An Army of Normal Folks - Big Al Holdren: We Don’t Do Fluffy, We Only Roll Into Hell (Pt 1)

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

Big Al is our first 2-time guest! After our story about his Christmas charity, Secret Families, Al told us that he and a small army of normal folks also respond to natural disasters. They serve however normal folks like themselves can, but it just can't be fluffy.Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A lot of the groups, and we are not going to get into specifics, you and I would talk about that off the record, they want to do what's fluffy and looks good and take a lot of pictures. I understand. When you say a lot of the groups, you mean a lot of the quote, aid people. Correct. Or aid, really not people, organizations. Organizations and they're on the edges.

They don't roll into hell We only roll into hell if it's not crazy We don't go if it's just if it's fluffy and all that we don't want to go It has to be something where I know that we're affecting some change where they're hungry where they don't have stuff Our goal is to buy borrow or steal whatever supplies Every that guy on the street that just had his house washed away, he needs. He may need a tarp to sleep under.

I'll get it to him. I'll either bring it because I bought it. I know where the facilities are. You can get anywhere with good barbecue. I can buy and bribe my way into anywhere with good barbecue and a cold beer. Colder the beer, the more you get in. Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach in inner city

Memphis. And believe it or not that last part it led to an Oscar for the film about our team. That movie is called Undefeated. I believe our country's problems guys will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits using big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox, but rather an army of normal folks, us, you and me, just deciding, hey, maybe I can help. That's what Big Al Holdren, the voice we just heard, has done. You may remember Big Al from our episode

about his extraordinary charity, Secret Families, but today we're talking about his response effort when natural disasters strike. I cannot wait for you to meet and know Big Al even more right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians,

policymakers and so many other fascinating people, like actress and director Cheryl Hines. They were looking for an unknown actress to play Larry David's wife. I said, well, how old is that guy? Isn't he old? And author David Sedaris. You know like when you meet somebody and they'll say, well I want to be a writer or I want to be an artist. And I say, well is it all you care about? Because if it's not, it's going to be pretty hard for you.

If you're not on fire. It's like opening the door of an oven. And it's like, wow, you know, you take a step back. It's all they think about. It's all they talk about. It's all they care about. They don't have relationships. They're not good friends for other people.

This is just what their laser focused on. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to 500 Greatest Songs, a podcast based on Rolling Stone's hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversial list. I'm Brittany Spanos. And I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to shed light on the greatest songs ever made and discover what makes them so great.

Every week, we'll pick a new song from the list and talk about their placement on the revamped 2021 list. We'll also have guests join us, ranging from the artists themselves to the producers or simply other writers like ourselves who voted on them. From classics like Fleetwood Mac's Dreams to the Ronettes' Be My Baby, and modern day classics like The Killer's Mr. Brightside

and Britney Spears' Baby One More Time. There's so many fascinating stories that have been forgotten, like Midnight Train to Georgia starting with the phone call to Farrah Fawcett, or how the Yeah Yeah Yeahs inspired Kelly Clarkson's banger Since You've Been Gone and Beyonce's Hold Up. Listen to Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So everybody, this is a first. And since we're not even yet a year old, there's a lot of firsts. I think first will be harder to come by three, four years down the road.

But this is a first. Some of you will remember Big Al Holdren from Indiana, who on one day assembles a whole bunch of volunteers about 2,500 or so, 2,000, and they go out into their community and give away Christmas trees and 10,000 gifts all in one day. Massive undertaking and we told this story at Christmas. While talking to Big Al, found out he's involved in a lot of other stuff and because we found out the story right at Christmas time, we did what we very rarely do, which was a remote interview. As you know, we like to do face-to-face interviews and 99% of our interviews are always face-to-face. I think we lose some

synergy when you're not face-to-face. But timing was we wanted to hit it for Christmas, didn't have time, so we did it. But when talking, Big Al said he'd love to come to Memphis one day and he told me about the other stuff. So here's a first. We are now interviewing the same guest for a second time on a different topic. So Big Al, you are now a first for an Army of Normal Folks, a two-time guest. Two-time winner. Two-time winner.

Good day. What a great day. Two-time Army of Normal Folks winner. Thank you. Thank you. And your wife. Absolutely. For driving to Memphis.

How was the drive? Drive was interesting. We thought Indiana had a lot of construction, but man, Kentucky, Tennessee, they bought every orange barrel. That's left the United States. I think we passed them a lot of construction. It was a lot of rain on the way down. You came through Nashville, right?

We did. We did come down through Nashville. I mean, Nashville, the construction and the traffic in Nashville has just gotten unbelievable. And we happened to hit, we happened to hit Louisville also at rush hour. Oh, yeah. So that was real special, but that was right. We had a, we had some business down in southern Indiana. So it was a great drive. Nice. Just get away. And we were looking for, never had really spent any time in Memphis on some of these things we're going to talk about. I blown through Memphis. Sorry, police officers at 90 miles an hour at one o'clock in the morning.

But we've gone, you know, going on the way to Dallas or down into the for one of the tornadoes, one of the hurricanes down in southern Texas. We've been through a couple of times. So just have some time to really be here. And boy, I mean, here's the reality, Bill. I had Gus's fried chicken for lunch. That ain't that bad, dude. Gus's fried chicken at Memphis Fried Body is pretty freaking good. We're known for barbecue, but we've got some fried chicken around here too. We're going to rendezvous

tomorrow for barbecue. Well, there you have it. That's what I've been recommended. There you have it. And did you stop in the Bass Pro? Just came from there right before I saw you in the tour of your place. So the Bass Pro Memphis, Memphis is the whole idea behind the name Memphis is after Memphis Egypt. Sure.

Cause Memphis on the Nile. Well, so in somebody's infinite wisdom at some point they built because we're Memphis, they built a big pyramid on the river in Memphis and it was our basketball arena and it seated 17 or 18,000 people and it was a state-of-the-art thing 40 years ago. Then when the FedEx Forum was built and the Grizzlies moved to the FedEx Forum off Bill Street, here's this pyramid sitting empty and it sat empty for a few years. Everybody's like, what we're going to do. And then they go and put a Bass Pro in it.

We're like, who puts a Bass Pro in a big silver pyramid? It's cool. But once you get inside, it is the largest freestanding singular elevator in the world that goes all the way up to the top. And while it is a store, it also looks like a natural Louisiana habitat. It's unbelievable. It's fantastic. Good.

So you're going to do that. You're going to do Graceland. We're going to do Graceland and Civil Rights Museum. And hopefully you'll have time to stop over at Slave Haven, which is an unbelievable stop and story of the Underground Railroad. And I love it because I'm a Civil War guy. As a matter of fact, just on the way up, I'm going to Shiloh. Good dude. I got to see Shiloh. And I and I didn't even know of the other battlefield

that's right there on the interstate. Yeah. I mean, right. Is that that stuff is not Peterson, the circle. Hour and a half for here. Yeah, we pass on the way up. I'm like, we're we are pulling in and sitting out there on the right on the road. I'm like, I am in you. Yeah, it won't be hard to get me to see you were in. You were in the middle of all of it.

And you got to know that Vicksburg, Mississippi, which was the capital of the Confederacy for some time is only two and a half hours south of here. Next trip we'll be making, there'll be an extra day added for some Civil War battlefields. I'm an old Gettysburg guy. So before we get to it, one more thing. And this is, I hope our listeners are interested in any of this, but there is a company, an old lumber company. It's been around for a century called Anderson Telly Lumber Company.

And at one time, if you got on a helicopter in Vicksburg, Mississippi and followed the Mississippi River up to St. Louis, 85% of all the land you would see on that trip, they owned. They owned all the islands and all the land you would see on that trip they owned. They owned all the islands and all the land on both sides. The largest lumber producer in the world for many, many years. For many years, it was the most single expensive stock that you could buy. Incredible old family, long story. Anyway, one of the islands they owned is Davis Island, which was Jefferson Davis's home. And they built it on the island to be as a safe haven.

And they owned that island and they allowed one hunt on it a year. And I got to hunt it one time, deer hunt. And you could, Jefferson Davis' house was still there. It was in disrepair, but it was still there. And so the history- Is unbelievable. And so the history is unbelievable. Of all through there is unbelievable. So enjoy Memphis.

I'm glad you're here. We love it. Thanks for having us. Congratulations on being the first two time guest. I love it. I'm honored. I am honored. So cool.

So to recap, Al and his army of 2200 volunteers provide 10,000 Christmas gifts to 2000 families who can't afford them in their community of Muncie, Indiana. And they make it all happen on a single Saturday and only 10 hours, which is a phenomenal deal. And y'all Al is a small business owner, he runs a collection agency. And he's kind of like when Bush was talking about compassionate conservatism. Al is a compassionate collection agency guy. He does his job, but he's the kind of guy that's not going to try to make people feel awful. And it was always interesting to me that this guy

that's donating all this time and doing all this for all these families that are in need in his day job is a guy calling up people and saying, Hey, you owe money, pay your bills. But like any industry, there's a good way to do it, a bad way to do it. And you told us all about that. So I'm interested. Let's follow up on the first time we met. Have you had any of the Army of Normal Folks listeners reach out about Secret Families, which is what Secret Families everybody is, if you hadn't heard the episode, and I hope you go back and listen to it. Secret Families is what eventually became the nonprofit that does this amazing work in Muncie. I'm curious, have you had anybody reach out to you about... what's been the... we've never been able to ask

this of a guest. What's been the follow-up and feedback from your first appearance? I had a guy call me about three days after you guys posted it and I believe the first name is Joe, I'm sorry, Joe Pina, gentleman out of Oklahoma, called me and said, hey, listen to Bill's stuff all the time, we're in. I've already started finding people in our community that have some interest, we're interested, can we do a Zoom call? We did an hour Zoom call, talked about it,

I told him, really, hey, here's what you need to do, because this will show that there's some true interest in it for us to get involved. I said, we can teach you how to do it. It's no problem. It's a day or two. We can teach you, show you, you know, you can go do 10 or 15 families that first year, get your feet wet, and then we'll just raise you. And as it gets bigger and bigger, we can show you how to go do that. And I said, so just go find some people. I get about, I don't know, it's probably about a week later, I get a photograph, texted to me, of a list of, it looked like some family members and 15 other couples.

He goes, we're getting ready to go, gotta finalize that, make sure everybody else is still in, give me some bullet points. I gave him some things to talk to him about. And so now we're gonna get back with him and we're either gonna go down and do a training with them, teach them, do a big Zoom call with them. So if it wasn't for you guys, so that's number nine.

So we had eight on the board, seven in Indiana, one in Lexington that is doing it out. Many of them are done out of car dealerships. And then he's- Which is hilarious. But you need a big open space to do it. You need a big open space, So that's a perfect fit. It's a wonderful situation.

So I told him the same thing. Go find a car dealership. Go talk to the school. He sends me back a list. I've already talked to two or three school superintendents. I've got a car dealership. I've got 20 families ready to go. So only go and yay on Army and normal folk.

Promote and send send, which is exactly what you guys are. It's what you want to be. It's why you're doing this, right? Trying to do is connect people, get it going to use their passion and discipline and meet need of opportunities of need and learn from one another and create a little army that talks to you. So Muncie is where it started, but you're saying there's now eight secret families? Yeah. We do it by county. Yeah, that's right. I remember you telling me.

All the surrounding counties around Muncie, Indiana, and then also then down in Lexington. And it's not odd because he owns- The dealership that you work in. Steve Gates owns it. And I called him Bill Gates, I think four times on the previous podcast. His name's Steve. It's Steve and he is phenomenal. My apologies and thank you for all you do because without you and your dealership and that Muncie Toyota dealership, this wouldn't happen. And he's phenomenal. He carried it. That's his home dealership down there. So he carried it back to West.

He carried it back and just said, we're going to do it. That's his home dealership down there. So he carried it back to West. He carried it back and just said, we're going to do it. He got his whole dealership involved. All their families started there, expanding it. And it's funny. We always, uh, Chris and we laugh. And some of our, some of my friends out of Indianapolis laugh, the world, the world eventually evolves and points to Muncie, Indiana, and then back out. Is that right? And the gal that, the gal that was, uh, uh, and then back out. Is that right? And the gal that the gal that was that is his right hand gal

who really took secret families for him and expanded it. Her dad, I played basketball with in high school. She's from Muncie, and she had worked with Chris and her team for years as a young girl. Did you have her? She was a student of my wife that's here with me. She was a student of yours? Yes. What a small world. Isn't that crazy? And so I guess the world does revolve around her. And she happens to be going. Secret families.

And she was going into, she was in college since she was little with her mom and dad who had been shoppers for us and she's going to college three miles from his car dealership in Lexington and she all of a sudden finds out that he's gonna go do that and through conversation and so she goes down she goes I know how to do it what you can call Al if you want but I've been involved since I'm a little kid I know exactly what's going on And so now she was down there being involved in the running part of it.

And now a guy reaches out from an army of normal folks just listening, says, I love it. And now you're gonna be doing it in Oklahoma. Perfect, now we're in Oklahoma. So anybody else listening, go back to the big owl Holdren episode from around Christmas time, listen to it, and maybe you can be satellite number 10.

10. How many reindeer in Santa's sleigh is it? Nine? Eight plus Rudolph is nine. Nine, correct. So currently, one sleigh is being fully pulled. That's correct. Start with more sleigh. Yeah, they're gonna have babies eventually. Yeah, I mean, yeah, come on. They've got a little Rudolph somewhere. Dancer team number two, yeah, come on. They've got a little Rudolph somewhere. Danzer Team Number Two. Let's get going. Yes. If anybody wants to reach you, we're

going to finish this up and go to the new stuff. Anybody wants to reach you about Secret Families, how do they reach you? You can reach me by email at aholdren, H-O-L-D-R-E-N, at atlas, A-T-L-A-S, collections. And that's plural with an S, dot net. at atlasatlascollections.net or you can call me at 765-744-0369. That's 765-744-0369. Anytime, be happy to talk.

Anybody that has been thinking about something to do that they can't commit to year in, I mean over the course of a whole year, but they want to do something they can't commit to year-in, I mean over the course of a whole year, but they want to do something. Al and his crew have figured out how in a short period of time, concentrated on one Saturday to affect the very most neediest people among us who need the happy times at the most important part of the year which is Christmas. And if you're like I just can't get involved in something that takes a day or two days every week or three days every month but I would love to do something I'll have something for you and I hope you'll listen to

that episode if you hadn't heard it remember it if you did hear it and consider starting a Secret Families in your neighborhood. It literally puts a smile on the faces of children who otherwise will not have a smile on Christmas Day and frankly their families, Christmas trees and once again you will get 50 times more out of it than you put into it. You can just ask Al. Amen brother. And now, a few messages from our generous sponsors. But first, I hope you'll consider becoming a premium member of the Army at NormalFolks.us. By becoming one for 10 bucks a month or $1,000 a year, you can get access to cool benefits

like bonus episodes, a yearly group call, and even a one-on-one call with me. Frankly, guys, premium memberships also help us to grow this army that our country desperately needs right now. So I hope you'll think about it. We'll be right back. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers and so many other fascinating people, like actress and director Cheryl Hines. They were looking for an unknown actress to play Larry David's wife. I said, well, how old is that guy? Isn't he old?

And author David Sedaris. You know, like when you meet somebody and they'll say, well, I want to be a writer or I want to be an artist. And I say, well, is it all you care about? Because if it's not, it's gonna be pretty hard for you if you're not on fire. It's like opening the door of an oven and it's like, wow, you know, you take a step back.

It's all they think about, it's all they talk about, it's all they care about. They don't have relationships, they're not good friends for other people. This is just what they're focused on. Where all their energy goes. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Welcome to 500 Greatest Songs, a podcast based on Rolling Stone's hugely popular, influential, and sometimes controversial list. I'm Brittany Spanos. And I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to shed light on the greatest songs ever made and discover what makes them so great. Every week, we'll pick a new song from the list and talk about their placement on the revamped 2021 list.

We'll also have guests join us, ranging from the artists themselves to the producers or simply other writers like ourselves who voted on them. From classics like Fleetwood Mac's Dreams to the Ronettes' Be My Baby, and modern-day classics like The Killer's Mr. Brightside and Britney Spears' Baby One More Time. There's so many fascinating stories that have been forgotten, like Midnight Train to Georgia starting with the phone call to Farrah Fawcett, or how the Yeah Yeah Yeahs inspired Kelly Clarkson's Banger Since You You've Been Gone, and Beyoncé's Hold Up. Listen to Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everything okay? Yes, I'm fine. Honey... Hey, I'm here for you. Tell me about school today. When kids can't find the right words, music can help them sound it out.

Talk to the kids in your life about their emotional well-being. Find tools and resources at soundedouttogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal Ventures. All right, so that's the follow up. Yeah. New stuff. You started talking about, you know, well, we also, whenever there's a natural disaster, we load up and run headlong into it. And I thought what and you hear about these stories of these people well first the

Red Cross and organizations sure but and you hear about like if something happened in and around Memphis some folks from Memphis might go across neighborhoods to help out with the chainsaw or something. Sure. But you and a group of guys like a tornado, a hurricane, whatever. Yep. Y'all load up and roll. Pretty much. Couple truck, couple, usually a couple tundra trucks from the Toyota dealership. Of course. Where we do secret families. Right. We make phone call. He says, come on, pick up a couple trucks. And yeah, Bill, and succinctly, that's exactly what we do.

Typically, it's either in, it's usually in groups of either four or eight of us, big... None of you are firemen or anything, are you? Oh, no, there's a couple. We have a couple officers that have gone on the last couple with us, but typically that's kind of unique. And that's just normal guys. These are just guys that I know. I mean, you run a collection agency. Yeah, pretty much.

And you're not 30 years old anymore. Oh God, no, just turned 62. I mean, I've got some, it's a, we have a, I mean, the, the one crew is a, it's a individual guy is a small construction company. A guy at work. It's probably handy for this work. Yeah. We don't let him bring any tools whenever, cause you know, you

know about construction guys, you know, I'll be there on Tuesday. They just didn't tell you which Tuesday. Um, um, you know, so we can, he, uh, when you're on time, when you're with me, you're on your time on task and we're rolling. I mean, it's a, you, you, I mean, it's a, it's giddy up time. My poor wife, uh, has tolerated that for a long, for a long time. She's sitting five feet from Al. Laughing.

With the sweetest look on her face and her hands across her lap, bobbing her head up and down like, yep. Bill, I'll kick, I'm just going to say, I'll kick my coverage. I mean, let's- We established that in the first place. Yeah, absolutely. That's right. And there's not one person in the world that wouldn't tell you that.

And you also told me that the Holdrens are 6.5s. 6.5 all day long. On every scale. Every scale. And on everything that we do, we're 6.5. That's who we are. And we're really not good at it. My God, that's a, we're not talking 6.6 or 6.4. We're talking 6.5.

We're talking an army of normal folks, 6.5. All day long. Anybody that's been on that needs to be, just don't go with me. I got it. I'll drive you nuts. So we load up and so we got the carpenter, we got the printer, you know, we got the collection guy. We have the old retired guy who yells at me because we moved too fast. I have a guy that works at Ball State, two cops.

And we literally a cross-section of it. It's just, it's just, it is these people have had a disaster in their community. Surely to God eight people with two trucks can get down there and figure out a way to help. And, and we go without any plan, which is the... We have zero plan. But here we go. The deal is, there's a gentleman, and please, world, pray for this man. His name is Bob Ball. He runs an inner city ministry called Blood and Fire Ministries in Muncie, Indiana. One of the great... I went to the same high school as him. He was about four years older than me. Phenomenal human being is fighting a cancer battle. So the army of normal folk, you pray for Bob Ball when you

hear this. Every time you listen to this podcast, you listen and you pray for him. He's the one that kind of started it. And these guys, him and along with a guy named Rocky Fuller, Rocky looks like you're an eyes brother. Got it. Okay. Same guy. Svelte. Oh, and if the, and if the, and if the fight breaks out, they are the two guys you want

standing there because we're not retreating. We're going to, we're going to solve it. It's too much effort to go back. Oh, let's just solve it right here because you know, if I run, I'm just going to get tired and still got to fight. Yeah. Right. Well, Rocky, I'd rather, I'd rather see them come in to be hitting the back of the head run I'm just gonna get tired and still gotta fight yeah right well Rocky and I'd rather I'd rather see him coming to be hitting the back of the head and I'm too fast outrun anybody all day long Rocky is a chef and is just a great great great human being funny as heck

well those two were down and this thing the whole thing started they were at Katrina so they were down at Katrina and they- What were they doing in Katrina? Cooking. No, no, no, stop. Oh, I'm sorry. Why did they go to Katrina? Katrina, because it hit and it just destroyed- Okay, so these two guys were the first

of these guys from Muncie. Yep, and we weren't even attached. We weren't even doing our part. And Katrina happened and they looked at each other and said, surely God, we can help. And Bob's- Is that right? Yeah, and Bob's attached with a group,

and I believe, Feeding America, which is a huge, large organization. They had a smoker. And so they pulled the smoker down there. And they were down- These two guys. These two guys. Just on their own.

On their own. And kind of through that, Bob had been connected. So they go down. And then they spot him in a place where there's no food. Because we get down to these places some of these times. And we'll talk about Joplin here in a minute. there's no food. Because when you get down to these places, some of these times, and we'll talk about Joplin here in a minute, the town is missing. I mean, it's not like there's something still standing.

Gus's isn't standing. It's gone. That whole thing. Which means no water, no sanitary, and no food. And no buildings. I mean, they just washed away and crushed. You got cars and trees, and you got dead animals everywhere and you got people that they haven't searched the buildings for and they're putting exes on them and there's so they're

they're Katrina they're down there cooking and they get down there and they so they go on you know we all go on volunteer donations we're not I mean it's our own nickel and whoever gives us money so they get down there they come back the short story is they come back from Katrina and Joplin hits at the end After they've been at Katrina for weeks. They're out of food and they're out of money. What do they do in first fall? Yeah, I'm sorry. They take a they take a they take a cooker, a big smoker and then they go to Katrina and place it on that food and they just start cooking food. Just start cooking and people are lined up as far as you can see to get a

pulled pork in typically we have a our tornado meal is we cook it every time is it's pulled pork. It's really inappropriate. What's that? It is so inappropriate that I'm laughing. I wish you people could see Big Al because he's hilarious. Our tornado meal is our tornado meal is and it's pulled pork. It's as good as you ever had. So easy. And it's just is easy on this good as you ever had pulled pork in Memphis. Yeah, these guys

have no clue. Rocky. These folks from Muncie and Rocky would dominate. You're in personators. Rocky would dominate. These guys would have no idea what. Well, we have the world championship barbecue cook-off down here every spring. He had to pull his thing down here and get in the big leagues. Well, you know, the reality is, you know, we someone else, we're gonna let someone else win a trophy once in a while. You know, that's it. So it's peanut coleslaw, peanut coleslaw, homemade cookies, peanut coleslaw, and barbecue baked beans. And it's like five different beans. And it's, and the main thing is we can cook a lot of it because we're sometimes feeding, um, a thousand to 2,500 people in a day. Okay. So in Katrina, I want to set this up. So we go into what you guys have actually morphed into in Katrina,

show up with this cooker and they just start cooking because nobody has any food. Nobody has any power. They're cooking. And if you had a, if you did have a grill, it was probably washed away in Katrina. It's out to sea now somewhere. So they're from Indiana. Where are they getting the meat to cook and the buns and all that stuff? They take a lot with them and then, but they do with Feeding America. And there's some, there'll be stations set up. So once they get to buildings out in the outskirts where there's places, there's there's supplies coming in because this United States,

but there's supplies and somebody's got to actually do something. They got to go get them and they, and somebody's got to go get the supplies, get them back down into what a lot of what happens a lot. And we, I've seen it over and over and on this whole list of all these that we'll run through some stories with the problem is, is getting A to B because the smokers out here, the people out here, but mainly a lot of the groups and we are not going to get into specifics. You and I would talk about that off the record and it would be a whole different

conversation than what is appropriate for your podcast. They want to do what's fluffy and looks good and take a lot of pictures. I understand when you say a lot of the groups you mean a lot of the quote aid people. Correct. Or aid really not people organizations. Organizations and they're on the edges and they're not where the people are. They're not where they're not it they they're not into they don't roll into hell. We only roll into hell. If it's not crazy, we don't go. If it's just if it's fluffy and all that, we don't want to go.

It has to be something where I know that we're affecting some change, where they're hungry, where they don't have stuff. Our goal is to buy, borrow or steal whatever supplies. Every that guy on the street that just had his house washed away, he needs. He may need a tarp to sleep under. I'll get it to him. I'll either bring it because I bought it. I know where the facilities are. You can get anywhere with good barbecue. I can buy and bribe my way into anywhere with good barbecue and a cold beer. Colder the beer, the more you get in. And that means National Guard guys, that means state police officers could care less.

My goal is I've got to get there. Well, a lot of times they get blocked off. They don't let those groups in. They'll let me in. So that's what we do. We're moving A to B. So these two guys have been how long in Katrina? I don't know, several weeks, several weeks. Just cooking? Just, they were just cooking. How are they living? Are they sleeping in the truck or? Yeah, wherever you can. Sometimes if you can find a church building, YMCA,

sometimes we have to drive. Some of the places we may have to drive an hour. To get shelter to then go back. So we can go back and we go back in the morning and they'll go back and roll back in at 4 o'clock, get that smoker started because they got to have food ready for 11, start serving. Then we usually serve, we don't do any breakfast.

They only will serve lunch and dinner and they'll cook whatever they can get their hands on. So they'll go out, come back. We've slept under trucks, in trucks. We were in when we were down in Texas. I forget the that was Harvey down at the clear to the tip of Texas. We slept in a jail. The jail had not been affected so that we had one cell. So we had four sets of stainless steel bunks

and we had eight guys there. So we were- Hold it, you're getting the head out. Yeah, we were in the jail. So we- We're going to get to that. My question is these guys spent three weeks down there. Yeah.

Were you aware they were down there? Yes, I knew they were there but I really wasn't affiliated with Bob. But, and you didn't know, they just, two guys for months, you're doing a nice thing. Yeah, they were just doing, they were doing that., I knew they were there, but I really wasn't affiliated with Bob. And you did know they just, two guys from Muncie doing an ice skate. Yeah, they were just doing that. And I knew Bob. So they rolled back.

They roll. Joplin happens. Would Joplin is a twister, or a tornado. Like one of the seventh worst death fatalities. Are they in? So they're down in Katrina. And they're eventually, they're just going to come home, because they're out of money and they're out of food. Right. So they're coming back to Muncie to to really just take a nap, reload a little bit.

They get a call and say Joplin just got eliminated from the map. Half of the whole city is gone. I mean, when I mean gone, I mean, you can look out and there's no trees, there's no buildings, and it just looks like a desert bare landscape just with stuff chewed up. So they said, we need you in Joplin. We don't have any cooking stations. Off they go. They go to Joplin. They didn't even get back to Muncie.

No, they went straight to Joplin, met up with another crew of guys. And we'll talk about some of those other guys. They met that other crew there. So when it got there, they have no food, no money. So they're just... But they had a cooker. They had the cooker. That's it. And then there was a Tyson semi pulled up, reefer truck pulled up. And so they had Tyson chicken, frozen chicken. So they're just going to fix chicken. This is where I come in. This

is when I get the... So I get a text message and it was kind of a massive text to a bunch of people said, we need money, we need food. God speaks to me on Wednesdays. Okay? On Wednesdays. Wednesdays. Why Wednesdays? I have no idea.

You know why? I think I know why. When I get a chance to... Wednesday is kind of the average day in the middle of the week. When I get a chance to- Wednesday's kind of the average day in the middle of the week. Wednesday's the 6.5. It's kind of hump day. It really is.

It's hump day. It's the 6.5. So God talks to me on Wednesdays when He tells me to go to these. I mean that more sincerely than you've ever. And all of a sudden, so I get this text from Bob, and I'm like going, oh. What does Bob say?

Bob just gets, I get this text. I say, OK. I said, OK. I said, I just text him back. And it was quick. What did he say to you on the text? Just the text. He said, we need money. We need money donated.

And we need food. And probably stuff. And just anything. Because they could have pans and gloves and just everything. And we're out. And we just, we're kind of rolling in here. And we're trying to make it up as we go along. And so I text him back. And this was on Wednesday.

And so I'm like, so I pray about it, kind of quickly at my desk, forgot to ask permission from my wife. Probably would have been a good phone call to make. And just I text him back and said, I'm coming with all kinds of stuff. Going to fill a van, going to grab somebody and go. He's like, all right. So he called me and said, what are you gonna do?

And I said, I'm gonna make it up as I go along, which is usually what I do. And so we're, and so- Once again, it's Chris, right? Yes. All right, once again, Chris is in the corner giggling and shaking her head up. Does he make everything up as he goes?

It's just kind of been your life? Yeah, it's just one minute at a time. Just go, go, go, go, go. Oh, that sounds good. I'm a planner, he's not. Yeah. So I grow. Yeah, but he's effective.

So you get a text and you say, I'm going to grab somebody and we're on the way. We're going to. Who are you going to grab? A guy's name is Tony Raleigh. Tony is no longer with us. Tony was killed in a car accident several years after we had gone. He was a dear friend just to been there, but he all looks like the fourth brother, the fourth Courtney brother. Big old dude. And so it was just the two of, just him and I. And I said, I told him, I said, hey, Bob Balls and struggle

bus, we're going to raise some money. And I said, you just start texting everybody you know and put the word out and let's raise up. What time of year is this? Joplin was, it was, it was hot. OK, so it's on the other side of secret families. So you're not bogged down and do it at secret families. It's summer. I want to say, and so I said, you in, I said, here's the thing. I don't

want to go and stay forever. So let's go. And I told Bob, cause when the, the kind of the order of events bill with any of these going on, when it hits, they quarantine the whole area because you can't travel. There's live power lines down, there's trees in the road, there's cars in the... There's also the inconvenient truth with all the laughter and all. You've got to... There's also dead bodies. And they will not let you in an area until they put a... They usually put... And I think

this is true. They put a... They'll put a red X on the property or on the ground, depending on what... Expecting there's a body under there. Well, they mark the bodies with certain... They put an X because they've checked it and there is none. If there's a body, they're bringing cadaver dogs in and they bring all those dogs everywhere, and they don't want you there because the dogs are picking up your scent also. So they have to... So they cordon off, you can't get in. Can't get in for a while. So they're on the edge of it with this big church.

They're in this big church parking lot. They're set up. They're just feeding people because everybody that was where their house got squished, they've all moved to the outskirts or into other towns. And they're coming back to go through their stuff, rummage through.

And when they go through. Plus responders need to eat too. Everybody's got to eat. You've got police to feed. You've got everybody else to go do it. So they're just working that with what they've got right now. And so you've got to give it a few days, usually about four days. So this is on a Wednesday. Um, God's told me to go. Tony Raleigh said,

we can go. They didn't call you on Thursday that I had a whole week for you to say yes. Yeah. Wait till next Wednesday. I'm like, you gotta call me on Wednesday. I mean, I'm available. I'm a busy guy, Bill. I mean, no, just kidding. Yeah, wait till next Wednesday. I'm like, you gotta call me a Wednesday. I mean, I'm a busy guy So it give us some time so they we got kind of the all-clear that they had really opened it up on a Monday And I told Bob just keep in touch with us. Let us know because it took us a few days So we just sent out texts called everybody we had some other lists of people and said hey I'm gonna go you guys know Bob ball. Give me 500 bucks and People did and we had I think between Tony and I he had to be I made him

somebody always gets made treasure, which means we have a money bag with hundreds wrapped in us thousands and that bag and I think Tony and I had thousands in that bag and I think Tony and I had somewhere between 12 and 14 thousand dollars. So in three or four days yeah you raise 14 grand in cash yep you load up a bunch of crap in a van that's probably also donated. No that was our van God love her. No not the van but stuff in the van. Oh stuff in the van meat and so. And you don't have an EMT you you run a collection agency and you're at Santa Claus. One day a year. One day a year.

And you're not part of Meningia. Nobody tabs you. There's need. Go do it. Let's do it. Let's go do it. And let's have fun. We've got to make it fun.

The guy won't go back with so... And let's have fun. We gotta make it fun. You won't go back with you if you don't have fun the first time. And everybody please remember, the thousands of times I get the emails and the questions is I really want to be effective and help. I'm motivated, I'm inspired by hearing all these stories, but I just don't know how. Here's how. You just do it.

Just do it. You gotta do it. Just do it. You gotta show up. We'll be right back. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers and so many other fascinating people like actress and director Cheryl Hines. They were looking for an unknown actress to play Larry David's wife. I said, well, how old is that guy?

Isn't he old? LAUGHS And author David Sedaris. You know, like when you meet somebody and they'll say, well, I want to be a writer or I want to be an artist. And I say, well, is it all you care about? Because if it's not, it's going to be pretty hard for you if you're not on fire. It's like opening the door of an oven and it's like, wow, you know, you take a step back. It's all they think about.

It's all they talk about. It's all they care about. They don't have relationships. They're not good friends for other people. This is just what their focus is on. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to 500 Greatest Songs, a podcast based on Rolling Stone's hugely popular,

influential and sometimes controversial list. I'm Brittany Spanos. And I'm Rob Sheffield. We're here to shed light on the greatest songs ever made and discover what makes them so great. Every week, we'll pick a new song from the list and talk about their placement on the revamped 2021 list. We'll also have guests join us, ranging from the artists themselves to the producers, or simply other writers like ourselves who voted on them. From classics like Fleetwood Mac's dreams

to the Ronettes' Be My Baby, and modern day classics like The Killer's Mr. Brightside and Britney Spears' Baby One More Time. There's so many fascinating stories that have been forgotten, like Midnight Train to Georgia starting with the phone call to Farrah Fawcett, or how the Yeah Yeah Yes inspired Kelly Clarkson's banger Since You've Been Gone and Beyonce's Hold Up. Listen to Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, son, time to put out this campfire. Dad, we learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey Bear said to... First, drown it with a bucket of water, then stir it with a shovel. Wow, you sound just like him.

Then he said... If it's still warm, then do it again. Where can I learn all this? It's all on SmokeyBear.com with other wildfire prevention tips because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the Ad Council. So you raise 14 grand from everybody. From everybody. And you say we're going to Joplin.

We get, we, big barn still, four big coolers. I mean big, big coolers. Throw them in the back of our van. Of what? Meat and stuff? Meat, pork. Pork butts. Yeah, because they're cooking chicken.

They're cooking chicken. They're looking, they want Rocky. They want some barbecue. They want. We're going to do some. We're going to do some tornado meal. And Rocky's chomping at the bit because that's what he's he wants. He wants that pulled pork. So I guess you get plates and seasoning and napkins and whatever you load it all up. And so and we had well, and we also stopped all the way across Indiana

down around through St. Louis, all the way across Missouri. We stopped because we only had some meat donated. We really didn't have all the connections in because we had never done this. We had some money. We stopped at every Walmart. Then they were open 24 hours and we were in Weedland and Dealing because you can get deals done with a night manager at a Walmart. I'm telling you what. You're negotiating, what are you saying? We're going to Joplin and help those people out. How much are you gonna give me and how much do I have to buy?

And he would go back and say, well we've got some stuff that's really been pulled off, it's gotta be used in the next three days. I said, it's gonna be used in the morning. And be like, that'll sell it to you for 10 cents a pound, but you gotta to buy it all. I said, I've already backed the van. I'm a loader up, baby. So we were buying everything that was as close. And then if we needed more, that at the end we bought enough just to fill.

But once we get the goods. So from Indiana to Joplin, you're pillaging Walmarts. Yep. And we needed restrooms too, because we drove all night. We drove that whole night because we didn't waste another. So we had all night. I know it was a long drive. I don't know how many hours is a lot. So we drive all night. We get there and pull in and they throw it, take it immediately out of the coolers

because I need the coolers, because then we go back to the local Walmart at Joplin that had not been hit. And we fill one of them completely full and ice cold beer. And now remember, it's real hot. And so, dude, if you want to get things done, we talked to a National Guard guy, and you give him a plate of barbecue and two cold Michelob's, I swear to God, I think he would have driven our van wherever we wanted.

And they let us go into all the areas that had not had anything. And I'm carrying Win the Van with me. 60 meals already clam shelled up, cold beer, cold coke and diet Coke, Pepsi, diet Pepsi and a case and a whole thing of water. And and the people are on homemade cookies. One of the gals. Oh, how many dozen? It was like 40 dozen homemade cookies.

Because here's the thing, when you're working and you're out and it's hot like that, you need sugar, you need energy. So these cookies have now become a thing. So now when we go, the things that people don't have, just remember, your house got blown away and you're sorting through all your stuff. You don't even got any gloves,

because your gloves are in your truck that's in the tree. So you don't have gloves. So we take leather gloves, men and women's gloves, cookies, and we will have cold drinks, and we call as much pork as we can, and then we will buy when we go out there. Now we try to call ahead. Now we do it a little more strategic. We try to find meat markets or meat suppliers that are close,

that we can get out there, and we'll kind of deal with them, and then we will buy from them. So that's what we go out and do. So we just show up. They take all of our pork, empty our coolers. We fill them full of drinks and then away we go. So you got to Joplin and in two days you fed four or 5,000 people? Oh, it was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. That's unbelievable. They were lined up.

And they had, as we got there, it was, so here's the thing. We've got enough meat, but this meat goes quick. I mean, you're feeding that many people. What we had was just, I mean, it was just a little. Not enough. And so the first best, one of the first best stories. So those guys, they empty the coolers. They're going, OK. you're in charge of procurement.

I said, what does exactly does that mean? He goes, we don't have any idea, but here's the things we need, and you need to go find them. So we did, and there's, and just remember there's churches and there's places that have Pepsi trucks pulling up and unloading Pepsi's and Gatorades and that kind of stuff. And people bringing van fulls of tarps and just, I mean, it just crazy. They're just warehouses. So we go find out, um, I said,

have you guys eaten? They go, we have anything to eat for a day. I go, well, I'll be right back. So we go get some meals from the, because we have the cookers. So I bring it back. I feed all their people and they go, man, anything you need. I said, well, while you're talking, while we're talking, I need access, but I don't want to sign out because you have to come and they give you one rake and one shovel. I need 40. I need a box of tarps to throw in the van. I need whatever else I can get my hands on.

So we just go through. I said, I don't want to sign in out. And if this gold van pulls in, nobody stops me. And I'll feed you all the Pepsi, Coke, and all the barbecue that you can eat in the next four days. Handshake deal. So you always find the director bribe your way in, and away you go. And that's what we do.

And so now we just have access to that stuff all night long. And he goes, I said, you guys open 24-7? He goes, yeah. I said, we'll be back around 2. And we got to load up for the morning to go do that. So as we're out and about running around, Tony's like, we've got to find more meat. Bob said, we forgot about it.

We got busy. Because what we do, Bill, is that we will go out and we cordon off and we work the streets, whatever area. We find us a city map somewhere. So we're working street by street by street, north and south the first two days, and then east and west the next two days. And we go literally up to every house if there's somebody there and say, what do you need? That's what I think. Your comment was very sage to people. That's what I think. Your comment was very sage to people. Just do something. If you don't know what to do,

when in doubt, people will either run to problems or away from problems. I like to run to problems, but take somebody with you that really doesn't care. If they don't care, they're not afraid. We don't scare. We're just going to go talk to them and just say, what do you need? I could use a couple of tarps. You know, I need a shovel. I see you got gloves. We got gloves. How about a cold beer? Oh my God. You kidding me? I haven't seen a beer in a week. We got one for you. Have them a couple. You're making friends just by being,

just by being a friend. And you know what? Sometimes they want to sit there and cry because their son was killed in the tornado. And all they need is that they just want to sit in your van and just talk to you because there's nobody else. So we've sat on tree stumps. We've sat on trees. We've sat on whatever lawn chair we found.

The lawn chair belonged to the guy who lived a mile away. He just happened to fly in his yard. And we're sitting there just having conversation. And he wants to tell me about his son that was killed, that was pulled out of his car, out through the side window, and thrown into a retention pond. And then their house fell on top of it. And he wanted to tell me about that.

And so there's some crazy. Now, if you can't mentally do that, we're OK with that. Just cook. We just cook. You've got to do something. But sometimes just that conversation. So there's some sad stories with it, and we'll talk about some of them.

So we're out and about. The first best story. We're out and about running around Tony's like, and you've got to know the big delude. He's like, dude, you've got to find some frickin' meat. We've got to. Bob and them are going to kill us if we don't show up. We came out here.

We're, you're supposed to be in procurement. We're out serving everybody. I was going, we got to do both. So he pulled over and all of a sudden he goes, he was, take a right. I'm like, what the hell? And I'm, I wheel that van in, pull in. It's a building.

I, it's not a big, it's maybe 2000, it's like a home, about the size of one, but it's a block building. It's not a big, it's maybe 2000, it's like a home, about the size of one, but it's a block building and it's whatever, somebody's meat market. No lights on because there's no electricity. I mean, just remember, we're still in the, we're on the edge of the zone, no electricity. I walk in and the husband and wife, older gentleman and his wife are letting their staff go. They have a meeting. They're standing up in the front of the meat coolers and you're nothing running and said, we apologize. They've told us it could be a month before we get power back. When our coolers tip down, all this meat has to be thrown away. But we've got about two and a

half days if we don't open the cooler before they start temping down, we can put some out in our reefer, a little, they have a small reefer truck that they, they, they were the ones that sold tenderloins and whatever meet all the little local people. But I have to let you go. I only have enough money to give you a half a paycheck. And I don't know if we're going to be able to reopen or not, because I can't meet payroll. If I can meet payroll, I think, you know, I could get some money. I could get a generator in here.

And I think I could do it. And I think we'll make a fortune, because we're going to be some of the only meet in the whole part of this county. Now, we're standing, we've kicked the door open, because it was stuck and Tony kicked it open. And we're standing in the back and they're still having the conversation. And I said, excuse me, customer. And they're like, yeah, what do you what do you want?

I said, I heard your conversation. I said, what if you sold every piece of meat no matter what it is, in here right now? How much would all of that be? What kind of deal can I make on everything you got? All the... He goes, you want lamb and you want all that? I said, I didn't ask what it was.

I just asked how much. I said, how many pounds of meat do you have? He said, well, mom, she can tell you exactly. And she goes back to her little, she's working a little manual calculator over there, and said there's, I don't know how much, I mean, 1,000 pounds of meat in the cooler. Some of it's frozen.

Others fresh in the cooler. He said, well, that cooler stuff's got to be done around the west. We understand. He said, you mean the sausage and ground, or anything? I said, just quit asking me questions. Just tell me how much there is. And then he said, well, there's, I don't know, 4600 pounds of meat. I said, okay, I'll just buy it all. What's the price on it?

He goes, you're gonna buy it all at any price? I said, no, no, we're gonna have a conversation. Well, we'll come to Jesus meeting here. And he said, Oh, well, I'll do, I can do half of it for 50 cents a pound just to get my cost back out of it. And the other half I'll do it a dollar a pound. I said, 75 cents a pound, cross the board, cash. I thought he was going to take my arm off. And so we hand him whatever it was, five thousand and I think we made it fifty five hundred just because of the felt priests. And so he paid, he made all his payroll, rented a generator and we cut the deal that every morning he had to fill the, he had to fill the meat in the law in the reefer truck and drive it over to the church. I didn't have to forget about it anymore so he's hauling all that meat over there cleaned it all out said it would be great no problem they got it back businesses still

there and great we never saw him again we never went back I just wrote him a check and every he just took all the meat over to to Bob and those guys and over the next couple days I believe because we didn't see them a whole lot we're just out doing our thing and it was perfect. So literally by showing up, by showing up, you probably saved the business. I hope so. And he was, they were wonderful and they were very kind.

They kept talking. They kept telling those guys the story of this two idiots that showed up and then where the hell they came from. I mean, if we'd been five minutes later, he's out, he's gone. And that concludes part one of my conversation with Big Al Holdren and you do not want to miss part two that's now available to listen to as it just keeps getting better, which isn't bad for a 6.5 guy. Together guys, we can change this country, but it's going to start with you.

I'll see you in part two. John Stewart is back in the host chair at the Daily Show, which means he's also back in our ears on The Daily Show Ears Edition podcast. Join late night legend John Stewart and the best news team for today's biggest headlines, exclusive extended interviews and more. Now this is a second term we can all get behind. Listen to The Daily Show Ears Edition on the iHeart radio app app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Martha Stewart, and we're back with a new season of my podcast. This season will be even more revealing and more personal with more entrepreneurs, more live events, and more questions from you. I'm talking to my cosmetic dermatologist, Dr. Dan Belkin, about the secrets behind my skincare. Encore Jane about creating a billion dollar startup. Walter Isaacson about the geniuses who changed the world. Listen and subscribe to the Martha Stewart podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing, I spoke with more actors, musicians, policymakers, and so many other fascinating people like jazz bassist Christian McBride. Jazz is based on improvisation, but there's very much a form to it. You have a conversation based on that melody and those chord changes. So it's kind of like giving someone a topic and say, okay, talk about this. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing

on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.