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Survivor's Bobby Jon Drinkard · Tigs Bits Podcast

• 0:00
  All right folks, welcome to a special edition of Tigs Bits
• 0:03
  podcast. This week we got a great guest,
• 0:06
  somebody I've been chasing. He is a two time contestant on
• 0:10
  Survivor. He is also a Troy alumni and I
• 0:15
  have the pleasure of calling him my very good dear friend Mr.
• 0:20
  Bobby. John Drinkard, folks.
• 0:29
  What is up brother? Man, what?
• 0:30
  You know what? You know I'll do.
• 0:32
  I know you. I know you've got here on Tigs
• 0:34
  bits. Finally So.
• 0:35
  I don't know what's bigger, this or Survivor, but.
• 0:38
  I feel like, I feel like I I feel like I finally made it.
• 0:41
  Chad, I've been following you guys for a little bit and man, I
• 0:45
  tell you, y'all are really doing some, doing some amazing things
• 0:49
  out there. I think you're, you know, you're
• 0:51
  peeling back. An often overlooked onion and
• 0:54
  important onion because it onion.
• 0:56
  You got to have an onion to cook.
• 0:57
  Nobody's got an onion in their refrigerator.
• 0:59
  I'm turning around and going the house immediately.
• 1:01
  All right, onions are important, but y'all are peeling 1 back.
• 1:05
  It's often overlooked. And man, I.
• 1:08
  Great. Great job for all y'all doing
• 1:09
  this. I know it's taking a lot of
• 1:10
  effort, so phenomenal job. Thank you, man.
• 1:14
  We appreciate that means a lot coming from the one and only
• 1:16
  Bobby John. So yeah, Bob and I go way back.
• 1:19
  We went to school at Troy together.
• 1:20
  That's where I got to know him going to school.
• 1:23
  I can't remember like the very you think about those first time
• 1:26
  meetings. I remember my first time meeting
• 1:27
  with the with Tigs up there. It was just very impactful.
• 1:30
  But it's like I think I knew who you were before I met you.
• 1:33
  So it's like, you know, I was sitting, but it was just we
• 1:36
  always had these unusual little interactions together, you know?
• 1:39
  That's right. We we would cross paths and it
• 1:41
  was always really good conversation, something kind of
• 1:44
  crazy that we that we would start talking about.
• 1:47
  And it's funny, I was looking back to my text chain with you,
• 1:51
  and I looked in there and I saw that that that 4 union text.
• 1:56
  When you were asking me about that, I forgot that we'd even
• 1:58
  had that discussion about that. Before there was Google, there
• 2:02
  was Chad Blacey. With the four union number at
• 2:06
  Auburn and you could find out anything.
• 2:08
  OK, You could find out how much sugar that needs to go in sweet
• 2:13
  tea. You could find out if diesel
• 2:15
  fuel would burn a burn pile better than gasoline.
• 2:20
  OK, you could find out whether or not you could graduate in
• 2:24
  criminal justice. And go to be a game warden or
• 2:28
  not, I mean, like it could keep going on and on and on.
• 2:30
  And it was all this random information that Chad had.
• 2:33
  And I think, you know, before there was Google, there was
• 2:36
  chat. And that, to this day, amazes
• 2:38
  me, Chad. I never knew that even existed.
• 2:41
  Well, I I'll tell you, we've talked.
• 2:43
  We talked about this on the show before and just the other day my
• 2:48
  mom, she was telling me she said there's some number she.
• 2:53
  I do not believe that she heard this on TIGS bits, but she said
• 2:56
  there used to be some number. I think it was somewhere in
• 2:59
  Alabama. It was one of those universities
• 3:02
  and you would call it and you just could ask them anything and
• 3:06
  they would give you an answer. And it was like, yeah, we've
• 3:09
  talked about that on my show, mom.
• 3:10
  And did you hear, did you hear that She's like, no, I she just
• 3:13
  brought that up out of nowhere. So is that how it worked?
• 3:17
  You just called it. That's exactly how it worked.
• 3:21
  Yeah. I mean, I.
• 3:23
  To this day, I mean it's if you called and said I've gosh, I
• 3:29
  need, I need the nearest gas station next to real town
• 3:32
  Alabama. They're going to tell you.
• 3:35
  It's just, it's just the most bizarre thing ever.
• 3:38
  It it really is. And I got introduced to this
• 3:41
  like in the late 80s and so I I had that in my hip pocket when I
• 3:44
  got to Troy there in 94 and do sitting at somebody and the
• 3:48
  great thing is 24 hours a day, like they never stop.
• 3:51
  They never sleep. I mean, it's a live human.
• 3:54
  You're talking. It's a yes, obviously, it has to
• 3:57
  be. It's the late 80s.
• 3:59
  We'd be hanging at somebody's house.
• 4:01
  And of course, we didn't have any cell phones in.
• 4:03
  Right. Somebody be 11:00 at night.
• 4:04
  You know, somebody, you know, get into an argument, debate
• 4:07
  about something. And I'd be like, hold on, boys,
• 4:09
  I'll settle this. I'd get on the telephone.
• 4:13
  Absolutely. Wow.
• 4:15
  Oh, man. What?
• 4:16
  What we should do? Hold on.
• 4:18
  Why don't we call them real quick?
• 4:19
  But you keep Hey, how are you today?
• 4:24
  Good. How are you?
• 4:25
  Good. Hey, I got a question for you.
• 4:28
  First of all, can you tell me anything about this podcast?
• 4:32
  And it's called Tigs Bits Podcast.
• 4:34
  Tigs BI, TS, Tigs bits. Podcast This podcast talks about
• 4:40
  a variety of topics such as music, food, traveling, sports,
• 4:43
  and more. OK.
• 4:45
  So it's a variety show. Yeah.
• 4:47
  And honestly, you're you're you're on Tigs bits right now.
• 4:50
  We're doing a podcast and we're talking about full union.
• 4:53
  And back in the day, like in the late 80s and early 90s, we used
• 4:56
  to use this before Google and we would, we would call all the
• 5:00
  time. Yeah.
• 5:00
  And it was, I can't believe it's actually still in existence.
• 5:02
  I'm sitting here with a couple of other people on this podcast
• 5:07
  and we were just bringing it up and I was like, man, how did,
• 5:10
  how did they get that information back in the late
• 5:12
  80s, early 90s, you could call. There was no Google.
• 5:14
  There was no Internet. How did they have such large
• 5:18
  access to information? Because they could even tell you
• 5:19
  the best chili recipe. I mean, it's crazy to.
• 5:22
  Stuff they could tell you. Exactly right.
• 5:25
  Now we're fortunate enough to have the help of Google.
• 5:27
  Sure. I don't know how they did it
• 5:29
  back in the day. I think it was some government
• 5:31
  funded program and they were the only ones that CIA.
• 5:35
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, CI there's something going on there.
• 5:38
  That's uh and uh, hey, I'll ask you one more thing since this is
• 5:43
  a question line, then I'll let you go.
• 5:44
  Can you Foy it, Bobby. John Drinkard.
• 5:48
  It's there's a lot of things that are popping up especially
• 5:53
  from YouTube. Yeah, well he he's actually my
• 5:58
  guest on the on the podcast too. I'm sorry, I'm kind of setting
• 6:00
  you up on this. Hey, how you doing?
• 6:01
  At least you. Yeah, he said.
• 6:03
  Hello. He said hello that.
• 6:04
  That name, Yeah, he was. Sounds like the name of a
• 6:06
  milkshake or like a Oneway St. in a third world country or
• 6:10
  something. I get it, you know.
• 6:13
  Perhaps the wild Tarzan. He's the wild Tarzan, Yeah,
• 6:16
  that's him. He was on Survivor two different
• 6:18
  times, so. And he's yeah, that's the first.
• 6:22
  Thing that pops up, yeah. That's it.
• 6:25
  Well, hey listen is there anything else you want to tell
• 6:28
  us because you're going to be on our podcast soon Is that OK with
• 6:30
  you Like you can this little piece to be in there so you so
• 6:35
  you can go in and subscribe to US War Eagle.
• 6:38
  Sorry, I did not mean to skip skip over you even though I'm a
• 6:41
  Troy Trojan and we got LSU Tigers War Eagle.
• 6:44
  And so you can so go ahead and subscribe to our show on Tigs
• 6:48
  Bits podcast and go to YouTube. And then keep an eye out for
• 6:52
  it'll be survivors. Bobby John Drinker will be the
• 6:54
  episode in the next week or two and then you can check it out.
• 6:57
  OK. Thank you.
• 6:59
  So much. All right.
• 6:59
  Thank you. All right.
• 7:01
  All right, he said. Bye.
• 7:02
  Later. That's it.
• 7:05
  Wow, that was Chad. That's the podcast or not.
• 7:10
  That was worth the moment today. Yes it was.
• 7:13
  And I saved it. That was great.
• 7:15
  That's brilliant. Bob on I took Tigs up there to
• 7:19
  Troy one time we went to a football game, so he got to
• 7:22
  experience Little Troy, AL on. There you go, Tigs.
• 7:24
  There you go. Yes, I had a great time.
• 7:29
  I'm sure you did. I was with good company.
• 7:34
  How could I not? You were with the Honorary Troy?
• 7:41
  Football captain with Blacey. I'm going to tell you you won't
• 7:43
  find a A a better and bigger Troy football supporter than
• 7:48
  Chad Blacey's been with us. I mean, forever.
• 7:51
  I mean back when we were D2, back when we were still trying
• 7:55
  to figure it out. And luckily, Troy's all had some
• 7:58
  good momentum on its side in recent years.
• 8:00
  Yes, they have. Yeah, Bobby, he was saying.
• 8:02
  Bobby, I ran out on the damn field with him because of
• 8:06
  because he is the mayor, basically.
• 8:08
  Of Troy. Next thing I know.
• 8:10
  Here we come with the Troy Trojans.
• 8:12
  It was amazing. What a night.
• 8:15
  Yeah. He got to spend some time over
• 8:17
  there. He got he he got a little out of
• 8:19
  the zone we were supposed to be in.
• 8:21
  I I looked over and I couldn't find him and I looked and he was
• 8:24
  in the defensive huddle on the sidelines.
• 8:26
  There you go. I got oh, we gotta pull him out.
• 8:30
  We gotta pull him. Out time of my life.
• 8:32
  But he was in out and never got questioned.
• 8:36
  He pulled it off. Like I belonged then we caught
• 8:40
  an extra point afterwards. It's like those guys are just
• 8:42
  supposed to be. They're part of the team.
• 8:44
  No, no, we've just been tailgating all day and having a
• 8:48
  good time and. And then busted a beanbag later
• 8:52
  in the suite, but that's another.
• 8:54
  Story for another. Place, yeah, Yep.
• 8:57
  That suite used to get a lot of hand up there.
• 9:00
  I would play football at Troy there for like a year.
• 9:02
  I did. I walked on Chad.
• 9:06
  You know, that was a point I guess in my life, you know,
• 9:11
  every, every young man, every young woman you know has goals
• 9:16
  or they think you have goals. And I thought, I think one of
• 9:18
  my. Goals I thought I had was I
• 9:22
  wanted to play college football. I was not athletic or anything,
• 9:26
  but I really enjoyed the game and and various things.
• 9:30
  But spending, You know one and one thing about college football
• 9:34
  that you got to realize that you know, at a lot of schools.
• 9:38
  Is, you know, spring camp is spring camp, winter workouts,
• 9:41
  that kind of thing. Well, you know there's a lot of
• 9:46
  I guess there's there's an imagination that goes on out
• 9:49
  there in the college football world that when you walk on.
• 9:54
  And at the time Coach Turk who is now the head coach at
• 9:56
  Huntington was, he was in charge of the walk ONS at the time and
• 9:59
  Troy back in the mid 90s. Well, you know.
• 10:04
  You go in there thinking that you're going to be stacked up
• 10:07
  with all of these, you know, gosh, at the time of the
• 10:10
  Southland Conference, All Stars and all these folks, you know.
• 10:13
  But the reality is, is that if they've been playing on Saturday
• 10:16
  night, it's pretty regular for last two or three years.
• 10:18
  They ain't got to really do much during spring at all.
• 10:21
  OK, so basically. You're the one in there that
• 10:25
  you're more or less a human shield, if you will, to ensure
• 10:30
  that nobody else gets gets hurt. And then you think, wow, I just
• 10:35
  scored the the starting, you know, gunner.
• 10:38
  On, on on, you know, on the punt team, Well, I got a little
• 10:42
  advice. No you didn't.
• 10:45
  They're just not going to pull this guy that's probably going
• 10:48
  to be, you know, having a future career.
• 10:50
  And then if they're not going to get him hurt at all, no ACL, no
• 10:54
  MCL issue. So you're it.
• 10:56
  And different things. But I say all that tongue in
• 10:58
  cheek, Chad. Like I said, I was out there
• 11:00
  about a year or so, learned a whole lot from Coach Blakeney
• 11:04
  about, you know, accountability, preparation being.
• 11:08
  Punch We know you give your word.
• 11:09
  That's your word. And he was big into that.
• 11:11
  You know, he had really had a blue collar work ethic.
• 11:14
  He gave his coaches the freedom to coach.
• 11:17
  You know, he didn't micromanage his coaches.
• 11:19
  He expected a lot of them. But you know when he let them
• 11:22
  coach and you appreciate that and really got to see, you know,
• 11:26
  the beauty of what preparation looks like to to not be good but
• 11:31
  to be great. You know, and it starts with
• 11:33
  practice and it starts with being intentional in your
• 11:35
  practice and everything and. You know a lot of folks that
• 11:40
  have finished that Troy program, whether or not they got snaps,
• 11:44
  you know during you know a season if they ever crack the
• 11:48
  starting lineup, you know everybody.
• 11:50
  I know Brantley and Chad that finished the Troy program OK.
• 11:55
  Regardless of what they do, what they they did, what position
• 11:59
  they play, whatever, whether they saw the game or not,
• 12:02
  everybody know that finished that program has gone on to do.
• 12:06
  Amazing, amazing things in business and life and to where
• 12:13
  they're not the thermometer on where they landed, they're the
• 12:17
  thermostat, okay. They're making a difference, you
• 12:19
  know, and everything from law enforcement to education on.
• 12:24
  You know I I don't know. I I I understand the Troy's
• 12:27
  don't compare with the University of Alabama's or the
• 12:30
  LS U's and I and I would never be one to try to draw up that
• 12:34
  measuring sticks. I don't think it'd be an
• 12:36
  accurate scoreboard but I but I will tell you when it comes to
• 12:39
  being in, when it comes to being intentional and having an
• 12:42
  impact. I I've stacked Troy's program up
• 12:45
  there with anybody's. I hey, I I can totally agree
• 12:50
  with that. Just from being an an outsider
• 12:52
  with an inside view I guess you could say with knowing Chad for
• 12:56
  all these years and and how passionate he is with them.
• 13:01
  Obviously I can tell that you are equally as passionate with
• 13:05
  with the Troy Trojans and I and I love that though everybody
• 13:08
  that I know that's been associated with Troy has that
• 13:12
  same kind of drive and passion. In fact, I haven't told you this
• 13:16
  yet, Chad. I was at church on Sunday.
• 13:20
  We had a we played pickleball. So I finally got exposed to
• 13:23
  pickleball. I love it and I want to, I want
• 13:26
  to play more of it, for sure. So I'm sitting there and I'm
• 13:29
  talking to this guy and and we're just kind of, you know,
• 13:33
  shooting the breeze. He's asking me what do you do,
• 13:36
  you know, for work and stuff like that.
• 13:38
  I'm like, I sell insurance, which is not fun to talk about.
• 13:40
  But I, I have a little podcast on the side which people do like
• 13:44
  to talk about. Oh, what do you talk about?
• 13:46
  Well. We talked about a lot of stuff
• 13:48
  and blah blah blah. Somehow or another I I'm
• 13:51
  describing you know you and and and Jr. and just kind of going
• 13:56
  into in which we're missing Jr. today he is out on the road
• 14:00
  touring so we're missing missing the handler.
• 14:03
  And he's he's had a heck of a career.
• 14:04
  I'm proud of him. He's.
• 14:06
  Working on the ground. Up to get where he is and
• 14:09
  couldn't be tickled to death. Where Jr. is these days, he told
• 14:11
  me to tell you hello. He hated he missed this one.
• 14:13
  He was in Oregon and he was actually flying home today, so
• 14:16
  he couldn't. Well, I'm proud of.
• 14:18
  I'm sure we'll have a collision here here soon.
• 14:23
  So we're playing pickleball, doing all of that, and the guy
• 14:25
  says he he's the guy who. Does the music and the audio and
• 14:30
  all that stuff for the the web broadcast, all that?
• 14:33
  And he's like the guy who used to do that before I took over.
• 14:38
  He was a Troy Trojan and he let us all know.
• 14:42
  It's like, yeah, it's funny. The preacher's an Ole Miss fan,
• 14:45
  So I don't know. I don't know what's wrong with
• 14:48
  me, man. I'm just associated with
• 14:50
  everybody. I know what's wrong with me.
• 14:52
  I'm right. It's just.
• 14:53
  Fun. You know, it's just football.
• 14:56
  I like to be around the. Like minded people who are
• 14:59
  passionate about life, living, having fun, doing all of that.
• 15:03
  So that's here. We are you.
• 15:05
  Know it is different. It is it is different and and
• 15:08
  you know The thing is is that you know I don't need a lecture
• 15:12
  on why LSU is great and and it's a it's an awesome experience.
• 15:17
  I don't need a lecture on the same about Auburn AL, FSU,
• 15:20
  whoever bigger programs you know.
• 15:23
  But one thing about Troy, Chad Rantley that you know that you.
• 15:27
  Mentioning here is that you know every relationship over there.
• 15:54
  I know their sister. It it was never unintentional.
• 15:35
  It was intentional. Okay.
• 15:37
  It was never unintentional. It was intentional.
• 15:39
  And when I see people today and and I can vouch for this person
• 15:45
  or that person, I'm not vouching because oh I I knew I knew who
• 15:50
  they were. Now I'm vouching because I know
• 15:52
  their Mama. I know their.
• 15:55
  I know that and that and that is what you get at a smaller
• 15:59
  program now I'm using the word smaller tongue in cheek here
• 16:02
  because you know Troy's growing a lot right now.
• 16:05
  It's a lot of other smaller schools are that we're seeing
• 16:08
  across the country. I mean, hey, listen, we could
• 16:10
  talk Troy and we could talk college football all day long,
• 16:13
  but I do got some other things I'm gonna get to before we this
• 16:15
  man has to go back. He's a highly, he's a hard dude
• 16:17
  to nail down, man. He's like, he gave me.
• 16:19
  Yeah. Well, I've got two hours and six
• 16:21
  weeks and then I've got another 30 minutes, you know December if
• 16:25
  you'd like to look at those times.
• 16:26
  So with that being said, for time purposes, want to get into
• 16:30
  a little bit of kind of post Troy there with you, Bob.
• 16:32
  It was sure it was kind of interesting, you know, like you
• 16:35
  went like immediately I think you had like some model
• 16:37
  opportunities and even some acting opportunities.
• 16:39
  Sure. And we are Marshall movie and
• 16:43
  Yep. And then obviously on past that
• 16:45
  kind of get into that phase of your life and kind of sure how
• 16:48
  did that lead you to Survivor? That's one thing that's kind of.
• 16:51
  Interesting for me, when I was in school at Troy, I was like
• 16:54
  everybody else in college. I worked, I had jobs and
• 16:57
  different things, you know. But one thing that I also did
• 17:00
  while I was at Troy is, UM, I had an opportunity to get into
• 17:05
  like the the fashion world and various things and the, you
• 17:09
  know, country boy off of Dirt road and Goshen.
• 17:11
  Alabama has no business. You know, putting on a fur coat
• 17:15
  for somebody and taking a picture and telling somebody to
• 17:18
  buy it or whatever. OK.
• 17:19
  But that was my. That was my, my.
• 17:22
  I guess my introduction into entertainment, if you will, was
• 17:27
  the fashion world and modeling various things, which only thing
• 17:30
  I can model right now was just a dad bod and Gray hair and
• 17:35
  chasing a 10 year old and a 7 year old around.
• 17:37
  All right. But hey, everybody has a story,
• 17:40
  right? And so was able to do that.
• 17:43
  And had a lot of or had some success in the Atlanta area and
• 17:47
  quite frankly I'm wrapped up with with Troy and May of 2003 I
• 17:52
  started in and gosh guys in May of excuse me in September of 95.
• 17:57
  So I was on the eight-year plan. Don't don't get mad at me.
• 18:00
  You know we figured out. Then we go, buddy.
• 18:03
  Want to leave? Figure it out.
• 18:04
  There you go. But finally got through.
• 18:06
  And so when we, when we did, it was one of those things, Chad,
• 18:09
  where hey, if you're going to do this, you got to do it.
• 18:12
  You know what I mean? So.
• 18:13
  I'm immediately got an agent. Various things we get into.
• 18:15
  The whole acting gig was waiting tables at a PF chang's.
• 18:19
  To this day I will put every dime.
• 18:22
  I got my pocket right now which is not much.
• 18:24
  I can make a better lettuce wrap sauce than you.
• 18:26
  All right, chicken lettuce wrap, our veg.
• 18:28
  I got it down all right to this day.
• 18:30
  But anyway, it's working out there and.
• 18:33
  The the story is, is I was doing a few commercials that, you
• 18:36
  know, just trying to get into the business.
• 18:37
  And one day I remember I came home from from work and the TV
• 18:41
  was on and I saw these people running through a jungle, like
• 18:44
  doing a bunch of crazy stuff out.
• 18:46
  And I mean all this crazy nonsense barely clothed this
• 18:50
  that. And I said golly, that looks
• 18:51
  like they're in Brundage, Alabama right there asking on my
• 18:53
  speed, you know what I mean? Like that's the briar pack fines
• 18:57
  and I. Mean.
• 18:57
  Are they in the Kanaka River? Are they?
• 18:59
  Where are they at? You know, so anyway long.
• 19:03
  Long story short, I applied to the show, got a call back and
• 19:10
  next thing you know I'm on Survivor.
• 19:13
  Went through the whole casting process and various things.
• 19:15
  And I had a decent run on one season.
• 19:18
  And then I go back to waiting tables and everything and
• 19:22
  restaurants and all, and then they come back.
• 19:23
  Hey, you wanna come back again? I was like, yeah, absolutely.
• 19:26
  And I'm saying all that to say, Chad, that.
• 19:28
  You know, I always thought that, hey, I want to be this actor.
• 19:31
  I want to go in this direction and all that.
• 19:34
  And I was able to accomplish a lot of things and and and be in
• 19:36
  some movies and various things on a small scale.
• 19:39
  But one thing that did do to me is that it it helped.
• 19:43
  Being out in Los Angeles helped remind me of who I am, and it
• 19:47
  helped remind me on where I'm from, and it helped remind me
• 19:52
  that. You know, all those hot summers
• 19:55
  spending, you know, bailing hay and hauling hay and and working
• 19:59
  with steers and and and helping my uncles and various things on
• 20:03
  the farm and and and it reminded me that that that that is who I
• 20:09
  am and I need to go and be who I am.
• 20:12
  Not who I am not. OK.
• 20:14
  So ultimately after a few years, you know, I I made the decision
• 20:19
  that you know what, I'm moving back to Alabama.
• 20:21
  I started working immediately for my alma mater and and and
• 20:26
  and then transitioned to to where I'm at today with with
• 20:29
  Alabama industrial development training where I've been about
• 20:32
  17 years now. So you know and now one way you
• 20:37
  can look at no you really weren't successful you ran out
• 20:40
  of money had to come home that's one way to I guess to look at it
• 20:42
  but but but honestly I you know there was that that point you
• 20:47
  could have written me a check I don't care how many zeros I had
• 20:49
  on it. I I I needed to be back in
• 20:52
  Alabama. That that is who I am, you know?
• 20:55
  Come home and and you got to learn something about yourself,
• 20:57
  dude. I mean, that's the thing.
• 20:58
  You go through all this and. You know, it's it's where as a
• 21:02
  person you go, hey, that experience you can't take away.
• 21:06
  You figured out what what you are, who you are.
• 21:08
  And then when you saw all these other things, it's like, whoa,
• 21:11
  my roots are kind of where I need.
• 21:13
  Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.
• 21:15
  Yeah. I mean, I've, you know, you
• 21:17
  know, the only, you know, the only rodeo Dr. That I knew was
• 21:21
  how it's filled as rodeo, which is the Pike County Cattlemen's
• 21:23
  Association. All right.
• 21:25
  Or the Little Bridges Rodeo in Lewisville, Alabama.
• 21:27
  OK. That's the only rodeo that I
• 21:30
  know you know and so that you know likes.
• 21:32
  I learned a lot met a lot of great people.
• 21:35
  Some that I still you know keep in contact with to this day.
• 21:39
  But and you know in like anything other like any other
• 21:42
  moment in life you know you you can't ever go back and rewind
• 21:45
  and redo relationships. No relationships happen.
• 21:48
  The good ones and the bad ones for a reason to make you better.
• 21:51
  But you've got to make a choice on how it made you better and so
• 21:54
  forth. Right.
• 21:56
  So like I said, I I knew that I would be back, you know, in
• 21:59
  Alabama and in like so. Yeah.
• 22:01
  Alabama is my favorite state and I like so I wouldn't have it any
• 22:04
  other. No, that's awesome, dude.
• 22:07
  I get it totally going. Hey, I want to go back to
• 22:10
  something, though. So at some point.
• 22:12
  There's rumors. I got a few.
• 22:13
  There's a few stories that have been told that you and I never
• 22:16
  even discussed that you don't even like.
• 22:18
  You don't even know that. Maybe I know, and maybe what I
• 22:20
  hear is garbage. But there's this rumor at some
• 22:22
  point while you were waiting tables that Britney Spears came
• 22:25
  in and you kind of blew her off. I mean, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:32
  Well, Britney Spears came in and I remember we had to shut down
• 22:36
  the restaurant and and I was, I just didn't understand why we're
• 22:40
  shutting it down for a human. I mean, I I get the whole, I
• 22:43
  don't mean like what Britney Spears was, but we're shutting
• 22:46
  this thing down for a human. When I got mom and dad and
• 22:49
  whoever over here that are hungry and want to spend their
• 22:51
  good money her so her money's greener than their money.
• 22:54
  I mean, I don't understand all that.
• 22:55
  That was kind of bizarre, you know.
• 22:58
  So yeah. And that's when I think her
• 23:00
  husband at the time or or friend, I think it was K Fed or
• 23:05
  what he was with him and you know, different things.
• 23:07
  That was something, man, I don't ever forget that, you know.
• 23:10
  You know, you remember all that now on then not one memorable,
• 23:13
  memorable experience. Chad is.
• 23:16
  I remember Ricky Lake walked over and says I need a table for
• 23:19
  two, just have to be sitting there.
• 23:21
  And I said I'm sorry ma'am, we're booked.
• 23:23
  And she said even for Ricki Lake.
• 23:25
  And I just said, well, you got to tell him he's got to wait
• 23:27
  like everybody else. I didn't know it was Ricki Lake,
• 23:29
  all right, She said. Ricki Lake, I'm like, where's he
• 23:32
  at? You know what I mean?
• 23:34
  I got pulled in the principal's office on that one, you know?
• 23:37
  But overall though it was, that was that was a lot of fun
• 23:41
  though, you know, you definitely bumped into a lot of a lot of
• 23:46
  people that normally you never would.
• 23:49
  And different things being set and different stuff like that,
• 23:52
  you know? It's pretty neat.
• 23:54
  Yeah, I remember. Dude, it it's funny.
• 23:57
  All these little things I sit here thinking about, so you
• 24:00
  would just finish. Filming Palau, right?
• 24:06
  And you, you were back at Troy and you had this little party at
• 24:08
  that little cabin you had out there.
• 24:10
  Just had a few days over there say party, you know, probably
• 24:12
  1520 people out there. And so we didn't know how this
• 24:16
  thing had played out yet and you didn't tell anybody you know and
• 24:19
  and so you were quiet buttoned up.
• 24:21
  But during that night I just happened to observe this.
• 24:23
  This is before I saw the episode of the elimination episode.
• 24:29
  Here's what I do remember. Because I remember it so
• 24:31
  vividly, because I put a lot of thought into trying to
• 24:33
  understand why you were doing what you were doing.
• 24:36
  You've got a really big fireplace.
• 24:37
  It's actually an oversized fireplace, right?
• 24:39
  Yeah, it is, Yeah. It is, yeah.
• 24:41
  And so you were putting wood in that fireplace and you kept
• 24:45
  adding wood to that fire. At one point you had the highest
• 24:49
  piece of wood almost touching going into the flute of that
• 24:52
  fireplace. And you were like, really?
• 24:55
  Concerned with that fire being large and and I remember just
• 24:58
  going like, Dang Bob's really put some energy into building
• 25:00
  this fireman. And then I see the episode now.
• 25:03
  I was like, oh man, that's fresh rain, huh?
• 25:06
  Oh, yeah, it was, Yeah, that was, you know, that everybody
• 25:09
  always wrestles, you know, with God, if I have done that, dude,
• 25:12
  you know what I mean? But.
• 25:13
  But yeah. And Palau, Stephanie, La Grossa,
• 25:17
  who was an amazing, uh, Survivor player to this day.
• 25:21
  She's even been on a couple more seasons since then.
• 25:23
  And she's actually married to Kyle Kendrick, who was a pitcher
• 25:26
  for the Phillies for a while and stuff.
• 25:28
  And I've spent some time with them through the years and
• 25:30
  different things. But, you know, she was tough.
• 25:33
  And I remember, you know, you don't see everything on TV.
• 25:35
  I remember like showing her like a couple days before this.
• 25:39
  This is how you build a fire. If I'm gone, this is how you do
• 25:41
  it. So I show her how to do it.
• 25:43
  And then of course, we get out there alone.
• 25:44
  She like, kicks my tail, you know.
• 25:47
  So, you know, I guess the whole paying it forward thing, it was
• 25:50
  really, you know, couldn't be anymore true then for sure, you
• 25:54
  know. And I just knew that night.
• 25:56
  We're watching. I'm a huge fan of.
• 25:59
  You know like I love Bobby John. That's my boy.
• 26:02
  He's from Alabama. I relate to him.
• 26:05
  This is, this is my dude 1,000,000%.
• 26:09
  Yeah. And then I'm like going to the
• 26:11
  fire challenge. I'm like Oh yeah, he's this
• 26:14
  ain't going to even be close. Finally we're going to get rid
• 26:17
  of Stephanie who I also did like in the in the show and all she
• 26:20
  is incredible talent and and she was, she was really, really
• 26:25
  good. I mean, just like I would want
• 26:28
  her on my team. She was good at the challenges
• 26:30
  and all that. She really is, Yeah.
• 26:32
  But yeah, to I was like, there's no way in hell Bobby John's
• 26:36
  going to lose a fire challenge and.
• 26:40
  So is that how it went down? Is that is it that simple on a
• 26:44
  set? Now there's some rumor about
• 26:46
  that. Too I don't know.
• 26:47
  There is, yeah. So the reality and and Full
• 26:51
  disclosure here my NDA things passed.
• 26:54
  So I can tell you there we go. So we.
• 26:58
  Get to the bottom of this. So the reality on this thing,
• 27:02
  frankly, was, is that it? It was a tie originally.
• 27:07
  Like, we sat there and and I knew it was a tie.
• 27:10
  Like, I knew like it needed to be because I watched my flame go
• 27:13
  up and like, at the same time and it, I mean, it was a bona
• 27:18
  fide tie. Well, Jeff Probst comes back and
• 27:24
  he says, all right, Bobby, John, I need to talk to you for a
• 27:27
  minute. And when he said that, I knew
• 27:29
  that wasn't for me, for good news.
• 27:31
  He was just basically, he was basically about to tell me how
• 27:33
  I'm about to dump you on national television.
• 27:35
  But This is why, OK, he goes back to I want you to come with,
• 27:39
  you never see this on the show, he says.
• 27:41
  I want you to look in this viewfinder, which essentially at
• 27:44
  the time was like a tablet. You know, them filming the show
• 27:47
  or whatever, you know, and you're looking at it.
• 27:50
  And I mean it was almost like instant replay on on like
• 27:54
  college football or NFL or or whatever like for like the
• 27:57
  decision being overturned. When I tell you that her flame
• 28:02
  halt I mean a millisecond I I not even half a second a
• 28:08
  millisecond before mine And even when it did it was still
• 28:13
  subjective. It's one of those calls that
• 28:15
  even even during instant replay too close to call there you go.
• 28:19
  But it was really too close to call even then.
• 28:22
  OK and he said, I'm sorry, you know.
• 28:26
  But watching this and they kept going back and forth.
• 28:28
  You know that she she is one you know the challenge.
• 28:30
  You know you're going to go home you know and different things
• 28:33
  and I and I heard that and and then and listen, you know I knew
• 28:36
  enough to know that look you know Stephanie, you know great
• 28:40
  athlete, great player. I mean she's probably gonna have
• 28:43
  a career after this at the time which I mean she's been back a
• 28:45
  season or two and some different things.
• 28:47
  I've seen her own other stuff through the years.
• 28:50
  I knew she would make for you know good TV.
• 28:53
  You know better if you will. So based on all that, even it
• 28:59
  was, even though it was subjective and it and yes, a
• 29:02
  Millis, it was really too close to her.
• 29:04
  But I guess if you get into inches and inches a millisecond,
• 29:08
  if you want to call it that of her winning the challenge, you
• 29:12
  know. And that's the way that's the
• 29:13
  way it worked out though. That's the way it happened.
• 29:15
  But I say all that to say that I think for where I was going to
• 29:20
  go in that tribe over to the merge, I would have gotten eaten
• 29:23
  alive because they had, there was some cracks in their
• 29:25
  alliance, but I'd have gotten eaten alive with the numbers.
• 29:27
  I've just been another body around there and vote them out,
• 29:29
  you know. So I say all that to say, I
• 29:33
  think it worked out because I don't know if I would have been
• 29:35
  asked back to go back for another season had it not turned
• 29:40
  out like that, you know? So you know that's true.
• 29:44
  Yes, you got a hold. There's something to be said,
• 29:46
  yeah, something to be said for that, you know, And that was
• 29:49
  before they had immunity idols or anything.
• 29:51
  Like now you got all these different, you know, tricks out
• 29:54
  there and stuff. You're the 1st to get screwed on
• 29:56
  that deal. I mean with an.
• 30:00
  Absolute Immunity Idol. The very first one.
• 30:03
  What a coincidence. You get to be on that cast and
• 30:06
  totally get blindsided. Absolutely.
• 30:10
  Yeah. That was on on the next season,
• 30:13
  on Season 11 on Survivor, Guatemala.
• 30:15
  You know, make it to the merge. And they tell us there's a
• 30:19
  hidden immunity idol out there and they're saying like, hidden
• 30:22
  immunity. I'm thinking like, I don't know
• 30:24
  to this day when you say the words hidden immunity idol
• 30:27
  automatically I just see like Bojax and holding up the Heisman
• 30:30
  Trophy like when they say that. And I just kept thinking thing
• 30:34
  that you're going to like call in like the crew to come and
• 30:37
  like help you get the chain boys.
• 30:39
  You got to pull pull it out. That immunity out over the back.
• 30:43
  Yeah. Have you got a Flathead shovel
• 30:44
  in the back of that truck? Oh, come on, let's dig this
• 30:47
  thing out, you know? But ultimately, you know, it was
• 30:49
  just like, you know, I got a piece of wood, right?
• 30:51
  You know, a small piece of wood and and there you go.
• 30:55
  Or what happened we didn't know what it was but it you know
• 30:58
  obviously it worked well for the show it it's another I just kept
• 31:01
  thinking that's what it was and so but you know and I'm Gary
• 31:05
  Huggaboom as who found you know and Gary you know big you know
• 31:08
  sports got the time and still ain't but Gary told us he was a
• 31:11
  landscaper forever and that's what we thought And then Danny
• 31:15
  Boatwright who hosted a sports show in Kansas she's like I got
• 31:19
  I recognized Gary and finally she figured out that he was the
• 31:23
  backup quarterback to Danny White forever with the Cowboys
• 31:27
  and various things and so anyway Gary's a great guy though I
• 31:30
  really enjoyed Gary you know and but anyway Gary found the idol.
• 31:33
  How? How close?
• 31:35
  How many times did you walk by that idol?
• 31:38
  Did you? Do you know where he found it?
• 31:39
  Did he ever tell you where it was?
• 31:41
  Oh, yeah, no. Absolutely.
• 31:42
  Well, watching the show, I got to see it.
• 31:44
  And then when. And then when you're on the
• 31:46
  jury, you talk to all these people once they get voted off.
• 31:49
  I mean, now there's people that won't speak to each other.
• 31:52
  I mean, it's like, oh, it's 5th grade all over again.
• 31:55
  I didn't get P I'm FI didn't care man.
• 31:58
  I was just like hey what sorry. I mean like come on we're
• 32:00
  playing a game. I mean like seriously you only
• 32:02
  have it's like NASCAR you only got 1 winner I mean come on you
• 32:05
  know so I mean like either you win or you don't you know so but
• 32:09
  but but but yeah luckily I I was able to you know when you when I
• 32:14
  was done I was done. I'm, you know, part of it, you
• 32:16
  know? Yeah, and everything.
• 32:18
  Sorry. You were a big part of it.
• 32:20
  That's it. Don't sell.
• 32:21
  Don't sell it short. For a year of everyone's life,
• 32:25
  you were on their television for about 1/2 of that year, just
• 32:29
  about every night in some form or fashion.
• 32:31
  Dude, you were awesome. You're a hell of a player.
• 32:34
  Easily the hardest working player that's ever played the
• 32:37
  game. And I know you pride yourself on
• 32:39
  that, as you should, but ain't nobody going to outwork Bobby
• 32:42
  John. It just it ain't Bob.
• 32:44
  Well, yeah, well, as I've got at the more birthdays I get on me.
• 32:49
  Brantley, I realize working hard is great, but you better work
• 32:52
  smarter than OK, You got to think about that.
• 32:54
  You know you better. But, but yeah, good old, good
• 32:57
  old, hard work comes into play. And I, you know, and I think
• 33:00
  that's kind of, you know, it's weird how fate, you know, comes
• 33:04
  into play with what you do. You know, that was kind of my
• 33:07
  thing was hard work to your point, on Survivor.
• 33:09
  I went in there thinking nobody's going out work me.
• 33:11
  And by all accounts I don't think that happened that, all
• 33:14
  right then we didn't win it. But that part, like I said, did
• 33:18
  what it was supposed to do. But then transitioning to where
• 33:21
  we're at now with our career pathway.
• 33:23
  You know, working in workforce development for the state of
• 33:26
  Alabama. It's all about hard work.
• 33:28
  Yeah. You know and and influencing and
• 33:31
  encouraging and inspiring and transitioning you know you know
• 33:35
  citizens an Alabama surrounding states to go to work.
• 33:40
  You're. Right.
• 33:42
  I watched. I mean, I'm always gonna
• 33:45
  research a guest. And I went back to watch there's
• 33:50
  somebody out there off the island.
• 33:52
  I think I'll give them a shout out.
• 33:53
  Whatever that has a Survivor page where they break down
• 33:57
  everybody. The Rise, the Fall, and the.
• 33:59
  You know, destruction of Bobby, John.
• 34:01
  It's just all the you. Know his titles and all, But it
• 34:04
  brought back so many memories because it's been since you
• 34:07
  played, really. I haven't watched it, but I'll
• 34:19
  be honest, it's been a. Since I've watched, I've seen a
• 34:09
  highlight here and there and throughout the seasons and all
• 34:12
  because I'm still a fan. I still watch it.
• 34:14
  Well, that's not true. I haven't watched it in two or
• 34:17
  three years. Not I don't.
• 34:21
  While yeah, watched it. Well, I've watched Guatemala
• 34:23
  after Guatemala. Just nothing against it.
• 34:25
  It's a good. Show I just don't want.
• 34:26
  It's great TV. It's great.
• 34:28
  Like, well, you know, I think survivors almost like minor
• 34:32
  League Baseball, You know what I mean?
• 34:33
  Like, I'll go to a minor League Baseball game, but I got to have
• 34:36
  like a friend or a cousin or a friend or somebody, somebody
• 34:39
  playing for me to get into it. And like there's so many reality
• 34:42
  cooking shows different, like if you got a cousin or a brother or
• 34:46
  I know I'm gonna watch it, but other than that I.
• 34:49
  Probably were on it at the peak, You know, in my opinion, that's
• 34:53
  when the peak and then Guatemala and then the heroes and
• 34:56
  villains, I think was right after Guatemala or not long
• 34:59
  after, which you should have been on.
• 35:00
  But whatever. Thank you.
• 35:03
  Hey. I just thank you.
• 35:05
  I just thought about something. I didn't mean it to disrupt, but
• 35:07
  it just hit me on the. And I remember another fire.
• 35:12
  This was post after I saw the ending.
• 35:14
  Do you remember we went to the Acoustic Cafe?
• 35:17
  Me, you, and JD Oh man, that was an amazing experience.
• 35:21
  Yeah. Now I took a bath in a with a
• 35:23
  water hose. Somebody had a water hose.
• 35:25
  It was time to bathe. And I don't just remember.
• 35:26
  Just so. It's a guys had it done on the
• 35:30
  side of like a hill, the lower hills of the mountains, right?
• 35:34
  You know you're up around Birmingham area.
• 35:37
  And like his house here, then he had this right next to his
• 35:40
  house, this little plateau area called the mezzanine little flat
• 35:43
  area. Then it went downhill to the
• 35:46
  stage which he had built at the bottom.
• 35:47
  So it was a natural amphitheater just built off that side and you
• 35:50
  get there early enough, which we had to get there.
• 35:52
  It didn't start till like Friday night.
• 35:55
  JD goes up there, Thursday we get the mezzanine like.
• 35:58
  So we have. It's basically like being in
• 35:59
  the. You know the box seat, like you
• 36:02
  know, like the king sits in or something.
• 36:04
  It was just the perfect spot. You don't have to even move you
• 36:06
  camp to your because most people are camping way down trails away
• 36:08
  from the stage. And we have one of the probably
• 36:11
  3 campsites that are actually a part of the stage area.
• 36:15
  And so dude, we're sitting up there, dude.
• 36:16
  It was just such a good spot. It was.
• 36:18
  That was a fun weekend, man. That was such a fun weekend.
• 36:20
  It really was. It really was.
• 36:22
  That night a fire got away from you too a little bit.
• 36:24
  I remember, yeah, I remember that.
• 36:27
  It got a little, got a little out there, but we were able to
• 36:30
  bring. It yeah, it wasn't like he built
• 36:32
  a giant fire. It just be built.
• 36:34
  We had giant logs, and dude, that mean logs were heavy.
• 36:37
  They were oversized. I remember he turned and tossed
• 36:39
  it into the fire. Well, that mezzanine had a
• 36:41
  little slope to it. That log hit and.
• 36:44
  He was through the fire. And another one.
• 36:46
  I think not that. Another one came out.
• 36:50
  This fiery. Law came flying out, going down
• 36:53
  the hill towards all the other people.
• 36:54
  There's a few other campsites and people watching this,
• 36:57
  Absolutely, yeah. Everybody's watching it unfold
• 36:59
  and stuff. And you know that's The thing is
• 37:01
  that you know I don't I, you know, I I I usually think first
• 37:08
  ask questions later sometimes when it comes to fires which is
• 37:11
  scary and and definitely probably should have had OSHA on
• 37:14
  the scene, you know to maybe provide some guidance there.
• 37:18
  But I just looked at it like we got to get it done.
• 37:20
  You do the the the the strike part was right.
• 37:23
  I got to get this from point A to point B but you got to factor
• 37:26
  in CD&E you know hey if I knock down this wall what's behind it.
• 37:30
  Well, you know, again, we we we live and learn.
• 37:33
  What JD and I did, I only get out of our folding chairs and we
• 37:36
  knew he needed to throw another log on there and we was just one
• 37:39
  of those deals where it's like get reaching for the tabs and
• 37:41
  they gets alligator arms and Bob being the worker he is just.
• 37:44
  Like, yeah, boys ain't gonna do it.
• 37:46
  I'll do it. So I think there was maybe a
• 37:48
  little. Frustration in there too,
• 37:49
  because we just all kind of looking around and then he goes
• 37:51
  and grabs a log like this is what you do.
• 37:53
  You pick the log up and you throw it in the fire.
• 37:55
  You know, I mean, we almost, without saying it, but just kind
• 37:57
  of doing it and it went in a little hot, yeah.
• 38:01
  But hopefully, like I said, it doesn't roll yards down there
• 38:04
  with other campers hard Oh. Man I thought it was I thought
• 38:09
  it was great. I will tell this other thing
• 38:13
  real quick. I want to talk.
• 38:14
  I got to get to because so Bob and I like so post college it's
• 38:17
  it's been kind of intermittent like we kept up more with text
• 38:21
  like then we have actually been able to hang out.
• 38:23
  It's only been just a few times but I swear every time it was
• 38:25
  always very memorable and. And the trip to Atlanta and I
• 38:30
  you know what's funny? I don't even remember why we
• 38:32
  were in Atlanta. It was like somebody's bachelor
• 38:34
  party, somebody's. Bachelor party.
• 38:36
  I was there, we were there. And this is like 04 to 08
• 38:40
  somewhere in that range. And I don't even know when or
• 38:42
  maybe 10, I don't know. But it's been a minute.
• 38:45
  But dude, I remember, I don't remember anything that we did
• 38:48
  that night. Like I remember we went around,
• 38:49
  we were hung out in the Buckhead area.
• 38:50
  But what I do remember is we were in some bar and we walked
• 38:55
  in the bathroom and dude. It was just normal, right?
• 38:58
  Everybody's going to use the bathroom.
• 38:59
  It should, it shouldn't be the memorable experience, but it was
• 39:04
  so good. It was the best thing I've ever
• 39:06
  seen happen in the bathroom. And so Bob, there's a dude
• 39:10
  that's an attendant in there. He's got all the stuff going,
• 39:12
  you know, and everybody's just kind of quiet because you get in
• 39:15
  the bathroom and let's keep talking.
• 39:17
  Let's all do our business, get out of here, right.
• 39:18
  And so there's two or three of us in there and a couple other
• 39:21
  people in there that we don't know.
• 39:22
  And. And Bob walks up to that dude.
• 39:24
  It's doing the the attendant guy.
• 39:26
  And Bob just breaks into a little rap dude and do what's
• 39:30
  what's so crazy? I can still hear it.
• 39:33
  I know the words to it. You know, it's like it
• 39:35
  immediately. I mean, he started in, he was
• 39:37
  like, looked at him and started bouncing his head a little bit.
• 39:40
  And I was like, oh, something's about to happen.
• 39:41
  And he was like. Wash your hands.
• 39:44
  Pay the man right? Wash them past.
• 39:48
  We started beatboxing in the bathroom.
• 39:51
  Everybody's dancing around that. It was so good, that man that
• 39:54
  was yeah, I remember. I like I said, I remember
• 40:00
  there's there's different, different, different bars of
• 40:03
  that I do do recall. You know that means it was a
• 40:07
  great. Night.
• 40:08
  It was unbelievable. Like if that had been some sort
• 40:10
  of like today's social media world, like that'd have like 20
• 40:13
  million views. Because that bathroom just went
• 40:15
  from yeah. Thrown man, peeing to, mixing a
• 40:18
  rapping like beatboxing, jumping around.
• 40:21
  The attendant loved it. Like everybody's like just
• 40:23
  getting after it, you know? We just danced out of there in a
• 40:25
  train of people. Yeah, back back to Survivor and
• 40:31
  Palau #1 Tom, who eventually goes on to win.
• 40:38
  He kind of ate. He kind of ate your lunch a
• 40:40
  little bit, but he ate everybody's lunch.
• 41:05
  Yeah. For the for the record, you were
• 40:45
  not, you were not alone. He seemed like, I don't know how
• 40:49
  much interaction that you ever actually had with him because
• 40:53
  y'all were on separate tribes beyond you.
• 40:56
  Were you were there with the competitive moments.
• 40:59
  Did you ever see him outside of the show or or anything like
• 41:02
  that as a good? Absolutely.
• 41:05
  Hey, TomTom. You know what you see is what
• 41:08
  you get. Tom Westman, probably one of the
• 41:12
  most genuine people that I've ever had the opportunity to run,
• 41:16
  to run across. OK, Survivor.
• 41:17
  No Survivor gameplay, no gameplay.
• 41:19
  You know, he's the same guy inside the game that he is
• 41:22
  outside of the game. He, you know, you know, talk
• 41:26
  about working, you know, working smarter, not harder.
• 41:28
  You know, TomTom was a killer, you know, But the thing about it
• 41:32
  is he knew when to turn it on, when to turn off.
• 41:34
  You know you can't run. Turn around.
• 41:35
  That was my weakness there Brantley is I, you know I I
• 41:39
  label myself as a killer but I I had my killer switch on like
• 41:43
  from the time I went I've got up to the time I went to bed.
• 41:46
  Problem with that is is you you'll you'll you'll run
• 41:50
  yourself to to into the ground doing that you know you just you
• 41:53
  know nobody's a machine. Although people think they are
• 41:57
  you You know what I mean? You got to know when.
• 41:58
  When we got to know when to put on the pressure and when to back
• 42:02
  off. You know when to press the gas,
• 42:03
  when to put on the brake. Tom had that part mastered, you
• 42:08
  know, so like I say, he was really, really good, really good
• 42:11
  at that. But yeah, I remember we would go
• 42:15
  to New York. It's now, it's been some years,
• 42:17
  you know, since I was probably it's probably been you know, I
• 42:20
  don't know 9 or 10 years since I've had the opportunity to bump
• 42:24
  into Tom, but. You know, we would go to New
• 42:27
  York. We'd see him and stuff like so
• 42:28
  he's, you know, awesome guy, good family man.
• 42:31
  I mean he's, you know if you're in a crunch you won't, you won't
• 42:34
  Tom close by for sure. He definitely seemed like that
• 42:37
  kind of that kind of cat. Is there something that you
• 42:41
  would do if I know watching those seasons back once you were
• 42:45
  home and and and all of that if you could go back is what was
• 42:49
  portrayed in the show on camera that we saw.
• 42:52
  Was that what happened, you know, I mean, is that how it
• 42:56
  well? Yeah.
• 42:58
  Oh, absolutely, Brantley. So one one thing about Mark
• 43:01
  Burnett, Mark, you know who obviously his, you know,
• 43:04
  production studios are behind Survivor and various things, you
• 43:07
  know, is, you know, he's very big on, you know, on on, you
• 43:11
  know, everything being organic and genuine in the whole 9
• 43:14
  yards. So my point is, is that I can
• 43:17
  only vouch for Survivor. Yeah.
• 43:18
  What you see is what you get. You know this business about,
• 43:22
  well that, you know, I was portrayed as, you know, as.
• 43:25
  As you know, being lazy or I was portrayed as being a maniac or
• 43:29
  whatever. Somebody may say well.
• 43:31
  You were? Lazy.
• 43:32
  You like you went on like a vacation and slept all the time.
• 43:35
  Or no, I mean it. If somebody moved your wooden
• 43:38
  toothbrush to the right, you had a complete meltdown.
• 43:40
  Yeah, you're pretty, pretty lunatic, Y or whatever you want
• 43:43
  to call it, you know? So yeah, what you what you see
• 43:46
  is, is what you get 100%. So yeah, how many camera men,
• 43:51
  women are around like the camp when y'all are camping and are
• 43:55
  they out of the way? Like, do you kind of not see
• 43:58
  them, I mean? Yeah, Yeah.
• 44:00
  During during the day, you typically have.
• 44:04
  You know, 22, what I call 2 main cameras that are, you know,
• 44:08
  getting most of the action to boom mics, you know, kind of
• 44:11
  getting things simultaneously and then you have what a field
• 44:13
  producer walking. By getting maybe you know.
• 44:16
  Other footage you know that maybe the main action can't get
• 44:19
  or whatever. So typically have about 3
• 44:21
  cameras during the day during challenges because there's so
• 44:27
  many people involved. You got up, you can have up to
• 44:29
  40 people in the challenge or you can well not 40 people.
• 44:32
  You have up to 20 people in a challenge or?
• 44:35
  18 you know doing different things.
• 44:37
  You know you can have anywheres, you know, 15 to 20 camera
• 44:40
  operators and boom mics and if you know and now obviously with
• 44:43
  with drones and all you got all that going on right?
• 44:46
  Right. And and so forth and so a
• 44:51
  production of people like I said you and then just from the
• 44:55
  resource perspective on the challenges, I mean it'll it can
• 44:58
  take anywhere from 20 to 30 prop guys to do whatever it is that
• 45:02
  you got going on. At night you typically only have
• 45:07
  like 1 camera operator. You know, just because at night
• 45:10
  there's not a whole lot. There may be a what we call a
• 45:13
  couple of show Mans moments going on.
• 45:15
  All right. Yeah, not romance, but show
• 45:17
  Mans, you know, if, which if that goes down, I'll tell you,
• 45:21
  you're so nasty and dirty. That's wow, you know, Well, that
• 45:25
  answers one of my questions. So yeah.
• 45:27
  Yeah, I mean, there's people that have gotten me, you know,
• 45:30
  whatever. Yeah, and stuff.
• 45:31
  But but man, I like to say there's gotta.
• 45:34
  Yeah, it's got to be love at first sight or or whatever else
• 45:38
  you want to label it. Well, you did.
• 45:39
  First sight. You were labeled the stinkiest
• 45:41
  at camp. I'm sure that you're really
• 45:43
  proud of that, but, you know, whatever.
• 45:45
  Yeah, I got a feeling that everybody hard is working too,
• 45:48
  you know? Yeah, I don't think anybody
• 45:50
  would want to prop themselves up to being the most, uh, high, you
• 45:55
  know, uh, number one hygiene going on out there.
• 45:57
  Things change after 24 to 48 hours, don't I mean?
• 46:00
  Quickly, you become a science experiment?
• 46:02
  Yep, absolutely. I would think after a couple of
• 46:05
  days, three or four days of being out there, you finally you
• 46:08
  ignore the cameras. They're no longer like you
• 46:11
  don't. Yeah, you do.
• 46:13
  I mean, you you do. I mean, they're there.
• 46:15
  You see them. But I mean, like, you know, I've
• 46:18
  never understood, you know, Survivor.
• 46:21
  I mean, like when you try to get a private conversation watch.
• 46:24
  I mean like. They got to follow you.
• 46:26
  You know what I mean? Like it's.
• 46:29
  I mean, like there's nothing you go on there knowing that every
• 46:32
  single thing you do is going to be filmed and documented.
• 46:35
  So, I mean, that's just something you got to deal with,
• 46:37
  you know? Absolutely.
• 46:39
  Is it when when you're when you're voted all for or however
• 46:43
  it goes down, you're no longer there and you go like, was it on
• 46:47
  a boat? Where did y'all stay afterwards?
• 46:49
  And what's that experience like is?
• 46:52
  It yeah. Is it like you've got air
• 46:54
  conditioning? A shower, food, you?
• 46:56
  Can just be yourself. Yes and no.
• 47:00
  You definitely have food in a shower.
• 47:03
  Yay. But on on Palauan, Guatemala,
• 47:06
  though, they call it the Ponderosa.
• 47:08
  All right. I don't know.
• 47:10
  That's just the name. When you get voted off and you
• 47:12
  go to the jury, it's called the Ponderosa.
• 47:14
  OK, wherever that's at. Some seasons frankly, you know,
• 47:18
  you do have a hotel and all that, but in Palau on Guatemala,
• 47:21
  which I didn't do the jury and pull out, but I was there for a
• 47:23
  little bit before we jumped on a flight and went to Australia or
• 47:27
  wherever we went. But to that point though, you,
• 47:30
  you were in tents, OK Yeah. And you had like a Hut or an
• 47:35
  area that you would go for you know, meals and different things
• 47:39
  that the locals or villagers or whatever would you know pair for
• 47:43
  you know that production had you know.
• 47:46
  Acquired their services, but but yeah, there was number.
• 47:50
  I didn't ever experience any A/C or anything like that coming
• 47:53
  off. But I mean, obviously, yeah,
• 47:55
  none of that. But I mean, you did have access
• 47:57
  to a shower and you're basically like camping with camping with
• 48:00
  luxury if there is such a thing, you know?
• 48:02
  So compared to what y'all were going through, it looks, I mean,
• 48:08
  that was rough, dude. It looked all of those and and
• 48:11
  maybe now it still looks rough but it doesn't look as bad as it
• 48:15
  was then when you played and even it really you know it's
• 48:20
  been a handful of years. I don't think it's easy.
• 48:21
  I'm not knocking it. I'm not saying that it's yeah,
• 48:24
  easy at all. But they do have rewards and
• 48:27
  things that you can win a lot earlier.
• 48:29
  It seems of absolutely went and things like that that you just
• 48:32
  can't you just can't do in the beginning.
• 48:35
  Y'all are like truly naked and afraid.
• 48:39
  Yeah, it was I, you know, from people that done the show
• 48:42
  multiple times and you know and I've only done it twice, but
• 48:46
  I've done it enough to know, you know, that they tell me, you
• 48:50
  know when when the show first start the fir the early years in
• 48:52
  the early 2000s to where they're at right now.
• 48:38
  Yeah, Lee style you. Yes, it's still hard.
• 48:56
  It's still challenging. But I think like right now the
• 48:58
  show is like 21 days. I think just because of
• 49:02
  production cost and very you know when we were doing it was
• 49:04
  40. And then there's a few more, a
• 49:08
  few more rewards are involved now and different things may
• 49:11
  still put out a good product. Oh yeah, 100%.
• 49:14
  But I'm they're having to, you know, you know redefine what
• 49:17
  they are and who they are and the purpose and and and that
• 49:21
  sort of thing, you know? Have they done that boulder
• 49:23
  challenge where you all y'all ruined?
• 49:25
  You really ruined your shoulders on?
• 49:27
  Oh. I still got scars to this day.
• 49:29
  Really. Yeah.
• 49:30
  Well, I look vicious. That look vicious.
• 49:33
  Brother that look awful. Yeah you're.
• 49:35
  Yeah, I don't know if they've done.
• 49:36
  I'm sure they have jab because you typically see.
• 49:40
  You know those challenges come back into play at some point or
• 49:44
  in the the seasons. It resonates with me when you're
• 49:46
  taking that, taking your shirt off, it's dark.
• 49:49
  It's at night. You're just, you know, yeah,
• 49:51
  that was cringy of like, Oh my God, that dude.
• 49:54
  Yeah, but you put your body on the line and you did that in
• 49:57
  every single challenge Have do you?
• 50:00
  Do you? Do you like people from Georgia
• 50:03
  now? Oh, wow.
• 50:04
  Yeah. That was I do.
• 50:07
  I do because I obviously but. Man.
• 50:10
  Yeah, Jamie. He turned in to be a very good
• 50:13
  friend. But.
• 50:15
  Right. He and I though we we did not.
• 50:18
  Lack of a better term, we did not.
• 50:20
  G Hall. From day one, did I mean just at
• 50:23
  all? There was just two bulls in a
• 50:25
  row. Yeah, two bulls start like on
• 50:27
  the flight to there before you dropped off.
• 50:30
  Was there something had to have happened for y'all to?
• 50:32
  Not let each other really from the same part of the country.
• 50:35
  Here's the thing. I don't think anything happened
• 50:38
  rightly. It's what didn't happen, OK?
• 50:41
  Meaning that you know, he and I, we just we just didn't Click to
• 50:46
  begin with. For whatever reason, I didn't
• 50:49
  know he could have. You know, I didn't know Jamie
• 50:52
  from a can of paint. OK, to start with, but I knew.
• 50:55
  Right when I was around, and this is the truth, you know, I
• 50:57
  knew immediately, I said. He's.
• 50:58
  From Georgia, I just knew it. I just knew it.
• 51:01
  I just knew it, you know, And he was, and he was a great
• 51:07
  competitor, let me just say that.
• 51:09
  And he was, he was very strong and and much stronger mean a lot
• 51:13
  of different ways, right? But.
• 51:16
  Yeah, we yeah, I've, I buried the hatchet on a on on on the
• 51:20
  rivalry for sure. Right.
• 51:23
  Right. I think you didn't and I haven't
• 51:24
  seen this but didn't you do it in the post survey in the lat
• 51:28
  that like when they all go to New York City we all went to New
• 51:30
  York City or whatever. Y'all had y'all publicly hug me
• 51:34
  now buried the Yeah yeah that's right.
• 51:36
  Yeah. I thought.
• 51:36
  I thought, I remember that. Yeah, yeah, you know, I think it
• 51:40
  was one of those things where, you know.
• 51:44
  You know, things are going on. Things are happening.
• 51:46
  You get it. But you know, all of us come
• 51:50
  from a place where, hey, you know, we'll, we'll let things
• 51:53
  slide. But you know, I'm not going to
• 51:55
  be your public doormat for national TV, buddy.
• 51:58
  You know what I mean? So.
• 52:00
  Yeah, wrong. No good, I think.
• 52:01
  Good for you to have that presence of mind while you're in
• 52:04
  that environment to be thinking, you know, big, big picture.
• 52:10
  Kind of brings me to this, to this question.
• 52:12
  Do you think you can win that game without lying, cheating or
• 52:17
  stealing? Absolutely.
• 52:18
  You win it. No, I mean, I know that what was
• 52:22
  there, you know, what was the movie with, you know, Tom Vince
• 52:28
  Vaughn's and it, you know, played Desmond.
• 52:33
  Hacksaw, Hacksaw Ridge. Is that it?
• 52:37
  OK. Yeah.
• 52:37
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 52:38
  Yeah. That sounds right.
• 52:39
  OK, well, you play, you know, the guy plays.
• 52:42
  I can't tell the actors but. He plays the.
• 52:45
  You know the military. You know the person the Marine
• 52:48
  or the, you know, the Marine. I think that you know went
• 52:52
  through combat, true story, and never used a firearm.
• 52:55
  You know, now I get that happened, all right, but on the
• 52:58
  game of Survivor? On.
• 53:01
  You know that guy was a medic, but on the game Survivor, that
• 53:04
  rightly danced your question. On No, I don't.
• 53:06
  I personally don't think that because of the nature of the
• 53:09
  game that you can win it without out waiting out, lasting out
• 53:13
  playing and doing what you have to do to do just that.
• 53:16
  I mean, I. I guess I I relate that on to a,
• 53:22
  you know, to to stay in a linebacker.
• 53:25
  Can win the national championship without putting
• 53:28
  their helmet in somebody's chest.
• 53:29
  Like, I just don't. I don't see it, you know?
• 53:32
  Yeah, I never saw that you you didn't play the game that way.
• 53:35
  You played it straight up, right?
• 53:37
  And there's there's so many different ways that that you can
• 53:40
  that you can play it and you watch those folks over the
• 53:43
  years, you know, and and different stuff and but that's
• 53:46
  what I think is so awesome about.
• 53:48
  It's a social experiment and your true personality.
• 53:51
  When it comes down to it, what you really are is what comes
• 53:57
  out. Absolutely.
• 53:58
  And that is who you are. And that's who I wanted to be.
• 54:03
  You know you. To win the game today, Brent.
• 54:07
  And even then, you know, you got to make a big move at some
• 54:09
  point. OK.
• 54:10
  Right. People that don't make big moves
• 54:12
  don't win that game. And it doesn't always have to be
• 54:15
  the line sheets. I mean, you've got people that
• 54:16
  have created characters out there.
• 54:18
  I'll survive. I mean, go to Cameo right now
• 54:20
  and you can find them on there. I'm almost like, if I get on
• 54:23
  Cameo, we got some problems because I'm not able to pay the
• 54:25
  bills. You'll need to, like, revisit me
• 54:27
  and check my temperature. OK.
• 54:29
  As long as there's a weed either or a shovel or an axe around
• 54:32
  won't be able to pay the bills, right.
• 54:34
  Yeah, but I. I'm saying all that tongue in
• 54:36
  cheek sarcastic a little bit that you know people have
• 54:39
  created all these characters and all that and I get it.
• 54:41
  That's their thing. But that's that is not who who,
• 54:44
  who I am. You know I do think that you got
• 54:48
  to do what you got to do you know to win that game.
• 54:51
  But I'm but I always say that people that get voted out of
• 54:54
  Survivor Brantly that were lied to or cheated or whatever.
• 54:59
  All that happened, then what was already coming to them?
• 55:01
  OK. Whether you or somebody else and
• 55:03
  you could be on that receiving and too.
• 55:05
  Did you have any big moves that you had potentially planned if
• 55:09
  you had had merged or anything that you were kind of that just
• 55:13
  never got to have those wheels in motion or?
• 55:16
  I knew I. Knew that I would have to do.
• 55:18
  That at some point I I you know like I never.
• 55:22
  Had to really get them out. Was on a side where hey, you
• 55:25
  voting. For me tonight or whatever.
• 55:26
  And I'm like, right, right. I'm gonna vote for him.
• 55:28
  Of course I'm not in your name. And and the other and the nine
• 55:31
  other people are too, OK. And that's the thing about
• 55:34
  Survivor, which you got to worry.
• 55:35
  But one thing I know about Survivor is, is that if
• 55:38
  nobody's. Talking to you.
• 55:40
  You're going home. Problem.
• 55:41
  That's the problem. Yeah, yeah.
• 55:44
  I mean, you better start scrambling.
• 55:46
  There's everybody's talking and everybody's talking at camp.
• 55:49
  And yeah, you're hearing it out of both sides of your mouth.
• 55:52
  I mean, it would be hard to know who to believe.
• 55:55
  And I guess that's when it comes down to it.
• 55:57
  And you, you, they do a really, really good job of portraying
• 56:02
  that on the show and making you feel that emotion at home.
• 56:06
  But I can only imagine what it's actually like when you're out
• 56:09
  there. 25, seven, miserable is all get out, you know?
• 56:13
  And it it doesn't, honestly doesn't look like fun.
• 56:16
  I mean. No, no, I mean you're, I mean by
• 56:19
  that day five or six, just thinking what in the world I
• 56:21
  sign up for, you know? Because of you know, you're
• 56:23
  dehydrated and snap, but you know.
• 56:27
  Your body does. Get used to it and I say.
• 56:29
  This in a bizarre. But you know, you're out there
• 56:32
  with people. That they may be a little
• 56:35
  different than you or, you know, whatever, but you know, people
• 56:38
  do encourage other people, you know, so you're out there with
• 56:40
  other people. Are like, hey, you know.
• 56:42
  Come on, you don't mean you only see, like, you know somebody's
• 56:45
  line about it, all the little you know stuff, but you know.
• 56:48
  There's also a lot of folks that they're.
• 56:49
  Picking each other up too. Because, you know, I mean like
• 56:52
  you'll probably never go and do that experience and you're in it
• 56:55
  together. You're in it together sense.
• 56:57
  Too, and those memories that you build?
• 57:00
  Me or always will be way more important than any money that
• 57:04
  you win because you spend money and it's going, but you'll
• 57:08
  always have those memories, you know.
• 57:10
  So that's my two cents. That's true.
• 57:12
  Exactly. I've got one last question and
• 57:14
  I'll, I'll get off of my Survivor soapbox.
• 57:17
  Jeff Probst. Is he who he is?
• 57:21
  He looks like he. I mean, I he's been the face of
• 57:23
  Survivor for the whole time. He does an incredible job.
• 57:28
  Is our tribal councils contrived?
• 57:32
  Is there chatter and talk before y'all all start talking or they
• 57:36
  start rolling about? Is that just?
• 57:39
  Those tribal counselors are very, I would say production
• 57:42
  does anything that's quote serious, Brantley, it is
• 57:44
  monitoring those tribal counselor, those tribal, those
• 57:47
  tribal councils. You you can't talk on the way
• 57:50
  over. You can't.
• 57:51
  I mean, yeah, there's people that, you know, it's but you,
• 57:55
  they'll, they take that pretty serious, you know and plus as a
• 57:58
  contestant, you sign an agreement basically saying that
• 58:01
  you're working for production, so.
• 58:04
  If you, you know, disrespect them, if you you know, you know,
• 58:09
  you know, treat them negatively or whatever, do you know what?
• 58:12
  You don't want to mess with them.
• 58:13
  You don't want to get them. You don't want to piss him out.
• 58:15
  Can you talk to them? Well, and they're essentially
• 58:18
  another player. Oh, you can talk to them,
• 58:21
  They'll, you know, talk back. But they're not going to tell
• 58:23
  you where to find food or they're not going to tell you
• 58:25
  something from absolutely fishing or something.
• 58:27
  If you want. Yeah, absolutely.
• 58:29
  Yeah, they'll talk to you a little bit.
• 58:30
  Absolutely. And so then they're essentially
• 58:33
  another player of the game. So you you want to be able to
• 58:37
  to? To be able to to work with them
• 58:39
  and stuff, you know, and partner with them.
• 58:42
  And then you know also you talk about Jeff Probst, you know,
• 58:44
  yes, he is who you see he's a very genuine guy, very
• 58:47
  charismatic guy. He wants what's the best for
• 58:50
  you. Through the years,
• 58:52
  unfortunately, we've had a couple of cast members from
• 58:54
  Palau, Jen Lyon and Angie Jakus, who passed away unfortunately to
• 59:01
  cancer. You know, breast cancer, you
• 59:04
  know when everybody. On the on your listeners and
• 59:07
  everybody's had to deal with that through the years through
• 59:10
  various things right. But I've never you know he was
• 59:14
  very intentional and genuine when all that was he is who he
• 59:18
  is on the show. But he's also got a got a very
• 59:21
  personal side to and you know when people go through things
• 59:25
  that you know think you know he's uh I remember during those
• 59:28
  time was the time with those during that time with those two.
• 59:31
  Through folks Jen and Angie, you know, he did hate his part, you
• 59:35
  know, and he recognized that they were valuable and important
• 59:39
  not only to that show but also as humans, you know, and you
• 59:42
  appreciate, you know, seeing. Absolutely, absolutely.
• 59:44
  Well, I had to ask about Jeff Prob.
• 59:47
  So then we'll wrap it up on on this.
• 59:50
  I want to know if you could do it again.
• 59:53
  Those two chat. The two rewards that you got to
• 59:55
  do. You got to swim with the
• 59:56
  jellyfish, which was incredible footage that we got to see that
• 1:00:00
  looked really cool. But I can only imagine what it's
• 1:00:03
  like actually in the water, not on camera.
• 1:00:05
  And then of course you're ziplining through Guatemala.
• 1:00:09
  You look like you had a blast on both of those.
• 1:00:12
  If you could only do one of them again, which one would you do?
• 1:00:16
  Ziplining through Guatemala 100% Swimming with the jellyfish was
• 1:00:21
  fine and neat and all that, but at some point you just like
• 1:00:24
  swimming, swimming around a bunch of plastic, you know what
• 1:00:26
  I mean? Like you got this stuff just
• 1:00:27
  hanging all over you, But. But the ziplining in Guatemala
• 1:00:31
  is 100% man what? What an experience.
• 1:00:34
  The Tarzan of Survivor would say.
• 1:00:36
  I mean, that's what that's what she's.
• 1:00:37
  Not going to choose water over vine.
• 1:00:39
  Come on, man. No, absolutely.
• 1:00:42
  Absolutely. Not I know that that you've got
• 1:00:44
  a busy day you've we appreciate. Carving out some time to come on
• 1:00:48
  here. I'm sure that I will think of 48
• 1:00:52
  more questions that I have for you just on Survivor at some
• 1:00:57
  point. But hopefully you'll come back,
• 1:00:59
  we'll talk more football, we'll talk a little bit more Survivor
• 1:01:02
  stuff and then we'll just talk about life mainly because, yeah,
• 1:01:06
  Bobby, John is a very interesting fellow.
• 1:01:08
  What you see is what you get. It's an honor that he would take
• 1:01:11
  the time to come here on tigs bit.
• 1:01:13
  So thanks so much, Bobby. John.
• 1:01:15
  And and look forward to catching up with you again.
• 1:01:18
  Well. Brantley's been a pleasure,
• 1:01:19
  Chad. Always, you know, always am,
• 1:01:21
  buddy that that respect is only just grown since our time and
• 1:01:25
  Troy continues to do that. And I just appreciate what y'all
• 1:01:29
  are doing and and and going out and finding people that can add
• 1:01:33
  value to this world and that's what you guys are doing and
• 1:01:36
  telling their stories. And I'm.
• 1:01:37
  Glad to be a part of it.