Breaking Cycles and Building Legacies: An Inspiring Discussion

0:00 Good afternoon and welcome to another episode of The Kickback. As I do every episode, I like to leave this disclaimer that says, if you're going to be racist, we do not want you on our platform whatsoever. So if you've got a racist bone in your body, please, please, please keep it to yourself. We don't want it here at The Kickback. So if that's your intentions is to be racist, please stay away from this Tonight is Topic Tuesday and as of every Tuesday We always have some ordinary people that are doing some extraordinary things in the building Tonight we have the honor of having two extraordinary gentlemen in the building That does two ordinary gentlemen that do extraordinary things Dave, how are you doing, my brother?

0:47 We are doing wonderful my brother how was your day today man as per usual it was wonderful i just wish that the hawk would go south for the winter right right right right right right i wish but i just heard on the news that the south is about to get a snowstorm and it's a possibility that Florida may be getting snow. It's not a possibility. Pensacola got six inches right now. There's a spot in Louisiana. Lafayette, Louisiana's got 10 inches. Houston's got snow. New Orleans is covered with snow. Biloxi's got snow. I mean, the Gulf Coast is white.

1:33 Man, what's going on with this world? God is in control Yes, yes, Totally, I totally agree that God is in control But you know When was the last time Louisiana, When was the last time I-10 Let's call it I-10 When was the last time I-10, Below, we're going to call it the deep south I-10 When was the last time they had snow Yeah, it's been a long time Probably the last time they prayed. He said probably since the last time they prayed hey hey that's pretty funny man but how have you been man it's been all gravy over here staying warm trying not to spend too too much time outside the inclement weather hey i understand you know my job hey i am i get out in it early in the mornings and then I'm on the bus for about four hours and then I am I'm driving for about an hour and a half and and keep my bus pretty warm.

2:44 Gentlemen how are you all doing this afternoon and welcome to the kickback. Yes, sir. Hey, how y'all doing? We're doing wonderful, wonderful. OK, so we have two wonderful guests in the building tonight. This is a two for one. And I'm thankful to have both of these brothers here as we like to do all the time. Welcome, everyone, to the kickback. I usually tell all my guests this at the beginning. I said, it's like a mullet. We're going to get the business out of front and then we're going to have fun in the back. And what I mean by that is I like to ask my guests a series of questions about their life and different things like that.

3:24 Nothing too personal, but we're going to dive into your life because this is a place of transparency and vulnerability when it comes to the space of men. And I always tell my audience that we are here interviewing ordinary men doing extraordinary things in their lives. And both of you brothers are doing some extraordinary thing, have done and are doing some extraordinary things in your life because it takes a lot to be in the positions that you all are in in this world and understand the anointing that God has put on you all's life. Good sir. Yes, sir. All righty. So let's start here with what I like to do is I like to get my guests to tell the audience about themselves, tell them who you are, where you from, where you grew up, what your business is, meaning your occupation and whatever other things you have going on, whether it's a business, a nonprofit, a for profit, whatever it is.

4:31 I know I said the same thing twice, but whatever it is that you do in this world to make you an extraordinary person. And let's go with Mr. Morrell. Yes, sir. How are you doing today? I'm doing fine. I am the dude, the host of the kickback. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Well, first of all, I just thank you for the opportunities to be on your podcast, just to come out and give me advice and express myself, and I pretty appreciate that. So I'm Tony Morrell, born and raised right here in Nashville, Tennessee. I grew up on the east side, out east. I'm 46. I graduated from Stratford High School in 1996.

5:12 What I do for a living, which I love, I love helping community. I love doing things for people. I am a firefighter. I work for the Nashville Fire Department. I've been with the Nashville Fire Department for 20 years, a little bit over 20 years. I've been a captain for the Nashville Fire Department for the last five years, and I love what I do. A lot of people ask me why I chose to be a firefighter. The reason I'm a firefighter, I didn't necessarily want to be a firefighter, I was kind of lost in my own journey of what we call life. My dad was on the fire department, so I had the chance to actually get on the fire department. So when I did, I just did that truly honest just to kind of make ends meet, to make money, because I had two young kids trying to do, trying to be a father to take care of my kids.

5:58 But when I got on the fire department, I fell in love with it. I loved it. Been with the fire department ever since. There's some really, really good people that work for the fire department. I've learned a lot. But the most important thing to me when people say, you know, why do you like being a firefighter? What do you get out being a firefighter? And I always answer this, the job, it humbles, it humbles me because I get to see people, I have to see people at their worst. And it lets me know how blessed and truly, truly blessed that I am. So I love helping out the community and being a firefighter. Wonderful, wonderful. And, you know, you get to see people at their best and their worst. In some instances, you get to see people at their best and their worst.

6:42 So, yeah, it is very humbling to understand that that what God is giving you or what he's, you know, you know, put in your hands is precious. Is precious you know whether it be your kids your wife or whatever it may be your life is precious and sometimes people make mistakes or do things to put themselves in positions where they're not treating themselves precious or the people around them precious and so that's when you see them you see them when they've you know done something to themselves or not being safe or it could have just been an accident. Yes, sir.

7:23 So, you know, thank you. My hats off to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Because I know that that is a hard job mentally, physically and emotionally. That is a hard job. And and it takes a special kind of person to do that job. And we're not all cut out for that particular space in life. Yes, sir. Mr. Fox, come through and introduce Introduce yourself and tell us who you are and what you got going on. Yes, sir. My name is Antoine Fox. I was born and raised in East Nashville. Grew up going to the local elementary schools. I graduated from Maplewood High School in 95.

8:08 I've been working since I was 16. I've learned a lot from working different jobs. I had some good jobs. I had some bad jobs. I grew up not having my father in my life you know so i had to navigate through life as a young man, dealing with stress and depression that's where i had to you know make that choice and, build that relationship with god and i have a a non-profit called breaking cycles foundation, Our mission is to help the inner-city community create the path to breaking generational or negative, everyday negative cycles.

8:56 I have a business called Breaking Cycles Cleaning Services. Our mission is to specialize in detailed cleaning to separate ourselves from mediocre cleaning services. I like to say that you know i wouldn't be where i where i am now if it wasn't for, my heavenly father you know being the leader in my life showing me the way growing up as a young man i've been through trials and tribulations i'm not perfect i don't i'm i'm I'm not better than anybody else.

9:37 But one thing I do have is confidence in myself and what I can do. That's because I had to have understanding with my relationship with God and for him to show me the right way and to break cycles in my own life. I'm grateful and thankful. For getting to know my siblings my brother tony we grew up on different sides gallatin road, we came to know each other in 2009 and that's where i found out about my other sibling.

10:24 So i have uh it's not it's nine of us on my dad's side and i'm number seven and i'm just grateful man I'm grateful. I understand my purpose. My purpose is to help other people break generational cycles. And I love people. I know it's good and bad in everybody, but I just love people. You know, and I'm here to be a leader, be a mentor. I volunteer for the 413 Strong program in which they help young men build structure in their lives.

11:07 I also volunteer with another nonprofit called Book'em in which they provide books for Metro school kids, kids in the community. Go, I'm in my third year, school year of going, volunteering and going and reading to the kids and providing them book through book. Go ahead, my brother, go ahead, finish what you had to say. I plan on, you know, this year it's going to be better than last year because I plan on, you know, putting more consistency on everything that I do And that's what I'm volunteering in my personal life and in my business life.

11:56 What I was going to say is this. On Friday, you know, we do a freestyle. If you guys don't know, on Fridays, we do a Freestyle Friday, which is we do an open conversation with gentlemen. It's a two hour of live show where you can come in and we talk about different topics. And the topic that I'm going to present to the panel this Friday is Black Family Secrets. Let me tell you something about you guys. We are we are basically all brothers in some form of fashion. And what I let me explain to you what I mean by that. I am. Y'all. Y'all was we we all we probably seen each other and knew each other in some form of fashion because I grew. I came out of Maplewood in 97.

12:38 My first address was 533 South 7th Street. Then we moved to my high school address was 710 Lishy Avenue. Oh, yeah, definitely. You understand what I'm saying? We definitely was in the same room, same vicinity, same area at some point in time. At some point in time. And here's the thing that makes us brothers. The story that I just heard from you, gentlemen, is exactly just like my story. My father had 15 or 16 children. I'm from Nashville, born and raised. Went to high school with my sister at Highland Heights. Didn't know she was my sister. Went to Maplewood with my brother and didn't know he was my brother.

13:20 You understand what i'm saying so we basically y'all just told my story in the story that you all just told about you all's life but it all boils down to the black family secrets that's gonna be the show on fridays but right now we want to get it to you two gentlemen and just learn about who you are and and your stories and how you both got together so and i am i just turned 45 so that's why i said we're all we like you said mr morrow we've we've been in the same we've probably been to either east park mcverne i played at red shield for boogle bear i played football for boogle bear and red shield cleveland center cleveland center yeah i've been to all them places because that's why i love it you know what i'm saying so over here mr morrow says you are a marathon runner yeah I run marathons I probably started running probably about 11-12 years ago.

14:20 So it was a guy on the fighter pump. He's a chief now. Chief Benny Gasson. He used to ask me to, he was running before me. So he asked me to run marathons. And I was like, man, I ain't run no marathon. That's crazy. Running all the miles like it. But, you know, just like everybody else, man, I went through some things in my life, man. I suffer from depression. You know, I didn't, just like most black men, you know, I didn't want to go to counseling. I definitely didn't want to take no medicine or anything. So I was struggling mentally. So I just after about four years of him asking me, I said, yeah, OK, man, I'm going to run a marathon with you. So, of course, I had to start training for the marathon. I started running. And man, after one or two times running, I just fell in love with it.

15:04 Like it helped me so much mentally and gave me so much mental clarity, you know, helping me just deal with depression. I've been running ever since. So I was running by three marathons before COVID because I was running the one here in Nashville. I was going to Vegas, running the Vegas Marathon. I was going to Disney World, running the Disney World Marathon. Then COVID came, so all the marathon kind of got shut down, but, you know, they're back up. So I've just been running. So I do two or three marathons every year. So it just, I love it, man. It just helps me mentally. So I'm a marathon runner. It's a form of therapy. And the thing is, a lot of people don't understand that therapy comes in so many different forms. This, what I'm doing right here, yes, it is to help the community.

15:48 Is to help get stories like you all's out so young men can understand that they're not, because I've learned from a lot of young people that they think what they're going through right now is what's going to be their lives forever. But look at the situation that God has brought you all through and brought you all together. And I'm pretty sure back then, let's call it 20 years ago, 25 years ago, you never thought that you'd be a fire chief. And you never thought that you'd be running marathons. But that's what I'm saying. This podcasting is my therapy. It's my therapy. It's how I deal with the things that I have.

16:31 We all have had bouts with depression at some point in our lives. And we have to find an outlet. And I think that's the biggest problem in the black community is that we find the wrong things to be our outlets when it comes to depression and stress and the things that are going on. We find the wrong outlets to try to fix whatever's going on with us. And I praise the Lord that you found running as a form of therapy to figure out, hey, I could run. You know, it's like like Forrest Gump. And I just started running. Running. I just started running.

17:14 Now, it says you went to MTSU. What did you get a degree in? I got a degree in business entrepreneurship. I got a BSS in entrepreneurship from MTSU. All right. And it says you have a lovely wife and three beautiful children. Yes, I've been married My third year anniversary is coming up It'll be March 12th And so I've been married for almost three years To my lovely wife Congrats, congrats And I have, I know I'm about to say three I really have four kids I have one stepchild, but that's my son too Hey man, we don't do that over here We don't do that over here. We'll do that. You got four children. I got four kids.

17:54 You have four children because we need to stop. We need to stop those type of things, the steps and all that. If we're married and you're mentoring these children and they look at you as a role model. I tell people all the time when you're in the presence of a child, you're their father. Yes, sir. When you're in the presence because you're impressionable, either you can make or break a child if you're in front of them, because all of us need a dad at some point in time. For years, I have been a fatherless father, but there are men in my life that when they come around, I look at them as male role models and father figures, and they don't even know it, and they make impressions on my life even at 45 years old.

18:36 So we all got to, at some point, take some responsibility for our communities and say, hey, young man, young woman, pull your pants up. Young lady, you don't need to be out here like that. respect yourself respect your parents you know just general stuff that i think that we as a society has strayed away from and also says you have four grandbabies i have four grandbabies yes how is how is the grandpa club because i my daughter's pregnant right now and it'll be my first grandchild yes i i love it you know i get the i'll get the love on them hug on them send them back, but no, I'm just saying. I love my grandkids and, It's different, man. It's different, but it just makes you young all over again, you know?

19:26 So, like, I don't mind up, but my youngest is 18. So, you know, I'm out of the diapers and all that, but I'm right back. So, it's like starting all over. So, but I love it. Your youngest grandchild is 18? No, no, no. I said my youngest. Your youngest child is 18. It's 18, right. So, but my grandkids is like starting all over again. Right. Yeah. Right. You're lucky. You're lucky. I still got young babies and I still got young babies. My youngest, my youngest is eight and my oldest is twenty nine. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was a jump. And I told my wife, I said, look, but she she can't. She's older. You know, we're we're at that age where we're not trying to have any more babies.

20:08 We have five kids. It's a blended family, but I have five children. And I'm like, I told her a year or two ago, I said one of my daughters, because I have two older daughters, a son and two younger daughters. I said, what do these children need to make me a grandbaby? I need a grandbaby. I can't have them. I don't want to have. I don't want to start over back at that point all over again, waking up every night with that responsibility. And I'll do it for a grandchild because I can send them back. I can send them home. I can send them with their parents after I've loved them and filled them up with Flandy and send them home. You know. Buy them all the toys to make noise and send them with them.

20:50 Yes, sir! You already know. I'm sending them all and sending them with all the noisemakers. All of them. Alrighty. So, Mr. Fox. Yes, sir. So, it says that you grew up in East Nashville. We got through all of that. Maplewood. I drive a school bus out of Maplewood. That's the cluster that I drive out of. I drive Maplewood students in the morning, Tom Joy students in the afternoon, well, in the middle. And then I do Jerry Baxter Middle School. So those are the schools that I tell you what, God is good. When I got this job, they were like, we don't send you whale on the other side of town.

21:33 Are we going to do this and we're going to do that? But thank God to my brother. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Bubba, for getting me close to home because I live in Madison. And so Maplewood is right down the street. So I don't even have to go that far in the morning to get my get my bus and get my kids and run my route and do my thing. But, Mr. Fox, it says here that when you were 16 years old, you and a neighborhood friend robbed a gas station. What where was your mind at and what was going on in your life that made you want to go and rob a gas station? Well, during that time, I was lost, man. I was lost. My home was chaotic.

22:19 I was dealing with depression. I just wasn't in my right mind as far as thinking clearly or didn't. I was trying to impress a girl, you know, just doing wild things. I mean, that was one of the wildest things I've done in my life. Now, quick question. Uh-huh. After you did that, did you get the coochie? No. Let me say yes. Right, right, right. I did. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. I did when I was on house arrest.

23:00 Okay. All right. Now, children, folks, people, we are not advocating doing crimes at all. We're not advocating that. No. We're not advocating crimes. Okay. So you were lost. Your home life was really messed up. You were depressed. And you did this to impress a female. And did you wind up getting caught? Yes, I did. I had to do a few months in juvenile. Then I was released on house arrest. I did a few months on house arrest then i had to go to woodland hills for juvenile it was a juvenile facility i spent like nine months there then i had to do a group home for a few months.

23:49 But when i was locked up i i had the opportunity to get the credits that i needed in in school when I was locked up. So when I came home, I had to go back to Maplewood for a half a Christmas. I was supposed to graduate in 94, but I graduated in 95. Okay. I mean, go ahead. So some good did come out of the set. You know, and that was my first and last time of doing something like that. All right. All right. So we all have a similar story.

24:31 There are a few elements that are different between all of us, but it seems like we all grew up in an environment that wasn't always the best environment for us. And it sounds like there were no strong male role models around at this time. Where was your father at? Well, my stepdad had claimed me when I was six months, but, you know, it's kind of different when, you know. When your younger sister dad is in the picture, you know, in the house, you know, and plus my parents were working two jobs, you know, so we really didn't have that, that.

25:22 You know, it was discipline in the house, but it wasn't no teachings, you know, where we had to do chores. I mean, it really wasn't that one-on-one thing with me and my stepdad, but I did learn a lot from him, you know, because I remember him taking me on cleaning jobs with him, you know, and so it was some things that I did learn from him. Okay yeah he passed last november but i hold on to all the good memories we have together all right okay tony did you have a role model in your life um i did have my father and he was in my life until later on to it until i got older like adulthood and then there was a kind of falling out.

26:19 But in my younger days, he was in my life. But my mom and my dad, they said they were never married. They separated at an early age, probably when I was five or six. But I did have a relationship with my father. So it wasn't until I was maybe a sophomore in high school, my mom married, and then I had a stepfather in my life. And he was very, very instrumental. and, you know, raising me and being there for me and whatnot. So at one point, I had two good men at some point in my life. Like I said, until I had a father with my dad earlier, you know, when I got older, whatnot.

27:01 But my stepfather was always there since he came into my life when I was like a sophomore in high school. Okay. Fox, it says that you have five children. Yeah. I was heading down my biological dad, Tav, to being a Rolling Stone, because I started early. I had my first kid at 16. And that was a cycle within itself that I had to understand and break to stop, you know, stop having kids out of wedlock and with different women and my last child which she's 13 now.

27:52 Was in a marriage with her mother on two occasions, and it just didn't work. Hey, things happen. Yeah. Things happen, and I always say they happen for a reason, and people are in your life for a season. Right. It's a teacher lesson. Yes, I learned a lot from just being in her life for 14 years. Right. So let's talk about how you came up with Breaking Cycles Foundation. Let's dive deep into how you came up with Breaking Cycles Foundation. Well, that was part of my journey. And it was part of my purpose.

28:39 That's what God put on my spirit to do. Is to help people and creating the path to breaking generational cycles. Because a lot of people don't understand that, don't understand the cycles are handed down from generations. And in order for a person to really understand it, they have to self-evaluate themselves. You know, everybody's all about, you know, other people and what they're doing and what they're not doing, but take the time out to evaluate yourself before you can start putting yourself in the middle of anybody else's situation.

29:28 And so I lived a life of growing up having to, understand the cycles on my mom's side and on my dad's side, which was not a part of my life at a young age. Not up until I met Tony, where I was able to have that relationship with a few of my brothers and a few of my sisters. But it was a reason why, you know, God didn't didn't have it where my my little father was in my life.

30:11 And and I've seen things from him that that gave me the clarification of that. You know, you saw things from who Tony or your father that gave you clarification? Yeah, from my father. OK. And I'm not trying to talk bad about him. I'm just speaking the truth of what I've seen. State the facts, bro. Be honest, man. That's how we can be. Yeah. You know, his ways, his manipulative ways, and I experienced manipulative ways myself growing up.

30:52 And I had to come to the conclusion that I didn't want to be like that you know and that goes back from understanding how God made me how, much I love people I'm a people person and so, I told him not to be like that you know and when you dealing with depression and you've been in the dark and at your lowest point in life. You don't want to carry those negative traits.

31:32 You don't want to carry those negative cycles because that's not what God created me to be. And I had to really understand that. And God gave me the clarification and understanding to be able to be the man that I am today. And we thank God for that, man. We thank God. We thank God for giving you the clarification and the understanding because a lot of us, you know, a lot of people say, once I become 21 or once I become 25, I'm a man. Or once I become this certain age, then I'm an adult. But the truth of the matter is there's still a lot of 4, 30, 40, 50, 60 year old children.

32:18 Running around out here. They're still running around because they don't know their purpose and they don't know who they are and they're not living by what God has given them because God will give you all the answers you need. He will give you all the answers you need but nine times out of ten we ignore them as humans. We ignore them. My story is similar to you all. My dad died in 12. When he died in 12 I met probably 10 of my siblings I'd never met. Yeah, but we've been there. You know what I'm saying? I walk in. That's how I figured out my sister was my sister and my brother was my brother because my dad was dying.

33:01 And one of my other sisters that I knew that he had kind of connected us to along the way, she called me. She's like, bro, daddy's dying. He's at the hospice on Charlotte. So I'm like, OK, I closed down the restaurant I'm working at at the time and make my way to Charlotte to the hospice place. And I walk in. And as this lady said on the bed, I says, D.D., what you doing here? Because Didi is my friend from junior high school. I knew this girl from junior high school. She had a little crush on me in junior high school. Didi, what you doing here? This is my daddy. This your daddy? This is my daddy. I'm glad it didn't go no further than a high school crush. Yeah. You understand what I'm saying? Mm-hmm. But it's the black family secrets that we are dealing with right now.

33:49 Right. You understand? I have a friend who just found out that the man that they thought this person is our age and the person that they thought was their daddy is not their daddy. Yeah. And they probably went their whole life thinking that it was their daddy. And their mama took it to the grave. Yeah. They thought that these whole 40 some odd years that this man was their daddy. Took a DNA test and it came back, this ain't even this person's daddy you understand what i'm saying these black family secrets are killing us and we're trying to clean up here on the back end 40 years later you know these our parents they were great they did all they could do in the moments and the times that they had to try to survive and try to make the best lives for us but i just like i had a conversation with my mom i said you were a wonderful mom you taught me all the things that you you You needed to teach me.

34:50 But on the other side of it, you also harmed me. You harmed me so much. And now in my 40s and being on the other side of God, being with God and being in my purpose, you hurt me. And God presented the opportunity for me to have this conversation with my mother and for her to be open ears and receive what I was saying to her. You see, like my story is I grew up in a household where the domestic violence was opposite. My mother, I watched my mother beat me in my whole entire life. You know what I'm saying? Because of something that happened to her on an important day in her life.

35:34 When she was 18 years old, graduating from high school, the man she was dating at the time beat the living hell out of her the night before she graduated. She had to get up with a black eye and a busted lip to go graduate. And at that point, she said, no man will ever put his hands on me ever again. And from that point on, she became the aggressor and she beat me in my whole entire life. And that's what I grew up watching. You know, a lot of people watch their dads beat on their mom and stuff like that. But that's what I watched. I watched my mom be the aggressor my whole entire life. And it's it it in a lot of ways it's like i tell my wife now i said if we ever if you ever got to put your hands on me and i ever got to put your hands on on you we we're done yeah it's time to yeah we can't be together no more if we physically have to hit each other in an angry manner i don't I can't do this.

36:34 I can't do it. Mr. Morrell, talk to me about 413 Strong and tell me what that's initiative about and tell me how you brothers are going about mentoring men and helping them get on the right path. Yeah. So, you know, me and my brother, we mentor at 14 for 13 strong, which is outside from like Foster Avenue just for young men. What's the age is torn like 18 to 30? Yeah. About 18 to 30. That's been incarcerated or headed down the wrong path and they're trying to get their life back on the track. So we go and mentor. We have what's called like a lunch and learn where we eat lunch with them.

37:15 We can talk about our lives or just like we just have open conversation. We can talk about anything or we can talk about a certain certain topic. So we're just trying to help them, you know, get on the right path and just try to instill confidence in them. Because, you know, we all grew up in East Nashville in the hood or whatnot. We all hear people tell us, you know, we can't be this. We can't be that. Or, you know, we just trying to be what we see, what we're used to, which is, you know, rap songs, which is drugs, which is money, which is women. And, you know, and sometimes it's not sometimes it's easy to get down that wrong path. We easily look at my brother. I've never been arrested or in trouble or anything, but I've been around it.

37:56 I could have easily kind of went down the wrong road. I think the only thing that kept me on their path is I play sports. I love when I say I love basketball, I love basketball. And I wouldn't let nothing interfere with that. But, you know, some some people make some young people make bad decisions or, you know, they're just not handed a good card in life or they just grew up around and it's all they know. So we're just trying to help this to get them on the right track. That's wonderful. Wonderful. Mr. Fox, tell us about your organization and what you do. I know it's you have a cleaning service and then you have a foundation. What is the foundation doing to help the community in its aspect of what it is?

38:42 Well, right now, I'm still working on getting the board together because I really can't make no moves until I get that board in place. And I have a secretary and a vice president, and I'm going to be the president for the first six months. So I'm looking for a president intern and a treasurer and a social media person. But James Casey community is the first community that that breaking sex foundation will be reaching out to I'm already connected with Martha O'Brien community center because they've been over there for years so I'm gonna be breaking sex foundation will be working with them that community is the First, because I remember, you know, standing on my aunt's house over there when she used to live over there when I was younger.

39:46 And they are renovating, tearing down the projects and building mixed income communities over there. And I found out that some of the residents who are getting the move in the mixed income community are getting put out because they're bringing those old cycles with them into this new beginning setting. My vision is to follow the construction to the next community, project community. I think we have like two or three left in the Nashville area.

40:27 So I want to be able to follow the construction and be able to help those residents in the next community. Yeah, I think it's Cheatham Place, University Court, J.C. Napier, and... What's the ones on Herman Street? Andrew Jackson. Andrew Jackson. Yeah. About three or four? There's four. If you don't put South Nashville together, because you got JCUC, and then you got Cheatham Place, and then you got Andrew Jackson. So if you look at by sets, because the ones on Charles Davis Boulevard, you know, people kind of combine them together. But there is two separate housing projects.

41:17 So if you if you look at it in sections, yes, it's four housing projects left. I think it's amazing and I think it's wonderful because a lot of people in housing projects don't get an opportunity to clean their slates. And shouts out to Chaplain Miller over at Martha O'Brien, man. And we did an interview with him a few weeks ago, man. He that brother is amazing. Chaplain Miller, man. If you have you do you already know who he is? Yes, that's my connection at Martha Brown. Man, that is a wonderful brother. I tell you what, he is a wonderful brother and he is a ordinary man to have a conversation with him being a chaplain.

42:01 Of course, I knew he was a chaplain going into the interview. But once I had the interview with him and we started talking, he was like an ordinary brother. But he understood that the anointing that God had put on his life was that as of what God put on his life. But he still understood the mission of I'm a man. I put my pants on one leg at a time like everybody else. So here's a question, my brothers, with where you guys come from and where where God is taking you all. What do you see The urban Outlook of Nashville In the next five years Well, Overpopulated. Yeah.

42:48 Overpopulated. That is that we already there. We're already at that point. We are overflowing with people. And I tell people every day, please come visit Broadway and go home. Just come and visit Broadway and go home. We don't need any more people. The neighborhoods I grew up in, I don't even recognize anymore. At all i grew up i grew up on straightway and it's maybe that whole street is maybe six or seven houses that was still there when i grew up the house i grew up in is knocked down it's completely gone so it don't even i can't even recognize my street yeah you said straightway boy that brought up some memories yes sir man that brought up some memories fox where were you where'd you grow up at different places throughout eastern ashfield but the last place i grew up on was delmas delmas are you okay delmas was delmas wasn't as bad as lishon or as straightway but delmas had had its own little it had its own little reputation because there was a few people over on Delmas, you know, that was, and then you walk across the street to live in apartments.

44:09 So you still had that going on up there in your neighborhood. The real Litton Apartments. The real Litton Apartments. In the comments, I'm going to say straightway, man. Yeah, straightway. Man, straightway was about as bad as the bottom half of Lisha, man. I tell you what. But, you know, it is it is amazing because a lot of the times I do interviews, most of the people that I interview are not original Nashville natives. I've done a few like I did from the projects to the pros, which was the Riley Walton story.

44:51 Shouts out to Riley Walton. He's in the comments. But he's a gentleman that grew up in West Nashville, went to TSU and made it all the way to the NFL. And is still here in Tennessee and still doing wonderful, married for 35 years, worked for the sheriff's department for 32 years. You understand what I'm saying? So there are still people here in Nashville that are doing wonderful, but it's like, how do we get these young men to understand, like I said at the beginning, how do we get them to understand that what they're going through right now, it's not what's going to be going on in their lives in five years, not going to be going on in their lives in 10 years.

45:39 You know, how do we get how, you know, I was talking to my brother and I said, I was talking to this kid and I gave them some advice three to five months ago. And it's like it went in one ear and fell back down on the floor. Yeah. And it's it's it's a it's a different generation i think like what me and my brother trying to do is trying to like give back and give advice to young people, I'll just take the example because we was in their shoes. We've been there and done that. I think when I say different generation, I think kind of when we were younger, we kind of listened to our OGs. We kind of listened to the older people from a certain standpoint, a certain extent.

46:25 Now, this generation now, it's almost to the point where you can't even tell them nothing. That's my point. That was my point. Yeah, but we just got to keep trying to reach out just trying to just trying to give the best advice we can and also be there when they choose not to listen and they still fall flat on their face and they have to get back up instead of really beating them down or like i told you so you still got to be there for them because at some point in their life they're going to get to that point or something's going to happen or some kind of situation to you know get their attention whether that's jail whether that's getting shot whether that's something you know we hope it's not to the point where they're not here anymore but when they get to that point we still have to be there with open arms and say okay let's start over let's regroup come on you know so you know and that's what part of 413 is trying to give a clean slate to those who don't have any other option or their last resort or whatnot but we try to be there for them right so what you're saying is when they fall pick them up and dust them off. Go ahead, Mr. Fox.

47:32 They also give opportunities to guys locked up with felons, with probation. So they're giving young men, black young men and white young men the opportunity at a second chance. I want to give a shout out to my mother, because my mother, she was fine, black woman. She's my first queen. She's held me down. She instilled God in me. That's the best thing, the best present that anybody has given me, because I took what she instilled in me and and had to backtrack and finally build my relationship with god at a young age and i'm just so blessed to have a strong mother who was who wasn't who didn't bore me, She gave me responsibilities.

48:39 She instilled a lot into me. And she's one of the main persons in my life that has helped me to take a different role and to be the man that I am today. Shouts out to all the strong mothers out there. Shouts out to all the strong mothers out there. because without a strong mother in a lot of our lives, a lot of us wouldn't be here to tell the stories today. Definitely. A lot of us wouldn't be here to have these conversations and tell these stories. So we've got a lot of the business out of the way. I got a few questions just to ask you guys on the backside of it. This goes out to both of y'all.

49:23 Either way you want to answer, either person can go first. It does not matter, but I just got a few questions. OK, so if I was to get in either one of you gentlemen's vehicles, what would be playing on the radio right now? 104.5, Titans Radio. I do have some XM panels. 92, 101, 97.1. So you're just eclectic. But I'm talking about if we was to get in your vehicle right now, it'd be on Titans Radio. Yeah, most definitely. Tony, if we got in your car right now, what would we be playing on the radio?

50:07 He's for me he's a jizzy a gucci one of the two it's the snowman, that's what's up that's what's up okay so here's the next question what are you gentlemen's guilty pleasure. I already know man man i i i run i'm a marathon so i can eat what i want to man i i'm just or sweet, addictive, anything, Reese's, Hershey's, all that. That's me. All right. I got a sweet tooth. Mr. Fox. Guilty pleasure.

50:48 I would say sweets too, but I'm cutting back a whole lot on the sweet. All right. So if you can have the perfect job, what would it be? The perfect job. But SAS, the perfect job I have now. I would say have my own business also. Probably have my own business. But what, give me an example. What would you go into business? Are you a cooker? Are you a painter? Are you a mechanic? Where would you land at? I would probably land like a stylist.

51:29 I like clothes. I like to dress up. And when I say stylist, I'm talking about like dress up. like suits and stuff. Okay, okay, yeah, yeah. Like a clothing stylist, like you would style something. Fox, what would that be for you? Well, I'm already in business, but business is my life. It's my future. So, I'm just two years. I'm in my third year in business, and I plan on creating more once I'm able to later finish to land a foundation for the church. So, multiple businesses.

52:11 So, here's the thing. They say if you love what you're doing, you never work at the end of your life. Do you guys agree? I agree. Yeah. So, you guys feel like you're not really working because this is what you love doing, what you're doing right now. That's true for me. It's 1% true for me. Alrighty. So, another question. It's going to throw you for a loop. Okay describe your perfect boo. My wife my wife wonderful answer wonderful answer I gotta go home wonderful answer Fox we can be on one accord with each other we can and build a legacy together.

53:10 She can play a part in my purpose and I can play a part in her. Another wonderful answer, my brother. That is, I mean, because most of the time when you ask a man about what his perfect woman looks like, nine times out of ten it's measurements. It's measurements. Nine times out of ten it's measurements. Twenty-fold, thirty-six, twenty-fold thirty-six. The measurements get you in trouble too. Exactly. The measurements have nothing to do with her moral compass. We might have things that we like, that we won't, but God is not going to necessarily send you what you want.

53:58 I can testify to that, my brother. He didn't send me what I wanted. He sent me what I needed. And when I tell you my life has been amazing. Like, my anniversary is tomorrow. Tomorrow how many how many years we've been married since 2021 okay 2021 and i've got to walk on eggshells tomorrow because i'm just gonna give you a bit of and it's not like that i'm gonna tell you i'm gonna give you the reason why i gotta walk on eggshells tomorrow because tomorrow makes one year that on my anniversary i flipped a garbage truck oh my one year ago tomorrow i was working for a garbage company, and they begged us to come out and do trash because they were trying to win a contract.

54:46 And it was still icy, and there was black ice on the road. And I hit a patch of black ice on Browley Parkway, and I flipped a trash truck. By the grace of God, and a seatbelt. Was that over there by Skyline? No, I was at Gallatin Road in Browley Parkway. Okay. Last year, January 22nd. I think I was working and I think I heard that. It was a small. It wasn't a big one. It was a small one. That was me. I flipped a small. So I got to I got to get up tomorrow and pray and pray and get on this bus and put on my seatbelt and drive really, really slow and get these kids to school.

55:34 And get them home from school and get home to my wife. Because it'll be one year anniversary. So here's the thing. We talked about young people. We talked about you guys' past and where you came from and where you're at now. If you could give a heartfelt message to a young man who's going through something right now And he thinks that the situation that he's in right now is his forever and beyond. What would you tell him? I can go first. First thing I would tell him is he is good enough. I think that's not expressed enough to our young men, because, you know, mentally, when you're going through things, you know, that devil got a way of making you think you the dumbest person in the world.

56:25 You by yourself you're nothing you know those voices in their head get to going and i think that leads to kind of input decisions of making negative decisions they're going the wrong way down the right path so the thing that i the one thing that i always tell people or say oh this is this is my little saying that i stole from something i i tell young people i say a true desire in the heart for anything good is proof sent beforehand to indicate that it's yours already and you have to hold on to that and just know that whatever you're going through right now doesn't mean you're going to go through that your whole life just like you said and you talked about it you made that point and that's what I try to express to young people.

57:08 What I would express is that. Is Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. With that scripture being said, I would tell any young man, make that choice. Make that choice. Do you want good or bad in your life? You got to make that choice. You got to build that relationship with God because he is the one that's going to show you the way to walk on this earth nobody else, can do that better than him and i'm saying this because i can testify to this.

57:52 You know he brought me out of out of the darkness when i was at my lord's and, I haven't looked back since and that's why I'm the man I am today. He brought me out of the storm, he'll bring you out of the storm. He'll bring anybody out of the storm, but they gotta want him. You gotta want that relationship with God. And we're not perfect. He knows that. But he wants to see our effort. He wants to see our drive. He wants to see our strength. Amen. And in a comments, Dave said, death and life are in the power of the tongue. Choose life.

58:37 That is exactly what you say. You got to choose life. And I feel like so many people out here are not choosing life. They're choosing the moment. It's we we have become such a microwave culture. I want it right now. I want it right now. I want it right now. I want it right now. I want it right now. I want it right now. And wanting it right now and not thinking about tomorrow is not going to get you anywhere because whatever you like, I keep reiterating whatever you're going through in the moment right now is not your forever. It's not your tomorrow. It's not your 10 years from now. It's not your 20 years from now. And if God blesses you to live, it's going to change.

59:18 That's the only thing that's promised to us in this world that it's that something's going to change. Something's going to change but we all have to put in that effort, you know we got to make courses we got to put in the work, and some people don't know how to do that you know and God can only do so much in the spiritual form but us as physical beings we have to put in the work, what did it say? Faith without work works is dead. Is dead. It's dead. But here's the thing.

1:00:00 I'd like to say thank you to both of you brothers for coming on here and sharing your experiences with life and sharing what you've been through. Because here at the Kickback, our goal is to help and save and get one brother out the dark because your story may be the story that helps a brother get out of the dark and understand that where he is right now and where he's going is not the same place. It's not the same place. and if if young men understand that hey your emotions matter your feelings matter what you're going through matters just to sit down and have a conversation and you'll never know what that brother in the suits been through until you talk to him because most of the time they'll look at us oh hey unk pops whatever you know whatever acronym they want to put on you in that moment you don't know what's going on out here in these streets you don't know what life is like for me out here you don't know what's going it's hard.

1:01:11 Okay but i grew up in the projects i i i sold drugs when i was younger i ran from the police, i've been in the shootout yeah but the person you see right now don't look like none of that And I thank God that I don't look like any of the things that I've been through. And why is that? Because you embrace change. Yes, sir. I embrace change. So that's for the growing. That's part of getting yourself out of what you grew up in.

1:01:51 You got to want to embrace change. Make the right decision. All right. Amen to that, my brother. Amen to that. But I like what was said here. It says that's where a friend and a brother steps into jumpstart another soul. And that's what we do here at the kickback is we're trying to jumpstart other souls. We're trying to get the message out that, that you as a fireman didn't come from Ivy league or, or, or Brentwood or, or Donaldson or something like that. Now you came from out East and you spent 20 years being a firefighter and now you're a chief.

1:02:34 Shouts out to you, Fox. You grew up out East, but now you're three years into your business and you're starting a nonprofit organization that's going to bring back to the community. But you didn't start out way out in Noseville Road in Antioch, or you didn't start out in Westmead. We didn't start out nowhere. We all came from the same soil. We ate the same dirt. We played at the same playgrounds. But God instilled something in our parents that instilled something into us. Now, it may not always been the best, but we're here to tell the story.

1:03:16 And I thank God for the opportunity to meet you two brothers and have a conversation. Now, at the end of we're about to end the show here in a few minutes. And I always extend an opportunity for you to come on the Friday show and just hang out, whether you just stop in and say, hey, fellas, what's going on? How y'all doing? Listen to the conversation. Come in and text. Do whatever you want to do. But every Friday at 6 p.m., we host a Freestyle Friday where we have open conversations about life, love, mental health, children. Black Family Secrets is what's going to be the topic for this Friday. I usually don't do a topic, but this is something that's weighing heavy on my heart because there's been a lot of situations that have come up in my life.

1:03:59 And I think I need a panel of brothers and we need to talk about some of these black family secrets because right now it's hurting us. It's hurting us it's hurting us it is hurting it's hurting the community because we are finding out things like y'all found out y'all was brothers how old were y'all when y'all found out y'all were brothers oh it was about 15 years well we well when we were younger and we would see each other how my mom would be like there go your brother and it wasn't a big deal at that time but when we got older that's when it started hitting me because I used to have dreams about my brothers and sisters that wasn't in my life but you know everything happened during this time.

1:04:52 But we came to really know each other in 2009 that's when we had the blood DNA test done and every chromosome came back the exact chromosome the sac, but how old were y'all in 2009 when y'all did this DNA test, like 15 years ago so what 31 30 31 so for 30 years these people held on to this secret 30 years can I get this story real quick go ahead yes sir okay cool so, like I said we both grew up in East Nashville I played basketball for Shraff used to come to my games i never knew of him one day i think i was i think of what catch records on guys are only used to be catch records yes sir his mother approached me and said hey do you know who this person is i said no ma'am she said this is your brother i said okay i was confused i didn't you know because i didn't know who he was but at this time like our real dad i had a relationship with our real dad.

1:05:57 So I called him. I said, hey, this lady got this kid named Antoine said it's my brother. Is that my brother? And at that time, he's like, no, that's not my brother. You know, she's just crazy. He's making it up. I dropped it because I had no reason not to believe my father. I dropped it. So I just left it alone. Well, like I said, it's nine of us. Growing up, I knew it was me, an older sister and a brother. So I started out with this thing. It was three of us. So when I was 14, I met another sister. So now it's four of us. So at my dad's 50th birthday party, I was 24 years old. I was a grown man at my father's 50th birthday party. And I sat down with four other people at this table that I'd never seen in my life.

1:06:42 And one of my aunties came over and said, do you know who these people is? I said, no. I said, no, I don't. Who are they? They ended up my brothers and sisters. So it went from four to eight. And I didn't meet four of them and didn't even know they existed until I was 24 years old. I'm a grown man. So once in North Carolina, before I met my brother in North Carolina, my oldest sister had a siblings, I'm air calling a siblings reunion. And all eight of us went to North Carolina and had a sibling reunion. And that was the first time that all eight of us was in the same room at the same time. So we had to kind of get to know each other. So two of my older sisters, we was up. It's like three or four in the morning. We kind of had some to drink. We were just talking about, you know, hey, let's find out if there's some more.

1:07:27 Do we have any more brothers and sisters? Because we don't want our kids to meet our nieces and nephews and then they get together and they're brothers and sisters. I got you. I got you. So. So at four or three, four in the morning, this is when I said, hey, wait a minute. And I remember this lady came to me and said, hey, I got a brother. So they was like, hey, you have to find him. So when I came back to Nashville... Of got on Facebook and I was like, hey, I know this sounds crazy, but I'm kind of looking for my brother. And as soon as I put in her, five minutes later, a young lady that I went to school with that knew Twan hit me on Facebook. She's like, hey, I know your brother. He talk about you all the time.

1:08:08 I said, hey, give him his number and tell him to call me. And Twan called me and that's how I got to know my brother. It ain't funny, but it's funny. I know. I know it ain't funny but it's funny man it's like my dad died and all these people showed up and I'm like who is this person and who is that and who is that because he had only I'd only like you I'd only met four of my siblings I'd only met four of my siblings and that I made number five now 16 of us so that's that's so it's still 10 of 10 of them I don't even know right and then this man dies and all of a sudden one sister makes a phone call to another sister and another sister makes a phone call because they know the other sister and another sister makes a phone call to another sister and then all these people show up at his funeral and then all of their mamas show up at the funeral and my mama comes with me and i'm like oh my god this man this man here. This man here.

1:09:15 That's what I said. Black family secrets, man. It is killing us right now because we're having to unfold all the stuff that these people have taken to their graves. We're having to unfold all the stuff that these people are taking to their graves and finding out here years later that this person is so-and-so and this person is so-and-so. It's a lot it's a lot but I know y'all gotta go I gotta go I thank you again for being here like I said Friday Freestyle Fridays Mr. Tony Mr.

1:09:56 Antonio I love you brothers y'all keep doing what you're doing man I love you too stay positive if you see a young brother show him some love keep him out the streets man And we got to, we got to protect, we've got to protect our youth. Yes, sir. And we appreciate that I've been telling you. Yes, sir. You guys have a great night. And hopefully I'll hear from you guys on Friday. All right. Thanks for having us. You're welcome, sir. All right. All right. The kickback, the place of your brothers. Music.

1:10:36 Yeah I don't back a place for brothers yes sir yeah. Music.