Bones Unfiltered Podcast - Special Needs Edition #6, featuring Chris Wells

Chris Wells is a devoted father whose world revolves around his son, Maddox, a bright and inspiring child with Autism.  Through their journey Chris shares the challenges, triumphs and deep bond they have built, offering hope and raising awareness along the way.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Here we go. And you're gonna be on Facebook, YouTube, okay. Or X, easy, X. Okay, well, I'm just gonna have there it goes. All right. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. Still learning this intro music crap, but uh I am your host, Bones. Welcome to the Bones Unfiltered Podcast. Today is the special needs edition, which uh, as you all know, is very near and dear to my heart. Um, I love I'm loving this edition, but today I'm fortunate enough to have a young man with me that uh his name is Chris Wells, and he's uh from Frenchburg, Kentucky, and is married to his wonderful wife. Um, and I'm sure she's the the leader of the pack, Amber Wells. And happy birthday, Amber. So today is her birthday. So uh I'm sure what is she uh now 25? You know, yeah, we'll go with that.

SPEAKER_00 1:16

Yeah, we'll go with that.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

They all stay at 25, apparently. I don't know what that's all about.

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Yeah, yeah, we'll we'll just leave it at that. That's right. I don't want to get in trouble on on TV here.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

That's right. Well, Chris, he uh he works as an actor at a it is called Echo TV. And before we get into his son, which is obviously one of the biggest reasons why we're here, we're gonna talk a whole lot and show a lot of pictures about Maddox who has autism. But before we kind of get into that, let's hear from Chris and kind of get his story about you know how he met mama, how he ended up at Echo TV as an actor, what he's doing with all that, and let's kind of just kind of set everything up until the point of which Maddox graces his appearance to them on earth. And then we can get into all of the trials and tribulations that they had to go through early on with Maddox with his autism. Um and kind of things as he's developed up to the age of six now, the various things that he has has done that they have seen that's just really kind of just blows your mind. Um, and we're gonna get into all that. So, Chris, if you would kind of kind of give us your all's backstory of how you and mama met and about work and what you're doing in that community.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

It was kind of wild. Um, I'd been through a uh a previous relationship and and you know, freshly divorced, so I was kind of living the hippie life, you know, bouncing couch to couch and and uh you know, staying out in the woods and living in the car, you know. I loved it. Uh so I stopped in at a buddy's house one night. I was gonna hang out with Sam and sleep on their couch, and uh they happened to uh been helping somebody out, and uh it was Amber. Like she didn't have a place to go at the time. And uh so when I walked in, I mean it was like looking at an angel. She was just she had that glow to her that you know I didn't see in other people before. Right. And uh so I came back like um it took four days for me to actually for me and her to actually talk about, you know, maybe trying a relationship or something like that. Um probably would have took three, but I bailed on her one night to go fishing. Typical man. Yeah, it was a great fishing trip though. We caught like three or four catfish, like 20, 30 crappie. Like it was a great, it was a great night. So the hell you can't be. I have no regrets. I have no regrets. But uh yeah, she uh one night she came down, she knew that I was I was into music, and uh she was real shy, but you know, we were sitting around and uh she she kind of came over next to him and she said uh not a whole lot of people know this. She said, but I can sing. And I was like, really? And she said, Yeah. She said, How about later we go out and and chill out in the car, you know, just me and you, and and I'll sing for you. And I was like, all right, deal. You know, like that sounds good. And uh we ended up hanging out in the car until the sun came up, you know, like singing and just getting to know each other. And uh she was uh like I said, uh kind of sleeping on the couch too, and uh I could have went home to my parents. I mean, I have really great parents, my dad and my mom, like they would have given me the couch anytime. But um, you know, they were kind of religious, and you know, I wasn't married or nothing, so I didn't really want to just bring this girl home.

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Um, so we ended up living in my car. Um a couple weeks probably, and uh then scored an apartment really quick, actually, and uh moved into an apartment and been together ever since. Uh got married, I don't know, about a year and a half, two years later. Uh got married, and then uh that's that's the wildest part is uh the year we got married, um three or four months in, you know, she gets pregnant. And before our anniversary, we already have another child or a child in the picture. Like Maddox was born so early. Um she was born at twenty seven weeks. Uh she went into labor and had Maddox at 27 weeks. No, yeah, so he was a tiny little thing. When they weighed him several days later, he only weighed like two pounds or something.

SPEAKER_01 5:59

Yeah, and some of the pictures I'll show here in a little bit, folks, you're you're gonna get see. There's one picture he sent me that the perspective is it it's of a gloved hand from I guess uh either them or a social uh one of the hospital workers, whatever. But yeah if you I love the photo because you see you see little baby Maddox and well here, look, let's just show the damn thing. Let's just do it. So look at this photo right here. I mean, that you you can just see that that that shows such a perspective of how small that child was in comparison to the body.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

That's probably a week or two after his birth, right there, honestly, too.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

How long did he remain in the hospital?

SPEAKER_00 6:40

Uh he was born like March 18th. He got out in June. Um, so March 18th. Three months.

SPEAKER_01 6:50

Yeah. Now was he? It appeared like he may have been in an incubator at one time. Um what was he in one of the incubators?

SPEAKER_00 7:00

He was. Um, and then he was inside this like it looked like a turkey baster bag. Um, and that was to help his skin, you know, keep moisture and stuff because he was uh born so early, he was born without all that stuff. Um yeah, that's uh that's the Billy Light. Uh he had uh jaundice as well. Oh they had to had to put him in a Billy light for a little bit. Um but yeah, he was in a like uh he was in like a little turkey basing bag. It simulated being inside the womb is what the what the thing was.

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Oh no, that's very interesting.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Yeah, yeah, it was some like new stuff they were trying out.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Huh. Now that's that yeah, that's very interesting. So uh but that perspective just shows how how tight.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

It's just like yeah, you could hold him and just in your palm of your hand and his whole body, like you know, hold his head up and everything, like in your hand, one-handed.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Oh my god. Now, did mama stay with him the whole time? Did you all do the duties back and forth?

SPEAKER_00 8:00

How did you all we we did try to do that the best we could? Um when he was born, um, was right when COVID uh literally shut the hospital down, shut Ronald McHon McDonald House down. Um, and then they had strict rules that um you had to be, you know, within 24 hours, you couldn't like if you visited, you couldn't visit again within 24 hours. Um, so and they were encouraging the the skin-to-skin contact with mama. So I there was a lot of the time I I only got a few visits really um because of COVID. Um because he needed the skin-to-skin contact with his mother. So um, yeah, it really it really hurt the the whole situation COVID did. It was bad.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

No, man, that's terrible, especially when your child is sick like that and and in the hospital and and pre-modeling.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

Yeah, we were thankful they let us uh do that, and it was because he needed the skin to skin because they were starting, like when they first was getting ready to shut it down, they were getting ready to say no visitors.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

Yeah. Well, and that pank crew care has become very, very popular where they mean even in the ambulance, they they they wanted us to start doing that once we delivered a child, is to do the same thing, you know, direct skin-to-skin contact. That way the baby could use mama's body heat, obviously, as well to also keep warm. But uh the bonding, I mean, it's a little bit obviously it's a little bit helped him.

SPEAKER_00 9:33

It seemed that he progressed way better. Like, you know, if he needed to heal up here or something to heal there, like he would heal a lot faster the more that she did that. Um, and it kept him calm too. He didn't have a vocal box when he was born, like it was still hadn't developed yet. So he sat there like screaming, but you couldn't hear him. Like he was he was mad, but you know, he's done that from birth.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

That's that's hilarious. Here's another photo of this poor young lad when he was little.

SPEAKER_00 10:05

And yeah, and that's that turkey baster bag looking thing I was telling you about. That's the artificial womb that's wrapped around him to uh simulate the feeling of being inside the womb, I guess. There's some kind of magic behind it.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Now I hadn't seen that. Of course, you know, in the field, you know, I I would have never had access to that anyway, but yeah, I hadn't I had not seen that.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

That's uh that's feeling it literally looks like something a Reynolds rap makes, you know, like a turkey basin bag. Like uh but they like pumped moisture and stuff inside the incubator too, and it like somehow that bag made it like a womb. I mean it they kept the perfect temperatures, whole body, and perfect moisture, um, oxygen going, you know, the way that you know, where they needed oxygen to go. So it's like it's new technology. I guess it ain't new now, but um, it was something they were trying then, and I uh it really helped him out.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

So now how long obviously he was in for quite a while, as you all just heard. I mean, he was in the hospital before he could go home for a while. But how long did it take you and mama to kind of start realizing after the fact, once you were home, once things were developing? Because with autism, sometimes you're not a hundred percent sure. You may have suspects suspect some things, but you know, it takes a little while to kind of get that diagnosed. What what what happened with that through you all to where you all started noticing certain things and then reached out to people? And how long of a process did it take before you all finally got that autism autism diagnosis?

SPEAKER_00 11:44

Probably honestly, like we knew something was different with him, because just because he he uh you know he was he just didn't act like my other kids as a even as a small baby, um, like he was more chill, um, always trying to get into stuff even in the hospital. He's he was, you know, uh yanking cords off of himself all the time. But um we probably noticed it really when he got to uh probably his terrible twos when he when he would start throwing temper tantrums, we'd realize that the tantrums are beyond tantrums. Um that you know he's he's attacking people and and like he's just straight up violin. He has no uh no filter there at all when he gets mad or or right now if if he doesn't get his way.

SPEAKER_01 12:37

Right. Here's another shot with that. Obviously, you can see the bag that Chris is talking about that that kind of simulated that uh amniotic sac, I guess, is what the best way to describe that. But um, you I mean you can see all of the different gadgets that are on him that are oxygenating him and and pulse oximetry glowing up there, and of course, he had to wear those leads and be in that incubator for a long, long time.

SPEAKER_00 13:06

He had a brain bleed too, they had to deal with. Um when he was uh first born, that was the coolest, the wildest thing is uh the doctor he pulled me in, he comes out like and uh he says, Come here a minute, and he comes and drags me into this little small meeting room, and he uh he was crying really hard. And uh uh he said, Man, he said, I'm one of the best doctors in the world for this situation. He said, They flew me out of New York to be here to deliver this baby. He said, uh, and I'm gonna tell you now, he said this I've never experienced this in my life. He said uh your son was born without blood in his body. He said he had pus beating where the blood should have been. He said, uh, literally, your son is born from the dirt. He said, uh, I've I'm the best doctor in the in the world for this, you know, world renowned. He said, out of 280,000 babies, he's the first one to ever live.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

No doubt.

SPEAKER_00 14:10

He said, when I pulled him out, he looked at me like he was curious. And he said, like he's he said, when I walked in here today, he said I didn't believe in God. He said, I'm on my way to church, buddy. And he said, uh I literally watched a baby be born from the dirt and I don't know how to handle it. And uh he shook my hand and walked out.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Wow. Now where were you where were you all at?

SPEAKER_00 14:34

Because yeah, that was in UK, UK hospital in Lexington.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

So so you all went to UK, because I figured in Frank, uh Frenchburg, Kentucky, there's probably not a major hospital. Uh you know, no, no, it's small.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

No, you might get a band-aid down here or something, but right. So you know they do got a they do got a really nice medical clinic, like for you know, your average stuff, but like, you know, not birthing babies or nothing like that.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Right. So you all always traveled. Now, did you uh did you ever were you ever sent to another state's hospital um for any kind of procedures?

SPEAKER_00 15:10

No, um that's good. That's yeah, we lucked out there. We did have to go back um several times to check his hearing and his vision. Um, because where his body had developed that pus and and that pus was all through it, it gave him that CMV. Um, so they're concerned that it might cause his hearing or his vision to go out at any time in his life, um, just randomly, just one day wake up blind or wake up and can't hear no more.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Oh god, could you imagine that? No, especially as a child, you know, yeah, and then it would be so scary, you know.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Yeah, and then he's got perfect pitch hearing, so that would be the most devastating thing in the world to him.

SPEAKER_01 15:54

Oh, hell, I bet. Yeah, and we're gonna get into that, ladies and gentlemen. I mean, this kid, this kid loves instruments and plays all sorts of stuff, and it's all done by himself. I mean, he just hears it and knows it. And it's it's amazing with autistic children some of the things that they can do. It's it's almost like doesn't seem normal or or like real or possible, I should say.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:19

It doesn't seem possible. You know, I got a buddy, his his kid sat down one time at a party and started playing a piano, and I was like, dang, I didn't know he could play the piano that good. And he goes, I didn't either. He's never done this. And I'm like, are you kidding me? It's just that's like mind melting to me that there are people like that that are so in tune with things that it's it's almost like that they born already knowing it. You know, it's almost something like what was like was like the matrix or whatever where they put you know they put the information in their in their head and shit. Well, you know, I think it was the matrix where they teach them how to fight and they all of a sudden now there's some mixed martial art. It's it's like a similar thing to me like that with autistic children, but with some of the ways that they can just automatically just do stuff and crush it doing it as well. It's unreal. Absolutely unreal. There's another shot of Maddox kind of all papoosed up there in a blanket.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

Yeah, they had to tie him down because he kept uh yanking all of his all of his equipment off. So they had to put that stuff wrapped around him to try to keep his hands from going crazy.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

I can see in this photo here at the top left, you can see the uh access port where you can open up that incubator to get to him, so I can actually see it now. Yeah. Um now did did your alls have the um did your alls have the the big latex glove that you had to slide your hand in to touch him that was actually affixed to the incubator, or did he not have to have that?

SPEAKER_00 17:55

It seems like maybe they had that. Uh it's been so long I can't honestly remember. Um, it seems like maybe it had both. Like one side was open or one side had gloves. I don't I don't remember exactly on that.

SPEAKER_01 18:08

Okay. Well, and and that's all right, because I uh you had a whole lot going on during that time, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Oh, yeah, and then where the COVID was breaking out, like they made you they they literally made you, they had a sink right next to him and made you scrub down and they'd sit there and watch you and make sure you washed your hands correctly and and everything, and then had to put on gloves, and and man, it was a it was a mess just to uh even be able to go into the room with him.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

Yeah, they had a very scary thing for the for those of y'all listening that you know a child at 27 weeks is small.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

And uh, you know, sometimes they uh I think I delivered one was 25 weeks, and it was almost not viable, and thankfully it lived, but it was in an incubator like that forever, and uh it was so make his lungs develop.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Like uh probably surfactant.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

I think it's surfactant, I think is what it's called.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

Yeah, something like that. Um they had to give it to mama whenever, you know, and then they tried to hold him in there, giving her them drugs as long as he would, and then uh you know, he didn't stay in there too long. He he's pretty uh when he wants to go somewhere, he wants to go somewhere. So he's ready to get out.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Now, how long how long was he there? I know he was there obviously for uh you know a couple months, obviously. Um how long was he innovated before they finally were able to extubate him from that?

SPEAKER_00 19:37

Oh man, it was it was several at least a couple weeks, at least uh or longer, honestly. Um, he even went home with a uh breathing machine and and oxygen on oxygen, um, and that that monitor for SIDs and everything, like um that he had to wrap around his foot, and that's the most annoying thing in the world. If anybody's not gone through that, that is awful. That machine messes up a lot. Um anytime the baby moves their foot or something, that machine goes off. Um but uh yeah, he was on oxygen probably two or three months after we got him home, even. Um so it was it was quite a it was quite a journey. Um I'm thinking that he would have that all that breathing stuff at least a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

Yeah. Oh, that's the same one I just showed. I think. Yeah, that's the same one. That's a you know, it's th those are hard to look at, you know, pictures because nobody wants to see a small child that way. But the end result is you know, he he's he's alive and kicking and doing good now. So it it was definitely worth the sacrifice. It just uh definitely hard on the heart watching your little one go through this. Oh yeah, especially like you said with COVID. That made I didn't even think about that. I mean, I mean, Chris, that may that makes it even worse because you know, back then, I mean, hell, people were losing loved ones and they couldn't even go to the dang funeral homes. You know, because you know, and it's just like dang, I I couldn't imagine losing a loved one and not being able to pay the respects and go and and see that through and just having to chalk it up to well, it's just covet. Sorry, it is what it is. I that would have been that would have been just so hard. So this I could only imagine what you and Amber went through.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

And for the last little bit of the stay, like where they shut the Ronald McDonald house down, they they let us stay in uh one of the North Tower or something over there, and literally we were twenty foot from the wing that was where all the COVID patients go to die. Um it was literally. Like this armored doors and everything. Um you nobody could go in and out unless they had like special keys, and but it was the COVID wing, and it was literally like their last stop. It was the ones that probably wasn't making it. Um and it was it was literally five doors down from us um where they had us staying at. Yeah. So it was kind of scary, and then you look down it and like the lights are flickering like some kind of horror movie, like it's real dim lit hallway, like nobody in the hallway. All the rooms got big warning signs on them, like you know, um, and then like special, like I don't know, whole bodysuits hanging on every door. Like it was insane.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

That's nuts. Now, how are the Ronald McDonald houses in Lexington? I've only stayed, we stayed in St. Louis when Brandon had his brain surgery. We stayed in two. One was very, very old. It was such an old building that it actually the the bathroom actually was you it was a community. So you had to kind of pick a time to find an opening to get in and take a bath because it was all in the hallway and you had, I don't know, it was like four or six rooms all shared that one head, you know, which was interesting. And then the next one we stayed at was more like a hotel. So I think it as a matter of fact, I think it used to be a hotel, and then they converted it room for room now, uh, you know, and it was like five dollars a night, and and you had chores you had to do. So, like, say for instance, if you could do them, you didn't have to, but if you could. So, like a lot of times the wife would stay with Brandon. I would come back that night to to the Ronald McDonald house, and then I'd look at the list, and it it may be like, you know, bones you today. You vacuumed the the arcade room. So I'd take their vacuum and go down there and vacuum the arcade room. That was my contribution. Um then the next next day might be hey, do the community dishes or you know, whatever. So they had stuff there because they really didn't have because it was charitable, they didn't have a whole lot of staff, so it's not like they had paid housekeeping and stuff. Now, how do they do that in Lexington?

SPEAKER_00 24:13

Honestly, I don't know. Um, that's the the wildest part is we got approved, and the day we were supposed to move to the Ronald McDonald house, COVID shut it down. Oh no, yeah, yeah. So we didn't get the chance, man. Like, like, yeah, so I had to travel back and forth from Frenchburg, which is uh I think it's like 60 some miles, um, you know, make all the trips back and forth the whole time, um, just because uh they shut that Ronald McDonald down, and then they finally uh like she was staying there with him most of the time anyway, so they moved and and gave us a room, like I said, and then and I was able to go and stay there towards kind of towards the end of it before he was released. Um but yeah, man, uh the day we were supposed to go, they were like, hey, hold up, sorry about this, but uh Ronald McDonald's closing, the governor's closing it down, so uh wow that's yeah, and we we just already approved and and read really ready, like it was that day that it got shut down.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

Now, I don't know, I've never been to Frenchburg, Kentucky. So, like uh geographically, what are you somewhat close to that uh besides obviously you're about 60 miles uh or so about an hour from St. Lou from St. or not St. Louis, shit, from Lexington, excuse me. Right. So you're roughly about an hour from there. Um you obviously know my buddy uh you know and your buddy Chase Brown, he lives in Mount Sterling. Are you kind of close to the street? We're actually from the same town.

SPEAKER_00 25:44

He's actually he's actually from here in Minnefee County. Um he lives in Mount Sterling now, yeah. Yeah, I met Chase. Uh he was like 16 years old, and uh we worked at IGA together, and I worked in the meet room, and me and him, you know, we talked in the back room here and there, and he found out that I I used to do music, and uh he had this uh this big um talent show coming up, and so he's like, Man, what show, you know, this talent show, they're supposed to like big grand prize, take you somewhere, do something, you know. Um, and uh he said, What song should I do? And I was like, dude, I said, do the uh do the big long version, the live version of uh Freebird. I said, mix things solos together, then do a guitar, mix that together, and and uh see what you can do. And he came back to me. He said, Man, I won that talent show. He said, they stood up and everything, like you know, uh I rocked it, and I I was so proud of him, dude. And uh, you know, later I I'm talking to him, I knew he had a band and stuff. I mean him's talking. This is just recently, actually. And uh I'm like, yeah, man. I said, I know you got a band and stuff. I said, uh, won't we uh get together when you ain't doing stuff and uh we try to write some music, maybe try to sell it or something, you know. Uh we got a lot of tools available nowadays so we can really just me and you could really produce the sound and write the songs, and you know, maybe even get uh AI to even perform it for us just so we could try different genres and see what our stuff would sound like. And uh so we've we kind of started working on that, and and I I got curious. I was like, so you're in a band, uh I said, uh, you know, what's your band name? And he's like, Kentucky Music Mafia, and I'm like, what? I said, we've been friends all these years, and you've been a guitar player for then for how long? And I didn't know that. Like it was a shock. Like I uh I knew of them, like you know, I've seen them on Facebook many a times and and stuff, and then uh had no idea that was Chase, you know, doing the guitar work. So uh now that was a shocker for sure. Right. Yeah, and that just made me even more proud of him, man. It brought me right back to the uh to the IGA days, you know. Him, you know, what should I do? What should I do? You know, do free bird, man. You know.

SPEAKER_01 28:10

Well that's always a yule tide favorite, especially in Kentucky, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:13

Oh, and Frenchburg, especially, man. You can't play music anywhere without somebody yelling, Free Bird, you know. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Well, I mean, and that's funny how how how popular that became because I mean, now you see that shit on on everything. You know, it'd be like uh South Park, and they'll have somebody that, you know, or you know, whatever some of those other ones, family guy or whatever, you know, it's like they all they always add that stuff's always even punned into stuff. It's uh it's quite fun, but it's a great song. I mean, it's it's it's definitely one that has carried and stood the test of time, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

And oh yeah, and they were my favorite band going growing up. Like my parents rocked them out from as long as I can remember. You know, so like they've always been a staple in my in my place, in my heart. So uh that was the first thing I went to when he asked, you know, like the best songs that I can think of that you can vow a crowd with, you know. And uh man, if he didn't do it, you know, he did it awesome job. And you know, uh led right up to him being, you know, Kentucky music mafia and not telling one of his best friends, but you know.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

Yeah, I hate when I get left out of shit too.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

He never left me out, I just never asked questions, you know.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Yeah, well, you know, and you probably don't you probably didn't really think about it, you know.

SPEAKER_04 29:37

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

But one thing I forgot to show everybody, which I can go ahead and throw this up here too, is you know, we were talking about his wife. Uh matter of fact, your wife still works at IGA, is that correct?

SPEAKER_00 29:48

Um, no, she actually is uh working at the Dollar General now. Uh oh it did she yeah, she worked on the side. She worked at IGA.

SPEAKER_01 29:54

I think on her Facebook it said she had for at least for a while, didn't she?

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah, she was there like five years or something crazy.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Now, did she work at the same store as you or a different one?

SPEAKER_00 30:03

It was the same one. Uh same one. Yeah, I actually uh got her on. Uh I was the meat, you know, the meat man down there. I worked in the meat department and uh uh got her in pretty much I don't know, I've been there a few weeks and they they was like, Yeah, we'll hire. And uh so we ended up working together. And which was really interesting because you know, she seen me in my worst, because it's not easy being the meat guy. No.

SPEAKER_01 30:31

No, and that's I would I couldn't do it. I did it a couple times when I was a teen at filling in at when I worked at the I worked at Value Market in uh on Winnington and Hurstborn and Louisville before they it's not there anymore, but but um I had to fill in, but I hated it because it was always so damn cold in that room. Of course, you know it had to be, obviously, but I was like, screw this, man.

SPEAKER_00 30:53

You know, I mean I got fired uh I got fired three times and rehired before I got out the front door.

SPEAKER_02 31:02

Must have been a huge infraction.

SPEAKER_00 31:05

Yeah, well, there ain't many people can do it around here, I don't guess. So the they didn't have nobody else to do it. So they'd be like, wait a minute, we ain't got nobody else. Come back. Like, well, more money then, and I'd get a raise, you know. I get a quarter or 50 cents every time they'd fire me.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

Well, damn, that's that's an anomaly there. I mean, most of the time people get fired, they get pink slips. You you forgetting pay raises. It's like, I'm sure that that I don't know how that works, but kudos to you on that.

SPEAKER_00 31:33

It was just being a bad spot or right spot or you know, right time or wrong spot, right time. I don't know. Like it's just right. Every time I got fired, it was something hilarious. Um, like there's one time uh I was cleaning the meat room up and I sprayed the phone on the wall, and uh the phone shorted out and it put me on loudspeaker to the whole store. Well, I smashed my thumb on the hamburger grinder trying to get the head off the hamburger grinder. So you imagine the foul language started coming out of the mouth.

SPEAKER_01 32:03

And it was broadcasting across the store.

SPEAKER_00 32:06

The whole store it was echoing. They said they said it was echoing off the walls, it was so loud, me cussing a hamburger grinder out. And my wife comes back here, she said, babe, she said, come here. I said, What? You know, and she said, the whole store can hear you cursing at that hamburger grinder. And uh next day there's like, yeah, we can't have that. And uh it's like you gotta go. And before I even got out the front door, the manager comes running, wait a minute, wait a minute, we messed up. He didn't mean that. Please don't leave us. We got yeah, I'm gonna I went from like seven bucks an hour to to like 850 an hour on that one.

SPEAKER_02 32:48

Yes, not like you were trying to do it anyway.

SPEAKER_00 32:50

It's like no, it ain't my fault the hamburger grinder got stuck and the tools, you know, suck, you know.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

But here's a picture of Mama, in case everybody wants to know. Very pretty lady. Oh, yeah, very pretty lady. But one thing that I did find.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Sweetest person I've ever met, man.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

Yeah, well, she looks sweet, she's got that sweet smile. Now, one thing that I did think was really interesting by kind of doing my Facebook stalking of you all. Um and you you can tell this a little bit and we'll get back into more of more about Maddox, but um obviously you do a lot with the church and stuff like that. Now uh with Echo TV, for those that don't know, Echo TV is a uh uh it is a religious-based television programming. Um where are they based out of?

SPEAKER_00 33:44

Um the original location that I guess their home base is actually Orlando, Florida.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

Oh, really? So it's like a separate chapter that's in Kentucky.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

Yeah, they they came up here looking to film. Um he had this script for this this movie he was wanting to do or the show um about the end of times, and he was wanting it to take place like kind of deep in the woods. Um so he came to Kentucky looking for a place to film, and um we've been here ever since. Like he uh absolutely loved us, loved the place. You know, um the people around here, everybody that's involved, they're just as good as Hollywood actors, man. Like they've waited their whole life for this opportunity. Um so they everybody gives it their all. And we've, you know, I got saved as soon as they found me. Like, literally, they got me saved, like just my buddy Jordan and my buddy Jeff. Literally, uh, I was in the truck with them having combos, like right after filming uh the first movie I was ever in. And um, so so I got saved with them, and we've been kind of blossoming. We're almost a ministry. I mean, we're kind of a we're a ministry, is what we are, and we do film to promote like our word. You know, we're kind of into times. Warning.

SPEAKER_01 35:05

Do you do other things with the organization besides acting, or is that your so you're so job just acting?

SPEAKER_00 35:11

Yeah, actually, uh, I don't act a whole lot. I'm in the gone series and I'm in incurable. Um, I got some more gigs coming up. Uh, I'm looking forward to. Um, but I do a lot of the uh like the promo editing. Um like I make posters, uh, I'll do reels, I do their TikTok reels a lot, I do uh social media stuff. Um then I I was lighting director for a bit, and I'm production assistant a lot on a lot of stuff. Um so I I the roles, it just keeps I keep changing and changing roles. Like they everybody in Echo kind of rotates. We all learn every bit of it at a certain point or another.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

That's that's actually good. That's a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Yeah, it's really awesome. Like we got a camera guy up here, his name's Brad. Um, we kind of rolled it around, they rolled it around and let him on the camera, man, and and he is one of the best camera guys I've ever seen in the biz, dude. I mean, he'll hang upside down from trees, he'll get inside the dumpsters and film from the inside. Like, and I've seen him do that stuff, that's why I bring that up. But uh man, he he is so passionate, and his footage is just phenomenal. Um, him between him and Lisa, Lisa's another one that's uh she's one of the best camera girls I guess I've ever worked with. Uh I'm telling you, man, they are they are the best. Um they are the powerhouse behind everything you see on our films.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

The way they think it out, they they they you can literally see them when they have that camera in their hand, they're plotting every different angle and and every which way it could look and what the background you know needs to be. And and man, I mean, just they're phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 36:52

That is cool. That's really cool. And I tell you what, the the movie industry, at least uh especially here in the 502 and Louisville area, is um uh I mean apparently it's business is is doing a lot better in Kentucky than it is in a lot of places, I guess, due to they get better tax benefits and stuff. So there's been a lot of filming that's been going on, uh really a good thing, you know, which will be good for you all as well.

SPEAKER_00 37:18

So yeah, I've seen a lot of casting calls up this way, and I'm like, wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

That's pretty interesting.

SPEAKER_00 37:25

We do the uh we do the little Jesus films, and that's one of my favorites. Um uh because my buddy Jordan he plays Jesus for us, and I'm telling you, man, he look he looks the role, like you can't get any closer looking to Jesus than than this guy. And um uh he uh he does the little Jesus films, and you know them little pocket Jesus is that that's kind of viral, uh like you find them everywhere, the little keychain looking little rubber guys that are about that tall. Yeah, we're putting we're putting film to that. Like so we're using that in our films. Yeah, we're using that in our films. Uh yeah, I got one right here actually.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Uh but yeah, we're uh the wife's got yeah, she got the same thing on the car.

SPEAKER_00 38:04

So it'll appear like it'll show this little figure and then a camera cut, and then boom, you know, Jesus is really standing there. And and and the check them out, man. You'll love them. It's it's comical and fun. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

That's cool when they add when they add some comedy and stuff to it, too.

SPEAKER_00 38:21

And it's all free. Like, like the the website's free. You don't have to sign up for nothing. Like, you know, just come watch, you know. That's the that's the cool part about it. Like uh, and we've got it on all of the the like you know, Apple, uh Roku, you know, we've got an app out for that. So yeah, check out them little Jesuses if you get time.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

Now I didn't bring up the actual photos of the process going through because I wasn't, you know, sometimes that's kind of private nature for people. Uh but this is a photo of Chris and Amber, but right before they baptized her in the actual uh creek.

SPEAKER_00 39:03

Yeah, yeah, that was at the end of filming.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Kind of tell us a little bit about why they chose the creek, what creek were you in? Uh kind of give us a little bit of backstory about her baptism.

SPEAKER_00 39:15

Um, so our president Evie, her brother, has this land, um, and he him and his wife are letting us film the Gone movie uh on that land. And um we Dave, our main boss, he he's a guy that wrote wrote the script for he writes all scripts, and uh he wrote it in for a baptism scene um on Gone to happen. And uh we were like, you know, I I kind of was like, huh, you know, so on the way back from the Christian Film Festival down in Tennessee, my wife, me and her were in the car talking. I'd picked her up, and uh, you know, God kind of delivered me the words to say, and she got saved. And when I called my boss, I was like, hey, you know, you know, my wife just got saved in the car, and you know, and he's like, awesome, you know. I said, you know, I was baptized on set too back whenever I got saved. I said, how do you feel about baptizing her on set? I said, we'd be a like a couple that's been both baptized on set. And he's like, Yeah, we could do you could do baptism, that'd be awesome. And then um, you know, that that literally blossomed into that. And um, another girl that we uh that's in Echo, her name's Patty, she's like a second mom to me. Um, my best friend growing up, um, that was her son. Um, and uh so she's me and her really tight. And uh she was getting ready, she wanted to be baptized too. I was like, well, you know, okay, we've got two people getting baptized, awesome, you know. And me and Patty's talking, and and I got this feeling, I was like, you know, I'm going in again. I don't know why I'm going in again. And um, so me and Patty's talking, I said, Patty, I said, if you go in that water, I'll go in too. She said, Would you? I said, Yeah, I'll go in too. And uh we get to the baptism that day, and I I wasn't planning on going in the water, like I'd it'd been a weird morning for me. So I was I you know I got there and I I done hesitate. I was like, Yeah, I ain't going in. Like, you know, Patty went in first, so like she done went in. I didn't have to go in to get Patty in the water now, you know. And uh I noticed uh like Patty went in and then my wife, and they they let me go in and baptize my wife. And uh so I'm standing up there, me and me and Amber standing up there, and I noticed this lady in front of us, you know, she's kind of nervous and stuff, and I'm like, hmm. And uh something told me, hey, go in the water and get baptized again. I was like, man, really? Like I just bailed on this, like you know, uh so I did. And uh, but uh when I done that uh and came back out, like when Amber and Patty went in, a lot of other people started volunteering to come in and it just started blossoming. Everybody's like, I want baptized, I want baptized. Well, after I went in, I stood behind this lady that I noticed was, you know, just kind of looking around and stuff, and and I started saying things. I was like, you know, it's a good day to get in the water. I said, it don't matter if you've ever been in before. I said, you know, shine that armor. I said, I was just in it, you know, less than a year ago. I said, you know, here we are doing it again. I said, it's a perfect place. Like, you know, God made this water, he made this creek, you know. I kept saying things like that, and she turned around and said, I want to be baptized. And and so then it was then I realized, hey, me going in was for this lady, um, to kind of encourage her. That's and uh yeah, but she wasn't on that film, like I guess she didn't want to be on the film that we made showing that, but uh yeah, man, it was it was such a blessing just uh to be able to see it work like that. Like it was only two people going to be baptized. We ended up baptizing uh seven total.

SPEAKER_02 43:03

That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 43:04

Well, and you still got your video footage for those who wanted to participate in that. So that's oh yeah, that was kind of a overall win-win for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 43:13

Oh yeah. But yeah, it's not the baptism that was in the film either. Like, like we did a uh you know, a film version the day before, and then that was an actual like we we came back to the same exact spot we did the film version at and and did the real baptism. It was it was a perfect spot. That's couldn't ask for a better spot.

SPEAKER_01 43:31

But I thought that was interesting when I saw those photos. I was like, well, that's cool. That you know, because a lot of a lot of baptisms you're seeing now are have evolved to where in, you know, when I was little, it it was obviously the of course I'm Catholic, but the priest you know held you over a bowl and the water and then the oil, you know, on your forehead. But then they finally held the church that I've grew up in now, has an actual walk in pool where they do the whole entire Dunking now, like you would have done there in the creek. And um, so I they've definitely gone a lot of places, seem to be going to that, which I think is kind of cool. It's kind of a cool I like it.

SPEAKER_00 44:12

And it is comical too, because you see people getting that cold creek water and they start squeaking and squalling, and and you know, it's it's hilarious sometimes too. I probably squeaked and squalled on my way in.

SPEAKER_01 44:23

The one photo of Amber, I I was gonna I I I clicked on it, and then when I brought it up, I you I could tell I was like the water must be cold because the look on your face almost looked like old crap, you know. And I was like, Well, I ain't gonna show that one.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Yeah, it turns out the uh baptism hole is shaded all day long and never see sunlight.

SPEAKER_01 44:43

Yeah, so it's a little chilly, it was a little crisp to say the least.

SPEAKER_00 44:49

Yeah, we uh we almost bring you to meet the Lord too when you go in that water shop, you know.

SPEAKER_01 44:57

Well, now getting back again to Mr. Maddox. Um, here's another photo of that young man. Um now obviously they had uh looks to me like there. Looks like they extivated him from his tube, but what I looks like what is that, a little G tube or engine?

SPEAKER_00 45:17

Yeah, yeah, they had to have him on that for a while.

SPEAKER_01 45:20

They had extibated him, obviously, uh from um the ventilator, which is nice. Right and just had him on oxygen, so that showed good progress, obviously.

SPEAKER_00 45:31

With this picture here, keep in mind that big hose around his face, that's a normal little oxygen hose that we would see on anybody's oxygen stuff.

SPEAKER_01 45:40

Yeah, yeah. Normal size. How tiny he is, yeah. And and most everybody watching has probably been in a hospital at one point in time and and they put the nasal cannula on you like that. Well, that's like he said, that's the same kind of you would have, except obviously the tips are different for pediatric, but it's yeah, well, that's the smallest they could find, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:01

And uh it was still way massive on him.

SPEAKER_01 46:04

Oh, heck yeah. It's just amazing. It's just amazing some of the stuff they can do nowadays.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

It's that was the hardest part for him, too, was because we had to uh tape that to his face all the time so he couldn't yank it out of his nose because he had to constantly have an oxygen feed. Oh, God love him. Yeah, yeah. So it was rough for him for I'd say six months after being out of the hospital. It was it was rough. God love him. Trying to sleep, man. Shoot that beeper thing going off.

SPEAKER_01 46:36

Oh, yeah, that gets so oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

Yeah, we lived we lived down in the PJs at the time too, so it was you know, neighbors making ruckus and you know, people blowing fireworks out in the parking lot all the time, and just crazy madness outside. So it was always something going on down there. So we became zombies for a while. I bet, I bet you did. There's no sleeping going on for sure.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Now, obviously, we've seen a whole lot of those photos of him being in the incubator, but then of course, now we've also got you know, we've got some photos like this one where they finally get to have him out. Looks like he's smiling. Look at his little grin. He is it's just too stinking cute.

SPEAKER_00 47:26

And he's always been alert, like he could see and stuff. Like, you know how babies ain't supposed to be able to see and all this and that. Like he'd sit there and watch TV in his room. Like it was something was different about him. Like he could actually. Yeah, and he could follow you with his eyes and stuff. Like, like it wasn't just that he was looking at the the light or something, like he was he was putting that stuff together in his head, like differently. Um like the the doctor even said that like you know, when he he brought me in that room, he said that baby looked at me and followed me, like he was actually looking at me. Um and him sitting there with no blood in his body, like you know, he looking gray and green and every other color. Uh literally a dead baby looking me right in the eyes, you know, like he was in shock from it.

SPEAKER_01 48:12

And that's scary. That's definitely scary, you know.

SPEAKER_00 48:16

And he might be the only Nick Q baby I've ever seen that had to have cartoons on all the time, or he was gonna be mad.

SPEAKER_01 48:23

Developed the cartoons at a young age. See, yeah, you can see where you know the trials and tribulations of dealing with children like that too, when they're in that setting, is they don't they don't understand all that gadgetry that's going on and they want to pull on everything and pull, yeah. Oh yeah, it makes it very difficult. You gotta really watch them. But look how little is left.

SPEAKER_00 48:43

Yeah, they got it got rough having to take that to him. Like he he that was the roughest part.

SPEAKER_01 48:50

Yeah. And that's hard on mama too, and and you, you know, to see you see all that stuff, and of course, and you know, a lot of that stuff it it hurts when it's gotta come out, you know. So it's you sit there and you try to prepare for that too, and there's nothing you can do to make it better, it just has to happen. But but the end result obviously is is well worth it because obviously now he's he's six and he's healthy, which we're gonna you'll start seeing a little bit older photos. I didn't put anything super current, uh just because I hadn't talked to you, Chris. And oh, you're fine too, bro. I knew the ones that you showed me were cool, but I wanted to be tread lightly on that, you know, for privacy reasons and whatnot. Yeah, you're fine. But I do appreciate uh all the pictures that you sent me as well to show everybody that are watching.

SPEAKER_00 49:43

Well, I knew you were going on Facebook, but I wasn't sure how deep in my Facebook you'd have to go to find that, you know.

SPEAKER_01 49:50

Well, and I appreciate you. You you definitely helped me out a lot, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_03 49:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 49:56

And then uh, you know, like here's a photo of him that uh where he he slee is uh I thought it was so cute with his hair and just got his little hand over his ear.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

Yeah, that's him doing the uh the skin to skin, the kangaroo time or whatever they call that.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

Yeah. And that's that's always a good thing. But he's so precious.

SPEAKER_00 50:22

I wish he'd be that precious now, man. It's like straight up firecracker. As soon as he wakes up, opens him eyes. Boom, boom, boom. Yeah, we're definitely gonna get into that, Jake. If we had known it would uh it that would go away, we would have enjoyed it a lot more than we I feel you there.

SPEAKER_01 50:43

Whoops, uh oh. What did I do? Let's see. There we go. Yeah, I accidentally hit the wrong button. I had to figure out how to fix that. In old days, it would have taken me 20 minutes, you'd uh you'd have been able to have us uh smoking a pancake, and you know, while I'm trying to figure all that shit out. But I'm getting I'm getting a little bit better at it. But um here's another shot of him. It's kind of kind of a more of a he's got that arm underneath his he's little fingers underneath his nose.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

Yeah, he always always held that. Always had his hands up in his face like that.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

So, so tiny, so precious.

SPEAKER_00 51:29

Such before he was got any coordination to him, like when he was first born, it was funny because his arms were his worst enemies. Like he'd be sitting there and then his hand to come around and just smack him. Like he'd smack himself. So they had to uh start tightening his arms down and you know, trying to keep him from from hurting himself.

SPEAKER_01 51:51

There was a shot that I'd missed. Yeah, it was where he's still in the incubator, but you can tell he's he's extubated from the um intubation machine, so he was able to actually breathe on his own, obviously with oxygen supplement. And of course, you see the little light with his pulse oximeter there. Yeah, it just shows how precious and how small. Now, G'all have a good experience with that hospital. Is their children's hospital in Lexington uh real nice? I I I don't think I've ever been to yet. Uh-oh. Uh Chris, we have a we have a problem. All of a sudden now I can't hear you. Let me mute you and unmute you. Nope. Yeah, I'm not sure what happened, Chris. Chris, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna bump you out and just come right back in. We'll try that. Alright, let me bump you in completely. Alright, ladies and gentlemen, well, we had a little bit of a technical difficulty there. I don't know what happened on his end there, but we lost audio with him, so I booted him to bring him back in. And uh we'll give Chris just a second and he'll be back. And we'll continue on with the show. I don't know ever, I don't really never know how to get around that. You know, it just kind of sucks when it happens, but it is what it is. Now that's where editing obviously would be nice. Um, however, I still don't know how to do that. I still really don't care. Um I I like how it's organic and whatnot. I don't even know how many people are still in here. But while we're waiting for Chris to come back, um, I do want to give a shout out to all of our wonderful supporters that are always there for me. Uh obviously Wolf Vare from Wolf Vair Records and Podcasting. She's listening and um you know she's she'll be getting ready to uh come back to the Kentucky area here real soon. So we welcome her back. And Chris is now on his way back in. I just want to give a shout out to Miss Valerie while Chris is coming back in. Val, thanks for always tuning in and uh appreciate your kind words and comments about Maddox. He is a he is a good looking young lad, that's for sure. And then Miss Pamela Little, our booking agent, she's in. And uh it's great to see you, Miss Pam. Uh hope hope everything's been going good with all the new ventures. Uh it seems like it has been, so kudos to you. Chris, can you hear me now?

SPEAKER_00 54:53

Yeah, I can hear you. Can you hear me?

SPEAKER_01 54:55

Yeah, I don't know what happened there.

SPEAKER_00 54:56

That was uh it's a possibility. It's my phone, dude. My phone's junk. That's an older iPhone, and every update they seem to get worse.

SPEAKER_01 55:05

Oh my god. I tell you what, the updates do they they cause a lot of headache for me too because sometimes it resets shit that I don't want set up, and then I have to go to my kids and be like, Will you fix this? Take this off here. It's like I don't I don't like this, and blah, blah, blah.

SPEAKER_00 55:21

I had this uh we had this uh meet and greet thing with like this famous director to ask him questions and stuff, and I couldn't even get my phone to work good enough to be in the meeting. I was like, Oh my goodness. No, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Well, you know, it's always something. Um, Scott Braille was in here too, I think. Yeah, Scott and Scott, I didn't uh didn't see you at first, but then uh I just want to tip a shout out to Scott Brayley. Scott Braille is a guy that I've never met in real life, he's from Maine, but he used to do like a lot of movie uh management stuff like that. Now he's more like a production or not production, uh promoter kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03 56:00

Oh nice.

SPEAKER_01 56:01

But uh he's he's such a great dude and and always so supportive. I mean, he may not stay, but he drops in all the time. So a big shout out to uh Scott Brayley. Thanks for for tuning in and and whatnot. We really appreciate all of you all. And of course, Miss Valerie here that's in this chat. I don't think you figured out how to see the chat, so you can find it if on your end, maybe, but um but she this lady is she's awesome and she's a good friend, and she tunes in literally to damn near I'd say she's only missed one episode, and I think she didn't even miss all that, but it was for like a doctor's appointment. So she is like super, super supportive. But she said a whole lot of nice, really nice things about your son, too.

SPEAKER_00 56:46

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 56:47

About how sweet he is and whatnot, because he is he's a good-looking young lad, and he actually does kind of look like uh here's here's a picture of dad and Maddox, and and of course, you remember the picture with mama, so you can see there is mama traits in Maddox, but yet you can also see it's he he seems to me like a pretty good mix of both of you all. Oh, yeah, I can definitely see features of both. Oh, yeah, but um there's so you you couldn't you couldn't deny him, and nor could Mama. No, no, but he's yeah, yeah. Now, this little face expression is so cute because I'm wondering what's going on in his little head, you know. Like, what is he thinking right now with what he's seen?

SPEAKER_00 57:31

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 57:32

Because he's just got that look.

SPEAKER_00 57:35

He still to this day grabs my bandanas and stuff and puts them on, and he'll put my shoes on and he'll say, I'm dad, and try to start bossing us around.

SPEAKER_01 57:45

Oh, that is so cute. That is hilarious. But I love the little bandana, and like I say, that little side smirk on one side. That was uh you know, I was like, Boy, that that could be trouble.

SPEAKER_00 57:59

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Yeah, he's plotting something, I'm sure, in in that picture.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

Oh, this photo here was another shot. This was obviously uh very early on when you definitely you definitely chopped a lot of that beard off, didn't you, brother?

SPEAKER_00 58:16

I did, I did. I've I've had the beard long several times. This was the longest it ever got uh this past year, so uh I decided to grow it out a complete full season to season from gone, like in between filming, um, to simulate you know time passing by a full year. Um then uh we get back on the set, and it turns out time's only passing by a few weeks, so I magically have this great big beard all of a sudden on gone. So uh just overlook that part.

SPEAKER_01 58:49

Um used a lot of biotin.

SPEAKER_00 58:53

Yeah, yeah. Just use it in two months, man. I grew up I grow a massive beard in two months, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 59:01

Now, did you grow it out for the part, or do you just like just sometimes just spontaneously just like to grow it out and cut it off and just kind of do it that way?

SPEAKER_00 59:10

I'm a weirdo. I like messing with people. So I'll grow my beard out and get everybody like used to me having the beard, and then I'll shave it all off completely clean, and I'll stand in line at grocery stores and stuff to see if anybody talks to me. To see if they recognize you. Yeah. It don't work now because uh nearly had it all shaved off when I was on gone the last season, so everybody knows me as that version, and they know me as a bearded version, so I can't play that game no more. So I'm used to I'd be able to stand in in the grocery store with you know next to some of the talkinest people I ever met and not have to say a word, you know. Just you know, playing with them. And uh now it don't work like that no more. They know me in both both ways now.

SPEAKER_01 59:56

That's that's awesome. I like the beard. I tell you what, man, I I I had never had a beard, um, besides maybe stubble because of EMS. You know, you had to have a fit test all the time for your SCBA masks and N95 masks and all that stuff, so you couldn't have it. So it was definitely uh interesting when uh when I was able to grow it out, right? And uh, and it sure as hell didn't take long for me to see some color and then it go just straight up white. Almost I'm almost white. The salt and pepper lasted for a bit, but that's uh that's quickly going away.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:38

You'll notice in that picture with Maddox there, my beard didn't have no gray in it, and here recently my beard was mostly gray. Yeah, that's uh yeah. This last last time I grew it out, it just came out all gray, and I'm like, oh that's cool. You know, I'll rock it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:52

Yeah. I you know, I've I embraced it for a while. I was trying to do that just for men uh beard, and it was like salt and pepper mix, so it didn't cover it completely, but you would it just kind of kept it salt and peppery. But after a while, I was like, screw that. I was just like, if I go white, I go white. Who gives a crap? Right, you know, I'm not some spring chicken anymore, anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:14

So mine's doing like the salt and pepper, but then there's spots that'll be all salt, and then spots that'll be all pepper. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:25

Here's another shot of Maddox.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:28

Now, this was when he was uh he was at home then, wasn't he? Yeah, yeah. He had just come home maybe uh a week or two before that.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:39

He just looks so peaceful.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:44

He is when he's asleep.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:47

Then he wakes up and it's like unleash the cracking.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:51

Right. Oh that's why he's not on the show right now. He's still asleep, guys. Like he sleeps till noon, yeah. Yeah, he will. He'll still he'll sleep till noon sometimes.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:00

Uh must be nice.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:01

If you wake him up early, you you're gonna regret it all day.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:04

So he is so stinking cute, though. Look at his. I mean is that Scooby-Doo on it? It is. That's Scooby-Doo on his uh I love Scooby-Doo.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:16

Yeah, he's a Scooby-Doo fan.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:18

You're definitely blessed now, for sure. And you know, I uh yeah, when he gets older, you'll have to you'll have to uh put him in start putting him into some of the Special Olympic stuff, man. He'd probably really get into that.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:30

Yeah, I'm trying to get him socialized with people. That's the hardest part, getting him to try to do things like that. Yeah, like he has no interest in sports and stuff, and that's like some of my problem. He's interested in like playing his piano or playing on drums or you know, musical stuff, and like school and everything is boring to him, uh, which he can read better than you know most of the kids in his school. So like and he knows math. Uh, his teacher would even let him up uh on the board uh to teach math problems to the rest of the class.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:05

Now there's the drum photo that he just talked about. And uh now there's actually for those of y'all looking at yeah, I've got the drum photo. Um, I was trying to steal the actual drumming video, and I couldn't I couldn't do it now. You know, Chris sent me one that I'll play for you all where uh Maddox actually created uh you can't see him, but he loves Minecraft and he created kind of like the intro that you see for movies um with like you know 21st Century Fox kind of thing. Well this this child created this with his um Minecraft game, so it's kind of like his intro to his game is that 21st Century Fox music, and and the Maddox did it all himself.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:57

Yeah, he's literally doing the scrolling on the game with one hand and playing the music with his other hand. Um it recorded it through the controller on that on that video.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:08

So I'm gonna I'm gonna bring that video up and let everybody it's just neat that a child that's you know uh when how how long ago was it when he created that, Chris?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:19

Uh that's probably a year old, I'd say, man, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:22

So he was probably around five when he did that.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:25

Yeah, yeah. He was he was uh he was five, but uh yeah, it's it's at least six months old, if not older.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:32

So we're gonna play this video because you gotta think a uh a five-year-old kid playing Sony PlayStation's Minecraft, doing it all by ear, doing it, and then makes this in 21st century Fox in excuse me, intro all by ear, and not to mention a five-year-old figuring out how you how you build and create that on this video game.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:58

Oh, it's insane. He's built like bikini bottom and and all kinds of stuff. He built the Hollywood.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:05

But here it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:11

Like, I wouldn't know how to even make something. It's funny that a five-year-old created that, you know. And I'm sure there's some people out there that'd be like, well, okay. It's like, dude, he's fine. That's that's unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:41

Yeah, and he has like never took any kind of piano. Like, it's all by ear. Um and it's funny because he's that was him when he was learning how to do that intro. Um, he was learning it by in by ear then. Um now he can play that whole intro and every little note to it with every Every finger and every key on the piano, both hands.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:03

Oh, I'm sure it's way better. But at five, that's that's that's unbelievable at five years old.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:09

I noticed about I don't know, three or four months ago that he was starting to learn full chords on the piano where he's using every finger on on you know the keys. And um once he started doing that, he's really picked off with the uh the intro music stuff. Like he figured out how the chords work and and now it's just man, he's phenomenal. I'd love to I'd love to send him down to Peter Key's one day and just let him and Peter collab.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:37

Oh, he'd be in I'll tell you right now.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:40

Man, Peter's the best dude. I love Peter.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:42

He would be in Hog Heaven in Peter Key's studios because I I've never seen so many different types of pianos or organs or what you know keyboards. I mean, I've never seen so many different types in my life in one location. It was almost like a keyboard piano museum. It's yeah, Peter Key's his studio is off the chains, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

It's yeah, I love watching his little videos when he posts them, man. It's just like he's one of my heroes, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:10

Yeah, he's a he's a cool dude, man. And he's so down-to-earth, he's so friendly, so nice, just genuine human.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:17

He's if he ever hears this, out of all the piano players in my in my world that I have ever listened to, he even now it's just my own opinion, but like, you know, I was an Elk John fan, like and all this and that. Like, I love piano. But when I met Peter Keyes on the internet, dude, he changed my life. Like, he became number one in my book, one of the best piano player I've ever listened to. Like the guy's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:46

I agree with you. I think he's he's just outstanding. And it was cool. He even played, he even played when we were there. He played a um he played, he just played some songs and stuff like on the actual piano that he learned to play on as a kid.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:04

And he still has it.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:05

He had it refurbished. And I mean, but I'm just like, wow. I mean, it's yeah, it's it's definitely a sight to see, that's for sure. Miss Janice, welcome into the show. Miss Janice is another one that um I actually met through a buddy of mine, Mike Clacy, and Miss Janice is just she's another one. She she tries to show up for everything. She's so sweet, so nice. I mean, I'm so blessed to have a lot of these regular individuals that are they're like my regular bar flies, and I love all of them. So welcome, welcome into that.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:38

Now, that's how I found you is uh through Donald Dyer. Uh he's the reason I found you. He he was posting some of your stuff, and uh then I was on a combo uh with Chase and Donald on the phone together, like a three-way call, and um they started talking about it, and uh they told me, you know, hey, you need to check him out, like you know, uh where Maddox is the way that he is, like this is your dude. Like, and so I checked you out and I was like, man, this is awesome. Like, you know, we got somebody uh out here advocating for it. Uh I think so too.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:11

Yeah, yeah, and that's what I hope happens with this. You know, it's I I just love now, granted, Maddox, you know, due to due to his circumstances, which we'll get into a little bit more about where he's where he's at now, where people can understand why we may not be able to talk to him or see him, but not everybody we can. Um there's some there's some on my Special Olympics team that I would love to have on the show that are just not they either they're non-verbal or some have outbursts. Um I mean, you know, there's a lot of variations with with people that that uh people unless you're around it all the time, you may not understand. And especially with autism, because autism's it's it is interesting if you compare it, especially to like say Down syndrome, because to me the Down syndrome kids are really they really are like boom, they want to they want to be in your face and they want to participate with everything. Whereas sometimes autistic kids are kind of more set back, they're kind of like oh yeah, I'm gonna do it when I want to do it, or nah, I don't feel like doing that, or I don't want to talk to, you know. So they're they're very different people.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:23

Yeah, they're kind of like uh adult versions of cats. Uh you know, that is so funny that you say that.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:30

There's a comedian. Um I'm gonna draw a blank on his name. He's a comedian, also does SNL. And okay. He does he does Donald Trump impersonation a lot. Um okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:43

I think I know who you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:46

I can't believe I can't remember his name. I love him to death. But anyway, it's fun what's funny that you say cats, because he has an actual comedic skit where he says, because he's got Down syndrome people in his. So he does a skit about how it even almost got him, you know. Like you could tell that he's he he probably has Down syndrome family, you know. And uh and he makes a comedic skit about how uh what did he say, Down syndrome children are like dogs. They're always super happy to see you and they're right in your face, and they're ready to just, oh my gosh, I can't we'll let's go, we let's go, we gotta go do this, we gotta do this. And he says, whereas autistic kids are a lot of times more like cats and they're kind of like standoffish, maybe not wanting to necessarily do what you want when you want them to do it right away thing. So for you saying that it's kind of comical because it it is kind of true, and not and we're not saying that to be shitty people, so don't take it. No, no, no, we're not making fun of them that way. But if you are around, and it is true because I see it with Special Olympics too. It's it's my Down syndrome kids are the ones that literally are like the yep, yep, yep, I mean, the whole time and and following you around, whereas my autistic kids a lot of times are a little bit more reserved.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:03

Not you know, they just yeah, when I get home, like Maddox is like, like, daddy's home, and then he's like, do this for me. You know, like not how you been, or hey, I'm glad to see you. It's like, hey, now that you're home, uh do this. I need some help here, dude. Like, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:19

I wish to God he was talking about how Maddox loves the piano too. Obviously, uh, we showed how at five he tried to create the 21st century Fox intro for Minecraft. I mean, at a five-year-old thinking of that, to me, that is just that's just off the chains. That's crazy that a five-year-old is like, hey, I want to do intro music. I mean, who uh who would think a five-year-old could could think of that? But now it's like they the video he's talking about about the piano. I tried to steal it too to where I could upload it here to show everybody that uh, you know, Maddox playing his keyboard and him trying it early on and listening, doing everything just completely by ear. So if he if he missed a note, you could tell he would switch. He would be like, All right, it's it no, it's up this way or it's down this way. It's really it was really a neat video, and you all can check it out if you ever come across them on Facebook or something. But um, I tried to steal it, and I just I think it's one of those things you got to download and then you have to you have to code it to where you can play it. And I haven't learned how to do that yet.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:25

But I it took me a bit to learn how to get that off of the PlayStation to send it to you this morning. Like I only discovered it a couple days ago, and um he's he's been streaming uh every game he's played since he's had his PlayStation. I didn't realize it. Um really yeah, so he he's got something he calls the Maddox show, and uh he he kind of plays around on there and gives people tours of his Minecraft buildings and like bikini bottom he built a bikini bottom. He built the he built the Mickey House Mickey Mouse Playhouse or whatever, built all that, and he's giving tours of that. Um yeah, he's uh and then uh when he gets a phone, he'll go, This is the Maddox show, and he'll take people and giving them tours of stuff. Um he's got a fascination with tractors. He knows all every John Deere model tractor there is, um almost knows every case model tractor there is. Um my dad just bought a uh is like a Ford tractor, but it was one of the rare models that's red. And as soon as we pulled in the driveway, he goes, Huh Papa got a new Ford tractor. Didn't you couldn't even read the labels on the side of the tractor or nothing? He he knew what kind of tractor that was.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:41

That's see, that's just awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:43

How they can yeah, he knows wherever John Deere is in Minnefee County that he's been on on that road. He knows the location of every John Deere and what model John Deere they have. Um and he'll give you a tour on Google Maps and show you everybody's John Deere in Minifee County.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:01

That is hilarious. And here's a picture of Maddox messing with a guitar. Uh the kid's fascinated, like like I say, with drums and guitars. I mean, anything music related, that kid seems to gravitate to. As well as, of course, not shocked video gaming. I mean, what kid isn't just hardcore into video gaming, but the fact that he is streaming in his own, you know, he's six and he's got the Matic show. I mean, it's like if that I don't know. To me, if that doesn't impress you, I don't know what the hell would. Right because that's just unbelievable that a six-year-old is like, hey, I can stream my video gaming. I don't even I couldn't even stream video gaming myself playing that shit.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:46

I don't even know how the I didn't I had no idea he was doing it until like literally the day before yesterday. Uh I finally found it on the PlayStation. He showed me where he what he'd been doing. He gave us a tour of all of these live streams he'd done. And uh I've been wondering for six months where all my space is going on my PlayStation. Like, I got a terabyte PlayStation can only hold like a few games. And uh it's because of it, there's hundreds and hundreds of videos of him giving tours on different video games. That is so funny.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:20

Wolf's like, I can teach you. Of course, of course you can. You've taught me everything else without Wolf. I tell you what, Wolf has been pivotal with with teaching my dumbass technology because I'm I'm getting a lot better at it, I do have to say.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:33

But technology changes every day, like it that's always advancing. So by the time you learn one thing, you've got to learn it again. Yeah, you ain't wrong there, brother.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:43

You ain't wrong there. Now let's see. This uh this photo here, uh this is another another shot of Maddox all wrapped up, kind of papoosed up in a a cool little blanket.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:59

Oh yeah. But uh that's in a yeah, we had to put that pillow around and keep him from rolling around and stuff. That was in a little bouncer.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:08

He says so stinking cute.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:16

Bones, I'm sorry if I lose you, man. My phone battery sucks.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:20

Oh, where where are you at, brother?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:23

I'm at like five percent right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:26

Oh, yeah, you may you may be uh on your way out. Well, it's been it's been almost an hour and a half, and I'm shooting for an hour and a half show, so that's good. Maybe we'll get maybe we'll get a few more minutes, and then if I lose you, then I'll just uh I'll just wrap up. I'll I'll do some yik-yaking or something for a minute before and and whatnot. But uh unless you unless you can get in and charge it somewhere, you're welcome to do that too. But you're probably afraid to go in the house. Yeah, I don't want to wait and wake up wake up the youngin'.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:55

I'll bring Maddox back out on an on another show. Maybe we can do one uh a little later or something, and and uh I'll get some more material together of stuff he's done because I'd like to show you the Maddox show.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:06

Oh, I'd like to see it. And I'd like to, I thought this was a cute photo too of Maddox. He's actually painting some of his old cars.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:14

Yeah, yeah, he's fascinated with that. And another thing is, is he knows all of his colors and all of his color wheel. He knows what colors mix together to make you know what colors. Um, he knows all his primary, secondary, he knows everything there is to know about mixing color.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:31

That see, that's so oops. That's so cute, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:36

That's uh that's one of his uh fascinations that ends up costing me a lot, though, because he'll mix up stuff that I didn't want him into, like or get get into the food in the fridge and start mixing the ketchup and the mayonnaise and the mustard.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:51

Oh man, that's hilarious.

SPEAKER_00 1:18:53

Now you can't take the eyes off of him.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:57

No, I bet not. Now, hopefully, you can tell me since I'm not trying to rush it, but since your thing's low, kind of tell everybody what's going on. Obviously, you were in this TV show called Incurable.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:08

Yeah, it was actually uh it's a movie. Uh you can find it on uh the echo tvstudios.com. Um, that is the movie that I was ever first in. It was filmed in my restaurant. Um I owned a restaurant with my cousin Silas and my cousin Jordan. And uh we uh they found us, uh, wanted to film at the restaurant, and uh, you know, like I said, uh they asked me if I wanted to be in it, and I was like, yeah, sure. And um this this movie, dude, we it it took off. Like um when they released it to the internet, it was averaging a thousand plays per second, and it shot up to like a hundred million and like overnight or something crazy. I mean, it was insane numbers how many views it got. Um, I encourage everybody to check that movie out, though. It'll actually make you cry. Like it was it that was the hardest thing was uh when we were there. Um Lacey, the the actress that uh the movie kind of revolves around there, uh the main actress, uh, she does this crying scene, dude. And I'm telling you, man, the whole room started crying. Like it was the hardest thing to film because she has so much passion behind it.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:17

So is that the lady to your right in the photo?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:21

Um no, she's the one wearing the orange there.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:24

So she's the one wearing the orange. I was gonna ask about her.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:27

Yeah, the lady to my right, that's our president. It's E B Atkins, man. She's uh she's behind all of this, dude. Like she's she's the yeah, she's the president, man. She's the best you could ever imagine to to have in this industry.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:43

That's cool. And what about the uh the young man that's to your left?

SPEAKER_00 1:20:48

Uh that's Jordan. That's that's that's uh the guy that plays Jesus for us. Oh nice.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:53

And so yeah, and I saw he had an echo shirt, so I figured he actually worked for you all.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:58

Yeah, yeah, he's uh he's our Jesus. Um and then uh in life, uh everybody kind of laughs that I'm kind of Peter like to him. Uh like I'm his best friend, disciple, but I'm you know, I'm outgoing. I kind of get myself in trouble every now and then with my mouth, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:16

Yeah, I've been there and done that.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:18

But you know, he's my best friend, dude. He he led me to Christ, he led me to echo, like he encourages me, calls me like all the time, making sure I'm good, making sure you know everything's good. And when we go out places, I try to do the same. I try to return the favor to him, you know. I'm his backup when we go out of town and stuff on these trips.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:38

Like, you know, we're just who's the guy on the very, very end uh on the other side of the young lady in the orange.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:46

Uh that's James Botts. Uh he is uh our lighting director and he does our special effects stuff. Um like if there's something needs blowed up or somebody needs to die, or whatever, you know. James is the guy behind that.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:02

Oh, that's cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:04

He does the special effects, and and with this new gone, uh, the season four that we just filmed, dude, that man, it's it's gonna be the best that we've ever released. It's got so much better special effects, better everything. Um they actually shut down like part of the town, the back street behind the courthouse here, and uh we filmed the earthquake scene there, and it was kind of a it was a big event, man. We put we pulled down like a power pole and had sparks flying out of it, and uh it was just the special effects was through the roof this time, man, and it was awesome. I can't wait to see the final.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:44

Does that go TV ever will they ever do did they ever go to like the Sundance Festivals or whatever they're called to where they you know like to see if people pick it up for like say Netflix? Um yeah, we we got stuff.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:56

We got festivals we we go to that's uh in the Christian world is that's just like that. Like we have the uh Red Letter Awards, um Christian Film Festival, uh that's a that's a huge one too. Um but yeah, we we go to everything like that that we can.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:11

That's cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:13

And uh Eevee, she she does a lot more than we do. Like Eevee's all the time running doing something. Like it's it's insane how much she has on her plate.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:22

Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's been a great, it's been a really good show. I'm really glad that I got to have you on and stuff, and uh and hearing about Maddox is just I'm like I say, you're the stories you were telling me about.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:35

Well, I appreciate you had me on.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:37

I mean, it's just it's so good. Now, these pictures, now I want to ask you this, hopefully, before you get dropped with your phone's battery, but like are you on one? So it ain't far. Does he wear these to hear music, or does or is he sometimes sounds he was rocking out uh music on Spotify that day.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:58

He was discovering headphones that day. Yeah. Yeah, that's when he was a lot younger. Uh, and he discovered, hey, music plays through these. Uh, I like it. That's he's got perfect pitch, so you can't sing around him. He can't stand people singing around him. Um, at his birthdays and stuff, we don't sing happy birthday because he will throw a fit. That's the worst thing you can give him is happy birthday song for his birthday. And he'll cuss everybody in the room as soon as they start.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:30

And it's funny how they are, you know, how they evolve and and and some uh some of them do, some of them have uh outbursts and some, you know, whatnot. So that's uh that's also a very challenging thing for people.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:44

Yeah. We're always on our edge. Like we got a you know, one of us, like if I'm at a film thing or something, Amber's always ready to take him and bail out the door real quick, because you know, it's a matter of time. It ain't it ain't a if, it's a matter of when. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:00

And you know, you always get those looks, and it's like, well, you know, sorry, it's uh you know, it is what it is, what it is. We'll try to get him out, but you know. He's beat my record.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:10

He's he's already been suspended three times from kindergarten, and I've never been suspended three times in all of my school career.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:19

Now, see, yeah, he is.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:23

He is. He uh just likes the WWE, the teachers, so uh he'll chase him around and throw chairs at him and stuff. Uh yeah, if he don't get his way or get to do whatever he's wanting to do, man, they they have to pay for it. And we're all trying to figure it out, like with pathways and different programs, trying to figure out how to comfort him, I guess, the right way, or to get him to not do that. That's been our biggest goal is is trying to get the impulse control, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:52

And some of them do have those bad impulses, they did, you know, and they can't help it. Sometimes they they'll be sweet as pie one second, but then wham. And I think I may have just lost Chris now. His phone was fixing to die, he just locked up, so it's possible his phone probably just crapped out. Um so that being said, if if Chris does drop completely, you know, we're almost at the hour and a half mark, so it's been a good show. Um I'm gonna go ahead and remove him because I'm pretty sure he's he's gonna be done uh because of his phone running out of battery. So, Chris, you know, if you end up seeing this later or whatever, thank you so much for being taking your time to be on the show and kind of talk to us a little bit about uh about Maddox. And again, uh Miss Amber, the mama of Maddox, uh happy birthday to you. Um hope you have a great birthday day today and spend time with your family. Um, real quick before I wrap up, for those who may still be in here, um I just want to give a shout out uh for those who may not know, um especially if you're if you're in here from the Louisville area, um Lee Specialty Clinic. Uh I just found out about it. Uh I had a friend reach out. They said, Hey, are you gonna be in Frankfurt on July 17th at one? And I went, I don't think I can. I've got appointments, I think, set up for that day. I said, but what do you what's going on in Frankfurt? And they're like, um they're like, well, we go down there because they're having stuff about Medicaid cuts and whatnot. And there's this clinic in Louisville. I think if memory serves, I think it's off somewhere in PRP area, but but this clinic is uh I'm I we could eventually put Brandon to try to get him on there, but they are for the adult side for your special needs individuals. Um and it's kind of a one stop shop, like they do all sorts of stuff, they work with the kids, but they also work with the with the kids and various specialists and stuff. So like um Uh it's a very wonderful organization that does a whole lot for our special needs community here in Louisville. The problem is uh this year was uh funding for them was so bad that they were um essentially on the chopping block to be either eliminated or downsized. Um uh Andy Bashir came through apparently for at least this next fiscal year. So for those of you all that don't know how how that works, uh at least in Louisville, I can't speak elsewhere. Um fiscal year runs July to July. You would think it'd run calendar year to calendar year, and it doesn't. And um, I'm not exactly sure why, even though I was in damn governmental, you know, uh worked for the government forever. Uh I just know that's the way it always was. So he bailed them out. They are they were actually funded up until July of next year. However, they're not out of the woods yet. So for those of you all that may be listening, especially in that area, you know, um, if you're from Louisville or Kentucky area and whatnot, uh definitely reach out about the Medicaid cuts and stuff. Um I understand that you know you got to trim fat from things because we're we're definitely out of control with spendings on things, but a lot of things I think that they want to trim the fat on are things that they need to leave alone and maybe look at some of the other silly shit that we spend money on with our government. And and we all know that some of the spending they do could be avoided or could be better allocated. Um but for cutting a someone like Lee Specialty Clinic is pretty that'd be pretty catastrophic for the for the special needs community. So we definitely don't want to see that ever happen. Um, like I was saying on my TikTok podcast the other day, Val, you have a great day too, honey. While I was saying on my podcast, or not podcast, TikTok the other day, and this is just my opinion, but uh, you know, everybody supports various charities, and that's very noble. You know, if you can afford to, you know, if you got money and you can afford to do that, that's a very noble thing to do of helping out your community and your societies. But the problem is, is like most people always seem to want to navigate towards like cancer research. Well, cancer research, it to my understanding, get is like a billion-dollar industry. I mean, it's they raise so much money through charity for cancer, and everybody hates cancer. Um I'm not downplaying that, but the amount of money they generate, it it it almost wish I almost wish that somebody that would want to donate, instead of them saying, Well, I'm gonna donate just like everybody else does to cancer research. Well, how about we donate? How about you know, somebody donate for to help with funding or you know, things like the Lee Specialty Clinic? Um, their budgets are far less, but uh than than you know what some are. I mean, granted, it still may be in the millions to operate, but donating to help a cause like that is also to me, it's just as pivotal and just as important as if you were to donate for cancer research. Because these, you know, there's a lot of special needs community people that don't have a lot of family that can help, or there's a lot of them out there that cannot do a lot for themselves, they rely on other people, and it's it sucks the hands that they were dealt, uh the cards they were dealt, you know, it kind of sucks for some of them. So organizations like Lee Specialty Clinic are uh very important and very pivotal. So um it for those of you all I just wanted to throw that, excuse me, out there and into there that you know, if you don't know about that or or anything about it, I don't even know a whole lot about it yet either. I just found out about this, but I posted something on their Facebook. Um, there's a lot of great people, a whole lot of great people that work for them or that are clients. And a lot of the clients have reached out. Some of them want to talk and uh have them on the show about talk about how the Medicaid cuts and things have have currently affected their loved one. Um, so you know, definitely uh give a look if you're into things like that. Uh give a look for that uh and help those clinics out. Um if you're able, if you're not able to go and do supportive things like go down to Frankfurt and and uh and and kind of help be there and be of support when they're having these different meetings, then that's all fair and good. Because but you know, you can reach out, pardon me, you can reach out and uh talk to your different uh different people in your political, the political powers that be and send them messages and say, hey, let's not let's not cut from the handicap. Let's let's try to find something else that we can trim a little fat off of instead, and instead of taking away from handicapped people that need it the most. So um I'm definitely intrigued about Lee's Clinic. Um, maybe eventually I'll have a podcast. I did put it out there, but the thing, the thing is, is you're limited on when you're trying to do a podcast on something like that, it's it's can be very touching because it's a business and they can look at it as various different ways. So a lot of times the people that maybe would want to talk aren't allowed to talk. Um, but maybe there'd be some family that go through it or some co-workers that used to work there that no longer do that may want to weigh in on some things. Uh, everybody's a little bit tricky on how you tread on that. Um, and of course, anything that you hear on my podcast are always uh Miss Janice, you have a great day too, honey. Um my podcast is is you know, everything I talk about obviously is of my opinion. Um I am not saying I'm some expert on a lot of this stuff because I am not, but I have opinions just the same as everybody else. And I I always strongly suggest that everyone else do your due diligence, do your research on topics, and and you formulate your own opinion on various things. So, but um, but this Lee Clinic was definitely intriguing to me. Um I'm hoping to, I'm gonna be uh sponsoring, helping be a sponsor for Kozair Schreiner's golf tournament here in Louisville. I'm gonna have my business uh you know be a sponsor of that. Um, I don't know if I'll do any kind of podcasting through that or uh whatever you call the vlogging, uh whatever. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to do that because obviously they you know certain things have to be set up and they have to be coordinated and they have to be uh uh voted on and agreed upon uh by the Kozair Shriners. So we'll see what happens with that. But I am going to uh be a part of their sponsorship um and uh for their golf scramble that I believe is is sometime in July. I cannot remember the date. Um, but anyhow, um thank you all for tuning in as always. Uh again, uh likes and follows. I haven't even been sending that many invites back out since I was in Facebook jail, but I was put back in Facebook jail again for sending out, you know, trying to send out invites. But as I'm coming across finding people that I think would, especially with the Lee's thing, I was like, man, it would, you know, these this these people may may want to weigh in or whatever. So I send them an invite. Well, apparently they think I'm spamming people again, so I am back in Facebook jail. So what I am asking of everybody else is if you're interested in what I'm doing, you're liking what you're hearing, please like, please follow both. You know, definitely uh Bones Enterprises LLC is my business for the podcast. That is the name. It's Bones Enterprises LLC with a period after the end. And um that on Facebook, find that, give it a like, give it a follow, if you would be so kind. Um, every little bit helps to reach new people, uh, especially for this podcast. You know, if you know people that have special needs or that have special needs family members, um, and you feel they may be interested or they may even want to eventually be a part of the show and showcase um uh the achievements of their loved one, whether it be a child or not, or it could just be the adult themselves wants to be on the show and talk about what they've gone through with life. We've got a lot of others uh coming up uh this Monday. If all goes well, I should have a good friend of mine, um uh Bryce Clayton, who uh he's not on my team, but I tell you what, he's the that that young man is hell on wheels with Special Olympics. He's he's an outstanding athlete, um, and just an out overall outstanding human being. But uh I get to have Bryce on to kind of talk about himself. Um, I'm fortunate enough to know his his brother, who uh his brother was on one of the fire departments um in my hometown where I work. So um they're a great family, but I'm glad to have Bryce on uh come Monday. We were gonna do Friday, but uh I didn't realize that the uh the the wife was gonna be off and we had some other stuff that I needed to get done. So we're gonna push that until uh Monday, and then it is possible latter part of next week, I may go back and also do another podcast with uh a young man um on the music side of things. But I will once I I'll kind of put that out there and kind of talk about that once I get it all nailed down. So uh definitely looking forward uh to doing those shows again. Uh big thanks to all of all of my uh my friends that are in here. Val, uh you're you're you're always amazing. Janice, same. I mean, I I can always rely on you all to just be there. And even though you don't have to be, I I'm moved. Wolf, obviously uh you're very pivotal and important to me because you're you've helped me grow into what I am today. And uh, Miss Pam, again, thank you for pushing me in this direction. Um, the podcasting thing's a lot of fun, and especially the one this one, because uh I love them all and I've met great people from all, but but it's it is very near and dear to your heart when you're you know this special needs podcast is something that really just moves me, and I hope that it can reach to people and uh bring awareness because some people just don't understand a lot of these disabilities either. If you don't live it and you're not around it, you may not get it. So it's it's very interesting hearing the different stories and how you know how some of these kids are, you know, and uh men and women. So uh I am very honored to have anybody who shows up for these shows. So I look forward to again doing more of these. Uh also maybe potentially, like I say, who knows what'll happen with the League Specialty Clinic. Um, I I would never want to have anybody on there that would do any harm to them, obviously. I want, you know, as long as the Lee Clinic is okay, and you never know, it may be, it may end up being one of the upper enchant that are allowed to talk. That way they know what they can say and what they cannot say. But uh, I would love to get their word out because the Lee Specialty Clinic here in Louisville is a very important thing to the community, and I was really glad to see that they at least were saved for this fiscal year. But I don't want to see them on the chopping block for next year. And uh I've also got several friends that uh I used to work with in the county days that actually work there as you know, they actually work there. Now they can't be on the show because they're actual, they actually work for the organization. So they're not they they're not allowed to comment. It's kind of the same way it was with EMS. You know, when I was with EMS, they really didn't want the only people they wanted on camera, if there was ever any interviewing or anything like that, from news medias or whatnot, was always your they wanted your brass to be the ones to do that. Um if you if you didn't have brass on, they really and even me, even myself as a sergeant, they really kind of were like didn't really want me even talking to the media. So, and and to be honest with you, I never really wanted to, um per se, unless I had to, because you know, that's that's what the upper brass is, that's their job to do, is disseminate the information they want out. So I'm sure this is the same way. So we'll see what happens with that. And again, anybody that's available that likes to support causes with the Medicaid cuts and and and everything else, July 17th, apparently at 1 uh p.m. in the afternoon in Frankfurt, I guess they're gonna have uh some more hearings on uh the various uh budgetary stuff. So uh there's gonna be people out there with their shirts and with their signs, uh, you know, talking about uh please allocate monies for these kind of programs because of how valuable they are. So if you feel like doing that, and if I happen to be available, which I do not think it's gonna happen, but if something were to change where I can, then hell, I may go out there and yeah, I may just uh take my gimbal and do a do a half-assed live while we're out there and just see what happens. But um, but if not, I wish everybody else that's out there the best and uh and hopefully we get the message out and heard. So I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this up. Um today. This is Bones um saying thank you so much again. Remember, again, please like, please follow. That helps everything. If you're into music, check out my boy James Lucre uh and James Lucre music on Facebook. Definitely like and follow him too, so we can get his new uh songs. He's been putting a lot of stuff on TikTok. So definitely uh look for some new snippets of things coming from his new album that they're still currently working on. Uh but yeah again check out James because incredibly talented young man. Um if you like country music and rock, uh give him a listen because he he may uh he may fill your void. So uh until then, uh this is Bones saying thanks again for everybody for tuning in. Uh much love and respect to everybody, and uh be good or be good at it. And we'll catch you on that next episode. Uh talk to y'all later. Peace.