LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
99.9 Gator Country morning show host Amadeus shares stories that did not make it on the air, and he takes a deeper dive into those that did make the cut. Fans of Your Hometown Morning Show will enjoy a more behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a country radio morning show. Listen daily for this PG-13 version of the top stories making pop culture headlines, artist interviews, and much , much more.
LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
Get Ready to Rock in Jacksonville (You’ll Want to Get Tickets!)
Get ready for an exciting journey through Jacksonville’s vibrant music scene and, the captivating world of UFOs! This week's episode starts with an exploration of the incredible concerts lined up at venues like the St. Augustine Amphitheater, the Thrasher-Horne Center, and Jacksonville Center for The Performing Arts.
We sit down with Stephanie Lynn from Daily's Place, who shares her inspiring journey in the music industry and discusses the upcoming lineup that fans can anticipate.
In a twist, we segue into the intriguing world of unidentified aerial phenomena with former U.S. Army counterintelligence officer Luis Elizondo. Lue dives deep into the revelations of UFOs, their governing bodies, and the cultural implications of such discussions. His insights provide a blend of entertainment and education, sparking curiosity about what lies beyond our earthly boundaries.
By the end of this episode, you’ll not only have a deeper appreciation for Jacksonville’s music offerings but also a thrilling perspective on the mysteries of the universe.
Join us for an engaging conversation that will leave you both entertained and informed. Don't forget to subscribe, share, and leave us a review! Your support means the world to us as we continue to uncover and celebrate the pulse of live events in our city.
Hey, thanks for checking out another episode of Live from Jacksonville. I'm Amadeus. You may know me from the Morning Show at 99.9 Gator Country here in Jacksonville. I'm also the promotions director for both Gator Country and 96.1 WEJZ. That's how I'm so in the know on what's happening in Jacksonville concert event comedian-wise, and that's what this podcast is all about. I have two amazing guests with me this week on the podcast. Stephanie Lynn from Daily's Place will talk about some of the great shows coming as well as what's going to happen to Daily's Place once the Jaguars start building the stadium of the future and, oh my gosh, I'm so excited.
Speaker 1:Lou Elizondo If you don't know, lou, he is the expert on UFOs and alien sightings and everything. He worked for the government for many, many years. He's got a number one bestseller out and he is absolutely fascinating. That's coming up a little bit later on, but right now let's talk about what's coming to town in the next few weeks. The St Augustine Amphitheater is about to be very, very busy. Saturday, march 8th it's the Beach Boys' Endless Summer Gold Tour. Zz Top will be at the Amph on Friday, march 14th. Joe Bonamassa, the incredible guitarist I've seen him several times. He's amazing. He'll be at the Amph on Saturday, march 15th. Foreigner on March 16th. Diana Ross, a legend on Tuesday, march 18th. And Widespread Panic are playing three dates at the Amp, st Augustine, march 21st, 22nd and 23rd.
Speaker 1:Our friends at the Thrasher Horn Center, they're also about to be very busy. Larry, the Cable Guy, who was on our podcast last week, will be there on March 6th. Howie Mandel on March 13th. Splish Splash, the music of Bobby Darin, is at the Thrasher Horn Center on March 16th. Joe Nichols March 27th and Turn to Stone, an ELO tribute, march 31st. They also have a big announcement coming Monday, march 3rd. Make sure you check out our Live from Jacksonville Facebook page after 10 am for that announcement. The FSCJ Artist Series is bringing to the Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts the Righteous Brothers Farewell Tour on March 5th. Staying Alive One Night of the Bee Gees on Thursday, march 6th. My first guest today is Stephanie Lynn from Daily's Place, which, if you don't know, is an amphitheater that's actually attached to Everbank Stadium, where the Jacksonville Jaguars play, and Stephanie walked into the studio when we got to talking and before we knew it we were already into the conversation. So let's pick up there where I asked Stephanie about her history with Daily's Place.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I was a little like what am I doing with my life? Right, I had had a whole career. I'd worked for media distribution. I sent commercials to radio and television stations. I'd been a graphic designer. I'd been a stay at home mom. I had worked for the film festival back when we had a fully fledged film festival. Oh cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I was feeling a little lost and what am I doing? And when I realized I need to get back events, I saw a job description for a job posting for a position at Thrasher Horn Center and, fully admit, did not know it had ever existed.
Speaker 1:Same with me until I started going, and it's been around 20 years. I learned last week.
Speaker 2:I mean it's a beautiful venue.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Beautiful facility. So this is like 2015. I drive all the way out there for my interview and when they give me a tour, I was like how did I not know that this was here?
Speaker 1:I did the same thing.
Speaker 2:And it was for a marketing and admin assistant role, which was a few steps back in my career trajectory, but I knew I wanted to be in the industry. So bad I was like totally worth it.
Speaker 1:You had your eye on the prize I did.
Speaker 2:It was the best decision I ever made. First off, the team that I worked with were incredible passionate, dedicated, really were able to take what I knew out here and put it through the lens of events. I was there for about two and a half years. I was a house manager in addition to my other responsibilities.
Speaker 2:I became a coordinator. They really helped me champion the rebrand that we did back in, let's say, okay, 2017, something like that. Um, and it was because of my time there that I was able to go and work for smg, which is now asm at the arena right yep so I think that's where we first met.
Speaker 2:You were there yeah, so that's the arena which is now the florida performing arts center. So the the Ritz connections with the stadium, daily's Place and the baseball grounds and I was their marketing manager. And then weirdly well, not weirdly, but we partnered with the Jaguars on Rolling Stones and I'm a huge Rolling Stones fan. Could not have been more excited Because of that collaboration. They got to know the Jaguars got to know me, I got to know them. They did not have a me at the Jaguars.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, so this was a job created for you.
Speaker 2:Well, it was a job created and then I was asked to apply.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so at the time everything that was Daily's Place and the concerts coming into Everbank Stadium were being marketed and managed by the existing Jaguars marketing team.
Speaker 1:Was that out of their wheelhouse?
Speaker 2:It was out of their wheelhouse and the Jaguars were really excited to bring on bold events in Daly's Place, but I don't think that they expected it to become as big and as huge as it did so instantly it's starting to grow and so, yeah, I was with the arena for maybe not even a year and a half, and then I, you know, I went over there and I've been there. Now I'm going on my sixth anniversary this May.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's awesome. Yeah, when they started building dailies, I knew that was going to be a place that I was going to live because I live in the St Nick area where you used to live and I just knew this is going to be a place that I'm going to spend a lot of time and it is. I always tell people I'm married to the St Augustine Amphitheater but I cheat with dailies because those are my. I love outdoor venues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean I've been in Jacksonville for quite some time. Let's call it 17, 18 years now. And I remember when the amp came online. I remember when Bob Dylan came through whenever, whenever that was, and all of a sudden. Now all of everybody's talking about the amp they've done such a great job connecting to their community, bringing in great acts. They're really, really they lean into that kind of like community vibe right and so big fan of the amp.
Speaker 2:As somebody who lives in jacksonville, getting down to the amp is not always the easiest thing for me exactly so when daily, when Daily's Place was announced, I was at Thrasher Horn at the time. I was stoked. I was so excited. I was like this is this is going to be perfect, not knowing that, of course, I was going to end up working there. Right, and I think Daily's Place isn't trying to be the amp.
Speaker 1:Right, oh, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Where you know where we, I think, excel is where this downtown venue and we have these tremendous connections to the Jaguars. Well, because we, we are the Jaguars.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, and so we're able to bring in these acts that you just wouldn't see in an amphitheater.
Speaker 1:I mean going to see like Kenny Chesney at Daily's Play, and I'm a huge Kenny fan. I've gone to like Boston to see him and all over, but seeing him at that venue at home it's so special.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean first off, we're like what? 5,500 seats and there's not a bad seat in the house you can sit. This is my fun fact that I tell everybody from the very front row of the stage, or from the very lip of the stage, to the very back row, is 125 feet.
Speaker 1:We've actually interviewed artists that have played there that say they love that they can look up into the, into the top rows and see people's faces. Yes, like they love that venue.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Whenever we're giving tours or we're talking like you can be in the very back of the terrace or like at the top of the third level by the terrace suite and you can see facial expressions. You don't need that big screen.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Coming from an arena, yeah, where you need those screens to see people.
Speaker 1:Or binoculars, right yeah.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And you know what I loved about Thrasher Horn Center is it's just this tiny, intimate little venue, but I really love the excitement of the arena. And that's where I think that Daily Space really it's like the perfect marriage, it's like it's my venue, like it's it is my Goldilocks venue yeah, an amphitheater, it's just right. Just right. And so, in addition to Kenny Chesney, what like Maroon 5, Jonas Brothers?
Speaker 1:Train always plays so well there. Oh yeah, there's so many bands that I've seen there Zach Brown band Are you kidding me? Oh, I know Seeing Zach Brown, there is so much fun.
Speaker 2:Then the energy really fills up the space.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's my very favorite thing to do to stand kind of in the middle when we have a sold out show and when people go crazy. I like to like take my camera and do like a 360.
Speaker 1:Like right in the 205 section.
Speaker 2:Like, yeah, right there on that, the walkway between the 100s and the 200s.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right in the middle and I do a 360.
Speaker 1:That is a great spot Sound wise, like you said, energy seeing the band like that's a sweet spot. Let's talk about some shows coming to Daily's Place. There's one that I'm super excited about that was supposed to be in a bar here in town up until a couple of days ago. Zach Topp is kind of new and rising in the country scene, but one of these artists that's just selling out everywhere he goes, and it was just announced the two shows that were going to be at Five and Riverside have been combined to one show, and that's March 5th at Daily's Place.
Speaker 2:Is that not the craziest thing you've ever heard? I'm super excited for Zach. Yeah, we are all really excited about Zach and you know there were whispers, there were hints that they were looking for another venue. We were like, well, it's maybe going to be us, but there was a lot of like we wouldn't hear things for a couple of days.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Understand, there's many people in this process, so as a marketing department we're just one little piece of a puzzle.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But you know, we back and forth and we're waiting and we're stopping and we're pausing, and we didn't really know. And then just Tuesday, Wow. They were like yeah, we're going to announce like now so Five in Riverside.
Speaker 1:I guess they're having some building issues, some permit issues. They've already moved a few shows to this new venue called Decca Live on Bay Street, and so that seemed to work well. I was really hoping Zach was going to be at Daily's because, as much as I'd love to see him in an intimate little bar, I just feel like he's so great and so dynamic.
Speaker 2:Right will be amazing at daily's place well, you know, he had two shows at five. Those were sold out and then the interest was so great. Um so, between announcing yesterday morning or, I guess, announcing friday, but going on sale yesterday morning, until last night we sold out it's so it's sold out yeah so if you're listening and you want to see zach top, it's sold out you know, go get your resale tickets.
Speaker 1:Yeah you can get resale tickets. Absolutely, this is gonna be, this is gonna be a special and you guys sign him for next year before he leaves the building okay, get him back.
Speaker 2:We'll be on it, we already want him back, uh, march 15th.
Speaker 1:The coral reefer band. This show is a tribute to jimmy buffett by jimmy buffett's band right.
Speaker 2:So this is not a random band out there that's singing Jimmy Buffett songs this is the Coral Reefer Band and it's going to be a good time Anytime we have anything that kind of resembles jam band-y kind of beach music-y kind of. You know everyone, jimmy Buffett's a party right.
Speaker 1:Right, and this is the real deal. Mack McAnally, who a lot of country fans know that name, was in the Coral Reef Band and wrote a lot of songs for Jimmy, and he's part of this experience.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it's going to be. I don't know. Those type of concerts always are just like you know what. We're just going to have a good time and people are there to have a good time. You know the difference between that and football games is you know, sometimes people leave football games unhappy.
Speaker 1:But not a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Speaker 2:But not a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Speaker 1:It's literally keep the party going, is literally the tour name, so it's going to be a lot of fun. There's a show coming May 10th that I'm a little upset about Teddy Swims.
Speaker 2:You're upset. Why are you upset?
Speaker 1:I didn't get tickets and I'm such a huge fan. He was on Kelly Clarkson gosh. I want to say maybe two years ago, that's when I first saw him and she invited him on to sing backup for him on one of his songs and I was like whoa, and then, and so that show sold out so quickly. I think I went online to buy tickets like two days after. I'm like damn it, it's already sold out.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, that one moved quickly too. So we're very, very excited. He was one of the first shows we announced for this season and I was like, whoever else we get, we're set.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're set. Book him for next year before he leaves. So now you got two acts, you got a book for me. June 2nd is Styx and Kevin Cronin from REO Speedwagon and Don Felter. It's the Brotherhood of Rock Tour.
Speaker 2:Yes, and what's exciting is it's basically going to be two of their albums are being played.
Speaker 1:Like kind of a back-to-back thing. I saw Don Felter there once I believe it was with Styx, but who was? Oh, REO Speedwagon was one of the opening acts and Kevin's voice was messed up, so they gave Don like an extra three songs and then Kevin took a couple breaks while other people in REO sang and that was a really fun show. People forget how great Don Felder is.
Speaker 2:I know that's like our new senior director of marketing. She's like, yeah, that's going to be fun we all have our shows that we get excited about.
Speaker 1:Get there early for that one, so you don't miss Don Felder. On June 6th it's Old Dominion with Ernest and Red Ferrin. Do you know how big Red Ferrin is? Yes, I mean, he's like Zach.
Speaker 2:Topp right now, I know. So we announce Old Dominion on Wednesday the 20th and then Zach Topp on Friday the 22nd. It's like we're country's done for the year.
Speaker 1:And those tickets go on sale. By the time this podcast drops, those tickets will be on sale. Correct For that Old Dominion show. Newly on sale yes, have you seen them live before?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, We've had them at Daily's Place before I don't remember.
Speaker 1:Oh wait, Did they?
Speaker 2:open up for someone.
Speaker 1:No, no, they were on their own Gosh. Sometimes you see too Everything about them because I don't know enough.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, so they're. You know, indie pop like late 09, 10, early decade. That's where they were. You know kind of offbeat. You've heard them in television shows, you've heard them around. They're one of my favorites from that time.
Speaker 1:Okay, I used to be a runner and I would run to their songs because they had such great beats Is going to be one of those where I go.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I know that song. Oh yeah, I know that song. That's exactly what it's gonna be you know what happened.
Speaker 1:I went to see uh, 30 seconds to mars and walk the moon opened up. Oh yeah, I didn't know. I knew any walk the moon records, and one after another.
Speaker 2:I'm like, oh my gosh, I love this show you could put walk the moon and vampire weekend in the same category okay, so I kind of know where they're.
Speaker 1:at june 23rd, avril Lavigne's Greatest Hits Tour Is this thing sold out? It's almost sold out. This is going to be an amazing, amazing night.
Speaker 2:So we're a team of girlies on the marketing team all three of us. We are so excited about that one.
Speaker 1:That should be a lot of fun. June 27th, kids Bop Live. I do know Kids Bop. You know working in promotions and radio. You got to know about them. This is going to be a huge show too.
Speaker 2:For the family.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's for the kids. Kids Bop is all of the music that we like. That's kind of filtered through a kid.
Speaker 1:Cleaned up a little bit.
Speaker 2:I love the clean versions and that's why we, like you know, one of the things I love is that we're diverse. You know our tagline is music lives here, but it's basically blank lives here, and you could pop anything in. We are a venue for everybody. We've got something for everybody. Am I as excited about Kidz Bop as I am about, let's say, Teddy Swims?
Speaker 1:Right right, Personally maybe, Maybe not Maybe not, but somebody's going to love it. So you met Angie, my assistant in promotions. Her daughter loves Big.
Speaker 2:Time Rush, rush. And they were here. Was it last year? Or maybe two years ago now, yeah?
Speaker 1:and so they'll be back on june 15th. That's going to be a sellout too, so that's going to be huge.
Speaker 2:Especially, and and that one's a little weird apparently they're playing all of the songs from the show oh so if you know somebody who's a fan of, the show yeah so that's for that I am a big fan of big time rush. For this very reason they were our first tiktok that actually got some traction oh really yeah we. They pulled somebody up on the audience, from the audience.
Speaker 2:We captured it all, we put it on our tiktok and all of a sudden it just blew up wow, you never know what's going to go viral no, I know, and I was like you know and I'm fully admit like big time rush is not my personal generation and and I was like, well, I'm learning new things all the time.
Speaker 1:They're there. They're the Duran Duran of the time, exactly.
Speaker 2:But here's what's great. So you're looking at a list and I love that. I would also tell you that in the next couple of weeks, next couple of months, like we're in announced season, right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And there are some things that I would love to talk to you about right now, that I cannot talk to you about.
Speaker 1:Don't you hate keeping secrets?
Speaker 2:I know, but we have, we're going to have a really exciting season. 2025 is a full season. Oh gosh, I'm like jumping at the seams. I'm like, oh, but we're announcing something on March 10th.
Speaker 1:You're just like me. As the promotion director here in the building, I know first what's going to get announced, right, and I have to just bury it and like, not say a word, and then people will be like did you hear? I'm like, yes, I heard six weeks ago.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we have a giant working board in our office and we have to have initials because, people will come in and see yeah. And they're like who's BTR?
Speaker 1:I have to bury all mine in emails, oh yeah, and I have a folder that's labeled something that nobody would ever open, so that's how I do that. Finally, on this list, I do have July 29th. Oh my gosh, shania Twain what, what, she's basically taken her Vegas residency on tour which is so smart.
Speaker 2:Yes, and if she sells out the first one, there's always a good chance we'd add a second date.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:So you know 90s pop country, you know nineties pop country.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were working at WAPE when she was hot and we played it there, we played her in Faith Hill and you know some of these other country artists, and now we've been I've been at a country station since, oh seven. So you know, we've seen all these artists kind of come and go and come back around and she's a legend. Now I mean, she's up there with, like Dolly Parton, shania Twain, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, what was it 22? She came out in Harry Styles' set at the Coachella, yeah, yeah and the crowd went. They lost their brains about it.
Speaker 1:I mean, she's a legend.
Speaker 1:I absolutely watched all the clips from that particular oh did you Like, 18 times I'm a huge Harry Styles fan and I've never seen him live. No me neither, so make sure you book him before Shania Twain leaves. Somehow make that connection. So what I'm hearing is what you're hearing is book Harry, book Teddy and book. Who's the other one? Zach Topp, Zach Topp back. Yeah, that's right. So it's going to be a big, big year for Daily's Place. Make sure you go to dailysplacecom for all the shows that are coming. Is there anything you can reveal right now, or absolutely not?
Speaker 2:Well, no but something to keep in mind in this year is you know, we've got this really exciting stadium of the future.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Go ahead. So I mean that's really, really exciting and it's a multi-year project and so construction has begun and we have a lot of impacts in the Daily's Place footprint, especially because a lot of that construction staging is in our parking lot.
Speaker 1:Staging is in our parking lot.
Speaker 2:Right. So I mean even right now, there's areas that I can't go into. Like you used to be able to do a full lap around the stadium in these cordoned off areas. So safety is of the utmost importance. Right, but also having a good experience. And it's changing week by week. I mean, when I tell you like we get things in real time, nobody's sitting on information.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:We share it as soon as we get it, but everything like we had AEW last month, things look different than it will for Rod Stewart tonight, which will look different for.
Speaker 1:Jack Top.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, so like for tonight, part of Lot J is offline. There's a different entrance, like instead of going in gate one where people are going to go into a newly created gate.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:That has like a pedestrian walkway to get in and out so probably not a bad idea to get there early that's always a good idea yeah it's complex, but I would always say you know we're sending out no before you goes. We send out robo calls. We have the information, um, on our website and all of our like you know how to visit, where to park, all of that. But also just like, give yourself enough time. I mean, there's also so much staff that's going to direct people, right?
Speaker 1:right, exactly, you're not going to be lost. The main thing I wanted to know was, though Daily's Place is not going away with this new build of the new stadium.
Speaker 2:No, it's not going away at all. In fact, daily's Space is staying. What happens when the stadium goes completely offline and our footprint growing offline remains to be seen. And again, things are constantly changing. But, like right now, when construction is a minimum, we've had to really change the way that people come in and out of the building. So imagine what happens when we're under full construction. So all the things we're looking at, you know we're taking, taking this I wouldn't even say month by month, we're taking it week by week wow but um the greater good, the excitement for this.
Speaker 2:And then, when the new stadium's online, you can have me back and we can talk about all the exciting concerts we're bringing into everything. Sweet, which is, you know, one of the other venues that I I was with you on that rolling stone show.
Speaker 1:I'd never seen the stones and they were on my bucket list and I'm like finally, because I think the last time they were here was like the Steel Wheels tour.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:And I hadn't, I didn't see that show, for whatever reason. So I'm excited about more shows coming to Everbank.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, when it is, when it is the stadium, when it's stadium of the now and the stadium of the future. I think people are going to be clamoring to get in there, it to get in there. It's going to be insane.
Speaker 1:That's why I love my job, I love knowing what's coming and being a part of. I mean, I worked at a record store all through the eighties and I've been in radio since 1990. And I, just, I just want to be completely immersed in music at all times.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Like I mean I haven't gone the music route, I came to the music industry just 10 years ago. I mean, I've always been in events, but music specifically. And when I got here like a light bulb went off, I was like why have I not been doing this my entire life? And you're going to have to pull me out of this kicking and screaming because I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 1:My family's like why are you still doing that? I'm like, what else would I do? You'll never see me on a golf course or with a fishing pole.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah. So you know that moment at a live concert, when you know opening acts have come and gone or whatever, the lights go down. There's just that hush for a second.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You'll hear that first strum of a guitar or something, and then the whole crowd goes insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:OK, so that happened to me. My very first event at the arena was Chris Stapleton.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I come from Thrasher Horn Center, so tiny venue 13,000 people and I had accidentally positioned myself between the speaker and the crowd. So Chris Stapleton strummed that guitar and I was in front of that speaker. Like went through my body, my teeth rattled, but then the entire 13,000 people roared back.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I went through me and in that one moment I said I was like this is what I meant to do. This is my purpose. When anyone asks me why I do whatever, that is the moment I think about, because that was the most thrilling moment I've ever had.
Speaker 1:I had a similar moment. I believe it was Backstreet Boys at the arena. Actually, I think it was the Coliseum back then and we went on stage as staff members of WAP and that roar. You can physically feel the sound and I remember my knees were like wobbling but I was like I want to do this for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:I mean, I was a kid, oh you know. Yeah, Well, I was a fully grown adult when that happened to me and I feel like it changed my life, not only moving forward, but maybe a little bit backwards and then again. I was like oh, this justifies every choice I've ever made.
Speaker 1:I totally get that and this is why I love having you on and I mentioned to you off the podcast, Numa from the Florida Theater and members of different venues in town, because I love music. Jacksonville is one of the best cities for music. We have so many amazing venues that are fighting for the best artists and as music fans, we get the benefit from it.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, well, and I you know obviously I'm biased to Daily's Place and Everbank Stadium. They're my babies, I love them. But I think each venue that we have here from the iddiest bittiest like the Ritz, which is like 480- seats all the way up to your arena and your stadium of 60,000 people, right.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 2:Every single venue has its place, has its purpose, has something unique and special about it. I've been to every venue in the city several times over. I mean even down to what Jacob E Hall and the Symphony right, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:And I'm a big Broadway fan, so I love the FSD Artists Series. I love going to those shows. You're right, jacksonville just has amazing venues, amazing shows. Jerry Seinfeld comes here. The best comedians in the world coming through here.
Speaker 2:Definitely, and I just feel lucky and very grateful to be a part of it.
Speaker 1:I feel the same way. Lucky and grateful is like exactly it's like.
Speaker 2:It's like our life, like we are just blessed I do have to convince my kids I'm still, I'm cool. I don't know that I do cool things, but I do they will and they're like yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever when they need tickets to kids bop.
Speaker 1:They're gonna be like oh you rock, mom, I have teens, they have no interest in kids.
Speaker 2:Well, they are definitely of the interest, like yeah, yeah, but like maybe like five years I'll realize yeah, yeah, right when they really need those tickets.
Speaker 1:That's right, stephanie. Thank you so much for being here today and being on the podcast, and I don't know where this podcast is going me.
Speaker 2:We may never get any followers, but it's fun to just talk about jacksonville venues and artists that are coming to town and with the experts yeah, I mean I really appreciate the invitation and if you just asked me to go grab lunch and talk about this stuff, I would have done that anyway. So, like this, is great to have.
Speaker 1:Next time I'll cater some lunch in.
Speaker 2:Perfect.
Speaker 1:That was a lot of fun talking with Stephanie, because we have such similar tastes in music and love and passion for live music. All right, my next guest is coming to the Florida Theater on Sunday, march 9th. His name is Lou Elizondo and if you don't know Lou, he's a former United States Army counterintelligence special agent, former employee of the Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and number one New York Times bestseller and all-around expert on what we call UFOs. Here's my conversation with Lou Elizondo. Lou, I got to tell you, over the last however many years I've been in radio, we've talked to a lot of people and only two have made me nervous. One was Neil deGrasse Tyson and number two is Lou.
Speaker 3:Oh my God. Well, I'm going to disappoint you sadly, because I think most people, once they actually meet me or talk to me, wind up walking away like, oh wow, that was not anything special.
Speaker 1:No, I'm so intrigued by the field that you're in. Since I'm 10 years old and Close Encounters came out, I've been fascinated by what's beyond our world and I'm so excited you're coming to the Florida Theater on Sunday, march 9th. Can you tell us a little bit about what your stage show is like?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, you know, first of all, a lot of people will say, hey Lou, you're coming to perform. I'm not a performer. I'm coming there to provide the information that we learned while at the Pentagon to the American people about the reality of UAP and its relationship to national security, kind of dispel some of the myths involved in the topic. You know, a lot of times when you mention UFO or UAP, people immediately gravitate towards tinfoil hats and silly anecdotes like Elvis on the mothership, and that's not really what we're talking about. What we're talking about are capabilities, technologies that our government has been witnessing now for decades plural and still remains rather stumped by where these things are from and what they're doing. Look, you have capabilities out there, technological capabilities that can outperform anything. Still, we have in our inventory and, by the way, we've got some pretty cool toys as a nation and these things are able to, in essence, come over controlled US airspace, interact with our nuclear equities in some cases, and we still have no idea where they're from or what they're doing here and how they operate to some degree. So my discussion is basically providing out the facts and details, how long our government's been involved in this, some of the insights we've gleaned. When I say we, I don't mean me, lou Elizondo, I mean some of the top scientists in our nation that the US government employed to specifically look at this topic. We talked a little bit about the physics, to the best of our understanding, of what we've been able to glean by looking at some of the performance characteristics, and then we talked about some of the challenges that we still face as a nation, trying to discover more about this incredible enigma. Some of that is the social stigma and taboo. Some of it is deliberate by the US government.
Speaker 3:And, yeah, so far, when I have this conversation with folks, I have a lot of slides, a lot of eye candy so people can look themselves and see for themselves. So it's not just me getting up there and droning on, so to speak, about the topic. It's very interactive. We get the audience involved at the end of the discussion. We open it up for questions, we open it up for suggestions. So everybody is part of this conversation and that's kind of what I'm trying to do is get more increased public attention and increased public involvement in this topic. Now that Congress is involved, now that the executive branch is involved in this discussion, the time has come that the people's voices are heard, and I think this is a topic that involves every single person, equally and yet differently, and it involves people from a philosophical perspective, a theological perspective, a sociological perspective, right, and so, therefore, this is a conversation that's much bigger than just national security.
Speaker 1:A few minutes ago you mentioned eye candy and I think one of the things that really made people perk up for the first time was what's called the gimbal incident. I think it was about three years ago where the Navy fighters caught something on video that pretty much went worldwide. Can you talk at all about that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, that's just one. That's a great example. The gimbal was one of three videos that were released officially, eventually, officially through the Pentagon, of anomalous vehicle type performance there's something in the sky our F-18 Super Hornets. During the Roosevelt, uss Roosevelt, it had a deployment out towards the Middle East and in the 2013, 2014, 2015 timeframe it was regular and routine In some cases. I mean, a lot of people don't know this in 30 days alone calendar days there were 28 separate UAP incidents and so one of those, several of those were captured on camera gun camera footage and, in some cases, flir pod footage, and that is now what the American people get to see, and it was very compelling.
Speaker 3:But as compelling as that is, you know, some people will come back and say, well, that's kind of a black and white fuzzy, we don't really know what we're looking at. True, that's one of the reasons why it's so compelling, but what most people don't know is that the US government actually has 4K, ultra high definition videos as well in its inventory. The reason why the American people saw those videos in particular is because they are unclassified, but there are classified systems that have much, much better fidelity, much, much more clearer images of what we're seeing and, frankly, some of those haven't helped resolve the issue. In fact, they've added to the mystery, because you're seeing things performing in ways that, frankly, defy our current understanding of physics. Basically, they shouldn't be able to do what they're doing, and yet that's exactly what we're seeing.
Speaker 1:I would have to assume working at the Pentagon, you've seen most of this footage that you're talking about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we saw quite a bit of it, but it's also, I think, important to note that a lot of people continue in the military to report this information. So this is not just a kind of one and done deal where there's this you know vault or this treasure trove full of high definition videos. It's happening all the time. Every day there's more and more information being collected, more and more information is being reported, and it's not just you know video.
Speaker 3:In the electro-optical spectrum we have hyperspectral technologies, capabilities out there, intelligence capabilities that are also collecting information. That's very, very telling. The human eye really perceives light. We call it through the electro-optical spectrum, which is very, very narrow when you compare it to the greater electromagnetic spectrum, point zero zero. Think about this. Point zero zero three six of the entire electromagnetic spectrum is visible light.
Speaker 3:So that means most of the spectrum lies beyond our ability to perceive it, and so you can actually glean a lot of really good information using some of those capabilities that look at different frequencies, such as infrared or microwave or x-ray, and that's why, when you like I live here in Wyoming when you look at a beautiful night sky, you can see all these beautiful stars. And then if you take, let's say, a radio telescope and point it to the same part of the sky, you see a whole new reality in front of you. You see, you know, for example, nebulas and clouds and stars that the naked eye can't see, simply because they're in a different bandwidth, they're in a different frequency that the human eye can't perceive. And you can actually glean a lot of detail when you look in other spectrums at an object, and UAP are no different.
Speaker 1:This is all so exciting and fascinating and mind-blowing to me. I told you about Close Encounters. I'm also a huge Star Wars and Star Trek fan and I just feel like we're getting so close to this reality that it's a very exciting time.
Speaker 3:It is. One has to ask is this art imitating life or life imitating art, or is it a combination of both? Look, we know for a fact that you mentioned Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Admittedly, and forgive me, I didn't see it until just very recently. I wasn't really a science fiction kid, I wasn't a Star Wars kid, I was more of a GI Joe kid. But we do know that there were government experts that were providing information and advising Steven Spielberg on that movie none other than J Allen Hynek himself. In fact, there's a cameo where he's actually in the movie and he was in charge of a project Blue Book for the United States, for the Air Force. And so there has been a long history where US government has participated and facilitated Hollywood. So when you look at things like Close Encounters of the Third Kind and you kind of scratch your head and say, wow, how did they get that so accurate? Well it's because they actually had government officials providing information and advising on the production.
Speaker 1:I have been a longtime believer that Gene Roddenberry was a time traveler, because when you watch Star Trek, they have Bluetooth, they have touchscreen, they're using the phasers and all these things that we have today?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they have cell phones, right. Yeah, and all these things that we kind of we look at now and we're like whoa, that's a Motorola flip phone, isn't it?
Speaker 1:And is it life imitating art? Or did he go ahead in time and come back and go? Let's do these things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question. I mean, I can't tell you if Gene Roddenberry himself, you know, had an ability to predict a future or whatever. Or we do know that there was some military background and influence in Gene Roddenberry's life, but did that have any real influence on him with the Star Trek franchise? I don't know. It's a good question, but I will tell you, if you look at a typical Star Trek episode, you see there more than just from a technological perspective, you see, even from a sociological perspective. It was well ahead of its time.
Speaker 3:You had an international crew serving on the Enterprise that was basically all religious and racial backgrounds and cultural backgrounds religious and racial backgrounds and cultural backgrounds, even at a time when we were in the middle of the Cold War with the Russians, you had a Russian right on the bridge, chekhov on the bridge of the Starship Enterprise, so he really was well ahead of the game, I think.
Speaker 1:Most definitely, lou. I know you're busy. I know you just stepped off a plane and gave us a call and I really appreciate your time. I want to remind everyone you're going to be at the Florida Theater on Sunday, march 9th. I'm literally in chill bumps right now, excited for your coming to town. I cannot wait to see your show.
Speaker 3:Amadeus, I would love to shake your hand and meet you there in person and have a conversation with you. It is my honor and privilege to have this discussion with the American people. You know I took an oath a long time ago to serve my country and I've never been relieved of that oath and I consider this still part of serving my country and I'm really looking forward to seeing everybody there. I think we're going to have a great time. So far, people have loved the presentation that I provide Again very interactive, so it's not just me droning on and on. That's really what this collaborative conversation is about.
Speaker 1:Real quick before I let you go. I almost forgot to mention your book is out.
Speaker 3:Yes, I do have a book that came out Surprisingly. It was rather successful and it's very heartfelt, it's very sincere. I provide a lot of personal information that, frankly, look, I wasn't really comfortable providing. But I can't. It's very hypocritical of me to demand transparency from the American government if I'm not willing to be transparent myself, even with my own life. So in that book there's a lot of me in that book and my experiences as a child and what it was like to grow up and, by the way, it wasn't always very nice. I grew up in a bit of a dysfunctional family at times and I lay that to bear for everybody to see for themselves.
Speaker 1:Lou Elizondo will be at the Florida Theater on Sunday, march 9th. Don't miss this show. I'm sure it's going to be absolutely amazing. Also coming to the Florida Theater Tesla will be there on Wednesday, march 5th, brett Young Tuesday, march 6th. Comedian Louis Black will be at the Florida Theater on March 7th and the legendary Gladys Knight on Saturday, march 8th. Thanks so much for listening. I'll be back next week with another episode to let you know what's happening live from Jacksonville.