When a voicemail can transport you back in time, you know you've found something truly special. That's what happened when we listened to the last message from our dear friend Forbus; laughter mixed with tears as we remembered his humor and warmth. This episode is a tribute to his legacy, exploring the powerful connection between fragrance and memory as we revisit the vintage Ralph Lauren Polo that Forbus cherished. We're also humbled by the overwhelming generosity that you, our listeners, have shown in supporting Forbus's family through the GoFundMe campaign.
There's a certain magic in the way a scent can capture someone's essence, and Forbus was like an old-school cologne—bold, complex, and unforgettable. Through shared anecdotes and life lessons, we honor the man who could make us laugh with his quirky misnaming of perfumes, and who taught us, by example, the importance of expressing our love and appreciation for friends while they're still with us. Even as we recommend 'Hit the Mark' from Mint for its chocolate and mint notes—and for the lovely ladies in your life—we're reminded how Forbus's favorite fragrances mirrored his tough but gentle heart.
Closing this episode, we feel Forbus's absence in the studio, his unique dynamic irreplaceable. We recall the laughter and the unfinished plans we had with him, and we are comforted, in part, by the messages of love and support from our Patreon community. His natural charisma and the joy he brought to all of us continue to inspire every episode. So join us as we celebrate Forbus, a friend who left an indelible mark on our hearts and on this show, ensuring that his memory lives on through every story we share and every fragrance we savor.
When a voicemail can transport you back in time, you know you've found something truly special. That's what happened when we listened to the last message from our dear friend Forbus; laughter mixed with tears as we remembered his humor and warmth. This episode is a tribute to his legacy, exploring the powerful connection between fragrance and memory as we revisit the vintage Ralph Lauren Polo that Forbus cherished. We're also humbled by the overwhelming generosity that you, our listeners, have shown in supporting Forbus's family through the GoFundMe campaign.
There's a certain magic in the way a scent can capture someone's essence, and Forbus was like an old-school cologne—bold, complex, and unforgettable. Through shared anecdotes and life lessons, we honor the man who could make us laugh with his quirky misnaming of perfumes, and who taught us, by example, the importance of expressing our love and appreciation for friends while they're still with us. Even as we recommend 'Hit the Mark' from Mint for its chocolate and mint notes—and for the lovely ladies in your life—we're reminded how Forbus's favorite fragrances mirrored his tough but gentle heart.
Closing this episode, we feel Forbus's absence in the studio, his unique dynamic irreplaceable. We recall the laughter and the unfinished plans we had with him, and we are comforted, in part, by the messages of love and support from our Patreon community. His natural charisma and the joy he brought to all of us continue to inspire every episode. So join us as we celebrate Forbus, a friend who left an indelible mark on our hearts and on this show, ensuring that his memory lives on through every story we share and every fragrance we savor.
Sup dudes, this is Forbus, so this is the only way I can get a hold of y'all now. Huh, voicemail, big ol' hot shots on the podcast. Huh, going to Italy Learning how to buzz your own hair. Ryan, I don't even know what you're doing, but good gosh guys, I miss y'all so much. I love hearing new episodes. I'm glad you're all back and man, hit me up soon, because I got something fun for y'all to smell. Love you guys very much.
Speaker 2:Hello everybody, Welcome to a brand new episode of the Cologne Podcast.
Speaker 3:I'm Mike and I'm Ryan, we're two best friends. We're going on a fragrance journey. We're smelling throwback fragrances left to us by a great friend named Forbus and giving you uneducated opinions.
Speaker 2:Yes, the plan was for us to do this episode with Forbus. Obviously, yes, he had. I'm trying to remember where he had gotten this from.
Speaker 3:I think he just found it, so I don't know if it was in his stuff or maybe he, you know, unbeknownst to us got into one of those things where they buy storage containers and he was. I don't know where he got it, but he just said he found it but we have a little.
Speaker 2:What would you call? It's a sample, yeah, by ralph lauren. It's a seven mil, but it's a little splash on, yeah, and it's of the original polo. It a vintage, so it's a vintage little batch here that we're fixing to do right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. In fact, I think you hear in the opening that was a voicemail. He left the podcast saying like, oh, I've got something sweet for you guys. That's what he was talking about, this thing and when this airs, it will be the day that he was supposed to come out and record this episode with us. And if you're not following on Instagram and you're not a Patreon member, then you don't know this yet. But unfortunately, our friend Forbus did pass away. He had a severe asthma attack and by the time he got to the hospital he had also suffered from the lack of oxygen. I forget the medical terminology, but basically damage to his brain because of the lack of oxygen and then he ended up passing from that. So we miss him very much. We've cried so much already. So we're just trying to keep things upbeat because if you've listened, we've got on our Instagram, we've got a list of episodes. Forbis has joined us on three episodes in the past. We'd love for you to go back in his honor and listen to those.
Speaker 2:And a quick thank you to all of you that contributed to the GoFundMe. Yes, and so quickly too, man. I mean thank you so much yeah.
Speaker 3:Within a week we raised nearly $19,000 for his family Incredible, so we can't thank you guys enough. First foremost to the Patreons you guys jumped in immediately, and then all you guys that saw it on Instagram and shared it and jumped on it as well. Huge thank you to that. Again, we raised nearly $19,000 from that. Okay, well, something that isn't as impressive as you guys' response to the GoFundMe is this review by Monkey500 on Fragrantica.
Speaker 3:Who, about Ralph Lauren Polo, says the opening of Polo smells like your grandfather's homemade greenhouse very green and grassy and herbal of damp moss. If that's your thing thing, you'll love it. If not, you won't. I think I'm gonna love this. Yeah, a little green fragrance, something herbal for us to enjoy. I think we need to add a disclaimer that this might be a biased review. I just can't imagine us trashing the hell out of this uh episode when it's in honor of our late friend forbis. So we'll see, maybe we will. I mean, he didn't wear this though, did he? No? I just you know. I think there's going to be a little bit of sentiment behind. For sure it will see. So don't judge too harshly on this episode. Who knows where we go with this? It may be, you know us just greasing the hands of Ralph Lauren.
Speaker 2:Well, before we start greasing hands, yeah, we need to go back in time. You came back from Italy. You brought this fragrance back from a house called Mint. Yeah, and the fragrance was called Hit the Mark and it was supposed to be a chocolate mint kind of fragrance. Yeah, and I think we should do our one night stand review let's do it.
Speaker 3:Hit the music, todd yeah one night stand review.
Speaker 2:well, mike, after spending the night in the streets of Italy clowning about with Chris and Tony and Steve and all these British blokes and all this huh On broken bicycles, and you brought back this fragrance, which you heralded as your favorite fragrance from the whole trip, right?
Speaker 3:It was possibly my favorite find. There's a couple more I can't wait for you to smell that I think will lean heavier into something we would wear. Yeah, but as far as just being a very unique fragrance done very well, this was my favorite find, and so on that I'll say I stick by it. I love the way this fragrance rides. It dries down really nicely. It's a beautiful fragrance, leans, a little bit feminine, but I would go for it as a buy for a beautiful lady in your life. I'd be happy to recommend that to other people. It's very nice. It's a little on the pricey side, yeah, it is, but it is a fantastic fragrance that uses chocolate as a note that doesn't get too carried away.
Speaker 2:Best chocolate fragrance I've smelled. Same, without question, and I would agree with your sentiment. Definitely do feel like it leans more feminine, opening's ultra unique. To me and that was part of the fun too was like it was something kind of different, you know, right, but no good fragrance, solid, I don't know if I'd wear it and I, man, look, forgive me. There's been a lot that's went on since this episode, that episode air, but I can't remember if I said sample it or buy. I feel like I probably said sample.
Speaker 3:Maybe, so it's one that you do have to sample.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would definitely sample, but it's really cool. The bottle looks great. Yeah, I'm going to lean with that as well.
Speaker 3:And yeah, that okay. Well then let's jump into this beautiful throwback vintage ralph lauren polo from our friend forbis. You go first. Okay, it's a splash arm, right? I think so. Yeah, it is all right. Wow, it is green too. Damn, look at that. I don't know if it's just part of the uh bottle has been affected by the alcohol in here. I've got little shards of green glass on my skin oh, buddy whoo, that is old school and masculine damn, I just okay, it's look at.
Speaker 2:Look at my glasses. I just did the uh, I put on the car stock and I waved it, but it doesn't missed out obviously. So I just flicked fucking juice all over my glasses. God damn it man. Yes, very old school, kind of obnoxious, kind of right up my arsehole.
Speaker 3:Yeah, this is what fragrances used to be. Like God, I love this. I guarantee you, if we got a recent formulation of this, it would not have this set of meaty clackers on it.
Speaker 2:Dude man, this is how I want fragrances to be be. I mean not stroking this one off completely here, I'm just like I'm just being for real. Yeah, I want things to be a little abrasive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, strong, yeah, yeah, potent dude, wow, okay I mean I feel like this could be forbis in a way too, like he was that kind of. The thing I love about Forbis is he's the sweetest guy, but he is so rough around the edges, yeah, and this kind of like this. It smells good, but it's also got like a real bite to it. In fact, before Brian had passed, he was saying he was gonna get the whole side of his head tattooed with a T-Rex skull, remember? Yeah, that would have been awesome.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is man. This is really. It is polarizing. I will tell you that I'm curious to know what a recent formulation would be like of this there's no way they've kept it this harsh. No, no way at all.
Speaker 3:It is legitimately challenging for me, yeah, so that's pretty impressive it is stout, good Lord, it's stout and this isn't like the best sealed, like the cap doesn't even screw well, so it's probably been maturating for a long time yeah but whoo, that's got. It was it's full. By the way, we got the full seven mil to juice on wow that is, she got a little stank on her.
Speaker 2:We haven't had a frigger tough stank on in a minute. Oh my god damn forbis he would. I think he would have. You think he would have liked it, because I don't know if he would like. You think he would have.
Speaker 3:I think he would have yeah, he would have had fun with it. I don't know that he would have liked it. You think he would have. I think he would have. Yeah, he would have had fun with it. I don't know that he would say he'd wear it, but he would have had fun with it, because I mean his favorite fragrances. Towards the end there we always talked about Carbon, we always talked about Santel, and then he was like if he ever got a million dollars, he would buy Oud for Greatness. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I can't remember if we played this or not on the One Night Stand review, but he kept calling it Oud of Greatness and I just loved that. It's like it's not the same, but you know when your kids like go to say something and they get it wrong.
Speaker 3:But it's so cute, you like don't correct them because you're like, I just want it to be like this forever. Ood of greatness yeah, ood of greatness yeah, I loved it because he'd be like, oh, it's that ood of greatness oh god bless this shit dude, oh man hey guys, I know that we're big masculine men out there, but uh don't be afraid to tell your friends you love them, because for sure uh you just you don't know how much time you got with them so so enjoy those friendships god, honestly, for real it's.
Speaker 2:I know we're here for the fragrance and for this, but to talk a little bit about him, I've he's been in and out of my life since about oh five, I think somewhere around there we were. We were a lot of times going all through that, though we were more acquaintances like yeah, for sure, you know like you're, you're in those groups of people. But it's like, oh yeah, forbes showed up and right, you know, yada, yada, yada. It's like we were never like great friends starting there, right, right, if I'm just being candid, right. But as I became friends with you before your catastrophic accident where you lost all your hair, oh yeah, bad day for me In a million accident Rescuing children.
Speaker 3:I was telling his family because we spent a lot of time in the, you know, in the hospital towards the end there. So I got to tell the story over and over again, how pretty much forbis talked me into shaving my head, yeah, and I gave him that right.
Speaker 2:I said, uh, you know, you got a better vantage point up there you're gonna have to let me know when I'm like trying to hang on too long you know, and he let you know, and you know, honestly, it was a great decision. You know, the funny funny thing is y'all hear me saying this. I'm not being mean to mike. He actually has a full set of hair. He just I don't know he was inclined to shave it. But to say this, it's a really good. Look on mike. And now every time we see pictures of you with hair I'm like God you had a pompadour.
Speaker 3:It was bad, it was not a good idea, not a good look.
Speaker 2:But so before all that, though and you were just getting regular haircuts you know, I knew him, and actually, before you started doing the haircut because I told you the other day we were filming a tattoo convention thing, oh yeah, day, uh, we were filming a tattoo convention thing. Oh yeah, man, I was up in the rafters with like a fucking canon cinema camera and I'm mike's down on the showroom floor and he's like talking to forbis and they're good, like about 50 to 70 yards away from me but I see mike.
Speaker 2:Mike points up into the rafters where I'm at like yeah, ryan's up there filming, and forbis gave me the fattest middle finger yeah, I remember sitting up there by myself going this motherfucker that's.
Speaker 2:That's how you know he likes you and then from there I went with you to the barber shop. We signed our names on the door. Yeah, um, he's been cutting my hair now for a while. It's like, uh, he was just a really good dude and we ended up starting a project that obviously is not going to get finished, but we started a project with him and early on into it, I get a call from him one day. Yeah, and he had called you because he was worried about something. Right, yeah, he couldn't get you, so he immediately called me and he talked to me forever. And I haven't had anybody reach out to me like that, like for real I just not like being on phone, you know, in their graces yet, right, and he was just very open and friendly and we talked forever. He was, you know, worried about something that really wasn't a big deal, where me and you were both trying to convince him.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, we won't go into too much detail, but basically he was worried about us not being fully compensated. Yeah, it was him going like he didn't think he deserved like this pay cut or something. Yeah, yeah, like what we're working? We're working on a project that would have been, you know, more or less split three ways and he was worried that we weren't getting compensated enough, which just goes to continue to say more about his character. That, um, and just like you said, uh, you know he'd never called and talked to you, but you guys talked, you guys talked for probably 30 minutes on the phone and that was him. He was very quick to be a great friend to you. He would just open himself up immediately.
Speaker 3:And I had met him in high school or when I was in high school, I was in a band and our band opened up for his band and that's how I met him and we did music and we had mutual friends. So we were always like, but we weren't ever close. And then I moved back to Texas from Boston and as soon as I moved back, people were like oh, you need to go to Forbis to get your haircut. I'm like this guy, I remember this guy and, yeah, first haircut, haircut. We hit it off, we're good buddies.
Speaker 3:And then, uh, shortly after, started doing all of his videos for him and stuff like that. You know, we made funny videos promoting his business. We did one for the wolf man and we did one, uh, a buddy of ours, his wife was pregnant and they were doing like a like a birth announcement, so we made it look like a sitcom and he got his hair cut and so we just we've always had fun, always been hanging out with him and and he's just been a great friend. And you hear at the end he says I love you very much.
Speaker 3:And that's like he said that to his good friends. He always said that, always said I love you very much. Like he was so open to telling you he loved you. Yeah, and he meant it, you know. So I was sitting with his family at the hospital and I just kind of I played him a voicemail that he had left me and you know, if we we want to, we can play it here bro, I'm walking around downtown longview and, man, I'm obviously sexy as shit because I recognize lizzie still's mom walking the streets.
Speaker 4:I was like hey, and she goes. Oh, hey, mike, and she's like, oh, I'm sorry, I thought you're someone else, so, like you thought I was wilkerson, she goes. I sure did feels good to be wearing your shoes today, bro, hope you're having a good one.
Speaker 3:Bye he was talking about how somebody mistakenly thought he was me because we look very similar, you know, bald guy with a beard and tattoos. We look like 90 of america right now, uh, but they, you know, they uh thought I was playing on that and then I just said, you know, like, uh, forbis was always such a good friend and he's, you know, he would always tell me I love you very much. And his mom was like that's exactly how he said it as well. So that was just him. If he loved you, he let you know.
Speaker 3:And ryan and I were getting better at it with each other. We, you know, occasionally we'll say like, hey, I love you, man, you know, and ryan and I were getting better at it with each other. We, you know, occasionally we'll say like, hey, I love you, man, you know, on the phone, uh, I don't, I just as fast as life turns, you know, uh, don't waste the opportunity to let people know how much you care about them. Oh, 100 man, we won't be too down in the dumps about this because, I mean, we laughed a lot with forbis, we had such a great time, so we don't want to be too down.
Speaker 3:But, you know, just let those that you love, know it, because you don't know when's the last time you'll be able to. You know, we him and I had a few text messages and a phone call, and that was a day or two before he had his attack. And then, after that, everything else, he was heavily sedated and he was on a ventilator and stuff like that. So last time we talked I'm like I'm trying to talk him into taking care of something he's asking me to take care of, like you do that, I don't want to do it, you do that. And then we were talking about him coming over to watch the eclipse and and do this episode. So, um, you know, if I'd have known that was the last time we would chat, I would have said you know, I love him quite a bit more.
Speaker 2:But for sure. Well, let me actually leave people with something that everybody can kind of take. It's food related, but everybody can do this because he changed you and I his world. Uh, he invited us over a couple times to eat. He made uh, uh wings and fries. Yeah, and I know we've said it on the in the past on the show, but, uh, for anybody out there that wants to experience this, it's easy get you some potatoes and, you know, got a fry cutter, dice you some fries, however you want. Yeah, uh, he had a fry daddy. He fried them up when they would come out. He had this. It was. I think it was a steak seasoning maybe. Yeah, it was hardcore carnivore, hardcore carnivore, black, I believe yeah, it's like a charcoal.
Speaker 3:You know activated charcoal seasoning or something like that. It is so badass. Yeah, it made the fries like legendary legendary.
Speaker 2:So if you ever want to experience that, do that and he would go, uh, to a place around here in town. Everybody's got a place where you can, you know, get fresh ranch dip, you know, not the whatever at the store. Yeah, it's completely different, you guys know and so he would go and get that to make this, and, man, it just changed my world.
Speaker 3:He would get like 40 ounces of it, yeah, and then he would bake rather than fry, because we're consuming 10 pounds of fries. He would bake hot wings, yeah, and then we would we've done this a few times we'd sit down hot wings, French fries, and we would watch a comedy special and we'd all laugh and have a good time. And that was over there at Forbes' that's what we did.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good times. Appreciate all the love he showed me, Even when he didn't have to. He was a really kind guy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he really got behind us on his podcast too he did Every time we'd go in.
Speaker 2:He's like man. I just listened to you on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Man, that was fucking fun, you know, yeah, yeah or texting, and one of his messages was like finally disagree with you guys.
Speaker 2:It's pronounced caramel, not caramel yeah, good lord, well, okay, it's hard, it's going to be hard to segue through all this. Yeah, it's fine. I'm going to give you the price and trend on this Totally nuclear fragrance. The price about $105. Not bad For $125 mil. Oh, and they make a 200 ml bottle and I think you can get somewhere on gray markets you can find that $125 mil for like $50. So there's a price trend. It trended good for a long time. I think with anything old, obviously new things happen World changes.
Speaker 3:Yeah, then you're looking at this Ralph's Club Elixir, yeah, which we have and haven't done an episode on.
Speaker 2:So it's trending down. But you know I can see where this is probably out of touch with today's generation.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's definitely a little bit more on the mature side.
Speaker 2:Very abrasive, but do you feel like? Well, fuck it.
Speaker 3:Who's wearing it? I think you're over 50. Yeah, you got a little change in your pocket. Maybe a little chain around your neck, oh okay, yeah. Yeah, maybe a little chain around your neck, oh okay, yeah, yeah, and you wear the uh wife pleaser, as they call them now, under uh your button-up shirt. It's that, it's that you know. You're a masculine man in your 50s. You have more hair on your chest than you do on your head. You have at least a sweet tom selick mustache oh, definitely got a mustache with this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, man, it is. I mean, I love it for what it is, for sure, but it is so abrasive. I mean it is very abrasive, but I love that.
Speaker 3:I love the challenge. Speaking of masculine men with mustaches, me and your brother were talking about oh lord, oh gosh gene hackman. Okay, and I forget who said it might have been him. But he said it might not have been him. That said it, sorry. Somebody said I always thought your dad looked like gene hackman a little bit when he had the mustache you're talking about uh, your dad or my dad, no, your dad.
Speaker 2:Oh lord, I was like, hmm, I might, could see that, possibly, I could maybe see that, uh, there actually is a diver that my dad got compared to a lot. Oh, really, and a country singer yeah, I can't remember the two oh no, no, it was marty robbins.
Speaker 3:I could probably see them. Yes, marty robbins with the mustache, that's what it was. I think that's the one. Yeah, yeah, marty Robbins, because we were talking about Marty Robbins. Sorry, we went through quite a few transitions to get to Marty Robbins, wasn't my brother you talked to? No, I think your brother said y'all's dad looked like Marty Robbins with the mustache and I could definitely see that. Oh shit.
Speaker 2:This is definitely a fragrance for that type of person. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, my dad was very olive-complected, so I feel like it's this. I don't know, you got a gun in your waist like a snub nose in your waistband or something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're about to sit down for some spaghetti and talk business your wife just actually turned you over to the feds.
Speaker 2:You're like you fucking killed us, karen.
Speaker 3:You did this, Karen. He was a main man.
Speaker 2:So I don't know, but it's a badass fragrance, so let's get to it. You're going to skip it, sample it, but it's a bass freg, so let's get to it, you're going to skip it, sample it, or you're going to buy it.
Speaker 3:What are you going to do, ryan?
Speaker 2:I will probably sample this some more. Yeah, because I don't know if I can pull this off. As much as I love it, it's still too mature. Yeah, it's pretty mature. I think it's older than 50. I think it's older than 50. You think so? Oh, I think this is like 60 and up.
Speaker 3:Really, yeah, okay, I could see that If you're in your 50s, you want to kind of play down a little bit, yeah. So, yeah, maybe if you're trying to be extra macho when you're younger, you throw this on. But maybe you're right.
Speaker 2:Maybe you got a couple decades before you splash this on right yeah, I gotta have my skin a little bit more leathery for us yes, maybe we need to keep this in a dark drawer somewhere for a little longer, but what do you think?
Speaker 3:yeah, I'm with you on that. It's, it's very mature is a sample of skip. I mean it, not for me. Maybe in 30 years it may be for me. Yeah, definitely not right now. But I could see Forbis if he's just, you know, cutting the guys on a specific day and he's not dressing to impress him. That's masculine man. I do love it. Yeah, I could see him splashing it on having a good time.
Speaker 2:Well, that's today's episode and again, I know this has been a little bit of a weird start to our year so far.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure had a lot going on Podcast. Well, obviously we're going to be back into it, but I do want to say again thank you guys for all that you did to help us with the GoFundMe. Yeah, I want to say thank you to Forbis for finding this little gem right here. I'm sorry that you weren't able to do this here with us. It would have meant a lot. And I went back and listened to the episodes you were on and he was naturally gifted to do this. So I immediately called Mike and said man, I feel bad we didn't have him on here more. Yeah, for sure, because I mean, the first time we introduced him, uh, talking about him having you in stirrups. Oh, yeah, trimming my testicle hair. Yeah, it's just a great guy. And uh, he and thank you, thank you for this, for running with the punches on that. And uh, he gave us that um at te, that Texas whiskey. That was really good.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we'll have to hold on to that. I was actually thinking about that the other day too as well. Yeah, he gave us a little studio warming present and then Todd drank it all. Yeah, man, going back and listening, I was telling you as well. Yeah, by the third, third episode, he was one of the boys. He was as comfortable behind the mic as we were, and that's why we were constantly trying to figure out what episode to get him back on next, and that's when he came with this.
Speaker 3:So we were planning that right day to have him on. So we know you guys loved him again. We got tons of comments and messages through patreon from you guys just talking about how much. You got tons of comments and messages through Patreon from you guys just talking about how much you love Forbis and and kind of the dynamic between the three of us. And, uh, we are definitely going to miss him. He was one of my very, very good friends, so, and uh, as true as the day is long as well, so, yeah, we're going to miss him pretty good.
Speaker 2:Well, some pretty good. Well, we love you, guys and until next time we'll see you again for this and spray it up, y'all.