The Dave Pasch Podcast - James Roday

You know, one of the things we wanted to accomplish with this podcast was to make it unique by having on guests from the world of sports and entertainment to talk more than just the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL, but of course making that part of a conversation. So when the NFL schedule was released and the podcast was in the works, there was a particular guest that I wanted to get on to talk about the cardinals Week one opponent, the Tennessee Titans. Actor James Rode now known

as James Rode Rodriguez. He stars in the ABC drama A Million Little Things, which debuted in two eighteen and is entering year four in prime time. But Rodda is best known for playing fake psychic Sean Spencer in the TV show Psych, which ran for eight seasons from two thousand and six to two fourteen and still lives on in movie form Psych three This Is Gus is due out this winner. Rode is one of the nation's biggest

Tennessee Titan fans. In fact, if you follow him on Twitter or the Titans for that matter, you will see them retweeting each other constantly. Rode talks about how he became a Titans fan, his thoughts on how far this team can go this season, and where he was during the Music City Miracle January eight, two thousand. Rode also talks about his hit show Psych, his favorite episode, his love for Val Kilmer, and wrestler slash actor John Cena.

Sports as a way of bringing people together, especially in a family. If the game's on, it's a great reason to gather together as a family and root for your favorite team. A good TV show has the same effect. It certainly did for my family. No matter how busy I was my wife three kids were from two thousand and six to twenty fourteen, we always found a way to watch the TV show Psych together and then watch

the reruns over and over again. So if you're looking for a good laugh with obscure references to nineteen eighties music and movies, some cool mysteries, some semi spooks on everything from the Exorcist to werewolves, vampires, and even one flow of The Cuckoo's Nest and The Bachelorette. Do yourself a favor and check out Psych. Now. Here's James Rode

Rodriguez on the Dave Pash Podcast. James, before we started the interview, I talked about a million little things PSYCH and I definitely want to go back and touch on those things. But when I saw the schedule and that the Cardinals were playing the Titans Week one, I knew ILL wanted to have you on because you're such a huge Titans fan. I always see you tweeting about the Titans during the season. I always see the Titans retweeting you. I know you're from San Antonio, so I'm guessing you

were an Oilers fan at some point. Tell me how your fascination with the Titans started. Yeah, man, you're pretty intuitive there. Yeah. I grew up in San Antone. You get to choose between the Cowboys and the Oilers. My entire family were diehard, like obnoxiously die hard. Cowboys fans, so I thought it as an opportunity to piss everybody off and go against the grain. And you know, the laugh was certainly on me for a good chunk of those early years because the Oilers were horrible and the

Cowboys were winning Super Bowls. But it all kind of balanced out as I got into my twenties and and it was really fun to watch the Cowboys suck for a while. And now I have to be honest, it's been so long since they've done anything that it's really not even that satisfying anymore, uh, to watch them, to watch them be crappy. So that's that's what it was.

But then, you know, amidst all of that, I really did come to love that team, to love the Oilers, to love the old Campbell oilers, uh, to truly love the Steve McNair and Eddie George oilers, which which are the team that moved to Tennessee. So it was a really easy decision for me to go with the team when when they moved to to Nashville, because I had no allegiance to the city of Houston. I really love those guys like that was probably the warn moon run and shoot was a fun team to watch, but they

always flamed out in the playoffs. So it was really the Eddie and Steve teams that I think define the franchise for me and now here I am dude, just all these years later have to bleed blue and tighten up every year. Well, they're obviously one of the best teams in the AFC, so you've got a lot to cheer about. Last year, the end was a little bit disappointing in the playoffs against Baltimore. What are your thoughts

on the twenty twenty one season. Are you picking this team to make it out of the AFC because obviously of Kansas City, you got Buffalo, you still have Baltimore. Cleveland's going to be much better. But there are people out there that feel the Titans because of the addition of Julio Jones, the passing attack is better. Yeah, man, I'm cautiously optimistic. I don't think for a playoff team, I don't think our defense could have been much for

us last year. So the idea that we got a couple of new pieces, you know, hopefully can put a little more pressure on the quarterback excites me. We got a couple of new kids in the secondary. It'll be a trial by fire. But if they're as good as advertised, then I feel like we should make improvements on the defensive side of the ball, and then on offense. You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. And we even added Julio. Now I think everybody should probably keep their

Julio expectations in check. This is the thirty two going on thirty three year old Julio who's been banged up. But the good news is he's not having to come in and be the alpha dog, right He gets to come in and take advantage of all the double coverage that A J. Brown's going to see. So it's a long way of saying, yes, the team looks pretty good

on paper. Cannon Hill continues to sort of defy expectations and just get the job done and nobody gives them any respect, and I think that I think that drives him to play even better. But yeah, for me, I think number one, I want to see some improvement on defense, and then I feel like I can say, without sounding like a Homer, we can play with anybody in the FC, no question. Any given Sunday, I'd like us to be there right there with the Chiefs and the Bills at

the end. At the end of the day, your description of Julio sounds a lot like what we're saying here about AJ Green, who's now with the Cardinals after all those years in Cincinnati, thirty two years old, coming off an injury. At one point was one of the best receivers in the NFL. He's been great. James watching camp, he looks like he still has it, And I think if Julio and You've got a J Brown, we've got DeAndre Hopkins out here. So I think there's some similarities

with the teams. Last year, obviously you couldn't go because of COVID. Normally do you try to go to Nashville to go to some Titan games, depending on your schedule and what you're working on. Definitely had a nice streak going there for a while where I probably made it to one home game like seven or eight years in a row. It's been tough in recent years, not just because of the pandemic, but because I can't seem to stop getting jobs that are in Western Canada, So it

does make it tricky. Although this year I have a big fat circle on Titan's Rams in LA because that's a much much easier trip to jam into a weekend and yeah, God willing, I'll I'll be there and we'll we'll win. Do you remember where you were and what was happening during the Music City Miracle. It's one of those you know, it's it's kind of like when Tyson got knocked out by Buster Douglas. It just kind of burned into your into your brain. I just moved to

Los Angeles from New York. I was living with my best friend in an apartment that we had rented but not yet furnished because I was about to start a job on a television show and it all happened pretty quickly, so we kind of rented it side unseen got there, had no furniture because everything was on order, but we did have a TV and we were sitting watching the game on the floor taken out, and when the Music City Miracle happened, we already jumping up and down and

had all this extra real estate because there was no furniture, So we were running around in circles like jumping up and chest butting one another, like just you know, towing the line of some real emotionality and then we proceeded to watch that replay pretty much on a loop for about two weeks because it was it was truly the most amazing sports moment for me in my forty four and a half years. It was just it was incredible.

So you're a couple of years older than Cliff Kingsbury, the head coach here with the Cardinals, who, like you, was born in San Antonio. How familiar with Cliff were you growing up? Because he was a really good high school football player, excellent player at Texas Tech, and now

a head coach in the NFL. Yeah. I had certainly heard of Cliff, and I knew he threw for buckets of yards in that air raid offense, and I was I remember being a little disappointed that, you know, we didn't get to see that translate in the NFL, because I wanted one of those Tech quarterbacks to sort of like prove he's not the system part. Maybe Clip would be that guy. But there's a lot of Texas dudes to put up really gaudy numbers in high school because

Texas just, I mean, football rules Texas. So you know, I when I was in high school, we had guys. I remember, we had a guy at Baylor. He started at Justin high school, which beat us, and then he went to Baylor and he put up big numbers there. His name was Gerard Douglas and we were all just like, yeah, dude, sky's a limit. And see him in the NFL. Nope, just you just never know how it's going to go.

But boy, Texas Texas spits him out. Well, it's interesting because Cliff was on this podcast and I asked him because he coached Baker Mayfield's coaching Kyler Murray. Now but Johnny Manziel, who didn't make it in the NFL, but that's not because of the air Raid. But now you're seeing Patrick Mahomes, who we coached a ta Baker Mayfield, other quarterbacks from that air Raid system having success. And I asked him, hey, if you were playing today, you know,

would would you have made it? He didn't really want to answer that, but I but I agree with you, James. I people I think forget how good of a player

he was at Texas Tech. Yeah, and he was a leader, and you know, he had intangibles, which is obviously a big thing that we probably don't talk enough enough about because every year we watched the combine and we and we listened to all the pundits and it's just all these athletically gifted like freaks, right, But then if you look at the ones that actually stay, have staying power and succeed in the league, and it's because they have

those other things. You know, they know how to lead dudes, they know how to you know, be grace under pressure, you know how to read defenses. It's all it's all the stuff that that you know, you can't really put a price on. But it's always those guys you know that that pop and go on to have great careers. You're also a Spurs fan. Are you as much of a Spurs fan as you are a Titans fan? And who's your favorite Spur of all time? I'll be honest, man,

I got really we're all spoiled with the Spurs. I mean playoffs, I don't know, four hundred and ninety years in a row, five rings. I can't lie and say that I was as hardcore of a Spurs fan growing up as I was an Oilers fan, because I wasn't, but they were certainly my team and it's been incredible to watch them win and watch Pop's legacy unfold and very very grateful as a sports fan to have a franchise that has won some championships, but who I would

probably trade four of those five for one super Bowl. Man, that's the big cahuna, and my first love is always going to be the Oilers and the title favorite Spur of all time. It's really close between Tim and Manum. But I yah, gosh, you don't have to choose man you don't. I don't if you like both the same look they've They've been equally important to the Spur success. It's true. It's true. I also love David just because he was such a gentleman. But I might have to

go Manu. I might have to go Manu. Okay, I you know, I do NBA for ESPN, and the most intimidating thing. A lot of times as the play by play guy, you have a reporter who does the interviews and you've probably seen these, the interviews in between quarters, and Greg Popovich is never in a good mood to do those interviews, and a lot of times I gotta do them if we don't have a report of the play by play guy. Now, if I'm working with Jeff Van Gundhy, I'll ask Jeff, hey, can you just go

do it? Please? So I don't have because he'll be nice to you you're a coach. But I'm telling if there's a Spurs game in LA, I'm gonna say, I'm gonna ask, can we get James Rode to come do the interview with Pump? Dude? I would gladly get my head bitten off by Pop. It would be an honor and a privilege because, you know, beyond you know, his legacy as a coach, which is obviously cemented, I just

have so much respect for Pop the man. You know, the stances that he's taken over the years, how I've spoken, he's been, how he doesn't really care what anybody thinks. He just sort of he knows what he feels right in his heart, and he's always sort of stood by his laurels, and you know, and you kind of sort of see the Pop coaching tree has sort of followed that route as well, because you know, because he's such a great mentor. But yeah, I just what a great

guy for sports period. Look, I know people listening are interested in your takes on the Titans, the NFL, of the Spurs, but they also want to hear about your acting career. A Million Little Things and of course psych Let's start with A Million Little Things in four premiere

September twenty second, you play Gary Mendez. Anything that we can look forward to with season four that you can, any nugget you can throw out there about season four, Yeah, you know, it's having been on another show that that kind of that was that was blessed with a long run. We're we're entering that phase where you really gotta put up or shut up. Like I feel like it's the season, you know, season three and fours of shows that kind of dictate whether they're gonna be able to maintain the

level that they're on or they're gonna start sliding. So I think we all kind of feel that going into season four, and we kinda we just want to kind of blow it out of the box. So we've got some big stuff coming up that should be fun for the cast, fun for our fans. Anybody who actually watches A Million Little Things knows exactly what to expect as a baseline, which is, you know, a bunch of middle aged people making terrible decisions and paying yearly for it.

That'll never change, Uh, it'll be. It'll be as hardcore and and and dramatic and painful as it ever has been. But I do think there's a sense of responsibility of like, hey, let's you know, let's keep the level up. Let's let's push hard um quarterback franchise quarterback, right. I mean, you enter your foy. This is the year. You gotta you gotta win it. This is it and you never know. I mean, TV is such a fickle industry. You just don't know when when the end is going to come.

So you want to make sure that you're l weighing it no matter what. That way, if the plug gets pulled, you know, you left it all on the field. And I think we're all collectively of the same mindset, like, you know, let's do this, let's leave it all out there and then come what may. Psych the TV show ended after a great eight year run, But you're still doing Psych movies? Are you currently filming Psych three? And how's it going? Psych three is in the can. We

had a blast making it earlier this summer. When it will drop is up to the Peacock streaming service, which is a thing that you have to subscribe to, I believe, But offers a free subscription where I think you just have to watch lots and lots of advertisements. But you know, my gut is they usually like to drop Psych around the holidays just because it's blue sky, feel good and people are always together with their families watching TV. So if I had to guess, I would say no November

December for Psych three. But don't quote me on that, because those decisions get made above my favorite YEP. I certainly understand that. And I got a geek out though, man, because like another reason I wanted to have you on because we have mostly athletes and coaches on. We've had Kurt Warner on, You've had Buddha Baker, Cliff Kingsbury, Steve Leavy,

Bryan Greasy, Mena Kimes from ESPN. But like when I, along with the Cardinals came up with the idea for the podcast and trying to get guests from all walks of life to talk sports, I wanted to get you because Psych is It's not only my favorite show because I still watch episodes from ten years ago, but like my kids, and my kids don't get half the jokes. Could half the jokes are from from your air and my air of the eighties. And it's funny because so

I was in Batman Versus Superman Donna Justice. I had a small role that actually got cut out of the movie, but if you watch the Snyder cut, it's it's in there. And I'm a football announcer, so I'm not doing anything different than I normally do. And it was funny man, because Zack Snyder is directing, and he's directing our scene, and he's laughing during our scene while we're doing the scene. And I figured it out after talking to him after. I think because he's used to actors, he's not used

to real broadcast masters, that it made him laugh. He just got a kick out of it. And the reason I'm bringing that up is I'm curious your character, Sean Spencer. How much is James Rode Rodriguez like Sean Spencer. First of all, congratulations for pop in your chair. You're a film star now. It doesn't matter if it ended up on the cutting room floor or not. We all know you were there. Dave, you did it. I have the

pictures to prove it. James, I still lugan. Bill and I were not supposed to take any pictures, but we did. We Henry Caville wouldn't deal with us, but we did it when he wasn't watching. You found the truth. You found the truth in that announcer. He had a life, he left the stamp, and now we all know about it.

As far as Sean goes, you know, I grew up admiring Val Kilmer in a very sort of like hero worship sort of way, and Real Genius for me, was probably one of the seminal films that made me think, hey, I might want to be an actor. So when I read the script for psych I immediately saw it as an opportunity, you know, to pay tribute to Chris Knight in Real Genius, and that's basically what I started doing out of the gate was almost like an homage, almost

like a love letter to that character. And then because we lasted so long and the show went in so many different directions, it's impossible for any character that you play for that long to not start taking on, you know, elements of yourself. That's just sort of it's inevitable. It's

also a lot of fun. I mean, Julie and I were doing sort of bits that were in jokes for just us and putting them on camera because we could if the line becomes a little blurry as it goes along, I would say, you know, no human with any common sense can live their life the way that Sean does. And there was a Peter Pan quality that was always very, very fun to play because we know that in our real lives we have to think about consequences and other

people and responsibility and being pragmatic and practical. So, you know, being able to play chart that didn't think about any of those things was so much fun and probably something frankly never have as much fun doing. Again, the show was so well done. The way they connected you as a child with your dad, Corbyn Burnson, and then fast forwarding to how an incident from your childhood then played out in the whole fake psychic world was just It's just hilarious and so well done, and it's got such

a cult following. You call them psycho, so I guess I'm a psycho. Do you embrace that people connect you with Sean Spencer because you've done so many other things and obviously what you're doing now with a million little things on ABC is completely different from you playing Sean Spencer. I love it, man, That job changed my life. It's also a group of people that that I love deeply that will be in my life forever. We were, We

really did become a family. It's kind of us. It's a cliche when you hear that about any job, but I think the truest version of that is when you kind of the least expected, and lightning is in a bottle and planets a line and something happens and you just never saw it coming. And that's exactly what Psych was. And and for eight seasons, you know, we were we

were living a dream. You know, we were on a fledgling network that was still kind of trying to find an identity, and as a result, we got a really long leash and an opportunity to become what we became, and by today's television standards, that is so rare, so kind of everything had to fall into place. And as a result, you know, if Pike ends up being you know, the job that defines me, hell yeah, I'll take that. It was a pleasure and remains such a pleasure and

a privilege to play that role. And we have the most unbelievable fans, of which you are one that continue to have an appetite for this silliness, and we're happy to keep delivering it as long as we can. Do you have a favorite episode? I can only imagine you've been asked that at nauseum. You know I have, but it kind of changes. I love different episodes for different reasons.

You know. I'll bring up Tuesday to seventeenth because not only was it spoofing one of my favorite genres of movies, which are slasher films from the eighties, it was also the first time I ever stepped behind a camera. It was my directing debut. Everybody was so incredible. Everybody stepped up, brought their a game. It was an experience that I

will never forget for as long as I live. And the fact that it's kind of become a cult classic within a cult show, I think is a testament to what we were able to accomplish on psych So that's my answer for today. Gotcha, man, No, that's a great one.

I want to ask you about working with Corbin Burnson because one of the best sports movies of all time is Major League and he plays Roger Dorn, who's the snobbish, you know, baseball player who used to be great and was a high price guy, but now has fallen in love with the life. What's Corbin Like, I assume you had seen Major League prior to working with him. What was it like to work with him on psych I'd only seen Major League about four hundred times. Welcome to

the club man, Yeah, so I was. I was quoting it left and right, and you realize he probably gets that a lot too, but it was still it was a great ice breaking kind of point for us. And we could bond over to immediately because you know, he's he thinks very fondly of Major League as well. He had a good experience. He and Barringer were really good buddies back then, and so, uh, you know Corbett is

he's a really interesting cat man. Like, yeah, I remember like he was sort of like at the top of the mountain in the eighties, Like he was people's sexiest man alive at one point, um when he was on La Law. And you know, like I said, it's a really fickle industry. Success can be really fleeting here today,

gone tomorrow. But what you have in Corvin Burnson is a guy who just stuck with it man, Like you know, he's the Donnis Haslem of Hollywood, right he just he kept his he kept his nose down, and he just keeps working and working and working. And sometimes it's good stuff. Sometimes it's just work. But he always knew that work but gets work, and that's that's how you stay in

the game. So he's a great presence to have on any film set because of the perspective he can provide and the reminder that, hey, like all of this could be gone in a in a flash, so a make sure you appreciate it. But also, you know, don't be an asshole. And he's also you know, he's kind of a it's kind of a hippie and and it's a really spiritual dude. He's a really interesting guy to sit down and have dinner with because he can go all sorts of places and talk about all kinds of stuff.

And yeah, man, he was a good TV dad for sure. Yeah. Well, you guys had still have great chemistry in the movies, but on the show, just awesome chemistry. You mentioned earlier Val Kilmer, your love for Val Kilmer. I just watched the other night, uh, the documentary Vale, which is really good. You talk about how things can change in a heartbeat, not just for VAL's career, but for his life and what he's dealing with now, basically having to speak after

a tracheotomy, you can't really understand him. And I assume you've already seen the documentary of All the eighty because you had Val kilmeron I mean, jud John Cen is not an eighties guy, but you, Judd Nelson, You have all these eighties movie stars on Psych as special guest. Who is the coolest? And then tell me, if if it wasn't Val, what was it like meeting Val Kilmer

when he was on Psych? Well start with Val, because yes, the documentary I would I would recommend it to anybody, whether you're a Val Kilmer fan or not, just because just the sheer volume of archival footage that he managed to hold onto over the last thirty some odd years is so fascinating because you realize, like there are no iPhones back then, like this young handsome dude was walking around with like an old school of VHS camcorder, like

getting like with tapes, like getting all this incredible stuff and then holding onto it for all these years. So it's a real treat. For that reason alone, it is heartbreaking, But I do think it's it's sort of shed some light on a very complicated artist that we've heard a whole lot of stuff about, some good, some bad, and you just sort of see a portrait of an artist who's never quite been at peace. And I thought it

was really well done. And I was really happy to see the love and reverence that his children have for him, because it's like, no matter what or if he can ever sort of be at peace with his career or what happened to his brother, it's like he's got he's got those two children that he is his whole world, and it was really nice to see them love him back so hard. So that was sort of the aspirational element of it. Meeting Valve was a dream come true.

You know they say never meets your heroes. I'd heard all the stories. It was the We shot two things in the entire run of Psych in Los Angeles. Every thing else we shot was in Vancouver, but twice we shot in LA. The first time was a little piece with one of my best friends, Jimmy Simpson, who played Mary lightly on a video that he had left for

us in the third Yang episode. We shot that in LA and then val was the last thing we shot after this series was wrapped, his little piece we did in Los Angeles, and he could not have been more of a prince like, Yes, he was aware that we adored him. Yes, he was aware that we referenced him more than any other human being over the run of Psych.

But I doubt he had ever seen an episode and he did not have to come and do that, but he did, and he was a sweetheart, and he made himself available and we all just kind of talked and hung out with him for you know, half a day. I have nothing but positive things to say about Val.

It was a wonderful experience. And as far as all of the the eighties callbacks that we did, which at one point kind of became, you know, the crutch of the show, like who can we get on next, I would say, you know, my favorite, it's probably Alice Sheet because we've become very good friends and she's a kook and she's awesome, and that character, you know, became sort of seminal for our show. But Rob Macchio is also a hell of a guy and a lot of fun

to hang out with. And Billy Zavka, to keep it on topic, is also a hell of a guy and a lot of fun to hang out with the two guys from Karate Kid and now Yeah Kaikobra Kai John Cena I mentioned earlier that he was on one of the shows, and before we get you out of here, I just want to ask you, in your connection to wrestling, how big of a wrestling fan you are. Should we be giving wrestling more love as a sport or does

it have its own category? In James Rode Rodriguez's opinion, you know, I was a wrestling nut as a kid, and then it kind of was like not as cool as beer wrestling fan um, you know, when I hit high school, so I kind of kind of drifted away from it, but then found it again on psych because we shared a network with Raw and SmackDown back then on USA, so we would do these cross promotional bits

and promos with some of the talent. And I started watching it again as like a thirty year old man and remembering why I used to dig it so much, and I sort of slowly came back out of the closet and then just sort of said, screw it, I'll be an adult who can get down with some wwe I don't know that they themselves would necessarily call it a sport like it sports entertainment is the is the term they came up with. But for me, it's always

been theater. It's just been it's so theatrical, it's you know, it's scripted. You have good versus evil and everything in between. Um, you know, for for the swath of Americans who who don't think they would like going into a dark theater and watching something like Hamilton, like I Got News, you're watching it every Monday and every Friday on Raw and

SmackDown like you're a theater fan. You just don't realize because that's what wrestling is and that's what that's what it drops into our homes every week and on their pay per views. James, it has been great man. Thanks so much for your time. Appreciate you taking us back talking about psych talking about a million little things, and then of course talking NFL football, your love for the

Titans and hopefully Titans and Cardinals. Maybe they'll play Week one and they'll play in the final game of the season. It would be it would be incredible. I would take that bet in a heartbeat. Let's go Tighten Up, also seen as My Boy Go see all of his twenty nine Movies. Another really good guy. Thanks for the time, thanks for the interest, and let's just hope everybody stays healthy. James, thanks again, man I did man Rode knows his stuff. He is dialed in on the Titans and the NFL.

Interesting too that when he was pressed to name his favorite San Antonio spur that he picked Manu Genobli. If you're a Sons fan listening to this right now, I know it probably makes your skin crawl. But Genoble was

a great, great player. And hearing Rode's story about sitting in an apartment in Los Angeles with no furniture and running around going crazy celebrating the Music City miracle not surprising that somebody that's that passionate about his team, the Tennessee Titans, would remember exactly where he was when that iconic moment went down. It was great here Rode talk about Psych and how he embraces that everybody thinks he's Sean Spencer, and also how similar they are. Psych being

one of my favorite TV shows of all time. Is cool to hear about his favorite episode and what it was like to have Corbyn Burnson, of course, was Roger Dorn in major League as his TV dad. Also his love for Val Kilmer and how he got to finally meet his childhood hero on the set of Psych. Thanks for listening to this edition of the Dave Pash Podcast. Don't Forget the Cardinals and Titans. On Sunday, We'll have another podcast for you next week. You can follow along

on Twitter at pash Pod. We'll update you on upcoming guests and also take a look back at previous guests like Hall of Famer Kurt Warner, Cardinals head coach Cliff Kingsbury, and ESPN's meta chimes Steve Levy and Brian Greasy. We are presented by bet MGM, the official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals and Hila River Hotels and Casinos. Thanks once again for listening to the Dave Pash Podcast. M