Trivia with Will and Reed
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Trivia with Will and Reed
The Legacy of Jason Hamric
Jason Hamric's sudden passing has left Birmingham reeling from the loss of someone who touched countless lives through his selfless devotion to helping others. His impact extended far beyond Substrate Radio to every corner of the city's creative landscape, connecting people across all walks of life through his genuine kindness and unwavering support.
Will and Reed Lochamy welcome Brian Teasley and Shaheed to discuss their shared love for Jason and stories showing why his impact is so broad.
A celebration of Jason's life will be held Sunday (6/1/25) at Saturn from 4-7 PM where the community will gather to honor his memory and share stories about his impact.
Here we are, thursday evening. Welcome into oh Brother Radio Moe Lockamy. That is Reed Lockamy there, hunter, getting the whole show set up for us and helping us get things going. It's Birmingham Mountain Radio 107.3 FM, in town, bmoutainradiocom all over the place. This is an interesting week for us here at the station and for us here in Birmingham and for us here as a friend group.
Speaker 1:It's just been, it's been weird. Everyone, I think at this point knows that our friend and colleague and, uh, the the list of things he is to all of us could go on and on. But Jason Hamrick passed away yesterday and it's affected all of us in a major way, and so we wanted to spend this hour talking about Jason and uh, all the great stories, cause there are so many good things we can say about him. I'm trying to think. You know, this morning I gave a little speech about my thoughts on Jason and I was like all these posts that people are doing on Facebook, and I spent way too much time last night trying to read everyone. I was like they're all true, right, and that's weird, that's normally not the case.
Speaker 1:Like I get frustrated sometimes when people are exalted to this huge degree when they pass because it doesn't really do them justice to like talk. You know, like I've done two eulogies and at both ones I tried to like somewhat satirically and comically kind of point out like here are the funny quirks about this person that weren't the best thing ever. Right, just to put her part of their humanity, yeah, right to humanize them. But all the stuff with jason, it's just true. Right that everybody's saying brian teasley joins us now, uh, also shaheed, two people that know jason very well, and uh, yeah, so we just want to. So if there's something bad, we should tell it and we should think about it and tell it.
Speaker 2:But I had trouble coming up with anything, I somehow have erased most of the dirt in his passing. I don't know if there was that much, because what I really realized and I know, shahid, you can attest to this just like I can is I've been blown away by what a bright light he was just in the response. That's been beyond conception of seeing all these people with memories, people that I blown away by what a bright light he was just in the response has been beyond conception of seeing all these people with memories, people that I didn't even know, knew him and, honestly, it's, it's cool, even though it's the saddest thing in the world to see all these dots connected. I was at saturn last night and, um, a lot of people were dropping off flowers to the radio station where Substrate is, yeah, and kind of making alters and posting notes on the Substrate door, and there were all these like young punk rock kids and people from all walks of life that were I've never seen before.
Speaker 2:I didn't know they knew, I didn't even know who they were and they just kept this trickle of people constantly coming in and a lot of young, cool kids that, just like you know, jason, always took in the outcasts, the misfits, you know if you were in the corner of a room, he would worry about you. If you were in the corner of a room, he would worry about you. If you had any kind of minority voice in any way, even just in a friendship situation you're trying to figure out, he would give you. He cared so much more about other people than he was just so self-sacrificing and I think Shahid can speak to that as well.
Speaker 3:First of all, condolences to Jason and his whole family and his wife, jackie. It's ironic that you're here. We're here together, yeah, because I was going to mention this. That's the first thing. So every time I've seen been around Jason Hamrick in some capacity, he's always assisting or helping someone do something. So when we started our nonprofit, brian Teasley asked me what could he help me with, and I was explaining to him what he could help me with First person. He calls Jason Hamrick and Jason Hamrick sets up the page. He sets up the GoFundMe page.
Speaker 3:He showed up at one of our events, took pictures that are actually the pictures that are on our website, like the main ones. He took those pictures, uh. So every time I've actually been in some type of encounter with him, from the time I met him, he was always helping someone do something to for their career or their personal life. That's just a consensus of the type of person that he was. And the last time I saw him was three weeks ago at uh, supreme had a pizza, unveiling at miracles, and he was there and we had a long conversation time before that.
Speaker 3:So I'm at the birmingham public library in april punk rock show, punk rock, slash hip-hop show, and so he was there. I even have a picture where he's standing on the side. I was going to post it today, uh, but he was there supporting that effort. So that's the type of person that he was. He's always helping people. If you need mixing on a record, if you need videos, if you need photos, if you need something dealing with website, if you need your song playing on substrate, he did all of those things for people and he did it for free.
Speaker 4:You know, my wife asked me earlier today when I had first met Jason, and I had to think back on it and the first thing I could come up with as a memory was when I was in college. So this is, you know, almost 30 years ago, and my little band was, you know, trying to put together like a, we were trying to burn a CD, which that was the first time anyone had ever even heard of being able to burn a CD, and Jason had the technology to do that and he was helping us produce a little video that we were submitting to some kind of little contest or whatever. But that that's the first memory I have of really interacting with Jason and, just like you said, shahid, it was all just like he was there just to help us and and that was it, and and was just so selfless in that way.
Speaker 2:Right, you know I was. I was talking to someone last night and they were talking about when they met Jason. They didn't even mean to. Jason overheard the guy talking about how he didn't know much about stereo equipment but wanted to get a home system and so Jason was recommending what to get, kind of mapped it out for him. And then he saw Jason again and he was having trouble getting it to play and he bought this, this amplifier that wasn't working. And jason was like I've got a spare like amp that you can use and some other stuff, and he's like, oh, it's okay.
Speaker 2:And he's like, he's like I'm gonna bring it by. He's like, well, I just I'm not sure I know how to hook all this stuff up. And jason's like I'll be over in 20 minutes to your house. Where do you live? And that was somebody he didn't know, um, he was, he was hilarious, he was like he, he, he was just so, um, altruistic in a way and I don't use that word lightly because I think it's a very elusive concept. But you know, um, it's. It's one of those things where he was truly that way.
Speaker 2:You know, I was the reach of everything. My, my fiance is from spain and she had a friend that's a songwriter come over for for a while and he should bring a guitar. And we were trying to figure out, like renting a guitar I'm not a guitar player and um, and just like I'll be over and he brought like some like early 60s, like fender twin and like an old jaguar, like 60s jaguar or something just for this girl to use, and like a lot of her friends that are in spain were crying about Jason, you know, and I was like man, like where does this reach end? It's like immense and international and all of the above you know.
Speaker 4:Not surprising, though, when you knew him, he was a remarkable individual in all the ways that we're talking about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll say this I handle emotions in a really weird way and so when stuff is hitting the fan, I'm like, all right, it's business time, no matter what that is, I'm stoic, I have to think about things pragmatically and take care of this stuff. And so I had this sinking feeling when Jackie texted earlier in the week and it was. But then it was like, all right, let's plan. Who do I need to talk, how do I need to get over there and who do I talk to, and whatever, and um, and then like even saying goodbye to him, it was kind of a stoic like I was you know whatever.
Speaker 1:And then yesterday I was completely numb and then last night I started writing down my thoughts so I could really kind of keep it together this morning on the show. And boy, that's when it's like turn on the, you know just this flood of like oh. But I was also shocked yesterday, like reed had called middle of the day. He's like, hey, have you talked to jackie? What, what do we know right now? And I was like, no, you know, don't want to bother. And then my phone started like going crazy with people texting people that I knew would not know. Yeah, what kind of what was happening. I was like uh-oh, until I opened facebook and saw right, um, and the the amount of posts that there have been my whole feed.
Speaker 1:Now it makes sense, right, but I mean the mayor and like everybody now of course, like it makes perfect sense. But at the time I just didn't know that jason had done all of these things for all of these people, that he did for us, right, right, because we're his friend group, we talked to him all the time he's at our houses, whatever, but turns out that's like the case maybe I'm not as special as I thought.
Speaker 2:He was a glue. He was a glue and I know um much like me. I know Shahid has a big love for also we should mention that being survived by Jackie Lowe.
Speaker 2:Sure On here Monday nights and um uh, as a testament to what kind of person they both are him. But they had a beautiful relationship and marriage for 24 years and just still talk about whenever I talk to one about the other. They're just in love, like it was the beginning. And how many people keep that a year later they're like 24 years and and they're both so different and so complimentary and so brilliant and just had a love that in my own life I try to aspire to have like a micro nanomolecular element of.
Speaker 3:And you know, like you said, the post, the outreach like he. You know he symbolized like outreach or reaching out. Yeah, because you see so many people he's done things for, mixed their records, took their photos, helped people be in better positions as an artist. And I tell you all a memory that a lot of people don't know, all right, tell y'all a memory that a lot of people don't know, all right. So, uh, we went and played basketball one day and hammer it came with us and played basketball.
Speaker 1:uh, this was about a decade ago when I played I remember him saying like yeah, I'm gonna start playing basketball. I'm gonna try to do this as my exercise.
Speaker 3:Yeah so we went and played basketball and, uh, you know, we were talking after it he was just like, because he was on my team, so he was like man, he said. He said I'm gonna be honest, man, only thing I can do right now is set screens.
Speaker 3:I said when you set the screen and I'll shoot it. Another thing I could think of when a DJ Supreme show was on 107.7 and they stopped the classic hip hop show to show you type of person he is, he reached out to Supreme and brought the classic hip hop show to substrate. Just different things like that. I remember Sidewalk Film Festival. We were doing impromptu video. You had 24 hours to shoot it and we were doing it with some high school kids and they wanted to shoot at the guitar.
Speaker 3:Uh, highland oh, yeah, sure so I'm trying to figure out man, who do I know who got action, hammer, call, hammer it. He's like oh yeah, he's this. I know the owner, me and him are very cool, I'll, you know, I'll call him and boom, got it done. So it's just different things like that where, um, while I was thinking about it, when I was first told what was told what happened, I said to myself like man, he's the type of person like, if you call him, if he can't do it, he has a solution. He's got like a backup for you. If he can't personally do it, he'll make sure he gets you to someone who can do it. And those type of people they benefit you, you know, for the rest of your life, like they can do one thing for you that can help you literally grow for the rest of your life. And that's the type of person he is. And what I think about every time, you know, I think of our encounters.
Speaker 2:It's it's, it's, it's so true, and that he would always have the hookup or think of somebody he would connect people. That said he usually could do everything Right, and I think that's something to stress If you don't know who this is or who we're talking about. With jason hammer, like he was like a like should be in the whitney level photographer. Like he is, like he was a an amazing videographer. He made some of the coolest videos that I've for local bands that have ever been made. He was a mastering engineer. He was a producer. He wrote so songs.
Speaker 2:He probably has more incredible music unreleased than were actually released because he was always helping other people do stuff and, honestly, a little bit to his fault because he was such a facilitator, he has no question, we're going to take our first break.
Speaker 1:I'm going to try to not do too many breaks here. We have some songs in here we're going to play, but really I like the talking about him more than anything. So but I do want to say back to the jackie thing really quick. Uh, I always felt like initially, when I talked to them about like relationship stuff and this goes back to when I was in my first marriage and it was not going great, right, uh, and I would ask them like relationship stuff, and I was like this isn't real, like I remember even like one time kind of being like no, uh, like what do you mean?
Speaker 1:Y'all don't have this problem, and that's probably. That doesn't seem like a real thing. And of course it was a real thing, right, and so I'd feel like their relationship and like their love for each other kind of unmatched. I couldn't. I last night went through like all like the people that have great relationships that I know of, including my own, fantastic, I was like yes, I don't know that any one that I know has a relationship like Jason and Jackie, and just very honest, right, they didn't seem like they even had to like try to have that kind of connection.
Speaker 4:It always struck me as a particularly open relationship where they you know what did Jackie say? Um, you know, 24 years with her best friend and I can't think of another relationship where that seemed truer than with the two of them and just so genuine and really easy and how fortunate they both were to be able to, you know, benefit from that kind of relationship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was like a 24-year episode of Fantasy Island. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, let's do this break. We have to do some commercials, but let's play Holiday, holiday gunfire, new van and then go to some commercials and we'll come back after that. We're remembering our love Jason Hamrick, and we've got some funny stories to you know. He produced our TV show that you were on for SEC network and he and I squeezed into a very small airplane to fly around Jordan here.
Speaker 1:I'm going to tell that story when we come back Back after this. This hour of River of the Radio is brought to you by Magic City Indoor Golf right there on Alford Avenue off I-65. Neil's done such a fantastic job. The weather is just horrendous lately.
Speaker 1:It's been terrible, I know, but luckily you can go inside and practice or play courses or whatever. Magiccityindoorgolfcom. Welcome back to brother radio and will. That is reed hunter as well, and here we're talking to to our friend shaheed and brian teasley about our friend jason hamrick, who passed away this week. Uh, if you are in birmingham you know that because it's been just absolutely everywhere. And uh, you know, during the break we were doing that thing which we shouldn't do, which is like starting to talk, and you I'm glad, brian, that you were like no, let's stop right here because there's a story about that. So I was just asking you like I mean, you're such a dude I I know I've told you this before, but like playing shows with you, as me being a drummer is like the worst thing ever. It's the worst. One time you I don't remember who you're playing with, but you were playing drums in a band that was opening for us at the chucker and I was like I can't go out there, like what is this?
Speaker 2:so, anyway, I'm just a huge fan of yours, probably because I accidentally knocked over your stuff. You know that was I, actually probably more than yeah but you're a very accomplished musician, yeah, and a great musician I, I've, um, I've, I've been in a van or a bus or a plane or a ferry or whatever a little too much time or two. So what I might have done that way I've lost in brain cells.
Speaker 1:So there you go. So I was just asking you during the break like, oh, are you playing right now? And you're like, oh, let's hold that. So what's the story?
Speaker 2:well, about two years ago I kind of mysteriously I never tracked it down to an injury and like they I started not being able to walk really straight or like I wasn't been able to feel my fingers or my hands and had a lot of mobility issues. And they were chasing down autoimmune stuff and everything. I won't go too far because it's such a ricocheting series of events.
Speaker 4:That can be a scary lot of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just trying, I mean it's like you always think of medicine as is like, oh yeah, this test will come back positive and it's this. But they eventually did an mri on my neck and I had um. I had um spinal cord damage way up high on my you know cervical spine and, like you know, I was, you know, for I'm not going to say professional, but I was a touring recording drummer for 25 years and it's kind of like what I always have done and to some degree, and I I luckily had the surgery, feeling you know like, got back to going, but I still was having, you know, my couldn't ride. I couldn't. I had, like I was saying I had to relearn how to tie my shoes and I was telling jason about it's. Like you know, my hands work but my, my fingers just don't do what they want to do, like I'm dropping sticks and and I just like I just don't. You know, I think I had my time with it and I'm not going to just physically be able to do it anymore. And like for days on end, weeks on end.
Speaker 2:He would be like what if you, what if you? He and I'll tell you one funny thing that he suggested he's like what if you, what if you try to like have bigger sticks now, it would start like there. And then eventually he's like I'm gonna create a drum. Since your hands are okay, I'm gonna create a drum set for you where, like, it's all bongos and the hi-hat's gonna be on a bongo, and then I was having like also like blood flow issues to my hand because of damage. He's like I wonder if, like, maybe you could take something like viagra and it would get you more blood flow to your hands and you could play drums again.
Speaker 2:I was like dude stop. I appreciate the help, but I'm not taking Viagra to play drums and that's not going to work out good for anybody. But honestly I'm not sure if I would. And I've gotten to where I'm playing pretty well again or getting closer to back to normal, and I don't know if I stuck with it if it hadn't been for that encouragement from Jason prodding you that's again type of person he was.
Speaker 3:you know, I go back to the last conversation he and I had three weeks ago and he always what are you guys working on? And then you're like, oh, working on this, working on this, and he goes. Okay, it's like I know, I said it to you before, if you need anything, let me know. And I was like I got you because you know the void that is going to be missed by him being gone, like if someone even tries to take on that responsibility. You, you gotta, you got a long way to go.
Speaker 3:Uh, that that the things that he did for so many people and, like I said, he didn't charge people to do it. So this is, it's almost like charity. When you're a charitable person, those type of things, uh and that type of person is very rare you don't get to you. We don't know many people like that. So when people say he's like one of a kind in that city, he's definitely one of a kind the encouragement, always offering help, not letting people I know people who I've literally seen say he's pushed them to the best thing that they could possibly be. So you know, birmingham doesn't understand all of the shows that he allowed on his network so many people's names, connections. You can't replace a person like that it's going to take.
Speaker 2:It's going to take.
Speaker 4:We're still not going to get there and it's going to take everyone in the music community to to get halfway there to fill that void and I'll say this I you're exactly right, there's, there's not going to be another jason hammer there, just there, just isn't, because he just was such a you know, uh, force of personality, uh. But also I found myself earlier today thinking wouldn't we all do well you know, you used the word earlier, brian like aspirational, when it came to like thinking about the relationship he and jackie had. But wouldn't we all also do well just to stop and think about like what is? What does it mean to aspire just a little bit to be as friendly as jason was, to smile as much as he did?
Speaker 4:You know, anytime I was around him, I just cannot, I can't think of all the time you will. You and I worked with him in some, you know, sometimes some stressful kinds of situations doing television production. Never once was there a crossword from jason do. Can you think of anyone you know who was as nice, who was as thoughtful, who was as considerate and anyone who was as allergic to onions as Jason?
Speaker 2:Do you all know about this when he had a food even if he had a food dislike, it was not happening, and I think that's one thing that we should note and I think Will probably has anecdote after anecdote that you know it's sad and we're thinking about all these amazing things about him. The fact was, more than anything, he was hilarious.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:He was just a funny guy that would say the wrong thing at the right time and the right thing at the wrong time and it's like and could laugh at himself and land it and make somebody feel better for it. I think Will kind of, yeah, and self-deprecating, which is my favorite form of humor, he was the king at all of that.
Speaker 1:And so we're doing the SEC Network stuff that Reed and I did for a couple years and Jason produced all of that, even the daily stuff we did on fine bomb show. For the most part after the first like couple of months he was the producer and all that stuff. But also, like you know, the travel stuff we would do and go to different campuses and all that. And so the first one we ever did uh, you weren't there but I went down Jordan here had just put up the largest videos aboard in the country in any stadium and so we were going to get the first look at it and they I mean they went above and beyond and so they were setting us up with a plane down there at Auburn to like fly around. And Jason did this incredible like we get a smelling chart and they were the first thing that they were going to put up on the video board. Was this smelling chart that you've been like when you go to that.
Speaker 1:I chart that at the top and all that.
Speaker 1:And so basically the gag was going to be yeah, we're down there and we're interviewing Jay Jacobs about the video board and all that stuff, but all of our stuff had satire to it. So the gag was going to be that I would believe it when I saw it and I had to do the Snellen chart from an airplane, right. And so we go and Jason's already got the Snellen chart sent to them and they're going to put it up on the video board and all that. And, uh, and the plane is tiny and Jason is not tiny no, he is not. And so, um so, when I no, no, he is not. And so, um so, and I've got pictures of jason squeezing in to the back seat of the cessna 172 and, uh, me being in the front seat wearing this ridiculous like old pilot's helmet, like whatever, and and dude us flying around, journey here, it was so much fun. And we get up there and the video board does not work.
Speaker 1:It will not turn on and so there we are in the plane and, like he's, you know, got cameras set up all over and he's filming. He crunched up backseat of this plane and it doesn't work. It doesn't work. The the thing never comes on. But you know what?
Speaker 1:that saturday on sec nation it played and it worked great because jason was able to superimpose the snelling chart on, so we still filmed it as if, and that was all on the fly, and that was him as the producer, like act, like it's there, and so I'm just like trying to remember what the what's on a snelling chart and I'm like okay, yeah yeah, let me see if I can. Uh, and he had it superimposed on there by the time the edit was done and it came out on espn crazy that saturday. Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 2:You know, I I think, like many of us, we probably look back at our nutty text threads with jason, and I had one a couple weeks ago with him where jackie plays in an amazing power pop band called dreamier and jason is like, produced and had a big hand in himself, even though often he's not been playing live with them.
Speaker 2:But I texted and they had just recently you know, henry Rollins has a radio show and he's played Drelir a good bit on the radio and there was a recent play that he did and sent a note to get a record or something. And I sent Jason a text this kind of stuff we would do. I said, hey, I'm so sorry about jackie, and he's like what is everything? Okay, what's going on? And I said I heard she's leaving you for henry rollins and here's his. You know what his response was? Um, he was like, yeah, that totally makes sense. I mean, I probably would too. She's funny enough. And then I said, yeah, man, I'm so sorry, and he goes. And he, it was like five minutes later he goes. Do you think I could go with her and just live in the garage?
Speaker 1:oh my gosh oh god so I know this is gonna be the exact same thing for all of you guys and so many people listening, but this is something that stood out to me last night I was trying to like put my thoughts together was that he was always there for me and, uh, of course, if I like needed him and like, I would call him, like hey, man, what you know, what do you think about this?
Speaker 1:Or whatever, but he was there for me when I didn't ask for him to be there for me and I think you know he would just say, like hey, I heard you this morning, like everything cool, like I feel like maybe something's up, like you're, and I'm like, yeah, actually here's a thing that I was a little bit, you know, you know that's something's bugging me, and he would just know that.
Speaker 1:And so then we would end up having either a conversation on my back deck or like on the phone. Probably I don't talk on the phone, I don't like it, uh, but I would talk to jason on the phone for a bit and we would work through stuff. And then he would also call me and be like hey, I need to get your opinion on this. I'm like, my opinion, what. Like you're kind of the big brother in this friendship, but it was that back and forth. But then I saw a bunch of people posting even screenshots of like texts of him, just being like hey, I just wanted to check on you, like everything great and whatever check on you like everything great and whatever I was like again, not special over here.
Speaker 3:Turns out, turns out, he's just that guy no, accurate, solid the word solid, yeah, solid s you don't meet too many uh solid people like that. For consistent for a consistent amount of time yeah, and that seems to be the theme when you're consistent for over 30 years. That's, that's who you are, yeah.
Speaker 2:He had a funny dynamic where he was so helpful but he also could be kind of like poke fun at you and put you in your place and then but here's where the third level of the dynamic is he would then worry if he went too far and feel guilty about it. He's like oh my God, I'm so sorry. And after my surgery there's a while while where, because some nerve damage I had, it was hard to put on like long pants, it just, and I'd be walking around the house doing laundry or something, just wearing like a nice shirt but just underwear underneath. And we went, jackie and sarah and jason and I all went to taco more loco in Avondale and Sarah brought it up for some reason. I'm like shut up because it's going to stick. And he's like oh, you're doing the Donald Duck.
Speaker 4:I was about to say that I didn't know the term, donald Duck.
Speaker 2:It's like all top, no bottom, yeah sure. And I was like oh, and I made the mistake. I always say if you don't want to have a nickname, don't ever acknowledge it, and I made the mistake of acknowledging it so they've been call me donald duck like oh, so you got pants on today, that's.
Speaker 1:I thought I didn't scoop that story because when you said that I was like that's the donald duck, I was just thinking that, uh. So my mom yesterday came over and uh, she's like, hey, someone come, I'm so sorry about jason, whatever she's like. Reed tells me that jason never said anything negative about people. I was like he didn't. I was like that's exactly right, he didn't, certainly not in my presence. No, no, I mean, maybe jackie knows something that we don't know and again we're having maybe he said bad things about us, do you think?
Speaker 4:surely not?
Speaker 1:uh, we're doing a terrible job of coming up with any bad stories about him, which we still, if you texted in, if you know any, um. But I really thought about it and I was like, yeah, he would do this thing where, if there was something, a bad situation, right, like where somebody had done something that wasn't great, he would always kind of say this like well, yeah, but right, and that was like yeah I remember he was like a situation, like man, this person has really screwed us over on this.
Speaker 1:He was like well, yeah, but and he would like try to find like some way, and he just wouldn't talk negatively about people, which is so rare. If we could all learn from that.
Speaker 2:I was talking about how he had. He had this trend, you know, because of the size city it is. Here in the music scene We've had a lot of people that have been amazing, bands that, say, almost broke through and were huge or those kind of things and there's this kind of there's always been like a little bit of backlash it happens in every music scene where you're kind of like those guys are too big for their britches or this or that. And I'm jason if it was like um, like verbena, or like uh, dan sortain or like any people that started getting like national notoriety, he'd be like, oh, this is so great for birmingham, so proud of them.
Speaker 2:And it's like, come on, be a real hater every once in a while, jason, and he was uh, just he. I mean I don't want to start it, but like he was mr birmingham for real, like he stayed here the whole time. When so many of us shot out of here like a rocket out of hell for a while and maybe came back, he stayed here and always believed in it. It was a big part of of me believing that he was one of the people that, like, would come to bottle tree and support it when we first started bottle tree in 2005 or six, yeah, yeah, I mean again.
Speaker 3:I always hearken back to substrate and substrate has its own, like cult following oh, yeah, uh.
Speaker 1:It's a brand like I always say that like it doesn't matter how many people are listening at that moment. The brand of substrate is a major mover in this town.
Speaker 4:Substrate sticker showed up on a door at Hoover high school a couple of years ago which I was like, wow, look at that.
Speaker 2:There was a high school kid who went there to put it up. Yeah, that was the one time.
Speaker 3:But no, he, you know he made a hub for for people and artists. He made a hub for people and artists and when you look at Substrate like all of the variety shows that they have on that show that people listen to, shows centered around it promotion stickers, graphics I remember when they were in Woodlawn and then it like grew and then you start seeing substrate everywhere. People start rocking the shirts. You see the stickers, like you said, at Hoover. You see it on people's cars.
Speaker 1:You see it at restaurants, like he literally started a movement, and having it at saturn brian is just such a game changer for all of us right for, I'm sure, for saturn, I'm sure for substrate, but also just for the city.
Speaker 2:It's just such a cool thing right there with the glass and jason and I always talked about how, like when wsgn used to have the the light drop it was like the one that had the drive-thru glass and everything. It would be so cool, but he did. That said, there was a rash of like a period where, early on, jason got mooned a lot.
Speaker 4:Right on the glass.
Speaker 1:Right on the glass. Another plus. He absolutely enjoyed it. He put a sign up saying please.
Speaker 4:Well, also real quickly, while we're talking about Jason as a promoter and all the ways that he supported artists and whatnot, I also just want to mention this real quickly, Back in the days when I was making some music and Jason was helping no surprise, like we talked about. I'll never forget being at his place one time and saying, like, well, what are you making music right now? Or what are you doing? He was like, well, here's something I've done recently and he played it. And I distinctly remember being so embarrassed because what he played was so much wildly better than any music I was ever going to think about making. And he just was making it and just played it as if like, yeah, here's just a little thing, and it was just mind blowing, it was wonderful. So I think sometimes you can. If you don't try, you can forget that he also was just a phenomenal musician, in addition to being a supporter.
Speaker 1:He's Jason Hamrick, right. So, he's doing all this other stuff, so he didn't play enough. Like we didn't see him playing enough or like hear enough of the recordings, because he was always doing other stuff with other people.
Speaker 2:He learned how to do it because somebody needed him to do it. Yeah, Not always because he knew how to do it. He would be the guy that would go woodshed it for two weeks and be like, oh, I can edit your video or what you know, that sort of thing. Like he learned it because he wanted to help people.
Speaker 1:I hope that we didn't take him for granted while he was here.
Speaker 3:Right, I was about to say, like what I've learned from this whole thing yeah, it's we most because we're human, but typically what we do as humans, we don't value the people who do the most enough until they're gone. So my biggest thing was I hope that I know I always thanked him and I have the text messages and the meetings to prove it for whenever he did anything for us, because I was just reading one where I thanked him for something he did when he took photos for us. We'll take that proof after the show and I tell people you know the people, please. I know it's cliche to say give people their flowers while they're still here to smell them. I just hope that that happened for him. I hope that he got those flowers from people while he was here, because sometimes, when you're the strongest one you need, you need the support that you typically don't get Right. So I hope that he got that.
Speaker 4:And I'll tell you what it wouldn't surprise me to learn that he did, because he was a person who was so easy to return his positive energy. Some people in your life where, just any time you're around them, you're just like, oh, this is just a pleasure to be with Jason Hamrick. So I'm hopeful that he really did get to reap a lot of the rewards of of putting out the kind of energy that he did, because I know for me it was very easy to to reciprocate that well, he didn't want to be a spectacle, he wanted to help you with the spectacle you wanted to create, you know, and he was just, um, you know, so unique in that way.
Speaker 2:And I think one thing I'll say is there's no way to contextualize this. He went too young, it wasn't anything that could have been predicted, but I will say that he always did what he loved and in this society that we have, there's always this feeling that we have to always keep everything going, always have infinite growth, always, like you know, we talk about. The first thing we often do is at if you're meeting someone new, it's like oh what, what do you do for work, or you know, or then you kind of figure out how much money they make, or something like that. I was there, uh, maybe three weeks ago, and you know, substrate has this brilliant little like eighth of a page size fanzine that they do. That makes no sense in this day and age, makes no sense that they do it.
Speaker 2:And jason was in there stapling these little fanzines together. Um and uh, he's a 54 year old man that's very accomplished in everything. And I said, man, why do you still do that? Because he had said something like I had put in 1,500 staples at this point and I was like, why do you do it? And he goes, because I think it's cool. And that's the lesson, because I'll tell you what he had a lot of worries and a lot of fears, but he was happy and he loved his life. Yeah.
Speaker 1:No doubt. Hey, we have to take this last break. We're going to do that and we're going to come back. This is your last chance to text in any negative stories about Jason. We are waiting. This will be the last third act is all negative.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's going to be all negative stuff when we come back. This hour of the show is brought to you by Magic City Indoor Golf. Book. Now Play comfortably inside. You can play any course in the country. You can also just go. If it's your first time to swing a golf club, you can do it in there, in the privacy of one of those bays at Magic City Indoor Golf. Magic City Indoor Golf dot com. Welcome back to it. Brother Radio. And well, that is Reed. That is Brian Teasley hanging out with us, shahid as well. Nick Davidson here in the studio with us, also Hunter, of course, helping us run the whole thing. So, yeah, we're remembering our friend Jason Hamrick, and we do now have a list. A lot of folks sent in some negative stories and so let's get those.
Speaker 4:He was too tall Before we get into those.
Speaker 2:Let me be somber for a moment and then we'll trash him. The rest, okay, good what you got. I probably shouldn't be saying this, but I know a lot of people that might not have known him. I think everybody in the music community knew him, but if you're just somebody in your car right now, jason was this amazing person in the music scene and an amazing person for the city scene and an amazing person for the city saturday.
Speaker 2:Uh, he had had an ear infection, yeah, and he, um, he was feeling really weird, told his beautiful wife, jackie, it's like I don't feel right. And then at some point he became incoherent. Ambulance came, um, and what had happened, I think, is he, and this is after he had got his ear flushed out a couple hours after that, yeah, and he had sepsis from it. Um, he may have had a stroke some point because of the sepsis and, um, you know, your ear is so close to your brain and he was okay. They did a CT scan. Uh, you know, when he was at the hospital, like his brain was okay, he was still unconscious and then he, um, but his heart stopped for nine minutes. He was still alive and then it stopped again shortly after that for maybe a minute.
Speaker 2:So this um beautiful soul was absolutely robbed from us in this freak way that none of us could have predicted. You know, I know jason and jackie, you know we had a lot of cool trips planned, a lot of beautiful things. Um, you know he um, if you've ever had somebody in your life like that, um, be lucky, realize time is precious and that in these moments like it's good to feel the pain and it's good to be inspired from them and be like what small the way I can pay respect is be a little like that, be a little more altruistic, give back in a way, take time out. That doesn't make sense, that's not benefiting you, that benefits somebody else. I don't want to sound preachy, but in these moments that's not benefiting you, that benefits somebody else. I don't want to sound preachy, but in these moments that's the way we pay respect to, to the people we've lost.
Speaker 1:And so we talked about already, like the not talking negatively about people, right, and that's something we should learn from Jason and and I will I will personally try to do that better at that going forward. But also, like during the break, we started talking about some stuff. I was like whoa, whoa, save it for the mics. So there were all these people in our community that would go through really tough stuff, and Jason was, like a lot of times, the first person to step up and be like, okay, we need to gather and kind of like, start raising money. Right, there's like Mikey D's situation. There were others. Talk about a few of those.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, Tim Cornell, who had had his truck stolen. Mikey's truck had got caught fire on the side of the road. One time, Dave, one of our security guards at Saturn house, burnt down and he immediately I think we raised like $20,000 because the house was, you know, and there was a. There was like a crossover between the insurance that didn't cover very much of it. Um, and I will say, though, if you know, one thing I should say before we go is Sunday at Saturn, from four to seven, we're having a life celebration of it. It's not going to be like sad mac macabre. We're going to talk about all the fun stuff he did, because it's mainly he was a he's a creator of a lot of fun stuff for a lot of people enjoy yeah, and I'm just um.
Speaker 2:I'm curious, though, because I um, will you seem like the maybe one of the persons, uh, other than jackie, that might have seen him nude? Was that ever the case? You know four times, four times.
Speaker 1:We don't have enough time now to go into those four times.
Speaker 2:Wait, don't say the context. I don't want to know the context. Leave it there.
Speaker 4:Just leave it there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Hey, so asking for myself, because my daughter's turning 16 and her one request was to see Tyler Childers at the Wharf and that's this Sunday, because my daughter's turning 16 and her one request was to see Tyler Childers at the wharf and that's this Sunday, and so Danielle and I are taking Lila to see Tyler Childers. So you know, obviously I, you know devastated, it can't be there. I'm glad to be able to do this for Lila, but is this going to be in any way recorded?
Speaker 2:Is there a way we're going to try to you know, it's all obviously last minute we're going to try to hopefully film some of it or hopefully stream some of it for the people like you that can't be there. That said, you two guys don't have to worry, because I think he's going to be haunting your ass for a long time.
Speaker 1:No, for real, I have so much of this stuff at my house. I was thinking about this yesterday at a recording session and, as you know, the news had just broken a couple hours earlier and I'm sitting there putting, you know, stringing mics up and I was like, oh man, this is all Jason stuff. I was like this is stuff that we worked together on and these purple mic cords are all Jason's, that we had from the SEC network stuff. And I was like, yeah, goodness. And then like, and you go in this room in my house and there's a picture you know that he had one of his photography pictures on the wall and I have lots of them in the house.
Speaker 2:But right and he um in in in life he was very giving, but his ghost is gonna want that snare back. He probably gave you like 20 years ago and I hope these, these airwaves I got to think in some kind of way and not to get too hokey at the end, but I hope they're reaching out to the cosmos because I love you, buddy, yeah.
Speaker 3:Respect to the legacy contribution, Jason Hamrick. Condolences to his family. Peace to Jackie.
Speaker 1:I love. Yeah, I think think this I don't know what how this works, because jason was mr substrate, right, jackie for, say, like a mr substrate. There's a lot of work that goes into that, to running a radio station and I think we have a responsibility in some way to make sure that that continues, even because, like I talked about earlier, the brand of substrate, like what it means for Birmingham and what it is like. So I don't know what that's going to look like and obviously nobody has had time to think about that, but we need to keep that going whatever that is.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:It goes without saying that we will all miss Jason dearly in the future, but I think it's important to remember that he will always, always, always be alive and well in our memories, and we have lots and lots of them, um, and so that's. That's what I look forward to is reflecting on all those wonderful experiences and, like we talked about earlier, thinking about how can I embrace some of the personality that he was and try to incorporate that into my own interactions with other people. A hundred percent, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so all right, here we are. Uh, now finally can get to the list of all the negative stuff, uh that folks have written in about Jason. Um, and I think he would want that, right, he would want, like, the honest truth about him to come out and what? Oh, it's 7 o'clock.
Speaker 2:It is 7 o'clock right now. We don't have time, unfortunately.
Speaker 4:I had a notebook. We did mention the too allergic to onions thing, though.
Speaker 1:It was the craziest allergy I've ever known of from anybody. Okay, well, we'll do those negative stories one day Part two, Brian and Shahid.
Speaker 4:thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1:It's an honor to be here, brian Teasley and Shahid, of course, and you guys. Yeah, head out to Saturn this Sunday. What are the times again? Four o'clock to seven o'clock. Yeah, Four to seven. Okay, I lied to Nick.
Speaker 2:Well, it'll be all onions All onions for Fresh onions.
Speaker 1:That's right, all right, great stuff. Trivia with Will and Reed coming up after this. Feel free to stick around and play some trivia if you would like. All right, back after this Peace.