TMP346 JERRY GIDDENS COMES AROUND AGAIN

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign. [00:00:15] Speaker B: Listeners, welcome back to the Troubled Men podcast. I am Renee Komen, sitting once again in Snake and Jake's Christmas Club Lounge in the heart of the Kalanpalap, in the heart of the Klempire, with my co host, the original troubled man for troubled times, Mr. Manny Chevrolet. Welcome, Manny. [00:00:34] Speaker C: Hey, thank you very much for having me. [00:00:36] Speaker B: Yeah, thanks for being had. [00:00:38] Speaker C: It's nice and quiet at this dump. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, it's super quiet now. You know, the other night, I thought I might see you here. Monday night they had Anthony Bourdain's 70th birthday party. [00:00:49] Speaker C: Yeah, well, he's dead. [00:00:50] Speaker B: He's dead. He's been dead. He's still dead. He was dead the other night, but, man, it was packed. It was packed with people. [00:00:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I was gonna make it, but I decided not to because I thought it was gonna be packed and. [00:01:00] Speaker B: Yes. [00:01:01] Speaker C: And then I talked to Dave Clements earlier today, and he said it was uncomfortably packed. [00:01:07] Speaker B: It was. [00:01:08] Speaker C: It was. [00:01:09] Speaker B: We came in and, you know, I waited to get a drink. I mean, it took me about 15 minutes to get a drink. And that's with me knowing both of the bartenders, right? Yeah, but that was fun, you know, just to. Now, as I was talking to Dave and talking to Tony Tocco at the event, and we're discussing the large crowd, and then somehow the Trump Great American State Fair that's going on down there for the 250th anniversary. [00:01:38] Speaker D: Great. [00:01:38] Speaker B: And we were saying how. Look like there's more people here for Anthony Bourdain's 70th birthday than they have at that thing on the mall. [00:01:48] Speaker C: Because it's the great. Unfair, is what it is. [00:01:51] Speaker B: Okay, all right. I like it. I like it. [00:01:54] Speaker C: You know. No, I was gonna go, but I was never a big fan of Anthony Bourdain. [00:02:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:02:01] Speaker C: You know, and I knew he had the mental problems. In fact, they just made a biopic about him. [00:02:06] Speaker B: Huh. Really? [00:02:06] Speaker C: Which is supposed to come out very soon, I think. Or maybe it already did come out. I saw. I get these movie trailers sent to me and. But it's all about his early life. It's not. It's not about the last 20 years or so of his life. It's about his, like, from teenager to, like, into his 30s, and that's it. [00:02:24] Speaker B: Is it kind of based on that book or something? [00:02:27] Speaker C: Yeah, I have no idea. [00:02:29] Speaker B: I never read the book. But. [00:02:30] Speaker C: But it's about his early life where he just happened to. He was a busboy or dishwasher. Some guy. Antonio Banderas. Yes, that's him. Takes him under his wing. [00:02:42] Speaker B: Oh, wow. [00:02:42] Speaker C: And it mentors him, huh? Kind of to become what he became, which was a suicidal act, you know, [00:02:50] Speaker B: but suicidal extra dope fiend. [00:02:52] Speaker C: Yeah, but I, I, I got food. Yeah, I kind of like watching his show that he had on there where he'd go visit places and stuff. Yeah. And he liked kind of the places that I like. You know, he, like, he loved In N Out Burger. [00:03:04] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:05] Speaker C: You know, he loved that place. It was like his favorite place to get a burger in SoCal. [00:03:08] Speaker B: Well, he loved Snake and Jake's. [00:03:10] Speaker C: Yeah, well, that's what I don't think [00:03:11] Speaker B: about him, but I think that' his taste, taste was a little bit on shaky ground. [00:03:17] Speaker C: Yeah, no, but yeah, I, I, you know, I knew it was going to be too big because it was advertised like on, on nola.com and stuff like that. So I was like, I don't think so because I, you know, right now I feel uncomfortable in this place. You know, just imagine with all the [00:03:32] Speaker B: people, you know, so, and, and you've had World cup fever. You still. [00:03:37] Speaker C: Yeah, I got the fever. Oh, it's still burning on for another two, three weeks. [00:03:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I haven't seen five minutes of, of any of it. So I, I, I, I, I, I hear y' all talk about it and I, I think, oh, should I try to get invested in this? [00:03:51] Speaker C: Well, you're not a sports guy. [00:03:53] Speaker B: You know, certain things. Well, I like, I like combat sports. Like what? [00:03:57] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, what? [00:03:59] Speaker B: You know, boxing, you know, mixed martial arts. [00:04:04] Speaker C: So you're kind of one of those bourgeois people, like, watch to, like, watch poor black guys beat the shit out of each other. [00:04:10] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. I don't know. There's all, all kind of people probably [00:04:14] Speaker C: like Django and Chain, where they watch those two other while they're sipping wine and stuff in front of the fireplace. [00:04:21] Speaker B: Whatever. [00:04:21] Speaker C: I think that's what you're like. [00:04:23] Speaker B: Whatever. [00:04:23] Speaker C: Sure. [00:04:23] Speaker B: Why not? [00:04:24] Speaker C: Because you like combat sports. [00:04:25] Speaker B: I love combat sports. [00:04:27] Speaker C: But now, would you ever partake in a combat sport? [00:04:30] Speaker B: Oh, no, absolutely. [00:04:31] Speaker C: Well, yeah, that's how bourgeois you are. You. [00:04:34] Speaker B: Well, never, I mean, are you going to play soccer? Are you going to. [00:04:36] Speaker C: I would love to play football. [00:04:38] Speaker B: Are you going to play basketball professionally? [00:04:41] Speaker C: Well, no, I can't because I'm not that talented. [00:04:43] Speaker B: Right. Well, so, you know, it's like, yeah, no, I don't think I need, need to participate in a sport to enjoy watching it. [00:04:50] Speaker C: But is boxing a sport or is it just two guys beating the shit [00:04:53] Speaker D: out of each other? [00:04:53] Speaker B: Well, I'LL tell you what, here's the difference between combat sports. [00:04:58] Speaker C: Now, do you watch the wwe? Do you like that? [00:05:01] Speaker B: No, not at all. [00:05:02] Speaker C: You know, no, no, no, because it's all fake. Well, wrestling, boxing, it's all, it's all Vegas, man. [00:05:08] Speaker B: Well, yeah, boxing is, Boxing is corrupt. MMA is not. Well, boxing definitely has. Yeah, I've seen plenty of fights where you. Clearly one guy won and they give it to the other guy. [00:05:19] Speaker C: The judges get all Vegas, dude. [00:05:22] Speaker B: Right. But you know, I don't know. Anyway, you know, I see some of the, the, the esoteric terms that they refer to in the, the, the, the FIFA, the, the World cup, and I think, you know, I think if I were to even spend enough time to learn what that is, I feel like I would lose iq. [00:05:41] Speaker C: Give us an example of one of these. [00:05:42] Speaker B: I don't know, I can't even remember, you know, the knockout round or the. [00:05:46] Speaker D: That's where we are now. [00:05:49] Speaker C: Win or go home. [00:05:51] Speaker B: Okay, well, I was a knockout again. It's nothing I need to know. [00:05:55] Speaker C: You're. Just because Israel didn't have a team [00:05:57] Speaker B: in the World Cup, I couldn't care either way. I couldn't. Couldn't care about the World cup either way. Anyway, other news. Well, I saw mel Brooks turned 100. Did you see that? [00:06:09] Speaker D: Is he alive? [00:06:10] Speaker B: He's still alive, yes. [00:06:12] Speaker C: Holy. [00:06:12] Speaker B: Oh yeah, still sharp too. [00:06:14] Speaker C: He outlived Anthony Bourdain. [00:06:16] Speaker B: He did, he did. Outlived Carl Reiner, Outlived Rob Reiner. [00:06:23] Speaker D: Wonder if he's still funny. [00:06:24] Speaker B: He is. No, there was a documentary that was released last year, I think on Netflix. It's called the 99 Year Old man and he's interviewed extensively. In it he has total recall of every part of his life. [00:06:38] Speaker C: But they don't show that he's sitting on a toilet the whole time. [00:06:41] Speaker B: Well, yeah, they shoot him from the [00:06:43] Speaker C: chest, from the neck down. They shoot him from the neck down because during the interviews they're actually changing his diapers. [00:06:50] Speaker D: Oh boy. [00:06:51] Speaker B: Neck up. [00:06:52] Speaker D: They said that about Trump this week, but that's right. [00:06:55] Speaker B: I believe that more than Mel Brooks seems to be more with it. Well, you know who's not alive? I saw while we were on a little break, there was Gene Shallet. [00:07:06] Speaker C: Yes. [00:07:07] Speaker B: Now Rex Reed, his contemporary passed away maybe a month or so ago. So these guys are just ticking off. [00:07:14] Speaker D: Reed's dead. [00:07:14] Speaker B: Rex Reed is dead. [00:07:15] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, I gotta quit teaching him. [00:07:18] Speaker B: Quite dead. Having a correspondence course with Rex. [00:07:22] Speaker D: Movies. We have, I have a movie class. Cinema. [00:07:25] Speaker B: Uhhuh. [00:07:26] Speaker D: Just cinema class. [00:07:27] Speaker C: Uhhuh, not anymore. Because he's dead. [00:07:32] Speaker D: He's not. Not for him. [00:07:33] Speaker C: Yeah, but. [00:07:34] Speaker B: But yeah. Gene Shallot now is. Is also has joined Rex Reed in the. [00:07:39] Speaker C: The. [00:07:39] Speaker B: The. The group of former. [00:07:42] Speaker C: And there were two critics that could either make or break a film. Not like today, where everybody's a critic and has a say and movies get, you know, popular, even if they're not popular at the box office, they'll end up. But those guys back in the 70s and 80s, you know, if they gave a bad review, it was over, you know, and that's. I don't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing, because there's plenty of movies like, I disagreed with them and Siskel and Ebert about, you know, they gave a thumbs down to a movie, which I loved, you know, so those guys, they're all dead now, too. My movie critic is dead. [00:08:19] Speaker B: Oh, isn't he? I think Ebert's dead. [00:08:21] Speaker C: Yeah, Ebert died. [00:08:22] Speaker D: I still teach him. [00:08:23] Speaker C: So. [00:08:23] Speaker B: All right, my students. When you say teach him, you mean you talk about him in class? [00:08:26] Speaker D: Well, my. My students have to find them. [00:08:31] Speaker C: He's six feet under if they want to find. [00:08:33] Speaker B: See, it's not moving. [00:08:34] Speaker D: But he's still published. That's all they care. [00:08:36] Speaker C: Ebert, though, was also a filmmake. He wrote and. And made a couple films. [00:08:42] Speaker B: Right, right, right. [00:08:43] Speaker D: Let's hope he's not dead. [00:08:44] Speaker B: Yeah. Beneath something beyond the Valley of the Dolls. [00:08:51] Speaker C: I think that's what he wrote. He wrote the screenplay for that. [00:08:55] Speaker B: Right, right. I think that's true. [00:08:56] Speaker C: Yeah, I think so. You're teaching this. You don't even know. [00:08:58] Speaker B: Yeah, come on. [00:08:59] Speaker D: Well, I'm not, you know, I'm not [00:09:01] Speaker B: teaching deep the esoterica. You're not. [00:09:03] Speaker C: So basically, you're in an empty room thinking that you're in a classroom. Well, what's going on with you? I don't understand this. [00:09:09] Speaker D: My students. Your students, they don't know who's dead, who's alive. [00:09:14] Speaker C: I got to get back to Earth now, soon, so let's. [00:09:17] Speaker B: In this closet, screaming into a pillow. [00:09:19] Speaker C: Yeah, you're like that guy who thinks he's doing a conga line, but he's really just in a padded room in a cell. [00:09:26] Speaker D: I'm an adjunct. Can you be an adjunct? Crazy person. [00:09:30] Speaker B: Adjunct. [00:09:31] Speaker C: Yeah. There you go. [00:09:32] Speaker D: Perfect. [00:09:33] Speaker B: You got anything else, Manny? [00:09:35] Speaker C: I got plenty. [00:09:35] Speaker B: Okay, go, go. [00:09:37] Speaker C: You know, It's. We're now July 2nd and June was your month, right? Pride Month. [00:09:43] Speaker B: Okay. [00:09:43] Speaker C: That's your month. [00:09:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:44] Speaker C: You and your community now, okay? You had a great Time. [00:09:47] Speaker B: Sure. You and your community all came out just fine. [00:09:51] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. So now is there like a letdown after June? [00:09:55] Speaker B: The letdown? The build up to the letdown. [00:09:57] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:09:58] Speaker B: Ah, you know, it's. It's getting hot in New Orleans. That's a bit of a letdown, but not as hot as it's gonna get. [00:10:02] Speaker C: So, yeah, it's really brutal. [00:10:05] Speaker D: It's horrible. [00:10:05] Speaker B: But, you know, it's. It does just prepare you for when it. So it's about 92 right now. the height of the day, it feels unbearable. But I know that it will get to be 98, at which point 92 will feel like a real relief. So, yeah, enjoy it while you can. [00:10:22] Speaker C: Yeah, it's horrible out there. I don't know how Dave's out there doing yard work, you know, keep. [00:10:29] Speaker B: Keeps him young, keeps sweating. [00:10:31] Speaker C: No, he's doing it because the city's going to fucking put him in jail if he doesn't do it. [00:10:35] Speaker B: Sure. [00:10:35] Speaker C: You know, they're going to find him hundreds of. Of thousands of dollars. That's why he's doing it. I don't understand why he doesn't just sell this block. He could move to Bora Bora. [00:10:45] Speaker B: Sure, sure. [00:10:46] Speaker C: And have fun there with hora Horrors. [00:10:48] Speaker D: Right, right. [00:10:49] Speaker C: You know, but anyway, also, I don't know if you knew this. The very last of the Hooters restaurants closed down, huh? Yeah. And where was that? I think the last one was somewhere in Maryland. [00:11:03] Speaker B: Now, have you. Were you a fan of the Hooters restaurant chain? [00:11:06] Speaker C: I wasn't a fan. I went to a Hooters, I think twice in my life. I don't think I just happened to gone to a Hooters. And after I left, I would always put on the tip, you know, I'd write the tip down and I would say, thanks for the mammaries. [00:11:20] Speaker B: Oh, very nice. Sure. [00:11:22] Speaker C: So I did that with the word play. Yeah. And I don't mind Hooters. And the funny thing, I remember the last time I was at a Hooters, I think was maybe 20 years ago. I was with some friend of mine. And. And the. The table next to us was a. With a wife and husband with like five kids. [00:11:41] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:46] Speaker C: And one of the kids was only like 9 months old and just kept looking at the tutors going, lunch, maybe lunch. [00:11:53] Speaker B: Ready to nurse. [00:11:54] Speaker C: Yeah. You know, there's lunch mama. Right. Feed me, you know, that kind of stuff. [00:12:00] Speaker B: Eating out. [00:12:00] Speaker D: Never thought of that in Hooters. [00:12:02] Speaker C: Yeah. Well, you know, and also this coming up. I know you're a Big fan of Taylor Swift. She's getting. She's getting married. [00:12:09] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:12:10] Speaker C: At the Madison Square Garden. [00:12:12] Speaker B: Wow. [00:12:13] Speaker C: How egotistic is that? And I'm gonna get married at the biggest venue in New York City and no one's invited except my friends, you know? [00:12:23] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:12:24] Speaker B: She have that many friends? I don't know. [00:12:26] Speaker C: She's got a lot of these swifties. Would kill to go be a part. [00:12:30] Speaker B: Well, yeah, but she's gonna let all the rabble in. [00:12:32] Speaker D: Really? Well, maybe for the big bucks. Maybe she's. [00:12:35] Speaker C: Oh, she's gonna. What I'm curious about, you know, these weddings. It's a traditional wedding, I think. Who will be the ring boy at this wedding, you know? Or the flower girl? Who is she gonna let be the ring boy and flower girl? [00:12:49] Speaker B: You have some ideas? [00:12:50] Speaker C: Well, my. Me and my daughter were talking about it, and my daughter said that Timothee Chalamet is going to be the ring boy. [00:12:57] Speaker B: That sounds good. I like that. Yeah. [00:12:59] Speaker C: He's going to be the ring boy and the flower girl. We were. We were debating whether it's going to be Jennifer Coolidge or Patrick Mahomes as the flower girl. [00:13:10] Speaker B: Okay. [00:13:11] Speaker D: I go for Patrick. [00:13:12] Speaker B: I can see Patrick. You know, he has a sense of humor. He's got a sense of humor and [00:13:16] Speaker C: he's got that fucking gay haircut, you know, So I could see him being a flower girl. All right. You know, and Jennifer Coolidge would be fun because. [00:13:24] Speaker B: Sure. [00:13:24] Speaker C: She'd be like, oh, this is nice. You know, that kind of stuff. [00:13:28] Speaker B: Right? She's always. [00:13:30] Speaker C: She's hilarious. We love her. [00:13:32] Speaker B: Yes. [00:13:32] Speaker C: The family loves her. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, other than that, you know, Fourth of July is on Saturday. This in two days from now. And I was. I was thinking this, you know, because I was looking. I don't buy fireworks anymore, but fireworks used to have the coolest names. You know, you go to the fireworks stand. I grew up in California, so by 1980, they were outlawed. Fireworks. But there was a time in my youth where we'd go buy fireworks, and they always had really cool names. But now here's a little quiz for both of you. I'm gonna just say a couple names, okay? And you're gonna tell me if they're a firework or a porno film. Because. Because this. This is. This is real stuff. [00:14:14] Speaker B: Okay. [00:14:15] Speaker C: Okay. Now, which is it? Cherry Bomb or Cherry Pop? Which is the firework and which is the porno film? [00:14:25] Speaker D: Cherry Bomb is what is the firework. [00:14:28] Speaker C: Okay. Ding, ding, ding, ding. You got that right. [00:14:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:14:33] Speaker C: Okay. Okay. Porno film or firework? Multi shot or shot in the dark? Porno. [00:14:43] Speaker B: I'll say it's a porno. [00:14:44] Speaker C: Which one? Multi shot, shot in the dark. [00:14:47] Speaker B: Oh, you're changing the multi shot. [00:14:54] Speaker C: That's a firework. [00:14:55] Speaker B: Really? Multi shot. I'm not familiar with that one. [00:14:58] Speaker C: Shot in the dark is a porno. Okay, okay. And here's another one. Porno or firework? Choose either one. Horse tail or tale of the horse. [00:15:09] Speaker D: Horsetail is what? Firework. [00:15:11] Speaker C: Ding, ding, ding. You got it. All right, all right, one last one. Porno or firework? Super finale or super duper [00:15:23] Speaker D: boy? [00:15:23] Speaker B: I don't know. [00:15:25] Speaker D: Super finale is a firework. [00:15:26] Speaker C: You got it, man. Give this man a drink. Pissing it for me. [00:15:30] Speaker D: I grew up in Louisiana. I lived in California most of my life. But. [00:15:34] Speaker C: Okay. [00:15:35] Speaker D: We had. I had a brother in law who insisted on buying, you know, $5,000 worth of fireworks and just good luck to your hands. [00:15:47] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And your face. [00:15:50] Speaker D: Mostly mine. [00:15:50] Speaker C: In your house. [00:15:52] Speaker B: Sure, sure. Your neighbor's house. [00:15:54] Speaker C: Your neighbor's house. [00:15:55] Speaker D: We didn't have any neighbors, so that was helpful. [00:15:57] Speaker C: Okay. You grew up on a what, a farm or something? [00:16:01] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:16:04] Speaker C: You aren't a compound, it sounds like. Right. [00:16:06] Speaker B: Kind of a Waco type situation there. [00:16:08] Speaker D: And my dad wishes it were a working farm, but no, just a hilltop in the crossroads. We had cows. [00:16:15] Speaker C: All right. [00:16:16] Speaker D: You could raise cows there. It was a bad thing. [00:16:19] Speaker B: All right, well, you know, we've been chronicling the, the movement of the phrase welcome in across the country now. So this week I had three people in two days tell me welcome in as I walked into their business. [00:16:33] Speaker C: Really? [00:16:34] Speaker B: Yeah, it's coming. It's, you know, with the greater frequency. Have you familiar with that? [00:16:39] Speaker D: No. [00:16:39] Speaker B: Well, keep an ear out for it. Now, it's an odd phrase, welcome in, but you will hear people like coming into a restaurant or a store somewhere. Just, just keep an ear out, not saying welcome. [00:16:51] Speaker D: Just welcome in. [00:16:52] Speaker B: Welcome in. Yes. Specifically that. [00:16:54] Speaker D: Just some sort of corporate. [00:16:56] Speaker B: It's. I, you know, and, and. And the last person that said it to me, it was out at the Bachelor on that little development that they have out there. And, And I said, and when he said it to me, my wife looked at me like, oh, okay, there's another one. And I said, why are you saying it like that? And he goes, what do you mean, I welcome everybody? And I said, no, why are you saying welcome in? Did you. When did you start doing that? He goes, I don't know. I don't know. Don't know. When I started. I don't. I don't. He had no recollection. It's, you know, part of the land that's on the other side of the levee, between the levee and the river. [00:17:29] Speaker C: Now what are you doing out there? [00:17:31] Speaker B: Well, they have a whole development that they put in right behind the. The Corps of Engineers building, and there's a whole bunch of food trucks and a whole developed area out there, and [00:17:43] Speaker D: I didn't even know you could develop that shit. [00:17:45] Speaker B: It's. It's really lovely. It's the first time I'd been there. You can drive over. There's a drive over the levee. There's a road, there's parking lot. It's all organized and have, you know, four, five, six food trucks. They have all kind of Adirondack chairs out there. Whole developed area. You can sit and watch the. The sunset on the. Across the river. You know, it's unobstructed view of the river. It's beautiful. [00:18:08] Speaker D: Welcome in. [00:18:08] Speaker B: Welcome in, man. All right. And one other thing is a troubled listener. Former Troubled Men podcast guest Rob Hudak. The Rob Hudak texted me who dat? Who dak? He was on the show in the last three months. Texted me that Dorgnax has Bosco. [00:18:28] Speaker C: So, yes, Dorknax drive all the way out there. [00:18:30] Speaker B: Well, anyway, it's. It's closer than driving to New York State to get Bosco, so there you go. Anybody looking for. [00:18:37] Speaker C: I went to Whole Foods, and they didn't have any. [00:18:39] Speaker B: Well, they have it at doorknacks is what I'm saying. Dorn Yaks, however you want to pronounce it. The store that's at the foot of veterans that starts with Dornax. Yes. [00:18:53] Speaker D: Anyone over 70 has been there. [00:18:55] Speaker C: Yes. [00:18:55] Speaker B: And including who said this. Rob Hudak sent me a photo. [00:19:01] Speaker C: How do you spell that? [00:19:01] Speaker B: H U, D, A K. D, A [00:19:04] Speaker C: K. And when was he on the show? [00:19:05] Speaker B: Maybe about six weeks ago. [00:19:08] Speaker C: Really? What is. He's a musician. [00:19:10] Speaker B: He's a musician. He's one of the owners of Chicky Wawa. He's a graphic designer. He's ran a record lab. He's from. From Ohio. Youngstown, Ohio. [00:19:21] Speaker C: Right. Yes. Right, right. Okay. All right. So why didn't he pick me up a bottle, then, if he was there? [00:19:27] Speaker B: Well, I don't know. I don't know, man, because you can. You can. He's. He's telling you, you know, you can. Physician, hot. Heal thyself. All right, well, let's get to our guest then, because he's he's right here. All right, well, our guest is a terrific singer, songwriter, guitar player, poet, college professor. He's fronted bands including the Walking Wounded and Killeen Foundry. His latest solo record, which just came out, is called Sad Songs at Sunset, and he has a play built around that record that's debuting tomorrow night at the Always Lounge. [00:20:06] Speaker D: Absolutely. [00:20:07] Speaker B: So we're gonna get into all that and much more. But without further ado, the great Mr. Jerry Giddins. The great Dr. Jerry Gittens. [00:20:14] Speaker D: It is an honor to be here. [00:20:16] Speaker C: So you were on the show before? [00:20:18] Speaker D: That's why I'm back. [00:20:19] Speaker C: Really. [00:20:20] Speaker D: I knew the deal. [00:20:21] Speaker B: He was on the show, and I asked. [00:20:23] Speaker C: He just. Running out of gas, basically. What's happening? [00:20:26] Speaker B: No, he. He had this. This project coming out and he asked if he'd come back. And now he was on one of the last guests that we had at the Ring Room. He was. He was on, like, January of 2020. [00:20:37] Speaker C: You're the one who got us kicked out. [00:20:39] Speaker D: Jesus. [00:20:40] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. It was episode 88. This is going to be episode 342. [00:20:46] Speaker D: I think somebody's paying. [00:20:48] Speaker B: Time marches on. No, we're not making any money. We get cocktails. But, yeah, it was called Jerry Giddens Preaches to the Choir. So we talked a lot about your child, your career. First career as a child preacher. [00:21:02] Speaker D: Yeah. And I mentioned to someone that that was 70 years ago. [00:21:07] Speaker B: Huh? [00:21:07] Speaker D: I mean. No, 50 years ago. [00:21:09] Speaker B: Okay. [00:21:10] Speaker D: Easily 50. [00:21:12] Speaker C: How old are you? Mel Brooks, is it? [00:21:15] Speaker D: I quit it when I was 21, so I got myth. You know, I'm. I'm a teacher. I don't know math. [00:21:19] Speaker B: Right, right, Teacher. [00:21:21] Speaker C: But there's students in your class, Right? [00:21:24] Speaker A: Right. [00:21:24] Speaker D: No, I. Well, I don't have as many as I should have. [00:21:27] Speaker C: Now, where do you teach? [00:21:28] Speaker D: At Delgado Community College. Okay, but you were oldest in the country. [00:21:33] Speaker C: Really? [00:21:33] Speaker B: The oldest community college in Louisiana. Okay, and. But you were teaching at SUNO at one time, Right. And you taught at Tulane as well, right? [00:21:43] Speaker D: I did. I got my postdoc. [00:21:45] Speaker B: Well, you know, I'm curious. So. So you were teaching before the pandemic, and now you're teaching now. Do you see a difference between the quality of the students or just any. Not necessarily their. How smart they are. But do you notice a difference between the kids that came of age during the pandemic when, you know, their critical social high school years were locked up, you know, looking at a screen, looking at TikTok. [00:22:14] Speaker D: They didn't read. I can guarantee it wasn't reading during. Right. [00:22:17] Speaker B: So you're not seeing a stronger group of candidates than now than you are. [00:22:23] Speaker D: Each generation gets stupider. [00:22:25] Speaker C: Stupider. [00:22:26] Speaker D: No doubt about it. [00:22:27] Speaker C: Definitely. [00:22:28] Speaker D: And they love it. [00:22:29] Speaker B: And they love it. They're happy about it. [00:22:30] Speaker D: Yeah, we don't want to be smart. We. We just want to get, you know, get our drugs and go hang out [00:22:37] Speaker B: the evolution at least, because this is [00:22:41] Speaker D: the blame beyond that. [00:22:43] Speaker C: This is the blame for everything. [00:22:45] Speaker D: That's the reason I will not let them in my class. Yeah, my cell phones are evil. [00:22:51] Speaker C: The problem with this is this. [00:22:52] Speaker D: This is. [00:22:52] Speaker C: This is the reason for all the ills of the world today. [00:22:55] Speaker D: I am. [00:22:56] Speaker C: Because it gave. It gave everybody a voice. Yes. And some people shouldn't have voice, don't deserve a voice. Yeah. [00:23:02] Speaker D: I'm not sure it gave him a voice. [00:23:04] Speaker C: No, it gave stupid people a voice to say stupid things. And then they get followers saying, yeah, I agree with that stupidity. Look who's. Look who's running the country right now. [00:23:14] Speaker B: Yes, I. [00:23:14] Speaker D: Well, you know, fair enough. Do you think. You think he has a cell phone? [00:23:19] Speaker B: He sells a cell phone. [00:23:20] Speaker C: He sells his own cell phone. [00:23:21] Speaker D: I mean, he owns one. [00:23:23] Speaker C: Oh, he's out there. [00:23:24] Speaker D: Gold plated. [00:23:25] Speaker B: Well, his. His one he sells is. [00:23:28] Speaker D: Well, it's gold colored. [00:23:30] Speaker B: Well, it's gold tone. Yeah. [00:23:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:23:31] Speaker D: Gold tone. What if the tone. [00:23:34] Speaker B: No. [00:23:34] Speaker C: Have you ever had a gold record in your career? [00:23:37] Speaker D: Oh, excuse me. No. [00:23:39] Speaker C: No. [00:23:40] Speaker D: Or I wouldn't be sitting at Delgado Community College. [00:23:44] Speaker B: Oh, you'd be surprised. Yeah. Yeah, you very well could be. Yeah, yeah. Gold. [00:23:49] Speaker C: You could [00:23:52] Speaker D: do. [00:23:52] Speaker C: Yeah. But I wouldn't. [00:23:54] Speaker D: I wouldn't have spent the money. They. They spent the money. [00:23:56] Speaker B: What money? [00:23:57] Speaker D: Well, that's good money. [00:24:00] Speaker B: Are you talking about good thought? [00:24:02] Speaker D: It doesn't mean now. [00:24:03] Speaker C: Over the years of teaching and how many years is that teaching over the years, Delgado? [00:24:10] Speaker D: Almost 20. [00:24:11] Speaker C: Have you ever slept with any of your students? No. Okay. [00:24:14] Speaker D: I have not. I thought about it once. [00:24:16] Speaker C: Yeah? [00:24:17] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:24:17] Speaker C: At Tulane or Delgado. [00:24:21] Speaker D: I don't remember. And it was a skinny girl. [00:24:26] Speaker C: You like it? The skinny girls, huh? Well, you know, skinny girls. [00:24:29] Speaker D: I got a skinny girl right now. She's from Belgium. Speaking of the. The World Cup. [00:24:34] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:35] Speaker D: So she's having a grand time. [00:24:36] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:24:38] Speaker D: With the Belgian United States. [00:24:40] Speaker C: And you've got your gold cup, right? [00:24:42] Speaker D: No, I don't even have any gold, much less a cup. [00:24:46] Speaker C: Okay. [00:24:46] Speaker D: No, I. [00:24:48] Speaker C: But you got a supporter. A couple and supporter, Right. [00:24:50] Speaker D: I haven't had one in years. [00:24:51] Speaker C: Really? [00:24:52] Speaker D: In years. But I always had one in the batting box. Yeah. [00:24:56] Speaker B: There you go. [00:24:57] Speaker D: I knew where to wear so she's. [00:24:58] Speaker C: How did you meet this girl from Belgium? [00:25:00] Speaker D: We met at Mary Janes in Houston, Texas. [00:25:04] Speaker C: Mary Janes. Now, what is that? [00:25:05] Speaker D: It was a bar. [00:25:06] Speaker C: It's a bar. [00:25:07] Speaker D: She was doing the Door, and I was playing with the Stony White Punks. [00:25:11] Speaker B: Huh. [00:25:12] Speaker D: That's the band I'm proudest of. [00:25:14] Speaker B: Okay. See, I don't even. That I don't even know about that. [00:25:16] Speaker D: Yeah, I got to Austin in 80 with my wife and kids, and then I went out and found these UT students who were half my age and said, let's play. And they. The bass player and drummer. And then I got a kid their age out in the country somewhere, so. [00:25:36] Speaker B: Well, so let's go back a little bit. And we don't need to go in great depth about your. Your career as a childhood traveling preacher, which I love. That fascinates me. But we covered it a lot in episode 88. You can look that up. Jerry Giddens preaches to the choir you hear about. [00:25:54] Speaker D: Please look that up. [00:25:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. But. So after you were done with your itinerant childhood preacher career, you were now, and you grew up in the middle of. I keep forgetting that you're from Louisiana. I don't know. I always think of you as like a West coast guy, because I know you spent a lot of years out there, but you started off in. Where in Louisiana? [00:26:16] Speaker D: Well, I grew up six miles from a town of 1500 people, so we were pretty much in the country in Ringgold, Louisiana. [00:26:24] Speaker B: And where is that in state? [00:26:25] Speaker D: Well, it's right above Cochetta. [00:26:27] Speaker B: Well, something that people would recognize. [00:26:29] Speaker D: It's about 45 minutes South east of Shreveport. [00:26:34] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:26:35] Speaker D: Cross the Red river, and then. [00:26:37] Speaker B: We don't even consider that Louisiana here, you know. [00:26:39] Speaker D: Well, that's what I know. That's the reason they wouldn't let me do the jazz festival from la. [00:26:43] Speaker B: That's more. That's like Texas, really. [00:26:45] Speaker D: Yeah, it is, actually. They all cowboy fans. [00:26:48] Speaker B: Yeah. They all root for the Cowboys up there. That's right. [00:26:50] Speaker D: Except me. I was a Saints fan. [00:26:51] Speaker B: Right. [00:26:52] Speaker D: On day one. [00:26:53] Speaker B: So. So. So you were. You got married there and in. In that. That town? [00:26:57] Speaker D: Oh, hell, no. [00:26:58] Speaker B: Okay. [00:26:59] Speaker D: Well, no, I couldn't get out of there quick enough. [00:27:01] Speaker B: Okay, so you got out of there. Now you went to Baton Rouge. You went to lsu. [00:27:06] Speaker D: I did. [00:27:06] Speaker B: Okay. [00:27:07] Speaker D: I did. [00:27:07] Speaker B: Let's go from there. So you got a. Now, I know you have a PhD [00:27:11] Speaker D: now, but I was active in the Baptist Student Union. [00:27:14] Speaker B: Sure. [00:27:15] Speaker D: And then I was selected as a summer missionary to Iowa, and they you know those damn Lutherans, they need salvation. [00:27:25] Speaker B: Sure. [00:27:26] Speaker D: And so I got to Iowa, and in the middle of the summer, they need to get the spirit, whatever. [00:27:32] Speaker C: Sure. [00:27:33] Speaker D: They needed. They needed saving. Right. So we get in the middle of the summer, I'm turning 21, I'm looking out and staying at some family's attic, and it's just me. And they had 13 missionaries from Baton Rouge go to Iowa, and everybody got a partner but me. And so I said, how did that happen? They go, well, we interviewed everybody. And so whatever that meant. [00:27:59] Speaker C: Wait a minute. What happened to the Belgian girl? [00:28:01] Speaker D: Well, wait a second. I'll get to her. She's right in the middle of this story. Well, not in that part of the story. [00:28:07] Speaker B: Well, anyway, continue the story. [00:28:08] Speaker D: But I was staring. My birthday. I'm staring. I'm 20. Turn 21. I'm staring out across the cornfield, an endless cornfield. In my memory. There was a full moon, and I just went, you know, I don't believe this anymore. [00:28:27] Speaker C: So good for you. [00:28:28] Speaker D: I got. I said, is there. There's got to be a bar in Davenport. I know there's a bar in Davenport. And so now you. [00:28:37] Speaker B: You weren't a drinker before that? [00:28:39] Speaker D: Not much. No. I didn't. I. But that. I decided that maybe it was time to start. [00:28:45] Speaker B: Okay, and good for you. Turned on to the Devil's Ways. [00:28:49] Speaker D: Yes, absolutely. And I got on the airplane, headed home after two weeks of doing it, absolutely knowing I would never do it again. [00:28:58] Speaker C: Okay. [00:28:59] Speaker D: And I sat next to another missionary and. What are you? Stewardess. She came back and said, would y' all like a drink? And my fellow students said, absolutely not. And I went, absolutely. Like, four gin and tonic. So she served me four right there. [00:29:20] Speaker B: Nice. [00:29:21] Speaker D: I couldn't believe it. So I. [00:29:23] Speaker C: So what did the guy next to you do? [00:29:25] Speaker B: You. [00:29:25] Speaker D: It was a girl. [00:29:26] Speaker C: Oh, it was a girl. You put her in the missionary position? [00:29:29] Speaker D: I wish I could have banged her. But at that point, I think I just said, y' all probably won't see me around the Baptist Student Union much anymore. [00:29:39] Speaker C: Right? [00:29:39] Speaker D: But I. But I did win a student election because they didn't know. They didn't know yet at the Baptist Student Union that what I had become. And so when I ran for some bullshit office, they. They voted for me. [00:29:55] Speaker B: Okay. [00:29:56] Speaker D: So I had. You know, it's like Bill Clinton had still gone to church or something, except I would have been. You know, I was even going to go into politics. It was. It was. It was a weird scene, but I. I kind of changed Everything. When I had a class at three classes at LSU with a guy named T. Harry Williams, who wrote the. [00:30:19] Speaker C: What did he stand for? [00:30:21] Speaker D: I never knew. [00:30:22] Speaker C: Okay. [00:30:22] Speaker D: But he wrote the biography, the Pulitzer Prize, Barb. Biography of Huey Long. [00:30:29] Speaker C: Okay. [00:30:30] Speaker D: And I was dating the secretary of the student government office because she's my boss. I'm. I'm her boss. And so it was probably an HR problem paying me to be vice president of the student body. [00:30:42] Speaker B: Stay right on that mic. [00:30:44] Speaker D: Oh, stay where? I don't. They were. Yeah, much better that way. And she. We were at their family home and everything was going great. And then her mother says, like having Scarlet o' Hara as your future possibility. And she says, well, we. You know, we've already got the bridesmaids dresses. There are 15 of them upstairs. And I went, what? And I knew that I had never asked her to marry me. Oh, wow. [00:31:11] Speaker B: Cart before the horse. [00:31:12] Speaker D: And Harry was from Wisconsin, so he had this Southern thing all figured out. And he looked across the table and he goes, run away. [00:31:21] Speaker B: That was. The dad said that. [00:31:22] Speaker D: The granddad. The granddad. The granddad. [00:31:24] Speaker B: Okay. [00:31:25] Speaker D: And so I did. [00:31:27] Speaker B: Okay. [00:31:27] Speaker D: I ran away from him and the church and not him, but the right. I could have gone a long way, though. Her father was a politician. Well, he was the campaign manager for the then speaker of the House of the United States. [00:31:46] Speaker C: Who was Tip o'? Neill? [00:31:47] Speaker D: Oh, no, Jody Wagoner. He was a Louisiana guy. And so, yeah, I had. We had. They had a big Cadillac. We'd leave LSU and they had a bar in the back, and we'd drive up to Plain Dealing. And. Yeah, I thought my dad saw. You know, was invited over with the family, you know, my mom and dad and. And he looked at me like, you've fallen in it, baby. [00:32:13] Speaker B: Your dad did? [00:32:13] Speaker D: Yeah, he was driving a truck for the state at that point. A gravel truck. [00:32:19] Speaker B: But you threw it all away. I threw that all away to go join the circus. [00:32:23] Speaker D: Yes, absolutely. [00:32:25] Speaker C: Which circus is that? [00:32:26] Speaker D: I'm not sure. [00:32:27] Speaker B: Metaphorical? [00:32:28] Speaker D: Circumflex. C. It was many of them. [00:32:30] Speaker B: Okay, so how do you get a wife and child in wind up in Austin? [00:32:37] Speaker D: Well, I first had to find Louisiana and go to Hollywood because I could be a. So to be a star. [00:32:44] Speaker B: Oh, you went. You went to LA before you got to Austin? [00:32:47] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. [00:32:48] Speaker B: Okay. Because I know you made records in. In LA in the. The starting about 1984. [00:32:53] Speaker D: That's correct. And nobody bought them, but we. I made one every time they gave me a chance. [00:32:58] Speaker B: I'm trying to find some narrative linear Narrative here, so. [00:33:01] Speaker D: Well, it was 10 years at least. Chasing the dream. More. More like 15 years. Chasing the dream from Hollywood. [00:33:11] Speaker C: Well, also, you know, where did you live in la? [00:33:14] Speaker D: Hollywood. [00:33:14] Speaker C: You live in the heart at Work [00:33:15] Speaker D: street on Highland Avenue at first, right by the Hollywood Bowl. [00:33:20] Speaker C: Oh, wow. Okay. [00:33:21] Speaker D: And then I had. I was in a great acting class with Sean Penn and Nick Cade. Yeah, it was a big deal. Jeff Goldblum. [00:33:30] Speaker B: Oh, no kidding. [00:33:31] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:33:32] Speaker D: And. And the teacher, she looked at me once and she giddens, you dress like a tourist. And I went, so that's it. That's my acting career. And no, two of the other guys and we, we have formed a little group, you know. And. And what sort of group? Music. [00:33:55] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:33:55] Speaker D: I was the singer and then I decided I was in your acting class. [00:34:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:34:01] Speaker B: And not Sean Penn or the first [00:34:03] Speaker D: show we ever did. There was Sean Penn, Emilio Estevez and Charlie Sheen and Nick Cage. They were all at the show and they were the only people at the show. [00:34:14] Speaker B: Huh. [00:34:15] Speaker D: And then. [00:34:15] Speaker B: And what year is this? [00:34:17] Speaker D: 78 or 9. [00:34:19] Speaker C: God. There was just high school still, probably. [00:34:23] Speaker D: They were. They just out of high school, but they were all of them. Show business. They were born in show. [00:34:28] Speaker C: Yeah, they were born into it. [00:34:30] Speaker D: Yeah. So they all had money. [00:34:31] Speaker B: And where were you? What kind of clubs were you playing there? [00:34:34] Speaker D: We were playing an Italian restaurant right next to the club, next to the studio where we were all being taught. [00:34:41] Speaker B: Okay, so you went straight from LSU out to la. [00:34:44] Speaker D: Right to la to be a star. I was. [00:34:46] Speaker B: Now you're looking to be a comer [00:34:48] Speaker D: of the year in Baton Rouge. [00:34:50] Speaker B: In what way? [00:34:51] Speaker D: At the Baton Rouge Little Theater. [00:34:53] Speaker B: Okay, so you're doing some acting in college? [00:34:58] Speaker D: Yes, I did. [00:34:59] Speaker B: Okay. [00:34:59] Speaker D: I won just off at Hallark. I was graduating from college and I thought I'd like to try this acting thing. So there were three auditions in Baton Rouge. That one off Broadway musical, the Baton Rouge Little Theater, and one student production. And I got parts. All three. I got every part I auditioned for. Wow, good for you. Wow, this is pretty interesting. Maybe I should do this. [00:35:25] Speaker B: You thought you had a future, so you went out there and studying acting [00:35:29] Speaker D: and I dressed like a tourist. [00:35:30] Speaker B: Now, did you wind up pursuing that? Very much. Did you get go out for auditions? [00:35:38] Speaker D: A couple. No callbacks. I worked on a movie set once. [00:35:41] Speaker B: Hustling your ass down. [00:35:42] Speaker D: And no, no, I wasn't very good at that. No, I wasn't. Yeah, I did a lot of acting in class, but I had a. So one of my. [00:35:53] Speaker C: Let me. Let me ask you a Question. [00:35:55] Speaker D: John Densmore. [00:35:56] Speaker C: John Densmore. [00:35:57] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, he was a door. [00:35:59] Speaker C: Sure. Yeah. [00:36:00] Speaker D: Yeah, I guess he was a door. An adorable door. [00:36:03] Speaker C: Let me ask you something. When your acting teacher says that, what are you dressing like? What do you dress like? [00:36:08] Speaker D: I. I asked myself that same question. That was a bit of a hippie ish thing. Cause I had just left the straight world and I was smoking a lot of pot. So I probably had jeans. [00:36:21] Speaker C: Jeans and like a Pendleton. [00:36:22] Speaker D: Yeah. And Jeff Goldblum sitting next to me in three piece suit and black, white. And he leaves his sandwich on his chair and he comes back and I go, you might not want to leave that event around a bunch of starving actors. And he looks at me and goes, starving actors. That's the only thing he ever said to me. [00:36:42] Speaker C: Oh, really? [00:36:43] Speaker D: So, you know, it was a tough, tough business. [00:36:46] Speaker C: Well, he's, you know, he's very well known in Hollywood for having one of the biggest too. [00:36:51] Speaker D: No kidding. [00:36:52] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:36:52] Speaker D: I did not know. [00:36:53] Speaker C: He apparently, thank God, one of the biggest cocks. He didn't eat any of that sandwich. [00:36:59] Speaker D: Yeah. [00:37:01] Speaker C: So. Yeah. I just don't understand why jeans and a Pendleton doesn't sound tourist to me. [00:37:05] Speaker D: Well, I didn't have a Bermuda shorts [00:37:07] Speaker C: and you know, maybe a shirt like I'm wearing right now sounds like a tourist. [00:37:11] Speaker D: I had the same questions, but she was, she had, she was kind of like. [00:37:17] Speaker C: Do you remember her name? What's her name? [00:37:18] Speaker D: Oh, name. Peggy Fury. Absolutely Fury. She had, she became famous as an acting coach because she had been the lead in 11 straight Broadway flops. [00:37:30] Speaker B: Okay, that's quite a record. [00:37:32] Speaker D: But she was, she was fabulous. And, and all the. [00:37:36] Speaker C: She probably wanted you to sleep with her. Did you sleep? [00:37:39] Speaker D: Oh, no. Now, her husband, he wanted me to sleep with him. [00:37:44] Speaker B: With her. [00:37:44] Speaker D: That's how I got into class with him. And I finally said, dude. But that was. [00:37:50] Speaker C: And her husband was Dick Gautier. [00:37:52] Speaker D: What was his name? I don't even remember. [00:37:55] Speaker B: Go, go talk to Jeff Goldblum. He's got a huge cop. [00:37:58] Speaker D: He would remember from. [00:37:59] Speaker B: He would remember. [00:38:00] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:00] Speaker D: But it was very. So I decided to be a musician after I realized that all of these kids that were at my show were in show business because their fathers and mothers were in show business. Were in show business. Very successful. [00:38:15] Speaker B: But all those people are very talented [00:38:17] Speaker D: and they were talented as actors. [00:38:19] Speaker B: Not only are their family, not all [00:38:22] Speaker D: of them, but Sean Penn was. Look, man, that. He was a seriously good actor. [00:38:28] Speaker C: Well, you know, day one, my cousin who went to Santa Monica High School and my Cousin, her boyfriend was also a year above her at Santa Mono High, they call it. And Sean Penn and Charlie Sheen were there that senior year. They didn't. They never went to class, but they were still part of that graduate. And my. My cousin's boyfriend named Steve, he used to tell me that those two, all they did all day when they were on campus is just pranks. Pranks. Pranks, yeah. [00:39:01] Speaker D: Oh, they were funny on people, on [00:39:03] Speaker C: the faculty, the students. They didn't give a shit about their grades because they didn't have to. [00:39:08] Speaker D: No, they did not have to. [00:39:10] Speaker C: But talented guys, but they love doing pranks on people. [00:39:14] Speaker D: Well, do you remember the Tilly sisters? [00:39:16] Speaker C: Jennifer, they were all. [00:39:18] Speaker D: We were all go to parties, right? And then Sean and. And I don't remember another guy named. Three or four of us would always stand around and just trash these two when they came into the party. [00:39:31] Speaker C: The Tilly sisters. [00:39:32] Speaker D: The Tilly sisters. Because they talk like Betty Boo. And boy, we trashed them all. And then One of us, R.D. call, married him. Well, R.D. call, who did several movies with Sean. [00:39:48] Speaker C: She. [00:39:49] Speaker D: The second one. Not the. Not the. [00:39:51] Speaker C: Not Meg, but Jennifer. [00:39:52] Speaker D: Jennifer loved him. I mean, love this guy. And just wanted him to marry her. And he wouldn't marry her. And everybody was going, well, she's not so bad, you know, I mean, she turned out to make how much? Yeah, a shitload of money. Yeah, but rd, He. He made. He was an act, you know, he did well. But, yeah, we called him Mr. Blue because he always. But she. She loved him and would have taken him care of him the rest of his life. [00:40:21] Speaker B: But he had other plans. [00:40:23] Speaker D: He had other plans. He went back to wherever he was from. Somewhere in Idaho, I think. [00:40:28] Speaker C: Well, you know, there's a saying. We grow up in LA like I did in Hollywood, and I was in the business for quite a few years. You always look at each other and go, you seen him come, you seen them go. That's basically it. [00:40:41] Speaker D: Sure, I loved it. I still love it. I loved it when I was there. And I'd go back there if I could afford to live there. And Carolyn and even my new wife and I, we spent 10 years there after Austin, Okay. And that in Austin I had the Stony White punks. I'm trying to get back to the point. [00:41:00] Speaker B: Well, we're gonna catch, catch up on all that and move a little bit more quickly and get up to present day. But right now, it's. It's about that time, man. [00:41:10] Speaker C: Yeah, we need a refill there. Yeah, we need a refill. So this troubled nation knows the drill. We'll be right back. [00:41:17] Speaker D: Okay. [00:41:18] Speaker A: Well, the clowns are dancing down Rosalie [00:41:23] Speaker D: Alley Clowns are dancing tonight [00:41:30] Speaker A: and their hearts on the old they bleed and they pull Clowns are dancing down Rosalita night. Well, the clowns they tell me it's [00:41:49] Speaker D: never too late Clowns, they teach me [00:41:54] Speaker C: all [00:41:57] Speaker A: and I laugh at myself Cry lines Clowns paint tears to make sense of it all and the clowns are dancing down Rosalie Alley Clowns are dancing tonight Hang their hearts on the old they bleed and they pose Clouds are dancing down Rosalie tonight. Well, I miss all the busking the [00:42:39] Speaker D: blessings and cussings I miss all the laughs in the pan [00:42:47] Speaker A: but tonight I'll go waltzing down Rosalie Alley With a beautiful. [00:42:59] Speaker B: And we're back. Back with Mr. Manny Chevrolet. I am Renee Coleman, back with our guest, Mr. Jerry Giddens. Dr. Jerry Giddens. Now, actually, Manny, we had some mail to the bar. One of our favorite things, troubled listener mail. [00:43:15] Speaker C: Oh, wow. [00:43:16] Speaker B: So we're gonna open this up here. [00:43:18] Speaker C: Oh, look at that. [00:43:19] Speaker D: This is a top rated show. [00:43:21] Speaker C: Yeah, it is. [00:43:22] Speaker D: I got all the accoutrements. [00:43:23] Speaker C: Look at that. Who's it from? [00:43:25] Speaker A: Let's see. [00:43:26] Speaker B: It's from our old friend, Eddie V. Oh, Eddie. And he said, gentlemen. And he said. I use that term loosely as Brian. As Brian Johnson once abrasively barked. Have a drink on me. Only the best for Manny. Oh, Signed Eddie V. He's a good card there. [00:43:46] Speaker C: Eddie V. He. [00:43:47] Speaker B: He's buying our cocktails. [00:43:49] Speaker C: Oh, thank you. [00:43:50] Speaker B: Crisp. $20. [00:43:51] Speaker D: That's how you get on the show. Okay. All right. [00:43:53] Speaker C: We got to get him on. [00:43:54] Speaker B: Thank you, Eddie. I'd love to have Eddie on the show. He's. Eddie is one of the people that. [00:43:59] Speaker C: That. [00:43:59] Speaker B: That keeps up the. The reports of. Of welcome in incidents in his locality. [00:44:06] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [00:44:06] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. And he's in prison, right? [00:44:08] Speaker B: Yeah, he's in prison. [00:44:09] Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah. [00:44:10] Speaker B: So that's worth carrying. [00:44:12] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:44:12] Speaker D: Maybe that's where it came from. [00:44:14] Speaker C: Yeah. Welcome. [00:44:15] Speaker D: Welcome. [00:44:16] Speaker C: Get out. [00:44:16] Speaker D: That sounds like the. [00:44:18] Speaker B: Be careful. [00:44:19] Speaker D: That's the origin story right there. [00:44:21] Speaker B: Be careful. Well, anyway, thank you, Eddie. Thank you, Eddie. And we love mail to the bar. You can send your cards and letters and loose change to Snake and Chase Christmas Club Lounge on Oak Street. But then if you want to have clean hands or, you know, do it digitally, we have the PayPal and Venmo links in the show, notes of every show. That's what most people do. You can use that to buy us cocktails and support the operating costs of the Show. We also have the links to the Patreon page there, as well as links to the Troubleman podcast T shirts. It's not too early to start shopping for Christmas because those shirts, sometimes they take a few weeks, so you might want to get a jump on that. And also follow us on social media, Instagram, Facebook, and rate, review and subscribe to the podcast wherever you're listening to it. Give us five stars. Cost you. Nothing helps us a lot. And I'll be in and out of New Orleans, out on the road with the Iguanas and Sunny Landreth all summer long. You can find my dates on the. I have the link there in the show notes to the Renee Coleman Facebook page as well as the Iguanas dates page. So come see us out there and on the road and tell me hello, and I'll give you a Troublemen podcast sticker. All right, enough of that. Back to our guest, Mr. Jerry Giddens. Dr. Jerry Giddens. Dr. Jerry Giddens. So, Jerry, So. So you're out there in the west coast, you start a band, the Walking Wounded, and you have success. You get. You're on a number of record labels. You put out a bunch of records. And I was looking at some of the personnel on those records today, and you had some great players, like Dave Alvin plays on one of them. Doug Pettibone, who. [00:46:09] Speaker C: Who plays. [00:46:09] Speaker B: Plays with Lucinda Williams the past few years and everybody else. [00:46:14] Speaker D: They were all they. We. I was kind of in that scene. Dwight Yam and I had the same management for a minute. [00:46:22] Speaker B: Okay. [00:46:23] Speaker D: And we had a great dinner one night. [00:46:25] Speaker C: The. [00:46:26] Speaker D: The manager was from Tulsa in the. The Halsey Company. And he was a great guy. He's not with us anymore, but he and his wife invited me and my wife and. And. And him. Dwight's white. Dwight with a date. [00:46:47] Speaker B: Okay. [00:46:47] Speaker D: To have six people dinner. And it was. Sharon Stone was his date. [00:46:52] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. [00:46:53] Speaker D: She had about three things to say the whole night. [00:46:57] Speaker C: Look at my pussy. [00:46:58] Speaker D: Well, no, it's more like I'm sitting here with. With these. All three. These clowns here, you know, so. It was wonderful. [00:47:07] Speaker B: It was not that she didn't have something to say. She just didn't want to waste the words on y'. [00:47:10] Speaker C: All. [00:47:11] Speaker D: Not on the rest. Maybe. I think Dwight hadn't showed her his head yet. You know, he hadn't taken off his head when he did that to Lake. [00:47:19] Speaker C: Now, was she a star then? [00:47:21] Speaker D: Oh, yeah, she was a star, but barely. [00:47:23] Speaker C: Yeah, I know. She shown it. Yeah. [00:47:25] Speaker D: And shown it all. Yeah. [00:47:26] Speaker C: Yeah, she hadn't shown it all. But, you know, I think to me, because I met her at the airport at LAX about 20 years ago. She was getting her boots shined, okay. And there's all these Japanese tourists taking her picture and you know, groveling over, [00:47:42] Speaker D: was she giving it to them? You know, she was. [00:47:44] Speaker C: You know what I got to give? I got to give her credit. She reminded me of old Hollywood starlets. [00:47:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:47:51] Speaker C: She's, you know, just like, listen, I'm out in public, I have to dress to the nines. Oh yeah, I'm not fucking punching the cameraman for taking my picture and stuff like that. [00:48:01] Speaker B: I asked for this. Yeah, yeah, I want to be a part of this. [00:48:03] Speaker C: So she was fucking old school Hollywood. Yeah, she was great. And I just respected that so much. [00:48:11] Speaker B: I like Sharon Stone. [00:48:12] Speaker C: Oh, she's great. [00:48:13] Speaker D: I don't know if she was really understood. Dwight was just a country race, country musician. [00:48:19] Speaker C: Well, the funny thing about Yoakum, you know, him and Billy Bob Thornton came up together and Billy Bob was more the musician and Dwight was more the actor when they were coming up. [00:48:28] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:28] Speaker C: And then their careers reversed. [00:48:30] Speaker B: Right. [00:48:30] Speaker C: Very strange. [00:48:31] Speaker D: Well, Dwight, the last time I saw him, we were in the parking lot of Mad Dog Studios and all those musicians were there and he, he marches across the parking lot. Giddens, I got an idea. And I said, what? He said, did you just see Jimmy Dean? Sold Jimmy dean's sausage for $1 billion. [00:48:56] Speaker B: We need to start a sausage company. [00:48:59] Speaker D: No, Dwight Yocum biscuits. He said, I went up to Buck Owens place the other day and in Bakersfield, and we're having. They served me some biscuits. And I said, buck, these things suck. And he said, well then go in the back and make your own biscuits. So he did and he said, I brought them out and the whole place went crazy for my biscuits. So now Dwight Yokem biscuits. And he goes, what do you think? I go, fuck. Sounds good to me. I don't know much about biscuits. Well, I do know a lot about biscuits. But he said, I'm gonna serve them like lender bagels, you know, like in [00:49:39] Speaker B: a package like that. [00:49:41] Speaker D: And they did a whole industrial thing and got it all started and then the first batch just went to hell. Okay. And. And he got in a few big markets, the more upend markets in the Valley, and didn't really catch on. [00:49:58] Speaker B: It didn't catch on with the working cars. I. I just, I just did a show where the Iguanas opened for Dwight in, in. Out in California. And Dwight is still killing it, man. [00:50:08] Speaker D: Oh, he's mean. [00:50:09] Speaker B: You forget how many hit songs the guy had, man, when he starts reeling them out one after another. And the band is great and he's great. And God bless Dwight Yoko, man. [00:50:18] Speaker D: And Pete. Was Pete Anderson still playing with. [00:50:20] Speaker B: Oh, God, no. Pete's been. Been gone for 20 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:50:24] Speaker D: That was a bad. It's a bad decision on his part. [00:50:27] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:50:28] Speaker D: Personally, that's what I. [00:50:29] Speaker B: They're. They're both doing fine. [00:50:30] Speaker D: Yeah. They're not. So. [00:50:32] Speaker B: So back to you. [00:50:33] Speaker D: Okay, so. [00:50:34] Speaker B: So you're there, you run your course there with the Walking Wounded. But you guys, during that time, you had nationally released records, you toured all over the. [00:50:47] Speaker D: We had a number 10 hit in Canada. Okay, number 10. [00:50:51] Speaker B: So you played a lot in Canada. [00:50:52] Speaker C: What was the name of it? [00:50:53] Speaker D: Raging Winds of Time. [00:50:55] Speaker C: And this little. What band again? [00:50:57] Speaker D: Walking Wounded. [00:50:58] Speaker C: Okay, what year was that? [00:51:00] Speaker D: 1986. [00:51:04] Speaker B: Okay. I remember it well and. No, I do. I was 23 years old. [00:51:09] Speaker D: Well, we had a little hit and we were touring all over the place and making no money and. Sure, but having a great time. [00:51:17] Speaker B: Drinking a lot of beer. [00:51:18] Speaker D: Drinking a lot. Eddie Munoz from the Plim Souls was in the band at one moment. Chalo Quintana and Tony Marcico from the Crusados. [00:51:28] Speaker B: Oh, it was friends of, man. [00:51:29] Speaker D: They were. They were in the band. And yeah, I had the best music. That's how I was in la. I can't. I'm not a musician, you know, so if you're going to have a band, you need musicians. I told you. [00:51:42] Speaker B: But you were writing songs. [00:51:43] Speaker D: Writing songs. And I was a singer. Right, right, right. And I learned to play the guitar so I could sing. [00:51:49] Speaker B: And you. And you had that. That charismatic like. You cannot tell me that the years spent as an itinerant child preacher had. That didn't prepare you to be a front man for. [00:51:59] Speaker D: They wanted me bad in the ministry. [00:52:03] Speaker B: Moving on. No, I'm saying your time there prepared you to be on stage. [00:52:08] Speaker D: I was always on stage. [00:52:09] Speaker B: Try to keep up with me. Listen to what I'm saying and then react. [00:52:12] Speaker D: I'm trying. It's tough. [00:52:13] Speaker C: He's drunk on this non alcohol. [00:52:15] Speaker D: I get drunk on non alcohol, you know? [00:52:17] Speaker B: You know, I've been around a bunch of several people recently who don't drink anymore, and they seem more drunk than they've ever. Than they. I ever thought they were before. [00:52:28] Speaker D: That's me. [00:52:29] Speaker B: I don't know. I don't know, man. [00:52:30] Speaker D: So where are we going? [00:52:31] Speaker B: You? And I say, well, where are we? We're moving Forward. [00:52:34] Speaker C: Okay. [00:52:35] Speaker B: So. [00:52:35] Speaker C: So, so let's not get into alcohol and conversation. [00:52:39] Speaker D: Well, that goes on for 50 years. [00:52:41] Speaker C: So. [00:52:41] Speaker B: So, so, so. Well, let's. Let's fast forward. You. You're. You spend time now you have a family, but you're out on the road with a family. [00:52:50] Speaker D: Well, we. We moved out into above San Bernardo up in the mountains for three years and hope my wife would become the mother and I would. [00:52:59] Speaker C: This is your first wife? [00:53:01] Speaker D: My first wife, yeah. And she didn't become the mother. She went. I hate this. And we had two children. [00:53:08] Speaker B: Oh, well, she was a mother. She just. [00:53:10] Speaker D: She was in fact, mother. [00:53:12] Speaker C: Okay. Mother teach kids. [00:53:14] Speaker D: She didn't get the whole thing. [00:53:16] Speaker B: It's a circular. It's crazy, man. [00:53:18] Speaker D: She didn't get the whole. [00:53:19] Speaker B: Right. [00:53:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:53:21] Speaker D: She didn't get the whole deal about the motherhood thing. And so, you know, I. I couldn't. I. Well, it's a long story. We'll make it short. We all. We decided to leave the mountains and go to Austin, Texas, because. All together. [00:53:38] Speaker B: Okay. [00:53:38] Speaker D: Because I could possibly maintain my career in Austin as a. [00:53:42] Speaker B: As what? [00:53:43] Speaker D: As a singer, songwriter. [00:53:44] Speaker B: Okay. [00:53:44] Speaker D: With no longer with Walking Wounded, but solo by myself. [00:53:49] Speaker B: And so you. So you moved there at what time? [00:53:52] Speaker D: 90, 19. [00:53:53] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:53:54] Speaker C: All right. [00:53:54] Speaker B: Because earlier you said it was the 80s, which is. Screwed me up. [00:53:57] Speaker D: The 80s, when walking windy was happening. [00:53:59] Speaker B: But you said you lost to Austin, but. Okay, maybe you misspoke. It's all right. So. So now you're in Austin. [00:54:06] Speaker C: It's your life, dude. I have no idea. [00:54:08] Speaker B: In the 1990s. [00:54:08] Speaker C: But walking wood, and now. Now that you say that ringing a [00:54:12] Speaker D: bell with me during the lingerie, baby, Every Tuesday night. [00:54:17] Speaker C: That's what I got. That's what I remember. [00:54:18] Speaker D: The walking. It wasn't the walking was just walking. [00:54:22] Speaker C: Walking Wounded. Yes. [00:54:23] Speaker B: And what kind of bands were y' all sharing the bill with? [00:54:26] Speaker D: Well, we. We. We got to where we didn't share bails much, but. [00:54:31] Speaker C: Jesus Christ, I had to throw. You were already paying the bills. [00:54:35] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, I gave everybody free. [00:54:38] Speaker B: Yeah, just answer the questions that you think I. I'm. [00:54:40] Speaker D: Well, we. I opened. Made one record opening Lucinda Williams. [00:54:46] Speaker B: Okay, There you go. [00:54:49] Speaker C: If I remember, it was country punk. [00:54:52] Speaker D: Cow punk. [00:54:53] Speaker C: Yeah, cow punk. Okay. Now I remember you guys. [00:54:55] Speaker D: And we. We got made the first Walking Wounded record. We recorded it. [00:55:01] Speaker C: Okay. [00:55:01] Speaker D: And that show looked like those guys, you know, every. Dwight, the whole, you know, Lucinda's all her people. Did Pettibone play for Lucinda? [00:55:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Last time she. Yeah, she. He's on the band. I Think. [00:55:15] Speaker D: Yeah, he was a big star guy. Big, big. [00:55:19] Speaker B: He plays great gun. [00:55:20] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. Okay, so fast forward. [00:55:22] Speaker D: You're in. [00:55:23] Speaker C: You're in Austin. You and your wife divorce, she gets the kids. Yeah, yeah. [00:55:29] Speaker D: She didn't get to. I mean, you got. She called me, me and said, if you'll move back to Austin, I mean, back to la. I'll leave, I'll. I'll go. If I'm going, I want to go to California, but only if you'll go and take care of the kids. And so I said, I took about a minute before I went. I said, well, give me a minute and I'll call you back. And I called her back in literally a minute and go, I want the fuck out of here. So, yeah, let's go. [00:55:56] Speaker C: Okay. [00:55:57] Speaker D: So I had to find me a place in la and then I took care of the kids while she went to work for Whole Foods. [00:56:06] Speaker C: You're out in San Bernardino. You start this family, then Austin. Austin. And then you go back to la. [00:56:14] Speaker D: Yep. [00:56:15] Speaker C: With the kids. [00:56:16] Speaker D: With the kids. And her. [00:56:17] Speaker C: Oh, and her. [00:56:18] Speaker D: Yeah, she. She went to work at Whole Foods in Austin, which had a. Was the beginning of Whole Foods. [00:56:24] Speaker C: Okay. [00:56:24] Speaker D: And then she went a big executive secretary there. We lived in West Hollywood. [00:56:29] Speaker C: And then you moved back to la, the four of you? [00:56:31] Speaker D: The four of the, the. The three of them. All four of us went, but not together. It was always three. Three in one. Whichever, wherever they were, it was a three in one deal. [00:56:44] Speaker C: You went from San Bedu to Austin, then back to la to West Hollywood. [00:56:48] Speaker D: That's right. [00:56:49] Speaker C: Okay. And then what happens there? She takes it. She's a big shot now at Whole Foods. And you're just a struggling artist? [00:56:54] Speaker D: No, but I. Yes. And I have my girlfriend from Houston. [00:56:57] Speaker C: The Belgian girl. [00:56:58] Speaker D: The Belgian lady. And we're living in Laurel Canyon in. Wonderful place. [00:57:03] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. [00:57:04] Speaker B: Does your wife know about this? [00:57:05] Speaker D: She. She does and she did. [00:57:07] Speaker B: And she was okay with that? [00:57:09] Speaker D: Yeah, because it had nothing to do with her and nothing to do with, you know. [00:57:13] Speaker B: Okay. I'm glad you were able to. [00:57:15] Speaker C: So do you think if I went to Whole Foods, I can get a discount if I mention her name? [00:57:20] Speaker D: I got a card right now. [00:57:22] Speaker B: Okay. [00:57:22] Speaker D: I can give you a discount if you go with me. [00:57:26] Speaker C: Five finger discounts. [00:57:28] Speaker D: I get the 25%, baby. [00:57:30] Speaker C: What happened to your kids? Where are they now? [00:57:32] Speaker D: They are my young. My youngest son is living in the Airbnb behind us. He got an incredible degree in California in graphic art, went to work in LA for the biggest pot company there. And Hated it and called me up and said, dad, I just enrolled in Delgado Community College. [00:57:52] Speaker C: So he's living here. [00:57:54] Speaker D: How about that? Airbnb? [00:57:56] Speaker B: Yeah, right on. Okay. [00:57:58] Speaker D: Well, it's nice to have him close income. [00:58:00] Speaker C: Is he paying you rent? [00:58:02] Speaker D: No, he's. Sons don't pay rent. [00:58:04] Speaker B: Well, you take care of your children. [00:58:06] Speaker D: You take care of your. [00:58:10] Speaker B: I still have. So my son's now. My son now is like 27 years old. If I get an opportunity to make him a sandwich, I get a feeling that there's no. There's nothing that can compare to the feeling of getting able to. Being able to feed your children. It's a real primordial thrill. [00:58:31] Speaker D: And not only that, they understand that for the rest of their lives. [00:58:35] Speaker B: And hopefully they will do that with their children. [00:58:37] Speaker D: Hopefully they will. Hopefully they will have a child and move to their own homes in. [00:58:43] Speaker B: In West Hollywood. Any. [00:58:45] Speaker D: Anyway, never going back. [00:58:47] Speaker B: Anyway, back to you. [00:58:48] Speaker C: So back to me. So what's the other kid doing? [00:58:51] Speaker D: He lives in his. He lives in his mom's garage in Burbank. [00:58:54] Speaker B: Oh, wow. Okay. [00:58:56] Speaker D: After he went AWOL from the friggin army back in the one chance. [00:59:01] Speaker C: Wanted. [00:59:01] Speaker D: No, he turned himself in two years later. And okay, yeah, he's not wanted. But now he's a Catholic. He decided to become him. Yeah, I know. [00:59:12] Speaker B: Manny and I were both Catholics. It could be worse. [00:59:14] Speaker D: He probably knows more about it in the five years he's been in the Catholicism than y' all do, because I would doubt that. [00:59:23] Speaker C: Seriously. [00:59:23] Speaker D: Well, no, he. He reads anyway. It's wacky. [00:59:28] Speaker C: You raised two freaks, basically one. [00:59:31] Speaker D: Yes. [00:59:32] Speaker C: Yeah. Okay. [00:59:33] Speaker B: All right. One out of two ain't bad. [00:59:34] Speaker D: That's what I'm saying. [00:59:35] Speaker B: Well, so. So, so then you. You finally. You get to New Orleans where we really need to escalate this. [00:59:42] Speaker C: Or. [00:59:42] Speaker B: Or. That's not the word. Speed this up, accelerate this. [00:59:47] Speaker D: I went to New Orleans. Got to New Orleans in 2008 to take a job at Suno. [00:59:52] Speaker B: Oh, okay. Because now you're. You were in. In LA before that. [00:59:56] Speaker D: Got my PhD from Claremont graduate University. [01:00:00] Speaker C: So you're in LA through the 90s and the early 2000s. Yes. And you're not playing music, you're not doing anything. [01:00:05] Speaker D: I'm playing a little. [01:00:06] Speaker C: You're playing a little, But I'm. But no one's watching you. [01:00:09] Speaker D: No one's watching. [01:00:10] Speaker C: Well, yeah. [01:00:11] Speaker D: Walking windy. Nope, they weren't watching. [01:00:13] Speaker C: Yeah, nobody's watching around. [01:00:14] Speaker D: Nobody's looking at me. Yeah, it's kind of horrible. But I was. But I was doing what I could it and. [01:00:21] Speaker C: Yeah, sure, yeah. [01:00:22] Speaker D: Getting my PhD. [01:00:23] Speaker C: Got your PhD and Claremont is like Orange County. [01:00:26] Speaker D: No, no, it's out in Claremont. [01:00:28] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I know where it is. It's just a place I've never been to. [01:00:32] Speaker D: Yeah, they have the Five. [01:00:33] Speaker C: There's no reason to go to Claremont. [01:00:36] Speaker D: No, I probably had. Never been there till I enrolled. [01:00:39] Speaker C: Right, exactly. [01:00:41] Speaker D: And all the people at Cal State Long beach, where I got my masters, they kept going. You got into Claremont [01:00:49] Speaker C: like it was a big deal. [01:00:50] Speaker D: Yeah. And then I found out later when I was there, the secretary calls me over one day and goes, they thought you were black. [01:00:57] Speaker B: That's why they hired you. [01:00:58] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:00:58] Speaker C: That's why they accepted. [01:01:01] Speaker D: I was just a gospel singer from Louisiana. [01:01:04] Speaker C: They didn't look at my picture or anything similar. They really never looked at you. [01:01:08] Speaker D: So they thought they had them the perfect person, you know? [01:01:11] Speaker B: Okay. [01:01:12] Speaker D: And I was. I disappointed them a little bit. [01:01:15] Speaker B: Well, it wasn't the first time. [01:01:16] Speaker D: I wasn't black. [01:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:01:17] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:01:17] Speaker B: No, I couldn't have been. [01:01:18] Speaker C: But you showed up with your kids who were black, right? Yeah. [01:01:22] Speaker B: At least close enough. [01:01:25] Speaker D: Their mother was a, you know, Mexican American. [01:01:28] Speaker C: There you go. [01:01:29] Speaker D: So maybe that's what they were thinking. [01:01:30] Speaker C: What's her name? [01:01:32] Speaker D: Lydia. [01:01:32] Speaker C: Lydia. [01:01:33] Speaker D: All right. [01:01:33] Speaker C: And she was from Texas? [01:01:35] Speaker D: Yep. She. No, she was from Pittsburgh. Met her in Hollywood. [01:01:41] Speaker C: Okay. And you met this Belgian girl in Austin. [01:01:43] Speaker D: In Austin. And she's from Brussels. [01:01:46] Speaker C: Yeah, she's from Brussels. Yeah. [01:01:48] Speaker D: And she was. Yep. We met at Mary Jane's, a great club. It lasted about two years, but we were playing Fitzgerald's. [01:01:58] Speaker C: What do you mean it lasted two years? Your dad was married with her anymore, you know. [01:02:02] Speaker B: No, I. I thought the same thing, man. The narrative, it's really. [01:02:08] Speaker D: Really. [01:02:09] Speaker B: So you have a PhD in composition? [01:02:12] Speaker D: American Literature. [01:02:14] Speaker B: Really? [01:02:14] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:02:15] Speaker B: Okay. [01:02:15] Speaker D: And that when I. But when we were touring, walking, we did. We played now. [01:02:20] Speaker B: Do you. [01:02:20] Speaker D: With you and Alex Shelton. One night. [01:02:22] Speaker B: Really? Okay. [01:02:23] Speaker D: With you guys and Alex. At Fitzgerald. [01:02:25] Speaker B: Fitzgerald's. I remember playing that gig. I didn't. [01:02:28] Speaker C: Who is the worst American writer ever, in your opinion? The worst. [01:02:33] Speaker D: Well, who wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull? Remember that book? [01:02:38] Speaker B: I do remember that. [01:02:39] Speaker C: I remember that. [01:02:40] Speaker D: I think that's. [01:02:41] Speaker C: I think his name was Jonathan Siegel, wasn't it? [01:02:43] Speaker B: No. [01:02:44] Speaker C: No, I have no idea. [01:02:45] Speaker B: Yeah, that guy. [01:02:47] Speaker D: The best. Right? Do you know who the best writer was? [01:02:49] Speaker C: Who? [01:02:49] Speaker D: In my humble opinion? [01:02:51] Speaker C: Who? Bukowski. [01:02:52] Speaker D: Browdigan. [01:02:53] Speaker C: Who? [01:02:54] Speaker D: Richard Brautigan. And he was trout fishing in America. [01:02:57] Speaker C: Oh, okay. [01:02:58] Speaker D: And Bukowski was right up there. But Browdigan was simple enough. I could read him. [01:03:06] Speaker C: Okay. Do you tell your students this? [01:03:08] Speaker D: Oh, yeah. I teach him all the time. [01:03:10] Speaker C: Okay. [01:03:10] Speaker D: I teach. We teach trout fishing in America because they can actually read it. And they. And they. [01:03:17] Speaker C: I would love to write a book without verbs. That's my dream, to write a book without verbs. [01:03:25] Speaker D: Songs. [01:03:26] Speaker C: Just write songs. Yeah. Or poetry, maybe. [01:03:28] Speaker D: Poetry, absolutely. [01:03:30] Speaker C: Yeah. Without. [01:03:30] Speaker D: Well, that'd be. Be a lot of nouns. [01:03:33] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:03:34] Speaker B: Just. Just write it with the verbs and then take all the verbs out. [01:03:37] Speaker C: There you go. Yeah, yeah. [01:03:38] Speaker D: That's what you would do. [01:03:39] Speaker B: I would like. [01:03:40] Speaker C: I'm giving that to you. You do that. It's a good idea. And give me 10%. [01:03:43] Speaker D: Yeah. That writing just about as bad as a music. [01:03:45] Speaker C: Sure. [01:03:46] Speaker B: I would say worse. Worse. [01:03:47] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:48] Speaker D: I decided to get, you know, in two. Two careers that both sucked. [01:03:52] Speaker B: Sure. [01:03:53] Speaker D: But anyway, where are we going now? [01:03:55] Speaker B: Well, let's. Let's. Let's scooch up to in the last 20 years here. You've been in New Orleans here. And let's. Let's get to the point where you and I meet, because that's when your life really takes a turn for the better. [01:04:10] Speaker D: The iguanas saved my life. [01:04:12] Speaker B: Thank you. [01:04:13] Speaker D: They did. Rod Hodges in particular. But. But it made me feel like there were musicians here that I could relate to. Relate to. [01:04:22] Speaker B: Right, right. [01:04:23] Speaker D: We wrote songs with me and Rod did. And I thought it was incredible. And you guys all played for me at the Music Factory and you started [01:04:33] Speaker B: the band Killeen Foundry. I used to always pronounce it Kyleen Foundry. I like that sound. The way. So Killeen Foundry. I discovered the origin of that name walking down the sidewalk and all the. If anybody in New Orleans, as you see these old school, like, cast iron. Surgeon. Waterboard. Not the surgeon. [01:04:57] Speaker D: Especially in this part of town. [01:04:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Like these. Just things in the sidewalk that are cast iron from 100 years ago or something. You'll see the manufacturer of it is the Killeen Foundry. Was the foundry that. That cast all those things? [01:05:15] Speaker D: Yes. Yes. That's where we got it. I saw it and I went, oh, that sounds good. [01:05:20] Speaker B: So you had that band and you recorded the band played at Circle Bar a bunch of times. [01:05:26] Speaker D: Absolutely. And we went. We. [01:05:29] Speaker B: Doug Garrison played in the band. Rod Hodges. You had another bass. [01:05:35] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:05:35] Speaker D: And then Rod and you guys decided that y' all had other careers. Well, and so. But. And so I had to make. I had to finish that the Colleen Foundry record myself. And because I had been used just making records once a year like an idiot. And so I We. This is great. Spotify has no idea what to do with Colleen foundation boundary. It doesn't have Jerry Giddens name on. Confuses them. [01:06:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:06:06] Speaker D: So I just put them all together. [01:06:08] Speaker B: There you go. There it's all. It's all Jerry Getton. [01:06:10] Speaker C: Did I tell you I ran into Rod's brother Gary? [01:06:13] Speaker D: Oh, no. He built my house. [01:06:14] Speaker B: Brother Gary. We love Gary. [01:06:17] Speaker C: He's a member of the noac, like I am. [01:06:20] Speaker B: Okay. [01:06:21] Speaker C: And I was in the sauna just like a week or so ago, though [01:06:25] Speaker B: he has a huge. [01:06:26] Speaker C: And he. Oh, I wouldn't know. You. [01:06:29] Speaker B: You were in the sauna? No, I thought you were. [01:06:31] Speaker C: No, we wear clothes. [01:06:32] Speaker D: You don't show your cock anymore at the New Orleans Athletic? [01:06:36] Speaker B: Talk about bourgeois. [01:06:37] Speaker D: I don't know. [01:06:38] Speaker B: I've only been in a sauna once or twice in my life. [01:06:41] Speaker D: They made us stop all together. [01:06:43] Speaker C: But no, he goes, hey, Manny, how you doing? I didn't know. I had no idea. He's lost like a hundred pounds, this guy Gary. [01:06:51] Speaker B: Never a heavy guy, though. [01:06:52] Speaker C: No, he was. Gary was like, you know, he goes. He goes, it's Gary. I go, I don't recognize. He goes, yeah, I've lost like £80. He said, wow. [01:07:03] Speaker B: And I didn't realize he'd gained 80 pounds. [01:07:05] Speaker C: Yeah, because I. Last time I saw him was Thanksgiving like two years ago at Canseco's. I was getting some last minute ice for our Thanksgiving thing and. And he was huge with long hair and stuff. [01:07:19] Speaker B: Wow. [01:07:20] Speaker C: And a different guy. No, it was Gary. [01:07:23] Speaker B: Okay. [01:07:24] Speaker C: All right. Because he. He remembered that too. He's lost like 80 pounds. [01:07:28] Speaker D: Some weight he has lost. [01:07:30] Speaker C: I didn't recognize him at all. And so tell. If you see Rod, tell him, you [01:07:37] Speaker D: know, Manny said hello. [01:07:39] Speaker C: No, we'll tell. You know, Manny said hobby. Listen, tell Gary if he keeps losing any more weight, he's gonna be nothing but a shrunken head in a year. He's losing weight by the minute. [01:07:50] Speaker B: Hopefully he's not losing anymore. You know, Gary always had a build like mine, so that's how I think of him. [01:07:56] Speaker C: He lost a lot of weight. I did not recognize him. [01:07:59] Speaker B: Gary's looking good these days. Well, so Killeen Foundry and you put out a couple of records. [01:08:08] Speaker D: A record called Dammit Abbey. [01:08:10] Speaker B: Yeah, And I played on that record. [01:08:11] Speaker D: Yeah, you guys were all on it with the piety, with. With Bingham. [01:08:15] Speaker B: Right, right, right. [01:08:16] Speaker D: And then, y', all, we did a show at the music factory. And the next day I got like Easter, I think I got up a ladder on a tree with a Chainsaw to cut a limb. [01:08:30] Speaker B: Oh, geez. [01:08:30] Speaker D: And the limb bounced off, of course, the ground right under the ladder. And I fell down and. [01:08:36] Speaker C: And broke. [01:08:37] Speaker D: And now I have a new shoulder. I think it's on this. [01:08:39] Speaker B: You're lucky you didn't. [01:08:40] Speaker D: Did kill myself. [01:08:42] Speaker B: Kill yourself? Yeah. You know, doing that, people, it's. [01:08:45] Speaker A: It's. [01:08:45] Speaker B: It's not a. Not a. It's a young man's game. And. And it's. It's. They're cutting trees with a chainsaw. There's about five ways you can die. [01:08:54] Speaker D: Yeah. And I almost. [01:08:55] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:56] Speaker D: And so that stopped that. Clean Foundry Jerry Giddens experiment with a new band. [01:09:02] Speaker B: So. So now getting up to today, last year sometime, we started doing these new recordings. You. You enlisted me and Doug Garrison. We first went into Marine Studios. [01:09:14] Speaker A: Absolutely. [01:09:15] Speaker B: And did some basic tracks with you. [01:09:19] Speaker D: Right. [01:09:20] Speaker B: And then you had other people come and do some overdubs. Joe Brawl and Rod Hodges. You had Tom Marin come and play fiddle on it and Al Hol. [01:09:31] Speaker C: So. [01:09:31] Speaker D: And she is part of the story, because in the last Circle Bar show I did, which was just right before they closed, maybe a year before the shutdown. Yeah. And Rod. I think Rod was playing. And Pete was. Big Pete. [01:09:47] Speaker B: And bass player. [01:09:48] Speaker D: Yeah, the bass player. And after the show, Vanessa Gal Holiday, she goes, you made me cry on four songs. You made me cry four times. And I was going. Thought she was joking. And then somebody who was there, who hurt. I told that story. He goes, she was. [01:10:07] Speaker C: She. [01:10:08] Speaker D: She was balling the whole time you were playing. There you go. [01:10:10] Speaker C: That's what you'd do better if she said, you made me come for a time. [01:10:13] Speaker B: Well, see, you know, that's the same thing. It's the same thing. [01:10:16] Speaker D: She didn't really. [01:10:18] Speaker C: But it's the same thing if you [01:10:20] Speaker D: only write sad songs. You know, she. If you write sad songs, you want people to cry. [01:10:26] Speaker B: An honest, you know, human reaction. [01:10:30] Speaker A: Right. [01:10:30] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:10:30] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:31] Speaker D: So she was crying, and I said, maybe I should just do sad songs. [01:10:35] Speaker B: Okay. So that inspired. [01:10:38] Speaker D: That inspired the new record. And. And she's still one of my favorite people. And she's singing back up on it. Then I just recorded with Lynn Drury. [01:10:48] Speaker B: Okay. [01:10:48] Speaker D: To try and finish that record with her. [01:10:50] Speaker B: And. [01:10:51] Speaker D: Well, Stumps declown was on the first part. [01:10:54] Speaker B: Yeah. Now, what did Stumps do? Because I listened to the whole record today, and I kept listening for what does. What does Stump's contribution to? [01:11:01] Speaker D: Well, I asked. [01:11:03] Speaker B: More spiritual. [01:11:05] Speaker D: Yeah. [01:11:05] Speaker B: Okay. [01:11:06] Speaker D: I asked the engineer to do what he thought was best, and he turned [01:11:10] Speaker B: him all the way off. [01:11:11] Speaker D: Well, not all the way off. You have to have a little on there somewhere. [01:11:15] Speaker B: So the engineer was Adam K. Keel. [01:11:18] Speaker D: And one love that guy. [01:11:20] Speaker B: Great engineer. And he played some on the record. [01:11:22] Speaker D: He played a little bit of piano and even on the new one. Yeah, he's got some on that too. [01:11:29] Speaker B: And so, yeah, I dig that guy. [01:11:31] Speaker D: He's. He's. [01:11:32] Speaker B: Everybody over there at Marigny is. Is aces, man. [01:11:37] Speaker D: Rick Nelson. [01:11:38] Speaker B: Rick G. Nelson, who just had a birthday yesterday. Shout out Happy birthday to Rick Nelson. Nelson. [01:11:42] Speaker D: Wow. I didn't even know that. [01:11:44] Speaker B: You know, I keep up with things, but my finger on the pulse. [01:11:47] Speaker D: Well, I was just wondering why you were so active in the world. [01:11:50] Speaker B: That's how I maintain my girlish figure. [01:11:55] Speaker D: My mother used to say something like that. [01:11:57] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:11:58] Speaker D: Not many people use a girlish figure. [01:12:00] Speaker B: Yeah. For obvious reasons. [01:12:03] Speaker D: But. But, yeah, but I. I couldn't keep. I mean, they wouldn't hire me full time at Delgado, so I said, oh, shit, I hire myself full time. So. [01:12:13] Speaker B: Right on. [01:12:13] Speaker D: That's what we're doing. [01:12:14] Speaker B: So. So you put this record out just a couple of months ago or more recently, that. And. But then you have the. So. So it's development into a stage play. So it says, would you call this a musical? [01:12:26] Speaker D: No. [01:12:27] Speaker B: Okay. [01:12:27] Speaker D: It is a. As soon as I decided to do that, then my manager and everyone else goes, you have a manager? Well, you know. Well, I had one. So I. I still call her that just to impress people. And she said, well, you know, Springsteen did that. He did six months at Broadway in Brawl on Broadway. Just his own shit. Just explaining himself. And then someone else went, well, you know, Neil Young did that. And so that was my idea to begin with. [01:13:00] Speaker B: Okay. [01:13:01] Speaker C: And so you had this idea before Neil Young in spring. [01:13:04] Speaker D: No, but do this. In my mind, I did. [01:13:06] Speaker C: Okay. [01:13:07] Speaker B: Independent. [01:13:07] Speaker D: I didn't know they had done it. They didn't bring me the idea. [01:13:11] Speaker B: Sure. [01:13:12] Speaker C: Gotcha. [01:13:13] Speaker D: Because I'm just too cool for that kind of. [01:13:15] Speaker B: Sure, sure, sure. [01:13:16] Speaker D: You know, I would steal from anybody. I didn't say I wouldn't do that. But not that. [01:13:21] Speaker C: Okay, got. [01:13:22] Speaker D: And so basically, I was tired of playing in bars where no one was listening. And you don't get me unless you're listening. I can sing. So I always got that. [01:13:33] Speaker B: But so you're reframing the things, [01:13:38] Speaker D: couching it in a different way. [01:13:40] Speaker B: All right, nice. [01:13:42] Speaker D: And whether you can hear the lyrics and I can talk about the little demons that inhabit my songs. I thought they were my sons, but then I realized that they were my songs. And they're always in my ear. Where are you going to sing us? You know, so that's what brought me to some semblance of music. But I'm still not a musician. [01:14:07] Speaker C: Good. [01:14:08] Speaker D: And the guys who play in the band and you guys, they all know that, right? Because I've been around a lot of musicians. [01:14:16] Speaker B: You're a preacher. [01:14:17] Speaker D: I'm a preacher for the musicians. I'm there to save them. [01:14:21] Speaker C: And you're preaching to the choir. [01:14:23] Speaker B: No, we're all there to save ourselves. That's. That's. [01:14:27] Speaker D: We all running the same. The rat race. All together, but alone. Everyone okay. Something like that. It's part of the. It's part of my script. Another guy wrote it, so I don't remember exactly. [01:14:42] Speaker C: So my script is oxycontin. Okay. [01:14:45] Speaker D: There you go. [01:14:47] Speaker C: I see for you a lifelong of non alcoholic related problems. [01:14:51] Speaker D: Methotrexate. [01:14:52] Speaker C: That's what I think for you. After this hour that we've had here, [01:14:56] Speaker B: Ibogaine is coming back. The big debut is tomorrow. Now this. This will come out obviously after tomorrow, but this won't be the only performance of this staged rendering of the new thing. [01:15:10] Speaker D: Maybe we'll do part of it at Bufa's on June 19th. I mean, July 19th. [01:15:17] Speaker B: Okay. [01:15:18] Speaker D: But yeah, I'm trying to save it for when I have a stage. [01:15:21] Speaker C: All right. [01:15:22] Speaker D: And it's called the Chronicles rather than just Sad songs at Sunset, which is the record. [01:15:27] Speaker C: Right. [01:15:27] Speaker D: And the Chronicles will be that. But it's already stage production. Yeah, but my graphic artist son's already confused that with the advertisement. So it's all good. [01:15:37] Speaker B: Okay. Right on. Well, God, Jerry, that's. [01:15:41] Speaker D: You guys are always the most. The happiest part of my life. [01:15:46] Speaker B: Oh, thank you. [01:15:47] Speaker D: Sit with you guys. Especially Manny, who's the star. [01:15:51] Speaker B: Especially Manny, huh? [01:15:52] Speaker D: Especially Manny. Because he always looks at me like, who the hell is this? Well, that's. I don't know who he is. [01:15:57] Speaker B: He looks at me like that too. [01:15:59] Speaker C: So if that's what it is. And you've got more problems than I thought. [01:16:07] Speaker D: The last one I didn't get a chance to really show you. [01:16:10] Speaker C: Yeah, okay. [01:16:10] Speaker D: This one's much better. [01:16:11] Speaker C: Were you drinking on the last show? Oh, yes. You were drinking on the last. [01:16:15] Speaker B: We all were. [01:16:16] Speaker C: Yeah, but now you're not drinking. You're drinking non alcoholic. [01:16:19] Speaker D: Well, I still get. I feel. [01:16:21] Speaker C: Is this because, you know, it's the only way. Is this because your wife, your Belgian wife doesn't want you to drink? Or it's because. [01:16:29] Speaker D: No, it's because the. My. My neurologist goes, you want to die? And so. [01:16:34] Speaker C: But who doesn't? [01:16:35] Speaker B: Yeah, well, who doesn't know? [01:16:38] Speaker D: I know I'm gonna. [01:16:39] Speaker C: Or is this a way to keep on top of your kids? [01:16:42] Speaker D: Oh, God, no. They. They're too old now. I don't even. I don't even mess with that. [01:16:47] Speaker C: They're living in the basement, your kids. Right. [01:16:49] Speaker B: Right. [01:16:49] Speaker D: Oh, no, I'm living in my. [01:16:50] Speaker C: My Airbnb. [01:16:52] Speaker D: Yeah. Losing all my money. [01:16:54] Speaker C: Losing money. [01:16:55] Speaker D: I made tons of money on that for about five years. And now, you know. But he does Airbnb everything around the house that we need in money. [01:17:03] Speaker B: Money is useless. Your children are everything. [01:17:05] Speaker D: They are everything. That's especially such. [01:17:09] Speaker B: It isn't with my son. [01:17:11] Speaker D: I don't know the one son. I got the other. Knucklehead. [01:17:16] Speaker C: Yeah, Knucklehead. [01:17:17] Speaker B: One out of two ain't bad. [01:17:18] Speaker D: This one is as good a handyman as you'd ever want. And you know how we need them in New Orleans. [01:17:22] Speaker C: Yeah. Yeah. [01:17:23] Speaker D: And this one doesn't cost me a penny. [01:17:25] Speaker C: Okay. [01:17:26] Speaker D: Even. [01:17:26] Speaker C: And, well, it is costing you penny, because you can't rent out the Airbnb. [01:17:30] Speaker D: See, I can't think about it in that way. [01:17:32] Speaker B: It's all working out, and I have to. [01:17:34] Speaker D: I'm with you. [01:17:35] Speaker B: Yes. [01:17:36] Speaker D: You have to do that for your family. [01:17:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, Jerry, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. It's been a kick to having you for a second time. It was even better than the first. [01:17:45] Speaker D: Well, I'm gonna. [01:17:46] Speaker C: Even more confusing than the first. [01:17:48] Speaker D: I don't even remember for a third, [01:17:51] Speaker C: but I'm due back on Earth now, dude, so we'll see you later. [01:17:54] Speaker D: Well, are you drinking? [01:17:55] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, of course I'm drinking. [01:17:57] Speaker D: Okay. [01:17:57] Speaker C: I've been drinking, you know. [01:17:59] Speaker D: Well, I love you guys. [01:18:00] Speaker C: Eight years old. I love you drinking ponies, man. Yeah, yeah, those ponies. [01:18:07] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:18:08] Speaker C: My dad and my uncle used to let me drink ponies with them. [01:18:13] Speaker B: Well, Jerry, again, thank you so much. And as always on the Troubled Men podcast, we like to say trouble never ends. [01:18:20] Speaker C: But for you, Jerry, it continues. [01:18:22] Speaker B: The struggle. [01:18:23] Speaker C: The struggle continues. Yeah. Good night. [01:18:26] Speaker B: Good night. [01:18:26] Speaker D: Good night. [01:18:28] Speaker A: Meet me at the Saint Rock Tavern we could dance through the night [01:18:36] Speaker D: Meet [01:18:37] Speaker A: me at the St. Rock Tavern we can jump into the light. Got a number from a matchbook cover and an address of a bar I stumbled on a strange signal Called out from afar Meet me at the same sign Rock Tavern we can dance through the night Meet me at the St. Rock Tavern we could jump into the lobby. Stood like an icon wishing on a bar. [01:19:38] Speaker D: I dialed in a strange signal I could not ignore. [01:19:47] Speaker A: Meet me at the St. Rock Tavern we can dance through the night. Meet me at the St. Rock Tavern we could jump in Tom. Meet me at the same Rock Tavern we could dance through the night Meet me at the St. Rock Tavern we could jump into the light. [01:20:51] Speaker B: Sam, [01:21:17] Speaker C: It.