Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 23: Being Charitable... most people are not all bad

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Show 23: Being Charitable... most people are not all bad · The Uncensored Catholic

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Hey, y'all, welcome to today's show. Actually, I should say tonight's
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show. I got tied up with a few things and I nearly forgot to
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do it podcast this evening. But something hit me an hour ago. I
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am. Yeah. I grew up in music. I have been a musician
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most of my life. I've been playing guitar for thirty years. And you
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may think, of what does this have to do with Catholicism and a religious
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podcast, Well, hold on just a minute. Something was kind of something
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kind on my mind about an hour ago, and I need to talk about
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it. You know, I'm as straight talking as one can be. I've
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been real hard on various Protestant religious thought leaders, and gosh, when we
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get into politics, you know, I can absolutely just let me tell you
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there is anybody listening to my podcast it thinks that I have a good opinion
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of Joe Biden, for instance, or Nancy Pelosi. That's true, and
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that's not going to change because you judge the fruit, you judge the vine.
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Bit's fruit, right, you judge the fruit on the vine. But
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something kind of got on my mind a little bit ago, and I thought,
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you know, part of our Catholic tradition is being charitable, it's celebrating
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the best in people and overlooking their faults. And I'm as I mean,
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I mess up on that more than just about anybody else. I mean,
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you know, I'm an old fashioned, Southern type of guy, and I'm
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gonna tell you exactly what I think. But you know, I was listening
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to an old record nineteen eighties, not that old actually, you know,
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by a guy named Blaize Foley. And Blaize Foley was a country music songwriter,
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one of those Austin guys, kind of you know, how would you
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put Austin music in the seventies and eighties, half rock and half country,
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a lot of folk influenced, strong songwriting tradition. And I googled him,
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you know, Bill Wils Since I had listened to Blaze Foley, I knew
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a few of his songs, and his Wikipedia entry was all about his U
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was drug and alcohol addiction. You know. Seems he was kind of a
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interesting guy character, a real songwriter, you know, kind of a beating
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it kind of character. And he met up with Towns fan zandt who Towns
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was probably the greatest songwriter ever lived. I think Bob Dylan would say that.
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I mean, seriously, I think every single songwriter ever walk faced the
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earth would say the greatest songwriters included Hank Waiam singer singer, and Towns,
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fan ZANDT and you know a handful others. You know, certainly Dilan would
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go in that category as well. Leonard Cohen would certainly be in that category.
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Yeah, we go down that road for a while, but something kind
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of bothered me about it. I went back and I started listened to his
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music, and you see the videos when he was really messed up. He
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was seriously under the influence. And you read the story about how well you
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know, he was going along, he was doing his thing and he got
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to go with Towns and you know, Towns van Zant was brilliant. I
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believe it was. Anglican actually came from an old Texas family, real upscale,
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but he suffered from mag depression and schizophrenia, and at some point in
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his life what he had been institutionalized and underwent shock therapy, and I mean,
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really, you know, seriously really messed up dude. He began self
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medicating and he used a lot of drugs and he drank heavily. His entire
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life until he died. He died on New Year's Eve. He predicted his
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own death. He said he would die on the same date and time as
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hank Leim Senior. Hank Leiam Senior died on New Year's Eve at the stroke
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of midnight. The sort of a legendary thing. He predicted his own death.
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He wrote some of the most beautiful, meaningful music one could ever imagine.
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Some people said that Towns talk with angels. I can't tell you.
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Maybe he talked with demons. I have no idea. His music was remarkably
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stunningly beautiful and heart wrenching. He drank vodka by the gallon and apparently used
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math and fetamen, cocaine, heroine, you name. It's been a lot
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of people that he hung out with and through his influence, they became addicted
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and die. Most recently, you know fella, Well, I'm on one
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time. Steve Earle. Steve Earle was a great musician songwriter in the eighties.
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Did some called Copperhead Road that I think most everybody would know, but
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he did a lot of really good heartfelt songs as well. He got hooked
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up with Towns and became an attic, and he went to jail for a
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while, he got out and played some great music. His son, apparently
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under the same influence, overdosed and died justin Town's earl. Apparently Blaze Foley,
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which was not his real name. He was a big fan of Red
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Foley and Red Fole. He was a fantastic singer in the nineteen fifties.
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But it doesn't matter, kind of went in the same you know, influence.
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And there's a there's a guy that's a great YouTube channel. His name
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is Otis Gibbs, and I love his love his channel. He really goes
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into the history of country music and he's he's a rocker as well, and
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he gets into soul music and all that. But a lot of his his
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shows are about the stories of the musicians. And you know, haven't been
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in music when I was younger. You always hear these like crazy stories about
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these musicians, you know, from Cherry Lee Lewis to Willie Nelson and Merle
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Travis, and it's like, this is what they did when they were so
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messed up, and isn't this an incredible story? Well, you know,
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yeah, a lot of times are really entertaining. They're really entertaining and you
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know, that's part of their their story, for better or for worse.
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I mean, obviously, if you know anything about Jerry Lee Lewis, he
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was the greatest piano player probably of all time. He was a phenomenal singer,
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and he was an absolute train wreck of a human being. And I'm
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thinking back to when I was a kid and I got to meet some of
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the most incredible people. Guy Clark, for instance. Guy Clark was Towns
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van Zant's best friend, and Towns, like I said, was a legend.
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Guy Clark, it was probably even more talented, could I say.
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I mean, you know, probably not without that like lunatic genius, but
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a better guitar player and a little more stable and a little more of a
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compassionate human being. I remember when I was sixteen, fifteen years old,
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and I was a long haired hippie from Boone, North Carolina, and I
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met Guy Clark, and he just was the nicest man. He took so
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much time with me, he was so encouraging. He wanted to introduce me
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to everyone in country music, because it's the kind of guy he was.
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I think he died of COVID compilations a year or two ago. I don't
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know that there's honestly anyone that would have a bad word to say about Guy
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Clark except he was a hard drinking perhaps kind of a difficult person who could
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get a little ordery, you know, when he was a little hungover and
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all that. But he was as nice to me as can be. And
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I was thinking about that story, you know, about how blaze Fully met
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Towns van Zand, and he had gone from being this very creative he was
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a different, different kind of person. He was living of a car.
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I mean, he wasn't like a stable, you know personality, but Towns
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kind of like led to who was his downfall introducing him to essentially drinking vodka
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by the gallon and using meth and fetaman to stay awake and not pass out
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and go for days at a time playing music and you know, not a
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good scene obviously, But I was thinking how nice Guy Clark was to me,
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and he really wanted to introduce me to Towns van Zand. But Towns
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died about a month before we got to meet, and I thought, after
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listening to blaze Fully story, maybe that was a blessing. You know,
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who knows Towns was so talented and so brilliant. Could I have been another
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place? Fully, I don't know that, that's not a sure. He
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recorded some of the greatest songs. Listen to the song if I Could Only
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Fly, Okay. Willie Nelson and Whalen Jennings did a version of it in
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the eighties, which probably was like the worst version I've ever recorded, But
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it was sort of a minor hit that was sort of that era when they
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were doing sort of like easy listening kind of music. And it wasn't you
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know, great but beautiful song. And I thought, but for the grace
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of God, you know, go I And you know, I thought about
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that, and I thought about also about that same time when I was a
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kid and I met the legendary bluegrass singer Jimmy Martin. And let me tell
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you, I could tell you some stories about Jimmy Martin. He may have
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been a man of the nineteen forties and fifties, but his his lifestyle was
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wild. Okay. And you know, I didn't become a professional musician.
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Things changed. Basically, nine to eleven happened, and my life changed.
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I could not could not live with the idea that men my age were going
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off to fight in a war and I was just going to stay home and
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pick my guitar. So I got involved in politics and trying to raise funds
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for certain things. And you know, there's a there's a museum, there's
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a monument in Pennsylvania for the nine to eleven terrorist attack that I had a
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good hand, you know, in helping to happen. I did a lot
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of things, believe it or not. At one point, people are actually
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trying to introduce me to one of well to both of George W. Bush's
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daughters, saying that you know, you might want to marry them and become
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the next senator from North Carolina. Well I didn't do that, obviously,
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that's neither here nor there. My experience in politics was not good. But
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when it came to music, I had had a tendency to meet these older
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musicians who were phenomenal, and I respected them, and they showed me respect
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to return, and they were so nice to me. I mean, Jimmy
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Capps, the man who had about, I don't know, fifty Grammys and
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more. I remember the first time we were talking to him, He's like,
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come up Nashville, you know, come have Thanksgiving supper with me and
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my wife we'll go out and Charlie Walker is in the hospital. Let's go
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visit Charlie. You love Charlie's music, He's gonna love meeting you. That
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was the way it was for me, okay. I was just like the
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door was wide open, and I sat there to night. I thought,
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you know, I'm glad I didn't walk through that door, because one,
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you know, the industry's changed. A guy like me who really does play
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more of a tradition style of country music with a lot of jazz influences.
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I mean I sing like Hank Williams or Lefty for Zelle or George Jones.
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I mean, I'm very traditional in that regard. There would be no you
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know, obviously there's no way to make a living playing traditional country music anymore.
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There's no market. But I thought about Blaze Foley, and I thought,
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how tragic it really is that when you look up this, this man
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who was obviously a very sensitive, intelligent man, all you read about is
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his drug and alcohol influenced excesses episodes. And you know, the same is
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certainly true with probably the greatest country singer of all time, who was Johnny
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Paycheck. All you will read about Paycheck which was not his real name.
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He actually had to change his name three times after being arrested. He started
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out as Donald Lyttel By the way, I mean, just a really sad
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story, brilliant guy. His addictions got the best of him and he got
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into a bar fight one night, essentially wasn't really a fight. A guy
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insold at him. He pulled out a gun and shot him in the head.
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He went to jail, he came out. He wrote one of the
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greatest gospel albums of all time, Outlaw at the Foot of the Cross.
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He probably wrote the greatest country music song of all time, which is Old
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Violin, when he was dealing with his cancer, you know, looking to
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that. And that's the point of this short podcast. We've all had people
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in our lives, Grant, and I'm talking about famous people and people with
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unique talents, some of the greatest singer songwriters and guitar players of all time.
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But we've all had people in our lives that had issues. And it's
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so very easy to remember only the bad times, or to make light of
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the bad times, to say, remember when so and so was so drunk
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and they did this, and it's a big joke, right, Well,
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think about Saint Paul, who held the cloaks of those who stoned Saint Stephen
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to death. A man is not his worst moments. A man should not
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be judged merely by his weaknesses and mistakes. We're all human and we're all
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going to make them, and it's very much a part of being Catholic to
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be forgiving, to overlook to the whatever extent we can. And I mean
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that's hard, especially if you'ren family. I mean, come on, the
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closer the person is to you, the harder it is to overlook their flaws.
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But part of being charitable is to look at the good points of a
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person and to overlook the bad. I mean, if I google right now,
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Guy Clark, you're gonna read you know how he in towns van ZANDT
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went around, you know, kind of stoned and crazy and they did all
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this you know stuff. But like I said, he was the kindest person
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to me that one can imagine. I remember a few years ago I went
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down to a place to get my car worked on my truck, my old
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beat up pickup truck, as I always say, and there was this little,
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frail, alcoholic old man and he was shaking and I mean, he
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didn't weigh ninety panels. And I sat down with him and we had some
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coffee and offers to him one of my little Parode cigars. I love parodes
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Parodies are an Italian drice curd cigar that they're fantastic. They used to be
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much more widely available. And you know, we sat there and he got
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a little bit of bourbon his coffee, and he told me his life story.
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And you know, probably most people in this world wouldn't have taken five
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minutes with him, or even five seconds. And I ended up meeting one
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of the most interesting and tragic heroic people. I don't think his own family
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ever had that experience with him. The man who owned the autoshop was a
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childhood friend of his, and he's been very kind to me ever since.
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I mean, you know, he like I went into get my I said,
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can you rotate my tires? He said, no, take my jack
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and just do it yourself, you know, to save me a little bit
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of money. You know, good guy. I think, as hard as
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it is, part of Christian charity is always looking for the good in people,
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especially when it's difficult. I don't know if I have anything more to
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say. I don't think what I'm saying is necessarily all that profound. I'm
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just gonna say you probably have people in your life that have hurt you.
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Who have You've seen them at your worst, at their worst. May they
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seem you at your worst? You know? Obviously, remember you'll be judged
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in the way that you judge what we say in the Lord's Prayer, in
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the Our Father, you know, judge us as we judge. You want
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forgiveness, you want a second chance for yourself, you have to be willing
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to do the same for others, and especially in terms of family. It's
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very difficult. It can also be far too easy to, I don't know,
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be judgmental or make light of someone in public life. And I'm guilty
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of it myself. I mean, obviously you've heard my podcast, you know
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I can be very hard on politicians and various Protestant leaders of the past and
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of the present day, or you know, the Pope. I've been real
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hard on the Pope. Being a charitable person means overlooking, or maybe not
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even overlooking, because you can't always ever look at you know, if someone's
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been really abusive to you and awful, you can't open the door and just
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let them do it again. But you can remember the better qualities of that
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person, because very few of us are really all that bad. Some are,
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some are really you know, terrible people, but most people are a
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mix, and their bad qualities are not due to anything more than weakness.
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When I think of Towns van Zand, I think of the greatest songwriter who
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probably ever walked the face of the earth, who had more beauty about his
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spirit than anyone could quantify, and yet due to his mental illness and his
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addictions, most people only think of the very worst, colorful stories of his
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life. And that's not right. I don't want anybody to remember me that
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way. I mean, I'm not a perfect person. And let's just pray
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for people and remember we're all totally screwed up. And if someone says to
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you they're not they're lying. And if someone acts better than they are,
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you know eventually you're going to see their true colors. I can't tell you
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how many people I've known who presented themselves as much better than they were,
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and then they turn around, they stick you. They basically stick a knife
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in your back. I would much rather know an honest train wreck than someone
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who pretends to be a saint and will turn around and betray you at the
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blink of an eye. You would never with some of these people I'm talking
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about. No, they weren't going to stick a knife in your back.
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They were just trade up training wrecks to just start with. So anyway,
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y'all have a good one and remember the words of Saint Padre Pio, pray,
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hope and don't worry.