May 29, 2025 • 47 mins
Jason Hamric's sudden passing has left Birmingham reeling from the loss of someone who touched countless lives through his selfless devotion to helping others. His impact extended far beyond Substrate Radio to every corner of the city's creative landscape, connecting people across all walks of life through his genuine kindness and unwavering support.
Will and Reed Lochamy welcome Brian Teasley and Shaheed to discuss their shared love for Jason and stories showing why his impact is so broad.
A celebration of Jason's life will be held Sunday (6/1/25) at Saturn from 4-7 PM where the community will gather to honor his memory and share stories about his impact.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here we are, thursday evening.
Welcome into oh Brother RadioMoe Lockamy.
That is Reed Lockamy there,hunter, getting the whole show
set up for us and helping us getthings going.
It's Birmingham Mountain Radio107.3 FM, in town,
bmoutainradiocom all over theplace.
This is an interesting week forus here at the station and for
us here in Birmingham and for ushere as a friend group.
(00:22):
It's just been, it's been weird.
Everyone, I think at this pointknows that our friend and
colleague and, uh, the the listof things he is to all of us
could go on and on.
But Jason Hamrick passed awayyesterday and it's affected all
of us in a major way, and so wewanted to spend this hour
talking about Jason and uh, allthe great stories, cause there
(00:45):
are so many good things we cansay about him.
I'm trying to think.
You know, this morning I gave alittle speech about my thoughts
on Jason and I was like allthese posts that people are
doing on Facebook, and I spentway too much time last night
trying to read everyone.
I was like they're all true,right, and that's weird, that's
normally not the case.
Like I get frustrated sometimeswhen people are exalted to this
(01:08):
huge degree when they passbecause it doesn't really do
them justice to like talk.
You know, like I've done twoeulogies and at both ones I
tried to like somewhatsatirically and comically kind
of point out like here are thefunny quirks about this person
that weren't the best thing ever.
Right, just to put her part oftheir humanity, yeah, right to
(01:28):
humanize them.
But all the stuff with jason,it's just true.
Right that everybody's sayingbrian teasley joins us now, uh,
also shaheed, two people thatknow jason very well, and uh,
yeah, so we just want to.
So if there's something bad, weshould tell it and we should
think about it and tell it.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
But I had trouble coming up with anything, I
somehow have erased most of thedirt in his passing.
I don't know if there was thatmuch, because what I really
realized and I know, shahid, youcan attest to this just like I
can is I've been blown away bywhat a bright light he was just
in the response.
That's been beyond conceptionof seeing all these people with
(02:04):
memories, people that I blownaway by what a bright light he
was just in the response hasbeen beyond conception of seeing
all these people with memories,people that I didn't even know,
knew him and, honestly, it's,it's cool, even though it's the
saddest thing in the world tosee all these dots connected.
I was at saturn last night and,um, a lot of people were
(02:25):
dropping off flowers to theradio station where Substrate is
, yeah, and kind of makingalters and posting notes on the
Substrate door, and there wereall these like young punk rock
kids and people from all walksof life that were I've never
seen before.
I didn't know they knew, Ididn't even know who they were
and they just kept this trickleof people constantly coming in
(02:49):
and a lot of young, cool kidsthat, just like you know, jason,
always took in the outcasts,the misfits, you know if you
were in the corner of a room, hewould worry about you.
If you were in the corner of aroom, he would worry about you.
If you had any kind of minorityvoice in any way, even just in
(03:09):
a friendship situation you'retrying to figure out, he would
give you.
He cared so much more aboutother people than he was just so
self-sacrificing and I thinkShahid can speak to that as well
.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
First of all, condolences to Jason and his
whole family and his wife,jackie.
It's ironic that you're here.
We're here together, yeah,because I was going to mention
this.
That's the first thing.
So every time I've seen beenaround Jason Hamrick in some
capacity, he's always assistingor helping someone do something.
(03:43):
So when we started ournonprofit, brian Teasley asked
me what could he help me with,and I was explaining to him what
he could help me with Firstperson.
He calls Jason Hamrick andJason Hamrick sets up the page.
He sets up the GoFundMe page.
(04:04):
He showed up at one of ourevents, took pictures that are
actually the pictures that areon our website, like the main
ones.
He took those pictures, uh.
So every time I've actuallybeen in some type of encounter
with him, from the time I methim, he was always helping
someone do something to fortheir career or their personal
(04:25):
life.
That's just a consensus of thetype of person that he was.
And the last time I saw him wasthree weeks ago at uh, supreme
had a pizza, unveiling atmiracles, and he was there and
we had a long conversation timebefore that.
So I'm at the birmingham publiclibrary in april punk rock show,
(04:48):
punk rock, slash hip-hop show,and so he was there.
I even have a picture wherehe's standing on the side.
I was going to post it today,uh, but he was there supporting
that effort.
So that's the type of personthat he was.
He's always helping people.
If you need mixing on a record,if you need videos, if you need
photos, if you need somethingdealing with website, if you
(05:10):
need your song playing onsubstrate, he did all of those
things for people and he did itfor free.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
You know, my wife asked me earlier today when I
had first met Jason, and I hadto think back on it and the
first thing I could come up withas a memory was when I was in
college.
So this is, you know, almost 30years ago, and my little band
was, you know, trying to puttogether like a, we were trying
to burn a CD, which that was thefirst time anyone had ever even
(05:36):
heard of being able to burn aCD, and Jason had the technology
to do that and he was helpingus produce a little video that
we were submitting to some kindof little contest or whatever.
But that that's the firstmemory I have of really
interacting with Jason and, justlike you said, shahid, it was
all just like he was there justto help us and and that was it,
and and was just so selfless inthat way.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Right, you know I was .
I was talking to someone lastnight and they were talking
about when they met Jason.
They didn't even mean to.
Jason overheard the guy talkingabout how he didn't know much
about stereo equipment butwanted to get a home system and
so Jason was recommending whatto get, kind of mapped it out
for him.
And then he saw Jason again andhe was having trouble getting
(06:24):
it to play and he bought this,this amplifier that wasn't
working.
And jason was like I've got aspare like amp that you can use
and some other stuff, and he'slike, oh, it's okay.
And he's like, he's like I'mgonna bring it by.
He's like, well, I just I'm notsure I know how to hook all
this stuff up.
And jason's like I'll be overin 20 minutes to your house.
(06:46):
Where do you live?
And that was somebody he didn'tknow, um, he was, he was
hilarious, he was like he, he,he was just so, um, altruistic
in a way and I don't use thatword lightly because I think
it's a very elusive concept.
But you know, um, it's.
(07:09):
It's one of those things wherehe was truly that way.
You know, I was the reach ofeverything.
My, my fiance is from spain andshe had a friend that's a
songwriter come over for for awhile and he should bring a
guitar.
And we were trying to figureout, like renting a guitar I'm
not a guitar player and um, andjust like I'll be over and he
brought like some like early 60s, like fender twin and like an
(07:33):
old jaguar, like 60s jaguar orsomething just for this girl to
use, and like a lot of herfriends that are in spain were
crying about Jason, you know,and I was like man, like where
does this reach end?
It's like immense andinternational and all of the
above you know.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Not surprising, though, when you knew him, he
was a remarkable individual inall the ways that we're talking
about.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, I'll say this I handle emotions in a really
weird way and so when stuff ishitting the fan, I'm like, all
right, it's business time, nomatter what that is, I'm stoic,
I have to think about thingspragmatically and take care of
this stuff.
And so I had this sinkingfeeling when Jackie texted
(08:25):
earlier in the week and it was.
But then it was like, all right, let's plan.
Who do I need to talk, how do Ineed to get over there and who
do I talk to, and whatever, andum, and then like even saying
goodbye to him, it was kind of astoic like I was you know
whatever.
And then yesterday I wascompletely numb and then last
night I started writing down mythoughts so I could really kind
(08:48):
of keep it together this morningon the show.
And boy, that's when it's liketurn on the, you know just this
flood of like oh.
But I was also shockedyesterday, like reed had called
middle of the day.
He's like, hey, have you talkedto jackie?
What, what do we know right now?
And I was like, no, you know,don't want to bother.
And then my phone started likegoing crazy with people texting
(09:09):
people that I knew would notknow.
Yeah, what kind of what washappening.
I was like uh-oh, until Iopened facebook and saw right,
um, and the the amount of poststhat there have been my whole
feed.
Now it makes sense, right, but Imean the mayor and like
everybody now of course, like itmakes perfect sense.
(09:29):
But at the time I just didn'tknow that jason had done all of
these things for all of thesepeople, that he did for us,
right, right, because we're hisfriend group, we talked to him
all the time he's at our houses,whatever, but turns out that's
like the case maybe I'm not asspecial as I thought.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
He was a glue.
He was a glue and I know ummuch like me.
I know Shahid has a big lovefor also we should mention that
being survived by Jackie Lowe.
Sure On here Monday nights andum uh, as a testament to what
kind of person they both are him.
But they had a beautifulrelationship and marriage for 24
(10:06):
years and just still talk aboutwhenever I talk to one about
the other.
They're just in love, like itwas the beginning.
And how many people keep that ayear later they're like 24
years and and they're both sodifferent and so complimentary
(10:27):
and so brilliant and just had alove that in my own life I try
to aspire to have like a micronanomolecular element of.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
And you know, like you said, the post, the outreach
like he.
You know he symbolized likeoutreach or reaching out.
Yeah, because you see so manypeople he's done things for,
mixed their records, took theirphotos, helped people be in
better positions as an artist.
And I tell you all a memorythat a lot of people don't know,
(11:02):
all right, tell y'all a memorythat a lot of people don't know,
all right.
So, uh, we went and playedbasketball one day and hammer it
came with us and playedbasketball.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
uh, this was about a decade ago when I played I
remember him saying like yeah,I'm gonna start playing
basketball.
I'm gonna try to do this as myexercise.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah so we went and played basketball and, uh, you
know, we were talking after ithe was just like, because he was
on my team, so he was like man,he said.
He said I'm gonna be honest,man, only thing I can do right
now is set screens.
I said when you set the screenand I'll shoot it.
Another thing I could think ofwhen a DJ Supreme show was on
(11:40):
107.7 and they stopped theclassic hip hop show to show you
type of person he is, hereached out to Supreme and
brought the classic hip hop showto substrate.
Just different things like that.
I remember Sidewalk FilmFestival.
We were doing impromptu video.
You had 24 hours to shoot itand we were doing it with some
(12:02):
high school kids and they wantedto shoot at the guitar.
Uh, highland oh, yeah, sure soI'm trying to figure out man,
who do I know who got action,hammer, call, hammer it.
He's like oh yeah, he's this.
I know the owner, me and himare very cool, I'll, you know,
I'll call him and boom, got itdone.
(12:24):
So it's just different thingslike that where, um, while I was
thinking about it, when I wasfirst told what was told what
happened, I said to myself likeman, he's the type of person
like, if you call him, if hecan't do it, he has a solution.
He's got like a backup for you.
If he can't personally do it,he'll make sure he gets you to
(12:47):
someone who can do it.
And those type of people theybenefit you, you know, for the
rest of your life, like they cando one thing for you that can
help you literally grow for therest of your life.
And that's the type of personhe is.
And what I think about everytime, you know, I think of our
encounters.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
It's it's, it's, it's so true, and that he would
always have the hookup or thinkof somebody he would connect
people.
That said he usually could doeverything Right, and I think
that's something to stress Ifyou don't know who this is or
(13:29):
who we're talking about.
With jason hammer, like he waslike a like should be in the
whitney level photographer.
Like he is, like he was a anamazing videographer.
He made some of the coolestvideos that I've for local bands
that have ever been made.
He was a mastering engineer.
He was a producer.
He wrote so songs.
He probably has more incrediblemusic unreleased than were
actually released because he wasalways helping other people do
(13:51):
stuff and, honestly, a littlebit to his fault because he was
such a facilitator, he has noquestion, we're going to take
our first break.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I'm going to try to not do too many breaks here.
We have some songs in herewe're going to play, but really
I like the talking about himmore than anything.
So but I do want to say back tothe jackie thing really quick.
Uh, I always felt likeinitially, when I talked to them
about like relationship stuffand this goes back to when I was
in my first marriage and it wasnot going great, right, uh, and
(14:19):
I would ask them likerelationship stuff, and I was
like this isn't real, like Iremember even like one time kind
of being like no, uh, like whatdo you mean?
Y'all don't have this problem,and that's probably.
That doesn't seem like a realthing.
And of course it was a realthing, right, and so I'd feel
like their relationship and liketheir love for each other kind
of unmatched.
I couldn't.
I last night went through likeall like the people that have
(14:40):
great relationships that I knowof, including my own, fantastic,
I was like yes, I don't knowthat any one that I know has a
relationship like Jason andJackie, and just very honest,
right, they didn't seem likethey even had to like try to
have that kind of connection.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
It always struck me as a particularly open
relationship where they you knowwhat did Jackie say?
Um, you know, 24 years with herbest friend and I can't think
of another relationship wherethat seemed truer than with the
two of them and just so genuineand really easy and how
fortunate they both were to beable to, you know, benefit from
(15:16):
that kind of relationship.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, it was like a 24-year episode of Fantasy
Island.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Well, let's do this break.
We have to do some commercials,but let's play Holiday, holiday
gunfire, new van and then go tosome commercials and we'll come
back after that.
We're remembering our loveJason Hamrick, and we've got
some funny stories to you know.
He produced our TV show thatyou were on for SEC network and
he and I squeezed into a verysmall airplane to fly around
(15:44):
Jordan here.
I'm going to tell that storywhen we come back Back after
this.
This hour of River of the Radiois brought to you by Magic City
Indoor Golf right there onAlford Avenue off I-65.
Neil's done such a fantasticjob.
The weather is just horrendouslately.
It's been terrible, I know, butluckily you can go inside and
practice or play courses orwhatever.
Magiccityindoorgolfcom.
Welcome back to brother radioand will.
(16:07):
That is reed hunter as well,and here we're talking to to our
friend shaheed and brianteasley about our friend jason
hamrick, who passed away thisweek.
Uh, if you are in birminghamyou know that because it's been
just absolutely everywhere.
And uh, you know, during thebreak we were doing that thing
which we shouldn't do, which islike starting to talk, and you
I'm glad, brian, that you werelike no, let's stop right here
(16:27):
because there's a story aboutthat.
So I was just asking you like Imean, you're such a dude I I
know I've told you this before,but like playing shows with you,
as me being a drummer is likethe worst thing ever.
It's the worst.
One time you I don't rememberwho you're playing with, but you
were playing drums in a bandthat was opening for us at the
chucker and I was like I can'tgo out there, like what is this?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
so, anyway, I'm just a huge fan of yours, probably
because I accidentally knockedover your stuff.
You know that was I, actuallyprobably more than yeah but
you're a very accomplishedmusician, yeah, and a great
musician I, I've, um, I've, I'vebeen in a van or a bus or a
plane or a ferry or whatever alittle too much time or two.
So what I might have done thatway I've lost in brain cells.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
So there you go.
So I was just asking you duringthe break like, oh, are you
playing right now?
And you're like, oh, let's holdthat.
So what's the story?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
well, about two years ago I kind of mysteriously I
never tracked it down to aninjury and like they I started
not being able to walk reallystraight or like I wasn't been
able to feel my fingers or myhands and had a lot of mobility
issues.
And they were chasing downautoimmune stuff and everything.
(17:41):
I won't go too far because it'ssuch a ricocheting series of
events.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
That can be a scary lot of things.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, just trying, I mean it's like you always think
of medicine as is like, oh yeah,this test will come back
positive and it's this.
But they eventually did an mrion my neck and I had um.
I had um spinal cord damage wayup high on my you know cervical
spine and, like you know, I was, you know, for I'm not going to
(18:08):
say professional, but I was atouring recording drummer for 25
years and it's kind of likewhat I always have done and to
some degree, and I I luckily hadthe surgery, feeling you know
like, got back to going, but Istill was having, you know, my
(18:28):
couldn't ride.
I couldn't.
I had, like I was saying I hadto relearn how to tie my shoes
and I was telling jason aboutit's.
Like you know, my hands workbut my, my fingers just don't do
what they want to do, like I'mdropping sticks and and I just
like I just don't.
You know, I think I had my timewith it and I'm not going to
just physically be able to do itanymore.
(18:50):
And like for days on end, weekson end.
He would be like what if you,what if you?
He and I'll tell you one funnything that he suggested he's
like what if you, what if youtry to like have bigger sticks
now, it would start like there.
(19:10):
And then eventually he's likeI'm gonna create a drum.
Since your hands are okay, I'mgonna create a drum set for you
where, like, it's all bongos andthe hi-hat's gonna be on a
bongo, and then I was havinglike also like blood flow issues
to my hand because of damage.
He's like I wonder if, like,maybe you could take something
like viagra and it would get youmore blood flow to your hands
and you could play drums again.
(19:31):
I was like dude stop.
I appreciate the help, but I'mnot taking Viagra to play drums
and that's not going to work outgood for anybody.
But honestly I'm not sure if Iwould.
And I've gotten to where I'mplaying pretty well again or
getting closer to back to normal, and I don't know if I stuck
with it if it hadn't been forthat encouragement from Jason
prodding you that's again typeof person he was.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
you know, I go back to the last conversation he and
I had three weeks ago and healways what are you guys working
on?
And then you're like, oh,working on this, working on this
, and he goes.
Okay, it's like I know, I saidit to you before, if you need
anything, let me know.
(20:16):
And I was like I got youbecause you know the void that
is going to be missed by himbeing gone, like if someone even
tries to take on thatresponsibility.
You, you gotta, you got a longway to go.
Uh, that that the things that hedid for so many people and,
(20:37):
like I said, he didn't chargepeople to do it.
So this is, it's almost likecharity.
When you're a charitable person, those type of things, uh and
that type of person is very rareyou don't get to you.
We don't know many people likethat.
So when people say he's likeone of a kind in that city, he's
definitely one of a kind theencouragement, always offering
(21:03):
help, not letting people I knowpeople who I've literally seen
say he's pushed them to the bestthing that they could possibly
be.
So you know, birmingham doesn'tunderstand all of the shows
that he allowed on his networkso many people's names,
(21:25):
connections.
You can't replace a person likethat it's going to take.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
It's going to take.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
We're still not going to get there and it's going to
take everyone in the musiccommunity to to get halfway
there to fill that void and I'llsay this I you're exactly right
, there's, there's not going tobe another jason hammer there,
just there, just isn't, becausehe just was such a you know, uh,
force of personality, uh.
But also I found myself earliertoday thinking wouldn't we all
(21:53):
do well you know, you used theword earlier, brian like
aspirational, when it came tolike thinking about the
relationship he and jackie had.
But wouldn't we all also dowell just to stop and think
about like what is?
What does it mean to aspirejust a little bit to be as
friendly as jason was, to smileas much as he did?
You know, anytime I was aroundhim, I just cannot, I can't
(22:13):
think of all the time you will.
You and I worked with him insome, you know, sometimes some
stressful kinds of situationsdoing television production.
Never once was there acrossword from jason do.
Can you think of anyone youknow who was as nice, who was as
thoughtful, who was asconsiderate and anyone who was
as allergic to onions as Jason?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Do you all know about this when he had a food even if
he had a food dislike, it wasnot happening, and I think
that's one thing that we shouldnote and I think Will probably
has anecdote after anecdote thatyou know it's sad and we're
thinking about all these amazingthings about him.
(22:54):
The fact was, more thananything, he was hilarious.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
He was just a funny guy that would say the wrong
thing at the right time and theright thing at the wrong time
and it's like and could laugh athimself and land it and make
somebody feel better for it.
I think Will kind of, yeah, andself-deprecating, which is my
favorite form of humor, he wasthe king at all of that.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And so we're doing the SEC Network stuff that Reed
and I did for a couple years andJason produced all of that,
even the daily stuff we did onfine bomb show.
For the most part after thefirst like couple of months he
was the producer and all thatstuff.
But also, like you know, thetravel stuff we would do and go
to different campuses and allthat.
(23:42):
And so the first one we everdid uh, you weren't there but I
went down Jordan here had justput up the largest videos aboard
in the country in any stadiumand so we were going to get the
first look at it and they I meanthey went above and beyond and
so they were setting us up witha plane down there at Auburn to
(24:05):
like fly around.
And Jason did this incrediblelike we get a smelling chart and
they were the first thing thatthey were going to put up on the
video board.
Was this smelling chart thatyou've been like when you go to
that.
I chart that at the top and allthat.
And so basically the gag wasgoing to be yeah, we're down
there and we're interviewing JayJacobs about the video board
(24:25):
and all that stuff, but all ofour stuff had satire to it.
So the gag was going to be thatI would believe it when I saw
it and I had to do the Snellenchart from an airplane, right.
And so we go and Jason'salready got the Snellen chart
sent to them and they're goingto put it up on the video board
and all that.
And, uh, and the plane is tinyand Jason is not tiny no, he is
(24:45):
not.
And so, um so, when I no, no,he is not.
And so, um so, and I've gotpictures of jason squeezing in
to the back seat of the cessna172 and, uh, me being in the
front seat wearing thisridiculous like old pilot's
helmet, like whatever, and anddude us flying around, journey
here, it was so much fun.
And we get up there and thevideo board does not work.
(25:08):
It will not turn on and so therewe are in the plane and, like
he's, you know, got cameras setup all over and he's filming.
He crunched up backseat of thisplane and it doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
The the thing never comes on.
But you know what?
that saturday on sec nation itplayed and it worked great
because jason was able tosuperimpose the snelling chart
(25:31):
on, so we still filmed it as if,and that was all on the fly,
and that was him as the producer, like act, like it's there, and
so I'm just like trying toremember what the what's on a
snelling chart and I'm like okay, yeah yeah, let me see if I can
.
Uh, and he had it superimposedon there by the time the edit
was done and it came out on espncrazy that saturday.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You know, I I think, like many of us, we probably
look back at our nutty textthreads with jason, and I had
one a couple weeks ago with himwhere jackie plays in an amazing
power pop band called dreamierand jason is like, produced and
had a big hand in himself, eventhough often he's not been
playing live with them.
(26:10):
But I texted and they had justrecently you know, henry Rollins
has a radio show and he'splayed Drelir a good bit on the
radio and there was a recentplay that he did and sent a note
to get a record or something.
And I sent Jason a text thiskind of stuff we would do.
I said, hey, I'm so sorry aboutjackie, and he's like what is
(26:32):
everything?
Okay, what's going on?
And I said I heard she'sleaving you for henry rollins
and here's his.
You know what his response was?
Um, he was like, yeah, thattotally makes sense.
I mean, I probably would too.
She's funny enough.
And then I said, yeah, man, I'mso sorry, and he goes.
And he, it was like fiveminutes later he goes.
Do you think I could go withher and just live in the garage?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
oh my gosh oh god so I know this is gonna be the
exact same thing for all of youguys and so many people
listening, but this is somethingthat stood out to me last night
I was trying to like put mythoughts together was that he
was always there for me and, uh,of course, if I like needed him
and like, I would call him,like hey, man, what you know,
what do you think about this?
Or whatever, but he was therefor me when I didn't ask for him
(27:20):
to be there for me and I thinkyou know he would just say, like
hey, I heard you this morning,like everything cool, like I
feel like maybe something's up,like you're, and I'm like, yeah,
actually here's a thing that Iwas a little bit, you know, you
know that's something's buggingme, and he would just know that.
And so then we would end uphaving either a conversation on
my back deck or like on thephone.
(27:41):
Probably I don't talk on thephone, I don't like it, uh, but
I would talk to jason on thephone for a bit and we would
work through stuff.
And then he would also call meand be like hey, I need to get
your opinion on this.
I'm like, my opinion, what.
Like you're kind of the bigbrother in this friendship, but
it was that back and forth.
But then I saw a bunch ofpeople posting even screenshots
(28:02):
of like texts of him, just beinglike hey, I just wanted to
check on you, like everythinggreat and whatever check on you
like everything great andwhatever I was like again, not
special over here.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Turns out, turns out, he's just that guy no, accurate
, solid the word solid, yeah,solid s you don't meet too many
uh solid people like that.
For consistent for a consistentamount of time yeah, and that
seems to be the theme whenyou're consistent for over 30
years.
That's, that's who you are,yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
He had a funny dynamic where he was so helpful
but he also could be kind oflike poke fun at you and put you
in your place and then buthere's where the third level of
the dynamic is he would thenworry if he went too far and
feel guilty about it.
He's like oh my God, I'm sosorry.
And after my surgery there's awhile while where, because some
(28:56):
nerve damage I had, it was hardto put on like long pants, it
just, and I'd be walking aroundthe house doing laundry or
something, just wearing like anice shirt but just underwear
underneath.
And we went, jackie and sarahand jason and I all went to taco
more loco in Avondale and Sarahbrought it up for some reason.
(29:16):
I'm like shut up because it'sgoing to stick.
And he's like oh, you're doingthe Donald Duck.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I was about to say that I didn't know the term,
donald Duck.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
It's like all top, no bottom, yeah sure.
And I was like oh, and I madethe mistake.
I always say if you don't wantto have a nickname, don't ever
acknowledge it, and I made themistake of acknowledging it so
they've been call me donald ducklike oh, so you got pants on
today, that's.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I thought I didn't scoop that story because when
you said that I was like that'sthe donald duck, I was just
thinking that, uh.
So my mom yesterday came overand uh, she's like, hey, someone
come, I'm so sorry about jason,whatever she's like.
Reed tells me that jason neversaid anything negative about
people.
I was like he didn't.
I was like that's exactly right, he didn't, certainly not in my
(30:06):
presence.
No, no, I mean, maybe jackieknows something that we don't
know and again we're havingmaybe he said bad things about
us, do you think?
Speaker 4 (30:12):
surely not?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
uh, we're doing a terrible job of coming up with
any bad stories about him, whichwe still, if you texted in, if
you know any, um.
But I really thought about itand I was like, yeah, he would
do this thing where, if therewas something, a bad situation,
right, like where somebody haddone something that wasn't great
, he would always kind of saythis like well, yeah, but right,
(30:34):
and that was like yeah Iremember he was like a situation
, like man, this person hasreally screwed us over on this.
He was like well, yeah, but andhe would like try to find like
some way, and he just wouldn'ttalk negatively about people,
which is so rare.
If we could all learn from that.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I was talking about how he had.
He had this trend, you know,because of the size city it is.
Here in the music scene We'vehad a lot of people that have
been amazing, bands that, say,almost broke through and were
huge or those kind of things andthere's this kind of there's
always been like a little bit ofbacklash it happens in every
music scene where you're kind oflike those guys are too big for
(31:13):
their britches or this or that.
And I'm jason if it was like um, like verbena, or like uh, dan
sortain or like any people thatstarted getting like national
notoriety, he'd be like, oh,this is so great for birmingham,
so proud of them.
And it's like, come on, be areal hater every once in a while
, jason, and he was uh, just he.
(31:36):
I mean I don't want to start it, but like he was mr birmingham
for real, like he stayed herethe whole time.
When so many of us shot out ofhere like a rocket out of hell
for a while and maybe came back,he stayed here and always
believed in it.
It was a big part of of mebelieving that he was one of the
people that, like, would cometo bottle tree and support it
(31:57):
when we first started bottletree in 2005 or six, yeah, yeah,
I mean again.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
I always hearken back to substrate and substrate has
its own, like cult following oh,yeah, uh.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
It's a brand like I always say that like it doesn't
matter how many people arelistening at that moment.
The brand of substrate is amajor mover in this town.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Substrate sticker showed up on a door at Hoover
high school a couple of yearsago which I was like, wow, look
at that.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
There was a high school kid who went there to put
it up.
Yeah, that was the one time.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
But no, he, you know he made a hub for for people and
artists.
He made a hub for people andartists and when you look at
Substrate like all of thevariety shows that they have on
that show that people listen to,shows centered around it
promotion stickers, graphics Iremember when they were in
(32:54):
Woodlawn and then it like grewand then you start seeing
substrate everywhere.
People start rocking the shirts.
You see the stickers, like yousaid, at Hoover.
You see it on people's cars.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
You see it at restaurants, like he literally
started a movement, and havingit at saturn brian is just such
a game changer for all of usright for, I'm sure, for saturn,
I'm sure for substrate, butalso just for the city.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
It's just such a cool thing right there with the
glass and jason and I alwaystalked about how, like when wsgn
used to have the the light dropit was like the one that had
the drive-thru glass andeverything.
It would be so cool, but he did.
That said, there was a rash oflike a period where, early on,
(33:45):
jason got mooned a lot.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Right on the glass.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Right on the glass.
Another plus.
He absolutely enjoyed it.
He put a sign up saying please.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Well, also real quickly, while we're talking
about Jason as a promoter andall the ways that he supported
artists and whatnot, I also justwant to mention this real
quickly, Back in the days when Iwas making some music and Jason
was helping no surprise, likewe talked about.
I'll never forget being at hisplace one time and saying, like,
well, what are you making musicright now?
(34:17):
Or what are you doing?
He was like, well, here'ssomething I've done recently and
he played it.
And I distinctly remember beingso embarrassed because what he
played was so much wildly betterthan any music I was ever going
to think about making.
And he just was making it andjust played it as if like, yeah,
here's just a little thing, andit was just mind blowing, it
was wonderful.
(34:38):
So I think sometimes you can.
If you don't try, you canforget that he also was just a
phenomenal musician, in additionto being a supporter.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
He's Jason Hamrick, right.
So, he's doing all this otherstuff, so he didn't play enough.
Like we didn't see him playingenough or like hear enough of
the recordings, because he wasalways doing other stuff with
other people.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
He learned how to do it because somebody needed him
to do it.
Yeah, Not always because heknew how to do it.
He would be the guy that wouldgo woodshed it for two weeks and
be like, oh, I can edit yourvideo or what you know, that
sort of thing.
Like he learned it because hewanted to help people.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
I hope that we didn't take him for granted while he
was here.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Right, I was about to say, like what I've learned
from this whole thing yeah, it'swe most because we're human,
but typically what we do ashumans, we don't value the
people who do the most enoughuntil they're gone.
So my biggest thing was I hopethat I know I always thanked him
(35:37):
and I have the text messagesand the meetings to prove it for
whenever he did anything for us, because I was just reading one
where I thanked him forsomething he did when he took
photos for us.
We'll take that proof after theshow and I tell people you know
the people, please.
I know it's cliche to say givepeople their flowers while
(35:58):
they're still here to smell them.
I just hope that that happenedfor him.
I hope that he got thoseflowers from people while he was
here, because sometimes, whenyou're the strongest one you
need, you need the support thatyou typically don't get Right.
So I hope that he got that.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
And I'll tell you what it wouldn't surprise me to
learn that he did, because hewas a person who was so easy to
return his positive energy.
Some people in your life where,just any time you're around
them, you're just like, oh, thisis just a pleasure to be with
Jason Hamrick.
So I'm hopeful that he reallydid get to reap a lot of the
rewards of of putting out thekind of energy that he did,
(36:38):
because I know for me it wasvery easy to to reciprocate that
well, he didn't want to be aspectacle, he wanted to help you
with the spectacle you wantedto create, you know, and he was
just, um, you know, so unique inthat way.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
And I think one thing I'll say is there's no way to
contextualize this.
He went too young, it wasn'tanything that could have been
predicted, but I will say thathe always did what he loved and
in this society that we have,there's always this feeling that
(37:13):
we have to always keepeverything going, always have
infinite growth, always, likeyou know, we talk about.
The first thing we often do isat if you're meeting someone new
, it's like oh what, what do youdo for work, or you know, or
then you kind of figure out howmuch money they make, or
something like that.
I was there, uh, maybe threeweeks ago, and you know,
substrate has this brilliantlittle like eighth of a page
(37:37):
size fanzine that they do.
That makes no sense in this dayand age, makes no sense that
they do it.
And jason was in there staplingthese little fanzines together.
Um and uh, he's a 54 year oldman that's very accomplished in
everything.
And I said, man, why do youstill do that?
(38:00):
Because he had said somethinglike I had put in 1,500 staples
at this point and I was like,why do you do it?
And he goes, because I thinkit's cool.
And that's the lesson, becauseI'll tell you what he had a lot
of worries and a lot of fears,but he was happy and he loved
his life.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
No doubt.
Hey, we have to take this lastbreak.
We're going to do that andwe're going to come back.
This is your last chance totext in any negative stories
about Jason.
We are waiting.
This will be the last third actis all negative.
Yeah, it's going to be allnegative stuff when we come back
.
This hour of the show isbrought to you by Magic City
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(38:40):
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Welcome back to it.
Brother Radio.
And well, that is Reed.
That is Brian Teasley hangingout with us, shahid as well.
Nick Davidson here in thestudio with us, also Hunter, of
course, helping us run the wholething.
So, yeah, we're remembering ourfriend Jason Hamrick, and we do
(39:03):
now have a list.
A lot of folks sent in somenegative stories and so let's
get those.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
He was too tall Before we get into those.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Let me be somber for a moment and then we'll trash
him.
The rest, okay, good what yougot.
I probably shouldn't be sayingthis, but I know a lot of people
that might not have known him.
I think everybody in the musiccommunity knew him, but if
you're just somebody in your carright now, jason was this
amazing person in the musicscene and an amazing person for
(39:33):
the city scene and an amazingperson for the city saturday.
Uh, he had had an ear infection,yeah, and he, um, he was
feeling really weird, told hisbeautiful wife, jackie, it's
like I don't feel right.
And then at some point hebecame incoherent.
Ambulance came, um, and whathad happened, I think, is he,
(39:54):
and this is after he had got hisear flushed out a couple hours
after that, yeah, and he hadsepsis from it.
Um, he may have had a strokesome point because of the sepsis
and, um, you know, your ear isso close to your brain and he
was okay.
They did a CT scan.
Uh, you know, when he was atthe hospital, like his brain was
(40:15):
okay, he was still unconsciousand then he, um, but his heart
stopped for nine minutes.
He was still alive and then itstopped again shortly after that
for maybe a minute.
So this um beautiful soul wasabsolutely robbed from us in
this freak way that none of uscould have predicted.
You know, I know jason andjackie, you know we had a lot of
(40:39):
cool trips planned, a lot ofbeautiful things.
Um, you know he um, if you'veever had somebody in your life
like that, um, be lucky, realizetime is precious and that in
these moments like it's good tofeel the pain and it's good to
be inspired from them and belike what small the way I can
(41:03):
pay respect is be a little likethat, be a little more
altruistic, give back in a way,take time out.
That doesn't make sense, that'snot benefiting you, that
benefits somebody else.
I don't want to sound preachy,but in these moments that's not
benefiting you, that benefitssomebody else.
I don't want to sound preachy,but in these moments that's the
way we pay respect to, to thepeople we've lost.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
And so we talked about already, like the not
talking negatively about people,right, and that's something we
should learn from Jason and andI will I will personally try to
do that better at that goingforward.
But also, like during the break, we started talking about some
stuff.
I was like whoa, whoa, save itfor the mics.
So there were all these peoplein our community that would go
through really tough stuff, andJason was, like a lot of times,
(41:41):
the first person to step up andbe like, okay, we need to gather
and kind of like, start raisingmoney.
Right, there's like Mikey D'ssituation.
There were others.
Talk about a few of those.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah yeah, Tim Cornell, who had had his truck
stolen.
Mikey's truck had got caughtfire on the side of the road.
One time, Dave, one of oursecurity guards at Saturn house,
burnt down and he immediately Ithink we raised like $20,000
(42:13):
because the house was, you know,and there was a.
There was like a crossoverbetween the insurance that
didn't cover very much of it.
Um, and I will say, though, ifyou know, one thing I should say
before we go is Sunday atSaturn, from four to seven,
we're having a life celebrationof it.
It's not going to be like sadmac macabre.
(42:35):
We're going to talk about allthe fun stuff he did, because
it's mainly he was a he's acreator of a lot of fun stuff
for a lot of people enjoy yeah,and I'm just um.
I'm curious, though, because Ium, will you seem like the maybe
one of the persons, uh, otherthan jackie, that might have
seen him nude?
Was that ever the case?
(42:56):
You know four times, four times.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
We don't have enough time now to go into those four
times.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Wait, don't say the context.
I don't want to know thecontext.
Leave it there.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
Just leave it there.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Hey, so asking for myself, because my daughter's
turning 16 and her one requestwas to see Tyler Childers at the
Wharf and that's this Sunday,because my daughter's turning 16
and her one request was to seeTyler Childers at the wharf and
that's this Sunday, and soDanielle and I are taking Lila
to see Tyler Childers.
So you know, obviously I, youknow devastated, it can't be
there.
I'm glad to be able to do thisfor Lila, but is this going to
(43:30):
be in any way recorded?
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Is there a way we're going to try to you know, it's
all obviously last minute we'regoing to try to hopefully film
some of it or hopefully streamsome of it for the people like
you that can't be there.
That said, you two guys don'thave to worry, because I think
he's going to be haunting yourass for a long time.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
No, for real, I have so much of this stuff at my
house.
I was thinking about thisyesterday at a recording session
and, as you know, the news hadjust broken a couple hours
earlier and I'm sitting thereputting, you know, stringing
mics up and I was like, oh man,this is all Jason stuff.
I was like this is stuff thatwe worked together on and these
purple mic cords are all Jason's, that we had from the SEC
(44:12):
network stuff.
And I was like, yeah, goodness.
And then like, and you go inthis room in my house and
there's a picture you know thathe had one of his photography
pictures on the wall and I havelots of them in the house.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
But right and he um in in in life he was very giving
, but his ghost is gonna wantthat snare back.
He probably gave you like 20years ago and I hope these,
these airwaves I got to think insome kind of way and not to get
too hokey at the end, but Ihope they're reaching out to the
cosmos because I love you,buddy, yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
Respect to the legacy contribution, Jason Hamrick.
Condolences to his family.
Peace to Jackie.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I love.
Yeah, I think think this Idon't know what how this works,
because jason was mr substrate,right, jackie for, say, like a
mr substrate.
There's a lot of work that goesinto that, to running a radio
station and I think we have aresponsibility in some way to
make sure that that continues,even because, like I talked
about earlier, the brand ofsubstrate, like what it means
for Birmingham and what it islike.
(45:22):
So I don't know what that'sgoing to look like and obviously
nobody has had time to thinkabout that, but we need to keep
that going whatever that is.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
It goes without saying that we will all miss
Jason dearly in the future, butI think it's important to
remember that he will always,always, always be alive and well
in our memories, and we havelots and lots of them, um, and
so that's.
That's what I look forward tois reflecting on all those
wonderful experiences and, likewe talked about earlier,
thinking about how can I embracesome of the personality that he
was and try to incorporate thatinto my own interactions with
(45:56):
other people.
A hundred percent, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Yeah, so all right, here we are.
Uh, now finally can get to thelist of all the negative stuff,
uh that folks have written inabout Jason.
Um, and I think he would wantthat, right, he would want, like
, the honest truth about him tocome out and what?
Oh, it's 7 o'clock.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
It is 7 o'clock right now.
We don't have time,unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
I had a notebook.
We did mention the too allergicto onions thing, though.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
It was the craziest allergy I've ever known of from
anybody.
Okay, well, we'll do thosenegative stories one day Part
two, Brian and Shahid.
Speaker 4 (46:35):
thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
It's an honor to be here, brian Teasley and Shahid,
of course, and you guys.
Yeah, head out to Saturn thisSunday.
What are the times again?
Four o'clock to seven o'clock.
Yeah, Four to seven.
Okay, I lied to Nick.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
Well, it'll be all onions All onions for Fresh
onions.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
That's right, all right, great stuff.
Trivia with Will and Reedcoming up after this.
Feel free to stick around andplay some trivia if you would
like.
All right, back after thisPeace.
Here we are, thursday evening.
Welcome into oh Brother RadioMoe Lockamy.
That is Reed Lockamy there,hunter, getting the whole show
set up for us and helping us getthings going.
It's Birmingham Mountain Radio107.3 FM, in town,
bmoutainradiocom all over theplace.
This is an interesting week forus here at the station and for
us here in Birmingham and for ushere as a friend group.
(00:22):
It's just been, it's been weird.
Everyone, I think at this pointknows that our friend and
colleague and, uh, the the listof things he is to all of us
could go on and on.
But Jason Hamrick passed awayyesterday and it's affected all
of us in a major way, and so wewanted to spend this hour
talking about Jason and uh, allthe great stories, cause there
(00:45):
are so many good things we cansay about him.
I'm trying to think.
You know, this morning I gave alittle speech about my thoughts
on Jason and I was like allthese posts that people are
doing on Facebook, and I spentway too much time last night
trying to read everyone.
I was like they're all true,right, and that's weird, that's
normally not the case.
Like I get frustrated sometimeswhen people are exalted to this
(01:08):
huge degree when they passbecause it doesn't really do
them justice to like talk.
You know, like I've done twoeulogies and at both ones I
tried to like somewhatsatirically and comically kind
of point out like here are thefunny quirks about this person
that weren't the best thing ever.
Right, just to put her part oftheir humanity, yeah, right to
(01:28):
humanize them.
But all the stuff with jason,it's just true.
Right that everybody's sayingbrian teasley joins us now, uh,
also shaheed, two people thatknow jason very well, and uh,
yeah, so we just want to.
So if there's something bad, weshould tell it and we should
think about it and tell it.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
But I had trouble coming up with anything, I
somehow have erased most of thedirt in his passing.
I don't know if there was thatmuch, because what I really
realized and I know, shahid, youcan attest to this just like I
can is I've been blown away bywhat a bright light he was just
in the response.
That's been beyond conceptionof seeing all these people with
(02:04):
memories, people that I blownaway by what a bright light he
was just in the response hasbeen beyond conception of seeing
all these people with memories,people that I didn't even know,
knew him and, honestly, it's,it's cool, even though it's the
saddest thing in the world tosee all these dots connected.
I was at saturn last night and,um, a lot of people were
(02:25):
dropping off flowers to theradio station where Substrate is
, yeah, and kind of makingalters and posting notes on the
Substrate door, and there wereall these like young punk rock
kids and people from all walksof life that were I've never
seen before.
I didn't know they knew, Ididn't even know who they were
and they just kept this trickleof people constantly coming in
(02:49):
and a lot of young, cool kidsthat, just like you know, jason,
always took in the outcasts,the misfits, you know if you
were in the corner of a room, hewould worry about you.
If you were in the corner of aroom, he would worry about you.
If you had any kind of minorityvoice in any way, even just in
(03:09):
a friendship situation you'retrying to figure out, he would
give you.
He cared so much more aboutother people than he was just so
self-sacrificing and I thinkShahid can speak to that as well
.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
First of all, condolences to Jason and his
whole family and his wife,jackie.
It's ironic that you're here.
We're here together, yeah,because I was going to mention
this.
That's the first thing.
So every time I've seen beenaround Jason Hamrick in some
capacity, he's always assistingor helping someone do something.
(03:43):
So when we started ournonprofit, brian Teasley asked
me what could he help me with,and I was explaining to him what
he could help me with Firstperson.
He calls Jason Hamrick andJason Hamrick sets up the page.
He sets up the GoFundMe page.
(04:04):
He showed up at one of ourevents, took pictures that are
actually the pictures that areon our website, like the main
ones.
He took those pictures, uh.
So every time I've actuallybeen in some type of encounter
with him, from the time I methim, he was always helping
someone do something to fortheir career or their personal
(04:25):
life.
That's just a consensus of thetype of person that he was.
And the last time I saw him wasthree weeks ago at uh, supreme
had a pizza, unveiling atmiracles, and he was there and
we had a long conversation timebefore that.
So I'm at the birmingham publiclibrary in april punk rock show,
(04:48):
punk rock, slash hip-hop show,and so he was there.
I even have a picture wherehe's standing on the side.
I was going to post it today,uh, but he was there supporting
that effort.
So that's the type of personthat he was.
He's always helping people.
If you need mixing on a record,if you need videos, if you need
photos, if you need somethingdealing with website, if you
(05:10):
need your song playing onsubstrate, he did all of those
things for people and he did itfor free.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
You know, my wife asked me earlier today when I
had first met Jason, and I hadto think back on it and the
first thing I could come up withas a memory was when I was in
college.
So this is, you know, almost 30years ago, and my little band
was, you know, trying to puttogether like a, we were trying
to burn a CD, which that was thefirst time anyone had ever even
(05:36):
heard of being able to burn aCD, and Jason had the technology
to do that and he was helpingus produce a little video that
we were submitting to some kindof little contest or whatever.
But that that's the firstmemory I have of really
interacting with Jason and, justlike you said, shahid, it was
all just like he was there justto help us and and that was it,
and and was just so selfless inthat way.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Right, you know I was .
I was talking to someone lastnight and they were talking
about when they met Jason.
They didn't even mean to.
Jason overheard the guy talkingabout how he didn't know much
about stereo equipment butwanted to get a home system and
so Jason was recommending whatto get, kind of mapped it out
for him.
And then he saw Jason again andhe was having trouble getting
(06:24):
it to play and he bought this,this amplifier that wasn't
working.
And jason was like I've got aspare like amp that you can use
and some other stuff, and he'slike, oh, it's okay.
And he's like, he's like I'mgonna bring it by.
He's like, well, I just I'm notsure I know how to hook all
this stuff up.
And jason's like I'll be overin 20 minutes to your house.
(06:46):
Where do you live?
And that was somebody he didn'tknow, um, he was, he was
hilarious, he was like he, he,he was just so, um, altruistic
in a way and I don't use thatword lightly because I think
it's a very elusive concept.
But you know, um, it's.
(07:09):
It's one of those things wherehe was truly that way.
You know, I was the reach ofeverything.
My, my fiance is from spain andshe had a friend that's a
songwriter come over for for awhile and he should bring a
guitar.
And we were trying to figureout, like renting a guitar I'm
not a guitar player and um, andjust like I'll be over and he
brought like some like early 60s, like fender twin and like an
(07:33):
old jaguar, like 60s jaguar orsomething just for this girl to
use, and like a lot of herfriends that are in spain were
crying about Jason, you know,and I was like man, like where
does this reach end?
It's like immense andinternational and all of the
above you know.
Speaker 4 (07:54):
Not surprising, though, when you knew him, he
was a remarkable individual inall the ways that we're talking
about.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Yeah, I'll say this I handle emotions in a really
weird way and so when stuff ishitting the fan, I'm like, all
right, it's business time, nomatter what that is, I'm stoic,
I have to think about thingspragmatically and take care of
this stuff.
And so I had this sinkingfeeling when Jackie texted
(08:25):
earlier in the week and it was.
But then it was like, all right, let's plan.
Who do I need to talk, how do Ineed to get over there and who
do I talk to, and whatever, andum, and then like even saying
goodbye to him, it was kind of astoic like I was you know
whatever.
And then yesterday I wascompletely numb and then last
night I started writing down mythoughts so I could really kind
(08:48):
of keep it together this morningon the show.
And boy, that's when it's liketurn on the, you know just this
flood of like oh.
But I was also shockedyesterday, like reed had called
middle of the day.
He's like, hey, have you talkedto jackie?
What, what do we know right now?
And I was like, no, you know,don't want to bother.
And then my phone started likegoing crazy with people texting
(09:09):
people that I knew would notknow.
Yeah, what kind of what washappening.
I was like uh-oh, until Iopened facebook and saw right,
um, and the the amount of poststhat there have been my whole
feed.
Now it makes sense, right, but Imean the mayor and like
everybody now of course, like itmakes perfect sense.
(09:29):
But at the time I just didn'tknow that jason had done all of
these things for all of thesepeople, that he did for us,
right, right, because we're hisfriend group, we talked to him
all the time he's at our houses,whatever, but turns out that's
like the case maybe I'm not asspecial as I thought.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
He was a glue.
He was a glue and I know ummuch like me.
I know Shahid has a big lovefor also we should mention that
being survived by Jackie Lowe.
Sure On here Monday nights andum uh, as a testament to what
kind of person they both are him.
But they had a beautifulrelationship and marriage for 24
(10:06):
years and just still talk aboutwhenever I talk to one about
the other.
They're just in love, like itwas the beginning.
And how many people keep that ayear later they're like 24
years and and they're both sodifferent and so complimentary
(10:27):
and so brilliant and just had alove that in my own life I try
to aspire to have like a micronanomolecular element of.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
And you know, like you said, the post, the outreach
like he.
You know he symbolized likeoutreach or reaching out.
Yeah, because you see so manypeople he's done things for,
mixed their records, took theirphotos, helped people be in
better positions as an artist.
And I tell you all a memorythat a lot of people don't know,
(11:02):
all right, tell y'all a memorythat a lot of people don't know,
all right.
So, uh, we went and playedbasketball one day and hammer it
came with us and playedbasketball.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
uh, this was about a decade ago when I played I
remember him saying like yeah,I'm gonna start playing
basketball.
I'm gonna try to do this as myexercise.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Yeah so we went and played basketball and, uh, you
know, we were talking after ithe was just like, because he was
on my team, so he was like man,he said.
He said I'm gonna be honest,man, only thing I can do right
now is set screens.
I said when you set the screenand I'll shoot it.
Another thing I could think ofwhen a DJ Supreme show was on
(11:40):
107.7 and they stopped theclassic hip hop show to show you
type of person he is, hereached out to Supreme and
brought the classic hip hop showto substrate.
Just different things like that.
I remember Sidewalk FilmFestival.
We were doing impromptu video.
You had 24 hours to shoot itand we were doing it with some
(12:02):
high school kids and they wantedto shoot at the guitar.
Uh, highland oh, yeah, sure soI'm trying to figure out man,
who do I know who got action,hammer, call, hammer it.
He's like oh yeah, he's this.
I know the owner, me and himare very cool, I'll, you know,
I'll call him and boom, got itdone.
(12:24):
So it's just different thingslike that where, um, while I was
thinking about it, when I wasfirst told what was told what
happened, I said to myself likeman, he's the type of person
like, if you call him, if hecan't do it, he has a solution.
He's got like a backup for you.
If he can't personally do it,he'll make sure he gets you to
(12:47):
someone who can do it.
And those type of people theybenefit you, you know, for the
rest of your life, like they cando one thing for you that can
help you literally grow for therest of your life.
And that's the type of personhe is.
And what I think about everytime, you know, I think of our
encounters.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
It's it's, it's, it's so true, and that he would
always have the hookup or thinkof somebody he would connect
people.
That said he usually could doeverything Right, and I think
that's something to stress Ifyou don't know who this is or
(13:29):
who we're talking about.
With jason hammer, like he waslike a like should be in the
whitney level photographer.
Like he is, like he was a anamazing videographer.
He made some of the coolestvideos that I've for local bands
that have ever been made.
He was a mastering engineer.
He was a producer.
He wrote so songs.
He probably has more incrediblemusic unreleased than were
actually released because he wasalways helping other people do
(13:51):
stuff and, honestly, a littlebit to his fault because he was
such a facilitator, he has noquestion, we're going to take
our first break.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I'm going to try to not do too many breaks here.
We have some songs in herewe're going to play, but really
I like the talking about himmore than anything.
So but I do want to say back tothe jackie thing really quick.
Uh, I always felt likeinitially, when I talked to them
about like relationship stuffand this goes back to when I was
in my first marriage and it wasnot going great, right, uh, and
(14:19):
I would ask them likerelationship stuff, and I was
like this isn't real, like Iremember even like one time kind
of being like no, uh, like whatdo you mean?
Y'all don't have this problem,and that's probably.
That doesn't seem like a realthing.
And of course it was a realthing, right, and so I'd feel
like their relationship and liketheir love for each other kind
of unmatched.
I couldn't.
I last night went through likeall like the people that have
(14:40):
great relationships that I knowof, including my own, fantastic,
I was like yes, I don't knowthat any one that I know has a
relationship like Jason andJackie, and just very honest,
right, they didn't seem likethey even had to like try to
have that kind of connection.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
It always struck me as a particularly open
relationship where they you knowwhat did Jackie say?
Um, you know, 24 years with herbest friend and I can't think
of another relationship wherethat seemed truer than with the
two of them and just so genuineand really easy and how
fortunate they both were to beable to, you know, benefit from
(15:16):
that kind of relationship.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Yeah, it was like a 24-year episode of Fantasy
Island.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
Well, let's do this break.
We have to do some commercials,but let's play Holiday, holiday
gunfire, new van and then go tosome commercials and we'll come
back after that.
We're remembering our loveJason Hamrick, and we've got
some funny stories to you know.
He produced our TV show thatyou were on for SEC network and
he and I squeezed into a verysmall airplane to fly around
(15:44):
Jordan here.
I'm going to tell that storywhen we come back Back after
this.
This hour of River of the Radiois brought to you by Magic City
Indoor Golf right there onAlford Avenue off I-65.
Neil's done such a fantasticjob.
The weather is just horrendouslately.
It's been terrible, I know, butluckily you can go inside and
practice or play courses orwhatever.
Magiccityindoorgolfcom.
Welcome back to brother radioand will.
(16:07):
That is reed hunter as well,and here we're talking to to our
friend shaheed and brianteasley about our friend jason
hamrick, who passed away thisweek.
Uh, if you are in birminghamyou know that because it's been
just absolutely everywhere.
And uh, you know, during thebreak we were doing that thing
which we shouldn't do, which islike starting to talk, and you
I'm glad, brian, that you werelike no, let's stop right here
(16:27):
because there's a story aboutthat.
So I was just asking you like Imean, you're such a dude I I
know I've told you this before,but like playing shows with you,
as me being a drummer is likethe worst thing ever.
It's the worst.
One time you I don't rememberwho you're playing with, but you
were playing drums in a bandthat was opening for us at the
chucker and I was like I can'tgo out there, like what is this?
Speaker 2 (16:49):
so, anyway, I'm just a huge fan of yours, probably
because I accidentally knockedover your stuff.
You know that was I, actuallyprobably more than yeah but
you're a very accomplishedmusician, yeah, and a great
musician I, I've, um, I've, I'vebeen in a van or a bus or a
plane or a ferry or whatever alittle too much time or two.
So what I might have done thatway I've lost in brain cells.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
So there you go.
So I was just asking you duringthe break like, oh, are you
playing right now?
And you're like, oh, let's holdthat.
So what's the story?
Speaker 2 (17:18):
well, about two years ago I kind of mysteriously I
never tracked it down to aninjury and like they I started
not being able to walk reallystraight or like I wasn't been
able to feel my fingers or myhands and had a lot of mobility
issues.
And they were chasing downautoimmune stuff and everything.
(17:41):
I won't go too far because it'ssuch a ricocheting series of
events.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
That can be a scary lot of things.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
Yeah, just trying, I mean it's like you always think
of medicine as is like, oh yeah,this test will come back
positive and it's this.
But they eventually did an mrion my neck and I had um.
I had um spinal cord damage wayup high on my you know cervical
spine and, like you know, I was, you know, for I'm not going to
(18:08):
say professional, but I was atouring recording drummer for 25
years and it's kind of likewhat I always have done and to
some degree, and I I luckily hadthe surgery, feeling you know
like, got back to going, but Istill was having, you know, my
(18:28):
couldn't ride.
I couldn't.
I had, like I was saying I hadto relearn how to tie my shoes
and I was telling jason aboutit's.
Like you know, my hands workbut my, my fingers just don't do
what they want to do, like I'mdropping sticks and and I just
like I just don't.
You know, I think I had my timewith it and I'm not going to
just physically be able to do itanymore.
(18:50):
And like for days on end, weekson end.
He would be like what if you,what if you?
He and I'll tell you one funnything that he suggested he's
like what if you, what if youtry to like have bigger sticks
now, it would start like there.
(19:10):
And then eventually he's likeI'm gonna create a drum.
Since your hands are okay, I'mgonna create a drum set for you
where, like, it's all bongos andthe hi-hat's gonna be on a
bongo, and then I was havinglike also like blood flow issues
to my hand because of damage.
He's like I wonder if, like,maybe you could take something
like viagra and it would get youmore blood flow to your hands
and you could play drums again.
(19:31):
I was like dude stop.
I appreciate the help, but I'mnot taking Viagra to play drums
and that's not going to work outgood for anybody.
But honestly I'm not sure if Iwould.
And I've gotten to where I'mplaying pretty well again or
getting closer to back to normal, and I don't know if I stuck
with it if it hadn't been forthat encouragement from Jason
prodding you that's again typeof person he was.
Speaker 3 (19:55):
you know, I go back to the last conversation he and
I had three weeks ago and healways what are you guys working
on?
And then you're like, oh,working on this, working on this
, and he goes.
Okay, it's like I know, I saidit to you before, if you need
anything, let me know.
(20:16):
And I was like I got youbecause you know the void that
is going to be missed by himbeing gone, like if someone even
tries to take on thatresponsibility.
You, you gotta, you got a longway to go.
Uh, that that the things that hedid for so many people and,
(20:37):
like I said, he didn't chargepeople to do it.
So this is, it's almost likecharity.
When you're a charitable person, those type of things, uh and
that type of person is very rareyou don't get to you.
We don't know many people likethat.
So when people say he's likeone of a kind in that city, he's
definitely one of a kind theencouragement, always offering
(21:03):
help, not letting people I knowpeople who I've literally seen
say he's pushed them to the bestthing that they could possibly
be.
So you know, birmingham doesn'tunderstand all of the shows
that he allowed on his networkso many people's names,
(21:25):
connections.
You can't replace a person likethat it's going to take.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
It's going to take.
Speaker 4 (21:32):
We're still not going to get there and it's going to
take everyone in the musiccommunity to to get halfway
there to fill that void and I'llsay this I you're exactly right
, there's, there's not going tobe another jason hammer there,
just there, just isn't, becausehe just was such a you know, uh,
force of personality, uh.
But also I found myself earliertoday thinking wouldn't we all
(21:53):
do well you know, you used theword earlier, brian like
aspirational, when it came tolike thinking about the
relationship he and jackie had.
But wouldn't we all also dowell just to stop and think
about like what is?
What does it mean to aspirejust a little bit to be as
friendly as jason was, to smileas much as he did?
You know, anytime I was aroundhim, I just cannot, I can't
(22:13):
think of all the time you will.
You and I worked with him insome, you know, sometimes some
stressful kinds of situationsdoing television production.
Never once was there acrossword from jason do.
Can you think of anyone youknow who was as nice, who was as
thoughtful, who was asconsiderate and anyone who was
as allergic to onions as Jason?
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Do you all know about this when he had a food even if
he had a food dislike, it wasnot happening, and I think
that's one thing that we shouldnote and I think Will probably
has anecdote after anecdote thatyou know it's sad and we're
thinking about all these amazingthings about him.
(22:54):
The fact was, more thananything, he was hilarious.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
He was just a funny guy that would say the wrong
thing at the right time and theright thing at the wrong time
and it's like and could laugh athimself and land it and make
somebody feel better for it.
I think Will kind of, yeah, andself-deprecating, which is my
favorite form of humor, he wasthe king at all of that.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
And so we're doing the SEC Network stuff that Reed
and I did for a couple years andJason produced all of that,
even the daily stuff we did onfine bomb show.
For the most part after thefirst like couple of months he
was the producer and all thatstuff.
But also, like you know, thetravel stuff we would do and go
to different campuses and allthat.
(23:42):
And so the first one we everdid uh, you weren't there but I
went down Jordan here had justput up the largest videos aboard
in the country in any stadiumand so we were going to get the
first look at it and they I meanthey went above and beyond and
so they were setting us up witha plane down there at Auburn to
(24:05):
like fly around.
And Jason did this incrediblelike we get a smelling chart and
they were the first thing thatthey were going to put up on the
video board.
Was this smelling chart thatyou've been like when you go to
that.
I chart that at the top and allthat.
And so basically the gag wasgoing to be yeah, we're down
there and we're interviewing JayJacobs about the video board
(24:25):
and all that stuff, but all ofour stuff had satire to it.
So the gag was going to be thatI would believe it when I saw
it and I had to do the Snellenchart from an airplane, right.
And so we go and Jason'salready got the Snellen chart
sent to them and they're goingto put it up on the video board
and all that.
And, uh, and the plane is tinyand Jason is not tiny no, he is
(24:45):
not.
And so, um so, when I no, no,he is not.
And so, um so, and I've gotpictures of jason squeezing in
to the back seat of the cessna172 and, uh, me being in the
front seat wearing thisridiculous like old pilot's
helmet, like whatever, and anddude us flying around, journey
here, it was so much fun.
And we get up there and thevideo board does not work.
(25:08):
It will not turn on and so therewe are in the plane and, like
he's, you know, got cameras setup all over and he's filming.
He crunched up backseat of thisplane and it doesn't work.
It doesn't work.
The the thing never comes on.
But you know what?
that saturday on sec nation itplayed and it worked great
because jason was able tosuperimpose the snelling chart
(25:31):
on, so we still filmed it as if,and that was all on the fly,
and that was him as the producer, like act, like it's there, and
so I'm just like trying toremember what the what's on a
snelling chart and I'm like okay, yeah yeah, let me see if I can
.
Uh, and he had it superimposedon there by the time the edit
was done and it came out on espncrazy that saturday.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
You know, I I think, like many of us, we probably
look back at our nutty textthreads with jason, and I had
one a couple weeks ago with himwhere jackie plays in an amazing
power pop band called dreamierand jason is like, produced and
had a big hand in himself, eventhough often he's not been
playing live with them.
(26:10):
But I texted and they had justrecently you know, henry Rollins
has a radio show and he'splayed Drelir a good bit on the
radio and there was a recentplay that he did and sent a note
to get a record or something.
And I sent Jason a text thiskind of stuff we would do.
I said, hey, I'm so sorry aboutjackie, and he's like what is
(26:32):
everything?
Okay, what's going on?
And I said I heard she'sleaving you for henry rollins
and here's his.
You know what his response was?
Um, he was like, yeah, thattotally makes sense.
I mean, I probably would too.
She's funny enough.
And then I said, yeah, man, I'mso sorry, and he goes.
And he, it was like fiveminutes later he goes.
Do you think I could go withher and just live in the garage?
Speaker 1 (26:58):
oh my gosh oh god so I know this is gonna be the
exact same thing for all of youguys and so many people
listening, but this is somethingthat stood out to me last night
I was trying to like put mythoughts together was that he
was always there for me and, uh,of course, if I like needed him
and like, I would call him,like hey, man, what you know,
what do you think about this?
Or whatever, but he was therefor me when I didn't ask for him
(27:20):
to be there for me and I thinkyou know he would just say, like
hey, I heard you this morning,like everything cool, like I
feel like maybe something's up,like you're, and I'm like, yeah,
actually here's a thing that Iwas a little bit, you know, you
know that's something's buggingme, and he would just know that.
And so then we would end uphaving either a conversation on
my back deck or like on thephone.
(27:41):
Probably I don't talk on thephone, I don't like it, uh, but
I would talk to jason on thephone for a bit and we would
work through stuff.
And then he would also call meand be like hey, I need to get
your opinion on this.
I'm like, my opinion, what.
Like you're kind of the bigbrother in this friendship, but
it was that back and forth.
But then I saw a bunch ofpeople posting even screenshots
(28:02):
of like texts of him, just beinglike hey, I just wanted to
check on you, like everythinggreat and whatever check on you
like everything great andwhatever I was like again, not
special over here.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Turns out, turns out, he's just that guy no, accurate
, solid the word solid, yeah,solid s you don't meet too many
uh solid people like that.
For consistent for a consistentamount of time yeah, and that
seems to be the theme whenyou're consistent for over 30
years.
That's, that's who you are,yeah.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
He had a funny dynamic where he was so helpful
but he also could be kind oflike poke fun at you and put you
in your place and then buthere's where the third level of
the dynamic is he would thenworry if he went too far and
feel guilty about it.
He's like oh my God, I'm sosorry.
And after my surgery there's awhile while where, because some
(28:56):
nerve damage I had, it was hardto put on like long pants, it
just, and I'd be walking aroundthe house doing laundry or
something, just wearing like anice shirt but just underwear
underneath.
And we went, jackie and sarahand jason and I all went to taco
more loco in Avondale and Sarahbrought it up for some reason.
(29:16):
I'm like shut up because it'sgoing to stick.
And he's like oh, you're doingthe Donald Duck.
Speaker 4 (29:23):
I was about to say that I didn't know the term,
donald Duck.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
It's like all top, no bottom, yeah sure.
And I was like oh, and I madethe mistake.
I always say if you don't wantto have a nickname, don't ever
acknowledge it, and I made themistake of acknowledging it so
they've been call me donald ducklike oh, so you got pants on
today, that's.
Speaker 1 (29:43):
I thought I didn't scoop that story because when
you said that I was like that'sthe donald duck, I was just
thinking that, uh.
So my mom yesterday came overand uh, she's like, hey, someone
come, I'm so sorry about jason,whatever she's like.
Reed tells me that jason neversaid anything negative about
people.
I was like he didn't.
I was like that's exactly right, he didn't, certainly not in my
(30:06):
presence.
No, no, I mean, maybe jackieknows something that we don't
know and again we're havingmaybe he said bad things about
us, do you think?
Speaker 4 (30:12):
surely not?
Speaker 1 (30:13):
uh, we're doing a terrible job of coming up with
any bad stories about him, whichwe still, if you texted in, if
you know any, um.
But I really thought about itand I was like, yeah, he would
do this thing where, if therewas something, a bad situation,
right, like where somebody haddone something that wasn't great
, he would always kind of saythis like well, yeah, but right,
(30:34):
and that was like yeah Iremember he was like a situation
, like man, this person hasreally screwed us over on this.
He was like well, yeah, but andhe would like try to find like
some way, and he just wouldn'ttalk negatively about people,
which is so rare.
If we could all learn from that.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
I was talking about how he had.
He had this trend, you know,because of the size city it is.
Here in the music scene We'vehad a lot of people that have
been amazing, bands that, say,almost broke through and were
huge or those kind of things andthere's this kind of there's
always been like a little bit ofbacklash it happens in every
music scene where you're kind oflike those guys are too big for
(31:13):
their britches or this or that.
And I'm jason if it was like um, like verbena, or like uh, dan
sortain or like any people thatstarted getting like national
notoriety, he'd be like, oh,this is so great for birmingham,
so proud of them.
And it's like, come on, be areal hater every once in a while
, jason, and he was uh, just he.
(31:36):
I mean I don't want to start it, but like he was mr birmingham
for real, like he stayed herethe whole time.
When so many of us shot out ofhere like a rocket out of hell
for a while and maybe came back,he stayed here and always
believed in it.
It was a big part of of mebelieving that he was one of the
people that, like, would cometo bottle tree and support it
(31:57):
when we first started bottletree in 2005 or six, yeah, yeah,
I mean again.
Speaker 3 (32:03):
I always hearken back to substrate and substrate has
its own, like cult following oh,yeah, uh.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
It's a brand like I always say that like it doesn't
matter how many people arelistening at that moment.
The brand of substrate is amajor mover in this town.
Speaker 4 (32:18):
Substrate sticker showed up on a door at Hoover
high school a couple of yearsago which I was like, wow, look
at that.
Speaker 2 (32:23):
There was a high school kid who went there to put
it up.
Yeah, that was the one time.
Speaker 3 (32:30):
But no, he, you know he made a hub for for people and
artists.
He made a hub for people andartists and when you look at
Substrate like all of thevariety shows that they have on
that show that people listen to,shows centered around it
promotion stickers, graphics Iremember when they were in
(32:54):
Woodlawn and then it like grewand then you start seeing
substrate everywhere.
People start rocking the shirts.
You see the stickers, like yousaid, at Hoover.
You see it on people's cars.
Speaker 1 (33:13):
You see it at restaurants, like he literally
started a movement, and havingit at saturn brian is just such
a game changer for all of usright for, I'm sure, for saturn,
I'm sure for substrate, butalso just for the city.
Speaker 2 (33:24):
It's just such a cool thing right there with the
glass and jason and I alwaystalked about how, like when wsgn
used to have the the light dropit was like the one that had
the drive-thru glass andeverything.
It would be so cool, but he did.
That said, there was a rash oflike a period where, early on,
(33:45):
jason got mooned a lot.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
Right on the glass.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Right on the glass.
Another plus.
He absolutely enjoyed it.
He put a sign up saying please.
Speaker 4 (33:56):
Well, also real quickly, while we're talking
about Jason as a promoter andall the ways that he supported
artists and whatnot, I also justwant to mention this real
quickly, Back in the days when Iwas making some music and Jason
was helping no surprise, likewe talked about.
I'll never forget being at hisplace one time and saying, like,
well, what are you making musicright now?
(34:17):
Or what are you doing?
He was like, well, here'ssomething I've done recently and
he played it.
And I distinctly remember beingso embarrassed because what he
played was so much wildly betterthan any music I was ever going
to think about making.
And he just was making it andjust played it as if like, yeah,
here's just a little thing, andit was just mind blowing, it
was wonderful.
(34:38):
So I think sometimes you can.
If you don't try, you canforget that he also was just a
phenomenal musician, in additionto being a supporter.
Speaker 1 (34:46):
He's Jason Hamrick, right.
So, he's doing all this otherstuff, so he didn't play enough.
Like we didn't see him playingenough or like hear enough of
the recordings, because he wasalways doing other stuff with
other people.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
He learned how to do it because somebody needed him
to do it.
Yeah, Not always because heknew how to do it.
He would be the guy that wouldgo woodshed it for two weeks and
be like, oh, I can edit yourvideo or what you know, that
sort of thing.
Like he learned it because hewanted to help people.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
I hope that we didn't take him for granted while he
was here.
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Right, I was about to say, like what I've learned
from this whole thing yeah, it'swe most because we're human,
but typically what we do ashumans, we don't value the
people who do the most enoughuntil they're gone.
So my biggest thing was I hopethat I know I always thanked him
(35:37):
and I have the text messagesand the meetings to prove it for
whenever he did anything for us, because I was just reading one
where I thanked him forsomething he did when he took
photos for us.
We'll take that proof after theshow and I tell people you know
the people, please.
I know it's cliche to say givepeople their flowers while
(35:58):
they're still here to smell them.
I just hope that that happenedfor him.
I hope that he got thoseflowers from people while he was
here, because sometimes, whenyou're the strongest one you
need, you need the support thatyou typically don't get Right.
So I hope that he got that.
Speaker 4 (36:17):
And I'll tell you what it wouldn't surprise me to
learn that he did, because hewas a person who was so easy to
return his positive energy.
Some people in your life where,just any time you're around
them, you're just like, oh, thisis just a pleasure to be with
Jason Hamrick.
So I'm hopeful that he reallydid get to reap a lot of the
rewards of of putting out thekind of energy that he did,
(36:38):
because I know for me it wasvery easy to to reciprocate that
well, he didn't want to be aspectacle, he wanted to help you
with the spectacle you wantedto create, you know, and he was
just, um, you know, so unique inthat way.
Speaker 2 (36:53):
And I think one thing I'll say is there's no way to
contextualize this.
He went too young, it wasn'tanything that could have been
predicted, but I will say thathe always did what he loved and
in this society that we have,there's always this feeling that
(37:13):
we have to always keepeverything going, always have
infinite growth, always, likeyou know, we talk about.
The first thing we often do isat if you're meeting someone new
, it's like oh what, what do youdo for work, or you know, or
then you kind of figure out howmuch money they make, or
something like that.
I was there, uh, maybe threeweeks ago, and you know,
substrate has this brilliantlittle like eighth of a page
(37:37):
size fanzine that they do.
That makes no sense in this dayand age, makes no sense that
they do it.
And jason was in there staplingthese little fanzines together.
Um and uh, he's a 54 year oldman that's very accomplished in
everything.
And I said, man, why do youstill do that?
(38:00):
Because he had said somethinglike I had put in 1,500 staples
at this point and I was like,why do you do it?
And he goes, because I thinkit's cool.
And that's the lesson, becauseI'll tell you what he had a lot
of worries and a lot of fears,but he was happy and he loved
his life.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:20):
No doubt.
Hey, we have to take this lastbreak.
We're going to do that andwe're going to come back.
This is your last chance totext in any negative stories
about Jason.
We are waiting.
This will be the last third actis all negative.
Yeah, it's going to be allnegative stuff when we come back
.
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(38:40):
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Welcome back to it.
Brother Radio.
And well, that is Reed.
That is Brian Teasley hangingout with us, shahid as well.
Nick Davidson here in thestudio with us, also Hunter, of
course, helping us run the wholething.
So, yeah, we're remembering ourfriend Jason Hamrick, and we do
(39:03):
now have a list.
A lot of folks sent in somenegative stories and so let's
get those.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
He was too tall Before we get into those.
Speaker 2 (39:11):
Let me be somber for a moment and then we'll trash
him.
The rest, okay, good what yougot.
I probably shouldn't be sayingthis, but I know a lot of people
that might not have known him.
I think everybody in the musiccommunity knew him, but if
you're just somebody in your carright now, jason was this
amazing person in the musicscene and an amazing person for
(39:33):
the city scene and an amazingperson for the city saturday.
Uh, he had had an ear infection,yeah, and he, um, he was
feeling really weird, told hisbeautiful wife, jackie, it's
like I don't feel right.
And then at some point hebecame incoherent.
Ambulance came, um, and whathad happened, I think, is he,
(39:54):
and this is after he had got hisear flushed out a couple hours
after that, yeah, and he hadsepsis from it.
Um, he may have had a strokesome point because of the sepsis
and, um, you know, your ear isso close to your brain and he
was okay.
They did a CT scan.
Uh, you know, when he was atthe hospital, like his brain was
(40:15):
okay, he was still unconsciousand then he, um, but his heart
stopped for nine minutes.
He was still alive and then itstopped again shortly after that
for maybe a minute.
So this um beautiful soul wasabsolutely robbed from us in
this freak way that none of uscould have predicted.
You know, I know jason andjackie, you know we had a lot of
(40:39):
cool trips planned, a lot ofbeautiful things.
Um, you know he um, if you'veever had somebody in your life
like that, um, be lucky, realizetime is precious and that in
these moments like it's good tofeel the pain and it's good to
be inspired from them and belike what small the way I can
(41:03):
pay respect is be a little likethat, be a little more
altruistic, give back in a way,take time out.
That doesn't make sense, that'snot benefiting you, that
benefits somebody else.
I don't want to sound preachy,but in these moments that's not
benefiting you, that benefitssomebody else.
I don't want to sound preachy,but in these moments that's the
way we pay respect to, to thepeople we've lost.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
And so we talked about already, like the not
talking negatively about people,right, and that's something we
should learn from Jason and andI will I will personally try to
do that better at that goingforward.
But also, like during the break, we started talking about some
stuff.
I was like whoa, whoa, save itfor the mics.
So there were all these peoplein our community that would go
through really tough stuff, andJason was, like a lot of times,
(41:41):
the first person to step up andbe like, okay, we need to gather
and kind of like, start raisingmoney.
Right, there's like Mikey D'ssituation.
There were others.
Talk about a few of those.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Yeah yeah, Tim Cornell, who had had his truck
stolen.
Mikey's truck had got caughtfire on the side of the road.
One time, Dave, one of oursecurity guards at Saturn house,
burnt down and he immediately Ithink we raised like $20,000
(42:13):
because the house was, you know,and there was a.
There was like a crossoverbetween the insurance that
didn't cover very much of it.
Um, and I will say, though, ifyou know, one thing I should say
before we go is Sunday atSaturn, from four to seven,
we're having a life celebrationof it.
It's not going to be like sadmac macabre.
(42:35):
We're going to talk about allthe fun stuff he did, because
it's mainly he was a he's acreator of a lot of fun stuff
for a lot of people enjoy yeah,and I'm just um.
I'm curious, though, because Ium, will you seem like the maybe
one of the persons, uh, otherthan jackie, that might have
seen him nude?
Was that ever the case?
(42:56):
You know four times, four times.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
We don't have enough time now to go into those four
times.
Speaker 2 (43:04):
Wait, don't say the context.
I don't want to know thecontext.
Leave it there.
Speaker 4 (43:06):
Just leave it there.
Speaker 2 (43:07):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:08):
Hey, so asking for myself, because my daughter's
turning 16 and her one requestwas to see Tyler Childers at the
Wharf and that's this Sunday,because my daughter's turning 16
and her one request was to seeTyler Childers at the wharf and
that's this Sunday, and soDanielle and I are taking Lila
to see Tyler Childers.
So you know, obviously I, youknow devastated, it can't be
there.
I'm glad to be able to do thisfor Lila, but is this going to
(43:30):
be in any way recorded?
Speaker 2 (43:32):
Is there a way we're going to try to you know, it's
all obviously last minute we'regoing to try to hopefully film
some of it or hopefully streamsome of it for the people like
you that can't be there.
That said, you two guys don'thave to worry, because I think
he's going to be haunting yourass for a long time.
Speaker 1 (43:48):
No, for real, I have so much of this stuff at my
house.
I was thinking about thisyesterday at a recording session
and, as you know, the news hadjust broken a couple hours
earlier and I'm sitting thereputting, you know, stringing
mics up and I was like, oh man,this is all Jason stuff.
I was like this is stuff thatwe worked together on and these
purple mic cords are all Jason's, that we had from the SEC
(44:12):
network stuff.
And I was like, yeah, goodness.
And then like, and you go inthis room in my house and
there's a picture you know thathe had one of his photography
pictures on the wall and I havelots of them in the house.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
But right and he um in in in life he was very giving
, but his ghost is gonna wantthat snare back.
He probably gave you like 20years ago and I hope these,
these airwaves I got to think insome kind of way and not to get
too hokey at the end, but Ihope they're reaching out to the
cosmos because I love you,buddy, yeah.
Speaker 3 (44:46):
Respect to the legacy contribution, Jason Hamrick.
Condolences to his family.
Peace to Jackie.
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I love.
Yeah, I think think this Idon't know what how this works,
because jason was mr substrate,right, jackie for, say, like a
mr substrate.
There's a lot of work that goesinto that, to running a radio
station and I think we have aresponsibility in some way to
make sure that that continues,even because, like I talked
about earlier, the brand ofsubstrate, like what it means
for Birmingham and what it islike.
(45:22):
So I don't know what that'sgoing to look like and obviously
nobody has had time to thinkabout that, but we need to keep
that going whatever that is.
Speaker 2 (45:31):
Absolutely.
Speaker 4 (45:36):
It goes without saying that we will all miss
Jason dearly in the future, butI think it's important to
remember that he will always,always, always be alive and well
in our memories, and we havelots and lots of them, um, and
so that's.
That's what I look forward tois reflecting on all those
wonderful experiences and, likewe talked about earlier,
thinking about how can I embracesome of the personality that he
was and try to incorporate thatinto my own interactions with
(45:56):
other people.
A hundred percent, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
Yeah, so all right, here we are.
Uh, now finally can get to thelist of all the negative stuff,
uh that folks have written inabout Jason.
Um, and I think he would wantthat, right, he would want, like
, the honest truth about him tocome out and what?
Oh, it's 7 o'clock.
Speaker 2 (46:18):
It is 7 o'clock right now.
We don't have time,unfortunately.
Speaker 4 (46:20):
I had a notebook.
We did mention the too allergicto onions thing, though.
Speaker 1 (46:24):
It was the craziest allergy I've ever known of from
anybody.
Okay, well, we'll do thosenegative stories one day Part
two, Brian and Shahid.
Speaker 4 (46:35):
thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (46:37):
It's an honor to be here, brian Teasley and Shahid,
of course, and you guys.
Yeah, head out to Saturn thisSunday.
What are the times again?
Four o'clock to seven o'clock.
Yeah, Four to seven.
Okay, I lied to Nick.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
Well, it'll be all onions All onions for Fresh
onions.
Speaker 1 (46:54):
That's right, all right, great stuff.
Trivia with Will and Reedcoming up after this.
Feel free to stick around andplay some trivia if you would
like.
All right, back after thisPeace.
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