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Speaker 1: It's Billified, the Bill Moran Podcast.
Speaker 3: Hello and welcome.
Speaker 1: Thanks for getting your thank you for telling a friend.
And that's how we spread the word about the pirate Ship.
Today a little different.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this is gonna be kind of fun
because I get people who go, I love Mark.
Speaker 1: I'd like to know more about Mark.
Speaker 2: And since the Bills are playing and we're taping this
Monday morning, uh and they're playing at an earlier time
like seven o'clock.
Speaker 3: Oh they're on at seven.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Oh I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're on.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I might go to BTV then, So okay.
Speaker 2: BTV is a great place to go watch the game man,
because you got over fifty TVs. The food is fantastic.
Get those potato skins that are the size of my head.
Speaker 3: Yes, everything's not loaded to the loaded tater skins. Every
made to order. Everything is made to order. So if
you ever go in there and you're not you know
what I mean. You have to wait like a little
bit and you have no patience, you're an asshole because
nothing's frozen there. Everything is made, Everything is mean to order.
Speaker 1: I just got a message. Uh think.
Speaker 2: I got a message the other day from somebody going,
I want to tell you about my bt B experience.
The food was fantastic, all this stuff, Like, I got
this big long text message and I don't know it
did You can text this show anytime at five, eight
five two or six eighty eight sixty six.
Speaker 1: So anyway, that was.
Speaker 2: Uh, that's great, right that at seven o'clock. And I
would suggest get to be TV, but get there by
like six or six thirty, don't you think I.
Speaker 3: Think it might be busy meal. We have a joke
and we always had since bet to Billies, Bills fans
don't go out anymore and they're lame. Yeah, I mean
you go to floor, you go to Tampa. We went
to Tampa to Bills Bar, and you could even move
in the place.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's warm and it's you know, it's Tampa.
Speaker 2: And I don't know, I hear you though, but I
can't imagine, like, there's not a better place on a
Monday night. And it's tough on a Monday because you
got to get up to go to work on Tuesday. Uh,
some people have the day off off, so maybe that'll
increase a little bit. And the game being earlier, I
would suggest, I say, go go have a great time.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, that is the best place to watch football.
Speaker 1: That.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's no better place. And it's not
actually saying that. I know, I know I'm biased.
Speaker 2: Well I would think that people go, oh, oh you're
buddy too. I've gone other places to watch games. Matt
makes the environment fun. They play the shout song, they
do these things. It's just a it's a fun environment.
It's a welcoming environment, and it's a ton of bills
and they got great.
Speaker 3: People that work there too. Yeah, you know, it's a
great staff.
Speaker 1: So let's get into Mark, who became Mark the Soldier.
Grew up in Greece.
Speaker 3: I grew up in Greece my whole life, Yes, your
whole life, yep uh.
Speaker 1: And what was your connection to what were you doing?
I knew you knew.
Speaker 3: Doug right because you guys worked with me and Doug
I grew up together.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was on his bowling team when we were like
twelve thirteen, and I was a crappy buller and and
he made fun of me, so okay, I make fun
of him.
Speaker 2: So I kind of like, yeah, it's all work out,
so kind of balance the differancial life.
Speaker 1: And but then eventually you end.
Speaker 3: Up at CMF accidentally, and I think you were there
when you started. I was there, right, We started at
the exact same time.
Speaker 2: Because I came in, I had sent I had gone
to Fisher. My dad would send me money to party.
Every two weeks I would check for fifty bucks.
Speaker 1: Woud show up and.
Speaker 3: I had the bucks to party.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: It was nineteen ninety it was, and everything was paid
for by the way. I had all my meals paid for.
I had the full meal plan, so this is just
fun money. What I stupidly did was, as my sister
recently referred to this person as my trashy girlfriend who
was back home, I would blow like the fifty dollars
on a phone bill talking to her.
Speaker 3: All those phone bills. Yeah, see, the young people used
to have phones that used to be and you know,
used to come out of a wall.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: And so when I went back, I went back and
he said to me, you I'm not paying. I'm not
paying now. Now you got to get a job. So
I was like, do I wait tables? Because I waited
tables for the summer. But I had also spent the
previous year because I got a little bit of trouble.
So it was like a mutual agreed upon thing that
I would sit for one year. I was benched for
a year and I wasn't going to go to college.
That's when like the owner of the station came to
me that I worked at. Rob Dyson goes, come to
Maras and that's when my old man goes, Okay, here's
the deal. You can go to Marris, figure out how
to pay for it, get your own apartment, or you
can go live with my brother in Park City for
the summer. Come back and I'll pay for Fisher. That's
what he said to me. So I'm like, well, I'm
not dummy, and all right, there you go. I went
to Park City, had a great summer, but I worked
as a waiter. It was a terrible waiter, terrible, terrible
to think about all the people you've ever hired, I
was the fucking worst. Oh my god, I've had. I
couldn't uncork a bottle of wine the first time. I
remember this guy going as I couldn't either. I was trying,
try and trying, and he goes to me, is this
your first time? And I look at him dead seriously.
Speaker 3: I go, yeah, I've been funny. If you said no,
I was like, but I was twenty one.
Speaker 2: But I so anyway, figure all that stuff out, come
back here. And I had done overnights for a year,
so I didn't even know what kind of tape to
put together.
Speaker 1: So I had aliens.
Speaker 2: Landing and eating yellow snow and me throwing up and
calling payphones in the middle of the night. And that's
what I sent to c HMF and Stan heard it
and hired me, that's awesome. And I got brought in
on weekends and he said to me, we do five
hours of funny radio day. Can you just do straight radio?
Oh yeah, So I did for a few minutes. And
that first weekend it was Tommy was the liners were
Monday Morning tom and I kept saying Mule because I
didn't know it was Bleat. No one told me Tommy,
Tommy Muell will be joining the Brother Wee's Morning circus.
So I started the weekend before it was October.
Speaker 1: Got it might have been.
Speaker 2: Almost thirty five years in ninety three, right, yeah, in
nineteen ninety three.
Speaker 3: I started ninety four, So we started. Okay, So you
started in ninety ninety four.
Speaker 2: Well, I wasn't around a lot because I was going
to college during the week.
Speaker 3: I used to see you because I worked for you
in promotion.
Speaker 1: Well that's because I graduated in May of ninety four.
Speaker 3: Because I used to go and we's the studio and
stay on the couch.
Speaker 2: And then I yes, and then I started hanging out
doing promotions after I graduated.
Speaker 3: College was a great time. By the way, that was
a lot of fun.
Speaker 1: We had a lot of.
Speaker 3: Fun edging them doing that today. Well, we did, and
when we were on promotions. No, right, I.
Speaker 1: Have no idea. I don't even remember.
Speaker 2: Right, Well, I didn't get I didn't hang out with
a lot of them. And at the time I was
living with a woman and I was engaged, so I
didn't go partying like that.
Speaker 3: There's one of your three engagements, right Uh.
Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I didn't have three engagements,
but damn close.
Speaker 1: Yeah, might as well, might as well call it that.
Speaker 2: But during that So, how does how do you get
from Greece Catholic school, working at Kidney Shoes to being
part of the brother Wee's morning circus?
Speaker 3: Well, how I got marked? The soldier? Name?
Speaker 1: Was? Is it?
Speaker 3: When Award Stern first came to town?
Speaker 1: I was?
Speaker 3: I was always I never liked Stern. I never dn't
know who Stern really was. I know he was. I
used to watch this TV show you know that we
used to be on us be on cable.
Speaker 1: Yeah. It was like a w R.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, And uh so I would go anywhere that
there was Howard Stern stuff going on, and I would
I would support Weeze and that includes so you would show.
Speaker 1: Up at radio. I was gonna say but what the
time was the nerve? Right?
Speaker 3: It was the nerve?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so you would show up at their events.
Speaker 3: No, it was actually Rocket then it became the nerve.
Speaker 1: Okay, so right, right, so you would show up at
their events.
Speaker 3: Yeahs And Dino talks about Dino says that he made
Mark the Soldier. So he still says this very day,
I'm I'm the reason there's Marked the Soldier.
Speaker 1: Because he was uh, he he.
Speaker 3: Bored up, he board opped. Yeah, and he did all
the he did all the promotions.
Speaker 1: Okay, so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just so Charlie Fitzsimmons asked me if I
wanted to come and in, how did they find out
about you? I would go see Charlie A fat mos?
Speaker 1: Oh so you would go see Charlie if.
Speaker 3: I was you, I was a groupier.
Speaker 2: This is amazing. So you were a groupie. You would
go just on the on your own. What made you
want to go and fuck with an?
Speaker 3: I just I just I don't know, because I hated
Howard Stern so much.
Speaker 1: Did you see things that he was saying?
Speaker 3: I just didn't like what he said? You know, We's
is an institution in Rochester, sure and.
Speaker 1: You was was Yeah, exactly they were.
Speaker 3: And you bring all of a sudden, you bring the
big name in the town. Yeah, and he destroys everybody.
Speaker 1: Yes.
Speaker 3: And I didn't want Wes to go down from Howards Stern.
I wanted him to stay and that was Those were
probably his best ratings were during Howards.
Speaker 2: So you just out of the this is just out
of you. There was none of your friends were part
of this.
Speaker 3: All my friends would go with me because I thought
it was funny, but they weren't part of it. No,
this is me, This is completely.
Speaker 1: You, your own idea.
Speaker 2: Yes, and so you would go and what would happen
at Like, I'm curious what would happen?
Speaker 1: Because I have a story for you.
Speaker 3: Do you remember when they used to bring the second
rate people from Stern show in the town.
Speaker 2: No, I because I was so wrapped up in college
and planning a wedding and uh uh, I don't know,
trying to get my career going that I never I
just focused on that. I was sort of unaware that
like Jackie the joke man, Martinling came in or Stuttering
John or whatever.
Speaker 3: I got banned from from where they were because I went, well,
I went, I forgot where it was. Was it a
fast remember Fans Daddies?
Speaker 1: Yes, and Village Kate was in the back of the
village gate.
Speaker 3: I think I went to I think it was Fast
Eddies and they had like it wasn't I can't remember
the name of their names. Who they even wore anymore.
And I went in with a wee shirt and I
was just being obnoxious and I was I was told
by one of the characters from the show to leave.
I was under the Wii's umbrella. Yes, I mean there's
Derek management and you're rid of me. And he wouldn't
let he he wouldn't let let it happen.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So I.
Speaker 3: Was under that umbrella and until everything exploded and they
put me down to.
Speaker 1: P X Y Okay, what what and what when? What
do you mean? When everything exploded? The whole city.
Speaker 3: Harassment, They laid off a bunch of people. I made
the cut because I was working in promotions, okay, CMF
and then I went over to p X Y.
Speaker 1: Okay, so all right? And then yeah, because I had
I had.
Speaker 3: Worst job ever. I hated that fucking season.
Speaker 2: But all this just out of being a huge supporter
and fan of the Wii show.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting because.
Speaker 3: I was not a trained radio guy. No, everything I learned.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that's the better thing, because what we
radio was like this polished thing, right, and yet I
have a certain voice and a certain thing, and and
we sort of went against that grain. And that's what
made him such a unique guy here. But what I
also think is that, and especially now, you hear the
word tossed around a lot, authenticity, and all authenticity is
are you comfortable truly being who you are? Like you
are who you are, and you bring that out, all
your quirks and everything. You were truly authentic mark, like
you were just you. You didn't try to pretend to
be somebody else. You weren't this Remember, like I've talked
about this, one of the things that attracted me to
the radio was I could be a cooler person behind
a mic where no one could see me than I
was in real life.
Speaker 1: And it took me years to kind of get.
Speaker 2: To the authenticity I needed to go through all that shit,
but I had, you know, I always thought I always
struggled with just the fact not that I ever was,
but that I was gay because I had been molested
and the things I did made me in my head.
So for me, hiding and being somebody else was the.
Speaker 3: Great one's the great escape. Yeah, but for you.
Speaker 2: Being part of I think that that, I mean, that authenticity,
that whole thing, and I always bring it up. But
like the you know, the one contest that you had
when I will never forget it. It was one of
the funniest and it was so funny because it was
so real. It was just a real moment. It was
like that didn't have to happen on the radio. That
could have happened at a keg party at a college,
That could have happened at a cocktail party at somebody's house,
that could have happened at a lunch.
Speaker 1: Do you know what I'm saying? That was the beauty
of it to me.
Speaker 2: And I think that that authenticity that you brought, that realness,
that that that you just were this guy and you
loved we'ze for whatever reason, you know, not knowing him,
and that was a fan. The The part that I
just want to point out is, you know, I know
Howard has has changed a lot, and I know that I.
Speaker 1: Read things online like he's woke and whatever.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I could care less, but what I will say,
is Howard built something and was super protective of it, right,
super protective, like he didn't want anybody in that bubble.
He knew what he had, and he knew that there
were other people out there that were doing it, and
he also probably was aware that there were other people
out there that may be able to do it better,
like be edgier, because they were younger.
Speaker 3: He acted like he invented morning show radio. Yeah, he
kind of didn't, and he didn't was before Weiz. There
was there was oh, there was Imus and there were guys. Yeah,
there was a guy, doctor John Partner on the old
uh ninety two five. Yeah, I think it was MGQ
maybe or I don't know what it was. And he
did a morning show and that was a couple of
years before Weiz.
Speaker 1: So there was always right, that's true.
Speaker 2: So Howard did kind of talk about he he sort
of paved it to be a little dirtier, a little edgier,
a little more raw, right, Right. He did a lot
of weird games like he I mean, there were women
farting in microphones, right, you know, it was shit like
you just never heard on the radio because it was
this sort of polished thing and here comes Howard.
Speaker 1: Not the biggest, not the smoothest voice, not the you
know some.
Speaker 2: In that sense of wheeze, But Howard to me, when
I look back now as I go, the Howard you're
seeing now is.
Speaker 1: The Howard that always was.
Speaker 2: People thought he was this rock and roll rebel guy,
but to me, he was a radio businessman. He was
and he knew the character he needed to play. I'm
not saying it wasn't somewhat authentic. I think it was
a real No.
Speaker 3: He was a character because he was. He was a geek.
You know how he know who you know why he
grew his hair out De Schneider from Twist's sister. He
based his his look on his hair on d Schneider.
They were buds and that's why he grew his hair
out like he did.
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, look, the thing was and everybody does this, right,
but I always think like I think it was taking
pockets of his personality and accentuating that because on the
other side, he was a family man. He had three
daughters that he protected very much from the spotlight. He
had very involved with his parents. He brought a lot
of that. He never talked about his daughters on the air,
but he talked about his wife, so there were certain
things he wouldn't talk about. And he was more of
a brilliant business guy. He went to bed at eight
o'clock every night to make sure he had eight hours
of sleep. So if you had dinners, I remember an
old boss, even when he wound up at serious going
down and being part of his show, and he's like, Hey,
if you're gonna have dinner with Howard, you gotta go
to dinner at like four thirty or five.
Speaker 3: I mean, but that was so he'd go in and
so he'd go in prep because he had writers.
Speaker 1: Yeah, oh, he would show up at like five. But
remember Wes.
Speaker 3: Would show up ten minutes before the show, just st
That's but that's what meet him the best.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's just two different styles, right. And look, Howard
was in the biggest radio market you could be in.
He wound up being syndicated. I'm not taking anything away,
but he went after people. And here's what I will
tell you is when Opie and Anthony got fired in
Worcester outside of Boston, and they had hired by the
same company that fired them in New York City, they
wanted their original deal was to be on what it
was called K Rock in New York Howard in the
morning and then in the afternoon, and Howard went to
Melcarmzan and said, absolutely fucking no. So they own this
orient album oriented rock station. And I only knew it
because it was very similar to the station I worked at.
And all the guys that were running WPDH and Poughkeepsie
were like disciples of WNEW in New York and like
they loved the guys that worked there. And there was
some guy who came in. It was the only time
I ever saw the sixty four pack Crayola Marlboroughs, like
it was a two tier box of Marboroughs. And this
guy would call himself.
Speaker 1: The brick because he smoked bricks of hash.
Speaker 2: And he was trying to get back on any w
so he was putting a tape together and he would
come up on weekends.
Speaker 1: He was such a fucking douche.
Speaker 2: And they wound up putting Opie and Anthony on this
album oriented rock station in the afternoon, and they used
to start playing music, and then I think I thought
for a while Opie was taking like batting practice with
a whiffle bat, and the CDs and the studio and
smashing them and saying how this station.
Speaker 1: Sucks and blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: But they were only there because Howard wouldn't let him
on ninety two on k Rock.
Speaker 1: Then they went to.
Speaker 2: Howard had the Son of a Beach show at the
time on FX or Fox, I think it was Fox.
He was producing it, and there was a press conference
for it, and Opie and Anthony show up and somebody
comes back to them and it's being.
Speaker 1: Delayed and being delayed and being delayed. Nobody, everybody, nobody
knows why. And somebody comes back to them and goes,
you guys have to leave.
Speaker 2: Howard's not going to come out until you leave, because
he thinks you're going to do what he would do,
what press conferences with his people.
Speaker 1: So he was super protective of that.
Speaker 2: And I think there was a time when one of
his daughters had a medical issue wound up the hospital,
and I think it was some kind of drug related issue,
and at one of the cops calls into Opie and Anthony, Hey,
Howard just came in and he's crying blah blah blah.
Because they had police down there to sort of protect Howard,
and this guy's calling any w and now pulled the
plug and they went to best of Oh yeah, yep.
So Howard was super protected. Like all the shit that
he did to everybody else, he would not.
Speaker 1: He had like an arm he was insulated from all.
Tell me about like the personal life.
Speaker 2: How how is all this because now you're working for
free and you're doing all this stuff.
Speaker 1: What does that?
Speaker 2: How does that play out for you? Like in your
personal life, you're almost like your social life becomes the radio.
Speaker 3: It was my social life. I mean what twenty something
year old didn't want to do that for six years,
all the concerts I went to, all the people I've met,
stuff like that. Yeah, I mean, and it was the
nineties one of the best decades ever. People disagree, but
that was a great decade.
Speaker 1: Yes, it was.
Speaker 2: Tell me about like, because I know that there's uh
you have dealt with mental health things. So when when
did all that come about? Was it around that time?
Speaker 3: It's always been there, It's always always been there, had
it's had to be, I mean all of a sudden,
it just didn't pop up one day. I think it
was always there. Yeah, So when I uh, when it
was caught was after my my sleeve surgery, my weight
loss surgery. My that's when I went. I went totally manic.
I lost one hundred pounds in like two months, which
is it is not a healthy thing.
Speaker 1: So what so what are you diagnosed with?
Speaker 3: I am bipolar one or two? I believe one one?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, because bipolar one is you have to have
at least one manic episode in your lifetime, but it's
got to last at least a week, right, a week
duration and it's yousually like you know, irritable mood. That
kind of thing I was.
Speaker 3: I was mine was happiness and increased energy drinking because
all of a sudden, I have all this weight off
me and I had all this energy and you know,
and I would did you have like risky behavior? You
should have seen my car. My car had every dent
and excite smash into things all the time. I shouldn't laugh, no,
but it is, it is what it is, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 2: Yeah, because two bipolar two is more of a depressed
mood most of the day.
Speaker 1: Uh, it lasts to lasted two weeks, but like it's the.
Speaker 3: I mean, there's been a depression too. I mean, so you.
Speaker 2: Get this diagnosis did you see an improvement in your life?
On what happens when you get it? Let's start there.
Speaker 3: The medicine.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean what would they who diagnoses you do?
You know?
Speaker 3: I think my physician, my my physician did okay doctor.
Speaker 2: Yeah, usually it's okay. And they sent you to somebody
I had to go to. Yeah, I had to go
to Uh.
Speaker 3: I went. I had the father son in the Holy Ghost.
It was my doctor, it was it was the shrink,
and it was the counselor. I never saw the shrink.
He was the one that I just gave me the
mad right, Yeah. The counselor was the one that.
Speaker 1: The councilors is the one that'll work with you and
I talk to you. Did you do therapy?
Speaker 3: Yeah, not really, I mean a little bit.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I didn't believe in any of that shit at the time, right,
So I went to the counselor and he pretty much
guided me. And I was working at a time Warner
at the time, okay, and that was that was just
too much of a job for me, I think, being
in the condition I was in. No, you worked in
the master control room. I mean I was there for
twenty four hours when nine to eleven happened. That'll fuck
anybody's mind up, you know. Oh yeah, she.
Speaker 2: Was there for twenty nine to eleven happens you're at
at the time. It's the time working.
Speaker 3: It was our it was our news the time, or
yn what it was. Yeah, we stayed there a long time.
We didn't go home. We stayed there a long time
because we were went. Our news went would be on
tape from midnight to six a m. We stayed on
live for the whole time.
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, yeah, that's a lot.
Speaker 3: And I made bad decisions and stuff like that. When
you make bad decisions, it's like you.
Speaker 1: Give me, give me a bad decision that you made.
I certainly made.
Speaker 2: I mean, look, you're talking to somebody, Jesus, don't make
a bad, bad decision.
Speaker 1: God.
Speaker 3: I was so much drama. I started so much shit
with people. I was just not a very I was
not a very good person. I wasn't I was just
like I had been everybody's business, and you know, I
put people up against each other and stuff I did. Yeah,
something I hate now, something I have no power of no.
Speaker 1: I agree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but you always like soap operas and so it's
almost like you brought that.
Speaker 3: To your life. Yeah sort of, Yeah, I did, And
you know, I mean, I guess, you know, I don't know.
I just when I was a time where I just
don't think I was a very good person.
Speaker 2: That was time warning. Yeah yeah, and then, uh, how's
the meds worked for you?
Speaker 3: They didn't really start working probably until I left Time.
I couldn't wait to leave Time Warner and I wouldn't
leave because I knew eventually they were going to lay
us off. Yeah, and then you know, and it took.
It took like I was there eighteen years.
Speaker 1: Eighteen years.
Speaker 3: I was there eighteen years. I didn't know you were yeah,
two thousand. Yeah. I got hired in ninety nine, okay,
and it was my first time making actually real money.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 3: So I went from the radio where I mean, not
are there any money, to this place where I was
making where I was actually making money.
Speaker 2: I can't see, like I go, there's a little bit
of nuttiness in you and the fact that you would
stay when there was no money. And that's a hard
thing because it's a it's a place measure and pain
type thing.
Speaker 3: I was under the wism bro. I would have never
have gotten that job if I was just some you know,
if I was just some joe off the street. I
was hired because I was part of Weezy's show. I
worked over at CBS Radio for for six years, so
that's why that's why they hired me. I would have
never gotten that job other than that I was a
job at time owner.
Speaker 1: Oh, you wouldn't have.
Speaker 3: No, I was not qualified for that job at all.
Speaker 2: And so that was you had to have a degree
to have that job. Where did you graduate from the
Institute of Wis the Institute of Wise, School of Hard Knocks?
Speaker 3: Okay, well, so I went and did a job which
was which was way way way above above what you
know where I should have been.
Speaker 2: So and during that time, you become friends with some
of the reporters, right, yeah, some Yeah, a lot of
some drama there.
Speaker 3: Well that drama, that's det drama, Last Delaware, the Bathtub Billies.
Speaker 1: So what makes you leave time Warner?
Speaker 3: I get it, I get it, we get the Spectrum
comes in, Yeah, and they get rid of our our department,
and I'm like, and I like, fucking finally I get
three So I may eighteen years. I get three weeks
pay for every year you.
Speaker 1: Get three weeks paid for every year.
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, so eighteen times whatever, eighteen times three is
I can't right now?
Speaker 1: So I mean you're you've got twenty four you got
sixty four weeks?
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Is that right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Fifty four weeks, fifty four weeks?
Speaker 3: Yeah, eighteen yeah, yeah, So are you checking it?
Speaker 2: Well, it's eight yeah, it's just eighteen times three. Right,
I'm pretty I'll check it right now because that fifty
four weeks, So fifty four weeks, which is roughly well,
it's like a year and a half. Yeah, a little
over a year, not a year and a half, about
thirteen and a half months.
Speaker 3: So I leave and this is and this is in May,
I think it was, and all of a sudden, summer
starting and I I got one hundred thousand my four
oh one. K. I'm like, I'm not going to work
in the summer. Didn't work. The summer, I traveled. I
went to Nashville the first time. This is when I
met Matt went. I went and we all we went
to Cantcon. It was my first time getting a passport
and going out of the country that wasn't Canada. So
we went there and then I we went to can coon.
I flew from from cant Coon to home and got
on a plane and went to Nashville, and then I
had applications out everywhere, and you know, I was interviewing
like ten eight stuff like that, and I didn't want
to go. I hated that fucking job. I hate everything
about it. I hated it.
Speaker 1: So then that to billy thing comes up.
Speaker 3: That comes up for me, it comes up an opportunity.
Speaker 2: So let me just pause here for just a moment.
You seem to have a personality that you don't really care.
You're just gonna do whatever feels right to you, right,
but a little manic.
Speaker 3: Oh sure, that was a total Manning decision. That was
a total Manning decision.
Speaker 1: So all this stuff at the time, are you on? Man?
Speaker 3: I'm medicated, but I don't think it was I was medicated, right, Okay.
I think it took a blonde time to be medicated, right, Okay.
Speaker 2: So you're still having do you think you had bipolar episodes?
Because we hear the term bipolar and it's thrown out
there a lot, and I don't think people really know
what it is. When someone's truly bipolar, it's a rough
thing for them, and there can be manic states that
go on like you have. You know, it's grandiosity some people,
and it's not always negative, and sometimes it's a happy person.
But you know, and they're buying you things and they're everywhere,
and you know, you.
Speaker 3: Know, I went from I'm out of a bad situation,
a time warner, Yeah, going where I can own a
bar that I that I went to my whole life.
So I'm like, yeah, So I was going to be
a silent partner. I was gonna go work a Channel
ten and I didn't and I decided not to, so
I ended up so I became an employee. I was
a silent partner, but I worked there so I couldn't bartend,
I couldn't cook. I was useless. People get mad when
I say this, but I'm truthful. How it worked. I
got a three pack of cords, a light, and I
drew in the Nashville. I didn't know where I was
going to go.
Speaker 1: You were all night long, all night long, just drove.
Speaker 3: That's a manic, that's oh, absolutely, Oh I was maned
during that time. Yeah, and went there.
Speaker 1: Nobody sent the cops looking for you.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I told my mom I was going.
Speaker 1: You told your Mom, you were going to Nashville.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I packed.
Speaker 1: You didn't know where you were staying. You didn't know it.
Speaker 3: I know where I was staying.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 3: I had a friend out there that she lived, she
was from here, and I worked with her.
Speaker 1: How many hours? Twelve?
Speaker 3: Yeah, twelve thirteen straight through. Yeah. Stopped a couple of
times to take, you know, take a pee. I was
hungover in Kentucky.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, not tired.
Speaker 3: No. I got there and I went to her house
and it was this thing called the CMA Fest, last
day of it. And I went to the stadium and
that's where I saw Brad Paisley, Keith, Urban Eric Church.
So I went there and the minute I got there,
there was something cool going on. Sure, the minute I
went on Broadway, fucking most amazing thing I've ever seen
in my life. This is back when it was Broadway.
Now it's just a tour. Now it's just yeah, corporate.
So I decided I was gonna move there. I had
a place to live. I sent all my stuff out
there in a storage and I was getting ready to go.
I was gonna leave April first. COVID had no jobs.
Nashville got hit hard. They they got hit hard with
they had a terrorist attack, remember that, I do when
the when the.
Speaker 1: Car blew up.
Speaker 3: And so they were going through a lot of things
and there was nothing there. So I stayed here, stayed here,
stayed here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I I never my mother Okay, she guilted you?
Speaker 3: Oh fuck?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah?
Speaker 1: What was her reasoning? Because I took care of her okay,
and she needed you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's your mom and that's my mom. But she
told me if I came back, she promised she'd let
me go back. That didn't work out, okay.
Speaker 1: But then you send your stuff to when was this
the time you sent stuff down like you when?
Speaker 3: After? I? After I sold my share of bed to billies, Okay,
I sent all my stuff down into a storage unit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, again, with no place to no plan.
Speaker 3: I knew where I was. Yeah, I did have a plan.
I knew where I was living. I knew the jobs
out there were is easy to get a job.
Speaker 1: So what was the reason for not going COVID? Oh covid? Okay?
And did you ever forget your stuff back for storage?
Speaker 3: It's still there.
Speaker 1: You better start watching storage.
Speaker 3: What's what's the difference if I if I bring it
here and putting storage or if it's there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I get it, But but you're not still
paying on it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I still pay for it, you do. Yeah, I
mean I can bring it back here and put it
in storage, but I'm not going to use any of
the stuff, so just keep it there. I went and
visited my stuff the three you know, I went back
three four different times. I'd go to the storage and
see if there's anything I wanted.
Speaker 2: So yeah, and and that sort of brings us up
to the present day with stuff.
Speaker 3: Well, then I started working in a liquor store.
Speaker 1: Yes, right.
Speaker 3: My buddy owned the liquor store. He owned the Red
Front which was which was a legendary diner and the
Rochester Staple down in the Clinton Avenue area. And then
I started working the liquor store for him. And I'd
work and I liked it. You know, it was different.
There was always action all the time. And then I
was roight. Now, then I started. I was in the morning.
Speaker 1: I'd work.
Speaker 3: My brother was working at uh had a job. I
don't want to say where it was he was doing.
You know, he had a job which is associated with
my job now. And I started working there in the
morning and i'd go work at uh, it's a liquor store. Well,
after I got robbed, I went full time, okay, And
that's what takes me to where I'm at now. I
went and I went and lived with a friend of mine.
Her and her husband took me in for three months
until I got where I'm at now.
Speaker 1: Fantastic, right, And that's where you grew home.
Speaker 3: That's where it all started, where I got the shipped together. Yeah,
that's what That's how it all was. I think it
was that all of a sudden, I didn't have my
mother to rely on me and stuff.
Speaker 1: The protector's gone.
Speaker 3: Right, that's gone. I have to do things my own way,
you know, at age, you know, forty something I had.
I had to be an adult and take care of myself.
Speaker 1: You know. Yeah, different, different.
Speaker 2: I think this has been a fascinating conversation, I really do.
I hope that everybody has enjoyed it as much as
I did. It was a fast hour. We talked for
over an hour. Over an hour we did. Yeah, and
I think that that it.
Speaker 1: Was great And I appreciate you coming in.
Speaker 3: And it's funny because I have a resume, my resume,
people think it's fake. What do you mean If you
ever see my resume, everything we've talked about is not.
You know, everywhere I worked is on my resume. I
worked up Pontilo since nineteen eighty seven. I went in
the radio, I was there. I went to Time Warner
for eighteen years. I owned you know, I owned at
the Billies. I worked at a liquor store. You know.
I do what I do now, and it's like, you know,
and everybody looks at it. And someone told me, they go,
you couldn't have done all this, and I go, I go.
Everything on it is the truth. It's what I've done.
I created myself three or four different times. I recreate, Yeah,
recreate myself. And this right now is the best version.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely feel good. I feel great. I stay I don't
I don't go out, and I hardly drink anymore. I
stay out of people's business. Even at the job I'm
at now. I have friends there, But I'm not trying
to be mister oh. You know, I want to you know,
I want everybody to like me. I don't give a
ship anymore. So you know, I do what I do.
I go do my job, I do it well. So
this is the best. You know, this is where I
want to you know, I want to be. I don't
ever see it slipping.
Speaker 2: I think it's fantastic. Congratulations on all of it because
it's it's been great. I have loved this conversation.
Speaker 1: I really have. It's been fantastic.
Speaker 3: I gotta piss all right, I'm just kidding you.
Speaker 1: No, I gotta go.
Speaker 3: Friggering all this coffee and stuff like that. I forgot
we were even on the mic.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, you know, Yeah, it was a great conversation.
Ye's that's what I love. These are some of my.
Speaker 2: Favorites when we could do one on one for for
the soldier who I'm Bill Moran. We'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1: I'm turning a TV letter to you.
Speaker 2: About in a statement, see if they were looking borrow
candle like with Tennessee. Hello, my friends, let's be honest.
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