Josh Terry: The Identity Trap Nobody Talks About | DSH #1728

I want to be who I am, and I don't want that to be based around alcohol or any substance.

And I think that my identity got so connected to wild boy, party boy, whatever.

And I just really got sick of it.

Like, and I still don't get me wrong.

I had a great time, but it's not who I want to be 24-7.

It's not who.

And also too, once I found out that people wanted to work with me outside of it,

it's one of the biggest reliefs I've ever had.

And I just love that.

Like, I don't have to do that anymore.

Okay, guys, got Josh Terry here in Nashville.

So, Bobo.

Thanks for having me, man.

Absolutely.

And it says, city you don't like apparently, but we're here.

Yeah.

Nashville's not my favorite, dude.

I actually like being from the country.

I come up here just to work, get stuff done, and I head back to Georgia as quick as I can.

Yeah, I feel that way about cities.

It's good for grinding and working, but for living and raising a family.

It's not the best environment.

Yeah, I wouldn't live here.

Um, I also, I'm a glutton for a good time.

Yeah.

And up here, you can have one at any moment, any time of the day.

And I like to do nothing.

I like the slow pace of where I'm from.

If I was up here, I would never stop going.

Yeah.

One reason why you haven't seen me running around all day is I had too much fun last night.

So, I've been in bed all day.

I'll leave where you are last night.

Too late, boss.

Too late.

Too late.

That's why I'm struggling a little bit.

You having a dick of personality, do you think?

I 100% 100% I had to, I had to cut way back on my drink in last year.

I was getting way too out of hand.

And it's partly because of this job.

Yeah, partly being up here.

Do you drink on the show when you're filming your show?

I used to, I used to, so I used to think that's why everybody wanted to do it.

Like the success of the show, the show right off the bat.

I thought that's what everybody wanted to do with me.

And probably the first, if you were to listen to the first 100 to 200 episodes in there,

the majority of them are a lot of alcohol, a lot of alcohol.

It's like the old broken days.

Yeah, and man, it's just you get to a point to where that's, it wasn't,

one of the things I tell a bunch of the artists that we work with is,

do you want to be popular or do you want to have a legacy?

And I want to have a legacy.

Like, I want to leave something behind and I want to be known for something more than just a good time.

And I think for a while there, I got known as just a good time.

And that's not what I want to be.

That's how I felt in a high school in college.

You know, people are just using me for a good time.

Yeah, and that says, I don't want to, I want to be who I am.

And I don't want that to be based around alcohol or any substance.

And I think that my identity got so connected to wild boy, party boy, whatever.

And I just really got sick of it.

Like, and I still don't get me wrong.

The last time I had a great time.

But it's not who I want to be 24-7.

It's not who I, and also too, once I found out that people wanted to work with me outside of it,

it's one of the biggest reliefs I've ever had.

Yeah.

And that's, I just love that now.

Like, I don't have to do that anymore.

So, were you craving attention, you think?

Oh, 100%.

I'm a whore for attention.

I am a whore for attention.

I love it.

Do you think that stems from childhood trauma?

Uh, probably.

Probably, uh, I definitely didn't get my ego fed enough as a kid.

Yeah.

Um, uh, wasn't the best athlete.

It wasn't bad.

I wasn't the prettiest kid.

Uh, didn't, wasn't the prom king or nothing like that.

So, I, you know, I imagine with everything I do now with social media,

the podcast, and all that kind of stuff,

I, I definitely like attention.

Yeah.

Um, but also to, I get my validation and my attention now,

like, different ways, like, and I don't really,

I'm never the person to, like, even when we do like our shows,

I don't like to be in the spotlight anymore.

Like, I really don't, I like to put other people in the spotlight.

Like, that's, that's where I get my gratification now.

Is like, when I can put somebody else out there,

like, can help somebody else shine,

like some of the artists and stuff that we work with,

I don't know how, if you're like this,

but, uh, there's something really special to me when you know

that somebody has a great story, or they have a talent,

and they're not getting the spotlight,

and you get to help them get the spotlight.

No, I feel the same way, man.

Oh, dude, it, there's something about that.

They're just, uh, there's, yeah, there's been a few guests that have come

on my show, and then that leads to them getting on a huge show,

like Rogan or something.

It's just like, damn, I just changed that guy's life.

Yeah, it's crazy.

It's something, it's something about that is,

I don't mind being a stepping stone.

Like, if I got a, I got a buddy of mine,

and, uh, he would have 1000% made it

in country music, regardless, without a doubt.

But I started bringing him up here,

a guy named Cole Goodwin, um, um, about two years ago,

and I played his first riders rounds and stuff with us.

And like I said, somebody would have found him regardless.

Like, it doesn't even matter.

But the fact that he started coming up here with us,

and it might have fast-tracked him a little bit

that we introduced him to some folks.

And then he got to play the rhyme

in two weeks ago with Zack Todd.

Wow.

It's like, that's the coolest thing to me

that I was the first podcast that he did,

the first, some of the first songs that he ever released

was on the podcast,

and all our riders, rounds, all kind of stuff.

And there's been some other folks,

Riley Anderson, um, some other people.

Gotta got second last year on

American Idol Will Mosley's first podcast,

stuff he did with, was with us.

That's incredible.

So you're good at spotting talent early on.

I'm just, I don't,

I know what I like,

and it seems like what I like,

a lot of other people.

I just try to surround myself

with those types of people.

Yeah.

And, um,

and that's one thing that I think has made

this kind of successful too,

is I don't go off-brand.

I'm really picky about who I will work with.

I don't just work with anybody anymore,

just because they have a social media following,

just because you have a record deal.

If I've worked with you,

it's because I like you.

I believe in you.

I think that something that you were doing

is gonna help somebody,

or you just have something that I'm passionate about.

I don't just look at your numbers anymore and be like,

oh, this is gonna be beneficial to me.

I don't, I just,

I just don't like that, to be honest with you.

Yeah, I've had to turn down lucrative deals

because I knew it would affect my mental health.

Yeah.

I knew it would be stressful.

Yeah, your mental health is the most important thing.

Yeah.

Um,

there was times that I've had guests on the show

that I know that I got huge numbers for.

Not your numbers.

But it's all, it's all relative.

In your space, huge numbers could be,

yeah, you know, big numbers for me.

But when I got done, I just was,

I was kind of miserable after the episode.

And it just was not.

It was so unfulfilling.

And then there's been times

that I've had people on the show

that have little to no following,

but the stories that they would tell,

the stuff that they would talk about.

I knew that someone would hear those episodes

and it would actually do something

to help someone's life.

And it's like, this is, this is what I want to do.

This is what I love.

Like, this is, this is why the good Lord

has put me in this position to where I'm doing this.

No, I'm with you on that, man.

And it seems like the smaller guys

can just be themselves on podcasts.

Sometimes when you have a big following,

you have to hold back.

Well, everybody's got PR.

They've got a publicist.

They've got somebody who's telling them

what they can and can't say.

And I think that that is the worst thing

to be honest with you.

Because whether it's you, whether it's me,

whoever it is, people want to identify with you.

And once they identify with you,

you got a fan, a follower.

I don't even really like those words to be honest with you.

I always say family.

Yeah.

You got somebody that they want a connection with you.

The more authentic you can be,

the more real you can be.

The more you're going to have somebody

that you have their attention forever.

Because they see themselves in you.

They want to hear the realness from you.

They want to hear the raw from you.

That's why I feel bond crush with them.

I feel who kills it.

Theo is amazing.

He's just himself.

Yeah, you know.

Well, and also too,

I think it's just exhausting.

If you have to get up and you have to be

somebody else, everything.

No, it is because I used to live that way.

I used to try to please everyone.

I tried, dude.

I tried for the longest time.

And it was mentally draining.

I got caught up with my own lives.

I lost track of how many lives I was telling people about myself.

Dude, same.

I have a buddy that used to tell me when I was younger.

I'd rather climb a tree until alive

and stand on the ground until the truth.

Wow.

But the older I get,

the more I realize,

I was just, I hated my life.

I was just so miserable.

I would make up lives hoping that everybody else would believe my life.

Because I just hated reality.

I didn't like anything about me.

And I wanted everybody else

pretty much to believe my bullshit.

And when nobody else believed it,

no one else fed into it.

I kind of eventually had to have a reality check.

I finally had to come to Jesus meeting with myself.

And I'm like, you know what?

You're good enough the way you are.

Good Lord made you the way you are.

Why can't you just be you

and be happy with being you?

You're weird.

One of the things that I absolutely love,

weird and unique are almost the same definition.

And I like that I'm that way.

I don't think that you're weird.

I think you're unique.

I'm the only person from my hometown,

my graduating class, whatever.

That does what I do for a living.

And I'm probably the dumbest one out of that class.

But I get to do what I want to do for a living

because I decided to gamble on myself at 30 years old.

I'm 37 now.

But I decided to gamble on myself and chase my dreams.

To where there's other people that's in that class that have great degrees

that are miserable because they never gamble on themselves.

Right.

And I guess when I got tired of living that lie

and I started wanting to be me,

I couldn't have made myself happier.

Yeah.

Yeah, I'm very aware of leaving this world with regrets

is something I don't want.

So I constantly am digging that every day.

I'm like, am I going to regret this if I don't do it?

Yeah.

Well, what's the worst thing that's going to happen

if you try and fail?

At least you tried.

Yeah.

I'd rather try and fail now.

100%.

Yeah.

I'd rather try it and at least know what the outcome was

than never doing it at all.

Absolutely.

I mean, those regrets is what eats you alive.

I don't think failures what eats you alive.

I think regrets.

No, I saw it with my dad.

I saw it with my grandfather.

Yeah.

They were living with regrets every day.

Yeah.

I talked, I did this podcast with these two ladies.

I can't remember the name of their show.

They had me on a couple of weeks ago on a polygetic era.

They had me on this show.

And I was explaining to them that I think this,

it's like the sins of our fathers, right?

They didn't know any better.

So I think for the longest time that they were taught,

you get up, you go to work, you keep your head down,

you get by.

You just take care of your family.

They were never taught how to live.

They were just taught how to get by.

How to take care of their family.

There's nothing wrong with taking care of your family.

You should take care of your family.

But I don't think our dads and our grand dads

were ever taught how to live life.

And I'm living my life.

I'm also taking care of my family.

But I made the conscious decision to where

you only get one go around.

You have to do the things that make you happy.

And I think that's the best thing you can pass on to your friends,

into your children, and to your loved ones is,

you really only get this in a dress rehearsal.

This is the real deal.

This is showtime.

You got to be doing the things that make you happy now.

Otherwise, what are you doing?

You're literally wasting the one chance you have at happiness.

That's really what life is.

You should be making yourself happy

in the people that you love happy.

I love simplifying everything because I'm the moron.

Like the easier I can make everything in my life, the better.

I want to make the people in my life smile, happy, succeed.

I want everything to be successful.

All I want to do is just, I didn't like success to me,

isn't just me succeeding.

It's everyone succeeding.

I don't want to be standing at the mountain top by myself.

I want everyone that I love and care about to be there with me.

And I just think that the best way to do that

and just the one big picture is just happiness.

I know that's just stupid sounding, but the more you make

everybody happy and comfortable around you,

more everybody just feels comfortable chasing their dreams

and doing what they're passionate about.

It's infectious.

Yeah.

And the other way around too, if you're upset,

that spreads too to other people.

Oh yeah.

Misery is just a disease.

I trust me.

I grew up with that mess.

Same.

I did.

I promised you, my mom, my mom was a basket case growing up.

She's a little bit better now.

But yeah, dude, that's probably where I didn't know.

I don't think until my 30s, I knew what happiness was.

And my daughter, I had her when I was 24.

She's the best things that ever happened to me.

But besides for that aspect of my life, my child,

I don't think I knew what it was like to be happy.

That's crazy.

Yeah, I know yours.

Well, yeah, well, I knew what it was like to get by

a temporary happiness, but like joy.

Getting up every day, not being stressed.

Not being there, everybody's got a little bit of stress,

like everybody would be worried about something.

But just getting up and just, you don't have the way

to the world on your shoulders.

Having the purpose.

Yeah.

Like having something that you actually love doing.

Well, there's a lot of guys lacking purpose right now.

Yeah.

Like I see it daily.

Yeah.

And it's a, there's a lot of misdirection on social media.

I think chasing materialism and stuff and chasing woman.

Well, I think that every, I shouldn't say everybody.

I think people identify success

with materialistic, that's right, in America.

But for me, like this, this literally happened last year.

The woman I'm dating now, we've been

phenomenal for like two years.

But we had a, we had a bad breakup last year because I was just,

I was off the, I went off the deep end for a little while.

He did.

Oh, dude, I was, I was just drinking too much.

I was, I wasn't in a good place.

Like I was letting the success of the show

in Nashville and everything kind of go to me.

And I just wasn't taking care of my body.

I just was, to me, late nights having too much fun.

Like that, just, it was just too much.

And then she left me for a little while.

And she had every right to, this was not being a good man.

And when she was gone, I realized like,

the thing that I was chasing for success at the time was money.

All right.

And I realized when she was gone,

like that's, my success was gone.

Like, and now that we're back and we're very happy

and everything's really good, I realized that my success

was happiness.

And I don't think a lot of people realize

like success isn't money.

Success is what actually brings you happiness.

And guys, especially men,

like you don't have to have money to be successful.

You can have a great family, you can have great friends

and be successful.

And I just wish a people would really

sit down and look and figure out what actually

is their definition of success.

When I defined my definition of success,

it made me put my priorities in order.

And when my priorities got put in order,

life just really simplified itself.

Yeah.

For me, wealth is part of success.

I know everyone has different definitions,

but it's not the main thing.

Yeah.

But I do think having some wealth helps you be successful.

Now, I'd be alive and sick.

Shit, if I said I didn't want to be wealthy.

Trust me, I want money.

But I just, it's not the top tier.

It's not the number one thing.

It's, I want it.

But at the same time, it's like,

can you be happy without it?

And now I know I can.

Like, but also I grew up poor.

Like we grew up poor.

And that was another thing I had to get in my head.

It's something I had to tell myself all the time.

Like even when brand deals and stuff approach me,

or people want to be sponsors of stuff on the podcast,

it's like, you, I have to know my value, right?

And I don't have to sell myself short.

If I spent 18 years of my life poor, right, as a kid,

a couple more years until I get what I deserve.

It's okay.

Yeah.

If I, I mean, I'm not eating mayonnaise sandwiches no more,

they don't get me wrong.

But if I have to settle, then I'm selling myself short.

I don't have to do that anymore.

But I also don't have to let, be treated like a doormat.

I don't have to let people take advantage of me.

It's either you're going to pay me what I'm worth now,

or I don't have to work with you.

I don't have to do it.

And that's also, that's freeing to know your own value

and know your own worth.

Absolutely.

That's important.

I was a content creator.

You're going to get all sorts of offers.

You can't take them all.

And also, with me, and I'm sure you're the same one,

I don't, I think when I first started

getting some popularity on social media,

I think that I took everything right off the bat

like I would get.

And now it's like, I don't want to work with this company.

Yeah.

So I don't have to, too, I try to stay on brand

as what I'm saying, like, I know the companies I want to work with

and if it just doesn't fit me,

I don't have to do it.

And I like, I wish more people would do that.

Like, you don't have to take it.

And I wish I would have known that back then.

Yeah.

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Well, I was doing it out of necessity

the first year we were losing a ton of money.

So I was like, I need to gain some back.

But yeah, now I'm at the point

where I'm not accepting everything.

Yeah, well, I probably don't have to.

You can probably do it or hell you won't know.

I'm trying to, I'm just trying to do it.

You're killing it, dude.

Did you know how poor you were growing up

or was it, uh, uh, yeah, because, uh, my, okay.

So the rest of my family's wealthy.

My mom and dad are not.

Um, they made, uh, they did stuff their own way.

And, uh, like so, there's a lake where we're from.

It's called Trips Beach and all my family lives at this lake.

It's, uh, it's a very nice place.

And, uh, my family never, my mom and dad didn't want to live there.

They didn't want to live under the rest of the family, um,

and, uh, say, like, we would go to school and, uh,

the rest of the family would have on, let's just say Old Navy.

I mean, I know that's not like an expensive brand or whatever,

but they'd have on Old Navy, we'd have on Walmart.

Like, it would just be like little things.

And like, when I say poor, it's not like we were living

off government assistance or whatever,

but we didn't have certain things that our friends had.

Like, they're, they're, until we got to like high school

and my dad's business blew up a little bit,

but then there was some drug addiction that came along

and then we lost everything again.

Yeah, so it was, it was a lot.

It was a lot, uh, a lot of, uh, domestic violence and shit like,

yeah, well, it was, it was on both sides.

I've seen, uh, I'm, I'm a little fucked up.

But also too.

Uh, I'm a firm believer in, um,

man, God, I'll let you go through hell so you know what heaven's worth.

So like, I am the, I'm the person I am today because of that stuff.

Like, I can, I don't, I don't want people that play victim.

I had to go through that shit.

Like, I had to see stuff as a kid that you're not supposed to see.

But it makes it to where when I'm talking to people,

and like, when I'm dealing with stuff like that,

it almost like it, it might be chinks in your armor,

but it's also might be another piece of your armor.

Yeah.

Like it, it makes you stronger.

It makes you a better purse.

It makes you better equipped for the battle.

And like that, I'm kind of grateful for some of that stuff.

Like I even like when I was in my, uh, from like 18 to 21,

I was a shithead.

Like I got in trouble with law.

I did 60 days in a boot camp one time and 90 days in a boot camp.

Another damn, um, but dude, I'm telling you like,

I'm doing a show with a big country artist next week.

And um, they, they've done hard time.

And uh, I know that that's how we'll connect next week.

And I will end up building a relationship.

I believe because I know that's how we'll connect, right?

If I wouldn't have gone through those experiences,

and I wouldn't have had that connection or done that stuff,

I wouldn't be able to build that connection with this guy.

Right.

And it's like, I could look back at that and I could be like, damn,

am I, um, victim?

Am I just a moron?

Or could I take the negative in that and turn into a positive?

And that's the key right there because everyone goes through negative things.

But a lot of people victimize it, you know, right?

I'd say 80% probably.

And I love cliches.

I love, I love this, like I said, I love simplifying everything, right?

But I love that it's already happened to you and I'll let it happen for you.

And that's what I try to do.

Like all the bad stuff, man.

Like all the bad shit this ever happened to me.

But it's all the bad stuff that's ever happened to you.

It's all the bad stuff that's ever happened to anybody.

It's already happened.

Like do something about it.

Like don't let it be.

It can be fuel in your tank.

It can be what literally drives your car.

Or it can be the thing that cripples your car.

Absolutely.

Which one's it going to be?

Absolutely.

Yes, you had to grow up quick on.

Yeah.

And you worked for your dog for a bit.

Yeah, I was, I was probably 30 years old by the time I was like,

100%.

I was, uh, I was having to be the DD at 15.

Damn.

Yeah, days like I've, there's been several times that I've had to, uh,

your own parents, you gotta do that.

For my dad, um, so my dad on a drywall company.

And, um, he, uh, the town that was blowing up real big,

uh, it's called Warner Robbins Georgian.

It's about an hour away from where we lived.

And, um, it's so division and all that and everything.

Um, the subdivisions up there that were blowing up,

we would go and hate that's where they would work at.

And, uh, he would drink after work.

And if I was there working with him, he'd go to the bars and everything.

And I'd have to sit outside the bars in the truck,

or I'd get to go in the bars or whatever and hang out.

And, uh, yeah, I'd have to drive home afterwards.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

Your own father.

Yeah.

Seeing him just black out drunk.

Yeah, yeah.

But, uh, but also, too, it's like I was telling you earlier,

it's what's normalized.

That was normalized to him growing up.

Um, I don't knock him forward anymore.

Like, he didn't know no better.

His dad did it to him.

It's whatever,

see, I used to be so pissed off at him about it.

So mad.

I was like, how could you ever, how could you ever do this to your kid?

Right?

But if he didn't know any better, he never saw the wrong in it.

And that's with anything.

If you literally did not know that it was wrong,

how did you ever know it was wrong?

But he didn't know no better.

His dad never told him that that shit was wrong

because he was doing it to him.

So he just thought it was another thing.

And then when I turned 18,

my dad was buying us beer,

me and all my friends because he thought that's what you did.

Yeah.

And so, but also, this is what's great about it though,

is if you believe in growth and you have kind of the mindset that I have

and I hope a lot of people do, is I took what he did wrong

and I applied it to my child to where I know now not to do.

And I just knew that if it wasn't for him making those mistakes, I couldn't correct them.

And that's what was again, it's not playing the victim though.

Like I'm glad he did it now to where a couple of years ago, I didn't have that mentality.

But he had to make those mistakes for me to correct them.

Yeah.

And it sucks.

Yeah.

Did you ever have a conversation with him about this?

Yeah, we talked about it.

We talked about it.

Was he apprehensive?

Oh, yeah.

He don't think he's with it.

No, it's not.

We would be a very good family to go to therapy if they'd ever go to therapy,

but that's never happened.

Yeah, dude, it's, but once again, like I've done my work and I'm going to keep doing my work

with everything like I, for my mental health.

But I've forgiven and I've done what I've had to do.

They probably won't, because like I said, they don't think they've done anything wrong.

Wow.

But it is what it is, man.

If people aren't ready to change, there's nothing you could say.

You could provide facts and they won't together.

Absolutely not, but that's not my battle.

I'm not, you know, I'm a Christian.

I'm not their judge, their jury, or their executioner.

You know, I've got to answer from my sins.

I've got to answer for the things that I've done wrong.

I don't get to get to pearly gates and tell on anybody else.

Right.

I gotta ask me.

That's me and God.

So if that's their battle, if they don't want to go down that road,

they're not going to go down that road.

Makes sense.

It's going to make you a better parent in the long run.

Oh, I know.

Well, that's one thing too.

I'm a great dad.

I might be a piece of shit in every other aspect of my life,

but I have a great relationship with my daughter.

She is my best friend.

She's 13.

Nice.

And we are super close.

We do everything together.

And if it took, like I said, all my trauma,

you know, my bullshit that I had to go through as a kid

to make it to where I have the relationship with my child that I have,

I'll do it again.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's just some things have to happen.

Yeah.

And I, it took me forever to have that mindset.

And it's also the best, once you get that mindset,

it changes your entire life.

Absolutely.

It does.

Like it made me so much better of a person in healthier.

Yeah.

And like it just, it's fixed me.

I can relate.

I had to have picked a mindset probably until I was early 20s.

Yeah.

Yeah, I used to blame my parents for everything, literally everything.

If we got an argument, it was their fault.

I was never wrong.

But I had to realize, I had to take some accountability.

You know, once I went off of my own, I'm like,

they were just doing what they knew.

Yeah.

How can I blame them for that?

Yeah, accountability is huge.

And I don't think I realized that till or even recently,

until I last year.

I did, um, I did a, uh, a psilocybin trip of a macro dose.

Uh, I had microdose for a while.

I'm a big microdose man.

Yeah, uh, yeah.

Somebody taught me into it.

And then I heard Rogan and everybody talking about it,

for like, longest time.

And I was like, okay, you didn't eat.

Yeah.

And then I did a macro.

So I did like a full-on trip.

Holy crap.

And, uh, I was scared at first,

but like, I had been, I was going through like a,

a lot of stuff at the time.

And when I did that, uh, when I did the whole on trip,

it, it killed my ego.

It, like, it changed my life.

Like a death, they call it.

Yeah, I did.

It, it did something, man.

It like, um, it really did change.

Everything that I was holding onto,

it changed everything.

Like, it just, it killed it all.

And, uh, it helped.

I'll never, I don't, like, I only have to have

a microdose again.

Wow.

Yeah, like it, it, my anxiety used to be so bad

with everything.

I'm like, I don't even like trip out about

nothing hardly anymore.

I, I used to have such a bad,

like, trigger to where like,

if you pissed me off,

like, not, I'm not a fighter.

I don't like fighting,

but I, I'm real quick to give you my opinion

and not always in the healthiest way.

But I don't even do that hardly anymore.

Like, it's just, it's so counterproductive.

Like, and it's just a waste of time.

I can sit here and tell you go to hell

and that's just going to start a conversation

that I don't want to have.

Or I can just walk away.

Yeah.

Like, I just don't have to do things.

And that was one of the things that taught me

was, why are you wasting your time?

Like, if you're not

one of the sayings that I've learned recently is

if I don't care about,

if I'm not going to ask you

for your opinion on something,

if I don't value your opinion on something,

then why do I care what you think about me?

Like, why do I, I don't, I shouldn't care.

If you're going to talk trash,

you're going to say something negatively towards me

or whatever, then

it just shouldn't matter what you say about me

if I don't care about anything that you say or do to me.

Yep.

Why it doesn't matter?

You need that mindset on social media.

Yeah.

Because there's a lot of hate.

Why don't read comments, ain't it?

Oh, you don't read them?

I refuse to.

I refuse to.

I just,

you don't never, once again,

you just don't know what that person's

going through in the first place.

What, what could have set them off?

They could be having the worst day of all time

and it could be a,

just a flint reaction,

the while they're saying something in the first place

or it could be a troll,

it could be a kid,

it could be somebody just talking out their ass

like for no reason.

It could just be something stupid

or it could just be

somebody who just feel with hate

and I'm not given anybody that's just a

hateful person,

a racist

or a bigot

or whatever.

A homophobic.

Something like,

I'm just not giving you any of my time.

Yeah.

I refuse to.

Like, I just,

I cannot stand those people.

If you're a hateful person,

I have nothing for you.

We have a lot of different walks of life on my show

from different communities

and I love all walks of life.

I always say that I love everybody equally

and I hate everybody equally.

I don't care what your background

is.

What ratio are,

who you love,

I don't care.

It's how you treat me.

It's how I'm gonna treat you.

I've got people where I'm from

that look exactly like me

that I can't stand

that I hate white trash

probably the most

of all people

because that's what I grew up with

that I think are the worst people of all time.

And they're the ones that have been the

meanest to me.

So if that people like me

have been the meanest to me,

I have no reason

to dislike them

more than anybody else.

Right?

So I just refuse to read comments

or even give anybody

minute of my time.

Yeah.

There's just no sense.

And it's just stupid.

Did it used to trigger your anxiety?

Yeah, um,

because I could have 100 great comments

and there'd be one negative one

and that's the one I'd focus on.

And I'd just be like,

why am I, why am I even buying this shit?

Yeah, it's funny how human nature does that.

I've heard that from many people

where you got one comment out of a thousand

and everyone's there to

does it do to you?

No, but I had to grow thick skin.

Yeah, it definitely used to.

But now I'm getting so many comments

that I know it's just a numbers game.

So I'm going to get hate no matter what.

I could save a hundred lives.

Like Mr. Beast is out here saving people's blindness.

Yeah, and he'll still get hate on that video.

Yeah, you just can't fix misery, dude.

Why?

If even if it is a legit real person,

they have to be the worst.

They have in the worst life.

I think life's already,

instead of commenting back,

I just like to think life's already won

and took care of it for me.

If they're that miserable,

that they're going out of their way

to comment on one of my videos,

or something,

that they're that bad off.

Oh god, they're life sucks.

Yeah, I never comment back.

It's not worth it.

Oh, yeah.

I used to like, like in the early days

of TikTok or something,

like I'd clap back.

But I'd make you, but also too.

I would only do it to idiotic white males.

I really would.

Like nobody else,

but that's usually the only ones

that would say anything anyway.

We had a show one time

way back in the day.

And I think it was during the last election.

And I had a guy from my hometown

who's he's marrying someone who's transitioning.

And this guy is,

he's well known where we're from.

And he likes to argue

with everyone on social media, right?

And it's one of my favorite shows.

Because he's just a different walk a lot.

Now me and him

don't agree on anything really politically

or whatever, right?

But he's well versed.

He's very smart.

He's super and what, very intelligent guy.

And I'm big on why?

If I ask you a question

and you just,

and you respond with

because I said so,

or something like that,

like you don't have the facts

whatever back it up,

I would kind of lose respect for you.

But if I ask you a question

and you can tell me why

you believe in something,

regardless if I agree with you or not,

I can respect your opinion.

Agreed.

Yeah, I can 100% respect.

Because then at least you know why you believe in it.

Yeah, if you're just backing it with emotion,

I can't respect it.

Yeah, I have nothing.

That's herd mentality.

Yeah, that's stupid to me.

And there were a lot of very negative comments

that I had this guy on the show.

And there was a lot of,

and it was stupid,

dude, to look just like me.

And I was like,

if you would listen to this episode,

this guy is just,

he's living a happy life.

Why do you care who,

he's marrying?

Why does it matter?

I don't see the fact you.

Yeah, like,

people can't stand uncomfortable.

I love uncomfortable.

Growth comes from uncomfortable.

You don't learn uncomfortable.

The more places you put me to where I'm uncomfortable,

that means I have no knowledge of my surroundings.

I don't know what is going on.

That means I have to intake something.

That's the only way to get growth.

It's the only way you get knowledge.

And people just, unfortunately,

a lot of folks,

uncomfortable,

just makes them shut down

to where once you accept that uncomfortable is okay,

is I think I just love that.

I just, and to some people,

there it is.

It freaks them out.

The uncomfortable for me is where the most growth happens.

To be honest, when I'm discomfort,

like uncomfortable with something,

like that's how you can find answers that you're not exposed to.

Yeah, because we all live in our own bubbles.

Yeah, I'm tired of living in a bubble, dude.

I want to be in the weirdest places.

You know, if all you ever did was eat cheeseburgers,

you would not know how great sushi was.

Like, sushi is my favorite thing in the world.

I didn't start eating until like four years ago.

All I would eat was the most basic ass food.

And if you applied that,

just something that simple to everything else in your life.

Like, you don't know what all you're missing.

You don't know what great people you're not connected with.

You don't know what great music you're not listening to.

You just, you don't know.

You don't know what places you haven't been to yet that are beautiful.

Yep.

Yeah, you just don't know what great conversations you're not having.

It's just because you don't know what's out here.

Like, don't be scared of it.

Yeah.

Yeah, you said you want, earlier you said a few times,

you don't think you're smart.

Was that because of school, your grades?

I'm just lexic for one, I hate reading.

Um, but, uh, I say not smart.

Um, some stuff just doesn't make sense to me like,

I'm not good with numbers or anything like that either.

Uh, I think there's different types of smart,

but I agreed.

Yeah, I come straight smart now.

Like, I'm a hustler.

I'd argue street smart is more important than books smart.

Yeah, I think there's a, there's definitely a place for it.

Um, like, I, I can never be a doctor or anything,

but I could be a politician.

Yeah, I can, I can, you're good at talking.

You don't have to.

I could run some shit.

Um, yeah, smarts, like I said, it's different ones.

Yeah, yeah, straight smart.

Yeah, I used to tie my identity to my grades.

Yeah.

And I based that off intelligence levels.

Yeah, I know a lot of smart people that are really

stupid with grades.

Yep.

Yes, and, in fact, most of my friends either dropped out

or got terrible grades, but they're making millions,

they're having a great life.

Well, it's crazy to me like, we're from, um,

we have regular college and we have

a tech school and most people that went to tech school

are making way more money than the people that went to college.

I like that.

And it's like, but they're actually like aircraft mechanics,

uh, sheet metal workers and all that kind of stuff.

And when growing up though, if you went to tech school,

it meant you were stupid.

I remember that.

And now it's a lot of shame.

Yeah, I grew up if we went to the tech school.

Yeah, and now it's like, you guys are dumbasses because

they're the ones with the nice houses, the nice trucks.

Yep.

Yeah, it's because my generation doesn't

want to do physical labor jobs.

I don't want to do physical labor.

If I had to do man shit now, it would be the worst.

I don't got a taste of this life.

Oh, dude, I haven't had to do physical labor

in like seven years now.

You have to deal with your father for years.

Oh, dude.

Well, from the time I was 15 to like 28 or 29.

She's, yeah, even before that.

Like, we was always like, we're coming from a farming community.

So like even before that, like going out of my uncle's farm

and stuff, like even as a kid, like working out there.

Like I've always done it.

I just, my dream growing up was to work in radio.

Like ever since I watched private parts,

the Howard Stern movie.

Yeah, I guess my that's I got to watch that one.

How do you never send it?

No, I would turn the go.

Oh, dude, ever since I saw that as a kid,

it was, I knew I wanted to do it.

Like, but we're from you were a crazy person.

If you even said that, a crazy person.

But I knew I always wanted to work in radio.

And then when social media started taking off for me,

a guy who was on a, he was on Dave Stone, love you Dave.

He was on a, it's Axeman.

I think it's Axeman Swamploggers.

That's what I'm history channel.

He had a radio show in South Georgia.

And he was following me on social media

and asked me if I wanted to come do some shows with him.

I went down there and then about a week or two later,

like three or four different radio stations in Georgia

reached out to me.

And we're like, we'd love to have you come do it.

And then I ended up working for one

and then getting on a ward about a year later

had the number one radio show in the state of Georgia.

Wow. That's a present man.

That's off to you.

Thank you.

Right time, right place.

Because now radio is taking a hit, right?

I was doing.

I get to get started.

Well, this is what I even pitched them then

when they hired me is like,

terrestrial radio is dead because of our phones.

Like it's over with.

Yeah.

But like a shot.

They're still value in a shock, Jack.

Well, you're still value.

And when I say shock, Jack,

if you're putting out something that nobody else is.

So like every single radio station in the country

gets a prep sheet every morning that are almost identical.

You just have to put out a different content.

You're a content creator.

You do your own content.

Yeah.

So what I pitched them is,

hey, let me do my own content.

And I did.

And so people tuned in because it wasn't like every other radio.

That's why Howard Stern did too.

Yeah.

He had on the craziest gas.

Yeah.

Yeah.

He got to be insane.

I'm glad he milled out a little bit.

They're towards the end.

Yeah.

He's still going out, right?

He's still got a show.

Yeah, he's got a show.

I haven't listened to it forever.

But yeah, he they just put out a documentary about him.

I just watched it on go.

He's a he's a character, dude.

Like he's.

He just always, there was something about him.

He made it being himself.

And that's what I love anybody that does that,

that to where you are just,

you get acknowledgment for being you.

And he is the king of that.

To me, Rogan's the king of that.

Yeah.

Like to.

Thea.

Anybody that does that,

to where they're just authentically themselves,

they don't have to play a character.

There's something that I absolutely love.

That's why, like, even my show

or anything I do on social media,

I'm just me.

I don't try to play a character.

I just want to be known for being me.

Well, authenticity is winning these days.

That's why Trump won the election to be honest.

He was just himself.

I think everybody was just tired of bullshit.

Yeah.

And like, I'm not.

I'm an independent, anyway.

I don't like the two-party system.

I think that,

regardless of who you liken,

who you don't want to come to politics,

I think you're supposed to vote

for who is best for your household.

Yeah.

And who's best for your community.

And this last election,

Trump was what was best for my household.

And I'm not the biggest Trump guy.

Like, I think that he's best for our country

out of the other option.

Yeah.

But also, I wish he shut up a little bit.

He's definitely mellowed out since 16, though.

He got to set up.

Yeah, yeah.

But also, my biggest flaw with him

from the last time he was president was,

if he would have just shut up,

we would have been okay.

Like, but I also,

what I do love about him is he's not,

he brought on RFK.

He's brought on all these other people.

He's turned some of big Democrats

in the Republicans now.

Yeah, like, that's what we need it.

Like, he's bringing everybody together.

Like, regardless of anybody else says,

like, no one's done that before.

Like, there's unity where there was division.

Yeah.

And like, I'm, I love that.

And the fact that even like,

and I'm obviously a big rogan guy anyway.

But the fact that even escapable as rogan is about people,

the fact that he's kind of like cheering for him now, too.

Yeah.

Like, there's obviously something there.

I don't know.

He's, I'm starting to win me over a little bit more every day.

Yeah.

We'll see how his, his term goes.

It's been a pretty crazy start.

Or it has been weird.

A lot of stuff happening.

Yeah.

There's nothing I really don't agree with yet.

It's kind of the, the ice stuff so far

with some people getting deported.

Some of it's a little much,

but I also to, if you get murderers and rapists

and all these gang members out of here,

I'm so cool with that shit.

Yeah.

If there's one or two casualties of it,

it's casualties were, dude.

Like, I hate that people,

some stuff gets umbrella.

And when stuff, you can't help some shit.

Yeah.

If you think long term one or two casualties

versus if they keep importing all these drugs,

how many people are going to die from that?

Yeah.

Not enough people think about that shit.

In Georgia, we had,

I think her name was Riley.

And I'm so sorry to the family if I mess that up.

But we had a girl get killed on a campus

from an illegal gang member

that was selling drugs and all those stuff

raped and killed a girl.

And if I would guarantee if you asked that family

if they're okay with somebody getting deported

or whatever that maybe shouldn't

or some kid having to go back

due to safety, like if they,

I think everybody's okay with it.

They would much rather it'd be safer

and there'd be a casualty.

It's just going to happen.

Yeah.

I don't see how anybody can even bitch about it.

I don't see how anybody can fuss about it.

Tate, I more love him.

He is sticking to a lot of his promises.

He just released the JFK follows yesterday.

Yesterday?

Yeah.

Of course he did when I'm not,

where I can say I read it.

10,000 pages, you're not going to be able to read it.

Oh god, dude.

What I'm doing is I'm going on Twitter

and just reading the summaries.

Because there's no time for 10,000 pages.

What do you think actually happened?

It's looking like a group of people.

It's looking like the mob.

It's looking like CIA and maybe another group.

Did you ever watch the movie

that Kevin Costner did?

The JFK movie?

No, that was the first one, right?

Yeah, it's like back in the 90s.

I heard about that one.

You need to watch it.

It's that one.

Oh, it's so good.

I am a conspiracy theory nut anyway.

It's all by, we're going to end off with some of these ones.

Dude, I'm big into that one.

I think 100% they took it.

Well, you know like he was the first one

who wanted like to end the cabal.

He's the first person ever

mentioned like the world cabal

and all this other kind of stuff and everything.

I think CIA took him out.

Is there's so many things that

is so weird how that everything played out with that?

And everyone that was involved got killed.

Yeah.

There's nobody like yeah, I think CIA was involved.

100% and the mob being connected.

The mob has always been connected with CIA.

Oh, so it would just make 100%

or it would make so much sense.

It could just put the blame on them.

Yeah, yeah.

What other conspiracies you've been to?

Oh, aliens.

You believe in aliens?

I feel like that's not even a conspiracy anymore.

I know.

Uh, yeah, let's see.

I don't think it is at all.

I also think that aliens out.

I think they're this is where I'll go off the deep end with it.

I think the Italians.

No, not until I think when we say aliens out,

I think they're us.

I just think they're like us either from past or future.

Okay.

So like how they say that every 12,000 years, whatever it is,

there's like a cataclysm or whatever.

I think that probably what has happened is that

we were more advanced at one point in time.

Because like peer mids are pretty much proof that that

is the case that there was more advanced.

Because there's no way that shit got built by it.

You can't even build it right now.

No, you can't.

So I think that probably what happened is

they knew that something was coming.

We're always fixing the end.

They took off and they come back every now and then.

Really my thinking is,

is if you knew that the world was about the end,

and especially if it was like man made,

like nuclear war, whatever,

you would take off.

Like if you were smart enough to where you could get away,

you would take off.

And now you come back every once in a while just to see

how things were going.

Yeah.

And if it's coming back now and you're like,

these morons are building the same stuff

that got us blew up in the first place.

Yeah, you might do a drive by.

You're not stopping.

You're not hanging out.

I don't see why you don't

why you don't, why you don't stay.

You know, if it's just aliens,

if it's just whatever,

I think there'll be more of them hanging around.

It's just weird that they don't stay.

Do you think they're us from the future of us?

I could see that.

I think I've heard that one before.

Yeah, that would make most sense.

Otherwise, it's like, if you're that advanced,

you could just kill us all and just take over everything.

Why not?

Yeah.

Like, why are you just doing drive us?

Absolutely.

What about time travel?

You believe in that one?

Uh, kind of.

I kind of went down the loophole with Qon.

Yeah.

I had that guy on the pod.

The one with the horns.

Oh, did you?

J6 or yeah.

I got a band on TikTok for that one.

Really?

Yeah.

I'd listen to that one.

He knows too much.

Really?

I mean, think about it.

The Q and on.

They hacked into everything.

They know a lot of stuff.

Oh, dude.

I might listen to that one.

Yeah.

Oh, God, take it down.

But I'll send you a roll.

Send to me.

Yeah.

But yeah, dude, uh, some of that stuff

with the, what is it, um, the bear and Trump?

All that kind of stuff that there's some weird stuff.

I think time travel.

Well, what was it?

Einstein that said that it was possible anyway.

Someone really smart.

Yeah.

And then Trump's uncle had Nicola Tesla

the documents.

Yeah.

What are the odds of that?

Yeah, there's some weird stuff, dude.

Like, uh, another billionaires.

Yeah.

I mean, wouldn't that make sense?

Like, I know me.

If I could time travel,

what would be the first thing I'd do?

I'd make sure that my grandparents had money.

That way, I had money.

All right.

It makes the most sense.

I want to be the richest person ever.

So I tell you what land to buy.

How to do it and everything.

Then I'd come back and live my life now.

Just richer.

Get some Bitcoin.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I still don't understand Bitcoin.

I don't understand any of that shit.

There's no understanding to it.

It's just all speculative.

Yeah, I've had so many people try to get me to invest

or buy some of that stuff.

And it's like, man, I have no idea.

I think you're too late now.

I mean, who knows?

I might look dumb in 10 years.

Yeah.

Do you have a lot of it?

Uh, yeah.

You know, but I got it in early.

So I did, yeah.

Yeah, I know nothing about any of it.

What's some of the conspiracy theories that you like?

Government, uh, well, I don't want to get this video deleted.

I'd love it to create your rabbit hole.

Oh, dude, 100%.

Yeah, that's a job.

Super fishy.

Yeah, the way it went down.

One of the things I got in trouble for when I worked in radio,

yeah, I talked about it for like a good 30 minutes one day.

And let me tell you, you don't do that.

We're not in radio.

Oh, man, we're so close to Robyn's Air Force Base where we're from.

And, uh, dude, we got so many calls.

And that was about the time I got fired.

Um, I got, I got fired for some stupid shit.

What did they tell you the reason most?

Uh, there was like, there was like three reasons.

Um, so, uh, okay.

I don't support the Confederate flag.

Yeah.

Um, and that's a very taboo thing where I live.

Cause a lot of people still wave or still have it.

I didn't do that.

I do it is everywhere.

Um, but my thing is, uh, I have a bunch of friends that are, uh,

not of my skin tone.

And, uh, I know what it means to them.

It doesn't mean a damn thing to me.

My dad's got a Confederate flag tattoo or he did.

He got it covered up.

But, uh, it don't mean a damn thing to me.

It's not heritage to me.

It don't mean hate to me.

It literally, I don't give a shit about it.

It doesn't mean anything to me.

But I've seen where hate groups have adopted it.

And to me, once a hate group adopts something,

it doesn't, it's always a hate group.

But it's always attached to hate.

It doesn't matter.

Yeah.

And I mean, that's the same thing with like a swastika, right?

Like a swastika was a symbol of peace before the Nazis adopted it.

But you don't, nobody gives a shit about it being a symbol of peace before that.

It's this hate symbol now, right?

Um, and I made that argument on radio one day.

When we were talking about when NASCAR banned the Confederate flag like in 2020,

that you couldn't fly it anymore at their races.

And, uh, sons of the Confederacy, which is a group in Georgia,

and it might be everywhere, but I know it's in Georgia.

They, uh, they called in death threats to the radio station.

And, um, I got in trouble for that.

To that said, I was riling people up.

And, um, but what was really cool about it and what made it worth it, there was a woman.

She was, uh, she was in her 80s, I think.

She, she told me how she was.

I can't remember.

But, um, she had told me she called in and, uh, she said, I've never thought about it the way

you just said it.

She said, I've always thought it was heritage.

And I've never seen how anybody could think it was hateful.

I've never understood that till right now.

Wow.

And it's like, this woman's lived 80 years and never had it explained to her why people see it as hateful.

Like how they could.

And me explaining it to her and comparing it to where those swastika and everything.

Like, it changed her mind.

And that's just one person.

So, like in radio, you call it like P1 collars, if for every one that actually calls in,

there's probably another hundred that would like to.

And they just don't.

So, for her to actually call and say something, and that, that was cool to me.

That is cool.

So it's like, you know, those guys that called and did their threats, it was worth it.

And then there was some other, there was some other stuff that I said that, um,

there's a, there's a, there was a comment about, uh, I don't like it said.

I don't care who you love.

I don't care.

I'm, I'm all about.

What you do behind closed doors, what you do, I don't give a shit.

It just, it does not bother me.

And there was somebody, I made that comment on radio and somebody called and said,

well, what if your daughter turns out to be a lesbian?

And I was like, that's cool with me.

I was like, we can go to softball games and look at softball players' asses together.

Like just playing, like just joking around.

And this woman got our rate with me.

Damn.

And like, this pissed off.

And I said, look, I'm gonna love my daughter regardless.

I don't care.

I was like, why are you worked up about it?

I was like, it is my job as a parent to love my child.

I don't, it doesn't put stipulations on it.

Like, I don't care.

I'm supposed to love her unconditionally.

And the Bible, it says you're supposed to love that neighbor.

It doesn't say love thy neighbor.

If they're straight, it doesn't say love thy neighbor if they're gay.

It says love thy neighbor.

And you are picking and choosing what you want to believe in.

Absolutely.

I'm just loving my neighbor.

So that one's on you, but not me.

Bars.

Josh will up to do a part two of just conspiracies.

Hey, Dave, whenever you want to.

Yeah, until down to work, people find you, man.

J.O. Terry, 87 on Instagram.

That's best one in the Josh J podcast.

Awesome, link below.

Thanks for watching.

Guys, see you next time.

Thanks, man.

Yup.

Well, that was good, Dave.

I hope you guys are enjoying the show.

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Thank you.