Horoscopes Often Lie
by Bradley for Bradley, but hopefully you like it as well. Mid 40's dude shooting the breeze, reflecting on life, & sometimes sitting down with buddies and story telling. Every day interesting, funny, relatable & smart people. No celebs, no fame, no socials. Everyone has a story to tell, just listen. A perfect way to waste 30 min's of your time. Real talk, based on actual events.
Horoscopes Often Lie
Episode 2: My Mind Warps and Bends
Dads, Skateboards, dirt bikes, Faith, football, 90's rock, small town life, a sit down with one of my best buds, Ron Spivey aka: Rev
What is up? Everybody, welcome to horoscopes, often lie. I'm your host Bradley. You could have been anywhere in the world. You chose to be right here with me, man, I could not thank you enough. The responses, the love, the text, the calls I've gotten from episode one. I'm absolutely blown away. Episode two, starting now. I've got one of my oldest closest bros of all bros. This man needs no introduction. If you know me, you know him. If you don't know me, you now know him. My good friend Ron Spivey. What's up, Ron? What's happening, man? Glad to be here with you. Heck yeah, dude. Thank you so much for laying down some mic time with me. Dude, you doing all right? I'm doing great, man. I dig what you're doing. Glad to be here with you, man. You came in with a new look, dude, I had, we've been boys a long time. I've seen you clean shaven once before, I think in the last 20 years. Threw me off. We're beard's gone. What the, yeah, you're right, man. I woke up the other night at two in the morning, just had a Brittany Spears moment. Looked at myself, beer. Really gray, man. You know, I'm 50 years old now. Ooh. We, I walked out the bathroom, walked back in and just hit it with a razor. And then once you start, you just gotta finish it. Yeah. That's it. Once you hit it once. You gotta keep on going, man. So dang dang. Now will you grow it back? Yeah, man, I'm gonna let it take its course, man. Okay. You know? Okay. I'm gonna let it take its course. Okay, cool. I just have to do like a ceremonial cleansing every decade, you know, man. Every decade. Good, man. I'm glad this podcast, ignited your spiritual cleansing of a shave. So that works for me. When I was thinking about this, and I knew you were coming in as obviously I had to have you as my first guest, our stories and kind of our last 20 years have been definitely a podcast upon itself. We've got some good ones. We've been through it, I guess I'll say. So, when you were coming down I was thinking about it and I was like, God, where did I meet Ron?'Cause it seems like I've known you forever, but it's been about 20 years and I remember. I was using our friend Damon Mutual friend, big Damon, we call him. Sure. Damon from Dallas, we call him now. He was gonna marry my first wife and I, I said first I have been married twice, am still married the second time, so no judgment. He came to me once, we were at Voodoo, one of our local watering holes, and I remember he came in and we used to all hang back in the back, back by the kitchen. And we're in our spot. And he comes up to the corner and he said, dude, I got some freaking bad news for you. I said, what? He said, I'm freaking packing up and I'm hitting the road. I'm heading to Dallas. And I was like, what the hell for what? And he's like, no, no, I'm moving. And I was like, okay. Damn man. Let's set something up. Let's get all the homies together before you move. And he is like, Bradley, you're not clicking what I'm telling you, I'm moving before your wedding. I'm going in like two weeks. And I said, you're not doing my wedding. This has been planned. This wasn't a year in advance. This was like the month before my wedding. And he said, don't worry. I've got my boy, Ron, he's cool as ice and he's gonna do it for you, and I promise you'll dig them. And you came that night and you came in and we met, and by about 2:00 AM and about 10 shots, 12 drinks. A few good nineties songs together. I said, oh, I'd rather Ron do my wedding. But that's where I met Ron. You remember the voodoo days I do. Man. I remember that first night running into you up there, man. Uh, great. That was a great hangout. We had a solid run there. We had a great run. And, again, I think D Jacks was with you that night. Yep. We hung out and. Did the wedding it was a beautiful ceremony and event and then we started riding bikes together. Riding Harley's. That's right. Just having a good time. I think both of us realized that the other one was a pirate and so, you know, boy, we just got along, man. Dude. A hundred percent. We were definitely on the pirate ship together in another life. Right. We have for sure raided some towns. Yeah, definitely. We've, pillaged a few village. We've pillaged a few villages. Very well said. And so yeah, dude riding bikes. Wow. I forgot we rode motorcycles. That's funny. That feels like forever ago dude. I remember one time, this is no joke, y'all. This is no joke. First, probably one of the first times Ron and I rode together, we're out. We've got some country roads outside of Charleston on a little island called John's Island, and there's a hell of a stretch where you can just let it eat wide open. And we was riding down a long straightaway, probably close to a hundred. And I look over. And you've pulled into, it's a two lane road. You've pulled into incoming traffic and pulled up next to me and have laid down on your motorcycle with your feet up on the handlebars and your hands. Behind your head. Behind my head. Yeah. And you have it mashed and we're going a hundred. And I've never been so freaking nervous in my life and I was like, I was trying not to look at you.'cause I don't wanna give you attention. You know? I know. And I was like, oh my God. It was stupid, man. Let this guy get up. Let this guy please sit on your bike. And it didn't even bother you. Right? You were just rolling. Yeah, man. it was not wise behavior out of me. I look back a lot of times, look at man, come on. That was just stupid it's where we were. It's how you learn, man. Do you remember speaking of motorcycles, do you remember that night you were leaving? Back when I had my condo. Yeah. And I think we were pretty hammer time. Oh, we, oh, we were gone. Yeah. Oh, we were gone. We had tied one on and you were like, dude, you had ridden the bike and you only lived five minutes from my house back then. Right? What happened when you left my house that night? So I think it was closer to about three, somewhere in there, three or four. But man, I pulled out. And I looked to my right and there's this cop, he's standing in his front yard. Yep. And so he lived on that corner. He lived on that corner. Yep. So as I'm looking at him and I'm driving by, I run, stop sign, Probably about 30 miles an hour. I blast through the stop sign. But because I'm looking at him to my right, my bike drifts to the right. So I shoot into these people's front yard, through the ditch, through the, I go through this ditch and I'm on a full, soft tail Harley. So this thing is, I don't know, 800 panels, I'm just guessing. Yeah, probably way more. So I'm looking at this guy and I veer to the right. So I hit this front yard and it's, four in the morning, nothing but do on the grass. So the back wheel squirrels out. And I look at this cop and he's just staring at me on his phone. So I just rake onto the gas hard. The back end is squirreling out. I hit a culvert pipe. I shot over the ditch and jumped it. Literally, man, the pipe jumped into the road and I just laid into the throttle to get home and it kept looking back for the blue light. He never came. I think he was like, oh, he knew. He was like, yeah, there's no use to messing with that guy. Yeah, but I made it home between two trees, right. Whipped around that other tree. Here's the funny, here's the funny thing. Oh boy. People need to understand. That was a random Tuesday. Oh yeah. That wasn't like a, oh no. That was just any time, you know? Yeah. That's basically, that was two hours before I took my kids to school. Yes. The weirdest part about that was not a random night for us. That was four nights a week. Outta seven, I would think. Yeah. So, you know, there's no shame in our game. Some wild nights and old voodoo that we were talking about earlier, man. I remember shooting firecrackers from the back parking lot into the place, everyone running, raising hell. I remember when your boy backed his car. You remember Farin? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, we were in there Farran's, he's from Dallas, that's Damon's brother, his younger brother. So because he's in a strange town. He gets outta control.'cause he knows there's no checks and balances. He can just wild out. And he is with some real pirates and he's a wild dude. Yeah, he is. He's strictly one of a kind. And I think he finally got kicked out by the gm, so he got his feelings hurt. He went outside. Revved his like chavel up with this like seventies, you know, what's it called? Muscle cart. Engine Engine, yeah. Revs it up until all the smoke collects around the front of the building. Then he opens the door and it suctions smoke the place so the whole, everybody's in there dancing, everybody's choking out. People having to run into the street and know the next thing, the great part. He floors it rips out of there, slides across the street. Yep. In the front of Gene Hoff Brow, another bar and literally, parks it. Then he slides it. Yeah. Right up into it, man on the curb and parked there and went into the bar, went in there and basically stole booze from behind the counter. Woke up in the back of his car the next morning. Like Reese Bobby. Yeah. From uh, with a bottle laying mine with the poor thing. Still on the end of it, you know. Oh man. That's some good stuff, dude. It is, man. Good stuff. That's some damn good stuff. I like that. I know all about you probably too much, but let's just kick back and let everybody learn a little bit about you. You know, where are you from, what'd you do when you were young? Kind of how'd you come up, you know, give me, give everybody a brief description of what you got going on, man. Man, probably so born here in Charleston, but I grew up about 30 miles northwest in a little town, small town in America called Monk's Corner. Yeah. country compared to you, you know? Yep. good folks, man over there, good people all the way around. Good community. But I grew up there, man, and I would say, being born in 75, just turning 50 April, we had a really good standard, solid upbringing. Football man, dirt bikes, skateboards, a eighties kid. Yeah, man, latchkey. Love the eighties, bro. Eighties hair, metal, and, uh, you know, kids playing in ditches, building forts in the woods. It, it was really a, I think it was a healthy place, man. I really believe it was. Heck yeah, man. Yeah, you know, with me, you know, I grew up here in Charleston and it was the same way. You're five years older than me, but still, same thing, man. We grew up in the woods. Firework wars bottle, rocket wars, right. Same stuff. You know, pocket knives, shooting guns, Going fishing, doing things like that. Yeah. Yeah. That's part of it. Here, you're out in the boat or you're at the beach. I mean, that's part of the southern East coast vibe. You're in the southeast, you gotta get in the boat sometimes, man. You gotta get out in the water. One thing that always surprised me, man, is. You and I related very much on, I guess you could say it's culture, you were big into the skate culture, skateboarding, growing up, huge into the nineties. Music scene, very hip to the art scene, kind of the street art graffiti. Eighties, nineties hip hop. Yeah. Eighties, nineties hip hop. It's funny because what I think about in Monk's Corner, and this is, listen, I know I have listeners in Monk's Corner and I know Ron is gonna promote this. Guys, I'm not hating on Monk's Corner. This is just the truth. It is a Friday night light type of southern good old boy town. It is not as a negative. Great. That is great. But It is growing as Charleston is growing, but it is a lot different than what I was used to. It's a different scene, man. you and I rode up there to look at a piece of property, man, probably 15 years ago. Oh yeah. A piece that I should have bought. Yes. It's, it is right now. Like quadruple and hell, it might be 10 times over. Yep. But anyway, I took you to this diner there in town, Howard's and, the diner. Has not changed. Like nothing in it has changed. In probably 50 years. The stuff on the wall, the pictures, the ornaments I love. Bradley went in, and said, God, can I get a menu? And the lady looked at him that, runs the place and she said, son, breakfast ain't changing in 50 years. Just tell me what you want. I'll make it. what? What the hell? You need a menu for it's breakfast son. Yeah. She's like, this is breakfast baby. Menu ain't changed in 50 years. And I was like, well, what is there to think about? It's breakfast. The crazy thing about it is if you take a little place like that. So vintage and old and you sat it in Charleston. Oh, it would become so hip because hipsters would think it's cool, but Right. Hipsters would be like, oh, there's this place. Yeah, but this is the real item. That's the real thing. It's the real thing. Its unchanged. Oh, you know, when I walked in I was like, okay. Like Ron is saying, if you can close your eyes and picture the local small town diner that maybe your parents went in growing up, or maybe a place that is modeled after an old school family, small town place. Listen, it still won't look as authentic as this place. It was one, this was the real deal. Is this still there? It's still there, man. What's it called again? Howard's, it's still kicking, man. Okay. I I go in there once every, couple months or something. I mean, Bradley was sitting there so blown away. He was looking out the window like Andy Griffith and Opie were gonna walk by. Listen, that's what I thought. I was blown away. And you're looking around and you knew 12 people in there. Yeah, man. The guy from the banks in there and your buddy from the so and so. Somebody you played football with and there's coach Yeah and I think it's still that way, but it was big back in the day, if the coach won his game on Friday night Whoever the local coach is. Yeah. He shows up in there Saturday morning and everybody pats his back and talks about the work he's doing and if he loses, he, he shows up in there kind of with his hat in his hand. It's that old. Hey coach, what happened last night? We, what we gonna do? Yeah. What gonna do about that football is, football is obviously very important in the south. The SEC but, it was also very important for you and not only just in Monk's Corner, but you played linebacker for your, hometown school in Monk's Corner, a very big school and had some success there. I got invited to play. It was a small school, they asked me to come up a tour, the campus, a beautiful little place up in Virginia. They wanted me to bench press and I was just wanting to party with my friends. Yeah. Well, all my friends were living on Green Street At South Carolina or at Clemson. Yep. So they're having like 85 keg parties every Sunday, and I'm going to a school that's got like 85 people at it, you know? Yeah. Bored out your mind. And now wanting just to be hearing about your friend's partying. Oh man. Didn't you go Christmas break? Yeah, I went home for Christmas break and they were all raging and I was like, you're doing what? Didn't you not go back after a Christmas break? I went back and got my stuff. Oh my God, that's awesome. I went back, got my stuff. I moved up to Green Street with some friends and I was like, yeah green Street is Columbia, South Carolina. It's about two hours up the road. Home of the Mighty Gang cops. That is your boys team. Also where my daughter goes, so shout out to my beautiful daughter, sophomore, but anyways, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. So I moved up to Green Street, which runs pretty much right through the University of South Carolina. Yep. It's kind of party central down to what we call Five Points. And I went there thinking, Hey, I'll transfer over, you know, get some credits here, maybe do a little, and I just never went to class or went to school or even went and saw anybody about going to school. I just hung in the, apartment and partied all day. I mean. I didn't go to college, but I can imagine it's for partying and chasing skirts. Right. That's basically what it's for. Yeah. I mean, I, I can't think of any other good reason to go. Besides that, it sounds like a waste of time. You know? But who am I, you're talking to a five year high schooler, that started a business instead, so, well, cool. I know that whole football thing's always been, big for you. You actually ended up doing some coaching as well, fairly recently, right? Sure. Well, I coached, after I. Dropped outta college. There's no nice way to say it. I dropped outta college, got back to the family business with my father, which was a construction company. Which sucked. Oh my God. I mean, you're talking about going from college, hanging out, dorm life, twisting doobies, talking to girls Ooh. To carrying lumber in the South Carolina humidity. And plus rest in peace to your old man. But, your dad does not play no black beard bear. Yes. It's like black beard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. If we're pirates. He was running the ship. the ship was crazy with him. Yeah, he was white. I mean, he's old school, south blue collar. You know, you argue with an employee and if you argue with him, it could easily come to a fist fight. Right there on the job. Oh yeah. It could turn into a fist fight. And a bunch of drama. And then my dad would be like, all right, you guys get back to work. And just, and that sort of behavior was very common for me growing up. Yeah. Very common. I bet, dude. I bet. Speaking of your dad, man, give me a, you know, growing up, I know you and your pops were tight, gimme some cool dad memories, some cool dad stories. What's something if you think back, right? What's something that you can think of that you're like, damn, my dad, yeah. Do you have anything like that? Well, there's a lot, man, again, in the south we're not gonna get into the economy. But in the eighties, you know, my dad owned a construction company which meant he could take care of my mom and our house. He could have a girlfriend or two on the side. He could have another, a bachelor pad to crash at. Yep. He could have, he had a Corvette, he had a Harley inside of his house. He kept a speedboat. We went, speed. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Harley was where he, he got Harley in his kitchen, man. No, that blue one. I mean the, yeah, the tip one. Well, one just like that one, okay. But it was there for years, man. You know, he would just pull in there and burn out. He put his front tire against the wall, peel rubber, fill the house of smoke and then, you know, go cook some bacon and eggs. I'm not kidding about that. Oh, that's so, Aw. I love that. But yeah, man, that kind of growing up stuff. Dirt bikes, man. My dad grew up dirt bikes. Remember that picture I showed you of him and Iran? Oh. When he, that whole. Jumping over a hole that was, I can't say it was a bottomless pit, but listen, you couldn't see the bottom of it, guys. I, guys, I will tell y'all this. I've seen this picture and it's an old, it's not a Polaroid, but it's an old developed picture. Yeah. It's old. For those old enough to know what a developed picture is. And it's this dirt bike with Ron's dad on it. And it is, I mean, it's evil Knievel. He's just flying over this hole. Like what? And you're like, dude, don't ask any questions. My dad was in Iran for a little while. Now granted, this is the eighties, y'all. No, well actually this is when I was born. That would've been 75. Okay. 75. Ron's dad, is randomly in I ran and so. He decides to jump a hole, and I'm not talking about something you did with your shovel. This looks like a bottomless pit. Yeah, it does. And your dad jumped it on a dirt bike and someone took a picture and. That's all we know of Said story. Great old, remember old open face, 1970s helmet on dude. Just like the most quintessential old school. Rugged. Was he no shirt on it? I can't even remember. I remember the picture. I don't know. He probably had a pack of Winston's in the front pocket of a t-shirt or something. Probably had a cigarette in his mouth, but dude, we had, so yeah, dirt bikes and just, he kept us active. He was a rugged dude, but he was an active guy. He took us out for fun things. You know, if, if it was something he wanted, man. And my dad grew up dirt poor, so he wanted to gimme the world, I'll be honest. And he spoiled me a lot of times, Brad.'cause he didn't really have the upbringing to know how to not do that. Yeah. So anyway, if he wanted me to have it, it showed up. Okay. Now, if it was something I wanted. That was different. Like for example, when I wanted a skateboard for the first time. Oh, it wasn't like, well, let's back that up too. Right. while a skateboard may have been something in Charleston where I was at that time, oh man. you know, we had, I mean, I remember the very first skate shop, good friend of both of ours. Sure. Mike Hyatt, his folks had a shop vans and stuff. Right. And I remember being able to get to that and being able to get my, my skate shoot, you know. Oh man. And that's where everyone hung. I remember Mike's parents would have, they had a team and they had, so cool. Skate different stuff in the parking lot and people doing tricks and, you know, it was an accepted thing. You gotta figure, skateboarding was probably not culturally as big monk's corner. Or to dad. No, of course. And I got into it early, man. So if you, and I'm older than you. Yeah. Four years or so, five years. But if you even go back, I got my first board in 84. Damn. So see that's like, that's before, like that was before the explosion skate. Yeah. I was four years really? Skateboarding. Oh, that's huge. Yeah, that was, I was four years old, so that was huge. And well, and I was only in third grade man, third or fourth grade, so I got a model earlier. But there were these kids down the street, older kids, middle school, that I really looked up to. And they had, you know what we would call like a wider skateboard. Yeah. Before that skates were those little skinny just, To go down a hill. Yeah and so all of a sudden skating came out and there was these boards and different logos for different companies and different grip tape and the graphics on the bottom that you and I love to talk about how cool the graphics for this board, that board, and so. You know, you asked about something, man, with my dad, one of my best childhood memories ever. I had to beg him for a full year, man. He would not come off of it. But one day we were in Charleston doing some work and I said, dad, man, you again. I'm eight, nine years old. I said, dad, are we near that skateboarding place? And he looked down at me, man. He said, yeah, I'll take you there. We went over to Mount Pleasant across the old Cooper River Bridge. Hit Coleman. And there was an old surf shop called Island Images Surf Shop only. I remember. GS know it. I remember We went in there, grabbed it. It was skate and surfer. It was like in the era of TNC, surf design, you know, skate. lemme tell you how new skating was in 84 here. When we walked in for sale and skateboarding, they had one board, one set of trucks, one set of wheels, one set of bearings. They were like, this is our only one that was the stock. But it's before Vans and stuff. Yeah, before Champs. Wow. And so I bought it. He got it for me, dude. I slept with it. That skateboard never spent one night in my yard. It just stayed in my room all the time. Damn. And you don't take care of nothing. No. And I don't, but that was my baby dude. And still to the day at 50 years old. Yep. One of my greatest memories, short of God, my wife, my children. Just natural memories. It is probably my greatest memory ever the day my dad. Look to me again. Took you to get that board. Took me to get that board. Dude did it crazy. Like the stuff that sticks with you. You know what I mean? Like that. That's such a cool memory though. And you know your dad's no longer with us and man, time goes on. But you can still think back and you can picture the board. You can probably smell it. You probably remember the weather of in the car that day. You can picture what your dad maybe was even wearing. it's crazy how our brains just lock into something that is. So important and so big. You might forget something that happened yesterday. Right? But the details of something like that, I just think, man, that's really a very cool thing that I feel like a lot of us have, you know, like, yeah, man. And like Bradley, you know, that day my dad. That board was 180 bucks in 1984. What? that's how rare they were. It's like, when Atari first came out, it was a thousand dollars system in 81. Now, by a year or two later, it had dropped down to$169, but those boards were 180 bucks. That's more than they are now. That's crazy. Talking four years ago because you couldn't get'em, that's real money back then. Yeah, dude. That's like buying an$800 toy for a dang kid now. But my dad could have never dreamed that day. When he was driving me over there, pulling them bills outta his pocket that he had worked in the sun, cutting lumber to get, he paid cash then he was freaking, oh, of course he ain't a credit card. He's forming a memory in me. Yeah, that would go with me to my grave. Very cool, man. And shout out to my friend Patrick Johnson if you should listen. I traded him this board over at Lance Mountain, and I think it's still in the attic at his mom's. Patrick, if you get a minute, go dig around in there, man. Wait, wait, wait, wait. That board is still. My friend Patrick got it from me in a trade. Patrick's pretty good at hanging on to stuff. A Schmidt stick. A TV. That's the kind of board it was? Yep. Patrick thinks it may be in his mother's. Attic. you're gonna look one day, dude. You need to get that back. Like we need to get it. That's true man. I know you will not ever take the initiative to go do it, but that is something you need. Dude, Patrick was at my 50th party with you when the band played. Yeah, he was there. Okay, cool, cool. So another thing you touched on during that, and I'm glad you did'cause it helps me circle the wagons. You said you're talking about what's important to you and you mentioned God. Sure. You know, you. Let's be honest, you don't hear as much about God you and I grew up, we've talked about it, the south, the eighties. Our age, dude, church was. It was not a, Hey, are we going to church? It was, hope you got your khakis. Hope you iron your shirt. Hope you got your tie on straight. I don't care if it's a clip on, Sunday School, church, summer, vacation, Bible school. It was a very conservative religion, but that was everybody. There were not, maybe other places back then. Maybe people weren't doing that. I never knew anyone that didn't go to church every single Sunday. Right. Eat lunch afterwards, either at the local cafeteria or at a covered dish dinner. Sure. you know, we are now in, a day and age where, you know, I just feel like it's not, it's definitely not the same nationwide. Right. It's not the same, product being put out even by churches. I think a lot of people now may. Do it online, or a lot of people now are like, Hey, I don't care, man. I wear shorts and t-shirt. It's not about, it's different, you know? It's totally different. Gimme a little bit of info and a little bit of background and even to what it led to you now and what you're doing now, man. Just gimme a little spiel on faith, what it's meant to you and what you're doing right now with your faith. Sure. Well, I grew up in church as a kid, just like Bradley did. And just like Bradley, none of it stuck. well, you know what? I will say a little more stuck than Bradley. This dude's impervious to, stuff that you wouldn't imagine, man, but he's impervious to about everything. if, if he doesn't want it, he just doesn't want it. But that's a very true statement. It's true, man. I mean, but, you know, some of it stuck with me, but I certainly wasn't living any form of a Christian lifestyle. But in early 96, man, I had an encounter and it's one of those things that I can't lie about it, I can't say it didn't happen. I know you're not a Bible scholar, Bradley, but it's what people would call a Damascus moment. And it's that moment where you're literally, you're going down the road. There's this guy in the Bible that's talking about named Saul. Okay? He's going down the road, he's against Christianity, he's completely anti, and Jesus appears to him knocks him off his horse, blinds him for three days. I had a Damascus experience in February of 96, and it rocked my life. Changed my life, and I met the person of Jesus Christ. when you met me many years later, yeah. I'm still whiling out. I'm whiling out and partying and I'm having fun. But all the time, I know where home base is. Yep. You know what I'm saying? That's how I look at it, man. No, and you always did. Yeah, I know. Home base is man. Yeah. It's in, you know, it's, I'll be in left field sometimes, but I know we're home base. Oh man. Well, I mean, your boy's usually in the bleachers, so, yeah. That's cool. I remember, when we first started hanging, I found out, you were a pastor. religion was so past, no one I knew was into it. I was not into it. It wasn't even really a thing with my crew. And, you're like, Hey guys, I'm a pastor. I have this church locally. I remember looking around at the homies and being like, good Lord, like who's this guy? You know? I mean, it's just,'cause all I could think of, man. Another shot, and this guy's gonna tell me how I need to find Jesus to start wearing khakis. You know? Right. And 20 years later, you have never, ever once told me anything I need to do spiritually. Never, man. You have never ever tried to push any of your spiritual views or opinions. You have strictly been yourself and stated, Hey, this is what I believe and what happened to me. I'm cool with everybody absolutely. You know, not here to convert this and not here to do this, and I'm not here to tell you you're wrong or you're stuck in hell or whatever. You just kind of, Hey, this is me and if you want to get down, here's what I'm doing. That, you know, that's what it is. You know, obviously, you know, you could call me tomorrow. Yep. Have an epiphany and say, Ron, you know, I'm ready. Yep. Well, we break it down. Yep. We go after it, but. I, I'm just not about that, man. But even a lot of Christians are like. Let's get out there and act like everyone else. And then we can share Jesus with him. It's like, let's blend in. I'm gonna get a new tattoo. right here on my arms. See it gonna get me, see me across, I'm gonna use it to convert people. It's like, yeah. It's super lame. Yeah. And listen, man, pull their motorcycle out front maybe. Maybe grow a trim beard. People see through that stuff. Of course they do. It's a fraud. People see it. It's fake. It's fake. It's fake. And so my thing has always just been, and this is what I feel like my mandate from God is. Ron, just be you dude. Yep. Just be you. And I'm still, man, after all these years working at talking to God like I would talk to you. Yeah. I I do it now. I do it now. Yeah. But sometimes those will be like, Lord, that's pissing me off, God. You know what I mean? Yeah. And I don't feel like God's going, Ron, you know, you shouldn't, I feel like he's going, Hey man, that's you talking And I get that, you know, I get that. Yeah, man. That's so cool, dude. I'm gonna get into music because I feel like that's something that you and I super vibe on. Sure. Whether it's live shows, whether it's bands from the nineties or that whole era is just something that is super important to both you and I. Like every generation says, you know. But let's be honest, man. Ours was best. Oh my God. Are you kidding? I mean, we had the nineties. Somebody's gotta be the best at it. Yeah. our groups were the best. Some people had the Beatles, some people had whatever this nonsense. Is out now. Right? You and I had Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Allison Chains and everything under the sun. You know, we were there at the exploding moment, man. Oh, it was all coming out. It was, and it was perfectly timed. It was great. So the probably best way back then, pre-internet, pre Spotify or whatever.com device, you used to headphones. There was your local radio station and for both you and I. 96 Wave. 96 wave. Yeah. How unreal and how cool was it to have that station not even just the music, you could win. A package to go down. We couldn't get tattooed in South Carolina back. Right. You had to go to Georgia, had to go to Savannah. Do you remember back then where if you like won the Budweiser Bikini Bash or whatever, like Right. Windjammer out the Windjammer Jammer. We got you a gift certificate to go down to Savannah to California tattoo. Sure. I couldn't wait to drive down there and see about, to me, that was the only shop open.'cause the wave talked about it. Yeah. Yeah, of course. I think they were one of the first bands ever to play Pearl Jam 10. They, they, one, they were one of the first Stations. Stations, yeah. Yeah, that's what I meant, my bad. That's exactly right, man. They were, uh, I was actually thinking that as you were talking, there used to be an ad on there that said, on this day.
Speaker 7:This radio station played, nine, six Wave, played an unheard of band from Seattle, even Flow maybe. I think it was one of the first stations on the East Coast, I think. That played'em.
Speaker 6:Yeah. And they used to host, and I know you remember these I collect tickets and I am very much a collector and have been since I was very young. So I have these tickets where Ron and I can see'em, and they're all around me. But I have up here, free Fall Jam. Tell me what you remember. Were you at Free Fall Jam?
Speaker 7:I would've been a, I would've been like a junior in high school, so I was at free Fall Jam for sure. I can remember, man, beautiful day. Brittle Bank Park right there on the river, Charleston. it was an amazing show, and, it was just so man here, because back in that day, that was like the one and done every year. That was the only thing that came through. Oh, dude. Other than for sure, the music farm, of course, would get some acts and then when the Coliseum was built You know, in the mid nineties. but back when you're talking about. Free Fall Jam, 96 Wave Fest. They began to call. It was the deal, dude. I mean, and even in the corner, bro. Oh, because those tickets were free. Free. So they would be floating around the whole low country. We'd end up there, man,
Speaker 6:you had to listen to 96 Waves.
Speaker 7:I would. Mushrooms at one time, man.
Speaker 6:Oh man, that sounds amazing. I remember you had to listen and you had to go, he'd say. Well today I'm posted up at Piggly Wiggly North Bridge. Right. And they'd have the 96 wave giant UPS looking truck. Yeah. And it'd be the critic or somebody and you'd go up there and be like, you got tickets? And he'd just hand, it was free. Yeah. It's free. and I'm looking at this ticket now, so free fall jam that year was driving and crying. Cracker. Jeffrey Gaines, the meat puppets and the woodies. great lineup, man. I mean, That is freaking lineup. Now what's crazy is I was 12 years old and still had the nerve to not fold this ticket and kept it straight in my pocket the whole time. Yeah, I know that freaks you out. Yeah,
Speaker 7:I dropped mine on the ground
Speaker 6:Mine is actually signed by the meat puppets. How about that? Because. They played an acoustic show. about a year later they came back to Charleston and I caught them opening for Blind Melon. Mm-hmm. In 93, right before Shannon died, So the show was at Desperado and it was blind Melon Meat Puppets and Alice Donut. And, I mean, I was 13, right? I mean, I was young, but I was always in the mix for shows. So I got my tickets, my mom dropped me off. I think I was seventh eight, you know, I was young, so my mom drops me off and she's like, I'll paid you when. We didn't, there weren't cell phones. I'm gonna page you, and when I paid you, that means I'm outside.
Speaker 7:Right.
Speaker 6:And she paged me. I remember. And the puppets were on, and blind Melon wasn't on you. And I was like, wow. Oh, I ain't going outside, dude. My mom ended up buying a ticket and coming inside to find me. So I see my mom walking around. Oh, great. it's like one of these funny things, like how you remember going to the skate shop with your old man and my mom's like Bradley. what are you doing? You've got school in the morning, this and that. It's midnight. I said, mom, I hate to tell you I can't leave. You know, and so I gotta stay through about half of a blind melon set. but I caught no rain and I at least gotta see him, thank God.'cause I think Shannon ODed shortly after that, And, you know, there was no more blind melon. But anyways, the next night. And I don't remember how I got hip to this because like I said, there wasn't internet and there wasn't. Yeah, I had no idea how I knew this was gonna happen. Did you had to have your ear to the ground back in the day? Yeah. You had to be in the street. Yeah. You did. And, and I remember somebody was like, Hey, the puppets are going to play an acoustic set at Manifest. manifest was our local. Record store hangout. I went and sure enough, a white van pulls up and the puppets, the brothers meet, get out and they stand on Foldout table with two acoustic acoustic guitars and rock through it. So, you know, people were getting their CDs signed by'em and I got up there and I had my free fall jam ticket from last year.
Speaker 7:No
Speaker 6:Yeah. I have my pocket to get signed So yeah, I walk up there and they all love that I had, he goes, oh, that's so cool. You were there. But, and got it signed and here it is still framed on my wall from that is awesome. Way back then. I still got all my other, my wave fest, you know
Speaker 7:man, I was thinking of is you're talking about, spinning back around to the meat puppets. Yeah. been exactly 10 years ago now. You and I went up to Chapel Hill. Oh yeah. I met you at Chapel Hill to see the meat on a work night. Meat puppets on a work night to see the puppets play. And you and I, cat's cradle, we pull up, yeah. Cat's cradle. Yep. Yep. We pull up. and of course you with your 12 eyes in the back of your freaking head, because I wouldn't have noticed him. You're like, damn it, dude. That's Kirk, that's Kirkwood standing right there on the streets. Chris.
Speaker 6:I was like, that's Chris Kirkwood.
Speaker 7:Yeah. It was No Kirk. It was Kirk. It was Kirk. Yeah. It was Kirk sitting there on a park bench, on a bus bench in front of the blazing heater. Yep. We pull up and blaze the heater with him. Yeah. We talk to him. We're smart enough to not annoy him about Nirvana Unplugged. Yep.'cause we've been around long enough to know that. Yep. Just hang with the dude. And then walk in there with maybe what, 60 people hung out with the
Speaker 6:drummer, remember? Yeah. And he was blown away. We were giving back, you know, all the stories we're like, yeah, we remember. Charleston's been a second home to us. It has.
Speaker 7:And you mentioned Cracker a minute ago. Cracker. I saw Cracker a few years back. Well, I saw him recently, but I saw him a few years back in Charleston. and the dude, you know, he even got up and he said, man, listen, David Lowry, is that his name? He said, you know, man, we were kinda royalty back here in the nineties, and he's right. They still are. to me, people see the hat that like, all those albums are great and I still listen to'em. Me too. One more pitch I gotta throw out. I got an award last year. Apple sent me an award and a major award, you know, like a leg lamp and Christmas story. They sent me an email that said, congratulations, nationwide. You're one of cracker's, 500 biggest fans. No way I listen to more of their music than I was in the top 500.
Speaker 6:Dang.
Speaker 7:A lot of time cutting grass, brother, you know, listen to crack.
Speaker 6:Yeah. I listened to'em a bunch too, but it was probably smoking grass, not cutting it yeah, and you know, music in general, man, I feel like it's one of those things that, once you're into, you don't really get out of it. your taste may change where you go to listen to it may change. How you listen to it can change, but I feel like you, once you have that itch, So like, I've been going to shows, I mean, obviously we just talked about it, 11, 12, going to big shows. I have never stopped that. Yeah. You've maintained
Speaker 7:it, man. You really have going somewhere all the time. Yeah.
Speaker 6:Right. and this one just popped in my head. Because it really relates to you. I know Beastie Boys is A group that you love, love, love
Speaker 7:the Beasties.
Speaker 6:grew up on, I love, and I was really lucky to get to see them twice.
Speaker 7:Right. last performance at Bonnaroo, you saw last
Speaker 6:time they ever played together. Yep. I got catch him at Bonnaroo. And after that, you know, unfortunately,
Speaker 7:you saw them with D Jacks, with Charlotte
Speaker 6:we randomly got tipped off that they were gonna play a rock, the vote, MTV show. So if you were registered to vote, okay, they were, if you signed up or something, I don't remember the exact, they'd give you a ticket. And me and D Jax. Holt was gonna go one of our homeboys Holt, right? I think he's the one that told us about it. Anyways, he got caught up with his old lady couldn't go. Something happened. We roll up to Charlotte and sure enough we walk in and we are, golly, I don't know, very close is what I'll say. Right? Very close. And the Beastie Boys play this intimate. Full on set right in front of us and there was nobody there.
Speaker 7:Now, two things about this story have always stood out to me First is that I'm insanely jealous that you gotta see the Beasties up close and personal like that because I've dug them since licensed to Ill came out, you know? And you never saw them? Nope. 8 86, 87 I got into'em. But what I also love about the story is that Damon Jackson, who's with you. Who's a real dude. Yep. He's one of us. That Cheryl Crow opened. Oh my God. Cheryl Crow. If mind, this is the second hand for you guys, but li can I say Cheryl
Speaker 6:Crow opened on everything we got. Rev. This is a true story, y'all.
Speaker 7:Cheryll Crow opens for the Beasties. Yep. And our friend Damon, he's the old military dude, lives out in Portland now. Look just like Lance Armstrong. Yeah. Looks Armstrong. So the story I got was that he's standing in the crowd and Sheryl Crow is singing and she's basically just eyes locked on my man the whole time, bro. Listen,
Speaker 6:rev, listen. She not only locked eyes on him, right? She is singing some love song to me. You know, acousticy And the whole place is locked on her. And she's sitting there staring at me and Dee and I'm like, yo, I think Sheryl crow's on you son and he looked at me, he's like, damn right, she is. And I'm like, whoa. and he goes, yo, B He's like, you might have to take my car, pick me up at the next tour. Stop. And I was like, really? Yeah. And he's like, I think I'm on that bus, bro. and dude, I swear to you that is a true story. Shout out D Jax out in Portland now. And Sheryl
Speaker 7:Crow.
Speaker 6:Cheryl, if you're listening to this, you remember you were, Hey, I saw it happen. That is a true story. What if somebody goes into your phone or iPod, whatever, however you jam? Mm-hmm. Okay. What are they most likely seen? 2025. Ron Spivey.
Speaker 7:The same thing that would be seen for the last. 30 years now. which is the Grateful Dead and Fish. Yeah. So I, uh, that's those two men, like, that's just my elevator music for life when I get into my car. XM 23, XM 29 are on my number. Dial one and two. Yep.
Speaker 6:I know you love that dance stuff. Yeah, dude, I love
Speaker 7:the improvisational jam music. I like to see him as often as I can. I know it's not your taste, it is not. Um, you gotta be really intelligent to get that stuff, you know? And I am
Speaker 6:not,
Speaker 7:So that's what it is. And I, I, man, I, I'm, you know, I'm mosey around a little bit of other stuff, but the truth is, I'm from the prehistoric period and I'm stuck in the past and I'm a dinosaur and my kids try to turn me on to some new stuff. But I'm usually just like a grumpy old man listening to my stuff I wanna hear Jerry play. And Trey,
Speaker 6:you just saw Phish here three nights.
Speaker 7:I went the first and third night. Okay. Yeah, I saw Charles. Okay. I know they did three nights in
Speaker 6:Charleston, what, a month ago maybe?
Speaker 7:yeah. mid-July. Okay.
Speaker 6:Those guys still. Putting out a good product.
Speaker 7:Still throwing down, man. Okay. Still a great show. I took three, first timers with me this time that had never seen them before. Another guy that only saw'em once. Okay. Anyways, they threw down great shows, like some 29 minute jams. Really stretched some stuff out. Damn. And dude, their light show is phenomenal. it really just, makes for a great night. I'll tell you this about'em and I'll move on. Even if you don't know the music, even if you don't like the band, it's the biggest party, man. It's just everybody knows every note and it's a high energy get together and you know how it is. Brad, you've been to probably more shows than anyone that I know, and that's not blowing smoke. The dude is. At a show, one of the things that, just the energy that comes from it, man, you know how it is the day after a show, you wake up and you're like. That afterglow, you're like, man, that was great. You feel refreshed, man. and, they're always good for that.
Speaker 6:Go in and you wake up that next morning and you're going through all the videos or the pictures you took on your phone So Ron, I'm gonna wrap this up man. And you know, this podcast was really meant to focus people's attention on the guy that could be living five houses down from you. The girl that could be living in the apartment above you where there you're on the east coast. The west coast up north. You know what I mean? Yeah, man. So. This is just about letting people know that there are interesting people with interesting stories all over the place. Right. It doesn't have to be Drake or Tony Hawk or whatever your famous reality TV show that you're into your hero. Yes. Your hero and boom. And that's exactly right. It doesn't have to be your hero and our story and your story and just sitting here and rapping with you for a few minutes. Man, it makes me think of so much. Crazy crap that I hadn't thought about in forever, man, and, and I just want to thank you not only for just being an awesome dude, being in my life for these past 20 years, but, you know, thanks for coming on here and just being real, man. Just kicking it and just being yourself. I think that is super interesting, this is a podcast that is strictly about raw, normal conversation.
Speaker 7:Bradley. I love, and I mean this man. I love what you're doing. This is not against Drake or Tony Hawk or, yeah, dude, I've got so many guitar heroes. you got movie stars. Of course. Dude. This is not about them, but man, the really, the nuts and bolts of the world in our country is your neighborhood man. Yep. It's, it's, it's everyday life. It's that dude beside you in traffic. He's dealing with the same stuff you are. He's stressed out. He's got something going on at home. Everybody's fighting something. Everybody's working on something. Everybody's got some hopes, some dreams won't put something up or take a trip somewhere. Yep. And it's just, we're all doing it, man. You know? So let's, uh,
Speaker 6:yeah man, let's stay on it, man. Yeah. We've all got a story to tell. So, if anybody wants to find out more about Reverend Ron Spivey, if you wanna give some socials, if you wanna tell people where you're at, what you're doing, this is your time, homie.
Speaker 7:Sure. So, if you are a dinosaur like me and you still have Facebook, uh, yikes. Word up church. And there's a hyphen between word and up. So word hyphen up church, and we go live every Sunday morning. Please feel free to give us a follow. We just share the good news. We not gonna throw anything on you you don't need. And we got an Instagram page too. Word up church. Got a book that'll be coming soon, but it doesn't have a name yet. And, if you wanna find me on Instagram, it's deadset one, deadset the numeral one.
Speaker 6:and I'll also, I'll have you tagged on all of Yeah. Up, yeah. All of our socials. So if you want follow more about. Rev. And if you want to hit him up and you got more questions for him, find him. If you want to check out his church, you can find him there. You can even show up in Monk's Corner and go to his church. It is a real thing. Yeah, you can, man. Your boy has been. We're gonna wrap this up. I know this one went a little longer than I was expecting. Again, I said this in the intro. If you made it this far, you guys are amazing. I'm enjoying this. I hope you guys are. Thank you so much for listening. If you can please follow, please rate it, please do all that stuff. Where the algorithm loves me is a total pain in the butt. So remember folks horoscopes often lie, peace.