JORDAN RHODES (The Life of a Blue Collar Actor) stops by 6/24/26

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:22

Yeah, you know, you know you know, people don't think uh you you guys in radio get a vacation.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. He's out there fishing, enjoying his girls. It's awesome. So uh there you go. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

Well, I had uh I had really a super father's day because I'm gonna I'm gonna tell you in the listeners, uh my daughter, Cheyenne, and my two grandsons, uh Caitlin and Declan, they drove down from Connecticut uh to Sunset Beach down here in North Carolina, and a very dear friend of hers, Deirdre, uh drove up from Georgia to meet Cheyenne, and Deirdre brought her two girls, uh Little Coco and Cadence with uh them uh to get together in this resort place there in Sunset Beach. And um Deirdre brought a friend of hers, well, her sister-in-law, uh Jessie, a lovely lady. And here's something that you will find interesting. Um Jessica's father is an avid listener to your show.

SPEAKER_01 1:20

Get out of town. Where does he live?

SPEAKER_02 1:23

He he's in Georgia. And and he's uh he's a huge conservative. Well, over the uh over the street, they stream it.

SPEAKER_01 1:32

No, I know. How did they even find us? That's so unbelievable. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

Well, i i I I hate to take credit for this, but my daughter told you Deirdre and Deirdre told her sister-in-law. Very good. Anyway, uh, you're earning your keep, Jordan. Earning my keep. And another interesting thing, as as you and Nick know, and and I guess Lynn does now, uh, my daughter Cheyenne, uh, she is an ASL, an American Sign Language Instructor in the Education Department at Harvard.

unknown 2:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:02

And we uh she took us out to lunch because uh my lovely wife Lynn uh, of course, went down with us, uh, or went to Sunset Beach, and there was a huge uh contingence of deaf gentlemen there playing golf. Uh and when we went in to have uh lunch at this lovely place there, and my daughter, Cheyenne, went over and conversed with all of them, which uh always makes me about Proudest Punch. So uh anyway. Uh so that that was really great. Okay, before I jump on the Democrats uh with both feet, uh I'm I'm gonna I sent you a text. I'm gonna ask you uh if I could do I'd like to do a tribute uh to uh to George Jones because this month, uh June, uh this month, actually June nineteenth, uh is the twenty-sixth anniversary of the last time that George Jones and Tammy Wynette did a tour. That was that was their last uh tour that they went on together. Uh so this month does that. And uh I have uh I have a backstory on this song that uh I would like to do for you and the listeners, uh Acapella, because Nick Nick Nick is not here to accompany me on the guitar. So I'll do that. And uh the song that I want to do is a tribute, and hopefully the uh the uh the George Jones people will forgive me uh for this, but uh it's it's a song that uh not only myself but millions of people think it's the best song that George ever recorded. It's a song called He Stopped Loving Her Today, and it was written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putnam, and uh they've they wrote quite a few hit songs for George and also for Tammy. Uh but uh it's uh it's it's it's kind of interesting, and the backstory uh will probably be more interesting to your listeners than than me doing this tribute. But anyway, with your permission, here goes. Okay? He stopped loving her today. He said, I'll love you till I die. She told him you'll forget in time. As the years went slowly by, she still preyed upon his mind. He kept her picture on his wall. Went half crazy now and then he still loved her through it all, hoping she'd come back again. He kept her letters by his bed dated nineteen sixty two he had underline and read Every single I love you. I went to see him just today. Oh but I didn't see no tears all dressed up to go away. First time I'd seen him smile on you He stopped loving her today They placed a wreath upon his door and soon they'll carry him away He stopped loving her today You know she came to see him one last time we all wondered if she would kept running through my mind This time he's over her for good He stopped loving her today They placed a reef upon his door and soon they'll carry him away He stopped loving her today So I hope the uh George Jones uh fans will uh forgive me for that, but that's a tribute that I wanted I wanted to do for him. Now here's here's the interesting backstory. When George was in the studio to record that song, he he couldn't get through it. He kept stopping. And he told the producer, he said, This is just too darn sad. He said, You couldn't do it. And they tried take after take after take, and you're you know you're certainly in the radio business, the recording business. So the producer he called Tammy Wynette, who didn't live that far from the studio, and Tammy owed him a favor. So he said to Tammy, I need you to come to the studio. Uh George is having some problems. I need you to come to the studio. So Tammy, who a lot of people I think know this, George Jones was the love of h her life and Tammy Wynette was the love of his life. So she drove down to the studio and came into the studio, and when she came into the studio, obviously George, even though he was in a recording session, could see through the glass and could see her, and the producer said to George, George Tammy came down here because she wants to hear you record this song. And so George Jones recorded the song, did not stop, got completely through the song, and that's the one that they recorded and put out on the thing. And when it was all over with, Tammy looked at the producer and she called him an SOB and she left the studio. Because that's not how it was supposed to go, or uh well, it it they they you know, they were already, you know, they'd already split up by then. Tammy had married kids shit. Yeah, Tammy had married that uh uh piece of that dirt bag that took all of the money from the girls and everything and also kept her all doped up and drugged up and everything.

SPEAKER_03 7:32

Uh jeez.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Yeah, he he was he was just I won't even I'm not even gonna mention his name. He was he was a piece of trash. And uh and uh anyway, that she was already married to him.

SPEAKER_01 7:42

But um Hey, you know what I I don't mean to interrupt, I'm sorry. I I wanted to ask you a question. Like, you know, you've played a lot of characters and you've you've done sung a lot of songs. Did any character like leave a mark on you or kind of was like you could really internalize it?

SPEAKER_02 8:03

Yeah, uh actually two. Uh I the the the very early in the first one was a character named Bobby Hershey that I played on the um on uh I can't remember the show, the uh the medical show, the doctor Quincy no no not not Quincy. No, no, Marcus Welby Marcus Welby, M D. Yeah. Uh in fact the the show that I did, it was the first uh it was the first true story they had ever used on the show. Uh a young girl uh who was being a a reporter, she came down with meningitis. And so they had to send her to a rehabilitation center, and at the rehabilitation center, she met this young truck driver who had had a bad accident, and he was in a wheelchair named Bobby Hershey. So it was the first time that the Marcus Welby Show ever did a show based on a real true story. And that role, number one, Leo Penn, Sean Penn's father, really fought to get me that role because they had some contract players that uh their department wanted for the role and all of that. And that was the role that really kicked off my my career. I mean, it really got me going. I hardly was out of work after that from the time that I did it. Uh so that that role meant a a lot to me uh because I uh I I will tell your listeners something. I think one of the things that really endeared me to Leo, because I had come out of New York and my training was based all in, in those days they called us method actors because the training was based on a Silasowski method, and I'd studied with Lee Strasberg and Sandy Meiser and and those people. Uh and since I was going to be in this wheelchair in a rehabilitation center, and I knew they were gonna film that in Southern California, uh, out from Hollywood there. So I went one day over to the studio to see Mr. Penn, Leo Penn, and I asked him, I said, Is there any chance that I could go down to the rehabilitation center and live there for a few days before I do this role? And Leo was a New York actor uh and married to Eileen Penn, uh Sean's mother, who also was a was a fine actress in New York, and so he he really loved that. And I remember he said to me, Kid, you want to go down there and what you you want to go down there and live a couple days? I said, Yeah, I'd like to go down and you know, I'd like to familiarize myself with the wheelchair and also meet some of the people and kind of get some insight. And he said, Kid, you want to do that? You'll do it. The studio will pay for it. So they sent me down there and I went down for two or three days and uh learned learned how to do the wheelchair. So that role is pretty special to me. And the next one that sticks out, oddly enough, is the one that I did for his son, for Sean Penn, in the Indian Runner, uh when I played the the uh the deputy uh in the Indian Runner, because uh again, it was uh it was a very big film, uh one of one of the few really big ones that I did as far as a multimillion dollar guy, and also they paid me a lot of money, which is nice. Uh but uh that that role I was able to I don't know, I just really did both of those roles meant a lot to me for whatever reason. And uh also I might add this, I think the first time I ever got to kiss a girl on screen was in the Marcus Welby show. Oh Sean Sean Barbara Allen, uh who was dating uh Richard uh uh oh John Boy from The Waltons. Oh, okay. Uh Sean yeah, Sean Barbara uh uh Sean Barbara Allen, she was playing uh she was uh she was playing the the girl that had the uh had the meningitis and she she was she was like Bobby Hershey's Love Interest. So yeah, so those uh those two roles were would you know certainly meant something to me. So ah okay. Well, let's uh did did I did I answer your question?

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Yes, I think that was pretty cool. I love that. Uh now I'm I'm sure you have a little commentary that you want to just squeeze in here. We just have a couple minutes left.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Yeah, I I know, and of course I'm just gonna I'm just gonna jump on. I'll I'll try to do this like the old da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da type thing. Uh everybody's gotta be really thrilled over the Obama library opening. It's it's it's it's it's such an incredibly looking building. I mean, I can I can hardly look at it myself. And uh let's say, what is this, four million in the red, uh, his library. The thing that I think people really should know is that that they they so far have stiffed all the black workers. I see. The black workers are people that constructed that thing. Okay, so so that we'll we'll go with that. That that's that's really terrific. I also think that it's amazing that the Europeans are showing uh everybody here how they love America, but yet the uh Democrats uh they hate America. And uh another little more little blurb here. Did anybody do you see that the the list that Chuck Schumer put up, the list of the total lies claiming all the perks that Trump was giving to Iran? And uh this just blew me away. He mentioned all the people.

SPEAKER_01 13:09

And you know, there's there are a lot of Republicans siding with some Democrats on this too. Yeah Yeah, I know that that that that guy out of Indiana.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

And the amazing thing to me is they just nobody's paying attention, Liz, to the fact that you know Iran doesn't get these perks if they don't deliver the goods. And also America, we're not paying them any money. Yeah. You know, unlike the Obama administration who gave them and by the way, I did get this number from last week. Obama gave Iran one point seven billion dollars.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

And they didn't have to do anything to to get it. He just handed it to them.

SPEAKER_02 13:46

Right. They promised they were gonna take care of their people and do whatever it was, and that was all just a bunch of bulls. Yeah. So anyway, the all all of these things, uh I just think it's unbelievable, you know, uh, that all all of the good stuff that's come out of this. Uh the United States now, the farmers. Iran is gonna buy food from the farmers. Uh, I think what Trump has done with this is really amazing the way he's pulled it off, and the fact that they won't give him credit, and Schumer comes up with the thing talking about all Iran is gonna get, but they don't get it if they don't deliver the goods.

SPEAKER_01 14:16

So Yeah. Well, um I just wanted to say, because I was just uh this just came over on let me see here, Breitbart. I don't know if you hear you heard uh first of all Mamadani's plate of lefty loopy software. Okay, the primary whether he was thought he was like, Now they'll he'll step down so they can pick whoever they want.

SPEAKER_04 15:26

That's what I think.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Well that that certainly should happen. And by the way, since you're talking uh Liz, since you spoke about Mondami, let's at least bring this up. He has seized 15,000 New York City apartments. That's what he seized, which is added to the homeless people. 15,000 apartments, and this uh this uh wonderful thing he's working with now in the New York City Housing Authority, they have 10,624 apartments that are empty in in Manhattan that are absolutely unlivable in this thing. And and just uh I mean these people are I uh the Democrats, as far as I'm concerned, are going completely nuts when you look at this group of people that they're running in the election.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Anyway, um, thank you so much. And we'll talk to you next week.

SPEAKER_02 16:14

I'll do it. Thank you.