Welcome to don't drop the tongues. I am barrel boy. We got fill
the grill, Kyle from your behind barbecue. A special guest join us today.
Fergolicious Barbecue in the house. Kyle. You guys know this man,
well give him his flowers. What's up, fie Fer. I don't know
if I call you fergolicious barbecue. If I'm calling you Richard for Gola barbecue.
Anytime somebody starts going by their government name, there's a problem. It
feels like this is first hand knowledge, is what phel says. What's good?
Man? What's good? What's shakeing? Ever? Your barrel? You
switched room with you in your bedroom now? No, I'm in my office
because I can see your barrel. Now that's yeah. I have multiple those
around the house. I've only seen pictures of you wearing the barrel. Yeah
you know, I mean, I mean I've warned it. What I mean
you haven't a war not? Yeah, because you guys have. I think
it should. I ain't cheap. Yeah, you should wear it on this
podcast. Actually, just put it on now. I don't have it here,
so rich Richard Brian is to go up now, I say, put
it on. Now it'scept the station. I don't have it here. I
don't recorded. Before we get rolling here, we got to talk about two
things here. First off, Phil the grill, Uh did you rob Martha
Stewart or did you go to her house? Because that doesn't look like your
back here from last time? Yo? Yo, you you don't like my
decorations. It looks good, looks you got a studio back there? Did
you get that idea of pin trust? Yeah? Exactly, now, Yo,
I put plastic on the patio furniture outside, you know what I'm saying.
No, I didn't catch the ten I didn't catch the ten volume joint.
And you know hours, no flowers for anybody, No flowers for anybody
that went and picked that up for you. I think Phil made a trip
to Ikea. He did. He made a trip to Ikea, had a
trip to Ikea, and he pended on his pinterest Ford. It's a funny
story because you know, I'll be looking up all these auction sites and stuff,
right because I ain't trying to pay full price. Right. So the
pergola I saw on the auction, but I told my brother Kyle to meet
me there. You know, Kyle, Kyle almost hit two crackheads. He's
like, Yo, what CD area? You got me into town right now?
Broken down in the hood, just bums everywhere, and it's it was
all bad. I'm doing this again now now you know how pop feeling.
We pulled up in Memphis and we had a gun pulled out him. Perfect,
perfect, all right, So let's get uh, Kyle, We're gonna
find out about your restaurant all that coming up here shortly. Let's get to
our guest, all right, all right, now, Furglish is barbecue.
I know this stuff because me as a complete amateur in the backyard, I
went to Barbecue Island one day and I was like, what do I need
to make my ribs better? And they're like, you need this and they
show me this white label with a cow on it. It said Furgerlish is
barbecue, and I was like, what is this? Like you want red
hot love or you want with one apple pie? They're like, which one
is do you want? And I said I want, I want spicy?
So I got the red hot and I've been using that stuff non stop on
my ribs. And it's funny, Kyle and Phil they always do names of
guests around that they want to bring on. And I'm always like I said,
I'm the backyard amateur guy. So I'm like, I don't know who
the hell these people are. Ninety nine percent of them, I'm like,
okay, But this one was wait, I know that guy. And I
went to my rub draorer and I was like, that's the guy. I
was like, yeah, we need to have that guy on. So first
of all, I'd like to say your products are legit. I see that
they're available a lot of places. Right, you can get them at I
know you need a barbecue island here, you can get them. Ace Hardware,
Yeah, it's there. It's worldwide, man Chiles. Ace. By
the way, Shields is the greatest store on Earth. It's awesome, right,
Shields. Shields should should be in every single city in America. Those
stories, we just got one and it was like, I so working in
the radio business. I mean, you hear all the time of new business
coming to town and you meet with them, and every time the new business
always tells you how wonderful they're gonna be, and you're like, okay,
cool, and you're excited for them. And this one they were like,
we're gonna have a ferris wheel and we're gonna have this, and we're gonna
have this. In the back of my mind the whole time, I'm looking
at him, going there's no way y'all gonna have that. And then when
it opened, I was like, oh my god, it's better than I
ever imagined. Places like that place is like Dick Sporting Goods meets Ace Hardware
with like I don't know what else thrown in that place is legit. So
you're ever okay, Yeah, And they've really up there barbecue game too.
Like I I go out to h I go to Fargo, North Dakota.
I've gone there the last two years and I'm going again in April. It's
called Barbecue University with Shields, and they fly a bunch of US pit masters
up there and they they put us with like three Shields employees from around the
country and we we do a brisket cook with them and they have a little
contest and and you get to teach them how to sell your products and everything.
It's pretty cool. So that's all except so they actually care about your
product. They do. They do not just on the shelf. No,
and then and then and every Shields in America has all six of my rubs
on it. Dude, that was awesome. I think that's like like thirty
six or thirty seven stores nationwide. That's shit because I've seen I've seen rubs
that you know, like in Home Depot or Low's or something like that,
or you know Walmart, and I'm like, man, that's something good.
But I'm like, nobody this damn store knows what it is. Right,
Well, you got there, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Do you have
a hard time pushing I mean like when you get into these big stores and
like how to let people know, like, hey, make sure you go
check out this fur delicious rub yo. We got people for that, tell
them, tell them we got people for that part. We do, we
do. We do got people for that. Because Phil and I are both
Phil and I are both old World Spices guys, and so we have a
marketing team that that's kind of their job for those big box stores, you
know, ace whether it's do It Best Soares or True Value or Academy Sports
or Shields, that's their job is to sell our products of those places.
And obviously when I get invited to go up to the Shields Barbeque University,
I'm always going to say yes, because that gets me face to face,
one on one with Shields employees and their execs, and I'm right there,
and so I'm right there. And that's that's the beauty of my rebrand right
now, is you know, all my new labels are gonna hopefully they're already
they're already kind of coming out in circulation, but the official launch will be
March eighteenth. So all the ReBs are staying the same, they just have
a new look, a new name, more consumer friendly. And so they've
been our people, as Phil saying, they've been working hard behind the scenes
to you know, to get that all pumped up and ready to kind of
just blow it out and hopefully make my stuff go back up a little bit
more because I think the fur Delicious name, you know, my team is
going to stay Furglicious, but my brand is Richard for Go Barbecue, So
I can trademark that I can't trademark for Delicious. So that's kind of that's
why all that happened. Is that what you said? Would you say the
trademarking is essential? I mean, are you able to trademark and copyright your
recipes so you don't have these damn pirates taking it and send it to a
lab and copying your stuff like some people have done in the business. Yeah,
you're absolutely right, there are people doing that. So the trademark piece
came because there are there are some stores out there, some big box that
will only sell trademarked product, and so they want to make sure that everybody's
products that are in the program are available to get on those shelves, and
and so you know, in the trademarking piece, I tried to trademark Fergolicious
about three years ago, four years ago, and I got denied by Stacy
Ferguson and uh, and then we appealed it and said I'm in I'm in
a different I'm in a different market than she is and all that stuff,
and then came back again and denied me again. And you know, I
mean, it's it's uh, it's confusing. I know, I mean,
I'm I spell it differently than she does. What's market is she in?
What is she in? What does she do? Well? She she has,
she has like perfume, she's got shoes, they're there. What they
said back to me was with a person like her, it's you can never
uh, there's always a chance that they could get into the restaurant business or
something like that. Yeah, And so I mean, if you go into
the database and type in Fergerlicious, she spells it with an A. I
spelled mine with an O because it's my last name. But if you look
her up in the in the trademark database, she's got like eight or nine
mark wow. And they're all for different different markets. And so she doesn't
have one in the barbecue rub or seasoning world or any of that stuff.
But she maybe even has a wine I don't know. But they were just
like, hey, man, it's confusing. Maybe people see your rubs on
the shelf and they think it's her and they don't know. And so it
was a tough decision for me to make, but I wanted to. I
want to keep them growing. So that's why I did it. Yeah,
because you've got to change your whole social media, go to change everything that's
got to be man, Well, I just added it. So I'm keeping
my fur delicious social media because the algorithms that I've built up over the last
twelve years, I mean, there's no way I'm ditching that. And I
told I told him that, and so I just created a Richard Forgola Barbecue,
ig I created one for Facebook, and then I've got them all connected
so when I post, I can do all that stuff. So it's a
little bit more work on my end. And then obviously I created a web
address I own Richard for gol to BBQ and it just connects to my fig
Delicious page. So they're cool with that, and so it's and it'll have
all the products on it and everything like that. So that's what that's what
they asked for, and so that's that's how we got around so so so
so basically fur delicious right, fur Delicious is adendum to Richard right now,
like your name ad that's how you got that trademark to past like fur Delicious
is gone completely. Yeah. Yeah, the only thing where trademarking is Richard
Forgola Barbecue, and it'll be it'll be trademarked under like I think it's under
Spices and Spices and Seasons or something like that. But you know, trade,
as you guys probably know, trademarking is not cheap, and so yeah,
so I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna trademark that first, and then if there's
some other versions of that that I'll probably grab onto as well, just to
have them. But but what about that male stripper that's Richard, He's already
probably trademarked. You're gonna have to battle with him male stripper. But that's
if you're talking about my bio that's on my website, that was written by
my former teammate, that was in your LinkedIn. I saw that LinkedIn.
But that's that's a good lesson for Like when I first started, you know,
in this whole barbecue thing, I just threw your behind barbecue out there
because that was just the saying my dad and his best friend did. And
this was our first con our, first contest ever, and I was like,
well, you gotta have a team name. And I'm like, okay,
how many times have I been telling you that, Kyle? I know,
I get it. I can't tell you that. Now you got Now
you've got a restaurant that you're putting your name out there and all your branding
have you no, no, no, a trademark cleared April first, April
first, good good good, Because it's just there's so many people who make
that mistake, who go forward, they do all this, they run everything
and they say, well, I got a business license. Yeah, well
it's just a lesson too. The people that listen that have barbecue teams.
You're doing this for fun. I have no idea what this can snowball in
to. Well, no idea you never yet to do. And I can
tell you I was standing I was standing on on on on a street in
downtown Kansas City talking to another barbecue friend of mine back in like two thousand
and twelve or two thousand, actually it was maybe right after I was on
Barbecue Pitmasters, and he he said to me, he goes, if you
trademark fergolicious barbecue? And I said no, I said, we're just you
know, we're just a cook team. And I said, you know,
we're not really doing anything else. And then you know, next thing,
you know, we got ReBs coming out, We got this going. I
mean, everything's coming at you left and right. You're like, that was
some smart advice that I did not take, you know what I mean?
You know, when we first start this, nobody knows like me and my
dad. It was me and me and Pops. We had no idea what
this all this crazy stuff was going to happen. And look at us now
yeah, thank god, trade and everything. Then what like, what's behind
you right now? Some broken baseboards? Like where are you at right now?
You went, I'm in the basement and you have Kyle what Kyle?
You realize that in Florence, hopefully they have better internet than Tim Cannon's string
because your internet. Yes, he has White Sky, he has White Sky
cable service. Yeah, it's brutal. My internet's been. Yeah, I
know it's gonna it's gonna cut out. This is all I can do.
Brother, in a basement, here in your basement, here in your basement.
Anyways, So Riy, So for Gola when you first started, was
your first team name like Boom, I'm gonna go Furgerlish? That was it?
It was, it was it was. Uh. The funny story about
that is, uh, my youngest son, Rocco, he's nineteen now,
but he was six years old and uh we were we were just driving through
our town where we lived, and there was an empty restaurant there and uh,
six years old, out of the back seat out of nowhere goes Daddy,
you should buy that restaurant and call it Fergerlicious Barbecue. And I was
like, I looked at one and I'm like, first of all, how
does my six year old know what Fergolicshoes is? Because the song will come
out, you know. I Mean my nickname has been since I was like
ten years old. So but uh, that's why I always say I was
I was Fergy before for you was. But that's dope, that's dope.
But anyway, he came up with a name, and I'm like, that's
it, that's our name. And so, uh, there was no there
was no discussion, no discussion, there was nothing, no talking about it.
That was it. And so we made up a couple of stickers.
I mean, just thinking back on it, I had a logo made up.
I still have it saved to my phone, the first logo. Yeah,
and uh, and then when we got picked to go on Pit Masters,
I was like, well, if we're going on national television, we
got to come up with a solid logo, something that's real, because everybody's
going to see this, you know, when it comes out. And so
literally right before we drove to Florida to film Pitmasters, we had some T
shirts made and it was our first furglicious logo with the horns and the fists
and uh. And then then we rolled that for years, and then I
rebranded it a few years ago and and uh yeah, man, that's how
it all happened. Yeah, so you've done pit Masters. What are the
shows that you I did Barbecue pitt Masters in twenty fourteen, and then in
twenty seventeen, I did Chopped Chopped Girl Masters, and then in twenty and
twenty two, twenty one or twenty two, I did Barbecue SA with Michael
Simon season one. I think these cats on here were on season two,
and then and then just this year I did Barbecue Country on the Country Network
right on. Very cool. So looking over your bio here that the guys
sent me here. I love how you're just being so like humble, like,
oh you know, you know done this dude, KCBS World Champion.
I mean that's a flex right there. I mean if you got that one,
I mean the hell yeah, that is a huge flex. I mean,
yo, look, I only hang out with Baller's Barrel. Yeah did
you did hold out? No? Phil, Now you line up one guest
of this year. This is your job. Remember that. I remember your
job Like that's the homie. Okay, I logged up a guest. This
is my guest. Right right here, let me introduce you to Reposado.
Okay, Repsido is not the brand, that's the style. I know.
It's the taste. It's the taste. I know what it is. Familia
Familia, Familia Floria, familiar by Familia Flores. This is Reprisado. Yeah,
okay, all right, let's gocious. No, but but that come
on, Yo, Rich is doing his thing. He's been doing this thing
like he is like the top of the top, Like when we're out competing
at the Royal. These are the people that we're thinking about to beat.
We're not thinking about nobody else would like thinking about the ones that always hear
their name called and Yo, you know what I mean? Between him Smith
like he's all big dogs, you know what I mean? And and Kyle
Manicatti. You know, he's always in somebody's DM. So I'm sure he
was like, Yo, Rich, Yo, come to the show. But
any of my friends could come on the show at any time. Well,
it's six o'clock every Tuesday night. Just give me a call. I'll get
you on. I love how your phonees is blowing up right now. Hold
on. So so you're in Kansas City, So does that mean you are
on the Patrick Mahomes Travis Kelsey train. You are like team Chiefs, don't
go left. Let's talk about that. Yeah, high V commercial and I
just got it and I just got a new one. I'll do I'll do
Chiefs. But come on the Taylor Swift part for the Taylor Swift for I
love it. I love it. I think it's I think it's awesome.
I just did another interview last night and they were asking me the same question,
and I think Taylor Swift has done tons for Kansas City, for Chiefs
fans. Yes, for football. I take it away from football, no,
man, No, we had a blast watching football this year. Here's
the deal, Phil, you say, I love how you say taking away,
and I'll be honest. I initially kind of had that perspective with her
coming to the NFL as well, but it was put in a completely different
light to me when a buddy of mine said to me, He's like,
it's great, he goes, Now my daughter wants to watch football with me,
and he goes, he goes. It's really rare to find anything your
fourteen year old daughter wants to do with you other than hate on everything you
do. She goes he goes she wants to sit down and watch football with
me on Sunday for a chance to see Taylor Swift. And I was like,
dang, that's a whole new perspective. And the other thing I'm going
to say about it that I respect about it is the fact that everybody keeps
saying, oh, she she's trying to do this. No, no,
she ain't trying to do nothing. The NFL, the chiefs, the networks,
everybody are the ones showing her. She's just going to the game.
You're just going to see a boyfriend, but going to big thing around it,
you know what I mean. I just don't like all of the fluff.
I get what you say in barrel, and I appreciate that because I
got all daughters right. So, yes, that's a big moment right there.
But the whole, the whole thing around it was just Taylor Swift.
Taylor Swift. And you put the NFL that was a marketing, a free
marketing chance. I hope they cut that girl a check, but a free
marketed chance to just grow and brought in their audience. And the thing about
it is, I don't necessarily think it's like I think it's just that's just
her. I mean, she can't do anything simple or normal. Of course,
if she went into if she showed up to the American Royal for whatever
reason, the American Royal would be on the front page of every single website.
Everything that girl's entire life when she steps in public is top of fold
news. Hey, you should get her there, get her there, as
they say, as they say, fer doing fer things. Man, I'm
either gonna go big or I'm going home. The Royal might need the Royal
might right, you're right, you're right. Last year, did you have
Bubba Sparks? Then you have Bubba Sparks? Was that your thing? No,
that was Timmy, that was tim Okay. Yeah, but he had
the Kansas City cheerleaders. He had the kidsas city mascot and proud. I
remember with the old mascot yeap and three years ago, I think it was
three years ago. I had Tech nine at my party at the Royal use.
I was trying to battle wrap them. I was trying to battle wrap
them. Your tailor. I was like, yo, look I got sixty
CA. I mean, let's be real, the Royal might need to bring
Taylor. I mean she may have been the only person to say that judging
fiasco, I mean yeah, I mean it's uh yeah, that's a no,
whole nother that's a whole nother storyline there. But yeah, we're always
trying to do something big. We're working on some some big stuff for the
Royal trying to do something different because it's obviously going to be on Halloween weekend,
h Thursday night, the Thursday Night parties, that'll actually be Halloween that
night, so wow, technically the contest is November one, second, and
third, but it'll be different. I mean the first year they had it
at the Speedway, it was it was on that weekend. So you know,
a lot of people are like, I think the old school people like
me are like, this is fine. I'm cool with it. You know,
it could be really cold, but you know, we have an indoor
space and we've got trailers and all that stuff, so I'm not really too
concerned about it. I'm more one of those people that's like, just tell
me when the contest is, where the contest is, and when to show
up, and I'm going to show up and cook. That's it. I
don't know. I'm not one of those guys that gets been out of shape
about this where it's at or what the freaking roles are? Of course,
yeah, they to cook, all right? So for along with that,
right, because I'm the same way and I respect that because no, fuck,
no fluff, I'm not a diva, right, But it's here's the
deal. You're not a diva. You're not a diva. Come on,
you are, You're only you're the definition of a diva. I don't even
bring that here. Yes, I like, I like, I like nice
things, but I don't have a problem get my hands dirty. That's it.
But going back to my yeah, going back to Asper, what have
you thought? And I need your honest, veteran opinion and not you have
to don't have to throw salt, You don't have to throw dirt. But
after the Royal? How many CACBS contests you have done after that? Have
you done any? Like? Oh after the Royal? Yeah, I had,
I had? Uh, I think I had like six more after that?
How? How how has the scoring been personally for you going off of
that? Has it been consider have you noticed ups and downs? Have you
noticed any changes as a venic? I mean I cooked forty comps this year
and uh, you know the Royal was obviously weird. It did affect me
in that in that particular open contest because I think I finished overall. I
think I was, like they call the top twenty five, I think,
and I think I was twenty sixth and uh when they when they made the
change, I think I dropped a twenty seventh and it was like, I
don't know, like a six ninety three or four something like that. But
I mean I averaged six ninety three this year for forty comps. So yeah,
you know, as long as I'm in that ballpark, I mean,
when when shit goes really crazy, you know, like it happened the last
contest of the year, so this would have been a contest that I cooked.
After the Royal, I did a double in Kansas City and I was
chasing first place ribs, So I was chasing Brad. He was in first.
I was in second going into the weekend, and I had three chances
to catch him because we have a double and a one meat rib. And
this is going to answer your question. But on day one, my day
one contest ribs got third with a perfect one eighty. My one meat contest
ribs that same day got fourth with like a one seventy eight or a one
to seventy nine I think it was. And then on day two, which
were probably my best set that I turned in out of those three one sixty
two. Wow. So I went one eighty one seventy eight, one sixty
two and day one I have two to one eighties in the contest. I
finished sixth. That was when that was when Jordan caught Brad and I thought
I had the contest one with two one eighties, but then we and I
and I scored like a six ninety eight or six ninety nine and got sixth.
I go into day two and I score my lowest, my lowest the
year with it like a six seventy something and get like twenty eighth. Wow.
So for me, when I see that happen, I don't, I
don't freak out, and I don't get mad at people. I don't.
I don't do that, but I do. I do go and audit my
boxes when that kind of thing happens, because that just should not happen.
I mean, how did that process go? You went and audited. I've
never done it. I think this year, out of forty contests, I
think I maybe audited like four or five times. But you just go to
the rep and say, I want to audit all my boxes, and you
know you may not audit all of them. You know I did it because
it was an overall score that I just don't When you average six ninety three
and somebody gives you a six seventy two, you just know when, especially
when you're cooking forty times a year, you're you're in a routine, especially
at the end of the season. And for me, when I hit after
August, I'm on, I'm in cruise control. Man. I'm like,
I'm just I'm just I just go, you know what I mean, And
I just know when I show up. I know when I'm turning in so
and you'll have judges and reps say, you know, oh, cooks always
say that they're always turn it. No, listen, when you cook thty
times a year, when you cook forty times a year, you know the
meat you're bringing, you know how your pit's running, you know what kind
of smoke you're putting on there, you know, you know everything about your
profile, you know everything everything about your timeline, and you're just not messing
things up. There would have to be a you know, a tornado run
through my trailer for me to screw up. And so when that happens,
I just go over and say, I need to audit all my boxes.
And you know, usually when they and every time I audited, they were
my boxes. So that just what that tells you is you just hit it.
You hit a bad, bad table in it, and that was just
that was your that was your And that's kind of like where I was going,
right because we just had a competition out here in a Bullhead city.
There was a lot of veterans. You know what I've been noticing on the
West a lot lately, It's that scorings have been up and down, and
a lot of the veterans that are in the top ten consistently, how do
they just bottom out all of a sudden at thirty twenty eight, which tells
me like something is going on. There's more bad tables, or the captain
is not doing their job scrutinizing and telling them like why would you give that
a six? Right? Not questioning the judgment, but making them understand how
they're supposed to be judging. You know what I mean. I'm not saying
like make that person change a six to a nine. If he felt it,
let him explain why, because it's obviously something that he wouldn't have spit
out his mouth. But he might not like garlic, and you got to
tell him, like garlic is is going to be a spice that everybody's gonna
use if it's a good blend and it's toned out. You can't go off
of your preference. I had to judge one time said she doesn't like eating
chicken off a bone. Well, thank you, thank you. I mean,
I mean that's the reason why. That's the reason why Childs from Which
Revenge, implemented the Jacob, you know, like a retraining series for our
judges. And I think, you know, when I spent my three years
on the board, that was my main focus was to try to help with
making that system better. And I think Childs came up with a great plan
with that Jacob for judges to renew their educational you know, outlook on judging
and renew I mean, even when I was a teacher for twenty one years,
I had to do professional development and retrain myself in different things. And
I think that the thing about the JACUB is it's very generalized across KSEBS so
I think anybody that takes that and takes it to heart and executes it and
applies it like they should should all have the same rules across the board and
how they approach it, how they see it, how they taste it all.
You know, parents taste in tenderness. This is what we're looking for,
blah blah blah exactly. But unfortunately, I think we're still in a
place and I don't think we're ever gonna get rid of the angel tables and
the table of desks. I just don't think they're gonna all. They're just
gonna go away completely. But uh, and I just think, like what
you said where you're always in the top ten and then you dropped a thirty
one week and those are I tell people in my comp classes, you know,
that's a weekend that you're just gonna have to, like, you know,
go on your trailer and and and yell, you know, yell the
f works out really loud down your system, tot and get it out of
your system. And then you gotta you have to you have to have a
forward a forward looking mindset in this game, because if you dwell on that
thirtieth place the weekend before and then you've got a comp coming up the next
weekend. It's gonna affect you. I mean, I mean Mama Ferg.
Mama Ferg is sitting right here to my left, and uh, and I
wanted to fill the grill. Didn't get to see her. But there's Mama
Ferg and we were at Just to give an example, we were in Arkansas
once one year when I was chasing points for the first time, and it
was in October, so we were getting down to it and uh, we
went to Arkansas and uh, I was doing brisket turn in and and it
was just every slice I was getting was tight, and I just got mad
and I threw a slice of brisket up against the wall and I and I
yelled like that, and she she totally mommed me. Man, she was
like Richard, she like, did one of those to me? And I
turned in my brisket and I was just throwing I was throwing stuff away.
And I walked out and there's some homies next to me. They're like,
you know, how'd your cook go or whatever? And I said, worst
cook ever? And I end up gceing it and Brad reserved it. And
uh, I mean, it just it just goes to show you. Like
I used to always, I mean, everybody in barbecue says, when you
love your food, the judges hate it. When you hate the food,
the judges love it. But I've just came I just came to this realization
over the last few years to embrace when I know my stuff's good. And
some people will call that arrogant. I call it, as my dad used
to say, I call it confidence. It's not cockiness what you do and
when you do it as much as I do or some of these other guys
do, I mean, you have to. You have to believe in what
you're doing, and you have to be confident in your set. And so
everywhere you drive, you're driving in somewhere you've never been before. Maybe it's
a contest you do every year, but when you roll in there, you
know exactly what you're gonna do, you know exactly what you're gonna bring them,
And uh, I just feel like that's that's why we're professionals. So
and you got to roll in with that kind of a mindset all the time.
If you don't, you're screwed before you even get there, yo,
Because you know what was funny like you know, starting and you know,
seeing like the damn Darren Wartz and you know, and a lot of the
guys that was just consistent. You know, I was bringing so much ship
to the competitions. I was like, yo, truck and the trailer load
of full of shit and you were, you were. I must in the
beginning, Yo, Kyle, stop acting up. Man, This is in
the beginning. But there's video foot Judio and Barbecue us A going over to
Kyle trailer and borrowing stuff. Literally the fact that anywhere. But I didn't
start there. But back to my point, I see these guys and people
started doing things for you. I got I got one of these figures.
I wanted to stick up to you. It's half a piece. I but
anyway, but I used to see these guys rolling in and they were so
efficient, so smallly packed. But they already was in the zone, know
what they was gonna bring. They didn't care if they got a bad score
last week or not. They knew exactly what they were doing each and every
time. It again exactly They're gonna keep running it. They're gonna keep running
because what happens is when you get a bottom score like that and you feel
like it's good, you start second guessing and questioning. Yeah, but also
but you gotta remember, like out here on the West Coast, we don't
have I mean, we can't go anywhere. I mean, we don't have
as many con test as you would, you know, as you can be
right, So they all got account Yeah, they all got to count.
Yeah, as soon as you start changing stuff, I mean, you don't
know what unless you're cooking two three times a month, you don't know what.
I mean, You're gonna continuously chase your tail. You're gonna contin until
you find something that hits. Then you've got to stick with it and keep
running. Yep. Are you superstitious? Uh? Yeah, I would say
a little bit. I mean I would say probably more. I mean,
I'm I'm a very organized person when it comes to comps. And obviously I've
got mascots that sit on top of my pit. So that's part of my
uh, that's part that's part of my uh, you know, my superstition.
But I mean, I don't you know, there's things that I do
that I don't I don't change because I'm like, well I don't want to
change this and have some freaking disaster happened, you know what I mean.
So I'm not like overly superstitious, but I do have my mascots and they
always roll with me everywhere I go. So well, let me go ahead
and break the tongs or drop the tongs real quick about you breaking my superstition.
So when I first started in this deal, they always do that nine
to eleven shot, or maybe you guys do the seven eleven type. I
do nine twenty two. I do nine two. Yeah, I don't what
is it's a shot? Yeah, go on Saturday mornings at a comp at
nine twenty two am. I have a good luck shot that I host for
the whole contest, and if it doesn't matter where I'm at in the country,
everybody knows I do it. So over the years we've been doing a
drink called Fergilaid, So it's basically gim Beam fire and big red soda mix
together and everybody shows up. It's actually my favorite time of a contest because
I get the high five almost everybody in the comp. I tell everybody good
luck and we go back to business. Right, So yeah, so anyway,
go ahead, So we were I don't know what contest. This is
probably my second or third year, and you rolled in to Boulder City in
uh, what is that Nevada? Right, yeah, right on the edge
of Nevada. I see your trailer sitting there and I'm like, what,
I've seen this dude on TV. I think that's from Pitmass. I think
that's the guy. But I didn't see you yet. I just saw the
trailer. And my dad's like, ah, you're full of you know whatever.
That's not him. He wouldn't driveway out here and all this. I'm
like, I'm telling you, so I see Smitty. So we're all.
He's next to us. We're all hanging out and on Friday, my dad
usually cooks up a bunch of food or whatever and everybody will come over and
eat. And here you come over. Bro, you got the vans looking
all fly, you got your cameouflage on all walking over. I'm like,
holy shit, that's him. And then Smitty's like looking at me and he's
like, bro, don't make it weird. I was like, Bro,
that's the dude on TV exactly. It'sists like, don't make it weird.
I'm I'm not making it weird. I'm like, why is this dude way
out here? Why is he on the West coast? Why is he messing
with our stuff? You were cool and everything. You came over, we
talked or whatever, and then you're like, hey, tomorrow we're doing nine
twenty two. And I'm like, I don't know what that is. And
you're like, well, it's like the nine to eleven shot. I'm like,
ah, okay, yeah, I can't do that. I'm superstiti k.
You're like, ah, yeah you can. You can do it.
So come Saturday morning, you come over, you grab Smitty, look at
me. You're like, let's go. And I'm like and my dad's like
it that's bad luck. And I'm like, furk, it's furk, it's
the guy from TV. We go over there, do the shot. We
got absolutely fricking smoked. But I think you won that or you got r
GC or something that, So thank you for that. I've been there.
I've been to that contest three times and I have finished fourth, Reserve Grand
and fifth Okay I think it was the reserve. Yeah, it was a
reserve one. So your trailer has all these memories in it and you're getting
rid of it. Are you going to cans? Why are you getting rid
of your trailer. It's beautiful. I'm getting a brand new one built,
and it's gonna be thirty foot long. It's gonna have full living starting on
them for stop stunting on them, stop stuffing. It's gonna be uh yeah,
Mama Ferr going to the bathroom. So here you go. So we
got a it's full living quarters, full kitchen, fully enclosed porch. I'm
partnering up with Yoder and so they're building me an offset stick burner and then
I'll have a Yoder pellet on there so I can do state comps, so
I can I can go anywhere I want and cook anything I want. So
that's on the Myron mixing, right, That's what I've been cooking on.
Yeah, but and and and no, that's the other thing. I just
had a complast this weekend at Proud Souls here in Casey, and I've been
cooking on that Myron for I don't know, seven or eight seasons. And
it's an absolutely fantastic pit. I mean especially for competition because you put that
Guru on it, man, and it just runs right, it just hums.
But it's it's just gotten too easy, right, I mean, I
want to challenge myself and do something new. And so Yoda is our number
one product that we sell at our Proud Souls stores, and so I wanted
to partner up with them and run a stick burner man. And I mean
I cook on a stick burner now, but I mean like a true offset.
So yeah, yeah, what about cans, no cans or anything?
No, I mean I have gateways. I have a fifty five and a
thirty and I take them every now and then. But this setup is gonna
be nice because I can literally do anything. So yeah, you know,
there are some contests that I go to where where I have to cook an
sea, where I have to cook a state comp and usually I always have
to bring another pit with me. This will be nice because I'll have a
Yoda four eighty pellet just mounted to the porch and I can just throw my
grill grates on there and rocket. Yeah. Yo, all right, I
got two questions for for because I know Barrow gotta go to work at like
one in the morning or something like that. We're good right now, We're
gonna he's gonna wrap it up. But yo, no, I got two
questions for all right, don't drop the tons, baby, So I gotta
get at it. I gotta get at it. So you changed the name
from f to Richard Richard for Gola, right, I don't want to.
I don't want to butcher up your last name. I'm from New York and
okay, I get it right. You in the Yukon. Yo, I
did go to Yukon, but I'm from New York. The preppius ass wanna
be from Queen's showed up with this argyle sweater on the Now he gets out
and throws a chain on once to me, stop, well you stop,
come on back, put you back to my neighborhood. Let's go back to
my neighborhood, and then you can tell the story I grew up in Detroit.
I grew up in Detroit. Will compare neighborhoods, trust me, what
if it's not already. I've been on Joy I've been on Joey Road.
Yeah, I didn't go to Yukon. Okay, all right, yo,
So check it out anyway. So you had a conversation with my brother,
right Smith, dogg. He was telling him about the story that you got
in now changed your name, and you know he was going to Richard.
Right, what does Smith tell you you remember that conversation. Ah, I'm
drawing a blank because I I think it was a great marketing. It's game,
right, So what's the nickname for Richard? Oh? Yeah, I
remember it now. Yeah. No, hey, I'll tell you right now.
The last person to tell me that still in a locker somewhere. But
Yo, you don't think yo Dick's rubbed. Dick's rubb would have been It
would have been a marketing. But while I'm always down, while I'm always
down for a good little you know, play on words, I'm at a
point in my career and my brand where, you know what, to bring
it down, it's gotta be elite. Okay, Yeah, I think I
think that's why Old World told me to take that pig that I was giving
the massage off my label too. It's funny because when you said March eighteenth,
that was the same date that I heard my my product, our product
hoping, don't it blended together? But my new labels and products come in
on that same run. I okay telling you, But all right, so
my next question, Proud Soul, tell us a little bit about what that's
about and what that really means to like the barbecue community, because everybody sees
the name and nobody knows a lot of people don't know how to reference it.
Yeah. In the in the connection too, because you were at Casey
Grilling Company forever too exactly, talk a little bit about that. Yep.
So well, the fact that if you see, if everybody sees proud souls,
that means I'm doing my job. Yeah. So I I left teaching
after twenty one years back in twenty eighteen, and one of my first sponsors
in Gardener, where I lived was an Ace Hardware, And the guy that
owns the Ace Hardware own an Ace Hardware and Oletha as well, And they
approached me and said, hey, we want to we want to make this
into a barbecue supply store slash restaurant and we'd have Furglicious as the restaurant and
we'd have the Barbecue Sply store. And I was like, I was like,
I don't want to do a restaurant. I don't want to get into
that game. Why don't we just make the whole store a barbecue Sply store
and then you just hire me to run it and I'll be the face,
and that way you get instant access to my brand and everything all the relationships
that I built up in this game, and it'll make a you know,
it'll give you credibility to the store right away. And so that's what we
did and ran Casey Grilling Company for four and a half years. And then
Tony our founder of Proud Souls, Tony Roberts and Chris Webb from Bushmaster,
they flew out there to Casey Grilling Company and took take my comp class and
I took I took pretty much almost the whole class out for dinner that night
to a local bar down the street. And oh, that's what you're doing,
you big balmy signing up for the next bird class. And so they
asked me, you know, if I was if I was happy where I
was at, and I mean at that time, I just I wasn't.
And they said, we want to open open up a store in Kansas City,
and we want to hire you to work with us, and I and
I and they they were specific right up front. They're like, we don't
want you to be what you're doing now. We want you to do what
you do best, and that's marketing p R going out there and cooking contests
and just telling everybody about us and so it's the best thing that's ever happened
to me in my occupational career was to hook up with with Tony and Chris
and Dan. They are absolutely fantastic, all just men, but they are
also barbecue people, and so that's what that's what I want to have.
Yeah, that's what I did at the other place. And Proud Souls is
a country song and and that's where Tony got the name from. But I
think it fits our brand really well. Our entire staff from from Colorado to
Kansas City to Florida, they all believe in that, and they everybody that
works for us is awesome and we're all one big family. And uh,
I get to get up every morning and go work for these dudes, and
we just have an absolute blast doing what we're doing. We work our ass
off, don't get me wrong. And there's ups and downs and all that
stuff. But I mean when you're working with when you're working with Tony and
Chris and Dan every day on different projects, and when when your boss actually
tells you go do what you do, you know what I mean, like,
do what you do? I trust you, you know. It's uh
that that's that right there is just the price of admission. I mean when
when people let you be the way you are and they know and they have
confidence that that's going to build their brand up and build a business, it
just makes you want to Your production value goes up and you just work harder.
So I mean, I work as hard, if not harder for Prow
Souls than I do for my own brand, just because I just believe it.
And it's such a great such a great company. So no, definitely,
and you know, and that and that's the story that like I really
wanted you to tell because I knew the answer to it. But I don't
think everybody really understood the meaning of like, you know, even with like
Chris and and where y'all came from to put something so successful together, because
I mean, people don't know, like Prow Souls is a real successful business
and you guys started this and just building this up to a nice collaboration where
it's going to even just grow more. You know, I see it,
I see it. We're just service man. We're discribing. I'm going out
to Colorado for one of your guys's beer launches. You were doing, and
I you know, and I did a little demo day on a. I
think it was a Friday or Saturday, and then you guys are cooking the
alligator on someday, and I could just see like the tight knit like family
type, like y'all are like in this to get like y'all are in this,
you know what I'm saying. From the staff, from the people from
KC that were out, from everybody that was just out there, and that
just works with the Proud Souls. It was like a real big family.
I mean, I love that company. I love so anything. I know.
I know everybody looks at Phil the Grill as the wild one, and
you know, what's the purpose and what's the reason. But I give respect.
And I'm gonna say this and I was gonna say, oh my goodness,
so here we go again. All right, Well I respect, I
respect. I respect Proud Souls because I see where they came from. They
didn't come from nothing and then just put money in a pot and made something.
They all are working with their passion. So that's why I respect the
Brown like Proud Souls and not like new network companies that are just grabbing uh
Internet chefs and putting them together and thinking they can make a family out of
just random people that got high followers and reached that won't work, that would
work. And I think, and I think that's why I I team up
with Proud Souls so so well, because that's what I did with my brand.
I built it from I built it from nothing. I mean it's uh.
I was selling barbecue out of my garage so I could pay to go
to contests and pay for rub to sell and all that kind of stuff.
And I was going everywhere, you know, setting up and showing people my
products, and and that that that beer launch we did, that ship was
jumping off the hook, wasn't it, dude? I mean it. It
was such a good time. There were a ton of people there. I
think we served like two hundred and fifty Gator tacos. And when I lit
that torch up and let that gator on fire, man, everybody lost their
minds. Yeah. Yeah, And that's what they just let me do.
Man. They just turned furg loose and and and Fergus is for things and
people show up. I'm ready to go back to the next one. You
guys do another launch. I'm coming bro March ninth, next Saturday, We're
having our one year anniversary celebration right here in Kansas City, and it's gonna
be it's gonna be awesome. We got Big Timmy with the mega drum.
We're doing a whole hog and we got Stretched, and we got Craig Carter,
and we got uh Craig. We got all kinds of people doing demos.
It's going to be a blast. That's March ninth. Yep. That's
awesome. So what's next for ferg I mean, you got the lot.
I mean, you've got the rub lines, You've got all that rolling,
You've got you know, the whole Fergola brand coming, you got the Proud
Souls, You've got anything else coming down the works or anything you're trying to
do next, or you got your eye on h I mean, there's there's
some other stuff. I mean, we've got Smitty and I are going to
Costa Rica in a few weeks and teaching a barbecue class there together. And
then uh, a week the week after that we get back, we go
to Chicago and do a class together. It's you know, we call it
the Traveling Barbecue Circus with me and Smitty. But and then uh, and
then I got I got some other stuff in the works. With some other
partners. Uh stuff going on. That's that's gonna be. I can't really
say stuff about that right now, but anything, No, I can't do
that yet. I don't. I have to ask everybody this because we had
Christy vanover on here for uh girls can grow. Yeah, and that following
probably a week later, maybe be a couple of days she dropped it.
She was gonna be on uh Barbecue Braw, Barbecue Brawl. Yeah. Yeah,
like, oh man, we were just a week close. So please
don't go in next another couple of days drop something massive when you could have
done it. Adn't drop them? No, No, it's uh because there's
always stuff you stud us up last week because some other high priority podcasts that
couldn't deal with us. That's fine, I get it. Just don't come
at us a week later dropping something now you can as you guys know how
these TV shows work, man, they can be they could be buzzing your
phone all the time and then it can go completely silent. So yeah,
so you got to act right. You got to act right. So I
just you know, there's I talk to some and then I you know,
I don't chase I don't chase them man, if they want me on their
show, they'll put me on their freaking show. And you know, I
mean, I've been on four of them, so I've been pretty grateful for
that and pretty pretty lucky. So I'll do another one anytime they're ready to
do it. It's and it's right for me and right for my brand.
So I'm just trying to win contests and and make Proud Souls the biggest barbecue
store in the world, and and uh, and my brand as well.
So that's that's where I'm at. And then I'll hit comp season and and
we'll be off and running. Baby. Nice, Let's get it. Let's
get it, baby, let's get it. Yo. I appreciate you,
bro man. Definitely. I love love seeing you. I hate the fact
that I only get to see you like National comps. Yeah, yeah,
definitely because I can't come to Border City this year because that's when the k
CBS for Invitational is. So it's all that's good. Good. Yeah,
well yeah, we don't have that many were trying to get the invite.
We try to get ours. Yeah. I get it now, I get
it. I get it all right. Well, thank you so much for
coming on, sir. It was good times. We appreciate it and plug
all your stuff. Where can people find you all that good stuff? Yeah,
So Fergolishes is on Instagram, Facebook, and x Richard Forgole Barbecue is
on Instagram and Facebook. And then Proud Souls, Uh, we've got them
for Orlando store, Colorado stores, Kansas City store. And then one of
the biggest things we're pushing right now is our YouTube channel for Proud Souls.
It's Proud Souls BBQ. And so we're just trying to build those subscribers and
those watch hours and build that up we've got we're filming this entire week.
We just finished day two, wrap day two today, we're filming all the
way through Sunday. All new content coming, so stay tuned for all that
on Prout Souls bbq's YouTube channel. Let's go all right, Well, thank
you so much, brother rich All right, brother, we'll talk to you
all. Thanks guys, appreciate having all right. Well, that was awesome,
dude, he was he was legit very Yeah, he's awesome. That's
my boy, Fergy ferg Man. You know, everybody's everybody's your boy.
Afterwards, you don't get him on there right away. He has Ferg gets
a couple of drinks in up watch out by imagine that's bourbon Ferg. I
like Ferg. He's a good dude. He's a good cat. I like
it. He's a very cool cat. All right, So Kyle, let's
just wrap here real quick about you are four days away from the restaurant launch.
Yeah, boyd wait where is he at Barrow? He's in the basement.
He's in his basement. He's in his basement. People under the stairs,
right, you know what I mean? Something trippy? Hey, listen
to this. So I haven't left the restaurant. I've been dealing with truckers
showing up with deliveries. I've been freaking out o refrigerator space. I've been
freaking out over freezers. I'm freaking out over I'm tripping balls over everything.
Right, So about eleven thirty last night, I'm like, okay, I
can. I'm done cooking or you know, prepping, getting all my stuff
done. I got a cot, so I'm crashing on the cot. I
got the TV on, chilling in the restaurant. Right. I go to
sleep about I don't know, about three or three thirty in the morning.
I hear the toilet flush in the men's bathroom. What swear to God?
And I said, uh, all right, yeah, no problem, but
it's old billy and whatever. I try to go back to sleep. And
now you know, once you hear something like that, you're your building's haunted.
Your your heart's like boom boom boom boom boom boom no bro. So
then in the back washroom the fawcet was on. Your place is haunted.
So I got up and I said, okay, what would like you know,
I act like a tough dude all the time. I you know,
maybe I keep that thing in the basement, yo, make sure he don't
come upstairs when I come over there and get my bristle sandwich. Bro Your
place I haunted. So I walked to the back and the faucet was on.
I'm like, well, I guess I'm up, Like, well,
I might as well start working. So like the ghost obviously went to the
bathroom, obviously washed his hands, her hands, whatever his hands, and
went back to bed. So I turned the lights off, turn the music
on, or turn the lights on, turn the music on, and I
went back to work. And it is now seven o'clock here and I haven't
left dude, your place is haunted. Well, I'll get so. When
I first renovated, when we first renovated this place, I'm out. I
can't go. There's there's stairs, there's old old stairs because this building was
built in the nineteen hundreds. No bars old. This might be used for
his court. No bro, I need to have this recorded. I think
we're recording because I can state everything. Say I might I might get hit
now, I don't know. I was. I was renovating the building.
We were all renovating. I was painting the stairs from the bot basement where
I sleep, all the way up right to the kitchen and everything. So
I'm painting the stairs. It's about six thirty six forty five. There's you
know, I think it's me and me and Pops. So I finished painting.
I get all the way the top, boom, I'm done, clean,
mass leave. I get back the next day to take the paint off
or take the tape off the wall to where I was painting at and there
are kid footprints. Yo, I'm out. Who from the bottom from the
top of the stairs all the way to like three or it hits the bottom
and then the steps or the kid's footprints go away. Oh yeah, yeah,
but I just ignored it. I left I left them there. So
when you guys come, when you guys come check out the restaurant, I'll
show you this. I'll show you the footprints. Yeah, because nobody will
believe me, and because my dad thinks I'm screwing with them, I'm like,
I didn't do that. We got these giant feet. What do you
mean I'm gonna put my feet on these little kid Yeah, it's crazy,
bro, but I figured I'm like this. I hate I am not a
part of any I don't like any of this. I hate scary movies.
I hate all of this. But I have learned that. Bro, just
let them, let them do them, and I do me. That's it.
If they're hungry, I leave them some food in the hot box.
Help yourself. Oh yeah, so but okay, anyway, what you need
to do you okay, you want to talk about success, you want to
go viral? Right, No, I ain't doing that. Reach out to
one of those ghost hunter people, because nobody shy dude, those ghost Hunter
things. People travel around the country to go to these ghost Hunter things.
I have a friend of mine who's super into this, who like her and
her fiance will go to like places around the country to take in like like
these ghost tours and those ghost things and the experience. Bro, I'm trying
to sleep down here in the basement. I'm gonna give them a tour.
Oh my first night? Was that your first night sleeping there? No?
No, I've slept here multiple times and you've never heard the toilet. No,
I've never had anything like that happen until last night. And I'm like,
huh, oh, so I'm going back to going back to Waddell tonight.
Oh but uh, Thursday, Friday and Saturday Sunday. Maybe you should.
Maybe you should have out like one of those like people who like rig
the place of ghost or like burn some incense or something. No, I'm
not doing any of that, but you're right to do something. I'm playing
the whole, uh, the whole. I gotta get through this damn opening
and then I'll play the whole like ghost type thing and start getting creative on
the menu and stuff. Oh, I gotta play, I gotta, I
gotta, I gotta play. I guarantee you're gonna have smokers get unplugged.
Dude, this is not gonna end well. No, it's gonna be fine.
They haven't fun. They haven't screwedled me yet. Bro. They went
to the bathroom and wash your hands. That was it open open night.
I guarantee your smokers are gonna get unplugged. No, because I'll be sleeping
here. I'm pulling it all nighter. I'll be up. I guarantee things
are gonna happen. No, because it's the first time that I'm loading my
smoker up with like all the meat and like like it's like completely full.
So I have to be here and watch it or I'll freak out. So
I'll be here. It's all good. I'll turn the TV on music.
I don't I don't get. They don't mess with me. I don't,
So theamn life's good. The ghost had toom and then not wash his hands
in the bathroom, but wash his hands in the back of the in the
washroom. Perfect, awesome. I don't have words. Yeah, but I
you know, I'm kind of weird. I replayed the whole security system,
the whole security thing, just to sort of see if I can see anything.
I haven't seen nothing. I didn't see anything, but the camera's not
on the faucet of the washroom. Oh so I can't see the handle like
turn or anything, because then I'd be tripped out. So yeah, that's
that man opening this week. I can't wait. I'm freaking out. I'm
freaking out too. Phil dipped out on us. Yeah, I kind of
feel like I need to as well. Holy biscuits. All right, brother,
Well good luck even kicks off March first. You make good luck after
this weekend and on this weekend. Real student to you, brother, I'm
looking forward to it. I'm happy for you. You deserve nothing but success.
Man. A lot of work, a lot of dreams, a lot
of risks. So let it rip, brother. Good luck to A and
to the ghost. Please leave me alone. Oh my god,