AM Show Hr 1 | Johnny Nash’s Houston Legacy & College Kids Gone Wild

He goes to Jack Yates. He goes national. And then he does the thing nobody was doing. He goes to Jamaica. And at a party in Kingston, he hears a skinny young man sing. And he signs him, records his songs, puts them on American radio before anybody here knew the name, walks him in the door to the man who made him immortal. That skinny kid was Bob Marley. Then our guy cuts one of his own. Number one, four weeks, 1972. You've heard it a thousand times. You probably sang it in the car this morning. And then he came home, raised horses, built a rodeo arena for black cowboys out here, and he's buried in Pearland, Texas. Happy birthday, Johnny Nash. I can see clearly now. I can see clearly now the rain is gone. I can see all obstacles in my way. Going to the dark clouds that had me blind. It's going to be bright, bright, bright, sunshiny day. It's going to be bright, bright.

I think I can make it now. The pain is gone. Thank you to the incredible duo of Darrell Kunda on vocals and Jim Mud on writing. Two days, short notice, both occasions, to build an opening introduction to... Two very special people, Frank Beard, of course, yesterday and Johnny Nash today. Before we get into the topics of the day, Johnny Nash would be 86 years old today. This is a true American story that happens to have a racial element. Not everything does, not everything should, but this one does. A young poor man in Houston in the 50s. I got to know Johnny pretty well back in the early 2000s. He and his wife, Carly, wonderful, wonderful lady. And his son taught my wife to ride. They had a place called Windows, which was a horse riding facility. He was very big in the black cowboy movement. He was very big into horses generally. They trained people's horses. They would stable those horses. They would teach riding lessons. He was really, really into that, as was Carly, as was their son. And I had to know him very well, and he told me some amazing stories. I'm not the only one that I ever heard them, so I'm not suggesting they haven't been heard. But some of them I don't think are in wide circulation. I think my favorite of which was when he was a young man in about second grade, I think it was, maybe third, fourth, but I think it was around second grade. He was asked on the local TV show. Last night I asked people to post as a roll call at about 10 o'clock with a, do you remember, Michael, do you remember when? And it was interesting how many people asked me, do you remember when? And then they would, Captain Command or whatever the show was in Houston. They asked me how many folks, they asked me about TV shows that they grew up with and that they watched, which of course I didn't know because. Being from Orange, we got KFDM, and we got the Beaumont stations. We didn't get the Houston stations. So local television, locally produced in a studio. Well, he became the star of such a show. And at a very young age, his father was a limo driver, a livery driver for hire. But his father wanted him to be a star. So his father said, I will pick you up every day from school. As your limo driver, you don't tell him I'm your dad. So his dad would pull up at school. He would get out early. His dad would pull up to the curb. He would hop out. He had the hat on the black suit, you know, the reservoir dog's uniform, black suit, the black tight, the washer. And he would come around to the back of the limo and he would open the door and Johnny would.

trundled himself into the back seat, closed the door as if he had to president the United States. He'd go back and, how was your day, son? But nobody saw that. And he would drive him to Channel 2 every day. And he would wait there while he did his show. And then from there, it was Arthur Godfrey's show that he considers launching him. He went to New York, got sort of a residency there, and then he just worked, and he developed, and he became the Johnny Nash we knew. As you heard Daryl say and Jim in their introduction, at one point he went to Jamaica. He was in this kind of finding himself phase, and he discovered Bob Marley. And in order to bring Bob Marley on to Island Records where he was the star, there was a whole deal worked out. But Bob Marley was to appear in seven movies with him in Sweden, which was making, this was kind of the black exploitation era. The early black exploitation era, and Johnny loved the movies, and I think Bob Marley ended up in one or two, and he kind of blew up. When Johnny Nash exposed him to the world, the Bob Marley reggae style sort of blew up, and they remained friends, but Bob Marley was now listening to people who are offering him, you know, money and this and that, and I think it a little bit, I think it went to his head. and Johnny Nash continued to perform, continued to churn out music. He did fulfill his movie requirement, and he was in his seven movies in Sweden that are out there, which is interesting in and of itself. But what a prince of a man. I don't collect stamps or cars. I don't play golf. I don't go hunt or fish. I don't do things that people do that take time and energy in a positive way. I collect interesting people. And when I say that, it comes off the wrong way I know. I like to be around people who have done interesting things. They may not be rich or famous, but they have done something that I can learn from in my own life. And I'm fascinated by people's life stories. Because in the middle of all this, you get married and you have kids. And we think of them in a linear fashion as a Wikipedia page, but there's so much more to fill in out of all of that. Of course, we lost him. A few years ago, I have not talked to his lovely wife, Carly, in a while. His actual birthday was yesterday. I had remembered it incorrectly. So when I gave it to the guys, and then we had Frank yesterday. So if you're marking it down for yes, for your own calendars, it's the 19th. But rest in peace, Ronnie Nash, a Houston legend. That our country is failing you today.

Invest in Kleenex, ladies and gentlemen. And this is the Michael Bari Weiss Show. It's typically very difficult for the party of the sitting president during a midterm election, midterm, of course, meaning the two years in between the every four years, the quadrennial presidential election. The two years in between, the nation has a natural balance to it. Things sort of settle in in a symmetrical way at level. And so we have had a tendency that can drive candidates, office holders, consultants, and Republicans or Democrats, crazy. The nation has tended to moderate somewhere in the middle. To the extent that the two parties were slightly askew of the middle, the nation's political tone, temperature, has tended to reduce to the mean, to return to the mean. There is a happy spot in the nation goes there. It might lurch left or right, Democrat or Republican, but it comes back to about the middle. So that when Clinton gets elected in 92, first Democrats since 76 to get elected as president in 92 when he returns to the White House in 94, the nation gave him his comeuppance for his gun bill. Remember the assault rifle bill? Well, what makes it assault rifle? I don't know. Kind of like Stewart said. I just know it when I see it. It's never been a proper definition. And that would normally be the case. Republicans would have a massive challenge. And we do have a challenge. And we have a big challenge in Texas, but make no mistake. As my friend Jesse Kelly says, all the Democrats have to do is not be crazy and they could win. They can't do it. They have put some candidates forward, a whole slate of them that are so bonkers. that even a few Democrats are having to say, hey, guys, they're stink on this and it's going to get on me. We got to do something about it. John Fetterman, James Carville, Rahm Emanuel, Bill Maher, because they understand, hey, we want to elect our people, we want to beat Trump. They're not even criticizing Trump anymore because now they understand. It's not a question of just let's put an alternative to Trump on the ballot. Let's look at the candidate from Florida. Angie Nixon, she won the Democrat primary for the U.S. Senate in Florida. She's a member of the Democrat Socialists of America, and she is thrilled to be going to Washington, D.C. No real concern for the people of Florida and representing their agenda. Just wants to impeach Trump. So I'm looking forward to going to Washington, D.C. to provide everyday hardworking people with some relief after we work to, you know, impeach and I vote to remove Donald Trump and we hold his administration accountable. I'm so excited, Kay. I'm excited for Jasmine Crockett.

She managed to figure out a way to win a statewide Democrat nomination after losing in Texas. She just changed her name. God bless her. The girl's resourceful. So Angie Nixon in Florida was asked what she sees as the biggest civil rights challenge facing black Floridians today. Her answer, what, traces back to money. She says when companies aren't required to hire a black person instead of a white person, even if the white person has more years of experience, a higher score, a better record, if the government doesn't say, uh-uh, you'll hire the black person, you will discriminate against the white person. When that doesn't happen, it turns out companies don't hire as many black people. What do you see as the biggest civil rights challenges facing black Floridians today? That is a really good question. I would say the biggest civil rights challenge is, I mean, it all stems back to, I mean, it's everything, but it stems back to like, it all stems back to money. It's the dollar bill, right? And. Again, we had nearly 800,000 black people lose their jobs under Donald Trump. And that's because of these anti-DEI policies. And these anti-DGI policies are basically allowing companies to discriminate against us. People are more likely now to get away with housing discrimination, hiring discrimination, and all the things. And like, that's one of the main issues that we're seeing. She must have gone to finishing school to be able to talk so smart. I swear. And what we're talking about is hiring discrimination and housing discrimination and all the things, you know? And it all come back. It all come back to that dollar, you know. That's the thing, you know, because if they're not hiring, you know, you don't have no dollar, you know, and that's why we're going to impeach Trump, see, because discrimination, inslaveration, and respirations, and, you know, and, you know, and all the things, you know, the things. And here is, how do you answer for the fact that you are a member of the Democrat Socialists of America who have said that they want to do away with the Constitution, close the prisons, end policing, defund the police force, and impose socialism, take away people's ability to have their own health care insurance, because, you know, the government's going to be. How do you, I mean, you're a member of the Democrat Socialists of America. In Florida, you know, 25 years ago, I read a stat that 25% of Cubans, of Floridians had Cuban blood coursing through their veins. You're going to tell people who fled Castro? You're going to tell people who had a good life. Professors, business owners, priests.

You're going to tell those people who had to flee their life on a raft in the salty water? and land up wet foot on American soil to start over with another language that you're going to impose what they ran from when you think Castro's a good guy, and you think those people are going to vote for you? Quickly before you go, you're a Democratic socialist running in a statewide race with a large population of people who have fled governments that call themselves socialist. How do you convince those voters when they hear socialists that they may see that as disqualifying? Yeah, for sure. So I want to be clear. I just recently became a member of the Democratic Socialist. I've also just recently become a member of the Working Families Party. And I let people know that nothing's changed about me. I am someone who's going to stand up for them to make sure that I listen to them and continue to fight for them and what their needs are. I'm going to listen and fight. Yeah, I'm part of this party is doing all that crazy stuff. But just real recent, though. I mean, I just started. So, you know what I'm saying? I did. And I'm going to listen and fight, you know, and speak truth to power. If this was a Michael Bari Weiss monologue, it would just be one ding after the other. A friend of mine, I'm not going to mention names. He sent me an email. He said, it's funny how many people you and I know together over the years. And I've known this guy for 25 years. Used to be my favorite bartender and general manager of the place that I hung out every day. You and I obviously know a lot of the same people. I've recently been doing some work for it's a husband-wife team that are good friends of mine. They live in the same neighborhood as, well, I can say this part, Larry and Wendy Bambridge, who are good friends of mine. The woman, who's the wife of the couple he's been doing work for, her father passed away a few months ago. She needed a gutter repaired on his house. So she texted me. I went out to Cove, Texas, and I took care of it for her. Of course, I didn't charge her for it. She's going through a tough time. I asked her about the trailer that she had, and I ended up buying it from her for my construction company, Bainbridge Construction Services. When I went to pick it up, this felling saw. Do you know what a felling saw is for mom? I guess it's to fell stuff. I don't know. I never heard of it. Can you look it up, F-E-L-L-I-N-G? Maybe it was a failing saw that was not working property. I don't know. When I went to pick it up, this felling saw was in the garage. It's a hand tool? A hand saw. That's called a felling saw. Makes sense. I was like, you know, he felled the tree. I was like fell as a verb. Bob feller, because he would fell stuff, remember? She asked if I wanted it because she had no clue what to do with it herself. I took it home, took it apart, cleaned it up. It's from somewhere between the 19-teens and the 1930s, according to Otto, the chat GPT I use. I ordered a brass nameplate for it so that whoever gets it after me knows a little bit of its rich history. I think it looks great, and it's a great reminder of what's really important in life. Have a wonderful day. These are really, really wonderful people.

And so there is a little plate like you would see at, you know, at a restaurant when they'll have employee of the month and there'll be 12 of them on there and they'll, you know, three down or three across, four down. And it's that same little, you know, just a, you know, your trophy shops do that. And every month or, you know, the president of the Kiwanis Club will have a, You know, they'll make a plaque and put it on the wall and who was the president during that period of time. I guess what I'm saying is there are rich opportunities all around you, relationships, things that make a day worth living. When he drove to Cove, Texas, he would have felt righteous about that. And many people will send me an email. and they're not really sure how to phrase it because what they're really doing is bragging on themselves that they are doing something nice. Not because they're bad people because you feel good that you're doing this. Don't you remember when you were a kid and you washed the dishes and that wasn't your chore? And afterwards you're waiting around like, anybody notice? I watched the dishes. Hey guys. I watched the dishes. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with that. I have said many times, and a lot of people will never grasp why I say this and what it means. I have said, do nice things for other people, but not for other people. Do nice things for other people for yourself. It is the most selfish thing you can do because it will give you so much joy. And then, if they don't appreciate it, it doesn't matter. You can't steal my joy. I did something nice for you. You don't deserve it. You didn't ask for it. Nobody else would have done it. But I did it because I'm a good person. I don't need you to agree. I feel good. Right? This is why no matter how rich somebody gets, no matter how many things they accumulate, toward the end of their life, I call it the stained glass period of life. They start wanting to put their name on the wall. He said, hey, I give you some money for the scholarship and the renovation project at the school and the renovation project at the capital campaign at the church. And there is nothing wrong with this. And there is nothing wrong with understanding that you do things like this because they feel good to do. Why does somebody go to a strip club? Not to put some girl through nursing school. They go there because they get some immediate physical gratification out of that. Why don't somebody go to a bar? It calms their inner. They enjoy the feeling. They enjoy the camaraderie. They're not trying to change the world. Trying to take the edge off. They like the way it makes them feel. Why do you go to the ballgame? You like leaving the day-to-day drudgery, stress, misery of crime and death and illness. You enjoy screaming and hollering for someone else to throw a ball, catch a ball, try to hit a ball, and run the basis. It is a very selfish act, and it feels good. And there is nothing wrong with Emily, my assistant uses the term self-care.

Never heard that before. But if I were to say, hey, Emily, what are you doing this weekend? Or if she said, you know, could I have a day off, it's going to be a self-care day. What does that mean? Well, I'm going to get my nails done. I'm going to go for a massage. I'm going to go for my doctor's appointment. And then Hootie, that's her daughter, and I are going to go get ice cream. It's a self-care day. So she's part of the therapy generation. I get that. She's in her early 30s. That generation has terms for everything. You don't just do something. Everything has to have a term. Throw back Thursday or, you know, we're friending or besting or all these things. What? Popatop Friday. Hey, whoa, that's us. Don't do that. But my point of all this is, in the course of doing what you're doing, and I say this because not to be judgmental. or critical. I notice a lot of people, and you might be one of them, and you might throw up a roadblock to listening to what I'm saying, and maybe it won't appeal to you, but maybe it might help somebody else. A lot of people get so consumed with painting within the lines, with staying on course, with doing what needs to be done, that there is, and this is a particularly a white person thing. There is this idea that I can never do anything that's enjoyable because that wouldn't be good. But I can throw up on Facebook, hey, you remember when you were seven and you did, I remember that. You haven't had fun since you were 12. But they don't realize that. little things like this, varying the routine, doing nice. When we went to see Lois at her house, she was 90, we've talked about that for five years. We enjoyed it. We brought her a Mr. Coffee because she didn't have a coffee machine. How much of Mr. Coffee costs? I mean, not very much. We got so, we personally, Lois enjoyed it, but make no mistake, we enjoyed it. Because when people understand that you will enjoy something instead of doing it for someone else, they'll do more of it. Michael Barry. You get more.

It's a great cover of a fantastic Sam Cook song. Sam Cook is probably the most underrated singer-songwriter in the American songbook. Michael, how can you say that? Everybody knows Sam Cook? They know him. Sam Cook wrote songs that he didn't even record that went on to be great. Everything Sam Cook did he wrote. And we're talking about standards. Talk about a hit machine. Everything he did was huge. We could talk about the songwriting. We could talk about the business acumen. And I understand that a lot of people don't like him because they see him as some sort of a black power. Don't confuse him with the modern era. Sam Cook came up at a time where it was tough to be a black. entertainer or athlete. And he understood that it was important, just as Oprah would, just as Michael Jackson would, just as a number of great artists, not just black, understood. You've got to own your masters. You've got to own your own product. The Beatles learned that the hard way. Sam Cook was in the process of that. Like a lot of people, his inability to keep his zipper closed. would cut short his life or if not cut short their life you know distract their ambitions shot by a motel owner at a low-end hotel but sam cook man the sam cook version i was going to say is they would do a you would hear the arrow going through you would hear the uh not frets what do they call what are the What are the feathers on the arrow? There's a term for that. You would hear the, you'd hear the, go through that. Oh, I love that a lot. I do believe, not Otis Redding. No, here's the difference between Otis Redding and Sam Cook. Now, Sam Cook lived another five years or so than Otis Reddy. And I think, I think Sam Cook's voice is as beautiful. as, oh, just writing, does not have the range, does not have the range, does not have the deep, deep love song ability to punch you in the face. But in terms of a, of a pop song of the era, every kid was singing, you send me. That was the term. That was, you know, I don't know what the hot term of today would be, but you send me was the way you told a girl or she told you, you'd have won, boo. Sam Cook, my God, how good was Sam Cook? That is, we could go through the Sam Cook songbook right now, and only 16, only 16. Best cover? Yes, Dr. Hook and the medicine show. Sam Cook, chain gang, Sam Cook. Wow, that's quality right there. I've heard from a number of you, and I see this on social media, parents taking their kid off to college and literally just breaking down. And I understand that the older generation, you know, my dad or maybe some people like that, they did go, what do you, suck it up, Buttercup, what are you doing? Why are you crying? Why are you crying? That's weird. Why are you kids going off to college? That's the next phase. You know, I think everybody deals with these things in their own way.

But it's a closing of a chapter for you and an opening of a chapter for them. And that is hard for some parents. I've whined about it for four years, so I'm good. I got it out of my system. People say, you're going to be okay? Yeah, I've kind of spent the last four years getting ready for the exit of my kids. So if I wanted to go in at night and give them a hug while they were just about to fall asleep and they'd go, is everything okay? Yeah, I just wanted to love on you. Just want to tell you you're going to be gone and I love you. I did it. So I got it out of the way. There's a lot of people that didn't, and they're struggling with it. And I'm okay with that. A friend of mine, a cop, told me about another friend of his, a cop, who took his kid to college. I can't remember where they went. SFA, Sam. I actually can't remember. I think it was SFA or Sam. and they were moving them in, and then they were driving back. And this guy talked to him and said, what are you doing? He said, I'm bawling like a baby. I can't imagine my baby girl is going off to college and, you know, she doesn't live at home. My friend, Ike Claypool said it well. He said, well, I don't get too worried about them. be in a way, having put two kids through costs now. He said because you can't think of it as they're gone for four years. They're gone for 80 days and then they move back in and they're home for 30 and they're gone for 80 days. And so, you know, you ease into these things. But I don't think any parent takes their kid to college, wherever it may be, Happy Valley, one of them. for their son to go off and run a cocaine ring. I just, I cannot imagine that anybody is thinking to themselves, well, make me proud, son, go off and run a cocaine ring. But that is exactly what has happened in Pennsylvania. Fox News reports. More than a dozen Penn State fraternity members are charged in connection with an alleged massive cocaine distribution ring. As one of the alleged ringleaders, Augustino Abatello, 24 of Westbury, New York, remains at large. I got to tell you, though, I got to, if you're going to be, if you're going to be the kingpin on college, I don't care what a spoiled brat you are and daddy bought you an Aston Martin. If you're Augustino Abatello, there's some street credit of that. People, people are going to take you more seriously. Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday announced that Abatello, this is the line that gets me, whose nickname was Pablo Pledge Cabar. I mean, it is a fraternity, and they are running Coke. Pablo Pledge Cabar is among 14 people who are facing charges related to the Coke trafficking operation where students and two off-campus fraternities were allegedly involved. Quote, this was coordinated and highly profitable drug trafficking crew revolving around two senior members of the fraternities, other fraternity brothers and pledges. So what do they have to, do you have to recruit the first year to go, hey, look, I'm going to be graduating now. Somebody's got to take this, got to have a line of succession. In fact, according to the evidence uncovered, cutting and packaging cocaine was for some pledges an indoctrination into the fraternities.

Are you kidding me? What do they do? They do any hazing over there? No, truth be told, they just sit around and cut cocaine. That's just what they, that's really all they have to do. Can they try it? No, that's one strict rule. You can't get high on your own supply. They are real, real strict about that. Whatever happened to college kids just drinking too many beers at a keg party? Come on, guys. Leave the Coke ring business to Scarface. Pennsylvania, 14 guys, two fraternities. And the boss? They're calling Pablo Pledge Cabar. That's a pun, man. Nobody pays a name. A name gets given to you. And they gave that one to a kid who needs a permission slip to buy a scratcher. The empire? He drives to Philadelphia. He drives back. On daddy's easy fast. The labor is a bunch of pledges. He made the freshman bag it up and told him it was a tradition. Congratulations, son. You're a brother. Now here's a scale. And the other guy? Police come through the door, and he thinks it's his brother's pranking him. Okay. Do you want a cartel with a couch on the porch? Okay. She wants your father hiding the safe? Okay.

You have reached the Michael Bari Weiss Show podcast, and we're honored to have you here. Just a quick note, and we'll get right into it. You can always reach me through our website, Michaelberry Show.com. You can send me an email directly, and I read them all. You can buy our show merch while you're there. You can follow our daily blast. I'm on Twitter, Facebook, and not as active on Instagram, but do have an account there. Do love to hear from you. And if you like the show, just tell one person, hey, I like that, Michael Barry. podcast. It's good stuff. And I want to say thanks to The Pipeyard Inc., our sponsor, and my friend, Ray Breyers, he's a good buddy. They buy and sell pipe all day long. Entire pipelines. You've got a facility that you're shutting down. Whatever the reason that you have pipe to buy or sell, my buddy, Ray, it's amazing to watch. He'll come over to the house to have drinks, and he'll be working the cell phone in the middle of a conversation, and I ain't mad. He's making it happen. The Pipeyard Inc. 409-788. pipe the pipeypeyard inc.com 409 788 pipe turns out at least according to my urologist that all that talk about taking testosterone is bad for your prostate that was based on one study that's been debunked but you know what don't trust me do your own reading cross reference Learn more. Go to fixmylowtie.com. That's synergenics. That's who I use for my testosterone replacement. It makes me energetic. It makes me happy. I lost some belly fat out of it, which was really nice. And yes, it does that too. Fixmylote.com. Whether you write a check every month or it's on direct deposit or auto pay, you write a check to your insurance company for a reason. You could have spent that money on anything else. You made a good decision to hedge against bad things happen. And then it did. Hurricane, windstorm damage, hail damage, fire, smoke, water damage. And that insurance company, 10 states away, denied your claim, and they should not have, and you know it. Go to claimdenied.com. It's the Chad T. Wilson Law firm, and they will fight for you. Claimdenied.com. 713-226,000. 7132-2-2-6,000.