His Own Way with John Rich

And what's really cool is he released the song on Truth, Social and Rumble rather than going you know, the traditional route, and guess what, it's sword to number one on the Apple iTunes chart within our So I love the fact he did that. He bypassed the machine and he beat the machine. Also, you know, it's really cool. So he he gives a percentage of all his proceeds from his Redneck Rivereria brand. He's got a bunch of things like you know, barbecue, sauce, whiskey, all these different things. He

gives a percentage of that two folds of honor. How cool is that? I love that he does that. So he's a good dude. He's had you know, tremendous success in his career in country music and a variety of other things. He's got a bar in Nashville as well, so he's done a ton of stuff. Cool guy. We're going to talk to him about his new song and so much more. Stay with us for John Reach Country music star John Ridge. It's such an honor to have

you on the show. I wanted to tell you I really respect your bravery because we really do live in this society where you know, telling you the truth comes at a cost. Uh, so I appreciate the fact that you do that. Well, it's uh at this point, I don't know what what it serves anybody to keep your mouth shut and censor yourself. You know, we speak to truth and if they want to sense to you what,

that's on them. But self censorship, to me, is a real problem in our country that people are so afraid to even even try it because somebody's going to call him a bad name or kick him off of the platform or whatever. Well, that should not be enough of a reason for you to sacrifice your own freedom of speech. And that's kind of the attitude I have, and that that's why I keep coming like I do. Well, I love it, and then that's why I wanted to have

you on. You know, Dave chappelsa that recently, and I love because obviously he gets hit on the trans jokes he tells, and he said, the more you say I can't say something, the more urgent it is for me to say. And I feel like that's where we are right now, right and you get it obviously with the new song that we're going to get into of the fact that now is the time to speak out and now is the time to be bold. Well, can you

imagine if the founding fathers had not spoken out? Can you imagine if you go back and look at the Declaration of Independence and those people that signed that document, they all knew that if the British Empire ever found them, they were gonna hang them, shoot them, burn their houses down, enslave their families, rased them from the history of the earth. That's what they were up against. And they signed it anyway. You old John Hancock, I wish I could have known

that guy. He's like, give me that pen, I'm gonna sign a triple bid, man, I'm gonna make sure they don't miss my name at all. That's the attitude that they had to found the country. Liberty or death was not a hashtag or a bumper sticker, or a T shirt or a ball cap or a website. Liberty or death was the attitude that took to build the country, and they were willing to risk at all for future generations. Well,

who's the future generation? Us? The ones of us talking right now on this podcast, all the people listening to this podcast. It's us that they were doing that for. So who are we to sit here as the benefactors of all the risk that they took to only go You know what, I'm not gonna say it because I might get kicked off at Twitter. I'm not gonna say it because somebody will give me a dirty look at work. I'm not gonna say it because it might hurt my

business a little bit. Really, that's what we're worried about. I think as Americans, we've got to remember whose shoulders were standing on and we need to act like it. I'm so glad you said that, because, I mean, look, I've always loved this country. I've always been proud to be American. But it really kind of took COVID and some of the things that we've been dealing with as a society just to sort of revisit American history and

realize what makes this country great. Realize how precious freedom is, liberty is, and how fleeting it is because I, you know, really before a lot of this stuff, I don't know, I I for whatever reason, thought somehow we were immune to some of this stuff because we are Americans. But but we're not. And we've really seen that. And it's as sad to see. Yeah, and Americans, a lot of

Americans anyway, lack perspective. You know, it's been a long long time since our freedom was actually threatened, which in my opinion was World War Two. That's the last time it was actually threatened. If we hadn't beat Hitler, Mussolini and Imperial Japan, if we would have lost that war, you'd have a very different America today, very different. But they did what they had to do and and and one a war on both sides of the earth simultaneously

to get us to the point we are today. But everybody that's alive today, nobody has any touchstone back to the World War two era. Nobody remembers that. I mean, all of our World War two bets now are in the late nineties hundred. Nobody's around that remembers that, and I think that the complacency has sat in over these over these many decades, with Americans thinking, yeah, we're free and we'll always be free and go America. But what we fail to realize is is there's all kinds of

factions of people. There's international factions, but there's internal factions inside of our country that would really like to see this country come under control. You know, they'd really like to see America have to be on its knee so it has to reach up for help so they can take full control of the most powerful country in the world. That's really the point here, and we've been blind and deaf to it, just rolling on a about our business,

thinking now that's not going on. Nobody would ever do that. Why would you want to mess up America? Nobody want to mess up America. We're the greatest, Well, we are the greatest, but there's a lot of people that to get what they want to see happen, come to fruition. America has got to be down on its knee for that to happen. And I believe that's where we found

ourselves today. And instead of the great reset, I do believe it is a great awakening as scary as it is and as nasty as it is to go through. I think that Americans, from both sides of the political aisle, from all different walks of life, are all experiencing the same pain at the same time. And I said this to the day on Twitter. I said, America is finding

unity in the pain right now. As bad as that is to say, if there's a silver lining to what's going on, Americans are finally waking up and going, hang on a minute, are these people trying to railroad our country? Because it's sure as hell looks like it, and we're going, yeah, I think that's what they're trying to do, and one of us want to see that happen. So it's an interesting time, and even it's the most important time I think right now to be outspoken, to not let them

scare you into submission. Do not take the knee. Uh. They've built their machine. There are ways around their machine. We can still exist and succeed and thrive without using their machines. And as an artist and an entrepreneur guy, that's kind of what I'm out to prove to everybody that it can be done well. And I love that you did that because you did that with this song Progress, and we're gonna play a clip here just in a minute.

But what I love about how you released it is you released it on Truth, Social and Rumble and within hours it's stored to the number one Apple Tunes charts. So you're able to beat the machine and do it your own way. And I love that. I love that you did that way. Yeah, it was. It was a

risky thing to do. I can promise you that had I run that idea by the people I work with, my managers and people, really smart guys, they would have said, yeah, that's not a good way to probably have the most success, John, because think of all the people you're cutting out by not going to Twitter, Facebook or YouTube. But the song says, one of the lines says, they shut down our voices,

they shut down our main street, they shut down our voices. Well, the voices who shut them down, who I'm referring to, are the liberal platforms YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and the like. And I thought, you know, it would be awful hypocritical of me to put a song out like this railing against those platforms, those systems, but then use those same systems to go promote a song. I mean to me, that just seemed like double talk, which I can't stand

people that double talk. Althought, well, I may not have as good a chance of of this thing going to number one, but I'll do it the right way, and hey, you never know, maybe I'll be surprised. And within six hours of launching this song only on True Social and Rumble, within six hours it had displaced Lizzo and Bill the Eilish out of the number one and two spots in progress. And this is with no record label, no marketing funds, nothing,

no industry support whatsoever. In six hours, it's sitting at number one. And I just looked at that and went, holy cal look at that. It's possible. And it kind of speaks to where people are, right because obviously this struck a chord with people. People listen to the song and they said, I feel this, this is how I feel right now, which is why it was able to rise to number one. So, I mean, I think a lot of Americans listened to it. I know I did and said, yeah, I I agree, this is where we are.

You know, Like, does the phrase ding ding ding come into play when you hear that? It does? Also, it was funny when you're talking about how you know, if you ran the idea by your team, they you don't really strike me as the kind of guy, you know, even if they're like, hey, John, this isn't in your interest, you don't really strike me as the kind of guy to you know, say all right, we're not going to do it. You strike me, You strike me as the

kind of guy who's going to do it. Anyways, if you think it's the right thing, you would be correct in that assumption, especially now. I think listen, there's a lot of a lot of songwriters, singers, uh, movie producers, all kinds are really talented people that have content that they know if they put it on the big platforms, it's gonna get it's gonna get cut down. They just know it, and then they're right about that. So this was like, Okay, I'm gonna be a Daniel Boone here

for a minute. I'm gonna pioneer out here for a second. And instead of taking advantage of all these platforms, let's just don't do it and see if we can see if we can compete at a really high level without using them. Is it even possible? And that's that's a hell of a question, and we just proved yes, it's not only possible, you can, you can thrive with that.

And what I found is that the the outpouring of support is maybe even more at this point because they realized, Man, he didn't go, he didn't go with those big machines. He didn't yell at the machine and then use the machine. He yelled at the machine and then walked away from the machine. And still one. And I think people appreciate that. I hope other content creators look at this and go, Okay, it's possible, because I can promise you true social rumble.

Those platforms they are they are wanting to hit the gas pedal behind content creators that are putting out really really excellent pieces. They want to get behind them and blow them up. If we're in a culture war, which we are, how do you keep track if you're making any progress or not to play upon on that word, the real progress, Well, if you can take pieces away from them, take away their prize property. And in the world of music, the most prize property out there is

the number one sales position. That's the big one. Because there's no bigger vote of confidence than for somebody to hit that download button and they spend a buck twenty nine. You know, it's not a free stream or something like that. They have to pay a little bit of buck twenty nine, but they do it and they download. If that's the ultimate confirmation that you're having impact, that's the price property that the music industry has. So for us to be

sitting there right now is a huge statement. I so respect you doing that, and I want to play clip right now for the for the audience at home. Let's play clip. There's a whole in this country where it's hard used to be. No glory is divided on our industry to see building back. Then make America grace. If that's a weave of the future left you say, stick

your pros where the song, then sun keep beings. I love that line there's a hole in this country where the heart used to be because I think a lot of US Americans, you know, that's basically this conversation we've been having is how do people not love this country? You know, we live in the greatest country in the world and we're just sitting there watching all these people on the left have no respect for it and no respect for the people who have laid down their lives

to preserve the freedoms that we have now. And it's just like to your point, you know, there's a whole in this country where it's hurt eis to be. Yeah, well, they sure as hell love it when they get arrested in Russia, don't they. You find yourself in handcuffs in a in a socialist, communist country, and you're begging your country to take you back when you just got through trash in our flag on a national platform and talking smack about the red, white, and blue up in front

of God and everybody. But you get yourself in a bind in a communist country, and who are you calling daddy? You're calling your mama, Hey, come get me out. I can't be stuck here. Really, I think you're where you wanted to be. You know, you trash, You trash the country you live in. You don't respect that, you don't appreciate it. Now you're finding out what other countries are all about. Oh yeah, you don't have freedom over there, do you know? You don't. You got to due process? No, no,

you don't. Uh that to me, that is such a poignant thing to see that athlete arrested and uh and Communist Russia uh and watched her beg for America to come bail her out after she just got through trashing US. I said earlier Lisa that a lot of Americans lacked perspective. And what I mean by that they haven't been around the world. I've had I've had the ability to travel

all over the planet and sing music everywhere. I've sang it in I've sing it in Central America, the Middle East, i sing it in places in Europe, South America, Asia. I've been all over the place. And you see people living in situations and you go, now, I can't wait to get back home. I mean, wow, I can't believe people dealing with this every single day of their life and you get back home. Go. Man. We're not perfect, but we are head and shoulders above everybody else. And

that's why everybody wants to live in America. That's why we got lines coming in and no lines going out, and we never will have lines going out ever in this country. And so they lacked perspective until they ultimately get it, which is what that athletes having right now, A big dose of perspective. Please unveil me out, America. I don't hate you anymore. Okay, it's a little late for that, sister, but uh okay, yeah, it's a little

late for that. And it also just shows these people have no idea what they're talking about, right, like that they want to hate America at your point, they don't have that perspective, you know, they have no idea, They have no idea what the alternative looks like, and we certainly don't want to find out. Quit commercial break and back with country music star John Redge. I was reading this. I love this about because in addition to country music,

and you've done so much with your career. You've done you know, television, You've got your red Neck Revera bar in Nashville, You've got your entire brand, the red Neck Revera brand. But I was reading this, which I loved how you used to be a Crown royal guy and then he found out it was Canadian blended whiskey and you're like, well, now I'm doing my own thing, which is American. So I like, I read that and I

was like, I have to bring this up. I freaking love this, so so talk about that and yeah, get into that. I love it. Yeah. Well, so that was we had a song save a horse ride a cowboy. Everybody knows that because by the bar a double round a crown and everybody's getting down. Well, so me and Big Kenny, that was our go to drink was Crown Royal to a little cocaine at Crown Royal. That that's what we drank. So we we sang about it, you know, and one of our biggest songs. And one day I'm

looking at that bottle Canadian blended whiskey. And when I went through such a thing as American blended whiskey, because if there is, I don't know what it would be. So I started going to liquor stores. We'd be out on the road, i'd have the afternoon off. I'd walk in somewhere in Iowa, you know, or Virginia. Hey, buddy, can you show me where you're American blended whiskey is? And every time I got the same answer, I don't

think we have anything called that. I'm like, really, in this whole store, no, I'm not aware of anything called that. And I realized nobody had done that, and so I said, well, I don't really know how to go about it other than just jump in and try to figure it out, so in I linked up with a great master distiller and said, here's what I'm trying to do, trying to beat Crown Royal with an American blend, nothing else other than American whiskey, and it's got to be it's got

to be superior to what I've been drinking. So we worked on it for a year, put it out in and we are now in over thirteen thousand stores throughout the United States, where we are in all the big blue ship grocery stores. Uh ten percent of everything I make goes to Folds of Honor putting kids through college. You lost a parent in combat. All my all my bottles have the Fold of Honor logo on them. And it's been a it's a runaway success. It's growing faster

than almost than I can keep up with it. But it proves the point against that the brand this song, it is an underserved population that we have of people that love their country. They work really hard, they protect their families, They want they want more for their families than they had, but they're not getting the content that they want because the entertainment industry is not gonna let

them have it. So it's it's a rare thing that you would ever hear a song like Progress come out because it's coming from a guy me who doesn't have a record deal, doesn't have a publishing deal. That's on purpose. I stepped away from them on purpose because I wanted to be able to say what I want to say. I didn't want them telling me what what I could and could not sing about or write about. So I'm

in kind of a rare situation. There's a lot of country artists that would love to put out songs like Progress, but they can't. If if I had a record deal right now, Lisa, you would have never heard this song. That's a fact. Well, first of all, I need to go to your bar in Nashville. I went to the University of Tennessee, but it's been a little while since I've been back to the state. I need to do that. But you know, I was gonna how are you? How are you received? How am I received in Nashville? Will

it depend? Are like the country music scene? I mean, like, how how is it? You know? You talked about kind of going your own way, which I deeply deeply respect. I'm the black sheet, but that family, uh, the record labels that they've all been their conglomerates. At this point, you've only got like four major companies that own of the labels. You've got Universal, Sony, Warner Brothers. You know,

it's it's very, very tight. And the people that are at the head of the food chain, top of the food chain, on those giant companies, they dictate the policy of those labels. You know, it used to be that they would sign artists because the artists would say things that they thought would cut through the noise and really have an impact on the crowd, and that's you sell

the most records. But nowadays, if an artist comes with something that's against what the head of the label or whoever personally believes, well, then the artist has to sacrifice what it is they really wanted to say to placate the record label. And it's an interesting dichotomy because the audience of country music in a large part uh they they are leaning. I'm not gonna say they're all conservatives,

because they're not, but they lean that way. They're patriotic, they support the military, their police, their family people, their blue coll or the middle income. That's who they are. And so you see a song like Progress come out and it's blowing up and they're not hearing it on their country radio station. Leave, So it's country radio is not playing this song. Country radio has also been brought up by everybody. There's only three or four companies that

own nine of our country radio stations. So between the radio stations being brought up and the record labels being owned by just a very few companies, it's they've got a they've got a chokehold on art. They've got a chokehold on what gets released and what gets played. And I'm just one of these guys that's outside of their system now that still has an audience, and my boy still works, thank goodness, and I can still write a pretty good song, and I've got a way to get

to people, you know. So I'm a little bit of a uh, I don't know. I'm I'm a special case, I guess at this point. And again that's a responsibility too. You know, if I know that they're gonna hate it music row is gonna hate it, You're not gonna be invited any more parties. Well that's probably true. But what's more important to me my freedom of speech or the approval of the music industry. Well, I can tell you the answer real quick. It's my freedom of speech. I've

got two sons that are ten and twelve. They're growing up watching Dad like a hawk, and I don't want to be the guy that yells at the TV. But then when I go out and do my business, I played Pattycake with all the people that I was just yelling at on the TV. That's being hypocritical, and I want my boys to go now, Dad held the line inside the house, outside the house, right out the open, I mean, right now, Lisa, I'm leaning in to the

onslaught of hatred that's coming my way. But but to me, the fact that they hate it is validation that I said it correctly. If they liked what I had to say, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I just truly respect what you're doing and the way you're going about this, and I have sort of similarly come to a conclusion that you can't speak the truth and say what needs to be said and be accepted by society.

It's one or the other. You know, you you either sell out, get a pat the head from the left in society and you lie and you don't tell the truth, and you don't see what needs to be said, or you know you speak the truth and you know you're you're going to be an outcast, But I I so, I I totally agree with you, know your perspective, and you know what, You're not an outcast. They want to make you think you're going to be an outcast? Am I an outcast? Sitting at number one right now on iTunes?

Am I an outcast? No? I'm an outcast to them? Well good, I want to be cast out of that crowd. I don't do not want to associate with them, just like they don't want to associate with me. I don't want to be a part of that machine. But I'm definitely not an outcast. Look, there's millions of people right now consuming this song. They're feeling great about the song, that blasting it all over the place. Um, they just want to make you think that you're going to be

an outcast. And at the end of the day, there's only there's really only two entities that need to approve of what you're doing as an individual. Number one is your maker, God needs to approve of it. He's the one you want to had on the back from. And number two is yourself. You will sleep good at night knowing you were true to your voice and true to what he wanted you to do, and you took the heat,

you took the licks, and you kept on coming. When you lay your head down at night, you can have a grint on your face going, Yep, I didn't make everybody happy, but that wasn't the point. I think we did what we were supposed to do, and that's that's where I come from. I agree with what you're saying.

I guess what I was saying is, you know it there is, you know, a cost to it in the sense of I've had you know, friends and families sort of you know, ending relationships over some of the things I've said, or not getting the vaccine and things of that. I mean, I don't regret it. I'm not going to stop. Yeah,

and you can stop. I believe what I believe and I hold those core values and I'm willing to take whatever comes my way or or professional you know, I've walked away from, you know, professional things that could have been good for my career because I didn't, you know, I didn't want to make decisions that would have compromised my belief. So I'm with you that that was the only point I was making. But but you're right, you know you week good at night? I do? You know

I do because I do believe that what I'm doing. No, I I'm glad you said that. I do. I believe that what I'm saying is right, and I believe it to my core. And you know, I'm willing to to take whatever comes as a result of speaking the truth. So that's why I just I so respect your approach and the way you talk about things and what you're doing. You know, I wanted to ask you how did you get into all this? So I know that you were born in Texas and you grew up in Tennessee. How

do you get into country music to beginning? How hard is that? I imagine it's really really tough to to even break into the industry. Well, so, my dad is a preacher. He started appreciating it was nineteen years old. UM, and he's never been one of those big church preachers because he's way too hardcore when he preaches. He's not a kind of preacher you can listen to every week. Um. He's more of that evangelist style. A matter of fact, a lot of his preaching has happened in third world countries,

where it's happened in prisons in the United States. He still preaches in prisons today to be seventy here in a couple of days, still going at it. And and it's also a really great singer and great guitar player. So he would he would go a guitar around his neck. My dad checked this out. He went to thirty two Marty Gross, Dirty two Marty Gross and stood on the street corner in the French Quarter with a guitar around his neck, singing gospel songs while people were throwing stuff

at him, spitting on him. And then he would preach. And I said, Dad, why would you keep standing there with people spitting all of you. There's one picture I saw that I saw something running. It looked like sweat on his guitar. I said, well, we must have been hot that day you were sweating. He goes, no, it's in February. He goes, that's spit. I go what. He goes, yeah, that's spit running off my guitar. Ago from them spitting at you. He goes yeah. I said, why would you

keep doing it? He goes, because about one out of a hundred of them would stop and asked me what I was talking about. And so it wasn't about being comfortable, it wasn't about being popular. It was and about any of those things. Was about doing what it was he was called to do and doing it at a high level at any cost. And so for me, when I stepped into music, I loved playing music because my dad played music and I wanted to be like dad. You know,

he taught me how to play the guitar. When we got to Tennessee, I started meeting people that were kind of in and around the music business. One kid I went to school with his dad was a bus driver for Ricky Skaggs. He drove his tour bus. And that just blew my mind. Your dad knows Ricky Skaggs. He goes, my dad drives his bus like that. It's crazy. And so I realized how close I was to that whole industry.

So like seventeen, I started entering talent contests and I got hired at Opryland, USA, which was our big theme park here for a long time, and I worked there right after my senior year, and that's where I met some guys that wanted to start a little band and instead of going to college, I went on the road playing music with these guys in this band, and that wound up being the band Alone Star, which got signed and we sold four or five million records, and at

that point it was off to the races for me and met Big Kenny, and Big and Rich came into existence, and just one thing after another, quick break more with John Redge. That's awesome what you said about your dad's I bet he's super proud of you, because it sounds like the way you're describing your dad or you have a lot of the same attributes. So I bet he's pretty proud of you, know, you taking a stand and

being who you are this particular song. I think he's probably more proud of this particular song progress than anything I've done. And he's not one to to lay a lot of accolades out, but he did on this one. And he said, you know, there's a lot of people gonna hate you for saying what you just said. I said, yes, sir, he goes, but you said it anyway. I went, that's correct. He goes, well, good for you. I'm proud of you.

And how that was just the biggest thing to hear him say that, and and then I got to call him the day it went number one, and I said, well, Dad, you know that song that a lot of people aren't gonna like. He goes, yeah. I go, well, it's number one on iTunes, number number one, must download a song in the world right now. He goes, well, I guess

somebody must have liked it. I said, yeah, you think so, number one man so, And it proves the point that the left tries to make us think that we're isolated, that we're the only one thinking like that, that we're the only one feeling this way, and they try to keep you busted up. That's part of why they censor people is they don't want you to see that there's a large contingency of Americans speaking the same way they don't. They don't want you seeing that because that gives more

people courage. Courage is contagious, but so is fear. Both of those things are highly contagious, and we want courage to be contagious in this country. And the only way that happens is people have to step out and be courageous and step into the fire and take the incoming. And you know what, if you can succeed what on top of taking them on, Buddy, you've got yourself a

great recipe for other people to follow. And and I really hope that the success of this song does inspire people to be courageous and come forward and let's go. There's a hope. There's a lot more of us than there are of them. I really believe that. Now. I believe that too. And I do think, you know, looking at the success of your song, or even looking at the success of Top Gun Maverick, which is really you know, pro American movie, there's not this woke crap and it's

just like wholesome, good content. I do it gives me a hope in the sense of I do believe there's more of us than them. You know, they're louder, they control the institutions, whatever. But there are ways around it, as you've pointed out, and you've proven with your song. But you're totally right. I do believe there's more of us than there are of them. Yeah. And by us and them, I don't mean Republicans and Democrats. And you know this as well as anybody. There are as many

nasty judas Republicans as there are Democrats. I mean they are thick. I have met a bunch of them. I have supported people in the past and then realize who they actually are they've actually done behind the scenes, and went yuck. You know, so this is not a Republican Democrat thing anymore. There was a poll earlier in July that said percent of Americans agree that the country is

on the wrong track. I'm sure you saw that one. Well, at least if you get eight percent of Americans agreeing that they like ice cream, that would be a big deal. But to agree that the country is on the wrong track eight out of a hundred Americans, well, that means there's liberals in that mix. There's there's moderates, there's conservatives, there's all there's there's religious people, there's atheist, there's every everybody is in that And when I saw that poll,

I said it is time to drop this song. I wrote the song in January. I've had in my back pocket since the beginning of this year, and I was waiting to see what the summer would be like before the elections happened. And let's just see how bad things get in this country, and if we can get a consensus that we don't like it, when I saw that poll, I went, there's your consensus, there's your unity right there, and that that was kind of my Uh that was the red the red flare that went up and said, okay,

put the song out. And that's when I started up setting this thing up to put it out. I love that. And then what's obviously the response in people listening but sort of I'm sure it's brought you some comfort to hear some of the feedback from people. Yeah, a lot of One of the most common things is your song says exactly what I've been thinking, which is which is

the best compliment ever? Uh That it's almost like people are apoplectic these days, that there's so many bad things going on at the same time that when you try to talk about it, you just start stuttering and stammering and you can't even get it out because it's just too much like which one are we going to start with?

I don't know if I've been mowing the grass before, you know, and you mow over a yellow jacket nest and they come swarming up at you and they're stinging you all over, and you just take off running as fast as you can. Like that's kind of what the current events feel like to me, we're just being swarmed and you can't get it out. So this song kind of distills it down to a really simple message and lays it out in a really simple way where you go, Yes,

what the song? That what that song just said. That's how I feel about it, And that's what I'm hearing from most of the people. I do think in some respect, because you know, there's been a lot of hardship with COVID and what they did to us during that and all the other stuff we're saying in the Biden administration too. You know, a lot of the stuff we're talking about, it's sort of makes you realize more pointedly what matters in life, right Like, it's God, it's family, it's friends,

it's the people. You know, there's there's still even amidst the fire around us and the chaos around us, you know, there's still so much beauty in life. I think, yeah, absolutely, I think, Uh, all the shutdowns and everything made everybody slow down, and that's the hardest thing for a person to do, is slow down. I mean, everybody's just going as fast as they can all the time. So that the slowdown UM gave people a chance to think about important things. Um it. Also it also showed us who

we're really dealing with here. I mean, they shut down the churches, but they left the strip clubs open, okay. And then they say, hey, you have to you have to jab yourself with this experimental uh medicine whatever you want to call it, with this experimental procedure. And if you don't, you lose your job. If you don't, you can't travel. If you don't, you can't go to a concert. If you don't, you can't go to school, on and on and on. And I'm like, it's experimental. There's no

long term study on this. I'm not doing it. But it doesn't matter. If you don't want to do it, it doesn't matter if there's no long term study on it. You're gonna do it. We're gonna wreck your life. I go, you know, last time I check that. That's awful reminiscent of the Nuremberg codes, that you tell somebody they have to do something that's experimental, that's in the medical world. Think we've got history that says that's a really, really

bad idea, but they did it anyway. And so there's lines in the song that says, they say, let go of Jesus and let government save, and you can have back your freedom if you do what we say. Stick your progress with the sun don't shine. I mean, that's how far over the line they've gone. And when you go that far over the line we said, you're no longer talking about political differences. You're talking about human beings being mistreated in general. And that's where we are today.

And I think that's why you're seeing this backlash, this whiplash, this boomerang effect that's starting to come back around, and they're panicking about what this fall is going to look like at these elections. Uh. And even the Rhinos, the Republicans that play ball with all these scoundrels, they're sweating too, as they should be. And am I mad about what they're doing. Sure, I'm mad about what they're doing, But when you listen to the song, there's a little bit

of a in in that song. Because I believe that the American people and the principles our countries founded on will outlast, out survive everything that we see going on today. I think it's gonna be a really rough ride, but I do believe we survive it because it's us. We're America. We survived things like this, and we just gotta take your head on. Well, what I picked up and moved during COVID. I left New York because obviously it was terrible,

and I moved to the Free State of Florida. And I didn't get the vaccine either, And I just figured it myself, Okay, maybe I can't fly for a couple of years, maybe I can't do certain things. But worst case scenario, I'm hanging out in Florida for all. Like, it's not it's not that bad. I'll just write out the apocalypse. You're in the Free State of Florida, John Rich, You're awesome. Anything you want to leave us with before we go, I just hope people keep their chin up.

I hope people, uh, they catch a big case of courage. I hope that on their level wherever they are, with their neighbors and people they talked to and hang around with. You need to be bold. You need to speak your mind, and you need to realize that there's a lot of people out there um that will follow suit if they see you doing it first. Somebody's got to be the point of the spear, even down to the down to

the very neighborhood and street that you live on. Remember that you're American, remember whose shoulders you're standing on, and act like it. And if we do that, we'll get our country straightened out. It's awesome, and go check out his new song Progress, John Redg. I really respect your respect what you're doing, and I respect your voice. So thank you for taking a stand and taking time to come on the show. I really appreciate it. Yes, ma'am,

I love your voice as well. You're a You're a very important voice in our country, and I'm honored to be on your podcast. Call any time. How awesome, John, I think that's so cool. Everything he does for fterates. He's an awesome guy, and I appreciate him joining the show. And I appreciate you at home for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen throughout the week The Truth with Lisa Booth. I want to thank my executive producer for all the work he puts into putting this together.

Please leave us a review, give us five stars, and Apple leave us a review. We always appreciate it. Until next time, say where the song, don't sign