In this episode, we delve into the heart-wrenching story of Riley Strain and explore the aftermath of the tragedy that happened right down the road from us here in Nashville. We analyze the influence of social media and "internet sleuths" on the investigation, questioning the delicate balance between assistance and interference.
Drawing from the recent incident involving college students, we grapple with the complexities of accountability and solidarity during nights out as we try to put ourselves in their shoes. Through candid discussions, Shawn calls his high school & college friends to ask them what they would have done in this situation. We tackle the complexities of group dynamics w/ excessive drinking at a young age.
Transitioning from the somber to the extraordinary, we recount Shawn's recent Navy Seal experience. Join us "In The Booth"!
In this episode, we delve into the heart-wrenching story of Riley Strain and explore the aftermath of the tragedy that happened right down the road from us here in Nashville. We analyze the influence of social media and "internet sleuths" on the investigation, questioning the delicate balance between assistance and interference.
Drawing from the recent incident involving college students, we grapple with the complexities of accountability and solidarity during nights out as we try to put ourselves in their shoes. Through candid discussions, Shawn calls his high school & college friends to ask them what they would have done in this situation. We tackle the complexities of group dynamics w/ excessive drinking at a young age.
Transitioning from the somber to the extraordinary, we recount Shawn's recent Navy Seal experience. Join us "In The Booth"!
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Speaker 1:We are back in the booth and I'm Sean Booth. And happy Monday, hopefully. Guys are having the best day and it's been a fun couple of weeks here. I've been out of town Sam Katz currently out of town, as you know from the last episode. I was training with the Navy SEALS last week, which was so much fun and quite the experience, and also today, a special but sad episode. We have producer Andrew and it is his last episode here and we're going to miss him dearly. So he's going to join us today and we're going to talk to you all about what you have going on and why you were leaving us here in Nashville Tennessee.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, happy to be on.
Speaker 1:And thank you guys for listening, Whether you are in Pinehurst, North Carolina, Carlisle, Pennsylvania or Kalamazoo, Michigan, we appreciate your support. We are here in Nashville, Tennessee, and as I was walking into the studio, sad, sad news they found the body of Riley Strain, and this has been going on now for almost two weeks. I think it's made national news. You've probably seen it all over TikTok, Instagram, if you haven't. A college kid and his fraternity.
Speaker 1:They came to Nashville, Tennessee, for a weekend and he supposedly got kicked out of Luke Bryan's bar here on Broadway and somehow still don't know the details. But his body was just found in the river. So that was the big fear. The river runs right near Broadway here and there are a lot of question marks of what happens and a lot of theories going on right now. You kind of thought and figured that he was going to end up in the river, but once you saw it on the news, it just makes your heart sink and makes you sick to your stomach. Andrew, you think it was just a simple case of him being too drunk and just stumbling into the river.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean first off so horribly sad. I mean it's crazy how I've been following this like pretty closely for like a week and a half and now that you see like the headline that like oh, his body was found, it's like a whole new. I can't imagine how his parents must feel. Like I saw something that they said yesterday that they're like still really hopeful and confident that he's alive and like doing everything you can to cling to that. Like you know. You know that like there's probably a 99% chance that he fell in the river, but like that 1% becomes like everything you're clinging to as a parent. I'm sure I mean I have no, I've never heard of this kid, I have no relation to him and I was like clinging to that 1% Absolutely.
Speaker 2:I so hope that he's just something crazy happened and he's alive, and so it's a huge bummer to see that yeah, to see the news, I'm sure, but also like relief for his family to be able to, like now mourn, make steps forward.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We were talking about this this morning is. It's interesting how we don't really know there's a lot of like things that we don't know. Like what was he doing before the bar Cause? Luke Bryant said that they only served him one drink and two waters and they said that he called his mom at like eight, which is an hour and a half before he got kicked out, and his mom and dad said like he seemed totally fine, so beforehand was he like pounding shots somewhere and they just like caught up to him, or I mean a theory that happens, unfortunately, on Broadway more often than we would probably like. Is well, definitely more often than we would like.
Speaker 2:Is that people get roofied men and women.
Speaker 2:And it happens. I don't know what the objective is all of the time, but it happens more often than a lot of people think, and so that was kind of where my mind went initially when they were like he only got served one drink Cause he looks in the videos and one of his frat brothers said in the videos like this is not how he normally behaves, like we've been partying with him for four years and like he doesn't get, he doesn't stumble into walls and like I mean the poor kid is like crawling up church street.
Speaker 1:It's horrible.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. Yeah, you have a million questions about it and especially now with TikTok and all the internet sleuths, I don't want to say it's a bad thing, cause you have more eyes on it. You have everybody trying to do research and so many people flew in here to Nashville just like up and down those streets, the gyms quarter mile from Broadway and everything where it happened. So it was weird to see everybody and I kept on asking myself I'm like, is this a good thing that this many people are getting involved? Obviously, those girls found his debit card on the river bank, which was weird. When you're falling into the river, you don't just reach in your pocket and throw your debit card out of your pocket. Yeah, so I mean.
Speaker 2:Maybe didn't have. A theory that I had was like I always tell people when we go out on Broadway like don't, if you don't have to, like don't bring your wallet, bring a debit card or a credit card in your ID, because that's a lot harder to and less valuable. Like there's pickpockets everywhere and so that could have been. He just had his debit card in his back pocket and when he was like tumbling, it fell out. But like, even that seems like but even where he was kind of a stretch when they found it.
Speaker 1:it wasn't a spot where you can tumble and like. Even I saw a video this morning pop up on my TikTok and they had a guy going up and down in the riverbank where they supposedly would have gone in or where he was last tracked, and it was like impossible to fall through all of the bushes and the trees.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then to also fall with enough force that you're getting deep enough into the river that the current is taking you. I mean I guess, yeah, like that seems him falling in the river to me was like I was like convinced there's no way, because everybody's, like the police even said like falling in the river at this location is like so unlikely.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That, but this is the only, really the only option to look.
Speaker 1:And then people talking about him possibly getting in a car when they saw that footage of the cop.
Speaker 2:So that's where I have my, where I think that TikTok probably gets like negative Right, and that is because we're now. Those creators are using of tragedy to get clicks.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what I was going to say.
Speaker 2:And so and like that's all just theory, so like his poor parents have to. I mean, maybe they don't see it, maybe they do, but if they do. Like now you're introducing these like really far-fetched ideas that like for the regular civilian is like almost like I don't want to say entertainment, but like you're being a conspiracy theorist, there's no. Like you're just throwing ideas out there to like see what hits on TikTok and like you have no skin in the game because you have nothing to lose and there's no connection to this kid who's a son, and yeah, that's where I think that TikTok probably gets like a little bit negative in that life.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. That's what I was thinking all last week to see people coming in. I'm like you're using a tragedy, this poor kid, his family and his parents I mean the things that they're going through and for you to come here, make some type of again theory and blast on social media and be like Riley Shrain got in a car here's why or here's the evidence of this and there's no real evidence. And you know they want to argue that they're helping, but it's like, yeah, you're helping, but also I don't know. That's the fine line where.
Speaker 2:You should be introducing none of your own thoughts. You should be if you want to TikTok, live and be like. This is what I'm doing in spreading awareness for a cause. Awesome, because probably that helps that like.
Speaker 2:If it weren't for TikTok, I'm not convinced that this case would have become a national news story Correct, which is awesome, because then you're getting more resources, blah, blah, blah. Great news. We love that. But then, once you start introducing your own theories, it's like what position of authority. You have no idea what you're talking about. Oh, you paused a police cam, a blurry police cam footage. You paused it at the very, very end and you're like he's not in the video, he's not on the sidewalk and there's a car right there. The only explanation is that he got in the car. It's like no, do you think that the police didn't think about that?
Speaker 1:I know, and they're like you can hear the audio. He's saying get in, slow it down, and then he's gone. It's like man, I don't know.
Speaker 2:And to be totally honest, that could have happened. And then they like there's so much that we don't know he could have. A lot of things could have happened from that police body cam footage to him getting either put in a river or falling in a river.
Speaker 1:Right Cause that's also where a big homeless camp is. And then you have one guy on TikTok talking about how he 100% didn't fall in. He got to the homeless camp, got jumped, whatever, taken advantage of. When he was in that state of minds something happened where they killed him or whatever and then toss him in the river, and it's something that we'll probably never know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. One thing that I thought was interesting about the body cam footage is like those theories of like oh he just like drunkenly stumbled into a homeless camp and was just like I'm lost, like someone help me is and then put himself in a position to get jumped, If you like the police footage where he like is walking straight. He addresses the cop formally, is very like there's no slur in his speech. He's like tightened up from the last time we saw him. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:And everybody who's partied knows that when you see a cop you're adrenaline spikes, and so he had enough awareness to see that police officer and go all right, I got to dial it in here because if I keep stumbling around I'm going to get arrested, and so he wouldn't have put him. He had at least enough wherewithal to not just like meander into like somewhere dangerous.
Speaker 1:Right, you can even hear his footsteps as he's approaching the cop. Just how heavy and loud they were because people were saying he wasn't that messed up. I'm like no, listen to his footsteps. When he was approaching that cop car, that dude was stumbling, yeah. And of course you see a cop and you're like how are you doing? Have a good night, and that's it, and you move forward, yeah. So when people are like no, he wasn't that messed up, I'm like no, you can't say that based on that five second interaction with the police. But to your point too, the pros of TikTok right, it got a lot of exposure and I don't think it would have been as big of a national probably worldwide news story without social media. They pulled out two other dead bodies in the river this week.
Speaker 2:I was just going to say that.
Speaker 1:This river has a lot of dead bodies, for whatever reason. Dre saw one one time when she was taking photos by the river and a guy was pulling out a dead body and it's like known the Cumberland River to have dead bodies in there. Clearly they pulled out two this week just looking for him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, wow, that's traumatizing.
Speaker 1:But yeah, it's terrible and so sad for the family. They probably like, even if they didn't find his body for the next 30, 40 years, you're still holding on to that hope that he's alive. Right, you have to hold on to that 1%. Now it's just like it's final, but hopefully they're able to move forward as best they can. And one thing that a lot of people were talking about are his friends at the bars and how terrible they are and they should have been with him. And this is a scenario that I've kind of played back and try to put myself in. When you go out with a group of buddies like that, I mean, I don't know, andrew, what do you think? Like these guys are frat brothers in college, been partying for a while. I gotta imagine that almost on a nightly basis when these guys go out, they get split up at some point and it just happens that they end up together at the end of the night the next morning. So I'm having a tough time immediately being like oh, those friends were terrible, totally.
Speaker 2:I mean, you're a senior. They're seniors in a fraternity at a massive, the biggest state school, I'm pretty sure in Missouri it's a huge. I grew up in Michigan, so it's like I related it to Michigan State. A senior fraternity brother at MSU is or Mizzou or whatever university. You're a professional partier. You are well versed in drinking, partying, going out that's kind of a very common occurrence. And so when you look at your buddy outside the bar you just got kicked out of the bar you look at your buddy and you say, hey, man, I'm going to go back to the hotel and I'll catch up with you guys later. The friend doesn't even probably think for a second because he's so now. Ideally you would think this isn't Mizzou. You don't know where you are. You're clearly very intoxicated. This is an unfamiliar territory. I'm going to come with you and just make sure you get back to the hotel. But they're also drinking. We can't put expectations on his frat brothers to make sound decisions when everyone's drunk.
Speaker 1:Even the hotel was two blocks from Broadway.
Speaker 2:It was straight up the road there, the opposite direction of where he went.
Speaker 1:It's tough to be like man. They're such terrible friends. I do find it weird that it Even then I guess I don't know if I do it took so long for them to figure it out that he was missing, even if you go home. Listen, I've partied a lot in my life. I have partied since high school, college. After college I had the craziest buddies. When you go out with a group of guys, some guys don't come home that night. If he wasn't there when they got home maybe they thought, hey, he's with a girl or he's somewhere. Obviously you want to try and get in touch with them to figure it out. Yeah, that's just part of it. Like you said, to be in a different territory, to be in Nashville, tennessee, and it was only 8 or 9 pm at night. You get all these guys at the bar and you got one guy Maybe he's the guy that leaves on his own all the time. There's always a buddy like that.
Speaker 2:Totally.
Speaker 1:Or maybe it's the guy who's like the sloppy guy and you're like all right, well, he's going to figure it out. I'm going to go back upstairs, I'm talking to these girls and I'm with my buddies and it's 9 o'clock. Hotel's right there. I mean, who knows what was going through any of their minds, obviously hindsight's 20-20.
Speaker 2:Or the total opposite. It sounds like from what his parents said. This is abnormal behavior. Maybe he was the really responsible friend who always has his shit together and you're like oh, certainly he's not going to, he's always fine. He's always fine. He just had a little bit too much to drink. He'll be able to get home. He's the responsible friend, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, either way, they're probably all kicking themselves. Yeah, obviously that's really sad.
Speaker 2:I mean those poor kids they're going to get. I mean their life is now altered forever.
Speaker 1:Forever and I was thinking about that so much. I'm like I want to know what my buddies would do. So I'm going to call one of my high school buddies, one of my college buddies and a boy that I have now in that situation and see what they would do.
Speaker 2:High school buddy is a deep pull. We need Wait, wait, wait Before you call. We need context on who these people are, how high school We'll start. We'll go one by one and then you can call them High school buddy. How often do you talk to him?
Speaker 1:Yeah, all these guys I still talk to on a regular basis. These are all guys who I've partied a lot with. So my high school buddy knowing each other for a very long time small town, live on the street next to one another, so he's known me for most of my life. College buddy played soccer with him. He was my roommate, he lived across the hall from me and he's one of my best friends still to this day. And then one of my good friends here in Nashville who I've been out with a bunch prior to me going sober. So we'll start with. I know exactly how this is going to play out too. I guarantee my high school buddy is going to be like well, buddy, I would have left you, or like I would have expected to be left. We'll see.
Speaker 3:Hello.
Speaker 1:There he is.
Speaker 3:How are we doing over there?
Speaker 1:We're doing good. You're alive on In the Boots. I've been waiting for my.
Speaker 3:In the Boots debut.
Speaker 1:Here it is. It's on March Madness Friday.
Speaker 3:It doesn't get better than that it doesn't, you know, not even at work, just getting ready to wash some hoop.
Speaker 1:Are we going to get you in trouble? Right now Are you supposed to be at work? No, all right, no who?
Speaker 3:works. No one works anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right. Well, go. Huskies, we have a scenario for you here and I'm just going to ask you a scenario and I want to know what you would do in this situation. Okay, I mean, we've been in this situation. Probably not a good situation. Yeah, say we go out, okay, with a group of buddies, or maybe it's just me and you. We are in a new city and you know drinking all day no, not us, never. It gets around eight o'clock, nine pm and I'm intoxicated, I'm really drunk and I get kicked out of a bar. You're at the bar with me, got another group of friends at that bar. They walk me out of the door. What are you doing in that situation?
Speaker 3:I'm staying at the bar and having myself a night.
Speaker 1:I knew you were going to say that, yeah. Febby did that to me that's happening to you All, right, yeah. Yeah, we're talking about the Riley Strain situation. Do you know anything about that? I don't, oh, okay, yeah, I mean, I mean I know various issues that visit me with these things, but indeed I think there is a difference between the fact that they are from Indian descent or just about.
Speaker 3:I mean, I've been roaming around Nashville drunk as a skunk by myself and I have no idea where I'm going. There was a lot of alcohol in me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's why I'm calling you. I'm calling Horn.
Speaker 3:I don't mean to get off track, but I also just found out Kate Middleton's missing.
Speaker 1:Is that, yeah, is that like a?
Speaker 3:Did you know that?
Speaker 1:I saw TikTok stuff on like images that were doctored.
Speaker 3:She's supposed to be found.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay, I just found this out.
Speaker 3:Oh really.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh, I didn't know that. I literally just found this out. I was like, well, that's pretty big.
Speaker 2:They like posted photos a couple of days ago, but it doesn't really look like her.
Speaker 1:Okay, maybe she's not found All right. Well, that's for another podcast episode. I appreciate you taking the call. You got it, buddy. All right, go Huskies. He's going to say he'll, I don't know, this one's going to Back in the day. You would say same thing.
Speaker 4:Vote for Donnelly.
Speaker 1:Vote for Donnelly. There he is. Al Horne, you're live on In the Booth. Don't say anything too crazy over there.
Speaker 4:How's everyone doing today?
Speaker 1:There you go, pg rated. I like it. We're doing good. How are you doing?
Speaker 4:I got to keep it okay for the kids Can't complain. It's 30 degrees but it's sunny.
Speaker 1:All right, and tell the people where you're calling in from today.
Speaker 4:Just outside of Boston Mass.
Speaker 1:All right, there he is Wicked cold up there.
Speaker 4:It's wicky cold, but we live here for a reason. We appreciate the cold and when the sun's out we're psyching. Put on some country music driving right now, but I got the AirPods in so we're being safe, don't worry.
Speaker 1:There we go. That's what I love about New Englanders. All right, here's the deal. I'm going to give you a scenario and you got Are you doing Sam Cat? No, sam Cat's actually out town this week. Okay, I understand. I won't interrupt you anymore. I'm going to give you a scenario and you're going to tell me what you would do in this situation. A completely honest answer here.
Speaker 4:I don't know anything else, let's do it.
Speaker 1:All right. So me and you, we're going out for the night. Oh Jesus, we're partying hard. We're in a different city, we've got a group of guys with us, all right and drinking all day. It gets to about eight or nine PM, we're out at the bar and everybody's there, and then I get kicked out of the bar. I'm a little.
Speaker 4:Is this a hypothetical or are we talking about something that's?
Speaker 1:happened to me? Yeah, exactly, exactly. I knew you'd be a good call, and so I get kicked out of the bar. I say I'm going back or I'm leaving, and then everybody else is still at the bar. What are you doing in that situation?
Speaker 4:I'm walking back with you, you are. Questions asked. Yeah, no, questions asked All right. Again, I'm 37 with kids. Now I look at things different.
Speaker 4:When I was 19 in college, I'm not sure if I was walking back with you. So things have changed, perspective changed. But right now, if we're going out, the responsible thing is to make your heated, clearly not in the right mind if someone's telling you you can't be in the bar. I'm walking you home and we're going to make the best of the night and probably end up somewhere else and it's going to be fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, that's a great answer and I was calling you. I'm like if I had asked them this back in the day when we're in college, I feel like I'd get a different answer now 100%.
Speaker 4:Yep, the old me. Maybe I was still staying at the bar and wishing you luck on your way and I'd catch up with you in the morning. But nowadays, yeah, we'd head back and you know what? I think everyone else would end up following us and we'd go figure out something else to do.
Speaker 1:Right, but back in the day, when we're in college, it's like a battlefield out there.
Speaker 4:No, you can't keep track of everyone and yeah, things are a little foggy. You're in the moment. Yeah, it's tough to say back then, but I'd probably lean towards every man for themselves and we'll talk about it the next morning, laugh about it, but everyone's kind of going their own way and whatnot.
Speaker 1:For sure, All right, that's a good answer. Have you heard about the Riley Strain kid?
Speaker 4:I haven't.
Speaker 1:You haven't either. That's crazy, is it just because we're in Nashville? So a kid two weeks ago in Nashville, oh man, yeah.
Speaker 4:Oh, that's, tragic.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, there's been similar stories in the past. In Boston, if you talk down in the waterfront, there's been, over the last like five or 10 years, similar stories where men in their you know 25 to 35 years old have gone missing. There's actually like some theory about it, but it's absolutely tragic and terrible for that to happen to anyone.
Speaker 1:I know it's so terrible. I kept on like trying to put myself in that situation and now obviously everybody is critiquing his friends and saying they're terrible friends. They didn't go with him, and I'm just like man it's? You never know what state of mind you're in and you don't know the personalities of those kids. And I was thinking over here, like you know, yeah, it's just so hard to put yourself in that situation, but we've all kind of been there, which is crazy.
Speaker 4:Absolutely. And you know when you're going out in a social environment, like you're not in the most responsible state of mind right, like that's not when you're making your best decisions, whether that's what you're doing supportively for a friend or what you're doing yourself, and that's part of the problem going out Alcohol is involved and you know that type of stuff. So, and unfortunately, in this scenario it's like the worst case scenario that can happen. But you know there's risk with going out and it's you know it's awful when you hear about something that's just happening.
Speaker 1:It is. It is Well, all right. I appreciate taking the call. That's why you can't get a better friend than this guy right here. You got a very different answer than Cooper did. I knew that was going to be the case.
Speaker 4:Oh, you didn't tell me he was involved. Yeah, like I said, kids will change you. So how I look at things now from a responsibility and different perspective than back in the day, and that's where me and Cooper are different, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Things will change for him.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Well, I agree. All right, buddy, I'll catch up with you later.
Speaker 4:All right, don't forget to vote for Donnelly. See ya, bye.
Speaker 2:Kids will change you and just like, even like life experience, like now moving forward in my life, like I'm going to be so hyper aware of, like Lily's in Vegas this weekend and I'm like you need to be dialed in on, like going it makes going out not as fun because there's malicious people out there and there's just such evil in the world that there's the like your buddy said, like there's a risk with partying and like that risk is becoming as I get older and I mean I'm only 27.
Speaker 2:Like that risk feels like it's just getting exponentially greater and greater and greater. Yes and for not a lot of gain.
Speaker 1:It's not worth it. Yeah, and it's almost like you have to be naive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Right To be going out like that and we were naive, yeah. And as you get older, you start seeing all the bad and things and the brisk and before, like you said there's. You know nothing else really matters either. You're like this is my life, this is going to be the greatest night ever, and you're not even looking towards tomorrow.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's sad and definitely as a dad now, it definitely breaks my heart even more. So we're thinking about their family and we're glad that they got at least some closure here. But anyways, moving on, last week I was training with the SEALs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, I want to hear all about this.
Speaker 1:It was wild. It was wild. I worked with Paneray watches. Have you ever heard of them?
Speaker 4:No.
Speaker 1:They're luxury watch brands and they do a really cool job of collaborating with certain types of companies or groups like the SEALs, and they made a limited edition watch that is a Navy SEAL watch. It's like submersible watch. They sold 25 in the US, 25 overseas, and if you bought the watch part, it's a package. It's called an experience. So you buy the watch and you get this experience. The experience was to come train with the Navy SEALs for three days.
Speaker 1:I didn't buy the watch, I was just invited to go down there. A couple other guys like Michael Chandler, sick, yeah. So it was sweet. We got to do all that fun stuff and as soon as we get dropped off, they put us in all of our gear and they give us a partner. They bring us out to this huge field, hundreds of thousands of acres they have out there, and they're like all right, here's a compass, we're going to give you guys five minutes and you're going to go south. You're going to find trucks. We're giving you five minutes to get a head start and then you have an hour to get to those trucks and if you're spotted by any of the SEALs that are out in the woods right now, you have to go back to the start.
Speaker 2:Oh, so you're not in. It's on an open field.
Speaker 1:No, no woods, Like there's some open parts to it Kind of like, and there's some really thick woods open part and like a corn maze, almost type thing.
Speaker 2:It was wild, so you have to get to the. The objective is get to a truck.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and, and under an hour.
Speaker 2:And under an hour.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And are you doing anything once you get to the truck, or does it just get to the truck.
Speaker 1:No, you just got to get to the truck without being spotted.
Speaker 2:Are you paired with a person who knows what they're doing or no?
Speaker 1:No, it's all guys from the experience, so these are guys that just bought the watches.
Speaker 1:Just rich just rich, just rich guys. Yeah, so we go straight into the woods I'm talking about the thickest woods you've ever seen in your entire life. Like I was like to the point where I was getting really scared because I'm like we're never going to make it out of this. Like we had to, like, jump on branches and trees to get through and create a path, and it was like you're walking in water, and one thing I learned about being a Navy SEAL, I guess, is that you just got to be used to being wet all the time. We had wet socks and shoes for three days straight.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:And so that was.
Speaker 2:Did you make it?
Speaker 1:We made it. Yeah, we were the second team.
Speaker 2:No, you didn't get spotted at all.
Speaker 1:We got spotted right when we came out of the woods because we were so loud. He's like the guy was standing there and he's like waiting for us to walk out and he's like I could see that tree shaking back there Cause I was standing. I like went up the branches to look to see how much farther we had in the woods and he's like all you could see was like the tree going back and forth.
Speaker 2:Oh, so then you had to go back again, so we had to start, yeah, Shoot yeah.
Speaker 1:But then we made it an under hour and we were second place for that. We also did like physical training, which was cool Waking up at four in the morning getting sprayed with hoses, doing farmers, carries, pushups, burpees, all that fun stuff Did some shooting, which is fun, and then we also got sent on a mission taking like two days of training and again similar going through the woods, with this time we had paintball guns and the seals had paintball guns and we had to go with our whole group. So I was like leading the team through the woods, like trying to be stealth mode and walking through all this water, which I'm like there's no alligators out here and everybody's like, yeah, no, there are.
Speaker 2:But I didn't even think about it until it was done.
Speaker 1:Like we were like laying on the ground next to all these swamps, and one of the guys that was with me was like yeah, that's why I was nervous when we were just sitting there laying next to the swamp, I didn't want to go in there and I didn't even think twice about it.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You have a paintball gun to defend yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then the last day we went to the Navy Seal Museum, which was super cool, and then we did an obstacle course. We did the training on the beach with the raft and the water. The seal was like all right, I'm giving you guys 30 seconds to go in the water and I better not see any of you guys. So we had the raft, so we had to run out to the water, flip the raft over, go underneath the raft. We can smash with waves. This fun stuff like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds like a blast, dude. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I got strapped to the side of a helicopter and I was so nervous for that.
Speaker 2:When you say strapped to the side of a helicopter, I literally strapped to the side of a helicopter.
Speaker 1:With what Bungie course One strap One, like one strap that goes around your waist.
Speaker 2:What is it attached to? It's attached to. It's like a seatbelt.
Speaker 1:It just clips in the middle.
Speaker 2:To the exterior of the helicopter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you sit on the outside of the helicopter on a bench.
Speaker 2:Oh whoa, that's pretty sick. So Was that cool or scary?
Speaker 1:It was cool, but I was way more scared than I thought it was cool, Like again, that's another thing like the older you get and I feel like I see helicopters crashing all the time and military choppers crashing. So I was super nervous because people were talking about maybe jumping out of the helicopters that were going to have to do that and I was like, ooh, I don't know about that and I'm like I just had a baby. He's at home, he's three months old. I don't want to get in a helicopter crash.
Speaker 2:Is there like an unsubscribe option on this trip?
Speaker 1:So the helicopter comes around the field and it lands, and then one of the seals is like all right, line up from tallest to shortest and I was the third tallest person and they went all right, one, two, three, four, five, you, five, you're going to start at the helicopter. I was like shit. So immediately I'm like all right, I'm in the first group for the helicopter. And then we walk over there and I'm like super nervous and then the guy points at me. He goes, you're going first, of course. I was like fuck.
Speaker 1:So I didn't really have time to think and I'm just standing there and we got to go over the safety brief and just telling us obviously you got to stay low, the blades have a lot of flex to them, so don't stand up tall or else you get your head taken off. And make sure as soon as you get on the bench you just sit there, you slide on and if you hear the engine go out, it gets really silent. That means the engine's dead or the engine gave out. And then you just got to tuck your legs into the left. If we start spinning like crazy, tuck your legs in. And they're saying all this stuff Like we had to tell you this stuff, and I'm like Jesus.
Speaker 2:Cutie.
Speaker 1:And then I get on, and right before I got on I said to one of the seals I'm like, do we have to do this? And he's like, no, you don't have to. But this is like the coolest part of the whole week. And I'm like, oh man, he's like it'll be fine. And so I just really basically just, you know, stopped being a little bee and just hopped on the plane and then just strapped on and I was just grabbing to the bars as hard as I possibly could.
Speaker 1:And so they just like take you around and like they're just driving, yeah, for like 10 minutes and the guy was like, well, we probably won't go over the ocean because we don't have any water gear If something happens and we go down for a landing.
Speaker 2:Dude, they were totally just pulling your chain. There's no way that it's that. It's a 10 minute helicopter ride. They're the Navy SEALs. I'm assuming that they were just like trying to psych you out.
Speaker 1:Yeah well, they did a damn good job of it because he's like we're not going over the ocean and then we're over the ocean the entire time and then anytime he would turn towards my side. I'm parallel with the ground, just hanging on by that one strap and just, and I was holding as tight as I could to the outside of that helicopter.
Speaker 2:See, I am the opposite of.
Speaker 1:You love that.
Speaker 2:A Navy SEAL, but I think that that would be so cool. I don't think I would be scared at all to do that part.
Speaker 3:Really.
Speaker 2:Though, like, my brain would immediately go to like when I'm in the woods, like what's in here, I would immediately be scared of the crocodiles, but I could get strapped to that helicopter and I would be like because I would just put I have full, 100% faith that nothing's going to happen Because they're the Navy SEALs.
Speaker 1:I know.
Speaker 2:I'm just like oh, you guys are, you're the best pilot in the world to drive this helicopter.
Speaker 1:Something that did come for me was when I looked at that pilot. He was like the most pilot looking person in the entire world. He was like mid 60s 50s. He had like bright white hair, Like he just looked like he would be a pilot for any movie and I was like, OK, this guy's awesome, he's like dude.
Speaker 2:I've built my entire career on driving this helicopter into war, exactly. You're going to be fine. We're going to do a 10 minute little joy ride around. You're just going to be just in joy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:I'm not going to make the biggest air of my career and kill a civilian on this trip?
Speaker 1:That would be yeah, he's probably like let's just get this over with because it's exciting for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But it was a nice charity ride for him. But that was it. It was awesome, glad to be back, glad to be back in Nashville and real quick for the people. Why are you leaving us? Where are you going?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I'm leaving Nashville, You're back in Nashville, I'm about to head out. My wife Lily got a job. She's been in PA school for the what Thank you, thank you. She's been in PA school at Lipscomb for the last three years, and so our two and a half years however long the program is whatever and she got a job offer in Grand Rapids, which is where we grew up Grand Rapids, michigan, and it's kind of like a dream job for her, which I know sounds like a corny, but it really is. It's exactly what she wanted to be doing. She was kind of like, if I would have asked her six months ago what's your dream scenario for your first job?
Speaker 3:This would be it.
Speaker 2:This would be it Hell yeah, yeah, we took the jump. I'm sad to leave. It's super bittersweet. I've never done anything that's this bittersweet. We've moved from Michigan to California, to California, to here and now back to Michigan, and this is definitely the hardest move. We've built a pretty cool community here and it's been a great couple of years, but I'm also excited to get home.
Speaker 2:And we're going to be. Both our families are there and we're probably going to be having kids in the next couple of years, and so being close to grandparents was kind of a goal, and so it made sense.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's huge, that's awesome, that's exciting, and I feel like the quality of life is going to be so much better just being close to your family. Yeah, making a family of your own.
Speaker 2:It'll be a little bit of a slower pace.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Nashville is awesome, but it's a fast city and, living in LA for five years and then here for four, it's been nine years of really fast pace. So I'm excited to just chill and we're keeping our house here and just renting it to my sister-in-law, so it'll be cool to be able to actually, like we can utilize it.
Speaker 2:So I'm hoping to get back down here at least a couple times a year just for festivities and fun stuff like CMA Fest, or they do that Music City Grand Prix every year that we've been going to Nice. So stuff like that, we'll be back in town.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, don't be a stranger. We appreciate everything you've done in the podcast. All listeners love producer Andrew.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 1:We'll see you soon and everybody else, enjoy the rest of your day. We'll see you next week. Team on three.
Speaker 2:Team DEC.