Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're live.
Yeah, hello everybody.
Welcome back to Skip Happens,the show where we talk to the
movers, the shakers and thestorytellers who are making
things happen.
I'm your host, skip Clark, andtonight's guest is someone who
truly knows how to make noisebehind the scenes, believe me,
and in all the right ways too.
He's a powerhouse in publicrelations, a connector of people
(00:23):
, a guy who's worked with someof the biggest names in media,
business and entertainment and,I might add, the government.
I'm talking about the one andonly.
He's a good friend of mine,actually, and it's the first
time we've had him on and Ican't believe it's been this
long.
But Jeff Galko and we're divinginto his journey, the art of
building real relationships andwhat it takes to thrive in
(00:45):
today's ever-changing medialandscape.
And there he is, jeff.
Are you nervous, jeff?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
No, you know, I've got to be honest with you, maybe
a little, I think it's becauseI've set up in the last
20-whatever years I've probablyset up thousands of these
interviews and I've been only onthe camera side maybe four or
five times and, as I was tellingyou before we started, the last
time was like 13, 14 years ago,which is weird because it's
(01:13):
never like that.
I've done like phone interviews.
You know, when your collegewants to do like a article on
you or you know they come right,they want to see like doing
something nice because they wanta donation or something, but
this in the camera right nowyeah I'm actually I'm like oh
crap and I'm laughing at you.
I want you to know that I'mlaughing at you and it's
(01:34):
interesting because I've alwaysI'm always like watching my
clients, like I've had so manypeople on with you over the
years.
I was thinking back like we'veactually known each other 10
years, which is crazy, whichmeans this is completely long
overdue, completely.
I've sat and watched these liveand critiqued and judged the
people that you know clients andI'm honest, like I didn't share
this link, like I was on thephone with my mom right before
and she's like what's the link?
(01:55):
And I said, to be honest, I'mgoing to give you the link after
and she said why?
I said one because I'm probablygoing to be nervous.
I know my mom's watching, whichis weird at my age, but but
also if it, if it turns out, ifit goes crappy, it goes sideways
.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I'm not going to tell you right, it just might.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That's why I'm just saying yeah, this is really no
idea what's going to happen here, but, no, uh, a little, a
little nervous, but more excitedbecause, again, this is a.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
This is long I know it's, it is long overdue and
it's so good to see you andofficially, I'd like to welcome
you to my pod soon.
Uh, this is a.
This is long, I know it's, itis long overdue and it's so good
to see you and officially, liketo welcome you to my pod zoom.
Uh, this is where I do them alland uh, it's just so good to
talk to you.
But, uh, when it comes to yourmom, uh, just to remember, uh,
remember, this is live on myfacebook, it's live on youtube,
it's live on linkedin, it's uhlive on my instagram.
So all she's got to do is shewill probably find it.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I actually, I, I last week, I actually, you know I
haven't told you who, but Ican't say but I started working
with a really, really big artistlast week, um TV person, and my
mom asked who it was.
My mom went on Instagram and mymom doesn't go on Instagram
often because she's a littleolder.
Oh, I shouldn't have said it.
(03:04):
See now Mark's ignoring yourphone's going gonna ring in a
minute, you know, but my momdidn't send me a text.
It was like, oh my god, he's sohandsome like I'm following him
and all.
So she might find this.
She.
She's more in tune with thetechnology than I ever thought,
which is a little scary, becauseshe monitors everything I post
and at least once a day sends mea text or calls me and says do
(03:26):
you really want to have thatposted?
Could that affect your work?
So yeah, she probably follows.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I see your post and I get it and I get where you're
coming from.
What are you looking at?
I see you looking at something.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
No, the stupid camera's over here and you're
over here.
And this is you.
So I'm trying to be polite, youlooking at something.
No, the stupid camera's overhere and you're over here.
I'm trying to be polite andlook at the person I'm talking
to, but the camera's right here.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Don't look at me look at the camera.
I mean you need to look at me,but look at the camera and
that's how you look at me Allright, here we go.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, no, there's nothing to look at.
Behind here is all of Nashville.
So I mean, it is an amazingview, but I'm watching.
I was trying to look at you andthe camera at the same time.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
That's right, I was going to ask.
So you are in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I am in.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Nashville.
You are where all the action is, but where did you grow up and
how did that shape who you aretoday?
Where'd you grow up?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So I grew up just outside of Boston.
I know Zach is probablywatching this Lifelong Red Sox
fan.
Sorry, Zach.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Shut it off.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Exactly.
We lost our view.
Now, I was born in Boston andgrew up about 20 minutes or what
was 20 minutes before all thetraffic, but 30 minutes south of
Boston, a town called Stoughton, Sharon area.
If you're not familiar, Fort isFoxborough.
Foxborough is where thePatriots play, but the South
Shore that's a small town, right.
(04:51):
Yeah, I mean you're talking.
Do you go back To my actualtown where I'm from?
Yeah, yeah, I go back to thetown where I was born only
because my favorite pizza placein the world is there Pizza.
If you think about it, it's barpies.
I don't know if you've everheard of it.
It's a whole kind of pizza thatthey don't serve outside of New
England or Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
It's called bar pies.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The kind of pizza it's called a bar pie.
Yeah, bar pie, bar pizza.
There's an actual Facebookgroup that's called New England
Bar Pizza Association.
There's something like 300,000people and people argue about
you know which place.
They have the same argument foryears which place is the best?
But no, I go back.
I mean my mom now lives inLexington, which you know was
(05:37):
Lexington, the Battle ofLexington and all that stuff.
And then my dad, you know isyou know still down that area
and on the Cape and whatnot.
But you know is you know stilldown that area and on the Cape
and whatnot.
But you know you go back.
None of my friends are stillthere.
It's sort of one of those liketowns.
Like you, you grow up there andyou know you leave.
Yeah, I don't think I know asingle person that still lives
there except, in all honesty, Ithink two girls I went to school
with might dance it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
There is a gentleman's club there and I've
been heard that they're stilldancing and they're twins, but I
don't know how does that memorystick like?
Of all things to talk about,I'm talking about the twins that
are dancing in a strip clubit's very weird because this is
how my mind goes.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
this is why I have no idea how this is going to go.
It's good, but when you justsaid you go back, I'm like you
start to.
I'm visualizing the main streetright and I want you to street
and I and I'm like, okay,blockbuster was right across the
street from Alex's, which Inever went to as a patron, but I
did an internship with thepolice department in college and
(06:35):
we went and did a call thereand I walked in and in their
dancing were these two girls thetwins.
So now like, yeah, it's how Idon't know my mind, just it's a
twin.
So now like, yeah, it's how Idon't know my mind, just all
right, jeff.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Jeff, you're going to get yourself in trouble.
Wait a minute.
But do you have a memory fromyour childhood that still sticks
with you today, besides thegentlemen's club?
Do you have a memory from beingback at you know, your hometown
, something along?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
those lines.
Yeah, something along thoselines.
Yeah, I'll be honest with you,I'm gonna little show and tell
here this is why I love jeff.
This is why I love jeff here wego, the street that I grew up
on you know your camera'sbackwards, but that's okay,
don't mess with it.
So listen, that's the street Igrew up on, in stowed in mass,
and it's here.
It's here on my bookshelf, andit's been in every office that
(07:24):
I've ever had my entire career,because I've always felt like
you know, no matter howsuccessful you are or where
you've been or where you'vetraveled, you come from
somewhere and you know Iwouldn't be the person if I
wasn't today.
I am today.
You'll be on that street.
Did you steal it?
I didn't steal it.
A friend of mine stole it, whohas one of the biggest jobs on
(07:45):
Wall Street right now, which iseven funnier.
I'm not saying his name.
There are about six of us thatlived on the street Cool and
when we went off to college wemade sure that during that year,
you know, the town report wentup, you bang it off and we all
went off to college with thesame, but we all off to college
with the same, but we all, tothis day, we all have it in our
offices as that thing of like.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You don't forget where you come from and to this
day, the uh, the town is stilllooking for it, or the village
of the city or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So yeah, I might.
I, for there could be a warrantout for my arrest after after
this.
You know, if someone from myhometown is watching, they're
like, oh, that's what the signis so what did you first?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
do I mean you because you're doing, uh, you're a
publicist now.
You you're into media side ofthings, but you also earned her
interned at the policedepartment.
I know you worked at the whitehouse for a little bit.
I mean, all right, let's justgo back.
What was your first job?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
ever.
My first job ever was uh, Iworked as a waiter gentleman's
club no.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
no, I worked as a waiter.
Gentleman's club no.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I worked as a waiter, at like 15 years old, for a
caterer.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Doing like bar mitzvahs and weddings.
Yeah, all right, it washorrible.
It lasted very short because Ithink it was like the third time
.
I remember I was walking out ofthe kitchen I mean, I might
have been 100 pounds soaking wetand I had a full tray of wine
glasses and it was one of thosedoors that, oh yeah, went
everywhere.
The problem is I was like 15.
I remember it was a bar mitzvah,so it was like kids just like a
(09:09):
year younger than me weremaking fun.
I mean I went home and told myparents like yeah, this, this
just isn't yeah, but you had ajob.
They did not.
I did have a job, but yeah, no,that was the first.
I mean even like the days oflike your first job, like I had
some really weird jobs, like Imean I worked at a gas station,
(09:29):
like in the little bubble, likeI don't know why my parents felt
this, my overprotective parentsfelt this was safe.
In high school you know thatthe kid was in one of those
little glass things.
Right, you have the cigarette,you have the gum, yeah, and if I
walked into the bathroom it wasjust like a little toilet
behind the cigarette wall.
The door opened up.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And you hope nobody comes to the window while you're
sitting on the pot.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Or you just hope that no one's going to come and rob
the place.
Yeah, it's one of those thingswhere once in a while I say my
parents were very overprotective, like how did that fly?
But yeah, I was there.
And then the Reebok worldheadquarters were my town.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So then the upgrade was go work at Reebok because
they gave you a discount onshoes.
But, um, no, my career has beenlike um, there's no logic.
There's no logic and no path.
Um, figured that out.
Yeah, knowing you over the last10 years, and you and I have
chatted a lot about life andthings going on in our lives.
But you, you know, being at thewhite house and doing media and
it just, and it just it's likehow, why, how did they don't
even go together?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
no, nothing, no, nothing does it's.
I mean, I guess I might as wellbring two references.
You know, since you know you docountry music, you know either
uh, dairy song, this, or uh, thebroken road.
Um, you know it's uh's.
My plan always was I thought Iwas going to be a lawyer.
I always wanted to go to lawschool.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I could go ahead.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And.
But then there was this thingcalled the SATs.
You know, I went to a privateprep school and my grades were
good there.
Something about the SATs justkicked my ass and kicked my ass.
I took it a ton of times and noone could figure out what the
problem was.
And, you know, I ended up goingto college.
But once I was there, I thoughtto myself wait a minute, what if
(11:10):
I do all this and I go to lawschool and then I can't pass the
bar, like what happens if Ihave the same issue with like
the bar as I did with SATs?
And so I pivoted.
You know, again, when I went toGW and DC, they didn't have
pre-law.
So what they told you to do isoh, do criminal justice, slash
sociology, because it's the sameclasses that would prepare you
(11:32):
for pre-law.
I got excited as, like afreshman and I took way too many
courses in that, like myfreshman and sophomore year
before when I realized, like I'mnot going to be a lawyer, it
was too late to change.
Like I was fortunate my dadpaid for college, but he wasn't
gonna pay for more than fouryears because I had a younger
sister that was coming in rightbehind me yeah, I gotta keep it
going, yeah.
(11:52):
So I I was like, oh great, now,um, because that's what my
degree.
People don't realize that myactual degree in college is in
criminal justice, like it justshows you.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah there's no rhyme or reason to it.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
There's no rhyme or reason, but the criminal justice
part actually did fall into howmy career then went, because I
had to do my senior year.
But I did it my junior year.
Well, I interned for myfreshman year Senator Kerry of
Massachusetts.
He was the commencement speakerat my high school graduation.
(12:26):
Very cool, and my dad must havehad this conversation with
himself and not me or my mom.
But once kerry was done withhis speech, I remember my dad.
Like you know, my dad's gonnabe pissed for me telling the
story this way, but hey, he'snot watching.
Remember, they don't have thelink half my family doesn't want
to talk to me anyway, so nowthe other half won't either.
But um, they, um, I'd like dragme by my wrist up to like.
(12:47):
John kerry was like, oh, thisis my son, jeff.
He's gonna be a freshman at gw,he'd love to intern for you.
I remember I looked at my momand I'm like, why is he signing
me up for stuff before I evenget to school?
And so before I even like setfoot at gw campus, I was already
signed up to like intern andhad like a commitment like
outside of class.
And so my freshman year Iinterned for Kerry, which was a
(13:07):
weird experience because Iinterned for him for the whole
year and he had this, he hadthis handbook, and I guess I'm
going to tell people's dirt andsecrets on this, but whatever,
it's a podcast.
But it said do not, do notspeak to the senator unless he
speaks to you.
And I actually interned forthis guy for a full year and I
never met him Right, and I'llget to later in the story, I'll
(13:30):
get to when I met him and what Isaid to him.
But so I interned for my firstyear and then I got this idea of
well, you know what would becool in this?
I said you know, I want tointern at the White House.
This was a very interestingtime for the White House intern
program because there was afamous intern there at the same
time, her you know, monica.
(13:54):
It was called Monica.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I wasn't even going to go there.
Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So she was an intern.
At the same time.
No people like to ask if I everwore a blue dress.
I never wore a blue dress.
I never wore a blue dress.
But I applied and you know, Iremember my parents are just
like this is really hard to get.
Um, I think what helped me isthat year the scandal started to
break.
So a lot of like female I meanthis is a dead true thing I
(14:20):
heard there's like a lot offemale parents weren't like
rushing to let their daughtersgo apply for like a White House
internship.
So I got it.
I got I got accepted to internat the White House.
Yeah and yeah.
But the thing, that thing wasbecause I was at GW, a lot of
people come to DC for a semesterand leave.
Because I was there and I wasliving three blocks from the
(14:41):
White House, I stayed for threesemesters so I started putting
in roots and so I was in thepublic liaison's office, but
then I was actually in the pressoffice during the whole scandal
, which was when I first cut myteeth.
That made me nuts dude.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You know, with everything that was going on
with that scandal, we all knowthe story.
We don't have to go and bringit up again, but to be able, I
have a lot of friends that wereindirectly involved.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Involved, yeah, I had nothing to do with it, but, um,
yeah, it was a crazy timebecause I'll never forget the
day the ken stars with the starreport came out and like the
building was quiet becauseeverybody was at their desk like
reading and then all of asudden I remember like the guy
in the office next to me be liketurn the page like 115, because
it was like suddenly afallacious thing, you know about
(15:28):
cigars or you know the stuffthat was in that, and everyone
was just like yeah, holy crap,like this is real.
Um, but then what wasinteresting is because morale
was really low, they wereconcerned about morale.
The glintons actually brought a.
They were calling it a familyfair day.
It was a saturday in the on thesouth lawn of the white house.
It was for staff and like theirimmediate spouse or their kids
(15:51):
to come and like the invitationshowed like cornball and like
games and I remember walkingthere with, uh, with my ex-wife,
ex-wife number one.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Um, actually another story, by the way.
It'll be coming up in a littlebit, but go ahead I remember
walking there, I think who'sgoing to this fear?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
and as we turn the corner, there was a full-blown
carnival on the south lawn, likeclinton went, like I don't know
what.
They went through no expense totry to make us all happy.
I mean, there was ferris wheels.
There was like every game youcould imagine playing.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And this is for the staff, this is for you.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
This is for the staff to try to like boost morale,
because everyone that week waslike feelings were down in the
dumps because this report cameout and it didn't look good for
the president and this and that.
But I always wondered to thetourists that were in DC that
day.
They had to be wondering likewhat the hell is going on?
Why is there a Ferris wheel inthe middle of the South Lawn and
why is there, like you know,I'm telling you, like
Tilt-A-Whirl, like all the coolcarnival rides were there and,
(16:53):
yeah, it was definitely aninteresting time.
It was actually a time.
It actually was the mostpivotal time because, indirectly
, that was going on.
It became the most pivotalmoment in my career because I
then had to go do this fieldwork in criminal justice and so
I didn't want to leave the WhiteHouse.
So I went over and worked inthe White House Drug Policy
(17:13):
Office, which at the time thedrugs are this guy, barry
McCaffrey, four-star general,who just led the first Iraq war,
amazing guy, crazy guy, and heran the office like he was still
in the battlefields and for acivilian and a kid like me it
was just like, if this is thereal world, like I'm gonna be a
career student.
You know um, but where, jeff?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
where were those offices?
They're not in the actual whitehouse, are they no?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
so.
So when I was in the pressoffice, um, I had a coveted.
It's probably changed.
I was curious, but I had acoveted blue badge right.
So you're, you were in what wascalled the OEOB old executive
office building, which is thebuilding just right adjacent to
it.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Now the.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I mean I think it's now the Eisenhower Eisenhower
office building.
But so in the.
So in the white house you'vegot like the, the Western and
the East wing.
The East wing people like thesocial coordinators and protocol
and people are the people thatplan the events and the parties
and stuff.
And in the West Wing, you knowyou have it's not as big as
anyone would imagine.
I mean you have, you know, themain floor.
You walk in, you have the, youknow the lobby, and then you
(18:15):
have like cabinet room and thenbehind the cabinet room you have
the president's staff presssecretary, but the offices are
small, like people would imagine.
It's this grandiose thing andit really isn't.
Oh, and you have the, you knowthe, the press briefing room,
and then downstairs you'll havelike the situation room and some
other things.
But when you're an intern, oreven of the staff, only like not
(18:37):
even 5% are given a blue badgeand the blue badge gave you
could go from like OEOB into thelike.
You could go from like oeobinto the like.
You could just go on the westwing and just walk around and
you could go anywhere.
I somehow, as an intern, got ablue badge and it was.
I mean I pinched myself.
Now I appreciated it then butlike to have that now.
(18:58):
You know just the thing.
I mean the fact that, like youknow, if I wanted to, as an
intern, you always like sort ofwalk around to kill time so you
don't have to work.
So I literally would, I wouldwalk from the OEOB, just you
know, into the West Wing and Iwould just walk and like Clinton
would be like sitting at hisdesk and like I'm 19 years old
(19:19):
and like I go hey, Bill, how youdoing today, Bill, what's going
on?
That was the difference betweenthat and John Kerry, because you
were allowed to say hi to thepresident and the president said
hi to you.
There wasn't this stuffinessNow.
I mean, I didn't have, I didn'thave.
You know, people didn't have aswarm and fuzzy as a
relationship with Hillary atthat time.
It was, yeah, it was, it wasamazing and because I had had a
(19:41):
blue badge, it gave me theability to give people uh, tours
after hours on the weekends ofthe white house and of the west
wing.
So if you were a friend of mine,you came to town or you were a
family member, like I could say,hey, meet me at 8 am and I
would go in and show you.
And you know, sometimes wascool times, I mean, president,
could be coming and going on ahelicopter and you have to have
(20:01):
like family there.
And next, you know, you knowwe're taking a picture and yeah,
it was, um, it was, it was, itwas interesting time, it it's.
You know, again, it doesn'tseem like any of it happened.
None of it makes sense.
You know, as we go through thisjourney, not the one thing that
people are going to take awayfrom this is nothing in my life
makes sense, all right.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Well, I mean, you're not alone.
I think it's everybody now.
But do you think it's allchanged with what's going on
today at the white house?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I, um, so I actually went back and worked um,
actually, not people notes but Iactually spent just under a
year traveling with obama andbiden, uh, on their on their
advanced teams.
Uh, something I did during thefinal after I graduated college.
Um, I, I spent a year onClinton's advance team,
traveling with him, coordinatingmotorcades and coordinating
events and sites.
So I'd done it, and I did thatwith Clinton for a year until,
(20:54):
all of a sudden, one day, I gota phone call from presidential
personnel saying that I wasbeing nominated for a political
appointment to go over to theDepartment of Energy and be in
the past.
Bill Richards.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Were you able to fly on the same plane, and all that?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Oh yeah, oh, that's the thing that didn't make sense
.
It's like I was.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
I mean, what did Air Force One if the president was
on board?
It's called Air Force One.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And I've been on it.
And the craziest story I don'tknow how I'll tell the story,
but it's it's I have a D.
I have a D minus on mytranscript in college and it
ruined my GPA for the entirefour years.
And the D minus was in a classcalled the American Presidency,
I kid you not.
And I took this class while Iwas working full time at the
(21:38):
White House.
So my junior year of college Ihad an idea for something with
pro sports and anti drugs and I,just as an intern, started
working on something, didn'ttell anybody.
And then it grew to this thingwhere I had 28 major league
baseball teams all agreeing todo all this stuff for the white
house and you know, hand outmaterials and send players to
school and all that stuff.
And then I got a phone call oneday saying the drugs are one to
see me and verbatim, he's likethe president loves what you're
(22:01):
doing.
You know the government's neverused pro sports as a vehicle to
educate kids about drugs.
We want you to start workingfull time here today and we're
naming you deputy manager of thenew White House Athletic
Initiative Against Drugs.
And I'm like sir, yes, sir.
And I remember the firstquestion.
My dad said because I'm ajunior, I'm a junior in college,
I'm not working at the WhiteHouse full time, which again is
like, opposite from like.
(22:21):
And because of this, us newsand world report wrote this
article titled here's a whitehouse intern that did good, and
it was sort of this whole thingthat picked pin, like monica and
me and this one thing, um, butyeah, so it was wow, I know
that's what I'm saying.
(22:41):
I did, I think, especially inthe town, I think in n Nashville
people just know me as the guythat's like managed a few
independent artists and likethey don't.
I don't know, I just maybehaven't spent enough time with
them or whatnot.
But yeah, I spent the next likemy junior and senior year.
I worked full time at the WhiteHouse and I would put on a suit
every day.
I'd run to work.
When it was time for class Iwould run down, be there for
(23:02):
attendance, wait for attendance,run back to work.
Um, and you know, I spent thesummer before my senior year
traveling to major leaguebaseball stadiums presenting,
from the pitcher's mound,plaques from the white house for
doing the thing.
They presented me back with ajersey, all the jerseys.
I couldn't keep any of them,you know, because they're, you
know, ethics laws, but they'rein a.
They're probably in a closetsomewhere or the ethics guy
probably has them hanging up inhis house.
(23:23):
Probably think about it backthen.
That was, that was the biggestconcern ethically was will jeff
take home the new york metsjersey?
Mookie wilson gave him like itwas craziness, but, um, yeah, it
was a potential question, likeyeah, I mean, I was on Air Force
One and all these things.
And so I had this one teacherthat taught the American
presidency.
His name's Forrest Maltzman andI will not hold back that name.
(23:44):
So if you're watching this,forrest, I'm still pissed off
that I was missing class becauseI was with the president.
I was traveling.
That's the irony of ironies.
I remember when he gave me theD-minus my dad was upset.
My dad said well, call him,tell him, tell him.
(24:08):
So I called him.
I had a little bit of a.
I will admit this.
Dc Jeff, I don't know.
A lot of people probablywouldn't like DC Jeff, because
when you're in that environmentand you're young and you have
power because I ended up havinga lot of power um, you know, you
become sort of a, you know an xand um, I remember I said to
the teacher because he's likeI'm not changing a grade, and I
said you know why don't you justgive me an f then?
because d myself and he saidsomething, eric, you know, I
(24:31):
remember, I remember the line Isaid to him.
I said you know what, whileyou're, while you're teaching
what you think is the Americanpresidency, I've been living it
and I just hung up the phoneyeah, I mean you learn more from
yeah it gave a joke on the ontraveling because, like clinton,
(24:53):
like everyone knew, like myaverage was going away every day
, I had to try to go somewhere.
And maybe a joke hey, jeff,what's your average at?
I?
Oh, I think I'm at like a 75,.
You know, between now and theend of the semester I'm totally
screwed.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I mean that's amazing I hadn't.
In the 10 years that I've knownyou, I've never heard all that.
I knew some, but not everything.
But can you?
Are there any funny storiesthat you can tell us about being
in the White House, maybe withthe Clintintons or you know, or
traveling with obama and biden?
Anything crazy ever happenedwhere you go?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I can't believe it just happened well, you know, no
, yeah, I mean I I think thecraziest thing I did, well, one
was the places I went to, um,and all this was before iphone.
So, like there was no way, likeit was scary, especially as a
kid, because there was no way tocommunicate home.
Like they gave me like a cellphone, but the cell phone didn't
work outside of the usf becauseit was some giant qualcomm, you
know, like satellite phones orsomething like that because I
(25:47):
had three pagers okay you know,ondcp white house policy pager.
I had a white housecommunications pager and then I
had a department of energy pager.
Like I had three of thesestupid things that would go up
with no way to call people back.
It was the dumbest thing.
And you know, I had an earpiece.
So then I was on the road, Ihad an earpiece and, you know,
on a radio, you know, listen toall the traffic.
(26:07):
But a lot of times, like I hadto lie to my parents about where
I was going just because I knewthey would be nervous,
(26:42):
no-transcript.
So we had a crazy bond in thebeginning and but he was very
inclusive to me, meaning if hewent in to go meet with an oil
minister to negotiate, or ahostage, I mean his bread and
butter was releasing hostages.
I mean I think every if he wasalive right now, even the Israel
situation would be totallydifferent and I would assume I
(27:04):
was going to sit out in the hallwith secret service.
He'd always be like Jeff, come,come, and all of a sudden I
find myself with, like you know,the oil minister of Qatar or
Saudi Bill Richardson and Jeff.
And because he said he wantedme to learn, he wanted me to
learn, or Saudi, bill,richardson and Jeff, because he
said he wanted me to learn theart of negotiating and building
(27:24):
relationships and buildingrapport.
That one trip, like I told mymom, I went to Arizona and I
wasn't in Arizona.
I went to Nigeria, I went toAlgeria, I went to Saudi, I went
to Qatar.
I remember we met with theSaudi Crown Prince in London.
Then we went to Austria and mymom thought for the week I was
in Arizona and then, as far aslike the only thing, that just
(27:47):
never made sense.
I guess it's timely now.
And so I went in 2000 to Moscow, the country I can't go back to
now because of my career postthat that's a true story.
I can go in, but there's nocountry I can't go back to now
because of my career post-thatthat's a true story.
I can go in, but there's no wayI will get out of Russia.
I don't think you have a hugeRussian population watching this
(28:08):
, so I think I'm pretty safe.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
No, but Moscow would be one place I would love to
visit.
I would love to see it.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, and it was amazing because I got to, I had
dinner in the Kremlin.
It was.
It was a historic event becauseit was Clinton was addressing
the Dumont, which is theirCongress, and it was the first
time a U S president hadaddressed the Congress in 50
years probably.
Um, that was awesome and cool.
But what was amazing that nightand again thank God, because
Bill Richardson was so inclusiveto me Richardson was going to
(28:34):
have dinner with Clinton and itwasn't just Clinton, it was
going to be Clinton, it wasgoing to be Madeleine Albright,
who's Secretary of State.
It was Rubin, who was Secretaryof Treasury.
No, no, rubin left.
It was Summers, who's Secretaryof Treasury I think George
Tenet might have been there whowas the head of CIA in
(28:54):
Richardson.
And same thing I figured youknow, motorcade, I'm going to
spend the next three, four hoursin the car sleeping.
I figured, you know, motorcade,I'm gonna spend the next three,
four hours in the car sleeping,like you know, like you do when
you're doing those things.
Um, and all of a sudden, like Ididn't get out of the car, and
then Richardson, like he alwaysjoked, he swore him on.
He's like what the f?
You doing?
I'm like, I'm just saying he'slike, come on, we're going to
eat.
And I'm like I can't, I can'tgo to this, like it's all
printed out like who's at thetable.
(29:15):
And he goes no, no, you're fine, come with me.
And he brought me.
And the next thing, you know,I'm sitting around at this place
and you remember weird things,because it's somewhere it was
called the push pushkin cafe andI'm at a small round table with
like six people and it'sliterally clint.
It's those people in me and I'mjust listening to the
conversation.
But I remember like, all of asudden, madeline albright was
(29:37):
like oh, so tell me aboutyourself.
And I'm thinking, you know youtalk about me being nervous on
here at the beginning, like Iprobably pooped myself and sweat
myself through my cheap woolsuit.
Like what could I be tellingthese people?
Um, they, that was probably themost memorable as far as funny
or weird.
Um, the best picture I have ofme and bill clinton, uh, was
taken in atlanta and I wasbriefing him and the
(29:59):
photographer, you know hethanked me.
And Bill Clinton was taken inAtlanta and I was briefing him
and the photographer, you knowhe thanked me and I did.
The photographer got an amazingphoto of like.
You know it's just me and him.
No one's around shaking hands.
But what's interesting aboutthat is he's wearing a yellow
and blue tie and that tie becamevery famous because that was
the day Monica was testifyingfor 10 star.
And the story story goes it's atrue story that clinton had
(30:21):
said um to to monica I won't bewith you that day, I won't be
able to talk with you that day,but know that I'm with you
because I'm going to wear thetie that you gave me.
So the best picture I have withme and clinton, uh, was that
day and he's he's wearing thetie.
That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, when you think about it.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I haven't told these stories.
Like I'm just, this is amazing.
I know I've been likeincredibly blessed and like no,
this is like I think this isbringing things around, because
I do.
I have plenty of days where Iwake up here and I even say like
what the hell am I doing inNashville?
You know, I hate working formyself, business or their or
life in this.
Like I'm telling these storiesand I'm like shit, I have
nothing to complain about rightnow.
Like no, it's just yeah, I'mlike reliving this going.
(31:02):
God, I was really fortunateyou've already done more in your
life than most people do in alifetime when I first left the
white house, I remember I calledmy mom and I was because when,
when gore lost, I was out of ajob and like that was the only
work I knew.
And I remember I called my momand I said like I peaked because
in my mind, when you're thatyoung, you're 23 years old, I
was 23.
I left and like you think likewell, what is all what else is
(31:25):
ever going to match up to this?
Like what is going to bring theexcitement?
You know, what is what?
Am I gonna be able to walk intoa bar?
Happy, I'm gonna be like, oh, Iwork in the white house, like
even that stuff.
Like I was like, oh, my god,I'm gonna in like a cubicle or
like what am I going to do?
And my mom's like no, no, no,there's this, you know, she's
like brighter days ahead, youknow, brighter.
I'm like shut up.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
It's not like nothing's going to be more
exciting, you know, but, um, butyeah, so it was uh, yeah, Let
me ask because I don't want toget into a lot of politics,
because you know how that goes,but I I understand what you did
back in the day and all that andthe press room and all that.
How do you think people arefeeling right now in the White
(32:05):
House?
Maybe somebody that's called todo your job?
What?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
I.
I tell people the differenceI've won is I couldn't do it now
One, it's a young man's game.
I couldn't 24, 25 days a month.
The way that schedule isbecause, again, even when I was
with richardson people don'trealize is like if his schedule
started at seven, I was atdepartment of energy by five to
park my car, getting in the,getting in his car in the limo,
in the motorcade going.
I was waking him up.
(32:29):
Full day of events.
He had dinners at night, thisand that I finally get home,
bring him home at midnight.
I'm getting home at one.
Take a shower.
It's 1 30 now I'm actuallyreading the briefing memos for
the next day.
I couldn't do it, it'd kill me.
But I also just, you did as youwere told.
If a member of the cabinet didas you were told, and the
problem now and we're seeingthis as one is it's become way
(32:52):
too political.
It's extremely unfortunatebecause, listen, bill Clinton,
republicans, republicans andDemocrats didn't like each other
when we were at the White House, but he and Gingrich like they,
actually they work togetherLike that was the last time.
It was a balanced budget if youthink about it, and so you know
some of my closest friends tothis day.
Actually, one of my closestfriends is the Bush appointee
(33:13):
that took my job and energy thatI had to, like, work with
during the transition.
You wouldn't see that todaythere's so much like hatred and
you know people are going tojail like I would never, because
, again, there's probably thingsthat I did that I was told to
do.
That.
Right now, like you know, theother side might be like oh,
investigate him or this or that,and like exactly, exactly in
the process.
(33:35):
You know, I think it's extremelysad that no matter what side,
no matter what side, you fall onthat you know we have 330
million people in this countryand like that's what we had to
choose from, and it's becausethe process is so nasty and the
process is so divisive thatthere's plenty of good people,
great people, experienced peoplethat look and go.
I don't want to bring my familythrough this, I don't want to
(33:56):
do this to my family, and so thepeople that end up running it's
, it's.
It's like ego, it's ego driven,you know it's it's they, you
know they, they, they want it,they need it and it's.
You know again, it's.
You know how you have to choose, what we have to choose.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Would you go back and change anything that you've
done?
You don't regret any of that,or do you?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
no, no, no, no.
I don't regret any of that.
I mean, again, that was justlike phase one.
I mean you know we didn't evenget into like cia, you know, I
don't, I don't regret it at allbecause everything, everything
has had this like weird place.
You know with how I ended up.
I mean, you know, I just hit iton, I people always, at least
(34:39):
like every few days, I will sitthere and be like the White
House.
I understand, yeah, I workthere, like I pictures to prove
it.
But, like you know, it was the2002 to 2006 and a half that I
do look and I go like was Ireally there?
Like because that's the partthat I think that's part of my
career.
That doesn't make sense, Iwouldn't doing.
(34:59):
I wouldn't do it differently,because I say all the time like
that's the most important andrewarding work I'm going to do
in my entire life.
Nothing, nothing will top it.
You know I can say that I wasinvolved in, you know, stopping
things from blowing up or savingpeople's lives, um, but you
know, at the same time, you knowI, I did my thing, but yeah,
his didn't make sense that's achapter in the book of Jeff
(35:21):
Galko.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
right there there's a chapter.
Let's move on to the nextchapter.
You mentioned CIA.
You had a little bit to do withthat.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, yeah, no.
So I um the way that happenedbecause, again, if people that
know me, I think it's becausepeople know me and my and I
don't want to keep calling themoverprotective parents but I've
got Jewish parents, you know,there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I mean, you know the family.
They want to keep an eye on thekids, even at my age now.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Little Jeff, are you safe?
Which actually today.
They're not happy with me todaybecause I actually booked plane
tickets.
I told them I'm going to Israelin a few weeks and they're not
happy with this.
They're very scared.
So I lost my job when Gore lostand then I went to go work at
the biggest PR firm in the worldit was called Hill Nolton
(36:07):
Global global thing.
I got a great job there and Iwas there like a month and a
half and 9-11 happened and theylaid off.
I mean I got laid off and so Ifound myself unemployed for the
second time in a year 2001.
And I just you know it took meforever to find this job,
because when there's a change ofadministration, you and like
2000 of your closest friends allhave similar resumes.
(36:29):
You're all trying to find jobsand you're of the party that,
like doesn't have power, likeyou don't have access anymore,
like that's why people now leavelike halfway through a term, so
they can go out and cash out,that's why people now leave like
halfway through a term, so theycan go out and cash out.
Um, so I was out of a job for asecond time and I was on
unemployment and I was.
I remember I'd go and with myfriends to uh, it was called the
mci center and we'd wait forlike big tickets to like andrew
(36:49):
bacelli or something, michaeljordan, here at the time.
We'd buy tickets and then, likewe'd scalp them, basically,
like you, make your money back,and then you pay your bills.
And so I went and had breakfastwith Bill Richardson one morning
and I was at his house and Iwas like what do I do now?
And he at this time he had justbecome governor of New Mexico
and so, but he was back in DCand I was like, what do I do?
(37:10):
Like I don't, like I'm scared.
And he looked at me and he saidyou still have your security
clearance from the White House.
I'm like, yeah, it's still,like it hasn't expired, sure?
And he looked at me and he saidwhy don't you go work at this?
It was right after 9-11.
He's like, why don't you gowork at cia?
Like they need good people?
And I looked at him and I saidyou've got over the last two
years, like you know, so you gotto know my parents very well,
(37:32):
like you know they're.
That's never going to fly.
And he looked at me with a deadface, like staring at his face,
and he said they won't know,you'll be undercover.
And that's what it was.
Then, for the first uh, yearand a half of me being there, I
was undercover.
I had a different name, my, youknow other than you know nobody
knew.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
No, I get it, I get it.
We don't need to go into detailbecause I do enjoy talking to
you.
You know what I mean and we'regood friends, um, but it's just
interesting the life that youknow, even up to.
But it's just interesting, thelife that you know, even up to
that point, it's prettyinteresting.
Then let me ask how did you getto Nashville?
Or how did you get to?
(38:08):
You know managing orrepresenting artists and all
that.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
So it was 2012, 13-ish, so I'd given up all
things DC.
I said I'm done with this.
Never again will I let votersor polls control my ability to
pay my bills.
And so I went to a Hard RockCafe one night when my friend's
sister was singing, to besupportive, and he introduced me
(38:32):
to this guy who was managing afemale teen pop group and said
hey, we're looking for someoneto do press.
There were five girls betweenages of 14 and 17 and I said I
don't know anything about music,I can't sing, I can't dance.
Like they put me in the lastrow of chorus because I sucked.
Um, I always thought I was tall, no, it's because I sucked.
And so I said and he's oh, whydon't you just come down to
(38:55):
rehearsal tomorrow night, meetthe girls, maybe?
And so I went down there andeveryone was really nice and I
was like okay.
And then you know, we talkedabout, you know where they could
pay me.
And I was like but I had myregular like clients during the
day, like corporate PR clients,and it just became like this fun
, like nighttime project I wasworking on.
And then I was like wow, thisis really fun, paid to like do
(39:16):
stuff in music, like is this?
Like?
Is this real?
Like I can't get paid to go toconcerts.
Like set up press and I alwaysloved country music and I worked
with them for a couple years.
The group fell apart justbecause you know you need five
teenage girls, five momspersonalities.
You know I still I'm runningsmall today, but it was.
It was a hard thing.
Um, and I one day was onfacebook and some woman in
(39:39):
Boston like posted about herdaughter and I was just like wow
, this is really weird, acountry artist from Boston.
And I just said you know, I'mtrying to pay it forward.
You know, maybe I can help herwith some local press.
You know I like country musicand I reached out to her mom and
met with them and first I wasjust going to do press and then
know they were such you knowthey were good people um it, I
ended up falling into managingher as well.
(40:00):
Um, because I think what it wasis, it was the closest thing
for me.
I think music, I think it is.
I mean, it's the closest thingto politics and campaigns, which
is all I knew, um, withouthaving to be in politics and
campaigns.
There's no secret sauce to toany of this music stuff?
There really isn't.
You know, instead of having acandidate that you want to kiss
(40:20):
babies and shake hands, it'syour candidate, is the artist
and it's you know it's almostthe same.
It's very similar um and so Ijust I fell, I fell in love with
it and, you know, started to domore and more.
And then I made my first tripto nashville and yeah, it's
weird because I again, everyonce in a while, I wake up and
I'm like, how did I end up?
Like I'm looking outside rightnow in the entire city and so
(40:43):
how did I end up here?
Like it doesn't make sense.
But you know, along the wayI've met amazing people like
yourself and you know it's beenfun.
I still have corporate clientsand I try to do as much in the
music.
But I do say this, I used to saythis jokingly and I say it
seriously and hopefully itdoesn't really offend anybody
but I always said to people Ialways thought the most like
(41:06):
political, sometimesbackstabbing, environment one
could work in was the West Wingof the White House, until I
entered the music industry.
And then I'm like, oh my God,this is even more not broke,
this is even more like your bestfriend, completely like cut you
off at the knees, um, and thenI felt that dealing with
al-qaeda during the war would bethe only time I dealt with
(41:29):
terrorists.
And you know there's somepeople that I've met and dealt
with, that should maybe belisted as a terrorist well, jeff
, yeah, I get you, I guess.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
No, it is, and I and I hear it on my side of things
as well, doing what I do on theradio side and talking to people
like you, and you've got anartist that comes out.
You want to talk to me aboutmaybe getting around the radio
or bringing her to town to meet,uh, you know, to meet new fans.
But uh, yeah, I get that it's.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
It's got to be fun but it's got to be stressful
it's stressful and what I had Ilearned I had to learn very fast
.
I did not come into this likeI'm I'm not even saying this
jokingly, I'm saying this likewholehearted, honest, like
friend of mine.
I'm lucky people like you evenstill talk to me.
No, but true story.
When I look at when I firstcame to do the country stuff
(42:18):
2015, the problem was I camefrom the political world, right
when you would make a call andyou expected things to get done
and in your mind, if you hadenough bullet points or
ammunition, you're going to getwhat you want.
And for me, I came in like gunsblazing and I remember you know
this artist.
Like you know, I had her on theToday Show and to me, in my
mind, it was like, well, if Ihad her on the Today Show and
(42:40):
she's not even signed and thisand that, like everybody should
be playing her song.
And when people say no, I wastaking it way too personally and
I get sometimes nasty.
I'd be like, not nasty like,but be like.
You know what, are you kiddingme?
Like she was just on the TodayShow.
(43:06):
So I had to learn.
It was a huge learningexperience and, believe me, I
spent plenty of time apologizingto people, letting them know
that, hey, when I first cameinto this life, I'm a different
person.
You know, I I had an ego.
I came from DC, I came from CIAwhere I was getting paid to
like, basically, you know, drillpeople in question.
I'm not used to the answer no,um and so.
But it was a definitely.
It definitely was a learninglesson.
It was very humbling toobecause, you know, my dad always
told me you know there's a lotof my dad always told me growing
(43:27):
up and I and I live by it nowand unfortunately, you know, you
realize that I realized thatfor a few years I strayed from
it and he always says like don't, don't, ever treat people as a
transaction and make a friendnot a sale.
And I came into this musicthing just thinking like, okay,
all right, we did today's show,we'll have tour buses within a
month and this one's going toplay this radio station we're
(43:47):
going to, and it's not realityand it doesn't happen that way.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
No, you know that.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
No, now I know, and it wasn't until I started doing,
when john lova hired me over atbmg to work with a couple of
the artists a couple years ago.
It wasn't until I like,experienced and saw from the art
, from the label side, that youknow it's just as hard, like I
mean, you know, I always assumelike, oh, you know, if you're
signed artists, you know it'sjust basically it's like a menu
(44:14):
Just tell the world, the publicand radio what you want and
order what you want.
And no, I learned very quicklythat you know you can be signed
to a major label and you can beon a big tour and you are still
scrapping and praying andfighting for every stream and
every spin.
And you know it's just.
I look back at the early daysand go like, oh, my God, I was
living in like a weird vacuum,like you know.
(44:35):
Like I was going to you know,you know, oh, I had the next
Taylor Swift.
Of course I did, like you know,easy peasy, but you know, not
the case.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
What, um, what drives you to keep doing what you do?
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I think, I think and it's, it's weird.
So a couple of things.
One is I've always had thislike massive fear of being
homeless, like I don't know, andI've never been in like a
situation.
I mean, my parents weredivorced when I was younger.
My mom worked a couple of jobsand live with a single mom.
My dad, you know, built a.
My dad grew up with nothing.
His dad was a mechanic but hebuilt a big advertising agency.
Um, I think I'm, I think I'malways.
(45:12):
Just, you know, today I wasdriving, you see, like a
homeless person inside thestreet.
Something just hits me where I'm, just like it could be me, it
could be me um, I also, like youknow again, like I watched my
mom, as a single mom, workmultiple jobs and I'm sure it
wasn't easy and you know busther ass and cook dinners and
whatnot and sacrifice.
And on the flip side, I saw mydad, you know, start what was a
(45:33):
big agency from what was alittle you know closet in a, the
basement of my childhood home.
Um, yeah, I just and I thinkyou know, because my dad was not
, my dad was an entrepreneur and, um, please say what's?
He's still alive, sorry, dad.
Uh, no, actually, real quick, Ijust thought about something.
I knew it, damn it.
(45:55):
You asked for a funny storyabout the white house.
That just brought something upwhen I was here back in the day.
You had to do these forums andthey weren't computers, all
typewriter.
I sent my paperwork in for mybackground investigation.
I got called in one day to getservice.
They sat me down.
They said is there anythingthat you're not being honest
about on your forum?
I'm like, nope, sir.
They're like, well, we foundyour mother.
I'm like, okay.
(46:15):
I'm like, is there anything youwant to tell us about your mom?
And I'm like, no, well, wefound her.
I'm like, okay, uniform, thatyou weren't up front about.
Honestly, I said no, oh my god,stupid typewriter.
(46:35):
I put an x in this box byaccident, which meant deceased,
and so in the course of my firstback, when they were
investigating me for my firstclearance, they were like okay,
there must be something in thefamily or something like he's
trying to hide his mom yeah, youknow they're pretty thorough.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
You know that more than I do.
We're all bound to makemistakes too, but you look back
on it now and it's like holyshit, I did that.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Oh, holy shit and it shows you just how old I am,
because it was on a freakingtypewriter.
If you made, the thing was like30 pages.
You made one mistake.
It was like, oh shit, we've gotto start again.
Get the white out.
Oh, you made one mistake.
It was like, oh shit, we gottastart again.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Like get the white out.
Oh no, why, don't know, youcouldn't do white out because it
was like you know, yeah, yeah,I get it.
I get it.
Oh man, so is there aparticular project or moment in
your career that you'reespecially proud of?
You notice I, I made some, uh,I wrote down some questions
because I didn't know what I wasgoing to ask you.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
No, but you know, I like this because I don't do
this Like it makes you think,and again, I've been sitting on
the other side watching thisthousands of times.
Sure, I would say, I meanthere's a lot, but I mean,
obviously, like I said, the CIAdays, you know, I mean I can,
without getting into detail,like I, I can say, like things
(47:50):
that I was involved in a veryhigh and indirect and really
reason.
Um, you know, stop things fromblowing up.
Yeah, that's which gave lives.
On the opposite hand, you knowthere were times that I had to
go to bed knowing that, you know, I made an analytical decision
and which resulted in, you know,civilians dying, and that's
that's probably the biggestreason why I left.
Is I just I couldn't, Icouldn't, I couldn't, yeah, I
(48:13):
couldn't, yeah, but I'd say youknow it was God.
This is so hard, but I'd sayone of them, and we're going to
go back to 2009.
I had a teacher in high schoolthat that was very, very like,
influential on me.
This guy's Rob Dixon, very like, influential on me.
He's got Rob Dixon and he was acool teacher when he taught me,
just actually retired from theNBA and, you know, came close
(48:33):
and he ran a.
He and he still does them onthe board of directors.
But he runs a program calledproject rise and it's a summer
camp, a cultural enrichment andacademic camp for at-risk kids
from the inner city of Bostonand at the time, you know, 25
kids were part of it.
Uh, danny wood, from new kidson the block actually wrote the
(48:53):
first check to uh underwrite it.
That's why danny and I havebeen extremely close until years
.
Um, and people met and so I wastrying to people magazine, major
with baseball, were having thisthing to you know, highlight
people in the community.
And so I nominated him and Iwrote the nomination.
They got 70 000.
And then they picked one.
Each baseball franchise got topick their favorite from their
(49:15):
community and we won, the RedSox picked us.
But then it was then the fiveliving US presidents got to pick
their favorite.
And in the competition Iremember I forget the guy that
we were up against.
He had like the public supportof the Goo goo dolls, like he
had like celebrities, like itwas an online voting thing, and
(49:36):
I just went deep and I was likethere's no way, I'm letting I
still call the mr dixon, likeI'm no, I'm letting mr dixon
like lose this thing.
Like I'm back in campaign mode.
I was using like voter listsfrom like richardson's campaign
that probably shouldn't even use, but I'm like anything I add.
And then I then I was like whatcan I do because we're not going
to win the vote?
So what I did is I got the, Igot mayor manino, I got the
mayor of boston to come out andvisit the kids, I invited the
(49:58):
governor, deval deval patrick,out to visit the kids and what
I'm pretty sure to this day Icaused was I know we did not win
the popular vote, but what Idid, I created a problem at
people magazine where they wereprobably like oh shit, we
because the mayor of boston.
I got him to put out a pressrelease that said vote for, like
the one true bostonian becausethis guy, the teacher, grew up
in boston, grew up in the hoodand then devolves putting out a
(50:20):
press release.
Like I turned this thing intolike this online vote.
It'd be like today, like anartist wanting more votes and
like the governor putting out astatement.
So I created this issue where,like people magazine, when they
called me, like hey, by the way,you guys, you guys won, like
and I'm like oh shit.
Um, by the way, like presidentbush, george w bush, he picked
you guys as what he thought waslike the most like inspiring
(50:43):
thing.
And I remember I like you knowit didn't I'm like, okay, but I
didn't know everything that camewith it.
So, all of of a sudden, likethree days later, like my
teacher and I, who was just likeyou know, we've been flown to
the all-star game in St Louisand all of a sudden, like same
thing, like we're being honoredin a parade, a red carpet parade
, and like I remember, gita wasin like the pickup truck with us
, like it was like the game.
(51:07):
Two things happened on thattrip.
One is for the game.
My teacher got to be on thepitcher's mound and a video was
played nationwide.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Where George Bush was narrating it, talking about Rob
Dixon and the program, and whathappened that night is, all of
a sudden I got an email from ourweb person saying the website
crashed.
Now this program at the timehad like maybe 40 kids.
We raised enough money, thatbasically that the website
crashed because of people givingdonations nationwide.
Yeah, next year and every yearsince, like the camp now has
(51:42):
like 200 kids.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
And yeah, Now, the coolest part of that trip even
though it was really cool thecoolest part of that trip is, um
, I got invited to Ryan.
I was doing work for KevinEuclid at the time you remember
him, the Red Sox and I washanging out with him and he
invited me to go to RyanHoward's birthday party and I
was dressed like a fan, like anidiot, you know.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Fox t-shirt and Red Sox underwear.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Oh yeah, everybody else is dreadful.
I was one of the few peoplethat wasn't a celebrity or a pro
athlete, right Like so.
I should have been valetingcars the way I was.
Like my bank account said Ishould be valeting cars.
I'll never forget that Kevin'stalking to this girl and you
know this and that, and Kevin'swife at the time.
And all of a sudden the girlputs out her hand and she and
(52:28):
he's like oh, this is you know,this is my friend, jeff.
And I'm like oh, hey, I'm Jeff.
And she goes hi, I'm Alyssa.
And as I'm shaking her hand, Igo, holy shit, ready, are you
ready for this?
And this is after she goeslet's do.
(52:53):
It was Alyssa Milano.
No way, dude.
Like was my whole life, likepass does, like my whole ass.
That was like you grew upwatching who's the pop.
Like, like, like Michelle, yeah, like it was Alyssa Milano and
I'm like holy crap.
And I'm just like, oh, hi, I'mJeff.
And I'm like holy god.
And then, like, we talked thatwhole night it's interesting
because that was Twitter was theonly way to communicate.
Then we actually like for thenext like week and a half, like
DM each other, like we'retalking.
I remember I went home and I'mjust like holy shit, like like
(53:17):
where is this going, like whatthe hell, like what's going to
happen?
And then it just ended.
I think she one day it was likeoh, this is some schmuck.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
I met With nothing, nothing to offer and now he's
probably sending me like creepymessages, being like hey, you
ever come into boston, like, ohmy god.
So what you're doing now,though?
You're being a publicist, notonly for artists, but for
corporate as well, and ifsomebody wanted to, you know,
contract your services, theyjust go.
(53:45):
They can look you up onlineyeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Yeah, I mean it's so if you're on the mute, so
there's a few.
It's kind of on the music sideit's like these days you have to
have like multiple websites, soit's not confusing.
So on the corporate side, youknow which is, you know,
corporate government andnon-profit stuff, um, you know,
it's uh the gulk, I think.
Oh yeah, wwwthegulcogroupcom,and then on the music stuff,
(54:10):
press side, it'sgulcopublicitycom and yeah, well
, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
You know, I've known you for, let's say, 10 years and
I've seen the work that you'vedone.
It's pretty cool.
I appreciate it.
I want to touch a little bit.
I got to think of the right wayto say this oh listen, no, I'm
open book.
I probably no.
No, but some of your posts onfacebook lately with what's been
going on, you're jewish and youhave there's a lot.
(54:39):
That's why you're going back toisrael I've never been to israel
okay, but you're going to visitand it's part of your heritage,
though yeah, definitely yeahI'm going.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Uh, my parents don't understand why this is the time.
Um, yeah, so obviously I'vealways been jewish, but you know
, I was bar mitzvahed, but my um, I wasn't like my track.
You know reform, you know.
So you go to synagogue and roshhashanah and yom kippur and you
celebrate hanukkah and you dopassover, like you know, you're
not over the top, anything likethat, all of the stuff.
(55:10):
But then October 6th and 7th,so I'll never forget.
So October 6th I actually wasin Florida and I drove down from
someone's house in Boca down toMiami to go see Frank.
Frank Ray had a show that night.
Frank Ray, yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
I was working for.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Frank and I was with him all night and you know he
was good.
They were flying out the nextmorning and I was going back to
Boca for a few days to spendtime with family and I got back
to, like you know, the family'shouse at one o'clock and, you
know, turned on the tv andthat's when it was actually
breaking in real time.
Like everyone in people werestill sleeping and I was just
watching and I'm just like no,this can't be real, like in the
(55:46):
footage, um, and then it sort ofbrought you know it's it was.
It was that then all of asudden became scary.
But you know, I've never beenvocal and it's something that I
mean I'm not gonna lie.
I mean I've gotten deaththreats.
You know, over the last you knowyear and a half, um, you know,
I mean I had, I had a guy youknow in in nashville, you know,
a month and a half ago, come upin my face because you know he,
(56:08):
he know I was with a group ofJewish people every Sunday we do
a walk for the hostages untileveryone gets back and he took a
particular liking to me and youknow he was a Palestinian guy
and he got up in my face andcalled me a baby killer and I
should be dead and this and that.
But, um, yeah, it's crazy, butI think you know what got me
sort of fired up more so is justwhat I felt you know is is been
(56:30):
, you know, a lack of response.
You know, um, yeah, blackresponse given you can hear all
the nassau's finest firedepartment running the up three,
four.
I think we should be in asecond.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
I don't know if that's are they stopping in
front of the building?
Speaker 2 (56:47):
no, no, no, they're heading down towards Broadway.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Oh, that explains, it .
Speaker 2 (56:53):
No, but it is five fire trucks.
Oh no, they're turning left onBroadway.
Who knows?
I don't know.
Are you that?
Speaker 1 (56:58):
close to Broadway.
Speaker 2 (56:59):
I am right across.
I will say I don't even care,Whatever.
You know where the big nakedstatue is on the memory end.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
My apartment faces that big naked statue.
I need to learn what the statueis called.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
So you wake up every day and look out the window and
see naked people.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
You see big giant naked bodies yeah, and they're
big I actually looked up online.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
They're like 35 feet um but back to you, continue,
sorry um, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
So what it was is it was just like the silence.
And you know I did, I got, Igot really like I actually at
that time I thought about likenot doing anything in music ever
again, because what was turningme off and what hurt was.
Here it is.
You had like a, you know afestival, you know, and just
like we all go on, whether it'sa festival or artist show or
tour, and you had almost 400kids like that were like
(57:52):
paragliders coming to take,butchered and murdered, and you
know the girls were raped andkidnapped.
It was just, it was silence.
And I'm the person who, likeyou know whether I mean I
remember, you know when blacklives matter, you know I put up
the black box and you know, whenthe asian guy was beat up on
the subway in new york, I didthe whole.
Like you know you treatedfairly.
And when there was a shootingdown in Florida at the gay bar,
(58:14):
it was like hey, lgbt, we're allon.
And then all of a sudden, to meit was like wait a minute, so
many Jewish people andeveryone's being silent.
I'm like how is this city soquiet?
Whether you're a booking agent,whether you're a manager,
whether you're a radio person,whether you're a label executive
, whether you're a lawyer or anartist, we're all at those shows
and it's like you know, 300people out of you know, I mean
(58:36):
we're talking you know, 40% ofthe people that were at that
festival were killed.
I mean, let's take one, youknow, I mean just to do numbers
and math, like let's take one ofLuke Cohen's shows where he has
50,000 people, maybe 22,000people, killed at a concert, and
so everyone was silent.
And then it transitioned fromthe silence to like the
(58:57):
craziness on the collegecampuses.
And then it wasn't until I wentto go visit GW, my alma mater,
and I went and met with somestudents and they were telling
me, like I've stopped going towell, this must be really big.
This is three of my fire trucks.
They stopped going to well,this must be really big through
my fire trucks.
Um, they, they stopped going tocertain classes because they
were being physically Assaultedand I just was like you know,
like I can't, I can't stay quiet.
(59:18):
On a personal level, in highschool I had a swastika.
Someone painted a swastikaoutside my mom's house.
The town didn't do anythingabout it.
When I was, when I was insecond grade a kid put a knife
to my neck walking home fromschool, thinking it was funny
because I was a Jewish kid.
To me it brought that back.
I can't stay silent.
I don't have a ton of followers, but you know what?
I have a lot of members of themedia that follow me.
(59:38):
I was like I'm going to startposting.
Then that came with.
That kind of stuff comes withthings.
My mom was nervous.
I don't blame her.
You're going to get hurt andthis and that.
And I'm like my own firearms,like I'm trained, like I'm fine.
No, you're not trying to.
Someone can go in yourapartment.
I'm like, no, they can.
I'm like I'm trying to likejustify her, but I think it's
just, it's been, it's it's been.
(01:00:00):
Uh, it's probably the thing.
I probably never have, likecried so many tears in a in a
period of time.
I've never lied awake in bed atnight, unable to sleep.
I've never looked over myshoulder as much.
I very rarely leave my apartmentunarmed because I don't know if
these people that have sentnasty messages, I don't know if
(01:00:21):
they live with their mom in abasement in Oklahoma or I don't
know if it's someone here.
Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
You've got the right to carry you what I said.
Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
you have the right to carry.
Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
I mean, why not?
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm not like some reactionary, like
like, believe me, I've been,I've been trained by the best
three letter agency in this.
But you know, yeah, yeah, andbut it's just yeah, it's just
been, it's just been wild.
And I think the thing that'salso really frustrating is from
the Jewish side.
How many Jewish people with aplatform have remained
(01:00:55):
completely silent.
They haven't said anything, andit's for fear of losing jobs or
opportunities or fans.
And a good friend of mine isJames Maslow from Big Time Rush
and he's probably other thanMichael Rappaport and Montana
know montana tucker.
There's been nobody on the onthe celebrity side that actually
has a following, that's beenvocal and has been willing to
(01:01:16):
put their neck out and risk itall to try to, you know, change,
change the narrative, and Ithink what happened is, you know
the, you know, you know I'm notgonna throw blame to politics,
but and I worked for him for youknow, for a year and I knew Joe
Biden for many years but Ithink I think the last
administration missed a reallygood opportunity that when this
(01:01:37):
first happened to come out andwhen the first thing started to
happen on college campuses tocondone, and because what
happened is there was nomessaging, there was nothing and
these schools didn't know whatto do and before you know it,
the schools were overtaken.
And then, you know, I mean GW,at my school, you know, I talked
to the, the, you know the, theuniversity police, and they were
(01:01:58):
telling me, oh no, dc police,and they're like the, the, the,
the president won't, the prisonschool won't let us on campus,
and so, you know, I thinkeveryone was trying to appease
everyone, but it just it gotextremely out of hand.
Um, you know, now it's, youknow it's, it's scary.
I mean it's just uh, yeah, notthe thing that I, I thought you
know, in 2025 would take up themost amount of my time every day
(01:02:20):
, and emotions and this, andthat I mean when I say I have a
crime, like you know, a moment,like you know, I've tried myself
to sleep countless nights justlike thinking like how, like,
how can this be?
And that's to the point whereI've stopped watching the news
because, like one, it becomeslike infuriating.
But two, you become, you know,and you know I'm a news junkie,
I mean it's what I do, I'veworked in news, um, but it's
(01:02:42):
just uh, yeah, I mean, you know,even like, right now it's it's,
but the problem is that it'sbecome politicized, like
everything else that's causing aproblem.
It's become politicized, it'sbecome drama and you know you
just.
And the other thing that'schanged is you talk about back
during the clinton days, likeyou know, even, like like fox
(01:03:04):
news, right, you could go andlike we did fox news all the
time richardson went on fox andhe would go on bill o'reilly and
o'reilly would ask toughquestions, but it wasn't, it
wasn't like 100 one side.
So like right now, if you go tofox, you're only getting one
story.
You go to msnbc, you're onlygetting the other story.
And so people's minds, like atthis point with in, especially
with the social media, it's likewe've all been programmed.
(01:03:25):
Like even like you turn on tv,if you have hulu or you have
netflix, like you don't evenfigure out what you want to
watch anymore.
It's whatever we watch,whatever netflix puts up there
is trending, right, oh, what'strending?
And like they decide, you knowyou go to listen to music on
spotify, we go to the editorialplaylist, like what have they
said we should listen to?
And the same thing has happenedwith the news because, as I
said, we go and do this walk.
(01:03:46):
Um, you know myself and ada Ada, who you know.
You know a Jewish artist andyou know she's five foot tall
and I give her all the credit inthe world.
Like you know, she gets deaththreats, but she's very
outspoken and we go and do thesewalks and the number of people
that you know see us walk andthey've never like the number of
people have never even heard ofOctober 7th.
It's just like, it's just not,it's like it's mind-blowing.
(01:04:08):
And you talk to him like whatdo you mean?
And you have a sign and sothere's, like you know, like
otter always carries one of thebebis kids, you know the two
infants in the morning and itsays like kill.
And then people, like we had awoman like last week, goes, oh,
what state did this happen?
And we're like wait, what, uh,what, what happened october 7th?
And they go and the womanlooked and she goes what
happened on october 7th?
(01:04:28):
And I actually, true story, I,I was about to go on a date.
I was about to go on a datewith someone like a month and a
half ago, and the um, the womansaid like, oh, what did you do
last night?
And I was on the phone.
I said, oh, I, I went to go seethe october 8th movie, which is
I went before, you know, to gosee this movie.
(01:04:49):
And she goes.
Oh, what's the October 8th?
The woman's like what's theOctober 8th movie about?
I'm like it's about October 7thand it's going to happen that,
starting that day, and she goes,and she looks, she goes, she
goes.
Well, what happened October 7th?
And I was just like I can't, Ican't, I can't, I can't go out
with you.
I don't care what you look like, I don't care how much money
you have.
(01:05:09):
You're too much of a shelf forme.
I can't start at this.
But yeah, I mean, I appreciateyou asking.
Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
I mean because it's no, it's your belief, man and.
Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
I get it yeah you're afraid to ask and talk about it.
It's like you know, people areafraid to be like oh, I support,
like people not being raped andkilled, like and and people go,
what do you?
What about god's likepalestinian?
Listen, I don't want a single,especially after what I did
during the iraq war.
I don't want a single person toget even a cut, never mind on
(01:05:39):
either side, get killed, youknow, or or or wounded.
Never, no way.
But like you know, you gottalike you know every.
Actually you gotta start atwhat it begins.
I mean you know, if you got itlike you know every, actually
you got to start at what itbegins.
I mean you know, if someone'smarried and they go and cheat on
their wife and then the wifeasks for a divorce, you can't
get married.
The wife would be like, oh myGod, why are you asking for the
divorce if you cheated?
Same thing.
You got to go back and look.
And the problem is so manypeople don't even know.
(01:06:01):
People don't know what actuallystarted theages.
But again, because so manypeople get their news from
Instagram, they get from scroll.
Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
You're right there.
It's not only Instagram, it'sanything online, and they're
believing what they're reading.
And the thing is, if you wereto and it's happened to me too I
lay back, obviously a littlebit because of what I do, but I
understand where you're comingfrom.
The minute you do express anopinion, you get like bam.
It's like whoa, whoa, whoa.
(01:06:34):
I'm entitled to my opinion andyou're entitled to your opinion,
but that doesn't mean you haveto attack me.
Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
That's what's happening.
Yeah, believe me, the messagesI get are just like, like, and I
used to like on the comments.
Like I used to like fire back,but then you know, no, it's just
one it's, it's, it's, it's awaste of my time and breath and
energy.
It's, you know, pulling morenegative stuff versus finding a
(01:07:05):
positive way to.
You know, spend that time.
But two, you know.
Three, whatever, I can't count.
I repeated algebra in highschool.
It's a true story for all youkids that maybe don't get in
math.
I repeated algebra one I suckat math all right, I wanted to
be an airline.
Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
I wanted to be a pilot.
My guidance counselor said youhad to be really good in math
and you suck in math.
So let's think of somethingelse, let's put a different
direction maybe let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
We go be flight attendants together.
It's the same person.
They do less and less, you know.
Now you get on the flight andeven if there's no turbulence,
the captain at the I'm convincedit's a cost-cutting measure.
You get on a flight now andthey go.
Oh, just so you know about, thefirst half of the flights could
be extremely bumpy, so we'regoing to ask the cabin crew to
stay seated, basically meaningwe're not going to serve you any
drinks, and then there's noturbulence, I'm convinced.
Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
Yeah, I know it's a racket.
No, I don't know.
It's crazy.
It's crazy Early bird or nightowl.
Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
I used to be like I'm getting better.
I have to admit, like like,since I moved here full time in
december, I was doing a lot oflike staying up till like one,
two in the morning doing work,and now in the last like few
weeks, I'm like no, like I, Itry to go to bed because my
apartment, my apartment, is likeall floor to ceiling glass so I
can look at the naked people.
Um, and I don't I don't put itin the blinds now, which I know
(01:08:25):
it's weird, because I think theygo to the big agencies right
across the street.
So I'm running your living roomand your boxers because it's not
going to be no, I do all thetime and I know, but I, I sleep
and I wake up and like sometimesI can tell, like I know there's
people in their offices likewatching me.
There's probably bets on whattime I'm getting up, cause I
won't put the blinds downbecause I feel like paying too
much money for the view that Iso I do I sleep with all the
(01:08:48):
stuff up.
Um, so because of the sun, I'veconverted back to, you know,
getting up in the morning, plusyou know that's time to be
productive and uh, yeah socoffee or tea I've only had one
cup of coffee my entire life.
Really, I am naturally, I'mnaturally caffeinated.
Actually, anyone that knows me,you probably agree is they're
(01:09:09):
like we don't want to know aboutcoffee.
All I've had today is like abottle of water.
Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
So yeah, there's a different that's good for you.
Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
It's smart water it's not smart to water.
This is Kirkland because I'mpaying too much for rent.
I'm getting like the, you know.
All right, you went to Costco.
Yeah, oh, yeah, heck yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
It's Kirkland.
Come on, yeah, heck, yeah.
They got shirts, they got pants, they got socks, they got water
, they got sheds.
Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Yeah, they get everything.
There wasn't a lot like he woreshorts and flip-flops every day
, right, so I bought all myclothes.
I remember, like my dad's oh,there's a nice shorts, will you
get them?
I'm like I remember my dad goeslike you know, he pulled me
aside.
He's like everything all right.
Are you okay financially?
Like you can be honest, like iseverything all right?
I'm like, yeah, why is what'swrong?
He's like.
He's like why are you buyingyour clothes at costco?
(01:09:56):
I'm like why?
Why shouldn't I buy my clothesat costco?
I'm like you just love theseshorts.
I love Costco, yeah, buteverything no.
In fact, I'm going tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
I get all my produce at Costco.
I know I mean my wife and I.
Last week we had a little timeoff and I said you know what?
Let's go to Costco.
Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Yes, let's go to Costco.
They have the best produce ofany grocery.
I'll actually drive 20 miles tothe Costco in mount juliet, uh,
tennessee, because it's likefairly new the building.
They're like six months old andthe produce is correct.
You can't have better produce.
Yeah, and I will drive 40minutes and 40 miles round trip
book, for book or movie it'sprobably a movie, but I'm trying
(01:10:37):
to get more into books justbecause I, honestly, I don't
think I've read a full book inprobably I have years and I'm
and I'm trying to and actually,um, I was on a trip, I was on a
work trip with Otter a few weeksago and she gave me a book and
I started it's something aboutlike.
It's something about like, ifyou keep looking backwards, you
won't trip, and so it's like auh, yeah, yeah it's a book,
(01:11:00):
because obviously, you know, Igot a little major change going
on in my life and so friendshave been like, hey, maybe you
should read this book, maybe youshould do this, that.
So, but yeah, it's, I shouldread more books.
But you know, I need to findtime.
But if I less, if I read lesscrap on Facebook and Instagram,
I could probably read some, youknow.
Or I could write a book and Icould write, I could write my
autobiography and maybe, youknow, my mom would buy it?
Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
I think we just heard it Guilty pleasure.
What's your guilty pleasure?
Guilty pleasure, my watch keepsbeeping here.
Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
Oh, no, no, not mine.
Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
No, mine is beeping, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
I'm limited.
Are we in like bonus round?
We could be what's your guiltypleasure.
Okay, my guilty pleasure.
Okay, my guilty pleasure.
I watch a lot of stupid TV.
Like when I watch TV, I watch alot of stupid TV, like things
that are probably like whenthey're sitting around a
strategy meeting at a TV stationor a network.
The demographic they're lookingfor is probably like 15 to 25.
(01:11:59):
And for some reason, I'm gluedto the shows and yeah, I mean
you know the, the one being umbelow deck uh, I've uh peeled
back from some of the realhousewife stuff but, um, a lot
of the train, a lot of the trainwreck shows.
And I don't know if I did thosejust so you know you feel
better about yourself, butyou're a Kardashian.
I did, oh, I did when it was on, yeah, not the new one, but oh,
(01:12:21):
I didn't miss an episode of theold ones.
Um, yeah, no, look at, yeah,looking back.
And I, when it was on, not thenew one, but oh, I didn't miss
an episode of the old ones yeah,no, looking back.
And I think it was funnybecause when I first was working
with that teen pop group Ithink that's why I probably
worked, did it, because I feltlike I had so much in common
with them because we couldactually talk about the same TV
shows.
I'd be like, oh my God, did yousee Real Housewives of Beverly
Hills this week?
(01:12:41):
I my God, did you see, like youknow, real Housewives of
Beverly Hills this week?
I was on a date the other nightand the girl on the date was
like she said, oh yeah,so-and-so.
I'm like, oh, from RealHousewives.
She's like how do you know that?
I'm like.
I'm like, at this point, I'mlike, oh shit, this is going one
way or another.
Either I'm getting another dateor she's going home and calling
.
I watched his real house and itworked for the better because
we went on again.
Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
What's next?
Oh, go ahead, I cut you off.
Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
What's next?
On what?
Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
No, I was going to say what's next for Jeff Galko.
Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
I'm probably going to take a walk down to, maybe, the
Live Oak to go watch a writer'sround, because that's what you
do when you live here and you'resingle and you got nothing to
do and you know there's morelive, great music possible.
Um, no, I um, you know I'mactually right now I'm trying to
, uh, I gotta do better.
I'm working on putting likemyself first, like me on the
front burner.
(01:13:31):
I've, even with clients, likeI've I've been doing a lot of uh
, I'm working to be more in themoment good, um, you know, like,
for example, when I go homefrom mother's day in a week and
a half, like I already told mymom, like I'm turning my phone
off my mom's like no way, and so, doing that, I'm trying to get
some more corporate clientsbecause, as you know, I have a
huge corporate client and wewere tied up in a lock for four
(01:13:52):
years thanks to Tony Fauci, butwe won it, so that freed up
about six hours a day for methat I was working on this
lawsuit and stuff.
So if you're out there and youneed work I mean work done I'm
here.
You know, put it this way,folks, it's sort of like you're
doing charity.
Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Send me a contract If you hire me.
Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
If you hire me, that's less time.
I can annoy Skip texting himduring the day, Thinking, like
you know, everyone else is justfree to just chat.
Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
You know, I look forward to your text, I I look
forward to your text.
I look forward to your phonecall.
Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
No, I don't, I don't tell people.
When I ever meet people,especially when I first almost
work with them, I always say tothem listen, I'm not one person
to tell you what you want tohear, I just tell you the truth.
And so I say that with thishere, that whenever I tell
people who you are, andespecially I'm not going to say
it, but your guests for tomorrowand whatnot I always say the
(01:14:45):
nicest guy I've met since I'vebeen doing music, and I swear I
say it and like what do you mean?
I'm like, I'm like he's thenicest guy you're gonna meet,
your your experience with him asan interview it's gonna be the
most enjoyed no disrespect toother people that may be
watching, but like it's gonna bethe most enjoyable interview
you're gonna do.
You're gonna feel like spent anhour, you know, with your uncle
or a family member and to me,like I've never, like I can
(01:15:07):
count on my one hand like thenumber of people and again I
came into this like guns blazingand I was an asshole, and but
you know, there's certain peoplethat you know were good to me,
very good to me, like muchbetter to me than they probably
should have, and allowed me toget to where I am today, because
if it weren't for people likeyou who let me come visit with
(01:15:28):
an independent artist whoprobably didn't have the reason
to be there.
You know, as far as numbers orstreams or what they were doing,
you know it was you, you werean enabler and you are like even
the fact that you do this andyou know that you.
You know you work during theday and you have a family and
this and that, but you take thetime to do this and provide a
platform.
You know, obviously tonightit's for, you know, crazy old
(01:15:49):
men, but on most normal nightsit's for.
You know it's for.
You know it's it's for a-listartists.
But you spent, you put as muchtime and detail and energy into
interviewing and up and comingout or so, a brand new artist
and giving them a platform orgiving them a reason to like do
this interview and get off and,you know, call their mom and be
like, oh my god, you don'tbelieve.
I just did this interview withthis guy and blah, blah, and I
(01:16:10):
think that's what I think oneit's what the world needs more
of, just genuine and genuine.
You know, people that youadmire, people that you like to
work with, but I think thisindustry, I think I think this
industry could learn a lot fromyou, because there's a lot of
people that just have the wallsand unless you have a song, they
chart it through.
They won't even take your phonecall or this or that, and it's
(01:16:30):
no one's saying you have to playthe music.
But you know, just because weall started somewhere exactly
and, and the guy that's doingthe, the playlist, if you're the
head of, you know I don't wantto say one of the deep.
let's say, you're the head ofDSP, you didn't start there.
You know, and like, I think, somany people in this industry,
both artists and on the radioside, it's like they forget very
(01:16:53):
quickly where they came fromand that somebody at some point
helped them.
No-transcript, no, like youknow, we all had it Like.
I mean, I didn't get.
(01:17:13):
I got into the White Houseintern program because my dad
had a bagel store on the side,that summer Stupid story.
But anyways, a guy came in andit turned out he was an advisor
to Clinton.
It was dumb luck.
And then he submitted my resume.
It's like, you know, we all hadthose people and that's why,
you know, even now, like youknow, I always think like, just
like, pay it forward.
Like you know, like the, youknow, even if you are it's old
(01:17:34):
age, but you're going to see thepeople.
You're going to see the samepeople on the way down.
So it's like, why not just benice and be supportive and get
some of the leg and don't be sofricking territorial and just do
do nice things for people youknow, Take a deep breath, okay.
Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
Very, very kind and I appreciate that.
But I love what I do and I dobelieve in giving everybody a
fair chance.
I don't like talking to RebaMcIntyre and I'm going to give
her the same amount of time, orI'll talk to a new artist.
I don't like talking to RebaMcEntire and I'm going to give
her the same amount of time, orI talk to a new artist.
I would give them the sameamount of time that I would if I
was talking to Reba McEntire.
And you know, tomorrow night wetalked about the guest and I've
(01:18:16):
already told a few people whothe guest will be tomorrow night
and they're like do you?
really want to interview him.
I go, yeah, damn, will betomorrow night.
And they're like, do you reallywant to interview him?
I go, yeah, damn right, they do, because you know, I mean it's
jimmy allen.
Say it's jimmy allen, there's alot of talk.
You know, I mean everything waslet go, but I want to find out
what's going on with his lifenow.
I want to find out what youknow.
What do we do?
Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
to get.
There's a lot from the sharethere and, like you know, I've
been blackballed by some people.
I mean I knew jimmy allenbefore anybody in the city,
before he had a label deal oranything yep I got a lot of
people and I lost projects, butI was raised two things.
One I'm not gonna listen and Isay it's a jimmy, right if.
If you cheat, like it's aself-inflicted wound, right it
(01:18:58):
is.
And I also say like if, if thelitmus test to be permanently
blackballed is if you cheat I'mlooking at a building right now
that's going to have a lot ofempty offices.
Number two, though, you know,again, self-inflicted.
But I also grew up where youremain loyal to friends and I
also grew up in a country and asystem you know, in a lot of
things now it's, you know it'sinnocent until proven guilty.
(01:19:18):
You know it's innocent untilproven guilty and I would hope
that God forbid, like you know,not that circumstance, but you
know anything like my friendswouldn't just leave me or
alienate me.
And actually, you know itdoesn't mean you got to be best
friends and be pounding a chestand posting online and support
(01:19:40):
me, but at least be there.
Because you know we never know,we never know people's mental
health.
I mean you know, we saw it justyesterday.
I mean there was someone in ourcommunity that you know looks
for all intents and purposeslike took their own life, and
it's just, you know you, just,you don't, you don't write off
people.
I've just been raised that youdon't write off people unless
you've been given a real reasonto.
And you know Jimmy's been afriend and when I had, you know,
early artists early on, when hewas really big, you know he put
them on shows with him.
(01:20:01):
He didn't need to do that, youknow, and he was there to help
me on ways and you know it'sjust.
But I'm glad he's going to be on.
You know I think he'll be agreat guest.
You know mental health is a,you know it's a.
I mean definitely tell you, Imean it's a big part to him.
And you know I will say I, he'sa change person.
(01:20:21):
I think I think sometimes whenyou go through that and I think
he, I think he realizes thathe's getting a second chance at
life right now and I think hehonestly is trying to make the
most of it and being a changeperson.
And you know you pray and hopeand you know people don't.
You know digress and whatnot,but yeah, yeah, I'm looking
(01:20:46):
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
yeah, and um, there's a lot to talk about, so we're
going to get it out tomorrownight.
Yeah, all because of you, jeffgalko it should be because he
hasn't.
Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
He hasn't talked to a lot of people.
I mean, he did the thing withkathy lee gifford and I don't
think I don't think there's beenmany others.
So, um, but the same thing.
When I mentioned it to him, heknew exactly who you were and he
goes, oh, he said.
He said, oh, that's a reallynice guy from up in upstate New
York.
Oh, he was always really greatto me and you know so, jeff.
Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
Falco, you get experienced.
Skip happens.
I know you know coming on.
It's been really cool.
We've been talking for about anhour and 20 minutes.
Oh wow, it's fancy bedtime.
Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
No comments from Zach .
Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
You know, I heard him upstairs.
I don't know if the Mets mustbe playing tonight, so I don't
know.
Yeah, he's been pretty quiet, Iknow.
I don't know what the deal is.
Speaker 2 (01:21:44):
You know, since you guys are Mets fans.
So in 98, I actually got to goto Shea Stadium and, yeah, I got
to present the Mets with aplaque from the pitcher's mind
and Mookie Wilson presented mewith a jersey.
I have a really cool photo.
Yeah, I'll email it to you Acool photo on the scoreboard at
Shea Stadium that said likeplease welcome, jeff Galko.
Deputy manager of the WhiteHouse Health and Life Initiative
Against Drugs.
Now, for me it was a good andbad night, because it was cool
(01:22:09):
to meet Mookie Wilson and dothis.
But you know, mookie Wilson, Iwas a very, very sad kid in 1986
.
Mookie Wilson and his friendsthe world is still there, skip.
Speaker 1 (01:22:22):
The memory is still fresh.
It's, oh my god we were.
Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
We were in the tucket one summer and bill buckner
walked by and my dad, like mydad, my dad.
So, yeah, my dad, my dad islike the real life, larry david,
like living, like hanging.
Living with my dad is like you,my life is one big curb.
Your enthusiasm episode when wewere with my dad.
Now, I'm probably Now I'mscrewed.
(01:22:46):
My dad goes.
Do people still ask you aboutit?
Even as a kid I'm thinking youjust did Let the guy be.
You still think about it.
You still think about how youlet down the entire region and
world and generations of Red Sox.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:23:05):
So, Jeff, almost time for you to go to the writer's
round.
You're going to walk down overthere.
You know I got to see yourapartment sometime because they
have that view of Nashville.
There it is, oh, I love it.
I love it.
Oh yeah, Holy crap.
Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
Where's the AT&T building or the Batman building?
Oh, I love it, I love it.
Oh yeah, holy crap, there yougo.
There's Live Oak.
Where's the AT&T building orthe Batman building?
Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Oh, that's way down.
That's on the other side.
I got you, I got you, you know.
There's Tin Roof, live Oak, yep, okay, okay, and there's a
little statue.
Speaker 1 (01:23:37):
Where's the naked there?
It is Okay, yeah, right downthere.
Speaker 2 (01:23:44):
And now here it is.
I always tell the artists Iwork with like, be careful, like
cause I.
I'm very security conscious andI'm like, don't post pictures
in your own neighborhood.
This is like cause, you can'tbe accessible and I've now
shared with everybody where Ilive.
So, yeah, I might not go acrossthe street, exactly Just so you
know, don't mess with me,because skip Clark's the head of
(01:24:04):
my security detail.
Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
Yeah, well, not really you should be the head of
mine, but not that I ever needone.
But you know I appreciate allyou do and all you've done for
me.
So a lot of artists we we'vehad them on skip happens.
Tonight I'm talking to the manthat's done all that and now
he's actually been on.
He's a part of skip happens now.
Speaker 2 (01:24:22):
I love it.
No, I'm an alumni.
Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
You are, you know you're no longer well, you're a
skip happens virgin.
Speaker 2 (01:24:31):
I lost my virginity tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Let's just leave it at that.
Oh, jeff Galko, thanks forjoining us.
Skip happens today.
It's been real.
Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
It's been interesting .
Hopefully I didn't talk to him.
I'm worried right now when I goback and watch it.
I talk too much, Not likeovershared, but I just didn't
shut up.
You're still talking.
Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
Stay right there, my friend.
Stay right there.
Have a good night, everybody.
Don't forget, follow, subscribe, skip, happens it's on YouTube.
Just say, yeah, I love it.
Hit the subscribe button.
We're live.
Yeah, hello everybody.
Welcome back to Skip Happens,the show where we talk to the
movers, the shakers and thestorytellers who are making
things happen.
I'm your host, skip Clark, andtonight's guest is someone who
truly knows how to make noisebehind the scenes, believe me,
and in all the right ways too.
He's a powerhouse in publicrelations, a connector of people
(00:23):
, a guy who's worked with someof the biggest names in media,
business and entertainment and,I might add, the government.
I'm talking about the one andonly.
He's a good friend of mine,actually, and it's the first
time we've had him on and Ican't believe it's been this
long.
But Jeff Galko and we're divinginto his journey, the art of
building real relationships andwhat it takes to thrive in
(00:45):
today's ever-changing medialandscape.
And there he is, jeff.
Are you nervous, jeff?
Speaker 2 (00:52):
No, you know, I've got to be honest with you, maybe
a little, I think it's becauseI've set up in the last
20-whatever years I've probablyset up thousands of these
interviews and I've been only onthe camera side maybe four or
five times and, as I was tellingyou before we started, the last
time was like 13, 14 years ago,which is weird because it's
(01:13):
never like that.
I've done like phone interviews.
You know, when your collegewants to do like a article on
you or you know they come right,they want to see like doing
something nice because they wanta donation or something, but
this in the camera right nowyeah I'm actually I'm like oh
crap and I'm laughing at you.
I want you to know that I'mlaughing at you and it's
(01:34):
interesting because I've alwaysI'm always like watching my
clients, like I've had so manypeople on with you over the
years.
I was thinking back like we'veactually known each other 10
years, which is crazy, whichmeans this is completely long
overdue, completely.
I've sat and watched these liveand critiqued and judged the
people that you know clients andI'm honest, like I didn't share
this link, like I was on thephone with my mom right before
and she's like what's the link?
(01:55):
And I said, to be honest, I'mgoing to give you the link after
and she said why?
I said one because I'm probablygoing to be nervous.
I know my mom's watching, whichis weird at my age, but but
also if it, if it turns out, ifit goes crappy, it goes sideways
.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
I'm not going to tell you right, it just might.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That's why I'm just saying yeah, this is really no
idea what's going to happen here, but, no, uh, a little, a
little nervous, but more excitedbecause, again, this is a.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
This is long I know it's, it is long overdue and
it's so good to see you andofficially, I'd like to welcome
you to my pod soon.
Uh, this is a.
This is long, I know it's, itis long overdue and it's so good
to see you and officially, liketo welcome you to my pod zoom.
Uh, this is where I do them alland uh, it's just so good to
talk to you.
But, uh, when it comes to yourmom, uh, just to remember, uh,
remember, this is live on myfacebook, it's live on youtube,
it's live on linkedin, it's uhlive on my instagram.
So all she's got to do is shewill probably find it.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I actually, I, I last week, I actually, you know I
haven't told you who, but Ican't say but I started working
with a really, really big artistlast week, um TV person, and my
mom asked who it was.
My mom went on Instagram and mymom doesn't go on Instagram
often because she's a littleolder.
Oh, I shouldn't have said it.
(03:04):
See now Mark's ignoring yourphone's going gonna ring in a
minute, you know, but my momdidn't send me a text.
It was like, oh my god, he's sohandsome like I'm following him
and all.
So she might find this.
She.
She's more in tune with thetechnology than I ever thought,
which is a little scary, becauseshe monitors everything I post
and at least once a day sends mea text or calls me and says do
(03:26):
you really want to have thatposted?
Could that affect your work?
So yeah, she probably follows.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I see your post and I get it and I get where you're
coming from.
What are you looking at?
I see you looking at something.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
No, the stupid camera's over here and you're
over here.
And this is you.
So I'm trying to be polite, youlooking at something.
No, the stupid camera's overhere and you're over here.
I'm trying to be polite andlook at the person I'm talking
to, but the camera's right here.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Don't look at me look at the camera.
I mean you need to look at me,but look at the camera and
that's how you look at me Allright, here we go.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, no, there's nothing to look at.
Behind here is all of Nashville.
So I mean, it is an amazingview, but I'm watching.
I was trying to look at you andthe camera at the same time.
Speaker 1 (04:07):
That's right, I was going to ask.
So you are in Nashville.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
I am in.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Nashville.
You are where all the action is, but where did you grow up and
how did that shape who you aretoday?
Where'd you grow up?
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So I grew up just outside of Boston.
I know Zach is probablywatching this Lifelong Red Sox
fan.
Sorry, Zach.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
Shut it off.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Exactly.
We lost our view.
Now, I was born in Boston andgrew up about 20 minutes or what
was 20 minutes before all thetraffic, but 30 minutes south of
Boston, a town called Stoughton, Sharon area.
If you're not familiar, Fort isFoxborough.
Foxborough is where thePatriots play, but the South
Shore that's a small town, right.
(04:51):
Yeah, I mean you're talking.
Do you go back To my actualtown where I'm from?
Yeah, yeah, I go back to thetown where I was born only
because my favorite pizza placein the world is there Pizza.
If you think about it, it's barpies.
I don't know if you've everheard of it.
It's a whole kind of pizza thatthey don't serve outside of New
England or Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
It's called bar pies.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
The kind of pizza it's called a bar pie.
Yeah, bar pie, bar pizza.
There's an actual Facebookgroup that's called New England
Bar Pizza Association.
There's something like 300,000people and people argue about
you know which place.
They have the same argument foryears which place is the best?
But no, I go back.
I mean my mom now lives inLexington, which you know was
(05:37):
Lexington, the Battle ofLexington and all that stuff.
And then my dad, you know isyou know still down that area
and on the Cape and whatnot.
But you know is you know stilldown that area and on the Cape
and whatnot.
But you know you go back.
None of my friends are stillthere.
It's sort of one of those liketowns.
Like you, you grow up there andyou know you leave.
Yeah, I don't think I know asingle person that still lives
there except, in all honesty, Ithink two girls I went to school
with might dance it.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
There is a gentleman's club there and I've
been heard that they're stilldancing and they're twins, but I
don't know how does that memorystick like?
Of all things to talk about,I'm talking about the twins that
are dancing in a strip clubit's very weird because this is
how my mind goes.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
this is why I have no idea how this is going to go.
It's good, but when you justsaid you go back, I'm like you
start to.
I'm visualizing the main streetright and I want you to street
and I and I'm like, okay,blockbuster was right across the
street from Alex's, which Inever went to as a patron, but I
did an internship with thepolice department in college and
(06:35):
we went and did a call thereand I walked in and in their
dancing were these two girls thetwins.
So now like, yeah, it's how Idon't know my mind, just it's a
twin.
So now like, yeah, it's how Idon't know my mind, just all
right, jeff.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
Jeff, you're going to get yourself in trouble.
Wait a minute.
But do you have a memory fromyour childhood that still sticks
with you today, besides thegentlemen's club?
Do you have a memory from beingback at you know, your hometown
, something along?
Speaker 2 (07:00):
those lines.
Yeah, something along thoselines.
Yeah, I'll be honest with you,I'm gonna little show and tell
here this is why I love jeff.
This is why I love jeff here wego, the street that I grew up
on you know your camera'sbackwards, but that's okay,
don't mess with it.
So listen, that's the street Igrew up on, in stowed in mass,
and it's here.
It's here on my bookshelf, andit's been in every office that
(07:24):
I've ever had my entire career,because I've always felt like
you know, no matter howsuccessful you are or where
you've been or where you'vetraveled, you come from
somewhere and you know Iwouldn't be the person if I
wasn't today.
I am today.
You'll be on that street.
Did you steal it?
I didn't steal it.
A friend of mine stole it, whohas one of the biggest jobs on
(07:45):
Wall Street right now, which iseven funnier.
I'm not saying his name.
There are about six of us thatlived on the street Cool and
when we went off to college wemade sure that during that year,
you know, the town report wentup, you bang it off and we all
went off to college with thesame, but we all off to college
with the same, but we all, tothis day, we all have it in our
offices as that thing of like.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
You don't forget where you come from and to this
day, the uh, the town is stilllooking for it, or the village
of the city or whatever.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So yeah, I might.
I, for there could be a warrantout for my arrest after after
this.
You know, if someone from myhometown is watching, they're
like, oh, that's what the signis so what did you first?
Speaker 1 (08:21):
do I mean you because you're doing, uh, you're a
publicist now.
You you're into media side ofthings, but you also earned her
interned at the policedepartment.
I know you worked at the whitehouse for a little bit.
I mean, all right, let's justgo back.
What was your first job?
Speaker 2 (08:38):
ever.
My first job ever was uh, Iworked as a waiter gentleman's
club no.
Speaker 1 (08:43):
no, I worked as a waiter.
Gentleman's club no.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
I worked as a waiter, at like 15 years old, for a
caterer.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
Really.
Speaker 2 (08:49):
Doing like bar mitzvahs and weddings.
Yeah, all right, it washorrible.
It lasted very short because Ithink it was like the third time
.
I remember I was walking out ofthe kitchen I mean, I might
have been 100 pounds soaking wetand I had a full tray of wine
glasses and it was one of thosedoors that, oh yeah, went
everywhere.
The problem is I was like 15.
I remember it was a bar mitzvah,so it was like kids just like a
(09:09):
year younger than me weremaking fun.
I mean I went home and told myparents like yeah, this, this
just isn't yeah, but you had ajob.
They did not.
I did have a job, but yeah, no,that was the first.
I mean even like the days oflike your first job, like I had
some really weird jobs, like Imean I worked at a gas station,
(09:29):
like in the little bubble, likeI don't know why my parents felt
this, my overprotective parentsfelt this was safe.
In high school you know thatthe kid was in one of those
little glass things.
Right, you have the cigarette,you have the gum, yeah, and if I
walked into the bathroom it wasjust like a little toilet
behind the cigarette wall.
The door opened up.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
And you hope nobody comes to the window while you're
sitting on the pot.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Or you just hope that no one's going to come and rob
the place.
Yeah, it's one of those thingswhere once in a while I say my
parents were very overprotective, like how did that fly?
But yeah, I was there.
And then the Reebok worldheadquarters were my town.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So then the upgrade was go work at Reebok because
they gave you a discount onshoes.
But, um, no, my career has beenlike um, there's no logic.
There's no logic and no path.
Um, figured that out.
Yeah, knowing you over the last10 years, and you and I have
chatted a lot about life andthings going on in our lives.
But you, you know, being at thewhite house and doing media and
it just, and it just it's likehow, why, how did they don't
even go together?
Speaker 2 (10:31):
no, nothing, no, nothing does it's.
I mean, I guess I might as wellbring two references.
You know, since you know you docountry music, you know either
uh, dairy song, this, or uh, thebroken road.
Um, you know it's uh's.
My plan always was I thought Iwas going to be a lawyer.
I always wanted to go to lawschool.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
I could go ahead.
Speaker 2 (10:50):
And.
But then there was this thingcalled the SATs.
You know, I went to a privateprep school and my grades were
good there.
Something about the SATs justkicked my ass and kicked my ass.
I took it a ton of times and noone could figure out what the
problem was.
And, you know, I ended up goingto college.
But once I was there, I thoughtto myself wait a minute, what if
(11:10):
I do all this and I go to lawschool and then I can't pass the
bar, like what happens if Ihave the same issue with like
the bar as I did with SATs?
And so I pivoted.
You know, again, when I went toGW and DC, they didn't have
pre-law.
So what they told you to do isoh, do criminal justice, slash
sociology, because it's the sameclasses that would prepare you
(11:32):
for pre-law.
I got excited as, like afreshman and I took way too many
courses in that, like myfreshman and sophomore year
before when I realized, like I'mnot going to be a lawyer, it
was too late to change.
Like I was fortunate my dadpaid for college, but he wasn't
gonna pay for more than fouryears because I had a younger
sister that was coming in rightbehind me yeah, I gotta keep it
going, yeah.
(11:52):
So I I was like, oh great, now,um, because that's what my
degree.
People don't realize that myactual degree in college is in
criminal justice, like it justshows you.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Yeah there's no rhyme or reason to it.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
There's no rhyme or reason, but the criminal justice
part actually did fall into howmy career then went, because I
had to do my senior year.
But I did it my junior year.
Well, I interned for myfreshman year Senator Kerry of
Massachusetts.
He was the commencement speakerat my high school graduation.
(12:26):
Very cool, and my dad must havehad this conversation with
himself and not me or my mom.
But once kerry was done withhis speech, I remember my dad.
Like you know, my dad's gonnabe pissed for me telling the
story this way, but hey, he'snot watching.
Remember, they don't have thelink half my family doesn't want
to talk to me anyway, so nowthe other half won't either.
But um, they, um, I'd like dragme by my wrist up to like.
(12:47):
John kerry was like, oh, thisis my son, jeff.
He's gonna be a freshman at gw,he'd love to intern for you.
I remember I looked at my momand I'm like, why is he signing
me up for stuff before I evenget to school?
And so before I even like setfoot at gw campus, I was already
signed up to like intern andhad like a commitment like
outside of class.
And so my freshman year Iinterned for Kerry, which was a
(13:07):
weird experience because Iinterned for him for the whole
year and he had this, he hadthis handbook, and I guess I'm
going to tell people's dirt andsecrets on this, but whatever,
it's a podcast.
But it said do not, do notspeak to the senator unless he
speaks to you.
And I actually interned forthis guy for a full year and I
never met him Right, and I'llget to later in the story, I'll
(13:30):
get to when I met him and what Isaid to him.
But so I interned for my firstyear and then I got this idea of
well, you know what would becool in this?
I said you know, I want tointern at the White House.
This was a very interestingtime for the White House intern
program because there was afamous intern there at the same
time, her you know, monica.
(13:54):
It was called Monica.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
I wasn't even going to go there.
Yeah, go ahead.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
So she was an intern.
At the same time.
No people like to ask if I everwore a blue dress.
I never wore a blue dress.
I never wore a blue dress.
But I applied and you know, Iremember my parents are just
like this is really hard to get.
Um, I think what helped me isthat year the scandal started to
break.
So a lot of like female I meanthis is a dead true thing I
(14:20):
heard there's like a lot offemale parents weren't like
rushing to let their daughtersgo apply for like a White House
internship.
So I got it.
I got I got accepted to internat the White House.
Yeah and yeah.
But the thing, that thing wasbecause I was at GW, a lot of
people come to DC for a semesterand leave.
Because I was there and I wasliving three blocks from the
(14:41):
White House, I stayed for threesemesters so I started putting
in roots and so I was in thepublic liaison's office, but
then I was actually in the pressoffice during the whole scandal
, which was when I first cut myteeth.
That made me nuts dude.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
You know, with everything that was going on
with that scandal, we all knowthe story.
We don't have to go and bringit up again, but to be able, I
have a lot of friends that wereindirectly involved.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
Involved, yeah, I had nothing to do with it, but, um,
yeah, it was a crazy timebecause I'll never forget the
day the ken stars with the starreport came out and like the
building was quiet becauseeverybody was at their desk like
reading and then all of asudden I remember like the guy
in the office next to me be liketurn the page like 115, because
it was like suddenly afallacious thing, you know about
(15:28):
cigars or you know the stuffthat was in that, and everyone
was just like yeah, holy crap,like this is real.
Um, but then what wasinteresting is because morale
was really low, they wereconcerned about morale.
The glintons actually brought a.
They were calling it a familyfair day.
It was a saturday in the on thesouth lawn of the white house.
It was for staff and like theirimmediate spouse or their kids
(15:51):
to come and like the invitationshowed like cornball and like
games and I remember walkingthere with, uh, with my ex-wife,
ex-wife number one.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Um, actually another story, by the way.
It'll be coming up in a littlebit, but go ahead I remember
walking there, I think who'sgoing to this fear?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
and as we turn the corner, there was a full-blown
carnival on the south lawn, likeclinton went, like I don't know
what.
They went through no expense totry to make us all happy.
I mean, there was ferris wheels.
There was like every game youcould imagine playing.
Speaker 1 (16:24):
And this is for the staff, this is for you.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
This is for the staff to try to like boost morale,
because everyone that week waslike feelings were down in the
dumps because this report cameout and it didn't look good for
the president and this and that.
But I always wondered to thetourists that were in DC that
day.
They had to be wondering likewhat the hell is going on?
Why is there a Ferris wheel inthe middle of the South Lawn and
why is there, like you know,I'm telling you, like
Tilt-A-Whirl, like all the coolcarnival rides were there and,
(16:53):
yeah, it was definitely aninteresting time.
It was actually a time.
It actually was the mostpivotal time because, indirectly
, that was going on.
It became the most pivotalmoment in my career because I
then had to go do this fieldwork in criminal justice and so
I didn't want to leave the WhiteHouse.
So I went over and worked inthe White House Drug Policy
(17:13):
Office, which at the time thedrugs are this guy, barry
McCaffrey, four-star general,who just led the first Iraq war,
amazing guy, crazy guy, and heran the office like he was still
in the battlefields and for acivilian and a kid like me it
was just like, if this is thereal world, like I'm gonna be a
career student.
You know um, but where, jeff?
Speaker 1 (17:33):
where were those offices?
They're not in the actual whitehouse, are they no?
Speaker 2 (17:38):
so.
So when I was in the pressoffice, um, I had a coveted.
It's probably changed.
I was curious, but I had acoveted blue badge right.
So you're, you were in what wascalled the OEOB old executive
office building, which is thebuilding just right adjacent to
it.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Now the.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I mean I think it's now the Eisenhower Eisenhower
office building.
But so in the.
So in the white house you'vegot like the, the Western and
the East wing.
The East wing people like thesocial coordinators and protocol
and people are the people thatplan the events and the parties
and stuff.
And in the West Wing, you knowyou have it's not as big as
anyone would imagine.
I mean you have, you know, themain floor.
You walk in, you have the, youknow the lobby, and then you
(18:15):
have like cabinet room and thenbehind the cabinet room you have
the president's staff presssecretary, but the offices are
small, like people would imagine.
It's this grandiose thing andit really isn't.
Oh, and you have the, you knowthe, the press briefing room,
and then downstairs you'll havelike the situation room and some
other things.
But when you're an intern, oreven of the staff, only like not
(18:37):
even 5% are given a blue badgeand the blue badge gave you
could go from like OEOB into thelike.
You could go from like oeobinto the like.
You could just go on the westwing and just walk around and
you could go anywhere.
I somehow, as an intern, got ablue badge and it was.
I mean I pinched myself.
Now I appreciated it then butlike to have that now.
(18:58):
You know just the thing.
I mean the fact that, like youknow, if I wanted to, as an
intern, you always like sort ofwalk around to kill time so you
don't have to work.
So I literally would, I wouldwalk from the OEOB, just you
know, into the West Wing and Iwould just walk and like Clinton
would be like sitting at hisdesk and like I'm 19 years old
(19:19):
and like I go hey, Bill, how youdoing today, Bill, what's going
on?
That was the difference betweenthat and John Kerry, because you
were allowed to say hi to thepresident and the president said
hi to you.
There wasn't this stuffinessNow.
I mean, I didn't have, I didn'thave.
You know, people didn't have aswarm and fuzzy as a
relationship with Hillary atthat time.
It was, yeah, it was, it wasamazing and because I had had a
(19:41):
blue badge, it gave me theability to give people uh, tours
after hours on the weekends ofthe white house and of the west
wing.
So if you were a friend of mine,you came to town or you were a
family member, like I could say,hey, meet me at 8 am and I
would go in and show you.
And you know, sometimes wascool times, I mean, president,
could be coming and going on ahelicopter and you have to have
(20:01):
like family there.
And next, you know, you knowwe're taking a picture and yeah,
it was, um, it was, it was, itwas interesting time, it it's.
You know, again, it doesn'tseem like any of it happened.
None of it makes sense.
You know, as we go through thisjourney, not the one thing that
people are going to take awayfrom this is nothing in my life
makes sense, all right.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Well, I mean, you're not alone.
I think it's everybody now.
But do you think it's allchanged with what's going on
today at the white house?
Speaker 2 (20:34):
I, um, so I actually went back and worked um,
actually, not people notes but Iactually spent just under a
year traveling with obama andbiden, uh, on their on their
advanced teams.
Uh, something I did during thefinal after I graduated college.
Um, I, I spent a year onClinton's advance team,
traveling with him, coordinatingmotorcades and coordinating
events and sites.
So I'd done it, and I did thatwith Clinton for a year until,
(20:54):
all of a sudden, one day, I gota phone call from presidential
personnel saying that I wasbeing nominated for a political
appointment to go over to theDepartment of Energy and be in
the past.
Bill Richards.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Were you able to fly on the same plane, and all that?
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Oh yeah, oh, that's the thing that didn't make sense
.
It's like I was.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
I mean, what did Air Force One if the president was
on board?
It's called Air Force One.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
And I've been on it.
And the craziest story I don'tknow how I'll tell the story,
but it's it's I have a D.
I have a D minus on mytranscript in college and it
ruined my GPA for the entirefour years.
And the D minus was in a classcalled the American Presidency,
I kid you not.
And I took this class while Iwas working full time at the
(21:38):
White House.
So my junior year of college Ihad an idea for something with
pro sports and anti drugs and I,just as an intern, started
working on something, didn'ttell anybody.
And then it grew to this thingwhere I had 28 major league
baseball teams all agreeing todo all this stuff for the white
house and you know, hand outmaterials and send players to
school and all that stuff.
And then I got a phone call oneday saying the drugs are one to
see me and verbatim, he's likethe president loves what you're
(22:01):
doing.
You know the government's neverused pro sports as a vehicle to
educate kids about drugs.
We want you to start workingfull time here today and we're
naming you deputy manager of thenew White House Athletic
Initiative Against Drugs.
And I'm like sir, yes, sir.
And I remember the firstquestion.
My dad said because I'm ajunior, I'm a junior in college,
I'm not working at the WhiteHouse full time, which again is
like, opposite from like.
(22:21):
And because of this, us newsand world report wrote this
article titled here's a whitehouse intern that did good, and
it was sort of this whole thingthat picked pin, like monica and
me and this one thing, um, butyeah, so it was wow, I know
that's what I'm saying.
(22:41):
I did, I think, especially inthe town, I think in n Nashville
people just know me as the guythat's like managed a few
independent artists and likethey don't.
I don't know, I just maybehaven't spent enough time with
them or whatnot.
But yeah, I spent the next likemy junior and senior year.
I worked full time at the WhiteHouse and I would put on a suit
every day.
I'd run to work.
When it was time for class Iwould run down, be there for
(23:02):
attendance, wait for attendance,run back to work.
Um, and you know, I spent thesummer before my senior year
traveling to major leaguebaseball stadiums presenting,
from the pitcher's mound,plaques from the white house for
doing the thing.
They presented me back with ajersey, all the jerseys.
I couldn't keep any of them,you know, because they're, you
know, ethics laws, but they'rein a.
They're probably in a closetsomewhere or the ethics guy
probably has them hanging up inhis house.
(23:23):
Probably think about it backthen.
That was, that was the biggestconcern ethically was will jeff
take home the new york metsjersey?
Mookie wilson gave him like itwas craziness, but, um, yeah, it
was a potential question, likeyeah, I mean, I was on Air Force
One and all these things.
And so I had this one teacherthat taught the American
presidency.
His name's Forrest Maltzman andI will not hold back that name.
(23:44):
So if you're watching this,forrest, I'm still pissed off
that I was missing class becauseI was with the president.
I was traveling.
That's the irony of ironies.
I remember when he gave me theD-minus my dad was upset.
My dad said well, call him,tell him, tell him.
(24:08):
So I called him.
I had a little bit of a.
I will admit this.
Dc Jeff, I don't know.
A lot of people probablywouldn't like DC Jeff, because
when you're in that environmentand you're young and you have
power because I ended up havinga lot of power um, you know, you
become sort of a, you know an xand um, I remember I said to
the teacher because he's likeI'm not changing a grade, and I
said you know why don't you justgive me an f then?
because d myself and he saidsomething, eric, you know, I
(24:31):
remember, I remember the line Isaid to him.
I said you know what, whileyou're, while you're teaching
what you think is the Americanpresidency, I've been living it
and I just hung up the phoneyeah, I mean you learn more from
yeah it gave a joke on the ontraveling because, like clinton,
(24:53):
like everyone knew, like myaverage was going away every day
, I had to try to go somewhere.
And maybe a joke hey, jeff,what's your average at?
I?
Oh, I think I'm at like a 75,.
You know, between now and theend of the semester I'm totally
screwed.
Speaker 1 (25:02):
I mean that's amazing I hadn't.
In the 10 years that I've knownyou, I've never heard all that.
I knew some, but not everything.
But can you?
Are there any funny storiesthat you can tell us about being
in the White House, maybe withthe Clintintons or you know, or
traveling with obama and biden?
Anything crazy ever happenedwhere you go?
Speaker 2 (25:22):
I can't believe it just happened well, you know, no
, yeah, I mean I I think thecraziest thing I did, well, one
was the places I went to, um,and all this was before iphone.
So, like there was no way, likeit was scary, especially as a
kid, because there was no way tocommunicate home.
Like they gave me like a cellphone, but the cell phone didn't
work outside of the usf becauseit was some giant qualcomm, you
know, like satellite phones orsomething like that because I
(25:47):
had three pagers okay you know,ondcp white house policy pager.
I had a white housecommunications pager and then I
had a department of energy pager.
Like I had three of thesestupid things that would go up
with no way to call people back.
It was the dumbest thing.
And you know, I had an earpiece.
So then I was on the road, Ihad an earpiece and, you know,
on a radio, you know, listen toall the traffic.
(26:07):
But a lot of times, like I hadto lie to my parents about where
I was going just because I knewthey would be nervous,
(26:42):
no-transcript.
So we had a crazy bond in thebeginning and but he was very
inclusive to me, meaning if hewent in to go meet with an oil
minister to negotiate, or ahostage, I mean his bread and
butter was releasing hostages.
I mean I think every if he wasalive right now, even the Israel
situation would be totallydifferent and I would assume I
(27:04):
was going to sit out in the hallwith secret service.
He'd always be like Jeff, come,come, and all of a sudden I
find myself with, like you know,the oil minister of Qatar or
Saudi Bill Richardson and Jeff.
And because he said he wantedme to learn, he wanted me to
learn, or Saudi, bill,richardson and Jeff, because he
said he wanted me to learn theart of negotiating and building
(27:24):
relationships and buildingrapport.
That one trip, like I told mymom, I went to Arizona and I
wasn't in Arizona.
I went to Nigeria, I went toAlgeria, I went to Saudi, I went
to Qatar.
I remember we met with theSaudi Crown Prince in London.
Then we went to Austria and mymom thought for the week I was
in Arizona and then, as far aslike the only thing, that just
(27:47):
never made sense.
I guess it's timely now.
And so I went in 2000 to Moscow, the country I can't go back to
now because of my career postthat that's a true story.
I can go in, but there's nocountry I can't go back to now
because of my career post-thatthat's a true story.
I can go in, but there's no wayI will get out of Russia.
I don't think you have a hugeRussian population watching this
(28:08):
, so I think I'm pretty safe.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
No, but Moscow would be one place I would love to
visit.
I would love to see it.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
Yeah, and it was amazing because I got to, I had
dinner in the Kremlin.
It was.
It was a historic event becauseit was Clinton was addressing
the Dumont, which is theirCongress, and it was the first
time a U S president hadaddressed the Congress in 50
years probably.
Um, that was awesome and cool.
But what was amazing that nightand again thank God, because
Bill Richardson was so inclusiveto me Richardson was going to
(28:34):
have dinner with Clinton and itwasn't just Clinton, it was
going to be Clinton, it wasgoing to be Madeleine Albright,
who's Secretary of State.
It was Rubin, who was Secretaryof Treasury.
No, no, rubin left.
It was Summers, who's Secretaryof Treasury I think George
Tenet might have been there whowas the head of CIA in
(28:54):
Richardson.
And same thing I figured youknow, motorcade, I'm going to
spend the next three, four hoursin the car sleeping.
I figured, you know, motorcade,I'm gonna spend the next three,
four hours in the car sleeping,like you know, like you do when
you're doing those things.
Um, and all of a sudden, like Ididn't get out of the car, and
then Richardson, like he alwaysjoked, he swore him on.
He's like what the f?
You doing?
I'm like, I'm just saying he'slike, come on, we're going to
eat.
And I'm like I can't, I can'tgo to this, like it's all
printed out like who's at thetable.
(29:15):
And he goes no, no, you're fine, come with me.
And he brought me.
And the next thing, you know,I'm sitting around at this place
and you remember weird things,because it's somewhere it was
called the push pushkin cafe andI'm at a small round table with
like six people and it'sliterally clint.
It's those people in me and I'mjust listening to the
conversation.
But I remember like, all of asudden, madeline albright was
(29:37):
like oh, so tell me aboutyourself.
And I'm thinking, you know youtalk about me being nervous on
here at the beginning, like Iprobably pooped myself and sweat
myself through my cheap woolsuit.
Like what could I be tellingthese people?
Um, they, that was probably themost memorable as far as funny
or weird.
Um, the best picture I have ofme and bill clinton, uh, was
taken in atlanta and I wasbriefing him and the
(29:59):
photographer, you know hethanked me.
And Bill Clinton was taken inAtlanta and I was briefing him
and the photographer, you knowhe thanked me and I did.
The photographer got an amazingphoto of like.
You know it's just me and him.
No one's around shaking hands.
But what's interesting aboutthat is he's wearing a yellow
and blue tie and that tie becamevery famous because that was
the day Monica was testifyingfor 10 star.
And the story story goes it's atrue story that clinton had
(30:21):
said um to to monica I won't bewith you that day, I won't be
able to talk with you that day,but know that I'm with you
because I'm going to wear thetie that you gave me.
So the best picture I have withme and clinton, uh, was that
day and he's he's wearing thetie.
That's so cool.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
Yeah, when you think about it.
Speaker 2 (30:41):
I haven't told these stories.
Like I'm just, this is amazing.
I know I've been likeincredibly blessed and like no,
this is like I think this isbringing things around, because
I do.
I have plenty of days where Iwake up here and I even say like
what the hell am I doing inNashville?
You know, I hate working formyself, business or their or
life in this.
Like I'm telling these storiesand I'm like shit, I have
nothing to complain about rightnow.
Like no, it's just yeah, I'mlike reliving this going.
(31:02):
God, I was really fortunateyou've already done more in your
life than most people do in alifetime when I first left the
white house, I remember I calledmy mom and I was because when,
when gore lost, I was out of ajob and like that was the only
work I knew.
And I remember I called my momand I said like I peaked because
in my mind, when you're thatyoung, you're 23 years old, I
was 23.
I left and like you think likewell, what is all what else is
(31:25):
ever going to match up to this?
Like what is going to bring theexcitement?
You know, what is what?
Am I gonna be able to walk intoa bar?
Happy, I'm gonna be like, oh, Iwork in the white house, like
even that stuff.
Like I was like, oh, my god,I'm gonna in like a cubicle or
like what am I going to do?
And my mom's like no, no, no,there's this, you know, she's
like brighter days ahead, youknow, brighter.
I'm like shut up.
Speaker 1 (31:42):
It's not like nothing's going to be more
exciting, you know, but, um, butyeah, so it was uh, yeah, Let
me ask because I don't want toget into a lot of politics,
because you know how that goes,but I I understand what you did
back in the day and all that andthe press room and all that.
How do you think people arefeeling right now in the White
(32:05):
House?
Maybe somebody that's called todo your job?
What?
Speaker 2 (32:09):
I.
I tell people the differenceI've won is I couldn't do it now
One, it's a young man's game.
I couldn't 24, 25 days a month.
The way that schedule isbecause, again, even when I was
with richardson people don'trealize is like if his schedule
started at seven, I was atdepartment of energy by five to
park my car, getting in the,getting in his car in the limo,
in the motorcade going.
I was waking him up.
(32:29):
Full day of events.
He had dinners at night, thisand that I finally get home,
bring him home at midnight.
I'm getting home at one.
Take a shower.
It's 1 30 now I'm actuallyreading the briefing memos for
the next day.
I couldn't do it, it'd kill me.
But I also just, you did as youwere told.
If a member of the cabinet didas you were told, and the
problem now and we're seeingthis as one is it's become way
(32:52):
too political.
It's extremely unfortunatebecause, listen, bill Clinton,
republicans, republicans andDemocrats didn't like each other
when we were at the White House, but he and Gingrich like they,
actually they work togetherLike that was the last time.
It was a balanced budget if youthink about it, and so you know
some of my closest friends tothis day.
Actually, one of my closestfriends is the Bush appointee
(33:13):
that took my job and energy thatI had to, like, work with
during the transition.
You wouldn't see that todaythere's so much like hatred and
you know people are going tojail like I would never, because
, again, there's probably thingsthat I did that I was told to
do.
That.
Right now, like you know, theother side might be like oh,
investigate him or this or that,and like exactly, exactly in
the process.
(33:35):
You know, I think it's extremelysad that no matter what side,
no matter what side, you fall onthat you know we have 330
million people in this countryand like that's what we had to
choose from, and it's becausethe process is so nasty and the
process is so divisive thatthere's plenty of good people,
great people, experienced peoplethat look and go.
I don't want to bring my familythrough this, I don't want to
(33:56):
do this to my family, and so thepeople that end up running it's
, it's.
It's like ego, it's ego driven,you know it's it's they, you
know they, they, they want it,they need it and it's.
You know again, it's.
You know how you have to choose, what we have to choose.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Would you go back and change anything that you've
done?
You don't regret any of that,or do you?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
no, no, no, no.
I don't regret any of that.
I mean, again, that was justlike phase one.
I mean you know we didn't evenget into like cia, you know, I
don't, I don't regret it at allbecause everything, everything
has had this like weird place.
You know with how I ended up.
I mean, you know, I just hit iton, I people always, at least
(34:39):
like every few days, I will sitthere and be like the White
House.
I understand, yeah, I workthere, like I pictures to prove
it.
But, like you know, it was the2002 to 2006 and a half that I
do look and I go like was Ireally there?
Like because that's the partthat I think that's part of my
career.
That doesn't make sense, Iwouldn't doing.
(34:59):
I wouldn't do it differently,because I say all the time like
that's the most important andrewarding work I'm going to do
in my entire life.
Nothing, nothing will top it.
You know I can say that I wasinvolved in, you know, stopping
things from blowing up or savingpeople's lives, um, but you
know, at the same time, you knowI, I did my thing, but yeah,
his didn't make sense that's achapter in the book of Jeff
(35:21):
Galko.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
right there there's a chapter.
Let's move on to the nextchapter.
You mentioned CIA.
You had a little bit to do withthat.
Speaker 2 (35:28):
Yeah, yeah, no.
So I um the way that happenedbecause, again, if people that
know me, I think it's becausepeople know me and my and I
don't want to keep calling themoverprotective parents but I've
got Jewish parents, you know,there's nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1 (35:42):
I mean, you know the family.
They want to keep an eye on thekids, even at my age now.
Speaker 2 (35:47):
Little Jeff, are you safe?
Which actually today.
They're not happy with me todaybecause I actually booked plane
tickets.
I told them I'm going to Israelin a few weeks and they're not
happy with this.
They're very scared.
So I lost my job when Gore lostand then I went to go work at
the biggest PR firm in the worldit was called Hill Nolton
(36:07):
Global global thing.
I got a great job there and Iwas there like a month and a
half and 9-11 happened and theylaid off.
I mean I got laid off and so Ifound myself unemployed for the
second time in a year 2001.
And I just you know it took meforever to find this job,
because when there's a change ofadministration, you and like
2000 of your closest friends allhave similar resumes.
(36:29):
You're all trying to find jobsand you're of the party that,
like doesn't have power, likeyou don't have access anymore,
like that's why people now leavelike halfway through a term, so
they can go out and cash out,that's why people now leave like
halfway through a term, so theycan go out and cash out.
Um, so I was out of a job for asecond time and I was on
unemployment and I was.
I remember I'd go and with myfriends to uh, it was called the
mci center and we'd wait forlike big tickets to like andrew
(36:49):
bacelli or something, michaeljordan, here at the time.
We'd buy tickets and then, likewe'd scalp them, basically,
like you, make your money back,and then you pay your bills.
And so I went and had breakfastwith Bill Richardson one morning
and I was at his house and Iwas like what do I do now?
And he at this time he had justbecome governor of New Mexico
and so, but he was back in DCand I was like, what do I do?
(37:10):
Like I don't, like I'm scared.
And he looked at me and he saidyou still have your security
clearance from the White House.
I'm like, yeah, it's still,like it hasn't expired, sure?
And he looked at me and he saidwhy don't you go work at this?
It was right after 9-11.
He's like, why don't you gowork at cia?
Like they need good people?
And I looked at him and I saidyou've got over the last two
years, like you know, so you gotto know my parents very well,
(37:32):
like you know they're.
That's never going to fly.
And he looked at me with a deadface, like staring at his face,
and he said they won't know,you'll be undercover.
And that's what it was.
Then, for the first uh, yearand a half of me being there, I
was undercover.
I had a different name, my, youknow other than you know nobody
knew.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
No, I get it, I get it.
We don't need to go into detailbecause I do enjoy talking to
you.
You know what I mean and we'regood friends, um, but it's just
interesting the life that youknow, even up to.
But it's just interesting, thelife that you know, even up to
that point, it's prettyinteresting.
Then let me ask how did you getto Nashville?
Or how did you get to?
(38:08):
You know managing orrepresenting artists and all
that.
Speaker 2 (38:12):
So it was 2012, 13-ish, so I'd given up all
things DC.
I said I'm done with this.
Never again will I let votersor polls control my ability to
pay my bills.
And so I went to a Hard RockCafe one night when my friend's
sister was singing, to besupportive, and he introduced me
(38:32):
to this guy who was managing afemale teen pop group and said
hey, we're looking for someoneto do press.
There were five girls betweenages of 14 and 17 and I said I
don't know anything about music,I can't sing, I can't dance.
Like they put me in the lastrow of chorus because I sucked.
Um, I always thought I was tall, no, it's because I sucked.
And so I said and he's oh, whydon't you just come down to
(38:55):
rehearsal tomorrow night, meetthe girls, maybe?
And so I went down there andeveryone was really nice and I
was like okay.
And then you know, we talkedabout, you know where they could
pay me.
And I was like but I had myregular like clients during the
day, like corporate PR clients,and it just became like this fun
, like nighttime project I wasworking on.
And then I was like wow, thisis really fun, paid to like do
(39:16):
stuff in music, like is this?
Like?
Is this real?
Like I can't get paid to go toconcerts.
Like set up press and I alwaysloved country music and I worked
with them for a couple years.
The group fell apart justbecause you know you need five
teenage girls, five momspersonalities.
You know I still I'm runningsmall today, but it was.
It was a hard thing.
Um, and I one day was onfacebook and some woman in
(39:39):
Boston like posted about herdaughter and I was just like wow
, this is really weird, acountry artist from Boston.
And I just said you know, I'mtrying to pay it forward.
You know, maybe I can help herwith some local press.
You know I like country musicand I reached out to her mom and
met with them and first I wasjust going to do press and then
know they were such you knowthey were good people um it, I
ended up falling into managingher as well.
(40:00):
Um, because I think what it wasis, it was the closest thing
for me.
I think music, I think it is.
I mean, it's the closest thingto politics and campaigns, which
is all I knew, um, withouthaving to be in politics and
campaigns.
There's no secret sauce to toany of this music stuff?
There really isn't.
You know, instead of having acandidate that you want to kiss
(40:20):
babies and shake hands, it'syour candidate, is the artist
and it's you know it's almostthe same.
It's very similar um and so Ijust I fell, I fell in love with
it and, you know, started to domore and more.
And then I made my first tripto nashville and yeah, it's
weird because I again, everyonce in a while, I wake up and
I'm like, how did I end up?
Like I'm looking outside rightnow in the entire city and so
(40:43):
how did I end up here?
Like it doesn't make sense.
But you know, along the wayI've met amazing people like
yourself and you know it's beenfun.
I still have corporate clientsand I try to do as much in the
music.
But I do say this, I used to saythis jokingly and I say it
seriously and hopefully itdoesn't really offend anybody
but I always said to people Ialways thought the most like
(41:06):
political, sometimesbackstabbing, environment one
could work in was the West Wingof the White House, until I
entered the music industry.
And then I'm like, oh my God,this is even more not broke,
this is even more like your bestfriend, completely like cut you
off at the knees, um, and thenI felt that dealing with
al-qaeda during the war would bethe only time I dealt with
(41:29):
terrorists.
And you know there's somepeople that I've met and dealt
with, that should maybe belisted as a terrorist well, jeff
, yeah, I get you, I guess.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
No, it is, and I and I hear it on my side of things
as well, doing what I do on theradio side and talking to people
like you, and you've got anartist that comes out.
You want to talk to me aboutmaybe getting around the radio
or bringing her to town to meet,uh, you know, to meet new fans.
But uh, yeah, I get that it's.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
It's got to be fun but it's got to be stressful
it's stressful and what I had Ilearned I had to learn very fast
.
I did not come into this likeI'm I'm not even saying this
jokingly, I'm saying this likewholehearted, honest, like
friend of mine.
I'm lucky people like you evenstill talk to me.
No, but true story.
When I look at when I firstcame to do the country stuff
(42:18):
2015, the problem was I camefrom the political world, right
when you would make a call andyou expected things to get done
and in your mind, if you hadenough bullet points or
ammunition, you're going to getwhat you want.
And for me, I came in like gunsblazing and I remember you know
this artist.
Like you know, I had her on theToday Show and to me, in my
mind, it was like, well, if Ihad her on the Today Show and
(42:40):
she's not even signed and thisand that, like everybody should
be playing her song.
And when people say no, I wastaking it way too personally and
I get sometimes nasty.
I'd be like, not nasty like,but be like.
You know what, are you kiddingme?
Like she was just on the TodayShow.
(43:06):
So I had to learn.
It was a huge learningexperience and, believe me, I
spent plenty of time apologizingto people, letting them know
that, hey, when I first cameinto this life, I'm a different
person.
You know, I I had an ego.
I came from DC, I came from CIAwhere I was getting paid to
like, basically, you know, drillpeople in question.
I'm not used to the answer no,um and so.
But it was a definitely.
It definitely was a learninglesson.
It was very humbling toobecause, you know, my dad always
told me you know there's a lotof my dad always told me growing
(43:27):
up and I and I live by it nowand unfortunately, you know, you
realize that I realized thatfor a few years I strayed from
it and he always says like don't, don't, ever treat people as a
transaction and make a friendnot a sale.
And I came into this musicthing just thinking like, okay,
all right, we did today's show,we'll have tour buses within a
month and this one's going toplay this radio station we're
(43:47):
going to, and it's not realityand it doesn't happen that way.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
No, you know that.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
No, now I know, and it wasn't until I started doing,
when john lova hired me over atbmg to work with a couple of
the artists a couple years ago.
It wasn't until I like,experienced and saw from the art
, from the label side, that youknow it's just as hard, like I
mean, you know, I always assumelike, oh, you know, if you're
signed artists, you know it'sjust basically it's like a menu
(44:14):
Just tell the world, the publicand radio what you want and
order what you want.
And no, I learned very quicklythat you know you can be signed
to a major label and you can beon a big tour and you are still
scrapping and praying andfighting for every stream and
every spin.
And you know it's just.
I look back at the early daysand go like, oh, my God, I was
living in like a weird vacuum,like you know.
(44:35):
Like I was going to you know,you know, oh, I had the next
Taylor Swift.
Of course I did, like you know,easy peasy, but you know, not
the case.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
What, um, what drives you to keep doing what you do?
Speaker 2 (44:49):
I think, I think and it's, it's weird.
So a couple of things.
One is I've always had thislike massive fear of being
homeless, like I don't know, andI've never been in like a
situation.
I mean, my parents weredivorced when I was younger.
My mom worked a couple of jobsand live with a single mom.
My dad, you know, built a.
My dad grew up with nothing.
His dad was a mechanic but hebuilt a big advertising agency.
Um, I think I'm, I think I'malways.
(45:12):
Just, you know, today I wasdriving, you see, like a
homeless person inside thestreet.
Something just hits me where I'm, just like it could be me, it
could be me um, I also, like youknow again, like I watched my
mom, as a single mom, workmultiple jobs and I'm sure it
wasn't easy and you know busther ass and cook dinners and
whatnot and sacrifice.
And on the flip side, I saw mydad, you know, start what was a
(45:33):
big agency from what was alittle you know closet in a, the
basement of my childhood home.
Um, yeah, I just and I thinkyou know, because my dad was not
, my dad was an entrepreneur and, um, please say what's?
He's still alive, sorry, dad.
Uh, no, actually, real quick, Ijust thought about something.
I knew it, damn it.
(45:55):
You asked for a funny storyabout the white house.
That just brought something upwhen I was here back in the day.
You had to do these forums andthey weren't computers, all
typewriter.
I sent my paperwork in for mybackground investigation.
I got called in one day to getservice.
They sat me down.
They said is there anythingthat you're not being honest
about on your forum?
I'm like, nope, sir.
They're like, well, we foundyour mother.
I'm like, okay.
(46:15):
I'm like, is there anything youwant to tell us about your mom?
And I'm like, no, well, wefound her.
I'm like, okay, uniform, thatyou weren't up front about.
Honestly, I said no, oh my god,stupid typewriter.
(46:35):
I put an x in this box byaccident, which meant deceased,
and so in the course of my firstback, when they were
investigating me for my firstclearance, they were like okay,
there must be something in thefamily or something like he's
trying to hide his mom yeah, youknow they're pretty thorough.
Speaker 1 (46:49):
You know that more than I do.
We're all bound to makemistakes too, but you look back
on it now and it's like holyshit, I did that.
Speaker 2 (46:57):
Oh, holy shit and it shows you just how old I am,
because it was on a freakingtypewriter.
If you made, the thing was like30 pages.
You made one mistake.
It was like, oh shit, we've gotto start again.
Get the white out.
Oh, you made one mistake.
It was like, oh shit, we gottastart again.
Speaker 1 (47:13):
Like get the white out.
Oh no, why, don't know, youcouldn't do white out because it
was like you know, yeah, yeah,I get it.
I get it.
Oh man, so is there aparticular project or moment in
your career that you'reespecially proud of?
You notice I, I made some, uh,I wrote down some questions
because I didn't know what I wasgoing to ask you.
Speaker 2 (47:28):
No, but you know, I like this because I don't do
this Like it makes you think,and again, I've been sitting on
the other side watching thisthousands of times.
Sure, I would say, I meanthere's a lot, but I mean,
obviously, like I said, the CIAdays, you know, I mean I can,
without getting into detail,like I, I can say, like things
(47:50):
that I was involved in a veryhigh and indirect and really
reason.
Um, you know, stop things fromblowing up.
Yeah, that's which gave lives.
On the opposite hand, you knowthere were times that I had to
go to bed knowing that, you know, I made an analytical decision
and which resulted in, you know,civilians dying, and that's
that's probably the biggestreason why I left.
Is I just I couldn't, Icouldn't, I couldn't, yeah, I
(48:13):
couldn't, yeah, but I'd say youknow it was God.
This is so hard, but I'd sayone of them, and we're going to
go back to 2009.
I had a teacher in high schoolthat that was very, very like,
influential on me.
This guy's Rob Dixon, very like, influential on me.
He's got Rob Dixon and he was acool teacher when he taught me,
just actually retired from theNBA and, you know, came close
(48:33):
and he ran a.
He and he still does them onthe board of directors.
But he runs a program calledproject rise and it's a summer
camp, a cultural enrichment andacademic camp for at-risk kids
from the inner city of Bostonand at the time, you know, 25
kids were part of it.
Uh, danny wood, from new kidson the block actually wrote the
(48:53):
first check to uh underwrite it.
That's why danny and I havebeen extremely close until years
.
Um, and people met and so I wastrying to people magazine, major
with baseball, were having thisthing to you know, highlight
people in the community.
And so I nominated him and Iwrote the nomination.
They got 70 000.
And then they picked one.
Each baseball franchise got topick their favorite from their
(49:15):
community and we won, the RedSox picked us.
But then it was then the fiveliving US presidents got to pick
their favorite.
And in the competition Iremember I forget the guy that
we were up against.
He had like the public supportof the Goo goo dolls, like he
had like celebrities, like itwas an online voting thing, and
(49:36):
I just went deep and I was likethere's no way, I'm letting I
still call the mr dixon, likeI'm no, I'm letting mr dixon
like lose this thing.
Like I'm back in campaign mode.
I was using like voter listsfrom like richardson's campaign
that probably shouldn't even use, but I'm like anything I add.
And then I then I was like whatcan I do because we're not going
to win the vote?
So what I did is I got the, Igot mayor manino, I got the
mayor of boston to come out andvisit the kids, I invited the
(49:58):
governor, deval deval patrick,out to visit the kids and what
I'm pretty sure to this day Icaused was I know we did not win
the popular vote, but what Idid, I created a problem at
people magazine where they wereprobably like oh shit, we
because the mayor of boston.
I got him to put out a pressrelease that said vote for, like
the one true bostonian becausethis guy, the teacher, grew up
in boston, grew up in the hoodand then devolves putting out a
(50:20):
press release.
Like I turned this thing intolike this online vote.
It'd be like today, like anartist wanting more votes and
like the governor putting out astatement.
So I created this issue where,like people magazine, when they
called me, like hey, by the way,you guys, you guys won, like
and I'm like oh shit.
Um, by the way, like presidentbush, george w bush, he picked
you guys as what he thought waslike the most like inspiring
(50:43):
thing.
And I remember I like you knowit didn't I'm like, okay, but I
didn't know everything that camewith it.
So, all of of a sudden, likethree days later, like my
teacher and I, who was just likeyou know, we've been flown to
the all-star game in St Louisand all of a sudden, like same
thing, like we're being honoredin a parade, a red carpet parade
, and like I remember, gita wasin like the pickup truck with us
, like it was like the game.
(51:07):
Two things happened on thattrip.
One is for the game.
My teacher got to be on thepitcher's mound and a video was
played nationwide.
Speaker 1 (51:16):
Oh, wow.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Where George Bush was narrating it, talking about Rob
Dixon and the program, and whathappened that night is, all of
a sudden I got an email from ourweb person saying the website
crashed.
Now this program at the timehad like maybe 40 kids.
We raised enough money, thatbasically that the website
crashed because of people givingdonations nationwide.
Yeah, next year and every yearsince, like the camp now has
(51:42):
like 200 kids.
Speaker 1 (51:43):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (51:44):
And yeah, Now, the coolest part of that trip even
though it was really cool thecoolest part of that trip is, um
, I got invited to Ryan.
I was doing work for KevinEuclid at the time you remember
him, the Red Sox and I washanging out with him and he
invited me to go to RyanHoward's birthday party and I
was dressed like a fan, like anidiot, you know.
Speaker 1 (52:02):
Fox t-shirt and Red Sox underwear.
Speaker 2 (52:08):
Oh yeah, everybody else is dreadful.
I was one of the few peoplethat wasn't a celebrity or a pro
athlete, right Like so.
I should have been valetingcars the way I was.
Like my bank account said Ishould be valeting cars.
I'll never forget that Kevin'stalking to this girl and you
know this and that, and Kevin'swife at the time.
And all of a sudden the girlputs out her hand and she and
(52:28):
he's like oh, this is you know,this is my friend, jeff.
And I'm like oh, hey, I'm Jeff.
And she goes hi, I'm Alyssa.
And as I'm shaking her hand, Igo, holy shit, ready, are you
ready for this?
And this is after she goeslet's do.
(52:53):
It was Alyssa Milano.
No way, dude.
Like was my whole life, likepass does, like my whole ass.
That was like you grew upwatching who's the pop.
Like, like, like Michelle, yeah, like it was Alyssa Milano and
I'm like holy crap.
And I'm just like, oh, hi, I'mJeff.
And I'm like holy god.
And then, like, we talked thatwhole night it's interesting
because that was Twitter was theonly way to communicate.
Then we actually like for thenext like week and a half, like
DM each other, like we'retalking.
I remember I went home and I'mjust like holy shit, like like
(53:17):
where is this going, like whatthe hell, like what's going to
happen?
And then it just ended.
I think she one day it was likeoh, this is some schmuck.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
I met With nothing, nothing to offer and now he's
probably sending me like creepymessages, being like hey, you
ever come into boston, like, ohmy god.
So what you're doing now,though?
You're being a publicist, notonly for artists, but for
corporate as well, and ifsomebody wanted to, you know,
contract your services, theyjust go.
(53:45):
They can look you up onlineyeah, I mean.
Speaker 2 (53:48):
Yeah, I mean it's so if you're on the mute, so
there's a few.
It's kind of on the music sideit's like these days you have to
have like multiple websites, soit's not confusing.
So on the corporate side, youknow which is, you know,
corporate government andnon-profit stuff, um, you know,
it's uh the gulk, I think.
Oh yeah, wwwthegulcogroupcom,and then on the music stuff,
(54:10):
press side, it'sgulcopublicitycom and yeah, well
, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (54:17):
You know, I've known you for, let's say, 10 years and
I've seen the work that you'vedone.
It's pretty cool.
I appreciate it.
I want to touch a little bit.
I got to think of the right wayto say this oh listen, no, I'm
open book.
I probably no.
No, but some of your posts onfacebook lately with what's been
going on, you're jewish and youhave there's a lot.
(54:39):
That's why you're going back toisrael I've never been to israel
okay, but you're going to visitand it's part of your heritage,
though yeah, definitely yeahI'm going.
Speaker 2 (54:50):
Uh, my parents don't understand why this is the time.
Um, yeah, so obviously I'vealways been jewish, but you know
, I was bar mitzvahed, but my um, I wasn't like my track.
You know reform, you know.
So you go to synagogue and roshhashanah and yom kippur and you
celebrate hanukkah and you dopassover, like you know, you're
not over the top, anything likethat, all of the stuff.
(55:10):
But then October 6th and 7th,so I'll never forget.
So October 6th I actually wasin Florida and I drove down from
someone's house in Boca down toMiami to go see Frank.
Frank Ray had a show that night.
Frank Ray, yeah.
Speaker 1 (55:24):
I was working for.
Speaker 2 (55:25):
Frank and I was with him all night and you know he
was good.
They were flying out the nextmorning and I was going back to
Boca for a few days to spendtime with family and I got back
to, like you know, the family'shouse at one o'clock and, you
know, turned on the tv andthat's when it was actually
breaking in real time.
Like everyone in people werestill sleeping and I was just
watching and I'm just like no,this can't be real, like in the
(55:46):
footage, um, and then it sort ofbrought you know it's it was.
It was that then all of asudden became scary.
But you know, I've never beenvocal and it's something that I
mean I'm not gonna lie.
I mean I've gotten deaththreats.
You know, over the last you knowyear and a half, um, you know,
I mean I had, I had a guy youknow in in nashville, you know,
a month and a half ago, come upin my face because you know he,
(56:08):
he know I was with a group ofJewish people every Sunday we do
a walk for the hostages untileveryone gets back and he took a
particular liking to me and youknow he was a Palestinian guy
and he got up in my face andcalled me a baby killer and I
should be dead and this and that.
But, um, yeah, it's crazy, butI think you know what got me
sort of fired up more so is justwhat I felt you know is is been
(56:30):
, you know, a lack of response.
You know, um, yeah, blackresponse given you can hear all
the nassau's finest firedepartment running the up three,
four.
I think we should be in asecond.
Speaker 1 (56:44):
I don't know if that's are they stopping in
front of the building?
Speaker 2 (56:47):
no, no, no, they're heading down towards Broadway.
Speaker 1 (56:51):
Oh, that explains, it .
Speaker 2 (56:53):
No, but it is five fire trucks.
Oh no, they're turning left onBroadway.
Who knows?
I don't know.
Are you that?
Speaker 1 (56:58):
close to Broadway.
Speaker 2 (56:59):
I am right across.
I will say I don't even care,Whatever.
You know where the big nakedstatue is on the memory end.
Speaker 1 (57:07):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (57:10):
My apartment faces that big naked statue.
I need to learn what the statueis called.
Speaker 1 (57:12):
So you wake up every day and look out the window and
see naked people.
Speaker 2 (57:16):
You see big giant naked bodies yeah, and they're
big I actually looked up online.
Speaker 1 (57:22):
They're like 35 feet um but back to you, continue,
sorry um, so yeah.
Speaker 2 (57:29):
So what it was is it was just like the silence.
And you know I did, I got, Igot really like I actually at
that time I thought about likenot doing anything in music ever
again, because what was turningme off and what hurt was.
Here it is.
You had like a, you know afestival, you know, and just
like we all go on, whether it'sa festival or artist show or
tour, and you had almost 400kids like that were like
(57:52):
paragliders coming to take,butchered and murdered, and you
know the girls were raped andkidnapped.
It was just, it was silence.
And I'm the person who, likeyou know whether I mean I
remember, you know when blacklives matter, you know I put up
the black box and you know, whenthe asian guy was beat up on
the subway in new york, I didthe whole.
Like you know you treatedfairly.
And when there was a shootingdown in Florida at the gay bar,
(58:14):
it was like hey, lgbt, we're allon.
And then all of a sudden, to meit was like wait a minute, so
many Jewish people andeveryone's being silent.
I'm like how is this city soquiet?
Whether you're a booking agent,whether you're a manager,
whether you're a radio person,whether you're a label executive
, whether you're a lawyer or anartist, we're all at those shows
and it's like you know, 300people out of you know, I mean
(58:36):
we're talking you know, 40% ofthe people that were at that
festival were killed.
I mean, let's take one, youknow, I mean just to do numbers
and math, like let's take one ofLuke Cohen's shows where he has
50,000 people, maybe 22,000people, killed at a concert, and
so everyone was silent.
And then it transitioned fromthe silence to like the
(58:57):
craziness on the collegecampuses.
And then it wasn't until I wentto go visit GW, my alma mater,
and I went and met with somestudents and they were telling
me, like I've stopped going towell, this must be really big.
This is three of my fire trucks.
They stopped going to well,this must be really big through
my fire trucks.
Um, they, they stopped going tocertain classes because they
were being physically Assaultedand I just was like you know,
like I can't, I can't stay quiet.
(59:18):
On a personal level, in highschool I had a swastika.
Someone painted a swastikaoutside my mom's house.
The town didn't do anythingabout it.
When I was, when I was insecond grade a kid put a knife
to my neck walking home fromschool, thinking it was funny
because I was a Jewish kid.
To me it brought that back.
I can't stay silent.
I don't have a ton of followers, but you know what?
I have a lot of members of themedia that follow me.
(59:38):
I was like I'm going to startposting.
Then that came with.
That kind of stuff comes withthings.
My mom was nervous.
I don't blame her.
You're going to get hurt andthis and that.
And I'm like my own firearms,like I'm trained, like I'm fine.
No, you're not trying to.
Someone can go in yourapartment.
I'm like, no, they can.
I'm like I'm trying to likejustify her, but I think it's
just, it's been, it's it's been.
(01:00:00):
Uh, it's probably the thing.
I probably never have, likecried so many tears in a in a
period of time.
I've never lied awake in bed atnight, unable to sleep.
I've never looked over myshoulder as much.
I very rarely leave my apartmentunarmed because I don't know if
these people that have sentnasty messages, I don't know if
(01:00:21):
they live with their mom in abasement in Oklahoma or I don't
know if it's someone here.
Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
You've got the right to carry you what I said.
Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
you have the right to carry.
Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
I mean, why not?
Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
Yeah, yeah, and I'm not like some reactionary, like
like, believe me, I've been,I've been trained by the best
three letter agency in this.
But you know, yeah, yeah, andbut it's just yeah, it's just
been, it's just been wild.
And I think the thing that'salso really frustrating is from
the Jewish side.
How many Jewish people with aplatform have remained
(01:00:55):
completely silent.
They haven't said anything, andit's for fear of losing jobs or
opportunities or fans.
And a good friend of mine isJames Maslow from Big Time Rush
and he's probably other thanMichael Rappaport and Montana
know montana tucker.
There's been nobody on the onthe celebrity side that actually
has a following, that's beenvocal and has been willing to
(01:01:16):
put their neck out and risk itall to try to, you know, change,
change the narrative, and Ithink what happened is, you know
the, you know, you know I'm notgonna throw blame to politics,
but and I worked for him for youknow, for a year and I knew Joe
Biden for many years but Ithink I think the last
administration missed a reallygood opportunity that when this
(01:01:37):
first happened to come out andwhen the first thing started to
happen on college campuses tocondone, and because what
happened is there was nomessaging, there was nothing and
these schools didn't know whatto do and before you know it,
the schools were overtaken.
And then, you know, I mean GW,at my school, you know, I talked
to the, the, you know the, theuniversity police, and they were
(01:01:58):
telling me, oh no, dc police,and they're like the, the, the,
the president won't, the prisonschool won't let us on campus,
and so, you know, I thinkeveryone was trying to appease
everyone, but it just it gotextremely out of hand.
Um, you know, now it's, youknow it's, it's scary.
I mean it's just uh, yeah, notthe thing that I, I thought you
know, in 2025 would take up themost amount of my time every day
(01:02:20):
, and emotions and this, andthat I mean when I say I have a
crime, like you know, a moment,like you know, I've tried myself
to sleep countless nights justlike thinking like how, like,
how can this be?
And that's to the point whereI've stopped watching the news
because, like one, it becomeslike infuriating.
But two, you become, you know,and you know I'm a news junkie,
I mean it's what I do, I'veworked in news, um, but it's
(01:02:42):
just uh, yeah, I mean, you know,even like, right now it's it's,
but the problem is that it'sbecome politicized, like
everything else that's causing aproblem.
It's become politicized, it'sbecome drama and you know you
just.
And the other thing that'schanged is you talk about back
during the clinton days, likeyou know, even, like like fox
(01:03:04):
news, right, you could go andlike we did fox news all the
time richardson went on fox andhe would go on bill o'reilly and
o'reilly would ask toughquestions, but it wasn't, it
wasn't like 100 one side.
So like right now, if you go tofox, you're only getting one
story.
You go to msnbc, you're onlygetting the other story.
And so people's minds, like atthis point with in, especially
with the social media, it's likewe've all been programmed.
(01:03:25):
Like even like you turn on tv,if you have hulu or you have
netflix, like you don't evenfigure out what you want to
watch anymore.
It's whatever we watch,whatever netflix puts up there
is trending, right, oh, what'strending?
And like they decide, you knowyou go to listen to music on
spotify, we go to the editorialplaylist, like what have they
said we should listen to?
And the same thing has happenedwith the news because, as I
said, we go and do this walk.
(01:03:46):
Um, you know myself and ada Ada, who you know.
You know a Jewish artist andyou know she's five foot tall
and I give her all the credit inthe world.
Like you know, she gets deaththreats, but she's very
outspoken and we go and do thesewalks and the number of people
that you know see us walk andthey've never like the number of
people have never even heard ofOctober 7th.
It's just like, it's just not,it's like it's mind-blowing.
(01:04:08):
And you talk to him like whatdo you mean?
And you have a sign and sothere's, like you know, like
otter always carries one of thebebis kids, you know the two
infants in the morning and itsays like kill.
And then people, like we had awoman like last week, goes, oh,
what state did this happen?
And we're like wait, what, uh,what, what happened october 7th?
And they go and the womanlooked and she goes what
happened on october 7th?
(01:04:28):
And I actually, true story, I,I was about to go on a date.
I was about to go on a datewith someone like a month and a
half ago, and the um, the womansaid like, oh, what did you do
last night?
And I was on the phone.
I said, oh, I, I went to go seethe october 8th movie, which is
I went before, you know, to gosee this movie.
(01:04:49):
And she goes.
Oh, what's the October 8th?
The woman's like what's theOctober 8th movie about?
I'm like it's about October 7thand it's going to happen that,
starting that day, and she goes,and she looks, she goes, she
goes.
Well, what happened October 7th?
And I was just like I can't, Ican't, I can't, I can't go out
with you.
I don't care what you look like, I don't care how much money
you have.
(01:05:09):
You're too much of a shelf forme.
I can't start at this.
But yeah, I mean, I appreciateyou asking.
Speaker 1 (01:05:16):
I mean because it's no, it's your belief, man and.
Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
I get it yeah you're afraid to ask and talk about it.
It's like you know, people areafraid to be like oh, I support,
like people not being raped andkilled, like and and people go,
what do you?
What about god's likepalestinian?
Listen, I don't want a single,especially after what I did
during the iraq war.
I don't want a single person toget even a cut, never mind on
(01:05:39):
either side, get killed, youknow, or or or wounded.
Never, no way.
But like you know, you gottalike you know every.
Actually you gotta start atwhat it begins.
I mean you know, if you got itlike you know every, actually
you got to start at what itbegins.
I mean you know, if someone'smarried and they go and cheat on
their wife and then the wifeasks for a divorce, you can't
get married.
The wife would be like, oh myGod, why are you asking for the
divorce if you cheated?
Same thing.
You got to go back and look.
And the problem is so manypeople don't even know.
(01:06:01):
People don't know what actuallystarted theages.
But again, because so manypeople get their news from
Instagram, they get from scroll.
Speaker 1 (01:06:14):
You're right there.
It's not only Instagram, it'sanything online, and they're
believing what they're reading.
And the thing is, if you wereto and it's happened to me too I
lay back, obviously a littlebit because of what I do, but I
understand where you're comingfrom.
The minute you do express anopinion, you get like bam.
It's like whoa, whoa, whoa.
(01:06:34):
I'm entitled to my opinion andyou're entitled to your opinion,
but that doesn't mean you haveto attack me.
Speaker 2 (01:06:43):
That's what's happening.
Yeah, believe me, the messagesI get are just like, like, and I
used to like on the comments.
Like I used to like fire back,but then you know, no, it's just
one it's, it's, it's, it's awaste of my time and breath and
energy.
It's, you know, pulling morenegative stuff versus finding a
(01:07:05):
positive way to.
You know, spend that time.
But two, you know.
Three, whatever, I can't count.
I repeated algebra in highschool.
It's a true story for all youkids that maybe don't get in
math.
I repeated algebra one I suckat math all right, I wanted to
be an airline.
Speaker 1 (01:07:20):
I wanted to be a pilot.
My guidance counselor said youhad to be really good in math
and you suck in math.
So let's think of somethingelse, let's put a different
direction maybe let's go.
Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
We go be flight attendants together.
It's the same person.
They do less and less, you know.
Now you get on the flight andeven if there's no turbulence,
the captain at the I'm convincedit's a cost-cutting measure.
You get on a flight now andthey go.
Oh, just so you know about, thefirst half of the flights could
be extremely bumpy, so we'regoing to ask the cabin crew to
stay seated, basically meaningwe're not going to serve you any
drinks, and then there's noturbulence, I'm convinced.
Speaker 1 (01:07:53):
Yeah, I know it's a racket.
No, I don't know.
It's crazy.
It's crazy Early bird or nightowl.
Speaker 2 (01:08:03):
I used to be like I'm getting better.
I have to admit, like like,since I moved here full time in
december, I was doing a lot oflike staying up till like one,
two in the morning doing work,and now in the last like few
weeks, I'm like no, like I, Itry to go to bed because my
apartment, my apartment, is likeall floor to ceiling glass so I
can look at the naked people.
Um, and I don't I don't put itin the blinds now, which I know
(01:08:25):
it's weird, because I think theygo to the big agencies right
across the street.
So I'm running your living roomand your boxers because it's not
going to be no, I do all thetime and I know, but I, I sleep
and I wake up and like sometimesI can tell, like I know there's
people in their offices likewatching me.
There's probably bets on whattime I'm getting up, cause I
won't put the blinds downbecause I feel like paying too
much money for the view that Iso I do I sleep with all the
(01:08:48):
stuff up.
Um, so because of the sun, I'veconverted back to, you know,
getting up in the morning, plusyou know that's time to be
productive and uh, yeah socoffee or tea I've only had one
cup of coffee my entire life.
Really, I am naturally, I'mnaturally caffeinated.
Actually, anyone that knows me,you probably agree is they're
(01:09:09):
like we don't want to know aboutcoffee.
All I've had today is like abottle of water.
Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
So yeah, there's a different that's good for you.
Speaker 2 (01:09:17):
It's smart water it's not smart to water.
This is Kirkland because I'mpaying too much for rent.
I'm getting like the, you know.
All right, you went to Costco.
Yeah, oh, yeah, heck yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:09:28):
It's Kirkland.
Come on, yeah, heck, yeah.
They got shirts, they got pants, they got socks, they got water
, they got sheds.
Speaker 2 (01:09:35):
Yeah, they get everything.
There wasn't a lot like he woreshorts and flip-flops every day
, right, so I bought all myclothes.
I remember, like my dad's oh,there's a nice shorts, will you
get them?
I'm like I remember my dad goeslike you know, he pulled me
aside.
He's like everything all right.
Are you okay financially?
Like you can be honest, like iseverything all right?
I'm like, yeah, why is what'swrong?
He's like.
He's like why are you buyingyour clothes at costco?
(01:09:56):
I'm like why?
Why shouldn't I buy my clothesat costco?
I'm like you just love theseshorts.
I love Costco, yeah, buteverything no.
In fact, I'm going tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (01:10:05):
I get all my produce at Costco.
I know I mean my wife and I.
Last week we had a little timeoff and I said you know what?
Let's go to Costco.
Speaker 2 (01:10:13):
Yes, let's go to Costco.
They have the best produce ofany grocery.
I'll actually drive 20 miles tothe Costco in mount juliet, uh,
tennessee, because it's likefairly new the building.
They're like six months old andthe produce is correct.
You can't have better produce.
Yeah, and I will drive 40minutes and 40 miles round trip
book, for book or movie it'sprobably a movie, but I'm trying
(01:10:37):
to get more into books justbecause I, honestly, I don't
think I've read a full book inprobably I have years and I'm
and I'm trying to and actually,um, I was on a trip, I was on a
work trip with Otter a few weeksago and she gave me a book and
I started it's something aboutlike.
It's something about like, ifyou keep looking backwards, you
won't trip, and so it's like auh, yeah, yeah it's a book,
(01:11:00):
because obviously, you know, Igot a little major change going
on in my life and so friendshave been like, hey, maybe you
should read this book, maybe youshould do this, that.
So, but yeah, it's, I shouldread more books.
But you know, I need to findtime.
But if I less, if I read lesscrap on Facebook and Instagram,
I could probably read some, youknow.
Or I could write a book and Icould write, I could write my
autobiography and maybe, youknow, my mom would buy it?
Speaker 1 (01:11:22):
I think we just heard it Guilty pleasure.
What's your guilty pleasure?
Guilty pleasure, my watch keepsbeeping here.
Speaker 2 (01:11:31):
Oh, no, no, not mine.
Speaker 1 (01:11:32):
No, mine is beeping, that's okay.
Speaker 2 (01:11:34):
I'm limited.
Are we in like bonus round?
We could be what's your guiltypleasure.
Okay, my guilty pleasure.
Okay, my guilty pleasure.
I watch a lot of stupid TV.
Like when I watch TV, I watch alot of stupid TV, like things
that are probably like whenthey're sitting around a
strategy meeting at a TV stationor a network.
The demographic they're lookingfor is probably like 15 to 25.
(01:11:59):
And for some reason, I'm gluedto the shows and yeah, I mean
you know the, the one being umbelow deck uh, I've uh peeled
back from some of the realhousewife stuff but, um, a lot
of the train, a lot of the trainwreck shows.
And I don't know if I did thosejust so you know you feel
better about yourself, butyou're a Kardashian.
I did, oh, I did when it was on, yeah, not the new one, but oh,
(01:12:21):
I didn't miss an episode of theold ones.
Um, yeah, no, look at, yeah,looking back.
And I, when it was on, not thenew one, but oh, I didn't miss
an episode of the old ones yeah,no, looking back.
And I think it was funnybecause when I first was working
with that teen pop group Ithink that's why I probably
worked, did it, because I feltlike I had so much in common
with them because we couldactually talk about the same TV
shows.
I'd be like, oh my God, did yousee Real Housewives of Beverly
Hills this week?
(01:12:41):
I my God, did you see, like youknow, real Housewives of
Beverly Hills this week?
I was on a date the other nightand the girl on the date was
like she said, oh yeah,so-and-so.
I'm like, oh, from RealHousewives.
She's like how do you know that?
I'm like.
I'm like, at this point, I'mlike, oh shit, this is going one
way or another.
Either I'm getting another dateor she's going home and calling
.
I watched his real house and itworked for the better because
we went on again.
Speaker 1 (01:13:02):
What's next?
Oh, go ahead, I cut you off.
Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
What's next?
On what?
Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
No, I was going to say what's next for Jeff Galko.
Speaker 2 (01:13:10):
I'm probably going to take a walk down to, maybe, the
Live Oak to go watch a writer'sround, because that's what you
do when you live here and you'resingle and you got nothing to
do and you know there's morelive, great music possible.
Um, no, I um, you know I'mactually right now I'm trying to
, uh, I gotta do better.
I'm working on putting likemyself first, like me on the
front burner.
(01:13:31):
I've, even with clients, likeI've I've been doing a lot of uh
, I'm working to be more in themoment good, um, you know, like,
for example, when I go homefrom mother's day in a week and
a half, like I already told mymom, like I'm turning my phone
off my mom's like no way, and so, doing that, I'm trying to get
some more corporate clientsbecause, as you know, I have a
huge corporate client and wewere tied up in a lock for four
(01:13:52):
years thanks to Tony Fauci, butwe won it, so that freed up
about six hours a day for methat I was working on this
lawsuit and stuff.
So if you're out there and youneed work I mean work done I'm
here.
You know, put it this way,folks, it's sort of like you're
doing charity.
Speaker 1 (01:14:09):
Send me a contract If you hire me.
Speaker 2 (01:14:11):
If you hire me, that's less time.
I can annoy Skip texting himduring the day, Thinking, like
you know, everyone else is justfree to just chat.
Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
You know, I look forward to your text, I I look
forward to your text.
I look forward to your phonecall.
Speaker 2 (01:14:24):
No, I don't, I don't tell people.
When I ever meet people,especially when I first almost
work with them, I always say tothem listen, I'm not one person
to tell you what you want tohear, I just tell you the truth.
And so I say that with thishere, that whenever I tell
people who you are, andespecially I'm not going to say
it, but your guests for tomorrowand whatnot I always say the
(01:14:45):
nicest guy I've met since I'vebeen doing music, and I swear I
say it and like what do you mean?
I'm like, I'm like he's thenicest guy you're gonna meet,
your your experience with him asan interview it's gonna be the
most enjoyed no disrespect toother people that may be
watching, but like it's gonna bethe most enjoyable interview
you're gonna do.
You're gonna feel like spent anhour, you know, with your uncle
or a family member and to me,like I've never, like I can
(01:15:07):
count on my one hand like thenumber of people and again I
came into this like guns blazingand I was an asshole, and but
you know, there's certain peoplethat you know were good to me,
very good to me, like muchbetter to me than they probably
should have, and allowed me toget to where I am today, because
if it weren't for people likeyou who let me come visit with
(01:15:28):
an independent artist whoprobably didn't have the reason
to be there.
You know, as far as numbers orstreams or what they were doing,
you know it was you, you werean enabler and you are like even
the fact that you do this andyou know that you.
You know you work during theday and you have a family and
this and that, but you take thetime to do this and provide a
platform.
You know, obviously tonightit's for, you know, crazy old
(01:15:49):
men, but on most normal nightsit's for.
You know it's for.
You know it's it's for a-listartists.
But you spent, you put as muchtime and detail and energy into
interviewing and up and comingout or so, a brand new artist
and giving them a platform orgiving them a reason to like do
this interview and get off and,you know, call their mom and be
like, oh my god, you don'tbelieve.
I just did this interview withthis guy and blah, blah, and I
(01:16:10):
think that's what I think oneit's what the world needs more
of, just genuine and genuine.
You know, people that youadmire, people that you like to
work with, but I think thisindustry, I think I think this
industry could learn a lot fromyou, because there's a lot of
people that just have the wallsand unless you have a song, they
chart it through.
They won't even take your phonecall or this or that, and it's
(01:16:30):
no one's saying you have to playthe music.
But you know, just because weall started somewhere exactly
and, and the guy that's doingthe, the playlist, if you're the
head of, you know I don't wantto say one of the deep.
let's say, you're the head ofDSP, you didn't start there.
You know, and like, I think, somany people in this industry,
both artists and on the radioside, it's like they forget very
(01:16:53):
quickly where they came fromand that somebody at some point
helped them.
No-transcript, no, like youknow, we all had it Like.
I mean, I didn't get.
(01:17:13):
I got into the White Houseintern program because my dad
had a bagel store on the side,that summer Stupid story.
But anyways, a guy came in andit turned out he was an advisor
to Clinton.
It was dumb luck.
And then he submitted my resume.
It's like, you know, we all hadthose people and that's why,
you know, even now, like youknow, I always think like, just
like, pay it forward.
Like you know, like the, youknow, even if you are it's old
(01:17:34):
age, but you're going to see thepeople.
You're going to see the samepeople on the way down.
So it's like, why not just benice and be supportive and get
some of the leg and don't be sofricking territorial and just do
do nice things for people youknow, Take a deep breath, okay.
Speaker 1 (01:17:53):
Very, very kind and I appreciate that.
But I love what I do and I dobelieve in giving everybody a
fair chance.
I don't like talking to RebaMcIntyre and I'm going to give
her the same amount of time, orI'll talk to a new artist.
I don't like talking to RebaMcEntire and I'm going to give
her the same amount of time, orI talk to a new artist.
I would give them the sameamount of time that I would if I
was talking to Reba McEntire.
And you know, tomorrow night wetalked about the guest and I've
(01:18:16):
already told a few people whothe guest will be tomorrow night
and they're like do you?
really want to interview him.
I go, yeah, damn, will betomorrow night.
And they're like, do you reallywant to interview him?
I go, yeah, damn right, they do, because you know, I mean it's
jimmy allen.
Say it's jimmy allen, there's alot of talk.
You know, I mean everything waslet go, but I want to find out
what's going on with his lifenow.
I want to find out what youknow.
What do we do?
Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
to get.
There's a lot from the sharethere and, like you know, I've
been blackballed by some people.
I mean I knew jimmy allenbefore anybody in the city,
before he had a label deal oranything yep I got a lot of
people and I lost projects, butI was raised two things.
One I'm not gonna listen and Isay it's a jimmy, right if.
If you cheat, like it's aself-inflicted wound, right it
(01:18:58):
is.
And I also say like if, if thelitmus test to be permanently
blackballed is if you cheat I'mlooking at a building right now
that's going to have a lot ofempty offices.
Number two, though, you know,again, self-inflicted.
But I also grew up where youremain loyal to friends and I
also grew up in a country and asystem you know, in a lot of
things now it's, you know it'sinnocent until proven guilty.
(01:19:18):
You know it's innocent untilproven guilty and I would hope
that God forbid, like you know,not that circumstance, but you
know anything like my friendswouldn't just leave me or
alienate me.
And actually, you know itdoesn't mean you got to be best
friends and be pounding a chestand posting online and support
(01:19:40):
me, but at least be there.
Because you know we never know,we never know people's mental
health.
I mean you know, we saw it justyesterday.
I mean there was someone in ourcommunity that you know looks
for all intents and purposeslike took their own life, and
it's just, you know you, just,you don't, you don't write off
people.
I've just been raised that youdon't write off people unless
you've been given a real reasonto.
And you know Jimmy's been afriend and when I had, you know,
early artists early on, when hewas really big, you know he put
them on shows with him.
(01:20:01):
He didn't need to do that, youknow, and he was there to help
me on ways and you know it'sjust.
But I'm glad he's going to be on.
You know I think he'll be agreat guest.
You know mental health is a,you know it's a.
I mean definitely tell you, Imean it's a big part to him.
And you know I will say I, he'sa change person.
(01:20:21):
I think I think sometimes whenyou go through that and I think
he, I think he realizes thathe's getting a second chance at
life right now and I think hehonestly is trying to make the
most of it and being a changeperson.
And you know you pray and hopeand you know people don't.
You know digress and whatnot,but yeah, yeah, I'm looking
(01:20:46):
forward to it.
Speaker 1 (01:20:46):
yeah, and um, there's a lot to talk about, so we're
going to get it out tomorrownight.
Yeah, all because of you, jeffgalko it should be because he
hasn't.
Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
He hasn't talked to a lot of people.
I mean, he did the thing withkathy lee gifford and I don't
think I don't think there's beenmany others.
So, um, but the same thing.
When I mentioned it to him, heknew exactly who you were and he
goes, oh, he said.
He said, oh, that's a reallynice guy from up in upstate New
York.
Oh, he was always really greatto me and you know so, jeff.
Speaker 1 (01:21:14):
Falco, you get experienced.
Skip happens.
I know you know coming on.
It's been really cool.
We've been talking for about anhour and 20 minutes.
Oh wow, it's fancy bedtime.
Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
No comments from Zach .
Speaker 1 (01:21:31):
You know, I heard him upstairs.
I don't know if the Mets mustbe playing tonight, so I don't
know.
Yeah, he's been pretty quiet, Iknow.
I don't know what the deal is.
Speaker 2 (01:21:44):
You know, since you guys are Mets fans.
So in 98, I actually got to goto Shea Stadium and, yeah, I got
to present the Mets with aplaque from the pitcher's mind
and Mookie Wilson presented mewith a jersey.
I have a really cool photo.
Yeah, I'll email it to you Acool photo on the scoreboard at
Shea Stadium that said likeplease welcome, jeff Galko.
Deputy manager of the WhiteHouse Health and Life Initiative
Against Drugs.
Now, for me it was a good andbad night, because it was cool
(01:22:09):
to meet Mookie Wilson and dothis.
But you know, mookie Wilson, Iwas a very, very sad kid in 1986
.
Mookie Wilson and his friendsthe world is still there, skip.
Speaker 1 (01:22:22):
The memory is still fresh.
It's, oh my god we were.
Speaker 2 (01:22:25):
We were in the tucket one summer and bill buckner
walked by and my dad, like mydad, my dad.
So, yeah, my dad, my dad islike the real life, larry david,
like living, like hanging.
Living with my dad is like you,my life is one big curb.
Your enthusiasm episode when wewere with my dad.
Now, I'm probably Now I'mscrewed.
(01:22:46):
My dad goes.
Do people still ask you aboutit?
Even as a kid I'm thinking youjust did Let the guy be.
You still think about it.
You still think about how youlet down the entire region and
world and generations of Red Sox.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:23:05):
So, Jeff, almost time for you to go to the writer's
round.
You're going to walk down overthere.
You know I got to see yourapartment sometime because they
have that view of Nashville.
There it is, oh, I love it.
I love it.
Oh yeah, Holy crap.
Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
There you go.
Speaker 1 (01:23:24):
Where's the AT&T building or the Batman building?
Oh, I love it, I love it.
Oh yeah, holy crap, there yougo.
There's Live Oak.
Where's the AT&T building orthe Batman building?
Speaker 2 (01:23:26):
Oh, that's way down.
That's on the other side.
I got you, I got you, you know.
There's Tin Roof, live Oak, yep, okay, okay, and there's a
little statue.
Speaker 1 (01:23:37):
Where's the naked there?
It is Okay, yeah, right downthere.
Speaker 2 (01:23:44):
And now here it is.
I always tell the artists Iwork with like, be careful, like
cause I.
I'm very security conscious andI'm like, don't post pictures
in your own neighborhood.
This is like cause, you can'tbe accessible and I've now
shared with everybody where Ilive.
So, yeah, I might not go acrossthe street, exactly Just so you
know, don't mess with me,because skip Clark's the head of
(01:24:04):
my security detail.
Speaker 1 (01:24:05):
Yeah, well, not really you should be the head of
mine, but not that I ever needone.
But you know I appreciate allyou do and all you've done for
me.
So a lot of artists we we'vehad them on skip happens.
Tonight I'm talking to the manthat's done all that and now
he's actually been on.
He's a part of skip happens now.
Speaker 2 (01:24:22):
I love it.
No, I'm an alumni.
Speaker 1 (01:24:25):
You are, you know you're no longer well, you're a
skip happens virgin.
Speaker 2 (01:24:31):
I lost my virginity tonight.
Speaker 1 (01:24:34):
Let's just leave it at that.
Oh, jeff Galko, thanks forjoining us.
Skip happens today.
It's been real.
Speaker 2 (01:24:40):
It's been interesting .
Hopefully I didn't talk to him.
I'm worried right now when I goback and watch it.
I talk too much, Not likeovershared, but I just didn't
shut up.
You're still talking.
Speaker 1 (01:24:51):
Stay right there, my friend.
Stay right there.
Have a good night, everybody.
Don't forget, follow, subscribe, skip, happens it's on YouTube.
Just say, yeah, I love it.
Hit the subscribe button.
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