Nick Flood Part 2 of 2 (Vince Flynn memories)

Episode Transcript

(00:15):
Welcome.
Welcome to the KindnessChronicles, where once again, we
hope to inject the world.
Please don't do that.
Hope to inject the world with adose of the Minnesota kindness
that it desperately needs.
this is part two of our two partvisit with Nick Flood.
Back to Vince.
When Vince started becomingfamous and let's face it, he

(00:37):
became famous.
Oh yeah.
One of the things that struck meabout him, and I'll never, ever
forget this, is he used to do, abook signing at Harmar Mall.
At the Barnes and Noble.
So I showed up and you know,Vince once Upon a Time was a, it
was a good buddy of mine.
I mean, he was never first tier,second tier friend, but you

(00:58):
know, he was at my wedding forGod's sake.
Yeah.
So then he made that, you know,he was in that, that circle.
Yeah.
And I waited in line to, to havemy book signed.
Yeah.
And when I got up there, he islike, why did you wait in line?
Why didn't you just come uphere?
And he gets up and he gives me ahug.
And you know, he was a littleweird about human interaction

(01:21):
because he would always get sickwhen he would do these.
When he would do these.
He learned, well, just thegerms, I mean, shaking hands
with everybody.
And I'll just never forget how.
Just, I thought, what a greatguy.
And he was damn famous at thetime.
We ran into him at the statefair one time and I had my, the
little kids were with, and Imean, he was just, he was, he

(01:43):
was kind of like your mom in thesense that he would talk to
those little kids, like theywere real people and wanted to
actually get to know them.
He made people feel specialbased.
Yeah.
And feel like they matter.
Loyal.
Loyal would be the word.
I'll Nick, you were about to saysomething.
Yeah.
He just, he just had this way, Ithink of making everyone that he

(02:05):
encountered feel comfortable.
and it was.
You, he would, he would talk tome about the same thing after
every book tour.
Oh yeah.
I know I'm gonna get sickbecause is, you know.
Yeah.
And, um, but Well, and thatimpacted him, you know, at when
he was actually sick.
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Like he couldn't tour the waythat he used to because he
didn't, uh, he didn't tour for Ithink the last book or two for
sure.

(02:26):
Um,'cause he was just, I mean,being conservative and airing on
the side of caution, which, whocan blame him there?
Yeah.
So to go with the, your stories,my, my wife told me a story.
So my wife worked at Care Levinfor a while and she was in the
studio and she was always therewhen guests came through.
She was a part of the in studioproduction.
And Vince Flynn came through asa promotion for one of his books

(02:46):
and she said.
Not only is he charming and goodlooking, but he made friends
with everyone in the crew.
He talked to everybody.
That's so cool.
He walked around and just, youknow, not in the, in the most
genuine way she goes, he leftand everyone was just like, oh
man, that guy, everyone justloved that guy.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it, it wasn't a show.
That's, that was the best partabout it., Like you said, he was

(03:07):
the same guy when he got famousas he was when he was serving
drinks at, at O'Gara.
It was interesting, um, youknow, at, at certain points, um,
when you get to be that famous,so many people are reaching out
for this and that, and, youknow, there was a couple times
where, where we'd get a, a textwith a group of friends going,

(03:29):
okay, don't give anyone my cellphone number, please.
Mm-hmm.
I got, I got too many peoplereaching out right now.
Yeah.
Um, but boy, he always, and healways, he always loyal to the
end.
Um, I believe Sue Shere was the,he always had to be the first,
yeah, the first radio show thatRight.
That he went on.

(03:49):
And, um, but I mean, he was, heseemed to have an incredible
memory too.
'cause when he would go on toIUs or Carol Levin or whatever,
he would say, I remember when Iwas here at, on this date and
this time.
And they're like, wow, you havea better memory than me.
And I'm thinking, well, that'sprobably his dyslexia, his gift

(04:09):
that he called it.
And probably just his research.
And it's probably just all.
Like top of mind.
So he started connecting dotsand was just better at it than
anybody could be.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He also had this, you know, notonly, a great writing talent,
but just verbally tellingstories.
The guy would tell a story andthat I was at You were a

(04:33):
character.
Yeah.
He'd be telling, you know, sixor seven people and spinning
this yarn and I'd be sittingthere going, man, he's making
this sound way better than iteven was when, when it happened
and we were there.
That's yeah.
Why ruin?
Uh, there we go.
You know, good story with thefacts.
His brother's good storytellertoo, so.
Oh yeah.
I wonder if it's a, it's thefamily.

(04:53):
I, oh yeah.
I think, I think it is.
And, and you know, you talkabout the, the memory for
details his oldest brother Danmm-hmm.
Is incredible just.
Remembering things, remembering,especially having to do with
athletics and statistics.
And I mean, even down in yardagefrom games that were 15, 20

(05:13):
years ago, I mean, that, that hedidn't play.
And you know, if some of those,when you're playing them, you're
like, oh yeah, I remember that.
But he, he tells us storiesabout when we were in high
school and he was in college,you know, and I'm just like, why
were you even at that game tostart?
But how do you remember this?
How do you know when I ran?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Let's talk about, um, let's talkabout you Nick as a friend.

(05:35):
Now let's keep talking aboutVince.
No, no.
But let's talk about, um,there's something special about
Vince's writing that involvesthis gentleman.
That's right.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Tell us General flood.
Yeah, yeah.
General flood.
You are a character chairman ofthe Joint Chiefs.
Yeah.
So what do you think of thatwhen you heard that or saw that?
Okay, so when I read the bookin, in three ring form?

(05:56):
Yeah.
Okay.
this is Vince in a nutshell, andanyone knows Vince will get a
kick out of this story, but I'mreading all of these characters,
you know, I talked to him aboutthis at one point and I said,
Vinny, tell me about thecharacters.
And, and what he wanted to dowas, you know, there's a lot of,
um, there's a lot of people andthere's a lot of positions and

(06:18):
there's a lot of governmentpeople and so he used all of
these names that, that we grewup with so he could keep'em all
straight.
Absolutely.
Sure.
Visualized blood.
Was your dad probably general?
No, general Flood was me.
Oh, he was?
Okay.
'cause when he, pardon me.
Well, no, here's the deal.

(06:41):
When I read the book and I'mlike, oh, general flood chairman
of the joint Chief.
That's nice.
Yeah, I got a mention in Vinny'sbook.
And the next line is adescription of flood.
An ex-college athlete carryingtoo much weight these days or
something like that.
I'm like, God.
So there it is, jackass.

(07:02):
There's, yeah, there it is.
There's my nice friend giving mea spot and then giving me a, a
cuff upside.
The head with, he pulled therug.
He did a compliment.
But, and then doesn't rookietalk about the fact that there's
a dog named Rookie Yes.
In one of the books?
Yeah, there's a, there's a dogrookie.
There's, Tracy, Steve Akin, wasMitch Rap.
Eric Rap?

(07:22):
Is that where that name camefrom?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't know for a fact,you know?
Yeah.
And, and he would, he would dodifferent things like, Mitch's
wife was Anna O'Reilly.
Yep.
And that's a combination of agirl named Anna Written and
Kristen Riley that were bothfriends of ours and school.
So school keep for him to keepit all straight school all to
keep the characters straight.
Yeah, that makes sense.
And his plan was, um, he toldme, well if I, if ever get

(07:45):
published, I'm just gonna go andchange the names.
And then he thought, well, waita minute, they're all good
character names.
They're all people that I know.
Yeah.
Everyone seems to get a kick outof this.
why not?
I'm just gonna leave it, I'mjust gonna leave it as is.
So General Flood was, chairmanof the Joint Chiefs and I think
it was maybe the fifth or sixthbook where I listened.

(08:11):
I listened on the way out toBoston to transfer of Power
chapter one.
Two minutes, 50 seconds into it.
Situation room Chairman of theJoint Chiefs, you are six foot
four, 240 pounds and you areJack Flood.
Okay.
Because at one point, uh, is hername Kennedy?
Um, yeah.
Irene Kennedy.
Irene Kennedy.
Irene Kennedy.

(08:31):
Yeah.
She, she's consulting with themand it's two Generals together.
Now, I don't know if that wasthe first book.
I'm still wading myself throughthe 14.
I So, so it was the first name,it was Jack Flood that at one
point they said, Jack, what doyou think?
And you, you, you said, yeah, goahead.
So I was like, picturing you,'cause I had met you at the, the
Mason event and I like, I hadyou in my mind when I was, you,

(08:54):
you talk about moments ofkindness.
Um, my wife and I had astillborn son.
Mm-hmm.
At 22 weeks, Jack Thomas Flood.
Oh, Jesus.
Whoa.
And, and you know, you thinkabout this, um, when something
like that happens, I.
It's, it's all you.
You're just something you'refacing.
Something that you never dreamedyou'd be going through.

(09:15):
Yeah.
So my whole thought in thisthing was, okay, well we're
gonna, we're gonna have thisservice and I'm gonna call five
six of my closest buddies whoall ended up kind of being STA
guys.
Yep.
Um, but you're not gonna reachout to too many more people and
go, right.
Would you like to?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(09:36):
Yeah.
So Vince started spreading theword to all sorts of Oh boy
guys.
My wife and I walk into thischurch, for the service of our
son and between my huge familyand.
Friends spreading the, thischurch out in Waconia is almost
full to the the back.

(09:56):
Oh my.
Oh God.
What a great for a child that wenever took home from the
hospital.
What a great friend.
Oh, yeah.
He, I am telling you, he was,wow.
He was a fantastic friend.
And, and what's interestingabout it is, is it wasn't, um,
it wasn't this, Vince, you're mybest friend Nick.
You're, you know, right.
I mean, we would give each otherhard time, more than, more than

(10:18):
any, you know, so, I mean, at,at, um, I, I think the best
compliment he ever gave me was,um, he asked me to be in his
wedding.
And I said, yeah, absolutely.
I'd, I'd love to do that.
And he said something to theeffect of, you've, you've been a
great influence on my life.
More than you'll, more thanyou'll ever know.
Oh God, Vince.
And, but yeah, I mean him, himtaking the time to, you know, so

(10:42):
that's a tribute to, yeah, Iguess.
General Flood ends up having thefirst name jack of our, of our
son.
Oh.
Oh my God.
So yeah, that's kind of a downerstory.
No, it's be beautiful story.
I have another one.
Sorry, I don't, I don't wannahog it or anything.
Well ahead.
John already taken over.
No, you let just for it brother.
Do you want another Yeah, justyou're our prepared.

(11:04):
So I can't remember her name,but I found an article in the
Catholic Spirit, uh, and youtook her to a military ball.
I did.
I did.
Yeah.
So can you e expand on that?
Because she wrote about adedication that he gave to his
wife Lisa, and it was verysweet.
Yeah.
So the, the woman's name is, isKathy Schneeman and she and her

(11:28):
husband Eric, um, were goodfriends with, with Vince and
Lisa.
Eric.
Eric was an STA guy.
Oh, good for you.
Oh, good for you.
Right.
I think I know this story.
He was a couple, he was a coupleyears older than us.
Um.
But he and Vince got to be verygood friends after college age
and, and with their wives beingfriends.
So, um, yeah.
So Kathy, her maiden name wasMcDonald, but I, I took her to a

(11:53):
dancer too in, in high school.
And then she went to St.
Thomas.
Wait a minute.
Was, what was her mom's name?
Ce.
Yeah.
Wonderful woman.
Yeah.
Listen to this worlds arecolliding here.
I know.
I, I figured they would, whenyou get worlds are colliding.
Wow.
So I show up on Saturday morningat the breakfast at, at, I was
meeting somebody for breakfastat Joseph's Father Malone, Joe

(12:17):
Nassif, who owns Joseph's.
Sure.
Uh, Steve Fritz c McDonald,who's one my mother knew'cause
she took classes at St.
Thomas at the same time.
I, I, what the hell?
What the, who are these?
The, the east side All stars orsomething.
Honest to God.
Wait, was your mother takingclasses at that time?
Yes.
No kidding?
Yes.
With CCE McDonald?
Yeah.

(12:37):
I used to love running into Mr.
So I walked in and my mom, Mr.
You know, Mr on campus, she wasfantastic.
If you're going to, she says ifyou're going to uh, Joseph's,
I'm sure CCE is gonna be therewith Father Malone.
'cause I wanted to ask FatherMalone to be on this and crazy
as I'm, and I'm like, which oneof you two there?
So there were two ladies there.
I said, which one of you two isCCE McDonald?

(12:58):
And she's like, well, that'd beme.
How do you know that?
I said, well, my mother said tocome looking.
Who's your mother?
Patch Whites.
Which patch?
Whites?
Because there's, yes.
Two pat in family.
In my family there's actuallythree.
Pat married a, a guy named Pat.
And then my mom pat.
Well that's confusing, but thefact that, that you went, I
mean, my God.

(13:18):
Yeah.
Worlds are colliding people.
Yeah.
Welcome to Saint Small.
Yeah, it is Saint Small, but soto answer your story yeah.
Kathy's article was, wasfantastic.
It really hit Vince on the head.
I think, she explains how, you'dbe in Murray Hall, which is kind
of the Gathering union when wewere there.
And you'd hear this loud voicefrom across the room.

(13:40):
And of course you'd turn aroundand it would be Vince.
He's telling stories andspinning yarn, telling story,
giving somebody a hard time,yucking it up.
And absolutely a, a legendaryguy.
we lost him at, what was helike, 47?
Um,'cause what do you now 50?
Yeah, I would that 2013.
So.
It'd been about 12, seven, yeah.

(14:01):
Four years ago.
40.
Yeah.
Holy smokes.
But man, too young.
He lived, he lived a life.
He did.
And he influenced a whole lot ofpeople.
And uh, yeah, we're stilltalking about him right now.
Well, he's had how many episodeson this?
Our show?
Well, he gets mentioned often'cause he's, you know, the
closest thing to a famous personthat we know other than kg.
My, my big question is, is therethings we can learn from him and

(14:22):
his example?
And that, that's why I took thetime to read about him.
And I thought for someone to bethat magnetic of a person and to
just have that aura, what is itabout them and is there things
we can, you know, learn fromthat?
When you look at this, and,Vince not only sold his book, he
sold himself, I mean, he, hestarted going around to

(14:45):
privately owned bookstores inthe Twin cities, the B the local
Barnes and Nobles, the local BDaltons out of Danny Wicker's
basement, and San here.
Can you put these on your shelf?
Let's see.
And, and he did, um, friends ofours, Mr.
And Mrs.
Tracy held a, a book signingevent at their house, and they

(15:06):
invited a bunch of theirfriends, and Tom invited a bunch
of his friends and, and so hehad a lot of determination about
his, his product.
He'd go, and you give your 20bucks cash and he'd give you a
book and sign it.
He signed mine.
My wife's name is Jill, and hemade a mistake and signed it,
Julie.
And he's like, oh, no, gimmethat thing back.
She's like, no, Vince, it's nobig deal.
Well, she held it over his headfor, of course.

(15:27):
Yeah, he should.
And, and he would.
So when he would call the house,he would ask for to ask for
Julie.
He would, he would.
When he got the answeringmachine, he'd start going,
Julie, Julie.
And then that was until ouryoungest daughter was born.
Uh, her name was Theresa Claris.
After her, after her grandma, I.

(15:49):
And when I sent out the text tomy buddies that, you know, Jill
had our, Jill had our daughterand said the name Vince right
away calls me and goes, did youreally call your daughter
Clarice?
And I said, no, no, Vince, it'sClare.
But every time he called thehouse after that, you, hello
Clarice.

(16:10):
How many children do you have?
I've got four girls.
Okay.
So four girls.
Wow.
Holy girl.
Dad.
It's a girl, dad.
Yeah.
You know, I'm a girl.
Dad.
How old are the, uh, the girls?
Uh, well, the oldest, the oldestturns, um, 28 tomorrow.
Oh, wow.
She and my wife share abirthday.
Oh wow.
Big birthday tomorrow.
Yeah.
And then the youngest is, um, is17.

(16:30):
So we had, we had four in, in,uh, in.
10 years.
What?
High school?.
my oldest, um, went to HolyFamily out in Victoria.
Oh, lovely.
Yeah, I live out in Waconia.
Oh, okay.
Wow.
And, um, then the other threehave all gone to, um, a little
school called Mayor Lutheran,which is Oh yeah, about five
miles west of Waconia.

(16:51):
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
Great, great.
Cool.
They, you know, it's kgs, uh,comic another girl dad.
You're a girl Dad.
Yep.
Too KG iss a girl dad.
Yep.
Yep.
Um, one of my boys are kind ofgirly boys, but, uh, your, your
dad, Nick.
I read a little about him.
Kg said Santa Cla and I didn'tknow if he, and so I found him,

(17:11):
uh, just through research, buthe did, I think I found your dad
did.
He had a big beard, but itlooked like he did a bunch of,
um, pioneering work for girlssports.
He, he kind of did, you know,St.
St.
Thomas College at the time.
Now the university, um, wentco-ed in, um, I wanna seventies,

(17:31):
I say 78 maybe.
Yeah.
If that sounds right, John.
Right around there.
Yep.
My dad had been there, you know,for a number of years at that
point.
he had coached hockey, whichnone of his sons ended up being
hockey players he coached men'sgolf, he was involved with
football for a couple seasons.
He did.
Um, wasn't he a track coach?
Track?
Yeah, he did, he did some trackand field, I think like the shot

(17:53):
put and the discus and that kindof stuff.
He, he coached that.
When they went coed, you know,and this is long before the, oh,
we have to do a national Titlenine Search for Coach.
Late seventies it seemed like.
It was like, okay, we're nowco-ed and we're gonna, we're
gonna have a, a girls' golfteam.
And my dad coached both the, themen's and the women's team.

(18:14):
Um, and then, uh, ended upgiving up the men's and, and
coached the, coached the women'sfor, I think, until he retired.
Um, I appreciated that as a dadwith daughters.
I read that and I just thought,what a good guy, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
It, and it, it, it wasinteresting because, and it's
probably not politically rightto say this, but you coach, go

(18:36):
ahead.
You coach men and womendifferently, you know?
Yeah.
I coached, I coached all mygirls in basketball and I
coached, you know, probably fouryears of boys basketball when
they were in junior high.
I mean, the boys.
They'll take every inch.
You get'em.
I mean, they, you, you gotta,you gotta keep the, keep it run
a tight practice.
Yeah.
Different psychologies, butYeah.
Yeah.

(18:56):
When they start screwing around,you get'em on the line and run
'em to get their attention andYeah.
Um, girls, yeah, you, Idefinitely, uh, you know, was a
little different approach.
I was definitely a little softerand it was, I basically was like
my dad.
'cause I think, I think he wasthe same way that way, but, um,
anyway, I had all brothers andnow I've got all daughters.

(19:17):
So it's, it was a learningexperience.
It's, it's a, it's a lifelonglearning experience.
So you're probably with familiarwith, you know, what we think is
as guys, I can't tell you howmany times I've heard from the
five women in my life.
Yes.
Girls just don't do it that way,dad.
That's right.
That's not the way we do it.
Exactly.
It's like, okay, good enough.
Uh, okay.
So I have one more question forNick.

(19:38):
First of all, thank you forcoming down here.
What does it, what does it,first of all, what does it feel
like to be sitting down in here?
Is this what you imagine?
It'd be like, this is where allthe magic happened.
It, it really is.
Yeah.
And, and yeah.
I, so, so to answer, you seemreally comfortable doing this,
that's why I'm asking.
Well, I appreciate that.
'cause yeah, I was a littlenervous, but I mean, it's
nervous.
Yeah.
It's nice little comfortable.
Jeff gave me a comfortablechair.

(20:00):
Yeah.
I mean, what more can I ask for?
Um, okay.
It's great to be here because I,I, I do wanna, now I know the
room.
Yeah.
'cause I do, I listen everysingle week.
I know you do.
I'm not kidding.
I, I didn't find this podcastuntil, and it's the first
podcast I've ever listened to,by the way.
What?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Okay.
So, and I'm, I'm not atechnology guy in all this.

(20:21):
Not, and I mean, not the podcastor cutting edge technology these
days, but I found thisoriginally, um, when you had JB
Lloyd on talk about Vince.
So I listened to that one and,um, and I thought he did an
outstanding job.
You did?
And, um, well, I'm, I'm atraveling salesman.

(20:41):
I handle five states and I, Ipretty much drive all of'em.
I don't like flying very much.
Okay.
Um, and it's a athletic sportscourts and stuff, right?
Yeah, yeah.
So it's, it's, it's ma basicallywood, wood gym floors.
Oh, cool.
So u you know, UST basketballcourt.
I sold that Williams Arena tothe gophers, the St.
Thomas Academy.
Wow.
Hill Murray did not buy from me.

(21:02):
What, what?
Yeah.
Gotta talk to somebody, John.
Yeah.
Anyway, um, so I startedlistening, and I'm not kidding.
I listened to all of yourKindness Chronicles podcast.
In about a three, I would go ona a a a eight hour road trip and
I would listen time.
I remember being, listen to thisstory I killed Dear North Dakota

(21:24):
at midnight, and I'm cuttingthrough and I'm listening to a
podcast of The KindnessChronicles.
And your friend Julia is on it.
I cannot remember her.
Oh, Julia cannot remember herlast name.
Jacque.
Okay.
Okay.
So I'm listening to that.
And you know, your guests areall outstanding.

(21:46):
Yeah.
All she's from Canvas Health andthey're really great people.
Yeah.
And, um, so anyway, I'mlistening to that podcast and
it's the first time that I'mhearing that, that you bring
your own butter to, to I do.
To the movie theater, right?
Yes.
That's wrong.
And KG goes and buys.
And you were talking about, um,oh, you were on this.

(22:08):
Sideshow of a mental healthsuperhero.
Your idea, which is a phenomenalidea for Steve.
Oh, by the way, Steve's, he'sum, pointing at Steve, by the
way.
I can't remember what you Yeah,I'm sorry, Steve.
I can't remember this, but Oh,okay.
So they were talking aboutmental health and, and, and,
your idea was what about a TVshow that instead of having this
Yes.
You, you have this mental healthhero that Yes.

(22:32):
So you're, you're going downthis road.
I forgot about that.
I'm talking about, you'retalking about movie popcorn.
Yeah.
And I'm, it's midnight and I'mlaughing out loud because I'm
wondering if Julia is even thereanymore.
If you guys had said goodbye.
It was well, it was so funny.
No one said we wereprofessional, but that's why
I'm, that's why I wanted to askyou, so this isn't being

(22:53):
self-serving.
I appreciate your saying.
You like the show.
But I wanna know, because Johngets feedback all the time.
I have like two friends and mostof'em are on my, on the show
now.
Michael Dempsey.
He's the one that listens aswell.
We're on a need to know basisover here.
But you have more than twofriends.
No, no, I'm just saying that,that, that are interested to
know about the show.
Oh, I, I'm desperate tounderstand, um, what, like, what

(23:14):
would draw you to wanna listenthis much?
We're not that funny and we'renot comedians.
We're, we're, we are who we are.
But what is it that is drawingyou to wanna listen so much?
That question?
Is it the St.
Paul stuff serving Well, no.
'cause I wanna understand, Ithink he wants to know what
should we do more of?
Yeah.
What, what is the audience want?
Okay.
So, so first of all, I would sayyou guys are funny.

(23:35):
I, I laugh out loud.
Every, every single episode thatI listen to, your
self-deprecation just cracks meup.
What are you talking, JohnJohn's?
I, I laugh at Johns.
Uh, yeah.
Um, and, and, uh, Steve.
And in my opinion, you comeacross as this sweet guy too.
Serious kind.

(23:55):
No, he's, he's a sweet guy.
I, I know.
And, and, um, you don't know me,Nick.
Well, here's the thing.
No, you're, when I listen, I'mnot looking for a compliment.
I just wanna, I wanna know whenI listen, it seems a hundred
percent genuine to me.
Okay.
And now being That's becausethere's no show prep.
Yeah.
And well, that and being herenow, it, you know, and you know,

(24:17):
I'm thinking when, when Jeff wasat it, I'm like, oh, they've got
a 55-year-old intern.
Intern.
Alright, well that's great.
Yeah.
How did you show up here in thefirst place?
I, um, yeah, we'll talk about,I, it's okay.
So it's another interview.
Maybe it's a long story so to,so to an Yeah, to answer, to
answer your question.
I love the fact, I'm not feelinglike, like there's anybody

(24:39):
putting on a show.
I don't feel, I love the factthat we, that we, now I'm part
of it.
Yeah.
You're, you're part of the, nowyou don't, you don't talk, you
don't talk politics.
It's not right wing, it's notleft wing.
It's, and I'm sure everyone hastheir opinion on these things.
Mm-hmm.
But that's the last thing weneed to hear right now.

(25:02):
Yeah.
Is more opinions on, on.
Right.
On why we're right and somebodyelse is wrong.
Mm-hmm.
And, and you're, you know, the,the fact that at some point, um,
every week I know.
And, and I'm, I'm gettingreally, you know, blubbery as I
get older.
Sure.
But I mean, every, bring it on,man.

(25:23):
Every episode.
I know there's something that'sgonna hit me in the heart.
And, um, you know, whether it's,that's very nice.
It's whether, I mean in, and,and I look, it's kind at some of
this and I think of the, thestrength of, of your guests, you
know, the, the couple that losttheir son Oh.
Are now I are known the mom who,who started, we need to send

(25:43):
stuff to the troops and nextthing you know, her house is
Yep.
Is a warehouse for stuff goingto the troops and she's running
to UPS how many times a day.
Yep.
I mean, I, I just love it'sinspiring.
I, I felt the same way.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
It's fantastic stuff.
Yeah.
Well, could we hustle this up?
Uh, Jesse Waters Prime Time iscoming out on Fox News here.

(26:06):
You're the boss.
Good.
Anyway, Nick, it's been anabsolute pleasure to have ya.
Absolutely.
Yes.
We certainly have given themmore than they deserve on this
one.
Wow.
Um.
But, uh, please keep listeningand we wanna check in with you'd
and come back and tell us howwe're doing.
If we've got enough course, wewanna hear from you.
Yeah.
And, but, and before we do, Ijust want to tell, I mean, I'm

(26:28):
not the only one here that'slost a friend.
I, I know you, you've lost a lotof Hill Murray buddies.
Oh, God.
You know, totally the policeofficer that, you know.
Yeah.
Ronnie or Ryan.
You start bringing up guys andyou're like, yeah, he's not with
us anymore.
I mean, that's, no, it's, uh,that's heavy.
Tough deal.
So, I'm, I'm sorry for, youknow, we're, I know we're not
young, but we're not old enoughthat we should be, you know, no

(26:50):
kidding.
Losing friends right now.
And it's funny that you shouldbring that up.
I, you know, because I'm in the,the business of, of dealing with
old people.
Mm-hmm.
I am a professional funeralgoer.
I know the words to all thesongs.
And for whatever reason, Ialways feel an obligation to
make an appearance at a funeral.

(27:10):
Yeah.
I just feel like it's the, it'sthe final opportunity.
Even if, I don't know a singlesoul, if I knew that person, I
just wanna be at their funeralbecause what did Yogi Berra say?
If you don't go to theirfuneral, they're not gonna come
to yours.
That's right.
Right.
Great line.
But, um, I find myself everysingle day looking at the

(27:31):
obituaries be, and I'm struck bymy God, there's a lot of people
that are younger than me thatare passing away.
Yeah, I know.
And it's really, you know, andit's, uh, to me it's just good
practice because again, if, if Iwere to miss somebody's funeral,
I'll give you an example.
On Saturday I went to the, so Iwent to breakfast at Joseph's.
I go to this Masonic functionand one of the brothers comes up

(27:55):
to me and he said, oh my God,you hear Bill Callister died?
I'm like, what?
And Bill Callister was a guythat I knew very well.
I would have lunch with him oncea month.
I.
Former,, pilot in the service.
He was a, a, a pilot for,Northwest Airlines, just the
greatest guy.

(28:15):
And I was just like, oh my God,when's the funeral?
It's at 11 o'clock today.
Oh.
So I got in my car, I left mything, and I drove down to
Cannon Falls and oh my God.
Didn't know soul, but I knewBill.
Sure.
And I, for whatever reason, Ijust feel you need to be there
for those things.
So the, the lesson for today istake the time to make it to

(28:36):
funerals, because I do thinkthat it, it just, it means more
to me than it would be to them.
You pay, I agree.
You pay your respects, yousupport their loved ones and
their family members.
And I've, I've lost two brothersand I, I can tell you, it means
more than anyone can everimagine to have some guy that

(28:57):
you haven't seen for 15 yearsshow up just to support you and
your family.
Absolutely.
You know, it's so, it's a greatthing.
Yeah.
If there's, I'll just add on.
I agree with you on the funeralbecause I.
That's you lost your brother.
That's the time when people aresaying things that matter.
But it should impact you on, amI living my life correctly and

(29:18):
how can I adapt?
But I'll say one other thingbefore they die, if there's
something, uh, left unsaid, gosay it.
Oh, get, get it out there.
'cause you, you just, if there'ssomething that's, that needs to
be said between the two of you.
Take the initiative and do it.
Yeah.
Well, one thing I would, I wouldsay, um, and it actually does

(29:44):
you good too, if you canTotally.
If you can make that finalvisit.
I, I went and saw Vince at, atthe end and, you know, he's,
he's on the machines and allthis kind of stuff and, and
knowing it's not, definitely notgonna be long.
His brother, Tim, I will alwayslove him for this, but he's, Tim
and Tom Tracy both called mewithin an hour each other and

(30:06):
just said, Nick, I think, Ithink you should get here.
Today.
Wow.
Which I did, and I'm, I'm veryhappy I did.
And it actually gave me comfortand peace of mind that it's
like, okay, this is, this isgonna happen.
And the way I see Vince in thisbed right now, um, it's probably

(30:28):
gonna be a, a good thing at thispoint.
Right.
You know?
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
So it, it did me, it did me somegood to get there.
Um, and I'm just gonna share onemore quick story.
Yeah.
Please.
I was at a wedding over theweekend.
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
And another buddy of mine fromSTA, John Steans there, and he's
got his, you know, one sportcoat on that he wears to, to

(30:49):
weddings, to wedding.
You know, we don't wear'em thatmuch anymore.
Right.
So he's got his, he's got his,his uh, his wedding and funeral
sport coat on.
Right.
Here we go.
So know where this is going.
He's got, and my wife waslaughing'cause it's almost like
he's got the wedding.
Programs in one pocket.
Ah, funeral and the funeralcards in the other.
Right?
Oh boy.

(31:09):
So I had introduced, my fourgirls were also at this wedding,
and um, so I'd introduced theoldest three.
So it's Julia, Katie, and Megan.
Alright.
Solid names by the way.
Yeah.
Thank you.
Mm-hmm.
Thank you.
Um, don't have to fog.
No, no fog warning.
Okay.
So, so anyway, um, Theresa wasup getting a, a soda and so she

(31:35):
comes back, well, John Stevenhad pulled out his funeral card.
Oh my God.
And right on the top is ElaineFlood.
And so my daughter Theresa comesback and sees John holding this
funeral card, his filing cabinetof funerals and weddings.

(31:56):
Yes.
But on the top.
Is her grandma.
Wow.
And she's like, who is this guy?
And why is he holding gr funeralcard?
My gosh.
At a wedding reception call.
And how about take your coat tothe dry in a while?
Well, I don't think he sweatslike we do.
Right?
I Is that chosen one?
Yeah.

(32:16):
You know, but it is funny thatyou should say that because I, I
do not wear, I don't likewearing sport coats and suit
coats and stuff like that, but Ihave a friend whose wife sells J
Hillburn and I always get hitup.
So I have a lot of suits.
Um, those are nice ones too,because they're very nice.

(32:37):
But, um, because I don't, andyou know, a person of my
proportions needs to have acustom made suit because.
You know, you try and get a suitthat fits your man breasts and
that the sleeves are hanging.
You know, I mean, it just, I'm,I'm, I, I look, do they sell
man's ears by the way?
They, they bros.
It's bro.
Oh, sorry.
Okay.
There's your Sinal reference.

(32:58):
There's, there you go.
We were waiting for it.
But anyway, um, I happen to havea coat hanging in the back of
my, uh, vehicle when I found outthat I was gonna be going into
this funeral, and I reached intothe pocket, and the last time I
wore that coat.
Was at the last funeral.
We'll it a funeral receipt.
It's a funeral receipt.
Yeah.

(33:18):
There you go.
There you go.
No, but you know what, this hasbeen fantastic.
Yeah, we gotta have you in moreoften.
We probably should have you inless often.
Oh, I, I think I've worn out mywelcome there.
So, no, thank you so much.
Jeff.
Can I, you know, can I just sayfor this opportunity, Jeff, Jeff
is the one that gets it back onthe rails.
Does right?
He does.
That used to be my job and Igave up.

(33:38):
Yeah.
Right.
Can I tell you honestly Jeff,you have brought something to
this podcast that it desperatelyneeded.
You have always been, you havebrought a rhythm as a musician
that might be to the podcast.
You brought the rhythm.
We are gonna do this every week,whether you like it or not.
And the fact that you actuallydo some research really does
bring the, bring us back on therails.

(33:59):
Yeah.
So I appreciate you, Jeff.
I really do.
Well, I really, there's somenice lies I doses when it comes
to all your text messages, butmy God, Vince died.
Um.
My brother died shortly afterVince, and then it, and I, I was
just, for whatever reason, drawnto his story and then I got
sucked in and I was like, thisguy's an amazing person.
And so anyway, I just, I am allabout role models and following

(34:23):
in people's footsteps that havedone great things.
I can clean something.
Yeah.
So, well, all you gotta do is goto YouTube for letting me to be,
be here.
Absolutely.
All you gotta do is go toYouTube and put in Vince Flynn.
And there are so many greatinterviews that he does.
And like you said, you know, notonly was he a good writer, but
man, he was a gregariousspeaker.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.

(34:43):
Really was.
He does one I think at theReagan library.
I don't think I've seen thatone.
I'll have to look that up.
It's out there.
It's excellent.
He brought his best friend, uh,or not he, he, you.
I don't, he, he said my bestfriend in high school, I think
he referred to.
Yeah.
But a guy stood up that, thatwould be Tomm.
Tracy.
Tom Tracy, okay.
Yeah.
And, and, uh, joke, but theywere talking about being a
Reagan kid growing up, and I'mlike, I feel like I'm a Reagan

(35:05):
kid.
I remember all the stories thathe was, but he was trying to,
and I, he brought me right backto my high school time.
He was four years older.
But it, it was such a greattalk.
Just if you look it up, it's,it's worth listening to.
I like to think of myself as aClinton kid.
You know what I mean?
I think I heard that.
I think I heard a story aboutthat one too.
Yeah.
Well, he talks about meetingmeeting clin.

(35:27):
Okay.
This has gone on.
We should, we should includepart two of I know.
I have to pee.
Okay.
This has been terrific.
It's great.
Before, before we do, I justgotta tell you, and I don't
remember what you call it, butyou're, I love your, your idea
of, um, the etiquette for highschool.
Oh, civilian project.
They're still doing it.
It's fantastic.

(35:47):
Yeah.
We just did one up in Duluth.
How did it go?
It was fantastic.
And you know what's super fun?,The feedback that we get from
the parents that are there.
Yeah.
We use the YouTube videos andstuff that really sort of
amplify the message that we'retrying to send.
What I wanna do is I wanna getsome young athletes to be the
people that put on this programbecause I think it's much more

(36:08):
impactful coming from somebodythat sort of looks like them
than some, you know, old sweatyguy.
And man, is he a sweaty guy upthere doing it.
Seriously.
Yeah.
I appreciate that.
And, and it's, it's great stuff.
I, we've got one, we've got onescheduled or we we're planning
on doing one in Red Wing.
We've got one in Farmington,we've got one coming up in

(36:29):
Mankato.
It's, it's a tour.
Are are you doing one everymonth or two now then, or how
far from?
So I have, so we have people forthat.
I don't know.
You need a tour shirt now John,you guys are going on tour.
That's right.
That's right.
You a tour shirt.
Tour shirts.
As long as it's, I can get amedium.
That's all that we need.
Welcome to the sausage casing.
Big guy and a little shirt, fatguy.
And a little shirt.

(36:49):
Alright, and with that, thanksNick.
Off we go.
Thank you Nick