This Ironworker’s Flute Broke the Internet: The Story of Paul Harvey

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The unexpected convergence of ironworking and Native American flute playing comes alive in our conversation with Paul Harvey, a union ironworker who found viral fame through his hauntingly beautiful flute performances atop skyscrapers.

Paul takes us deep into the world of commercial construction, describing ironworkers as "the Marine Corps of the construction industry."  He shares his journey from newcomer struggling with the physical demands of tying rebar to finding his niche in layout work. Beyond the practical aspects of the trade—apprenticeship structure, union benefits, and earning potential (first-year apprentices make $28-29/hour)—Paul reveals the tight-knit community that develops among ironworkers who often travel together from job to job.

What truly sets Paul's story apart is his parallel path as a musician. After recording himself playing flute in the stunning acoustic environment of a 30-story construction site, his video unexpectedly went viral. This led to his appearance on HBO's "Second Chance" competition, where he proudly represented his trade in his work gear. Most moving is his account of receiving a message from someone who decided against taking their life after discovering his music—a profound reminder of how creativity can transcend its original context.

Throughout our conversation, Paul demonstrates his collection of exquisite flutes—from drone instruments to walking stick flutes—each with unique tonal qualities. His story dismantles stereotypes about blue-collar workers, proving that artistic expression and craftsmanship can flourish side by side.

Ready to discover how creativity thrives in unexpected places? Find Paul Harvey online as "Paul Harvey Flute Guy" on YouTube, TikTok, and Spotify, and experience the mesmerizing intersection of structural steel and soulful sound.


10:44 Breaking Into Iron Working
21:08 The Union Experience
30:08 Layout and Finding Your Niche
43:12 From Construction Site to Viral Flute Player
54:30 Second Chance on HBO
1:09:50 The Flute Collection Showcase

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:15):
beautiful fire, beautiful fire.
Welcome back to another episodeof on tap.
Today we have the legend paulharvey, finalist on the show,
second chance on hbo flute.

Speaker 3 (00:30):
Enthusiast and most important blue collar iron
worker, welcome to the show,thank you very much skywalker in
here oh yeah, oh yeah,skywalker oh it's Getting a
little bit of that binary sunsetwith that drone flute that's
all in baby.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I love it.
You showed up with like 10flutes today.
I don't even know what's goingon, but it's an absolute honor
to have you here today.

Speaker 3 (00:58):
Well, it's my honor to be here.
I appreciate you guys comingout and getting a hold of me.
That was kind of out of theblue but I was like absolutely.

Speaker 4 (01:06):
I looked at your guys' show Awesome man Dude like
so many questions and justcan't wait to pick everything
apart, dude.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
I'm an open book for you.
Yeah, this is actually a first.
We've never found a guest offof Reddit, of all places.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yay win for Reddit.

Speaker 4 (01:24):
It's not all bad, there's good stuff, right right
so.

Speaker 3 (01:29):
So you work as an iron worker and you are you
primarily in the midwest uh, yes, so I'm based out of local 512
iron workers in minneapolis andthey cover regions in wisconsin,
minnesota, north and southdakota.
Socent amount of traveling.

Speaker 2 (01:46):
Yes, sir, yes sir.
I just want to kick it offright off the bat because,
honestly, I want to hear in yourown words what is an iron
worker, because I know a dozenpeople that have worked in the
trade and all I've ever knownabout it is that they work a lot
of hours, make a lot of money,but that's all I know.
So how could you sum up to adum-dum like me what is an iron

(02:10):
worker?
Sky cowboy.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
I love that If I had to boil it down to one word.
I mean, some people get alittle offended at it, if you
will, but they're the MarineCorps of the construction
industry.
These are some BA dudes anddudettes.
I mean, they're a lot smallerthan a lot of the other trades,

(02:37):
like the carpenters or theplumbers, electricians and so
forth.
A lot of the stuff that we dois skyscrapers, bridges,
hospitals, I mean you name it.
If it's got ironworking, steelwelding, they're going to hit
that up and they're going to doa generally good job.

Speaker 4 (02:56):
So essentially it's just like building the framework
of these larger commercialbuildings, correct?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Yes, yep.
So specifically, like thecompany I'm working for right
now, they are a curtain wallcompany, so they put, you know,
if you've ever seen a skyscraper, the glass on the outside of
that.
Most of these are unitizedsystems, so the glass is already
installed and we're welding onthe anchors, we're doing the
layout, we're rigging and flyingthings with the cranes, that's,

(03:21):
we get to play with the bigtoys, you know yeah, that in
itself.

Speaker 4 (03:24):
Just the rigging alone.
Dude, there's so many differentlike I went down the rabbit
hole the other day of uh, so Iwas looking at some just for
rigging trusses.
Like nothing too crazy by anymeans, especially in comparison
like what?
But like even just thedifferent hooks and setups, and
you know you have different barsand lengths and like jigs and
everything.
Yeah, yeah it does.

Speaker 3 (03:44):
I mean and that's every iron worker that goes to
the apprenticeship programbecomes a qualified rigger, and
that's one of the biggest thingsthat I've seen.
A lot is where people will belike, hey, we need a qualified
rigger for this critical pick.

Speaker 4 (03:56):
That's a tough one.
Try saying that 10 times fast.

Speaker 3 (04:01):
But with rationing yeah, Do you.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
do you guys have an apprenticeship in your?

Speaker 3 (04:07):
trade.
Yes, so it's a four yearapprenticeship program, uh,
starting out at uh 20.
It's like 65% journeyman scale.

Speaker 2 (04:18):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
And then every six months there's a increase of 5%,
and then, basically, when youget through that, it's a lot of
5%, and then, basically, whenyou get through that, it's a lot
of.
Two nights a week is usuallywhere you're going to show up at
the hall, do some book work,get some hands-on experience,
and then you're also workingduring that same time, so you're
gaining a lot more experienceand on-the-job know-how, and

(04:42):
then you get that stuff in thebook start.

Speaker 2 (04:46):
So you can get hired directly from an outfit and you
do some hands-on work inschooling at the beginning, or
do you have to do any full bookwork to get a job at any outfit?

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Yeah, no.
So the way the Ironworkers hereis set up in Minnesota.
You go to the union hall halland you fill out an application
to become an apprentice and ifyou get accepted into the
program, uh, there's a littletest you have to take.
Make sure you're not crazy toocrazy.

Speaker 2 (05:15):
I mean, you gotta be a little crazy to do this in 20.

Speaker 3 (05:20):
Uh.
So I mean, I guess, speakingfrom my own personal experience
I was I got a call from thebusiness agent.
Uh, they so they have guys thatare out there looking for
people to join the trade.
And he said, hey, this is uhwhat your old man did and would
you like to you know?
This is, this is the scale andthis is what we're doing.

(05:42):
I was like uh that sounds a lotbetter than the $7.25 an hour
making bottling beer after I gotin this small town.
So he said I'll show up at thehall.
This is the address.
It's going to be $500, andwe're going to do you a
week-long boot camp type thing,just so you're not a greenhorn.

(06:04):
Sure, trying to think of the PG, pg-13 areas of things.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
You can be whatever rate you want, man.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
Got a reputation to uphold, don't swear too much at
work.
So I got to try to keep thekids I got two young kids but
digressing from that.
So I showed up, paid the moneyand started.
I had us like within that firstweek doing our OSHA 10, getting

(06:34):
our lift certs, basically kindof making it so that you could
go out onto a job site and notbe an absolute greenhorn to
where you're causing issues toobad.
I mean you obviously don't knowmuch.
Know much.
I mean, especially in my casewhere I was coming from never
having been in the constructionarea that's.
That's that'd be intimidating itwas it was pretty fun because

(06:55):
there was, uh, there's one guyin particular, we he they have
at the hall there.
They have all sorts of stuffset up inside crane, different
lifts, places to tie rebarthings for rigging.
So he had us rigging differentthings and you know, he'd have a
beam out there and there'd beplates on one side so it would

(07:15):
be off balance.
So you couldn't just rig itcenter and if you didn't rig it
quite right and he'd come up andhe'd go eh, eh, he wouldn't
give you any direction, but he'djust be eh, honestly, that's a
good way to go about it,absolutely, I don't know dude,
what did.

Speaker 4 (07:30):
I.

Speaker 2 (07:31):
I grew up with a dad that would just scream at me all
the time, with no direction.

Speaker 4 (07:36):
Sometimes a little direction does go the wrong way.
Get those hands a little rusty,dude, I hear that.

Speaker 3 (07:41):
But at the end of that week I had a job placement.
So the union hall willbasically have a list of people
and then companies will call andsay, hey, I need 30 ironworkers
for a project that's going tobe two months long.
And so they'll say, okay, wegot 30 guys here.
Those guys go out and they workfor that company.
When the job's over, if theyhave more work, or if they like

(08:09):
you, if you're a good worker,you can keep on with that
company.
When you go to buy a house oranything like that, they look at
how many employers you've hadand you've got like 15 different
companies.

Speaker 1 (08:15):
They're like what are you doing here, bud?

Speaker 3 (08:16):
It's like it's the trades man.
It depends on the weather.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
Yeah, you go where the work goes, Exactly yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:23):
I mean I've been with the same company for the past
four years, four and a halfyears.

Speaker 4 (08:30):
That's got to be nice though.

Speaker 3 (08:30):
Yeah, oh, I love it, especially once you get settled
in you know everybody there,yeah, and that's another thing
with the community of ironworkers.
Here it's small enough.
Where you can you've probablyheard of almost everybody and or
worked with most of them tooand that just you find groups
and teams that work really welltogether.
You can just knock things out,you know.

(08:51):
Yeah, for sure, that'severything.

Speaker 2 (08:53):
Yeah, that's funny that you say that, because my
dad and a bunch of my buddieswork for a contracting company
that does a lot of undergroundgas work and there's a lot of
companies that do undergroundgas work or I guess there's a
lot of companies that dounderground gas work or I guess
there's a handful in the stateand everybody knows somebody
from the other company becauseyou always you get an
opportunity here, you move here.

(09:14):
It's the same work, just adifferent name.
So I I definitely can see howyou can fall in into just
getting to know everyone in.
Like travis dpk, that wassomeone you said right when we
reached out like oh yeah, Iworked with him.

Speaker 3 (09:25):
I know him.
Yeah, worked with Travis, justsmall world man.
Yeah, absolutely Well, becausewhen I started looking up on
podcast I was like oh, oh, hey,I know that guy.

Speaker 2 (09:39):
He's definitely our golden boy.
I think he's the mostreoccurring guest we've ever had
.

Speaker 3 (09:44):
Well, you can't ask for much better.
I mean, I'll be honest, he'sgot the passion and the drive
and it's.
It's really neat to see howhe's kind of exploded with all
of the um, the dpk stuff andjust, and the opportunities he's
gotten.
It's it's awesome to see as atradesman.

Speaker 2 (09:58):
Yeah you know, a fellow iron worker stepping out
and you know well, especiallyknowing him before he he got any
sort of recognition.
Like you, you know a wholedifferent version than than
we've ever seen, both sides.

Speaker 4 (10:10):
Yeah, yeah, that was, that was one of the more
interesting things about thatlike uh kind of um from like the
initial, uh, initial inquiry orwhatever it's like you like
that was a big genuine part on.
Like like dude, it's so coolseeing it as somebody in the
trades with that creative side,that like a very, not very often

(10:32):
you see that happen and peoplebeing so open about it too, and
like there's almost like a weirdstigma in that like oh, like
you know the stereotypical likeblue collar, oh, if you're gonna
work blue collar, you gottachew tobacco and right there's
like this persona of like aniron worker unless you've had
two dwis and at least threedivorces you

Speaker 2 (10:52):
know exactly exactly I'm sure there's a lot of
divorce.
Zero of those, and that's theunion guys yeah, exactly right,
yeah, no, so it's, it's, it's.

Speaker 4 (11:02):
it's just really cool seeing that, uh, um, you know,
bias aside from falling underthat same kind of identity or
whatever, like it's just coolseeing that, especially blow up
in the community too and likesocially viral.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
Yeah Well, I mean, it's been an honor and a
blessing to be able to so like.
That's one of the things that,with the instruments that I play
, it lends itself to theportability of being on a job
site or whatnot, and then alsohaving access to these places
that nobody else is.
I mean, you're never gonna get,uh, some fancy pants.

(11:38):
That's uh you know,professional musician, doing it
on the 30th floor of a stilldeveloped building, you know.

Speaker 4 (11:44):
I mean yeah, yeah, and it's like just this weird
kind of it's almost like now,like if you were to go go about
it in a way that's like you wantto promote solely this.
It's like.
It's like people have multipleinterests.
Like people are like multipleyou know, we all wear a bunch of
different hats Like it doesn'thave to fall under one thing.
That's why it's like I love howeverything about like you know,

(12:07):
even on your pages and stufflike Ironworker flute, like it's
like just the two things, it'slike yeah, that's right, people
can be multiple things andthat's fucking cool.
Guess what?

Speaker 2 (12:28):
I've sat on the side of a scroll on the feed and see
one of your videos pop up and Iwant to take it back a little
bit to becoming an iron worker,and you mentioned that your
father was an iron worker,growing up, seeing him work
trade.
Did that lean you towards it ordid it lean you against it?
And then, ultimately, did youtalk to him about your decision

(12:50):
of joining the union?

Speaker 3 (12:51):
Are we ready for this story?
Absolutely All right.
So my dad has nine otherchildren, so I'm the third
oldest of 10.
Dad is an iron worker, familyman In 2003, had nine strokes.
That's what took him out ofiron working.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Whoa.

Speaker 3 (13:11):
That year.
Yeah, in less than a week it'sterrible One right after the
other he went from.
He had one in.
It was like a Wednesday and mytimelines might be a little bit
fuzzy I was 13.
But basically he had the firststroke on a Wednesday while he
was up working in Duluth as aniron worker He'd been doing iron
working for probably like 20,25 years.

(13:32):
Came home because he thought itwas just like nausea.
He couldn't get out of the bedand came home on that Thursday
Friday Him and I were pouringconcrete with my uncle.
Came home on that ThursdayFriday Him and I were pouring
concrete with my uncle.
He keeled over, had anotherstroke and then recovered from
that.
It was just temporary, sodoctors thought that it was

(13:54):
migraine.
Which long story short.
He goes to another hospital andbetween Saturday and Sunday he
had five more and was in avegetative state.
He was in a coma.
It was actually no brainwaveactivity, no response to pain,
and they were pushing for my momto just pull the plug and

(14:16):
donate his organs.

Speaker 4 (14:17):
Wow, All within the span of five days.
All within the span of it.
Yeah, oh my God.

Speaker 2 (14:21):
So your whole family's life is flipped within
a second.

Speaker 3 (14:24):
Yes, I mean before that we had been as a family
doing music.
We could be here for hours andhours.
But kind of cutting to thepoint where you had asked about
the ironworking, as years wentby, my dad's friends, would you
know, talk and visit and whatnot, and I never really had a a

(14:50):
drive for iron working.
At first, I mean I was, I knewabout it and knew kind of what
it was, but I was able to uh, mydad never really pressured us
to go follow his footsteps.
That's kind of cool, thoughyeah, I mean it was.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
It was very uh freeing in a way yeah, yeah, but
you don't feel obligated touphold some kind of well that
carry on the traditions right,and you know you hear that a lot
, you know right so I want totake your story back a second,
because we missed the upliftingpart of the story.

Speaker 1 (15:18):
I guess I can assume and so he?

Speaker 2 (15:22):
he was in a vegetative state.
They were telling your like,maybe the best decision would be
to pull the plug.
And then at that point you know, obviously you said you could
talk to him later.
It's not what she decided to do.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
That is correct.
So my mom had a vision and thatvision included basically in
her mind's eye.
She saw a cell multiplying anddividing in her mind's eye she
saw a cell multiplying anddividing.
And then she received a wordfrom the lord and he said
basically, if you do not standfirm in your faith, you will not
stand at all, and that there'sa battle coming and that he's

(15:55):
basically that.
The gist of it was that he'snot finished yet.
And so my mom said ain't gonnahappen.
And they said you, lady, you'recrazy, you ought to go to the
fifth floor.
That's the psych department, youknow, because, like she was
like, hey, bring clothes,because she's expecting him to
just pop out of bed.
You know, I mean miraculousrecovery.
And uh, shortly after that, Imean within the next day, he

(16:19):
started to breathe above aventilator, started to respond
to pain.
Like I said, his, his, uh,brainwave activity was zero,
zero.
It's.
Started to respond to pain.
Like I said, his brainwaveactivity was zero.
It's unbelievable.
No response to pain on the deeppain test, like needles under
the toenails, ice water in theears, I mean.
And he was 43 years old.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
That's so young, Healthy hardworking iron worker.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
I mean, the guy is.
The guy is awesome.
I'm just going to say that mydad's dope Sounds like a
certified badass.
Oh, 100% Unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (16:48):
That's crazy, that it just like just back to life,
like that.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, well, and so it was a longer process.
Obviously, to this day he hasall his memories, all his
faculties.
Wow.
He has some physical detriments, but he's all there and he
works his butt off in everyaspect of life.
I mean, the other day we wereup there making maple syrup.
You know he's out there on thefour-wheeler, out there on the

(17:14):
skidder, out there cutting wood.
I mean, the dude is justnon—there's no giving him.
you know yeah yeah, and it's afantastic—I mean the whole story
would take probably hours andhours to go through so
inspirational it is absolutelyBecause he was officially when
we took him home from thehospital.
His official prognosis ondischarge is persistent
vegetative state will remain sofor rest of natural life.

(17:35):
And within a few months he wasback in a different hospital.
They were like, how is thisvegetable, yeah, talking and
acknowledging us Say VeggieTalesdude, yeah right, I'm the
tomato That'd be me.
But so, yes, so he.
There was quite a miraculousrecovery.

(17:55):
His brain literally regrew.
There's MRI scans showing this,and God came through for our
family and so with that beingsaid, I mean that was kind of
the thing.
When I called my dad, I was like, hey, that was kind of the
thing.
When I called my dad, I waslike, hey, I don't know how they
got my number, I'm guessing hegave it to them.
But the business agent calledme and, uh, I was uh, like I

(18:17):
said, working at a temp agencyand looking for work, and I was
like, all right, this, this isperfect, this is right up me.
I want to start a family andthis is something that you got
the good pay, you got thebenefits.
That's the big thing is theinsurance coverage, yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:34):
Stability.

Speaker 3 (18:35):
Right.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
Exactly, Especially me being a 25-year-old almost 26
, working for a small businesswith no health benefits.
Those benefits are important,oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:45):
I was 25 when I started working.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
Right when the clock was hitting.

Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yep, yep.
It was like, yeah, I want tohave kids and I've been married
for a couple of years.
At that point and, yeah, justtiming wise worked out, there
was a lot of work going on thesand mines in Wisconsin and so I
got a hold of the hall and wentand did the boot camp.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
And by the end of that week I was on a job.
So you're 25, so you're not ayoung, young buck, but you're
definitely you're not old andyou're new to the trade.
You get called to your firstreal job after boot camp.

Speaker 3 (19:19):
Walk me through your first day ah, my first day, good
sir, was on a rebar job.
Now, rebar is probably the mostphysically demanding part of
the trade.
And you're bent over backward,you're bent over, you're tying
wire with you know pair ofpliers my very first day.

(19:41):
Get on the job site.
I'm early, I'm not stupid.
I got my boots on.
I'm all set to go get my size15 double e.
Shout out thorough good.
I don't know you can cut that ifyou need, um.
But uh, I get out there and Ilook around and say, uh, just

(20:02):
given an address, you know, Ididn't even have a smartphone at
the time, so I'd printed offthe map quest.
Oh dang dude.
So yeah, in the middle ofnowhere, wisconsin, you know, I
didn't even have a smartphone atthe time, so I'd printed off
the map quest.
Oh dang dude.
So yeah, in the middle ofnowhere, wisconsin, you know, I
was like I think I'm in theright.
Well, this, there's a cranehere and there's get up to this
guy jody's name is, and he's uh,about this tall shout out short
kings, yes, yes indeed.

(20:22):
And he, uh, he's like just verygruff, you know.
And I was like, uh, well, I'vetied rebar before, so I'll get
the hang of this.
But the first thing he did wastore the spring out of my pliers
.
So you ever seen the pliers?

Speaker 1 (20:37):
They got that little spring in there.

Speaker 3 (20:38):
Yeah, he rips it right out and says you don't
need that.
It's like I should be the judgeof that.
I don't know.
I mean.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
It mean it's all right, uh, but yes that was a
started uh tying rod, so it wasjust uh, just, you got thrown
right in the ring.
Everything else you're learning.
You're like it's fucking easy.

Speaker 3 (20:56):
It was just you and jody uh, it was me and jody for
the first, uh, probably firstweek, and then there was other
guys coming in well as well.
So I mean we were kind of thefirst part that would be the
exact opposite.

Speaker 4 (21:06):
I thought it'd be like a bustling, you know, beam
swinging.

Speaker 3 (21:09):
Yeah, we were getting there early, though that was so
we is basically the rebar isthe, you know the, the
foundation is all poured withrebar that's the great and great
learning experience for, like anewcomer to ground up yep, and
I was- able to work, um, so wewere working eight hour shifts
there and and then later on onthat job site the structural
guys were coming in putting inthe beams and the columns and

(21:32):
the decking and they wereworking tens.
So I was able to do eight hoursof rebar and then two hours of
structural, so I was kind ofbeing able to get a little bit
more rounded.
Nice, because that's one thingthat will happen.
A lot is, apprentices will tendto find some spot and stay
there, and oftentimes it isbecause the old guys don't want

(21:54):
to do it.
They'll throw them into therebar patch, and so it's very
physically demanding.
I mean, my handshakes werepolitician worthy, okay.

Speaker 4 (22:07):
I mean I had the grip , you that you know.

Speaker 3 (22:09):
Yeah, I had to heat up my pliers and bend it
backwards.
I'm a lefty, so everything is.
I will say this.
So in the first day I'm makingthese ties right, we're tying
the steel together.
He comes up and he's checkingmy ties.
Well, he's right-handed, heturns them opposite, so he's
loosening my ties.
As he's checking my ties Well,he's right-handed, he turns them

(22:32):
opposite, so he's loosening myties as he's going to check them
.
He's like, hey, bank, tie, getover here.
And I was like what?
And he's like, yeah, you can'ttie like this, I'm going to run
you off.
It's like you're loosening myties.
He's like lefty, there's a fewmore choice words in there, but
so I kind of, in a way, was kindof thrown into that.

(22:53):
Uh, the the most difficult partof it.
And again, coming from a, Ihadn't worked outside like hard
ever.
I mean I was always outdoorsy,um, bigger guy I mean, at
probably 300 pounds or so at thetime, and you know.
So being outside in the summerheat was it was, it was a
challenge, you know especiallygoing from your temp job and

(23:15):
being thrown to the wolves likethat it's like coconut water was
my friend, I mean oh, dude, butyeah
hands cramping up.
You're sitting there like thisat night and you can't open your
fingers and you start dreamingabout it.
But I I was on that job forabout make a liar out of me a

(23:36):
couple of months at least.
And uh, when I got late, myfirst layoff, I was like just
like dude, what did I do wrong?
Like why, why are you laying meoff?
I was like what am I going todo?
I'm I, I don't have a jobanymore.
And like call the hall, dude.
It was like the very you knowthere.
I was thinking like man, Ican't pay my bills, what am I

(24:01):
going to do?

Speaker 2 (24:01):
And right, yeah, that is the beauty of the union.

Speaker 3 (24:04):
Yes, absolutely Having that kind of security,
because if you can show yourselfas a good worker, somebody who
shows up on time, you knowsomebody who works hard and
tries to learn.
That's the big thing with likean apprentice.
Keep your mouth shut and keepyour belt on.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
Yeah, yes, dude, oh my God, yes.
How many times did I tell newguys like no, you're at, you're
on the clock?

Speaker 3 (24:29):
dude like you're, you're here today.
Keep your thank you forbringing that up.

Speaker 4 (24:31):
Put your phone down.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yes, yeah, that's huge do you have a lot of people
coming through that just don'tcut it where it's like, not like
you don't like them, but wherethey come in for a few days and
then you never see them again.
Do you run into that?

Speaker 4 (24:44):
imagine the union filters out a lot of those.

Speaker 3 (24:47):
You know, the union gives everybody a fair shake,
and that's kind of the thing.
Sometimes people the critiqueis well, you know, well union's
bad.
I get the same pay that thisguy does and he just slacks
around all day.
It's like, well, that guy's notgoing to be working very long
yeah that's a good way to put it.

(25:09):
That reputation gets out thereand then companies will be like,
hey, I need 30 guys.
And they'll be like, ok, we gotBob, john, sally, beth, jody,
jody's good Brian, We'll getBrian.
No, I don't want Brian.
And companies will havedifferent, you know.

Speaker 4 (25:25):
Yeah, they have.
That Word goes around Exactlyand companies will have
different you know, yeah, theyhave that Word goes around.

Speaker 3 (25:31):
Exactly it does, and so getting into that,
establishing yourself as a goodworker, is paramount.
I would say, especially in likethe union thing.
But there's, I mean our class.
There was 120 and I think 70 ofus graduated, so I mean the
attrition rate's not terrible.
But if you're not going to, ifyou're only there because, oh

(25:53):
you're going to make this muchmoney, oh go, go, definitely
show up.
You won't make that much moneyif you don't actually show up.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yeah you got to be thinking long term, for sure.

Speaker 4 (26:04):
An effort to like actually caring to learn and
learning the process and likemore about it.

Speaker 3 (26:10):
That's like huge too well, and that's the thing.
So anybody that's wanting toget into the trades,
specifically like iron workersbecause I can speak from
experience find that niche thatyou can do well.
You know, maybe it is tinyrebar, maybe it's welding, maybe
it's doing layout in my case,like layout was my thing and it
was something.

(26:30):
It was just a weird thing.
Like this class we were takingthe class and I'm tying rebar
during the day, I'm throwing inbolts, I'm slapping out decking.
You know I'm not doing thelayout side of things because,
oh, we ain't going to let theapprentice look at the prints.

(26:51):
That's something you kind ofwork your way up to, yeah.
But then in the class I waslike, oh, he figured a couple of
things out and honestly, all Idid was figure out total station
had a laser on it and you couldturn the laser on and it would
point to where you had to do thelayout points had.
And so I was able to lay outlike 10 points to everyone
else's two or three, and thatcaught the attention of one of
the instructors and he was likehey, whenever you get, whenever
you're laid off, you're comingto work for us.

(27:12):
And so that's kind of how I gotinto that particular.

Speaker 2 (27:16):
That's great advice for for an up and come, cause we
have a lot of young listenersthat are looking to find a trade
that they want to get into andthat just a way to to be a
little bit different, get aheadof your class.
That's great advice, and itleads me right into my next
question, one thing that we liketo ask our guests, especially

(27:37):
when they're working in a jobthat requires an apprenticeship.
For these guys that are gettingout of high school looking for
a job, what can a first yearapprentice expect to make on an
hourly rate?

Speaker 3 (27:49):
for the iron workers.
Uh, first year apprenticesomewhere in the 28 29 an hour
range on the check, that's notincluding benefits.
All that stuff is, you know.
In addition to you get fullbenefits when you start, um, I
think insurance starts like 30or 60 days.

(28:11):
You got to have a certainamount of hours built up, um,
but all the benefits are full.
And then your hourly increasesevery six months as you complete
your class and so forth and asyou're getting more hours
working.
So that would be be.
I mean, it's great money for,like you, said right out of high
school, I mean you can hardlybeat it.

(28:33):
Yeah, it's a lot of hard work.
Yeah, you got to usually travela little bit, but you can't
find a better community.
I don't think.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
Especially, like you were saying, with there just not
being that many.
You just get to know the boys.
You got to travel over to southdakota.
Well, hey, I bet jerry will bethere.
You know, you kind of makethose connections along the way
yes, absolutely.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
And then you get to the point you know, once you're
established, you can be like,hey, I ain't gonna work with bob
over here, I will go out here,I will work out of town with
cory, like that's, that's my guy.
He cory riser's the kind oflayout king, like the guy is
stupid smart, and he kind oftook me under his wing about
four years ago and he's beenteaching me stuff and just

(29:17):
showing me different uh, tricksof the trade and ways to you
know approach issues and we'vetraveled out of town probably
the past couple of years.
Now it's like, yeah, of coursehe's going, I guess I can go.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
He's like hey, babe, my wife.

Speaker 3 (29:33):
She's, like you kind of married to this guy.
Almost I was like, yeah, I meanthat's huge too, the tips and
tricks oh and especially.

Speaker 4 (29:42):
You know you're constantly, uh, first starting
out.
It sounds like you're, like youknow, constantly being around
newer people until, you like,get settled in and established
with the community.
It's like learning, you knoweveryone does it a little
differently and everyone has,like, little tips and tricks.
And then also I like how youmentioned the problems too,
because that's a huge thing too.
It's like a good chunk of yourtime in the trades is going

(30:04):
towards OK, how like how do wefix this, or how do we negate
this from happening in thefuture?
And that's a huge overlookedpart of the industry.

Speaker 3 (30:14):
Yeah.
Well, back to your commentabout how learning things, and
if you ask 50 ironworkers how todo something, you'll get 50
different responses.
Now, 45 of them will work.
You just got to figure outwhich one of those works best
for you and do it.
Five of them are going to beabsolute garbage and you need to
throw it out the window becausethey just yeah a little too

(30:36):
much to drink that day.
But I will say I in myexperience the way that in the
iron workers the journeymen helpout the apprentices is really
really nice.
Like specifically in five, 12,right People are people, some
are Jack offs.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
That works, that'll work.

Speaker 3 (31:01):
Some people are just you know, they're not not good
people and there's been in myexperience a lot of these older
iron workers are willing toteach.
If you're willing to listen, ifyou put your phone down, if you
pay attention, they'll show youhow to do things right, like
you said.
Yeah, problem, I have yet tocome across a job set that I
haven't had problems with andI'm like doing layout and it's

(31:22):
like, okay, this is supposed tobe this and it's not according
to the prints.
Were this and then oh, be this,and it's not According to the
prints we're this and then.
Oh well, you know.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
Yeah, that's.
Another thing too is likesometimes the problems aren't
even or like I mean notsometimes like the problems
aren't even in responsible likefrom you.
Usually it's like you knowwhether it's some kind of
miscommunication betweendifferent plans.
You know the architect versusengineer or you know the
material or like all sorts likethat.

(31:51):
Normally granted too, it mightbe different on a union site,
bigger commercial projects, butI noticed that a lot it's not.

Speaker 3 (31:59):
It's an industry problem.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
Well, especially in your industry where there's so
many different people that havefactors on jobs that can slow it
up and cause issues.
I mean there's so manydifferent people that have
factors on jobs that can slow itup and cause issues.
I mean there's a lot ofespecially like so I.
I do business management onsuch a small scale and if I
don't do my job completelycorrect, it screws everybody on
the crew because if you're alaborer you don't get to work

(32:22):
that day.
You know if you're the owner,you got fucked.
Like it's like.
It's such a small scale butbeing like a project manager for
a huge skyscraper, I can't evenimagine doing that type of work
especially like the trades thatcome after you are a big thing
too.

Speaker 4 (32:37):
So it's like, yes, you can do your.
If you do your job and you doit correctly, great.
But then also they're likelittle things, like I mean, I'm
approaching it from like thestandpoint of building a
residential house as a framer.
It's like I don't want to pissoff the sheetrock guys or I
don't want to accidentally drillan anchor bolt through the
fucking plumber lines orsomething like that which is

(32:59):
awesome when that happens Soundslike you're speaking from
experience.

Speaker 3 (33:02):
What, no, jody, what?

Speaker 4 (33:04):
No, yeah, no, it was just like being aware of the
following steps after you guysare packed up and out of there,
and then making it easier forthe next, you know next handful
of trades or whatever yeah, thatwould be something that a lot
of people when they startpushing, you know you get

(33:26):
companies and trades on top eachother.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
So it's like, hey, we got to get in here, but the
fireproofers got to come in herefirst and then now the
fireproofers, sprays and stuffon our stuff and now we got to
get that cleaned off and wecan't do this, or they've laid
it covered over our layout lines, like.
From my experience it's likeman.
I don't know how many times I'vehad to yeah, redo same thing,
and it's like if you had to takeone second just to pause and

(33:51):
think of somebody else.
I will say this Engineers,architects, should all be
required to go into the field atsome point during their
schooling.
I'm sorry you got to get outthere.
Oh, this looks really good onpaper and hey, it really does.
Have you tried putting ittogether?

(34:11):
Have you tried, right?
You know?
I think that should be federallaw yes, like when I am the
world dictator.
I would make that mandatory.

Speaker 2 (34:22):
That's funny that you say that, because one of our
biggest questions that we ask onthis series is if there's any
other trades or any any peopleinvolved in Blue Collar that you
want to call out that justannoy you the most, and I'm
getting the feeling that thearchitects and the engineers are
definitely at the top of thatlist, which is a very common
answer on here.
That's huge.

Speaker 3 (34:42):
Yeah, I mean you know Sparky's ain't too far behind,
but you need Sparky.
You know I mean the wood tickstoo.
Sparky's ain't too far behind,but you need Sparky.
You know I mean Woodtix too.
Y'all got your place Scabs,yeah, oh yeah.
No, that's the rivalry betweentrades, is?
It's always fun, you know, Imean some people you can take it
too far.
But in general, I mean I've hadgreat experiences working with

(35:03):
every trade that we've comeacross.
You know, because at the end ofthe day you're all here to get
the job done Right, and the morecohesively you can do that, the
better off everybody's going tobe.

Speaker 4 (35:15):
Yeah, yeah, and I think it kind of goes along with
it.
You know, I think it's theindustry standard.
It's like you've got to givethem a little shit.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Oh yeah, Especially when they deserve it Like yeah,
but like yeah, yeah, you're,yeah, got to shallow, but well,
that's so.
One thing I'm just dying to getinto is the flutes, because we
have flute jesus himself here.
If you didn't listen to theintro, you need to go back and
listen, and I want to tie up theiron worker and move into the

(35:41):
flutes.
And my last question that hasto do with it is with you being
an iron worker.
It's a pretty tough trade.
There's a lot of hard men inthat trade and a lot of times
creatives and blue collar guysdon't always mix well together.
In a lot of your videos thatyou make, are you playing the
flute on these jobs at thesebuildings?

(36:03):
Is it tough for you to beyourself yourself, I guess,
around these guys?
Is it something that you'reinsecure about or you just could
not care less?
Like, does it ever?
Is it ever an issue?

Speaker 3 (36:17):
I guess, to break it down, oh, is it ever an issue
for I would say not reallyinitially, and sometimes people
knew that I haven't played orworked around will be like
that's really messed up, oryou've got to go and do this or
something you know it's like.
My favorite is hey, can yousing tenor?

(36:40):
Well, yeah, I guess I can.
Why don't you sing tenor?
15 miles from here.

Speaker 4 (36:45):
then I was like dang what's the punchline going to be
?

Speaker 3 (36:50):
Yeah, but I've kind of established myself as a solid
worker and somebody who knowswhat he's doing and talking
about.
And I do that before I'll bringout the flutes.
So if I'm in a new site or newpeople whatever, I'm not just
going to walk in Right yeah,peter.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Piper comes in Right right.

Speaker 3 (37:16):
I mean, I've established this sort of I'll
bash your head in with thesleeper bar if I have to, but
I'll also play you a nice songand put you to sleep at lunch.

Speaker 2 (37:28):
Do you get fired up on the job?
Because I just I've only knownyou for an hour and a half, but
I cannot see you get upset.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
I would say maybe three, three times so when it?
Happens head in three.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
Well, allegedly so when you get upset people,
people know like, oh, this don'thappen often.

Speaker 4 (37:51):
It's time to just sit back for a second.
Sometimes I gotta let the dogsbark.

Speaker 3 (37:54):
Like it's you, okay, you need a day off or something.
I mean you seem you're prettyquiet, you know, I don't know
it's it's been just to the pointwhere I can walk in and I make
friends with just abouteverybody and there's a couple
of people where it's been.
You know I had to raise my,like I said, if I had to raise

(38:16):
my voice, probably three or fourtimes and I just I'm even
keeled.
You know, my mindset is, if Igot to kill you, is it worth me
going to prison over and not?

Speaker 1 (38:29):
seeing my kids.

Speaker 3 (38:31):
It ain't worth it, you know my, my manhood is not
insecure to the point where Ihave to prove myself or whatever
it's like.
Hey, I love playing flutes andI love iron working.
And guess what, when it's breaktime or before work or after
work, I'll bust out the fluteand play.
When it's time to work, I'llwork, you know.
And then people tend flute andplay when it's time to work,
I'll work, you know.
And people tend to respect that.
I should say for the most partWell, especially if you pull out

(38:54):
that five-foot flute you have.

Speaker 2 (38:57):
I mean, how can you not see that?
And I gotta hear someone playthat.

Speaker 4 (39:02):
Especially the acoustic environment too, and
what you're playing is likethat's gotta be surreal.

Speaker 3 (39:07):
Haunt the stairwells.

Speaker 2 (39:10):
So when you started making your content up on these
buildings and just on the jobsites when you had your first
video go viral, was that kind oflike hey, people actually like
this.
This is something I could keepdoing.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
What was the thought process behind it?
So the thought process behindme playing my first video.
And specifically I was workingin a 30-story tower in
Minneapolis and walked inwhistling and I heard the echo
in this big giant mechanicalfloor and I had a flute that I

(39:49):
had at home for a while andnever really played publicly
with that and that was just.
I bet you that would soundawesome here.
So I brought it with me to work, set it up on the top of the
windowsill and just hit recordand played what Came to my Heart
.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
Just an improv piece oh, okay.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
Yeah, so I mean, it wasn't you know.
People were like oh, what songis that?

Speaker 1 (40:11):
I was like I don't know, I didn't name it yet.

Speaker 3 (40:13):
I was like I gotta write down all the parts for it.
I don't even remember why.
I had just gotten Reddit and Iwas like, eh, why not?
I thought it was cool.
I was like I'll throw it onthere.
And it got to.
It got to the front page and umstarted getting calls and or
not calls, messages, some lessappropriate than others.

Speaker 1 (40:38):
Um, especially on.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
Reddit.
Yes, there are some strangepeople out there.

Speaker 2 (40:43):
that's when he said he found you on Reddit.

Speaker 4 (40:45):
I'm like what kind of guy are we dealing with here?
Yeah there's a certain imageattached to a Redditor the
stereotypical Redditor.
It's a red beard, not a neckbeard okay, this is in the good
example category on how it doesdo positive things.

Speaker 3 (41:02):
Yeah.
So out of that positive, therewas one message that I got on
Reddit that some lady said hey,I was planning to kill myself
tonight and I saw this video andthis music just hit me
different.
It hit me deep in my soul and Ican't go through with it and

(41:26):
thank you for putting this outthere.
That's heavy, wow, and I was.
I get I still get shivers.

Speaker 4 (41:32):
And especially like that wasn't like a piece, a
piece like that you memorize oryou know it was just like
literally spontaneous.
Okay, god, whatever you got,yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
Let's let it flow from my fingers too Full conduit
.

Speaker 4 (41:44):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:49):
And flow from my full conduit yeah, yeah, yeah and uh
.
The fact that you know I meanall the things that had to align
for that person to hear thatpiece of music at that time, uh,
to me was very much a?
Uh sort of confirmation fromgod that there's.
I gave you these gifts for areason.

Speaker 4 (42:05):
You need to share them with so now it's almost you
almost feel like somewhatobligated.
Is that what I kind of Iimagine I would feel?

Speaker 3 (42:12):
so yeah, Almost in a way Like I mean, I don't
necessarily obligated.
It has a negative connotationbut I would just have that
driven desire to to help peoplein general and I mean I've
always had a, uh, very helpfulsort of mentality.
I'm surprised I didn't end upas a you know emt somewhere.

Speaker 4 (42:33):
Yeah, I mean, it wasn't emt, so well, I did that
too, jack of all trades.

Speaker 3 (42:39):
That's somebody I want on site hey, I've, I've
used it a few times on site, Imean that's I bet it's been some
Lots of.
But good, I guess I've alwayswanted to find, you know,
acquire information, learnsomething new every day.
Yeah, you know.
If that's like a key takeaway Iwould say is always try to find
something new to learn.

Speaker 4 (43:00):
Yeah, not be stagnant , because knowledge is power.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Right, for sure they don't measure strength in kips
for no reason, right,killingtons or whatever that is,
but yeah, so getting back tothat, I don't even remember
where I was, but basically atthat point I was like I need to
embrace this.

Speaker 4 (43:18):
And that was right out of the gate.

Speaker 3 (43:19):
That was right out of the gate the first viral video
10 million views, plus none ofmy platform, because I didn't
have a platform.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
But I think back now.

Speaker 3 (43:27):
I'm like boy wouldn't I like those monetized videos
at that point.
But you know, yeah, so yeah,right out of the gate it was.

Speaker 4 (43:35):
So then are you like okay, now I should probably
pursue this a little bit moreseriously.
Now it's like what were yournext steps after that?

Speaker 3 (43:47):
Did you like?
Turned my phone on silent.
Good call.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
There was a lot of notifications.

Speaker 3 (43:53):
But yeah, no, I kind of I was like man, I gotta
figure out how to do this moreoften and keep it entertaining
and also kind of let the passionthat I have kind of flow
through and into that andutilize these unique spaces and
things.
And so that was I mean.
Next steps was start makingmore videos and start a YouTube

(44:17):
channel and oh, distrokid, let'sget on Spotify and youtube
music and all that stuff.
So it's been a slow progressionin the past and this was four
years ago almost five, wow, whenthis, when my first video, went
.

Speaker 2 (44:33):
So I've a long time coming, dude yeah, yeah so cut
fast forward from your firstvideo a little bit to when you
applied and got accepted intoSecond Chance, the show on HBO.
How much time between youcreating videos and then getting

(44:54):
on the show was there?
Were you at it making videosfor a couple years before the
show got going?

Speaker 3 (44:58):
Yes, so I was making videos for about three, four
years before the show got going?
Yes, so I was making videos forabout three, four years before
the show and I was actuallyworking in South Dakota and the
audition tape that I submittedwas me playing one of my flutes
in the hotel pool area becauseof the acoustics.

(45:23):
I will do a lot of strangethings for acoustics.
I'm just saying Anybody knowwhere I can find the deep
underground Minneapolis.
Not get killed, but also getsome dope scenes, I know a guy.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
So you walk into rooms, let's talk.
Yeah, I have this weird thingwhere I go anywhere, I look at
their chimney and if I see achimney that's in bad condition,
I'm like, oh hell, yeah, theyneed repair.
Whereas you walk in a room, yousense the acoustics.
You're like, oh man, I want toplay in here.
First thing I look at iswhere's the exits?

Speaker 3 (45:58):
And call me strange.
I am strange, strange and Iaccept that.
Embrace it, because my strangeis cool, bro, he's a CIA agent,
I know it.
We don't use the three letteragencies.

Speaker 4 (46:09):
No, the agency.
Correct me, the agency.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Nobody tell that guy.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Strange fire.

Speaker 3 (46:20):
Mutualize.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
You send your audition tape in and you get
accepted into the show.
I can only assume you've neverdone any sort of show like this.
What is that process like?
I'm sure everything's spinning.
Now you've got a blue collar.
I'm sure you're like oh my God,I have to miss work.
I'm sure that was a big dealyes.

Speaker 3 (46:44):
So when I got the call then I got that it was
confirmed on the show they werelike, okay, we need you down
here in kansas city and it couldbe one day, it could be two
weeks.
Like, well, great, that's gonnabe.
I gotta call my boss and say,hey, I need to be gone for
either a day or two weeks In away, you know.

(47:05):
Fortunately, I was at a positionwhere I could kind of and
that's something with the tradesas well is you, can you get
paid good, when you work and youdon't get paid when you don't?
We don't have PTO, we don'thave stuff like that, we don't
have stuff like that.
I had been able to establishmyself in the company to the
point where, if I didn't show upfor two weeks because I had
something else going on or avacation or whatever, hey,

(47:28):
that's fine, we got a spot foryou when you come back.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Yeah, so I've been really blessed, whereas if
you're one of the newer guys onsite, they probably would laugh
Well.

Speaker 3 (47:36):
Oh, you take two weeks off.
Okay, fine, we'll go getsomebody else from the hall and
you don't have a job when youget back, because I couldn't say
anything either.
Like it's Super secret, hush,hush.
You know, here's the contractand if you say anything about
the show before we film it, itairs.
There's millions of dollars inpenalties and fines.

Speaker 4 (47:55):
When you had to pitch it to your boss, you had to be
like, hey, I can't tell you.

Speaker 3 (47:59):
I need two weeks off.
Potentially I might be back onmonday, but I need two weeks off
, okay, I mean sure, whatever Iwas, like just trust me, just
trust it's gonna be fun, it'sgonna be epic hard secret like
can I get some you know eganswag or something you know yeah?
Yeah, yeah, I mean, make itworth your Well, and then, I

(48:21):
kind of went a little dark onthe, on my posting and stuff too
, cause I had to.
You know there's differentthings you got to abide by and I
uh, but so yeah, so I'm an ironworker, right, I don't do this.
I'm on a TV show.
Like what am I supposed to do?
I looked at it as a two weekvacation, so I drove down there

(48:42):
from.
I was in sioux falls at thetime.
I was like it's only afive-hour drive.
I got this, I'll have my carthere, I can tool around town
whatever I get there, show up tothis hotel that I've, you know
the likes of, which I've workedon but never stayed at.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
I was like oh, it's kind of cool, okay, bringing the
country to the city.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Oh, man, it was good.
It was a really swanky hoteland we had personal assistant
they call them wranglers tobasically keep track of
everybody and hey, if you needsomething, we'll help you here.
We've got to have you here.
You need to be on this set.
On this time Got to meet abunch of really interesting

(49:22):
people, but it was very umsecluded.
You know they didn't wantpeople interacting with other oh
, you can't mingle with yourneighbor, right?

Speaker 4 (49:31):
yeah?

Speaker 3 (49:31):
because they're like, oh, we don't want to have, um,
people having an unfairadvantage or, you know,
colluding with somebody else orshowing favoritism.
But there was a time I got inthere and my wife and kids I
have two boys were back inWisconsin and I was sitting in

(49:54):
this hotel room about to go on astage on a theater, like a
fancy stage with the lights, thewhole completely foreign to
anything I'd really experienced,you know, on the ironworking
side, and I'm like had you everperformed in front of people?
I have.
Yes, I mean I had.
At that point I had played um ashow out in Oregon.

(50:16):
Uh, the flute stock musicfestival.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Oh nice.

Speaker 3 (50:20):
Yeah, it was tons of fun.
I actually ended up getting tosounds like invited on to the
main stage with the grammywinning artists like mary uh,
mary youngblood and rona yellowrobe.
Tommy graven like dang that'sso cool timothy gomez, like
these guys are likeprofessionals and they, you know

(50:42):
, I was kind of rated along withthem and that was that's so
cool man I feel like I was likeI don't know half the imposter
syndrome exactly, yes, uh, butthey were very kind, very um we
jammed, you know, and I lovejust getting together and
jamming.
But so, yes, I have playedbefore audiences, but nothing

(51:02):
quite quite like on the TV showkind of thing, because it is.
It's very different when you'rerunning the same thing like six
, seven, eight times and it'slike, okay, we're going to
change this a little bit.
Or oh, we don't like this take.
Oh, there was sound on this onethat we got to change.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
It brings a certain level of like.
You almost have to act a littlebit too, oh, absolutely.
Yeah.
Kind of show.
Like you know, do the same, cutsix, eight times.
You got to like kind of pretendto be as genuine as number one,
right.
Well, and then Certain level.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
Especially when you're talking about, you know,
heavy subjects.
You know, like my dad'ssituation and the other lady and
how the flute side of thingskind of got really started and
it's like, okay, I got to seethat and have that same energy,
that same emotion, but then theI'm tired, I'm cramping up, I

(51:51):
got to take a drink or take aleak you know, but it kind of
gave me a greater appreciationfor how TV shows are made.
But to get the luck to get backto that that day, for how TV
shows are made, but to get backto that day.
So I'm there, I got my workgear on right.

Speaker 2 (52:09):
That's one question I had.
Who made the call on the hardhat and the high vest?

Speaker 1 (52:14):
Mwah.
Great move, that's hard.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Especially, that's what you're comfortable doing.
Exactly, I was hoping it wasyour call.
It would have felt so muchdifferent if they were like you
need to wear this, they said areyou sure you want to pretend to
be an iron worker on stage?
I was like whoa whoa, whoa,whoa.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
I ain't pretending to be an iron worker, I am an iron
worker.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
You got to represent the boys out there.

Speaker 3 (52:40):
Yes, absolutely 5-1-2 .
Gotta represent the boys outthere.
Yes, absolutely, I want to theuh the producers of the show are
chip and joanna gains from thehome or magnolia network I don't
know if the fixer upper showand so he's very much
construction, you know,rehabbing houses and stuff, and

(53:00):
he was just like dude.
That is crazy, he's likeeverybody is dressed to the
nines.
They got their makeup and theirfancy clothes and their awesome
.
You know episodes of airing alltheir stuff.
You know, like they've all gotthis extreme talent.
And here I am with the stick onone shoulder and a bolt bag on

(53:21):
the other.

Speaker 4 (53:23):
Honestly, that's not a bad idea, just from, if you
were to pursue it like I'm goingto win this thing, it's like
because everyone wants theunderdog to win, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 (53:31):
Well, it catches your attention immediately too.

Speaker 3 (53:34):
We had to turn the vest inside out because of the
glare of the reflective strapson the cameras, so I was like I
kind of look like a dork.

Speaker 4 (53:43):
That guy's faking it.
He's got it inside out, right,right.
I can imagine that.

Speaker 1 (53:48):
That's not a real iron worker.

Speaker 3 (53:49):
He's just look at it, he's got his vest on backwards
it ain't even dirty, what thehell.
I had to get a clean one.
I will say this they actuallycalled the hall to get approval
to air the stickers on my hardhat.

Speaker 2 (54:04):
Oh sure.

Speaker 3 (54:05):
Because all that stuff has to go through illegal
Whoa.
So they get a call yes, so thepresident of our union and Barry
Davies gets a call, and it wasthat night.
They didn't figure out thatthey I was like I'm not taking
this off't figure out that theyI was like I'm not taking this
off.

Speaker 4 (54:23):
It's like an afterthought and I'm not
covering up all my stickers.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
I already had to cut the company names off from, you
know, the other stickers, likefor different parts.
I was like, okay, I can do that, you know.
But then so, yeah, are you amember in good standing with
your hall?
Yep, I pulled my phone, okay.
Yep, my dues are paid, I'm good.
And so, yeah, she calls thehall and I met Barry maybe once

(54:47):
or twice, and she's like do youknow this ironworker, paul
Harvey, I'm so-and-so with thisTV show, blah, blah, blah.
And he's like, oh yes,absolutely Great, great, great
guy, great ironworker,upstanding.
Yo, nice, we'll give youpermission to to.
You know, they basically had tosign off to allow 512s um
identity or whatever visualbranding so that was.

(55:09):
That was fun.
I was glad that they were ableto approve that.
And then I went out on stageand uh, kind of hit them with uh
yeah were you?

Speaker 2 (55:18):
were you confident walking out there?

Speaker 3 (55:20):
Yes and no.
The same kind of energy, if youwill.
Where, if I'm up 400 feet inthe air walking on a four-inch
beam that I'm trying to take andbolt up?
Windy windy as shit yeah it'slike I've faced situations,
actual life or death situations,something like this.

(55:40):
It's a different category.
It's very nerve wracking, butit's also, in a way, comforting,
because I'm in my uniform, I'vegot my flute, I know what I'm
doing.
I know that all these peopleare super talented and probably
way more talented than I am, butI'm going to go out here and
I'm going to make these peoplefeel what I feel and what I was

(56:03):
able to help other people feel,you know, throughout this past
few years journey of playingthese flutes.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
Dude, that's a good like ingredient to just dilute
any amount of stage fright.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Oh absolutely.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
It's like that kind of mindset is huge yeah.
Fall off the stage, will I die?

Speaker 4 (56:21):
No, and plus you're not.
You're like you said.
I've been in life likelife-threatening situations
every day.
It's like this ain't reallynothing yeah, it's like having
that physical uh threat kind ofjust like non-existent right.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Yeah, that's I think you said it best where it's like
you've been in actual fearsituations where on stage it's
just nerves you don't need tofear anything, nothing bad is
gonna happen to you.
It because I I can't evenimagine like I was even kind of
looking at the crowd to see ifit was a big crowd and I was
like, oh, I would be so nervous.

(56:53):
And so you, you do your firstperformance, absolutely kill it.
Crowd goes crazy, judges loveit.
When you were told you weremoving on, did you kind of, did
you feel it coming, or were youcounting yourself out?

Speaker 3 (57:06):
I was counting myself out because there were some
pretty talented people like Iwas able to listen backstage and
I was like now, if I was ajudge, I'd pick that you know,
and then, when they did call myname, I was just like there was
a you know butterflies in thestomach like, oh, dude, I Part
of my head was thinking this isawesome.
Part of my head is like I gotto call the boss and tell him

(57:26):
that I'm not coming back to workon Monday.

Speaker 2 (57:28):
That is blue collar, right there.
I need more time off man.

Speaker 4 (57:32):
Fucking Ronnie's going to do the layout and just
fuck everything up, dude.

Speaker 3 (57:36):
Like.
Sorry, corey you're stuck withthe Apprentice this time.
But yeah, so that was prettycrazy and actually so I didn't
have any family members, youknow, because they usually have,
you know, family or whatever,backstage.
My brother-in-law was downdoing some training in the
military, only a couple hoursfrom Kansas City, and so he was

(57:59):
able to come up on the show andkind of be there to support me
and stuff.
So that was really fun.

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Yeah, just to have a familiar face around.
He cried more than I did.
Oh man, that's so awesome.
So for people that are notfamiliar with the show, just to
catch them up, the show iscalled Second Chance.
The first season came out.
It was eight episodes.
The first six were contestantscompeting to get into the final

(58:27):
rounds.
Was it five or six contestantseach show?
Uh, there was, I believe, five.
I want to say five, five, fivecontestants will just like
american idol, go on the stage.
There's three judges out there.
They'll do their thing and thenat the end they'll pull them
all out and pick a winner.
And so you get picked for thewinner on your episode.

(58:48):
You're going to the finals.
How many days between yourepisode and the final?
And what are you doing inbetween?

Speaker 3 (58:55):
So in between the finale and my winning the
episode.
So my episode was filmed firstand I was able to basically sit
in the hotel room and not spy onanybody else and their
performances or figure out whowas going to be in the finale
with me until the very end.
That was probably four or fivedays, because each episode was

(59:17):
filmed per night.
So one night they filmed oneepisode, the next night they
filmed the next.
So there was six, I believe,yeah, six episodes, so six
nights that they filmed, and sothat was kind of nerve wracking
too.
It was like I felt pampered asall get out you know, like
here's some food, here's someper diem, here's some this, you

(59:37):
know, we'll take care of you.
There was filming other thingsin between there and this, you
know, we'll take care of you.
There was filming other thingsin between there, um, but for
the most part it was just beavailable.
If we need you, we'll give youa call.
Oh, that's cool, and so I would.
Just.
I went, uh, peruse the city ofkansas before, uh, yeah they're
like okay, you can't do anyjujitsu while you're here

(59:58):
because we can't have yougetting hurt, because we need to
film this and we get this tightschedule, so please don't do
anything.
Naughty, I was like me, naughtyand yeah, so that was that was
oh man it was.
It was a very surrealexperience.
It was like a a vacation.
You know, I didn't have my wifeor kids with me, so it was like

(01:00:19):
I'm just gonna walk around townand blow some flutes.

Speaker 4 (01:00:26):
Curious tangent.
What is there?

Speaker 3 (01:00:28):
to do in Kansas.
Thank.

Speaker 2 (01:00:28):
God.
The next word was flutes.

Speaker 3 (01:00:34):
The food there is really good.
Really.
Yeah, there's a lot ofdifferent barbecue spots that
you can hit Like.
Joe's Barbecue is probably myfavorite.
Um, what's the other?
One stacks another.
Pretty decent, I mean, for asfar north as kansas city is they
got some pretty hoppingbarbecue that was going to be my
first guess.

(01:00:54):
It's like I bet they gotbarbecue down there oh god, yes,
yeah yeah, some good, some goodit's good to hear.
It's good to hear that so ifyou're ever down there, it's
definitely a sweet spot to checkout.

Speaker 4 (01:01:03):
Because I imagine, I imagine, if you go outside of
Kansas City, it's probably notmuch.

Speaker 3 (01:01:07):
Yeah, no, not really, I don't.
I mean, I was able to find aflute circle and so you just
call out the homing beacon.
Yep.
So there's circle um in a lotof places where basically just
people that are playing theflute will get together and jam.
And I talked to the production.
I was like, hey, if I don'ttell them why I'm here or who I

(01:01:29):
really am, would you mind if Iwent and joined this?
And they're like yeah, sure you.
Just, you know, keep your mouthshut or we'll gut you.
You know, not exactly.
Okay, I didn't.
Actually.
They didn't actually say thatthat was just.

Speaker 2 (01:01:40):
We'll just take millions from you.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
Right, but it was a lot of fun to be able to just
kind of get out there.
I did a lot of walking, I waspreparing, so that was in April,
and in that October I wasrunning my first half marathon,
and running may be a bit stretchof the word, but uh, I was, uh

(01:02:05):
I was, so I was practicing.
I was like doing a lot ofwalking, kind of getting some
training in a little bit too,yep there was right in the end
of march madness and stuff, so Imean they're right in the light
district and there was uh,shack was doing a djing event,
so we went to that oh, that'sawesome I mean just just
chilling around, you know I meanit's like cool and it was kind

(01:02:26):
of bustling a little bit yeah,you know stuff to
do in between yeah, that's cool,it is kind of like a vacation
it was it really was.
It was like a vacation.
I didn't have to pay for thehotel.
I mean, I was like gee, that'syeah that's cool well, my family
was here, but actually for thefinale.
They flew my wife and kids downNice, so that was super cool.

Speaker 2 (01:02:45):
How old are the kiddos?

Speaker 3 (01:02:47):
Six and nine.

Speaker 2 (01:02:50):
Oh sure, so they're getting to an age where you can
do a lot more fun stuff too.

Speaker 3 (01:02:53):
Oh yeah, we do martial arts together in Eau
Claire Coquito.
It's a Korean martial art andmy oldest and I are in the same
class and my youngest has adifferent class that they do, so
it's been.

Speaker 4 (01:03:07):
That's so cool, dude.
I bet that's like really goodfor the development too.

Speaker 3 (01:03:11):
Oh yeah, just watching how they've grown and
how they've kind of developedconfidence, and I mean my son
can get up in front of peopleand read you know, out loud.
I mean, like he's my oldest ismore um animated like I am, so

(01:03:36):
it's.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
It's been really neat to just kind of definitely
outgoing, not uh fear of peopleis definitely not something
that's big deal around aroundyour house, I can assume Not
generally.
And so, listening to your introfor your first episode, you
talk about how you came from avery musical family and you guys
would go perform at churchesand nursing homes.

(01:03:58):
So I'm sure you know thinking,thinking now, performing for
people.
For you, that's just somethingyou grew up around.

Speaker 3 (01:04:04):
Definitely.
Something that came naturallyto me was performing in front of
other people, be it withaccents, plays, stage combat,
music.
It's just something that I'mvery open and jovial that's a
good word for it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:22):
Yeah, so I can only assume, based off of the person
that I know now, you weren't toocrushed when you didn't get
picked in the finale.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Spoiler alert.
Spoiler but.

Speaker 2 (01:04:32):
I can assume you took the just the experience over
the, actually winning Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:04:39):
It wasn't just the worst thing that could have ever
happened to you would I haveminded having 100 grand you know
to I don't know, get a studio,play some music somewhere you
know, yeah, yeah, was there evera?

Speaker 4 (01:04:51):
point where you're like, holy shit, I might
actually win, or did you justtry not to like have that
mindset?

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
yeah, I really try to kind of keep that.
Yeah, you know, because andthat's the thing is like, even
with you know, I've got probablyyou know 100 000 plus
subscribers throughout thedifferent platforms and should I
be monetizing, like you know,merch and this, that the other
thing like making this actuallymake me money, and I haven't
really taken that step yetbecause that's what I kind of

(01:05:21):
want to be, make sure that myreasoning behind it is staying
that pure.
Not to say that you can't doboth.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
You don't want it to affect the authenticity.

Speaker 3 (01:05:31):
Right, I don't want to be too.
Oh, I got to make this so I canmake money, or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:05:38):
Launch a meme coin or something Well, I don't know,
the Paul coin, or something, the, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:05:43):
The Paul coin the fleet guy Harcat Harvey.
I'm buying it now.

Speaker 3 (01:05:48):
Hashtag.
So yeah, no, I've.
Where were we on that one?

Speaker 4 (01:05:56):
I was just riding along with you.
I'm going to need that alphabrain stuff, right?

Speaker 3 (01:06:01):
Smelling salts.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
That's just about it.

Speaker 3 (01:06:03):
I just asked if you, if you were crushed, oh yeah,
when you didn't win so keepingthat mentality of you know I'm,
the experience that I'm gettinghere, the to meet these people,
to see these other places um,that's super fulfilling in and
of itself, yeah.
So so that was really kind ofcool and crucial in a way too,

(01:06:24):
because, yeah, you could, itcould be easily like man
focusing in on the money and I'mnot going to talk to anybody
else, I'm not going to networkwith these people, they're just
in the way of me.
You know, yeah, and I think Iwas able to avoid that.

Speaker 4 (01:06:38):
I bet some characters kind of do have that mindset.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
Oh, I'm sure it's human nature, you know I mean,
but it was, I mean just afantastic group of people From
Magnolia Networks, from Max.
They were all really great towork with, honestly, like they
were super cool, good experienceall around.
Yeah, the filming crew would bedoing push-ups.

(01:07:00):
You know, and you know, and itwas just fun.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
It's good to hear a story like this because I swear
most people that's not how itwent Normally, their experience,
they weren't treated right orit wasn't how they expected, but
it's nice to hear a happy storyabout something like this.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
Well, it was a lot of fun.
I mean, my wife was probablymore jealous of me getting to
give a kiss to Martina McBridethan you know anything else.

Speaker 1 (01:07:25):
But yeah, well, no, she was like uh she's a big fan,
so it was.

Speaker 3 (01:07:32):
it was neat.

Speaker 2 (01:07:32):
She was wishing it was her.
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:34):
Yeah, there was a few people that were.

Speaker 3 (01:07:36):
You know, I try not to be star struck, you know,
because people are people.

Speaker 4 (01:07:42):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
If I got you with a knife, you're going to bleed the
same as I am.

Speaker 4 (01:07:46):
Everyone takes shits, exactly yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
Yeah, that's the more better way to put it, unless
you're Kim Jong-un.
Yeah, oh yeah, shout out.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
Well, paul, this, this episode.
This episode is awesome and Iknow the viewers are going to
love it.
Thank you so much for coming onthe pod today.
Do you have any socials?
You want to plug Anything wherethe people can find you?

Speaker 3 (01:08:08):
Sure, I mean, it's been an honor to be here and
just hang out with you guys.
I've never been on a podcastbefore, so this is really cool.
I mean, it's like hearing myown voice.

Speaker 4 (01:08:25):
We appreciate it.
Man, you're a like superfascinating guy, like genuinely
and very like very authentic,and you know just great to have
you uh, um, yeah, socials.
Then if you have like any other, like last and final thoughts
or anything, uh, yeah, no, Ithink.

Speaker 3 (01:08:37):
So socials would be paul harvey guy as it sounds on
YouTube tick tock um pretty muchanywhere you can find music.
Uh, spotify, paypal, did I?

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
say that Dude we should do an outro.
We got to have an outro tune.

Speaker 3 (01:08:57):
Absolutely.
You got to pick a flute andyeah, do you want to give?

Speaker 4 (01:09:00):
us a quick rundown, cause that was one thing that
I'm me myself very curious on.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
Paul Harvey flute guy Anywhere online.
That's nice, subscribe that'sso sweet.

Speaker 2 (01:09:12):
You got to be on radio, man.
I actually was.

Speaker 4 (01:09:16):
Part two coming soon.

Speaker 3 (01:09:19):
We can make this a thing.
They just keep coming.
These are just a few of myflutes.
I have more.

Speaker 2 (01:09:30):
Are flutes a pricey thing to add into your
collection?
I can only assume it looks likethe Craftsmanship is amazing.

Speaker 3 (01:09:36):
What kind of wood is this?
Would you care to hazard aguess?
Which one is the most expensiveStaff?
What is this?

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
So would you care to hazard a guess which one's the
most expensive?
I Staff the one on the endright there, not the super.
That one's really catching myeye.

Speaker 3 (01:09:50):
You were correct in this one.
This one is the most expensive.
This is made out of koa wood.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
Nice dude.

Speaker 3 (01:09:56):
And it is an alternating aeolian drone flute,
so there's holes on the backfor the thumbs and it's a key of
C.
This one's made by MiguelMedina of Singing Tree Flutes.
I just got to plug them becausethey're awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:10:14):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (01:10:14):
Like these guys.
I mean like look at this.
This is wild and crazy.
How much goes into making these.

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
Unbelievable wild and crazy how much goes into making
these unbelievable.

Speaker 4 (01:10:33):
Yeah, dude it's so deep, the sound is so deep and
full.
Yeah, like are there chambersin there?

(01:10:56):
Like, how does it give off that?

Speaker 3 (01:10:57):
so the single ones, the single flutes, are just one.
It's a slow air chamber thatthis piece here they call it the
sound block.
It forces the air from thisopen chamber across.

Speaker 4 (01:11:12):
Like a choke kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:11:13):
Yes, and so you can adjust that and change it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
I love it, dude.

Speaker 4 (01:11:29):
Dude, I'm in a hobbit .

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
I feel like a samurai or something dude.
Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:11:32):
Dude, I love the little insignia on it too.
That's fire.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
That's fire.
This one is High Spirits.
They're more of a kind of amass-produced flute, commercial,
if you will, whereas theseother ones are homemade.
So this one is.
Eugene Ewing Actually just sentme a new flute which I haven't

(01:11:58):
played yet.
I don't have it with me, but Ireally like played, yet I don't
have it with me, but I reallylike this one yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:12:16):
So bright and peppy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:23):
So this one, you can see it's the drone flute.
There's two separate flutesside by side.
One side has the melody sideand the other one plays just
that single continuous drone,and I am a sucker for drone
flutes.

Speaker 2 (01:12:38):
Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (01:12:39):
So if you, have one that you play or one that you
make and want to send it to me.
W I S Paul Harvey.
At gmailcom is my Gmail emailaccount.
You can find it wherever youfind Paul Harvey flute guy Just
saying, just saying, or placesto play.
I'm always looking for placesto play.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
That.
That makes so much sense withthe drum.
I wondered how you play the twodifferent sounds.
That is amazing, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:13:06):
This one is a Kenny King walking stick drone flute.
Dude, it's got the fractal burnpattern on it.

Speaker 2 (01:13:17):
It's just the craftsmanship that goes into
these.

Speaker 4 (01:13:20):
It doubles as a walking it, as a walking staff
or hitting stick he makes oneswith a blade in the bottom.

Speaker 3 (01:13:29):
I'm just saying I haven't seen one yet, I haven't
gotten one yet, but he does, hedoes amazing work and this one
is probably Probably my favoriteGenuine craftsmanship Dude
shout out.

Speaker 4 (01:13:41):
That's phenomenal.

Speaker 2 (01:13:50):
This one's definitely my favorite, even better with

(01:14:23):
the go-ahead even better.

Speaker 3 (01:14:23):
Bravo uh, but yeah so no, those are just a couple of
the flutes that I have.
Wow, um, you can find me againanywhere with paul harvey flute
guy flute, not food, okay, Iknow I'm sure that's a different
but yeah, so that wouldhonestly um YouTube, probably

(01:14:45):
where I post the most TikTok.
Spotify, um I got a couplepeople that follow me on
Instagram.
Uh, nothing, it's really like Isaid blown up, blown up per se
usually it's other platformsthat take my stuff, and then
it's like eh well, whatever youknow, at least it's getting out
there.

Speaker 2 (01:15:03):
Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:15:04):
That's the thing is, somebody is going to be blessed
by it, one way or another.

Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
That's a good way to look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Well, Paul Harvey, I won't keep any more of your time
.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:15:14):
It's been awesome, man.
Thanks again.

Speaker 2 (01:15:16):
Comment.
Subscribe on the episode please.
This was amazing.
Thank you for listening.
That's it.
We're out of here, boys.
No Cody today.
Fuck Cody.

Speaker 3 (01:15:29):
Cody, I don't even know you, but you sound like you
belong on a swing stage.
Barbosan's chair.