Legendary Radio Journey with The X-Man

0:00 Welcome to another episode of The Kickback. I am your host, The Dude, and as we do every week, we ask you, if you're going to be racist, please do not come on our platform. We do not do racist of any kind. If you're going to be racist, please do not come on our platform. This is your host, The Dude, and we are The Kickback. Music. The kickback, a place for brothers. The kickback, a place for brothers.

0:45 The kickback, a place for brothers. The kickback, a place for brothers. The kickback, a place for brothers. To kick back, a place for brothers. Yeah To kick back, a place for brothers, Yeah To kick back, a place for brothers Yeah To kick back, a place for brothers.

1:33 A place for brothers A place for brothers Hey, gentlemen good evening hello world how's everybody doing i am your host the dude of the kickback welcome to another episode of the kickback and this is topic tuesday and you know on tuesdays we always, always have some wonderful guests. Tonight's guest is a legend in the music producing industry. He's a legend in my city. He is a legend when it comes to music, when it comes to programming. He is a legend. We have the X-Man in the building. Say hello to the audience, Mr. X.

2:17 How's everybody doing? How are you? All righty. All righty. Thank you for coming on the show. We are a small venture that God has blessed and we are going nowhere but up from here. God has put his hand, his anointed hand on this show. I don't know how much David told you about us, but we are a platform where brothers can come and have true, transparent and vulnerable conversations about life, love, marriage and whatever they have going on in their lives today. Because God put it on my heart to have a place where a brother could come and have conversations and talk. Well, amen. I'm all about talking. All right. I'm going to reach your own voice.

3:01 That's wonderful. How's your day been today, sir? My day has been excellent. God is good, and I'm blessed to be here. Right. As always, we're all blessed. So I tell all my guests at the beginning of the show that it's my show is like a mullet. We're going to get all the business done up front, and then we're going to have a party on the back end. So at the beginning what i like to do is i like to get my guests to explain who they are and what they give me your name who you are and what you've done in this world because we interview ordinary people that are doing extraordinary things in this world well how do where do i start, what would you like for me to begin in terms of you know just where wherever you deem that is possible for you to start let's see i know that you were the person that put a lot of us to sleep at night at 92q oh you're going back you're going back it's talking about the quiet storm listen i i am a nashville native been here my whole i can remember when 92q was the only urban station in nashville, This is true. I can remember that was back in the 80s.

4:20 Nantique was the only urban radio station that we had. And then what was it? This came along or was it what college came along and had their little satellite radio? Well, this started in 1973. They were first, but they were called. I can't think of the name of it, but it was started by students on the campus because they wanted a platform. They could talk about issues that are pertinent to the community and people of color. And so the format for WSK went from gospel to jazz to gospel back to jazz. So now it is a contemporary jazz radio station. 93Q was owned. It came about later on. It was owned by a man by the name of Sam Howard.

5:05 And Sam Howard used to own as well as, I think he was in medicine. And he owned a couple of businesses as well. I started out as an intern at 92Q back in the 90s. And so I pretty much was part of a crowd. I'm leapfrogging over a lot of stuff because there's a lot to cover. But in terms of the industry part, I was part of a crew at 92Q under the leadership of that program, Director Terry Fox, where it was myself, Christy, Lana Neely, A.M.G., and a few others, Siona. We took 92Q to number one, Rick Walker. That's the first and only time that an urban FM station had ever been number one in the city of Nashville. And so I was part of that crew.

5:52 And then Sharon Kay joined 92Q a couple of years later. She did the news for Ernie Allen and on the Time During the Morning Show, which I was the affiliate producer, one of. She also had a talk show called What's the 411 with Sharon K that eventually aired on 92Q. I'm moving on a lot of stuff for the essence of time, but she was authored the job as general manager at WFSA by that time, at that time, President Hazel O'Leary. And so upon getting that position as general manager, she asked me when I would come along with her to be the program director for WFSA. And so I agreed to do that and left 92Q and joined her at WFSA.

6:34 And I've been there about 18, going on 18 years now. Yep. All righty. So we kind of went past it, but I love it. I love all the information. Let's just kind of rewind for a minute and give us your government name, where you from, where you grew up at, how many children you have, things of that nature. or your personal life that as much as you would like to share. So let's start from the name, and then let's go from where you grew up and college and all those things. Sure. X from Lawson. My radio name is The X-Man. That's associated mainly with sports. I played football on basketball and ran track.

7:17 I'm originally from Brooklyn, New York, the bedside section. And so in my neighborhood, I was Biggie Smalls, Jay-Z, Willie Kim, Emmanuel, and Louis. We all came from the same neighborhood. We moved from working in new york when i was a freshman in high school we moved to athens georgia and when i graduated from high school in athens georgia to see the shows i joined the military. In 1989 and so eventually i was stationed at fort campbell kentucky i left there and you know then you get to later on where i end up going to school at geronis gd college for an associate during your broadcast so that's how i got into that into the industry i'm married i've been many 17 years. My wife and I have a blended family and together we've raised, within our blended family, four kids.

8:00 Wonderful, wonderful. Hey, me and my wife are a blended family also, man. We've got five children. Between the two of us, we've got five children. That's excellent. Brooklyn, New York. My co-host, Dave, he's also from New York. So wonderful, wonderful brother. How hard is it now this is just a question that just popped up in my head i've noticed that a lot of people in radio are from other places why are there not so many locals in radio in african-american locals in radio in nashville well most of your radio stations are not owned by black people.

8:44 Most of them in these cities are owned and operated by companies, corporations. For instance, when I mentioned Sam Howard, who used to own 92Q, my first day as an intern there, as I started out as an intern while I was in school, he had just sold Q2K to the Dickey Brothers. They were the Dickey Brothers at that time, which is now Cumulus Media. And so Cumulus bought up as many urban stations as they could around the country and then they got rid of all the morning show crews around the country and replaced them all with Tom Joyner. And so on Tom Joyner, now, if you remember, you said earlier, you're on a choir song and things of that nature.

9:26 Tom Joyner was one of the first nationally syndicated black radio personalities that opened the door for national syndication. Like we hear Steve Harvey. Well, if there was no Tom Joyner, there wouldn't be a Steve Harvey and Doug Banks and Ricky Smiley, there's some of the other guys. So to make a long story short. In order to survive in this industry, you have to you have to be willing to move. And that is because you're only as good as your last show, as they say, because radio is a ratings driven business. And most people are under contract when you're doing mornings. Middays, afternoon and sometimes evenings. And so if you don't pull the ratings, you might be talented. But it sounds like football. You know, if you don't produce, then they let go of you.

10:09 And then once they let go of you, you still have talent, but you have to take a talent somewhere else. Now, in Atlanta, it's a little different. If you've ever been to Atlanta before, they sort of recycle their radio personalities across the city. So you can do a whole career in radio in the city of Atlanta and never leave the city. And that's just because there are more millions of black people there because radio is basically a pie. And it is never about the music. So I'm explaining this to the listeners. The radio is never about the music even though we listen to it for the music it's never about the music it's about the age demographic and what what music the age demographic listens to for advertisers so that's why when you listen to your hip-hop and r&b stations your your your advertisers are going to be more of your tours parties and clubs and things of that nature and as you move up in age then so so does the type of advertising that you may hear and you know i was in radio sells for a while too so that's how i understand a whole lot right and i that you're explaining it it sounds it sounds a whole lot better and but it doesn't but i get it it's all about business.

11:23 100 100 yep and and that i i get i understand and we are new to this space this is six months. We're going on, what's today's date? Today is the 14th. So on the 17th, we'll be doing this for seven months and we've done. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. We've done probably about 10 interviews there. They've been great interviews. Like I said, we just, we interview ordinary men that are doing extraordinary things in life. And it is always honor and a pleasure to have someone of your caliber because to me you're a superstar because like I said I'm a Nashville native so I can remember hearing your voice on the radio when I was younger and knowing that I knew it was coming I knew what was about to come I knew what was coming exactly man do you not know how and you see it on social media now but people of my age talk about how that particular track had us in a chokehold.

12:32 It had us in a chokehold. And for us that didn't have the money to go out and acquire records and things of that nature, you know, we did, we recorded it. We went and spent our allowances and whatever, and we got blank tapes and we recorded that. And that song was like, it was like the flute player with the Cobra Snake. It was like, you knew at 10 o'clock that song was coming on and you had to be somewhere by a speaker to hear that song come on. So it's the art of noise. That's the art of noise by moments of love. That's that particular that particular dude that you was doing right there. And that particular film was about 10 minutes long, if I'm not mistaken.

13:14 Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've actually researched it now. I have my big age. I am now. Man, it still has me in a chokehold. I mean, the art of noise is is will forever be a classic record. It will forever be in my heart. And I'm in my mid 40s and it will forever be something that I will remember probably to my dying day. So you were you said you were in sales. You were a DJ. You were a producer. You you also managed a little bit. Right. Well, I'm program director now. So radio personality. So I mean, so so DJs would be just a tap. maybe.

13:55 Okay. And then Brian D and people who worked at clubs and spent on the ones and twos. So radio personalities are persons who are on the air and have to have to be, personable to the listeners and things of that nature and you know they said i'm calling me the super producer within the industry because uh not only do i produce my own style which is nationally syndicated gospel style called real gospel now but i also have helped produce probably 20 between 20 and 30 other sort of programs and when i say produce i mean i don't mean from from some of them have vince from from scratch but i've helped sort of produce uh like like fern plays Russell 411.

14:37 I've been with her since the inception. We had money shows on WFSA. We had health shows on WFSA. We had Tavis Smiley on WFSA. I was officially introduced with a time joiner. I dealt with Doug Banks. Just a variety of different programming that I have to put my personal touch on to make them sound a lot better. Man, that's my lifetime. You just literally just went down a timeline of my lifetime because I can remember when all of those different personalities were on the air and it's been through my lifetime of hearing and then when one says well this is my tenure and i've got to go and we're we're leaving and then you move into somebody else and then they leave and then you move into someone else and then they leave and it's like wow i wonder i really wonder what that world is like on the other side yeah but let me also add that i was also able to do something that like you touched on earlier about people staying within the city normally depending on your your your talent the the company does not allow you to leave their company and go across the streets of the other company most people have what's called a non-compete which means if you if you quit or you get fired you cannot work in that city or within a 50-mile to 100-mile radius for at least two years or something like that.

16:00 When I left 92Q and when I left 92Q, they failed to give us a non-compete. Now, there were other people within the company that they were handing out non-competes. Because you remember some of this. When the beat came on the air, which is 101.1 of the beat. Yes, sir. A lot of people were set up to jump ship to go work for that company. Well, Cumulus woke up and said, well, we got to protect ourselves because we don't keep just walking out the door. So they started handing out non-competes to the talents that they thought were the ones that they should keep hold to. Well, Sharon Kaye and I did not beat one. So we sort of took that kind of personal, you know what I'm saying?

16:41 But God has other plans for us because when she got the job as general manager at WSSA and then she went on to ask me to come join her there, I did not have a non-compete. And so when I left to Coupé and went over to WSSA, we helped turn that radio station around and we sort of been a thorn in their side ever since. Man that is that hey like you said at the beginning it's business it's never personal it's all about business they didn't they did not handle their end of the deal by giving you the paperwork that that you needed or they needed to keep you all from putting your foot on their neck yeah so god exactly that's god and i had to not compete i wouldn't be where i am today and there would be no real gospel.

17:30 Right, exactly. That's God. So I also see that you went to seminary school. I did. I graduated from some of the American Baptist College with doctor's degree in pastoral studies. All righty, all righty. That's wonderful. So do you have a church that you're the pastor at or pastoring at? I'm an assistant pastor at the Cathedral of Praise Church of God in Christ, where my pastor is Dr. Jerry Maynard II, and my bishop is Bishop Jerry L. Maynard Sr. Okay. Pastor Mr. Maynard, pastor of operations. Cathedral praise. Wait a minute. Yeah, Cathedral praise. But I'm thinking, I met a gentleman who goes to Cathedral of Praise.

18:14 I think his name is Darius? Darius Willis. Darius Willis. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Darius Willis. He's one of our associates, and he's a social adjutant to the bishop. Yes, yes. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful gentleman. Yes, we've had a good conversation. He's an actor as well. Yes, yes, yes, yes. I'll shout out to him. Shout out to him. He's a tremendous actor. Yeah. I think that God is going to continue to open doors for him. So he's been in some videos and a couple of movies. But I do believe that at some point, God is going to just open those doors to him for him to continue to flourish on the movie scene.

18:55 Yes. And he has a wonderful testimony. And he's probably he's probably going to be on this show in the next few months. He's he's going to be an interview on this show in the next couple of months because he has a wonderful testimony. And like I said, I've sat down and I've had a few conversations with him and he has a wonderful testimony. That's why I said we do interviews with ordinary brothers that do extraordinary things. Like one of my first interviews I did was with Jonathan Williamson, who is the newfound president of the NAACP. And that brother is is he's doing some leaps and bounds with the NACP and changing the narrative of the way it's been handled for the last few years by the people that have been gatekeeping the whole process.

19:47 And he's opening up the doors for our younger community to come in and put their input into social justice. That's great. I'll further two terms as many patients chair of the national branch of the NAACP under then President Marilyn Robertson, who passed away not too long ago. OK, man, it just sounds like you are all around amazing gentlemen. And I and I'm honored to even have you on my show. This was something that God brought to me, my brother. he brought to me and he said that we men needed a place where they could have real honest conversations about things that are going on in their lives and and a place that they can be vulnerable because in today's society, the world deems a man is this is what I tell people all the time.

20:37 The world deems men at their wallets. Most men nowadays are looked at and cared for by what they can produce. And if they don't produce, then their value is less or they're not valued at all because they can't produce. And so that that has a lot of emotional attachment to it. And men don't have an outlet when it comes when you go home and these are the things that you deal with and you're out in this world and these are the things that you deal with. You're evaluated by what your wallet looks like or your bank account looks like when the value of you is way more than what you're producing.

21:18 But society has made it to where that's all people look at. Can he take me out to a fancy restaurant? What kind of car is he driving? What's his positioning? What's his title? What does he what is he wearing? You know, none of that stuff should really matter. But that's the way this world has been going. And so I God says, hey, build a place where men can come and have real transparent conversations and not be judged. Because, you know, we have all of these different things going on where you got the videos and the this and the that. Well, God told me this. He says, start out with audio because here's the thing. A brother walks into a room and has a conversation with 100 men.

22:02 He's got 200 eyes looking at him. But if you can make him comfortable at home behind the microphone or behind a device where he can talk in the comfort of his own confinement space, car, whatever it is, he will talk and say a lot more than he would if he had 200 eyes on him. That's true. That was true. So that's the reason why, therefore, we're here with an audio platform. Now, here we go. We have a radio veteran on the line with us tonight. So at this point right now in the interview how am i doing you're doing excellent and god is touching and.

22:48 Your platform and you and all that you do fast out to David as well for, you know, just YouTube for just thinking enough of me to have me on. I like some artists another time ago, no one has to think about you at any time. So I do thank you once again. I thank you all for having me, man. Listen, you, you are a legend. You are a legend to me. Like I said, you are a hero and a legend to me because there were times that, you know, Hey, we're all men. We go through things, you know, you go through a breakup or you, you know, back in the day when you sat on the phone, all night with that girl. No, you go to sleep. No, you go to sleep. No, you go to sleep. I'll listen to this song. Listen to this song that's on the radio. You know, so you carried me through a lot of things when I was younger.

23:28 And it was just, it's amazing to be able to have someone of your stature here. You know, I used to tell people all the time to my mother, I'm the real black Superman. And what I used to say about that is I was a superstar in her eyes. I was a hero because I was the first born boy that she had. And, you know, the world looks at us as we're nothing but your mom and people like that. Even after the spotlight goes off, your mother's always there. So anytime someone gives you a bit of a gratification, like you said. Stars, they shine for so long. And I mean, what I mean by that is in the entertainment business, they shine for so long and then their light goes out. So, yes, I can see where you're saying somebody's still thinking about you and you're still relevant because you are in my age group.

24:21 You're still relevant because there were so you just said that you were behind some of these shows throughout my lifetime. So that is amazing. So the radio station, it's a.m., right? Not FM. So what's your moniker for the station that you're working at now? The focus was UDU-21 FM WFSC, Smooth and Contemporary Jazz. Smooth and Contemporary Jazz. Okay, okay. And you were saying that it's all about ratings. Ratings and what's the rating scale like?

25:05 Well, we're non-commercial. Now, at this point, I spend most of my time in non-commercial radio, which means we don't sell commercials, we fundraise, and we do what's called underwriting. But I started my career in commercial radio, which is where they sell commercials and things of that nature. So my first radio job was actually at, it was an all-white station called The Party, 102.5 The Party. Now they have flipped the format to sports. So now it's 102.5 The Game, I believe. But at that particular time, it was The Party. So they played music like Celine Dion, The Backstreet Boys, Third Eye Blind, Cootie and the Blow Series, NSYNC, Britney Spears.

25:45 So that's why I started out. And I started out there because as an intern at 92Q, while I was still in school, I went on a live remote broadcast with a guy at that particular time. His name was Bruce Lowe. Bruce Lowe at that particular time was doing the quiet storm on 92Q. And we were sitting in the van. And so he turned to me. He said, X him. He said, what are you going to school for? I said, radio broadcasting. He said, let me tell you something. He said, don't think just because you're black. You have to work in a black radio station. You do whatever they pay you. And when he said that to me, and shout out to Bruce Law, I mean, he would never know how much he changed my life when he said that to me because it felt like the weight of what I was going through in terms of trying to get a job was lifted off of me.

26:31 And then the entire radio dial opened up for me and I began to understand that I could work anywhere I wanted to because God gave me this gift. And it goes back to what you said earlier about that particular time, 92Q being one of the only urban FM stations in the city, because if you're not doing morning drive. Middays, afternoon, or working on the weekend, you have to wait for somebody to either quit or get fired before you get your opportunity to have a shot. So for me to be an intern, I'm like, well, what am I going to do? Do I need to move? I'm going to have to leave Nashville to find me a job? Because children are hiring all over the country, and that goes back to what you were saying earlier, but people are having to leave where they are to go get a job. But when he said that to me, I realized that, you know what, I can work anywhere.

27:15 And so I ended up, long story short, taking my air check to the program director of the party at that time, Mikey Mike. And I took it to him, introduced myself. I met him earlier on a sealed trip. And he called me two days later and said, I listened to your air check. I gave it to my general manager. How would you like to start working for the party? And the rest of history. So explain to the people what an air check is, because I don't even know what that is. Okay, so an entrance is, well, it makes it happen today. That means I had to record myself doing a radio show and give that to the program director so that he can hear how I sound on the air to determine and ascertain whether or not I fit that format or to sort of measure my radio skills.

28:01 Does my sound sit at this station? Is my delivery when I'm speaking? Am I able to articulate, you know, that we call a backfill? Like, by the instance, I would say, continue to set music on a 2.5 of the party, which is the X-Man you just heard, Celine Dion, and that was the song you don't want to miss another day. Listen, coming up next, I've got a song for you that you just simply don't want to miss. And if you stay right there, the correct caller, I've got $100,000 in giveaways just for you. So stay right there. So that's what is on an air checker. So when the general manager or the program director listens to it, they can they can determine whether or not you sit there format. And so myself being black and here how deep my voice can be, I took a chance at a station that was really a pop station.

28:46 So for the fact that they hired me and and I remember this as if it was yesterday. I started out overnight and I want to say this was about two o'clock in the morning. and I got this phone call and it was this little kid, this little short and white boy. And he says, is this the X-Men? I said, yes, it is. She said, can I ask you a question? I said, sure. She said, are you black? I said, yes, I am. She said, oh. And then he hung up the phone. And I said, wow. So it was no, so they understood that I was black. But I also took that opportunity to learn a whole new genre of music because I didn't know anything about Celine Dion or the Backstreet Boys or third-of-line, and, you know, I didn't really think about them, but I had to learn it.

29:31 And when I left from there, I also saw what was called radio airtime. So by day, I saw radio airtime, and at night, I was on the chair. I worked there for over a year and left it and went back to 96Q, but this time as a student producer for the Time Drew Morning Show and working overnights. And so that's how I ended up back at 96Q. You know, and I'm not laughing at that. I'm laughing at the little kid. Are you black? Yeah. Yes. Cool. And then they have the phone. But, you know, I was the only black person in the building. Right. But to them, it was cool. It was something different.

30:11 It was something new. But what I learned along the way in business was this, because before, right now, I drive a school bus for MNPS. Yes. But before that, thank you, sir. Thank you. These kids are something else. But before that, I cooked for 18 years and different places around Nashville. And then I started my own little food business. But I learned this in business. And it's sort of like what you said. The best advice someone gave me is your best customer is going to be someone of a different race and different color that you don't know. That's that's going to be your best customer and it blew my mind when they said that because i'm i like i said i'm a nashville native i've been here my whole entire life so i grew up in east nashville graduated from maplewood high school so i was like okay i'm going to go back to my old neighborhood and i'm going to try this and i'm gonna try that i'm gonna do this i'm gonna do that but when i went to a whole nother city and a whole nother county and started and did the same thing that I was doing here in Nashville.

31:22 They accepted me with open arms and the the business was a whole lot better. It was a whole lot better. So I get what you're saying. Go where the money is. Go where the money is, because you can always come back. But once you go, if you don't go where the money is, then you'll regret it in the long run. And you'll just be You'll have some regret And you just won't know what to do Let's see what we got here We got, I'm looking at what I'm looking at is I'm looking in the chat It says what was Radio like in Brooklyn When he was Growing up Yeah.

32:07 Jim, we imitate the Spanish radio host. I can't imitate the Spanish radio host, but if you want to know what radio is like in Brooklyn, let me see if I can rap for you. Two years ago, a friend of mine asked me to say some MC rhymes. So I said this rhyme I'm about to say. The rhyme was definitely going to whip this way. Took a chance to become an MC. Who was that? Doesn't run the MC. So when I came along, rap was not on the radio. Rap was sort of underground and thank you thank you, I think there's a documentary at Peacock and on Peacock there's a Run DMC documentary and it sort of goes back and explains a lot of that but I came up in an era where I think like I said Run DMC.

32:54 Came out then who else came out after the Fat Boys then later on after that Houdini was huge and so it's nothing like it is today where you know you'd have a whole radio station as a matter of fact rap only came on at night at like at like at nine o'clock or something like that on on my name for something kiss fm and so everybody used to listen to it at that time and you had i think marley maul dj red alert those guys with djs and they're on the air they're literally in the radio station mix do a lot of mixes at the radio station and ironic you said this earlier about recording stuff, and my fans and I used to take that tape recorder, you had to push the two buttons down in order to record, and you would record the whole show on.

33:40 Cassette tape. So, yeah, that's what radio was like. Okay, okay. So it was basic. It was the same way for everybody. It's just you got on the other side of radio. Now, how did you get this love for radio and want to be on the other side of the microphone? That's God. God did that because I grew up. I did not grow up listening to one genre of music. My family listened to different. like my father used to have eight tracks in the car so i grew up listening to zz hill down on blues because that was in there then my mother listened to country and then sometimes when i could get a chance you know i would listen to some some rap that you know somebody might have brought an album to school we was able to play in the school i was listening to the radio and you know then i listened to some some some some uh talk radio so everything was a melting pot but ironically because I grew up in church.

34:39 So my grandfather, and I come to find this out, used to entertain a recording artist. These old school people like Fairly Caesar and the Five Blind Boys, all these people, he used to have them stay at his house because in those days they would come to the church and they would perform at the church, administer at the church. So they would do that. So some of these guys, I'm playing now. My father actually had a small in New Jersey. I think his name was The Love Line or something like that. These are things I didn't learn until later, but it was later on when I was working in a factory in Ashton City, Tennessee. I was working in a factory as an independent welder, welding parts, making it that time.

35:21 We're talking about maybe in the early 90s. I watched a man drop dead. On the floor when I was leaving work one day. When I got home, I blew soot out of my nose while I was in the shower because I was well in those parts. Well, the soot was black, or the snot was black, I should say. And so when I saw that, I said, I can't keep doing this for 20, 30 years. I said, this is crazy. So I said, what am I going to do? I said, God, I said, you've got my attention. Like what do you want me to do with my life? And so the very next thing that happened was I could hear my parents' voices in my ass saying, you need to go back to school, you need to go back to school. And I've been avoiding that that whole time because I was just doing my thing.

36:03 And so the next day when I was on my way to work, I would leave the house at about 5.45 in the morning. And it took me almost an hour to get to work from Oak Grove, Kentucky, all the way into Aspen City. So I was listening to the radio, and Ernie Allen was on the radio with a guy by the name of T. Wright. And they were doing a morning show and so in the afternoons, I will listen to a young lady on that same station Which was not it to you for sure. Fuck if you were close upon the close to see me and I remember God saying that's what I want you to do And so that next day when I got to work on my lunch break I pulled out the phone book now we have do good But then we had the phone with the yellow pages as I started flipping through the phone book Yes, I want to be glad I was like, you know, what do we do next? I said, I'm looking for a school. They said, for what?

36:51 I said, I'm going to school for radio broadcasting. They said, you're going to do what? I said, yeah, I'm going to go back to school. This is what I want to do. And I thought I was crazy. They sort of looked at me like, okay. Well, I ended up going back to school or going to school. And ironically, we used to have what's called Come Together Day at 92Q. I'm not sure if you remember that. The huge event where the entire city would come. Yes. And it just turned into something totally horrible. At the inception, it was wonderful. And I wish we still had it, but you guys keep going. You had come together today. I was trying to say when it was good. But anyway, so while I was on stage, the entire group, all the guys that I used to work with at the factory had came to come together.

37:38 And it all had a section where they were hanging out and standing around because they came together. And while I was on stage, all those guys that I worked with yelled my name from that corner. and say, yo, X, man. I gave him a shout out from the stage and I went over there to speak to him because they had seen what God had brought me from working with them to now I'm on the stage introducing you like Yolanda Adams and I can't think of who else was coming up on the stage. So that was another God moment for me. Man, won't he do it? Won't he do it? Won't he do it? I tell you what, I've had confirmations in my life about this particular thing that we're doing right now.

38:19 This this podcasting thing, man, God has given me so many conference confirmations about me being on the right path. And and this is where I needed to be in life was doing interviews, talking to gentlemen, getting their stories, shining the light. Like I said, on ordinary men that have done extraordinary things, the things that you are mentioning. So many people will remember, like I said, come together today. I remember the inception of Come Together Day, and it was amazing. It was great. And yes, along the years and a long time comes change. But I was sad to see when it made its way all the way out to Rosa Parks, which used to be Metro Center. And then it just kind of went downhill.

39:09 It just kind of it just kind of went to the dogs. And that's all I'm going to say about that. But the original premise and concept was amazing. It was great. And it was something for the community to celebrate and come together. Because, yeah, Nashville is in New York. Nashville is not L.A. Nashville is not Atlanta. But we do have a wonderful, wonderful African-American culture here. But the thing is, we need to come together a little bit more and better and support each other. As I drive down Jefferson Street now, I'm saddened because it's like everybody's selling out.

39:50 When Jefferson Street used to be the epicenter, the Ritz and the Elks Lodge and all those things and all the places that used to be on Jefferson that celebrated our culture are now gone. And the young people are just letting it go and not trying to figure out where where they came from and i quote my brother my brother says this if you erase your history how do you know where you came from how do you know where to start when it when we have to go back how do you know if you want to erase the history if you want to take away the monuments of the things that our forefathers have built for us. Why?

40:32 Because when it all falls down, we have nothing to fall back on. But that's the society that we live in now. Everybody wants to erase everything. This didn't happen. That didn't happen. Funny, I talk about being a bus driver and I didn't even really tell anybody, but you just made me think about this story. So I was on the bus Monday afternoon. It was last Thursday, right before it snowed. It was last Thursday, right before it snowed. And an eight year old little boy asked me, how old was I? And I said, I'm 45. And he said, what year was you born? I said, I was born in 1979. And this little boy asked me, no, it's going to be offensive.

41:13 I don't really want to ask you, but it's a little African-American boy. He says, were you a slave? Wow. And I was like, no, I was not a slave. I was born free. And he was like, oh, You was born in 1979 I thought you was a slave It's like no, no, slavery was Way, way, way, my mama was free My grandma, my grandma was free Even though my grandmother Was born on the Bellmead Plantation But her father and her mother were free When she was born on the Bellmead Plantation, So this life is just it is something else. OK, so we've got a lot of the business out of the way and we're on the backside of this interview because we usually try to keep it at about an hour, hour, 15 minutes.

41:58 So let's get to the party. So if I got a few questions to ask you, nothing too weird, nothing too strange, nothing too personal. But it's just a couple of questions I have to ask. I ask every guest that comes on my show. first question if i was to get in your vehicle right now what would be playing on the radio fourth okay sports talk radio sports talk radio yeah what's x-man's guilty pleasure including sweets any particular sweets. Depends on the day or the week most recently i had a chest I got a pecan pie I got a pecan pie What do we got here in the chat It says You can't know where you're going If you don't know Where you began That's a good one It came out of our comment section In the chat Let me see what we got here you've been married for 17 years shout out to my wife regina regina miss regina shouts out and you said you have four children yeah through through uh through our blended family i do have kids before i was married so yes those are your children yes okay which one of your children do you like the most,

43:29 All of them are the same. They're all the same on my eye. Great answer. Great answer. Great answer. Great answer. That's what I don't try to find people. And I don't distinguish between my stepkids and my biological kids. Yeah, that's why I said, I didn't say your stepkids or your biologicals. Yeah. Because I tell people. If I use the term, though, but if I use the term, though, I don't use it because people say, all right, they ain't step nothing. But sometimes I've learned that in some instances You have to identify the difference So that people understand And when I make a statement, I love them all the same Because that was one of them That's a whole other subject there But it is Listen to this podcast, including our kids Yes, I love you all the same And y'all know this Without equivocation or hesitation, they know this Right, right I love all my children the same They're all mine, Regardless how they became mine And they're all mine. And I love them all the same.

44:24 None of them. I love none of them more than I love the other ones. You know, I've got I've got four daughters and one son and one of my daughters. I have two older daughters and two younger daughters. And one of my oldest ones on my birthday was last month. And one of my gifts was a ultrasound picture. She's pregnant. Congratulations. I'm about to be a granddad this summer. Welcome to the club. It'll be the first one. Welcome to the club. What's that? What is being a grandpa like? I'm going to put Ben Tinker. When he found out he found his first grandchild, he said that grandchildren are God's blessed to protect the grandparents from not killing the kids.

45:10 Great. That's a great answer. I love that. I love that one. Okay. So, yeah, I love that. Okay. So, it's lunchtime. You're in a crunch. Where are you going to go get something to eat at? Oh, wow. Today it was Veggie-licious. Veggie-licious? Where is that located? It is on 6th Street, right down the street from MLK, right down the street from WFSA. Okay. In North Nashville. Okay, we got a question. It says, what are your children's ages? Oldest is 33. The youngest is 22. Okay. Biological. Youngest, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Caribbean, naturally 19, 20. This is my... Okay.

45:53 Okay. All right. So Veggielicious. So if you're not in a crunch and you got time to spare and you're taking someone out to lunch, where are you taking them to? Zaxby's. Zaxby's. Lunchby's or Silver Sands. Silver Sands, another Nashville staple. Yes. Man, listen, what happened to the soul food movement in Nashville? It's fed up because now you've got soul one and on Charlotte Avenue and he's branched out to Antioch and I think the airport.

46:38 You've got King and Castay. You've got sweats. There is there are a few other places. I can't think of their names offhand. But they're fed out and they're doing pretty well. A lot of non-people of color do enjoy self-food i i think just in my opinion now that's a great question i think it's about marketing that you asked me i think that we we sort of do ourselves in some cases a good service when we have the first food restaurant but it doesn't but the but the establishment is not it's not there's not a lot of investment into the into the how it looks you know so you may start you may start off you know what i'm saying and you know where you can get in get in where you sit in but once you start making money i mean invest in the thing that was that's what i liked about knockout wings then invest it in their business before they sold it so yeah you know and this is so off the subject but i just had that conversation with my brothers we went into one of the local because the question the question what you said kind of go in coincide each other the question was what is your go-to natural hot chicken a natural hot chicken go-to that would be if i try to go there's a place called helen's hot chicken which is on the corner right right.

47:51 Behind my hair it was about dd todd and then princess because here's the thing we went a few weeks ago we went into one of the hot chicken spots and we were saying the same thing you were saying but in a different manner because it's exactly what you said they don't reinvest the money to keep the place up you know it's just come and get the food and move on about your way yes the food is good but your appearance is horrible. Renovation that's that's the word god dropped in my spirit i'm going to take time you said yes there's a word renovation renovation is the word once you start and again i'm not criticizing anybody my thing is because you start off you know it's a dream you know you want to start up a business you don't have a lot of money but then once you start making money and you get a place like renovated you know make it top 10 or make it presentable so when people come in it doesn't look if every black business restaurant does not have to look hood very true very true And the one we went in, it looked really, it looked like it needed to be painted.

48:58 The decor was horrible. You know, the food is delicious. But when you walk in, it looks like a deserted building on the inside with a counter with people up there talking about, how can I help you? Yeah. But you look at the food. Yeah. You're there for the food because the food is wonderful. But the record, you're like, oh, man, they could have did a little better. They could have. Y'all need some new chairs. Can we get some paint on the wall? Can we can we get some new flooring? What about these sealed ceiling tiles up here, man? They look like the water and drip through and you never took them down. And see, knockout wings, and I'm going to bring them up again.

49:39 I'm not quite sure. So I might have been at 92 Q&A. It used to be across the street from where it was where the building that they sold now is located. And it was a small building. It was not like one bathroom, one way in, one way out. I mean, it was a really small... I remember it was a little building across the street. I remember next to the fire shop. A little bitty building. Yeah, exactly. It was small. And then they made so much money there, they brought the building across the street. Built it wherever it was and invested in it i'm like wow this is how you do it and so you know i would like to see them stay around and maybe maybe franchise that place but i guess you know they they they wanted the money so yeah yeah they made their money and they moved on in the comment section somebody agreed with you and they said what he said and somebody also said lack of business awareness.

50:30 Yeah. Well, I will say, let me say this, I understand what they're saying, that now that's going to be separate from the business awareness. This is just going to be good old-fashioned like, would you leave your house like that? I mean, it's a restaurant. Right. You're making money. And sometimes we know you're making money because if we keep coming in there and we see a stock in there, we do the math you know you can you can invest in your in your business you can renovate your business you can hire some carpenters come in there hire some of these groups i haven't been on what it would take to you know throw a roof on there paint the outside you know pave the parking lot or find another you know something that's stuff you know so you have to do it you just have to do it that that way it just speaks to your mindset your business mindset of why are you really doing this and so if you're just making money you don't care nothing about the establishment and your mindset is, when I make the money, I'm good.

51:26 Well, then that pretty much, yeah, yeah, I'm going to leave it there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, yeah, we're going to drive down another street. Okay, so the question is, do you have any connections with the people over at the Jefferson Street Sound Museum? That would be Mr. Lorenzo. So what do you mean by connections? So I do know Mr. Lorenzo. He is an excellent pioneer when it comes to making sure that a lot of the history, ecstasy of musical history of Nashville and ecstasy North Nashville is preserved and archived. So it shouts out to Mr. Lorenzo right over there on the Jefferson Street Sound Museum, right off Jefferson Street across the Citizens Bank. Yes.

52:07 All right. So here's here's where we are. You have had a wonderful career. do you feel like you're going to stop anytime soon? Only God knows that, but one of the things that I really share what the move of God is going to be, but I say here, I guess we can call this breaking news. I'm sort of doing what you're doing now, and God is elevating real gospel because right now it's just naturally syndicated on what's called the Rejoicing Network. So real gospel, which is my three-hour gospel program, is heard really all over the world because we're all in different countries. So God has allowed me to grow that soul from not having, when I left 92Q, and got to WFSA, not only did I walk away from that genre, but I also did not own one gospel CD.

52:57 So my mother had to give me music, I think, and they gave me a couple of CDs. So people were donating music to me because I didn't know anything about the gospel music genre. And so here I am talking to God, saying, okay, I'm going to do this and I'm going to show you I appreciate you and I love you. And I didn't know anything about gospel music outside of Silver Caesar and James Cleveland and Kurt Sinklin, I probably didn't know much of anybody. So I have to relearn that entire thing. But now I'm moving. Real Gospel is morphing into more videos. So I'm working on a TV show. I'm working on a video podcast. And so God is shifting things in a different direction for this new day and age. And that's what God sort of has to be focused on in 2025.

53:42 Now, early in the conversation, you talked about going over to the party and learning about different genres of music. I think, being that Nashville only had one urban station, so my mother listened to everything. In my playlist, it is eclectic. I mean, there's everything from Elton John to Aerosmith to Yolanda Adams to... I would do anything for love. It's my number one, man. Come on, we're playing. Okay. Awesome. Ain't no doubt about it, Baby, I'm Shirley Dottie We were doubly blessed Because we were only 17 And we were barely dressed Come on now Come on, Hey, listen I listen to everything I listen to all types of music Because you never know the messages you're going to get Regardless of music And my mother always taught me To broaden my horizons Bet out of hell That's it, Bubba.

54:50 That album right there, man, I think I rode for about a year listening to that album. And I pull up at places and they'd be like, they look at me. You know that look they give you when they hear that music coming out of your car. And they're like, he's listening to what? Yes, ma'am. I sure am. Thank you. Have a good day. Have a good day. Yes, I am listening to that. But just because my skin got melanin in it don't mean I don't know good music. Now get on out of here. So the other question is, do you have any advice? Like I said at the beginning, I am seven. I'm about to be seven months in and I've been doing this.

55:31 Listen, I've been convicted by God and also held accountable by my brother in Christ, Dave, to do this and make sure that I stay consistent. Do you have any advice for a newcomer in the industry? I do. I'm going to tell you what God is telling me to tell you all. But first and foremost, Father God, in the name of your saint Jesus Christ, I seek blessings and increase over this program right now. And not only will it increase, it will also reach people where ordinary radio and ordinary podcasts will not reach. And so we seek that over their lives and also over this program in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. And that is continue to do what you do and don't look at it.

56:15 But don't do it for the money. Do it for the very reason that is in your hearts, which is to reach people. And when you reach people, God is going to continue to bless your program because one of the things that God is showing me even today, even today, that as I'm talking to you all, I keep discovering radio interviews that I did over 10, 13 years ago that I burnt on CDs in closets that I forgot about. I came across a DVD from 2007. I'm not sure if you know who Minister DeWitt Johnson is, but he had asked me to emcee one of his TV programs that he did back in 2007.

56:58 And I found that on a shelf someplace and I looked at it and I said, oh, my God, this is 2007. This is full television production, professional. And I popped it in. I said, oh, my God, that's me. So I've got all this content that I am now trying to figure out how to convert over to do something similar to what you do for video purposes. And so God has helped me organize that and slowly walk that. So content is king. So as long as you continue to have great conversation and continue to reach people and do that and you continue to create content, God will bless you and open doors for you for years to come as you continue to grow. So just like you say, you're starting off here and then eventually you have the cameras and all that other stuff, but you will have a tremendous amount of content.

57:46 Thank you, sir. I appreciate that. And my man says money. Who said anything about money? We didn't. It wasn't never. It was at the beginning. It was like I told you, it was never about money. It was about having a place. This is what God placed on my heart. He said, have a place where men can have honest conversations and be vulnerable and be transparent. parent. It's never about the money. To me, my mission and my ministry is to help men who are down, who are despaired and feel like they have nowhere else to turn. Because when a man feels like he has nowhere else to turn, he turns to violence. He turns to addiction. He turns to all the wicked things that this world can throw at him.

58:32 So why not have a platform where he can come and have a conversation in the privacy of his car while he's crying, in the privacy of his bathroom while he's crying or while he's praying to God to take whatever the weight of his shoulders off of him and remove whatever's bound him to whatever it's bound to. So money, money comes and goes. I tell people all the time, I never wanted to be rich. I want to be able to pay my bills, take a couple of vacations and make sure my children have everything they need and 50% of the things that they want. That's all i ever wanted in life i don't want to be rich i don't want to be famous now i have always had a dream of having my life my name up in a moniker somewhere that is just a dream i've had since i was a kid to have my name on a moniker the old school moniker where they had to screw in all the little white bubs they had to spell out your name with all the little white bubs and put it up on a moniker that was always a dream i had unless it says we have lost the barbershop is what it says in the comments and what he means by I get what he means by that.

59:39 You know, the, you know, the barbershop used to be a place where men could go and have conversations and things of that nature, but we don't have it anymore. The barbershop has become a place of, of iniquity is what the barbershop has become. So here is a sacred place. I mean, I'm not saying that anybody's not invited because everyone is invited, but it's not, we don't do fluff here. Now, don't get me wrong. We're not, we're not, we're not going to throw the Bible down your throat, but God is always in it because God is the one who created it and God's going to be the one to keep it going. Because sometimes when you throw relationship, I mean, when you throw So religion down someone who's hurting throat, that's just insult to their injury.

1:00:29 So God is always going to come into the conversation. He's always going to send a blessing. He's always going to send a word. But I want to meet every man where he is so I can get him where he needs to go. When you meet them in the barbershop, you know, although, you know, visa class is my personal and savior, in the barbershop, there are people of many nationalities and religions in there who believe in all kinds of things. And oftentimes when I'm in and getting my hair cut, I'm listening and learning. There's some things I learned about people, other people's faiths, just simply sitting in there and listening to them. So that's part of the barbershop as well. Yes, yes. I mean, I'm not saying we don't look to the barbershop. I mean, yeah, I mean, so for people, because one of the things about platform is that people listen at different times and different phases.

1:01:17 And so I'm talking to you. I'm also speaking to the listeners as well in broad because they're listening to this in 2026 and 2027. The information is still relevant. But I try to make sure that I'm speaking to them in a conversation a way that makes them feel like they're included. Understandable. And I thank you for that. I thank you for the lesson. I thank you for that. That is that is I didn't grasp it until you explained it to me, but I understand it now. I understand. Radio sound conversation. And that was driven down my throat by Terry Fox. Hey, listen, I take all advice and I am a student. I am a lifelong student.

1:02:02 Every day I want to learn something new because I feel like if I don't learn something new every day, then something's wrong. I want to be a lifelong student, whether it's learning, learning a little boy's name or a little girl's name or what their parents do or learning a new trick while I'm driving. In or if it's to learn an administrator's name at the school or if it's to learn, you know, whatever it is like tonight, learning about radio, learning about, you know, advertising, learning about non-competing clause and all of those different things, because I never knew that radio stations gave out non-competing clause so you couldn't get a job at another radio station within 50 miles. That is crazy.

1:02:47 Yep, that's true. That is true. Yes. And so I thought to you for driving the school bus because, let me tell you something. I worked in Metro for a few years as a sub before I got to WFSA, and there were some days I was in there, and I said, I can't believe this was the easiest job in the world. I love this. And other days, I always said, man, you can't pay me enough to be up in this. So I know how you have my feel from time to time. Really with the feelings and the slip on it. So shout out to you because Every day is like a new journey, I'm sure. Every day is a new event. Every day is a new... And then you got to think about the way Nashville has grown so much.

1:03:28 My brothers also drive school buses. And I drive in East Nashville. And my brother drives in the Antioch area. And you know how Antioch's growing and Smyrna and Laverne and all that. It is a train wreck every day. But we wouldn't do anything else we wouldn't do anything else man when I say I love my job I love my job it is a train wreck but I would not trade it for the world you couldn't peel me from behind the wheel of a school bus man it is I cooked for 18 years 18 years I've done everything from fine dining to flipping burgers at Jack in the Box to working at a retirement facility with old people where it was they complained about five things.

1:04:14 It was too cold, too hot, too spicy, too sweet, or too salty. Every day. Every day. Those were the complaints. It says in the comments, does X-Men need an intern for his show? Time to hit me up. I'm always willing to help somebody out. Always. Even if I can, I'll point them in the right direction. All right, now, I'm going to keep you to your word. That's what I do. That's the other thing I love. I love networking people. That's one of the things that the guy's giving me a gift for is knowing where to connect people and connect people so they can get their dreams and hopes for sale through whatever mechanism.

1:05:00 All right, we got another comment. It says, not about what you can afford. It's about what you can't afford to keep. What do they mean by that? It says it says I'm going to read it again. It says not about what you can afford. It's about what you can afford to keep. And then it says connecting the dots. So I guess we were talking about finances. It's not about what you can afford. It's about what you can afford to keep, you know, keeping peace, keeping, keeping, you know, your mental, keeping yourself from being stressed out, keeping yourself from being in a place where finances and money control your life so that's what they're saying not about what you can afford but what you can afford to keep you know if you you you can keep your sanity let's just see so if you can't what you have this is living within your means yeah yeah yeah so i mean it's all of those things and that's that's that was my definition of what they said it's it's keeping my sanity it's keeping my family connection because if you go to work and you work all day long do you have no connection with your family i have small children, So if daddy's at work all the time, then they don't ever see dad.

1:06:21 I have a beautiful wife who loves to to hug her husband and slap me on the butt and do all these different things. If I'm at work, she can't do any of that. I have a son that I have to say, hey, man, take out the trash. If I don't, if I ain't there to do it, who's going to take out the trash? I'm going to come home and his mama's going to be taken out of trash and then I'm going to be mad. So it's to me That's my definition We dream We got We dream We get We lost Often, Work-life balance Is what Dave says In the comments You know But Here's the thing I Love What I do I love what I do Here I love driving a bus But I love this This gives This is therapy For me And it's validation on what God has said for me.

1:07:16 It's like I was talking to my wife yesterday and we were listening to a pastor and he was saying some things about church and all these different stuff. And it was confirmation on my life and where I'd been in. As I said earlier, I was born in 79. I just turned 45, December the 21st. Well, my testimony. Yes, sir. Thank you. Quite a point in the house. Yes, sir. No, no, no, no, no. Sagittarius, last day of Sagittarius. Last day of Sagittarius, last day of Sagittarius. But here's my testimony. Years ago, when I was younger, smaller, you know, people would always see me and they say, it's something special about that little boy. He's got an anointing. And for years, you know how your mama and your grandma make you want to make you go to church and all those. And so when I became an adult, I stopped going to church.

1:08:02 And then, you know, you start once you get older, you start to notice certain things and people in the church and just different stuff went on. So I had a bit of church hurt. And so I turned 45 years ago and God came to me and he said, it's time. And I kept saying, you know, I just kept hearing it's time. It's time. It's time. It's time. It's time. It's time. It's time. It's time. And I was like, God, it's time for what? And one day it just came to me and he said, surrender, surrender. I was like, surrender. What? What am I surrendering to? What is what is this about? Surrender? No, I'm a man. I'm I'm a beat on my chest. I'm strong. I'm a big man.

1:08:45 I ain't surrendering to nothing. Nobody's going to take anything from me. And he said, it's time for you to surrender to me. And so once he said it was time for me to surrender to him, I said, OK, Lord. I said, I've lived this life for 30 plus years doing it my own way. I'm going to let you take the wheel and I'm going to let you control my life. And when I say these last past five years of praying and being in God's glory and I never knew that God's glory was so amazing, man. I never knew that the glory of God was so amazing. And I tell him all the time, I'm going to shout it from the rooftops, how the glory of God has changed my life, has changed my life.

1:09:30 The last five years of my life have been so amazing, putting everything at his feet, praying, letting it go, giving it all to God, turning the other cheek, all the things. It may sound cliche, but this is my truth and my testimony. God has delivered me from so many of my demons because we all have demons. He's delivered me from so many of my demons, man. I used to walk around and I used to carry so many bags. When he says surrender, man, I dropped those bags and I ain't look back since. And so God put it on my heart to do this because it's therapy. And it's what he said this world needed. So I started this. You talked about money. It wasn't about money.

1:10:11 I had to spend a little money to acquire some equipment, but that was nothing. I blow I blow the money that I acquired the equipment with eating, taking my family out, doing, you know, going on holidays, things like that. But to shout the message of God and give him the glory and help my brothers not be in the pit of despair, the cost is nothing. The cost is nothing. So I thank you for being here. I thank you for being on my platform. I thank you for the prayers. I thank you for the advice. I thank you for being in my life for so many years, even though you were in the background. I thank you for who you are, because you're an ordinary man, but you've done some extraordinary things in your life and you have impacted a lot of people around you.

1:11:02 To God be glory. Thank you so much. And I also want to give a shout out to Mr. Sharon Kaye, the general manager of WSSK, who, you know, thought in me what others did not and gave me the opportunity, which also brought me before you all today. Hey, man, I shout out to all of those people, man. If it wasn't for him, you wouldn't be there. And let's see, we're going to go over these comments real quick, and then we're going to get out of here. It says, we don't often know how to count the cost. And then it says, yes, no leadership for men. And then the last comment, as boys, we are more in the company of women.

1:11:46 So male doctors, female nurses, yes, mother, babysitters, kindergarten. Grade school, male principals. I guess it's many counselors, gym teachers and coaches. Oh, OK. It's a lot. But we are here. Sunday school. So hopefully you get it, You got to give me just a tad bit more on that. But we're here, man. And what I say to every guest is on Fridays, we do a what we call Freestyle Friday.

1:12:29 Sometimes we call it Freedom Friday. And what we do is we host an open panel. And I know you have a busy schedule, but we host a two-hour open panel where men just come in and they have conversations. We talk about politics. We talk about raising kids. We talk about marriage. We talk about everything for two hours. We have a two hour live show where you can come in and chat. You can come in and text. You can come in and do all type of things with us on Fridays. The invitation is extended to you. If I ever send you a link and you're available to come in, you're more than welcome to come into the show. I would definitely love to participate and just chime in and be a part of the conversation. And I truly appreciate that You're welcome So what I need, you came in from the link I sent to your phone, right?

1:13:22 Of course Send me the best picture That you want for me To use as your cover So when I. Post this tonight It'll be a picture of you And Whatever the picture is you want it to be You can be on the beach, you can be behind the microphone. You can be whatever you want to, but send me a picture. Therefore, I have a wonderful picture of you so my audience can see who it is. It could be your brand. It could be whatever you want to be. But we're about to close out. What advice do you have to share with the world, as we're headed out. Well, once again, thank you for this opportunity to participate in this platform, this private shop.

1:14:10 This is a forum that is very well needed, and I appreciate it, and I'm very sure that the future guests as well as the past guests whom have been on will have a lot of insight and a lot of information and stories that will benefit just so many, so many of us. And so the best advice that I can give each and every one of you who are listening right now is the advice that my mother and father gave me, which is to keep God first. Amen. Amen. That is that short, sweet and simple, short, sweet and simple. No more, no less. Keep God first. You heard it here. We got the X man in the building. We thank you.

1:14:54 We love you, my brother. Keep doing what you're doing. God is God is going. He's going to keep us going. He's going to keep us going as long as he wants us going. He's going to keep us going. And like you said, it's not about the money. If I can save one soul, I feel like I'm doing good. But I understand and I know that there's going to be more than one soul saved. But I just want to give God all the glory. And I want him to know that I am a soldier in his army. And I will forever and continuously shout from the rooftop the glory and how he has changed my life. For the better positive exposure always causes elevation in peace all righty we're about to head out of here i'm gonna play my i'm gonna play my my my my out music and we are going to go thank you sir have a great night you too thank you you're welcome.

1:15:55 Music.