Speaker 1: This is Gary and Shannon and you're listening to KFI
Speaker 1: AM six forty The Gary and Shannon Show on demand
Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 2: Macy's is ramping up store closures this year, struggling to
Speaker 2: revive its business. In February, they announced that they're going
Speaker 2: to shutter one hundred and fifty of the underperforming Macy's
Speaker 2: stores within a few years, including fifty five by the
Speaker 2: end of this year. Now, they said they're going to
Speaker 2: close sixty five locations by the end of this year.
Speaker 3: They said they're going to.
Speaker 2: Stay open through the holidays, let you shop, and then
Speaker 2: do probably a massive clearance sale before they close for
Speaker 2: good before the end of December. At this point, Macy's
Speaker 2: has not yet announced which of the sixty five which
Speaker 2: of their stores would make up the sixty five that
Speaker 2: are supposed to be closing. Rams beat the forty nine
Speaker 2: Ers last night, twelve to six. Thursday Night football and
Speaker 2: Army Navy game is tomorrow afternoon, and then the college
Speaker 2: bowl season starts Jackson State Tigers against South Carolina State
Speaker 2: Bulldogs at the Cricket Celebration Bowl and the Salute to
Speaker 2: Veterans Bowl between South Alabama Jaguars in the Western Michigan Broncos.
Speaker 3: Trump is going to the Army Navy game. That's where
Speaker 3: we start swampwatch. Swamp is horrible.
Speaker 1: The government doesn't work.
Speaker 4: Man.
Speaker 3: We're gonna make us like an reality TV show. Corn
Speaker 3: wasn't bad? Doos always a pleasure to be anywhere from Washington, DC.
Speaker 1: Ay Joe, a town all too clearly built on a
Speaker 1: swamp and in so many ways still a swamp.
Speaker 3: I have a bunch of malarkey.
Speaker 1: When he said drained the swamp, I said, Oh, that's
Speaker 1: so he'll keep wash, you know the thing. So this
Speaker 1: is Trump's fifth appearance at the game, the Army Navy
Speaker 1: game he went as president, elected in twenty sixteen, and
Speaker 1: then as president in eighteen, nineteen, and twenty. He's also
Speaker 1: going to be on the sideline with Pete Haig Seth.
Speaker 1: Of course, his pick for Defense Secretary, former Army Major
Speaker 1: Ron DeSantis, will be there. Former Navy lawyer who will
Speaker 1: join Trump.
Speaker 3: Jd.
Speaker 2: Vance has invited Daniel Penny, the marine veteran recently evacuated
Speaker 2: on the homicide charges.
Speaker 3: Up in New York.
Speaker 2: So that's going to be a good, low scoring game,
Speaker 2: I think, is it Armies or Navy. One of them
Speaker 2: is ranked at like number twenty two in the country.
Speaker 2: They've had a great year, so it might not even
Speaker 2: be a close game, but it will not be an
Speaker 2: airborne game.
Speaker 3: They will not. It's just they never passed the ball.
Speaker 1: They don't.
Speaker 2: I mean, I think last year they one of those
Speaker 2: last one of the last couple of years they combined
Speaker 2: for I think five pass attempts the entire game, like
Speaker 2: it was being played in nineteen twenty eighth, something like that.
Speaker 2: Nancy Pelosi is in the hospital. She was put in
Speaker 2: the hospital in Luxembourg today after she was injured while traveling.
Speaker 2: Now at this point, the spokesperson for the speaker Amerita,
Speaker 2: said that she sustained an injury during an official engagement.
Speaker 2: No details on the nature of the injury or how
Speaker 2: it happened, but said that she was admitted to a
Speaker 2: hospital for evaluation. According to somebody who was familiar with
Speaker 2: the incident but is not authorized to comment, they said
Speaker 2: that Nancy tripped going down marble stairs at the Grand
Speaker 2: Ducal Palace and took a hard fall, which is never
Speaker 2: good news and could be particularly bad news for someone
Speaker 2: who's the age of eighty four. Regardless of what kind
Speaker 2: of condition she's in going into that fall. This has
Speaker 2: become a nursing home, and that's not necessarily good news
Speaker 2: for the country. Mitch McConnell, of course, tripped and fell
Speaker 2: in the Capitol after the Republican luncheon. He sprained his wrists,
Speaker 2: sustained a small cut on his face. He's the one
Speaker 2: who's frozen up several times. Nancy also wears four inch
Speaker 2: stiletto heels wherever she goes, so that may have been
Speaker 2: an issue on the marks.
Speaker 3: So silly.
Speaker 2: We've heard about the pardons, of course, the commutation and
Speaker 2: pardons that President Biden handed out earlier this week. One
Speaker 2: of those pardons is commutations, I should say, is getting
Speaker 2: particular attention because a judge, a former judge, Michael Conahan,
Speaker 2: was convicted of corruption and sentenced to jail for seventeen
Speaker 2: years because he was taking kickbacks for sending kids to
Speaker 2: for profit detention facilities. He was sharing in two point
Speaker 2: eight million dollars in the illegal payments from the builder
Speaker 2: and the co owner of a couple of for profit lockups.
Speaker 2: Another one of the judges also involved in the scheme.
Speaker 2: The scandal is considered Pennsylvania's largest ever judicial corruption scheme,
Speaker 2: with the state Supreme Court throwing out some four thousand
Speaker 2: juvenile convictions involving more than twenty three hundred kids. After
Speaker 2: this thing was uncovered again, the judge Michael Conahan pleaded
Speaker 2: guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, but was released
Speaker 2: from prison to home confinement because of his age over
Speaker 2: the age of seventy and COVID when he had six
Speaker 2: years left in his sentence. So some of the people
Speaker 2: in what Joe Biden likes to refer to as his
Speaker 2: hometown of Scranton, PA are a little pissed off that
Speaker 2: he let this judge commuted the sentence for that judge.
Speaker 1: I just want to corrections and retractions. I mean, not
Speaker 1: really corrections or retractions, but something to keep an eye
Speaker 1: on if you're going to watch the Army Navy game.
Speaker 1: Bryson Daly is the quarterback for Army, and his twenty
Speaker 1: nine touchdowns is a record in the AAC. He's having
Speaker 1: a hell of a year, breaking all the one.
Speaker 3: Team nine touchdowns.
Speaker 1: Yeah, actually a lot of upsetment that he wasn't in
Speaker 1: the Heisman conversation. Apparently he is. He's a toss it.
Speaker 3: He can run it.
Speaker 1: He's like a linebacker running the ball, they say, so
Speaker 1: that might be exciting to watch.
Speaker 2: It's gonna be chili. It's not gonna be a snowy
Speaker 2: like it was before, but it is going to be chili.
Speaker 1: Everywhere's chili. Aren't we under the Lake effect for more?
Speaker 1: Most of the northeast where it's like below zero this weekend.
Speaker 2: I didn't think it was gonna be that cold. I
Speaker 2: thought it was gonna be like twenties maybe.
Speaker 1: Remember the woman who claimed she was raped by the
Speaker 1: duke all lacrosse players.
Speaker 3: Can you believe that was nearly twenty years ago? That's crazy.
Speaker 1: Now, she says she made up the whole story. It's
Speaker 1: the first time she's admitted that publicly. She was on
Speaker 1: a podcast. Crystal Magnum. Is her name, Crystal Mangum, Mangum.
Speaker 3: Excuse no, no, no.
Speaker 2: I fell for that too. I did that multiple times.
Speaker 2: I said her name wrong, but I checked the spelling
Speaker 2: a couple of times. Crystal Mangum.
Speaker 5: They trusted me that I wouldn't betrayed their trust, and
Speaker 5: I testified falsely against them by saying that they raped
Speaker 5: me when they didn't, and that was wrong.
Speaker 1: I already a whole conversation of race black. These were
Speaker 1: white lacrosse players. She was black, and about just class
Speaker 1: and race and wealth in this country and privilege.
Speaker 2: And does do those things give you more or less
Speaker 2: believability when something happens or you say something happens.
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: That was That was well before we had the Me
Speaker 2: Too movement where we talked about believing all women.
Speaker 3: But everybody jumped onto her train.
Speaker 2: To support her because her description of it was was
Speaker 2: so egregious. And these kids, I mean, these were college
Speaker 2: kids whose reputations were completely destroyed by her. There continues
Speaker 2: to be some earthquakes that are rattling right along the
Speaker 2: one hundred and fifty mile long New Madrid fault line
Speaker 2: in the Midwest. Scientists have warned that the fault line
Speaker 2: could general rate of magnitude seven or higher in the
Speaker 2: next fifty years. And the earthquakes in the last few
Speaker 2: days have all been really small, especially by California standards.
Speaker 2: They've been three point zero or less smaller. But they
Speaker 2: said that even that many quakes of that size are
Speaker 2: very unusual in that area. For us, it's Tuesday, for them,
Speaker 2: it's batten down the hatches. The big one is coming.
Speaker 3: Back in DC.
Speaker 2: Big report that came out from the Inspector General of
Speaker 2: the Justice Department took a long time, but he said
Speaker 2: that there were more than two dozen confidential human sources
Speaker 2: in the crowd outside the Capitol on January sixth. And
Speaker 2: there's an important distinction, and it depends on where you
Speaker 2: read this story. The headline is there were no FBI
Speaker 2: agents in the crowd. That's one headline. The other headline
Speaker 2: is there were twenty six chs's and the confidential human
Speaker 2: sources in the crowd. Now, many of them were not
Speaker 2: instructed to go there by the FBI, but a few
Speaker 2: of them were because they they were following or providing
Speaker 2: information to the FBI about some of these suspect groups.
Speaker 2: Proud Boys was one of them, and they said that
Speaker 2: many of the people of the two dozen who were
Speaker 2: there at the Capitol on the January sixth, they said
Speaker 2: seventeen of them did enter the restricted capital buildings or grounds.
Speaker 2: None of those guys have been arrested. Three of the
Speaker 2: informants referred to in the report as confidential human sources
Speaker 2: were tasked specifically by the FBI field officers to go
Speaker 2: to DC to report on subjects that were part of
Speaker 2: domestic terrorism investigations. So they're keeping their eyes on specific
Speaker 2: people for the FBI. But the FBI for a very
Speaker 2: long time. I mean, if you remember, Christopher Ray, the
Speaker 2: director of the FBI, had said that there was no
Speaker 2: violence that was perpetrated by FBI agents or sources.
Speaker 6: Asking whether the violence at the capital on January sixth
Speaker 6: was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and
Speaker 6: or agents, the answer is emphatically no, saying not violence
Speaker 6: orchestrated by FBI sources or agents.
Speaker 2: And it's one of those where it's kind of splitting hairs.
Speaker 2: People are banging on Christopher Ray for lying about whether
Speaker 2: or not FBI sources were there that day. He's saying
Speaker 2: there were no agents there that day and that none
Speaker 2: of the agents or sources did anything to foment any.
Speaker 3: Of the violence.
Speaker 1: Democrats may be getting honest with themselves. At least one Democrat.
Speaker 1: Her name is Molly Murphy. She has delivered a speech.
Speaker 1: This is the first post election meeting of the DNC
Speaker 1: and the leadership there and she was Molly Murphy was
Speaker 1: upholster to the Harris campaign. And she said today to
Speaker 1: top Democratic Party officials that they must confront Trump far
Speaker 1: differently differently than they did during his first term. She
Speaker 1: had an urgent message for them not to focus on
Speaker 1: every outrage but instead argue that he's hurting voters' bottom
Speaker 1: lines their pocket books. It was a quiet indictment of
Speaker 1: much of the party's long standing approach to Trump, and
Speaker 1: they say it marked one of the most candid conversations
Speaker 1: that Democrats have had. She said, the twenty twenty five
Speaker 1: playbook cannot be the twenty seventeen playbook. This was at
Speaker 1: the Higatt Regency in DC. She said that most Americans
Speaker 1: support Trump's transition and that voters don't care about who
Speaker 1: he's putting in cabinet positions. She said that Trump's going
Speaker 1: to take office more popular than he was when he
Speaker 1: first started his first term, though not as well liked
Speaker 1: as Joe Biden and Obama when they were inaugurated. But
Speaker 1: she stresses that Trump's strength for years has been that
Speaker 1: voters approve of his handling of the economy and that
Speaker 1: Democrats should aim in his second term to change that.
Speaker 1: She said, these votes are saying I will give him
Speaker 1: a pass on the outrageous if my costs come down.
Speaker 1: That's what they need to hear.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's what they want. I mean, well, they don't
Speaker 2: may not want to hear that. They don't write that
Speaker 2: is what they do.
Speaker 1: That was probably be a very unpopular speech because they
Speaker 1: love the outrage. They love the can you believe this guy?
Speaker 2: The incoming president elect administration to Trump administrations likely, they said,
Speaker 2: to bring changes to seafood. Some of the industry said
Speaker 2: the returning president will be I've never heard that term before,
Speaker 2: but it makes sense. The returning president will be more
Speaker 2: responsive to the seafood sector of the US economy. More
Speaker 2: complicated picture, they said. Trump's pending trade hostilities with some
Speaker 2: of our trading partners they set on the table for
Speaker 2: tariffs with Canada and China, of course, could make an
Speaker 2: already pricey kind of protein more expensive. But conservationists are
Speaker 2: fearing that the president's emphasis on deregulation might jeopardize the
Speaker 2: fish stocks that are already suffering. Many in the commercial
Speaker 2: fishing and seafood processing industry said they do you expect
Speaker 2: Trump to allow fishing and protected areas cracked down on
Speaker 2: some of the offshore wind expansion, which can threaten some
Speaker 2: of those populations. Also, Donald Trump's cabinet choices are not
Speaker 2: normal to sen its confirmation process should be to be
Speaker 2: published alongside one that made the opposite point. But because
Speaker 2: of a tight deadline and because, according to The New
Speaker 2: York Times, the LA Times editors were baffled by his demand,
Speaker 2: so they just spiked the article and couldn't come up
Speaker 2: with the second version of it in time. Prior to
Speaker 2: the election, of course, you remember he spiked the planned
Speaker 2: endorsement of Kamala Harris.
Speaker 1: Guess whose birthdays are being celebrated today?
Speaker 3: Today is December thirteenth.
Speaker 1: Yes, two celebrities, Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift and Front of
Speaker 1: the Show John Bon, Jovie, Dick Van Dijk.
Speaker 3: Oh, if it's right, ninety nine today?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, safe marked safe from the Malibu fire.
Speaker 1: Escape the fire with his wife Arlene and his cat Bobo.
Speaker 2: Thanks to a couple of neighbors. If I'm not mistaken,
Speaker 2: they helped them get out. That's why we check on
Speaker 2: our friends when the fires come, right, you don't.
Speaker 3: Listen to them. Of Jesus, Well, we hears it different
Speaker 3: in sound.
Speaker 1: Well, three years ago did the Center of our lives.
Speaker 3: Something like that? Maybe it was two years ago. It
Speaker 3: was two years ago because it was while mom was
Speaker 3: not well.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: This is the story is I was traveling up the
Speaker 2: Central Coast to visit my mom when she was not well,
Speaker 2: she was getting sicker, and as I'm driving home, this
Speaker 2: song comes on the radio and I had never heard
Speaker 2: it before. I guess i'd never heard I don't remember
Speaker 2: hearing it.
Speaker 3: One Sleep Sound the World of Difference.
Speaker 2: Man, it was just the perfect song, perfect timing, it was,
Speaker 2: and we can't get away from it now.
Speaker 1: And then when my dad was dying, I would put
Speaker 1: this on just and it's got got this like cathartic
Speaker 1: feeling to it, right, So it's become kind of a
Speaker 1: song we play all the time on the show, as
Speaker 1: you know, and today we get to we get to
Speaker 1: interview and talk to the singer of the Trumps of Jesus,
Speaker 1: Russ Taff.
Speaker 3: Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4: Russ, Thanks guys, it's good to be here.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 3: I saw.
Speaker 2: When we first started kind of learning about the song itself,
Speaker 2: and then of course the recording that the Imperials did
Speaker 2: that was the name of the group that you were
Speaker 2: a part of. It brought in some pretty amazing things.
Speaker 2: Tell us about your career in music. Was there something
Speaker 2: you wanted to do as a kid and then you
Speaker 2: get involved with it.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I grew up by Fresno, in a little
Speaker 4: town called Farmersville, California, by Bothelia and daddy was a
Speaker 4: Pentecostal preacher and small little church about twenty people, and
Speaker 4: music was just a big part of my family. And
Speaker 4: my mother and her sisters for great singers, and they
Speaker 4: told me I sank my first solo when I was
Speaker 4: four years old. Mom put me on the altar and
Speaker 4: I sang, and it was just a part of me.
Speaker 4: I mean, I couldn't play sports very well. You know,
Speaker 4: I'm short and slow, and there's not like a big
Speaker 4: demand for that. But my deal was Mom taught me
Speaker 4: how to play guitar when I was twelve, and I
Speaker 4: would through the week, I would learn a song and
Speaker 4: then Sunday night there was time and I would sing.
Speaker 4: But something would happen to me when I sang. I
Speaker 4: felt at home. I felt glory, I felt caught up
Speaker 4: in something that was much bigger than me, and it
Speaker 4: satisfied me. And when there's a lot of trauma in
Speaker 4: the home, there's just places of escape. That's just peace.
Speaker 4: And music has always been that for me, and I
Speaker 4: mean I've done it my whole life, but it you know,
Speaker 4: even alone. Music makes me cry, music makes me laugh,
Speaker 4: music brings peace, you know, music makes me dance. And
Speaker 4: so I have just been absorbed in it and never
Speaker 4: knew that I would have a career, moved to Nashville
Speaker 4: and travel worldwide, you know, writing songs and singing. But
Speaker 4: I've just been blessed. I've been out here now forty
Speaker 4: eight years and just came out with a new record
Speaker 4: and new tours and everything else. So I've just been
Speaker 4: so blessed, so blessed. But yeah, that song was one
Speaker 4: of the first records I made with the Imperials, So yeah,
Speaker 4: I still get a lot of requests for that. When
Speaker 4: I traveled.
Speaker 1: Russ you talked about trauma and the home, and I
Speaker 1: was reading about your life and you had a rough
Speaker 1: start there.
Speaker 4: Yes, yes I did. My daddy, like I said, he
Speaker 4: was a preacher, but he was also an alcoholic and
Speaker 4: there would be you know, he would preach like six
Speaker 4: seven months and do really really well, and then he
Speaker 4: would relapse big time and lay in the back bedroom
Speaker 4: and drink and sober up and he loved to preach,
Speaker 4: and there really was a call in his life that
Speaker 4: he never got a handle on it. And so you know,
Speaker 4: when when their addiction is going on in the home,
Speaker 4: you know, you can stay out till like five in
Speaker 4: the morning. Nobody cares because you know Mom's caught up
Speaker 4: with him and her life is falling apart. But it was,
Speaker 4: you know, and I've had three three brothers die from addiction.
Speaker 4: It was just I don't know, it was by the
Speaker 4: time I was seven years old till he died in
Speaker 4: ninety seven. He never got a hold of sobriety. And
Speaker 4: so there was just constant chaos, just constant chaos. And
Speaker 4: when you're a kid and you have to protect what's
Speaker 4: going on in the family, you know, you can't talk
Speaker 4: outside the family, and so you know, you had to lie.
Speaker 4: You just had to lie. And when you're a kid
Speaker 4: and you love Jesus and you've been taught to be
Speaker 4: a Christian, and all of a sudden, you're having to
Speaker 4: not tell the truth of people when they wanted to know,
Speaker 4: why is your dad not going to where? You know?
Speaker 4: Why's your dad not in church? And so it just
Speaker 4: tore the family all the pieces and I left the
Speaker 4: home when I was seventeen. It was just I was
Speaker 4: at a point I just could not live there anymore,
Speaker 4: and so I moved in with the family when I
Speaker 4: was seventeen that just basically adopted me, and they've been
Speaker 4: my parents of choice since I was seventeen. But trauma,
Speaker 4: it follows you, you know, it just follows you. And
Speaker 4: being told constantly in that household that you'll never be
Speaker 4: good enough, you're not worth the bullet to shoot you with,
Speaker 4: and you're just told that constantly. But that's what their
Speaker 4: parents told them. And so I get with the Imperials
Speaker 4: when I'm twenty two years old and you're winning Grammys
Speaker 4: and I remember the first one, and you know, the
Speaker 4: party after the Grammys, and then you go back to
Speaker 4: the hotel with my wife and within an hour, it's
Speaker 4: gone the joy of the whole thing because I'm not
Speaker 4: good enough. I shouldn't be getting this, I don't deserve this,
Speaker 4: And you know, you never could really accept the success
Speaker 4: and you're singing in front of thousands of people and
Speaker 4: you don't feel worthy because of those messages that were
Speaker 4: just ingrained in your brain that you're not worthy, you're
Speaker 4: not good enough. You'll never be good enough. But yet
Speaker 4: you know you're living your dream, what you've always wanted
Speaker 4: to do, and it's the greatest thing that can happen
Speaker 4: to a singer. But when the concert was over, I'd
Speaker 4: go to the back of the bus or go back
Speaker 4: to the hotel, and then depression would come. I'm fooling everybody,
Speaker 4: I'm faking out everybody, and I don't deserve this. So
Speaker 4: you know, I went into my career just insecure and
Speaker 4: afraid and afraid people will find out that I'm not
Speaker 4: good enough to do this and I'm faking everybody out.
Speaker 4: But it all started at trauma, you know, when I
Speaker 4: was seven years old when dad started drinking. So it
Speaker 4: caused chaos in my life. It's just absolutely retaboc. And
Speaker 4: then you get married and because you grew up in
Speaker 4: a home like that, you don't know how to love.
Speaker 4: You know, love is conditional. And I tell you what
Speaker 4: I've been in therapy thirty years. And then I had
Speaker 4: my own doubt with alcoholism myself. I was twenty six.
Speaker 4: I never drank, and I remember I had a beer
Speaker 4: and those voices, those condemning voices, got quieter, and so
Speaker 4: I had the second beer, and the voices got quieter,
Speaker 4: and by the third beer, the voices were silent, those
Speaker 4: condemning voices that haunted me, and honest to God, I
Speaker 4: began to thank God. I you know, I'm Pentecostal, so
Speaker 4: I lifted my hands and I began to say, this
Speaker 4: must be the way, you know, ordinary people are, and
Speaker 4: I can live this way. I can enjoy life, not
Speaker 4: knowing that it would turn on me so fast. And
Speaker 4: then all of a sudden, I'm hiding and I'm lying,
Speaker 4: and I turned into my dad and I hate myself.
Speaker 4: I just absolutely hate myself. But there were some people
Speaker 4: around me that I saw what was going on, because
Speaker 4: I was hiding and I was lying, and I was
Speaker 4: terrified I'd be found out. And here's this gospel singer,
Speaker 4: you know, talking about Jesus and he can't wait to
Speaker 4: get back to the hotel and just numb. I just
Speaker 4: wanted to be numb all the time. And everything I
Speaker 4: sang from the stage, everything I said from the stage,
Speaker 4: I meant it from the bottom of my heart. But
Speaker 4: now I'm addicted and I can't get free. And I
Speaker 4: would beg God and I would pray, and but somebody
Speaker 4: saw what was going on, and it was my mother
Speaker 4: of choice confronted.
Speaker 2: Russ, your story of redemption is incredible in the documentary
Speaker 2: you get me. The thing is the thing is your
Speaker 2: story is so a.
Speaker 1: Lot of people. Yeah, it's a twenty eighteen documentary. It's
Speaker 1: called Russtaff I Still Believe, and it's incredible.
Speaker 4: Once I get rolling fun to real it back, Yes,
Speaker 4: depend when a miracle has happened in You're a lot.
Speaker 4: But anyway, let me just say real quick, if there's
Speaker 4: a document and it's on YouTube. One of them is
Speaker 4: called I Still Believe Russtaff and I did one with
Speaker 4: Mark Leida called Softwrite Underbelly that I did about five
Speaker 4: months ago, and it tells this whole story. But forgive
Speaker 4: me for just rap.
Speaker 2: Now listen, it's a story that I think a lot
Speaker 2: of people could listen to for a long time. Russ
Speaker 2: hailed as the single most electric fine voice in Christian music,
Speaker 2: three time inductee into the Gospel Music Association Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: It's just an absolute pleasure to talk to you. Thank
Speaker 3: you so much.
Speaker 2: Thank you for that song, and thank you for all
Speaker 2: of the songs that you've recorded.
Speaker 3: We greatly appreciate them.
Speaker 4: Let me just say this before I get off. You
Speaker 4: can get free from trauma. There is a way out.
Speaker 4: But let me just say that as we say goodbye.
Speaker 3: Or not, Russ, thank you.
Speaker 4: Oh I'm sorry you went away.
Speaker 3: Oh oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that. Have a
Speaker 3: great day, Russ. Thanks for your time.
Speaker 4: And thanks for the work you guys are doing. Thank
Speaker 4: you so much.
Speaker 3: Absolutely say hi to Nashville.
Speaker 4: For us, all right, that will bye bye.
Speaker 2: Maybe that is a statement to Russ's longevity in the business,
Speaker 2: in the industry. Yeah, you know, people moved. Plenty of
Speaker 2: people moved to Nashville for music, just like they come
Speaker 2: out here to be actors and never do anything and
Speaker 2: never materializes. But he's been able to He's kept at
Speaker 2: it for forty something years years, he said, And like
Speaker 2: I said, three time member of the Gospel Music Association
Speaker 2: Hall of Fame, one as Russ Taff, one as a
Speaker 2: member of the Imperials that we talked about, and then
Speaker 2: one as a member of the gays Or Vocal Band,
Speaker 2: which is a long time well known gospel.
Speaker 3: Group as well the Imperials.
Speaker 2: I wanted to ask him, if I had a chance
Speaker 2: to keep him on a little longer, I would ask
Speaker 2: him about the ninety plus members or whatever it is
Speaker 2: that have been part of the Imperials since that group
Speaker 2: started in the sixties, just this rotating cast of people,
Speaker 2: but that they kept the name of the band the
Speaker 2: whole time, as opposed to changing it. And so that's
Speaker 2: a yay. It's a good interview. He was a good guy.
Speaker 2: Most electricalis a lot a lot it. Yeah, did you
Speaker 2: make it through that?
Speaker 1: I mean yeah, I just you know, some people go
Speaker 1: through a lot and addictions a wild thing, isn't it.
Speaker 2: And here's the takeaway that I have in stories like
Speaker 2: that or from stories like that. Everybody's got some story
Speaker 2: of something happening in their family. They're addicted to something,
Speaker 2: whether it's drugs or alcohol or abused or everybody's got
Speaker 2: something going on in their family. We're all humans and
Speaker 2: that's just that's the way it is. But it puts
Speaker 2: into context, what's what your problems really can be?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: You know, we're upset about the traffic this morning.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean you're upset because the boss wants
Speaker 2: me to stay until four thirty on a Friday.
Speaker 1: You thought it was weird that your mom put up
Speaker 1: dead birds in the house.
Speaker 3: Right, No, not abusive at all.
Speaker 1: And the fact that he's able to come out on
Speaker 1: the other side of that of not just his father's
Speaker 1: and mother's abuse and addiction, but his own, and that
Speaker 1: he was able to overcome all of that is incredible. Well,
Speaker 1: and it's so powerful and important, especially this time of
Speaker 1: year when people struggle arguably the most.
Speaker 2: It was interesting he said he didn't have a beer
Speaker 2: until he was twenty six years old, and when he did,
Speaker 2: the voices in his head were the things that were quieted,
Speaker 2: and then after another one they were quieted even more.
Speaker 2: And I think at that point, you know, up until
Speaker 2: that point, he'd probably feared alcohol because of his father's
Speaker 2: struggle and never quite understood what the feeling it was
Speaker 2: that that alcohol gave his dad. Yeah, right, I mean
Speaker 2: if he was, you know, sober and then drunk and
Speaker 2: then sober under trunk.
Speaker 1: What his dad's father was like, right, Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 3: That probably is a key in all of that too.
Speaker 2: What was that line about the bullet you weren't worth
Speaker 2: the cost of the bullet to kill you or something
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 3: Lord, that's rough. That would that would be abuse? Yeah,
Speaker 3: that would I would qualify. You've been listening to the
Speaker 3: Gary and Shannon Show.
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