#515 - Montel Williams on Why He Joined the Military + Origin of His Talk Show + How He Started a Trend on His Talk Show Before TikTok + Bobby Gets Interviews About What He Wants His Legacy to Be - Bobbycast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to Bobby Cast episode five point fifteen. By the way,
thank you guys for all your comments, all your reviews.
We need them and wherever you are. Sometimes they'd do
a little social media thing where you can leave comments
down on whatever platform it is. Just say hi over there.
We may message you and give you something free. Probably not,
but we could. You never know, right, yeah, yeah, we

(00:26):
need the help. So glad you guys are here. We're
gonna go now to this interview with Montell Williams that
I did. And if you're around my age, probably remember
the Montell Williams Show. It says here for seventeen years, man,
that's a long time to have anything in the world
of entertainment run. But seventeen years the Montell Williams Show
was on, and I watched a lot of it. I mean,
I remember there was Sylvia Brown. She was like the

(00:48):
psychic that would like prett it crazy stuff. Do you
remember that at all, Mike orre you too young for her?
I remember her? Man. He would have on this psychic
named Sylvia Brown. And there would be times where you
would go and talk to people like their kid had disappear,
and she'd be like, they're buried somewhere near a rock.
And then once they found him, one of the kids
and what they weren't buried near a rock, and he

(01:08):
kind of realized that, you know, psychics kind of full
of crap, but Montel wasn't full of crap. Like, listen
to this. He was the first black Marine Corps trained
naval officer. Now this is pre the Montell Williams Show.
He was the first black man to graduate from both
the US Naval Academy and complete Marine Corps training. He
served twenty two years in the military. That show that

(01:29):
I know him for ran for almost twenty years, all
the way till two thousand and eight. He has an
extremely high IQ. He was diagnosed with MS in nineteen
ninety nine and has founded the foundation that has raised
a ton of money for research and raise awareness. But
we're going to talk about the book that he wrote.
He wrote a book about the sailing of the interrupt
but which I have very limited knowledge of, but I

(01:52):
do have some because of my stepdad. He's talk to
me about it all the time. But he also has
a show called Military and Makeover with Montel, which is
a Lifetime series. The guy was on TV forever and
a career that lasted forever. Let me do it. A
couple other facts. He earned a great engineering he did
write fiction like he's a novelist, so that would be

(02:16):
self help nonfiction. And he's written military themed fiction books.
He was a Mustang in the United States Marine Corps,
an enlisted service member who becomes an officer. He helped
save a sixteen year old from being burned following a
car accident. Montell and his driver happened to be nearby
as the teen's pickup truck spun out a control and

(02:36):
hit a tree. He stopped and pulled the boy from
the truck as it caught on fire, pulling the boy
on his back to a safe distance. So, man, he's
done so much more than I thought. I just know
him from the TV show, But he wrote this book
and I'm excited to talk about it. And here he
is Montell Williams. Hey, Montel, thank you for the time today.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
I really appreciate it, absolutely no. Thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Why did you join the military when you were young?

Speaker 2 (02:58):
You know, I came in during Vietnam at the very
tail end of Vietnam. I had friends that had gone
to battle that didn't come home, and I had a
friend or two that had gone in to the military
that did come home, and when I saw them, you know,
I saw the transformation in them. And you know, when
I graduated from high school, I had a plan, but

(03:19):
my plan blew up in my face. And so, you know,
my parents had already sent three other kids to college
and were kind of out of money to do some
for me. So I thought, I'll just join, get the
GI bill, get out, go to college, and you know,
find another job. But had so much fun and just fun,
but so much pride in my service at the time

(03:39):
that I decided to stay in. So I started off
in the Marine Corps, went to the Naval Academy prep school,
went to the Naval Academy, I got commissioned as a
naval officer, as a special duty Intelligence Naval officer, and
then served in a career that spanned twenty two years.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Wow, yes, I know what was it about the military?
And I just think like I grew up with really
no discipline. I got very poor so that I really
didn't have any discipline, and I think I searched for
that once I left the house. I don't know what
your childhood was like. But what do you think when
you got in the military, kept you in it? What
drew you to love it?

Speaker 2 (04:13):
You know, I grew up in a family that we did.
We were you know, lower middle class or no, not
lower middle class, we were a lower bottom class. And
you know, there wasn't much future in the community that
I grew up in. And so when I joined the military,
and I started saying that my future was opening up
to me in front of me. You know, look, I'm
a young kid. I joined the military. I got I

(04:35):
went to boot camp at Paris Island, demonstrated very quickly
that you know, if I depend on myself and recognize
that discipline is something that should be searched for rather
than something that should be avoided, success comes with that.
So I was maritorists, promoted out of boot camp, got

(04:57):
into my first duty station, which was Tonya and Palm,
got marichoice and promoted again, which means I got promoted
ahead of my time and schedule.

Speaker 3 (05:05):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
We got selected to go to Naval Contry pet school,
went ahead and got a four year degree and went
to serve as a special duty Intellinis officer. I served
on board the USS Kitty Hawk and Halsey in the
Indian Ocean for from nineteen eighty to like nineteen eighty
one and a half, got selected to go to the

(05:26):
Defense Language Institute, got a degree in Russian, had to
serve back. I had to give some time back for that,
so then I started serving on submarines. I was so
into what I was doing that you know, by the
time I blinked, I had already been in for fourteen years,
and you know, why not stay in for the rest.
And so, you know, when I decided to get out,

(05:49):
I got out at the came up active duty, but
I was in what's called ten Act temporary active duty
for several years. After I came up, well, I went
back forth on active duty, off active duty, serving and
then served out the rest of our time in the reserves.
It just was really the successes that I had, the

(06:09):
honors that were started upon me. You know, I really
wasn't thinking about a career until I blinked and realized
that I've been in that long.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
So when I watched these videos on TikTok now of
reunifications of like in a football game and it's homecoming and
the player doesn't know that their mom or dad is
back and like, I'll watch those every single time. But
when I think back to where that first in my
mind started to happen, was your show when you would
actually do that before social media was even a thing.

(06:39):
Were you the first to like do this as like
a segment on television.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
I believe I was, and I you know, I honored
my service throughout my entire career of the Monta Hoorne Show.
We you know, if you go back and look at
any any one of my shows, you'll see that my
honor flag was positioned in the middle of my set.
I was. I think I was the first television show
to do that. I kept my flag there because of

(07:05):
the pride that I had in my service and I
wanted to make sure that I supported our guys and
men and women in service the entire time. So I
did several shows from multiple ships. I was wanted to
be long before it was vogue of embedding. I literally
was in the North Arabian Sea on board the Independent,
So I went over multiple times taking stories, you know,

(07:25):
and back then where we only had VHS tapes, I
would take tapes out that a family would put together
for their service member. I would take those tapes out
and show that to their service member that was deployed,
and then realized that, you know, if I could do more.
Every Christmas we had a soldier come on board the show.
It was so funny that we got away with because

(07:48):
they never knew. Some of these guys had not watched
a show or didn't know that I was going to,
you know, surprise them with their family or with their
service member that was deployed on the board the show.
But we did this almost every Christmas that I did
the show.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
How did military turn into the television show? Because the
version I know of you is obviously the Montell Williams
Show for years and years and years, Like, I'm sure
there were little things that happened and now we just go, wow,
we only know them? Is that? But what were the
what were the transitions?

Speaker 2 (08:16):
I started a program on active duty before I got
off active duty where I was speaking around the country
in schools. And this was also something that nobody else
had done. There was only one person that had done
what I was doing, a guy Namat, who was an
ex comp who was doing it in New York. Kind
of a scare it grade program. I started speaking in
schools all of the country. As a matter of fact,
from nineteen eighty eight to nineteen ninety one, I spoke

(08:37):
to about a million and a half young people, and
you know, I don't know. I'm telling you eight hundred
nine hundred schools across the country, colleges, universities, middle schools,
high schools, speaking to kids about staying with from negative
view trends. Some of that I did originally in my uniform,
and then once I got out, I took my uniform
off and continue to do so. And that literally became

(09:00):
came the genesis of the Monto Winn Show because those
presentations started being simulcast the schools around the country or
around the community that I was in. I did a
show in DC that won the Best of Good Now
Non Florida that won the Best got in that award
for the year where I did a presentation of high
school students, and then I did shows in Chicago and Detroit, Washington,

(09:22):
d C. Did it all over the country, and that
ended up turning into what became the Montal Winter Show
because a couple of producers ended up seeing some of
the footage of me being in those schools and first
approached me and said you know, we had this thing
called a talk show, and at the time there was
only four talk shows A Sally, Oprah, Phil and Heraldo,

(09:44):
and they thought, well, maybe you should try to do
a show for kids. And then we realized that that
wasn't enough. Maybe we should just do a talk show
that was youth centric. And then once I put it
on the air, I made it a show that was
not only youth centric, but military centerl So it ended
up lasting for seventeen years, so that the presentations that

(10:06):
I was doing around the country, we were kind of
the genesis of the Montalone show.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Was it season to season with you? Were you always
wondering if you're getting renewed or was it different back then?

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Oh? Back, No, back then. Honestly, that was really how
television was. It was literally the Montel Whims Show created
something called the slow rollout that Hollywood ended up trying to,
you know, continue after my show started. But yeah, I
ended up the first five years I was on air,
my show was doled out in you know, two year contracts,

(10:39):
and for the entire seventeen year period of time, it
was doled out in two year contract So I didn't
really realize that I was going to have longevity that
I had, but we earned it.

Speaker 1 (10:47):
You know.

Speaker 2 (10:48):
I ended up being winning or getting them, getting them
for Best Talk Shows, and it was nominated multiple times
for Best Show, and that's really what kept us on
the air.

Speaker 1 (10:59):
You mentioned earlier you have a degree in Russian. Do
you still speak Russian?

Speaker 2 (11:04):
You know, what's that old saying, if you don't use it,
you lose it. I'm I'm away from using it for
ten years now, so I have a little bit. I
can carry on a conversation, but I'm not as fool
as I used to be. What about Mandarin, oh man,
I did that while I was at the Naval Academy.
I studied Mandarin. I took courses in the Mandarin at
the Naval Academy, and again it was proficient. But then

(11:26):
if you don't use it, you lose it. And of
course what in the military did maybe did a graduate
from Naval Academy with you know, a couple of years
of Chinese behind me, and they sent me off the
long Russian instead of you know, continuing to study Chinese,
which probably would have made me more I had greater
ability to speak it now, but now I've lost all
of it.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
When you were writing this book. Were you so in
it that you were dreaming it when you were asleep?

Speaker 2 (11:53):
Oh? Absolutely, and I was so. And once it was
it was finished, and you know, I mean David and
I would write, David would send me chat and I
look at it and review them to it. I'll tell you,
you know, what we kept trying to do is tweak
it so that it just didn't sound like a regular
history book. It sounded like it written to you, as
if you were in it. I recently did an interview

(12:13):
with a reporter from the New York Post that picked
us as the you know, this week's one of this
week's top five selections for books to be read, and
they kept saying, you know, when you read this, it
reads like a cinematic novel rather than a history book.
And that's exactly what we were trying to capture when
we did it. So I'm so happy that that came through.

(12:36):
And yeah, I mean I I even now dream about
some of it. You know, I've read this book now
probably fifty times byself, but you know, reading some of
the parts of it after the torpedo struck. You know,
if I read it this afternoon, I'll dream about it tonight.

Speaker 1 (12:57):
So the book's called The Sailing of the Intrepid, The
Incredible war time voyage of the Navy's iconic aircraft carrier.
It just came out. I encourage everybody because, again, even
just a story that I know about it from being
taught at as a kid. I knew about the resilience
of the people of the ship. But this excites me
to know that you've why this story though, because again
you've spent so much time in the military, around the military,

(13:19):
doing things for the military. Why this one specifically, Well.

Speaker 2 (13:23):
There are so many stories in the military that I
want to tell. This is one because I actually happened
to be on the Intrepid, actually go to the Intrepid,
I visited the trump and I've been on at Marine
Corps balls on the Intrepid and other issues on the
Intropic because this now this museum that it is, and
I had actually walked up into the forecasto and saw
the spot where they actually hung the sale and I

(13:47):
remember that story. And so when David reached out and said,
you know, I want to tell this really interesting story
that I don't think a lot of people know about,
he said, I said, the sale. He said, yeah, the
sale of the try. I said, tell let us tell it.
So I think it it's it's a story that not
only tells the grit of the human beings and the crew,
but it also kind of in a way humanizes this metal,

(14:12):
this ship, shows that this is a ship that wasn't
going to give up and its crew wasn't going to
lie to give up. And you know, I think different
than some of the stories. And there are so many
military stories that need to be told. You know, we
capture this one. David and I are right now thinking
about and looking into the future and thinking about telling
some more stories.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
So my stepdad was a I would say, a connoisseur
of the appreciation of our military world World War two,
and so as a kid, I learned a lot about
World War Two, mostly because his dad fought in World
War Two. And so the book that you wrote, the
Sailing of the Intrepid, I want to give you what

(14:55):
I know about the Intrepid because I did learn a
little about it as a kid, because again he was
fast needed with mostly the resilience of the people on
the boat, and from what I remember, the kamikaze planes
that would crash into the boat. Yet they still managed
to save this this carrier. And so that's my memory
of being taught that how much of that is your

(15:18):
story of the book, and how they managed to continue
this ship working and fighting.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Well, the crazy thing about it is that, you know,
the in Trumpid is really honestly like the unsingable Molly Brown.
This ship has such a history, and the reason why
we call it iconic is because I'm only telling one
little partial, one little portion of the ship's history. You know,
when the ship went into battle in World War Two,
it successfully participated in two of the most successful campaigns

(15:49):
and at sea. One was that against Quadlum one of
the Marshall Islands, and the other one was against the
island of Truck. The aircraft carrier was part of one
of the biggest armadels that we ever put together, multiple
aircraft carriers, was destroyers, cruisers and those kinds of things.
But when we went into battle in both places, we

(16:12):
inflicted some of the most devastating losses to the Japanese
Navy that they had ever had at that point in time.
And when the ship was leaving Truck, it was hit
by and struck by a Japanese torpedo which ended up
jamming its rudder fifteen degrees port. This made the ship
basically Korean out of control, made it almost unsteerable. The

(16:34):
captain tried everything he could by using the engines, putting
forward and backwards and you know, trying its best to
steer it, but really had no steerage and so it
was a sitting duck. And because of the ingenuity the
resourcefulness of the captain, the crew, the damage control officer,
count of Commander destroys On Reynolds, and several of the

(16:56):
other crew members, they came up with this idea, what
if we marry the most advanced and we've got to
remember this day in Trumpet was one of the most
advanced ships of its time, close to one thousand feet long,
and it didn't really have sales on it. So this
ship married the technology of the day to the most

(17:16):
ancient technology of maritime life, which is a sail. They decided,
what if we put a sail on the front of
this ship, on the bow, that will help counterbalance the
wind and also the currents and help us steer this
thing straight. They did that and it worked. They were
able to steer the ship almost three thousand miles back
to Hawaii where it was temporarily fixed, went up to

(17:41):
San Francisco, went into dry dock where it was actually repaired,
went back in the battle, and then that's when they
got hit by four different kma kaze. It was one
of the first ships in the US Navy to get
struck by a kamakazi and that completely blew their minds
that these people were actually going to fly their planes
right to a ship. It survived all four of those.

(18:03):
It survived losses from its air crew, you know, and
battles after that, but it ended up staying afloat, staying
alive because again, you know, the Japanese wanted to be
able to sink this. You know, the intrumpid was you
know the word in trumpets, you know, sent fear into
the spines of the Japanese, and knowing that this thing

(18:24):
was still floating out there, they were trying their best
to go and sink it. And had they done so,
they would have had a spoil of war that they
could have bragged about. But they didn't get that because
of the ingenuity, the resourcefulness of the crew and them
sailing it back to Hawaii and then again like I said,
went on after that to be struck by kamakazis that

(18:45):
every two of them. It went back in the dry dock,
was repaired, came back into battle, ended up serving in Vietnam,
ended up then serving again as the space capsule recovery
ship for NASA before it was retired. And it was
almost scrapped and retired, turned into scrap metal, but Zachary Fisher,
one of the Fisher Brothers in New York, one of

(19:05):
the most prolific builders in the city, decided that he
wanted to take it and reach out to a mar
CONTs and said, look what if we put this along
the West Side Highway and turn it into an aeronautical
space museum, which it is today. So it's a story
of resilience, survivability, contribution, and of teamwork, you know, I
mean the entire ship participated in collecting the canvas that

(19:29):
they used to end up selling this three hundred square
foot's sale because you have to remember that during World
War Two, not having sales, they only had one person
on the ship that had the rating of sail maker,
but his job was really to sew hash covers and
body bags. So they had to collect all this to

(19:50):
be able to make that sale, to be able to
get this ship out of harm's way, get it back,
get it refit to be back in service. And that's
really where the story is. I mean, it's almost like
the unsingable Molly Brown.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
When you talk about truck, which is about t r UK.
What I know about that is, or what I don't
know about that is, wasn't that like their naval base?
And I think about taking anything and going it's almost
it almost feels like life or Death online, But it's
like an away football team going into the home team.
So they're taking they're on the they're on the the Intrepid.

(20:24):
They were going into this massive naval base of Japan
if they're the away team. But we're talking life or
death right absolutely.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
And you know when they when they did so, the
Japanese had put small you know, they had fortified small
islands all throughout the Northern Pacific, and so that was
part of what this job was for. You know, the Intrupid,
the Essex and several other aircraft carriers that were taking
the battle to the Japanese after Pearl Harbor, and so

(20:51):
you're right, they had to sail up. They were all
shore enough they launched its planes, but they actually devastated
both Truck and Quaslin, destroying several ships, several airplanes, aircraft,
and you know, the casualties on the Japanese side were

(21:11):
probably ten times the casually is on the US side.
So it was a pure show of projection of power,
and at a time when you know, most ags in
the world didn't believe the aircraft carrier was worth its
grain of salt. However, once they saw what the Japanese
were able to do in Honolulu, they realized that projection
of power this way would be the future of naval fighting,

(21:34):
and they were absolutely right.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
My final question, and I would assume you're in your
sixties now, but are you still jacked? Like every time
I've seen a picture of you even ripped up.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Well, you know, age does. It's it's it's part to
keep us from being as jacked as we ever had been.
But you know, I work out at least five to
six days a week, so I've been trying to maintain.
As a matter of fact, I my wife were you know,
looking this morning and surprised that my six pack is
coming back. I'm sixty eight, and you know, in the

(22:03):
last couple of weeks. Last couple of weeks we've been
working at. Our diet is a little bit better, and
my six pack's coming back. So yeah, I think I'm
in fairly decent shape from my age.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Hey, congratulations on the book, and thank you for the time,
and yeah, just thanks for you know, maintaining your presence
and what you continue to present. So I really appreciate that,
and I hope the book sells just tons and times
want tell.

Speaker 2 (22:25):
I thank you so much, sir. We're hoping that they
turn this because I've been approached recently by a couple
of producers who wanted you to do this documentary or
as a feature film. And like I said, I think
it reads not like a history book. It reads more
like a cinematic novel. And so I'm hoping that this
gets turned into a film that'll reach way more people.
And then we're going to be hitting it again. And

(22:47):
to all of your listeners and to those who serve,
thank you so much for your service.

Speaker 1 (22:51):
All right, Motel, have a great day, man.

Speaker 2 (22:53):
Thank you, Yeah, sir, you too. You take care of
you some.

Speaker 4 (22:55):
Hang tight the Bobby Cast. We'll be right back, and
we're back on the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Also, what I want to do is I got an
email and it was from a student at a College
of California, and so she was doing a sports journalism
final and her assignment was to interview me for fifteen
to twenty minutes. But I think it went like forty
five minutes? Is that how long this say? I think
it was like forty something minutes. So I just thought
it would be interesting to play it. I have not

(23:23):
heard it back. I didn't want to hear it back.
So this is Julia and she was doing an assignment
at Chapman University in California, and so she had to
interview me. And this is that interview. Did you listen
back to it? Yeah? Do I want to hear it back.
I think it's interesting you talk about like what you
want to be remembered for. Oh I don't remember what
I said, all right, but here you go.

Speaker 3 (23:44):
How's your day been so far?

Speaker 1 (23:46):
It's been good. I wake up every morning pretty early.
So we did the radio show this morning, and then
I came home and hopped into a I do a
podcast for the NFL. So I did the podcast until
like twenty minutes ago, and then set this up and
then I'll go work out after I'm done. So days

(24:06):
are always pretty packed, but it's been good so far.
What about you.

Speaker 3 (24:10):
I class this morning? I have an eight thirty so
my class all morning wall that's tough. Yeah, and then
Jeff's class is usually tonight and it's seven to nine
fifty on Tuesday nights.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
Wow, three hours and going once a week. Right, it's yeah,
there's it. I took media law that way. It was
a nightmare because it was great. It was only once
a week, but oh my god, it feels like it's forever.
Even if it's not a boring class, it feels like
it's forever.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
And it's so late at night too. But he brings
us snacks every week.

Speaker 1 (24:35):
So really, yes, that's really cool.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
Whoever has the best like lead or whatever story you're
writing that week, they get a pick snack.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
Of the week. So what do you guys do in class?

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Like?

Speaker 1 (24:44):
What are you learning in this class?

Speaker 3 (24:46):
It kind of varies. It's intro to sports journalism, so
it's a lot of writing and like learning by doing.
That's Jeff's big thing is like the best way to
learn is by practicing, and he brings in guest seaker
Seth Davis came last week.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
That's cool. He just like really awesome, Like I don't
you know, I don't know if you know how like
legit he is. I'm sure you can look it up.
And but like he's like one of my favorites of
all time. So he's really, really, really one of the best.
Like you guys get super fortunate that he's, you know,
spending time teaching over there.

Speaker 3 (25:17):
Yeah, it's like the only time he teaches this year.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
So that's cool.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Not only fourteen of us two. So okay, Well that
was one of my questions, was was a typical day
and the life looked like? And what did you do
today specifically? But you kind of already answered them.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
So yeah, I think that the dates are always a
little bit different because we travel a little bit too.
We travel if I'm touring, if I'm like doing stand
up or like, I'll leave Thursday of this week because
we have a festival, and then next week I'll leave
on Tuesday and I'll work from Dallas because I'm part
of the ACMs, the Amazon broadcast, so I'll go and

(25:51):
be part of that brought that show. So all the
weeks are different. The thing that's the same is I'd
probably jam too many things in each day.

Speaker 3 (25:59):
Well time me typically wake up. I saw your sistarts
at five and like my eight thirty is already too
much for me.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
Yeah, I wake up on purpose. If I can wake
up at four, that's pretty good. But I usually wake
up in the three o'clock hour. I have crazy anxiety
about oversleeping. I've never overslept once. I have never been
late because I'm so scared of being late. So I
wake up in the three o'clock hour almost every single day.
It's miserable. I hate it. There's never been a morning

(26:24):
I've like got out of bed and been like, man,
this feels great. So I've just gotten better at feeling
really terrible for a couple hours until I snap out
of it. Because I am not a morning person.

Speaker 3 (26:36):
I really what time you go to bed, then.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
It's very dependent on where I am, but I try
to go to better on nine thirty or so if
I'm home. It's tough, though, just because there's just a
you know, we we are our priorities, and I tend
to prioritize like six things at once, and nine thirty

(27:01):
is the goal. But especially if I tour on weekends.
I won't even get to bet on weekends until like
eleven or twelve. And that's okay because I don't have
to do anything that next morning, but it kind of
wrecks my schedule for the first part of the next
week because I kind of get off track. But morning suck.
I hate mornings. They suck. And I've been doing the
morning show like a national morning show for twenty years,

(27:22):
which is crazy because I was in my early twenties
when I started, and it has sucked the whole time
and not gotten easier.

Speaker 3 (27:30):
Yeah, I can imagine the show doesn't suck.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
It's it's awesome to do because I have all my friends.
I hired all my friends, But just the waking up
part is brutal.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
I was gonna ask that. What was one of my
questions is like, since you've been doing this for so long,
how do you like keep it interesting? And like do
you ever get like kind of bored of it or
is it always something?

Speaker 1 (27:44):
Now? I think you could get bored of it pretty
quickly if you were doing the same thing over and over.
I think one of the things that's the best for
me and also at times the worst for my health
is that I have like four or five things going
at once. So I've written a couple of books. I
guess three if you kind of kids book, but that
took me like twenty minutes, and mostly it was like

(28:05):
picking the you know, the the person that draws the pictures.
But if it's books, or if I'm writing comedy at
a comedy special on CMT a couple of months ago,
or you know. I have a few podcasts that I
do now aside from the radio show, I travel around
and do a sports show where I go to different

(28:26):
you know, major League Baseball teams, NFL teams, NBA teams,
college programs. So because I do a lot of different stuff,
it does keep me from getting bored, but it also
keeps me tired, especially with the early morning hours. I
don't think it would be so bad if I don't
have to wake up early. But the radio show is
still the most fun. The radio show and podcast it's
the same, but that's still the most fun because that's

(28:48):
what I've really built into something that's by far the
biggest thing that I've ever done. But the fact that
I'm able to add in other elements to keep it
feeling I won't say, but to keep me feeling motivated
to like create, because that's where I filled. My best
is like when I'm making something and sometimes it ends
up not being very good. I was in my therapist's

(29:09):
office yesterday and we were talking about that. It's like
I never I'm never happy with the finished product. Ever.
I'll give you an example where we have a I
have a special that's about the ACM Awards going on Amazon.
When's it go read Friday? It goes up Friday. We
produced a whole thing ourselves with that. Amazon didn't tell
us to make it. We just made it. And it's

(29:31):
me and Read and just a couple of guys in
my crew, and we shot the special and they are like,
we love it. We'll take it, but it really sucked
making it. And now that they've taken it, I'm like, okay,
But the idea of creating something that no one even
knows is coming, nor would they even want it if
you pitched it, but they still like it, Like that

(29:53):
is what's kind of fulfilling for me. No, it's just
which is why I'm in therapy so much, because it
doesn't make sense.

Speaker 3 (29:58):
No, I'm the same way, I need to con be
doing if I'm not doing that was one of the
other things I was going to ask, is what's your
favorite part about hosting a radio show and is there
any moments from over the years that like kind of
stood out to you as like one of your favorites
or something that kind of like made it all worth it.

Speaker 1 (30:10):
Almost My favorite part is that it's long form. You know,
I've never been in radio to play music, so we
don't play a lot of music. And I was fortunate
that when I first started doing the radio show, I
really focused on podcasting before podcasting was mainstream. So whenever
podcasting became as big as it is now, because it's
basically all I listened to, we were already doing it

(30:33):
to a level where we had an audience on our
streams already. So it's kind of like we're doing two
shows at once. We're doing the radio show and the
radio show is a podcast, but then we podcast on
the back end of the radio show. So it's been
fun to kind of be on the front end of that.
While other people were just doing radio, we were focused
on the digital side of it too. That has been
kind of fun in the creation of our show. I

(30:55):
think another thing was I hired all my friends way
early because we had no money. There was no budget,
and I didn't really know what I was doing. I
have no background in any sort of broadcast or radio,
nor do I have a good voice, nor do I
really have any of the classic tools that one would
think they needed to make. But that's in the end
what worked for me the best because we did it
so differently and we had no budget. We were on

(31:17):
one station in Texas, and I since I had no budget,
I just got my friends to come sit in the
studio with me in the morning, and then that turned
into being able to pay them part time. We had
some success, then we had a whole lot of success,
and I hired all I've just hired all my friends
over the years. So that's probably the best part about
it is that I've been able to give my friends
like really cool, good jobs and then moments, you know,

(31:40):
some of the cool stuff. It just they fit into
different buckets. Like we've been able to on the philanthropic
side of things, you know, do basically thirty million dollars
for Saint Jude, which is a children's hospital where people
don't have to pay the bills if their kid gets
put in for cancer, and I was in the hospital
a lot as the kids, So that is why that
place is so important to me. So on that and
that bucket, that's super cool, like people coming in, Like

(32:04):
I enjoyed doing long form interviews, and there have been
a couple that have really stood out, Like John Mayer
would come in and there's you know, like a half
hour John Mayer interview that's on YouTube that I didn't
even know he was coming to the studio, and he
came by and we just kind of talked about creating
and kind of what you see inside while creating, and
I was asking about colors, and we're talking about jokes

(32:25):
and talking about how it's usually not the thing that
you're most proud of, or that you work the hardest
or push yourself the most on that people resonate with.
It's usually the thing that's kind of down the middle.
Because I was asking him, like, what songs do you
get bored playing and he's like, well, I get bored
playing this song, but people love it the most. And
I kind of compared that to some of the stuff
that I do. So stuff like that's cool where you

(32:46):
don't really expect it to be great, which makes it great. So,
like those were two pretty cool moments if you're just like, like,
what are some cool moments? Also, you know, just being
able to do stuff that spins off the radio show,
like every thinks has spun off the radio show. But
like I did a reality show. I did Dancing with
the Stars, which I never I don't know how to dance.
And I was already on American Idol because I did

(33:09):
four years over there. But I won that show while
being a terrible dancer. I worked really hard, but it
was my audience that you know, ran with me the
whole time. And so if it wasn't for the radio
show and the really great audience that I have that
were like, hey, this is our guy, like that wouldn't
have happened. So I think just building that community has

(33:29):
been probably the coolest part about it.

Speaker 3 (33:31):
Yeah, Dancing with the Stars is how I first heard
about you, because me and my sister are big fans
of the show. We went to the tour.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
That's awesome. Yeah, it's I never knew how amazing those
athletes are until I was with them. And I'm still
semi athletic, Like I I can still play a little
bit with the Major League Baseball Celebrity Softball tournament was
a few months ago, and I went and played and
I was I was the MVP. So I can still
play a little bit, right and so, and I played

(33:59):
like pickleball golf, and I work out and run. But
it's nothing, it's nothing. Those those dancers are professional athletes.
It is why. And I had no idea until I
started to work with one every single day. And they're
just like NBA players or NFL players, Like they are
as athletic as anything I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (34:20):
Yeah, do you have like a favorite moment or like
the biggest lesson you took away from your time on
Dancing with the Stars, like doing something that was so
outside your comfort zone?

Speaker 1 (34:26):
Oh yeah, and hey read would you hand me that
the Yeah? And that show again. I never had the
intention of going on the show because I never danced,
so I don't have any background and dance. This is
the that's the freaking mirror ball. Yeah, and I love it.

(34:50):
And people, you know, people will make fun of me
whatever for like going on going on a dance show,
But for me, the coolest thing about doing that show
was I had no idea what I was doing I
had complete faith that I could figure it out as
I went, and I knew we'd have a chance to win,
even though we had no chance to win, because I

(35:13):
have an irrational confidence in myself that I can figure
I can survive long enough to figure it out. I
knew I would never be great at it, but I
knew I could survive long enough to have a shot
at the end. And that's exactly what happened, is that
I was never in the bottom three, but I was
also not good. But people could tell I was trying

(35:35):
really hard because I took it very seriously because that's
those dancers art, and yeah, it's a TV show, and yeah,
it's goofy whatever. But to me, I wanted to respect
the hard work the dancers were doing, and I wanted
to win, and I wanted the audience to know that
I was serious about it, even though at times it
seemed like I wasn't serious at all. But I didn't

(35:56):
know the rules, and so since I didn't know the rules,
like the real rules of like watching the show, it
helped me so much because I didn't play by the rules,
which is a weird thing because if you grow up
and you know you're in some industry and you learn
everything you should or shouldn't do, or you grow up
around a certain industry. Sometimes that boxes you in by
knowing what the rules are, and you're not really able
to think outside of the oacliche out of the box,

(36:19):
but you're not able to think differently because you are
conditioned to think this is what you can and can't do.
I had no conditioning. Like I went into the show,
I was like, I'm gonna work hard. But I also
when it was I felt like reacting. I reacted when
I felt like doing something different. I did, and it
caused a lot of controversy. They changed the rules on
that show after I left because I was so different
on the show. So for me, it was, if anything,

(36:43):
it was it's kind of not where you start, it's
where you end up, and you can thrive to whatever
level that you need to if you just set your
sights on surviving. And so that's what I did. I
survived and learned, and I think that's kind of what
I've did throughout all my career and all these different
things that I've done.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
Yeah, that was one thing when I was like doing
my research, I saw you from Arkansas and like, I
don't know if I'm from California, so I don't know
I've ever met anyone from Arkansas.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
So I'm the only one. I'm the only one that's
ever left.

Speaker 3 (37:10):
Yeah. Like so I'm like, how do you feel like
in like the era of NEPO babies where it feels
like everyone's in LA and New York, Like, how do
you think growing up in Arkansas and in such a
small town like influenced your career and like led you
to where you are today? Like do you think it
helped you in any way?

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Or I think I was really resentful about where I
come from for a long time, and yeah, NEPO babies
or I would always be met. I was always irritated
at people who even that were born like extremely wealthy,
but I grew up very poor. So I saw anybody
with an advantage as somebody having an advantage that I
didn't have and wouldn't have. I don't feel that way now,

(37:45):
but only because I don't think I would have acquired
or developed the skills that I have had I not
had to go through the difficulties of learning everything, Like
I'm a Swiss army now, for I'm not great at anything.
But I'm pretty good at a lot of stuff now
because I never really written anything. I have two freaking

(38:06):
New York Times bestsellers, like I shouldn't. But again, i'd
know the rules, so there was nobody around me to
tell me how to do stuff, so I would just
try it and take feedback and then try to make
it better. But I think me not having any sort
of help was very hard at first, but now it

(38:27):
makes I won't say it makes everything easier, but it
makes the losses feel a little more normal and regular,
and I can bounce back up quicker. And that's really
the key to any success in this industry. It's not
how good you are, it's do you have tenacity? Like
can you keep getting up whenever it's no? Because this
business is all knows, it's all knows, And if I'd

(38:48):
have grown up where it was a lot of yes
is in my life in general, I don't know that
I could have made it through this when it's all knows.
And it's the person that can get told no over
and over and over again and still feel passionate about
it and keep going like that's when the yeses start coming.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
We were talking about this with Seth Davis last week.
How like he's like, I'm not great at any one thing,
but I'm just good at a lot of things and
that's what's gotten me so far.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Which, yeah, I think being able to have people trust
that you can handle yourself. Right, same with Seth, because
that's great. I see Seth and I'm like, dude, that's great.
But he's probably similar where he's had to develop all
these little skills in order to get to a place.
And it's also like, you have to be This is
so generic and fundamental, but it's the truest thing ever.

(39:33):
You've got to be trustworthy and on time, and you
have to be worth you're going to be when you
say you're going to be there, and you've got to
have a good attitude, and you've got to have a
good work ethic because you can control those things because
nothing else you can control. And you will get a
shot if you get in and show up, do the work,
and have a good attitude. You may not get the

(39:54):
shot first, you may not get the shot for a
long time. But if you can just prove that you're
trustworthy and consistent, man, that is such a big part
of the job at American Idol. So I was supposed
to go in for one episode and they were like, hey,
come in. This is the first year they went to ABC,
so if they've been on Fox for a long time.
And I watched it on Fox for the first part

(40:15):
of it, but I kind of stopped watching it. I
knew it, I remember the old days, but I kind
of stopped watching it. And so I had a talk
show on ABC that got to pilot. It was actually
me and Dion Sanders, and it got to pilot and
then it got canceled or I didn't get picked up,
but we spent months working on him. So I'd made

(40:36):
a couple relationships there, and they were like, hey, we
think it'd be great if you came and did an
episode of American Idol because you can work with the
contestants on how to be interviewed, on how to have
decent camera presents. And by the way, I've only done
TV by begging people to be on TV. I don't
have any experience in like learning television. So I say, okay, great,

(40:58):
So I go for one episode, and not only was
I pretty good at that, like I understood where a
lot of the contestants were coming from, because I had
never been to Los Angeles or New York or any
big city until work took me there. So like them,
I was just wide eyed, and so I could relate
to them in that way. And so they're like, hey,
do want you to do another episode? And so I
ended up on that show for four years. And it

(41:20):
was only because I had a good attitude of good
work ethic and I was on time and then I
was good at my job. So because the first things happened,
it allowed the other things to happen, because if you're
not there on time, I mean, unless you're Katie Perry.
She was always late. But other than that, all good.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:35):
I feel like when I was like doing my research
on like all the things you've done, You've literally done
everything from like ballroom dancing to writing books, TV shows.
Is there anything that you haven't had the opportunity to
do yet in your career that you want to at
some point?

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Yeah? I My goal has been to host one of
these big award shows. And so there are two massive
award shows in country music specifically, and I haven't always
worked in country music. I worked in pop and and
I had a quick record deal as a as a
rapper at one point in my life. So I've kind
of again, like I said, not really great at anything,

(42:08):
but I've done it all. But I grew up in
Arkansas so loved country music, so that's why I came
to Nashville. But I want to host one of the shows,
and I've only able to be second string, Like the
ACMs happened next week on Amazon and reeb is hosting,
but I'm there as well, Like I'm in the crowd
the whole time, talking on camera, talking with so it's

(42:28):
like as close as you coul possibly be without being it,
but I haven't been it yet. And so like that's
the one thing. I haven't been famous enough to actually
be the host yet, which which is the truth, because
it's always like a massive celebrity like country star or
like Peyton Manning, and I've gotten pretty close, but I
have not I've not actually hosted an awards show, right,

(42:51):
So that's that's the thing I haven't done.

Speaker 4 (42:53):
Let's take a quick pause for a message from our sponsor,
Welcome back to the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 3 (43:01):
Going on with that, like, you've done a lot of interviewing.
Do you have a favorite person you've ever interviewed? Who
was like maybe the most interesting, unexpected, just like a
fun story.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
Yeah, there's a few of those. I think the most
difficult people to interview are my friends, even if they're famous,
because I know too much, and when you know too much,
you don't ask certain things in protection mode. When if
I didn't know anything, I would just ask the question
and I would get good answers even if they didn't
want to share what they didn't want to share. So
the difficult part about that living here and like some
of my really good friends are you know, famous country singers,

(43:34):
and you would think interviewing friends would be the best.
It's the worst because of that. But the first time
that Garth Brooks ever came in was really cool because
i'd never met him. He's the highest selling American artist
of all time. He's the second highest artist of all
time behind the Beatles, and so I grew up listening
to a lot of Garth Brooks and he was super

(43:55):
generous with the stories. He brought a guitar, he played songs,
and then he gave me as good I'm left handed,
I can't play it. I didn't say that. I wasn't like, no,
I can't take it. I'm left handed, but he gave
me his guitar and he wrote a little note on it,
so it was cool. And there are people like Dolly
Dolly Parton who when you meet them, And Dolly was
on my comedy special with me. She did some stuff

(44:15):
at the beginning of it, in the middle of it,
and I've got a relationship with her now, which is
crazy to think. But Dolly's done it all. Doll Dolly
was famous in the seventies and eighties and in every form,
from doing massive movies mainstream to be in as country
as you could be to doing it doesn't matter. She's
done at all. And when you meet her and you

(44:39):
kind of realize, oh, that's why people are famous, Like
there's something that you can't even really explain. Obviously, she's
super talented as a singer and a songwriter, but there
is a there's an element, like an indescribable element that
when you finally run into it, you go, oh, yeah,
I can't define that, but I want to be around
that all the time, and I get why that's become

(45:00):
so popular. So being around people like that that are
so magnetic has been super cool. So when it comes
to people like Dolly was great, Garth is great. One
of the other really cool things that just happened. I
do a concert here at the Ryman every year, which
is a it's like the most famous country music and
other bands come through town to play as well, but

(45:21):
it's a it's an auditorium and it's a venue in town.
And I'd been making this joke that I was in
a boy band since like when I was twelve, and
the band's o town. But I never was really in
a boy band, but I was able to bring them
all in and they had hits back in like the
early two thousands. But I brought all those guys in
at this big charity show and they came and we
just got to end the bit and we performed together

(45:42):
for the first time finger Quotes in like twenty years,
and so we did all or Nothing that Oh I
want it All nothing at all that song, and it
was just that was super fun for me because I'd
been like joking around that I was in a boy
band and then they came in and paid off the bit.
So stuff like that. It's still fun to me. But
when it comes to like interviews and doing stuff, those

(46:04):
are probably what comes to mind. Now the John Mayer
thing was super cool. Or a guy like Chris Stapleton
who we had in before he ever got famous and
before he ever had even Tennessee whiskey, before that was
the thing. He was a songwriter that I really admired,
Like that was cool. Yeah, it's and a lot of
times it's the early stuff before they get really famous.

Speaker 3 (46:21):
Kind of going over to that of like kind of
the earlier and interviewing, how do you think your show
and like interviewing, and just like the industry as a
whole has changed like over the last like maybe decade
or so, especially like as social media's increased. Like I'm
majoring in like public relations and advertising, so like everything
is social media nowadays. So how has that been for you?
Like kind of watching that evolve.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Similar, everything is social media, Like every I won't even
in social media everything it needs to be on nine platforms.
And I don't say that in a bad way like
that that's the life we live now. And me as
a content creator, if it's a radio show, podcast, if
it's a YouTube stream, if like, everything goes everywhere, and
so I have to think of the ways that the

(47:04):
content I'm creating is going to be used differently in
all the different places. So if I'm doing an interview,
the long form audio version of it, I'm really good
at that because I'm not really intimidated, and I'll listen.
I think a lot of people when they interview, especially
at first, they want to have their next question loaded
up because they don't want to seem like they're not

(47:26):
paying attention, or they don't want to be a bad
interview or they want to show they've done their research.
That's all great, and you should, everybody should. But I
think at this point I'll go in prepared, but i
will listen, and I'm not afraid of silence because silence
will also encourage the other person to keep talking. So
the long form stuff I'm really good at. It's also
while i'm doing it, identifying what the short form strong

(47:48):
parts are if it's and I have a producer with me,
Mike Dee, who's been with me forever. He was an
intern for me fifteen years ago, who's like my main
guy now and head a writer on the show, and
most of my show's been with me for over ten
fifteen years, so I'm twenty uh and we now have
that relationship where he knows. When we're doing long form,
we're also digging out short form the whole time. So

(48:09):
we're like we're producing clips in our head, long form
audio video. You know. I'm sitting in a studio now
with lights on me and this is just you and
I talking. So we're ready for kind of everything. We've
had to learn how to do everything all at once,
and not because that's special, but because that's what you
need to do to survive.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
No, my thing just like reloaded. Oh, we've had a
lot of Wi Fi issues here recently.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
I thought you were giving me silence, like you were
showing me. You were like, I'll show him. I'll give
him some silence.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:37):
Gave it like a whole boot camp last week on
like how to ask what you say, do not waste
their time anything that they can google, like, do not
ask them. He was like, don't embarrass me basically, Oh.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
No, by the way, I again, I'll say it again.
He's he's the best. Like I don't know him as
far as like I never met him in person. That's
what's weird.

Speaker 3 (48:55):
Nashville.

Speaker 1 (48:56):
Like two weeks ago, I know when I messaged him
and he was like, oh, I forgot you. Lived in Nashville.
I lived in LA. But it's weird because, so you
talk about social media, I have these relationships with people
that I feel like I know that I really have
never met. I would text Jeff text me the other
day about something random that he saw on my social media,
Like I have that relationship and I think he is
like one of the greatest sports writers of my lifetime.

(49:17):
So I think he's super cool and he's done a
lot and I like to interview him about and he
comes on. But I've never It's crazy. I didn't eve
think about it. I've never actually seen him in person.
I don't even know if he's real.

Speaker 3 (49:29):
He's in New York this week, so we don't even
get to see him. But yeah, No, he followed me
on TikTok the other day. So that's like my now
claim to fame.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Is that he followed you.

Speaker 3 (49:37):
Yeah, because he posted about did he tell you how
like the Final Project works?

Speaker 1 (49:42):
Yeah? So he asked me, he goes, hey, would you
do something with one of my students. I don't know
who it's going to be, but they're doing projects on people.
All they had to say is would you, And I
would have said yes, like I respect him that much,
and I said yeah, sure, and he goes, well, this
is going to sound pitiful. He goes, well, they're going
to draft people like notable people, and you're gonna be

(50:02):
on the list. And I was like, oh no, I
was picked last for everything, Like it was like trauma
coming out of my pores again, going no one's gonna
pick me. I'm gonna be the last one pick. Just
lie to me, don't tell just whatever happens, don't tell
me where I was picked. So I was a little
nervous about that, but that's what I knew.

Speaker 3 (50:19):
You'll be honored to know I had the first pick.

Speaker 1 (50:22):
Oh wow, I am very He probably told everybody to
say that, so you know what. I thank you, but
he'd actually did I'm not even kidding, well, thank you
very much.

Speaker 3 (50:31):
She's video.

Speaker 1 (50:32):
Oh so I saw the video of him talking about it,
but I figured he just targeted me with that. Did
like a paid ad, so only I would see it
and think I was first.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
No, he fully had us like picking like numbers out
of a hat. He put them all down, and then
everyone thought I cheated. They were like, well, you wrote
the numbers on it.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
I was like, I did no, that sounds yeah, sounds
like cheating to me, but I'll take it. I'll take it.

Speaker 3 (50:51):
My best friend in the class got fourteen.

Speaker 1 (50:52):
I was like, sorry, girl, who did she end up getting?
Like the assistant to it was a bunch of peop like.

Speaker 3 (51:00):
We have like former NFL players, former.

Speaker 1 (51:02):
Like, oh, there were other cool people, college basketball people.

Speaker 2 (51:05):
Better.

Speaker 1 (51:05):
Oh, you're gassing me out now.

Speaker 3 (51:07):
Like yeah, no, super in one of my friends is doing.
He was a former NFL player turned scuba diver. He's
a instructor.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
Now. I thought it would be like Toby Maguire's third
cousin's assistant like people like that. But hey, I'm into it.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
No, Yeah, it was really so. It was really cool
because we have like a super wide variety. And then
oh and then also depending on how how your pick was,
the longer your paper has.

Speaker 1 (51:29):
To be, so yours have the longest. Yeah, oh well
you gotta ask some more questions. They haven't given you
crap yet.

Speaker 4 (51:35):
We interrupt this interview to bring you a message from
our sponsor. This is the Bobby Cast.

Speaker 3 (51:43):
Okay, wait, back to my list. I like made like
a semi list of questions, but he's like, just bounce
around okay, Oh. One thing that reminded me of like
you were talking about Dolly Parton and House, like she's
been working in the industry for since like seventies. Like
what do you want your legacy to be, like, say,
like thirty forty years from now, Like, what do you
want people to remember about you?

Speaker 1 (52:00):
So I have two answers to this. I'm going to
give you the answer that I feel sixty percent of
the time, which is better than the answer I feel
forty percent of the time. My answer sixty percent of
the time is I just want my legacy to be
that even if the odds are kind of stacked against you,
that doesn't mean they're going to go that way. Because
I went I didn't know my dad. My mom was

(52:22):
a drug addict who had me at sixteen years old.
She got pregnant at fifteen. I grew up on food
stamps in a trailer park, and things aren't weren't supposed
to go this way. And I think a lot of
people need to have representation. And I think that's with minorities.
I think that's with women. I think that's in a
lot of ways. It's weird to be like, I think
people need representation. I'm like a white man honestly, because

(52:45):
there's a lot of white men representing. But it's not
even about the white or the man part. It's about
coming from where I come from. There aren't a lot
of resources, and you're so focused on survival that it's
hard to really even feel like there's a chance to thrive.
That's not part of life. You just figure outw to

(53:05):
pay the bills. And so I would hope that part
of my legacy is that other people that come from
situations like mine or worse or even better, they don't
think they're out of the running just because they're born
out of the running. Then it may take them a
little longer to get there, and they may have to
go away. That is a little crooked, and success is

(53:27):
never a straight line. There is no such thing as
success really because you never actually feel it, but you
absolutely can do it if you commit, work hard, and strategize.
And I think that's probably my legacy. The other one
is which I don't think as much, is like I
don't care. I mean, I don't don't. I'm gonna be
dirt in the ground and hopefully people have a better

(53:51):
life because of me, because I've been able to do
some stuff to raise some money for some people, and
I've been able to be there at times like people
were there for me. If I do that while I'm here,
I feel like I'm pretty good. So sixty percent the time, though,
I want to be that person who reminds people they
can do it. But forty percent I'm like, I'm just
I'm gonna be organic matter that's not even existed anymore.
Worms are gonna eat me. And while I was here,

(54:12):
I hope I made a difference. That's it.

Speaker 3 (54:14):
So you said, like you know what, like how do
you even really define success? But do you think you
have kind of that like especially that coming from like
where you came from, do you think you have like
that kind of like I made it moment where like
you realize like maybe these I regularly like I really
can do this.

Speaker 1 (54:28):
No, No, you know when I felt rich with them,
and it's crazy, is I'm really rich? But it doesn't
feel that way. I don't. I can look at numbers
and go like, yeah, I'm rich. It's crazy. I can't
believe it, but I don't feel that in my heart
and my guts, and I always feel like I'm one
day away from not being this way because it's how
I'm conditioned, that's how. But when I first started to
feel that I was making it is when I had

(54:50):
extra batteries, clean like new batteries. I'm not even kidding.
I was. I had a TV remote that was out,
it was like three years ago, and I was like, oh, man,
I have because what we'd have to do is take
batteries out of other things and put them in the
things that work. So you go and you find the
thing that you use the least, you take the batteries
out of it, and you put the batteries in the
thing that you needed to use then. And so I
was about to do that because naturally that's where my

(55:11):
mind goes, and I was like, oh, I have batteries
in a pack that have never been used. I swear
to you. That was when I that was real success
for me. And part of that feels like a joke
because it kind of is, but it's not. Because I
remember thinking I have batteries in an unopen pack. They're
just sitting there waiting to be used. I have made it.
So success on a level of like wow, look at

(55:31):
all this never but success in little ways like I
have batteries that have never been used in a pack. Yeah,
those little things, those do matter and they feel trivial.
But that for me is a success or. It's like
I have a I have a friend that went through
some crap, and you know what's the best. It's just
hand them a stack of cash and going like, hey,
take care of this, and don't you know, we don't

(55:53):
have talk about this ever again. Like I can do that,
So that is success. But most of the batteries, I.

Speaker 3 (55:58):
Was trying to go in chronological order, but I get
sidetracked easily.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
I do too, and then my stories go all over
the place. So yeah, yeah, we.

Speaker 3 (56:05):
Did do a profile on like one of our friends
in our classes. We meet my friend interviewed at each
other and it did not go well. Like you said,
like interviewing people you know is so much more difficult.

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Yeah, it is. It's difficult. I enjoy interviewing even if
I'm having like a bad day because sometimes I'll have
a brain fog and it's the worst because I wake
up early and if I don't get enough sleep, I
have crazy brain fog. I now am so secure in
my interviews. They can talk for a long time, and

(56:34):
I can just hit them with a and so I
don't know, how does that affect you today? How does
that make you feel? I can just hit that like
three times in a row. Thirty minutes done' that's a
whole interview. Yeah, I feel like, uh yeah, I don't
know if there's anything else to cover. I feel like
we got my legacy, we got my mirror ball, we
got batteries.

Speaker 3 (56:52):
Oh, my friend Avery is going to be so jealous.
We got like we met this year and so we
sort of became friends. We would watch Dancing with Stars
the other It's like I used to always watch with
my younger sister, but she's like still back at home.
She's in high school. And so me and my friend Avery,
who were who's in this class with me, would like
watch it every Tuesday night together and that's like how
we became friends.

Speaker 1 (57:10):
So yeah, it's a different animal now. When I watch it,
it gives me a little PTSD because it was it
was so hard.

Speaker 3 (57:18):
You watch it like the news.

Speaker 1 (57:20):
If it's ever on no clip, I'll see clips. But
I have friends that will do it now occasionally, like
Laura and Alana did it the season after I did,
and so she's a singer, and so I went up
to the premiere and the finale and just to support her.
And yeah, it makes my gut feel weird because it
was so hard. It was the hardest and greatest thing

(57:42):
at the same time. It was physically the heart. Because
I would train, I would cheat. I'm gonna give you Okay,
I'm gonna give you big news here, this is an exclusive.
I would cheat on that show. Now here's how I
would cheat. They tell you can only work out four
hours a day by training. I was so I was
so far behind that I would train with my partner

(58:02):
and then I would go rent a studio secretly and
take we take video from the class, and I would
train by myself for another three or four hours, get
a couple hours sleep, and go to the radio show
the next day, and then I would do the show
and then go back to training. But how I cheated
it was I trained way more than I should. I
had no experience. But again it shows you may have
to work harder than other people, but you don't have

(58:23):
to have what they have in order to get what
they don't have yet, and I did that. So yeah,
my cheating was I worked way harder than them against
the rules. But it wasn't like I rigged anything.

Speaker 3 (58:34):
Yeah, did you still do your show the entire time?

Speaker 1 (58:36):
You want the whole time. I was the only one
that had a job the whole time, Like they didn't
have jobs. Nobody had jobs except for me. I had
to work there after we won the show. I'll tell
you this story to in conclusion. So the night that
the finale happens, I think there are four of us
on the finale, and I'd only got sevens and eights
the whole season, the occasional six. I just wasn't wasn't
very good. But I worked hard. I tried hard, and

(58:58):
I was getting a little better as one if they
continue to work. And I also have no flexibility, so
I was like stretching. Yeah, it was. It was helping
a lot. I tore my shoulder. I fell down episode
one at the end of my dance and tore my shoulder.
So I was getting injections every other week to not
feel pain. Yeah, you thought I was playing in the NFL,
but I was in an LEOTHRD. But so the finale happens,

(59:23):
then they're like the winner is Bobby and Sharna and
place goes crazy and they have a party afterward. It's
a quick one, and then everybody gets on a private
jet and flies from LA to New York to do
Good Morning America. Yeah, that's Good Morning America? Is that network?
So in the hour and a half that they had

(59:45):
a party, I didn't get to go because I had
to go to work. So I got as soon as
I got my trophy, I jumped in a car, drove
to the radio station, and we recorded the next morning show.
And I finished the show, got in the car and
drove back to the plane and everybody was on the
plane waiting on me, a little irritated because I held
the plane up, and I was like, as I have
a job, like I have to literally pay the bills.

(01:00:08):
So but that job is what won me the show,
like it was my work ethic, my effort, but it
was also what I had built, the community that I'd
built from people that listen. And I think, you know,
touching people one person at a time that sounds weird,
but being able to create a bond one person at
a time before you know it, it's much larger than that,

(01:00:33):
and you're able to do things much larger than the
actual number of people because they're in it with you,
and I feel like my people are in it with me.
So yeah, it's been super cool. I've done a lot
of done a lot of cool crazy things that a
few TV shows, I've had some books, have had a
number one comedy album of all this stuff. But it's
all kind of based on the relationship that I've made
through audio, through podcasting radio, And yeah, it's been pretty great.

Speaker 3 (01:00:57):
Yeah, Well, thank you for taking the time talking to me.
I really for it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:01:00):
I hope your paper goes well. If there's anything that
I didn't cover or if you have, just email me
whatever the question is. I'll write you back, Like if
there's a gap in your paper, just email me and
I'll give you whatever you need.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:01:12):
The only other thing is we have to we're supposed
to reach out to like somewhere between one and three
like other sources. Basically like someone in your life that
you think maybe knows you really well, that like would
be willing to talk to me for like fifteen minutes
that I could ask a couple of questions. Do you
have any ideas?

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
Yeah, that'll be easy. Let me just email you one. Yes, Okay,
how about Leo DiCaprio. That'd be cool. I don't know,
but that'd be cool. That'd be real cool. Yes, I will.
If you'll email me right now and just say hey,
send me a name. I'll reply back and send you somebody.

Speaker 3 (01:01:42):
Okay, perfect, Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Yeah, I hope this goes great again. If there's anything
else you need, just email me. I'm happy to help
you do whatever. And yeah, I hope you have a
great rest of the day.

Speaker 4 (01:01:51):
Thanks for listening to a Bobby Cast production. Yeah.

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#515 - Montel Williams on Why He Joined the Military + Origin of His Talk Show + How He Started a Trend on His Talk Show Before TikTok + Bobby Gets Interviews About What He Wants His Legacy to Be

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Host

Bobby Bones

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