Aaron Distler

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01:08Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, the tastiest hour of talk in Music City. Now here's your host, Brandon Styll. Hello, Music City! Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host and Merry Christmas week! Happy holiday week. Whatever you celebrate, I hope that your week is going to be amazing. If any thing, there will be less traffic and hopefully people will be in a better mood and hopefully people will stay away from everybody else. We are so excited. We're gonna come at you live. A lot of people don't do new shows on a week like this, but I said, you know what? We got people that may be driving to different places. Maybe people are just in their cars or whatever they're doing. Let's give them fresh content. So today we're gonna be talking with Mr. Aaron Dissler, who is Mr. Aaron of Mr. Aaron's Goods. We learned the story as to why it is called Mr. Aaron's Goods and he, you know, this is really one of those episodes where he tells his story. We got done and I said, I kind of feel like this was a therapy session because we went back to like his teenage years through like today and he is one of the Bills for Bills Sandwich Palace. I am actually now one of the Bills for Bills Sandwich Palace which is a pretty cool designation. I was unaware that that was even a thing and I feel pretty damn special. I'm not gonna lie starting this week off. So you are not gonna want to miss this episode. You're listening to it now. You want to listen to the entire thing because we start off and it only builds and gets better throughout the end. But try and listen to it all in one sitting. Try and find an hour where you can really get into this because it is awesome. I want to tell you today's

03:09episodes brought to you by What Chefs Want, Creation Gardens, The Butchery. They are the company that if you own a restaurant you need to be using because they are, they're really in it for what it's gonna help make you succeed. That's why they're called What Chefs Want. 24-7 delivery, 24-hour dedicated customer service line, split any item. They're just, you order through their phone app. They're really changing the game and I know of multiple restaurants who they have helped make it through this time. It's such a crazy time and they're the kind of partner you need to really help be successful. So check them out at WhatChefsWant.com and you can give them a call at 800-600-8510. That is What Chefs Want and they're a great sponsor of local people like Mr. Aaron's Goods. If you want to buy anything from Mr. Aaron's Goods, just go to MrAaronGoods.com. You can pick up your local bacon, you know, from my buddy over at Giffords Bacon. We've been talking about saving restaurants and saving local businesses like this.

04:18These are people that need your help and hopefully after listening to this interview today you are, you're all in. So this has been pretty fun. I hope that you have a wonderful, wonderful holiday week and we have got another show coming at you maybe tomorrow, maybe Wednesday. Just be watching. Click the subscribe button however you're listening to this and check out our YouTube page because Brandon Frone is gonna be coming up. He is an amazing chef from Nashville. You will probably know who he is. His episode may show up on YouTube before the episode shows up on the podcast. If you want to see that, check it out. This episode is available on our YouTube channel as well. We hope that you guys enjoy this one. Let's jump right in. All right, so excited today to welcome in Aaron Dissler. He is Mr. Aaron. Mr. Aaron's Goods. Welcome to the show, man. Thanks for having me, Brandon. This is pretty exciting for me because I hear so much about you just in I see you're all like the social media and I hear people talking about your pastas and they're all over these restaurants and I finally getting to like sit down and talk to you about all the things. I've done a little bit of research and I'm really excited about today because you've had an interesting interesting life. Yeah, it's a little all over the place, isn't it? I have done a million things at this point. All of them have kind of like led into and played a very integral part in starting Mr. Aaron's Goods but yeah, I've done a little bit of everything, that's for sure. So I guess we'll start off. How you doing? You okay right now? Like you're like psychologically, mentally, family, health, everything. You doing all right? Things are good, yeah. Yeah, we're just still staying super busy and churning out pasta left and right and lots of bagels. Everything is keeping me pretty busy and not really paying much

06:20attention to, you know, all the awfulness that's been going on the past the past year. So it's definitely good to have that kind of distraction to be able to like not just dwell on a lot of this stuff. So I want to get into all of that everything you're doing right now, what you see for the future, all of that good stuff. But I think I want to start with your past because I don't know anything about you. Like I don't know where you come from, like your whole story. I know tidbits and I'm just like excited to get in and learn the like the Paul Harvey rest of the story. Where are you from? Like what's your where your origins? I am originally from Evansville, Indiana, southernmost tip of Indiana, right on the border with Kentucky. And I moved to Nashville in 2005. So you've been here 15 years. Yeah. Is my math right? Yeah, yeah, it is right. Right. It'll be 16 next June. So, um, Evansville, Indiana, not too far from did you grow up like coming to Nashville like on the weekends to like hang out and do that kind of stuff? I recorded here a lot. I'm a musician. So, you know, like late 90s, I spent a lot of time here recording with my band. What was your band? In that time it was, I'm embarrassed to say, but it was a Scott band. So why would you be embarrassed to say that? It's not the coolest thing, you know, but it was then in the late 90s. It was, it was pretty damn cool. Yeah. So the band, the band was called Olive Lucy and I had a good friend that lived here in town. He's originally from Evansville. His name is Mark Chevalier and he had an apartment over in Sterling Court and we would come down here, you know, every couple weekends or so and make records with him. It was, I don't think the studio's

08:20there anymore. It was on Music Row, was Kenny Loggins Studio at one point in time. And I think Sixpence None the Richer had bought it. So it was, it was their studio. So we made a record there. And yeah, so I spent a lot of time here in the late 90s, bought my drums at Forks Drum Closet. That was like an early graduation gift from my mom and my grandma. So that was my next question. What was instrument did you play? Were you the singer or were you? Yeah, definitely not a singer. Like I can't, that's a hard thing. Yeah, so I played drums and yeah, so when did you start playing drums? What year? It would have been, gosh, early 90s. It's probably, I was in middle school, I think. There was a talent show. I was in sixth grade and we had the middle school I was in. It was a school for the arts. So they had, you know, a ton of funding, a lot of grant money to build this, this music program there. So it was really heavy on jazz. And we had a great jazz instructor there. And I remember during this talent show, the jazz band like went on this crazy freak out and they started playing Herbie Hancock's Chameleon and just went on forever. And that's awesome, though, ended up doing a drum solo. And I was like, man, this is what I really want to do with my life.

09:45And that happened at what age? I was probably 13. At a talent show? Yeah, it was a, it was like a school, a school talent show. Wow. Yeah, just I was like, this is what I want to do with my life. So I mean, I had always been like really into music. And I mean, even in like, thinking fourth grade, I remember one of my buddies, he and I talked about starting a rock band together. And I think I played saxophone and then trumpet, and I was terrible at both of those things. Can you like read music? I could fake it. It's, you know, reading like drum charts and any any other instruments totally different with drums. It's most mostly rhythms. Unless you get into playing like malleted instruments. And I mean, drum set is still, I guess they the way they chart that out. But I read rhythms. But as far as theory goes, I like math, I just slept through that in school. It's terrible at it. But I always had a good ear.

10:57What's I could think my way through it. You grew up traditional family, mom, dad, what do your parents do? Parents got divorced at a pretty young age. My mom was a teacher. She taught business like related work study was was her main focus. So she she it was her job to get her students, you know, part time work, and they would go to school for like a half day, and then they would go and work jobs like in the afternoons. And she would teach people job skills and kind of prepare them for the workplace. That's awesome. She was a track coach, cheerleading coach, did a lot of stuff. My dad was involved in radio, country music, he he lived here in Nashville for a while, worked at a couple stations here. And was he on air? He was and then he like moved into sales and he would do sports broadcasting and stuff like that. He's got a really, really great voice.

12:02But yeah, they split up and my dad moved around quite a bit. And so I was pretty much raised by my single mother. Your siblings? Yeah, brother and sister. They're both younger than me. You are the oldest or I'm trying to get the dynamic here of how this works. You know, I'm a middle child. Excuse me, older brother, younger sister. So I have a brother and a sister as well. Yeah. Who are you closest to the brother or the sister? Putting you on the spot with your family listening to this like, Yeah, I know. Honestly, I wasn't very close to either of them growing up. We all had completely different things. Really? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like I was super into music and skateboarding and, and that's probably, you know, an asshole-ish older brother, you know, looking back on it now. My sister was on the dance team and my brother was, was an athlete. So, you know, he played baseball. So none of us really had anything in common growing up. But, you know, later in life, my brother and I were very, very similar now. It's, it's pretty, it's pretty wild. There was actually, I remember, you know, we all worked together at a movie theater for forever. I mean, I probably spent 15 years of my life working at this movie theater and probably five of which were with my brother and sister. And I never hung out with, with them outside of work. And all my friends were hanging out with my brother. They were like, man, Andy's really, really funny. And I'm like, what are you talking about? And I remember my, my friend Tim was like, yeah, man, he's, he's hilarious. And I started paying closer attention and I was like, yeah, you know, Andy and I, we're pretty much the same person now. It's, it's, it's really crazy that I didn't see it for half of my life. But yeah, we're all much closer now and we have a lot more in common now that we're.

14:01I think it's so fascinating sometimes that these little things, you know, you're, you're watching a band like 13 and you're like, that's what I want at a talent show. It wasn't, it wasn't like the white album that did it necessarily. It was this talent show when you're 13 that you really were like, oh my gosh, this is what I want to do. It was the thick groove in Herbie Hancock's Chameleon. Yeah. That was it. But the fact that, you know, I think the guys that were playing that at the time were seventh graders and they're playing Herbie Hancock, you know, and that's pretty impressive. It set me on my trajectory in life for sure. That's so cool. So movie theater, what years were these? Like, I started, started working at the theater. It's probably 16. So like, you know, mid nineties, 95. And I was there. I was at the theater until, you know, I moved to Nashville in 2005. I was still working at the movie theater. I was a projectionist, which is one of the coolest jobs you could ever have. And sadly, they don't exist anymore.

15:07Maybe because it's all digital now, right? It is all digital. So, you know, my, my formative years, you know, I was building, building movies. So I would get like, you know, preview reels came on little schools. They were like two or three inches. And the films would come in these giant cans on reels. And I had a machine and I would splice everything together, put them on these giant platters and, you know, press play. And then for the next two hours, I just sleep in a booth. So like in the higher, in the, in the hierarchy, like at a movie theater at that age, could you like get girls because you were like the guy, the projectionist, was that like the top job? No, I was like in solitary confinement, basically because you're stuck in a booth. You're in a booth for eight hours. You have no interaction with people whatsoever. Okay. When you come out though, people were like, there he is. That's the guy that like creates the movie. It's so dark up there. Yeah, no, it was a really, really awesome job.

16:13I absolutely loved it. It breaks my heart that everything's gone to digital. Like the way they build movies now, they literally get on a touch screen and they just drag and drop. It's, uh, it's real sad. It's super fun. What's your, what's your best movie you saw during that time? What's your favorite movie of all time? And you can break it up if you want to say favorite comedy or favorite drama, but you know, if there's, if there's like one that's just, uh, that, you know, we don't need to spend an hour on, I'm just curious. Honestly, everything is a bit of a blur to me, uh, as far as the movies go, because I, you know, we would, we would put them together Thursday nights. We'd have to build them and then preview them. So I was there until like four in the morning, five in the morning watching movies every night. So white chicks totally just blurs into American beauty and the Lord of the Ring movies. They all just kind of come together in some horrible amalgamation. Um, no, I, I, I remember watching, um, American beauty and it was a total punch to the gut.

17:17Uh, when I watched that, I remember being pretty moved by that one. Um, all the Tarantino movies. I loved, I loved running those. Um, Pulp Fiction was, was really cool. I was probably 17 when, when that came out. Um, favorites are tough for me. I, I always have the hardest time putting together like top 10 lists and things like that end of the year lists. Uh, I just can't bring myself to focus and choose just one thing. It's really, really tough for me. Can't tell you why. Probably because you're, you're, I don't know, cause you love a lot of things. Probably. I mean, it's hard to place one because I think emotions are tough to kind of crawl into, like which emotion is the best? It's like, I love the movie silence of the lambs, but I love that movie because I felt like nine different emotions during that movie and it's not just one of those, the best was the fact that at the end of that movie, I was like, holy cow, I need a nap.

18:18Like, what was that? And, uh, I don't know which one was better, but that I knew all of those emotions combined, but is that better than the emotions I felt when I watched the naked gun, you know, like, I don't know the naked gun movies. What's that? Do you love the naked gun movies? Absolute classics. In my opinion, it was a Nielsen's grade. He's one of the best. Okay. So we could talk about this kind of stuff forever. You graduate high school. I assume. Did you go to college? I did. I went to a university of Southern Indiana. Um, I had planned on moving down here and going to MTSU for recording. And, uh, the SKA band, the successes of the SKA band kept me in the Southern Indiana. Uh, so I stayed, I stayed there and went to a college that did not even have a music program. Um, so I, uh, I found myself kind of just like floating for two years, not really knowing what I wanted to do. Um, took a couple of creative writing courses, really, really loved the professors, um, and I had an advertising class and, uh, it was like seminar advertising, I think is what it was.

19:28It's my sophomore year in college and the professor was just this wild, like crazy, brilliant, creative mind. And, um, I, uh, I kind of just decided right then and there, I'm going to go into advertising public relations. So I signed up as, you know, communications major with a focus on PR and advertising, wanting to do the creative side of things. And so that's, uh, that's the route I went. And, um, if that, like that has played a pretty critical role in everything that I've done, like I've been able to tap into that and, and apply it to everything, like being able to, to, um, you know, think creatively, I mean, even something as, uh, small as a post on social media, I kind of harken back to those things that we learned in class all those years ago. Um, but what are some, like, when you do a post on social media, what are some things back in the day through those classes?

20:29What is something that goes through your brain before you put a post on social media, let's, let's help some people out there who just, who we tend to see a lot of who post without thinking whatsoever. So let's help those people. I mean, like region frequencies is the huge one, you know, you, you get people who, um, like now doing this on my own, um, you know, this is how I keep my family alive and keep a roof over our heads. So, you know, a week goes by, I'll have like crazy sales and I'll be like, Oh man, my business is growing exponentially. And then a week later, you know, you have like two days where hardly anything rolls in and you're like, Oh man, what's, what's going on? And, and all of a sudden you get into this kind of panic mode and you're like, I've got to, I've got to get things out there. I've got to push this product. I got to do a sale on this or whatever. And the next thing you know, you've, you've made a million posts on, on Instagram or Facebook, trying to get out there and in front of people. And, um, you know, really all you're going to do is burn people out.

21:30You know, they're, they're going to not pay attention to what you're doing. So white noise. Yeah, exactly. It's white noise. You want to have like really targeted, focused, uh, basically build an ad plan, you know, um, try to be as calculated as possible and, um, you know, figuring out who your audience is really, I mean, back then people weren't really talking about, uh, crafting brands. Like, I mean, you had huge brands like Coca-Cola and Kleenex and things like that, where, where the actual brand name becomes like the product, you know, people are saying, give me a Coke and they're talking about getting a Pepsi or a Sprite or whatever. I need a facial, I need to, I need to Kleenex, not a facial tissue. Exactly. Um, but as, you know, as far as like building brands go, that's kind of become like a hot topic or a buzzword in the last couple of years or whatever. Um, but it's like, take the time to really kind of put a plan together.

22:32Um, don't just go and fly by the seat of your pants and throw something together in hopes that you're going to reach someone, like really kind of craft, uh, what you're doing and what you want to be before you request like send basically. Well, I think that with, with social media advertising these days, it's incredible with how detailed and specific and intentional you can be. I mean, if you're doing an event and you want to attract people who potentially might be getting married, you can drill down to engagement, engagement photo, like all these different things that are their interests and you can market to one specific tiny demographic of 5,000 people or 500,000 people. It's incredible. When you think about back in the day with like radio advertising or print advertising, you had to just kind of hope that the people were watching, you know? And, um, that's crazy. It's a, it's a totally different world.

23:33So you were in the ska band, you came to Nashville when that w let's get to Nashville's 2005, were you married then? Were you a single? You moved to Nashville. How old were you? What was going on in your life in 2005? I was married. Uh, I got married in 2004, my now ex-wife and I moved here. Um, and we bought, actually we lived over off of eighth Avenue. Uh, it's now ML Rose. We lived right behind that, like corner of Melrose back then. It was actually the shoot back then. I don't know if you remember the shoot. The shoot was like a bar. It was a bar. It was a bar. I thought it was over off of like Vashti though. Like, no, no, it was, um, it was where ML Rose was. Yeah. Um, so we would have like wake up to crazy rockets, like parties in the, in the backyard, the parking garage there was basically my backyard.

24:35So lots of drunk people spilling out. Um, the good times. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, and then we ended up buying a place over on Bosco Bell, um, and lived there for a while, unfortunately ended up getting a divorce and my good friend, uh, Ryan Bernhardt, which this all comes into play, uh, moved here from Pittsburgh and moved in with me so I could keep my house. Um, what year was this? Oh, that was probably 2006, maybe, maybe 2007. Um, so you weren't in Nashville long before you got divorced. Yeah. It was pretty short. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So Ryan, Ryan moved in with me. Yeah. It was probably 2006 or 2007 and, um, he was living in Pittsburgh at the time. I think working in a kitchen, maybe at the university. I can't remember up there, uh, but it was, it was like a line cook. And moved in and a couple of weeks later was looking for a job.

25:37And I was telling him about some restaurants and he went down and applied to, uh, I think it, I think it was Marché at the time and ended up getting a job there. Um, and so that like, you know, I don't know if you guys know Ryan, but he, he owns TKO and, um, we were talking the other day and he was just like, if you never got divorced, like none of this would have ever happened. Yeah. Just close my mind. It's crazy. It's, uh, again, these little small life moments that happen that trigger so many things. So when did you start? So you, I looked you up on LinkedIn and I, when last time I updated your LinkedIn profile, it says nothing about Mr. Aaron's goods. Yeah. I said, it said you were the manager for Ralphie May. It said, Aaron is the manager for Ralphie May. And I was like, is that the same Aaron Dissler? So that I did a little research and I was like, yes, it is.

26:39How did, how did, how did you get into becoming the manager for Ralphie May? Uh, I honestly, I couldn't even tell you it's like, again, it goes back to just weird little things happening in life. Um, so when I, when I first moved here, uh, I started, um, music PR firm did that for a minute, um, through those, through that band or that, that job, I ended up meeting a couple other guys and ended up playing drums for a band called Hey Penny, um, and the singer's wife worked at Greenpeace salon and we were all hanging out one night and she was like, Hey, you know, I, I cut Ralphie May and his wife, Lana Turner's hair. And they were talking about, they, they needed an assistant and I recommended you. I thought you'd be the perfect guy for it. And, um, so they put me in touch with, uh, with Lana, his wife, and I had an interview and ended up getting the job. I started as a personal assistant for him.

27:42So literally getting diapers and formula for, for his babies, uh, did that for a couple of years and I worked my way up and ended up on his management team. What does that include? Like, cause I don't, I, I've seen television shows and I've seen, you know, managers and people in business, but like, what does your day to day look like as somebody on the management team for Ralphie May? So I, I handled, what year was that? I started working for him in 2010 and it was like the last, probably the last four years where I started doing more managerial stuff for him, like doing day to day, uh, so I was pretty much like the point person, he had a huge team. Um, so his main managers were based out of LA, uh, Judy Marmel and Reg Tigerman worked for levity entertainment group. And so they would work on like film and TV, um, getting them specials, things like that, and then at like midway through that job, most of the time, most of his team was based out of LA and we ended up moving everything to Nashville.

28:54So did he live in Nashville? Yeah. Yeah. Over in 12 south. Okay. Yeah. So, um, we moved everything over here. So, you know, business accounting, business management, uh, his booking agents, we moved over to tell the UME. So William Morris Endeavor. Um, so the, you know, the last three or four years of that job, I was basically the point person for, you know, all of those people on his team. Um, I would also work on tour routing, uh, doing like advancing, uh, shows with all of the venues, uh, tour logistics, hiring bus drivers, tour managers, um, you know, making sure literally just like oiling the gears, making sure nothing went off the rails. Uh, and, and a lot of times it did go off the rails. Um, I mean, had everything from, you know, shooting a Netflix special to like having an intervention and putting him in rehab, I mean, everything and in between, uh, one of the craziest jobs and really, uh, one of the most rewarding jobs as well.

30:10Uh, it changed my life in a million ways, forever grateful to Ralphie. Yeah. I am, um, there's so much I want to ask about that. I don't, I mean, I don't, I don't know what you can say or, or just what that must've been like the crazy times. Almost feels like it's a movie, like where you start off and you're doing this and you, you kind of move your way up. And then it sounds like there was some exciting, crazy times to getting into like an intervention and post intervention time, um, following and he passed away in 2017 and you were working for him during that time, right? Yep. Yeah. And it was literally the most frightening day of my life. Um, you know, he was going through a pretty contentious divorce at that time and it was long and drawn out really ugly. And you're friends with both of them, right? I mean, I, Ralphie, I was really close with Ilana, not so much.

31:12Um, it, uh, it just, it was really, it was unhealthy and it was unfortunate to be stuck in the middle of it. I, I, a lot of times I like to say it was like being a child, like going through a divorce again, you know, there's the push and pull and you tell her I said this, and then I'd hear from a lawyer on her side that you tell Ralphie this and it's just not, it was not pleasant. It wasn't a great place to be. Um, you can imagine as their personal assistant for a few years, you're interacting with both of them. You're in the middle of their family dynamic. You probably see everything that's going on between them. And then to come to this, you probably have your own opinions about it, but you're, you know, you said you're friends with him, you know him really well. I guess you sided with him in this whole thing. That's just a, I mean, I don't want to get into that side of it too much.

32:13Um, but yeah, I was, I was, I definitely took Ralphie side. I saw where he was coming from and I understood, um, where he was at and supported him in his decisions. And, um, you know, there, there's been a lot of, a lot of back and forth about, um, the last couple of years of Ralphie's life and Lana's gotten on a couple of podcasts and, you know, she's accused his whole team of trying to control him and manipulate them. And, um, you know, she's, she was really upset and angered that, you know, me, and then one of the other managers on the team, Andrew Dorfman, we went with Ralphie to his divorce lawyer, um, when he filed for divorce and she thinks that we drove him to that, but it was very much his own decision. And I was there because I loved him and I wanted to support him. He was hurting and, you know, he and Lana were together for almost 20 years.

33:18And, um, it was a pretty painful decision for him to make, to close that chapter. And, you know, I was on his team. I was an employee, but, you know, Ralphie was also part of my family and I loved him and I wanted to be there for him. And so, yeah, that's what you do for your friends. And so we went with him and, um, and we were there for him to support his decision. But, you know, she didn't see it that way. She thought it was about money and that we were trying to control him and, and basically take money away from her. And it's not, that's not the case at all. I'm over here going, so you're, you're close with this guy. You go with him because you just want to support your friend as he goes to the lawyer to do this, because that's what friends do. And then afterwards, she blames you saying that you're trying to control him and it's a money thing.

34:18And how does that feel? Like, what does that feel? I've never had anything like that happen to me. So I have literally have no idea. Like when you're sitting alone thinking about that, like, how does that make you feel? Oh, it's heartbreaking. I mean, she doesn't like come out and say that it was me or, you know, anyone specifically, she just says that, that there were, there were people in his life that were trying to control him and didn't have his best interests at heart. And there, there's a movie, I don't, I don't know if it's been released yet or not, that she put together. And I think it's supposed to cover a lot of, a lot of that. It's probably from her perspective. There was a camera crew that was filming a lot of that. And so she, yeah, she made a documentary about it. And I just try to tune it out, you know, like I have, I have my memories of, of Ralphie and Lana. I, I have nothing bad to say about Lana.

35:21She was really great to work for. And I learned a lot from her just as much as I learned from Ralphie. And, you know, she's hurting as well. She lost her husband and the father of her children. And, you know, going back to saying that the day he died was like the worst day of my life, it's the same thing for her, you know, um, can imagine, you know, basically my main source of income dried up that day. I mean, it was gone. I lost my job. I lost my health insurance. I had a four month old daughter, um, and it's the same for her, you know, and she's a really good friend. Yeah. Yeah. And she's, she's a comic and, you know, raising two kids on her own, basically. And, um, so, you know, it goes both ways. I totally see where she's coming from. It becomes a fight or flight type, type thing. Uh, but as far as how it makes me feel, um, you know, I, I know what happened.

36:22Um, and I'm, I'm at peace with everything. Um, you know, I think that the documentary kind of paints Ralphie to be an addict who was kind of out of control and in a lot of ways, you know, he was he's 450 pounds, um, and his biggest, I think he weighed close to 800 pounds. So clearly there are, there are addiction issues there. He was, he was, uh, a person who was struggling and, you know, food addiction was, was a serious thing. And going back to the intervention and putting him in rehab, uh, he was, you know, he was popping pills and he was like nodding off and, and it was really starting to get to a point where we had to do something, but that side of things you know, Ralphie, he, he was not a pill addict and, um, it was not, he smoked a ton of weed, uh, but he was not a drug addict.

37:26He was addicted to food and clearly that, that was a problem. Um, but, uh, yeah, I don't, I don't know, man. It's, um, like I said, I just try to tune out the negative. I've got my memories and like I said, he's changed my life a million ways for the best. Let's talk about some, cause he's, he's hilarious since he was on last comic standing, I mean, the guy was absolutely, his stage presence was amazing. I mean, he's one of the funniest people out there. I mean, he had some really great routines. Anything particular jump out to you? Like, let's go back and think about some amazing moments. Anything that like any random story that was just like awesome, some show, some bit, something that you just remember that's positive that we can, that you can share to kind of shine a light on this, this man. Um, I mean, he was hands down one of the kindest, most giving people that you would ever meet and, and I can't tell you, uh, enough stories about that.

38:34I mean, he would, he would just pick random fans off Twitter and he'd say, Hey, Hey pal, this guy's he's having a rough time, um, reach out to him. Like let's get him a ticket. Let's fly him to Miami. Let's put them on a cruise with me. He was friends with this DJ out of Tampa named cow head. And, uh, he would, he would do, um, these comedy cruises. So Ralphie would just, he would buy like a dozen plane tickets for people with their friends or family and fly them and then put them on this cruise for like a week, um, he donated to charities all the time, um, but as far as stories go, I mean, it's absolute insanity. Um, my, my job interview with him consisted of going over to his house and eating a bowl of chili and smoking a gravity bong with him. I mean, that was like, that was how I got my job. He was like, put it on the table. He was like, hit this and, uh, we ate some chili and talk for like three or four hours.

39:38And was it, I've never, was it an actual gravity bong? Cause I've never actually seen like a real, I've, I've, I've always had like a milk jug that I fashioned into something and you kind of get in the bathroom and be like, come here, check this thing out. Like, it was a huge ball. Um, I mean, Ralphie, he had every, every sort of contraption that you could ever need to, uh, to smoke weed. He had it. Um, did you clear it? Oh God, no, no, that was the test. Like if you can clear this, you're hired. His mission in life was to get you as high as you've possibly ever been and to laugh at you. Uh, I mean, he had a crazy tolerance. Um, I remember like record store day one year we were, um, hanging out at Grimey's and he gave my, my partner, Callie and I, um, gave us a gummy. It was like, here you go, pal, eat this. So Callie and I split it and like an hour later, we're sitting at the far end of the basement and it's like pitch black in there.

40:43And I just remember like having tunnel vision and just got into like a complete freak out. I was like, we, we have to get out of here. If we don't leave right now, we're never getting out of this bar. So we stumbled through the bar and made our way out. And I was like, I, I have to eat something. I I'm freaking out here. I've never been that high in my life, like a 40 milligram gummy. And you're like, just losing your mind, trying to just incapacitate me. And I remember there was a food truck. There was a pizza truck and we ordered a pizza and I was so high that I forgot how to chew. Like I couldn't, I just could not function. Um, we ended up having to take an Uber home and it was, it was his mission in life was just to do that to you. It just gets you high constantly. And my brother, my brother is that guy with peppers. He wants to feed you a pepper that will make you be in physical pain. Like he's not happy. He's not like, Hey, you want a jalapeno? He's like, this pepper will bring it. Like, I don't want to do that. So then he'll start like hiding it in things just to see you be in pain.

41:44Yeah, similar, similar deal, but different. It's, it's, uh, it's, it's not very pleasant to be on the receiving end of that, that's for sure. Um, but as far as other stuff we did, uh, we booked the gathering of the jugalos one year. Oh, so are you serious? Yeah, I got the experience, the gathering with Ralphie. We, we took it there. It was just an absolute shit show, man. It was, uh, it was one of the craziest things I think I've ever experienced. And I knew what to expect going into it. Cause I had seen the, like the American juggalo documentary. Um, and you still went. Oh yeah. Yeah, no, we were excited. I put together a whole camera crew and we, we took, you know, the whole crew there and filmed the whole thing. Um, but it, you know, you go and do these other festivals like Bonnaroo. He's done that two times, I think. And I played Bonnaroo a couple of times and it is like one of the best run festivals in the world. Uh, the gathering, not so much, like they had a comedy, they parked his bus right in the middle of like general camping.

42:54So like all the jugalos who are just attending the festival, their tents are like 12 feet away from Ralphie's bus. Uh, someone tagged his tour bus with red spray paint. Um, and I don't know if you've seen any of the footage of, of comics, like trying to perform at the gathering, but it's, it's brutal, like most people get up there and they can't make it 10 or 15 minutes into their set because the crowd is just like so raucous and so insane. Um, no one pays attention to what you're doing. Like the, you know, they don't, they don't care what jokes you're telling. They're just yelling, like they're screaming or talking about family. They're yelling, whoop, whoop. Um, they're running up on stage, trying to, you know, get you hired to do beers while you're performing. It's, it's absolute loot insanity. There's, there's no security there whatsoever. Um, but Ralphie ended up doing his whole two hour set. He made it through the entire set. I haven't even heard of a comedian doing a two hour set.

43:54He would do three hours. Like I, Ralphie, he had one joke that he was working on, uh, before he passed away. That was an hour and a half long in of itself. It was, it was a 90 minute joke. Wow. Insane. He was, he was brilliant, man. He's one of the best comics that there ever was. I mean, he, he would write stuff, um, on the stage, like on the fly, every show, you know, he had like his hits that he would do, but he, you know, he would just come up with stuff left and right. There's comics out there that I've seen that are still doing the same set, like three or four years later. And Ralphie changed it like every night, but yeah, he had a 90 minute joke that was about losing his favorite chair and, uh, started out with him getting married and, and it, it, you know, wove through and he had jokes, you know, built inside layered in, uh, and then yeah, an hour and a half later, he finally hits you with the punch line and you're like, Oh my God, did he really just do that?

44:57Um, but yeah, he, he, it was crazy, uh, the stuff that he would do. And, and during that set, he had guys coming up to the stage with like a six foot bong and people bringing him beers and he made it, he, he went through and, and uh, soldiered on and made it through all the way to the end. I wouldn't put anything, anybody, any juggalo that walked up to me to offer me something, I'm not ingesting anything. I don't know what's in that. Like that's, that's just the craziest scene that I couldn't even imagine. I will say this though, as far as juggalos are concerned, they were probably like some of the friendliest people you would ever encounter, like when they're talking about family, I mean, they're, it's no joke, they're serious, like they love each other and they're taking care of each other. Uh, they just happen to look different. Yeah, no, I'm judgment. I've just seen, I've just heard stories of things that happen at the gathering of the juggalos and I'm like, gosh, it's just so far outside of my realm that it's, it's, I'm not, not condemning it.

46:04I just, whatever they want to do. Um, it was, it was a nightmare scene for sure. Are you a, um, so you're a musician. You got into this comedy world in performing. Are you, did you ever do any comedy? Did you ever write any comedy with him? Are you inherently funny? Do you do any of that stuff? No, no, I, I, there were probably two or three times in my life that I like genuinely made him laugh and that was a great feeling. Like, yeah, but it's, uh, but no, I, I'm, I, I could never write comedy. I could definitely not do comedy. Not to stand up. Like I'm, I, I'm a drummer. I feel much more comfortable behind everyone else, like trying to hold things together, um, but in a lot of comics, they, they write their own material. They don't want to do anything with anybody else. So, uh, who is your favorite comedian? Do you have a, besides Ralphie that you would say is like your favorite?

47:05I love Dave Chappelle. I think Dave Chappelle is brilliant. Um, he was here in town and that was pretty incredible as well. Chris rock when he performed and it was another thing, like he's working on his Netflix special and, uh, kind of like pulling back the curtain and seeing things behind the scenes, like he would go up and do his set and then back in the green room, they were literally back there, like honing the jokes, um, like trying to figure out which way to, to get them to land better. And, you know, tooling things for the next set. Um, but yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty crazy. Um, there, uh, what were you going to say that day? Worst day of your life? Um, how'd you find out that Ralphie had passed? Uh, he was in Las Vegas at that point in time. He was doing, um, a residency at Harris. So he, we did that.

48:06We put them there to keep them off the road. Ralphie was like a road dog comic. He would do 250 dates a year. And it was a workaholic. Uh, so we tried to get him, you know, to go out there to kind of, you know, dial things back and make it a little easier on him and we had just hired a new tour manager and, uh, Ralphie didn't want to stay in a hotel or a condo out there. So he was staying with, um, some of his friends. It was a, another comic and his wife and he was, uh, you know, staying in a room there and it was probably maybe 10 in the morning, I got a call from the new tour manager and he was just like, he couldn't talk and he was choking on, on tears and he said, Ralphie's dead. And I was like, what? And then they put a paramedic on the phone and he said that they, they lost him. They couldn't, they couldn't save him. Um, yeah, I just kind of blacked out there for a little bit.

49:09I was, I was at Ralphie's house. Um, and I sat on the couch and, um, when I kind of came to and realized what had happened, I started calling people, I called Ralphie's sister and let her know, um, and then called, uh, Andrew Dorfman, um, who's one of Ralphie's other managers and just started letting people know what was going on. So I'm, I'm like shocked. I just can't imagine that day for you and what that must've been like. And sorry to bring you back to that day. We're not, I mean, I really want to talk about your pastas, but I want, this is all stuff I feel like is so fascinating because, you know, these are the things that when I, two days ago, when I'm like, I want to learn more about Aaron, I'm like, Whoa, I didn't know any of this. So that day, holy shit, you know, your life changes.

50:10I mean, like that's a 90 degree turn and you no longer have a job. You no longer have income. Um, what do you do? Like, what's, what is, where does your brain go? What do you do next? Uh, thankfully, Andrew Dorfman, um, he and his brother, they own Zany's comedy club, Brian Dorfman. Uh, Brian is a partner at Outback as well. So, you know, they put on concerts all over the country. Um, they, uh, they were there for me and, you know, I'd spent probably the last three years of Ralphie's life working really closely with Andrew on everything. Um, he and I were kind of steering the ship and he was like, Hey, don't worry. We're going to figure something out. And, um, he took me on and got me a position at Zany's, uh, not, not really with Zany's per se, he also had a comedy club in Huntsville called Stand Up Live.

51:13And, uh, I was working with him, you know, in the comedy clubs and to be quite honest with you, I didn't, I literally felt like someone who just got plugged in because he wanted to help me. Um, he didn't want me to, to, uh, to lose everything. Uh, everything that they were doing was a well-oiled machine. They had someone to take care of, of everything. And I just felt out of place. I felt like I didn't have a whole lot to contribute. Um, and at that time, Andrew and his wife, Amy and Brian and his wife, Wendy, they had bought an orchard in Wilson County, uh, out in Mount Juliet. And Andrew and Amy, you know, he's from Chicago has always been in comedy. Um, Amy is from a Bay area and their kids are pretty much grown. So they're kind of empty nesters and Amy is, you know, bought horses and chickens and, and, uh, and they had some hogs at one point in time.

52:19So they, they kind of shifted to this, this farm type lifestyle and they got a really good deal on this orchard. Uh, it's breeding orchard. It's, it's been in Wilson County since 74, I believe. And, uh, it was up for sale and some developers were going to buy it and tear it down and turn it into a subdivision. And the Dorfman sweep done. And they're like, no, we're not going to let this happen. We're going to save this place. So they bought it. And, um, I found myself spending more time there than at the comedy clubs. And, you know, it needed a ton of work as 12 acres. There were probably maybe 1400 trees. There's peaches and apples and, um, I literally just kind of started working there and, uh, working in the orchards, like pruning trees and watering and fertilizing and picking and yeah. So the way I see it was just kind of, um, working as a project manager, um, figuring out how to rebuild this orchard and bring it back to life.

53:27So, you know, we built the store out there was more or less like a pole barn. It was like an 80 by 60 pole barn. It didn't have any heat or air had a giant sliding barn door. Half of it was Mr. Breeden's workshop. He was doing like metalwork. He was a retired metal worker. Uh, the other half was the country store. And, um, so yeah, we, we tore it out the house that they lived in. Um, we took down, we took down that and started like finding all this old wood from like the twenties, basically, uh, old wallpaper from the twenties that had just been, you know, sheeted over like wood paneling and stuff, and we took it down board by board and saved all that wood and then ended up building out the store with that, um, as far as the trees go, you know, a lot of them, I would say some of the apple trees there were probably 40 years old. I mean, they, they were at the end of their life.

54:27Uh, the peach trees were pretty old as well. And we ended up taking, I mean, there doesn't make them better, like better fruit. Yeah. They stopped producing at that point. They, they just like us, they, they get old and weak and they don't produce. Uh, it turns gray and yeah, yeah. So we put down two acres of trees and that was another insane experience where like, I literally found myself, like we rented a mini excavator from Sunbelt and like the guy shows up with a trailer and just drops off this piece of equipment and gives us the keys. There's like no tutorial on it. No lesson or anything. I, they just assume you rent a mini excavator. You're going to know how to use it. So I'm like literally inside this thing, like watching YouTube videos, trying to figure out how to work it. Um, but yeah, we figured it out and, uh, ended up taking out, it's probably 500 trees is my guess, and, uh, we replanted, we put in, I think it was a thousand trees, maybe, um, because the root stock now you can, it was like semi dwarf trees, uh, that would, you know, the canopy would be like 12 to 16 feet.

55:44Now you can do dwarf trees. So you can basically double the amount of trees you're going to plant. Um, but yeah, I had a, I had a crash course, uh, you know, going from comedy to running an orchard and becoming a fruit farmer, so I had to learn how to do that. Who wasn't that, I mean, I don't, I don't know. I can only imagine, but during that time was probably a pretty painful time where you're still grieving and time to be out in the orchards. There's probably a lot of time by yourself out in a field. You've got a project to be done. You're busy. You're being, you're able to be creative because you're, you're, you're figuring stuff out. It's a project that you need to, there's a final result you need to accomplish. And was it good for your soul just to kind of get out there and do that? Totally. It was, it was, I mean, I'd get up at six in the morning and drive out there and, uh, just be by myself most of the day, running heavy equipment, like driving tractors and, uh, skid steers and things like that, and building stuff, like seeing something go from nothing to something was pretty remarkable.

56:51Um, and honestly, like being with Andrew, uh, was very cathartic. Um, you know, we went through everything with Ralphie together. So I think we had a pretty, pretty strong bond there. He's definitely like, he became like my mentor and he taught me so much about the business. Um, you know, I learned, I learned everything from him, you know, even just talking, like we'd go on drives, um, down to like Scott's orchard in Alabama. So we'd have, you know, two, four hours in the car together. And I just pick his brain and he would tell me like history of the comedy business and talking about building out clubs at that point, I think they're building standup live. So he was going through like permit processes and inspections and dealing with codes and regulations. And, um, I learned a lot of real world stuff, like in those two years with him. You know, I, uh, just hearing stories about like trying to build out a comedy club where, um, you know, he's got inspectors there and, and one guy is saying like one thing, like that's not up to code and then the other inspector is arguing with that inspector about how it should be.

58:09And he's like, you know, there's so much red tape and trying to build out a business and, and a lot of times you can't do anything. You're just like stuck there. So, you know, I, I like up until that point was very like wide eyed and had no clue as to what, you know, goes into running a business. And I learned a lot of real world stuff from him that things don't go smoothly and you don't get what you want. And it's really hard to like cut through that red, red tape. Well, for instance, with the orchard, um, we were trying to build, uh, a venue out there, uh, with like a commissary kitchen and have like wedding venue, uh, new store, like all this stuff. And, um, we had paid, you know, engineers and surveyors and all these people to come out and test the soil. Like we weren't on city water there. So it was all septic and ultimately to be able to build that space, we would have had to have knocked down probably a quarter of an acre of the new trees that we planted just to install drip lines for septic.

59:20And so it's, you know, like things that you want to get out of something or things that you want to build and create. There's a, it never goes smoothly. That's, that's basically what I, what I learned. Um, but yeah, back to, to, to working with Andrew, um, he, you know, he, and my, my family, um, Callie and my, my daughter Avery, I mean, she was four months old when, when he passed away. Um, you know, they're that, that kind of helped me get through, through everything. Like I had someone to talk to that went through everything with me. And then on the flip side, you know, Callie and I, we had this baby that we just created that we had to keep alive and, and, uh, you know, spend every waking minute, you know, feeding her and taking care of her. And, um, that's, I mean, that's what got me through it, you know, like you don't have any other choice. So, you know, I, I, I get, you were somewhat prepared for this year.

01:00:28I mean, coming in, I mean, having gone through that and just that you've, there's no other options. You got a newborn child and you don't have a, like, you've got a fight for that. I mean, like, so this, I've talked to a lot of people who've really overcome a lot of adversity or pain or different, um, things. And what motivates people to me is really, really, um, fascinating because I think it's all about perspective. You know, if you've been given something your entire life, this has probably been harder for you. But for the people who have overcome and had to create and are constantly working and fighting and pushing, this is kind of like, yep, I anticipated something like this this year. So this is what I'm going to, this is what I need to do. And it's just an interesting, um, it's interesting. So how did Mr. Aaron's goods come to play? When did you, when the idea come about, how did it come about? When did you learn how to make pasta like this? I mean, I had, I had always, it's like going back to Evansville, um, my aunt Patty, she was my great aunt, my mom's aunt.

01:01:34Um, she was just obsessed with food and she was an amazing cook. Um, I went to Catholic school for, you know, six years of my life and she was one of the lunch ladies and her and a bunch of other women, uh, would donate their time and, and they would, you know, cook, cook food for funerals and, and, um, and things like that. And she got me obsessed with food. And so like her soups, she had this beef noodle soup and a chicken noodle soup that I loved and the beef noodle soup always had like a thin, uh, like German style egg noodle, like a vermicelli that they cut into egg noodles. Um, then another thing was, uh, Evansville is weird with their food, man. They, everything's backwards there. Uh, the chicken and dumplings that I grew up on, it wasn't like a biscuit dough, like a drop dough, they're what they call slickers and, um, they were like paper thin and they would cut them into little diamond shaped, uh, dumplings.

01:02:36And you know, all the chicken fat from the broth just made them super slick and you wouldn't have to chew them. You could just swallow these noodles. But, you know, we, we would like obsess and talk over all these noodles and stuff. And so, you know, at an early age, I was always into, into that, uh, I would, I bought a KitchenAid roller attachment for the mixer and would, I got the recipe for those dumplings from, from my aunt Patty, and, uh, so I would make those at home and, you know, one thing leads to another, you find yourself making fettuccine. Um, then, uh, I got, I think that I, I actually, I should backtrack to the, the, the way Mr. Aaron's goods came about. Um, long story short, I've always loved pasta. I've always loved noodle making, but I kind of got obsessed with making bacon for a while. Um, so I was doing like home cured bacon and I started thinking like throwing around the idea that I might start doing bacon and selling bacon on the side.

01:03:39I was doing like black market bacon to friends and family and whatnot. And at that point in time, uh, Nathan Gifford just kind of like came onto the scene and started, you know, doing really well. And I was like, well, I guess I can't do bacon now because Nathan's got the market cornered. Um, but I had a good friend that was buying bacon from me and her son, uh, he hated, he hated bacon and my bacon was apparently the only thing that he would eat. And he said, mom, when are we going to get some more of Aaron's Mr. Good bacon? And so she told me that, and that kind of took off and, um, you know, Callie and her sister Liz, uh, they started joking around that I should start this business called Mr. Aaron's goods and start, you know, like selling the things that I love to make. Um, so naturally pasta was like the next thing in line. And, uh, I bought, you know, going back to the KitchenAid, I bought their extruder attachment. And I don't know if you've ever messed with that thing, but it's, it's an absolute nightmare.

01:04:43No, I have, I know it's, it's terrible. Um, I've never made pasta in my entire life. Not one time from scratch. It's you should do it. It's pretty cathartic. Um, but I would love to the, uh, the KitchenAid extruder attachment is just absolute garbage. It does not work. I bought it and I had agreed to do like six pounds of pasta for Christmas one year. And it was an absolute failure. I ended up having to make, uh, everything by hand. And I just threw this extruder away and I was so frustrated that I started just looking on Facebook marketplace and Craigslist for pasta extruders. And I came across, uh, this commercial machine in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and the guy was selling it for $2,000. Um, I started looking it up. It was like a $13,000 machine that would do 88 pounds of pasta per hour. And he was selling it with, I think, seven dyes, seven brass dyes. And, um, you know, at this point I was working at the orchard.

01:05:44I had space there and I asked Andrew and his wife, Amy, if I could buy this machine and put it in to the orchard and we would make fresh pasta there. And they agreed to it. So I rented a truck with a lift gate, drove down to the university, uh, of Alabama and bought this machine and brought it back and the rest is history. Um, now your pasta making fool. Yeah. Yeah. And at that point in time, I literally just saw it as a vehicle to like make small batch pastas and sell them out of the store at the orchard. I didn't really think I would do much else. Um, and then Ryan, uh, Bernhardt, he and I were talking and he was like, no, man, you got to get into the wholesale game. You need to do wholesale for restaurants. Yeah. That's where it's at. I was like, okay, I guess I could, I could try that, but I didn't really have any connections outside of Ryan or, um, you know, Hadley at Margo, uh, who was friends with Ryan.

01:06:48Um, you know, beyond that, you know, I had a couple of restaurants that I sold produce to like, you know, catbird seat would buy peaches from me. Um, and, you know, Arnold's would buy peaches, but none of those places wanted to buy pasta from me. So, um, I asked Hadley if he would be interested and he said, yeah, you know, we could try it. Uh, we, we make all of our pasta at house. So we, you know, we wouldn't buy regularly from you, but definitely try it. So I made some for him and, um, then I just started basically cold calling people. I would make sample bags and walk into restaurants and, you know, asked to speak to the chef or, or anybody that would be interested. And, uh, that's basically how I started. I just, I made one pound sample bags and started taking them into places. Uh, I think St. Stephen was maybe the second place to, um, to buy some pasta from me. And then, then stuff got weird.

01:07:50Uh, once RJ started, you know, buying pasta from me, um, he would say, you know, at that point in time, I was just doing an egg dough, you know, semolina and egg, and I remember he was like, Hey man, I want to make, uh, some lime ash pasta. Like, I don't, I have no clue. So, you know, just basically trial, trial and error. Um, he had this ash that they cooked down limes and, and, you know, until it was burnt and then broke it down. And I put like 4% ash into, into my recipe and then cranked out this lime ash, Mafaldeen, and it was beautiful. It was one of the most beautiful things that I see. Lime ash pasta. Yeah. So we did lime ash and corn ash. Um, and yeah, he, you know, he would call me or text me with, you know, some, some idea that would push me further and further in a different direction that I had never even considered going in and, and the end result was always really cool.

01:08:56So I, I kind of took that, um, into consideration to kind of carve out my own niche of, of doing, doing pastas. Like trying to do a custom, um, specialty, something that you're not going to get anywhere else. And so that's, that's what I did, you know, for the most part at the beginning. So what do you, how many restaurants do you have now? How many restaurants do you sell to now? Uh, I, I'm probably at like a good solid dozen, like regulars. Um, and when, when the pandemic hit, you know, everybody shut down and, uh, and I had to basically refocus and, and just a minute, yeah, I started doing, uh, you know, direct to consumer. And so I, you know, the end of March, people were texting me their orders and then just been mowing me money and I would go out and deliver pasta to them.

01:09:58And the next thing you know, I'm buying packaging and having labels printed and, um, and, you know, most of my sales turned into retail sales. I built a website, I traded out a buddy for, uh, for him to do my site, built everything out and I mailed him my coffee. Uh, Mr. Aaron's good coffee now. Hachi machi. I saw that. Yeah. I send him five, you know, five pounds every time he runs out in return for doing web design for me. Um, but you know, the restaurants came back and thankfully all of the folks that I work with are, um, you know, doing as well as they possibly can, you know, given the circumstances and if anything, you know, they're, they're buying and selling more pasta now than, than they were last year. It's, it, it's mind blowing. Um, how do people, so if I'm a consumer and I'm listening to this right now, if I'm a restaurant and I'm listening to this right now, how would I purchase your products?

01:11:00Uh, it's all at mraronsgoods.com. Um, got everything on there and you know, started with just pasta and then we did sauces and the coffee, uh, Drew's brews local roaster. They do the coffee for me. Um, and now I'm doing bagels as well and smears. So literally a little bit of everything, all the things that I love. I just try to figure out how to work it into a product that I can sell. Um, and I, I joke around that I'm going to be like, you know, the generation X, uh, Paul Newman. Like if, if, if I can have my own brand of dog food, I'll know I've made it in life, selling dressings and the whole deal. That's what I'm striving for. Yeah. That's a good goal. Definitely not going to lie. So, man, I'm so excited, um, about your success. So I didn't know where the store, where your story was going to go. Thank you for, for walking us kind of all the way through this regurgitation of your life.

01:12:04Hopefully you don't feel like the, at the end of a therapy session right now. I kind of did there for a minute. I was like, oh man, I'm revisiting some things that I don't really want to revisit. Well, thank you for doing so. I know it wasn't easy. There's one last thing that I really want to get into, and that is a collaboration that you've recently done, um, over at, I believe it's at TKO. Mr. Bill's Sandwich, there's Bill's Sandwich Palace, right? Bill's Sandwich Palace. Yes. Bill's Sandwich Palace. Tell me about that. Uh, so I mean, this was in the works long before I moved all my stuff over to TKO, uh, Aaron Clemens and Ryan, they were working together over here and they would just talk about their love for sandwiches. Uh, even when I moved in here, this is like last April, they, they were just talking about sandwiches constantly. Everything that they loved about sandwiches. Um, one thing leads to another, a couple months ago, um, Aaron was, was standing there and he was like, Hey, yo, what do you guys think about doing a sandwich place?

01:13:08Are we doing this? Are we going to do it? Like, I guess so. I guess we're going to do it. And then, you know, Bill's was born out of that. Um, eventually I think, you know, it's we're going to do sandwiches and some pastas and my role is basically making, making pastas and some of the breads, uh, that they use, I've been doing some pretzels buns for, for Bill and, uh, we haven't done the pastas since I think the first and second pop-up it's, it's a little much right now, like trying to get all that worked in. So, uh, Aaron's kind of cut back the menu just to see what's streamlined, what works, how to make a service, like, you know, run smoothly, um, working out the kinks, but hopefully eventually we'll be able to plug those pastas in as well. Wow. Uh, I've, I have not been able to go to experience Bill's sandwich palace yet, but it is like the number one thing on my list of things that I want to do in this city and, uh, when's the next one?

01:14:11Uh, we just had the last one for 2020 on Saturday, so it'll be, uh, probably early January, um, I think we're just going to do Saturdays for the time being and then slowly build up to doing Saturday and Sunday and then maybe Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Uh, but yeah, it's, you know, we're all like Midwestern boys. Ryan is from Evansville as well. Uh, and then Aaron is from, um, Wisconsin. So all of the weird sandwiches that we've grown up on, we're just kind of plugging those into the menu and, and, uh, Aaron's making them really, really special, uh, like the Evansville special is, uh, you know, back home, it's called a stromboli, which is absolutely wrong. Um, but he said it's backwards there. It's like, yeah, it's totally backwards. Like a stromboli in Evansville. It's a pizza sandwich. It's like Italian sausage, red sauce, mozzarella on like a Vienna roll. Um, and you know, if we called that a stromboli here or anywhere else in the world, they're going to be like that stromboli, then you end up pissing people off and you have fights with people on Instagram who are saying that's not, that's not the right thing.

01:15:16Um, so, you know, we, we deferred to calling it the Evansville special and, uh, yeah, people from back home, they get it. You know, they, I, one guy, I think just, uh, shared a photo of him holding the sandwich with an Evansville Iceman shirt, which is the minor league hockey team, uh, back home. There's, there's a lot of us Evansville expats here. Um, the sandwich sells really well. That's awesome. I mean, I'm so, um, I guess I'm just excited for your success in it. Um, I'm excited you're able to make it to the show today. Um, this has been such a fun conversation. I can't wait to do the next one. I'd love to get all three of you on and do like a half show like this, where we just talk about sandwiches and what you're doing over there, because I'm totally fascinated by it. It'll get really confusing because you'll have to address all of us as Bill, so no worries. Yeah. Yeah. I can do that. Bill number one, number two, number three. I think you just, you just throw all that out and you just call everybody Bill and see how confusing it can get.

01:16:19No, that's, that's the whole point. Uh, the other day we were in here and, and, uh, Aaron and his wife, Kristen were prepping and Callie and I were making pasta and sauce. And Aaron was like, has, has Aaron called you Bill yet to Callie? And she's like, no, not yet. He's like, that's when it starts seeping into life. When you start calling your, your partner, Bill, uh, yeah, the first time he called me Bill, I was like, did you just call me Bill? So yeah, it's that's the whole point. We have a thing, um, with some buddies we grew up with in our, in our more world, my brother kind of started, but we call everybody Pete. What's up, Pete? How you doing, Pete? Hey Pete, you know, Peter, how are you doing Pete? What's up Pete? Like everybody's Pete and it's just a thing. Like, and there's literally like 15 people that we all call each other Pete. Every time we see each other, what's up Pete, Peter, what's happening Pete? And it's just a thing. Like, I don't, I don't know where or why it came from, but it's a thing and I love it. It's yeah, it's the same thing with Bill. When we did the first pop up over, uh, in Jeremy's space, this loco space, um, I was working the register and taking orders and everybody that came up, they're like, Hey Bill, what's up Bill?

01:17:28And they would drop things off for, for Aaron, um, like beers from Wisconsin. They're like, Hey, give that to Bill. And it was just hilarious. Uh, but you'll, the next time you have, have, uh, those guys on, you'll have to get the, the origin story from, from Aaron Clemens, I think it started at city house and it's best left, uh, told by him. Okay. He's got the original, the original story. It's my goal one day to be an honorary bill for a day. Oh, you're already a bill. Yes. Life goals achieved. We're all bills for sure. Well, Bill, um, thank you again for being here at the end of every show. I ask our guests to take us out and, um, to just, I open the floor, whatever you want to say for however long you want to say it, final thoughts, what, just whatever it is, I don't, I don't really care whatever you want to say, um, the floor is yours, so take it away. Uh, first and foremost, I would like to thank the restaurants that have supported me and have gone through this wild journey with me and purchased their pasta and all of my customers as well.

01:18:41Uh, secondly, I guess I'll just keep it short and sweet. I know we're coming up on Christmas. Um, I don't know if this is airing before Christmas or after Christmas, but be smart and safe. Don't get together with your whole family if you don't have to. Uh, I had to tell my mom and family not to come to Nashville this year or go to Indiana, uh, there's light at the end of the tunnel. This vaccine's here. Let's try to be smart, keep things safe, not get sick. We'll all get through this. That's about it, man. I think that's all I got, Bill. I think that's, I think that's, that's solid and that's all that advice. Um, I, uh, I appreciate you so much. I appreciate you coming on. I appreciate your vulnerability and everything you talked about. And, um, I look forward to, I'm going to, I would love to come in one day and be like a pasta apprentice. And you can show, I've never made pasta before. Maybe I could come in and like, we'll just make pasta one day and you can like show me how you do it. And I'll, we'll take pictures. It'll be fun. We'll do a little.

01:19:41Yeah, it's anybody that wants to make pasta, one egg for every hundred grams of flour and you're good to go. Roll it out, make it thin, cut it. It can look ugly. Doesn't have to be perfect. You're going to boil it and put sauce on it anyway. I didn't know it was that easy. It's super easy. All right. Maybe we'll make lime ash pasta. Show me how to do something a little more complicated. Squid ink pasta or something. I don't know. It's really easy as well. You just buy squid ink and you put a little dollop of it in with your, with your eggs or water. It's everything is very, very easy. And once this is all over, if anyone wants to learn how to make pasta, I would definitely love to, uh, to do some classes and teach people. Well, I think you just did. I think, I think you just gave up your entire career, man. Everyone's like, shit, it's that easy. I'm just going to start doing it. Literally buy a machine, put semolina in it, put eggs in it, pour water in it and go press. Well, man, um, I don't know if you celebrate what holiday, if you said, you said Christmas, you celebrate Christmas, I do celebrate Christmas.

01:20:47I wish you a Merry Christmas and a happy new year. Thank you for coming on the show and, um, have a great rest of your week. Thanks, man. You too. I appreciate it. All right, dude. Big, big thank you to Mr. Aaron Dissler for coming on the show today. And again, I guess that being so vulnerable and just telling that story, all the stuff with Ralphie May, I thought was so fascinating. I think we could do a whole nother show on just so many different components to that stuff. So, um, big thank you to you, Mr. Aaron Dissler, please go support Mr. Aaron's goods, mraronsgoods.com. We hope that you guys have a wonderful holiday week. Thank you for listening. Please wear a mask, be safe out there. Socially distance this holiday season. Tennessee is the worst state in the nation for this. Please make good decisions and be safe. Love you guys. Bye.