Thinking Sideways: Richey Edwards

had been investigating. Boss stars Titus Wolliver as Harry Bosh. Is based on the bestselling novels by Michael Connolly. You can stream season three now on Amazon Prime. That's Bosh. Thinking Sideways brought the idea I don't know stories of things, sim of the answa to well, hey there, and welcome again to another episode of Thinking Sideways. Not just another episode, not just another episode. Welcome to our two hundredth episode based on my math. I think the math is right.

I think it's pretty close. I might be off by one or five. Yeah, we're off a little bit. You get to have another celebration with us. Yeah sweet, yeah, yeah, we've According to my math, this is our two hundredth episode regular regular. You're right, so shorts and holidays and stuff like that don't count. But actually, like our two or something, I don't know. I think about how many episodes that is and it kind of makes me feel old for a long time. It doesn't seem like it's

been that long. Yeah it has. Yeah, sorry I interrupted you. That's okay, I am wait, what's your name? I'm Steve. Oh no, I'm Steve. I'm Steve as always joined by Devon and Joe. And even though it is our two hundred episode, we're not going to break form and we're still going to bring you a mystery because that's what we do every week. H not quite, We're actually gonna do you know, We've I don't know if either of you noticed this, but we've developed this weird little habit

on the big numbered episodes. We do stories about famous people who disappear and so or die. It's like the three role, except not really increments of fifty. Yeah, yes, crazy, yes, So this week we are going to talk about another famous person who in this instance, disappeared, and that is Richie Edwards Richie Edwards and his disappearance is a listeners suggestion from everybody. We've been getting this a lot, so I finally caved. I do real quick though, before we

get into the story and all of that. Trigger warning, this episode deals with some things that you may not be comfortable having a little ears here or if these are triggers for you, We're gonna be talking some about suicide and some about self hurting, so triggers. You're not listening to us anyway, so don't worry about it. But if you are listening and drew on this episode, please make sure to turn it off or save it for another time when it's better for those who of you

who do not know. Richie Edwards was a member of the band Manic Street Preachers. Did you guys ever listen to them? Uh? Not much? No, I'm no, I'm too young for that. I never did either. I've listened to him since, but I had not listened to him. I don't know. I don't know if you know this or not, but it's you can't listen to music that's older than you, So I they can't really Okay that nobody ever told me that? Wow? So what what laws of physics have

we been violated? Okay? Um, well, Richie at the age of twenty seven, he disappeared. It was in and he wasn't actually declared legally dead until two thousand and eight. That's when his his family finally moved forward that with that process. So let's start at the beginning and we'll walk through Richie's story leading up to his disappearance. Richie Edwards grew up in Blackwood, which is Whale in Wales, which is in the United Kingdom for those of you

don't know, South Wales. Yeah, it is south southeast Wales. Yeah yeah, Ballpark, Ish. Now. I don't know why I found this surprising, but it turns out Richie Edwards was a really good student. He did quite well in all of his classes. Because you're a racist, that's right here, I guess, yeah, I hate Welsh people. I actually think that it might just be because of a different stereotype, and that is the rocker stereotype genrest, which is the

rocker stereo o type. You know, the guy who does nothing in school but just plays and plays and plays and plays and plays until one day he's discovered and he makes it big, or until one day he finds himself working at a gas station for the rest of his life. Yeah, well, no, that's not the way the stereotype comes. Well, the other thing about Ritchie too, is that after school and everything, he still read a lot, and he was actually into literature and actually kind of

political history like a learned guy. Yeah. Well yeah, he was yeah, smart guy and read a lot of important books and all kinds of stuff and talked intelligently about them. Yeah. I mean, I mean, let's be fair, though I haven't listened to his music, but was he that good of a musician? So there's there's two ways to split hairs on that. He was not necessarily a good musician. Musician

in terms of being able to play an instrument. He had some other talents that were very, very influential, and we'll talk about those in a bit, But he couldn't play the guitar. No, but he wasn't very good write songs called the Good News Is for All Rock doesn't Matter. Edwards initially started out working for the band as a driver and roadie, and through a process that I'm not completely clear on, he somehow managed to eventually be brought on as a member of the band, well, the band

itself started. It's it's three people. There's three guys in the band, and somehow he became the fourth member, starting out as a road It's just it's weird. I didn't go too deep down the rabbit hole on exactly how he managed that, but he did. He had some singing

and singing and writing talent stuff. Well, and that's that's part of it, because, like we said before, he wasn't very good at playing the guitar, to the point that there's actually a lot of contention that it may not actually be him playing guitar on the albums that they released when he was with the band. And well, apparently I had heard that when they did concerts he had a guitar and he was seen to be playing it, but it was it was almost I was unplugged. There

was apparently a fair amount of that going on. He apparently could also play the piano, but it appears that keyboard was not something this band wanted, so he couldn't rely on that talent. So you've got to wonder, Okay, well, if if he if he's not that good with the the instrument, then why are they keeping him around? And the reason is that he was really good at, as Devin said, promotion, and he was also he was fair.

He was really good with lyrics he wrote. He wrote I think eighty or ninety percent of the lyrics that were on the album that came out the year before he disappeared. He did an awful lot of writing. Was the Holy Bible that's the name of the album that released. I mean I would guess that, you know what. One of the guys in the band said like, oh, hey man, your lyrics are pretty good. Um, do you want to be our writer? And he was like, no, I'll be in your band though, and they're like, okay, why not?

Why not? Yeah? Well, he did good things for the band while he was absolutely so. Let's look at a timeline of Ritchie and Manic Street Preachers up until and shortly after his disappearance. Between the band was touring and they also released two studio albums during that that time frame. This actually all takes place what I'm about to talk about. On the fifteenth of May. Richie gets into an altercation

with a journalist. He's a guy from n m E, which is New Musical Express, which is a magazine that I have not heard of, but apparently was big in the UK at the time, and maybe it's I think it still is around the journalists. Steve Lamock, It's no, that's not me. It's wrong as far as our listeners know that, it's totally not according to the reporting, and this is reported almost exactly the same way every time.

But the quote is that the journalists had quote question the band's authenticity and values and edwards seriousness and commitment to his art end quote. That's kind of an absurd question when you think about it. It is, and what I feel, you know. What's also an absurd response to it is what Edwards did in response to prove how

committed and how serious he was with his art. He apparently at the time was carrying around raised blade in his pocket and he pulled that out and he carved into his forearm for real, the numeral four R E A L that it's not it's not a nice He's actually lucky he did it or two yeah, And apparently that that was eighteen stitches is what it took to fix that. It took only as yes, so he was very lucky. And I think that might have been the harbinger of things to come. Yeah, I kind of went

downhill from there. Huh. It did over time, because you know, as I said, between you know, from one to ninety two to ninety three, the band is touring, the releasing albums, are getting more and more popular, and then in December of ninety three, the their manager, Phil Hall dies of cancer. Apparently that had a significant impact on Edwards. I'm sure it had an impact on all of the guys in the band, but it apparently, you know, he took he didn't take it well, which is you know, I get that.

We move into in the beginning of Nur at the age of either twenty five or twenty six, depending on exactly when he got it, Richie Edwards gets his first apartment or he gets his own apartment. He gets a flat in Cardiff because before that he'd been living with his parents, so he's out on his own, which is awesome. Cardiff Wales, fun town out here. I've I've heard lots of good things about it. Also seen a lot of shows that are supposedly based in it. Their accents are cool. Yeah,

have you ever seen the written language. It's very fascinating. It's like all consonants. In April of the band is touring and they're in Bangkok and a fan comes up to them and gives Richie a set of knives, which he then promptly pulls out and uses to cut a series of horizontal slashes across his chest. I wonder how was he? Was he really a fan or was he like a member of a rival band? I don't think so.

But you know, the weird thing is is the first time I saw that photo, because that photos out there all over the place, he's he's just sitting around smoking a cigarette and having a drink and no shirt on, just you know, blood going down his front. To clarify, because I just realized I had a moment of question, Uh, Richie cut himself with the knives the friend gave him. Yeah, correct, Okay, just appreciation. I love you you you should have this,

and he says sweet slash slash slash okay. I saw the photo and I thought, at first, because it was really pixelated, you how you'll find those scale down ones that Google will blow up. And I thought, wow, he's got this really interesting telephone poll wire tattoo thing on his chest. That's that's interesting, and that I found a better one. I was like, oh god, no, I mean cuts to the chest bleed, they do, but oftentimes I mean there's bone like right there. It doesn't take a

lot to bleed a lot. He cut himself, I would say, about an inch or so above the point of a sternum. So yeah, there's there. That's that's pretty thin. It's not like you could do a whole lot of damage. But it's really it's the fact that he did it, which

is that he did it is crazy. Yes, that's shocking, right, but the fact that he was just kind of like chilling there afterwards, like they're not particularly I mean, he can't be right, but they were probably shallow a little like basically just you know, nicks that we're bleeding a little bit, and that he was just having a cigarette and enjoy you know. So I don't know he apparently Also this is this is when some of his larger

issues begin to develop. I should clarify. Also, I'm not trying to make light of self harm, no, because a decent amount of length through here as we go. Um, but he stopped eating at around that same time, so you know, people say he was anorexic. I don't know. Well, I mean, if you stop eating. Well do you know? And I don't, And so if I get this wrong, I just want to make sure that everybody understands. I

don't know. Is anorexia the act of simply refusing to eat or suspending eating or is it with the intention of losing weight? Yeah? And actually is like, it's actually more than that, and are actually is My understanding of it is is that you have essentially kind of a dysphoria which makes you believe that you're fat eating weight. Yeah, It's an emotional disorder characterized by an obsessive desire to

lose weight and refusing to eat. However, I will say that sometimes it comes along with the desire to die more than the desire to lose weight, Like if you lose your will to live, you lose your will to eat. And he did, and that can also be classified as anorexia, okay, because he was known to suffer from about some depression, so that that would explain it. Thank you. I appreciate

that I wasn't sure. After I had this all a firm of me, I realized I didn't know the actual definition of I mean of that, or at least a good rough disorders like out are hard to classify. They really are. There's all kinds of strange ones out there too. Obviously concerned about Ritchie because these things are going on. The band sends him home. They send him to what is called in all of the reporting farm. I want you,

guys to send me to a health farm. I don't know that you do, because depending on the type that we choose, you may not be too keen on it. Because I had never heard of a health farm, so right to look it up, it might have been one of those special health farms where there's a lot of guys in white coats walking around. I mean, frankly, either of them sounds great. A luxury spa or a place that's focused on helping me improve my diet and helping me get exercise. I kind of need both of those.

So that's that's that's kind of the spectrum of what you just said is the spectrum of what I have read. The health farm is the spectrum that I get is is like you said, it's a luxury spa. Or when I read the description of helping someone with their it and exercise, I sort of read that maybe a bit between the lines, as in, you're forced to take your meals. It is not, you know, voluntary like they're really really I'm gonna use air quotes. You're strongly encouraging you to

eat again. Now again. This is all I guess on my part, I don't know how these work. I just don't know that you may enjoy your time so much because it's not all mud baths and cucumbers on the eyeballs. I'm sure there's a little counseling and involved two. And it might be too. I assume that he wasn't allowed to drink in there might be part of it, and said he might have been getting all those calories through booze and salo didn't feel all that hungry. Yeah, I

know plenty of people who have done that. Yeah. Yeah. And and this this was apparently not the first time he had been to a health farm. This was his third trip actually, so he'd been there for a number of times or a number of trips actually. And the other band was actually remarkably accommodating. They you know, they really were good friends, Richie. I think that's nice. They were.

I think they actually did. You know, we're a lot of bands I think would have kicked him to the curb after the second trip to the health farm, you know, and I guess he missed a lot of shows and stuff. He did, and as we talked about, he he misses a whole bunch through this year. The good news is his guitar was never really plugged in to begin with. Good point, so they really were just losing him on vocals. Yeah, which I mean fair enough, right, that's a that's a

significant loss, but that's kind of important. Let's step forward in time. We're gonna go to July. Richie disappears. He disappears for two days, and when he comes back, he sent for rehab at Priory Hospital for a total term of ten weeks because it was believed that he was

drinking the entire times. He was drunk the whole time, and at the same time, he was self harming, so he was cutting himself, and and his form of cutting himself was hurting himself was not only to take a knife to his forearms or other parts of his body. He was also putting cigarettes out on himself. So he was covered in these self inflicted wounds. That's why he

the band's whoa, we need to go something. I'll probably something a little more serious than just the health for you may be able to help me with this or not. When he was doing his like self harm cutting thing. You know, oftentimes there's self harm and there's attempted suicide, and they are two different things. And so he was self harming. He wasn't trying to kill himself. Yes, he mean maybe he was. It was I think it was doing the cutting. It was a half asked attempt at

at taking his own life, is what it's believe. Because the self harm is not on the wrist like you could see he had cuts from say the elbow down where he was just cutting himself. I would say, I would strongly say that's not a half asked attempt at killing herself. It's it's a self harm. Yes, But but you know, these things escalating. So they knew he was troubled, he had issues, and so they sent him to somebodace

to get help. He himself said that that cutting himself was just a way of taking and taking his focus off of things that were troubling him. But now all of a sudden, you've got something bigger to worry about, your little paint for this cut you just inflicted on yourself, you know, so you're gonna be gonna be thinking so much about this other stuff, and so it's a nice distraction. And I admittedly do not understand that rationale and logic.

I feel for people who take that as a as a way experience that as a way to cope with other things, I don't get it. And if if you do that, please seek help. Yeah, I can tell you it escalates and it's not a good not a good habit from personal experience. Little corner here is that for me, it was always like, um, I like that's like what you felt like you deserved is like you just deserve to be in pain. You don't deserve to be happy,

You don't deserve to have your life going well. And oftentimes I think if I would extrapolate that out, like if things were starting to go well for him with the band and they were, you know, gaining influence and all that stuff, but he had this like deeply troubled

soul of like, you don't deserve that happiness. Then you know that that really can explain some of that escalation and what Yeah, it would make it worse because you would just continue to say like I don't deserve this, there's no you know, like and I deserve to be in pain. I deserve to be miserable. I don't deserve this amazing life that I found myself in. And that can be like a really good mode of escalation there So,

but again, seek help, do hit please. People that listen are our podcasts are by definition, you know, very well balanced. You know people who are who really like to hear about murders, and by definition you are the definition. So they sent Richie to rehab basically like an inpatient rehab, and because he is there, he misses a lot of things. He misses the release of the Holy Bible on the thirty August, which is creative baby. Yes. Uh. He also

misses quite a few shows. Uh. He is able to eventually rejoin the band for some of their shows in the UK, and then they go on a European tour. They go, they are the opening act for another band

called Swede. Everything seems good. It's for the band, I should say, because for Richie things are continuing to maybe things are devolving for him and degrading well, and I can imagine that's also like a tour situation is an enabling situation if you're prone to drug abuse or alcohol abuse, excess and kind of access, and then you know, maybe that drug usage or that alcohol usage leads to your spiral of self harm. Like there's no I mean, that's

it's a hard environment to be in. I'm sure. Oh you know you think that he was doing enough self harm just with all the boozing. You think that you think that would have been enough. And those hangovers, I mean, that's gotta hurt just about as bad as not a bunch of cut it's a that's that's a that's a

slippery slope, sir. And it's a vicious circle. And and you know, and we talked about before that the band really was supportive of him to do whatever he needed to do to make himself, as they would say better there. I've got a quote here from Nicky Wire who he is one of the band members, and he told in an interview this was after Richie's disappearance. He said, we told Ritchie he could do whatever he wanted just right, just come to the studio, just tour, just whatever he

needed to do to feel better. But he still wanted to be in the band end ut. So where as they said take it easy, do what you want ease into things. He dove right back in all the way. He didn't. He didn't ease in or work it in at all, and that that couldn't have helped while they were on tour. Um and this is for their European tour. This is in November. I'm sorry I pause because I just was suddenly thinking about this as I'm reading it.

Is Richie somehow gets ahold of a butcher's knife, and the band finds him with that knife, and he tells them what his plan is, which is his plan is to take the butcher's knife and cut his fingers off so that he does not have to be on stage anymore pretending to play, because he knows well that he has unplugged during every show. And I can only imagine what that would feel like to be up there in

front of screaming crowds mining the whole time. I can see how that would take a toll a long better approach would have been to take guitar lessons rather than cut your fingers off. That's how I would have approached it, but again at differently. Yep, it's it's a it's a it's a motive of approach for it now obviously than the band. The band found him, they stopped him. He did not go through with cutting his fingers off um. He did, however, continue to self harm or self self mutilate.

After a show in Amsterdam on the November, Richie cut himself vertically down his chest, which, according to the reporting, required thirty six stitches to put back together. Which that's a that's a decent sized cot left. He's not nothing, no, but as far as like a chest wound goes, but it's got to be deep enough to require stitches. And you know, I mean, if if I cut myself with an just you know, accidentally flicked myself with a razor blade, I'd probably not again stitches. But it's got to be

deep enough. You know, You've got to go through many layers of skin for him to want to do that. So the point is he does this. They're still on tour and on the third or the first of December, Nikki goes outside of their hotel in Hamburg, Germany and finds Ritchie with his face covered in blood because he's been banging his head against the side of the building. At that point, the band knew there was trouble. They

canceled the rest of the tour. They did what really excellent friends would have done, yes, and they all went home and they took him home. I you know, I think about this case and I think about like Kurt Cobain, and I think about how, like how it makes me sad a little bit because they think if Kurt Cobain had had the kind of like really serious support system that Richie had, like he probably I mean, he may not have, but I think he would have been in

a better situation. So you know, that's always interesting for me. That's a good boy, Yeah, yeah, I mean, and I think that there's a number of That's the hard part with fame and situations like that is it's a lot of people after the fact that have realized how caught up they get in it well, and so they lose touch with all those other things and all those other people. I mean, the manic street street teacher teachers walked away from a ton of money when they walked away from

the rest of their tour. I mean, they forfeit that they may have even been liable for some of the the expenses in cared and they did that because they thought, this is our friend and he needs help. Away from it. At the same time, they were probably their temperates were getting a little shorter with every one of these incidents. They're probably maybe, but they could have just said, Okay, you're out, and they didn't do that. No, but they

were probably at least getting somewhat exasperated. They were supportive, but at the same time they're probably richer. But I like, frankly, if it were like you guys, I would just be like, you guys are gonna lose me a ton of money, So like you just go home. I'm gonna stay here. Yeah, you know, I mean, like that's just that's that's a tip of human behavior. It's it's really admirable the way

that they tried to take care of him. Yeah, I mean, I think they could have gone the way of was a g n R and Axel Guns and Rose and Axel Rose, I mean, Axl Rose was notorious for getting drunk and showing up late, being a total prima donna until eventionally, am I wrong and do either you remember this until eventually they kicked him to the curb. So

you're allowed to listen to it. Yeah, okay, I It's been so long since I've read I just remember him doing stuff like that, but that's that's not important to her story here. So they took him home. To take him home. Everything for the remainder of the month of December seems good. Everything for the month of January seems good. And by that I mean that his friends and family and mates all say that nothing seems wrong. He's relaxing,

he's seeing people. He doesn't seem to be you know, his behavior isn't that he's continuing to get completely blasted drunk and then harm himself. Like maybe he's you know, he's really on the road. He's on the road to recovery, exactly.

The timing on this lab this next bit might have been a little bit too soon, but the Ritchie was and James Bradfield, who is another member of the band that's still around by the way, Oh yeah, no, they're they've still putting out albums there and there's still actually you know, it's really I find admirable is it's still the original three guys and Richie came on. What happens with Richie happens and those three stuck together. They've not

brought on anybody since that I can tell. So it's been the same guys the whole time, and thanks guy. I've heard too that they give a quarter of their money to Richie's family. Other words, the royalties are divided up four ways and Richie's share goes that's great. You know they are well And I don't know if they're still doing that, Joe. I know that up until up until the time that he was declared legally dead, they were still depositing his portion of everything in an account

for him in holding. Yeah, it's a significant amount of money. There's a lot of oh yeah, no, no, many many years of money. So yes. So, like I'm saying, though, is James Bradfield and he they're supposed to go on a promotional tour in America, and Richie had been on the phone with his mom and he had said that he wasn't too excited about the tour and he didn't

really want to go or the promotional tour. But he didn't really want to go, but he's going to do it because he had to kind of kind of approach, which we've all had conversations like that, I don't want to do this, but I'm gonna do it anyway. The pair check into the Embassy hotel on the thirty one of January, James and and Richie and Richie, yes not

not Richie and his mom. Correct. Correct. They are supposed to leave the next day, which is February one, but instead on the first Richie checks out of his room and then makes several hour drive from London to Cardiff. And I am pretty sure that there's so there's a obviously a bunch of embassy hotels all over England, but I'm pretty sure that they would have been flying out of Heathrow. They were saying, like the embassy at the

airport or by water or something like that. I can't remember now that's fine, I mean it doesn't probably don't need to know exactly where, but it was London. I was in the London area. So he makes a several hour drive from there back to his flattened Cardiff. When he did left, he took his wallet and his passport and his car keys. Um. I think they said that he left behind. I can't remember if he took or

left behind some prozac. And he also took with him twenty eight hundred pounds which he had been slowly collecting theoretically in preparation for this trip to America. He was because he was he was going to the A T M and getting two hundred pounds a day because that was his limit. So theoretically he was taking it where he's getting it all in in prep for the trip. You know, he's gonna converted to the US dollars. A little walking around money. Not a bad idea, yeah, Bradfield,

I mean, he had no choice. He had to go. So he got on the plane and he went to America. And he said he hoped that Richie would just, you know, come with senses and show up. It sounds like Richie kind of did that sometimes. It was a bit flighty at times. He just like wander off and then be like, oh here I am. Yeah. On the next day, which would be the second of February, the Manic Street Preachers manager files missing person's report. From that point on, things

get a heck of a lot harder to track. They're not nearly as exact as a lot of what we've talked about so far. After the second supposedly, Ritchie was spotted in the passport office in Newport, which is in Wales. Uh, it's bad, it's east of Cardiff. I want it looks like it's about an hour or so drive maybe away, but he supposedly spotted there. He's also said to have been spotted by a fan at the Newport bus station and then so those are two fan sightings or regular sightings.

And there's also there's a taxi driver that pops up in this and we're gonna talk about him now and

again later. But the short version of the taxi driver is that on the seventh of February, he says he picked up a man who he believed was Ritchie from the King's Hotel in Newport and then drove him around the area for what sounds like at least an hour, and people say that he was probably taking it if it was Richie, taking him to see his old haunts in neighborhoods and stuff like that, before the driver eventually dropped him off at the Severn Service station, at which

point the passenger pays the sixty eight pound fair in cash. Now, I find some issues with that destination, but we're gonna talk about that in theory. So we're gonna hold off on the cab driver portion till then. Okay, And by the way, that the seven service station is arrest area, correct, and we're we're gonna go into some more detail on that as well, because it plays into some of the local things that are around in the area where the

last belief sightings are. Actually, we're gonna talk about it right now. Okay, Ritchie's Vauxhall Cavalier. It arrived at that at that same service station, the seven service station, on the fourteenth of February, and the Vauxhall Cavaliers a car. It is a car. It was reported as abandoned on the seventeenth of February. By the way, there's a there's a several hour parking limit at this station, which is why after three days they consider it abandoned. And then

it was it was collected by the police. You know, they took it, they towed it. Sorry, I just looked up what a Vauxhall Cavalier looks like, thinking like, oh, this is gonna be some like super cool car, and it's like a crappy letl like, it's it's not a fancy car. No, not at all. It's like what you're driving high school something like that. Sorry I interrupted. Okay, it's okay, okay, let's let's explain. Because Joe actually had started on this route, and then I shut him down

much too quickly, and I apologize for that. Is we're going to talk about what the Severn service station is because here in the US, we're all used to rest stops which have hopefully working restrooms at them. Well, and if you're also lucky, they might have vending machines for you know, snacks and drinks, and those may or may not exist or may or may not work. The ones in the Midwest are pretty nice. Sometimes they even have like, oh, I don't remember what they even call them. They call

them like sky ramps or something like that. And you like exit and you park, and it's like a couple of restaurants and a service station and like blah, you've never seen them. They're like above, they're like an overpass kind of situation. Okay, that's super cool, but they're few and far between. Okay, in Oregon it's yeah. And some places that I've lived and traveled to around the country,

I've always just seen the basics. You're lucky. If there is somebody selling coffee for donations, kind of call that crack coffee. I do have to say that that what do you got? Those things are wonderful. Especially I am happy to stop and deal with the scheezy guy. I'm not going to complain too much. Yeah, okay, So in the in the UK there maybe not like that. They're

not like that because I've been to them. So what they are instead is much like you talked about in the Midwest, where there will be a restaurant or two or three, sometimes in the same building. Sometimes they're not. Sometimes there's even a you know, a shop or two selling chatsky from the local area. You know, look at the such and such and such and get it on

a key ring. I mean, like there's things, and it's it's likely to be populated by, if nobody else, some Lory drivers and the employees at the location, so it's it's not a desert like we're used to. Well, that's part of the reason that they they're really they're kind of well monitored. Typically. I know they're not all I read some of the reviews of different stations that I

get that they are not all the same. But there's gonna be people there and that's why they are really able to do a good job of monitoring cars when they when they're there, because people are coming in and out, and they want to make sure that nobody's squatting or camping at that location because that's rarely allowed. Hopefully. I don't know that. I don't know what every one of

them is like, but that's okay. This particular station though, this the Severn Service station, is next to properly named the Severn Bridge, which crosses can you guess the Severn River? The Severn yea a Severn valley of canyon? It is river Severn, Yes, Severn and Wells's value of death. I forgot. I forgot in in England, it's it's River Severn, not the It's not the Severn River, it's opposite. Everything has

to be a little different every English. I actually bragged people all the time, like did you know that I am completely fluent in reading the Queen's English? And they always look at me like they don't understand the joke? Do you have to read it in her voice? Though? Too? Hi? Do you do? Okay, we're way off track. I can't tell which one of these sounds more like the Queen. I know, it's it's tough, we're really good at it,

but we're way off top. So so here there's a bridge, right, there. Yes, So the point is River Severn flows, it eventually flows into the Bristol Channel, which eventually flows into the ocean, because England is it's his island. Yes, they all kind of well, they're all pretty close to the don't know if you know they're not. But almost every single river who into the ocean eventually a river which goes into the ocean. Exactly. Sorry. Seven bridge a suspension bridge. It's

a pretty big one. Actually it's scott Yeah, it's pretty cool looking and it's a suspension bridge. And it goes from the Bristol side to the Newport side, and Newport is on the north west side of the bridge, and I believe southeast is the Bristol side, and the service station itself is on the southeast end of the bridge. There's a park on the other end, which according to some of the stuff that I've seen on the inn,

it looks pretty nice. But what's important to understand about this is that, and this whole play into our theories is there is something about this particular suspension bridge, as there is with many tall bridges, it attracts people who are wanting to take their own lives. Well, it's probably because there's a really nice parking area at the southeast end of the bridge. Yeah, if they would just move

that thing. No, well, I mean, if you think about it, the deck is a hundred and fifty feet above the water. That's a that's a drop or forty sevens that's a long ways down. Pretty good chance you're not going to survive that. So that's very attractive to someone who's intent is not to survive it. I still say it's a parking So, like I said, they collected his vehicle on the seventeenth of February, and and that's it. From from no point forward on was was any sign of Richie

concretely found nobody. When they found his car, they could tell that it had been lived in for at least several days with burger rappers and stuff like that, and not necessarily not even necessarily by rich food rappers. Food rappers could have been fast food rappers. Anybody could have

moved into his car. The thing that makes people think that probably didn't happen though Joe is that there were Phoe those of his family in there strewn about in the car, which leads people to think that he must have been hanging out sleeping in his car and looking at family reminiscing, but we don't know that for sure. Over the years, Uh, just like with Elvis and any other famous person, there are sightings. There have been sightings of Richie, and he is very well traveled. According to

the sightings. He's been in the Canary Islands, He's been in Goa, India. Uh. He was apparently sited at the library in Newport, which is just a couple of miles away from where he disappeared several years later, So he's all over the map. Seems to be the go to spot for sighted people. Who but seriously, I w who else am I thinking of? It? Seems like I've heard of a couple of other people who disappeared, and we're also spotted and none other than go Yeah. Yeah, it

seems to be the place to go. It does appear to be a popular, popular destination for it disappeared. Yeah, it does. So it's almost time to go into theories. But before we do that, we should probably take a quick break and listen to Richie's last album. So we're going to take a break and we'll be back in about fifty six minutes. Perfect. I cried because I had no shoes, and then I met a man who had no feet, and I said, hey, dude, give me your

shoes and socks if you're not using them. Well, I gotta tell you that really improved things a lot, especially the socks, because it turns out the socks were not just your ordinary socks. They were Bombas, which you probably heard of if you're on the internet, especially for listening to podcasts. Bombas that spelled bomb ass. Bomba's other creation of Randy Goldberg and David Heath, who about four years ago I said they were going to redesign the sock

and they did. They really really thought them well. And frankly, I'm wearing a pair of right now, and I truly am, and they're really good. I've been wearing them all day and that won't feel nearly as bad as socks typically

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go wrong with Bomba's. So go to Bomba's dot com slash Sideways now and you can get off your first order you love the socks, or you get your money back. That's guaranteed. That's bombas dot Com. That's b O M b a s dot Com slash Sideways And we're back. Then does it really matter that he couldn't play the guitar. It's got some good beats, good rhythm. Now, I mean, do you ever see Bono playing the guitar? Yeah, and he has those stupid glasses I don't think can see. Okay,

so we're in theories. We're going to start out with the most prominent theory out there, which is suicide. So from what and there's there's some back history to why

this theory is so such a favorite. From what I've read, Wales was not exactly a prospering place in the eighties and growing up there really wasn't all that awesome because at eighties into the nineties, because if you remember back, there's Margaret Thatcher and she did she did some things where she reorganized industry, specifically coal mines, and that that really closed down the economy to a lot of people, and it had some pretty negative impacts for a lot

of blue collar workers. And so there was a lot of families who were you know, shortage on food, shortage on money, unemployment for years on end. Like it didn't do good things in Wales was not one of those places that got off scott free. It went for just like everybody what they were scott free. If you want to Scotch you went to Scotland. That I would say. I spent a lot of time in Wales, and it's a it's a beautiful little country. I like Whales a lot.

But the country is made of slate, which means that most of the houses abilities are also made of gray slate, which is very picturesque on a sunny day, but on a cloudy, rainy day it can be kind of just a little bit gray. And they have so many of them, they have a lot of them. Yeah, but yeah, I mean even then there's a certain beauty to it, but it's definitely more depressing than a sunny day in Wales for sure. Oh yeah, no, I mean we live in a town where it's cloudy and rainy for months and

months Onunday and I get it. But imagine living in the same town and all the buildings and houses are gray. Yeah, that's really yeah, that's that's a that's a very good point. And by the way, Wales, don't be it, don't be upset. I still like your country a lot. Yeah, it's very picturesque. Now. Like a lot of creatives, Richie was able to take the things that he went through in his life and turn them into his music. I mean, that's how That's something that he drew upon to make his lyrics. So

there's a positive in this negative. Um, he's not the only one that did it from the coal strikes stuff. So for anybody who knows Chumbawamba, they their their hit tub Thumping, and that is also based on what happened in the coal industry. I get knocked down again. You're never going to keep me down. That was like my favorite. That was one of the first albums I ever bought. I love that album. That is fun The rest of

the album really good. Yeah. I Actually it's funny is that when I was when I was doing my research, I turned that on when I came across that this bit, which I've known for a while I was like, oh, yeah, I should listen to it, thinking well, I'll just keep reading this, and I found it was impossible to do while it was playing You Got you Gotta sing along? Well, no, I just said to posit. Okay, I did that instead, because it's in the office. I gotta, I gotta, like,

I gotta listen to this song. It's and too long as I've heard that, I will serenade you later. Okay, we'll pull it up on on whatever website we need to. So the thing is like we talked about before. So there's that. And then Richie he had been experiencing depression for many years and he was very open about it. He didn't hide it away, and I to a degree, I believe that might be one of the things that drew some people to him, as he was open about it.

He talked openly about I'm going through this thing and this is what it is, and I'm going to deal with it, which he was at least at the end he was on prozac. Have some podcaster friends who attribute their success greatly to being able to be open about the issues that they have gone through them. So I mean, that's that's absolutely accurate. I think people like to connect

with people who are going through similar things. So there's a quote here, um which which I will give, which is something that Richie Gosh, when did he I don't remember when he said this. This was in the last year or so before he died, if I am correct, And it is quote by the way before. Actually it's him talking about his thoughts on suicide, because that's the theory we're in. And he says in terms of the S word that does not enter my mind. It never has done in terms of an attempt because I am

stronger than that. I might be a weak person, but I can take pain unquote. Yeah, that comes back to kind of my the thing I was talking about earlier with this self harm versus like attempted suicide, and that it does sound like to me that he may have driven himself to his rock bottom through another route. Yeah, but I mean it also sounds like he wasn't self harming to be killing himself. He was self harming to experience that pain in his life for whatever reason. And

so you know, I mean, that's that's not uncommon. It's not uncommon for people to self harm and have no thought of suicide. Yeah, I don't. I'm not even sure how much of a correlation there is between the two, to be I don't believe that the experts there might be really no correlation as far as I know, Yeah, yeah, I I I don't know how much of it is the cyclical nature of things, the escalation, like we've talked about in a lot of different things. I honestly don't know.

I would think that if you're that that, at that point, in that space where you're harming yourself, you would probably statistically be a little more likely to commit suicide than the average person, probably probably, But beyond that, I'm not so sure that it's a strong correlation. Um So, so there's that, that's he that's there's his stance on suicide and what he said, and maybe he was just putting up airs and he was not as strong as he thought.

One other thing that people point to is the lyrics for the Holy Bible. People say that the lyrics on that album were actually Richie Edwards suici note because there was no actually there was no physical note. You know, you always see the note pinned left somewhere that it was his opus to his life. Correct that, and he had also apparently for like six months, he had been collecting works that he found important, and he had him in a three ring binder, and he had been organizing

it and copying this stuff. And then he went and made copies of all of it and gave it to the other three members of the band, like it was a really big important thing that he had been working on for six months, which is coincidentally, once he gave it to them, it wasn't very long after that that he disappeared, that along with the lyrics on the album, it would be interesting. Well, but that's the trick I mean, is that it was important to him before he disappeared.

Like it doesn't mean that he killed himself or doesn't mean that he was preparing to leave for a different I mean, like they equally plausible he could have said. Mean they could have been a sign of this is all this literature. I want you to have this, all this great material. Yeah, I gotta leave the band, not to kill myself or not to start in your life. But I think, what are you getting at, Devin Craim, I'm going to leave the band. No, I'm just saying.

He was just saying goodbye, And he could have been saying goodbye, like I'm I'm about to go to America or the you know, Galopcos Islands or wherever and you know, be there, or I'm going to kill myself and this is the last time. I mean it's to me, all that says is he was preparing to say goodbye and

like leave something for them. Yeah, it doesn't necessarily mean to me that he killed himself or you didn't know well, And there is some of that that typical goodbye behavior in his actions during the month of January, because he does go see a lot of his family during that time. So people said, well he was he was doing his final goodbyes. There's the whole thing with the trip with the that's supposedly on the seventh of February. There's the

cab driver. Okay, so there's a lot of problem. Well, yeah, because the cab driver says he picks him up at this hotel in Newport and drives him all over and then drops him off at the seven service station, which I have two questions. One, okay, so where's his car and when did this this guy come forward? And I'm pretty sure that this guy didn't the day he's made

this sighting come forward. I'm sure a week or seven later he saw something in the news when oh I picked that blowup in my cab blah blah blah blah blah. Well even more than that, he dropped him off on a station where his car might have been. So why didn't Richie just drive himself on this reminiscing Like why did he spend all the money and potentially you know, exposing why why? Why? Yeah, I didn't he just drive himself?

Hard to say maybe somebody was using his car or car Well, yeah, okay, I mean yeah, there's there's all kinds of weird things. So I really, well, I'm not immediately ready to discount some of the sightings prior, the ones that happened prior to the whole cabs situation. I'm

willing to just throw out entirely to kill. But also, I mean, it's probably worth mentioning that Richie is not like a crazy unique looking He's not nondescript, but it's not like there's something about him where you would immediate look at him and be like, it's not like foot seven with blue hair. Yeah, he's not even that. I mean, you know, he's kind of an average looking dude, and yeah, certainly,

you know, for performances and stuff. He put on the makeup and did the whole show, but without the makeup and just as a normal person, Like he just kind of looked like an ormal person. Especiating how many cavies listening to the manic street Preachers. Yeah, yeah, I really think this is all boils down to newspaper coverage of

the story. But the Daily Mail, the Daily Mail, so that that really, you know, the proximity to the bridge, which is a notorious place for people to commit suicide from, along with the stuff we talked about there, that is the sum total of what I've got for the suicide theory. We do actually have two more theories to go though, so we're not completely done. Okay, let's go to the next one, which is he ran away to start an entirely new life. I mean, why not? I want this

to be the actually what it is? This is the one, right, this is whenever we do disappearances, were like, and this is the one I wanted to be, Yes, but we don't think it is. Uh, I'm not particular case. Well, and before we went to the break, we talked about the fact that There were all kinds of sightings of Ritchie, and most of them, of course in the We're all happened in the first couple of years, when the story

was rather fresh. Those sightings are always fueled by the idea that he left, and I have to believe that will think that Richie Edwards left the band and fame because he simply could not take the rock and roll lifestyle anymore and what it was doing to him mentally and physically. He had to get away. I mean, that's

that's what this whole thing is always about. There are a few things that make it plausible, first of which is the location of where they found his car, which is at the seven service station, which is on the M forty eight, which is a spur of the M four,

which is a giant, major thorough highway. So it could he could very easily have stopped there and dumped his car and call the cab thumbed ride walked away, even like there's a whole bunch of ways to to then go over to a bus station and catch a bus away, Like there's a whole bunch of ways he could have

left on his own under his own power. While the you know, like we said, while the Manu Street Preachers were popular, not all that unique of an individual in appearance, so also like we're popular, but well, I need I've never ever had somebody be like, your voice sounds kind of familiar. I mean, like Joe has such a distinctive voice, and that's never happened to you, right, Like, nobody's ever come up to you and been like, hey, sorry, you have a very distinctive voice. Like that doesn't mean that

did happen took once. But I mean I have friends who are on things and I you know, I'm out with them and sometimes they get like super mob recognized

and other times they don't. It's just kind of like it's'd be easy, especially if you have your aesthetic again with like the makeup and all that stuff, and if he's wearing a ball cap and regular everyday close, he's not going to stand at any way shape or for the other thing is that we talked about this before, is that supposedly Richie had on him twenty eight hundred pounds because he did yeah, even pulling money. He've been pulling money out of his bank account, hundred pounds inspendable cash.

According to his sister, she says that he was taking that money out because his intention was to buy and pay for a desk for his his flattened cardiff. Now there's some problems with that. First of which is there's no record of him ever having paid for that, so the order doesn't you know, she says this, but there's no accounting of any store saying yeah we had that,

or that's what he told her. Right. The other problem is is that you know, I mean, there's there's no receipt, there's nothing like that, And he could have he could have been pulling it out and spending it every day, or he could have just been holding away and hanging on to it. Yeah, Britain is actually kind of expensive, so you know, I could see he could go to a well, actually it desfinitely cost half of what he

had taken out. Four hundred pounds, Yeah, but there were many fourteen How do you can breeze through that pretty damn quick? You You could burn through it if you were not being frugal about your money, you could go through it very fast. You know. That's not that I mean, it's not that much money. It's not that much money, but it's it's not nothing to scoff at. I mean I could, if I was careful about it and I was traveling, I could make that money go for a

decent amount of time. For reference, it's about six thousand dollars today, which again is it nothing, but it's not a lot. If your plan is I'm going to go start a new life somewhere, well, if you're going to start a new life, it had better be in the third world somewhere. But but okay, So if you remember, though, one of the sightings of Richie Edwards was at a passport office, so he could have been there to get a air quotes here new passport. Maybe he was had

falsified a bunch of freaking documents. I don't know. That's that's what this theory. It's why people like this because it's so easy to say, wait, he went to the passport office. He then dumped his car and with his

new passport, he got out of the country. Yeah, I wanted to be on the Galoppa, was with the tortoises or or the Canary Islands with the don't know that that's what I want to But also I don't uh, well, you know what, I don't want to believe is the final theory that Okay, wait, actually we're not quite done with this, this little start of new life thing. Well, one of the things, as we noted at the beginning of the episode, this uh story has been suggested quite

a few times by quite a lot of people. And I've looked into Richie's story before, and I had always assumed that Richie killed himself because and but until but this time around, since we detarted to actually talk about it, I looked into his life a little bit more. And one of the things I noted about him, you know, as we said earlier, he was very much in the literature and one of his favorite authors was was a

French author, French poet named author Rambo. I Don'm sure you guys have heard of Rambo was, Yeah, Rambo was broken the poetry scene in the late nineteen century at the young age of about thirteen fourteen. Was a huge sensation. Uh totally like revolutionized poetry and lived a crazy life in many ways similar to Ritchie's, a little little kind

of self destructive. After five years, about age nineteen, he gave up the poetry stuff and traveled the world and traveled all over Asia and the Middle East, and Africa and eventually took up residents in Harar, Abyssinia, which we

now call Ethiopia today. So essentially he essentially disappeared. There's a there's a famous story out there about a Frenchman who actually used to know him, was on a ferry with a with a British not he was a Dutch guy, excuse me, who actually ran an import export business, and and the Dutch guy says, oh, I have a French guy working for me. His name is Arthur Rombo. And the French guy was a gog because well I met Rambo.

I went to the same school as him. And by the way, everybody thinks he's dead because but no, he was living and her are Ethiopia than Abyssinia. Basically trading and coffee beans and elephant ivory and guns. He was. He was an arms street. He was an armstealer. Interesting the guy goes from being a poet to being an arms stealer after after reading about Ritchie and how fascinated

Richie was with Rambo and also the other one. Another interesting thing about him is is the ark of their careers five years both of them before they checked out. And so again this doesn't prove anything, yeah, because I

mean again, it's like it is. I mean, it's a similar thing with like the Asha degree or Asia degree case, where we were like, well, she did read that book where they went on an adventure, and so maybe she I mean, you know, we I think this is a common thing to do with disappearances like this, and I'm not not to discredit it, right, but I think it is pretty common for us to kind of like reach for those straws of like, well, this person like this author,

like I I like some authors that if I disappeared, people could be like, oh yeah, and she liked this author, so clearly she went off to emulate that life if I disappear. It's yeah there, yeah, No. There's a big difference though, and that is Asia read this book and

then disappeared. It's like it's not like she had been reading the book for years and years and years or reading other books by this author and again but then't there one there was another one that we I feel like, this is just something we've talked about a couple of times, I think, but two d episodes later, we've probably said every one of these words at least four times. This exact same order, probably even yea true that. But the thing about Rambo is that is that his story was

not fiction. It wasn't a kid's fantasy. This guy actually lived in real life. And the thing about Rambo is that his life after he left literary scene in France and one abroad. I'm sure in some ways it was harder, but his life was a lot more interesting. He actually a comp a lot more cool stuff after he dropped out of society, disappeared. He was that he explored hitherto unexplored places. He was only the third white man ever to even set foot the town in the city of Harror,

where he established himself as a successful businessman. I can see where if you're all in despair about your life and everything, you said, well, I can go jump off a bridge and kill myself or leave the bourgeois like or why not just go to Why don't just go to the ends of the earth and start over, And if it truly sucks, that, don't kill myself. You know, I'm not totally convinced, But all the saying is I would like to interview his family and make them bring

out their passports. I want to look at their stamps. I want to see where they've been going. But yeah, again, and and the coincidence of it all five years, both of them, I got to wonder, just a little convenient, I'll give you that. Okay, okay, So what's this horrible last theory? This horrible last theory like that the one? This is the one that I say w T too. So um, yeah, I was. I was really kind of surprised by this because this theory is that Richie was

knocked off by the New World Order. Basically, yeah, the basics of it art that, uh, the n W took him out because he he knew too much and he was trying to warn the world about what the WO was doing through his lyrics. Did you did you find this theory on a website that had like a black

background with like lashing normal bs? Ok? Yeah, So so according to this theory, an example of what Richie was doing and the things that he was bringing forth to people's attention are in the lyrics of the song that he wrote which is on the Holy Bible. And that song is the title is if White America told the truth for one day, it's world would fall apart. I've read the lyrics did your world fall apart? I don't get it, America, I am what did you read it

for an entire day? No, I did not read it for an entire day, but I did read it several times. And I gotta tell you that I don't get it. And the remainder of this theory is really loose. I think it's the best way to say it. Nothing explains how Richie found out about the New World Order, what the real threat was. How did they actually take him out? Did they like throw him off the bridge or shove him off the bridge, or did they throw him in some deep dark hole somewhere and his car for him,

like they planted the car. They didn't throw him off the bridge, kidding, No, don't get your hands dirty that way. Wet work is below them. You know. They tortured him first, try to get to find out what they knew. Probably, But this this is a very cookie theory. And I was re really really surprised to find it out there that reading and interpreting lyrics can lead you to wherever you want to go. What is that website that is out there, Devon, You may remember the name of it.

There's a website out there where people review the lyrics of songs and then give the interpretations of what they say those mean. Does this ring a bell to you? Okay, there was this. I've actually gone to this website because there's songs like I don't understand what what the point is? What are they trying to say? Like I hear the words, I don't get the meaning. It's fun. It also doesn't work because you get seven hundred different interpretations of what

that actually means. I mean, that song is just a criticism of the kind of weird corporate American lifestyle it see, and the other the other person said that it is a celebration of wholesome white America and it's what we should strive to No, I'm kidding, but it just said

it's super easy. I mean, like all you have to do is like kind of look at the lyrics and he's just like it's big Mac and it's politics of the time, and I mean, yeah, it's it's very just joining it is, yeah, because he's not trying to say something right, because that's what I'm like, I don't think

that this actually does what this theory says. It's the post, but you gotta understand, I mean I see this in our politics all the time, and I hear people saying stuff that makes utterly no sense to me, but I know it makes sense to them. It's just said, well, they live in a different world than I do, which again is like fine, but off of one song, you're going to kill a man because he knows too much.

He said other stuff too about the New World But the fascinating thing about the New World Order is it's more than any other any other conspiracy theory. It's kind of a roar shock blood conspiracy theory. It, I mean, at least the lizard people they yeah, but the New World Order. But which basically, by the way, new World Order was a throwaway phrase in a George H. W. Bush speech that he gave, like, you know, right after the collapse of the Soviet Union. It wasn't that, Senior,

not junior? Yeah, Senior, Yeah, George Bush, senior Bush. And it's amazing after after hearing him say that so many years ago, how many people ran with that. People, people of all stripes too, you know, interpreted all kinds of different ways, every one of them. Sinister. Well, here's these Here's what I know about the New World Order is that I don't think they killed him, because we did discover the truth about the Denver International Airport and we

are still alive. Well, somebody is still doing the podcast. I hate to admit this right now to both of you because I'm actually in the higher program than the pair of you. But we are all a eyes and we are all pre programmed, and they have just emulated our voices pretty much. Yeah, which is why this podcast will go on indefinitely. So and by the way, and by the way, up yours, you're the subroutine, not me, I just the observer server. All right. Well, well that's

all I've got for Richie. Ever, do you guys have any other bits or bubbles on the start? I'm still saying if I were, I'm not going to close it until somebody has gone to Hurraar, Ethiopia and and how to look see it. I see if Richie living there. I deeply believe he's somewhere tropical and living his life, his best life. Happy. Okay, he's a tortoise farmer. Okay, doak Well, none of the white van that is observing us has left. We're going to give people the important

information because they can't hear it. First off, you probably want to know where to find any details the research bits about the episode, because we always put up some of our research that will all be along with this episode and all pasted in future episodes on our website. The website is Thinking Sideways podcast dot com. On the right hand side of our website, you're also going to see links to merchandise. We've got red Bubble and Zazzle for sure, words and coffee mugs and all kinds of

fun stuff. That's all there. By the way, We've got a more it's not totally new, but we gotta put out a new shirt design recently. Yes, yes, we did the word design. Yeah, we got the word now. But it's it's pretty really popular. Yeah, people are liking it. We are going to be totally accessible on social media, so we were on Facebook with the Facebook page and the Facebook group. We are on Twitter at Thinking Sideways

without the G in the middle Twitter's character limit. We have a subreddit as well, and if you want to get a hold of us directly, we have the email address, so you can send us an email at Thinking Sideways Podcast at gmail dot com. Episode suggestions, questions, praise, you know, whatever you want, like send it through to us criticism that okay, and then maybe not. Yeah, well you can find us the mode criticism put attention devon again. That's a big line. You can find us for download and

subscription just about anywhere. So of course a lot of people use iTunes or Stitcher or any other place that you find good podcasts or quality podcasts. That we're going to be there, fine podcast. She likes the word fine. I don't like the word fine because everything is fine, fine, like a fine wine. I'm not fine, it's fine, okay, got it all right, So we are aged at this point, we get well aged. Yes, I okay, Well that is

all that we have got ladies in German. So we're going to go ahead and close this one up and we will talk to you next week. And I staring at each other scene who's going to go first? Go ahead? Okay? Now I drumroll please, Yeah, I say, go to the ends of the earth. You'll find Ritchie. Yeah. Here's to another two episodes that to rock on dudes,