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On Tap Podcast
On Tap is the podcast that celebrates the heart and soul of blue-collar working class culture. We'll be hosting some amazing folks from the blue-collar world and beyond. Listen in as we chat with industry legends, unsung heroes, and experts in their fields. Their stories, experiences, and insights will inspire and entertain you. Comedy is our secret sauce. Kody & Sam have a knack for turning everyday work stories into side-splitting anecdotes. Prepare for laughter, hilarious work-related mishaps, and a good dose of humor to brighten your day. Whether you're clocking in for your shift or winding down after a hard day's work, "On Tap" is your go-to podcast for a dose of blue-collar pride, a taste of the finest brews, a good laugh, and a fresh take on the world's current events. Subscribe now and be part of the working-class revolution!
On Tap Podcast
This Ironworker’s Flute Broke the Internet: The Story of Paul Harvey
The unexpected convergence of ironworking and Native American flute playing comes alive in our conversation with Paul Harvey, a union ironworker who found viral fame through his hauntingly beautiful flute performances atop skyscrapers.
Paul takes us deep into the world of commercial construction, describing ironworkers as "the Marine Corps of the construction industry." He shares his journey from newcomer struggling with the physical demands of tying rebar to finding his niche in layout work. Beyond the practical aspects of the trade—apprenticeship structure, union benefits, and earning potential (first-year apprentices make $28-29/hour)—Paul reveals the tight-knit community that develops among ironworkers who often travel together from job to job.
What truly sets Paul's story apart is his parallel path as a musician. After recording himself playing flute in the stunning acoustic environment of a 30-story construction site, his video unexpectedly went viral. This led to his appearance on HBO's "Second Chance" competition, where he proudly represented his trade in his work gear. Most moving is his account of receiving a message from someone who decided against taking their life after discovering his music—a profound reminder of how creativity can transcend its original context.
Throughout our conversation, Paul demonstrates his collection of exquisite flutes—from drone instruments to walking stick flutes—each with unique tonal qualities. His story dismantles stereotypes about blue-collar workers, proving that artistic expression and craftsmanship can flourish side by side.
Ready to discover how creativity thrives in unexpected places? Find Paul Harvey online as "Paul Harvey Flute Guy" on YouTube, TikTok, and Spotify, and experience the mesmerizing intersection of structural steel and soulful sound.
10:44 Breaking Into Iron Working
21:08 The Union Experience
30:08 Layout and Finding Your Niche
43:12 From Construction Site to Viral Flute Player
54:30 Second Chance on HBO
1:09:50 The Flute Collection Showcase
Check out our sticker packs at OnTapWithTheBoiz.com
beautiful fire, beautiful fire. Welcome back to another episode of on tap. Today we have the legend paul harvey, finalist on the show, second chance on hbo flute.
Speaker 3:Enthusiast and most important blue collar iron worker, welcome to the show, thank you very much skywalker in here oh yeah, oh yeah, skywalker oh it's Getting a little bit of that binary sunset with that drone flute that's all in baby.
Speaker 2:I love it. You showed up with like 10 flutes today. I don't even know what's going on, but it's an absolute honor to have you here today.
Speaker 3:Well, it's my honor to be here. I appreciate you guys coming out and getting a hold of me. That was kind of out of the blue but I was like absolutely.
Speaker 4:I looked at your guys' show Awesome man Dude like so many questions and just can't wait to pick everything apart, dude.
Speaker 2:I'm an open book for you. Yeah, this is actually a first. We've never found a guest off of Reddit, of all places.
Speaker 3:Yay win for Reddit.
Speaker 4:It's not all bad, there's good stuff, right right so.
Speaker 3:So you work as an iron worker and you are you primarily in the midwest uh, yes, so I'm based out of local 512 iron workers in minneapolis and they cover regions in wisconsin, minnesota, north and south dakota. Socent amount of traveling.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, yes sir. I just want to kick it off right off the bat because, honestly, I want to hear in your own words what is an iron worker, because I know a dozen people that have worked in the trade and all I've ever known about it is that they work a lot of hours, make a lot of money, but that's all I know. So how could you sum up to a dum-dum like me what is an iron worker? Sky cowboy.
Speaker 3:I love that If I had to boil it down to one word. I mean, some people get a little offended at it, if you will, but they're the Marine Corps of the construction industry. These are some BA dudes and dudettes. I mean, they're a lot smaller than a lot of the other trades, like the carpenters or the plumbers, electricians and so forth. A lot of the stuff that we do is skyscrapers, bridges, hospitals, I mean you name it. If it's got ironworking, steel welding, they're going to hit that up and they're going to do a generally good job.
Speaker 4:So essentially it's just like building the framework of these larger commercial buildings, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, yep. So specifically, like the company I'm working for right now, they are a curtain wall company, so they put, you know, if you've ever seen a skyscraper, the glass on the outside of that. Most of these are unitized systems, so the glass is already installed and we're welding on the anchors, we're doing the layout, we're rigging and flying things with the cranes, that's, we get to play with the big toys, you know yeah, that in itself.
Speaker 4:Just the rigging alone. Dude, there's so many different like I went down the rabbit hole the other day of uh, so I was looking at some just for rigging trusses. Like nothing too crazy by any means, especially in comparison like what? But like even just the different hooks and setups, and you know you have different bars and lengths and like jigs and everything. Yeah, yeah it does.
Speaker 3:I mean and that's every iron worker that goes to the apprenticeship program becomes a qualified rigger, and that's one of the biggest things that I've seen. A lot is where people will be like, hey, we need a qualified rigger for this critical pick.
Speaker 4:That's a tough one. Try saying that 10 times fast.
Speaker 3:But with rationing yeah, Do you.
Speaker 2:do you guys have an apprenticeship in your?
Speaker 3:trade. Yes, so it's a four year apprenticeship program, uh, starting out at uh 20. It's like 65% journeyman scale.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 3:And then every six months there's a increase of 5%, and then, basically, when you get through that, it's a lot of 5%, and then, basically, when you get through that, it's a lot of. Two nights a week is usually where you're going to show up at the hall, do some book work, get some hands-on experience, and then you're also working during that same time, so you're gaining a lot more experience and on-the-job know-how, and then you get that stuff in the book start.
Speaker 2:So you can get hired directly from an outfit and you do some hands-on work in schooling at the beginning, or do you have to do any full book work to get a job at any outfit?
Speaker 3:Yeah, no. So the way the Ironworkers here is set up in Minnesota. You go to the union hall hall and you fill out an application to become an apprentice and if you get accepted into the program, uh, there's a little test you have to take. Make sure you're not crazy too crazy.
Speaker 2:I mean, you gotta be a little crazy to do this in 20.
Speaker 3:Uh. So I mean, I guess, speaking from my own personal experience I was I got a call from the business agent. Uh, they so they have guys that are out there looking for people to join the trade. And he said, hey, this is uh what your old man did and would you like to you know? This is, this is the scale and this is what we're doing.
Speaker 3:I was like uh that sounds a lot better than the $7.25 an hour making bottling beer after I got in this small town. So he said I'll show up at the hall. This is the address. It's going to be $500, and we're going to do you a week-long boot camp type thing, just so you're not a greenhorn. Sure, trying to think of the PG, pg-13 areas of things.
Speaker 1:You can be whatever rate you want, man.
Speaker 3:Got a reputation to uphold, don't swear too much at work. So I got to try to keep the kids I got two young kids but digressing from that. So I showed up, paid the money and started. I had us like within that first week doing our OSHA 10, getting our lift certs, basically kind of making it so that you could go out onto a job site and not be an absolute greenhorn to where you're causing issues too bad. I mean you obviously don't know much. Know much. I mean, especially in my case where I was coming from never having been in the construction area that's.
Speaker 3:That's that'd be intimidating it was it was pretty fun because there was, uh, there's one guy in particular, we he they have at the hall there. They have all sorts of stuff set up inside crane, different lifts, places to tie rebar things for rigging. So he had us rigging different things and you know, he'd have a beam out there and there'd be plates on one side so it would be off balance. So you couldn't just rig it center and if you didn't rig it quite right and he'd come up and he'd go eh, eh, he wouldn't give you any direction, but he'd just be eh, honestly, that's a good way to go about it, absolutely, I don't know dude, what did.
Speaker 4:I.
Speaker 2:I grew up with a dad that would just scream at me all the time, with no direction.
Speaker 4:Sometimes a little direction does go the wrong way. Get those hands a little rusty, dude, I hear that.
Speaker 3:But at the end of that week I had a job placement. So the union hall will basically have a list of people and then companies will call and say, hey, I need 30 ironworkers for a project that's going to be two months long. And so they'll say, okay, we got 30 guys here. Those guys go out and they work for that company. When the job's over, if they have more work, or if they like you, if you're a good worker, you can keep on with that company. When you go to buy a house or anything like that, they look at how many employers you've had and you've got like 15 different companies.
Speaker 1:They're like what are you doing here, bud?
Speaker 3:It's like it's the trades man. It depends on the weather.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you go where the work goes, Exactly yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean I've been with the same company for the past four years, four and a half years.
Speaker 4:That's got to be nice though.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, I love it, especially once you get settled in you know everybody there, yeah, and that's another thing with the community of iron workers. Here it's small enough. Where you can you've probably heard of almost everybody and or worked with most of them too and that just you find groups and teams that work really well together. You can just knock things out, you know. Yeah, for sure, that's everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's funny that you say that, because my dad and a bunch of my buddies work for a contracting company that does a lot of underground gas work and there's a lot of companies that do underground gas work or I guess there's a lot of companies that do underground gas work or I guess there's a handful in the state and everybody knows somebody from the other company because you always you get an opportunity here, you move here. It's the same work, just a different name. So I I definitely can see how you can fall in into just getting to know everyone in. Like travis dpk, that was someone you said right when we reached out like oh yeah, I worked with him.
Speaker 3:I know him. Yeah, worked with Travis, just small world man. Yeah, absolutely Well, because when I started looking up on podcast I was like oh, oh, hey, I know that guy.
Speaker 2:He's definitely our golden boy. I think he's the most reoccurring guest we've ever had.
Speaker 3:Well, you can't ask for much better. I mean, I'll be honest, he's got the passion and the drive and it's. It's really neat to see how he's kind of exploded with all of the um, the dpk stuff and just, and the opportunities he's gotten. It's it's awesome to see as a tradesman.
Speaker 2:Yeah you know, a fellow iron worker stepping out and you know well, especially knowing him before he he got any sort of recognition. Like you, you know a whole different version than than we've ever seen, both sides.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, that was, that was one of the more interesting things about that like uh kind of um from like the initial, uh, initial inquiry or whatever it's like you like that was a big genuine part on. Like like dude, it's so cool seeing it as somebody in the trades with that creative side, that like a very, not very often you see that happen and people being so open about it too, and like there's almost like a weird stigma in that like oh, like you know the stereotypical like blue collar, oh, if you're gonna work blue collar, you gotta chew tobacco and right there's like this persona of like an iron worker unless you've had two dwis and at least three divorces you
Speaker 2:know exactly exactly I'm sure there's a lot of divorce. Zero of those, and that's the union guys yeah, exactly right, yeah, no, so it's, it's, it's.
Speaker 4:it's just really cool seeing that, uh, um, you know, bias aside from falling under that same kind of identity or whatever, like it's just cool seeing that, especially blow up in the community too and like socially viral.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, I mean, it's been an honor and a blessing to be able to so like. That's one of the things that, with the instruments that I play, it lends itself to the portability of being on a job site or whatnot, and then also having access to these places that nobody else is. I mean, you're never gonna get, uh, some fancy pants. That's uh you know, professional musician, doing it on the 30th floor of a still developed building, you know.
Speaker 4:I mean yeah, yeah, and it's like just this weird kind of it's almost like now, like if you were to go go about it in a way that's like you want to promote solely this. It's like. It's like people have multiple interests.
Speaker 4:Like people are like multiple you know, we all wear a bunch of different hats Like it doesn't have to fall under one thing. That's why it's like I love how everything about like you know, even on your pages and stuff like Ironworker flute, like it's like just the two things, it's like yeah, that's right, people can be multiple things and that's fucking cool. Guess what?
Speaker 2:I've sat on the side of a scroll on the feed and see one of your videos pop up and I want to take it back a little bit to becoming an iron worker, and you mentioned that your father was an iron worker, growing up, seeing him work trade. Did that lean you towards it or did it lean you against it? And then, ultimately, did you talk to him about your decision of joining the union?
Speaker 3:Are we ready for this story? Absolutely All right. So my dad has nine other children, so I'm the third oldest of 10. Dad is an iron worker, family man In 2003, had nine strokes. That's what took him out of iron working.
Speaker 1:Whoa.
Speaker 3:That year. Yeah, in less than a week it's terrible One right after the other he went from.
Speaker 3:He had one in. It was like a Wednesday and my timelines might be a little bit fuzzy I was 13. But basically he had the first stroke on a Wednesday while he was up working in Duluth as an iron worker He'd been doing iron working for probably like 20, 25 years. Came home because he thought it was just like nausea. He couldn't get out of the bed and came home on that Thursday Friday Him and I were pouring concrete with my uncle. Came home on that Thursday Friday Him and I were pouring concrete with my uncle. He keeled over, had another stroke and then recovered from that. It was just temporary, so doctors thought that it was migraine. Which long story short. He goes to another hospital and between Saturday and Sunday he had five more and was in a vegetative state. He was in a coma. It was actually no brainwave activity, no response to pain, and they were pushing for my mom to just pull the plug and donate his organs.
Speaker 4:Wow, All within the span of five days. All within the span of it. Yeah, oh my God.
Speaker 2:So your whole family's life is flipped within a second.
Speaker 3:Yes, I mean before that we had been as a family doing music. We could be here for hours and hours. But kind of cutting to the point where you had asked about the ironworking, as years went by, my dad's friends, would you know, talk and visit and whatnot, and I never really had a a drive for iron working. At first, I mean I was, I knew about it and knew kind of what it was, but I was able to uh, my dad never really pressured us to go follow his footsteps. That's kind of cool, though yeah, I mean it was.
Speaker 2:It was very uh freeing in a way yeah, yeah, but you don't feel obligated to uphold some kind of well that carry on the traditions right, and you know you hear that a lot, you know right so I want to take your story back a second, because we missed the uplifting part of the story.
Speaker 1:I guess I can assume and so he?
Speaker 2:he was in a vegetative state. They were telling your like, maybe the best decision would be to pull the plug. And then at that point you know, obviously you said you could talk to him later. It's not what she decided to do.
Speaker 3:That is correct. So my mom had a vision and that vision included basically in her mind's eye. She saw a cell multiplying and dividing in her mind's eye she saw a cell multiplying and dividing. And then she received a word from the lord and he said basically, if you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all, and that there's a battle coming and that he's basically that. The gist of it was that he's not finished yet. And so my mom said ain't gonna happen. And they said you, lady, you're crazy, you ought to go to the fifth floor.
Speaker 3:That's the psych department, you know, because, like she was like, hey, bring clothes, because she's expecting him to just pop out of bed. You know, I mean miraculous recovery. And uh, shortly after that, I mean within the next day, he started to breathe above a ventilator, started to respond to pain. Like I said, his, his, uh, brainwave activity was zero, zero. It's. Started to respond to pain. Like I said, his brainwave activity was zero. It's unbelievable. No response to pain on the deep pain test, like needles under the toenails, ice water in the ears, I mean. And he was 43 years old.
Speaker 1:That's so young, Healthy hardworking iron worker.
Speaker 3:I mean, the guy is. The guy is awesome. I'm just going to say that my dad's dope Sounds like a certified badass. Oh, 100% Unbelievable.
Speaker 4:That's crazy, that it just like just back to life, like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, and so it was a longer process. Obviously, to this day he has all his memories, all his faculties. Wow. He has some physical detriments, but he's all there and he works his butt off in every aspect of life. I mean, the other day we were up there making maple syrup. You know he's out there on the four-wheeler, out there on the skidder, out there cutting wood. I mean, the dude is just non—there's no giving him.
Speaker 3:you know yeah yeah, and it's a fantastic—I mean the whole story would take probably hours and hours to go through so inspirational it is absolutely Because he was officially when we took him home from the hospital. His official prognosis on discharge is persistent vegetative state will remain so for rest of natural life. And within a few months he was back in a different hospital. They were like, how is this vegetable, yeah, talking and acknowledging us Say VeggieTales dude, yeah right, I'm the tomato That'd be me.
Speaker 3:But so, yes, so he. There was quite a miraculous recovery. His brain literally regrew. There's MRI scans showing this, and God came through for our family and so with that being said, I mean that was kind of the thing.
Speaker 3:When I called my dad, I was like, hey, that was kind of the thing. When I called my dad, I was like, hey, I don't know how they got my number, I'm guessing he gave it to them. But the business agent called me and, uh, I was uh, like I said, working at a temp agency and looking for work, and I was like, all right, this, this is perfect, this is right up me. I want to start a family and this is something that you got the good pay, you got the benefits. That's the big thing is the insurance coverage, yeah.
Speaker 2:Stability.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:Exactly, Especially me being a 25-year-old almost 26, working for a small business with no health benefits. Those benefits are important, oh yeah.
Speaker 3:I was 25 when I started working.
Speaker 2:Right when the clock was hitting.
Speaker 3:Yep, yep. It was like, yeah, I want to have kids and I've been married for a couple of years. At that point and, yeah, just timing wise worked out, there was a lot of work going on the sand mines in Wisconsin and so I got a hold of the hall and went and did the boot camp.
Speaker 2:And by the end of that week I was on a job. So you're 25, so you're not a young, young buck, but you're definitely you're not old and you're new to the trade. You get called to your first real job after boot camp.
Speaker 3:Walk me through your first day ah, my first day, good sir, was on a rebar job. Now, rebar is probably the most physically demanding part of the trade. And you're bent over backward, you're bent over, you're tying wire with you know pair of pliers my very first day. Get on the job site. I'm early, I'm not stupid. I got my boots on. I'm all set to go get my size 15 double e. Shout out thorough good.
Speaker 3:I don't know you can cut that if you need, um. But uh, I get out there and I look around and say, uh, just given an address, you know, I didn't even have a smartphone at the time, so I'd printed off the map quest. Oh dang dude. So yeah, in the middle of nowhere, wisconsin, you know, I didn't even have a smartphone at the time, so I'd printed off the map quest. Oh dang dude. So yeah, in the middle of nowhere, wisconsin, you know, I was like I think I'm in the right. Well, this, there's a crane here and there's get up to this guy jody's name is, and he's uh, about this tall shout out short kings, yes, yes indeed. And he, uh, he's like just very gruff, you know. And I was like, uh, well, I've tied rebar before, so I'll get the hang of this. But the first thing he did was tore the spring out of my pliers. So you ever seen the pliers?
Speaker 1:They got that little spring in there.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he rips it right out and says you don't need that. It's like I should be the judge of that. I don't know. I mean.
Speaker 2:It mean it's all right, uh, but yes that was a started uh tying rod, so it was just uh, just, you got thrown right in the ring. Everything else you're learning. You're like it's fucking easy.
Speaker 3:It was just you and jody uh, it was me and jody for the first, uh, probably first week, and then there was other guys coming in well as well. So I mean we were kind of the first part that would be the exact opposite.
Speaker 4:I thought it'd be like a bustling, you know, beam swinging.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we were getting there early, though that was so we is basically the rebar is the, you know the, the foundation is all poured with rebar that's the great and great learning experience for, like a newcomer to ground up yep, and I was- able to work, um, so we were working eight hour shifts there and and then later on on that job site the structural guys were coming in putting in the beams and the columns and the decking and they were working tens.
Speaker 3:So I was able to do eight hours of rebar and then two hours of structural, so I was kind of being able to get a little bit more rounded. Nice, because that's one thing that will happen. A lot is, apprentices will tend to find some spot and stay there, and oftentimes it is because the old guys don't want to do it. They'll throw them into the rebar patch, and so it's very physically demanding. I mean, my handshakes were politician worthy, okay.
Speaker 4:I mean I had the grip, you that you know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I had to heat up my pliers and bend it backwards. I'm a lefty, so everything is. I will say this. So in the first day I'm making these ties right, we're tying the steel together. He comes up and he's checking my ties. Well, he's right-handed, he turns them opposite, so he's loosening my ties. As he's checking my ties Well, he's right-handed, he turns them opposite, so he's loosening my ties as he's going to check them.
Speaker 3:He's like, hey, bank, tie, get over here. And I was like what? And he's like, yeah, you can't tie like this, I'm going to run you off. It's like you're loosening my ties. He's like lefty, there's a few more choice words in there, but so I kind of, in a way, was kind of thrown into that. Uh, the the most difficult part of it. And again, coming from a, I hadn't worked outside like hard ever. I mean I was always outdoorsy, um, bigger guy I mean, at probably 300 pounds or so at the time, and you know. So being outside in the summer heat was it was, it was a challenge, you know especially going from your temp job and being thrown to the wolves like that it's like coconut water was my friend, I mean oh, dude, but yeah
Speaker 3:hands cramping up. You're sitting there like this at night and you can't open your fingers and you start dreaming about it. But I I was on that job for about make a liar out of me a couple of months at least. And uh, when I got late, my first layoff, I was like just like dude, what did I do wrong? Like why, why are you laying me off? I was like what am I going to do? I'm I, I don't have a job anymore. And like call the hall, dude. It was like the very you know there. I was thinking like man, I can't pay my bills, what am I going to do?
Speaker 2:And right, yeah, that is the beauty of the union.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely Having that kind of security, because if you can show yourself as a good worker, somebody who shows up on time, you know somebody who works hard and tries to learn. That's the big thing with like an apprentice. Keep your mouth shut and keep your belt on.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yes, dude, oh my God, yes. How many times did I tell new guys like no, you're at, you're on the clock?
Speaker 3:dude like you're, you're here today. Keep your thank you for bringing that up.
Speaker 4:Put your phone down.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, that's huge do you have a lot of people coming through that just don't cut it where it's like, not like you don't like them, but where they come in for a few days and then you never see them again. Do you run into that?
Speaker 4:imagine the union filters out a lot of those.
Speaker 3:You know, the union gives everybody a fair shake, and that's kind of the thing. Sometimes people the critique is well, you know, well union's bad. I get the same pay that this guy does and he just slacks around all day. It's like, well, that guy's not going to be working very long yeah that's a good way to put it.
Speaker 3:That reputation gets out there and then companies will be like, hey, I need 30 guys. And they'll be like, ok, we got Bob, john, sally, beth, jody, jody's good Brian, We'll get Brian. No, I don't want Brian. And companies will have different, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, they have. That Word goes around Exactly and companies will have different you know, yeah, they have that Word goes around.
Speaker 3:Exactly it does, and so getting into that, establishing yourself as a good worker, is paramount. I would say, especially in like the union thing. But there's, I mean our class. There was 120 and I think 70 of us graduated, so I mean the attrition rate's not terrible. But if you're not going to, if you're only there because, oh you're going to make this much money, oh go, go, definitely show up. You won't make that much money if you don't actually show up.
Speaker 2:Yeah you got to be thinking long term, for sure.
Speaker 4:An effort to like actually caring to learn and learning the process and like more about it.
Speaker 3:That's like huge too well, and that's the thing. So anybody that's wanting to get into the trades, specifically like iron workers because I can speak from experience find that niche that you can do well. You know, maybe it is tiny rebar, maybe it's welding, maybe it's doing layout in my case, like layout was my thing and it was something. It was just a weird thing. Like this class we were taking the class and I'm tying rebar during the day, I'm throwing in bolts, I'm slapping out decking. You know I'm not doing the layout side of things because, oh, we ain't going to let the apprentice look at the prints.
Speaker 3:That's something you kind of work your way up to, yeah. But then in the class I was like, oh, he figured a couple of things out and honestly, all I did was figure out total station had a laser on it and you could turn the laser on and it would point to where you had to do the layout points had. And so I was able to lay out like 10 points to everyone else's two or three, and that caught the attention of one of the instructors and he was like hey, whenever you get, whenever you're laid off, you're coming to work for us. And so that's kind of how I got into that particular.
Speaker 2:That's great advice for for an up and come, cause we have a lot of young listeners that are looking to find a trade that they want to get into and that just a way to to be a little bit different, get ahead of your class. That's great advice, and it leads me right into my next question, one thing that we like to ask our guests, especially when they're working in a job that requires an apprenticeship. For these guys that are getting out of high school looking for a job, what can a first year apprentice expect to make on an hourly rate?
Speaker 3:for the iron workers. Uh, first year apprentice somewhere in the 28 29 an hour range on the check, that's not including benefits. All that stuff is, you know. In addition to you get full benefits when you start, um, I think insurance starts like 30 or 60 days. You got to have a certain amount of hours built up, um, but all the benefits are full. And then your hourly increases every six months as you complete your class and so forth and as you're getting more hours working. So that would be be. I mean, it's great money for, like you, said right out of high school, I mean you can hardly beat it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a lot of hard work. Yeah, you got to usually travel a little bit, but you can't find a better community. I don't think.
Speaker 2:Especially, like you were saying, with there just not being that many. You just get to know the boys. You got to travel over to south dakota. Well, hey, I bet jerry will be there. You know, you kind of make those connections along the way yes, absolutely.
Speaker 3:And then you get to the point you know, once you're established, you can be like, hey, I ain't gonna work with bob over here, I will go out here, I will work out of town with cory, like that's, that's my guy. He cory riser's the kind of layout king, like the guy is stupid smart, and he kind of took me under his wing about four years ago and he's been teaching me stuff and just showing me different uh, tricks of the trade and ways to you know approach issues and we've traveled out of town probably the past couple of years. Now it's like, yeah, of course he's going, I guess I can go.
Speaker 1:He's like hey, babe, my wife.
Speaker 3:She's, like you kind of married to this guy. Almost I was like, yeah, I mean that's huge too, the tips and tricks oh and especially.
Speaker 4:You know you're constantly, uh, first starting out. It sounds like you're, like you know, constantly being around newer people until, you like, get settled in and established with the community. It's like learning, you know everyone does it a little differently and everyone has, like, little tips and tricks. And then also I like how you mentioned the problems too, because that's a huge thing too. It's like a good chunk of your time in the trades is going towards OK, how like how do we fix this, or how do we negate this from happening in the future?
Speaker 4:And that's a huge overlooked part of the industry.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, back to your comment about how learning things, and if you ask 50 ironworkers how to do something, you'll get 50 different responses. Now, 45 of them will work. You just got to figure out which one of those works best for you and do it. Five of them are going to be absolute garbage and you need to throw it out the window because they just yeah a little too much to drink that day.
Speaker 3:But I will say I in my experience the way that in the iron workers the journeymen help out the apprentices is really really nice. Like specifically in five, 12, right People are people, some are Jack offs.
Speaker 1:That works, that'll work.
Speaker 3:Some people are just you know, they're not not good people and there's been in my experience a lot of these older iron workers are willing to teach. If you're willing to listen, if you put your phone down, if you pay attention, they'll show you how to do things right, like you said. Yeah, problem, I have yet to come across a job set that I haven't had problems with and I'm like doing layout and it's like, okay, this is supposed to be this and it's not according to the prints. Were this and then oh, be this, and it's not According to the prints we're this and then.
Speaker 3:Oh well, you know.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's. Another thing too is like sometimes the problems aren't even or like I mean not sometimes like the problems aren't even in responsible like from you. Usually it's like you know whether it's some kind of miscommunication between different plans. You know the architect versus engineer or you know the material or like all sorts like that. Normally granted too, it might be different on a union site, bigger commercial projects, but I noticed that a lot it's not.
Speaker 3:It's an industry problem.
Speaker 2:Well, especially in your industry where there's so many different people that have factors on jobs that can slow it up and cause issues. I mean there's so many different people that have factors on jobs that can slow it up and cause issues. I mean there's a lot of especially like so I. I do business management on such a small scale and if I don't do my job completely correct, it screws everybody on the crew because if you're a laborer you don't get to work that day. You know if you're the owner, you got fucked. Like it's like. It's such a small scale but being like a project manager for a huge skyscraper, I can't even imagine doing that type of work especially like the trades that come after you are a big thing too.
Speaker 4:So it's like, yes, you can do your. If you do your job and you do it correctly, great. But then also they're like little things, like I mean, I'm approaching it from like the standpoint of building a residential house as a framer. It's like I don't want to piss off the sheetrock guys or I don't want to accidentally drill an anchor bolt through the fucking plumber lines or something like that which is awesome when that happens Sounds like you're speaking from experience.
Speaker 3:What, no, jody, what?
Speaker 4:No, yeah, no, it was just like being aware of the following steps after you guys are packed up and out of there, and then making it easier for the next, you know next handful of trades or whatever yeah, that would be something that a lot of people when they start pushing, you know you get companies and trades on top each other.
Speaker 3:So it's like, hey, we got to get in here, but the fireproofers got to come in here first and then now the fireproofers, sprays and stuff on our stuff and now we got to get that cleaned off and we can't do this, or they've laid it covered over our layout lines, like. From my experience it's like man.
Speaker 3:I don't know how many times I've had to yeah, redo same thing, and it's like if you had to take one second just to pause and think of somebody else. I will say this Engineers, architects, should all be required to go into the field at some point during their schooling. I'm sorry you got to get out there. Oh, this looks really good on paper and hey, it really does. Have you tried putting it together? Have you tried, right? You know? I think that should be federal law yes, like when I am the world dictator. I would make that mandatory.
Speaker 2:That's funny that you say that, because one of our biggest questions that we ask on this series is if there's any other trades or any any people involved in Blue Collar that you want to call out that just annoy you the most, and I'm getting the feeling that the architects and the engineers are definitely at the top of that list, which is a very common answer on here. That's huge.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean you know Sparky's ain't too far behind, but you need Sparky. You know I mean the wood ticks too. Sparky's ain't too far behind, but you need Sparky. You know I mean Woodtix too. Y'all got your place Scabs, yeah, oh yeah. No, that's the rivalry between trades, is? It's always fun, you know, I mean some people you can take it too far. But in general, I mean I've had great experiences working with every trade that we've come across. You know, because at the end of the day you're all here to get the job done Right, and the more cohesively you can do that, the better off everybody's going to be.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, and I think it kind of goes along with it. You know, I think it's the industry standard. It's like you've got to give them a little shit.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Especially when they deserve it Like yeah, but like yeah, yeah, you're, yeah, got to shallow, but well, that's so. One thing I'm just dying to get into is the flutes, because we have flute jesus himself here. If you didn't listen to the intro, you need to go back and listen, and I want to tie up the iron worker and move into the flutes. And my last question that has to do with it is with you being an iron worker. It's a pretty tough trade. There's a lot of hard men in that trade and a lot of times creatives and blue collar guys don't always mix well together. In a lot of your videos that you make, are you playing the flute on these jobs at these buildings? Is it tough for you to be yourself yourself, I guess, around these guys? Is it something that you're insecure about or you just could not care less? Like, does it ever? Is it ever an issue?
Speaker 3:I guess, to break it down, oh, is it ever an issue for I would say not really initially, and sometimes people knew that I haven't played or worked around will be like that's really messed up, or you've got to go and do this or something you know it's like. My favorite is hey, can you sing tenor? Well, yeah, I guess I can. Why don't you sing tenor? 15 miles from here.
Speaker 4:then I was like dang what's the punchline going to be?
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I've kind of established myself as a solid worker and somebody who knows what he's doing and talking about. And I do that before I'll bring out the flutes. So if I'm in a new site or new people whatever, I'm not just going to walk in Right yeah, peter.
Speaker 1:Piper comes in Right right.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've established this sort of I'll bash your head in with the sleeper bar if I have to, but I'll also play you a nice song and put you to sleep at lunch.
Speaker 2:Do you get fired up on the job? Because I just I've only known you for an hour and a half, but I cannot see you get upset.
Speaker 3:I would say maybe three, three times so when it? Happens head in three.
Speaker 2:Well, allegedly so when you get upset people, people know like, oh, this don't happen often.
Speaker 4:It's time to just sit back for a second. Sometimes I gotta let the dogs bark.
Speaker 3:Like it's you, okay, you need a day off or something. I mean you seem you're pretty quiet, you know, I don't know it's it's been just to the point where I can walk in and I make friends with just about everybody and there's a couple of people where it's been. You know I had to raise my, like I said, if I had to raise my voice, probably three or four times and I just I'm even keeled. You know, my mindset is, if I got to kill you, is it worth me going to prison over and not?
Speaker 1:seeing my kids.
Speaker 3:It ain't worth it, you know my, my manhood is not insecure to the point where I have to prove myself or whatever it's like. Hey, I love playing flutes and I love iron working. And guess what, when it's break time or before work or after work, I'll bust out the flute and play. When it's time to work, I'll work, you know. And then people tend flute and play when it's time to work, I'll work, you know. And people tend to respect that. I should say for the most part Well, especially if you pull out that five-foot flute you have.
Speaker 2:I mean, how can you not see that? And I gotta hear someone play that.
Speaker 4:Especially the acoustic environment too, and what you're playing is like that's gotta be surreal.
Speaker 3:Haunt the stairwells.
Speaker 2:So when you started making your content up on these buildings and just on the job sites when you had your first video go viral, was that kind of like hey, people actually like this. This is something I could keep doing.
Speaker 3:What was the thought process behind it? So the thought process behind me playing my first video. And specifically I was working in a 30-story tower in Minneapolis and walked in whistling and I heard the echo in this big giant mechanical floor and I had a flute that I had at home for a while and never really played publicly with that and that was just. I bet you that would sound awesome here. So I brought it with me to work, set it up on the top of the windowsill and just hit record and played what Came to my Heart.
Speaker 4:Just an improv piece oh, okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so I mean, it wasn't you know. People were like oh, what song is that?
Speaker 1:I was like I don't know, I didn't name it yet.
Speaker 3:I was like I gotta write down all the parts for it. I don't even remember why. I had just gotten Reddit and I was like, eh, why not? I thought it was cool. I was like I'll throw it on there. And it got to. It got to the front page and um started getting calls and or not calls, messages, some less appropriate than others.
Speaker 1:Um, especially on.
Speaker 3:Reddit. Yes, there are some strange people out there.
Speaker 2:that's when he said he found you on Reddit.
Speaker 4:I'm like what kind of guy are we dealing with here? Yeah there's a certain image attached to a Redditor the stereotypical Redditor. It's a red beard, not a neck beard okay, this is in the good example category on how it does do positive things.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So out of that positive, there was one message that I got on Reddit that some lady said hey, I was planning to kill myself tonight and I saw this video and this music just hit me different. It hit me deep in my soul and I can't go through with it and thank you for putting this out there. That's heavy, wow, and I was. I get I still get shivers.
Speaker 4:And especially like that wasn't like a piece, a piece like that you memorize or you know it was just like literally spontaneous. Okay, god, whatever you got, yeah.
Speaker 3:Let's let it flow from my fingers too Full conduit.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:And flow from my full conduit yeah, yeah, yeah and uh. The fact that you know I mean all the things that had to align for that person to hear that piece of music at that time, uh, to me was very much a? Uh sort of confirmation from god that there's. I gave you these gifts for a reason.
Speaker 4:You need to share them with so now it's almost you almost feel like somewhat obligated. Is that what I kind of I imagine I would feel?
Speaker 3:so yeah, Almost in a way Like I mean, I don't necessarily obligated. It has a negative connotation but I would just have that driven desire to to help people in general and I mean I've always had a, uh, very helpful sort of mentality. I'm surprised I didn't end up as a you know emt somewhere.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, it wasn't emt, so well, I did that too, jack of all trades.
Speaker 3:That's somebody I want on site hey, I've, I've used it a few times on site, I mean that's I bet it's been some Lots of. But good, I guess I've always wanted to find, you know, acquire information, learn something new every day. Yeah, you know. If that's like a key takeaway I would say is always try to find something new to learn.
Speaker 4:Yeah, not be stagnant, because knowledge is power.
Speaker 3:Right, for sure they don't measure strength in kips for no reason, right, killingtons or whatever that is, but yeah, so getting back to that, I don't even remember where I was, but basically at that point I was like I need to embrace this.
Speaker 4:And that was right out of the gate.
Speaker 3:That was right out of the gate the first viral video 10 million views, plus none of my platform, because I didn't have a platform.
Speaker 1:But I think back now.
Speaker 3:I'm like boy wouldn't I like those monetized videos at that point. But you know, yeah, so yeah, right out of the gate it was.
Speaker 4:So then are you like okay, now I should probably pursue this a little bit more seriously. Now it's like what were your next steps after that?
Speaker 3:Did you like? Turned my phone on silent. Good call.
Speaker 2:There was a lot of notifications.
Speaker 3:But yeah, no, I kind of I was like man, I gotta figure out how to do this more often and keep it entertaining and also kind of let the passion that I have kind of flow through and into that and utilize these unique spaces and things. And so that was I mean. Next steps was start making more videos and start a YouTube channel and oh, distrokid, let's get on Spotify and youtube music and all that stuff. So it's been a slow progression in the past and this was four years ago almost five, wow, when this, when my first video, went.
Speaker 2:So I've a long time coming, dude yeah, yeah so cut fast forward from your first video a little bit to when you applied and got accepted into Second Chance, the show on HBO. How much time between you creating videos and then getting on the show was there? Were you at it making videos for a couple years before the show got going?
Speaker 3:Yes, so I was making videos for about three, four years before the show got going? Yes, so I was making videos for about three, four years before the show and I was actually working in South Dakota and the audition tape that I submitted was me playing one of my flutes in the hotel pool area because of the acoustics. I will do a lot of strange things for acoustics. I'm just saying Anybody know where I can find the deep underground Minneapolis. Not get killed, but also get some dope scenes, I know a guy.
Speaker 2:So you walk into rooms, let's talk. Yeah, I have this weird thing where I go anywhere, I look at their chimney and if I see a chimney that's in bad condition, I'm like, oh hell, yeah, they need repair. Whereas you walk in a room, you sense the acoustics. You're like, oh man, I want to play in here. First thing I look at is where's the exits?
Speaker 3:And call me strange. I am strange, strange and I accept that. Embrace it, because my strange is cool, bro, he's a CIA agent, I know it. We don't use the three letter agencies.
Speaker 4:No, the agency. Correct me, the agency.
Speaker 3:Nobody tell that guy.
Speaker 1:Strange fire.
Speaker 3:Mutualize.
Speaker 2:You send your audition tape in and you get accepted into the show. I can only assume you've never done any sort of show like this. What is that process like? I'm sure everything's spinning. Now you've got a blue collar. I'm sure you're like oh my God, I have to miss work. I'm sure that was a big deal yes.
Speaker 3:So when I got the call then I got that it was confirmed on the show they were like, okay, we need you down here in kansas city and it could be one day, it could be two weeks. Like, well, great, that's gonna be. I gotta call my boss and say, hey, I need to be gone for either a day or two weeks In a way, you know.
Speaker 3:Fortunately, I was at a position where I could kind of and that's something with the trades as well is you, can you get paid good, when you work and you don't get paid when you don't? We don't have PTO, we don't have stuff like that, we don't have stuff like that. I had been able to establish myself in the company to the point where, if I didn't show up for two weeks because I had something else going on or a vacation or whatever, hey, that's fine, we got a spot for you when you come back.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I've been really blessed, whereas if you're one of the newer guys on site, they probably would laugh Well.
Speaker 3:Oh, you take two weeks off. Okay, fine, we'll go get somebody else from the hall and you don't have a job when you get back, because I couldn't say anything either. Like it's Super secret, hush, hush. You know, here's the contract and if you say anything about the show before we film it, it airs. There's millions of dollars in penalties and fines.
Speaker 4:When you had to pitch it to your boss, you had to be like, hey, I can't tell you.
Speaker 3:I need two weeks off. Potentially I might be back on monday, but I need two weeks off, okay, I mean sure, whatever I was, like just trust me, just trust it's gonna be fun, it's gonna be epic hard secret like can I get some you know egan swag or something you know yeah? Yeah, yeah, I mean, make it worth your Well, and then, I kind of went a little dark on the, on my posting and stuff too, cause I had to. You know there's different things you got to abide by and I uh, but so yeah, so I'm an iron worker, right, I don't do this.
Speaker 3:I'm on a TV show. Like what am I supposed to do? I looked at it as a two week vacation, so I drove down there from. I was in sioux falls at the time. I was like it's only a five-hour drive. I got this, I'll have my car there, I can tool around town whatever I get there, show up to this hotel that I've, you know the likes of, which I've worked on but never stayed at.
Speaker 4:I was like oh, it's kind of cool, okay, bringing the country to the city.
Speaker 3:Oh, man, it was good. It was a really swanky hotel and we had personal assistant they call them wranglers to basically keep track of everybody and hey, if you need something, we'll help you here. We've got to have you here. You need to be on this set. On this time Got to meet a bunch of really interesting people, but it was very um secluded. You know they didn't want people interacting with other oh, you can't mingle with your neighbor, right?
Speaker 4:yeah?
Speaker 3:because they're like, oh, we don't want to have, um, people having an unfair advantage or, you know, colluding with somebody else or showing favoritism. But there was a time I got in there and my wife and kids I have two boys were back in Wisconsin and I was sitting in this hotel room about to go on a stage on a theater, like a fancy stage with the lights, the whole completely foreign to anything I'd really experienced, you know, on the ironworking side, and I'm like had you ever performed in front of people?
Speaker 3:I have. Yes, I mean I had. At that point I had played um a show out in Oregon. Uh, the flute stock music festival.
Speaker 2:Oh nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was tons of fun. I actually ended up getting to sounds like invited on to the main stage with the grammy winning artists like mary uh, mary youngblood and rona yellow robe. Tommy graven like dang that's so cool timothy gomez, like these guys are like professionals and they, you know, I was kind of rated along with them and that was that's so cool man I feel like I was like I don't know half the imposter syndrome exactly, yes, uh, but they were very kind, very um we jammed, you know, and I love just getting together and jamming.
Speaker 3:But so, yes, I have played before audiences, but nothing quite quite like on the TV show kind of thing, because it is. It's very different when you're running the same thing like six, seven, eight times and it's like, okay, we're going to change this a little bit. Or oh, we don't like this take. Oh, there was sound on this one that we got to change.
Speaker 4:It brings a certain level of like. You almost have to act a little bit too, oh, absolutely. Yeah. Kind of show. Like you know, do the same, cut six, eight times. You got to like kind of pretend to be as genuine as number one, right. Well, and then Certain level.
Speaker 3:Especially when you're talking about, you know, heavy subjects. You know, like my dad's situation and the other lady and how the flute side of things kind of got really started and it's like, okay, I got to see that and have that same energy, that same emotion, but then the I'm tired, I'm cramping up, I got to take a drink or take a leak you know, but it kind of gave me a greater appreciation for how TV shows are made.
Speaker 3:But to get the luck to get back to that that day, for how TV shows are made, but to get back to that day. So I'm there, I got my work gear on right.
Speaker 2:That's one question I had. Who made the call on the hard hat and the high vest?
Speaker 1:Mwah. Great move, that's hard.
Speaker 2:Especially, that's what you're comfortable doing. Exactly, I was hoping it was your call. It would have felt so much different if they were like you need to wear this, they said are you sure you want to pretend to be an iron worker on stage? I was like whoa whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker 3:I ain't pretending to be an iron worker, I am an iron worker.
Speaker 2:You got to represent the boys out there.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely 5-1-2. Gotta represent the boys out there. Yes, absolutely, I want to the uh the producers of the show are chip and joanna gains from the home or magnolia network I don't know if the fixer upper show and so he's very much construction, you know, rehabbing houses and stuff, and he was just like dude.
Speaker 3:That is crazy, he's like everybody is dressed to the nines. They got their makeup and their fancy clothes and their awesome. You know episodes of airing all their stuff. You know, like they've all got this extreme talent. And here I am with the stick on one shoulder and a bolt bag on the other.
Speaker 4:Honestly, that's not a bad idea, just from, if you were to pursue it like I'm going to win this thing, it's like because everyone wants the underdog to win, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, it catches your attention immediately too.
Speaker 3:We had to turn the vest inside out because of the glare of the reflective straps on the cameras, so I was like I kind of look like a dork.
Speaker 4:That guy's faking it. He's got it inside out, right, right. I can imagine that.
Speaker 1:That's not a real iron worker.
Speaker 3:He's just look at it, he's got his vest on backwards it ain't even dirty, what the hell. I had to get a clean one. I will say this they actually called the hall to get approval to air the stickers on my hard hat.
Speaker 2:Oh sure.
Speaker 3:Because all that stuff has to go through illegal Whoa. So they get a call yes, so the president of our union and Barry Davies gets a call, and it was that night. They didn't figure out that they I was like I'm not taking this off't figure out that they I was like I'm not taking this off.
Speaker 4:It's like an afterthought and I'm not covering up all my stickers.
Speaker 3:I already had to cut the company names off from, you know, the other stickers, like for different parts. I was like, okay, I can do that, you know. But then so, yeah, are you a member in good standing with your hall? Yep, I pulled my phone, okay. Yep, my dues are paid, I'm good. And so, yeah, she calls the hall and I met Barry maybe once or twice, and she's like do you know this ironworker, paul Harvey, I'm so-and-so with this TV show, blah, blah, blah. And he's like, oh yes, absolutely Great, great, great guy, great ironworker, upstanding. Yo, nice, we'll give you permission to to. You know, they basically had to sign off to allow 512s um identity or whatever visual branding so that was.
Speaker 3:That was fun. I was glad that they were able to approve that. And then I went out on stage and uh, kind of hit them with uh yeah were you?
Speaker 2:were you confident walking out there?
Speaker 3:Yes and no. The same kind of energy, if you will. Where, if I'm up 400 feet in the air walking on a four-inch beam that I'm trying to take and bolt up?
Speaker 3:Windy windy as shit yeah it's like I've faced situations, actual life or death situations, something like this. It's a different category. It's very nerve wracking, but it's also, in a way, comforting, because I'm in my uniform, I've got my flute, I know what I'm doing. I know that all these people are super talented and probably way more talented than I am, but I'm going to go out here and I'm going to make these people feel what I feel and what I was able to help other people feel, you know, throughout this past few years journey of playing these flutes.
Speaker 4:Dude, that's a good like ingredient to just dilute any amount of stage fright.
Speaker 1:Oh absolutely.
Speaker 3:It's like that kind of mindset is huge yeah. Fall off the stage, will I die?
Speaker 4:No, and plus you're not. You're like you said. I've been in life like life-threatening situations every day. It's like this ain't really nothing yeah, it's like having that physical uh threat kind of just like non-existent right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's I think you said it best where it's like you've been in actual fear situations where on stage it's just nerves you don't need to fear anything, nothing bad is gonna happen to you.
Speaker 2:It because I I can't even imagine like I was even kind of looking at the crowd to see if it was a big crowd and I was like, oh, I would be so nervous. And so you, you do your first performance, absolutely kill it. Crowd goes crazy, judges love it. When you were told you were moving on, did you kind of, did you feel it coming, or were you counting yourself out?
Speaker 3:I was counting myself out because there were some pretty talented people like I was able to listen backstage and I was like now, if I was a judge, I'd pick that you know, and then, when they did call my name, I was just like there was a you know butterflies in the stomach like, oh, dude, I Part of my head was thinking this is awesome. Part of my head is like I got to call the boss and tell him that I'm not coming back to work on Monday.
Speaker 2:That is blue collar, right there. I need more time off man.
Speaker 4:Fucking Ronnie's going to do the layout and just fuck everything up, dude.
Speaker 3:Like. Sorry, corey you're stuck with the Apprentice this time. But yeah, so that was pretty crazy and actually so I didn't have any family members, you know, because they usually have, you know, family or whatever, backstage. My brother-in-law was down doing some training in the military, only a couple hours from Kansas City, and so he was able to come up on the show and kind of be there to support me and stuff. So that was really fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, just to have a familiar face around.
Speaker 2:He cried more than I did. Oh man, that's so awesome. So for people that are not familiar with the show, just to catch them up, the show is called Second Chance. The first season came out. It was eight episodes. The first six were contestants competing to get into the final rounds. Was it five or six contestants each show? Uh, there was, I believe, five. I want to say five, five, five contestants will just like american idol, go on the stage. There's three judges out there. They'll do their thing and then at the end they'll pull them all out and pick a winner. And so you get picked for the winner on your episode. You're going to the finals. How many days between your episode and the final? And what are you doing in between?
Speaker 3:So in between the finale and my winning the episode. So my episode was filmed first and I was able to basically sit in the hotel room and not spy on anybody else and their performances or figure out who was going to be in the finale with me until the very end. That was probably four or five days, because each episode was filmed per night. So one night they filmed one episode, the next night they filmed the next. So there was six, I believe, yeah, six episodes, so six nights that they filmed, and so that was kind of nerve wracking too.
Speaker 3:It was like I felt pampered as all get out you know, like here's some food, here's some per diem, here's some this, you know, we'll take care of you. There was filming other things in between there and this, you know, we'll take care of you. There was filming other things in between there, um, but for the most part it was just be available. If we need you, we'll give you a call. Oh, that's cool, and so I would. Just.
Speaker 3:I went, uh, peruse the city of kansas before, uh, yeah they're like okay, you can't do any jujitsu while you're here because we can't have you getting hurt, because we need to film this and we get this tight schedule, so please don't do anything. Naughty, I was like me, naughty and yeah, so that was that was oh man it was. It was a very surreal experience. It was like a a vacation. You know, I didn't have my wife or kids with me, so it was like I'm just gonna walk around town and blow some flutes.
Speaker 4:Curious tangent. What is there?
Speaker 3:to do in Kansas. Thank.
Speaker 2:God. The next word was flutes.
Speaker 3:The food there is really good. Really. Yeah, there's a lot of different barbecue spots that you can hit Like. Joe's Barbecue is probably my favorite. Um, what's the other? One stacks another. Pretty decent, I mean, for as far north as kansas city is they got some pretty hopping barbecue that was going to be my first guess. It's like I bet they got barbecue down there oh god, yes, yeah yeah, some good, some good it's good to hear. It's good to hear that so if you're ever down there, it's definitely a sweet spot to check out.
Speaker 4:Because I imagine, I imagine, if you go outside of Kansas City, it's probably not much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, not really, I don't. I mean, I was able to find a flute circle and so you just call out the homing beacon.
Speaker 3:Yep. So there's circle um in a lot of places where basically just people that are playing the flute will get together and jam. And I talked to the production. I was like, hey, if I don't tell them why I'm here or who I really am, would you mind if I went and joined this? And they're like yeah, sure you. Just, you know, keep your mouth shut or we'll gut you. You know, not exactly. Okay, I didn't. Actually. They didn't actually say that that was just.
Speaker 2:We'll just take millions from you.
Speaker 3:Right, but it was a lot of fun to be able to just kind of get out there. I did a lot of walking, I was preparing, so that was in April, and in that October I was running my first half marathon, and running may be a bit stretch of the word, but uh, I was, uh I was, so I was practicing.
Speaker 3:I was like doing a lot of walking, kind of getting some training in a little bit too, yep there was right in the end of march madness and stuff, so I mean they're right in the light district and there was uh, shack was doing a djing event, so we went to that oh, that's awesome I mean just just chilling around, you know I mean it's like cool and it was kind of bustling a little bit yeah, you know stuff to
Speaker 3:do in between yeah, that's cool, it is kind of like a vacation it was it really was. It was like a vacation. I didn't have to pay for the hotel. I mean, I was like gee, that's yeah that's cool well, my family was here, but actually for the finale. They flew my wife and kids down Nice, so that was super cool.
Speaker 2:How old are the kiddos?
Speaker 3:Six and nine.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, so they're getting to an age where you can do a lot more fun stuff too.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, we do martial arts together in Eau Claire Coquito. It's a Korean martial art and my oldest and I are in the same class and my youngest has a different class that they do, so it's been.
Speaker 4:That's so cool, dude. I bet that's like really good for the development too.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, just watching how they've grown and how they've kind of developed confidence, and I mean my son can get up in front of people and read you know, out loud. I mean, like he's my oldest is more um animated like I am, so it's.
Speaker 2:It's been really neat to just kind of definitely outgoing, not uh fear of people is definitely not something that's big deal around around your house, I can assume Not generally. And so, listening to your intro for your first episode, you talk about how you came from a very musical family and you guys would go perform at churches and nursing homes. So I'm sure you know thinking, thinking now, performing for people. For you, that's just something you grew up around.
Speaker 3:Definitely. Something that came naturally to me was performing in front of other people, be it with accents, plays, stage combat, music. It's just something that I'm very open and jovial that's a good word for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I can only assume, based off of the person that I know now, you weren't too crushed when you didn't get picked in the finale.
Speaker 1:Spoiler alert. Spoiler but.
Speaker 2:I can assume you took the just the experience over the, actually winning Absolutely.
Speaker 3:It wasn't just the worst thing that could have ever happened to you would I have minded having 100 grand you know to I don't know, get a studio, play some music somewhere you know, yeah, yeah, was there ever a?
Speaker 4:point where you're like, holy shit, I might actually win, or did you just try not to like have that mindset?
Speaker 3:yeah, I really try to kind of keep that. Yeah, you know, because and that's the thing is like, even with you know, I've got probably you know 100 000 plus subscribers throughout the different platforms and should I be monetizing, like you know, merch and this, that the other thing like making this actually make me money, and I haven't really taken that step yet because that's what I kind of want to be, make sure that my reasoning behind it is staying that pure. Not to say that you can't do both.
Speaker 4:You don't want it to affect the authenticity.
Speaker 3:Right, I don't want to be too. Oh, I got to make this so I can make money, or whatever.
Speaker 4:Launch a meme coin or something Well, I don't know, the Paul coin, or something, the, I don't know.
Speaker 2:The Paul coin the fleet guy Harcat Harvey. I'm buying it now.
Speaker 3:Hashtag. So yeah, no, I've. Where were we on that one?
Speaker 4:I was just riding along with you. I'm going to need that alpha brain stuff, right?
Speaker 3:Smelling salts.
Speaker 2:That's just about it.
Speaker 3:I just asked if you, if you were crushed, oh yeah, when you didn't win so keeping that mentality of you know I'm, the experience that I'm getting here, the to meet these people, to see these other places um, that's super fulfilling in and of itself, yeah. So so that was really kind of cool and crucial in a way too, because, yeah, you could, it could be easily like man focusing in on the money and I'm not going to talk to anybody else, I'm not going to network with these people, they're just in the way of me. You know, yeah, and I think I was able to avoid that.
Speaker 4:I bet some characters kind of do have that mindset.
Speaker 3:Oh, I'm sure it's human nature, you know I mean, but it was, I mean just a fantastic group of people From Magnolia Networks, from Max. They were all really great to work with, honestly, like they were super cool, good experience all around. Yeah, the filming crew would be doing push-ups. You know, and you know, and it was just fun.
Speaker 2:It's good to hear a story like this because I swear most people that's not how it went Normally, their experience, they weren't treated right or it wasn't how they expected, but it's nice to hear a happy story about something like this.
Speaker 3:Well, it was a lot of fun. I mean, my wife was probably more jealous of me getting to give a kiss to Martina McBride than you know anything else.
Speaker 1:But yeah, well, no, she was like uh she's a big fan, so it was.
Speaker 3:it was neat.
Speaker 2:She was wishing it was her. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there was a few people that were.
Speaker 3:You know, I try not to be star struck, you know, because people are people.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:If I got you with a knife, you're going to bleed the same as I am.
Speaker 4:Everyone takes shits, exactly yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's the more better way to put it, unless you're Kim Jong-un. Yeah, oh yeah, shout out.
Speaker 2:Well, paul, this, this episode. This episode is awesome and I know the viewers are going to love it. Thank you so much for coming on the pod today. Do you have any socials? You want to plug Anything where the people can find you?
Speaker 3:Sure, I mean, it's been an honor to be here and just hang out with you guys. I've never been on a podcast before, so this is really cool. I mean, it's like hearing my own voice.
Speaker 4:We appreciate it. Man, you're a like super fascinating guy, like genuinely and very like very authentic, and you know just great to have you uh, um, yeah, socials. Then if you have like any other, like last and final thoughts or anything, uh, yeah, no, I think.
Speaker 3:So socials would be paul harvey guy as it sounds on YouTube tick tock um pretty much anywhere you can find music. Uh, spotify, paypal, did I?
Speaker 4:say that Dude we should do an outro. We got to have an outro tune.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. You got to pick a flute and yeah, do you want to give?
Speaker 4:us a quick rundown, cause that was one thing that I'm me myself very curious on.
Speaker 3:Paul Harvey flute guy Anywhere online. That's nice, subscribe that's so sweet.
Speaker 2:You got to be on radio, man. I actually was.
Speaker 4:Part two coming soon.
Speaker 3:We can make this a thing. They just keep coming. These are just a few of my flutes. I have more.
Speaker 2:Are flutes a pricey thing to add into your collection? I can only assume it looks like the Craftsmanship is amazing.
Speaker 3:What kind of wood is this? Would you care to hazard a guess? Which one is the most expensive Staff? What is this?
Speaker 2:So would you care to hazard a guess which one's the most expensive? I Staff the one on the end right there, not the super. That one's really catching my eye.
Speaker 3:You were correct in this one. This one is the most expensive. This is made out of koa wood.
Speaker 4:Nice dude.
Speaker 3:And it is an alternating aeolian drone flute, so there's holes on the back for the thumbs and it's a key of C. This one's made by Miguel Medina of Singing Tree Flutes. I just got to plug them because they're awesome.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:Like these guys. I mean like look at this. This is wild and crazy. How much goes into making these.
Speaker 1:Unbelievable wild and crazy how much goes into making these unbelievable.
Speaker 4:Yeah, dude it's so deep, the sound is so deep and full. Yeah, like are there chambers in there? Like, how does it give off that?
Speaker 3:so the single ones, the single flutes, are just one. It's a slow air chamber that this piece here they call it the sound block. It forces the air from this open chamber across.
Speaker 4:Like a choke kind of.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so you can adjust that and change it.
Speaker 2:I love it, dude.
Speaker 4:Dude, I'm in a hobbit.
Speaker 2:I feel like a samurai or something dude. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4:Dude, I love the little insignia on it too. That's fire.
Speaker 3:That's fire. This one is High Spirits. They're more of a kind of a mass-produced flute, commercial, if you will, whereas these other ones are homemade. So this one is. Eugene Ewing Actually just sent me a new flute which I haven't played yet. I don't have it with me, but I really like played, yet I don't have it with me, but I really like this one yeah.
Speaker 4:So bright and peppy.
Speaker 3:So this one, you can see it's the drone flute. There's two separate flutes side by side. One side has the melody side and the other one plays just that single continuous drone, and I am a sucker for drone flutes.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 3:So if you, have one that you play or one that you make and want to send it to me. W I S Paul Harvey. At gmailcom is my Gmail email account. You can find it wherever you find Paul Harvey flute guy Just saying, just saying, or places to play. I'm always looking for places to play.
Speaker 2:That. That makes so much sense with the drum. I wondered how you play the two different sounds. That is amazing, dude.
Speaker 3:This one is a Kenny King walking stick drone flute. Dude, it's got the fractal burn pattern on it.
Speaker 2:It's just the craftsmanship that goes into these.
Speaker 4:It doubles as a walking it, as a walking staff or hitting stick he makes ones with a blade in the bottom.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying I haven't seen one yet, I haven't gotten one yet, but he does, he does amazing work and this one is probably Probably my favorite Genuine craftsmanship Dude shout out.
Speaker 4:That's phenomenal.
Speaker 2:This one's definitely my favorite, even better with the go-ahead even better.
Speaker 3:Bravo uh, but yeah so no, those are just a couple of the flutes that I have. Wow, um, you can find me again anywhere with paul harvey flute guy flute, not food, okay, I know I'm sure that's a different but yeah, so that would honestly um YouTube, probably where I post the most TikTok. Spotify, um I got a couple people that follow me on Instagram.
Speaker 3:Uh, nothing, it's really like I said blown up, blown up per se usually it's other platforms that take my stuff, and then it's like eh well, whatever you know, at least it's getting out there.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:That's the thing is, somebody is going to be blessed by it, one way or another.
Speaker 4:That's a good way to look at it.
Speaker 2:Well, Paul Harvey, I won't keep any more of your time. I appreciate it.
Speaker 4:It's been awesome, man. Thanks again.
Speaker 2:Comment. Subscribe on the episode please. This was amazing. Thank you for listening. That's it. We're out of here, boys. No Cody today. Fuck Cody.
Speaker 3:Cody, I don't even know you, but you sound like you belong on a swing stage. Barbosan's chair.
