Jesselee Jones

00:00Welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio, a podcast for and about the people of the Nashville restaurant scene. Now here's your host, the CEO of New Light Hospitality Solutions, Brandon Styll. Hello Music City and welcome to Nashville Restaurant Radio. My name is Brandon Styll and I am your host and welcome to part two of the Jesse Lee Jones interview. Today's interview is pretty intense. The first interview was good. This interview we get in, we get below the surface and I just want to say thanks again to Jesse Lee for coming in and being this vulnerable and being this honest with us. This is a great episode. I'm really excited about it. I do want to say real quick as we've got a couple of sponsors, I want to talk to you about the temperature outside and let you know that it's hot. I'm sure we're all aware of the temperature that's going on outside. If you are having any issues with your HVAC system, this is not the time to have them and I know the process is, okay who do we call? What are we going to do?

01:20It's going to cost me a hundred dollars getting anybody out here just to look at it. Well that is not the case with Binkley HVAC. He's a locally owned and operated HVAC company. He's in Bellevue and he works with restaurants. He works commercially. He works with your house. So if you have an issue with your house, you want to come check it out, he will come to your house and not charge you a service fee to get in and diagnose what's going on. Most time he can fix it right there on the spot or come up with a plan for how you guys want to attack it. So if you're a restaurant and you need somebody to come in who's a local company, we want to support our local people, give them a call. Let's help out Binkley HVAC. Give them a call 615-736-1012 or find them on Facebook at Binkley, B-I-N-K-L-E-Y-H-V-A-C, local, honest, affordable, Binkley HVAC. That's who you need to be talking to. I also want to talk to you today about Springer Mountain Farms Chicken. Talk to you about them on every show because they're amazing and they have been a supporter of this show since day one and you all know that we don't take advertisements from restaurants. We want to support our locally owned and operated restaurants and the companies that support us here are supporting you. They're the ones that are out there supporting them. So Springer Mountain Farms made a commitment. They said, look, we want to continue to help get the word out. Keep talking about chefs, the people that are doing an amazing job and their chicken really is the best chicken in the world. Go check them out, SpringerMountainFarms.com where you can find every single restaurant that purchases Springer Mountain Farms Chicken. At this point in the show, you know how much we love them and there's a button you can click. If people are buying Springer Mountain Farms Chicken, they're buying the best

03:21ingredients. So go support those people. The last sponsor we have today is Trust20. That's Trust20.co if you go find them online. If you're a guest out there, if you go out and eat, ask restaurants, say, are you Trust20 certified? That's the way in which you're going to know that this restaurant is doing everything above and beyond in order to take care of you, the guest. That means they're also taking care of their employees and it is safe to eat there. Restaurants that want to get Trust20 certified, it is free to go through the complete audit right now through the end of August. Just go to Trust20.co. They'll come out and they'll identify everything that you need to be doing to ensure that you're being proactive and safe for your guests and your employees. And if you are going out to eat, ask the restaurant, say, are you Trust20 certified? It's very important that we have some level of standard to know. If you're a guest, look them up. Trust20.co and find out. There's a lot of stuff in there. Maybe something you can be doing at your home. So again, if you are out there and you love this podcast, please go to the Nashville Scene webpage, nashvillescene.com. Look up the best of Nashville tab. Go to the media and politics tab and click on that and help us out. Best podcast. Fill out Nashville Restaurant Radio and give us a little love. We love that for you guys. Check out this video. If you go to our webpage, NashvilleRestaurantRadio.com, click the watch tab. You can watch all of our YouTube videos.

05:07So we thank you guys for listening and enjoy part two with Jesse Lee Jones. Okay, so Jesse Lee Jones, we were talking the other day and we're picking up for part two of this interview on another day. Normally part two just as a, and the funny thing is we're both wearing I think the same clothes. Well, I do that on purpose. You know, I think you might want me to just, I sat at the same spot and I, you know, just shaved and showered and sat at the very same spot I was the other day. I wore the same shirt too, but this is a different day. And where we left off last time, you had to go. You're summoned. You had to leave. We had to leave. And where were you headed off to? Oh, on Saturday morning we had the East Nashville Tomato Festival here in Nashville. It's a great festival. I mean, it's just wonderful to see the neighborhood all together and all the neighbors and they have a parade. They have live music. There is a music that is the music they were playing. It's pretty much like a New Orleans type music, you know, and they had a pickup truck and the musicians are on the back of it. But anyway, it was my first year to be involved in the sense that I, you know, Sam, the organizer of the whole thing called me and asked me if I would bring some of the old cars out there. So that was really fun.

06:41It was great to see people, man. I know it sounds strange, but it was great to see people, although they were just outside their houses. They didn't gather around in a big area, so there wasn't like hundreds of people together. But the families were on their front porches or on the sidewalk as we drove through the streets. And a couple of feelings that I had that it was really interesting because you see, before this pandemic, this whole thing, we had a tornado that did a lot of damage around here. And the area of Nashville that got hit the most was that area, five points. So I was driving through the streets following the procession, you know, and some of the houses and churches like destroyed. So that felt really strange because with all this pandemic thing and being home for almost five months now, it felt like surreal. It was like, wow, what happened? It's like, oh my goodness, I forgot all about that tornado that we had. It went through that area and just really did a lot of damage. It was awful to see that. A lot of houses and churches are still boarded up. But here we were, you know, enjoying a day, a Saturday morning doing the tomato fast in this Nashville, which is so great, man. I mean, I took a green car, I took a red car, and I took my police car, my black and white.

08:24So anyway, so it was really cool and the kids really loved it. It was great to see families doesn't make sense. It was great to see families, man, mom and dad and brothers and sisters, whatever they were, you know, the people were out on the streets, they're waving at us and they were smiling. And I mentioned to a buddy of mine who was writing with me, he was one of the judges because they decorate their houses too. Oh, really? So anyway, I said to him, man, it's so good to be out here and see these families, these children and everybody smiling and waving. And I, you know, I was playing all different tones of sirens in the car and the kids just, you know, they're digging it. So it was really fun. It was a, I'm very glad that I did that. So the East Nashville community is just, besides being an amazing community, an amazing food scene, the community, it's a vibe over there. It's a total feeling when you get in East Nashville. And I love the whole, you live in East Nashville? I do. I do. Yeah. Okay. And yeah, you drive around there, you live, I live in your little bubble. And I did a podcast the other day where I talked about how we were so in love everybody in the town was just so all in together in the tornado time and then COVID happened.

09:56I think a lot of people have forgot that East Nashville is still hurting, that North Nashville is still hurting, that there's a German town is still hurting. There's still a lot of help that needs to be done. Yeah. You know, Donaldson area and stuff. I mean, I drove around after the tornadoes, you know, or the tornado, I should say. But anyway, it was pretty unbelievable, man, because you see the destruction. It's like a, it's like a war zone, you know? I mean, churches and the interesting thing about tornadoes is it'll take out a house. Like for instance, 1508, it'll take us out and it won't even touch the door, look at the house next door. It's like, whoa, just went like boom, here and there, just picks what it wants. So it'll destroy something and then leave something right next door untouched. Unbelievable. You know, I work with the Germantown Pub. They're one of my clients and they're good friends too. But the morning of the tornado, I woke up to like multiple text messages. I live in West Nashville, so I didn't know necessarily. But I woke up the next morning with all these text messages. I just got up and went straight down to Germantown that morning and the Kroger was closed because it had taken some heavy damage right there at the corner of Monroe and Rosa Parks Boulevard. And there was a O'Reilly Auto Parts store across the fatty corner that got completely taken out. Then there was an auto zone next door to that got completely taken out. In Germantown Pub, nothing. Nothing. Wow. Like all three corners got completely just, I mean that O'Reilly and the autos are like gone. They're just completely gone. And then Germantown Pub had, and they have like a, there's like a vinyl cover on their deck. They didn't even really even get torn. Like it was like. Yeah. Yeah. It was unbelievable. Yeah. You know, the just before that would have been, I'm thinking was March 21st when we were told to close or

12:01something. It was somewhere in there. But right after the tornado, we had a lot of friends that were hurting and, and employees who lost everything, lost their houses and all. And we were fixing to have, I got together with my friend here at Nicoleto's Pasta, which is a great place. And also the American Legion Post 82. And we are right in the middle of putting a benefit. And it was going to be Brazil, Billy, it was going to be Chuck Meade and Chris Crugs and all of these guys. And I was trying to get the word out to Raul with the Mavericks. And I mean, we're going to have a big benefit at the American Legion Post 82 on that Sunday. And that's, that's when we're already closed. So it was like, what? It was, it was a strange time. So many people are already hurting. And then there came this, you have to, you know, close down. And when we first did it, I, I wasn't so upset about it because I, they talked about two weeks, 14 days or something. And I, you know, I was okay with it. I didn't really let it bother me very much, you know.

13:15It was after that, that I realized that there was a problem. I was like, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, you know. I mean, people get paid every two weeks. So they've already missed the pay track. And now, now you're going to go on? I mean, what's happening? So it took me a couple of weeks to realize what was going on, but I had never expected that would extend on to five months, man. It's crazy. It is crazy. And I, I, I think it's important to look back just for those people. You said, there's a lot of people that are hurting not only because of the tornado, because of COVID, but you look back on those times and you think there's so much uncertainty and what are we going to do and how much the human spirit overcomes, how many people out there have overcome so much adversity. And I think the message of, we're going to be okay. We're going to be okay. And you're going to be okay. That everybody's, we're going to come out of this thing. It's not going to be forever and to hang in there, keep trucking. I heard, I listened to a podcast this morning on my morning hike and the podcaster, Eric Cacciatore, I was listening to a show called Restaurant Unstoppable. And he said, you know, I feel like this is like a wildfire, you know, that takes over a field. And if you, and I was just in California and I get to see some wildfires live and living color, but you, these fields end up, they're just blackened these big fields. But then from that comes all new growth, all new growth and flowers and this beautiful greenery comes up. And I just, everything in me believes that's what's the next phase is going to be this, this growth in this.

14:54Everybody is going to come away from this with this spiritual awakening. That's just going to be this amazing growth. I just believe it in my heart. Wow. Wow. That is great. I prayed that you're right. And I second that motion big time. You know, I want to see, I want to see America come out of this stronger. And, and when I mean America, you know, I mean the whole country, I mean, everyone, all the people of America. For the world. Yeah. And the world forgive me. Well, sure. Absolutely. I guess, you know, Brazil was having a real hard time. Italy had a horrible time. And, you know, of course my association with those two nations is, is pretty strong. But, you know, the thing is, you know, they're going to do okay. I had a, I had a brother of mine, music brother, if you will, his family. And he has sent me a message from, from Italy just last week telling me that he bought himself a Cadillac. And I was like, wow, that is great, man. You know, I mean, I told him, I'm driving a Cadillac, you know, mainly in his area of Italy. I mean, there's only room for one car really on the streets, most of the little streets, you know. So I told him all those little guys have to be careful now, because I mean, you've got a car that just takes the whole street as you drive onto.

16:36Oh yeah, man. Absolutely. You got a 1972, 1972 Cadillac El Dorado, you know, convertible. So it's like, wow, big white car, man. You know, I love cars like that. But I, I happen to have one white, but you know, the rest of them are all black. So, but I do have a white sheep of the family. So let's talk, let's, let's pivot a little bit. Let's talk about cars. Cause I, and I want to get back to where we left off the other day. But let's, you, you did the tomato art festival. Yeah. You took some cars down there. You said you took three cars. One of them was a police car. How many cars do you have? 39. That's it? Yeah. 39. Yeah. I just not, it just now clicked in. So anyway, yeah. 39. I have five in Brazil. So do you have a, you, I guess you, so you have a home in Brazil too? I do. Yeah. In Sao Paulo? Sao Paulo. Yeah. Capital. Yeah. So you got 39 cars. What's your, let's talk about your favorites and what, what is it about? Is it the American dream part of that? That's the cars, the big cars you saw them when you're growing up. Like you just, do you like driving the cars? Like looking at the cars? What do you, tell me about your, your, your 39 cars? Well, you know, I started this, this thing with a 1953 Cadillac Fleetwood. I just felt that it would be really great for Brazil, Billy, since we play traditional country music, you know, classic country music, whatever you want to call it. And we play all the instruments and we really love that lifestyle. I mean, we live some of the, some of the lyrics, you know, on those songs. I said, you know, I mean, it would be great. I thought to myself, it would be wonderful to have like an old Cadillac, you know, to, to, you know, carry Brazil,

18:38Billy, to, to different gigs from point A to point B. So I started looking and I found a 1953 Cadillac Fleetwood limousine. And I call her Ruby Anne. And so Ruby Anne was the first one and she needed some repairs. So, you know, people who have cars totally understand this. Sometimes you find a body man or a paint, a painter or, or a poultry or whatever it is, man, it can take so long to completely restore a car. It's not something that I want to do anymore. You know, I did it, I did it twice and I don't want to do that no more. And so while Ruby Anne was being worked on, I just got impatient. So I went and bought myself a 1952 Black Cadillac Fleetwood, you know, and then I would just see the two of them when Ruby Anne finally got ready to come home. You know, I would see the two of them and look at them and I was like, man, I cannot believe that I, that I've done this, you know, I mean, that's a lot for me. And I'm looking at them and I just fell in love with it. You know, America, man, it's just all about cars. Brazilians like cars too, a lot, because, you know, a lot of cars are made in Brazil. So you have GM down there, you have Ford, you have, you know, everybody's on there, Fiat. But so there are actually videos and things that you can find of, of Brazilians love for their cars. And I watch some of those sometimes and I, and I can see and say to myself, wow, no wonder I like this stuff so much, you know, I grew up in the culture and, and we love our cars, man. And of course, I saw these cars as I was growing up in Brazil when the movies and things. And so being in America, I think I've told this to a lot of friends, foreign friends in America, I've said to them, man, you're not

20:41an American unless until you're driving on a Cadillac. It's just, that's being an American, man, it's having a Cadillac. And that's probably what Piero did over there. And he just got himself a Cadillac. And when he comes to Nashville, he always drives my girls around. So you said something there at the very end, you said my girls, you name each one of your cars, each one a female name? Yes, yes. And is there a significance? So Ruby Ann being your first, what's the significance behind the name Ruby Ann? I said hello to the man I tried to take your hand a long time ago. I tried to smile as he talked up the world when he was your boy. Ruby Ann took the hand of this poor, poor man. Ain't true love a funny thing. Yeah, it's a song, man. Ruby Ann, yes. Annabelle, Annabelle, when I was 52, when I bought her from this gentleman, he had her for like 45 years. So his wife wept when I left the driveway with it. So I called him back and I said, hey, what is your wife's name? And he told me her name is Annabelle. So there you go. You tell her her name is Annabelle. And I put that on the license plate. And I sent a picture to her. So she was really happy about that. He got a kick out of that. But you know, if you want to hear a story, I'll try to be very brief. But it was my first, my first Cadillac in America. I lived in Peoria, Illinois. I deliver newspapers, you know, at that point, I was already going to ICC Illinois Central College, you know, doing law enforcement and that. So I bought this car. It was a 1981 Cadillac DeVille. And it was all

22:42black and it had the burgundy interior. And I just fell in love with that thing. And I got it real cheap, you know, because it wasn't it wasn't in very good shape. But anyway, I enjoyed the car, man. You know what I did? I went out and this would have been 1988. Now what happened in 1988? We had a presidential election, right? Now, I wasn't aware of that at the time when I did it. I just got the car. And I got the license plates. I found out that you could, you know, customize your license plate. So I put Jesse 88, J-E-S-S-E 88 on my license plate. Well, here's the thing, I didn't know that, right? So I'm driving around Peoria, Illinois, man, and I have all these people taking pictures behind my car and people driving by me and hooking their horns and giving me a thumbs up and things, right? So I'm like, what the hell, you know? And I also had a decal, if you will, back in 1988 that said Jesse's Coming. And that was from a band, you know, Jesse's Coming and Jesse 88 on a license plate, a black Cadillac. And man, I'm telling you, I got so much attention and I just never knew. And that led me, listen to this, that led me to be invited, you know, that there were things that happened, you know, that led to that. But I ended up singing in a 300 black choir, being the only boy, the white boy in there.

24:23And it was just phenomenal. So it's like talking about being in the movies when I was growing up. Here is this massive, beautiful black choir, man, that was singing for Jesse Jackson because he was coming to town. I didn't know JLJ were his initials. Those are my initials. So I had a JLJ shirt. And one thing led to another and I ended up meeting him, man. Not only did I sing for him, I ended up meeting him and talking to him for a little bit. So it was great. It was great. I mean, you know, he was surrounded by, you know, Secret Service people, you know, but he, in fact, he looked back when I was singing with the choir and he focused on me, probably because I was the only white guy there. So, you know, I never forget it, man. Sometimes I still sing songs in my mind, you know, I'm free, praise the Lord, I'm free, no longer bound, no more chains holding me, you know, it was those kinds of songs. And, oh man, it was just like, wow, wow, because it affected me, because it's in a way that was something to do with my life too, you know. Oh, I was gonna say, because I bet you nobody there knows, they see you as the only white guy there, but they have no idea the struggles that you had gone through also being an immigrant and all of the things that you had kind of So, you know, I was singing like I meant it, you know, I was free and there were no more chains holding me. I mean, in other words, my life now was in my hands, my future is whatever I make of it, right. So that is how I was looking at and then Jesse turned around to look and I opened my shirt and I had the JOJ shirt, t-shirt underneath my white shirt. So I opened up like that and he saw the JOJ and he gave me a thumbs up and he smiled. So yeah, so I told him the story. I said,

26:30you know, I've been driving a 1981 Cadillac DeVille, a black one with Jesse's, Jesse 88 and, you know, my name is Jesse Lee and he said, oh, my name is Jesse Lee Jackson and I didn't know that, but anyway, he thought it was really funny. He said, man, you know, I mean, he even gave me a little pen. I still have it somewhere, JLJ. Nice. Yeah. So it was really fun. So we've talked about two performances that you've made. One was in a courthouse when you became an American citizen where you did American Beautiful with it. You led the whole group in American Beautiful. I did. Yeah. Yeah. We've talked about you performing with this choir for Jesse Jackson when he came to town. Yeah. Is there, those are two pretty memorable performances. Is there any other performances that you've done that really stick out in your brain as in like these were really special? Any one performance you did somewhere that was just like, that meant a ton to you? Well, I told you that after becoming an American citizen and being, you know, bled throughout the steps of doing that by the Bob Michaels office, Senator Bob Michaels in MPRA, Illinois, they sent me to, you know, to do a tour with DOD, Department of Defense. And so those are pretty special. I mean, come on, man.

28:01I mean, this is, you know, I've, I had been in America for six years. What am I doing in Kuwait, Bahrain, you know, and here's the thing. So what they say in the army, you know, when I got there, it's like, hurry up and wait. We got there. And there was a little snafu. That's another word I learned there, you know, and there were plenty of snafus, you know, situation or you know what. So anyway, they hadn't prepared our rooms in Kuwait. So we were guests at the Amir's Palace. That's pretty cool. I ended up staying at the Amir's Palace, the marble, a marble palace, which was pretty amazing. And then, you know, they took me downtown, I mean, and I bought myself a Dishdash, which I still have. You know, I bought the, I decided that I wanted to wear a business, a businessman one, which is the black long one with the white piece, you know, headpiece. And, and I walked around like that. And the first thing I did was I learned to say a few things in Arabic. And, and so people would look at me and they would have fun, the guys would say out there because we looked around at the stores and things in Saudi Arabia and they would laugh and they would say, oh, American friend, American friend. And I'm thinking, well, how do you know I'm an American? And they're like, well, there's little people here with blue eyes and that skin like that. You dress like a Kuwaiti man, but we can tell you're an American.

29:41So it's funny. Like you're not fooling anybody. Right. And I used to come in, I used to come in to the palace after a trip downtown. And I would say to the musicians, get out of my house. Who are you? What are you doing here? It was fun, man. Yeah. What an amazing life. What, what, what an amazing stories. I'm sure you must have just from that trip to Kuwait, all the different stories you could tell. Yeah. We finished off our last, the part one, we finished it off and you had just said, I haven't really told anybody this story before, but you said, I was watching the British or not British, but the Brazilian national anthem and it's beautiful. After the national anthem, they said, Brazil, love it or leave it. Yeah. You decided to leave it. That was the seminal moment for you saying, you know, where you were trying to decide and you decided I'm going to go to America and I'm going to live this dream. You were 22 years old when you got here. Yep. You, you said that you got off the airplane, there was police officers and then you walked outside and there was all the yellow cabs and you were just like, I'm here. Right. And so I was kind of asking you about the American dream and I want to, I want to know more about that just because I w I'll tell you a little story. I was talking to somebody the other day, it was one of my neighbors and they're, they're Russian and moved here from Russia and they have family back in Russia and they said, it's crazy in Russia. They have tickets. You get tickets for gas. Like you can only buy so much gas. You can only leave your house for so many hours a day right now because it's on lockdown for all of this stuff. I mean, not just in general, but like there's, you can only get so much food. You can't like, everything is rationed to you and you can't leave your house. But for so many hours a day, you have to, and there's all of these different

31:42things you can do. And I was just thinking, gosh, people here complain that they have to wear a mask there. They get like, you can only buy so much gasoline. Like you can't do, like we have so much freedom here. And I think that your perspective coming from somewhere like Sao Paulo and understanding the world in a different way than I think most Americans do your perspective is so much more global. And I just appreciate that. When you got here, when you were 22 years old, were you robbed the day that you got here? I was. Did I read that? Yeah, I was. Like, tell me about getting to America. Let's pick up where we left off and how do you overcome some of that stuff? You don't. I mean, I still think about it. It's archived in these files in my head. It's all on those files. It's like, when I sleep at night to this day, I still think of a lot of these things. I dream about it.

32:46It's never really left me. I take every one of those experiences as a lesson that I needed to learn, I needed to go through. At the time, I did not understand it. But if I could go back, would I do it the same way? I would. I have a lot of knowledge now and perhaps I would try to do some things differently. But what happened, happened, man. And it's here, pressed between the pages of my mind forever. A lot of people don't understand sometimes that life is full of flavors. Some flavors are really good and palatable and some are not. There is salt, there is sugar. There is good and there is bad. There is opportunities.

33:49And the opposite of that. It's just, some things are going to happen no matter what you do. When I first came to the United States, I would have arrived here because I left there on the fourth. So I arrived here precisely at six o'clock in the morning in Miami, Florida, on an Argentinian airliner 747, which I'm so fascinated with those planes. I love them. But anyway, a big 747 that had come from Buenos Aires and landed in Sao Paulo and picked up some passengers and then flew directly over here to Miami. And I was on that flight. But anyway, when I arrived and I was so, I was, I don't even know what to tell you. It's so emotional, man, to be in that airport and looking around and seeing those police officers, their uniforms and looking at the people. For a while, it felt strange because a lot of folks spoke Spanish and I didn't speak Spanish. But I was able to go out. I was like, really, man, I was so lost and so scared. I remember picking up my things and walking out of the airport over to the sidewalk and seeing those yellow cabs. And I was like, it was like a dream. I didn't know how it was going to end, but I was having a dream. And I was headed to, the original plan was to head to Salt Lake City or to Provo, Utah, because at the time I had a recommendation letter to go visit the Osmonds. And, you know, at that time, I was a member of the Osmond family, the Osmonds, like in Marie. Like Donnie and Marie? Donnie and Marie. Okay. Yeah. I had a recommendation

35:52letter from a bishop in San Paulo that, you know, to go visit them. And because I came here to be in a music business and perhaps they could give me, you know, some instructions, some guidance, whatever, it wasn't really well planned. And so I went ahead and I was very hungry. So I cashed in, you know, I had $500 because you had to have $500 to leave the country to go visit America. So I went and cashed $100. I put it in my pocket just to have a hot dog and a drink, whatever it was, coke, whatever. So I had $98 and whatever, some change in my pocket. And that's the only thing that this guy didn't take. He took everything else because what happened was very briefly, I know I can talk too much about these things sometimes, but anyway, I felt that in Brazil you can travel anywhere in the country by bus. And there are many, many, many bus companies. It's not, in America it's more like Greyhound is the one that we think of. Oh my goodness, in Brazil, it's like hundreds of them. And these buses are so beautiful and comfortable, you know?

37:14So you can go places by bus. And I thought to myself, maybe it wouldn't cost me as much to travel by bus, you know, if I'm going to Provo, Utah. Now here I was, man, I didn't know where Provo, Utah was. I didn't know I was going to have to go across country, you know, to get there from Miami, Florida. So I wasn't geographically, what's the word? Set up. Yeah, that's thanks. So what I did was I asked the police officer, I had a little pocket book. And I mean, those are just a little, it's a little bitty thing. And it was Italian and Portuguese and English dictionary, pocket dictionary. And I would point to the words, you know, I would point to the words because I didn't know how to pronounce them, right? So anyway, I was able to communicate enough to get to a bus, you know, outside. I got to the bus and I had to put quarters in this machine and I really didn't know what I was doing. I imagine those bus drivers are not, you know, that wasn't unfamiliar territory for them, you know. It wasn't very nice, but a passenger came and helped me and threw a couple of quarters in there. I can't remember what it was, 25 cents, 50 cents. But anyway, so I came into the bus and I was extremely nervous. It was very quiet. I was very shy and nervous because I figured that if I get to the bus station, I can find the bus and go by bus, you know, out west to wherever I have to go, probably Utah. But I had met a family in Sao Paulo before I left, just a month or two before I left, that worked for Caterpillar, the tractor company, you know. And Peoria, Illinois is the home of Caterpillar.

39:14So anyway, man, I, they had told me, if you ever come to America, come and visit us in in Crevecore, Illinois. Well, you know, back then I couldn't even pronounce Crevecore, Illinois. Didn't know what it was, but I got to the bus station downtown and I realized that there was only one company. It was Greyhound, right? And, but, but it would go where I needed to go. I looked at the map and stuff and with the help of this clerk, I was, I said to myself, you know, maybe I should go visit the Wagners before I go out west, because explain to me that where I was, you'd have to go north to Peoria, Illinois. Once we found out that Crevecore was a town just outside Peoria, Illinois, you know, and from there you go straight out west to Provo, Utah. So I said, well, that's, that's great. That's what I'll do then. So I took the cash I had and I bought a ticket, a bus ticket to Peoria, Illinois, a fare. And I had the whole day to sit around and wait, because the bus was not going to leave until like 11 o'clock that night. So I had the whole day to sit there at the Greyhound bus station. And then this, this young couple of my age, you know, they said to me, hey, and he started talking to me. And, and of course, I couldn't really communicate, but with the help of my little translation book, I was able to let them know that I was just coming in and from Brazil. And I was headed to Peoria, Illinois. That's all pretty much I could say. And one thing that happened, man, is they took, you know, they, I put my things, first of all, they told me that I could put my things in a locker. It was a locker room where I could put my things, you know, get some change, you're going to put a coin in there and you're going to open this padlock and put your luggage in there. I had a nice 12 string Janini guitar

41:17with me and all of this stuff. So we put it in this locker and I had the whole afternoon to hang out with these guys, right? So it's okay that I change my position like this? Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Okay. Be comfortable. So anyway, so they started smoking pot, man, back behind the station. It scared the hell out of me because damn it, you know, in Brazil, I mean, the police caught us. We'd certainly be in trouble big time. Yeah. And shoot, I, of course, I never did smoke, but I was scared, man. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know anybody. And the last thing I needed was to be getting in trouble. Doesn't make sense. A hundred percent. So I came back and sat there and I sat there and probably fell asleep some of the time. And then this guy, he came and sat next to me and he was from Puerto Rico. And I didn't know anything about Puerto Rico, but he said that he lived in Sao Paulo. And he mentioned some of the sites in Sao Paulo, some of the hotels and stuff. And, you know, I was a cab driver. I had already been a cab driver in Sao Paulo. So I knew everything he was talking about. And long story short, this guy got on the bus with me. He was going to get on the same bus. I was really, really tired, really, really tired. And I fell asleep, man. And then I felt the motion of the bus as it's stopping. And unfortunately for me, it had already made a stop. And I slept through that stop. And I woke up on the second one. So when I wake up, I look for my stuff and everything's gone. I'm just sitting there and there's nothing.

43:00Man. How was it? That's how it happened. You know, that's a very frustrating story. But you know what it made me realize? When I heard that story, it brought to my mind how young people, when they come to town, are vulnerable and impressionable. And how little acts of kindness can go so far. And if somebody would have found you that day and said, Hey, you don't speak a lot of, let me help you. Let me show you one little way. Just the little things that anybody could have done to help you get where you were going versus a frustration. Oh, this guy doesn't speak English. Oh, who is this guy from out of town? Like if one person went to camp you and said, let me, you remember those people that you use the locker. And I just think that like there are so many opportunities that we have on a daily basis where we can show grace and we can show kindness to others in little moments, especially young people who are here from out of towns or people that don't speak the language that are struggling that need help. And there's so many different ways you can look at stuff. I just hear that story and I go, man, what an opportunity for anybody who would have met you back then to make an impression on your life to help you for the good. And there was someone, there was someone who made that impression. And I can tell you, she made such an impression that I have never forgotten her. Her name was Helen. This lady, this girl, she was about my age too, but she was sitting there at the bus and on a journey after I found out that I'd been robbed and stuff. Listen to this. This is very interesting because when I woke up, I can't remember if I was in Jacksonville, Florida or what it was. But of course, when I realized that I'd been robbed, I stood up in the middle of that

45:05hall, the little pathway on the bus. And man, it was like a scene from one of these crazy movies. It was like the driver was like a whole mile away from me, you know? And it felt like I was just disoriented big time. Twilight Zone, that's what it felt like. But anyway, I walked down and I touched him on the shoulder and I tried to explain to him that I fell asleep and is this our first stop? And so it was really complicated. But anyway, with the help of the little translation book. And so he said, no, we've already made a stop. And I said, well, then somebody walked away with all my things, you know? But anyway, he called the police, the cops came in and there was a guy, one of the police officers, a black man. Man, I can tell you where my heart was.

46:11I was so confused. I was so scared. I cried a lot. But I saw this police officer, this black police officer, and I felt that I might connect with him if I say these words. That's what crossed my mind. I have a dream. I have a dream. Don't send me back. Because they said, you know, the thing we can do with you right now is send you back to the Brazilian consulate and they're probably going to put you on a plane and send you back home. Because you can't be here without documentation, without money, without anything, you know? I mean, you can't just, what are you going to do? How are you going to eat and stuff? So I was worried about any of that. But I thought of Martin Luther King. I told the black officer a line from Martin Luther King that I had heard. I have a dream. What did he say to that? He didn't say much. He, you know, they looked at me and they talked to the driver of the bus.

47:18The driver of the bus said, I can keep an eye on him, you know, and make sure he gets to where he's going to go. Well, but he doesn't have any money for food or anything. Well, you know, I was just crying and said, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. At this point, nothing really matters. I just, I need to finish my journey, you know? And so anyway, so they said, okay, if you insist, we're going to leave you here. And thank God, man, they didn't take me to a Brazilian consulate or something and made me go back. But I stayed on that bus for what seemed to be days, days and nights on that bus. I felt that way. But there was this girl at one of the stops the bus made, I think was Indianapolis. And she came back in and she had McDonald's, I mean, a cheeseburger and some fries and a root beer. First time I ever tried root beer, you know, and I, man, I just broke, I just broke down, man. And, and I said, why, why are you doing this? And she said, you know, I, the bus driver had told us that there's a such a situation on the bus. And, and if anybody wanted to help, you know, felt like helping, it would be a good thing to do because this guy's, you know, he's crying a lot, he's confused, he's lost, he's been robbed. And so there you go. That was an act of kindness that, that I can never forget.

48:50And her name was Helen. Helen. Wow. Do you see guys just, just buying somebody McDonald's, I mean, it's such a small thing that you might think people don't care about, but little acts of kindness go a really long way. Well, thank you for telling me that story. It's been 35 years and I haven't forgotten it, you know, can never forget. And, you know, the bus driver, they swapped buses up in Indiana. So the bus driver of the first bus had to let this other driver know about the situation. So he asked me to sit close to him and, you know, he paid attention to me and it was, you know, man, I've been through a lot of stuff in America and I, you know, I've lived with people back in Brazil, I spent time with people that they didn't have concrete on their floor. It was just dirt floor. You got a house, a little humble little house and the floor is just dirt.

49:55And the mosquitoes are eating you up alive at night in those places. And, but, you know, I've seen so many things and I've seen the other side, the flip side of that too, because for whatever reason, I've always had people that wanted to help, wanted to be friends, and some of them were very, very wealthy. And it was like, but I always felt better in the humble spots. You know what I mean? I don't feel, I don't feel too comfortable in mentions and things because I've had, I've got friends who has that, but I feel a lot better in my own bed. I feel a lot better. I feel a lot better cleaning the floors and doing maintenance, you know, instead of wearing the big suit and a big cigar and being an Italian and, you know, and telling people I'm going to break your legs. I mean, sometimes you feel that way, but I'm just and that's why I'm so grateful for everything. I'm grateful for everything that I have. I've already told you, I don't own nothing. I don't own nothing, man. This, when I go, these things all stay here, but I'm on. Well, so my next question was going to be after all of that, what are some things specifically that you're grateful for? What do you show gratitude? Like what are the things in your life that you could take for granted that you feel incredibly blessed for?

51:23Mm hmm. Number one is health. Health. Listen, man, if you can have anything you want in a world, anything, period, you can work for that, work your butt off and be very dedicated and just be humble and hardworking and acquire those things, or it can come to you from, as an inheritance from somebody and, you know, but you have nothing. You have nothing if you don't have your health. I've been pretty sick. I have gotten pretty sick before and man, I lost everything. You know, I went through a phase where all of these things that I have told you so far, these experiences crossed my mind and so many, many, many more. And I was just ready to take a cab, man. You know, I put a gun to my mouth and I wanted to go out, do the police officer's way, you know, but I didn't do it. Today I think about it, you know, and I mean, any small movement of my finger would have triggered that. You know, the blast and somehow or another, man, looking down the barrel of a gun is now I know that it isn't, that's not part of nothing. That doesn't fix anything. That complicates a lot of things for people who love you and care for you and it's a coward way of going. And I had one of my professors of law enforcement in Peoria, Illinois at ICC College, Daryl Hartwig. We became real close. I mean, he was a lot older than me, of course, but he used to come with his wife, Louis, to see me play music in different places and we became dear friends and he was my professor of criminology. And anyway, and he was already

53:27placing me, you know, in different police stations and ride-alongs and things and he came to Nashville and this is back in Peoria, Illinois. So anyway, he comes to Nashville to see me one weekend and we had a great time and we ate and I'll never forget that. Then he goes back home and he blows his head off, man. And it was like, you know, he wanted to see me, of all people, he wanted to see me for the last time. And, you know, he asked Louis to go get him some watermelon and she said, I went to the store, Jess, and when I came back, I was calling for him. He wasn't anywhere and they live in this nice wooded area. And she said, it just blew his head. I mean, you know, he put this gun to his mouth and it just, you know, as the bullet exits the back of his head, it just blew his brains around these trees in the area. So I had already heard about that and, you know, and all it was, they found out he had cancer and he said, no way, I'm going to be trouble to anybody. I didn't want to be in a hospital. I'm not going to go through this, man. I'll just take this matter in my own hands. But I can understand, I can't judge anybody for doing things like that because, you know, I've had a lot of personal issues in my family too. I mean, my great grandfather died in a mental asylum. My grandfather killed himself and it's like, you know, so I come from a bloodline of situations like that, but I've done something completely different, man. I created my own opportunities. I created my own way by leaving, by coming to America and being here and I became a different person. But, you know, even when you think that you are a different person, you still are the person that was born there and you still got all those thoughts

55:30and those feelings and things in your heart. That's when I realized that I was a Cavalcanti. Get it now? Yeah. Wow. I'm like, I'm a Cavalcanti man. I can't run from that. You know, just took me 35 years to realize it. That's some powerful stuff you just talked about. I mean, there's, I think that the lesson there is this world is better with you in it. This world is more special because you made the decision with your finger not to move your finger that little bit. All of the things, the joy you bring people through playing music, the joy that you bring people through Robert's Western world and Ernest Tup's record shop. And I think that that's a blessing that that didn't happen. And I think if you're listening out there, this is something that a lot of people are alone right now. A lot of people are having problems that call somebody. Don't take that way out. That's not the way to do it. Yes. You are better in this world. Mental issues are for real, man. I never thought that they were. Depression is a real deal.

56:50Anxiety. And I've had a lot of that, you know, because of my Meniere's disease. But man, I tell you, if you, if that's why I'm so grateful for everything, man, when I wake up in the morning, first thing I do is I make my bed perfectly. It has to be done like it's a hotel. You know what I mean? Everything is just perfect. Because I'm so grateful. Yes, absolutely. I'm grateful, man. I spend a lot of time, you know, this past several months, I've spent a lot of time with my girls in the garage, you know, and because when I start working on them, I sort of forget all of this garbage that's going around us. And I can focus, man. I like to get my engine, my compartments in all the cars, they have to be so perfect, you can eat out of them. That's just how I am. I like everything that needs to be organized because I'm grateful for it. See what I mean? Yeah, I think that when you pick something up, man, and you just, you don't take care of it, you throw it around, you don't, you don't give a damn. Well, you know, you're ungrateful, grateful son of a bitch. There are a lot of people in the world that don't have that, man.

58:06You know, like in Brazil, let me just say this very quickly. My brother-in-law, who is Italian, Italian and Lebanese, that's the family, his family. But anyway, he, I learned that somehow with him when I was a kid because he's older than me and man, his cars were so impeccable and so nice and, and even the remote control for the television still wrapped up in cellophane or whatever it is, that plastic, so it doesn't get dirty from your fingers. You see what I'm saying? Yeah. I'm like that, man. People sometimes they can't understand that, but it's like, it's like Roberts, you know, it's, it's my home. It's my house, man. It's got to be clean. It's got to be neat. It's got to be organized. Do it, do it right, do it right now. So I have been so hard on myself about being like this and that anymore to me is a natural thing. It's just a natural thing.

59:06And I, I just can't, you can't, I can't be around or, or at least for long periods of time, I can't be around people that are the opposite of me and that. Opposites attract, that's bullshit. I don't believe that. You know, you've got to have something in common. You've got to have a lot of things in common in order to have a relationship. And, you know, I, I've just learned a lot of lessons and, and it's, I'm grateful for everything. I'm grateful for, for every time when I wake up, I'm alive, man. You know, this is a new day. I had a real bad day yesterday. Yesterday was a horrible day. I was very depressed all day. I didn't feel good. And then today I have this meeting with you. So I got out of bed and I took my shower and I shaved and, and now I'm ready to face the day. You see what I'm saying? So my point of view, this is a blessing. It's a blessing that I had to meet you this morning.

01:00:09And I think it's a blessing for the city that you came to meet me this morning, because we get to hear some of these stories and we got to wrap it up here, but the, the takeaways that I'm hearing, the things that I'm listening and I'm gaining in my soul from hearing you speak is that find gratitude every day, find gratitude in the fact that you get to wake up in this amazing country every single day, find gratitude in the little things. If you can't find gratitude, because it's there. And I think that you can look at somebody like yourself who's come from so much and has so much, you've overcome so much adversity yet every single day and you've through your life found gratitude. And I think that's a driving force for you. And I just, I think that your story is incredibly inspiring. And thank you. I thank you so much for, for sharing so much with us. Sure. Absolutely. I, you know, I just like to, in closing, I would just like to say, of course, that are things that are, you know, that makes me sad when I hear our president speak, you know, I, there are certain things he says that maybe he shouldn't have said, or he could have chosen a different way of saying whatever it is, but he's also done a lot of good things. And, you know, I mean, when we say, well, he's not my president. He's the president of the United States of America. If you live here, he's obviously your president. But there is all this ugliness, there's all this bitterness and there's all this anger and destruction and burning the flag. What the hell? What's going on with that, man? It's like, you know, I have so much love for this country and so much gratitude. This, this, you know,

01:02:11I think we sort of closed the last time we spoke. And that's what I was talking about at the end there was that, you know, there is something so incredible about the red, white and blue. There's something so special about this great nation, the people in this nation. Yes, it is a nation of immigrants. It's true. I mean, unless you're Native American, you've come from somewhere else. But, you know, it's, there are things that are not good. There are things, there are decisions that people make that sometimes they're not good. But you have to remember what is so good and so great about this, this great place, man. This is not, you know, this is not an experiment. I mean, you know, bootstrappers, we get ready, we go to work, we do our thing. America helps the rest of the world. And it may have made some mistakes. I'm sure it has. But you can't focus on the bad because we can talk about bad things all the time.

01:03:19If people really, you know, I'm going to use now a term or a that I've heard when I was a kid, and we've spoken about it here before. America, love it or leave it. Jesus, go away. If you're unsatisfied, man, just go, go, go live in Cuba. Go live in, they're a kid, a lot of... Move to Sao Paulo. Yeah, move to Sao Paulo. Although I'll say this, Sao Paulo is too easy though. Sao Paulo is just like here, you know what I mean? Yeah, it's a big city. It's a very big city, and you have everything in your hands. And, but when I go to visit, yeah, I have a nice house. And thank God for that. I worked very, very hard, took me 10 years to pay for that thing. My mom used to live there, my mom and a step brother. And I bought her the house. And, you know, it's, I've been to Brazil to try to rescue my father before he died. And, you know, and I, and I do a lot of things, you know, it's like, I'm a giver, not a taker. Even here in America, you know, I like, I like to give, man, it makes me feel happy inside. If somebody needs something, if you see a brother in need of something, or a sister, if you can do something, help, man. It's a, it's a, we have so much, so much was given to me. And I know that because a lot was given, a lot is required to make sense. And the requirement is simply this, that I love my brother and sister, that I love, you know, that we love one another, that we take care of one another. We may disagree respectfully, but there is no room in America, man, for all this hate and this anger and all this bitterness and destroying buildings and burning things and taking down statues. Listen, the people, the people who doesn't know history,

01:05:23don't understand their history, they, they are probably setting them up to make the same mistake again. See what I mean? If you don't know your history, you might, you may, it may happen again, because you forget what happened, those experiences that happened in the past. Oh, yeah. Monuments, monuments remind us of the way things shouldn't be. Exactly. Think of it that way. It's not glorifying it, it's saying, no, I think there's ways we can do that. I mean, I think there's ways we can educate and we can talk about. Right. Yeah, I mean, there's, I think there's, I think there's alternative solutions. But I think so too. But you know, I'm grateful, I'm grateful for everything, man. Of course. I, you're not talking to a person who has any, I don't have a scent of ingratitude in my heart. It's, we're, this is great. We're in America. This is, this is God's country.

01:06:25Well, if you, if you would, I mean, obviously I would love to do another show with you. Another time that I could just listen to stories forever and we'll see some down the line. Once you get back open, love to come and do something live at Roberts, do something fun like that. I would love to maybe one day if you would, if you would let me into the garage to come and see the cars. I'd love to see the cars. Maybe take some pictures and you know, all that good stuff. It'd be a lot of fun. I'm sure the listeners would like to see that too. Absolutely. I'd be happy to. It's like when I was a kid, I used to have an uncle that, you know, he passed away, but he used to say, you know, if you said something to him, oh, this is a nice car. You know, I love your car. And he would say, no, it's not mine. It's ours. And wow, man, I never got it, you know, but it's, it is what it is. It's ours, man. I've given many of them away. Well, I am a ridiculous car guy. I'm the same way with you are like, I love cars. I like, I'm, yeah, I'm a Bronco, like the old Broncos and Jeeps. My wife loves Broncos. She's not gonna wrap until I get her a Bronco. Yeah, so you gotta get like a 66 through 77. Really? I'll check it out. They're, they're ridiculous.

01:07:46That's like my, my brother had when I was growing up in there. It's like my dream. The new Broncos are coming out, but I am with you on the car thing. I love, I would love to come see your cars. That would be a dream for me to come see your cars. Jesse Lee Jones, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for spending this much time. Thank you for all that you do for the city. You can check Jesse Lee Jones out. Brazil Billy, they are all over YouTube. Lots of videos of them singing songs. Robert's Western World right there on Broadway. When they just check their social medias, right? You've got a Facebook page and definitely watch there for updates. They'll probably be announcing when they're going to reopen. If they're allowed to, you're allowed to reopen, but when you decide to reopen, because you are classified as a restaurant, but you're not opening right now because it's not the right thing to do. And I respect the hell out of that. Anything else that you want people to know? Anything else that we can promote that you're doing? Anything that you want to talk about? Not that I can think of right now. I mean, I just, I just like in closing to just say that, that I'm, I'm with you and I understand the frustration in, of what's going on in our country. Unfortunately, I do, I do believe that part, part of it is, is political. And, but, but you know, something we, we need to be grateful every day because we, we, we're living, we live in America, living in America. That's, that's the greatest, the greatest thing of them all. The greatest pleasure, the greatest, the biggest gratitude that I have, but it's very important to remember this. The Statue of Liberty stands for freedom. It's true, liberty, but she also holds the tablets of law

01:09:47on her other arms. So here's the thing. All people should be able to live in America and do things here. And, but we have to obey the laws that are, you know, the laws of the land, the language is English. I am pretty much, you know, I believe in those things and it's, I think that we're going through a period that eventually, you know, hopefully sooner than later will be resolved and we are going to be back honky-tonking and, and having a great time and, and being grateful for this great nation and be proud of that flag and, and man, I, I just see, I just see that our future, you know, the future of America is just, it is like just right now being, it will reignite, like you said, you know, it's like the burn fields that where the new grass is, it's going to grow and, and we're going to flourish and, and continue to be this great nation that we are. Yes, sir. Thank you very much for coming on today and God bless you. Wish you nothing but the best of luck. Likewise. Thank you, man. All right. So thank you again to Jesse Lee Jones for joining us here on Nashville Restaurant Radio. That got a little intense there for a little bit. I just love, you know, his passion for this country and I love his perspective.

01:11:19Um, you know, don't take things for granted and find gratitude on a daily basis. It's really good stuff and, um, I love to hear what you think. So if you have comments on this, go to the, the post on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter, wherever you find it. Maybe you found it on LinkedIn, but, uh, we're on all those sites. If you're on YouTube, leave us a, leave us a like, hit the subscribe button, but, um, I'd love to hear your thoughts on what you just heard. Um, feedback is always a good thing and if you love what you just heard, whatever the way in which you just heard it, leave us a five star review. It means a lot. People are finding us and they, they want to know what you guys think about the podcast. So we hope that you are being safe out there and, um, we love you guys. Bye.