Ep.253 The Outlaw Princess Jillian Hudson-Rising Star Musician

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unknown 1:17

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SPEAKER_01 2:44

Maybe you need speech therapy. Well, our guest today, super excited. Absolutely. She's an old soul with a big voice. Jillian Hudson is making waves in Texas Country Music, sharing the stage with some of the biggest names in Texas Country Music, playing legendary venues, writing music that makes you wonder what goes on in that little brain of hers. Welcome, Jillian Hudson. Howdy.

SPEAKER_04 3:08

Welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_03 3:09

I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_04 3:11

Podcasts and radio interviews are my favorite. Yeah, this is the biggest thing you've ever done, I'm sure. Oh yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

The biggest thing I've ever done. The first one was when I interviewed her first. That's when I got to do it.

SPEAKER_04 3:22

Oh yeah, that was the biggest. And now we're the biggest by far.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Now, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 3:27

I met you about, I'm gonna guess, 10 years ago, eight years ago. I would say eight. Eight years ago when you came out and sang the national anthem at the Run by the Creek, and I was blown away.

SPEAKER_03 3:39

That was such a fun event. Yeah. I didn't remember any I didn't like remember what was going on, and mom was like, it was that that race that you sang the national anthem for. And I was like, oh my gosh, it's them.

SPEAKER_04 3:50

Yeah, that was fun. We didn't get the we they brought it back last week, but they didn't have a singer, and so they'll have to reach out to you next year.

SPEAKER_03 3:58

Oh good lord. I I totally forgot that you scare me. I totally forgot that you raised it.

SPEAKER_04 4:03

Um how old are you? And were you born and raised in Drip?

SPEAKER_03 4:06

I was born in shirts, raised in New Bromfels, and then we moved to Drip around when I was oh never mind. We moved to Drip when I was five.

SPEAKER_01 4:17

Oh then you were raised here, girl.

SPEAKER_03 4:19

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:19

Yeah, you were raised. And how old are you now?

SPEAKER_01 4:21

I'm 18.

SPEAKER_04 4:22

18. All right.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

And you go to ACC, you're you're studying business mutant. Was it the business of music or the music of business? What is it?

SPEAKER_03 4:32

It's music business. It's it's a lot of stuff. It's a lot of stuff that goes on behind the scenes. It's all the stuff that goes on behind the scenes. I'm taking like three classes that are telling me the exact same thing, but it's like one goes more in depth into one subject of the behind the scenes, and another goes more in depth, but they're all kind of like a survey of the music business.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Does it talk about like um record labels or how to market?

SPEAKER_03 4:56

Or is it I'm actually taking a market specific, marketing specific class, and uh we're glancing over record labels in one of my other classes.

SPEAKER_04 5:06

Oh do you like the business side of music?

SPEAKER_03 5:08

No.

SPEAKER_04 5:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:09

If I could not touch the business and just do the music, I would be completely fine.

SPEAKER_04 5:14

I think that's why people have agents, right? Because if you're an artist, a musician, generally you don't want to have to do with all the contracts and the bank.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

Exactly. Well, yeah, because there's but you have to know. There's managers, there's agents, there's like so many different levels that before that they all get a cut before even the artist gets the cut.

SPEAKER_03 5:32

It is insane how much goes on behind the scenes. Like I would not have like I would have laughed at at people if they tried to have a conversation with me a couple of years ago about it. Like it's it's crazy. There's so many people that are putting everything together.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

What's the most surprising thing that you think you've learned from these classes? The most surprising thing.

SPEAKER_03 5:51

Um how expensive uh licensing your song is? Like getting like making sure no one can steal it. Like it's not super expensive, but like I wouldn't have even like I wasn't a very smart kid, but I thought that stuff was free. And nothing's ever free. But I was it's crazy. And there's different types. There's don't ask me to give you there's three different ones. There's a standard, which is one song, and it's the same price as this other one that's up to ten songs that are unreleased, and another one that's up to ten songs that have to have been released and are on the same album.

SPEAKER_04 6:25

Is that something you do with an attorney?

SPEAKER_03 6:28

That is something you there's literally, I don't remember it. Don't if if my teacher quizzes me on it, I'm not I'm gonna be like, ma'am, I ain't got no clue.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

She actually called us right before and she gave us Miss Rihanna.

SPEAKER_04 6:41

Jillian, do you remember when you first uh discovered that you loved music?

SPEAKER_03 6:46

I have always loved music.

SPEAKER_04 6:48

Since you were like the first memories you have, you've been amazing. First memories.

SPEAKER_03 6:52

Uh I don't know if she was just lying to me, but mom mom tells me that I would hum myself to sleep.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

Aw.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

So I have I have always loved music. Like I would make up little songs, doing whatever, which until recently I thought everyone did that. I thought everyone made up little songs while they were doing little tasks. Like I sing to my dog when I'm giving her a bath.

SPEAKER_04 7:13

That's pretty rare. That's pretty rare.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

Dang, y'all aren't magical. Y'all need more whimsy.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

You speak for yourself, Malik, because I'm the office DJ. Oh, I am. I'm always, and then we all like to quiz Steve too about you know, Steve, who sings this? Who does this? That's so fun. You've gotten pretty good because you've you've you've said uh you your default answer cannot always be Michael Jackson. That is that is what you go to. But so you started playing with your dad. Yes. So did y'all learn to play guitar at the same time?

SPEAKER_03 7:49

No, I actually he picked up the guitar because I was a crybaby and my fingers hurt when I played duh little baby. Everyone's fingers hurt when you start learning how to play guitar. Oh, really? Oh, whatever. Um, and so he was like, Hey, I can I can dust off the old the old shoebox back there and I can play guitar for you. And I was like, That would be awesome. I'd love that. So he started l playing guitar for me, and it was fun to watch him relearn how to do it because he's just like every other teenage boy, just learned like the first ten seconds to all of his favorite songs. Would play Stairway to Heaven in the guitar center and get kicked out, you know, whatever, the normal stuff. But then he put it away when he kind of when he met my mom. Um, and he brought it out for me, which was awesome. But then like a couple years later, I got jealous that I got annoyed at myself that I didn't know how to play, and then jealous that everyone else my age knew how to play. So I was like, okay, fine, I'll pick it up. And my dad was like, Okay, here's three chords. I'm sending you up to your room. I don't want to hear you crying about how your fingers hurt. Your fingers are gonna hurt. They're gonna hurt for a little bit. I want you to play until it stops hurting, and I want you to come back down and have a song for me. So I went upstairs and I How old were you when this was going? 12.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Twelve.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

Oh my gosh. It took me two, three years to start actually learning guitar. Like I would kind of just strum on it occasionally, but I didn't get serious about it until literally everyone around me was like, I can play guitar. I can't like, okay, that's great, Susan. I don't know how to. Karen.

SPEAKER_04 9:18

So was your was your dad your teacher, or did you, after he played for you for a while, did you go get help some with with uh He taught me three chords and I learned everything else by myself.

SPEAKER_03 9:28

Really? Until this year, uh through ACC, I have a guitar coach. I had a coach for whatever I wanted. Like I could do piano, bass, drums, whatever, and I decided to play guitar because I wanted to level up my lead guitar playing because I'm very much so like just a basic guitar player. I just strum, but I want to like actually start plucking and doing little riffs and stuff.

SPEAKER_04 9:50

So do you consider yourself a singer-songwriter then?

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Oh yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_04 9:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

That's your that's your You grew up in a very um musical town, but you also graduated or went to school with a very musical class. And so you went to school uh, you know, with some of the kids around your same age, Logan Pap, who we've had on here, Ty Myers, a just a lot of kids have kind of come through the Dripping Springs School District that is just very, very musical. Do you were you influenced by any of your classmates? Or would you guys sit? I was homeschooled. So but but just even your your friends that just even the community.

SPEAKER_03 10:27

I didn't have friends until recently. Thanks for rubbing that in and pointing that out. Um the funniest thing I have ever heard. No, but I did um I was invited out to one of Logan Papp's shows by his was it his mom or Dave? It was Dave. Uh we both play at the uh trade Pertonalis Falls training post. Uh-huh. Okay. And he was playing a show, and the owner, Dave Muletta, wanted me to meet him, so I went out. I think I that's the only time I've ever seen him. It was fun. He's a really good guitar player and vocalist. I like his songwriting. Yes. Um, but that was like what, four years ago?

unknown 11:11

Forever.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

Forever ago. We got a connection. I can I can I can get you with with Logan.

SPEAKER_04 11:17

When you're 18, four years ago is forever ago. When you're our age, that's like feels like that was yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Well, have you watched the trajectory though of Ty's career and being starting as young as he is? I mean, he came from a musical family.

SPEAKER_03 11:31

Yeah, I actually opened up for him a again, like a like a long time ago, like four four years ago again.

SPEAKER_04 11:40

A generation ago.

SPEAKER_03 11:41

Oh yeah, seriously, it was like a lifetime.

SPEAKER_01 11:45

And what at what point was he well gosh, that was probably right around the time when we had him on the podcast. We were his first ever media stop. Yeah?

SPEAKER_04 11:54

We were like not that it had anything to do with it, but like right before he just took off, he came back.

SPEAKER_03 11:59

Oh no, it had everything to do with y'all. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 12:01

He wouldn't have gotten anywhere without you guys.

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Yeah, he wouldn't have gone nowhere.

SPEAKER_04 12:06

Nobody's gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 12:09

Oh, quartz my from a from a musical family. Is it uh supportive or is there some pressure?

SPEAKER_03 12:16

It's supportive, definitely. So, well, okay. There's not pressure, but my siblings hate that I do it. Like um Is it embarrassing to them? Oh, it's not embarrassing, but you know how how siblings are like when you go play when you play like make-believe outside and the one sibling's like, I'm a mermaid, and the other one's I want to be a mermaid. Well, there can only be one mermaid. That's that's kind of how it was with my siblings. Everyone loved to sing, but when I actually started doing stuff about it, they got pissed off at me. Well, they're like, How dare you?

SPEAKER_04 12:44

You're taking it seriously, and they're just doing a there's always the tambourine.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Exactly. You know, exactly. They actually do I bring the tambourine to every show that I that I host so that just in case they call me up. Yeah, okay, next time.

SPEAKER_04 13:00

Is your dad your uh the critic or the coach? Or what's your dad now as far as being supportive?

SPEAKER_03 13:07

He's the heavy.

SPEAKER_04 13:08

He's the heavy. Yeah. Does he tell you when you're not doing things right?

SPEAKER_03 13:11

Oh no, no, no. He takes care of everything. Oh, he literally he's he's our roadie. He's the roadie, he carries everything in, he sets most of the stuff up. I feel bad. Uh I I try to set stuff up, but he's like, Jillian, you're doing it wrong. He's like Jillian, quit, you're messing stuff up. Jillian, you're having trouble breathing. Go sit down.

SPEAKER_01 13:27

What's the most embarrassing thing your dad has done while you've you guys have been up there on stage?

SPEAKER_03 13:32

Oh, that's a good one. He doesn't do too much embarrassing stuff. Um I would just say like telling stories of like when I was little. Oh yeah. Oh no.

SPEAKER_04 13:42

That will never stop. That's what dads do.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

I hate it. I hate it so much. Like, they don't even know that. I'm mysterious. That's for all they know. I was born 18.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

Speaking of mysterious, I think this would be a good time for you to sing one of my favorite songs that I heard you sing. Um, where did I where were we? Oh, Meirestone Winery. Yes. That's where we were. You opened for Brie Bagwell, which was amazing. And she was so sweet to you. She was literally the sweetest.

SPEAKER_03 14:11

She was so, so nice. I'm afraid of meeting people that are like higher up because typically they're not that very not nice.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Yeah, she was she was very lovely. So I heard you sing this. I laughed my ass off. Death do us part. It's a song about insurance fraud.

unknown 14:25

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

You're gonna love it. Okay, so we're gonna let you let you sing this, and we'll go back to our questions in a sec.

SPEAKER_03 14:32

Yay! So I forgot my pick at home, so you're gonna get just uh nail strums, so it's gonna sound a little bit different, but here you go. Well, I cut the brake line and I told him to drive safely that morn. Nothing to do, so I sat down and I waited on the porch. I got a call, and the man said there'd been an accident. Oh no. Luckily, your husband made it. Been putting arsenic in his breakfast for days. Don't think he's noticed, but he hasn't been hungry as a flate. I drove him home and I tucked her mad into bed. Started planning what I could try next.

SPEAKER_05 15:26

Yes, I still love him other than I should put his insurance it looks too good. Now, some I'm gonna stop his heart.

SPEAKER_03 15:46

So that do us part. Now, ladies, don't get too excited and definitely don't put nothing in your Amazon carts. Cause this is his verse. Well, I gifted her some makeup with a little lethal powder in the mix. She said thank you, but that shade won't look good on her skin. She's gonna have bit of smoking while she cooks. Least I'm a femp. Now she is quitting. Cause she don't like the way she looks.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Yes, I still love her. But her insurance looks too good. I'm gonna stop her heart. She'll gotta do us part.

SPEAKER_03 16:47

Oh, she got her hands on a poisonous candle that week. She wouldn't snuck out the back door early than morning. He left to let the gas leak and waited for a call. I sure hope I you know what's coming next.

SPEAKER_05 17:09

Yes, I still love him. Her should but that I'm sure and looks too good. I love it, babe. Told that to us part.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

Well the candle and the gas at the house blazed, and the only death was dozing neighbor Dave had been stealing our mail for quite a while. A little shake and then a couple of steward. We got a hotel and waited for the word in the insurance man to check the next.

SPEAKER_05 17:52

Yes, I still love him. Little shiny, never had a bar. For real, it's time to us part. Woo!

SPEAKER_04 18:20

Wow, that was amazing. Amazing, Jillian. What a great song.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

I love watching your face, dude. That song.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

That's fantastic. That's so good.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

It happens in that little brain curse.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

For 18.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Oh yeah, I wrote that song when I was 14. Oh my gosh. Right? 13, 14?

SPEAKER_04 18:38

What a great song.

SPEAKER_01 18:40

So, like, how did you come up with the premise of that song? Like, what was what was the ground zero for that song?

SPEAKER_03 18:47

I have a ton of trouble sleeping. Like, I don't think I have um. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_04 18:56

Insomnia. Insomnia. Yes, I don't think I have insomnia.

SPEAKER_03 19:01

But um, I like I can't go to sleep before 12 30, 1 o'clock. Like I physically And so your brain just goes and goes. So I'm just I'm just there and I'll scroll on Instagram because I'm not a healthy human being. I'll just scroll on Instagram. I'll just scroll on Instagram and this particular night I was just I was kind of just I turned off my phone. I was finally like, fine, I'll go to bed. And my brain just goes, death to us part. And I'm like, like the vows, and it's like, yeah, but murder. And I was like, how, oh, how?

SPEAKER_01 19:36

If I could, I'm gonna turn my I don't know if you watch that.

SPEAKER_04 19:40

I'll just turn the camera directly on her because I want to make a clip of that.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

But you can also see her mom from behind me. So when she said that. So, like, is there a song that you have written besides this one that you said, hmm, I don't know if I want my parents hearing this? Like, how did you present this to your to your mom and dad?

SPEAKER_03 20:00

Okay, that's pretty funny. I called my dad after I wrote it. I woke up the next morning. I literally in my I have a random notes app in my phone. I literally just opened it up. I have a notes, a notes uh thing for my originals. I opened up a new one for this song for some reason and just wrote Death to Us Part in parentheses, murder. Literally, that's how it is. Like I can find it and show it to y'all. Um because I'm insane, but whatever. And I went to sleep because I was actually kind of tired and was like, that's pretty cool though. And I dreamt about writing the song. When I woke up, I didn't remember any of it, but I dreamt about writing the song, which is really strange because I never dream about writing songs. So I got up the next morning and I was like, okay, that does part with the intention of murder. How? And I was like, why would you want to kill your husband? Because I have a bunch of songs about wanting to kill your husband or your boyfriend because he's a cheating dirtbag.

SPEAKER_04 20:51

You love her. I've been slowly playing with the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_03 20:59

It's in the works. It's in the works, it's crazy. So I literally I was like, okay, I have way too many songs about killing people because they're cheating dirtbags or because they're trying to steal my man. I need to do something new, fun, and different. What if she actually loves him and it's for the insurance payout, which is really funny because I don't have those kinds of thoughts. I'm not that smart, you guys. I'm just here. I'm just here. So I was like, insurance payout? What did I think about that?

SPEAKER_01 21:26

If I was if I was your dad, I'd be sleeping with one eye open. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:31

Sometimes I like to go into their room and just stare at them. Yeah, just stare over them.

SPEAKER_04 21:36

How did you come up with this sound that's yours? Your own personal sound?

SPEAKER_03 21:42

It's a mixture of all of the stuff that I was raised on, I think. Yeah. Like I literally, my dad, so my mom was a Christian school teacher for a couple of years. Like she was my school teacher. Yeah, exactly. So we would drive to school and we would listen to so Christian music, like the Christian rock channel or whatever, because we only listen to radio. And then my older sister was into like the more advanced Christian music, like not advanced, but like the more popish Christian music and the more like rap stuff, kind of like not Thomas Mack, Tommy Mack. Toby Mack. Yes.

unknown 22:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Toby Mack and your dad was listening to Death Metal. And my dad was listening to Old Country and Dirty Rap. Oh. Then that makes sense. So that's my.

SPEAKER_04 22:33

Well. Merle Haggard.

SPEAKER_01 22:34

Well, I'll introduce you to Dirty Rap. Dirty Rap is and it's not Michael Jackson. It's not Michael Jackson. Oh my gosh. So um in your I just totally lost my train of thought, but in your musical journey, you've had a lot of highs and a lot of lows, right? What do you think to date, right now, has been your biggest disappointment with your music career?

SPEAKER_04 23:00

Um at 18. You can't have many disappointments yet.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Oh, you don't you don't know how an 18-year-old lives.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

I guess not. It's been a long time since I've been 18.

SPEAKER_03 23:14

Four score.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Four score. I don't know. I've Is it going faster or is it going slower than you thought?

SPEAKER_03 23:23

It's going slower, but I'm glad that it's going slower because if I just shot up, everything that goes up must come down. So I'm glad that I'm actually building the ladder or the staircase up. Because if I just if I just shot up, I'd fall straight back down.

SPEAKER_01 23:36

You've done it the right way, I think, because you're learning the business too. And I think that's really smart because there's so many people, these one-hit wonders that just kind of go in and they don't understand the mechanics, and they don't understand that you have to. Number one, stage presence. And I I see it so often with with young artists. You know, I sit back and I enjoy their songwriting, I enjoy their music, but the stage presence just isn't there. It's like you're almost, you almost got it. And then also the marketing aspect where you've got to sell yourself. And you know, you talk about scrolling on social media and and all of that. You're in that perfect age group, but it's like the devil's in the details, isn't it? Like you really it's a necessary evil. Do you feel like you're chained to it sometimes?

SPEAKER_03 24:19

Uh yeah. I like I love doing actual music, but like talking to booking and and uh that definitely kills your soul. Like booking and like really long shows where like no one cares. Like if it's a bar, like I get it.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Yeah. But like the talking over you, and you're like, pay attention to me.

SPEAKER_04 24:40

Yeah, it's uh how do you deal with that? Because we were at an event and there was a comedian, and uh he was on stage and he was giving it his all, and there was five or six people over in the corner just having a big old party, and and it was ruining his. How do you deal with that if you're if you're on stage?

SPEAKER_03 24:57

Um I that's a big part of why I love having my dad on stage with me.

SPEAKER_04 25:02

Um The heavy.

SPEAKER_03 25:04

The heavy, exactly.

SPEAKER_04 25:05

Shut up.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

No, I literally we'll just look, we'll just glare at each other. We'll just like send like side eyes and then glare at the people being loud. Like, because they're we're in a public space. Yeah. Like we're not, it's not a listening party. Everyone's there to have fun and they're there to catch up with their friend or whatever. They didn't know that someone was coming to play music. So it's not their fault that they're they're having fun and they're catching up. It's our fault for not having our system louder. Oh. Is that the remedy is to make it so loud they can't talk and then they sometimes so I kind of I get stuck between hating when people are being loud and loving it, because that means that I don't have to like be super loud. Like I can just okay, y'all want to talk, I can just be chill back here and I can have I can have a guitar solo. Uh-huh. Where I typically wouldn't, because I because most of the shows that this happens at is like three hour shows, and those are really hard on me vocally.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

So you're just playing straight for three hours, or is it? Not playing straight. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 26:02

You have I have uh two 15-minute breaks.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Oh goodness, girl. That's so that's a lot. How are you prepping your or or or like um I wouldn't even necessarily say prepping, but how are you controlling your voice and and keeping keeping the integrity of that?

SPEAKER_04 26:20

Because when you were just singing just now, I thought, man, she's ready. She's like, she brought it right then. I thought that was a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 26:26

Which is so funny because I'm a little under the weather. But I've got a frog in my throat. But are you a hot tea and honey? Warm-up or so I have warm-ups that I do before I sing every time I sing. And then I have been drinking a lot of tea recently because it's getting into that season.

SPEAKER_01 26:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

And I am not ready. Um, a couple years ago, I was sick for months on months. I was also dating this one guy that did not make me feel very well. He was not a dirtbag until after I broke up with him. He was fine. Let's play a song called Dirt Bag.

SPEAKER_04 26:59

If he was a dirt bag, you just didn't know it until you broke up with him. He did have dirt bag the whole time. Yeah. I want to Michelle was talking about stage presence, which I know, I know what that is. It's kind of hard to put your finger on, but did somebody teach you your stage presence?

SPEAKER_03 27:13

No. I've just always been like, uh there's a my dad was a fireman, and we went to one of the events. I don't know if it was a wedding or like someone was becoming a sergeant or a lieutenant or whatever, but they were playing music and I walked straight up to the DJ and asked him if I could sing a song. I was like five or six years old, and he was like, Yeah. It was, I think it was like it was Country Girl, right? Jason Aldine. It was Jason L Dean's uh country girl.

SPEAKER_04 27:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:38

It was hilarious. I literally I sat, I stood in front of everybody and I sang it.

SPEAKER_04 27:42

No problems at all.

SPEAKER_03 27:43

I've always been an attention seeker.

SPEAKER_04 27:45

Do you know you don't get nervous?

SPEAKER_03 27:47

Uh the only time I get nervous is when I sing the national anthem.

SPEAKER_01 27:50

Really?

SPEAKER_04 27:50

Yes. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:52

That's that but I I could see that because there's a lot of pressure to get that song right. Everybody knows the song, but it's like it's the one of the hardest songs.

SPEAKER_03 27:59

It's the song. I don't want I don't want anyone coming at me with freaking pitchforks, thank you. No.

SPEAKER_04 28:06

Well, you it's one of those songs where, like Michelle said, everybody knows it. So if you mess it up, then they know it. If you I don't want to be the next Fergie. If you're doing a cover of somebody else's song, you can say that I put my little spin. Yeah, they don't have to know that you messed it up. You can say that was my little spin. Jillian, who who do you are your your three biggest musical influences? Who has helped you shape your sound?

SPEAKER_03 28:30

Ooh, shape my sound?

SPEAKER_04 28:32

Or allowed you to become or has helped you become who you are already?

SPEAKER_03 28:38

Oh, that is a great question. I have always just literally I would say Miranda Lambert.

SPEAKER_04 28:45

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

Miranda Lambert. Um, I've been compared to, and when I actually started doing music, I listened to a lot of um Janice Joplin.

SPEAKER_04 28:56

Wow. I could see that.

SPEAKER_03 28:58

I actually I really didn't like her at first. Like I was I was 10 years old and they were telling me I need to do these songs. I was like, I don't want to, she looks crazy.

SPEAKER_04 29:05

Yeah. Well, I think she was a little crazy, but she was a heck of a musician.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

Oh my gosh, listening to Ball and Chain, the live. My soul. I feel it in my soul. Um not like actually live, but like they did a live recording of it.

SPEAKER_04 29:21

She had stage presence for sure.

SPEAKER_03 29:23

She did. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 29:25

Anybody else that's been an influence?

SPEAKER_03 29:26

Uh Cameron Whitcomb. That one's more recent. I found him in 24, I think.

SPEAKER_04 29:32

Do you know who that is? Cameron Whitcomb? I don't know who I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_03 29:36

I love him so much. I love him so much. Have you heard any of your songs on the radio yet? I have heard one of my songs. I can't remember which one it was on a radio station. I can't remember which one it was because I have a terrible memory.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Well, yesterday, Coke Radio played a lot, played some of your your songs too, and I think that's kind of cool. You kind of found out after the fact that you were that was insane you were highlighted as an artist there. Um so you just recently played South by Southwest. Yes. Okay, holy cow.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

That was incredible. What was that call like? Um, so my mom is my manager and she got the call. She literally I I don't remember how it went down, but she's she was like, Jillian, South by Southwest asked you to come in. Like we didn't send them an email that they want you to come in. And it was another radio station that we was it the Lockhart KLK KLKT uh had. I was uh I was a part of the Texas Women's Songwriters Festival in Lockhart a couple last year, and this year actually, but last year, and I did a radio tour of some of the radio stations near and in Lockhart, and KLKT really loved me, and they had a stage at South by, so they were and they were told that they could pick two artists, and they picked me. Oh, that's cool. That's awesome. And it was so much fun. I brought my boyfriend, I brought my little sister, and uh I told them that they couldn't have me unless my dad played as well, so I had him too.

SPEAKER_04 31:07

That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 31:08

And of course, Momager's gotta come. It was Momager's fun.

SPEAKER_04 31:12

Yeah, do you feel like that's a turning point in your career? Like that's one of the pivotal moments so far.

SPEAKER_03 31:17

I think I think that was so it was awesome playing the event, and I met like a lot of people, but nothing came to fruition. Like no one actually did anything about it. So that was sometimes you're yeah, you're it was March this year, right?

SPEAKER_04 31:31

It was last year. Oh, oh, last year.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

But but you know, it just it was. It just takes a little bit. You know, you're rooting. It's too much time. Yeah, you're too much. I'm impatient.

SPEAKER_04 31:42

The people will uh things happen over time. You just have to keep putting in the work. But you also got to play Green Hall.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Green Hall was amazing. I was gonna say Who did you did you play by yourself or who'd you open up for?

SPEAKER_03 31:54

I didn't open up for anyone. Oh while I played it myself. Uh well, not myself, my dad, obviously. Uh-huh. But um, oh my gosh. Literally everyone I know came. It was standing room only. Wow. I sang, I was doing uh I was uh setting up the monitors and the speakers or whatever, and I sang this new song that I'd never played on stage, and the first part is a cappella, and everyone, like the whole room went silent.

SPEAKER_04 32:17

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 32:18

It was incredible. I was literally, I was just warming up and I decided to play this one song that I hadn't even completed yet. I had forgotten the chords when it came like when it came time to actually start playing chords, I'd forgotten what they were, and I kind of just winged it and it worked, and then everyone like went crazy.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

Well, the energy from that stage, I mean, gosh, Garth, George, Willie, Wayland, I mean, you name it.

SPEAKER_04 32:41

They have played that.

SPEAKER_01 32:42

They have played that. Is there a song that you play, whether it's you that either you wrote it, you didn't write it, it's a cover song that you play that really kind of makes you feel vulnerable. When you write it, you kind of just like go in to the song. That's what I love about Miranda is like Miranda when she's writing a lot of her songs, or some even when she's singing some of them, like you feel like she can kind of transform you to where she is.

SPEAKER_03 33:07

Oh my gosh, I love her so much. If I actually played this song, then it would make me feel this way, but Vice by Miranda Lambert.

SPEAKER_06 33:13

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:13

But then a song that I actually do would be uh rehab. Uh-huh. It's a song about addiction. So I haven't actually ever been like I haven't abused or used substances at all, but Cameron Whitcomb touches on that. Like that's that's not his whole shtick, but like that's his story. Like he came back from that. Um and I listen to his stuff a lot. And I I was also listening to this other artist, I can't remember what their name was, but they also wrote a song about like addiction in that kind of way. And when it comes to the chorus, you find out it's addiction of a person. Like you know that's it. You know that they're bad for you, but you just you just keep coming back to them. Um and I don't feel I I I get into character for that one. I don't feel like like personally vulnerable, but like I I see it happen around me so often, whether that be like in real life or in movies or in TV shows and books, because I I'm always doing something like if I'm if I'm doing school, I'm watching Brooklyn 9-9 in the background or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

Like I cannot drive Steve crazy because I can multitask at the same time. Yes, I can. Yes, I can you mentioned the story behind something. Do you feel like every artist has to have a story, or an and if so, do you have like I don't think everyone has to have a story?

SPEAKER_03 34:36

That actually it makes me so upset because like people are like, what's your story? And they expect something like saw-ish or something like I worked for 20 years in a coal mine, and I'm a homeschooled outlaw princess. Exactly. Uh, you know, sh filed down the cage, cage of my of my cockatoo that died and I learned how to play guitar on it. Um and I don't think everybody has that story. Like I literally, I don't know, I just I just sat around and sometimes I play music. But you're building your story right now though. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 35:11

If you if you came across somebody that had never heard your music before and they said, Well, tell me about what you do, what would you say? How would you describe your music?

SPEAKER_03 35:19

I am I have a low self-esteem. So I would I would just be like, I would just man, I don't know. I I play music, I write funny stuff sometimes, and sometimes I'll get emotional. Jesus tries to write through me and I tell him, okay. I've got oh dang. How would I describe myself? I don't know. I guess that I've just been I've always loved music. It's always come naturally to me.

SPEAKER_04 35:45

It just comes from your heart.

SPEAKER_01 35:47

Well, do you have something that you would like to play for us right now? Whether you wrote it, a cover, your favorite?

SPEAKER_03 35:52

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_01 35:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

I do have a song, Dealer's Choice.

SPEAKER_04 35:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:56

This is actually one of my favorites. I wrote it relatively recently. And um, it's called The Blind Prophet. Okay. How hard? I gotta get. Well, they track me down. Look for your voice, but you won't make sound. Where were you in the scowling dark sitting at crossroads with a stake in my heart? I would follow you until we turned us. Guess I promised it and reached to both of us. Cross your fingers as you cross your heart and hope to die. They said I should have seen it coming when they know the prophet's blind No anesthetic, but you know, I've never felt this numb. And I don't get it, but the blood's been drawn until it's done. Where are you in the siren terrain? Lock safely in the cellar, hidden from the rain.

SPEAKER_05 37:28

How would follow you until we turn to dust? Yes, I promised it reached you both of us.

SPEAKER_03 37:38

Cross your fingers as you cross your heart and hooks die. Should I should have seen it coming? Don't they know the prophet's blind? Fold your hands to pray. Fold me in and on my body should tamper with my flesh is cold to warm me up. Here a sinner choose to take my hands and make me scream. Leave me in an unmarked grave. Leave me in hear me sing. I would follow you until we turn to dust.

SPEAKER_05 38:27

Guess I promised and reached to both of us. Cross your fingers as you crossed your heart and both died Should I should have seen it coming? Don't they know the prophet lied? Should I should have seen it coming?

SPEAKER_01 38:55

Don't they know the prophet's blind?

unknown 38:58

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 38:59

Wow, that one.

SPEAKER_04 39:00

That is what a great song, too. Thank you. Jeez, man. I can't believe you're only 18. The the uh experience that that comes through a song like that is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 39:11

I was sitting on the porch, it was raining, and I was playing chords, and I was like, this sounds like a Noah Khan song.

SPEAKER_01 39:17

Did you um read a lot of books when you were a kid?

SPEAKER_03 39:20

Oh yeah, I still read a lot. Like reading was my favorite. We would um I was a part of this like private school, and I'm not I'm not rich by any means, but my mom worked there. So I got I got in for free. Yay! Um and every like Wednesday we would walk, because we were so close, we would walk to the library and I would pick out a couple of books. It was like reading was my favorite.

SPEAKER_01 39:44

Listening to your songs, it's like it's like I'm turning the pages. Like I I literally am listening to this book on tape with a melody.

SPEAKER_03 39:54

I actually write books. Like I they're not they're not that good, but I I write often.

SPEAKER_04 40:00

Like not just songs like your songwriting's pretty damn good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 40:05

Dang, I tell you.

SPEAKER_04 40:06

Yeah. I I I think you're writing songs that somebody that's been a musician for 20 years would struggle to write. They're it's really, really good. Thank you. How hard is it to get started as a young musician nowadays? Is it hard to break out in the into the the music world and become like a a mainstream musician?

SPEAKER_03 40:25

I don't okay, mainstream, yes, but to start, no. I think that so social media has both uh helped her and her the music industry because you have so much, like you have you have multiple platforms, you have so much reach that you could you could do. Um but because everyone has a guitar in their hand now when you're scrolling, you also you you're it's so set the music in social media is so saturated that people just skip by you. So it depends. Like if you have an interesting look, if you have uh interesting ideas, like sound. I exactly like I know this I follow and listen to this one group, and they're a genre that I don't even like. Um, but I started listening to them because they make comedy videos, and then at the end of their comedy sketches, they say, We're negative twenty-five, and we do music, and then they play a little snippet. And I was like, that is so cool. Oh, so they've got a little they they got a little stick. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 41:26

So following up on that, is it better to be a good musician to stand out or a good marketer?

SPEAKER_03 41:32

It's no, it doesn't matter about the music. If you have enough money, you can get anywhere. If you have enough money and if you're you you have like I don't think music is good enough for people anymore.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

You don't think the raw talent the industry um appreciates the raw talent anymore?

SPEAKER_03 41:47

Exactly. Like I know so many people that would be so big, but they're being squashed down by what do you mean by the money?

SPEAKER_04 41:55

You mean to to be able to run like to push your Instagram out there or push your social media?

SPEAKER_03 42:00

Yeah, in my marketing class right now, she's talking about how a good marketing plan is like 25,000 bucks. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 42:09

Yeah, I was I was in that symposium and we were sitting there listening. We're we were with a bunch of musicians, and they were asking, there's like 50 musicians in the room. And one of the questions they asked is, okay, how much are you spending on your social media per month? Only two artists raised their hands that they were spending any money on their social media, and it was it blew me away. But you know, I mean, we're back from the day where, yeah, you know, the George Strait, you know, where he just he worked the dive bars and he kept working them and he kept working them and kept working. I wish, yeah, and and then all of a sudden, and you're right, it's all about it's about the who you know's and the the good old boy. There's still some of the good old boy system in there, but the fact that you have such talent, and I could see you multi- multi-talented across a bunch of different kind of um ventures. I could see someone like you being on Yellowstone, or you know, if Yellowstone is still around, or you know, something that Taylor that Taylor Sheridan would take. He's he has done really good about plucking these artists. I mean, look at Lainey Wilson. Her her career just shot up as well.

SPEAKER_04 43:18

Uncle Lucius, yeah. They were they were pretty much like not part of the plan at all. And then their song came on Yellowstone and they became Yeah, he was talking about that when it when it came back on.

SPEAKER_01 43:28

So there's many different avenues. I can see you as a as a young actress and just kind of excuse me.

SPEAKER_03 43:32

I actually wanted to be an actress.

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Like I still that's that's kind of my goal. Like to be able to act and some stuff. What what for you you're gonna say, okay? You know, I know that you're you know, you're young, but you're an old soul. You truly are an old soul. But like at some point, what point are you gonna go, Okay, man, I'm I made it. This this right here is success. And you you could there's still levels of success that you're gonna hit, but right here, right now, what is that? That goal that you have for the money.

SPEAKER_03 44:01

When everyone in the room sings my songs and the and the people in my room is not my family.

SPEAKER_06 44:08

Well.

SPEAKER_03 44:09

Because I've had shows where I've had shows where I'll be on stage and I'll be like, everyone's singing my stuff, and it's just my mom. Yeah. I'm so happy. Everyone here knows my music. It's just mom over here. Woo woo! Just mom.

SPEAKER_04 44:21

Fake it till you make it is a real song.

SPEAKER_03 44:25

I actually have a song written for my mama. I've got a couple. I've got I've got several.

SPEAKER_04 44:30

Do you want to play one?

SPEAKER_03 44:31

I don't remember any of them.

SPEAKER_04 44:32

Oh, okay. You wrote it, but you don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 44:35

I actually one of them I wrote because I wanted it to be on Yellowstone. It's a series. Huh? Dear Mama. It's a series of letters from a traveling musician to her mother, and she's talking about how she met this boy, and it's the tail the the family's boy, like the the kid that they had. Oh yeah, that they adopted. I don't remember his name either. I never watched it. Um it's talk it's like literally, it's it's like how she met him and she falls in love and she she wants to go home. And when I first wrote it, it was more it was more like um we're leaving tomorrow, like we're going to the train station or whatever, and that's like the kill word or whatever. Um, but that seemed like two on the nose, so I changed it to dear mama.

SPEAKER_01 45:24

How do you think you're gonna you're gonna take it when it when it does happen and they say Because it will happen. They will happen, but when they say, Okay, we want you to change a little bit of your sound, or we want you to change your appearance. Oh no. Or we want to change how are you gonna stay grounded? Is it is it because you have Momager, you have mom in your back pocket where you're like, okay, mom, mom can pull you to the carpet and say, uh-uh.

SPEAKER_03 45:48

I'm very opinionated and very good. Never would have guessed that. Never would have guessed it. Um when I first like I have so many people comment on my appearance and my sound. And if I just did this, I would sound better. And if I just did this, I would look better. Like I have like it the the nerve people have. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

Well, they hide behind a computer screen and they can sing whatever.

SPEAKER_03 46:09

Some of these people say it in person. Like this woman came up to me, she was like, You're dressed like an old woman. When I was your age, not enough people are getting punched in the face. I I have I would have anger issues if I allowed myself to have feelings when stupid people said stupid things to me.

SPEAKER_04 46:25

Does it not bother you at all?

SPEAKER_03 46:26

It bothers me a lot, but I just I'm like, you're not that smart. It's okay.

SPEAKER_04 46:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

Do you I I would say something like, I mean, boy, I can't believe you said that out loud.

SPEAKER_04 46:36

That's really that's really that thought should have stayed inside your head.

SPEAKER_01 46:42

Do you have those thoughts about yourself too? Well, you know, when we were at Myestone, I was sitting in line and um there was this lady in front of me, and the the lady that one of the ladies that owns Meirestone, the woman that was ordering, she goes, you know, you would look much better if you put on a lot more weight. And the owner, the woman in front of me. And I and so she walked away, and I could just see she was a little flabbergasted, and I go, you know, I said the same thing. I said, Not enough people are getting punched in the face for what it is.

SPEAKER_04 47:12

It's it's social media. It's like people used to write nasty things on social media, and now those words are coming out in public. I agree with you. I think people need to really start pushing back on that stuff.

SPEAKER_01 47:26

Okay, because we have a favorite worst thing that somebody has said about us. What's the favorite thing that you've heard that you're like I think we have multiple. Yeah, multiple things that someone has said about you online.

SPEAKER_04 47:36

That you make fun of all the time.

SPEAKER_03 47:37

That I make fun of all the time. Well, okay, so I get the thing that I'm thinking about was just dirty. Because like people, people are gross on the internet. It was literally, it was on a reel. It wasn't even in a DM. So I'm not gonna say that one. No. Uh, but people uh people like to comment like on videos of when I was younger about how I'm just screeching and you need to stop singing.

SPEAKER_04 48:00

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 48:01

Like, okay, I want to hear you sing, not in the shower bags. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 48:05

Yes, yeah. Come on, get a microphone, get a guitar. Let's let's hear your your version of that song.

SPEAKER_03 48:10

Seriously, like come on.

SPEAKER_04 48:12

Yeah. What if you could go uh if you could open for any artist, alive or dead.

SPEAKER_03 48:17

Cameron Might Comb.

SPEAKER_04 48:18

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_03 48:19

Oh, 100%. Cameron Might Comb or Miranda Lambert. Okay, I need to. I I know that I know I know Cameron Might Combs. I went to a concert uh just recently, a couple months ago, right? This year. Um, and I took my siblings with them. I loved him so much, I forced my siblings to love him.

SPEAKER_06 48:38

Really?

SPEAKER_03 48:38

Like they love him now as well, and they listen to his music all the time. And um, I took them because my parents told me that from Christmas last year that I could go to any Billy Bob's concert I wanted. And I was like, Can I switch my Billy Bob's concert to go see Cameron Whiticomb in Austin? And they were like, Yeah, sure. So we went to go see him, and my sister, my little sister, blacked out on his last song because she was stressed out and it was hot, and because of that, it was so funny. So she not actually funny, it's funny now because she's okay. She was okay and she is okay. She passes out. I'm in front, she's behind me. My older sister grabs her and like just hits me in the back. And I'm like, what's wrong? I'm recording. I have the video of me turning around because my sister's passed out and she's like fallen onto Aaliyah, my older sister. And I literally just grab her. Aaliyah is so mad, she only remembers me grabbing her and being in my arms. She doesn't remember Aaliyah grabbing her when she first passed out. She just remembers waking up in my arms and then being carried out by this cowboy. But it was so funny. The lights come down on us, everyone parts like the Red Sea, and we drag her out to a different area. And then Cameron, someone from the venue came over and was like, I don't know if you heard, but Cameron Whitcombs wants to meet you after the show.

SPEAKER_04 49:55

Are you kidding?

SPEAKER_03 49:56

I got to meet him. No way.

SPEAKER_04 50:00

That's like a script from a movie. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 50:03

Well.

SPEAKER_04 50:04

That's that's pretty wild. Of all the artists.

SPEAKER_03 50:06

Of all, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:07

George Strait. Yeah. Merle Haggard. I mean, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01 50:10

Did you see what he looked like? He's a cutie.

SPEAKER_04 50:13

He's a dormer.

SPEAKER_01 50:14

Look, look at how cute he is.

SPEAKER_04 50:16

Is he a so he's uh just from his look, I'm gonna say he's not a country singer.

SPEAKER_01 50:20

He's he's uh folk.

SPEAKER_04 50:23

Folk music. I would not pick that up from that, that he's a folk music singer.

SPEAKER_03 50:27

He's folk.

SPEAKER_04 50:28

Well, we'll have to.

SPEAKER_03 50:28

At least that's that's mm. You might you might have he doesn't, he's not completely confined to one category. As I think most artists are, I think we're we're branching out, we're realizing we don't have to be one thing, which I think is so cool.

SPEAKER_04 50:41

It's true. Don't put yourself in a box.

SPEAKER_03 50:43

Exactly. When I first started, uh my vocal coach was like, so what genre do you want to be in and only be in forever, and only people will only remember you for this one thing? And I was like, uh, I'm 10. I'm not gonna do that.

SPEAKER_01 50:54

Sorry.

SPEAKER_06 50:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

Well, I tell you what, why don't you take us out with the chorus of something that just really speaks to you right now? And we want to say, Steve and I both want to say that we have been following your career and we're so excited. And we hope that one day you give us backstage passes. And when you're super, super famous and we want an autograph.

SPEAKER_04 51:19

We can want backstage passes.

SPEAKER_01 51:21

And yes, and a t-shirt, and I'll get your merch, right? Yeah. Yeah. Your merch.

SPEAKER_04 51:25

Okay. I I was when I first met you and you sang for us, I was thoroughly impressed now. Sitting here visiting with you for 45 minutes or so. I'm triply, doubly impressed. You're a very amazing young woman, and you're gonna do fantastic things, and I'm excited to see it.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 51:42

Go ahead and take it.

SPEAKER_03 51:43

Take us out. Okay. Um, oh Lord. I don't know if I can go straight into the chorus. I can't. Well, you can you can start wherever you want. Okay. Here, I'll do the verse and into the chorus and then end it. Is that okay?

SPEAKER_01 51:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 51:56

Your words are harsher than they were before. Seems you've gotten used to glowing things around, slamming doors. Here it's such a trougher than it used to be. I guess now that I can say, You've really left your mark on me. These busted picture frames, wasted time in broken dreams, and I can be your Barbie doll. Picture perfect curtain call. You taught me to hate again. Love his finger paper thin. Said I didn't care at all. Plugged my wings and pushed me off. I can fake that look of love.

SPEAKER_05 52:41

I can cover branches up. Hit an area if it don't hurt. Dress me up in blood and dirt.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

Hold me, homie, let me go. Tell me things I shouldn't know.

SPEAKER_05 52:54

And my complexion's blue and black. I wish I could love you back.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

Oh my goodness.

unknown 53:04

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 53:05

Well, we have been just amazed and in awe of you.

SPEAKER_04 53:11

I am so impressed, Jillian. You are gonna do great things, and it's just a matter of time before the world discovers you. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 53:18

Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_04 53:20

Thanks for joining us.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

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SPEAKER_04 53:32

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This show is brought to you in part by the Mallet Integrity Team, serving Dripping Springs, Austin, and the surrounding areas of Central Texas since 2004. When you need the best real estate advice and service, give them a call at 512-829-2062. Or email them at malletintegrity team.com. And now here's Steve and Michelle.

SPEAKER_04 55:33

And we're back. We're back. Jillian Hudson. Dang. She's an old soul for an 18-year-old girl. She's, man, and what a talent.

SPEAKER_01 55:41

She really is. And I love that her family's very supportive of her.

SPEAKER_04 55:44

Oh, yeah. What was her mom? Momager.

SPEAKER_01 55:48

Momager.

SPEAKER_04 55:49

Momager. Mom and the manager. Yeah. She was really cool. I I think we're going to hear a lot about her in the coming years. I think we are too. She's got it. She, whatever it is, she's got it.

SPEAKER_01 55:59

You know, music is one of those things. You don't know what you don't know. And the more you know, the less money you have. Because everybody has their hand in the cookie jar in the music industry. That's true. And especially young artists like that, they work those kids. When once they start really hitting it, I know. You are a slave to your tour.

SPEAKER_04 56:19

Yeah. You know, you were asked her a question about uh when people start telling her how to do things and she said she's going to be true to herself. And I'm like, well, that all sounds good until somebody offers you a large amount of money if you just change your wardrobe and cut your hair a little bit different.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

I know.

SPEAKER_04 56:34

You know, but uh she's she's taking the business classes, so she's learning the business side. I think that's really smart because it's not just all artists singing great songs, it's there's a business behind it.

SPEAKER_01 56:44

Yeah, there is. I mean, it you know, learning through Ty uh or watching Ty and visiting with his sister when she came on and all the stuff that she does, just everything that surrounds that.

SPEAKER_04 56:58

It's not just standing up on a stage and singing a great song. There's a lot more to it. No, there is, there is. Hey, this past Sunday, uh I was excited. The run by the creek. Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Uh Run by the Creek. It was the 13th year, you know, the 12 years that it was going on. I was one of the race directors and put that on, and I never got to run it. And this past Sunday they held it again. Uh, we handed it off to Epic Sports, and they had it, they resurrected it, and it was a really fun event, fun event. I had a great time.

SPEAKER_01 57:28

So, you guys always had a nonprofit component that you donated to. Did they do the same thing?

SPEAKER_04 57:33

So, Epic is an offshoot of a church off of 1826.

SPEAKER_01 57:39

Oh, friendship church.

SPEAKER_04 57:40

It might be friendship. Okay. Don't hold me to that. But um they have a sort of an outreach that they do, and so Robert Solis is he heads that Epic, and it's sort of about a ministry for uh athletes. So, you know, they go to they have sporting events and bring people together um sort of as a ministry. But they they had they had the race at speeding springs.

SPEAKER_01 58:04

So it was it technically run by the creek?

SPEAKER_04 58:06

It was it was there a those the same? Yeah, oh yeah, it follows Onion Creek. Okay. Yeah, you run uh probably better part of a mile right along Onion Creek. It's not as not quite as pretty of a section um uh as the old race, but if that part of Onion Creek gets filled with water again, which might maybe after last night's rain, um you know, but you there's cows on one side and there's creek crossings and it's it's a little hillier, but it was it's a fun course, and it's a it's a nice part of dripping to be out and on a Sunday morning, and everybody had a big smiling face. The crowd was kind of small, it's first year, it's always hard for that. But um highlight for me, I won my age group.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

How many people were in your age group?

SPEAKER_04 58:49

You don't need to ask that. One I won the 60 to 69 age group, and uh there was one of us, one man out there. Holly won her age group.

SPEAKER_01 59:00

So uh, you know, it's you mean I could have come in second in my age group.

SPEAKER_04 59:05

You could have you could have walked and you you just still got second. Uh you know, it's uh it's it's cool to see the event come back, and uh they did it, they they they did it right. They didn't cut any corners, the shirts are cool, uh they did medals and everything. And um I'm hope I think they're gonna they're gonna announce uh this week sometime that they're gonna have a special entry fee for next year. So that's run by the creek.com. I think I I don't know what the discount's gonna be, but you can get an early one million dollars. One million dollar discount.

SPEAKER_01 59:35

So um, you know, like whenever you pass cows, like when you're when you're driving and you're like moo, so when you guys ran by the cows, were they like, hey, they did.

SPEAKER_04 59:44

Well, actually, yeah. There was, I don't know what kind of cows they were, but we were running down Creek Road. Moo cows, Steve. They were moo cows. And Holly goes, Look, there's cows, and one of them went, Meh. And then she she ran a little bit further and she looked over and went, Meh. So it's it's cool. It's a it's a great course, it's a lot of fun. It's a little hilly at the end, and that's the first time I've run a race since I had my open heart surgery. So my goal was just to run the whole thing, which I did. I almost died by the end, but uh 5k. Uh but you know, that's I actually a month ago I couldn't even hardly run a mile, so I'm getting there.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:19

Overachiever. And you know what? Like two weeks before that, you were um showing your butt walking down the hallway in an hospital gown. So that's right.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:27

That's right, that's right. I I was reading a thing about uh a generation in denial, and it's talking about 40 somethings are having a really hard time admitting they can no longer see. Do you remember the point where you first went, like what age you were when you went? Uh I can't read that anymore. Maybe I need glasses.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:44

It's been over the last two years.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:47

I have like has it been that oh, most of the time it happens in your 40s.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:50

Yeah, it's been the last two years. Uh I think now I have an emotional attachment to all of these cheaters. I have them everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:57

That's what most people do. Yeah, I have them all scattered around the house. But this story was about uh these mostly 40 somethings, and they don't want to get glasses, so they're in denial. And they're the part of the one of the stories was this woman was in TJ Maxx and they had readers, and she's like, Oh, I'll try these on, and she put them on. She's like, Oh my god, I can see everything. She just she don't want to have glasses, but that you know that was yeah, that was the the the the uh Epiphany? Yeah, it was the epiphany. It was the the the uh point where she said, I gotta have glasses. So um I just got new glasses.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:30

Did you? New cheaters.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:31

Oh, see you? I'm I'm still good with cheaters.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:33

Okay, wait, I'm gonna go get them. Oh, go get them right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:36

I'll keep I'll keep talking about my story. Oh, oh no. I think it's uh I think she's playing around with us, folks. Uh but people have been uh I do this one. You take a picture of something and then expand it. Have you done that? Yes like oh okay, I can't read that that article, but I can take a picture of it and then I can expand it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:54

I I do that on regular pictures. Like Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:58

Um, oh she has oh, those are actually pretty cool. Are they sunglasses?

SPEAKER_01 1:02:04

I can see you and then I can see down here.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:07

Oh, are they bifocals? No, they're progressives. Oh, progressives, yeah.

unknown 1:02:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:12

Uh another lady was having a hard time reading what her lipstick color was, so she printed out labels and stuck it up. Like the lengths people will go to uh to avoid having glasses. But I thought it was an interesting story because I remember the point we were driving in Arizona on a road trip, and I remember um going like 60 miles an hour on the freeway, and I was trying to read the sign, read the sign, read the sign, and I passed it just as I recognized what what it said. And I thought, uh, it's probably time for me to get glasses. But you know, if it's it's not such a terrible thing. Once you get used to them carrying the the readers around, it's uh it's not as bad as you think.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:49

Are those prescription that you have made?

SPEAKER_04 1:02:50

These are readers. Uh I was going to reach for them on my yeah, these are these are roca readers.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:56

That's so I just got these, and so and I used my HSA because I have money left over. And so I can see you, but then if I go down, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:06

Yeah, progressives are cool. I just I have another pair of these Rokas coming in.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:10

But they look like they look these these are from Looks Optic.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:13

Oh, are they?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:14

Yeah, they're they're cool. They do look kind of like sunglasses. You didn't get a prescription, you just No, you said And even when I went to the optometrist, is that what they're called? Optometrist uh um last year, she said, I said, Well, do I would like some some prescription readers? She goes, You don't need to. She goes, You can just go get them for anything. But then I did get when I went to Costco and I got my glasses, they get they gave me these computer glasses where you can see like just the computer.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:40

The blue light on them.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:41

They are so hard to see. I regret getting them.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:43

I I got the same thing. I got a pair of readers that had that blue light, whatever thing on there, and it hurts my eyes after about 20 minutes. Yeah, because I can't I can't wear it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:51

Well, but I also can't find like the little sweet spot. You know, it's like it's like I can see the computer, but then I would have a hard time seeing you.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:00

Yeah. Well, I think this generation is is trying to avoid looking old by not getting glasses, but you look pretty old if you're sitting in a restaurant trying to hold a menu like eight feet away from you so you can read it. So just go ahead and bite the bullet and get the readers.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

My favorite part is when you go to like a fancy restaurant, right? And then you can you you have your cheaters on and you're like trying to read the menu, but you can't see the menu because it's so gosh darn dark. So now you have your cheaters and your flashblock. You're like, okay, I think I can see it. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:35

Welcome to getting old. And folks, it just gets worse from there.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:39

So hey, um, we were talking a couple episodes ago about zoning laws and and you know, kind of everything.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:46

A lot of that going on and dripping.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:48

Well, yeah, everything that's going down in in the historical district, yeah. People were talking about it with Target and why did the city allow it with ETJ? Well, something's going on a little bit down the road at Lakeway or in Lakeway. So in a single family residential neighborhood, Travis County purchased a home, a residential home, and set it up as a temporary fire station for two years. Get out of here. No, no lie. It's at 801 Electra. Surprisingly enough, the mayor of uh Mayor Tom Kilgore, he actually lives on the same street. And people are all up in arms about that.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:29

Is it fire trucks or is it just like they sleep there?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:32

Well, so emergency calls will be dispatched from that location. It will be also housing firefighters, and there's a vacant lot right across the street that will park the I think the trucks and the cars of the firefighters that are there. Um so what Lakeway is up in arms about is the neighbors are saying there was no notice, no hearing, no zoning, no rezoning, and they're having some Zapco meeting um this week. Um Uh so it's it's interesting to me. But once I started going through the comments, Mayor Tom Kilgore put out a statement, and I'm I've kind of paraphrased some of this. It said that the Lake Travis Fire Rescue is operated by Travis County ESD number six. This is I never knew this, and I'm sure you didn't know this. This is why this caught my eye. Under Texas law, ESDS possesses sovereign powers for public safety that generally supersede local single family residential zoning constraints. The responsible governmental agency is Travis County ESD. Neither Travis County nor the city of Lakeway make the decisions for Lake Travis fire uh fire rescue rescue. Station 602, which is who's going to be really relocating there, is undergoing a complete renovation on Lowman's Crossing. The goal is to maintain rapid responses and the benefits to the home people's homeowners insurance. Alternate plans were explored, one being the Lake Way Police Department and the building behind the Justice Center. Neither were determined to be a best option. So they the rezoned, rezoned defaulted to District G UI, governmental utility and institutional. Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:23

Who knew? Yeah, I didn't know that. I knew uh when they built the new post office here in Dripping. And uh uh somebody from the city can correct me, it's been a long time, but uh, I think somebody like the city inspector went over there when they were building the post office and say, Hey, I'm from the city, we're just here to do our inspections, and whoever was there doing it goes, We don't need any permission from you to build a post office. We can build it wherever we want, however we want. That's the U.S. post office. Yeah. And I remember thinking, I guess they have this sovereign thing too. It's like wherever they want to put it, they can put it. It is interesting to me, though, that they didn't get any public comments or anything. They don't need them. Well, I know they don't need them, but still, I mean, sometimes you're allowed to do something, but it still is good to do a PR campaign to get buy-in from the people around there so that they don't create an uproar.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:14

Well, I think that's why the mayor put out that statement because he's basically saying, wasn't me, I didn't do it, and it wasn't the city of Lake Travis, it was um or Lakeway, it was it was the ESD that did this, and they can do it, they have the power to do it, and they don't have to ask anybody for permission to do it.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:30

That's crazy. So, you know, coming like to live right next door to that.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:34

So there were some pros and cons to it. Um number one, they will not turn their uh sirens. They may turn their lights, they may turn their lights, but not their sirens on. But um, I don't know. I mean, the older I get, it seems nice to have medical professionals living right next door to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:53

But you have one down there at uh Belterra Drive in Swear Ranch that's like a mile from your house. Yeah, I I'm okay with that. But right next door.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:02

What if they put one right like behind Pig Pen? Yikes.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:07

Now, apparently in the historic district, you can allow institutional things even with the single family. Uh there's a lot of little gray areas there that I'm I'm learning a lot about this, but there's a lot of little gray areas. You can do institutional things um without rezoning.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:25

So apparently, also there is a um assisted living facility or something that is in the reset residential and I don't know how that falls under the zoning laws also.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:37

I think, well, I think you can have those homes with up to six residents, I think it is, without actually getting a commercial license to do that.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:47

What if you just identify as a fire station, just like wee?

SPEAKER_04 1:09:52

Well, it's been interesting for me to watch what's happening in the Hayes Historic District. For those of you that don't know, there's been a couple of single family properties, their houses in the Hayes Historic District that have applied to become to have commercial use. Uh and one of them was interesting to me. I watched the planning and zoning, and the applicant said uh there's no way this should continue to be a house because at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, when the traffic is coming, because people use the haze historically. Cut through and and the city should do something about that. It's not you you shouldn't be able to cut through a neighborhood. But he said, uh, there's no way this should be residential. It it uh the the amount of traffic at four o'clock in the afternoon, and somebody on the PNZ said, So your solution is to make it commercial and increase the traffic? Does that make sense to you? So I it is uh, you know, I see both sides. You you own a property and you go, oh, I could sell it for a lot more money if it's commercial. But the problem with that is now you're uh all you're thinking about is somebody that's gonna sell something and move on down the road and you don't care about your neighbors. Well, some of us, you know, some and I'm talking about my neighborhood, but but specifically, but whatever neighborhood you're in, the the there are people that are left behind that may not want what you did, you know, so that you could get more money. So it's a it's a delicate situation, delicate balance. But um I'm learning a lot more about that stuff than I ever wanted to.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:19

Well, let's um let's hope that uh a fire station coming to the residential neighborhood near you.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:24

As long as they just go wee-woo, we woo, wee woo, wee-woo, wee-woo. Well, you've been having uh a lot of our listeners don't know. You've had a challenging thing going on in your life and with your family, and we've been kind of glossing over it a little bit, but I think it's probably time for you to tell our listeners all the things that have been going on with you.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:44

I think so. And you know, we're we go live also on our Instagram, and um my brother is actually live right now.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:51

So he Hey Chris.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

Hey hey, Chris, he's there. So my younger brother Chris, he's 54 years of age. Chris and I are 17 months apart. We've always been, you know, super close in age. He's also a Navy veteran. He served uh 25 years in the military. He served all over. Boy, he was in the Middle East, he was in Japan. Um thanks for your service, Chris. Just and your father served in the Navy. Both of both of my brothers served in the Navy as does did my father. Well, my brother, um, as of late, probably within the last year-ish, um, has been diagnosed with something called IPF, which stands for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. And it's a progressive lung disease that basically is destroying his lungs. And his lungs are scarred. And what they what they believe is probably a combination from a long COVID and from the burn pits, the exposure that he was service related. The damage is irreversible. Okay. Um, it doesn't, it doesn't get better. And his best chance for a longer life is a double lung transplant. So um he's recently been in ICU. We had him here in Austin, and that was kind of an ordeal, and we had him switch to a community care hospital in San Antonio, where hopefully eventually his lung transplant will take place there at uh University Hospital. And it's really for kind of everybody has been a real emotional roller coaster. Um, this Thursday, I'm asking those of you that are listening live, um, or you know, if you're listening to this the week after, they are having a transplant committee that they are deciding um whether he's placed on the transplant waiting list or not. He has gone through a plethora of tests.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:31

And I have said every orifice this man has, they have You tell me all the tests, and then and then sometimes they test it, and then a week later they test it again, and I was like, yeah, he's a very patient man, Chris, but I'm sure it's testing.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:45

It's it has uh he was I I think uh I told you last week he was pissed off because he had to have another colonoscopy, and uh that was my fault for some reason. I don't know why. But so not only has he been tested through the VA, got cleared to the VA, now this hospital, they made him go through their own battery of test. Um but here's something I really didn't fully understand until this week. So um my husband and I, I'm his primary caretaker, he has moved in with us, and um we are going to be helping him through this process.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:17

The process of getting a lung transplant.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:19

We're kind of walking side by side with him. But yesterday we had a very long day at the hospital. We met with the lung transplant um coordinator and uh the nurse, and we met with a social worker and just they kind of walked us through. I glossed through the pamphlet when they first gave it to us about three weeks or so ago, but this was like step by step asking questions. And so getting approved isn't just whether you're sick enough to need new lungs, it's also about whether or not you have people that will take care of you afterwards, and that is a big component of the lung transplant. They, it's actually a requirement of that you need to have caretakers with you, and that's where things have kind of like yesterday kind of get a little complicated when you look at like the person that actually needs the transplant versus the caretaker or the caretakers. And so here's kind of what I learned from the transplant meeting. So Todd and I, we are Chris's family support. Chris is my my last remaining family member of my nuclear family, nuclear family. My mother and father have passed, our older brother has passed. So it's just it's really Chris and I. Um, we were told as of yesterday that after his surgery, that um I will, or one of us will need to be in the hospital in ICU, spend the night in ICU with him for up to four weeks following this morning. 24 hours a day. 24 hours a day. Not just like, you know, popping in with flowers or getting on the phone with the doctors. It's like being there for one-on-one with the doctors, education, medical decisions, learning how to care for him. And then there's the whole recovery aspect after he leaves the hospital. You and I were leaving for lunch today, and and the transplant pharmacist was on the phone. And that is medications and monitorings and and appointments, transportation, also recognizing complications and helping him recover. I'm not a medical professional, I just play one on the podcast. Yeah. But I'm his sister, you know, first and foremost. I love him, but apparently I've been also nominated to be a full-time position. I've never been um uh kind of applied for. You know, I I didn't understand exactly what it meant um when I signed up for this. Not to say that I'm backing out at all.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:28

No, but it's just like I signed up for is it is it's family, so you didn't really like check the box and sign. You know, it it's been Chris doesn't want it, your family doesn't want it, but here it is. You've just signed up for a sort of euphemism for here it is, family, we got to deal with this.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:46

Well, I told him at the very beginning when he told me that this was happening, and uh he went on oxygen full time. I said, I'm I'm gonna walk this path with you. I'm gonna advocate for you. And uh, you know, um it yes, I I have, you know, I cared for my grandmother who had Alzheimer's. Um, you know, I've been a caretaker before and I had three little kids. And you know, I'm at a different stage in my life right now. You know, I'm I work full time, we have a podcast, I'm on air on a radio station, and you know, I have another little side business, and and uh so I'm busy and with my grandbabies, and by the way, I have two grandsons that are coming in May within two weeks of each other. Um, but here's the the numbers that America I think really needs to hear as far as like caretaking and whatever. 63 million Americans are family caretakers. We are of the age right now what we call like the sandwich generation, because my parents are past, I never imagined in my life that I would be caring for my younger brother ever. And that's nearly one in four adults, which blows my mind. The numbers of caregivers have increased approximately 45% over the last decade. And caregivers provide an average of 27 hours of care every week. Now, granted, after his transplant, he will need 24-7 care for for a while. Nearly one in four provide more than 40 hours per week, and that's a full-time job, as you know. The two 2026 ARP report founded that care caregivers spend an average of 12,000 or it's like $11,508 out of pocket each year. That's roughly $959 a month. I am fortunate because I am a designated caretaker through the VA that I have a stipend for caring. I have a stipend for him. But the biggest thing is 65% of these caretakers are working or working people that they have other second job on top of their nine to five type job. And it causes like huge um disruptions to their employment. I'm fortunate enough that I'm 1099, that I do work for you, and my schedule is um rather flexible. You determine it, yeah. Yes, but um I can do I can do some things online. But you know, you and I, the way we've operated over the last 12 years, we like the face-to-face. We bounce ideas off of each other and we go visit our houses and whatever. But family caregivers provided an estimated $1.0 trillion worth of unpaid care in 2024. Trillion. That's insane. And we have built an enormous part of our healthcare system on unpaid labor of people who already have jobs, mortgages, children's, and life and lives of their own. And then you kind of act surprised when you're exhausted. And I said something to you the other day, or I think it was today, when I said no one is taking care of the takers. It's the caretakers' needs.

SPEAKER_04 1:19:44

Even when you were at the hospital and you were saying, Well, the the nurse or whatever was saying, well, you know, you'll have to pay for your own meals and you don't get a parking pass, and like you can sleep on the couch over there. I'm like, really? That that's the solution to this? Where the person that has to be here 24 hours a day, that's the care you're gonna give them. I would think somebody at that hospital would have thought that through a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:05

You would think so. And and you know, I know that I'm in a fortunate position that Todd is, you know, the primary bet breadwinner. But eventually I'm gonna get burnt out. And Todd has look, Todd set up at his office or her his home office, he has three big monitors, and he can barely keep up with that. You know, he he does his little engineering nerdy beep beep 0101. I don't know what he does. And um he can't just take his laptop and and go sit. If he's if he's leaving, he's not working.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:34

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:35

Um, but I just think, you know, when the system I feel is set up for people that either are retired or not working, and it's it's such a shame that because I think eventually it affects the person you're supposed to be caring for.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:50

I was just gonna say that in the end, the person that suffers from this the most, this breakdown in the system is the person that needs the care. Because you're not you're not gonna have enough capacity to be there for him the way that he needs somebody to be there. You will you will run out of energy. You'll be too tired to participate in some meeting or whatever. You're sleeping on a couch in the in a room where somebody's coming in and checking on him every yeah, or every hour and the and the machines are going off, you're just eventually going to be running on fumes. And that's not good for him. That's not good for Chris.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:26

It's not good for me. And and you know, I've always joked that I have a three-day empathy window. You know, we've always talked about that. It's like, okay, I can handle it. Sometimes two days. If you're sick for yeah, three days max, that's it. But um think about all of the assisted living facilities that have kind of popped up for for people our parents' age. If my parents were still alive, you know, just like your your father, he lives at an amazing place, Jovi. It's not an assisted living facility. And they have activities, they're keeping their residents engaged.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:57

And they check on everybody every day. It's not, I mean, it's not like a a nurse checks on them, but you know, they make sure that if they don't come out of the apartment, hey, yeah, everything okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:06

Well, that's always kind of been yours and my specialty. I mean, like, you know, we we sell all kinds of houses. We sell red houses, blue houses, yellow houses, orange houses. But um, and you know, from three million dollars, we've sold, you know, a $60,000 lot. We've we've sold it all. But for whatever reason, your yours and my niche, and we have just really enjoyed that was the the older parent that is moving out and moving into an assistant living facility.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:33

Yeah, because we we treat their home with care. Because a lot of times, like we sold one in South Austin, they'd live where they lived there 28 years or and you know, there was a lot of memories there, and uh, you know, we respect those memories and they have to downsize when they do these things, which means sometimes having hard conversations about the China set. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:56

You know what I thought was so funny after that, the sale of that house, because I recommended that they paint their shutters black, and we had a watercolor done of their house, and we presented it at closing to her, and she goes, the shutters are black.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:12

Because they were yellow or something when we yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:15

I was like, Oh, thank you. You're welcome. I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:20

We sold another house where uh they were actually she had to go into assisted living and they left a lot of stuff in the house, and we had somebody coming over to just basically clean the house out. And her deceased husband member had been a a test pilot and had met one of the presidents or something. Oh my gosh. And there was and there was a black and white photo of him just laying it was gonna be thrown away. And you and I struggled because we were like, somebody should have this, but the family had already gone through everything and picked whatever they want, and I've and I thought, well, I kind of want to keep it for keepsake. And I thought, but it's not my step. It's not your step. I can't I'd be stealing it if I took it. So we had to watch it being loaded into a cart and hauled away. That was that was a little bit hard. That was hard for me to do that. It was. Yeah, but we I think we do have that knack to treat these to understand how hard it is for them to make that transition and help them with that. And I think you and I enjoy that too. We like hearing the stories and all that.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:18

Firsthand with my brother, him moving into our um our home, my daughter and son-in-law and and granddaughter are living with us right now. So Chris's world went from, you know, he was a football coach and and whatever, and soccer, very active, worked out all the time, and his world got really, really small. Now, granted, I'm sure he doesn't enjoy being woken up in the morning with a 21-month-old grumpy little grumpy face. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:43

But now he's down in there flirting with all the nurses.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:46

Yeah, I'm sure I asked, I told him where she I said, I bet you're living your best life. You get a new conversation every time you come in. But I think the the biggest thing about this story that I want to um to kind of put forth is the majority of our listeners are kind of around our age, right? And your parents are getting older. And make sure people tell me this all the time make sure you take care of yourself. Take care of yourself. If you're that kind of person, say, I, you know what, I would love to help you, just let me know. Don't ask me what I need. Yeah, just show up. Yeah. Mary Blank did that a couple of weeks ago. She showed up with two lasagnas, and she was like, Hey, I heard you were going through something with your brother. I wanted to bring you dinner. Didn't ask, just showed up. And I thought that was hard.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:31

I had something happen years ago, and uh we were going back and forth to the hospital, and somebody came over and mowed my lawn, and I was so thankful because every time I left the garage, I was like, damn, I gotta mow the lawn. And then it was mowed. It is hard for people to do that, but that's the stuff that really helps. Drop off a meal without being without being able to do it.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:49

Offer to sit with somebody, you know, so you can leave.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:52

Yeah, hey, do you need me to come sit with so and so for a little bit so you can go out and get a, you know, go for a run or go for a walk or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:58

Go shower in your own shower. That was that was one of the things that I guess was kind of infuriating and frustrating to me that I couldn't wrap my head around. They were like, well, just go ask your family and friends. And I'm like, so we're gonna now ask all we're gonna ask other people to be inconvenienced, you know, and and her perspective was, well, they'll do it for you. Well, I don't want to like I think that conversation.

SPEAKER_04 1:26:20

We're in Austin and San Antonio and somebody needs to sit down with her and say, Yeah, these conversations aren't going the way you think that they are. You need to you need to pitch them in a different way. But I, you know, I don't know Chris very well. I know him kind of in passing. I've seen him at Thanksgiving's and Christmases and stuff. He's a great guy. I really like him a lot. Um, and I know this is really hard for him. Mentally to be a strong, you know, middle-aged man, and then six or eight months later be basically in a hospital bed on oxygen. Um, that that's I I think that's for a lot of guys that that would be really, really hard. So we know, Chris, we know you're going through a hard time. We're all praying for you. We all want you to get on that list, get those that lung transplant, and Michelle's gonna sleep on the couch as much as you need her to. You know what?

SPEAKER_01 1:27:08

Steve's plea is more because he's like, your sister's been batshit crazy for the last couple of weeks.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:15

Uh yeah, there were there was a day I was like, oh my God, how am I gonna get through this? But then I think luckily the next day you came in, you said, Okay, we're just gonna start over from scratch, from right here. This is really just give me a do-over.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:27

You Steve, you know my personality. You've worked with me long enough, you know me long enough that first I have to freak out, I have to panic, and then you pat me on the head.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:37

Yep, you download it a little bit, you're like, okay, all right, we're back. We're we're okay now, we're good.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:41

That's kind of what I had to do yesterday. I had to, and then go eat at Sea Island.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:45

Yeah, and all is good.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:47

And if anybody has a couch in San Antonio that you'll let me sleep on or take a shower.

SPEAKER_04 1:27:52

Yeah, better than one of those ones they can wipe down with the solvent that's in the hospital. Yeah, that's those are not comfortable. Oh my gosh. Chris, man, we wish you all the best. And uh you got a lot of people pulling for you. So know that uh we we all wish you great a great outcome from your lung transplant. And uh I know it won't be without some difficulties, but you'll get through it.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:12

Yeah, we will. And I'll keep you guys posted. You know, I'll let you know how all of it goes. For sure. And you know, never know. There may be a day where I have to call in on the podcast sitting in ICU, and you'll hear us in the background. Beep!

SPEAKER_04 1:28:27

Yeah, so all right. Well, thanks for joining us, everybody. We will talk to you next week.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:33

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