I'm a firm believer that nothing
happens by accident Can yourewind a few minutes?
And you're talking aboutscraping your windshield with
the mark chestnut cd.
That's one of my favoriterecords, country records.
I love that album.
I had no idea about that story,by the way, no idea, thanks.

(18:36):
So weird.
This morning, the earliestmorning alarm goes off eyes open
.
This is really weird.
I woke up singing that song tocall the home my head, this one.
Oh my god, I'm not kidding you,wow, and I haven't now.
I haven't thought about thatsong in years.
Really, I mean really strange.

Speaker 4 (18:59):
It's it's like no, I mean, I get it.

Speaker 7 (19:01):
No, it's like the odds of that though.

Speaker 1 (19:05):
It's embedded in my, you know we were talking.

Speaker 8 (19:10):
Why didn't you scrape your windshield with a Garth
Brooks record?

Speaker 1 (19:14):
I scraped something else.

Speaker 4 (19:17):
You know man it's.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
I don't know.
I don't know how that happened,you know, but I just know that
I was on a mission and that'swhat drove me was to do that,
because it's hard up here.
Man, Y'all know what you did,Is that?

Speaker 7 (19:33):
emotion that you just had and moved the song.
I mean that was amazing.
That's what's missing intoday's Nashville to me.
I miss it.

Speaker 2 (19:44):
That's what's missing in today's Nashville to me.
I miss it.
I do miss it.

Speaker 7 (19:46):
The stories, the sacrifice, the true appreciation
for it.
That was great.
That was a great moment.
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
There's so many of those that I've made it a point
later on in life and then y'allcan ask me whatever, but there's
stories that need to be toldthat will never get told unless
I tell them, because I was there, just like you were there, and
you were there with Brad andJason and everybody.
Man, there's people in thistown that have done so much for

(20:18):
somebody with so little talentthat didn't have the looks.
If you, if Neil Thrasher pulledout a million dollars out of
his account and said sing aharmony part right now and I'll
give you this me can't do itbecause I can't hear it.
You know I can.
I can't sing in key but I cansing in key.
Funny, if I character it, I can.

(20:39):
I can get closer anyway, notgood.
But you know from the friends,there's times when I get alone
and Neil and I were talking.
When it gets quiet is when Ihave to be real careful.
People say you shouldn't livein the past.
But I do, because it was agreat time in my past in this

(20:59):
world, because it was hard, itwas rewarding and people helped
me.
This world, because it was hard, it was rewarding and people
helped me.
You know, uh, billy ray cyrus.
You know I can't, I can'tdescribe.
You know, my dad.
I was on number two at her at uh, um, old hickory, um, not old
hickory, but the golf goal, nash, uh, nashboro village, nashboro
.
Yeah, I was on that par threeand and the ranger came down

(21:23):
there and said man cle Cleet, Igot to get you in the car cart.
I said why?
And he said got to get you inthe cart.
And I said man, my mom allright?
And he said mom's, fine.
I said my dad all right.
And he said I got to get you inthe cart.
And I knew then and I lost it.
I laid on the number two, greenAshboro Village, just kicking,

(21:43):
screaming, crying, and they gotme to the clubhouse and the
first person I called was BillyRay Cyrus.
I don't know why.
You know you become a friend.
And I called Billy and you knowwhat he said.
I said Billy, man, my dad'sdied.
I'm over here at a damn golfcourse.
I can't get home, my mom's homeby herself.
I don't know what to do.
I was hysterical.

(22:04):
And Billy Ray, just as calm,said I can't get you no airplane
ticket, buddy, but I can getyou a damn airplane, I can get
you home real quick.
And I thought, man, here's aguy he couldn't get me a $125
airplane ticket.
He'd get me a jet and neverflinched.

(22:27):
I didn't take him up on it, butjust for somebody to think,
enough of you that quick, youknow, to just say I can't get
the plane ticket but I'll hookyou up with an airplane real
quick.
And he did the same thing forme in Tampa, florida.
When I moved to Tampa in 2005, Icould feel the demise of my
career kind of happening.
I went to Tampa and I wasknocking down some money, but I

(22:51):
was away from my kid.
She lived in West Virginia andit was brutal man.
I used to call the ceiling abig-screen TV because I'd lay
there at night and watch lifeleave.
I'd sit there and go.
God look, I got a couplehundred grand in the bank.
I'll tell you what I'll do.
I'll take it to the YMCA andI'll give it to the homeless
shelter, if you can make surethat I don't miss that

(23:12):
daddy-daughter dance coming upthis weekend.
And I learned in Tampa that oncea memory is gone, you can't buy
it back, no matter how muchmoney you have.
You know it was unattainable atthat point and I was down there
and I interviewed Billy Raydown there and after the
interview this was in 2006, Ithink Billy had his hand in his

(23:37):
pocket and the interview wasover and we were standing up in
the control room and I kepthearing him fiddle with keys and
stuff.
You know he was asking aboutCaitlin, you know, and he's like
well, where do you stay withher when you go home to Flatwood
, you know, because that's wherehe's from, flatwood, that's
where I was living, you know, orwhere Caitlin was living.
And I kept saying, yeah, youknow, hotels, I go get her and

(24:00):
drive back home, take her to mymom's, and whole time he's in
his pockets.
I'm thinking damn what the hellis going on, it was loud, and
then he.

Speaker 4 (24:08):
Then he's still talking to me.

Speaker 1 (24:09):
He pulls out this big like a old service stain
service station key chain withlike 50 keys and a rabbit's foot
and he's taking.
I'm looking at it, I don't knowwhat's going on.
He's asking me all thesequestions and he takes that key
and he's got one key in his hand.
He puts it back in his pocketand he says don't ever keep that
key in the motel room.

(24:29):
Again, I got too many housesand he had that schoolhouse out
there and he said that's the keyto the schoolhouse, call Mickey
.
Mickey will give you the code.
You don't ever sleep in themotel room with that daughter.
Again, you understand me.
I mean who does that?
You know who does that to offersomething like that up to just

(24:50):
some old guy like me trying togive me a place to keep my
daughter.

Speaker 6 (24:55):
You know out of a.
Yeah, I'll tell you what onething in that story which is
great my thought went to when hecouldn't get you a plane ticket
.
But he gets you a plane, hisassistant must have absolutely
sucked.
I mean, who couldn't?

Speaker 4 (25:09):
get a plane ticket.
He don't even know how to setup a voice.
Man, he's got a plane, he's gotemployees, he has employees.

Speaker 6 (25:16):
He has to Now that was all.

Speaker 7 (25:18):
Billy Ray just saying I'm going to get you there
quick yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
And he just says I can get you a plane.

Speaker 7 (25:30):
And these are great.
Stories like this is what Ilove most about this town and
the stories that not everyonegets to hear.
Everybody makes opinions ofpeople you know they don't.
They don't know anybody.
But these, these stories, andthese are real, natural stories,
the way that it was it happened.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
You know it did happen.
Toby was, uh, you know god, godrest his soul.
You know, man, I, I met tobyand um, I did, how do you milk a
cow?
I wrote when he did how youlike me now?
And I did that, took it over totk's office and tk said there's
a good chance he's gonna sueyou.
And I said well, I got acutlass with a t-top missing.
He's welcome to have it beforeyou finish.

Speaker 3 (26:02):
Did you have to get permission in those days to
parody a song?
Oh, okay, so it was ask forgoodness.

Speaker 1 (26:10):
Like you know, the way it works is if I do a Kelly
song or Neil somebody's song, ifI sold a million copies, they
got all the money.
I got nothing, the writers andthat was fine, you know, because
it helped me to do live dates.
The only person believe it ornot, not throwing anybody under
the bus.
The only person ever came to me.
I said I'll give you somepublishing on.

(26:30):
That song was funny, funnierthan hell, and you'll never
ain't.
No way you could ever guess whoit was.
The legend, the legend, tom thall.
I did uh, itty bitty, you know,and I did mindy mccready uh,
god rest her soul.
And tom t said man, that's thefunniest shit I've ever heard.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
You can hell, I'll give you the publishing on all
of it.
You know, just do it and uh,sorry for interrupting.
I'm sorry about toby.
No, I mean I.

Speaker 1 (26:56):
I that was a cool thing.
But you know, on the toby thing, and toby and I did a cmt thing
together.
I'd never met him before, youknow.
And uh, the next thing, youknow, we, we came a little bit
of friends and then, and that'swhen the brooks and dunn, the
first year of the neon circus2001.
It was, and I'll tell you how Igot on that tour.
I was afraid to fly.

(27:19):
I didn't fly on airplanes.
I was in a real bad air flyingincident Broke my nose, ribs and
stuff when I was out with KennyChesney and flying into Orlando
, and so I was really afraid tofly.
I was on an Amtrak train goingto California.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Listen to me.
Is that how you went gig to gig?

Speaker 1 (27:40):
I left out of Memphis .
I looked like Catherine Hepburnwhen I got there.
Yeah, just shaking and bobbing,and you should have saw me, I
had no computers, that was in2001.
I had no computer.
You should have saw me writinga letter to Ronnie Duggan.

Speaker 7 (27:58):
It was like when you do a lie detector test.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
And I wrote this note to Ronnie and Kix and I said
you don't know me, probably, butI got a song out and I'm
selling some records and, man,if you'll put me out on that
Brooks and Dunn tour, I'll hostthat thing for you and I'll
emcee it and you don't have topay me nothing, I'll go for free
, you don't have to pay menothing.
I faxed it from New Mexico,albuquerque, new Mexico, when we

(28:23):
stopped.
I faxed it from New Mexico,albuquerque, new Mexico.
When we stopped.
I faxed it to Clarence.
Oh yeah, and I sent it toClarence.
And when I got to LA, sanFrancisco, I forgot where we
were going.
The people downstairs said wehave a fax here waiting on you
if you'd like to come down andget it.
I never put the two together.
I went down, got the fax, tookit to my room, opened the
envelope.
It's from Ronnie Dunn.
Ronnie said my friend, if youthink enough about what we're

(28:47):
doing on this tour to work forfree, then I think enough of you
to pay you.
Oh wow.

Speaker 7 (28:52):
And I tell you what that's amazing.
And also like ClarenceSpaulding.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
Yeah, Clarence and Ronnie's my best friends and one
of my mentors.

Speaker 7 (29:04):
I love Clarence and Ronnie and one of my mentors.

Speaker 1 (29:06):
You know I love a good man and then and ronnie,
and they're all that's such agood.
I don't know what happened tothat letter because you know I
didn't I didn't keep it orwhatever, didn't think nothing
about it.
But I, what inspired whattranspired?
That that summer was the bestfour months of my life ever.
And I've done, I've beensuicidal, I've been an alcoholic
, I've been a drug addict, I'vebeen a star at some point for
whatever word that itencapsulates or whatever, but

(29:29):
what transpired that summer wassomething that I can't remember
a lot of.
But the best part of that is Ibecame and Goose will tell you
back there me and Toby Keith wasinseparable for a long time.
I don't know why I fell in lovewith him.
I think he fell in love with myhumor because I made him laugh.

(29:50):
And I'm going to give you twothings that that man did for me.
He was good to my mother.
He like he would call my momand talk to her and we, we spent
a lot.
He bought a Versace, him andTricia bought a Versace rocking
chair for my daughter when shewas born, which probably cost
more than what it was to deliverher.
You know it was a veryexpensive rocking chair and when

(30:14):
we were out on that tour mymother had a heart attack.
When we were in Bakersfield,california, I was as far away
from Georgia as you can get, youknow, and Toby knew I didn't
fly and so I was bawling my eyesout in my bunk and no eagle I
had out there, you know and Tobycame, came onto the bus and

(30:38):
pretty much got in in the bunkwith me and he said look here,
hoss, and you can hear him sayit.
I got this envelope here.
He said I know you don't liketo fly, but he said what I've
done is I've bought you planevouchers all the way back home.
If your mom gets sick inAlbuquerque, you can fly out of

(31:00):
Albuquerque.
If she gets sick in Phoenix,you can fly out of Phoenix.
If you make it to Dallasallas,you get in dallas, go to love
field.
If you go to little rock, youcan go fly on.
He had this whole thing, himand david mile.
Y'all know david mapped out thewhole way and man, I just
bawled my eyes out.
Well, here I, I got on that busat old eagle and we drove all

(31:22):
the way across the country.
Three and a half days threedays, I think you know, to get
home and the Sunday I missed thelast weekend of the tour.
Now you gotta understand.
I had the best four months ofmy life.
And here I am in Georgia on thelast night of the tour, when
O'Connell and everybody's out,you know, and doing doing their
thing.
I was so hurt, I was sad manand I went and got everybody's

(31:45):
CD that was on that tour andAlan Jackson had sold me a
yellow Corvette while I was outon that tour and he said I'm
going to sell it to you at agood price, just don't sell it,
keep it, because someday, youknow, just keep it.
I did the pop-a-top video withhim, video with him.
So I bought it.
I said will you sign the visor?
And he said, by God he signedAllen's.

Speaker 4 (32:07):
I sold that son of a gun.
In three weeks he made afortune.
I ain't going to.
Time is tough.
I'm going to save all my money,like I should.
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (32:20):
I was in the Corvette that Allen gave me or I bought
from Allen and I rode aroundthat whole Sunday and I put in
the Corvette that Allen gave meor I bought from Allen and I
rode around that whole Sundayand I put in Eddie and Troy, I
listened to Montgomery Gentry, Itake it out, put in Keith Urban
listened to it, put in Kix,ronnie listened to it, everybody
Toby listened to it.
Well, about 6.30 that eveningmy phone rings and it was Joey
Floyd.

(32:41):
Y'all remember Joey.
Joey was Toby's acoustic player, right-hand man, and I thought
man, why is Joey calling me?
He should be on stage right now.
I answered the phone, it wasjust loud and I said hello and
Joey said shut up and hang on.
I thought what the hell?
And the next thing I heard inthe background the late Toby

(33:03):
Keith on that microphone sayingit was in virginia beach, or or
I think it was virginia beachand he said hey, everybody,
about about 15 000 there.
Probably we're missing a memberof the show tonight.
I'll try to get through thisbest I can.
He said cleatus t judd hostedthis entire tour and he was not

(33:24):
able to be here tonight.
His mom's sick and he's inGeorgia and I was just wondering
if all 15,000 of y'all couldgive me a little Cletus chant
just for a minute.
And man, what I heard on thatphone was Cletus, cletus, cletus
, from 15,000 people and Joeyhanded Toby the phone.
Toby said love you, pal, seeyou later.

(33:46):
And man, you know who does thatfor somebody.
You know it takes that time.
You know, in front of Toby wasmaking 50 grand a night on that
tour at that time.
I know exactly what he wasmaking.
But Toby was a bigger-than-lifefigure, you know, and he did
that for me.

(34:07):
He knew and we remained superclose for a lot of years.
Now, towards the end, you know,we didn't spend as much time
out of sight, out of mind.
The story with the one youheard on TL's podcast, me and
Toby and Scotty Emmerich was outone night in TK.
This was in 2003 or 2004,.

(34:30):
I think we was eating steaksdowntown.
What's that, morton?
Toby was paying because hell, Icouldn't pay them yet too much.
Scotty was there.
He's so tired he squeaks.
He sure wasn't going to pay.
So we were all sitting there.
Some dude come over to thetable and was like let me have
your autograph.

(34:50):
Talking to Toby, toby said I'dbe glad to sign your autograph
after we get done eating.
He said, thank you too good.
Toby said nope, just lettingyou know I'll sign it after we
eat.
The guys know where to be found, you know, and me and Toby and
Scotty go somewhere else.
Tk goes home.
We're at another bar downtowndrinking a little more hammered
at that time.
Here comes that guy again.

(35:12):
He goes up to Toby.
He says something to Toby Idon't know what it was, but Toby
said no and the guy left.
So about 1 o'clock in themorning, brenner's Alley when
does that place flat started?
Oh yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:26):
Fiddling Steel Fiddling.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Steel.
Well, nobody left but me andToby, the last two men standing,
and we were sitting at a roundtable and there was about eight
people in there.
Tk says Eric Church was inthere, but I don't remember.
He just gets started if that'sthe case.
But me and Toby was at a tableaway from the bar, I was in a
chair and he was in the otherchair.
We were just talking, justfriends, you know, just hammered

(35:53):
in the time of our life, herethat guy comes.
I thought this ain't going tobe good.

Speaker 8 (35:56):
We all hammered.
He's hammered, it ain't goingto be good.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
This guy wasn't five foot nothing.
He comes up to the table andsays, uh, how much you and your
buddy there talking about me,how much y'all pay to get
y'all's hair bleached out.
Look like a couple of wrestlerson the on the nwa.
Oh no, I thought it was funny.
Toby didn't.
And toby got up and he got thatguy in the offless position
I've ever seen, like when youcarry a 12 pack of beer out of

(36:22):
convenience store.
You got he had him by thatguy's belt loop and that guy was
just kicking, you know, andToby was walking him out and
Toby dropped him and I thought,okay, I got two choices.
I can sit here and watch Tobyjust brawl this guy because he's
got it under control, or I cango over there and get me one
good lick in, just so toby knowsthat I got his back because he

(36:46):
can't get to me, so I ran overthere, dude and I drawed back
and I come up under and I mean Ihit.
You could have heard the loudestsplatter.

Speaker 4 (36:56):
My hand exploded blood whenever toby's like don't
kill him, they'll put us inprison, don't put us to put us
in for homicide.
And I said, I got him, toby, Igot him and Toby walked him out
of there and he comes back.

Speaker 1 (37:08):
I'm at the table, the waitress over there, wrapping
my hand up blood all over myclothes, and Toby said what'd
you do that for fool?
I said I wanted you to knowthat, for all you've done for me
, that tonight I had your back.

Speaker 4 (37:29):
And he said, man that means a lot and I never had the
chance to tell him that I hitthe damn concrete floor.
I never let a hand on that dude.

Speaker 1 (37:36):
I mean I was buried in the floor.

Speaker 4 (37:39):
And I never for 20 years.
Hey, it was a thought thatcounts.
Yeah, I just let it ride.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (37:43):
God before we go to break, because we're going to do
that just a little bit and thencome back.

Speaker 4 (37:47):
I'm sorry if I talk too much.
No, you're good.

Speaker 6 (37:49):
But the Toby.

Speaker 3 (37:49):
Keith thing is great and we've had the ultimate
pleasure of knowing Toby alittle.
And then we had the wonderfulhonor of seeing him not too long
before he passed.
He came out to a show and wespent the night with him.
It was unbelievable.
But the uh, the remake and therewrite you did in honor of him.
You want to talk about that,because that was, that was
fantastic.
Don't let the old man man.

Speaker 1 (38:10):
You know, uh, I was in a hotel room in elizabethtown
, kentucky.
I was coming to town to towrite, to record, do a demo or
something.
I don't know what.
It was, some, some little sillysong, and it was the day after
Toby had passed away and itreally, really felt like all of
us, you know.
I mean it bothered me a lot, Imean it was just horrible and I

(38:36):
thought you know what, I'm goingto do something for Toby, I'm
going to rewrite.
You know, most of my parodieshave always been funny, but I'm
going to sit here, I I'm gonnacall a buddy of mine up and I'm
gonna, I'm gonna write it overthe phone with.
I think I called, uh, I forgothis shea smith, some friends of
mine, you know and uh, neilwouldn't answer and and you know

(38:59):
what, and all of a sudden Ithought, no, no, I'll write it
by myself, because Toby would.
Toby wrote his by his self.
I got, I got a man up see if Ican do it.
So I wrote it that night and,um, rewrote it, wrote it,
rewrote it.
You know how the how it goesand it may not sound like it,
but, uh, I went in the next dayand um, and and cut it over at,

(39:21):
uh, larry Baird's place, youknow, and it was probably the
most, one of the biggest videosthat I'd ever done, you know,
and, like I say, I'm not a goodsinger or anything, but I felt
just some kind of tribute, youknow, to somebody that again,
man, when it gets quiet on me,all of these things, you know,

(39:43):
come back and I think, how, howwell, that was beautiful, my
brother, seriously that was,that was an incredible song.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
And I appreciate that .
Um, this is a greatconversation.
We're here with Cletus T Judd.
Uh, hold on, we gotta, we gottaget a little couple of words
from our sponsor.
We gotta pay those bills, man,oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
Where do I pick my check up?
There you go.
We'll let you know in the break.
I just want a round of golf.

Speaker 6 (40:08):
It's coming, it's coming.

Speaker 7 (40:10):
We said yeah, clarence has it.

Speaker 3 (40:11):
That's easy.
That's the easy part.
Anyway, stay with us, we'll beright back.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
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(40:40):
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All right, welcome back to the.
Try that in a Small Townpodcast.
We're here in the PatriotMobile Studios Kalo, thrash TK
and, of course, cletus T Jed.
We had to wipe our eyes.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
We're all good.
We refreshed our makeup.
You should be in this brain allthe time.
Chase Brooks told me I could beup for duo and group of the
year.

Speaker 4 (41:59):
I had so many personalities.
I'll tell you how bad it got.
Listen to this.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
This is going to kill you.
Right here Some people knowthis story there's a dude
sitting behind me back here.
He's been one of my bestfriends for 25 years.
He works for Morgan Wallen.
Now We've been running togetherfor a long time.
Right in the middle of my heydaywhen I was knocking it down
long time, and right in themiddle of my heyday when I was

(42:26):
knocking it down, I went andbought a big, massive a-frame
house out in Temple Hills rightaround Susie Boggess she was my
neighbor big and I went in andredone it.
You know I've been known to.
I mean, I remodeled them things.
I turned them into the mostunbelievable pimp pads you've
ever seen.
But there was a problem withthat.
My mentality would not allow mefor years I'm not talking about

(42:50):
just at this point For years tosleep in a house or be anywhere
by myself.
I've told you all along.
You know, when it's quiet it'sreally loud for me, much louder
back then.
I've found ways to quiet someof that.
But when I lived in Tampa Ilived in an apartment, a post

(43:12):
apartment, which is veryexclusive and gated, and I
literally would put a potunderneath the door knob and
would put a spoon on the doorknob in case somebody ever tried
to turn my door knob.
It'd land in the pot and I'dwake up.
So it was a two bedroomapartment.

Speaker 4 (43:32):
I'd sleep on this end for about an hour and a half
and I'd walk down the hall andsleep.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
I would make sure there wasn't nobody coming in,
you know, through the windows.
I wouldn't ever say I wasparanoid because I wasn't doing
drugs at this point, but I wasjust really afraid.
My whole life, my entire life,I've always been afraid to stay
by myself.
It is what it is.
It's better now.
But I bought this house inTemple Hills, I remodeled it and

(44:02):
I never spent a night in it,never.
And I was getting really tiredand I called Goose back here and
I said Goose man, you come staywith me, you know?
I said I really want to spend anight in my own house, if you
could.
He understood he knows mebetter than house.
If you could.

(44:22):
He understood he knows mebetter than anybody in the world
.
He said, absolutely, I'm in.
I said you know, I got thisreally nice house.
I overlooked the golf course,you know, and I had a security
system, that thing that DanBongino would like to have.
Yeah, you couldn't get in it.
I'm just telling you right now,it was rock solid, I mean that

(44:44):
thing had buttons and I wasconnected to the police, the
fire department, the CIA, and some and Goose hung out.
We went downtown, got abouthalf hammered and come back to
the house, and we hung out for awhile, had a few drinks and
then Goose went to his bedroomand I went to mine.
Big old, big big.

(45:05):
I just went into a realm sleep,you know, just dozed off on
that, ambien.
You know, eyes out and all of asudden, whoop, whoop, intruder.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
Window seven whoop, whoop door eight dude, I'm
telling you, I come up out ofthat bed ran to that keypad.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
I could see where they was coming in at you.
I hit the number, the 911number.
I literally rolled across mybed like Hutch did I rolled
across my bed and I always leftmy window.
I was up real high.
It was an A-frame.
I was up high.
I always left my window,cracked about that much so I

(45:50):
could get out that much, oh myGod.
And I raised that window up allthe way and I jumped out that
window and I was screaming goose, get out, get out, they're in
here.

Speaker 4 (46:00):
They're in here.
And I landed in shrubs and toremy legs.
I was bleeding like a stuck hog.
And I raised up and it was thatfool went out the door trying
to go see his girlfriend andsnuck out the front door and I
cussed him.
I said I've called the law, thepolice.
He said I'm a grown man and ifI want to leave this house, I'll

(46:24):
leave it.
I'm never coming back.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
And he left and guess what I did?
Went to a motel, oh my.

Speaker 3 (46:31):
God, still never.
I was going to say did you everspend another night there, one
night?
I don't know if y'all know Mikeor not.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Mike, it may be your account, I don't know.
Yeah, he is.
Mike called me and he said, hey, sell it.
Motel bill is more than amortgage and I sold it.
I never spent an item.
Then I moved from there to theGovernor's Club because I felt,
you know, I've got a couple ofgates there.

Speaker 4 (46:56):
Joe Don's right down front.

Speaker 1 (46:58):
You know I literally that's the first time I ever
looked down on Joe Don.
Fred Miller.
You know from the Titans.
There, man, I had all.
I was safe First night.
You're going to ask Goof Firstnight, couldn't do it.

Speaker 3 (47:14):
What do you think that's from?

Speaker 1 (47:15):
I don't know, but I called if you remember, if y'all
are associated with the Flats,and I remember Larry Jones.

Speaker 8 (47:20):
Flats who's that?
Oh, if y'all are associatedwith the flats, and I remember
larry jones flats.

Speaker 1 (47:23):
Who's that?
Oh well, they're trying tostart up.
Larry was gary's bus driver,you know, for years and I I was
out with him at the time when Ibought the house.
I said, larry man, you, ifyou'll move in with me, I'll let
you live for free.
I got a big old spread overthere whole.
You don't ever pay a nickel,just be there for me.
And one night man I heardsomething.

(47:45):
I thought somebody was comingin again and I ran out in the
big old living room and I lookedup on that catwalk and Larry
was walking up back and forththe catwalk with a gun in his
hand, said I ain't going to letnothing happen to you, boss.
I got two gates in front of methat there ain't no way you can
get to me.
And Larry's walking the cat,walking the guns in.

(48:06):
Ain't nothing going to happento us in here, but guess what.
Sold it.
Oh my gosh, Sold it.
It got better.
It got better.
I don't know it got better, Idon't know the addiction.
By this point the addictionthing had gotten.

(48:29):
I'm sure that had something todo with it, although it had
dissipated to some degree, youknow, it wasn't near as bad,
because it was really dangerousfor me to make money and had
been an addict, so you wereusing through the early stages
of the career.
Up until what I'm going to tellyou.
Okay, I was married to, ify'all remember her, a great

(48:50):
singer up here, one of the best,I think, julie Reeves.
Back in the day, julie and Ibecame great friends, got
married and got divorced soonafter.
It didn't last long three orfour months and I actually went
up to Ashland to the Paramountand surprised her we were still
friends, you know and I went upthere and watched her sing one

(49:12):
night and surprised her andshe's like, well, where are you
staying at?
And I said, well, over at theAshland Plaza.
And she said, well, I'll justcome and hang, we'll catch you
up, and that $189, we'll catchyou up and that 189 hotel room
cost me 250 000 in child support, because that's what I paid.
But julie got pregnant, whichwas all great best thing that
ever happened to me.
But um september 11, 2004,julie went into labor and we

(49:38):
went to vanderbilt and andCaitlin was born in the wee
hours of September the 11th andstanding in that hotel.
In that, in that hospital room,I had $1,500 in cash in one
pocket and I had a half ounce ofcocaine in the other pocket and
after Caitlin was born, I saidyou know what I?

(49:58):
I got to go use.
You know I got to, I got tocalm down.
It was a big event.
You know what I?
I gotta go use, you know Igotta.
I gotta calm down.
It was a big event, you knowwhatever.
So I went on I think it was asixth floor, vanderbilt and I.
It was three, four in themorning and I went into this
bathroom at vanderbilt and itwas and y'all know the kind it
was old tile floors, the, thestain, the chrome mirror and the

(50:19):
, the doors and nobody was inthere and I took the bag of
cocaine out and I had a quarterin my pocket and I I dug the
quarter down into the bag and Igot about right here and I
thought oh, somebody's watchingme, I'm busted.

(50:41):
Yeah, I'm busted.
I'm busted.
This is it, and you'll neverguess who was standing there
Chris Cagle Me.
Looking in a mirror.
As ugly, morbid as I'd everlooked in my life and I thought

(51:03):
you, son of a bitch, all you'veever wanted was a kid, all you
wanted to be was a daddy,because you didn't have one.
And you're going to come inhere in this bathroom and do
what you're fixing to do.
You don't deserve that kid.
And I took that cocaine and Islung it against the wall in the

(51:24):
stall.
I slung it up against the walland a half ounce of cocaine is a
lot and it went everywhere,everywhere.
And I got down on my knees here.
I have sold millions of records, know people like y'all, knew
people like Paisley and Toby,and done things that I never

(51:45):
imagined.
And here I am in a bathroom, onmy hands and knees, with my
hands in the toilet, throwingwater up on a wall to hide the
evidence of 15 years ofaddiction.
The evidence of 15 years ofaddiction.
And I was throwing the water onthe wall and I thought you know

(52:10):
, while I'm down here, I mightneed to fix this.
And on my hands and knees inthe bathroom at Vanderbilt
Hospital, I said God, Iappreciate it, man, if you help
a brother out.
Man, I just want to be a dad, Ijust want to be a good dad.
And I stood up out of that floorand I dropped that quarter For

(52:34):
some reason, I'll never know.
Maybe y'all will write it oneday.
I'll never know thesignificance.
I dropped the quarter in thefloor and I leaned up against
the sink and I watched thatquarter on its side.
You know just where it hit.
It was just going round andround in a circle and the circle
got smaller and smaller and Isaid when that quarter stops, so

(52:57):
do I.
The quarter stopped.
I picked it up, put it in mywallet, where it sits today
since 2004,.
And I never used it again, ever.
No relapse, no, uh-ohs, no,nothing.
See, my love for my kid wasstronger than the love for the
drug, but that's not the casemuch anymore.
You know so many people I workin recovery, some to help other

(53:21):
addicts, you know, to have somekind of life and let them know
that they matter.
You know, with Lawrence CountyRecovery up in Ohio, where I
live at, and, uh, I was a luckyone.
You know she she saved my life,man, my daughter saved my life
and gave me a chance to to be adad because, like I said, I grew
up with, didn't, didn't havemuch of one, so I try to be a

(53:42):
decent one now.

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Oh my God, so are you working?
Did you say you're working withaddicts or recovering?

Speaker 1 (53:48):
I do you know a couple of days a week.
I do a podcast called my Roadto Recovery where myself and
Kathy Ross and Donna and we, weinterview addicts and we let
them tell their story how longthey've been clean.
Let me tell you something, dude, and we let them tell their
story how long they've beenclean.
Let me tell you something, dudemy story.
I shut up because it fails incomparison to what those people

(54:09):
have been through.
We don't have enough time, wehave to do two episodes, but I
give them the outlet to let themknow look here, this hood right
here can do it, and I knowthat's so cliche and people use
it.
If I can do, hood right herecan do it.
You, and I know that's socliche and people use.
And if I can do it, you can doit.
But man, I gotta be some kindof beacon of hope for these
people because they they're theforgotten ones.

(54:30):
They're swept on the rug,they're left to die and I'm, if
I can, uh, if I can just makesure that maybe one of them, one
of them, gets a day or twoclean.
You know my, my story.
You know when they did myInside Fame on CMT, remember the
Inside Fames?
I was actually out on my firstyear with Brooks and Dunn and I

(54:52):
watched that Inside Fame mystory with Brian O'Connell, with
Kix, ronnie Toby, keith Urban,troy and Eddie on one bus
watching my fat ass on this bigold television.

Speaker 3 (55:06):
There wasn't no flat screen at that point.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
And you know, the weirdest thing was we watched
the whole thing and none of themever said a word.
They didn't know what to saywhen they heard the stories.
You know, and this before, Iwasn't even clean by this point
and I came home to rememberShoney's Inn down to Mumbray
Hall of Fame behind it.
I was in the Hall of Famelounge and a girl come up to me

(55:33):
and she said oh my God, are youCletus?
And I said yeah, she's young,you know, 20s, whatever.
And she said my name isso-and-so, that's going to get
you.
She said my name is whatever itwas.
And she said I'm a songwriterfrom Seattle Washington.
I moved here about two yearsago.
She said I've done everything Iknow to do.
She said I finally just said Ican't do it.

(55:55):
So last Saturday I was packingup all my boxes and I called my
mother and my dad and I saidjust bring the U-Haul, it's
going to take you a few days toget here.
And she said I was.
I was packing my boxes and Ihad CMT on.
And she said I was watchingyour inside fame.
And she said after everycommercial break I was unpacking

(56:17):
them boxes.
She said I went from packingthe boxes to go home to
unpacking them to say I can dothis.
If he can do it, I can do it.
I don't know what ever happenedto the girl, but maybe, just
maybe, whoever she was, shemight have stayed around an
extra year or two to give it ashot.

(56:38):
So, yeah, it's worth it.
All the heartache, thecraziness, the whatever you, the
mentality, all that, it's worthit 100%.
I'd do it again, just exactlylike I did it the first time, to
help somebody not have to gothrough what I went through.
Take one for the team Jesus didI can do it too.

(57:01):
So there you go, you one forthe team Jesus did I can do it
too.

Speaker 8 (57:03):
You know so there you go, you look fantastic, feel
all right.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
You know, I would say , getting a little older, love
golf man, you know, with apassion.

Speaker 8 (57:12):
What's your handicap?
What's your handicap?

Speaker 3 (57:14):
Uh-oh, no handicap Scratch.
We got a couple Four.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Four Six from the back teams, but we could use him
on our team against Neal.

Speaker 6 (57:22):
We could.
We could use you on our team.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Neal would be better than me.
I love to play with a passion.
You know, man, if it weren't wewere talking off there, if it
weren't for golf, man, I don'tknow what I would do.
I was the oldest guy in thestate of Kentucky, in 2018 to
qualify for the Kentucky StateAm and 18 to qualify for the
Kentucky State Am, and all mybuddies are like why do you do
that?
Why are you going to go waste acouple of days knowing, damn

(57:45):
good and well, you can't do it?
I said, man, you're talking tothe wrong dude, that's a fact,
yeah you're talking to the wrong, because what I think is, man,
the minute I try, the minute Istick the T in the ground first,
t, nerves, jitter and all thatI won because I made the effort.
You know, I made the effort.
I made the cut.
Last year I finished second inthe West Virginia Senior Open.

(58:06):
I love to play.
We were talking about Roryyesterday.
You know watching the Mastersand man, I could so relate to
Rory.
When he hit them knees, man, Ibawled, I told my wife, I said
that's what I feel like when Ilose a hole with Gary LaVox.
Right there I'm on my knees, I'mcrying, you know.

(58:26):
So I felt for Rory because,like you said, man, that's a lot
of years of trying and thenwhen you finally do something
worthwhile, man, when youfinally go man God, like my mom,
it's like I get the emotion, Iget it.

Speaker 8 (58:44):
It's just unfortunate a lot of people won't show it.
You know, I don't know if Iwant to play you now.

Speaker 1 (58:48):
Oh yeah, you got me.
You know, I play with Joe Don alot, I think you're lying when
you say four, your handicap'sfour.

Speaker 8 (58:53):
I'll show you on the map there I think it's a lie.
You haven't been turning scores.

Speaker 4 (58:58):
I turn them every one .

Speaker 1 (59:03):
You want to.
I'm not talking about everyone.
I was trying to think who thebest golfer in our I can tell
you we were talking about.
I can tell you who the worsttexters are in our business.
If we want to go down thatroute and number one on the list
is your buddy Levox.

Speaker 4 (59:15):
Oh yes, oh yeah, single-handed.
I hope you're watching.

Speaker 1 (59:21):
My will was made out to Gary when Caitlin was born.
You know that's how much Iloved him.
Love him now to this day,because I knew if I died Caitlin
wouldn't have to get on thepole.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
You know Gary would step in and take care of her.
But now the problem is my wifegetting to him to say hey,
caitlin hung it.
You know, barry died.
His will's mad Because he won'treturn the text You've got to
understand he doesn't return hisbrother's text.

Speaker 8 (59:51):
I know it's unbelievable His only full
brother.
He will not return his text.
He doesn't return my text, he'son his own deal.

Speaker 1 (01:00:00):
Here's a conversation text-wise text.
I've known him for 25 years, soyou know as well as I do it's
unbelievable.

Speaker 8 (01:00:06):
Now here, here is a text we can call him out right
now.
This is good, this is reallygood here's a group text with
the flats.

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
I'm gonna tell you how it goes.
Okay, put them all on there.
I'm lucky to have their numbers, just like y'all are hey guys,
what's going on?

Speaker 4 (01:00:22):
jay doing great man, joe don yeah, man, kip got to
play some golf uh, gary, yeahman you know, uh, tara, bernie
brooklyn, everybody's good,awesome, hey, um great show.
Last night I saw the new video.
You know, fast cars and free,yeah man, it was great, yeah,
you killed it yeahthanks a lot, man, that's Don.
Oh yeah, we got to get on thatgolf course Next text.

(01:00:44):
Hey guys, that song we wrotelast week.
Any shot at Crickets, crickets,y'all there, yeah, we do hey
hey, and then two years later,Joe Don will go nah, I don't
know what man is referring to.
That was two years later.
Joe Donnell goes nah, I don'tknow what man he's referring to.
That was two years ago when Iasked him a question Cletus, I

(01:01:07):
learned that lesson a long timeago.

Speaker 8 (01:01:09):
You never ask an artist about a song that you
pitched to them or wrote withthem.
Oh, I know you never do itbecause they cannot stand.
They hate telling you bad news.

Speaker 4 (01:01:19):
Well, buddy, they don't hate telling me I wrote a
hundred with them.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
I finally got, you know here's the thing.
I wrote this thing with allthree of the guys one time it's
called the Way and Gary Connsaid yeah, man, it's on the
record, We've already cut it.
Jay produced it.
Man, I was living in Tampa.
I called every friend.

Speaker 4 (01:01:35):
I had told them it was on the record.

Speaker 7 (01:01:45):
I know y'all probably all had one on there.
I go to the store to get it.

Speaker 4 (01:01:48):
Bonus track, oh, bonus track.
Cracker barrel special.
Oh, it just made me want tothrow up.

Speaker 1 (01:01:51):
You know it's a great song, I'm glad to have it right
, but then when gary did hissolo thing, you know, I rode the
thing with him working on uh,working on sunday, you know, and
oh that's a good one anduhantley, you know I can't say
and tell y'all, compared to whatall y'all had cut, but Brantley
, um, he cut a thing calledthree feet of water.

Speaker 7 (01:02:09):
I wrote my 14 song titles tonight.

Speaker 8 (01:02:11):
You know that, right man.

Speaker 1 (01:02:13):
I hope that's the hardest thing I ever done in the
in the business.
No question, joe Don signed meto a published deal in 2000 and
2008 or nine.
He called me and said, man,there's more more to you than
what you're doing.
And he said I want to.
I want you to write for me atSony and Troy you know Troy was
over there at the time and theysigned me and I stayed there for

(01:02:34):
three or four years and anddidn't have a lot of success.
Um wrote a lot, you know, a lotof funny stuff.
Then I went to warner chapel,alicia and those guys and and um
man, when, when I, when I gotbaptized several, several years
ago, I was, I was.
I never had a lot of successsong, right, you know, about

(01:02:57):
whatever reason, maybe I justsuck, I don't know but right
before I get ready to getbaptized, man I I've standing
there had this Caitlin was onlyseven or eight years old and man
, right right before I wasgetting ready to go go into
water, I had this QuentinTarantino moment of every bad
thing that I'd ever done in mylife the abuse, what I went

(01:03:18):
through as a kid, my dad withguns and the money and the drugs
and every negative thing a mancould relive in his life and it
was the damnedest thing.
It was all in black and white,it was just all black and white.
And then all of a sudden, man,it's like I'm going to leave all

(01:03:41):
that and that three feet ofwater right there, fix it, set
it down.
I'm going to go in this waterone way, I'm going to come out
another way.
And I went in, came out and twodays later I had that idea
called Bussy, jace, hine andBrantley and we wrote it and it
was really the first gold recordthat I ever got for writing.
But songwriting is really hard,you know, so hard.

(01:04:07):
I got so much respect forpeople that do it on the level
that y'all, you know y'all havebeen able to do it on and um,
it's, it's hard and uh, I never.
I still love it with a passion.
I love the creative part.
I love to be around people thatare creative and don't think
for a minute and I'll tell youwhen it's written it'll get

(01:04:28):
pitched.
I'm going to tell you right nowI'm the best damn song plugger
in the world.

Speaker 8 (01:04:33):
I'll call them up at midnight, hey you know how many
song ideas me and Kalo havegotten on the golf course.
Oh yeah, there ain't no tellingthat that means we're gonna
we're gonna have to play a lotof golf together, because I
think, I think you're full ofgreat ideas great titles, I
don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:04:50):
But are you writing?
Uh, so is it mostly likeoriginal songs right now, or is
it still some parodies a fewweeks?

Speaker 1 (01:05:00):
ago and you know, on, lucky man, you know I wrote it,
uh, me and my buddy chris, andman, I did a video on that
snucky and went covert inbucky's and right outside of
lexington with an iphone and, uh, and had ear pods in.
I was, you know, acting like Iwas shopping.
We shot the video for 300 andthat thing, as of yesterday I
think it's got a million eighthundred thousand views, you know

(01:05:21):
, and.
But but I will tell you this,hey, and I'm gonna tell you
straight up, it does not.
I've done it so long and had soI did, man, I was on sony and
warner brothers and curb and Imean, I've been so fortunate to
have record deals.
Man, it's unbelievable.
Here again, can't sing a damnlick nothing.

(01:05:42):
Yeah, I was, if I was in, ify'all remember Luke Lewis, I
know, y'all know.

Speaker 8 (01:05:45):
Luke, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:05:46):
And when I got dropped at Sony I called Luke.
I wrote a thing called theChicks Did it and I called Luke.
You know Luke had them and Isaid man, can I?
You know I'm selling somerecords.
He said, yeah, come, you know,right there, with all that glass

(01:06:06):
there, right there on the lefton I guess that's 17th and I
played it for Luke and helistened to it.
We talked for a minute.
Halfway through it he hit thatbutton, pulled that CD out and
broke it in half.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
Bam broke it.
Don't you bring this horse inhere to me.
What do you think I am?
I got these girls undercontract.
Make amends, you idiot, don'tyou?
I said, luke, I'm just tryingto get a deal, I wasn't trying
to get no fight, nothing.

Speaker 1 (01:06:33):
He said but here's what I will do.
I'll give you $100,000 out ofmy bank account.
You go, cut your record, yousell it.
Do split the profit.
How's that?
Ask him Sitting right there inhis office.

Speaker 4 (01:06:46):
What kind of man does that?
For me, I'd blow 100 grand inno time.

Speaker 1 (01:06:51):
I'd be out at the strip club with that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:52):
But Lou.

Speaker 1 (01:06:52):
Lewis literally said I won't give you your record
deal.
But I will give you 100 grandout of my bank account.
You go, do the record, sell itand recoup, Recruit my money
let's profit.
I didn't know what to do.
I didn't take it.
I didn't know how to do norecord.
I didn't know how to do it, butthat was cool of him to do that
.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
You know, I was talking about that and I just
started thinking about when youfirst did the Indian In-Laws and
then, well, shouldn't I havethe second song?

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
The way it went was Indian In Laws was first, and
then I did a thing called GoneFunky on Alan Jackson, that's
the one CMT sent backimmediately.
And then I got a record deal atRazor and Tie and they gave me
$13,000.
I still got the contract.
They gave me $13,000 to do therecord.
I spent $7,800 of it and sentthe rest back.

(01:07:39):
I didn't know I could keep it.
I was starving to death.
What?

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
are you doing?
What are you doing?
Send it back, send it back tome that record sold.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
I had a $7,500 budget .
It sold, I think, right at$900,000.
That's amazing.

Speaker 7 (01:07:53):
My favorite title, though I remember laughing when
I saw this.
You have to tell me what yearit was.
Did I shave my back for this?

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
Oh, I got the best Dana Carter story and I love
Dana, dana's so sweet.
She was great too.

Speaker 7 (01:08:10):
What year was that?
Because when I saw that Iremember laughing so hard I was
like this is amazing, this isamazing.
I think I tried it in 2000.
I was on Sony.

Speaker 1 (01:08:22):
Yeah, Dana did the video with me.
You know, man, Dina knows thestory, so I'll tell it anyway.
I love Dina Carter with apassion.
She's a dear friend.
I had the odds for Dina, Wellwho didn't, I know.

Speaker 4 (01:08:33):
But you know I'm heavier, sam.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
You know, I didn't have much of a chance like some
of them did, but I talked, did.
But I talked to dean on thephone, you know, and we would
talk, and so I asked her.
I said, hey, you know, ladies,music, road golf tournament's
coming up this weekend, you know, or monday, you know.
What do you think about me andyou uh riding out there together
, you know?
And she's like well, I'd lovethat.

Speaker 4 (01:08:55):
That'd be great.
That'd be great.

Speaker 1 (01:08:58):
That's how she said I thought oh me, and goose
talking about this coming overhere.
I thought, well, I well, I'mtaking Dana Carter on a date, I
better go buy a Porsche.
So I went Sean Petty, I thinkit was Sean at the time I bought
a 911.
No way Porsche, I swear to Godask Goose.

(01:09:19):
Bought a 911.
Picked up Dana in it Going downthe road I reached over and put
my hand on her hand.
She put her hand on top of mine.
I thought I'm in, I am in.
I'm strawberry wine, liquor,whatever.
I am in with Dana because shetouched my hand.

(01:09:40):
I was like this is unbelievable.
When I'm at 911, we get to thatladies' museum, I'm like I'll
see you afterwards.
You know, enjoy your day.
I'll go do my thing, meet upback here.
I'm thinking the whole day oh,where am I going to take her
About 5-30.
Anybody seen Dana?

(01:10:01):
No, I ain't saw Dana.
I think I know whose bus whereDana was at.
She says she wasn't.
But I sold the Porsche the nextday.
I lost $15,000.

Speaker 8 (01:10:14):
Did you tell her you bought the Porsche?
Oh yeah, strictly for that date, really Absolutely.
You could have rented it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:19):
Yeah, I know, I didn't know I was mad at you.
I was fixing to pick up DanaCarter.
I literally bought it from Sean, kept it for three or four days
and then sold it somewhere.
I think I lost $10,000.

Speaker 7 (01:10:33):
So the feeling of we all know that feeling of victory
when she put her hand on top ofyours, I'll never forget it.

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
I'm thinking about it now.

Speaker 6 (01:10:44):
That makes me think of his other record called
Cletus Envy.
Yeah, that was a fun one, thatwas a good one.

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
Cletus Envy.
Then I did Bipolar and Proud.
But the chain of events werelike If she and I Was Mine Butt
Bigger than the Beatles.
I wrote with Billy Lawson Ify'all know Billy, he wrote it in
the shoney's parking lot, inthat, uh, in that old truck.
Uh, cleatus went down toflorida, uh, mindy mccready, and
then after that man I left fromrazor and tie, which was in new

(01:11:13):
york, uh, and then alan butlerand mike kraski signed me at
sony biggest they gave me, theygave me a 125 000 advance and
said welcome to sony and theykept me for two years did, okay,
you know, great day to be a guy, uh, the christmas record I did
at sony's best record I everdone, ever put it up against.

(01:11:34):
Yeah, cleed us navidad.
Yeah, it's the best record Iever done funniest record I
think I'd ever done.
Well, I left there, ended upgoing to cotch.
That's what I did.
I love, love NASCAR and thatone that one got mom out of the
trailer there.

Speaker 6 (01:11:47):
Yeah, that was a good one that charted, good.

Speaker 1 (01:11:50):
Yeah, it did.

Speaker 3 (01:11:51):
It did, so when did?
But when did it like end DidMcGraw?
What was the point that itbecame like a badge of honor to
these artists to be buried?
I think when I did.

Speaker 1 (01:12:01):
Everlight in the House is Blown.
That's the best one which isgreat Trace did an interview and
said hey, when Cletus does oneof your songs, you know you've
made it.

Speaker 3 (01:12:13):
Yeah, so like, did McGraw reach out, or was that
too early in the game?
I became friends.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
Again, man, those songs were my lottery tickets.
You know, man, you know whatI'm pissed that you never did
one of mine.
Which one?
I can pick one off the wall anddo it.

Speaker 4 (01:12:32):
I'm really, really pissed, but now I've done it for
so long I almost published.

Speaker 8 (01:12:34):
Yeah, I'm kidding you're not, I'm totally not,
we're not.

Speaker 1 (01:12:37):
We're never too late but, yeah, you know, mcgraw, but
if you think about it, when Iwent to Curb and I did that Ray
Stevens tribute album for threemonths leading up to the
recording of that record, theytold me that it would never
happen.
They said what you'reenvisioning, we'll give you the
budget, but it'll never happen.

(01:12:58):
I did it on Koch, which was nota big label at the time.
Bob Frank and those guys ChuckRose, my dear friend, and I
listened to nothing for threemonths, nothing in my car, ever,
nothing other than Ray Stevensrecords, every one of them.
I mean I had his inflectionsdown, I mean I had as close as

(01:13:18):
one can get to his idol.
Because Ray was my idol, youknow, know, he was my, he was my
, somebody that I, him and WeirdAl, you know, is who I looked
up to.
And so I went in the studio withthis vision of you know, I
wonder if I could get Winona.
I wonder if Winona would comeand sing, you know, on
Everything's Beautiful.
I wonder if I get MichaelEnglish.

(01:13:38):
I love Michael English.
I wonder if Michael would comeand sing on Everything's
Beautiful.
I wonder if I could maybe Trace, you know, might drop by and
sing on, and I wonder if I couldget Joe Diffie to sing with
Jesus Wearing a Rolex.
Oh no, joe won't do that.
I wonder if Vince Gill andSonia Isaacs might sing Misty
you know, the next thing.
You know, man, every single oneof them.

(01:14:02):
People walked into that studio.
The flats sang on everything.
It was beautiful, it wasoverwhelming.
And then the last song I didwas the Streak and Ray.

Speaker 3 (01:14:18):
Stevens walked in.

Speaker 1 (01:14:21):
I told my buddy, chris Clark, who helped produce.
I said shit.
I'm going outside, dude, I can'tdo this, I can't watch it, I
can't do it.
And Ray, somebody you know as akid man, you know, ray Stevens,
is in a vocal booth on sometracks that me and my buddy
Chris cut, and he's going here.

(01:14:43):
He comes boogie-dad, boogie-dad, and I thought another defining
moment in a man's life.
You know, it's a big deal, it'sa big deal.
Sometimes I get that record outand listen to all you know
Daryl Worley sang on it Traceand Vince, and that version of
Vince and Sonja Isaacs did aMisty I thought was Grammy award

(01:15:06):
winning man.
They nailed it.

Speaker 8 (01:15:08):
What's the Brad Paisley story Auto-fool?
I just want to know because youknow K-Lo's here they have a
huge history.

Speaker 7 (01:15:19):
I don't want to pull a prank.

Speaker 6 (01:15:21):
Oh the prank.
Okay, I thought you weretalking about the Dixie Chick
song.
No, no, no, a prank.
Oh the prank.
Okay, I thought you weretalking about the Dixie Chicks
song.
No, no, no, I want to hearabout the prank.

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
The prank was when we were out there on the Brooks
and Dunn tour last night.
The tour and you know all thembuses, about 15 or 16 or 20 of
them lined up down through there, we all ready to go.
It was the last year I was outthere.
Who was on that tour?
Do you remember?
I don't know Brad and the Flats,I think were the next, I can't
remember, but I know Brad was onit and we all got ready to

(01:15:50):
leave.
You know they all wanted us togo at the same time.
You know all pulled out of thevenue at the same time Last
night, everybody ready to gohome.
I'm on my bus.
Oh, don't tell me, the busain't going to crank.
Kicks his butt, ronnie butt.
Come Paisley's bus, ride Downthe side of him.

(01:16:13):
He done unhooked everybody'sjumper cables and none of the
buses would crank.
He wanted to go and get outfirst and he got out first and
we all sat there with deadbatteries in a on our tour buses
.

Speaker 4 (01:16:25):
so thanks, brad, if you're watching yeah, thanks,
brad, you didn't have nothing todo with that I did not you know
, kelly wrote a song that I Icut.

Speaker 1 (01:16:35):
You know, uh, not I guess how long ago, three or
four or five months ago.

Speaker 6 (01:16:38):
No, I'm sure I did yeah a bunch of them.

Speaker 5 (01:16:39):
They were already.
Did you do one of his?
No, I'm sure I did.

Speaker 4 (01:16:41):
Yeah, a bunch of them probably.
They were already parodies.
I've had that too.

Speaker 6 (01:16:46):
They're kind of worried.

Speaker 8 (01:16:48):
Big ass parodies.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Yeah, I had to do some of y'all's along the way?
I'm sure I did, but I was inTampa going down to do a show
and I heard a song on Sunday.
Brad was singing it and Ithought man, it was playing on
this guy who does a Christianshow, you know, and it was
Brad's song.
I thought let's do about averse and a chorus and I thought
, hell, Brad's an atheist.
I mean, I didn't ever knew that,Brad could, brad cannot be a

(01:17:14):
Christian, me listening to thissong and then I thought, now I
know Brad Paisley well enough.
No, there's going to be somekind of hook in here that's
going to get me saved, you know,and I listened to it and and it
moved me to tears.
It's called those crazyChristians that that they wrote.

Speaker 4 (01:17:37):
And wow, look at this , he was ready for this story.

Speaker 8 (01:17:39):
I wasn't going to bring it up myself, but you know
I'm going to ask you to singthis.
You know I may ask you to singthis.
You know I don't know how tosing it.

Speaker 6 (01:17:47):
Did you sing it?
No, it's an old song, yeah.
I like how you got two pagesbut only three lines.
Well, it's because I was in ahurry and I didn't have this to
find I was doing good on untilit got to, and I'm glad you pull
this out.

Speaker 1 (01:18:01):
When it got to, cause I you know it was first time I
ever heard it, so I didn't knowwhere it was going.
I just knew that there wassomething's fixing up.
Yeah, Make me pull over.
Is y'all know how I am?
It's going to be the end whenit got to the part where it said
and every now and then theymade up.

Speaker 6 (01:18:17):
I can't do.

Speaker 8 (01:18:18):
You got to.

Speaker 6 (01:18:19):
Well, and while you regather, the reason we wrote
that is and we did write it fromthe perspective of a guy who's
not a believer, right, and sohe's irritated about all the
church groups.
And I waited tables, you know,with all the church crowd and
the church crowd didn't tipanything, you know, sort of like
started there until you wroteit from a non-believer
perspective and that's why youthought, oh, oh, he's an atheist

(01:18:41):
, which of course he's not oh,no, and so you're just doing it
to build it all the way down andI knew, you know, knowing,
because I looked who wrote itand and, and I knew that it was
going to get me before it wasover.

Speaker 1 (01:18:54):
But the, the chorus where it says and every now and
then they meet a poor lost soullike me who's not quite sure
just who, or who, or what or howhe ought to be, they march him
down the aisle and the nextthing, you know, they dunk him
in the water and here comes upanother one of those crazy
Christians, k-lo, how good isthat?

Speaker 4 (01:19:15):
That's pretty strong.
I hate your guts.
That's pretty strong, brother.
That's so good.

Speaker 1 (01:19:19):
Every line of that and I text Kelly and ask if I do
it.
I text Brad, ask if I do it.
Text Brad he's about like theflats he got back to me.

Speaker 4 (01:19:26):
I didn't know what song he was talking about, you
know, I had to go back to mytext and look, but it that's.

Speaker 1 (01:19:35):
I mean if we had lyric sheets on the stuff y'all
wrote man it's sick.

Speaker 8 (01:19:39):
That's what.
That's what country music isall about.
Right there, it's unbelievable.
When it cuts your soul in half.
Like that.
I can't.

Speaker 6 (01:19:47):
That's what it's all about and he cut a record on it.
He just did.
He cut a great record on it.

Speaker 1 (01:19:51):
I want to do a video on it but, man, you know, if I
could just sing better, I wouldhave more confidence in doing it
, because I didn't want to doanybody any injustice, you know,
in doing that.
But it's such a powerful song,you know, and so well written,
and I'll eventually try to do avideo on it and do my

(01:20:13):
perspective on it, if possible.
John well done, my friend.

Speaker 6 (01:20:17):
Thank you my honor that you cut it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:18):
Oh Lord, that's awesome.
So good.
Yep, so good.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
Ooh, this is one of those nights that you feel like
we could do two or threeepisodes.

Speaker 1 (01:20:26):
I know I apologize, I'll get on a tangent.
No, brother.

Speaker 3 (01:20:30):
If this has been, do we?
Somebody got anything before we?

Speaker 8 (01:20:33):
I just want to know when we're going to play golf.

Speaker 3 (01:20:35):
Okay, let's get to that.

Speaker 8 (01:20:37):
Let's lighten this up and talk about money here.

Speaker 1 (01:20:41):
I need to know You're going to need to give me some
shots.
No, no, no.

Speaker 8 (01:20:45):
If you're truly a four, then I got to give you two
aside.

Speaker 1 (01:20:49):
Oh, you're a two, you're a scratch.
Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:20:52):
No, no, no, I'm calling bullshit on your index.

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
I love you like a brother, but I put in every
score.
You don't have to show me Ibelieve you.
Okay, you're going to hell ifyou're lying.
It's a three.
It's a three.

Speaker 8 (01:21:06):
Oh, look at that You're now a three, so I give
you a shot and a half aside.
That'd be four.
Before I see you again, I maybe retired.
Before I see you again, I maybe up.
We're actually doing a.
I I'm playing the three ofthese guys and we're going to
video it.
All right, I'll tell you whatwe'll do?

Speaker 1 (01:21:23):
No, no, no, no, no.
I want to play with these threeCome on.
Against you Straight up.
That's not even fair I know,that's great.

Speaker 8 (01:21:31):
It's completely fair.

Speaker 6 (01:21:32):
That's better than what we had, because it was just
us three against them so thisis a lot more fair.

Speaker 4 (01:21:39):
I think.

Speaker 8 (01:21:40):
I'll never win.
I'll let you play with them.
You can't get a stroke.
No strokes, all right, zerostrokes.

Speaker 1 (01:21:46):
Oh, I love this idea.

Speaker 8 (01:21:48):
Is it a low ball or a scramble?
No, no, no, no, it's me against.
It's straight up.
I hate a low ball.
No, it's straight up, straightup.

Speaker 4 (01:21:57):
Toad's going to look fantastic.

Speaker 7 (01:21:59):
No, I'm really bad.
No, I'm really bad.

Speaker 4 (01:22:02):
He's going to look good.

Speaker 1 (01:22:03):
The only question I got on all this is I'll have to
do it and I've got to wait andsee when my royalty checks come
because, I know it's higher thanhell.

Speaker 8 (01:22:18):
Out here where you.

Speaker 4 (01:22:18):
No, I got you on the Done deal.
That's free Next week.

Speaker 8 (01:22:20):
Done deal They've got to pay their way, but I got
yours Hold on what just happened.

Speaker 4 (01:22:25):
That's awful.
What just happened, man?

Speaker 1 (01:22:28):
I just want to say in the end first thank y'all so
much I watch the podcast.
All the time I watched one, gary, was on.
All these people that we talkabout, man, I love them dearly.
They are dear friends of mine.
I can't describe enough howmuch I love them dearly.
They are dear friends of mine.
I can't describe enough howmuch I love them, all of them

(01:22:50):
that's ever been kind to me,even the ones that hadn't.
People like y'all that I haveso much respect for what y'all
do, for what y'all do asmusicians and man, I appreciate
y'all.
Letting me jump on here Seriouswhat a night we're going to
have you back on.

Speaker 8 (01:23:03):
I appreciate y'all letting me jump on here.
Seriously, what a night.
We're going to have you back on.

Speaker 1 (01:23:06):
I appreciate that.

Speaker 8 (01:23:08):
I want to hear the rest of the story oh man,
there's so, there's.

Speaker 1 (01:23:12):
So the only one I'll have to tell you about can I
tell it?

Speaker 3 (01:23:18):
Yeah, tell it please.

Speaker 1 (01:23:19):
Last story, last story.

Speaker 3 (01:23:21):
We got 45 minutes.

Speaker 1 (01:23:22):
Last story I was we got 45 minutes.
Last story I was telling youwhen Caitlin was born.
I just want to be a good dad,just because my dad was never a
dad.
God rest his soul.
There's a moral to the end ofthis.
But, man, as a young kid he wasnonexistent, you know, rubbed
alcoholic the whole night.

(01:23:43):
I'd go down at Christmas and hewould slide money under the
door, wouldn't let me in thedoor.
When I was 18, he called me andhe said hey, look, I know I've
been a horrible dad, I get it.
I get it.
But he said I went and got youa Corvette at Day Chevrolet.
I paid for it out of myretirement money from Lockheed.

(01:24:03):
He said I know it ain't goingto make up for all the years of
disaster that I've caused foryou.
He said but it's just a littletoken of my way to say hey, I'm
trying to do a little better.
And I called my buddy, michaelCrumley, who's a Navy SEAL
retired Navy SEAL.
Now I said Mike, I can'tbelieve.
Man, my dad got me a Corvette.

(01:24:23):
Will you drive me down there topick it up?
Mike's like yeah, man, let's go.
We got in.
Mike's old Thunderbird drovedown to Ackworth, georgia,
pulled in the parking lot, mydad's little lake house and no
car, no Corvette, no mention, nomention of it.
And I looked at Mike and Mikesaid well, what do we do?

(01:24:44):
I said we go home, nothing newto me and went back home.
And so I hated him.
You know that will make you,you know you hate somebody.
And I didn't speak to him forseveral, several years, you know
.
And when we did it was awful,you know.

(01:25:05):
And so when I was in Tampa doingradio in 2008 or 98, I think,
my mom called and said hey, I'mjust going to give you a heads
up.
Your dad has cancer.
I said, well, I'm going to callhim.
She said I probably wouldn't ifI was you.
And I called him and heanswered and I said why didn't

(01:25:29):
you tell me?
He said you wouldn't haveanswered anyway.
And I said well, here's whatI'm going to do.
I'm going to have my engineerat the radio station load up my
gear and I'm going to come hometo Georgia and I'm going to do
what you didn't do I'm going totake care of you.
And he said no.
And I said no, you don't have asay.

(01:25:49):
So I'm a grown man now I'mcoming home and I'm going to
take care of my daddy.
So I went home, my engineer,they set up me a studio in his
basement and for the next threemonths I bathed him, I held his
hand.
He's mean and ornery.

(01:26:11):
One Monday night, it's in theevening about 5, 30, or 6
o'clock in Georgia.
He lived in a ranch over abasement house.
I was in the basement and Iheard some footsteps up there.
I thought, oh man, I've got togo up there and see what's going
on.
I walk up the steps and it'sdown a hallway and there was one

(01:26:31):
dim light, just an old 1980slight, in the hallway with
probably a 40-watt bulb in it,and my dad his bedroom was in
the back left and there wasnobody in the house but me and
my dad.
And he walked out of the bedroomand he turned towards me and I
looked down and he had a pistolin his hand and I said these

(01:26:53):
three things can happen in thishallway he's going to shoot me,
he's going to shoot himself orhe's going to shoot both of us.
And I said, daddy, why do youhave that gun?
And he starts walking towardsme and I said I didn't back down

(01:27:14):
, didn't move.
I said why do you have that gun?
And he said you know why I havethis gun?
And I said no, I don't.
Why do you have it?
And he said as a boy, I had towatch your grandmother die of
cancer.
As a grown man, I had to watchyour granddaddy, my daddy die of

(01:27:37):
cancer.
And he said now you're a grownman having to watch your daddy
die of cancer.
And he said I have sufferedlong enough.
And he raised the gun up with atrigger pull and he said kill me
.
I said Dad, I can't kill you.

(01:27:57):
He said I don't deserve to live.
And I said give me the gun.
I don't deserve to live.
And I said give me the gun.
And that's when he took thethumb on the trigger and he let
off the hammer and he said ifyou won't kill me, will you do
me a favor?

(01:28:17):
And I said man, whatever youwant, he said I never get as
long as I live.
He said would you mind sittingdown at the dinner table with me
?
Because he said never done itbefore.
And I said yes, sir, I'd beglad to.
And me and my daddy, at 48 or 9years old, sat down at a dinner

(01:28:45):
table in Cartersville, georgia,for the first time in my entire
life and he looked at me and hesaid would you do me a favor?
And he said you don't have todo it.
I didn't know what he wastalking about.
I said yeah, whatever.
And he said thank you.
He said it just like I'm goingto tell y'all sitting here.
He said reckon.

(01:29:06):
He said reckon you could findit in your heart to forgive me.
And it was all that I had everwanted to hear.
My whole life was justsomething of forgiveness without
an agenda.
Not, I'm sorry, I got drunklast night.

(01:29:26):
Forgive me.
He just looked at me and saidwould you forgive me?
And man you talking about songslike this?
And I came up out of the water,raised my hands up to the
Father.
I'm telling you right now itwas the most easiest thing I'd
ever done in my life to sayforgiven.

(01:29:51):
And he said thank you.
He reached in his pocket and Ithought this somebody's going to
shoot me after all.
He reached in his pocket and hepulled out a hundred dollar
bill and he said go get me andyou a steak at texas roadhouse
and stop by the beer store andget me a beer I'd like to have
dinner with my son, and I atedinner with my dad for the first

(01:30:19):
time in my life, and he died afew weeks later.
What a gift.
Yeah, and that was a gift, dude.
Are you kidding me?
That was a gift from God.

Speaker 3 (01:30:32):
It's also a testament to you, that I mean.
I'm sure you did haveresentment built up.
Oh, if he would have diedwithout that conversation in
that hallway.

Speaker 1 (01:30:41):
Oh, my life would have been awful.
I'd have to live with that therest of my life.

Speaker 3 (01:30:46):
But at that moment you're right, it was a gift from
God and you got to experiencethat moment.
Yeah, Because a lot of peopledon't get that?

Speaker 1 (01:30:54):
Yeah, yeah, it could have went either way, you know,
but those are, you know, sorry,no.

Speaker 3 (01:31:01):
Are you kidding me Wow?

Speaker 4 (01:31:03):
All right, I'll say no.

Speaker 3 (01:31:05):
No, but also last question, because it's all
emotional and it's overwhelmingto a point.
But when you were talking toyour mom you had the frostbitten
fingers right and that momentclicked and you heard Indian
Outlaw on the radio.
What happens to Cletus T Jeter?
You might be James Barrier orwhatever at that point if you

(01:31:28):
don't hear that song.

Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
I don't know.
Yeah, I don't know, I don'tknow.
Sometimes I wonder humor andsometimes I wonder humor saved
my life, you know because.

(01:31:54):
But the problem with the humoris I can make Neil laugh.
I can totally laugh.
I can make Neil laugh likeTully laugh, like y'all laugh.
But I had a hard time.
To this day, as my friendsitting here at this table, I
have a really difficult timemaking me laugh.

(01:32:16):
There were times that I wouldwalk off the stage in front of
thousands and who's to tell you,I'd go to my bunk, close my
curtain, cry like a because Iwas hurt, just hurt.
I don't know, I don't knowwhere it comes from, you know,
but I've tried to turn that hurtinto help, you know.

(01:32:40):
Let me hurt, I'll deal with it.
You know, I had premeditated mysuicide as a young boy,
premeditated that when my motherdied, I die If I'm six, eight,
10, 18,.
Whenever she goes, I go becauseI would not be able.
I knew that I would not be ableto live without her and God

(01:33:04):
gave me Caitlin and took thataway.
So that's, that's never been anissue.
My mother ended up gettingAlzheimer's later on in life and
my mother was, you know, aswe've told.
The story meant everything tome and when she got Alzheimer's
I would go down to the nursinghome where my grandfather and my
grandmother both died, inCartersville, and I would sit

(01:33:26):
there for weekends and weekendsand I would try to talk to her.
It got to the point where shedidn't know me anymore and I
promise we'll stop after this.
But it got to the point whereshe didn't know me anymore and
then I would go down there andshe started talking to me as if
I was her uncle.
You know well, you know, uncleDole, where have you been?

(01:33:47):
I didn't know.
And she would talk to me as allthese different people, but she
never knew me and I thought,okay, I got two choices I can
let this kill me or I'm going tobecome the best damn actor
that's ever lived and I'm goingto be Uncle Dole, I'm going to
be her daddy, I'm going to bewhoever she thinks I am at that
time.
I'm going to play that partbetter than Denzel Washington

(01:34:11):
ever played a role.
And I did.
And for months, man, I'd sitthere and I'd be Brent Matheson,
my best friend.
She would have all thesevisions of different people, but
she never knew me.
And so, six months after I hadbeen doing all that, I went down
there, stayed for a weekend andone Sunday evening I was

(01:34:32):
getting ready to go home and momwas in the bed and I was over,
washing my hands in the sink,you know, and my glasses were on
top of my head and they felloff into the sink.
I thought, oh my God, I wokeher up, you know, and I didn't
want to startle her.
And I looked over and sheraised her head up at me and I
looked dead at her, as I'mlooking at Neil right now looked
at her and she looked at me andshe said and it's in the book.
She said, god, is that you?

(01:34:55):
And I thought how do I playthat part?
How do I play the part of theAlmighty.
And another one of them,moments where I just had so much
peace and I just felt like Godwould have said yeah, let her
know, let her know.
And I said yes, ma'am, it's me.

(01:35:16):
And she said, god, as I'msitting here as my witness, she
said so, I made it, didn't I?
And I said yes, ma'am, msRutledge, you made it.
And you know my mother.
Never once, who was my bestfriend ever, I'd leave out.
She never opened her mouthagain, ever.
And I'd leave out of thatnursing home and I'd cuss.

(01:35:37):
I cussed the good Lord, Icussed everybody.
I was hurt, man.
I'm like man.
I done gave my mom a house,I've wrote cards to my mom, I've
took care of my mom.
And God, you say you're apowerful God, but yet you won't
let my mama talk to me again.
What are you?
You ain't no God.
I don't believe in God anymore.
I mean, I was very hurt andthey called me on a Sunday night

(01:36:00):
and said hey, you might want tocome home because time is up.
And I went down there on aMonday, sat with her all day
Monday, monday night.
She never opened her mouth.
Tuesday, tuesday night,wednesday, wednesday night,
thursday night around midnight,my back dude, I'm telling you it
was broke from sitting in thosehospital chairs and I went over

(01:36:21):
, I pulled the chain light on.
Mom was laying there, had hereyes wide open.
I said I know you can't hear me, I get it.
But I said I gotta go take ashower.
I'm gonna go over my buddyBert's house, I'm gonna take a
shower and I promise I'll be.
I'll be back here in an hour.
I said, whatever you do, don'tyou die on me till I get back.
And I said I love you so much,mama.
And she looked at me and saidwell, I love you too, son, as

(01:36:43):
Mama.
And she looked at me and saidwell, I love you too, son, as
plain as I'm looking at y'all,I'm telling you, as God Almighty
is, my witness said I'm nottalking about in a whisper, a
struggling dying.
She said, like why are youbeing so desperate?

(01:37:03):
I love you too, son.
And I looked around the roomand I thought did anybody?
And I knew that nobody heard it.
That was a moment between me andmy mother and when I went to
walk out of that room I feltlike it was God saying for the
times you didn't believe, forall the things you've done, for

(01:37:23):
the relationship you didn'tbelieve, for all the things
you've done, for therelationship you had with your
mother, for all the good, thebad, the indifferent and the
ugly, and even for you notbelieving in my ability, I
wanted to give you that lastgift to show you how powerful I
am, Because tomorrow she's goingto come home and be with me and

(01:37:45):
she died the next morning and Iwas.
I was standing over my motherin closing.
It's a great way to close it.
I'm standing over and I'llnever forget if y'all been
buried a loved one.
My tears were coming out of myeyes.
There was nobody in the roomand they looked like slow motion
.
It's just a surreal moment.
I just lost my whole life, youknow, and I could watch the

(01:38:07):
tears and they would go realslow and then they would hit her
cheeks and they would just justlike blow up.
You know the tear, they justexploding and then all the
sudden and y'all will probablylaugh or giggle, but so help me,
god in my hand on the Bible, ifyou had one.
I heard Morgan Wallen I meanMorgan Freeman say so is the

(01:38:32):
life of Francis Moselle Rutledge.
I promise you, god is mywitness if he takes me out going
down these steps.
I heard it.
Now, I've never met MorganFreeman.
I don't know Morgan Freeman,but I heard it in my head Maybe
I'm.
And I called Winona the nextday and I said why you ain't

(01:38:53):
going to believe this?
Because you know she's a likemy sister.
I said here's what happened.
And I said and then, morganFreeman, she said you are a Judd
because you're crazy as hell.
But I promise you on my lifethat I heard Morgan Freeman say.
So is the life of FrancesMoselle Rutledge.

(01:39:14):
Again what a great gift.
What a great gift Just when Ithought it was all over never
going to get another shot.
Mad at the world.
He said I got you, I got you, Igot you.
I'm going to give you this.
Mad at the world.
He said I got you, I got you, Igot you.
I'm going to give you thislittle gift right here.
All right, I'm leaving.

Speaker 7 (01:39:27):
I'm leaving.
I tell you it wouldn't surpriseme, though, if God used Morgan
Freeman as a vessel for that,because I always say that voice.

Speaker 3 (01:39:34):
Oh, unbelievable.
I mean, I thought the samething.

Speaker 7 (01:39:46):
You know if I swear, I heard you say something that
makes complete sense to me, butit was so funny.

Speaker 1 (01:39:50):
I thought she was going to be real and she said
yep, you're a Judd becauseyou're crazy as hell, cletus, I
thought we were going to haveyou on.

Speaker 3 (01:39:57):
We'd be laughing all night.

Speaker 8 (01:39:59):
I know right, this is so good.

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
No, it's amazing, that was absolutely powerful,
absolutely powerful.
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:40:08):
I've never met you before, but I can tell you right
here I love you, brother.

Speaker 1 (01:40:12):
I know.

Speaker 7 (01:40:15):
I do and I'm very appreciative.
I heard the voice of MorganFreeman and I wish I could do
that.

Speaker 3 (01:40:19):
Make sure you overdub .

Speaker 4 (01:40:20):
I just want Aldine tickets, if y'all want them.
That's what this is all about.

Speaker 1 (01:40:24):
I gave him a shotgun a couple of years ago on the bus
you know, thinking he'd give mean all-backstage pass.
Trevor Jones.
He's a good friend of mine hegave me a shotgun.
I think Travis Tree had had itone time.
He gave me a shotgun and said,hey, give this to the next
Georgia guy and we'll pass italong.
And I gave it to Aldine.

Speaker 8 (01:40:42):
Blah, blah, blah.
I don't know about Georgia.
Yeah, whatever Georgia, we haveenough Georgia on here, me and
Aldine.
Yeah, so I gave it to.

Speaker 1 (01:40:48):
Aldine, but I don't think he gave it to anybody else
.
I think he still got it.

Speaker 3 (01:40:51):
Oh, he probably kept it.

Speaker 1 (01:40:52):
Yeah, he probably kept it.
That's one thing we have incommon.
The socials.

Speaker 3 (01:41:06):
Can people find you on the socials?
Just cleatest stuff.
Just jump on, follow along,follow them everywhere, watch
the madness.
There you go, uh, and if you'rewatching us on youtube, make
sure this is a five-star one,right better be better be your
deal, just like when I cut badsongs you know, we've been
thinking this ain't working out,but please leave comments,
review, download, do all thestuff Follow us at.

(01:41:26):
Try that Podcast For Kalo.

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
Somebody said you got a free putter with the SI.

Speaker 8 (01:41:34):
Hey, take your pick bro, take your pick.

Speaker 6 (01:41:35):
None of them work.
I hope we do.
I don't either.
Ain't that funny.
None of them work.

Speaker 4 (01:41:38):
Take your pick.
All right, I love y'all, kevin.
None of them work.
Take your pick.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
All right, I love y'all.
Kevin, thank you for the hookup.
Thank you so much, man From thePatriot.

Speaker 3 (01:41:44):
Mobile Studios.
This is Try that in a SmallTown podcast.
Thanks guys.

Speaker 5 (01:41:48):
Make sure to follow along.
Subscribe, share, rate the showno-transcript.

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Cledus T Judd - Addictions & Redemption, and a Country Music Journey :: Ep 53 Try That in a Small Town Podcast

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Cledus T Judd - Addictions & Redemption, and a Country Music Journey :: Ep 53 Try That in a Small Town Podcast