April 11, 2025 • 8 mins
My name is Steve Owens and I meet a lot of people; sometime in my travels, sometimes in my own home town. Several times (quite by accident), I have stumbled into what I consider to be fascinating stories. So after way too many got away, I decided to start recording them. Some of these conversations will be fascinating ONLY to me. Some will be fascinating to you too. In the end, I guess this podcast is just an excuse for me to get to travel, meet, and talk to more people. So if you are so inclined…
Walk with me, down Fascination Street!
Find Fascination Street at:
Website: https://fascinationstreetpod.com
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fascination-street/id1271608977
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/fascinationstreetpod/
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Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.
Walk with me, down Fascination Street!
Find Fascination Street at:
Website: https://fascinationstreetpod.com
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/fascination-street/id1271608977
Insta: https://www.instagram.com/fascinationstreetpod/
X: https://x.com/FascinationStPd
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/gone-cold-texas-true-crime--3203003/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Hey, y'all. If you're looking for something a little lighter
than true crime, we suggest you check out the podcast
Fascination Street, brought to you by our good pal Steve Owens.
Steve interviews folks from practically all facets of life and
life experience, from musicians to businessmen and actors to pop
(00:21):
culture figures. I'll let Steve take it from here.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Do you ever wonder how people got to where they are?
What makes someone become an actor, a musician, an athlete,
an artist? Me too, So I invite you to take
a walk down Fascination Street as I get to know
the answers to these and other questions. My name is
Steve Owens, and I started Fascination Street as a way
to get to know these stories, like do astronauts believe
(00:47):
in sentient life outside of Earth? Was James Earl Jones funny?
What does Don McLean think about rap music? Did this
singer for the Presidents of the United States of America
write a song with kurtko Van's ghost? What is the
real Rachel Dolijaw story? And what did Nelson Mandela listen
to while he was spending time in a South African
(01:09):
prison with nearly four hundred and fifty episodes spanning more
than seven years, You're sure to find some fascinating episodes
to make your work day go a little smoother. Here
are a few short clips astronaut Scott Kelly. Do you
think that there is life outside of this planet? Sentient?
(01:29):
Life off of this planet?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
What kind of book?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Sentient? I mean, I don't want to use the word
alien because that sounds dumb, But do you think that.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
They're What word did he use? I don't even know
if I understood what that word means?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh, sin sentient.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Life, sentient. How do you spell that?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Se n t I e n T sentient sentient?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
He looked it up cold on I want. I don't
want to agree with you if I don't know what
the word means. Oh, of course, centient You see, able
to perceive or feel things. Sentient as an adjective, a
creature that can suffer and feel pain, mostly animals and
(02:13):
human sentient being.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Do you think there's life?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, so life that is complicated enough to be sentient?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Life, that's not a plant? Do you think there's non
plant life out there?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I think it would be very unlikely if there wasn't.
If you consider the size of the universe and the
number of stars and potential Earth like planets out there,
and if you believe in science and evolution, then yeah,
I without you know, having any facts, I believe it's
(02:50):
very very likely that there is a lot of life
out there, because you know, if there's just a little bit,
if you believe there's a little bit, then there's probably
an awful lot considering the size of our universe.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So I think so actor Tony Winters.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
So generally what you do is you slip booties over
the shoes so that when the actors walking you don't
hear his doesn't sound like a Clydesdale. So after I
had done it shot it a couple of times, the
sound guy said, can we get some? He looked at
my shoes, he said, can we get some black booties
over here?
Speaker 6 (03:25):
For Tony?
Speaker 5 (03:28):
And James Roll says black booties?
Speaker 6 (03:31):
I want some.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Songwriting icon don McLean.
Speaker 7 (03:41):
There's so much illiteracy. Of course, that's promoted by rap music,
which is the ultimate illiterate music. It's not even music.
I don't know what it is, but it's lowered the
standards for what one would call a song so far
that the old standards aren't even in view anymore, you know,
melodies and Ryan's and so.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Lead singer from the popular nineties group Presidents of the
United States of America, Chris Blue.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
I got a call from President's manager saying that he
had had a call from a place called the Museum
of the Mysteries, and the Museum of the Mysteries had
had a seance the night before. They claimed to have
been contacted by the ghost of Kurt Cobain, who sent
lyrics down from somewhere with the instruction that he wanted
Chris Blue to sing this song. And then he had
(04:32):
a little code. It said, ask Dave Groll about the
odd shaped Mexican beer bottles in the avocado green kitchen.
That was some sort of key, like if I doubted
that it was true, I could ask Dave Grohl to
verify through that little image. So I got the lyrics
and they were not exactly rhyming or anything. They were
(04:53):
just kind of like blobs of lyrics. And I called
Chris Novicela to ask him. I don't have Dave Roll's
phone number, he's too big of a rock star, but
I can call Chris Novsel.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I'll give it to you offline.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Go ahead, it's five IF. So I called Chris and
went over the whole thing with him, and you know,
he gave me his opinion, which was, I don't know.
His opinion was basically like, I'm not going to say
things like this aren't real, but I'm not going to
say it's real. You know. His big advice was just
don't do anything that sort of puts you at the
center of the Nirvana thing, because there's a lot of
(05:24):
darkness in that zone. And so I got off with
him and I was like, I don't know what to do. Well,
you know, then I kind of I realized he said
sing the song. And initially I was thinking I'll record
it and release it. It'll be a thing. But I
eventually realized none of these instructions are to sing it.
So I said it to music. I went out in
the backyard and I sang it, figuring if it is
(05:45):
from the ethereal version of Kurt Cobain, he'll probably hear it.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Rachel dolij'all, I heard you say once in an interview
that race is a social construct. Can you tell everybody
what that means or what you mean by that.
Speaker 8 (06:00):
Yeah, well, I'm definitely not the first person to say that.
It's not something I made up. It's well known in academia.
Any one oh one sociology class will tell you just that.
I mean race. The definition of race in connection with
separating the human race into separate categories is and has
(06:20):
been disproven as you know science like it's it's definitely
not a scientific idea. The human race does not meet
the zoological requirements for separate races. Like some species like dogs,
for example, meet that requirement of separate breeds and that
kind of thing, but the human race doesn't. We're ninety
nine percent the same.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Nashville legend and Texas icon Kinky Friedman.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
There's a lot of fascinating stuff about Mandela. And one
of the things is that happened in when I was
on a book tour of South Africa and in the
nineties somewhere I was doing some national TV show when
there was this guy there named Tokyo Seshwa. He said,
sex Whale's how to remember it. He was Mandela's right
hand man. So he goes on to tell me, he says,
(07:08):
you know, you know, Mandela was a big fan of yours,
and I said, no, I did not know that. I said,
that's great man. He said, which book is it? He said, well,
it's not the books. He likes your music. But now
don't get a swelled head about this, kinky, because you
were not Mandela's favorite singer. That was always Dolly Parton.
And this rang so true that I knew it was.
(07:29):
And then I chased it back a little bit that
Mandela used to play this stuff late at night, and
they would let him do that. I mean, after trying
to kill him many times, they let him have his
own pirate radio show for the other inmates. Maybe he
will settle people down. I mean, sold American song he
liked very much, and Tokyo heard him play the damn
(07:51):
thing all the time. And then Tokyo said, then one
night he stumbled on ride him jew Boy. And when
he did that, he never let go of it, and
he would play it times, sometimes the same night. And
I was thinking, what a great man Mandela was. This
was not even his beef. I mean, to understand and
care about somebody else's situation and not about the tribal
(08:13):
problems in Africa or the children starving. That way was
always always involved with, but jew Boy was one he understood.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
With new episodes every Monday, Fascination Street Podcasts is available
wherever you get podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and of course,
Fascination streetpod dot com
Hey, y'all. If you're looking for something a little lighter
than true crime, we suggest you check out the podcast
Fascination Street, brought to you by our good pal Steve Owens.
Steve interviews folks from practically all facets of life and
life experience, from musicians to businessmen and actors to pop
(00:21):
culture figures. I'll let Steve take it from here.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
Do you ever wonder how people got to where they are?
What makes someone become an actor, a musician, an athlete,
an artist? Me too, So I invite you to take
a walk down Fascination Street as I get to know
the answers to these and other questions. My name is
Steve Owens, and I started Fascination Street as a way
to get to know these stories, like do astronauts believe
(00:47):
in sentient life outside of Earth? Was James Earl Jones funny?
What does Don McLean think about rap music? Did this
singer for the Presidents of the United States of America
write a song with kurtko Van's ghost? What is the
real Rachel Dolijaw story? And what did Nelson Mandela listen
to while he was spending time in a South African
(01:09):
prison with nearly four hundred and fifty episodes spanning more
than seven years, You're sure to find some fascinating episodes
to make your work day go a little smoother. Here
are a few short clips astronaut Scott Kelly. Do you
think that there is life outside of this planet? Sentient?
(01:29):
Life off of this planet?
Speaker 3 (01:30):
What kind of book?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Sentient? I mean, I don't want to use the word
alien because that sounds dumb, But do you think that.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
They're What word did he use? I don't even know
if I understood what that word means?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Oh, sin sentient.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Life, sentient. How do you spell that?
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Se n t I e n T sentient sentient?
Speaker 3 (01:50):
He looked it up cold on I want. I don't
want to agree with you if I don't know what
the word means. Oh, of course, centient You see, able
to perceive or feel things. Sentient as an adjective, a
creature that can suffer and feel pain, mostly animals and
(02:13):
human sentient being.
Speaker 4 (02:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Do you think there's life?
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, so life that is complicated enough to be sentient?
Speaker 4 (02:21):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:22):
Life, that's not a plant? Do you think there's non
plant life out there?
Speaker 3 (02:27):
I think it would be very unlikely if there wasn't.
If you consider the size of the universe and the
number of stars and potential Earth like planets out there,
and if you believe in science and evolution, then yeah,
I without you know, having any facts, I believe it's
(02:50):
very very likely that there is a lot of life
out there, because you know, if there's just a little bit,
if you believe there's a little bit, then there's probably
an awful lot considering the size of our universe.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
So I think so actor Tony Winters.
Speaker 5 (03:07):
So generally what you do is you slip booties over
the shoes so that when the actors walking you don't
hear his doesn't sound like a Clydesdale. So after I
had done it shot it a couple of times, the
sound guy said, can we get some? He looked at
my shoes, he said, can we get some black booties
over here?
Speaker 6 (03:25):
For Tony?
Speaker 5 (03:28):
And James Roll says black booties?
Speaker 6 (03:31):
I want some.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
Songwriting icon don McLean.
Speaker 7 (03:41):
There's so much illiteracy. Of course, that's promoted by rap music,
which is the ultimate illiterate music. It's not even music.
I don't know what it is, but it's lowered the
standards for what one would call a song so far
that the old standards aren't even in view anymore, you know,
melodies and Ryan's and so.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
Lead singer from the popular nineties group Presidents of the
United States of America, Chris Blue.
Speaker 6 (04:11):
I got a call from President's manager saying that he
had had a call from a place called the Museum
of the Mysteries, and the Museum of the Mysteries had
had a seance the night before. They claimed to have
been contacted by the ghost of Kurt Cobain, who sent
lyrics down from somewhere with the instruction that he wanted
Chris Blue to sing this song. And then he had
(04:32):
a little code. It said, ask Dave Groll about the
odd shaped Mexican beer bottles in the avocado green kitchen.
That was some sort of key, like if I doubted
that it was true, I could ask Dave Grohl to
verify through that little image. So I got the lyrics
and they were not exactly rhyming or anything. They were
(04:53):
just kind of like blobs of lyrics. And I called
Chris Novicela to ask him. I don't have Dave Roll's
phone number, he's too big of a rock star, but
I can call Chris Novsel.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
I'll give it to you offline.
Speaker 6 (05:03):
Go ahead, it's five IF. So I called Chris and
went over the whole thing with him, and you know,
he gave me his opinion, which was, I don't know.
His opinion was basically like, I'm not going to say
things like this aren't real, but I'm not going to
say it's real. You know. His big advice was just
don't do anything that sort of puts you at the
center of the Nirvana thing, because there's a lot of
(05:24):
darkness in that zone. And so I got off with
him and I was like, I don't know what to do. Well,
you know, then I kind of I realized he said
sing the song. And initially I was thinking I'll record
it and release it. It'll be a thing. But I
eventually realized none of these instructions are to sing it.
So I said it to music. I went out in
the backyard and I sang it, figuring if it is
(05:45):
from the ethereal version of Kurt Cobain, he'll probably hear it.
Speaker 2 (05:49):
Rachel dolij'all, I heard you say once in an interview
that race is a social construct. Can you tell everybody
what that means or what you mean by that.
Speaker 8 (06:00):
Yeah, well, I'm definitely not the first person to say that.
It's not something I made up. It's well known in academia.
Any one oh one sociology class will tell you just that.
I mean race. The definition of race in connection with
separating the human race into separate categories is and has
(06:20):
been disproven as you know science like it's it's definitely
not a scientific idea. The human race does not meet
the zoological requirements for separate races. Like some species like dogs,
for example, meet that requirement of separate breeds and that
kind of thing, but the human race doesn't. We're ninety
nine percent the same.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Nashville legend and Texas icon Kinky Friedman.
Speaker 4 (06:45):
There's a lot of fascinating stuff about Mandela. And one
of the things is that happened in when I was
on a book tour of South Africa and in the
nineties somewhere I was doing some national TV show when
there was this guy there named Tokyo Seshwa. He said,
sex Whale's how to remember it. He was Mandela's right
hand man. So he goes on to tell me, he says,
(07:08):
you know, you know, Mandela was a big fan of yours,
and I said, no, I did not know that. I said,
that's great man. He said, which book is it? He said, well,
it's not the books. He likes your music. But now
don't get a swelled head about this, kinky, because you
were not Mandela's favorite singer. That was always Dolly Parton.
And this rang so true that I knew it was.
(07:29):
And then I chased it back a little bit that
Mandela used to play this stuff late at night, and
they would let him do that. I mean, after trying
to kill him many times, they let him have his
own pirate radio show for the other inmates. Maybe he
will settle people down. I mean, sold American song he
liked very much, and Tokyo heard him play the damn
(07:51):
thing all the time. And then Tokyo said, then one
night he stumbled on ride him jew Boy. And when
he did that, he never let go of it, and
he would play it times, sometimes the same night. And
I was thinking, what a great man Mandela was. This
was not even his beef. I mean, to understand and
care about somebody else's situation and not about the tribal
(08:13):
problems in Africa or the children starving. That way was
always always involved with, but jew Boy was one he understood.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
With new episodes every Monday, Fascination Street Podcasts is available
wherever you get podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and of course,
Fascination streetpod dot com
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