Episode 282 - Killer Beaz
Guest:Lock the gates!
Marc:Are we doing this?
Marc:Really?
Marc:Wait for it.
Marc:Are we doing this?
Marc:Wait for it.
Marc:Pow!
Marc:What the fuck?
Marc:And it's also, eh, what the fuck?
Marc:What's wrong with me?
Marc:It's time for WTF?
Marc:What the fuck?
Guest:With Marc Maron.
Marc:Alright, let's do this.
Marc:How are you, what the fuckers?
Marc:What the fuck buddies?
Marc:What the fuckineers?
Marc:How about you what the fuckish?
Marc:That would be for British people.
Marc:What the fuckinavians?
Marc:What the fuckinistas?
Marc:Haven't done that in a while.
Marc:I am Mark Maron.
Marc:This is WTF.
Marc:Killer Bees is on the show today.
Marc:This is an interesting story.
Marc:Let me talk about this cat.
Marc:I don't know what to do with this cat.
Marc:I think it says something about me, though.
Marc:This black and white cat that's been hanging around for years, who I've talked about, who I've spoken to.
Marc:It's a female cat I've come to know.
Marc:But I can't touch her.
Marc:She's a long-haired, black and white, feral cat.
Marc:She's been coming around a long time, very entitled, eats all my good food.
Marc:I have a very tense... I've talked about my relationship with this cat.
Marc:She annoys me.
Marc:OK, and that's it was a it was a difficult relationship between her and I. And now there's something wrong with her.
Marc:I don't know what the hell to do about it.
Marc:I called the ASPCA.
Marc:I called up the animal control.
Marc:They told me that I needed a permit to trap a cat, which is ridiculous.
Marc:I could just go get a trap.
Marc:I don't have a trap right now.
Marc:I thought maybe being this sort of I'm trying to detach from it or at least make it easier for myself.
Marc:Could someone just come and pick up this cat because it's sick?
Marc:It doesn't look like it has much longer.
Marc:But then now I'm outside.
Marc:I'm looking at it.
Marc:It's got clumps of hair coming off.
Marc:It's all dirty.
Marc:But it's eating.
Marc:So I spent some time with her out there today trying to talk to her.
Marc:And, you know, we're OK, but I think she's dying.
Marc:So I don't know.
Marc:I'm going to have to trap this cat.
Marc:This is weird.
Marc:I had this shitty relationship.
Marc:And now when she's all fragile and fucked up and still doesn't want to deal with me, I've got to take care of her and I've got to do something about it.
Marc:I feel awful.
Marc:So now I'm getting up my mind focused to trap this cat tomorrow.
Marc:Because I can't turn my back on the cat.
Marc:I got to trap it with the equipment I have.
Marc:Because I could go out and buy a trap, but then I'll have a trap.
Marc:And there's no way to trap animals around here.
Marc:I can't leave it open at night.
Marc:It could trap Boomer.
Marc:It could trap a skunk, which I don't want to wake up to.
Marc:It could trap raccoons, a possum.
Marc:Who the fuck knows?
Marc:I've got to figure out a way to coax this cat into a cage because I'm not putting the leather gloves on.
Marc:I'm not going to freak the cat out.
Marc:I don't know how fragile it is, but something's wrong with it.
Marc:I'm just sort of struggling over this cat.
Marc:I'm questioning my own integrity as a person, the quality of my humanity that where I've had a difficult relationship with this cat.
Marc:And then my first instinct was, could someone just come pick it up and get rid of it?
Marc:And then I realized I love this cat because it's been coming around a long time and I understand her.
Marc:Now she's in trouble and I have to take care of her on my own.
Marc:I have to deal with this myself.
Marc:I'm weird with that, I guess, which strays.
Marc:I don't know.
Marc:Even with Killer Bees, the guy who's on the show today, it's very odd.
Marc:I've been doing comedy a long time, and I started in comedy clubs years ago, and this guy's picture was always on the wall at every club, Killer Bees, and I'd never seen him.
Marc:I never really even, I never knew what he did.
Marc:I always thought the name was ridiculous, and then I started to pick up bits and pieces about him.
Marc:Well, he's a Southern act.
Marc:What does that mean?
Marc:he's a regional guy he only works the south what does that mean is he a kkk act what does that mean no that's just his audience and that's where he works and so i kind of heard that i put that together then later on i talked to some guys like my buddy ryan singer who's a road guy said he's got a catchphrase uh which was um i talked to him about it save up better save up
Marc:But it was sort of a running joke, but I still never seen this guy.
Marc:But he'd been part of my coming into comedy my entire life in the form of these headshots, these mulleted headshots on walls of comedy clubs.
Marc:Oh, by the way, you can go to the website and get the new Hot Rod Coop shirt.
Marc:WTFpod.com slash merch.
Marc:Groovy new t-shirt.
Marc:Do I got anything else to plug for myself?
Marc:I'll be at Bonnaroo.
Marc:And there's still some of those DVDs left.
Marc:The first 100 episodes of this podcast on MP3 files in a beautiful two DVD box with some video footage.
Marc:Well, so needless to say, I don't know.
Marc:No, I need to say it to continue the story.
Marc:I'm in Montreal last year and I see this dude, got a suit on, looks good, but I recognize the facial features.
Marc:It's killer bees.
Marc:And I walk up to him and I go, you're killer bees.
Marc:And he goes, yes, I am.
Marc:And I go, I'm Mark Maron.
Marc:I do a podcast.
Marc:I was thrilled to meet this guy.
Marc:This guy has been a mystery to me, a mystery to me my entire career.
Marc:And I just didn't know, like, he's a Southern person.
Marc:He's like, his domain is the South, which fascinates me.
Marc:So, like, I got to talk to Killer Bees, and I was thrilled about it.
Marc:And I'm also thrilled that there is this other area of comedy that nobody knows about, a regional road act who's primarily a Midwestern and Southern act and has been working for years.
Marc:I was thrilled.
Marc:I'm like, this is a get-out.
Marc:So I am presenting you in a moment with Killer Bees.
Marc:Also, today's music, if I could, was created by Sean Greenhague.
Marc:He's a drummer from the band Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah, and he made what he calls a New Order-style tribute to my theme music, to the theme music of this show.
Marc:I was very flattered by that, and I enjoyed it.
Marc:So that's what that is.
Marc:Better save up!
Guest:Thank you.
Marc:You can wear those headphones.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:You know how to do this.
Guest:I do.
Guest:I put this.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Like that, and I go, how does this sound?
Guest:I got a feeling you know how to be on a mic.
Guest:Mark Morin.
Guest:You're getting close.
Guest:Marin.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Killer Bees.
Marc:Woo-hoo.
Marc:Killer Bees.
Marc:You know, it's weird.
Marc:When I saw you in Montreal,
Marc:When you introduced yourself and you knew me, I felt excited because I didn't know you at all other than from you were this mythological comedian.
Marc:When I was growing up and we were up in Boston or even in L.A.
Marc:when I was in San Francisco, any comedy club you go to, there'd be a picture of killer bees.
Marc:And back when you had the mullet.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And now, see, when I first started that, it wasn't even a mullet then.
Guest:Way back in old timey days, dude, it was just long in the back and short in front.
Guest:And then some guy who hated people from the South come up with the term mullet.
Guest:And so now I'm mullet-less, as you can see, buddy.
Guest:But you were so great, man, in Montreal when I met you.
Guest:And I had seen your picture and seen some stuff you'd done on Comedy Central back years ago and had always remembered you.
Guest:And it was so cool when I finally met Marc Maron.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:In Montreal.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And you were gracious enough to say, dude, if you're out in L.A., man, come by and do the podcast.
Marc:Well, I'm kind of fascinated with the idea that, you know, how long you been doing this?
Guest:Well over 20 years.
Guest:Well over 20 years.
Guest:Right.
Marc:So you've been doing it like I've been doing it that long, too.
Marc:Maybe.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:A little less than you may be.
Marc:But you are not known in in Los Angeles, necessarily.
Marc:You're not known in Boston.
Marc:Right.
Marc:But you go anywhere below the Mason Dixon line.
Guest:Killer B's.
Guest:Well, here's what happened.
Guest:We started having babies, my wife and I, 22 years ago.
Guest:And it was surprise babies.
Guest:You know, one of those deals, man.
Marc:More than one surprise baby?
Guest:Well, just one at a time.
Guest:But the first one was the surprise one.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so I made the decision then to try not to be an absentee dad.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So we stuck around the southeast.
Guest:We were kind of like a mom and pop operation.
Guest:My wife did my booking and stuff.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:We didn't really have all the big connections, but if I can say so unabashedly, the stage performance was badass.
Guest:So I've made it on the strength of caring about the audience and going out and throwing down.
Guest:So anyway, we kind of hung in the southeast for...
Guest:For all this time.
Guest:Where do you live now?
Guest:Mobile, Alabama.
Guest:We're down on the Gulf Coast.
Guest:But did you grow up in the South?
Guest:I did.
Guest:I was born in Alabama, a town called Andalusia, which is near another town called Op, which is where they have the big famous giant rattlesnake roundup.
Guest:But by the time I was a preschooler, we had made it to Jackson, Mississippi.
Guest:And that's where I grew up.
Guest:And then I went from Jackson, Mississippi to Nashville.
Guest:and worked out of Zany's up there.
Marc:Yeah, I just had Zany's.
Guest:Dude, I have done more shows in Zany's Nashville than anybody in the history of that showroom.
Guest:Now, do you sell out every time?
Guest:Not anymore.
Guest:They've seen me a billion times.
Guest:We always do good numbers, and I suspect we always will.
Guest:And it's so cool because beautiful women will come up to me after the show and go, my mom and dad saw your show on their first date.
Guest:You know, and I'm like, God.
Guest:I feel fossilized.
Marc:Yeah, I know.
Marc:But do you change it up?
Marc:I mean, do you find he's still right or what?
Guest:Yeah, I do, man.
Guest:It's the human experience.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:You still do the catchphrase?
Guest:The save up?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yes, I do.
Guest:But we got a new album with Warner Brothers that we're recording, and we're going to switch it to You're Good.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You're good.
Guest:And it'll be the stories about when you're backing up the RV and you look out the left window, the left mirror, and you can see the picnic table scraping the thing.
Guest:And you look out the right mirror and your wife and your other drunk buddies are all going, you're good.
Guest:So you're good.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So we like to stick with two syllables.
Yeah.
Guest:Mark, because they're easier on us who learn to read in crayon.
Guest:But Dan Whitney does, what is his?
Guest:Get her done.
Guest:See, that's three syllables.
Guest:That takes all day.
Guest:When you have a draw like mine, do three syllables.
Guest:You know, that'll take you forever.
Guest:When I was a kid in school, we had to learn what onomatopoeia was.
Guest:And that was the whole class just getting four people to say it.
Marc:See, this is the weird thing about people from the South is they do get a little short shrift.
Marc:They do get condescended to.
Guest:Dude, I got to tell you, when I hear a voice, Mark, that sounds like mine, I go, oh, my God, what a dumbass.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Even though I sound that way, I swear to you, when I hear it, I'm like, no.
Guest:I mean, even the politicians in the South, I tell you, we're going to fix them taxes.
Guest:I'm like, crap.
Guest:crap but who are your audiences but um i've got big demographics dude i i'm not a very dirty act i'm not real blue and uh because it is a life experience type uh show man i'm i'm from from 20 to 69 70 years old i do good with with those people one reason because especially in the south you have to be respectful to the audience yeah and that is something i have always been is respectful and try not to take the cheap shot
Guest:and just try to use wordsmithing and body language.
Guest:I'm not highly educated.
Guest:I went to college for three weeks and I knew everything.
Guest:You know, because you take that psychology 101 and the psychology teacher at Heinz Junior College, Raymond, Mississippi, goes, your actions will be based on other people's reactions to them.
Guest:And I go, in other words, if I run up to some big old guy and push him and he knocks me down, I won't do it again.
Guest:The guy goes, yeah.
Guest:And I go, Ricky Stacey taught me that in the third grade.
Guest:what do i need this for i just graduated yeah i could be working at the linen plant but wait so did you like before comedy like what kind of family did you grow up in my dad was a police officer 32 years in jackson jackson mississippi um and my mom was a school teacher mom went back to school after having four children and got her phd in education um
Guest:She got that degree at Jackson State University that is in Jackson, Mississippi, a predominantly black college.
Guest:And there was a lot of eyebrows raised at our family way back then for mom going to this college.
Guest:But they had the program that she needed and wanted.
Marc:White eyebrows raised?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Guest:You know, and I will say this immediately.
Guest:Things are a lot different in the South than they were back in the old days.
Guest:You know, people think and care more now.
Guest:And it's it's not the.
Marc:So you definitely grew up with that, with that separation, segregation.
Guest:Yeah, I did.
Guest:And I saw it.
Guest:And that's how I can now look at it and go, man, it is so much better.
Guest:You know, other than your people who don't think and feel.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And they're coast to coast, north and south.
Guest:You know, your boorish dumbasses are still going to be out there.
Guest:Matter of fact, when I left the Mississippi area to actually come out and go on tour, I thought that when I went to Milwaukee or to Portland or somewhere, I would be away from the rednecks.
Guest:Doesn't happen.
Guest:Well, I have to assume that you have a bit of a redneck following.
Yeah.
Guest:I do.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I do because I sound like them and I can cater to them.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, I'm really good about not being uppity on stage.
Guest:As a southern white man?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:No, as a performer.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:What would constitute uppity?
Guest:Here's the dynamics.
Guest:And you do this because you live on stage, man.
Guest:People in the audience are under the assumption that we know more
Guest:Or that we have more gifts or special powers that they don't have.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Therefore, it is much easier for us to come off as condescending.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:I think that's true.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, that's a real dynamic there.
Guest:So I really try...
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And that's something I learned, too.
Guest:And you've heard this, too, I'm sure, man.
Guest:You got to make them like you.
Guest:It's not as much about them liking your act unless it's like a production show, like Carrot Top or something, a big production show.
Guest:You know that you've worked with people where you've asked audience members, what do you think of so-and-so's act?
Guest:We didn't like him.
Guest:Not we didn't like what he wrote.
Guest:We didn't like the podcast.
Marc:punchline it took me i think a lot longer to learn that than most people yeah but but do you agree with me on no it's a good point because you know i was a fairly standoffish angry not condescending comic but i would definitely push push buttons right and and you know it took me years to realize well you know you could probably push the same buttons if you just you know acted nicer and framed it a different way exactly i mean if you're going to be angry and pushing buttons they're going to think like why the fuck did we come here to talk to like he's mad at us we're who he's talking about yeah
Guest:You know, what you want to do is make the audit.
Guest:Here's how it's us and them.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, that's the way it is.
Guest:So the people in that showroom with you, they're us.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And so you would rather pander to us and talk about them.
Marc:So in my humble opinion.
Marc:No, I think you're right.
Marc:Now, let me ask you, you know, straight up.
Marc:Like, so you've been doing what you're doing for a long time.
Marc:And then you got there's a whole generation now.
Marc:It seems like maybe two generations of of these blue collar comics.
Marc:Now, is there any part in the killer bee brain, the gracious and loving killer bee brain, that's like, I was doing that first?
Guest:Not really.
Guest:Not really.
Guest:But I was doing it way back there, man.
Guest:And here's what happened to me.
Guest:I was in Jackson, Mississippi, and there were no comedy clubs in the state.
Guest:I was just motivated to do it because I've been funny since I was a teeny little baby.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Do you have proof of that?
Guest:I do.
Yeah.
Guest:Sadly, sadly, Mark Morin.
Guest:Yeah, I do.
Marc:Your mom was like what?
Marc:She said you were always a comedian.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So but but from my earliest days, I was I remember being funny.
Guest:I grew up and before we got to Jackson, Mississippi, we lived in Kosciuszko, Mississippi, in a funeral home.
Guest:My dad was an embalmer before he became a police officer later.
Guest:Are you serious?
Guest:Yeah, I'm serious.
Guest:As a toddler playing in the yard of this little funeral home, I would see people that were grieving come and go.
Guest:All day, every day, people came in crying, people left crying.
Guest:I can remember getting chewed out by the receptionist for shooting my cap pistol during a funeral.
Guest:I can remember, Truett Jr.
Guest:?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Quit shooting that damn captain.
Guest:We're trying to bury somebody in here.
Guest:We're covered up in dead people.
Guest:And you're out here hooping like a white Indian.
Guest:So so but that's one of my earliest memories.
Guest:And I wonder, Mark, to this day, if that is part of my impetus, if you will.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:To make people laugh.
Guest:Do you remember seeing corpses and stuff?
Guest:I do.
Guest:I do.
Guest:Because I remember as kids talking about seeing purple people.
Guest:or green people or or to to this day i know it is ashen color because of the lack of oxygen in the corpuscles uh-huh oh good oxygen carrying corpuscles i think that that probably did have something to do with i mean i imagine if you see that many people upset do you remember feeling upset too i do not because it was beyond me yeah what the situation was right um
Guest:So then we went to Jackson, Mississippi, and Dad got on the police force there.
Guest:So that was during the 60s, during the race riots.
Guest:So I remember growing up, angst ridden over, is Dad going to get killed?
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, not really knowing the politics of it.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:You know, being too young to be into that.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:But that's another early memory.
Guest:And I think I started using wit and humor then as a...
Marc:coping mechanism thank you very much like you remember like what was it what was the state of well i mean it's hard to talk about it because i don't know that i've ever talked about it with uh with a guy who was on the the other side of it in the sense that your father was obviously trying to maintain order in a situation where you know blacks were fighting for fundamental civil rights and it had to be pretty insane did you feel the tension at home
Guest:I did.
Guest:And the frustration and I can and I can say if I had the attitude now way back then, there'd have been a big rift in the house.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, because as you grow and learn.
Guest:So you're a recovering racist.
Guest:I am.
Guest:I am.
Guest:I was never a hardcore racist, but I was grown.
Guest:I grew up around that in the deep south.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And luckily was not one of the people who embraced that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And what is cool now is I see so many people around me where I live that don't play that.
Guest:Right.
Guest:We don't go there.
Guest:Right.
Guest:But it's still alive and well.
Guest:You're talking about racism?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, in the South.
Guest:Ignorance is alive and well in smaller numbers than it was.
Guest:I've got to stick up for the Southern region and that things are so, so, so much better.
Marc:Every time I've been down there, I'm always amazed at the hospitality and there are a lot of progressive people down there.
Marc:You just get a bad rap because, you know, shit went down.
Guest:Yeah, well, and just look back in the day, the percentage was different.
Guest:You know, the percentage has flip-flopped now.
Marc:Now, I'm always curious about, like, given that you performed all over the South and you live in the South, do you find your way up into the hills and do shows?
Guest:Well, yes, sometimes.
Guest:You know, Greenville, South Carolina, which is a great little city, the outskirts of some of these places have some pretty rural areas.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:But even then, you will see people temper the way they act because of the bad publicity that racism and just dumb assedness gets, you know, across the board.
Guest:So I'm glad to see that.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Marc:So that's a... You've never been in a situation where you perform for somebody and they come up to you after the show and they say something.
Guest:A thousand times I...
Guest:Here's something you can use in Iraq.
Guest:Beast.
Guest:And it starts with the N word.
Guest:Or gay bash.
Guest:And I don't go there.
Guest:I don't play that, man.
Guest:Because I think, Mark, that if you're gifted and you have that...
Guest:That spark to make people laugh.
Guest:I do not believe in the concept of anything for a laugh.
Marc:Right.
Guest:I think that's letting your art form down.
Guest:Right.
Guest:You know, I think if you've really got the chops and you're gifted that you should be able to entertain people without taking them to a sad place.
Guest:Dark place.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:I've been divorced and I don't do divorce jokes because I've not known people that it was a really happy thing for.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I worked in a 911 ambulance in Jackson, Mississippi.
Guest:I was 17 years old.
Guest:I was the youngest person in the state of Mississippi.
Guest:to do 9-1-1 ambulance work and way back then and i mean you drove or you i worked on you in the back dude i was a guy and i was a little bit funny with if you had a broke leg you were not appreciative of my little punchline right as genius as they were you were in the back of the ambulance yeah but i was at that time they did not have emt certification so the official title was this is this is 1971 okay
Guest:So the certification then was basically ambulance attendant was what they called us.
Marc:Throw a kid in a truck.
Guest:Dude, I'm telling you, man, what has happened to your leg?
Guest:That dog bit it and then I fell off the porch.
Guest:What do you weigh?
Guest:348 pounds.
Guest:Can you crawl to that stretcher and get on it?
Guest:Because I weighed like 128 pounds.
Guest:You know, but that, I got to tell you, dude, that was the test of my life that taught me I could deal with pressure and with intense situations.
Guest:What was like some of the situations you had to deal with?
Guest:Everything I'd done, every ambulance call there is except a plane crash or a drowning.
Guest:I've done murders.
Guest:I've done suicides.
Guest:I've done rapes.
Guest:I've done babies.
Guest:I've done people blown up, people smushed flat, people caught on fire, people electrocuted.
Guest:Fall off the house.
Guest:Name something else.
Guest:What else can happen to you?
Guest:Bit on the ear by Reese's monkey.
Guest:Hunting accident.
Guest:Hunting accident.
Guest:So all of those things.
Guest:And I learned the consequences of doing stupid stuff.
Guest:I learned that at a young age.
Guest:I'm a big proponent of seatbelts.
Guest:A lot of people don't like wearing them.
Guest:But at 40 miles an hour, you can hurt yourself real, real bad.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, split your eyeball, break your elbow, that kind of thing.
Guest:Are there still people that are fighting the seatbelt thing?
Guest:I'm sure there are.
Guest:You know, because you can tell it's them because there's no seatbelt on them, but there's cigarette ashes on them.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:So you're just this kid driving around in an ambulance and you have to, what, help out?
Guest:Dude, I remember when they first came out with the electronic sirens.
Guest:When I first started, it was what they called the Q2 siren.
Guest:It was a big... You crank it?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, it had electric motor on it, but it was that one.
Guest:And then when it came out with the little bee, bee, bee, bee, that one, we would drive through the countryside and play with it and try to play tunes and some cows and look like, what the hell are you doing?
Guest:What was the most common accident down there?
Guest:Car wrecks, a lot of car wrecks.
Guest:And there were a lot of instances where alcohol was a contributing factor.
Marc:And what about domestic abuse?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And that, you know, and a lot of gunplay, you know, I mean, people shooting relatives over a checkered game because they were drinking moonshine and stuff.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I mean, it was just so damn bizarre, man.
Guest:And do you remember back when the CB radio craze was going?
Marc:Breaker breaker one night.
Guest:Went on a call where a guy had a 30 foot antenna on top of his house.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Climb to the top of it to adjust a wing nut.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or something else.
Guest:And damn power falls off the house.
Guest:So who comes to get him?
Guest:Me.
Guest:He's like, oh, my God.
Guest:Big gash his head in my little dumb ass.
Guest:Hey, look at you.
Guest:He was up there.
Guest:That must hurt like hell.
Guest:Well, I'm glad I didn't do that.
Guest:You don't talk about that on stage?
Guest:I have talked very little about that on stage because, and here's why I'm in, because back then, funeral homes owned the ambulance services.
Guest:And so this ambulance service I worked for was owned by a funeral home.
Guest:A guy that went to embalming school with my dad in Nashville was in Jackson, Mississippi and had a funeral home and owned the ambulance service.
Guest:So I worked in the funeral home and did ambulance slash funeral home stuff.
Guest:I've embalmed people, dude.
Guest:I've done incisions and raised arteries and done sutures and all that.
Guest:And because I think the funeral home was tied in with the ambulance service, and that's another thing that can crush a person's mood for the evening is talking about death and destruction.
Guest:I don't really go there.
Guest:With that being said, my first ambulance call.
Guest:And you have coaxed this out of me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Mark Maron, because you're my buddy.
Guest:My first ambulance call, I don't know if I've told you this, my manager, Robert.
Guest:We went on this ambulance call.
Guest:A woman fell and broke her hip.
Guest:We picked her up.
Guest:I'm in the back of the ambulance.
Guest:Her two teenage, hot-looking daughters rode in the ambulance with us.
Guest:All right, we take her to the hospital, we drop her off, we go about our business.
Guest:A couple of months later, I'm at the funeral home, back in the back, watching TV, waiting on an ambulance call, and they come back there.
Guest:Same line as when I was a little boy in Kosciuszko.
Guest:We're covered up with dead people.
Guest:We got four funerals going on at once.
Guest:Come up front and help show people which viewing room to go to for which service.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Sounded easy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So I go up there, and I'm wearing my little suit and tie, and I'm standing there, and people come in there for the Adams.
Guest:Well, that was right down there, man.
Guest:That's room 2A.
Guest:Well, I'm standing there, and these two chicks come up to me.
Guest:Of course, I'm 17 years old, so chicks, hell yeah.
Guest:Let's go.
Guest:Damn right.
Guest:So they come up, and they go...
Guest:We know you.
Guest:And I go, really?
Guest:They go, you took our grandmother to the hospital when she broke her hip.
Guest:And dumbass me up in a funeral home, not realizing they are up in a funeral home, go, that's right.
Guest:How is she?
Guest:And of course, they're like, well, she's in there.
Guest:And so then I'm like, oh, my God.
Guest:And they didn't know whether to laugh if I was being funny.
Guest:And I wasn't.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:You're just being honest.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So that was weird.
Marc:So nothing happened.
Marc:I'm taking it.
Marc:yeah yeah yeah i didn't get pepper spray yeah yeah i didn't nail well that's it's pretty fascinating to me so okay so the the funeral home would would own the ambulance company so they're sort of like uh that corner on the market out the middle man right you know it'd be like you know what you could save your family a lot of money if you just let us take you on this ain't gonna work out you don't need that hospital status
Guest:I can't even stop this bleeding.
Guest:I don't know why you insist on going all the way to the... It was hardcore, though, dude.
Guest:There were calls where there was blood coming out the doors of the ambulance.
Guest:We would get multiple gunshot people, just all kinds of stuff.
Guest:Just people shooting each other.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:I think that also teaches you something about the human experience.
Marc:I've always thought that even in a biblical way, there's only a handful of ways that people fuck up.
Marc:And people are always going to shoot each other.
Marc:They're always going to kill each other.
Marc:That's what we're fighting against is you're hoping to make better people that don't think to do that.
Guest:But if there's a lot of guns around, they're going to shoot each other.
Guest:And once again, dude, I'm telling you, alcohol had a lot to do with it.
Guest:yeah you know you drink not nearly like i used to do yeah i'm like so many of us that spent a bunch of years doing too much party and yeah you know and and i can't imagine you on cocaine dude let me tell you what you think this coffee had me
Guest:I could hover.
Guest:I bet.
Guest:All right.
Guest:And now killer bees, and you come down from the ceiling.
Guest:With no rope.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:Just lower down.
Guest:I did the Tarzan swing without the rope.
Guest:Isn't that amazing that we lived through that shit?
Guest:And you know what, man?
Guest:I think back on it, and I'm just so blessed to have gotten through that with my health.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And with a sense of purpose.
Guest:I was one of these cats that...
Guest:admittedly partied too much was not did not mature as soon as i needed to and that's one of the things you learn about maturity with maturity comes selflessness sure that's say that's what you find out you know so this day and age even though i'm the same persona on stage and the same bone crushing badass and i like to as i say stand on their neck with love yeah
Marc:i'm a much mellower much more giving person off stage well you got it and i think that's part of the the the that happens because of our job i mean you actually you get into this job you're like well i can make my adolescence go to i'm 50 yeah we're not well yeah yeah we don't have to we're not we don't have to to own up to what we do well and also we don't have to wake up you know unless you have to do radio you know you have
Guest:That's right.
Guest:There's people that cover for you.
Guest:Yeah, sure.
Guest:There's a special, you know, we're on planet hotel room.
Guest:Exactly.
Guest:So, so that, you know, that's a learning curve that I had to go through.
Marc:Did you get some religion along the way?
Marc:Because that sounded pretty specific.
Guest:I have been, I have grown up in a, in a Christian family, in a Christian environment.
Guest:Baptist?
Guest:Methodist.
Guest:Uh-huh.
Guest:was a part-time Christian like most of us have been.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Until June the 24th, 2005, both my parents were killed by a drunk driver, Mark.
Guest:After...
Guest:After a life of service, school teacher, police officer, they were going to a family reunion, going through Atlanta, and they were hit by a drunk driver in an 18-wheeler.
Guest:Oh, God.
Guest:Hit eight cars, killed a 23-year-old kid in another vehicle.
Guest:Jesus Christ.
Guest:And so for about a year there, I was in absolute dire straits, dude.
Guest:You know, went went to my doctor.
Guest:He prescribed Xanax, you know, didn't want to go be funny.
Guest:You were angry.
Guest:I was crushed, dude.
Guest:It didn't feel it did not feel appropriate to go be funny and silly.
Marc:Yeah, and you kind of ask those questions, why did this happen?
Guest:Yeah, and how in the hell do I go act like I'm happy and cheerful and heal other people when I am just ripped apart like this?
Guest:So instead of doing it the way a man should do it, suck it up, face it, and heal, I went the doctor route and took the Xanax for a year, which at the end of a year,
Guest:I kind of came out of a fog.
Guest:Well, lost a lot of weight and stuff and was eating that instead of food.
Guest:And after about a year, one day just somehow out of the fog, I went, wait a minute, this is not right.
Guest:I'm killing myself.
Guest:So then I started the process of weaning off of it.
Guest:So then I started the process of just hanging with my next door neighbor.
Guest:uh in mobile who started teaching me about prayer uh-huh bees look man i want to help you we all love you we all know what you what you and they saw the dark cloud the dark cloud hanging over the house and they did man and so that's where i started learning about selflessness and about faith you know and even even if you're not
Guest:a christian if you're not a believer right that's not even the issue no the issue is don't sweat it have faith do your best and take care of the tasks that are at hand right so and also give and also give i read a book called a purpose-driven life and the first words in that damn book say it's not about you joe austin's book
Guest:Yeah, yeah, that was the first words, and it was like a lightning bolt.
Guest:You know, and I'd been running around with my head up my ass being all about me, all fleshy and stupid.
Guest:Fleshy.
Guest:Full of the flesh.
Guest:I'm trying not to say chasing pussy on your podcast.
Guest:You can say whatever you want.
Guest:Because I'm nice.
Guest:Jason Puss is fine.
Guest:Yeah, because I'm a clean ass, you know.
Guest:No, it's cut it loose.
Guest:But you know, dude, I mean, so that's where my healing really started was looking the right direction.
Guest:So that.
Marc:How long did you not perform for?
Guest:Crap, only about three weeks, dude.
Guest:I had to go to work.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Did that help, though?
Guest:And then I was doing the shows under the influence of Xanax.
Guest:Oh.
Guest:So it made no difference.
Guest:A little laid back.
Guest:The Xanax flatlines you, and you don't face the emotional hurt until you get done with it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So now, a year later, I have to kind of go through the grief again.
Guest:Well, see, I like hearing stories like that.
Marc:So your neighbors, did you know them well?
Yeah.
Guest:i i knew the guy pretty well we had kind of gone into business together on a comedy club back decades ago you know and this and that and whatnot and then lo and behold he showed up as my next door neighbor and we would just go and sit for hours on his uh porch at night just communing and stuff sure hanging out and and uh
Guest:He taught me these things and he just gave to me like that.
Guest:He was not embarrassed or afraid to go, dude, do you pray a lot?
Guest:Do you know how to, you know, and I told him the truth about things.
Guest:I've always been afraid to pray for success because I thought that was being selfish.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Now I know and am driven to success so I can make a difference.
Guest:You know, that's why we want to.
Marc:Is that how Austin frames it?
Marc:Because there is sort of a new approach towards Christianity in terms of like not being ashamed to pray for success because if your heart's in the right place, it's going to benefit everybody.
Guest:You got to do it for the right reason.
Guest:That is correct.
Guest:And I, growing up selfish.
Guest:And Pussy and Coke in the right reason?
Guest:No, it is not.
Guest:But it was fun though, right?
Guest:Well, duh.
Guest:No, I was a badass.
Guest:I'm on the wall of fame in some places.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:yeah well that no that's interesting to me because like as somebody who you know i wasn't brought up christian i wasn't brought up with much religion but but i do think that once you're handed your ass you know one way or another enough times that you know if you fight if you fight that you've been handed your ass and you're still like no fuck you i don't want my ass you're going to become a clown you know you're going to become a sad isolated angry self-pitying bitter fool
Marc:I agree, dude.
Marc:Totally.
Marc:So like however you get handed your ass and you accept it and say, well, I needed to have my ass handed to me.
Marc:Now, where do I go from here?
Marc:And you start to realize like, well, well, I am who I am.
Marc:These are my limitations.
Marc:I'll become a better person.
Guest:Yep, exactly.
Guest:You know, and that's kind of where my story is.
Guest:went you know yeah went through all that and so uh now these years later after that accident you know i'm pretty healed up and i'm on such a bigger mission yeah than in the old timey days you know way back then it was just have a good set and a good time yeah yeah that was the mission now now it is far reaching you know it's things in my community that
Guest:When I reach a certain level of success, I can help correct.
Marc:Like what?
Guest:Education.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I'm doing a show.
Guest:I mean, dental work.
Guest:I'm doing a show in the Carolinas next week, as a matter of fact, for a foundation that does free dental work for underprivileged kids.
Guest:Healthy Smiles is the name of that particular foundation.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You learn to give of yourself like that.
Guest:I do a lot of charity stuff.
Guest:Speedway Children's Charities, the NASCAR people had me come in and I do stuff for them.
Guest:There's a NASCAR charity?
Guest:Yeah, there's a bunch of them actually.
Guest:A lot of those guys do a lot of stuff for underprivileged kids.
Marc:They make a lot of money and they give back?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Are you a NASCAR fan?
Guest:I'm a NASCAR fan in as much as I've been to a couple of races.
Guest:What's the appeal?
Guest:I think loud noise and wrecks.
Guest:Me having no mechanical skills and not being a car nut, I'm not...
Guest:adam went over i do not have a favorite driver right and all that kind of stuff you know but at the time i was able to get some i was able to get on on a espn uh-huh you know and that kind of stuff so and my wife wanted to go so they would fly us up and put us in the suites to watch that kind of stuff but it's fun but getting to do stuff for the charities is the payoff you know so what what do you what are your hobbies um
Guest:I like shooting pistols.
Guest:I grew up as a competition pistol shooter.
Guest:When Dad was on the police force, he was on their pistol team, and they toured the country and had pistol matches, marksmanship stuff, against other municipalities.
Guest:We found out there was a kids' division.
Guest:So when I was 10 years old, I toured and won money and trophies shooting .38 revolvers, shot until I was 18, was invited to the Olympic trials when I was 14.
Guest:you gotta have good eyes for that shit so i don't shoot as well as i used to oh yeah you know but this was target shooting it was a slow fire precision bullseye match where you shot 10 rounds they're funny looking guns aren't they well now back in those days it was just revolvers because that was before all these tricked out auto loaders were accurized right and uh the the idea was no red dots
Guest:Correct.
Guest:Correct.
Guest:The idea was to shoot at 45 feet and try to get every bullet through the same hole with iron sights.
Guest:And they gave you 10 full minutes to shoot only 10 rounds.
Guest:So you would shoot around, set the gun down, shake your hands out, get your breath back, you know, because it was micro effects.
Guest:Just micro centimeters of difference.
Guest:Is that the way to do it?
Guest:You don't want to pop off three in a row?
Guest:No, you don't.
Guest:You want to take your time, dude, and make sure that you're still fresh and strong.
Guest:Take a big breath in, put about half of it out, and really look at that sight picture and caress that trigger.
Marc:How many times do you get it in the same hole?
Guest:Lots.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Lots.
Guest:I shot perfect scores of hundreds lots of times in these pistol matches.
Guest:No kidding.
Guest:So so I was good.
Guest:My mom was good.
Guest:My mom won the coat firearms regional championship one year.
Guest:So we did that.
Guest:That was a lot of fun to do.
Guest:Tried to be a guitar player, another hobby.
Guest:Yeah, I like playing guitar.
Guest:I know three blues notes, but, dude, I know them at two different dots.
Guest:Oh, yeah, man.
Guest:And I shake the dog out of them, so it's almost like six notes and all.
Guest:That's all you need.
Guest:And while we're talking, even though people at home can't see it, and we'll continue talking while I'm pulling this up, I'm going to show you a picture of my son playing one of my Les Pauls.
Guest:You got some Les Pauls?
Guest:That I got from Gibson.
Guest:The Leonard Skinner band loves me.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:They think I am the bomb, dude.
Guest:And they used to come to my show.
Guest:Get the fuck out of here.
Marc:Before the accident or after?
Marc:Before.
Marc:So you knew the original lineup?
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Oh, fuck.
Guest:Dude, I recorded with them.
Guest:No, which album?
Guest:they i signed with sony music way back no timey days i was on the columbia label yeah and this was when a lot of nascar stuff was going on they were on mca right they go i think they were as a matter of fact and i know when they did the song so anyway so the guys at sony were talking to me about doing this nascar song i go well look i go my buddy ed king the guy that wrote the riff to sweet home alabama he was on the first two albums yeah i go ed king and i he's your friend but yeah yeah we're good buddies we should call him
Guest:He goes, I go, man, Ed King and I want to write this song called Save Up.
Guest:We can make it about racing and put it on that record.
Guest:Based on your hook.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And I go, if the Skinner guys write a racing song, can they be on the record, too, and get their own thing?
Guest:Well, yeah.
Guest:So so I kind of hooked them up with writing the song for that.
Guest:And then they helped me with my save up song.
Guest:And they were my band in the studio on the damn album.
Guest:The original line.
Guest:It says killer bees.
Guest:Well, let me think.
Guest:Alan Collins was not Alan Collins had already died.
Guest:And of course, Ronnie Vance.
Guest:This was post.
Marc:So you didn't know Ronnie.
Guest:Correct.
Guest:Correct.
Marc:I worked with Johnny.
Marc:And Gary.
Marc:You know Gary.
Marc:Gary.
Marc:Leon.
Guest:Leon.
Guest:Billy Powell.
Guest:Bill Powell.
Guest:Didn't he just pass you?
Guest:Yeah, he did.
Guest:He did, as a matter of fact.
Marc:What a great piano player.
Guest:Oh, man, I'm telling you.
Guest:And nobody knows he was a classical player.
Guest:He was a beautiful, flowing, classical player, but did honky-tonk piano in Skinner.
Marc:Those first six albums or so, man.
Marc:I mean, I honestly listened to the fuck out of all of them.
Marc:I listened to Pronounceler and Skinner, Second Helping, Give Me Back My Bullets, the Double Live album.
Marc:I got that.
Marc:And then the one that they released right when they died.
Marc:That was a great album.
Marc:What was that?
Marc:The Street Survivors.
Guest:Street Survivors.
Guest:And the lead guitar stuff, and damn, that smell.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:That is some really good, complicated dual guitars.
Guest:Steve Gaines, right?
Guest:Steve Gaines, yeah.
Guest:Did you know that guy?
Guest:Did not meet Steve, because see, he perished in that crash.
Marc:Right, yeah.
Guest:And while we're still talking, you got to see this picture.
Guest:The story is telling you, Rossington gave me a Les Paul.
Guest:How's he doing?
Guest:Actually, he gave me his.
Guest:He's doing good.
Guest:They're not working as much now.
Marc:But he's sober and shit?
Guest:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:They're all.
Guest:And they were inspirational to me to help me get my act back together.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:Hell, yeah, man.
Guest:What's he like, man?
Guest:Nice guy.
Guest:Humble as hell.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Only get squirrely when it's time to get on stage, which a lot of us are like that.
Marc:I don't even know who's on that lineup anymore.
Guest:Medlock, Ricky Medlock from Blackfoot is playing with them.
Guest:Look at that.
Guest:I got the Santa.
Guest:That's my son playing my Les Paul that has killer bees on the fretboard.
Guest:Oh, look at that.
Guest:Is that a gorgeous guitar, man?
Guest:Yeah, it's not yet.
Guest:If y'all should see it, it's made out of diamonds, gigantic diamonds worth about $14,000.
Guest:No.
Guest:Something like that.
Marc:But that's that flamed maple, right?
Guest:Yeah, but the story on that, Rossington gave me his amp from the Rossington Collins Band.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:The band they formed after the crash and gave me a Les Paul.
Guest:I was going to Nashville to do shows.
Marc:I like that first album.
Marc:That first Garrett Rosington Collins band, that was a good album.
Marc:Boy, Alan Collins, he didn't have good luck, that dude.
Guest:No.
Guest:Oh, no, he did not, because they had those car wrecks.
Guest:He survived the plane wreck, then he had a car wreck, right?
Guest:Which killed his girlfriend.
Guest:That same wreck that crippled him killed his girlfriend.
Guest:Now, was he fucked up?
Guest:As a matter of fact, yeah, I mean, that was bad.
Guest:but i mean drinking yeah don't know yeah don't know man but they but rosington gave me a les paul we were headed to nashville to do some shows and my stuff got stolen somebody broke into the van took our stuff so i got to nashville and i'm doing a radio interview whining my clothes were gone you know hey i gotta be on you know this and that well by the time i got done with the interview the people from the office at the radio station come in with a note called the gibson custom shop
Guest:because they're there in Nashville.
Guest:And so I got in touch with them, and they hooked me up.
Guest:The man, come out here.
Guest:Here, take this Les Paul and just play it, one with a blue quilted top.
Guest:So you're doing a musical act?
Guest:I was thinking about trying to put some blues stuff in my act, but I cannot sing at all.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And...
Guest:And as much as I would love to run out in front of the room and do my Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush impression.
Guest:I don't know who that would work for these days.
Guest:But God bless me for bringing him.
Guest:But, you know, so you have to kind of not.
Guest:Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush.
Guest:So you have to kind of stick to it.
Guest:That's the impression you're going to do.
Guest:Dude, my favorite guitar player lost his damn leg.
Guest:Who?
Guest:Leslie West.
Guest:Oh, that's right.
Guest:He's diabetic.
Guest:Mississippi Queen.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Right.
Guest:So anyway, so the Gibson Custom Shop was, look, man, if you'll get people to register for a free guitar at your shows, we'll build you a new one in the Custom Shop.
Guest:And then after the drawing, we'll give it to you.
Guest:And I go, can I get my name on it?
Guest:And they went, hell yeah.
Guest:So they put my name off.
Guest:My name, Kiddler Beads is on the fretboard of this guitar.
Guest:And, you know, it is hard as hell to play because you're like...
Guest:what dot you know generally the dots but there's no dots i'm like oh i'm like crap what notes the r i'm not good enough to have my name on a guitar you learned your lesson yeah you've been humbled i'm i know it's like it's humorous there's two l's in killer i'm like i'm trying to tell my son put your all right now put the ring finger on the second l
Marc:You know, it's like, God.
Marc:That's hilarious.
Marc:Only people that really know how to play should have their names on guitars.
Guest:No lie, man.
Guest:Because you're just like, crap.
Guest:No dots.
Guest:Shit, I played the K. Damn it, damn it.
Marc:I got a custom shop.
Marc:This one.
Marc:This one here is a... Oh, look at that.
Marc:Well, this is an old... It's a... It's TV Yellow.
Marc:TV Junior, yeah.
Guest:Yeah, because of that color.
Guest:And that yellow color on black and white TVs looked white back then.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Yeah, that's a... I didn't know that.
Marc:Isn't that cool?
Marc:Yeah, that's cool.
Marc:Have you been to that place?
Marc:What the hell is it?
Marc:I was in Nashville at Zanies my first time just a few months ago.
Marc:And I did all right.
Marc:But I went to that amazing four-story guitar shop.
Marc:What's that place?
Marc:Gruen.
Marc:Holy shit.
Guest:Downtown.
Marc:They've got all...
Marc:All the vintage stuff.
Marc:Have you ever been taken up into the vaults up there?
Marc:No, I've not.
Marc:Oh, come on, man.
Marc:I don't even live there.
Marc:And the guy took me up.
Marc:I just told him I was in town playing guitar.
Marc:He brought me up.
Marc:They got like six luthiers on staff.
Marc:Unreal.
Marc:And people were bringing shit.
Marc:They got those old Gibson harp guitars from the early 1900s and shit.
Marc:He was showing me all this kind of stuff.
Guest:I played a fun 64 Strat in there one time.
Guest:Oh, yeah?
Guest:That was real fat and pretty sound.
Guest:They let you play it?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm killer damn bees.
Guest:Come on, Mark.
Guest:God, it's the South.
Guest:Hell, I get free barbecue, dude.
Guest:Where's the best barbecue?
Guest:Memphis Rendezvous.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:A place called the Rendezvous in Memphis has the best barbecue.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Soon, my barbecue is going to be the best because I bought a new smoker for my patio.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Electronic digital smoker with a remote.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:A damn remote.
Guest:You don't have to get off the couch.
Guest:I can sit on my couch and my wife can go, dude, when's that damn chicken going to be ready?
Guest:And I can go one hour, 18 minutes.
Guest:Be quiet.
Guest:I'm watching TV.
Guest:Yeah, I bought it at Sam's Club.
Guest:And generally, when you're walking through Sam's Club, you're just another little sad sack pushing the cart for your wife, you know?
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:But when you've got a damn smoker in there that says wireless, remote, every guy in there is in there high-fiving your fist bumps, man.
Guest:You know, I was cock of the walk, dude.
Guest:I gained about five pounds in my chest.
Guest:I did an extra lap through the store like, man, this is awesome.
Guest:Everybody's like, are you going to cook on that?
Guest:Hell, yeah, I am.
Guest:Did you try it yet?
Guest:Oh, hell, yeah.
Guest:Hell, yeah.
Guest:It's good.
Guest:It does real well, man.
Guest:I want to put some quail on it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:This past weekend, I did a function.
Guest:Can't overcook those, right?
Guest:They say they dry out quick, so I got to be careful.
Guest:I did a function for an outfit called Quail Unlimited.
Guest:Matter of fact, I flew from there to here.
Guest:Do you hunt?
Guest:This past week, I hunted quail with them, and it was like a big safari thing.
Guest:It was an over-and-under Beretta 28-gauge shotgun, which is...
Guest:20 gauge?
Guest:28 gauge.
Guest:That's a newer gauge.
Guest:When I was a kid growing up, there was no such thing as a 28 gauge.
Guest:But that's pretty small BB, right?
Guest:It's a small barrel opening on it.
Guest:You can get different size shot in it.
Guest:You can get big BBs or little ones in it.
Guest:But the circumference diameter of the shell is smaller.
Guest:And the reason they can do that for quail is they have the bird dogs that go in and point them.
Guest:And then when they flush, you're just standing there by them.
Guest:So it is a short range range.
Marc:Well, that's a big trick with quail is getting those BBs out of them.
Marc:You don't want to eat any BBs.
Guest:That is correct.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I actually went, I had a friend whose family's from Montgomery, Alabama.
Marc:And I spent a weekend down there.
Marc:He's actually, his grandfather was a big doctor down there.
Marc:Jackson, the Jackson Hospital in Montgomery.
Marc:Gotcha.
Marc:Is my buddy Devin Jackson's grandfather.
Marc:And we went out and shot some guns and ate some quail.
Marc:I didn't kill any.
Marc:We didn't get any, but they had some already.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:I love shooting guns.
Guest:It's like Zen archery to me.
Guest:Without the archery part.
Marc:How many do you have in your house?
Marc:You got the pistol by the bed or what?
Guest:I got a few dozen, I guess, in the house or something like that.
Marc:Are you preparing for anything?
Guest:I am not, Mark.
Guest:I just love the focus it takes to get your sights lined up and to send the projectile to the proper spot.
Marc:Wouldn't think twice about defending your property, though, right?
Guest:I would think twice about defending property with deadly force.
Guest:I would not think twice about defending my family using lethal force.
Guest:You know what I mean?
Guest:If somebody's ripping off something out of my car, I don't think I would be justified in shooting a gun at them.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, I mean, that's not self-defense.
Guest:To me, there's a finite line there.
Guest:If you're not being threatened, you have no right to use that kind of force unless that is your job.
Marc:Well, that's an interesting thing because you've actually thought about this because some people are like, if you're on my property, you're going down.
Marc:And to me, that's ignorant and stupid.
Marc:And there's a lot of that, though, right?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:yeah yeah and you hear that and i don't you know a lot of those ambulance calls let me say something very cerebral i don't cotton to that so where'd the where'd the catchphrase save up come from well i was in milwaukee wisconsin glad you asked that mark oh good man oh let me real quick the name killer bees let me address that what's your full name my name is truett s beasley jr thanks dad yeah right and the s is silent initial only because we were poor yeah
Guest:Anyway, people called me Bees since I was a little bitty.
Guest:And when I was playing in these little blues bands in Mississippi, I'd run up in front of the band and do a guitar solo.
Guest:And the people that knew me would go, that was Killer Bees.
Guest:And the people that didn't know me would go, thought that was my stage name.
Guest:So-and-so band with Killer Bees on guitar.
Guest:So that's how.
Guest:So you played in bands?
Guest:That's how that happened.
Guest:Yeah, a little garage band.
Guest:I had good vibrato.
Guest:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I had to shake the dog out of a damn thing, but I don't know my chords and scales.
Marc:It wasn't, you know.
Marc:Just all feel.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:yeah yeah yeah do you ever play with ed did ed king ever sit down play with you yeah ed king told me one time he goes because we were doing our little project the little songs we were writing and i'd go stay at his house and then go back home do some come back stay at his house a few more days and we were jamming and i played and he goes oh killer's been practicing and he set his guitar down and he goes bees you are too old to be a rock star uh-huh
Guest:He goes, you already have a career.
Guest:You've got a gig.
Guest:It takes a long time.
Guest:You don't have enough time to be a rock star.
Guest:I mean, actually, stop playing to tell me that, because I was like, wah!
Guest:You're ready.
Guest:That wah-wah pedal, man.
Marc:I was smoking.
Marc:He actually, what?
Marc:He pulled off the road pretty early, right?
Marc:He said he couldn't.
Marc:Wasn't that the story?
Guest:He's got some...
Guest:Some health issues that have slowed him down.
Marc:Because he only did those first two albums.
Marc:And I remember seeing them.
Guest:Well, then he played with them again.
Guest:And when I was doing stuff with them, he was playing with them.
Marc:He wrote the lick for Sweet Home Alabama.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And MCA and Give Me Back My Bullets.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:Because he wasn't even on the picture for Give Me Back My Bullets.
Guest:But he still wrote the stuff.
Guest:I mean, he still wrote so much stuff with them and did things with them.
Guest:Double Trouble.
Guest:That's a good song.
Guest:Yeah, and is such a stylistic player.
Guest:I mean, I've gotten to sit with him and jam and watch him do stuff that's not in the Skinner genre.
Guest:Right.
Guest:And just a phenomenal picture.
Guest:Is he a studio guy down there?
Guest:Phenomenal.
Marc:What does he do?
Guest:He's done some studios.
Guest:He has his own studio.
Marc:But how does a guy like that make a living?
Marc:He's still making money off those Skinner records?
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:Oh, dude, we were sitting in his house one day doing something, and there was a check laying over there, and he went to get some water under it.
Guest:400 grand for Skinner.
Guest:And I don't know how many he gets a year.
Guest:Because he wrote some of the songs.
Guest:He wrote so many songs.
Guest:And look at the movies that they're in.
Guest:You hear Sweet Home Alabama and other stuff all the time, dude.
Marc:In the United States of America, I have to assume that Sweet Home Alabama has played at least 100 times.
Marc:Let's get some of your managers and music guy.
Marc:What do you think?
Guest:At least.
Guest:Probably in the top 100.
Marc:Right.
Guest:Ever, right?
Guest:Right.
Marc:So ASCAP, they get a nickel for that, right?
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:That's all the money right there.
Marc:Just laying in there.
Marc:400 grand.
Marc:Oh, I got a cash.
Marc:Remind me to take that to the bank.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And one time he got a 1959 Les Paul stolen at gunpoint years, decades ago.
Guest:Somebody came in, held a gun on, took his guitar.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:When I was hanging with him, he was sitting one day looking in this Les Paul collector's book, just looking at him crazy.
Guest:crap there's his guitar serial number and everything so he emails this guy tells him the story the guy goes dude come get your guitar i'm giving it back don't pay me you just don't get it and so he went and got it and come back with it you know went to new york and got it brought it back this and that so i was up at his house one day and i go dude can i play that guitar oh yeah
Guest:a 59, true, real-life 59 S. Paul, and got to play it and stuff, and then he put it back in the case, and I went walking by and bumped the case, and the case fell over.
Guest:Not a B. D. If you've got it, it's in the case.
Guest:It's not like a big fault, boom, like that.
Guest:So, that and that.
Guest:The next day, I come back, and I've got one of my guitars in the case, and I set it down, and we're starting to get our stuff ready, and he runs over there and kicks it over.
Guest:Kicks it over, we'll see what it's like, and then just fell out laughing.
Guest:what was the backstory on the guitar and they didn't find out someone stole it never found out who did it or anything like that but i thought it was so awesome that this collector who had paid who knows how much money for that guitar gave it back to him free i thought that was pretty cool okay so wait did we talk about where did save up come from oh save up milwaukee wisconsin i'm a little opening act i'm on stage and everybody what year
Guest:Yikes.
Guest:This was probably 88-ish or something, maybe 85-ish, something like that.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Been in the business about 10 years at the time.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Had you?
Guest:No, not quite.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But I was on stage, and everybody kept saying, dude, you need a call back.
Guest:You need a hook.
Marc:Isn't that weird?
Marc:That was the day for that.
Guest:Keep your eye open.
Guest:You need a hook.
Guest:Be thinking about it.
Guest:So I'm on stage, and I'm doing my little act.
Guest:And I always had this part where I would ask people.
Guest:I'd tell people, I grew up in the great state of Mississippi.
Guest:If you've never been to Mississippi, save up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:go for that second honeymoon take jumper cables get in free yeah so that was the line and i would just do it that one time so i do that and i'm kind of warming the crowd up and there's a couple up front i'm kind of talking to them you know i go do y'all got have kids and the lady goes we have five and the woman in the back yelled save up
Guest:like that and that's when it hit me like holy crap there it is so i did save up about 30 more times in that 15 minute set you know yeah every time it was like bam and that was it right and then it became a catch-all yeah you know you know dude you want to go do something save up yeah because my buddy ryan who's this uh he's about 35 he's coming from date and i said i'm gonna have killer bees on he goes save up
Guest:yeah yeah and nobody ever says save up they go save up like that they have to put the drawl and stretch it out on there now do you wait who are the other guys like you know in the in the southern circuit that that like who did i work with james gregory maybe or what about him wilson is billy worth still working
Guest:The Reverend Billy Wirth.
Guest:I hadn't seen him in a long time, but he was doing a gig across the street from Zaney's at Douglas Corner, that little bar in Nashville a few years ago.
Guest:I didn't get to go across the street and see him, but...
Marc:I'm middle for him.
Marc:I think I owe him an apology.
Marc:I'll tell you, that's a funny story, man.
Marc:Oh, really?
Marc:Well, yeah, because I was trying to... I did HBO Half Hour 95, so I picked up a gig at Charlie Goodnight's.
Marc:It was the last time I ever worked there, actually.
Marc:And I was just middling, but I really was just focusing on this half-hour comedy special thing.
Marc:And I was kind of an asshole, and I needed to be taken care of because I was here to work out something.
Marc:And he's got that whole piano and all that bullshit on stage.
Marc:I couldn't fucking walk, and I was pissed off already.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And I'm staying at this hotel, right?
Marc:So during the day, I wake up.
Marc:The velvet cloak?
Marc:Something.
Guest:Or the brownstone right there?
Marc:I don't remember.
Marc:I don't remember.
Marc:But all I know is I got high, I smoked some pot in my room, and I got good and high, and I just was going to go out and take a walk, right?
Marc:So I get high, I leave, and I go take a walk.
Marc:And I come back and there's cops and shit around.
Marc:I don't know what happened.
Marc:I go into my room.
Marc:I'm not sure.
Marc:And then I get to the club and Billy says, I had to switch hotels.
Marc:And I'm like, why?
Marc:He goes, because the fucking cops searched my room.
Marc:And I go, what are you talking about?
Marc:And he was sober at the time, right?
Marc:So apparently there was some sort of track meet in town and the chaperone of the track meet, all these kids, teenagers, right?
Marc:And the chaperone of the track meet was in the room next to Billy.
Marc:They smelled my reefer in the hallway.
Marc:And the guy, the chaperone, looks over his balcony into Billy's room, and he's like a vitamin freak and teas and shit.
Marc:Him and his girl, they're all sober and they're clean and they're doing the healthy thing.
Guest:But he looks like a wild biker.
Marc:Right, that's right.
Marc:So this guy thought he was on to the biggest drug bust in the history of Tennessee, calls the cops on Billy, they come shake him down, and he's got nothing, but he's like, fuck that hotel.
Marc:And all along, I know it's my pot that got this guy fucking freaked out, but I didn't cop to it.
Marc:I wouldn't either.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Hell no.
Marc:But I guess I don't really owe him an apology.
Marc:I just always remember like there was that moment where I'm like, wow, that's too bad, man.
Marc:I don't know what the hell that, how the hell that could happen.
Guest:That's one of those things where you look back and go, you know, I would handle that different today.
Guest:Maybe.
Guest:I'd have got outside the room before I fired that up.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or stood under the vent.
Guest:How many times have you almost busted your ass standing on the toilet trying to blow smoke in that little vent?
Marc:There's no way to do it.
Marc:You can't blow the towel trick.
Marc:None of that shit works.
Marc:And now like pots are like, who cares?
Marc:You smell pot everywhere.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Kind of.
Guest:Do you, Mark?
Guest:Out here.
Guest:Maybe not where you live.
Guest:Hey, I burnt one on Hendrix's grave back in old timey days up in Renton, Washington.
Guest:Renton, yeah.
Guest:Renton, right outside of Seattle.
Marc:Where Boeing is.
Marc:So, yep, exactly.
Guest:Matter of fact, you ride past the Boeing plant to get there.
Guest:yeah and you did that out of out of respect i did yeah one of the things you have to do if you're there or at duane almondsgrave in macon oh i've never been there speaking of macon yeah and this is an experience i had flying out here when you fly from mobile alabama to la each leg of the flight you get progressively more beautiful flight attendants really when you fly
Guest:Which airline are you flying in?
Guest:Southwest.
Guest:Those days are over, dude.
Guest:If you fly from Mobile.
Guest:Now, Mobile's airport, dude, the ticket booth is inside a pizza hut.
Guest:No, it's not.
Guest:Yes, and they make you sit in your car to wait for the plane.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Don't you get out of your car until that propeller quits turning.
Guest:Yes, ma'am.
Guest:Here's security in Mobile.
Guest:Are you nice?
Guest:Yes, ma'am.
Guest:You're good.
Guest:Okay.
Guest:That's it right there.
Guest:Save up.
Guest:You're good.
Guest:You're good.
Guest:That's it.
Guest:That's the new one.
Guest:That's the new one, man.
Guest:That's the soon-to-be-released Warner Brothers.
Guest:That's going to be a Warner Brothers project.
Guest:And what are you doing out here?
Guest:i am out here meeting with the people with uh paradigm yeah that's the agency i've got the agent that's got the blue collar guys okay um so we're out talking to the uh tv and movie division and doing showcases at uh the comedy store and the improv tonight uh comedy store tonight tomorrow night improv and comedy store and i'm not sure yet what's going to be on thursday have you been to the store before
Guest:Never.
Guest:Never in my life.
Guest:I've done the improv down there before.
Guest:I've never set foot in a comedy store.
Guest:That's classic, dude.
Guest:Dude, my adrenaline factor has been off the chain this entire trip because this is my first attempt to come out and do this, you know, because I just kind of stayed home.
Marc:How old are you?
Yeah.
Marc:okay whatever yeah so old enough to be a badass okay that's interesting you never you've never been in the comedy store yeah so somebody see those pictures man it's way there's there's more than zanies there's more than zanies and that's a lot that is a lot yeah and uh well fuck man so do you know those blue collar guys
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I've known him for over 20 years.
Guest:We all came up working together.
Guest:I tell you, a strong damn show was when Foxworthy and I were on the same show in a comedy club.
Guest:I remember him.
Guest:Almost too much damn laughter.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I remember him before he did the redneck thing.
Marc:I did one of my first paid weeks, you know, opening for him.
Guest:in albuquerque new mexico he was always good and i'll say this about him too instead of going out and partying and acting like a dumbass he sat down with his notepad and he worked you know those guys and i will say that yeah damn it bastard but i will say that about him dude he worked and acted professional you know and ron white's hilarious yeah oh yeah they all man and and i love everybody who has stuck it out and continued to do it yeah
Guest:You know, that's one of the reasons I'm so tickled to be doing this with you today, because you stuck it out through thick and thin, and you're still here, you know, taking care of the cause, man.
Marc:There's those moments, though, where you're like, okay, so if I don't do this, oh, that's got no options.
Marc:Yeah, that too.
Marc:What does that look like?
Guest:Well, maybe I can play guitar.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:You're going to go from what?
Guest:To the rung lower?
Guest:To the Frank Marino tribute band?
Guest:Yeah, that's right.
Guest:Mahogany Rush tribute band.
Guest:Play my little pentatonix scale.
Guest:I got my pentatonix going.
Guest:I don't use my little finger, though.
Guest:You don't?
Guest:No, that's one of my crippled things.
Guest:But if Django Reinhardt got part of his chopped off, then what the hell?
Marc:You got all the amateur guitar player rationalizations.
Guest:Django only had two.
Guest:Django, let me tell you something.
Guest:Two fingers.
Guest:Let me tell you something about a Wham G-string.
Guest:They're for pussies.
Marc:Yeah, that's right.
Marc:Jerry Garcia was missing a finger on the other hand.
Marc:Who are some of your influences, though?
Marc:Like, you know, I don't know what.
Guest:Guitar playing or comedy?
Marc:No, comedy.
Guest:Steve Martin.
Marc:Okay.
Guest:I always liked Steve Martin because I liked people and still do that are funny anyway, whatever they're doing.
Guest:If he hosted the Tonight Show, he was funny as hell.
Marc:Weren't there some Southern acts, you know, back when you were a kid?
Marc:What was that guy's name?
Marc:Jerry Glower?
Marc:Clower?
Guest:Jerry Clower.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And now Jerry Clower was a great wordsmith.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, and he painted the picture.
Guest:And a lot of us way back in the day would listen to his stuff, not so much because we wanted to hear the farm type humor.
Guest:I never grew up in the country, so I couldn't really identify that.
Guest:But his choice of word, his wordsmithing was pretty good.
Guest:He did.
Guest:And this amazed me because I was ignorant as to what the word meant.
Guest:I'd only heard a negative connotation.
Guest:But he actually did a thing about rattlesnakes and talked about their venom when they milked them as jism coming out.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'd always, you know, all that locker room talk, you know, jazz this, you know.
Guest:And he said that on his, I'm like, oh, my God.
Guest:You know, I'm thinking I'm going to look that up in the dictionary.
Marc:Did you find it?
Guest:So, yeah, yeah.
Guest:I'm like, well, it's a viscous.
Guest:It's a viscous fluid.
Guest:It doesn't have to be a certain color.
Guest:Nope.
Guest:It's got an intention.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:So varying astringencies.
Guest:Oh, really?
Guest:You memorized it.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:I'm well read.
Guest:I'm not well read as far as literary novelists and stuff.
Guest:But as a child, I was an insatiable reader.
Guest:I mean, everything from the thing on the Crest toothpaste to where Crest was proven to be a preventive dentist when using a conscientious program of oral hygiene and regular professional care.
Guest:Why do you remember that?
Guest:Because I just read so much and my brain just retains things that I've read.
Guest:So if it wasn't for that, dude, I mean, two weeks of college, if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have anything to talk about on stage.
Guest:I'd be too stupid.
Guest:You know, I'd be doing stuff about the coon dogs.
Guest:One time these coon dogs, you know.
Guest:So I'm lucky that I read a lot, and it makes me able to communicate to a wider group of people.
Guest:Well, you look great, man.
Guest:Well, thank you, brother.
Guest:Man, I feel good, and I'm pumped up, and it's really...
Guest:it's really invigorating to be at this point in my career with this kind of focus and this kind of momentum.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:You know, thank God I'm not brand new.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You know, that would suck trying to get established, dude.
Marc:If you have hung on this long and you know who you are and you know what you can do and you've got a good team of people working with you that can kind of figure out where you fit in, it's fucking great.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You survived, dude.
Marc:And same to you.
Marc:And that's one of the things that I love about you, man.
Marc:I appreciate it.
Guest:And it's great talking to you.
Guest:Mark Maron, I love you.
Guest:Save up.
Guest:You're good.
Guest:All right, we're good.
Marc:That's our show.
Marc:Glad we got into that Skinner talk.
Marc:That's something I don't talk about.
Marc:That brought me back.
Marc:And also I think I fessed up to something that maybe some of you didn't know about me.
Marc:Yes, I'm a closet Skinner fan.
Marc:Now we know it's out.
Marc:I'm out as a Skinner fan.
Marc:No shame in that.
Marc:No, sir.
Marc:Hope you enjoyed that.
Marc:What else?
Marc:WTFPod.com for all your WTFPod needs.
Marc:Get yourself on the mailing list.
Marc:Pick up the new Coop Hot Rod T-shirt.
Marc:Pick up some merch, some mugs or a poster.
Marc:Kick in a few shekels.
Marc:Get on the mailing list.
Marc:Get the app.
Marc:Holy shit.
Marc:Do whatever you got to do over there.
Marc:Pick up some Just Coffee.
Marc:Pow, look out.
Marc:I just shit my pants, folks.
Marc:It's happening as I speak right now.
Marc:Uh-oh.
Marc:Boomy, come here.
Marc:Boomer, come here, buddy.
Marc:Let's do this.
Marc:Boomy.
Marc:Boomer.
Marc:Come on, man.
Marc:They're going to think you don't exist.
Marc:I want you to show off your new meow.
Marc:God damn it.
Marc:I'm going to be at Bonnaroo.
Marc:I have to take a shower.
Marc:I flew yesterday.
Marc:It's disgusting.
Marc:Oh, my God.
Marc:I just want to claw out of me.
Marc:Coffee's not helping.
Marc:All right.
Marc:I got to go.